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What Gareth, Ruth and Katie made me think about:
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Once upon a time, earlier last month to be exact; I was procrastinating
trying to figure out what to do with my day when a feed on Instagram
captured my attention. In less than 300 words I had to explain what was the
biggest fashion moment in 2015 and submit it to Dazed and Confused.
My mind was everywhere; the options were endless. Was it
Taylor Swift creating a new fashion video with Bad Blood introducing the ‘New
Supermodels’, over taking George Micheals ' Too funky' and 'Freedom' videos? No. Or was it perhaps
Viktor&Rolf's runway where art became fashion with models wearing canvases? Almost, but it felt to standard. Could it have been the political stance at
the Rick Owens show? 300 words would definitely not have covered that. Should it have been an article about Bruce
Jenner’s transformation and gender in fashion? That would have been at least
1000 words. Or should I have taken then humorous approach and written about the
Valentino couture show and comparing the couture to Valentino’s face. (That
would have been hilarious, but mean….. and no one likes mean). So I came up with
this:
“Originally an
acronym: a word now used rather frequently to describe anything from the
formation of cells, mathematic calculations to people and their wrong doings.
Can you guess what it is yet? Formerly known as the Beginners'
All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code in the 1960’s, the word BASIC has taken the fashion world by
storm. The word resonates feelings of the unrefined, irrelevant, the copy, the
norm, the tedious, the basic. Much like any new fashion fads, many have uttered
the word. The cool kids in the newest clubs, the hipsters in their snazzy new
pubs, designers, models you name it. And even if you haven’t yet verbalized the
word it must have crossed your mind at some point and one day soon, when you’re
ready, it will manifest itself and you will breathe a sigh of relief as you realise
it epitomises what you wanted to explain perfectly.
Spectators, constantly ‘fashion shaming’ industry
people, have always torn fashion to shreds endlessly. However
2015 fashion has claimed the industry back through the word ‘basic’.
This year we saw the ridiculously fabulous Kate
Moss being asked to leave an easyjet flight and the talented Marc Jacobs
accidently exposing himself on instagram both things have happened to many but
only becomes of importance when a celebrity does it. The two filmed themselves
together calling out all the basic bitches, letting them know ‘they’re basic’.
This was two fingers up to everyone, and was done
ever so eloquently. They are the creatives and the muses of industry. I don’t
remember Warhol or Edie Sedgwick ever having to apologise for any of their
actions. In a world that is so PC, we need to remember that art and creativity
broke boundaries by not following the status quo and breaking the basic rules.
“
These 297 words granted me access to the first ever Dazed
Fashion Forum, which allowed me to sit in for talks with some incredibly
creative thinkers in the industry.
It started with a talk from Nicola Formichetti, Creative
Director for Diesel. His imagination saw no boundaries. His laissez faire
attitude to the industry and being true to himself made his approach to his
genius so innate and somehow tangible.
What Nicola Formichetti made me think about:
·
If you’re not prepared to work hard you wont get
anywhere
·
Be you, trust in yourself and your instincts
·
Have a digital detox (once in a while)
·
What you love to do will bring you success.
Following Nicola Formichetti we were introduced to Somerset
House Fashion Curator Shonagh Marshall and set designer Shona Heath. Here they
talked about the struggles of getting into the industry, their success and
their creative processes to creating atmospheres through and within work.
What Shonagh and Shona made me think about:
·
Work hard
·
Be prepared to do anything your job requires of you
·
You will work for nothing at points but it will
be worth it
·
Its ok to be a bit obsessive with your research
We then had the head of fashion at the RCA Zowie Broach in
conversation for Fashion editor of the Independent Alexander Fury discussing
the future of fashion and what direction it was heading.
What Zowie Broach made me think about:
·
In order to make a change you need to create a
tribe
·
You must challenge culture and yourself
·
Be disruptive
·
It is human nature to make and craft
Although I really would have loved to be part of the
workshops, I was in cerebral mode; I was thirsty for more words of wisdom to
inspire me. Enter Gareth Pugh, Katie Shillingford and Ruth Hogben, a dynamic
threesome that understood each other and each other's work.
What Gareth, Ruth and Katie made me think about:
·
Work in a team
·
Work with people as invested as you
·
Don’t think like a poor person (Michele Lamy’s
words to Gareth Pugh)
We then took a turn to music in fashion, with composer
Frederic Sanchez talking to Dazed editorial director Tim Noakes about the importance
of music during runway shows.
Susie Lau then introduced film director Kathryn Ferguson,
producer Juliette Larthe and co-founder of Studio XO Nancy Tilbury to the stage
to discuss women in fashion film, behind and in front of the camera.
What Kathryn, Juliette and Nancy made me think about:
·
The struggle is real (RuPaul reference)
·
Sexism and discrimination is rife in the industry
·
It has come a long way but still has a long way
to go
What Frederic Sanchez made me think about:
·
Its ok to change things last minute if it doesn’t
feel right
·
Contradiction is great
·
Use sounds that you wouldn’t necessarily ever
think of using (think outside the box)
·
Mix genres
From music to make up we met Isamaya Ffrench, interestingly
initially approached for her elaborate face painting skills.
What Isamaya Ffrench made me think about:
·
Not everyone is going to get you
·
Not everyone is going to like your work
·
Do it anyway
·
You can't please everyone
What Phoebe, Matthew and Reba made me think about:
·
There is a lot more going on then we think
·
The industry needs to be diversified on so many levels
·
There are a lot of fashion politics that need to
be eradicated
·
There is a way of thinking as a society
that also needs to be either eradicated or altered
·
Progression is vital at this point
·
We need to come together and change not only what is
wrong in fashion but what is wrong with the society we live in and todays politics
·
It is unacceptable to stand by and do nothing
·
This goes beyond fashion and art this is about
culture and the evolution of us as human’s/thinkers as opposed to be sheep
following and believed what we are told is true. Because it is not
I
have been invited to things like this before, and the feel has always been
that ‘you must adapt to the industry’.
For once, the underlying theme was fuck the world- do you! As self-help as it
sounds this was about how one needs to create the future they want for their
selves. The world is changing because I
truly believe that people have had enough of how it’s being run. We are treated
like sheep, having to follow suit at whatever is told to us and I know for sure
my generation has had enough. There are so many factors and economical scare
tactics that are made in attempt to hinder anyone’s development. Having been
thinking about this for time and time again I decided to go back to university this
September to study the ins and outs of fashion to research how and where we can
start the change in a broader perspective. The change has already started
within cultural groups and certain areas in cities. We’ve even gotten to the
point where subculture seem to no longer exist and if the they did they are
keeping themselves very quiet. I insist
that a revolution needs to happen soon! Not to be destructive, but to be disruptive
and make a change to OUR worlds and society. Yes you live here too, are you
happy following the status quo? Do you never look around and see how things are
run and think ‘what in gods name is going on?’. We can’t think that liking
something on Facebook makes you part of a movement! Technology brings factors
of issues to our attention and we can choose to acknowledge them or not. The
truth of the matter is it has made us hide away. Hide behind a computer, hide
in a room- never really needing to go out because we have convinced ourselves
pressing a like button has made a difference. I know this because I too am
guilty of this. We no longer have human interaction, which makes communication and
working as a tribe, a force together as humans awkward and uncomfortable. How
do we think we can change the world this way?
Everything
is stagnate and stale, and will remain so until we make a difference and make
the changes we want to see in the world in ourselves.
We
are in creative state of limbo, causing a cultural state of limbo resulting in
general limbo.
During
her talk Zowie Broach explained how the opening paragraph of Dickens’ ‘Tales of
Two Cities” reflects exactly where we are at present. She was incredibly right. I just would have
hoped we would have come a long way from 1859.
"It was the best of times, it was the
worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was
the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of
Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the
winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we
were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way."
Charles
Dickens: A Tale Of Two Cities (1859)
Lets start making a change.
-Andrew
