Thinking has become fashionable by Victoria Keon-Cohen

Thinking has become fashionable - yes, that’s the look for 2014! Models' rights and model driven projects are what it’s now all about. Gone are the days of glamour devoid of substance and now are the days of models substantiating their own careers and drivng their own decisions.

When I began working as a model ten years ago, you never heard of models being involved in anything else. This was because of an expected conformity and financial security in the workplace. With my work for the Equity Models’ Union I couldn’t tell anyone for a very real fear of losing my agency and clients. However, that was more because of the threat of being black listed. However, Equity was received as a positive influence in the industry. Now its 2013 and the fashion industry is flourishing with services for models' health and organisations striving for workplace improvement. Starting with our Equity, soon to follow was Stand Up For Fashion (STUFF), the Model Alliance, the Models Sanctuary and British Vogue, jumping on the band wagon with the recent agreement with Equity's Code of Conduct. Even TED has had Cameron Russell talking and the Guardian newspaper is publishing opinion pieces about it. Models defending their rights and applying an intelligent perspective on the industry has aided a growth in substance where models are acknowledged to be able to think and have applicable skill sets, consisting of more than a talent for pouting.

This all started back in the 90s when scouts started traversing the globe for the next ‘supermodel’. This resulted in a huge influx of labour, still continuing today. A huge market influx combined with the economic crash caused fees to automatically diminish worldwide and rippled throughout the whole industry. The big girls now take the high street commercial and catalogue money jobs. These high street commercial brands and e-commerce clients used to be frowned upon like TV was by film actors. I used to be up for Italian jobs, once booked for Euro 30,000 but these are now snatched up for as little as Euro 5,000.

In Los Angeles, models used to strive to become SAG members. They'd pay thousands of dollars in dues each year for the opportunity to be casted in TV commercials with Union status. Productions that are classified as Non-Union, however don’t have to pay the excess fees charged by SAG. My agent in LA is pushing me not to join because the majority of clients cannot afford these rates and therefore the pool of work has diminished on the Union side.

Agencies have adapted to these decreased rates by taking on more models to compensate thus spreading the individual’s earnings thinner. These circumstances of the economy, mass supply of labour and the revolution of models' rights has seen a change where models have opened up to utilising their talents and skills developed through their experiences and to keep up with basic living necessities.

Ingrid Bredholt's Mardou & Dean

Their new grounding is branching out and utilising their unrecognised valuable understanding of the fashion industry to becoming producers, journalists, nutritionists, starting clothing lines and becoming more than just a face of something but a face for something. Yomi Abiola founded STUFF  working for equality and diversity, a model and friend I met in Milan, Ingrid Bredholt is going from strength to strength with her brand Mardou & Dean, Smilte Bagdziune has launched her lollipop company TuTu, and Julian Okines published his own book, The Models Handbook and through his networking and hard work as a presenter/content producer, whilst modelling is now a producer at Fashot.

The Models’ Union at Equity is approaching its sixth birthday and the models’ committee is another example of where models put their thoughtful energy. The recent historical move from British Vogue signing up to the first documented photographic regulations for models has set a new bar of professionalism for our industry never before realised. We are still a long way off a completely regulated industry but some day (not far off from now) incidences of degradation and humiliation will be just stories and no longer experiences. Models, together may be driving the industry through applying their own talent as individuals, no longer being dolls for manipulation.

Smilte Bagdziune's lollipop company TuTu

With confidence, we can put the bitchy/competitive attitude of models down as a myth. The models mentioned above and Equity Models’ Committee are examples of the hard work resulting through mutual support. The commitment and each individual applying his or her knowledge and experiences has been the foundation for Equity to implement social and political change. From my beginning days as a new face and journey as the founding chair of the Equity Models’ Committee, working in film and furthering my work in business the support and generosity of my peers has been invaluable.

There are still many issues to be resolved such as the financial difficulties facing models (many of whom are still getting paid in trade), child labour laws not being applied in the US and the introduction of a filtering system for predators seeking work in the industry. However, models being recognised for their skills and applying themselves to contribute and work together is a congratulatory step for today’s modelling community and exciting for the future of the industry.

Victoria Keon-Cohen works with Wilhelmina in the US and has modelled for clients such as Reply, Versace, Levis and Vogue. She approached Equity with Dunja Knezevic to start the first trade union for models in 2007 and stood as Founding Chair of the Equity Models' Committee from 2007 - 2012. Having studied Performance Design at Central Saint Martin's her first job in film was Costumer to Robert De Niro on Killer Elite (2011). She is currently still working with the Models' Committee and is also making films in both the fashion and film industries. Equity Models’ Committee.

The latest member of fashion's bloggeratti; Ricardo Hernandez on the genesis of The Style Inquisitor....

You wouldn’t think that a random midnight scroll through the interwebs would spark a potentially life-altering interest. But then again, we do live in the flourishing digital age. As such, a simple peek into a foreign world on a computer screen is powerful enough to derail you onto an entirely different path. You just have to tread lightly. Oh, and “fashionably.” 

I present my case. Exhibit A: a stumble upon moment at approximately 2 a.m. on a certain summer day in 2007 where I fell through the virtual rabbit hole and landed on the landmark Style.com page. I was somewhat intrigued. Exhibit B: the scene five minutes later, wherein a pair of piercing eyes fixed on what any other person would consider a common article, took Tim Blanks’ review of the work of British designer Hussein Chalayan as reason to rethink all matters entirely. Of course, nothing is common to “fashion” people about things of such perennial importance but I wasn’t a “fashion” person yet. Still, something triggered. I never anticipated that the days following that night would consist of educating myself on fashion lexicon. One day, haute couture. The next, Givenchy (which I foolishly mispronounced per my immaturity). Then, the big one- Anna Wintour. But aside from just learning that Louis Vuitton fathered much more than airport luggage, I became transfixed on the written word. The luxury of the fashion world seemed great, but the journalistic work behind it all seemed even greater.

It didn’t take very long for me to have that life epiphany that many of us do have circa those last years of school prior to reaching university status. So, in a need to document my thoughts about what I had and was still in the process of learning, I created The Style Inquisitor within a span of one mundane morning wake-up call and a highly ecstatic night slumber (to make a long story short and ruin the clichéd punch line, I turned “inquisitive,” into a noun). Suffice it to say, I couldn’t stop myself. Everyday, I logged on, and constant clacking of the keys followed suit. Analyzing Fall and Spring fashion week from New York across the sea to Milan and Paris, gawking at magazine editorials, admiring the then rising street style subculture…it was all divine. However, I was still unsure of the path I was embarking on. All I knew was that I wanted to write, plain and simple.

Things remained relatively normal until my site began to gain a following, among it a unique few asking me to share notions of my personal style on the blog. Now, at that time, the personal style niche was already becoming supersaturated, but I saw no harm in molding my aesthetic to include left out parts. Cue instant growth in readership. Yes, I panicked, but in the good way…and the bad. No shame!

Before I knew it, companies expressed interest, magazines emailed their words of admiration, and strangers spewed compliments on social media. Finally, the summer of 2011 rolled around and I was offered my first New York Fashion Week experience by a collaborative Nokia and Elle Magazine. I did hear that famed Hallelujah chorus at first, but it was quickly drowned out by intense zippering up of suitcases and sporadic yelps of excitement. Not kidding.

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 Now, my rehashing my progress thus far sounds far from plateau, but people can’t forget that success is not measured by those wonderful high notes alone. What certain members of the blogosphere are fearful of revealing is that there are times when inactivity takes over, and things sort of mull over. Killjoy would an understatement for such a thing. Its somewhat of a poison, and has driven many bloggers to withdraw from what is not even supposed to be a race. Remaining steadfast on your goals and blocking out the negativity is the only remedy.

To this day, I still grow as a writer and blogger, and I am willing to admit that ups and downs will no doubt come my way. You have to realize it, otherwise being unprepared will take you down even more. And that, is not at all in fashion.

Ricardo Hernandez
The Style Inquisitor
www.thestyleinquisitor.com

www.twitter.com/styleinquisitor

Mary Fellowes, fashion stylist, blogs on The Woes of the Fashion Bloggerazzi

If power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, the same is true of fame. Whitney Houston is its latest victim - there have been countless others before her, and countless more to come. Its victims’ demise isn’t always as dramatic as Whitney’s - death is final and dramatic whether suicidal or accidental in celebrities, but the slow erosion and corruption of a character is in some ways just as sad.

Fashion has often crossed over with fame in the Venn diagram of entertainment and celebrity – more so than any other design form due to its relationship with glamour and the human form. And there is nothing wrong with recognition and achievement - or becoming a household name. As with any fame, the key to it is when fame and recognition has been earned. That makes it easier to live with - the inevitable symptom or by-product after years of coming up through the ranks, jumping through hoops, performing the endless monotonous rites of passage that others have done before to get to the top. 

But what about when fame is not earned? What threats lurk within the psyche when fame has been bestowed instantly, in a heartbeat? There is no need to lament the victims of reality television during the last decade, as it is a given. But the rip-tide of instant fame is claiming new victims for itself: in the fashion world. The ‘bloggerazzi’ have turned fashion week into an ugly circus of attention seeking wannabes, feeding and fuelling egos of its subjects with flashbulbs for sustenance.

Out of nowhere in the last few years, an army of apparent nobodies has swelled in numbers, taking over the front line, making entering into a show like running the gauntlet. More often than not clad in outlandish and forced looking outfits, they have adopted the customs of the paparazzi but sadly they have none of the clout.  Because outside of the microcosm of fashion, no one is interested in what Japanese Vogue’s Anna Della Russo (the bloggers’ favourite) is wearing.

Thanks to the bloggerazzi, a tragic parade now takes place in all the fashion weeks. Since the dawn of the international fashion collections, all of us in the industry have always seized the opportunity of fashion week to have a bit more fun with our outfits, but the presence of this battalion, emerging from their trenches with semi-professional cameras poised like shields, has generated a giant extra swathe of pretentious, attention seeking dressing up and poseur behaviour. Their incessant snapping away feeds straight into the ego and insecurity in each one of their subjects, giving them the illusion that somehow they are - well - famous.

Where is all of this imagery going?  I wondered that when I got ‘papped’ for the first few seasons while the bloggerazzi was in its infancy. Did I play along with it? Sure I did, at first. But after a while, it becomes incredibly tedious. You go to fashion week, surprisingly enough, to work. The schedule is gruelling and the brain switches between overdrive and overload by the second, by the hour. And after wasting time posing for a group of self-important, self anointed pseudo opinion formers, you realise that so few of these images they shoot ever make it into a domain big enough to justify all the hype and chaos, that actually it is not really worth it after all.

It is not to decry fashion blogs per se. There are countless very successful fashion bloggers out there – Tommy Ton, Tavi, Bryan Boy, The Sartorialist, Susie Bubble, Liberty London Girl and so on. They are the democracy to fashion publishing’s autocracy. David takes on the publishing world’s Goliath and wins. But these pioneers are unwittingly thorough, they attend the shows and have a unique point of view that is worth hearing – and which is why Dolce and Gabbana made media history by putting them all front row several seasons back at their D&G show in Milan, next to super-snapper Mario Testino. And which is why some of them can earn hundreds of thousands of pounds a year in advertising and brand collaborations.

But it is the legions of street-style snappers, the bloggerazzi that ruin it for everyone else, that turn it into a cliché and a soap opera. Millions and millions of pictures of street style, filling up the world wide web’s vortex with junk and simultaneously creating the myth of fame for people who are otherwise regular people with full time jobs in the fashion industry. They are not performers or actors with immense talent that can reach out and affect the hearts and mind of the great public, they are actually store buyers, writers, editors and stylists. But all these people’s overnight status can escalate within the bubble of the fashion industry, giving them an illusion of disproportionate self-importance. The danger is that people could start believing their own hype and succeed above other more talented, less attention-seeking colleagues, purely because they gained a little fame in the fashion bubble – style over content, the book’s cover mattering more than its story inside. It feels as if Warhol is laughing all the way to the bank.


Mary Fellowes is a London-based fashion stylist. A former assistant to Isabella Blow at British Vogue, Fellowes currently works as a consultant to a number of fashion houses and her work is regularly featured in Vogue.

Guest Blogger: David Gilston of Once Was England on 'Yesterday's Best'

Bounding forth from the past into the present, from the refreshingly chilly concrete bunker of the Churchill War Rooms, back into this unseasonally foreign, October sunshine, one bagged the wisp of a thought as it wafted through the rippling green haze of London's St. James's Park. It was this: since time immemorial, ever since our nocky, loin-clothed ancestors scratched their charcoaled fingernails across the musty cave walls of Cheddar Gorge, we Englanders have been driven to record, to pot and to pickle history, our history; for today and tomorrow, for ourselves and Johnny Foreigner.

One deduced that this habit was as English as tuppence, that it should be branded the 'Tiptree Syndrome'and that our nation's most favourite blend is called ‘Nostalgia’; a sugary, thick cut conserve that is each and every Englishman's relish. Instantly recognisable by its sturdy, rose-tinted jar, it is best spread thick when one feels all colly-molly, with its invigorating flavours of better times past. Now is an especially good time to twist open its lid.

These days it would seem, the world is rather fond too of the taste of ‘olde’ and what once was England. This fashion season, from Hoxton to Harajuku, one can see legions of Tricker-booted, Barbour-jacketed young buffers swagging the sidewalks; fellows for whom all things English are now most proper and champion. What a bit of jam!

Dam silly, you might say. I say, it’s a jolly kick up the collective corybungus for those who’ve forgotten from whence they came from. To paraphrase old Winnie, a country that knoweth not its history simply has no future. Here, here.

David Gilston is a British designer and brand developer whose blog Once Was England "harks back to a disappearing age in our history - the time of the gentleman - when people ate faggots and tripe, drove Rolls Royces and Bentleys, had their clothes made with their tailor and holidayed by the sea." Read the full GWG review of his blog.