Fashion Month +++
+ARCHIVE
- CRITIQUE
- FASHION
- RESISTANCE
- ANALYSIS
- FASHION
- SOCIOLOGY
- CULTURE
- PHILOSOPHY
- SOCIOLOGY
- STYLE
- CREATIVE PRACTICE
- CULTURE
- SOCIOLOGY
- PRACTICE
- RESISTANCE
- CRITIQUE
- CULTURE
- FASHION
- ART
- COMMENTARY
- PHILOSOPHY
- COMMENTARY
- CULTURE
- CULTURE
- PHILOSOPHY
Fashion weeks are upon us and now feels like a good time to talk/write/read about the following points:
- the IMAGE is a god!! but should it be so??
death of critique- the fashion, luxury, entertainment lexicon
If you’re like me, you have been flooded with fashion week, style, looks and outfit content on your platform of choice. Pushing past endless reels which have a hypnotic hold over me despite my resistance to be rendered helpless at the hands of algorithm and dopamine surges— I have had the absolute pleasure to come across a few articles and anti-hot takes on the mega topic of fashion and what it is meaning to a lot of us right now.
Read this one with varied pace, preferably over the weekend punctuated by decent helpings of cake. If you don’t have cake, arrange that first and then read.
Is dumb the new cool?
Eugene Rabkin shared his thoughts on this insta forward fashion page which is famously recognized and widely reposted by many trying to prove a point without actually making one—Style Not Com. This one is a good segue into our theme today of the IMAGE being a god. Such “snackable content” that is packaged in a visually attractive manner is exactly the antithesis to what fashion journalism needs. White san serif font on a cobalt blue background, posted on instagram ad nauseam— has become a trending practice for those wanting to participate in the fashion conversation without making any effort to understand it. Rabkin’s point echoes the spirit of Suzy Menkes’ famous article which got lost in translation (she was slammed with accusations of gatekeeping). Her main objection was that fashion discourse was suffering greatly with the rise of bloggers claiming space which was reserved for commentary that involved an intellectual bent. Commentary that gave fashion the gravitas that any cultural discipline demands if it wishes to be taken seriously. These blue boxes which basically are just a retelling of events which people can see with their own eyes, have become a statement on their own. The narrative that is used by the operators of such pages is the democratization of access. This is a familiar argument— a generation ago we saw this when bloggers tried to push the substantiality of their material, as the quality of magazine commentary deteriorated. This push for being taken seriously was in tandem with the increasingly assertive demands for free bags, front row passes and higher access to fashion structures. (this is not to say some OG bloggers went on to make a well deserved space in the editorial world of fashion and carved a similar road for many other traditionally speaking ‘outsiders’).
“The bloggers, some of whom, like Susie Bubble (Susanna Lau), actually can write and have gone on to securing editorial positions, are being challenged by the image-first culture that no longer prizes words. They are up against a new generation of kids whose audiences want memes and TikTok videos. That old journalistic complaint that the newcomers lack authority with which to tackle the subject they present is true. What is also true is that they no longer need it.
What is lost when informed opinion no longer counts is the implicit demand that fashion must do better. Designers who made fashion exciting, and therefore interesting, read the critics and felt this pressure. When the critics are replaced by pliant cheerleaders, that pressure is gone. We have never seen so much fashion as we do now, and it has never felt so boring. And herein lies the danger, that excitement about fashion is on its way out.”
Kanika Talwar of
makes a similar point, to read her take on this click here.
Even the most casual fashion viewer is not stupid enough to not see for themselves that there was an “ALL BLACK VENUE AND LOTS OF BLACK CLOTHES AT ANN DEMEULEMEESTER” or that “NAOMI OPENS ALEXANDER MCQUEEN” or that “THERE ARE BOXES OF CONFETTI AT LOEWE”
Over all, the idea of analysis, research and thoughtful discourse around fashion being dumbed down to an image first, algorithm friendly, easily digestible format is depressing. There is so much history, business, strategy, sociology and politics involved in the existence of the fashion industry influencing every day lives for most on this planet, that to deprive it of its due attention is dangerous if not alarming. The consumption patterns of fashion produce are competing with the products of new media— or are they feeding into each other?
Fashion, luxury, entertainment
The world seems to be operating in different planes. These experiences are felt and collected differently too. On one hand, you have the good old real life, happening in real time with a bonus of sensory availability—on the other, you have online life which is a lot more agile than real life with its unique qualities of progressing in a continuum, with the ability to not only distort the experience of real time but to conquer it with its mega attribute of being the experience as well as the experienced. In relation to fashion, the online plane is where the industry feeds this machine, nurturing it into a sophisticated engine of self serving entertainment. But where one would once assume that real life was fodder for the online, we are living in a world where the online is now choreographing real life. And that is precisely what we are seeing with fashion. Real life strategies (ie. marketing, speed of production, supply chain) adopted by many if not most fashion brands, are now being tailored according to projections of how these real life experiences (purchasing, wearability) will translate into the online. With the proliferation of Tik Tok, easily accessible global markets and general digital dystopia, we are seeing a shift from the craft of fashion to the illusion of fashion. (An example of such as brand, Khaite.) Runways are being populated by designs that cater to the needs of optical satisfaction, the fantasy of being good. Majority of the audiences that are buying these clothes are in fact, just audiences…sitting behind a screen vetting their shopping carts based on the popularity and visual zeal of the clothes that they have no idea about. What suffers? More than just the deteriorating sensibilities of design and material— fashion suffers. It suffers because it is constantly being pushed to make more as preferences online are in constant flux! Tailoring, material, technique— what once made a fashion label, are just an add on if not an anomaly. The following is a bit from Rachel Tashjian’s article for the Washington Post, detailing the spectacle-ness of the runway:
Runway shows have gotten heavy with ideas. Designers will name-drop art, commerce, capitalism, politics, obscure historic figures — you name it — backstage, and it is usually impossible to make the connection between a designer’s stated inspirations and what you see in the clothes. TikTok teaches us to look at fashion shows for styling ideas or source material for dupes (the extremely online term for cheap knockoffs). We are encouraged to scour through looks for red-carpet contenders. Or we look to runways to give us the next “trend” — which is really just a shorthand these days for “Can you believe some people are actually wearing this?”
This makes me think about story telling.
We see storytelling and narrative building as key strategies used by brands to connect with their audience on an emotional and intellectual level. We also see nostalgia being a key tool in this storytelling handbook. My problem with one dimensional storytelling is that it blurs the line between what is being sold vs what is being presented. How do you negotiate the commodification of something that hits you on a cerebral level—with items in your shopping cart? Do we feel better about our consumption habits if we connect with a story? Taking an example of many South Asian brands trying to prove the ‘slowness’ of their production by showing artisans sitting on the adda (wooden frame used for hand embroidery) hard at work. Just because we are able to see choreographed artisans sitting with their craft, embroidering to well chosen music, nicely packaged in reels— do we feel a sigh of relief? Thinking that “ok now I can justify my spending on this brand!” At the end of the day, storytelling is marketing. And this trend of showcasing chosen craftsmen who are being directed behind the camera, humming to a screenplay is lazy. It was new and fresh when it first started out but when you are showing chosen snippets of a larger picture, especially of the picture that drives your entire business— it is dangerous. Because now, you are not only trying to sell your product, you are trying to convince an audience to narrow their vision of inquiry and ethical concern, training them to be satisfied way too easily. Natalia from Advance Copy makes an important point in her podcast interview with the founders of the Indian fashion label, NorBlack NorWhite:
“About the visualization of textile and clothing manufacturing process.…the countless brands visualizing their ethical credentials with images of artisans sewing or spinning yarn and smiling, this kind of static angle which I think we are desensitized to and which for me, fails to completely capture the beauty and complexity of the fashion making process…. and in no way am I saying it’s easy, its definitely a huge challenge. But I also think its time to flex our creative muscle in regards to the story telling of the process and not just of the final product or a model or influencer where all of the marketing budget gets invested in…”
In a world where sustainable production is now an emergency, these storytelling habits are making it that much harder for the purchasing community to hold themselves accountable in at least having solid opinions on why they are spending. It also takes away from the product. Storytelling is good when it trickles down into the very fabric of a brand and doesn’t just stop when the collection is sold out. This includes the product itself, the user experience, the online garden of a brand and its communicated ethos. While many brands have incorporated story telling as part of their presence; growing their following organically and with purpose—we are also seeing an aggressive push for visualization of pseudo processes for the sake of the bandwagon. I am by no means against this strategy of marketing, I am saying —as consumers, we should resist being convinced simply by what we are shown.
I would like to close with a note from Rabkin’s article ‘Fashion is Not Art. It’s Entertainment’:
Throughout the first two decades of the 21st Century the newly minted luxury conglomerates rushed into the arms of the mass audience, earning record profits with each year, dumbing down fashion in the process, turning the fashion world into the fashion industry. It is hard to imagine today the general fashion audience caring for the cerebral work of Hussein Chalayan or Martin Margiela, for the minimalism of Helmut Lang or Jil Sander, for the rock-n-roll spirit of Ann Demeulemeester. The fashion kids are interested in Raf Simons and Rick Owens not because these designers have created aesthetic universes worth thinking about, but because they saw their clothes on their favorite rapper. Designers have given way to “artistic directors,” while the exhausting run of collaborations provides an illusion of newness in place of genuine innovation.
In short, we are living in the world where fashion has become just another cultural commodity. And, yes, fashion has always been a commodity, but not a mere commodity. Which brings me back to the view outlined by Adorno and Hokheimer – that the average consumer of culture, overworked and overstressed by his or her daily life, is not going to look for meaning in art but for entertainment, simply because he or she has no bandwidth to delve deeply into culture. Art demands effort – attention, thought, education. All that entertainment demands is your money.
FROM THE MAG
As always, here is a playlist that has been serving me. Thank you for making it this far if you did!!
I hope you really did eat that cake ❤
Stay light,
M
Subscribe to BARO MAGAZINE
A documentation of action via visual culture, sociology, fashion, politics, literature and music