Fashion Photography Research Articles

From Secret Fashion Shoots to the #100projectors

From Secret Fashion Shoots to the #100projectors

Beyond Needle and Thread

Beyond Needle and Thread

Pausing for thought: Lost and found

Decolonizing debates have the potential to revitalize fashion studies by placing greater emphasis on the way we practise, and the conditions under which we see, hear and speak about fashion imagery. Decolonializing projects and anti-racist activism suggest new methodologies and transformational insights, which are riddled with contradictions and personal vulnerabilities. This article reflects on museums and fashion photography as spaces of decolonial reckoning and paradox. Understanding and coming to terms with positionality, a crucial factor in decolonial praxis, emerges as a continually unfolding process of action and compromise in which the researcher may ultimately ground herself.

FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY ON INSTAGRAM: A STUDY OF VISUAL ATTRACTION AND MESSAGES DELIVERED

Fashion photography that was previously distributed through printed media such as magazines, is now also distributed online through social media such as Instagram. Seeing these developments, this study aims to examine the form, visual appeal, and messages conveyed by fashion photography in Instagram’s content. This study uses a descriptive qualitative research approach with analysis of visual methods. Observations and interviews were used for data collection, sourced from fashion marketing accounts on Instagram, and from other Instagram users with photography and fashion education backgrounds. The results show that the form of fashion marketing photography varies depending on the concept and product being sold. Photos that are unique, different, and use good compositions are favored by the participants. Each photo has its own theme and message concept, but each photo shows that anyone can look cool and attractive if they use the fashion products shown in the photos. So, the fashion photography used in Instagram content should look unique and different, with good photographic composition, and easy-to-understand messages.

Ambiguous gaze: masculinity and the male body in Dirk Bikkembergs’ fashion and photographic production

ABSTRACT The study of masculinity has recently become relevant to the field of fashion studies. However, fashion is still underrepresented in the field of men’s studies, which hardly takes into account its importance in the cultural construction of masculinities. This article aims to build a bridge between these two fields through the analysis of fashion designer Dirk Bikkembergs. Known as part of the internationally established ‘Antwerp Six’ and for his strong representation of masculinity and the muscular body, Bikkembergs’ imagery is interesting to any scholar wishing to reflect on the cultural definitions of the male body, especially when that body is being presented on the border between normativity and homoeroticism. The article explores the evolution of the visual representation of the male body in photography, and particularly fashion photography, demonstrating how the relationship between masculinity, the male body and the gaze changed over time. We then use the proposed framework for a critical investigation of the visual imagery of Bikkembergs’ world, which revolves very much around masculinity and the male body, to pinpoint an ambiguity at the base of the brand: despite the brand’s normative narrative and orientation, we posit that its photographic production leaves space for a queer reading.

Models, Mannequins, Dolls and Beautified Faces: A Semiotic and Philosophical Approach to the Sense of Beauty

The goal of this paper is to contrast the representation of models in photography (fashion and fine art photography), as well as certain kinds of inanimate beauty (Barbie dolls, mannequins), with the average faces constructed by algorithms serving to identify and reproduce beauty. What are the similarities and differences between inanimate objects, characterized by faces devoid of singularities and comparable to sorts of angelic faces, and the algorithmic parameters through which beauty and attractiveness are calculated and predicted? This paper will apply an enunciative semiotic analysis to photographic corpora, propose philosophical reflections on the categories of beauty, and will show that the conception of beauty changes from corpus to corpus and from one cultural domain to the other (fine art, advertising, entertainment and so on). The end of the paper states that beauty has to do with a perfect gradation between stillness and movement in the case of the models seen in fashion photography, between neutrality and expressivity for mannequins, and between singularity and multiplicity for dolls such as Barbie, and that, in the algorithmic fabrication of beautiful faces, it is linked with an enhancement of the compactness of the structure of the face.

Effect of brand prominence on fashion advertising images on Instagram: a computational analysis

The main purpose of this research is to explore fashion images posted on Instagram and how users respond to those images. Guided by the persuasion knowledge model, a computational analysis of 29,557 fashion photos posted by 10 top-ranked global fashion brands in four major fashion categories (i.e. luxury, SPA, sports, and casual) is conducted to identify specific patterns of brand prominence and promotional intention and to investigate how those patterns are associated with customer engagement. Findings showed that brand information (i.e. size of the brand logo and brand name) tended to lead to lower engagement levels in general, although luxury brands showed the opposite pattern. More interestingly, while providing luxury brand information in the image invited positive responses, there seemed to be backfire effects when such information (i.e. brand name) was highly prominent. In addition, sharing promotional information was likely to prompt a lower level of interaction. Discussion of the findings and issues related to advertising research using computation analysis is provided.

스트리트 패션을 통한 인도네시아 무슬림 여성의 패션 색채 특성 연구 : 서부 자바(West Java) 반둥시(Bandung City)를 중심으로

This research was to study the fashion color characteristics of Muslim women in Indonesian street fashion, which shows rapidly growing interests in K-fashion. For the research method, 329 street fashion photographs taken in Indonesia were selected to analyze color, tone, and color scheme image of clothes, veil and shoes in the photo. As a result of color analysis, there were more achromatic colors than chromatic colors, and PB was shown the most among chromatic colors, and R and YR were also frequently found. As for the achromatic color, Bk was shown the most in the distribution, Bk was shown the most in the total color of clothes and accessories as well. W was also found frequently. As a result of tone analysis, black was found the most in the distribution and white was the second most. The next most analyzed tone was in the order of light grayish soft pale, followed by grayish = light gray 〉dull 〉dark grayish 〉strong 〉dark = medium gray 〉deep 〉light 〉dark gray〉vivid 〉bright. Coloration image was found in the order of Hard-Static, Soft-Static, and Hard-Dynamic, but Soft-Dynamic coloration was rarely found. As for adjectives, ‘modern/decent’ was the most in the distribution, followed by ‘graceful’ and ‘elegant’, indicating that many adjectives corresponding to the Hard-Static area were shown in large numbers.

러닝을 통한 하이엔드 패션 브랜드 감성 학습

The fashion industry is creating innovative business models using artificial intelligence. To efficiently utilize artificial intelligence (AI), fashion data must be classified. Until now, such data have been classified focusing only on the objective properties of fashion products. Their subjective attributes, such as fashion brand sensibilities, are holistic and heuristic intuitions created by a combination of design elements. This study aims to improve the performance of collaborative filtering in the fashion industry by extracting fashion brand sensibility using computer vision technology. The image data set of fashion brand sensibility consists of high-end fashion brand photos that share sensibilities and communicate well in fashion. About 26,000 fashion photos of 11 high-end fashion brand sensibility labels have been collected from the 16FW to 21SS runway and 50 years of US Vogue magazines beginning from 1971. We use EfficientNet-B1 to establish the main architecture and fine-tune the network with ImageNet-ILSVRC. After training fashion brand sensibilities through deep learning, the proposed model achieved an F-1 score of 74% on accuracy tests. Furthermore, as a result of comparing AI machine and human experts, the proposed model is expected to be expanded to mass fashion brands.

Luxury Images on Instagram : Computational Analysis of Images Posted by Luxury Fashion Brands

The main purpose of this research is to explore what makes “good” luxury fashion images on Instagram and how Instagrammers respond to those images. A quantitative analysis of a large collection of fashion photos posted by notable luxury fashion brands was conducted to identify specific patterns in these images based on four important visual content variables: use of a brand name, brand logo, text, and hashtag. This study also examined how customer engagement levels vary depending on each visual content variable. Several interesting findings emerged from this study: (1) featuring a brand name was positively related to viewers’ engagement level in terms of the number of likes and comments, while the size of the brand name was negatively related to the number of likes; (2) featuring a brand logo was also positively related to viewers’ engagement level; and (3) the use of text and a hashtag was positively related to viewers’ engagement level, while sharing promotional information was likely to prompt a lower level of interaction.

Pojava modnih elemenata kod zaštitnih maski za lice tokom ranih faza pandemije Covid-19 - podaci sa društvenih mreža - II deo - istraživanje trendova maski kod korisnika Pinteresta

The global Covid 19 pandemic introduced a new item in everyday dress - the protective facemask. During 2020, fashion elements crept in the design of this primarily functional item. This research aims to analyse fashion trends in protective facemasks in the early stages of the Covid 19 pandemic. Photos with protective facemasks on social media were used, as traditional fashion photography underrepresents facemask wearing. The research showed that protective facemasks on Pinterest - a social medium used for taste discovery, showed cheerfulness, humour and individual creativity in facemask design. The uncertainty on how long non-pharmaceutical solutions in the fight against Covid 19 will be in place raises the question if fashion should be ignored. When persuading people to wear facemasks could fashion be the carrot to the stick of legislation?

TAJNE UVEĆANjA: TEHNOLOGIJA I IMAGINACIJA U DELU DONA DELILA I MIKELANĐELA ANTONIONIJA

The paper explores the relationship between technology and imagination in the poetics of Don DeLillo and Michelangelo Antonioni, as reflected in DeLillo’s Libra (1988), Underworld (1997), Falling Man (2007) and Antonioni’s Blow-Up (1966). The plot of Antonioni’s cult film, loosely based on Cortázar’s short story „Las babas del diablo,” is well-кnown: the protagonist, a professional fashion photographer, believes he has unwittingly captured a murder with his camera. The discovery is made in the scene in which he frantically maкes a series of blow-ups in the hope of finding clues to the mystery thus reclaiming the past. His belief in the power of photography borders on fantastic, and the paper sets out to revisit this phenomenon in the con- text of the worкs of Don DeLillo, who has acкnowledged his indebtedness to the European cin- ema, Antonioni included. In DeLillo’s novels characters repeatedly try to find the truth which escapes them in their everyday experience through the power of technology, principally the camera, which, as Walter Benjamin noted, has the paradoxical (and sublime) capacity to repre- sent the past as if it were „Here and Now”. Indeed, the photograph as „memento mori” (Sontag) or a „micro version of death” (Barthes) is a little more than a metaphor in both Antonioni and DeLillo’s murder mysteries, which abound in dead bodies, or bodies soon to be dead, captured in still photographs or sequences of images, enlarged and super-slowed, from the horrifying sight of Кennedy’s exploding head recorded by Abraham Zapruder to the „horrific beauty” of the „Falling Мan” shot by Richard Drew. Curiously enough, both Antonioni’s and DeLillo’s characters seem to call into question the nature of still and moving images, as the specters from these snapshots and videos haunt them, teetering between the real and the imaginary.

Exploring Indigenous Histories in Fashion Museums: An Analysis of the Exhibition “Alta Moda” by Peruvian Fashion Photographer Mario Testino

Exploring Indigenous Histories in Fashion Museums: An Analysis of the Exhibition “Alta Moda” by Peruvian Fashion Photographer Mario Testino

스트리트 패션을 통한 인도네시아 무슬림 여성의 패션 디자인 특성 연구 : 서부 자바(West Java) 반둥시(Bandung City)를 중심으로

This study studied fashion design characteristics of Muslim women in Indonesian street fashion and analyzed fashion images, items wearing, patterns and silhouettes, and colors and styling of each image through local street fashion photos. Fashion image analysis was carried out by a group of experts (masters and PhDs in fashion design including these researchers). For street fashion, image classification (multiple choice possible) was performed based on 8 fashion images referenced in previous studies. For the characteristics of fashion design, the researcher first analyzed top and bottom clothing items, accessories, patterns and silhouettes, and styling by image, and secondly classified them after verification by two experts (fashion design doctors). The survey results were analyzed for frequency through the SPSS Statistics 27 program. As a result of analyzing fashion images, they were often found to be modern, sportive, and romantic, and clothing items such as T-shirts, shirts & blouses, long pants and long skirts were mostly found. For accessory items, the veil was most of them wore short hijabs that covers up to their necks. For shoes, casual items including sneakers and running shoes as well as sandals were frequently found, and for bags, shoulder bags were found the most. For hats, they created fashionability by wearing brimmed bucket hats or knit caps over hijabs. It was identified that non-pattern clothing and veil predominated and if there were patterns, geometric patterns were preferred. For silhouettes, H-line silhouette was predominant. In the modern images, the street fashion was characterized by straight silhouettes and unity of veil and clothing colors. In the sportive images, the street fashion featured outstanding coordination of casual items, and in the romantic images, pastel-tone A-line silhouettes was the most striking feature.

Transfer learning-based Fashion Image Classification using Hybrid 2D-CNN and ImageNet Neural Network

Abstract: Many algorithms have been developed as a result of recent advances in machine learning to handle a variety of challenges. In recent years, the most popular transfer learning method has allowed researchers and engineers to run experiments with minimal computing and time resources. To tackle the challenges of classification, product identification, product suggestion, and picture-based search, this research proposed a transfer learning strategy for Fashion image classification based on hybrid 2D-CNN pretrained by VGG-16 and AlexNet. Pre-processing, feature extraction, and classification are the three parts of the proposed system's implementation. We used the Fashion MNIST dataset, which consists of 50,000 fashion photos that have been classified. Training and validation datasets have been separated. In comparison to other conventional methodologies, the suggested transfer learning approach has higher training and validation accuracy and reduced loss. Keywords: Machine Learning, Transfer Learning, Convolutional Neural Network, Image Classification, VGG16, AlexNet, 2D CNN.

Different Types of Fashion Photography and their effect in the Fashion Design field

Different Types of Fashion Photography and their effect in the Fashion Design field

‘My favourite meme page’: Balenciaga’s Instagram account and audience fashion labour online

As fashion ‘goes viral’, adapting to digital popular cultural flows, streams, image aggregations and memes, there is a need for better grasping how these platforms feed into the aesthetics of mediations of fashion. Contemporary digitally mediated fashion is conditioned by what van Dijck and Poell refer to as a new media logic, one that permeates the ‘strategies, mechanisms, and economics underpinning these platforms’ dynamics’. This logic includes audience labour. This article focuses on how the audience is put to work and how such work becomes integral to the mediational aesthetic by using the Instagram account of Paris-based fashion brand Balenciaga as a heuristic device. In connecting perspectives from fashion and media studies, this article discusses how fashion mediation is entangled in processes that harness audience labour on Instagram. Balenciaga takes on communication strategies that expose the aesthetics of user engagement. On Instagram, the brand presents its take on fashion photography in the digital age as part of its visual identity on this platform. Furthermore, in feeding the comments section, users participate in ‘boundary maintenance’, separating Balenciaga insiders from outsiders who lack knowledge of the perpetually changing aesthetic codes of fashion imagery. Online audiences thus find themselves at the crossroads of consumption, production and gatekeeping.

Collaboration, competition and conflict: The collective labour of fashion photography at US Vogue (1940‐42)

While the figure of the fashion photographer has been widely discussed, little has been written on image-making as a collective endeavour. Fashion photography indeed results from technical innovations, publishing strategies, editorial policies, behind-the-scenes negotiations and, ultimately, decision-making. This article analyses ‘The Condé Nast Papers’ ‐ a series of internal documents held at the Condé Nast archives in New York ‐ together with US Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar’s editorials and covers to explore how fashion photographs resulted from the collective labour of photographers, editors, artistic directors and many others in the early 1940s. Through these unique historical sources, this article gives a voice to the workers involved in the making of fashion images and shows how decision-making and creativity were distributed across occupations. It also unpacks the negotiations, arbitrations and power relations that underpinned work relations at US Vogue, showing the collaboration, competition and conflict between the different actors. Drawing on art sociologist Howard Becker’s concept of ‘art worlds’ while combining methods from fashion history and visual and material culture, I question the respective status of the multiple authors involved in this activity and the conventions of fashion image-making. In doing so, I argue that fashion photographs are the product of the interactions of a multitude of workers who are embedded in the power structures of the fashion media industry, and whose collective labour is made invisible. My goal is to rethink the ways in which collective labour has been evidenced and produced in the fashion industry.

Queer insurgency: Slava Mogutin and the politics of camp

The subject of this article is Russo-American artist Slava Mogutin. A close associate of Gosha Rubchinskiy and Lotta Volkova, Mogutin has been based in New York since 1995. While he originally shot to fame as a poet and novelist, Mogutin is today better known as a performance artist, filmmaker and photographer. The aim of my article is to locate Mogutin, and in particular his fashion photography, within current debates around the representation of masculinity and the construction of masculine subjectivity/-ies. More specifically, using a visual analysis methodology, I analyse the camp aesthetics of Mogutin’s fashion imagery. In a number of ways, Mogutin’s camp aesthetic raises questions about displacement and identity, the clash between individual desires and social norms and – as he puts it – ‘what it means to be a young man in the modern world’. It also constitutes an avowedly political challenge, not just to the state-sponsored homophobia and heteronormativity of Mogutin’s native Russia but also to the identity politics underpinning today’s fashion industry. I conclude by suggesting that Mogutin’s openly political form of camp might pose a challenge to the traditional Sontagian view of camp as apolitical.

Labouring up and down Prisunic’s styling streams: The creative studio of a retail chain in 1960s France

This article looks at the French retail chain Prisunic’s fashion production in the 1960s and, in particular, at the collective and invisible labour of its creative studio established in 1953. It examines the processes by which Prisunic evolved from selling clothes, infamous for their shabbiness, to selling fashion during the 1960s. First, this article focuses on the organization of Prisunic. Second, it turns to the interactions between Prisunic as a fashion producer and cultural intermediaries such as forecasting agencies. Specifically, it analyses how Maïmé Arnodin’s ‘colour books’ became instrumental to Prisunic’s design process. Third, it considers the diversity of occupations within the studio, including stylist, fashion designer, fashion photographer, graphic designer and typographer, and considers their interactions. Fourth, the article delves into the interpersonal relations of studio members with fashion journalists and editors, as well as structural interactions between fashion producers and fashion media. Especially, it questions the role of French Elle in the visual and discursive construction of Prisunic’s commodities as the product of creative labour. The article draws on sociologist Michel Callon’s focus on ‘agencies’ and ‘material devices’, which are instrumental in shaping markets and the cultural economy. Further, it builds on sociologist Liz McFall’s characterization of material devices as shaped by the interaction of institutional, organizational and technological arrangements to analyse the studio’s labour practices within Prisunic, upstream with its suppliers and downstream with the press. This article traces the processes, interactions and arrangements that make up Prisunic’s styling streams.