Confusion = derision?

(JW Anderson Mens SS14 - via vogue.co.uk)

It is a sad truth that confusion or lack of understanding is often followed by derision. This is particularly true in the world of fashion. It is perhaps more likely that it is the intellectualisation of fashion which promotes elitism rather than financial divisions. Often it appears to me that much of the most avant-garde comes from those who were once misunderstood until someone noticed them and got it. “Getting it” is really important. Not everyone does. And it is this lack of understanding that causes a rift. Those who don't get it label collections as “ugly” or “unwearable” or “self-indulgent”. Those who do, feel defensive and scoff at others for being too narrow-minded or short-sighted to understand. Few things create such a divide as fashion. It as if it is a world parallel to teenage feuds over music genres. No one is truly right or wrong but merely unwilling to bend to the other's way of viewing things. Or too afraid of hurt feelings. It's all a case of miscommunication.

Of course, I am speaking largely in a general sense and about extreme opinions. It is not always so black and white as this. Examples, perhaps, are the best way of explaining the connection between confusion and derision in the fashion world. Fashion is one of the arts most engaged with by the general public and on a very regular basis. We are all aware of the fashion world and familiar with it but we are not all insiders or truly part of it. It is often those who are not in the business or the “know” that meet new ideas with confusion and derision. But this is not something that is limited to fashion. The “isions” are common reactions to the new and unknown. It is an easy reaction. The lazy reaction. Few of us are innocent of it. Take JW Anderson's A/W collection for men this year - dresses and skirts a-plenty for men. While the fashion world at large labels him a wunderkind, male friends of mine laughed off his clothes upon spying me looking at them. I'm sure most people in the street would do the same. Similarly, Chloe Norgaard was regularly lambasted last month as Vogue's Today I'm Wearing guest. Designers love her for her kooky, colourful look but many readers posted rude comments which were unnecessarily hurtful and cruel.

We do not all have to agree on matters of taste and everyone is entitled to their opinions. However, I do think it is sad that more of us (myself included) cannot accept these differences in opinion and embrace the crazy, beautiful, diverse world we live in as improved by them. Perhaps we all need to reconsider how we react to things that we don't understand and learn to give new things a chance. New perspectives are fun, not threatening! And something that we do not like or understand is not ugly. Judgement is an easy shield to fall behind but it does not promote a forum for growth or nuturing.

DIY Not?

Two hairbands I made at Trinity Fashion Soc's workshop last week. Such good fun and DIY is where so much of fashion is at right now. Think about it.

The Gloss is just Great.

I love a good fashion magazine. I love Irish fashion. I love magazines that come free with newspapers.

Therefore, I must love The Gloss.

http://thegloss.ie/

Look at the photos! So editorial and lovely. Love me some dappled lighting - I may have been Renoir in a past life, which would actually explain a lot...

The One

...is an awesome manhua by Lee Nicky. Well, it is if you love cheesy shojo. And if you have patience. Releases are slow and nothing really happens in a single issue so I'd ration it, if you're interested in getting into it.

What does this have to do with anything? Good question.

See The One centres around the fashion industry and features amazing clothes, images inspired by real shoots and characters who are thinly veiled personas from the industry such as Karl Lagerfeld and Andrej Pejic. For this alone it's really interesting.

But the best part of The One are images such as the following:

A wander around Brown Thomas...

For once, it was not clothes, but art, that drew me into Brown Thomas. I LOVE the Art and Style display. Here's a round-up of the art and style that impressed me.

Painting by Kerry born Tony O'Connor

Installation and painting by Raymond Henshaw - Pop-arty, I like it!

David Folan's gold mice - Juxtaposition of pretty and not-so-pretty which I find very interesting.

Kitty Moss' works were my favourites which just goes to show how effective the humble medium of pens and inks can be! Detail can be exquisite, like Harry Clarke, and the gothic nature makes me think of a high fashion Tim Burton. I LOVE the Karl drawing!

More Joseph love!

Marc by Marc Jacobs sneaker-wedges! (If anyone wants to buy me a pair, I wouldn't say no. Size 7)

Prada's prints and retro KILLED it this season!

And, finally, LOVING Kooples' sportswear.

Marc Jacobs and the famous Perry Ellis collection.

I have very mixed feelings about Jacobs' infamous collection. On one hand, it's gorgeous and, on the other, it stands for so much of what is wrong with the world. That people would pay thousands (though few actually did and the collection that made Jacobs a household name was a complete commercial dud) for silk versions of a trend sported by poor teenagers, wrapping themselves up in practical flannels, is crazy. However, it's hard to look at the striking images of the collection and not feel a draw to it. Furthemore, did Vivienne Westwood not do, and continue to do, the same thing with punk? The only way that I can justify the whole thing is to declare it the high fashion version and, therefore, relegate it somewhat to the realm of art. These are the clothes of fantasy rather than every day.

Qualms and quandaries aside, I found it difficult to get images of the clothes to perv on, so enjoy what I managed to scrounge gathered together here for your viewing pleasure! 

Dude, a post that totally isn't nineties inspired...psych!

I know, I know. I must leave the nineties alone and move on. However, I don't want to! And why should I? I read a piece online (God only knows where - this internet bender is a bad one) that complained about nineties revivalism as "ironic" and insincere as the style was all about the "feeling of the time". I'm sorry, whoever wrote that, but BULL. You could apply the same sentiment to any period that is revisited by designers and stylists and, if studying Art History has taught me anything, it's that nothing is sourceless and very little is entirely unique or without some form of precedent. So, it's hard for ideas or trends not to be looked at more than once. Besides, are people gonna tell Halston to leave the sixties or seventies alone? No, because they revive it so beautifully and without pastiche. It is pastiche, and not revival, that is the issue. And that's the thing, this nineties revival is without pastiche. We've taken the good and forgotten (or chosen to forget) the hideous. Gone are the bad jeans and embraced are a multitude of other influences and styles which create a stronger, more interesting aesthetic, much like how more diverse gene-pools make us stronger people.

I will also point out that I was a baby of the nineties, bred on the stuff. When I was first understanding personal taste and fashion, it was the movement du jour. Developmentally, it affected me hugely and, like many others, there is probably a deeper-rooted meaning to turning to a time of safety, childhood, pre-boom and pre-crash and swathing oneself in it.

And the irony thing? Well, I can't speak for others but there is nothing ironic about it for me, at all; the nineties are where my childhood and my imagination reside. One commentator I read noted that Urban Outfitters is where "Grunge goes to die" but we cannot allow high-street shops to be the measurement of the sincerity of a movement. Even in it's own time Grunge was gripped as something to make money off of by stores. And let us never forget that it is the fashion industry; it's aim is to make money. It is up to us, the consumer, to decide whether or not we allow ourselves to be dictated. We can buy something in vast quantities because shops and magazines tell us it is cool or we can buy what we wish because we want to. Sincerity, insincerity or irony lie with the individual.

Right, anyhoo, got distracted there, here's what I wore today! Weird side-note: Mammy had a dream that she wore these leggings last night which is really bizarre as they haven't seen the light of day in about half a year...

T-shirt - Vintage - Skirt/kilt-thing - Vintage - Leggings - Dunnes - Runners - Office.

Example of what I've said above in this outfit: The t-shirt and skirt are both vintage and actually from the nineties. I paid for neither but rather commandeered them from Mam's old wardrobe. I use both separately from each other regularly which renders them less overtly nineties and more a striped tee and simple black skirt. Adding in the lace leggings keeps me warm but dresses the outfit less like it would have been worn and in combination with the runners adds a kind of gothic twist to the outfit. Therefore the influences here are two-fold; the nineties and goth or punk. Thus, the outfit is more modern, less pastiche and more interesting. A bit of nineties mixed in with today.