When I chatted to the Proenza Schouler boys last season after the A/W 10-11 show, they said that they just designed what they're into, what they know, as opposed to over thinking and baking out an idea. Then they hit me with a film collaboration with director Harmony Korine and suddenly an extra narrative is woven to their 'basketball court at night' inspired collection. Or else, they lucked out and Korine managed to add a whole new dimension to the collection that deepened the sense of alienation and disenfranchisement to what are essentially cute clothes that girls jump up and down wanting to wear and sucker that I am, I'm drawn like a predictable moth to that outsider flame in Korine's Nashville.
The scribbles on the J Brand x Proenza Schouler jeans are not just the product of a lucrative collaboration but a each scrawl on the jean is a fucked up expression of rebellion/escape in an isolated town. The flared skirts that fold down at the waist paired with a prim buttoned up shirt and thigh high socks aren't just a an easy and twisted take on the naughty schoolgirl but an ensemble to give the outward appearance of happiness whilst concealing malcontent beneath the surface.
Never mind the fact that Harmony Korine's cast of Nashville girls in 'Act Da Fool', guzzling down malt liquor wearing head to toe Proenza Schouler is in reality a jarring combination but a simple voiceover bridges the gap between the material and the situation, and you do end up half-believing that these girls are well and truly wearing what is a luxurious take on urban school uniforms. If before, I gave props to Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez for just cleverly tapping into the simple yet effective (though completely unpredictable) nugget of what girls really want to covet and wear, then the Korine film adds a convincing backstory that becomes the final clincher to what I suspected; that the collection had me well and truly slayed. Just when I thought fashion film was beginning to develop the stench of 'filler' of 'fluff' about them, I get smacked down by this stellar example as well as Kenneth Anger's turn for Missoni. I guess this was a long winded and roundabout way of declaring "I'm just one out of millions that hearts Proenza Schouler's A/W 10-11 collection" and that surprisingly, it took a film to confirm that…
**EDIT** I'm actually extremely GLAD that the comments haven't just run the "Oh it's so beautiful…" course of commentary because I think both Korine and the Proenza boys undoubtedly wanted to make a statement that wasn't just "Oh, here's our airy fairy fashion video that you'll watch and forget about the next day…". I've posted this response to some of the comments already but I thought I'd add it here too as I would love to hear more of your thoughts on the film. As with film critiquing, there is no right/wrong answer… it is all subjective which probably makes it all the more interesting. I for one am glad that we can talk about a fashion film thus and not just sit there and be awed/inspired full stop…
"I would agree that there are stereotypes being thrown up here but those that have labelled it 'exploitation' or some such nonsense are taking it a step too far! Yes, there's fried chicken, malt liquor and yes, the girls happen to be all black but playing up to those stereotypes is no more offensive than say some skit in Goodness Gracious Me about Indian mums stuffing their kids with food or the portrayal of Caucasian geeks not being able to get laid…. I can't even list all the examples here….
In actual fact, it surprised me that colour/race struck people above anything else in the film. When I first watched it, the fact that they were all black didn't even occur to me…all I saw were a group of isolated girls teetering between child and adulthood going through the doldrums of their surroundings with that ol' teenage mode of escape; drink….
It's all in keeping with the themes we are familiar with through Korine's work but actually, by adding Proenza Schouler's clothes to the mix, which of course as Starsweare and a few others have pointed out, calls into question the disparity between these characters' lives and the material value of these clothes, as a result does create a film that transcends reality. That fantasy element of the clothes and jarring them with the environment of the film works beautifully, because if this was a short film doused in reality, as per Kids etc, then suddenly those stereotypes seem more mooted in the unoriginal/inauthentic and yes, perhaps offensive…
What I'm asying is that by combining the collection with Korine's set-up (we must remember that this was Korine's carte blanche and that the boys merely provided references and the clothes), the short is somehow more abstract and I can't actually read it as literally as some people have done…"
i totally love this
http://thestyleparticle.blogspot.com
I have always ooed and awed Proenza Schouler’s work but I never really gave their designs much attention. Now I am very very interested!
PS. My mom is now a fan of your blog. Don’t ask me how.
Joy. D: Hah…. the more ‘mums’ the better I say!
Wow! Amazing.
http://theroovintage.blogspot.com
http://www.everythingsbeautifulhere.blogspot.com
This is an improvement in fashion film, as you mentioned. Watching the video made me think that there are people who really do live this lifestyle, so is clothing all they have to aspire to become more?…sometimes I think it helps, but ultimately it isn’t, especially when the choice between is food or new clothing…I didn’t get the school uniform vibe from this, more of a dressing up as a style to offset the grim surroundings, don’t mean to get too serious on this, after all it is fashion. Thanks for the post!
http://starsweare.com/
looking good!totally love this, and definitly am a fan of your blog!!!!
awesome <3
makes me want a 40 ounce and drink it out of a brown bag.
I absolutely HATE this. What were they thinking?
Interesting how the film has stirred up some extreme reactions… it could be a love/hate thing… oh well, I love it and what it did to actually enhance the collection… but that could just be me…
i really love the way you wrote about this film.
I’m still processing this and trying to remove myself from this fence I’m sitting on. The narrator’s accent reminds me of the girls I played with during my many summers in Miami, although it’s Nashville. But then there is part of me that loves that they’re telling a story that perhaps a young fashion brand would’ve never explored. What draws me in whenever I watch it, is that the two don’t go together, perhaps that’s the genius of it. Perhaps I’m overthinking, hehe. There is something powerful about the narrative, so much so that the clothes become an afterthought.
And I couldn’t agree more on the varied responses. Seems to be teetering between absolute love or absolute hate 😉
I absolutely love Harmony Korine, he is an absolute genious.
And the Proenza Shoulder boys are incredibly ballsy for commissioning the film.
http://leartnoir.blogspot.com/
I AM SORRY BUT YOU HAVE TO BE BLIND OR A FOOL NOT TO SEE THIS VIDEO IS OFFENSIVE AND A NEGATIVE REPRESENTATIVE OF HOW BLACK PEOPLE LIVE AND SOCIALIZE. THE GUZZLING OF 40 OUNCES OF BEER. EVERYONE KNOWS THAT IS CONSIDERED GHETTO, BLACK FOLKS AND 40 OUNCES OF BEER WITH TRASH STREWN ABOUT. BESIDES, PROENZA AND CREW DONT HARDLEY USE BLACK MODELS FOR THEIR SHOWS. THAT IS WHAT HE SHOULD BE TALKING ABOUT. NOT USEING BLACK MODELS TO DEGRADE THEM FOR THEIR FAME. WAKE UP! WAKE UP! JESUS CHRIST
castro i think the point is that they gave their work to a visual artist and let him do his thing with it. maybe i am being insensitive but to me they are enacting a stereo type (what would an editorial/campaign be without these visual signs to give it context) that reads very beautifully and fluently in harmony’s hands. as a moving image artist i am excited about this!
p.s. i think if you got a gang on young girls from anywhere and filmed then hangin’ there would be alcohol involved.
Alright alright, I knew there would be some sort of debate and that’s good and as with Korine’s work, he does tend to throw that up…
I would agree that there are stereotypes being thrown up here but those that have labelled it ‘exploitation’ or some such nonsense are taking it a step too far! Yes, there’s fried chicken, malt liquor and yes, the girls happen to be all black but playing up to those stereotypes is no more offensive than say some skit in Goodness Gracious Me about Indian mums stuffing their kids with food or the portrayal of Caucasian geeks not being able to get laid…. these things are rife…
In actual fact, it surprised me that colour/race struck people above anything else in the film. When I first watched it, the fact that they were all black didn’t even occur to me…all I saw were a group of isolated girls teetering between child and adulthood going through the doldrums of their surroundings with that ol’ teenage mode of escape; drink….
It’s all in keeping with the themes we are familiar with through Korine’s work but actually, by adding Proenza Schouler’s clothes to the mix, which of course as Starsweare and a few others have pointed out, calls into question the disparity between these characters’ lives and the material value of these clothes…. yet for me, that fantasy element of the clothes and jarring them with the environment of the film works beautifully… because if this was a short film doused in reality, as per Kids etc, then suddenly those stereotypes seem more mooted in the unoriginal/inauthentic….
But actually by combining the collection with Korine’s set-up (we must remember that this was Korine’s carte blanche and that the boys merely provided references and the clothes), the short is somehow more abstract and I can’t actually read it as literally as some people have done…
That’s just my take on it though…. would love to hear more thoughts about it….
I’ll never forget Harmony Korine’s introduction of Gummo at the Toronto International Film Festival years back: “This is just a little film about my hometown.” After seeing the film, those casual words would come back to haunt me, and they still do. If you’ve seen it, you’ll know what I mean.
I actually don’t know what I think of the collaboration, I kind of just see a Korine film, the undescribeable (for me) mood he creates renders me blind for the clothes.
it has some of the anarchist energy of his latest feature film, Trash Humpers, but definitely more refined.. the title says it all, it’s about a gang of nasty “old” people having some extra fun with containers and vandalizing a quiet suburbian neighbourhood. Surprisingly I quite liked it…
@ Castro,
I am a black woman who happens to be from Brasil. I’m fully awake. I did think about what you said and moved beyond it. I don’t get people who want to ALWAYS sweep these type of young black women under the table as to make them non-existent. They may be models, but they sound like they’re from Nashville, like girls I grew-up with. I know women who HAPPEN to be black, drink 40’s and work for CNN. Is that appalling? Black people are multidimensional and we come from all over. So, while I get your outrage, can we get past the 40’s and the general embedded signals of stereotypes? I forced myself to do that. I’m not saying I’m right, I’m saying I wanted to move past my initial shock of the video. It took me several days of it being circulated around blogs for me to watch it with the volume up.
You can find these girls from the US, London to Brasil. I know these types of girls. I was originally offended, but to critically look at something means forcing and allowing yourself to move beyond your initial reactions. Beyond what offends you, and then finding why it makes you uncomfortable. Can you study the text? What is the message? Are you offended once you take away the societal indicators? I am by no means fully on board, but the narrative, unexpected elements, and the very idea that the clothes {for me} become an afterthought, is why I have no problem with this film existing or PS providing the clothes. I’m intrigued by the narrator, by her bluntness. Everything you touched on did came-up for me. The lack of usage of black models by PS, the stereotypes that I knew many would be offended by, etc. I mean there are 40’s for godsake BUT to say these type of girls don’t exist is wrong. Or to just ‘OMG, the stereotypes’ discounts that while stereotypes hurt, while the media plays up the ONE sideded view of black people, doesn’t make certain elements untrue. Of course it’s not all we do BUT it’s OK to allow us to be multi-dimensional. It’s OK to allow these girls narrative to exist. Why we are hell bent on shutting them down is beyond me. Again I wish I had thought of putting these girls in the first issue of my magazine. I think it would open a dialogue up about why we’re so afraid of the ‘urban black girl’. She exist and damn Korine for getting to them first in a way that jolts and essays stem from. It’s ripe for a discussion on a broader level. I guess fashion films aren’t all fluffy and vague 😉
that’s cool!!
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Wow, this is kinda creepy. Love it!
I posted about this video. I am sorry Susie I couldn’t help it: http://iplayfaves.blogspot.com/2010/09/fashion-film-friday-proenza-schouler.html
the film is compelling. the clothes are compelling. but i feel like this is some awkward cut and paste. coming from both sides of this fence i can definitely say that. the clothes had nothing to do with this story. these girls were in a world where they were unhappy and uncomfortable. in that world you cant help but shut everyone out. hence the typical use of baggy clothes in their “stereotype”. its a shield. but this season PS was using innocent seduction. the easiest way to emphasize is to juxtapose. i think that was their intention. or maybe there was no intention at all. maybe it just felt right. thats how most artist work. the video was great but the fashion felt like fluff and attention. it worked for both of them i guess.
What a joy to find such clear thigiknn. Thanks for posting!
You’re on top of the game. Thanks for sharing.
Greeeaatttt this film happens to be racist and exploitative all at the same time. I have to agree with Castro, Proenza Schouler rarely if ever uses Black models, and the one time they get the chance to, they throw in just about every single stereotype about black people that they can while having these women parade around in designer clothing in a poor urban area that looks like its supposed to be the ghetto. Why? And for what reason? Black women who live in these areas won’t be able to afford this clothing and designers like Proenza Schouler sure as hell don’t market to them or plan on making this clothing available to them (and won’t be any time soon), but hey I guess its perfectly fine to exploit them in their films as if being poor and doing what you have to do to survive as a poor marginalized woman is somehow “edgy” and “cool”. This film is beyond screwed up.
@susie_bubble
Racism is racism and a negative stereotype is still a negative stereotype, no matter how its used and where. Just because its an art film doesn’t mean they get to get away with promoting and exploiting racist sterotypes as “art” without facing any criticism. Also, the white geeks who are unable to get laid stereotype doesn’t even remotely have the same amount of gravitas as the racial stereotypes faced by people of color.
@DS {ms. shoo}
I’m going to have to disagree with you there. I have no problem with the urban black girl narrative existing, especially since I myself have lived that life in the past. But I do have a problem when the urban black girl narrative is played for shits and giggles in an act of cultural tourism for white people as if being poor, doing what you must, and not caring is somehow “edgy and cool” and is frequently the only imagery that is everywhere in modern media. When that happens, then the urban black girl narrative is no longer just a narrative that some black people experience in our collective experiences, but it becomes a stereotype that is applied to all black people everywhere, and a negative stereotype at that. When the US quits showing black people only as slumming, poor, drunk baffons to laugh and gander at then counteract that stereotype with positive imagery (that black people, surprise surprise, don’t all live in the ghetto, sell drugs, have no father, is in a gang, will steal your purse, etc etc) is the day where I can just shrug at this video without it seeming even remotely problematic in the race department.
I think too many people are being too presumptuous about the whole thing! If you’d just get the stereotypes out of your head that society has shaped inside your head (while also telling you that it’s bad that anyone ever acquire such personality attributes) You’d only see it’s pretty clothes on models in an urban environment.
If the main character was a white person with a Dad in a santa hat and friends who drank in the city dump you’d call it “Skins” and it’d be a famous tv show.
I’m with Miasma on this one. Stereotypes are stereotypes and just because it’s an art house film doesn’t really excuse the racism. I am sick of the bottom of the barrel of my culture (black culture) being used for shits and giggles and as a spectator sport to many an artsy young white folk. Step off it. I really like the Proenza Schouler guys, but they do need a little more multiculturalism in their runway shows if they’re going to step out with videos like this. Otherwise it just looks like they’re trying to amuse themselves with something they know nothing about.
And I see where you’re going Liz. Skins is a good example but dare I say, the UK doesn’t have nearly the same tainted culture of racism as the US does? I realize they have their issues, but race issues in America can be pretty all consuming and tiresome.
But then I want to feel indifferent because Harmony Korine did create Gummo. He’s very good at painting a stark and dirty picture of any cultural group. It’s the magic of his work.
As a young black female who is a Fashion student. I am not offended by this completely, I noticed it, and I moved on, but I would like to say I understand the sting. It hits hard in school when our professors see us. They say things like do you want to work at Baby Phat. When we design, they say our work is looking Footlockerish or too urban, even when it is not. Even when Dior puts Supras on the runway; Even though Donna Karan designs urban wear; Even when trends call for ethnic woven prints, cultural colors, and tweaked tribal garb. We get second hand support in school because it takes an outsider to give us praise for our professors to be excited to push us.
Let’s just say it stings to see this portrayal of a black female, but in editorial European models don tribal garb from head to toe, with a contemporary style.
This is a cultural group, but this is not our culture. We are detached from our culture. One, we are considered African American when most of us have no connection with Africa. Not because we don’t love, but because we have no idea. Black Americans and Africans are different because one group has a culture and the other is lost and degraded to a lower understanding of itself. Let’s be honest, this is not our culture. Malt liquor and chicken, its a stereotype. We don’t even know ourselves and where we come from. If we loved our hair, and our texture and realize we can go from fro to straight with the touch of heat and without chemicals, we would have stronger, longer hair. Why would we need plastic weaves? Why would we need to spend our hard earned money on status pieces that give us no true status? If we loved ourselves and saw how much the world was inspired by us and our beauty despite the obvious racism, we would hold our heads up high.
One minute you see traditional garb on the runway, the next minute its the eating of chicken and the flipping of the middle finger. Which one do you chose to represent you?
Let’s be honest, every culture has a stereotype. Every cultural group has had their likeness exploited in a way that may hurt them, yet seem harmless to others. Its about not fulfilling the stereotype, and breaking the mold. You have to force acceptance sometimes by just being better than that…
That adeedssrs several of my concerns actually.
d a superb job… I just love your snaps… those
weird, creative, entertaining, but the same effect could have been acheived if the models were not ALL black without it it being contreversial. That was a silly idea and it gives a concerning message.
You are an ace of articles!
This is by far one of the best articles i’ve read (so far). I Really like your style. It’s always a pleasure reading your posts but this is the best so far IMHO.
Keep the great stuff coming and let me know if I can help in any way.
Best regards
Justin