All images featured in this magazine have been edited by David Hiersche (@david.hiersche), his signature recolouring of the backgrounds hopes to reawaken the sense of wonder in Nature and accentuate the ties between Fashion and the environment that inspires it. The only exception to this editing is in the final section. The shoot’s photographer Grace Howard is responsible for editing the model, and David Hiersche merely edited the backgrounds.
Welcome.
welcome to ragazane.
An editorial focused on showcasing the innovative ways that small creatives are changing the fashion industry.
Beginning the magazine, we explore the relationship between clothing, place, and identity in our photo series entitled “Wimborne”. Following that, we explore the work of three small creatives who use their unique positions to change and reimagine ways in which their roles can be carried out.
Reimagines
Every day, the world spins sunlight onto countless new dawns, and with each dawn rises the milieus of many.
Look out your window, for there are thousands of us that we never see. The extraordinary ordinance of daily life, with the invisible cogs rotating endlessly in the machine, following every new dawn with uncountable stories: billions of lives are lived, loved and lost. Clothes are the camouflage for life. Past your windowpane, lovers race into each other’s arms, workers rush for the impending deadline, and yet our unique loneliness and place in the world forgets just how wide the world stretches so far beyond the window you gaze out of.
With ‘Wimborne’, Ragazane has partnered with the Wimborne branch of ‘Debra UK’, a charity where proceeds help look after those suffering from the devastating effects epidermolysis bullosa can cause to families and individuals.
The premise was simple: reimagining who donated these clothes, books, bags, and forgotten aspects of what was once somebody’s daily life.
Characters in this series are presented with only items gathered from what was in their donation. Forgotten items from pockets and bags were used to help strengthen this image of a character. Since small villages such as Wimborne exist everywhere, I felt it was important to sing the swan song of the invisible.
Amongst the characters themselves, I have included local landscapes to help use a sense of place to help ground these characters, while also conveying the cross between imagination and reality. The characters are left to themselves with just their accessories and landscapes to use as stimuli for your imagination.
Who they are, or who they were is up to you. Do clothes make the person, or is there more?
Creative Director, Editor, Styling & Landscape Photographer: David Hiersche
Portrait Photographer: Alisha Patel
HMUA:
Creative Director + @david.hiersche
@picture.patel
@nadia.ahddoud
Models in order of appearance:
David Luff
Jonah Honeywill
Emily Waxman
Ella Larkham
@da.v.ie @j.honeywill @emilywaxman_ @ella.larkham
Salvage Collective: Salvage Collective:
An estimated 92,000,000 tonnes of textile waste is sent to landfill annually.
Per person, that’s an average of thirty kilos per annum. While more and more of us try to recycle, resell, or donate clothing; we tend to not realise how wasteful this process is. Just looking at the data for the United States, as published by their government, only fifteen percent of clothing is actually recycled. The remaining eighty-five percent is sent to landfill.
Such a statistic may come as a surprise to many consumers, especially considering how more and more common it is to find shops advertising clothes using recycled materials.
The reality is that the majority of recycled polyester comes from plastic bottles, and recycled cotton comes from manufacturing waste. This is mainly a consequence of how hard it can be to actually use waste clothes to be recycled.
Salvage Collective
Salvage Collective
Salvage Collective
Salvage Collective
Salvage Collective
Salvage Collective
Salvage Collective
Salvage Collective
Salvage Collective
Since a large number of clothes are made up of numerous materials, dyes, finishes, coatings, and so forth; trying to recycle clothes is actually far harder than expected.
Recycling paper, metal, and plastic, is simple in comparison. The majority of these items are wholly one material, or a simple matter of removing labels and caps to ensure they are one recyclable material. Furthermore, the amount of energy that is required
to recycle clothes means the end product is sadly not as sustainable as we may be led to believe.
Even donating to charity stores doesn’t remove this worry of wastage. The lack of a washing machine, or time and funds to repair garments means that many clothes go in what is known as “rag bags”. These bags are collected by a secondary company from the charity store and they try to recycle the materials as best as they can.
Salvage Collective leads this fight in a way that salutes the old adage to “teach a man how to fish, and he will eat for a lifetime.”
Every year, charity shops dispose of tonnes of clothes that are deemed “unsellable”. What constitutes the imperfections is vague, and the lack of a washing machine, surrenders many, many, clothes to “Rag Bags”
of somebody else’s fever dreams, cooking, and life. After all, what is it that repulses us so much other than the fact that it wasn’t us that is responsible for that small insignificant stain of somebody’s famous homemade tomato sauce?
Salvage as a word is defined to mean “to rescue”. In itself, the word is fantastically fitting for a mission as grand and bold
for textiles, they figured that they could run workshops too. By offering the price of an item in the entry fee, people could come and learn how to sew, and then use their new skills on an item of their choice.
People could come to the session and leave feeling renewed. This new garment is now theirs alone, they are the innovators, and here lay their sculptures.
As sad as it is, it’s understandable. Some charity shops receive more stock than they have storage. So, the “rag bags”, can earn a charity shop as little as 37 pence per kilogram.
Ed’s journey started while working in the ‘Debra’ charity shop in Wimborne. Insistent that there must be more, something could change, the waste isn’t worth it. So, Ed began to spruce up the stock, put it online, and putting the money back into the charity. But Ed dreamed bigger, knowing that too soon there was more. More that could be done to prevent the piling black bin bags, overflowing with their nauseating small stains, their pungent aroma
as Ed’s. As Salvage Collective, started to grow Ed started experimenting with new ways to bring these clothes to people.
It started with a small clothes rail. Ed would bring it in during break hours, lunch, at mini-markets, and even in class! At first, people were simply asked for their opinions on prices. As the pricing started to evolve, Ed started to use a sticker system for denoting the varied price points of different items; but give someone a fish, they eat for a day, teach them to fish and they eat for a lifetime.
Embroidery was the way forward for Ed, using their longstanding knowledge
As the sessions proved increasingly popular, the locations started to grow. At first, the sessions would be held in the University Classrooms, graduating to Coffee Shops, and the local superstore: Bobby’s. A sprawling metropolis, with perfumes on the first floor, tree trunks, toys, and other art creators on the second, and a gallery stretched across the top. Having more places to host the sessions encouraged new faces, and followers of the non-profit organisation to bond over new knowledge, helping charities, and new clothing.
The popularity of the embroidery sessions led Ed to start considering new ways that people can follow the movement, and continue to innovate in creating and customising ‘new’ items of clothing. I followed along for
“To Salvage is to Rescue.”
a couple of sessions, the primary photoshoot showing off Ed’s wares and influence is primarily featured in our classic magical realism style, and these images show some friends of mine, who attended these early embroidery sessions.
The less edited, more real, photos featured here are a simple recording of one of Ed’s lino print sessions.
Lino printing was a fantastically smart move on Ed’s behalf. While the setup can be tough, the results are fantastic and you could truly see how people reacted well to their designs being printed onto the shirt.
Here’s some of my favourite designs from the session I attended. Seeing them move from the initial sketches to the final print was great fun.
Meeting everyone who attended was lovely. Some people had attended the embroidery sessions, some people had tried lino before, some hadn’t. But, all could agree that it was a fun idea, and loved Ed’s mission. They all spoke of how they felt proud to be able support Ed’s honourable mission, and to be able to have fun while doing so. If you want to join a session, follow:
Creative Director: David Hiersche
Photographers: Kitty-May Langdon + David Hiersche
Stylist: Ed Earl + David Hiersche
Models: Kitty King-Murrison (from left to right on opposite page)
Milly Grove
Jocelyn Rowland
Harry Climpson (featured on title page)
Harry Benson
Creative Director + Photographer: David Hiersche
Stylist: Harry Benson
Creative Director + @david.hiersche
@hmjb_._
Models: Elliot Phil-Ebosie (from left to right)
Charlotte Ilife
Kian Holland
@bassmanells @char_lo_tte @kian_hollandd
Sourcing pieces he likes, or believes he can improve, from charity shops; Harry truly encapsulates the thesis of Ragazane’s vision for the future of fashion: Reimagination.
Ultimately, it never matters whether you make or break a piece of clothing. The clothes exist, and have been bought. At its simplest, this is the thesis for the self-destructive system of modern fashion. An endless Groundhog Day, where the consumer’s self-worth is preyed upon by companies who furtively clamour to steal from artists, animals, and innocent people who stitch their cries for help into tags of polyester.
The realisation of these facts may not be new, but a certain manner of doublethink is needed to continue.
Harry Benson’s philosophy towards clothes is beautiful, in his rudimentary approach, he creates his fantastically detailed, apocalyptic garments, using bleach, dyes, and a revolutionary imagination.
Harry defines a fashion vegetarian as “someone who exclusively shops second-hand.” Something that Harry advocates is far easier than imagined. “There’s always a surplus of charity stores, filled with stock, there’s kilo sales, Depop, Vinted, eBay, and more. When somebody tells me that they can’t find what they’re looking for, I either encourage them to innovate, or to look again. Clothes don’t have to come to you in the colour you want. Dye is cheap, and second-hand clothes can offer a more affordable way to start experimenting with how you customise and engineer a garment.”
The art of creating something new doesn’t have to be dulled by reinventing. For someone like Harry, buying something already made means he doesn’t have to worry about sourcing, stitching, or sewing anything. He simply finds the clothes and creates a new life in a bespoke garment.
Harry Benson
Harry Benson
Harry Benson
Harry Benson
Harry Benson
Harry Benson
Harry Benson
Harry Benson
Harry Benson
Grace Howard
Grace Howard is an aspiring Creative Director and Photographer. Hailing from the historic town of Arundel in West Sussex, Grace has always grown up surrounded by the environment: Arundel’s picturesque hills, rolling meadows, and dense forests are heavily featured throughout her work. As a fashion photographer, it’s key for Grace to find ways to be inspired by nature and to turn that focus on clothing.
Creative Director, Photographer, Stylist: Grace Howard
@graec.photo
Model: Nina Dallyn
“Texture Explorer”
“Texture Explorer”
“Texture Explorer”
“Texture Explorer”
“Texture Explorer”
“Texture Explorer”
“Texture Explorer”
“Texture Explorer”
“Texture Explorer”
For her feature photoshoot, entitled “Texture Explorer”, Grace was inspired by the theme of “Scandinavian Cool”. “The simplicity of Scandinavian living and their hygge lifestyles [was] a huge influence for this shoot”. Sustainability is a key part of Grace’s practice, and the simplicity of Scandinavian lifestyles particularly spoke to her for this shoot. For fashion photographers, it can be hard to find appropriate
ways that allow for styling to be done sustainably.
“To create strong editorial images using multiple looks while maintaining a sustainable way of working and without always having access to a stylist who is able to source and rent clothes sustainably for every editorial I produce, I have to be creative and mindful of how and where I am sourcing outfits from.”
To challenge herself, and to make the most of what was accessible, without worrying about clothes being sent to landfill upon return, or other potential bad outcomes; Grace tried to make the most of what was available to her. Below is an excerpt from Grace.
“In ‘Texture Explorer’ I strictly only used clothing which was borrowed, handmade, or my own already. Some of these items I hadn’t worn in years, and the new life I gave them by just using them for an editorial, reminded me why I liked them in the first place, and brought them out of their retirement.
Normally I’d allow myself the opportunity to source clothes from charity shops, to support slow fashion and charities; but for “Texture
Grace Howard
Grace Howard
Grace Howard
Grace Howard
Grace Howard
Grace Howard
Grace Howard
Grace Howard
Grace Howard
Explorer” I wanted to see if I could remove that too. To try and find even more unique items, and reduce my own consumerism by some small degree.
I often enjoy the challenge of trying to make something myself, be it an accessory, or a prop for a shoot. I wouldn’t go quite so far as to make the garments myself though. I’m not quite as handy with a sewing machine as I am with a camera!
However, my Grandma is very talented at knitting, and the aran-knit wool jumper you see in this photoshoot was handmade by her.
The concept behind ‘Texture Explorer’ is all about exploring our beautiful landscapes and taking inspiration from the textures and versatility of nature. Too often we get wrapped up in issues of modernity and we forget that the world continues to revolve towards an uncertain future.
Grace Howard
Grace Howard
Grace Howard
Grace Howard
Grace Howard
Grace Howard
Grace Howard
Grace Howard
Grace Howard
Man-made materials that stem from fossil fuels are never going to last us in the long-term, so it’s truly baffling why we keep trying to make more with them.
“Fossil Fuels are never going to last in the long run.”
We need to step out of consumer culture and into nature and take a closer look into the ways our surroundings survive and protect themselves, and find ways to bring this versatility into the future of clothing.”
Grace raises some fantastic points during her interview, especially her closing point relating to the wonders of nature. With mycelium proving an exciting breakthrough in plant-based materials, the Fashion world is on the cusp of a revolution: new materials are being created to ensure a future that is cruelty-free and innovative.
These new materials are essential to solving the problems of the future: lowering emission levels, solving the waste problems caused by the industry, and reimagining the world.
Modern approaches, fresh thinking, and passionate individuals, such as the three we’ve featured in this issue of Ragazane, are key to influencing and driving the future in the direction that will ensure the industry sticks around long enough to be continuously derailed by more and more innovators who believe in the industry, and its future.
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for reading, caring, believing, enjoying, innovating, creating, thinking, self-expressing, dreaming, and listening.
We hope Ragazane has helped educate you on ways that small creatives are shaking the tree from the
roots up. Ways that can help make a change at every level. From Ed’s revolutionary reimagining of the lifeline of “rag bags”, to Harry’s “fashion vegetarianism”, or to Grace’s love for nature and community driving her new ideas.
We hope we inspired you.
