Where does fashion's democratization leave you?

 Photography Credits: Le Blog de Betty (Betty Autier)

The democratization of fashion has done little to remove the homogeneity that encompasses runways shows, and the groupthink within the industry’s recruits. Instead, the fact that fashion is more accessible today than ever before has turned events like fashion week into media spectacles. Is it fair to say that nothing in fashion is truly exclusive anymore? Earlier this year Shala Monroque’s Garage premiered its Take My Picture docu-film. Having partaken in fashion media relations myself for quite some time, I watched this film with much interest. 

  

Anna Wintour's first ever Vogue cover is said to portray the beginning of fashion's democratization 

The rest of the world might view fashion to be a self-serving force. I have no problem with that, and if you've been exposed to the industry you’d know that when events that shook the world took place, such as the 2009 financial meltdown, fashion remained in its self-serving corner. My concern has more to do with the craze that sweeps across cities during fashion season. Fashion weeks were initially established to allow for the seasonal buying business model to take form. This was back when fashion buyers would buy items from the runway 6 months before they were in season. Then came the globalization of fashion. Stores opened up everywhere from Shanghai to Hong Kong. In trying to remain as exclusive as possible, retailers persuaded fashion houses to add more collections to their calendar years, such as resort, pre-fall, and cruise collections etc. This move allowed for a store in Hong Kong, for example, to have in their inventory an item which had just been revealed, while garnering the store enough time to order new items within season. These pre-collections have also contributed to the democratization of fashion because of the way they generate spin and publicity. Add an increasingly aggressive fast fashion business environment, diffusion lines, collaborative execution models and you have what we have today, a revealingly disjointed structure which is failing to capture what or who is truly influential in the present fashion times. 

TAKE MY PICTURE from GARAGE Magazine on Vimeo.

Democratization begins at an individual level. Being able to write a product review or a blog on something is truly empowering. Being able to fly to Paris to take a snapshot of something that won’t be out for another 6 months is an even more exciting spectacle. But, if 50 000 people show up to do the exact same thing as you, and another million more online watching from their desktops, it’s no longer an event that truly depicts the essence of the craft, it’s a marketing drive! Let’s just rather watch Manchester United vs Arsenal; same idea in terms of ratings, just more unpredictable with regards to the outcome! In closing, I would like to say that the social web is new to all of us. We have seen how a simple Tweet can start an uprising, and how a Facebook post can spark outrage. Fashion is not isolated from these occurrences and it can’t view itself as being any special. In democratizing its presence, fashion has to let go of its homogeneity. Same faces, same designs, same view points. Where has fashion’s democratization left you? It has left me rather isolated.  

Mabu by Ntokozo Kunene

A friend of mine recently launched her brand at the South African Fashion Week (SAFW) earlier this month. I’ve known Ntee for about 3 years now, and I can say she inspires me a lot even though I hardly tell her that. She’s currently finishing off her fashion design degree at a prestigious fashion academy in London; where she’s been based for the past three and a half years or so. It is through her ‘passion for fashion’ that she took upon this journey to pursue a career in fashion overseas. 

 Ntee burst into the scene last year when she was selected as a finalist for Elle’s young designer competition. I remember I had been in South Africa that July and the show was to take place around September. I got my invite through our ‘once in a while’ Gmail updates, but would miss the show because I had to be back in France when in took place. It was only this January that I got the news of the SAFW participation as Mabu, a brand which she has dedicated to her mother and to women.  This would be Ntee’s time to shine. 

 I believe that Ntee will accomplish great things through Mabu. She definitely sees things in a new light… a breath of fresh air through the industry back home. I also admire how she pushes herself; this is somebody who only started the Mabu collection late last year under short notice.I am proud to be associated with people like her, and I wish her all the best.