Philosophy Major Wrestles with Ethics of Fashion
03/01/2025
By Ed Brennen
Senior philosophy major Barnard Krouch feels like a hypocrite, and he’s not sure what to do about it.
On the one hand, he knows that keeping up with the latest fashion trends is bad for the planet and likely contributes to the exploitation of garment workers in the Global South. On the other hand, he wants to feel good about what he’s wearing when he steps out of the house.
“There is a pretty good justification for wanting to participate in the current fashion trends,” the Lowell native says. “Like, if I have a pair of skinny jeans that still fit, that doesn’t mean I want to wear them, because I’m not going to feel the same way I felt in them a few years ago.”
Krouch is not the only person to wrestle with this dilemma, but he is among the select few to turn it into a senior capstone, specifically on “bridging the gap between aesthetic judgments in clothing and ethical decisions.” aesthetic judgments in clothing and ethical decisions.” “It’s an extremely complicated process that is driving me absolutely insane,” says Krouch, who plans to study aesthetic philosophy in grad school. “Fashion has a lot of interesting implications for how the human being understands their identity as a physical body in relation to other people, and I really want to study that.”
Krouch got into acting at an early age and became interested in fashion through theater costume design. “In the process of creating historical garments, I became intrigued by the metaphorical idea of fashion,” says Krouch, who is president of the Philosophy Club and a member of the Fashion Club.
While Krouch sees a lot of people identifying exclusively with specific fashion subcultures— athleisure, business casual, hypebeast (a specific style of streetwear)—his own personal style is more all-encompassing.
“It’s tied to how I understand myself, so I like to have small amounts of clothing that participate in all different kinds of fashion subcultures,” he says. “But if I had to choose what my personal style leans toward, I would say 18th-century light academia.” So, no skinny jeans.