Liberty X

Tommorow Liberty London will be opening its doors to all up and coming designers to pitch their creations to the major fashion retailer, in particular to Buying Director Ed Burstell and his team.
The Dragons Dens style pitch will be the starting point of a new BBC2 programme, 'The Buying Game'.
This is X-factor meets project runway, and is conveying an entirely new side to the fashion industry. It seems the public have had enough of modelling programmes and it is time to dig in a little deeper to see what it really going on behind the extravagant window displays. Could this be a huge disaster, appealing to only the few, portraying a totally unrealistic picture to the audience? Or a sucess amoungst those in the industry, bringing publicity to new labels, whilst inspiring the youth to explore wider horizons when looking in to a career in the fashion industry? Only time will tell.
I will certaintly be tunning in this summer.

J xxxx

You are not an acception.

Ok, go ahead say what you like about me.
Call me superficial and a copy cat for being interested in fashion because I know its not true.

You think you are so excluded from it all.
You think you are so... 'different' and 'unique'
You dont follow the crowd.
You dont buy clothes because you think they are fashionable.

Of course not.
Well I have news for you, and as they say in The Devil Wears Prada...

"This... 'stuff'? Oh... ok. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don't know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean. You're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets? I think we need a jacket here. And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff."

People think just because I am interested in fashion I must be thick. Let me tell you I get A* - B grades with very little work or revision, and now I am trying just think what I am capable of.
Now tell me I am stupid.

I get the grades so I can choose to do what I want. What I enjoy.
I want to do fashion management. That is business studies directed at a particular industry.
I have a plan in life & I will achieve it. Ambition drives me. Fashion drives me.
And why am I so interested in this industry?
Well as I said in my personal statement...
'...the fashion industry is not just another form of business. Fashion enables people to express themselves in a way words or art could never convey... It is intriguing that the world influences fashion and fashion influences the world. This influence is not just limited to clothing and accessories, but to every aspect of life, from culture to the economy...'

You have your idols, or in psychological terms, role models. They do things you think are 'pretty' and 'cool'.
These people are called innovators.
Then it gets copied by a few people - early adopters - if its only you copying it it can't be fashion, or can it?
Because next it is noticed by designers, high end and highstreet, or even just other people you know.
It leaks around until a year later, after you stopped doing it you find everyone else is now doing it.
You call it 'mainstream'. Now you think its 'in fashion'.
Let's face it though, your role models were inspired by something. Be that someone else, a film, a fashion magazine, a song, a novel, they were inspired by something that was also influenced by something that was itself influenced by fashion and the creative ideas of those in the indutry of arts.
Art is fashion. Fashion is art.

Its a cycle.

Perhaps you are a late adopter, and think you are retro or vintage, or perhaps your trying something that unknowingly to you has already been done.

The truth is you can't escape it.
Your drinking it, breathing it all in.
Its dictates your life.
Not just what you wear.
The music you listen to...
The house you live in...
The words you use to communicate...
The friends you keep...
The things you believe in...

So stop being so ignorant.
Get over yourself, and stop undermining what I am interested in.
It delves in deeper than you think.

Open your eyes.

J xxxx

Size Zero Debate

The more I study Psychology the more ridiculous the size zero debate seems. It is like blaming Emo culture for an increase in depression or self harm. Let me explain...

People are blaming the media and the thin models of the fashion world for young girls desiring to be thinner, therefore causing eating disorders. What these people don't seem to understand is that most causes of Anorexia or Bulimia Nervosa are more likely to be biological or psychodynamic rather than as a result of learned conditioning, due to seeing these so called 'perfect' images of models.

It seems to me that blaming the media is an easy scape goat for the family and friends of those suffering from eating disorders because it is easier to blame the fashion industry than to accept that the real cause of the problem may have actually been biological or as a result of the childs environment growing up. Environmental causes most likely to trigger such illnesses are events in the persons life rather than as a result of exposure to an obsession with size zero in the media.

I am not saying that this 'perfect' image portrayed in the media does not have any effect because it quiet obviously does, but would it really be worth getting rid of all of this in the media, as France did, blocking images of thin models on the internet? Would it really make that much difference in saving lifes?

The fashion industry doesn't promote eating disorders anyway, it promotes healthy eating and taking good care of ones self. Just because the models used are thin does not mean that to be 'thin is in'; they are merely used because they make the clothes look visually better, to increase sales, purely from a business perspective. Many models do not have eating disorders and are naturally a smaller size than the average person to start with; they are genetically abnormal. They may diet, but then research has shown that up to 70% of women in the UK are on a diet at one time, so why should this be any different for models. A myth it seems has been created to say all models are suffering from eating disorders. Its more likely that this myth is promoting eating disorders amoungst young people rather than the actual image of these women and men.

What should really be being done is promoting healthy eating and excercise, instead of pointing the finger and making up stories because it is not helping anyone. In addition, people seem to be so concentrated on size zero they forget about those who are obese and overweight. Around 45% of people in the UK are overweight and a further 22% are obese. Surely this poses a much larger health problem than the 4% of people suffering from eating disorders. Either way, the promotion of healthy eating is the way to tackle both health problems, so lets stop making a song and dance and actually do something about it.