FASHION JOURNALISM Classroom Assignments
Sagarika Mukerji FC V
FASHION AND
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Fashion’s Influence on Sexuality Love for oversized and ill fitted clothes and an aversion to the ‘girls’ section is how I grew up. As a girl I had more of a masculine inclination in my personality thus preferring T-shirts over off-shoulders. It took me some time but I soon realized people categorized other people with their clothes, their appearance. Like me, other people have their inclination meter and fashion being a tool of expression, talk through their clothes, hair, accessories. Fashion to flaunt, to express one’s sexuality proves as the medium to be free, to talk to other non-verbally. One best example of how fashion liberates, now, in this “free” world is the “anti-prom” party in June 2017 in New York. It included queer people on a majority who dressed however they wanted to, free to express, thus being comfortable in their sexuality.
D SEXUALITY
Sexuality changing fashion
Evolutionary
Fashion changes with changing mindsets, innovation, experimentation, changing needs, etc. It caters to the soul, to one’s confidence. Fashion provides a language to converse with like-minded people, it is a declaration of self. With the fight to liberation and right to voice, the world has become more free and accepting. Getting confidence to be comfortable in your own skin became easier. The evolution of recognition of different sexualities gave birth to style called ‘Androgyny’ and gender neutral clothing; and to cater to those many brands have developed clothing lines specially for such styles, such as- ‘Not Equal’ , ‘Butchbaby and Co.’, ‘Tilly and William’ etc. With the freedom in sexuality, the face of fashion also changes.
Sexuality and fashion go hand in hand, both creating an impact on each other. People want to identify as whoever they feel they are, whenever they want to. Fashion was used as a medium to establish gender norms and also to break them. It shows the power it holds to communicate one’s feelings. From the fashion that acme after or during World War II, it gave the women, a feeling of authority. Famous musician’s like David Bowie, incorporated androgyny in his style while performing as his alter ego- Ziggy Stardust.
TREND REPO
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Trend: Off-shoulder draping of jackets/ shirts Season: Fall Category: Jackets/shirts
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FALL FOR SHOULDERS by Pun Panda
Innovation,
experimentation and breaking the rules have always been the soul of fashion. As fall is upon us, one cannot help but think about layering up; what to layer and how to layer. Styling is an everyday task for celebrities and even individuals, unconventional means and results are what people strive for, being out of the ordinary whilst expressing one self is the goal. For fall, layering of jackets
and shirts have been major elements to play around with and with the trends passing by we have seen the endless possibilities an outerwear can create to one’s look. Some where in 2012 the craze of wearing jackets like capes hit Hollywood and gave off a look that said “I am wearing this jacket but it’s too precious to be worn in a conventional manner.” It created a royal yet carefree attitude about the
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ensemble. The trend still lives on the streets and shoots of fashion bloggers, slowly fading but breathing.
Image on the top of the page is of Kim Kardashian ,Oct 2016. The image below is of Kylie Jenner,April 2017. All photos taken from their instagram accounts.
However what came out of that trend, people found their way into actually putting their hands through the sleeves but baring their collarbones and shoulders. The jackets hung, clung and slumped over shoulders which did not really speak royalty but maintaining the carefree and effortless look with a rebel inside, also not forget the sex appeal aesthetics that followed.
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In 2016, the fashion world leaders of now, Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner started sporting the off-shoulder outerwear garment look, baring either one or both shoulders or sometimes enough drop to just showcase their collarbones. With the reach of millions of people over social media this trend is wild fire amongst ‘fashionistas’ and has reached over to the fashion bloggers of India as well. This effortless styling of the outer-garment proves to be a real eye-catcher and can be used in a sensual and non-sensual way too. The most popular jacket or shirt that people inculcate this style is with denim, the queen of the rebel squad. Honestly the material of the
garment really gives the final call of letting the look be a ‘rockerrebel’ or ‘too classy to care’ look. From RiRi to Alia Bhatt, this slumping/offshoulder treatment of jackets can be seen around.
Image 3 is of Rihanna on a normal grocery run in 2017, Image 4 is of Alia Bhatt, July 2017. The latter photos are of Indian fashion bloggers, thecollegecouture, sharmilaasharma, thatbohogirl and thekapdakona, respectively. All photos are taken from their individual instagram accounts.
FEATURE Dress yourself, Like yourself
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“In a society that profits from your self-doubt, liking yourself is a rebellious act.” - Caroline Caldwell Wear what comforts you and reflects your mood, many rebellions and movements of change started with an individual either wearing what was comfortable to her/him or they couldn’t find anything in store to portray their feelings so they made their own kind. Self-actualization is the last and the utmost need of an individual, made clear by the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. One cannot be a self-actualized human being without being true to oneself, to be a better a human being the first step is always being true to oneself in all aspects of life, so why leave fashion behind? It is easy on the outer layer to wear whatever everybody else is wearing or whatever is supposedly “In trend” but what is its depth? What does it mean if it doesn’t reflect the person you are today? The clothes you wear are a presentation of what you like, what you mood is for the day or just reflecting one’s personality in general. For every choice we
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take in our life, even while picking out our clothes in morning or while shopping, we subconsciously are making decisions and thinking about it thus proving what we wear is an abstraction of our thoughts. We the people are meant to rebel, it is in-built and will always rebel till the time we find what we suits us, that’s how we’ve evolved and made drastic changes to look back upon. It’s not the question of which celebrity is following this ideology, revolution starts with you. History has it in rock, with advent of punk, goth and even the millennial style, all these trends that surfaced got a name because someone out there was brave enough to show the world what they like to wear and how. Out of all the trends that emerge, most of us have relate to it or even have the exact same style sense but carried out such ensembles because we were too scared that we’d be rejected by the society or made fun of. So we stick to what is “in” and let the society profit from us while we are yet to be true to ourselves. We have our freedom, we need to start acting like it. Next time you pick your clothes for the
day, think for a second, who you are and what do you feel like today. Pick out those flared jeans you’ve been dying to wear or that sweatheart dress and flaunt it because you feel that happy and confident today. Be true to yourself, be like you.
FASHION SH
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Almost Educative An attempt to showcase the learnings of the basics of fashion, 2nd year student of Fashion communication department of NIFT Gandhinagar, put up a fashion show on 15th November 2017 in their own campus. Focusing on one of their first sequenceSilhouettes. With the main colour of black and accent colour of blue, the stylists; Sakshi and Mayank from the batch very cleverly took the one of the most basic colour and kept it achromatic with different tones and materials of cloth which helped in focusing on more of the shape of the garment. One cannot call it a proper fashion show as the main components of a fashion show comprises of set design and a designer which wasn’t included in this. It was rather a showcase or presentation of all the knowledge they had curated gift packed with skills of choreography, styling, modelling, music setting, hosting the show, etc. Coming back to the sequence. Practice and hard-work of three weeks didn’t quite reflect in the confidence of the models but the choreography was well planned and looked interesting with the convergence of models on different levels, seemed to represent the proximity of all
HOW REVIEW
silhouettes, as well as the individual qualities of them. The mermaid silhouette was near to perfect with sheer material gave variety in the look. Structured coat and straight pants justified the formal look, however according to the narrative, formal does not really fit in to a silhouette category. Talking about ill fitted titles to the given sequence a ‘casual’ look is not a silhouette as well, the only good thing about that ‘look’ was the interesting use of the backpack as a variation in accessories for the show. The variation in accessories didn’t look quite thought of, the small elements didn’t really matter to the silhouette sequence, and however a fashion show is all about the looks and details thus two watches and a black bracelet with recklessness of having a black rubber band on one of the model’s wrist. Tent and Victorian silhouette was well communicated. All in all as rookie in the fashion industry, the students tried to source garments and props as much as close to the looks they were opting for, with slight silly mistakes in the modelling and narration, the
concepts still seemed to be a little rough on the topics they had taken over. However to kudos to all for being able to put up a show in the midst of submissions and various other subjects.
FASHION SH
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Underlying Statements Comme Des Garcon and Maison Martin Margiela, two names that are recognized worldwide for their conceptual work in Fashion and not actually designing with the thought of designing ‘clothes’. Both narrating or commenting some or the other subject in their shows. Very evidently their Couture shows are packed with concepts and require detail study to understand why the garments and the environment the way they are, the thought is where the real show lies. Reviewing two shows of each of them; Comme Des Garcons’s SS12 Couture and F/W 2012-13 and Maison Martin Margiela’s SS 2017 Couture and F/W 2017-18 Couture Collection, It is noticeable of how they use their garments as a tool to communicate a message or a concept, they tend to use all the communicative tools at hand such as model’s body language, make up, hair styling, garment construction, the music and the ambience they create. Each detail reveals some or the other information about the designer and the collection. Their cultural indication is also noticed in the way their garments and their environment. Comme De Garcon’s SS12 couture depicted a
HOW REVIEW
life cycle which somewhat seemed like a female version of the Shakespearean poem- “All the world’s a stage” which talks about a man’s life cycle from birth to death and the world is a stage. The runway seemed like the stage for Rei to depict the infancy by tying the hands with a bow-tie, signifying a gift or something new, coming into a gloomy world in which you’ll eventually die. The white runway and subtle purple lights gave a nice canvas to change moods on with the tool of music. Happy event with a graceful music was the marriage of the lady, embellished with flowers and the face is shown, however a line with black boots unlike the other lines which had white boots seemed gloomier than the most and had black spray paint elements in the garment, marking the scars while the last line showcased a lean silhouette which engulfed the model head to almost toe signifying the nature taking in one’s body into itself. A main cultural marker of the Japanese aspect was the exaggerated sleeves and below the waist flaring of garments and also the use of the paper fans used by the audience. Talking about cultural indicators Comme Des Garcon’s F/W 2012-12 Couture
Collection had a silver hairpin on the models’ hair which seemed to give off a Japanese vibe and very evidently the exaggerated width of the garments. Usage of pop colours rebelled against the typical color pallet of fall and winter. There is no music in the show till prints start showing up ( prints such as flowers which in some garments looked like hand sketched flowers with oil pastel crayons) standing true to their characteristics of being a silent influencer in the world of fashion. Maison Martin Margiela’s both collections was headed by John Galliano and talks about the concepts and current fashion scenario, the shows are faster and brighter in comparison to Comme Des Garcon’s shows. The SS 2017 couture collection was a showcase on how much can a garment can stripped down to its wireframes and still be recognized and visualized as the original garment. The makeup and hair played huge role in giving off a modern day look and the world of filters on photos. The set was bright and white and gave a fresh and fast moving pace to the whole experience. One could see European silhouettes and an ethnic variation in the selection of
models. The variation was also evident in the other collection’s show; F/W 2017-18 couture collection, where Galliano seemed to set the stage where the audience could experience the backstage and the process of bringing in the runway show; it is evident where he placed the models faces and their garments with their details on the walls of the hall and in the middle of the runway kept dressing tables and chairs. The show was fast paced and had elements of stereotypical glamorous fashion looks. The red and bold lipstick, shiny-metallic shoes and the use of trench coats and corsets which set the fashion trends of today. Both the fashion houses seemed to have contrasting fashion shows where one was slow and eerie and the other was fast paced and glamorous however these two are connected by not following the norms of fashion and having a concept behind every show as to curating an art exhibition instead of a fashion show.