Volume 4: The Industry Michaelmas 2013

Industry MICHAELMAS 2013

EDITORS Annabelle Clarke/ Nusa Bartol-Bibb

CREATIVE TEAM Anna Robinson/ Morgan Harries/ Laura Whitehouse

DEPUTY EDITOR Lucinda Toole

PHOTOGRAPHY Henry Sherman/ Matthew Diffey Rachel Sherlock/ Julia Sklar/ Matthew Robinson

SUB-EDITORS Aurelia Specker/ Phoebe Williams/ Alice Nutting WRITERS Arpita Ashok/ Charlotte Jackson Cherry Jackson/ Lucinda Toole Nusa Bartol-Bibb/ Eleanor Grange Aleksander Cvetkovic/ Matthew Robinson Phoebe Williams/ Annabelle Clarke/ Alice Nutting BUSINESS MANAGER Kalila Bolton BUSINESS TEAM Leonor Jennings/ Katherine Cowles/ Charles Graham/ Amrita Ahmed/ Morgan Harries

ILLUSTRATION Alexandra Pullen/ Gabriella Dyson PUBLISHED BY OXFORD STUDENT PUBLICATIONS LIMITED Chairman: Max Bossino Managing Director: Christina Maddock Finance Director: Jai Juneja Company secretary: Hugh Lindsey Directors: Polina Ivanova Stephanie Smith/ Anthony Collins/ Rebecca Choong Wilkins/ Jonny Adams

Front and back covers: Jewellery: Payne and Son. Cover image: Nusa Bartol-Bibb

INDUSTRY ISSUE 4

c on ten t s

5 ‘TIS THE SEASON Arpita Queen of Shops Trends The Fall Out The New Nude 19 DREAMING SPIRES Style Profile I Like to Ride my Bicycle 25 INSIDE THE INDUSTRY Rapanui Lisa Smosarski Denny Vildiridou 31 MENSWEAR The Gentleman’s Guide À la recherche de l’originalité perdue 39 BEAUTY A Taste of the Fall Beauty and the Businessmen Dressing Table Superheroes 46 COMMENT The Lolita Effect Appropriating Style

INDUSTRY ISSUE 4

‘tis the season

Image: BumbleandBumble

“Fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment.”

Alexander McQueen

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Arpita

QUEEN OF SHOPS

The winter coat is the ultimate sartorial staple this season. Whether you are fresh off your first shot or careering towards finals, here is a guide to investing in the perfect piece!

FIRST YEARS: Nothing exudes style quite like a decent winter coat. It must be chosen with patience and care, neither of which you are likely possess once fifth week kicks in, the hangovers get worse, the tutors less forgiving and, oh yes! - it’s bloody cold and you actually need a coat before your exhausted and delirious body contemplates succumbing to frostbite just to see what it’s all about. The catwalk has decisively dubbed pink the palette of the season, with pastel cocoons cascading down the runways of Jonathan Saunders, Celine and Miu Miu. Subtle in hue and often teeming with texture, this is a difficult look to replicate on a student budget but it can be done. For all of its recent deterioration, Topshop, it seems, still knows a thing or two about wardrobe staples.

I recently invested in their ‘Fluffy Swing Boyfriend Coat’ in Pale Pink (£89).

You need only read the reviews on the website to convince yourself that it’s a good investment. The undoubtedly expert ‘Molzzz’ has dubbed this item, ‘AMAZING coat’ (capitals not even added), saying it was ‘the best thing I ever did’ and giving it 5 stars out of 5. Though I lack heady candour of Molzzz, I quite agree that this piece is well worth investing in. If pink is too sickly sweet for you, it is also available in white, but a word of warning: this is decidedly less on-trend and potentially more van-white than virginal-white.

I would steer clear.

FINALISTS: Do you really think the same plush, pink cocoon will do well in those rainy early hour library runs? Think again.

You vowed it would never happen, no matter how impending the deadline, how many degrees colder Oxford is (it makes all the difference, protest those aesthetic anaemics in their North Face anoraks). No matter how many times your valiant attempt to balance out the nunnery of your gown with a scandalously short skirt gave you genuine fear of arrest for indecent exposure on your wind-whipped cycle down to formal.

The time has come, my learned friends, to talk of other things. In with substance: out with style. Practicality is king.

Fortunately, the inclemency of Oxford weather is no match for the clemency of the fashion gods this season, who have blessed us with the mystical mix of practical and pretty. Patent is back. The fortuitously impermeable material that recently adorned Theresa May’s feet (and thighs, come to think of it) as she met the president of South Korea is this season’s unsuspected saviour. Richard Nicholl, Antipodium and Jonathan Saunders have glazed the catwalk in shiny creations. ASOS’s Patent Zip Detail Coat (£90) seems a healthy alternative to the pastel hues of younger days and will keep you warm and dry en route to the library. Freshers, you can keep your flu. In the words of the infinitely wise Sweet Brown, ain’t nobody got time for dat.

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Some words of wisdom for happy-hunting in Oxford: Freshers: By now it will have become abundantly clear to you that high-street forays will prove fruitless for the Oxonian with an iota of taste. The Clarendon Centre is as useless as it is ugly. Bargains abound; brilliance does not. Resist the temptation to give into the student budget and mass-buy Primark blouses, do the top button up and feign reinvention and/or style. Look a little harder and you will soon find treasure troves such as Ballroom, Unicorn and Reign; shops crammed with vintage vestiges of bygone, more stylish days. All sell coats in a variety of materials - tweed, wool, fur and even tartan, a material that has made its way onto many a catwalk this season (see Moschino, Jil Sander and Stella McCartney).

While you’re in one of these style havens, look out for key pieces such as one-off skirts (Reign in particular, has an abundant supply), cosy jumpers and unique party pieces which often turn out to beat high-street alternatives in terms of both style and value.

Better still, you never have to face that awkward moment in the Camera toilets where three of you are wearing the same French Connection dress. Curse you, Clarendon Centre. Curse you.

Fellow finalists: Now is really not the time to be rooting around Cowley looking for the perfect beaded jacket. Don’t get me wrong - far be it from me to suggest that there will ever be a time too serious, or an age too old, for jazzy evening wear. No, no! My simple suggestion is to move your searching online. Rokit has recently - and at long last -made their website more user friendly and the result is a now an easily navigable sea of swag. In fact this article has would have been written a lot quicker were their winter coat selection not so disastrously way-laying. A Ralph Lauren Checked Wool

Coat in perfect condition, for £60! I would say get it before it’s gone but I’ve probably already bought it by now.

ASOS marketplace is also replete with one-off vintage evening pieces that can make an outfit go from library to pub with one fell swoop of sequins. I am especially fond of Frock On’s resplendent blouses and jackets. The ineloquence of their description belies the sophistication of their selection - it definitely makes for worthwhile procrastination. ‘Every fashionista knows that her worst nightmare is being seen out in the same outfit as another girl’. Indeed, Frock On, indeed. Seeing as you are already on ASOS, embrace practicality once more replacing that black leather bucket bag with a soft and spacious rucksack. I’m not talking Germanexchange, Eastpak efficiency. Rather, delve into the wide and beautiful selection of backpacks ASOS provides, from leather to canvas, at very reasonable prices. If you feel like treating yourself, Ally Capellino has stylish rucksacks, but at around the £300 mark these should probably go on the Christmas list instead of the debit card. Having invested in a ‘mi’ backpack for around £20, I have personally felt that weight evenly distributed over my shoulders and never looked back*.

In short, invest now and watch your life and posture change for the better.

I wish you luck on your hunt for the perfect winter coat and on all of your shopping endeavors in Oxford. Oh, and what about the second years?

If you are still managing to get out of bed and dress yourself, you’ve won. Enjoy it while it lasts. Soon you’ll be the crazy finalist dropping items into their ASOS basket with shaking hands and gay abandon whilst the freshers receiving their library tour just behind you look on in horror. Yes, that actually happened.

Although, if I so wished, I could look back very easily, now that my back problems have been cured.

ARPITA ASHOK

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY RACHEL SHERLOCK MODELLED BY EMMA GABBOTT AND JESSICA MILES STYLING AND CONCEPT BY ANNABELLE CLARKE

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THE FALL OUT: do fashion and technology have a future?

Charlotte Jackson discusses the conf lict between what are, shamefully, two of the most important things in our lives...

LJR.MIKE

O

h such romantic beauty! As a parade of pastelshaded figures slip onto the catwalk at London Fashion Week, we witness the very silhouette of modernity. Cara, Jourdan, Edie et al smolder nonchalantly as an abundance of falling petals cascade from above, adorning their perfectly tousled hair. An English Rose personified, the array of lilac and lace offset enviable dewy complexions. Such emotive spectacle is transcendent, it works like poetry whispering us sweet nothings. “A thing of beauty is a joy forever” and all that.

So it is hard to comprehend that these images have been instantly captured, locked and indiscriminately transmitted throughout the globe. As fashion plays victim to a technological revolution, even the sheer beauty of Burberry’s visionary masterpiece faces threat from insidious technological forces. It’s no secret that fashion has become infinitely obsessed with all things technological. With the advent of Instagram, blogospheres and runway-to-reality, Fashion Week has grown from an elite industry event to global showcase. Many have been quick to laud this stratospheric rise and further embrace technology as a means of connecting with consumers worldwide.

However, whilst acknowledging these limitless economic and marketing opportunities, we must explore its negative impact and reveal the irreversible, unspoken damage. Finally we must question: can this once exclusive industry remain untainted at the public hands?

It was over a decade ago that Natalie Massenet, fashion entrepreneur and founder of net-a-porter, dared to dream. One “click” and a silky black-ribboned package later, a retail revolution ensues. Expectant purchasers watched in awe as her innovation singularly united the worlds of fashion and technology. But very few realised how that single pair of Manolos, in their ever-burgeoning basket, would transform the very face of fashion forever. For the first time shoppers could access a virtual

store of designer labels, fulfilling all their sartorial needs.

Massenet, the so- called doyenne of digital luxury, described the challenges she faced in bringing designer goods to an online market. Many couldn’t grasp the idea of purchasing expensive items of clothing without be able touch and try on, she laments “there was a lot of desperate hand-wringing, tears and pleading with brands... they’d listen and they’d nod and then afterwards they’d say: ‘Just tell me one more thing: where is your store?’” In spite of these initial qualms, a combination of exemplary customer service and retail innovation led to the company’s £50m sale in 2010. From this defining moment to the latest news that Burberry chiefexec, Angela Ahrendts, had been headhunted by Apple, fashion has become inextricably linked to technology.

Recently Burberry’s creative director, Christopher Bailey, acknowledged that “digital communications is an integral part of our culture at Burberry, so in the end it touches everybody”. I hear you aesthetes out there disputing whether high fashion is really something that should “touch everybody”. Whilst public events such as Fashion’s Night Out and London Fashion Week’s live broadcasts to underground commuters seemingly bring invaluable brand awareness, in reality they are devaluing an industry reliant on its aspirational status. In the long run, this diminishing lack of exclusivity could have detrimental effects to a company’s profit. The chavs’ monopolisation of the signature Burberry tartan should only serve as a warning. However, as some may argue that the notion of a £2,000 coat would put such designer brands safely out of the public’s reach, I must emphasise the accessible entry pricing of cosmetics and perfumes. The flamboyant fashion shows we swoon over are merely pomp and ceremony; it’s these products that form the commercial centre of each business, they are the moneymakers. From the revival of the supermodel, turning models into celebrities in their own right, to the overwhelming use of actresses in advertising campaigns we are

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Image: mirror

only widening a brand’s audience. The negative impact of Fashion Week’s extreme exposure has already set in, with a mass of unwanted consequences threatening the very foundations of the industry. Fashion publications such as Vogue are facing a period of extreme adjustment as the technological era challenges the authority and originality of their voice. We have seen a new breed of reporter, the bloggers, who have an instantaneous outlet for fashion musings. Most refreshing has been their ability to provide an honest critique, a rare thing in this industry. Additionally, the inception of runway-to-reality that enables consumers to purchase items directly from the catwalk, has redefined the role of the fashion editor. When many publications are reliant on hefty league times, only allowing them to report the new collections three months down the line, it seems their position in dictating trends has become obsolete. Attempts to embrace the technological wave have led to increasing numbers of electronic versions of magazines and an awareness of social media within their glossy pages.

Live streaming catwalk shows not only threatens the publishing industry but also the singular creativity of the designs themselves. Counterfeits and plagiarism have always proved a contentious issue, but the problems have been radically intensified by these much publicised unveilings. High street labels, namely Zara and H&M, have adopted a quick response model allowing them to manufacture quality knock-offs and have them ready for sale in double quick time. Eventually the process could result in loss of sales for designers and diminishing distinctions between high and low end fashions. This idea of blurred boundaries can be seen on a cultural level, as technology gives greater unity between the fashion capitals we are left with an assimilation of sartorial aesthetics.

The ethical issue of photographic manipulation is perhaps the most worrying use of technology in fashion.

Government opposition to such techniques has recently increased, resulting in rolling out a national campaign to raise awareness amongst teenagers.

Let’s face it, technology provides a panoply of exciting applications, it is the future. The word fashion itself implies modernity, a perpetual progression in trends. But we must consider ways in which we can protect the foundations of an industry so heavily dependent on its exclusivity. So can this thing of beauty really be a joy forever?

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the

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATTHEW DIFFEY MODELLED BY OPHELIA CAI AND IMOGEN TRUPHET STYLING AND CONCEPT BY AURELIA SPECKER

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dreaming

spires

Image: Chivchila

“I wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember, the place is so beautiful. One almost expects the people to sing instead of speaking.”

William Butler Yeats

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my Style profile ANNA, ST. PETER’S COLLEGE

THIS OUTFIT is a mix of high-street and charity clothes from all over the place. My shoes are from Schuh, the trousers from H&M, the shirt is from Myrnas – a cool secondhand superstore from Gothenburg - and the necklace is from a British Heart Foundation Shop. If I’d had more time today, I would have tried out something new. I like wearing different outfits.

I draw INSPIRATION from the 1980s and 1990s, magazines like An Other, Love and Clash. I love Winona Rider’s style and I flick through Tumblr to see what’s out there.

MY MOST PRIZED PIECE would either be my Doc Martens or my boiler suit. I don’t think I could live without them. I mean, clothes are important to my identity, which is weird since I don’t really have a coherent personal style but even so clothes are communication devices; they communicate who I am to people.

At this moment in time I HAVE MY EYE ON some pretty sweet heels with blue liquid and plastic goldfish in the platform. They sound tacky as hell, but they are truly amazing. Hopefully I’ll get them soon. That’s what the student loan is for, after all!”

ANNE, ST. PETER’S COLLEGE

THIS OUTFIT makes me feel good. The jeans fit just right – they’re Levi Curve ID – the jacket hugs my body in a classy way. You make the clothes. If they don’t fit, then you look silly and the clothes look bad. If they fit, you look great and the clothes do too.

I GO FOR SOLID COLOURS and I aim for a nice silhouette more than anything. I think the fabric has become more important to me now, not the style. I think being comfortable should matter more than looking trendy and edgy.

Don’t get me wrong; I still want to look good. To quote Coco Chanel “Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.”

WHO I BOUGHT MY CLOTHES WITH REMAINS EMBEDDED IN THE CLOTHES. This

scarf reminds me of the friend over in Germany who sent it to me. My red leather jacket reminds me of buying it this summer in Portobello with another friend. What never leaves your clothes is who you wear them for, times when you wore them and why you wear them. It’s like it’s stitched into the fabric.

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i want to ride my

Bicycle

Sadly, riding a bike - that inevitable aspect of Oxford life - does limit our choice in outfit. Sorry girls, no maxi skirts. It does not, however, follow that you have to look like you’re on a walking holiday in Cornwall every time you step out of the house. Choosing some of these stylish, safe and bike-friendly items will ensure you don’t have to compromise your style when you cycle.

the bike

Not all of us have the luxury of choosing which bike to bring to university (like many of us, mine is a secondhand cast-off ). Those of us who do might like to take a look at the Bobbin bicycle company, who bring you a beautiful range of feminine bikes in all different colours. With one of these vintage-style bikes, you will be the envy of the town.

the helmet

Yes, helmets look silly. Yes, helmets make your hair go crazy. No, that does not mean you shouldn’t wear one. Helmets are something of an essential when you’re facing double decker buses and confused parents picking up their children from the town centre on the Oxford roads. Bern make chic helmets in any colour from black to lilac. Keep your head safe, as well as your street-cred.

the basket

When cycling to and from lectures, a basket is your new best friend. You can easily go for a simple black wire basket, but where’s the fun in that? Cyclechic is a go-to for all things bike, and they have a beautiful range of baskets including white wicker front baskets, and laptop-carrying satchels for the back. Choose carefully, and make sure you hit both practical and fashionable.

the raincoat

It rains, it pours. There’s nothing worse than cycling to a tutorial, hungover, in the rain. It isn’t elegant, it isn’t comfortable and it isn’t funny. When such misfortune creeps up on you, come right back at it with a classic raincoat. Petit Bateau at Urban Outfitters offers the ultimate bright yellow raincoat to keep you nice and dry in the rainy season. If you aren’t quite ready for banana-yellow, try it in navy.

the cigarette trousers

It’s a sad day when you realise that skirts and bikes don’t get on too well. It can be done, but play it safe with a pair of cigarette trousers: no unintended flashes of thigh and no trouser bottoms caught in your gears. Topshop provides us with the perfect pair in a variety of pastel hues.

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g lit ter, GOLD & ruin All jewellery kindly provided by Payne and Son

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Photography: Henry Sherman Model: Gayathiri Kamalakanthan Jewellery: Payne and Son Concept and Styling: Nusa Bartol-Bibb

inside the industry ‘Very narrow areas of expertise can be very productive. Develop your own profile. Develop your own niche.’

Edgar Allen Poe

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A PORTRAIT OF Nusa Bartol-Bibb catches up with Lisa Smosarski, Editor in Chief of Stylist magazine

the stylist

L

isa Smosarski is the kind of woman that most of us would quite like to be. She oozes confidence but not, as you might expect from someone so successful, in a way that intimidates. She is startlingly glamorous, groomed to a T in a boxy checked coat and heeled ankle boots, and yet endearingly jocose.

At one point, when thinking back to the infancy of the world wide web, she does an impression of the dial-up tone (and it was really quite good). She isn’t shy to voice her disagreement but you’d describe her as candid, rather than hostile. A fascinating, if somewhat tricky, interviewee; she always knows what’s coming next and exactly how she’s going to handle it.

All in all, it’s not hard to see how she got onto the print-media fast track. Back in 1998, when Smosarski was finishing her journalism degree at London College of Printing, she imagined that her first few years as a graduate would be spent at trade magazines and local newspapers. But, clearly destined for greater things, she got a call the same day that she handed in her dissertation offering her the position of features writer at teen title Bliss.

It may not have been Vogue, but it was a national magazine and provided Lisa with an opportunity to cut her teeth as a writer and learn quickly.

By 2001 she was features editor at Bliss and after spending a year as entertainment editor at New Woman she became, at the tender age of 25, editor-in-chief at Smash Hits in 2002. It was a brilliant feather to have in her cap but Lisa makes it quite clear that being at the helm of Smash Hits was not easy. ‘Suddenly I was confronted with questions about budgets and with managing a whole team’.

Although fun and glamorous at times, the job was hard work and it was terribly daunting ‘knowing that

your final sign off meant that was it: it was on your head.’ But Lisa clearly rose to the challenges presented at Smash Hits, making virtues of the tricky positions that the magazine was forced into as the internet began to encroach on its traditional territory.

Having made a great success of her editorship, she was invited back to reinvigorate Bliss, this time as its editor-in-chief, and stayed for two years before stepping in to save the faltering fortnightly More in 2006.

It was while she was turning around More, helping the ‘old and terribly tired’ magazine to adapt to the brave new world of 21st century print journalism, that Smosarski discovered the newly released men’s magazine, Shortlist. ‘I was thinking that if they brought out a women’s version, I would have loved to be involved. Then one day I got a phone call saying, ‘we’re bringing out a women’s version of Shortlist, would you like to be involved?’ Yes, she said without hesitating, yes, she would. After what she describes as a really tough interview process, Lisa got the top job in the magazine. She experienced the most difficult three months of her career in the transition period between being offered the position at Stylist and being finally released by More, but the payoff of the move was pretty much instant.

‘From day one it was just a rip-roaring success.

On the day we launched, I got about 400 emails in my inbox, just being like, “this is utterly amazing – this is exactly what I’ve been looking for!”’

Such a warm reception is unsurprising, really, because as Lisa says herself ‘new is exciting’ and Stylist was something new in so many ways. Most obviously, it is one of very few ‘freemium’ publications – titles which are upmarket but distributed for free on citystreets, in stores like French Connection, in

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airports, and on the London underground. As far as Smosarski is concerned, Stylist’s advertisement-funded status has been vital not only to its success but to its survival. She hypothesises that print media have entered such a precarious space because magazines and newspapers represent a form of communication that you still have to pay for on a number of occasions. Unlike television or radio programmes, websites or apps, they are not available instantly and for free and this is why they so often lose out to other forms of communication. Established titles could still rely on a loyal readership to pay up but for a nascent magazine, Lisa believes, it would have been quite a different story. ‘If we had put a price on it, the magazine probably would have just disappeared amongst the other masses of magazines on the newsstand’.

can go towards making a fashion magazine, part of a discourse which seems so intertwined with consumerism and the capitalistic system behind it, truly ethically sound. When I put this to Lisa, she is surprised that I suspect fashion media of being inherently a bit problematic. ‘You are selling to people in a fashion magazine but then you’re always selling something. If you’re not selling a product, you’re selling an idea.’ As far as she is concerned, fashion journalism offers no more support to consumerist tendencies than any other business. But does it not, more explicitly, than any other form of discourse, encourage in its readers feelings of inadequacy and stemming from them an increased covetousness? Smosarski doesn’t think so. ‘Part of the appeal of the magazine is that it does give you a glimpse into a world that you might not otherwise have access to’ and besides, a good number of the products that Stylist endorses are within their readers’ grasp: ‘our style list at the front features products at very diverse price points.

Sometimes, pride of place on our style list is a cupcake for 50p.’

“We are never going to do diets. We Now that the magazine is so well are never going to established, with a readership of over a million, are there any plans to shift bitch about women. from freemium to straightforward We are never gopremium? Certainly not. ‘Everything we launch will be free. That’s part ing to patronise you.” of the ethos of the company, even if it’s quite an archaic concept - the notion of a free sheet funded by advertising.’ Even if it did not sit so uncomfortably with the principles of Shortlist Media, Smosarski believes that starting to charge for the magazine would be problematic.

‘It’s really hard, as News International has shown, to slap a price tag on something that has been free.’

Smosarski’s project distinguishes itself from those of corporations like News International and other publishing’s other big names not only commercially but in its intense concern for the ethics of its content. At More, Lisa had been determined to make the content less demeaning and patronising to its female readers. She took on the editorship ‘to, er, stop it being a sex handbook’. That determined commitment to her principles is something which has followed her to Stylist, where Lisa and her team are quite prescriptive on what they will and what they won’t publish. ‘As I said quite explicitly in my first letter, we are never going to do diets. We are never going to bitch about women. We are never going to patronise you.’ In lieu of unflattering paparazzi photos and infantalising drivel, Smosarski hoped to offer readers of Stylist content that set up positive relations between women all the while acknowledging their intelligence. ‘There were some really quite misogynistic texts circulating in print media and we wanted to get away from that...

We wanted [the magazine] to be thoughtful and challenging. We wanted to talk about fashion and beauty but also to inspire you in terms of politics and culture. But we wanted to be friendly at the same time.’

Impressed as I am by this mission statement, I can’t help but wonder whether there is only ever so far you

For those of us who harbour dreams of becoming the next Ms Smosarski, what advice can she give?

As far as Lisa is concerned, experience is ultimately more important than official qualifications. ‘We get so many applications when a position becomes available that we do have to cut out a lot of them somehow, so we’ll often only really look at people who have done an internship or else already have some writing experience – producing content for a student publication or else their own website or blog. You could have a first in whatever but it isn’t going to secure you a job. We are more interested in experience because we need someone to walk in and be able to slot in immediately and be familiar and comfortable in that zone.’ But while work experience is important, Smosarski stresses that you will only get as much out of it as you have put in. ‘Don’t waste your opportunities. I was doing one internship where I was getting paid about 50p but, without being too annoying, I made myself indispensible, I got a year under my belt and it paid off.’

How important is it , when so many fashion publications have become multi-platform, spending a lot of time and resources on online content, to boast technological expertise? . ‘I think there is a perception at the moment that if you want to make it in journalism you have to be duel skilled – you have to be able to work on both platforms’. But Lisa herself is not so sure. ‘Being able to press all the buttons? It’s still up for debate just how important that is. We’re all just looking for brilliant content people.’

‘Big ideas’, she smiles, her own glossy, grown up big idea staring up at me from a pair of capable hands, ‘are still the most important thing.’

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Ellie Grange interviews Rapanui’s

Rob Drake-Knight

“Environmentally-friendly clothing shouldn’t be the niche, but the norm!

So why is it that we can buy products on the high street that are not ethically made? It seems crazy.” This, in the words of Rob Drake-Knight, encapsulates the ethic of Rapanui, a fresh and innovative Eco-fashion brand. Rob is the cofounder of Rapanui which is designed to promote sustainable clothing that is on-trend and affordable. At 25, Rob, alongside his brother and business partner Martin (aged 27), already feature on the “Future 100 list of Top Young Entrepreneurs,” whilst Rapanui can be seen on the “Top 100 Start-ups list” of 2008.

Rapanui’s matchless ethos of sustainable and attractive fashion combined with a drive for transparency in production and environmental manufacturing means that they are a distinctive and modern brand. I spoke to Rob, who discusses his successful breakthrough into the fashion industry with a unique and stylish Eco-fashion brand, as well as the inspiration and the history behind the

prosperous venture Rapanui has become.

Rapanui all started when, after leaving university and returning to their home in the Isle of Wight, Rob and Martin Drake-Knight decided to seize control over their own career paths. Equipped between them with relevant experience in customer service assessment and sales analysis within the fashion industry, they were naturally drawn to setting up their own fashion brand. Making a name in the fashion world seems daunting, but Rob makes the pragmatics of starting a very niche business venture seem accessible whilst still very inventive.

Rapanui began with small steps which grew and developed into something much more impressive. The pair used their £200 savings to buy a box of t-shirts which were supplied locally. Rob explains how they then “mocked up a design, had it embroidered and then sold to friends and family.” With the profit they then “bought two boxes of t-shirts, built a website and then started moving onto organic products.”

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After making sure to spread the word about their new venture, they moved steadily onwards and upwards by “getting features in magazines and newspapers” followed by “an office, some staff, a shop, some more staff, and new products.” Things have clearly been snowballing ever since for Rapanui: winning numerous awards for its work towards improving the communication and sustainability of the fashion industry since being set up in 2008.

But where did this fresh vibe come from?

According to Rob, Martin’s degree in Renewable Energy Engineering inspired the pair to try to really “do something” to support sustainability. “Malthusian collapse, peak oil, the story of Easter Island, and the idea that we could use fashion to influence people in their wider lifestyle choices when it came to sustainability” are cited by Rob, who explains how he and his brother realised that they could utilise the power of fashion as a mechanism to encourage consumers to recognise the urgency of sustainability. “Just think about how many girls that dyed their hair red like Rihanna,” he elaborates. “We realised that fashion is everywhere and could be a useful vehicle to promote sustainability.”

Green clothing just isn’t credited as much as it deserves to be. “This isn’t because people don’t care about the products that they are buying, rather simply that they don’t know the facts about where they come from or how they are made.” Rapanui emphasises that clothing should be made using organic methods, using renewable energy and ethical labour. For Rob and the other members of Rapanui, it is also vital that consumers should be able to find out exactly where and how their clothing is made. They are pioneering new ways to amend the lack of transparency in the fashion industry. Rob states that this is effectively achieved at Rapanui via “interactive traceability maps” which shows the origin of every product made as well as an “eco label” which is a system that summarises the eco-friendliness of a product in a recognisable and simple A-G scale, similar to the EU energy rating system used on light bulbs and appliances. “Obviously it is in our interest to promote systems that show that our products are more ethical. But it really

has to come from regulation, so we’re working with UKMEPS and the EU to bring our eco label to the UK high street.”

In the fashion industry today, communication and transparency is essential.

Rob claims that if we knew the impact of the products that we see on the high street we would be able to make informed decisions about our purchases.

“I think this would mean that our buying behaviour would change.” In this way, more traceability and visibility would make a “massive difference.” According to Rob, one of Rapanui’s greatest successes is its communication initiatives, as “it’s important to show people where and how products are made.”

Thus, Rapanui stands apart in the fashion industry as a pioneer of transparent and environmentally friendly enterprise.

Rob is involved in the business management and PR for the brand as well as promoting the brand to magazines, blogs or selling to shops and online stores. He admits that the most challenging aspect of his work is managing the cash flow: “it sounds boring but you can severely damage the business by mismanaging the investment you make in stock or being too cautious; as the business grows and the cash reserves increase things get a little easier but the sums involved and therefore the risks gets bigger.” Rob even divulges some words of wisdom to any budding fashion entrepreneurs, putting emphasis on a clear USP and understanding the market. “Have a clear vision for what you want to do, and execute it! Just go for it!”

Rob and Martin realise the crucial importance of aiding sustainability in a world where issues such as the environment are often rejected and clarity in business is denied; Rapanui works in an obvious and practical way to really effect positive change. In the fashion industry forum they are making a stand for sustainability and conservation, something which does not get recognised nearly enough.

Let’s hope that other fashion brands will start to follow in their footsteps.

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DENNY VILDIRIDOU:

queen OF

diamonds

images: Nusa Bartol-Bibb

I’m continuing a tradition of jewellery designing that has been going for four generations. The particular thing that has interests me about jewellery, and what I try to express in my designs, is how it is essentially a small piece of art. I have two lines and with one line I use non-precious, palpably organic materials such as wood or metals in particularly unusual and interesting colours – rhodium plated and black metals, in combination with small black diamonds and semi precious stones or conch shells, that have interesting shapes. Then the second line that I have is really quite different. It uses elements of antique jewellery. I collect pieces that I find particularly interesting, for their historical significance as much as for their aesthetic value and then transform that little piece of history into something new. I am also very interested in social entrepreneurship. There are plans for the near future to use Greece’s rich heritage of goldsmithing and silversmithing in a bid to try to preserve these techniques. I hope that by giving the kind of jewellery that they create a modern twist for a contemporary I can help to create the demand that will help the goldsmiths to continue their work.

I do love making bespoke pieces of jewellery for people. Once I made a ring for a friend that had a very personal inscription on the back and had her boyfriends fingerprint imprinted on it. I’m very happy when I can give a materiality to people’s thoughts and desires.

But as well as producing pieces on demand, some of my pieces are stocked in eponymous jewellery stores in Greece. The brand has existed for about 11 years, starting under the wing of the family business.

I learned a lot while working at Bvlgari in London and what also gave me a very valuable experience was being at Sotheby’s jewellery department. I attended some classes there which were brilliant and as well as the gorgeous pieces that they have in the auction house, they have so many books that you can pore over to learn about them. Designing is something which has always sort of come naturally to me but I also wanted to have the credentials to do it so after finishing my degree in cultural history, I studied the history of jewellery and then spent some time studying design and also did a course in gemology.

I’m not so interested in attempting any radically different designs in the future: I’d rather focus on giving a slightly different direction to the lines I have already.

I design the jewellery and then work very closely with the actual artisans producing my pieces to get a prototype together. If it’s going to be one design used for earrings and a necklace or a bracelet, then we’ll use that same prototype for creating all the items in the range.

I’m not the one manipulating the metals – because I want to leave that to someone who is very experienced at doing that - but I am very immediately involved in the production of my pieces, nonetheless. It’s the product of a very close collaboration. It’s not like a draw a design and that’s it. During the production process, I’ll see how things are or are not working and discuss changes with the goldsmiths or silversmiths: I’ll ask can we have that in a different colour? Can we mould that in a different way? Collaboration is central to my project.

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menswear “Being well-dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquillity which psychoanalysis is powerless to bestow.”

Sebastian Horsley

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the gentleman’s guide to personal tailoring

by Aleksandar Cvetkovic You may not agree with me, but I think its fair to say that Oxford is a place for formality, and a place for tailoring, at that. What I mean by such a comment is that despite the fact that we’re all students, many of us still hold a penchant for tweed blazers, tailored corduroy trousers and chinos, and will go giddy with excitement at the prospect of donning a suit and tie (or even - heaven help us - a dinner suit!) for Formal Hall or a ball.

using white baste stitching, the customer returns to the shop to try the garment on, and the tailor will fit the garment for the first time, adjusting both the suit and the customer’s pattern accordingly to produce a closer fit. This process is repeated as many times as is necessary over a series of successive fittings, which run from multiple baste fittings, to trouser fittings, to ‘forward’ and ‘final’ fittings, as the suit moves ever closer to completion.

Now, I might be about to embark upon a hard-sell here, but given that I know many chaps out there in Oxford who are thoroughly into their tailoring, I thought I’d write a piece suggesting that it might be more worthwhile than you’d think to invest in some bespoke tailoring. My friends will confirm for you that I’m a bespoke tailoring fanatic and I’m hoping to go into the industry when I graduate (if anyone has any contacts for me please do Nexus me)! I can promise each and every one of you that the first time you slip on a bespoke jacket, you get hooked. You also realise just why such a fuss is made about bespoke tailoring compared with tailoring that comes off-the-peg.

This process is repeated as many times as is necessary over a series of successive fittings, which run from multiple baste fittings, to trouser fittings, to ‘forward’ and ‘final’ fittings, as the suit moves ever closer to completion.

Over eighty hours of painstaking hand-work and craftsmanship goes into the average London-made bespoke suit, and it can take some ten weeks from the placement of the order for the suit to be ready for collection.

The process begins with the creation of a design for the suit, entirely to the customer’s specifications and with the customer’s choice of cloth. Most tailors will stock between eight and ten thousands cloths to choose from in thick sample books called ‘bunches’. The tailor will take over sixty of the customer’s measurements and pass this to the Cutter, who uses this to draft, cut and ‘strike’ a paper pattern, retained for all future orders. The cut cloth is tied in a ‘bundle’ using off-cuts and passed to the Trouser Maker, Coat Maker and/or Waistcoat Maker and Finishers, all of whom (as is probably evident from their job titles) play a part in the construction process.

So the process allows for far greater exclusivity than buying a mass produced suit. It ensures that you’re buying something of exquisite quality, produced by uniquely talented craftsmen. It will be cut to fit your own body like a glove, and designed to suit your personal taste. Buying bespoke is a truly rewarding experience and something that every gentleman should try at least once in their lifetime.

Moreover, this hand-crafted luxury can be more affordable than you might imagine.

True enough, with a Savile Row bespoke suit starting between four and five thousand pounds, exploring Savile Row proper is almost certainly not going to be worth your while. However, there are a number of tailoring companies that offer a far more affordable, modern variation on the full bespoke service which come much closer to a student budget. These companies revolve around the concept of ‘personal tailoring’: the best parts of a bespoke service are adopted but they are mixed with elements of mass-manufacture which make the process more affordable. It’s worth researching exactly what you get for your money here but generally speaking, a personally tailored suit will allow for the customer to choose his own cloth; design the suit around a comprehensive selection of stylistic features (you Once the suit has been loosely stitched to- (you can choose your lapel shape, jacket gether into its basic shape for the first time, pockets, buttons, cuffs, vents, trouser style,

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etc.); and have a suit made to his own measurements.This process provides a suit that is vastly superior to something you’d find hanging on a peg in the shop, and not far from fully-bespoke.

Menswear firms such as Reiss, Hackett, Paul Smith and Moss Bros all offer ‘Personal Tailoring’ services, where suits can start at between five and six hundred pounds - a far cry from the several thousand charged by Savile Row tailoring royalty. True, six hundred pounds sounds like a lot, but think of it another way; to get a good suit in Marks & Spencer you have to pay three hundred, or four hundred-plus in Reiss or Jaeger. When you consider that, all of a sudden, the extra sacrifice (or alternatively beseeching of parents) required to find those extra two hundred pounds starts to make a little more sense, doesn’t it?

And then have a little think about Oxford itself. As I’ve already mentioned, it’s a dressy place: tailoring gets worn a lot, so its not like your investment will go to waste, and inevitably, this being Oxford, when you do don a sharp suit everyone will want to talk with you about it. There are formal dinners, cocktail parties, job interviews, internships and work experience all of which require you to own a good suit or two, and then you have formal events at home to think of, and the fact that in a year or two you may well be starting a job that requires a business suit to be worn.

Even more reason to invest in some sharp suiting, eh?

Perhaps the greatest advantage, however, comes from the way that in a bespoke suit, the jacket chest and lapel are ‘canvassed’ and ‘handpadded’. Comparison with a typical off-the-peg suit will illustrate just how crucial this point is.

In a mass-produced suit, the internal structuring pieces of the jacket are commonly made from cheap synthetic materials or thin canvass that is ‘fused’ into the jacket using either glue or adhesive tape. As a result, structure and shape suffer and the jacket is prevented from breathing. In a suit that’s been made-to-measure, on the other hand, the chest and lapel are given shape and structure which allows them to curve around the chest and enhance the fit of the jacket. This sculpting is effected using natural cotton canvass, linen canvass, wadding and horsehair, all of which breathe and hold their shape beautifully.

They are stitched together by the Coat Maker using over 1400 hand-stitches, on two planes to build curvature into the jacket’s structure and allow the jacket to sit around the chest. To date, no machine produced has the technological capacity to canvass a jacket on two planes.

This can only be done by hand, with the consequence that a personally tailored suit will have you standing head and shoulders above the rest when you slip it on.

For more insights into the world of bespoke tailoring, take a look at Aleksandar’s tailoring blog: ‘Thoughts of a Student-Tailor’ (www.thestudenttailor. blogspot.co.uk).

Having given as good an argument as I can as to why it worth your while, I think a brief clarification is in order of some of the benefits that having a suit tailor made can offer. As well as ensuring that your tailored garments will fit you perfectly, the actual construction of the jacket is far more advanced than that of the mass produced off-the-peg alternative. First of all, sleeves are ‘pitched’ and ‘set’ by hand. This ensures that the sleeve is attached to the shoulder of the jacket so that it hangs perfectly when your arm is at rest inside the suit, rather than jarring with the natural stance of your arm and the setting of the sleeve ensures that it matches with the angle, slant and shape of your shoulder perfectly, helping the suit to sit very closely Armholes in bespoke jackets can also be cut far more precisely, ensuring greater mobility and thus a more comfortable fit. Other considerations to take into account include the ‘collar stand’ or the way that the collar sits around the neck and shoulders. On a bespoke suit, this is measured and shaped to ensure a natural-looking, perfectly flush fit.

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à la recherche de l’originalité perdue Matthew Robinson, from the heart of Paris itself, muses on French fashion...

There are certain myths surrounding French fashion which need to be set straight from the outset. No, not everyone is fashionable - in fact, far from it. And no, not everyone wears black either. And instead of Paris being a melting pot of high fashion in its most elevated and creative form, Paris is rather the playing ground of the suave and sophisticated; fashion in its most bourgeois form.

Whilst vintage shops, and good ones at that, pop up here and there in Paris, they are not nearly as established as in London, nor is vintage a trend that is widely seen on the street.

If you follow the line of throwing on whatever you find on your floor in any combination possible, you’ll probably be greeted by some very strange glares; not so much a distain for your lack of sartorial precision as a genuine lack of comprehension. At the very least, it lets you stand out from the sea of dark, smouldering continental hotties, which is one stereotype that I’m glad to say does still hold up.

Something I learnt quickly is that you don’t just turn up to Paris fashion events wearing whatever the hell you like as is readily the case in London, or as is perhaps just my own distinct brand of sartorial apathy. When I turned up to a designer’s pristine salon to view their ‘revolutionary’ take on muted monochrome (minimalism, in Paris? No, it can’t be!) in my Fruit of the Loom sweater and fake bright red New Balance which I picked up in a market for £10 in Asia, I wasn’t warmly welcomed - to put it mildly. With the glares that these prissy fashion die-hards give off, you could have been fooled into thinking that they were walking for Lagerfeld himself; sadly, all you have to do is look behind the layers of Armani foundation and overbearing perfume, to realise that they are nothing more than glorified PR wannabes, clamouring for the dream of making it big in the fashion world - just like nearly everyone else in this industry who isn’t Anna Wintour. Perhaps a depressing look into my own future. Well, let’s hope not…

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Fashion, for many, is a luxury amenity; something to invest in, a display of wealth and status, rather than an expression of creativity and something merely to have fun with. For many Parisians, fashion is like a good wine or a posh holiday; a luxury commodity, something reserved for the wealthy few. Fashion has a formula here, a code; you will rarely see the “fuck it” attitude that many Londoners (and especially London designers) possess, who, rather than following trends or viewing fashion as a commodity, view it as an intrinsic part of their identity, and consequently forge their own, often bold and unique trends, creating a truly plural fashion scene. On the contrary, in Paris we’re presented with a stylish homogeny, which in its heyday with sharp 1980s tailoring and structure would have worked wonders, but now sadly and perhaps ironically just seems a bit démodé.

Whilst I wouldn’t dare criticise Paris’ Haute Couture world - which is undeniably second to none - people should really start to look further afield as far as street fashion and daywear are concerned; London, parts of Scandinavia and Japan without doubt take precedence over Paris’ ageing glamour. Muted colours, an over-use of leather and the perennial European trainer make street style here ever so slightly nondescript. A trend which they do, however, work well is the androgynous minimalist look which men are increasingly sporting, featuring the structure-defying designs of designers such as Gareth Pugh and Juun J. But at $2000 per item, you can probably afford shipping costs as well. So I can’t really claim this to be an iconic look of the Parisian youth either.

I’m left wondering: where are the six inch platforms, Buffalo trainers, blue hair and paper bag outfits that are so iconic of East London? Whilst the French are perhaps for once being more pragmatic, they should probably focus on their bureaucracy before toning down their fashion. A simple thing that the French do not seem to have grasped is that ugliness can equally be beautiful, if not interesting at the very least. So much of British youth culture and style plays with the ideas of sartorial taboos in reclaiming formerly ugly garments in new and innovative ways. Paris appears to lack the gumption and gut to really take a step outside the very tight perimeters of what they consider beautiful. What was once the most fashion forward place on earth has now become a fraudster, struggling to keep up with the modern evolution of youth style.

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STREETS UPON STREETS STREETS UPON STREETS

PHOTOGRAPHY. CONCEPT, STYLING BY MATTHEW ROBINSON MODELLED BY ED SIDDONS AND MATTHEW ROBINSON

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jeans by topman jacket by rockit jumper by american apparel shirt by urban outfitters boots doc martins

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beaut y “There is no exquisite beauty without some strangeness in the proportion.”

Image: Jeff Tse

Edgar Allen Poe

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fall

A TASTE of the

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Photography by Julia Sklar. Modelled by Ariel Gregory, Helen MacVicar and Kim Darrah, Styling and Concept: Lucinda Toole Make up by Jayne Lyons and Laura-Jane Dudfield. Hair Styling by Rachel Capocci, with many thanks to Majenta Beauty.

Foggy Autumn Days with T

ogether, Industry and Majenta Beauty have taken inspiration from the art of Mucha to create ‘A Taste of the Fall’. Autumn’s warm hues were combined with its icier undertones to create three striking looks. Our first look, by Jayne, took a palette of deep reds and purples to imitate the beautiful autumnal leaves, highlighted by soft golds. Laura-Jane created our second look by combining an intricate gold leaf technique with strikingly pale skin tones, creating an a dramtic and ethereal composition. Taking inspiration from the Mucha’s art nouveau work on the seasons, Rachel transformed our third look with avant-garde hair styling.

Majenta Beauty begins its career locally, opening its first shop in the Westgate Shopping Centre, Oxford. The new and innovative brand is currently creating a lot of interest in this historical university town. Majenta Beauty is an exciting and inspirational make up, nail and skin care range which crosses boundaries. Jayne Lyons, creator and founder of the range, has many years experience within the beauty industry.

As a TV make-up artist, Jayne wanted to create a range that is easy to use with innovative products that excite and inspire.

Visit Majenta Beauty in the Westgate Centre to see its full range of products, and services, with a special student discount.

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dressing table

SUPERHEROES

We've unearthed the most heroic beauty products out there to equip you for taking on the world (whilst looking fabulous). These wondrous products have it covered - no cape necessary.

Clinique Clarifying Lotion

YSL Touche Eclat

Once you’ve tried this you won’t know how you ever managed without it. Exfoliates, cleanses and smoothes without dragging or drying and only you will know why you’re suddenly so radiant. The best kind of invisible weapon.

It’s been said many times, and will continue to be said until the end of the world as we know it, but it’s true - this is a classic and the best concealer/ highlighter you will find on this planet. Keep dark circles concealed better than Clark Kent’s identity and take on the world looking beautifully luminous.

Vil ain Product Sadly not all beauty products were created equal.

Of course every story needs a villain, but your makeup bag does not - so steer clear of the Soft Touch Shadow Pencil from NARS. They might come in a great range of colours, but these pencils are nasty bringers of smudgy, creasy, patchy eyes that will leave you disappointed (and poor). Kryptonite!

Topshop Lip Crayon

V05 Dry Shampoo After extensive research, it comes to light that this is the best dry shampoo money can buy. It smells great and gives your roots a boost without the dreaded grey patchy raccoon effect.

Chanel Inimitable Mascara Noir

Great stay-all-night matte lip colours which won’t cost you the earth - Topshop has the right idea.

The pinks and oranges stray dangerously into Barbie territory but the reds and darker berry shades are just the loveliest. Kryptonite!

Your eyelashes will be ready to take on the world all on their own. Thick, curly, fanned out, fluttery and utterly gorgeous. Won’t budge even when you see the eye-watering price tag. Which makes said price tag totally worth it. Obviously.

Einstein Lip Therapy

Beauty Blender

They don’t get much more super than Einstein, and apparently he found time to develop this brilliant lip balm in amongst all that theory of relativity.* This lovely little pot is tingly and moisturising, and costs about a pound. You do the maths. *Einstein didn’t actually make this… As far as we know.

This little egg-shaped friend will solve all your makeup woes. No more streaks, patches or tide marks; just smooth, even skin and endless compliments.

Wonderful.

PHOEBE WILLIAMS

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beauty and the businessmen Nusa Bartol-Bibb discusses the disquietingly close relationship between beauty and money

F

lick through any glossy magazine printed in your lifetime and you could be forgiven for thinking that female beauty is to be found only on an impossibly tiny frame, a narrow up-turned nose, and thick, thick hair. But after reading a bit further afield, you might realise that the Gisele aesthetic is not an eternal, universal standard of female beauty. The European films and adverts of the 1950s show beauty in the guise of a fleshier (if still narrow-waisted) figure. Sudanese art of the same era privileges a positively Rubenesque form. Eighteenth century beauty manuals advise their readers on how to bleach their skin. The Ancient Egyptain pin-up, with her hair the colour of ‘genuine lapis lazuli’, is worlds away from the realism which characterises the modern art of ‘beauty’.

The definition of beauty is one that clearly varies across time and space. This, of course, has implications for our understanding of just where notions of beauty come from. That old Romantic idea of beauty as somehow pre-existent – as some sort of Platonic form – is revealed to be a fiction. The popular appeal to evolutionary biology doesn’t fare much better. Of course, the theory that our sense of beauty is simply an adaptation geared towards helping us choose fertile mates does plausibly explain some aspects of ‘beauty’ - such as facial symmetry. There are, however, so many that it cannot account for. After all, there are cases in which there is no clear correlation between ‘beauty’ and fertility (blue haired women make better child bearers? Really?!) or even where that cor-

relation is negative (see 1990s heroin chic). Perhaps the bigger problem with evolutionary biology is that it can only really explain relatively stable human traits or predispositions: a process that has lasted millennia cannot effect changes from one decade to the next.

So if beauty is not a pre-existent essence and it is not something tied up with evolutionary biology, where do our ideas of beauty come from? Tressie McMillan Cottom, writer of ‘Brown Body, White Wonderland’, arguably the most astute analysis of Miley Cyrus’ VMAtrocity, hints at a third possibility. Ideals of female beauty, she writes as, are formulated in response to ‘capitalistic concerns about protecting white male wealth’.

The argument implicit in McMillan Cottom’s essay goes something like this: because their sons will, in practice if not in theory, privilege beauty over wealth when looking for a wife, the rich man’s best bet for retaining and concentrating his power and wealth is to fashion beauty into the image of wealth. Of course, when you are a member of the sole group able to commission works of art or with executive control over mass media - the group that painters, writers, advertisers, and fashion designers are most desperately courting - it is easy to have both a direct and an indirect influence on the visions of beauty circulating in society. Indeed, with enough capital and influence behind you, is it not easier to control standards of desirability than to persuade individuals to privilege the needs of their

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social class above their personal desire?

The theory of ‘survival of the richest’ as the principle underlying indices of beauty can answer questions that the pseudo-Darwinian’s does not..

It explains why aesthetic ideals have changed so markedly throughout history: why the cult of plumpness could make way for Ms Moss’s mantra ‘nothing tastes as good as skinny feels’. It explains why the ultimate beauty once had a face that once varied from culture to culture but why now, in the wake of globalisation, she seems to have an evernarrowing repertoire of looks. It offers an explanation for the disquieting trend of ‘eyelid surgery’ and rhinoplasty East Asian women have begun to undergo in order to look more Caucasian. Most importantly, the ‘survival of the richest’ theory can offer a plausible explanation for the precise configuration of the ideal woman at each point in space and time. How could the alabaster skin that was the aspiration of every eighteenth century debutante be achieved? Only through a life spent indoors frequently reapplying a lead paste: that is, only through a life of leisure. Who could boast the ornate hairstyles which represented beauty in the Hellenistic period? Certainly not the Greek slave-girls who were required to crop their hair closely and probably no woman without a cohort of slaves and an abundance of time. In short, then, only the wealthy. Why is it that in so many multiethnic communities in the West, the face of female beauty is never anything but white? It could be a numbers game – a reflection of the reality that the majority of the population of the Western world is white – but the fact that the most powerful and wealthiest people in most Western societies are disproportionately white is probably not irrelevant.

It seems like each time we put to the test McMillan Cottom’s thesis that an index of beauty is really an index of wealth, it is validated anew. I’m confronted with the near certainty that beauty ideals have been decided by rich men’s capitalistic concerns. This gives rise to somewhat mixed feelings. On the one hand, I am angry. As if the socially dominant male has done quite enough damage to the low-status female throughout his-

tory – sexually assulting her as if it were a victimless crime, debarring her from education, keeping a glass ceiling above her in the workplace – he has also been allowed to make her doubt her own worth. Through the paintings and poems he has commissioned; through the films he has cast; through the images he has pasted on his billboards, he has made her believe that she is not beautiful enough and that she never will be.

It is just awful. And yet, the idea that I, along with all the other pale, rounded women like me who keenly feel their failure to be beautiful, am not failing to meet some Platonic, eternal form of beauty is sort of reassuring. It feels better knowing that your ‘inadequacy’ is a fiction that has been carefully and purposefully constructed than believing yourself to be inherently inadequate. Besides, if looking beautiful means looking like the sort of girl who will help maintain hegemony, well, I’m not sure I want in.

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comment “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

George Orwell

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I

n 2011, Marc Jacobs’ popular perfume Oh Lola! employed (a then 17 year old) Dakota Fanning to be the face of their advertising campaign. The advertising watchdog, ASA, banned the image for photographing Fanning to look under 16 in a provocative pose. They held that this could be seen to sexualise a child and cause serious offence.

The image of Dakota Fanning leaning back in a sheer dress, a perfume bottle resting between her legs, is inherently sexual. Yet her hair and makeup, the polka-dot dress and her wide-eyed, innocent expression are undoubtedly child-like. Fanning was 17 years old in this advert. But that’s not how she looked. What’s even more disturbing, however, is that perhaps she wasn’t meant to look like an adult at all.

The choices of fashion houses in promoting their products are not made on a whim. With years of labour and millions upon millions invested in producing this fragrance, the big dogs at Marc Jacobs won’t have simply cobbled together an advert. Fanning’s make-up was designed to be discreet and dewy; her hair was chosen to look simple, untouched; her polka dot dress with sweet scallops is deliberately childlike. These styling outcomes were not coincidences, they were selected.

The Lolita Effect Annabelle Clarke

explores the fashion industry's dangerous flirtation with the sexualisation of children.

But why? Why would such a respected brand make a statement so jarring? One possible answer to this question is particularly disturbing. The recent controversies over Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines track include, amongst many others, the concerning notion that a “good girl” is really only an “animal”, a sexual object who, despite appearances, “must wanna get nasty”. If Ludacris is to be believed, men “want a lady in the street, but a freak in the bed”. The truth and implications of such a view are a hefty discussion for another time. What is most concerning for now, however, is the possibility that brands like Marc Jacobs are preying on the idea that it’s sexy to be innocent. In adverts like this, they’ve gone so much further: it’s sexy to be childlike.

Is this a widespread phenomenon? Depressingly, the Oh Lola! image is not the only advertisement to have presented adult women, styled to look underage, in sexually provocative poses. Numerous further examples can be found in the advertisements of controversial brand American Apparel. Aside from the disappointing fact that most of their adverts feature half-naked women and fully clothed men, American Apparel came under fire for their use of a provocative advertising image which could be seen to display a child. The advert in question shows a bare-faced, loose-tressed girl pulling up long, school-girl style white socks. Yet her clearly visible underwear is the focal point of the image.

Perhaps we are being too harsh? Perhaps American Apparel are only promoting the desirability of women without lashings of makeup and over-done hair? Perhaps they are simply celebrating natural beauty? It really could be a coincidence that their model looks like a child.

Excuse me if I’m cynical, but I doubt it. American Apparel have been rebuked on at least three other occasions for similar issues. In an advert for hosiery, the ASA concluded that their sexualisation of a model who appeared under 16 was “offensive and irresponsible”. In 2012 a number of complaints were made about explicit adverts on the brand’s website; in one of the images, which depicted a young-looking girl whose “breasts were visible through her shirt” the watchdog thought that the images could be seen to sexualise a model who appeared to be a child: “we concluded the images were inappropriate and irresponsible”. In 2009, American Apparel adverts of a girl who looked underage were similarly condemned, the watchdog noting that while the ad in question

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publicity is good publicity. Even if brands like these are not perverse enough to prey on sickening views of the sexuality of innocence, they are certainly selfish enough not to care about the effect their images might have. Sexualising children in this way is destructive not only to the children themselves, but also to the way society views young girls. Sadly, to these fashion houses and stylists, the societal impact of sexualisation is irrelevant, as long as it rakes in the cash.

“depicted only partial nudity, we considered that the images were provocative with the model exposing progressively more skin in each photo in the series”.

These combinations of child-like and sexual overtones aren’t accidental: they’re designed. Repeatedly.

Those at the helm of the brand are not unaware of the controversy they stir up each and every time they flout advertising standards along with the decency and respect we expect of companies in positions of power and influence. This is a deliberate and calculating sexualisation of children. The aim? Cold hard cash.

It is presumably with pure profit in mind that other brands dream up some of the disturbing adverts and clothing aimed exclusively at children.

French brand Jours Après Lunes creates underwear for babies, young girls and adolescents. Adverts released in 2011 depict genuinely underage girls, ranging from the ages of 4 to 12, posing in their underwear. It might be cute to let children play dress-up, but these images cross the line. The children’s very adult poses, big Brigitte Bardot hair and high heels? This is plain Jours Après Lunacy. Commercially, however, it worked - the brand’s images were posted and re-posted on blogs and news sites across the world. Exposure for exposure, it seems.

Vogue Paris’s 2011 divisive images of 10 year old French model Thylane Blondeau are yet another example of how controversy sells. Some say that the shoot was a satire on the fashion industry’s obsession with scouting younger and younger models. What most of us see, however, is a 10 year old girl sprawled over animal print throws, pouting and staring at the camera with a demeanour far beyond her years. Whether the shoot was in fact satirical in intent is unclear, thanks to the unsettling reality of the photos. After all, satire shouldn’t merely reproduce exactly the problem at hand.

We are left, therefore, with the inevitable and depressing conclusion that the least disturbing reason for such promotions is the age-old maxim that all

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W

hat exactly is cultural appropriation?

Broadly it can be defined as the adoption of icons, rituals, and behaviour from one culture or subculture by another and generally occurs when the culture being appropriated is historically oppressed or a minority. Cultural appropriation often comes alongside a lack of understanding of the meaning or origins of these icons, practices, and beliefs. As a result, they are bastardised and their significance is distorted. It is a product of imperialism, assimilation and consumerism. Traditions and (often spiritually significant) objects belonging to historically oppressed cultures are marketed as exotic trinkets and exciting lifestyle enhancers to generate profit. Regardless of its intention, cultural appropriation is a way of erasing cultural identities and assimilating marginalised communities into the dominant culture by taking away their markers of distinction.

in feathers. ‘Native American costume’ produces worse results (because someone’s traditional spiritual attire is clearly a great idea for a Halloween outfit…). When considered alongside the rampant levels of sexual violence directed towards Native women and girls, this sleazy fetishisation of their culture becomes especially disturbing. The entire concept of Westerners appropriating Native fashion is bitterly ironic, of course, given that the United States spent centuries trying to obliterate Native Americans’ cultural practices and objects. In fact, only after the 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act was passed that Native Americans in the US were able to legally partake in their traditional spiritual practices.

But modern day cultural appropriation is not just restricted to Native American trends. The bindi, a Hindu forehead decoration of great significance, has

Appropriating Style: Because Culture Really Isn’t A Trend The fashion industry is guilty of many forms of cultural appropriation, but Native Americans are particularly heavily targeted. During Nicholas K’s SS14 “shamanistic journey” (yes, really) at New York Fashion Week, models slinked down the catwalk in tribal-inspired prints, suede moccasins and bandanas adorned with feathers. Then there was the case of Urban Outfitters, sued by the Navajo nation in 2012 for selling clothes including the Navajo hipster panty. And in her celebrated single, Ride, Lana Del Rey dons a headdress over her headphones and declares herself ‘wild’ and ‘free’ while dancing through the desert underneath a grainy hipster filter. Last year designer Paul Frank hosted a Pow Wow Native American themed party complete with tomahawks, feather headdresses and drinks such as the Rain dance Refresher; ASOS launched a Go Native Navajo-themed line; and Karlie Kloss strutted down the catwalk at the highly-anticipated Victoria’s Secret extravaganza in lingerie and a floor-length war bonnet.

In the Oceti Sakowin (Sioux tribe), war bonnets are reserved for special occasions and are worn by men who have achieved the highest honours; each feather symbolises a feat of bravery. To use it as a fashion accessory, as Victoria’s Secret did, is an insult to Native people and their history. And Kloss’s headwear seems all the more inappropriate when we consider the constant hypersexualisation of Native women by the Western world. A quick Google image search of ‘Native American women’ revealed numerous photos of half-naked models posing seductively

become a ubiquitous symbol of the Western hipster/pop icon. Everyone from Katy Perry to Madonna has worn it at some point. Apparently, it’s edgy and cute for a white American girl to wear a bindi as a fashion statement (often accompanied with a cigarette and a Polaroid camera), but South Asians who wear it for genuine religious reasons have historically faced hostility, oppression or exotification, and in many cases, they still do. If you wear the bindi at, say, a traditional Indian wedding in which you have been invited to temporarily participate in a cultural exchange, your actions are not problematic.

But, as innocent as a white Westerner wearing the bindi as a fashion accessory may seem, it is directly rooted in a sense of colonial entitlement to all cultures, including cultures that have been victims of white imperialistic rule. In recent years Vogue has come under fire for publishing an article on ‘slave earrings’, featuring a picture of a white model wearing enormous gold hoops and a caption that read “if the name brings to the mind the decorative traditions of the women of colour who were brought to the southern United States during the slave trade, the latest interpretation is pure freedom”. And Victoria’s Secret’s Sexy Little Geisha lingerie set, modelled by Candice Swanepoel with a matching fan, obi belt and chopsticks, was pulled from its website after the backlash against their fetishisation of hypersexualised Japanese ‘exoticism’. The bastardisation of geisha culture has quite a history but the reality is that sexy geisha fancy dress costumes are no better than their Native American equivalents.

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Cultural appropriation isn’t quite so clear-cut when it comes to emblems that are rooted in several different cultures. Dreadlocks, for instance, are part of Indian, Buddhist, Rastafari, African, and Celtic cultures. More recently they have been primarily viewed as a symbol of black resistance to racism and Rastafaris’ commitment to Jah. When white people wear dreadlocks, we dilute their importance as a symbol of resistance to racism and a commitment to Jah. If you wish to honour or respect Rastafari culture, you should learn how to recognise and confront systemic racism instead of appropriating their fashion. And, when deciding whether to buy something taken from another culture, it is important to consider the source. Are you buying from a major Western corporation attempting to take advantage of an artificially constructed ‘Indian’ identity, for example, or is it a Native American craftsman or designer who is selling you something?

Are you looking to buy something like a dreamcatcher – which is a cross-cultural item adapted by numerous tribal artists and schools – or a copy of a deeply spiritual or ceremonial item of clothing, such as a war bonnet (although, the chances are that a Native American craftsman wouldn’t be selling replicas of their spiritual headgear in the first place)? Buying a pair of dream-catcher earrings from a Navajo artisan, learning about their cultural significance and wearing them with respect for that culture is not quite the same as dressing up in a war bonnet for Halloween, or claiming to be honouring Native American culture by squeezing into the Urban Outfitters’ Navajo hipster panty.

fashion can be an important political statement. By ‘celebrating’ an oppressed culture through fashion, you are more often than not treating them and their identity markers as a trend. Pretending to be a race you are not – and drawing upon stereotypes to do so – is no better than Kate Moss, Lara Stone or Lady Gaga in blackface. It feels a little uncomfortable for me as a white person to speak so definitively about how clothes can and cannot be appropriated or borrowed, but it isn’t difficult to find numerous eloquently worded articles online written by those whom cultural appropriation directly affects. It is all too easy to drown out these people’s voices with cries of ‘But it’s only a bit of fun!’ and ‘You’re overreacting’, but this is nothing more than a form of silencing.

Imitation is supposedly the sincerest form of flattery, but not when it fetish­­­­­­es, commodifies or disrespects the culture of the systematically oppressed.

If you ever find yourself longing to wear a bindi or a war bonnet, think about the spiritual and cultural significance of those items. Think about whether these emblems really belong to you. Think about the implications of you trivialising someone’s identity because you think their clothes are cool fashion accessories. In the words of the Native American author of the my culture is not a trend blog: ‘part of being seen as “trendy” also makes an entire culture not only a commodity, but also something that people will (and can) tire of; therefore being disposable. And to me, that is unacceptable.’

ALICE NUTTING

Confronting cultural appropriation isn’t all about telling people what not to wear, or accusing them of being evil racists. It’s about acknowledging that we don’t exist in a vacuum and that there are numerous important implications – social and historical – to treating the emblems of marginalised cultures like costumes or fashion accessories. It’s about educating ourselves, listening to people from other cultures, and being willing to think critically about the symbols we appropriate and the cultures we engage with without understanding them. The idea that we can try on a cultural identity, or the representation of it, for a day and then discard it speaks volumes about the ways in which cultural imperialism and unequal power dynamics operate. As a white woman I have the privilege of being able to wear a feather headdress to a costume party and wake up the next day without having to confront a history of colonialism and genocide. As the We’re a Culture, not a Costume campaign argued, ‘You wear the costume for one night, we wear the stigma for life’.

Cultural appropriation is often treated dismissively because fashion is meant to be fun, a form of fantasy. As lovers of style, we admire beautiful and creative clothes. But we have to remember that clothes and the way in which we wear them can express our identity, our beliefs and our culture;

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Cover images by Rachel Sherlock