A FASHION FOR FILM.
Once again London Fashion Week presented us with a growing number of fashion promo films. This is vastly becoming a popular alternative to the traditional catwalk for emerging designers such as Belle Sauvage, Craig Lawrence, Komakino and Katie Eary amongst others. Big names like Gareth Pugh, Alexander McQueen, Yves Saint Laurent and Prada have also availed of this extended outreach of modern media.
Gareth Pugh S/S 2011 Collection – Director: Ruth Hogben from SHOWstudio on Vimeo.
At Paris fashion week Pugh presented his spectacular video, featuring nineties supermodel Kristen McMenamy and directed by SHOWstudio’s genius, Ruth Hogben. The eleven minute film shows a distorted, superhuman Kristen in various degrees of physical and visual abstraction, the medium allowing Pugh to push further ahead with his ideal.
Craig Lawrence SS11 Collection Film from Jessica Warren on Vimeo.
Craig Lawrence’s beautifully eerie video, directed by Ben Toms and styled by Katie Shillingford emphasises the new middle ground of selling between product and concept and in this case taking the opportunity to suggest a narrative within the tight minimalist collection . Carolyn Massey’s film shot by Chris Brooks has gone one step further, exploring the space between fashion editorial and film. The model is seen walking in and out of the frame, only allowing glimpses of the fashion before it moves to observations on landscape, beautiful as the film is you do feel relieved you can view the garments up close on models alongside the film presentation.
Carolyn Massey SS11 film from Chris Brooks on Vimeo.
As fashion becomes more disposable it is even more important for designers to build a brand identity and film offers space to define a concept or direction. As well as a more affordable mode of presentation than a catwalk show it opens up new ways to reach and target an audience. Topman have recently produced a film for their denim collection, a trilogy of short films each following a young man on his journey to meet with friends, by bike, skateboard and walking, the story is simple but perfectly targets Topman’s shoppers. The film works cleverly as an advertising campaign, adding weight and context to quite a basic range.
The isolated boy in a field/empty industrial space/estate, the sideways glances to camera, smoke, billowing fabric, wind, light distortion into camera, some rewound shots and slow motion running and jumping and replace boy with girl where needed. As with our tendency to beg, borrow and steel references within fashion it seems our first crossovers into film carry the same tendencies, but fashion at its best is about the translation of needs, aesthetics, trends, economics and new media so lets see where it heads next with film.
Beautiful, entertaining and bringing the fashion editorial to life but can it compete with seeing the clothes in real life and up close on a runway.
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