Thoughts on Art

Many people write off fashion as an art form. They dismiss most of the fashion industry as a group of blonde zombies, with air bubble heads and ill conceived notions on what is actually happening in the world. That, in fact, would make anyone who works in the fashion industry, myself included, incapable of being artistic, writing, creating, or anything useful, most of which we do with ease.

Our most championed ‘art form’, fashion design, has been married with the art form in which we as an industry have achieved very high recognition, fashion photography. As a stylist I commonly work with photographers on editorial projects (I consider this my niche in styling). In these editorial shootings what we hope to do is sell an idea, whether realistic, or a complete fallacy, there is always an idea and clothing is needed to tell the story. Yes, there are entire images that are not ad campaigns composed solely for the purpose of telling a story using clothing. I’d like to think my position in these projects are the most important, but that is far from true, and completely unfair to all of the talented hair stylists, makeup artist, manicurists, creative directors, photographers, magazine editors, and most importantly, the true artists, the fashion designers.  Everything that any of us brings to that final image in any fashion is of the utmost importance.  Details matter.

As a young child, I used to write poetry, something I plan to do again. I used poetry as an outlet for my emotions at the time;. I was struggling with my sexuality, accepting myself, and my desire to be accepted by others. I reference that because any time I go into a project now as a stylist, if I send out a mood board for a concept I have created, every section is accompanied by words. I don’t consider myself to be the most talented writer. I am not as critical as Cathy Horyn or with the nonchalant air of intelligence similar to that of style.com staffers,  but I have always turned to the written word as my favorite form of communication. I am nostalgic for hand written love letters that I might never receive and I can write Spanish much better than I can speak it. Writing itself is possibly the most respected art form in the world (thank the Bible). I remember reading books and plays by Ralph Ellison, Chinua Achebe, George Orwell, William Shakespeare, and Charles Dickens amongst others in high school and these writers are some of the most revered humans who have ever lived. What I want you to realize is that books, poems, little scraps I found on the street all have shaped my perspective in life and through that I convey my take on fashion as a stylist. I am an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy novels. I read anything from Harry Potter to Goosebumps, one of my favorite series, Diadem, is out of print. These books shaped my imagination and my approach to fashion. I always try to include a sense of fantasy or ethereality in my projects.

This type of conceptual work is what I consider to be my strong suit because these stories, while challenging to source clothing for are the types of work I most enjoy doing and where I feel the most comfortable.

In fashion, designers often reference great artists or artworks in their pieces. Andy Warhol, is a common reference, Dolce and Gabbana referenced mosaics in their recent FW 2013 showing, John Galliano constantly created collections that were inspired by the world, art and theater.

"Part of his research involved studying real flowers, spending an hour watching the light change on a parrot tulip, for instance. That partly explained the collection's wonderful colors, especially the vibrancy of the dégradé effects. You could attribute the rest to Galliano's contemplation of images by the two great flower photographers de nos jours, Irving Penn and Nick Knight. Dior himself obliged with the silhouette, a tulip shape that Galliano seemed to feel Mr. Christian had never really made the most of. He certainly sorted that out." - Tim Blanks on John Galliano's Christian Dior FW 2010 Couture collection.


Some designers create pieces that are worth of being pieces of art itself.

Christian Dior Couture, Dolce and Gabbana, Iris Van Herpen Couture, Alexander McQueen, Christian Lacroix, Viktor and Rolf, Zac Posen.

Through imagery and countless articles the fashion industry creates testaments to the art, or art inspired pieces that designer create. As an industry we champion not only designers, but musicians, painters, photographers, cinematographers, child prodigies, and the singularly talented individuals who make this billion dollar industry run. That being said, all of you who dismiss us as legally blonde imbeciles think on The Devil Wears Prada, everything that you will ever buy has been selected by the editors in the office of a fashion magazine, the buyers in a department store, stylists that you will never hear of, and designers who have underwent many years of schooling to create that organic tee shirt that you feel makes you environmentally conscious and still excludes you from the decisions we air heads make.


Excerpt from The Devil Wears Prada:

"This... 'stuff'? Oh... ok. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don't know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean. You're also blindly unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets? And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic "casual corner" where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of "stuff."