Living in a simulacrum. Saturday notes
Today is the 23rd of April, 2022. Here’re some thoughts, and yesterday’s visuals.
I’m looking at the titles of the articles I’ve selected for my last week's news digest: “Britain could fall into recession this summer, say experts” and “What can we do about the cost of living crisis?” I have no plans to share them right now, I just let my thoughts fly. I don’t live in Britain. But I read. I’m questioning the purpose of that reading. Yes, I wanted to write about inflation, I remind myself. “People would like to know”... Would they really like to know?
It’s like with books, there’s too many. We’ll never be able to read all or at least learn something about the third of them, I don’t say half. Or fashion. So many things, why? For whom? And I’m not just speaking about the environmental disaster. I’m asking about the sense of that production. Diversity of dresses, shoes, skirts, pants, bags. Bag! Billions of little useless bags… How many bags does a woman need? Now they made those for men as well.
A year ago the most popular “fashion” question on my Instagram was: “Why do they keep all those old designers as creative directors? What they show is so boring! They should free space for young designers!”
Each time I read that I wanted to ask: “But do we really need all those dead brands? They lost their spirit, their creators. They were turned into monsters, their audience now is the opposite of the original clientele. Even mythology isn’t there anymore, only hype”.
I understand why the owners want to keep them alive - to profit more, but why do we care? Those stories ended a long time ago. We can search for “young” designer’s clothes. What is the problem? Is it a question about their extinction? But they are not rare animals. There are billions of them out there. And those who started their own companies are struggling exactly the same as their predecessors. Businesses that can’t find their customers, can’t organise the financial model, marketing, shouldn’t survive. Designers that can’t find their way to the top of the food chain, can’t be creative directors of the major brands, simply because they are not ready. Even if they are talented in making clothes, they should know a lot more than that.
Another subject that always thrills me is the wide variety of opinions about fashion, fashion problems, trends and almost no understanding what it is exactly. One word - no agreement on what it means. I find myself having discussions when at some point all the participants discover that they were explaining different things to each other. The language is so changed that judging just by the used terms you can’t guess the subject of the message.
For example, I was asked about the latest fashion trends. Associating “trends” and names with actual fashion industry, the market, runaways and so on, I thought about the sustainability, diversity problem and the collaborations between Gucci and Balenciaga, Gucci and Adidas. But my opponent was talking about a particular guy - a TikTok celebrity - that designs prints for the T-shirts mostly, and masks or hats with a character and sells a hundred of all the items per month, maybe less, and about IKEA bags as a material for hand made shoes or whatever else. That was fashion and that were trends - t-shirts and hand made sold on Etsy.
Welcome to the new Babylon tower. Though in the original one people spoke different languages, in this one we can speak the same language, use the same words but still be unable to agree on the simplest definitions.
Old people, hearing “fashion”, think about the big names like Dior, Chanel, maybe about fashion shows, shops. Middle aged, not interested in fashion, imagine fancy clothes, glossy magazines in the hair salons, celebrities, red carpet, cosmetics. Those who are interested in it will suggest it’s about ecological aspects, fast and slow fashion, last fashion weeks and so on. But young generations think of the artists, influencers, and particular garments, things, platforms or a little store they discovered a week ago.
I don’t mention professionals from the industry that will dive into the details of marketing, textiles, new looks, legal conflicts, business and creative changes and so on. Including the community gossip and shared articles, that are never from the major media outlets and we can’t stress enough the importance of photography - who shoots whom. That is about trends as much as the particular shade of yellow or green or whatever Pantone “called the colour of the year”. They addressed textiles and styles, but meant their own promotion - marketing campaigns can base on any fancy nonsense, just repeat it often enough, no one will ever question, spreading that fake further. And in a while, it really becomes a trend, because some people like to follow the news.
And here we are back with the news. Everything is about them - a post that you saw first on your Instagram or Facebook, funny TikTok clip, shared picture leading to the Ukraine refugees camps, an abstract from the article about Riannah’s pregnancy and so on till actual TV news shows or broadcasting you listen in the car. An outer space of information which consists of copies of copies of copies and so on till original messages. Most of that stuff is useless, another massive part of it is going to be useless in a second, and only a tiny amount of that deserves to be read or watched or listened to with attention and be stored.
Does anyone care to erase the trashy part? No. We are overdosed, depressed, suppressed and bored. Especially bored. Deadly bored. So desperately that we look for extreme, WOW-effect and super funny stuff. The more superficial the better. Bloggers who specialise in viral videos will tell the difference between ok and “AAAA! I need to share it”. And we consume all pretty fast and are losing sense of our own life, joy, dreams, desires, we choose other’s lives and their values, aims, rhymes that we enjoy following. Though we follow the fakes. People moderate their reflections in the social mirrors.
So do we need more news reading? What kind of it? And what for? To fake the interest because it’s appropriate? Do we sincerely learn something new or look for an explanation to what’s going on around? How often do we save something for later watch or read knowing that moment never comes? In a week there will be hundreds of saved posts and articles waiting for our attention. We are too much interested in what’s now to look into the archives.
A digest from my feed for April 20-21st, 2022
6.30am April 20th zakharova_kaetano Good morning 🌞 How are you today? #haveagoodday Here’s a #meditationmood #morninginspiration#goodmorningpost @nowness: Chrysaora quinquecirrha floating Video by @medusascience #natureasinspiration #morningmood#naturalvideography #artofvideography
6.00pm April 20th zakharova_kaetano #finding on @gemilybarber feed #AndrewGrima @grimajewellery ring from 1973 with a huge citrine Lot 151 in @bonhamsjewels sale London Jewels on 27 April. #artofjewellery #beautyofjewellery #beautyofgems#contemporaryjewellery #vintagejewelry
10pm April 20th zakharova_kaetano #nightmood #fashioneditorial#fashionportrait #coverstory styled by @ibkamara with @vittoriafor #VogueItalia’s April issue, photographed by @rafaelpavarottiHairstylist: @benjaminmullerhair Make Up:@chiaolihsu Nails: @anaiscordevantnailartist Set Designer @maryhoward_setdesign#artofphotography #fashionstory #fashionasinspiration #colour
11.30am April 21 zakharova_kaetano Good morning 🌞 How are you? #haveagoodday I’m very concrete today. @raqhell_ Io Il figlio dell’uomo - #renemagritte 1964 vs nude model as #morningmood #morninginspiration #goodmorningpost#goodmorningart
#fineartphotography #sensualsurreal_portraits#surrealphotography #digitalcollage #contemporaryart#surrealism #artasinspiration
5.00pm April 21st zakharova_kaetano #finding cuff bracelet by @nikoskoulisjewels #artofjewellery #beautyofjewellery#jewelleryasinspiration #contemporaryjewellery#mypreciouseffect
11.30pm April 21st zakharova_kaetano #goodnightandsweetdreams #nightmood#fashionportrait #fashioneditorial discovered thanks to @fashionarchive.magazine @yangshengjie99 & Gao Xiaowei Shot by @liu__zongyuan For @VogueChina April 2022 issue
"Purple is the New Black" Photographer @liu__zongyuan #LiuZongyuan Editor @teresa.s.u.n & Sun Li Stylist Moli Makeup @wangqian_makeup Hair @xiaotianx1890#artofphotography #beautyoffashion #surrealmood#fashionasinspiration #colour #fashionstory
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