Keeping The Skull Alive Research Paper
Keeping the Skull… Alive. Fashion has way of recycling and reinventing itself, and like many fashion trends, there is a rich history in how the symbol of the skull has continued to renew itself in mainstream fashion. Whether you incorporate the skull in an outfit to express a gothic look or a classy style, or whether you chose to wear the skull stitched on the back of a cashmere sweater or embellished in funky jewelry, it is evident that the skull is a symbol in fashion that is attractive to a diversity of consumers.
But how can it be that the skull, a symbol of death originally worn by pirates to intimidate and ward off intruders, has become such a popular trend? Perhaps the image of the skull inspires the evocative ideal where endings, …show more content…
beginnings, sex, beauty, death, life, power, and the unknown meet, thus encouraging mystery and individuality (news.bbc.co.uk). Fashion designers and trend-setting innovators are indeed captivated by the relationship between life and death – using the symbol as an artful and symbolic image in fashion—but there is more that needs to be attributed to the popularity of such a fashion trend. Without certain skull-inspiring movies and TV shows, 80s rock bands, advertisements and branding, celebrities, and fashion bloggers, the image of the skull would be dead— It is the media that keeps the skull alive. Ever since the 2003 release of the award-winning movie Pirates of the Caribbean, designers have been majorly influenced to incorporate pirate-like looks into their fashion lines. Penny Rose, the film’s costume designer, was nominated for a CDG award and a Saturn award win in 2003 for her original, yet beautiful, pirate costumes and has since been noted as a fashion inspiration to many fashion industry giants, such as Alexander McQueen and Jean Paul Gaultier (http://dressedcinema.blogspot.fr/). The first two films made pirates popular in mainstream fashion, and after the third film in the series was released, Jean Paul Gualtier presented his Spring 2008 RTW collection. He has said in reviews that the films were certainty part of his inspiration, and he used this inspiration to make a collection that high lights the theme of piracy – a concept that is very much present in the world (http://dressedcinema.blogspot.fr). In the documentary “Starz Inside: Fashion in Film,” Gaultier is quoted as saying, “What is piracy? It’s to take something, steal it, and use it in another way,” and this is the essence of how we use, reuse, reinvent, and recycle clothes (http://dressedcinema.blogspot.fr). The popular Pirates of Caribbean demonstrates the nature of movies inspiring the rebirth of skulls used in retail fashion. Although the fashion legend Jean Paul Gaultier first encouraged the edgy pirate-like style in his fashion shows and paved the way for the motif of death to make its way into the fashion world, it wasn’t until Alexander McQueen, one of the most brilliant designers of our time, revamped Gualtier’s vision and made the skull his trademark. The skull was an “enduring motif that McQueen transported from catwalk to the High Street” and his “famous scarf that bears the design has become a must-have” (news.bbc.co.uk/2). McQueen’s scarf was first seen being worn by celebrities that could afford to buy it, and then other designers that could reproduce an almost identical look at a more affordable price soon copied it. Johnny Depp, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Ritchie and Cameron Diaz are among the stars that have been snapped wearing it (news.bbc.co.uk/2). In fact, the epidemic of celebrities endorsing trends and certain brands has been steadily increasing in recent years. Since the rise of our capitalist consumer culture in the late nineteenth century, marketers recognize the abundance of product choices and have been “compelled to constantly reinvent the ways in which products address and hold the attention” of jaded consumers (Sturken, Cartwright). The ‘famous person testimonial’ is one of the several main advertising techniques of the media that aim to solve this dilemma by using celebrities to promote familiarity with a particular style, and “help certain fashion trends stand out from the surrounding clutter,” thus improving an image’s communicative ability (Katyal). A celebrity’s value has the ability to define and refresh the skull image, adding new dimensions to the edgy style and generating extensive PR leverage for the trend.
Celebrities are considered to demonstrate a number of dynamic qualities— credibility, expertise, and physical attractiveness—that are captured by media and thus inspire consumers, designers, and marketers. At the level of production, marketers recognize that celebrities are “no doubt good at generating attention, recall, and positive attitudes towards advertising” and can deliver persuasive “messages that people will remember, providing positive generalizations” that can be associated with a brand or image (Cooper, 1984). Celebrities are used as “images and signs that connote something about the product and buyer taste” and work to sell an image of belonging. Approval of a brand by a star fosters a sense of trust for that brand among a target audience. The celebrities seen wearing McQueen’s original skull scarf assured him that his creation was a success and encouraged him to forecast a future in skulls in his fashion lines—designing an array of fashion items, from skull handbags and shoes to leather jackets with skulls engrained on the buttons. In critic Julia Gaimster’s article Trends and Forecasting she further explores where trends come from and how those styles become reinvented overtime. She uses the model of “trickle-down theory” to explain an essential process of how certain fashion trends are created and recycled. She argues, “It used to be widely accepted that fashions started on the catwalks and amongst consumers who had a high social and economic status and these trends then found their way to the high street and the mass market” (Gaimster 110). For example, when the skull trend becomes widely accepted and easily available at affordable prices, the trend innovators move on to another trend—this is known as the “trickle-down theory” (Simmel 1957). It starts with the celebrities, and their respected style catches the eye of designers and inspire them to keep a particular fashion theme, such as the motif if death, alive. As the more affordable brands catch on to the fad, the trend trickles down to the lower socio economic consumers, and then a new style is created, or an already existing one is reinvented.
The advent of the internet has meant that fashion trends can spread more quickly as people can access trend information more rapidly and easily, seeing what is happening on the catwalks and what celebrities and trendsetters are wearing.
However, with so much freedom on the Internet and an increase in fashion blog sites, the opposite can occur. Thus, Gaimster suggests the more recent reality of “trickle-up theory”, in which trends are started on the streets among lower socioeconomic groups and subcultures—such as bloggers, or anyone who has access to a camera and the Internet. These trends are “spotted and used by designers for inspiration, finding their way onto the catwalks and then into the upper classes of society” (Gaimster 110). With a somewhat ambiguous understanding between whether the elite or the lower class and subcultures inspire new trends, “we can agree that some styles develop in one or more sections of society and the cross over into others (trickle-across theory)” (Gaimster 110). Essentially, the different ways in which a symbol or logo, such as the skull, is incorporated into an outfit may vary according to social group or geographic …show more content…
location. As the theme of death continually recycles itself in the fashion world, it has become somewhat of an obsession with movie stars and rock bands.
According to Indiemode journalist Elizabeth Jones, “Mass media and song artists have recently popularized skeletons, skulls, and cross bones— and ‘death’ has therefore prominently influenced couture” (indiemode.co.za/blog/skull-fashion). Take for example, rock and roll stars including the likes of the Rolling Stones band members who have thrived on somewhat outrageous fashion statements of gothic, punk, and pirate genres of styles for many years. Since the phenomenon of the Rolling Stones’ edgy style in the 1980s, other rock bands and solo artists, such as The Grateful Dead and Paramore, have kept the style of skulls associated with rock music alive. Joss argues, “The symbol of the skull is no doubt one of rebellion and spontaneity, and they convey a certain wildness and originality in celebrity fashion,” which can explain why celebrities find this symbol so appealing (indiemode.co.za/blog). Media platforms, such as magazines and blog sites, photograph these rock artists and celebrities wearing this skull-like fashion, thus inspiring fashion designers and consumers to also approve of the
trend. No longer are skulls solely an image used to guard and protect the dead with tombs and catacombs, and no longer is the skull and crossbones an image worn only by pirates. Today, we see everyone from music artists and celebrities to fashion bloggers and clothing designers incorporating the trend of the skull into their work. The motif of death in fashion is becoming more widespread and trickling across fashion consumers of all ages and being incorporated into many accessories and clothing items. From the inspiration of the Rolling Stones and the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, to the designs of John Paul Guatier and Alexander McQueen influencing celebrities and bloggers, it’s evident that media has played an essential role in recreating the image of the skull and refashioning it into new desirable items within the fashion industry.
Bibliography
Cartwright, Lisa; Sturken, Marita. “Introduction ' Practices of Looking: an Introduction to Visual Culture”. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2001. Modern. 2009
Katyal, Suarbh. “Impact of Celebrity Endorsement”. Chillibreeze. April 2012. http://www.chillibreeze.com/articles/Celebrity-endorsement.asp
Cooper, G. (1989). “Who is the celebrity Endorser? Cultural Foundations of the Endorsement Process”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol.16.pp.310-321.
Agnès Rocamora, Fashioning the City: Paris, Fashion and the Media, I.B. Tauris, 2009.
Gaimster, Julia. “Trends and Forecasting”. Chapter 5 Visual Research Methods. (From the Fashion & Media Industry class reader)
The Alexander McQueen skull scarf that inspired fashion trends of skulls.
Celebrities snapped wearing McQueen’s scarf.
http://urmetoo.wordpress.com/2010/12/26/alexander-mcqueen-skull-scarf-star-lover/
Pirate of the Caribbean Costumes
Inspiration for John Paul Gaurtier’s 2008 Spring Collection
Rock Bands wearing the skull
Sculls incorporated into street style fashion.
But how can it be that the skull, a symbol of death originally worn by pirates to intimidate and ward off intruders, has become such a popular trend? Perhaps the image of the skull inspires the evocative ideal where endings, …show more content…
beginnings, sex, beauty, death, life, power, and the unknown meet, thus encouraging mystery and individuality (news.bbc.co.uk). Fashion designers and trend-setting innovators are indeed captivated by the relationship between life and death – using the symbol as an artful and symbolic image in fashion—but there is more that needs to be attributed to the popularity of such a fashion trend. Without certain skull-inspiring movies and TV shows, 80s rock bands, advertisements and branding, celebrities, and fashion bloggers, the image of the skull would be dead— It is the media that keeps the skull alive. Ever since the 2003 release of the award-winning movie Pirates of the Caribbean, designers have been majorly influenced to incorporate pirate-like looks into their fashion lines. Penny Rose, the film’s costume designer, was nominated for a CDG award and a Saturn award win in 2003 for her original, yet beautiful, pirate costumes and has since been noted as a fashion inspiration to many fashion industry giants, such as Alexander McQueen and Jean Paul Gaultier (http://dressedcinema.blogspot.fr/). The first two films made pirates popular in mainstream fashion, and after the third film in the series was released, Jean Paul Gualtier presented his Spring 2008 RTW collection. He has said in reviews that the films were certainty part of his inspiration, and he used this inspiration to make a collection that high lights the theme of piracy – a concept that is very much present in the world (http://dressedcinema.blogspot.fr). In the documentary “Starz Inside: Fashion in Film,” Gaultier is quoted as saying, “What is piracy? It’s to take something, steal it, and use it in another way,” and this is the essence of how we use, reuse, reinvent, and recycle clothes (http://dressedcinema.blogspot.fr). The popular Pirates of Caribbean demonstrates the nature of movies inspiring the rebirth of skulls used in retail fashion. Although the fashion legend Jean Paul Gaultier first encouraged the edgy pirate-like style in his fashion shows and paved the way for the motif of death to make its way into the fashion world, it wasn’t until Alexander McQueen, one of the most brilliant designers of our time, revamped Gualtier’s vision and made the skull his trademark. The skull was an “enduring motif that McQueen transported from catwalk to the High Street” and his “famous scarf that bears the design has become a must-have” (news.bbc.co.uk/2). McQueen’s scarf was first seen being worn by celebrities that could afford to buy it, and then other designers that could reproduce an almost identical look at a more affordable price soon copied it. Johnny Depp, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Ritchie and Cameron Diaz are among the stars that have been snapped wearing it (news.bbc.co.uk/2). In fact, the epidemic of celebrities endorsing trends and certain brands has been steadily increasing in recent years. Since the rise of our capitalist consumer culture in the late nineteenth century, marketers recognize the abundance of product choices and have been “compelled to constantly reinvent the ways in which products address and hold the attention” of jaded consumers (Sturken, Cartwright). The ‘famous person testimonial’ is one of the several main advertising techniques of the media that aim to solve this dilemma by using celebrities to promote familiarity with a particular style, and “help certain fashion trends stand out from the surrounding clutter,” thus improving an image’s communicative ability (Katyal). A celebrity’s value has the ability to define and refresh the skull image, adding new dimensions to the edgy style and generating extensive PR leverage for the trend.
Celebrities are considered to demonstrate a number of dynamic qualities— credibility, expertise, and physical attractiveness—that are captured by media and thus inspire consumers, designers, and marketers. At the level of production, marketers recognize that celebrities are “no doubt good at generating attention, recall, and positive attitudes towards advertising” and can deliver persuasive “messages that people will remember, providing positive generalizations” that can be associated with a brand or image (Cooper, 1984). Celebrities are used as “images and signs that connote something about the product and buyer taste” and work to sell an image of belonging. Approval of a brand by a star fosters a sense of trust for that brand among a target audience. The celebrities seen wearing McQueen’s original skull scarf assured him that his creation was a success and encouraged him to forecast a future in skulls in his fashion lines—designing an array of fashion items, from skull handbags and shoes to leather jackets with skulls engrained on the buttons. In critic Julia Gaimster’s article Trends and Forecasting she further explores where trends come from and how those styles become reinvented overtime. She uses the model of “trickle-down theory” to explain an essential process of how certain fashion trends are created and recycled. She argues, “It used to be widely accepted that fashions started on the catwalks and amongst consumers who had a high social and economic status and these trends then found their way to the high street and the mass market” (Gaimster 110). For example, when the skull trend becomes widely accepted and easily available at affordable prices, the trend innovators move on to another trend—this is known as the “trickle-down theory” (Simmel 1957). It starts with the celebrities, and their respected style catches the eye of designers and inspire them to keep a particular fashion theme, such as the motif if death, alive. As the more affordable brands catch on to the fad, the trend trickles down to the lower socio economic consumers, and then a new style is created, or an already existing one is reinvented.
The advent of the internet has meant that fashion trends can spread more quickly as people can access trend information more rapidly and easily, seeing what is happening on the catwalks and what celebrities and trendsetters are wearing.
However, with so much freedom on the Internet and an increase in fashion blog sites, the opposite can occur. Thus, Gaimster suggests the more recent reality of “trickle-up theory”, in which trends are started on the streets among lower socioeconomic groups and subcultures—such as bloggers, or anyone who has access to a camera and the Internet. These trends are “spotted and used by designers for inspiration, finding their way onto the catwalks and then into the upper classes of society” (Gaimster 110). With a somewhat ambiguous understanding between whether the elite or the lower class and subcultures inspire new trends, “we can agree that some styles develop in one or more sections of society and the cross over into others (trickle-across theory)” (Gaimster 110). Essentially, the different ways in which a symbol or logo, such as the skull, is incorporated into an outfit may vary according to social group or geographic …show more content…
location. As the theme of death continually recycles itself in the fashion world, it has become somewhat of an obsession with movie stars and rock bands.
According to Indiemode journalist Elizabeth Jones, “Mass media and song artists have recently popularized skeletons, skulls, and cross bones— and ‘death’ has therefore prominently influenced couture” (indiemode.co.za/blog/skull-fashion). Take for example, rock and roll stars including the likes of the Rolling Stones band members who have thrived on somewhat outrageous fashion statements of gothic, punk, and pirate genres of styles for many years. Since the phenomenon of the Rolling Stones’ edgy style in the 1980s, other rock bands and solo artists, such as The Grateful Dead and Paramore, have kept the style of skulls associated with rock music alive. Joss argues, “The symbol of the skull is no doubt one of rebellion and spontaneity, and they convey a certain wildness and originality in celebrity fashion,” which can explain why celebrities find this symbol so appealing (indiemode.co.za/blog). Media platforms, such as magazines and blog sites, photograph these rock artists and celebrities wearing this skull-like fashion, thus inspiring fashion designers and consumers to also approve of the
trend. No longer are skulls solely an image used to guard and protect the dead with tombs and catacombs, and no longer is the skull and crossbones an image worn only by pirates. Today, we see everyone from music artists and celebrities to fashion bloggers and clothing designers incorporating the trend of the skull into their work. The motif of death in fashion is becoming more widespread and trickling across fashion consumers of all ages and being incorporated into many accessories and clothing items. From the inspiration of the Rolling Stones and the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, to the designs of John Paul Guatier and Alexander McQueen influencing celebrities and bloggers, it’s evident that media has played an essential role in recreating the image of the skull and refashioning it into new desirable items within the fashion industry.
Bibliography
Cartwright, Lisa; Sturken, Marita. “Introduction ' Practices of Looking: an Introduction to Visual Culture”. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2001. Modern. 2009
Katyal, Suarbh. “Impact of Celebrity Endorsement”. Chillibreeze. April 2012. http://www.chillibreeze.com/articles/Celebrity-endorsement.asp
Cooper, G. (1989). “Who is the celebrity Endorser? Cultural Foundations of the Endorsement Process”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol.16.pp.310-321.
Agnès Rocamora, Fashioning the City: Paris, Fashion and the Media, I.B. Tauris, 2009.
Gaimster, Julia. “Trends and Forecasting”. Chapter 5 Visual Research Methods. (From the Fashion & Media Industry class reader)
The Alexander McQueen skull scarf that inspired fashion trends of skulls.
Celebrities snapped wearing McQueen’s scarf.
http://urmetoo.wordpress.com/2010/12/26/alexander-mcqueen-skull-scarf-star-lover/
Pirate of the Caribbean Costumes
Inspiration for John Paul Gaurtier’s 2008 Spring Collection
Rock Bands wearing the skull
Sculls incorporated into street style fashion.