WASTED YOUTH

WA S T E D YO U T H

A CONCEPT PROCESS BY ERIN GRIBBON

FASHION COMMUNICATION AND MARKETING CONTEMPORARY FASHION COMMUNICATION AD5604

WASTED YOUTH

In this project we are asked in the first instance to research Dazed and Robbie Spencer to gain an understanding of their storytelling. Within the context of their work, we are expected to create an editorial response within the narrative of the publication using the signature of the stylist.

Whilst combining both styles together we are also expected to explore how the fashion communication industry is changing a how we as the next generation of communicators are going to tackle the new challenges facing the industry.

‘Wasted Youth’ captures the aftermath of Covid-19 and the effects it is had on Generation Z and the lasting effects it will have upon Generation Alpha. Many brands have begun or are already looking at new forms of telling the “Stories” of their brands and Collections to current and future generations. Fashion has undergone a revolution in the Digital Age of the pandemic and has been catapulted into a new communication landscape, foreign to many industry exper ts.

This had led to many stylists having to become more versatile and conceptual when it comes to telling the “stories” of the fashion world.

Before Covid-19 Robbie Spencer became the Editor of Dazed and Confused magazine in 2013 and was renowned for his conceptual depth in his work and the new perspective he brings to a fashion shoot.

‘You need to learn from someone and be in the right environment to understand how the industry works and how to communicate.

Then you take from that, and you find your own point of view on it’

Using this quote as my springboard in to my ‘Wasted Youth’ styling project, I planned to develop my current understanding of the fashion landscape and from there begin to evolve and progress my own point of view.

Robbie’s style adapts to each shoot; however, he stays true to the brand’s narrative and maintains authenticity and transparency. This highlights the brand's natural aesthetic and allows the brand to tell and depict a clear and concise campaign aligning with the brand's morals and culture.

What I admired most about Robbie’s styling is his ability to capture the raw authentic humanity despite what the shoot required of him.

Throughout my research of Generation Z this was a key aspect into the future of communication. Generation Z had an ardent desire for authentic and transparent media and communication after the pandemic revealed a dystopia in which we had been living in. There began to be an influx of hyper-individualism and mass trends existing equally and comfor tably together, and as a generation we began analysing how social media has changed the ways we, as Gen Z, ar ticulate our identities.

With the idea of authenticity and transparency in the forefront of my mind, I began to look at Dazed and how they tell their visual narratives.

Dazed magazine’s audience is Generation Z at the moment with their mission being to inspire the upcoming generation to constantly explore culture and trend in their environment to discover their own identity.

Something which Generation Z holds impor tant to them as they journey through a time of hyper-individualism. Dazed was born from a British Club Culture aesthetic, a style which I have explored in past projects, however following Robbie’s quote I want to find my own view on Dazed magazine, as I am member of Generation Z. Following this idea of Dazed focusing on different culture to unite generations of youth across the globe I want to find one tie that connected us altogether.

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As a Generation we became the most affected. Using Dazed’s radical views and ways it tells its stories, I wanted to narrate a raw and transparent opinion of Generation Z’s outlook on their future.

Going into my first experimental photoshoot my aim was to try and replicate Robbie’s styling poses and analyse what the camera captures.

Robbie's styling was often approached from an outward view of the picture executing an image or space rather than just from a clothing point of view. Keeping this in mind I began looking at facial features to tell my story, believing this captured the zeitgeist I was aiming for Generation Z, transparent, raw, and authentic, instead of putting too much focus on materialistic things such as clothing. Since it was a shoot for Dazed it allowed me to focus an explore other conceptual ideas rather than shooting for a brand, where often you need the clothes to tell the brands narrative. After developing images from my

first shoot, I went on to begin to look at two distinct aspects I could add more depth to my styling shoot narrative for Dazed: colour and collaboratives who had worked for Robbie while he was editor at Dazed.

After studying semiotics in fashion and how humans signify specific social and cultural positions through clothing and colour I began to look deeper into how I could tell my concept through colours and the links they have to youth culture and Dazed. I explored colour as often Dazed Magazine’s front covers depict a bold colour image, which helps it stand out from its completion. I did not want the colour to become tacky and gimmicky, so I stuck with 4 colours, red, blue, purple, and green to experiment with and hind out the meanings behind the colours to build to my concept of ‘Wasted Youth’. The colour theory can then be seen experimented with in my second shoot involving me projecting colourful patterns over the face and seeing what mood and aesthetic they por trayed through the camera lens.

The same thing occurred during the styling of this photoshop as the first styling shoot; the focus was on the eyes and facial features to tell the story. I kept this colour theme as is added to my concept and when discussed with industry we agreed that trying to recreate a glossy magazine cover can sometimes come off at gimmicky and novice, which lead me down the route of taking my photos I had so far and bringing a digital element to them. This helped me avoid the usual magazine cover

look, which we found can only really be recreated in a professional studio setting. However, knowing my strengths laid with my digital editing I knew the colour concept would work to my advantage when combining Robbie's professional shoots with Dazed’s conceptual front covers.

After the colour experiment shoot I then processed on to look at collaboratives, who have worked with Robbie, whose strengths as more focused no capturing a raw image of a person to depict an emotion or a deeper concept. He has worked with the like of Ben Toms and Oliver Hadlee Pearch, who both capture a raw camera aesthetic, however I chose to focus on Arnaud Lajeunie to begin with. From Paris, Arnaud Lajeunie focuses his lens on the intimate moments that do not always make the cut in fashion, this links with the conversation for trying not to recreate a glossy styling shoot. Known for his innate eye and propensity for capturing the unexpected, he favors chance in his work often layering his images in subtle ways that can be easily missed. He is noted for his eye for the beautiful and bizarre. I decided to extract Lajeunie's style of his innate eye and layering his images in subtle ways as well as Robbie’s authenticity and transparency and carry this idea forward through my final photoshoot stylings and editorials.

Having grasped the Outline of my styling concept, I set about to add my final element to my styling project: the future of fashion communication.

For this I went back to Dazed and began researching into an era called Monomass. Monomass is described as ‘hyper-individualism and mass trends existing equally and comfor tably together, analysing how social media has changed the ways we as Gen Z ar ticulate our identities. It believes the pandemic has not created a dystopia; it is revealed one.’ This underpinned my ideas around what Generation Z and Alpha Generation will want in terms of the future of communication. Authenticity from social media and brands will be key, however, with the rise of technology after the pandemic we are seeing a new emerging fashion landscape called the Metaverse. The Metaverse initially goes against the values that are predicted for Generation Z and the Alpha Generation, but with trend prediction of the ‘death of the influencer’ as well. I am currently forecasting after research into distinct brands evolving in this new landscape that the Metaverse will be more of a trend that dies out and will be replaced with a more meaningful way of original communication. I came to this conclusion after discussing with fashion designer, Christopher Shannon about the metaverse and how if I wanted to maintain the human connection I desired, I would have to find the perfect balance between digitally edited content and my raw camera footage. We discussed how I needed to capture a human connection to depict the authenticity and transparency that Robbie's work carries to find the perfect outcome displaying the poetic injustice of adolescents in Covid-19.

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Dazed. (2020). THE ERA OF MONOMASS. Available: https://dazed.studio/white-papers/the-era-of-monomass/. Last accessed January 2022.

Dazed. (N/A). GENERATION FOREVER. Available: https://www.dazedmedia.com/about. Last accessed February 2022.

Dazed. (2008). A State of Independence.... Available: https://www.dazeddigital.com/info/article/824/1/dazed-confused. Last accessed February 2022.

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Davidson, E. (N/A). Arnaud Lajeunie Dazed 100. Available: https://www.dazeddigital.com/projects/article/39808/1/arnaud-lajeunie-photographer-biography-dazed-100-2018-profile. Last accessed February 2022.

Hawkins, A. (2015). Unusual nudes and strange, glittering fashion photography from Arnaud Lajeunie. Available: https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/arnaud-lajeunie-2015. Last accessed February 2022.

N/A. (N/A). Robbie Spencer. Available: https://www.artpartner.com/artists/style/robbie-spencer/overview/. Last accessed February 2022.