Thursday, August 29, 2013
Political Mayhem Thursday: Down With Fashion Week!
It appears that we are coming up on Fashion Week in New York soon, meaning that we will be treated to a parade of emaciated models wearing clothes that no one in the real world wears while bored-looking celebrities look on.
Could someone please explain to me what social utility this event has? It seems morally caustic-- making people feel like they aren't skinny enough, that clothes are meant to be about the maker, not the wearer, and that what a small cabal of people from New York feel is attractive is, necessarily, attractive.
The Dorothea Lange photo pictured above features many of the same elements you will see in pictures from fashion week. The thinness of the model, the shape of what she is wearing, even her expression will be echoed by the models on the runway in New York. This picture, though, the one above, is of a starving girl.
Of course, the ones from fashion week are, too. And what, exactly, is so great about that?
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There is no social utility to this event, Prof! Fashion designers fancy themselves as “artists” and the fashion show a gallery exhibition-like event...perhaps because a lot of the same crowd shows up at both. The mind boggling part about this whole thing is not “the emperor's new clothes” aspect, the fact that most people with disposable income have abysmal taste and that most fashion design happening these days is a rip-off from other more inspired work, it is that fashion week organizers boast about its economic impact and their earth shattering importance. I suppose local 157 carpenters would agree and so would a bunch of other support crew people, but there is nothing great about it either. I personally cannot help seeing fashion week beyond skin deep and because skin deep in fashion goes straight to the bone, I see it as just plain wrong...in fact, a social affront.
I'll start caring about fashion week when designers come to there senses and remember that a person who wears a size 10 or 12 has body curves that someone parading around in a size ZERO doesn't have. This means you have to alter the pattern not simply add more fabric.
They also need to realize that a middle aged woman with disposable income doesn't want to dress like a 20 something (contrary to what the reality shows portray).
They also need to realize that a middle aged woman with disposable income doesn't want to dress like a 20 something (contrary to what the reality shows portray).
If you get a chance, watch this short commercial from Dove. It is one of a series I show in the advertiser lectures in my Mass Comm class:
http://mashable.com/2013/04/15/dove-ad-beauty-sketches/
Bob
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http://mashable.com/2013/04/15/dove-ad-beauty-sketches/
Bob
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