London: after a fashion

1: To me Walter Benjamins ideas of getting items from the past and bringing them into contact with objects from the present is a great way to look at history and get a deeper understanding of it. When you look at an antique item you get a feel for what was happening in that era not only from the object but also the way it was constructed and the materials used it really gives clues to the technology of the time. However when you put it into contact with an item from the present day you really are able to see the huge leaps that have been made in constructing with new better materials being used in a variety of industries and new machinery allowing us to really push the limits in manufacturing.

2: From dissecting what the text said and further research, Cultural Capital seems to mean how someones fashion, manners, style and taste is affected by their background. Its a form of currency but not in an economical way but your cultural capital could increase your income. Essentially what it seems to mean is you status in society.

3: One major key point in historical fashion that can only be seen from eye view is how people on the streets respond to trends. If you're looking at fashion from above (idealistic) you're only being exposed to the most iconic of design. An example being Christian Diors "New Look" although revolutionary and incredibly popular amongst the fashion elite most people realistically didn't really wear Christian Dior pieces on the streets of London. Instead by using "street style" photography as its now called you are able to see how the everyday citizen adapts the most elite trends into their own garments rather than thinking everyone basically wears exactly what fashion bibles tell you to. Rather than just knowing London as a fashionable city this "street style" photography really shows the diversity in fashionability and style across all boroughs, streets and ages.

4:

This photographs shows a facet of London culture and fashion that is not regularly seen. The London Drag scene is known about but its not a part of London that you can see during the day. If we talks about O'Neills dismissal of London Fashion from a birds eye view then we can talk about how the London club scene is disregarded through that view because its not an idealistic part of fashion, its one of those side of London that you can only experience if you know the right people and right places to visit therefor can only be observed from an eye level. Such as the photo from above, taken from one of my nights out with my friends who happen to be drag queens and club kids, to me this scene represents the forefront of fashion as we are not afraid to experiment and make do with what we have to create the most outlandish and gender fuck outfits that we can imagine. Much like Leigh Bowery's London of the 80s-90s this city still has lots of clubs with that same crowd but these days it is often dismissed in comparison to the London luxury high streets like Bond and Conduit street. The club scene is an essential part of Londons atmosphere and although often frequented by fashions elite they don't exactly like to mention it much as everyone likes to think they are "original" but in reality inspiration often comes from these club nights where people create things that are beyond most peoples train of though/imagination.

Advertising mens underwear

According to William O’Barr, what are the two types or motivations in advertising?

William O'Barr argues that the most oftenly used types of advertisement are the messages that are openly portrayed about the qualities of the goods or services advertised and the other being ideas that are conveyed about society and culture.

2a. How were men presented in adverts during the Second World War?

At the outbreak of WWII men started being portrayed as strong heroes that were getting ready to go out and fight. This was an almost immediate reaction:  

  

'Chilprufe ran an advertisement in Punch that declared its underwear was 'Best for National Service' (see Figure 5.2). Alongside a drawing of an underwear-clad man that had been used the previous year in an advertisement for the same garments ran the lines, 'To keep really fit for long hours of duty in trying conditions you must be warm and comfortable.' This use of slightly altered text and an identical image reflected a quick response to the needs of men who were signing up for an active role in the war.'

2b. Why do you think men were presented in this way during the war?

Just like uncle Sam was used to recruit and as a way of reaching out to men these sorts of advertisement were used so men that were able to see it felt the need to participate in order to relate to the attitudes portrayed. Its almost a sort of archetypal male form of the era. 

2c. How did this change after the war?

After the war, underwear advertisement offered a new way of thinking about men's underwear that was less serious than many of the previous, earnest advertisements that focussed on the processes of buying and selling; the new advertisements allowed questions about the intimate relationship the wearer had with his undergarments to be asked.

3.Compare one of the images in the article to a recent underwear advert. Describe both adverts and comment on the similarities and differences in the way these adverts present male bodies and masculinity?  

                          

                                   Meridian 1954                                    Aussiebum 2013

Meridian:  This ad clearly show the idealism of the baby boomer cohort of a father and son playing around innocently before he puts his son to bed. This ad also prioritises comfort over style as the garments themselves are quite simple and a big selling point being the 'double lock fabric'

Aussibum: A scantily clad man with a clear high muscle tone and low body fat who clearly works out. This adverts doesn't say much about the garments themselves but it does have tag line which i find quite interesting "if you doubt yourself, wear something else" which is a clear nod to the models fit physique. 

I think the differences between these adverts really demonstrate the growth and difference between men in generation x and y. The first adverts is all about family values with the man being portrayd as a father figure playing with his son, not much style has been taken into consideration when making the garments as they are just plain white and the main selling point being this new "double lock fabric" however when you look at the aussiebum ad there the fabric or comfort of the material stops being mention and its really more about the design of the underwear and the model wearing it, this model was clearly chosen for his physique and looks the archetypal male figure of the 21st century is a man who not only keeps fit but is clearly well built and cares about the way he looks, he takes style into consideration even when it comes to garments that are not usually seen by everybody. The tag line is another thing that really shows the difference between these two ads because it suggests that confidence and the way you look are more important than what you have a achieved in a sense. Using Male models sex appeal is no longer exclusively used to sell to women, although you might not necessarily want to be with this "sexy" man you want to be that man, look like that man, you want to have his presence and confidence. It shows theres two hugely different goals in life and way of living, the 50s is all about building a family whilst now a days its about confidence and looking the best you can possibly look.

4: What do you think we can learn, if anything, about experiences of being a man in the 1940s and 1950s from underwear adverts?  

I what ive learn from reading this text is that being a man in the 40s and 50s meant you needed to take into account substance over form which i think is something that we need to think about more these days. Most men these days gravitate towards branded underwear simply because its branded, its a form of appearing more attractive purely because of the association these brands have to a higher class. They might not be the best quality items but we trust in them because they have a luxury brands name attached to it. 

How media has shaped my own style

‘what we see today in both popular journalism and advertising is the mirage of a way of being, and what we engage in is no longer the relatively simple process of direct imitation, but the less conscious one of identification’ (Wilson, 2009: p157)

When it comes to my own sense of style i do think fashion magazines are very much a huge influence. Not necessarily in the way that i will copy head to toe what a certain model or celebrity is using in a campaign or feature but in the sense that i keep up with trends. I read about what colours/patterns are most fashionable at the moment and make sure to at least have one or two items in my closet that include those trends. However as someone who is a bit of a bargain hunter i don't necessarily buy the latest season of clothing, i have a fondness for attending designer brand sample sales and often end up leaving with five or six items that would have retailed for over a thousand for just £300. But the problem with this is that a lot of items in sample sales are from previous seasons past, not a problem for me necessarily as to me a unique branded item is always a classic and something that i can pull out during any season of any year. It is a problem however for the idea of consumerism created by magazines and adverts because I'm not being lured into buy what they are selling me, instead i opt for something from a few seasons ago that looks awfully familiar but with 90% off the price tag. In conclusion, i do think i am inspired by what i see in magazines and adverts but in a far simpler way such as emulating colour, patterns and garment shapes that i see rather than being persuaded to buy the items featured on said magazines.

How has Cycling changed fashion

Today more than ever sports wear plays a huge role in the fashion industry, with many established brands such as Chanel and Gucci giving in to the current trend popularised by the rise of Vetements and its head designer Demna Gvasalia. Chunky sports trainers and loose fitting joggers have been spotted on every major brands collections for the past few seasons but although many may think that sportswear has only just become a major fashion force, the idea that sports wear as fashion dates back to the late victorian era. Tennis is considered the first major sport taken up by women in 1870s although this did not affect what women wore until the 1920s when Suzanne Legnlen wore a v neck dress with no stockings, petticoat or sleeves. Although rather shocking at the time, it wasn't long before women everywhere were wearing this sort of attire in what is now recognised as the "flapper" look. Although a sport that changed women's fashion in a far more influential way was cycling.

" But bicycling - far more windespread than motoring, and not, as motoring was, restricted to a few aristocratic women who could afford to defy conventions - did mean the advent of new costumes. At first it was considered 'fast', but soon made the long-ridiculed bloomers respectable, and it was the sporting crazes of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century that made trousers popular wear for women. "

Trousers were an item of clothing that were typically exclusive for men. However as cycling became more popular amongst women who could not afford to drive, they had to ditch the long heavy skirts due to discomfort but also health and safety reasons that would come with riding a bike. Although women still faced ridicule and discrimination as trousers weren't widely accepted until women took up more demanding jobs during world war II and later becoming a trend associated with youth culture in the 60s. Using this extract as a reference, it is to be understood that cycling was at the forefront of women liberation from restrictive/uncomfortable victorian clothing. 

What is Popular Culture

Popular culture is the idea of how society is affected by different industries such as; music, film, sport, art, books etc... As human being we get a lot of our creative inspiration from popular culture, especially when it comes to fashion. We look at what is happening in the world around us and especially "celebrities" for inspiration on what to wear

"Films and filmstars as celebrities of course continued to influence fashion. When Brigitte Bardot in the late fifties got married in check gingham and broderie anglaise, these became instantly fashionable materials. When she and Jeanne Moreau appeared Edwardian dres in Viva Maria this also caused a season of imitation looks" ( "Adorned in Dreams - Fashion and Modernity" Chapter 8 - fashion and popular culture pg : 171-172 )

This is not exclusive to what is happening in the current day and age. Fashion is a cycle industry and trends are always going to come back around. Designers tend to look at pop culture from eras past to gain inspiration for their collections. Take Alexander McQueens Autumn/Winter 2006 show titled "Horn of Plenty" a show that stood out due to the models having extremely overdrawn red lipstick around their mouths, a look famously adopted by Leigh Bowery in the late Eighties and early Nineties.

                                                  Leigh Bowery -  Alexander McQueen
https://agnautacouture.com/2014/11/16/leigh-bowery-inspired-designers-photographers-a-painter-part-two/


Rick Owens is another designer who was heavily inspired by Leigh Bowery and recreated one of his images for his Fall 2012 show, he accomplished this by harnessing 2 models together, one carrying the other. A look first created by Bowery 20 years prior, essentially what these designer did is look back at what was happening in pop culture around the time they were growing up (early nineties) revived it many years later and made it into fashion.

                                                        Leigh Bowery  -   Rick Owens
http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/26840/1/what-you-need-to-understand-about-rick-owens-human-backpacks

Summed up in a few word, pop culture is TV, Movies, Music, Books, it is the entire mass media and how it influences consumerism as a whole.