Celebrity?

I finally picked up a copy of the Fall/Winter issue of Bon with Constance on the cover. This Swedish publication has become one of my favorite magazines because it has substantive context and good editorials. It features topics and discussions infinitely more interesting than "How to look good at every age," "10 ways to get the look for less," and "What Hamish Bowles discovered on his 10 day cleanse."

Anyway, this particular issue contains a round table discussion on the recent Fall/Winter 2010/2011 season, and one of the topics covered in said round table is "On the Rise and Rise of Models." Interestingly enough, Freja's picture is chosen as the lead in image for this section:

It was a nice surprise, but when I took the time to think about it, it shouldn't have been a surprise at all. This absolutely jives with all the recent coverage that Freja has been receiving lately, for it seems like she is fashion's current model du jour--the poster girl of model success. It's wonderful for sure, but it also brings bittersweet feelings. I mean, when you're so "of the moment," it's only a matter of time before the moment passes and you're suddenly out of it. Maybe that's my pessimism speaking, but I just don't want Freja to get overexposed and I fear it's happening. Anyway, that isn't the point of this post....sorry to be so scatterbrained. The point is that a few quotes stuck out to me and got me thinking about the issue of celebrity.

Q: "We might think that a lot of models are sort of cookie cutter, completely without personality and importance, but in fact, if you've been on Models.com or the Fashion Spot or Model Manual, there is a fascination with models that seems to be growing. What are your thoughts on this?"

A: "...I don't think this is a fixation on models. It's a fascination with these people and the lives that they lead. Agyness has her music, she has modeling and acting. Each of them is a rock star in their own right. It's a fascination with the celebrity, not the model."

Do you think this is true in Freja's case? And if so, how does this reconcile with her fierce upkeep of privacy outside of modeling? Can Freja be a celebrity when we know essentially nothing about her besides what she shows on the runway, in fashion candids and on magazine pages? Doesn't that just make her simply a model? I've always been curious to know how many people like her for her work, versus those that "like" like her, versus those that like her for her personality and everything it embodies and signifies (the irony of this doesn't escape me considering none of us really know her). I try to focus this blog on the work, and even though I don't really care about all the gossip and whisperings about her personal life, I am fully aware of them. After all, lots of voices whispering together creates a pretty loud sound. So is this the by-product of the celebrity fascination mentioned above? Is the Freja fan domain created out of a fascination with her as a person, instead of the work that she does? Are the two facets mutually exclusive? Or are they rather codependent, with each informing and bolstering the other?

If Freja really was just a model, no one would care about what she did off-duty, what her tattoos means, who she hangs out with, who she sleeps with, etc, etc. But people do care, and I have no idea why they care so much other than to say that models are indeed the new "celebrity." That's disconcerting in a way, because you get a sense that after a while, this fascination begins to come at the price of the work. And this brings me to the second quote from the round table.

"What often happens in fashion, particularly fashion photography, is that everybody is seeking beauty, but with no other thought than combining things that have been approved by everybody else in the industry: best model, best photographer, best studio. All you can think of when looking at the pictures is that they certainly had good salads and sandwiches at the shoot. But it has no charm, no little accidents, no surprises."

In all honestly, this sums up the way I've felt about some (but definitely not all) of Freja's work lately. She's had so much of it since everyone is (seemingly) rushing to capitalize on her popularity and celebrity. But as a result, the moments of awe and inspiration seem diluted. Don't get me wrong....they are still there. But I feel like I have to look harder and longer to find them, and that's frustrating when you feel the pressure to love everything someone does simply because you run a blog about them.

Back when I started this whole thing, I would have been leaping for joy at the success that Freja's had in the past few months. But now that it's here, I can't get that bittersweet taste out of my mouth. As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for, right? And just watch.....if Freja ever disappears I'll be howling with frustration at her lack of new work and wishing to recapture this moment where she was on top. (In the voice of Chandler Bing) Can I be anymore fickle and temperamental? I'll just blame it on human nature and utilize another popular saying: the grass is always greener on the other side.

Your thoughts on models, celebrities, model celebrities, Freja, and fickleness? So sorry for the lengthy, stream of consciousness post, but it's pretty quiet news wise so I thought I'd go a little crazy. :)

Image Credits: My Scan

Unusually Conventional, Conventionally Unusual

So I picked up the latest issue of Bon magazine, mostly so I could have this stunning Sara Blomqvist editorial. As I was flipping through the rest of the issue, an interview with Rick Owens caught my eye. I love designers interviews because I like getting informational nuggets about their inspiration, design process, and casting process especially. Much to my delight there was a whole bit about Rick's casting for shows and his views on the beauty of models working today.

What kind of models do you like for a show?
I have a casting director. And...casting directors sometimes have priorities that aren't mine. The fashion people will notice if you are using what are considered the best models in the business. And if you try doing anything too tricky with the models, it starts putting you into a territory of being like a young designer.
But I'm very happy usually. Because, I mean, among those people there are very wonderful, fantastic girls. And if you notice, I don't use girls that are that unusual. I use the same girls that Prada uses, that all of these people use. I just take all their make up off. Because I like to see just the skull. Cause they are like alien creatures already. When you see them without the make up and without the clothes and everything, or when I put them in my clothes, they are like these wonderful insects. They are just incredible. So I don't really have any complaints about them. I just take the make up off and turn them into Rick Owens girls.

You use a lot of models from the agency Supreme. Paul Rowland, the founder of the agency, describes their edgy, unconventional beauty as "intelligent". He means that you have to be smart to appreciate it. Do you agree?
Well, I think...The fashion world that we are working in is an extreme fashion world. We can't use conventional beauty because it has been done, and done, and done. It's impossible to be interested in conventional beauty when you reach the very sophisticated level of aesthetics that high fashion is. So you have to look for something else. And that's what's happened. We've created a beauty that's a little...It has to be inaccessible in order for it to be interesting. This is about creating a dream; it's about moving forward and experimenting and exploring. So yeah, in that context these girls have to be unusual, they have to be esoteric, they have to be exotic, they have to be special. And that moves beyond conventional beauty. So, you know, there's a place for conventional beauty, but high fashion is not it.

This part excerpted above was accompanied by the following picture of Freja...

...which got me to thinking. Where does Freja fit into this scheme of esoteric vs. conventional beauty? I've posited before that she's one of the few models who can so effortlessly navigate the extremes: high fashion/mass market, masculinity/femininity, and classic/contemporary. My initial thought was that she can do the same in this case; she can be either conventionally beautiful or unusually exquisite depending on the occasion and needs of her employer. However, after some careful thought I think that instead of embodying both qualities, Freja defines the aesthetic paradigm shift Rick talks about in the above quotes.

We have moved on from the conventional to the unusual; so much so that the unusual can seem like the conventional ironically enough. What I mean is that the parameters of beauty within the fashion industry have shifted so that the old notions of classic and conventional beauty are nearly obsolete. Like Rick said, they still have their place within our world but just not in high fashion.

Freja is hugely popular and widely considered to be one of the more naturally gorgeous models out there. Yet she is an unusual beauty. She has a very pronounced cupid's bow, strong and hard jawline, sharp nose and lots of visible tattoos. Set her in the 1950s and she would not be anyone's standard of beauty by any means. But in our modern times, she is conventional enough that brands like Gap and H&M have used her in campaigns that must appeal to the largest swath of people possible. She is a living, breathing, moving example of the fashion industry moving forward, pushing boundaries, experimenting and redefining the ways we measure beauty.

And so, when the unusual becomes the conventional, we start to see an emerging beauty that's more extreme that what we knew before. The recent proliferation of models like like Meghan Collision, Jaime Bochert, Ranya Mordanova, and the existence and mission statement of Supreme demonstrate this. Perhaps it's only a matter of time before we move even further to the left in terms of beauty (like we have started to do with Lindsey Wixson). Or perhaps, like fashion is oft to do, we will move cyclically back to old standards and norms. Regardless of what happens, I think Freja will always have a place because for once she's treading firmly in the middle of two extremes.