A change in fashion

Steven Millhauser’s, A Change in Fashion, played on the idea of leaving eroticism and the things that are sexy to the imagination. His play on thought and imagination along with what I believe, the criticism of the fashion industry is so well written and composed, that it is believable in some ways. This satirical essay suggests that by covering the body creates eroticism for the opposite sex. This satirical essay uses the idea of creating a dress that covers a woman’s body so that their figure is not shaped to create desire for men. This idea of a headdress that is very conservative that has parallels to a burqa in the Muslim culture, spikes the mind’s eye and creates eroticism to passer byers. I personally enjoy this play on eroticism, stemming from ideas that lingerie is viewed as sexy and erotic because they have clothes covering the “desired” parts and those parts are then left to the imagination. I believe by drawing this parallelism to a culture that us as Americans view as extremely conservative is humorous in its tone. This essay depicting Hyperion’s fashion as erotic and sexy is saying that our culture of leaving almost nothing to the imagination is even less erotic and less sexy than that of the Muslim culture. So, fully covering the body arouses people because the complete figure and features of the woman are left to the imagination and we have no idea what lies underneath the dress. This satirical tone and using our feelings and thoughts as human beings is really enjoyable while reading it, because typically covering the whole body might not seem erotic. However in this essay, leaving what her body might look like to the imagination is what we see as humans as erotic. This story suggests that leaving everything about the woman’s body to the imagination is very erotic and suggestive. Millhauser’s less serious tone is contradicting to fashion and the culture that is evolving in America today. I believe his humorous tone criticizes the fashion industry, but is also making a joke about what “really” is erotic. I thought this was a great story and enjoyed reading about something so conservative that is really extremely erotic.