Okay, I'm holding on to my dream of being a fashion designer one day in the future (before I'm 50 that is) but at the moment I'm forced to put it on the back burner for a while, yet again. So instead of putting my interest in fashion on the back burner too, because that's stressful you know? I'm going to make this blog about fashion things that strike my fancy and arrest my attention. One such thing recently has been Vivienne Westwood's Summer Collection. In a phrase, her collection strikes me as a kind of nightmarish fantasy of apocalyptic day dreams.
It's confusing at first and disturbing throughout but, yes her collection is thought provoking and I must say I usually appreciate anything that makes me wonder.
Among her pieces are garments that at first sight regardless of the model's 'match flame' hair and ghostly makeup are almost pretty takes on historical costumes and modernized garments. Then when you look a little closer there's awkwardly matched color or textile types or you realize the cut or an accent on it is an "improper" "anti-aesthetic" item that simply feels wrong.
However, retrospect thinking about what a lot of people (such as myself) perceive as beautiful is often reflective of ideals about human virtue or what we feel or wish the world could be like.
In contrast, Vivienne Westwood's fashion deconstruction, seems to oddly reflect the precarious character of humanness. Our aspirations to be something beautiful and peaceful while at the same time existing as a blindly destructive force corrupting that which is around us and ourselves. This approach to fashion, resulting in a collection that has a kind of confident haunting sadness and doom about it. At the end of this I wonder if between the two perspectives of
- one, the beauty of hope, ideals, and positive potentials and nature, etc etc
- and two, the perhaps more presently "realistic" art of fashion deconstruction
...does Vivienne Westwood's "art" hold more validity than the pursuit of traditional beauty as an art style that should be pursued?
As I think about this quote by Napoleon Hill, "What your mind focuses upon, your mind brings into existence.", I'll say this, if words are the building blocks of thought and a picture (and any other visual medium) speaks a thousand words than I feel that it's crucial that we focus on the creation of beauty as it reflects health, balance, human virtue, hope and the possibility of a positive future and not the glamorization of post apocalyptic matches brought to life even if it is art. You can check out what I'm talking about at fashion watch tv . com here's the link to Vivienne Westwood's summer 2010 collection
Till the next Fashion Item catches my thoughts, stay tuned for more and thanks for reading my post.
Have a wonderful day,
Ayisha
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