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Nguyen 1 Cecelia Nguyen Dr. Erin Dietel-McLaughlin Multimedia Writing and Rhetoric 28 March 2013 Reflection Clothing.

Old clothing, new clothing, modest clothing. Whatever the type of clothing, there is always a market for it. The market for todays womens clothing however does not always use new styles. The designers and fashion stores, such as Forever 21, that are geared towards a younger generation borrow styles from the past. They do not simply borrow the styles but simultaneously make the length of skirts and shirts shorter. The era of the crop top, originating from the 80s, has now made its way around to the 21st century. Sometimes while shopping, it is hard to say whether one will pick up a whole shirt or a half shirt. If one picks up a half shirt and then looks at the price, it is like paying for half the fabric for a full portion of the cost. Not only has the crop top become fashionable again, but it has evolved into a shorter version called the bandeau. There are a variety of styles for the bandeau, however the concept is the same: cover the boobs; the rest is optional. Some look like strapless bathing suit tops, while others look like skimpy, half tank tops. It would be possible to wear something under the crop shirt or wear bandeaus underneath other shirts, however the advertisements show women wearing them each alone. The fashion over the years has certainly gotten racier. All sorts of media show programs and advertisements with half dressed people that send messages with sexual innuendos. Through our media and trends, it is sending the message that is okay for people to walk around half naked because it is in style. The central claim to my satire is the claim that todays fashions are reaching a point of ridiculousness. Shirts are getting shorter and shorter until they are pretty much just bras. Dresses

Nguyen 2 have cutouts, and the rest covers only the essentials. Even shorts are reaching the point of becoming underwear. People walk around half naked because it is in style rather than respectable or practical. The fashions are in style because they are endorsed by big name brands. Even if these fashions come from past eras with respectable clothing, the fashion industry will design it to show more skin in an attempt to modernize it. Fashion savvy consumers still buy all of these clothing pieces. They could see it in an advertisement or in the store and then buy into the idea, even if the clothing looks ridiculous or skimpy. They are not only buying an immodest appearance, but they are also buying into and supporting consumerism. My central claim is demonstrated though my magazine article. The article interviews and gives information on an American turned French designers new lines of clothing: Before the Fall and After the Fall. The designers name is Cecl de Le Nu, which is a derivative of my name. His last name means of the nude in French. The designer gets his inspiration from regular street fashion that borrows ideas from previous eras which then makes them shorter. He borrowed from an era in which they wore no clothes: the time of Adam and Eve before the first sin. Adam and Eve did not realize being naked was a big deal. The line is called Before the Fall. He then designed a fall line to accommodate for the cold weather that is called After the Fall. After the fall of Adam and Eve, they realized being naked was a bad thing and fashioned clothes out of leaves. The clothing line, because it borrows from a time so far back and is a little racy, becomes a huge success, available in mens, womens, and even children and babies. The price, however, for the very racy and incredibly comfortable clothing is very expensive even though consumers do not really buy tangible clothing to put on. People are simply paying for the fashion and brand. I also chose to pick an American-turned-French designer because of the fashionable air being French would give the line and the designer.

Nguyen 3 There were other types of medium that would have been able to display this new type of fashion efficiently, however a fashion article would be more appropriate because that is where people get high fashion trends from. People read VOGUE or ELLE to see how the rich and the famous do it. They are the trendsetters, and if people see it in a high-end fashion magazine, they will be more willing to try the fashion out. A runway video with a commentary would have been funny, however, I was running short on my list of people who would be willing to model the new line of clothing for the video. Through the magazine articles, the audience would be able to not only look at pictures of the new line, but also learn about the context it would was designed in and the author. My purpose would be to poke fun at the fashionistas and designers who condone racy everyday clothing. However, because they wear and approve of these types of clothing, they may feel alienated or indignant reading such a satire. They might also feel like I am too conservative for their taste and that my satire is out of place in a society like ours. However, it is undeniable that our fashion has gotten progressively showier ever since the 1900s. My primary audience for this critique would be those that are fashion savvy or have noticed the recent trends of fashion or the lack of cloth in clothing. Overall, the process of doing this multimedia satire project was quite fun. I had another idea of critiquing teenage fickleness in social activism through social media sites, however I had trouble finding a funny, yet serious way of doing so. This idea suddenly hit me out of nowhere (it seems like the best ones do), so I started to develop it more. Some of my inspiration comes from my shopping experiences. Whenever I go shopping and pick up a shirt, sometimes I am extremely confused and saddened such a pretty shirt would only have half the fabric. On top of picking up only half a shirt, it would be the same relative price for a whole shirt. Thus it

Nguyen 4 contributed to with what I think is a delicately humorous satire piece critiquing recent trends and the consumerism that condones peoples cloth-deficient outfits. I liked the idea of a magazine article very much because it lent the piece with more authority than whatever fashion runway video I could have put together. I emulated an ELLE article I found online and liked the clean, polished look of it. As I said before, having a print-based medium would take away the mess-ups with private body part slips, as well as legal issues that might arise with having naked models parade through my hallway during the video shoot. If by any chance our society rejects the idea of clothing in the next 50 years, at least I can have documentation that I came up with the clothing line first.

Nguyen 5 Works Cited (Includes works that inspired the making of this satire.) Adam and Eve. 2011 Sept 13. Brockit Inc: Professional Photography. http://www.brockit.com/blog/archives/1821/comment-page-1. Web. Drake, Celeste. Baby Anna. 2009. SHOT by Celeste. http://shotbyceleste.blogspot.com/2009/07/babie-anna.html. Web. The Girl Who Gets Rushed to the Emergency Room. Americas Next Top Model. CW. Paris. 3 June. 2003. Television. Marc Jacobs. 2013. ELLE. http://www.elle.com/fashion/designers/marc-jacobs. Web. Pamplona, Fabio. Bernardo Velasco. 2013. FaceBook. https://www.facebook.com/BernardoVelascoOficial/photos_stream. Web.

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