An infinite fashion

A mathematician once said to me that there must be a finite number of tunes that could be composed, given an octave of 12 notes, with occasional additional sharps and flats, and the range of note lengths. He is possibly correct but in centuries of western music, the finite limit is still not reached. They still keep coming up with more tunes. Occasionally a tune is borrowed, in whole or in part, but there are always more and more new melodies which sound different.

I mention this only that as variety is often quoted to be the spice of life it is a good thing there is a range of music that keeps appearing to entertain each new generation.

I am amused to death by the fact that there are too an infinite way in which trainers can be designed; tracksuit trousers can be created carrying a range of hues and applied stripes to the extent that mostly everyone can appear different from each other. Have a look around at the dress of most people under thirty as they scurry about their daily business in my home town. To the untrained eye, they all look the same. But they are not. Each of them is making their own statement of individuality.

Herds of zebra, for an example from the animal world, are made up of distinctly differently striped individuals. To the untrained observer, they are all the same. Thank goodness the fashion for trainers and tracksuits helps many of us maintain our unique distinctions.

It is however nothing new. Glimpses of photos from the past show this mass conformity where individuality is marked by slight variations in colour and pattern. The conformity does not obviously apply to all society at once. Just as spots make leopards and stripes make zebras, then the type of apparel makes your social standing.

A theory I hold is that the higher the social standing the longer the clothing trend is maintained. Prince Charles would look at home with the upper class fashion of seventy years ago, both in formal and informal appearances. The lower classes change so much that some who do not keep up will be so last year too soon.

This is true too a point. I feel there comes a time in your fashion were something strange occurs and there are observable patterns of behaviour. As individuals age, they do one of three things. They dress the same as they have always done - Prince Charles again as an example of his class - once in tweeds and Barbours then always in tweeds and Barbours. Or they keep changing with the flow of fashion and end up looking like they are i.e. old people still trying to look young. Or thirdly, at some age they stop changing and dress the rest of their lives the same way like some strange time stop when some internal voice says “wear what you wear from now on”. You can still spot the septagarian teddy boy, or sexagarian hippy.

As there very few zebras and leopards where I live, I will delight then in spotting the fauna of fashion in the everyday places.