This is an online digital video curation examining the concept of the anomaly in the contemporary global fashion aesthetic. Take a look at how atypical designers and trends are driving innovation and redefining the concept of what it means to be fashionable.
This video is a short retrospective on the late designer Alexander McQueen. It features clips from some of his most innovative couture shows. Known for his unique aesthetic, McQueen is hailed as a fashion innovator. The opening lines pretty much say it all. Essentially, there is much beauty in that which is different.
Fashion is an industry that thrives on innovation. From the avant garde, to the plain macabre, designers like McQueen drive the trends we see on the runways and on ourselves. Of course literal interpretations of looks such as these may not always prove practical for everyday life.
The real value in designers like McQueen is the expanding of the global aesthetic – the redefining of notions of beauty. With muses such as Catherine the Great and Joan of Arc, what McQueen, Gaultier, and other couture designers of this genre have done is revolutionize exactly what we deem beautiful.
Jewelry designer Shaun Leane, who worked extensively with Alexander McQueeen, is also pushing the boundaries of the traditional beauty aesthetic. Leane is known for innovative jewelry designs that explore notions of beauty and pain. His work is noted for its particularly menacing quality. Leane examines what he likes to call the “dark” side of beauty with his jewelry.
Here is a clip of plus size model Velvet D’Amour walking in a 2006 show for designer Jean Paul Gautier. Gaultier is well known for casting plus sized models to walk in his couture shows. The plus size couture model is certainly an anomaly in the particularly size conscious fashion industry.
Plus size model Crystal Renn, who has also modeled for Gaultier, was recently featured in the 2010 V Magazine Size issue. The size issue is devoted to exploring positive and varied ideas of female beauty. Renn, who is very public about her struggle with anorexia early in her career, is a size 16. Couture models are considered plus size at size 10.
The 2010 London Fashion Week was noted for its inclusion of models of various sizes, particularly plus sized models. This was inspired in part by a recent UK model health inquiry sponsored by the British Fashion Council, which was spurred by the recent deaths of several size 0 models.
Indeed contemporary designers have begun to embrace and celebrate all forms of beauty, even the imperfect body. Here is a clip from a 2011 fashion show in Japan which exclusively featured models who were amputees. Here the prosthetics are as much a part of the show as the designs which the models are wearing.
In this clip a global news affiliate reviews a Columbia show which exclusively featured amputee models. Again, the models’ prosthesis is very much a part of the show. It is interesting to note, however, that several of the designs mask or obscure the model’s prosthetic limbs. Does this represent a step forward or a step back?
Trendsetters in the Harajuku district of Tokyo, Japan have developed a distinctive style of street fashion that is also known as Harajuku. Harajuku style is characterized by a playful, irreverent aesthetic. It has numerous influences from goth, to punk rock, to anime, and has influenced popular ready to wear fashion globally.
Erstwhile rock musician and designer Gwen Stefani has recently launched Harajuku Mini, a Harajuku inspired line of children’s fashion and accessories for mass retailer Target. Though considerably westernized, and adapted to suit small children, Stefani’s line is representative of a global trend towards a significantly more inclusive fashion aesthetic.
The early popularity of Stefani’s line represents an expanding western fashion aesthetic. The popularizing of Japanese street fashion trends in western children’s ready to wear fashion indeed evidences the increasing aesthetic value of the anomaly. The global fashion industry is driven by innovation. Innovation is the byproduct of the anomaly.
There are but a few examples of how the anomaly has redefined the media that is fashion.
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