Tag Archives: fashion

Marks & Spencer Shoes

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Look at these beauties. Marks & Spencer £35. That’s right, M&S.
In a word – HOT.

Last week I trawled the shops looking for a pair of black shoes. IMHO Brighton is woefully lacking in shoe shops. OK we’ve all the usual suspects: Office, Aldo, Moda in Pelle, Kurt Geiger, L.K Bennet. This season they are filled with what I can only describe as hooker shoes; if you’re a professional pole dancer there is an abundance of choice. I won’t pay £70-200 on mass produced high street shoes. I’d rather throw another £100 in the pot and buy a well-made designer shoe for life, but alas this is not an option on my budget . So, as I trudged home empty handed, almost seething and seriously considering opening my own shoe shop, I thought I would at least pop into M&S and buy some hold ups. Whilst in hosiery, maybe just maybe I thought … and so I drifted into the shoe section. Ohmydays, congrats to M&S, their collection is full of reasonably priced Jimmy Choo, D&G and Pedro Garcia inspired loveliness.

The next day I dragged a friend in to a branch to show her and we both came out with a pair of these (£25).

Cue facebook update to spread the word, followed by derision and scoffing by my following that M&S are not trendy; I’m just getting older.

M&S have done so well building a myth of sensuality around their food product line and as for the clothing, have enjoyed the Twiggy effect. They now have a new million pound campaign with Mylene Klass, VV Brown, Danni Minogue and Lisa Butcher. The message is glamorous and glossy, yet with connotations of bland Saturday night family entertainment and a Daily Mail readership it’s confusing to me. It’s not fashion. They traverse all demographics offending no one with their middle ground signification; not exactly edgy and definitely not style. And yet M&S have collaborated with the likes of fashionista favourite Patricia Field in the past ( 2008 I think?) and attempted brand synergy through their association with Vogues Fashion night out in September. I do wonder about this? What do regular M&S shoppers make of it all and is the brand mediating confusing mixed messages?

I had a quick scan on the interweb of dreams and found folk think of M&S as the grande dame of the high street. It carries connotations of heritage, britishness, value and quality. All good. However, Per Una is loathed by stylists. I read a few scathing comments about how in the wake of the Madonna effect on the 50+ market M&S should just do away with it. “Oh look there’s Twiggy, aww love her” can’t sustain the brand forever and one camel coloured leather skirt does not a new myth make.

As for me, am I get older? Of course. Less stylish, mais non!  And as Coco Channel once said “style never goes out of fashion”.

Orange Shoes?

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A particular conundrum offered itself this week.

Orange Nike Dunks ?

A non verbal feminist resistance to the onset of old age?


Me. [thinks] I will rock these with a Twentyeighttwelve dress I’ve just bought. But are they inappropriate for the 30+?

Now my daily bread comes from posing difficult questions. Sometimes the Qs are in my head so it’s just me answering, but usually those Qs go out to large groups of students or marketingy creative folks. Normally I ask things like “ Discuss the limits of Habermas’s The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere using a case study of a new/ digital technology of your choice”.

As we were flicking through some old mags, my friend also in her 30s recently commented that she liked Alexa Chung’s style . “Hmmm” I said then thinking about Chung’s penchant for a patent loafa and side slung small handbag, ”but she’s a young woman, why be 30 when you’re 20?” You see I’m like the opposite of Alexa Chung. If I buy these sneaks am I one step a way from being the  old lady with colbalt blue-hair and crazy leggings?  (this statement is not directed at  Zandra Rhodes I like her.)

Fans of Glee might say WWMD? But me,  well it’s more likey to be  ”What would Fiske  the famous popular cultural theorist argue?” Bit much for an acronym  isn’t it.

The problem I’ve with these shoes is to do with codes. These shoes operate as a symbolic ‘sign’ and my cultural capital allows me to make certain readings and draw on other referents in popular culture.  Mainly that I associate with yoot & I am not yoot.

However in these shoes will I be committing a defiant act? Hegemony through footwear? In your face gender/ 30 + clothes nazis (such as Boden) ?

Tweetminster

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I came across tweetminster a couple of days ago, an idea inspired by?tweet congress?and MP Tom Watson?and?Alberto Nardelli.

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Follow and Tweet MPs and Parliamentary Candidates, and use the power of Twitter to track UK politics, make your voice heard and conversations more open. You can take a back seat… or you can tweet.

I must say I really like the concept, despite it being a little utopian. A couple of weeks ago I facilitated a 2 hour seminar with 1styear students on Habermas and the concept of the public sphere, and the media. It was very interesting to hear students views on where they feel social media sits with political engagement. The message from the students was “I don’t understand politics”. Whereas I think tweetminster is a hopeful and positive idea, I wonder who it’s audience is at the moment? I fear it may be engaging the already engaged and wonder how it will tackle the disconnect between those it should be targeting and technological adoption rates. It raises all sorts of interesting questions about digital divides, technology and social inclusion.

I also came across?politics and the city?a website that aims to make politics stylish, founded by C4 presenter June Sarpong.

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The site places political issues along side more light entertainment news, fashion, lifestyle, and celebrity gossip in order to try and capture it’s audience, young women. The site looks lovely, swish and sleek – but I struggled to find spaces of actual engagement.

Radical consumption.

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I’ve been reading Radical Consumption by Jo Littler, which was only published in Jan this year by O.U press.

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From the time I began my own research in 2005 this is one of the most engaging titles I’ve read, perhaps since Health and Potters Rebel Sell. I’ve found it very useful in considering the responses to the consumer interviews I conducted and the practice of what I’m calling double distinction, drawing on Bourdieu’s seminal theory. I’m looking at how participants justify their consumption through individual lifestyle practices, and through passing judgement and distancing themselves from other peoples consumption. More of this one day, but lets wait for a successful viva, before I spill.

Not really to do with my research, but I found the discussion of ethical consumption, worthiness and moralizing particularly interesting and loved the case study ?of US clothing label American Apparrel in the book. I’ve been a tentative fan of American Apparel for some time, but being in my 30s I find some of the lines a little bit too nu rave /juvenile for my own taste. However my boyf who I shall refer to as The Italian here on in in this blog is 5 years older than me and he declared it his new favourite shop the other day. American Apparel use non-model models in their campaigns and the images are often sexual in a readers wives, 70 soft porn kind of way. This allows for an ironic consumptionvia the brand, and for them to move away from the stuffy connotations of worthiness and yogurt weaver fashion slow mo remit of most ethical labels. Really interesting to me as I’m often moaning to my fashion friends that most ethical fashion I’ve come across, offends my style sensibilities.

As I’m on a fashion tip today I wanted to share this beautiful print on my new Echo scarf. I was out scouring with my fashion friend The Forbes, last Saturday and we came across a load of gorgeous scarves in local boutique Sirene. Echo are a family company based in NY, and these prints are from their archives from the 1920s.

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Accessories are brilliant for updating an outfit without spending very much money, so it’s no surprise given the current climate that scarves are going to be a big thing. Not everyone can afford an Hermes so a find like this ‘lovely’ from Echo makes my day.

Chiconomics

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It is very important if you blog to mention the credit crunch. Content is king and these two little words in combination are grande buzz wordos en el blogospheros. Credit crunch, credit crunch, credit crunch. That said, I would like to introduce the fashion practice of chiconomics and to tell you I’m on cardi-watch. In November last year my life changed forever when I was shopping with my big sis in Selfridges, and I tried on the Missoni Avorio wool cardigan coat. For a short while I was enveloped is soft, warm, designer loveliness beyond anything I can really describe. Sadly the coat was priced around £800 which is beyond the budget of a lowly symbolic analyst in waiting (sob). However, it matched my wooly raspberry Uggs so exquisitely that in lieu of actually buying it I thought I’d simply keep it on for a time, whilst I window shopped in the Dries Van Noten concession. Oh it was heaven for 10 long minutes – the cardi was mine. That is, until I had to put the shop assistant who was nervously trailing me around Selfridges 2nd floor out of her misery, and explain that I had no intension of buying the cardigan and not to worry I was neither a loon nor a shop lifter. She responded so graciously as I took it off and handed it over, by telling me that it really suited me. Bless her.

The next best thing to buying, is wearing a garment just for a bit. Much more satisfying than window shopping and cheaper than actually purchasing. I highly recommend it, and it’s my top tip for the credit crunch. I was in Harvey Nichols in Leeds on Saturday, and I did the same thing with one of this seasons Roberto Cavelli knock out dresses. There is no point buying such a thing unless you have a yatch in Portafino, which is the only accessory that will do for that sort of dress. Why waste £875? 

Back to cardi watch. I still really want it & I think about it all the time. It’s reached 30% off on net-a-porter, but I remain firm that I will not purchase it until the price drops a bit more, Missoni or not. It must reach a price that it still cheaper than going on a knitting course at Central St Martins and buying my own flock of sheep to make the wool.

But seriously, no seriously. WTF is going on with the shopping frenzy??!! Yes there are some amazing discounts to be had out there at the mo ( I found £600 off a Prada dress on Saturday) but aren’t we supposed to be in a recession? Burberry were almost giving away clothes on Regent street before Xmas and I heard Superdrug announce an online sale of 99% on Xmas day. That’s not a typo btw. I do mean ninety nine. As I bagan to trawl the retailers of Missoni last week, I can only describe scenes of utter madness something along the lines of a shoal of piranhas stripping the flesh off a plump calf having a paddle.

Marx. Going Up.

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Marx is trendy, official.  I was thrilled to read in the “going up” bit of yesterdays Sunday Times Style supplement, along with Ruebens Apples ( a cross between pink lady and cox), recession shopping  All Saints home, and purple boots, sales of Karl Marx Das Kapital are soaring.

You heard it hear 1st many moons ago, but if Style says – it must be a la mode.

 

Moi and Karl

Moi and Karl

Jumpsuits wrong. Theory right.

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Jumpsuits are on trend, official.

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The last time I wore a jumpsuit was in the 1980s, to Elizabeth Eslers’ birthday party where we went to see Sootie “live”. My passion for fashion and natural inclination towards celebrity began at an early age, since I remember making my poor mum trawl around the shops to find some leather dye to match my party shoes to the jumpsuit just in case Mathew Corbett invited me up on stage.

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One of 2008s key looks will be the jumpsuit as reported by Vogue, The Sunday Times Style supplement, Grazia and me. I am a little unsettled by this. Not sure adults should wear jumpsuits unless they’re a forensic scientist or a skydiver /human cannon ball. I wish to focus on another key trend this year, not the clutch bag, not The Macintosh (raincoat not computer), but having its’ turn on the catwalk, fashion fast-forward – it’s communication theory. Hurrah and Hurraz.

It’s written on the wind
It’s everywhere I go
So if you really love theory
Come on and let it show
You know I love theory, I always will
My mind’s made up by the way that I feel
There’s no beginning, there’ll be no end
‘Cause on theory you can depend la la la la repeat x’s 10.

In the month where I’ve been contacted by someone who described themselves as a discourse consultant and have been doing tricksy things with reflexivity in one of my chapters, I’m happy to commune, communication theory is having its’ day.
Check out the great blog by Grant McCracken (thanks to Mr Mustoe for alerting me to this). The inspired Anthony Mayfield has been discussing communication revolutions and Ian Delaney draws on some of the greats such as Marx & Althusser. My favourite find on this is a brand agency who are recruiting for a semiotician ( true!) with 5-8 years experience. Genius. “I am a practiced decoder of cultural signifiers, and am used to applying the trichotomy of the sign and syntagmatic dimensions in a fast paced environment”. So my style tip for a day through to evening look is slip a copy of Das Kapital under your arm, team with a copy of “For Marxs” by Althusser and you’re good to go.

Very briefly – I have an iPod Touch now. It rocks.

Also thanks to my technical consultant at oneidea.co.uk for their help migrating thinking is the new black to its’ own domain finally. You rock too.