Fashion: a world where most debates center on how many sheer taffeta ruffles should envelope a runway-bound prepubescent model to keep her underwraps yet cheekily overexposed. A world most struggle to take seriously when it enters a dialect reserved for activism and begins to pose questions of an elevated cultural value.
Perhaps the roadblock is a defense mechanism. Fashion houses are fickle, like a fair-weather friend; they tell you to run out in the latest/greatest cropped harem pant, only to run an article the following week mocking those foolish enough to shorten their silhouette with a pair.
Fashion is an industry known for being creative, but it is only alive because it is lucrative.
To stay in the black, financially, industry leaders (especially, it seems, those with a personal aversion to donning color) curate elaborate shows and entertain customers with a myriad of media contests. Essentially, fashion thrives on attention. Some Vogue readers flipped to see model Kristen McMenamy face-down, tangled in a net and saw a disgusting capitalization on a tragic event. Others viewed McMenamy as a personification of the harmful effects of environmental destruction.
The spread entitled "Water and Oil" in Italian Vogue marked a maturation of the type of attention fashion seeks. Shot tastefully by Steven Meisel, it somehow stirred up high-school type drama, according to MSNBC. It was a spread meant to inspire action, liven readers with a powerful visual representation of environmental damage that newscasters had droned on about for months.
Franca Sozzani, editor in-chief, explained that the spread was new means to the same end. Skilled communication is often laden with images, whether those are painted with brushstrokes or assembled in syllables. The images-- a wounded bird spitting up water in a feathered gown coated in oil-- are meant to make an environmental statement.
"The message is to be careful about nature," Sozzani told the AP. "Just to take care more about nature."While the magazines motives suggest that fashion can enter a dialogue once reserved for social activist groups, the public reaction to the spread indicates some serious mistrust. Forums are flooded with complaints that fashion "has reached further levels of portraying the tragic as hip."
Editor-in-chief Franca Sozzani claims that the spread was a visual means to explore the damage that has been tossed around for months through only some of our means for communication, written and oral. Sozzani knew the risk of publishing social commentary on current events. She said, "I understand that it could be shocking to see and to look in this way, at these images."
Some Gulf residents hope the spread will have a impact, perhaps repackage a message whose initial inertia is fading. It has been reported that some see the spread as a fair attack on BP, while others say it's inappropriate and insensitive. I think the spread has a serious tone that respects the gravity of the issue it portrays. It inspired me to research the damage and I uncovered this indisputable fact: A single gallon of oil creates an oil slick up to a couple of acres in size. The BP oil slick spread over 580 square miles in just its first three days.
