False Shortage

A couple of days ago, a popular french newspaper ( click here for source ) featured a very intriguing article in it's economic section about how french Louis Vuitton Shops, victim of the label's success, will have to close an hour earlier till at least end of November as LVMH group was scared to be out of stocks of LV bags for the big Christmas shopping sessions. A quoted spokesman for LV even mentioned "how poor in stock" the label is.

It immediately made me click, LV in stock shortage ! and the whole article sounds like a barely modified press release. After discussing the subject around me, an editor in chief of a young and promising german publication sent me this message, oh so full of sense :

"A false shortage is a form of artificial scarcity induced by a supplier, often with the intent to elevate consumer demand above levels that may otherwise be achieved in the absence of such scarcity.

Companies may induce a false shortage to give rise to a common perception of the rarity or uniqueness of a product or service, when they are, in reality, neither precious, nor difficult to produce.

Suppliers often stand to gain from a false shortage, because it can help increase consumer demand without a corresponding decrease in price, and hence an entity's perceived value. This results in an increase in short-term profit."

The Switch

Following the nomination of Mister Formichetti as the new Art Director of Thierry Mugler, a fashion designer friend mentioned that it might be just the start of the rise of ( photo ) stylist taking over art direction positions in big houses... A new switch in the industry, well not really new as somehow stylists have been doing art direction for houses for a while but it was mostly in free-lance positions, at best consultancy, so yes stylists have been art directors for years anyway but taking the big job in a big house is a new way. The switch is purely semantic, stylist are re-appropriating the art director's term, and designers will do what they do best, designing under their directions, it could also mean no more outside stylist interventions for a creatively self-sufficient house, this could mean more risk taking but also could mean less, now the question is, after Mister Formichetti at Mugler, who's up next ? and for which house ?

Fashion In Motion - Act Da Fool by Harmony Korine for Proenza Schouler

Following the rise of video as a complement to the still images of lookbooks, campaigns and editorial usually produced by fashion designers, New York's Proenza Schouler asked Harmony Korine to shoot a short film on their Fall Winter 2010-11 collection, giving him the clothes and a picture by Christopher Wool as reference. Korine took this back to Nashville, where he lives, and filmed the collection on a gang of hardcore delinquent black girls he used to hang out with, resulting is Act Da Fool.

More and more respected film directors get into fashion films (Lynch, Anger, etc...), and this bring the question of fashion in films, does it really work ? We've seen plenty of photographer trying to turn pictures into film with various results but it is mostly disastrous in fact. On the contrary, directors manage the image / movement but the result of their fashion films is often diminished by the lact of actor or simply the absence of story to tell. The song says video killed the radio star, now the question is : who killed the video stars ?

Fresh Print -Encens Magazine

The new Encens is out, Issue 26, and it's now an annual magazine, so expect more content...

www.encensmagazine.com

Black Planet

The BLACK exhibition at Antwerp’s Momu (Mode Museum) seemed like an exiting prospect even though fashion and music industries have been feeding us with black for a while now and the latest versions of the black as the uber-cool colour are quite indigestible.

Raf Simons Fall 99

As a child of the 80s and a fan of all dark subcultures, I see black as the colour that used to unite a musical and cultural tribe I easily related too, back in the days, you simply had to walk around any city looking for someone in the right black attire to know he/she was one of yours, this feeling of belonging to a group is now long lost, we didn’t really know what it was but we knew we were in it together, all dressed in black.

D.A.F.

Back to Antwerp, « BLACK, Masters of Black in Fashion & Costume » gives a light historical approach of black in fashion, starting with 16th and 17th century when black dye techniques were mainly mastered by the powerful textile industry of Antwerp’s district, before spreading all over Europe. It was the colour of the wealthy and the noble, from the ecclesiastics of northern Europe to the royal court of Spain. Black was power, it commanded respect and underscored the wearer’s sense of duty.

Ann Demeulemeester Fall 10

From that point on, the exhibition literally lost me into intricate paths presenting Givenchy Couture here, Viktor & Rolf there, mixed with old Dutch paintings on the wall, pieces of 17th century vintage clothing, brought all together with a lack of linking and a not so clear goal; all along the exhibition you wonder where does that lead us?
Well, not that far but fortunately you can hang out in the Raf Simons room where a selection of the amazing capes and the video from his Fall Winter 1999-2000 collection “Disorder – Incubation – Isolation” are savantly presented, mixed with an 1850 cloak that could have been in the show.

Boyd Rice

Another good point is to review the fantastic work of Olivier Theyskens, and discover the ones from the almost forgotten Jurgi Persoons or Patrick Van Ommeslaeghe, but we’re missing a lot there, whatever happened to Helmut Lang? What about the link between black fashion and subcultures, barely mentioned, I would have love to see some old school Pam Hogg somewhere and some early Westwood bondage gear. Off course the masters of black are there ( Ann Demeulemeester, Yohji Yamamoto, Comme Des Garcons ) but you can easily go to their shops to see such recent pieces.

Pam Hogg Fall 10

Just a step out the museum and I felt an unfulfilled will for black, hearing some Sisters Of Mercy in my head (maybe it was Black Planet), wondering about the beginning of the Goth movement in England, about D.A.F and their all black leather outfits, about Norwegian black metal festivals and obscure Cold Wave fanzines. Black was rock, from Johnny Cash’s The Man In Black to the more recent psyche rock of The Black Angels passing by the hard electronic sounds of Nitzer Ebb and the martial words of Boyd Rice. But all that has been melted down to just appearances under the diktat of the pseudo-gothic chic trends on the catwalks, immediately copied and distributed by all high street shops. Now that look is everywhere, and no one knows or care where it’s from, what it meant, it has lost it’s cultural implications, slowly killing another subculture into the mainstream, but is there any subculture left anyway ?

Jurgi Persoons mirror presentation

I’d rather wear a grey flannel suit instead of pretending black still means something, it's just the absence of colours, the complete absorption of light, nothing more anymore…

There Is A Light And It Never Goes Out

The ANDAM award has been quite criticized this last year for not helping the upcoming french designers, even Anna Wintour mentioned it to the french ministry of the Industry during a well publicized lunch. True that giving the price consecutively to Richard Nicoll, Gareth Pugh and Giles Deacon, ANDAM was looking for gaining an international influence more than promoting new french talents.
This year, probably in reaction to many critical comments, Carine Roitfeld joined in as president of the jury and 3 on the 6 nominated are Paris based designers competing for the 220 000 Euros award. Still we're missing 2 upcoming Paris based designers that were praised in the french and international press, Maxime Simoens and Anthony Vaccarello, they could have done a good use of that money too, but c'est la vie.... also we can note that the accessory designers section, which used to compete for a smaller award has been erased this season.
So far my heart goes for Calla Haynes with her label CALLA, the most interesting and fresh collection, a promising talent on an international scale, now it's up to the jury to decide, and that includes Alber Elbaz, Hilary Alexander, Sarah Lerfel ( Colette ), Jefferson Hack, Virginie Mouzat ( Figaro ), and Jean-Jacques Picart. Who ever wins, let's hope it will mark a change in the way awards, press and buyers from France tend to ignore their homeland designers and give a kick of energy and hope in the sclerotic french fashion industry.

Click HERE to see CALLA Fall 10 collection.

Where Are The Subcultures Gone ?

Has any real subculture emerged in the last decade ( or even further back ) that was not a re-do of a pre-existing one or some kind of marketing product ? The answer is difficult but clear , it's a No. Feels like Brit Pop and maybe Brit Indie Rock was the last and latest one, the New-Rave cloud was an half a second story built up by a couple of bored fashion editors nostalgic for original acid house bright colored rave energy, but there was not enough popular ground to make it a movement, and certainly not much for a subculture.

What Else ? asks George Clooney on all TV screens, well.... not much really, fashion designers, in menswear especially, keep rebooting the goth and post punk imagery until total exhaustion, while the other feed on anecdotal time patches, sixties here, seventies there, more eighties all over, a hint of nineties, naughties not quite yet.... All previous subcultures are now available on high streets shops, in television advertising, used and re-used for all means, making possible the fun and scary fact that my grand mother knows exactly who are Cradle Of Filth, Afrika Bambaataa and Morrisey...Ok, I might be pushing it a bit far there, but am I really ?!
If the post modern era saw the end of the utopia, ours is seeing the death of subcultures.

A Passage in Time

Tick, Tock, time is every one's master, and even fashion designers can't escape it's heavy and sometimes violent grip. Season after season, one keeps wondering what time is back ? Seems like , in weird quantum jump, the 60's tinted of 90s are re-emerging on catwalk, but you could have seen it coming for a little while already, the brighter and acid color palette, the elongation of the lapels, the volume of skirts, the return of previously banned polyester and so on...
But don't look back in anger, an oh so paradigmatic Oasis song, time is not against us, it comes and goes and seems constant only on the wall clock. Now, we could start thinking how will our time be quoted, what will be remembered, and what left aside till someone digs it out and makes it an new hip thought, and then falls back again into the black hole of oblivion before arising as a new mainstream, or not.

"L'Exception Française"

The mysterious non-presence of young French designers in French press...

Sometimes the truth comes out of the editor's mouth. And it's been a little while now that many international fashion editors wonder what's going on in the French fashion scene, anything new? Well, they're not the only ones asking themselves this question, most of the insiders of the fashion industry in France have been thinking about this problem, trying to figure out what is wrong with young French designers.
What's wrong isn't the French designers, well some of them are, but the way the Parisian fashion industry doesn't support any of them is surreal, of course there are some exceptions and Maria Luisa is one of them, but that's unfortunately not enough. As Anna Wintour ( even her ! ) pointed in a recent interview to French TV fashion journalist Mlle. Agnes, there is a French exception to young designers support :
( link to the video : http://www.sundancechannel.com/fullfrontalfashion/video/ ) :

"I think it's totally important for all of us in the American fashion industry to support the young designers, and I think that's why New York's become such a vibrant fashion center, because people go there not only to see the Donna Karans of the world but a whole new generation. I'm just so sorry that there isn't something like that in Paris that's similar. I think that they should look for the younger generation here [in Paris] as well. Not only New York but London really supports their young talent; Franca Sozzani at Italian Vogue supports the young Italian designers, and I think when France is so known for its fashion industry — for them not to be reaching out to help younger people today is really a shame. [Agnes: "And there's space in your pages for them."] There's space in everybody's pages."

Apparently there's no spaces for young designers in French big magazine like Vogue or Numero, where the youngest featured french designer ( not being in a big house bearing someone else's name) is probably Jean Paul Gaultier... Yes it leaves your mind with a blank...
And when french fashion awards ( ANDAM ) gives funds ( about 150.000 Euros every year ) to British designers 4 years in a row, it really makes you wonders if all young french designers are crap or what? are they that bad that everyone ignores them so much ? I don't think they are, and they could do as good as Alexander Wang or House of Holland, and you'll admit it's not that difficult. But no, the industry in this country keeps trying to re-animate long time dead houses, and prefers to acclaim the geniuses from abroad better than looking at what's next door. Seems like there's no new talents for those people ( quoting Pierre Berger, YSL ex boyfriend ) and young talented designers like Anthony Vaccarello, Nicolas Andreas Taralis, Olivier Borde or Charles Anastase ( who relocated in London in search of support and found it over there) and many more just have to wait till an influential ( Hmm...Hmmm...) French editor dares to take a minute between a lunch with an advertiser's PR and a cocktail for an H&M collaboration to look a what they do and probably forgets about it the second after, already thinking of which dress from Balmain she hasn't shot yet.
Seems lame ? yes, it is !