the f word(s) - fashion vs feminism

some sections from Valerie Steele’s 'The F-Word', originally published in Lingua Franca (1991):
the F-word still has the power to reduce many academics to embarrassed or indignant silence. some of those to whom i spoke while preparing this article requested anonymity or even refused to address the subject; those who did talk explained that many of their colleagues found it 'shameful to think about fashion.' one professor explained the 'denial' of fashion this way: 'people say that they don't care about fashion, but that may be because they aren't self-conscious enough to envision a personal style. style is what most academics don't have.'

academics may be the worst-dressed middle-class occupational group in the United States. but they do wear clothes. so i set out to discover what professors choose to wear (the clothes don't grow in their closets), what they think about fashion (even when they claim not to think about it), and, well, why they tend to dress so badly.

THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM:
certain widely held (but little examined) philosophical and epistemological assumptions militate against on-campus sartorial nonconformity. in academic circles, many professors say, clothing is perceived as 'material' (not intellectual) and, therefore, 'beneath contempt.' there is a sharp division between 'the life of the mind and that of the body'--and as a result (one professorial source quips) academics tend to have 'bad bodies, and no one dresses well.'
according to John Brewer, a professor of history at UCLA, 'to dress fashionably is to be labeled frivolous, to seem to care about the body and, therefore, by implication to downplay the life of the mind. most colleagues view sartorial interest and especially sartorial 'play' or facetiousness with a mixture of amusement, condescension, and fear. dowdy is safe and serious; bad dressing, one of the last ways in which academics can project the illusion of other- worldliness.'

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some sections from Elaine Showalter’s 'Better Things to Do', in Media History 6.2 (2000):
as an academic who occasionally publishes in women's magazines, i've learned first-hand that they are both widely read and openly disparaged by my feminist peers. i suspect that my contribution to Vogue fell into the category of the 'humour column' described by Lisa Nevarez in this issue of Media History. certainly it was self-deprecating, but even so, some of my smart women readers in this academic world were not taken in by its humour, page placements, or cosmopolitan sophistication. they were adamant about their belief that i should have 'better things to do' than to write for these magazines, and their insistence that they had better things to do than read them, and would not have even read my article except in the line of feminisit theoretical duty. why are 'intelligent, successful' womeon so guilt-stricken for self-righteousness about reading women's magazines? why do those who work for them write for them, subscribe to them, and study them continue to feel apologetic and defensive? there are three reasons, i believe, why women's magazines, a force in shaping women's political and social culture for centuries, should elicit such mixed, and moralistic reactions.

first of all, the prose in women's magazines is brief, or at aleast brevity is favoured instead of expanse. as feminist critics since Virginia Woolf have pointed out, there is an unconscious psychological association in people's minds between the length of a work and its intellectual stamina.
second, magazines carry advertising, and for many feminists, they are much more guilty than, say, academic journals, of associating their readers and writers with the corrupt worlds of business and commerce. when i wrote for Vogue about enjoying paper dolls as a little girl, i was accused of supporting sweatshop labour. in other words, any woman involved with women's magazines is suspected of being either a victim or an oppressor of the commerical systems that allegedly compel us to consume.
third and most important, the concept of women's play is still underdeveloped. that reading magazines, trying on make-up, or doing needlework could be relaxing, pleasureable, or amusing for busy, bright, successful women seems to go against an unstated belief that women should always be working - caring for others, improving themselves, and casting a rosy glow of morality on all about them.
i myself believe that when i am reading Vogue i should not have to be worrying about whether i have 'better' things to do, and that pleasure and play are as necessary for women as for men and children.

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some sections from Emily Raine’s 'The F Word', in Worn: Fashion Journal issue 5 (Fall/Winter 2007):
fashion has always been treacherous terrain for feminists. they must caerfully negotiate critiques of the toll fashion sometimes takes on women's bodies, wallets, adn self-esteem, while recognising its capacity for pleasure, power, and entrepeneurship. while they have proven quite skilled at attacking fashion's many shortcomings, i have consistently been saddened and disenchanted by their failure to notice its many benefits.
feminism has a long history of disdain for clothing that is expressive, decorative or extravagant - in short, everything about fashion that is fun.
the fashion-conscious feminist is made to feel double shamed for having twice betrayed the feminist cause: first for falling into the old patriarchal trap of mugging for the objectifying sexual gase, then again for enjoying it.

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some sections from Susie Lau's 'Haters Gonna Hate' post, on Style Bubble (22 January 2010):
so i pick up my daily Guardian for the bus journey, rip into the G2 supplement first (doesn't everyone?) and was confronted with this article that i could feel would make me irrate before i even started scan-reading the text. 'Why I Hate Fashion' by Tanya Gold, whose writing i actually normally get a few chuckles out of. there are all the hazardous assumptions that a lot of mainstream media perpetuate about fashion as this 'evil' entity that i didn't think someone like Gold would well..continue to perpetuate.

as far as i can surmise..Gold has distilled her hatred of fashion because of the following..
..Carrie Bradshaw's love of shoes..
..a girl falling over in her heels in between two trains and dying..
..a model having a horrendous time in the industry..
..her hollow feelings of buying something expensive and designer..
Are we not missing a few things here? Gold's hatred of fashion is based on high heels, mal-treated models and gross consumption, when fashion and style (i'm lumping the two together because i'm thinking Gold hasn't made a distinction between the two..) is SO much more than that..

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some sections from Tavi Gevinson's 'Why I Don't Hate Fashion' post, on the Style Rookie (22 January 2010):
this morning Tanya Gold published an article in The Guardian entitled 'Why I Hate Fashion.' i can't say i fully disagree with everything she said. i hate the size issue, i hate the commercialism, i hate 14-year-old models being told to lose weight so they can look sexy in a dress made for women twice their age. the problem, though, is how she is so general-ALL of it is uncreative and evil, apparently. but it's a broad subject. criticising parts of it (poorly, might i add) is understandable, but putting Yohji Yamamoto in the same category as a magazine about cellulite, dating tips, and makeup is not. oh, and speaking of Yohji Yamamoto? he hates fashion, too. oh, and speaking of makeup? neither editors Katie Grand, editor of Love, or Anna Dello Russo, editor of Vogue Nippon, (you know, Vogue, the magazine Ms. Gold said she spits at and sometimes rips up) wear any.

you know, in the beginning of The September Issue, Anna Wintour says she thinks some people mock fashion because they are intimidated by it. and she's right. yeah, it's snobby, but you know what? so is turning up your nose at a runway collection because you thinks it's weird and you just don't get it. this, in fact, makes the nose-turner-upper not too different from those horrible 'fashion' magazines - dismissing something because it's strange. how very narrow-minded.

Ms. Gold speaks about how she discovered fashion at 13 and then dressed in a way she knew she was supposed to dress. 'how i enchanted. how i belonged. i thought i looked just like the effortlessly beautiful girls at school. except i didn't. and, very soon, i realised that i didn't. all that weekend job money and childish angst and still i looked like me. that was the first seduction – and the first betrayal.' i don't believe Ms. Gold 'discovered' fashion; she discovered middle school and teenagerdom. she said that before that, she dressed as Andy Pandy and was happier. i find the idea of dressing as Andy Pandy pretty awesome. it's creative and it's fun, and that sounds fashionable to me. what Tanya Gold and many others, including myself, hate is the everyone-has-to-look-the-same-and-also-sexy philosophy, which is NOT fashion.

i think that the problem with fashion isn't fashion, but how others decide to see it. the same 'fashion' magazines that offer advice about pleasing men might decide that fashion isn't for overweight people, but it's Tanya Gold's fault for believing it, and if she really wanted to have fun with clothes she could. same goes for the idea that clothes HAVE to make you look sexy. not if you don't want to! isn't that amazing!

i invite these folks to read a constructive runway review by Cathy Horyn, Robin Givhan, Suzy Menkes, Hilary Alexander, or Lynn Yaeger. look at the works of Comme des Garcons, Rodarte, Issey Miyake, Alexander McQueen, or Vivienne Westwood, at the very least. read a magazine that has not one word about plastic surgery or dieting, or at least, ignore those parts and appreciate the art (Lula, i-D, Russh, Dazed and Confused, Pop, Love, Vogue, Bazaar, W, to name a few). be open-minded.

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some sections from Lisa Armstrong’s Times (UK) article, 'Fashion is Still a Feminist Issue' (3 March 2010):
so it looks as though, in 2010, even lipgloss is political again. on Women’s Hour the other week, Jane Garvey asked whether it’s possible to wear lipstick and be a feminist. not that old canard, i thought. don’t people realise that sometimes what seems oppressive — high heels, corsets — can also, for reasons of status and (self) control, give great pleasure?
can’t they see that fashion and beauty are two industries in which women operate on an equal (or possibly superior) level to men? just look at Helena Rubinstein. Or Elizabeth Arden, Estée Lauder, Coco Chanel and, more recently, Donna Karan, Diane von Furstenberg and, for that matter, Donatella. on the other hand, women on the lowest rungs of the fashion ladder — in the sweatshops — might not feel so empowered by their labour. or perhaps they do — knowing that they could have even more exploitative jobs, in the sex industry for instance.

the power to unsettle is good by the way. part of fashion’s job is to challenge society’s norms. sometimes it does this in the only way it knows — pendulum swings that last one season. it’s hard to say whether Prada’s latest demure, almost prim (and all the more erotic for it), collection will stick. Marc Jacobs pulled off a similar trick the week before in New York and the fashion editors, for the most part, swooned. grown-up, covered-up clothes at last. only Luke Leitch, my esteemed colleague, demurred. didn’t i think, he asked, that all those folds of fabric might, actually, be anti-feminist, or at least anti-female, or at least anti the female body? i haven’t decided, but at least fashion is asking some interesting questions.

a weekly clearing out of my 29-page to-do-list word document / is covered by ocean is covered by air

on blogging:
use lists.
be topical - write posts that need to be read right now.
learn enough to become the expert in your field.
break / announce news.
be timeless - write posts that will be readable in a year.
be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic.
share your expertise generously so people recognise it and depend on you.
write short, pithy posts.
don't write about your cat, your boyfriend or your kids.
write long, definitive posts.
be sycophantic. share linklove and expect some back.
tag your posts.
coin a term or two.
do email interviews with the well-known.
use photos. salacious ones are best.
be anonymous.
start at the beginning and take your readers through a months-long education.
assume that every day is the beginning, because you always have new readers.
point to useful but little-known resources.
digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.
invent a whole new kind of art or interaction.
post on weekdays, because there are more readers.
write about a never-ending parade of different topics so you don't bore your readers.
don't interrupt your writing with a lot of links.
dress your blog (fonts and design) as well as you would dress yourself for a meeting with a stranger.
edit yourself. ruthlessly.
be patient.
give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.
write about only one thing, in ever-deepening detail, so you become definitive.
write about obscure stuff that appeals to an obsessed minority.

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Joey is a firm believer in the idea that if you can't be a good example, you have an obligation to be a horrible warning. he writes the comic. he has a degree in linguistics which really only comes in handy when smart-asses try to correct his grammar at parties.
- asofterworld.com

28 year old Charlie Salvo and 26-year old Luke Walker are menswear designers for Lanvin. Luke is from the Midlands and Charlie is from Chile by way of Sweden. the jolly duo met in Lanvin’s studio in Paris and sharing a love for sharp tailoring and eccentricity became firm friends ever since.
what do you love most about each other? L: his not-so-secret toy obsession.
C: that he thinks he lives in a different era.
what do you love most about fashion? L: its heritage. and its hysterical. C: the emotion it gives.
what do you love most about life? L: the wind, it makes me feel like i’m 7 again, and strong cheddar. C: eating chocolate and riding my bike.
describe your personal style.. L: anachronistic. C: John Maikovich meets Veronica Lake.
David-Ivar Herman Dune is a 33-year old singer/painter from Israel. he’s pictured here with his good friend and partner in crime, 35-year old Lomographic Ambassador Peter Boesch from Lustenau, Austria. when they’re not working, Peter likes to entertain David by playing records.
what do you love most about each other? D: his love for life, the joy he feels about little things, his kindness and his taste for Bruce Springsteen. P: his unbound enthusiasm and curiosity, his attention to detail, how smart and simple he is to be with. we went through some rough periods and David was always there for me.
what do you love most about fashion? D: the shoe designer Marion Hanania.
P: craftsmanship, materials, classics.
what do you love most about life? D: i love that there’s a word for life in many languages, and that we can use that word to refer to the most complex, wonderful, miraculous and beautiful thing. P: the vast wickedness of the human imagination. think fetish sites, Large Hadron Collider, Wes Anderson and my friends. i am privileged and grateful to have them.
describe your personal style.. D: that would be an odd and self-absorbed thing to do. P: gentleman farmer with a Bic Quatre Couleur. which probably is my equivalent to the Alan Partridge Blazer Patch.
- i-D Magazine

you never know where falling in love will take you. for history’s quixotic poets and artists, it may have been the cause of eternal anguish, yet for love-strcuk Danish creative Henrik Vibskov, it proved to be the catalyst for a dream career in fashion.
‘there was a girl i fancied who planned to go to London’s Central Saint Martins to study fashion, and i just said, ‘yeah, me too,’ remembers Vibskov. ‘so i called Saint Martins and got an interview appointment the next day, i prepared a file during the night, jumped on the plane, and got into the course.. i also got the girl actually.’
– Indigo Clarke

they loved each other, not driven by necessity, by the 'blaze of passion' often falsely ascribed to love. they loved each other because everything around them willed it, the trees and the clouds and the sky over their heads and the earth under their feet. perhaps their surrounding world, the strangers they met in the street, the wide expanses they saw on their walks, the rooms in which they lived or met, took more delight in their love than they themselves did.
- Transcendent Experiences: Phenomenology and Critique, Louis Roy

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they explored separate interests: Architecture for Ashley, Photography for Mary-Kate. but where they met then, and still meet now, is at fashion, and that’s what they’re here to discuss. The Row consists mainly of expensive knit T-shirts with fancy French seams, and a few minimalist separates, like a well-cut blazer and a tight, banded miniskirt in the style of Hervé Léger. the palette is as minimal as the collection: black, white, cream, gray, the occasional shot of red, and the label itself, a small, easy-to-miss gold chain embossed THE ROW. it’s like the Olsens themselves in its simultaneous desire to be both noticed and hidden. she suggested additions to the line, like oversize man-tailored pants. they like simple, somewhat anonymous pieces and loads of accessories. a tiny leather jacket with little ruched sleeves.
'i was studying Architecture and Psychology and i loved it, but i kept thinking about t-shirts and how to make the perfect one. it was my dad who said, ‘you should do it.’ w
whether The Row will attract the customers who buy Alaïa and Ghesquière is an open question. all of their peices are classic and basic. you could live your life in that whole collection and never need anything else. it's genius.
oh and dont forget to mention that the girls have also been enducted into CFDA (council of fashion designers of america) which pretty much validates their work and shits on whatever it is you think you're talking about.
'what it always comes down to is simple, clean lines and beautiful fabrics,' Ashley Olsen said at a promotions event in Dallas yesterday. 'the whole collection is based on fit and quality.'

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to do:
- styleportfolio.com., juanvidal.net., artdesignfashion.com/portfolio + /textile.,
- Smiths & Winehouse cds.,
- more black opaque stockings.,
- more uni basics.,
- grey (? - ~AP's) / sheer(? - ~Therese Rawsthorne?) blazer.,
- 'confront what disgusts you'.,
- Unearthed High bands.,
- youtube: sunn 0))) – belulrol pusztit part ½ & blog images.,
- Domayne – homewares and furniture shop f valley 1058 anne st level 1 homemaker city.,
- find a perfurme,
- the 'nix-fix-quick-and-tasty' salad contains: rocket leaves, feta cheese, cranberry bits (craisins!) and some chunky spinach and chunky pumpkin dip as le indulgent dressing,
- printscreen of Gossip Girls' wedding scene = flowers on backs and legs of chair at wedding ceremony
- to google: 90s fluoro lisa frank images
- hot Sandy from Grease outfit at the end of movie (take note of form., etc. eg.)
- look up: the Illuminati.,
- General Pants bubble site – get own,
- blog: 4th Dimension.,
- Ben Folds live myspace vid songs onto ipod,
- message ZC: i just remembered walking along Strand in Tville out to dinner, you called from Dallas Green

aesthetically displeasing

i wore this to do a spot of shopping and errands in town yesterday on my monthly day off.

the leotard is Emma Rea from a brilliant Bessie Head shopping trip in Brisbane a couple of months ago - it is so beautiful and fragile, i've been scared to wear / wash it so far but i felt that the time was right. it is less sheer in reality, but i think with my choice of bottom-half clothing some people in shops mistook me to be on a break from work. i certainly would not be wearing that leotard to work, at least not in this city. the taboo factor would be through the roof.
the clutch is crotcheted Samvara.

below is a more recent addition to my corporate outfit schedule - as previously noted here - for the workplace.. i have found myself becoming more and more uninspired in finding new outfits / ways of layering for work, though i guess being completely surrounded by men (apart from one other woman) in strict work uniform has not aided the matter a great deal.


the photo quality in the following photographs is extremely poor, but i have always been in a hurry each time - which explains the lacking in any sort of better looking, flora-related scenery..also, when in need of mirror shots i much prefer a non-flash / slightly-blurred option over an evident reflected flash equivalent. for the quality of the other bedroom photos i have no excuse.




the image on the left is a side project that i was working on a couple of days ago.

i was hoping to create a fairly simple cuffed-up long sleeve shirt - completely sheer but cut in half diagonally on both the front and back with a change in fabric - one a spotted black soft tulle, the other a plain black sheer material. i tried not to rush it, but the overlocker was misbehaving so that caused a number of negative results..


i culled and rearranged my magazine collection a couple of days ago. i saw a Selby photograph of an area in Alexander Wang's studio(?) a couple of months ago and have been meaning to replicate it ever since. he had stacks of books / magazines carefully laid out on a white bookshelf - there was lots of open space, and an apparent 'cleanliness' to the layout. i try to keep my bookshelf fairly clean and uncluttered like his, but it can be hard.
i have been really appreciating Twin, Bon and The Gentlewoman magazines of late. i usually just go to Borders when i am chasing international magazines - it requires little thinking on my behalf and i nearly always find something new during those visits.

Lanvin Luhnvuhn Luhnvaaarhn

one of the questions at my recent university entrance interview touched on who (designers, especially) inspired me particularly.
i answered that while on one hand i was/am incredibly interested (perhaps more interested than inspired - i am not so much likely to design similarly myself / fill my wardrobe with their pieces) in concept-driven / conceptual design. i love that a political or social or even personal idea can be voiced so easily and globally through fashion. fashion can be so powerful; the industry can be used so influentially as a platform upon which these opinions, ideas, problems..are voiced. i spoke specifically of some of the more resonant Eastern designers; Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons, Yohji Yamamoto..Vivienne Westwood even.. these figures have, on occasions, almost single-handedly altered the view of a society. they have changed pre-existing ideas of incredibly powerful standards such as what beauty, the feminine and masculine forms, clothing, wealth..should be, or should involve..or even stand for. i find this so interesting.

HOWEVER i rambled the most (which may be hard to believe, given the above^) about what Alber has been doing at Lanvin in recent years.
on a more aesthetic, rather than intellectually stimulating (i'm embarrassed by that sentence as much as you are<) level, i cannot go past Alber. everything that he does seems so simple..i am constantly asking myself why i had not thought of that, or done that, or why hadn't i even considered fusing those extremely simply ideas together before now.. the following looks are some of my ~most recent favourites, via style.com:




Alber Elbaz is brilliant. i love that idea of power dressing that he is all over. he dresses 'power women' / women with intelligence, direction, power, strength. but what i love even more about that is that he does it so unapologetically femininely. there are no strong shoulders, studs, 'rough' textures or colours as is nearly always seen to convey 'strength' or 'power' or even rebellion within clothing (think Balmain, for example). Alber's women are strong-minded, they're sexy, and they ooze femininity.
i also love that he fuses both minimalism (though not to the extent of Phoebe Philo) with excessive feminine embellishment (though not as much as that at Valentino)..not that there is anything wrong with any of those extremes. BUT with Lanvin there is no need for the extreme use of strictly cream, camel, grey, white, black, that minimalism has been so connected to recently. the colours at Lanvin ARE generally muted, but interestingly so. he has done his own thing here and i respect and admire it lots lots lots. there are shades of blue and green and brown and grey that i didn't even know existed, and shades that i had most certainly not previously considered to exist harmoniously side-by-side. AND neither are his designs ever frill / lace /etc city. i hate the idea that there is no other way to represent a sense of 'woman' or pride in femininity.

recently Lanvin has teamed up with mega chain H&M to create a small collaborative collection. it is so obvious that Alber has been completely involved in it, and is not at all what i had expected of this sort of product. the pieces actually LOOK like they could be of Lanvin origin. they do not look cheap, nor do they look repetitive, or from such a mass-produced store such as H&M. the fabrics look luxurious, the shapes interesting.
Alber has noted on a couple of occasions something along the lines of the following:

('H&M approached us to collaborate, and see if we could translate the dream we created at Lanvin to a wider audience, not just a dress for less. i have said in the past that i would never do a mass-market collection, but what intrigued me was the idea of H&M going luxury rather than Lanvin going public. this has been an exceptional exercise, where two companies at opposite poles can work together because we share the same philosophy of bringing joy and beauty to men and women around the world.'
- Alber Elbaz, artistic director of Lanvin.)

a short film for the H&M vs Lanvin collection:

i love the details, even the maids in the hotel look they have stepped out of a Lanvin shoot.

this song does off like milk in the sun

Marion Borgelt’s work "Cryptologist’s Memoir No.35" is part of the Memoir series and was inspired by the death of 98year old Yang Huaanyi - the last living person fluent in Nushu, a secrent women’s written language over a thousand years old. the remarkable work in sculpted beeswax and oil comments on hidden language. Nushu is believed to have been invented by one of the Emperor's concubines in the Hunan Province of Southern China and passed down from mother to daughter in the form of poetry and feminine advice often disguised as patterning in embroidery. during a time when women were not permitted to be educated, and unable to read or write their own thoughts and feelings, they communicated with each other through messages written on embroidered gifts.

- mauve long tulle skirt, think Adelaide st in Brisbane
- Gossip Girl mum's reading glasses
- tan floral ish cut-out stiff cropped over pink fluoro faded lace sheer over white shear pleats, fall ish drapes easily. for top half sort of like gossip girl Sarina silver cage dress

'A Life in the Day of Benjamin André (Incomplete)':
i met you in a club in Atlanta, Georgia, said 'me and my homeboy - we're coming out with an album'. you looked at me like 'yeah nigga, right,' but you gave me you number anyway. you were on the talcum powder.
moved away from home to school with big plans. by day, studied the history of music, by night, just to pay for that shit you'd dance. to get your pants was a mission impossible, we were both the same age but i suppose wasn't on the same page.
we starting hanging like Ernie and Bert and in my idle head i'm thinking, 'cool', just when i think i'm going down your shirt, you're hiking up your skirt now. the angelic nastiness you possessed made you by far the best, therefore hard to tell. you'd dropped me off by the dungeon, never came in, but i knew that you were wondering, 'now are these niggas in this house up to something? selling crack by sacks so they could function?' well, yes and no. yes, we were selling it, but no, it wasn't blow. cook it in the basement then move it at a show, then grab the microphone and everybody yelled 'hey-oh'.
meanwhile, the video starts playing BET college radio and a van packed full of niggas with a blunt in their hand, and one in their ear - you know what i'm saying. but, i kept your number in my old phone. got a new chip flip with the roam roam. so it took me a minute to retrieve seven digits, but i promised i would call you when i got home. but, when i got home i never did. by the time i did, heard that you had a kid by some nigga in Decatur who replied 'see you later' when he got the good news..that life shit.
now, I'm nineteen with a Cadillac. my nigga had a Lex with the gold pack, got a plaque but i'm living with my pop pop so i got glock and a low jack. you kinda fast for that fella in class who used to draw and never said much, cause half of what he saw was so far from that place you wanna be.
are you starting to gather what I'm getting at? now, if i'm losing you, tell me then i'll double back. but keep in mind, at the time 'keep it real' was the phrase. silly once said now, but those were the days when spring break and Daytona and Freakniks made you wanna drop out of college and never go back..move to the south, but that ain't a Kodak moment. on went myself and Big Boi - well you knew him as Twan. that's right you were around before this shit begun. ..when Twan had a daughter and sort of was made to mature before the first tour.
we hit the road like Jack - laughed and cried, and drived it back with some Yak. girls used to say, 'y'all talk funny, y'all from the islands?' and i'd laugh and they just keep smiling. 'no, i'm from Atlanta baby, he from Savannah, maybe. we should hook up and get tore up and then lay down, hey. we got to go because the bus is pulling out in 30 minutes.' she's playing tennis - disturbing the tenants. 15-love, fit like glove. description is like 15 doves in a jacuzzi catching the Holy Ghost. making one woozy in the head and comatose, agree?
enough about me, how's about you? how's the lil' kid? she was about 2 the last time we spoke..i hadn't smoked or took a shot of drink cause i'd start the 2nd album off on another note. now, that note threw some niggas in the hood off, but see, i'd balled out, and before i fall out i'd slow my 'Lac down to a nice speed. the brain is that fried egg - i might need new direction, was apparent. i was a child looking at the floor staring. so changing my style was like release for the primitive beast. yes i was on the rise, yeast was the street. to make bread - never primary concern. just to hop on these beats and wait my turn.
i'd meet Muslims, ganstas, bitches, Rastas, and macaroni niggas - imposters. so on a trip to New York on some beeswax i get invited to a club where MCs at, and on stage is a singer with some thing on her head. similar to the turban that i covered up my dreds with - which o was rocking at the time. when i was going through them phases trying to find anything that seemed real in the world. still searching, but i started liking this girl. now you know her as Erykah. we're young, in love, in short we had fun. no regrets no abortion, had a son by the name of Seven - and he's five. by the time i do this mix, he'll probably be six - you do the arithmetic. ..me do the language arts. y'all stand against the wall blindfolded, me throw the darts to poke you in the heart and take you from the start to one luxury transportation and a Marta card, or either when your girlfriend that went to Mays
Momma or her Daddy let her borrow the Benz because she's smart. or maybe if your neighbor does you a huge favor and he sells you that rabbit that's been sitting in his yard. you fix it up, you trick it out, you give it rims, you give it bump. you give it all your time because that's all you can think about.

..and that's as far as i got.

editorial

'an ambition: to share our passion for the best fashion design with those who themselves want to stand out and find the 'other fashion alternative'. the idea: to draw attention to skill and invention, to the quintessentially modern, the avant-garde. the result: Tranoï Magazine. a fashion magazine that tracks the changing mood and reflects the transformations of society. our vision: to be always looking a season ahead - at Spring/Summer in the autumn and Autumn/Winter in the spring - with stylish writing and photography to ignite the imagination. our strength: being the one and only magazine to do it! our arguments: portraits of important and influential figures in the fashion world; emerging talents put under the spotlight; explorations of studios and exhibitions; a social approach to the phenomena of fashion; the poetry of the senses.. to thrill. to live. a world tour: Tranoï Magazine is available to the general public on the first day of Paris Fashion Week, in March and October for women's fashion, January and July for men's. the proof: this, the seventh issue of Tranoï Magazine, to be enjoyed today, without inhibitions.'

Michele Lamy, p4:
Matisse once said that 'Black is a colour in itself that summarises and consumes all others.' what do you think?
yes, of course, i love black. but for me real colour also includes the earth colours, crushed mustards.
when you buy clothes by Rick Owens, you're entering into a relationship with the material, with time; the silks, the jerseys, the cottons, the cashmeres amy be very fine or very thick, fragile or protective, but they have to deal with time, with light, with the body. Rick Owens says, 'my clothes are my autobiography, they have the calm elegance to which i aspire and the wounds i have inflicted on the way. they are an expression of tenderness, and of a competitive ego. they are an idealisation of adolescence and of its inevitable defeat.' clothing is a space of life and expression, and it is created architecturally. you were saying, 'Rick Owens is an environment, a house, furniture.' the names of the colours he gives his clothes, 'dust', 'dark brown', 'dark shadow', they all tell their own story. what do you think of the relationship to the elements reflected in that?
i think its all about time, and i don't like being over-aware of time, i don't like it when things look new. for me its not a question of fashion but a question of movement. its all very well saying this is how it is this season and now its going to change, but i'm with Rick on this. for me, a women isn't like that, she's telling a story of her own.
what is your medium, what is your nature of your contribution to Rick's designs, for example?
at first, it was very simple, i got rid of all the hems, things like that, that look neat and new. you see, what's important is the English butler side, relaxed elegance, you don't care, you slop about a bit..in Rick Owens there's this fluidity, trousers become shorts, clothes are draped. i don't like things that are permanent, which means that things have stopped. i like clothes to be living. i am a completely Rick Owens women.
your favourite flower?
white lilies. flowers have got to be white. that's what Rick and i think. except hortensias can be any blue they like..

Azzedine Alaïa, p10:
in another life, he'd be a gardener. 'i would be sweeping the paths in the gardens of Versailles, gathering the leaves. i'd be utterly alone, with a view of the palace at its best before me, and i would idly imagine the women in their finery.. i see them, magnificiently, majestically descendign the steps outside. one day, i'd dress them for a tremendous masked ball, terribly eighteenth century. another, i'd punish them by not making them dresses, just attending their matters horticultural and disappearing into the royal kitchen garden.'

- Tranoï Magazine, Woman Spring/Summer 2011 - Paris no.7

a benevolent stranger

'i would like to see how clothes look on a beautiful body, but somehow this has been lost. when i was a kid, it was all about Cindy Crawford, Tyra Banks, Claudia Schiffer, Christie Brinkley and Elle Macpherson. these women really have aspirational bodies - slim, toned and well-proportined - and none of them look like they just got out of hospital. the only catwalk that regularly has aspirational bodies these days is Victoria's Secret's' - LeanneH

'in this discussion the extremes always come up. from a health economics perspective, obesity has a far larger social cost than eating disorders. that is not to say the latter issue is not important or shouldn't be discussed or addressed, but i do believe it is somewhat a red herring. women in the media are on part of a complex problem, but the complexity is rarely discusses or even acknowledged. to blame the media is a one-dimensional approach.' - Fly

'just as we don't censor films to make sure they don't show any dangerous behavious, i don't think fashion should be "censored", but it should, in the same way that films go through a process of being rated and edited, and be more aware of its impact on socity.' - TakeV

'there's a big difference between striving to look one's best and being made to feel that anything less is not acceptable.. people should have the confidence to realise they are fine just the way they are, but i think it would also be constructive to help people find this confidence.' - Miss Melba

'i don't see anything wrong with wanting to be the best looking version of yourself, and by this i don't mean stick thin. i'm no advocate for skinny models but i honestly think that, for example, a pair of skinny jeans will look better on a tall, slim model than some person who is [short] with massive thighs.' - P!inkg!rl

'the biggest problem is not that magazines make us feel bad about ourselves (and this shouldn't be a debate of thin versus curvy), its the message we keep getting sent that as women, the most important thing about us is the way we look. or that if we're not attractive or attractive in a certain way, we're not worth anything. i don't believe that for a second.' - Tazzie961

'clothes do look better on skinny beautiful women, or rather, tall women with a body in proportion to itself. clothes just hang better on these very beautiful, and very rarely occurring body shapes. i, like most people, am in the mid-range on the bell curve of beauty, and i am okay with that. i think a big part of maturing is becoming okay with that despite the images in magazines. is everyone supposed to become mediocre so the rest of us feel better?' - Occy

'the blame should not be taken solely by the fashion magazines. a lot of these problems arise while children are still young and i think parents need to take much more responsibility than they seem to. but magazines have a vital role to play in the remaking of body image.' - Phoebeme

- The Great Debate p234-7, Vogue Australia October 2010



i cannot stop listening to the John Steel Singers' 'Your Favourite Perversion' (0:00 - 2:14 ).

am i really the only one who consciously breathes quietly and suppresses loud waterbottle slurping suction action, for the aural sake of others?

'mega-churches have inspired thousands of Christian worshippers to gather within vast, postmodern architectural spaces across America. Megalithic in size, these corporate structures, converted Hilton hotels and restored theatres are transformed every Sunday into halls of prayer, with performative rituals and multimedia spectacles. most definitions of the mega-church require that a minimum of 2000 worshippers attend weekend services for the building to attain 'Mega Church' status.

Joe Johnson is specifically photographing the empty interior architecture and sanctuary spaces where worship is performed. he uses the descriptive power of photography to construct a personal vocabulary with which he can communicate what it is about a subject that interests him. Johnson tends to gravitate towards subjects that have inherent tension and mystery. with the Mega Churches project, an interesting poing of tension lies in a secular treatment of contemporary religious practice within Mega Churches.

this body of work attempts to reveal the mechanics of creating faith by capturing wires, computers, light bulbs and cords that are used to construct on-stage mysteries for the faithful. the rawness of the abandoned mega-space and the eerie familiarity of its commerical fixtures questions the intention and the business of faith in the 21st century.'
- YVI Magazine #4 Relgion and Rituals









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'i wouldn't say that i'm eccentric, but i woud say i'm a maximalist. while i can appreciate the beauty of a nice clean line, its not really what gets me going personally.' - Clare Press