Right to fashion!

"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." 19th Article of the Universal Constitution of human Rights.

The idea of the liberty of expression was born in the antiquity, more precisely in Grecee, but forgotten (more a repression) for centuries. Until John Milton and John Locke began to discuss it again. They emphasised the role of the government to proctet this right, and the American Constitution was the first one to use it, in the First Amendment “ Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” 

But what the hell fashion has to do with fredom of expression? Everything I say,  becouse clothes most of the times reflect our identity, collective our personal. And we have many examples of countries that don't respect the fredom of expression, regarding clothes, as the muslin countries were women can't walk on the streets without the burka, or even in France were muslin women can't were a burka.
We can look at world history and see that the liberty of choosing what we want to wear has grown with increased of the freedom of expression, and in times of great happiness like the end of the World Wars ( the big  revolution of fashion in the 20's). Until the 20's women and men had a short variety of styles, there were only one style (in the upper class, becouse the lower class dreed the way they could) with many variations, them came the 20's there was an explosion of new things, people were happy and they wanted to forget the war so they change completly the society thus fashion had a big revolution too, what with beginning of the WWII fashion were taken in to a safer ground, with no extravagances, no revolution. The sixties were the birth of fashion as we know it, we have the pop up movment with Andy Warhol and the factory girls, we could started to see a more alternetive crazy society (mostly in the big cities as new York) were people dresses very very differently from what espected not being afraid to show the real "me", we have the hippies, and we have the elegance of Hollywod. So we can see that there were many styles from were you could choose and not just one as it had previously happened, we had the liberty to choose who we wanted to transmite to the world about us. Them we have the seventies the decade of rock and roll and in is finnals the birth of punk and we these two music styles also comes around a fashion style, being the punk style one of the biggest inspirations for fashion of the recent years. And them on and and on...

But as we can see there were a some gradation of what we could and couldn't dress, what was aceptable and what was not, nowadays we see guys with heels mere than I can walk going around Chiado and Bairro alto, girls with shaved hair and all tattooed, basicly today we can see it all, and I gess that is a good thing it means that today we can be whatever we want to be.

Why isn't black the new white?

            Everybody that understands a bit of fashion knows that there aren’t many black people in the industry, not designers, journalists or models, and because of that some people affirm that this industry is somehow racist. I disagree with that I think that the main reason is of course the money, always the money. Fashion is an industry and as an industry is main purpose is making money. And who has the economic power? Who is the higher class? Yes you can say that nowadays that there a few rich and influent black people, but still a minority. So, fashion makes clothes for the people that buy them, being those Caucasian men and women. And that’s why we only see two or three black models, if that much, in a fashion show, or why there aren’t many big houses of fashion with a black person as the leading designer or big magazine editors. So the problem is not just from the fashion but from the society.Of course I’m not saying that this attitude don’t have to change, of course it has.

           

Black people in fashion:

           

          Fashion has always evolved with society, so is not hard to guess what was the decade in where black women and designers first appear in fashion, of course the sixties, 1966 Donyale Luna (one of the Factory girls) was the first girl with African ancestry in the cover of Vogue.

Beverly Johnson, a model and an actress, was the first African American girl to be on the cover of the american Vogue, in 1975

Alek Wek, an model and designer, was the first African girl on the cover of Elle magazine on 1996, Alek Wek is from Sudan, from the tribe Dinka, that's why she has that perfect beautiful skin tone.

Edward Enninful, is the newest editor of W magazine and formereditor of i-D ( At the age of 18, Enninful’s position as Fashion Director at i-D made him the youngest ever fashion director for an international publication), and for him "there's still very few black people in the fashion industry"

Andre Leon Talley, is the former editor-at-large of the american vogue, he is best knowed for his peculiar way of dressing. In 2007 was considered the 45th powerful gay in America, by Out magazine.

Bibliography:

• http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2011/06/edward_enninful_on_why_theres.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Leon_Talley
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donyale_Luna
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alek_Wek

Best presentation

For me the best presentation was the one by Jorge and Yuan. The theme of their work was Gospel, a very interesting and unusual one. The way the work was presented was captivating adequate for the public (teenagers that think that religion can’t be interesting). In general Jorge had a good performance besides some mistakes, that he correct in the next second, that I think he wouldn’t do if weren't nervous, Yuan had the job a little bit more  difficult because she is a bit shy and not has fluent as Jorge.

First of all I’m going to talk about the theme of their work, I thought it was a good theme because the majority of the people think of gospel as a spiritual music of the black communities, and they show us that is more than that that it is a view of Catholicism, they show us the historic perspective for us to comprehend why is the Gospel church more than w think it is. And from my perspective they show and explained that very well they show us a side of gospel that most of us didn’t knew.

The way that Jorge and Yuan presented their work, I think it was good but not great, because besides the great materials they showed us, the movies and songs, the PowerPoint had too many words, and in some parts Jorge and Yuan were even reading from it, besides that little problem I thought that the presentation was perfect, Jorge knew everything about it (we could see that it was him that leadership the team), and could see that besides Yuan difficulties she was trying very hard to do good.    

Thank you, women of the 20's

 I think we, women, need to thank the women of the 20's becouse if them probably we woud still be dressing with the help of a maid that heavy and unconfourtable dresses, we would still be seen as an inferior human being, that only served to have kids and please man needs, that didn't had the right of have a decision. Yes we have to thank the women of the 20's of our liberty being who we want to be.
 Becouse of the WWI women were obliged to work, with the end of the war women continued to work, and notice that men were not a necessity for thenselfes, they were a necessity for men. They gained more liberty, starded to have a goal in life different from being at home taking care of the children. Women in the 20's were given the right to vote, making the rights between women and men equal in paper. So a new women was born, a more confident women that knew that she was equal to men, so she wanted to do things that men did, women started to smoke, drink and have a more bohemian life. They even starded to dress like men, the garçon style (thank you Coco for you marvelous pants), and the hair were a lot more short than before the famous bob.
 So every time you are earing pants, and sneackers think of them, every time you are voting think of them, every time you are in school, or in your job think of them,every time you are in the club drinking a vodka and smoking a cigar think of them, every time that you think that you want to have kids think of them becouse they have given you the choise of wanting instead of being obliged to.

THANK YOU!
 

FASHION-PLUS-INTERNET-EQUALS-LOVE

In my opinion internet is a very important vehicle in the spreading of the fashion industry and sense. Internet is avaiable for most of the people, is global and the same for every country. And we must be sincere nowadays most of us spend hours and hours of our time in the internet.

In this last years, fashion sites and fashion blogs had an astronomic rise in number and quality, and in importance too. Today we can see fashion bloggers and fashion sites editors among Anna Wintour, Kate Lanphear, Kate Moss in the front row of the biggest fashion shows, as Channel, Mulberry, Balmain, Dior, Marc Jacobs and many many others. Designers know how much influent these bloggers are, they reach  everyone in every corner of the planet (besides of course north corea).So they are the best publicity for their brand even more than Anna Wintour and all those big fashion editors  becouse nowadays fashion media as Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, no longer as the importance and influence of other times, and sincerely they don't have the same quality too, becouse the magazines want so badly to have publicity are so greedy that it's all they are a catalogue of  ads.

vs.

In the perpective of portuguese seventeen year old girl, living in litle village where most of the people don't care about fashion or style,and just want to be cool, hip an different, and just don't know how, becouse the things that she see in her mom's Vogue are just too expensive and not wearable for school. Blogs are just the best plataform to learn and to get some inspiration, becouse we have a lot of choise, there are bloggers from all over the world with all kinds of style and age, they are everyday people (normally) and  normal people normally don't have thousands and thousands of euros/pounds/dollars to spend on clothes and accessories but the best thing about blogs is that they are real they aren't some editorial of Elle/vogue/Marie Claire, people really wear those outfits on the streets and has there personality and history and there are a mix of new with old. The style and fashion are alive on blogs.

Blogs and sites that I love:

http://www.fashiontoast.com/

http://lisaplace.devote.se/

http://www.bryanboy.com/

http://www.thecherryblossomgirl.com/

http://www.wishwishwish.com/

http://www.style.com/

http://www.whowhatwear.com/´

http://studdedhearts.blogspot.com/

http://stylecartel.com

http://www.stylescrapbook.com
http://streetpeeper.com/
http://www.hanneli.com/

From the 16th century court to the 2nd millenium runway

 When I'm sayng 16th i'm talkind more about the Elizabethan court, whose been a really big reference for many fashion designers, as Alexander MqQueen, John Galliano, Vivienne Westwood and so many others
 The Elizabethan style consists in some key caracteres as: corsets, lace, hooded cloaks, velvet, hats, feathers, big ruffs , dramatic and volumous sleeves, fur (marten , sable ), gowns (capes), padded shouders and skirts, petticoat and V necklines.

 We have a goo.d view of the Elizabethan fashion style by watching the film "Elizabeth-the golden age " (winner of the Oscar for the best wardrobe), where you can see the english court.of the 16th from the insigh

Now back to the 20th century were we are full Elizabethan inspiration, on runway and in fashion editorials.
 Examples:

• Fashion by Sharif Hamza on Vogue Russia december 2010, where we can see a lot of inpiration, we have the ruffs, the capes, the materials: lace, embroidery. But of course not everything as an Elizabethan inspiration, most of the thing show too much skins, and the hells are too high.

• John Gallaino for Dior haute-couture, S/S 2009.

• Victor & Rolf ready-to-wear, Fall 2010/11

 We can see in this outfit a clear inpiration on elizabethan clothing, by looking to the big shouders, and the collar of the dress.

• Karl Lagerfeld, for Fendi, fall 2008/09

• Alexader MqQueen obviously in this collection has as an inspiration the colonization in the Elizabethan times; pirates, militay, tribes, aristocracy.

Bibligraphy:

• http://www.blogger.com/goog_1052267774
• http://www.blogger.com/goog_1052267774
• http://www.blogger.com/goog_1052267774_
• http://www.blogger.com/goog_1052267774
• http://www.blogger.com/goog_1052267774
• http://www.style.com/fashionshows/review/S2003RTW-AMCQUEEN/
• http://www.style.com/fashionshows/review/F2010RTW-VIKROLF
• http://www.style.com/fashionshows/review/F2008RTW-FENDI/