Finding the connection between Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada, the weight debate and the issue of skinny women, and talking to Thom Browne. Plus, is The Hunger Games the movie to watch for fashion satire?
After the break, our weekend reading list.
Schiaparelli, Prada, and clothes on the cutting edge
Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada: Impossible Conversations, a joint retrospective that opens in May at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, creates a shared stage for two women in fashion who shared traits of being successful and at times controversial.
“One of the ensembles in the category of “Ugly Chic” is a three-piece Prada suit from 1996, with a wraparound skirt, a boxy jacket, and a shapeless, high-necked shell. The fabric is a stiff synthetic, digitally printed with a smudgy grid… It was modelled on the runway by a young Kate Moss, and even she couldn’t pull it off.”
Read it here.
Are thin women the enemy
Does criticism of underweight woman actually make the issue worse?
“In recent years, much attention has been paid to how women are portrayed in the media, whether it’s an overly airbrushed magazine model with an impossibly slim waist, or a TV starlet with protruding collar bones.
In an era when pro-anorexia communities congregate on social media sites like Pinterest, it’s no wonder that lawmakers are concerned with women’s body image.”
Read it here.
The Talks: Thom Browne
Thom Browne talks about his personal brand of quirk, having conviction, and moving into womenswear.
“As a designer I think you just have to make sure you know what you want and stay true to it. You need to have conviction and really just want to make people think in regards to doing interesting things.”
Read it here.
A question of gender
When androgyny goes beyond clothing: pseudohermaphroditism, where tall, slender ‘females’ have hidden male genitalia and don’t know until puberty, is commonly found in the modeling world.
“Further examination reveals testes that are normal except for being buried in the groin or labia; they secrete normal testosterone and are programmed by a normal Y chromosome. In other words, the beautiful model is a male who happens to have a genetically determined biochemical block in the ability to respond to testosterone.”
Read it here.
A spot-on sartorial satire
Fashion satire in The Hunger Games.
“Although it’s being billed as the second coming of Twilight – aka catnip to the tween and teen crowd – I think adults everywhere might consider buying a ticket. Because as much as the story is about the way reality shows cater to our basest instincts, the violence of video games, how adults use children to their own ends, and the evils of totalitarianism, it is also a spot-on satire of the contemporary fashion world.”
Read it here.
