London College of fashion MA Fashion and Film exhibition
On Thursday the 18th of February, I was conveyed to attend a special screening of “Dress Up”, a short film that promised to reveal all about Fashion’s new star system, the celebrity, the consumption and the desire no less! Well, that’s what the flier read at least…
A panel discussion was to follow with a line-up consisting of a who’s who of fashion’s best representing the various arms of the industry. Grazia’s Melanie Rickey and blogger Coco’s Tea Party would impart with hard earned insiders’ wisdom and the presence of Hollywood Catwalk author Tamar Jeffers Thomas certainly promised this evening to be edifying. Fashion was about to ditch its seemingly shallow coat and dig deep into content.
The screening turned out to be a student film by Kate Battrick. “This is not a filmmaking course”, warned MA director Pamela Church Gibson and evident amateur filmmaking put aside, the room was invited to focus on what was meant to be a “Wanna Be Wag” expose, stripping bare the ideals at the root of many a would be spotty girl’s classic journey to wagdom. There wasn’t much of a story but the footage was littered with the all-important fashion signifiers. The aspiring wag wears a red dress and lends her football boyfriend her “Mythologies” book, their romance played out with a backdrop of shops and household brands.
Afterwards, we were all invited to discuss issues raised by the film. That part was captivating and mystifying in equal parts. From Jezebel, the woman gold digger personified by her red dress to the democratization of film, the talk covered quite a range of topics. I found most puzzling the discussion about the rise of fashion, becoming more important than Hollywood…Really? Tea party replied: “ I will post weekly about Jessica Alba but won’t see her films.” There is a new relationship between cinema, celebrity and product placement and films are now sold on the back of a starlet’s outfit. And what about fashion bloggers’ prominence versus printed media?
Bloggers are now seated front row, creating tension with old timers to the point that traditional codes of behaviour are becoming irrelevant. Also the prediction is that celebrities’ influence is waning and craft is making a come back after celebrities were banned from Marc Jacobs’ front row. Maybe…For one hundred years, fashion enjoyed a traditional alliance with photography but all of that is about to change; it will be fashion and movies for the next one hundred. Wong Kar Wai is now making commercials and shops are backdrops for people’s fantasies the way films were. Is fashion having an over-inflated sense of self? “I think so”, intimated Thomas.
Text VALERIE PEZERON
Photography STEPHEN PERRY
