On the
sunset of my Vogue subscriber era I would like to spend some words on alluring
fashion journalism. Since this is also my major, I am granted almost daily
inspiration on anything within the field of creative arts by a team of lovely
and brilliant professors and journalists. During a recent imaging class “my
heart leaped up” when my teacher prised the long, accurate, stunning photo
shots in Vogue Italia. Just look at the cover of the February issue by Steven
Meisel, or check the backstage on vogue.it: unquestioned beauty, pure art and
of course fashion, all in the extraordinary Vogue tradition.
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| Vogue Italia, February 2012 |
I want to
make a point: fashion can be hideous, fashionista can be shallow, but fashion
journalism is not a mere description of trends. Fashion journalism is not
science, it is art, but this was repeated so many times it became a cliché… and
eventually sank in oblivion. This is at least the first impression one gets by
having a look at alas too many fashion blogs and style pages on magazines and
newspapers. I think it is time to swipe the dust off this fashion cliché and
remind the bored readers and the boring bloggers and journalists that fashion
writing “must have blood and brain and pizazz”,
to quote the movie Funny Face.
The same
statement applies to the pictures that go hand in hand with fashion journalism
and blogging. Fashion is not dull, so why should it be portrayed in words and
images that do not show the same sense of amazement? Photo shots and articles
should be so fascinating that butterflies still feel like caterpillars when
they fly over them. As if prettiness was
only a matter of surface: a nice body, a nicely cut fabric and a famous name.
Fashion is not nice, it is fabuleuse,
wunderschön, meravigliosa… it is like Monet’s Water Lilies. Have you ever seen
anything like that?
Any little girl old enough to write can
describe a dress, a haircut or a lipstick. She will say that the lipstick is
red, not ‘fierce burgundy’ or ‘spring strawberry’ or ‘rouge allure’ (the latter
is the name of the most precious Chanel lipstick I have ever seen, 14 Passion
is my shade). Of course to name a thing one must own the Shakespearean
‘seething brain’. One of the most inspirational women of the Twentieth Century,
Diana Vreeland, thought that “the only real elegance is in the mind, if one got
that, the rest really comes from it”. I acknowledged once again the truth of
this statement today, while reading an article on the current American Vogue: “Blame it on the spring
collections, where fashionable hearts found themselves fluttering in time to
the wildly romantic overtures of a sorbet-colored shift or a shredded pastel
hem. Suddenly, pretty sounded positively loaded with transformative potential.”
I will end as I started, talking about Vogue
Italia, probably the most glamorously valuable published magazine, for a series
of reasons that I will not spare to you. The artistic quality is undeniable,
the ideas are as ordinary as a cacatua in the Highlands, the vocabulary is
stretched and dig in depth, the visual part is a kaleidoscope of little pretty
things and the director is Franca Sozzani. Everyday this creative woman
dedicates a thought to her readers on her blog on vogue.it (that, lucky you, is
also available in English). The website perfectly matches with the paper
edition, enriched with anything you could possibly love about the couture realm and its surroundings. One
of the pearls of the website are the Vogue Dolls, 5 belles each with her look of the day, combining the last trend of
showing outfits to the fashion illustration tradition.
La fête n’est pas finie for today’s (wannabe) journalists,
bloggers and photographers: a whole world of creativity is waiting for your
wit. Open the last issue of Vogue Italia, be enchanted by the images page after
page, if you can read eagerly every single line and fancy the stories behind
that glossy coloured paper. Be inspired, wear your glasses, put your hands on
the keyboard or on your scrapbook and create the poetry of tomorrow’s fashion
carillon.
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| My Pink Game by Noumeda Carbone http://www.vogue.it/en/trends/the-trend-blog/2012/02/my-pink-game-nuomeda-carbone |
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