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Inside View……..a click
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DISPELLING By Dr. NVR Nathan,
Director, AIFD, Fashion is transient, even before
you have made up your mind to buy that low waist jeans, it just vanishes out
of the market |
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There are plenty of myths surrounding
fashion and in this article I will try to remove some about ‘How to Read and
Fashion & Fashion Magazines’, and also dress a lot better. Let’s begin with a little dissection first,
then move on to the “how to” part of the lesson. Fashion Models: Take a walk on your street end vegetable and
fruit vendor you will notice that they tend to polish apples and apricots,
dress up the cabbage to look nice and green or water those greens to look
fresh and straight from the farm. Drop into any two wheelers or four
wheeler dealer outlets with your driving licence and you get to test drive
the vehicle before you decide what model you want to buy. For all the same reasons fashion magazines
tend to show young, thin and attractive models in their pages. Let’s
face facts, whether we agree or not but the consumer is tempted – it works
and very well too to sell them. In
retail terminology, we call it Visual Merchandising (VM). So somewhere along the line, many women do
try to determine to see themselves in those dresses, even though their body
doesn’t, look like the mannequins or that of the models. Being a person associated with the fashion
industry for a decade I will let you in on a secret: those pin up models
don’t look like that everyday, either .
It takes whole team of experts to get the models hair, makeup,
clothes, and lighting just right. This article also published in The Indian Express News Paper dated 18 Oct 2005 |
Sometimes
even all these doesn’t work, the fashion magazine editor put their experts to
airbrush the photos to get the right look.
And if the model packs on a few pounds or starts to show signs of
ageing, she gets replaced. It’s a
shame that several teenage girls and women have allowed to impact their self
esteem by slick marketing and muddle their thinking. Now don’t be one of them. Look at the clothes and the mood that the
picture evokes but don’t ever compare yourselves to the mannequins or the
models. Fashion Projecting: Most glossy magazines carry photographs of beautiful
girl in designer wear or gorgeous outfits on the cover and inside the
magazines. Sometimes very handsome men
too are in the background for the right effect. If you get mesmerized by such campaigns the
marketers have done their job pretty well. This is called projecting a vision. Many girls dream to swap the place with the
girl in print. Don’t get caught into
such ruse; don’t rush out to buy that outfit right away. It’s not just the dress that can make you
look like one but the right dress sense. Fashion Advertising: Have we ever pondered why we see so many high end designers advertising in fashion magazines and why in turn the fashion magazines, show so many of those same designers in their editorial photo spreads? It’s not just a coincidence. Those one-page ads in glossy magazine often cost thousands (even lakhs), depending on the magazine’s circulation. So the fashion houses can’t spend all their advertising revenue in one place. The PR departments of the fashion house put a portion of their budget into lending clothes to magazines for photo shoots, and portion into creating clothes for celebrities for red carpet and other media events. The
result of this is the brand image, name and recognition the designer
gets. It’s not only clever – and
expensive. But it works. If you ever
love labels and see a look you like in a couple of fashion magazines and on
your favourite celebrity, you get more inclined to buy it, provided you had
the money? Many are. A look through the page 3 will tell you
this is true. Celebrity designer wears
will put you directly on page 3 at the parties. Now that is what fashion advertising is all
about. Being in the right dress, at
the right place, at the right time.
You don’t have to be a celebrity to be on page 3 when you are
fashionable. Fashion Lesson: Fashion is not just FTV, Fashion is not wearing
less, Fashion is not just being on page 3.
Here’s what you should look for when you read a fashion magazine or a
special column such as this in a daily newspaper. You can reach the author at nvrnathan@gmail.com |
From the birds eye view…
The architectural miniature of Army Institute of Fashion and Design (AIFD) and Army
Institute of Hotel Management (AIHM) Total Project Cost : Rs 60 Crore Approx. Fashion Trends: The fashion magazines and articles categories
certain things as “must have” items, but look at fashion trends which can fit
your body, clothing personality, and lifestyle. Don’t worry about the price. If you find something you like and want to
wear buy it, if you can’t afford it
then look for it at the factory outlet where it may be available at a
discount due to some minor defects that cannot be noticed. If you still can’t find it there, don’t
lose heart, an inexpensive version of the trend will soon hit the market at
your Value for Money Store shortly.
Buy cheap, wear often and discard when the trend is over. Fashion is dynamic, even before you have
made up your mind to buy that low waist jeans under controversy; it just
vanishes out of the trend market.
Consumer behaviour study at our Institute revealed that the teenagers
today are least bothered about durability; they are only concerned about
affordability and variety. They prefer
that the dress they buy wears out fast so that they can discard and go for a
new one. Fashion Classics: Fashion magazines have recognized the preferences
of women on classic styles and publish well authored articles and photographs
of the Classic styles and give several ideas on how to Mix N match them. All you need to do is rip these pages from
the magazines and make your own style portfolio. The portfolio should contain a mix of
classics, casuals, ethnic, formal and semi formals apart from a sweet party
wear ready for the kill look. Working women have realized that
classic styles are good value for money.
Most glossy magazines give tips on the classics styles and carry
excellent photographs too. Fashion in Hair and
Makeup: Fashion is a much abused terminology,
people well-dressed in formals sometime walk around in hairstyle that send
shock waves to the beholder. Hair
grooming and makeup are complimentary to good dress sense and never to be
dismissed unimportant. If you have
seen a fashion show with the models in weird hairdos it is meant to keep your
attention more on the dress rather than the model. Whatever may be your age, shape,
size, or budget good clothes and right accessories go a long way in an image
makeover. Forget about the models and
the price tags and focus instead on the clothes, trends, and styling ideas
that might work for you. Then copy or
adapt them to your own budget. |
An in-house publication of
Army
Institute of Fashion and Design
ITI, Bhavan, ‘B’ Area Shed, Dooravani Nagar,
Phone : 080 – 25617559 E-mail :
www.aifdonline.com