There comes a time in your life when you’re forced to take a stand for what you believe in. And we at Pierce Mattie believe in fashion. Wholeheartedly. From the sublime to the downright outrageous, I believe in high-heeled shoes, off-duty ensembles and above all, a well-worn wardrobe. More than that, I am a fan of love-labored designs, runway shows and, perhaps unheard of from a fashion PR, advertising.
So a recent article, by a historical novelist no less, that suggested models have been “taking it easy” by lying down on recent high-end ad campaigns prompted me to draw for my sword (read biro) and prepare for dual.
One would assume that the point of contention was the models posing on their backs, legs akimbo, to advertise various luxury items. The author highlights Lara Stone for Louis Vuitton and Georgia Jagger for Versace as “offenders” of this resurfacing trend. However, it’s not the position of the girls he has a problem with (go figure); it’s the regularity of which he is presented with the pictures “it is unusual to see so many similarly posed images of women on their backs, back to back in magazines”. Herein lies my problem. Fashion is about trends, point one. Yes we enthusiastically applaud those who dare not to follow them but in the long-run, the whole industry relies on ten designers showing nautical themes in their cruise collections, for example. It is not that “the spring fashions were so restrained that they didn’t know what else to do” as the author suggests, it’s that a tried and tested method has made a comeback, because that’s what trends do.
I agree with Mr. Wolfe’s, creative director of trend forecasting company The Doneger Group, insight that the message the ads communicate is “obviously sexual” and even think his somewhat tenuous link to animal psychology, “when dogs or cats lower themselves to make themselves seem submissive, they are giving up their power and displaying their lack of aggression”, has some truth in it. A regularly proven fact, and my second point, is that sex sells. Even more so in a recession.
We’ve all skimmed over those well-researched studies on women buying more lipstick during widespread financial hardship. It can be deduced that the non-threatening stance the designer labels are taking with their flat-out models is one of unspoken equality. In a time when fashion editors are advising readers to spend more on quality, staple items that will form the basis of every outfit, by lying back passively the models’ are saying “even though I’m impossibly beautiful, I’m no better than you, in fact, you can be just like me if you buy this handbag”.
More than being a case of uninspired copycatting, these aesthetic mind games could open up a whole new market for the fashion houses. A market not too far from the existing targeted demographic you understand, so not to tarnish their names.To summarize, fashion advertising is all about buying into a lifestyle. The first rule of this being that the label is not technically selling the handbag, they’re selling, metaphorically speaking, the model fronting the campaign. They’re selling that model for all she is worth and everything that she represents. The idea is that the Lara and Georgia’s of this world have “chosen” purses that make them über-attractive and entitle them to all that is magical in those adverts. As for the author of the “taking it easy” article, he can dismiss the originality of the “supine pose” to his fiction-writing heart’s content; I find this advertising trend, bursting with complex simplicity, very clever indeed.
P.S. Of Mr. Wolfe’s statement that “it’s very hard to take a sexy picture of an elegant dress” I say look to YSL for proof that it can be done, there’s no need to throw Natalia Vodianova on the ground. This white ruffle creation may not scream Upper East Side to all but I have faith that she would show the same amount of sass if swathed head to toe in fabric. As I said at the beginning, I believe in fashion.
Imagery courtesy of
· Lara Stone for Loius Vuitton – stylist.com
· Natalia Vodianova for YSL – Harper’s Bazaar Feb 2010 Issue
Posted by Jamaique Campbell on January 29, 2010 1:09 PM
| Permalink
