Issue 26: BLOOM

issue 26

spring 2013

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4. Introduction 6. Inspirations

by Katherine Cambareri

FASHION

10. Tokyo Breeze

by Suguru Kaibara 16. Profile: NiiLartey De Osu

by Hannah Rahel 18. Sugar Sweet

by Hannah Laamoumi 28. Slow It Down

by Hannah Rahel 29. Lace, Always & Forever

by Katharina Novak 30. Secret Garden

by Iana Chyzhankova

POETRY

41. For the Violet

by Helen Little 42.Vera and Vladimir Nabokov Chasing Butterflies

by Kathleen Radigan 43. Warning Wings

by Amy Mattox

FAREWELL

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ISSUE 26: BLOOM

GENEVA GLEASON Editor-in-Chief Hannah Rahel Fashion Editor Alexa Derman Literature Editor

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Clara Smith Politics Editor Publisher TAP Magazine

Š TAP Magazine 2013. All rights reserved. www.tapmagazine.net

Introductory photographs

by Joey Quintero. Special thanks to National Eating Disorders Association.

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fashion

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tokyo breeze

Photographed by Suguru Kaibara, styled by Yoshiki Hayashi, hair design by Hiroko Yanoh, makeup design by Kie Kiyohara, modeled by Nana (Bellona Model Agency), and wardrobe by yuya nakata. Special thanks to Iino Mediapro.

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NiiLartey De Osu/Neodandi

by Hannah Rahel NiiLartey De Osu is the avant-garde American fashion designer of fashion label Neodandi. NiiLartey was born in Ghana, and currently creates custom men’s and women’s apparel from his new atelier in New York. NiiLartey showed at MercedesBenz Fashion Week New York in February.

Was it always a dream of yours to design clothing?

I wouldn’t necessarily say it was a dream, but something I always knew I would do.

How did you actually get involved in fashion?

I was having breakfast with my son and the owner of the restaurant came to me as I was leaving and told me she was opening a small boutique and wanted me to design {page 16}

{spring 2013} some pieces for it. She had known me as a painter but was curious to see what type of clothing I would design.

Coming from Ghana, how does that influence your life as a fashion designer in New York City?

There is a vitality in Ghana that I grew up with, vibrant colors, music and dancing, that I am reminded of in New York. The energy makes me feel at home and at ease in New York. I see the music of the city and put that into my designs.

What is it that you love the most about working in the fashion industry?

What I love about fashion is the ability to express the qualities of the mind and of the spirit, and creating that which allows people to see themselves in a way that is beautiful.

Can you describe a day in the life of being a fashion designer?

For myself, I wake up in the morning and go to the gym, I may watch some news, and then I am either in my design studio designing on models and available for the seamstress staff if they have any questions (everything at Neodandi happens in-house), or I am supply shopping, or teaching rehearsal for Neodandi models in the evening. When time permits I am reading or painting.

Where do you find inspiration for the Neodandi collections?

I find inspiration in everything for Neodandi collections. This season, the inspiration is 12th Century Japan, which I had read about in the Tale of Genji. Called the first modern novel, the novel was actually written in the early part of the 11th Century, but there is a beautiful illustrated hand scroll from the 12th Century that illustrates the intention and deliberate nature with which the Japanese court put into their attire every day.

Where does the spiritual aspect of the clothing designs come from?

The spiritual aspect comes from the understanding that each one of us is unique. Each one of us has something that no one else has and that something is irreplaceable. That thing is the spirit. So it is our spirit that we are expressing when we get dressed every day, showing how we feel about ourselves, showing who we are to the world. In my design I look to elicit the spirit within and honor that spirit by creating designs that speak to the majesty and beauty within us all.

What sets Neodandi apart from other fashion houses?

What separates Neodandi is many things, from the spiritualism of the philosophy to the design itself and the way in which I design. We truly hold the individual as the prize and that is who I design for, not a large group of people that should all fit into one ‘ideal.’ What was it like to bring Neodandi to New York City?

It is exciting and daunting all at once. New York City is the fashion capital of the world, the home to the biggest US players, and I look forward to making a name for Neodandi among them.

What are your future goals for Neodandi?

Besides the aforementioned, my goals for Neodandi are, as an American company, to take to the international stage, and have Neodandi become a name that is synonymous with substantive and sustainable luxury.

Tell us about producing a show during NYFW. It is a lot of work! With designing, fittings, music selection and production, putting together the format of the show, and rehearsing our models, by the end of the show I am grateful it is over!

All in time to start again! {page 17}

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sugar sweet {page 18}

Photographed by Hannah Laamoumi, styled by Jessica Keller, makeup design by Sara Eudy, and modeled by Sara Skinner and Gaby Martinez.

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Slow It Down: Shying away from “Fast Fashion”

by Hannah Rahel

‘Fast Fashion’ is a term coined for designs that move from the runways to stores in the fastest amount of time possible in order to capture current trends in the market at an affordable price. ‘Fast Fashion’ makes up most of the popular brands out there. Stores like Zara, Forever 21, and H&M are just a few of the brands that sell ‘fast fashion’ merchandise.

These brands produce high-quantities of affordable merchandise every season. They tend to be lower quality than what high-fashion brands come out with. The popularity with these brands stems from the fact that they are trendy pieces you can afford to purchase season after season because of their reasonable price. For the mass market, this is an ideal concept.

The problem with these ‘fast fashion’ brands is that scoring your trendy bargain may not be worth the deal after all.

The problem with ‘fast fashion’ is that in order for them to be affordably priced, they usually need to be produced overseas. Products that are produced overseas are many times made in sweatshops and factories with extremely poor working conditions. Underage children, poor environments, and unregulated policies are common features of these sweatshops and factories overseas. Once the concept of ‘fast fashion’ is understood, it doesn’t seem so great anymore. When you know that $8 t-shirt from Forever 21 was produced by an underage child in a sweatshop, it doesn’t seem so worth the price you got it for.

December is the official ‘Made in America’ month in the United States. Made in America month encourages consumers to buy products produced in the USA. This aims to cut production overseas so that our own country benefits in unemployment rate, and also supports our local garment industry here in the United States. This is also beneficial because it doesn’t support to keep these overseas sweatshops and factories in business, where there are unfair working conditions.

This should be a concept we strive to support year round. By supporting local production, we are supporting our own countries economy and people while obliterating the harsh conditions that people overseas are working under.

If there is a big enough movement to purchase more merchandise made in the U.S., this will influence more and more designers to bring production back home. This will also result in generating more sustainable and eco-friendly methods to produce garments because ‘fast fashion’ is unfortunately not sustainable in the least.

As a fan of brands like H&M, Zara, and Forever 21, I understand the fascination with ‘fast fashion’ brands. They are brands I can purchase key items from every season at affordable prices, and get rid of by the time the next season rolls around because they will be worn out and out of style by then. There is no guilt in getting rid of them because I know I bought them for a great price.

But after learning about ‘fast fashion’, it is hard to love these brands in the same way. It is unrealistic to imagine that after reading this article, you will never shop ‘fast fashion’ again.

I understand that is not the case. My aim is to inform. I myself will make an effort to limit my purchases of ‘fast fashion’ as much as I can, as I hope more people begin to do as well.

The more people that do, the more the market will open up for brands that produce sustainable, eco-friendly, and domestically manufactured merchandise. {page 28}

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Lace, Always & Forever

by Katharina Novak From Alexander McQueen’s royal wedding dress, to the runways of Oscar de la Renta, Dolce & Gabanna, and Valentino, lace has always been a prominent trend in the fashion world. It is a timeless and classic style that continues to live on. Lace has the wonderful ability to combine with anything and everything. It can make color stand out, and it can combine with other fabric materials to create a more unique and complex surface. Lace is a sexy and high fashion trend that can be worn casual or dressed up in any occasion.

Lace is an ancient craft; Therefore, it is definitely not an emerging trend… but history tends to repeat itself. Seasons come and go, but there is usually an up-and-coming way to wear lace that comes about. Like clockwork, Spring 2013 has its own take on the lace trend. Lace has made an appearance for Spring 2013 with almost every major designer. From the classic and romantic take on lace, sweet and alluring, pastel to bright, or thick to lightweight sheers, lace is showing more variety than ever. From the runways of Elie Saab, Roberto Cavalli, or Alberta Ferretti the super feminine and 60’s inspired lace made the biggest appearance of them all. It adds a lady like feel to the sheer runway presented lace fabrics gracing the gowns, skirts and tops.

ABC News’ Joe Zee also recently spoke about lace returning to the runways. He claims, “Lace was huge on the runways for spring.

Valentino, Giambattista Valli, Bottega Veneta and Burberry were some of the best examples. It is definitely a return to delicate, feminine dressing. I love the idea of lace detailing on skirts, pants and coats. Lace tops are great to pair with a structured blazer to offset the sweetness. A super easy way to integrate the lace trend into spring is a lace tight!”

One of the reasons lace is so popular and embraced as a fashion trend around the world is because it goes so well with every skin tone. Lace is not like a particular color that only looks good on certain people. It is simply a texture. It takes on whichever form you want it to. It can be used as an accent or an all-over look. For the Just Cavalli Spring 2013 collection, we saw small patches of lace peeking out from the bottom of the garments. Dolce & Gabbana on the other hand chose to feature lace as the main foundation of the entire garment.

Once woven from silk and gold, lace can now be made out of synthetic fibers and cotton. This leaves it open to the mass market.

The wonderful thing about this material is that you can find renditions of the lace trend throughout the fashion scale. Haute Couture to readymade fashion will all feature forms of lace in their collections. For Spring 2013, we can all be sure to embrace this trend that is here to stay forever. {page 29}

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secret garden

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Photographed by Iana Chyzhankova (assisted by Jane Cutenko), makeup design by Elena Safonova, and modeled by Lidiya Ciruk.

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poetry {page 40}

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For the Violet Shh… the blossom dips and balloons into an upturned petal-boat, floating between misguided stork legs as they wade in the Lethe, for how else can a violet cast off her hue? Not in shallow swallows, no—she’s farther adrift, where the deep gulp does make silent blooms of us all.

Swathed in wilted youth, she sinks, hushed beneath a conscience waterlogged by a fleeting father’s flowers, and by her swim hastens the courted fencer to a sword laced in false insanity, but (O! Sweet apothecary!) how the numbing water bites far colder than the prince’s careless blade Helen Little

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Vera and Vladimir Nabokov Chasing Butterflies Bent in the butterflies, your dress slopes in shafts of shadow.

Morning sun flicks through the cloudbath.

I remember the nets we carried, charting migrations of blue balls through air.

The days slipped from our hands like balloons.

Caterpillars are black fringe arched on the frailest twig, Then larva looms spinning wings.

Come spring, the chrysalis forgets itself and honey dreams flutter in an eggshell world.

Consider the orchid, tongue hung in the air like a fingernail, petal breaths laced like love, like hallelujahs.

Every time you laugh, a flock floats south And into, I imagine, the perfect kiss.

Kathleen Radigan

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Waning Wings I am a spring morning, deep and wide-eyed turn me on my back, I will warm and blush, winding my hands around your wilting side into an open chest where waxwings rush.

Turn me on my back, I will warm and blush, weave deftly between your cool rising breaths into an open chest where waxwings rush and hold fast as they each die noble deaths.

Weave deftly between your cool rising breaths with spirits of a thousand dancing moons, and hold fast as they each die noble deaths: I’ll carry you when the mourning night croons.

With spirits of a thousand dancing moons, your winter touch lingers, soft on my mouth.

I’ll carry you when the mourning night croons, stealing a solstice kiss for my trip south.

Your winter touch lingers, soft on my mouth, winding my hands around your wilting side.

Stealing a solstice kiss for my trip south, I am a spring morning, deep and wide-eyed.

Amy Mattox

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