The Myth of Street Style

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.

Read more »

Vogue

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.

Read more »

Japanese Street Fashion

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.

Read more »

What Happened to Fashion? : Teri Agins

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

Read more »

Case Study: Fashion and the Burqa Controversy in France

- 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.

Read more »

Johanna Blakley: Lessons from fashion's free culture

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

Read more »