"I am not tortured, I am schizophrenic. I'm expressing the crash of my contradictions, the romanticism in sadomasochism, for example. It's a striptease without taboos of my imagination."
Alexander McQueen, August 2002 translated from Vogue France
"Being naked approaches being revolutionary; going barefoot is mere populism."
John Updike
Pixelated Nude Dress by Lana
(BEWARE I'm not wearing my body)
American Apparel Tights
Vivienne Westwood Shoes
Somewhere between the story of Lady Godiva, Schiele's disturbing nudes, and a naked Marina Abramovic with a replica skeleton, I was clueless on how exactly to begin this article. So I did what anyone who has difficulty structuring all of their ideas would do, I went on facebook. A friend posted a photography link, another a 80s music video, yet another was complaining about life and/or society, and I had two new likes on one of the photos you're seen above. It seems that now everyone, but most importantly, everything is on display online.
Just like Alexander McQueen was performing a mental striptease with each of his collections, so are we exposing ourselves daily. Every time we go on facebook, every time we twitter, we share a bit more of ourselves. Privacy does seem to be a thing of the past. I don't want to start a discussion on the negative aspects of online social networking, as I do think there is one major advantage to these: the development of communities that share and form ideas and opinions.
Yet, there is one thing that I believe we should keep in mind before going (mentally) naked in front of our 500 friends. Is what you're giving equal with what you're gaining? Is the way in which you are exposing yourself online helping in terms of your personal development? My personal answer is a heartfelt 'YES', I use social networks in order to build like-minded communities, I enjoy being part of a community and I enjoy sharing my preferences with my friends and seeing theirs. Yet, I try not to forget that there is an entire world out there, and it's beautiful, even if sometimes flawed.
As I kept thinking about how to approach this post, I stumbled upon the new Vivienne Westwood campaign consisting of a 100 day online installation. All images are illustrative of Westwood's ideas of Active Resistance. Here's what she said about it.
‘The principal idea of Active Resistance is that you get out of life what you put in and that real experience of the world involves thinking. It is not enough to follow world politics, see films and read the prize-winning best seller. This is superficial, you need to go deep in order to understand who you are, what the world is and how things could be better. This involves culture which can only be acquired by self-education: human beings should mirror the world.’
I, of course, could not have said it better. Now let's go look at the sky and dream ★
33 comments:
Deep thinking, well written...
I do use Facebook to my advantege and in moderation like every thing.
I love your V. Westwood shoes the best.
Un abrazo guapa.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
loveeeeeee it! :***
You're perfectly right, we do share a part of ourselves every time, with every comment, tweet, like, upload and above all, post... But as u said, I love it...I feel I've gained so much since I started all of this..
Crazy dress, I love it! :D
Ive just ran into your blog and i love it! You have a great blog to read:) Love the style! These pictures are great by the way! SO om gonna follow you !
hope you visit me and follow me back:)
Lots of love
from belgium,
FASHIONFABRICE
i like those image collages and that dress is gorgeous
i love your dress, of course. I was thinking of buying the cropped t-shirt with the same nude print and wear it on the streets. but this dress is a little bit too much for me, i don't have that much guts as you :-) or maybe you will keep it inbound?
on the facebook subject, couldn't agree with you more, though there there is a thin line between useful and obsession/unseless. It's stil la new thing, so I guess the rules are still to be decided and adopted by everyone.
great post!
xx
my type of girl<3
WOW! I love a lot, darling!
Ƹ̵̡Óœ̵̨̄Æ·
Great post!
Oh and that nude dress by Lana, beautiful indeed, very realistic ;)
When I saw the first picture I was like Oh mon Dieu..but after reading your post and seeing the other photos I began to like the idea..Indeed you have to have guts to wear that courageous dress which is absolutely impressing..and so you did...I admire you for that
xoxo sere
Wow, i'm impressed, this post is near an artistic performance !
http://selenite.weebly.com/
deci rochia e gata....e...super tare...daca ma pot exprima asa....nu stiu cum m-as simti eu intr-o rochie asa....poate mi-ar fi greu sa o pun p mine...si apoi greu sa o mai scot. Este...wow...imi place ca indraznesti multe!
Iar LANA imi place din ce in ce mai mult. Poate mi-o prezinti intr-o zi offline,...m-as bucura tare mult!
Cat despre retele sociale....discutia e interminabila....e clar ca vedem ceva pozitiv in ele atata tp cat le folosim...si cum le folosim ;)
This is the exact reason why I hesitated for about a year whether I should start a blog or not. It was this fear of exposure... I preferred lurking in the shadows of the online world, laying low and safe rather than putting myself on display. Maybe I was blowing it out of proportions, because I (like everyone else, I believe) only show what I think it's worth showing, and that is just a small fragment of my life.
And you're right.. now that I've finally decided to do it, I feel much better and I DO think that the blog is contributing to my personal development. I love connecting with people and hearing their opinions about my "work". It just makes me want to try to push my boundaries and always come up with something better.
The dress is SO cool, I imagine it paired it with something like a corset belt (I have a thing for corsets and such). And the Lady Godiva by John Collier painting is one of my favourite works of art. I had it on my desktop for a long time because I just couldn't take my eyes off it.
S.
Wow...you played that tease just right! OMG! Love it. Still loving the Melissa/VW shoes.
♥ V
http://www.gritandglamour.com
twitter: @gritandglamour
wonderful, I was really fooled by the dress at first ;)
Very interesting. Nice post!!!!
xoxo.
http://glamkittenslitterbox.blogspot.com/
Nice dress! Thanks for your comment at our blog
Following your blog!!
Perhaps you can follow our too...
xoxo
lookofstyle.blogspot.com
love this xxxx
Hi my dear- a very insightful post and fabulous pictures too! x
that dress is crazy..im not sure if id have the balls to wear it.
OMG what a strange and crazy dress!
ehhm, that dress:x
I use facebook for other purposes, though sometimes I overshare random stuff about me... actually I do that in everyday life too..
Very well said! and very interesting photography. I cannot imagine you wearing this dress on public though) but I'm in love with those heels..
Speaking of placing info on the net.. people don't realize how easy it is to find information. I realized it when my future boss said he has read my Facebook profile before the interview.
xx
Tali
http://ia-fetishistka.blogspot.com
Great pictures, Ioana. Love the idea that I can keep an always young body by wearing this hot dress!
My dear your chi-chi's are showing, or are they? It's a very sexy dress. But I think you're over thinking it. You need to look back further than the internet, to the 1920's and surrealism then I think it will start to make sense.
amazing dress!!!follov you and follov me?
What daring dress! And an amazing quote by Vivienne Westwood. As for facebook and other social networks, they are useful as long as they don't become a big part of your life. Use them with moderation!
Beautiful writing once again! That's a very daring dress but you wear it so well.
Thanks for visiting my blog www.blahblahbecky.co.uk and commenting ^_^
very creative. Love the look.xx
http://provocativecouture.blogspot.com/
wild- love it!
Fantastic post! Love the photos and the way you used a controversial dress to open up a discussion on our exposure of our private selves on the internet - beautifully done!
fantastic!
HI! my name's martina and your blog is wonderful!
I'd like you visit my blog and if you want...follow me! ^^
I wait you and your tips! kiss kiss
marti
Glamour Marmalade
Post a Comment