ILLUMINANT ISSUE NO.1
MAY. 2017
EDITOR’S LETTER In the first issue of ILLUMINANT we meet Beth Ditto; one of the famous singer and songwriter whose shared her personal feminism thoughts about make up and some idea of ugly. “Here comes the sun” presents a cool girl stands under the sunlight. It is not only showing the daily clothing for the viewers, but also highlight the purpose of the flapper girl in a daily way and emphasis the purpose of the ILLUMINANT. In addition, it will bring the new Jewelry designer’s story for you to lift her journey of the heart.
Photo taken by Stedelijk Museum
“Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.” Qi Xu
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ILLUMINANT Issue No. 1 May. 2017
CULTURE: Beth Ditto on Why Makeup Is the Heart of Feminism— And There’s No Such Thing as Ugly, 3-4
FASHION TRENDING: The parade of stripes, 5-6
THE FLAPPER FASHION SHOOTING: Here comes the sun, 7-11 INTEVIEW: Shine on you“Self-identity and Self-fulfill ment, 12-14 FASHION TRENDING: Into the light, 15-18
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CULTURE
Beth Ditto on Why Makeup Is the Heart of Feminism—And There’s No Such Thing as Ugly. BY HANNA HANRA
Gossip front woman discovered makeup as the ultimate tool of self-expresion through the punk-feminist Riot Grrrl movement. Now, with YouTube tutorials, Instagram influencers, and select spring shows encouraging women to reacquaint themselves with the transformational power of cosmetics, her boundary-pushing battle cry is gaining ground. Following turns on Marc Jacob’s spring runway and in Alexander Wang’s fall DoSomething campaign, Ditto shares her thoughts on the enduring art of embellishment.
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ome people can draw, some people can sew, but putting on makeup has always been my jam. I used to say that if things went off a cliff with singing, I’d go straight to cosmetology school! I think it comes from being a child of the eighties. I grew up in a dry county in Arkansas, and there were a lot of Church of Christ influences, which were strong enough that the local cable company stopped carrying MTV after only two years. My mom was a young rock mom, though, so there was always music in the house, and I have lasting images of Cyndi Lauper and Michael Jackson, of Madonna and Human League and Boy George—all these artists who looked as incredible and outrageous as they sounded. I used to spend hours drawing on the Madonna mole, and dyeing my hair with Kool-Aid mixed with some kind of creamy base, like Noxzema. (Turns out just pouring it over your head doesn’t work.) It was a wild time of pure pop culture. Video was new, and everything felt full of energy and experimental. In some ways, my visual sense is still a little stuck in this two-year MTV time capsule. When I was in fourth grade, my mother ordered some navy and plum liquid felt-tip eyeliner pens from Avon—which was très fancy for us—and I’ve basically had to have my eyes done ever since. When I play a show, I put on MAC’s Liquidlast Liner in Point Black and center everything else around it. I can’t say enough good
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things about that product. It just doesn’t budge. I’m not the kind of singer who stays in one place, so it’s all about industrial-strength staying power for me. Onstage and in everyday life, I don’t wear a lot of foundation or blush, and I don’t get into all of the online tutorials about contouring, either. But I do think it’s important that those videos are being made—that you can be in a small town in the middle of nowhere and find out how to do a perfect Cleopatra eye. There are so many incredible artists out there who are sharing their work online, from absolute, bow-down geniuses like Pat McGrath to mind-blowing Instagram wizards like Lyle Reimer. It all helps reinforce the idea that makeup is a tool for transformation, of really limitless self-reinvention that lets you try out identities and ideas. You can just wash off what doesn’t work and start over. As a teenager, I fought this idea because I thought femininity, and that kind of femininity in particular, was giving in to the man. So I would put makeup on in secret and then take it all off before I left the house. I was going through my radical-feminist phase, which followed my Boy George phase (and my sixties, Patty Duke bouffant–and–cat’s eye phase). Then I discovered the Riot Grrrl movement, and that really changed everything for me. Girls were picking and choosing pieces of “female” fashion and twisting them: lipstick and baby doll dresses paired with dirty Converse and a skateboard; a cute pageboy haircut and a child’s barrette with hairy armpits and a guitar. I stopped seeing makeup, shaved legs, and dresses as the enemy. They aren’t imperatives of being female; they’re part of a costume that people of any gender can choose to
CULTURE the runways, but I can be just as inspired by a kid at the mall, or an old picture, like Greta Garbo and her incredibly thin eyebrows, or Priscilla Presley, back in the day when she married Elvis. She had the best brows. I pluck mine so thin you can’t tell if I have any at all, which lets me draw them back on however I want. It’s the coolest look, I think. When I see someone with no eyebrows, all I see is how much more room they have for eye shadow.
Beth Ditto, drawing on her fearless approach to style, has curated a namesake line of highly designed plus- size clothing, out this month. Derek Lam dress.
wear or not. Artists I love, like Siouxsie Sioux and Patti Smith, have such radically different ways of embodying femininity, but they’re both amazing punk women. The true heart of feminism isn’t about meeting other people’s expectations around your body or your gender. It’s about putting on so much MAC Point Black and L’Oréal Voluminous Butterfly Mascara from the drugstore that it’s almost a joke if that’s what makes you feel comfortable. To say that reactions to the way I look can be negative is an understatement. But for the most part I own it, and I always have. I’ve had a strong self-identity since I was fairly young because, being a big person, I had to learn early on that what people say about you, and how they treat you, really says more about them than it does about you. So I got good at staying ahead with punch lines, and I got bold about taking up space. That’s part of the reason I was overjoyed to be a part of Marc Jacobs’s spring show. I’m never one to shy away from attention, but what really spoke volumes when I teetered my way through the aisles of New York’s Ziegfeld Theater in François Nars’s clumpy, spidery lashes was seeing Kim Gordon and Bette Midler in the audience—two people who are both so important in their own genres, and who are so different, but also the same in that they’re not conventional. It gave me such a boost because I truly believe that beauty isn’t just about being beautiful. It’s about being interesting. I follow
That ability, to have a vision and stand by it, is why my makeup artist, Andrew Gallimore, and I got on like a house on fire when we met eight years ago in London. He was doing my makeup for a friend’s birthday party, and I knew I had met the man who would draw on my face forever. The party was Marie Antoinette–themed, and I sat right down and let this total stranger transform me into a flawless powdered doughnut. Then, right before we left for the party, we both blacked out our teeth with my tube of Point Black, and that sealed the deal for me. We’ve been inseparable ever since. The reward of full-on makeup does come with some risk. Once, on tour in Germany, Andrew painted my eyes gold, and they started to burn like they’d been blasted with pepper spray in the middle of a live television show. They were running like faucets, and all I could do was put on a pair of shades. And there I was, wearing sunglasses indoors during an interview like some kind of rock caricature. But instead of feeling pretentious and obnoxious, I just decided to feel like a chic beatnik and not care what anybody else thought. I learned I couldn’t wear that kind of eye pigment again, but it didn’t stop me from experimenting. Because no-makeup makeup is not my thing. It’s not that I feel naked, or ugly with my natural brows, bare lids, and unpainted lips; I just don’t feel dressed. That’s the old Southern woman in me. Besides, I don’t believe in ugly anyway. I like to take words and filter
them through context: —they all serve a purpose for painting a picture. It’s up to you to interpret them because beauty is relative.
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Stripes has become one of the most popular elements all over the 2017 spring and summer cawalk from seaside stripes to the others. we high recommended the pinstripes at Mulberry and the thick stripes at Marques’ Almeida; seaside stripes both from Proenza Schouler and Pringle of Scotland; and also have print stripes from Mary Katrantzou. 5
THE PARADE
OF STRIPES
FASHION TRENDING
desginers get used to styling from the head to the toe in their daily life but we would like to see your fresh blood to impress us. 6
HERE COMES THE SUN
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hotography: Tim Zhang
Stylist: Qi Xu
FASHION SHOOTING
White shirt from H&M Black blazer from Zara Black trouser from Other Stories 8
Earring from MIHOTAO Sunglass from Zara White shirt from H&M Denim Jacket: Monki 9
HERE COMES THE SUN
Earring from MIHOTAO Sunglass from Zara White shirt from H&M Denim Jacket: Monki 10
Black Chocker from Zara White shirt from H&M Black trouser from Other Stories French trench coat from Topshop 11
SHINE ON YOU “Self-identity and Self-fulfillment”
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JIA XING XU JiaXing Xu currently studies undergraduate course at prestigious Nanjing Arts College and her major is animation. As a new designer, JiaXing has presented her boundless ideas, skills and ability on the stage of her Jewelry show cooperated with Malaysia brand called MOTOGUO in 2017 Spring/Summer. Also, she has taken part in several fashion shows such as Shanghai fashion show and Paris fashion show. She founded her own Chinese label at Nanjing in the December of 2015 and it is named as DDDesign Studio. The meaning of brand name is originally from their unique 3D print skills, which implied in Jewelry design so that DDDesign is equal to 3D. ILLUMINANT communicated with JiaXing for the first time to explore the fresh thoughts of the young generation of fashion Jewelry design.
Qi Xu: Hello JiaXing, it’s nice to see you. the most pressing problem to solve by our intuition. JiaXing Xu: You too. I’m sorry that I was too busy yesterday. Qi Xu: I saw parts of your collection have cooperated with MOTOGUO, presenting at Milano fashQi Xu: No worries. It is so pleasure to interview ion week show this year in spring? you, haha. JiaXing Xu: yes, indeed. I am so lucky to become JiaXing Xu: Oh… thanks for saying that. I was ple- parts of MOTOGUO to show my work. The expesure to be your interviewee. rience was so incredible, you know. For me, it was not only a special experience letting us to familiar Qi Xu: So, with our brand, but also it was a how’s every- “Fashion is no longer limited in the great opportunity for me to apthing going? dressing code, more importantly, it preciate others’ works. JiaXing Xu: Oh, I am too busy to shapes the way women actually look, Qi Xu: What is the name of do everything! think or dress in the contemporary so- your collection? What is your I devote to balinspiration for design? ciety. It does not matter for the thing, ance my studio JiaXing Xu: The cooperated and my course- it’s all about the attitude, you know.” collection is named as “Picnic work simultanein the society”. The idea for this ously, that is a Jewelry collection grew out of bit struggle for me, especially my deadline is coming. clothing from Motoguo. Perhaps it can be entitled as “emotion.” Qi Xu: That’s tough! You must have done a thorough work on your studio and your study. I know Qi Xu: Can I say that Chinese culture has influthat you have already found your brand for two ences on your designs? years, so what is the biggest challenge so far? JiaXing Xu: Absolutely. Everything I do has an Asian JiaXing Xu: I think the biggest challenge for me is element. It has shown noticeably in my work as direct how to learn from our mistakes, and also adhere to Chinese culture references, such as Chinese character our own creative principles. You know, the most dif- element. In addition, my collection always reserved ficult thing for me is that each error may denote a lot and humble sentiment. of unprecedented problems. And we need to select 13
INTERVIEW Qi Xu: What do you think of the relationship between women and fashion? JiaXing Xu: Fashion is no longer limited in the dressing code, more importantly, it shapes the way women actually look, think or dress in the contemporary society. It does not matter for the thing, it’s all about the attitude, you know. Qi Xu: Is it the same idea for your design? JiaXing Xu: Almost the same. Haha.
work? JiaXing Xu: well… it is so harsh to balance my career and my schoolwork. The only way is that you must have 100% concentration on both, for example, when I start working on my career, I am definitely committed on my work, as same as on schoolwork. I do not know how others will do but this is my own way. Sometimes people may think I’m too tired to balance my studio and my coursework so that I need have a time to have a rest for a while. The fact is I cannot even take a breath because I am a kind of work girl that I cannot live without my work, it is kind of belongingness.
Qi Xu: So how does your DDdesign girl look like, what is her lifestyle, state of mind, spirit? JiaXing Xu: I design for a woman who is optimistic, poetic and independent. My “muse” is human. But is Qi Xu: Do you think you are a feminist? also fully aware of her strengths and always strives JiaXing Xu: hum. To be honest, I think I am a femto improve and learn. She is modern, independent inist. But I do not want to call for girls to be a femand shies away in a political way, “She is modern, independent and shies inist from trends and an aggressive way. In fads, developing away from trends and fads, developing reverse, I encourage any her own indigirls to be an indepenher own individuality by surrounding viduality by surdent, attractive and full rounding herself herself with meaningful, unique objects of positive energy girl in with meaningful, a gentle way. From this that satisfy her aesthetic” unique objects aspect, I am pretty sure that satisfy her that I am a feminist. aesthetic. The most important point is that she must be cool enough. Qi Xu: That’s a big move, hahaha. How do you Qi Xu: I know your 3D print technique skills ap- make a living for your studio? plied to your jewelry design, that is too special to JiaXing Xu: I have an official website on Taobao, look, which one is your favorite one? which brings certain profits for me to persist with JiaXing Xu: Definitely be Ear and Ear. Actually the Jewelry design. I promoted my brands through sorts creativity moment inspired by my boyfriend and the of social media, such as Weibo, WeChat, etc. prototype was his ear. He encouraged me to make it in real through 3D technique skills. The unique skill Qi Xu: Ok…Can I say that social media is one of is not that hard to operate, however there are too few the best way for you to keep up to date with the people implied the skills into jewelry in China. Of fashion world? course, we are not the only one to do it but we are JiaXing Xu: Yesss… trying to do it uniquely and cool. Qi Xu: thanks for your patience, JiaXing. It’s glad Qi Xu: As a ‘new’ career girl, how do you maintain to understand what you think more profoundly. the balance between your career and your school JiaXing Xu: My pleasure. 14
INTO THE LIGHT
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Photography: Liu Sun
Editor: Rita Xu
FASHION SHOOTING
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INTO THE LIGHT
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