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CAND’D
On My Skin
July 2018
Issue 3
mensw
ear
womens
wear
Contributions Editor: Janais van Eck Deputy Editors: Catherine Roland, Chene Schoeman Photographers: Marnie Smit, Andrew Taylor, Sarah Hume
Janais van Eck note from the editor
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ver the last few months the team at Cand’d has been in constant discussions about the progressive nature of fashion and the way things are changing in our industry. The topic of skin and the definitions of beauty has been a common topic. So we are proud to present this months edition ‘On my skin’ for you to enjoy. We look into the ways in which people are reclaiming their own defintion of beauty, embracing their individual flair and style. In working on this edition we have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of positive energy suurounding this progression in our world of fashion. We hope that each story will find a place in your heart or your mind in a way that encourages you to embrace your skin and your uniqueness as a whole. In addition to this focus we have also looked at giving you content inspired from across the world to emphasise that the differences between skin and between cultures can not only be bridged but also embraced to grow with eachother and learn from eachother. Here at Cand’d a focus on oneness and family is at the forefront of what makes our publication so special. As our readers you are part of the family and we hope you enjoy this edition as much as we enjoyed creating it.
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Designers: Shannon Pine, James Price, Sive Petse, Kiranya Govender, Tumi Mchunu Writers: Palesa Mkhize, Dylan Hook, Hannah Frost, Lelo Macheke, Adam Chadwick, Saaniyah Yacoob, Lefa Motloung, Dakota Date Chong Social Media: Phethu Nogoduka, Amanda van Zyl, Stephanie Le Roux Marketers: Ronald Munodawafa Daniel Maneveld Advertising Agency: Brooke Ltd. Publishers: Dotzeday Pages Special thanks to: James Burmeister, Iviwe Dabula, Ashton Du Toit, Tshidi Snyman
photo of the month
Photo submitted by: Ahmed Syed
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Instagram: @ahmedsyed96
Want your photo featured? Send them to Cand’d@gmail.com
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TABLE
of CONTENTS Regulars
60
Designer of the month
12
Need to know brands
19
Our body truths
47
30
The pros and cons of gender neutral clothing
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Shaming outdated standards
Cand’d collection
36
An exploration into Afropunk fashion
85
Cosmetic expansion
Tips: Eco wardrobe
48
The beauty of freckled people
94
Made of bits and pieces
Cand’d calendar
58
Making art of us
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Inside the weird and wild world of Edwin Mohney July 2018
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Social media: Your body truths
lips sweet as cherries
esigner Siobhan fenton
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of the month
uslim fashion designer has made history as the first ever designer to feature hijabs in every outfit on a New York Fashion Week catwalk. Indonesian designer Anniesa Hasibuan, 30, delighted crowds with her Spring Summer ’17 collection D’Jakarta. Models wore flowing trousers and skirts in silk, lace and chiffon in an array of pastel colours. One stand-out garment included an intricate gold lace dress, featuring metallic embroidery at the bust and a fringed lace train. Each model wore a hijab in gold, pale pink or dove grey silk. It is believed to be the first time a New York Fashion Week catwalk show has featured hijabs on every model. Ms Hasibuan also made history as the first Indonesian designer to be featured at the fashion week and says her designs were inspired by her home city of Jakarta, where she also has a boutique.
Anniesa Hasibuan
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The show consisted of 48 different looks, of which 10 were evening gowns and 38 were ready-to-wear pieces. Following the show, Ms Hasibuan took to the runway, where she received a standing ovation from the audience. Online lifestyle magazine Muslim Girl welcomed the collection, with reviewer Maha Syeda writing: “The Indonesian designer brought together the perfect elements of her cultural home country and the metropolitan western fashion world to create a beautiful harmony of fashion and modesty, because, yes — they don’t have to clash.” Fans of the designer took to social media to praise for the collection, with one fan calling the show “absolutely breathtaking”. Another wrote “this was everything!” History made at #NYFW by Anniesa Hasibuan whose Spring 2017 collection had all the models wearing a hijab.
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Ms Hasibuan said: “I am so proud and thankful for everyone on the team who helped me so this event could happen, and I am so thankful to international and local media from Indonesia for exposing my show. I did not realise the result can be this amaxing, and I am thrilled and humbled by the welcome reaction given.” She has previously held shows at major fashion capitals including London and Paris but this was her first catwalk in the US.
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South African designers
merging culture with high fashion
Carina Claassens
Imprint
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The Cape Town based label was established by Mzukisi Mbane under the name Swagger Diariez. Mbane started off without any formal training and only his mother’s sewing machine. Today, Imprint is a clothing brand that fuses South African street wear with vintage designs. The label strives to live up to its name with an ethos of “leaving a mark” through its designs.
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Marianne Fassler Marianne Fassler is a well-known name in the South African fashion industry and rightly so, as she’s spent more than three decades in the business. Fassler opened her first store in 1976 and today her label, Leopard Frock, is based in Saxonwold, Johannesburg. Her designs offer creative, beautifully made clothing items and she’s well known for her unique wedding dresses.
Thesis Lifestyle
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Thesis Lifestyle is not only a street wear label, but also a brand that hosts events and activities, such as Social Run and Ride – a free fun run in Soweto. Thesis Lifestyle is also well known for their Thesis Social Jam Sessions, held on Sundays, which brings creatives from all over the city (and country) together. The label is passionate about collaborations and encourages its followers to go out into the streets and open their eyes to the many possibilities that surround them.
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Black Coffee Jacques van der Watt flawlessly incorporates traditional South African design patterns into his modern creations and pays a large amount of attention to detail. Van der Watt showed his first collection at South African Fashion Week in 1999 and since then his label has become synonymous with cutting edge, local fashion design. Black Coffee is mainly characterized by its structural designs combined with complex shapes, and the installation shows are often hosted at unusual venues, such as Constitution Hill in Johannesburg.
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David Tlale
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The David Tlale label has received international recognition and is a favourite among South African celebs and socialites. In 2009 David Tlale was awarded Fashion Designer of the Year at the Africa Fashion Awards in Johannesburg. In 2011 he presented a collection titled “Made In The City” which celebrated Nelson Mandela’s 92nd birthday. In this showcase, 92 models used the Nelson Mandela bridge as their runway, donning Tlale’s clothing. Tlale was also the first South African fashion designer to showcase solo at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York in September 2012.
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Stitch & Steel Stitch & Steel, founded by Linda Gale, is a Johannesburg-based fashion label that creates quirky items made from authentic fabrics sourced from all over Africa. The label’s main focus is women’s clothing but they also have a men’s range, which includes ties and patterned shirts. Only a few of each garment is created, so you’ll be the proud owner of a very exclusive piece.
Put on a show
Put on Alix Avien
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The pros and cons of the rise of gender neutral clothing. Maddie Jones
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gender spectrum, not just from the masculine side. The androgyny that’s coming out of these clothes is usually based on women wearing items typically deemed menswear, but not the other way around. Of course, the fact that major retailers are seeking to be more inclusive by exploring clothing options outside the binary is a sign of progress. Are there any better alternatives? A number of retailers have taken better steps when it comes to their gender neutral lines, by attempting to actually break down barriers instead of using gender neutral as a buzzword. A number of LGBT-centered and androgynous brands have emerged in the last few years that I believe take a larger leap when it comes to representing “gender neutral”. Instead of just producing grey jeans and t-shirts, these brands are specifically made for gender non-conforming people and are run by LGBT folk.
hile on the surface, this is surely a step in the right direction, there are some problems with the new gender-neutral revolution that seems to be taking place within the fashion industry. The main issue is: the collections themselves are pretty misogynistic. Baggy t-shirts, loose-fitted hoodies and neutral colours all seem to feature in mainstream gender-neutral collections, but fewer Many trans and non-binary people have expressed brands seem to be celebrating femininfrustration with mainstream retailer’s interpretation ity. While female models don masculine styles, the male models don’t really of the term gender-neutral. push many boundaries when it comes to their gender, sticking to the hoodies Ultimately, moving towards gender neutral clothing and shirts normally associated with men. This decision is a good thing. But this move needs to be more revoby retailers to avoid marketing feminine style pushes lutionary than just selling the same baggy t-shirts and the notion that only masculine clothing is worth being jumpers with a bit of pink of them and calling it gender worn by both genders. neutral. Many trans and non-binary people have expressed Masculinity and femininity is for everyone, and this frustration with mainstream retailer’s interpretation should be reflected in gender neutral brands. Once reof the term gender-neutral, arguing that while these tailers start celebrating femininity for both sexes as opbrands claim to be progressive, they always end up posed to just celebrating masculinity, then they will really creating clothes designs that er on the masculine end be making some progress. of the spectrum of fashion, thus pushing femininity
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to the side. Others argue that retailers are attempting to profit off of LGBT issues without actually doing anything meaningful for the community. It has long been known that it is more socially acceptable for women to dress in masculine clothing than it is for men to dress in feminine clothing. If retailers really want to make their brands more inclusive, they should include items from the entire
An exploration into Afropunk fashion James Matroos
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gyptian fashion designer, Amna Elshandaweely took to the stage at Design Indaba today not only to speak about her career and background but to also launch a new Afropunk inspired fashion range, which she presented in a fashion show. She spoke about one of the most isolated settlements in Egypt, about 600 kilometres from Cairo, the women of Siwa or the Amazigh spend up to ten years working on their wedding dresses.The ethnic group, indigenous to North Africa but found in many parts of the continent, are known around the world for their elaborate textile traditions. But their culture is still relatively unknown. Elshandaweely travels to places like Siwa as part of her exploration into what it means to be an Egyptian and deeper still, what it means to be African. “Everytime I travelled around Africa my friends were like: ‘Are you going to Africa?’,” she says jokingly. “Like they don’t consider Egypt as part of Africa.” In the same way, Egyptian society doesn’t consider dark-skinned Egyptian women to be beautiful, explains Elshandaweely. “When I went to Kenya, I was really inspired by the Kenyan women and how they change their looks and look really nice.” She says that although there are dark skinned people in Egypt, like the Nubian people from Luxor or Aswan, they are not considered to be as beautiful as lighter skinned Egyptians.
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. Afropunk collectionTaken by: Anthony Weier
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“They have the facial features of the pharaohs, yaani,” she says in frustration, before breaking into a smile. As a dark-skinned woman herself, Elshandaweely has had to deal with the prejudices of colourism in society and in the media. It’s lighter skin and lighter shades of fabric that people consider beautiful, trendy and chic. “I’ve always had darker skin than a lot of Egyptians and I have curly hair. So every time I walk in the street I always receive comments. It’s either in a funny way or let’s say, just a not funny way,” she explains. “People consider white girls who have straight hair as beautiful, fa, when I was growing up I started by looking around the world, not just here in Egypt, and I found that there is beauty, ya’aani, in dark skin.” With her eponymous tribal wear brand and her exploration of African identity, she’s looking to challenge this norm. In one of her earlier ranges, Road to Fayuom, she did something as simple as using dark-skinned models in her catalogues. July 2018
“When I was growing up I started by looking around the world, not just here in Egypt, and I found that there is beauty, ya’aani, in dark skin”
The aim was to give dark-skinned Egyptians a chance to see themselves represented not only in the models but in the range itself. “Models are always people you look for and what to be like, so a lot of people seeing darker skinned models, it was very interesting and it was actually shocking for a lot of people here in Egypt,” she adds. Road to Fayoum was inspired by the Egyptian city it’s named after. Its green landscapes and Islamic architecture make it a welcome respite from the smoke, concrete and hustle of the country’s capital. Elshandaweely’s fashion line celebrated Fayoum for its uniqueness. In an earlier interview, Elshandaweely said the pair chose colours that could take the wearer out of Cairo and make them feel as though they’re spending spring in Fayoum. Unlike traditional ranges, their line was not targeted at any gender or age, making the pieces versatile and inclusive in a way that the
Egyptian fashion scene could appreciate. The line garnered a lot of attention (Elshandaweely was later featured on Project Runway) and the designer set out to take advantage of that momentum. Her next range, the Amazigh, was a similar exploration of place and people, one where she also drew on the differences she found between the people in Cairo and the people of the old cities. “They have the same language so a lot of people here they don’t understand them,” she explains. “They have their own way of dressing up, their own way of music and different heritage.” “I was fascinated by how different the people were. I read about them and I read about their culture; I found out they exist all over the world.” Her tribal fashion ranges are available at her store Galleria40 in Giza and she also sells from her Facebook page, which has over 21 000 followers from all over the world. But the road was not easy, she recalls. Before the Egyptian revolution, Elshandaweely sought security in a well-paying publishing and marketing position. But when the masses took to the streets, she found a
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community of creatives that still work to prop one another up. “I believe that without the revolution I wouldn’t have been the person I am today,” she says, adding that even though it played such a big role in her choices then, it’s challenging to not be disheartened in the aftermath of the uprising that has left its citizens exhausted. “I feel like we don’t have the same energy we used to have. Back then it was very inspiring and we felt like everything is going to change. Right now, a lot of people feel like it’s changed for the worse. For me, it was an experience that added value to a lot of people. Us as young people, we believed in tomorrow.” In the future, Elshandaweely hopes to keep exploring Africa, using the creative industry to bridge the gaps between country, identity, tradition and politics.
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“I feel like we don’t have the same energy we used to have”
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“There’s nothing more beautiful than seeing a woman stop another woman in the street to tell her she is beautiful” Ruby Rose
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our body truths — Janais van Eck
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I realised that it wasn’t about how I looked in comparison to other people but rather that I was comfortable and loved what my body looked like in its own way.
Unique beauty of freckled people leslie Goldman
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Lond-based photographer Brock Elbank is on a journey to photograph 150 freckled people for his next exhibition in 2017. He wants to celebrate beauty and, since mid2015, he has succeeded with 90 striking portraits
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“But as adults they grown to accept and some love them.� Pictured: Sonny
“Freckles had to take the backseat” while Elbank developed last year’s #Project60 beard portraiture series. Pictured: Francis Johnson
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hotographer Brock Elbank was playing in a weekend-league football match in Sydney when a spectator caught his eye. It was his teammate’s son, Eddie, 10 at the time, with “an incredible face full of freckles, like I’d never seen before,” he says. (This was hardly the first time Elbank had found himself drawn to a quirky, distinctive facial feature; he’s also shot scores of bewhiskered men for his #Beard installation.) With permission from Eddie’s father, Elbank had the young lad sit for a portrait, and the session touched off what
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he calls an obsession with freckles. He has since shot more than 90 portraits for his new #Freckles series, from women whose shoulders and cheeks are just dusted with dots to a nose-pierced gentleman with freckles traipsing over his eyelids, across his lips, and everywhere in-between. His subjects, who hail from Britain, Cambodia, Switzerland, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Kuwait, Japan, the U.S., and more countries, come in all ages, sizes, and ethnicities, with one thing in common.
All portraits in this series were taken by award-winning photographer Brock Elbank. Pictured: Natasha Culzac
“I asked John if I could shoot Eddie and there was the series start.” Pictured: Elsa Pea
Make that a few thousand things. Recent coverage of #Freckles made the project go viral, and Elbank has been inundated with messages from freckled folks the world over — more than 1,100 emails this past week alone, not to mention countless messages on Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram. While the series has garnered much support (“Stunning!”; “Makes me wish I had even more freckles!”; “As I look through your pictures, I am reminded of my mom saying my freckles are angel kisses. I feel that way when I look at the people you photograph.”), Elbank says there is a darker side to the collection. “99% of these individuals have all suffered some sort of teasing, bullying, or verbal abuse,” Elbank, now U.K.-based, says. “People can be so narrow-minded and cruel. Every one of us is the same. Just because some are visually different shouldn’t mean they get a rough time at school and from society.”
“What I love about freckles are that most of the wearers hated them as children, probably got teased and wish they hadn’t got them,” says Elbank. Pictured: Josh Hardwick
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July 2018
WE ONLY SEE DENIM.
Lov Love Disfigure
Chelsea Ritschel
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new campaign is urging people living with disfigurements to embrace and love their scars. Love Disfigure was created by Sylvia Mac from Stepney, London, as a way of raising awareness and offering support for those with disfigurements who may not feel confident in their appearance. Mac, a burn survivor who was severely burned when she fell into a pot of boiling water at age four, knows what it is like to feel self-conscious about your appearance. But after years of struggling with anxiety, depression, and PTSD from her accident and subsequent burns, she wants to help others who may be in the same position feel comfortable in their skin. “I campaign for those suffering with their disfigurement by raising awareness and showing support through my blogs and social media,” she wrote on the Love Disfigure website. “I continue to share my photos and reach out to different industries so that people affected by their appearance can become Olympic swimmers, actors, actresses, dancers, lawyers, doctors etc. Don’t allow the way you look stop you from achieving.”A former competitive swimmer herself, Mac has set up a swimming club forw people with “skin conditions, health conditions, scars, marks, burns to help them become confident again.” She’s also campaigning for other industries such as the fashion industry and arts and film to be more accepting of people with disfigurement so that those living with scars can confidently go after their dreams.To raise awareness for the cause and show that scars are nothing to be ashamed of, Love Disfigure recently held a swimwear photo shoot where women and children proudly showed off their scars. Ultimately, Mac wants those with scars to know: “There is no need to hide your disfigurement,” and “our disfigurement is just an extra part of our uniqueness.” “We can all be beautiful people”
“Our disfigurement is just an extra part of our uniqueness”
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When in doubt, just sprinkle wildflowers all over your face for IRL fairytale vibes.
Making art of us Sarah Wu and Emily Gaynor
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overing up pimples is an art form of sorts. There are countless YouTube tutorials detailing exactly how to layer primer, concealer, foundation, and powder in a way that seamlessly smooths your skin. But often, it’s not as easy as makeup artists or vloggers make it seem. In reality, covering up a zit often results in flaky, cakey, crumbly areas that actually draw more attention to the spot.
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“Giving us freckle and acne appreciation in one, Gabrielle drew on faux freckles with a white eyeliner. To take this to the next level, try it out with metallic tats”
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ometimes, not actually putting product on a pimple is the easiest solution. In fact, pimple appreciation is something we feel pretty strongly about. When we came across French illustrator Izumi Tutti earlier this year, we instantly got on board with how they turned their own acne into a galaxy, featuring beautiful constellations that connected the dots. Their work of art inspired us to get real girls to ditch the cover-up and instead try decorating them We teamed up with photographer Rebekah Campbell and makeup artist Ingeborg to illustrate four rad ways to play up your pimples.
“Your primary school sticker pack has hidden applications beyond binders and notebooks. Ariona dotted dainy, colorful stickers aound her eyes, interspersing them with her acne — not covering it up”
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Acne art Taken by:Scarlett Preston
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d ’ d n a c socially
Your body truths @itzbil_:
When will people learn that a beautiful face/body is not necessarily inhabited by a beautiful and generous spirit.
@Cristina Mihaela Botîlc:
Unfortunately, there is a standard of ultimate beauty. Depeding on the country you are in and the times you live in, there is a standard for beauty. For example, during Renaissance, chubby women were seen as beautiful. Compared to today… well, that is completely the opposite. Another thing that contributes to that is the media platforms. We all see photos of women who look alomost the same and we get to think that this is what beautiful means.
@David Robson: There are even some good evolutionary reasons why beauty might be timeless. Certain biological features might signal health, fitness, and fertility – the makings of good mate – and we should find these features sexually attractive. Yet the more biologists and psychologists have looked, the harder it has been to find a purely biological basis for beauty.
@Shana Lebowitz
@Tila Tequila: I think every person has their own identity and beauty. Everyone being different is what is really beautiful. If we were all the same, it would be boring.
Question:
What is your opinion on there being an idea of ultimate beauty? @JrThorpe:
When it comes to female bodies, the problem is that For millennials raised on the internet, having a diversity of different types of bodies the near-fetishization of thinness may be contributing in the spotlight is a boon for general body positivity. But what influence could to women’s negative body images different images have on people who’ve never experienced mainstream media, or the beauty “ideals” it espouses? CAND’D 63
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Acne Positivity Movement sweeps social media Leah Prinzivalli
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earch Instagram for #acne and you’ll find the most popular post isn’t an ad for a cleanser or a makeup tutorial on how to layer concealers. Instead, it’s a screen-shotted, highly liked Twitter post by 18-year-old artist and acne blogger Hailey Wait. “Reminder that acne doesn’t make you ugly,” it reads, “a heart full of hate does.” Wait, who describes herself as “pro pizza face,” is one of a growing subset of influencers focused on a new self-love movement: acne positivity. The same way that body-positive bloggers encourage you to embrace stretch marks, the acne-positivity community is working to destigmatize zits. “I got tired of waking up each morning and covering my skin up, and over time I noticed that it only made my acne worse,” says Wait. “I needed to let my skin breathe, and so as an experiment I started posting selfies on my Instagram that showed my acne. I was expecting loads of hate, but at the time I had a small but very loyal following, and instead of being disgusted, the majority of the feedback I got was praise.” Today Wait has more than 135,000 followers who’ve taken a great
interested in both her skin and her art. Acne art even went viral earlier this year, when FIT student Peter DeVito shot a photo series of unedited skin close-ups emblazoned with phrases like and “acne is normal.” But it isn’t just teens embracing acne online. Celebrities in their twenties and thirties are also having more honest conversations about their skin. When fans noticed Kendall Jenner’s breakouts on the Golden Globes red carpet, the response was overwhelmingly positive. “Ok but @KendallJenner showing up and strutting her acne while looking like a gorgeous star is what every girl needs to understand,” wrote one fan. Jenner responded: “Never let that sh*t stop you!” Where posting a makeup-free selfie was once a way to garner glowing press, that same praise can now be said for sharing an unedited photo of red, angry spots or zit cream. For followers, acne-positive bloggers help challenge the notion of “good” skin. Ruth Knight, a 25-year-old London-based PR specialist, used Roaccutane (the nonU.S. version of controversial acne medication Accutane) to help fight her acne. “I found the Instagram Roaccutane community so supportive when I was going through the treatment,” says Ruth. “It also helps knowing that you’re not alone in what you find difficult: Why should something that is largely out of my control—and a perfectly normal problem to experience—make me feel so bad?” “In the era of body positivity, we often forget to see our skin the same,” says Mary Gage, 25, a blogger in upstate New York. “I personally suffer from hormonal
acne and try to cover it up whenever possible. If more influential beauty and skin care accounts were honest about their struggles with acne and attempted to normalize it, I think they could create a broader definition of body positivity.” Even for those who don’t get regular breakouts, acne positivity can help put those rare zits in perspective. “A few months ago my skin went. I started putting everything on my face, but nothing really worked—it was very stressful,” says Carrie Reichardt, a 25-year-old in New York City. “I wished I knew about this acne positivity back then, but I would still have wanted to
treat it. I think the idea of acne positivity also invites people to talk about their acne and not feel ashamed to ask for help.” Much like the body-positive community, the pro-acne community takes to comment sections to cheer on their torchbearers. But lurking among the enthusiastic supporters are “concern trolls,” people who give unsolicited, unwelcome advice. Wait says that she “never asked” for advice on how to get rid of acne but gets
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“People kept telling me to wash my face, as if that must have been a foreign concept to me”
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plenty of it in her comments. “People kept telling me to wash my face, as if that must have been a foreign concept to me. The idea that people with acne don’t do everything in their power to get rid of it is so absurd to me because we’re often the ones who put more care into our skin,” she says. This does lead to a somewhat gray area within the community. Acnepositivity bloggers straddle a nuanced line between fighting acne stigma and working to clear their skin. Unlike some body-positivity role models (think Ashley Graham, who’s made it clear that she has no interest in losing weight), acne influencers actively and openly test products, diets, and treatments, all the while exhibiting that those efforts and acne positivity aren’t mutually exclusive. The goal, these influencers say, is simply to accept your skin through every phase of the journey to clear, or not-so-clear, skin. “Recently my acne has started to clear up, and I do embrace that too because it’s a natural part of the process,” says Wait. “It only means that I’ll focus on acne scars next, because I know there is still quite a lot of stigma left. I don’t think I’ll ever have perfect skin—and I want to embrace that in all of its forms.” Still in its infancy, it’s hard to say whether the movement will catch on
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beyond social media and become a more normalized part of the imagery we see every day. Similar to how Aerie and Target pledged to remove airbrushing from their promotional materials, CVS will no longer edit photos on beauty advertisements. The move shows how brands can continue to sell women products without encouraging an unattainable standard of perfect, blemish-free skin. So it’s possible that spotting a zit here or there in an ad might not be far off.
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“I know there is still quite a lot of stigma left. I don’t think I’ll ever have perfect skin—and I want to embrace that in all of its forms”
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haming outdated standards Jason Pham
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innie Harlow is more than a "vitiligo model." The 23-year-old shut down people who define her by her skin condition, which causes a loss of skin color in blotches, after a magazine published an article in which she was described as a "vitiligo sufferer." In an Instagram on Wednesday, the former "America's Next Top Model" contestant posted a picture of an article by the Evening Standard. The article featured a picture of Harlow in a swimsuit with the caption, "Model Winnie Harlow is seen going for a paddle in the sea off the coast of Dubai in a series of snaps which the Canadian vitiligo sufferer, 23, posted on her Instagram." In her own Instagram caption, Harlow lashed out at Evening Standard and other publications that characterize her by her skin condition. She explained that she's simply a "model" — not a "vitiligo model" or "vitiligo sufferer."
"@eveningstandardmagazine@evening.standard and all other tabloids, magazines and people who write articles on me PSA: I'm not a 'Vitiligo Sufferer.' I'm not a 'Vitiligo model,'" Harlow wrote. "I am Winnie. I am a model. And I happen to have Vitiligo. Stop putting these titles on me or anyone else." She continued by slamming Evening Standard’s use of the word “sufferer.” Harlow explained that her condition doesn’t hold her back, but makes her unique and encourages others who have similar conditions that they can achieve their dreams too. “I AM NOT SUFFERING! If anything I’m SUCCEEDING at showing people that their differences don’t make them WHO they are! All our differences are apart [SIC] of who we are but they don’t define us!” Harlow wrote. “I’m sick of every headline ending in ‘Vitiligo Sufferer’ or “Suffers from Vitiligo’. Do you see me suffering?” She ended her Instagram by shaming Evening Standard and other publications who have committed the same mistake for perpetuating outdated standards of beauty. She also clarified that Evening Standard’s picture, which was taken from her Instagram, was actually from a happy moment — not one where she was “suffering.” “The only thing I’m Suffering from are your headlines and the closed minds of humans who have one beauty standard locked into their minds when there are multiple standards of beauty!” Harlow wrote. “The beach was damn fine that day, nothing to suffer about!” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Fighting against societal standards of beauty is not something you can “suffer” from. We hope outlets like Evening Standard take note and choose their words carefully.
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“All our differences are apart of who we are but they don’t define us!”
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SOMETHING for EVERYONE
cand’d
Office Chic JULY
COLLECTION
Never underestimate the power of a good outfit on a bad day
Fashion is what you buy, style is what you do with it.
Colour is a power which directly influences the soul
Dress like you are going to meet your worst enemy
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Style is a way of saying who you are without having to speak.
In a world full of trends I want to remain a classic gentleman
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Cosmetic E X PA N S I O N Women of color now have more choices than ever when it comes to cosmetics, but which brands are doing it right?
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ifteen years ago, when Raquel Lachman was just beginning to take an interest in makeup, visiting department store beauty floors had a way of making her, a black teenager, feel invisible. "I vividly recall being overlooked at the counter," she says. "That is an experience where, no matter how tall you are, you end up feeling a little bit smaller." "Today," she continues, "walking through a store is completely different. It changes everything when you approach the counter and are treated with respect and attention. You feel like the company values you and is issuing an open invitation." A Harvard grad with an MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, Lachman is now the director of brand marketing for Walker & Company, a startup aiming to anticipate the health and beauty needs of consumers of color. She considers herself uniquely qualified to evaluate the cosmetics industry’s attempts to be inclusive. Her assessment? It’s a mixed bag. When it comes to beauty products, women of color now have more choices than ever. The industry has evolved from leaving customers like Lachman wandering makeup aisles alone to creating elaborate marketing campaigns designed to target her directly.
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Elizabeth Segran Over the last decade and a half, cosmetics giants L’Oreal and Estée Lauder have worked hard to make their brands more diverse. Billboards and magazine ads now feature women with a much wider range of skin tones: Lupita Nyong’o is the new face of Lancôme, Frieda Pinto is a L’Oreal ambassador, Sofia Vergara is a CoverGirl. Brands are also expanding their color palettes and using color-matching technology to make it easier for women with darker skin to find the perfect shade of foundation or concealer. But the attempt to reach out to women of color has also brought new challenges. There are more opportunities than ever for clumsy missteps and campaigns that do more to alienate consumers than appeal to them. Sometimes the error has to do with poor judgement—see, for example, the controversy over whether L’Oreal artificially lightened Beyoncé Knowles’ skin in a print ad. Or take Benefit’s music video featuring Anjelah Johnson’s Bon Qui Qui character that was labeled by many as just plain racist. Or Rodarte’s Juarez collection for MAC that was meant to pay homage to Mexico, but appeared to make light of drug wars instead. Or the many TV spots that feature a Latina woman in
hoop earrings applying her makeup while salsa dancing in her kitchen. “Some brands are just trying too hard when they target us,” says Yanira Garza, a Chicago-based beauty blogger. “They rely on stereotypes that have nothing to do with how I live my life. Latin women want exactly the same thing that every other woman does.” Experts in the beauty industry point to the underlying problem of many brands treating women of color as an entirely separate group of consumer. “In the beauty industry, brands often divide skin tones into two categories: ‘general’ and ‘ethnic,’” says Karen Chambers, director of product development at Iman Cosmetics. “There is not a broader sense of inclusiveness that recognizes that women are really a
single category.” Chambers points out that this division is an unfortunate remnant of the history of makeup in America. For years, L’Oreal and Estée Lauder dominated the beauty market.
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Their brands lined the shelves of department stores and drug stores alike and focused on products for the so-called white mainstream consumer. It fell on niche brands like Flori Roberts, Fashion Fair, and Black Opal to cater to black women, but with only a fraction of the advertising and distribution budgets of companies owned by multinational corpora-
“Women of color are big spenders when it comes to makeup”
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tions, their products were relegated to small specialty stores. What the beauty conglomerates failed to realize is that women of color are big spenders when it comes to makeup. Black women shell out $7.5 billion on beauty products every year, spending 80% more on cosmetics and twice as much on skincare as other consumers. Add in the fact that white consumers will become the minority in the U.S. by 2040, and it makes sense that big brands are desperately trying to make up for lost time—but when they try too hard to pitch women of color, their efforts often backfire. Explains Lachman, “When you explicitly call out how multicultural you are, sometimes it just sounds like you mean ‘different’ or ‘other.’” This was a problem that Somali supermodel Iman Abdulmajid wanted to take on when she launched her eponymous makeup line 20 years ago. Her goal was to address the needs of women with darker complexions without focusing on race. Iman’s approach came out of her own international modeling experience during which she discovered that her cosmetic needs were often identical to South Asian or Central American models who had nearly the exact the same coloring as she did. “The real issue is not the
July 2018
woman’s background, but her skin tone,” says Chambers. “This was a beauty problem, not a cultural issue.” As she launched her company, Iman set out to change the very language that the beauty industry used to describe market segments. Rather than addressing her customers as “women of color,” she chose to use the term “women with skin of color.” On the surface, this seems like a minor distinction, but it sent a profound message, emphasizing that women of color are part of the larger group of all women, instead of a separate category. “Women with skin of color” have darker complexions and that’s it. In one sense, this represented a bold, original way
to speak to women that broke free from old frameworks. But it was also an obvious way to engage with consumers: after all, advertising directed at white women does not highlight their particular parentage. Chambers explains that the brand has to tread a delicate line between showing respect for different cultures without making culture the center of the conversation. “We get engaged in things that are culturally important to our consumers,” Chambers says. For instance, Iman Cosmetics was involved with Latina Fashion Week and Bollywood’s 100th anniversary. “But when it comes to beauty, the conversation is focused on beauty,” she continues. From the brand’s earliest days, Iman reinforced this approach by using a diverse array of models wearing neutral clothing. In order to illustrate the foundation shades in the collection, three models of different ethnicities wear each color. By being diverse at every point in the shopping experience, Iman Cosmetics has been able to attract customers from a broad array of backgrounds. Iman was keen to make her products affordable and accessible to as many women as possible; she sells her line at mass market retailers like Target and Walmart, though offering foundation that retails for $16 has made it among the more expensive lines sold in those stores. The brand is also popular overseas, with loyal customers in markets as far away as India, Nigeria, and Mexico. The company is now worth $25 million dollars. There are other brands that have been able to make inroads with women of color without explicitly focusing on race. MAC and Bobbi Brown, premium labels within the Estée Lauder group, have loyal black, Asian, and Latina consumer bases because of their comprehensive color palettes. It helps that both companies were founded by professional makeup artists who had experience working with a diverse range of models. Raquel Lachman has been using MAC
products for years and appreciates how much thought the brand put into her personal experience as a consumer. The approach is pragmatic: in-store makeup artists are tasked with helping customers address their specific concerns, for instance, the hyperpigmentation or uneven tone that can affect women with darker skin. “Rather than just calling out that they are a brand for women of color, they show me that they value me by demonstrating that they were thinking about my needs when they created their products,” she says. “It is a holistic experience: The makeup artists know exactly the right color for my skin and the look I am trying to achieve. I see women I can identify with both in the stores and in their ads.” Bobbi Brown has a similar approach.
color do not want special treatment. They, like all women, just want to have their beauty issues solved, and brands are finally starting to recognize that. “There are companies now that are willing to invest time and effort in listening to women of color and addressing their needs accurately,” says Lachman. “Their output reflects the thoughtful, intimate relationship they have with their consumer.” While women with darker skin are increasingly flocking to mainstream beauty companies, there is still space in the market for niche brands that are investing heavily in the development of groundbreaking new products for women of color. Walker and Company, for instance, is currently working on how to improve the shaving process for black women who have coarser hair and are prone to razor
“They, like all women, just want to have their beauty issues solved, and brands are finally starting to recognize that” Vimla Gupta, senior VP of global marketing at the company, explains that the brand takes a problem-based approach to beauty. “Bobbi started the company because she was interested in answering the needs of all shades of all women,” she says. “She was interested in skin tones, which goes beyond race.” The company shows consumers that it’s inclusive by offering a wide array of products and by using models from different backgrounds to show those products at work, not by loudly proclaiming any sort of diversity pitch. “I love that brands like Iman, Black Opal, and Black Radiance exist because they are thinking about way more than adding new shades to their collection,” says Patrice Yursik, founder of beauty blog Afrobella. “They’re addressing our needs in terms of coverage and the finish we might need. Often, they produce very sophisticated and tailored products at the drugstore price point, so we don’t have to seek things out at Sephora or a department store.” When it comes down to it, women of
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bumps. Iman Cosmetics reimagined BB creams and CC creams to accommodate both the tone and texture of darker women’s skin. “I love that brands like Iman, Black Opal, and Black Radiance exist because they are thinking about way more than adding new shades to their collection,” says Patrice Yursik, founder of beauty blog Afrobella. “They’re addressing our needs in terms of coverage and the finish we might need. Often, they produce very sophisticated and tailored products at the drugstore price point, so we don’t have to seek things out at Sephora or a department store.” When it comes down to it, women of color do not want special treatment. They, like all women, just want to have their beauty issues solved, and brands are finally starting to recognize that. “There are companies now that are willing to invest time and effort in listening to women of color and addressing their needs accurately,” says Lachman. “Their output reflects the thoughtful, intimate relationship they have with their consumer.
delicacy.style
MARY JEAN
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TAKE OFF THE MASK
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Made of bits and pieces Merrell Hambleton
P
eople often ask the artist and designer Pierre Davis how to wear the intricate, largely handmade clothing she creates for her Los Angeles-based line, No Sesso. “There’s this joke I have that maybe I’ll start putting directions in the garments on how to put them on,” she says. In fact, there’s no right answer. “A lot of the pieces can be worn different ways. It’s all good. Who’s to say there’s one way to wear something?” Challenging traditional ideas of dress — who wears a thing, and how it’s worn — is central to both the design and politics of No Sesso (“no sex/gender” in Italian), which has developed something of a cult following in L.A. and attracted the attention of boundary-pushing musicians like Kelela, Erykah Badu and Kelsey Lu since its launch in 2014. Tied, stitched, knotted or delicately embroidered, No Sesso’s unisex pieces seem to be constantly shifting and evolving. Seams undulate like lines of music and burst open, colors clash and loose, irregular knits transition into sleek, sharply tailored lamé or billowing nylon. Even geometric patterns, constructed from pieces of vintage fabric, vibrate with life. Denim waistbands are layered into a fitted sheath dress, and white painter’s coveralls become a delicate silk jumpsuit. “Some of the pieces are almost like Transformers, or convertible cars,” says Davis. “Everyone has different shaped bodies, so it makes the garments a bit more accessible.” Accessibility — especially for black, brown and transgender bodies that have historically been
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“Some of the pieces are almost like Transformers, or convertible cars”
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underrepresented in the fashion industry — is at the heart of Davis’s global vision for the brand, which she calls “a platform for other like-minded artists who just want to be seen or represented.” But when she first started making clothes, it was in answer to a personal need. “I was designing for myself,” she says. “I wanted garments that I connected to. Sometimes it’s really hard to find things you actually want to spend your money on.” The 28-year-old designer was born in South Carolina and influenced early on by ‘90s pop culture: R&B music videos, the Jean Paul Gaultier-costumed “The Fifth Element” and her mother’s copies of the magazines Black Hair and Hype Hair. In high school, she taught herself to sew and “started tapping into wanting to be a designer.” Following a brief stint at the Art Institute of Seattle, Davis presented her first collection of deconstructed denim. “That was the birth of No Sesso.” A move to L.A. in 2014 gave Davis the space and resources to expand. “I spent a lot of time in the fashion district,” she says. “There’s blocks and blocks of fabric, zippers — everything you need to construct a garment.” Today, Davis still makes most things by hand, working with a community of friends and collaborators.
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We do a lot of patchwork “Inspired by black pieces using recycled denim,” she says. “This fall we recycled a bunch of sweaters and turned them into dresses.” New materials are sourced in the fashion district and Davis thrifts the rest. “I go through everything — all the pants, all the tops, all the sweaters,” she says. “I like to go by myself, and I have to have patience. And a good playlist.” Like the thrifting process, hand-assembly takes time. “We spend hours making these garments,” Davis says. “Most of them are one of a kind.” Embroidery, which Davis taught herself in 2016, has become a signature of the brand. Last spring, she embroidered a jacket with images “inspired by black women’s hair and how beautiful the black woman is when getting ready.” It took six months. Davis’s process is out of step with the pace of high fashion — and that’s partially the point. “It’s a work of art more than it is fashion for me,” she says. “I really don’t care about the fashion cycle.” In fact, No Sesso recently abandoned the traditional categories of spring/summer and fall/winter. The current collection, No Sesso’s first of the year, is referred to simply as NS 2018-1. “I’m just going to release things when I feel like releasing them,” she says. For Davis, No Sesso is a form of resistance (what she calls a “peaceful protest”) that’s subverting the fashion industry by “bringing joy.” Plenty of designers — Rick Owens, Thom Browne and Faye and Erica Toogood among them — have explored genderless fashion, though they’ve tended toward the muted and minimal, uniforms for a “Matrix”-like dystopia. Davis’s radical vision of a post-gender world is, by contrast, full of optimism. For the upcoming collection, which launches on May 12, Davis imagines “what someone would want to wear in 2022.” “Last season, I was watching a lot of ‘Star Trek’,” she says. “You don’t see a lot of black identity in sci-fi, so that’s something I’m pushing — showing more identities, giving people a reason to connect to the future.”
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women’s hair and how beautiful the black woman is when getting ready”
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6
ways to make your wardrobe more ecofriendly
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n the outside, the fashion industry looks like all fun and games, but there’s a dark side to the business. By now, you’ve heard of the unethical labor practices — child workers, sweatshops and unbearably low wages — but did you also know that the industry is ranked as a major source of pollution in the world, right up there with oil, agriculture and paper? According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Chinese textile industry, which produces about half of the clothes Americans buy, creates about 300 tons of soot each year. And a single mill in China can use 200 tons of water for each ton of fabric it dyes. Yikes! It’s time we clean things up. In celebration of Earth Day on April 22, we’re taking a good hard look at our closets to see how we can be the change we want to see in the world. Want to get in on the action? Here are 6 eco-friendly fashion tips to help make your wardrobe more green.
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Wash with care
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Discard responsibly
According to the EPA, more than 11 billion kilograms of clothing and household textiles were generated in the U.S. in 2009. Currently, more than 9 billion kgs are discarded in landfills. That’s about 31kgsof clothing and household textiles per person each year. To cut down on waste, try not to throw away your clothes when you’re through with them. Instead, hold a swap meet with your friends or take them to secondhand shops and charitable organizations.
Buy green laundry detergent. It does the same job without the harsh, synthetic chemicals that harm the environment and pose health hazards. To save energy, wash on low heat and line dry. If you need to dry clean your clothes, search for an eco-friendly, organic cleaner in your neighborhood that doesn’t use perchloroethylene (perc), a common chemical used by many traditional dry cleaners. It’s been listed as a hazardous air pollutant by the Clean Air Act and a probable human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the US Environmental Protection Agency.
When you purchase merchandise from a brand, you’re not just buying a piece of clothing or a statement necklace. You’re also indirectly giving your seal of approval on its labor and environmental practices.
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Skip fast fashion
Know your fabrics
Bamboo, silk, organic cotton, soy, hemp and lyocell are just a few of the natural, eco-friendly fabrics on the market. Before you shop, it’s best to know the ins and outs of each. For the CliffsNotes version, hop on over to our friends at Green Living. You’ll be a pro in no time.
We know, we know. You love buying a T-shirt for $3. So do we. But guess what? There’s a reason the price tag is so low. The garments are made to fall apart. Retailers like Forever 21 and H&M are dependent on the consumer’s desire for new clothing — and a dress that gets a hole in it after one wash only escalates that desire. Not to mention the fact that many fast fashion chains still institute unethical labor practices. If that’s not enough to deter you, this may: According to the Center for Environmental Health, fast fashion retailers like Charlotte Russe, Wet Seal and Forever 21 are still selling lead-contaminated shoes, belts and purses above the legal amount, even years after signing a settlement agreeing to limit the use of heavy metals in their products
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When in doubt, DIY Give old, tired or discarded clothes and accessories a second life with a little bit of love and a whole lot of DIY magic. You can get crafty with just about anything, from loose bits of jewelry and old shoes to bridesmaid dresses and worn-out sweaters.
Invest in your shoes It’s simple: The more you take care of your shoes, the longer they’ll last. You know what that means? Less consumption and waste. As soon as you unwrap your new pair of shoes, take them to a shoe repair shop to add on heel covers and toe treads, so you won’t damage the bottom of your shoes. When the protective covers wear through, it’s time for another visit. Same goes for broken heels, cuts, holes and fades.
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Thrifty is fashionable
Shannon Zhao
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econd-hand, vintage, consignment or however you want to refer to it — the clothing resale market is a billion dollar industry, with approximately 25,000 resale stores across the United States and over 80 in San Francisco alone. Thrifting is quite possibly the most rewarding shopping experience due to its effect of simulating “treasure hunting,” and who doesn’t love finding hidden gems? Despite the aforementioned thrill, buying and wearing used clothes have been stigmatized for years. Many people feared that secondhand clothes were dirty and carried diseases having not been appropriately cleaned by the stores. Additionally, those who were superstitious believed that the misfortunes and misdeeds of the previous owner would be passed on through the clothing. The vintage craze in recent fashion and home decor has drawn attention to thrift shops due to the wide selection of antique clothing that these stores offer. Today, thrift shops are no longer reserved for the penny-pinching, but attract shoppers
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“In the sea of mass-produced clothing, shoppers are seeking more ways to express their individualism and flair”
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from all financial backgrounds. The vintage craze in recent fashion and home decor has drawn popularity in thrift shops due to the wide selection of antique clothing that thrift stores offer. Fashion bloggers strive to set new clothing trends to avoid looking like everyone else. Thrift stores provide the perfect solution to developing one’s own unique style with one-of-a-kind pieces at affordable prices. Many shoppers also find interest in thrifted items because they carry the story of the previous owner, and therefore have more character and life. Clothes whose only journey is from the manufacturer to the store lack this appeal. In the sea of mass-produced clothing, shoppers are seeking more ways to express their individualism and flair. Television shows like “Thrift Wars” and “Thrift Hunters” are loosening up people’s perceptions of thrifting and the idea of buying used clothes. People are swarming to thrift stores to hunt for clothes and furniture to upcycle into DIY (do-it yourself) projects. The Grammy award winning song “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis also contributed to the popularity of thrift shops among the younger generation. Many thrift stores donate a significant portion, or even all, of their proceeds to charities supporting both local and global causes. The “Out of the Closet” nonprofit chain of thrift stores, operated by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, donates their revenue to provide medical assistance to patients with HIV/AIDS and offers free HIV testing in their stores. Other thrift stores such as “Community Thrift” support their neighborhood on a smaller scale. “It’s the best job I ever had,” said one Community Thrift store manager. “We benefit over 200 local charities, so we’re really giving back to the community.” According to “The True Cost,” a documentary that aims to raise awareness for the environmental cost of the retail market, the average American discards 82 pounds of textile garbage each year, totalling up to 22 billion pounds of clothing from the U.S. alone. In addition, most of these textiles are not biodegradable and many sit in our landfills for over 200 years. Thrift stores may be our best bet to save the environment. Resale is eco-friendly and keeps clothes from filling up our landfills. By shopping at a resale store, you are supporting local business, donating to charities and saving Mother Nature, all while looking stylish.
Inside the weird and WILD world of
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Edwin Mohney
July 2018
T J Sidhu
I
nside the weird and wild world of CSM’s standout MA designer, Edwin Mohney’s debut collection featured an inflatable swimming pool top, rubber chicken hats, and Trump mask stilettos Year in, year out, the Central Saint Martins MA show is an open window into the revered fashion school and its creative comings and goings. Thanks to the school’s collection of amazing alumni – Alexander McQueen, Phoebe Philo, and Riccardo Tisci among them – the expectations are undeniably high, but that doesn’t stop the students from consistently delivering year after year. At this year’s show, held during the AW18 LFW womenswear shows in February, there was one standout collection who had everyone grinning and wideeyed with joy – Edwin Mohney. Not that you’ll need reminding, his collection was the one with the giant swimming pool dress/top/necklace? Going against the stale, repetitive commentary on the practicality of fashion – Who would wear that? How would it fit? – Mohney’s collection was a darkly humorous take on immediacy and modernity. “I think the time comes when you have more pressure on you to say this is what I’m doing and I need to make money from it, but I’m not at that point yet”, Mohney explains. “(Basically) having the free space to do whatever the fuck you want and it not being about the output but the process as a whole.” Ignoring the commercial aspect of fashion, in addition to the swimming pool, there were also rubber chicken hats, clown wig skirts, condom-inspired dresses, and ‘Trumpetto’s’ (Donald Trump stilettos, naturally). More than just rule-bending, the designer’s intelligent humour and approach made his collection
one of the show’s standouts. To shoot the collection, Mohney enlisted photography duo Reece and Dean in a series of ‘smoke and mirrors’-style images. Already having shot Matty Bovan and FKA twigs, the pair’s dreamy, hyper-real style was the best way to showcase the collection. Here, we speak to Mohney about his MA collection, and what is coming next.
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“I think the time comes when you have more pressure on you to say this is what I’m doing and I need to make money from it, but I’m not at that point yet”
Firstly, what was the swimming pool about? Edwin Mohney: I liked the shape.
How did your MA collection evolve from your BA? Edwin Mohney: During my BA I was really focused on using one medium or material and using that as a vehicle to tell a story. When it came to my MA, I had this real passion for making clothing and crafting garments – I wanted to give myself the time to do whatever I wanted, just trust my intuition. Then, somehow, I was way more interested in this idea of working intuitively and creating a story out of the different decisions I was making day-to-day. I wanted to explore and question!
So you treated them as two different collections? Edwin Mohney: Yeah, that’s the idea basically. I was happy with how the BA came out and I didn’t see it as something to improve on. For valid reasons some do an MA to improve on what they were doing or the project isn’t over for them. I really felt that, for me, it was done. It was about giving myself the space to make garments. BA was so much about something crafty and MA is more about proper couture techniques which is what I’m interested in – it just takes time to get there. I personally think it’s more interesting when a designer changes season to season and isn’t just on the same project – it shows a lot more risk involved and more courage to do it. Especially having to make money. Because I was in school I didn’t need to worry about it.
What were some of your inspirations/thoughts behind the collection? Edwin Mohney: A lot of it came from reading about how we would summarise what our current climate is. You have modernism and postmodernism and I was also reading a lot about capitalism, then at one point someone mentioned this idea of modernity. To me, that’s the idea of not being defined by any past... your identity isn’t defined by anything. I would do this, then I realised I was doing something I didn’t realise was really relevant.
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Did you have a clear idea for the collection, or did it evolve over time? Edwin Mohney: Totally. I think it’s interesting to see where you’re at on month three versus where you’re at on month one. If anything starts to feel a bit heavy or overworked it’s always great to look through the material July 2018
“I personally think it’s more interesting when a designer changes season to season and isn’t just on the same project”
you have and you can kind of disrupt what you’ve done – leaving that open is important. It’s easy to say you get nervous but you just have to do it, I just have to work with what I have in front of me. There’s always room to change things and experiment. It was interesting going into a line-up and showing a completely different collection every week. The tutors were a bit like ‘fuck’. But, you know, what was great was one of them pointed out that it’s a totally valid way to work – it’s this idea of not defining yourself too much from one idea and you can totally change and evolve.
You mentioned that the collection was an ode to Amazon Prime? Edwin Mohney: I’m interested in this instantaneous thing with Prime. As for the Trumpetto’s, it was more about the fact that it was a mask being worn as a shoe and that was the mask I found on Prime versus it being a political statement. It’s political by nature, but I was more interested in using politics as a subject to wear and being able to wear politics, as opposed to wearing a political statement even if it’s aligned with what my political statement is. When I said ‘Ode to Amazon Prime’ it was more about the immediacy of it – it became really addictive.
Why did you use Reece and Dean to showcase your collection? Edwin Mohney: It worked naturally well between us – we have some sensibilities but from two different worlds. They work with visuals and I work with clothing – it was great to bring the two together. I see my work as quite dark. The difficulty of a runway show is that it’s so much more stripped back – it’s harder to let the sinister-ness come through. For me, the idea is disconcerting that you can get something so immediate. The idea is dark but I still have the humour within it.
What do you have planned next?
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Edwin Mohney: I’ll just be carrying on with what I’m doing. I think what’s nice is that because I jumped around quite a lot, the space is open to make anything out of anything. I’m working on more projects and working for myself. At the same time, I’m also trying to find a job just for experience. If I can learn from someone then I want to learn – that’s just it for me. It’s not necessarily about anything more than that, so if nothing comes my way or nothing happens then I’m going to try my best on my own and learn that way – I’ll make something happen as you do. If not then it’s just...carrying on really!
Fluid fashion Yasmine Gray
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The future is not assigning gender to genitals,� the sisters say of their 'The Future is Fluid' Collection. According to recent studies, Generation Z (those born between 1996 and 2010) is the most gender fluid generation yet, with nearly 50% identifying with a sexual orientation that's something other than completely straight and 56% knowing of someone who prefers a gender-neutral pronoun. Pop band Tegan and Sara, who have identified as queer since the beginning of their career in 1998, noticed a gap in support for these communities. So a year ago in 2016, they launched the Tegan and Sara Foundation, an organization working towards economic justice, health and representation for LGBTQ girls and women.
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“Since the beginning of our career, our LGBTQ fans have supported us in innumerable ways,” Teagan and Sara noted on their website. “Our journey navigating sexism and homophobia in the music industry has always been interwoven with the stories you share with us. Your personal histories of injustice and discrimination at home, school, work, and church have inspired us to use our public status to speak out about the struggles of the LGBTQ community.” Now,
the sisters have collaborated with Wildfang — which means “tomboy,” “wild child,” and “rascal” in German — a company dedicated to liberating menswear from its traditional gender constructs and revolutionizing the way women shop for tomboy fashion, to create their ‘The Future is Fluid’ capsule collection. The line features slogan tees, hoodies, jackets and pins and is available on wildfang.com. 100% of profits will go directly to the the duo’s foundation. The powerful video for the project, which features “20 queer, non-binary and trans individuals who represent non-conformity in their gender identity, expression, sexuality and relationships,” is an inspiring showcase of proud fluidity, as Tegan and Sara’s voices lend encouragement throughout with such phrases as: “the future is not assigning gender to genitals” and “you are enough.”
“The future is not assigning gender to genitals”
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DIY FAUX FLOWER COAT
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I walked into the studio one day and was like “I WANT TO COVER A COAT IN FAKE FLOWERS”
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S
ooooo, this happened? I walked into the studio one day and was like “I WANT TO COVER A COAT IN FAKE FLOWERS” and then everyone proceeded to get up and leave. JK! In my mind, this coat was to be like one of those big fur coats, or even those pom pom coats, but with FLOWERS! Channeling my inner Iris Apfel, perhaps? Anyway, the faux flower coat was born and I will be wearing this outfit every day from here on out. Even to the grocery store. And if you can work a hot glue gun and snag some fake flowers… you can make this too. BA-BAM!
SUPPLIES • • • •
Variety Faux Flowers (We used about 150 medium-large blooms plus some smaller fillers) Hot Glue Gun Jacket (Preferably collarless) Scissors and Wire Cutters
TOTAL TIME: About 2-3 Hours
DIRECTIONS
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Clip a bunch of the medium/large flowers you've purchased with wire cutters (or scissors if the stems aren't wire), about 1/4" from the bloom.
Start with the back of the coat. Hot glue your largest, favorite blooms sporadically across the back of the coat, saving some for the front a well. Then go back and continue gluing with the additional blooms.
3 4
Flip the coat over and repeat on the front and finally on the sleeves.
Once all your big blooms are on and the majority of the coat is covered, go back and fill in any gaps with small buds and blooms until your satisfied with how it looks. Sometimes it's helpful to put the coat on during this step, as it looks different on than it does flat!
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My CAND’D Fashion Events Calendar 2018
July
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rom local fashion weeks, to trade shows, to exhibitions; knowing what events are happening will keep your fashion credentials sky-high. Whether you are a student, a professional or just a fashion enthusiast, these are the key events that need to go in your diary.
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Sat, 01 - Sun, 02 Jul 2018 The Wedding Expo Durban (At Sibaya Sun Park) Durban
Wed, 05 - Fri, 07 Jul 2018 Source Africa Cape Town
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th
Fri, 07 - Sat, 08 Jul 2018 Bridal Expo Krugersdorp
Mon, 10 Wed, 12 Jul 2018 Ethnique Hair and Beauty Show Johannesburg
14
th
Fri, 14 - Sun, 16 Jul 2018 Working Mothers Expo Johannesburg
Wed, 20 Jul 2018 SAFW LUXURY DESIGNER POP UP Durban
23rd
Sat, 23 - Sun, 24 Jul 2018 Global Sources Fashion Apparel & Fabrics Show Johannesburg
Mon, 25 - Wed, 27 Jul 2018 Professional Beauty Africa Cape Town Fri, 29 - Sun, 31 Jul 2018 SA Shoe Expo Cape Town
highlight Fri, 22 - Sat, 23 Jul 2018 Cosmetex Africa Johannesburg July 2018
CAND’D 119
29
th
Our
CAND’D 120
July 2018
BAD HAS NEVER LOOKED SO GOOD
CAND’D 122
July 2018
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R49.99