By Daniela Culinovic

Fashion communicates with its public. One way it does so is through a fashion show. Shows can be provocative, they can make us think; they can lift us up, shock, or disgust us. They can get very conceptual, and theatrical, like an art performance. Let us dive into the “language” of fashion.

Apart from clothes, as the main ingredient of the fashion “language”, the designers can direct facial expressions, music, the runaway background media, and the way the body moves on the runaway to communicate an idea.  

An example of a fashion show as an artistic performance is McQueen’s VOSS spring/summer 2001 show centered around the inner and personal reflection of the concept of beauty. Models were confined in a glass box (which contains a smaller box), in which they walked twitching and jerking as if in a psychological convulsion. 

They were unable to see the public seated outside the box. The entire scene looks disturbing. The show ends with the box inside the glass box opening up and revealing a naked woman wearing a mask attached to breathing tubes and covered with moths (McQueen, Savage beauty). 

The glass box was meant to play with the concept of “who can see who”, and the uncovering of a woman inside a box (“an image that conventionally wouldn’t be considered beautiful”) (McQueen, Savage beauty) intended “to make the spectator look into themselves asking whether what they are doing is ugly or beautiful” (McQueen, Savage beauty). 

“What is Beautiful?” is a big question in fashion and McQueen asks it in VOSS, unapologetically, in a thought-provoking way, in a theatrical manner, and in a way that it tugs at an individual spectator, leaving no one unresponsive.

This question and the way McQueen posed it in VOSS prophetically announced the year which we are in, and in which we as a society and as a fashion industry were forced into doing exactly what McQueen provoked in VOSS: to reconsider the values we brought into fashion, as well as our acts concerning it.

HUMAN LANGUAGE AND SUSTAINABLE FASHION

Apart from “theatrical” language, using something simpler, such as words and slogans can be as powerful as any image or a theatrical prop in getting the message across in a fashion show. What is interesting about the human language is that it is so instinctual to us. We never think about it consciously. We pay attention to it only when our everyday communication gets interrupted in some way.

How can words serve as an ancillary medium of expression in a fashion show? An example is Viviene Westwood’s 2019 fashion show Homo loquax, which means “a man talking”. The term was borrowed from the American novelist Thomas Wolfe who argues that humans are removed from the state of being a beast only at the point in the evolution when they started using language. 

Why? Language is our defining property. We cannot think without using the language and we cannot make meaningful connections with one another without it either. 

Westwood took Wolfe’s idea seriously, using words, the very essence that makes us thinking humans, she protested against capitalism, the waste-inducing fashion industry, and consumerism. 

Her message was that we need to talk (therefore, act and think) about the pressing issues that are killing us, and we need to make sure the message gets across in the clearest possible way, which can be done only with language.

Clearly, Westwood was alluding to issues that fall under sustainability, without any doubt, a topic that dominates the current discourse in fashion.

The “language” of McQueen and Westwood’s shows are examples of how a designer can present their stance on two huge topics in fashion in a fashion show. Juxtaposing “the language” of McQueen’s show with the language of Westwood’s, reveals two different yet powerful ways of expression in fashion, each suitable for its “topic”. 

Whereas the obsession with “beauty” is expressed by, intuitively enough, means of an image, the urgency to save ourselves by saving our planet was expressed by the very means that inevitably reaches our thoughts directly, namely human language. 

Given its “directness” in delivering a message, it comes as no surprise that words, talking and storytelling becomes a means of making a commitment to sustainability as a new Modus Operandi in fashion.

For instance, Gucci uses a “storytelling” program “Gucci equilibrium” as a means to incorporate a social purpose in their brand’s DNA. Some of the recent collaborations involve platforms A Vibe Called Tech and Manju Journal whose purpose is to promote the work of African creatives. 

One of the latest projects is the #StandWithWomen initiative whose purpose is the promotion of gender equality, women empowerment across the globe, and the protection of women against domestic violence. 

Another recent initiative that supports upcycling is a partnership with a luxury consignment store TheRealReal. As a result, until the end of the year, second-hand pieces designed by Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michelle are available for purchase in the store.

“Sustainability” is hot in fashion and it is present both in the fast fashion and non-fast fashion brands’ marketing. But what exactly does it mean? Just as it is hard to define “beauty”, it is hard to define the words “sustainable/sustainability”. There are, at least, two components to the meaning of “sustainability” in the fashion industry: the environmental, and the social concern. 

In the narrowest sense, a sustainable brand or business tries to reduce the carbon footprint in the environment in addition to sourcing the materials from certified suppliers. In a wider sense, “sustainability” is linked to social issues involving inclusion and diversity. 

As the discussion of sustainability gets heated, more and more new words are being created and are entering our lexicons, some of which are already very familiar, such as “upcycling”, “circular”, “pre-loved”, “clean” etc.

Given that discussing sustainability involves people from different disciplines; from designers, innovators, creatives, editors-in-chief, scientists, and economists, we better have a better grasp of the word to be able to speak clearly to one another. 

This is exactly what Conde Nast recognized as important when it funded The Sustainable Fashion Glossary in a collaboration with the Center for Sustainable Fashion, London College of Fashion and University of Arts London.

(UNDERUSED) POTENTIAL OF LANGUAGE AS A CREATIVE MEDIUM 

“Slogan couture” never really went out of vogue, and it is very much aligned with the immediate need for change on a social and economic level, which is what sustainability-oriented fashion brands advocate.

And there is beauty and purity in returning to the thing that defines us as humans and using it as a vehicle for thoughts and emotions in fashion. Language is all around us and within us. Languages can divide by the fact of their diversity, but only superficially since all human languages share the same underlying template; they are built on the same basic principles. 

 We can be playful with language, and we can be revolting. 

Language as a medium of expression in fashion has a lot of creative potentials that have not been explored yet. The way that a concept of glass box forces you look at yourself, language can also throw your values, for better or for worse, in your face. Lee McQueen style (RIP).

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