The simple art of love…
Concept Research and Implementation of Major Project Fashion Promotion and Imaging Amy Elizabeth Whitehouse Word count: 2,175
Figure One:
For my Concept Research and Implementation of my Major Project I have explored the myths within the wedding industry and the way in which these ideas are marketed towards us that ultimately shape the way we live our lives. Your wedding day is one of the biggest milestones in life; the way in which the industry markets this towards us makes us obsessed in obtaining this fairy tale ‘dream white wedding’. But why is this? This is what I have been looking into and the ways in which this milestone is preserved and remembered, drawing on ideas of memory. I started by looking into the history of these myths and ideas within the industry and compared them to the present day. Why we wear white, why we have something old, borrowed and blue. Where they originated from and how they have been marketed to us within society in the way in which we should act. I looked into the influence the media has on magnifying these ideas and found that initially it plays a huge part in creating trends in the industry and this idealistic image of the dream white wedding. I started by carrying out a focus group, made up of 5 females aged between 20 – 28 to challenge this idea and to discover what they thought about weddings today. These are some of the key points they highlighted: This then lead me to extend my research and carry out a questionnaire where 40 participants took part, to widen the ideas and thoughts we now have on the wedding today. From my questionnaire results I found out that 75% of the 18-‐25 year old female and male candidates have thought about their wedding day and a further 20% have thought about it at least once (See Figure One). I specifically targeted my questionnaire towards the younger market, as I wanted to see the opinions of fresh and modern young adults. The results displayed that the younger generation are thinking and maybe even contemplating marriage. The Office of National Statistics (2010) reported that
Figure Two:
“the highest number of marriages were for men and women aged 25 to 29”, displaying that rise of 1.7% of marriages since 2010 have grown in this age range. My questionnaire also explored candidate’s opinions and thoughts on their dream weddings and the influences they aspire too (See Figure Two). 85% of the candidates explained small intimate occasions for their dream wedding appose to the further 15% that described their perfect day to be a big fairytale affair. Are couples aiming towards more intimate ceremonies now? The strongest influence the candidates referred to were weddings that are seen in the media (See Figure Three). Celebrities and the way Film and TV portray weddings, seem to highly affect the way in which the younger generation think about weddings in this day in age. A statement to back up this idea was in Mintels Bridal Wear Report (2009) Figure Three: stating, “Celebrities are still Who are you influenced by? important, as they are icons”. Proving that the media is a very big influence Celebrity when it comes to magnifying this myth of these expensive dream Film/TV weddings. But has the industry always been like this, I decided to Social Media then look further in the way in which it has changed over time and the Books effect this has had on our perceptions Family/Friends of obtaining this unrealistic dream. One of the ways I did this was to ask Magazines the question in my questionnaire. With 98% of the candidates Unique to me answering Yes they feel the idea of 0 5 10 15 marriage has changed over time, this encouraged me further to look back
Figure Four: Marion & Claude Faulkner 1954
in time and see why marriage has changed and developed. This is when I stripped everything back and researched into the ways in which we find love, what makes us compatible, and the impact fate and time have on the narrative of our lives. I looked into the ways we remember these journeys and document them along the way. To explore this deeper and build a wider understanding of the way marriage has changed, I carried out interviews with my married relatives, young and old, to compare the two and see the ways in which times have changed for the good and the bad. From interviewing my grandparents I quickly realised that weddings 60 years ago were all about love and the sense of bringing everything and everyone together in order to make it possible. The day was intimate, personal and all about the couple. In the 1950’s a significant amount of couples got married young and stayed together. Marriage rates were high and divorce rates were low. According to the Office for National Statistics (2011) there were on average 370,00 marriages in the 1950’s in England and Wales. Which is a lot compared to in 2011 there was on average 230,00 marriages and 110,00 of these ended in divorce. Many different factors played a part in the reason for this dramatic change including the rise of peoples wedding budgets, media influence, the Divorce Reform act in 1969 and the Civil Partnership act that was introduced into the industry in 2005. My Nan and granddads wedding only cost £300 and took them 3 weeks to plan, weddings were truly about love and nothing else (see Figure Four). I created case studies on these weddings and then went on to explore what couples remember about their wedding days, I asked 20 couples that I knew and that I didn’t, to fill out a series of questions to see what they remembered. From the findings I discovered that Visual and Sensory memory are the most powerful when it comes to remembering the day and it really opened my eyes to what couples cherish. Here are a few examples of what the participants said:
Figure Five:
I wanted to explore into the importance of the preservation of items that act as a catalyst for memories to thrive. I visited The Memory Palace exhibition at V&A museum and was inspired by the way Hari Kunzru (the artist) depicted the way he stores his memories. “You merely go in your imagination to spot where you have sorted it. There it will be, waiting for you” (Kunzru, 2013: 9). He opened my eyes to the way in which we cherish memories from the past and especially from the milestones in life. I realised that the importance of marriage is lost in today’s influx of white frills, tiered cakes and array of beautiful flowers. These elements aren’t what we remember; it’s the love, excitement and joy of the day that we cherish. I want to be able to strip it back and for weddings to really be personal again. People’s perceptions and different definitions of love are beautiful, unique and personal to them. Why isn’t this reflected in the ways in which the wedding industry markets weddings? With the average wedding costing £21,000 couples are struggling to afford it, especially due to the effects of the recession. The wedding industry is never affected as much as other industries but it still means that couples budgets are going to be lower. This is one of the questions I asked in my questionnaire and my findings were clear that the 18-‐25 years old participants, I asked, could not and also would not spend that amount of money on the one day. 50% said that they wouldn’t spend the money and were shocked at how high the figure was. A further 20% said that they would rather save the money for a Would you spend £21,000 on your wedding deposit on a house and below 1% day? 2 participants said that they would save up to have a larger budget like that. No! Crazy Money This raises the question of do people want this fairytale big If I had Financial Security wedding anymore? Are people Rather Save it veering more towards the intimate style wedding? Yes According to Liene Stevens who is a speaker and expert on the intersection of business and consumer behavior for the
Figure Six: Figure Severn:
Figure Eight: Figure Nine:
wedding industry, “The three characteristics today's brides and grooms most value for their weddings are: fun (77%), meaningful (70.9%), and comfortable (52.9%)” and “68% of brides and grooms want to see more REAL weddings wedding planning advice on wedding blogs and in bridal magazines” (2011). Couples wedding ideas seem to have changed, they seem to be more interested in smaller, intimate weddings that are full of personality. This is where I saw a niche in the wedding industry, in the way in which they don’t cater towards a growing new audience. The young, modern couple how are simply in love, getting engaged and wanting to have a personal, intimate, stylish wedding but can’t due to the expense of it. There’s a niche in the industry to market towards both the bride and groom, instead of catering primarily to just the bride. I tested this theory by asking 2 of my 20-‐23 year old engaged friends and 2 of my 20-‐23 married friends: Laura & Ryan: Engaged June 20 13 Shell & Shane: Engaged September 2012 Vassia & Keir: Married June 2013 Mae & Kaue: Married July 2013
From asking my Engaged friends about this certified to me that there is indeed a problem in the industry and a niche in marketing towards these young in love couples that want to start their lives together. This is not an encouragement towards the younger generation getting married it is simply a way in which young love can thrive that encourages the notion of designing your wedding together on pressured budgets due to the recession. People may say that getting married at 20 is too young – you haven’t grown as a person, you haven’t fully developed what you want and desire in life. But with this thought it mind I ask you to take a few moments in think about the most successful marriages you can think of…. I bet you thought of your parents or grandparent’s generation where marriages stay strong and are based on the true foundations of love. Not saying today relationships aren’t but because of this constant push from the media to spend more and more amounts of money on a idealistic ‘dream white wedding’ the true meanings are being covered and lost. This is a way in which I can hopefully start to bring the industries main focus back to celebrating love instead of making it into a commercialised idea of how love should be. I will do this by creating a service that takes a fresh approach on wedding planning, that couples don’t need a sky-‐high budget for. A service where couples can get married in style that really shows their personality. I would offer other cost efficient, quirky, fresh and exciting approaches to planning a wedding that encourages the help of the couples family and friends. Approaches such as ‘Make Your Own Cake’ or ‘Make Your Own Stationary’ classes that are personal, fun and way in which the couple themselves and their loved ones can help with elements of their day. I will encourage collaborations with designers and the high street to create wedding dresses that are modern and fashion forward. That according to Mintel Bridal Wear Report (2009) is an expanding High Street bridal marketplace. I will create all the marketing for this and the ultimate wedding supplement that will be targeted towards the bride and the groom that are 18-‐25 modern, stylish and are looking for a way to simply celebrate their love and commitment for one another.
Bibliography…
Books: Kunzru, H (2013). Memory Palace. London: V&A Publishing. Reports: Mintel (2009) Bridalwear UK-‐ England [online]. Mintel Oxygen. [Accessed 20 November 2013]. Office of National Statistics. (2011) Marriages in England and Wales [online]. England [online]. [Accessed 9 October 2013]. Websites Stevens, L. (2011). Wedding Statistics and Facts. Available: http://www.thinksplendid.com/p/wedding-‐statistics-‐and-‐facts.html. Last accessed 29th Nov 2013. Images: Figure One – ‘Have you ever thought about your wedding day?’ results bar chart. From my Questionnaire ‘Dream Wedding’ Survey Monkey Figure Two – ‘Briefly explain your dream wedding day’ results & answers. From my Questionnaire ‘Dream Wedding’ Survey Monkey Figure Three -‐ ‘Who are you influenced by?’ results bar chart. From my Questionnaire ‘Dream wedding’ Survey Monkey Figure Four -‐ Faulkner, M. (1954). A photograph of Marion and her husband Claude on their wedding day. [Photograph] In Possession of: Marion Faulkner: Halesowen. Figure Five – ‘Would you spend £21,000 on your wedding day? Results pie chart. From my Questionnaire ‘Dream Wedding’ Survey Monkey] Figure Six – Green, L. (2013). A photograph of Laura and her fiancé Ryan. [Photograph] In Possession of: Laura Green: Halesowen. Figure Severn – Fowell, M. (2012). A photograph of Michelle and her fiancé Shane. [Photograph] In Possession of: Michelle Fowell: Stourport. Figure Eight – Simou, V. (2013). A photograph of Vassie and her husband Keir the day of their marriage. [Photograph] In Possession of: Vassie Simou: Islington. Figure Nine – Kuhn, M. (2013). A photograph of Mae and her husband Kaue. [Photograph] In Possession of: Mae Kuhn: Epsom.