Dapper Dan/Daniel Day wearing his own customized clothing

I remember watching the documentary “Fresh Dressed” when it was released in 2015. I was in high school and my fashion design teacher had us watch it in class. I was thinking to myself ” Wow this man is legendary” when I saw what Mr. Dapper Dan had done to the culture of fashion. He basically curated the hip-hop culture and created the image of “dress” in 1980’s. Dapper Dan used silk-screen printing customizing the existant logos of brands as knock ups and making it better. I respect this man for creating a cultural revolution.

I was doing research on the Ottoman Empire and Turkish dress practices throughout history, I came across the Levantine Community that lived in Turkey and practiced their European Latin Catholic roots in their daily lives. It was interesting to find the beginning of western culture to exist in 1930’s Turkey and form itself to the modern day society of Turkey. I have Turkish background in my roots, so I am always curious to learn more about how my culture transformed to where it stands now. When I visited my aunt in Istanbul two years ago, I had the chance to observe the locals and their dress behaviors, the westernized culture vs. the eastern culture have coincided with one another.

Le Smoking YSL 1966

I always loved this photograph of “Le Smoking” for YSL’s campaign that broke ties between androgynous style, masculinity, and femininity. This woman is the modern portrayal of a strong independent woman that symbolized power. She’s in the streets of Paris, casually smoking her cigarette, as she poses in a tailored suit and trousers. This broke all gender, sex roles at that time and is still a symbol of power in contemporary fashion, especially through feminism. I relate to this style and dress of wear and design in this perspective of dress.

 

 

I came to the realization that fashion is a system through business and without business fashion does not exist. Through historical times of change and place, style fashion dress plays an important role in fashion. The symbolism behind fashion is the circuit that is cycled through time, however, it has an impact from society. Fashion can reflect your “identity” to communicate yourself with others. Fashion can be represented through clothing either through culture, religion, belief or lifestyle.For example, Kaiser says”religion may also offer a sense of freedom or a context in which to articulate ethnicity.” This quote represents the diverse aspects of style fashion dress through culture and religion. Fashion is presented all around the world and it reflects on the time period we are in. For instance, we are encouraged to push sustainable design and environmental awareness in contemporary time.

Zoot Suit 1940-42 Unknown Designer

When I visited the MOMA museum, the garment that strikes my attention was the zoot suit. Referencing back to the class discussions we had in the lecture on the Zoot suit, I thought this was an important garment to displayed to represent a culture. In the year 1931, New York Times stated the African American men in Harley were “ fashion plates who were several jumps ahead of the rest of the world” (Foster 1997; 235).By the late 1930’s, the soot suit was seen as a representation of urban jazz culture, and the style consisted of a drape shape, pleats, and padded shoulders, full pants that can be gathered or pegged at the ankle. This suit had a major contribution to the African American community because already being denied in the masculine world of privilege, men in the jazz culture used the root suit to highlight their differences from hegemonic masculinity while also using the suit as a symbol of power. (Kaser 139) This style was also used by Mexican American young men, pachucos to reflect a particular Mexican national consciousness being caught within two cultures: The United States and Mexico. This trend became very popular among Mexican American young men in Los Angeles in the Hollywood scenery. This suit of power was a result of cultural anxiety and ultimately the cause of series of riots around the country. The riots consisted of predominantly white soldiers often in uniform, against the young African and Mexican American men about the same age. The tension has formed in Los Angeles in 1943, between June 3-June 13th. A large number of zoot suiters were arrested without evidence as to what they were punished for.

Eventually, the hegemonic business suit was transformed into a toned down version of the zoot suit. Appropriating the rejected style of the zoot suit, pleated trousers, and fuller jacket cut style was created afterward.

 

 

My overall reflection of my dress practice can be described as an ambiguity, a canvas with splashes of color that remains black and white borders around. The themes that emerged in my dress practice log is the experimentation through clothing and silhouette of my body. What I noticed and was aware of my daily practices is that I do care about my clothing and how I dress and present myself. I take time to put everything together, either it is a color palette or accessories that make my outfit my comfort in society. The dress practice impacted my understanding on the relationship between clothing and body by exposing my personality, curiosity, and interest in clothing. I am aware of the social interactions that we have in society through dress, however, the conversation does not concern me due to my individuality. I believe that it is important to have these conversations with one another and grow upon our beliefs due to our freedom of expression. Moreover, the conversation on gender is an ambiguity of its own. It is not tangible, yet it is emotional. The emotions we have within are expressed through our behaviors and interactions and we learn to cope with one another as time goes on. The theories of the past have brought us to the present, however, the past can be altered in the present but due to time and change of environment, we should not depend on the philosophies of the past to live the present and evolve into the future. We are individuals who are curious but the ambiguity of life cannot have a definite meaning and this defines our survival. We are all different in many ways, emotionally, physically and mentally. We are human after all, and humans are never satisfied.

The August cover of Vogue issue 2017 with Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik sparked a lot of backlash to its so-called “gender fluid roles.” This vogue issue was really controversial because Vogue put a label to gender by the act of exchanging clothes through a male and female wardrobe. What an individual wear does not identify them as gender fluid because they may not choose to conform to societal expectations of male or female. This ad falsified the meaning of gender emotionally, physically and mentally. People struggle their lives with gender identity and conformity to society, however, this ad makes it seem like it is an act of swapping men’s and women’s clothing to be gender fluid. This ad goes against gender norms and it is subverting the emotions of people that fight for issues on gender in society. Kaiser says “the interplay between biological and social factors, along with the ambiguities and anxieties that surround gendered appearances, applies to the subject position of sexuality or sexual orientation.” This quotes, in relation to the ad, raises questions on how gender is perceived and how it affects our social factors within society.

In recognition of the age of the manifesto and the uprising fashion in the 21st-century, it is crucial to be cognizant of the current times in this era of evolution that is taking place in the fashion and design world. To break down my views on fashion, this aphorism correlates to my core beliefs of what fashion really stands for. Fashion is the statement made by the designer, creative director, following a concept or the storyline told through their own perspective to reach to the audience. To break down the philosophy of this particular aphorism, “fashion has a tendency to construct its own cannons”, implying to the intricate borders of society versus the creator. Fashion in terms of a statement is not only the tangible aspect of clothing, apparel that arouses emotions from an individual, however, fashion becomes a political statement through the clothing. The subject that is brought to life becomes adjacent to the spirit of the audience. The challenges that some designers take to approach fashion in this form is to start a conversation, even a debate which may lead to controversy. Designers are the creators of their own visions and they are in charge of the conversation that evolves amongst human beings. Either be an artist, fashion designers, business person, the overall factor that forms within these creations help the viewer to construct their own cannons. An example of a designer and artist that has a powerful approach to fashion is Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garçons. Kawakubo can be described as an art historian, in relation to this aphorism. Kawakubo is someone who looks and questions society for its ambiguity through gender, sex, masculinity, femininity, cross culture, and identity. Similar to the concept of modernism following the path of romanticism. Rei’s genius has brought us to the 21st century to question the society that is in disguise from its destructive state.  Overall, our mission statement as artist, designers or creative individuals should highlight all aspects of what our identity consists of, down the path to finding our identity. The construction of the canon can have no ending, however, the documentation of our process will create its own sense of philosophy, because we are the art historians of our own identity.