Playing Dress-Up: Why Fashion Continues to be an Integral Part of Society and Life

In this industry, there are two types of people in the world: those who love fashion and those who don’t. We used to be lucky because we could spot the neglectful ones a mile away with their track pants and wolf shirts… but the recent influx of indie kids buying up the damn wolf shirts from the thrift stores has blurred the lines some. Fashion is in a constant state of change, growth and development, and inevitably there are those who get left behind. This is not a post for those people. This post is going to talk about why we love fashion so much, what it means in present day society and what makes us dress up every day and night before hitting the streets. It’s a fashion invasion!

Every body is a canvas when you love fashion. What dress, what hair, what accessories, what makeup to wear to finish the picture. Stylists spend their lives dressing other people according to the latest trends and to the image the wearer is trying to project with their clothing. The challenge for the stylist is not only making the individual look good, but adhering to a certain style, background and taste, all the while being dynamic and original with each choice made. Thus, when working in fashion, one must have the ability to understand the looks, key details and intended audience of every item of clothing they look at in an instant. A mistake by a stylist could cost them their jobs, in the case of celebrity styling and magazine work. In every day life, a fashion faux pas can often be forgotten in a few days, if the wearer follows it up with several other successful looks to make up for it. *sigh* I’m a slave.

It’s true though. We (still referring to those of us who live in this crazy fashion conscious world of joy) choose our outfits every day with the intention of creating a masterpiece. Every piece of jewelry is carefully selected, some items are tried on more than once and the pile of rejects continues to grow. And why do we do it? Because we know that whether some people like to admit it or not, clothing can define you. The outfit a person chooses to wear to an event will be what they are wearing when they are introduced to new people, when they are photographed and when they are remembered later. Shouldn’t they want that outfit to be just perfect? Of course they should.

The rules aren’t as strict as they used to be. Over the decades and indeed, centuries, fashion has gone through an incredible transformation, developing from one or two popular styles to the many completely different clothing choices at the consumer’s fingertips. Of course, as fashion has its impact on life, life also has a profound impact on fashion. As modesty restrictions based on gender began to disappear, fashion was refreshed, offering a whole world of new choices for women to wear.

With the current state of fashion and art as a whole in our society, we have to admit that the majority is based on nostalgia for original ideas that happened decades ago. I’m obviously referring to the fact that there is no real way to distinguish the 21^st century as far as one particular style because the style is retro. In this age you can dress in a mini skirt and gogo boots, or in a layered fringe shift dress with fishnets and a garter. Fashion has become less about following a specific convention and more about finding something to fit your individual character. This is why I think fashion is the most liberating and inclusive art form there is, despite popular opinion. Everyone is encouraged to participate and the dialogue is consistently relevant and progressive.

Fashion is great!!

When you’re choosing your outfit for Christmas and New Years parties this year, check out http://peteythetrollapparel.com and contact me, vanessapetey@gmail.com, for ridiculously good deals on clothing and accessories!!

Thanks guys! Until next!

Though it is difficult to say anything about the death of John Lennon that hasn't already been said, I'd like to talk a little bit about the impact he and his music had on me and my family in honour of the 30th anniversary of his untimely death.
My mother has had an enormous effect on my life in both positive and negative ways. She's an old-fashioned Christian woman in some senses and a very contemporary, even ground breaking feminist in others. She and my father raised my sister and I in an environment where the only religion we knew was rock and roll, and the gods were the ones behind the music. My mom had a collection of old newspaper clippings and magazines that she kept in a folder among the photo albums in her room when I was growing up. The clippings and articles she kept were all original from the weeks following December 8, 1980 - the day John Lennon was assassinated. I'd read every little scrap and she would talk about the time when she acquired these bits of memorabilia from a dark time in the history of music.
I've always felt like the Beatles were the most comforting and the most powerfully positive music available. I've always listened to them when times were at their worst and they've made me feel better. I never knew a time when all of the Beatles were alive, but I can understand the phenomenon and allow myself to become engulfed in it. My mother felt the same way. She always said that the day Lennon died, the world began to cry. And every year for thirty years people across the globe continue to cry for this man.
So as we enter a new decade under the shadow of war and possible mass destruction, think about the message that people like Lennon lived for. Be kind to others, help those in need and live in peace and harmony with all people.

I sound like a Dickens novel.
Goodnight!

Who Cares What Vanessa Petey Thinks: Talbot Runhof 2011 Collection

For this series, I’ve chosen some of the top designers in the industry to review as my favorites from the Spring 2011 Fashion Weeks. The collection I’ll be talking about in this post is not one of the best known, not from one of the fashion capitals of the world and not on the list of legends yet, but it is absolutely one of the best collections of the Spring 2011 Paris Fashion week where they showed this past September: Talbot Runhof. Johnny Talbot (American) and Adrian Runhof (German) are the designers at the helm of this unique line that boasts they make clothes for real women: clothes that do not wear the girl. This collection was inspired by Lucille Ball, the late 1950s elegant style that the image of her represents. One of the major trends of this season was the appearance of classic styles, patterns and silhouettes as opposed to modern shapes, and futuristic styling. No collection demonstrates the simple elegance of a beautifully designed Spring Collection than Talbot Runhof Spring 2011.

The show opens with a model in strappy shoes and bright red lipstick walking down th runway in a dress that resembles liquid chocolate draped generously over her body. The fabric isbrown chiffon and a flowing train of it hangs loosely from the waist of the asymmetric, curve hugging dress. Dress after dress, the luxurious, but fairly simple patterned fabric is wrapped snugly around the model in a feat of draping that only superior training could have prepared them for.

What is fabulous about this collection and I think the reason why I love it so much is that the clothes are all extremely wearable, but maintain an elegance and glamour that would make any girl feel like Marilyn Monroe. Do I want my curves accentuated by outrageously sexy flowing chiffon? Yes please.

They start to add more colour to the palet as the collection progresses. Details are added like tuxedo shirt buttons, black trim and floral designs. The evening wear follows with an extremely elegant floor length gown in lavender with tiny flower prints scattered about the dress. Immediately following is a little shiny body suit, perfect for a day on the beach in Los Angeles.

They finish up with more stunning evening wear. The tiny flower patterns of the earlier pieces in the collection have now grown to be oversized and exaggerated, contrasting beautifully with the final piece – the full length gold evening gown that will no doubt make red carpet appearances this award season.

Over all this collection was beautifully executed by two designers who definitely seem to have a grasp on what real women want to wear. They take the trends of the high fashion industry and bring them down to an accessible level that you don’t have to be a celebrity to reach. I can’t wait to see what these dudes come up with next year!

Until then!

The Wedding Industry as it is Linked to Fashion Throughout History

I’m currently working on a wedding gown for a friend and have thus been doing a lot of research on wedding dresses, their history and function and the various available types of gowns one can choose. The bridal industry makes $50 billion a year worldwide, which is only a fraction of the $900 billion that the overall fashion industry is responsible for. In this post I want to discuss the place of fashion in the wedding industry and how it happens that women spend more money on gowns than any other part of the wedding.

Back in the old days a woman’s wedding gown said everything about her family and social standing in the eyes if her future husband. Thus, the wedding gowns of the time featured more and more expensive fabric the wealthier the family was. The poorest girls in town would wear their Sunday bests to their weddings while the richest would have a dress maker design a custom gown to celebrate their big day. I suppose that’s my job.

But the trends of the old days changed completely when Queen Victoria wore white on her wedding day to symbolize her virginity going into the marriage. Suddenly, the wedding dress trend changed from wearing the fanciest gown possible to wearing a dress reflective of the fashion of the period – the only restriction being that it must be white. In the 60s there were little white mini dresses with flowy sleeves and in the 80s big poofy gowns inspired by Princess Diana’s masterpiece dress designed by David and Elizabeth Emanuel in 1981.

Of course, like anything else, wedding dress design was affected by the changing social climate throughout the 21^st century. As the women’s rights movements progressed, so did women’s ideas of a fashion and the unnecessary traditions associated with marriage. Soon women were wearing anything they wanted for their big days, striking the fancy white conventions and expressing their personal styles with wide variety and colour. In my humble opinion, the notion of the wedding dress and indeed, the wedding is one than exists solely to allow women one chance to buy a gown better than any other gown. The dress usually corresponds not only with the bride’s social standing but also their personal character, and their political, social and religious beliefs.

So it’s complicated, this choice. The choice of which dress is the dress that will represent the bride the best is one that is often taken into deep consideration by many stylists and designers. As for myself, when I started the current piece I’m working on, I thought I had the best idea ever and drew it out and hoped it would please the bride in question. Though she did love the idea, there was a seemingly minor detail which was not to the taste of the groom which caused me to put my entire design under a microscope. As a result, I have now come up with three distinct, but similar designs represented in three prototype dresses for her to tear apart and decide which pieces she likes the best.

I was warned not to get into doing wedding shit by my mentor Patricia Fell once. She did it herself for a time and warned me of the psycho brides and the overzealous family members, but she also gave me some compelling advice. She said that before the wedding, when making a wedding dress, the dress maker must have regular fittings with the bride, with increased frequency as the final date approaches. This process is not only to accommodate the ever fluctuating weight of the stressed out bride, but to act as a sort of psychiatrist, allowing the bride to vent her stress, all the while appreciating the precision of the dress making process. It’s something that must be done in order to establish trust between the bride and her dress maker as well as allow for a better final outcome overall.

Very interesting, the whole idea of working in the bridal industry. At the moment, I love the thought. But perhaps Patricia is right and the stress of working with bridezillas won’t be worth the fabulous money that can be made from these endeavors. Yet another decision, the answer to which I’m sure will reveal itself in due time.

Until then!

Fashion Design From a Backward Perspective – Le Costumier

Sometimes I imagine what I want to do after I graduate from design school and have the precious certification that says I can dress people better than most. The obvious choice is that I would love to see our own label Petey the Troll Apparel become successful. If this happens, look for the most eccentric little shop on Queen West and you’ll find inside three floors; a store for the general public to browse our latest merch, a studio where we create our clothes and have top models come in for special fittings, and finally a loft on top where we have our regular high profile events and parties. I spend a lot of time dreaming.

But there are other options I could potentially explore as a designer should the above dream happen to not come true. One of these options could be the other love of my design life – costume design. For over three years now I’ve been insanely lucky to have a job working behind the scenes in the wardrobe department of the St. Clair College Musical Theatre Program. For this job, I assist the head costume designer while she decides on colour pallets, unique costume concepts and how we are going to acquire or build each of the necessary pieces.

Stop for a second and think of your favorite movie or tv show. Imagine that before the show is made, you only have the script and the actors and they tell you to dress them all in appropriate clothes for the corresponding scenes. Who are these characters? What do these types of people wear? It involves a lot of knowledge of the history of fashion design and the types of clothing that people have worn throughout history for various reasons throughout life. For example, Patricia Field was the costume designer for Sex and the City. She needed to choose clothing that fit each of those characters, all the while keeping the designers, director, actors and most importantly, the fans happy at all times.

If I choose to go this route I could imagine working on something really amazing like Mad Men which the talented costume designer Janie Bryant has designed for its duration. This is a great example: I don’t know if you watch Mad Men, but if you don’t, you definitely should. There are three main female characters in the show right from the start. They are the housewife – Betty, the career woman – Peggy and the bombshell – Joan. Keeping in mind the period (obviously 1960s fashion was much different than our own) Bryant needs to think about what the character is doing in the show, what her personality is, the history of the character, their whereabouts etc.

Then there’s the ever present issue of design in any capacity – that fact that human beings are not all the same size, and that clothing has to accommodate such an issue. This means the costume designer (if she doesn’t have a room full of assistants to take care of it for her, that is...) would have to have a considerable knowledge of clothing construction to match sizes and make alterations to various items of clothing in order to make them fit the characters correctly.

Costuming is an art which is very similar yet very different than costume design. Do I need to choose one of these two paths for my career or can I manage to be successful in both? We’ll see.

Who Cares What VanessaPetey Thinks: Marc Jacobs Spring 2011

Marc Jacobs is the first of two designers I’ll review who’s collections as private labels far exceeded their lines under large fashion house names this season. DON’T get me wrong, Louis Vuitton was beautiful, but there is nothing like a “Marc Jacobs” fashion show to make you weep into your yogurt sitting on your bed at 11 am on a Sunday. I decided to post about this particular collection because I’ve just been dying to dissect it and also because I get to talk about the influence fashion in the 1970s has had on fashion in the modern world. Dig?

Anyone who takes one look at this collection can see that the clothing could be part of Farrah Fawcett’s wardrobe circa 1977. The first thing that gives it away is that long slender 70s shape that all of the pieces accentuate. The dresses feature straight cuts and very bold patterns all in a wash of beautiful bright flowing colour. The dark purples and thick oranges glide down the runway – these are the clothes that models were meant to wear. The long thin, straight look on heels that stilt walkers would find challenging.

What I love about the idea of having a practically unlimited budget for a fashion show is that the designer can do whatever they’d like to do to convey the message they wish to convey. The Marc Jacobs show took place in a large, smooth wooden set, reminiscent of a ships’ hull. It reminded me very much of the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto designed by Frank Gehry. The rich colour of the wood complimented the palette Jacobs chose to work with perfectly. Not to mention that the feeling that wood gives me is one of warmth, thinking of my mom’s style of decoration. She was totally rad in the late 1970s and would have been all over this collection. The thing about the 70s is that prior to that time there had always been great fashion movements like Coco Chanel – 1910s-1930s, Christian Dior – 1940s-1950s, and the introduction of the Twiggy, mini-skirt, hippie, jive looks of the 1960s that all came before the era of disco, Nixon and Women’s Liberation. The 1970s saw the creation of the celebrity, fashion life style that we know in the industry today. After the earthy, “natural” vibe of the 1960s, people were ready to dress up again. Discos like Studio 54 gave people a place to wear upscale designer clothing and the trend proved to be one of considerable longevity.

WOW I totally didn’t even talk about what a genius Marc Jacobs is for bringing back the glamour and silhouette of the 1970 without all of the tacky detail and flash we’ve come to know and abhor about fashion in the decade. Jacobs is the Creative head of three major labels currently, his own self titled line we are discussing here, an offshoot line titled “Marc” by Marc Jacobs and of course the legendary French luggage company turned glamorous fashion house: Louis Vuitton. Jacobs is one of those designers who’s just been doing it since he was born and will never not be making beautiful, unique clothing.

I think this is a very exciting and impressive time in the history of the fashion industry and we’re all very lucky to be a part of it. Fashion designers like Marc Jacobs or many of the others I’ve discussed or will discuss soon now live like celebrities and make as much of a contribution to the world of art and beauty as any other medium available in this high technology world we live in. No matter how high tech our world gets, people will always have a need for clothing and women will always desire to look beautiful.