_theycallmejuicy

[theycallme-juicy]

Recession Core

The newest, oldest trend on the horizon.

While many of the theories and predictions I'm about to suppose come from a place of opinion and speculation, I understand that not everybody may hold the same outlook for the future of the American economy.

There is a well know, though not well supported, theory that skirt length rises and falls along with the state of the economy. The Hemline Index supposes that when people must spend more conservatively, they often dress more conservatively.

I believe evidenced by housing prices, the stock plummeting, and overall economic uncertainty, logic supposes that consumers will turn to more frugal spending, conservative ideologies, and overall- corporate fashion.

What is Recession Core? - FASHION Magazine

Amid economic turmoil, recession core is the TikTok-coined aesthetic trend that prioritizes usefulness over embellishment.

Additionally, due to the resurgence of Y2K fashion, and the well known cyclical nature of both fashion and economics, the gradual scarcity of financial assurance will cause a shift to corporate, muted, conservative fashion. I think that Tik Tok trends have already begun capitalizing off this with a "Trad Wife" and "Office Siren" aesthetics.

Highlighting corporate fashion from this blog post in 2013 should give an idea of era of time I am referencing (chunky necklaces and pencil skirts).

Wardrobe Wednesday | Pencil Skirts & Chunky Necklaces - Tori Watson

I have been eyeing this inspiration photo for several months, now. It’s been sitting on my Pinterest board, but I just wasn’t sure how to ac

Many fashion brands have already begun this shift, specifically H&M as a references for muted, corporate professional clothing. However even brands that have made a living off of the opposite aesthetic such as pretty little thing have begun making this shift in preparation as well.

This is what the website used to brand themselves as- and here is an example of their new branding

All of this not even to mention the Office Siren trend which encourages making a corporate outfit well fitted, seductive, or sexy. This one even got a girl FIRED from her work.

‘Office Siren’ Fashion Trends on the Runway: An Evolution of ’90s & Y2K-era Sensual Suiting [PHOTOS]

From The Archives, see how the 'Office Siren' trend evolved from the '90s and early aughts Y2K-era runways through the years.

Because of this 2000's revival, the economic uncertainty we face, and resurgence conservative spending trends, I do feel this Corporate Girl look is what's next on the horizon.

[theycallme-juicy]

XOXO, Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl's resident, reining and supreme IT GIRL... The Headband.

Gossip Girl is a tv show from the 2000's which follows preppy, private school attending, children of billionaire bunch of high schoolers as they navigate the world of the rich elite. One of the main characters (if not eventually the main character towards the later seasons) is Blair Waldorf (daughter of fashion designer Eleanor Waldorf). Part of her character arc is her arc within the fashion community, taking over her mother's business, developing her personal fashion, and becoming a fashionable business woman.

Fashion is interwoven throughout the show as a status symbol. Yes the best designer clothes, but also a more literal symbol. Blair Waldorf's high school fashion staple, the headband, is a literal symbol of her status as Queen 'B'. She is literally referred to as such and there is a quiet hierarchy within the community that positions itself as royalty both within the school, but within the higher society as well. When Blair Waldorf graduates, it transcends a personal style and becomes a figurative crown that is given to the leaders of the clique of upper east side royalty.

In one scene, when the up and comers within the high school are duking it out for the most influence, Jenny Humphrey (a lower east side "poor" girl among the privileged) suddenly finds herself in a position of power. A lover of fashion, and previous intern for Eleanor, Jenny finds that her personal style must set the tone for the rest of the elite to follow.

It is quite humorous to see previously extremely preppy girls suddenly transform into grungy artistic goths to follow her lead. Additionally, when we see Jenny subsequently fight for her power in a later season, Blair must return and give her a physical status symbol to cement her regime, a crystal headband. Both these instances, steeped within both popular fashion ideology and fashion industry practices, demonstrate how powerful clothing can be.

I really love Gossip Girl (the original not the remake) as it is so delightfully decadent and provocative. It set remarkable trends not only in fashion, but indie music as well! Funnily enough, the main character Serena, who is supposed to be the most fashionable, carefree, and idilic man's perspective character, is one that often rejects the fashion industry in favor of her own style. Further increasing the message that PERSONALITY IS POWER.

[theycallme-juicy]

Rumination Week 16

Globalization

As we discussed in class, I really like the concept that as borders open, they become more restrictive. Physically we have the ability the travel the entire world- but legally it’s a different story. Social, political, and economic precursors all prohibit or allow travel in different world, but media seems to be an open radio wave. I think that this issue plays into the Global TV & Film and Image circulation, because image reproduction and ‘abundance’ gives power to a country. Movies, television, and radio all work within these boundaries, allowing the feeling that the world is a lot smaller than we used to feel like it was.

For my media choice, I choose a gif of a bloody scene in Tarantino’s film, “Kill Bill.” In this scene, instead of using live action, an anime style fight scene is included. The film itself pulls greatly from Japanese culture as well as many forms of martial arts. Quentin Tarantino is undoubtedly a controversial director for many reasons- but I want to focus on the way that he incorporates (many say appropriates) cultures into his movies. As discussed in class, the Hong Kong Kung Fu action films in produced in the late 20th century were a type of film that were produced internationally, but all falling under the same martial art style influence. Although it was produced in 2003, I think Quentin Tarantino’s film “Kill Bill” was almost a parody of this globalization phenomenon- using the single world image to his advantage. I cannot say I agree with or condemn Tarantino as a whole, but I’d like to think he understands the complexity of his choices.

[theycallme-juicy]

Rumination Week 14

The Office: Season 3 Episode 1- "Gay Witch Hunt"

This week’s lecture and reading content really emphasized the connection between technology and the human experience- specifically biological science and anatomy. The reason why we, as humans, try to find ways to categorize each other is an effort the find out own category. References previous weeks content, many people define themselves based on their definition of other people. The use of technology enhances this cause by trying to find analytical, biological reasons to ‘other’-ize other people. Using technology is a way to assuage responsibility of cultural and personal bias by eliminating subjectivity- blaming technology (which is supposed to be viewed as objective and factual). It is the foundation of eugenics where we search for a biological excuse for our own prejudice. Often times it is the search for a reason or cause for the stereotypes we place on to other people.

For a media element of this week’s rumination, I chose another scene out of the office. In the episode named “Gay Witch Hunt,” Dwight uses a ‘gaydar’ machine to find out which of his co-workers are gay- however it’s a type of metal detector which Jim has pranked Dwight with to make him believe he is also gay. I chose this because of one of the major lecture discussions involved using technology to analyze features of a ‘queer face’ and label members of a population as homosexual. The thought that the study conducted was fairly ‘accurately reporting’ which subjects were queer based on facial recognition really worried me. Certain political and social groups would readily utilize this technology in order to subjugate groups of people from the population. I don’t believe this technology is ACTUALLY accurate or readily available/reliable, but the thought that we made a technology in order to find members of the queer population makes me wonder why we were searching through biological means at all.

[theycallme-juicy]

The Office: Season 5, Episode 12- "The Duel"

When reading and listening to lectures on Obama Hope, one of the biggests themes that stuck out to me was the "Political Magic" that accompanied the poster and Obama's career. I think that artistic creations and remixes communicate feelings more widely to audiences than speeches or ad campaigns. The propaganda style fetishization of Obama was what truly set high expectations for his presidency- so while he may have no been able to deliver everything that was promised (something very few presidents actually do), it was hard for citizens who had been let down to reevaluate the previous pedestal that Obama had been placed.

The entire idea of image and remix actually reminded me of an election we had in middle school in which students from hallways could run for a student council. One of my friends who had always wanted to be in media and a rapper made a campaign revolving around a music video style promotional video. He ended up winning president. What our social studies professor revealed later that week was that our classmate (my friend) had not actually made any promises for his ‘presidency’ like his peers had- showing us that we hadn’t voted based on policy or ‘political preference,’ but because of the visual communication he was able to make – something that gave us a lot of hopeful feelings for what he would do for our hallway without actually telling us what he was going to do.

Of course Obama did in fact make promises, but I think the ‘political magic’ of his campaign and persona stemmed from the posters and visuals that communicated the image of Obama rather than his policies and political alliances.

I included this video of Michael Scott revealing the ‘secrets to his success’ because he’s not really successful for a specific policy, he just is.

[theycallme-juicy]

I find it interesting how Taylor Momsen, who stared as little Cindy Lou Who in 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas,' has a completely different self-presentation than her popular on-screen characters (who you might be familiar with). Cindy Lou from 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas', the president's daughter from 'Spy Kids', and arguably the most popular character-Jenny Humphrey from 'Gossip-Girl'. Using Capcut I wanted to do an edit that highlighted this juxtaposition as well as poked fun at it. By remixing Cindy Lou's classic holiday song, "Where are you Christmas," with one of Taylor's hit songs, "Hit me Like a Man," I was able to create something of a parody.

[theycallme-juicy]

Rumination Week 12

Postmodernism: Irony, Parody & Pastiche

In my mind, postmodernism is just making fun of an original, super serious classical piece and making it personalized or ‘relative’ to someone’s relative ideals or time in history. One of the concepts that I really enjoy to go along with this is fragmentation- in my opinion this is the idea that everyone has a different ‘fragment’ or perspective of what the ‘truth’ of a subject might be. I think in this instance (when the discussion shifted to binaries) there is no singular good or singular evil, but rather many individual concepts of what fits into a binary based on someone’s perspective.

Parodies and Remixes can be the creation of those fragments into something based upon the original idea but sculpted in a way that it changes the meaning into something new (usually as comedy).

The piece of media I chose to represent this comes allllll the way from my childhood. Minecraft Parody of Usher’s song, “DJ got us fallin’ in love.” Ironically, this parody also plays into a concept we briefly discussed in class. Simulacra & Simulation are hard concepts to wrap your head around. I think Minecraft itself falls into Simulacra in which it is kind of based upon the real world, but with functions and whimsical designs that DON’T appear in the real world.

The parody video itself is both a parody or remix of the original song as well as remixes the functions of the game in Minecraft- shifting it from a world building game to a story scene for the purposes of conveying the message of the song parody. In my opinion, this makes the video pastiche as it combines lots of different elements to create something different.

[theycallme-juicy]

Rumination Week 3

Kitsch: Art, objects, or design considered to be in poor taste because of excessive garishness or sentimentality, but sometimes appreciated in an ironic or knowing way.

I find the concept of Kitsch to be a more classic definition of the modern-day slang “camp.” Kind of like when something is so awful, and ‘lowbrow’ you have no choice but to feel  a sense of appreciation -whether for its classic nature or sentimentality. The first weeks of Visual communications we discussed how art has power- that it is an active entity. I do believe that this concept is true on an individual level because something that is impactful, meaningful, or powerful to one person, might not have the same effect on everyone.

Like the 2019 Met whose theme was “camp” – when ‘bad taste’ is a ‘vehicle for good art,’ as described by Bonnie Wetheim of the New York Times.

That’s basically the definition of Kitsch. So, like all art, being perceived as good art was up to the eye of the beholder- just like power given to classic art.

One of my favorite examples of ‘good art’ in ‘bad taste’ is the new movie, “Bodies, Bodies, Bodies,” that just came out (hellooooo Pete Davidson and Amandla Stenberg).

There are many pop culture references made throughout the movie and many trendy words like ‘gaslighting’ and ‘triggered’ which made critics cringe. But I LOVED it.

Although a horror/slasher movie, the way the characters interact is hilarious and a true commentary on how being ‘chronically online’ can affect our relationships- and it was FUNNY.

            To me, this is Kitsch because the sheer garishness of the buzz words would be weird and cringy to someone who might not understand that it is purposefully in ‘bad taste,’ BECAUSE it makes ‘good art,’- at least to me. Because isn’t all ‘good art’ a reflection or commentary on real life?