New York Fashion Week has just kicked off, but its biggest surprise wasn't that Tom Ford opened the S/S 19 fashion events in the Big Apple, but that we suddenly discovered the designer has a sense of humour that didn't actually come out on his runway.
His catwalk show was (as usual) a feast of sexy decadence and dark glamour and an ode to empowerment (as highlighted in the show notes) with skirt suits and luxurious faux croc leather jackets matched with fluidly flowing lace and silk slips, one-armed jackets and jersey gowns. Most of the looks - in a palette revolving around black, white, nude shades and mauve - were paired with headscarves and pointy shoes.
Celebrities (Cardi B, Hailee Steinfeld, Paris Jackson and Tom Hanks, among the others) and famous models (Kaia Gerber, Joan Smalls...) were sitting in the front row, but the most interesting thing about the show actually happened after it, when Australian comedian, actress and writer Celeste Barber posted on her Instagram page a super hilarious video. The latter featured Barber and Tom Ford in a parody of one of his adverts.
If you like fashion, love humour and don't follow Barber on Instagram you probably live under a rock: she is indeed the force of nature behind the Instagram account @celestebarber, devoted to parodies of the best (and worst) style images and videos involving perfect models and famous celebrities (and their obsessions with selfies, style and fame).
At the time of writing the account boasts 4.6 million followers, among them many celebrities including Cindy Crawford, Kris Jenner and, well, Tom Ford, just to mention a few ones.
The page was launched in 2015 as a fun experiment to see what it would look like for an average person to photograph herself impersonating fashion figures or famous rich people.
When you're absent-mindedly leafing through a fashion magazine or scrolling down your Instagram feed, you may see a fashion advert or video and not really pay attention to the pose of that particular model, so you don't often wonder why that model seems to have her head stuck under a chair armrest, why is she posing with pizza slices on her breasts or how can she keep that gravity defying yoga pose on a surfboard floating on a swimming pool.
Barber recreates the poses, often revealing the absurdity behind fashion and the extraordinary ordinariness of real life. The images are often remixed with her personal everyday challenges and passions, including her children and her #HotHusband.
The results are simply hilarious as Barber is no amateur at recreating the poses: she studies the details and reproduces them as well as she can, usually with the stuff she has in her own wardrobe.
There's no attempt at criticising in her images, they are not produced as a comment against thin models, Photoshopped pictures or outlandish outfits, Barber's motivation is indeed very simple – making us laugh by not taking herself very seriously and by taking the piss out of the fashion and beauty industries.
Whiich takes us to the Tom Ford ad: in the original "Parker & Mia" advert two models kiss very passionately and Mia's fuschia lipstick ends up all over Parker's face.
The scene is replicated by Ford and Barber: sitting in an airport terminal they kiss very passionately, but the situation soon escalates and Barber ends up climbing on top of Ford, shaking the designer out of his immaculately perfect elegance for a few seconds.
Shared with her usual hashtag - #celestechallengeaccepted - the video was accompanied by a very simple explanation "@tomford called, and I F---ING ANSWERED," Barber stated.
This is not the first time Barber challenges Ford: a while back she did a parody of the beginning of Tom Ford's S/S 2018 advert that featured model Joan Smalls.
The new video shows Barber's comedic talent, but it also reveals that Ford has got a sense of humour after all (but well done to Barber for prompting the designer to leave his demi-God status for a few seconds and join her in this parody of his own self).
Could Barber become an element of disruption at other fashion weeks? You'd hope so, even though she's probably too busy at the moment preparing the launch of her book Challenge Accepted! (HarperCollins; out September 24) and getting ready for her American tour, kicking off in November in Seattle.
So, who knows, maybe in future fashion will accept the challenge and embrace comedy (if it ever does, it will become a much better place...). Until then we can still rely on Barber for our daily dose of laughter at the expense of the fashion industry and of the many self-obsessed celebrities out there.
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