<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div><\/p>\n \u201cFashion is fluid\u201d \u2014-<\/span><\/p>\n Fashion Is\u2026<\/em> T<\/span>he \u201creal secret of the ruby slippers,\u201d Salman Rushdie argues, \u201cis not that \u2018there\u2019s no place like home,\u2019 but rather that there is no longer any such place <\/span>as<\/em> home\u201d (57). Intended as a critical introduction, this essay traces the ruby slippers\u2019 fascinating journey from the original text by L. Frank Baum (1900) to John Fleming\u2019s classic film (1939) to <\/span>Vogue<\/em>\u2019s 2005 fashion shoot by Annie Leibovitz. I further discuss a more recent interpretation of the ruby slippers, The Cosmos: Meteor shoes by Canadian designer John Fluevog (Spring\/Summer 2016). Their soles inscribed \u201cCreated in the Cosmos, Worn on Earth,\u201d the Meteors also celebrate the road as the destination. I compare Fluevog to Gucci\u2019s Star-Trek inspired campaign <\/span>GucciandBeyond<\/em> (Fall 2017) and the brand\u2019s equally out-of-this-world <\/span>Utopian Fantasy<\/em> campaign (Spring\/Summer 2018). My critical sources include Alain de Botton and Andy Warhol, who both profess their fascination with air travel (and airports), as well as Benedict Anderson\u2019s writing on \u201cimagined communities\u201d and Dick Hebdige\u2019s foundational work on style subcultures. The essay\u2019s concluding sections discuss the commercial appropriation of fashion, as well as fashion\u2019s open-ended definition.<\/span><\/p>\n F<\/span>luevog\u2019s store on Granville Street in Vancouver, its whimsical fa\u00e7ade adorned with gilded angels and neon lights, recalls a world of magic and fantasy. One of the city\u2019s oldest and longest streets, gritty Granville stands \u201cin sharp contrast to Vancouver\u2019s modern, \u2018city-of-glass\u2019 architecture\u201d (Siemens, <\/span>Theatre<\/em> 77). Subject to flamboyant gentrification in recent years, this street still preserves some old-fashioned landmarks, such as two venerable entertainment venues, the Orpheum and the Vogue (dating from the 1920s and the 1940s, respectively). The Fluevog store (opened in 1973) initially \u201cwas an elaborate bedroom, with shoes gracing a giant bed\u201d (\u201cOur Story \u2013 About Fluevog\u201d). As described on the brand\u2019s official website, one of John Fluevog\u2019s first designs was The Pilgrim (1970), its \u201cboldness [\u2026] was completely against the mainstream of the time, and John has kept it unconventional ever since!\u201d (\u201cOur Story \u2013 About Fluevog\u201d). Fluevog has attracted such celebrity customers as Robert Altman, Alice Cooper, Madonna, Beyonc\u00e9, and Lady Gaga. In 2013, Fluevog shoes became the official footwear of flight attendants on AirCanada Rouge. The brand\u2019s site comments: \u201cJohn\u2019s always toyed with the idea of\u201dFlying Vogs” (\u201cOur Story \u2013 About Fluevog\u201d). The audacious Cosmos: Meteor shoes further attest to Fluevog\u2019s fascination with travel on this planet and beyond as a preferred mode of living.<\/span><\/p>\n Elena Siemens, Fluevog Vancouver (2016)<\/p>\n I<\/span>n his BFI volume on <\/span>The Wizard of Oz<\/em>, Salman Rushdie challenges the traditional interpretation that the ruby slippers deliver Dorothy the gift of returning to her family home in Kansas. \u201cThe Kansas described by L.\u00a0Frank Baum,\u201d Rushdie points out, \u201cis a depressing place, in which everything is grey as far as the eye can see \u2013 the prairie is grey and so is the house in which Dorothy lives\u201d (16). \u201cThe Kansas of the film,\u201d he continues:<\/span><\/p>\n is a little less unremittingly bleak than the Kansas of the book, if only because of the introduction of the three farmhands and Professor Marvel\u2014four characters who will find their \u201crhymes\u201d, their counterparts, in the Three Companions of Oz and the Wizard himself. Then again, it is also more terrifying, because it adds a presence of real evil: the angular Miss Gulch, with a profile that could carve a joint, riding stiffly on her bicycle with a hat on her head like a plum pudding, or a bomb, and claiming the protection of the Law for her crusade against Toto. Thanks to Miss Gulch, the movie\u2019s Kansas is informed not only by the sadness of dirt-poverty, but also by the badness of would-be dog murderers. (17)<\/span><\/p>\n Rushdie asks: \u201cAnd <\/span>this<\/em> is the home that \u2018there\u2019s no place like\u2019? <\/span>This<\/em> is the lost Eden that we are asked to prefer (as Dorothy does) in Oz?\u201d (17). He emphatically says \u201cno\u201d to both of these questions. Instead, he insists that <\/span>The Wonderful Wizard of Oz<\/em>:<\/span><\/p>\n is unarguably a film about the joys of going away, of leaving the greyness and entering the colour, of making a new life in the \u201cplace where there isn\u2019t any trouble.\u201d \u201cOver the Rainbow\u201d is, or ought to be, the anthem of all the world\u2019s migrants, all those who go in search of the place where \u201cthe dreams that you dare to dream really come true.\u201d It is a celebration of Escape, a grand paean of the Unrooted Self, a hymn\u2014<\/span>the<\/em> hymn\u2014to Elsewhere. (23)<\/span><\/p>\n V<\/span>ogue<\/em>\u2019s 2005 take on <\/span>The Wonderful Wizard of Oz<\/em> delivers a similar message. Styled by Grace Coddington and photographed by Annie Leibovitz, this photoshoot employs the same Technicolor palette as the classic 1939 film. <\/span>Vogue<\/em>\u2019s Dorothy is portrayed by Keira Knightley, who famously played leading roles in several screen adaptations of literary classics, including Leo Tolstoy\u2019s <\/span>Anna Karenina<\/em> (dir. Joe Wright, 2012), which was awarded an Oscar for its costumes by Jacqueline Durran. Durran followed the director\u2019s suggestion that \u201cthe costumes should be 1870s in shape but have the architectural simplicity of the 1950s\u201d (qtd. in Siemens, <\/span>Street<\/em> 10). The only instance when Durran remained faithful to Tolstoy was \u00adAnna\u2019s black dress from a key scene in the novel. In <\/span>Street Fashion Moscow<\/em>, I cite Wim Wenders\u2019 poetic passage on the \u201cnarrative power\u201d of clothes:<\/span><\/p>\n A crispy ironed shirt! I further refer to Anne Hollander\u2019s <\/span>Seeing Through Clothes<\/em>, which discusses the relationship between \u201cclothes in the works of art\u201d and \u201cclothes in real life\u201d (qtd. in Siemens, <\/span>Street<\/em> 11). According to Hollander, \u201cthe way clothes strike the eye comes to be mediated by current visual assumptions made in pictures of dressed people\u201d (qtd. in Siemens, <\/span>Street<\/em> 11). She points out that starting from the 20<\/span>th<\/span> century, cinema and photography have become dominant in providing inspiration and guidance for the way people dress.<\/span><\/p>\n Elena Siemens, Fluevog Vancouver (2016)<\/span><\/p>\n Vogue<\/em>\u2019s savvy <\/span>Wizard of Oz<\/em> photoshoot similarly aims to inspire the reader, as well as sell fashion. In it, Dorothy wears designer clothes and a series of ruby slippers by, among others, Balenciaga, Oscar de la Renta, Rochas, Lanvin, and Chanel Haute Couture. Grace Coddington, then the Creative Director of <\/span>Vogue<\/em>, also enlisted a group of diverse contemporary artists, from Jasper Johns (best known for his iconic Flag paintings) to Jeff Koons (the author of monumental puppy sculptures and inflatable rabbits, featured more recently in Louis Vuitton\u2019s 2017 fashion campaign), to take part in the shoot. <\/span>Vogue<\/em> leaves out the \u201cgreyness\u201d of Dorothy\u2019s family home in Kansas; instead, the campaign focuses exclusively on the brilliant Technicolor Land of Oz, where \u201cthe dreams that you dare to dream really come true.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Elena Siemens, Fluevog Vancouver (2016)<\/span><\/p>\n T<\/span>he Cosmos: Meteor by John Fluevog can also be seen as a contemporary interpretation of the ruby slippers. The Meteor\u2019s product description reads: \u201cIt\u2019s not always easy to wish upon a falling star, but thanks to this Cosmos Family beauty, it\u2019s easier than ever to walk up on one\u201d (\u201cCosmos Meteor\u201d). The Meteor was the \u201cresult of careful research into what a Mini design might look like after being sent to the moon and back\u201d (\u201cCosmos Meteor\u201d). Unlike the ruby slippers, which promise the wearer a safe return home, the Meteor celebrates the road as the destination itself. The opening spread of <\/span>Fluevog Post<\/em> from Spring\/Summer 2016 announces: \u201cSomewhere Out There: Staring This Spring: The Cosmos: Meteors\u201d (<\/span>Fluevog Post<\/em> S\/S 2016).<\/span><\/p>\n Reminiscent of Rushdie, Fluevog\u2019s sensibility is characteristic of today\u2019s mobile and unsettled world, where home\/shelter is frequently a transient space, such as an airport, its vagabond dwellers forming, to borrow Benedict Anderson\u2019s term, an \u201cimagined community.\u201d In <\/span>The Art of Travel<\/em>, Alain de Botton writes about the comfort he draws from visiting Heathrow airport:<\/span><\/p>\n When feeling sad at home, I have often boarded a train or airport bus and gone to Heathrow, where, from an observation gallery in Terminal 2 or from the top floor of the Renaissance Hotel along the north runway, I have drawn comfort from the sight of ceaseless landing and take-off of aircrafts. (35-36)<\/span><\/p>\n De Botton finds it \u201cpleasant to hold in mind\u201d that at any time, on some random afternoon \u201cwhen lassitude and despair threaten, there is always a plane taking off for somewhere, for Baudelaire\u2019s \u2018Anywhere!\u2019\u201d (39). Baudelaire, by his own admission, \u201cfelt more at home in the transient places of travel than in his own dwelling\u201d (qtd. in De Botton 35).<\/span><\/p>\n Elena Siemens, Fluevog Vancouver (2016)<\/span><\/p>\n De Botton also references T. S. Eliot, who \u201cproposed that Baudelaire had been the first nineteenth-century artist to give expression to the beauty of modern travelling places and machines\u201d (qtd. in De Botton 35). According to Elliot, Baudelaire \u201cinvented a new kind of romantic nostalgia\u201d \u2013 \u201cthe <\/span>po\u00e9sie des d\u00e9parts<\/em>, the <\/span>po\u00e9sie des salles d\u2019attente<\/em>\u201d (35). De Botton adds that the list can be extended to include \u201cthe <\/span>po\u00e9sie des station-service<\/em> and the <\/span>po\u00e9sie des a\u00e9roports<\/em>\u201d (35).<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cToday my favorite kind of atmosphere is the airport atmosphere,\u201d Andy Warhol writes in <\/span>The Philosophy of Andy Warhol<\/em> (160). He elaborates:<\/span><\/p>\n Airplanes and airports have my favorite kind of food service, my favorite kind of bathrooms, my favorite peppermint Life Savers, my favorite kind of entertainment, my favorite loudspeaker address system, my favorite conveyor belts, my favorite graphics and colors, the best security checks, the best views, the best perfume shops, the best employees, the best optimism. (160)<\/span><\/p>\n Elena Siemens, Fluevog Vancouver (2016)<\/span><\/p>\n Warhol confesses: \u201cThe atmosphere is great, it\u2019s the idea of flying that I question. [\u2026] I\u2019m embarrassed that I don\u2019t like to fly because I love to be modern, but I compensate by loving airports and airplanes so much\u201d (160). More recently, the fashion brand Gucci has also professed its fascination with the atmosphere of air travel, or, more precisely, that of intergalactic voyages. Photographed by Glen Luchford, the brand\u2019s Fall 2017 campaign <\/span>GucciandBeyond<\/em> \u201cis placed in an intergalactic world inspired by sci-fi motifs from the 1950s and 1960s. The brand also took heavy inspiration from \u2018Star Trek,\u2019 recreating the show\u2019s signature elements, like the Enterprise, its transporter and bridge for a Gucci\u2019ed out Starfleet crew\u201d (Bobila). Jonathan Ho\u2019s review, titled \u201c[Star Trek] Gucci Fall 2017 Campaign Goes Where No Fashion Brand Has Gone Before,\u201d points out:<\/span><\/p>\n In Gucci\u2019s vision of retro-future, one can be thankful that Seinfeld\u2019s and Star Trek\u2019s vision of the one-piece uniform with boots never comes to pass, instead, human characters togged out in a dazzling array of textures and colours which comprise of the Gucci Fall 2017 campaign greet extra-terrestrials and battle dinosaurs on Earth\u2019s pre-history before being beamed up to psychedelic starship juxtaposes high fashion with sci-fi in a wild, never before seen fantastical composition which underscores how brilliant the commentary is. (Ho)<\/span><\/p>\n The review adds that Gucci\u2019s campaign \u201cbegs you to take a leap to the fashion frontier, instead of exploring brave new worlds, it\u2019s an exploration of adventurous sartorialism\u201d (Ho)\u2014a sentiment reminiscent of Andy Warhol, who preferred the airport atmosphere to flying (Ho). Gucci has continued its \u201cexploration of adventurous sartorialism\u201d with the <\/span>Utopian Fantasy<\/em> campaign (Spring\/Summer 2018). For this equally over-the-top campaign mixing Renaissance art with Snow White, Gucci traded in \u201cglossy photographs for digital paintings\u201d by Spanish artist Ignasi Monreal (Urbina). In addition to producing recreations of the old masters, Monreal also starred in the dreamlike video for the aptly titled <\/span>GucciHulluciantion<\/em> campaign (Spring\/Summer 2018). In contrast to Gucci\u2019s enthusiastic use of digital technology, John Fluevog stubbornly continues to print his <\/span>Fluevog Post<\/em> (and other promotional paper products, such as postcards)\u2014yet more evidence of the designer\u2019s maverick stance.<\/span><\/p>\n Reminiscent in some aspects of Anderson\u2019s \u201cimagined communities,\u201d style subcultures unite individuals (either within or outside national boundaries), who share common cultural and sartorial preferences. In his seminal work on style subcultures, Dick Hebdige focuses on:<\/span><\/p>\n the expressive forms and rituals of subordinate groups\u2014the teddy boys and mods and rockers, the skinheads and the punks\u2014who are alternately dismissed, denounced and canonized; treated at different times as threats to public order and as harmless buffoons. (Hebdige 431)<\/span><\/p>\n Inspired by Jean Genet\u2019s <\/span>The Thief\u2019s Journal<\/em>, Hebdige is \u201cintrigued by the most mundane objects\u2014a safety pin, a pointed shoe, a motor cycle\u2014which, none the less, like the tube of vaseline [in Genet], take on a symbolic dimension, becoming a form of stigmata, tokens of a self-imposed exile\u201d (431). Hebdige later realized that he \u201chad underestimated the power of commercial culture to appropriate, and indeed, to produce counter-hegemonic styles\u201d (Hebdige 429). The \u201cmarket-savvy\u201d punk exemplifies this particularly well (Hebdige 429).<\/span><\/p>\n The Wizard of Oz<\/em>, and the ruby slippers in particular, have also been the subject of active commercial appropriation\u2014by the film industry, fashion magazines, and various fashion brands, as well as individual designers. The Meteors by Fluevog present a different case, as they allude to the ruby slippers only indirectly: the shared reference to travelling beyond the imaginable, \u201csomewhere over the rainbow.\u201d John Fluevog, who frequently follows his personal preoccupations and discoveries, is best described as an auteur designer. For example, The Wearevers Danke shoes were first conceived in Berlin, where Fluevog was \u201cmesmerized\u201d by Berlin\u2019s \u201cburgeoning modern art,\u201d and the city\u2019s \u201cultra-functional urbanity\u201d (\u201cWearevers Danke\u201d). Inspired by Berlin\u2019s architecture, Fluevog \u201cdrew up the designs for a simple, but functional chelsea bootie on the comfy custom molded Wearever sole\u201d (\u201cWearevers Danke\u201d). Each pair of Fluevog shoes comes in a soft cotton bag inscribed with the following advisory by John Fluevog:<\/span><\/p>\n Always hold on to the truth. Don\u2019t let others sway your heart. Don\u2019t compromise yourself for the sake of temporal grooviness. Be separate from the crowd that\u2019s awash with normality by standing on a firm foundation. Never waver in your love or faith, and in all you do, please wear my shoes.<\/span><\/p>\n Elena Siemens, Fluevog Vancouver (2016)<\/span><\/p>\n T<\/span>he MET\u2019s volume on <\/span>Fashion Is\u2026<\/em>, from which this essay derives its epigraph, contains \u201cnearly two hundred definitions of fashion [pairing] simple descriptions with a range of costumes, artifacts, and works of art from the Metropolitan Museum\u2019s encyclopedic collection, including The Costume Institute\u201d (Tribble). The book\u2019s preface points out:<\/span><\/p>\n The descriptions given are subjective observations that are open to discussion. Fashion is a ruffle, fashion is a crease. Fashion is for the head, fashion is for the feet. Fashion is denim, fashion is diamonds. Some of the responses speak to the technique, while others are descriptive and evocative. (Tribble)<\/span><\/p>\n This provocative volume solicits active participation: \u201cBecause fashion has no limits, readers are encouraged to react, to think, and to create their own definitions of \u201cfashion\u201d (Tribble). The book contains a number of definitions relevant to my essay: \u201cfashion is fantasy,\u201d \u201cfashion is advertisement,\u201d \u201cfashion is photographed,\u201d \u201cfashion is illustrated,\u201d \u201cfashion is the past,\u201d and \u201cfashion is the future\u201d (Tribble). In addition, my discussion of the ruby slippers\u2019 head-spinning journey across time, space, and media suggests several other entries, such as: \u201cfashion is the Yellow Brick Road,\u201d \u201cfashion is imagined,\u201d \u201cfashion is lived,\u201d \u201cfashion is air travel,\u201d and \u201cfashion is the Fluevog store on the rain-swept Granville Street in Vancouver.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Anderson, Benedict. \u201cImagined Communities: Nationalism\u2019s Cultural Roots.\u201d <\/span>The Cultural Studies Reader<\/em>, edited by Simon During, Routledge, 2007, pp 253\u2013263.<\/span><\/p>\n Bobila, Maria. \u201cGucci\u2019s Animal of Choice For Its Fall 2017 Campaign Is a Cow.\u201d <\/span>Fashionista<\/em>, Fashionista, 25 July 2017, <\/span>fashionista.com\/2017\/07\/gucci-fall-2017-ad-campaign<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Botton, Alain De. <\/span>The Art of Travel<\/em>. Penguin Books, 2002.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cCosmos Meteor.\u201d <\/span>Fluevog Shoes<\/em>, John Fluevog Boots & Shoes LTD, <\/span>www.fluevog.com\/shop\/4704-meteor-pink<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Fluevog Post<\/em>. John Fluevog Boots & Shoes LTD, Spring\/Summer 2016, Print.<\/span><\/p>\n Hebdige, Dick. \u201cSubculture and Style.\u201d <\/span>The Cultural Studies Reader<\/em>, edited by Simon During, 3rd ed., Routledge, 2007, pp.\u00a0429\u2013440.<\/span><\/p>\n Ho, Jonathan. \u201c(Star Trek) Gucci Fall 2017 Campaign Goes Where No Fashion Brand Has Gone Before.\u201d LUXUO, 3 Aug.\u00a02017, <\/span>www.luxuo.com\/style\/fashion\/star-trek-gucci-fall-2017-campaign-goes-where-no-fashion-brand-has-gone-before.html<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOur Story \u2013 About Fluevog.\u201d <\/span>Fluevog Shoes<\/em>, John Fluevog Boots & Shoes LTD, <\/span>www.fluevog.com\/our-story\/about-fluevog\/<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Rushdie, Salman. <\/span>The Wizard of Oz<\/em>. British Film Institute, 1992.<\/span><\/p>\n Siemens, Elena. <\/span>Street Fashion Moscow<\/em>. Intellect, 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n Siemens, Elena. <\/span>Theatre in Passing 2<\/em>
\nThe Ruby Slippers Across Time, Space, and Media<\/span><\/h1>\n
\n
\n(The Metropolitan Museum of Art)<\/span><\/p>\nFluevog Vancouver<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/imaginations.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/ES-Image2-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nCelebration of Escape<\/span><\/h2>\n
Vogue<\/em>\u2019s Take<\/span><\/h2>\n
\nA woman\u2019s life her entire life showing the sufferings of a dress!
\n(qtd. in Siemens, <\/span>Street<\/em> 10)<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/imaginations.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/ES-Image3-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/imaginations.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/ES-Image4-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/imaginations.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/ES-Image6-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Cosmos: Meteor 2016<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/imaginations.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/ES-Image5-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nGucci in the Sky<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/imaginations.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/ES-Image8-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/imaginations.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/ES-Image7-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBe Separate from the Crowd<\/span><\/h2>\n
Fashion Is\u2026<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/imaginations.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/ES-Image9-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWorks Cited<\/span><\/h2>\n