December 17, 2007

Musing: Is fashion art?

Is fashion art? It's an age old debate. Clearly, you know which side of the fence I stand on.

I found this nugget on the website artandculture.com the other day, which summed things up quite nicely: "Of all the artistic genres, fashion has been slapped with the worst condemnation: frivolity. It's a discipline of flounces and featherweight chiffons, seemingly all surface and no substance. It doesn't help that its main archives are glossy pages of style rags, home to legions of commercial advertisements and precious little intellectual commentary. And yet, fashion is the art form that gets most deeply under our skin—perhaps because it's the one that sits closest to it."

Even I had some resistance to fashion, back in the day. I used to report 'hard news', fires and murders and elections. When I became freelance I found myself more and more immersed in the culture of fashion, and started to realize its value. I noticed the truths it told, observed how it defines who we are as individuals, allowing endless possibilities of portable self-expression. I finally looked beyond fashion's utilitarianism, and allowed myself to see for what it is—a visual language. And like all languages that are not mother tongues, it takes love, time and commitment to master.

This musing was inspired by a press release from Black Frame, a PR agency New York with some very cool clients. The press release was introducing me to an artist named Seth Price, who will be in the upcoming Whitney Biennial. He’ll also have a solo show at Friedrich Petzel Gallery in New York from February 8th-March 8th. Young, among other things, quite literally turns fashion in to art, casting garments like this rumpled up coat, turning a well-worn piece of clothing into a time capsule, a frozen representation of a moment in time. He also uses downloads of jihadist beheadings in his art.

To find out more about Seth Price, click here.

December 17, 2007 in FASHION | Permalink