Our world is now filled with various fashion photography. They are no longer simply about clothes production but “beckon us into a world of unbridled fantasies” (pg. 237). Consumers are promoted to buy fashion product because of the contexts contained in the fashion advertisement, such as “spectacles of beauty (usually conventional), sensuality, eroticism and pleasure” (pg. 237). She brought up that the vast majority of fashion students never visit a factory and almost none of the fashion companies show their factories in commercials. For example, in Miss Dior’s Perfume advertisement, there are only a pretty naked young lady and a small picture of the perfume bottle. The company haven’t shown what does the perfume contain, how it is made and any “real” information of the perfume. Because if these are shown, the audience will consider the perfume as plain as some liquid with pleasant chemical smell and refuse to pay the high price. The imaginary pretty lady persuades people that they will become as attractive and high-class as the lady if they use the perfume. “Production empties. Advertising fills. The real is hidden by the imaginary.” (pg. 251) I agree with this statement and am actually a bit nostalgic about the time when ads focused on the makers and products rather than the illusion. Although these illusion-based ads may be more effective to increase sales and profits according to customer psychology, they are actually drawing people’s attention away from quality. As businesses invest money on these ads (these ads usually cost a lot for hiring stars and designers), they will have less to put on the production and the quality is very likely to decline. A dress from the 50s Dior is probably more sustainable than a dress from modern Dior.’

Liz Wells also frequently differentiate art and commercials. She contrasts Calvin Klein ads and Cindy Sherman’s fashion spreads and put some fashion ads in a museum context. Wells also suggests that Cindy Sherman’s photos loses some of the critical power when entwined with commercial fashion magazines. I neither agree or disagree on this point, but I finds it particularly thought-provoking. Is there really a fine line between profits and art? Should fashion photographers always stay away from commercials to retain their pure artist status? Andy Warhol is famous and has made a lot of money but most people still consider his works as art. I also think there are still some art elements in even a super profit-oriented ad such as the Justin Bieber Calvin Klein one. However, I do admit that in some cases, artists lose power when they enter the commercial world. Does this mean that the society usually associate profits as “fake”? Perhaps because of the massive amount of misleading advertisements, people gradually lose trust to profit-oriented ads. Even when the artist is applying amazing concepts through commercials, the audience may think it as a moral-wash and refuse to treat it as art.

In class writing

Question: Can fashion and fashion advertising successfully address political, economic, or social issues? To what extent?

Although it seems that fashion and fashion advertising are usually purely profit oriented, they can still be powerful tools to address political, economic and social issues. I do admit that most fashion  and fashion ads are designed to promote products and increase sales, but some of them are created to raise people’s awareness and don’t appear to be directly related to the products.

For example, Benetton is an expert of these non profit oriented, shocking advertising. In one of its ads, there was a black woman nursing a white child. The black woman was cropped and only her breasts and hands were shown. This advertisement create uproar in both America and Britain. The way the black woman as cropped – her head was not included in the image – dehumanized her as a nursing slave. According to Liz Wells in Fashion photography, this ad clearly echoed the slave relations , where black people were not treated as humans and were forced to be slaves of white people.This advertisement is definitely successful to evoke the social issue of racism. There are still racism issues hidden in the society and Benetton brought those up in a bold, shocking way. Fashion ads are often presented in large format and in colorful palette. In my opinion, it forces people to focus on the political, economic or social issues they address and make fashion ads a powerful tool to evoke people’s thoughts.

However, I don’t think fashion ad can always successfully address social issues but they normally fall somewhere in between. Because when the ads focus on the social issues, they will usually lose some of the romantic fashion appeal.  The United Color of Benetton is a clothing line. However, in the advertisement I just mentioned, I could barely see any representation of clothes. The ad has actually turned into a social propaganda to some extent. Though it successfully address the racism issues, it’s not a successful ad for clothing. Some of Cindy Sherman’s work seem to be more neutral between fashion as and social propaganda. She is a photographer best known for her conceptual self portrait. In one of her fashion ads for Harper Bazaar (1993), she featured herself in four different guises. This ad fell perfectly on the line between fashion ad and social ad. This ad seemed to criticize the popular street photography where people  dressed themselves in unconventional clothing and posed in various way to look natural. It could also be a promotion of the structural dress she wore. This ad grabbed the audience attention both in terms of its fashion content and social content and makes people curious about Sherman’s intention. Fashion and fashion advertising can successfully address political, economic, or social issues when they are manipulated in a certain way, although they normally fall into the pure profit-oriented ads or social propagandas.