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Advertising  /  Fashion
Instagram Kills Its Fashion Advantage
March 17, 2016

It’s joyful to give. But for people who want to take advantage of you, you’re kind of an easy mark. —Larry King

 

charles i. letbetter 0 AInstagram Kills Its Fashion Advantage

Fashion has had a love affair with Instagram the past few years, but the app may have just killed the reason it was so popular with designers

Instagram, the photo-sharing app that has made models out of ordinary people and created a whole new fascination with photo filters, may have just killed its primary advantage for fashion labels.

For the past several seasons, fashion PR folk have seen posting photos to Instagram as being the next best thing to live streaming, and a hell  of a lot cheaper. From streetstyle to behind the scenes and, in many cases such as this season’s Saint Laurent show in Paris, the actual presentation itself, labels have taken advantage of the large audiences and real-time posting to communicate and share pictures with an adoring public. Instagram has been a critical part of creating excitement around brands and getting information about new styles pushed out to consumers in ways that traditional advertising can’t equal.

That may all come to an end soon, though, as Instagram, like Twitter and Facebook before it, moves from a chronologically based timeline to one that attempts to guess what each user likes the most. The concept is that most users miss the vast majority of what’s in their feed by not being on the app when the new material is posted. By using an algorithm that considers what one has liked, with whom they communicate, and what their previous activity has been, Instagram hopes to provide users with a feed that more accurately reflects their actual interest. For users, it sounds like a good idea.

As an article in Business of Fashion  explains this morning, fashion brands and retailers may not see the move as an advantage, though. At the very least, they are going to have to reconsider and perhaps revamp how they utilize the app. If users are looking for real-time content, they may have difficulty finding it. During those times of year when multiple designers are releasing tons of new photos onto Instagram at the same time, finding the feed for the brand one wants may be almost impossible. So much for there being an advantage to the app!

If fashion labels can’t get the bang off Instagram to which they’ve grown accustomed, they’re likely to drop the app quickly. There are many others who have been looking to snatch up that fashion week business, specifically Snapchat and Periscope, both of which can provide real-time streaming without the expense incurred with major production costs. Already, during the past two seasons we’ve seen several brands replace high-dollar streaming with an intern holding an iPhone. If they lose the primary advantage of using Instagram, why would they continue?

Obviously, fashion is but a part of an immense network on Instagram, but the ripple effect could be significant. One of the apps big draws is for perspective models to take a chance at being discovered by an ad agency, modeling firm, or fashion label. With the real-time factor removed, none of those industries are as likely to see new models as quickly, if at all, based upon how Instagram interprets the brand’s interest.

There’s a lot at stake here and I’m not sure the folks at Instagram thought through the decision all that well. Be sure, fashion PR people will be giving their whole Instagram campaigns a second look now. Without the real-time advantage, other live apps start to look a lot better.

 

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pop culture  /  PotD
Pinch Me, I’m Not Wearing Green
March 17, 2016
charles i. letbetter - pinch me, i'm not wearing green

All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green. —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

charles i. letbetter - pinch me, I'm not wearing green

Celebrating a culture is one thing, totally misappropriating it is quite another

I’m not always the most observant person in the world. I turned on Spotify last night and discovered they’d added a new playlist for me: Greatest St. Paddy’s Day Hits. Apparently, it’s been there a week and will go away after today. I’m still trying to figure out what is Irish about Tracy Chapman’s cover of Stand By Me or Ray Charles’ I’ve Got A Woman. I think the creators of the list might have been stretching a bit to come up with 12 hours worth of music on the theme. I’m thankful, though, they didn’t just include songs with the word green in the title. That would be a strange list.These are the type of things we encounter on St. Patrick’s Day each year. They turned Indianapolis’ downtown canal green yesterday (not that it needed much help) and I’m sure several other cities did something similar. .

These are the type of things we encounter on St. Patrick’s Day each year. They turned Indianapolis’ downtown canal green yesterday (not that it needed much help) and I’m sure several other cities did something similar. There will be orange, white, and green flags flying everywhere. Children will wear silly green mustaches. People will get drunk on really weak green beer and the truly desperate will wear “Kiss Me, I’m Irish” t-shirts. The party starts early and won’t end until the last redhead falls under the table.

I don’t have any problem with celebrating Irish tradition and culture; theirs is a very rich and very long history that can be reasonably dated to 4,000 BCE and even further than that if one wants to believe certain overly-patriotic Irish authors. I once attempted to read a very large book that supposedly contained the exhaustive history of Ireland in which the author claimed the Irish ancestors were responsible for everything from the creation of language to the invention of the wheel. Unfortunately, I never finished the book as I kept falling asleep on top of its pages. The book is demonstrative, though, of just how long and deep Irish culture is. There are plenty of reasons to celebrate.

Still, you might as well go ahead and pinch me now, I’m not wearing green. The reasons are simple: 1. I don’t have anything green. If you know me, you know my wardrobe is very monochrome, occupying only the black palette. 2. I’m not Irish. Not even a little bit. In the great melting pot that is our family bloodline, about a third is Cherokee/Choctaw and the rest is a mix of Dutch, German, French, and Russian. No Irish at all. 3. I’m not Catholic. Never have been. Never want to be. This may be the most important reason because orange is just as important an Irish color as is green, but which one wears totally depends on whether one is Protestant (orange) or Catholic (green) and both sides are equally strong. This is why there are three colors, not one, in the Irish flag.

The line between celebrating a culture and misappropriating it can sometimes be quite thin. There’s nothing wrong with today’s parades and parties. Irish people have contributed significantly to the American culture and way of life despite the fact they were treated quite horribly when they first arrived. Had a certain presidential candidate been alive 100 years ago, he likely would have been proposing a ban on Irish; many politicians of the time actually suggested such a thing. Fortunately, that ban never happened, but they were still treated horrifically until after WWII. Celebrating all that the Irish have done for American is totally appropriate.

Unfortunately, like many things we Americans do, we take it too far. The Irish are a wonderfully hospitable people but that doesn’t give us the right to completely misappropriate and misrepresent their culture, even for a day, just so we can make a buck or have an excuse to take the day off work and get drunk. Wearing green is totally insincere if one is neither Irish or Catholic. All the stuff about leprechauns and pots of gold, green beer, silly t-shirts, and dying everything green has less to do with celebrating a culture and more to do with trying to make a quick buck off a culture the greater majority of people don’t even begin to understand. Just because our Irish friends invite us to party with them doesn’t give us a right to completely take over the day and completely misrepresent who they are.

Who are the Irish? They’re hard-working, god-fearing people with a tenacity that has gotten them through famine, drought, and unwarranted hostility. They’ve had their way of life threatened, they’ve survived the natural hardships of living on a craggy rock of an island in the North Atlantic, and still they’ve managed to flourish with a form of art, music, dance, literature, and fashion that is all their own. They are distinctive from other European tribes of the region. They work hard, fight harder, and have a passion unmatchable. Those are all things worthy of being celebrated.

Yes, we’ll be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day today, but we’ll attempt to do so appropriately.  We’ll go to the parade and take pictures (which we’ll post here tomorrow), we’ll enjoy the company of an Irish friend or two, and at some point, we’ll likely enjoy one of the best beers made. Just don’t look for me to be wearing any green; not this year, not ever. Celebrate, don’t misappropriate.

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Current Issues  /  Fashion
Fashion Without Gender
March 16, 2016
charles i. letbetter - fashion without gender

We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination. —Nelson Mandela

 

charles i. letbetter - fashion without gender

Fashion has always been dictated by one’s gender, but slowly that’s beginning to change

I wouldn’t necessarily call it a revolution, but there’s a change coming to fashion, a change that few are talking about. Not that it hasn’t gotten any press, but those articles go largely unnoticed in the wake of designers dropping from labels and shallow wannabe’s screaming about who is sitting front row at which show. Fashion is steadily making moves to support those for whom gender is either fluid or nonexistent and the result is not merely an added sales point but a shift in how society views gender.

There were two significant moments last week. One was the Dries Van Noten Fall/Winter collection.  While I didn’t have space to cover the issue in our review, the folks over at Fashionista.com didn’t let pass the genderless aspect of the entire collection, including evening wear. No, this isn’t the first genderless collection we’ve seen on a Paris runway, but this one was significant in that the Belgian designer has traditionally been quite feminine in his designs. Last season we saw tight pencil skirts and bustier tops. Those were nowhere to be seen this season. Instead, we had a plethora of four-in-hand ties, trousers with plackets, and masculine tailored coats. Sure, there were some traditionally feminine touches here and there, but those were blended in to create as close to a genderless collection as we’ve seen from a major designer.

The next day, online fashion retail giant Zara very quietly, without so much as a press release, added a gender neutral section to their website. Contents may appear rather bland to some:  hoodies, athletic wear, trousers, and jeans. Yet, each of those entries is important, especially the jeans, because they’re not assigned a gender target. The jeans are just jeans. That’s it. Either they fit or they don’t. There’s nothing about their design that promotes one gender over another.

Gender fluidity has been getting attention in fashion advertising for a while. You may remember when we told you about Jaden Smith appearing in an ad for Louis Vuitton wearing a dress. The gender-bending stunt drew a lot of attention to the brand at the time, but was quickly forgotten as it was replaced by something else in the line of our short attention spans. While the campaign was important, though, it was still primarily about women’s wear, clothes designed with a specific gender in mind but worn by the opposite gender, which is the exact same thing drag queens have been doing for decades.

What the Zara move promotes, though, is something different: clothes designed without a specific gender in mind. This shift could be more difficult for the fashion world simply because the system itself is set up to cater to each gender separately. We have menswear, we have womenswear, and we tend to keep the two completely separate. While some designers, such as Tom Ford and Burberry, routinely mix men and women in their runway shows, we are still set up to accommodate separate men’s fashion  weeks and women’s fashion weeks.

Change happens slowly in fashion primarily because we’re all comfortable with what we’re wearing now. Designers who venture too far into something different find themselves stuck with inventory no one wants. With margins already so slim, not selling clothes is an untenable situation. Moves like the one Zara has made, though, open a door, no matter how slight that opening may be. Gender neutral clothing finally has a place with a dominant retailer.

As always, the question remaining is whether the new move results in selling more clothes. We’ll see. We’ll cross our fingers. Maybe we’ll even shop. Consider it.

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Advertising  /  Fashion
Are Networks Censoring Sex or Size?
March 12, 2016
charles i. letbetter - are networks censoring sex or size?

If you ask men about their body image, they will tell you they look better than they do. And if you ask a woman, she’ll tell you she looks worse. —Gloria Steinem

 

charles i. letbetter - network censoring sex or size

ABC and NBC say they turned down Lane Bryant ads due to sexuality violations, but is the real reason a matter of size?

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of trying to put on an item of clothing that you’ve worn dozens, if not hundreds of times before, and having it not fit. I’ve had that happen twice in the past month with two separate pair of pants. One popped a button when I sat down and the zipper broke on the other. Sigh. I’ll blame faulty manufacturing for the zipper because there’s no way to prove that it wasn’t, but the button popping is more difficult to excuse. I’ve sat here eating chocolate for a month (because it makes you smarter) and not getting any exercise. So, instead of losing 20 pounds, which is what I need to do, I packed more on. Needless to say, my current body image is not positive. I am not a fan of my current size.

For women, body size and body image is an even more critical issue. In extreme cases, negative body image leads to severe eating disorders and even death. That’s why a number of retailers, including Dove and Lane Bryant, have created ad campaigns around supporting a positive body image, regardless of one’s size. Even Sports Illustrated got in on the act casting curvaceous model Ashley Graham for one of the covers of their famous swimsuit edition. Supporting a positive body image among women is a good thing, and has even proven to be good for business.

So why, then, did two major television networks, ABC and NBC, refuse to air the new Lane Bryant ad featuring Ashley Graham? NBC claims the ad violates “broadcast indecency guidelines.” I’ve searched through the ad meticulously, though, and fail to see how that claim is justified. NBC says they’ll air the ad if edits are made, but Lane Bryant says the ad is just fine the way it is and I tend to agree. In fact, so does pretty much every other broadcast outlet out there. No one else has turned down the ad for any reason.

The two networks can claim the ad is too sexy, but the appearance is that body size seems to be the greater issue than sexuality. Take a look at other ads both networks run and there would seem to be a double standard. Neither network seems to have any difficulty playing dangerously with the censors when the bodies are lean and fit, so why do they have a problem with bodies that have curves, bodies that are real, and bodies slightly larger than the size 2 that dominates most of fashion advertising? Here’s the ad. Take a look for yourself:

I could sit here and harp on the issue all day, but what ultimately matters is how you and I respond. Support those who support a positive body image and size. Censorship, for any reason, is just not acceptable.

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Fashion
That CFDA Report on NYFW Isn’t Helping
March 10, 2016
charles i. letbetter - cfda report on nyfw

Why, a four-year-old child could understand this report. Run out and find me a four-year-old child. I can’t make head nor tail out of it. —Groucho Marx

 

charles i. letbetter - CFDA report

What good is a report that spends ten pages talking and still says nothing?

Everyone in and out of fashion has known for the past couple of years that the whole construct of fashion weeks need to change. The most recent season is a perfect example of why. Some shows are customer-centric and are heavy on spectacle. Some shows are buyer-focused and try to totally block out consumers from attending their events. Other designers try to merge traditional runway presentations with various social-media tie-ins using apps such as Instagram and Periscope. There was little feeling of cohesion at any of the four major cities but, at least, the governing bodies in Milan and Paris both made statements that they’re not planning on changing from the traditional format. While that decision may yet come back to haunt them, they deserve some credit for making a definitive statement on which labels, designers, buyers, and editors can all depend.

For New York Fashion Week, the Council of Fashion Designers in America (CFDA) is responsible for the NYFW schedule. However, they do not have any logistical control nor any authority in telling designers and labels what they can or cannot do. Without anyone to tell designers no, NYFW has become the largest fashion week in the world. This past season saw more than 275 designers making some form of presentation during an eight-day period. This does not include events such as the Saint Laurent ready-to-wear show in Los Angeles just before NYFW kicked off. This is great news for the city of New York. NYFW generates more revenue than the Olympics or the Super Bowl. However, the environment makes it difficult for designers who have little or no name recognition to draw the attention of buyers and editors who are already swamped.

Just how difficult is it to get noticed at NYFW? Consider that, at my peak in 2014, I struggled, and often failed, to make it through eight shows a day, and that was when the tents at Lincoln Center still provided a central location for the majority of major shows. I topped out at 67 shows that week. That means I missed roughly 75% of the shows! I only made it through 23 this season, which means more than 200 presentations escaped our view. There simply is not enough time in a day to cover everything.

Getting noticed isn’t the only problem designers have at NYFW, though. As technology has changed, the current schedule of showing a collection, taking orders, then delivering on those orders in 4-5 months has deteriorated. The causes are obvious. Smaller ateliers with only an online presence may seem a small threat when viewed one at a time, but together they take millions of dollars out of the retail flow. Fast fashion houses such as H&M and Zara completely turn over their inventory every eight weeks, with new items arriving almost daily. Consignment and resale shopping has also grown dramatically the past five years. All this together, along with others such as online-only discounters, represent billions of dollars coming out of traditional retail, severely impacting fashion’s traditional flow.

Oh, but there’s still more. Now that a large number of fashion shows are streamed live on the Internet and/or mobile apps, in addition to live or nearly live pictures on Instagram, NowFashion, and Vogue, among others, consumers see the new styles, and want the new styles when they see them, but those same styles are old news by the time they actually hit stores 4-5 months later. By the time clothes are on store shelves, fast fashion retailers and online discounters have already produced and sold enough knock-offs that the “new” stuff feels old when it arrives.

Then, there’s the added fact that many designers are flat out exhausted by the current schedule. With many brands supporting spring/summer, resort, pre-fall, fall/winter, homme spring/summer, and homme fall/winter, there is a new deadline for designers every other month, or it would be every other month if the calendar made any sense. Dates actually overlap so designers are often working on four different collections at any given time.

We’ve seen these problems building for the past five years; they are neither secret nor surprise. With the loss of major sponsorship for NYFW after Mercedes-Benz exited last year, there was little question that something needs to be done. The question is: what? To that end, the CFDA hired big-five firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to help study the problem. Sounds like a good idea, doesn’t it? Bring is someone objective and let them help.

Yeahhhhhh, about that …

Last week, the CFDA released BCG’s report. You can read the whole thing here if you wish; it doesn’t take all that long. There are a lot of pictures. What was the final conclusion after all this time and money was spent? Look for yourself:

While the CFDA will not promote only one specific idea at this time, it was imperative to bring out all the issues. It will encourage designers to try and experiment with new concepts and will foster continued conversations on the topic through stakeholder meetings, panel conversations, and workshops throughout the year. The CFDA owns the New York Fashion Calendar and will accommodate all types of shows and events and continue to support all designers regardless of how and when they show

For those of you not versed in consultant-speak, please allow me to translate for you: “Do whatever the fuck you want and we’ll stand here with our thumbs up our butts holding the calendar. You have our best wishes.”

This sorry excuse for a statement ultimately amounts to no statement at all and renders the whole report pointless. Void of any guidelines, and with a decree that they’ll support whatever a designer/label chooses to do, CFDA essentially gives up NYFW to complete anarchy with the door wide open for mayhem. While the report recognizes all the pertinent issues and accurately assesses the options, what was needed was for the CFDA to make a choice. Choose a method, perhaps a partnership between two methods, and say, “Hey, this is what NYFW can support, anything else and you’re own your own.” Instead, get nothing.

I can understand how the CFDA and BCG came to this conclusion. Read between the lines and the consultant speak and it seems rather obvious there is a preference for an in-season hybrid that uses capsule collections for sale at show times with the remainder of the stock arriving later. However, given they interviewed such a very small number of people (50 total), all it takes is one or two people voicing opposition to raise concern. Acting as a rule-setting authority is new ground for the CFDA, which still suffers from a lot of who-died-and-left-you-in-charge attitudes among its rank and file. Rather than risk upsetting any one group of designers, they punted, tossed everything on the table, and are waiting to see what happens next.

NYFW needs strong, authoritative leadership. Diane von Furstenberg has done well as the board’s chair, but the rest of the CFDA board of directors is a mish-mesh designers with such a disparate set of needs and interests that I doubt they can be unanimous on anything. Theirs is a society in which even one person not on board with the plan gets noticed by the press, and ultimately consumers. Designers are, inherently, under obligation to put the interests of their own labels ahead of those of the group. Such an organization has no business being in authority over a set of events that require definitive guidelines and objectivity.

What am I saying? The CFDA needs to let someone else handle New York Fashion Week, its calendar, its structure, and its management. NYFW needs an owner who can be objective, who understands the changing dynamics, and more than anything, understands that if you’re trying to please everyone you end up pleasing no one. For designers to manage NYFW is a severe conflict of interest and this CFDA report is evidence of how powerless the agency is to create any real and valuable change to NYFW.

Please, Ms. von Furstenberg, start looking for a managing third party now. While it’s not likely one can be found in time to save the trainwreck in September, perhaps next February won’t hold the chaos that this one did. Without strong leadership, and soon, NYFW as we know it may totally disappear. And this report? It does no one any good at all.

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Art  /  Fashion  /  Music  /  Photography  /  PotD
Quality Or Quantity
March 3, 2016
charles i. letbetter - quality or quantity

Respect the masterpiece. It is true reverence to man. There is no quality so great, none so much needed now. —Frank Lloyd Wright

 

charles i. letbetter - quality or quantity

How many masterpieces should one have? Quality that is so high cannot be so frequently repeated.

There are 16 images to the set from which these pictures are taken. I had difficulty choosing two. While the whole set is creative, the quality isn’t there and I know why: I rushed. These images come from a point in 2010 when I was doing nothing but shooting during the week, saving all the editing until Saturday, and publishing everything on Sunday morning. Looking back, the whole schedule was a bit insane. I would hit Saturday afternoon having anywhere from six to twelve sets of pictures waiting to be processed and struggling to find both the creativity and the time to get them done. I was pounding energy drinks and coffee and making poor judgement calls in the interest of time.

If we are going to improve the state of creativity, we have to simultaneously improve the quality of what we produce. One of the mistakes we made when everything first started going digital was assuming that we could now mass-produce art of any medium. Because the production seemed easier and appeared to take less time, we mistakenly assumed that meant we could and should produce more. For photographers, that meant shooting 200-300 frames per set and then processing up to 100 of those. I remember looking at the back of a camera and thinking, “Wow, that’s not going to need any processing at all. This is great!” In hindsight, the level of our stupidity seems obvious. Unfortunately, we are still paying for those errors. Too many clients think we can turn out new material overnight, if not sooner, and do so in large volume. Doing so, however, means sacrificing quality.

More is not better. A certain rapper released a new, heavily anticipated album online last month. He allowed the album to be sold for 24 hours, then took it down. Now, he’s saying he has another new album coming out. What does that say about the quality and content of either album? Granted, I’m a bit biased in that I’m not a fan of this particular artist, which is why I’m not using his name, but I don’t know any artists who could turn around two new albums in less than a year, let alone two weeks. Quality inevitably suffers.

Fashion is making a similar mistake, constantly churning out new, cheap, inexpensive clothing so that stores can, in theory, completely turn over their inventory in eight weeks. This is the disease known as fast fashion and it has done a very good job of killing off mid-level retailers, undercutting their prices with cheaply made material. Quality is non-existent with these brands and, ultimately, one ends up spending more on their clothes than if they had purchased high-quality luxury brands once.

Are we killing off the masterpiece?  Not everything an artist does, even the most creative of artist, is a masterpiece. To count as a masterpiece, a work has to achieve not only in terms of creativity but in matters of quality as well. Imagine what would have happened had Frank Lloyd Wright built houses that fell down; it wouldn’t matter how many of them were built nor how incredibly creative they were, without quality they would be worthless. The same holds true for every genre and every medium. We do better to take our time, be diligent, and perfect the one rather than trying to take the Wal-Mart approach of profiting from volume.

By over-creating works of poor quality, we reduce the overall value of all our work. When the world is flooded with readily available photography from every possible source, then it stops valuing photography. When YouTube can deliver chains of “experts” on every conceivable topic, we stop valuing experts. When iTunes makes it possible for anyone to release a new album, we stop valuing new music. When it comes to matters of artistic content, the volume approach simply does not work.

Our culture needs a creative revolution to be sure, but we must be careful that in doing so we do not overpopulate the earth with that which is too hastily produced and manufactured in such volume that we sacrifice quality. Creativity and quality must go hand in hand. Anything less is just landfill fodder.

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Art  /  Fashion  /  Music  /  Photography  /  PotD
Creative Risks And Sacrifices
March 2, 2016
charles i. letbetter -creative risks and sacrifices

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science. —Albert Einstein

 

charles i.letbetter - creative risks and sacrifice

Being genuinely creative means upping our risk factor and being willing to sacrifice our standing in the status quo

Once upon a time, I was very open to taking risks while out shooting. I’ve stood on the most narrow of ledges. I’ve allowed myself to be dangled from the tops of high walls and cliffs. I’ve shot in situations where the threads of a safety harness were all that stood between me and certain death. Each of those shoots was thrilling and exhilarating at levels that are difficult to describe. The adrenaline rush one gets from such an experience is almost more exciting than the photograph itself.

Those days, unfortunately, are gone. Taking physical risks takes a toll on one’s body and mine has decided that it no longer wants to participate in that game. If I want thrill and excitement, I’m going to have to find it elsewhere. My risks are going to have to be more creative if I’m going to take them.

Creative risk taking may seem rather benign. After all, mixing disparate media is hardly life-threatening and misusing Photoshop tools to create a different effect is not likely to land one in the hospital unless one gets so excited by the outcome that they spill hot coffee onto bare skin. Yet, to generate the real, new, view-altering creativity that our culture needs to get it kicked off high center, artists of every genre need to take on a level of risk that is going to be uncomfortable.

Being creative, in of itself, is not especially difficult, but rather a matter of changing how one chooses to view their art. There is a quote from the late Steve Jobs that I think fits this situation quite well:

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.

People who are creative, regardless of medium or genre, are naturally inclined to see things differently, to put together pieces that no one had put together before. We see it perhaps most often in fashion where, just in the past two days, two different designers have put dresses on the outside of other garments. One worked better than the other, but the fact remains that both saw something put together in a way that no one had attempted before, and both were willing to take the risk of putting those looks on the runway.

What is it we’re risking? More than anything, creative people have to be willing to put their reputation on the line. When we do something different, something unexpected, there is always a very high chance that no one else is going to like it. For that matter, we may not like it ourselves once we’ve had a few days to sleep with our work. The risk has grown in this digital culture when we are pushed to put something new and different online several times a day. If one wants to be an Instagram star, one has to actually put material on Instagram. What happens when you put something out there you later regret?

When one is creating something in which one believes, though, it is worth potentially sacrificing one’s reputation in one area in order to build it in another. Consider that 40 years ago the whole of my reputation was in music. After several years of struggling, trying to go back and forth, I finally had to make the difficult decision that if I was going to be committed to photography that I needed to sacrifice what I was doing in music; not that I’ve abandoned music entirely, but I had to let go of my reputation there so that I could more firmly establish one where I am known as a photographer.

Any risk we take, anything we sacrifice for the sake of creativity, is likely a temporary matter. In many cases, a respected artist can creatively shift their work and any hit to their reputation be temporary. For example. Steven Tyler’s latest album is full of country music, not rock. He’s taking a substantial risk both creatively and may yet end up sacrificing a bit of his reputation if the album doesn’t sell well. His risks are mitigated, though, by the depth of his experience and the presence of a fan base that pretty much doesn’t care what he does. Not every artist enjoys having that kind of creative capital to throw around.

The older we get, the more risk-averse we naturally are. We have struggled for what we have and the thought of possibly losing it doesn’t set well because we know we may not have the luxury of time to rebuild what we might potentially lose.  Yet, if we are to continue to be creative, if we are going to genuinely do something that makes a lasting difference in our culture, we have to take those risks and be willing to make those sacrifices. Anything less is a creative copout.

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Current Issues  /  PotD
Say Something Nice
February 23, 2016
charles i. letbetter - say something nice

I don’t enjoy any kind of danger or volatility. I don’t have that kind of ‘I love the bad guys’ thing. No, no thank you. I like nice people.—Tina Fey

 

charles i. letbetter - say something nice

We have become a mean, vicious, and cruel race of people because there is no one to stop us

Finding nice things to say can sometimes be very difficult. Yesterday, for example, one presidential candidate said he wanted to punch a protester. News the past few days has been littered with claims of one person disparaging another, someone shooting someone else because they said the wrong thing, and people who are supposed to be leaders outright lying about facts that are easily checked.

Social media is even worse. Descriptors such as, “idiot,” “slut,” and “jackass” are commonplace as people respond to topics with which they disagree. Do the people speaking actually know the ones they’re insulting? No, of course not. One thing social media is very good at doing is encouraging us to participate in discussions about which we know very little. In fact, the success of apps such as Twitter and Reddit depend on us not being able to keep our mouths shut when silence would certainly be the better tact.

Fashion isn’t any better. I am trying this season to avoid reviewing shows that I dislike. I’m fortunate to have a choice in which shows I cover and I see no point in putting myself, the designer, nor Pattern’s readers through the agony of discussing something I don’t like. Not everyone is so fortunate, however. Between shows, I frequently listen to the panels assembled at SHOWStudio. Participants are tasked with talking about a designer’s collection not only for the duration of the show (which I ignore) but for at least 30 minutes afterward. When a presentation is good, finding something to talk about for that length of time can be excruciatingly difficult. Inevitably, the talk turns negative, and at times even vicious.

We have become a society of mean speakers. The ancient advice of, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all,” is lost on us. Instead, we embrace what we consider the “right” to say anything we want, anytime, anywhere, and we think we should be able to do so without any consequence. Should anyone challenge our comments in the slightest, we fire back with some claim of “free speech.” Never mind that what we say may be hurting someone else. We don’t care. We have a right to open our mouths and let filth and disgust spill from them, so that is exactly what we do.

Body shaming has become a global pastime and photographers and photo editors are among the worst, not only in how we talk about models, but how we rate photographs based on the physical qualities of the model. I can shoot two different models in the same location and the same time of day wearing the same garment and exactly the same settings, but the photo of the thinner model is inevitably rated higher than that of the more curvy model, even when both are smaller than a size 6. One of the reasons I rarely participate in photographer’s forums online is because there are too many who have absolutely nothing civil to say about anyone.

Even church isn’t safe. When the Pope and a politician exchange insults, what kind of example does that set? Pulpits have become dispensaries of hate and aggression rather than sanctuaries of peace and love.

As a result, we are becoming increasingly violent and intolerant of one another. The recent murder spree by an Uber driver in Michigan wasn’t a random act so much as it was the physical manifestation of anger and resentment building up in all of us. This guy wasn’t crazy. He’s every bit like you and me, angry at society and the world. The difference is that he took his actions too far, going beyond words and deciding to use bullets the same way he might otherwise have randomly left mean and inappropriate comments on some website. We shudder at the horror of what he did, but are the rest of us really all that far removed from doing exactly the same thing?

What we say matters. Words do hurt, and the example we set with our words has the ability to destory our entire civilization. We cannot coexist in a situation where we have lot the ability to say anything nice about each other. When our first response is one of sarcasm, belittling, and finding the worst even in other’s good intentions, we pick away at the threads that hold our society together.

I’m guilty. You’re guilty. We have to do better. We have to find more ways to be nice to each other. We’ve been mean and self-centered for so very long, that being nice is going to take considerable effort. Turning around what have become instinctual responses is going to take time. Even more, we need to stop accepting such meanness from others, especially those in positions of authority and those campaigning for those positions. When someone decides to be mean toward another, we need to walk away, withdraw any evidence of support, and go elsewhere.

Being nice isn’t all that difficult. We can be truthful without being mean. We can disagree without being insulting. Our words are killing us. All of us. Say something nice, will you?

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Fashion
Putting The Fix On The Fashion System
February 9, 2016
charles i. letbetter - putting the fix on the fashion system

A leader is someone who helps improve the lives of other people or improve the system they live under.—Sam Houston

 

charles i. letbetter - Putting the fix on the fashion system

We all know the fashion system is broken. The big question now is how to fix it. There are a lot of ideas.

We are two days away from the start of New York Fashion Week. Stop and think about that for a minute. In two days, catwalks are going to be full of clothes largely designed not to be worn now, but next fall. At best, you’ll start seeing them in August. Then, by the time fashion weeks end in early October, those clothes start going on sale. How is anyone actually making any money in this silly game we call fashion?

That’s just it; a lot of companies are not making money and those few that are seem to be anomalies rather than leaders that others can follow. Consider the news from earlier this morning that the retailer Banana Republic had sales drop a whopping 17% in January compared to the same time last year. Gap and Old Navy also announced declines, but neither were as severe as Banana Republic. The fashion system is broken from beginning to end and that’s making some desperate to try anything in an attempt to fix what’s wrong.

Consider Russian-born designer Demna Gvasalia. If you’re not already familiar with that name, write it down and underscore it in red. Not only are he and his brother Guram the power behind the Vetements collective, but he was also recently named as creative director for Ballenciaga. We’re going to be seeing a lot of him, to be sure, but probably not where we expect. He announced last week that Vetements is going off-schedule and plans to start showing their collections in January and June instead. The concept behind the move is that this gives their clothes more time on the shelves before they start getting the mark-down treatment.

Gvasalia isn’t the only one trying things new. Burberry announced last week that they will consolidate their mens’ and womens’ lines in their September show and that customers can purchase pieces they like immediately after the show. Tom Ford joined Thakoon, Rebecca Minkoff, and Mathew Williamson in skipping the upcoming season entirely so that they can come back in September with their fall/winter collections and immediate purchase options. Hunter is abandoning the schedule completely and opting to show at music festivals.

Fashion industry magazine Business of Fashion published an opinion piece  online yesterday that is a conversation between an editor, a designer, a blogger, a retailer, and a consultant. The article is interesting and you can read the full conversation here if you have the time. While the effort was earnest, however, I’m not sure the people involved are the ones who can truly transform the system. Perhaps had the editor been Condé Nast’s Anna Wintour, the designer been Raf Simmons, and the retailer was H&M CEO Karl-Johan Persson, there might have been a conversation that actually had a chance of changing the system. [Not to slight anyone, but including a blogger seems, to me, more of a courtesy as they are not truly in a position to directly impact processes within the system.]

What the group did, however, was identify problematic issues within the fashion system that most everyone agrees need to be changed. Solutions are debatable, of course, and there is no one-size fits all method that everyone can follow. Still, they make for good talking points so let’s consider what those areas of concern are:

  • Fashion is moving too fast. JJ Martin of Wallpaper* said, “A lot of fashion houses today are being run like consumer packaged goods companies. There’s no difference between selling handbags and toothpaste.” Here is the reason that so many companies are having to fall back on accessories and perfumes in order to make money. The fashion system is moving too fast and, as a result, over producing. There are more clothes on store shelves at any given time than we can even begin to comprehend, let alone actually buy. Consumers are so inundated with wave after wave after wave of new clothing that they feel they can’t catch up. No matter what one buys, when it is replaced on the shelves the next day that new garment now feels out of style. The obvious solution: slow down and restock shelves a mere four times a year, not every week. Sounds simple, but it would mean retailers and department stores completely changing their business models.
  • Show schedules are disconnected from buying schedules. This is the problem to which Tom Ford and others are reacting by moving their fall/winter lines to show in September rather than now. This is not an easy switch, though, and, as I’ve mentioned before, there are going to be some serious logistical issues to conquer in making this profound change to the system work. Where do buyers fit in? How is the supply chain converted? Does this change how shows are presented? This is definitely a pro-consumer move, but changes for those caught in the middle could make delivery almost impossible.
  • Brands don’t understand how to do digital. Instagram. Twitter. Snapchat. Periscope. Online purchasing. There are a handful of brands that handing the digital aspect of fashion very well, but the majority are dumbfounded, trusting large portions of their fashion empires to 20-somethings doing inexplicable things with digital cameras and computers. There are still some brands that are not represented online at all, believe it or not. The digital takeover of all things consumer-based has been overwhelming for fashion brands and both creative directors and CEOs have huge gaps in their understanding of how digital can/should work for them. Consider how many brands still won’t stream their runway shows this season, despite the fact that it has a proven positive impact on sales. The challenge here is that convincing anyone to adopt something to which they are already resistant is nearly impossible. This deficit alone could spell doom for some long-standing brands.
  • Creatives are overwhelmed and in crisis. The 2010 suicide of Alexander McQueen should have been a wake-up call for the entire fashion system. There is a limit to how much a creative mind can produce and, for the most part, we are exceeding that limit. Witness the recent exits of Raf Simmons and Alber Elgar from Dior and Lanvin respectively. Both were being asked to do too much in too short a time frame. They are not the only ones suffering under this impossible expectation. Look at how boring fashion has become. How many designers have little time to do more than re-work the label’s catalog rather than create anything genuinely new? Slowing down to only four collections a year would help, but fashion is going to lose more great minds if this doesn’t change quickly.

I remain convinced that one answer overlooked by the gigantic fashion system at large is to buy more from local designers and boutiques. Consumers can push a lot of positive change simply by altering their buying habits just a little bit. Start taking some of the cash out of Karl-Johan Persson’s hands and put it into the local economy through local makers. If only 10% of fashion consumers dropped department store shopping completely, the fashion system would immediately turn and take notice, supporting more local fashion rather than investing in seeing how impossibly large two or three players can get.

I also remain quite certain that putting designers in charge of their own houses and letting some brands die off is a good thing for fashion. This would help reduce some of the over-supply that is choking retail and would also support younger designers who, perhaps, might find even better ways to engage digitally. This could be an especially critical move as Millennials, who are not especially materialistic, take over as the lead shopping demographic.

Great change isn’t going to arrive by Thursday. I’ll still give you the blow-by-blow account on Pattern, and we will do our best to make it enjoyable. But if anything, now that we are talking about the problems in the fashion system, we’re likely to see them even more glaring than before. The road could get rocky. Hold on.

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Fashion
Runway Or No Runway
February 5, 2016

I don’t even think when I’m walking down the runway. I don’t really breathe either.—Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

 

charles i. letbetter - runway or no runway

Has the usefulness of the fashion runway gone away or is it simply changing?

Pass out the brown paper bags. There are dozens of people in the fashion world who are currently hyperventilating. First came the news early this morning from Christopher Bailey that Burberry is cancelling its men’s presentation after this season. Instead, they will combine both men’s and women’s ready-to-wear into two seasonless shows per year, which will be called September and February, rather than Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter. Then, around 10:00 EST this morning, Tom Ford cancelled his NYFW show for this season. Instead, he will come back in September and show his fall/winter line then, in the fall, when people actually need it.

What both designers are doing is something that has been discussed heavily in fashion circles for the past six years or more: aligning the runway with retail. Both brands say they will offer runway items for sale immediately after the runway presentation. Rather than waiting six months for their favorite garments to hit the stores, customers will be able to purchase their favorite ensembles while they’re still fresh on their minds through the brand’s website.

Of course, this means some serious changes behind the scenes, starting with the supply chain. Traditionally, a designer creates the design, shows the design, waits for buyers to order the design (and request changes), and then send the design pattern to manufacturers. Obviously, that system cannot possibly work with an order-on-demand concept. Instead, designers and suppliers have to work together from the moment a design is sketched out. Decisions about fabrics and detailing have to be made further in advance and, once committed, are not easily changed. By the time the runway show comes around, what models are wearing is not a one-of-a-kind designer sample, but a finished product ready to be sold. Expect some challenges and delays as both the Burberry and Ford teams struggle to make this work. At the very least, I would expect some delays the first few seasons.

A second big difference is that this change dramatically changes the role of the department store buyer. Whereas the buyers have traditionally been able to request (or demand) changes in a garment before it hits the store shelves, this new off-the-runway concept does away with that option if stores want what is selling right now, and we know they all do. Stores that insist on holding out for changes will be behind the curve in offering designs that have already been available elsewhere. Does this mean buyers will be included in design conversations earlier in the process? That’s certainly possible, but then a designer has to made the decision which buyers to include and which to leave out. Too many cooks spoil the broth and too many opinions ruin a good design.

All of this comes as fast fashion has blurred seasonal lines and forced many designers into year-round designing with as many as eight different collections coming from major brands each year. Designers have been showing increasing signs of fatigue and the hectic schedule undoubtedly plays a role in why fashion has become increasingly boring. Who has time to think and be creative when there’s always another line that needs to go out NOW! By doing away with the antiquated season schedule, this puts designers back in control of what clothing is available when.

At the same time, the move acknowledges that modern runway shows are not the insider-only events they once were. Most major designers now stream their shows live, which allows potential customers to see what’s coming down the runway, fueling desires. Live-streamed shows are fantastic advertisements for the brands, but then shoppers forget what they liked by the time clothes actually hit stores, and often what they liked off the runway no longer exists in the same form. Buying off the runway is great for consumers and is likely to help bolster what have been some depressing sales numbers, especially for Burberry.

This is not so great, however, for department stores who may be beginning to feel a bit left out of the loop as the whole retail concept is beginning to feel more and more antiquated. Exactly how they will respond and how labels plan to address the issue remains to be seen.

Again, there are going to be plenty of bugs needing to be worked out, but should this experiment prove profitable for Ford and Burberry, be sure that many more designers are likely to follow suit. Department stores might do well to be concerned, but customers should be ready to celebrate.

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Fashion
NYFW: One Week To Go
February 4, 2016
charles i. letbetter - NYFW one week out

“I can handle crazy, but this is like a whole new batch of crazy.”—Overheard at NYFW

 

charles i. letbetter- NYFW ONE WEEK OUT

NYFW is only one week away!!

One week from today, the madness better known as #NYFW starts at The Dock with Nicholas K at 9:00 AM. From that point forward, we will spend the next four weeks carefully watching fashion show after fashion show after fashion show. Those that impress us the most we will review for Pattern. Those that don’t impress (which will be the majority) we’ll likely ignore. Those that are truly horrible, and that does occasionally happen, we’ll trash in the hopes that, like Mark & Estel, they don’t return next season (actually, we are beginning to wonder if Mark & Estel are going out of business. Their website hasn’t been updated since immediately after NYFW last year and no new collections have been added.).

With only a week left to prepare, we’re anxiously watching for any major announcements, especially should someone such as Hedi Slimane announce that they’re leaving their current label. For many designers, contract negotiations come down to the wire about now and it’s not at all unusual to see some of those fail right before a designer’s final show. So, here’s a quick look at the major topics we’re looking at for the moment, all of which are subject to change should something bigger come along.

Diversity is still an issue. We’ve talking about the lack of diversity the past two seasons, and last season (shown in September) was better than the one before it. Still, the early word from agents and casting directors is that very little is going to change from last season. That means we’ll still have an overabundance of runway presentations where two or three models of color appear only as tokens. What will it really take to change the status quo? Major editors and buyers staying away, which they’re not inclined to do. No one wants to accidentally miss a breakout line, so they put up with horrible behavior on the part of designers and fail to hold them accountable. When so much of fashion’s core demographic is any color but white, you’d think designers would do a better job of playing to a multi-ethnic audience. Unfortunately, this doesn’t look to be the season we see significant change.

How old is that model? Russian model Kristina Pimenova has done an editorial for Vogue Italia and campaigns for Armani, Gap, and DSquared² juniors lines. Her career is so hot at the moment that she just moved to LA. She’s ten years old. Yes, you read that correctly. Ten. While child labor and child modeling laws in Europe limit the age of runway models, there are no such restrictions at NYFW. While the CFDA strongly discourages the use of models under the age of 15, they have little recourse should a designer decide to not follow those rules. With the current editorial trend being toward young and younger models, there is more than a little concern that some may attempt to slip younger girls into the mix. This can be very  difficult to catch, though, so we may not know until it’s too late to do anything about the situation.

Challenges in the contemporary market. If you’re not sure which labels classify as contemporary, think Theory, Alexander Wang, 3.1 Philip Lim, and Public School. Those and other brands rely less on traditional silhouettes and focus more on styles and designs that are more modern, and often more urban, than what we get from older houses. We tend to think of contemporary brands as more cutting-edge and trend-setting, but that doesn’t always translate well when it comes time to fill store shelves. Shoppers want clothes that are distinct, but at the same time they want looks with which they are comfortable. They’re also wanting deeper discounts, such as the pricing they get from fast fashion. Supply is currently outstripping demand and same-store sales have declined dramatically. We’re expecting contemporary labels to step up the high-end game a bit more this season in an effort to woo those more traditional designer shoppers.

Zoolander references everywhere you look. It is no mistake the movie Zoolander2 opens next Friday, the day after NYFW begins. Cross-marketing between the movie and the fashion world is excessively strong and multiple designers cooperated in the making of the movie, including cameo appearances by more than a few. As a result, catching the direct and indirect Zoolander references is likely to become something of a game. The only problem is, with the NYFW schedule so very, very full, who has time to stop and go see a movie?

Who are all these new people? Looking through the NYFW schedule, there are new names on almost every day. While there are always some major designers, such as Marc Jacobs, who show off-site and off-schedule, there are more than a few recognizable names missing from this season’s lineup. In their place are not only a larger-than-usual collection of new designers, we’re seeing more group and retail shows signing up for presentations as well. Kids Rock! hits the catwalk Thursday night, Fashion Hong Kong shows Friday afternoon, Asian Fashion Collection hits Sunday at noon, and the much anticipated JD.com show is next Wednesday at 7. For those not familiar, JD.com is China’s largest online retailer and their presence at NYFW is notable. We’ll be watching the newcomers very carefully and won’t hesitate to lavish praise on those who do especially well. Who knows, we may even find a new favorite!

Still being a week out means there’s plenty of time for additional issues and concerns to pop up as well. We’re trying to find reasons to get excited for what has recently been the most boring month imaginable. Let’s cross our fingers and hope this season is an exciting one!

 

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Fashion
Fashion’s Failure: Clothes Made By Slaves
February 2, 2016

The very flag of freedom that waves over our heads is formed from material cultivated by slaves, on soil moistened with their blood drawn from them by the whip of a republican taskmaster!—Elijah Parish Lovejoy

 

charles i. letbetter - fashion's falure: clothes made by slaves

Workers who are denied basic freedoms are responsible for as much as 97% of clothing sold in the US.

Update: H&M responded to our article this morning (3 February) by directing us toward a specific statement regarding the use of child labor in Turkey. The statement, in part, reads:  “In accordance with our policy on Syrian refugees in Turkey, we terminated this business relationship immediately.” The full statement from H&M, dated the same day we published this article, can be found here. While we applaud H&M’s rapid response to this issue, there remain multiple garment factories, especially in India and Asia, that exploit their workers and treat them very much as slaves. We are thankful that one company has acted positively, but the truth is that fast fashion chains fuel a problem so large that keeping track of violations is practically impossible.

 

You may want to hold on to your chair. This is going to be a bumpy and unpleasant ride that is far overdue. I’m going to be extremely blunt: if you purchase your clothes from H&M, Target, Wal-Mart, Sears, Macy’s, or pretty much any other store in a mall, chances are your clothes were made by slaves. No, not slaves in the sense we think of coming from the American South in the 19th century, but rather immigrant workers around the world, some of whom are children, toiling for substandard wages in substandard conditions, without the most basic tenets of freedom such as the ability to come and go at will. These are the people who are making the clothes that make the nightmare of fast fashion possible. They are giving up their lives so that you can get a copy of a designer dress for $12. YOU are fueling the demand and they are the ones paying a most fatal price.

Pardon me if I seem a little over-dramatic here, but the rate of articles that have been published in the past three days regarding this subject have me sick to my stomach. We’ve known for some time there was a problem, and many of us believed that there were precautions in place to put an end to some of the worst conditions in places like Bangladesh, but that’s not happening. Any company that is claiming they regularly inspect their suppliers for human rights violations is either lying or, themselves, being lied to.

The Guardian has documented cases where Syrian refugees in Turkey, some as young as twelve years old, are working illegally in the garment industry there, with painfully low wages that cannot provide safe living conditions, and work conditions that are dangerous. There is little question that these people are essentially slaves. While the article focuses on clothes destined for European markets, be quite sure that some of those same suppliers are generating clothes for the American discount market as well.

Quartz magazine reported that some workers in Bangalore, India, working in shops that produce clothing for H&M, Tommy Hilfiger, The Gap, Zara, and many others, live in company-owned hostels where they are under strict guards that monitor their movement. Some women are only allowed out for two hours on Sunday to purchase food. The rest of the time their movement is limited to going between the factory and the hostel. Only slaves are treated so inhumanely.

The Guardian also found that, following the 2013 disaster at the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh that killed more than 1,100 garment workers, more than half of H&M’s suppliers there had yet to install basic fire safety measures. More than a third of top-rated suppliers have not removed sliding doors and collapsible gates. 13% had not even taken the steps to remove locks from doors so workers have a path of escape in the event of fires. These poor people are trapped. They are slaves making the clothes that we wear in the US and Europe.

What’s even more frightening is that the level of abuses may be worse than reported. Workers from human rights related NGOs often have difficulty getting a good look at working conditions and talking to factory employees. The Atlantic recently reported on a program called Laborlink that is specifically designed to help workers such as these report employer abuses, but many of the workers in Turkey and Bangladesh don’t have access to cell phones to use that system.

What can you do? Believe it or not, you have options. The strongest move you can make is with your wallet, by not shopping at stores that produce cheap, fast fashion. Stop and think for a moment. If you’re getting a new t-shirt for five dollars, common sense should tell you that garment was not made by someone who is being treated fairly and receiving a decent wage. Where you shop matters. Stop thinking that you need a new outfit for every tiny event that you attend. Pay more for properly-made clothes and buy less.

Another option is the growing makers movement happening across the US. Purchasing clothing crafted by local designers and artisans removes any doubt of who is making your clothes. Not only are you not putting your money into fashion’s slave trade, but you’re helping out the local economy as well. While I can’t speak directly for other cities, those local to Indianapolis can contact the very nice folks at Pattern Magazine for information on local makers.

There are political options as well, but time and space prohibit me from detailing those and, quite honestly, that’s a subject best reserved for some time after the election season. No one in politics is paying any attention at the moment.

It grinds at my gut to think that there’s any chance I might be wearing clothes made by slaves. We cannot allow this practice to continue. We have a voice. We have a choice. Use it.

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PotD
The Virtue of Silence
January 26, 2016
charles i. letbetter - virtue of silence

I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.—Khalil Gibran

 

 

charles i. letbetter - virtue of silence

In silence we hear the whispers of wisdom

Among the list of people whom I can no longer find, and may well be deceased, is an associate professor of music by the name of Robert Woods. Dr. Woods was a rather unassuming individual from my student perspective, but in January of 1982, while teaching a course in electronic music, he taught us a very valuable lesson about the importance of silence. His assignment sounded simple enough: find a place with absolute silence, and see how long you can stand it. Being cocky college students, we laughed. It was J-term and the campus was more than half empty. Finding a quiet spot would be easy.

But Dr. Woods didn’t say find a quiet spot. His instructions were to find a place absolutely void of sound and when class convened the next day we shared our stories of just how difficult it had been to complete the assignment. So difficult, in fact, that I was the only one who had actually found a place of complete silence: the morgue.

I worked part time in a funeral home. After everyone else had left for the evening, I went into the empty embalming room, which was totally sealed, and shut the door. The experience might have been eery had I not been accustomed to being in the room. There was nothing in there that would make a sound without human intervention, or so I thought. As I settled in on a stool, I soon realized that the fluorescent bulbs were humming. One wouldn’t have noticed under normal conditions, but when all other distractions were removed, there it was: a low but distinct hum. There was only one thing to do: turn off the lights.

Yes, sitting along in a sealed embalming room in the dark is eery. Worse than the dark, though, was the complete silence. Not a sound. I not only could hear my own breathing, but my heart beat sounded louder the longer I sat there. I’d shift my weight on the stool and the shuffle of my slacks against the metal was loud. I cracked my knuckles and it sounded like fireworks. With its ceramic tile floor and walls, the acoustics of the room amplified any sound, but the only sound was that of me, being alive. I stayed for what felt like an eternity then felt my way along the wall back to the door. I had been in the room a mere four minutes.

Dr. Woods’ point had been that silence is a necessary part of music and he wanted us to experience silence so we would appreciate the presence of rests amidst a flurry of sound. Music, he explained, finds its life not in the cacophony of notes and sounds as we might layer them together, but in those brief moments of silence, the rests, especially when unexpected, that allow us to catch our breath.

I can’t say I learned a great deal from the remainder of that class. Electronic music was still finding its roots and our resources, which had been borrowed, were painfully limited. Dr. Woods soon left for a teaching position at a university that appreciated his forward thinking and we went on to do other things that had no relationship to our degrees. What stuck, though, was that very important lesson in the virtue of silence.

Life since that moment in 1982 has only gotten increasingly louder. The reason I get up at 4:00 AM every morning to write these articles is because, in relative silence I can think, put words in order, consider what phrasing best communicates an idea, and pull together stories that are, hopefully, worth reading. Outside this morning, the wind is literally howling and the heater is struggling to keep our house warm, but in the absence of children laughing, music playing, or the whole world trying to talk at the same time, there is a peacefulness that gives life amidst the cacophony.

One of the reasons I so dislike presidential election years is the amount of overwhelming noise they generate. Every candidate, especially at this point of the approaching primaries, is shouting as loud as they can, trying to shove their message through the eye of the needle that is our attention span. Add to that all the sports, not just the impending Super Bowl, but all the cricket and the soccer and the basketball going on around the world. There are ads, and movies, and trailers, and … I think someone has a field trip today but I don’t remember which child. Then, there’s laundry and dishes and I suppose I should plan something for dinner because people do need to eat every once in a while. Pictures to schedule and take and edit. Conversations about books and an upcoming deadline and no I’ve not even started that outline. Did I remember to order underwear? I hope so, because I don’t have time to go out and buy more. Rumors that Sarah Burton is leaving Alexander McQueen and going to Dior, are they true? Men’s fashion in Paris, then couture, then, SHOWTIME, a month of ready-to-wear. And …

So. Much. Noise.

Learning the virtuosity of silence doesn’t happen by accident. Too many people ignore the rest signs. We need those quiet places; in our lives, in our thoughts, in our schedules, in our creativity. We  need space to take a breath so that we don’t choke on our own lifelong diatribes.

May you find that moment, if not now, soon, where you can experience the virtue of silence. May you find Peace. And thank you, Dr. Woods, wherever you are.

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Advertising
Everyone Wants Your Money
January 25, 2016
charles i. letbetter - everyone wants your money

Money and women are the most sought after and the least known about of any two things we have.—Will Rogers

 

charles i. letbetter - everyone wants your money

By 2017, Millennials will have more buying power than any other generation in the industrialization era

Everyone is after the Millennials and their money. As a group, Millennials have replaced the Baby Boomer generation as being the most attractive to advertisers. They are more likely to have expendable income and both their earning and buying power is just beginning to grow. Brands that lock in Millennials as repeat customers now are likely to enjoy a long purchasing relationship in the future.

The challenge is that Millennials have a very different outlook on the world than did my generation when we were their age. Therefore, they don’t respond to the same form of advertising and marketing campaigns that have worked before. Ad agencies get this because, no big surprise here, a large portion of their creative staffs are Millennials. Convincing their clients of the need to change, however, is not always easy. Some get it, some don’t.

Among those who seem to understand the need to market differently to Millennials is MillerCoors. Sure, it’s no big surprise that Millennials like beer; in many ways they have fueled the craft beer boom almost single-handedly. The traditional big-volume beer sellers have struggled, though, in no large part due to the fact that Millennials don’t like mass-market beer. As a result, we see companies such as MillerCoors looking to smaller agencies like Mekanism to create campaigns tailored specifically to the Millennial, such as this one:

Among the things worth noting about this ad:

  • it’s short. 16 seconds is all the time it takes to make their point. Millennials tend to not have long attention spans and a 30-second commercial is likely to be overkill.
  • it’s real. Millennials are hitting their childbearing years and responding to that natural desire. However, these are not super-young 20-something couples; they’re older, more mature, which is common among this and subsequent generations.
  • it’s not sexy. No girls in bikinis, no buff guys in baby oil. While the couples are reasonably attractive, Millennials don’t respond to over-sexualized images the way that Boomers did.
  • it shows a reasonable income bracket. No large pool, no large house. Millennials want homes, but haven’t been able to afford them, so showing a smaller house that is more likely a rental is appropriate.

MillerCoors isn’t the only one getting the message. Hilton Worldwide has announced it will be opening a new chain of hotels called Tru that is designed specifically to attract Millennials. The first hotel is scheduled to come online later this year, with approximately 132 facilities planned for cities that are popular among that generation, such as Portland, Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, and Denver. The hotels will focus on highly personalized service and what they refer to as a “common, youthful look.” Their ads will be, “visually represented through spirited photos with playful and vibrant colors; custom, fun illustrations; circular shapes, not only to invoke our logo, but also to convey that we are different; and the custom vernacular we’ve created for this brand using three-letter words like zip, jam and fit,” according to Alexandra Jaritz, global head, Tru by Hilton.

There’s no question that Millennials like to travel, but even there they’re not doing it in the same way as Boomers. This is evidenced by the very existence of AirBnB, which is counting on Millennials (and Chinese tourists) to help make it profitable. Can Tru by Hilton create an experience-based standardized accommodation that actually competes with staying in someone else’s home? I have to admit, this could be entertaining to watch. I’m just glad I don’t have any money invested with either approach.

For all the places that are at least trying to understand Millennials, however, there are four or five times as many companies who don’t, and those are likely to be some of the major losers over the next few years. Here are some of the sectors I think really need to step up their game if they want to stay solvent once Boomers are no more.

  • Banking & Finance. Millennials don’t trust banks and they damn sure don’t trust Wall Street with their money. As a result, the climate is right for an alternative to come in and set a genuinely new paradigm in the financial sector. Unfortunately, this also may make Millennials more financially vulnerable in the long-term.
  • Cable Television. It’s been suggested that there is too much television already. What’s driving this concern is the fact that only 46% of Millennials watch any television programming at all, and the vast majority of that is on mobile devices. Millennials have cut the cord with cable pretty hard and I’m not sure it is remotely possible to convince them to come back.
  • Transportation. Just as the auto sector is starting to recover from the recession and sales are picking back up, they soon need to begin re-examining their approach to the Millennial market, which, as a group, doesn’t exactly like cars. Even with the new hybrids and promising growth among alternative-fuel vehicles, Millennials would still rather ride their bicycles, take public transportation, or call Uber for a ride. Environmental concerns override money issues on this one. While there are more than enough Boomers still buying cars, and big ones at that as gas prices plummet, automakers need to re-work their approach to a generation that doesn’t have the brand loyalty their grandparents did.
  • Warehouse Clubs. This one kind of makes sense. Millennials live in smaller places and have limited transportation options that don’t involve carrying around a pack of 46 paper towel rolls. While all the major warehouse clubs have online purchasing options, the positioning, design, and marketing of those options leaves a lot to be desired. If they want to capture Millennials, the folks at Costco and Sam’s Club need to follow Amazon’s example and then improve upon that experience.
  • Family-related services. This includes anyone involved in health care, children’s services (including clothing and education), and anything to do with weddings. Millennials are totally redefining family. Who and when they marry, when or if they have children, and how they approach health care have significantly different answers than previous generations. A lot of traditions are being left in the dust and will not recover. Those who survive will do so only by completely re-configuring how they do business and how they market to this new generation.

These are not insurmountable issues. For all the challenges some companies may face, there are reasonable answers for most. There’s no time to waste, though. Companies who don’t have a Millennial-focused plan by the end of this year are going to find it increasingly difficult to ever win that business at all. You want Millennials’ money, you’ll have to work for it!

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Fashion
Sleeping Through Men’s Fashion Weeks
January 19, 2016
charles i. letbetter - sleeping through men's fashion weeks

There’s no such thing as a designer of menswear—it’s only history. The suit around the world is based on the English suit, which began in about 1670.– Hardy Amies

 

charles i. letbetter - sleeping through men's fashion

No one cares WHO Sam Norris III is wearing, but more how he looks wearing it … in the water

The digital team at Vogue has been doing its damnedest to remind me that men’s fashion weeks are still going on. Here I am wanting to sort through pre-fall collections in preparation for the fall women’s ready-to-wear season, which begins February 11 in New York, and my email inbox is full of pictures of men in suits or jeans or suits with jeans trying to grab my attention. Sorry folks, it’s not working.

I don’t mean to disparage the men’s fashion industry. The sector has seen tremendous growth over the past three years and even men’s fragrances crossed the billion-dollar sales mark last year. Neither can one say that men don’t care about what they wear. Men can be every bit as meticulous about their clothing as are women. I know several who are absolutely, disturbingly, OCD about their wardrobe.

However, men’s fashion still is a long way from having the overwhelming impact of women’s ready-to-wear. Not only do men’s lines not have anywhere near the same sales numbers, they don’t hold men’s interest, and men are not the obsessive fans of specific designers in the same way as women. I’m even going to go out on a limb here and say that 98% of men not only don’t care who made the shirt they’re wearing right now, but they don’t have a clue. Interestingly enough, they’re more likely to know who made their pants (I’m wearing black Levis today) and their shoes than any other garments.

Why are men, generally speaking, not fashion horses like their female counterparts? Why doesn’t men’s fashion hold our interest? There are some distinct reasons and you should know them.

  1. Men are, traditionally, more practical in their wardrobe choices. Playing to traditional gender-oriented stereotypes, men still choose a significant portion of their wardrobe based upon what is appropriate for their occupation. These are the men for whom the term “blue collar” was coined. They need clothes that are sturdy, can stand up to rough conditions, daily washings, and severe stress on the fabric. Pre-torn jeans are of no interest to the man working outdoors in sub-freezing weather. They’d rather drop good money on a solid pair of coveralls that will last them several years than a suit with shiny shoes.
  2. Men don’t desire wide variety in their wardrobe. Have you met me? I wear black. That’s it. I have dress ensembles and casual ensembles, but everything in my closet is designed so that I don’t have to think too hard about what to wear each morning. I recently added a shawl collared cardigan to the collection and chose the design for one specific reason: it goes with everything. Pierre Cardin famously said: “I can go all over the world with just three outfits: a blue blazer and gray flannel pants, a gray flannel suit, and black tie.”
  3. More men are color blind. No, this isn’t a joke. Men really are more likely to be at least partially color blind than women, and the trait is genetic, passed on from father to son. As a result, men are not as likely to respond to colorful designs and patterns with the same enthusiasm as women. In the US, ten percent of men are totally colorblind, versus only 0.4 percent of women. Ethnicity also plays into this problem, with Caucasian men being far more likely to be color blind than Asian (five percent) or African (four percent) men. Eskimo men have the lowest rate, 0.01 percent, but they don’t tend to spend much on high fashion.
  4. Men don’t like to shop for clothes. We’ll spend all day looking at tools, cars, computers, or video games, but pull a man into a department store to look at clothes and expect a groan, at least internally. Even when we know we need new clothes, we would rather walk in, grab the first thing we see that fits, and leave. This plays into another interesting statistic that men are more likely to buy their clothes online. Depending upon which study one considers, men’s online wardrobe shopping outpaces women’s by 20-30 percent! And what do we buy most? Replacements for the things we already have.
  5. Men pay less attention to what’s “in style.” Remember the leisure suits and wide ties of the 70s? As horrible as that style was, it lasted well over half a decade because men, as a group, care less about current fashions. While women anxiously await the new season’s clothes hitting the stores, and are ultimately responsible for the fast-fashion trend that’s driving designers crazy, men are more content continuing to wear the same thing from season to season.  Unless a garment is stained or torn or no longer fits, we’re still likely to wear it.

Please let me emphasize, again, that these are generalizations. We all know people who are exceptions and those people are absolutely wonderful. However, for fashion to be viable it has to appeal to masses, not individuals, and men’s fashion has yet to achieve that desirable goal. So, dear friends at Vogue, please stop filling my inbox with photos of today’s DSquared² runway. I’ll catch up with the brilliant Caten brothers in a month when they’re showing women’s wear.

Until then, I think I have some napping to do.

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Fashion
Dolce & Gabbana Produces New Arab Collection
January 6, 2016
charles i. letbetter - Arab fashion

The Arab World is writing a new future; the pen is in our own hands.—Abdallah II of Jordan

charles i. letbetter - dolce & gabbana go arab

Something tells me this look we created in 2011 wouldn’t quite meet with approval.

In a move that really isn’t all that terribly surprising, Italian designers Dolce & Gabbana introduce their first abaya collection on Style.com/Arabia yesterday, making them the first major Italian design house to directly embrace the growing Arab market. The label, which has focused heavily on themes involving family the past two seasons, has created a line of lightweight abayas and hijabs that invoke some of the themes from their spring/summer ready-to-wear line while maintaining the dress code required for public wear by many Muslim women.

Putting all politics aside, which one should do as often as possible, the Arab market is one the fashion industry as a whole, and the luxury labels in particular, have ignored far too long. There aren’t that many people still alive who remember when Arab fashion was every bit as strong and attractive as that of the West and Arab women have long been customers of luxury handbags and shoes. This is a vital piece of the market and it is growing.

Expect every other luxury house in Europe to be watching to see just how well this special collection sells. Even before matters in Syria and Saudi Arabia reached their current levels of tension, the Arab clothing market was growing. Thomas Reuters estimates that the Arab clothing market will reach somewhere around $484 billion by 2019. That prediction was based on pre-exodus numbers, though, and as millions of refugees flee to Western countries and begin to take up residence there, it is not unreasonable to expect that number to grow even higher. Whether the majority will retain traditional clothing or assimilate to Western fashion is anyone’s guess at this point, but many fled with only the clothes on their back so they will definitely be strong wardrobe consumers in the coming years.

Be aware, this isn’t the first time the Arab community has gotten some attention from a major designer. Tommy Hilfiger and Donna Karan (through her DKNY brand) have previously done capsule collections directed toward this market, as have a couple of other designers. What makes this important is that none of the previous brands have carried the weight or attention that Dolce & Gabbana do. The duo is a critical player in the whole Made in Italy campaign. Should Dolce & Gabbana do well with this Arab line, don’t be surprised if others such as Prada and possibly even Armani follow suit.

This is overdue. Fashion has ignored the Arab world for far too long and I’m idealistic enough to believe that the industry has the ability to mend some of the bridges that politicians so carelessly burn. The collection is quite attractive. We hope this goes very well and that others follow quickly.

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Advertising  /  Fashion
Louis Vuitton Campaign: The Future Of Fashion?
January 5, 2016
charles i. letbetter - louis vuitton campaign

The question for the future is how to understand and accept the new textile balance … Painting was declared dead the day photography was invented in 1839 — but we know now that it was not. – Louis Vuitton

charles i. letbetter - Louis Vuitton campaign

Future Tense: Fashion by Ian Stikeleather and Julia Rutland

The Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer campaign was released yesterday (Monday, January 4), and the Internet had a collective meltdown and not because of the clothes. Which topic received more attention probably depends on which social media feeds one follows.

On one hand, there’s the fact that Jaden Smith, who is a very interesting and trend-breaking young man in the first place, is pictured on the campaign next to models Sarah Brannon, Jean Campbell, and Rianne Van Rompaey. Jaden’s appearance alone would be noteworthy, but what has tongues wagging is that Jaden is wearing women’s clothes.

Louis Vuitton S/S campaign

Anyone who follows Jaden at any level isn’t terribly surprised by this move. If anything, it would seem to fit his eclectic and often difficult to understand personality quite well. Jaden is, and always has been, his own person. Famous parents notwithstanding, Jaden has proven himself a deep thinker, his quotes proving challenging for even the most educated of philosophers. He rejects many of society’s limitations and definitions which makes his appearance in women’s wear rather unsurprising.

Why this matters is because it is the most obvious and influential example of gender fluidity we’ve seen from a major fashion label. Louis Vuitton is the flagship of fashion’s mega-conglomerate LVMH. Labels at this end of the spectrum rarely court controversy on any level. Most campaigns are, quite honestly, so mainstream as to be rather boring. Gender blending goes exactly the opposite direction, inviting criticism from conservative circles that doubtlessly include many Vuitton customers. The campaign champions those who dare to be different, social heros who refuse to be defined by someone else’s concept of what’s right and normal.

Of course, not everyone was enthused by the campaign.

While gender fluidity is one of the top advertising trends for 2016, that doesn’t mean that the resulting controversy is going to just go away quietly with time. This is, after all, an election year in the United States and many people are still wrestling with LGBT rights in general. More than a few people running for office (mostly old white men) are threatening to roll back those advances if they are elected, which is all the more reason to be voting against them.

Ads like this might inflame controversy, but ultimately they champion gender fluidity and individuality and win more customers than they lose. High-end fashion houses are more than a bit concerned about attracting millennials and embracing the issues that this important demographic hold dear is ultimately a win for the brand. This is another case where even negative comments become positive publicity for the label.

What may be slightly more disconcerting for the long-term is the second surprising aspect of this campaign: the inclusion of a video game character in lieu of a model. The label chose one of the most popular game franchises of the decade, Final Fantasy, and then tapped one of its most visible characters, Lightning, the girl with the rose-colored hair.

louis vuitton

Once again, the Louis Vuitton brand managers are playing directly to strong trends going into the new year. Lightning is a strong female character and is especially popular with female gamers, whose ranks have grown exponentially over the past few years. Playing to this trend is likely to make the brand desirable among a group that traditionally has ignored luxury branding.

Why this particular move might be disconcerting, however, is that it uses technology to replace flesh-and-blood models. Final Fantasy is one of the most high-tech animated games on the market with its characters being extremely life-like and relatable, which is one of the reasons it has retained its popularity. Fashion watchers and more than a few designers have previously wondered out loud whether high-tech might one day replace the need for hiring models both in campaigns and on the runway. While the technology isn’t inexpensive, it would still be cheaper, and more reliable, than working with real people. Does LV’s move signal

Does LV’s move signal the end of modeling as we know it? Probably not for the immediate future; we are still too heavily invested in the personality and celebrity of models to replace them with anything digital just yet. However, as the fashion industry continues to wrestle with issues such as under-aged models and severe weight issues, be sure that every other major brand is watching to see how well the animated model does. Somewhere five or so years down the road, we may very well look back at this moment as the point at which fashion modeling with real people came to an end. All we need are avatars that can walk a runway and with the strong rush of virtual reality that technology cannot be too terribly far away.

This is, combined, a huge win not only for the Louis Vuitton label but for all the LVMH holdings. With such a tremendous response on its day of release, expect the marketing teams for other labels to follow suit. Louis Vuitton hasn’t gotten this much attention since Marc Jacobs left the house. No matter what one’s personal opinions may be, nor the long-term effect on the industry, this campaign is one that will have everyone paying attention when the fall/winter line hits the runway in Paris next month.

Louis Vuitton creative director Nicolas Ghesquière said of this season, “We are all living with this new dimension. We are all managing how to integrate these new notions of digital, virtual, and cyber with our real life.” This campaign is obviously the manifestation of the designer’s vision. I can’t wait to see what he does next.

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Fashion
Catching Up On Fashion
January 4, 2016
charles i. letbetter - fashion catch up

Fashion is architecture: it is a matter of proportions.—Coco Chanel

charles i. letbetter - Catching Up With Fashion

I oh-so-briefly considered doing a summary of last year’s fashion news and quickly dropped the idea when, after about three minutes of research, I realized there was just too much that happened across too wide a range of fashion-related topics to ever do the subject any justice on my own. Fortunately, the good folks over at Business of Fashion have already done a more-than-adequate job of concatenating stories that were either important or, at the very least, received a lot of response, and then divided them into nice, readable chunks so that we don’t feel completely inundated by the volume. This makes my job very easy: Link you to their lists, which is what I’m about to do.

 Fashion 2.0

Fashion 2.0 is BoF’s fashion tech section and covers everything from mobile apps to wearable tech. Be sure to check out the article on Instagram wars.

Intelligence

What would fashion be if we couldn’t speculate about what may or may not be happening behind the scenes? From this list, be sure to read Do Fashion Trends Still Exist? and Between the Catwalk and the Consumer: Fashion’s Growing Diversity Gap.

Brands

For a fashion label to truly succeed, attention has to be given to building the brand. There’s  more than one way to the top, as this set of articles shows. The article on Uniqlo may be the best read for later conversation; the company is determined to take over fashion retail.

People

Oh my goodness, but this is one topic that is never short of drama and intrigue. By-passing all the who’s-going-where intrigue, though, this list focuses on more positive-toned articles. Check out the piece on Diane von Furstenberg as well as Lisa Eldridge.

Global Currents

Fashion is not isolated for its four major cities; what happens around the world impacts the entire market. Unfortunately, the news here isn’t all that good as markets in Russia and Brazil may signal the beginning of a global downturn. Each of these articles hold some serious thoughts.

Opinion

Everyone has an opinion and we all know those are not exactly high on value. Some of these are worth considering, though, and definitely worth the time to read.

There’s plenty of other year-end news as well, but this at least should help everyone get caught up before we become inundated with the new stuff this year.

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PotD
5 Signs You Are A Fashion Failure
November 28, 2015
charles i. letbetter - 5 signs you're a fashion failure

Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.—Coco Chanel

charles i. letbetter - 5 signs you're a fashion failure

Fashion is something that eludes 98 percent of all people. Take this wedding dress, for example, from designer Catherine Fritsch; as wonderful a concept as it is, the dress didn’t actually sell until years after this photo was initially released. The problem isn’t with the dress, but the not-quite-in-touch fashion opinions of those who turned it down. Thinking of all the brides who went with dresses as staid and boring as their now-married lives makes me sad. Fashion is about expression and personality and when one chooses less-than-interesting fashion for themselves they’re not exactly putting their best foot forward.

This photo also reminds me of just how much people change over the years. Originally taken in 2011, our model, Erin, was a bright, young college student working on her degree. She’s now married with a beautiful little girl and is head of a relatively significant government agency. Makeup artist Christopher Thompson now runs a haunted B&B in Atlanta, Indiana. Catherine Fritsch rebranded last year and her Rue Violet line generally sells quite well. Isn’t it wonderful to watch people grow?

Speaking of growing, let’s get to today’s list:

5 Signs You Are A Fashion Failure

No5When you see a dog wearing the same outfit as you and the dog wears it better.
Just because you saw something on last season’s runway, or your favorite celebrity, doesn’t mean it’s going to work for you. Consider how a garment is cut, whether it’s full or tailored. Full cuts are more generous and work with a wider variety of body types. Tailored looks, though, especially those designed to be tight around the hips and waist, make the wearer look like a sausage bursting from its casing if their curves don’t match the designer’s ideal. It’s better to have a wardrobe that actually looks good on you rather than trying to adopt someone else’s style.

No4When there’s no Pantone® number to match anything you’re wearing.
A couple of caveats at the beginning of this one: if you’re legitimately color blind you get a pass as well as if you’re young enough your mother still dresses you. For those who don’t know, Pantone® is the color-matching system used by printers to make sure they’re printing the correct color. Pantone has identified hundreds of thousands of shades of everything and indexed them numerically; they pretty much have ever visible color covered. Yet, every once in a while I’ll come across someone who has put a color combination on their body that even the Pantone book doesn’t cover it. No, dear, it doesn’t look good no matter what your friends say; they’re laughing behind your back. There are color wheels and charts all over the Internet. Use one.

No3When people follow you because they’re sure you must be on your way to a circus. 
I’ve seen designers send some pretty bizarre looks down the runway, but nothing beats the collision of styles that occurs when some people start mixing separates. Not everyone has a talent for matching styles and fabrics well. As a result, we see things like polka dots and ruffles mixed with denim and lace and two or three different animal prints along with stripes running in three different directions and eight contrasting colors all in the same look. No. Stop. Barnum & Bailey  is not a personal style. Seek help.

No2When you’re wearing fishnet and the park ranger gives you a ticket for carrying over the limit. 
The only thing that really looks good in fishnet every time is fish. Sure, we see a lot of it on the runways, but the best applications are as accents or carefully matched accessories, and even those don’t always work in the real world where we have to figure out how to dress ourselves. Remember, fishnet exposes what lies beneath it. Do you really need what is under your fishnet exposed? Also, just because fishnet is flexible doesn’t mean its tensile strength should be tested. Fishnet is ultimately a tailored element; don’t push it.

No1When the tags in all your clothes say “Made In Bangladesh.” 
Check the labels in your clothes before you buy anything. If the label says made in Bangladesh, Taiwan, Singapore, or Vietnam, know that your garment is assembled by the poorest of the poor, typically in conditions worse than those in which we house our farm animals. Among those, Bangladesh is likely the worst. If you’re buying clothes from H&M, Wal-Mart, Target, Old Navy, Penney’s, K-Mart, or any other discounter, chances are you’re contributing to the economic enslavement of thousands. Read here, here, here, and here for more details, then change your buying habits.

One of the many things I dislike about American buying habits this time of year is the over-emphasis on sales and who has the lowest prices. Fashion isn’t cheap. Quality clothes aren’t often found on the racks of discounters. Where and how you spend your money makes a difference in the lives of thousands of people. In the shopping realm of the holiday season, today is Small Business Saturday. We strongly encourage you to take advantage and look for garments made by local designers. Sure, you’re not going to find any $5 price tags, but your money is more likely to help someone rather than contribute to their enslavement.

Use some common sense, people. Shop smart. Happy holidays.

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Fashion  /  PotD
A Good Pair Of Shoes
September 12, 2015
charles i. letbetter - a good pair of shoes

charles i. letbetter - a good pair of shoes

A Good Pair of Shoes

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.—Dr. Seuss

[one_half padding=”4px 10px 0 4px”]So, here we are in the middle of New York Fashion Week and already we’ve had one of the biggest spectacles we’re likely to see all month.Traffic on New York’s West side will be a nightmare all week. You’ll need a good pair of shoes if you’re going because much of the time it will be easier and faster to just get out of the cab and walk the last few blocks to the venue. Even after all these years of covering these same shows, I’m still amazed at the number of people who put so much of their lives into what comes down the runways at these shows.

Fashion really is a big deal and for countries such as Italy and France, it contributes significantly to their national economy. Not that the average person in either country has a closet full of couture wear, but it employees thousands of people and the taxes fashion generates contribute heavily to the health of those nations. Yet, because both are so reliant on sales outside of their borders, when economies such as China’s suddenly stumble, the effect for fashion labels can be severe and we’re already seeing that, especially with Italian labels. More than a handful of large fashion houses have seen considerable declines the past few weeks. Some, such as Prada, are beginning to seriously struggle.[/one_half]

[one_half_last padding=”4px 4px 0 10px”]I can understand people being concerned about shoes. After all, the ground is rough and at times dangerous. I felt sorry for a couple of models who took tumbles on the runway last night because the designer thought it would be cool to not tie their shoes. Shoes are critical to our ability to get around and do the things we need to do. Fashion, on the other hand, isn’t really that important at all. Beyond the matter of practicality, the only reasons we have for concerning ourselves with fashion is to either make people notice us or to pretend that the labels we wear make us better than anyone else.

Okay, so we can’t exactly go naked all the time, even though some may want that. Street style tells us that most people would rather dress for comfort than style. Paying extra money just for a label is foolish and our heads know that. All we ever really need is a good pair of shoes; the rest can be off the rack from Goodwill and we’re happy with that. So why all this fuss? Maybe it’s the art. Maybe we’re dreaming. Maybe we want to stand out. Or maybe it’s just because you like my reviews, which you’ll find over on Pattern all month (shameless plug). You choose which way you’ll go. Choose carefully and wear good shoes.[/one_half_last]

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this week’s photographs are strictly those of the author: charles i. letbetter, and do not necessarily reflect the attitudes or opinions of the models involved in the pictures. If you don’t like what you see, don’t blame the model. Thank you.
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Fashion  /  pop culture  /  PotD
Wearing Pants
September 10, 2015
charles i. letbetter - wearing pants

charles i. letbetter - wearing pants

Wearing Pants

I am a strong woman with or without this other person, with or without this job, and with or without these tight pants.—Queen Latifah

[one_half padding=”4px 10px 0 4px”]Full disclosure: I’m not wearing any pants. While I fully support the #freethenipple campaign, I’m personally not all that comfortable sitting around the house without a shirt. Pants, though, are a different matter. I’m more than willing to let them stay in the closet, or on the bedroom floor, until right before the children wake up. Then, once the kids are off to school, being very thankful for bus service, the pants come off again. One of the perks of being my own boss and working from home is that it is largely up to me to decide whether any given moment is going to involve pants, and if it’s just Kat and me, there’s really no point in bothering.

Not wearing pants does not necessarily mean one is naked below the waist. While I’m not generally opposed to that scenario, there are times when naked doesn’t work well, such as when one has leather furniture. Wearing a kilt or a skirt or a dress doesn’t count as wearing pants, either. My mother never wore pants when I was little. Instead, she wore dresses and skirts even around the house. She didn’t feel that pants were sufficiently feminine until one particularly cold winter in Kansas when she finally broke down and bought her first pantsuit. Over time, she became more relaxed with pants, but she always still preferred dresses, especially in the summer.[/one_half]

[one_half_last padding=”4px 4px 0 10px”]The problem with pants is that they tend to be restrictive, especially around the waist. I honestly don’t see how people wear the current crop of skinny jeans and still manage to eat enough food to keep themselves alive. Those of us who enjoy eating understand that the waist is going to expand and contract at various times throughout the day and pants don’t allow for that, unless you’re shopping in the old men’s section of Sears.

The upside to pants, I’m told, is that one doesn’t have to shave one’s legs as often. Being male and not involved in a sport where aerodynamics is a factor, I can’t really speak to this issue. I know plenty of women with fair hair who can get by without shaving too often. I’ve also known others who almost needed to do so twice a day. Nature can be cruel like that.

Today is the start of New York Fashion Week (NYFW) and designers will be showing their Spring/Summer 2016 collections. Don’t expect a lot of pants. Skirts, yes. Dresses, definitely. Shorts, let’s hope so. Sure, there will be a few with pants in their collections, but the best designers know that pants are limiting. To be really cool and comfortable in warm weather, one needs to be without pants every moment possible.[/one_half_last]

 

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this week’s photographs are strictly those of the author: charles i. letbetter, and do not necessarily reflect the attitudes or opinions of the models involved in the pictures. If you don’t like what you see, don’t blame the model. Thank you.

 

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Editorial
A Sexy Bohemian Summer
July 31, 2015

charles i. letbetter - bohemian summer

This is the summer of casual bohemian chic and Kat wears it very well

I’m a girl from a good family who was very well brought up. One day I turned my back on it all and became a bohemian. —Brigitte Bardot

This is officially the wettest summer Indiana has seen since someone started keeping records. We have surpassed the record amount of rainfall set all the way back in 1875 and I’m finding it difficult to complain about that too terribly much. Of course, we’re not the ones with trees uprooted by high winds or basements flooding on a weekly basis making the battle against mold never-ending. For us, the summer has been delightfully mild and, on those rare days when it’s not raining, we’ve had a delightful time being out in nature.

Our biggest challenge to the summer is not knowing exactly when rain might hit. Scheduling photoshoots gets difficult when the weather forecast changes multiple times an hour. We might start the day with only a 20% chance of rain, then it changes to 80%, then back down to 40%, up to 70% and all over the place. I’m not inclined to take up someone’s time getting makeup and hair done only to be rained out. Fortunately, we have an in-house model and when we do get a break in the weather Kat is ready to jump in front of the camera for a few quick shots.

Bohemia is the dominant look this summer and that fits in quite nicely with Kat’s personal sense of style that makes comfort and practicality a priority. The loose-fitting, flowing dress is perfect for days when the humidity is high, especially if there’s a little bit of a breeze flowing. The thin cotton breathes well, looks good, and holds up to repeated washings. Other days, especially when we’re out traipsing through the woods as we’re prone to do, jeans and a crop top are more appropriate. The biggest challenge on those days is keeping Kat in shoes. When we come across a chance for her to go barefoot, Kat quickly takes advantage of it, especially if there’s water involved.

We haven’t been able to do many shoots this summer, which makes me rather sad, but it’s nice to know that when we do get a chance to go out the results are going to be fun and exciting.

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Editorial
Where There’s Water
June 18, 2015
charles i. letbetter

As summers go, this one has, to date, been rather mild in Indiana. We’ve had only a couple of days where the temperatures have squeaked above 90 degrees and the humidity has managed to spend the majority of the time below the 50% mark. All in all, we’ve certainly seen worse. Of course, it’s not over, but we’re not off to a bad start.

By contrast, 29 Palms, California, where my Marine son is stationed, has seen highs around 112 this week. Go ahead, talk about how it’s a dry heat, but what he’s doing means going without air conditioning, either. I’m pretty sure I know what he would tell someone to do with their “dry heat” argument. He’s a lot like his dad in that way.  Poor kid doesn’t even have a decent tree to sit under for shade.

Summer is a time of beauty and where there’s water we just naturally expect to find pretty girls. So we were quite happy to enhance some of the local scenery by taking model Jenn King out to a place where the flood waters were not raging (which has been an issue) and letting her play around a bit. Sure, nature is quite lovely on its own, but can you honestly think of any stream that is not enhanced by a model in a crocheted swimsuit? Jenn was even a good sport and didn’t throw rocks at me when I suggested she actually get down in the water, which was apparently quite cool.

Cool and relaxing is exactly how we would describe these pictures. What better way could one find to spend a summer’s evening. Our thanks again to Jenn for coming out to play. We hope you enjoy the pictures.

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Photography  /  PotD
Right Smack In The Middle
June 10, 2015

charles i. letbetter

Pin This (2012)

“More than ambition, more than ability, it is rules that limit contribution; rules are the lowest common denominator of human behavior. They are a substitute for rational thought.” ― Hyman G. Rickover

[one_half padding=”4px 10px 0 4px”]Stop and think for a moment what you might do if there was no one to tell you no. Ever. You want ice cream for breakfast? Go for it. Wear a yellow jumpsuit to a funeral? Sure, why not? Build an elevator into space? Others have talked about it, let’s see how you do. One of the biggest stumbling blocks to innovation and progress is the fear that someone will object to what you do. There are too many people who are afraid of upsetting the status quo and that keeps them from ever venturing into an area of imagination and experimentation that could quite possibly lead to fantastic inventions and dramatically wonderful changes in society. But first, one has to be willing to break the rules.

Breaking the rules in photography is actually rather easy. First, there are too many damn rules and most of those are under-supported and fail to take into account all the possible variations one might encounter when shooting. Second, those rules are generally not explained too terribly well, even in photography courses, and some of them are so confusing as to make it difficult to know whether the rule is actually being broken or not. Breaking photography rules is about as easy, and pretty much as earth shattering, as rolling out of bed in the morning.

Breaking the rules of society, not just society in general, but the very specific society of which you are immediately and constantly a part, is more difficult, though. Why? Because you have to live there. If you venture out and make a mistake, the people around you know about it, and might possibly remind you. Constantly. Cruelly. Taking risks to do something as different as changing the brand of coffee used in the office means taking on the possibility that others, especially the boss, might disagree. Breaking rules in life, no matter how small they are, can have some very large consequence and that risk is enough to keep the majority of people quiet and toeing the line.[/one_half]

[one_half_last padding=”4px 4px 0 10px”]Today’s image is sneaky and breaks a visual framing rule that may not be noticeable to anyone who is not a photographer or works with visual layout on a regular basis. This is one of those violations of good imagery that rather sneaks past the rule checkers without immediately setting off any red flags. The model is attractive. The set looks good. There are strong leading lines. Makeup, hair, accessories, styling, are all pretty much on point. This is such a quiet little bit of rule breaking that some might not even think that it is worth mentioning at all.

What’s wrong is that the model is positioned right smack in the middle of the frame, which is actually a fairly strong framing no-no. We would much rather have positioned her slightly to the right just a bit. Making the rule violation even worse is that the positioning puts the dead center of the image right at the model’s crotch. Awkward. And now that I’ve mentioned it, you won’t be able to not notice. We went ahead and broke this rule for two reasons. 1. The leading lines created by the car put our eyes there whether we like that or not. 2. Size restrictions of the frame made it impossible to move left or right without creating additional visual problems. Sometimes we have to decide which rule to keep and which to ignore.

Earth shattering? Not hardly. You’ll go on about your day and quite possibly won’t give it a second thought, unless you spending time looking at a lot of pictures. The picture won’t cause the overthrow of any dictatorial government or change the economic policies of the Midwest. But our whole purpose this week is to reinforce the idea that breaking rules is not something we should be afraid to do. Should we give thought to the consequences? Yes. But if more of us were willing to break rules, even the simple one such as this, we might be surprised at how wonderful the changes would be.[/one_half_last]

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Editorial
Shades of Blue
June 4, 2015

Want to drive a graphic designer crazy? Tell them you want something a primary color and then complain that it isn’t the exact shade you had in mind. Stand back and watch their head explode. Every time. Even the most patient designer eventually grows tired of the thousands of shade variations to any given color.

Blue seems to be especially difficult. Everyone has some sense in their mind of what blue is. My coffee cup is blue. The handle on the scissors is blue. The cover of the book next to me is blue. Yet, none of them are the same color. Get into the intimate nuances of graphic design and simple differences of opinion become horribly complicated and difficult. Making things all the more challenging is the fact that hardly anyone actually color calibrates their computer monitor, which means anything viewed online is going to look different on every computer by just a little, and sometimes that “just a little” is too much.

Fortunately, for our purposes, it is perfectly acceptable to combine and interchange shades of blue. We can take our background from teal to indigo and change the entire tone of the image with a simple nudge of a color slider. Could they all be exactly the same? Sure, we could have taken that route, but where would be the fun in everything looking the same, especially when our model, Tiffany Beckett, came all the way in from Utah to give us such a diverse set of expressions? Such wide-ranging emotion deserves backgrounds that are as equally malleable.

Of course, all those variations give graphic designers headaches as well. They would much prefer we stick with one specific shade and run with it. All this moving around and adjusting things is distracting and takes away from the cohesion of the project.

Damn good thing I’m not a graphic designer, isn’t it?

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