Just as Vogue magazine took a bit of a break from actual fashion to deliver this awe inspiring photo shoot, I felt moved enough to veer from my regular handbags discussion to talk about it. For those of you who haven`t seen it, the Vogue Italia August issue will likely disgust you—the question is whether it`s for better or worse.
The shoot depicts model Kristin Mcmenamy slathered in oil, literally tarred and feathered, washed up on a blackened shore, and at times even choking on the crude. it is far from pretty. The fashion in it (wiry, torn dresses, feathers and fishnets, torn black gloves and bonnets) is secondary, to say the least. And no, there are no handbags to be found. But it is compelling, it makes you want to look, it stirs up opinion and emotion. So, is that a good thing?
For once Something more important Than the Clothes
I say yes. The argument against it is that high fashion has no business commenting on a political issue like this or making some sort of statement on ethics. that it`s hypocritical. The fear is that it glorifies or trivializes the BP oil spill as opposed to raising awareness—after all, who`s going to read a fashion magazine and be compelled to action? well, me, I guess!
I`m not really into the whole argument about fashion being art, art being politics—it`s too abstract to me. For me it`s simple. The oil spill was/is a huge deal, big enough to seep into every area of our culture and in the middle of the disaster it`s fitting for the world`s leading fashion magazine to depict fashion as overcome by the big spill. It`s as if for once there`s something more important than what the model is wearing!
The fact is, I can`t stop thinking about the oil spill when I`m looking at these photos, and I want to do something about it. Vogue Italia`s president was quoted as saying that the photos are not political, not social, only visual. I don`t believe him. I think they know perfectly well how powerful the images are—and they intended it. I`m not usually in for the old provocative-to-get-attention thing, but in this case I think it`s perfectly justified.
Here is a Vogue video about the making of the shoot: