Artistic Reputations

Yes. I guess I wasn't clear on that. Certainly there is fashion art.
However, contrary to what FrozNLite said earlier, not every single person has to be a fashion artist to look acceptable.

The initial question was, "why do people respect fashion art less than other art?" and the simple answer is: it's capricious, and it's oppressive.

Capricious:
It seems entirely random every new season.
Unlike, say, music, where you can hear the trends evolve from each other (and your own taste can change gradually along with them), fashion's trends for this season are unrelated to the last one.
And crazy runway fashion seems like some sort of contest of "how absurd can you make a model look?"
Perhaps paradoxically, too much creativity makes art appear too frivolous to be respectable.

Oppressive:
The feel the public gets, justified or not, that the new trends are dictates we must adhere to or be denounced as "sooo last year!"

Once again I just have to say, you can't take those runways too seriously, take it with a grain of salt. Those are just forecasts of whats to come later down in the road. Some people like it, and it becomes a trend. Some people don't catch onto it, and it never becomes a trend. So because of ignorance, people don't deem fashion as much of a credible art form.

Only the extreme side (which is a very small portion of people) follow them religiously/have the money and live in the moment to buy those garments. Style really is forever, and it's up to you to decide on what you want to wear on a daily basis. Having to dress for certain occasion is a different matter (you can still add certain flare to your outfit, but things like a suit to a wedding is just proper). It's only oppressive if you let it.

I can see where FrozNlite is coming from, I truly believe if people wore clothes that fit them, you will feel so much more comfortable and better about yourself. I used to wear shirts too big for myself, but when I started to actually find clothes that fit me right that's just how it is from now on. Once again it's all preference, if you really don't give a crap and are too stubborn to try it out then so be it.

* don't have time to over look what i typed haha. off to work, like right now!