fashion vectors
To gain access to the fashion system a designer must usually move through media,
be “spotted”, or find a point of entry. The role of media here cannot be underesti-
mated, as it is mainly through images we meet fashion. To be depicted in media is
central as it is there retailers will know what is coming and consumers will see what
is “the latest”. Magazines also contribute to defining a scene or a micro-culture and
the magazine often becomes a reference point around which a scene is formed,
constituted and distributed. For fashion, a magazine is a messenger and an attrac-
tor around which the actors of the fashion system orbit. As Roland Barthes claims
in his book The Fashion System; “the magazine is a machine that makes fashion”
(Barthes 1983: 51).
Yet the usual fashion magazine does not create or produce its content. It is a search-
er, a filter and a messenger. It sniffs up what is new and what fits its “taste” and it
gains credibility for releasing the greatest intensities, the greatest passion. Often
this has some relation to street wear or the latest expressions on the club scenes.
In fashion it has long been argued that the origin of most new fresh expressions
come from below, from the street. Fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg means
“everything in fashion begins in the street” (Trebay 2004). The London magazine
i-D started out as a zine in 1980 and became the early 80’s radical street magazine
which also introduced street wear images of ordinary people in the magazine,
quite the opposite to the exclusive French magazines with their arranged shots. i-D
initialized a new approach to street wear where the French system had not much
influence (Ben Saad 2005). By using photos directly off the street it legitimized the
street as a scene where fashion is created and displayed. This way of doing street
research became itself a fashion as the styles of I-D appeared on the catwalks and
this method was soon used by the high profile magazines to chase the latest young
street trends, sometimes called the “coolhunt” (Gladwell 1997: 78ff ). Many other
famous magazines are ”grown up” zines, like Bust, Dazed and Confused, and Found,
yet most stay small but with a committed community of their fans (Todd & Watson
2006: 18).
Telestreet and Disco Volante.
Setting up a small neighbourhood pirate
TV-station is now very hard, as shown
by the Italian Telestreet movement. They
make workshops and also instruction
movies showing the process (opposite).
One famous station was “Disco Vol-
ante”, a telestreet channel run by a group
of disabled people in the small town of
Senigallia. They documented their eve-
ryday as “aliens” in the eyes of society.
Franco Civelli, the station’s managing
editor, won a prestigious Italian journal-
ism prize. (left)