Art Theory: BVA 313 - 26/03/2019 (Research on fashion)

An abstraction from my studio work on The Cinderellas. 

My tutor Traci rise a great question based on my project. "How about using fashion in a different culture as a topic?" since I portray obvious differences between Cinderella characters in a different culture; Malay, Chinese, and European (French).

Some questioning rises as I progress with some research:

• What is the culture in fashion? 
• How fashion meets culture? 
• Fashion as Art/ Art as Fashion. 

Nowadays, the meaning of fashion is elaborated. 

Fashion might lead a way to move political and culture.

So what is fashion anyway? 

Fashion — as it is defined — occurs when society at large agrees to a style, aesthetic or cultural sensibility for a period of time. Fashion’s sizeable social scope and requisite expiration date are what makes it so useful as a marker of time.

• Based on Fashion's potential to influence politics and culture, by Henry Navarro Delgado (Delgado, 2018). Human society equals to dressed society meaning, what is being worn delivers a significant expression of a degree of social freedom and influences. 

Dress expression will rise the political impact of seeing many people wearing the same clothing. for example "white supremacists wore “black bloc” — an all-black uniform of sorts to show a unified hard stance against anti-Black racist discourse."

Another is political dressing. this dressing is worn by a concered group of people who is ready to rise a social issue in the society. 

There's an article about fashion too, but its the relationship between art and fashion.

• The love affair of fashion and art, by Kim Winser (Winser, n.d.)

This article shows high art associated in fashion. Works from the old masters like Leonardo Da Vinci, Titian, Van Gogh are mass produce in international known brands; Louis Vuitton. 
Art itself has many movements shared to form this massive design of art, as an art movement rises so does fashion. Here is an example of Piet Mondrian's painting of blocks using primary color being associated with Yves St Lauren's dress in 1965.

   

• The role of fashion in human culture, by Vikas Shah MBE (Mbe, 2012 )

What is fashion shown in this context? 

 Joanne Entwistle interprets this assertion to suggest that our bodies constitute our environment, making them inseparable from self. Noting that human bodies are dressed bodies. Dress is the way in which individuals learn to live in their bodies and feel at home in them.” 

Fashion is either creative to the point of being an ‘art’, enabling individuals and cultures to express their inner feelings and personalities, or it is exploitative to the point of criminality, forcing people to work and spend more than is healthy for them or society…” (Kurt W. Back, ‘Modernism and Fashion’) 

Questionnaire for the interview. 

Q: How does fashion relate to the wider culture?

[Robin Givhan] In modern fashion, it’s interesting to see how designers are inspired by the visual arts and music. Yves Saint Laurent was inspired by the world of art… Mondrian… ballet and all those things. It was considered a wildly inventive and interesting way of expressing style and design. I think it’s virtually impossible for any designer to not be influenced by wider culture, everything is so entwined.

In some ways, I think this is great, as it makes for a more interesting view of fashion. It’s always entertaining to see the vaguely-sheltered, upper-middle-class designer customer wearing something that has its origins in the world of gay nightclubs, strip clubs or something insane like that. It’s their way of dabbling in what they might perceive as an underworld. It also creates a bridge to have a conversation about things which ordinary people wouldn’t talk about or experience.

Eight or nine years ago, Gaultier did a beautiful show that was inspired by the African diasporas. He drew inspiration from the African immigrants that he saw in Paris, but also picked up ideas from the women he saw walking around in Harlem… the Black Church, Caribbean and more. All these things got churned around in his head and came out in a really beautiful, noble way.

It bothers me sometimes when people talk about who owns a culture and whether it’s OK for a designer to use something. I don’t think anyone owns culture, it’s out there… it’s up for grabs! The question is whether you are being respectful of it.

I also wish more people would learn about fashion. I interviewed Miuccia Prada and she made a very good point saying, “If you don’t understand something you should study it…” People take that approach with most every topic, but when it comes to fashion- there’s a deeply held belief that you’re either born with a sense of style or you’re not… and that you can’t learn or study it. Fashion can be so valuable- particularly to women- as it affords them so many choices to construct the public persona they wish to have. It really can allow them to determine how people respond to them in that first 15 seconds. If you understand that? it’s incredibly powerful.

• The era of the fashion happening by Bel Jacob.  (Jacobs, 2018)

Head of fashion at the RCA Zowie Broach mention “Fashion can be a powerful tool to talk about society, politics, faith and gender,” “But we’re not just part of an economic system. Culturally, [fashion] has a responsibility too. Surely we should be exploring media and new tools. Things are uncertain right now but that’s when we should be at our bravest.”

Fashion weeks should be spaces to bring the most creative and commercially astute brands to the table in a way that celebrates difference rather that a catwalk show. 

*capture an individual in their cultural identity in photography. 

Works Cited

Delgado, H. N. (2018, January 23). Fashion's potential to influence politics and culture . Retrieved from The conversation : http://theconversation.com/fashions-potential-to-influence-politics-and-culture-90077

Jacobs, B. (2018, October 16). The era of the fashion happening . Retrieved from BBC : http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20181011-the-rise-of-the-fashion-happening

Mbe, v. s. (2012 , September 15). The role of fashion in human culture . Retrieved from Thought Economics : https://thoughteconomics.com/the-role-of-fashion-in-human-culture/

Winser, K. (n.d.). The love affair between fashion and art . Retrieved from Google Arts & Culture : https://artsandculture.google.com/theme/XgKyfdx7wqN8KA