Tuesday 16 December 2014

birds of a feather flock together

In a world where nepotism is rife, is it acceptable to choose ties over talent? If you are not born into opulence, or possess the phone book of a bigwig, making even a miniscule dent in the cut-throat and highly competitive creative industry can seem impossible, and your success will unlikely be imminent. 

Budding creative individuals tend to live double lives, just like the once American sweetheart, turned shamelessly-erotic singer, Miley Cyrus popular Disney character, Hannah Montana. They spend innumerable hours in the fashion cupboards, returning the very important and expensive garments back, before running helplessly around the streets of London on coffee runs, trying not to spill any of the editors coffee! Whilst also working in monotonous jobs for minimum wage, just to pay their rent.  Working ten hour shifts and then running back home to either write a new article for their blog, or complete a fashion project, seems to be an arduous task for many, but in a world of such stiff competition, it’s an arduous task that needs to be done.

Juxtapose this life with an entity born into wealth or fame, where the case of Veruca Salt’s famous, ‘I want that, daddy!’ attitude seems to help fulfil their wanted desires and dreams. Being able to achieve something through "who you know", rather than "what you know", has been an archaic trend within society for many centuries.


A recent case of obvious nepotism has to be Kendall Jenner, a girl raised in a multi-million dollar family, whom seems to have simply clicked her fingers and become the jaundiced figure of young, hopeful models everywhere. A girl you will certainly not see cueing at fashion castings. But her rising ascendant has all been down to her... she wants you to believe.

Earlier this year the world was once again ram-raided by the utterly redundant yet beguiling Kardashion/Jenner clan, a family where oxymoron’s seem to come first-hand, yet most of us are all transfixed on what new dramas the glamourous family will face next. 2014 was the year of Kendall, the least charismatic of the bunch yet devilishly tall teenager with a cute face, which has surprisingly taken the fashion world by storm; with no help from her big sisters of course. The teen, although visually has the aesthetics to be a commercial model due to her cute face and long limbs. Her blank, monotonous look, whether on runway or in fashion spreads doesn’t seem to be winning over any wanted fans, whom seem to vilify her every fashion move. From a Dazed cover to an Estee Lauder contract, you just have to scroll through the Instagram comments on any of her fashion announcements to prove this. Fashion is about out-of-this-world beauty, not following trend and possessing sharp, strong, cut-you-like-a-knife features and a signature walk, qualities the pretty brunette doesn’t withhold according to some.

But the question on every fashion-followers perfectly-plumped lips is, would Kendall be landing campaigns and covers if she wasn’t related to Kim Kardashian? Notably one of the world’s most talked about women; she broke the internet remember! Kim's status can undoubtedly be one of the reasons for the Kendall's catapult into the competitive fashion world, whom walked both the New York and Paris Fashion Week runways for Balmain, Givenchy and Marc Jacobs to name a few.

But say I was somehow the long lost, apricot-skinned, Kardashian brother, would it be a sure-fire that my burgeoning writing career would inexplicably take off due to my family connections? Would I land my dream job at a popular fashion magazine because one of my famous sisters from the television sent an exuberant tweet to the editor?  Nepotism would certainly allow my creative talents to flourish, but would the accomplishments really fulfil my desires? Hard work and determination are characteristics for success, that’s if you aren’t a Kardashian/Jenner of course.

Let’s stop all this Kendall hate. Yes I am one of those who don’t believe the girl would be where she is today if she wasn’t a famous reality-star sister and I may be filled with tempestuous jealousy, but I have to give the girl a little credit, she’s living her dream, something we all want to do. Kendall also made the grandiloquent SS15 shows front page news, even if it shunned both the designers magical creations and her fellow beautiful models in the process. Whether through many headlines of other 'catty' models bullying the famous sister, to her simply being ‘too fat for runway’ according to a popular Australian magazine, she certainly grabbed the headlines during SS15 fashion weeks.


However other rising-stars are being cast heavily aside and forgotten about, like any previous X Factor winner, in favour of the reality star. Anna Ewers is one of fashions recent muses. The German model, famed for evoking the look of Brigitte Bardot, as well as her effortless high fashion look and a famous glare that transfixes you. The model accumulated many fans after walking in every one of the fashion elites shows last season, including Dolce & Gabbana, Isabel Marant and Balmain. As well as being handpicked by Steven Meisel for the 2015 Pirelli calendar and being photographed by the legendary duo, Mert & Marcus for French Vogue. Nevertheless, according to the media, the mundane Kendall seems to be the ‘model of the year’ despite not even having a Vogue cover, an apotheosis in a new models career. So why hasn't Anna grabbed any headlines recently for her burgeoning success? One could argue it's because she isn't a reality-star sister.

Birds of a feather flock together.
But maybe one day, talent and determination will be credited over all the Veruca Salt’s in this ruthless world. We live in a society where Gretchen Wieners, the famously ditzy daughter of the inventor of the toaster strudel in the remarkably funny Means Girls, would somehow in later years take on the role of the CEO of toaster strudels, despite not knowing one thing about them, or many things come to think of it, just because of who she is. But don't lose faith recent graduates, all those hours doing returns and coffee runs will one day pay off for all.

The creative industry is simply one of the hardest to break into, degree or no degree, your diligence could be overlooked in favour of somebody else. If you haven’t interned in a dozen of successful magazines, your strong resolutely and hard work will certainly go unnoticed. These internships are highly sought-after and extremely difficult to land, especially if you're relatively new to the industry and have no ties. Whether your passion is writing or photography, thousands of people are all in competition with you for your chosen job, maybe even the editor’s second cousins friend’s brother, who knows?

2 comments:

  1. I love this post well written and i so agree about kendall but she is slowly getting better with her modelling skills lol.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love this post well written and i so agree about kendall but she is slowly getting better with her modelling skills lol.

    ReplyDelete