Why do fashion designers dress themselves in uniforms?

What does Giorgio Armani have in common with Steve Jobs, Karl Lagerfeld with Mark Zuckerberg, Anna Wintour with Mother Teresa? They are associated with wearing an instantly recognizable daily uniform. Jobs and Zuckerberg might be said to dress for the technology industry, Mother Teresa had little time for trends, but fashion designers and magazine editors? Aren’t they in the business of telling us what to buy and what to discard every six months? What gall, what sense of entitlement, what perverse elitism affords them the luxury of getting to stay the same?
“All change!” they decree from their ivory towers to us commoners below, then watch as we’re buffeted about against the waves: Get the New Strong Shoulder! Say goodbye to the Skinny! High waists are back! Embrace Fall’s New Volumes! Do as I say not as I do seems to be their modus operandi. But what is behind their abstinence? Are they lazy? Uninspired? Having a laugh at our expense? Is this the ultimate power play of master puppeteers tugging the strings of their colorful playthings?
Former president Barack Obama told Vanity Fair, “You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits. I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make. You need to focus your decision-making energy. You need to routinize yourself. You can’t be going through the day distracted by trivia.”

The Trivia of Necessity

Yes, but with all due respect, Mr President, what constitutes trivia in the world of politics is the raison d’être of the fashion industry. Yet our most powerful sartorial leaders don’t buy into the magic and energy of their own runways, nor cave to the oppressive need for uniqueness, nor succumb to the sense of adventure they peddle each season.
While Obama might argue the idea of a uniform is liberating, there might be something else at work with our designers, as Giorgio Armani explains to The Guardian, “When I look at myself in the mirror, I am super-critical. I have to think of what I can wear that will look good on me. I can't wear stripes or bright colours because they make me expand. I like to wear navy trousers with a white T-shirt from Emporio Armani during the day, with white trainers. For evening, I wear black velvet dinner jackets and handmade shirts from Giorgio Armani, hand-made to measure. I almost always wear the same thing. I have an athletic body but am only 1m 70cm tall, sadly, and I know what suits me best.”
So instead of freedom, uniform dressing offers a form of damage control for figures who must represent their brand every waking moment. It becomes referred to as their “signature look.”

Shades of Black

From Riccardo Tisci’s casual separates and pristine white sneakers to Tom Ford’s immaculately tailored suit, from Thom Browne’s schoolboy knee-length shorts with shirt and tie, Michael Kors’s tonal blazer over t-shirt and trousers, Alexander Wang’s T-shirt and jeans accessorized with only his glossy dark locks, they all have one. But the focus of this signature look is even more honed: the only acceptable color of it appears to be black––unless it’s Armani’s equally neutral navy. Yohji Yamamoto delivered this assessment of their favored palette, “Black is modest and arrogant at the same time. Black is lazy and easy - but mysterious. But above all black says this: "I don’t bother you - don’t bother me".
But uniform dressing is not just for the male designers. Carolina Herrera’s white shirt with popped collar and monochrome skirt, Diane Von Furstenberg’s printed tunic, Donna Karan’s voluminous black with statement necklace, Miuccia Prada’s knee-length pleated skirt and blouse.

Workwear

Uniform dressing represents consistency and is perhaps an attempt by the designer to remove themselves from the seasonal hue and cry of magazine editorials and trends, allowing them to remain in the background. Martin Margiela famously took this one step farther wearing a white lab coat and refusing interviews.
The uniform projects sobriety and authority, awarding designers the stature of lifestyle gurus who administer selflessly for the benefit of their followers. Their humble “regulation-wear” in the face of constant change may even ironically borrow from the idea of the blue-collar worker by evoking the tradition of a trade, a craft, possibly artisanal, which is under threat, and often passed down through generations.
What will I wear today? Whatever works.
By contributing guest editor Jackie Mallon, who is on the teaching faculty of several NYC fashion programmes and is the author of Silk for the Feed Dogs, a novel set in the international fashion industry.
Images: All from Catwalkpictures

Jackie Mallon  Friday, 21 April 2017

Government “must be braver in using design”

The Design Council has called on Government to embed design at a strategic level, in order to “realise its full potential”. By Angus Montgomery on May 29, 2015

The Design Council has called on the Government to take “a braver approach” to using design as it reacted to the Queen’s Speech this week.
In the Queen’s Speech, David Cameron’s new Conservative majority Government set out its policy priorities for the coming Parliament.
This included measures around local government, housing, and the creation of a single public service ombudsman to identify and respond to issues in public services.
Design Council chief executive John Mathers says that design can have “a major impact” in the delivery of public services and called on Government to take full advantage of this.
Mathers says: “Many of our Design Challenges have explored ways to solve difficult public service problems, and we’ve seen some great results. For example, our Reducing Violence and Aggression in A&E work saw threatening body language and aggressive behaviour fall by 50 per cent, while for every £1 spent on the design solutions, £3 was generated in benefits.

“Innovating at the margins will only get us so far”

“However, innovating at the margins will only get us so far. To realise the full potential of design, it needs to be embedded at a strategic level, just as many leading businesses are doing. This requires a braver approach from the government.”
Mathers adds: “Design is a means, not an end in itself. And I do not suggest that it is a cure-all. It is simply an approach that helps identify the real issues at play, allows for difficult problems to be reframed in practical ways, and results in more appropriate and effective solutions.”
The All-Party Parliamentary Design & Innovation Group – a cross party group of leading parliamentarians – had previously called on Government to put design at the heart of the UK’s political, economic and education systems to ensure “the opportunities of the future are fully realised”.

Design should be a “central pillar”, not a “nice to have”

The group’s manifesto for design, which was published in March, ahead of the recent General Election, said that design should be given the same consideration as sustainability – no longer a “nice to have” but instead a central pillar of government policy.
It also recommended that civil servants should be trained in basic service design methods and that there should be an improved understanding of design and innovation spend in the public sector.
Last year the Cabinet Office government department launched the Policy Lab initiative, headed up by former Design Council chief design officer Andrea Siodmok. The Policy Lab works with government policy teams to test how design methods and principles can improve public service delivery.

PG tips rolls out new “contemporary” brand

The tea brand, which is almost 150 years old, has more simple, “contemporary” branding and packaging, developed by JKR.

By Sarah Dawood on May 21, 2015

PG tips is introducing new branding and packaging, swapping out the field and blue skies for a white background.
The new look, designed by JKR, has been implemented with the aim of making the brand easier to source in-store and “more contemporary”, says a spokesperson for brand-owner Unilever, while retaining the red, green and white colours of the previous identity.

The redesign also features an updated logo, which is still red and green but is no longer embossed, and has more simple, translucent lettering.
“We’ve made the brand more relevant to shoppers, especially the younger consumer,” says Kate Hearn, senior brand manager for PG tips at Unilever UK.
She adds: “The clear, fresh new look, with a bigger, bolder PG tips logo will also make it easier for shoppers to find the tea brand in the busy supermarket aisle.”
Unilever says this is the first major brand change for PG tips in 19 years, following on from its pyramid-shaped teabag redesign in 1996.

Five things to love about designers

Looking for a bit of a pat on the back? Copywriter Rob Self-Pierson tells us why he loves working with designers so much.

(By Rob Self-Pierson on May 15, 2015)

 

Image by flickr user Thor

I was speaking to a fellow copywriter the other evening about my love of great designers. She couldn’t see it and wanted convincing. So, in the space of a couple of minutes, I listed and explained five reasons for my affection.
My friend smiled and said I should write a BuzzFeed-style list. “It might help you bring more writers and designers together,” she said, “like you’ve always wanted to.”
So, here’s the list. And here’s hoping.

• Words speak more powerfully with great design. Once you’ve nailed the meaning as a writer, there’s no greater pleasure than seeing a skilled designer communicate that meaning to an audience.
• They’re inspired by so much of what they see. Walking around cities and nature with a designer is an education. Rooftops, trees, drain covers, menus, raincoats. You name it, a good designer will find inspiration.
• We can geek out together over type. A few years ago, I went on a guided typography/lettering walk around London. I fell in love. Now I like nothing more than talking serifs, glyphs and kerning with designers.
• They read like I read. Ever since I studied English at uni, I’ve dissected books – not just for meaning, but for appearance too. Skilled designers do the same. They dig deep until they understand the look and feel of a sentence.
• I learn as I go. My best friends are now graphic designers, creative directors, animators, illustrators and lettering artists. Every time we work (or drink) together, I learn something that helps me write better for design.

---

Rob Self-Pierson is a copywriter. He often teams up with designers to produce writing that has a greater impact.

Google Car involved in 11 accidents during testing period

Google says the accidents have come during 1.7 million miles of test-driving the vehicle.

(By Angus Montgomery on May 12, 2015 Design Week)

 

 

Google Self-Driving Car, photo by Gordon De Los Santos

Google’s self-driving car has been involved in 11 accidents during its six-year testing period, the company has revealed.
Writing on Medium, Google’s director of the self-driving car programme Chris Urmson says that the accidents took place during 1.7 million miles of both autonomous and manual driving and that “not once was the self-driving car the cause of the accident”.
Urmson says that none of the accidents caused serious damage or injuries. He says the cars have been hit from behind seven times and also side-swiped and hit by a car rolling through a stop sign.
Urmson says: “Even when our software and sensors can detect a sticky situation and take action earlier and faster than an alert human driver, sometimes we won’t be able to overcome the realities of speed and distance; sometimes we’ll get hit just waiting for a light to change.”
Google’s self-driving cars have “360º visibility and 100 per cent attention in all directions at all times”, says Urmson. He adds that Google’s newest sensors can track other vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians to a distance of nearly 200m.
Google has been road-testing its driverless cars for six years, with the driverless technology retrofitted on to existing car models, such as the Toyota Prius and the Lexus models. Since 2014 the company has been testing its own Google Car model on Californian roads.
Urmson says the driverless cars have so far clocked up 1.7 million miles, both manually and autonomously controlled, and that the cars have self-driven nearly 1 million of those miles.
Following prototyping and testing, Urmson says Google aims to work with partners “to bring this technology into the world safely”.

What colour next?

Color Marketing Group has invited Global Color Research to be one of the main speakers for the CMG 2015 European Conference being held in Krakow, Poland, 20-22 May. We are excited to present our key trends for Spring Summer 2016 to the colour community which is Colour Marketing Group. Our own Hannah Malein, Colour Trend Consultant Manager will be presenting our Spring Summer 2016 colour palettes and trends. For further information visit their website.
www.colormarketing.org

(Global Colour Research 12th May 2015)

KitKat to roll out more than 100 million special editions in “biggest ever” redesign

The first release in the new campaign sees the words “YouTube break” replace the Kitkat logo on more than 600,000 wrappers.

(By Angus Montgomery on May 12, 2015 Design Week)

 

 

Kitkat is rolling out more than 100 million special edition packs in what brand owner Nestlé says is its biggest packaging redesign since it came to market 80 years ago.
The campaign, which has been developed with advertising agency JWT, will see 72 different types of “breaks” introduced as part of Kitkat’s “celebrate the breakers break” campaign.
These will include “Movie Break”, “Lunch Break” and “Sporty Break” and will roll out across 400 individual packaging designs.
The campaign’s dedicated hashtag #mybreak is being moulded into the chocolate of 22 million bars, with the wrappers suggesting various “breaks”.
The first new pack to launch is a collaboration between Nestlé and Google which will see the words “YouTube break” replace the Kitkat logo on more than 600,000 wrappers.
The collaboration between Google and Kitkat comes after Google named its Android operating system 4.4 update, released in 2014, “KitKat”.