Despite the lament, Del Rey is not necessarily posturing that modern life is altogether bad, or good, but that the "times are a changin" and we as characters of Dylan's self-fulfilled prophecy of America can ride along the spectrum of a digital blue to a burning summer, with either a dangerous hope and/or with exclamatory dismay.

To be continued ...

... Fast forward to today and it's like we're ironically trying to press the rewind button on technology (and ourselves..?) to turn back the film back to the days of the VCR. Now, when you look at the history of the movement of social currents, art and culture, latter ideologies as trends often come as a response to a former wave. Like Minimalism was a response to Abstract Expressionism and the hippie movement a rebuttal of 1960s institutionalization and war.

So when you place the current obsession with the analog vis-a-vis the former wave of opulence and hyper-realism, the relativity of these ideas on the spectrum may explain the birth of the obsession with the past. For with hyper-realism, we experienced such real magnification of our modern lives with all its consumerism, technology and excess, that perhaps it made us realise that postmodern 21st century living was not all it was cut out to be. With the omniscient access to information, the prevalence of the screen and the indexing of human relationships and even humans themselves through social media, our knee-jerk reaction was to jump headstrong back in the opposite direction, where we could - in fashion, music and art.

Or even so that for all the hyper-realistic immortalisation of our selves and our experiences in pictures and moving pictures, we could still never hold onto moments. Humans have a tendency to long for what they can't have or what's been lost, and in this way, we will always romanticise the past. That is why dressing like I'm from the 1990s is so much more than a purely aesthetic choice. It represents an innate obsession with the past in a longing for a time for greater connection to one another with more palpable realness, and a yearning for simpler human pleasures in an altogether more complicated digital world. And these ideas are pushed into the forefront as the 1990s kids of today are bursting into adulthood as cultural leaders.

• a) ends in death, we will all die anyway, but her joy is immortalised 
• b) or is her entering the world again after withdrawing, and being ready to embrace life's limitless possibilities 

There are two polar views about this video, the former of which is more popularly accepted:

1. That the video is a complete and utter fail compared to Kanye's near perfect catalogue of videography, with videos like West's Runaway short being one of the most iconic in recent pop history.
2. That the video is misunderstood much like Kanye, it is a parody that is vexed for it's intentionally choppy and self-conscious editing, explicitness and implausibility (e.g. Kim's hair flowing the wrong way). 

I am going to have to agree with the latter, because I do not believe that the video is a blimp on the radar at all for West - no one of bothering to understand the video contextually. It was also a collaboration with Nick Knight of SHOWstudio, one of the most revered and experienced British film directors/editors in recent decades, who has been responsible for video's like Lady Gaga's Born This Way and has a list of awards you need more than 10 hands to count on.


One point I would like to make against West is that he knowingly released the video to a general public he knew would almost all divulge the video at face value (hence it's abysmal ratings on Youtube), without understanding any tone of sarcasm or parody - for the internet can be very one dimensional and unthinking these days. In this way, the video is a blunder to it's intended audience.

Whether you like him or hate him, he does make videos and music with statements and style. What are your thoughts?

Here is the video:

So begins my rantings about SHOWstudio, founded by fashion director Nick Knight. For the longest time, I have geeked out over the digital compositing, musicality, creative direction and of course, fashion, in Knight's films.

They have worked with the likes of Topman, Ruth Hogben, Kate Moss, Lady Gaga & Kanye West. In an age where Tom Ford has stated he still cannot decide whether to best present his clothes for stores, or for the internet, Knight's studio inclines toward the latter and blends digital multimedia and fashion like no other.

One of my personal favorites. Shot for Gareth Pugh in 2011, each frame from this short could be extrapolated individually and still stand on its own two feet. There is a military motif that is central to the piece. There is a sufficient amount of kaleidoscopic frames and sleekness that present the fashion in a psychedelic and futuristic manner. Enjoy and explore. Whenever I need inspiration or whenever I fashion-fear, I turn to Nick Knight.