Vogue Italia Photographed by Steven Meisel
                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
 
 
My  interpretation of Steven Meisel's editorial is that it represents the  diversities of the fashion ecosystem + the micro-celebrity world that  teleshopping channels create. 
Re: the story:  The women who patronize teleshopping channels save up for that $300  gold pleather jacket payable in 3 Easy-Pay installments because for  them, it is their Christian Lacroix. Teleshopping carries everything  from frumpy knits to "designer" goods, making the higher priced designer  items the equivalent of a middle-America Chanel.
Fashion is  subjective; your cool may not be my cool. Real women from Texas to  Tuscany covet clothing that they can wear in their everyday lives,  inspired by haute couture runways but made wearable by mass market  designers. It's the trickle-down effect from runway to ready-to-wear to  private label. 
Re: the casting: I think Steven  again makes a statement. Watching Joan Rivers on QVC, she overshadows  her guests, the models and the merchandise. It's the Joan Show and the  customers calling in talk as much about the merchandise as they do about  being a Joan Groupie. The personalities of the tele-hosts are as  important as, if not more important than, the models because they  represent the lifestyle, they sell the lifestyle that the customer  calling in wants to create. How else would a size XXXL polyester-blend  blouse modeled by a size XXS model fly off the virtual shelves of the tv  screen if not glammed up by an overly-sexified tele-hostess? 
Even  the runway models are a parody in this editorial, the type of model  that would never be used wearing clothing that would never be sold to  illustrate the point that teleshopping is about what customers PERCEIVE,  not what they see. I think this irony will become clearer when we see  the rest of the cast of characters on the inner pages of the editorial. 
Re: the Lady in Red:  I left Paris early in my career to pursue a consumer-fashion path in  NYC because that was my "cool" and those were the brands I related to,  along with 90% of the women in the USA. I love fashion and I marvel at  high fashion models like Daria Strokous and Caroline Trentini, at the  heights of their editorial careers. I am the woman looking at the tv, in  awe of the lifestyle those models are selling, ready to dial in and buy  it - and therein lies the point of the story for me: I'm in awe of  them, other women are in awe of me, and other women are in awe of those  women... It's the ecosystem of fashion diversity, everybody is inspired  by somebody. Red is my Aries color, btw.
I find this editorial to  be brilliantly conceived and flawlessly executed. Working with Steven  Meisel was an honor; I love that he allowed me to be myself without  trying to "cool me up" and I am proud to have a role in the creation of  his art.
~Paula Patrice/Ford NY commenting on Vogue Italia January 2012 photographed by Steven Meisel
 
             
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