'Club to Catwalk- Fashion in the 1980's'

Whilst in London I had the chance to visit the V and A's new exhibition 'Club to Catwalk- Fashion in the 1980's'. This exhibition almost seemed to follow on from the previously sold out exhibition 'David Bowie Is' and took a trip into the past club scene within Britain during the 1980s looking into all different types of sub cultures. I thoroughly enjoyed it as it was obvious where trends from today had been adapted from.

The exhibition itself explored the creative explosion of London fashion and the newly established London Fashion Week. London's unique fashion identity in the 80's was a result of the fusion between club and catwalk. Risk taking young fashion makers behind that new style remain some of the most influential figures in fashion today.

"Fashion is important, it raises the quality of life when people take the trouble to dress well it provides employment" Margaret Thatcher.

The 80's was an era that is defined by such vibrant style icons as David Bowie, Adam Ant and Boy George, following on from the 70's punk era it gave way to a new explosion of rave culture. In the early 80's London fashion stirred internationally, "young London was all about taking risks and creating something out of nothing through passion and ambition" said London based fashion designer Georgina Godley who lived through the fashion of the 1980's. Most well known designers of the time caused controversy with their clothes and followed either tradition or subversion, creating a stylish informality of flamboyance. Style of the time was very androgynous and was described as femininity on Saville Row. 

80's brought to light fabric explosions and evening wear counter-parted to street and club. Betty Jackson introduced colourful wild prints, huge shoulder pads, a mixture of patterns and an androgynous vibe. 

Knitwear in the 80's was diverse with vintage inspired hand knits, machine knits, sleek body hugging knits and deconstructed punk knits.

The 80's also introduced the New Romantic scene made famous from Blitz Club London, the look was androgynous dripping with diamonds. the Punk era of the 70's was hugely influential for the look of the 80's, designers and clubbers started to customise their clothes, combining different styles. Milliner Stephen Jones states that "fashion was their to express yourself".

The Rave scene started to come alight with ecstasy fuelled rave clubs, the aesthetic of early clubs had been replaced by sweat clubs showing fashions of day glo colours and metallic tones portraying a sports aesthetic. Voluminous shapes were replaced with figure hugging stretchable fibres. "Stretch is fashions dynamic force, a challenge for a designers and wearer alike" Vogue 1987.

Goth emerged from a combination of punk fetish and an 80's obsession with dressing up, black lace, leather, deathly makeup and hugely backcombed dyed hair.

Celine Brand Analysis

Celine was established by Parisian Celine Vipiana in 1945 as a children's shoe wear company, as an immediate success this pushed her into the women's clothing and accessories industry. 

Post war 1950's Celine had predicted a high desire for luxury goods and created her own range of luxury goods items. After a huge success the label launched a line of ladies clothing. By the late 1950s there were lines of Celine handbags and Celine shoes for women, The popularity of these items brought new clientele and represented an elegant turning point for the business

From the 1960's Celine had nothing to do but rise, providing popular lines of handbags, shoes and clothes which incorporated a new middle class market as well as the elite. During the 1970's Celine was known as an international luxury brand with stores situated all over the world. 

Vipiana believed that modern women did not need whimsical outfits, they needed chic clothes. The designer style of the brand was based around separates, the looks they created caught the imagination of modern women hungry for freedom and change. Celine collections were easy to wear and fundamentally Parisian yet global.

“Women grasped the idea immediately. They realized that Celine fashion was practical and easy care. The woman who travels can take lightweight things in one suitcase and remain neat and impeccable. For example wearing a skirt and blouse, which I made famous, was not in fashion”. In 2008 Phoebe Philo, the Paris born London based designer was appointed creative director of Céline. After graduating from Central Saint Martin’s in 1996 Philo went to work at Chloe with her friend Stella McCartney, becoming creative director of the label in 2001. In 2005 she was named British Designer of the Year and left Chloe in 2006 to spend more time with her family. In 2010 Philo was again named British Designer of the Year.

Celine as a brand doesn't use a lot of colour in an obvious way. The brand itself is a huge fan of colour blocking the process of putting colours that normally wouldn't go next to each other together. It has a colour palette of black, white, nautral and earth tones with a splash of colour.

Celine also uses pattern and has established it's very own 'Celine Check'. The main way in which Celine presents its elegance is through use of texture, the brand uses a lot of leather, silks and wools. 

Celines most famous and iconic product is the 'Celine bag' worn by celebrities all over the world. It is most famous due to its chic, elegant look and through Celines use of fabric and texture incorporated into their bags.

Tom Ford Final Moodboard

At the end of module 1 we were asked in groups to present a final photoshop mood board on A3, explaining our assigned brand thoroughly and stating why we had placed what we did on the mood board. My assigned brand for my mood board was Tom Ford.

The idea behind my mood board was derived from where I think Tom himself gets his inspiration from. Tom Ford stands for glamour and sexuality, the brand isn't mysterious, it is very graphic and unapologetic with an essence of aggression shown in my mood board through his 'Neroli Portofino' campaign of 2 naked people seamlessly falling down the right hand side. He creates clothes for the mature woman, pale skinned, sophisticated. The image of Julianne Moore depicts this, as a close friend of Tom Ford, she is a brand ambassador and starred in his hugely successful film 'The Single Man', a clip which is shown in the top left hand corner. He loves the mid century woman, 50's and 60's glamour brought out in his campaign for perfume 'Black Orchid' shown on the above right hand side. I have tried to base my mood board solely around this, the background showing old broadway, using pictures of New York in the 50's (The Empire State Building) and famous glamour icons such as Elizabeth Taylor and Sunny Harnett, the type of woman I believe he would dress. I have also included work from photographers Irvin Peng and Richard Avedon both who have shot for Vogue in the 50's and 60's, this inspired me and made me believe they are connected to Tom Ford as their work can be graphic very much like his campaigns. A colour palette is included to display the mood of the board while fabric examples of his work (bottom left hand corner) have been used to keep his modern day look involved. I made my mood board very cluttered and busy in order to keep in mind the graphicness of his clothes, fabric choices and  campaigns. 

Unlike the other members of my group my brand and mood board was very different, the brands in which I was asked to compare mine to had very neutral colour tones and were more soft (Chloe, Reiss, Bottega Veneta) all besides 2 sports brands (Puma, Rapha). 

FEEDBACK
After holding my mood board up to a room of people and thoroughly explaining it, my course tutors then read out their feedback on my groups performance and my mood board. The feedback said that I need to take my time more and pause for thought and have more confidence and self belief in what I am presenting. That I put forward an opinion and use a lot of contextual reference, that my mood board is creative. Tom Ford is humorous and provocative which is shown through my work by using good image selection. The problem with my mood board is that if you were to take away the name, would you really know who the brand was? Should i choose to resubmit my work I would need to make the board itself more of a minimal aesthetic in order to fully mirror his campaigns, include key words and make a few tweeks and touches. 

Diana Vreeland- The Eye Has To Travel

Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel is an artistic masterpiece displaying the upbringing, inspirations and life time works of renowned fashion editor Diana Vreeland. She had a somewhat troubled childhood, but despite not having any qualifications became the 'Empress of Fashion' for over 50 years. Throughout her reign she launched Twiggy's career and celebrated Barbra Streisand's nose, she saw things in people before they saw it themselves essentially launching a new generation. 

For 25 years Vreeland was the editor for Harpers Bazzar where she became a household name and to this day is an inspiration. She then went on to become the editor-in-chief of vogue, followed by a remarkable visionary at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts Costume Institute , where she popularised historical collections of clothes. The film itself educated me about styles of the 20th century and their history (even if it was over exaggerated by Vreeland herself).

I enjoyed this film very much as before university if you'd asked me "Who is Diana Vreeland?" i would've had no clue but she was the driving force behind so many different factors within the fashion industry I feel ashamed that I had no idea. A definite recommendation for anyone wanting to work within the fashion industry. 

Pre Arrival Activity

In order to help ease us into the course we were assigned a pre arrival task to explore what we would bring forward to a brand or designer in order to fully market themselves and push their brand forward, the art of communication fashion itself is forever changing through different styles, brands and the evolution of new technology hybrids. 

In my personal opinion through use of these new technologies fashion has taken the forefront into manipulating social media in order to digitally market clothes and designers. With the click of a button or the swipe of a finger we can now efficiently feel fully involved in our favourite designer or magazines work. If I was to bring forward an idea of a way to market a brand in this day and age it would be through use of the app Instagram.

Instagram is a photo sharing app for android or iPhone, which enables you to crop edit and share personal photos online, through use of Instagram it allows you to quickly link between magazines, designers and celebrities forming a huge mass marketing community. The app itself makes the audience feel involved within clothing's development all the way through to its adventure down the runway.

Instagram allows for designers, magazines and celebrities to socially intertwine their work for example Vogue magazine posted hourly updates and first looks at Mathew Williamson's collection at London Fashion Week (LFW) creating an @ link then to the official and personal Instagram of Mathew Williamson himself, allowing fans to then experience his view on the collection.

Vogue magazine also happened to post a photo of Alexa Chung and Pixie Geldof at the catwalk for Erdem, this gave the view of a fan, while then going onto the linked girls Instagram's from their photos you can have the view that they have for the show itself. 

This pre arrival task opened my eyes to the idea of using traditional marketing strategies in an untraditional way. In groups we discussed our findings, it was interesting to listen to the different ways in which different people decode what they see. Other ideas that my piers brought to the table were re-occuring styles (80's, 90's, acid wash, 'Friends') and the concept that its about the whole shop experience including window displays and staff interaction. 

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