The Everlasting Love of Fashion and Music

For many years, fashion and music have gone together hand in hand, both creative industries have helped each other thrive and progress through massive collaborations. Fashion has used music as a source of inspiration for years and vice versa, from the drug induced UK rave culture of the 1980’s, where fashion quickly spilled over from the clubs to the catwalks, to subcultures, which are hugely dictated by the music they listen to. Designers have decided to step up and go directly to the musicians for collaborations which has pushed both industries to creative highs, its gone on and beyond. Even the likes of film makers such as Nick Knight who has collaborated with creatives from Alexander McQueen to Kanye West, have got involved. Bridging the two has resulted in the creation of great art.

In recent years the trend has flourished, Burberry hold live events showcasing some of Christopher Baileys favorite acts such as British indie band White Lies, its even got to the point where the models turn to the musicians. We all know models and rock stars go together like ring and yang, Agyness Deyn (circa 2008) offered her vocals to unknown indie band Five O Clock Heroes and Kate Moss featured on past boyfriend Pete Dohertys album for Babyshambles.

Here are my seven picks of perhaps not the best, but the biggest fashion/music collabs:

Rihanna x River Island

Pop/Illuminati (sorry, I had to) Princess Rihanna took the high street by storm last year when she unveiled a collection designed exclusively by her (we’re led to believe) for high street retailer River Island. She even showed at London Fashion Week, surprisingly. Unless you haven’t seen the collection you can easily imagine it was an array of bomber jackets, camo, and mid riff bearing crop tops all of which you could imagine Rihanna to wear herself. It was commercial and with her massive following it was bound to be a massive success and has carried on over a couple of season. It’s all wearable but each to their own I guess!

A.P.C x Kanye

Unusually modest for a collaboration featuring Kanye, this collection consisted of mainly denim jeans, hoodies and t-shirts, staple items for most men. We all (unfortunately) remember the previous debacle when Yeezy last attempted to break in to the industry much to the distain of Anna Wintour, after that Kanye seeked advice from Jean Touitou, head of French brand A.P.C which developed in to a beautiful friendship and resulted in this basic but successful collab.

Vivienne Westwood x Sex Pistols

Although not classed as an official collaboration it is probably one of the most influential. In the 80’s Vivienne Westwood began designing clothes for Malcolm McLarens shop ‘Sex’ who also happened to be the manager of punk band the Sex Pistols, the two styled the band that helped develop the punk style which continued throughout the 70’s.

Riccardo Tisci x Watch The Throne

Bringing two musical geniuses together simply wasn’t enough for Jay Z and Kanye West when they collaborated to create Watch The Throne in 2011. West bought in good friend (and rumored ex boyf) to create the duos album and single covers and even merchandise for their world tour. As you can imagine from Jay Z, the biggest name in the industry, and Yeezy, the biggest ego in the industry, the creative direction was ridiculously extravagant, with lashings of gold and images of the duos faces merged with cheetahs.

Saint Laurent x Daft Punk

Although Daft Punk were initially introduced to the fashion world in 2007 by Louis Vuitton, it was Hedi Slimane who has really given the Dj duo a push in recent years. His debut collection for Saint Laurent was underlined by Daft Punk’s take on David “Junior” Kimbrough’s music. He then designed a jacket for the Parisian duo who also featured in the houses 2013 campaign.

Alexander McQueen x Björk

In 1997, Alexander McQueen collaborated with Björk to create the artwork for the cover of her game changing ‘Homogenic’ album. He even directed the video for one of the albums singles. Their mutual love for technology and nature made them the perfect creative duo.

Converse x Pharell, Santigold and Julian Casablancas

Back when Santigold was Santogold (ah 2008) she collaborated with Pharell and The Strokes front man Julian Casablancas to create a campaign and single for Converse. The campaign featured various musicians both dead and alive as it’s been the shoe favored by musicians for years, and the song was even my MySpace song, that’s nostalgia for you.

All Walks: Caryn Franklin Lecture at Ravensbourne

Image is a touchy subject when it comes to women and fashion, over the years we've had sickly thin, caucasian 5 foot 10 models shoved down our throats thanks to fashion imagery and runways all over the world. But do these images really illustrate the women who buy the clothes and what affect is it having on us and our perceptions of beauty.
All Walks Beyond the Catwalk is an initiative created by Caryn Franklin that challenges the industry and the idea of 'perfect' that it has inscribed on our brains. Today Caryn came and spoke to us (fashion promotion) to give us more information on All Walks and to help us all think a little more about the pressing subject.

Fashion or gang rape?

Caryn has worked within the industry for around thirty years working at style title iD magazine and on The Clothes Show on the BBC, which means she's seen first hand how much fashion has changed over recent years. All Walks aims to inspire those in industry to use a more diverse range of models, diverse in race, size and age, as the constant use of stick thin caucasian models seriously affects young minds and implies to them that that is perfect and they are not.
Its also the imagery that can affect our future generations, images that are overtly sexual or imply drug use can be found on the new stands daily.

Caryn pointed out that you can't just do one successful campaign and hope the message sticks, you must reinforce it as often as you can. For example All Walks had a very successful campaign which starred models of all ages and sizes which featured in iD and at London Fashion Week. The campaign was a huge success and Caryn has worked hard to keep All Walks going strong.
It has been proven that women are more likely to buy a product if its advertised on a life size model, the average dress size in the UK is a 16, so how can we constantly advertise to consumers on size 0 models? For example, the recent M&S campaign featuring stars such as Tracey Emin and Helen Mirren has been a hit and the dress worn by Helen Mirren sold out almost immediately, proving the point that if the target consumer sees the product on someone more like themselves it really does sell better.
It really struck a chord with me, when Caryn mentioned about air brushing in beauty products, how they make you feel guilty if the product doesn't have the same affect on you as it does on the model in the advert and I really related, plenty of times I've tried mascaras and creams that haven't made a bit of difference and assumed it was my eyelashes or skin that was the problem.

Rhianna: Role model to your children?

Its not just fashion that will have a lasting effect on girls everywhere look at the like of Miley Cyrus and Rihanna, these two are posed as role models for young girls everywhere. Both often talk about drugs and both promote being dominated and make it look like the only way to success is to act like a slut. The images we see daily show women like a 12 year old boys sexual fantasy, as though women are nothing more than cliché objects of lust or degredation. And with the likes of Terry Richardson, the known sex pest, contributing to magazines such as Vogue will it ever end? Heres a quote from Richardson himself that particularly disgusted me; "I was a shy kid," he has said, "and now I'm this powerful guy with a boner, dominating all these girls." Is this right? Should agencies allow models to have to go through this as the only way to have a successful career? Emotional blackmail at its seediest

Miley Cyrus by Terry Richardson

The talk from Caryn really opened my eyes to look more closely at fashion imagery and also going in to advertising and being a future creative we can really make a difference. I will be creating a short promotional film with The Gibson Diaries for All Walks in a week or two so keep your eyes peeled for more info!