The past few weeks amidst the current health climate have been difficult for all. The necessary measures that have been put into place regarding the containment of the COVID-19 virus as local governments and health care workers fight tirelessly against rising death tolls has had an impact on all industries. The global fashion industry has of course had its major set backs with major cruise shows like Gucci, Dior, Prada & Chanel cancelling, production halting and general stocks that have been dropping. It would be an understatement to say the industry has had it’s fir share of loss amidst the crisis, especially considering the European country with the larger number of cases, is fashion and production hub — Italy . However, at the moment , many of these fashion houses and conglomerates are choosing to momentarily put aside these losses to focus on the task at hand — aiding the governments and healthcare officials in defeating the virus in the best way possible.
In Italy — where the blow has been the hardest, many have stepped up to the plate, Prada donated two complete intensive care and resuscitation units, and launched the production of 80,000 medical overalls and 110,000 masks for healthcare personnel following a request in the Tuscany region; Gucci also responded to the call with a donation of 1.1million surgical masks and 55,000 overall as a donation on behalf of its conglomerate Kering who has donated to four major foundation hospitals in Lombardy, Veneto, Tuscany and Lazio and the brand also launched a crowdfunding campaign with the goal of 10 million and has had the WHO take over their instagram profile; Moncler has donated €10 million towards the construction of a new hospital in Milan; Giorgio Armani has given a total of €1.25 million to numerous Italian hospitals; Versace’s Donatella and her daughter donated €200,000 to the ICU of a Milanese hospital; Sergio Rossi has donated €100,000 to a hospital; and Valentino’s parent company Mayhoola has made a donation of €1 Million towards the Italian civil protection foundation for the extraordinary efforts they’ve had to put in place as well as a donation to improve the ICU of a struggling Milanese hospital. Influencer Chiara Ferragni also managed to raise a lump sum of €4.3 Million via a GoFundMe account launched with her husband in aid of Milanese hospital San Rafaelle.
In France – LVMH is manufacturing hydroalcoholic gel /hand sanitizer via its facilities normally used to produce fragrances for Dior, Guerlain and Givenchy which they will donate 12 metric tons across Paris’ 39 public hospitals by the end of this week; conglomerate Kering has also tasked it’s fashion brands Balenciaga & Saint Laurent to manufacture surgical masks and Hermes has donated 5 million yuan to a Chinese foundation in honour of medical professionals fighting the virus.
In Spain, Mayhoola , parent brand of Valentino, Balmain & Pal Zileri is supporting the Madrid community during this crisis by donating 1 Million EUROS, towards the expansion emergency field Hospital COVID-19 IFEMA which will become the largest hospital structure in the Madrid Community.
In the US a few brands have also been showing up for the cause, with designer Christian Siriano offering himself and team to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to aid in making face masks as well as Brandon Maxwell who has started working with his team to make masks, hospital gowns and other items that may be in short supply.
MOSCOT optical is working in collaboration with Cherry Optical Labs to give back to emergency medical professionals in the United States by providing over $1.5 million worth of MOSCOT frames filled with clear lenses that will help reduce exposure to airborne particles and fluid borne pathogens.
Witnessing the industry come together on such a tragic occasion in such a way to help the community at large is a glimmer of hope during a dark time. Each brand and individual person’s contribution has surely helped in some way or another in easing the pressure off medical professionals who are on the frontlines fighting during this dire time. For information on channels you can directly support the ongoing crisis in Italy, visit Forbes.
Multimedia artist, entrepreneur and founder of Baroness Magazine Sarah Baker recently teamed up with iconic Italian designer Donatella Versace as guest editor for the second instalment of the magazine. In a photographic storybook shot and curated by Sarah Baker, art directed by Stephen Male and styled with Versace’s collection, the artist tells a tale of glamorous yet tumultuous affairs among five characters as the dominantly females cast is tasked to work together in order to successively overcome blackmail & deceit. The scenery is set by Decor from the Versace Home collection and even served as the brand’s holiday campaign.
Twin sat down with the artist Sarah Baker to discuss inspiration and her process of realizing the issue.
What was the experience like working Donatella Versace as guest editor for BARONESS issue NO.2 ?
Working with Donatella was amazing. I have admired her for a long time as a business woman and creative director and she has inspired my artwork for many years. Her team is superb and they have been carefully chosen by Donatella to filter the first round of decisions. When Donatella reviewed our progress, she had a fresh perspective on all the options, and I really admired her bold decisions. As an artist, it is a dream to work with an editor who is open to a lot of very outrageous ideas and willing to experiment and take risks.
You opted to go in the untraditional direction by creating a saga around female collaboration as opposed to female rivalry, what inspired this?
I think it’s about time female collaboration is not seen as groundbreaking. We were interested in reinterpreting the character of The Bitch (the title of a Jackie Collins novel that inspired Alexis Carrington). Interestingly, Collins also wrote Lucky, perhaps her most famous character, who is sexy, sassy, brilliant, and in-control. This really personifies the Versace woman, and the strong traits of our lead characters Angelina and the Baroness resonated with Donatella. My work has been about looking at how women are represented in popular media and how a woman might represent herself. As an artist, I am interested in shifting the narrative away from woman as seen from a man’s perspective, to a woman who is very much in control of her own image, and temper, and therefore abandoning Dynasty-style cat fights. Regarding my personal inspiration for female collaboration, I was also thinking about my own very close group of girlfriends—we have supported one another since early childhood.
What was your favourite aspect of the process while fabricating this issue?
I really enjoyed solving problems with the structure of the narrative. The plot shifted so much from the very beginning, and every time a character was removed or dialogue altered, it had a ripple effect over the whole story. We started with twelve characters and twelve chapters, and due to the reality of shooting schedules and time constraints, we needed to alter the story quite a lot. It was extremely challenging to keep the story alive while maintaining logical conclusions. This problem kept me extremely excited and maybe in the end it was never fully solved, but that contributed to the ridiculousness of the narrative, which made it a little bit more funny. It was reminiscent of the TV show Soap, which is often a point of reference for my work, where the farcical narrative explodes into embellished dialogue. It is true to many fictitious dramas—most Noel Coward plays have the absurd built in—but sometimes life can actually be like that too. Or maybe it’s just my life!
Is there anything you want your viewers to take away or feel from this series?
Humor is really important. That is another thing that was really great about working with Donatella: she has a great sense of humor. Especially at this current time when it seems like the world might blow up—politically, ecologically. It can feel very overwhelming. I personally find laughter more important than ever right now.
Do you have ideas or clues you can give on what may be in store for the next BARONESS issue?
Something fabulously sexy and witty, like everything published by Baron and Baroness.
Deciding what to wear before a night out at the club can be a complex exercise. You want to look good, you want to feel good, but you also want to be able to move. Somewhere in your subconscious you want to signal your interests and alliances without looking like you’re trying too hard, and you want all of this to fill you with the confidence to go out there and just cut loose with your friends. And maybe all of that is further complicated by the hope that a specific someone, or any someone, will notice how you wear your outfit just so, and realise you are the woman / man / vision their lonely hearty has been missing. Everything you feel you feel more deeply on the dancefloor.
Little wonder then that music associated with a certain scene or a certain time always seems to come with its own unofficial uniform. From iconic subcultures like Punk and the New Romantics through to modern iterations like Riot Grrl and Emo, the birth of a visual aesthetic alongside a new sound seems a natural development. The problem is that when copying the look of a genre becomes easier than immersing yourself in it, it marks that genre out for ridicule. With the proliferation of affordable fast fashion pretty much anyone can get their hands on an approximation of any look they want. It’s no coincidence that the birth of the internet overlapped with the peak use of the word ‘poser’ as an insult. Everyone finds the ‘starter pack’ meme hilarious because it shows us how absurd so many modern tribes are; the outer trappings of a lifestyle don’t mean you actually live it.
Thankfully as with any arena where style and culture meet, there are scenes where all of this interplay between sound and style is more nuanced, and where the trends are part of the self-expression and sense of community that the best genres and club nights engender. Style on the dancefloor can richly reflect the style of the music, its inspirations and its roots. A new exhibit at Fashion Space Gallery, opening in February, will focus on the kind of stylistic dialogue that the very best scenes give rise to. The upcoming Super Sharp is an archival exploration of the style associated with the underground Jungle and UK Garage scenes in the 90’s. If you thought that the first paragraph of this piece was only relevant to women, then this exhibit is one way to cure yourself of that delusion. Curated by Tory Turk and drawing heavily on the private Moschino collection of Saul Milton, who jointly conceived the exhibition, Super Sharp features archive editorials from The Face, i-D, Dazed and underground rave ‘zine Eternity, as well as first hand accounts from the likes of PJ & Smiley (Shut up & Dance), Navigator, Jumpin’ Jack Frost, Goldie and Chase & Status. Photographs and original garments from personal collections combine with these accounts and archives to sketch a collective memory of a particular moment in UK club culture. Crucially Super Sharp will focus on the differences between the Jungle and UK Garage scenes, something that can be lost in the wave of nostalgia that a generation who never lived it have been swept up in
The style of nights like ‘Heat’, ‘Thunder & Joy’ and ‘Innovation’, giving a home to two-steppers from Hastings to Camden, was defined by its appropriation of Italian luxury brands like Moschino, Versace and D&G. Looking sharp was such an important aspect of the scene that iconic clubs like Twice as Nice enforced strict dress codes; if you wanted to get down to Artful Dodger or Wookie you needed to be looking on point. Jungle was given rise to by the UK pirate radio scene in the 90s, and Garage emerged from the 80s New York club scene which was at the time combining R&B vocal stylings with syncopated percussion and heavy basslines. Ultimately both scenes, their style and their sound, were given rise to by pre-existing black subcultures in the UK and USA – a debt the team behind Super Sharp are quick to acknowledge. The rave scene of Jungle which encouraged vibrant dressing met with the flashiness of an aspirational generation of clubbers, distilling their style as they moved through the UK Garage scene to one which signalled affluence via the right kind of Italian name and explicitly loud pattern. It would be a mistake to think all this finery was simply about peacocking though; this style of dressing was about respect and dignity, broadcasting the care and expense put in to dressing a seriously as you wanted to be taken. With the influx of women in to these male-heavy spaces came a new take on sexiness too – demanding and commanding respect and attention on the dancefloor.
As UK Garage in particular moved in to the mainstream with acts like Craig David breaking through to the top of the charts, this specificity and originality of the club culture started to be washed out. Thankfully for us, the pictures, clothes and documents included in Super Sharp show the scene’s best-dressed and pressed in their element. Girls complement their matching tops with precise lip-liner, men sweat on the floor in crisp shirts, top buttons securely fastened, and everyone is wearing sunglasses inside and someow making it look cool. Bubbles are the drink of choice and no one looks like they aren’t taking things very seriously (including, most importantly, having a good time). Dance music of any kind is always made to be danced to, and the opportunity to do that in a space where everyone is on the same level is where subcultures and styles are born. In an era where so many of the UK’s oldest and most iconic venues are being forced to close, and London’s club scene seems to be balancing on a permanent knife edge, a celebration of the pure magic this exhibit elicits feels more timely than ever. A moment pre-internet where people care more about being there than broadcasting that fact, it seems hard to imagine something so pure thriving for so long in the present climate.
Super Sharp is the first instalment of RETURN II JUNGLE: ‘a series of exhibitions and events documenting the styles and sounds of British rave culture in the nineties’ is at Fashion Space Gallery, Thursday 1st February – Saturday 21 April, 2018.
We are excited to publish the Versace Pre-Fall ’14 collection.
This season Donatella Versace showed a strong, tailored and feminine silhouette. But still in line with the house’s signature themes: leather, studs and unashamed sex appeal.
The colour pink is seen throughout the collection, mixed with tough biker jackets with diamond studs, draped minidresses in silk jersey, masculine tweeds in oversize proportions and glamorous minks.
Icelandic photographer Saga Sig’s fashion stories are as breathtaking and cool as the lakes and mountains she grew up with. Currently combining studying photography at the London School of Fashion with professional shoots for the likes of Topshop, the 24-year-old is a torrent of talent and creativity.
Twin caught up with her to discuss shooting fashion with friends, dirty London streets and dressing like a five-year-old.
Saga, How did you get into fashion photography?
I didn’t know much about fashion until I was about 18 or 19. I was quite a late bloomer when it comes to style to be honest. I used to play soccer, and in my teenagers years I wore Adidas and a Manchester United cap.
Then when I was 19 I started working in a vintage store in Reykjavik. I met some of my best friends there and we started doing little photo-shoots for the store. I would read magazines like i-D and Dazed and Confused, and a whole new world opened for me. I realised I could make stories and have adventures with fashion photography.
As my interest in fashion grew, I began to collect beautiful vintage items. You should see my closets now, they are full of sequins, feathers, crazy prints, cocktail dresses, vintage Versace and kimonos. I don’t really wear them that much but I like to look at them.
Why did you decide to move to London?
I moved to London in September 2009 to study fashion photography. I chose to study in London because I liked the creativity. London might seem like a grey city, but it isn’t at all. There are so many amazing talented and creative people that make it colourful and interesting. People are creating everywhere.
I like how the dirtiness meets the prettiness. The dirty streets meet the beautiful park, I like the contrast. I like how different it is to Reykjavik. I am so happy that I chose London; I have met so many wonderful people there and my photography has developed. I love every single day there.
What makes a fashion story come alive for you?
A fashion shoot that actually tells a story, where the styling, the model, the make-up and hair and the photography all come together to make a unique world. A fashion story is an image you get excited about, an image where you want to become the person in the picture. It’s an image that the viewer can relate to and believe that he or she can be a part of, yet still get lost in a fantasy world. The best fashion images are ones that never get outdated, images you can always look at, love and be inspired by.
What does fashion mean to you and your identity?
I love fashion and dressing up. I remember when I was five I used to pile on every piece of jewellery I could find. It was always prints, pink and quite acid colours. I dress quite similarly to that now. I feel like I’m never going to grow up, in style or personality.
Has being from Iceland influenced your work in anyway?
Yes, I think it definitely has shaped the person I am today. Because I lived in such isolated places in Iceland and wasn’t really aware of anything outside my little world. I didn’t really understand what fashion was. I read books, wrote little short stories, drew or played with my sister and brother and made little adventures in the amazing scenery I grew up in.
We lived in the national park Thingvellir, which is one of the most magical places on earth. It’s special for many reasons, it’s between the North American and the Euro-Asian plate, resulting in big cracks and earthquakes. There’s a special energy there I can’t explain. It really inspired me to start taking pictures. I wanted to document the beauty. I’m collector at heart, so I wanted to keep all my beautiful childhood moments forever. I learnt in my childhood to create my own stories and I’m still doing it now.
We love the work on your website– can you tell us a bit more about the shoots Beta and Slippurinn in particular?
The images Beta and Slippurinn are both shot in Iceland and styled by my friend Elisabet Alma. All my favourite shoots are done with her. We have been shooting together for years now. It’s friends having fun, almost like grown-up Barbie dolls playing. All the girls in the images are a friend of ours, wearing our clothes mixed with their own clothes. Slippurinn is actually shot outside my friend’s house in Iceland.
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