OLIVIA WALTERS.
CONTENTS - Editor’s Letter - Radical Designer - exhibition review - 100 years of WOMEN, FASHION AND SEXUALITY - References
female sexuality.
/sexual idenity/ /sexual behaviour/
9
EDITOR’S
LETTER Women, Fashion and Sexuality hat is feminine beauty and sexuality in 2017? How do they effect fashion? Has it always been the same? My aims for this zine are to explore and discover the 100 years of fashion within feminine beauty and sexuality. As a women, our sexuality covers the way we look but our identity, expression and individual choices. Women come in all different body shapes; (pear, apple, rectangle,) sizes and ethnicities that define us for who we are. Personally, I felt that it was important to research how women’s beauty and sexuality has changed over the last century and the effect it has on fashion. Ranging from young teens (12-15) to elderly, some women feel the pressure and can become obsessed from fashion advertisements to appear like the ‘desired’ look that our modern society covets. Fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg said,“I design for the woman who loves being a woman”. This poses the question what is it to be a woman? Should more women be confident in their own skin? Feminine beauty and sexuality in fashion today is the time of choice and individuality. Too many people focus on what it ‘should’ be rather than what it is. Kim Kardashian, for example, is the face of a sexual revolution. In November 2014 her Paper magazine nude cover ‘broke the internet’ with Kim powerfully stating she is “empowered by my body. I am empowered by my sexuality”. More influential women are standing up to what they deem to be the perfect body type. Look at models like Ashley Graham and Iskra Lawrence for instance, who are seen as idols reinforcing and empowering the idea that curves are the new sexy. However, over the past 100 years, fashion’s feminine beauty and sexuality have not always been so diverse. Throughout my research, every era has a fixed concept of what feminine beauty and sexuality should be and how we should interpret it. From the effects of the war in the 40s, Marilyn Monroe’s hourglass figure in the 50s, to sexuality vs race in the 70s, fashion and sexuality have been interpreted in many ways. What determines what is a women?- Trans have already changed this concept and the stereotypes that have been created throughout the years. Therefore, what will feminine beauty and sexuality be like in the future? Is it already changing? So more importantly- how do YOU interpret feminine beauty and sexuality?
Editor Olivia Walters
10
“
SEXUALITY ITSELF MEANS MORTALITY- EQUALLY FOR BOTH MAN AND WOMEN - Leon Kass
”. 13
RADICAl designer: The one thing I love most about WEEKDAY is how the designers work collaboratively with the collections, made as a team effort. The design team makes sure each person's creative input with the designs is equal and recognised. I feel this prospect connects more to the people who are buying the collections as the team effort is apparent within the designs. The WEEKDAY design team takes inspiration from both the literal and the abstract. A value of the brand that I particularly like is they believe they can create clothing collections that enable their customers to express their personality through the clothing. Looking at one collection, in particular, the 2015 Autumn/Winter collection is one of my favourites and links with female sexuality and fashion that I am currently researching. The 2015 collection was made as a team, including; Louise Lasson, Peter Jansson, Linda Larsson, Alice Shulman and Karin Granstrand. Describing the inspiration for the collection, Louise said “It’s a mix of laid-back skate culture and office refinement. We’re inspired by the energy we receive from unique and unpredictable people.” I loved the way she described their inspiration as you can really see this reflected in the brand. Unique, edgy and new, spring straight to mind when looking at the designs. Researching the 2015 A/ W collection, you can see it brings together opposing elements. Textures are both flat and calm and thick and coarse. Proportions and silhouettes are both wide and lean, cropped and elongated. Alice, from the design team, stated: “it was important for us to create a very relaxed mood, as we were aiming for something nonchalant that related to the 1990s". Apparent within the collection, this created an empowered and sharp look. Boxy, oversized
14
WEEKDAY
outerwear paired with loose-legged bottoms and elongated shirting, was very aesthetic and on the trend for that season. WEEKDAY’s 2015 Autumn/ Winter collection is fairly similar to their competitor at Acne Studios but even better, sell it at a fraction of the price. WEEKDAYs Zeitgeist project is another aspect that I think really pulls the brand together that I love. Zeitgeist is their weekly print project, where they create a new design on a Tee every week, reflecting on the current events in popular culture and society. The T-shirts are made in their stores and are screen printed. For the one week, they are made, they are available in limited quantities in some selected stores and online. I think this project idea is a genius, it really creates a more personal approach to the brand, something that customers can relate to.
For the future of the WEEKDAY brand, it looks very promising. I can’t wait. The team describes the brands future as “bright”. When everyone in the world is slowly waking up after a long dark winter, WEEKDAY is planning on releasing a Spring collection that will look into the future with a new fresh look and hope. Focusing on modern takes on the 80s and 90s with a youthful urban vibe, the team plan to create a collection where colours will start to unfold and people start to come out. I shall be keeping my eyes peeled.
Balencia One word. Amazing. The Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion exhibition left me inspired. As soon as I walked into the room, I felt enlightened by the Spanish designers work. Filled with his own inspirational quotes highlighted on the walls, you felt welcomed by Balenciaga himself. The exhibition covered over 100 pieces crafted by ‘the master’ of couture, his protégées and contemporary fashion designers working in the same innovative tradition. The Spanish couturier operated the most exclusive designs in Paris for 31 years, introducing designs that changed the way women dressed. Amongst them included the baby-doll dress, the balloon hem, and the sack dress. Balenciaga was the prophet of nearly every major change in women silhouette for 20 years and this is apparent in his collections, particularly his work with waistlines. The exhibition highlights this and gives us an insight of his fashion journey. I loved exploring his legacy and learning how his work inspired later designers. To this day, Balenciaga remains one of the most influential designs that constructed the female body, particularly the waistline. Therefore, this was great research for my personal interest in women’s sexuality within the 100 years of fashion.
V&
As I stepped into the exhibition I was in awe. The entire downstairs floor is dedicated to an impressive archive focusing on the later years of Balenciaga. The first part of the exhibition combined moving mannequins, with open sketchbooks,
A
aga : Shaping Fashion
A
animations, and mini-tasks to complete yourselves. I loved the interactivity it had with the viewers. Each person was mesmerised. One of the first initial pieces that stood out to me straight away was at the start of the exhibition featuring six mannequins dressed fully in black. These mannequins portrayed the evolution of the women’s silhouette throughout the years. The piece focused on the reaction it had to our society over different eras. My favourite dress out of this collection and the first one to see was the ‘Balloon Hem’. Harper’s Bazaar reported that this dress “began with Balenciaga”. The silk of the dress is designed to fill with air as the person who is wearing it moves. These balloon hems became a signature Balenciaga feature. Second was the ‘Semi-Fit Dress’. Balenciaga introduced his suits for women in 1951, where they were designed to be fitted at the front and loose at the back. Journalist Carmel Snow recalls the audience he was just “sat there hating them. Why should women look like a house?”. Next came the ‘Unsexy Sack’ which completely hid the female curves. Balenciaga shocked viewers when he first presented this dress in the 1950s. “It’s hard to be sexy in a sack”, stated the Daily Mirror. The straight line of the dress contrasted dramatically with the popular and dominant hourglass shape by one of his competitors, Christian Dior. However, by deleting the female waist altogether, Balenciaga started the popular shift dress trend in the 1960s that is still apparent today. Fourth came the ‘Baby Doll Dress’ which was introduced in 1958. Made of opaque fabric, it controversially hid the women’s shape whilst still managing to reveal part of the body by including a knee length. Following on came the The Amphora Line” which is a further development of the semi-fitted silhouette. ‘Amphora Line’ oriented from the curved shape of the Greek vases. The complex and original shape of the dress is formed by two pieces of the
fabric which started at the centre front and followed its way around the body to create a long decorative bow shape. Finally, the most interesting of all was the ‘Envelope Dress’. Within this dress, Balenciaga experimented with fabric and form which lead to the complete abstraction of the female body. The dress was apart of the collection that reasserted his relevance to the 1960s fashion. The garment was from the year before he closed his salon so it’s a period where he was beginning to be questioned by the fashion press. Continuing through the exhibition, I reached the top floor where it displayed designs and work from designers who had been dramatically influenced by Balenciaga’s work and his influence of working with women’s silhouettes. The first of which that caught my eye was a design that was created by the London-based designer Gareth Pugh. Pugh works and experiments with shape and volume in order to create strong silhouettes. Like Balenciaga, he produces garments in shapes to abstract the body. However, Pugh uses PVC and rubber which creates a unique finish to it. This links with my current research on women’s sexuality and fashion as I have discovered that fetish fashion, using materials like PVC, rubber, and leather, didn’t really start until Vivienne Westwood opened her boutique ‘SEX’. Modern designers like Gareth Pugh now use these materials to highlight the sexuality of the piece. Therefore within this particular design, even though he is abstracting the female silhouette, he is including subtle ideas of sexuality with the materials.
natural form. This piece is quite clearly influenced by Balenciaga’s idea of hiding the female silhouette. Chalayan himself said, “Like old Balenciaga, in a way, we’re just regurgitating what they’ve done”. Overall, the exhibition has given me a new and an exciting view of Balenciaga himself and how much of an impact he had on not only old but new and current designers. The exhibition has been fantastic research into my theme and has given me the insight to look and research further into how designers will continue to show the female body. Will they continue sexualizing the silhouette through using other methods such as materials? Or will they completely abstract sexualising the female body altogether?
Further along the exhibition, another piece came to my interest and dramatically stood out to me. ‘Obscuring The Body’ by Hussein Chalayan looked strikingly similar to the Balenciaga designs from the 1950s. Curved completely around the body, the laser-cut tulle dress creates shapes which obscure the
17
R A 1 . E n Y o 0 i 10 fash fas f f o o s i s r h a s e a f y f 0 0 rs o Y 0 0 a 1 . e N y 0 SHIO FAS F A F O F S O EAR E Y 0 Y 0 1 0 . S 0 N R O I A
1 S . R n A o i e N h y O s 100 I H S . A n F io S OF S R A R E A Y E 0 . Y 0 N 1 O . I N H O S I A H 0 F S 0 F 1 . O N S O R I A n H E FAS o i h s F a O f R S f A o E s
‘S’ BEND.
1910s Inspired
29
SEX SYMBOL
30
Katherine Hepburn 1930s.
BLONDE BOMBSHELL -Jean Harlow
'THE NEW LOOK'
TWIGGY TWIGGY TWIGGY TWIGGY TWIGGY TWIGGY 44
Jean Shrimpton One of the fiirst supermodels and was the highest paid model of the 60s. Jean became the face of the “Swinging London� aswell as popularising the mini skirt.
53
56
63
2010s
“ My sexuality is not a phase.I am who I am ” - Cara Delevingne