Remembering Anna Piaggi

It was sad to learn this week of the death of Anna Piaggi, legendary fashion journalist and editor, as famous for her glamorous and extremely experimental dress-sense, as her fashion reportage. Editor of the now-legendary, short-lived illustration-led Vanity during the 1980s, to many of us she was perhaps most famous for her celebrated DP's (Doppie Pagine/Double Pages) that appeared in Vogue Italia, some of which were complied in a book by Thames & Hudson called Anna Piaggi's Fashion Algebra (which I luckily have a copy of still, but I know is now sadly out-of-print, so maybe track one down in your library, or pick up a perhaps now extortinately priced one on E-bay or Amazon!).

I remember vaguely as a fashion undergraduate at London College of Fashion, long back in the mists of time, being in a class where we were watching a documentary, the title of which I have long forgotten, but in which Anna Piaggi appeared, in all her glorious finery. A hysterical laugh went up from my fellow students, which at the time, and still today, I didn't quite understand. While Piaggi may have appeared a ''figure of fun'' to my peers at the time, I found their response rather peculiar, after all fashion is meant to be fun. And wasn't this also the reason we as students of fashion had signed up to such a course, because this was an industry we perceived as fun and glamorous? Besides, if it wasn't for people such as Piaggi who are prepared to stand up and promote the talents of fashion designers, handbag makers, or milliners, how else is their work to be promoted? In many respects Piaggi has played an important role in both Italian and international fashion circles, using her position as an editor/journalist, and as a true patron, to promote this aspect of fashion culture to its fullest extent. While we are all familiar with the role of the ''best dressed'' as promoted in many magazines, Piaggi took this a stage further, becoming a legendary figure on the front row of fashion shows, a joyful spectacle to keep an eye on, amongst the dreary sea of fashion mavens and PRs in their regulatory black and dark sunglasses. Certainly, the fashion weeks will be a much duller place without Piaggi, and she will be sorely missed, since, despite what my peers thought, every class needs its ''clown'' - after all, it's part of what makes life (and fashion!) worth living.

The View from CPH

Iconic Hotel

Magasin - Department Store

Colour Combination

Window Display

Traditional Tailoring Shop

Designmuseum Danmark

Fashioning the City RCA 2012

Getting ready to launch the Call for Papers CFP for the upcoming conference I'm organising at the Royal College of Art in September - Fashioning the City: Exploring Fashion Cultures, Structures and Systems. For more info and to apply visit: www.fashioningthecity.wordpress.com

Quote of the Month

Fashion is inconceivable except as image. Fashion plays out in images, not on the streets. The fashion industry is intimately entwined with the logic of the illustration, the presentation. What stimulates our imagination are the illustrations, far too rarely the clothed individual himself. Less and less do we see the clothed person as an image, but more and more as a two-dimensional interpretation of that image. There is no fashion without the resonance in the logic of the illustration.

Lauwaert, Dirk, ‘I. Clothing and the inner being II Clothing is a thing III Clothing and Imagination IV Democratic snobbery’ in Brand, Jan, and Teunissen, José, Editors, 2006, The Power of Fashion: About Design and Meaning, Arnhem: ArtEZ Press and Terra Lannoo. pp: 183

This month's quote concerns fashion's relationship with images, and particularly the notion that because fashion is mostly perceived through images (such as those in magazine spreads) its aspect s flat. Yet this disconnects fashion from its very real haptic or tactile qualities. In exploring how and why fashion has become so popular as to be used in the promotion of such a wide variety of products, as I attempted to explain in my paper presented at the 2nd Global Conference on Fashion in Oxford, in part this is due to the very tangible nature of fashion. For everyone, the touch-quality of fashion is something that is perhaps very specific to the enjoyment of fashion - while we can all aspire to the images perpetuated through glossy fashion magazines - in ''real=life'' we also experience fashion through touch - with the clothes both in our wardrobes and those we encounter in shops. It is this tangible quality that many non-fashion brands and products seek to emulate in attempting to attach the idea of fashion to enhance the allure of their own products or services. Visible in the car industry, electronics and food. While the image of fashion remains important it is through the physical notion of touch that we perhaps truly experience fashion.

New Books

As far as possible at the moment I am trying to make the best use of the books and materials I already have in my own ''library'', and also from those other free resources, such as the websites of newspapers and magazines (though the UK Times and Sunday Times websites are now subscription based, so I guess I'll be researching elsewhere from now on). Yet sometimes there are some books you just have to have your own copy of, as waiting for the library to get them in takes too long (besides, I tend to make a lot of pencil notations in my own books, something librarians tend to frown upon!). Aside from Magaret Maynard's book Out of Line: Australian Women and Style, published in 2001, there are very few publications on the Australian fashion scene, which is one of my potential case studies in my research into the Fashion City. So it was with great excitement that I came across this new publication from Thames & Hudson called Fashion: Australian and New Zealand Designers, by Mitchell Oakley Smith, an associate Editor at GQ Australia. While the book will probably not win any awards for its rather unimaginative title, the contents promise a good overview of Australian and New Zealand fashion designers who have emerged over the last two decades. The book covers some, now internationally well-known, stalwarts of the OZ/NZ fashion industry, profiling Akira, Alica McCall, Collette Dinnigan, Easton Person, Karen Walker, Nom*D, Zambesi, Willow and Sass & Bide. Lesser known names, at least to those of us in the Northern hemisphere, include Arnsdorf, Birthday Suit, Camilla and Marc, Dhini, Flamingo Sands, Lisa Ho, Pistols At Dawn, Something Else and Vanishing Elephant. Overall this book offers a visual treatise of the work of the profiled designers, together with a brief insight into their backgrounds and positioning within the Australian-New Zealand fashion scene. Similar to much of the world today, this particular fashion scene offers up a melting-pot of styles and influences, imbibed with a hard-working ethic on the part of the designers. As Oakley Smith states in his introduction:

The breakdown of the barrier that once existed between the secular fashion industry and the general public has been seen as the democratisation of fashion. Not detrimental to its growth or prestige, local fashion has gained attention, interest and, ultimately, respect of its public.

(Oakley Smith, 2010: pp xi)

It is interesting to note, however, that whatever recognition designers gain in their ''home-market'', it still remains necessary to for their reputations to be secured and confirmed outside of that of ''home market'', with catwalk shows and press coverage in the so-called ''first-tier'' Fashion Cities, such as Paris, London Milan and New York. This is something not limited to Australian and New Zealand designers, as even those based here in London have often not been recognised as leading talents in their field, in part because fashion is deemed ''too frivolous'', or because many British designers, particularly at the higher-end of the market, make the bulk of their income from exporting their work abroad.




The second book to enter my possession recently is the first look at the work of Alexander McQueen, subtitled Genius of a Generation, by Kristin Knox. Rather disappointingly this publication from A&C Black appears to have been a bit of a ''rush-job''. While up-to-date, including mention of McQueen's untimely recent death, the text offers only a rather superficial insight into the work of a man aptly labeled a ''genius''. Unlike many of his peers, McQueen was admired in part because he was perhaps one of the few, and perhaps last, designers to have served an ''apprenticeship'' in the traditional sense, working his way up from toiling away in the cutting rooms of Savile Row, to stints working with Romeo Gigli and Koji Tatsuno, and then an MA at Central St. Martin's, moving on to set up his own label, picking up the gig of Creative Director at Givenchy, and finally developing his own-name brand under the auspices of the PPR-owned Gucci Group. Amazingly, while his work has been exhibited in several fashion exhibitions, including the recent Zwart: Meesterlijk Zwart in Mode en Kostuum at MoMu in Antwerp, there has yet, as far as I am aware, to be a fully dedicated exhibition to McQueen and his truely outstanding contribution to fashion culture. The main plus-side of this book is the visual treatise it gives of McQueen's oeuvre, spanning his early collections up to the Autumn/Winter collection of 2010. As Knox references, while McQueen was sometimes dubbed a ''misogynist'' by the media, trussing up his models in masks, corsets and brutal looking jewellery, this rather misses the point, as looking closer, his collections can be viewed as providing a kind of modern ''armour'', aiding the confidence of a woman unafraid of facing the challenges of the contemporary world. It is a great shame for us that McQueen felt he was not able himself to continue producing work in the same confident manner he had so often delivered, yet I hope soon to view an exhibition of his work that is as celebratory and as challenging as his own catwalk presentations so often were.

A Day Off...

As in common with my fellow F&T researchers the opportunity for 'time off' from the research seems almost an oxymoron. It seems as if there is never a day when there isn't some task to be fulfilled, such as a library to visit, an image to scan, a form to fill in, or a contact to chase up. And yet even the 'downtime' moments are important as a means to re-charge the batteries in readiness for the next hurdle to overcome. Not to mention the opportunity for some 'thinking time' just to let the mind wander, as often it is those 'empty moments' when the best ideas are allowed to form and take root.

My birthday this week proved just such an opportunity, not to mention the chance to enjoy some of the glorious sunshine London seems to be experiencing at the moment. And yet even this day provided an opportunity to indulge in the (pleasurable) research of activity of experiencing the fashionable atmosphere of my new favourite gelataria, Amorino, with friends in Soho. 'Fashion as experience' is something that is increasingly becoming an important element for fashion brands, as they seek to branch out from the sale of products, providing their customers with exhibition, eating and entertainment experiences. To this end, some of the birthday gifts I received will also endeavour different ways of experiencing fashion...not to mention the distractive possibilities of settling down with a good novel...can't quite remember the last time I sat down with a non-theory-type book!


Napkin from Amorino, perhaps the best ice-cream in London - check them out at: www.amorino.com/fr/


A bow tie - for the dapper fashion researcher about town


Look! What's this? A novel...remind me what are they for again?


Budapest - the next Fashion Capital?


Some stylish packaging


A fashion film


A well-packaged shopping voucher from Selfridges...well, I could do with some shoes...

Does Fashion Maketh the Woman?

Yesterday evening I attended the intriguingly titled debate ‘Fashion Maketh Woman’, organised by Intelligence2. The event was hosted at the Methodist Central Hall in Westminster, opposite Westminster Abbey, where I experienced a strong sense of déjà vu. Then I remembered that this had also been the venue of my BA graduation ceremony, which I recall now as being a rather moribund occasion, hence perhaps my reason for having locked away any memory of this place so securely in the recesses of my mind. The topic of this debate also touched upon both personal recollections and psychological issues pertaining to body image, as well the cultural and societal perceptions of fashion and fashion’s relationship with woman. Mediated by Peter York, cultural commentator and esteemed author of such titles as ‘The Sloane Rangers Handbook’ and ‘Dictators Homes’, the panel consisted of a distinguished mix of professionals with experience of design, journalism, art, psychoanalysis, PR, and even finance. These panellists included Madelaine Levy who is Editor-in-Chief of Bon International, while her fellow Swede, Britt Lintner, is a Principal of the Asset Allocation Group at GLG Partners. Lintner also has a sideline in her business Britt Lintner Ltd. providing clothes for professional, style-conscious women, including Sarah Brown. Paula Reed is the Style Director of Grazia, one of the UK’s leading weekly fashion magazines, while Stephen Bayley is a former co-Director of London’s Design Museum and author of several books on design culture, most recently ‘Woman as Design’. The other two panellists were Susie Orbach, a Psychoanalyst and author of ‘Fat is Feminist Issue’ and ‘Bodies’, while Greyson Perry is an artist, a former Turner Prize winner, and celebrated cross-dresser in the guise of his alter-ego ‘Claire’.

The basic premise of the Intelligence2 debates is that three speakers each are assigned to argue ‘FOR or ‘AGAINST’ the chosen topic of debate, in this case ‘Does Fashion Maketh Woman?’. To add an interactive element with the audience, we were all asked on entering about our own thoughts on the topic. That is: are we for or against the motion (or undecided). The results of the audience poll were revealed to show that, prior to the debate, 235 were for the motion, 318 were against, and 256 were undecided. Each panellist was invited to step up to the podium to explain their stance for 8-10 minutes, alternating between the ‘FOR’ panellists, who included Levy, Lintner and Reed, and the ‘AGAINST’ panellists, made up of Bayley, Orbach and Perry.

Paula Reed began the debate by emphasising the differences between how fashion is most often generally perceived, either as something demeaning or empowering to women. For Reed fashion is very much a positive force, as a way of expressing the self, and to announce one’s presence in the world. She also evoked how meaningful fashion can be, and especially specific outfits worn on specific occasions, such as your first suit for a job interview, or the choosing of a wedding dress. Reed declared that she was more ‘’sceptical’’ of people who appeared to be ‘’above’’ fashion than those who stated they have no interest in it whatsoever. Touching on the debate surrounding the media’s influence on eating disorders, Reed asserted that while many fashion designers themselves do not have perfect bodies, they all design with an idealised version of the type of woman they would like to dress. Fashion is, however, ‘’the spectator sport of the many’’, and Reed finished with a personal anecdote about her reasons for becoming a Fashion Editor. She recalled how growing up in Northern Ireland during the times of the ‘Troubles’, her mother ran a hair and beauty salon from the family home. For many of her mother’s customers their visits to this salon were a form of escapism from their daily lives, a diversion from the gritty reality around them. As Reed noted, however small having a manicure or buying a dress may seem, it often retains a great sense of significance to the individual on a personal level.

Speaking against the motion Stephen Bayley began by stating how fashion ‘’makes fools of us all’’, encouraging us to buy things we do not really need. In support of this he made reference to Oscar Wilde’s quote of how ‘’Fashion is a form of ugliness that is so odious we feel compelled to change it every six months’’, and also to Coco Chanel’s assertion that ‘’Fashion is what already went out of fashion six months ago’’. Yet Bayley went on to state that ‘’the person who doesn’t care about their appearance probably doesn’t care about anything’’. For him, clothes, as opposed to fashion, should be functional, and that well designed clothes will, and can, last forever. What fashion actually offers, according to Bayley, is a ‘’false bargain’’, a mere opportunity to show-off, yet also cover up your (bodily) defects. Rather, we would all be better off taking up activities to improve ourselves through exercise. For Bayley, fashion is trivial, and we should really question why we feel the need to buy into its (false) promises.

Britt Linter, speaking for the motion, began with an introduction into how she became interested in fashion and motivated to begin her own business. She illustrated her point with an early photograph of herself, wearing her first ‘’interview suit’’, in which she declared she looked more like an ‘’air stewardess’’ than someone preparing for a role in banking. Linter has come a long way since this first foray into fashionable work wear, having now developed a line of clothing for working women that she believes is classical, sustainable and not ostentatious. She described this as the ‘’new cool’’. More women than ever before now occupy the workplace, and so require clothing that meets their needs in ‘’dressing the part’’. Fashion is also fun, however, according to Lintner, and needs to ‘’feel good’’. Lintner went on to assert that the psychological impact of fashion is undeniable, and that it can be used as a ‘’tool in striving for whatever you want.’’

Greyson Perry, dressed as his alter-ego ‘Claire’, began by firmly asserting that fashion is about ‘’money, waste, carbon’’ and that it also ‘‘makes us lazy’’. Perry recalled that as 14-year-old he would use fashion as a ‘’crutch’’, not to assert his own individual identity, but purely to be appear to be ‘’in fashion’’ alongside his peers. Perry asserted that fashion is in fact a ‘’treadmill’’, an industry set up to make many of us feel dissatisfied with ourselves, and which relies on the ‘’school playground’’ mentality in establishing what’s in or what’s out. Perry stated that while he ‘’loves clothes’’ he ‘’hates fashion’’, and is disappointed to see less and less women who can really be considered ‘’fashionable’’. Rather than making up their own minds about what they like or what suits them, instead they revert to the ‘’lazy option’’ of being dressed by an industry that crushes peoples individuality. For Perry, being ‘’cool is the new straight’’ in an industry where high fashion designers are merely ‘’mad artists selling perfume’’. He asked the question: ‘’If the machine of fashion didn’t exist, would people be more creative?’’

The final speaker in favour of the motion, Madelaine Levy, began by comparing the pharmaceutical and fashion industries. She stated how everyone knows about the corruption inherent in pharmaceutics, yet no-one appears to rail against this in the same way they do against fashion. Levy’s interest in fashion stems from her belief that ‘’fashion is craft or an art form’’. For her, fashion is very much about ‘’feelings’’, and went on to assert how we are now all able to make our own decision about this. With the rise of new web-based platforms we can all now watch, and appreciate, the catwalk shows of Paris or Milan. Yet Levy acknowledged that high-end fashion is only part of the story, as with this increasing democratisation of fashion we can all make use of our own bodies as a canvas through which to express our individuality. According to Levy, we can now all use fashion as a ‘’quick fix’’ to become the person we want to be. Citing a survey made by Stockholm University, Levy asserted that ‘’retail therapy’’ certainly works equally well for both sexes, yet women with a passion for clothes are still considered merely ‘’vain’’. Fashion, because of its association with the feminine is often dismissed, yet it is also an industry that has empowered women through the creation of jobs, particularly in the developing world. For Levy, ‘’fashion is a culture with a 6 month turnover’’, which given the industry’s ability to move with the times, puts it in a stronger position than many other sectors.

Susie Orbach, speaking against the motion, took a different approach to the others. She began by speaking about the ‘’worry and excitement’’ of wanting to ‘’fit in’’ to the seemingly alluring world of fashion from the perspective of a 10-year-old girl. In doing this Orbach invited us to question the paradox of what it means to want to belong to a peer group, influenced by today’s celebrities like Rhianna or Jordon, yet at the same time deciphering how to remain an individual. While we all see the glossy and finalised images of this celebrity world, we forget it has in fact been manufactured by a team of ‘’experts’’: art directors, hair dressers, make-up artists, stylists and photographers. Orbach stated that the second paradox we face is, through this imagery, is that while ‘’the idea of beauty is democratized, the ideal has become restricted’’. Clothing today only looks good on certain types of (thin) bodies, while ‘’fast fashion’’ has intensified the feeling of how we are unable to ‘’get it right’’. In a culture so dominated by the visual, Orbach raised a third paradox, in that ‘’fashion has become the central pre-requisite before anything else’’. While few women know what they like about their bodies, they all have a list of things they would like to change about them. In concluding, Orbach asserted that: ‘’Fashion unmaketh the woman, as it conspires to deflate the spirits of our 10-year-old’’.

The debate concluded with a brief question and answer session with members of the audience, followed by a two-minute summary of their own thoughts on the debate by each of the panellists. This allowed for the time it took to collate the votes of the audience, made using a card we were given on entering the auditorium, to decide if they were ‘’FOR or ‘’AGAINST’’ the motion of ‘’Fashion Maketh Woman’’ after hearing the panellists testimonies. Surprisingly for the panel, this second balloting of the audience revealed a strong shift in perception amongst the audience with the majority, 468, voting ‘’AGAINST’’ the motion, as opposed to 293 who voted ‘’FOR’’ the motion, while only 44 remained ‘’UNDECIDED’’. In speculating as to why such a strong surge in support against the motion occurred, the ‘’AGAINST’’ panellists, particularly Orbach and Perry, each gave a very considered and thorough testimony. Bayley’s own interpretations, however, seemed often to rely too heavily on rather generic, and even clichéd, presumptions. In comparison the ‘’FOR’’ panellists, while raising several interesting points, came across as being much less assured. Indeed, Levy’s delivery of her testimony was particularly meandering, and sometimes confused certain points. This was certainly an interesting exercise in showcasing how the delivery of a testimonial on a given topic can sway an audience’s assessment and interpretation. Given the formation of the panel, it was also intriguing to note how the panellists conformed to their side of the debate. While the ‘’FOR’’ panellists consisted very much of, perhaps, the archetypical well-groomed ‘’fashion-types’’, the ‘’AGAINST’’ panellists formed what might best be described as ‘’anti-fashion’’ or ‘’non-fashion types’’, not least in their obvious physical appearance. Perhaps, then, the audience was wrong to side against the motion, and that really ‘’Fashion Maketh Woman’’ (or Man)?

Notes:

The debate ‘Fashion Maketh Woman’ was held in memory of Joseph Ettedgui, 1936 – 2010

Resources:

Intelligence2: www.intelligencesquared.com
Stephen Bayley: www.stephenbayley.com/
Bon International (Sweden): www.bonmagazine.com
Grazia (UK): www.graziadaily.co.uk
Britt Linter Ltd.: www.brittlintner.com
Susie Orbach: www.lse.ac.uk/collections/psychoanalysisAtLSE/orbach.htm and www.any-body.org/
Greyson Perry: www.victoria-miro.com/artists/_12/

Adieu Maria Luisa

In this weeks Editorial Letter Drapers Editor Jessica Brown reports on the immanent closure of Maria Luisa, the fabled independent boutique in Paris. In the same issue of Drapers, the UK's principal weekly trade magazine for the fashion industry, John Ryan reviews Louis Vuitton's newly opened Maison flagship store on London's Bond Street. The reporting of these two stories sheds light on a dilemma faced by many 'Fashion Cities', both the leading centres like Paris or London, and also those with aspirations to become Fashion, or indeed, Shopping Cities. Independent boutiques like London's Browns, Koh Samui and Start Boutique are often the testing ground for new designers, and also add cachet to more established brands who wish to be perceived as 'edgy'. At the same time they act as beacons of diversity in the the retail landscape of cities swamped with identikit monobrand stores by the likes of H&M, Zara and Mango. At the same time cities also seek to attract big-name brands, or those with big ambitions, to open grand and exciting flagship stores, as the success of both Top Shop and All Saints have seen in their recent store openings in New York. As with the Louis Vuitton opening, such stores are a marker or 'stamp-of-approval' in cementing the reputations of both Fashion Cities and even famous Fashion Streets. According to Brown, Maria Luisa herself is set to work on new ventures, both online and with department store Au Printemps, yet after 22 years in business it is a shame to see such store, particularly in what is said to be the 'Fashion Capital of the World', close its doors. While others may take its place, the adventurous independent shop still often remains the first place up-coming designers get their first taste of fashion world, either through selling their work, or working as a sales assistant.

Maid to Measure

One of the best things about being attached to an institution such as the RCA is the chance once again to make the most of an extensive library. While the college library is rather general, reflecting as it does the diverse range of courses hosted by the various schools, there are many 'hidden gems'. While my own practice is very much based in what is happening now in fashion, I am enjoying the opportunity to put into context my current research on the Fashion City. In particular, since the personalised stories of fashion practitioners are to be an important part of my continuing research, I am enjoying the chance to read over the biographies of the luminaries of fashions (not so distant) past.

One of most recent 'hidden gems' I've found in the RCA library is the amusingly titled Maid to Measure, the autobiography of Charles Creed, scion of the Creed family who ran a successful Parisian haute couture tailoring establishment. Actually the book was written by a 'ghost writer' based on conversations with Charles, who rather generously dedicates his book on an inside page with the words: ''This book is dedicated to my friend Elspeth Grant who wrote it''.


The early part of my research is into the workings of the 'fashion system', and the interest for me as a researcher in titles such as these are the insights into the structure and development of fashion in the early 20th Century. Far from being a weary and downtrodden fashion 'hand' Charles Creed seems to have lived a charmed life, spending his time mixing in the social whirl of Paris, Berlin, Vienna, New York and London, with diversions to Deauville or Biarritz, and flirtations (and more) with 'model girls'. Not one to hide his light under a bushel, he also mentions his own 'innovations', taking a 'pre-collection' to show to buyers in the USA before the haute couture showings, or having suits made with linings printed with the Creed logo. Even during World War II, as an (upper-middle class) conscript to the British Army, he appears to have treated his time amongst the horrors going on around him as just another big adventure. Despite this boastful blather, Creed does, however, give some intriguing insights into the realm of haute couture pre-World War II, including this description of of the excitement and thrill of attending a fashion show hosted by the charismatic Jean Patou.

The couturier most in the public eye at that time was Jean Patou, a strikingly elegant man who had a strong affinity with America, a wonderful flair for publicity – and a magnificent mansion in which to exploit it. He had rocked Paris to the core by importing American model girls, tall, willowy beauties, Ziegfeld follies, with exquisitely fine legs and ankles like racehorses. He preferred to show his collections at night and these presentations became one of the highlights of Paris social life.
Everybody who was anybody (and more people then than now) flocked to see not only Patou’s graceful clothes but more especially his fabulous model girls. His most decorative salon was so arranged that the girls made their entrance walking down a ramp – which showed off their beautiful limbs to great advantage, making the women green with envy and the men pop-eyed with admiration.

Creed and Grant, 1961, Maid to Measure, London: Jarrolds Publishers Ltd. pp 77-78

While the language of such titles as this may seem arcane today, they remain a useful resource, with intriguing insights into 'how things used to be done'. Although judging by the number of stamps on the loan page of this particular book, they are not often recollected as being useful or interesting. Knowing the pressures academic libraries have in obtaining materials on the latest and up-to-date knowledge it is a wonder they are able to earn and justify their places on the shelves. Yet I am both glad and appreciative that such titles remain in the library to be re-discovered and re-interpreted. Perhaps the V&A's popular re-productions of such titles as Barbara Hulanicki's A to Biba and Elsa Schiaparelli's Shocking Life are indicators that the personal experience in the form of biography remain an important resource and inspiration for fashion researchers.


A dashing looking Charles Creed aged 18 at Hotel Normandie, Deauville, 1937

Curating Design

Today I attended a cross-college seminar hosted by David Crowley from the Critical and Historical Studies Department on the subject of Design Exhibitions: What are they? And what might they be? The seminar consisted of a short presentation from several practitioners/curators in the field of design exhibitions including Claire Catterall of Somerset House, Daniel Charney an RCA tutor and curator at Aram Gallery, Nina Due of the Design Museum, and Gareth Willams, formally a curator at the V&A, and now a tutor at the RCA.

Each curator gave an insight into their own experiences and reflections on their approaches to curating design within the context of their own specialism and/or institution. Catterall gave perhaps the most personal perspective, reflecting on her experiences working in both formal institutional settings, such as the Design Museum and Somerset House, and also as a freelance curator, through her own set-up as part of Scarlet Projects. Due gave an interesting insight into the Design Museum’s current perspective of enhancing the visitor experience, where visitors are encouraged to engage and be inspired as much by the events the museum hosts as its static exhibitions. Charney, meanwhile, described his experiences of working in a not-for-profit curatorial space located within the confines of a commercial setting in the form of the Aram Gallery in the Aram shop in London’s Covent Garden. Finally Williams reflected on his experiences as a curator for both the permanent design and architecture collections at the V&A and also for temporary and topical exhibitions, such as the recent Telling Tales. Following on from this, a panel discussion was formed of each of the speakers, who were also joined by Mark Sladen, formally of the ICA, and moderated by Crowley.

My own interest in curating is as a research methodology, as in my own current project on Fashion Souvenirs, and while none of the speakers raised this, the seminar raised some intriguing points. One of key points made towards the end of the discussion was about the ‘ordinariness’ of design and design objects in everyday life. Yet by taking objects out of their intended context and placing them on a pedestal in a gallery space poses problems for curators who seek to engage in their audience in participating in design exhibitions, not merely as passive observers, but as active and fully absorbed participants. Many curators today are engaged not so much in putting on exhibitions per se, but ‘projects’, or perhaps ‘event making’ to create a dialogue and active awareness in exhibition visitors. This has particular implications for the curating of fashion and textiles, where the tactile nature of the objects on show is such an integral part. Yet for reasons of preservation and conservation touching in any form usually remains strictly forbidden. An interesting example where this can be circumnavigated comes in the form of the Centraal Museum’s recent retrospective on Alexander van Slobbe in Utrecht, where a whole room was set up as an atelier complete with sewing machines, cutting tables and an ironing board. In this space visitors were encouraged to make their own simple tunic-style dress supplied from a pattern of one of van Slobbe’s archetypal designs. While many UK museums such as the V&A and the FTM run practical workshops under supervision, it is difficult to imagine how any would locate such an apparent health and safety ‘risk’ directly in the gallery space itself.

Overall, this discussion was an insight into the diverse strands of curating design and the challenges and opportunities provoked by differing contexts in the curation of design objects. Design, taken generally as something commercial, has often had to fight its corner in being accepted into grand institutions. Yet, as was raised in this discussion, many design 'objects' are made specifically for exhibition, that is their 'usefulness' is not to be found in their practicality, but rather in the appreciation of their design as an end in itself. Yet, as I have found with my own curatorial project, Fashion Souvenirs, their remain many aspects of design that have yet to have their 'ordinariness' fully appraised or appreciated.

Quote of the Month

We will not be afraid to associate the arts with the most frivolous of fashions, since one ought to find Montesquieu and Racine alongside pom-poms and ribbons on a well-equipped toilet table.

Journal des Dames, 1761

Taken from Roche, Daniel, Trans. Jean Birrell, 1994, The Culture of Clothing: Dress and Fashion in the Ancien Régime, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Quote cited in Davis, Mary. E. Davis, 2006, Classic Chic: Music, Fashion and Modernism, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. pp 6

I came across this quote while (re)reading the introduction of Mary E. Davis's excellent book Classic Chic: Music, Fashion and Modernism, a thoroughly researched treatment of the connections between fashion and music and their relationship to the emergence of modernism in early 20th Century Paris. Davis traces the links between France's emerging fashion press and its links with contemporary avant-garde music and performance. Famous names such as La Gazette du Bon Ton, Erik Satie, Paul Poiret, Coco Chanel, Igor Stravinsky, Ballets Russes, Jean Cocteau, Vogue, Pablo Picasso and Baron Adolphe de Meyer all play their part in the analysis of the interplay between the the seemingly disparate areas of art, fashion and music.

What intrigued me about this quote, and the book overall, is the realisation that many of today's 'innovations' in the fashion industry were actually made in the early 20th Century, and have now only been re-invented on a grander. more luxurious scale. Fashion brands such as Prada, Trussardi, Cartier, Louis Vuitton and Chanel, who have all become patrons of the arts in one form or the other, setting up foundations, hosting exhibitions or collaborating on product designs with artists, are merely following on from Coco Chanel who helped bankroll Ballet Russes productions or Paul Poiret's own art gallery, Galerie Barbazanges, housed adjacent to his couture house on the avenue d'Antin. At the same time, this quote reinforces how high-end avant-garde fashion magazines have always been dependent, and continue to rely, on the inclusion of content from the complimentary fields of art, music, architecture and film to assist in solidifying and supporting the so-called frivolity of their fashion spreads. Yet, perhaps perversely, as fashion seeks to become intellectualized, these other areas of creative expression seek to become more playful, envying fashion's ability to merge, and thrive upon, the popular with the exclusive.

The Researcher as Entrepreneur

Today was scheduled a workshop/lecture organised by FuelRCA, the business practice advisory arm of the college, on the thrillingly titled subject of 'Setting Up a Company'. The lecture was given by four accountancy and/or tax experts from KPMG, and from a sartorial and aesthetic point of view, they certainly looked like representatives of an accountancy firm. It is almost strange how it remains possible to tell exactly what someone does just by the demeanour of their features and mode of dress. Or as a colleague I attended the lecture with pointed out, you can always tell who is researcher by the pointedly seriousness of their expression, and their 'please don't distract me' body language.

I was interested to attend this session as part of my own research work is connected to how and why designers in the fashion industry go about setting up their business. As we learnt in this session the UK retains its incredibly laissez-faire attitude to the establishment of a business enterprise. As the process was explained to us in so seemingly simplistic terms it's wonder why everyone is not an entrepreneur. While the technicalities may be simple, what was not explained was the reality of the fortitude and stamina required in setting up a business, whether as a sole-trader or as a partnership or limited company. It made we aware that as researchers, certainly in our department of Fashion and Textiles, the requirement of an entrepreneurial spirit is certainly an asset in the practice of research. As much as it is an opportunity to be able to pursue research on a specific and nuanced topic, it is also required of the researcher to create their own opportunities via avenues of research, meetings, writing articles, submitting conference papers, archives, libraries and chance conversations with fellow researchers or colleagues. My own background, and indeed my first degree, is in the area of business and management, and in developing my own skills as a researcher over the past few months it has certainly felt at times like I am in pursuit of learning how to manage a business. While their are a number of books and lectures on the subject of writing a thesis or surviving the trauma of your viva voce, each of our projects are ultimately so individual, that perhaps as researchers we are all, to a certain extent, entrepreneurs.

How useful the practical aspects of this session will be I have yet to determine, as I ruminate on the vague prospects and opportunities for life in both the current research and the post-research phases. But for anyone else contemplating the adventure of entrepreneurial endeavour here are some links that might prove a useful starting point:

www.companieshouse.gov.uk
www.hmrc.gov.uk
www.businesslink.gov.uk
www.bbaa.org.uk

Research on the Run...

The process of research can often be long and laborious, sifting through archives and libraries for that essential piece of key data, close-reading of worthy if rather dull books, analysing seemingly illogically organised reports...Sometimes, however, the research chances upon you instead, often in seemingly odd or random instances. In my current research of souvenir clothing and souvenir accessories I chanced upon this dress in the shop window of Joy boutique. The palm tree-print is certainly reminiscent of those Hawaiian shirts your dad might wear, but here elegantly adapted for this summer dress. Since it was a Sunday, the shop was closed (yes, even in 24-hour London shops do close sometimes!), so didn't have the chance to find out the brand/designer. So here begins my occasional series of Research on the Run...

It's all gone orange...Happy Queen's Day!

To all my good Dutch friends wishing you a Happy Queen's Day! For those that are unfamiliar with this today is a big national holiday in the Netherlands for the celebration of the Queen's Birthday. Technically the date is the birthday of Queen Beatrix's mother, but has since been retained as the Beatrix's 'official' birthday, and as the national day to celebrate the Netherlands. The whole country literally turns 'orange', with much partying in both private homes and in the streets. As a foreigner living there one of the most curious rituals to was to see the sight of every city, but particularly noticeable in Amsterdam, being turned into one big jumble sale. Queen's Day is also the one day in the year when the general public can legally trade and sell goods on the street, usually contents of peoples attics or storerooms, such as old clothes, furniture, broken lamps and the odd valuable curio like a suit of armour.

My own research is looking at the value of cultural identity and how this portrayed through fashion in city culture. It remains curious how often ideals around cultural superiority are still played around national identity, and particularly through the so-called 'soft' display of clothing. In the UK England recently had it's national Saint Day, St. George (shared also with Russia and Portugal), yet this day is not a national holiday here. Indeed the whole idea of patriotism in the UK has become a much debated aspect of culture over recent years, especially as a unified sense of British identity has dissipated. Yet building up a strong identity of place, and an affiliation with place, remains important both culturally and within the fashion industry itself. There is a strong need it appears in all of us in feeling some kind of pride in the locality, through embracing it, and in turn feeling the locality embrace you. This process of identification with place and the emotional attachment we give to place is something I continue to explore through my research/curatorial project, Fashion Souvenirs. Why do people still feel the need to visibly demonstrate their affinity with particular places through the clothes they wear? As I have discovered 'patriotism' isn't necessarily linked only to your own country, as in this globalised world many of us have many 'homes' or home countries or cities, even if the attachment was made with just one or two visits. Instinctively it seems, we know when we have arrived 'home'.

Blythe House Archive Visit

As I was talking over with someone only the other day, one of the truly amazing things about living in a city as vast and infinite as London is that, however many years you live here, or however many visits to the city you make, you never really get to know it all. Friday last week proved this well enough again when I had the opportunity to visit Blythe House, hidden behind the behemoth of Olympia and the Earl’s Court exhibition centre. Having never stayed in a hotel in the city, Earl’s Court has always remained something of a mystery for me. Earl’s Court oddly remains one of London’s prime tourist hotspots, despite the area not being particularly central, or cool, and having the advantage of only being on a direct tube line to Heathrow. Since the MA students in our department are working on a project to do with archives and personal biographies, we also had the opportunity to accompany them on a visit to this mystery corner of London, and to visit the textiles archives of the British Museum.

Beginning life as the headquarters of the Post Office Savings Bank, today Blythe House is a humungous space acting as a repository of artefacts from the British Museum, the V&A and the Science Museum. One of series of recently astonishingly sunny days, it seemed oddly incongruous to enter a building whose every window seemed shuttered with blinds to keep out the light, hazardous to protecting delicate artefacts. After negotiating our way around the labyrinth of corridors and stairs, passing a room piled high with crates, and boxes, we entered the study area of the British Museums textile archive. Collection Manager Helen Wolff had laid out for us on a table a sample selection of cloths and garments from the archive, and proceeded to give us an introductory talk about the chosen artefacts and the role and activities of the museum’s textile collection. Amongst them were a beautiful and intricately embroidered loose gown made by the Miao people of China, a richly decorated jacket from Palestine, a bark textile from the Oceania region, and some ‘modern’ textiles from South America and West Africa. She also introduced us to a sample of textile artefacts collected from the desert coastal regions of Peru, some of which had originally been used as totems to accompany the dead into the afterlife. Since they had been buried deep underground in such an arid landscape, this had helped to preserve both their form and colour. Following on from this, Helen guided us around the main store area, with textiles kept either in crates on shelves, or for more delicate items, laid out flat in aluminium drawer units. Many other textiles were kept rolled up in acid-free tissue paper and calico, which were then placed on racks on pull-out screens. This we were told was one of the best ways in which to keep textile lengths, rather than folding them up, which had often been done in the past.

One of the key aims of the museum is make their collection as accessible to textile researchers and other interested parties as possible. To this end Helen and her colleagues are working towards photographing and cataloguing the museums entire textile collection. Much of this is now available to view online through the British Museum’s own website, via their dedicated research section on the website, viewable here: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database

While my own practice in fashion research is more about the present day workings and developments of the fashion industry, the visit to the archives at Blythe House opened up the possibilities that the collections of ‘ethnographic’ institutions can offer. While we can all enjoy and wonder at the splendour of blockbuster exhibitions showcasing the work of famed and fabled designers, the seemingly more ‘humble’, and intrinsically humanistic work of textile producers remain equally fascinating. In conjunction with my own recent (re)visit to the Tropenmuseum (Tropical Museum) in Amsterdam, it is surprising how overlooked the development and processes of textiles are in the realm of curated exhibitions on fashion and textiles. Yet at the same time, institutions, like the British Museum and the Tropenmuseum, can offer an intriguing and significant insight into broadening the scope and depth of fashion and textiles research.

In a further intriguing development in opening up the archive as an exhibition space, fashion curator Judith Clark, together with her partner Adam Phillips, have put together an exhibition at Blythe House. Opening shortly, the exhibition is called A Concise Dictionary of Dress, and has been devised in conjunction with the experimental arts agency Artangel, famed for their collaborations with Rachel Whitread, Roni Horn and Roger Hiorns. The exhibition itself is set to take place in the V&A’s section of Blythe House, in which is located their repository of clothing, furniture and ceramics. Further information can be found at: http://www.artangel.org.uk/projects/2010/the_concise_dictionary_of_dress

Quote of the Month

Under the rubric of modernity, the emphasis given to individualism has become constitutive of all social practices. Fashion is implicated in these practices because it installs in individuals their sense of being located in the present moment. Fashion produces a social logic that informs individuals how to think and organise their everyday life. Even though fashion may seem a frivolity, it is highly significant in the formation of modern consciousness. Some regard fashion as a measure of liberality, reflecting how well people respond to change, and how tolerant they are of difference. Fashion is not just about categorising and ranking material culture; it is also about the manipulation of desire, pleasure and the play of the imagination.

Joanne Finkelstein, 1996, On Fashion, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press (pp 37)

This is a quote I made use of in a recent peer presentation of my work. As far as possible I try to locate my work and practice in the zeitgeist of what is happening now, which is often difficult to explain to others, even those within the field of fashion research. I do not see my work or practice as that of a historian, someone documenting the past, or breathing new life into some forgotten or 'hidden' aspect. I like the notion that Finkelstein expresses here of how fashion is a part of everyday life, not just something brought and looked at only occasionally. Also interesting is the idea that fashion is not only an attempt at categorization, of putting things into boxes, as we are sometimes so apt to do, as in judging people on their aesthetic appearance. Both of these ideas are something that I feel have an affinity with my own way of thinking about fashion, that is not something that is only 'occasional' but inhabits many different aspects of life, and also that fashion is not so easily categorized, or least that this categorization should be questioned and re-assessed.

Because it had to start somewhere...

In thinking about beginning a blog it occurred to me how naff the idea of this actually was. After all, it seems as if the whole world is blogging, and within the fashion world it’s now almost become a kind of cliché. This is not to do a disservice to those who blog well, like Susie Bubble and Bryan Boy, who are rightly deserving of their status as ‘star’ bloggers, but it takes time, effort and dedication. While the editorial teams of print magazines are said to be trembling at the imminent demise of their publications due to the increasing influence of bloggers, this is in reality unlikely. Television never did kill the radio, E-mail rules, but the fax retains its purpose. Besides, retro is all the rage, in a world where we are so used to the opportunity of ‘choice’, many of us are still happy to put our trust in paper and pencil (or pen) over developing an addiction to yet another infuriating electronic device. Why tie yourself up in the multiple, yet often rather useless, apps, when you can be a member of the ‘Moleskin Mafia’?

And yet here I am, developing the tentative beginnings of a blog dedicated to my own experiences as an academic researcher and curator in the field of fashion. If you’re looking for style tips, or want to know what the hot trend will be for Spring/Summer 2015, then don’t ask me, since I have no idea. My work or practice instead concentrates instead on developing the themes and nuances of this subject that, perhaps selfishly, interest me. Having never had the stamina for keeping a diary before, or any other kind of journal-documentation for that matter, the development of a blog, documenting my process as fashion researcher/writer/curator presents a new challenge. So as with many other things, I am approaching this as ‘project’, since am beginning to have to learn about the importance of documenting the process of what I do, and how I go about this. While the people that know me, well, know that I am great hoarder of information in many ways (books, magazines, exhibition brochures), I’ve never had very sentimental feelings for documenting other aspects of my life as other people do. I have few photographs of friends or family for instance, and so many holidays, birthdays etc. have gone pretty much un-documented (or in pre-digital times, if any photos were taken they remained on the original film, undeveloped, sitting on a shelf gathering dust). For me, the best ‘photos’ were always the photos of the mind, the memories, the smells , the ambiences captured in our heads, to be replayed and relived as and when, perhaps triggered by occurrences and experiences in present-day life.

Yet, since joining as a research student on the MPhil/PhD programme at the RCA last October, I have become more aware of the processes and necessity of documentation as a part of the research. All those seemingly random conversations, lectures, films, reading, scrappy notes and drawings in sketchbooks, visiting exhibitions et al are all a part of the research. During a recent discussion with some fellow research students in our department someone stated: ‘everything is the research’. Even though we all have our specific focus and projects to work on, in a way our work is a re-questioning of everything, not only of our research itself, but also for us as individuals; that is as thinkers, writers and practitioners. Or as I think someone else once said: because it had to start somewhere, and I didn’t know where else to begin...