Page 23: Cookie cutter brands
& lifestyles
20th October
Page 23 (English subtitles) from Jeroen Houben on Vimeo.
Page 23 (above) is a short, amusing film that considers the ‘interior life’ of Ikea models. It owes something to a similar scene in Fight Club, but basically makes a point about the insincerity of glossy catalogue perfection. I guess by extension it suggests we are all chasing a rather soulless dream.
It’s funny how interchangeable catalogue ‘brand worlds’ are. Even companies like Howies could be mistaken for Boden at a glance. And Boden itself has become a by word for a certain kind of polished middle class aspirational living. “They looked like something out of a Boden’s catalogue” is a comment half admiring, half barbed. I guess credit to Boden for defining a category of people.
But where, I wondered, were the more edgy and distinctive catalogue worlds? Being no clothes horse myself, I asked a few of the bright young things in the studio for tips. Below are some of their suggestions. My observation would be that the more distinctive online brands are generating content that looks like fashion editorial. It’s still polished and vaguely interchangeable, but a bit more nuanced than an Ikea catalogue. Here is Reiss:
And Oki-Ni…
And the really interesting sites tend to be online fashion mags that basically round up all the things you can buy…
There is also the world of putting looks together to share via sites such as Polyvore, which we looked at a little closer here.
Lookbook has a sense of idiosyncrasy…
But generally I think the interchangeable nature of the styling reflects the reality that we all want to look pretty much the same these days. It seems like another world that produced youth cults like punk and rave. Even the edgy kids these days seem to offer up diluted ‘lite’ versions of what’s gone before. So being different today seems to boil down to wearing pretty much conventional clothes from slightly obscure sites. Am I being unfair?
Anyway, for anyone (and I am sure there are many) who wants to get the jkr look as recommended by our resident heavy shoppers, here are a few links…
No Comments
Post a Comment