New York Fashion Week-the Fantasy and the Fire

Rodarte, Spring 2013. Gorgeous and stunning, now … who made them?

Fashion Week 2012 just wrapped up, and I always love the opportunity to lose myself  in the fantasy world of haute couture for just one short week. This year it was Vivienne Westwood’s steampunk-inspired collection, the ethereal draping of Carlos Miele’s clothes, the op-art, mod-inspired fashion of Marc Jacobs, and the punk-rock gypsy aesthetic of Anna Sui (always a favorite of mine) that made my heart race. Even the shoes worn by audience members this year were so unreal, that if the pictures weren’t shot by my heart, Bill Cunningham, I would have assumed they were photo-shopped. (I want five inch yellow Prada shoes with flames shooting out of them, NOW daddy!!)

But while the fashion press focused intently on the genius of these designers, as well as the important faces in the audiences that ran the gamut from Anna Winatour to Kim Kardashian (ugh), very little was mentioned about the fire in Pakistan at a textile industry that killed more than three hundred workers. Supposedly (and I’m sure more information will be revealed as the investigations move forward), the factory employers locked the doors of the factory to prevent the workers from stealing the jeans they were making. And what is even more shocking is that this factory was declared as safe by monitors working with Social Accountability International, which is a nonprofit monitoring group largely financed by corporations. And of course, despite finding a pair of Guess jeans and other brand-name labels in the wake of the fire, producers, including Guess, are denying that their jeans were made there.

Is it ironic that as I’m reading this article on the fire, which killed more than twice as many workers as the famous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, a gorgeous advertisement of a beautiful model wearing  layers of bracelets and a glittery sequin top for the brand Armani flashes across the screen? The fashion industry in a nutshell—beauty and fantasy, alongside tragedy.

The aftermath of the textile fire in Pakistan (photo courtesy of Fareed Khan for AP)

What this reveals is obvious: the need for more transparency in the design process, and for more sustainable labor practices. As long as those who make the clothes are not given a face, people—the designers, the fashion editors, the consumers—will continue to look the other way. A recent article in The New York Times documented the fashion industry’s “25 key players,” which included the founders of the globally-influenced retail store Opening Cermony, Vogue editor Anna Winatour, and my personal favorite, ‘I got famous for a sex tape and now my face is plastered on every freaking ad on every website that Nadia visits’ Kim Kardashian (UGH). And where are the textile workers in this list? I find this more than a little ironic considering that the haute couture industry defends its high price tags on the basis of its ‘fine’ craftsmanship and supposedly fairer labor practices (though it’s recently been revealed that the ‘made in Italy’ label is kind of a sham-those who labor in these Italian factories are often Chinese migrants exploited by their employers). Shouldn’t they be proud to reveal the names and faces of their workers who help make their dazzling shows a reality?

There are two main issues at play here. First, the fashion industry, with its reputation for glamour and beauty, doesn’t want to be bogged down with the gritty reality of the exploitative labor it employs.  Many designers are considered artists, and artistry and labor politics don’t exactly mix well. Secondly,  the transnational nature of the fashion industry makes it difficult to find any particular person or system entirely culpable. As the fire in Pakistan reveals, regulations are difficult to enforce in an industry that stretches across multiples nations, means of labor, and forms of presentation. Perhaps that’s why when 29 people were killed in a factory fire that produced Tommy Hilfiger clothing last year in Bangladesh, no one blinked an eye when Hilfiger himself was chosen just one month later as the fashion consultant for American Idol, giving style advice to irritated-looking contestants. After all, he couldn’t have known that his factories were shady, right? If he did … he would have done something about them, right? Sometimes, the worst crimes committed are the ones that happen when we aren’t forced to ask questions.

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Did Frank Ocean really ‘come out?’

Shortly after the release of his album Channel Orange, Frank Ocean responded to the critics who were questioning his use of male pronouns in some of his songs by revealing on his Tumblr page that his first true love was with a man when he was 19 years old. The internet then blew up, with some fans commentating on ‘what’ sexuality he was to others pondering as to whether it would hurt his album sales (it didn’t). Ocean has garnered accolades for his albums and television performances, like this one on Jimmy Kimmel, and the SNL one below. His voice and sound are like nothing in R&B at the moment, offering something very different from the usual generic dance hits you can hear at the club.

After Ocean released his Tumblr blog, the news media began to refer to him as “the recently Out Frank Ocean.” And that got me thinking, what does it mean to be ‘out?’ When I read Ocean’s sweet description of his first love, I don’t see any announcement of him being gay, and he doesn’t explicitly state that he is bisexual either. In fact, he never once in his blog frames the relationship in an overtly sexual way, saying that the two slept alongside each other, and that they had a ‘peculiar friendship’ that was never fully realized into a relationship.

And that is what is so brilliant about Frank Ocean. He’s a true bohemian, a true artist. He encourages people to ask questions, but never answers them. He uses male and female pronouns interchangeably, but his music  is ultimately universal, like when he touches on the theme of a lost first love in his song, ‘Thinkin Bout You.’ He doesn’t allow himself to be put into a box. He just is.

Just recently, I told a friend that I had a crush on Frank Ocean, and she replied by saying, “Umm….isn’t Frank Ocean gay?” Frank Ocean sings and raps convincingly about women, often in an explicitly gendered way (‘Songs for Women’ is an example, lol), but because of his one love for someone who happened to have a penis, we’re now labeling him as gay? Why are people who identify as straight never asked to defend their sexuality, even though there’s ample evidence that straight people may not really be born that way? (sorry Lady Gaga, I usually think you’re fierce but that song? Not feeling).

It’s not just his sexuality either, it’s in his music. Ocean has complained about the music industry automatically labeling him as an R&B artist because he’s a “black singer who can sing,” even though his music draws on electro, funk, hip-hop, and the introspective musing of an indie songwriter. Ocean himself admitted that he prefers to be referred to as a ‘singer-songwriter’ instead of an R&B singer, because “the former implies versatility and being able to create more than one medium, and the second one is a box, simple as that.” This human need to put people into neatly defined categories that make us feel more comfortable about our own identity and who we are is perhaps why we label Barack Obama as black, despite his multi-racial identity, and Rashida Jones’ character Karen on The Office as Italian, even though she’s half black, half white. Ambiguity scares the hell out of us. Labels keep us comfortable.

Frank Ocean’s Tumblr blog might prove progressive for a somewhat homophobic hip-hop community (Jay-Z and Beyonce offered their support), but in a way, I hope that he doesn’t become a poster child for the gay community. He’s approached civil rights in his music, like in ‘We all Try,’ where he defends people’s right to marry anyone they love, and for women to have control over their own bodies. I hope that he continues with his brand of secular humanism, and that he doesn’t allow anyone—the media, his fans—to categorize him, to force him to pick a single identity when his own is so fluid.

I doubt he will though. I mean seriously, did anyone catch his performance on SNL last week that was pretty much, the chillest thing ever? Ocean crooned his high notes to perfection on ‘Thinkin Bout You,’ and then while guitarist John Mayer hit a solo, crazy face contortions and all, he walked over and played a video game on the arcade set-up, letting John Mayer take the final spotlight of the performance. And I couldn’t help but think, “Frank Ocean’s not gay or straight. He’s just really. F#cking. COOL”

When the 1% shares: the Kalamazoo Promise, and why Romney got it wrong :)

In the same week that Romney’s secret videotape was leaked, where he revealed his ‘off the cuff’ (read: from the bottom of his heart) remarks that 47% of the country who would vote for Obama “no matter what,” are freeloaders relying on the government, and not hard work, to succeed, The New York Times printed one of its most inspiring Sunday stories in the last year. To sum up: In 2005, a group of anonymous donors pledged to pay up to 100% percent of state college tuition for any high school graduate within the Kalamazoo district. Kalamazoo has high high poverty rates, and many many children come from families where their parents do not have a high school education. The Promise was not just an altruistic gesture, but an experiment, one that would hopefully boost the economy around it.

And for the most part, it has. To quote the article,

“High-school test scores in Kalamazoo have improved four years in a row. A higher percentage of African-American girls graduate from the district than they do in the rest of the state, and 85 percent of those go on to college.

Overall, more than 90 percent of Kalamazoo’s graduates today go on to higher education. Six in 10 go to Western Michigan University or Kalamazoo Valley Community College. And over time, a greater number of students are landing at the more selective University of Michigan and Michigan State.”

Equal Opportunity in Education-The Kalamazoo Promise

The measure has also improved the economy. School enrollment has gone up, and new schools have been built. The success of Kalamazoo has encouraged surrounding areas to compete with its success, strengthening the rest of the region. Furthermore, while there was a steady trickle of ‘white flight’ from Kalamazoo to the wealthier suburbs of Portage since the 1970s, since the Promise, that suburban flight has stopped, and the demographic mix in the school system has steadied.

Of course, not everything is rosy. Many of the students have difficulty finishing four year college degrees due to lack of preparation  and resources that students from college-educated, middle-class families take for granted. To that end, the director of The Promise Janice Brown is working on strengthening early-child education so that students are more prepared for a rigorous college environment. Now that they have the resources, this might prove possible.

Romney’s comments may have been focusing on income taxes, but they had broader implications. Part of the dialogue of the right is that when wealth is shared, people become lazy. They aren’t inspired to work hard when things are given to them. The Kalamazoo Promise strongly suggests that contrary to this belief, when young people are given the ‘promise’ of opportunities that were once barred to them because of economic disadvantages, they take them. In the past year, the Occupy Movement has made much of the inequity of a system where 1% of the population holds the majority of the wealth. Does the Kalamazoo Promise reveal all the progress and good that can happen when the 1% shares?

Check out this adorable montage of children from Kalamazoo talking about their dreams ‘when I grow up.’