The Power of Appearances

by Sara Johenning

See the early history of fashion photography here.

Steven Klein, Vogue Italia, 2008

Roland Barthes, “Fashion Photography”

Roland Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician of the 20^th century. Semiotics is the formal study of signs and symbols. Barthes was very interested in examining the relationship between cultural material, bourgeois society, and power – and found semiotics very useful in these interrogations. Barthes’ comprehensive roster of work includes writings on fashion, photography, and structuralism/deconstructionism. “Fashion Photography” appeared as an appendix in Barthes’ 1967 work, The Fashion System.

Barthes begins by confronting the problems with photographing a fashion garment. This garment is referred to as a signifier, i.e., the thing or object. However Fashion does not only attempt to photograph garments and objects, but it also aims to capture a certain world, mood, or feeling as well. This more generalized concept (articulated in fashion photography via the set) is referred to as the signified. The signified is a concept, indicated by the signifier. The signifier is fixed, whereas the signified is more abstract and can change, according to context, audience, and interpretation.

Guy Bourdin, Charles Jourdan shoes, 1970's

Barthes continues that the Fashion photograph depicts the world as a, “decor, a background or a scene, in short, as a theater” (pg 517). This world captured by Fashion photography is meticulously coordinated and thoughtfully planned out in order to evoke a certain mood, feeling, or idea. Fashion photography establishes equivalences through these worlds, therefore making them concrete and easily accessible associations of ideas. Within Fashion photography, there are three types of styles articulated:

1) objective/literal (travel = a woman looking over a map)

Louise Dahl Wolfe, 1950's

2) romantic (night = a woman in a glamorous evening gown)

“Romantic”, Terry Richardson, Vogue Paris, 2007

3) mockery/outrageous

(comic, caricatured, caught in an amusing stance/attitude)

“Mockery/Outrageous”, Steven Meisel, Vogue Italia, 2009

The purpose of these three varying levels of fashion photography, as Barthes argues, is so that they make Fashion’s signifieds unreal. By making everything else in a Fashion photograph (i.e. set, style, body language, model, etc.) unreal, then the signifier - the garment – what is being sold, becomes the only plausible and maintainable remainder of the image. Fashion photography is not hiding or concealing its meaning, but rather it is making it so hyper-apparent that the only understandable element left is the garment.

Rosetta Brookes, “The double-page spread: Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin & Deborah Turbeville”

Rosetta Brookes is a contemporary professor and writer. In addition to her work on Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin, and Deborah Tubeville, she has also published works on Robert Rauschenberg, Edward Kienholz, and William T. Wiley – among others. Brookes is currently a professor at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. “The double-page spread: Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin & Deborah Turbeville” was originally published in Camerawork Magazine, the 1976-1985 British magazine that was dedicated to a critical and contextual study of photography.

The horizontal frame of the double page spread, Guy Bourdin

Brookes begins her essay by focusing on how fashion photography has traditionally received belittled and insignificant praise from the conventional photography world. Whereas other forms of photography are praised for capturing beauty in the stumbled-upon scenario, fashion photography produces images that are meticulously planned and contrived. Brookes states that, “fashion advertising, in particular, is seen as negating the purity of the photographic image. We see the typical [in fashion photography] instead of the unique moment or event” (pg 520).

Brookes addresses that throughout the 1980s and 1990s, fashion advertising was growing in two directions. One the one end, there were advertisements from the Japanese Avant-Garde brands, Yohji Yamomoto, Issey Miyake, and Comme des Garcons – producing ads where the images where blurred and no product was being overtly sold or communicated to the customer; relying on the customer’s elite knowledge of the brand in order to provoke and/or entice sales. On the other end of the spectrum, as particularly popular in the United States and Britain, were fashion advertisements that were selling lifestyle imagery. This lifestyle communication through advertisement articulated a synthesis between viewing the image of the garment as something we see, and understanding it as something we wear.

Helmut Newton, 1978

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the double-page spread was brought into the fashion magazine in new ways. At the same time, much sexist imagery and sexual stereotyping – mainly seen through fashion photography, was dominating the content of said magazines. Brookes argues that the 1970s lacked the iconic fashion woman of the 1960s (i.e. Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton), and as a result of this voided photographic muse, many models of the decade appeared to represent a, “well-established physical norm” (pg 521). A model’s individuality was reduced to her ability to be recognized amongst and within a crowd of other models. Such monotony and generalized familiarization with models allowed the stereotyping to continue on.

Helmut Newton, 1970's

Helmut Newton was a photographer of the time that had his own specified type of model – she was, “one with the gloss of the image, to be flicked past and consumed in a moment” (pg 521-522). Because of Newton’s use of harsh color and hyper-glossed aesthetic, “the artificiality of the image is emphasized” (pg 522). The Newton model was a woman full of alienness – accentuating and manipulating existing sexual stereotypes; they are both foreign to and archetypes of said sexual connotations. She appears to have no personality at all – transporting her to the realm of the fetishized, glossy, commodified inanimate object. A perfect example of this was when Newton mixed dummies with real models for a shoot in the June 1977 issue of Vogue Paris.

Guy Bourdin for Charles Jourdan

During the post-war period of consumerist expansion and the growth of mass-market industry and consumption, there was a fear that a degree of sameness would plague all facets of culture. Guy Bourdin emerged as a successful fashion photographer in the aftermath of the unsure and marginalized media culture. He used the double-page spread as a structure for communicating and displaying the images in which he photographed. He aligned models and the human body in accordance to the fixed forms of the double-paged magazine spread (i.e. positioning the model’s legs on either side of the fold) – creating an artistic marriage between the abstract human form and the rigid and precise geometric form of the magazine. Furthermore, Bourdin focused on the spatial arrangements of his subjects – whether they were models or shoes. His experimentation with division, alteration, and depth played on the viewer’s expectation and familiarity, creating a ‘trap for the gaze’ with his images, for Bourdin was able to emancipate, “the image from its caption, and the product-image from the product” (Pg 525).

Guy Bourdin for Charles Jourdan

In the post-nostalgic times of the late 20^th century, Deborah Turbeville emerged as a photographer focused on the reluctance between self-images. Instead of choosing archetypal and glossy models, like Newton and Bourdin, Turbeville chose models based on their divergence from the intended depicted character/form. In the divide between the model chosen and the message intended, Turbeville allows the viewer to discover the tense reality of acting/pretending in order to adhere to an expected self-image. Turbeville is aware of the hard-to-categorize tendencies of her images, for she claims, “I am not a fashion photographer, I am not a photo-journalist, I am not a portraitist” (pg 526). By separating herself, yet simultaneously drawing from the aforementioned genres, Turbeville allows her images to break up and redefine the structure of representation.

Deborah Turbeville, Bath Series, 1970's

“Extreme Beauty in Vogue” was a photography exhibit last year in Milan. It is currently now available as a book, published by SKIRA. The photo collection consists of various works by Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, and most prolifically, Irving Penn. The photographs in the curation depict hyper-stylized and hyper-realized images of the body in relation to unusual cosmetic materials (i.e. tarantulas, diced fruit, etc.). The collection of images is also incredibly detailed-specific, showcasing the technical abilities and masteries of modern mediums and brilliant minds.

Irving Penn, 2002

YSL in Paris

The first ever comprehensive exhibition of Yves Saint Laurent is being presented at the Petit Palais in Paris March - August 2010. Read the Times review here and my take here.

Yves Saint Laurent, 1983 & 1990

The Burberry Brand

by Nicole Schloss

Emma Watson for Burberry, 2010

The Burberry Business Model:

Creating an International Luxury Fashion Brand

This article, written by Christopher M. Moore and Grete Birtwistle, was first published in the International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, volume 32, issue 8 in 2004. Christopher M. Moore is a professor in the School of Management and Languages at Glasgow Caledonian University as well as the Director of the George Davies Centre for Retail Excellence. He received his PhD in international fashion retailing and branding, particularly with respect to fashion marketing. Grete Birtwistle is Head of the Division of Fashion, Marketing and Retail at the Caledonian Business School of Glasgow Caledonian University. She earned her PhD in store imaging and positioning for fashion retailers. She currently researches the ways of increasing the speed in the fashion supply chain and textile sustainability. Additionally, Moore and Birtwistle founded the British Institute for Fashion Research. Their article systematically outlines the strategies which Burberry, the luxury brand founded in 1856, took to improve its management and brand quality in 1998 after a £37m decrease in sales revenue over the 1997-1998 fiscal year.

Moore and Birtwistle note that “the viability of a fashion brand is dependent upon the efficacy and the appropriateness of the decisions of those responsible for its management,” meaning that the success of a brand comes not just from the look of the clothes, but also from its internal organization. Thus it was Rose Marie Bravo’s appointment as CEO in 1997 that brought about a multitude of changes that effectively changed all aspects of the brand, bringing it into the contemporary fashion world. As a brand that has existed since 1856, Burberry was caught between its traditional, upper echelon clientele and the need to move into the fast-paced, fashion-forward lifestyle to which all luxury brands of the day have adapted.

Systematically, Moore and Birtwistle break down the Burberry model into four categories each with their own subcategories; products, manufacturing and sourcing, distribution channels and marketing communications. These four major governing sects of Burberry are united by the three major components by which any luxury brand must abide; brand management, product design and sourcing, and brand distribution. Brand management, meaning establishing a distinct logo and lifestyle was crucial in defining Burberry as a luxury brand through advertising and the creation of four flagship stores. Product design and sourcing allowed for the creation of six different Burberry labels, all under the creative direction of Christopher Bailey. Burberry also worked hard to ensure the integrity of their brand would remain the same by reducing its use of outside licensees. It owns all of its retail stores (except those in Japan), thereby making it easy to control the quality of its products. Finally, a change in brand distribution allowed Burberry management to really know where and how its products were being sold. As such an expansive empire, Burberry managed to centralize its management and maintain a tight control on all of its retail and wholesale chains.

While this article was extremely factual and concerned with numbers and methods of organization, a few points stand out. First, this type of business model for a fashion empire seems both effective and common across other brands. Gucci under Tom Ford is mentioned as an example of a company that also maximized its internal control and saw immediate success. A fashion brand cannot function if its management staff is uncoordinated and thrown off by globalization. It was interesting to see how the changes in fashion tastes were the impetus for this realization. The loss of Burberry’s so-called “cachet” (p.1) caused its internal structure to also fall apart. Thus a business strategy with a determined system of checks and balances is necessary to keep up with the times. The symbiotic relationship Burberry has achieved between its retail and wholesale chains also has contributed to its continued success in both the luxury and affordable markets. In order for Burberry to maintain expensive advertising campaigns and consumer interest, it needs wholesale chains for extra revenue.

Strategically showing the mix of Burberry consumers by Mario Testino 2001

The article highlighted the machine-like quality of a luxury fashion brand in its need to be organized and extremely centralized. The lavish lifestyle Burberry (and any other fashion brand) promotes is just as manufactured as any of its clothing. Brands are sold to us with all-encompassing packages of luxury yet we rarely think about the sourcing and licensing issues. Burberry’s model shows us that brand reinvention must happen on both internal and external levels, meaning management and direction, and the appearance of the clothes themselves.

The Burberry old garde and the new together in 2002 by Mario Testino

Burberry's ads 2008 above and 2009 below

Brand Power

by Sam Goodman

Fashion & Graphics by Tamsin Blanchard: In this reading, Blanchard discusses the importance of graphics and branding in the fashion industry. She says, “There comes a point when designer clothing is not about cut and cloth, but about graphic design, packaging and communication [….]” (pg 534).

Increasingly, a designer puts as much energy and resources into their brand image as they do into their collections. Many work with graphic designers to “express the philosophy and character of the line to the customer” (pg 535), and this is done through the creation of a brand logo, and even ad campaigns.

Gloria Vanderbilt is an early example of basic name as logo. Her name alone was licensed for jeans she had not designed.

The underlying importance of the introduction to the reading is that of the increasingly intertwined relationship between graphics and fashion. Blanchard discusses Belgian graphic designer Walter Van Beirendonck, who talks about the “language between designer and public” that is created through graphic communication and brand identity (pg 536). Several examples, such as the brand development for Stella McCartney and Yves Saint Laurent’s houses are discussed. McCartney is mentioned because of the unique situation her graphic designers were presented with when they were commissioned to create a logo for her: she already had a strong brand image but needed to create a new one upon launching her own label under the Gucci umbrella in 2002. YSL has been known to have the longest lasting and most universally-recognized logo. He is also mentioned as being one of the first fashion designers to work with a graphic designer before the trend became popular in the 1980s.

Peter Saville and Nick Knight were responsible for the look books and graphic design of Yohji Yamamoto. Cassandre was the illustrator of YSL.

Tyler Brulee created the Stella McCartney logo.

Strong brand equity results in powerful associations to the point of color ownership.

After the introductory segment of the reading, Blanchard brings her case study into focus. The relationship between Paul Smith and Aboud Sodano is one of the more unique business relationships in both the fashion and graphic design industries for several reasons. The first being that they have worked together for over twenty years and have very relaxed interactions with each other every three weeks or so.

The next, and probably most interesting aspect of this relationship, is the fact that Aboud did not make many changes to the Paul Smith logo, which had already been established. He only slightly refined the signature logo and added the now recognized colorful stripes in 1996. Before the stripes became a part of the logo, the brand had simply used black and grey, despite being known for extremely colorful collections. Aboud says, “We do stuff on a whim and a hunch,” nothing is created by a committee or out of market research (pg 542).

While the Paul Smith logo is unique with a signature, the background resembles both the art work of Bridget Riley and Rem Koolhaas' proposal for the EU flag.

The most important aspect of the Paul Smith/Aboud Sodano relationship to note is the success that the two companies have attained in working together. Their relationship is not structured like houses that are owned by conglomerates: being independently owned by Paul Smith himself has helped the brand to retain its creativeness, and allowed for Aboud Sodano to retain a long-lasting partnership as their calling card.

About the Author: Tamsin Blanchard is a journalist and writer. Since 2005, she has been the Telegraph Magazine’s style director. Before that she wrote about fashion and interiors for the Observer, and spent three years as the Independent’s fashion editor. She is contributing fashion editor to the V&A Magazine, and a sometime contributing editor to 10 Magazine. She has also written for Vogue, Marie Claire, US Harper’s Bazaar, and The Daily Rubbish. In the late nineties, she co-founded ‘it’ a luxury boxed magazine for fashion, art and design. She has taught fashion journalism at Central Saint Martins and University of Westminster and is currently an external assessor at London College of Fashion. (www.tamsinblanchard.com)

Front Row

Front Row at Christian Dior F/W 2010, see more of the power scene at RDuJour

LVMH

Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy - LVMH - is the world's largest luxury conglomerate overseeing 60 different brands from its Paris headquarters. The merger between the luxury leather goods company Louis Vuitton and the liquor company Moet Hennessy took place in 1987 with CEO Bernard Arnault slowly acquiring luxury fashion houses. Arnault is one of the wealthiest men in the world with his assets residing largely in LVMH shares. His influence is compounded by his massive art collection, one of the most significant in the world, which led to the creation of Louis Vuitton Espace Culturel and the development of his own contemporary art space in Paris.

Arnault first acquired Dior, which now accounts for 42% of LVMH's holding shares although Louis Vuitton accounts for 80% of profit. The chart below shows the timing of development.

When you own the company you can ask Galliano to personally design your daughter's wedding dress and have Lagerfeld take the photos.

The massive extent of LVMH includes American brands like Donna Karan, department stores and cruiselines.

Staff of 56,000 in 44 countries, 1,500 stores in both sprits and goods.

Arnault defines a star brand is one that is timeless, modern, fast-growing, and highly profitable. “There are fewer than 10 star brands in the luxury world,” he maintains, “ because it is very hard to balance all four characteristics at once—after all, fast growth is often at odds with high profitability—but that is what makes them stars." Luxury also needs a certain combination for the consumer such as heritage, integrity, flagships and premium pricing all of which give the consumer a sense of confidence in the product.

In the past four years Espace culturel, located inside the Louis Vuitton headquarters, has dedicated exhibitions to artists from Moscow, Korea and India and more. The idea of a global art space open to the public is the brand's way of supporting culture and reaching a wider audience.

Vanessa Beecroft at Espace Culturel, 2005

Hussein Chalayan

by Simone Miller

S 2000

“Hussein Chalayan, Fashon and Technology” : This article was first published in Fashion Theory, Volume 6, Number 4 in 2002 but was published again in 2009 in Design Studies, A Reader. Both are published by Berg, a company that publishes volumes of academics on and analysis of fashion. The article deals mostly with Hussein Chalayan’s Remote Control Dress from Spring/Summer 2000.

Author: Bradley Quinn is a journalist and author. Frequently, his writing is about fashion and technology, architecture or other aspects of design.

Chalayan's student exhibition The Tangent Flows, 1993, buried in his back yard then presented

The article’s approach is mainly to analyze fashion as a form, focusing specifically on Hussein Chalayan’s Remote Control Dress but also referencing other parts of Hussein Chalayan’s body of work. Bradley Quinn seems most interested in fashion, especially technologically enhanced fashion, and its relationship with the human body. Though not the article’s main focus, Quinn briefly discusses the fashion system as well.

F 2001

Cyborg: “a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality, as well as a creature of fiction” (388), when a human’s nervous system “[operates] in direct connection with the artificial intelligence of a machine” (388). The ability to be a cyborg does not rely merely on complicated or advanced technology; even something as simple as surfing the web can (momentarily) turn one into a cyborg.

Four categories of technological enhancements to the human body:

Restorative- the replacement of missing limbs, failed organs, defective bodily functions.

Normalizing- “a generic aesthetic while imposing technologized bodies as social or aesthetic norms” (389). In other words, establishing the technologized body as a normal form.

Reconfiguring- equipping the body with extra functions such as by adding extra limbs or communications systems.

Enhancing- using technology to enhance the body’s pre-existing functions.

F 2003

This article focuses on avant-garde designer Hussein Chalayan who combines technology and fashion in his collections. Quinn says that in doing so, Hussein Chalayan brings technology in direct contact with the body and hails Chalayan’s Remote Control Dress as “a high-tech triuph that married fashion to technology and technology to the body” (387). The Remote Controll Dress is made of fiber and resin and contains solar panels, wireless technology, electrical circuitry and automated commands. It was the first fully functioning garment containing a wireless device.

Though Chalayan brings technology almost uncomfortably close to the body, he maintains that any cyborgian references are “something of a side effect” (388). Chalayan’s main goal is not to explore the relationship between technology and the body but rather the relationship between the form of the garment and the body. Chalayan strives to extend clothing’s functions. Indeed by wearing the dress, the body can be connected to other machines, people, businesses, and governments. Quinn presents four categories of technologies in relation to the body: restorative, normalizing, reconfiguring and enhancing. Quinn says that in terms of fashion, the cyborg body is mostly made up of reconfiguring and enhancing technologies such as sunglasses, reading glasses, mobile devices and even athletic shoes.

However, Hussein Chalayan’s Remote Control Dress also has normalizing processes as it is involved in what Quinn refers to as the techno-sexualization of the body. That is to say that the dress has the power to reveal or hide certain parts of the body and to shape the female form, allowing the wearer’s body to conform to ideal standards of beauty. Thus the term ‘fashion’ in this instance is used not to describe the system or the garments but rather the process of shaping or creating something. The idea of revealing and concealing body parts is a running theme in Hussein Chalayan’s work.

Still, the Remote Control Dress and Chalayan’s body of work confront a chilling issue that has come up as society becomes increasingly technologically advanced which is the potential for humans to become controlled by technology. The dress is the epitome of scientific progress and challenges fashion norms. Fashion, Quinn argues, has always had interactive and communicative properties and the Remote Control Dress increases these possibilities. The dress challenges traditional aesthetics by blurring the lines between body and machine and marks a shift from defining the human body in terms of social values to defining it in terms of technology.

Quinn concludes by suggesting that Chalayan’s work allows him to be free of fashion system rules and create a discourse on the principles of clothing. Chalayan’s way of thinking is part of a more integrated approach to design that includes fashion, interiors and architecture.

S 2008

The author’s point of view is that Hussein Chalayan’s work is innovative and provocative. Quinn’s article makes clothing that seems totally unwearable at first glance seem progressive and appealing. Quinn suggests that the inclusion of technology is a natural progression in the evolution of clothing and its functions. Hussein Chalayan’s designs question notions of what can and can’t be worn as clothing. In terms of power, Chalayan’s technologically enhanced garments have the power to increase clothing’s and humans’ capabilities but also have a dark power to control the wearer. Still, this is not unlike the modern-day fashion victim who is controlled by clothing forms as trends come in and out. Chalayan as a designer has power because his line of work allows him to exist outside of the fashion system but he is still considered an important designer.

S 2009

How Can This Be Applied? This article is very pertinent because it explores our increasingly technological dependent society. Clothing seems to be an area that has remained relatively untouched by technology but it certainly has the potential to be. Chalayan’s Remote Control Dress represents how far fashion has come from just its original protective uses. While the Japanese Avant Garde designers’ designs represent working with the body, Chalayan’s designs represent a shaping of the body. The desire to shape the body to its ideal form is an idea that has held up for ages, so while Chalayan’s designs are technologically advanced, much of the thought process behind them are the same thoughts behind more traditional fashion. While the Japanese Avant Garde designers valued and referenced the past, Hussein Chalayan is focused on looking to the future.