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.