KEEP ON MOVING- ARE FASHION FILMS THE NEW CATWALK SHOWS?

Lately during one of creative 'brainstorming nights' I fell over a couple of fashion videos on you tube. I watched them already last year, like Gareth Pugh's S/S 2011 fashion presentation, yet somehow I did not get it, back than.  Yet this time round it was different, I was transfixed to the screen and felt this strange 'Heureka' moment when you have the feeling you really see something for the first time yet it actually has been dangling in front of you for some time already. And to be honest,I think a lot of fashionistas and fashionistos are not really getting this 'developing' art form which will grow rapidly in the next years, if I can trust my fashion instincts.

Gareth Pugh S/S11 video presentation: music by Mathew Stone & directed by Ruth Hogben



As fate is crossing the Fashion Philosopher's path during the same couple of days lately ( me, suddenly being drawn to fashion short films and trailers- it all happend around two weeks ago, by chance I also watched an inteview with fashion all-round worker ( I say worker since she is just so hard working for fashion in so many areas of style) Diane Pernet from the blog A Shaded View Of Fashion talking about how she has always been interested taking fashion into film and also she things that this way of presenting fashion is absolutely underrated.

Actually sometimes I am surprised how old fashioned and even boring many people who work in fashion are, usually not in the way of dressing, no, their attitude towards mixing fashion with new mediums like digital films, videos and even animation are stupendously conservative very often! They want to keep  fashion runway shows as the main way to present the new seasons, yet I think using film and video opens up endless possibilities to present collections in  new & fresh ways- laptops, ipads, digital mobile phones and ever more advanced developments in entertainment technology will be the new digital catwalks. I  think it just feels fresh and modern to take fashion through film into the digital age. And of course, for the future which might see plane ticket prices sky rocketing, when oil is running out and we all will be forced staying connected through internet and working more and more from home.... yet I do not want to bore you with my tendency to bring politics into my fashion posts all the time! Yet this thought is to be considered, how our way of working will change in the next 30 years...

'Iris' - An Exclusive Fashion Film: directed by Barnaby Roper & model Iris Strubergger  featuring looks from Miu Mius, Celine, Soo Ri, Genevieve Jones and many more....

Yet before going back to visionary Mrs Penet, I would just quickly show you one of the first 'fashion films' around- maybe the film who started this art form- the French quirky 60's comedy 'Qui etes-vous Polly Maggoo?' ('Who Are You, Polly Maggoo') (1966).

This cute fashion film ( or film about fashion- depends from which view point you watch the film) directed by William Klein is a satirical take on the fashion world and its excesses in the 1960's, at time where fashion really started not only to express your status and age yet actually developed into a way of expressing your personality and individuality. This film catches perfectly the Zeitgeist of the 'Swinging Sixties' with all its futuristic aesthetics and it naive trust into a better 'Sci- Fi' world to come! The story is rather simple since this comedy is not a about a deep intellectual plot more about the a glimpse into this amazing period of time: Polly is a model who tells about her experiences when she is interviewed by a television crew in this offbeat satirical comedy. She dreams of a life with prince charming while contending with the lecherous advances of a whole string of men who constantly hit on her and a fashion magazine editor, modelled of course on nobody else than on the famous Vogue editor of the time Diane Vreeland, making her life a living hell! 

Rodarte S/S12- 'Soliloquy 88' video presentation: fashion film by Jason Last& Jame Rubiano 

42 years after 'Qui etes-vous Polly Maggoo?', in September 2008 during Paris Fashion Week, visionary all-round style genius Diana Pernet launched ASVOFF ( A Shaded View On Fashion Film)- the first annual festival celebrating the successful merging of fashion and film. Created as a 3 day event at the national museum of Paris, Jeu de Paume, ASVOFF showcases feature films, documentaries, conferences, performances and installations, actually all these mediums showing fashion away from its traditional way of depicting fashion through the one dimensional medium of 'still' photography.

Yet energetic Pernet has not only been satisfied in creating this important festival and prize competition, no, she has also taken the event travelling the globe and showcasing the incredible work of the most talented, creative famous and not-yet-famous artists to every corner of the world from the Guggenheim Bilbaohttp://www.guggenheim-bilbao.es/?idioma=en to Seoul, from Scope Art Fair in New York to Riga and Moscow.... By combining style, fashion, beauty and film Pernet's ASVOFF has brought together names like Steven Klein, Chris Cunningham, Chloe Sevigny, Yves Saint Laurent, Nick Knight, Ruth Hogben, Georgie Greville and many more, maybe creative professionals who might not have worked together in a more conventional way.

Have I opened you eyes now or are they 'still wide shut' like mine used to be? Have a look on you tube and once you have started watching these amazing fashion videos you will get hooked to them like me.

The Fashion Philosopher