Fashion and Economy Highs and Lows

Economics is a science that deals with the production and consumption of goods and services. Fashion refers to the styles and designs of clothing. One deals with finance, analysis, structure, and graphs while the other deals with fantasy, emotions, and imagination. However, regardless of their meanings, it is stimulating to witness two subjects some would consider polar opposites to have the ability to predict and detail so much of the other; so as to have led to the development of a correlation. 

1910s - Photofrom Harper's Bazaar Magazine

1920s - Photo

1940s Photo from a lady's magazine

Discovered by a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, the Hemline Index is the common ground where economics and fashion correlates and where fashion becomes more than just clothes. The He

The Beat Girls - 1960s dance troupe

mline Index theorizes that during times of economic flourish, the fashions of women’s skirt lengths rises, and in opposition, during economic hardships their skirt lengths would render lower into more conservative lengths – so as to achieve a sense of security. However amusing some might find that fashion can predict the outcomes of the economy and vice versa, it is quite possible that the elevations and declines of women’s skirt lengths can correlate with the highs and lows of our economy. Looking back, in the 1920s when stock prices were high and the economy was flourishing, skirt lengths rose as high as to the knee. However, in the 1930s when the economy submerged into depression, the lengths of women’s skirts fell to mid-calf. Again, after the recovery from WWII, skirts elevated to an all-time high in the 60s, leading to the design of the mini skirt. It was not until the 1980s when the stock market crashed that skirt lengths fell again. However, after recovering from the crash, which lasted from the late 80s to early 90s, miniskirts became, once more, the pop trend (though dresses of different lengths were available). Then, during the 2000s, the economy fluctuated and drowned due to the events of September 11, the housing market, and the ‘war on terrorism’. It was during the fall of the housing market and the war (set around 2008) that maxi dresses (with the bohemian trend) became the new craze. 

Photo taken from Oscar de la Renta 

SP 2011

Bohemian Look

Trying to recover from this depression / recession that we are currently in, it is notable that our economy is beginning to steady and we’re on the right track; seeing as the length of skirts has risen to the calves and knees as recently seen in collections from designers such as Marc Jacobs, Max Azria, Nicole Miller, Nina Ricci, and Oscar de la Renta.

LINKS: 1960s Beat Girls Beat Girls Bohemian Look 1910s Harper's Bazaar
Fashion-era Designers

Comparing and Contrasting

Louis Vuitton entered the world of luxury goods in 1854, starting out in the departments of luggage and trunks; to which they later expanded to a wider range from shoes to clothing. With its iconic logo, LV, Louis Vuitton is one of the most well-known fashion houses. 

Marc Jacobs, on the other hand, opened its first boutique in 1997, but it was in 2008 that the brand took off, beginning a world wide open house (in places such as Japan, Russia, Korea, and China). Though new to the scene, compared to older fashion houses, Marc Jacobs is taking the industry by storm with its rising popularity.

Louis Vuitton Spring 2011

 

 

 

 

Louis Vuitton Spring 2011

Louis Vuitton Spring 2011

Marc Jacobs Spring 2011

This season for its Spring 2011 Ready-to-Wear collection Louis Vuitton channeled bits and pieces of ‘Chinatown’ with its choice of fabrics, the mandarin collars, fan accessories, slit and sleeve designs, and Chinese styled button (knot) closures. In contrast, for this spring, Marc Jacobs channeled the 70s with prints and patterns, wide-legged pants, and mix-matching knitwear. Both shows were somewhat high in contrast, considering the displayed inspiration form the collections. To put it bluntly, one was embodied tidbits of the east (Louis Vuitton) and the other (Marc Jacobs), tidbits of the west. Nonetheless, though both shows were different and held splashes of color, similarities can be found. Similarities can be found in their drop waist designs, halter dresses, shiny fabrics (which can be satin or a close cousin), and see-through fabrics.  Though both brands have a big separation in the age department, the two are different, yet similar, and possess a massive common denominator, Marc Jacobs. The designer for Marc Jacobs, Marc Jacobs, is also the designer for Louis Vuitton. 

Louis Vuitton Collection photos taken from Style.com

Marc Jacobs Collection photo taken from Fashionfame.com

LINKS: Style.com Fashionfame.com Louis Vuitton Spring 2011 Runway Marc Jacobs Spring 2011 Runway  Designer History Marc Jacobs Louis Vuitton

Design as Conversation

When thinking of the word design, anything and everything that pops up in our head can be argued to be a design. However, when thinking of the word conversation though, it’s a little bit trickier, because not everything and anything can be a conversation. A conversation entails a form of communication that one person participates in with another person – and possibly an object – to share information, emotions and feelings, and ideas. So what’s design got to do with conversation? Well, where design and conversation intersect is when communication is present. Design plays the form and structure of a conversation; the way information is communicated and received.

Work by Nevit Dilmen

Music is an element used as communication. Music communicates and converses in a way that allows artists to use designed lyrical words to convey their sorrow; their fantasies; their anger; their voice (opinions) etc… to connect with the person on the other end of the line (their fans, friends, family, and just the public in general). Music is a powerful tool of communication that can come to be and respond to any topic, even war. The Black Eyed Peas’ track “Where is the Love?” from their third album Elephunk is an example of communication to the masses. The track, released in 2003, 2 years after September 11, addressed the nation in regards to war and discrimination after the attack of 9/11; asking where is the love? Why we are overseas trying to stop terrorism when there is terrorism here in the United States? Another example would be John Mayer’s track “Waiting on the World to Change” which resembles and anti-war hymn.

LINKS: Waiting on the World to Change Where is the Love? Talk 

We Don't Like Change

We are a culture that expects the expected. We like stability and consistency because we see it as our security blanket. Consistency and stability lets us know what we need to know, it keeps our fears at bay because we know what to expect, it keeps us sane because we know that though the sun might set tonight, it will be back tomorrow. However, there is a saying that change is good, and we like to believe that we believe it, so we say that change is good and that it’s something ‘new.’ Automatically, in our head, we assume that ‘new’ is good. However, change is only ever good when YOU like the changes made. 

Picture taken from The Huffington Post

Gap was once a single clothing store founded by a married couple in San Francisco, and now Gap is a company worth thousands of millions of dollars with clothing stores stretching across the globe from the United States to France, Germany, Japan, and so on. Having also acquired fans of its own, the Gap brand is widely known, and also known to associate with other store brands such as Old Navy and Banana Republic. After having been in business for over 40 years, Gap has recently decided to forgo a logo change from a blue box containing the name of the brand, to a white canvas with the brand lettering in the center and a small blue box in the upper right hand corner intercepting the top right of the letter 'p'. After the new logo was made public, net denizens went wild with questions, remarks, and complaints because the logo they had once identified with, the classic image that identified their brand, had changed. The revamping of the company logo proved to be a failure, because after a week of their new logo release, Gap reverted back to their original logo.  

LINKS:The Huffington Post social network power Gap Inc History    

Fashion Highs and Lows

Economics and fashion design are two polar opposites. One deals with mathematics, structure, and planning while the other deals with feelings, emotions, inspirations, and ‘going with the flow’. However, it’s interesting to see two subjects that some would consider polar opposites relate so greatly with the other that one can predict and detail so much of the other. 

Alexander McQueen Runway

It has been theorized that during times of economic flourish, the fashions of women’s skirt length rises as the height of footwear decreases. In relation, during economic hardships, the fashions of skirt lengths would, in opposition, render lower into more conservative lengths as heel heights would elevate to higher heights.

12" Heels

However, it is quite possible that the elevations of the skirts and heels of women’s wear can correlate with the highs and lows of our economy. Looking back, in the 1920s when stock prices were high and the economy was flourishing, the skirt lengths were quite short (compared to its previous lengths). However, in the 1930s when economy becamed submerged in depression, the lengths of women’s skirts fell. In addition, the heels of women’s shoes seem to have elevated, compared to those of the Edwardian period. Later, after the recovery of WWII, skirts began to elevate until the 1980s when the stock market crashed. It was after the recovery from the war that the invention of the mini skirt appeared and it was during the stock market crashed that the elevated heels came more into play. However, after the recovery from the crash of the stock market, which lasted from the late 80s to early 90s, we began to embrace the miniskirts again in the latter half of the 90s. In addition, during the 2000s, the economy fluctuated and drowned as did the fashion industry due to the events of September 11, the rise of the housing market – and later, its downfall – and the war. However, it was during the fall of the housing market, the war, and everything else (set around 2008) that maxi dresses (with the bohemian trend) became the craze. Still recovering from this depression/recession, and as our economy is steadying – as the prices of petroleum has been somewhat steady as of late – the fashions of skirts has risen to midis (as recently seen in collections from designers such as Marc Jacobs, Max Azria, Nicole Miller, Nina Ricci, Oscar de la Renta, and more ) and our heel heights has begun to decrease little by little; for before these recent trends and collections, heel height reached a record high of 12 inches, as demonstrated by Alexander Mcqueen’s 2010 spring collection. 

It is also theorized that women’s shoes elevates during economic hardship as a form of fantasy escape from hard times and women’s skirt lowers to achieve a sense of security.

LINKS: MAX AZRIA NICOLE MILLER NINA RICCI OSCAR DE LA RENTA MARC JACOBS FINANCIAL JESUS SOS E-MARKETING

photos taken from Alexander McQueen collection

Creativity from 'Without'

To create from without, one would have to look outside of one’s self in order to achieve such a goal. However, as designers, even if we were to look to the outside world for inspiration instead of inside ourselves, a part of us will always be imbedded into our creation, like a mark or a signature to isolate our creations from the creation of others. 

Ornella Iannuzzi is a jewelry designer who finds inspiration for her work from ‘without’. She’s won many awards and has widely impacted the jewelry scene. She finds her inspiration through nature and its formation. Her direction of inspiration may have perhaps stemmed from her childhood environment in the French Alps. From tree barks to the splintered arid sun-dried mud on the grounds found on hot summer days, she utilizes her love of rocks, land and plant formations to translate into designs. Using her interest in geological formation and her fascination with minerals and metals as a basis for her designs, her creations seems as though it has been born and torn form the earth itself; and some seem to be as though it had been plucked from the bottom of oceans and reefs. Her mediums are from sustainable sources and vegetal elements that are created and molded to hold organic shapes. Because of her material choices –ranging from woods, semi-precious stones, and metals of a wide variety – and the way she works with them, her works seem to thrive, as though alive. 

Her work embodies a rawness and each piece exerts personality within itself. 

photos taken from: http://www.ornella-iannuzzi.com 

LINK: Object Fetish

Stone Soup

This past week I learned what “Stone Soup” was. Stone Soup is in fact NOT actually stone soup (unless you actually put stones in a pot of soup, then you would truly have stone soup). Nonetheless, Stone Soup is a tale, a story read and shared with children to help them develop the idea that sharing can result in greatness and success; and that little things can become so much more if everyone was to put forth small contributions of their own to the whole.

My lesson of Stone Soup began when we were scattered out of our design class with our groups. Instructed to settle in a location, and to create using our surroundings and what random materials we had contributed within the group, we created. The sky was the limit. Anything was possible. With ideas strewing out, we ended up with “EMO,” or as our teacher had named our creation, “Dezzi.” Without the effort and input from each member of our group, the creation of “EMO” would not have been.

With the command of sharing and contribution ingrained in us from youth – from the times our mothers had demanded we share our candies with siblings or crayons with our peers, even though we did not want to, we did it reluctantly – now we contribute and share our knowledge, possessions, ideas, and efforts willingly in hopes of and to strive towards success. Stone Soup has become somewhat of an invisible act in society. Some of us do not realize our contribution to society, to our work, our passion, even our family and friends. Where would our nation be in this war if troops did not contribute their strength? Would the show go on if it lacked the expertise of the lighting crew? Well, yes, it may go on, but would it not have been, more so, radiant if their expertise was present? Would we still be residing within cave walls if not for architects? What would we wear without designers to tell us what to wear?

How I see it, we all contribute in one way or another to society and everything inside and out of it. Always designing in hopes of success, however one would define the word success.

Wearing The Past

In the past years, the fashion industry has hit society, HARD. With TV shows like Project Runway, America’s Next Top Model, What Not to Wear, and many more, the fashion industry is flourishing. The industry moves so quickly, that something similar in design to what is seen on the runway today can be bought the next day at multiple boutiques, shops, and locations. Under the influence of the fashion industry, we now must have the new and latest trends before they zip by and become history. Quoting Heidi Klum, “in fashion, one day you’re in, and the next day you’re out.” However, observing the latest trends, nothing is ever really new. Nothing we design is new, because being “new” would infer that society as a whole knew nothing of this object/design/idea and this object or idea would have had been only presented to us now; because being new, it should have just been discovered. Instead, what we consider new, is in fact, old; just restructured. The only difference is that the designs that have been used before has been, at the moment, modernized to fit into our time. Observing recent collections that fashion designers have debuted during fashion week, we can see elements of the old; elements that has already been used before. 

The runway at Lanvin was brilliant. It was sexy, yet simple with low and narrow cuts of the necklines and waving skirts that seem to billow as though floating against the air. The pleating and the use of sheer material, all of it was exquisite. However, after recovering from admiration, we may come to realize that some of his garments contain Grecian and Roman expressions: the one shoulder construction, the drape of the chiffon on some of the dresses, and especially the flats that seems to have transpired from gladiator sandals.

The use of modernized history in design exists throughout the people acclaimed as designers.

LINK: Lanvin 2011 RTW

How Easily We Ignore Design

Who designs? You? Me? Painters? Architects?

What is design? Is it a verb? A noun? Is it to create something of aesthetic worth? Or something of worth to you and possibly the outside world beyond yourself? Is it just to create? To customize? Is it a language between two substances (living and non-living)? Is it a form of communication?

YES! Design is everything of the above, and more. When spoken of, the word design is mostly associated with fashion. For we refer to a person who illustrates fashion as a designer, and refer those who illustrates architecture as architects, those who sculpt or paint as artists (or sculptors and painters), and those who construct cures for diseases and illness as doctors, researchers, and scientists, even though their process and goals are similar. Nonetheless, they are all designers, because they create, they communicate, and evoke feelings and responses from the outside world. What many people do not see, is that we are all designers - you, me, everyone - we just don’t look close enough or think hard enough to connect the word designer to ourselves because we don’t link the activities that we execute in everyday life to the word design. When we modify the playlist on our iPod, we are designing because we are modifying something old to fit our needs and desires. When we write, we are designing because we are utilizing and arranging words in sequences that will bring about and convey an emotion and aura that would be understandable to all who reads it. When we make our beds, we are designing because we arrange the sheets, the pillows, the comforter, and everything else in relation to them in such a way so as to find it aesthetically pleasing. 

We are designing every day, and don’t even realize it. Perhaps the bigger question is not who designs, but who does not design? Perhaps the bigger question is not what is design, but what is not design?  

Memories of Crayons

Image taken from Photobucket.com

How easily we forget the tools of our trade as a child, when our only job was to dream. The feelings of invincibility. No worries of politics and war. No worries of corruption and finance. No worries of the dangers that lurks in the outside world beside our imagination. Perhaps as we grow up and lose that innocence and give up the things we cherished as children.

Before we had set our paths; before we have even discovered our talents, or lack thereof, we thought anything was possible; because with our crayons, anything was possible. Broken down and tattered with its wrapper hardly intact and with its sharp and dull ends, a wobbly line would transform into a worm; a sloppily drawn rectangle, a car; and a circle, a fish. Smelling like wax and plaster, it takes us back to a time of innocence where ideas and creativity is plentiful. Because smell is the only sense that can send unfiltered signals to the brain, the smell of an object enjoyed as a child, such as crayons, can unlock past memories and tap into the aura of that dreamer that once was us.

With its bright coloring and simplicity, it may not have the finesse of markers and pens, or the sophistication of computer aided designs, but it fitted perfectly in our tiny stubby hands as we explored what it offered to us as one of the first tools obtainable to bring about our imagination. As children, we think nothing much of the capabilities of a crayon; we know only that it gives us pleasure to produce something that we find aesthetically pleasing. However, reflecting upon it, it is a tool designed to bring forth fantasies and dreams by creation and design.

It is amazing how objects of such raw and simple rainbow colors can bring to life such dreams and fantasies that have aided in the design of today’s society.