25 01 14

i always used to wonder why menswear was so traditional and moved really slowly whereas women's fashion was obsessed with a more out-there or extravagant approach, and there's probably heaps of reasons, i.e. gender politics re: traditionalism and frivolity, but it's sorta changing these days, i suppose partially because of the immense number of people doing/making fashion. (theres probably heaps of graduates doing similar things to when there was less exposure/globalization/dissemination of ideas, like maybe for every walter van beirendonck there's maybe 30+ labels doing similar things)

anyway, i never really pieced it together in terms of "the everyday"/ everyday living

A central problematic of the everyday - the relationship between valuing the latest styles on the one hand and valuing tradition on the other - is nevertheless intrinsic to it, as Sheringham argues: “What sets the tone is without a doubt the newest, but only where it emerges in the medium of the oldest, the longest past, the most ingrained”. Observing that “the everyday” typically is antithetical to the modern in that “everyday experience is what happens in typical form today as it has done yesterday and will do so tomorrow,” some theorists of the everyday have proposed that in the first part of the twentieth century, there was a conjunction of modernity and everydayness around the notion of consumption. Re-conceptualized as mass experience, “the everyday” is a construction of modernity that is “couched in terms of the commercialisation, trivialisation, and banalisation of experience as consequence of the new technologies of cultural (re)production and dissemination.” Commonality, mass-experience, and accelerated consumption have been fundamental to fashion at specific historical junctures - for example, in relation to female mass magazine readership in the 1920s and 1930s, Hollywood cinema in the 1930s, men’s magazines in the 1980s and 1990s, and Internet shopping in the 2000s. At the intersection of modernity and the everyday, mass-culture has contributed to both the ordinariness and the extraordinariness of fashion.

Conceptualizing Fashion in Everyday Lives, Cheryl Buckley & Hazel Clark 

i think this is really interesting cause people like to ogle at conceptual fashion, reblog it and post detail photos and things like that, but nobody wears it in public??? unless you are a celebrity known for those kind of shenanigans (see: anna dello russo)

also, people like to say things like, "ah yes, i really like the cut of this shirt, it's really traditional but with a contemporary twist", but things like a shirt that doesn't look like a shirt at all is all very disconcerting for people to accept into their 'everyday'. on another note this is really funny as well because i remember someone telling me that the scariest things (regarding people) is when it looks similar to a human face/body but it's been altered ever so slightly that it appears off in some way. i guess it fashion its more of a comfort thing though.

on the note of new collections/etc though, i read somewhere that apparently less bloggers will be given access to view runway shows (unless they have large consumer capital, i suppose), and the argument against it in the article is more or less that bloggers promote sales etc, but at the same time they could just sit at home and blog about the looks from style.com

i suppose the problem with that is that it promotes the idea of creating garments to be seen and not worn. in that regard, maybe that's why the fashion/traditionalism relationship is still very strong, as far as everyday life goes, wearing a polyester t-shirt sucks (sweaty). wearing neoprene is very impractical (sweaty). which isn't to say that you can't create a well designed, comfortable garment that is both practical and innovative. maybe that's one of the goals. i don't know

oh ps i dont even know who reads this stuff, but if you ever want articles/scans (that aren't like 100 pages long lol), feel free to message/e-mail me. im all for sharing is caring

18 01 14

EYES WIDE SHUT (1999), STANLEY KUBRICK

18 01 14

yohji yamamoto f/w 2014

admittedly, i don't really pay attention to fashion week except for the designers i really like (and sometimes even then i only find out through tumblr/other social media etc)

something that is really interesting that i have noticed (as well as others) is the shift away from using predominately black in collections, particularly by certain designers

i guess one of the biggest examples of this is yohji yamamoto, probably the pinnacle of "all black" aesthetics (along with rei kawakubo/issey miyake) because of the japanese "avant garde" movement/ in the 1980s. the same nomadic refinement is still present in this collection, but it's a different feeling...i think because of the mixture of patterns and colours and textures. 

the thing is, it is an active step away from "all black" because he said himself that people say he uses a lot of black, which i suppose begs the question of why

dries van noten f/w 2014

i suppose dries van noten isn't iconic for using all black or whatever, but his collections usually have colour schemes that are subdued/quiet

which makes the pop yellow, teal and pink very unexpected

it's surprising and interesting because fall winter is generally more 'serious' (particularly in menswear, particularly in paris) than beachy spring summer looks but this time it's a very loud season

i think dries is a really interesting designer in this way, many designers in contemporary fashion just look in archives but instead of using it as inspiration to progress, use it to fall back on.

the seamless blend of rave subculture, renaissance and luxury combined with manipulating fabrics and clothing to appear old ...im not keen on using postmodern as an adjective sometimes because it seems like such a cop-out but i think dries nails what good, thoughtful (postmodern) design really is

rick owens f/w 2014

i don't think a rick owens collections could be called a rick owens collection without the use of black, so it makes sense that half his collection was still primarily in black

but with that being said, the other half was in browns, dust and dirty reds. i think no designer really wants to be pigeonholed into any sort of container, and maybe that's why rick owens is moving beyond monochromes. it's interesting also to consider the context of society presently, i think anyone with a tumblr or a blog of some sort will understand that one of the major trends is the "all black" category. 

black has always been symbolic, whether it be modernity, urbanism or subculture

there are so many quotes about black, black as poet-wear (ann demeulemeester), black as modest and arrogant (yohji yamamoto)...the list goes on

but perhaps if black has been co-opted into mainstream culture, it loses the edge it previously has, and maybe this is why there is this breakaway from black this season

issey miyake f/w 2014

anyway

lastly, issey was also very bright this season, the ending looks were super colourful, looks like they could have come out of london fashion week

it's interesting because i think designers (should) always consider fabric when designing, and technology is so progressive these days, maybe even more progressive than to just stick with black (things like different methods of textile printing/development, thermoplastics, new textile technologies etc)

i mean, black will never get old...i suppose it's just one of those things. f/w 2014 has been interesting though. 

all images from style.com

15 01 14

yang li / sasquatchfabrix / mmm

japan in 2 weeks.

i don't work as much these days because holiday season is over, and i'm trying to find ways to fill the time. watching movies, cleaning, drawing, it all feels a little bit mundane at times but i suppose i'm slowly starting to realise that being boring is alright too.

13 01 14

12 01 14

MORE HERE

usually spend my holidays doing absolutely nothing .... so this is a welcome change

lots of things up in the air re: 2014

9 01 13

these days fashion really bores me. not style, or theatricality or anything (good design), but rather everything after 2010 seems to have remained stagnant (at least with well-known designers). 

i understand that people have to make money, and developing a style is something that takes time, and actually 'keeping up' a consistent style is something also to be admired as well in a society full of changes and trends

with the (high) fashion calendar that is a constant 2-season system, it's also understandable that sometimes collections are lacking in quality consideration (subjective)

(although not every designer decides to follow the 2 season calendar, either)

something i've also noticed is that emerging designers will have very strong debut collections, and then fade away after the hype subsides, or will continue releasing variations of said debut collections, and because they are seen as the avant-garde of the current fashion world, remain relevant and positively received. this is not so much criticism as it is observation, sometimes i think i'm very cynical re: fashion, and people could ask me, why don't you do better? and i might not be able to deliver, so

i think what i'm not finding is the right feeling....that's what this whole thing is to me, a new feeling. the feelings are the same

someone i met recently raised something interesting though, he said that fashion in itself can be democratic because you can carve out your own niche... and isn't that comforting 

(i dont really know what i'm using this blog for, since everything is more or less on tumblr. im hoping to make it something i would want to read...as well as be something i would like others to read. happy 2014 everyone)

6 01 14

YtinifninfinitY “NZYNC TEE”

3 01 14

rick owens / marlboro gold