Fashion Ads: Authentic v. Inauthentic Fantasy
A real life moment caught on camera.
I’m not a fashion expert, or advertising expert for that matter, but I occasionally enjoy looking at the fashion ads in mags like Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ, etc. I’m fascinated by some of the choices that are made in creating these ads. I get it, many of these brands are selling the clothes by selling a fantasy image to the consumer. If you buys these clothes you too can sip champagne on yachts in the Mediterranean; escort supermodels to trendy nightclubs; or enjoy romantic liaisons in fancy hotels.
But here’s the disconnect for me. The vast majority of these ads look like models/actors on the set of a photo shoot. Is this the aesthetic they are going for? Sure the clothes look great and the models are beautiful, but why go to all the trouble of tyring to create this Deeply Immersive Narrative Universe (DINU) and then cover it with a veneer of inaunthenticity? They rarely look like candid, stolen moments. I can almost here the photographer giving the directions to the models and know that just off camera is a guy working the light diffuser. And so instead of buying in to the fantasy, I’m left thinking about the artificiality of the whole enterprise.
Take a look next time you’re flipping through a magazine and see if you see this as well.
I think you’ve made an excellent call that’s interestingly contrasted by this subsequent reference:
http://www.cultureby.com/trilogy/2009/06/itzhak-mizrahi-on-metro-north.html
which led to this glimpse
http://style.lizclaiborne.com/brand/street_cat_walk
into the (text-embedded) mimetic description of every person one meets as the “designer” of their individual look. I mean that Georgina is the only person of the six depicted who isn’t described as A Design Professional, but the implication is that the customer is the critic/editor/buyer/model.
I like both your take and the interesting Claiborne twist.