West Fashion Style

Film Costume: Cleo From 5 To 7 (1962)

2011-04-08T03:50:00.000-07:00

By Justina Lee

"Cleo From 5 to 7" recounts the two hours before the French singer Cleo, believing that she has cancer, obtains her medical reports. The movie touches upon death, upon existentialism, upon despair, yet it also begins with a stunning costume: the attractive Cleo in a body-hugging, polka-dot dress. The silhouette is decidedly feminine: form-fitting above the waist, it accentuates Cleo's hourglass figure. The femininity of the costume echoes with the movie's questions of the perception of women. Throughout the movie, Cleo is eager to look her best, as seen from the ubiquity of mirrors. As she notes at the beginning, beauty defies death. The glamor of the costume thus empowers her as she confronts death.

From the waist below, the dress has A-line shape. As she walks down the street after hearing the tarot card reader's ominous revelations, her skirt flutters in the wind, almost as if she is in flight. This image is reminiscent of Cleo's earlier remarks on beauty when she compares herself to a butterfly. Indeed, with the polka-dot pattern and the fluttering skirt, she resembles a beautiful butterfly flitting through the city.

The polka dot pattern was also especially popular during the 50s and the 60s. The choice of this pattern can also be reflective of Cleo's desire to cling onto the present as she contemplates her imminent death.

But ultimately, below this glamorous costume lies the question of the meaning of life. Do we live to impress others with our beauty? Does beauty mask our inner selves? The costume effectively communicates these questions.

Film Costume: My Fair Lady (1964)

2011-04-07T13:24:00.000-07:00

By Sydney Kipen

The costume designed for Eliza Doolittle, designed by Cecil Beaton, is illustrative of high society fashion in the early 1900s of Edwardian England. Following her transformation from a Cockney, low-class member of society to a high-end member of the "leisure class," Eliza becomes the epitome of high fashion. Her dress, when she attended the famous Ascot Racecourse (horse races), embodies the qualities of upper-class society with long and elegant lines and a slight release of the corset and bodice. The lace, large broad hat, sash and belt to accent the small waist, high boned collar, and brushing of the floor of the dress all demonstrate early 20th century European fashion tendencies. Eliza's dress effectively communicates the transformation of her character to member of respected, high society and her role as a woman of status. The dress worn at the Ascot Racecourse demonstrates a sense of power dress and how transformation of one's clothing, and speech when she opens her mouth, can change others' perceptions and interpretations.

Film Costume: Australia (2008)

2011-04-06T14:40:00.000-07:00

By Valentina Franco

The costume for Lady Sarah Ashley, was designed by Academy Award winning costume designer Catherine Martin. The movie is set between the late 1930�s and early 1940�s, and Lady Sarah Ashley, who is a very proper English woman, is perfectly and exquisitely dressed throughout the movie regardless of the places she has to go. When she goes to Australia to make her husband sell his cattle station, she continues to wear her high-end clothes even in an environment that is a lot more primitive and that doesn�t have the same social atmosphere that she is used to. Her way of dressing , which is so perfectly planned and perfect in every detail, undoubtedly gives her status and a power that is aligned to her being the owner of the cattle station in Australia. She is extremely elegant and feminine in her way of dressing but she also utilizes some of the masculine elements such as blazers, ties and hats throughout her stay in Australia perhaps to reaffirm her position in a society that as a woman didn�t accept or respect her so much.

Film Costume: The Proposal (2009)

2011-04-06T10:39:00.000-07:00

by: Christine Lee

(via)

Sandra Bullock's character, Margaret Tate, is extremely strong-willed and powerful in the position as editor-in-chief. Consequently, her wardrobe matches this position. Cate Thomas, the costume designer, dressed Bullock in a power suit but with a twist. Instead of pairing the suit jacket with pants, she paired it with a form fitting skirt that is still conservative and fits within the business sphere. So while the suit still aligns itself with power and respect, it enters the terrain of feminine identity with the skirt. The suit was worn, usually by men, as a symbolic representation of power. That she is a woman wearing a customized suit for women, is extremely powerful. Although, it is quite common to see women in the modern era wearing suits since gender equality is prevalent an d accepted. This costume also helps to emphasize the characteristics that she possesses. She is uptight, contained, and controlled, but for reasons that are disclosed throughout the movie. Conclusively, this costume represents power but also oppression. And we see Margaret Tate being free from this "oppression" at the end of the movie when she decides to forgo the whole suit and instead dons just the skirt part.

Film Costume: Catch Me If You Can (2002)

2011-04-06T09:09:00.000-07:00

By Elleree Erdos

This costume for Frank Abagnale, designed by Mary Zophres, is characteristic of 1960s pilot uniforms. Abagnale is a conman, characterized by his skill for deception�thus, his specific looks range from pilot, to doctor, to ordinary working-class man. Zophres captures the essence of each persona that Abagnale takes on through visual externalization. Abagnale�s clothing before he begins is life of deception is more lackluster, dull, and colorless; as he gets deeper into his false world of impersonation, his costumes become more extravagant and vibrant. This pilot's costume, in particular, gives Abagnale the power of social status, (which in turn offers perks such as attracting women, as illustrated in the image). The costume illustrates the power of the uniform to deceive by exuding a strong visual impression or fa�ade of status, as well as its ability to empower the wearer by building an image that instills confidence. When Abagnale wears a uniform that reinforces a persona with its established associations, he grows increasingly self-assured in his ability to deceive. Whether or not this power is legitimate, it is, at its core, an appearance of power that creates a self-fulfilling fantasy for the wearer.

Film Costume: Marie Antoinette (2006)

2011-04-05T11:32:00.000-07:00

The costume for Marie Antoinette, designed by Milena Canonera, follows the styles of 18th century aristocracy, such as a fitted corseted bodice and full skirt. The poof is also important to the era. Here the specific look has light feminine colors, associating the character with womanly innocence. The costume represents the privileges of aristocratic power, using fashion as a form of conspicuous consumption to display wealth.

Film Costume: The Royal Tenebaums (2001)

2011-04-05T11:31:00.000-07:00

The costume for Richie Tenenbaum, designed by Karen Patch, follows the styles of the turn of the 20th century when the male suit became casualized by the dot com revolution. The headband and wrist bands reference more casual sports wear and vintage elements. The sunglasses add mystery to the character. The costume represents the power of the consumer to mix styles in a moment of democratization of fashion.

Tattoos in Western Culture

2011-04-05T11:25:00.000-07:00

by Sofya Gladysheva

Throughout history, tattoos in the West have by and large been reserved for specific subcultures that assert group identity through tattooing. However, tattoos have undergone a paradigm shift in the past 50 years as they began to find their place in the mainstream. Since then, this specific body art has evolved from its power to express group identity to its most contemporary power in the 21st century, the ability to express self identity and individuality.

When Captain Cook made his ground breaking landfall in the Pacific in 1769, he was the first to have real contact with the painted people the Pacific. Afterwards, it was �rediscovered� by Western subcultures The earliest subculture to claim tattooing was the sailors. Their use of tattooing was for group identification. The seafarers were united by inscription as a whole, separating them from the mainstream culture, but at the same time they differentiated amongst themselves by the types of tattoos they got. For example, those born before the revolution inscribed things like �independence� and �liberty� or a cluster of stars, while the younger boys focused more on tattooing their initials, maritime symbols, and less specific patriotic symbols

However, the most poignant use of tattoos in the last century is the Holocaust tattoos. In that context, tattoos were forced onto others as a mark of alleged inferiority.It is not until the 1960�s, when tattoo artists began to study fine-art training by looking at Polynesian and Japanese body art that tattoos began to be considered fashionable or artistic. Since then, tattoos have become swallowed up by fashion.

Kat Von D--powerful tattoo artist and female media figure

Rick Genest "Zombie Boy" in Mugler campaign and Lady Gaga's video.

Gaultier used temporary facial tattoos in his show.

If this is the case, have tattoos become part of what sociologist and philosopher Jean Baudrillard called the �carnival of signs,� a postmodern world filled with floating and misunderstood signs where everything is reduced to mere participation in the fashion system? Even if we keep tattoos linked with their devious roots and define them as an anti-fashion, in post-modern thought the resistance to fashion is still seen as a participation in the greater system because fashion is self referential.

An important qualification is that while fashion maybe self-referential, tattoos are not merely observed in the realm of fashion, making them referential in other, more sober contexts, specifically �the self.� Since they are permanent markings on the skin, and not frivolous fabrics that have a fast turn-over rate, tattoos end up defining a person for a lifetime, not an afternoon or a season. In that sense they transcend fashion, and become part of a larger discussion of the expression of self and the inescapable urge to communicate through visual, and non-verbal ways.
There is clearly a deeper connection to getting a tattoo than simply following or negating fashion because if tattoos were only fashion accessories then only the end result would matter, and temporary tattoos would suffice.

At the same time the meaning depends on the receiver. Certain tattoos can hold a deeper meaning to those who associate with it. Nevertheless, when it comes down to it, tattoos have the most meaning to the individual. They commemorate a significant moment, a loved one, or an idea and become �body projects�. We can choose to mark up our skin in whichever way we want, and in that way it can mean whatever we want and remain indexical of so much more than a simple participation in the fashion system. In fashion that is not the case because we can only wear what is offered to us. Even those opposing fashion, by tearing their jeans for example, are using the fashion codes that already exist.

The tattoo gives power back to the individual by allowing him to express identity through a fashion item that is both aesthetically pleasing AND meaningful, which in our arguably postmodern world is a rarity�if not inconceivability.

Democratization of Fashion

2011-04-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

Fashion has been associated with privilege and exclusive designs. With mass production, we can generally suggest that clothing is more available than ever, but abundance has not eliminated social differences. The images above and below were created for the Salvation Army in 2007 and intended to shock. The ads read �You wouldn�t be seen dead in them but for a homeless person they could mean the difference between life and death. Please donate your unwanted clothes to the homeless this winter.�

Society has shifted from the era of modern production, the industrial revolution through the 60s, to postmodern excess, the 70s through the present. While social differences still exist, we now have over production of goods which combined with other factors, encourages an eventual democratization of fashion.

The democratization of fashion:

-the increase in amount and accessibility for fashion goods globally

-the decrease in exclusive specialty clothing (haute couture) with an increase of ready-to-wear

-the decrease of fashion authorities and increase of media and many voices

-a greater mixing of class, gender and cultural codes, with a decrease in barriers like formal & casual.

Pistoletto, Venus of Clothes, 1967

The democratization is part of what Fran�ois Lyotard called The Postmodern Condition in 1979. He saw a social decline of metanarratives or absolute right and wrong authorities. The consequence is abundant opinions but a postmodern crisis of meaning in which all meaning becomes unstable and people no longer know what is best.

Postmodernity accepts multiple opinions and emphasizes identity politics. This reduces the power of one group or hegemony. However in fashion the diversity of points of view results in an ambiguity of signs in which something like the tux or suit is no longer tied to one gender, class, form or environment, meaning that it has become highly subjective what to wear in different circumstances.

The more democratic postmodern moment causes people look to media for the answers and direction of what is right or wrong. Above left Vogue states it can tell you the answer of "what to wear?" Media authorizes and legitimizes fashion forms and specific designers. Below people make sense of brands through their associations with media personalities.

Above reality television fashion, is it a true democratic forum for talent? What about the open forum of blogging? Below there is an overall increase of teen power with social media and their engagement in contemporary style expression.

Fashion and media come together in intertextuality. Simply, a fashion sign makes sense only if you also know the other sign through a fluency of media.

Looking to the street has increased with more democratization. Above left celebrity street photographer Ron Galella and right Bill Cunningham. Below street style magazine i-D by Terry Jones.

Above Japanese street style for Fruits and below contemporary celebrity street style with Blake Lively. There is a larger question of the "myth of street style," if what gets documented is the exception, fashionistas, celebrities etc, and not the real street.

Author Sophie Woodward found that most people think they are the exception and defend their unique style but on close examination most people are simply mixing mass brands with occasional vintage or unique items. Below street style has influenced professional fashion photography, left for Harper's Bazaar April 2011 and right for Reserved.

Above the Cole Haan Spring 2010 campaign featured real women shot on the street in their shoes. Below the man behind the curtain in The Wizard of Oz and Yves Saint Laurent in 1995. There is a larger question if part of the democratization of fashion is simply its unveiling. The forces that held the power over fashion are slowly being exposed as the general public increases its power to influence fashion with a greater voice and visibility.

Case Study: Jeremy Scott and His Power in Influencing Opposition to Fashion Norms

2011-04-05T02:34:00.000-07:00

By Jennifer Liu

Fashion Designer Jeremy Scott

Jeremy Scott is a fashion designer that graduated from the Pratt Institute in New York. He moved to Paris in 1995 to make a name for himself in the fashion world and started his own line by 1997. First garnering attention for being �the Midwesterner� in Paris with a quirky and strong sense of personal style, Scott effectively and quickly put his name out in the fashion world with his distinctive style and opposition to fashion. He has evolved tremendously as a designer: from a new comer onto the Paris fashion scene mostly seen as purely entertainment and a break from �serious� fashion, now still holding to the idea that fashion is fun but also currently designing and collaborating with major commercial brands like Adidas and Longchamp, that have helped expand his name as a designer on an international platform and made his distinctive designs recognizable and understood on a global level.

Scott's 2011 line for Adidas

In Allison Gill�s essay on �Deconstruction Fashion,� she states that deconstruction should not be always be taken as a negative aspect of fashion, as it so usually is viewed, but rather that new forms of fashion are being explored and constructed through the different and new perspectives that fashion is being looked at from. However, because deconstruction and opposition are so usually looked at with negativity and intolerance, Scott�s emergence onto the fashion scene and the noise he was creating was not something critics took to in the most pleasant of ways. Fashion being a world of codes susceptible to change and redefining, is a place where designers have to constantly be �forming and deforming, constructing and destroying, making and undoing clothes� (Gill 491).

Wing Shoes for Adidas

Scott is doing just that, stretching the codes of fashion by asking what it is exactly that defines one article of clothing. For example, his Wing shoes for Adidas are expanding on the limits to what a shoe should be. Fashion is a more relevant art form that reflects the current cultural and social norms and codes and with fashion having such a quick turnover rate, it reinforces that codes are constantly changing: �In fashion, all signs are exchanged just as, on the market, all products come into play as equivalents... Fashion is the pure speculative stage in the order of sings (Baudrillard 467).� Hegemonies and values change over time and with Scott so involved in a lot of pop-culture during and contributing towards the redefining of codes, he is in a position where he has the agency to illustrate new social codes through fashion.

Jeremy Scott Line Fall 2011

According to Malcolm Barnard, fashion as an expression communicates �the idea that something going on inside someone�s head, individual intention, is somehow externalized and made present in a garment or an ensemble� and if Scott is able to create products that the younger generation wants, then he has the power to deliver it to them successfully even if they differ from the previous hegemonic ideas of what is acceptable in fashion especially since fashion may also communicate �a society�s social or economic structure, or... a culture�s values (Barnard 174).�Perhaps Jeremy Scott is not the most recognizable name in fashion by himself, but his number of sponsorships with such a wide range of companies, his cross-media dabbling and his highly recognizable designs that are uniquely his, Scott�s designs reach a large array of buyers and viewers, enough so that his designs and playing around with codes are making a statement and accepted by the younger generation of trendy people that he has legitimate influence on the fashion world. One does not need to be absorbed within the fashion industry in order to have power; power can come from the outside as well and it�s a great power when a designer�s ideas can work their way through society through fashion.

Clip: Jeremy Scott's Fashion Show on Fashion www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8JDqma7IFE

The Myth of Street Style

2011-04-04T23:36:00.000-07:00

by Michelle Marques

Sophie Woodward studied for a BA in anthropology at the Univeristy of Cambridge, and an MA in Research Methods at the University of York, She did her PhD in Social Anthropology (Material Culture) at University College London. She has worked in art and design schools, including Nottingham Trent University where she worked as a Research Fellow and Lecturer. She is also the author of Why Women Wear What They Wear. She is currently a Lecturer in Sociology at Manchester University. Her article �The Myth of Street Style� was published in Fashion Theory in 2009. It is based of a study called "Fashionmap" that she conducted in 2001 at Nottingham Trent University. Woodward take a sociological and research approach to her article.

Woodward based her article on a mass fashion observation (MFO) of young people in Nottingham. Through photographs and interviews she aimed to document various style groupings and their changes over time. She is also concerned with how looks are assembled by consumers in several different locations. In her research project she photographed how young people aged 18-26 dressed in Nottingham and also conducted a brief interview asking where the items the subject were wearing came from.

In her article Woodward aims to explain what the myth of street style is. Woodward defines street style as an "idea, phrase, practice, and image that can be located in numerous sites." It can be found in the street style sections of magazines, in outifits that are assembled and in exhibitions and academic accounts. Woodward is concerned with the interconnection of these elements which produces the meaning of street style.

Woodward begins her discussion with the origins of street style. She cites Polhemus' defined style groupings of the 1940's such as the "Zooties" in Harlem. She also references punks and their way of dressing as a "reaction against established mainstream fashion design." According to Woodward authenticity is important to street style. Most of the subjects of her research project (78%) were "keen" to mention that they shopped at alternative stores, charity, or second hand shops.

Within these interview the subjects also made clear that they thought the high street was "homogenized and inauthentic, leaving no space for authenticity." Street style begins as an innovative until it "bubbles-up into mainstream, becomes sanitized, and loses its subversive edge." Woodward mentions examples of this phenomenon appearing in publications such as i-D, and The Face magazine. An extreme example of this phenomenon appeared in Elle and Vogue when models were portrayed "wearing a fantasized image of The Real Thing."

Woodward also mentions the importance that the high street plays in street style. Woodward defines high street "by the possession of at least one fashion multiple, whether this a department store, or a standard chain retailer." While many of the people interviewed by Woodward expressed an opposition to the high street 51% of people were only wearing high street clothing and only 5% were wearing nothing.

According to Woodward the high street has made an effort to incorporate what is considered "alternative" into its stores by having a "Vintage" section which includes both genuinely second hand clothing and reproduced vintage style clothing. The companies of the high street know that consumption is "a key factor in the constitution of identities" and therefore this is their attempt to offer diverse ways for consumers to create an identity.

Woodward also spent time researching street style in bars. Her research showed that there was nothing "strikingly unusual" about the style found in the bars she visited. She found that even in the "alternative indie scene." There was still uniformity of items worn such as converse trainers, ballet pumps, skinny jeans and high-waisted belts.

At this point of her research Woodward found that the "difference" that is so desperately seeked by the individuals in the study comes "not from wearing an outrageous or novel style, but through how the items are combined, and most importantly where they are sourced from." Woodward argues that street style comes from the way in which ordinary people are able to differentiate themselves only slightly from others. The mixing of second hand items with high street ones becomes the way to judge fashionability due to a strong emphasis on where items come from and not just the look.

Woodward concludes by explaining that the myth of street style is not contained to one domain such as fashion magazines, which can be an "opposition to "real" clothing choices."

Modern day myths lack that idea that myths are "something to be aspire to or to be imitated."

Instead mythologized street style figures have become "something to be passively admired."

Street style cannot be simplified into being just the mix and match of an individual's clothing. The speed of fashion (fast fashion) ultimately does not determine the rate of which people change their clothing.

Vogue

2011-04-04T19:47:00.000-07:00

In order to understand the significance of Vogue.fr, it is important to understand how the image of Vogue was originally created and how it has been transformed into something similar to that of a �brand�. It was founded in 1892 by Arthur Baldwin Turnure who created it as a gazette for high society and fashion only factored in when demonstrating the appropriate attire for different high society activities. It staked its claim as being a magazine about high culture, by reviewing books, theaters productions, the opera and the likes. The demographic that comprised the readership was mainly socialites and the wealthy elite class. In 1909 Cond� Nast purchased the magazine and transformed it into a fashion magazine, while still maintaining its appearance of being directed towards the elite class of society. Unlike before, the readers do not live the life style shown in Vogue, they mainly fantasy about it. The Vogue Paris website works to reach out to their readers in a more individual way by empowering the reader which in turns maintains the popularity of Vogue Paris and its authority in fashion.

The magazine originally had a section that displayed reader�s letters regarding their opinions on different aspects of the magazine. This public participation has been transformed to the online forum that appears on Vogue.fr. It allows active participation by the readers, by allowing them to submit photos of what they consider fashionable. It pretends to be a democratic process in which readers can vote on which ones they like and decide what goes on the Internet, but in reality the Vogue staff decides what to post online. Here Vogue creates what the theorist Haberman coined in the 18^th century known as the �Public Sphere�. A public sphere is where private people actively provide their opinions in a public space, in this case the website. It creates a community amongst the readers and empowers them buy making the readers believe that their opinions concerning the fashion industry are valued by Vogue. By creating this unique relationship between the readers and the creators of the Vogue Paris website, it keeps people attracted to that particular fashion website. In this way the public forum both empowers the readers while simultaneously reaffirming the power of Vogue as the authority on fashion.

The Soir�es Section on the website, functions in a similar way that the online forum does. It is a section that harkens back to one of the original aspects of the magazine, which was to keep the elite class connected by showing snapshots of high society parties and the elite class that attended them. Today, this section is viewed more by the public that fantasizes about the world that the �elite� live in. This perpetuates the high society dream and contributes to Simmel�s point about the lower class practicing in imitation to try and appear like they are part of the �elite� class. It allows readers to see what the �elite� class in society wears and how they act. It allows the elite class to remain the trendsetters, which also demonstrates how not only do designers hold the power in the fashion industry but different people in society as well. These images give the reader a V.I.P. pass into a Parisian dream world that they previously had no access to and in this way it empowers the reader. One again this section is used to both reaffirm the power of Vogue and �high society� by seemingly empowering the readers/viewers.

The first two images demonstrates what the Soir�e section often includes. The "elite" class is often shown as being comprised of entertainers, models and socialites. Here Diane Kruger and Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen are photographed at different parties and descriptions of what they are wearing are given to the side. This allows public to imitate their style , thus placing them in the role of trend setters and authorities in the fashion industry. At the same time , by giving the readers the chance to dress like the "elite" class and allowing them to view these parties, they feel more connected to the the content on the website and in the magazine.

The second set of images show what the online forum looks like. They appear to be normal girls who photograph themselves in their most fashionable outfits. By including photos of the general public it allows a greater amount of readers to relate to the content on the website. Allowing readers to compare themselves with the general public makes the high end fashion industry seem much more approachable since there aren't just celebrities taking part in it. Thus the readers feel more empowered to become the trend setters , when really they are being influenced by images that have been chosen by Vogue. Once again Vogue maintains authority while captivating its readers through self empowerment.

Japanese Street Fashion

2011-04-04T16:14:00.000-07:00

by Emily Mann

Notes on Yuniya Kawamura's "Japanese Street Fashion: The Urge To Be Seen and To Be Heard"

Dr. Yuniya Kawamura is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She attended Bunka Fashion College, Japan's primary fashion school then went on to study pattern-making technology at FIT. She continued her education in the field of sociology to get formal training in fashion writing. She has a PhD from Columbia University and wrote her dissertation on Japanese designers in the French fashion industry. In 2004, she published the book The Japanese Revolution in Paris Fashion from which her article "Japanese Street Fashion: The Urge To Be Seen and To Be Heard" comes. The article takes a sociological and theoretical approach in discussing the relationship between the production and consumption of fashion.

She states that fashion emerges out of youth culture that is then commercialized by the industry into being "fashion" and that the youth culture, then, both consumes and produces fashion. Japan's economic recession that started in the 1990s resulted in an uncertainty and disillusionment with society that caused an ideological shift and the resulting breakdown of traditional family and societal values. Under this social and economic environment, Japanese street fashion became more creative and innovative as teens looked for more ways to rebel against traditional values and to challenge and redefine the notion of "fashion."

Shibuya 109 Department Store in Tokyo

Kawamura discusses the different subcultures of Japanese street fashion, using Dick Hebidge's definition for the term, noting that those in subcultures gain pleasure in feeling like they are being scrutinized and watched. The Ganguro is one such subculture that emerged in the mid-1990s. The word literally means face-black, or blackface, and those who wear these fashions dye their hair blonde or orange and have heavily tanned skin, intense makeup, and bright miniskirts or short pants and platform heel boots.

Ganguro subculture

Yamamba

The Gothic Lolita subculture has been one of the more popular fashion looks in the Harajuku Station area in Tokyo since 1999, when it emerged as a counter-reaction to the Ganguro style. The subculture can continue to be further divided with distinctive elements to the styles.

Gothic Lolita Punk Gothic Lolita

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoYY-rAcgzs&feature=related

(Lolita fashion show in the Netherlands)

The distinctive looks constitute an externally visible group identity and a shared sign of affiliation. They communicate group ideas, intentions, and thoughts, but they are only functional when within specific locations. The styles portray a symbolic subcultural identity that is societally based, rather than politically or ideologically so. Kawamura concludes her piece by expressing that fashion is a collective activity that stems from the social relationships found in a subculture of shared norms and values. Their expression of such ideologies through clothing and fashion helps guide the professional designers to upcoming trends, demonstrating the symbiotic relationship between producers and consumers of fashion. The article remains relevant today with our increased global consciousness and appropriation of other cultures. In addition, high end brands that take this look, like Comme de Garcons, represent that shift from consumer to producer and from street fashion to high fashion.

What Happened to Fashion? : Teri Agins

2011-04-04T12:20:00.000-07:00

By Jessica Noone

Author

Teri Agins is the lead fashion writer for The Wall Street Journal and starred as a guest judge alongside Heidi Klum, Nina Garcia, and Michael Kors on Project Runway Season 3, Episode 11.

Context

This chapter �What Happened to Fashion?� serves as the introduction to her first book �The End of Fashion: How Marketing Changed the Clothing Business Forever,� which was published in 1999 by William Morrow and Co. in New York.

Fashion is a constantly moving target, working under the �imperative of planned obsolescence�. (404) Agins tells us about a revolutionary shift that occurred in the fashion industry that wrested control away from the fashion industry powers and toward the consumer. Citing the examples of failed marketing of short skirts and the monastic look in the 1980s, the fashion industry lost its ability to dictate trends to the public. She tells us that �the power now belongs to us, the consumers, who decide what we want to wear, when we buy it, and how much we pay for it.� (404) The author then cites four megatrends which changed the way we view fashion.

1. Women Let Go of Fashion

Women started getting serious about their careers and lost interest in the frivolous clothing fashion was turning out. They preferred the authoritative power look necessary for the workplace. Many salon deaths, such as the 1992 closing of Martha, put Parisian suppliers at risk. In fact, �styles were no longer trickling down from the couture to the masses. Instead, trends were bubbling up from the streets, from urban teenagers and the forces in pop music and counterculture with a new vital ingenuity that was infectious.� (405)

2. People Stopped Dressing Up

By the end of the 1980s, most Americans were wearing casual jeans and sneakers around, even to the office. Men rejected the business suit, led by the .com boom and Internet CEOs. Alcoa became the first major corporation to allow casual office attire, spawning �casual Fridays� all around the country. Many boutiques suffered and closed, like Charivari, as Americans no longer felt the need to dress to impress.

3. People�s Values Changed with Regard to Fashion

Stores like The Limited and Gap made fashion available at every price level, and designer labels started to seem useless. It was fashionable to pay less money and to be a bargain hunter. Studies by Consumer Reports opened the public�s eyes to the �Wizard of Oz discovery: behind the labels of many famous name brands was some pretty ordinary merchandise.� (406) Additionally, the movement of manufacturing facilities out of the US made quality available at a low price, compatible with the classic clothing trends of the 1990s, and the fact that Generation X-ers were used to the wash-and-wear functionality of clothing.

4. Top Designers Stopped Gambling on Fashion

Many fashion houses, like Polo Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, are publicly traded companies, which must maintain steady growth for their shareholders. Therefore, they can no longer afford to gamble on the whims of the fashion industry. Agins tells us that �today, a designer�s creativity expresses itself more than ever in the marketing rather than in the actual clothes�fashion has returned to its roots: selling image. Image is the form and marketing is the function.� (408) Branding and logos are the main ways that designers can distinguish their otherwise ordinary clothes. Fashion publications have also lost their power to make or break trends in editorial pages.

The consumer is king. Agins ends by proclaiming, �those who will survive the end of fashion will reinvent themselves enough times and with enough flexibility and resources to anticipate, not manipulate, the twenty-first-century customer.� (408)

Relevancy - Consumer Reports:

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/blogs/threadny/THREAD-ShopSmart-Poll-Finds-Women-Wear-4-of-7-Pairs-of-Jeans-on-Average-98339769.html

Case Study: Fashion and the Burqa Controversy in France

2011-04-04T09:49:00.000-07:00

- Justina Lee

The niqab - this will no longer be legal in public places in France starting next week

Starting this month, no one is allowed to cover their faces in public places in France. French politicians have justified this new law by referring to the burqa and framing it as a religious symbol of female repression contrary to French beliefs in secularism and gender equality. As the garment itself poses no tangible harm, the point of contention has rested on its link to these French principles. Fashion, which continuously negotiates the meaning of clothes, thus becomes especially relevant. Vogue Paris featured the burqa in a Arabian-style shoot, mixing it with varied styles and conspicuous sexuality.

�Vogue-�-Porter� by Inez & Vinoodh (Feb 2010)

An international line-up of celebrity designers redesigned the abaya (an Islamic dress) for a fashion show in Paris. Fashion designers such as Hussein Chalayan and Jun Takahashi of Undercover have also reinterpreted the burqa for their runway shows.

Redesigned abayas at George V Hotel in Paris

Similarly, protestors have used fashion to challenge the rationale behind the law. Princess Hijab, a graffiti artist, draws hijabs on sexualized fashion advertisements in the Paris metro.

Princess Hijab

NiqaBitch, a duo of female university students, strutted the streets of Paris in a niqab and hotpants.

Even though fashion may not be able to sway public opinion, it embodies and reinforces the opposing arguments to the ban. The public display of these reinterpreted burqas simultaneously undermines the religious connotations and contradicts the French la�cit�, which rejects all ostentatious religious symbols. Even more importantly, the amalgamation of signs - as seen in the Vogue Paris editorial, NiqaBitch's outfit and Princess Hijab's art - attests to the fluidity of meaning and thus challenges the relationship between the burqa and its conventional interpretations. Even though these interpretations do not change as quickly as fashion trends do, fashion embodies the instability of meaning that has come to define the opposing arguments as well as the postmodern culture of our times.

Johanna Blakley: Lessons from fashion's free culture

2011-04-04T00:45:00.000-07:00

On the topic of lack of copyright on designs, there was a TED talk last year discussing the topic by USC's Johanna Blakely. Admittedly, it is not Blakely's best presentation; her more recent talk on social media and gender is better constructed.

- Barbara Leung

Opposition to Fashion

2011-03-29T10:30:00.000-07:00

Opposition to fashion can take many forms. Above the Big Lebowski bathrobe is a simple disinterest in adornment or to unite or separate. Other types of opposition include opposition to Western aesthetics that dominate the fashion industry, opposition to the forms of fashion as fixed, and oppositions to the rules of the fashion industry evident in counterfeiting.

Speak to the children of Israel and say to them they should make themselves tzitzit on the corners of their clothing throughout their generations, and give the tzitzit of each corner a thread of blue. And they shall be tzitzit for you, and when you look at them you will remember all of the Lord's commandments and do them and not follow after your heart and after your eyes which lead you astray. Numbers 15

The above Jewish text is a call for believers to distinguish themselves from others through clothing. This is part of what we have learned about fashion as adornment and a tool to unite and separate groups. The meaningful adornment is also aligned with a set of modesty codes that oppose Western fashion as indicated in the sign below.

The three faiths of the God of Abraham - Judaism, Islam and Christianity - aim to oppose the Western fashion aesthetics and be separate but they are united by the same full coverage modest look for women.

Designers can take the aesthetics of opposition and integrate them into fashion as seen above in Hussein Chalayan, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Rick Owens.

Below the fashion company Moschino uses opposition as its ad campaign.

Fashion writer Fred Davis wrote a text called "Anti-Fashion" which identified 5 types of oppositional strategies. Below "utilitarian outrage" in the Russian constructivist designs and Gap, is an emphasis on basic forms without constant modifications.

Above "naturalism," and below "feminism" have opposed confining specific forms for day wear and women.

Above "conservative skepticism" and below "minority and faith groups" demonstrate resistance to mass culture and fashion as a power system.

"The Islamic factor" in fashion is a combination of opposition to Western aesthetics and an embrace of fashion luxury goods. The government monitors fashion media as seen below left, in which pages are either removed from magazines or images are blacked out. The women still seek the goods either through accessories or under the hijab.

Below the luxury department store Villa Moda in Kuwait emphasizes Western luxury labels.

Above, women in the gulf have taken luxury scarves as a sign of their wealth. Some argue their oppositional aesthetic has a power to influence the West as in the Hermes look from 2011 above. Men have remained more resistant to clothing and maintain their aesthetic opposed to the suit. However fashion brands have worked their way into automobiles. Below both Gucci and Versace create custom goods just for the Arab market.

Above an Arab fashion show and the new jihad women's magazine. Below left Vogue Paris featured an Arab friendly editorial in 2010 and right Princess Hijab who is modifying Western ads in Paris.

A more formal opposition to fashion in design is called deconstruction. This is an effort by designers to destroy and then re-assemble fashion forms in new way, intending to break existing associations and meanings. Below Maison Martin Margiela.

Deconstruction is a philosophical principle from Jacques Derrida in the 1980's which means to break through structures of meaning. We engage in language for example through a set of rules. Above left tennis requires the ball within parameters to win, but deconstruction frees meaning from structure toward something like the freedom of a beach ball. Below the ads by HSBC reveal society has been undergoing a deconstruction of formal meaning in fashion.

Above Bernard Wilhelm's casual tuxedo breaks our conventional separations of formal and causal. Below Martin Margiela's combination of forms break our normal associations.

Above the Antwerp 6 designers deconstructed every aspect of fashion from their advertisements of shows, to the presentation of clothing, using masks and unveiling backstage.

Above France sees counterfeiting as a crime for the producer and consumer. Below counterfeiting is seen as an opposition to the value of fashion goods and the power structures that keep fashion going as a business.

Below counterfeiting is also oppositional to many ethics as it is tied to worker oppression and child exploitation. Below a campaign by UNICEF to expose the crimes.

Nudity & Power in Fashion Editorials

2011-03-29T07:43:00.000-07:00

by Bianca Murillo

�What I find interesting is working in a society with certain taboos - and fashion photography is about that kind of society. To have taboos, then to get around them - that's interesting� said controversial fashion photographer Helmut Newton (Benfey). Nudity in fashion editorials is often a point of controversy because it does just that�attempts to traverse social taboos resulting in an interesting set of power dynamics to explore. Nudity in fashion images possesses power in that its use captures attention by contesting norms and serving as a platform for social critique. Through breaking from the ordinary the use of nudity asserts a quality of rank and control rendering the images powerful.

Helmut Newton's photography established a particular style using nudity and strong women marked by erotic and fetishtic scences, blurring the line between art and pornography.

Newton's influence today is embodied in Vogue Paris' Nov 2009 spread "L'eternal fantasme" pictured below.

Steven Meisel is a more contemporary American photorapher who is very similar to Newton. Meisel toys with the fashion industry and it's contentions through his photographs. Steven Meisel shot a controversial spread for W magazine in Oct 2004 cleverly titled, "Asexual Revolution", toying with gender roles, nudity and sex. A photo from this spread can be seen below.
Sexuality and nudity works to add power to fashion images in that the nature of the industry is ultimately one of seduction. This nature of seduction results in fashion coming second when there is such little clothing as in these photos. This images are successful because studies have shown that women find nude and sensual iamges of women more sensual that those of men. (wwww.sciencedaily.com). This duality of the nature of the industry and what captures attention is what renders nudity in fashion images powerful.

Fashion photographers such as Helmut Newton and Steven Meisel, among others, break away from norms in fashion photography in terms of sexuality, nudity, casting and general style. It is this break from the mainstream aesthetic, an upset of the rhythm, which attracts attention. At the point of an alternate aesthetic that challenges normative conceptions, fashion comes secondary to the sex and seductive nature of the image. This concept works as a result of women being drawn to natural, raw images and finding sensuality in these images. These breaks from normative aesthetics and values ultimately empower the image, its components and its effects.

Case Study: Paris Store Windows and the Power of Display

2011-03-28T21:57:00.000-07:00

By Sydney Kipen

As a complex and integral part of the modern world, fashion plays an influential role in society, portraying one�s position, both privately and publically. The store window serves to demonstrate the function of fashion to the public in a manner recreating certain idealized views of society. The different types of stores that exist in our consumer-based society each display different extents of power in their windows, and either retain that power to communicate their message, or give the power to their audience to interpret. Thus it is important to determine who has the power in the outlet of display: the window or the audience?

Chanel window at 31 Rue Cambon

In examination of the store window in Paris, the capital of fashion, the difference in the power of display between a department store window, a luxury store window, and a democratized store window is juxtaposed with their respective and distinct audiences. Although the window controls the power of perception and appearance, it must appeal to the power of its audience and their ability to interpret the window. While the goal of a store window display is to illustrate the vision of the designer, it is heavily influenced by the need to cater to the consumer.

The store window display emerged as a major facet of the culture of consumption in the late 1880s, originating along with the department store. According to William Leach, �windows of city retail stores�revealed to [women] an unobtainable world of luxury� (320). They were meant to initiate a desire within the consumer, and depict an affluent lifestyle that people should strive to achieve, although likely will never quite reach.

Visit Lanvin and their documentation of their window display at: http://www.lanvin.com/#/en/lanvin-today/windows

The presentation of goods or �mise-en-scene� was meant to �seduce� the public and motivate them to buy (Laermans, 92). The power of design and display was in the hands of the store window creator, but the success of the display depended entirely on the audience.

John Galliano

The Parisian department store today has huge, elaborate, extravagant, ornate windows that seem to emulate the same goals and ideas as they did when they were originated and popularized. The luxury store does much the same, but in a simpler manner with a single theme and story illustrated repeatedly. The democratized store conveys a story, yet it attempts to make it a more accessible, relatable theme that its audience can connect to and even rely upon. It is not elaborate or excessive or over-the-top, but fun, practical, and easy-going. However, in the modern consumer society, the domain of power in the fashion window has been transferred from that of the store and its window, to that of the consumer and their interpretation. Jean Baudrillard tells us that today, �every principle of identity is affected by fashion.� Thus interpreting the store windows is based upon one�s personal identity and where they see themselves in relation to the window (463).

Chanel

Gucci

Christian Louboutin

The Ethics of Counterfeiting in the Fashion Industry: Quality, Credence and Profit Issues by Brian Hilton, Chong Ju Choi, and Stephen Chen

2011-03-28T15:38:00.000-07:00

Chelsea Turner

The Ethics of Counterfeiting in the Fashion Industry: Quality, Credence and Profit Issues by Brian Hilton, Chong Ju Choi, and Stephen Chen focuses on great problem in the fashion industry: the issue of counterfeiting and the ethical issues that are raised by it. The authors delve into the issue that the problem may lie in the industry itself, meaning that it is the fashion houses that may need to change in order to solve the issue. According to the International Chamber of Commerce, seven percent of world trade is in counterfeit goods, and that the counterfeit market is worth $350 billion. Part of this is due to the difficulty that exists in enforcing the few laws that do exist against counterfeiting, and sadly most cases of counterfeiting are rarely prosecuted

Fashion, specifically high-end clothing and accessories, is one of the most highly publicized sectors of counterfeiting. There are different types of goods that can be counterfeited. The concept of �credence goods� is goods �whose quality is difficult to assess before or after purchase and use.� Credence goods are what are most copied because their value can only be determined by the credence or faith given to them by others, therefore they are easily exploitable. These items are usually of medium quality that has a high-perceived value, which can be easily copied.

The ethical issues, which come out of the issue of counterfeiting, can be put into four categories: Utilitarianism, Distributive Justice, The Moral Rights of Man, and Ethical Relativism. The utilitarian argument is the most used in the fashion industry because it points to the fact that �intellectual property needs to be protected in order to provide sufficient incentive to develop new technology and creative products.�

Actual counterfeit items can be divided into four categories: Vanity Fakes which are low perceived value products, Overruns or copies made from left over material, Condoned Copies made by other designers of fashion houses, and Copies made by the fashion houses themselves.
An interesting argument protecting the counterfeiter themselves is that much of this counterfeiting is done in countries in economic peril, and perhaps the counterfeiter has a right to make a living whatever way they can. Then what is questioned is whose moral right is more important, the designer or the counterfeiter.
The fact is that the high-end fashion goods that are being copied are unattainable for the majority of the world. But does that make it right? The counterfeits may hurt these high-end brands by disassociating their genuine products from the mass of the cheap copies, which look like them.

"The Islamic Factor" by Nicholas Coleridge

2011-03-28T15:00:00.000-07:00

by Zo-Ee Chee

�The Islamic Factor� is a chapter from the 1988 book entitled �The Fashion Conspiracy� which reveals some of the fashion industry�s most provocative secrets. The author, Nicholas Coleridge, is the Managing Director of Cond� Nast (Vogue, GQ, Glamour etc.) in Britain and oversees the publishing company�s branches in Paris and Mumbai. He has also been a chairman of the PPA (the Magazine Publishers Association) and of the British Fashion Council. Needless to say, Coleridge is an authority on the inner workings of the fashion world.

Published just before the Gulf War (1991), the chapter details the importance of the Middle East as a source of income for couturiers and the relationship that the fashion industry has with clients from the Gulf as both an empowering and undermining force. As a largely informative approach, �The Islamic Factor� describes the somewhat contradictory nature of Middle Eastern taste for couture due to the heavy censorship and the desire for a modest appearance as required by Islam (supported by the censorship of Vogue magazine by The Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Supp

ression of Vice). Many of the richer families from the Gulf buy heavily from designer and luxury brands, preferring certain makes including Nina Ricci, the now defunct Jean-Louis Scherrer, Ungaro, Givenchy and Calvin Klein though their choice in designers seem to be relatively arbitrary. Their purchasing power is even enough to account for 11% of the fashion industry with Kuwait being at the top of the list (as of 1988). This does not take into account the mobile nature of Middle Eastern buyers who do much of their shopping abroad. The facts therefore point towards Middle Eastern buyers being more economically powerful than their initial cultural and religious contexts might indicate.

H&M campaign censored for the Middle East.

Despite their economic importance in the fashion industry, Middle Eastern buyers are often go unmentioned as clients of fashion houses and are instead considered gaudy and tasteless due to their perceived lack of prestige (and by extension, a lack of power). This seems an unfair trade-off in reputation as many couture houses in the 1980s, overwhelmed by debt (due to the recession caused by OPEC oil embargoes), specifically catered and designed for Middle Eastern customers through the use of heavy beading, fur as well as exquisite craftsmanship which was is seen as a sign of wealth. This shows that the economic power of the Gulf actually subverts the aesthetic style of fashion as couturiers designed clothes to appeal to them thus forfeiting some of their own design principals.

http://www.zuhairmurad.com/

Example of Middle Eastern taste: designer Zuhair Murad from Beirut, Lebanon

Despite the economic power that the Middle Easterners possess in the fashion industry, they are still a living contradiction with their desire for luxury goods and the demands that Muslim women should be modest in appearance (consider the to the plunging necklines and bare backs of some designer dresses). Although these clothes are often covered by a burqa, there exists a communal culture of �video-teas� where the women gather at the home of one of the women and watch videos, sans burqa. This therefore reveals the use of designer clothes as a method of impressing other women (much like the �vicarious consumers� as discussed in Thorstein Veblen�s �Conspicuous Consumption�). There is a limit to the spending, however, with husbands or male relatives imposing restrictions.

In conclusion, this text presents various aspects of the tug of war between power, money and religion. On one front, it considers the Gulf�s economic power and ability to sway the direction of fashion. On the other hand, it is simultaneously powerless because of its lack of prestige. Although the editor�s note indicates that, as of 2006, the Middle East accounts for 40% of haute couture purchases, the �Islamic Factor� also presents the interesting dialectic (though less prominently than the former point) of what is perceived as female powerlessness because of the restrictive burqa and the freedom Muslim women in the Middle East have in their ability to purchase incredibly expensive clothes to their hearts� desires.

Case Study: Patrick Demarchelier and His Power to Defy the Dominant Hegemony of the Fashion Photograph

2011-03-28T13:14:00.000-07:00

By Elleree Erdos

French fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier has revolutionized fashion photography with his truthful approach to the photograph; by maintaining ties with the tradition of his medium, truth to the apparatus of vision and spontaneity, and continuous engagement with portraits as exposure to emotion, Demarchelier has become an ambassador of truth in the field of fashion photography. His force in the fashion world is in his ability to make this truth acceptable in a field immersed in illusion, introducing his own hegemonic principle of the fashion photograph and implementing it to its full effect. Demarchelier legitimizes his practice and overturns the dominant hegemony of falsity in the fashion photograph by maintaining consistency in both his photographic and his personal, �celebrity� image.

Click here to view Patrick Demarchelier's commercial reel.

Demarchelier worked at the same time as avant-garde photographers such as Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin, who photographed in a style that fed the increasingly sexualized nature of photography taking shape in the 1960s (Harrison). He joined forces with a group of photographers that became known as the Paris Mafia, who �reacted against the decadence or self-conscious seriousness of their contemporaries in favor of fashion photographs which were upbeat, informal, and with the spontaneity of a snapshot� (Harrison). In a 2008 interview for the London Telegraph, Demarchelier described the current society as �perfection-obsessed,� a comment consistent with his search for truth and emotion in all of his work, whether it is a portrait, an advertisement, or a fashion editorial (Walden).

Fashion photograph by Helmut Newton

Fashion photograph by Guy Bourdin

Fashion photography offers an exceptional venue for the realm of seeing that invites falsification and illusion in order to fabricate an inaccessible world for the consumer, who absorbs the photograph within the context of the cultural hegemony at play in his or her personal environment (Crane, 542). In spite of whatever ideology the viewer applies to the photograph, today�s fashion photographer institutes a method of illusion to engage the viewer.

Patrick Demarchelier, while remaining true to the nature of his chosen field, manages to maintain an element of reality in the entire image. He does so through what has been coined the �Demarchelier Touch��his interactions and gentle personality that puts the model at ease, eliciting positive human responses (Chazal). Paired with his technical skill, this quality allows Demarchelier to capture his models in their most vulnerable, truthful, spontaneous moments.

Patrick Demarchelier, "Princess Diana," London 1990

Patrick Demarchelier, "Au Charme, etc." French Vogue Feb. 2005

Philosopher Roland Barthes outlined three modes by which the fashion photograph operates within the context of the �world�as a theater� (Barnard, 517). The fashion photograph, says Barthes, can objectify, romanticize, or mock its contents. In all three instances, however, the dominating hegemony is that of falsification; everything within the photograph save for the garment itself is made outrageous or absurd, thus verifying the reality in the garment (518). Demarchelier finds the humanistic element in the illusion and grasps hold of it with his lens. Instead of placing the viewer on the exterior of a dream world he or she can only aspire to, he gives viewers an entry point by which to place themselves within whatever world he depicts. Furthermore, the continuity of Demarchelier�s public image with the traditional, effortless style of his photography reinforces his personal distance from pretension an ostentatious display.

Patrick Demarchelier, "D�mente Religieuse," French Vogue Sept. 2004

Patrick Demarchelier, "A Fashion Fairy Tale," Vanity Fair Jan. 2005

Alison Gill: Deconstruction Fashion

2011-03-28T13:11:00.000-07:00

By Nicolle D'Onofrio

Paris Fashion Week A/W 2008-9: Maison Martin Margiela

Context: 1998, Fashion Theory Textbook
Author: Alison Gill; Current lecturer of visual communication design at University of Sydney with a PHD in "Wearing Clothes".
Approach: Academic with a mix of Theoretical
Point of View: Deconstruction Fashion, which should not be defined as a negative critique of the fashion industry, serves to change the discourse of fashion away from its established, seemingly intrinsic, codes.

Terms:
Deconstructionism: The "undoing" of fashion (see video examples) to create new pieces of "deconstructed" fashion.
Le Destroy: Rebellion style of fashion Gill associates with deconstructionism. Facets of Le Destroy include anti-fashion, recession-zeitgeist, eco-fashion, and theoretical dress
Anti-Fashion: Rebellious form of fashion used to negatively critique normalized fashion codes.
Zeitgeist: literally "spirit of the times"
Ontology: The branch of metaphysics used to deal with the nature of being
Margiela: Fashion designer described by Gill as the first major deconstructionist designer of the 1980's
Derrida: French Philosopher who created "deconstructionist theory" in the 1960's.

Summary:
Alison Gill's "Deconstruction Fashion: the making of unfinished, decomposing and re-assembled clothes" describes the theory of deconstructionism as it relates to fashion. She begins with a history of the term "deconstruction," describing its original terminology as a philosophical theory used to critique language and codes. Deconstruction was then practiced by architects and graphic designers in the 1980's when Martin Margiela began designing deconstructionist fashion. Margiela would take apart the linings from vintage dresses and sell them with the darts, seams, and zipper entirely visible, rethinking the role of fashion to hide its magical construction to create a suitable garment.

Gill then moves on to relation "deconstructionism" to "Le Destroy," describing the practices of anti-fashion (which has some deconstruction elements but is far to focused on negative critique of the industry), recession zeitgeist (which creates a political connection between the instability of eastern european ideologies and an instability of fashion codes), eco-fashion (which emphasizes the use of recycled/eroding materials to send a message for more environmentally friendly textiles), and theoretical fashion (most closely related to deconstructionist fashion in that it links philosophical ideologies to the practice of fashion). Gill claims that "deconstruction fashion liberates the garment from functionality by literally undoing," making the reader ponder exactly the what the functionality of fashion is.

Gill then goes in depth on the term "deconstruction" and its named critique by creator Jacques Derrida. Derrida claims that deconstruction should not be linked to a negative critique (it is not to be called 'destruction') on society, or in this case the normalized fashion industry, but rather the introduction of a new discourse in the way we view the working of social codes. While this type of thinking may be related to post-modernism Derrida is also skeptical to place this label on the term in fear that it creates a temporal confinement that is aligned with a movement rather than a new way of thinking and rethinking.

Lastly, Gill discusses the effects of Media on deconstruction fashion. Gill warns that deconstruction should not be linked, as it has been, to style, but rather the sole mechanics of the creation, un-creation, and re-creation, of a garment. Gill proposes that this type of stripping down of clothing reveals certain truths about the fashion industry that change the way we look at fashion today.

Relevant?: I believe these terms and style of thinking to be relevant today, especially in our claims that we live in a post-modern world. I think the reinvention of not only fashion trends, but the way in which we see and define fashion creates, in itself, an aspect of power over society in that it forces us to think and rethink our own normalized predispositions.

The Power of Appearances

2011-03-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

�If discourse must triumph over something, it is not over fantasies and hallucinations heavy with meaning and misinterpretation, but the shiny surface of non-sense and all the games that the latter renders possible.� Jean Baudrillard, Seduction.

Spring 2011

The general consensus is that fashion, and its imagery focus on the superficial. Because fashion is presentation there is a legitimate interest in the surface, such as the surface treatments of fabrics by Proenza Schouler. But the question is how the surface appearances in fashion can be sites for the mediation of values and power. Fashion discourse and theory must triumph over this emphasis and dig into the deeper values expressed by the surface.

The classic debate surrounding fashion imagery concerns the ways in which it is overpowering vs. empowering.

Above the most common positions against fashion imagery and below the common positions in support of fashion imagery . The contrived dialectic is in reality a combination of both.

Perhaps the most common concern about the appearances in fashion is mis-representation of reality. Through styling, make-up and Photoshop, the woman below looks different than her reality. See the original photo and more here.

Artists can help raise awareness of the power of appearances. Below a photo series by fashion photographers Inez & Vinoodh shows the model before and after styling.

Artists also raise our awareness by altering the images as in the case of the Comme des Garcons ad and M/M Paris below.

I Hurt I Am in Fashion is a blog that combines fashion images with critical commentary to suggest the power of appearances and the power system behind the images.

Understanding the power of appearances in fashion begins with the brand which existed before the fashion photograph. The trademark is a visual claim on property and territory that asserts the power and status of the manufacturer.

In the same manner as the photographers were raising the awareness of the power of appearances, Martin Margiela below raises the awareness of the fashion label using an innovative system.

Some brands have been so consistent they have iconic power and worth, termed brand equity. The YSL logo below is a good example of a power brand with global recognition.

In the power of appearances there are some brands that make claims on colors and forms, overdetermining the freedom of the element with a fashion association.

The power brands below aim to be so consistent in presentation and associations that they create a reality in themselves, so much so that the appearance of the names alone signifies invented meanings, disconnected from legitimate power. This is the essence of status. Ralph Lauren for example may evoke equestrian and New England culture but could be worn by someone disconnected from this genre with no social power of this type.

Fashion photography can be used to further brand power, as in the campaigns above, or general associations in fashion as in the editorials below. There are 3 formal categories for fashion photography as seen above - fashion, accessories and beauty/fragrance, all of which may be either campaigns or editorials. Roland Barthes believed there were 3 ideological categories to fashion photographs as seen below - direct representation, poetic scenery, absurd juxtapositions.

For the complete history of fashion photography click here. Above the first fashion series of the closet of Countess di Castiglione. Below Steichen for Vogue, 1928.

Above Cecil Beaton for Vogue represents the formal presentation os fashion photography in the 1940's. Below after the war, European artists brought new sensibility to the fashion magazine and encouraged photographers in new directions. Below left American John Rawlings, 1957 and right Avedon, 1964.

Above Guy Bourdin in the late 70's brought a new sexuality and naturalism. Below in the 80's and 90's supermodels and glamour photographers Ritts and Testino dominated the industry and editorials, leading to Steven Meisel's critique below right, "Supermodels Enter Rehab" in 2007.

Above and below are two different critiques of the power of appearances. Meisel uses the fashion editorial to express social issues in "State of Emergency," 2005. Below Juergen Teller breaks down conventions of glamour in fashion photographer by showing the designers themselves in ordinary settings in the ads.

Above the proposal by Olivier Zahm that the commodity exchange of fashion is combined with the mystical impossible exchange (the singularity of the consumer, specific values and dreams) to make a successful fashion photograph. Below the proposition of Brian Morean that corporations uses the familiar and powerful appearances of celebrities to reach the consumer.

Morean proposes that celebrities have economic power and worth. Their faces and names bring added value to product presentations. The combinations of celebrity and fashion are not always successful as it is co-branding and there are many variables.

Finally, a participant in the power of appearances is the model who takes on different aesthetic expressions for different value assertions. The pressure toward "perfection" is a highly debated, often willing, oppression of the fashion system.

Some models take their position with empowerment, managing their bodies and careers like a business. Above Caroline Trentini and below the most successful examples, the 90's Supermodels.

Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford by Peter Lindbergh for British Vogue January 1990

See fashion photography since the 1980's here

See the history of the fashion model here

Fashion and Graphics

2011-03-22T01:52:00.000-07:00

By: Isabella Aballi

Tamsin Blanchard examines the power behind the label and how the emerging role of graphic designers has become key for a fashion labels success and credibility. Blanchard explains how the label has become its own form of currency because of the social and economic importance is holds. Nowadays, fashion brands have come to rely on packaging and presentation to determine its worth as oppose to the actual product. In the last 20 years, the graphic designers that are in charge of creating the labels and the presentation have created the ability to attach status and power to labels and fashion industries. Fashion is no longer just clothes; now the fashion industry has many sectors that contribute to the popularization of the label. These graphic designers create fashion show invitations, ad campaigns, �look books, catalogues, press mail-outs, magazines, etc��all of these elements contribute to the message attached to the label.

Peter Saville is known for being the pioneer of fashion graphics. He collaborated with photographers like Nick Knight and produced work for designers like Yohji Yamamoto. Yohjis catalogue in 1986 was a groundbreaking innovation for the fashion world and kicked off the field of fashion graphics. In fashion graphics it�s a matter of presentation as oppose to the fashion itself. For example, some people like certain brands because of the message that is communicated through the presentation of the clothing.

Many designers have reestablished themselves simply by changing their ads and presentation of fashion (Stella McCartney, Burberry, etc). �A brand�s graphic identity is how it expresses itself, shows what it wants to belong to and talks to its customer with its chosen visual language. The graphic identity will be applied to everything that the brand uses so it is vital to find an expression that suits its values.�
Once a designer creates te=he product and determines a message they want to send, every form of that brands representation is formed around that identity: the logo, the lookbook, the colors, the models, everything.

YSL is seen to be the label to prove the power of the graphics the most through its elegant letters Y � S � L which are known worldwide regardless of whethere you own a piece of haute couture or not.

VS.

The first graphic designers are said to have worked in the music industry before the fashion industry.

�Fashion houses no matter how mainstream need ti keep a step ahead if they want to maintain their credibility��essentially they have to be innovative but keep their elegance.

�At best, graphic designers have brought to the fashion industry another set of eyes, a fresh perspective and an uncompromising vision. At worst, they are simply another marketing tool.�

�If it looks good, don�t trust it.�

�Presentation is in danger of becoming everything.�

Celebrities, Culture and a Name Economy By: Brian Moeran

2011-03-21T21:36:00.000-07:00

Brian Moeran discusses the effects celebrities have in our society by splitting the essay up into four different sections. A professor in the Department of Intercultural Communication and Management at Copenhagen Business School he is concerned about different social processes dealing with cultural production such as advertising, fashion and media. He uses a theoretical approach by examining the different shifts celebrities have created in the commercial industry. He believes culture and economy are connected and celebrities are the liaison for these industries as they deliver the perspective the company wants to appeal, to the consumers.

Celebrities
"The celebrities are the Names that need no further identification...Wherever they go, they are recognized, and moreover recognized with some excitement and awe," (Morean3).
Celebrities first came about in New York City Cafes towards the end of the 20th century at the time where different classes of people intermingled. Or he says it might have came from the time motion pictures first came about from 1909 through 1914 when names were being circulated with films. Stars were used as promotional tools for films it didn't really matter what they were good at, as long as they were popular and associated themselves with other celebrities to become more exclusive and well-known. Celebrities at the same time go into all different industries such as acting, directing, photography, television commercials and fashion designing, being a part of these other social intermediaries initiates recognition. Ex: Naomi Campbell is a supermodel, cinema, music videos, and publishing.

Celebrities and Advertising
Celebrities are important when they channel meaning from one sphere of culture to another. Celebrities are the strongest source of cultural meaning in the marketing system and for individual consumers. They enjoy recognition being associated with a consumer good while in an advertisement. The first point he makes it that he says there should always be a match between the product and celebrity. John Wayne was a great liaison for Great Western Savings and Loans. He fit the criteria for the company�s image with the western cowboy look. Tigerwoods the greatest golf player is associated with all golf related things, such as Golf Digest and American Golf Association. Various other factors are considered when picking a celebrity such as fashion, beauty, and cosmetics. Credibility and expertise are two factors when choosing a celebrity to market the companies product. The gender, age, class, color and personality all have to fit the targeted consumer as well. Morean states through McCraken that sometimes using celebrities is not good since sometimes the audience only focuses on the celebrity and not the product.

Also with celebrities, companies take a risk on the possibility that a celebrity they endorse will be a part of something controversial that will make the brand look bad. Although when picking a celebrity personality, attractiveness and likeability is looked for, it is noted that consumers do not consider those factors when purchasing products. But celebrities in general do help the global market in getting the brand out worldwide.

Celebrities as Cultural Intermediaries
Celebrities are cultural intermediaries because they are in all different kinds of media linking different cultural spheres together. Celebrities link the commodities, the products with cultural personality linking producers and consumers together by making a product a good that is necessary for everyone in society. They also explain and support the meaning of the commodity and affect the overall aesthetic and design of the advertising campaign.

Celebrity and The Economy
Celebrities help link our cultural surrounding and economy together. For example celebrity endorsements, for Tiger Woods earns up to $50 million a year in endorsements. Kate Moss gets $4Million a year at Calvin Klein only working 100 days. They are also involved in many business themselves as for Madonna has founded her own recording company called the Maverick and Cindy Crawford has her own jewelry line.
Celebrities can be considered as investments as well for example in 1995 when rumors stated that Michael Jordan would be coming back to the Chicago Bulls, the stock prices for the companies he was affiliated with such as McDonalds stated their stock prices sky rocketed and they predicted they would gain $192 million in additional sales from the Value Meals.

Brian Moeran concludes by stating that celebrities are necessary factors in promoting goods and getting the industry running. Economy is interlocked with people, product and organizations; all three need to work together for the economy to run. �Celebrities by the products they endorse and the organization they work for- are involved in a vast operation of social alchemy� (Moeran12).

Moeran, Brian. "Celebrities, Culture and a Name Economy." (2003): 1-18. Print.

The Decline of the Haute Couture Power House: Is it Immortal?

2011-03-21T17:51:00.000-07:00

The term �Haute Couture� is one that is tossed around quite often when discussing high-end fashion and clothing, but what exactly is it? The direct translation from French is �high sewing� or �high dressmaking� referring to the creation of exclusive custom fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high quality, expensive fabric, and hand sewn with extreme attention to detail with the use of time consuming, hand executed techniques that one must be highly trained in.
Haute Couture made its debut more than a century ago in the middle years of the nineteenth century in Paris and the fashion world was in awe of the novelty and modernity of the Haute Couture Aesthetic. In the mid-nineteenth century, Englishman Charles Frederick Worth burst onto the Paris scene with a new philosophy of how clothes should be made. By creating branded fashion design, Worth created the very first Fashion House. After Worth, the trend of Haute Couture became the norm for upper class women who were willing to spend money on luxurious clothing items.
The Chambre Syndicale de La Couture was developed by Worth and his sons to determine which design houses were truly Haute Couture Houses. The Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne was created in 1868 stemming out of the Chambre de Commerce et d�Industrie de Paris to govern the rules of Parisienne Haute Couture. By 1946 there were 106 Official Haute Couture Houses with the criteria for being an Haute Couture House established in 1945.
By 1952 that number dropped drastically to 60 Haute Couture Houses. This was mostly due to the Second World War creating a great change in the fashion industry and mass-manufactured fashions became increasingly popular. The idea of custom made clothing that was both extravagant and time consuming to make became unjustifiable. With the emergence of street and fast fashion quickly growing, Paris needed to figure out a way to protect its Haute Couture roots, and keep the true Paris couture houses as well known and respected establishments. The Federation Francaise de la Couture was created in 1973 growing out of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne to do just this. The Federation is responsible for setting the dates and locations of the French fashion weeks.
Within the F�d�ration the Syndicale is a body that promotes, , educates, represents, defends, deals with social and working benefits and advises its members in all relations between labor and management, including great names of the Paris couture world. It also establishes industry standards on quality and on the use of the word "haute couture". Their rules state that only "those companies mentioned on the list drawn up each year by a commission domiciled at the Ministry for Industry are entitled to avail themselves" of the label haute couture. To earn the right to call itself a couture house and to use the term haute couture in its advertising and any other way, members of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture must follow these rules: Design made-to-order for private clients, with one or more fittings, must Have a workshop (atelier) in Paris that employs at least fifteen to twenty people full-time, and Each season (i.e., twice a year), present a collection to the Paris press, comprising at least thirty-five looks (at least 75 new designs a year) with outfits for both daytime wear and evening wear.
After these extremely strict rules were put in place the number of official Haute Couture houses had gone down to just 18 by the year 2000. By January 2002, at the time of Yves St. Laurent�s sad departure from the fashion industry into retirement there were only 12 couture houses left. In 2003 and 2004 famed designers Donatella Versace and Emanuel Ungaro stopped doing couture shows respectively. Now there are 11 official members of the Federation Francaise de la Couture. Those members are Adeline Andre, Anne Valerie Hash, Atelier Gustavo Lins, Chanel, Christian Dior, Christophe Josse, Franck Sorbier, Givenchy, Jean Paul Gaultier, Maurizio Galante, and Stephane Rolland.
With only 11 members left, how long until the Federation Francaise de la Couture is gone for good? The exclusivity of the Federation means enhanced values to the status conscious consumer but those who can and still choose to wear Haute Couture are an aging clientele. Even extremely wealthy younger women, who could in theory afford couture, often find ready-to-wear clothes more practical, wearable, and fun.
Because of that there is no way that Fashion Houses can rely on Haute Couture for their main income. For most houses, their twice-yearly Haute Couture shows lose them money. ). The big four operators of Couture � Chanel, Dior, Givency, and Gaultier � use couture as a marketing tool and make money of off their ready-to-wear, fragrance, and accessory lines.
If you remove the rules of the Federation Francaise de la Couture, than the actually act of creating Haute Couture, or made to order high quality clothing, is still alive and well. It is just no longer something one can only find at an official Parisian Couture House. Custom-made clothes are making a big come back, and people will always want their own unique pieces. Especially popular is the man�s custom made suit, dresses, wedding gowns and raincoats.
It seems at the now Haute Couture of an actual house recognized by the Federation Francaise de la Couture is simply a marketing tool which captures the public�s imagination, or will it, sadly, disappear altogether.

Herm�s Case Study

2011-03-21T17:27:00.000-07:00

By: Valentina Franco

Herm�s is a major fashion company that prides itself on its heritage, craftsmanship and luxury. It started in 1837 as a harness shop in Paris for horses and carriages, and later expanded onto the production of saddles. By the 1900�s, Herm�s started to create travel bags, handbags, belts, gloves, and other leather goods that resemble the products that are available today. Since its establishment by Thierry Herm�s, the Herm�s family has been in charge of the business, so far having six generations of Herm�s heirs at the forefront of the company.

The Herm�s Family Directors through the Years

Two of the most recognized Herm�s products are the Kelly bag and the Birkin bag. The Kelly bag was introduced in 1935 as the �sac � d�p�ches� but it was made famous in 1956 by American actress and then Princess of Monaco, Grace Kelly when she used it to cover her pregnancy from the paparazzi. The Birkin bag was created in 1984 for English singer and actress Jane Birkin, after she ran into Robert Dumas in a flight from London to Paris and heard her complain that she didn�t have a proper bag to carry all the things she needed to put in a handbag. Both of these handbags are a status symbol since their economic value is extremely high. These bags are unique and recognizable, carrying with them an aura of prestige and luxury unlike any other bag.

Grace Kelly covering her pregnancy with an Herm�s bag

Video: The Herm�s Saddle Stitch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fHYcnrSie8v

The past year, 2010, was a very profitable year for Herm�s which explains LVMH�s interest in purchasing part of Herm�s� stock. By December 2010, LVMH had purchased 20.2% of Herm�s� shares, which triggered a very negative reaction from the company�s CEO Patrick Thomas, and all the Herm�s family heirs. Threatened by the differences between Bernard Arnault�s vision and business perspective and Herm�s� traditional and exclusive views, Herm�s decided to apply to the Board of the Autorit� des March�s Financiers (AMF) in order to create a holding company with 51% of Herm�s� family shares. In January 2011, the AMF ruled in favor of Herm�s� petition, and therefore protected the legacy and tradition of the French company Herm�s.

Herm�s ad video "La Vie Comme une Conte" Automne/Hiver 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqwLITEp_vo

PPR Gucci Group Case Study

2011-03-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

By Sophie Cheung

The PPR Gucci Group, formerly known as Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, was founded in 1963 by Francois Pinault. Currently, the company is run by his son, Francois-Henri Pinault and specializes in the design, manufacture, and marketing of luxury goods. The Luxury group brands of PPR include:Gucci

Bottega Veneta
Yves Saint Laurent
Balenciaga
Alexander McQueen
Boucheron
Sergio Rossi
Stella McCartney
Puma (subsidiary brand)

The company's power comes not only from its control over the creme de la crop of luxury brands, which has enabled it to dictate style to the upper echelons of society and the masses, but also from the company wealth and influential power of the Pinault family.

A keyword search on sites such as Business of Fash ion and The New York Times shows PPR as having one of the foremost number of related articles with LVMH as a close industry rival. The search results for PPR are well up into the thousands, which show industry power as media attention circulates around those that are deemed important enough to receive it. More than that though, the Pinault family also owns a significantly influential sector of the French Media through the family owned company Groupe Art�mis.

The Pinault family also owns the world's most renowned art collection and Francois Pinault was awarded the most influential person in contemporary art for two years straight in 2006

and 2007 respectfully. Additionally, the family also owns the prestigious Palazzo Grassi--a modern art museum in Venice in as well as the world's leading art auction house Christie's. Their power and influence thus extends beyond fashion as their control over the art world lends them the ability to dictate creativity and aesthetics in general.

Karl Lagerfeld�s Influence

2011-03-21T13:44:00.000-07:00

by Angela Ghang

Karl Lagerfeld is a celebrated renown couture designer who can bring style and shape to any design fitting a modern, classy and edgy look with eccentric colors. Born in 1938, one year before Coco Chanel retired from the Fashion House of Chanel, they say he was destined to take over the empire of Chanel. At a young age Lagerfeld moved to Paris and worked as a draftsman sketching costumes. In 1955 he won 1st place at the International Wool Association, where many designers and couture house took note of Lagerfelds design and style. In the 60s he worked close with the House of Fendi designing fur coats and in the 70s worked with the Fashion House of Chloe creating feminine and classic pieces along with perfume, "Chloe by Karl Lagerfeld" which became an instant hit worldwide.

In 1978 he started to design at Chanel and quickly became the Creative Design Director of Chanel in 1983. He made it a big responsibility to transform Chanel into something extraordinary. He changes it into an elite status, adding glamour and sex appeal. While being the Creative Director of Chanel he simultaneously worked with Fendi and Chole while launching his own line Karl Lagerfeld.

At Chanel he brought to life the traditional box jacket with denim mini skirts in 1991, combining club-influenced black fishnet bodystockings with the traditional Chanel camellia placed cheekily over the breasts and matching hefty lace-up boots with flowing georgette skirts and leather jackets. By 1997, Vogue had crowned him the "unparalleled interpreter of the mood of the moment".

Chanel 1988 Fashion Show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjf1QOcW4oY&feature=related

Karl Lagerfeld is an established photographer never leaving his home without a camera. He shoots Chanel�s advertising campaigns every season along with fashion magazine editorials that are highly praised and respected.

"In November 2004, selected H&M stores offered an exclusive collection by fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. It was the first H&M collaboration experience. Lagerfeld created a collection of around 30 pieces including men�s and women�s lines, accessories and a frangrance Liquid Karl. The press reported large crowds the one-off capsule collection sold out within minutes in many of the chain�s stores during its Nov. 12 launch." (from http://fashioncollector.net/why-wearing-hm-is-prestigious/)

The 'Lagerfeld for H&M' collection is distinctly Lagerfeld's signature: modern, elegant and flattering. There were slim silhouettes in black and white with accent colors of brick red and plum. Razor sharp tailored pieces of fine wool, a slim cut classic coat, starch-fresh cotton shirts and narrow knits that flatter everyone. (from http://www.hm.com/ae/investorrelations/pressreleases/__prfashion.nhtml?pressreleaseid=342)

This collaboration influenced many other designer such as Stella McCartney, Victor and Rolf, Roberto Cavalli, Madonna, Commes des Garcons, Matthew Williamson, Jimmy Choo, Sonia Rykiel, and Lanvin to create a lower brand for the general public getting their brand out to a wider audience. Lagerfeld sets the trend for new collaborations and ideas that transcend to many other designers. He influences there minds and the industry to take a different direction, not always following traditional forms to become successful.

"On the Marked Change in Fashion Photography" by Olivier Zahm

2011-03-16T03:17:00.000-07:00

by Justina Lee

�On the Marked Change in Fashion Photography� originally appeared in �Chic Clicks: Creativity and Commerce in Contemporary Fashion Photography�, a book published in 2002 featuring a collection of photographs from top fashion photographers. The author is Olivier Zahm, the founder and owner of French culture and fashion magazine Purple. The article sheds light on his ambition as the editor of the bold biannual magazine.

Partly analytical and partly argumentative, the article begins by considering the position of fashion photography in today�s cultural sphere. Zahm believes that it is now considered a cultural value in its own right. At the same time, it is also a confused genre as most fashion photographs are commissioned and thus commercial.

Zahm then laments the �vampirism of commercial fashion photography�. He argues that fashion photography has no actual physical referent. It advertises the ideal yet desubjectified body of the model and becomes the combination of advertising and pornography.

What can be done to save fashion photography? Zahm seeks fashion photographers who are exceptions, who �are capable of breaking the commercial rules of the fashion photo�. He believes that fashion photography should not simply be a glamorous, integrated spectacle, but rather, a medium dedicated to life, to experience and to the fragile human body.

Borrowing from the French philosopher Mehdi Belhaj Kacem, Zahm uses the term �vampirism� to describe fashion photography which ruthlessly absorbs �all possible territories of reference�. The result is the degradation of a genre with the potential to celebrate existence. Displaying an idealized, unrealistic existence that fuses countless references, fashion photography is marked by �desubjectification� � it does not represent a communicable, specific subject. Again borrowing from Kacem, Zahm argues that fashion photography should be �bio-aesthetic�: in a world dominated by artificial non-experience, all experience becomes a form of creation, an aesthetic work.

Nine years on, Zahm�s article still reflects the state of fashion photography today. Publications commended by Zahm � Dazed & Confused, i-D, Purple � are still exceptions to the rule. Perhaps another question worth pondering � which Zahm does not answer in his article � is whether fashion photography, almost inherently commercial, can ever be better than itself. Does the responsibility fall into the hands of fashion photographers and editors? Or do the standards of fashion photography merely reflect those of our consumerist, superficial society?

Zahm praises Anders Edstrom for his "simple, affectless images" (Above: an editorial from Purple)

Banu Cennetoglu's fashion photography makes full use of the landscape and the architecture.

Zahm commends Mark Borthwick for shooting models in poses that demonstrate "a real presence of the individual being photographed".

Attack on Louis Vuitton

2011-03-16T00:01:00.000-07:00

In 2007, Nadia Plesner began making her work about Darfur, with proceeds benefitting the struggle. The depiction of a Louis Vuitton type bag in one shocking image resulted in a lawsuit for copyright infringement. Plesner then created a foundation to increase awareness of issues but this year the hacker group Anonymous has decided to use this incident to leverage a full targeted attack on Louis Vuitton, both online and in society at large, see more here.

Fashion Industry Powers

2011-03-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

�The thing is, we are a business world where, especially today, with the Internet, one has to be more careful than ever, especially if you are a publicly known person. You cannot go in the street and be drunk � there are things you cannot do... I�m furious with him because of the harm he did to LVMH and [chairman and ceo] Bernard Arnault, who is a friend, and who supported him more than he supported any other designer in his group, because Dior is his favorite label. It�s as if he had his child hurt." -Karl Lagerfeld on Galliano�s Exit. Below designer Riccardo Tisci of Givenchy will take Galliano's place at Dior.

Fashion Industry Powers include a variety of different positions that all aim to control the actual fashion product and its values: Designers, Corporate Owners, Producers (suppliers, workers, factory owners), Publishers (press & publicity), Advertisers, Photographers, Stylists, Models, Buyers, Clients.

The negotiation of values is not a game, it's a business. The transference of meaning from the world and lived associations is accompanied by imposed meaning (from designers, corporations, publishing) and reformed meaning (subcultures, style). This negotiation is on going and especially part of the seasonal fashion weeks.

The judging portion of Project Runway sizes up the construction of the garment and also gauges if the design communicates the values intended by the designer. Below the piece at right was intended to be a cocoon but was rejected by the judges.

The press proclaim the value in the various collections. Below Suzy Menkes is the world's most powerful fashion reporter, regularly covering the Paris shows for IHT she has written nearly 2 million words on fashion. Now bloggers have joined the conversation of mediating the value each season.

Within the magazines and websites the negotiation of values takes place in story like editorials that create specific associations for designs.

In the industry of fashion, organizations and trade shows also try to control meaning across all designers. Below Premiere Vision and trend reporting Promostyl give seasonal names to color and fabric values.

The power of fashion in the economy is connected to the vitality of major urban centers. New York, London, Paris and Milan and considered the capitals of the fashion industry. Gilbert suggests that fashion was originally seen as a mark of prestige for these cities, along with arts and architecture.

Above fashion industry powers are the focus of the site Business of Fashion. Some compare fashion to the stock market with the rise and fall of values. Below Louis Vuitton and the CEO of LVMH Bernard Arnault with his art work. See more at Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton.

As fashion design is increasingly global, the designers not only negotiate values but differences in consumers. Below the chart reveals that designers must change fashion for each market, which sometimes is only in size but may also be in types of garments and preferences. Some argue the power of the consumer is just as strong as the other powers in fashion because everything depends on consumption.

Finally licensing can be a mis-use of power. Pierre Cardin licensed his name over 800 times. The result was the brand, and ultimately his name and integrity as a designer became worthless. Armani has stated limitations to licensing but allows, like many designers, a lower priced label baring his name.

Katy Chapman: Inside Design: A Look at the Method Behind the Madness

2011-03-15T03:14:00.000-07:00

**NOTE: THIS READING IS OPTIONAL**

by: Shireen Cohen

In the article "Inside Design: A Look at the Method Behind the Madness", Katy Chapman depicts the typical process as to how fashion designers get from sketches to production. At the beginning of the sketching process, designers turn to a number of different outlets for inspiration, ranging from trend forecasting services, television and movies, cultural events and art galleries. Once the trends have been decided upon, the designer tries to pull it all together to create a harmonious seasonal line. Designers create storyboards and use sample garments when presenting their ideas to the design team and sometimes management.

Sample storyboard

Color chips are then sent out to dyers, while artwork is created for any surface detail for the possible pieces in the collection. Upon approval, designs are sent to factories and mills for sampling and production. Mills do their best to interpret the look the designers requested but sometimes fall short and need to do revisions and reworks. Chapman states the main problem in the designer's refusal of the mill's work stems from the miscommunication that occurs due to differences in jargon. Chapman further stresses the need for education in designer in textiles and the mill's work so that the dialog could be more productive and beneficial for both the designer and the mill workers.

Business Sense

2011-03-15T03:09:00.000-07:00

by: Shireen Cohen

In his article �Business Sense: It Takes a Lot More than Individual Flair to Stay at the Top�, John Andrew discusses the importance of management in the success, and essentially the survival, of a fashion line. The article begins by saying fashion history is embedded with talented designers who failed to have the necessary business savvy to succeed. Examples include American designer Isaac Mizrahi and British designer Zandra Rhodes.

Zandra Rhodes

image via The Guardian UK

Isaac Mizrahi

image via Getty Images

One major component of the success of a fashion line is the foundation between the fashion designer and the manager. Most fashion designers dream of establishing their own lines, and working for an already established fashion house might seem off-track for them despite the fact that it would be what�s best for their career. As a solution, the author suggests allowing designers to have the best of both worlds by having them design for the established house and giving them the freedom to pursue their own brand. If a designer in successful in his interpretation of the design house�s aesthetics, the management will have to buy his loyalty, promising him shares in the profit.

The article continues to discuss Bernard Arnault, chairman and controlling owner of fashion and luxury goods group LVMH, and his management and business style. Mr. Arnault believes in a �big eggs many basket approach�, which means that the portfolio of the LVMH group is somewhat diversified in different goods. The purpose of doing so is to mitigate the wrinkle-effect from happening. With the diversification of industries, not all parts of the company will be effected in the same way and could balance each other out.

Bernard Arnault

image via The Wall Street Journal

A big part of successful luxury goods groups, including Richemont group and Gucci Group, is the maintenance of �brand integrity�, which is the good will or the �indefinable auro that convinces a consumer to pay a lot of money for something he or more likely she, could buy much more cheaply elsewhere.� As an effort to keep brand integrity in place, luxury groups are emphasizing exclusivity, efforts to limit counterfeiting, control of distribution, limiting licenses, and direct selling through flagship stores.

American Hip Hop Style 1970-1980

2011-03-15T02:45:00.000-07:00

by: Shireen Cohen

Hip-hop music has, since its birth and maturation, always been the voice identifying and tying the African American community to social issues and values of its time. Hip-hop artists have continually used their clothing and style as a form of expression complementing the messages behind their music. Hip-hop artists used fashion as a cultural didactic to express their thoughts on nationality, social value and region.

Hip-hop first began to pick up among the mainstream audiences in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with artists such as Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five and Afrika Bambaataa experiencing major success at the time. These artists tended to dress in flashy attire, wearing tight leather, chest-bearing shirts and gloves as part of the rock and disco elements found in their music.

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five

Later on, Run DMC is credited for changing the identity of hip-hop by moving towards a new look. The fashion of the time represented this sort of low-key community. As an expression of neo-black power, artists rejected high fashion institutes and stuck to designers and labels people in the community were wearing, such as Adidas and Kangol. Typically, hip-hop artists of the time wore tracksuits, bomber jackets, large glasses, Kangol bucket hats and shelltoe sneakers with oversized laces or no laces at all.

Run DMC

Most importantly, heavy gold jewelry was predominant. The heavy gold jewelry was the artist�s way to show off wealth and prosperity. Gold jewelry as a means of expression of affluence has been dated to historic African roots. According to hip-hop artist Schoolly D, wearing gold �is not something that was born in America. This goes back to Africa. The gold chains are basically for warriors. The artists in the rap field are battling. We're the head warrior. We got to stand up and say we're winning battles, and this is how we're doing it." Artists such as Kurtis Blow, Big Daddy Kane and Slick Rick aided in popularizing heavy gold chains while female artists Salt-N-Pepa helped in popularizing the gold �door knocker earrings� common among African women at the time. The progression of the big, bold jewelry in recent years has become the �bling�, the �ice� or the �diamonds� rappers have been wearing. Recent jewelry in the hip hop world has come to include diamonds in its �the bigger the better motto.� Although the gold jewelry was intended to be a form of empowerment for these artists, it has become, in reality, a fundamental backlash against its purpose. The documentary Bling: A Planet Rock, produced by VH1 Rock Docs, Article 19 Films and the United Nations Development Program examines the relationship between rappers� �bling� and conflict diamonds. The documentary points to the rap industry ignorance in being conscious consumers when buying jewelry. Having purchased conflict diamonds, rappers are, in essence, depowering the African roots they thought they were empowering.

Slick Rick

Big Daddy Kane

In the late 1980s, with black civil rights successes, the focus of hip-hop changed, bringing about a new system of social values to one of living the high life. Rap lyrics echoed this notion of affluence and all the pretty, nice things money could buy. With the change in music and lyrics came the change in hip-hop fashion. The ghetto-based movement was no longer relevant. With tremendous influence from the 1983 remake of Scarface, figures of the hip-hop community began embracing a Mafioso image, trying to attain the finer things in life. Artists like Big Daddy Kane were trying to bring a new image, one of more power and respect to the face of hip hop by adopting this �Afro-nouveau riche� look. Artists began to wear fur coats, pointed alligator skin shoes, leather hats and suits.

In terms of high fashion, hip-hop has had influence on primarily two important designers- Karl Lagerfeld and Isaac Mizrahi. Both Lagerfeld and Mizrahi, who are respected and prestigious designers, looked for cues from and were influenced by hip-hop fashion elements. For the Chanel Fall/Winter Ready-to-Wear line, Karl Lagerfeld had embraced the hip-hop style of the big, heavy gold jewelry. Some models were dressed in black leather jackets with an abundance of gold chains. Others were dressed in long dresses with heavy padlocked silver chains, similar to the one worn by Treach of Naughty by Nature. Isaac Mizrahi came in direct contact with the trend by his elevator operator, who, at the moment, was sporting the typical heavy gold chain that was central to hip hop fashion at the time. In his show the following season, models were featured wearing black catsuits with big gold chains, nameplates and black bomber jackets.

Case Study on the Bobo Subculture and the Power They Achieve Through Fashion.

2011-03-14T21:27:00.000-07:00

By Nicolle D'Onofrio

Bobos utilize typical subcultural fashion codes to unite and differentiate themselves from other subcultures. Their name, an abbreviation standing for Bourgeois Bohemian, indicates the various contradictions of the subculture. The �Bourgeoise� indicates the comfortably raised, well-educated, affluence of this subculture while the �Bohemian� points to the aforementioned subsistent artisan ideals.

Link to Video description of Bobo Fashion by France 24: Here

Similar to many subcultures, Bobo fashion, as a fashion genre, is �esoteric--something of a private code, a badge of identity even, among small urban cliques� (Sontag, 2). Two significant modes of fashion that are typically Bobo is bricolage included in a varying vintage fashion, and nationalistic pride displayed by wearing authentic French Berets. Popular french store colette offers an abundance of Bobo fashion, satisfying their need for exchange within �a real network�, whether it be an exchange of physical clothing, new trends, or even stylistic inspiration (Hebdige 154). These trends are all significant in creating what is authentic Bobo, creating a level of status through this authenticity.

Colette website featuring a variety of Bobo blogs and links.

Bobos are actively defining their culture, particularily as it relates to their fashion codes, by avidly mediating their cultural definitions. Blogs and Websites such as SayWho.fr allow Bobos to become their own fashion authority figures, transforming their perceived status to true influential power. Because Bobo Fashion is clearly aligned with their Bourgeoise-Bohemian ideals, the adoption of Bobo trends may also signify the shifting of normal codes that usually align citizens to either leftist artists, or conservative and affluent professionals.

Bobo Images taken from SayWho.fr

Fashion & Power & Subculture

2011-03-01T10:30:00.000-08:00

The crucial question has to do with specific ideologies, representing the interests of which specific groups and classes will prevail at any given moment...we must first consider how power is distributed in our society...must ask which groups and classes have how much say in defining, ordering, and classifying the social world...some groups have more say, more opportunity to make the rules, to organize meaning, while others are less favourably placed and have less power to produce and impose their definitions of the world on the world.

Dick Hebdige, Subculture: the Meaning of Style, 1979

As discussed last week, our personal identity intersects with power, our legitimate influence, and fashion, the available objects for adornment. While gender identity is normally consider biological and apparent, subcultural identity can be a much more subtle set of codes. Culture is shared values and subculture is more specific interests and intangible values that are variable in style expression and interpretation. Someone�s subculture may not be instantly recognizable.

Who determines the dominant culture? The readings for this week discuss the ruling powers of influence in the fashion industry, which consequently create the mass culture of consumerism. Above Diana Vreeland who directed Harper's Bazaar, Vogue and the costume collection at the Met. Below, Jacqueline de Ribes, aristocratic fashion designer from Paris came to support YSL's show curated by Vreeland. See the Vanity Fair profile here.

The shift in American mass culture in the 1980's was toward wealth values represented in Reaganomics above and early Ralph Lauren catalog images from Bloomingdales.

Mass culture is associated with the establishment and ruling class while subcultures are often associated with youth and music. Music genres attract particular people who share common styles such as punks, mod, glam and emo. There are however style subcultures like preppy or hipster. Importantly most passive style groups are simply subcultures, but when the subculture willfully seeks to oppose to ruling power they are deemed counterculture. Subcultures can manipulate existing mass culture forms while countercultures often create new different forms.

London experienced a wave of subcultural style in the 1970's. The Sex Pistols helped lead the rebellious aesthetic.

Dick Hebdige describes that mass culture and subculture negate each other. Mass culture frames the punk as a delinquent, continually showing them in media as opposed to order while the punks take images of authority and distort them, entering them into the chaos.

The punks seized adornment forms from the ruling class such as the tartan plaid below, the infant's diaper safety pin and manipulated their presentation as in the jacket below.

Above both the conservative fashion forms and the more punk style are cut from the same cloth. In this way they share the same culture and are simply two expressions or subcultures, even though the conservative style of the ruling class normalizes itself as the authority of the cloth.

An editorial in Cosmopolitan in 1977 explained "To shock is chic," and punk was then considered dead. Above the Zandra Rhodes clothing with safety pins featured in the editorial. The debate is if punk lost or succeeded in influence. Below Vivienne Westwood when she first began and still going in 2009.

Below, fashion demonstrates a free use of the proper by appropriating the formal tartan cloth and simply playing with it in many forms.

Mass culture is associated with the values of the ruling class, which suppresses subcultures and minorities. Importantly, ethnicity is shared heritage and language, which is culture, but if the group is a minority then it may function as a subculture. Some ethnicity groups are distinguished by style and there are also particular movements that use ethnicity as a part of their subcultural style expression as in the Black Panthers below.

The zoot suit was part of riots in Los Angeles in 1943 above. It was associated with both Mexican American sand African American subcultures represented below in the film Malcom X from 1992.

The suit can serve as a style of empowerment to minorities or oppressed groups. In an interesting twist in Zaire, when colonial rule was overturned, Western values were outlawed such as Christian names and the suit. Young musicians reclaimed the suit as empowerment. Read more here.

Within fashion itself there have also been waves of subcultural transformation. In the late 70's and early 80's the Japanese designers arrived in Paris, with a different aesthetic value set. They shared a similar avant garde interest with monochromatic, asymmetrical, baggy looks. Below Issey Miyake in 1971 and 1984.

Kenzo, Yamamoto, Kawakubo

Hanae Mori 2001 & 2004 joined the Parisian couture designers

Fashion & Subculture: The Japanese Revolution in Paris Fashion

2011-02-28T22:34:00.000-08:00

By Jennifer Liu

In her article, "The Japanese Revolution in Paris Fashion," Yuniya Kawamura focuses on the occupation of designer as the focal point of the fashion system, under the argument that France offers the model of the fashion system that legitimizes designers on a worldwide platform. The author analyzes the entry of Japanese designers into the French fashion system from 1970 to 2003. She discusses three different relationships that designers have with the system: a complete assimilation with the French system and style ("frenchification"), the exoticism of the avant-garde, and the infusion tradition japanese designs with haute couture.

Japanese Avant-Garde Fashion
Beginning of the 1980s was when a new generation of Japanese designers became key players in the Paris fashion scene. Issey Miyake (considered the founding father of avant-garde fashion), Rei Kawakubo, and Yohji Yamamoto, known as "The Big Three," brought in a new style that Europe hadn't seen before. The style was characterized by monochromatic, asymmetrical, and baggy looks that set the stage for the beginning of postmodern interpretation of "clothes that break the boundary between the West and the East, fashion and anti-fashion, and modern and anti-modern." The three designers had already started careers in fashion in Japan but only after their planned entry into the French fashion system were they well known by the fashion world outside of Japan.

The author, Kawamura, gives the history behind the emergence of the three designers and explains how their emergence in the French fashion system was more powerful and gave such an enormous impact to the French because they had all come out at around the same time. She also points out that establishing a presence in France, opening a store in Paris, and being able to have a label that reads "Made in France," contributed to put these designers firmly on the fashion industry's map.

Acceptance by the French System
Unlike the works of Kenzo, who more or less completely assimilated his designs to fit that of the French fashion style, this new Japanese avant-garde style stretched the boundaries of fashion, destroying previous definitions of clothing and fashion, and the clothes have even been accused of attempting to destroy the concept of fashion itself by being challenging to wear. However, the Japanese designers were considered artists rather than just designers. They worked with painters, sculptors, opera, theatre, photographers, and through their social contracts in the prestigious art world, the mutual influence contributed to an increase in the status of the fashion designer (a tactic that had developed in the fashion world in Paris after WWI).The Japanese designers have benefited from the idea that designers are image-makers and their images are carefully crafted like an artists work, seeing that being regarded as artists helped them become a part of the french fashion system.
The author goes on to state that being approved in the French fashion system helps gain international respect and recognition more so than had they stayed in the fashion world of Japan.

Hanae Mori: The Ultimate Designer Status in Paris
Hanae Mori is the first and only Asian couturier in the history of French Haute Couture. Her style however, is far from avant-garde. She did not make as big an impact on the world of fashion in the same sense that The Big Three have, but she provides impeccable dressmaking and tailoring techniques to her clothing and through her fame, was probably the first person to create an occupation called "a designer" in Japan. As the only non-western haute couture designer, she did infuse Japanese high culture and style and applied them to Western aesthetics. Unlike the avant-garde designers, Mori plays out her role as a Japanese couturiere by applying Japanese cultural heritage in French fashion and therefore legitimating it as a high fashion taste to the rest of the fashion world.

These Japanese designers took advantage of the changes in the structures of fashion institutions and the French system of fashion to incorporate themselves within it, make an impact, and become internationally recognized. Sometimes the presence of the Japanese designers in Paris, especially with the new avant-garde fashion, appeared to be destroying the traditional senses of fashion, but they have actually reinforced the French supremacy and power fashion. Kawamura writes that "participating in French fashion earned [the Japanese designers] the social, economic and symbolic capital that they are able to differentiate themselves from other Japanese designers without these resources."

References:
Kawamura, Yuniya. "The Japanese Revolution in Paris Fashion." Fashion Theory, Volume 8, Issue 2. May 2004. Print.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/features/future-beauty--30-years-of-japanese-fashion-2099190.html
http://coolechicstylefashion.blogspot.com/2009/03/yohji-yamamoto-fall-2009.html
http://www.style.com/fashionshows/review/F2009RTW-CMMEGRNS/
http://www.coordonnable.fr/collections.html
http://www.elcoolhunteraccidental.com/2011/02/ikian-diseno-japones-con-charme.html

Subculture: The Unnatural Break

2011-02-28T18:40:00.000-08:00

by Rebecca Ann Wong

In his article �Subculture: The Unnatural Break�, Dick Hebdige addresses how the post-war British youth subcultures (which he defines as spectacular subcultures) disturbed and challenged orderly social systems, making them �unnatural� (153).

Hebdige uses the example of punk to outline his theories, and in particular, he addresses the Sex Pistols as the band that brought the punk subculture towards the public eye. It just so happened that one of their television appearances coincided with the time in which the punk style was in its beginning stages of being discovered by the media.

Hebdige then goes on to discuss how society attempts to accommodate these subcultures through two different forms of incorporation: the commodity form and the ideological form. Hebdige describes these forms of incorporations as a mode of �recuperation� (154) that society takes on, since subcultures are seen as movements deviating from the norm, creating �a wave of hysteria�(153) and thereby testing the order and structure of society in this way.

Hebdige defines the first form of incorporation, the commodity form, to be the occurrence in which society attempts to convert the attributes of a certain subculture into something less exclusive. This is done by taking the style, trends, dress, music etc of the subcultures and popularizing them so that the subcultures lose their exclusivity. the main force behind this marketing of subcultures as a form of merchandise is the media and as a result, the aspects that once rendered each subculture unique gradually become mass-produced commodities made available to all.

The second form that society uses to incorporate subcultures into the bigger picture is deemed by Hebdige to be the ideological form. Here, he brings in the concept of �the Other� and addresses how the media can both draw excessive attention to subcultures, as well as downplay and diminish interest in them. In order to explain this, Hebdige considers two strategies that have developed so that the threats posed by subcultures are removed. The first of the strategies adopts the thinking that �the difference is simply denied� (155). This means that the subculture is �trivialized, naturalized and domesticated� (155) and �the Other� as a whole is removed from the picture. On the otherhand, the other strategy (known as meaningless exotica) results in the subculture becoming less relevant and simply less intriguing and curious for the public. As a result, there is a shrinking disparity between the subcultures and mainstream culture.

Indeed, subcultures are akin to �noises� (152) as Hebdige describes due to their ability to disrupt society's structured order and engage the attention of the masses.

References:
Hebdige, Dick. "Subculture: The Unnatural Break". Subculture: The Meaning of Style. England: Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1987. 90-99. Print.
http://scatts.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/the_sex-pistols.jpg
http://files.myopera.com/lokutus_prime/blog/Goth%20Shop%20-%20Camden%20Town%20Market%20-%20London.jpg
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Education/Pix/pictures/2008/06/16/punks460.jpg