Pop Art and Fashion - Essay Example

Pop art influence on fashion today Every individual in the fashion business has to have the ability of recognizing and predicting different movements both cultural and social (Gale and Kaur 2004). This helps individuals in understanding fully the fashion environment and to be in a position of being able to conduct all the operations in the direction in which the fashion industry is moving towards. Those involved in fashion designing, retailers and even fashion buyers are able to make proper decisions in their work when they have the ability to predict what will take place in the future. This way, fashion is not considered an isolated industry rather; it is connected to every part of our life. Fashion not only consists of clothing but also the different way chosen in living one’s life. Lifestyle consists mainly of; ways of communication, ways of decoration of homes, and ways of eating and dressing. Socio-cultural changes influence strongly individual’s trends and lifestyle. Among these are the artistic movements. It is very significant to realize that individuals make trends when they are involved in different artistic surroundings on different level. New trends are developed from different sources that have great influence on cultural life and lifestyle. Among these sources is the pop culture. Pop culture is known to be a cultural that is followed, implied and valued by audience at large. Different celebrities have high influence on the pop culture. This culture is mainly perceived to be a commercial culture that is mass produced purposely for mass consumption. In fashion, an illustration of pop culture influence on individual’s lifestyle and looks is clear especially on several television shows that are stylish. Everyone will try to imitate the dress code of the main characters in the media. The culture of celebrities has in the past and still will have great influence in the contemporary society because of their constant presence on media. Celebrities in most cases are viewed to be role models hence, most individuals take time to study and copy most of them. Art has been very influential in the past years. Art is wide and does not only involve paintings, sculptures, photography and film-making. It can also be defined as skill and imagination overuse in order to create different aesthetic objects, surroundings and experiences that are shared to different individuals in the society. And from the ancient days art has continued to develop in a gradual manner. Among the development in art is the introduction of what is known as pop art. It is known to be popular culture’s art and its characteristic is that it has optimism sense. Most artists have been greatly influenced by this and majority of them have interpreted pop art in their own way. Among those influenced by Pop art is lady Gaga who is perceived to be one of the famous pop singer and song writer. She is known to have unique fashion taste. As a result, her fashion designer created several designs that mainly have the artist’s style association. Through this, today’s generation has been influenced greatly into appreciating art as a significant element of human life. In today’s society pop art has made tremendous influence on different kinds of fashions. In order to be able to fully understand the contemporary art it is important to look back and appreciate all the individuals of the past generation who remained focused and persistent in making this kind of art possible. It is amazing how most artists were able to customize different things that they came across in life. They were able to apply art in everything from shoes to pants and even people. They made art to be real and available to all. Welters and Lillethun (2011), asserts that the career of Keith Haring is still felt in the contemporary society. Haring’s pop playful illustrations continues to influence fashion in the recent times. Several designers and labels have collaborated with the foundation of Keith Haring constantly especially on the area of clothing and accessories. Among them are Pa tricia Field, Scott, Zara, Nicholas Kirkwood, Levi’s, and Tommy Hilfiger. They mostly display the artist’s work by using individuals as gallery walls that are in motion. Some designers today merge the pop artist’s works together with their own aesthetic hence, placing a fresh pin on it. Others on the other hand opt to place the drawings of Haring on bikinis or t-shirts. Most musicians today also continue to imitate Madonna’s lead. Some of them including Justin Bieber who is a pop star and Lil Wayne who is a rapper have won Haring’s items while performing on several occasions on stage. In 2006, Scott who earlier came up with Haring leather jacket for brand Schott clothing, started placing different artists drawings on various tracksuits, leggings and even Adidas sneakers. According to him his idea was mainly to revive Haring’s work by breathing new life into it. His focus was to use his vocabulary while utilizing Harings textile print and doing any other thing that could help bring back to the current times. A shoe designer Kirkwood in Britain also used the foundation in inventing a collection of capsule. For one, he transformed a character of Haring to be a heel while on the other he simply covered a dark pattern of Haring all over. Kirkwood admitted that he realized that the artwork of Keith Haring had several shapes which to him he could translate in a pretty manner to become a shoe. The outcome was a high heeled pumps in contemporary styles. Though, today most people cannot afford to possess an original Haring’s item, it is possible to have just a bit of it in ones wardrobe and to put on different kinds of his art on the street for less amount. The top popular art movement dominating most posts today in the modern era is the pop art. The movement came up as a result as what is best known to be rebellion by most pop artists who were against Abstract Expressionists. Their view was that it was pretentious and over-intense. In most scenarios pop art is perceived as being a style of art that went back to everyday life material realities, to popular culture derived from most people’s visual pleasures. These include; television, various magazines and comics. The movement of pop art first appeared in the mid 1950’s in Britain then later in the United States in the same year. The main aim of pop artists was to challenge the existing tradition assumption that fine art mainly entailed the usage of popular culture’s mass media visual elements by artists. According to Honnef (2004), pop art mainly involves material removal from its context and object isolation or combination with various objects for consideration. This concept mainly highlights the attitudes that resulted to art. It is widely understood that the phenomenon of pop music and pop art coincided in 1950’s and 1960’s and in most cases it was associated with the London’s fashionable swinging image. This can be highlighted clearly by the design covers made by Peter Blake for the Beatles and Elvis Presley (Cumming et al.2010). In addition, in his pictures he also starred different actresses such as Brigitte Bardot. This was similar to artist Andy Warhol way of using Marlin Monroe image in America. The pop art in America was best understood to be anonymous, symbolic and antagonistic. The pop art of the English people on the other hand was known to be more subjective and referential. The English pop artists mainly focused on popular culture and technology largely as topics or metaphors. The pop artists from the United States were more focused into these ideas. The motto of Andy Warhol for example was that everybody ought to be a machine. His artwork that he made resembled that made using a machine. The emergence of the pop art in the late 1950s was under the great influence of the popular culture’s wealthy boom. It founded its own place as a movement of art and its productions involved different paintings, sculpture and collages. All these formed a bridge for the existing gap between an individual painting a billboard and the person painting artwork. The main aim of the pop artists was to transform the traditional art from its formal foundation. The artists gained stimulation from the commercial products, advertisements, newspapers clippings, comic books, and the mass culture. After the Second World War was concluded the art movement that was perceived to be rebellious re-established itself. The effects were felt in Britain and even though the practice of pop art was on, it had nostalgic themes and lacked the intensity level as compared to the America’s art. The United States at that time boomed in material wealth and in consumer culture since it was not affected physically by the war. Possessing great productivity, the expanding industry’s bright colors continued to shower the lives of most American people. Americas power was boosted by the magazines and films that were large, colorful glossy and colorful from the social atmosphere. Most Pop artists in America mainly reproduced duplicated, combined and arranged visual details that were endless. Their main aim was to represent the culture and society of the United States at large hence, bringing in various transformations and acting in a manner similar to the commentaries. Andy Warhol, American most popular pop artist had a very keen interest in movie stars. His passion became clear from his artworks when he began creating Marilyn Monroe portraits in 1962. Warhol strived hard to maintain his personal attraction with fame which he portrayed clearly in his art work. His preference was to let the viewers to interpret the meaning on their own. Andy Warhol famous quotation summed up the role of media and the movement of pop. His quotation stated that every individual will be famous for fifteen minutes in the future. New images are being produced everyday in magazines, televisions, newspapers and Hollywood. This implies that the popular culture is constantly being enlarged. Everything in our surrounding is mainly an image all set for consumption.  In today’s society, the existence of pop is still felt in fact some individuals suggest that the influence today is more that before. The existence of various bright colors that were in existence in the sixties and seventies can be found in printed t-shirts of Marilyn Monroe and are in use in fashion worldwide (Meggs and Purvis 2006). The characteristics of pop art are mainly the themes and techniques derived from various mass cultures that are popular like the comic books, adverts and ordinary cultural objects. The interpretation of this movement is that it is mainly a response to different thoughts of abstract expressionism. The intention of pop art is to utilize various popular images in contrast to art elitist culture. The main emphasis here is various cultures banal elements mainly by use of irony. The colors predominant among the pop artists include; yellow, red and blue. These colors are bright and unlike other movements they do not portray the world’s inner sensation of the artist. They mainly highlight the popular culture that mainly motivated artist Andy Warhol to try out with silk printing technique. The technique was popular and was mainly utilized for mass production. The pop art artwork’s features included; clear lines, paint work that was sharp and obvious depiction of symbols, people and various other objects established in popular culture. In most cases various objects were satirized by the pop artists. Such objects sometimes were enlarged into huge proportions. A common theme in the pop movement was food and in addition to this various household objects were dwelled on. They included chairs and toilets being designed using the squishy plastic instead of the materials that were used earlier. And in the modern society several items in the market and those in use in different households portray the great influence of art. Everyone today wants to be unique and stylish hence, borrowing some designs from pop art. The imagery adopted by the pop artists in most cases is figured in different logos and product labeling. This can be clearly illustrated using the Campbell’s soup cans labels that were designed by Andy Warhol (Indiana 2010). In addition, the shipping carton labeling that contained various items of retail was utilized as a pop art subject. Robert Indianna is also considered as being another pop movement prominent figure. He referred to himself as a sign painter and throughout his art he incorporated different symbols, signs and letters. He focused mainly on the creation of poems, sculptures, paintings, silk screens and different posters. One his popular sculpture is referred to as love and was created during the period when America was involved in Vietnam War and it symbolized peace. Apart from this, it also pointed out pop art movement celebrated works worldwide. The truth is that most of the contemporary design works are still under the influence by pop art. According to Jeff Jaffe, who is the co-owner of pop international galleries in New York, today pop art has become dominant than ever before. Most individuals are in agreement with him and among them are the collectors, the art dealers, publishers, and those involved in houses auctioning. Majority of them highlights individuals considered to be greatest in art today. They include individuals like; Clemens Briels, James Rizzi, Romero Britto, Steve Kaufman and several others. Most of these artists’s work have adopted the pop style and have been very successful in the art marketplace today. Not to mention that art has always been perceived as being a clear expression of what is going on in the society at large. In England in the 50’s and in America in the 60’s, art was mainly perceived to be chaos of consumption, advertising, television, comics, and even fashion. As a result of the pop art movement, art reinvented itself unlike in the earlier times and it remained to be appreciated highly by most individuals in the contemporary society. Pop art remains to be famous in the current society be it mentioning about the ancient originals being sold for several pounds or copies being sold in large numbers for a lower price. Today everyone understands that it is not possible to ignore pop art since it has become more than just a normal statement. It is found everywhere in daily life places and utilized in most adverts today. It is similar to its usage in the ancient times around 1950’s. Pop art can be interpreted differently since it can mean different things. But among them is what is best known to be clearly popular. According to Julie Maner, who is the director of business affairs in New Rochelle in New York for museum editions, all art mainly petition to different individuals on a level perceived to be emotional. However, she insists that pop art is experienced on a level considered being experimental as it arises from our daily livelihoods. Through this she clearly highlights what is best known to be the pop dog series invented by Gloria lee. Twenty five various dog breeds mainly in thrilling pop colors are featured in this series. Most dealers place different prints in their window shops mainly because it is viewed to be colorful and fanciful. Pop art continues to gain a lot of popularity and in most cases it used in the creation of different awesome items today (Osterwold 2003). They include; the birthday cards, t-shirts, badges, calendars, different posters, and canvasses hence it can hardly be ignored. The pop art features such as the bright colors and different prints are still evident today and it is unlikely that it will fade in the near future. The fact is that the movement that has to be popular still continues to captivate in the contemporary society. Examples of clothing pop culture are as shown below; Figure1; clothing and dressing culture Some individuals have been interrogated why pop art came back and gained popularity so strongly later after several years of its appearance. And to this question most individuals have responded differently. Some of the responses include that; over the years pop art has attracted so many supporters and has been evident that it is an investment that is solid. According to other individuals, today is the time to swing back to the ancient way as fashion in most cases returns to the fascinating early times. Finally, it is also perceived that it returned back as there is a need for the contemporary society to gain comfort from different things perceived to be familiar. Julie Maner also asserts that it is a proper and better way of catching up with the times especially considering that there is constant change in art in the pop genre. Ruth-Ann of Thorn of Crown Thorn Publishing further adds that pop art is great since it is cross cultural. It does not involve any statements of politics and is the best art in that, it suits any individual who might be going through intimidation by art. Today there are different protests including those of anti-war, different threats of foreign attacks, war itself, and fears of nuclear bombs. This has remained to be real in the current society as they were in the earlier years. As a motivation to their various artworks, most artists today still utilize the features similar to the pop art style that was in existence in the earlier days. The works used frequently as models by artists in their modern works include those of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. It is common today to come across artists creating different cool illustrations, prints and various posters that have details such as; dotted images, colors that are strong and multiple, one print containing sequence of images, faces of famous individuals, and different home utilities that include television, radio and cameras. A Campbell’s soup dress was inspired by Andy Warhol during the sixties. Campbell’s soup was used to produce soup dress and was perceived to be a successful advertising campaign at a time when dresses made from paper were all the fury (Indiana 2010). Most boutique clothing stores that emerged in the 1960s were mostly influenced by pop art. A big role was played by color and in most cases colors that were bold and bright were spread in geometric patterns. The influence of pop on fashion is still felt today. Among those under the great influence are; several graphic t-shirts designs that have gained popularity in different department stores and also accessories and jewelry. Tommy Hillfiger who is a fashion designer, admits that his bright color choices in some of his collections are as a result of the influence of pop art. Another example in the contemporary society is Thomas Sabo; he is a German- based sterling silver brand who released its spring/summer 2011 assortment that mainly reflected on pop art. Getting inspiration from different celebrities of the past that include individuals like Andy Warhol, Michael Jackson and Madonna, the collection is today known as pop now. Starting in the 1950’s and the 1960’s different pop artists utilized different inventive techniques with the aim of transforming the normal profitable imagery into attractive and popular art for most people. Most advertisers loved using the word pop in most scenarios for example pop secret, pop corn and several others. In various commercial today, pop art influence is evident and the word pop is still common. Several kids in the modern society are also involved in different activities of pop art. In most cases they make their own pop art collage using readily available materials such as magazines, existing pictures, postcards, available photos, notes and even their favorite book pages. Even images of known politicians are printed on t-shirts. Figure 2; Pictures of United States president Barack Obama It is also possible with the existence of internet in the contemporary society for anyone to get different pop art prints by going online or by creating their own on a website. Art evolution is really unbelievable. There have been different transitions from works of art considered to be singular to consumer products and the work exclusivity to its duplication in sequence. Up to date art has remained to be an expression of what is going on in the society. England and America in the fifties was a place where the standard was advertising, television, comics, consumption chaos, and fashion and during this period none of the angelic figures were well-regarded. Unlike before art has continually reinvented itself because most individuals in the society today still appreciate the movement of pop art highly. Even though fashion design concepts today may appear new and cutting edge, clothing design and fashion in general has been adopted from the past era’s creation. Different historic moments especially that of pop art movements, ideas and cultural climate have been reflected upon by various fashion design. As a fashion designer today, it is important to remain devoted to different artistic occurrences. This is because in the end the behavior of fashion will reflect ideas. In most fashion design institutions today, their main focus is to explore the past trends and to teach individuals how to develop apparel design and classic fashion. In addition, with the influence of pop art, every individual in the fashion design jobs has to be conversant with the current market while doing textiles, colors and various shapes (Pundir 2007). In the modern world, the symbolic value of art perceived to be special is one of the major reasons why art is utilized in various contexts of advertisements. Art and fashion have continually been perceived to be similar to two neighbors who at times rub shoulders in a happy manner and at other times in disagreement (Svendsen 2006). Until today, fashion and art has approached one another in a manner in which one can hardly come up with a clear difference of the two. The main question going through the minds of many is whether fashion is art. According to Svendsen (2006),some individuals assume that a dress can be categorize to be a form of visual art where images are created on and the medium being the visible self. However, it still remains unclear as to what level fashion is into or outside the art area. According to Bender (2010), most individuals experiment with color and fabrics today. Pop art is not only applicable to clothing but also to different designs in offices, homesteads, and several other belongings including cars. Apart from what is known to be a good taste, bright colors are used and worn in order to attain a clashing effect. In interior designs for example several people have adopted pop art in order to bring life into their rooms. Use of several colors can easily be noticed on the walls, curtains designed, wall hangings, the choice of seats color and design, bedding, carpets and rags and other forms of decoration. Hence, designers today just like in the earlier times have opportunities that are enormous. They are greatly involved in creating different new looks using various colors, wild prints, and different spots and checks that in most cases are mixed using several materials. Fabrics of different kinds have been experimented with in designing most belongings to look attractive and fancy. In several social sites today such as face book and twitter pop art is also evident. Most people try to transform their own photographs to resemble that of several earlier pop artists. In addition, others even upload different drawings and photographs that were used and treasured by earlier celebrities of pop art. Different hairstyles today also portray a great influence of pop art. For men they design different patterns in their heads while doing a haircut. In order to bring out the desired colors they dye their hair. Women on the other hand apart from dying their hair with unique colors, also use braids, weaves and wigs of different colors similar to that used in pop art. Some men and women may also opt to maintain dreadlocks that are dyed and beaded with different colors. World games such as football world cup competition that takes places in selected countries every five years also portray clearly the great impact of pop art in the contemporary society. The field used by players and podiums for those cheering is designed in a particular manner with specific colors. Players also dress accordingly. The supporters of every team put in great effort to be outstanding. This can easily noticed in their attire, facial and body paintings and even the dancing styles adopted. Figure 3; popular Arsenal T-shirts In conclusion therefore, those in the fashion business today have to possess the ability of recognizing and predicting cultural and social movements. It assists individuals to fully comprehend the current environment of fashion and to be in position to conduct operations in the current industry’s direction. With the ability to predict the future happenings, proper decisions will be made by those in the fashion designing industry, retailers and fashion buyers. Hence, fashion is not an isolated industry but it is connected to every part of life. Apart from clothing, fashion can be described as how an individual chooses to live one’s life. Lifestyle involves ways of communicating, decoration of homes, eating and dressing. Most people’s trends and lifestyles are influenced by socio-cultural alterations such as artistic movements. Art has been very influential in the past years and even in the modern society. The first appearance of pop art was in the mid 1950’s in Britain and later the same year in America. Since then pop art has played a major role in fashion and the impact in the contemporary society is perceived to be more than before. The popularity of pop art in the modern society has been considered to be due to its; solid investment, while others perceive that now is the time to swing back to the old fashion to enjoy the earlier fascinating moments. Finally, it is also considered that the current society can get comfort from familiar things of the past. Today with the presence of internet and various social sites most people’s fashion has been influenced by pop, the old and the young alike. Most individuals especially the youth in the modern world have adopted the lifestyle of several pop artists. Though most pop artists died several years ago, their artwork and lifestyle is still practiced in the modern world. Thus, it can be true to justify that; the influence of pop art on fashion has been and will be in the future. References Bender, L. (2010).Bus Stop and the Influence of the 70s on Fashion Today. London: A&C Black. Cumming, V., Cunnington, C., Cunnington. (2010). The Dictionary of Fashion History. Oxford: Berg. Gale,C., and Kaur, J. (2004). Fashion and Textiles: An Overview. Oxford: Berg. Honnef, K. (2004). Pop Art. Germany: Taschen Indiana, G. (2010). Andy Warhol: And the Can That Sold the World. USA: Basic books. Meggs, P. B. and Purvis, A. W. (2006). Meggs’ history of graphic design. New Jersey:Wiley. Osterwold, T. (2003). Pop Art. Germany: Taschen. Pundir, N. (2007).Fashion Technology: Today And Tomorror.India:Mittal Publications. Svendsen, L. (2006). Fashion: A Philosophy. London: Reaktion Books. Welters, L., and Lillethun,A. (2011).The Fashion Reader. Oxford: Berg. Read More