Degree Type
Honors Capstone Project
Date of Submission
Spring 5-1-2011
Capstone Advisor
Jason Kohlbrenner
Honors Reader
Ashley Schofield
Capstone Major
Television-Radio-Film
Capstone College
Public Communications
Audio/Visual Component
no
Capstone Prize Winner
no
Won Capstone Funding
no
Honors Categories
Creative
Subject Categories
Film and Media Studies | Radio | Television
Abstract
My concept for this creative Capstone project is to see how much of a correlation there is between culture and fashion. I wanted to speak to people from a variety of backgrounds to see how much a person’s family and culture impacts the way one regards fashion and affects the way one dresses. In order to have a diverse set of interviews, I chose to interview three American female students and three non-American female students who attend Syracuse University.
In the past, I have noticed that many style shows focus on the current trends and do profiles on celebrities and fashion designers. Those stories are filled with entertainment news and are intended to feed us information about what’s up and coming in the fashion and beauty world. There are television pieces I have seen online, in which interview centers on the designer and a couple models before a runway show. I appreciate interviews that take the time to discover the designer’s inspiration for a collection and the model’s experience preparing for the show, because it seems more intimate than a typical promotional interview.
Jessica Simpson’s The Price of Beauty, which aired on VH1 in March 2010, was a show aimed at discussing culture with fashion and beauty with local citizens around the world. It seemed coincidental that her show came out around the time I developed an idea for my Capstone. I knew that different cultures have varying opinions on fashion and beauty, but I wanted to localize that idea, since it’s out of my budget to fly around the world. Syracuse University has a diverse body of students and I wanted to focus on the individual who happens to be part of a specific culture. That way I can get to know that female’s personal story and not stereotype her culture’s perception of fashion and beauty. It will solely be the views of someone who comes from a particular culture.
As a Television-Radio-Film major, I used video as my medium, but also incorporated still images and graphics into the videos, so it would be a multiplatform project. I did short interviews instead of one short twenty-minute movie, so the interviews would be easy to upload online and people can watch one of the interviews during a quick five-minute break. Through a handheld flipcamera, I recorded my interviews. The advantage of the flipcamera was the ability to easily upload my footage to any computer and edit in the specialized labs that contain the video editing programs.
After putting all the interviews together, I branded the project as Style Talk. It’s a simple, self-explanatory title that fits the project perfectly. My interviews focused on individuals to talk about their personal style. It’s a direct process where these young women tell their story to the camera and talk about their style, hence Style Talk. I noticed throughout the interviews that all the girls had a varied amount of interest in regards to fashion. Even the girl who would be classified as the “least fashionable” still puts effort into her look knowing that she doesn’t follow the high-end fashion magazines and works with pieces that she can afford and tailors them to suit her personal needs.
Overall, family and culture has had some effect on the way these girls view fashion. What they’ve observed with fashion among their family, friends, and the media, has given them a foundation of how they perceive fashion, in which they have developed their personal style over the years, so now they can make independent decisions in regards to what they wear on a daily basis.
Recommended Citation
Dulay, Lauren, "Style Talk: A collection of Interviews on Personal Style" (2011). Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All. 210.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/210
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Included in
Film and Media Studies Commons, Radio Commons, Television Commons
