vfiles as the future of fashion

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Lately I've been spending a lot of time on the VFiles website. In a time when a lot of people are mourning the "death of fashion journalism and blogging" as interest declines, VFiles feels like the next frontier. The social media site/archive is a fresh perspective, a new method of sharing ideas that's dedicated to re-energizing the industry. 

restrain

The website originated as an source of fashion images, a way to present different ideas for a shoot or something; and the ethos behind that still remains on today's website: There are tons of archival photos from runway shows and print magazines that would usually be out of reach for kids who are interested in fashion (60% of VFiles users are under 24).

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In terms of being a kind of fashion encyclopedia, there's also the VFiles Data and Vnacular series that are really short (shoutout to that millennial attention span or whatever), interesting ways to learn about the big names in the industry, how to say mispronounced fashion words, things that are part of the rich, somewhat exclusive/esoteric history of fashion.

All of their shows are available in the VFiles TV section and on their Youtube channel, where they have my two favorites: Model Files and Intern Files. I started watching Intern Files when I saw that this really cool VFiles intern I follow on Instagram was on it. The series follows a group of teens competing for the chance to intern for the company. It manages to strike this weird balance of reality television satire and earnestness where I feel like I'm getting some warped, hilarious version of the very real drama of the fashion industry.

The founder of VFiles describes the website as both a community and a platform, the community aspect being the most interesting to me. All of the media that's on the website right now was uploaded by any of the over 78,000 members.  The setup of the website recognizes the different parts of the organism that are necessary for survival in the fashion industry, and allows designers, photographers, models, stylists, musicians, artists etc with similar ideas to connect. 

photography by jingyu lin

makeup by meredith menchel

Any members on VFiles can browse media and organize it into Files as part of their profile, kind of like moodboards:

vfile by supersabrina

As a creative on VFiles, there are a lot of opportunities to get your work out there if you can't do it in conventional venues by putting your stuff up to be sold in the VFiles shop, or applying to be a part of the VFiles-made fashion show. And the best part of this (though there are some flaws) is that VFiles users are the ones that decide who's chosen.

The footage from the shows of the past few years show a lot of really innovative designers, who have their own aesthetics and definitions of the "cool" that the fashion industry is obsessed with. I have endless admiration for this concept, because it really fits into my utopian image of a fashion industry that is connected and inventive.

What do you guys think of all this-- what does this mean for the future of fashion? Are you as excited about this as I am?

-=-

kanyinsola

so just cut me loose, learn to tie your shoes

listening to a TON of sia 

i went to the chicago history museum's FashioNext competition finale a while ago. the competition involves chicago high school fashion students designing and constructing something based on a theme (i think this year's was the history museum's exhibit: fashioning the magnificent mile ). the designs were incredibly cool and smart, but i didn't get any pictures of them bc the lighting was kind of dark. i did get photos of some of my favorite looks from the exhibit itself:

this yohji yamamoto was my absolute favorite: the sheer wapping! it's hand-painted! *swoons*

very cool, simple, delicate

 

i feel like this would be the ultimate dress to dance to dancing queen in, if only bc of the color scheme

reminds me a lot of marques almeida for some reason, or maybe just the 90s faux fur trend. the blue adds a whole extra layer of coolness though. 

i think this would function incredibly well for me as a substitute wedding dress.

then my outfit: 

this is a pink velvet shirt from UO. I wasn't sure whether or not to dress up, so i wore UO mom jeans with thrifted block heels that apparently make me look like a granny (i'm pretty sure the person who told me that meant it as an insult lol). if anyone complains about socks with sandals, you're grounded tbh. the pants are a bit too big, and i had to lend my plain black belt to l because she needed it a lot more than i did, so instead of just tying the thrifted pink button down around my waist, i pulled it through the belt loops and knotted it. creative problem solving ftw. silver watch is thrift. 

l8r sk8rs,

-=-

kanyinsola 

i'd be lyin if i said i didn't miss you

listening to i'm tired and i hate this song (don't go) by cyberbully mom club  a lot because of it's dreamy tiredness, and the video is really cute:

speaking of cute things! these! powerpuff girls overalls that i've actually had for a while but never got to show on here.

i saw them in a thrift store i think in december but i was in the store for a specific purpose and didn't have enough money for it, so i let it go with a heavy heart tbh. but then i came back like a month later, and they were still there! 

they have really cute embroidery on the front:

but unfortunately, they are made for 6-year olds, so in the words of the woman at the thrift store who came out of nowhere to share this with me: :it's cute but it's a little tight on the fanny".  oh well, i think i'm just going to crop it and make it like a denim t-shirt that i can still wear over something else.

i usually wear it with my thrifted black reeboks. 

another thing i wanted to talk about a bit in this post was the announcement that Conde Nast is turning Style.com into an e-commerce site and transferring all of the content to "voguerunway.com". and i kind of wrote this in response to something on manrepeller about it.

(i just added some photos from fw2015 to make it easier to read instead of just a block of text)

i've always been into fashion in the way that most people are into fashion: i like to look and feel comfortable, i recognize that there is a relationship between the way i feel about how i'm presenting myself and how i feel overall, my emotions, my attitude etc. but i don't remember when or where it was that i realized that fashion was its own universe but i know how. i had started reading fashion blogs because i read something about tavi gevinson in a newspaper somewhere, and when i went deeper into the photos on these websites, marveling at how much they knew about everything  i found the websites where the photos originated from, usually: style.com and vogue.

[this look from and re walker reminds me of something a hip parisian women would wear in the 1920s, if she was also living in a daydream that looked a little like the dystopian future in the adidas x kanye show. ]

 at first it was like a trivia game (i didn't know many people irl who i could compete against though), but i wanted to know everything: if i saw someone wearing something on the red carpet i wanted to be able to identify what season and what show it was from, i wanted to know what pop culture references influenced this look, to be able to chart the growth or identify the calling card of a certain designer.  other websites like vogue encyclopedia helped me too, but i think that i drifted towards style.com more often because they had an app that i could download and i preferred the layout of their website. eventually i would go on the website regularly, to read old reviews and articles written by geniuses  and look at beautiful clothing that felt like it was conceived on an entirely different planet and feel like i was part of it.

from beaufille, i really like the jil sander-ish minimalism. the contrasting layers, the continuation of the trend of turtlneck layering, and POCKETS! IN! DRESSES! the shoes are also kind of yohji yamamoto and exude cool-girl 

that's why i'm a little nervous about this change: i guess it reflects something that's been going in the commercialization of fashion (not as if fashion isn't already commercial art by definition, i just mean it's a bit scary to imagine abandoning what makes it beautiful, and at the risk of sounding incredibly childlike, magical) that reminds me of how i felt when meadham kirchoff was forced to go out of business. it's impossible to have an industry that wants to create something beautiful without falling into what is needed to survive, and style.com is simply being forced to concede to that pressure in the same way that every other brand is. that's just the way it is. e-commerce isn't that attractive/important to me for obvious reasons (i'm a 13 year old girl), but it's also to do with the idea of selling people a more "wearable" version of something that doesn't fit with what i want style.com to be (of course it already is that).

alien mermaids alien mermaids scaly green alien mermaids living on mars who crash-land on our planet soaking wet (marques'almeida)

 the shifting tides away from the value of expert reviews with the rise in popularity of fashion blogs written by "LOOK! REAL PEOPLE" probably has something to do with this too. is there still a commercial value to reviews written by people who "know what they're talking about" in offices in new york, when style.com itself has created a whole generation of people who "know what they're talking about" in their bedrooms in the suburbs.

this off-white outfit is deceptively simple, but the cutouts on the shirt and the slits on the front of the pants make it so cool. also suede boots are a staple of the runway 70s revival (if you want to call it that ) and they look amazing with this. 

idk the river of change never stops following and all of that stuff. i feel a bit like i did watching the series finale of parks and rec: i can't tell if i'm sadder about the idea of style.com being gone or about the actual things that i liked about style.com being gone (photos big enough to cry over, tim blanks and tommy ton, trend reports for someone who loves organization and patterns).

this is the sweater of my dreams wow. i love the minty green/gray color, the embroidery and fringe. and it looks so cool on that skit and those bright boots (leonard!)

--
thank you all for reading, and sorry that this was kind of an unorganized collection of thoughts! graduation is so close! i have a ton of projects to finish up, including one that i'm super excited about for fashion that i will probably post on here when i'm done.

love 

-=-

kanyinsola

he called the buildings "cold-hearted", "inhuman", "hideous", and "monstrous".

barbara langendijk afw 2015 were simple, clean japanese-inspired clothes using sheer, knit, leather, and pvc(?) whose forms could be changed by the wearer with the use of clips and draping. normally blank white lines and anything this winter-ish or minimalist would remind me of modernism because it's where form is completely dependent on function (in minimalist clothing and in the need to stay warm during winter). but, there was a harshness in these clothes that reminded me a lot of the cement, abstract structures of brutalist architecture, which i'm trying to finish obsessing over before spring comes and i need to move on to something softer. 

the shape of this is absolutely !!

the layering and what looks like fraying of the material on the side are cool

not sure why, maybe it's the fluffiness that looks like snow, but this reminds me a  bit of the ice princess from sharkboy and lavagirl

the clips are amazing, my only wish is that they were made of cement (who knows how practical that would be though), to fit in more with the brutalism. 

these pants

incredible fabrics; this is an example of where the clips really create an entirely new garment from the same piece. also-- there's also an incredible number of brutalist post-offices.

the bottom looks a bit like paper which is cool, and the double turtleneck, and the slouching sleeves

contrast and layering

and some more architecture that i didn't pair with clothing: 

isn't this the most beautiful theater you've ever seen:, it kind of looks like an abandoned power plant:

 this photo is a part of frederic chaubin's cosmic communist constructions photographed-- a book of 90 buildings built right before the collapse of the USSR that showcase the weird, emotive, and honest architecture of that time. 

one of the criticisms of brutalist architecture that i actually find to be one of the most beautiful things about it is the way that rust and water stains take over the structures when they're exposed to the climate of the countries where they first became popular.

i've only recently gotten super interested in architecture thanks to my english teacher who loves it, and i'm finding it to be really interesting. one of my favorite things that i talked about a little before is the correlation between the design of a building and its use; it would be strange to have a business in a little victorian house. i also love how evocative architecture can be for something made of metal and steel and concrete. what are your opinions on it, and also on the clothes in this collection?

-=-

kanyinsola

//
- the title is an anthony daniels quote from here about why he hates brutalist architecture (lol)
- all photos of the lookbook or the show are from here
- the photos of architecture are:
1/14/15(fyodor dostoevsky theater) via | 2 (carpark in hanover, germany) via | 3/8/ 16 (from cosmic communist constructions photographed) via | 4 (d.b. weldon library) via | 5 (pilgrimage church) via | 6 (preston bus station) via | 7 (habitat 67) via |  9/13 via | 10 (preston bus station) via | 11 (university of leeds) via | 12/17/18/19 via

steppin' out of these restless days of disappointed haze

i really wanted to start talking about all of the new collections that are coming out of nyfw, but then i realized that i might have blogger's remorse (bear with me and pretend that's a thing)  if i don't first talk ab out my favorite couture collections (that entire sentence was only half a joke). it sounds a bit like i wasn't amazed enough by the collections to be able to talk about them as soon as they came out, but i was-- i just was kind of unable to even put together thoughts on all of this. i tried though: 

giambattista valli

frills + jacquard + layers upon layers = *swoon* 

chanel

flowers. everywhere. at first glance it’s tiresome, but a closer look reveals a dystopian world where this animatronic, weary beauty is the closest we get to the real thing. anyways i thought the flowers were actually some of the most beautiful parts (in addition to the hats and veils), i didn’t love the silhouettes and the shoes, and while the individual garments were painstakingly crafted, the whole show just felt like it lacked that couture feeling.

christian dior

 

bodysuits, plastic raincoats, and a-line skirts were the beginnings of dior’s bowie-inspired exploration of reinventing the self with a look at the past and the future. those pieces were morphed and printed and sparkled, transversing decades and personas. there were carefully placed stripes and cut-outs, latex boots, and sequined shift dresses.  it felt like reading a carefully written novel. definitely my favorite, everything is just so dreamy and out-of-this-world.

armani prive

this collection was an ode to 20s glamour and elegance and to the "delicate strength of bamboo". it made sense then, that it was full of contradictory boxy shirts and flowing pants, and fluff and sparkles that were almost as  common as emblazoned bamboo sprouts.

ulyana sergeenko

the choice to show the collection in a hotel salon instead of on a runway ended up being for the better for clothing this meticulously detailed. some of the looks were embroidered to the point where you might confuse them with an entirely different fabric without looking close enough. a review written by nicole phelps says, “Why make tiny white stitches by the thousand when selecting a piece of white silk might do? Why not?” it’s undeniable that the beauty of this collection was in the detail.

valentino

this collection was about romance. there were high necklines, flowing and dramatic sheer with detailed floral appliques that danced on the edge between reality and fairytale, and lines from love poems running across faded dresses. the models looked as if they leapt straight off the pages of romeo and juliet’s “star-crossed love” (in part made possible by the elegant hair and makeup, and the almost floating way in which the models seemed to carry themselves). an interesting moment was a cut-out velvet dress with wings that (at least for me,) said something about the transformative nature of love.

--

in general, the collections were overwhelmingly wearable, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing, maybe this is just art imitating life as our culture shifts around our definition of dressing well, and maybe this leaves more room for strict craftsmanship and tailoring (the things that can't be scaled down for the mainstream market), which is arguably the beauty of couture clothing in itself. what did you guys think of these collections and the evolution of couture, and what were your favorites in couture?

-=-

kanyinsola