{ An excerpt from Oi! Issue 1 – Originally published in 2014. Download the digital copy HERE! }
I mean I love them both you see…
But I’ve noticed in this day and age, or maybe it’s a reoccurring trend; one finds themselves getting to a stage in life where they begin to associate good and great with all things new, modern, and contemporary.
Does new mean better?
If it does then what does old mean?
And why is old, old and new not just newer?
Such finite words, for such infinite conceptions.
It took a while for me to put a title to what I thought I was best at, I mean I’ve given my self so many titles I laugh at my attempts to prove to myself that I was doing a job I loved.
To be a Creative Director I guess you need to have ideas and you need to be able to direct them in a way that shows vision and understanding, and to be able to bring things together as a team, not alone.
Looking around for industry role models it seemed my mirrors of dreams were shattered…
I was afraid to want to be like Anna Wintour, and then I found out about Diana Vreeland in 2ndyear of uni.
I’d hear talks about her schooling the likes of Andre Leon Talley who I’d be so fascinated by, his opulence and his ego seemed to be accepted? Was it because he was a man?
Regardless…He was him.
Vreeland appreciated his uniqueness and talent, and Vreeland was beloved by many, like a human goddess applauded for her fierce vision and clinical but magical execution of Fashion Editorials, and her outspoken morals that added such vivid visual conviction to her work. She was hated obviously, even God is.
But those that hated her allowed her to be, but kept their upper lips a little stiffer and their noses just a tincy bit higher, most probably because of the infuriating feelings of hate they felt towards themselves for admiring her unconventional ways.
Wintour always got the bad end of the stick and I always wondered why, I watched September Issue, I adored Grace who was once my idol, but became a victim in my eyes and I seemed to dislike that.
Anna was quiet, thorough and unafraid. Why?
What were the unspoken rules? Then I watched The Devil Wears Prada, after about 10 reruns I still feel like cremating the whole DVD, Blue Ray or not. Oh, because Fashion is pretentious and does nothing for the economy and has no historical background, no substance no political or social influence. Whatsoever (!) You have to lol.
And oh, after you dwell in the cratered depths of the fashion industry aka the Devils Castle, you must leave traumatized and find a decent career path to settle down in.
Lo and behold a Baptist pastor beckons for a Hallelujah.
RIP Lee McQueen.
I digressed.
Positively digressing into some research I found out that Vreeland was the first, the real Devil wears Prada? Watch ‘Funny Face’…
Unbelievable.
The thing is we cannot deny the pure talent these women had/have, are aware of and use to the best of their abilities, by all means necessary.
So what’s new?
You want to become a Fashion Editor?
Okay what’s (2 x 1345) % 6798 – (a+b) =
Oh, you failed GCSE Algebra? Shucks…
Okay how many degrees do you own? 1stor 3rd?
Oh you didn’t make it past college?
Well I’ll have you know, Sonny Jim, Vreeland and Wintour were fashion illiterates…
Both came from wealthy backgrounds which may seem to some as a healthy way to get your butt in the acacia wood, iron filmed, platinum plated, double glazed, opaque, deep purple velvet industry doors.
This is debatable.
We can sit for Coffee on that one.
So you don’t need a degree, or education at that, Wintour couldn’t write or articulate herself, she just knew what she wanted.
After her resignation from the ungrateful House of Harpers Bazaar and soon after being exterminated from her brief position at Vogue, Vreeland was beckoned in by the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, turning the place into a living breathing tomb, unraveling the mummified couture garments, reminding people of the fashion before us.
Educating them the way they wanted to be educated, using her creative direction to raise awareness of the times we used to be and why.
She brought the art out of fashion, the social critique that didn’t intend to be a critique it just happened and people started to be conscious.
Vreeland a one man woman, a woman who was deemed unnaturally beautiful, whatever the heck that means got her first fashion job after attending a party and wearing a hot dress that was admired by a woman who’d soon become her boss.
Luck or destiny?
Wintour a serial dater a cheat and a passionate childlike lover, the beauty who her dad made her late brother’s substitute, the one who’d carry the family name and trait, the Editor.
He laughed at the fact that she wanted to work for American Vogue but supported her nonetheless; with a recommendation here, there and everywhere, and her own teenage apartment at 14.
Confused.com? Don’t be we all have different backgrounds.
Privileged to be a young adult in the swinging 60’s, with a titanic disposable income, no respect for authorities and institutions and an appetite for bringing lifestyles to life using clothes?
She first worked in retail, lucky for her it was her favorite store, Biba, her dad put a word in. Thoroughly connected, because of her revered father, Editor of the Evening Standard at a time where being hired in Fashion meant being related to anyone from a respected, well known, Upper Middle class and ‘upward’ background, no CVs or experience needed!
Who? An unpaid internship. All lies I tell you!
With access to some of the most exclusive club nights and creatively inspiring individuals, she swam, straight from the deep end.
Well aware of the sharks, she kept her prescription shades up on that bridge and her fringe so choppy and thick, it became the invisible cloak to her third eye.
So you don’t wanna work in retail I hear you winging? Same! But you better start creating; I mean who’re you waiting for? Daddy Wintour?
If you live in any metropolitan city in 2014 with the economy grieving the loss of something we didn’t know about till we heard we were in a recession, then you need to figure it out.
No one will save you.
Don’t be afraid, be fabulous.
Oh!? That was soo corny ergh!
You don’t need money to look good, looking good isn’t about wealth it’s about personal style.
You don’t need money to create the perfect editorial, just talented creatives who know how to make magic as a team.
You don’t need money, but in reality, our social man made constructions, environments and conditioned mentalities delude us to think this way.
Read. Research and create.
Create newer ways, create adaptable ways until we can no longer adapt and need new ones.
It’s funny how funding for arts was cut, and art is the most powerful weapon, not of destruction but of mass revolution.
Revolution isn’t bad…
Revolution means change, evolution, a metamorphosis.
Metamorphosis is the process of transformation from an immature form to an adult form.
Adult, meaning mature.
Mature, being fully developed.
Develop yourself.
You are.
xO
