WHAT IS A FASHIONISTA
Photographers Fashion Editors, Art
Directors, Make-up Artists/ Hair stylists, Fashion Assistants, and Models
Trying to define what fashionista means is like getting lost
in the forest and not seeing the woods for the trees. Versions of the
definitions vary from:
"A person devoted to fashion
clothing particularly unique or high fashion"
"A person not to be called a fashionista would be someone who obsessively
follows trends"
Then there are other variations that
sound out to the understanding of the fashion world,
"Real fashionista do not believe in trends, that type of person would be
more correctly labelled a fashion whore, one that criticises everything they
consider to be out of style or tack in their own eyes of judgement.
What is your definition of a fashionista? I know there will be an
urban dictionary definition or Wikipedia, but what is your interpretation you
should be asking yourself?
Fashion Terms - Fashion terms of the 60's at its height
Way out - Something so
far out there, it's almost unbelievable
Far out - Cool
Groovy - very
pleasing, wonderful
Hip / with it - Aware of
what's going on Knowledgeable." I'm hip to what's happening."
Something cool or groovy, "Those are the hippest love beads I've ever
seen!"
Before that what Granny would have
called it "the very latest thing my deer"
Modern Day Fashion Terms
Fashion - the
currently accepted, prevailing style. (Vogue is defined the same way.)
Fad - a fashion that suddenly bursts
into popularity
Style - a characteristic or
distinctive form of dress that exists independent of fashion (hippie, Gothic,
cowboy)
Classic - a fashion
that retains general acceptance over an extended period of time
Design - a
specific version of a style
Avant-garde - ahead of
its time, comes straight off the runway
So where is this taking us? I have
tried countless paths and felt I was travelling on a roundabout, finishing
right back where I started. I did find another definition which gave a better
clue as to what fashionista means.
A fashionista is a complimentary term
used to describe an avid follower of fashion one working in or deeply involved
with the high-fashion industry ( haute-couture - the creation of exclusive
fashions), such as a fashion designer,
fashion model, photographer, buyer, fashion writer, or wearer; a devotee to
clothing trends and fashion.
So where is this taking us you might ask? Taking a trip back in time,
the sixties was baptised as the period of Popular Arts (Pop Arts), which
encapsulated great change in society due to the aftermath of the second world
war, deprivation, shortage of material, textiles, housing shortages, the start
of another war Vietnam and all the upheavals that transcended the events
of this period.
Such a great change, whether induced by war or natural change in
society, there is always a visual record of this change, depicted perfectly by
abstract art expression artists such as Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol. Both these
artists revealed their images of breaking away from conformist classical ideals
in a time when great change was upon us.
Change is always the title for wondrous things to happen in a period of
great happenings. The sixties brought to us the evolution of change, Pop arts
were the conduit, and the result of recording this was through Art, Music and
Fashion. Inspirational people sparked great change as seen in the music
industry of the sixties, youthful, energetic and cult like.
Changes in fashion also sent out a message of self expression,
signalling an innovative representative, who broke the shackles of proper and
prim attitudes of the 50's and brought forth the concept of thinking "out
of the box" to the shock & horror of the traditionalists.
Unfortunately though alongside these changes, you will always have consumerism
fitting such individualistic attitudes and ideas into a pigeon slot and
re-market it as a fashion style, a trend, a fad, and so on, until it's watered
down to non-existence. The most powerful thing a fashionista does, is to drop
an innovative idea like a bomb exploding its concept into the arena of the
fashion world and to watch its rippling reaction spread with great cause and
effect into the world of fashion.
Seeing people rushing around like, "leaves blowing in the
wind" trying to encapsulate the latest fad, surprised by the reaction and
the full force of something new being unfolded before their very eyes. The late
seventies, eighties and nineties all had the same effect on people from the
many ingenious innovators of the world of fashion. New music genres created by
vocalist and bands. Paint artists taking the level of expression to new
heights, with every passing year.
In its essence being a libertine in an already conforming society, needs
one to change, to show what an eye for fashion is, to show the finer intricate
designed detail, created in one's own image. To see what no other person can
seen, to create an idea out of what is already available. But most of all to
keep alive counter-culture fashion and idealism of self expression alive,
because in the end it's all about attraction!
To coin a phrase "Fashionista" by Stephen Fried
To end
this debate, I discovered the true owner of the birth name of Fashionista; his
name Stephen Fried is an award-winning
investigative journalist and essayist.
When Fried first used the tern fashionista on page 100
of his 1993 book Thing of Beauty: The Tragedy of Supermodel Gia Carangi, he was
referring to a specific group of fashion insiders - a.k.a. the 'non-famous people
of Studio 54.
'I got tired of listing photographers,
fashion editors, art directors, hairstylists, make-up artists, all their
assistants, and models as the small army of people who descended on the scene,'
Fried
explained.
From that moment on as I mentioned
previously, he dropped a proverbial pebble in the sea of the fashion world and
created a monster of epic proportion.
Unknown at the time, he put in motion the
wheels of the fashion world hierarchy as such the Fashion Councils to move
quickly to own the outcome of defining the word Fashionista as it is know
today. But the real originator should be credited its entirety form as knowing
the real definition of the true fashion world entourage.
Official definition from the Fashion Council
The official definition of 'fashionista'
reads ’a person employed in the creation or promotion of high fashion,
such as a designer, photographer, model, fashion writer, etc. Also: a devotee
of the fashion industry; a wearer of high-fashion clothing.'
Read more about the broader spectrum of what's happening in fashion industry Fashionista Online Magazine
