MY REFLECTIONS

Forgive me (I am not from a Fashion background and so i have perhaps a slightly more critical attitude towards my projects - but i think it is important to always question and reflect whilst in the creative process). So, i would like to share my reflections with you, and please do also post your reflections up on the blog. It is important that we do this so we can come together as a group i believe.

Ok, the question i ask myself is this:
What are we giving manifest to here???
And my answer is this:
All products, regardless of their intended use operate on this notion of a 'promise'. I know this is obvious, but it is also important to have that present in our minds. At the end of the day, we are giving a shell to a product that already has a context and an understanding of what it is in society - beauty products. What will make us successful as a label beyond the aesthetic attributes of our brand? Perhaps it is how well we can communicate to the consumer that we will keep our promise. Many beauty companies endeavour to achieve this 'convincing' of the consumer, by making everything seamless; stunning-aesthetically speaking; smooth and streamlining their containers and vessels; sleek advertising campaigns with impossibly perfect models selling us the dream that perhaps we will move a little closer to achieveing her airbrushed beauty if we consume the product. But now, everything is beautiful. If you look at a shelf of beauty products, there is a stagnantion, a monotony and a blandness in the consistency of everything. So, i think it is dangerous to move in this same direction. It is important to know in this, that the consumer is not stupid. They are aware that she (the model) has been photoshoped and has had a ten-fold style team teasing her into her photographic state. This is not a secret. And in fact, the consumer proabably also knows that these models are people who might not even consume these products. So, we must ask ourselves, if this is so, then why do we buy into it?! What makes all of this knowledge impotent in our consumption practices of beauty products?!?!

I came to this conclusion, and i hope it is of value.
Society's standard for what is beautiful is no longer attainable without products. First, we covered our bodies with clothing because to be nude was indecent, then we covered our children with clothing because of pedophiles, then we covered our faces with foundation to hide the 'imperfections' and we wear red lipstick and heels to feel like 'women' and powerful, sexual beings. So, after much deliberation and hesitation to hypothesising such a thing, the turth has unearthed itself to me. We purchase products because they somehow lift us both superficially and psychologically so that we might look in a mirror and see a reflection that is closer to society's standard of beauty. It is a terrible thing the way that the exploitation of man by man has fuelled this insecurity. The problem is deep rooted and so 'society' isnt to blame because society itself, is indeed man's construct, so in a sense we are to blame. When did we become so ashamed? So unworthy? So insecure? So dependant on things external to our own selves for our validation? When did we decide that we were not enough as we were(bare-nude-untouched and simply human?!)

I am very happy that our words are what they are because as i look at them written vertically on the page, i feel a great potential for what they might become in the tangible manifest, and i also feel something very pure and uncontaminated in their undertone. There is an energy, and enthusiasm and a sincerity in their collective meaning and i hope that we can transmute that aura into our brand extension.

Quintessence
Vivid
Sentimental
Empowering
Serenity