Week 3: Jean Paul Gaultier

To Reinforce:

` a 'lack of social conformity'

`fashion is more than just a look

The 'Bad Boy' of French Fashion

Jean Paul Gaultier
General
`Born April 24 1952, French
`Never had formal training as a designer
`Pierre Cardin hired him as an assistant

1976- first collection

Known For:
*1. Street wear
2. Formal wear - playful and unusual


CONE BRA - produced for Madonna in 1990s:

Shock

`used older men in exhibitions, as well as full figured women

`pierced and very tattooed models playing traditional gender roles in shows playing traditional gender roles in shows

1994- 'Gaultier' label announced

`unisex collection. Mainly denim. Heavy street influence

Week 2: Vivienne Westwood Research

A key to understanding our quote to the fullest is to understand Vivienne Westwood and what she was about. This was our first of the five key elements we thought as a group that we needed to research. A bit of a background on her life definately reveals some of the quote's key themes, for example how her fashion signaled a 'lack of social conformity'.

Below is a general summary of some key points, I'm sure we'll discover more but even now much of these points relate to both our readings, and reinforce the idea that fashion is much more than just a look.

23 Feb 09

"Fashion is Life Enhancing”[1]

Vivienne Westwood

General
`Born 8 April 1941 London
` became school teacher, then fashion designer
` parents owned post office: not fashion orientated
` after her first marriage she partnered with Malcolm McLaren, manager and creator of the punk band the Sex Pistols
` First store which sold punk clothing called Let it Rock. Ran by Westwood and McLaren in the 1970s. Carried Teddy Bear clothing. Later renamed to SEX

How she started with fashion
` never wanted to be fashion designer, but started because Malcom needed her help, and had ideas that he wanted her to help him with. He believed “you can sell rock and roll records to trendy people"[2] – hence the notion of launching fashion through popular culture: the music industry. In this case, by giving the Sex Pistols a new look.

1970s
“1970 was the beginning of the age of nostalgia. Looking back at my past and further, I’m bringing it all back into the fashion story” [2] Vivienne Westwood

The Punk Look
Westwood is responsible for 'punk' which she launched by giving the Sex Pistols that ‘look’;
"can I say that Malcolm and I did create punk, people don’t like that idea. They like to think that we stole it from the streets but it was invented in that shop"[2] Vivienne Westwood

The Political Activist
‘In those days, I was really interested in the idea of anarchy, I’m not now… but I’m very much about people power’[1] Vivienne Westwood

2005 – Joined ‘Liberty’, which is a British civil rights group. Still using fashion as a medium for her voice to be heard. Designed baby t-shirts with the following text; ‘I am not a terrorist, please don’t arrest me’

An anti approach
There is the suggestion that a parallel can be drawn between punk as ‘anti-fashion’ and the sex pistols who "couldn’t play insturments"[2]Interviewer in HardTalk interview BBC (See link [2])

Sources, Links:
[1] Catwalk 2008: Vivienne Westwood
[2] HARDtalk Dame Vivienne Westwood 2

Week 2: Readings

Just a quick note on the readings;

Really enjoyed reading one, 'Fashion: Style, Identity and Meaning' by Fiona Anderson.

Reading 2, 'Status, Power and Display', which has taken me forever to read (I have 10 pages left :) ) makes some very good points, however it drags on a bit. I guess it's hard to compress the history and sociology of fashion into a short piece of writing but I did think Anderson's piece was much more effective. Both reinforced some good ideas.

I think both readings give us an insight on the different perspectives of fashion and photography and are psychologically and socialogically based. And I think the aim of both readings is to get us out of our comfort zones and to think not only visually, but

historically, socially, economically and politically,

because each of these contexts contribute to the impact and implications of fashion and photography as a whole.

Week 2: Quote and Gruen Transfer

Quote:


From the 1970s onwards, and particularly since the 1980s predominant fashion designers such as Jean Paul Gautier and Vivienne Westwood have explored the persistance of gender coding conventions and stereotypes through their designs. In most contexts nonconformity to gender roles through dress tends to signal lack of conformity in a broader sense.

Brainstorm:

The Key Ideas that we took from this quote were:

1. Jean Paul Gautier and Vivienne Westwood
2. What changed the notion of 'gender-based' fashion and why? What was happening in society - eg, Vietnam.
3. Use of music/fashion as escapism/rejection of societal norms.
4. Rejection of wearing 'gender-appropriate' clothes = rejection of behavioural norms.
5. How much control did Gautier and Westwood have over the photography/representation of their clothes.

Reflection on Lesson:

This was an interesting lesson! Although we literally just met the two fashion students (Sophie and Emma... i think!) we all worked really well together.

What was interesting was when the fashion students brought us a book on Vivienne Westwood showing us an photograph which was a self portrait of Vivienne. As photographers, the first thing we noticed was the hideous backdrop of 'clouds' not even noticing so much what she was wearing, whereas the fashion students told us they never would've even noticed that it was a backdrop in their life because they were so focused on the fashion! Perfect example of how we can help each other out with our differing areas of knowledge. Also shows you how our eyes are trained to see (perception), and what we, as students studying different subjects, tend to focus on or percieve first.

Gruen Transfer

One more thing, really enjoyed the Gruen Transfer! Tried to find Episode 1 Set 3 so I could add it as a link but I coudln't find that particular episode on you tube or the ABC website. Anyway I had never seen this show. Very informative and pokes fun at the effect of advertising. Relating it to fashion and our quote, yes, appearance and popular culture, epsecially TV advertising, have an enormous effect on societal norms and sub cultures. Both consumers and the media are interrelating determinants - media influences the society, the society influences the media.