bondage bear. muddy runway. Spray painting the dress. These are just a handful of viral moments generated by the fashion industry in recent months. All of them caused outrage. Some provoked attacks. Others have led to criticism. Now the industry can add another notch to its online scandal belt. It’s a giant fake taxidermy.
Models Irina Shayk, Naomi Campbell and Shalom Harlow walked the runway at Schiaparelli during Couture Fashion Week in Paris on Monday in outfits emblazoned with lion, wolf and leopard heads, respectively. I wore a lion design to attend the . Designer Danielle Rosebery makes a strong case for ‘no animals being harmed’ when creating.Collection inspired by Dante Inferno, the animals are meant to “remind you that there is no heaven without hell”. There is no joy without sorrow. There is no ecstasy of creation without the torture of doubt. ”
It’s a somewhat tenuous link, further strengthened by Roseberry’s comment. trend: “Animals are one of the four literal references I took from Dante’s Inferno,” he said. “In the first cycle of Dante’s journey he faces terror. He confronts a lion, a leopard and a wolf. They each represent different things. But lions and animals are synonymous with surrealism.” It exists in another way as a photorealistic approach to masquerade.”
However, it remains somewhat unclear what exactly they represent, other than showing how easy lifelike taxidermy can be to create. That’s why the brand caused a stir online when people criticized it for portraying dead animals. “Harsh! Whether real or fake, this only encourages trophy hunting. Yup!” Carrie Johnson, wife of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, wrote in a post on her private Instagram. rice field. Photographer Misan Harriman wrote in his own Instagram post, “Let’s get better.”
Others saw the stunt as a disrespect for conservation, with one tweeting: [which are] not evenly distributed. There are only 600 Asian lions in the western region of India. Governments have worked hard to preserve them. @KylieJenner This is not fashion. Serious indifference to important animals. ”
However, not everyone agreed that the collection was extremely aggressive. The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) has voted in favor of the collection. “These incredibly innovative three-dimensional animal heads show that where there is a will, there is a way. And Kylie, Naomi, and Irina’s looks celebrate the beauty of wildlife, like lions and lions. It could be a statement against trophy hunting where wolves are torn apart to satisfy human egoism,” said Ingrid Newkirk, president of Peta. Metro in a statement.Meanwhile, in Tuesday’s episode good morning englandformer MP and current presenter Ed Boles, said the criticism of the design was “politically correct mad” and asked if Johnson was offended. The Lion King.
Whether or not you have an opinion about Schiaparelli’s show, few can deny how much noise it created. You must have had a hard time avoiding it. Kylie, who has more than 379 million of her Instagram followers, if not from her Jenner herself, then one of the millions of other people who shared them together . each take.
Animal protection aside, all of this leads to the broader question of what is affecting the modern fashion industry. Admittedly, it’s provocative to have a giant animal head on clothing. In the same way it is provocative to have a topless Bella Hadid stand on the runway and spray her dress-turning chemicals. Some say there is. But how valuable is that conversation when it’s actually about fashion and art?
People talking about Schiaparelli’s show aren’t talking about Dante’s show Inferno, for example. We also think about what it means to blur the line between what is real and what is not, as Roseberry notes in her notes on the show and other meticulously crafted pieces she creates in her collection. Is not … They just share pictures of dead lions.
Similarly, in the aforementioned Hadid-starring Coperni stunt, no one outside the industry spoke of the great artistry of the spray-on dress or the revolutionary chemicals used to create it. , they mostly talked about Hadid’s lithe limbs that were on display, and used the footage for a TikTok video.
Of course, fashion has a long history of performing stunts. But when you compare these modern iterations with their pre-social media iterations long ago, the difference is clear. For example, the late Alexander McQueen famously dressed Harlow in a white, multi-layered, strapless tulle dress at his Spring 1999 show before his robotic arms began spraying black and yellow paint. am. It was a moment of pure performance art. Especially since Harlow herself was a trained ballerina and interacted with the robot with her grace and composure to match the movements of the turntable she was standing on.
Despite its obvious resemblance to Coperni, nothing compares to that moment. An angelic model in the air at Thierry Mugler’s 10th anniversary show in 2016. These were all concrete artistic moments featured heavily in fashion history books. But today, that cultural capital is only achieved when something goes viral on TikTok. And what is likely to do it? Beautiful performance art or Kylie Jenner with an animal on her chest?
There are several reasons why the latter hits are different.Initially Where It hits: On social media, everything is reduced to a barely recognizable 30-second video, or a photo you scroll past while you’re on the toilet. When something goes viral, it captures our full attention for a period of time. But due to the fast-paced nature of the Internet, it becomes disposable overnight. It takes a lot of time for something to transcend today’s disposable culture and have some meaning for years to come. Putting a lion on the body of one of the world’s most famous reality TV stars doesn’t quite work.
Sadly, this is how many of us consume fashion now, and thus how designers coordinate their shows. A standout moment that doesn’t need context to make an impact because the internet doesn’t have time to digest it anyway. It is the antithesis to art that does. Perhaps we no longer have the patience for it.
Of course, this isn’t necessarily the fashion industry’s fault. It not only introduces your brand to new audiences, but it helps present your brand as relevant, or at least as an integral cog in the wheels of your online discourse. But Schiaparelli may have shown us that things have gone too far.
Plus, as Rosebery noted in her Instagram caption, if you really want to celebrate the glory of the natural world, there are much better ways to do it than recreating incredibly lifelike decapitated animals.