Fashion is usually seen as nothing more than aesthetics, but lately, it has been working with a mixture of artistic mediums. Luke Gilford’s short film, “The Future of Flesh,” opens up with the words (in which Jane Fonda narrates), “We’re glad you made the decision to join us.” From there we see models clad in latex as skin, elongated foreheads, and Prada’s current fall 2013 collection. While we couldn’t help but be a little creeped out by the images mixed with a Jake Shears score, we were also extremely intrigued.
Gilford discusses age, mimicry, the future and high fashion in only one minute. He also opens up the discussion of the industry moving past their standards of beauty, allowing for other intellectual thought processes – denying the age-old idea of fashion being equivalent to mindlessness. We get more than stereotypical models in the video – faces are covered, features are stretched – which alone made us question the video and its purpose. Add a narration, horror-movie-like score, and fashion, and we suddenly don’t know what to think, but we know we like it.
Gilford, Fonda, Jake Shears, and Prada are all taking fashion to the next level, and they are doing it through more than just your eyes. They are calling for you to expand your mind, while still being clad in the finest of materials.