A quote

"If there is anything that can't be free it's undoubtedly clothing. The "I" that is expressed in clothing is not conducting an egocentric monologue. One is not oneself in one's clothes. At the most one becomes oneself. What an illusion it is to think that an individual's freedom could be realized in clothing. This is where the spirit of the time is expressed all the more profoundly, precisely because people think they can be themselves in clothing."

Dirk Lauwaert, The Power of Fashion, About Design and Meaning, ArtEZ Press, 2006

Marimekko

I visited the Marimekko exhibition in the Design Museum in Helsinki last week and liked it. Personally, I admire the early days of Marimekko, the 1960's and 70's. Marimekko has such a dedicated history behind it, I really hope the brand will continue to have a positive impact and ultimately will remain loyal to the heritage of the authentic Marimekko. Also, not to get too absorbed in the unsustainable and fast paced fashion cycles, which never have reflected the initial Marimekko ideology or neither try to compete in the globalized fashions of the high-street, where it might loose touch of its heritage.

Unfortunately I was not able to take any photos of the exhibition, but here are some images from the book Marimekko, Fabrics Fashion Architecture, which is linked with the exhibition and available at the museum shop. The exhibition is curated and the book is edited by Marianne Aav, the director of Design Museum, Finland.

"As twenty-first century gets underway, Marimekko is experiencing a resurgence of interest and appreciation -  a true revival. Maija Isola's Unikko (poppy) pattern, designed almost forty years ago, blooms as never before. With new colors and sizes, Isola's exuberant flower, which was introduced in 1964, the same year as Amdu Warhol's cerise and yellow Flower paintings, has required a new, broadly based audience and market. Marimekko has always been surprising. The company's original emergence in the international marketplace of the 1960's and 70's reveals a tangle of success, euphoria, and the uneasiness that often accompanies radical design philosophies. Marimekko has always existed on a roller coaster. Its progressive fashion sense, utopian design vision, and uncompromising ambition have been key to both its successes and its failures, including at least one near-bankruptcy."
Marimekko, Fabrics Fashion Architecture, Marianne Aav, BGC YALE, 2003

All images from  Marimekko, Fabrics Fashion Architecture, Marianne Aav, BGC YALE, 2003

  18 March - 29 May 2011 MARIMEKKO - A WHOLE LIFE 60 Years of Colours, Stripes and Shapes

Visit the website of  Helsinki Design Museum

1980's capitalist developments influenced the emerge of the New Man

The New Man arose as a primarily media-driven phenomenon in the 1980’s. It was said that, as a result of the impact of second-wave feminism in particular, men and masculinity were under attack, and a new form of masculinity that was more caring, nurturing and sensitive - or, alternatively, more narcissistic, passive and introspective - was developing. (Edwards, 1997)

In the 1980‘s women’s position advanced in the social sphere and also career wise. This meant that the circumstances changed in the society for men as well, which permanently reformed and constructed new dynamics between men and women. During this decade many aspects of the capitalist developments affected the emerge of the New Man, such as the rising economy, which endorsed the new consumer culture of the yuppie era. The increasing number of young men who entered the working life at the time had more money to spend on the emerging concept of ‘lifestyle’ and were eager to spend money on fashion, grooming products and also on the men’s press. As Edwards says, ”The New Man was not simply the product of the media, or even of responses to second-wave feminism; he was rather the crystallization of consequences in economics, marketing, political ideology, demography and, most widely, consumer society in the 1980’s.”

Discussions on the New Man were notable in the British press of the 1980‘s. Accroding to Frank Mort (The Men’s Fashion Reader, 2009) the figure of this new phenomenon was the topic for frequent debates and endless controversy. ”In journalism and in fashion, in commercial and manufacturing culture, as well as in the political and social arena, men were at the centre of wide-ranging debate. The forms which discussions took were as varied as their conclusions. Amidts all the energy, one motif occured repeatedly. This was the figure of the ‘new man’. A hybrid character, his aetiology could not be attributed to one single source. He was rather the condensation of multiple concerns which were temporarily run together.” This quote shows that the concept of the New Man was not easily accepted in such traditional publications as the English newspapers. Masculine consumer society was an advanced concept and foreign to many of the contemporaries. As Mort explains, for the adversiting and marketing industries, the appearance of such a personality was a symptom of growing commercial and cultural confusion... this new form of masculinity was principally defined by self-doubt. Confronted by the loss of traditional gender certainties, many men were now being forced to question their social roles.

This image illustrates the effect of Wall Street and the rising economy of the 1980's, which influenced the creation of the New Man.  Image is from the film Wall Street - Money Never Sleeps, 2010.

Museum for contemporary fashion in Finland

I am going home to Finland next week for visit and I was thinking how lovely it would be to catch up on contemporary Finnish fashion. The trouble is, that no one or no museum (that I know of at least) is documenting contemporary Finnish fashion and its developments at the moment. This is such a shame, because I think Finnish fashion would deserve a museum for its honor. This would be a great progression for the museum industry in Finland, which often might seem to be a bit old fashioned about fashion. 

I understand that many people might think that fashion as an academic subject is invalid or not worthy of such importance, but I think this is more of an old conception that only suggests outdated opinions. Also, it widely underates the influence that fashion has, firstly on an individual level and secondly on a wider, global scale. Fashion academia is a part of social studies and history. Fashion as a phenomenon reflects quite instantly such events as recession and sexual equality. 

I think it would be appropriate for Finland to open its first museum for contemporary fashion and document the numerous phases and valuable advancements of it. I also sincerely hope that I would have a chance to contribute my views as a fashion curator for it.

PS. If you know such a museum already exists in Finland, just let me know, I might have missed the news since living abroad for a while now! 
Email me on narrativeoffashion@gmail.com

And I will be checking out the Marimekko exhibition in Design Museum. MARIMEKKO - A WHOLE LIFE 60 Years of Colours, Stripes and Shapes (18 March - 29 May 2011) 

link to the exhibition

Representations of masculinity

"Images of masculinity are variously and, on occasion, contradictorily interpreted, yet one factor which remains constant is the assertion that these representations construct masculinity as a part of a dynamic process of interpretation and implication. Masculinity is not seen as a fixed essence reflected in representation; rather the representations create the sense of masculinity as essence. Significantly, it is also argued that there is no one masculinity constructed or represented, rather a series of masculinities that are hierarchically ordered according to colour, class and sexual orientation. Images of white, middle-class and heterosexual masculinity are therefore hegemonic whilst those of black, working-class or homosexual masculinity are subordinate. In addition, the hegemonic and subordinate are mutually reinforcing each other. Therefore, what we are often considering when looking at images or representations of masculinity are not solely the overt images or representations themselves, but the complex and overt conceptions of masculinity upon which they are premised."

(Men in the Mirror, Tim Edwards, 1997)

image from here

Changing conventions of men's fashion have entailed re-worked attributes of masculinity that have transformed male bodies into objects of gaze, of display and decoration. This radically undercuts the Victorian and post-Victorian idea of masculinity as the display of restraint in a disciplined body. 

(Craik, 1994, p.203)