‘Fashion colludes in society’s obsession with
thinness; the whole process of making and marketing a collection is based upon
the production of clothing in the smallest size.’

With incisive observations from a senior
London college lecturer in fashion history, Rebecca Arnold hits so many home
truths out of the park it is easy to miss the forest (green) for the trees. The
prose is artistic enough to act as paintbrush summoning a frisson of paradoxes
even as her systematic analyses percolate through our awareness. What was once
a symbol of upper class formality is claimed by the conspicuous consumption of
gangsters with personal tailors. What segments the uneducated from the
educators infuses street credibility upon those who choose to reject it for
alternative rebellion. What at once passes for décolletage and dishabille
metamorphoses into an empowering symbol for feminine mystique or radicalism.
The author has an illustrative example for nearly every point she clearly
outlines, describes in slavish detail and then dissects to the bare bones, some
of which are clearly visible upon heroines on heroin.

Fashion, Desire and Anxiety is divided into four sections: Status, Power
and Display; Violence and Provocation; The Eroticized Body; and Gender and
Subversion.

“Status…” deals with the Moebius band like
infinite repository of revivals yo-yoing between recidivistic simplicity and
excess, not quite sure where the wheel of marketing fortune will ever come to a
standstill, and hoping fervently that it will not. Ms Arnold cajoles us to
admit to our desire for the power that we believe stylish clothing will confer
by the established principles of high-level designer label chicanery. She
inveigles us to ponder about consumerism, consolation, communication and
confrontation. She seals the indelible symbiotic bond between the fashion and
entertainment industries.

“Violence…” is astonishing in its range, from
the cool film noir gangster styles to hardcore ‘gangsta’ rappers of the early
nineties. It attempts to categorize social “outcasts” like hippies, skinheads
and punks, each clamoring for exclusivity propelled by disenchantment with the
establishment. Regrettably, each of these subgroups had unfortunate
associations that however successfully delimit their adoption into the fringes
of society. The appropriation of the paraphernalia of threat and violence are
combined with unequivocal bad taste and dark imagery. Heroin chicks drenched in
Opium perfume could only helix down into decadence and decay.

“The Eroticized Body” fragments the littoral
between the public and the private as women flaunt sexuality and peddle allure,
while being unafraid of doing so. Fashion photography treads gingerly while
parading fantastically unattainable lifestyles that at once seem morally
suspect yet threateningly inviting. The fantasy element of fashion marketing
fuels the desire to desire. Fetishism, excessive displays of skin, and
tokenisms of ethnicity push the envelope down the catwalk.

The final chapter, “Gender and Subversion” is
a slim weak denouement. Over the years, the unconsummated love affair between
the male fashion designer/photographer and his female muse is reincarnated
several times over, and the reversal of roles (and obvious nods to gay
influences upon clothing) is given short shrift. Androgyny, the drag queen and
the plus size woman exist more as ciphers than further grist for the mill. “Dressing
Up: Man” is six pages in length – Madonna’s hemlines are longer. Whatever
happened to the fashion victim?

The book would have been enhanced (and
pricier, and prized more) had it included more full color plates. However, Ms.
Arnold is not aiming for the coffee table demographic and may not be more than
marginally faulted. Those images not literally included are etched in the
reader’s mind’s eye by her vividly constructed crystal lattices, embellished by
a historian’s keen perspective. This is truly rich fabric waiting to be mined
by you who will never sashay into another trunk show the same way again.

Read more in:

q      
Vreeland, D:
Allure. Bullfinch Press, 2002

q      
Schatz H, Ornstein B (Eds.): Rare Creatures – Portraits
of Models. Wonderland Press, 2002

q      
Hoare S, Baron F (Eds.): Talking Fashion. Powerhouse
Books, 2002

q      
Yohannan K: John Rawlings – 30 Years in Vogue. Arena
Editions. 2001

© 2002 Sundeep
Nayak

Dr.
Nayak is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Radiology in the University of
California School of Medicine San Francisco and his interests include mental
health, medical ethics, and gender studies. A voracious reader and intrepid
epicure, he enjoys his keyboards too much. He shamefacedly confesses to having
possessed a Filofax, Tag Heuer watch and something rather hideous with a gilt
Medusa head medallion on it.

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