Analyzing the Chanel 2014 F/W Ready-to-Wear collection.
Supermarket Mania: The Idea of Consumerism
THE ASK
Write a report on a runway show and analyze the collection including major themes and historic references.
THE PROGRESS
STEP 1: CHOOSING THE FASHION SHOW
“Fashion is a language that creates itself in clothes to interpret reality,” - Karl Lagerfeld, 2012.
From the upbeat electronic music to the fierce models walking down the runway, Karl Lagerfeld created an ensemble of eye-catching apparel in the Chanel grocery store-inspired Fall 2014 Ready-to-wear collection. I wanted to choose a fashion show that was iconic and expressed a societal issue. Hence, the key themes of this collection are the purpose of consumerism and pop art directly relating to Andy Warhol’s 1960s pop-art paintings. With the intention of displaying consumerism in the only way possible, Lagerfeld created this collection in a satirical manner based on consumerism. Throughout the show, Lagerfeld showcased iconic outfits from frayed workout wear to the signature tweed suit with pearl and chain accessories. Furthermore, I wanted to dive deeper into Lagerfeld’s ideas of consumerism and pop art being a defining moment of reality for the year 2014.
STEP 2: CREATIVE DRIVE: CHANEL 2014 RTW X THE STEPFORD WIVES
The creative drive for this analysis of a collection was the concept of consumerism. Certain looks from the show can be associated with the 2004 American science fiction dark comedy movie Stepford Wives. The movie describes the life of a successful married tv producer named Joanna Eberhart who has a mental breakdown at her job and decides to move to Stepford (a 6 suburb town in New York). Throughout the movie, her family slowly adapts to the luxurious life and Joanna starts changing and altering her life to the wives that surround her throughout Stepford. Not knowing the husbands of a private men’s club are changing their wives to be “picture-perfect robots/housewives”. There is a scene from the movie that showcases the “wives” walking through a grocery store and showcasing their “perfect life”. This has a symbolic meaning whereas, in Chanel’s collection, the models are walking in the same manner, but with a twist – workout wear. The collection and movie both relate to consumerism in a way that is deemed to be defined by materialistic items, status, and everything meaning to be luxurious and wealthy.
STEP 3: DISPLAYING A MESSAGE
This collection focused on consumerism being the outcome of improving the quality of life for people and allowing a large variety of goods and services to be sold. Toward the end of the show, the outfits showed a gradual change from dark to light and bright colors. To elaborate, the final look can be described as a look of feather paradise. The look shifted from a moralistic look to a streetwear takeover, a direct relation to Warhol’s influence in mass culture. Warhol is known as one of the first pop-art artists to put his artwork on clothing, creating an idea of artwork in fashion. The look described and ended the collection on a note suggesting that limitations are endless, and expression is key.
Let’s take a look at the analysis of the Chanel 2014 Ready-to-Wear collection in its entirety.
THE OUTCOME
When researching and writing the analysis of a collection for the Chanel 2014 Ready-to-wear collection, I wanted to focus on the message of consumerism and the society image it has on people. Overall, Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel Fall 2014 Ready-to-wear collection influenced the theme of luxury consumerism and pop-art within Andy Warhol’s work. The main focus of the ideal image of consumerism being perfect and how art has a constant rotation throughout fashion was a big takeaway for me. With the detailing of pearls and chains showcases the themes of the 1960s and 1980s trends and issues throughout fashion, I think I created a perfect example of what describing how fashion and equality can be represented as the everyday woman. My main resources included the Stepford Wives (2006) movie, Vogue runway, and karllagerfield.com as way of resources.