Fecal Matter

Being different in the fashion industry is very important because that is what makes you stand out. Creativity and uniqueness is a strong factor if you want to be recognized. LaSalle College had an event last Tuesday the 19^th of March where they invited fashion disruptors. Obviously, everyone had great stories and had many interesting things to speak about although one group stood out the most mainly for what they were wearing that was not seen before. Fecal Matters or Matières Fécales in French is a duo who are known for their extreme fashion. They are known for their transhumanistic look that’s very provocative. They receive many hatred comments about their everyday looks on social media for it is their only way to promote their clothing and the only place that where they could sell their clothing. Nowadays, fashion is very different, and the mass market is on social media so that’s where they need to focus on.

The name Fecal Matters is a quite shocking name as a brand but it’s what gets you thinking. Their brand name actually came from their perspective of fashion. Hannah, one of the designers, since the age of 14 has been sewing her own clothes because she doesn’t support the 2^nd most polluting industry in the world. They both had anger towards the fashion industry for fast fashion using a quick and cheaper way of making clothes by child labour. These people working for clothing companies work in unhealthy conditions and get payed so little. Fecal Matter wanted to express their hatred of this problem through clothing with their own style with garments made by themselves.

These two young designers are getting more fame every single day on social media. Everyone wants to interview them because they have so many questions regarding their look and why they choose to do so. They’ve already been on vogue where their video actually got the most shares, they’ve travelled from country to country to express themselves but there are still so many close-minded people who don’t understand them. They receive comments saying things like “This isn’t fashion, this is a freak show”, they’ve gotten spit on in public and being called the devil and there is not one day where they don’t receive any negativity on social media where it’s so easy to get hated on because it’s open to everyone.

These young designers Hannah Rose Dalton and Steven Raj Bhaskaran were actually former students of LaSalle College who graduated in 2014. Every single day that passes, they’re trying to show people that they are regular humans like everyone else by sharing their everyday life on social media. They want to inform people that fashion isn’t all about having pretty dresses, but it can also be a completely different thing. Although their clothing is inappropriate to some and very shocking, their personalities are one of their best factors. They’re very professional with the negative comments that they receive. They’re lucky they have each other and found each other and they’re not going through this alone because there are so many people on social media trying to bring them down. Luckily they have supporters from all over the world encouraging them to continue what they love.

Hello Gender Neutral Norms

The more we advance in life in this world, we realize how people become more open and accepting. In the fashion industry, we see how gender norms don’t matter. Nowadays many big fashion brands make gender neutral clothing. Fashion designers decide not to associate garments based on gender therefore we now see brands who make skirts for men and some who make baggy and structural suits for women. Female models are seen wearing oversized clothing that don’t accentuate their body whereas male models could be walking down the runway in a full bodysuit that hugs and accentuates every part of his body. Big known brands such as Balenciaga, Maison Margiela, Gucci and many more have all taken part of this gender-neutral aspect. Their audience seem to enjoy it very much.

Although traditional people may find it absurd, the market for gender neutral clothing is quite popular. Many people don’t care to buy clothes from the men’s department or women’s department because we have a lot of exposure from fashion shows or even on Instagram about men being able to rock women’s clothing and vice versa. Some women like more of bigger silhouettes for their bodies whereas men would prefer more or a slimmer silhouette and now, in today’s world, it is very common to see such thing compared to the older days where such styling couldn’t even be accepted. This shows how our world is progressing in a good way. We realize that we humans are becoming more open minded and more accepting about the people in our society where bad judgment isn’t seen as much anymore. Obviously, there will always be people who will not like what fashion brands tend to do but we’ve all learnt how to push away negative comments and continue for ourselves.

The fashion industry strongly exposes and helps break norms and taboo subjects for viewers. They often have messages and themes to their collection that speaks through their art for their viewers to understand. A big example for this is Alexander McQueen. He is known for his controversial art where he showcased many taboo subjects such as sexual assault and substance addictions. Many people back then hated seeing such inappropriateness but nowadays, other designers and people worship him for giving out those messages that spoke about the actual reality of the world. He wanted to show that fashion wasn’t just about pretty dresses but about using clothing to really project about the situations in life that we tend to not talk about or ignore because they’re touchy subjects. We see more and more fashion brands taking inspiration of this great and iconic Alexander McQueen to display messages to the public that are hard to speak about. Instead, they portray those words into clothing and let the people think about what it could mean.

The fashion industry brings awareness to the audience where people, for example, see that people now don’t need to associate clothing based on gender and that anyone could wear whatever pleases them as long as they like it and it makes them happy.

Alexander Wang, the Successful Millennial

Everyone talks about the millennial generation but let me explain to you who they are exactly and what are they known for. Millennials are also known as Generation Y or the Net Generation and they are the cohort that follows Generation X which are ages of 38-53. This term applies to individuals who reached adulthood around the turn of the 21^st century meaning that they would be born between 1981-1996 but many people still consider 1997-1998 as part of this generation which makes them around 20-37 years old today.

This brings me to my main subject, Alexander Wang, a 35-year-old designer who has the characteristics associated to be a millennial which brought him much success throughout his whole fashion years. As there are negative characteristics, there are the positive ones such as being open-minded, supportive of gay rights and equal rights for minorities, confident, ambitious, self-expressive, liberal, upbeat and receptive to new ideas and ways of living.

Unlike most people, Alexander Wang knew what he wanted to do for a living since his early ages where at 15, he went to the biggest fashion school in the world, Central Saint Martins in London during the summer to take a little fashion course that he loved, then moved to New York City at 18 where he continued studying fashion at Parsons, another amazing fashion school. 2 years after his graduation, at only 20 years old, this ambitious man decides to start and launch his first collection and he only went up from there.

Alexander wang is known for his edgy designs where he uses a lot of black and silver. But more importantly, he is known for his amazing personality towards his company and the people working. He is a proud gay Asian man who makes working with him very easy going. He is a feminist where he even made a full collection strictly about strong women in the working environment that take a big lead in business which are CEO women where his collection was about the empowerment and importance of women. During this year’s Chinese New Year, he embraced his heritages and invited many at his shop for some traditional food and bubble tea that was open to everyone. Alexander wang is an open-minded person which we see through his diverse collections and also by the diversity of culture and appearances of his chosen models. His collections always has meaning to it and always shows its purpose.

Alexander Wang was capable of excelling in the fashion world because of his millennial characteristics. Because of his well-being, his confidence, his perseverance, his open-mindedness, etc., he was able to start from nothing to being one of the youngest well-known fashion designers who have made an impact at such an early age. He is an inspiring man to women, to Asians, to homosexuals and everything he’s able to associate into his collections. He is someone to take example from for he has great values and morals that other designers who are more stubborn should also have. Alexander Wang has never failed, I strongly believe that he’ll only be going higher and higher.  

Shocking Death Of Karl Lagerfeld

Karl Lagerfeld, one of the most recognizable fashion designers known for always wearing dark glasses, fingerless gloves and a silver ponytail unfortunately died, a few weeks ago, the 19^th of February 2019 at the age of 85. Karl was the artistic director of the famous brand Chanel since the 1980’s and the creative director of Fendi since the late 60’s. Rumours started to spread when people realized he didn’t show up to one of Chanel’s show, like he usually does, at the end of January. People started questioning his absences to events and started worrying about where he might be and most of the responses were that he was tired and not feeling well which is explanatory because he is elderly. A major turn of events happened all over Instagram on the 19^th of February. I woke up to hundreds of celebrities posting about Karl’s death and hundreds of friends posting about him as well saying that it wouldn’t be the same without him anymore, he’ll truly be missed, he was a great legend, etc.

I went to school and for a few days straight, because I am in the fashion design program, we would talk about him and his reputation. Many teachers and many students did not like him because he kept a lifetime contract with Chanel whereas other designers usually stay for 4 years. This caused a lot of repetition in his runway collections where we wouldn’t see many garments that were new. Generally, we would see a mix of things because the designers would make changes due to their different visions and different ideas. Therefore, Chanel started to get quite boring and people weren’t enjoying it as much as when Karl became a big hit in the 80’s when he turned Chanel into one of the most valuable couture houses.

Karl wasn’t all so great during his life. He in fact, was relentless and cruel about women’s figures. In 2000-2001, he lost nearly over 100 pounds in order to be a good “clotheshorse” and put up a diet book. People said that the feeling of unease with his body is what caused him to be vicious about women who didn’t fit the fashion standards. He mostly didn’t think that models were thin enough. To add on, he was also accused for sexual assault towards models where he would touch them inappropriately and pull off their underwear with no consent where he didn’t deny that he did. All of this was happening during the #metoo movement that was all over social media.  

Although Karl Lagerfeld was all over social media during the day of his death and for sexual assault, he still marked the fashion history for his excellence and that we shall not forget. As I researched about his cause of death, I found out that Karl was battling with pancreatic cancer and that it was actually his cause of death. That, he kept secretive. He had a personal life of his own that we will all respect.