Pink Faux fur- glamorous or tacky?

This Autumn/Winter faux fur has been all over the catwalk and highstreet, whether it be in jackets, hand bags, shoes, scarfs, gloves or even phone cases! We've all seen black, brown, beige, cream or grey coloured fur before..but recently there seems to be a sudden trend for pink faux fur..its everywhere! Whether it be pastel or crimson pink, there seems to be a product of every shade. No matter how popular it seems to be with designers, I can't help but feel that it is somewhat tacky...to me, wearing a baby pink oversized faux fur coat takes me back to my childhood, when I wanted everything in my possession to be pink and would not settle for anything less..which I am pretty sure every girl has experienced this obsession at one point or another! It all just screams 'Legally Blonde' to me! Yes I agree that some of the more subtle pink products are not too bad, such as the dusty fur pink clutch bags that are being sold in most leading high street store chains such as ASOS, Zara, Topshop and Whistles. However despite this, I can't help but feel that the hot pink crop jackets that resemble that of a muppet or a care bear are maybe a bit too much..

Visual Critique Image

I have decided to study this particular image by Steven Klein to focus my visual critique essay around. The image is from a 2003 beauty editorial shot for Vogue Italia. Out of all of the images I have looked at I felt that this one was the one in which I was most interested in due to its futuristic aura and the way in which it appeared to tell a story with its strong sense of narrative.

Steven Klein

After looking into more photographers surrounding the visual critique essay, I came across photographer Steven Klein. I was immediately intrigued by his unusual style of fashion photography and how his work continually seemed to all have a strong narrative and sense of storytelling throughout.

The next big thing - Iris van Herpen

When researching brands that represented a unique and fashion forward approach to their work I was immediately struck by designer Iris van Herpen and her use of 3D printing. Her product designs are completely far fetched yet beautifully sculptured surrounding the theme of motion and movement. Her use of 3D printing has a uniqueness to it that had not been presented into the industry prior to her designs. As well as 3D printing the designer has also worked with injection molding, laser cutting and intricate architectural handwork on a variety of garments to which give them a three dimensional and voluminous look.  I feel that her use of boldly sculptured shapes that accentuate the form of body shape are amazing at showing just how far fabrics can be taken if done so in the right way.

Celine

Following on from my brand research behind Celine I decided to experiment with mood board compositions by mixing both imagery from their brand and from my colour palette theme, aswell as adding in key words to which I feel represent the brand itself.

Progress of Brand interpretation of Colour Trend Mood board - Celine

To get a better understanding of the layout and imagery that I want to include on my brand interpretation mood board for Celine I decided to look into different areas of the brand.

Brand Identity

When looking into Celine's brand identity I knew that I wanted to focus on their famous bags as I feel that this is the way in which the brand is mostly identified through, aswell as their crisp white box packaging and fun yet fashionable logo t-shirts.

In store experience

For Celine's in store experience imagery I wanted to focus on their clean, streamline shopping experience to which everything is placed to perfect precision.

Online experience

The way in which Celine promotes itself online is through the use of social media pages- Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, as well has having an online website to which allows you to most importantly shop, but also to look at their current and past campaigns for their different seasonal collections, as well as showcasing fashion videos to which explain the representation that Celine upholds as a brand from the past and present. You can also look into their most desired designer Phoebe Philo.

Advertising

For the advertising section I decided to focus on their campaign work, celebrity consumers and fashion films from their online website.

Events

I decided to focus on their catwalk collections and trade show exhibitions as the main factors of the events they hold for the brand.

After putting the imagery from Celine into individual sub-categories I decided to select some images from each section and put them together in one document to portray Celine as a whole brand.

I feel that this activity was useful as it helped me to gain more knowledge of the brand itself and the way in which they portray their brand through the media.

#FCPreflection

Fashion does more damage than good

This week we were tasked with a debate surrounding the topic of 'Fashion does more damage than good'. My group were supporting the topic as we were 'for the consumer'. We decided to look into the main topic of Body Image yet with the following sub categories; Weight and eating disorders, Photoshop and image manipulation, Race, the objectification of women and self absorption.

I feel that fashion has a negative effect on the consumer as they present the idea of an unrealistic lifestyle through the use of over edited images and the objectification of women within the media. 

Photoshopping: 

As a consumer, we are exposed to 5,000 airbrushed images a week.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) monitor every advertisement published for the British public, although there are no defined laws as to what the magazines can post, but the images must be realistic.These enhanced images psychologically alter the way that influenced young people perceive their bodies to be. Eating disorders, extreme exercising and even depression can be linked as a correlation as factors between the enhanced images and problems. As most supermodels are a US size 0 or a UK size 4 – sizes which are not natural for most women- they would feel pressure to change to look the same. Negative thoughts about their body would rise and dissatisfaction for the way they look.

Weight and Eating disorders:

The industries version of ‘plus size’ is a lot slimmer than what it is in real life- they are calling a size 12-14 plus size, when realistically this is a healthy weight for women. Brazilian model Anna Carolina who worked for brands such as Giorgio Armani and Dior died aged 22 from anorexia and Anna Reston died of an eating disorder-she weighed only 88 pounds yet at a casting call she was called fat. The impact of this imaginary plus size is influencing all ages to believe they’re too big to be pretty or famous.

Race:

The representation of ethnic minorities within the industry is so poor, it is not a true representation of the society that we live in today. It is creating stereotypical views which are then perceived by many consumers that this is 'ok'. When black models are rarely represented in the industry they are made to stick out like a sore thumb and treated as 'token' models in catwalk shows. An issue of Italian Vogue stated that "that's enough to get media of their backs, they've 'done their bit" by having black models in their campaigns or runway shows. Rick Owens has tried to embrace racial and body image but has ended up producing an SS14 show portraying models of ethnic minority in animalistic ways.Thirteen out of 92 shows at the most recent New York fashion week featured no black models at all. These statistics show diversity in fashion to be sliding back rather than improving. Season after season a substantial number of design houses use little to no models of colour. No matter the intention, the result is racism.

Sexual objectification:

Women are often shown as an object through the fashion media, an example being this photo of Miley Cyrus taken by fashion photographer Terry Richardson. Once a child star, “Hannah Montana”, her fan base was millions of youngsters. Her new image leaves little to the imagination and is plastered all over the internet and magazines, making her young fan base believe it’s acceptable to objectify themselves. A woman so dominant in the current fashion industry should not be allowed to promote this. I showed 30 people these photos and asked their opinions of them, 57% of people said that they were “disappointed in Miley Cyrus” and this is because she once was a role model to a young audience. The rest said that this photo made them feel “self conscious”. When asked how the “Blurred Lines” video represents the women in it, people replied the women were represented “as an object”, “vunerable”, “degraded” and “as sex objects”, 96% of people who answered my survey had seen a “photo in the media that shows women as a sexual object.” Which is completely unacceptable.

Self absorption:

Lighthearted films such as Mean girls and in-depth books such as 'The Hundred Dresses' highlight the issues of bullying and of being ostracized due to not wearing the right thing. Terms the media uses such as "must have" and "ultimate" imply that if you do not have this, you are not one of the fashion crowd. They influence the consumer into buying to ensure that they fit in with these high levels of social pressures that society sets. Whilst this social shaming is set out more in females, men are still affected. Children are widely affected by this too, having to have those 'kickers', or that 'Nike bag'. In schools in the US, designer clothing affords some Children "the opportunity to become popular and that protects you and gives you social power and leverage over others" according to a Study by Professor Dorothy Espelage, University of Illinois.

Therefore I feel that each of these points proves that “Fashion does more damage than good”. Instead of encouraging diversity and individuality, Fashion promotes conformity and an unrealistic self-image.