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Freelance Menswear Fashion Designer and Illustrator (Inspiration and Personal Work)

Friday 7 December 2012

Fashion on the Move

'Fashion on the Move' is my dissertation piece I submitted for my BA (Hons) Fashion Design Degree.

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FASHION ON THE MOVE
----- PUBLISHED 30.1.12
The rise of digital media and the Internet has heralded a new generation of contemporary communication that the fashion industry has embraced. Today, with immediate access to viral information, the new medium of ‘fashion film’ is paving the way for designers and filmmakers alike to communicate concepts and hone in on the marketing power of the Internet. 

TEXT BY AMANDA SALWAY

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Fashion film is not a new concept with exploration of the medium dating back to the 1960’s. However, most notably recognised as one of the major pioneers in fashion film is Nick Knight and the launch of his SHOWstudio fashion website in November 2000. His launch pad challenged the parameters of fashion communication online, presenting innovative projects and fashion films, encouraging the fashion industry to embrace the possibilities of moving image in this new digital generation. Although, it was not until the latter half of 2000’s that the revolutionary growth in digital media exploded. Internet connection speeds improved dramatically resulting in rapid downloading and clear streaming in a short space of time – the perfect conditions for short film and videos to blossom.

Today there has been cross over in practices with fashion photographers putting down their camera’s intrigued by the realms of film and filmmakers branching into photography. London based filmmaker, Ruth Hogben, a graduate in Photography, began her film career editing for Nick Knight and has gone on to on successful collaborations with Maison Martin Margiela, Alexander McQueen and completed the visuals for Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball Tour, the latter indicating Hogben has climbed to the top of the fashion film ladder. Hogben views fashion film as a new medium in its own right that is not intended to take over catwalk shows or to replace print, but a new and exciting creative genre that can aid visualising a designer’s concept. In 2009 she won the A Shaded View on Fashion Film Jury Prize for her film collaboration with Gareth Pugh showcasing his Autumn/Winter 2009 collection. Collaborating with Pugh was a match made in heaven for Hogben, as the young designer in his 20’s understands the power of Internet communication whilst others fail to recognise its influence.  ‘At a show only 300 or 400 people will see it and the rest of the world will see the stills. With fashion film you can have it on YouTube, everyone can see it and it’s much more exposing. The moving image is more like showing the inside of my brain.’
 SHOWstudio: Gareth Pugh Autumn/Winter 2009 by Ruth Hogben.


Not to take away any credit from the success and tradition of a runway show but models walking from top to bottom of the stage don’t have the same versatility of movement that can be explored and pushed through the medium of film.  Working with Pugh he showed Hogben fabrics and detailed his aesthetic of how he wants things to look, learning about the dimensions of clothing and the importance of what chiffon means, for example, to a designer and how she could really communicate these ideas through moving image. The cinematic triumph was dramatic and striking with billowing clouds of chiffon slowly melting across the screen à la Rorschach contrasting with the staccato movement emphasising the more angular garments – a visual experience that can only be achieved through editing film.

 
The accessibility of fashion film on the Internet breaks down the walls of a runway shows exclusivity that often separates the privileged sartorial elite from the public. Now everyone can view equally a designer’s work enhancing the reputation of their brand and reach a wider global audience. Film exposes a designers mind and draws you closer into their world gaining a fuller understanding of concept depth and thought process. Embracing the success of moving image, The British Fashion Council (BFC) launched its Digital Schedule for SS10. Since the events launch in 2010 designers have increasingly sought new and innovative ways of showcasing their collections. Live streaming of catwalks at London Fashion Week have been launched including highlights being shown on the London Underground for the public. Film is increasingly becoming highly influential for the world of fashion. Diane Pernet (2010) founder of A Shaded View on Fashion believes that the consumer is aware fashion is not wholly about clothes, events or the photography which explains why the industry spends so much money on advertising and branding. Consumers have discovered the power of fashion film and brands are tapping into the demand.


The limitless nature of fashion film compliments the work of more extreme designers with the possibilities of visuals making more of an impact where some say tame brands fall flat. Chirs Sweeny London-based film and TV director, stated ‘I often look at accomplished fashion photographer’s films and find them really boring and obvious... They are just moving versions of the stills that they shoot and that seems pointless to me.’ But is it pointless? Fashion film, much like music, is art therefore is subjective to the individual viewer. Chris Sweeny directed the film for Charlie Le Mindu the avant-garde wigmaker, featuring mainly semi-clothed figures in wigs captured in slow motion and real time, showcasing a dance number that may be argued doesn’t particularly focus on the wigs. Therefore is this just still photography put into motion?  Although, could the expressive nature of the contemporary dance reflect on the avant-garde design of the headpieces perhaps? It is the viewer’s response and their personal experience that dictates how the film will be communicated.



Charlie Le Mindu Fashion Film. By Chris Sweeny
Generally, what indicates a successful fashion film is how the components of both the visual and the audio work mutually.  Jason Last, a renowned film director, has worked closely with Diane Pernet producing films for the likes of Comme Des Garcons and Rodarte.  For Last, he chooses to focus on movement in an industry that is dominated by a wealth of photography. Last is a firm believer that the combination of image and sound is more powerful than a single image. Majority of the time, sound and music are what fuels his inspiration for a film. What is interesting is the diversity of sound that Last uses from Post Rock to music by composer Nicolas Leau with narration, to the model Yuri Pleskun reciting William Blake, but all with a dark under tone that is synonymous with his work. For Last, the fashion industry is a business, so providing people with the opportunity to feel an emotion is really exciting. 
 
    Auguries of Innocence by Jason Last

However, can you not feel the same emotion from a still photograph? Photography since it’s birth has been such a powerful medium in capturing moments of memory and stirring the deepest of our emotions. A successful single image has the power to provoke and move the observer. As the directors above have reiterated it is not an argument whether fashion film is better than photography. An emotion can be provoked by a single image in a moment but a film can induce the same response, the only difference is that the emotion is prolonged for the duration of the film. What fashion film has contributed since its rise to the forefront of digital media is a new forum and way of expressing fashion and emotion and marketing the designer and brand. David Lauren, Polo Ralph Lauren’s senior vice president of advertising, marketing and corporate communication, stresses how vital it is for a company to explore all forms of advertising and accept the adoption of new technology. Using a single form of promotion such as photography is insufficient in successfully communicating a brands identity.

Successfully exploring the use of both new media and the traditions of photography is the high fashion design company Lanvin who made a huge viral impact with the release of their video for the Fall 2011 collections. The video came weeks after print advertisements shot by Steven Meisel featured sets of two models in awkward poses that puzzled viewers as to their meaning. 


Lanvin Fall/Winter 2011 Campaign 
A month later all was revealed with a minute long video featuring dancing models including a humorous cameo appearance of Alber Elbaz himself at the end. The campaign video was a smash hit accumulating more than 150,000 views on YouTube in a matter of days upon its release. Shot in the style of Just Dance for Wii adverts the models, clad in sophisticated Lanvin designs, bust some synchronised moves to Pit Bull’s ‘I Know You Want Me.’ The classic styling works well with the opulent interior backdrop and the aesthetic of luxury we have come to love and attribute to the brand.


 
  Models Dance to Pitbull’s “I Know You Want Me” Wearing Lanvin


What is brilliant about the light hearted video is that despite being such a high luxury brand, Lanvin showed the world that they know how to have fun and dance the night away like the rest of us. The brand is now somewhat more accessible for us to share their sense of frivolity. Many imitation dance videos have been circulated across YouTube and in New York Lanvin hosted a dance off. The consumers have a common thread with the brand as we all dance to the music of Pit Bull and despite the clothes still maintaining their high price point we feel that we stand on the same level. It was the surprise of this unconventional campaign that made this a huge success for France’s oldest Couture House. Steven Meisel wonderfully marries both the medium of photography and film within the same campaign in a way that is memorable and refreshing. The use of video here differs in style to that of Ruth Hogben and Jason last but heralds the same response in terms of brand communication. 


The rise of fashion film has achieved wonders in making fashion more accessible outside of the scheduled biannual fashion week events. Releasing previews and films communicates directly to a brands target audience on a daily basis through the explosion of new media. There is now a sense of reclaiming control over our own culture that during the 20th Century was controlled by mass media such as major Hollywood studios, newspaper empires and large corporate TV Networks (Macnamara, 2010). Even fashion was dictated to us from powerful corporate companies and fashion publications decided which trend to filter to the high street and the public. Now with the emergent pace of the Internet we regain control of what we like and want from the former dictators. Online social networking sites such as Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook are platforms now being used by brands to advertise, promote and communicate with their consumer directly. According to the Internet World Statistics in 2009, there were reportedly 1.7 billion Internet users in the world, including an estimated 900 million social network users and more than 300 blogs (Macnamara, 2010, p. 13) The internet has become an crucial marketing outlet that is now fundamental to a brands success.

Launch just over a decade ago ASOS was a small online fashion e-tailer selling aspirational celebrity clothing and has now evolved into one of the dominant online retail powerhouses. ASOS, as you would expect being an Internet retailer, is a front-runner in terms of tapping into the power of social media for brand communication. In 2011 the launch of their ‘ASOS Urban Tour’ firmly secured their status as one of the leaders in innovative and cutting edge use of digital media. Exposure of the campaign was all over the internet from Twitter to Facebook to blogs. Directed by Sebastian Strasser, with Dominic Goldman as creative director in association with Stink Digital, the ASOS Urban Tour showcased the Fall/Winter Menswear collection available on the site. The campaign was an interactive global experience that featured street trends from seven cities around the world - London, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Shanghai, New York and Los Angeles. ASOS has a deep-rooted target audience that is highly influence by the street culture that is around them so the campaign uncovered contemporary subcultures from artists, musicians and street performers that were pushing the boundaries within their chosen fields, from extreme skaters speeding through the streets of Paris to beat boxing infused acoustic choral singers in Tokyo. 

                                                                           ASOS The Urban Tour- Paris Skating
Whatever the style and lifestyle of the consumer one of the trends was bound to please. The campaign was a risky move for the brand as nothing preceding it had blurred entertainment with something that was editorial featuring interactive shopping. ASOS could not anticipate the nature of the response from critics but they wanted their customer to enjoy the experience of discovering a new niche artist therefore buying into the brand. The viral campaign was a chance for ASOS to develop a brand identity for their menswear range to compete with the likes of Wrangler, Uniqlo and H&M that have built an identity in the digital realm.  The video of street dancers in London was the first video to be released which, on the ASOS site, was fully interactive. Clicking on one of the dancers singled them out from the others who froze and you could click to read more about them or follow a link to purchase the exact garments worn.


                                          Buck, Baby Bang and the world’s best street dance: ASOS The Urban Tour in London


Many online retailers have approached the use of the Internet as a two-dimensional web interface, the ASOS Urban Tour leaps ahead in the way clothes are retailed and a brand is created on the web in a very tactile way.
The ASOS Urban Tour has pushed the use of fashion film into a whole new sphere that as become completely interactive and has established the brand of ASOS menswear as one of innovation. But the films are not just based around fashion, they are an exposure of worldwide culture, which opens out the audience not only on a fashion level but also to those interested in dance, music, art and sports. There is no doubting that ASOS have set a standard in use of video and interactive web experience that others will copy. It is exciting to see how brands will compete to try and top this triumphant campaign.  

Some skeptics have predicted that this shift towards the Internet and use of new media will result in the demise of print advertising and the use of still image. A substantial amount of fashion marketers have decreased the amount spent on print advertising and are investing more online. Despite the rise of the Internet, printed media remains popular with the Sunday paper remaining the most read weekly publication, in part due to the supplements, inserts and advertisements. Magazines still print alongside sister websites that may provide extra features to support the printed publication and vice versa. The highly esteemed menswear website, Fashionisto, in 2011 launched a new self-titled magazine that features beautiful glossy pages of photography in conjunction with it’s digital counterpart but introduces new features unavailable online. It appears that designers and fashion brands can no longer afford to avoid the giant that is the Internet and the possibility of working in the new mediums that it supports. Now is not the digital generation where we forget or dismiss the power of still image but of running alongside it moving images and viral interaction that adds yet another dimension to a brand. What needs to be universally understood is that the way in which a brand chooses to communicate to the consumer is subjective and with the plethora of material available it is certainly safe to say that there is something for everyone. With the resources out there it is exciting to anticipate how the industry will strive to push the boundaries of communication in creative and groundbreaking ways. During this week economic climate it is imperative that companies invest in advertising and promotion via all avenues available to them whether that be print and photography or digital network and film so the industry remains looking strong. Consumers are given hope with the constant reinvention of brands, less exclusivity, greater accessibility and communication with the industry.