1: Kate Moss for YSL Spring/Summer 2008 ads
2: Patricia van der Vliet in 'The Bright Side' in Vogue US July 2010 shot by Raymond Meier, styled by Elissa Santisi
If the 'Bright Side' editorial in this month's Vogue US is anything to go by, it seems that in fashion one of the most enduring concerns is being on the outside looking in. A gorgeous Patricia van der Vliet reclines on lounges, tries on dresses and struts across her appartment and we see her only through the glass windows and doors. We are observers only. This reminded me instantly of the Yves Saint Laurent ads from 2008 that featured Kate Moss in the various new season fashions, trying desperately to get into the YSL boutique in Paris. We see her through the glass double doors of the shop, banging on windows, rattling door knobs and peering in.
I always wonder how you can get to the inside if you are different, if you don't have the right hair, the right boyfriend, the right shoes... In the September Issue Documentary Anna Wintour mused that fashion can seem scary to some people. She argued that it is the unknown that scares them, they fear what they don't understand. I think there is a little bit more than that. At the heart of it, at least for me, the scariest thing about fashion is the exclusivity, the barrier that is erected between 'the plebs' and 'the editors'. Is it possible to break it down? Should we? With more and more fashion blogs and more and more fashion journalism coming from the ground up instead of the other way round what will happen to Fashion's scions of exclusivity and singularity? Can fashion exist if it is universal, or must there be some distinction between the magazine editors who decide the trends and the people who merely wear them?
Or, despite everything, despite every street-style blog, ever citizen journalist, every documentary and reality tv show, will fashion forever be housed in a glass house and we, the outsiders, forever be looking in? If that is the case, at least in a glass house you can see through, undistorted, to the clothes. Thank god for small mercies.
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