Cover image: Ephemera by Stevie Morley-Wong. Credit @maven.maison

Whether it’s a safety pin through an eyebrow or a Savile Row suit, style has always been a form of storytelling. It’s an archive, artwork, amplifier, and increasingly, also a moral dilemma. And while fashion is fun, it also matters more than people may think.

Consider your wardrobe your own wearable archive, where every piece you’ve loved or loathed has history stitched into its seams (this still applies to seamless clothing, let me have my metaphor). Trends don’t just appear out of thin air – they’re reflections of politics, music, film, subcultures, the economy, and even tech. Fashion is constantly formed by the world it exists in. And yes, that Devil Wears Prada monologue still holds weight: what ends up on a department store rack probably started in a niche design studio 5 years ago. It’s why older generations often see many of today’s trends as déjà vu. Fashion is cyclical, just like many of the cultural movements it mirrors.

Style has of course always existed as a form of expression. What you wear is your wordless introduction to someone you may never even have a conversation with. It’s your personal moodboard, protest sign, love letter, or even warning. Consider the humble bandana: She’s been everything from a cowboy calling card to a sailor’s staple. However, in the hands (and back pockets) of the queer community, bandanas became a coded language of desire decipherable based on their colour and position. That’s the thing about fashion – it speaks differently depending on how you wear it.

But fashion isn’t just expression, it’s art. And I know how horribly cliché that sounds, but imagine if sculpture could move and breathe – that’s essentially a haute-couture runway. The pinnacle of craftsmanship, haute-couture fashion houses handcraft collections that feel more like living exhibitions than mere clothing. But even outside the couture bubble, designers continue to push boundaries.

Just look to the collections of renowned fashion school Central Saint Martins, where students introduce increasingly innovative works with every passing grad show. This school has produced a star-studded alumni, including the visionary Hussein Chalayan. Originally wishing to study fine art, he instead opted for fashion, deciding it would feel newer for him. His iconic Fall 2000 show transformed a surreal living room set quite literally into clothing. Couch cushions peeled from their frames to become dresses; in the centre of the set, the coffee table spiralled up the model’s legs, transforming into a tiered, wobbling, wooden skirt. The whole set walked away on their bodies. Fashion brings fantasy to life in the minds of those with unfathomable imaginations.

Yet, beneath the glamour is a $1.7 trillion industry, peppered and truly punctured with controversy. Fast fashion has turned clothing into landfill in waiting, churning out disposable trends at breakneck speed. TikTok hyper-accelerated the existing trend cycle, birthing micro and even macro trends with the lifespan of a fruit fly, feeding mass-production and devastating environmental destruction. But as always, there’s upheaval brewing. Gen Z is thrifting, swapping, upcycling, and rejecting the idea that style must come new (or fast). Ironically, the same apps that fuel fast fashion are now also tools for sustainability. They’re a way to share ideas, hold brands accountable, and build slower, smarter wardrobes.

In the end, fashion is far more than just clothing. It’s a visual representation of experiences, reflection of our world, something with the power to make you think or feel something new, and a masterful craft that exists as art, not just parallel to it. And while what you wear might not change the world, it’ll expertly express your intentions moving through it.