Street Art In Fashion

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL

Yuliya Borodavkina// FS 2 1415

Gender Ambivalence as a trend.

The world's main trade show of man's fashion, Pitti Uomo, has recently become not only a source of various inspirations and stylistic ideas for the women (as it has always been), but also a source of the new brilliant brand discoveries, and what is interesting – their men's lines.
There is one trick, known since the times of Gabrielle Chanel: if the texture allows that, mensclothing (the real one, but not the adpated versions) will look hyper sexy and refined on a womans body. Now from a stylists “choice” it becomes a real trend. It could be that androginity, having been always somewhere around for about already 30 years

The chances of noticing a fashion logo when you go out for a walk in Paris for example are immensely high, but what was concerning me is why the amount of the all kinds of altered, modifed (like Comme des Garcons, Céline, Chanel) logos is so high? Then the direction of my small reserch has turned more to the way of the street art and its relation with fashion.
Logos and the advertisements of the famous brands is a very attractive but very vulnerable target for the street artists. It is quite easy to see why they are so appealing: these letters and pictures are recognizable and often these ‘rebellious artists’ can even count on the brand’s resonance reaction to what they do.
Initially street art and fashion were in the state of war: the artists were painting over the advetising boards , making provocational drawings and so on. The brands were angry, sueing the artists, imposing fines.
Later they have understood that street art can actually work well on helping to promote the brand. The artists (not the rebellious ones though) started to paint the whole walls as publicites, or modifing the garments, cars and the list goes

It’s the growing racial diversity, sexual diversity crowdsourcing, the celebration of the human body and imperfections. Democracy, being, of course, since a long time a topical and relevant question, now, if its possible to say that is very “in trend”. The reason for this, as it seems to me lies in the growing political pressure and tension and the global problems concerning the opression of the human rights. So fashion, as a form of art, inevitabely reflects the situation in the world, sometimes in rebellious ways. The other reason is possibly the urge to avoid all the fashion cliches, as fashion industry for the years was seen as a closed one and reserved for the chosen ones. So the need for something fresh, accessible, down to earth starts to be satisfied by the new brands like VFILES, Gypsy Sport, Telfar and even Kanye West fashion show in colloboration with Adidas was more than ‘democratic’- the casting : the models of all races, ages, hights and body