Fashion v censorship: a history of banned ads

''Last week, the Advertising Standards Agency ruled that a Miu Miu campaign image featuring Mia Goth photographed by Steven Meisel was “irresponsible and was likely to cause serious offence”. 

An article featured on dazed website featuring past ads that have been put under scrutiny for their controversial photography and ideas they are projecting within their campaigns. looking at some of these adverts it does surprise me how they thought they wouldn't be subjected to backlash. It is quite obvious that the ones that got band focus on quite a sexualised image. Sisley's advertisement (above) of Josie Maran posing with a cows udder is one which shocked me. though it wasnt a shock when i came to find that Terry Richardson shot this campaign. he also shot tom fords 2007 campaign which also got banned its not hard to see why this got banned. the model poses with her legs spread and a perfume bottle strategically placed over her genitals. Sadly but obviously this perfume is aimed at men as 'sex sells'. making it an extremely obvious target for being banned. though to my surprise it wasnt. tom ford argued that the people that will be buying and reading magazines that feature the ad will be aware that its simply an image and that it was extremely artistic. 

In the end, to me it is very blatant why these ads could be banned if a child saw the advertisements. especially the way some of these ads show women. does banning it in fact spread it further?. which defeats the point. 

“The thing is, you can’t show male nudity in our culture in the way you can show female nudity. We’re very comfortable as a culture exploiting women, but not men” – Tom Ford

Palomo Spain are making wildly erotic, line-blurring fashion --------------------------

In 2015, Alejandro Gómez Palomo graduated from London College of Fashion and shortly after founded his label, Palomo Spain.

Palomo Spain creates beautiful clothing that is erotic and desirable. It is executed in a way that isn't predictable but is executed in a very playful dream like fantasy setting. This autumn winter collection was shot in the designers hometown. The backdrop is green fields. They wanted to make the images personal this is why the images were shot in the designers home town. He wanted to reflect four attitudes towards sex. He said the boys he images as 'dandles' looking for other boys. He said the second role belongs to the boys that are waiting to be picked up. Then he said the role of the 'pimp' comes along swell as the role of 'virginity' which represents the strongest desire you can have for something. almost untouchable. 

“I wanted to express sexual desire as something really pure and natural” – Alejandro Gómez Palomo

Palm said that he wanted to create a sense of sexual desire for the clothes, as well as through the boys that presented it. My intent was for the viewer to feel the same or similar desire for the pieces as when they feel sexually attracted to a person.

For me a big part of what drew me to this collection was how the images looked almost Alice in wonderland like. I like the whole fantasy part of the images. the idea of a bed being randomly placed in a green grassy field with dream like creatures (men). the men seem to act as gender free beings, dressed in androgynous clothing wearing makeup, creating an almost comical like approach. 

Met Gala 2017:

My Top Picks:

girlboss

A woman in control, taking charge of her own circumstances in work & life. Someone who knows her worth and won't accept anything less. She is not a "mean girl" in fact, she hates "mean girls." She is empowering and inspiring to those around her. She kicks ass!

The series opens with Sophia winging to a random old women on a bench  ''Adulthood is where dreams go to die,”. Setting the tone for the upcoming events in Girl boss. 

Girl boss is a series loosely based on the autobiography of sophia Amoruso the founder of Nasty Gal. 

The series begins with a 23 year old girl feeling lost within dead end jobs. She seeks to find a job where she can stay at home all day. Something i think we would all love to find. I know i would.  She purchases a jacket from a vintage store and sells it on for $500. This is the beginning of her new passion, taking her first leap to  'leaving adulthood'. 

In the series, sophia continuously whines about working for other people. She steals food out of bins even though we are introduced to her father who continuously offers to help her out financially. 

Being your own boss is something which has always been something i would love to do. I see a lot of myself in Sophia. Some of which perhaps aren't the most positive of qualities but ones which i could turn into successful qualities. By turning her everyday eBay shop into an industry worth $300 million is aspiring. 

Though what let the show down was the fact that the business has filed for bankruptcy  casting a dark shadow over the series. 

Gucci features all-black cast in latest campaign

Watch young designer Matty Bovan’s new film on girlhood

Celebrating Barbie’s birthday, the designer goes home to York to create GIRLNESS

http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/35085/1/watch-young-designer-matty-bovans-new-film-on-girlhood-for-barbie

Barbies 58th anniversary has just passed and there was no better way than to collaborate and showcase her birthday with designer Matty Bovan producing the film 'Girlness'. Barbie is known for the looks, different styles as well as having an array of jobs. In my opinion the video isn't what you would expect their collaboration to look like. Rather than being full of fakeness, cliche models and sexualisation, it takes a different approach and seems surprisingly natural. it showcases how girls are in 2017 rather than the stereotypical 'barbie' figure. 

Bovan said in an interview that Barbie was a huge influence for him growing up. He said he saw Barbie as a blank canvas that he used to make his first designs. 

The models consist of social media girls rather than the thin 'perfectly' proportioned girl we associate barbie to be. this is something i really admire in this short film. The unpredictability. Bovan said that he wanted to cast people with a real sense of who they are, showcasing modern characters. 

the models were dresses in pieces from his ss17 collection which were consciously un gendered. he wanted to push the boundaries of what defines femininity. ' She can be transformed into anything your imagination wants'. 

An erotically charged series of male and female nudes

"I wanted to catch a moment beyond those feelings and prejudices" – Sarai Mari

The interview with the photographer : 

Sarai Mari: I grew up on a small mountain which is a world heritage UNESCO site in Japan and every society there has codes of conduct for how people should behave. Traditionally women are supposed to be shy and quietly mannered, and people are scared of being isolated or left behind. They conformed to fit in and I tried to push against it. I was loud, behaved like a free-woman and drove a big motor-cycle when I was teenager, with bleach blonde hair – a bit crazy for my village people.

I moved out of my tiny village when I was 18-years-old and went to the second largest metropolitan city in Japan – Osaka – then I went to Los Angeles to study photography. I had to get out of the small society quickly to see the world and find people who had the same free-spirit as myself. I wanted to prove what I could do and do something different. This reflects my work deeply, I see people inside and out. There is so much background information I can get when I shoot the model, but I am dedicated to the moment I see before me and to photographing a unique side. 

How does your book "celebrate all definitions of gender and sexuality"?

Sarai Mari: Now is an easier world for gender. I wanted to express models’ personas in my book. There is nothing to divide men and women and LGBT people – this book is genderless and timeless.

As a society we are obsessed with defining, giving labels and gendering roles, objects and even colours – what is it about our culture that causes this need to categorise everything?

Sarai Mari: Everyone has too much prejudice over others. There are too many hate crimes. In the news I see the 'threat' immigrants pose to countries now, and it is clear we are still holding onto racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and more. I wanted to catch a moment beyond those feelings and prejudices.

The women you shoot often look powerful and defiant, do you feel an obligation to empower women in your photographs?

Sarai Mari: Yes very much so, but powerful women have a dark side also – I like the contrast. They can be fragile and sensitive. I like all strong women who push their lack of freedom to make them even stronger.

You talk about how "in our radically changing and highly judgmental society, people are often scared of being isolated or left behind." Are we using certain social media platforms as a mask?

Sarai Mari: Yes exactly. It’s a convenient way to let all the world know how fabulous you are, but there are too many layers of mask hiding the truth of yourself. Everyone knows that we are all faking it everyday, little by little, but one day it will become the truth and there will be no going back.

An erotically charged series of male and female nudes

"I wanted to catch a moment beyond those feelings and prejudices" – Sarai Mari

Blood Orange performs at Kenzo’s Paris Fashion Week show

‘discovery of an arctic surfing subculture’

I have always loved the collections kenzo comes out with. In his AW17 collection, the looks were inspired by the “discovery of an arctic surfing subculture”, they were made to look as if you were about to brave a harsh environment. The models walked alongside soothing music that was played to accompany the eclectic mix of clothing. The collection was filled with geometric shapes and patterns as well as a large focus being on the bags which consisted of coloured furs and Kenzo in large letters. The collection to me took an almost futuristic stylised approach, with puffa jackets and see through awkwardly shaped glasses. The collection featured a lot of layering, mixing and juxtaposing patterns were evident. The makeup took quite a simplistic approach, featuring perhaps only a simple swipe of colour on the eyelids adding to the idea of it being quite futuristic and out of the box. As the show went on, more and more patterns appeared in large quantities, wrapped round the models. The fabric taking an almost curtain like feel due to the thick heavily patterned look it had to it. 

THE END OF AMERICAN APPAREL 

American Apparels aim was to create clothes that didn't harm or exploit those who made them. 

At the end of last week, after a highly-publicised bankruptcy, the news came that American Apparel had been sold to Gildan which is a Canadian company who most likely produced many of the garments coming from some of your favourite band logos or streetwear graphics are printed on. This means that all 110 US American Apparel stores will close. The factory will also close which has 3500 employed meaning that they will now lose their jobs. 

i have always admired American Apparel for its values and the clothes produced by the brand, Though it was always out of my price range. The brand was definitely symbolic of a wider issue. They wanted you to spend more on clothes made fairly with fair paid workers (sweatshop free) that spend less on underpaid worker in terrible conditions. It was one of the main clothing manufactorers in North America with the highest paid workers.  

Sadly, the high amount of competitors whom aren't sweatshop free and sell clothes at a much lower price came out better.

LOUIS VUITTON X SUPREME 

    

There has been an immense hype around the thought of the collaboration between the luxury designer Louis Vuitton and the street New York skate label. All of the collection has been released, from looking through the collection, what i have seen so far it looks like it may become one of the biggest fashion partnerships in history.

The collection entails elements of denim, sports bags, scarves, and shoes which all seem to be covered with supremes iconic logo, paired with the classic elements of louis Vuitton. When first looking through this collection i was immediately drawn to the scarfs, still looking like the luxury brands designs, though featuring block lettering adding an element of street style to the luxury brands iconic designs.  

In 2000, the closest that Supreme got to an official collaboration with Louis Vuitton was a cease & desist letter for its Louis Vuitton inspired logo T-shirts, beanies, and skate decks. This has heightened the surprise and hype around the collaboration. They even featured the garments that Supreme allegedly copied from louis Vuitton back in 2000 which i know will heighten the surprise a lot of people have about the collaboration. 

I am loving this collaboration. Supreme being that of a skater brand catered to a younger consumer and louis Vuitton being tough to afford for most of us, the fact they collaborated emphasises the idea that streetwear is evidently a huge component in the fashion industry that even inspire other designers. Supreme have a huge audience of younger consumers giving louis Vuitton a wider range of consumers. The collaboration has produced a huge following and given us a collection bigger than any other before. 

TRUMP- POWERFUL NUDE PHOTOSHOOT 

18-year-old college student named Aria Watson. Her new photo series, titled #SignedByTrump, is a very powerful Trump-themed art piece. The series highlights the Republican’s offensive comments and flagrant misogyny. The series shows unretouched close-ups of naked female bodies, with some of his most controversial offensive quotes written across their bodies. 

“All I wanted from these photos was to help people realise who Donald Trump really is, and I just want to feel heard,” explained Watson. “I know most people are set on their opinions about Trump, but I just hope one person sees #SignedByTrump and it opens their eyes.”

She is currently a student, she shot the photos as a final project in her photography class. She first posted the series to her Tumblr page, which made them go viral. 

“The election was going on at the time, and I felt very strongly about the candidates and their views, so I decided to mix my political opinions with my photography,” she said. “I knew I had to create something different.”

Watson photographed herself for the portraits, as well as four of her close friends – though the series has since been criticised for not being more diverse. At the time trump was not elected yet and she hoped to have an impact on the upcoming results with her powerful imagery which were sure to reach people world wide. 

Prada’s AW17 menswear show 

Exploring Dazed website researching my post retro trend, I came across Prada's aw17 menswear show. Whilst reading through the post it became evident that there was a 70's resonance to the collection with the corduroy, leather, berets, biker hats and off-kilter knits, the collection has a distinct air of the 1970s – something that the designer didn’t intentionally plan, but she admitted that she knew of the importance of the decade in terms of social progress. “I didn’t want to (reference the 70s) but it came out naturally – it was a very important period for protests, rights. Now protests are very necessary.” 

I was given the task to produce a shopping trolly combined with post retro. As I was researching into bags and the current trends i felt in Prada's collection there was a large focus on the mens bags which where made from leather and were in more of a briefcase style. i felt like this was a big reflection of the whole 80's male office worker though in more of a polished style. i felt like there was a huge gap in the market when it came to mens shopping bags so I wanted to make sure i did enough research into them to see what designers were coming out with in this years mens fashion week. 

Some of the clothing items have almost cowboy like assets about them. perhaps the charms and jewellery paired with the bright shirts with fur or bright jackets. This emphasised the whole retro 70's theme. 

OBSESSED WITH FUR....

In 2016 we were definitely subjected to more and more furry items, whether it be on the designer end or the high street. If it's a fur coat, bag or even just a keyring, there was always a faux fur item seen in most stores. What started my love for fur was probably the whole fur pom pom keyring, started by Kylie Jenner whom was seen with the Fenti fur keyring. I always think of fur having quite luxurious connotations, reminding me of beautiful film stars in the 50's. I started to develop a love for the pastel coloured coats which i was seeing on Pinterest and Instagram on stars like kendall Jenner or Bella Hadid. 

I always associate designers with producing beautiful fur items such as Saint Laurent, as well as Fenti who's key rings I have been lusting after. 

My trend i was given for my current uni project was post retro. I think the fact that i had to start researching into past trends that were now in style again, started my love for fur coats. Due to me having to do this it forced me to research into the history of the coats and when they were popular and who wore them.