Appearance coolhunts

Appearance coolhunts tegen het Quality of Life model Felce & Perry

Posted on februari 1, 2015 by ljejacobs

In het blok Appearance worden de coolhunts opnieuw afgezet tegen het Quality of Life model van Felce & Perry. Middels de vijftal waarden: physical wellbeing, material wellbeing, social wellbeing, development and activity en emotional wellbeing worden de vijf coolhunts onderbouwd betreffende toevoeging aan kwaliteit van leven.

Physical wellbeing:

De Elderly Palm Springs Girls zijn een goed voorbeeld van oudere die veel aandacht besteden aan fit en gezond blijven. De dames traden tot vorig jaar elke week op met hun groep in de leeftijden van 55 tot en met 87. De vier subcategorieën health, fitness, personal safety en mobility zijn allemaal toepasbaar op deze dames. Voor mensen van deze leeftijd is het belangrijk om op hun gezondheid te letten en dat doet deze groep in extreme mate. Deze groep laat zien dat als je wilt je een hele hoop kunt bereiken. Fit en soepel zijn op een leeftijd van 87 is mogelijk als je veel beweegt en op je eten let. Dat doen zij doormiddel van dans- en zangrepetities en strakke eetschema’s.

Social wellbeing:

The coolhunt Nudies ging vooral om het accepteren van alle soorten vrouwen maar ging ook over het bekritiseren van vrouwen 24/7. Een van de subcategorieën is Acceptance and Support dat is de hoofdlijn die door de coolhunt nudies loopt maar ook het signaal van Herself.com. En bij dit signaal kom je dan weer uit bij de categorie Community Involvement. Herself.com wordt groeit langzaamaan uit tot een groep vrouwen die voor elkaar in staan als het ware en elkaar accepteren en dus steunen. Hoewel de site staat voor zijn wie je bent is het voor deze vrouwen ook fijn om te zien dat ze bekeken worden en gewaardeerd worden om dat wat ze doen.

Een ander voorbeeld dat veel te maken heeft met social wellbeing is Nubian Skin. Op een andere manier wordt er ook aan deze vrouwen gedacht. Nu is er eindelijke een lingeriemerk dat hun probleem begrijpt, namelijk het niet kunnen vinden van huidkleurige lingerie voor een donkergetinte vrouw. Het is fijn om te weten dat er nu eindelijk een bedrijf is dat hun probleem erkent en ze een oplossing biedt. Deze vrouwen vormen als het ware ook een community omdat zij voor hetzelfde staan en er trots op zijn. Het kan enigszins overdreven klinken maar als je eraan denkt dat in modehuizen vrijwel het merendeel blank is aan het hoofd is het wel iets om trots op te zijn omdat ze iets aan de kaart hebben gebracht waarin velen geen probleem zagen.

Development and activity:

Same sex ads past goed bij de categorie Contribution. Deze campagne kan wel of niet bijdragen aan meer advertenties van homoseksuele stellen bij redelijk conservatieve Amerikaanse bedrijven. Hoewel het voor de meeste tegenwoordig helemaal niets geks meer is was het voor Tiffany’s heel wat om hiermee te komen. Hierdoor zie je ook Development, dus een groei in het karakter van Tiffany’s, iets wat meer bij het nu past.

Emotional wellbeing:

Dusty Models ging voornamelijk over het feit dat er teveel jonge modellen zijn die producten verkopen voor voornamelijk vrouwen van 35+. Daarnaast worden deze jonge modellen vaak als maatstaf gezien terwijl de meeste vrouwen helemaal geen tijd hebben om zoveel tijd in hun uiterlijk te stoppen bijvoorbeeld. Satisfaction is een categorie die goed samen gaat met deze coolhunt. Omdat er steeds meer oudere vrouwen model zijn voor producten die ook daadwerkelijk voor hun leeftijd zijn. Een deel van het doel is dus bereikt.

Naast Dusty Models zijn er nog een aantal andere coolhunts zoals Nubian Skin en Herself.com geven vrouwen een boost voor hun self esteem. Beide initiatieven doen iets voor vrouwen zodat ze zich beter voelen maar ook om hen te laten weten dat er altijd wel iemand is die aan hen denkt.

Nudies

Posted on januari 25, 2015 by ljejacobs

You may not post violent, nude, partially nude, discriminatory, unlawful, infringing, hateful, pornographic or sexually suggestive photos or other content

This is Instagram’s policy against female nudity. In 2014 we’ve got an overload of nudies in lots of ways and forms. Protests against the removal of photographs by Scout Willis and the promotion of Dan Bilzerian’s extravagant life went all together in one year. On top came Rihanna with her photoshoot for Lui magazine, a shoot which did not cover a single part of her body. She was deleted from Instagram for enthusiastically posting these photographs. Women are experimenting with different ways of criticizing on the male view on women as well as criticizing the fashion industry for creating an unrealistic view on women.

What

Herself is a newly launched website bij actress Caitlin Stasey. The homepage of this website immediately shows nude women of different kinds with strong quotes. At this point, nine women including Caitlin herself have participated. Every profile shows beautiful photographs of the women without clothes and includes a long and wide interview on subjects such as pornography, puberty, safety, sex, intimacy, religion etc. It gives you information on who she is compared to what you see without clothes. The website is a new form of protest against criticizing the female body. Predecessors of this campaign were for example #freethenipple, Dove’s Real Beauty campaign and Rihanna posting extreme nude images. All of the them had one thing in common: they want to show the world what we don’t see with clothes but what we deny in the fashion industry as well as what a lot of men deny.

Why

Throughout the years of developments in social media, a lot of us have created a false image of what women should look like. Especially men judge harsh when it comes to the female body and what it should represent. Men like Dan Bilzerian glorify fake, unreal, extreme female bodies in circumstances most men can’t afford. Yet on the 25th of January 2015 he has 6.2 million followers on Instagram, of which most are men. Questions that always pop up in my head when people talk about him are: “What would men say if women would do this to men?”, “What questions would it arise?”, “What movements will be created?”

What I think is amazing about Herself.com is the transparency, the honesty, the persistency and the continuity of the website. These women, from different places, different religions, different family circumstances etc. all share a lot without knowing it. The interviews inspire women, women like me as well because it’s kind of the confirmation that I’ve been looking for, for what I’ve been seeing and experiencing last year. The trend that I think fits this new way of protest is Status. You are what you do, not what you look like. Something lots of people tend to forget in our world in which visuals have the power of communication. Herself.com is a great example of one individual who does what she beliefs in, what she thinks works and slowly gains respect.

Sources:

Dusty models

Posted on januari 21, 2015 by ljejacobs

The way I see it, most models in our fashion industry are young and haven’t even started their lives yet. Although fashion has embraced scarred or for example tattooed models, I never really thought of the lack of elderly women as models. I came across several articles with Iris Apfel, Joan Didion and Joni Mitchell, different women but all of age. I started digging in these articles and wondered what statement this small part of the fashion industry wanted to make?

What

I found an article on Fashionista about Iris Apfel and Tavi Gevinson who are 93 and almost 19 years old. They represent Alexis Bittar’s new spring campaign in 2015. Iris Apfel whos’s a businesswoman, interior designer and fashion icon and Tavi Gevinson who’s an American writer, singer, actress and magazine editor have come far in life. They are both seen as being two very influencial women of their generation. They mostly work in different fields though they have similarities in the ways they work and how they’re seen by critics. This is what Alexis Bittar had to say about the campaign:

For the campaign, we honed in on the essence of strong women who haven’t conformed.

Why

I think it’s strange the fashion world has waited so long with using older models for their campaigns. Most campaigns show teens or young adults that live an extreme life to maintain a strong body and clean face. This is not how the majority of women on this planet looks like or lives. The standerds those models set in life are not to be reached for normal working women or mothers that have to take care of children. Though this is the targetgroup of all those products shown by models who don’t even look like them. You could say using models of different generations can be combined with the trend Age Elasticitiy. A small part of the fashion world does not set rules about how women of a certain age should act or what they should wear. You could say that they’re stubborn and act and do as they like. Above this small trend there is a bigger one called Individualisation. In these times it’s important to show others what we stand for, where we belong to and what we’ve accomplished in life. With ads like these, representing older women, we say: ‘Look at these powerful women, look how far they’ve come, get yourself together and get the most out of yourself.’ It’s a new way of reaching every generation, inspire every generation and satisfying every generation.

Sources:

Same sex ads

Posted on januari 15, 2015 by ljejacobs

Scrolling down my timeline on Facebook I came across an article from Linda magazine because I follow their page. There was a beautiful photograph of a gay couple in a Tiffany & Co ad and immediately it crossed my mind that this was quit exceptional for this extremely traditional American company like Tiffany’s which statement is that they stand for taste and style.

What

With 92 stores in the US and 178 years of experience, Tiffany & co. is the ultimate US jeweler. Recently the launched their first ever same sex ad of a gay couple that are actually a couple in real life. The ad got a lot of comments and people talking about the subject and shift that they see. Tiffany’s does not only sell jewelry, they also create fragrances, sports awards and small products such as wallets and sunglasses for example. Tiffany & co is known to be an all time American company.

“Nowadays, the road to marriage is no longer linear, and true love can happen more than once with love stories coming in a variety of forms,” a Tiffany spokesman said in a statement to Elle.

Why

With 178 years of existence launching the first ever same sex campaign is exceptional and you may say, a 360 degrees turn for the company. The quote above is something that everyone nowadays knows. I see this as something that we all know, that it can happen more than once, is not lie air and that it comes in more forms. Though not everyone accepts it, this isn’t something new. Some questions arose in my head when I read some of the articles about this photograph. What made them do this now in 2015(?) was the biggest of them. The trend You are what you do fits and at the same time does not fit the company. It fits because they follow the trend which says that you should attract multiple groups. But on the other hand they have never openly stated that they, as an all- time American company mainly focused on those who realized their American Dream and are looking for their crown on their life at Tiffany’s, accept same sex couples.

With their recent drop in value of the company’s shares of 14% in January 2015, mainly due to other jewelers who sell online, Tiffany is going through a difficult time. The month December is common for it’s engagements though 2014’s December was a disappointing period. Which makes you think the ad is simply a smart move to attract more people. But to really shake up the world and attract more people, Tiffany’s should have chosen transgender- or dark-skinned gay couples. They’re still playing it save choosing white upper- class males instead of creating a way bigger shock, which I think would be the next step.

Sources:

Nubian Skin

Posted on januari 6, 2015 by ljejacobs

I was reading the Dutch Cosmopolitan when I found a small piece written about a new lingerie brand. Usually I skip these because there are hundreds of lingerie brands but this one was only about nude lingerie. Though not everyone’s favorite, nude lingerie is needed at times and I have never thought of where women of colour buy their nude lingerie. The article interested me because of this.

What

The founder of this brand, Ade Hassan, was frustrated with not being able to find nude lingerie for her skintone. In 2011 she left her job as a management consult because she wasn’t satisfied. She did what she thought was right for her and her fellow women of colour and started to create Nubian Skin. Ade has lived in the UK, Nigeria and the US and was sure there was nothing like this. In August 2014 she launched her first lingerie line. Her next step will be to get her lingerie in big department stores to get to those who don’t use the internet as much as well. Also she wants to get departments stores to make statements when selling Nubian Skin saying:

‘Actually this is something we should be offfering because customers are women of colour.’

Why

I thought this was a cool article to share because after reading about Nubian Skin I thought it was odd that there has never been any lingerie brand that provided women of colour options for nude lingerie. It shows that a shift has started in the world of lingerie. Showing that the heads of big lingerie brands are often white, who don’t think of their women of colour. It’s part of the trend Roots and Wings because it shows that women of colour belong to the western world and have been limited in nude lingerie until now. The Roots and Wings trend stands for the globalization of our society, which means thinking of each and everyone one of us on this planet. This brand being a hit after their launch will make a lot of lingerie brands think about their next steps in moving forward. We already acknowledged our love for big butts in 2014, of which the majority are women of colour, the next step 2015 will bring will be making daily life easier for women of colour in simple things such as nude lingerie.

Sources:

Cosmopolition January 2015
https://www.nubianskin.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/11/07/nubian-skin-lingerie-women-of-colour_n_6100832.html

Elderly Palm Springs girls

Posted on januari 6, 2015 by ljejacobs

Last week I read Linda magazine and I came across this photo of four elderly women with amazing bodies in can can costumes. It crossed my mind that normally women in their twenties or thirties dress like this and that they swing their legs up extremely high during dancing. I wondered what these women were doing. The beautiful photos by Danielle Levitt made me read their story.

What

The women in the photographs are this who dance for The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies. They were documented by photographer Danielle Levitt who’s a New York based photographer mostly interested in American youth. These pictures were taken before, during and after the last show in 2014 after twenty-five years of being on stage with this act. The had to quit because of the lack of visitors. The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies were started in 1990 in The Plaza Theatre in Palm Springs, California, United States. The show since then only included women fifty-five and older. The oldest women on earth that performed as a showgirl was Beverly Allen who was 87 when they stopped The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies last year. With records like these they set quite some in the Guinness Book of World Records. The shows were based around 30’s, 40’s and 50’s music, dance and humour and the founders required that women performing in these shows must have lived in those times.

Why

What I think is cool about The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies, is that they set an example for all those grumpy elderly that we have to deal with nowadays. The trend that can be linked with these women is Age Elasticity. Nowadays a small minority of the elderly is still active and willing to accept and learn what we have to deal with as youngsters. These elderly are elastic because they do not apply things that are usually normal for elderly people to themselves, they act as if they are way younger which keeps them younger. For them age is just a number and you have to live your life the way you want to live, not what’s most common. This is just as inspiring for elderly as I think it is for youngsters. We have to live our life the way we feel good about it in order to become old as happy and as able as possible. Do what you feel like doing because you want it. The overall big trend that covers this is Shifting Identities since this is a trend that covers quit some years already. In this particular case it’s a shift in how elderly think which brings you to the smaller trend Age Elasticity.