A Different Perspective
Fred Lyon-San Francisco Then

By Barbara Ruiz

A feeling, a view, a second frozen in time, that is what Fred Lyon did when he took his collection of old San Francisco. This city has always been full of characters and he could capture them in their interesting environment. He record most of the symbolic and daily life characteristics of the 1940s and 1950s in San Francisco.
His pictures show different types of social classes, jobs, dresses and leisure activities of that time. It is quite impressive to see how the city has changed, all the people that have walked the streets were we walk today. He framed history and moment that we can still see.

In his black and white collection Lyon shows hundreds of views of the city. We can clearly see his style. He shoots from high and low perspectives. If he is shooting the bridge he goes as high as a seagull. When he shoots boys sliding from a hill he’ll shoot them from the very bottom. He really knows how to capture the best and different way of seeing objects, people and landscapes. Most commonly he shoots views that we don’t regularly pay much attention to.

Fred Lyon shoots all sides of San Francisco. He shoots the youth having fun expressed in several pictures like in the one were the boys are sliding down the street. He also shoots the mysterious feeling of San Francisco. Many of the images have this obscure and mystical mood. In some of them he even involves the fogginess of the city that makes the elements in the picture look darker and unknown.

Fred Lyon wanted to shoot San Francisco Then so he couldn’t forget the famous and symbolic points of the city. He shoots them from an interesting perspective. The Golden Gate is always taken from the side where you can see the “M” shape of it but when it comes to Fred’s perspective he shoots it from inside letting the viewer be actually in the Golden Gate. The view of this picture is impressing because it also looks like if he was standing on top of one of the bridge’s towers when he took it.
Fred Lyon is great when catching the mood and the feeling in a picture. After almost 70 years from when Fred took these pictures he now shows them with excitement but with some kind of fear also. It is not easy for anybody to see your life pass by in a photo, see how it was back then when you were young and healthy.

He started when he was 14 years old; he was just back from the navy, the war was over and there were lots of opportunities. He then started working as a teenage assistant at Gabriel Moulin Studio. He ran and walk through the cities with his camera and he says “every were you’d carry your camera, there was something begging you, take my picture, mister, take my picture.” It seems like Fred really enjoys his job and he gets pretty much into the feeling of being a photographer.

Remember also that back then photography was a very difficult thing, not like in present day that a button can do pretty much everything. If he wanted to use flash he had to use the flash powder and if he didn’t like a picture he just took he still got to print it.

Fred’s pictures are also a door to the past. It is amazing how we can get to know a little bit more about history and how the people and culture were back then. Little boys and girls still riding bicycles and playing in the streets. Men and women very decently dressed. Back then people still had some of a conservative way of dressing. Women wore long skirts, hats and they still worried about not showing a lot of skin. Men were very formal with suits, cigars and hats. It is also impressing to see those old cars going on the streets that are know filled with new cars and buses. It is also funny that besides everything has changed and new things were invented San Francisco doesn’t change its essence. We can still see the typical rail buses and the people hanging out of them.

Fred Lyon has shown San Francisco some of its past. Even he made us see different perspectives of the things we see day by day. He is a person that not only sees things but really look at them. Fred Lyon is a photographer full of experience that has seen the city and the people evolve into what it is today. As he has shown us we know that many things and customs can change but what will always remain are the passion and the good work that someone has done.

Interview

Living the Bridal Dream

By Barbara Ruiz

Migdalia Cavazos is a great woman to look up to. She has reached a comfortable and enjoyable spot in fashion. Besides designing for her own wedding dress store, N&N, she also has a Pronovias store. She has both of them located at the Andares, Guadalajara, MX shopping center which is the nicest, newest and biggest in the city. She has been evolving through fashion since her young ages. After graduating from FIT Migdalia’s fashion career started and hasn’t ended until today.

I had the great opportunity to have a phone interview with Migdalia she was very attentive and content to answer the questions. I asked her why she chose fashion to be her career and profession. “I choose the fashion industry as a profession because of the constant creative challenge, it is an industry that is very diversified and there are many areas of opportunity. I knew from early on the dress industry was for me, I specially enjoy bridal because it is an industry with change but not as trendy as others. Designing bridal dresses is very special for most women, buying their wedding dress is the dream of their lifetime“. Well she is certainly right about that, a wedding dress is what a girl have always wanted and dreamed of.

I am very amazed about the fact that she owns both types of stores one that has her designs and other one that has other designer’s dresses. So I asked her if it is easier to run a store like N&N that does have some of your designs or a store like Pronovias were it doesn’t have your designs? “No, it is easier to run a Pronovias store, because 60 years of experience are 60 proven years. As a Franchisee you feel that everything is handed to you on a silver platter. You are selling a worldwide none brand backed by tremendous advertising, a webpage which is now essential for any business, top models, Pronovias magazine, and many vehicles that assist in the selling process such as a book on every service desk, packaging bags and in store images.

When it comes to N&N it is a company that is getting started with similar marketing ideas, however it is a different product at a different price, for a different consumer, and it does not have the 60 year practice as Pronovias does.”

Well if N&N competes to this entire advertisement worldwide selling what makes it be unique and different from Pronovias or any other wedding dress stores? “Pronovias is the leading company worldwide in the bridal industry, there is a big difference N&N is a bridal company that has key silhouettes, redesign them with tremendous quality at half the price. N&N is a company that is focus on Latin America providing the bride with style, elegance, texture in fabrication and price.”

In reference to these factors of the regional aspect and focus of N&N on Latin America would you ever expand the N&N stores worldwide like Pronovias or is it more of a personal local store to you?” No, not at all, I am very and only focused on Latin America. Latin America is a continent of opportunities considering the many disadvantages, in today's competitive industry and though economic environment, I feel one must be realistic and not over expand.”

Trough out everything that she has achieved in the Bridal Fashion Industry I was wondering if were wedding dresses what she always wanted to design or were other types of clothes? “I have always wanted to design wedding dresses, I never had the need to focus on another areas in the fashion industry. I feel that in order to succeed in any industry, specially the fashion you must be much focused, and understand your industry to a point where you have the competitive edge.”

So if it is designing wedding dresses what she has always wanted I asked her if her wedding dress was like a big perfect dream for her. “Not at all, it was a very simple conservative suit, because of my petit size I felt like the bride on a wedding cake in a formal wedding gown, I am ultra conservative when it comes to dressing, and I will not be caught dead in a wedding gown, I have more than lived the wedding gown dream with the many that I have designed throughout the years.” Interesting point of view where she actually imagines a wedding dream while she is designing for each of her dresses, this may make them more successful and unique.

We know that Migdalia Cavazos has reached her life’s dream. She is a respectable young woman full of perspectives and objectives. She knows what she has and what she needs. She personally feels stable in her life living her dream as a designer and a businesswomen, she takes care of her family while she works and keeps growing as a fashion insider.

Visit the official N&N website at: http://www.noviasnovias.com/

Visit the Pronovias official website at: http://www.pronovias.com/

REUSABLE STUFF OR ECO TREND?

Is eco fashion what the world really needs to recover? Well we hope that this helps but it is definitely standing as a new trend. Global warning about global warming is making everyone search for a way to help. For the innovators and trend setters this has been easy. What can be easier than grabbing vintage old used things and elaborate something new for society that doesn’t require more waste of resources.

Stores such as Anthropology are finding their way through this new trend. Besides their furniture which has a vintage reused style, their clothes and accessories are also representing ecology. It looks like somebody has been recollecting fabric leftovers to create bags. They really are pretty cool and besides being innovating they are recycling materials.

Does the brand matters in this recycling, eco cases? Well for some does and they are being ecological and also involve fashion. Ecology has always been there but now that fashion is in everything changes. It is definitely not the same walking with a plain paper bag hanging from your shoulder than have a personal unique paper eco bag with a channel logo drawn in the front. People are now asking for this to be in fashion by wearing this type of things and some brands are still not in this movement but it’s for sure that in short time they’ll be.

Celebrities are also supporting this trend; the most notable is Lady Gaga. In her video Telephone which is also featuring Beyonce, the girl seems to be very much interested in recycling stuff. While being jailed Gaga wears soda cans in her hair to fix it. Also she wears some glasses all covered with cigarettes, which I suppose are very effective for covering the sun. Lastly she also wears a blue hat made out with a telephone and all the pieces including the buttons. We know that people aren’t going to wear this extreme cases of eco fashion, she is a girl in jail and, she is Gaga.

Besides all the fashion issue, what is more important about this trend is that we are supporting our planet. It is perfect that we are suddenly beginning to help. In the past decades everybody knew that the world was being destroyed but finally human race is doing something to stop it and not only by creating environmental organizations but now by getting all the components in our society involved with it. Supermarkets, car companies and now also fashion is supporting the cause for a better world.

The eco trend seems to be exactly what everyone including the earth needed and as always fashion is always on the lead. There can be anything better than going shopping and at the same time support the earth and be eco-friendly. Stores are selling it and representing it trough their furniture, also stars are using It so definitely this trend is going to be a big hit for everyone and every industry not just fashion.

JACKETS WITH ATTITUDE

Fashion is all about trends; they come and go, bringing things from the past and making them iconic for a season. Recently we have seen on streets or in stores the well known leather jacket. Either on a rock star, on Brad Pitt, and now even on runway models we see leather jackets as strong, personality filled clothing pieces. Leather jackets have been in fashion trough decades, and when they are in, everyone wears them. Doesn’t matter if we saw them years ago worn by John Travolta in the late 70s if they are back, we wear them and blend it with today’s fashion.

Leather jackets had their boom in the 60s worn the most by bikers or young men. Women who wore them were often punks or had alternative styles. Now days you can wear them with a cute flower dress and if you want to give them the punkish style then wear them with jeans or leggings. We can see that fashion doesn’t only come back but it also apply and changes during time and the people who wore them back then aren’t the same who will wear them now.