Blog - Style Knows No Bounds -from the Int'l Herald Tribune

2008-09-15 21:00:02

Style knows no bounds — from fishing to fashion



By Fleur Britten
Published: September 15, 2008






LONDON: To the outsider, Planet Fashion always has existed in a parallel
universe. Now, though, it's really starting to look like another world,
as seemingly everything this season - from chewing gum to fast cars -
has been "fashioned."
Thirsty? Take your pick from Roberto Cavalli's leopard- and
zebra-print bottles of wine and Coca-Cola, Perrier water "dressed" by
Agnès B or Orla Kiely's refillable water bottles.
For transport, choose among Versace's Lamborghini, Preen's roller
skates, Belstaff's Triumph motorbike and Richard James's Condor bicycle.
For amusements, there's fishing with Chanel's faux-quilted rod, art
at Hermès's traveling H Box gallery, and partying with fashion designer
DJs (including Gareth Pugh, Henry Holland and Giles Deacon).
Exhausted? Don't worry: Matthew Williamson has a nice line in bed
linen, while Karl Lagerfeld's "couture" teddy bear will ensure that,
even while you sleep, you're still in fashion.
Being fashionable, which once seemed to be just about clothes, now
covers so many more aspects of life. Such is the demand for fashion
design without actual garments that a new course, Fashion Artefact, has
been created at the London College of Fashion.
The course director, the fashion designer Dai Rees, says: "We are so
saturated with the high street that designers have had to take it up a
notch. What is the point of reproducing what we've seen in the past?"
Now that the It bag market is reaching saturation point, that
fashion and accessories are increasingly available to rent (on Web
sites like BagBorroworSteal.com) and ever more procurable in
counterfeit versions, conventional demand is dropping. Designers are
having to diversify.
The proliferation of fashion artifacts is also consumer-led. James
Gilmore, one of the authors of "Authenticity: What Consumers Really
Want," argues that we tend to buy whatever conforms to our self-image.
"If you like to wear a particular fashion designer," he says, "you'll
also want to 'wear' their wine, their car, their sporting equipment."
Referring to the author of the 2004 book "The Substance of Style",
Gilmore said: "It's as Virginia Postrel put it, 'I like that; I am like
that.' It's logical for designers to branch out."
Henry Holland, the designer behind House of Holland, this season has
created the wrapper for Extra chewing gum, the exterior for a Sky Plus
satellite TV box, and the soundtrack for many a fashion party. Such
extracurricular work, he says, provides vital funding for his young
label ("It's always a struggle with money," he admits), and is a way to
get his name out there.
The graphic designer Peter Saville, who has guest-designed Microsoft
Zune players, Adidas sneakers and Levi's jeans, says: "These projects
have become part of business. They've replaced advertising for a
society too cynical for it."
Talking of cynical, what's such a design really worth?
"It pays the rent for a few months," Saville says. "But you couldn't
retire on it." One brand consultant, speaking on condition of
anonymity, says that a designer's fee ranges from £10,000 to £50,000,
or about $18,000 to $90,000.
And, yes, Saville admits, "It strokes your ego, but it's
embarrassing as well." Embarrassing, that is, in front of fashion
purists, who, says Holland, turn their noses up at such work.
"Pernicious!" declares the design critic Stephen Bayley. "It's
ridiculous for fashion designers to produce nonfashion items. Adding
their name to a product might cause - among the credulous - a quick and
dirty spike in sales but it's an imposture, and meretricious to charge
a premium for it. Pierre Cardin might have made a few million francs
adding his name to biros and saucepans but it destroyed whatever
credibility he had as a couturier. And what sort of cretin would want a
Pierre Cardin saucepan?"
But what's so wrong about wanting to improve the aesthetic appeal of
functional products? Would a designer not make a better job of, say, a
can opener?
"If a designer works with other creatives, they can achieve together
what they can't alone," says Mandi Lennard, a fashion publicist whose
clients include Pugh, Holland and Roksanda Ilincic. "It's healthy - do
you want to be an introvert or do you want to interact with other
talent, create synergy and take things onto a higher plane?"
And while she promises there are no Cardin saucepans in her kitchen,
Lennard is not averse to collecting fashion artifacts. "I have a fizzy
drink by Zandra Rhodes that I never drank, and a handkerchief that Kim
Jones designed with Stephen Sprouse - you'd never blow your nose on it.
That's the mark of a collectible."
Does she feel like a fashion fool? "I'm just enjoying fashion - this
is fun and exciting. When you hear about these products, a red light
goes on in your head and you need it immediately. That chase is
pure fashion."
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