Natural fashion - the beauty of you!

“Natural beauty is boundless, and now it is a source of endless artistic inspiration and wonder.” - The Coiffure Project

As simple as black and white....

This is an amazing celebration of the "African Queen" but unfortunately it lets itself down on the final photoshoot. Once again we have been misrepresented, misunderstood and ignored by the fashion and retail industries. This is not the first and I'm sure not the last time that celebrities like Beyonce and the media in general will get it wrong all in the name of of "fashion".

In the 2009 Chris Rock film "Good Hair". Rock embarks on an exploration into how we relate to "good hair" being anything but the natural state of our own tresses. Black females have an abundance of issues regarding hair texture and skin colour and the reinforcement of these issues by the fashion, media, hair and beauty industries in the western world certainly is not helping.

Just think in an industry obsessed by creating "the look" they feel is more sell-able and buyer friendly. Where does that leave the the female consumer whose ethnicity has "the look" they are trying to erase?

Rihanna has agreed that her skin was lighter at the start of her career

Below is a statement from the website of  a well known UK high street beauty retailer. A recent shopping experience I had with this health and beauty retailer bought the issue of skin colour a little too close to home

"We believe Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the key to being an innovative, forward thinking and healthy company."

Gabby Sidibe on the cover of Ebony and again on Elle

From this statement you would be lead to expect a shopping experience of inclusion not exclusion. But in a country where over 1.5 million are from an ethnic background of black origin and in a country where black females spend twice as much on beauty and hair products than their white counterparts.

It seems women of all ethnicities are under colour scrutiny.
 Indian Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan on Elle India

UK retailers continue to choose to ignore countless females with darker skin tones.
Below is the response I received when an unpleasant in store experience with the above well known UK high street beauty retailer forced me to bring this issue to the attention of their head office:

"I am really sorry to hear how disappointed you are with the shades of cosmetics we have in our stores.  We want to ensure that we offer a range that is suitable to all of our customers and we're sorry that you feel the shades we sell aren't suitable for darker skins."

After such a traumatic experience (and yes it was traumatic as this was about more than makeup) I had contacted them to express my disgust that they did not stock foundation shades for black skin tones. I was supposed to be in the UK capital at their “flagship” store but the innovation and forward thinking ethos of the brand was certainly not reflected here. When questioning the floor staff members no-one could understand why they did not stock shades appropriate for my tone. They knew as I did that there are many make-up brands that provide for darker skin women (in fact nearly all do). The market was there for the products and I was informed by staff that there had been countless requests to Head Office by staff and consumers to support this. But still in this modern era and in a country as ethnically diverse as the UK. I was stood once again feeling frustrated, saddened and overwhelm by another retailer’ choice to dismiss my skin colour and my race from their makeup ­­­shelves. This continual racial discrimination from such retail brands is common practice amongst high street beauty retailers in the UK. This is the way it has always been and now we are accustomed to having to travel to certain areas of the city that will cater for the beauty needs of the forgotten female. London is the biggest culprit for this divide and sell culture. Even though it has the largest population of non-white residents in the country, areas such as Brixton and Peckham have become the main stomping ground for the black beauty consumer. I guess this is because high street retailers cannot see why we would want to venture further than these borough borders. And unfortunately for the black consumer the idea that we might want to buy our beauty products along with our retail shopping in Topshop or Mango has completely escaped their thinking. So does this mean that they feel that we are content with this current system or does this mean that they do not think of us at? I’m not sure which one is more offensive the lack of consumer awareness or the complete extraction of our existence. Leaving us out of their target consumer group has reduced us to having limited availability (of reasonably priced products), buying online from countries like America and even sometimes poor quality and unregulated beauty products (not so much hair).

On further reflection I can see that the high street hair and beauty retailer is not the only offender. They are a dissemination of the industry within fashion as a whole. With top designers being infamously know for refusing to use black models on the catwalk. Beauty and fashion magazine running editorials, advertorials, product reviews and beauty and hair advice rarely relating to the black consumer. The retail stocking policy of this brand is just a harsh reflection of what is happening throughout the industry. White models are being used to promote black skin tone as a fashion feature. While the same industry denies black models and consumers access to the golden gate.

 No work for black models but plenty for blackfaced models - seem fair??
 Sasha Pivovarova and Heidi Mount for  V magazine 2009

Blackfaced Lara Stone for French Vogue 2009 another faux pas!

But every cloud has its silver lining no matter how thin that lining is. The ethnic consumer around the world has looked inward for inspiration and from this has created a range of high quality beauty and fashion magazines, websites and blogs. We have built our own subculture of beauty and with the support of people just like myself and my friend Angela White. It has given the black female a platform for our opinions, problems and questions to be heard.  As a consumer I would like to thank those who have dedicated their time and invested their money into bringing information to the main market which is clear, concise and fashionably done. I can only assume a combination of frustration, opportunity and research was how this once thought to be impossible feat was actualised. I am of course all for supporting smaller community retailers but it makes you ponder. What wonders retail brands could achieve if decided to invest the same amount of effort into ethnic consumer?

Below I've created a list of online beauty, hair, fashion and lifestyle publications. I find them a great source of inspiration when trying to source information and advice which relate to me. I still ready the occasional main stream magazine but these are the ones who keep me believing that I'm not excluded from the race:

PRIDE                                                                                      Related Guardian newspaper article - 2011
EBONY
FASHION BOMB DAILY
BLACK BEAUTY AND HAIR
FASHIZBLACK
COCO AND CREME
ESSENCE
AFROBELLA
CURLIES (get advice and purchase products for British curlies of all ethnicities)

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Pri-mani / Foe-mani

 The day after tomorrow......

In an era where we are becoming more conscious of our relationship with ourselves and our environment. Such phrases as "sustainable", "eco-friendly", "bio-degradable" and "ethical fashion" are becoming more common. But even with this current "trend" throw away fashion shops like Primark are popping up everywhere including the infamous Oxford Street, London. Encouraging shoppers into a frenzied overspend on low quality disposable garments. Brown paper bags strewn all over a busy high street a symbolization of how little the maddening crowd think about their effect not only on the environment both local and global; but also on the way they value themselves. Buying for the now and never thinking about the future.

In 2008 a Telegraph newspaper article pointed out MP's had recorded in just one local London area a 23 percent rise within 5 years of textile waste! People were calling it the "Primark effect" non lasting and non-biodegradable garments poisoning our earth and our common sense.

This is a table by MADE-BY ("a European not-for-profit organisation with a mission to make sustainable fashion common practice and improve environmental and social conditions in the fashion industry"). It is a guide to the materials we used in clothing manufacturing and their toxicity to our planet. These fabrics produce green house gases, human toxicity, eco-toxicity, their energy usage, their water usage and land use. MADE-BY have classified raw materials from most sustainable; (Class A), to least sustainable (Class E). The materials which have been labeled as 'unclassified’ are due to lack of sufficient research to their toxicity classification.

If you type into Google "Primark effect" countless articles from newspapers around the UK and websites like The Ecologist will appear. Stating facts that while general waste has decrease in our landfills. Textile waste has exploded to over one million tonnes. Now many will say that Primark offers them financially accessible fashion (a necessary evil) but at what cost? In the beginning Primark was a modest retail outlet in Ireland called Penneys. It was (I guess) there to bring those on lower or virtually no income affordable high street prices. It served a purpose; average quality clothes at low cost that were on trend enough to make the wearer feel alluring and fashionable. 

Then somewhere along the way probably about the time it opened its doors on Oxford Street and started to feature in fashion bibles like Vogue. Primark lost its purpose and we lost our minds. Hoards of raging tourists and gold card waving shopaholics littering the streets outside Primark's most prized profit maker with brown bags that fall apart with the weight of the excess they have consumed. While some will genuinely need "some" of the mound that they carry. Most will be determined just to buy because they can or because they can't walk 50 feet to another store. Where for a couple of pounds extra they can be the proud owner of an outfit which will last them longer than a week.

If international fashion brands like Levi can see the damage that we humans do. Why can't we the shopping public stop and think before we consume? Levi's have invented a new manufacturing process and created Water<Less™ jeans. Water<Less™ jeans are part of a campaign to donate 200 million litres of water to communities around the world.

While I myself have bought in "Foe-mani" stores in years gone by I have noticed that while their prices have gone up their quality has gone down. I believed in what I believed their original ethos was but with popularity and profit came expansion and depreciated quality. I often think if that makes me a woman scorned or just someone who has been educated to think past the day after tomorrow.

As a woman who has woken up to companies like "Foe-mani" I have continued on a path of enlightenment to recycled/ sustainable fashion. Involving myself with the London College of Fashion and projects like their "Sustainable Fashion" project.

Below: Me and the wonderful Designer Loula Mercedes working on reinventing a moth eaten coat. Loula is a student on the Masters Course "Fashion and the Environment" at London College of Fashion. She is also the Creative Director of Inmakulate a sustainable and ethical lifestyle brand.

We decided to embrace the "villain" that had destroyed a beautiful tailored cashmere coat. With some embroidery and hand stamped moth prints. Cheeky I know but creative minds work in amusing ways!



The coat in action after we had it retailored and restyled.



On exhibit at the Community Repair Exhibition May 2010

Well my preaching is over and I hope if anything I have at least given you with some food for thought. So while you digest this article I will leave you with this:
Wikipedia: Sustainable design (also called environmental design, environmentally sustainable design, environmentally conscious design, etc.) is the philosophy of designing physical objects, the built environment, and services to comply with the principles of economic, social, and ecological sustainability.

Selfridges Oxford Street London June 2011

 

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Fickle with Fashion - Committed with Art

  

Alexander McQueen A/W 2006

Can fashion be art or can art be fashionable? When applying to fashion degree courses many times I heard the phrase "But this course is very fashion". So are they implying that I'm not? As you will see from my work again and again I am more than "fashion" I am an artist with style! Fashion is fickle while style and creativity are timeless. All you have to do is look at great "style icons" such as Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and Coco Chanel. They didn't follow fashion they WERE fashion! They didn't follow trends they BECAME trends! Again and again we see creative ingenious minds who broke the mould like Alexander McQueen, Grace Coddington and Issey Miyake. Fine artists who looked beyond the limitations and constraints of "fashion" and bought us thought provoking, awe-inspiring and eccentric works of art!

Visual CV of me and my homage
 to McQueen and Grace Coddington

Below: Original illustration of me

 by my friend and fellow creative

 Natasha Zierhofer. Editing

graphics and re-styling done by moi 

With this blog I intend to take you through a journey that will expand your mind beyond the traditional and the expected! So the next time you try to put someone into a box so you can understand where they fit into your perception of the norm. Try putting them on the outside near the edge and then maybe just maybe you will see a little clearer.

Issey Miyake

I am a visual person I love colour and light and the emotions you can invoke with these elements. I am creative person I am a stylist, an art director, an illustrator, a photographer and many other ""things"" that I can turn my hand to. I am complexed but focused. I am business minded but imaginative. I am fashion but artistic. I have set my sights on one career but will overlap into many. Creatives such as Barbara Kruger started out as an artist, then moved into graphic design, then magazine art direction and finally back to being an artist. From her own conceptual art practice to design for fashion publications like Mademoiselle and to art direction for House and Garden magazine. As you will see from the pictures below. Barbara Kruger and her unique style adapted to which ever medium she was using to express her talent.

Magazine Nov 2010 issue staring Kim Kardashian by Barabra Kruger

Barbara Kruger 1987

Babara Krugers Plenty Exhibition

For my end of year college exhibition I wanted to display my love of art installations using my favourie mediums of light and colour. I was ready to prove to the fashion world and others that fine art lives within fashion and like my inspiration Grace Coddington ("Coddy") I will not take no for an answer..........


So with a a lot of white paint a paper mached tree......


A video that was created with inks, oil and and an overhead projector.............

                               

I ended up with this...........

Before projected movie was added

And not forgeting the promo stickers....... 

After projected movie (my little slice of serenity)

..........I designed myself - after all I am a Fashion Communication student!



Sienna Miller Photographed by Mario Testino for the September 2007 Issue of Vogue





Joy to the world:
 Tonne Goodman, Grace Coddington,
 Steven Meisel and John Galliano Dec 2009

                     

    

 

Vogue: Grace Coddington
Model: Raquel Zimmermann

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