Fashion’s obsession with eccentric people – and people read as eccentrics due to their marginalisation – stems from its never-ending quest for the new. A central challenge for fashion people is to create something (a collection, an editorial, a campaign) that is as original as possible (especially in the age of copycat call-out culture à la Diet Prada). And where do the most original, unexpected and non-derivative ideas come from? Often, true eccentrics; people who have been isolated from mainstream culture, and so have radically different frames of reference. It is ‘strangeness’ as survival.
Read “Why Fashion Is Obsessed With Eccentrics – & The Ladies Of Grey Gardens” on Refinery29