Forgive me for not posting as frequently as I wished I could. These past few weeks have been very busy and have left me with so much to think about. I’ve made some pretty big changes in my life as I try to tap into my creativity further.
Something I’ve been thinking about is how we create identity in various mediums, what it means to stick to it, and when it's good to depart from certain identities. The main focus of this post will be creative genres, specifically a brief consideration of recent album releases and a tiny overview of Daniel Lee’s work at Bottega Veneta.
Sound Identity
Since I last posted a few big things have happened culturally. A few of my favorite musicians have released new music. The escapade began with Ariana Grande releasing Eternal Sunshine on March 8th, (I guess this was before my last post), followed by Kacey Musgraves Deeper Well on March 15th, Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter on March 29th, then Vampire Weekend released Only God Was Above Us on April 5th, and last but not least, Taylor Swift released TTPD on April 19th. I am not exaggerating when I say that I have listened to Cowboy Carter for at least 20 hours already. As for Ariana, typically I am not a fan of her music, but I liked this album a lot. Taylor Swift’s mega-album really speaks to me as I am a Dessner/Antanoff lover. I personally prefer slightly more alt/emo/downbeat music, which I feel speaks to my soul… not to be all mushy. Many of these albums displayed major breaks in genre for these artists. Beyonce ventured into country - in her own Beyonce-esque manner. Taylor stuck to the sound identity she created in her Folklore and Evermore period. Ariana produced a great pop-album, but to me it was an album with more depth and diversity. Kacey went back to her roots, creating an album that is most similar to her first rather than the last album she produced prior to Deeper Well.
I didn’t used to be as big of a music fan. To this day, I never know the lyrics to songs regardless of how many times I’ve listened to them. I’m not really sure what that's about, but have just accepted it as one of my many quirks. Ever since I graduated college and sort of embarked on this “cultural pursuit” that I am after, I have really gotten into music. I played piano growing up and was never that good, but always had a great ear and musical inclination (I actually regret not practicing piano more because I think I could have been good.) So now, when I listen to music I really try to deconstruct what I’m hearing. I listen to the words (that I cannot remember) and love to analyze everything going on.
I think the biggest theme from my recently discovered increased (lets call it increased because it is not like I didn’t like music before) love of music is about genres. Rather, diversity of genre is what I am fascinated by. Nobody wants to be stuck in a box; confounded to one type. I think in the past, musicians and creatives in general were scrutinized for lacking conformity in their ouvres. If you were a country singer, you were always expected to release country music. Artists and designers similarly usually gain prominence through creating a format, presenting something new, and building an identity that they are then expected to keep to. I think the best descriptive word for this is that society expects creatives to have an identity. In music that's a sound identity, in art and fashion it's usually a visual identity.
My question is this; how do we deal with change when it seems to contradict identity?
Visual Identity
Transitioning this into my fashion curiosities, we can consider the movement of creative directors between fashion houses. When a creative director moves from one house to the next, he/she is expected to reinvent his or herself and create new designs that not only comply with their own visual identity but also with decades of that of the fashion house. Let's consider Daniel Lee as a perfect case study for this. Daniel Lee was the creative director of Bottega Veneta from 2018-2021. Like many others of today’s biggest designers, he worked under Phoebe Philo for a while during her reign at Celine. While at Bottega he created some of the biggest ‘it-bags’ and ready-to-wear collections that influence how we still dress, despite the fact that he no longer works there. Three of Lee’s most influential designs were the Pouch, Jodie and the Cassette bags. Lee reinvented Bottega’s iconic intrecciato pattern in a new and fresh way and pushed the Parakeet green to the forefront of the brand, modernizing the brand's image. Bottega is now considered to be one of the most desirable and ubiquitous brands in the luxury fashion sphere to date.
Two years after leaving Bottega, Lee assumed the role of creative director at Burberry in 2023. Personally, I did not like his debut collection for SS 2024. However, his FW 2024 collection was much more interesting. Generally speaking though, witnessing the movement of a creative director from one fashion house to another sparked a lot of questions for me about identity and conformity. As the departing designer from arguably the biggest it-brand, Lee went into direct competition with himself. At Burberry, one of Lee’s biggest competitors was the legacy he left behind at Bottega. (More on this later). This task is very difficult. Entering a house in need of freshness and then creating distinct new styles that are coherent with the visual identity of the house, while departing from a previous type is not easy.
Creatives are always under pressure. As a creative person, I feel that pressure too. And it's not external, rather it comes from within. It is hard to balance these identities. There is a fear and uncertainty about how people will respond to your work. The expectation and demand to constantly produce new, original, authentic, consistent, but not repetitive work is draining… When we choose to break away from a genre, we put our identity into question. How do we remain constant while changing? How do we allow ourselves to explore our creativity further without worrying about the image/ identity that is already in place?
I don’t think I have all the answers to these questions, and the answers I do have would take wayyyyy too long to get into. I leave this open ended.
xIsa