In this ad for Marc Jacobs, bodies are used as a way to communicate movement and flow throughout the image, and to give the clothing a fluid feeling. The bodies in the image are 7 Women standing together, each posing in a different style or shape and coming together to interact with the background/surroundings. The Framing of the photo is almost at a slant, capturing the models at a unexpected angle, and further interacting with the movement in the background. This is effective, because we can look at the background.surroundings, and understand the there is movement going on , or even if there isn’t, it creates a feeling. The feeling is very soft, but defined, leaving the perfect balance between contributing to the work being featured/subject of the image yet not taking away from the focus.
I think that the use of bodies to create movement in a still image say a lot about how the creators approach the meaning of body. Marc Jacobs, known for his edgy, colorful, and quirky approaches to fashion, has seemingly imagined a world(in this image, in which emphasizing fluid yet abrupt movement contributes to the message/ vibe of his clothing.
Another reason I appreciate Jacobs’s approach is because it refers to the body as a work of art, and less of a gender only approach. As Susan Kaiser said “Biology, then, is not just determined, as noted earlier in this chapter, but rather is ‘softly assembled’ in conjunction with culture, psychology, and everyday social life(Fausto-Sterling 2003:128). And style0 fashion dress become part of the soft assemblage-bridging the boundary between the body and the social world, albeit ambiguously(Wilson 1985).”(Susan B Kaiser,2012,Berg Publishing). Kaiser explains perfectly, with the help of other fashion scholars, that style -fashion dress is not defined by gender, but is used as a piece in the puzzle of defining who one is through the choice of what we put on our bodies.
This add for me is a great representation of this idea, because of the way the models are not being posed is stereotypically known “feminine poses”, but instead in non gender defining ones, bringing attention to the work and stepping away from the restrictions of gender binary restraints.
