The origins of fashion have a long and complex history. In the 21st century, although the manufacture of clothing and the consumption practices of fashion have changed significantly, the notion of fashion designers as "artists, sculptors or fabric architects" who beautify the body via material means, still prevails. The idea of the fashion designer as an artist was exemplified at the recent Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA).
According to fashion historian Caroline Cox, "handbags are the most silent and loyal of servants", carrying, protecting and transporting some of our most precious cargo. Today, with the rise of fashion blogs and magazine articles focusing on the bag and its contents, the handbag can be viewed as central to the construction and communication of identity.
Katarina Kuruc deconstructs the popularity of personal style blogs by linking them to contemporary notions of self expression and individualism.
This year's Fashion's Night Out in New York City makes a unique statement in light of the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
Although distinct fields, architecture and fashion share a plethora of commonalities. Both are art forms that rely heavily on creative design, functionality and careful attention to details. Toronto-based Rachel Sin converges both design forms in her fashion creations as well as her work as an architect. Through her work, the young designer demonstrates that, in many ways, fashion is architecture and vice versa.
During the forty years of Communist rule in Slovakia, politics infected virtually every facet of daily life such that seemingly ordinary purchases were infused with ideological sentiments. Twenty-two years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Katarina Kuruc measures the barometer of consumer appetite in Bratislava.
