Brain Jam

There's a certain vacuous feeling in the air about fashion of late. I don't know if I'm the only one that's feeling it, but I'm feeling it. I think we're not far from reaching the tipping point - a point where we have seen everything there is to see, explored every idea there is to explore, a point where we will tire of the way things are and have been for the past couple of years. Less and less fashion images/collections are able to speak to me, but thank God there are still some. I'm at a point where I need to see things that speak to me, or at least things that say something for me to think about. I think this picture qualifies.



This is fashion that makes you think. This is a picture of Lady Gaga (they say, I'm not really sure but if it is, I'll be happy) for the September issue of Japanese Vogue Hommes. There's no contextualisation that came with the picture, which kind of leaves it to the imagination...for now. To me this picture is very interesting (especially in light of the very interesting conversation I had with Erica de Greef this afternoon). This is a female whose taken on the persona of the man some people have claimed she is, thus taking the piss. This speaks of the role fashion is playing in blurring gender identity, which is nothing new, but the fact that this is a very mainstream celebrity is something novel. She's a white, female, mainstream celebrity appearing in a men's magazine. What does this say of fashion's place in a post race, post gender, post sexuality, post fashion world? She's shocked us to a point where we know what to expect from her, we are delighted at her gimmicks, but we are not shocked. That's what I mean when I say post fashion. She's wearing the simplest, most basic garb for men, and still she's making a statement. It's kind of like she's got to a point where she herself is bored with the OTT dressing up, that she's dived off the tipping point into the next phase for humanity.
Post race - Japanes Vogue doesn't want to limit itself to portraying images and content about and for Japanese men. I think race will mean shit in the future. Think of Branjelina's family and the millions of others like it.
Post gender - femininity and masculinity have changed meaning from past times. I imagine two heterosexual lovers that live up to every gender stereotype about each other, running towards each other in a field of flowers in slow motion, then fucking each other over and under - until they are one. Until they are Androgynous.
Post sexuality - it's starting to happen in the top echelons of society - being a homo, a hetero, bi or transsexual (or transformer as I've heard some of them say) is nothing special as people settle downs and get used to homos being their homies.
This made me think, and I hope it will make you think too. We need to embrace things that make us think because of the cognitive fatigue that's currently killing us all thanks to the internet and cellphones. Anyway, I'm off to dinner at Canteen. Laters!