fashion |
- Looking Beyond the Fashion Binary - The New York Times
- Isaac Mizrahi Found Freedom Through Fashion - The New York Times
- Refugee designer leads fashion toward sustainability - Landscape News
- Hari Nef on the transformative power of fashion - Page Six
- Letters: Fashion standouts or cardboard cutouts? - The Boston Globe
| Looking Beyond the Fashion Binary - The New York Times Posted: 12 Mar 2019 02:00 AM PDT  BOSTON — The fashion department of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston occupies a high-ceiling space filled with wooden bookshelves that resembles a classroom at a venerable college, and on a recent winter day the lesson was to expect the unexpected when it comes to clothes. The museum's curator of fashion arts, Michelle Finamore, opened the door to a storage area where some of the items were being kept for her coming show, "Gender Bending Fashion," on view from March 21 to Aug. 25. One mannequin was dressed in a 2012 Comme des Garçons blazer, printed with huge pink roses and combined with a black kilt beneath. It seemed to tell the tale of the show: Was the outfit for a man? A woman? Were those questions even relevant in 2019? The concepts of gender-neutral, gender-fluid and unisex clothing have been some of fashion's hottest trends over the past decade, attracting news attention, galvanizing activists and leading Hollywood stars of both sexes to experiment with gender-blurring outfits on red carpets. From a museum perspective, the topic is so new that the very basics of a fashion show had to be rethought. "We had to order all new mannequins," Ms. Finamore said. "They're more gender-neutral, and they're all in a shade of gray." The exhibition comes at a time when gender issues are being discussed more. "Thank goodness that in 2019, this show is happening," said the Paris-based designer Rad Hourani, who is credited with creating the first unisex and gender-neutral ready-to-wear collection, in 2007. "When I first started talking about this topic, I knew we didn't need these categories." Mr. Hourani has more than a dozen items in the show, including chunky boots and elegant unisex couture trousers and jackets — all in sober black. The more than 130 exhibition items feature all manner of garments, including sweaters and top hats, as well as drawings, photographs and other documentation of how we wear our gender, and how that's changing. Designers represented include Rei Kawakubo, Jean Paul Gaultier and Alessandro Michele for Gucci. Image  The show looks at recent developments in the field — of which there are many — and also at the earlier 20th-century roots of gender-fluid design, including Marlene Dietrich's tuxedo and the so-called peacock revolution of the 1960s, when men's fashion evolved from the traditionally muted grays and browns of an earlier time to bolder colors and striking designs. "It's such a timely topic," said Ms. Finamore, who has been researching the subject for several years and was particularly inspired by developments in men's wear. "There is a rethinking of what these gender binaries mean." She added, "What I love about it is that it allows me to kind of present the contemporary, but then look back in history and think about what preceded it." Though it pushes into new territory, "Gender Bending Fashion" is part of a widespread trend of art museums putting on fashion exhibitions, one that has grown quickly in the last decade. The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has led the way with wildly popular exhibitions like last year's "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination" — which was the museum's most popular show of all time, with 1.65 million visitors — but the trend is everywhere. The Philadelphia Museum of Art recently closed "Fabulous Fashion: From Dior's New Look to Now," and "Thierry Mugler: Couturissime" is on view until Sept. 8 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Art museums put on these shows at least in part because they think visitors will flock to them and perhaps, while they're on the premises, encounter the painting and sculpture that are the meat and potatoes at most such institutions. But "Gender Bending Fashion" takes the idea of attracting new visitors and engaging them a step further, to such a degree that it actually changed the shape of the exhibition. "We're doing a lot of thinking about who our audiences are," Matthew Teitelbaum, director of the M.F.A., said. "We want people to imagine that they belong here." To that end, Ms. Finamore reached out beyond the museum walls more than is the norm and held discussions with people who may have a stake in the show, including transgender groups and the queer fashion community. They posted a "call to action" on Instagram that got very inquisitive replies. "People wanted to know more right away, especially about whether trans people were represented and what that means," Ms. Finamore said. To make sure the museum was sensitive to the community's concerns, she also hired a gender consultant to help vet the show's language and concepts. The exhibition has a sidebar of sorts called the Fashion and Gender Lab, which includes a library and a place for visitors to respond to the show. It will feature a digital album composed of photos and stories of 10 Boston-area locals who are gender-fluid in their dress; it may also appear on the museum's website. Younger voices were particularly sought. "We had such a great discussion with our Teen Arts Council," Ms. Finamore said. "We listened to what resonated, and interestingly for them it was the history that really resonated, because they didn't know anything about it previously." The opinions she received were in some cases pointed ones, like those from Anita Dolce Vita, the owner and creative director of the queer style blog dapperQ. "When we talk queer style, we're not talking about gay men creating binary clothing for women," Ms. Dolce Vita said. "Queer style is not that — it's a disruption of the whole system." She aired her views to Ms. Finamore and recommended the work of Stuzo Clothing, a Los Angeles-based company that makes "genderless" clothing. Though Stuzo didn't make it into the exhibition — the conversation came late in the planning — Ms. Dolce Vita is including them in a small fashion show she is staging March 15 as part of a preview event at the museum. This level of outreach is fairly new for the M.F.A., which opened in 1876 and has always been known for a strong traditionalist streak, like its home city. "Boston has such a conservative reputation, especially fashion-wise," Ms. Finamore said. All the more reason to make an effort in a fresh direction. "Already, Michelle's working groups and round tables have changed the ways we develop content," Mr. Teitelbaum said. "It's achieved a lot for us and it hasn't even opened." But he noted that the outreach is beside the point unless the material coming on view is worthy of display, and meets the long-held standards of the institution. "When I saw the objects, I thought they were unbelievably interesting and powerful works of art," Mr. Teitelbaum said. "And if they're not, we lose credibility." For his part, Mr. Hourani sees the show as progress, given the relatively recent explosion of gender-fluidity as a topic in wider society. As he put it, "To have a revolution, you need an evolution."  |
| Isaac Mizrahi Found Freedom Through Fashion - The New York Times Posted: 13 Mar 2019 11:00 AM PDT  I.M. "I stuck out like a chubby gay thumb," reads an early line from this memoir by Isaac Mizrahi, one of America's most acclaimed designers of the 1990s. In his heyday, he was a master of color who could effortlessly intuit what women wanted, making clothes that felt both youthful and elevated, never fussy or overdone. "An American woman in crocodile flats and a tweed skirt looks so much better to me," he told this newspaper in 1988, in an article that named him that year's "hottest new designer." His looks included a white cotton T-shirt over a voluminous taffeta ballroom skirt, and a sweatshirt-like poplin tunic layered over a pair of satin shorts. He was an early champion of diversity on the runway and a pioneer in taking the camera behind the scenes with the 1995 cult documentary "Unzipped." Later, Mizrahi would be one of the first designers to collaborate with mass retailers, mixing high fashion with low prices and more inclusive sizing. His critics often accused him of a kind of creative freneticism, but throughout "I.M.," this designer's innovation and confidence are evident, contrasting with an industry that, despite its superficial fickleness, can be deeply resistant to change. Image  The more compelling part of Mizrahi's life, however, begins earlier. Born in 1961 in Brooklyn, he was the black sheep of his family, preferring Barbie to G.I. Joe. By the time he was 12, he could perform a perfect imitation of Barbra Streisand in "Funny Girl." As the misfit alongside two perfect sisters, he became a confidant and companion to his complicated and vibrant mother, who, though she embraced the traditions of their conservative Syrian Jewish community, also suffered under the limitations on women at the time. "She trained me," her son recalls, "to be her best friend." Mizrahi's childhood was dominated by overeating and insomnia, both amplified by his aversion to his education at the local yeshiva, where he was teased and bullied by rabbis and classmates. Yet his descriptions of this period of his life are unexpectedly tender. Heartfelt and honest, he is generous in assessing, for example, the emotional gap he could never bridge with his father. There are also poignant scenes like this one, detailing his first sexual experience with another boy one idyllic summer day in Deal, N.J., just before his bar mitzvah: "We couldn't be heard, and the cabana door was locked with a hook-and-eye latch. Narrow stripes of bright sunlight slipped through the slatted doors, but otherwise the cabana was dark and cool, and the scents of salt and chlorine were edged out by the stronger scent of Bain de Soleil." Both parents would eventually help Mizrahi discover his gifts as a designer. His father, who worked in the garment trade, gave the boy his first two sets of professional scissors (one for fabric, the other for paper) and later helped him pick out a sewing machine with the money he had saved from babysitting. Mizrahi's mother — who had a knack for discovering designer outfits in the basement of Loehmann's or, better yet, inventing clever ways to affordably recreate the latest styles from Paris — would be his earliest critic and champion. The young Mizrahi turned to the piano and became obsessed with film and theater. At home, he constructed puppets outfitted in elaborate costumes, staging performances for the neighborhood in the family's garage. As with many of the best artists, his talents were irrepressible from an early age, even if he felt his life was "hopeless." Escape finally came in the form of the stage, after Mizrahi secured a coveted spot in the drama department of Manhattan's Fiorello LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, where he found like-minded souls. This period also offered him his first taste of independence: He spent days roaming the city, visiting the Guggenheim or the Metropolitan Museum of Art; at night, he went dancing at Studio 54 and the Mudd Club. Yet fashion still managed to creep into his life. A request to make a gown for a family friend in Brooklyn kicked off a bootleg career as a designer, and eventually a teacher suggested that he might want to apply to Parsons School of Design. During his time as a student and afterward, he did stints working for some of the great American masters of the 1980s, including Perry Ellis and Calvin Klein, until at last he stepped out with his own eponymous line in 1987. The rest of Mizrahi's life is well known and plenty documented. Chanel took a stake in his company in 1992. His SoHo offices and design studio became a destination for Naomi Campbell, Sandra Bernhard and Liza Minnelli. Mizrahi was a frequent dinner guest at the home of the Vogue editor Anna Wintour. He befriended big names like Stephen Sondheim, Mark Morris and Maira Kalman (in an especially endearing chapter, he writes about his friendship with Kalman and her family). But it was too much of a challenge for Mizrahi to grow the line without any production or retail infrastructure, and when Chanel pulled its financing in 1998 he decided to shut his doors. Fashion loves to judge by appearances. It can be challenging to categorize a talent like Mizrahi, who is, at his core, an artist above all else. He's not the first designer to tire of the rigmarole of running a company — the relentless socializing, the press appointments and frequent travel, the fittings and castings and photo shoots and small production catastrophes. Mizrahi knew he had earned his place in an exclusive and magical world, filled with beautiful people and extraordinary opportunities (among his fondest memories are meeting Richard Avedon and working on a photo shoot with Audrey Hepburn), and more than once he contemplated change. In 2002 he briefly relaunched his couture studio at the same time that he opened a label with Target; he now has a new line with QVC. From the outside, the end of his high-end fashion line may have seemed like a failure. But, he declares, for the first time he finally felt "amazingly free."  |
| Refugee designer leads fashion toward sustainability - Landscape News Posted: 13 Mar 2019 03:03 PM PDT RELATED STORIES 6 Mar 2019 12 Feb 2019 2 Dec 2018 Back in 2014, a curious collection of scarves rippled through the media. But it wasn't Vogue or Harper's BAZAAR covering the accessories; rather, it was the likes of Fast Company and Scientific American whose eyes were caught by NASA satellite imagery of cityscapes, natural environments, even galactic wonders adorning Italian-made silk scarves, with a portion of proceeds going to aid organizations. Was it fashion? Was it charity? Was it science communications? One scarf produced in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund, entitled Phytoplankton Bloom, was printed with the bioluminescent creatures of the Berants Sea, as seen from space. Now in its seventh year, New York–based Slow Factory is far less of a niche brand than it was when it garnered its first attention as a small but imaginative leader in sustainable fashion – so much so that its founder Céline Semaan, a Lebanese refugee raised in Montreal, is taking a sabbatical from designing. With an MIT fellowship and numerous bylines to her name, Semaan has become a leading voice on the future of fashion, and is pivoting to work in collaboration with the U.N. and other organizations to put on educational events and grow Slow Factory's research and development capacity into a lab of sorts helping expedite the fashion industry's clean-up. Here, Semaan tells Landscape News more on what's in store.
What have you learned about the natural world through fashion? I've always been a science geek. I wanted a career as an astronaut but quickly discovered I didn't have math skills. My studies were in art and cyber art. But when NASA released imagery under Creative Commons, I had the idea to spread that information into another field – to take that information and apply it to fashion. I began to see how fashion is very much part of the natural world through fabrics, fibers, the life cycle or end-life of a product. That's when I began to learn about biodegradable fibers, natural dyes and circularity, so that production that doesn't harm the natural world. You've coined a term called 'fashion activism,' which means using fashion to say something or speak out on an issue. How did this idea come about? I think it was by accident I entered fashion. I never felt I fit. I either wanted to disappear or blend in, so I would wear a monochrome of gray or black or blue and try not to stand out. But all desperate attempts to be invisible were not working, and I was always the 'other' – the only Arab in the class, or the only one with traditional clothes. The moment I realized I wanted to do things for myself and dress to feel good, I realized that no matter what we do, fashion has a meaning, it carries a story. Whatever you decide to wear, you can't disappear, because you're there. That's where this whole notion of 'fashion activism' came from, and that everything you wear is telling something about you. This year at New York Fashion Week, you partnered with the UN to host the Sustainable Fashion Summit. How was that? It was one of the most talked-about events. Everyone was telling me it was incredible. And it's so refreshing to be doing things in the fashion space that are welcomed and can inspire the industry. I really love the way the culture around Fashion Week is evolving. A lot of designers are getting attention for not showing, which is sign that we are going way too fast and must slow down. In your talk at the Summit, you said you wanted to wrap people in the natural world with your scarves. How do you think this affects people? Historically, the clothes we wear are our armor. They protect us from the world and they connect us with the world, and the fibers we wear come from the earth. They are woven and put together in a way that tells a story. For me, adding a print on it, and that print being the world and the universe, makes it feel like there is mythology around it, in a way. What if we wrapped ourselves with the world – would we then realize that we are part of this world? That we are this world? When you talk about understanding that you are nature, it's very easy to understand with the analogy of food. We need to eat organic or at least be careful what we put in our mouths. But when we think about clothes, it's not as much of a natural relationship. So that's mainly what drove me to try and create a relationship between garments, fabric and the natural world around us. You're originally from Lebanon. How does this influence your approach to your work? Developing countries have a different relationship to sustainability because they have an understanding of lack – lack of resources, and of everything, really. In Lebanon, for example, having lived with war and with scarcity, we have a different relationship when it comes to sustainability. We know how to mend clothes and pass clothes down. We invest in our pieces. We all know a tailor who has altered our clothes over and over in our time. And we have a different relationship to fast fashion. When H&M and Zara infiltrated our market, we were teenagers. It was like luxury, it was so expensive to shop there. I've compared my notes with other people living in developing countries – we don't indulge at the same rate as developing countries do when it comes to fashion.
Could you describe more about this relationship with sustainability? Sustainability is a culture, and that's something I deeply believe in. Right now, the way the media is discussing sustainability is from the perspective of a developing country awakening to the situation, when in developing countries, we've known this. We don't have the luxuries of a developed country. We are also the landfills. When we discuss sustainability, we must look at the colonial empire in which we exist. I wrote a piece about this for New York magazine, how developed countries must observe sustainability as something that existed before they saw it. In what ways should this relationship translate into industry change? We have to heavily, immediately invest in renewable energy and recycled fibers. We have to divert from landfills. We have to actively use waste as a resource in every single industry. We have to stop looking at natural resources as our only option for making products. Do you think this needed change starts with the supply or the demand – the brands or the consumers? I think consumers are being empowered by the Internet to access information and have their voices heard. The communities gathering online are able to amplify one another's voices, because people have always been saying things, but brands were not ready to listen. I think the Internet has disrupted every single industry to make them more human-centered than they were before. Also, journalists have a responsibility to amplify those voices and put forward people who are positive influencers. 'Purchase, purchase, purchase' is a terrible way to influence. We have to highlight the people already out there doing the work and bringing a change. As a consumer, we must demand from bigger brands that they adopt sustainability practices now. We can't wear polyester, or if we do, it must come from recycled plastic bottles and not virgin oil; and after we finish wearing it, it must be recycled and not dumped in a landfill in a developing country. And it also takes looking at your behavior of purchasing – are you compulsively buying to feel better? Because our insecurities are being amplified to the point that we need to buy something to feel better? It's very related to wellness.
What parts of fashion industry do you see as doing particularly well? I think the higher-end luxury, because they have the margin, they can begin to implement different solutions. But G Star Raw, with a lower price point, is incredible example. They have the most affordable cradle-to-cradle pair of jeans that ever existed. Brands like J. Crew and Madewell are committed to fair trade. There are companies taking back T-shirts and recycling them, and groups like Everybody.World that are working with recycled cotton. Mara Hoffman has changed her entire business model to be more sustainable. Yes, it's expensive, but they are pieces you will be keeping. I think it's important to look at what you buy as an investment. Of course not everyone can by a USD 300 dress, but if you don't buy something every month from fast-fashion just to feel good, maybe you will have a bit more money to indulge in something interesting. There is also swapping and second-hand stores, The RealReal and Tradeeasy – groups that give things a second life. What is your definition for fashion? I think it's a beautiful, accessible, utilitarian, very democratic art form. It belongs to everyone. Everyone has to put clothes on their backs. Is everyone skilled to create and make clothes? I believe so. I look at it from a very bottom-up perspective. It belongs to us. Style, how you make and wear things – it belongs to you.  |
| Hari Nef on the transformative power of fashion - Page Six Posted: 13 Mar 2019 02:39 PM PDT  For model-turned-actress Hari Nef, fashion can be a powerful means of expression. Nef, who recently had a scene-stealing turn in Netflix's hit stalker series "You," also landed a spot as one of the stars of ModCloth's "Against the Current" campaign, posing alongside pop star Halsey, "Crazy Rich Asians" favorite Awkwafina and "Orange is the New Black" actress Dascha Polanco. "For me, clothing creates an opportunity to intercept and shape the perceptions of others before I say a word to them," she told Page Six Style. "Clothing carries my intentions from the inside out." When it comes to getting dressed day to day, the Gucci muse said less is always more. "I feel most powerful in simple, well-constructed pieces," Nef said. "I'm drawn to clothing which you can't ascribe to a certain season, year, or even decade: a monochrome sundress, a classic trench or maybe a pair of light-wash, high-waisted jeans. Pieces like these leave room for the individuality of the wearer, instead of declaring her taste or even her status. Style is more valuable than fashion, and more rare." And while Nef got her start on the runway for brands like Adam Selman and Eckhaus Latta, she's now firmly focused on her acting career. "Modeling taught me how to relax in front of a camera," she explained, "and acting taught me how to tell stories using my body — even if the script is a piece of clothing." And being part of the Hollywood crowd comes with some sweet perks. "I'll never forget the first time I attended the Emmys," Nef said. "I was taking a selfie while in line for the carpet, and Lady Gaga photobombed me."  |
| Letters: Fashion standouts or cardboard cutouts? - The Boston Globe Posted: 13 Mar 2019 09:00 PM PDT The findings that hipsters all look pretty much alike isn't surprising (Business, March 12). This has been the case for pretty much every fashion trend I can recall. What else would you expect? They all purchase their individuality at the same stores. Stephan Goldstein  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from "fashion" - Google News. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
.jpg)
0 Yorumlar