Anomaly
“One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.” —Oscar Wilde
Berber Hamsa, Marrakech Proenza Schouler PS1
welcome to the one and only issue of anomaly magazine. this, my senior project culminating four glorious years at Tufts University , is a celebration of style, aesthetics and individuality. Life is a beautiful unending catwalk, and we should strut as such. Fashion for me is a religion: I am a devout believer in the power of self-adornment. I cherish the Parisian ground that Givenchy’s Riccardo Tisci walks on, and the New York Streets where people don Helmut Lang in stride. Though i am a devout pescatarian, i will wear anything that once had a pulse. Walk into my wardrobe and you would think you were at an exotic petting zoo for adults. no ensemble is complete without a bit of skin , or fur thrown in. The best color is the absence of color. i am a walking book of sartorial philosophies. i love the transformative power of fashion, and that fact that it is the most perceptable form of self-expression, a non-verbal language of sorts. Some might feel that fashion is frivolous, unattainable and impertinent, but at the end of the day we all wear clothes. It is a gorgeous world that can bring delight , sense of self and esteem. life is much more fun when you put some bling on it. i am well-admittedly obsessed with fashion, HOwever I have a profound love-hate relationship with it. the fashion industry prides itself on its cyclical nature, perpetually refreshing and recycling its creations 6 months ahead of the rest of the world. and yet, one underlying aspect remains stagnant: there is a discernible difference between those who read its magazines and those within it. although currently there’s an “asian invasion” of models with liu wen, shu pei etc, the mass controversy in response to Vogue Italia’s annual “black issue” shows that the industry still has serious issues (no pun intended). to put it simply, while the hemlines might change from season to season, the color and shapeliness (or lack there of) of the legs under them don’t. i am creating a magazine that is strictly editorial content, highlighting individuals and their personal style. likewise, as the “Intertextuality Issue”, the contents play with the relationship fashion has with literature, film and photography. There is also an undercurrent of my fascination with french culture and the urban experience as both are often redolent of style. this publication features subjects and topics void of advertisements, waifs, and everything else that has clouded up the “fantasy” sold by the industry today. an anomaly by definition is something that deviates from the norm. gabrielle “coco” chanel, an anomaly of her era, once said “in order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different”. with this issue i am paying homage to what has struck me as “different”. this is also a glammed-up love letter to my friends. they not only tolerate my endless gushing over alexander wang’s latest collection, but more importantly, they are my personal muses. they inspire me with their style, their minds, and their souls. each feature uses fashion to communicate said idiosyncrasies, each inherently and aesthetically “different”, they are in one way, shape, or leather-draped form anomalies. xx,
anomaly issue #1
6. an editorial note 9. gang of cool 13. city of angles 19. homage to holly 22. chère margiela 23. adornement 27. tête-à-tête 29. red-headed beggar girl 45. altuzarra
anikó blake, chicago
gang of cool Fashion in its most technical form is inherently inanimate. There is a thought process and source of inspiration for its design, but that can rarely be conveyed by the garment itself. They become moving objects when worn by a model on the runway or in an ad campaign, but it is through the cinematic medium that they come to life. When garments are put in context with a narrative, the audience is permitted to see them through a new light and ascertain the designer’s initial vision behind the pieces at hand. While the fashion film is often blatant about its intentions, either to celebrate or criticize the industry, occasionally it acts as a mindfuck. Act da Fool, Proenza Schouler’s Fall/Winter 2010 campaign video would qualify as the latter. The collection itself was inspired by another artistic medium, photography. Taking a single photo of Christopher Wool’s black & white graffiti-esque prints, the PS boys rolled out an entire line evocative of urban youth and faded adolescence. Cropped knit sweaters with the Wool scribble were paired with crotch grazing pleated skirts and thigh highs. Topped off with a fur trimmed varsity coat and structured leather lunch box, and the girls of the Proenza set would be apt to retrograde back to their wayward elementary years. As if the line wasn’t rebellious enough, the duo chose enfant terrible Harmony Korine to shoot the video. Korine has a penchant for documenting youth delinquency. He scripted Larry Clark’s controversial film Kids, offering an uncensored portrayal of city kids of the 90s. In all their pubescent hormonal glory, his protagonists steal, drink, smoke and rage as if invincible. There is a similar mood in act da fool, but he swapped New York City streets for abandoned lots in his hometown Nashville. In this cloudy 8mm vignette, he follows five teen girls on the prowl, drinking, smoking and trashing everything in their way. In typical Korine provacateur fashion, this film could be seen as rather derogatory. Primarily, it could be interpreted as offensive to depict 5 black teens in a ghetto town wearing luxury-priced outfits that mock their impoverished existence. Secondly showing underaged black girls drinking, smoking, eating fried chicken and speaking ebonics could be seen as reinforcing stereotypes. The overall defamtory stance towards religion could also be upsetting. Perhaps I am an idealist, but i view this film through none of these lenses. Instead I view the film as an indication of the PS Boys’ loyalty to Wool’s Anarchic prints, as well as aligning the collection with the heady confusion and loneliness of adolescence. Narrated by a voice-over, these girls are questing for affection and fulfillment, but it seems that their reality is solely one of hopelessness and fading dreams. A shot-by-shot analysis of their narrative.
1. the rudimentary title is an uncapitalized ebonic phrase on a plain sheet of paper. as if typed by a student disregarding all grammatical norms, this sets the tone for the simplistic disobedience of the protagonist’s lives. “This town stinks. Most people here don’t even have names. Everyone’s just passin through. Fuck this town. Sometimes I can spend up to an hour staring at a bird on a tree. I wish I was that bird and I could just fly away”
2. The film opens with flash shots of a pair of scribbled jeans going from draped on a beater’s trunk to hanging off a tree. answering the question “if these pants could walk”, the collection is coming to life in a hazy derelict landscape.
“I like the way animals hang out in trash in the parking lots. My friends and I are a gang of fools.”
5. She is not alone in her malaise, her friends see their home as equally fucked. The anonymity of the protagonists matches that of their town. the sheets of paper they release could be a self-referential echo of the title credits. it is also evocative of their floating aimlessly through life.
6. their desire to metamorphose into birds, fly to warmer places and escape their lackluster reality is unattainable. instead this pack incarnates an animalistic savageness, taking free reign on their squalid kingdom.
“I think the stars hold all the secrets. Them stars be shining at night. Bright as hell. They say look at me, look up here. im up here. They call out. We love you girls. We really love you. We would never leave you. Just be good to one another. You can make it out this dead-end town.”
“One day we got so drunk. I thought I heard god speaking to me. Saying if you don’t stop then im gonna kick your stupid ass all up and down this sidewalk. How come god gotta be so violent? I thought, I ain’t going to church no more. Church can suck it.”
9. In the Proenza Interview, Korine admits that this is actually a religious movie, like his version of the ten commandments. Shot from a High Angle, looking down at them, the camera evokes the inferiority these girls are prescribed in society.
10. The camera pans slowly from a blue balloon tied to the fence of a school playground, to the sophomoric mural of the sea and lastly up to the sky. Though they might feel chained by their “dead-end town” like the balloon, the vastness of the spaces that surround them offers hope.
“I like the way paprr bags look. I like it when a balloon gets all fucked up. And it pops. And everyone gets scared.”
“I believe that the Earth is a big ball of shit. That’s why the dinosaurs died out. And everyone’s gonna die sooner or later. That’s why I love cigarettes soo much. I hope I don’t die for a long time though. I still got things I wanna look at.”
3. Cue voice-over and we have girl #1 sitting pretty on the curb, all dressed up with nowhere to go. The barren house in the background and her simple pleasures of papar bags and popped balloons relay a rather unfulfilled naîvité. “We We
4. encircled by a lens-lke rainbow, life is shining around her and she couldn’t care less. chilling nonchalantly on a train track, Sipping her 40 like a baby bottle, she aligns the nothingness of her existence to the extinction of those past.
can act like wild animals. can do some messed up shit”
“It’s Us Against The World.”
7. THe Light rays Scattered through broken windows mimic Proenza’s erratically painted denim. They have the freedom to roam about like wild animals because they too, like this warehouse, have been abandoned. Left to their own devices, they are marking their territory .
8. In this European Wig shop, the girls are discernably out of place. The media industry perpetuates a standard of beauty and pressures most to adapt to its mold. Self-empowered, these girls dont give a shit. With this message, the Proenza boys are seemingly rising against the insularity of that world.
“Fuck everyone else. The stars want us to be happy. And I trust the stars. They never lied yet. Every night they say the same thang. The stars aint never gonna leave us.” 11. Though these girls feel socially wayward, they can always dream. Huddled in an empty lot with the stars shining upon them, they find peace with the world. In committing to love themselves and eachother, they find solace in the enigmatic azure.
12. Wanting the film, the girls, and the collection to speak for themselves, Korine doesn’t credit himself until the end. Regardless, in typical Harmony style, he paints a thought-provoking yet dismal picture of adolescence. This one just adds the gritty glamour of proenza Schouler.
city of
Behind the botox, the emblazoned logos, and celluloid glory. Los Angeles is a hotbed of culture.
angles
Where East meets West,
and life lights up like the sun,
the arts are seamlessly juxtaposed.
Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, Melrose Avenue
Beverly Hills, Venice Beach, Little Tokyo
Opening Ceremony, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
catherine Nakajima, The Standard, Hollywood Hotel
Homage to Holly A self-proclaimed “top banana in the shock department”, a tribute to my dearest muse my personal inspirations come from a myriad of sources, but the most prominent are visual chronicles of style, namely through film or photography. Cinematically speaking, fashion and glamour have always gone hand in hand. A sub-clause of being “rich and famous” is that one must enrobe oneself in sumptuousness and fur, or play the PETA approved Alicia Silverstone card and be staunchly naked against it. The producers want to lure the public to the seats, so naturally they provide something pretty to look at. Now in recent times, primarily since the 90s with Versace placing the supermodel on the public pedestal and Anna Wintour’s mega-commercialization of Vogue, the general masses cant get enough of the fashion world. Popular fiction, television, and music are increasingly concerned with the industry. A true enigma, it is undeniably alluring despite its ostensible aloofness. To most it seems unattainable and yet one portion of our life is inadvertently dictated by it. In my opinion, the beauty of dress is its power to send a message to the world without the said wearer saying anything at all. As we digest life with our eyes, we internalize the beings around us and interpret them as such. Whether on the street or on the silver screen, fashion is the most discernible form of communication without a single syllable needing to be uttered. Street style (when there is a vision behind) acts as a moving picture that encapsulates the mood, the essence, and the spirit of an era on a body. one of the foremost reasons why Dior’s overtly-feminine New Look of the 50s was so à la mode was because women were so starved of fabulosity during the wartime. Likewise, with film being a cinematic portrait of life, it is only natural that certain characters are heralded as fashion plates of their times. They start the trends, serve as habitual muses to contemporary designers today and will forever be inscribed in fashion history. I highly doubt that Balenciaga’s Nicolas Ghesquière conceived the lariat bag and perfectly worn-in motorcycle jacket-white tee-denim combo on his own visionary doing. We can thank James Dean and Marlon Brando for that one. The current model off-duty uniform brings out the Rebel Without a Cause in all of us. The list of these personas goes on for days, but for me there is one that stands out above the rest, and that is Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961).
An adaptation of Truman Capote’s Novella of the same title, Audrey Hepburn stars as Holly Golightly, a delicate flower from Tulip, Texas who moves to manhattan and plays up a jazzy life with a cat named cat. young, broke, and très fabulous she’s a dreamer by day and call girl at night. Ushering the age of the LBD she chases away her “mean reds” with a waltz to her local temple Tiffany & CO. She hasn’t a cent to her name and yet her fervor for life is as luminous as the earrings from her countless johns. fragile yet charming, she falls for the dapper gent next door, yet is so terrified of belonging to someone else that she is ultimately beside herself. this film is a true testament to both the cyclical nature of fashion as well as its influence on and evocation of an era. Hepburn was dressed entirely by Hubert de Givenchy, and as his personal muse, one could conclude that some of Tisci’s current archival inspiration thus comes from her. In a broader sense, this film presented a “new woman” at the start of the Sexual Revolution with a non-vulgar female protagonist who had her diamond lined cake and ate it too. Givenchy wisely liberated the woman from the corseted constraints of Dior’s New Look by slipping her into little black dresses, trench coats and capris. In terms of the silhouette of choice think about how the 50s girl was all curves: all the Betty’s and the Marilyn’s of the pin-up party. All of the sudden here come thiss gorgeous gamine named Holly Golightly and suddenly bones are better than busts. This paved the way for the (mod)ernized 60s skeletal aesthetic of Twiggy and Warhol’s favored Edie Sedgwick. My attraction to the french language, handwritten notes, typewriter nostalgia, necessity to move to new york, and interest in decorum all came from this girl. As eloquent as she was elegant, I will forever cherish her innate style and individuality.
chère margiela Tu es, a nod to tradition, with your wooden pedigree; yet with your diaphanous resin, an opus of modernity. Sans toi, my fingers, my hand, my self; would feel incomplete. As enigmatic as your creator, only in paris could we meet. chère margiela, I wished to keep you a secret, to be cradled in my ethereal moat, but wherever we find ourselves, many an aesthete takes note. Sans toi, my greatest muse, in all your lissome majesty, to be without you life, would be a travesty. Tu es, my aide-mémoire, of the marvels in this world’s extremes, another anomaly, in this magical society of dreams.
Victor Bill Berlin, DE
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As Yves Saint Laurent once said, “Fashion is like a party. Getting dressed is preparing to play a role.” One’s personal style can thus be seen as a visual celebration of the self.
Ipek Savut, Ankara, TR
Joshua Silver Houston, TX
Jerome Rousseau Paris, FR
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Self-Ornamentation is a direct harmonization of who we are, where we are from, and where we are going. it is left to you to interpret the roles we play.
Jibade Sandiford Brooklyn, NY
Zein Majali, Amman, JO
Manting Chiang, Long Island, NY
Rhianna Jones, Chicago, IL
Lily Lousada, Vershire, VT
Jane Cogger, Ithaca, NY
Catherine Nakajima, Los Angeles, CA
CLinton Oxford, Medfield. MA
Alexandra Makeba, Watertown, MA
Gracie Meyers, Austin, TX
Tête-à-Tête A fictional discourse on aesthetics from the tastemakers of today and yesteryear. “The body is a sort of poem of curves, volumes, and lines for the designer to be guided by, and create accordingly...What poet would would dare, in depicting the pleasure caused by the apparition of great beauty, separate a woman from her dress?” —Charles Baudelaire “Beauty is composed of an eternal, invariable element whose quantity is extremely difficult to determine, and a relative element which might be, either by turns or all at once, period, fashion, moral, passion.” — Jean Luc Godard “I don’t like standard beauty - there is no beauty without strangeness.” —Karl Lagerfeld “Exactly. After a long time of doing the same sort of thing, you want to break down the walls. But I don’t love shock by itself. I do the shocking in the chic.” —Riccardo Tisci “If every one were cast in the same mould there would be no such thing as beauty.” — Charles Darwin “Exactly. I think that something needs to be weird in order to have a real beauty. Beauty can be quite boring, especially if you’re talking about beauty that doesn’t last. And what lasts is exactly the thing that maybe wasn’t pretty at first—it comes over time to be beautiful or interesting or exciting” —Carine Roitfeld “When I see beautiful clothes, I want to keep them, preserve them… Clothes, like architecture and art, reflect an era.” —azzedine alaïa “It’s a new era in fashion - there are no rules.” —Alexander McQueen “I don’t want to wear what every other women wears. I won’t be dictated to.” —bianca jagger “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” —Oscar Wilde
“What you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today, when human contacts are so quick. Fashion is instant language.” —Miuccia Prada “We can all lie in the language of dress or try to tell the truth; but unless we are naked and bald, it is impossible to be silent.” —Alison Lurie “Should we be silent and not speak, our raiment and state of bodies would bewray what life we have led.” —William Shakespeare “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society” —Mark Twain “We live not according to reason, but according to fashion” — Seneca “Fashion wasn’t what you wore someplace anymore; it was the whole reason for going.” —Andy Warhol “Fashion is not frivolous. It is a part of being alive today.” —Mary Quant
“Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse.” —Francis Bason “Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time.” —Jean Cocteau “Fashions fade, style is eternal.” —Yves Saint Laurent
The Painter of Modern Life If ever there was an individual who fully grasped the role fashion plays in society, it would be Charles Baudelaire. A poet, Author and overall tastemaker during the french decadent period, Baudelaire took it upon himself to be the social critic of his time. During Paris’ industrialization, he coined the term “Modernité”, capturing the ephemeral nature of the urban existence and the duty that art has in documenting that experience. In his poetic masterpiece “Les fleurs du mal” (Flowers of Evil), he was a flâneur of Paris, wandering through the city streets documenting the changing parisian landscape. He found the beauty in modernity as “an eternal and invariable element...a relative, circumstantial element...the age, its fashion, its morals, its emotions.” inspired by the evolving atmosphere of paris, both aesthetic and emotional, he reflected upon the reformation of nature, juxtaposing the brutality of modernity with a nostalgia for the past. His imaginative language was not solely manifest on paper however, for Baudelaire used his own body as a canvas. He belonged to an artistic coterie known as the “Dandies”. A cult of the Self, this group elevated aesthetics to a sort of living religion. In his definition, Dandyism was “first and foremost the burning need to create for oneself a personal originality, bounded only by the limits of proprieties.” With their wistfulness for aristorcratic refinement, they embodied an opposition against the sartorial conventions of the modern era. This editorial pays homage to this literary anomaly. I have done my own translation of one of his poems from Les Fleurs du Mal, and with his incredibly fanciful writing style, a visual rendering seems fitting. i have however adapted his romantic text into a modernized context. Therefore this is also a testament to his belief of the intemporality of mode and beauty.
Ă€ une Mendiante Rousse
To a Redheaded Beggar Girl Model: Shaun Engstrom Wardrobe/Styling: Rhianna Jones
Blanche fille aux cheveux roux, Dont la robe par ses trous Laisse voir la pauvretĂŠ Et la beautĂŠ,
Alabaster girl with scarlet hair, Whose ragged garments, here and there, Evoke for all as if by duty, your impoverished beauty.
Dress: Vintage
Pour moi, poète chétif, Ton jeune corps maladif, Plein de taches de rousseur, À sa douceur.
For this poor paltry poet, Your delicate naïve body as you show it, In all its freckled splendor, looks so soft and tender.
Tank: Alexander Wang Leather Leggings: Vintage
Tu portes plus galamment Qu’une reine de roman Ses cothurnes de velours Tes sabots lourds.
You wear with a more voguish mien than a luxurious queen with her velvets, skins, and fruits— Your heavy boots.
Dress: Vintage Boots: Balenciaga
Au lieu d’un haillon trop court, Qu’un superbe habit de cour Traîne à plis bruyants et longs Sur tes talons;
Your rags are too bare for this town Let some sumptuous gown so long, it would only reveal your ornamented heels:
Dress: Helmut Lang Heels: Alexander Wang
En place de bas troués Que pour les yeux des roués Sur ta jambe un poignard d’or Reluise encor;
In place of stockings ripped your thighs will unveil, once stripped, A garter full of gold, to all your future admirers, behold: Sweater: Model’s Own Leather Shorts: Vintage Jewelry: Vintage Heels: Yves Saint Laurent
Que des noeuds mal attachés Dévoilent pour nos péchés Tes deux beaux seins, radieux Comme des yeux;
Let poorly knotted bows slip, and for our sins expose your breasts, in all their glory like your eyes hoary. T-Shirt: Alexander Wang
Que pour te dĂŠshabiller Tes bras se fassent prier Et chassent Ă coups mutins Les doigts lutins,
Wanting you to disrobe, your arms dispel those that probe, and spurn their fingers with tenacity nearing their urchin souls to veracity. Jumpsuit: Helmut Lang Heels: Zara
Perles de la plus belle eau, Sonnets de maĂŽtre Belleau Par tes galants mis aux fers Sans cesse offerts,
Enamored, as Poe and Annabelle Lee, are your suitors, who traverse the most beautiful seas, to find the gifts of their largesse, and bestow them upon you in excess. Satchel: Givenchy Necklace: CHanel
Valetaille de rimeurs Te dÊdiant leurs primeurs Et contemplant ton soulier Sous l’escalier,
This coterie of ensorcelled savants would dedicate to you with nonchalance their rhetoric! But instead secrete, longing, from afar, to be at your feet.
Tee: Alice & Olivia Leather Leggings: Vintage Boots: Alexander Wang
Maint page épris du hasard, Maint seigneur et maint Ronsard Epieraient pour le déduit Ton frais réduit!
Chanced pages, poets and vagabonds, each, seduced by your charm they respond lingering about your bower, to scent your fragrant flower.
All: Vintage
Tu compterais dans tes lits Plus de baisers que de lis Et rangerais sous tes lois Plus d’un Valois!
Succumb, and you would count in your tracks, more kisses than lilacs And have, amongst your beaux Some royalty in tow! Heels: Alexander Wang
— Cependant tu vas gueusant Quelque vieux débris gisant Au seuil de quelque Véfour De carrefour;
Yet as your beauty fades, your indigence pervades. At the sill of some grand brasserie, you’ll deign, pleading for charity. Leather Jacket: Sandro Tee: Alexander Wang Pants: Yves Saint Laurent Heels: Alexander Wang
Tu vas lorgnant en dessous Des bijoux de vingt-neuf sous Dont je ne puis, oh! Pardon! Te faire don.
You dream and pine for opulence but are reduced to trinkets of mere cents, Which, unfortunately, I do declare. I am unable to spare. Bustier: Carven Skirt: Lanvin Pour H&M Belt; Prada Gloves: Vintage Heels: Zara
Va donc, sans autre ornement, Parfum, perles, diamant, Que ta maigre nudité, Ô ma beauté!
Not a scent, nor a diamond, nor a stone, Only your body do you own Oh, darling, my lithe unclothed stray, I leave you with much dismay! Fur: Vintage
Altuzarra Wrap Around Heels
“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” —Gabriele “Coco” Chanel