I am a big fan of fashion, it is artistic, innovative and expressive. Nudity in fashion has always been part of the art-form. The very well informed thelibertineezine.com features a wonderful historic look at nude fashion photographs published in Vogue. Many of the images provide an inspirational look at a possible life in a clothing-non-compulsory world.
You can see it here: http://thelibertineezine.com/2012/11/10/preview-the-nude-in-vogue-complete-special-edition-veruschka-by-helmut-newton-for-vogue-russia-winter-2012/
Beautiful pictures indeed, amazing lights and black n white!
As for fashion Im not a big fan, but I realized years ago it plays a role in pushing forward. It mixes art with business, beauty and money. It is therefore the house of contradictions, still I believe it plays a positive role. These pictures, for instance, are justified by business and media, but thats just their b-side, 'cos they are a work of art.
Precisely!
To each his own.
I am not such a fan of "Fashion" or it's use of 'beautiful' people. If I need to see human clothes hangers then I need to see a variety of people displaying the clothing on a variety of body sizes & shapes. The world is populated by variety of peoples, not production line models & mannequins that are almost surreal.
I can see your point of view and can even embrace your disdain for the "plasticity" of much fashion advertising – that it is single channel, that it does not feature diversity in terms of body type, gender and is hyper-focused on a single Madison Avenue generated, over-hyped concept of beauty.
That said, I admire fashion's ability to steer around the cultural norms of the times –
“What I find interesting is working in a society with certain taboos – and fashion photography is about that kind of society. To have taboos, then to get around them – that's interesting” said controversial fashion photographer Helmut Newton
Fashion photography opens all of our eyes to new and different possibilities, to different ways of conceiving ourselves and society. As a person whose beliefs about body freedom fall well astride of the norms of our conventional society, particularly here in America, I relish any legitimate device to help open societies eyes to the notion that the body is beautiful and not to be feared, hidden and ridiculed. Fashion is one such device and I am really glad that we have it.