Let It All Hang Out
Eric Gaskins, a fashion designer who will close the doors of his business this week, found that blogging about the ‘underbelly of fashion’ brought him the fame and celebrity his garments never did. The following excerpts are from the The New York Times article, “How Do You Like Me Now?” by Eric Wilson.
“I’m one of those people who, maybe due to not enough ego or too much insecurity, always wanted to be liked,” Mr. Gaskins, who is 51, said during a farewell interview in his showroom, a bright fifth-floor space at 264 West 40th Street that he had renovated only last year.
“I didn’t realize then how important it was to relentlessly put my name and face out there,” he said. “I came from a place where your work was supposed to speak for itself.”
“I wanted to write a story about the other side of fashion,” he said. “It has become so cosmetically altered today that it is unrecognizable, due to celebrities and ‘Project Runway.’ In essence, they have taken what was a pure art form, and they have perverted it. That’s what they feed the public, and that’s what the public absolutely gorges on. And maybe the fashion industry doesn’t want people to know about the reality, because it keeps the dollars coming in and the ratings high as long as everything is a fantasy.
“Nothing is communicated to people about the price you pay to be in this industry. It is a very, very dear price. Fashion has been turned into a game.”
This past month I struggled with the thought of applying for Sarah Jessica Parker and Bravo’s newest and untitled reality competition series that revolves around thirteen aspiring gallery artists. Who knows how far I could have gotten in the casting process, but for now, I can only daydream that I would have made it onto the show.
Would it have been worth it to put my graduate degree pursuit on hold for exposure on a reality television series? I want to create artwork and be part of the art world. Are we at a moment of history between the old-school thought of higher education and the new-school thought of independent exposure through democratic media? Some of the shining stars of the art world never got an MFA and yet, some of the shining stars did.
If Fashion has been turned into a game, will Art be the next victim? Does my list of steps towards becoming the American Representative to the 2023 Venice Biennale have to change?
My only conclusion is that I am at a point in my career where I have to work darn hard—creating artwork, networking, and just plain exposure—and working hard has always been part of the process.
