Representation of fashion collection in crisis conditions

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Representation of fashion collection in crisis conditions

Kvasnytsia Roksoliana Ph D, Senior Lecturer

Department of Design and Fundamentals of Architecture Lviv Polytechnic National University, Ukraine

It is a personal resilience that plays a key role in a person's ability to successfully cope with stressful situations. There are many scientific studies and publications about the concept of "hardiness". The founder of this term is Suzanne C. Kobasa(Maddi and Kobasa, 2019). American psychologist Salvatore Maddi (Salvatore R. Maddi) went on with the study of this concept. He argues in his creations that resilience and strategies have its' contribution to a resilience under stress. Muddy also interprets the resilience as a generalized way of functioning, including cognitive, emotional, and behavioral qualities. This style of functioning affects way a person perceives himself and interacts with the world around him (Maddi, 2014). In this context, we will consider fashion presentation and space design as factors influencing the stressful circumstances' transformation into opportunities for personal and interpersonal growth while being in the destructive conditions of crisis situation.

One of the important factors in rebuilding the state and overcoming the humanitarian crisis is the creation of an optimally comfortable, life-affirming design of the environment (where a person will feel happy), by using innovative approaches, reforms and transformations. Another important factor is "fashion". Clothing in wartime becomes very symbolic, takes on a sacred meaning (where people take the most valuable things during emigration process); it is an emotion (fashion for getting dressed patriotically); it is ethnic identification and self-identification. A beautiful image, a new thing or an accessory can prevent depression. The desires' dreams get done though a purchase transaction. We buy emotional associations with the world that's declared by a fashion designer. Creating the dream factor is fundamental when it comes to creating such emotional associations as is. fashion collection kobasa

Our research is based on the heterotopological method originating from the philosophy of Michel Foucault. The method reflects the use of the specific social function of heterotopology and the ways of interaction of visuality and space in the fashion collections' presentations, where it serves as a place with the power to contrast different spaces seeming incompatible with each other. Foucault proposes the approach conceptualization methods of the spatial social world's dimension, that didn't loose its relevance nowadays. Since visual images and, accordingly, visual perception increasingly influence the life of modern society, as a result they play one of the key roles in modern design trends. The formation of a person's self-awareness and social communication today are largely determined by the one's constant presence in the heterogeneous visual environments. (Бедаш. Ю., 2010)

We will analyze the way the military destruction was reflected in scenography, space design and fashion photography based on the othet countries' experience.

In recent decades, there has been a fashion for photographing fashion collections surrounded by urban ruins, that served as a kind of attempt to give new meaning to these very spaces. However, this tendency is filled with a deep ideological content. The ruins associated with industrial zones and residential development are usually the result of poor architectural urban planning, lack of proper maintenance of structures, etc., but not for fashion designers and photographers: their shape, texture and color become attractive surroundings for shooting (Quinn, 2003). However, the ruins as a result of the war evoke completely different emotions, and photos on such a background (ruins) will acquire a completely different meaning and content. Because it is clear that they were not the result of the gradual destruction of the building, but a result of bombings and brutal military intervention. In her essay "Fashion in Ruin: Photography, Luxury and Derelict in 1940s London", Rebecca Arnold is analyzing how wartime destruction was reflected in fashion photography. The author notes that "a photo session of haute couture models against the background of bomb-mutilated ruins of London acquires different connotations, and femininity expressed in clothes, gesture and pose is problematized as a result." We will consider the wartime photo session of the famous British photographer Cecil Beaton as a following example. A woman on a pictured photo in an immaculate hat and gloves, in a worn suit, is standing among the debris in the destroyed space of the city. This image by Cecil Beaton suggests that wom en' lives go on, but they cannot be neither indifferent to the world around them, nor remain the same (Arnold, 2017). The photograph was conceived for the British magazine "Vogue" in 1941. Cecil Beaton's photographs emphasize the contrasts between luxury, escapism and desire, and demonstrate the impact of war on the urban environment and its inhabitants.

"Heterotopias as a background for fashion should create a sense of reality by attracting the viewer to these urban wastelands, where inhabitants have saved their clothes, but not the world they live in," says Bradley Quinn in his work "Architecture Fashion"(Quinn, 2003). He cites the example of Martin Marzhela's early works with collections filled with spatial and social signs and demonstrate the potential of heterotopias. Martin Margiela is a Belgian fashion designer, artist, performer and founder of the luxury French fashion house Maison Margiela. The beginning of the 1990s is traced in historywith the collapse of the social order, economic recession and wars in the Balkans and the Middle East, the collapse of the Soviet Union. Marzhela's concept is based on his drawing a parallel between worn/useless clothes and neglected areas of the city, ruins, which he compares to a "war zone" or "wasteland". Despite an existing space that may outlive its original purpose and the social parameters that define its forms, functions and structures, it can be restored to its primary being without necessarily changing the building elements preserved in it (Quinn, 2003). While his collection presentation, Martin Margela gives a different meaning to certain spaces in Paris for a short period of time. As an example we'll refer to several shows. In 1989, it was a children's playground in the 20th arrondissement of Paris (Arrondissement de Menilmontant) that became the presentation space for the fashion show. Instead of professional models the show was attended by strangers passing by, friends and acquaintances, with children kept running around during the show. In October 1989, he held a show in an empty Paris lot, in 1990 he presented his spring collection in a huge industrial zone warehouse, in the fall he held a fashion show in Boulevard Barbes area using an abandoned parking lot . Marjela created a new identity for both spaces and clothes with this way of using fashion. Traditionally associated with the "Luxury" class the fashion space acquired a new meaning, for fashion shows took place in an everyday environment in order to demonstrate the contradiction of meanings and values.

In 2014, John Galliano became the creative director of "Maison Martin Margiela". His Spring/Summer 2020 Defile collection at Paris Fashion Week Grand Palais was featuring models dressed in World War I and World War II uniforms. The Parade collection is about freedom, hope and activism(Davidson.B.B, 2019). The designer presented uniforms for nurses, army, navy and aviation on the catwalk. The scenography of this show had its clear political overtones and was a key transmitter of certain contents. While a German model Leon Deim's fibnal walk during the fashion show resulted in its viral sensation within internet space. The dissonance of the collection and scenography concept along with the grand architectural structure of the Beaux-Arts styled Grand Palais space is serving a vivid example of demonstrating the potential of heterotopias.

Photo sessions and presentations of fashion collections during military operations create numeral questions particularly the question of norms as an element of ethical consciousness, moral values in the modern world, etc.

The Ukrainian designers' presentation of collections on various catwalks of the world while an ongoing war becomes one of the effective ways of making an impact on a global public awareness. It (awareness) is considered for a wide distribution in order to attract the mass media attention as well as to gain further public resonance.

The scenography of these very shows in particular broadcasts designer's reflections on ongoing events. Such presentations perform political, social, cultural and economic functions. Ahead of everything those very presentations are extremely important for the designer from the concept's view psychological point of "hardiness" (as an individual, as a creative personality, as a patriot of his country) and all participants in particular, as well as for the Ukrainian fashion industry as a whole (as a declaration to the world that that very fashion continues developing in the conditions of destruction, where the designer reflects the real situation in a most possibly adequate).

The war's impact research of the analysis based on the scenography and space design concept remain relevant when it comes to fashion brands' and fashion films' commercials.

References:

[1] Arnold, R. (2017) 'Fashion in Ruins: Photography, Luxury and Dereliction in 1940s London', Fashion Theory - Journal of Dress Body and Culture, 21(4), pp. 341-363. doi: 10.1080/1362704X.2016.1254426.

[2] Davidson.Е.Е (2019) Galliano gets political with activist-inspired Margiela show, dazed. Available at: https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/artide/46194/1/maison-margiela- ss20-collection-john-galliano-paris-fashion-freedom-activism-eu (Accessed: 14 March 2023).

[3] Maddi, S. R. (2014) 'Hardiness leads to meaningful growth through what is learned when resolving stressful circumstances', Meaning in Positive and Existential Psychology, pp. 291 - 302. doi: 10.1007/978-1 -4939-0308-5_17.

[4] Maddi, S. R. and Kobasa, S. C. (2019) 'The Development of Hardiness', Stress and Coping: an Anthology, pp. 245-257. doi: 10.7312/MONA92982-020.

[5] Quinn, B. (2003) 'The fashion of architecture', Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, p. 288.

[6] Бедаш. Ю. (2010) 'Гетеротопология как практическая

философия', ПРАКТИЗАЦИЯ ФИЛОСОФИИ Современные тенденции и стратеги, Вильнюс,pp.139-150.Availableat:

https://kamunikat.org/usie_knihi.html?pubid=16640&lang=EN&ysclid=lf4c70a4ou5535 02672 (Accessed: 11 March 2023).

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