Runway Music

Music is often essential to runway shows. When done well it complements the collection and its mood or theme. The soundtracks we hear on the runway can be mixes of pop songs, songs we haven’t heard on the radio before, and possibly just atmospheric sound that we would consider ‘music’ in the least. Regardless, as the Drexel Fashion show approaches we need to look out for a few things.

Picking music for a collection may be different than picking music for a runway show performance. If you are only showing garments, make sure that flowing satin or chiffon is accompanied by either ethereal music or upbeat energetically pure music. You want sounds that linger and fill the air with its presence in a delicate but unmistakable way.

However, if your collection is a little more on edgy with the sass of a strong, independent and seductive woman…you’ll want to refer to runway music choices like that featured in Balmain or Alexander Wang shows. 

Or perhaps you are creating a whole new world for your audience to experience. Enlisting them to separate their minds from expected prints and shapes to those they have not yet experienced. With the help of one of the most famous Alexander McQueen collections as inspiration, you’ll be able to wow the crowd.

It’s possible you’d like to mix a little bit of disorienting spoken word into your collection, because it has a quirky style about it. Reminiscent with love poems and current dissatisfaction of societies enchanted or close-minded views. Take a tip from Prada and let them know what they want, before they ever wanted it.

Always remember, your music should have a beat consistent to the pace you want your models to walk. Music can be slowed down or sped up. Mix a few inspiring songs together in a runway playlist to show the change in segments or occasions in your collection. Your runway playlist can also just be pure sound effects, with no defined tune or melody. Such a track works for conceptual and minimalist collections, which emphasize its most important elements of form, or color, experimentation of new or reworked grounds. This is your art, music should not subtract from the audience experience of your pieces, but add to it.

That being said I will leave you with this:
Your music can be distracting, but still consistent with your clothes:

....OR make your collection a hit that is talked about for seasons after:

GOOD LUCK OUT THERE, IT IS YOUR TIME TO SHINE!

It's Fashion...Fashion Film

Fashion film often plays a large role in cultivating the image of a brand. It is most useful today when social media is a huge component of selling merchandise and reaching customers on a global scale. It has become a more cost effective marketing tool for many brands large and small. And has also become another creative outlet for many. The creative films are worth paying attention to, as well.

Fashion film can be very direct or quite abstract. More direct fashion films may be short and appear commercial-like.While others are truly short films designed with an in-house set, wardrobes, accessories and products. The highly regarded brand of Chanel often releases fashion films. They are typically written, directed, and/or shot by Karl Lagerfeld himself. The films are effective in depicting what a Chanel world of luxury looks like. It brings the brand’s fantasy characters to life. A film might show various Chanel girls and demonstrate the standards of the brand and its aspired lifestyle. Fashion films help customers and enthusiast be a part of the brand and its world and ideals. One film I often enjoy watching from Chanel, due to its ornate and lavish depictions is the following:

Fashion films often have the power and purpose to make people buy into their brand and its products. I will never forget my first experience with fashion film. It was the designer shoe house, Tod’s. (Not a bad first time partner, right?) It was a film which featured ballet dancers interpreting the process of creating a hand crafted Tod’s shoe. I was stunned by the sheer beauty of the performance. I was also entranced by the intensity of the music. And not only that I was learning and embracing the Italian pride deeply embedded in both the film and the company. After watching it, I quickly ran to my father’s closet and claimed all his Tod’s shoes, or at least a few pairs he was willing to relinquish! I wanted to be apart of the brand. I was proud of the brand!

The most recent brand I am proud of is Miu Miu. I loved that their fashion film contained social commentary along within its artistically abstract performance. The first, being that it used a made up language. The second, being that the content included the issue of class warfare on a palatable level. And third, IT GAVE LIFE TO IT’S DRESS! I wanted the dress to be my friend as well. I mean, I prefer to relish in my most awesome clothes within the privacy of those who understand it and give it the same appreciation as I do (not just for a flash and space in a tabloid). Check out the video and comment on my post with your reaction to the film.

In our technologically savvy society, it is now time to not only pay attention to the clothes and how the clothes are responding to or disengaging from society, but also what the brand as a whole has to say via its fashion films. The films serve as art and are just as purposeful to the brand as it’s runway shows and campaigns.  

What's Your Staple Collection?

Have you ever had a collection that just spoke to your personal style or has seemingly almost wholly altered your style there after? It’s amazing what references we hold and allow to influence our sense of style. I personally have one collection which really serves as a reference for my current style.

So what’s your staple collection? My staple collection would be Burberry’s Spring 2009. I know, I know…it’s not the most exclusive brand and certainly not the most ornate and deeply exciting (in its newer collections). However, Burberry and Prada were two houses that sobered my eyes to the fashion scene. I had always known brands from Rodeo Drive…and Caesar’s…and Harrod’s, as my mom was a shopper. She always shopped for my dad and me. I had a shallow understanding of fashion and had never before developed my own style stemming from a catalogue, let alone a runway.

Either way, I found my way out a cave and to the world of fashion as I was prepping for a trip to France. You see, I was told France was a stylish place and I would already be judged as an American. So, if I wanted to enjoy myself I had to learn a few French phrases beside, “voulez vous coucher avec moi.” So, I finally started paying attention when my mom and I went into a boutique or department store. I quickly realized the significance of fashion week, and the celebrity behind the fashion world. Long story short, I discovered Burberry’s campaign ads at the time. They featured this cool dude, named George Craig, who later was featured on their musically infused “Art of the Trench” campaign in the Fall that year, and Alex Pettyfer, a teen movie star at the time. 

The Spring collection blew my mind, because I had always believed the world of fashion was so strict and “done-up”. That year the collection was smoothly rugged and infused with nature. I loved everything about it, being that I loved safari and wanted to be the male Jane Goodall during those days. What I loved most were the relaxed silhouettes, and the elongated and slimming shirts. It’s lightweight look was enticing to the free-spirited feel I looked for among people who always dressed preppy or dripping in diamonds just to go to the grocer (if that wasn't the assistant or chief’s job)! Nonetheless, I started to surround myself with the subdued palette, including of bold colors or metallics in my layers when needed.

Yet it was not just the clothes that sealed my love for Burberry at the time, but their addition of Emma Watson in their ad campaigns the next few seasons. I could not get enough of Burberry, to the point that’s all I wanted my mom to buy me. Don’t worry before I made any tragic over branding mistakes, I didn’t care for the Nova Check pattern. Rather I just wanted anything with the label, and so I started to recognize the difference between the runway collections and department store merchandise. I soon developed the simple taste for the Brit collection, then the London collection, and then the granddaddy Prorsum. 

(This collection is one reason I love dusters and long proportions.)

While I am inspired by more exciting things when I dress up these days, the 2009 spring collection is my daily inspiration for everyday wear. I’m a lot more relax in my style after developing a taste for minimalist aesthetic based on unique quality, longevity and wear ability. Being that I spend most time on a college campus, I put a good effort in my clothing decisions when I go out for dinners and events. But even going out for a dinner or ceremony, I’ll loosen my Band of Outsiders tie from around my hybrid Alexander Wang button down as it drapes over my rag and bone denim, which is wrinkled at my leg due to my trusty 7 for all mankind leather boots. It’s just enough and not too much, and mostly because I’m not wearing anything from my favorite all black section of my wardrobe. But that’s a whole separate story!