aspire to enquire

Lauren Moffatt Fall 2012

I've been really inspired by this Lauren Moffatt press event recently. 

If you're a follower of my Pinterest you may have seen some of these shots already, which were taken by the awesome and highly followable Calivintage. But I wanted to comment here too.

From the little I know and have seen from the fashion world, catwalk/runway shows seem to be the standard way of showing your clothes every season. My impression has always been thatthe shows are about showing how the clothes move and fit, in a way that works for magazine editorials and buyers alike.

But then why are they over so quickly? It always seemed strange to me that more time is spent getting people in and out, doing the mingling and blagging than actually looking at the clothes that the designers have spent months on.

I've seen the likes of Acne do a more static display before, just asking models to walk into tableaus in a room, but what struck me about Lauren Moffatt's show was that the whole set and situation is tied into the look and spirit of the clothes. It must have happened before but it really inspired me to think about other presentation standards: Why is the accepted wisdom on performance or demonstration so accepted? Is there a way to give more value to your audience by doing things differently?

In Lauren Moffatt's case, the show cleverly speaks to the way designers of her level are talked about and shared around the web these days. These images, whilst still highly aspirational, have their qualities displayed in a much more tangible way than the often abstract catwalk would allow. It's meant that mere mortals like me can easily pick up the images, find something to say about them and share them with my own networks.

By redefining the audience and their interaction right from the start, Lauren Moffatt has been able to reach a far wider and more engaged audience than more traditional channels might have allowed.

Step, Clap, Go!

Step, Clap, Go! from Opening Ceremony on Vimeo.

Fashion Passion Action

Fall 2010 concept by Anthropologie

I post quite a lot here about little bits I get excited about in the fashion world. Sometimes because I think they're an example of a bigger trend, but often just because I really like the aesthetic conveyed (sometimes it's both; it's nice when that happens). The other week in my '5 things I'm thinking about' post I wondered if there could be something beneficial to non-profits and charities in following the direction of fashions more closely, and I was hoping to explore that here now.

When I talk about fashion, by the way, I'm usually referring to the higher end of the market, the designers and the writers covering them. I'm always interested to see what's being picked up by the high street (I read Inside Out as a good start), but I'm usually looking for simliar strands in the different collections that I think could have a wider appeal later down the line.

So. For me, the appeal and intrigue of fashion comes from its aspiration, its craft/quality and its 'nowness'. The rotating seasons, the exclusive marketing and the price tags all conspire to create an ongoing frenzy that fuels a huge industry and 'cool' societal movement.

Just to point out that I think sustainable fashion is cool and necessary, but that's not what I'm talking about here.

Digital is also about nowness, but it's also about appropriation, self-publication and bricolage. It's a massive challenge for high-fashions as their discourses move online.

When you look at how people create their personal brands through their clothing, tastes, beliefs and their online personas, and then at the big campaigns of the past few years, there are probably some points of similarity - Areas where the campaigns have not just been worthy causes, they've captured the zeitgeist and therefore become bigger and more potent than they might otherwise have been. 

The Atheist Bus

I wonder if, in future, campaigns could be crafted in such a way that they're able to predict that national spirit, through more closely following trends as they concieve themselves on the catwalk (and on television, as Grant McCracken propounds).

Obviously the charity sphere is about a lot more than single-season issues, and there will be times, like during climate disasters, where this kind of thinking would be less effective. But if we're operating in a world where we're relying on our supporters to be our advocates and movement-builders, then we need a hook. We need to get people interested initially, but we also need to create campaigns where our supporters are proud to wear the badge and actively tell their friends. The campaigns can become part of our supporters' personal brand creation.

Make Poverty History is an obvious example

I think that by being more aware of emerging visual trends and what they mean for people's lifestyles, charities and non-profits could more accurately tailor their future events and campaigns, and make them more effective.

What if The Uniform Project had been more closely aligned with a charity and a wider campaigning infastructure? What if the Goodwood Vintage festival had been more actively promoted and curated by the charities involved with it? 

Just a thought. 

 

Girls on bikes

This is a look now isn't it. 

I'm not complaining, it's a good look. And if Zooey Deschanel's doing it it must be cool.

I wish I could find a clip of the new Revlon ad to prove the point; the girl with the lipstick is riding a bike, you see.

The top picture I recognise as being by The Sartorialist but all shots were found today on ffffound. See also Chicks and Bikes

Summer looks

 

So based on these two shows picked out by Topshop on their blog I think we can safely assume that this is the look for next summer; a kind of 50s/20s mash up with a lot of shape and texture.

The top image is Proenza Schouler and the bottom one from the Rodarte show.

 

The Music Room, New York

I love this series of images by The Sartorialist. I'm not sure if they're for any kind of upcoming project, but they do sort of relate to his recent vintage photo contest, which I've been finding fascinating. Either way, very lovely.

 

 

 

There's something peaceful about the images, even though the musical equipment on show suggest louder music. The colour, composition and subject matter seem to exude a feeling of not quite warmth, but a sense of serendipity and intrigue from every part of the image.

Fashion forward

Fashion. At one end of the spectrum it's a sense of the popular now, what the average person on the street is doing or wearing. At the other, it's an unobtainable aspiration, a super-glossy exploration of colour, pattern and look that fuels a global industry of designers, journalists and store owners.

Image by Lara Jade 

I've been getting a little confuddled recently as I've tried to consider the digital landscape and fashion media. The confuddlation has been based a little bit on my own experiences as an intern at both a fashion magazine and a fashion PR house, but mainly on my personal consumption of magazines and blogs and on my experience now as a designer of website front-ends. 

I've been trying to work out if there's a future for the unobtainable face of high fashion. Obviously all media is changing and has been for some time, but I can't decide whether the trends to comment, share and appropriate online media are severe threats to fashion, or whether they're actually powerful opportunities . 

Picture by Ivan Rodic

Either way, how can the industry react in the long term?

It's been amazing the past few seasons to see fashion week live shows streamed, the street-style shots of the show guests, and the resulting chitter-chatter on blogs and twitter. If I'd wanted to, I could probably watch a show and post a write-up quicker than the actual journalists there, share photography with my friends and make the brand in question an extension of my online persona. And much like the way it's seemed to go in online design circles, maybe I'd become recognised for choice fashion finds and my unique perspective on them. 

But isn't that the complete antithesis of the way the industry is currently set up? In an interview with a bunch of flowers on SHOWstudio's website, Mandi Lennard (Fashion PR guru) says "it's all about getting your clothes in W magazine". One of the staff at the place I interned at said clients worked with them because "we just know".  

There must be something in SHOWstudio's belief that "showing the entire creative process - from conception to completion - is beneficial for the artist, the audience and the art itself", but I don't see yet how the established world of specific, strategic and nonchalant placement for artistic and commercial motives will adapt to the world of enthusiastic personal oversharing and appropriation. 

It seems that to try to seed anything in either space will be counter-productive in the other. A glamorous high-concept idea (and its price tag) will be commonplace once it's spread across tumblrs and ffffound the world over, and any innovative grassroots fashion movement will become irrelevant once it's been taken up by the mainstream media and redistributed back across the internet. 

This is all before you consider what the internet has done for production itself, in terms of allowing greater numbers of photographers, designers and writers to publicise their own semi-professional efforts outside of traditional avenues. 

I don't really know what my response or outlook on the situation is, except to say that it seems a lot foggier than the music or news landscapes, and decidedly less clear than the fundraising and charity spheres that I'm working in at the moment. 

It's a shame, as it would be nice to mix them all up somehow. Isn't that what the internet's for? 

Maybe it's just a challenge. 

All Set

Aside from the clothes, which are rather lovely, what has really struck me about these shots of new designer Anne-Sophie Hotot's AW09 collection is how the studio has been used as part of the image. The backdrop and tripods form an extra layered and industrial dimension in the pictures, but there's a beautiful tranquility in the composition. 

 

I'm sure it's been done before, but this is the first time I remember noticing how the studio environment and the clothes really complement each other. You can read a little more about Anne-Sophie Hotot on Susie Bubble's blog.

UPDATE: The awesome photographer on this shoot was Nick George.