Marilyn Monroe wore shocking pink to scintillating effect in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). This connection only started swapping in the 1940s, with the final transition to pink as a feminine color coming in the 1950s, when US first lady Mamie Eisenhower wore a pink gown as her inaugural dress, thereby cementing the color as one for “ladies.”īright pink soon found its way to the big screen, too. Yet for centuries, the color was associated with masculinity, with boys being dressed in pink and girls in blue (with babies traditionally wearing white and the military mostly wearing red, pink was seen as appropriate for boys). Madame de Pompadour, the chief mistress of Louis XV of France, was so enamored with the color, French porcelain manufacturer Sèvres created a shade specifically for her, called Rose Pompadour, in 1757. Pink is said to have been worn in ancient India and imperial China, as well as the upper echelons of 18th century European society, where it was a symbol of social status, since the materials used to dye such lavish garments were imported from expensive expeditions to central Asia and South America. Decades later, further socio-political movements in the west would embrace the color again, when knitted pink hats became a symbol of the 2017 Women’s March, a worldwide protest movement against US President Donald Trump. It’s most dazzling iteration, shocking pink, was popularized by the late Italian couturier Elsa Schiaparelli, who made the intense magenta her signature color in 1937, ensuring her subsequent designs stood out against the austere palettes of the battle-weary Forties.
Parts of Africa are experiencing the effects of global warming, including rising temperatures, droughts, and desertification.Historically, pink has proven to be one of the most emotionally evocative and controversial colors of all the spectrum. She should consider how she might be able to give back too maybe a percentage of proceeds could go toward protecting these animals-they’re all either endangered or vulnerable-or she could donate to climate change efforts. She might spend the next few months refining her message and figuring out a better way to communicate it through the clothes. Fashion has moved away from its old habit of cherry-picking references and motifs from different cultures lifting species out of Africa for a couture collection made thousands of miles away, without Black models or decision makers, would have felt problematic no matter the circumstances.ĭue to time constraints and a lack of a physical show, Pei said her vision doesn’t feel complete and plans to release a second installment in January. (She said her dream was to cast women from all over the world, including Africa, but the pandemic made it nearly impossible.) She no doubt began working on this collection months ago, long before the killing of George Floyd, but that doesn’t change much.
More glaringly, none of Pei’s models are Black. In light of the Black Lives Matter movement, the idea of a designer being “inspired by Africa” feels categorically tone-deaf-and the models’ tribal makeup doesn’t help. Good intentions aside, Pei’s feelings about unity and love will be clouded by what many will perceive as appropriation. In a quite literal interpretation, she transposed their likenesses directly onto her clothes: A graceful cheetah was felted and embroidered onto a black dress a jacket with grassy fringe was intricately hand-stitched with a landscape of giraffes and acacia trees a zebra’s head curved around the neck of a raspberry top, its striped mane fanning out at the shoulders and, a bit disconcertingly, an elephant’s face was sculpted into the back of a crinkly gray jacket, its 3D trunk furling out just above the model’s backside. Pei chose to celebrate a few animals in particular-elephants, cheetahs, zebras, and giraffes-because they’re “the most energetic and powerful” in the savanna.
“We should all love and care for each other.” “Animals, plants, humans, everything that has life on this earth is equal,” she said. On a call from Beijing, she said she was inspired by the savanna’s unity and balance it’s home to an incredible diversity of plants and animals living in harmony, often with little exposure to humans.
Guo Pei titled her couture collection “Savannah,” after the grasslands in Africa.
0 kommentar(er)
