UCA Rochester Academic Year 2012/13 BA Photography Contemporary Practice The Commission Ulrich Lehmann Fashion In The Context

of Waste

Ulrich Lehmann Fashion In The Context of Waste Proposed structure for the presentation: - Introduction: Images of Waste - Sustainable Concepts: Fashion Cycles Slow Fashion Recycling Repair Upcycling - Components of fashion photography - Conclusion

Ulrich Lehmann Fashion In The Context of Waste Introduction: Images of Waste

Free image from http://conservationreport.com/2010/11/, illustrating L.A. Countys ban on plastic bags

Sylvie Fleury, Shopping Bags, 1992

Jrgen Teller, advertising campaign for Marc Jacobs, 2008

Hanna Liden, Untitled (Deli Bag Self Portrait), 2010

Erwin Wurm, One-minute-sculpture (for Self Service), 1999

Ulrich Lehmann Fashion & the Notion of Waste Sustainable Concepts: Fashion Cycles Slow Fashion Recycling Repair Upcycling

Those Expences that most Promote Trade, are in Cloaths and Lodging: In Adorning the Body and the House, There are a Thousand Traders Imploy'd in providing Food. Belonging to Cloaths, is Fashion; which is the shape or Form of Apparel. In some places, it is fixt and certain; as all over Asia, and in Spain; but in France, England, and other places, the Dress alters; Fashion or the alteration of Dress, is a great Promoter of Trade, because it occasions the Expence of Cloaths, before the Old ones are worn out: It is the Spirit and Life of Trade; It makes a Circulation, and gives a Value by Turns, to all sorts of Commodities; keeps the great Body of Trade in Motion; it is an Invention to Dress a Man, as if he lived in a perpetual Spring; he never sees the Autum of his Cloaths: [...] The Promoting of New Fashions, ought to be Encouraged, because it provides a Livelihood for a great Part of Mankind. Nicolas Barbon, Discourse on Trade, London: Milbourn, 1690, [p.15]

Fashion Cycles

The uncertainty of fashions does increase necessitous poor. It has two great mischiefs in it. 1st, The journeymen are miserable in winter for want of work, the mercers and master-weavers not daring to lay out their stocks to keep the journeymen employed before the spring comes, and they know what the fashion will then be; 2ndly, In the spring the journeymen are not sufficient, but the master-weavers must draw in many prentices, that they may supply the trade of the kingdom in a quarter or half a year, which robs the plough of hands, drains the country of labourers, and in a great part stocks the city with beggars, and starves some in winter that are ashamed to beg. John Bellers, Essays About the Poor, Manufactures, Trade, Plantations & Immorality, London: Sowle, 1699, p.9

Fashion Cycles

In the same way as technical impediments, so, too, those usages which have grown with the growth of trade were and still are proclaimed by interested capitalists as obstacles due to the nature of the work. This was a favourite cry of the cotton lords at the time they were first threatened with the Factory Acts. Although their industry more than any other depends on navigation, yet experience has given them the lie. Since then, every pretended obstruction to business has been treated by the Factory inspectors as a mere sham. The thoroughly conscientious investigations of the Childrens Employment Commission prove that the effect of the regulation of the hours of work, in some industries, was to spread the mass of labour previously employed more evenly over the whole year that this regulation was the first rational bridle on the murderous, meaningless caprices of fashion, caprices that consort so badly with the system of modern industry; that the development of ocean navigation and of the means of communication generally, has swept away the technical basis on which season-work was really supported, and that all other so-called unconquerable difficulties vanish before larger buildings, additional machinery, increase in the number of workpeople employed, and the alterations caused by all these in the mode of conducting the wholesale trade. But for all that, capital never becomes reconciled to such changes and this is admitted over and over again by its own representatives except under the pressure of a General Act of Parliament for the compulsory regulation of the hours of labour. Karl Marx, The Capital, vol.1 [1867],in: Karl Marx/Friedrich Engels, Collected Works, vol.35, London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1996, pp.450-51

Fashion Cycles

When design is tied to sales rather than to product function, as it is increasingly, and when marketing strategy is based on frequent style changes, there are certain almost inevitable results:16a tendency to the use of inferior materials; short cuts in the time necessary for sound product development; and a neglect of quality and adequate inspection. The effect of such built-in obsolescence is a disguised price increase to the consumer in the form of shorter product life, and often, heavier repair bills. Dexter W. Masters [head of Americas Consumers Union], quoted in: Vance Packard, The Waste Makers, London: Penguin, 1960, p.127.

Fashion Cycles

-> implications for the representation of fashion and fashionable commodities: is a different value system implied?!

The term Slow Fashion was adopted first from the Slow Food Movement in 2007 by the Centre for Sustainable Fashion in the UK. In its definition it contains alternatives to seasonal trends and support for a sustainable fashion movement. Aspects like local production (defined distribution networks), strengthening craft to ensure longevity and deliberate acts of making, communal consumption, etc. were adopted from Slow Food to the contemporary clothing industry. The Slow Fashion/Clothing Movement was intended to reject all mass-produced clothing, initially accepting only clothes that are made by hand, but more recently has broadened to include many interpretations and is practiced in various ways. Some examples of slow fashion practices include: - opposing or boycotting mass-produced fashion; - choosing artisanal products to support smaller businesses, fair trade and clothes made locally; - acquiring second-hand or vintage clothing and donating unwanted garments; - choosing clothing made with sustainable, ethically-made or recycled fabrics; - buying quality garments that will last longer, transcend trends and are repairable; - championing DIY-clothing: making, mending, customizing, altering, and up-cycling your own clothing; - slowing the rate of fashion consumption: buying fewer clothes less often.

Slow Fashion

-> as slow fashion purports to refute the commercial structure of the fashion system, does it simultaneously ignore its signifiers of gender, class, age, etc.? -> as a consumer-led movement that intends to change the status of clothing as commodities it can offer which alternative(s) and apply what type of pressure to producers? -> even when clothes are regarded first as functional objects they still denote appearances; how is this reflected in their representation (is there e.g. slow fashion photography)? -> aesthetics/concepts (green, eco, ethical, etc.) can be adapted to suit current trends in fashion; the movement itself is consumed into fashion cycles?!

Slow Fashion

Hans Peter Feldmann, All Clothes of a Woman [series of 72 b/w photos], 1974

Recycling

Bless no.04: bags (28/03/1998) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyyzKM5MDTk&feature=related

Recycling

Bless no.10: scarf (28/03/2000)

http://www.junkystyling.co.uk/about/history/

Upcycling

Repairing started with the idea that repair is underestimated as a creative, cultural and economic force. If we dont consider repair a contemporary activity we will loose an incredibly rich body of knowledge one that contributes to human independence and pleasure. The situation is especially puzzling when you consider current global interest in other ideas related to sustainability, such as recycling and the cradle-to-cradle philosophy. Through repairing we raise awareness of a mentality, a culture and a practice that not so long ago was completely integrated into life and the way we designed it. Quote adopted from: http://www.platform21.nl/page/4315/en

Repair

Repair

Some implications for photography: - considering waste (materials, energy, logistics, etc.) - sustainable distribution networks -> immateriality of the image production - complicity with industry (editorial work, advertising, reuse, intellectual copyright, etc.) - recycling (adopting/copying existing images, discarded materials, etc.) - appropriation as non-material approach (refutation of constantly renewed originality) - using contemporary representation to update existing commodities - repairing attitudes to consumption through representation

Richard Prince, Untitled (Fashion Helmet), 1982, Chromogenic print, 59.5 x 40.7 cm, The Art Institute of Chicago

Todd Hiro (photo)/Pijo Visser (styling), Call, Chase, Follow, editorial for S Magazine, No.13, Fall/Winter 2011

Maya Villiger (photo, collage)/Sasha Kelly(styling), Cut and Paste, editorial for Oyster, No.97, February/March 2012, pp.48/49

Charlie Engman, photo for Odyssey editorial for Oyster, No.97, February/March 2012, pp.142/43

Some components of fashion photography: - contemporariness - notions of beauty vs. fashionability (eternal vs. ephemeral) - specialist context for dissemination and publication - production as co-operation with buyers, editors, designers, stylists, make-up artists, etc. - articulation of the commodity - objectification (fetishization) of the body - canonised language of gestures/expressions to parallel meaning of clothes - narrative of the (fashion) editorial vs. abstraction of motifs/ signifiers - relation to text (caption, logo, brand, etc.)

Some components of fashion photography: - contemporariness

Ezra Petroonio/Joan Braun/Yara de Nicola/Morgan ODonovan, The Obsessions, spreads for self service, No.35, Fall/Winter 2011, pp.62/63

Roxanne Lowit (portraits)/Olivier Zahm (photos), purple night spreads for purple fashion, vol.III, no.17 (SS 2012)

Some components of fashion photography: - notions of beauty vs. fashionability (eternal vs. ephemeral)

Venetia Scott (photo & styling), untitled editorial for self service, No.35, Fall/Winter 2011

Some components of fashion photography: - specialist context for dissemination and publication

Nathaniel Goldberg (photo)/Naomi Ikes (styling), editorial for purple fashion, vol.III, no.17 (SS 2012)

Some components of fashion photography: - production as co-operation with buyers, editors, designers, stylists, make-up artists, etc.

Sybille Walter (photo)/Mauricio Nardi (styling), editorial for novembre, No.4, Fall/Winter 2011, pp.38/39

Some components of fashion photography: - articulation of the commodity

Florian Joye & Florence Ttier (photo)/Clemence Cahu (styling), editorial for novembre, No.4, Fall/Winter 2011, pp.36/37

Some components of fashion photography: - objectification (fetishization) of the body

Olivier Zahm (photo)/Yasmin Elami (styling), editorial for purple fashion, vol.III, no.17 (SS 2012)

Some components of fashion photography: - canonised language of gestures/expressions to parallel meaning of clothes

Steven Meisel, Louis Vuitton advertising campaign, Spring/Summer 2012, spread from purple fashion, vol.III, no.17 (SS 2012)

Some components of fashion photography: - narrative of the (fashion) editorial vs. abstraction of motifs/ signifiers

Max Snow (photo)/Vanessa Train (styling), editorial for purple fashion, vol.III, no.17 (SS 2012)

Some components of fashion photography: - relation to text (caption, logo, brand, etc.)

Terry Richardson (photo)/Carine Roitfeld (styling), editorial for purple fashion, vol.III, no.17 (SS 2012)

Jrgen Teller, Cline advertising campaign, Spring/Summer 2012, spread from purple fashion, vol.III, no.17 (SS 2012)

Conclusion - considering waste (materials, energy, logistics, etc.) - sustainable distribution networks -> immateriality of the image production - relation to industry (editorial work, advertising, reuse, intellectual copyright, etc.) - recycling (adopting/copying existing images, discarded materials, etc.) - appropriation as non-material approach (refutation of constantly renewed originality) - using contemporary representation to update existing commodities - repairing attitudes to consumption through representation

Thank You

Jason Nocito, photo for Odyssey editorial for Oyster, No.97, February/March 2012, pp.145