Consumer
Role Model Mindset: I am what I spend
Remnant fabric, custom-printed ribbon, remnant brooch
“I feel quite good about money. I am not frightened of it. I think I’m good at spending it.
It’s an enabler in my life, it adds to my life, but it’s not what’s most important in my life.
There’s always a good and a bad side to money. How you make your decisions is what counts. ”
Design
The iconic tweed suit that Chanel launched at a small show in her salon on Rue de Cambon in Paris in 1925 was the key design inspiration for a coat about consumers. Chanel reportedly chose to wear her lovers' clothes, because she believed menswear to be more comfortable than pre-war women’s fashion. The Chanel two piece tweed suit is still a carrier of the idea of luxury, status and wealth. I took a swatch to show my creative mentor, delighted to find something that symbolised branded consumerism for modern women today.
Imagine my surprise to find, in the latest issue of Vogue Australia magazine, an original Chanel coat dress in pink tweed with fringed borders for sale for $12,000. That’s when I knew I had the right design idea.
Of course, the “want it, have it, be it” proposition of consumerism is insidious. I added the cage of pink satin ribbon, custom printed with “I am what I spend” to capture the ambivalent nature of these transactions.
It begs the question:
“For $12,000, can I really buy the ability to convey the Chanel brand’s idea of style, money, status, and power? Or am I a victim of fashion marketing, my authenticity and self-esteem propped up by false ideals of the feminine and the beautiful?”
Fabric
The soft, pink and grey, textured tweed has a softness and an open weave that is far from the dense woollen weave of Chanel’s commissioned tweeds, which she sourced from Scotland. From a distance, it perfectly conveys the design idea.
I found this fabric in a fashion remnant warehouse, piled under all kinds of wild and faddy fabric ideas who clearly had not made it into the A list for the season. The moment I saw it, I had to touch it. Even though it is not actually Chanel branded fabric, it refers to the iconic tweed that still carries the powerful stamp of Coco Chanel.
