Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Fashion or Garment Construction/Assembly

Most of us tend to be highly influenced by "Fashion" etc.

I need to ask some of you out there what you're influenced by; "Fashion and it's idea" or the actual process of "construction and garment assembly"? Please enlighten me because for a while now, people haven't really noticed the latter.

From personal experiences at Fashion School in New York, the class was most definitely divided into two different schools of thought and you could categorize people as soon as they walked into the studios. I'm reminiscing. All this happened about 6 years ago so it's slightly hazy.

Strangely so, it was easy to spot the people who were more interested in the "idea" than in the actual process. Most of the people that signed up to be part of the "idea" dropped out within six weeks or headed right into depression after the 3rd day. It was a humorous sight that'll always remain as a firm reminder for the rest of my production days.

The idea of this post is to ask what you guys are thinking. Are we moving into greater appreciation for construction, quality? With the ascent of Menswear at the moment, we're now lucky enough to really see great clothing that is focusing less on the "idea" but rather on the actual garment, the styling and the people the garments resonate with. Are you happy with this?

As far as I know, the situation in this city is one that is currently still behind the international circuit. We're still in the midst of embracing the "idea" when we hear of an event or launch happening. We're enamored by the parties, the overly stylish yet seemingly uninteresting attendees and the desire to really be noticed. Seems like we're not actually promoting or cultivating a great design scene but rather just a "scene". This is what makes this city really interesting to me because in the not so distant future, we're probably going to be laughing at this phase and thinking about how strange we all looked.

I did a couple of gigs with CJ at a local college for design and in those discussions we always tried to promote the idea of fashion as a whole and not just the good bits. Are you interested in making a "good" shirt first or are you dead set on making a shirt that looks really cool? We posed that question continuously and hoped to the powers above that we'd get people interested in the first half of that question.

So what are you? What do you peoples think?

I'll leave you guys with a really good article on some of the types of people we relate with. Get it here.

"Yet interestingly enough, fashion is not a word that inspires Adeline. “I don’t like this word, fashion,” she confides. “There are two things for me. There are clothes, and there is fashion. Fashion – it’s trends, money, industry, and companies. On the other side you have clothes – construction, fabrics, and people who want to know about clothes. How we make clothes, how we wear them, how we feel in them. It’s my way to see the clothing, the exchange between my customers and I”.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

great read-
as a guy i am embracing the throwback to traditional menswear that has cropped in the last few years. i want to be able to get a suit made and hand it down to my kids knowing that it'll still be timeless.

on that note it's the construction and timeless style that has held throughout the last few decades that gets me going.

but with that said we all have to come to terms with our inner nihilist and remember that nothing remains in existence forever

K.I.N said...

Do you prefer the scene or do you prefer the product that is at the core?

I find that we're too much about the unimportant.

Anonymous said...

same thing with the art scene at large. and the people trying to promote these things are really just promoting that 'idea', with little substance.

Anonymous said...

I definitely relate to that. I share the same sentiments as Adeline Basely. Saying "I like fashion" and "I like clothes" are vastly different attitudes. People tend to confuse the two.

Never heard of Adeline Basely, but thanks for sharing. Definitely one to watch out for.

Anonymous said...

Great topic for discussion, guys! Well, my take on it is that every bit is of equal importance. Are you a designer or a tailor, an artist or an artisan? At different stages of life, one area may always be more important than the other, but that's just it, its a stage in life, you can't dispense any of it and say its relevant or not. I guess the thing is to be honest with what one really wants to do.
Most times we zoomed in on the superficial folks and termed them as this or that. The word poseur always bugs me, cos what is the opposite of being a poseur? Being real? then what is real? When we break it down, its back to the old battle of us against them? Is one truly better than the other? A great warrior is also a great general if he really wants to be great. More importantly he should also try to be a great humanitarian. At the end of the day, whatever we are at whatever stage of life, its still a definition that we tag ourselves or others. Having the diversity of people, real or not, makes this world colourful. Otherwise we are reverse dictators, wanting a world of similar like minded people, and discrediting everyone else. We would then be fashion terrorist haha!
Fashion is what draws one to create clothes and collections, hence it is definitely a part of anyone that is doing that trade. Otherwise he would be a patterner or a tailor focusing only on making garments. But marry the 2 and you have innovation. That is what makes you a designer, which is also part merchandiser and part stylist. I will admit I love fashion which is why I am doing what I am doing but I am not a fashionista, I am only relevant to the NOW, and that is also in part a return to tradition, better construction techniques, reinterpreting clothings from some of the best eras of fashion, and to keep customers up to date with the most dreaded word in our business - "trends"- which is equivalent to the illusion of life. But hey that is part of living, being aware of the illusion but not succumbing to it, instead you play with it : )
Love, Light and Lanvin!
Stray