FOILE ZINE PERCEPTIONS 001 LOUD

Perceptions 001

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We created this publication to give space to the thoughts and expressions of our community. To open conversations, deconstruct perceptions of beauty and imagine new ones. Each issue is grounded in a theme, literal or abstract.

This publication is collated and published on Gadigal land. We recognise the Gadigal of the Eora Nation as the traditional custodians and pay our respects to the Elders, past, present & emerging.

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Printed on 100% recycled stock. If you have found this copy it is 1 of 30 copies printed.

Digital copy available at Foile.com.au

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The theme for this issue is LOUD.

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West Wind,

Mary Oliver

Custom Artwork by Shauna Sieger

When you hear, a mile away and still out of sight, the churn of the water as it begins to swirl and roil, fretting around the sharp rocks - when you hear that unmistakable pounding - when you feel the mist on your mouth and sense ahead the embattlement, the long falls plunging and steaming - then row, row for your life toward it.

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CONTRIBUTORS

CONTRIBUTORS

What is a moment that reshaped your perception of beauty?

Laura Miano Sex therapist & Founder of sex toy concept store, POSMO

Marlee Pasinetti Photographer

Sydney p.12-13

The moment is more like an ongoing process for me. During the evolution of our salon brand USFIN ATELIER, it reshaped my perception of beauty significantly. I’ve always had strong beliefs about ‘genderless beauty’. It deeply reflects on the hair design we do. We are always trying to keep our design diverse and bespoke to the individual that encounters USFIN. The key words for me of the perception of beauty are ‘Diverse, Individual & Genderless’.

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Carlotta Phelan Art Direction

Melbourne p.10-11

When I realised, I don’t have to reject the femme conditioning around beauty to be taken seriously. That I can care about my appearance, take selfies, dress way too over the top and still get a master’s degree, provide for myself, and succeed in my career.

Daniel Jianing Liu Founder & Creative Director of USFIN ATELIER

Byron Bay p.16-23

Byron Bay p.16-23

As someone generally confronted by the onslaught of ever changing and impossible standards by which we measure beauty, I think every time someone shows up as their whole unique selves, it redefines how we hold ourselves to those same standards.

Every time someone has the audacity to embrace every oddity, ‘fault’ or imperfection, they shift a perception not only for themselves but for all of us. The most beautiful version of you, is the one you most effortlessly are.

Penelope Benson Model, Writer, Creative

Sydney p.24-25

To speak superficially, I feel the most obvious moment for me was after losing my hair in 2012. It was not in the losing - I did not feel beautiful - but on the way out and down again that I had no choice but to meet and experiment with new and interesting versions of myself that I didn’t know existed, could exist and could also be beautiful. I feel we’re always hearing that it’s what’s inside that counts, and it absolutely does! But in my opinion everything counts, for those of us that want it to, and that it’s a beautiful way to live and love yourself too.

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Aggie Choi

Founder of Pach Project

INTERVIEW

AGGIE CHOI

Can you describe a moment or experience that reshaped your relationship to ‘beauty’?

I think my relationship to beauty is always fluctuating and being reshaped. We’re constantly bombarded with visual information and fed idealistic dreams. I would be lying if I told you this doesn’t inform or detriment my relationship to beauty. It’s always those moments when I catch myself falling for it – and then simply decide to stop caring – that actually let me radiate from within.

Photography by Joe Brennan

What is the design ethos surrounding your work at Pach Project?

Right now, Pach Project is a big, ambitious baby that was born with the intention to challenge, mobilise and resolve issues of sustainability, inclusivity (size-, gender-) and accessibility (social, financial) without compromising on the creative freedom and storytelling that is integral to fashion. Often we find brands that consider one element but neglect another. I am of the belief that all of these longstanding issues in the fashion industry are intersectional. With a little more love, effort and community spirit, this can be only the start of an abundance of opportunity and positive change.

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How do you make the space to experiment within the (often rigid) politics of the fashion industry?

I literally just created my own space! As much as I love fashion as a creative medium itself, the industry is definitely not the most inviting or forgiving space to work in. A lot comes into play here including vanity, elitism, lack of diversity and transparency, power play, unethical working conditions, apathy towards sustainability, financial and social inaccessibility … I could go on. Anyway, it’s everything that gives me stress-induced and dust-related eczema and I will have no more hydrocortisone cream on my precious body.

I literally refuse to play this game anymore, and no one should need to. Creating my own space meant freeing up the rigidity, finding alternative means of working in parallel to the current industry – such as taking back all the off-cuts to create experimental pieces – and valuing time, creative freedom and experience over money. It takes a lot of courage and financial insecurity (for now), but I promise it is so liberating!

Can you describe the feeling of wearing a Pach Project garment?

It honestly feels … so soft on the skin. We have gone through a deep dive to source the best quality organic and certified fabric for our garments. Using organic material also means it’s better for sensitive skin with the absence of pesticides and toxins. I’d also like Pach Project wearers to feel confidence and comfort, whereby the individual takes control of their own expression, rather than letting the garment dictate that for you.

@aggie.choi

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LAURA MIANO

Loud Sexuality The

movement

of

self-pornification

There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be.

Overtly presented sexuality has no correlation with intelligence, diligence, or competence.

What overtly presented sexuality is associated with, is an increased cultural intolerance for public displays of it.

Thus, discrediting a self-pornified person’s ability has nothing to do with their actual ability, but more to do with the observers own relationship with sex and overt sexuality.

Therefore, making judgements or assumptions when coming across self-pornified individuals, opens an opportunity to turn inward and reflect on why you, the observer, might have an aversion to unapologetic displays of sexuality.

With the proliferation of ultra-sexual ‘g-string hitched up over the pants’ femme content, ubiquitous in both the digital and physical world, femmes have spun the oppressive objectification of their bodies on its head - by taking control of it.

Self-sexualisation breaks down the patriarchal control of femme sexuality. Sexuality was traditionally compartmentalised, where the Madonnas and the whores were seen distinctively different. Traditionally, the whore was hidden away, to privately satiate a man’s sexual appetite. The Madonna was on the other hand virginal, pure and admired for it.

What we are seeing today is the Madonna buttoning down their shirt, hitching their skirt up and posting a series of soft pornified images to their online community.

Sex is powerful, humans are neurologically wired to respond to sex.

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By using sex in their power, while also getting university degrees, starting businesses and living well-balanced lives, femmes are redefining what it means be an overtly sexual person.

Scholars have explored whether this movement truly empowers these individuals or is counter intuitive by feeding back into the patriarchal desire to objectify bodies. What they have found is if the individual truly feels empowered and truly enjoys the exhibitionistic nature of overt sexuality, then their subjective sense of sexual empowerment is valid.

Where there is room for growth, is how the broader culture treats these sexually empowered individuals. Are they still only thriving at night clubs, on your Instagram feed or somewhere in the underbelly of your local city? Or are they also leading boardrooms, making major business deals, holding chairs in parliament?

@lauramianosexology

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DANIEL JIANING LIU

EMBRACING THE IMPERFECT, MY JOURNEY WITH HAIR

USFIN ATELIER was actually born during my time studying International Business postgrad. The assignment that was given to us was to create a brand new concept that is unique. And because I was already working as a hairdresser at that time, I had an idea to create a salon brand that is different, a brand that represents the FInest standard of hairdressing craft. So that’s how USFIN was born. US means ‘we’ a collective group of passionate and dedicated hair experts.

FIN means the FINest standard, what we aim for with our craft and customer service. Now USFIN has grown and I’d describe it as “an institute of hair innovation and neo aesthetics, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in everyday hair for everyday people.”

Embracing the imperfect My journey with hair

Bringing USFIN to life had its ups and downs. I started USFIN with my business partner (also my life partner) Xena. Xena is actually a very talented floral designer. So initially USFIN started off as a hybrid of a hair salon and a floral design studio.

Our daily routine at that time was waking up at 4:00am to go to the flower market, then back to the atelier to arrange flowers, then when the clock strikes 10:00am the switch to the hair salon. That was our beginning.

Our vision for USFIN was to focus on refining hair designs to reflect our beliefs in beauty and aesthetics. We believed that the right customers would resonate with the USFIN brand if we are true to ourselves, focusing on what we do best and finding ways to progress. We wanted to offer individuals an opportunity to explore themselves through hair. For me, beauty is and always should be unlimited by gender and sexual orientation.

Beauty for me is really about being able to be yourself and celebrating the ‘imperfection’. In a way we all have imperfect hair, however through the medium of hair design, I prefer to enhance one’s natural texture rather than change it.

@usfinatelier 12

The longer that I am immersed in the hair industry, the more I can see that hair is so powerful. Being able to give my customers their dream hair and seeing how much it empowers them, it makes me so emotional. It is incredibly fulfilling to be able to transform a person’s hair, and make a difference in their lives.

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INTERVIEW

Edward West Floral design, Poho Flowers & Eden Flowers

EDWARD WEST

How has working closely with flowers informed your understanding of ‘beauty’?

It’s made me appreciate nature in all its detail. Flowers create the best shapes, patterns and colour combinations, and their fleeting nature is to me the ultimate expression of beauty. It’s something to behold, appreciate and enjoy. True beauty doesn’t exist without the natural world.

If you were to fill your home with just one flower, which would you choose?

For me this changes seasonally but one flower that always steals my heart is the poppy. I love the squiggly shapes they create, the way they move in the wind and the romantic colours they come in. Even their little imperfections are perfect and I swear they actually smile.

What do you find the most satisfying element of your work at Poho and Edan Flowers?

It’s the people I work with each and every day, my team and our amazing growers. Working with talented creatives provides me with so much inspiration and joy, challenges me and makes me want to learn and grow myself.

Photography by Joe Brennan

Is there a key to having a good eye for floral arrangement?

There are really two core elements to being able to put together a beautiful arrangement.

One is the technical side and, to be honest, this can be taught. The second is an understanding of style, shape, colour and form. That can’t be taught or learned, it’s in our DNA and we all express it in different ways.

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@pohoflowers

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MARLEE & CARLOTTA

LOUD LOUD @marlee_m_p 16

@car_lotta_____ 17

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PENELOPE BENSON

THANK YOU, SYDNEY. THANK YOU, DANIEL. THANK YOU, DISILLUSIONMENT.

This is how I scream Through pages and/ or a screen In grief and with glee Through poetry.

And it might just have to really be the most wonderful thing to ever happen to me (and so - so meant to be; and ironically, the darkness so necessary) and way to transmute my sadness..

And now I know what The Weeknd means by The Beauty Behind the Madness.

PB

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@penelope.benson

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Playlist What You Need - KAYTRANADA, Charlotte Day Wilson

Now You Want Me - ALTA

Keep Moving - Jungle

NEON PEACH - Snoh Aalegra, Tyler, the creator

薄明 - KIRINJI, Maika Loubté

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COMMUNITY LEADERS

ONE LOVE COMMUNITY FRIDGE

Leaders and initiatives creating positive change in local communities.

Ways to engage:

DONATE

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SHARE

“One Love Community Fridge works to address immediate food insecurity and minimize food waste by providing communities access to free, fresh, nutritious food through community fridges that are accessible to all 24/7. One Love Community Fridge works to empower & engage the community through education and providing access to fresh, healthy fruit & vegetables with no stigma. With your donation, One Love Community Fridge will be able to install, stock and maintain these fridges and pantries. We supply fresh seasonal fruits, vegetables and pre-packed nutritional foods — along with seasonal essential products.”

@onelovecommunityfridge

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Thank you to the contributors that made this a reality and the entire team at Foile.

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