Admit it. You slept through that lecture on Jeremy Benthem. You barely passed ethics and John Stuart Mill has no meaning to you unless the host of the Daily Show got a civil union and hyphenated his last name.
It's ironic that a theory that is ultimately based on being most useful seems so, well, esoteric. But leave it to American Apparel to clarify philosophy and functionality
Utilitarianism seeks to maximize happiness and pleasure for the maximum amount of people possible. The Utilitarianism Fashion Movement sought to apply concept to style; getting maximum happiness and use out of each garment.
According to Fred Davis in "Fashion, Culture and Identity," the Fashion Utilitarians wanted to be liberated from the "the wastefulness, frivolity, impracticality, and vanity associated with fashion."
It was, above all, an Anti-Fashion movement which defined itself in terms of opposition to the transient ways of modern styles.
Fashion Utilitarianists used the same item in many different ways, emphasizing efficiency and ease. Davis describes their items as "very simply styled, usually loose-fitting, single-color garments (separate tops, tunics leggings, jumpsuits)." Sound familiar?
If this brought images of brightly colored basics dancing through your head to the tune of Sebastian Tellier, you're not alone. It's fitting that the ultimate anti-brand is the apex of anti-fashion.
Their ad campaigns feature semi-real looking people shot in ways that leave out collagen and Photoshop, and leave in forehead sweat and awkwardness. It's a favorite of basic-babes to stylish-scensters (who so aren't part of the fashion scene. There's that thing called irony again.)
American Apparel can be termed the first truly successful utilitarian fashion line. Early Chanel emphasized simplicity and durability, one of the many reasons it has remained a fashion "classic."
Harriet Selwyn introduced a simple separates line in the 1980s, but American Apparel gets the award for Ultimate Utilitarian. They have a dress you can wear over 15 ways and a piece of fabric that is a circle scarf-skirt-dress-head covering-sleeping bag-butterfly net.
According to Kevin Timpe, assistant professor at USD, "It's not surprising that, of the three major ethical traditions, fashion turns to utilitarianism. Deontology is about what is universalizable, and what fashionista wants to wear what everyone else is wearing? And while vice can certainly sell fashion, virtue is rather dull. So utilitarianism it is, almost by default."
Whatever school of fashion philosophy you subscribe to there is something to be learned from American Apparel and the Utilitarians. Keep it simple.
