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….
Hesperios
Yellow is the colour that makes me think of blooms. Of fresh air and sunny afternoons. Of spring.
When I first laid my eyes on the picture above all those things came to mind simultaneously. Autumn Hruby, despite her the-leaves-are-falling-mood name, has managed to put everything about spring in her latest collection.
Hesperios is the brand I wish to have created, if I ever was supposed to do so. Ribbed alpaca-fleece knits are paired with a biannual art, literature and travel publication and are stored in a bathed in light boutique store at SoHo, NY. My sense of absolute perfection…
I bacame even more addicted while scrolling down the brand’s site at the ethos section. The company works with a family-owned factory in Lima, Peru and have an ongoing, close relationship with them, as one can coclude by watching their insta stories. They are commited to eliminate plastic in the near future. And, as I went on clicking on their lookbooks section, a marvelous world was unveiled to me.
Aetherial creatures walking down the earth wrapped in precious fabric. Texture and colouring and design all in harmony with real female figures who wander around nature. As if I can feel the breeze that plays with the garments somehow.
I suppose a visit at the wonderfully curated Hesperios Shop would complete the experience described above. What a joyous afternoon would be to enter this shop to purchase a good stack of turtlenecks and the absolute skirt to live in this summer. Then enjoy a cup of tea with fresh made bread and cheese served in custom made ceramics while browsing your own copy of the Hesperios journal. Time would be then well spent.
That is what the future of fashion brands could look like. Brands that offer complete experiences with cultural and materialistic dimensions at the same time. That have core values and work hard to maintain them. I guess there is hope after all.
Fasfem listens : Clara
“Be careful, under my breast, the grenade…” sings the magnificent Clara in her native French being feminist yet emotional yet poetic yet elegant. Follow her steps, you might discover a sense of thyself…I know I did.
Cindy and the Lens
Do you enjoy posing for a photo? I do not. I remember dreading the ‘SAY CHEESE’ moments of family pictures, I could never seem to pull my self together and relax in front of a camera. But we are living in the era of self image making, so even people like me are getting used to striking a pose. To pretend they are in control of their situation and smile.
This attitude of performing in front of the camera was made an art by Cindy Sherman long before the selfie culture took over our lives. Being the last and far younger member of a big family she used dressing up as a way to draw attention. I guess she couldn’t have imagined back then how this tricky behavior would take over the rest of her life.
Of course she understood her arty nature and began her journey with paintbrush in her hands. But soon she found that world to be male - dominated and decided to carve out her own niche by taking photography classes. She decided to study art at SUNY Buffalo State, where she failed her introductory course in photography - another fail of our educational system to identify one’s capabilities. But she became interested in how Eleanor Antin, Adrian Piper and others were using role-playing in their work and fell in with a group of artists, including Robert Longo, who became her boyfriend. She and Longo moved to New York in 1977.
Sherman found the city terrifying as being shy and an introvert. So she stayed in and played dress up. And took pictures of her disguised self. That endeavour would somehow lead to her famous Film Stills series, ‘a hybrid of photography and performance art that reveals femininity to be effect of representation’ as described by Douglas Crimp who gave her the first coverage. Since then her art has influensed self-made imagery everywhere and has won every record an artist could desire.
She stars in all her photographs. She has raised critical questions on what it means to be female. She works solo in her studio and acts as director, make up artist, stylist and model. She denies every narcissistic hint in her work, as every sartorial choice projects a complete identity far apart from hers. Those pictures expose the societally constructed nature of preconceived female roles.
What really interests me in her work is the fact that her camera has always been lying, exposing performativity. Just like the thousands of Instagram posts in numerous so called ‘influential’ accounts - though these pretend to be true ... So I became curious to find out about her stance around street style photography and Instagram.
‘It’s business but there’s something dead about the whole thing’ she claimed while coming across with some accounts. She felt physically repulsed by them. And Project twirl was born. In it she posed as modern-day street style star in collaboration with Harper’s Bazaar. You can see her using high fashion creations with irony and wit by constracting caricature peackoking creatures when wearing them. The Gucci green suit in the picture above ? She found it so outhere that she might have actually wear it….!
And what about Instagram? Take a look at some of her latest pictures on her personal account :
Mock self portraits of ordinary people but cartoonishly caricatured - overmanipulated by apps. You know, the ones we all use to retouch our pics…a laugh at our society being obsessed with what we were programmed to consider as perfect.
Cindy is now 64 and lives in Soho. Her latest cover page is on The Gentlewoman. She considers to turn to film. I am filled with anticipation…
*photography from nytimes and harpersbazaar
When birds sing
Just woke up to the sound of birds singing….
NOT!
It was only my baby girl calling me out to prepair her for our morning routine…not exactly music to my ears! But I don’t complain. I like mornings as I spent them at home with her and we are free to take our time, have breakfast and cuddle. And choose our outfits - all colourful and comfy. She enjoys that. She seems to have already acquired a sense of style. And always asks : who bought this for me mommy?
A question that creates sequence of thoughts in my mind around the significance of a piece of garment we choose to wear. Who bought it for us, what it makes us feel…how was it created. Shouldn’t it be important, to know about the way the item you use has been created?
I think I would love to be able to tell my daughter an inspiring story behind the creation of her favourite clothing. To trust that the used yarns have been dyed naturally, that the artisans who put a garment together have been treated with respect. To let her know that there are a lot of female workers out there who produce and are paid equally in healthy work environments.
We all are enough informed to know that this is not exactly the case. But there are brands who refuse to go with the no-matter-how-profit-gain norm. Birdsong is one good exaple of social responsible brand. To quote them here:
we dream up designs, and then work with expert women makers who face barriers to employment and pay them a London living wage to bring our creations to life.
Their aim is to connect women from worker to wearer and to make sure that representation of the female is following the reality of a woman. Photoshoped pictures are not an option here. Social awareness goes furthermore at Birdsong. As a response to hostility and turmoil surrounding Brexit, they collaborated with creative project ‘Still European’ and XXY Magazine and launched a super limited edition range of locally embroidered t-shirts and zine.
I am really excited to see what comes next from Birdsong. Hope to see more brands like that emerging so as to have greater stories to tell my daughter about.
Craftivist Collective
A gentle form of activism. When I firstly came across the term couldn’t help but wonder; is there such a thing as a gentle way to protest? Doesn’t the phrase contain an oxymoron? Would gentle activism even deliver what it claims to? So I began my web itineracy…
The term was coined by the sociologist Betsy Greer who refers to it as the
way of looking at life where voicing opinions through creativity makes your voice stronger, your compassion deeper and your quest for justice more infinite.
It was she who encouraged Sarah Corbett -a professional activist and blogger - back in 2009, to gather her increasing number of followers and found Craftivist Collective. Since then their activities have been interwined through many dimensions. Their manifesto and list of goals for the main London based group and ten further active groups includes being positive, creative and non-threatening among other things. They have been characterised as ‘ guerilla crafting ‘; they leave crafted messages in public places. There was a nomination for the Arts and Culture Award in the Observer Ethical Awards 2013, TedX talk, lectures and book publications.
But do all of those things actually work? If you take a look at craftivism projects by the collective you would be surprised to see the outcome. I was. I couldn’t believe that high positioned people in sucessful capitalist business models would pause and listen. That a stiched piece of message would actually be considered as a form of protest.
I guess there is a big amount of power enclosed inside those carefully chosen yarns…there are people who decide that changes for the better can and will happen through generosity and kindness. That we should stand for what we believe by spreading positive viber rather than aggressiveness. That introverts who sit and create rather than yelling are powerful too, in their own way.
I believe in taking action. I believe in the definition of design as a means of creating beneficial change. I believe in the interaction between the body and the garment - on it or created by it. Why wouldn’t these be powerful tools for an effective form of protest?
Your thoughts are more than welcome.
Fasfem watches : Feminists
A new column about all things feminism and fashion in film…hope you enjoy it!
It’s national women’s day today and I beleive it would be on point to watch this documentary, full of personal experiences from women who actually stood up and made a difference…