I just received and watched the DVD "Valentino - The Last Emperor" - it is a fantastic view into the world of haute couture - which, as Amanda Priestly** would tell you, has a great impact upon what the ordinary woman buys on sale at Marshall's. That said, what goes into a piece of apparel - from the original design, to construction, to finished masterpiece is amazing. It is not only art and architecture, but an enormous industry which employs countless people. I highly recommend the documentary. (If you have ever worked in any segment of the business, you will definitely appreciate the film.)
.
What I can't recommend as fashion or design is something naively referred to as Pure Fashion. The concept is laudable - the product, the shows, the marketing - not so much. There is no fashion whatsoever in anything I have ever seen regarding this effort. Jeans, skirts and t-shirts - ordinary-every-day-wear is not fashion. Tips On How To Dress Modestly is a better descriptive than misappropriating the appellative "fashion" to this "stuff".
.
** [To Andrea] "This... stuff? Oh... okay. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out — oh, I don't know — that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean. You're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002 Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St. Laurent, wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets? (I think we need a jacket here). And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic Casual Corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff." - Wikiquotes
My young friend in Belgium just suggested a definition of fashion on Twitter this morning. It was "Other people telling you what to wear to express your individuality?"
ReplyDeleteYou've been on a roll. Keep it up.
I've always noticed an tendency for the "modesty movement" to actually be the "ugly movement."
ReplyDeleteI watched the video and those girls looked like slobs. That may not sound very kind but sometimes truth is not kind.
Your sweater story was wonderful and so true. Women don't understand how the decisions at the top wander down to the "masses."
I liked that movie!
ReplyDeleteThe sad part is that I need no reference for that. I liked the book and the movie.
ReplyDeleteI like getting my clothes at Cal Ranch Stores - where the miners and cowboys get their stuff. There is something to be said for fleeing suburbia. Except the liturgy here is awful - very guitar novus ordo, Kumbaya 60's fashion-liturgy, now THOSE are fashions which have trickled down to the bargain basement of priestly exile out here in the hinterlands, where the vestiges of hippie priesthood are farmed out. But we do have a Wal*Mart where we can buy clothes made with child labor in some oppressive third world dictatorship- but hey its cheap stuff, the clothes I mean.
ReplyDeleteI like your fashion posts!
ReplyDeleteSusan - you have to watch the movie.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI just watched "Valentino: the last Emperor" on Netflix Instant. It is wonderful. I've put it on my Amazon Wish List to get the DVD in the future. Thanks for recommending this.
ReplyDelete