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...

Quote of the Month

A feeling for fashion in anything from architecture to typography is a feeling for what is in the air, for what is right now. I describe fashion as an atmosphere, and obviously all good designers are highly sensitive to this atmosphere or spirit of the times (particularly fashion-sensitive people who have the misfortune to find themselves just slightly in advance of this feeling suffer all the frustrations of seeing their ideas enthusiastically adopted a year or two later). Obviously, those designers who manage to hit this feeling for now are those who are successful, and who in their turn influence further generations.

Ironside, Janey, 1973, Janey, London: Michael Joseph Ltd.:pp 120

June's quote of the month comes from the highly entertaining autobiography of Janey Ironside, Head of Fashion and Textiles at the RCA during the 1960s and early 1970s. Recently I have been thinking further about the role of fashion and its place in everyday life, particularly as I am now preparing a paper on how fashion has become increasingly commoditised, being portrayed and marketed as an object in itself. In coming across this quote, researching more specifically about the role of art schools in producing fashion, I was intrigued by Ironside's description of fashion less as a tangible 'thing' than as an 'atmosphere', something seemingly un-graspable, yet which all successful fashion designers, and indeed researchers, need to grasp and interpret in some way. It is also interesting that Irondside alludes here to fashion in relation to such, allegedly, unfashion conscious sectors as architecture or typography, rather than just clothing. In capturing this atmosphere through the development of physical products, events, or perhaps books or academic papers, Ironside also re-affirms the necessity of timing in the interpretation of this atmosphere, where being 'too soon' is significantly more detrimental than being 'too late'.

Research on the Run...

Napkin from Luna Rossa, Maastricht, the Netherlands

In the occasional series of Research on the Run I came across this napkin at the Luna Rossa ice-cream parlour in Maastricht. After the cupcake phenomenon I remember reading an article about how ice-cream was set to be the next 'fashion treat trend', notably partaking of a knicker-bocker glory at Fortnum & Mason. In miserable, rainy London this never quite came to pass, but I certainly have fond childhood memories of the Italian-run ice-cream parlours in Wales, and a visit back to Mumbles is never quite complete without a stroll along the coast to the Verdi's. In Maastricht, which felt like a distinctly un-Dutch city in the recent heatwave I experienced there, the multi-coloured, multi-flavoured choice of ice-cream on offer at Luna Rossa certainly felt like a very 'fashionable' experience, particularly in the Roman-esque looking kiosk building the ice-cream parlour was located in.

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.