Fashion Media

Fashion media: Past and Present edited by Djurdja Bartlett, Shaun Cole and Agnes. 

I’ve chosen this book because i think that the fashion media is one of a very interesting topic to write about. The title of the article is “Taste, Fashion, and French Fashion Magazine by Sanda Miller” I’d like to read and analyse this topic further in depth and writing me thoughts and summerize it from my perspective.

After I’ve read through the article I’ve manage to understand and get a vague overview base on the topic, the article is 8 pages long while i was reading the article I’ve note down some keywords as it will be useful because i don’t have the actual book next to me by doing this it’ll help reminded me and i can use it as a reference while reflecting to the article later on.

I’ve read through the whole article and decided to first unpack the first part of the articl (first paragraph on p.13) my analysis is that the text discuss how the fashion magazine have been one of the important stages to represent fashion, social, culture, and taste which is “conceived as a gazette that covers arts, theatre, and also gossip column which as accepted to be when Jean Donneau de Vise published “Le Mercure Galant”. To help me understand the whole article i have to first unpack everything bit by bit and then added up then gather my thought my understanding of the article is accurate as much as possible.

My interpretation of this article is dicuss the “fashion and taste” the art philosophers, and journalist critics criticised that is fashion considered as a form of art? The article also discuss personal opinion and personal “avowals” which is base on their experience of what’s considered beautiful and not beautiful like a painting for example which link to the “delicacy of the imagination”. The article also talks about the revolutionary of the fashion magazines, “fashion plate” (which is fashion illustration used in magazines) which considered as “wasteful elegance of the aristocracy during the Rococo period” 

(P.18)

(P.228)

Elizabeth Wilson (2003) Adorned in Dreams fashion and modernity, London, I.B. Tauris& Co.Ltd. 

To develop me analysis I’ve bring up this book Adorned in Dreams by Elizabeth Wilson and I’ve found this quote in chapter 11: Feminism and Fashion which talks about how clothes are important or unimportant for everyone in general whether men or women. Fashion had always considered and critised and argue by many critics and journalists some said that it’s a trivial subject and shouldn’t consider as a form of art, for people who interested in it would see it as a ways to express their personal style and taste and how appeareance can affected the way people think of their personality.

Mary Eliza Haweis 1870s.

This quote link to the “Fashion media” about “fashion and taste” and this quote stating pretty similar thing this one saying that people who associate themselves with beautiful things would see that taste and fashion are important to them that any flaws in colours would make them feel “disapprobation” and even “physical pain”.

Jukka Gronow 14 Aug 2017 Taste and Fashion: The social Function of Fashion and Style. http://somethingcurated.com/2017/08/14/taste-fashion-social-function-fashion-style/ [07/12/17]

I’ve found this online article about taste and fashion: social function and style this article is more current than the other two books which gave a diffent view and perspective to this topic but they all discuss the similar topic which is “aesthetic” and how each individual consider it as a important part of their lifestyle and how it’s socially acceptable.

References:

1. Fashion media: Past and Present edited by Djurdja Bartlett, Shaun Cole and Agnes.

2. Elizabeth Wilson (2003) Adorned in Dreams fashion and modernity, London, I.B. Tauris& Co.Ltd.

3. Jukka Gronow 14 Aug 2017 Taste and Fashion: The social Function of Fashion and Style. http://somethingcurated.com/2017/08/14/taste-fashion-social-function-fashion-style/ [07/12/17]

Research and communication module is a subject that I’m quite familiar with as I’ve done this before in college although the level of difficulties are different I find that some of the task are challenging and also interesting sometimes I felt uninterested and don’t really enjoy doing so i struggled with most of them but after i got into it I’ve realised that this is a very useful skills to have in term of research as part of the course.

Different tasks requires research from different resources and influenced me to use that in my in this module and project works. I’ve found that ive been relied on the internet research most of the time like Pinterest or wiki pedia after the introduction to the Online Reseorces teach me how the research process could be done in many different ways like primary, secondary and incourages me to use the WSA library because there’re a range of many interesting books in there that you can’t find it on the internet. I’ve also learnt from the task Acadamic integrity which I think very important how to references the sources that I|’ve used because referencing the books and online article is different which I always forget about this very important part most of the time so referencing is not as difficult as I imagine it’s more about getting in the routine of doing it every time I’m doing any researches or used other people’s works.

I don’t feel very motivated when it comes to written the task my thought of doing it’s make me felt dreadful I just don’t know what to write for analysing the images or how will I make it sounds interesting so I’ve found that choosing the images or topic that I’m interested in have a lot of impact on keeping me writing about, easier for me to come up with what to write without realising how much I already wrote. The task that most difficult for me to write about is “Reflective Writing” because I found that I have to read the article over and over again to really get into what it trying to say and understand it completely which is difficult because of the language and lots of the vocaburay in the article that i don’t understand like “iconographical” so I have to translate and google the definition of it which sometimes when i sum up the whole sentences it doesn’t makes sense so I’m not sure of my interpretation of it is 100% correct or not so I have to keep doing the same thing throughout the article which take me quite a long time to finished reading because I have to stop reading in order to note down and translate the word. So I have been stuck on this task for quite a bit because i don’t know what to write about it so I have a read of other people blog who did the same task and this had diffinitely help guide me and give me some ideas on how to write about it.

In conclusion reflecting on all the task that I’ve done I’ve learnt a lot from this module in term of using different sources for research gave me variety and wider range for inspirations I have found that it have massive impact on my own work (projects) also what interesting is to see how each student responses diffently in the same task.

American Apparel

For this task i chosen this image because I’m more familiar with the brand and interested to dig deeper in terms of their ethical problems and what happens insight the business. When I google images this brand there’re a lot of images of their advertising posters which also including the image on the top came up along with lots of other ones which is i think far more worse. So that got me thinking of what is their target customers and audiences, American Apparel is a American clothing brands founded in 1989 by Canadian Dov Charney began by selling high- quality T-shirts to screen printers and boutiques in 1990 under the American Haeavy label, the brand had been around for quite a long time they got many retails store all around the world the brand are really well known for their making the 80s style knees high socks popular again.

Their Ethical issues is mostly about thier advertisements which are known as provocative and controversial, which are largely the inspiration of the company CEO Dov Charney, which has been largely critisied but also lauded for their honesty and lack of airbrushing. The company has used pornographics actors and glamour models in some of their advertisements, they’ve been using the sexual themes for magazines which would be eye gazing for many men which have been banned by various advertising authorities and also one of the magazine was banned in the UK. The model that are appear in the ads posters are mostly teenage looking which are age around 16-19 who appear to look like a child which is promoted sexualised and also pedophile which i think are not very thoughtful of how the advertise could trigger rape and child abuse without realising. Most of their advertises are featured a women or girl wearing nothing but a pant or with the knees high socks posing in a very inappropriate and raunchy position and some of the body part has often been covered by text of the brand’s name with the relevant description or sometimes the name of the model which to me it would seems like a  pornographic magazine this is where i think that is one of the Ethical issue of the brand the advertise is unnecessary and contradicted with the brand but I could see the point that this could boost sales but i don’t think anyone or a parents would wants their kids to buy the clothes from this brand.

The company have been subject to many public sexual harassment lawsuits and have also been sued by many ex- models for sexual harassment which involved mutual nudes photographs and sexual text. “The company was mired in controversy, but at its heart was a desire to produce clothing that did not harm and exploit the people who made it” – Dazed 16th January 2017 Emma Hope Allwood online article.  After reading the article i felt like that there’re some people out their who love the brand and seen the positive in them which i think that the brand been a little misjudged and harshly critized which i think is fair from what they’ve promoted but the point is that comparing to now a day lots of brands have there own positive and negative views from buyers and critics. “After a highly- publicised bankruptcy filling and attempted restructed, the news broke that American Apparel had been sold to Gildan” – Dazed fashion news 14th January 2017 Emma Hope Allwood. 

References:

1. Image from the presentation

2. Emma Hope Allwood 2017 “American Apparel is Officailly over as we know it” http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/34321/1/american-apparel-is-officially-over-as-we-know-it [06/12/17]

3. Emma Hope Allwood 2017 “why we should regret the end of American Apparel” http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/34330/1/why-we-should-regret-the-end-of-american-apparel-ethical-labour-sweatshop-free [06/12/17]