lush. by Iason Raissis
No. 6| February 2021
From "Supermodels" to "Influencers" To my "Family" Elisavet Volani- "her"
lush. Editor-in-chief Iason Raissis
Art Director Editor-at-Large Digital Media Coordinator Videographer/ Contributor
Elisabetta Mako Terry Raissis Alessandra Proietti Irene Z. Charitopoulou
Editors Athina Krizel Iris Zimble Laura Lamberti Ece Zeynep Ozyalcin Fivos Dimitrakopoulos
lushbyir.org/magazine
THE FEBRUARY SELECTION
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To my lush. FamilyThank you
By Iason Raissis Last February, lush. was created and the first issue was published. Since that day, my life has been so different. During 2020 I met new people, made new friends, worked with young and talented professionals (stylists, photographers, media persons and influencers). But above all I met the people that today I call my second family, the lush. family. And that is what I want to tell you about in this piece. Lush. began as a one-time thing for me to exhibit a bunch of images I wanted to show the world last year, but I would have never imagined that that same 12 paged magazine would now be an International Online Publication serving young people a new perspective for our industry, the industry we so much love and are part of it in some sense. What I have learned through that time is that fashion is a diverse community, with people from different backgrounds, with different aspirations, and dreams; and that’s what lush. is all about. The people I work with everyday are diverse individuals, from different cultural backgrounds, they study different things in different countries, but we all share the same passion for fashion and journalism. The people you read and have loved until today. This piece is the least I can do to show my appreciation for them and all the work they have put forth for lush. The issue is dedicated to Laura, Athina, Iris, Elisabetta, Ece, Alessandra, Irini, and Fivos. Enjoy!
EDITORIAL
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From "Supermodels" to "Influencers"
Editor: Ece Zeynep Ozyalcin Media: getty.com
The notion of “beauty” is embedded in all of us. Whom we see as “beautiful” defines our values, our perception. This notion has been so important for every culture such that since ancient times, people have made attempts to define beauty. Throughout history, every civilization has set different standards to achieve the ideal beauty they believed in. According to ancient Greeks, perfect proportions were the key to a beautiful woman's face. By Renaissance, physiognomy was not the only component to achieve a feminine beauty. One must also carry virtues such as delicacy and fragility. There was even a time when Queen Elizabeth I and her court influenced fashion and set standards of beauty. As time goes on and new standards come and go, we realize that although the idea of beauty is always shifting, beauty, in fashion terms, which was once a certain thing, is not anymore. Designers and critics were once confident about the meaning it represented for the industry but since the past 30 years, the notion has become somewhat confusing. To be able to understand the causes of this confusion, I invite you to go back to the past but not-so-distant past.
OPINIONS
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We are going back to the 1991, to the Versace Fashion Show in Milan. Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista, 90’s models, soon to be supermodels, are walking down the Autumn/Winter Versace Fashion Show confidently, for the first time in history altogether side by side. The audience falls silent as these models are lip synching along George Michael’s new song “Freedom! ‘90 in which they appeared in the music video before. They are wearing red, yellow, black cocktail dresses. The collection consists of brightly colored clothes with the intersection of heavy doses of black. Gianni Versace explains later of the show “I did black, mixed with red, yellow, green, orange – every colour mixes well with black. It’s a very, very happy black.”
Even though the notion of “supermodels” had been established at the beginning of 90s, Gianni Versace was the first designer who created himself an opportunity to use its power to shake the media and the fashion industry in general. Re-creating a hit music video with famous supermodels who had been on every magazine, every advertisement campaign on his fashion show was something that was never done before. It was definitely a unique moment for fashion history with Gianni Versace the pioneer. With GianniVersace’s cleverly established fashion show, we enter into the Supermodel era.
OPINIONS
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So what did it mean to be a “supermodel”? The lexical meaning of the word “supermodel” is a fashion model who is famous and successful. However the word had a broader meaning during the 90s. Fashion models who influenced designers, who carried the clothes with confidence, who could lead the fashion industry forward and who were considered very beautiful, were labelled as “supermodels”. After the Versace show in Milan, these women appeared in every magazine cover, music video, advertisement campaign and television program. With their visibility, they brought a new understanding of beauty standards: thin but very fit women with long legs like gazellas, curvaceous bodies and big busts. Having these physical qualities meant the portrayal of perfection in women during the 90s. According to what was displayed on magazines, on runways, women had a very clear and yet very unrealistic idea of beauty. Supermodels interpretation of ultimate womanhood led to an ideal very difficult to reach and maintain. Number of breast surgeries increased during those years both among models who were trying to be like those glamour queens supermodels, and among non-models who were trying to keep up with the beauty standards of the time. Waif Look and the rise of Heroin Chics The image of beautiful women created by supermodels was disrupted by Kate Moss when she became the face of the Calvin Klein underwear advertisement campaign in 1992. When Kate Moss emerged after being photographed topless for Calvin Klein at the age of 16, she was nothing like all the supermodels of the time. She was 5’7" tall and extremely thin. She marked the beginning of a new era in fashion and beauty standards with her waif like grunge look. Along with Kate Moss, models like Carla Bruni, Kirsten McMenamy became icons for young girls to admire and to copy. There was an extreme shift in the body type and look of the era: from mature hair style, big breasts, tall legs, full makeup to messy hair, short height, slender body, no makeup, no jewellery...
OPINIONS
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"It's a new breed, a new group, and they're not yet fully grown," once said Anna Wintour, the Editor-in-Chief of Vogue. Critics argued whether this new trend in beauty and fashion was more about fashion becoming young and addressing a younger generation than about simple change in beauty standards. “Heroin chic” was the term used for these girls and for the way they were photographed. Starting with Kate Moss being photographed in a grungy apartment by the British fashion photographer Corinne Day, the idea seemed to connect fashion with the youth culture but many critics argued that the aesthetics of “heroin chic” was glamorizing drug abuse and eating disorder. According to British fashion academic Rebecca Arnold, the images that were considered encouraging for drug use wouldn’t have drawn much attention if they had been published in a style magazine like The Face. But because they were on fashion magazines which were used to having shots of perfect women and perfect lifestyles in its all glamour, these images of “heroin chic” were most daring. Nevertheless, the beauty standards heroin chics represented were no more realistic for women than the previous one. Especially for many young girls who suffered from crash dieting, anorexia and bulimia while trying to reach the standards that models like Kate Moss represented. Being overweight was still considered not beautiful during those times and women with thick thighs or large bottoms would never be chosen as models. Could it be because the culture’s perception of women changed or because the women became so powerful and threatening with the rise of supermodels that there was a need to change their image to a child like figure or was it simply the fashion industry’s attempt to appeal to the younger generation? Is fashion finally solving its diversity problem? The 2010s has been a watershed moment for the fashion industry. For decades, the fashion industry set some standards about body size, gender, race, age, disability and shaped its representations according to these. But with the rise of social media, new consumer groups, the Gen-Z generation, the fashion industry has been forced to question its practises and has started to move towards inclusion. Social movements like fourth-wave feminism, #MeToo have led some viral outrages towards injustices along the industry. Under-representation of minorities; the discrimination and unfair treatment of Black models, nonbinary and transgender individuals; the narrow definition of beauty in terms of size, age, gender, disability have been dissapearing thanks to models like Winnie Harlow, Andreja Pejic, Candice Huffine, Jacky O’shaughnessy… The emphasis is on the individual rather than any set of rules that define beauty. According to Fashion Spot’s diversity report, for the fashion month Spring 2021, racial diversity increases slightly from 40.6% to 41.3% and becomes the second most diverse season ever after Spring2020. However, size, age and gender representations all decrease for Spring2021.
OPINIONS
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May we say that we are moving towards a big tent beauty culture? Do brands take actionfor a more diverse representation because they believe in this or are their actions simply a result of fear of the social pressure? Do models have enough visibility on runways, magazines covers and advertisement campaigns? In an industry which loves trend setting, diversity and equal representation should not be considered as a trend that is in one day and out the other day. It shouldn’t even be a choice but it has to be just achieved. Are we in an aesthetic surgery era? We can say that the standardized body perception which was supported by the supermodels of the 90s has come to end but instead of supermodels, we now have influencers who pretend to care for individuality. It is interesting and pretty contradictory considering the fact that they share every little detail of their life with us and expect us to follow their suggestions so that they have more followers everyday. So I wonder, where is the support of and care for individuality in this? Is it really possible to have self-esteem and self-satisfaction considering all our social media accounts are filled with people who tell us what to wear, eat, use, where to go, how to train, how to look like? Increased number of aesthetic surgeries, weight-reducing pills, detox teas are launched on the market to “help” us but in reality they emphasize our desperation to copy one of those influencers’ lives we see on our social media. The notion of beauty placed in some specific products through influencers becomes a necessity instead of a suggestion. Our desire to change our appearance, our inability to keep what we buy for so long lead us to fast consumption. Did you know that the fashion industry is the second most polluting industry in the world?
We are in a vicious cycle in which our happiness is attached to our physical appearance and our physical appearance is shaped by constant consumption. So who do you think suffers the most in this vicious cycle? Usconsumers, or fashion brands, or models, or influencers or people working in the fashion industry or our polluted world? I have come to a conclusion that the standardized beauty has left its place to a broader concept which is the standardized lifestyle. I personally believe that people’s understating of beauty is changing constantly but the never changing reality is the continuous desire to be somebody else, to have somebody else’s life. So who are you comparing yourself to? Who do you take as an idol/model for yourself?
OPINIONS
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Editor: Laura Lamberti Media: getty.com, intimissimi.com
Oppression, Liberation and Reclamation: Two Moments of Lingerie History to Brush Up On
The argument that lingerie is nothing but a luxurious and deceiving remnant of centuries of oppression of women by the sexualizing and objectifying male gaze, is not a new one, and yet for some reason it refuses to get old. Bearing in mind that there is an undeniable history of lingerie being used to alter the female body and mold it into whatever the patriarchally imposed canon of beauty was at the time, is to say that this legacy predetermines the entire history of lingerie, allowing no space for resistance. There are three points that can and must be made to provide an adequate and comprehensive rebuttal to this argument: 1) Women can choose to wear lingerie for their own pleasure. 2) Even if the ultimate purpose of a woman’s choice to wear lingerie were seduction, seduction is an active, not a passive process, it is not synonymous of catering to the male gaze. 3) Lingerie garments have different origins and have evolved in various ways, hence no universal judgement can or should be passed onto the inherent feminist or antifeminist nature of lingerie. While this is a multifaceted topic that can be approached in a number of ways, including from a sociological, psychological and political standpoint, for the purpose of this article we will look back on two historical moments in lingerie history, featuring two icons of style from very different time periods. 1533 The Renaissance Queen Caterina de’ Medici, daughter of Lorenzo de’ Medici, is known to have been a great patron of the arts and to have played a major role in 16th century politics. Caterina de’ Medici is a rather discussed historical figure also as a result of the fact that she has been credited to have introduced various innovations to the French Court upon her marriage to King Henry II, then Duke of Orléans, in 1533. Caterina is said to have brought to France an innovative way of side saddle riding that allowed women riders increased movement and control of the horse. This method despite being more practical, resulted in a risk of exposing one’s private parts, hence why, in order feel more at ease, Caterina de’ Medici wore long underpants, which before being popularized by her at the French Court, were thought to exist solely for the use of men and prostitutes.
GLOBAL INDUSTRY
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1990 Madonna’s 1990 Blonde Ambition Tour, or more precisely her April 13th concert in Japan, during which she boldly took over the stage wearing a Jean-Paul Gaultier cone bra corset, is credited to have changed the history of lingerie. The revolutionary nature of this fashion moment is linked to the act of reclamation of the female body and of the oppressive history of corsets, which have also been originally popularized by Caterina de’ Medici. Is it contradictory that the same woman who normalized women’s use of underwear as a liberating garment, is also credited for having popularized one of the most oppressive undergarments in history? Yes, but that’s what happened, and it is a testament to the fact that the evolution of women’s lingerie, like that of feminism, isn’t linear. A corset Caterina de’ Medici might have worn in 1533 was designed to change one’s body to fit into the mould, the corset Madonna wore on stage in 1922 was designed to erode the very concept that there is a mould to fit in. Jean- Paul Gaultier’s cone bra corset was defiant and aggressive, it played with gender norms, almost weaponizing the garment, imbuing it with the power to break the boundaries of what is acceptable.
So, to all the lingerie haters out there, I have one thing to say: the existence of a male gaze in society does not preclude the existence of an oppositional one, which as far as I know, is able to see through silk, lace, satin and chiffon!
GLOBAL INDUSTRY
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Created by Elisavet Volani Words: lush.
Jacquemus Vibes - by Elisavet Volani A project inspired by the Jacquemus Spring 2020 outdoor runway show. Elisavet brought the Jacquemus vibe from France straight to the fields of Paros Island, combining classic brands and garnments to recreate a show with a single model- "her".
COVER STORY
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Shirt: GANT Shoes: Luigi Footwear Bag: Zara Hat: Artizia
Online Issue No.6: www.lushbyir.org February, 2021 Issued bimonthly
lush. by Iason Raissis
Cover Photograph: Elisavet Volani @elisavetvolani
Appear in this issue Elisavet Volani / @elisavetvolani
Appearing Brands Zara/ @zara GANT/ @gant Luigi Footwear/ @luigi__official ARTIZIA/ @artizia
THE DECEMBER SELECTION
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