Know What You Wear, a Fashion Education Podcast by Rocio

Know What You Wear, a Fashion Education Podcast by Rocio - August 2018 Scholarship Essay

The podcast begins by quoting the iconic Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly in the film The Devil Wears Prada:

“‘This stuff’? Oh, ok. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don’t know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But … it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of “stuff.”

Right on the heels of this “stuff”, I introduce myself.

“Hello! My name is Rocio and you just heard Miranda Priestly giving Anne Hathaway a real education on an industry we all are part of whether or not we like it: fashion. That’s exactly what this show, Know What You Wear, is about. Each episode, I seek to answer all your questions about fashion items--from breeches to chinos, flip-flops to jeans--from inception to its latest downfall. Who invented it, who wore it, what influence has it had in politics and popular culture, and beyond? There’s so much behind the lumpy blue sweater you’re wearing as you listen to this podcast right now. Who knows, maybe you’re wearing Gucci trackers or a plain white T-shirt. Either way, you’re wearing history.

Let’s get into it! Today’s item of fashionable clothing is..."

A popular education podcast about the history of fashion items would not only be fascinating, but it would fight the stigma of fashion being a vain interest, one with no nuance or depth. Each episode Know What You Wear would focus on one article of clothing: shoes, crop tops, overalls, cargo shorts. It wouldn’t only delve into who invented jeans, but what kind of jeans styles were adopted by whoever at whatever time. The podcast would ask questions like: how has production methods changed for this item of clothing over the decades and centuries; how political can this piece of clothing really be? Clothing, like a picket sign at a strike, can hold heavy political implications that we are often too scared to indulge in, lest others consider us “vain” for simply being interested in fashion. I’d love to explore that in this podcast.

I am entering the Parsons School of Design’s Fashion Studies masters program this fall and all the questions I wish to address with my podcast I will learn in a classroom setting very soon. I listen to all kinds of podcasts about many topics: politics, astronomy, current events, French language, popular education and, of course, fashion podcasts. This all contributed to my podcast idea outlined above: Know What You Wear. The more we know about the clothes we put on our backs, the more critical and helpful we can be as the fashion industry evolves. Let’s battle the stigma and find an eternity of information behind fashion ephemera one episode at a time.