A Singular Biography is What Can Make an Item Worth Retrieving - Research Paper Example

A ‘singular biography’ is what can make an item worth retrieving. The study of dresses is known as an example of material culture. According to Davidit is the properties and distinction of dressing that symbolizes the culture and remains their as its record. It’s the clothing that can be used to mark the changes between cultures; (McCracken, 1988). As a matter of fact it is one of the key features to distinguish between cultures. Chinese for instance has their special gowns with long bell shaped sleeves, Muslims wear hijab and etc. According to Ian objects are the materials that people interact and use them, it symbolizes their culture identification (Woodward, 2007). Often people wear clothes or jewel that symbolizes the history, old antique prices of jewellery and clothes and even furniture. In an autobiographical sketch titled ‘Biography of Dress ‘the author tells the short story about a yellow dress she wore at her second birthday which her mother got photographed. Though it remains a painful story to remember but because of the importance her mother attached to the dress she remembers the incidence as the biography of the dress rather than her second birthday. (Emberley, 2007) Biographies of certain things make them significant or else they would remain unheard (Kopetoff, 1986). People have dresses and jewels which they pass off to their generation as a tradition which highlights the significance of that thing emotionally. For instance great grandmother wore it and today her great great grand daughter would wear, it adds to the value of the ring. It makes that little piece of jewel special due to its historical significance attached with the emotional and traditional values of a family. Its true if a famous celebrity wears a piece of cloth at a time it adds historic importance to it, the piece of fabric is no more a piece of fabric but something worthy of millions of dollars. Lady Diana’s clothes were auctioned to highest bids of all time and the reason merely was because she was the princess who wore a gown once and added fortune to the worth of the dress. So is the value of clothes upgraded when biography is added. People wear it once at a time and pass it on unaware that their trash could be treasured by someone (Reno, 2009). Such is an example of a beautiful black dress which is remembered as a fashion icon in cinematic history. A beautiful black evening gown worn by Audrey Hepburn in the Paramount famous movie, Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1961. It was designed by none other than Hubert De Givenchy especially for the movie and he considers it as one of its best among his collection. The Winterthur Portfolio Prown in 1982 proposed a three level methodology to analyze any dress; description, deduction and speculation (Taylor, 2002). DESCRIPTION: (Pearce, 1994) Susan believes that real significance of a Dress may actually lie in the measurements which is true because such dresses are designed for someone worth wearing. Description is the external observance of a dress, Its dimensions, measurement, color or fabric that one uses. The black dress could be described as a strapless 38.5’’ floor length satin gown with fitted bodice, a cut after the collar into half from back giving it a distinctive yet gorgeous look. It has a skirt hooked at the waist of 13.5” and slit to the thigh on one side. However later Givenchy the designer added elbow long gloves to it, altogether complementing the dress. It is a fitted gown with 18.75” at the hip and a bust of 18”. The black color got the perfect balance for the dress overall increasing its appeal. According to Karl Lagerfeld, black dress never makes one over or under dressed. Givenchy got the idea of this dress inspired from the late 1925 when a Coco Channel showcased a collection of boyish garcons dresses which were mostly black. He designed this beautiful gown for the most elegant actress Audrey Hepburn in a movie called Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1961.It was a trend of Black and white movies at that very time and this dress in black stood out as the best outfit on screen and even today in the age of colors that dress is valued even more. It still lies in the best condition like it was as it is known as the most expensive gown ever bid in an auction. DEDUCTION: It is the second level of analyzing any dress. Here we give the relatio- -ship between the object and the perceiver. How people interpret the object, the emotional or intellectual affections and responses towards the object. (Pearce, 1994). What does the dress symbolizes? The dress is incredibly elegant and graceful to be worn with a perfect shape of body. It is a well designed dress for an accurate body to fit, most of its glamour lies in its fitting. The time when the great actress wore she was portraying a character of Holly, with perfect curves and the blades at her back shoulder, she totally complemented the dress. According to Givenchy she added life to that dress. Her character was of a socialite of the city who later got interested in a guy. Holly the sophisticated playgirl of New York at that time. The character sounds high profile, extravagant women and so accordingly was this dress. The dress gives a luxurious ornate look. It’s definitely made for the classy women who can wear it with grace and right attitude. As style puts it correctly saying that fashion demands commitment to enquire the requirements to be fulfilled and reflect accordingly (Styles, 1998). The dress symbolizes the prestige and luxury it offered, it was a sophisticated dress in black designed for higher class women in society. Hubert de Givenchy is a French designer who is known for his work for Jacques Fath and Audrey Hepburn. His collection explains his vision; he is someone who believes to portray a character through his designs of clothes. He mostly uses black white and gold colors, backs of the dresses often adds to the overall appeal of the dresses he design, like this black dress he also have his other collection where he have shown his uniqueness as a designer. He considers his black dress the most precious design and history agrees with that. That moment represents the Hepburn’s style takeover Hollywood. Later Givenchy designs almost all the costumes for Audrey worn by her in her movies. However when the movie was to be released, posters of Audrey in this very black dress were pasted, it was one of the reason people came to watch the movie. Her dress was chosen as the best outfit on screen of that time. Most of the women started copying and running after this dress as it acknowledged the modern woman of that time. SPECULATION: It is the final stage of analyzing an object to look at its surviving chronology. The dress was given by Givenchy to his friend Dominique Lapierre a French author who also volunteered running a charity organization called City of Joy’s aid along his wife. The money generated from the proceedings helped Dominique creating 15 schools for children in India, first is already build with 200 students. There were posters at Dominique have been recorded saying that he had tears in his eyes and was speechless that he is giving away the most iconic dress in the cinematic history that belongs to a beautiful and most elegant actress of her time to collect bricks and cement to construct schools. However later it was bought by the designer Hubert Givenchy again for £450,000, it came on that he donated the money to the charitable organization and won the dress back which once again when hold for auction went by £467,200. It is reported by the Daily Times of India that it’s either of the two famous footballer’s wife; either Victoria Becham or Coleen Mclougein. It lies safely with the mysterious bidder; it is still unknown the historic dress went to which lady on planet. It is the most expensive dress bid in the history the last record mentions a dress worn by Marilyn Monroe who sung happy birthday to the president Kneddey got £583000. The dress was worn by Natalie Portman for a magazine for its promotion on the cover page of Harper’s Bazaar. Critics believe that she managed to pull the dress well but she is not Audrey. It’s every now and then it’s either the celebrity or the time or occasion it was worn at adds to the dress value. In this case the great actress not only added her fame to it but he way she carried it made the women thrive for that dress even more imagining how well they could look in it. The dress today would be forty nine years old yet it is very much in style. It is a dress for all the times. The dress symbolizes the high class society of 60s, it is for the people who enjoyed socialite parties, and most of the women wore similar beautiful gowns of floor length. However the dress was bid at £467,200 more than it worth off because of it historic and cinematic importance. Reason the dress became famous is because Audrey wore it in her movies after which every women desired a dress like it. In fact after this piece there come a series of copies, one gown which was designed for an actress had a black square cut down till his waist and many more but none could ever come close to this. This became an icon in the film history. Apart from the cinematic significance the dress is valuable because of the high bidding it get at the auction and the money was donated to the charitable organization. Givenchy was overwhelmed by the amount his dress was able to gather that most of the children deprived of education are now studying at schools in India. Thus it could be said that biography actually adds to the value of a dress or even an object. The dress became famous as it ages. Many people came up with beautiful black dresses but this remains at the top of the list as it was the beginner. Other then this most of the dresses are also valued because of their age or the prestigious occasions at which they were worn. Different colors descriptions have different concepts in different cultures. For instance in the Chinese culture the bride is not suppose to wear any black, blue or gray color dress as it is believed it brings sorrows to the married couple’s life. Or the great dresses of the warriors are preserved in museum, dresses they wore to battles along with their swords and other ornaments. The antique items are actually bided high because of its age and usage by someone supreme at his time. The extravagant dresses the great mughals wore at their time are today expensive and known as the most precious possession of the era. Dresses hold their historic significance as we have historic places. Such dresses survive through years and even decades either because they are treasured by the descendents by the wearer like in the case of the little black dress or just by accident. For instance Heather Firbank had all her best clothes designed and stitched at famous places like Lucile, Red fern etc. Her dresses were then put into trunks for storage for forty years. In 1960 the Victoria and the Albert Museum was given about hundreds of her dresses. The collection of her clothes demonstrated her taste and exquisite style. The evening gowns and tailored suits in distinctive colors represented the exclusive fashion of Britain at very time (Taylor, 2002). She was a wealthy women no doubt as demonstrated by her collection of clothes which also speak for her extraordinary fashion preference and taste. Sometimes clothes even survive due to the ignorance or neglecting behavior people have towards it. Astonishingly an old retail outlet of Houdon shop had a dress history series of Susan Davies’s and thousand unsold garments and accessories. The antique and precious collection which is sold down at auctions lied at an old shop for sale. These are not accidents but miracles that these dresses are fetched out from the trash and stored to the position they truly deserve and treasure for life long. The extracts of such materials symbolizes an era, represents the culture at that time. The black dress analyzed before gives the brief about the sudden fashion trend in 60s after it was showcased. The celebrity factor and the remarkable design by the designer all together passed the dress as a valuable item. Denim for instance was considered for high status seekers as it was designer brand. It is amazing to see how a dress or a piece of fabric worth certain amount over a period of time worn n trashed becomes more valuable for some. In the case of celebrities the fans would do anything to get the used costumes or accessories of the celebrities. Most of the brands use this as their promotional strategy. But more than just the celebrity factor, most of the people get emotionally attached with certain objects. In this case the black dress was a historic dress but for most of the woman from low class could only imagine to wear that dress but they emotionally were attached with it picturing themselves in that black dress. The dress got old over period of time and today we have new designers with more innovative designed gowns and suits but that dress has become priceless with the age of time. Dresses with tags and labels on them are sometimes useful to give its biographical importance. Most of the time the most precious dresses are thrown away without knowing its importance but some struggle to proof its identification. For instance a grey woolen dress designed by Victor Steibel, one of the greatest designers of all times was discovered with a tag that had his signature name and time of 1948-1950. The dress was donated by the owner’s son to the College in 1999. The dress has its unique look with its biography tagged onto it. Dresses also represent the societal change, change in attributes and values. (Cunningham, 1991) the adaptation of the society to the changing fashion. People cannot give up clothing, it’s a need. From early ages people have been finding different ways to cover themselves and their costumes may it me a leaf costume or jute costume are kept in museums to keep the historic values alive. How man’s mind work to cover himself and how well it have progressed ever since. As the world civilized different people developed their different cultures, some are lost in the passage of time but their leftovers are preserved to explain the significance of those cultures and people at that time. Not only the culture but the fashion and taste people had at that time. Movies are evidences of the trends the cultures have faced. America got adapted to several cultures with different blockbusters. Movies were used as a media to set a trend to demonstrate the culture. Even today most of the movies try to promote their culture and values with the kind of dresses they wear and so it will go into history as well. Bollywood for instance uses most of its movies to signify not only the current culture of youth but the culture that have extinct. Most of the dresses are kept in the museums and not offered for auction because of its historic significance and also because that is the only left over. Dresses worn by the warriors or rulers at their time are today kept at their tombs or museums for people to learn about the origination of the culture they belong to. People don’t prefer to alter or recreate such dresses and empirically no one can. Dresses designed and stitched at their time are done with the best people of the business. Some unique designs of anonymous designers are also extracted which gives the diversification the designers brought in their clothes at that time. Most of the dresses of old times question the standards and norms of the society. People living in a moderate society are sometimes overwhelmed by the kind of dresses worn at that time. It somehow offended the culture according to some critics but most of the people take it as a new diversified approach towards fashion and clothing Not only the delicate designs were worthy of such importance but also the piece of fabric used by the people. Pieces of fabrics from an incident are kept as the historic representation of that scene. With access to the type and kind of fabric used and the pattern of time the dresses are forced to reveal its mysterious identity. 50s, 60s 70s all were eras when fashion trends tried to embed with the culture to promote it therefore for different eras there are different patterns and diferent fabrics used. For instance velvet gown became quite popular in 70s with a certain design and popular colors. The biography not only adds up to its significance but also gives the insights and authenticity the dress owns. It is important to know the background and origination of a historic dress. The chronology of the dress be it with the designers or the wearers or even celebrities it is highly demanded because that gives the brief of what it is worth. Dresses like the ‘little dress’ that Audrey worn at a movie are few in number. A dress which is known to be a fashion icon, posse’s cinematic significance and worth a fortune altogether will be passed down generations to remember and cherish the fashion trend of 60s. How the women were in 1960s tangible example to evaluate is this black dress with its unique and most extravagant biography. Bibliography Cunningham, P. A. (1991). Dress and popular culture. Bowling Green State University Press. Emberley, J. (2007). Defamiliarizing the aboriginal: cultural practices and decolonization in Canada . Canada: University of Toronto Press. Kopetoff, I. (1986). Cultural Biographies of thins. In A. Appadurai, The Social life of things: commodities in cultural perspective (pp. 64-91). UK: Cambridge University Press. McCracken, G. D. (1988). Culure and Consumption. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Pearce, S. M. (1994). Interpreting objects and collections . Routledge: London. Reno, J. (2009). Your Trash Is Someones Treasure: The Politics of Value at a Michigan Landfill. Journal of Material Culture , p.34. Styles, J. (1998). Dress in history: reflections on a contested terrain’. Fashion Theory , 383-389. Taylor, L. (2002). The study of dress history . UK: Manchester University Press. Woodward, I. (2007). Understanding material culture. California: Sage Publications. Read More