Paris

Above is a collection of photos compiled from tourist destinations such as the Eiffel Tower and the Lourve to shopping destinations such as Galeries Lafayette and Printemps. I believe the trip to Paris and the photos have enable me to learn more about the culture of Paris and gather inspiration for future projects.

Job Description Of A Creative Director

SUMMARY

"The creative director does not design clothes, but instead formulates and impresses upon the designers an overarching concept or concepts for a certain collection and the label as a whole. A fashion creative director's main role is to establish what designs should be created, what will appeal to the target market and how the concepts will be applied and distributed in collaboration with fashion designers who are responsible for creating the clothing and fabrics"

Examples of creative directors: Ricardo Tisci, Mark Anderson, Raf Simones, Humberto Leon and Carol Lim

RESPONSIBILITIES 

Manage projects from concept to completion

Provide ideas and inspiration

Make sure quality control is kept over projects 

Stick to the brands essence 

Must be able to sell

Create the right environment  

SKILLS

Innovative

Passion

Energy

Undergraduate degree in Fine Arts or related field or equivalent visual design and management experience required

Print and web design capabilities

Experience with industry software 

Flexible 

Try to have peripheral vision 

This is often the position that many who study fashion promotion want to ultimately end up having. One of the ways to gain this is through experience and recognition, businesses that are able to help people gain this are as followed:

D&AD

They "exist to stimulate, enable and award creative excellence in design and advertising"

D&AD were founded in 1962, they are recognised globally as an accolade for those who show exceptional inventive skills and are the best. It is a non profit organisation, consequently all their funds go into programmes such as New Blood which is used to inspire a new generation to work towards a fairer more sustainable future.    

ARTS THREAD

This business is all about combing education and the creative industry and being a global network. Its an online portfolio which creative industry people are able to access and use as a basis for recruitment. They also offer support from articles on CVs to competitions to give you a competitive edge. 

IDEASTAP  

Ideastap is a charitable organisation whose aim is to help professionals that are in the creative industry at the start of their careers. They work with creative organisations to aid members with exclusive opportunities that are aimed to boost careers. The most crucial part of this business is that its free and they offer cash, which most often is why a creative project can not be completed. 

  

Politics

FUR

Fashion has a love hate relationship with fur. In the eighties real fur was massive and now its making a comeback in the form of dyed fur, which is usually fox fur as seen at Prada. In a poll done by The Daily Mail 58% of people aged 18-24 thought that the use of fur was wrong, this represents how the younger generation are becoming more tolerant to the use of fur.

However not everyone is becoming tolerant, Harvey Nichols has been subjected to many protests trying to stop them selling fur as they are one of the last places in the UK to be selling fur. Department stores Liberties and Selfridges have no fur policies in place, as did Harvey Nichols previously but due to the growth in fur sales last year they decided to stock fur again. 

MEN 

The politics of fashion have lead many men to believe that if they express interest in fashion they will be categorised as not being manly. However in the 18th Century in that society it was deemed partially respectable to be a man into high fashion, yet when it was taken too far they were labeled as Macaronis.

SOCIAL CONDITIONING

Social conditioning is having your mindset altered by peers and the media, as a result of this it has often to let to rebellion such as political movements such as punk, which resulted in changing youth fashion. Vivienne Westwood was a full supporter of this movement, yet this movement is said to only happen/work in affluent countries. Semiotics are often used to create confusion among those who do not know. New luxury consumers will use luxury products as a symbol of success and to reflect their concerns and aspirations, however this representation has been crafted by the brand to give their products more of an appeal.

THE INFLUENCE OF MUSIC

Music is not considered to be as much of an influence with todays normcore generation as it was with the customisation generation. This is because previously consumers would never wear the same things out clubbing and they had time to customise their items as well. Whereas now consumers don't have the time or the resources to be able to do so, essentially because of the recession. Also consumers are more interested in a minimalistic aesthetic. The pinnacle hype for music as a fashion inspiration was in the 80s, some of the most inspirational music artists for fashion were Grace Jones, Queen, Kate Bush and Michael Jackson. 

THE FUTURE

Going native is the direction consumers are going this is what will drive demand, its all about knowing where your goods have come from according to Marian Salzman it will be the ultimate proof point. However the definition for local is 500 miles.

AVOIDING MEGA SYSTEMS

LSN Global has predicted that in the near future most consumers will try to avoid using the corporations that currently dominate their lives. Examples of these are Amazon, Apple and Google.

THE AGE OF COLLABORATION 

One of the latest ways to extend a brands life is collaboration with another business that has something different to offer such as Apple and Burberry as this made them both appear to be more current.

DIGITAL CRAFT

The novelty of technology will soon wear off and consumers will want something innovative. One prediction from WGSN is that the trend of new technology and techniques that produce artefacts which have a human feel to them will become massive in the net few years, as consumer have become bored with technology.

SUSTAINABILITY 

Sustainability is measured by the thee primary factors - Envirnomnet, Socity and Finance, this is known as the triple bottom line  approach and its all about being beneficial for everyone. 

One way the fashion industry has tackled this movement is the BFC created an ethical initiative Estethica which is sponsored by fashion retailer Monsoon. It has supported over 100 designers who have showcased excellent designs that are committed to working in a sustainable way. Furthermore one online retailer Ebay has excelled in sustainability by creating a trend for recoiling old goods, rather than just throwing them out. One of the brands that has received this support is Bottletop, although it is more established. It was founded in 2002 by Carmen Saul and his father Roger who also founded the Luxury British brand Mulberry and they started Bottletop with a collaboration with Mulberry.

Do We Need Diversity In Fashion?

    
   PARIS - Always Shows First

  MILAN - Has The Money   
                                                        

   NEW YORK - Forever Well Put Together 

   LONDON -  Renown For Its Creativity And Innovation 

The Shows 

• For Buyers
• For Private Clients
• For Media 

The Changing Role Of Fashion

The face of fashion has changed dramatically over the last 20 years, for example now debates such as should fashion institutions educate in order for students to think about diversity in order to make them commercially viable exist. 

All Walks 

All Walks was founded by Caryn Franklin, Debra Bourne and Erin O’Connor, in which to showcase the work of 8 contemporary designers on a 8 models aged between 18-65 and size 8-16, to celebrate diversity. 

All Walks first campaign was meant to be a one off and was shot for i-d magazine by Kayt Jones, now its been running for 5 years.

AGE

In the fashion industry the subject of age is almost taboo, however this opinion is changing. LSN Global has picked up on this trend and states that now people are more interested in someones attitude than the age they are, as this is considered more appealing. This is represented through the use of Carmen dell'orefice who still walks for Valentino.

SIZE

The fashion industry has always been associated with wanting everyone to be tall and thin, this has further been supported by the constant bombardment of images in the media. The average Women in the UK is a size 16, yet model Sophie Dhal who is a size 14 is considered plus size.  

The bi-annual fashion magazine Love created slight controversy when they added more weight to Beth Ditto when she was on their first cover, some believe this is the wrong way for magazines to be going as it is promoting an unhealthy body image. 

A new fashion magazine has been launched but with a difference, its the UK's first plus size fashion magazine called SLiNK, its being distributed across 15 countries. Editor Rivkie Baum states that "We believe that women are tired of seeing the same unobtainable image, women today are much more savvy". The magazine will contain shopping features, interviews, features, travel and beauty tips in efforts to “change the reputation of plus size fashion”. Baum has commented that they are not promoting an unhealthy image they know that they must represent a healthy body image. Therefore altering body shapes will not happen using technology, yet they admit that they will use tricks like "lighting corrections and light balance". With 47% of women in the UK being a sie 16+ its about time that the industry starts recognising them as a powerful consumer with money to spend as this is a niche thats not yet been fully explored.

MEN

Fashion is said to not appeal to men, this is suggested to be because of the stereotypes  that have been attached to men who are interested in fashion. Rather than using models and those from the fashion industry for style inspiration men are known to use sports stars or actors. This has lead to sports stars such as David Beckham to front campaigns for the fashion house Belstaff. 

   

Men who express interest in fashion are often considered to not be as masculine as their peers who don't, this is due to the way society has represented men who have this interest. This is also because fashion is associated stereotypically with femininity and pointlessness. Creating this view for some that fashion is below men, and by partaking society will question ones masculinity and/or your sexual orientation.

EXOTIC OTHER

The fashion industry is bombarded with skinny caucasian blonde women and this ideal of a blonde beauty has been around since Ancient Rome, yet there have been some break throughs. The issue is that when a black model breaks through in the industry often it is only one per generation. Examples of this is Donyale luna, Naomi Sims, Iman, Naomi Campbell and  Grace Jones. 

What can only be considered as another act of discrimination is the neglect of using Christy Turllington for Vogue covers compared to the other supermodels. Its suggested this is because she is Latina and due to society she is seen as a second class citizen in America.  

There has always been an issue of racism in fashion and of recent more and more evidence is coming forward saying that yes the fashion industry is racist. For the 2013 fashion weeks there was a notable decrease in the amount of black models it went from 8.1% from last season to 6% this season. It is not unusual for black models to be told that the fashion house already has a black model for the season. 

THE GLOBAL MARKET PLACE 

The countries that are leading in the global market is the BRICS MINTS and TINTS due to their emerging economies.  As economies are growing this has lead to a higher demand for Japanese designer such as Kenzo that started in 1970 and Comme that was founded in 1981 and is now known at Comme Des Garçons. Also as economies are getting bigger their interest in fashion is developing, such as now in Brazil they have their own fashion week held in As Paulo where Daslu is also based the discreet provider of luxury goods.   

Additionally as publications hold a lot of power being in favour with them can cause a large amount of power for a designer. For example when Carine Roitfeld was editor in chief of French Vogue she did an issue that was just full of Tom Ford, this lead many other designers feeling very disgruntled and is said to have lead to her being fired. 

Furthermore global companies such as Li & Fung are trying to obtain English companies, therefore they have opened a Marketing Suite on Savill Row to buy the rest of Savill Row. In Moscow's Red Square lies GUM which hosts some of the world most expensive and luxury stores from Cartier to Louis Vuitton it really is an Art Nuevo shopping destination.   

The Walk

Regent Street is between Mayfair to the West and Soho in the East. It's home to some of the best international brands such as Burberry and Apple.

Conduit Street the home to Sketch the original Dior show room. Sketch is now a lieu as it has become a destination place for food, art and music. There are many designer stores along Conduit street such as Donna Karan, Vivienne Westwood,Moschino, Miyake and Yamamoto.

Savile Row is the home of tailoring and is renown for its craftsmanship globally.  Some of the most famous stores on this road are Richard James, Norton and Sons, Lanvin, Richard Anderson.

 Bruton Street is famous for its commercial galleries and for Hartnell.

Mount Street  is the new area of Mayfair for fashion, this is showcased by the arrival of Balenciaga where the changing rooms appear to be inspired by a space ship. Other stores are Lanvin and Marc Jacobs.

South Audley Street is where Thomas Goode is contains two Elephants that are both insured for £1 million each. 

South Moulton is where Browns is, Browns was the first people to take interest in John Galliano and put him on the map.

Hanover Square where British Vogue and the Conde Nast newsagents is that hosts all their global issues.

On the opposite side of Manchester Square there is the Wallace collection, the staircase was initially owned by Madame De Pompadour the missteress of Louis XIV. Also currently the gold room is one of the places Vivienne Westwood gets her 18th century inspiration from. The portrait collection was the one most inspired by the Wallace collection.

New and old Bond street consist of stores such as Prada, Louis Vuitton, Donna Karan, Chanel, Ralph Lauren, Armani, Versace, Chanel and Ralph Lauren. Due to the large scale of market leaders being on new bond street I would say of the two this would be considered the better street to be on. Furthermore to make sure their position is known the stores choose to be next to their rivals.

Covent Garden is the home of the Chanel, Dior and Burberry's pop up stores.