Fasfem reads : The Skirt Chronicles
A strong friendship between three young women in Paris. The love for literature, fashion, culture. The lust for qualitative pieces of information in print. A vintage magazine called Skirt that is about sensual photos of semi dressed women on filelds. That is all it took for Sara, Haydée and Sofia to create The Skirt Chronicles, a publication so unique and inclusive at the same time.
No.
It is not another fashion magazine.
It is a represenation of the feminine in modern times that does not exclude anyone. Please do go and read…….volume V is The Pants Issue. Contradictive enough?
Carcel
Carcel is the word for prison in Spanish. A word with such a nauseating meaning.
But Carcel is also the word for a former French unit for measuring the intensity of light. Suddenly it doesn’t feel so unpleasant, don’t you agree?
Words carry the meaning we choose to give them. It is after all a matter of perspective. I suppose this must be the case with Carcel, a socially sustainable fashion brand. Veronica D’ Souza and Louise Van Hauen have managed to infuse positivity in the word carcel by founding their brand in collaboration with places which our society prefers to keep away from: the prisons.
The two creative ladies were met while living in Nairobi. Van Hauen was a creative manager at a leather bag company and D’ Souza was the head of a social start-up that made and distributed menstrual cups. So a social entrepreneur and a designer joined forces in order to create Carcel. The Copenhagen based brand sells products of high quality material and timeless design. They make prototypes in Copenhagen and forward the design and a knitting recipe …to the prisons they collaborate with.
You see, their wonderfully designed products have a special origin. They are created by imprisoned female artisans located in Cusco at Peru and Chiang Mai at Thailand. Locations have been chosen as places where the best quality of materials intersects with the highest numbers of female incarcerations. That means baby alpaca wool for Cusco and silk for Chiang Mai.
Carcel sells only what is produced. The products are of high quality material and timeless design. The woman who makes the product sews or embroiders her name on to the label or, as with the silk pieces from Chiang Mai, on the exterior in Thai cursive that doubles as a decorative detail, as you can see below:
Here are the two Fasfem favorite styles from silk and baby albaca:
So one can argue here; is it collaboration or exploitation? Isn’t a succesful high quality brand having emloyed imprisoned women in poor countries an oxymoron on it’s own? By visiting the company’s Twitter account you will notice a confrotation taking place…
But let’s examine some facts before we jump into any conclusions. Workers are mostly convicted for non-violent crimes asserted with povetry. Female criminality seems to be enhanced by the inability to provide for one’s family. So these marginalized women, who turned into prostitution and drug traffiking as a result of poverty, are now given a chance to be productive and care for their families. The prison takes a 10 percent cut of their wages, which are benchmarked against the national minimum wage. The workers keep a portion for living expenses like food and soap, and Carcel pays the rest into their families’ bank accounts (source NYT). They spent few hours each day to work and enhance skills useful for when their sentence will be over. They feel empowered.
Fashion industry employs up to 75 million people. About 3/4 of garment workers are women. Most of them are established in poor countries, work exhaustively and are also paid poorly. A unique business model has emerged where people who can pay for expensive garments coexist with marginalized women who are imprisoned. And it is successful. You see, Peru has become something of a case study on the issue of aid versus exploitation.
To quote D’ Souza: Social entrepreneurship meets fashion here. That is promising for the future of the industry and gives space for exploration. More and more brands with social responsible core would pop up and expand.
I suppose I can live with that. Don’t you?
* Photography from Carcel.co - opening picture Hannah Strøbek portrayed by Sarah Stenfeldt for #carcelpeople
Elise and the youth
The young ones.
The season of their returning back to school.
So much talent and vigor packed in batches and put into the classrooms destined to be bored…
I remember being there. In my early teens, doing my duty at school as a classical people-pleaser child - yet feeling bored and thirsty for something different. Something modern and ahead of its time. I sought after it in teenager magazines, books and movies. I was even dreaming of creating my own publication somehow. But it was quite an unattainable dream, being too young and too female to be taken seriously and all. You see there was no such thing as the web back then…
We live in the era where the democratization of expression is fact - all people can have their own platform, create and share their stuff. Even the young ones. The web has given them the opportunity to be part of the global sharing of information. And add their own perspective to the game…as Elise By Olsen did.
Elise is an editor, publisher and curator sharing her time between Oslo, Lisbon and London. She serves as an editor-in-chief at Wallet publication. Prior to Wallet she had founded Recens Paper, a youth culture magazine and prior to that, Archetype, a digital destination for young people as well. Before you start thinking that many people have similar accomplishments, let me give you another small but important detail: Elise was born in 1999!
Being based in cold weathered Oslo and an only child in her family, she had to spend too much time indoors by herself. Technology became her tool for communicating with her peers. ‘You know if I didn’t have internet friends, I wouldn’t know what to do’ she claims. So she started blogging about fashion and music and stuff at eight years old back in 2008. Her on growing following led her to found a blog network with a group of similarly entreprenial friends called Archetype, whose vision was to tie together young bloggers across fashion, art, music and photography.
But Elise was charmed by IRL instead of URL. And she went on and created Recens Paper, a platform made by youth for youth. In print. Funded from Kickstarter and her own savings at first. A place where gender stereotypes were undone and was advanced beyond advertising led content. Because already existing magazines were created by older people and dictated by other things aside from what’s real, to use her exact words.
She stayed at Recens Paper from 2013 until 2017. And then decided to step down from it as she became 17-years old and wanted to make way for a newer, younger editor. She insists that this is the only thing that will allow to a publication like this remain authentic and provide insight from the inside of the youth - she even created the following video to explain her approach. Please do watch and be amazed!
Creativity though didn’t abandon her - on the contrary! ‘I feel the need for strengthening the political dimension of fashion’ said on the launch of Wallet last year. Another publication, yes. Which was created from a desire to redeem fashion journalism and introduce critical thinking with a serious of descussions. Every issue examines a particular topic from a holistic point - the Issue #5 I just received from post office is about the marketplaces of fashion. I am impressed by this actual wallet sized magazine which seems to function as an essential object. You can easily carry it around, rip the ads if you would rather read without them, keep notes in the given note pages…practical and completely modern way of browsing a fashion magazine don’t you think?
As I have been unfolding all of Elise’s act to present them to you, couldn’t help but wonder…why has our culture been so distrustful around young creatives ? Especially female ones? Is it the patriarchy? The capitalist structure of our global economy that dreads slump? The fear that we, the older ones, would lose our privilege? Why do they have to curve their own paths so people would pay attention? We would all benefit from the simplicity of allowing the youth to just be and be respected. Why is it so hard to realise it?
But I am so glad that they find their way. Even if it is difficult at first. Eventually they thrive and the world can’t help but climb up to their level and listen. Here’s to Elise…and Greta…and Tavi…and…and…
*Photography Maria Pasenau via Dazed
Fasfem watches : Paris, Texas
Summer nights couldn’t be more perfect if accompanied by Ry Cooder’s guitar dressing up American landscapes …
Yes, I urge you to pour yourself a glass of chilled rosé - or fine burbon over ice - and watch Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas again. Close your eyes and smell the desert, sense the warmth of Jane’s mohair, feel the sweet melancholy of not completely lost causes…
Gender studies
As someone who considers fashion through feminism couldn’t help but be enthousiastic with this. ‘Gender Studies’ SS 2018 collection by THEBE MAGUGU.
The name takes me back to the days I spent reading and researching. Feminism, gender, politics were all examined as elements of a woman’s considerations when putting together an outfit. You see I have this crazy idea that we are part of the material world which we choose to live in and therefore our actions are intertwined with it. One is not born a woman, one becomes one, asserts Simone de Beauvoir. And acts as one ,Judith Butler argues. So becoming means contructing an identity - doesn’t clothing participate in that? And what about becoming an empowered woman? Could clothes enhance something like that?
All the above just magically arose as the form of textiles and patterns and colours when I laid eyes on the collection. Identity politics and autonomy infused in design. Contradictory elements give us a clean feel of an evolving woman nature where sisterhood becomes key to prosperity.
The opening picture above is part of the Figures of Fortitude 2018 series by Aart Verrips. The faux ostrich coat - part of the SS 2018 collection - entered the permanent collection of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York after being part of the 2018 exhibition ‘Pink : the history of a Punk, Pretty, Powerful colour’.
Would you care for a glimse at the ‘Gender Studies’ runway? Masculine and feminine, red and white, half cut overcoats, darkened sunglasses, they all celebrate the woman who goes against all odds as you can see in the pistures below.
The final look of the collection - fourth picture in the row - included a printed top with words from Oscar Wilde’s The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Wild wrote that while being imprisoned for his homosexuality…
I should point out here that 26 year old Thebe Magugu is considered to be one of the most promising talents emerging in South Africa. A true multitasker - characteristic of his generation - whose last venture is the launch of Faculty Press. An anual zine with the significant role of presenting the face of contremporary South Africa, a who is who of youth culture that explores gender identity, feminism and LGBTQ+ rights.
I absolutely adore what Thebe Magugu does. He is the kind of designer who truly admires the feminine in all its power. From his point of view women possess both strength and vulnerability while beauty operates on a very subjective spectrum. There is no right or wrong side. Just an obvious rebellion against the discrimimation women still face. In his own words :
More chillingly, you would have to be existing in complete isolation to not see that there is currently what is obviously a war on women. If they are not being murdered in cold blood, they are being completely marginalized and essentially erased. Women who assert any sense of self-government are always seen as a threat to be stifled, stemming from the damaging fear of the feminine– that’s why they can be discredited as problematic or discarded in a field. […] Women really need one another right now.
Fasfem listens : La poudre
Do you enjoy listening to podcasts? I for sure love them. I find them somehow fascinating and informative at the same time. There are so many options from which one can choose. And just like that boring tasks or commuting become time well spent.
La poudre is a fasfem favorite. Lauren Bastide has created such a strong opinioned female gathering that worths every bit of your time. Creative women of our times share the interesting routes of their lives, their accomplishments, their failures, their views and - what a novelty! - their relationship with their uterus.
Do begin with beloved Sophie Fontanel’s interview which is doubled in English as well…
Marije and the Food
Eat love Budapest project : that was the first thing that drove my attention towards Marije Vogelzang. A wonderfully curated project where Roma women fed people by hand or with spoon while telling their life story. It should be noted that there was no eye contact between the feeder and the fed as they where both sitting behind long white curtains. Roma minority and especially women are marginalized in our society. The cause of this project was to make people understand Roma, enhance integration through food culture. When asked, Marije explained the roots of her inspiration using this quote from Immanuel Kant : ‘If you break bread together you’re less likely to break each other’s neck’.
I was too impressed not to search further about Marije. And became even more impressed to find out that this self acclaimed ‘eating designer’ has created a field on her own; design experiences through food. She has graduated Design Academy Eindhoven where she was educated in product creation. But she decided that food would be her field. Back then in 2000 there was not such thing as an eating designer. Firstly she launched two experimental projects and then moved on to food projects. These included installations, exhibits, consultations and social experiments for Dutch Design Week, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and Cooper Hewitt, just to name a few. Today she is the head the new Food Non Food department at the Design Academy Eindhoven and founder of the Dutch Institute of Food and Design as well.
At this point you must wonder : and what does she actually do? So let me take you on a small walk through some of her other projects. The above picture is taken from Seeds project in collaboration with Caesarstone that will take place in the upcoming interior design show in Toronto next winter. A honeycombe like installation will welcome visitors and a chosen seed will ‘guide’ them through grinding, cooking and tasting. Food preparation is seen here as a part of nature and human connection.
Here you can see a Plantbones project picture where objects are similar to animal bones but grown from vegetable cellulose. Doesn’t it provide an interesting vegan eating experience?
Faked meat was inspired by the need to replace soulless food such as ‘soy ham’ with food maked of invented animals such as the above vegan steak; it is made of Herbast, an invented animal that grows herblike fur to hide from predators so its square shaped meat is preseasoned…!
And bread. Yes bread is having a moment among food designers …such a powerful material. Here Vitra Bastard Bread is made from swiss zopf, french baguette and german dark sourdough.
Marije also works with porcelain. The collection above is part of the Volumes objects project where objects are directly placed on the plate between food as to give more attention to the food presentation; that might change mindless consumption behavior as she claims.
She also creates those and several others strange shaped eating objects which she sells on a vending machine outside her studio in Dordrecht, where she lives as well with her family. She is a mother of three. And a wife. And a remarkably stylish woman. I was attracted to her beautifully painted fingernails, the maginificent hairstyle and her interesting coloured way of dressing. My theory of noticing that remarkable women of our times have a stong sense of personal style has been confirmed once more. Those ladies create new realities and their clothing materials are a huge part of them.
As you can see here Marije has plans for Netflix as well. Would be more than keen on what she has in mind. For the time being enjoy a little bit of her on camera spark …
Fasfem watches : Faces and places
Agnès Varda and JR meet in order to do what each of them is best at : she films and he flyposts large black-and-white photographic images in public locations. Both artists have a unique way of approaching life, nature, the female. I encourage you to watch the world through their eyes….