Fashion, taste and the assemblage: it’s in the mix

I have talked a lot about the idea of convergence in taste formation. I try to encourage people to see the taste-making process as something formed through an intermingling of people, activities, objects and expressions.

It is not something that can be readily attributed to just one person. And although we may become aware of new ideas, looks or ways of doing things through one particular person (such as a celebrity or one of our cool mates) or reading one article or blog post, there is something more akin to osmosis at work. Taste-making operates in a context where it is necessary to absorb and combine a range of influences…whilst emitting influences of their own. Taste is not made sense of through one outfit, in the contents of one article or captured in one well-composed photograph. So, to elucidate on my view of the taste-making assemblage I have been playing with visual representations of the idea. These assemblages suggest a melting pot where tastes and their aesthetic expressions take shape – individually and collectively.

List of ingredients in heroin chic assemblage (inner wheel, clockwise from top):

• Nirvana and their seminal album

• Grunge fans

• The Smashing Pumpkins

• Kate Moss

• Fashion shoots published in British Vogue (March/June 1993)

• Bill Clinton (who famously decried Heroin Chic)

• Courtney Love & Kurt Cobain

• Marc Jacobs

• Marc Jacobs Grunge inspired collection for Perry Ellis (that got him the sack)

• More Kate Moss

• Vincent Gallo

• More Kurt Cobain

• Calvin Klein campaign

• 2 particular issues of The Face magazine

• Seattle skaters in 1990s

• Photographer Corrine Day (who photographed Kate Moss in June Vogue 1993)