Betsey Johnson has been worshipped as one of the queens of the American fashion world since the mid 1960s. She has excelled as both a businesswoman and designer due to her free spirit, independent thinking, and rock ‘n’ roll attitude, as well as a great deal of hard work and perseverance. At 5’4’’, Johnson is known for her wild hair (she spends 20,000 a year on extensions and wigs!), and ear-to-ear smile, matching her equally vibrant personality. One of the best words to describe Betsey Johnson would be nonconformist. Her Betsey Johnson stores are covered with vibrant colors and whimsical artwork, mirroring that of a young girl’s dress-up wonderland, emphasizing the importance of imagination when it comes to a woman’s wardrobe. At the age of 71, Betsey Johnson is still incredibly in touch with her youth, and with the youth of today, and persistently maintains an intoxicating energy straight out of the 1960s. Johnson has also been rocking the same cartwheel at the end of her fashion shows for decades. She jokes, “I’ll be so depressed when I can’t do cartwheels anymore. At that point, you may as well just me in a wheelchair.”
From a young age, Betsey Johnson was heavily influenced by British rock, and street-chic clothing, which gave her a direction for her own line. She designed clothing in order to combat the otherwise bland and pretentious options of the 1960s. Her clothing was revolutionary and a great source of artistic expression for the time. She surrounded herself with a colorful wardrobe and even more colorful people, such as Andy Warhol and his social group. Johnson once said, "I've never had a new or brilliant idea. I just like to make things. The truth is, fashion doesn't really change all that much. I'...
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Some of her designs include vibrant floral cotton fabrics, some patterns Johnson uses involve skulls or animals, guns, pineapples, and basically anything anyone may find strange, she uses. She also has an influence of ruffles and bustle, tutus that she incorporates through some of her designs. She makes sure she keeps certain techniques that are older, but revamps them, making them more appealing to the culture today by adding that Betsey Johnson touch. She does not only incorporate these fabric designs in her clothing, but she also is creative and shows her personality throughout her jewelry, swimwear, footwear, bags, and luggage. Betsey Johnson has evolved into a household brand that offers more than just clothing. This is also something that makes her significant in the fashion industry. Betsey Johnson believes that one should always have fun with fashion and one should dress to entertain oneself (Biography.com
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Fashion has been around ever since ancient times, since the time of the Romans, it survived the world wars and is yet today a business with rapid changes. Fashion started off as an art form, a way for the riches to show their social status with unique and innovative designs that only they could afford. It was a way to separate the social classes of the society. In this paper I will include the creator of haute couture, and how the following designers developed couture, as well as having leading names in today’s ready-to-wear industry. The list is long, but I chose to focus on the three most important designers of the modern fashion industry.
Charles Eckert famously disputed that “Hollywood arguably gave modern consumerism is distinctive bent” (Eckert, C 2009. p.357). Film and fashion are both children of modernity, thus they share a lot on common and have a mutually beneficial relationship. “Inscribed since the very beginnings of film”, says Eckert, “are innumerable opportunities for the product and brand name tie In’s… films function as living display windows for all that they contain; windows that are occupied by marvelous mannequins and swathed in fetish inducing ambience…”(Eckert, C 2009. P.103). Film enables a brilliantly subtle form of product placement that does not rely entirely on obvious shots of branded products (Financial Times, Cited in Osmond, S. 2014). Yet conversely, fashion enables film to portray subtleties of meaning and context through costume, as nothing is outside the system of fashion and meaning. “The creation of clothes as spectacle is the prerogative of the couturier; the overriding ethos of the costume designer is conversely to fabricate clothes which serve the purposes of the narrative” (Bruzzi 1997, p.3). An example of successful synergy between film and fashion consumption is the 1974 and 2013 ‘The Great Gatsby’ films.
Fashion takes on many different facets and concerns many subsets— a model sashaying down the runway in a gown encrusted in real gems, Lady Gaga’s infamous dress made of cuts of raw beef, a teenage girl obsessing over the season’s latest styles— it is all an expression of our minds and who we are or want to be, made tangible. It is a medium just like any other, for while artists wield brushes and paints, designers use thread and cloth to illustrate their vision. The artistry is none more so apparent than in the exclusive world of haute couture, a world of extravagance that caters to aesthetics, producing one-of-a-kind wearable masterpieces that are made to be admired rather than worn. It is without doubt, high fashion and its design is an art.