Book ‘The Art Book’, page 121, published by Phaidon
‘Egg Beater no. 4’, Davis, Stuart, (1928), New York

Painting produced by Davis, ‘Egg Beater no. 1’, original painting, 1927, Whitney Museum of American Art

A search online showed that The Museum of Fine Art, Boston has a wide knowledge and archive of ‘The Egg Beater’ series produced by painter Davis

I am interested in artists that use bold colourful blocks to relate a story and meaning to its chosen audience. I came across Stuart Davis’ work in an art book and was interested straight away leading to me to look a little further online to see that he had actually produced a number of paintings for his series all produced in a similar way. This made me think that the way Davis produced his work was just alike the way that a fashion designer produces a collection all circulating around one source of inspiration, this case being an egg beater for Davis himself. I wanted to find out more about the meanings behind the set so went to a reliable website to help, I looked into Boston’s Museum of fine art which allowed me to gain a stronger knowledge behind his inspiration and reasoning behind what he did. I discovered that in 1927 Davis attached an electric fan, a rubber glove and an egg beater to a table which later resulted in four paintings being produced all in an abstract manner not resembling the objects at all allowing his audience to have to look a little deeper and further and come up with their own judgments. He became known as a modernist after this due to him enhancing people’s eyes and minds to the areas of the unknown and making people’s judgements and ideas always change. By doing this task I have been inspired to take this into my own work and make people look at my creations in a different way allowing a modernistic approach to my products. This task was interesting and made me look at a relating theme in different areas. Looking at Davis’ work in a book then online made me feel like I already had a sense of knowledge towards his work and the way he liked to produce his skill to his audience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The designer and collection I have looked at for this task is the Dolce and Gabbana spring/summer 2016 ready-to-wear collection. I have always found Dolce and Gabbana to be very inspirational, they arealways front and centre when it comes to world-wide trends not just in fashion but also in society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this collection, Dolce and Gabbana have referenced lots of different cultures, traditions and styles, one that is very obvious throughout the collection is the influence of Riviera style. The image and reference I have chosen to analyse is this still from the program Sex in the City. The show surrounds a group of successful women who live in New Your city and their semi luxurious lifestyle. It is a fairly fashion orientated program so doesn’t surprise me that this modern Riviera esque look had come up in one of the episodes.

I believe that this picture is a still from one of the scenes from the program due to the styling of the two of the main cast members, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Kattrall. I feel that the lighting, positioning and focus of the image is too perfect to be a candid of the actresses. In the image, they appear to be walking along what can be presumed a New York city street or maybe they had taken a vacation in the episode to France which would explain why they are both dressed in very similar outfits as France is where the Riviera style originated. It also gives a feel for the episode, the brightness of the sunshine, bright colours of the clothing and expressions of the characters gives you the impression of a perhaps exotic and exciting episode. The television company may have used this for advertisement for this particular episode to entice the audience.

Bibliography:

• Vogue (2016) Dolce and Gabbana 2016 ready to wear collection

Available form: http://www.vogue.co.uk/shows/spring-summer-2016-ready-to-wear/dolce-gabbana

https://blog.neonscope.com/Fashion/Style-Trends/469-the-french-riviera-style

 

 

 

 

 

Fashion as Communication, Malcolm Barnard

Chapter one of ‘Fashion as Communication (2002); Etymologies and definitions of fashion and clothing’ by Malcolm Barnard, explores the etymology of fashion and clothing and how this can be perceived in different manners. Bernard explains different opinions and explores how “things that people wear give shape and colour to social distinctions and inequalities, thereby legitimating and naturalising those social distinctions and inequalities”.  He explains that in our complex societies, we have the desire to behave and dress in a manner which is seen acceptable for the rest of our civilisation or social group, in a way in which “we want to look like our friends, but not to be clones” (Wilson 1992a:34).  As part of a western culture, we feel the need to follow certain fashion trends in order to secure a membership in a social and cultural group within our society. Fashion is not only used to state one’s persona, but also unites to form a social assemblage. However, in primitive societies it is argued that they ‘will have little if any fashion’ (Simmel 1971:302), as they have the lack of need to express their individuality and ‘because the need of new impressions is far less pressing’ (Simmel 1971:302).

Polhemus and Protector explore the political connections between fashion and ‘anti-fashion’, explaining their view on how the upper class and societies such as the monarchy and The British Empire present themselves in a traditional, fixed-costume manner designed to represent continuity; none, if little change at all (Polhemus and Protector 1978:12). An example used, is Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation gown, used as a symbol to express continuity. In contrast Dior’s ‘Tulip line’ dress is used; representing a latest collection, a new era, a fresh look and a transformation to a nation. Dior wanting to define discontinuity and change. This explaining how an individual or social group’s understanding of time and how they see themselves in the future, whether they want things to stay the same or change; fashion and anti-fashion can be used to show this. A social climber who would like to see a change in their position would use fashion to express this (Polhemus and Protector 1978:13). On the other hand, a land-owning, traditional aristocrat would like to see things to be consistent and not much modification (The Princess of Wales Fashion Handbook). This can then lead to Flügel’s view on how ‘fashion demands a certain kind of social organisation’ it needs to be one in which social classes are existent (Flügel 1930:140).

Throughout this chapter there has been a couple of points made which have stood out the most to me. One being; when Barnard discusses a constant mentioning in the The Guardians Woman’s Page section of The Guardian in 1992, which goes along the lines of stating that fashion is ‘irrelevant to serious- minded persons’ how it is trivial and ridiculous. Quite rightly Barnard disagrees with this statement and I agree when he states that ‘fashion seems to be necessary, given the social and economic organisation of most of the world’. Fashion is part of a society once a society; a capitalist, modern society exists fashion follows. The way ones presented is fashion, no matter how serious-minded you are. One final point that Barnard explores is how the word ‘design’ is comprehended in a European culture to be understood as less grand than ‘art’. Wilson has suggested that ‘fashion is the degraded or unacceptable face of art’ (Wilson 1990:209), the best way that fashion could be presented is to call it art. However, it is then explored further that any creation made by man is more likely to be seen as ‘art’, but made by women its more likely to be seen as ‘crafts’ or ‘design’, and that word ‘genius’ cannot be transferred from man to woman very easily, it simply doesn’t have the same effect (Old Mistress 1981). Who or what you are shouldn’t affect the level of your creations. Especially not your gender.

To conclude, I agree with the views put out by Barnard throughout this chapter. It has uncovered key issues about fashion and facilitated me to explore and understand factors to take into consideration when thinking about what is fashion and all the components which go alongside it. I have found interesting and amusing the different statements and opinions which have been studied during this chapter, allowing me to see different judgements and thoughts on the matter.

• Barnard, M. (2002) Fashion as communication; 2nd edition, Routledge.
• Wilson, E. (1985) Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity, London: Virago.
• Pollock G and Parker R (9181) Old Mistress

When looking at this image there are a whole range of ethical issues that clearly haven’t been taken into account. Firstly the man holding the necktie that is around the woman’s neck is well dressed and has a pleasant look on his face. He also looks rather wealthy which immediately to the viewers shows power and authority. His overall look is quickly compared to the subservient looking woman on the hood of a car. Due to her attire the man’s wealth and power is heightened even more so due to the woman only wearing underwear. The model in lingerie has no power or authority to the viewers but instead looks more like a sex slave. The photographer and company of this image clearly hasn’t taken ethical issues into account; the image quickly shows that men of wealth will have many powers over women and become almost like their ‘toys’ due to the authority they believe to have over the opposite sex. This photograph doesn’t show equality in the slightest as the woman has been draped over a car with no clothes on whilst the man is showing no skin and holding power over the woman with the necktie that is around the woman’s neck in his hand showing inequality. This image is teaching society it is okay to treat the opposite sex with no respect or consideration if we are wealthy.

This image not only teaches women that if we have wealth we have more power over the opposite sex but also that it is okay to sell ourselves to men who have this authority over us. The photograph shows the woman has no respect for herself by lying over the top of the car with one leg up and one hand behind her head whilst she looks up at the man with her back slightly arched. This photograph teaches women that it is okay to perform this kind of behavior and these actions for men. As it is clear she is lying over a car we can only assume that they are outside, therefore the photograph isn’t only showing the model wearing no clothes but also showing that she is in a public place performing these acts. This doesn’t give women the respect that they deserve as the majority of woman would never even think about performing such an act in a public place. The necktie that the man is holding shows an act of violence as if he were strangling the woman. This throws some confusion to the viewers as it makes us rethink if the woman is alive and willing to join in with the erotic acts he wants to perform or if she is unconscious or deceased. An article from The Conservation says, ‘Representing women as sexualised, zoomorphic and subjugated beings fosters a rape culture in which treating women in degrading ways through the use of violence is considered acceptable. By communicating that it is ok to dominate, sexually touch and assault women, violent advertising representations undervalue the right of a woman to say no.’ (Gurrieri, 2016)

This quote by Lauren Gurrieri explains that adverts like Duncan Quinn promote sexual abuse through power and violence which ignores the woman’s right to say no to such acts giving them no power or confidence. This image is falsely portraying the idea of sex to younger generations showing them that it is okay to perform dangerous and violent acts towards women as this is what they’ve been taught and believe how sex works due to adverts that show such explicit images.

 

Gurrieri, L., 2016. The Conservation. [Online] Available at: http://theconversation.com/why-is-the-advertising-industry-still-promoting-violence-against-women-64086 [Accessed 11 November 2017].

 

 

The chapter Fashion and Anti-fashion from the book Fashion as Communication by Malcolm Barnard states that society’s behaviour and the way we process information contributes to our own understanding of fashion. It states that due to the primitive desire to become part of a social group we act and behave in certain ways to be accepted by other members of society; this includes the way we dress. When we are part of that social group we feel the need to not just be a union but also individual, these two conflicting ideals create fashion and if either of them is absent, fashion would not exist due to the lack of social rules and the lack of the need to conform to certain fashion trends. The need and desire to be fashionable and individual comes mainly from western cultures. Fashion isn’t just used to make a statement about yourself but it is what binds social groups together. Societies where there is not such a demand to adapt one’s self to society will have little fashion as there is less pressure to be part of a social group as the social group isn’t dominated by fashion. The groups look for individualisation first then to reach complete  independence it can develop from fashion. These societies look for trends in the wider society like the western culture and not their own therefore there is not such a pressure for them.

Fred Davis claims, ‘clothes can make a clear reference to who we are and wish to be taken as while alternatively or simultaneously evoking an aura that merely suggests more than it can state precisely’. (Davis, 1986) This statement agrees with the idea that fashion can give us direct independence from our social group as clothes can suggest to a viewer how we observe ourselves and how we wish others to perceive us. However it also questions how someone perceives who you are as clothes can only go so far to suggest how we wish someone to view ourselves more than giving a fundamental statement about the precise person we are the clothes you wear as clothes suggest more of a feeling of how we want society to see us. 

Having analysed the text I agree with the idea that we feel the need to be a part of a social group but also show our individuality. From an evolutionary purpose we feel that we are safer in numbers but we do not want to be labelled but instead have our own identity. I also believe that Davis’s claim also spoke truth and clothes cannot exactly show people how we wish to be seen but instead give a strong feeling, this is due to how each individual sees a particular type of garment. Davis later goes on to state, ‘whatever it will come to mean eventually, is bound to be perceived and responded to quite differently by the coteries, audiences and publics to which is it successively exposed.’ Evidently due to different personalities we will not always see how one wishes to be perceived, however clothes can give a strong suggestion to indicate the way we would like to be acknowledged.

Reading a chapter from Adorned in Dreams helped me clarify my personal thoughts. Wilson claims that in the nineteenth century appearance was most important when looking to achieve a higher status, ‘each woman must wear the uniform of fashion, yet in a world that believed in individualized romantic love she must also express the uniqueness of her personality.’ (Wilson, 2003) Even in the nineteenth century we wished to be viewed in a certain way that would heighten our status by our individuality. It is clear that this desire has carried on into the 21st century so we are able to gain status. I do believe that being part of a group wants to give us independence but also if one of these behaviours is missing there will be a lack of fashion as we would no longer feel the need to constantly impress or standout from our original group to achieve status.

Davis, F., 1986. Clothing and Fashion as Communication. In: The Psychology of Fahion. Canada: unknown, p. 15.

Wilson, E., 2003. Adorned in Dream. In: London: I.B Tauris, pp. 15-17.

 

Fox, Chloe (2012) Vogue on Alexander McQueen, London: Quadrille Publishing

For this task, I have decided to firstly look at this book on Alexander McQueen. McQueen has been a firm favourite of mine in terms of fashion designers for a while now and I find I can reference him in almost every project I do as his work is so varied and interesting.

 

ELLE.com (2004) Alexander McQueen. Available from:                  http://www.elle.com/runway/spring-2004-rtw/g24870/alexander-mcqueen-51776/ [Accessed      20^th November 2017]

To carry on this research, I found a picture in the book of a design in the book that I found particularly intriguing and decided to see if I could find the rest of the collection. This was very easily found on ELLE.com, I could see the entire collection through an 84-picture slide show. I liked that these pictures also gave me a slight insight to the show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daily Mail (2015) Never before seen images from 2004 Alexander McQueen show, Daily Mail, 17^th March

To conclude this task, I wanted to find some more in-depth information on the collection. I came across this article from Daily Mail that looked at the collection more closely and also showed ‘never before seen images’ from the collection. I loved the dark/gothic type photography form Nick Knight, the article then went on give a brief biography of his life and included multiple pictures from his ‘Savage Beauty’ exhibition at the V&A. I thought this was a good addition to the article as it gave background information to his life and the collection.

 

 

 

For this task I chose to look at Dries Van Noten’s SS17 ready-to-wear collection and the influences behind it. His inspiration for this collect comes from a wide range of sources, from films to famous works of art, some of which I have highlighted in the mood board. However, the image I chose to analyse further is an image of Marchesa Luisa Casati, a highly influential woman thought to be at one point the richest woman in Italy. She was renowned the world over for her “unique, peculiar style, sumptuous and noir, her layers and peplums, her masculine references, her fox furs and leopard skins, her endless suitors, her theatrical, feathered head-dressings, her neo-Gothic moods and Oriental embroideries” (Vogue Italia, 2011), all of which has established her as a muse to a plethora of fashion designers including John Galliano and Karl Lagerfeld.  

She is pictured here at a costume ball hosted by Baron Guy de Rothschild. She appears to be wearing an extravagant headdress complete with a plume of feathers that compliments a fur shawl she seems to have draped over her arm. Her decorative dress and abundance of jewellery confirm her as the eccentric, exotic and even controversial woman she was known for being. Her pose, complete with cigarette holder, suggests confidence, poise and class, her wealth and status evident through the composed way she holds herself in this photograph. As a woman of high society in the early 1900s there was no doubt a pressure and expectation of how one should dress, however, her outfit in this image is eccentric and over-the-top, unsurprising really as she was well known for her opulent and often exotic dress sense.  

Therefore, we can conclude that the impression we get of Marchesa Luisa Casati from this image is a true representation of her famed and influential style which has been the muse of many a designer, including Dries Van Noten and his SS17 ready-to-wear collection. 

 

 

 

 

• Cesare Cunaccia, (2011), Vogue Italia, ‘Marchesa Luisa Casati as Modern as Ever’. Available from: http://www.vogue.it/en/people-are-talking-about/obsession-of-the-day/2011/01/marchesa-casati#ad-image59117 (accessed 28/11/17)
• Sarah Mower, (2016), Vogue. Available from: https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2017-ready-to-wear/dries-van-noten (accessed 28/11/17)
• Ann-Marie Voina, (2016), Because London. Available from: http://becauselondon.com/fashion/2016/11/moodboard-uncovered-dries-van-noten-ss17/ (accessed 28/11/17)

 

 

Out of the two images provided, I decided to choose the Duncan Quinn advertisement as in comparison to the American Apparel ad I felt it supplied more substance to analysis issuing multiple ethical issues to scrutinise and inspect in-depth. ‘Duncan Quinn’ is a menswear fashion designer mainly focused on designing unique ties and accessories for men – in which the advertisement he produced appears quite contradictive ’as it contains a women model (no relevance to his branding) as well as the male model not even wearing anything which slightly resembles ‘Quinn’s renowned designs. Adding on from this, the infamous magazine brand GQ stated that the brand is like “Saville row meets rock’n’roll (GQ Magazine, 2008)” in which I feel doesn’t correlate with the 2008 ad purely because rock’n’roll is all about conveying imagery of edginess and hard aesthetics but the advertisement displays quite sensual and incendiary (in terms of being quite provoking and stirring conflict).

Focusing more on the male model himself, I feel he creates a perturbing and distressing aura by giving the customers viewing the ad direct eye-contact seeming quite off-putting and quite frankly disturbing – as well as appearing quite dark and sinister due to the environment and his actions in the advertisement itself. As well as this, the male model’s smug, sexist and provocative and violent actions exudes dominance and gives the appearance of him being superior to women which causes controversy as this doesn’t display acts of equal rights and denotes women as less of importance and unwanted. The un-comforting and unsettling aesthetics of the female model is caused by the fact she is “…strangled and bloody half-naked…(Winn 2008)” which depicts an image of women being sexually objectified and enslaved; dominated as sexual objects due to, the model in the ad, being faceless and the main subject of her in focus is her body. Furthermore, the female model is wearing very little clothing (just in her lingerie) therefore exposing her naked body in which I feel is unfair as in comparison the male model is fully clothed which appears to give him a sense of pride and in control – but in fact it is unfair and unrighteous as states the message that women are of less importance and unequal to men.

Online, I found a quote which relates well with the whole ethical issue of subjectifying women as sexual objects and displaying them in a provoking, unequal and sensual way – which can be seen as dehumanising and inhumane. For example, the quote states “Yet sexualised images can dehumanise women, leaving an unresolved paradox (Bongiorno et al. 2013)” which backs up the argument on the basis that they agree in terms of that women shouldn’t be portrayed in this kind of way as it is seen as dehumanising which can cause some disturbance and distressing imagery for some viewers. Lastly, I found that this quote also worked well as it’s talking subjectively about the ethical issue of women’s rights and being sexually objectified due to the fact that the ad was issued in 2008 and this quote was stated in 2013 which shows how this ethical issue hasn’t progressed and is still an “unresolved paradox (Bongiorno et al. 2013)”.

References:

1. Duncan Quinn. 2017. Bespoke Atelier and Lifestyle Destination for Discerning Gentleman. [ONLINE] Available at: http://duncanquinn.com [Accessed 28th Nov. 2017].
2. Wikipedia. 2017. Rock and Roll. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_and_roll [Accessed 28th Nov. 2017].
3. Winn, S. 2008.Trend Hunter: Disturbing Sexist Ads, Duncan Quinn Suit Campaign Depicts Strangled Woman. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/duncan-quinn-suit-ad-depicting-strangled-woman [Accessed 28th Nov. 2017].
4. Bongiorno, R., Bain P. and Haslam, N. (2013). When Sex Doesn’t Sell: Using Sexualised Images of Women Reduces Support for Ethical Campaigns. [ONLINE] NCBI. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3867429/ [Accessed 28th Nov. 2017].

Yves Saint Laurent Mondrian Dress

Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1930

Genre: Abstract Art

Media: Canvas, oil paint

This is a painting by Piet Mondrian he was a Dutch painter and theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 2oth century. Mondrian began producing grid- based paintings in late 1919. when I looked at this painting I felt very limited, in terms of colours and shapes it’s very simple and basic but which is what Modernism and Bauhaus are best known for so this painting also reminded me of architectures, abstracts and geometric. for the colours that have been used is yellow, red, and blue which are all high contrasting primary  colours and all of them got divided with vertical, horizontal thick black lines which help to accentuated the lines across over each other are “similarly rendered”. The composition and the painting itself is very “static”. The Mondrian Collection was designed by French designer Yves Saint Laurent 1966, the collection was a homage to the work of several modernistic artists, part of the collection were six cocktails dresses that were inspired by the paintings of Piet Mondrian. The designer acknowledged that the work of Mondrian inspired him to focused on the simple and minimal decoration overall the effect appeared simple but the technique was complex and required precision cutting to achieve intensive  haute couture successfully making the dress expensive.

Although this Mondrian Collection were very successful it was noted that several other designers had produced very similar works beforehand, in 1965 a New York reported noted that the dresses closely resembled two- colour jersey dresses that had already been produced and widely retailed by French Desinger Michele Rosier and John Kloss. The collection was widely published in many fashion magazines with one dress featuring on the cover of Vogue in 1965, and can be found in several museums around the world including the V&A Museum in London.

References

1.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mondrian_collection_of_Yves_Saint_Laurent
2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Mondrian
3. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Mondrian
4. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Mondrian
5. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Mondrian
6. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Stijl
7. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Stijl
8. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Stijl
9. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernism
10. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_Poliakoff

 

 

The idea that an image speaks a thousand words has been considered throughout time since it was first observed. But like most imagery it can be interpreted differently by each individual who views it. Therefore a message you might at first perceive to be acceptable advertising, for example, might turn out to have severe back lash if it touches on an inappropriate or offensive topic. Ethical issues must be thought of when creating imagery or media that is portrayed to the public as one wrong image could cost you your reputation or affect many lives in a negative way. You need to consider culture, religion and gender stereotyping to name a few so that you can create a good message for the public, one which will not offend anyone. American apparel is known for their suggestive and provocative advertising however no one really understands what they are trying to sell in these adverts. The advert I have chose to analyse portrays a woman in her early 20’s wearing underwear lying back on a bed pulling her legs back by her tights with them in the air. My initial thoughts I had were that it was a very sexualised image for a clothing brand and I wondered what were they trying to sell through the black and white advent? As there was no clothing visible in the image which stood out or was highlighted. The logo of “American Apparel” is placed on a white banner which covers the woman’s private areas, the wording itself is in black and placed within the banner over her pants to draw the eyes into the most sexual area of the advert. Her legs are cut out and hanging over the banner giving brackets to the company’s name.

To consider the ethical issues within this advert I would say that the company/photographer/creative director are over sexualising the female body and women in general more than they need to. Sex is said to sell, however when thinking about the consequence of the wide spread sexualisation of women (or men) you have to ask yourself is it really worth it? Showing images like this of women to young boys who are at an impressionable age means that they are going to see this as the norm and start to sexualise the girls around them who are too young to be introduced into this type of attention. If you teach boys from a young age that women and girls are there to be perceived in a sexual way it will affect their perception of women throughout their whole lives altering their relationships with women and their views of how women should be treated creating a generation that could end up looking at women as objects rather than people.

When creating a message it must have direction and intention. I don’t want to look at simplistic and inappropriate advertising I want to see interesting and mentally engaging advertising. An ethnically inconsiderate advert can lead to a negative mentality for the people who view it whereas a positive advert with a strong message can change a person for the better “Weak messages create bad situations” and to avoid an ethnically insensitive society we need to consider what messages we project through all of our work, not only advertising.

Book – Shrigley, D.S, (2014) Weak messages create bad situations A manifesto, Canongate