Collina Strada F/W ‘20

February 11, 2020

“People will laugh at you,” Sasha Frolova says. “You will have to tell them, it’s actually not funny.”

She’s pacing up and down the grass runway at The Dance, reading from a journal with a cover that screams the name of the Collina Strada show in bedazzled capitals: "GARDEN HO." Though Frovola is talking ostensibly about what it’s like to bring your own mug to a coffee shop and tupperware to a restaurant, she might as well be introducing the whole show to us.

Because it’s kind of funny. Fresh faced but often familiar models, recycled from last year’s shows, waved glittering garden hoes while riding the back of another model who crawled down the runway. Others strutted out in pairs to dance in mesmerizing synchronicity. A few carried babies or puppies or big pregnant bellies, a shared trademark of this year’s shows, to the sound of techno music screeching the benefits of fruits and veggies.

Text by Savannah Whitmer
Photos courtesy Matteo Prandoni/BFA.com for Collina Strada

Despite the wonderful sense of whimsy Hillary Taymour always brings to Collina Strada shows, it was, in fact, very serious. A handout stated hard facts, such as that a third of all second hand goods globally are dumped into the ocean. Though sustainability has been a hot topic for nearly every show for the past couple of seasons, Collina Strada is walking the walk instead of just talking the talk. Taymour’s F/W ‘20 collection featured garments salvaged from discarded clothing markets and deconstructed to suit Collina Strada’s collage-like print and fabric sensibilities.

At a time when fashion shows are still usually stuffy as hell and the reality of climate change is heralding in an era of doom and gloom, Collina Strada copes by sticking to simple ways we can change our habits. Becoming garden hoes, for instance, or at the very least imagining a softer, brighter, and kinder world.

Fashion

From Perler Beads to earKron

April 04, 2024

Our expression has reached peak performance; it's no longer just about expressing my Self through my appearance; but the visual desire has moved beyond, onto the urge of expressing the self through my appearances’ appearances.

In an era defined by the digital, this then–naturally–means that my computer must have cute stickers, my phone has to have a cool case, likewise do my airpods simply require a chic capsule. But, what about the actual pods? CAS&Kera suggest that we’re simply too unique to stay loyal to the ordinary design, even when it comes to what functions, or rather, fashions, our ears (consider the Perler Beads the potential far forerunner). Thus they arrive to present earKron, here to elevate every element of our expression.

It’s that unneccesary need. That essential expense.

Photography by Rankin

earKronTM by CAS&Kera merge the concept of fine jewelry with technology, providing a high-concept alternative to the painfully white, plastic pods. The cuffs are tactile and substantial in the hand, but somehow weightless in one's ear. The ceramic audio chamber is accented with the 18-carat gold and titanium ‘memory’ cuff, which is both malleable and adjustable. The design, which, happens to be the winner of the Red Dot design award, also promotes an open-ear experience, lending the wearer to conversations, and to the world around them, while the cuffs are worn exklusively as jewelry.

The cuffs come in a limited-edition series of black + gold, and pearl white + rose-gold ear-cuffs. Luxury accessories include a jewelry box charging case, charging cable, Maison quality carry pouch, and polished foxtail chain. Available online and at H. Lorenzo LA.

Fashion

The Archive of My Mind

Soft Debris "1998" t-shirt

T-shirts are a blank canvas, and I’m continually drawn to them as a medium. I see presenting graphics on a plain black or white surface as a way to allow us to focus in on symbolism as it moves through the world, carried atop the human form.

I’m an archivist before anything else. I like to collect cultural artifacts from past decades, whether in digital platforms, my saved folder, Pinterest, or just in my mind. I see the creative brain as a filter and processor into which we feed information, defining our taste and interest as the output. And this input/output is at the core of everything I do, from creating t--shirts and other clothing that feature anachronistic iconography, to writing about design and art exhibitions, to making strange furniture with my hands; it’s all a representation of the complex creative-biome that has been cultivating in my mind.

When REESE reached out to collaborate on a shoot for Soft Debris, my clothing brand and newest project, it was an immediate yes. The energy of her photos, pulled from both 35mm and VHS video stills, capture the decade-less feeling I want for the brand, which references a handful of favorites pulled from my archives: everything from warped old desktop wallpapers to prehistoric symbols.

Soft Debris is technically very new (we launched last October), but if you were to tug it out of the ground and examine the roots, it has existed in one form or another for a long time. The project — so far simple digital and physical prints as well as hand-applied dyes and distressing — is focused on representing the images in my head, but physically, on the human body. Right now, I’m fascinated by a visual idea that I’ve been calling “techno-tarot”; the name came from something my friend and collaborator Juliyen said during a meeting. Techno-tarot is the primitive meeting the digital, the idea of applying ancient systems of iconography to create new symbols and semiotics. Early internet computer wallpapers, glowing orbs, bleached spirals, rough SVGs, AI-generated land art, logo variations, angel numbers in Times New Roman and more bleed together in this past-future, new-old assemblage that occupies the inside of my brain.

Soft Debris “Collage 3” t-shirt, GRIEVE skirt and M.G.L.O. Bag

The photoshoot was a new experience for me, as this whole project has been, stepping into the role to co-creative direct the shoot. I wanted it to feel less serious and less curated, allowing a story and the thoughts I can’t quite verbalize to me brought to life with a group of creative friends. Rodrigo, who I’d worked with for office’s Girl Ultra feature, and I talked through the styling, and decided to complement the collection with a few vintage pieces of my own and some by CDMX-based brands GRIEVE and M.G.L.O. Vanely, who I met through launching the brand at CDMX’s VENA, modeled with a fresh and straightforward energy, and my friend Tatsumi, a talented photographer and artist, stepped in to help with makeup.

Soft Debris Artifact Logo hoodie, Shoes courtesy of Farfetch

We spent the day in Parque Chapultepec and Parque Lira, two city parks with very different atmospheres, taking in the environment. REESE had this image in her head: a young woman lost in a daydream who drifts between two opposite landscapes. This framework gave us a structure for styling the shoot, which reflected the constant undulation between dystopian and utopian directions I’m often drawn to in creating Soft Debris.

Soft Debris Late Night Logo Shirt

REESE’s style is simple and intuitive: a few directions, a firm eye, and an immediate sense of what she wants to see. At the very end of the day, she and Vanely jogged over to the skate park to shoot the end of the roll and ended up with my favorite shot. In the image, Vanely stands in the middle of the bowl, making eye contact with the camera as a skater flies toward the camera. The photo — a collage of symbolism — perfectly captures the energy I want to put into Soft Debris: a mirror for myself and the archive of my mind.

Soft Debris is a streetwear brand rooted in concept exploration and archival practice, materialized through found graphics and retrofuturistic symbology. The brand was founded in 2023 by David Eardley, creative director of design platform and creative studio Pink Essay. Soft Debris is available in-store at VENA and softdebris.com.

Fashion

Gaetano Pesce teams up with doublesoul

This year, Pesce has collaborated with Gen-Z sock brand doublesoul to create socks that are comfortably confident, playfully considering the question, "What if our socks need some love too?"

Pesce creates a springtime of colours in all his work and here, distills his imaginative style into wearable ornaments for the everyday. Floral forms stem from the rim of the socks. They look like upturned tulips on fuzzy black stems. Gesticulating with the wearer, the red-hearted bulbs provide a visual ‘pop’ that keeps the hearts and knotty stalks unobtrusive and fun. You can wear these to work, on a date, or when tucked into bed.

The austere cut from doublesoul allows Pesce to play with the visual and external makeup of the sock, bringing an ecstatic vibrancy to the utilitarian everyday.

I think the socks, like a lot of things, need to express. So I thought that the socks can talk and say 'I need affection.'

Pesce shows us how a pair of colourful socks can add a touch of quirk to an achromatic sole. And in this collaboration, Pesce’s animated abstraction comes to life, fitting in the world like a glove (or a sock…lol). As part of the collection, Gaetano's studio produced 100 handmade resin heart charms that can be threaded onto the socks on rubberized strings.

Dappled hearts on socked feet. Shop calzacoure here.

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