Brainstorming Fashion Popcorn part deux (et trois), Harriet and I mused on fashion as a measure of the times. For every story in history – suffragettes, world wars, demise of blue collar vocations, youthquake – there is a corresponding reaction in the way we dress and present ourselves to the world.
With notable exceptions, the explosion of the digital landscape has been harder for fashion to wholly embrace, and as a consequence the industry is arguably lagging behind others in taking advantage of the creative opportunities of digital tools. To be fair, until recently, the ostensibly democratic digital landscape couldn’t deliver the user experience that a fashion consumer expected – and every brand, at every level of the market, aims to offer something unique and exclusive to their customer.
As technology catches up with our imagination, and social media and networking cranks up the pace of life (as well the rise of careful consumption in a time of economic ‘crisis’), is it surprising that Phoebe Philo’s pared down, though never boring, designs for Celine should the aspirational benchmark of women’s wardrobe? There is something digital refusnik in her collections, and in the wholesale embrace of her aesthetic by the fashion press and consumers (and the ape-ing by fellow designers and retailers).
On the one hand coverstar on the launch issue of SHOWStudio‘s former Editor Penny Martin’s print-only title The Gentlewoman, at the same time Philo is engaging film talent Ruth Hogben to create fashion films for her recent autumn/winter 2010 (above) and spring/summer 2011 collections. While I might have to satisfy myself with a trip to another oft-referenced (and rejuvenated) fashion brand, Whistles, I can but dream…
Celine s/s 2011 Lookbook (image copyright Celine)
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