kim's blog | The Commerce of Art and Exclusivity

The Commerce of Art and Exclusivity

kim | 05 February, 2006 07:27

I was so relieved to read this post by Almost Girl. I've been struggling with this whole FashionWeek Blogging thing because I have been in this business on the makeup end of things for a long time. I'm a person for whom it doesn't take much to push over the edge of feeling bad about myself, so in the beginning I was always feeling bad about myself for one thing or another that I didn't have or what I didn't look like. In a room filled with skinny models, stylists and editors all looking like Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie, replete with the hottest jeans, your muffin tops throb and radiate. Trust me. And then I met designers. I read their books. I was offered to ghostwrite some of their literature. I sat in their parlors. And I worked in a few department stores, took their training seminars and was encouraged to sell as many of their products as possible. If you've ever been to a really successful seminar, where your adrenaline goes through the roof and your productivity goes up 1000% in the thin 5-8 hour in February, you know what the power of persuasion can do. Then I did makeup for the training videos of those seminars. Stylists and market editors fighting over what is the best combination to sell things, to make them more interesting. But in the end, it was all to sell product. Denim Jeans are made by designers for a purpose: perhaps they want a nice house in the Hamptons, high social status or they might want to send their kids to a New York City private school. Which is really, really expensive--trust me.

Fashion is an industry driven by sex, and exclusivity and is fed by an unwavering desire to embody those two attributes, let's be real. When Julie said the shows are like a big trade show, I breathed a sigh of relief. What's going on in Bryant Park is the theater of selling emotional crack. I struggle with being a part of that, that's why my philosophy is, "you're pretty already, you don't really need that much to be prettier." It's fine to be a part of it, it's so compelling because when everything looks right, everything seems right. Who do you think looks better: chubby Linsday Lohan, or puking, drunk, clenbuteral-abusing Linsday Lohan. Sadly, the latter. So it means something, of course. But just remember, when you're buying into all of it you are financing the social and educational lives of the owners of the company. Just like cars, just like sugar, just like cigarettes.

[Reply]

you go girl!!! right on. i hear the quandry and i applaud your honesty. i'm glad it's a gal like you on the inside ever returning to the most important message, as you said, "you're pretty already, you don't really need that much to be prettier."

i love you!!

kyra | 05/02/2006, 10:46

[Reply]

your honesty is beautiful.

ava | 05/02/2006, 12:08

[Reply]

...but what, pray tell, are muffin tops?

ava | 05/02/2006, 12:18

The Fat [Reply]

that sits on top of the jeans you are trying to squeeze into. Mariah cut off the tops of her jeans 10 years ago to avoid this.

Kim | 05/02/2006, 13:07

[Reply]

It may be your philosophy - but maybe a complete stranger who loves your site and your work needs to say it back to you...You're pretty already, you don't need much (read: anything) to be prettier!!

Rosalind | 05/02/2006, 22:26

The Commerce of Art and Exclusivity

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