Busy little worker ants...

Ok, so I'm not sure if your all aware of this, but there has been quite a bit of commenting activity going on and I'd like to draw your attention to it! We've been particularly busy on the Is fashion evil? post which seems to have got a few of you going.

Now the reason that I've set aside today's post for this is not because I'm lazy, don't have anything else to say, or aren't feeling particularly inventive because I haven't had a cup of tea yet, but because I do not wish this site to become another form of dictation, that my opinion overshadow everyone else... We are on an equal platform here and I only wish to insight debate.

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So, here's what I've got for today (yet another quote from the wonderful Fight Club - valid none the less)

'I see the strongest and smartest men who have ever lived, and these men are pumping gas and waiting tables... 

Remember this... 

These people you are trying to step on, we're everyone you depend on. We're the people who do your laundry and cook your food and serve your dinner. We make your bed and guard you whilst you're asleep. We drive ambulances. We direct your call. We are cooks and taxi drivers and we know everything about you. We process your insurance claims and credit card charges. We control every part of your life.

We are the middle children of history, raised by television to believe that someday we'll be millionaires and movie stars and rock stars, but we won't.

And we're just learning this fact... So don't fuck with us.' 

So is this something that can be applied to the fashion industry, and if so how far do we agree with it?

Chuck's ponderings on life...

Without just one nest

A bird can call the world home

Life is your career

 - Fight Club : Chuck Palahnuik - 

The world of commercialisation, in which we live...

'Something which was a bomb, a big bomb, had blasted my clever Njurunda coffee tables in the shape of a lime green yin and an orange yang that fit together to make a circle. Well they were splinters, now. 

My Haparanda sofa group with the orange slip covers, design by Erika Pekkari, it was trash, now.

And I wasn't the only slave to my nesting instinct. The people I know who used to sit in the bathroom with pornography, now they sit in the bathroom with their IKEA furniture catalogue.

We all have the same Johanneshov armchair in the Strinne green stripe pattern. Mine fell fifteen stories, burning into a fountain.

We all have the same Rislampa/Har paper lamps made from wire and environmentally friendly unbleached paper. Mine are confetti.

All that sitting in the bathroom.

The Alle cutlery service. Stainless steel. Dishwasher safe.

The Vild hall clock made of galvanized steel, oh, I had to have that.

The Klipsk shelving unit, oh, yeah.

Hemlig hat boxes, yeah.

The street outside my high-rise was sparkling and scattered with all this.

The Mommala quilt-cover set. Design by Thomas Harila and available in the following:
Orchid.
Fuschia.
Cobalt.
Ebony.
Jet.
Eggshell or heather.

It took my whole life to buy this stuff.

The easy-care textured lacquer of my Kalix occasional tables.

My Steg nesting tables.

You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple of years your satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handed. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug.

Then your trapped in your lovely nest, and the things that you used to own, now they own you.'

- Fight Club : Chuck Palahnuik -

So whats it all about...

So, researching into the evolution of fashion from inspiration to sales got me a little bit down... and I thought you all should know about it. This is a project based on wit, intelligence and humour for the educated consumer.



After spending some time researching current trends in the hope of inspiration towards trends for 08/09, it struck me how repulsive the entire trends system is… the industry gets to dictate to the entire world what they will wear at any given time. Sickening!



And this is not just with regard to those of us who attempt to follow and keep up with the ever changing ‘fast-fashions’ but everyone who steps onto their local high street.



‘I don’t really like hipster trousers, I don’t think they suit me… but that’s all you can get these days, so that’s what I have to wear.’
– Overheard at a party.

What is even more disgusting about this dictation, I feel, is that it comes from such a small amount of people, and us, the masses, just eat up every morsel of information that they give us…



… because we’re all so insecure, requiring constant reassurance and feel that that’s exactly what that ‘IT’ bag, or new pair of ‘on trend’ shoes are going to do for us. Buying that dress that is featured in this month’s Vogue is going to make us better people, more professional, help us get that guy, get us a pay rise… somehow transform us!? – there are so many more important things in life that we don’t put half as much emphasis on!

Consumers are becoming more intelligent, a lot more savy, and we know when we are being tricked by brands. I think we are going to start seeing through trends, designers and the fashion industry in general – A trend of Anti-Fashion! People will begin to buy into quality and boycott the seasonal trends…


‘If everybody looked the same… We’d get tired of looking at each other…’
[Groove Armada]



So who else agrees with me? Well, SilverScreenPipeDreams certainly does:

‘I recognise that the way we look is important to how people perceive us, but I don’t want to be beholden to a code that dictates what I can and can not wear.’

‘Women are so often told what we can and can’t wear in this world, and we soak it up, we’re so certain that we must be doing something wrong, our hair out of style, the wrong dress, why else wouldn’t we have the life we are shown in the advertisements? We let these depictions of life define our roles for us, telling us we should be sexy and also virginal, and smart and also a great mother and stylish and put together, but also free to be ourselves that it’s no wonder some people drop out of the race altogether, or some like Britney Spears, go insane.’



Vivienne Westwood looks into the future and here’s what’s in her minds eye:

‘If you ask me what I think people should be getting next season… I’ll tell you what I’d like them to buy – nothing. I’d like people to stop buying and buying and buying.’

‘With so much fast fashion available to us, we are not giving ourselves the opportunity to develop good taste.’