Lisa Deurer
Intro to Fashion Studies
Robert Cremins
Interviewed Person:
Name: Skye Matlock, Age: 20
Home country: United States
Birth city: Dallas, Texas
Reflection
I remember when I first meet Skye, which was around 2 years ago now and we have become very close friends, creative soul mates, and each other harshest critiques. The way I remember her was merely the pop of color resembled in her makeup and again been repeated in her clothes, which grasped my attention. I remember the joy and playfulness in her clothes and the attitude which got me hooked to her style/ personality.
- What themes emerged in your dress practice interview?
- What did you notice about your subject’s daily dress practice that you hadn’t noticed before? How does their dress practice compare to yours, and how can you explain this in terms of subject positions?
The main headlines in Skye and my interview centered around values, memories, sexuality, personality, trends, and lifestyle. For the two of us, our clothing style changed when we moved to New York, but values stayed the same, which means that Skye started to wear more black clothes, more jeans, and pants that she did before due to practical needs and cultural adoption of style. New York similarly like Germany people wear a lot of black coats, pants, shoes and knitting’s, which symbolizes a clean, powerful, luxurious and uniform look. We associate black with power since black used to be a men color worn (around 1920-60s) until women started to wear and adopt the men shutting silhouettes. We also wear a lot of black coats, pants, and shoes. For Skye, it’s her Doc Martens, her black levin pants and Blazers. For me, it’s my Japanese black leather boots, my black neoprene pant and Cape, such as my shirts and T-shirts. But we both love to wear dresses and color pops here and there, though Skye is more colorful in her makeup and textile prints/patterns than I am. That’s because when I work, I take myself back, I am not the artwork, the artwork is what I am making, and that’s where I put all my energy, fantasy and color/live. For Skye, it’s different, for her makeup and styling herself every day is part of her routine which is in my case become more like a uniform I wear to calm myself. We both like to wear cotton, Skye perhaps more than I do because I prefer working in neoprene and active clothes made out of polyester (neoprene) which gives me more give than denim while I am practically working on stuff (I am also used to active clothing since I have worn them a lot while I was still playing soccer). Skye on the other side prefers to work in denim which is simply a preference and comfortable choice between the two of us.
I asked her then how she feels about renting clothes in future, and she found the idea positive but nothing she would use because she is attached to her clothes and the memories we both have with each item in our closet. We both agreed on that our clothes with records of memories and experience we lived through, they empower us and remind us who we are, and that’s why we use clothes as our art medium to communicate with other people.
- How did the interview impact your understanding of the relationship between clothing and the body?
Skye likes to dress very fitted clothes, be it jeans, shirts or dresses, for me it depends. When I am in the studio doing practical work or design, I need to move a lot, and that’s why I slightly prefer clothes with more volume, which are comfortable and easy to walk in (that’s the time when I wear a lot of unisex garments). When I though enjoy private time with friends and family, I like to dress up in more fitted, feminine clothes. For Skye there is no difference I feel, she wants to wear more dresses though when she is at home in Texas. We both associate us with the female gender, we both like to dress feminine, but I am quieter than she is. Meaning that Skye is louder in her makeup, and wears more fitted clothes than I am because I prefer a more boyfriend, mysterious look than her.
Her style is very much inspired by the 80s which is more playful with color extremes and the way one displays the female body. I admire inspired by the 60s, the Italian style, the style my mom raised me in and we both love.
In conclusion, I would say by comparing the two of us Skye speaks more to the tight expressive and tight fitted Vivienne Westwood body type whereas myself adore more the Comme de Garcons body silhouette which is giving the body more privacy, room to breath and be a mystery to the viewer. According to the Real Bodies reading I favor more fluidity, Japanese style in my garments, in my drapes and messages I want to send which is different than the fitted western tailoring like Westwood’s creations (Entwistle, 2017, pp 134). For me, a garment is also a second skin but more private and mysterious than fitted, loud, offensive, sexy western styles.
Work cited:
Entwistle, Joanne. The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress, and Modern Social Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2017.
