Luxury no longer only means expensive and elite. Luxury tastes are changing and are infused with a dose of ethics.
We've already seen this shift happening in food. Artisan is the key word, producing the imagine of sun-drenched farmer in a small farm near the city, plucking organic crops and delivering them to the urbanite, a lady bug on a juicy tomato for added authenticity. Or a cheese shop hand crafting new varieties for the discerning foodie.
The slow movement popularized in food is now shifting to the apparel and accessories market. Instead of mass fashion, unique is the focus. Sustainability in materials is important, but so is fair wages and limited production.
Take for instance the exhibition-cum-pop-up shop, aptly titled "SHOP: Like You Mean It." The exhibit curated by Pratt Institute's chair of Fashion Design, Jennifer Minniti, opened on the new consumption holiday Fashion Night Out. Covered by Forbes fashion writer Raquel Laneri, the show at the Underline Gallery hit on something sorely missing from the fashion scene as triumphed by Vogue. It featured works by 19 artists reacting to the unoriginality of mass production and fast-fashion distribution.
The terms artisan, hand-crafted, limited-edition, and authentic are going to mean so much more in the luxury-fashion market in the future. As the price for fiber steadily increases, we're going to see less emphasis on fast fashion and more on design that means something and can adapt to our lives.
Unfortunately old-world artisans who were highly specialized textiles and finishings are fading quickly. In a world concerned with immediacy, we have no time to wait while these masters create opulence. Nor the funds to pay for it. Instead designs in the future must think less about extravagance and more about creative utility.
Think small. Power fashion houses are on their way out. Many equate them to the too-big-to-fail banks that led us into financial decline, and much of the work they produce is stagnant. Independent designers will do best to stay nimble, focus on their client and deliver innovative work that sends an authentic message.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Strong Showing
Have you seen the Museum at FIT's roundup of fashion-related exhibitions? If you haven't, check it out asap. The range and depth of the ongoing and upcoming shows are proof that fashion exhibitions are seeing strong support right now.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
The Start of Something Good
The internet is abuzz that Tavi Gevinson's new website, Rookie, went live yesterday. I'm excited about it, even though it's targeted to teenage girls rather than a woman in her late 20s.
Tavi is growing into a mature, intellectual, and articulate woman whose interests are shifting from fashion obsession to literature and feminism. I think this can only mean great things for teenage girls today who desperately need points of view outside of the Cosmo-type camp.
I can't wait to see what Rookie becomes.
Friday, September 2, 2011
Twitter Roundup
illustration from Lucky Magazine
Over at Lucky Magazine, John Jannuzzi has compiled a list of fashion bloggers — "The Ultimate Twitter Fashion Directory." Designers, bloggers, models, and a miscellaneous group of commentators make the list. I was a little disappointed to see few critics and no fashion theorists or historians. Who do you think is missing from it?
UPDATE: Lucky tweeted Tuesday (Sept. 5) that it will take suggestions for inclusion on the directory. Email lucky.twitter.guide@gmail.com to recommend a tweeter.
UPDATE: Lucky tweeted Tuesday (Sept. 5) that it will take suggestions for inclusion on the directory. Email lucky.twitter.guide@gmail.com to recommend a tweeter.
via Refinery29
Thursday, August 4, 2011
The New Look for WWD
Women's Wear Daily launched a new website design today. Featuring a light grey background, the change is refreshing from it's former black facade.
The top of the homepage at first glance feels a bit overwhelming — it's cluttered with pictures and a blinking "Just In" headline box. Scrolling down, the headlines are more neatly arranged under section headings.
I'll be curious to see how easy the site is to navigate. It felt impossible in the old design to find exactly what one was looking for. Hopefully this new one will be more intuitive, even though at a first glance it still seems too clutter and busy.
The top of the homepage at first glance feels a bit overwhelming — it's cluttered with pictures and a blinking "Just In" headline box. Scrolling down, the headlines are more neatly arranged under section headings.
I'll be curious to see how easy the site is to navigate. It felt impossible in the old design to find exactly what one was looking for. Hopefully this new one will be more intuitive, even though at a first glance it still seems too clutter and busy.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Midnight with McQueen
In an unprecedented move, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is extending its hours for the Alexander McQueen retrospective during its last two days. “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” will be open until midnight on August 6 and 7.
Women's Wear Daily reported that almost 550,000 people have seen the exhibition since it opened in May. The exhibition has already been extended an additional week.
If this doesn't body slam it home to museum administrators that fashion exhibitions have to power to bring people in, I don't know what will.
Women's Wear Daily reported that almost 550,000 people have seen the exhibition since it opened in May. The exhibition has already been extended an additional week.
If this doesn't body slam it home to museum administrators that fashion exhibitions have to power to bring people in, I don't know what will.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Dressing in Dakota
When I first moved to Fargo, I knew some elements of my wardrobe and shopping patterns would change. The first and most obvious would be limited access to trendy and au courant fashion stores. I would be quite far from my favorite boutiques and designer studios.
In some respects, this is a very good thing. If I showed up in the latest fast-fashion look from H&M, I would: a. freeze and b. get some looks. The newest styles are a bit slow to arrive in these parts — many students told me in a recent essay that they feel most fashionable when they wear leggings.* It does not make a lot of sense to embrace the same type of attire that one might see on a fashionista in New York City. I want people to take me seriously here.
The temperature forces me to dress for a higher level of comfort than I have before. This is acceptable to me because as I mature I'm inclined to enjoy warmth, physical ease, and freedom from pain. I have a new appreciation for chunky sweaters. I lucked out that they were popular this winter season.
I am less focused on being "fashionable" when I dress in the morning. Rather I have found myself honing my personal style. My wardrobe is undergoing some subtle but transformative changes. I look for the unique and quirky now. I aim for every ensemble to have one or two distinct features. Fit and construction are important backbones.
I am shopping online more than ever before. I think it's helping me make more critical decisions. Because I don't have to decide on the spot in the store, I can find a garment online one day, think about it overnight, return to the site a day later to look at it again, email a friend for feedback, put it aside and ponder for a few more days, and then buy later when I am sure that it is something that will be worn and will fit into my wardrobe well. I'm buying less things, but what I buy I really love.
Unfortunately it has been more difficult to buy directly from my favorite designers because it involves packages shipped back and forth to try sizes and styles out. Luckily my designer friends are very accommodating and trusting. They are learning my preferences and what looks good on my body better than ever and sending exactly what I will love even if I don't realize I will like it based on lookbooks pictures alone.
However, even after this focus on personal style and great fit and construction, I still get some looks. I get numerous compliments in person about what I wear, but I feel the burn of some stares while walking the university halls at work or in the grocery store. At first I was taken aback. I wasn't wearing anything bizarre — quirky yes, but not shocking or ugly. Over time I learned more about the northern plains personality. People here are incredibly stoic. Even if their faces display a lack of total interest when I give lectures, I hear later from students in one-on-one settings that they found the topic fascinating. So I'm chalking up the looks my outfits get to stoicism. Perhaps they actually think my ensemble is appealing, but their faces have learned not to betray inner feelings. At least, that is what I'm telling myself today while wearing my very full and somewhat flouncy rose-colored multi-circle skirt and thick knit black tights.
*I have been "over" the legging trend for at least a full two seasons now.
In some respects, this is a very good thing. If I showed up in the latest fast-fashion look from H&M, I would: a. freeze and b. get some looks. The newest styles are a bit slow to arrive in these parts — many students told me in a recent essay that they feel most fashionable when they wear leggings.* It does not make a lot of sense to embrace the same type of attire that one might see on a fashionista in New York City. I want people to take me seriously here.
The temperature forces me to dress for a higher level of comfort than I have before. This is acceptable to me because as I mature I'm inclined to enjoy warmth, physical ease, and freedom from pain. I have a new appreciation for chunky sweaters. I lucked out that they were popular this winter season.
I am less focused on being "fashionable" when I dress in the morning. Rather I have found myself honing my personal style. My wardrobe is undergoing some subtle but transformative changes. I look for the unique and quirky now. I aim for every ensemble to have one or two distinct features. Fit and construction are important backbones.
I am shopping online more than ever before. I think it's helping me make more critical decisions. Because I don't have to decide on the spot in the store, I can find a garment online one day, think about it overnight, return to the site a day later to look at it again, email a friend for feedback, put it aside and ponder for a few more days, and then buy later when I am sure that it is something that will be worn and will fit into my wardrobe well. I'm buying less things, but what I buy I really love.
Unfortunately it has been more difficult to buy directly from my favorite designers because it involves packages shipped back and forth to try sizes and styles out. Luckily my designer friends are very accommodating and trusting. They are learning my preferences and what looks good on my body better than ever and sending exactly what I will love even if I don't realize I will like it based on lookbooks pictures alone.
However, even after this focus on personal style and great fit and construction, I still get some looks. I get numerous compliments in person about what I wear, but I feel the burn of some stares while walking the university halls at work or in the grocery store. At first I was taken aback. I wasn't wearing anything bizarre — quirky yes, but not shocking or ugly. Over time I learned more about the northern plains personality. People here are incredibly stoic. Even if their faces display a lack of total interest when I give lectures, I hear later from students in one-on-one settings that they found the topic fascinating. So I'm chalking up the looks my outfits get to stoicism. Perhaps they actually think my ensemble is appealing, but their faces have learned not to betray inner feelings. At least, that is what I'm telling myself today while wearing my very full and somewhat flouncy rose-colored multi-circle skirt and thick knit black tights.
*I have been "over" the legging trend for at least a full two seasons now.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Worried About Another Culture War
It is a scary thought that the United States could be moving back into a culture war. With the government on the hunt to cut funding, it seems an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery has been garnering negative press attention (from those like extremist Glenn Beck), Catholics, and Republican politicians.
The exhibition, called Hide/Seek, is called the "first major exhibition to focus on sexual difference in the making of modern American portraiture" by the National Portrait Gallery. Featuring artists and cultural figures who were gay or are believed to have been gay, it has the potential to expose Americans to more diversity and address gay issues in American portraiture. Surely the time is ripe for an exhibition like this.
Unfortunately our national dialogue seems to be controlled by knee-jerk reactionists who don't take the time to learn about what they are talking about. They ignore the context of a piece of art and go straight on the attack.
The piece drawing controversy, A Fire In My Belly by David Wojnarowicz, is a video of ants crawling on a crucifix. According to NPR, "Martin Sullivan, director of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, says the artist created the piece as a response to the 'agony and suffering' of his partner who at the time was dying of AIDS. Using 'vivid colors, and some fairly grotesque scenes, it's more a meditation on the fragility of the human flesh,' Sullivan says."
But without considering its context and the importance of art that pushes the boundaries about what we know about human suffering, these conservative reactionists are calling for the exhibition to be taken down and funding cut for an important national source of culture.
According to NPR, Catholic League president Bill Donohue said, "Why should the working class pay for the leisure of the elite when in fact one of the things the working class likes to do for leisure is to go to professional wrestling? And if I suggested we should have federal funds for professional wrestling to lower the cost of the ticket, people would think I'm insane. I don't go to museums any more than any Americans do."
These kind of comments terrify me because they betray a gross misunderstanding of how Americans take part in culture. Cultural destinations like the National Portrait Gallery are not only an economic engine, but also source of knowledge and discovery. I cannot comprehend how high ranking spokespeople and politicians can claim that museums who provoke and educate are immoral. Most countries take pride in the production of culture in their country and encourage it. Unfortunately, culture has somehow become a shameful and dirty thing in the United States and not worth of our taxpayers' dollars.
Museums like the National Gallery are not for the elite. Just because Donohue chooses not to experience culture in his daily life does not mean the majority of Americans do not find worth in attending a museum or concert. It is true that low culture is very relevant in today's society, but that does not mean high culture has no place. Instead, take a look at the major museums across the country who are initiating and ramping up new outreach programs to disenfranchised populations. Take a look at all the Americans who visit places of culture on vacation and who maybe choose to visit specific locations based on the museums or other cultural centers found there.
It is shameful that the Smithsonian, who controls the National Portrait Gallery, has caved to this pressure. They removed A Fire In My Belly from the exhibition, teaching conservatives that they still have power to dictate what the American public is allowed to see in its national museums. I agree with CultureGrrl that it is not the easiest video to watch and perhaps work of this type might not belong in a federally-funded museum. But the conversation surrounding the piece scares me far more than the video itself. The dialogue is eerily reminiscent of the culture wars of the 1980s sparked by exhibitions like Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment that was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which almost cost it its funding.
More reading:
NPR — Smithsonian under fire for gay portraiture exhibition
NPR — Gay portraiture exhibit sparks funding debate
TMP — Ant Jesus: An Anatomy on the latest war on Christmas scandal
CultureGrrl
The exhibition, called Hide/Seek, is called the "first major exhibition to focus on sexual difference in the making of modern American portraiture" by the National Portrait Gallery. Featuring artists and cultural figures who were gay or are believed to have been gay, it has the potential to expose Americans to more diversity and address gay issues in American portraiture. Surely the time is ripe for an exhibition like this.
Unfortunately our national dialogue seems to be controlled by knee-jerk reactionists who don't take the time to learn about what they are talking about. They ignore the context of a piece of art and go straight on the attack.
The piece drawing controversy, A Fire In My Belly by David Wojnarowicz, is a video of ants crawling on a crucifix. According to NPR, "Martin Sullivan, director of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, says the artist created the piece as a response to the 'agony and suffering' of his partner who at the time was dying of AIDS. Using 'vivid colors, and some fairly grotesque scenes, it's more a meditation on the fragility of the human flesh,' Sullivan says."
But without considering its context and the importance of art that pushes the boundaries about what we know about human suffering, these conservative reactionists are calling for the exhibition to be taken down and funding cut for an important national source of culture.
According to NPR, Catholic League president Bill Donohue said, "Why should the working class pay for the leisure of the elite when in fact one of the things the working class likes to do for leisure is to go to professional wrestling? And if I suggested we should have federal funds for professional wrestling to lower the cost of the ticket, people would think I'm insane. I don't go to museums any more than any Americans do."
These kind of comments terrify me because they betray a gross misunderstanding of how Americans take part in culture. Cultural destinations like the National Portrait Gallery are not only an economic engine, but also source of knowledge and discovery. I cannot comprehend how high ranking spokespeople and politicians can claim that museums who provoke and educate are immoral. Most countries take pride in the production of culture in their country and encourage it. Unfortunately, culture has somehow become a shameful and dirty thing in the United States and not worth of our taxpayers' dollars.
Museums like the National Gallery are not for the elite. Just because Donohue chooses not to experience culture in his daily life does not mean the majority of Americans do not find worth in attending a museum or concert. It is true that low culture is very relevant in today's society, but that does not mean high culture has no place. Instead, take a look at the major museums across the country who are initiating and ramping up new outreach programs to disenfranchised populations. Take a look at all the Americans who visit places of culture on vacation and who maybe choose to visit specific locations based on the museums or other cultural centers found there.
It is shameful that the Smithsonian, who controls the National Portrait Gallery, has caved to this pressure. They removed A Fire In My Belly from the exhibition, teaching conservatives that they still have power to dictate what the American public is allowed to see in its national museums. I agree with CultureGrrl that it is not the easiest video to watch and perhaps work of this type might not belong in a federally-funded museum. But the conversation surrounding the piece scares me far more than the video itself. The dialogue is eerily reminiscent of the culture wars of the 1980s sparked by exhibitions like Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment that was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which almost cost it its funding.
More reading:
NPR — Smithsonian under fire for gay portraiture exhibition
NPR — Gay portraiture exhibit sparks funding debate
TMP — Ant Jesus: An Anatomy on the latest war on Christmas scandal
CultureGrrl
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Top of the Fashion Chain
The Refinery posted their picks for Fashion's 50 Most Influential yesterday and invited readers to vote on their favorites.
The list includes designers, bloggers (naturally), celebrities and models, magazine editors, etc. It's an interesting who's who of the industry.
What do you think of the list? Any standouts you think definitely should or shouldn't be on it?
The list includes designers, bloggers (naturally), celebrities and models, magazine editors, etc. It's an interesting who's who of the industry.
What do you think of the list? Any standouts you think definitely should or shouldn't be on it?
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Exploring the 90s
Looks by Ann Demeulemeester, Photo By Dominique Maitre for Women's Wear DailyThe exhibition focuses on nineties style and includes a strong showing from the Belgians, the Japanese, the Brits, and the French. According to Women's Wear Daily, "single creations by Margiela, Issey Miyake and Alaia form the central backbone of the ground floor display."
It's exciting to hear that a curator is tackling such an interesting but misunderstood fashion decade of recent past. The curator, Olivier Saillard, is quoted about the Nineties saying, "that luxury was not necessarily synonymous with ostentation but rather experimentation and research, a kind of laboratory.”
For more: Back to the Nineties at Les Arts Decoratifs, WWD.com
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