Quote of the Month

Norman Parkinson for Queen Magazine, 1960


Recognition comes when you can name any city and a flood of connections are made that unfold in layers... Together they make a story. These are a mix of realities and perceptions. The city in its totality is a bundle of associations and has connotations from the physical to the intangible, to stories, images, products or even ideas.

Landry, Charles, 2008, The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators, London and Sterling, VA: Earthscan.

This month's quote comes courtesy of Charles Landry, one of the most significant thinkers and practitioners in the field of city planning, in particular in relation to realizing the creative potential of cities for civic and economic good. I made use of this quote in a recent written piece to accompany my recent exhibit in the Work-in-Progress exhibition, which set about portraying the importance of evoking the Fashion City through imagery, including advertising and fashion editorials. What is intriguing about Landry's thoughts here is the idea of the ''layering'' of a given city's reputation built-up over time. Many city's have attempted, and often failed, to develop their reputations as centres of culture, yet this kind of status cannot be created out of nothing, and neither can it be created over night. Both the city's inhabitants and it's outside audience, such as tourists or potential investors, have to believe that such a ''story'', as Landry puts it, exists as much in reality as it does in the glossy images the city wishes to project. In short, the city's ''story'' cannot be ''faked'', it has to be ''authentic'', in real terms, as much as in perception. This is as important for a city that wishes to establish itself as a ''Fashion City'' as any other which might focus on art, architecture, music of film as its marker of cultural status. Concerning the Fashion City, much of the layering of the story is made in the creation of fashion imagery for fashion editorials in glossy magazines and advertising by the leading fashion brands. In the case of London this comes through photographing fashion in the streets, posing models against iconic landmarks, or making use of the ''icons'' of the city, of which London has many, from bright red buses and telephone boxes, through to the black Hackney cabs and bearskin hats of the Queen's Guard. Located in the physical locality of the city, these are much a part of London's fashion ''legend'' as they are an evocative and glamorous stimulus in developing imaginations.

Quote of the Month

Dinarzade or Lillian Farley photographed by Edward Steichen, 1924

‘’As I went through the door to show my first dress, I had the impression of stepping into a perfumed, silk-lined jewel casket, the atmosphere was strongly charged. The men in their correct black tailcoats with the sleek, pomaded hair; the women in gorgeous evening dresses, plastered with jewels. It was hot, so hot, and the air was stifling with the mixed odours of perfume and cigarettes.’’

Lillian Farley in Chase, Edna Woolman and Chase, Ilka, 1954, Always in Vogue, London: Victor Gollancz Ltd. pp: 166

December's quote is a recollection by Lillian Farley, sometimes better known by her more exotic moniker ''Dinazarde'', recalling her first entrance as a mannequin in a fashion show at Jean Patou. Farley was one of the six celebrated mannequins brought from America to showcase the haute couture creations of Jean Patou. Although a lesser known name today than Chanel, Patou was a fashion marketeer par excellance, and knew what a great stir he would created in ''old Europe'' by showcasing his designs on a group of attractive yet ''modern'' American women. In turn, Farley's recollection here as recorded by Edna Woolman Chase (who worked for Vogue for an incredible 50 plus years rising to become its Editor-in-Chief, assisting in the ''birth'' of the British, French and German editions of the magazine along the way) reminds us of what an ''event'' a fashion show can be and the importance of the ''performance'' aspect that fashion can provide. Here in the depths of winter with heavy snowfall disrupting or preventing travel we can now revert to the comfort and convenience of the Internet via our laptops to obtain our ''fashion fix'', yet as Farley also reminds us, there is really no substitute for ''being there'', breathing in the atmospherics of the fashion, whether that be mannequin parade, or the spectacle of dressing up for a Christmas party. None of this can be substituted by the virtual experience. Farley's recollection is also an intriguing insight into the apparently more ''civilised'' experience of the early fashion shows, where the audience, men included, ''dressed-up'' for the occasion (no scruffy photographers scrabbling around in jeans and trainers) and where the heady atmosphere of excited anticipation for the new collections was heightened by the mixed aroma of perfume and cigarette smoke. Perhaps it was this kind of atmosphere Tom Ford had in mind to re-create when he presented his first own-label womenswear collection in September, where all but his ''official photographer'' Terry Richardson was banned, and the outfits paraded in the ''closed salon'' were worn by a mixture of high-profile characters, including Lauren Hutton, Beyoncé and Stella Tennant. Does this mark the return of the fashion show as an intimate ''insider'' event, where you have to be ''in-the-know'' to attend? As with Patou, Ford too is consummate marketeer, and so it will be interesting to see if others take to offering the ''first bite'' of their new collections to only select group of fashion insiders. Although judging by some of the outfits worn by the audience in recent pictures released from this show, it would appear the audience too will need to dress accordingly to rise to such occasions.

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.

Quote of the Month

Elinor Glyn, inventor of ''It''

...strange magnetism which attracts both sexes. He or she must be entirely unselfconscious and full of self-confidence, indifferent to the effect he or she is producing, and uninfluenced by others. There must be physical attraction, but beauty is unnecessary. Conceit or self-consciousness destroys ‘It’ immediately.

Glyn, Elinor, It, Macaulay, New York, 1927, pp: 5-6, in Roach, Joseph, It, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 2007. pp: 4

This month's quote comes from Joseph Roach's book It, but comes from the pen of Elinor Glyn, the often ‘’in-famous’’ socialite, author, screen-writer and lover of Lord Curzon and (here comes the fashion connection) sister of the couturier Lucile. Am currently working on a paper to be presented at the 2nd Global Conference Critical Issues: Fashion at Oxford University next week, and in researching this have been re-thinking again about how cities go about presenting themselves on local, national or international stages. What they all seem to have in common is a search for an ''It Factor'' that helps to set them apart from their competitors. Glyn is perhaps the instigator, or certainly one of the first to define what the ''It Factor'' meant, i.e. ''sex appeal'', and in turn as starlets of stage and screen before them, so too are cities and even local neighbourhoods are seeking to define what makes them appealing, and indeed, ''sexy''. The so-called ''soft'' elements of culture are certainly a part of this, including fashion, yet other economic and practical elements, such as investment and transport, also play an important role. Yet as in Glyn's assertion here, it appears that this ''It Factor'', however it is harnessed and portrayed, needs to be un-self-conscious, without the city (or the person) appearing to try ‘’too hard’’. As many city councils, indeed national governments, sometimes fail to realise, it is actually very difficult to ‘’invent’’ or ‘’import’’ culture in attempting to generate such an ‘’It Factor’’ to appeal to either a local audience or to those from outside, such as business investors or tourists. Rather than developing its magnetism from the ingredients of a generic formula, instead each city needs to delve into its own character, separating out what is appealing and necessary to produce this. Different kinds of ‘’It Factor’’ appeal to different kinds of audiences , but it is up to the different segments of city to work together to produce this in a holistic sense, since any hint of ‘’fakery’’ is likely to be as damaging to a city’s perceived image as having none at all.


Clara Bow, the original ''It Girl''

Quote of the Month

Bettina Ballard at work in the studio, photo by Nat Farbman

The fashion world is akin to the political world – a good place in which to exert power, influence people, and give expression to the ego. Like political careers, fashion careers are open to talented, personable amateurs who often rise to fame meteorically, only to fall with the whims of fashion arbiters. Fashion, like politics, is an ever-changing picture, with its own fluctuating foreign policy, its moods of isolationism, its factions, its jealousies, its internal politics. Even the words for fashion success have a political ring – king of fashion, fashion arbiter, leader, dictator – not a single, soft, gentle, feminine noun amongst them. The fashion world is no place for timid dedicated souls; it is a field for strong, determined egotists who have an innate desire to impose their wills on the world – wills of iron disguised in rustling silks and beautiful colours.

Ballard, Bettina, 1960, In My Fashion, London: Martin Secker and Warburg Ltd. pp:v

This month's quote comes from the preface of Betina Ballard's autobiography In My Fashion. This book is an intriguing insight into Ballard's experiences of working in fashion journalism for Vogue, tracing her journey from humble assistant to Edna Chase in 1930's New York, to fully-fledged Fashion Editor, perching on a gilded chair in the Parisian salons of the grand haute couturiers. In particular, this quote pithily summarises some of the internal workings of the fashion world, noting wryly the steeliness underneath the so-called frivolity of those who succeed within its confines. In my research of the fashion city it is intriguing to note how many 'key players', such as fashion editors, fashion school department heads, designers, PR's and boutique owners, influence the fashion cultures of the cities they operate in. For Ballard fashion is very much a business in which it is these characters, those that act as decision-makers (and who too, inadvertently, fuel the businesses' dose of gossip and intrigue), actually 'make' the industry what it has become.

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'.

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.

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.