The combination of the autumn sun and re-reading an old book, triggered in me some thoughts this weekend. The book that caught my attention was Ways of Seeing by John Berger and his view on how the camera changed the way of we perceive art and thus changed the idea of uniqueness of the painting.

“When the painting is reproduced by the camera, the camera destroys the uniqueness of it means”

This endless process of reproduction is now in a climax. It takes only seconds from its conception when a creation forms a unique part of its creator to be a part of the rest of the world.

Berger not only suggests that in this process the work of art lost its uniqueness, but also loses its meaning.

Bringing this idea to the world of fashion, I wonder: Is this what happened in  Alexander McQueen‘s last show? Among the designs of clothing and amphibians shoes (for a universe created in the final collapse of the world, we must return to water to survive), giant cameras were fixed at the stage which broadcasted the whole show live on the internet.

Reproduction in this case, has been part of the work itself. The fact that it was included in the show, does that mean that the play sequence as itself is a work of art? Is it creating the illusion of being part of something bigger, what really matters, to upstage the clothes? Possibly the collection itself forever lose value automatically, valuing objects that nobody saw. The object that will never be replicated, will be the only one that has true value.

I think it raises many questions about the future of fashion. Fashion as art and as consumption. The uniformity that bring copies to the big chains. The infinite reproduction of the images. The large loss of meaning. And the growing mystification that this entails.

Alexander McQueen – Plato's Atlantis from SHOWstudio on Vimeo.

imagen: elfashionista.net