"In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different." —Coco Chanel
Hi, so I thought for this post I would talk a little bit more about what kind of magazines and books I am into! As you can see, I started my post with a quote from possibly one of the most iconic fashion designers of all time, Coco Chanel. Although this quote can be interpreted in different ways in terms of fashion, I have used this quote to talk about one of my favourite independent magazines for fashion, culture, photography and music- Dazed and Confused. I chose this quote because I truly feel Dazed and Confused offers something so much different to other top fashion magazines on the market, such as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar or even Love Magazine which visually, has similarities to Dazed, but lacks in content.
Dazed channels both Britart and Britpop in today's society to revamp the vision of Youth Culture, whilst also looking at certain trends which do not necessarily signify high fashion, but show a more quirky, eccentric and out of the ordinary respond to today's attire and fashion culture. However, I am not saying that Dazed should not include news on designer fashion because what magazine would not discuss topics such as 'what models are reaching super status', 'who is being employed as Balengiaca's new creative director', 'fashion week's ready to wear' or the lead up to the Haute Couture's runway debut. Fashion would not be fashion without these elements.
Anyway, back to my discussion of the qualities of Dazed and Confused. Although I intend to discuss the Autumn/Winter 2015 issue and Dazed's identity as a magazine later in this post, reflecting back to the September issue, I particularly admired a certain shoot Dazed did called "The New Aesthetic". You will learn, as I go into more detail, that it perfectly agrees with the words of the writer of the magazine, Jefferson Heck, who claimed "the magazine is not a conspiracy to force opinion into the subconscious of stylish young people."
The fashion shoot saw photographer Roe Ethridge ironically photograph naturally beautiful models of today, but instead of showing off their generic beauty, he pictured and characterized the girls, with the help of makeup artist Yadim, as females who were likely to be described as odd, unusual or labelled ugly. Suggestively, he did this in attempt to reform the outlook society has on beauty and the egotistical judgements people make.
What I really liked about the piece was that in the attached article to the photo shoot, the writer, Janelle Okwodu, purposely included Montero's captivating statement that for him "beauty is being you. It's the way you carry yourself and how you treat others." Communicating to those who lack self-esteem, that it is in fact in trend to be yourself and different from the crowd.
Here is a look at some of the photographs I picked out from the shoot that I felt carried the theme of 'The New Aesthetic'.
Amilna Estevão wears roll neck dress Salvatore Ferragamo, nose ring Acne Studios
Molly Bair wears bomber jacket 3.1 Phillip Lim, t-shirt American Apparel
Willow Hand wears devore dress Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci, earrings Tada & Toy
Kadri Vahersalu wears dress Dior
I feel as an observer and reader of the magazine, Dazed writers carry this certain theme across each edition. Therefore, I will now come to the piece in this post where I would like to share with you, a couple of things which stood out for me throughout the Autumn/Winter 2015 issue.
Relating back to the theme of Youth Culture, I particularly liked an article by Claire Marie Healy called 'Teenagers in their Bedrooms'. The magazine has used photographs of past generations to resurrect the idea of a bedroom culture (studied by Angela McRobbie) among teenagers and how they pave their identities through interior and style. Also, promoting previous trends from the 80's (a time where online identities and social mediums were no such thing) to influence current readers of today. Arguably, the article represents a certain era but also adds to this ideological cycle of repetitive fashion within the industry, preventing new trends from being born.
Dazed and Confused Autumn/Winter 2015 cover featuring 'Pearl'
Some images from the article-
A few other things I liked about the Autumn/winter issue were the interviews with out of the ordinary icons such as Pearl Liaison (star of Ru Paul's Drag Race), Mia Goth, Arvida Bystrom and Grimes to deliberately promote all different kinds of fashions, whether they be controversial, retro, grunge or even explicit in cases. Therefore, the magazine takes risks and turns them into something weirdly wonderful, bypassing anything which would normally be categorized as a fault.
I also wanted to take the time to sum up what I really thought Dazed magazines objectives were:
Meaning of Dazed and Confused: Maybe the meaning of this magazine is all in the title- DAZED AND CONFUSED. Teenagers in the 21st century want to experiment and try new things causing them to be confused with what society's conformities are. However, this is not something which previous generations have not experienced to. Dazed, in my eyes, revamps the past but still maintains that daring element that fellow contemporaries would condemn. Therefore, I feel Dazed magazine analyses Youth Culture whilst sending out a message to youngsters that it is okay to be different as seen in the photo shoot I particularly picked out from the September Issue.
In my opinion, the magazine is at the height of alternatively, acting as a catalyst for controversy and edgy, unique yet fresh fashions.
In later posts, I plan to also discuss what I found interesting about AnOther Magazine's Autumn/Winter 2015 issue (which was also made by the creators of Dazed) and a new book I purchased this week called '100 Ideas that changed Street Style' linking in with the more edgy and unique look at fashion.
Thank you for reading,
Kate x
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