the mysterious designer
In the world of fashion, the designer can take two paths in regards to how they handle their public fame. Designers can acknowledge their presence by showing their face on the run way after the show and walk with all of the models or show their face and stand cooly in the back. The designer then can give interviews, send out photos of their face, and etc. But what does this create? People in society then can attack the designers work in two ways by either liking the work more because they like how the designer presents themselves in media or they can dislike the designer’s work now for the same reason. Our global society is extremely sensitive to public reception.
The other path a designer can take is to not walk on the run way after the shows, to hide in the shadows, to be extremely private, to not give interviews, to be elusive… This path of the designer forces society to consider the work at hand and ignore the possible public pitfalls of the designer. It also forces the media to be scrupulous on their search to find stories to engage the masses.
What is the effect of the private designer? The private designer becomes a mysterious being, almost a God, unleashing goodies for the masses. What do the masses do? Once again two choice, either like the work and love their God, or hate it! But who are they to hate in this second scenario, for they, the society, has no one to put the blame on…
The designer in the shadow (think Martin Margiela, Raf Simons) has more power in a pure sense of aesthetics and critical reception. The global society won’t be able to attach short comings of the designer to a face and will be able to critique the work of fashion without a biased basis. But the fame-filled designer (think Karl Lagerfeld, Chris Laboutin, Marc Jacobs) too has a power of marketing and branding a company with just their signature or a show of a face, and the masses become “fans” of these designers not because of their design but because of who they are. What kind of designer will you be?
