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| Fashion. A serious business | Fashion. A serious business |
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| By Finlo Rohrer BBC News Magazine They do charity work. They want their contribution to British culture to be taken seriously. But why do people look down their noses at the fashion industry? | |
| "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months," Oscar Wilde said. | "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months," Oscar Wilde said. |
| Next season's ugliness is currently on display at London Fashion Week in marquees outside the Natural History Museum. | Next season's ugliness is currently on display at London Fashion Week in marquees outside the Natural History Museum. |
| Some items are not easy to imagine in real life. Like this...There you will find Naomi Campbell banging the drum for the Rotary Club's work for flood victims, Matthew Williamson punting £50 umbrellas to help the Red Cross and Katherine Hamnett's Save the Future T-shirts raising money for better welfare standards for cotton producers. | |
| Many media outlets will at some point this week have used images from the event, although for many the focus is on stick thin models and underage exploitation.And even leaving aside the weight issue, the denizens of the fashion industry don't tend to enjoy very good press. | Many media outlets will at some point this week have used images from the event, although for many the focus is on stick thin models and underage exploitation.And even leaving aside the weight issue, the denizens of the fashion industry don't tend to enjoy very good press. |
| ...or this | ...or this |
| The venue for this jamboree of fashion could not be in a more serious location. The spring/summer Fashion Week "tent" is overlooked by the sombre facade of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), with its maroon window frames and statues of luminaries from Britain's cultural history like St Dunstan, Caxton, Chippendale and Wedgwood. | The venue for this jamboree of fashion could not be in a more serious location. The spring/summer Fashion Week "tent" is overlooked by the sombre facade of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), with its maroon window frames and statues of luminaries from Britain's cultural history like St Dunstan, Caxton, Chippendale and Wedgwood. |
| When the V&A exhibited a selection of Kylie Minogue's clothes, most notoriously her gold hotpants, Joan Bakewell was not alone as she blasted the museum for failing to maintain "some semblance of standards". | When the V&A exhibited a selection of Kylie Minogue's clothes, most notoriously her gold hotpants, Joan Bakewell was not alone as she blasted the museum for failing to maintain "some semblance of standards". |
| The ambivalent attitude towards fashion can be sensed at the Fashion Week entrance. There one can find a mixture of eager tourists craning their necks to get a look and passers-by muttering little unpleasantnesses. Their sotto voce cynicism is mirrored in the nation's newspapers, which want to bask in the glow of the glamour, while making fashion's protagonists seem faintly ridiculous. | The ambivalent attitude towards fashion can be sensed at the Fashion Week entrance. There one can find a mixture of eager tourists craning their necks to get a look and passers-by muttering little unpleasantnesses. Their sotto voce cynicism is mirrored in the nation's newspapers, which want to bask in the glow of the glamour, while making fashion's protagonists seem faintly ridiculous. |
| We clothe ourselves in our fantasies Robin DuttFashion consultant | We clothe ourselves in our fantasies Robin DuttFashion consultant |
| It must be said that one knows one is approaching a fashion event, rather in the same way a tracker picks up a trail. Tanned men with salt-and-pepper hair, wearing what appear to be white linen pyjamas, tend to be a dead giveaway. And a glut of sunglasses when it's not sunny. And stony-faced editors with harsh bobs fixing burly security guards with Medusa-like stares. | It must be said that one knows one is approaching a fashion event, rather in the same way a tracker picks up a trail. Tanned men with salt-and-pepper hair, wearing what appear to be white linen pyjamas, tend to be a dead giveaway. And a glut of sunglasses when it's not sunny. And stony-faced editors with harsh bobs fixing burly security guards with Medusa-like stares. |
| London Fashion Week is an event aimed at buyers, journalists and others within the industry rather than directly at the public. But the influence of the people who throng its halls is felt throughout society. Many might regard the high fashion world as irrelevant frippery, but the clothes on show here will be the inspiration for the garments sold on the High Street. And that's where most people buy their clothes. | London Fashion Week is an event aimed at buyers, journalists and others within the industry rather than directly at the public. But the influence of the people who throng its halls is felt throughout society. Many might regard the high fashion world as irrelevant frippery, but the clothes on show here will be the inspiration for the garments sold on the High Street. And that's where most people buy their clothes. |
| Jasper Conran is a prime example. Having designed extensively for Debenhams, he has a foot in the mass market. And his show at Fashion Week is full of clothes - such as chocolate-coloured silk shorts and chartreuse dresses - that could be worn in real life. | Jasper Conran is a prime example. Having designed extensively for Debenhams, he has a foot in the mass market. And his show at Fashion Week is full of clothes - such as chocolate-coloured silk shorts and chartreuse dresses - that could be worn in real life. |
| Photographers are herded like cattle at showsEnlarge Image | Photographers are herded like cattle at showsEnlarge Image |
| The first model out at the show is Lily Cole. Straight As at A-level and offered a place at Cambridge, she's the poster girl for fashion being a suitable environment for those with brains. | The first model out at the show is Lily Cole. Straight As at A-level and offered a place at Cambridge, she's the poster girl for fashion being a suitable environment for those with brains. |
| The few "members of the public" who attend the catwalk shows - often competition winners with sponsors like Canon or the magazines - have a chance to see for themselves whether the models are emaciated or unhappy. They can enjoy the illumination of celebrities such as Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and Darcy Bussell, and the nudge-whisper ripples when American Vogue editor Anna Wintour attends a show. | The few "members of the public" who attend the catwalk shows - often competition winners with sponsors like Canon or the magazines - have a chance to see for themselves whether the models are emaciated or unhappy. They can enjoy the illumination of celebrities such as Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and Darcy Bussell, and the nudge-whisper ripples when American Vogue editor Anna Wintour attends a show. |
| At the other end of the spectrum from the accessible Conran is Gareth Pugh. His show features models whose faces are entirely obscured by a black cube and an outfit apparently partly woven out of white mice that prompts an audience gasp. His work might be a little harder for many people to take seriously. | At the other end of the spectrum from the accessible Conran is Gareth Pugh. His show features models whose faces are entirely obscured by a black cube and an outfit apparently partly woven out of white mice that prompts an audience gasp. His work might be a little harder for many people to take seriously. |
| But fashion consultant and journalist Robin Dutt - wearing a black frock coat, embroidered in gold and other vivid colours, a red waistcoat, purple silk scarf and black snakeskin trousers - thinks we should take our clothing seriously. | But fashion consultant and journalist Robin Dutt - wearing a black frock coat, embroidered in gold and other vivid colours, a red waistcoat, purple silk scarf and black snakeskin trousers - thinks we should take our clothing seriously. |
| Anna Wintour is treated with pharaoh-like reverence | Anna Wintour is treated with pharaoh-like reverence |
| "We clothe ourselves in our fantasies. They are silent communicators. Clothing holds a memory, whether it's a beloved grandmother's veil, or the clothes you went to a funeral in," he says. | "We clothe ourselves in our fantasies. They are silent communicators. Clothing holds a memory, whether it's a beloved grandmother's veil, or the clothes you went to a funeral in," he says. |
| Yet there's a hefty number of British people who look down their nose at fashion. A puritanical streak, hidden just below the surface, still occasionally rules. At school they were reminded that the flamboyantly-dressed Cavaliers were crushed by the more sensibly-clad Roundheads. | Yet there's a hefty number of British people who look down their nose at fashion. A puritanical streak, hidden just below the surface, still occasionally rules. At school they were reminded that the flamboyantly-dressed Cavaliers were crushed by the more sensibly-clad Roundheads. |
| Walking around the exhibition centre, fashion is here in all its diversity. There is everything from bone-coloured ballgowns that only Grace Kelly could have pulled off to cheap-looking white dresses similar in feel to a counterfeit T-shirt at a Stones concert. | Walking around the exhibition centre, fashion is here in all its diversity. There is everything from bone-coloured ballgowns that only Grace Kelly could have pulled off to cheap-looking white dresses similar in feel to a counterfeit T-shirt at a Stones concert. |
| The designers and buyers range from dreadlocked dungaree-wearers to grey-haired grande dames in houndstooth and hot pink jackets. Other violent assaults on the eye proliferate. There are far-fetched sounding names like Hoss Intropia and Melier Yume, and many designers waiting for their first big break. | The designers and buyers range from dreadlocked dungaree-wearers to grey-haired grande dames in houndstooth and hot pink jackets. Other violent assaults on the eye proliferate. There are far-fetched sounding names like Hoss Intropia and Melier Yume, and many designers waiting for their first big break. |
| Beyond the charity work, there are other serious concerns, snippets of chatter about organic cotton - "organics, everyone likes organics" - and fair-trade drift over the exhibition. | Beyond the charity work, there are other serious concerns, snippets of chatter about organic cotton - "organics, everyone likes organics" - and fair-trade drift over the exhibition. |
| Fashion takes itself seriously. It wants you to take it seriously too. | Fashion takes itself seriously. It wants you to take it seriously too. |
Send us your comments using the form below. | Send us your comments using the form below. |