Step 1:
Genre of choice: Fashion Articles

Examples:
BOTW: Dries Van Noten, Your Favorite Rappers Low-Key Favorite Brand (Highsnobiety)
Rihanna and LVMH Confirm Fashion Label (BusinessOfFashion)
Fly Like Nic Cage: The Incredible Timelessness Of 90’s Airport Style (GQ)
Virgil Abloh Responds To Plagarism Critique and Discusses His Design Philosophy (Hypebeast)
Adidas and Kid Cudi Officially Announce Partnership (Complex)

Step 2:
Fashion articles are very important in modern society. They are a constant reminder that fashion is much more than a consumer/seller exchange and outfits. Articles about fashion can detail how designers became popular, what makes a designer or piece of clothing unique, changes in trends, and fashion’s impact on the world, positive and negative.

Notable authors in this genre are Anna Wintour, Andre Leon Talley, Robin Givhan, and Carine Roitfield.

This genre is mostly directed towards fashion consumers and creatives who have a direct interest in the industry itself

The most well known and most successful person to document fashion is Anna Wintour. Considered one of the fashion industry’s most influential figures, her editing and publishing work for Vogue Magazine gains her massive attention in fashion media, and her documentation of younger fashion designers (i.e Alexander Wang) is often credited with helping jumpstart their careers.

Step 3:
The main message of the examples chosen is change. Fashion articles are generally meant to reflect change, movement and progression in the fashion industry. The reasons cited for this change differ from article to article; some change can be motivated by unsatisfactory prospects in the future, some can be motivated by nostalgia, and some motivated by a simple feeling of dissatisfaction to what was in style in the past.

Not all fashion articles have the same message. Some take on a sunny, nostalgic tone, a few contain an extremely positive message, and some serve as a warning.
Every article that I have looked at so far has a biography to it. There is always at least one part of these articles that discusses the past. This part generally is meant to show the buildup to the things discussed in the article, the history of the creatives or trends discussed and the possible reasons behind the topic at hand.

As far as language and words are concerned, there are no real constraints in that area. Fashion journalists will say whatever they must in order to get their point across. However, I have noticed that many of them rely on using an influential figure in pop culture to justify or cement something in fashion, and tend to drag it out through the entirety of the article.

These examples are directed to fashion creatives and passionate consumers in the industry.

The only explicit difference between the examples I have shown is the length. Some examples are formatted to be very short and straight-to-the-point (typically the ones documenting something that has just recently surfaced in fashion), while others can be multiple paragraphs.

Step 4:
Example: Virgil Abloh Responds To Plagarism Critique and Discusses His Design Philosophy
Author: Jeff Yeung for Highsnobiety
The message of this article is to discuss the creative mind of Ghanian designer Virgil Abloh, and serves to reaffirm his talents and capabilities amid the large amounts of criticism that he receives

This article is directed mainly to creatives and fashion consumers. The particular consumers that this article is geared towards seem to be older, because they are the people most interested in the person that Virgil Abloh is behind his clothing.

This text is important to fashion creatives and consumers because it discusses one of the most distinctive fashion designers of the modern era, the ups and downs of his successful career and the complex process behind the simple styles of his art.

Step 5: Model the text

Considered a modern icon of the fashion industry and known for his representation of Asian culture and the LGBTQ Community, San Francisco born designer Alexander Wang has grown into an extremely prolific figure at a very young age. His pieces, basic in their design but detailed in their construction, transcend the changing trends of the fashion industry and remain a testament to his undeniable tailoring skills.

Alexander Wang was born in 1983 in San Francisco to parents of Taiwanese Descent. His interests in fashion began with a design program at Central Saint Martens in London, England and continued after a move to New York City to attend Parsons School of Design. Once in New York, he began holding internship roles at many large companies, including Vogue and Marc Jacobs. These roles increased his knowledge of the fashion industry, and once knowledgeable enough, he dropped out of college to pursue his career as a designer.

Wang began his eponymous label in 2005, initially focusing on knitwear. His line would eventually evolve throughout the years, and eventually turned into a brand consisting mainly of women’s ready to wear. The line would continue to expand at a fast rate, receiving reward money of $200,000 from the CFDA and garnering the attention of fashion journalist Anna Wintour, who was key in introducing Wang to a wider audience. His list of achievements continued to grow over the next few years; Swarovski named him their Designer Of The Year, and GQ named him their Best Menswear Designer Of The Year. In 2011, Wang opened his flagship store in SoHo, Manhattan.

In 2012, Wang was appointed creative director of French fashion house Balenciaga, succeeding Nicolas Ghesquire. His first collection for the brand, debuted later that year, received very positive reviews and boosted his already large profile as the lead of two iconic fashion brands. His time at Balenciaga lasted until 2015, when he exited his contract to re-center focus on his own label.

Alexander Wang has become a coveted designer since the start of his career, among both everyday consumers and celebrities. Many notable people have been spotted in his clothing, including Trina, Ariana Grande, Rihanna, Beyonce, Karrueche Tran and Nicki Minaj. His prominence continues to grow over the course of his career, and it doesn’t seem like his momentum will slow down anytime soon.

Sources:
https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/dries-van-noten-marble-collection-buy-online/

https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-analysis/lvmh-and-rihanna-to-launch-fenty-maison

https://www.gq.com/story/90s-airport-style-is-forever/

https://www.complex.com/sneakers/2019/05/adidas-signs-kid-cudi

https://hypebeast.com/2019/5/virgil-abloh-vouge-plagiarism-critique-design-philosophy-interview

Inflated Ego

Constant Envy, Arrogance,

Entitlement, So Ugly

“Words are subjective. They wouldn’t have impact if we all interpreted them the same.” -Jacob Jarvis

My goal for this semester is to be more expressive with my writing and become better at accurately translating my real life emotions into written ones.