The language of fashion, just as with philosophy, psychology, semiotics, and all other disciplines, is one of terminology; it takes words of everyday use and extends their meaning, in doing so creating specialist terms to be used and understood in a specific context, where they no longer point to the same thing. Although – fashion not being the most self-aware of worlds – it's rarely considered from this point of view, it can't be denied that where beauty previously may have meant having straight teeth, clear skin, shiny hair, and a number of other things, it seems suddenly to mean looking thin and tired. Then there's the question of being able to read the classification, of having an understanding of the elusive nomenclature and what it signifies; fashion has the power to transform the meaning of words in this way because there's no calling on it to justify its new definitions, no one outside the structure can be said to have insight enough to make such a judgment, and those within it, needless to say, don't wish to. Fashion, and against this background, beauty, decides what it wants to be and then points to itself; it is a self-referential echo chamber of mutual appreciation between a small number of people who own the handbag and speak the lingo. Having said that, this is also what makes it wonderful – since the members of this small and self-governing community are often highly artistic, gifted, non-judgmental human beings from unconventional backgrounds – they have managed to create a private universe which the reality of other people's prejudices cannot penetrate; where those who are a bit unusual, find it difficult slotting in, or have been marginalised, can feel safe.