'revolution'

du juan & co. by quentin shih for vogue china april '10

desperately trying to write this in to my dissertation.

RE-ORIENTING FASHION

concerning the emergence of Hong Kong as a fashion center and relating it to the consumption of Japanese fashion design in western fashion writing:

"...there was general agreement (amongst local designers) that the way to realize ambitions in international fashion was to "do something Chinese."

"...use "a Japanese globalization experience"...to highlight the interactive nature of the phenomenon...the point in the 1980's when high fashion became multicultural in an ambivalent process in which Western supremacy was spectacularly undermined, and yet subtly reinscribed."

"Japanese fashion designers themselves object to the demand for exoticization.  They speak against the dramatization of cultural difference and for a notion of a culture less pure."

(Skov 2003)

Europe's experience with non-western design was always processed within an orientalist framework.  similar to what was previously posted here.  now that global economics are changing, fashion markets are shifting and representations (both verbal and visual) are in revision, though still always infused with potent architectures of power.

PRADA "FIRST SPRING" vs. CHANEL PARIS-SHANGHAI "A FANTASY"

brilliant fashion film in my opinion.  though i might just be saying that because i'm still reeling from the disaster that is Chanel Paris-Shanghai.  china is portrayed as both very traditional but also very modern and a surreal place of any possibilities.  the 'foreign travelers' are just as exoticised as their environment, and chinese models/actors are used to play chinese people.  well of course that would be the case anyway, but not for Karl's film where european models are clearly in yellowface.  yes why don't we get the video up:

this is only the second part (the rest can be viewed on the youtube user's channel or in full on www.chanel-paris-shanghai.com).  1.25 - 1.32 is just pure orientalism.  2.40 - 2.45 = LOL.


the same inspiration in both cases but one is internally generated, the other externally.  different executions and the results speak for themselves.

THEODORE DE BRY :: PEREGRINATION IN AMERICAM

an idea of america presented to the european colonial powers in 1597 :: crucial in shaping european views of the new world - it's primitivism, barbarism, savagery, and most importantly it's inferiority, to justify their subjugation and 'civilizing' of the natives.

no actual practices of cannibalism exist(ed) amongst the native peoples of america

CHANEL PARIS SHANGHAI

beautiful collection, amazingly made - you only need to watch the other 10 videos to see how much hard work went into each garment, but there's something more interesting going on here

chinoiserie is being sold back to China.

EVENING STANDARD 17/11/09

came across this article in the Evening Standard last night (hooray for free newspapers). some useful highlights:

"..in economic terms China is probably the most important phenomenon of not only our but also our children's generation."

"China's GDP has increased by about $3 trillion in just seven years. By the end of next year...it will have comfortably overtaken Japan to be the world's second-largest economy."

"...the credit crunch, forcing the beginning of a new, more sensible US consumer, has obliged China to deal with the consequences of reduced exports. In its place there is a new phenomenon: welcome to the age of the Chinese consumer."

i like this idea of the chinese consumer. obviously Condé Nast will have timed GQ China's launch perfectly, considering the emergence of what market researchers refer to as the 'Little Emperors' - large numbers of young, affluent male consumers...a result from the country's birth control policies in the 70's (an interesting subject in itself actually).

times they are a-changing.

THE BEAT OF 1980'S

Andreas Sjodin & Kris Van Assche for inaugural GQ China :: shaping up to be quite the international publication! hopefully this will be consistent

source :: gq.com.cn and 很大很大 at TFS

FIRST ISSUE :: GQ CHINA

lauched last month :: Condé Nast's fourth publication in China...much more promising than the inaugural Vogue China in my opinion in terms of Chinese identity - the cover features several leading Chinese figureheads (ie. Zhang Yimou, Andy Lau etc)

the main fashion story features up-and-coming chinese male model Daniel Liu (currently all over Uniqlo) and although it's promoting that whole new york high fashion consumer lifestyle it's given a slightly less eurocentric bias given the context with the cover. the 'chinese-ness' becomes primary in that setting while it would be interpreted much differently i think if they had put Richard Branson/Donald Trump/Alan Sugar/Brad Pitt etc on the cover...