Teen Eye Autumn 2016: The Icon Issue

AUTUMN 2016

THE ICONS ISSUE

TEEN EYE

Take A Peek #8 Featured: young artists who can alter the art world through their own self perception

#29 A punk concert featuring political science backgrounds and a grouchy cat named Chicken Nugget

#52 #BlackLivesMatter

poems

#57 A personal essay centering around an infatuation with a Barbie dress and the tantrum that follows

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#77 Just why are models of color so damm important?

#89 Bieber on Bosch on Tulle on Fetishwear; sculpted flowers over ruffles; a pajama party.

Don’t act surprised, this is New York Fashion Week

#142 Kristian Heijkoop shoots the story of “The Iconophile”, a modern girl who becomes infatuated with the total individuality and expression of the fashion scene’s past

L E T T E R F R O M T H E E D I T O R Who here has heard of semantic satiation? It’s a pretty intense and psychological phenomenon “in which repetition causes a word or phrase to temporarily lose meaning for the listener, who then perceives the speech as repeated meaningless sounds.” So, more or less, the meaning is desaturated.

The phrase, no matter how legitimate or fitting it originally was, turns banal. As much as I hate to say it... satiation has eroded the meaning of the word icon. I myself am a chronic overuser. If you go on my blog, you will find at least one hundred and twelve pictures that have been frenetically tagged with a variant of the word. Abbey Lee sardonically asking an offscreen ingenue if she considers herself fashionable; Shalom Harlow getting ravished by robot’s spray cans at that Alexander McQueen show; certain Snejana Onopka quotes; Tilda Lindstam’s legs gracing a Cheeto display; gifs of Naomi Campbell and Magdalena Frackowiak each pursing their lips. Icon has become an easy, mechanical response to anything beautiful we see. We’re so full of adoration that we start to sensationalize. The inflation of words through social media is an interesting conundrum, and that’s why Clara, Téa, and I (the brand new -- all female! -- Teen Eye Team) decided to make the word “Icon” the focus of our fifth issue.

When we first decided on the theme, the team got together and, as usual, deliberated on what we wanted the crux of the issue to be. We decided to ask our contributors what the word icon even meant in 2016: how social media has cast a haze on its definition, what or who defined the status, and what the title entailed. We wanted to know if anyone can or should strive to be iconic anymore.

What ultimately culminated? A group of passionate teens discussing who they put in

their own spotlight.

Marcello Flutie, a sixteen year old fashion illustrator, discusses process with famed photographer, Edward Mapplethorpe. Kennedey Bell, a seventeen year old writer, intimately profiles her school friends from Ohio and notes how they left a mark on her.

Taylor Bluestine, a sixteen year old artist, plays roadie for a day and documents feminist punk band Priests and their pre-show antics. Our very own Téa Lindsey dedicates the featured art section to the teen artists who are turning themselves into their own role models. We’re focusing on the public and the personal and political. Poets -- seventeen year old Ugochi Egonu and nineteen year old Sol Patches -- pay homages to those whose lives were taken after horrific police brutality in the country. Seventeen year old feminist writer A. A. Reinecke studies the perception of Hillary Clinton in mainstream media. Henry Carr, seventeen year old poet and dancer, chronicles the first time he was drawn to a Barbie dress. Louie Johnson, the new and exciting face of Diesel Black Gold and Burberry, explores just who exactly he considers his own personal idols. Each and every contributor in this issue has seriously evaluated the definition of the word icon, and it has been beautifully interpreted by our in house illustrator and graphic designer Ava Key and Sophia Hall.

Screw satiation -- this generation is working on redefining what a role model can be. I am so excited for you all to see what they’ve concluded.

Enjoy.

XX Em

Em Odesser, Editor in cheif

Contributors Marcello Flutie Marcello x Mapplethorpe

Marcello Flutie is a 16 year old fashion designer. Originally from DeLand FL, he moved to NY in 2013. One person he considers an icon is Carine Roitfeld. He finds it inspiring how she has managed to preserve her timelessness while constantly reinventing herself, noting that “she has changed everything, yet hasn’t changed anything”.

Ugochi Egonu

If A Black Girl Breaks Your Heart; Too Black to Be Beautiful

Ugochi Egonu is a 17 year old poet from Santa Clara, California. Her work has appeared in Rookie Magazine, BBC’s Africa’s Out radio program, and is forthcoming in Transition Magazine. A few of her icons are Langston Hughes, Nina Simone, and Lauryn Hill.

Sol Patches

A Poem for Blackness

Sol Patches, a producer, actor, lyricist, rapper, and engineer, was born and raised on south side and north side of Chicago. They are heavily influenced and widely known by Chicago’s queer latin@ and black femme culture through their theater and poetry involvement.

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Caitlyn de Groot The Iconophile

Caitlyn de Groot is a model based in Toronto who has recently began her first trip working abroad in Japan.

Her interest in art helped her conceive the “Iconophile” editorial concept after observing the palpable shifts in spirit and creativity both within and surrounding the fashion/modelling industries over recent years. Her icons are Naomi Campbell, Lindsey Wixson, Gemma Ward, Karlie Kloss, Coco Rocha and Fei Fei Sun.

Oona McCormack Eye Dolls

​ feline foxtrot, Oona Kyung is a seventeen year old girl A with a morbid ​collection of Breton striped tops. Both an editor and a music columnist for her town newspaper, Oona’s love of words and their use is evident. This will be her second contribution to Teen Eye Magazine with her current piece serving as an introspective look at how we as a culture create idols for our own bemusement. In terms of her own personal icons, Oona adores Kim Gordon, Françoise Hardy, and George Harrison. Case in point,

Paris Sanders

Something About Street Style

Paris Sanders is currently a junior at university studying philosophy and political science. She has creatively written for several years and tends to focus on poetry, but more recently has started writing prose as well. She has been a organizer for Planned Parenthood for three years now and is vehemently involved in feminism, reproductive justice, and abolishing the many oppressive gender standards imposed. Her icons are Jane Birkin, Patti Smith, Joan Didion, and her dad, who taught her to never be embarrassed about being ‘overdressed’.

Editors Editors Em Odesser EDITOR IN CHEIF

Alexander Mcqueen’s Savage Beauty 2011 exhibit at the Met taught New York native Em just how the enthralling the ability to tell a story with as little as a piece of cloth or the angle of a model’s body was. Now, at sixteen, she still looks up to the designer and his intense and creative ways as she creates new concept.

Clara Scott CULTURE EDITOR

Clara Scott is a seventeen year old writer from metro Detroit who has always looked up to the powerful women in pop culture. Namely, icons of feminism and human rights like Gloria Steinem have inspired her to take a stand on social issues without losing her womanhood. When Clara first read Ms. Magazine, Steinem’s words and editorial hand impelled her to write about her own ideas about culture and art.

Tea Lindsey ART EDITOR

Téa is a seventeen year old photographer and writer that has found a muse in nearly every woman she’s met. Being predominantly raised by an independent and willful single mother has influenced her to seek other like-minded women for inspiration. Creative idols like Imogen Cunningham taught her to question things such as gender roles, mankind’s connection to nature, and human sexuality by using visual and verbal mediums.

Sophia Hall DESIGNER

Seventeen (so sweet with a mean streak), Sophia Hall is a graphic designer, painter, musician, and reluctant Taylor Swift fan. She finds an icons in writers Mary MacLane and Sylvia Plath who were bold, unapologetic, and really good at what they did. You can find her work at sophall.com.

Ava Key

ILLUSTRATOR

Ava Key is a homeschooled artist who enjoys watching, admiring, and sketching humans.

Three of her personal icons are the late Maurice Sendak, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and Beatrix Potter. She blogs at landofquiet.blogspot.com.

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P R E F A C E As young creatives, we tend to feed off the energy of our society. We draw inspiration from the things we see; whether it be from modern media, our adult idols, or even each other. In our fast-paced online world, it’s easy to get caught up in what’s new and what’s “in.” It doesn’t help that our culture is obsessed with obsession, constantly sharing and inflating the same images into oblivion, creating a phenomenon. This is good in some ways- it can give new artists some kind of starting point- not something to copy, but something to strike inspiration. But far too often, our love for idolization leads to an identity crisis for young people; wanting to be something else and never finding themselves as artists and individuals. When we hold celebrities and well known artists above ourselves, we perpetuate the idea that the art world has an uneven playing field. There seems to be a notion that an artist’s popularity has a direct correlation to the value of their art. This is deeply rooted in the sentiments of past artists dictating that fine art is confined by a certain set of rules, which will inevitably lead to iconography. What exactly are these sacrosanct rules that must be abided by in order to be respected as an artist? It seems to me that these arbitrary codes do nothing beneficial for artists as a collective, but rather heighten the prestige of already “relevant” creators. Of course, every person will have their own certain opinions and preferences, but art is subjective. One’s opinion of another’s work doesn’t make that piece lose it’s validity. With that mindset, what’s stopping us from deeming ourselves laudable artists? Our generation already has the answer to this question- absolutely nothing. Generation Z has the power to change the way we view the art world, and it all begins with the way we view ourselves: as emblematic, and completely Iconic.

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A NIGHT WITH PRIESTS words and pictures by Taylor Bluestine and Em Odesser

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L

ET’S MAKE ONE THING CLEAR RIGHT OFF THE BAT:

When Katie Alice Greer, the jaw droppingly authentic, enigmatic lead singer from the punk band Priests runs off stage in a fuschia, ethereal yet tough, full length dress to introduce herself with an enthusiastic hug and smile, she fills the room with her energy. Once she climbs back on stage to finish up her practice set, and switches from Sinatra to her own songs, which address topics like the gross imbalance USA was built on, catcalling, and favorite lines from Wakoski poems, she and her band members start to hypnotize. The combination of G.L Jaguar’s steadily wild guitar, Taylor M’s low bass and sweeping vocals, Daniele Daniele’s frenzied beat and Katie Alice’s raspy, intoxicating wails burrow into you.

It’s a confrontation. It’s punk. It’s a callback to the sweaty scene of the late seventies with a refurbish on the call to arms. When Em first heard the band’s’ feverish single Doctor, she texted Taylor one in the morning -- twenty times -- to insist that she listened to how much energy could be packed into a three minute song. Taylor responded the next day: she had already seen the band at a festival and noticed the same passion. When the two girls (that’s us) realized the Washington band was touring, and conveniently stopping twenty minutes away at Bushwick, New York’s Silent Barn, we reached

out. And two weeks later, we spend an evening with the band, a sullen cat named Chicken Nugget, and a slew of other admirers. We go up winding stairs, past walls filled with grime, posters and old cassette tapes and climb into the apartment of Liz Pelly, the editorial director of Fvck The Media and a friend of the band, As the sun sets over the Manhattan skyline we discuss feminism, the time they accidentally broke into a stoner’s house, and the responsibility they feel to send the right message.

It’s a long chat, and we can see the connection the members feel with each as they sit at Pelly’s table. When the questions are over and Chicken Nugget has purposely stalked past the rolling camera enough times, they take a short break to prepare for the set and we stumble downstairs in quiet awe over their insightfulness, only to immediately burst with excitement once we enter the showspace again and wait for them to return.

We share a soft pretzel at the bar, meet some people, and then we see Priests again.

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Katie’s now in baby blue sequins, a There were 55 people who signed it, tight black dress, and leopard print they were all rich white men. 15 of tights. Casual. We stay with her for them owned other people who were an hour, talking about how she tran- forced to do work for them in order sitioned from political science into to survive, called “slaves”.

The rhythm punk, and how it gets faster. She feels rewarding The combination of G.L concludes still to put those two Jaguar’s steadily wild guitar, with an almost aspects together.

Taylor M’s low bass and Her background saccharine desweeping vocals, Daniele livery. “It’s time isn’t surprising. In to recognize one of the band’s Daniele’s frenzied beat that while we song, USA (Inand Katie Alice’s raspy, are glad to be cantations), she intoxicating wails burrow alive we could sweetly delivers into you. actually be livher lyrics over ing a lot better throbbing guitar.

So here is something funny about without this horrible nonsense. But, the signing of the US constitution: Rome wasn’t built in a day, this is a

Daniele Daniele

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step-by-step process. And the first step is knowing, understanding, that this country was not made for you, and it is built on lies and murder.”

Someone checks their phone and everyone rushes up. It’s time for them to get on stage. We push up to the front and watch the electricity run through the crowd. The band plays a new set -- with some songs we’ve never heard before -- and despite how long the show is, we’re all reluctant to have them leave the stage. The crowd, like at any good show, sways under the neon lights and thrashes. One excited man near the back can’t stop shouting G.L’s name. It’s totally electric. We meet at the end of the night to say goodbye and congratulate them all -- Taylor M is at the merch table, glowing completely and giving everyone two thumbs up, Daniele is surrounded by an intimate and enthusiastic group of friends, and Katie and G.L are standing right outside the venue’s pink walls. A fan, maybe twenty years old and wearing the perfect red bomber over a Smiths shirt, runs up. He oozes compliments and the band gives him a warm hugs.

Em tells Katie to act crazy as she takes the final pictures of the night, and we notice G.L peeking in a car mirror to check his hair.

True punk isn’t necessarily just wearing studded jackets and pins, it’s turning your music into a vessel for change, a way to scream what you believe in and have your voice heard and sometimes even listened to. Not

every band can create the perfect concoction of creativity, passion, and anger that overtakes a crowd.

But somehow, Priests have been able to create and refine this mixture and captivate us all.

A Conversation With Priests [Chicken Nugget, the elusive cat of our dreams, steps in the frame] Em: Chicken Nugget, what do you think about music?

[Chicken Nugget meows and we shift focus to the band] Em: Do you guys wanna introduce yourselves?

Katie Alice Greer: I’m Katie. I sing in the band Priests.

Taylor Mulitz: I’m Taylor, I play bass.

Daniele Daniele: I’m Daniele and I play drums.

GL Jaguar: and I’m G.L Jaguar and I play guitar [They wave] Em + Taylor B: Question One: What does being on stage feel like for you?

G.L Jaguar: Being on stage for me feels like a roller coaster. It’s just like you’re slowly going up and then as soon as it starts, it’s just a giant rush and you just glide through the rest of the set. It’s not even like a scary thing... it’s just a lot of fun.

E: Does time pass slowly or quickly when you’re there?

GLJ: Umm, it’s like being slow. It

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goes super fast and super quick at the same time.

Taylor Mulitz: [laughing] Super fast and super quick?

G: Yea, it’s like being in a time warp or floating in a bubble.

TLC song, and by the end of the night I was so into it that G.L and I were doing a song called “Something Stupid”. It’s a Frank and Nancy Sinatra duet. I think my favorite was Yazoo... they’re like a British electronic band, super good, and the songs called “Situation”. It was my favorite!

E + TB: What’s your favorite song to perform on stage? It can be your own, or someone else’s...

Katie Alice Greer: Oh my own song, definitely. Ah, I actually was thinking about this recently because I’ve always been scared of doing karaoke.

When it’s your own song you can kind of just do it, but when it’s someone else’s song you gotta try to do it their way and that can be hard. But I actually recently just got into karaoke now, so I’m more into that too! E + TB: Does E: What’s your go to song? music connect KAG: Um, well, I’m not that expe- you to dreams or rienced. I was running a fundraiser to reality? for -- I work at this community ra- TM: That’s a dio station at As the sun sets over the D.C. And we tough one. ProbaManhattan skyline we were doing a bly... dreams. discuss feminism, the time K: That’s a deep fundraiser for that and no- they accidentally broke into question.

That’s body was there good. a stoner’s house, and the yet so everyTM: I don’t know, responsibility they feel to body was like when I was a teensend the right message.

It’s “You’re in a ager, I remember a long chat, and we can see band! You just going to the first go do it.” And the connection the members shows and feeling I was thinking feel with each as they sit at almost disheart“...oh my god, ened by the experiPelly’s table. this is terrifyence. It almost being”. But I did “Dreaming of You” came not fun to go to shows because

by Selena and then “No Scrubs”, that I was really envious of the people on

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stage… If I were to have some sort of snapshot into my life now, as a fifteen year old, I probably -- I definitely -- wouldn’t recognize myself. Certainly… I think I’d be really proud.

So yeah, dreams!

Taylor B: A guy on my block was actually selling tee shirts that said Prince and then his birth and death dates and he brought them out the day he died.

KAG: Oh my god, he was ready.

E + TB: If you could see any band in concert, dead or alive, who would you see?

[The entire band oohs and looks over at Daniele Daniele, who snaps her fingers.]

Daniele Daniele: Oh… uh, Algebra Suicide!

KAG: Hell yeah!

GLJ: Prince!

E + TB: What’s the best thing about living in this generation as a musician, and the worst thing?

GLJ: Oh man. I think the best thing is that the internet really connects us. Hearing stories about bands I liked and how they had to go on tour and they had big phone listings and had to say “oh I’m gonna call… like, George in Cincinnati, and I’m gon-

The band during warm-up

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na call... Alice in Missoula, or whatever.” It seems like it really insane to imagine doing that. And even if one of us gets lost! We have cell phones, you know, or we have Google Maps, and I think that’s one of the best things about being a musician. At the same time it’s one of the worst things. You’re constantly bombarded by media and information and sometimes it can be too much and too overwhelming. I think some people get really caught up in it. You just gotta do you.

KAG: The best and the worst thing is the internet!

GLJ: The best and the worst thing.

E: That’s with fashion too!

Our whole magazine is online, so if we had to find readers across the world it’d be way harder. We had an editor [Beatrice Bock] from Malaysia! That couldn’t happen if we had [no internet].

[Chicken Nugget jumps up, and G.L beckons him over with neon green fingernails] KAG: Hi Chicken Nugget! What do you think is the best part about being a musician?

[Chicken Nugget meows again and sidles away] E + TB: What is one piece of art every teen girl -- or every teenager, really -- should read, watch, or listen to?

GLJ: We talk about this one alot.

KAG: I was thinking about this recently, one of my favorite movies is

Ladies and Gentleman The Fabulous Stains.

E: Ah! That’s my favorite!

KAG: Oh yeah, Corrine Burns is awesome. Third Degree Burns! Yeah, I love that movie, it’s all about a band of teenagers who don’t really have instruments or much experience playing them but they’re so dedicated to just doing their band that they figure out how to go on the road. Diane Lane plays the lead and her character is just really awesome, really tough, which I think is cool. There’s a part where they don’t get paid and she pulls out a can opener and pretends it’s a knife, and is like, “No dude!

You’re gonna pay me”, which I think is something to learn how to do.

Another one I like is this cool, low budget, feminist sci fi film from the seventies called Born In Flames. I think it might be on the internet. It’s this dystopian future where these feminist gangs roam the streets beating up rapists and other creepy dudes, and there’s this whole political organization that’s trying to move forward. There’s a really cool musician, Laura Logic. She was around in the seventies and early eighties, she had a band called Essential Logic and she did the whole soundtrack for the movie, and it’s really cool. I think both of those made a big impression on me, I would definitely recommend those films.

E: Have you seen Daisies?

KLG, GLJ, TM, DD: We love Daisies!

E: Taylor and I just watched it the

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other night -in Boston have two units inside of TB: --That was like a month ago! one structure that looks like a single KAG: That’s… basically the other family home. So they were like, “we night! have a driveway” and we see their car E: It was a week ago… That one is so in the driveway and we’re like, okay, good. this must be it. We pull up behind KAG: It’s great. them and there’s a back door [in the GLJ: I also think every teenager house] that’s wide open so we go in. should have a copy of Quadrophe- It’s really kind of sparse and empty, nia. there’s a coffee True punk isn’t necessarily KAG: Quatable with like a drophenia, hell just wearing studded jackets bong and roachyeah, the movie es all over it -and pins, it’s turning your is is cool but the DD: A playstamusic into a vessel for record is really tion -change, a way to scream good. It’s weird, GLJ: Drums, a what you believe in and I feel like a lot of guitar -have your voice heard and younger people I KAG: Yeah, I saw know aren’t that sometimes even listened to. a snare drum, so into classic rock I was like, “yeah at this point, but maybe it just de- this is it, we’re probably here” pends if your parents were into it. I TM: We’re all thinking “this has to still really like that record. be it, their car is in the driveway” KAG: We’re [cups hand and brings it E + TB: Are there any specific mo- to mouth], going around like “hello, ments you’ve experienced as a band hello?” that left you laughing or smiling or TM: There’s just a faint beeping crying? noise in the background of it all, in [KLG, GLJ, TM, DD look at each the distance, it was pretty weird. No other and burst out laughing] one responds to us, TM: Oh yeah, I can actually share KAG: Sonam wasn’t picking up her one from this exact tour… We played phone! a show in Boston a couple of nights TM: There’s some mail on the taago and we were going over to our ble and Katie’s going, “I really don’t friend Sonam, from the band Ursu- think this is their house” and I’m la -- her and Katie are in a band to- saying “No, it’s definitely their house, gether, they’re amazing, you should there’s no way it’s not” and she picks all check them out -- and we were up the mail and she’s like, “No dude, staying at their house. They gave this is not the right address”. It was us the address, and a lot of houses one of those corner houses! So we

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Taylor Mulitz

run out, and go around the corner, and get in [Sonam’s] house, we spend the night, it was fine. The next day we go out to breakfast together and we’re getting out of the van and we go to give ourselves the per diem of the day so we can buy our breakfast and … we can not find the cash box anywhere.

E: You left it in the other house?!

TM: Yeah, we left it in the other house!

KAG: In a stranger’s house!

TB: Did you meet the guys that lived there?

TM: Well, Katie just happened to see them on the street and she asks them if they live in the house -- they were really creeped out and she’s like,

[laughing], “no, no, it’s okay, I was in your house last night!”

KAG: Don’t worry!

TM: Don’t worry!

GLJ: -- we’re a band on tour, and we think we left our cash box in your house.

KAG: Fortunately, it was some dudes who are also in a band, and the guy was really nice about it and was talking about how he had heard horror stories about bands on the road and that he’d never want to contribute to that and we went right back to the house and got the cashbox.

TM: It was right next to the bong!

GLJ: As I predicted.

KAG: No one moved it, no one took

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any money, so it was really lucky.

GLJ: He gave us sticker of his aunt, too.

DD: We were having the hardest day.

On the drive back to the house, we were just like, [covers face], what if we had left it in the house!

TM: Yeah, we were all kind of silent, just thinking…

E: That’s kind of terrible, it’s so good it all worked out!

TM: Laugh, cry… it has kind of an array of all the components.

E: Full circle!

TM: Exactly.

GLJ: We’ve had our adventures.

E + TB: What outfit do you feel best in?

DD: Um, this is actually an interesting question as a drummer.

I’m a drummer, and I work on my feet as a bartender, and I also don’t have a car so I commute via bike so my range of clothing is extremely limited. Although -- I did once tour with a band and I played bass and I was just like, “I’m wearing a skirt and heels every night of this tour,

cause I can FINALLY do it!”

I feel very good in outfits that have baggy sleeves, so I can drum. I tend to like very severe, I guess -- I like big shoulder pads, small waist -KAG: Daniele likes to look like a boss.

TB: An eighties mom!

DD: It actually is alot like my mom.

She’s a chemical engineer and worked throughout in an office, in the eighties, in Houston, Texas (which is where I grew up), and it was tons of big hair.

GLJ: The bigger the hair, the closer to God! DD: You know those pictures, the guy who does all the eighties pictures, all the black lines -GLJ and TM: Patrick Nagel!

KAG: Like the Duran Duran Records?

DD: Yeah, my mom literally wore that kind of makeup and had angora sweaters and magenta business suits.

KAG: A glam chemical engineer.

DD: Oh no, she wasn’t even glam, she just… grew up in Texas.

E: Did she have big teased hair?

DD: Oh yeah, and these huge bangs -- a short brown crop with these huge glasses, it was awesome.

TB: My mom is so embarrassed, she won’t show us any photos of her.

KAG: She probably had really cool style.

TB: She was like, “I had a mullet, then I got lasix.”

KAG: You probably wouldn’t be able to even recognize her, maybe she’s a

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secret agent!

DD: My mom kind of looks like Janine from Ghostbusters, all professor-esque, it’s really cool. So yeah, I like having big hair, so it covers my face, and I like baggy sleeves, so I don’t look like She-Hulk when I play.

And I like slacks! I feel like they’re a good look.

E + TB: This is for all of you guys. Is there anything you’d like to spread throughout your songs?

GLJ: Tinnitus.

DD: Ha! I really freak out about the idea about being proselytizing, or really telling someone what to think. I always say that I hope my music comes across in a way that’s humble -- but not humble in a way that makes me look like I’m shrinking or shirking in a traditional feminine role. Humble in a way that my ideas are just my ideas, and I hope you can hear them, and take them as my ideas and find what works with them for you, and kind of throw it back at me. I hope our art is a dialogue not only with other artists we play with but with the audience and how we affect people. They come to us and change our ideas and vice versa; it really is a collaborative thing. I was actually talking to the sound woman from a show last night and [we discussed] how much their artistry is never appreciated. If you really think about it, it’s a collaboration with those

people, with the audience, with your friends who you make music with, with everybody. If your message is predetermined when you start ….

That might be failing. Caveat to that, I do believe you will never have the inspiration to make art unless there is something burning inside of you [slapping hand on the table] that you do need to share with the world.

I definitely feel that, but I hope it’s never… pedanting.

E: That was… an amazing answer.

I remember the first time I heard your music, and I was sending Taylor all of these texts, “LISTEN TO PRIESTS! LOOK AT THEIR MUSIC! THEY’RE SO FEMINIST, SO PUNK, SO BADASS”, so you really are doing a good job. This was an amazing interview, is there anything you want to say to the camera?

KAG: We love you! Thank you!

TM: We love Teen Eye Magazine!

KAG: Woohoo!

Priests’ first full length, Nothing Feels Natural, will be released January 27th via their own label Sister Polygon Records. The album is a series of vignettes about the economics of human relationships, the invisibility of feminized labor, and the dual purpose of art for both the group and the individual. You can listen to their music on Spotify and Bandcamp.

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Mapplethorpe and Marcello: In Conversation 16 year old designer Marcello Flutie met Edward Mapplethorpe, the artist known for bridging in the gap between photography and abstract painting at his book release for One: Sons & Daughters. Two days later, Flutie, in NYC, called up Mapplethorpe in the Hamptons to discuss the photographer’s newest plans, his teenage experience, and what really goes on in darkrooms.

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arcello: “I’d like to discuss a painterly feel to the work. And I with you about your body continue to do that to this day, and of work. Tell me a little bit the one time that my camera does about the evolution of your work” come out regularly is for babies -Edward: “Are you talking specifi- which I’ve been photographing for cally about the babies or just work twenty years --“ in general?“ And those shots are a group of M: “Just in general, the transition work that just sort of… happened. I from the beginning to the present” didn’t plan on it, it wasn’t the group E: “Well uh, I don’t have enough of work I conceived of and decided time to get into all that.. [laughs]. I wanted to build a body of work.

My work -- I started exhibiting in One shot led to the next, to the next, 1990. It was portraits, nudes, still- and ultimately I realized that it was lives and things I had been doing all a serious body of work, and would through the 80’s, from school and one day become a book -- which we working with my brother.” published just this year, I’m happy M: “Right” to say.”

E: “ And I was very successful at that. M: “That’s amazing! So you have an I made the decision that I wanted to upcoming show in Berlin, can you start making different statements tell us about the inspiration behind with my work, so I learned how to this project?” scuba dive and took my camera un- E: “The show in Berlin is going to derwater, which was a whole new showcase several groups of work environment than the studio I’ve been discussing with the and opened a gallery. whole new way I don’t think “I think a lot of it had of seeing for me.

I would be to do with wanting the Subsequently, I short-changing praise from others. I wish myself if I didn’t started going to museums and someone had given me the make the book, galleries, and advice that, that’s not really and the work looking at paintfrom the book important.” ings and sculppart of the exture, and minimalist work and hibition. I don’t want that to be conceptual work with a much the exhibition, so it’s going to be more diligent eye than I had been some new work. And the new work previously, and looking less and is not done yet, it’s an idea right less at photographs. So, the work now and it’s an idea I got from readnaturally started to change from a ing and researching a photographer pure photographic look to more of named Ansel Adams, who a lot of

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Untitled, No. 879, 2007

people will know from his beautiful work done in Yosemite National Park. I created a body of work based on the zone system back in 2008, and that’s something he didn’t develop, but made popular in the 40s and 50s, as a way of exposing film and printing negatives. And subsequently, that’s a beautiful installation, which I showed in Berlin and in Rome, back in 2009…. 2008 or 2009…. and I wanted to do a subsequent body of work around that principle, and I happened this idea of photographing a cube. It’s called Lighting the Cube, and it’s a white cube and I’m going to photograph it, and it’s going to have different tones on all the different sides of the cube, solely based on the way I light the cube. So, it’ll look simple, but it’s going to be a difficult process. It’s about process. The process of getting what I’m looking for is really the art of it.”

M: “Right, which kind of connects to my next question.

The current project that Teen Eye is working on is kind of focused around the new generation of teens, and now that we live in such a digital age, printing photo-

graphs is a rare art form. Can you describe the process of hand-printing and retouching for teens who don’t know about the fine art photography and printing?

E: “Well, a traditional darkroom is necessary. I’m quite amazed that people don’t know that, but we are in a different era. There are several elements that are involved in darkrooms, one being a light source, and the light source is typically called an enlarger. What you do is, you take your negative, which is from exposed film, you process the film and you have a negative, and you put that negative into the enlarger, and you enlarge that negative onto a photographic paper (which is a light sensitive paper) -- this is all done in safe light conditions, which means it doesn’t have to be completely dark, but it needs to be either -- on a certain wavelength of light, because the paper isn’t sensitive to the red wavelength.”

M: “Right, right.”

E: “So, you have sort of a safe light.

Then, once the paper is exposed, it has what’s called a latent image embedded in it. Meaning that the image is there, but you don’t see anything. So, you go into the chemical process, and the chemicals are -- a developer, a stop and a hypo, or traditionally is called the [fixer] -which the developer… develops…. [laughs] the image. I’m trying to make this as simple as possible.“ M: “Right, right-“

E: “So, that’s where you see the image come up, and once that image is fully processed to where you want it to be, which is usually about 2 minutes, it goes into a bath called the stop bath, which halts immediately, because the developer is an alkaline and the stop is an acid, so it stops the developing process immediately. From there, it goes into the [fixer] or the hypo, and what that does is, it fixes the image to the paper.

So, when it is properly washed and dried and mounted and exhibited, it won’t fade. And that’s it in a nutshell.”

M: ”Your work is innovative, in the sense that you work around a controlled environment, but things in this digital age tend to happen spontaneously. So, can you talk about how you find that equilibrium and balance?”

E: ”You mean, between spontaneity and a controlled environment?”

M: ”Exactly. So, everything happens so fast. The majority of the people are jumping to conclusions or are always so ready to do the next thing, but I tend to find in your work that you have this calm, and its very peaceful and serene.”

E: “I don’t know whether I really try to capture it, Marcello. I just, I have a process or I have a manner of working that I think just imbues itself into the work, somehow.

When I had this show coming up in Berlin, I was like ‘Okay, I’ve been working on this book for a full year, I haven’t really done any side projects or done any new work outside of that, and I want to have that as

an element in the show in Berlin… so, you know, what is it going to be?’ I’ve had groups of work over the last few years that have never been exhibited, and it certainly was available to show, but I decided that I wanted to, you know, work on something new. So, ideas just sort of come from the last thing you did, and you start reviewing the past work, and I’m not spontaneous in that manner. I try to just sort of, I don’t know, in my quiet moments I think about things I’ve recently read about, or seen, or other work that I’ve done. You know, this is an idea, and sometimes ideas take a long time to materialize, because the idea could be good, but the execution could be very painful, or a painstaking process. There have been times when I’m using new processes and its ‘nothing! nothing! nothing!’, and it gets frustrating and you get worried, and all the sudden you get a little hint of something, and there’s a seed and you’re like “Okay there’s something there, maybe if I did it this way…”, and all the sudden it gets a little bit better

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and just generally starts becoming in that area. So, I draw a lot of my something. Once it does, then the inspiration from him. Certainly, I darkroom is a place of joy and of ex- mean if we want to stay within the citement and, I don’t know, revela- family, there’s no doubt that my tions and you can’t wait to get back brother, Robert, became a mentor in there. So, the darkroom can be a of mine.” frustrating place, but it can also be a M: “Of course.“ very, very rewarding place. I’m not E: ”I grew up knowing he was a very a spontaneous person in nature, so talented individual. He was certainmaybe that’s why you see that in my ly forging a career before I started work, I really don’t know how else working for him, but then once I to answer that question.” did begin working so closely with M: ”Amazing. I totally understand him, I learned from him, he learned what you’re saying. You know, from me. You know, he’s a real when I’m designing something influence and icon in my life.

I have this idea But, you know, in my mind, and “The important thing is for there are musiI have a vision you to do what you want to cal inspirations for it, and some- do for yourself, and I wish I that I get, as times it doesn’t well. And there’s heard that.” come out the inspiration from way you plan -things that I and sometimes it’s better, and read -- although, I don’t read a sometimes it just doesn’t work out whole lot. Every now and then you at all. So, this is the 5th issue Teen come upon something that is just Eye Magazine, and we’re really ex- sort of inspiring. I don’t try to like cited to have you be part of it. The say, you know, this photographer or theme is “Icons”. We’re all influ- this artist; you know, if you look at enced by icons to a certain extent, the variations, you certainly can tell and I consider you an iconic pho- Jackson Pollock is somebody that I tographer, and you certainly have looked at quite seriously, and still grown up surrounded by other do, because you’re influenced by icons. Who has influenced you the everything you listen to, you hear, most?” everybody you meet. I don’t sort of E: “Well, I think people from all just pigeon hole myself into saying different creative areas. I mean, my this person’s ’the icon’ or what-not.” father was a brilliant electrical en- M: “Last question. We always like gineer and his mind went well be- to end our interviews with this one yond the electrical part of engineer- question. If you knew one piece of ing. He was a great creative person advice when you were a teenager,

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what would it be? And if you knew it, would you follow it yourself?”

E: ”Uh, ask me that question again.”

M: ”So, when you were a teenager --“ E: ” When I was teenager… yes, a long time ago… ha!

M: ”Not too long ago, not too long ago! What’s the one piece of advice you wish you knew, and if you knew it during that time, do you think you would follow it?”

E: ”Well, I think one piece of advice I wish I had known is to not necessarily always try to please the next person. I mean, you and you alone are the one person that you need to focus on, and you need to make sure that mom and dad are happy with your grades. I mean, I was a very diligent and academic [child].

I studied very hard and I did very well, and I think a lot of it had to do with wanting the praise from others. I wish someone had given me the advice that, that’s not really important. The important thing is for you to do what you want to do for yourself, and I wish I heard that.

Now, if somebody had said that to

me, would I have followed it? That’s a hard one to answer, but, had I followed it, I wouldn’t be the person I am today, and I’m very happy with the way my life has turned out. So,

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I guess I would have to say I don’t know, but I’m not sorry.”

M: ”No! Of course not, never be sorry. That’s really it. I found our conversation, honestly, to be uplift-

ing and eye-opening, actually. It’s amazing speaking to you.”

E: ”Thank you, Marcello” M: ”Once again, I really do appreciate it.

S t i l e t t o w i t h G u n , 1 9 9 0

ugochi egonu and sol patches

BLACK LIVES

MATTER poems by young people of color

A Poem for Blackness My night sun sets on pm and dms.

Bodies and mouths just keep on speaking.

I was Trying to find my voice on a loud eternal weekend, I’m a Internal ho’ falling through external city holes With sex i found mother mary, Crossed in my semen.

With death i pledge allegiance Orgy with all these demons. i wonder what I’m seeking at night, Wonder what i’m receiving in sight.

Praying for my predators who prey on skin darker than jesus, I want my heart to be a thesis I want my thoughts to start bleeding.

Like all the bodies of kin i know, Who walk through the sun and it sure does show, When bullets come at them like seeds but tell them not to grow, Does their blood evaporate?

Like their hoods, or land, Like When whites men move in?

But I still see stains when I’m walking, You could it a snapshot Pornappgraghic for blackness Pornagraphic for breakfest Flesh out my flesh to whiteness All yeah, they like this.

Like my moms, Like my gramps Like those on food stamps with no lamps.

Sol Patches

If a Black Girl Breaks Your Heart If a black girl breaks your heart, say thank you. Glue it back together with the pieces of her that she left behind.

For she might not get to break another heart, or even love another, in time. So treasure the pain that she’s gifted you. Because black kids only get so much time to love, but a black girls time might not even be remembered.

Might not even get a riot, or a eulogy, or a post, or even a whisper.

And only you will be left with the remnants of her. of a heart that she broke, of a boy that she loved, of a life that she lived.

Ugochi Egonu

YES, I AM A M O N S T E R LIKE YOU Henry Carr

I’m just like you You’re just like me It’s something anyone can see A heart that beats A voice that speaks the truth Yes, I am a girl like you

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hese being the lyrics to the song “A Girl Like You” by Barbie and her team of songwriters. It’s the first song I can remember liking.

If you ask anyone what their answer would be, it usually revolves around the classics: Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Sinatra. Me? Barbie. I can still see my parents’ ears practically bleeding as I skipped through the house, tutu falling off my bony hips, screaming, “A

heart that beats! A voice that speaks the truth!” The next line, however, was always a mere whisper. “Yes, I am a girl like you.” I was confused: I wasn’t a girl, and I knew that, but why was it stated in a song that I, a boy, liked?

Ever since I can remember, I have liked what society viewed as “girl things.” The amazing thing about children is that they almost always have incredibly high self-confidence.

That’s why I gave zero shits. I could strut around the sandbox with my Cinderella lunch box thinking I was the princess herself. I was proud of my American Girl Doll collection and the first thing I would show house guests were the disposables my mom took of my giving my best Tyra Banks smize, although my eyes had pretty much dissipated after the layers and layers of eyeliner I caked on myself.

However, this story isn’t about how confident or feminine I was a child, it’s about how insane I was.

When I was about six, the Mattel company released their next movie

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franchise about false hope and unrealistic perfection entitled Princess and The Pauper, birthing the song “A Girl Like You” as well as my obsessive behavior. This was the classic tale of two worlds collided: A beautiful, rich, blonde princess and and a poor, lonely, ugly pauper. In the story, the princess saves the pauper from a sturdy job and an intelligent mother figure and gives her the most valuable things in life: a nicer dress and a room to crash. However, the pauper’s life transformation was irrelevant to me and I had no idea what the hell “pauper” meant but I knew she was the one I didn’t want to play with. I mean, naturally I chose the one with a sugar daddy, a pink dress, and three cats.

One saturday on a family Target run, I decided to sneak away from the cart and inspect the toy section. I had memorized the location of course; two down from the kitchen ware aisle, behind the bed sheets and pillows. When I arrived, I passed the many boys and their moms picking out Hot Wheels, Legos, and Playmobiles to get to the real treasure. All of a sudden, there it was in front of me, the Jesus Christ of toys. It was as if a bright light grabbed me by the nose and pulled me towards it. There, in all its glory, was the princess dress from Princess and the Pauper, fully decked out in polyester ribbons and flowers that scintillated under the fluorescent lights of Target. My entire 7 years on earth had lead up to this moment;

all I knew was that I was not leaving without the dress; it was my destiny.

After many failed attempts, my puny arms finally snatched the dress, holding onto it for dear life as I skipped along the waxy floors of Target back to my parents.

Whenever I wanted something from my parents, I had a strategy: just be casual. “Hey mom I found this really cool dress. Wouldn’t it look great on me?”

“Sure, honey,” she replied.

“Sooo, can I get it?”

“Not today, sweetie.”

Not today? “So, another day?”

I asked. Even if that were true, I could not wait “another day.”

I needed this now. Did she really expect me to wear Gap all my life? Bathing in the slouchiness of striped sacks and cargo shorts?

She wouldn’t budge.

“Please mom? I won’t ask for anything till I’m 30.” Yes, this was an extremely long time, but after going through the reasoning, it was totally worth it.

“No Henry! Stop bugging me about this or we’re leaving now!”

That’s when the tears began.

It began soft. I single tear, cascading down my cheek as somber

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The author, pictured with his sister Sabrina and his favorite Barbies

piano music scored the scene. From ...and from there I was certifiably there, the level of crying only grew: hysterical.

Screaming and kicking and stompStage 2: E.T. when he returns ing my light-up sketchers into the home ground so hard, the battery died. My dad hurdled me over his shoulders Stage 3: The Notebook as I squirmed for an escape, a return back to my beloved dress. My dad’s Stage 4: Schindler’s List sunglasses flew off his face and hit the ground, smashing into tiny, little pieces. A target employee rushed to the rescue, “Sir, do you need some help?”

“No, I have it under control,” my dad says. He needed some goddamn help.

His princess loving, finger painting, fairy of a son had morphed into the Incredible Hulk. After minutes more of body wrangling my dad and 2 more employees, I had finally calmed down and shrunk back to size, returning home without the dress or my sanity.

After that day, I never saw the infamous dress again. What I did see, however, was a shrink. The anger issues and obsessive behavior would be worked on for the next few years with the help of my forgiving parents.

While I may have never gotten to live my Princess and the Pauper fantasy, at least I had them to keep me in check. That is, until, Mattel released Barbie and the Magical Pegasus.

THERE’S NO SUCH THING ORIGINAL: N A S A A MA NIFESTO OF AUTHENTICITY B

What does it take to be a style icon? I’ve heard it argued before that a style icon is one who is original and unique, daring and groundbreaking in their choices of fashion. To me, however, there is no such thing as an original... and true innovation lies in acknowledging your influences. For a long time I have felt a certain pressure to develop my own distinctive sense of style, to dress differently than others, to be ahead of every trend, or rather, to ignore all trends.

After all, one does not become any kind of icon by doing what has been done before.

However, are we not all a product of our influences? Our mother’s or father’s closet, the city we grew up in, the magazines our older sibling read, the movies we loved… all of these things impact the way we choose to dress and look. Perhaps it has been done before, but if it has been done well, it shouldn’t be ig-

Y NINA FLETCHER

nored. Even the most seemingly original icons are nothing but a product of their influences. It is impossible to exist within a vacuum, and even if you were to, it would be really fucking boring.

Furthermore, I believe that there is an inherent value in acknowledging our influences. By doing so we make room to explore our influences’ influences, discover new and fascinating things, and connect with likeminded people. Every idea has been shaped by the past -- both our greater, shared past and our personal, private pasts. To acknowledge your influences is a truly authentic thing. Figure out what you like, and talk about it!

I am not arguing that we should all give up trying to push boundaries and repeat the trends of history.

Originality, that magical place of icons and innovation, lies in finding what you like and making it your own. Becoming your own original compound of your inspirations and being unafraid to share them with the world… that is unique.

And one more thing: there seems to be a common misconception that rarity is equivalent to coolness, and that the land of the mainstream is a graveyard of unoriginality. Everyone is trying so hard to be unique that it has become mainstream in and of itself. You know what is truly unique? Original? Iconic? Finding what you like and doing it… no matter how mainstream it is.

SOMETHING A B O U T STREET STYLE Paris Sanders

aesthetic, cultural, or political aims of these groups. Yet, recently, street fashion’s relationship with subcul“Street style.” A seemingly ture has become more nuanced, as straightforward concept, yet the consumer fashion industry beone with about a dozen dif- comes informed by social media and ferent interpretations, varying from vice versa. simply “what you wear on the street,” This past NYFW, it was evident that to “outlandish pieces thrown togeth- “street style” and “high fashion” had er that would only look acceptable on become more muddled than ever. prominent bloggers, models, and ‘It Younger labels like Eckhaus Latta, Moses Gauntlett Girls.” Is it what Cheng, Vaquera, we wear on a day Industry high style is Maison le Faux, to day basis? Or deeply informed by the Namilia, and is it something culture of street style, and Libertine incorentirely differ- vice versa. porated looks ent, something that were remimore whimsical, a moving form of visual art — style for the street, so niscent of the streetwear styles gaining traction. Latta’s show at Seward to speak.

Most conceptions of street style, Park featured pieces coupled with despite their divergences in con- distressed sneakers. Oher labels feanotation, seem to possess a com- tured elements akin to metalcore or mon thread: street style is not “high punk performance garb, or products style,” and often, is associated with with asymmetrical hemlines, cutsome form of subculture, primari- outs, and other visual indications of ly as a way of visually denoting the the DIY and niche inspired pieces

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(a sorority-sweatshirt with the text “Vaquera est. 2013” among them) into their collections. Yet these items, unlike their more generic equivalents, are priced in the hundreds, or even thousands dollar range, leaving some to wonder what the intended audience of street fashion actually looks like. The apparent contradiction between the youthful self-made nature of street-brands and their respective prices, quickly leads to a very relevant, yet surprisingly difficult question: when consumable, industry high style is deeply informed by the culture of street style, and vice versa, what the fuck is street style, anyway? As one may expect, as each aforementioned label has grown in popularity and recognition, the remaining “street” elements may become less distinct—Vaquera for example, held earlier runway shows at subway stations and Chinese restaurants. Their show this past NYFW was located at Redbull Studios, a more traditional location. Yet, this Cinderella story is nothing new, and is similar to the success stories of now-iconic figures like Jeremy Scott and Alexander Wang.

Another component of street style lies beyond clothing itself and in this sense is even more subjective. While I can’t quite bring myself to call my “black Dickies and tucked in tee shirt with some mules” look “street style,” on Alexa Chung or Kiko Mizuhara it very well could be. This distinction between mere “outfit” and “style”

can also be seen in relationships between subculture, street fashion, and larger-scale trends. Whereas ten years ago, someone in frumpy jeans, a sweater vest, and Asics would look far more “dad’ than “fashion,” only a few years later, the same styles would be revamped and appropriated by a “normcore” subculture, and

A look from Eckhaus Latta SS17 from the brand’s website

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soon, by high fashion—informing are often afraid, sometimes asking trends at labels as traditional and friends for clothes to post on Instahigh-end as Celine and Prada. In gram, so that they don’t have to be this sense, to stay seen in the same relevant, street “I know a few girls who buy look twice. fashion needs to expensive pieces at Open- “I know a few girls who buy constantly renew ing Ceremony or someitself, incorpoexpensive piecthing, and tuck in the tags rating inspiraes at Opening so that after they wear it tion from the Ceremony or something, and ugly, awkward, and post, they can return and ironic, as it” tuck in the tags so that after they well as the highly styled. This focus on novelty often wear it and post, they can return it,” comes with a price. Some friends and a friend told me in shock. “Even if style bloggers have told me that they they only get store credit, they can

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just swap it for something else the next time, and the next, and the next…” Stories like these may help explain why some of the internet’s first style-blogger darlings, like Chiara Ferragni and Jane Aldridge were often criticized for using their wealth to gain followers.

However, the increasingly fine line between street fashion and luxury may also open up many opportunities to those once snubbed by the industry. Importantly, the infiltration of “street style” into the contemporary fashion market doesn’t stop at design. Street castings have led to the discovery of not only unsigned faces at shows for more untraditional labels, like Hood

By Air and Vetements, but also on more institutional runways, such as Opening Ceremony. Informed by these changes on runways and in castings at large, entire agencies, such as Super, Midland, State, and Anti-Agency, have been born, dedicated to the promotion of striking,

yet accessible looks on the runway.

Unsurprisingly, these agencies largely rely on the use of social media to both recruit and promote models, and often feature far more diverse boards than traditional agencies in terms of race, weight, gender identity or expression, lifestyle, career pursuits, or facial features.

In many ways, the changing composition of the fashion industry, street style included, could be seen as a microcosm of its surrounding social, political, and cultural forces.

While the industry at large appears more accessible and diverse than ever, showcasing new talent, identities, and concepts that would have been ignored otherwise, this adoption leaves subculture with little of its own to grasp onto. What are teens looking to define their style left with, when fame is a post—but a couple thousand dollars—away? In an interview with Jina Khayyer this July, creative director, stylist, and statement maker Lotta Volkova came forward stating that “there are no subcultures anymore; it’s all about the remix.” It appears fairly clear that the preeminence of high fashion has disintegrated along with subculture, when new, “anti-fashion” labels successfully price Champion sweatshirts above a month’s rent in Bushwick.

Whether this is satiric commentary on the state of global capitalism, or merely fashion’s complicity with it is yet to be determined.

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Anna Wilke

INANIMATE ICONS

In 2015, the course of Gucc chele as its creative direc house, Michele introduced h lowing the controversial exit o deviating from the understa age to the 80s with his desig tionally, he adds his fun and with the naming and tiger de floral prints, suede, and pa component to its bags by allo This introduction of roman larity among old and young c

Dionysus GG Supreme

ci was massively altered with its appointment of Alessandro Mictor. With the intention of reinstating Gucci as an iconic fashion his unique perspective to bring the brand back to acclaim. Folof Frida Giannini, Michele introduced his maximalist aesthetic, ated glamour of previous creative directors. Michele pays homgns, resurrecting the double G monogram from the 80s. Addid nostalgic vibe by paying homage to the Greek god Dionysus esign on the bag. Michele innovates the bag each season with atches, which adds to its versatility. Gucci has introduced a DIY owing consumers to customize their bags with unique patches. nticism and whimsy has resulted in the brand’s increased popuconsumers alike, as Michele has rebranded Gucci in a way that connotes it as innovative yet chic.

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Throughout the history of fashion, some iconic handbags endure for generations. Certain looks become ingrain into the (pun intended) fabric of the fashion industry, and they have been remodeled and occasionally mimicked from season to season. These handbags are icons unto themselves and simply will never go out of style. From their debut on the runway to their translation into moderqn day, here is an homage to some of the most prominent handbags in fashion history.

Social media and street style heavily dictate the popularization of new bag designs, resulting in a changing mindset within the industry. Relatively newer brands like Alexander Wang and Proenza Schouler presently enamor the fashion community, perhaps even taking prevalence over more established fashion houses with their progressive, urban aesthetic. The industry recognizes the significance of street style more now than ever, and consumers are drawn to certain pieces that embody the new trends they see appear in everyday attire. To combat

the growing popularity of newer, less established brands, more well known houses are developing pieces that appeal to their new, younger audience. Nowadays, modern audiences buy what they see their favorite blogger raving about in their latest fashion haul or posting about on Instagram. Companies

invite these socialites to attend their fashion shows and spread information about it to their myriad of fans.

The lust to achieve a lifestyle of luxury motivates consumers to splurge on designer items in hopes of growing closer to attaining the lifestyle of their idols. In the past, the

longevity of a piece delineated its status as “iconic” as seen through its repeated appearance in runway and print. Celebrities impacted trends; however, they were not as influential as they are in today’s world.

Social media gives a relatable effect to street style; rather than being published in magazines and newspapers, new trends can be seen instantly with the simple click of a refresh button. Forecasting styles is easier now than ever before. One post on Instagram has

Petite

“Today is a new day…” is what Nicholas Ghesquière asserted a for Louis Vuitton, following his prolific tenure at Balenciaga. He he changed the direction of the house to a more modern, pro ing the thematic and extravagant designs of Marc Jacobs. Gh practical collections while incorporating his distinctive insight. reverence for the origins of Louis Vuitton with his introduction in AW14. The bag resembles a piece of luggage, the craft tha came well known for. The incorporation of the classic trunk sty easily styled for day or night. Its versatility has popularized it w gers due to its ability to add shape

Malle

at his very first collection e did not disappoint, as ogressive look, contrasthesquière created more . Further, he showed his of the Petite Malle bag at the brand initially beyle allows the bag to be with many fashion bloge and edge to any outfit.

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the shocking ability to catalyze a complete domino effect of people rushing to purchase the next “it” fashion piece.

Street style has changed significantly with the widespread distribution of particular pieces; there is debate as to which ones will become iconic. With the evolution of street style, fashion has become more dynamic than ever, resulting in many trendsetters not investing in established, high fashion brands. It is common today for a

fashion blogger to incorporate thrifted pieces with their designer purchases, deviating from our past when women would wear ensembles wholly composed of high end garments.

Also, the blogging trendsetters of today shop at a plethora of fast fashion retailers. Places like Zara and Urban Outfitters allow them to purchase the latest trends without having to invest copious amounts of money on pieces that may be out of style within a

The inspiration for the Mulberry Alexa bag came from its designer, Emma Hill, spotting an image of British model, presenter, and writer Alexa Chung toting one of the brand’s men’s briefcases in a magazine. With ease, Hill designed the satchel style handbag which also takes inspirations from briefcases. The Alexa bag is not overbearingly girly which makes it easy to style with a girly or masculine look.

The Alexa bag has become widely popular amongst celebrities and bloggers alike, as Alexa Chung’s massive platform and popularity helped give the bag more notoriety. This is a testament to the influence of celebrities and pop culture on fashion, as the bag. Mulberry’s innovation helped it survive the economic downturn of the late 2000s, and the Alexa Bag prevailed as one of the brand’s top sellers. By taking inspiration from an It girl resulted in the creation of an “it” bag, which perpetuates the importance of public figures in influencing trends in the fashion industry.

season. The focus in street style and taneous trends has digm shift away fro lished brands and t cater to the immed client.

The contrast of m to classic fashion p debate of what is “ The phrase “it” wh terms elucidates so

Alex

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on being unique reflecting instanresulted in a paraom classical, estabtowards those that diate needs of their

modern street style pieces emulates the “it” versus “iconic”. hen used in fashion mething with mo-

xa

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mentaneous adoration whereas “iconic” delineates prestige. An “it” piece does not have the tact to sustain popularity throughout time. Iconic bags are very recognizable and often hold great historical meaning for the period during which they were created.

So, what will become our generation’s Lady Dior or Chloé Paddington? Will the Wang Rocco Bag become the new Speedy? Will the Gucci Dionysus replace the Bamboo bags as the brand’s

Initially, the shape of the Speedy Bag was inspired by the Keepall, a suitcase which became popular during the 1930s. After Georges Vuitton succeeded his father as the head of the company, he created the Speedy as a more practical everyday brand, thus departing from the brand’s original intent on creating solely luggage. The durable coated canvas and timeless silhouette resulted in the bag’s increasing popularity among celebrities. Georges further catered to the modern woman by making a smaller size, the 25. Throughout its constant redesign with innovative prints, the bag has maintained its popularity throughout the

top seller? The simple answer is: it’s too early to tell; however, we can speculate even though each season brings new trends that individuals rave over while others fade into obscurity. Certain brands have evolved their aesthetic to cater to this new era of fashion, thus resulting in a shift in their top selling pieces.

Speedy

Boy Bag

With the Boy Bag, Chanel’s creative director Karl Lagerfeld plays with Coco Chanel’s masculine inspirations. The Boy Bag deviates from the feminine 2.55 Flap Bag with its angular edges, boxy shape, and wider chain. Lagerfeld was intrigued by various facets of Chanel’s life, particularly the fact that she made clothes out of men’s underwear. This gave him the inspiration to introduce a more masculine handbag. However, the Boy Bag stays true to the Chanel aesthetic, as it is primarily created in either calfskin or lambskin.The namesake of the Boy Bag originates from the love of Chanel’s life, Boy Capel.

The bag debuted in AW11, a collection that Lagerfeld deems to be “dark”. This deviates from Chanel’s typically overtly feminine vibe, which proves to be the perfect opportunity to debut the new, edgy Boy Bag. The Boy Bag now contends with the 2.55 Flap Bag for popularity, as it has joined the 2.55 as a mainstay (aka sold every year).

Bayswater

The Mulberry Bayswater bag represents a shift in the centers of high fashion. Previously, Milan and Paris were undoubtedly the capitals of high fashion; however, Mulberry helped popularize London as a formidable fashion force.

The bag, created in 2002, takes inspiration from a classic doctor’s bag and pays homage to the Hermes Birkin as well. The Bayswater caters to the modern woman with its practical, professional silhouette. It’s modern yet feminine which appeals to business women and celebrities alike.

Each season, the bag takes on new textiles and colors, thus unceasingly innovating the standard shape of the bag.

B

Bamboo Bag

The now iconic fixture of the brand came to be after it synthesized the idea of utilizing bamboo to supplement the lack of resources available during World War II. The Italian brand was able to import bamboo from Japan and mold it into a way that solidified when it cooled. It takes artisans a total of 13 hours to wholly assemble the bag. Additionally, the synthesis of the bamboo bag in 1947 also saw the rise of pigskin as a popular material for the brand’s bags. Moreover, Gucci’s innovation resulted in the creation of an iconic, unique piece that endures into present day.

TOO BLACK TO BE BEAUTIFUL plexions. This was the price that I thought we had to pay for beauty.

But there were a few women who Although I have always lived changed that for me. The first time I in ethnically diverse areas, I saw Alek Wek, I was shocked. Here grew up thinking that both was a woman who dominated the myself and the other women of col- fashion world and she had full lips, or around me were somehow failing dark skin, and a big nose. She didn’t the test of beauty. As I grew older and have long, blonde, straight hair; in became more interested in fashion, fact she didn’t have any hair at all.

She looked like a those ideas were reaffirmed. The They weren’t just role mod- woman I might see at church or majority of the els for me and other black at home, but here women that I she was in the saw in magazines girls, but were actively adand on runways vocating for models of col- pages of magazines that for looked nothing or and diversity within the so long had told like me or the fashion industry. me that women women in my family; they had small noses, straight like us weren’t beautiful. She was not hair, and light skin. I grew up thinking beautiful despite her blackness, she that this was the only way to be beau- was beautiful because of it. tiful and spent so much of my life try- `Other models like Naomi Campbell ing to conform to those Eurocentric and Tyra Banks had the same effect standards of beauty. I wondered what on me. Growing up and seeing these was wrong with my hair and cursed powerful black women who were so it for curling back up again at the confident in themselves and their roots, only a few weeks after getting skin boosted my confidence so much. it chemically straightened. I watched I found myself imitating Tyra Banks, my aunts apply bleaching creams and from the way she talked to the way she saw the discoloration of their skin as “smized” and practicing my walk in they attempted to lighten their com- the mirror so that I could be just like

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Naomi Campbell.They weren’t just role models for me and other black girls but were actively advocating for models of color and diversity within the fashion industry. Tyra Banks used Top Model to encourage models from different backgrounds, like Winnie Harlow, and Naomi Campbell has always spoken out about anti-blackness in the fashion industry.

Even seeing models of color that weren’t black was empowering. I was endlessly intrigued by Soo Joo Park when she first arrived on the fashion scene. I’ve lived in the San Francisco Bay Area my entire life, so many of my friends and the women around me came from Asian backgrounds. I had watched a lot of these girls struggle to accept, and go through great lengths to change, their Asian features -- in the same way I did with my own. There were girls who considered getting expensive eyelid surgeries or buying products to make them look like the white women that we had grown so accustomed to admiring. We never even stopped to ask ourselves why our own beauty wasn’t enough, but instead tried to achieve what we thought was the “gold standard” of beauty. But when we saw pictures of Soo Joo Park, a woman who was so unapologetically herself, monolids and all, the only thing we saw was beauty. There was a sense of pride and solidarity with the women Alek Wek by Mitchell Nguyen McCormack

who did not look like me but faced the same challenges that I did, as we found women in the media that we could look up to.

Slowly but surely, the fashion industry is changing. The industry as a whole has such a huge impact on the way our culture views beauty, which makes it responsible for the lack of diversity. In order to dismantle the ideas that Eurocentric features are the pinnacle of beauty, we need representations of the different types of beauty.

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I N T E R N E T F A M O U S Examples of this usage are seen through two lauded labels, Vetements and Area NYC. This essay is an opinion Area NYC’s design team is made piece. The views and up of two Parsons alumni, Beckett opinions expressed in Fogg and Piotrek Panszczyk. Tothis article are those of gether the two designers focus on the author and do not textile manipulation and achieve a necessarily reflect Teen visual goal by working closely with metallics, silks, and sequins to capEye’s beliefs. ture a reflective nature on camera.

Their photography and fabric stylIn the age of social media, icon- ing is reminiscent of photographer ic brands have either flourished Petra Collins, who has been in the or failed. The industry demands limelight since 2013. Both artists forward thinkers and many brands utilize mediums in order to porhave failed to bring much life into tray a dewy, glowy, and dreamlike their work due aesthetic. Area to their lack of NYC has only The question of whether visual content just begun to see and social me- fame equals talent is the fame comdia presence. highly debated within the ing from their Social media fashion community and is visual.

Now has become the complicated all the more however, they new ‘it’ factor when it comes to social are utilizing the in the industry, trend and gainmedia. and business ing commercial minded brands success.

They have adapted to this new demand have garnered over 10,000 instaby reaching their audience through gram followers and celebrity supnew Instagram stars and the utili- port. Bella Hadid, the notorious zation of romanticized aesthetics. Instagram model, was seen wearing

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Opposite: a look from the Area SS17 collection, shot by Charolotte Wales

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an original piece of Area’s the night tion dipped its toe into more trabefore the 2016 Met Gala, and Petra ditional silhouettes, the collection Collins herself used their work in a is still firmly planted in the skater shoot with Wonderland magazine, look that has granted it a borderline where she photographed the ruler cult status. of the social meThe question of dia generation, Business minded brands whether fame Kim Kardashian, equals talent is have adapted to this new wearing solehighly debatdemand by reaching their ly Area pieces. ed within the audience through new InsThis exclusive fashion comsponsorship and tagram stars and the utilimunity and is a c k n o w l e d g e - zation of romanticized aes- complicated all ment from Col- thetics. the more when lins helped the it comes to sobrand gain traction. cial media. I believe that with talAnother brand whose fame can be ent comes fame. Despite the shame partially attributed to the usage of that certain social media brands these Instagram icons is the highly garner, you cannot deny the talcontroversial brand Vetements. Pro- ent found in each. Vetements’ unnounced ‘vet- mahn’, the label was rivaled street style caught fire in conceived and is headed by Demna the industry. Now oversized and Gvasalia, who previously worked for ‘messy’ garments rule almost every Maison Margiela and Louis Vuitton. runway -- most brands are noticVetements’ visuals follow closely to ing their success, and in the more the anti-fashion movement -- tak- business minded climate, try to iming pieces that are traditionally itate the looks. Area NYC has kept worn on the streets and charging to its well-known visualization, and exorbitant amounts. The “off-duty continues to portray glowy art in its model style” and heavy promotions garments. Undoubtedly, the social from major publications prompted media brands hold onto their notocelebrities such as Kendall Jenner riety with passion and competitiveand Hailey Baldwin to post pictures ness, proving their rightful status as in their garments. The widespread icons in the technology era. consumption of celebrity Instagram content propelled the labels status from new to notorious. Vetements, like Area NYC gained a reputation for it’s visual appeal. Though Vetements Autumn/Winter 2016 collec-

Louie, right, with Erik Van Gils after Tom Ford

LOUIE JOHNSON’S FOUR ICONS we challenged our favorite liverpudlian, the witty burberry boy himself, louie johnson @ premier london, to name his top four icons in a late night speed round... here’s what he had to say:

“Alright, I’m ready.

1. Pablo Escabar 2. Steven Gerrard 3. My mom 4. Ehm…. Have you ever heard of Mr. Nice Guy? Mr. Nice guy.

I’m not inspired by much else, to be honest!”

Ask Ask the the Industry: Industry: WHAT IS AN ICON?

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Sasha Luss Model @ IMG

What icon means nowadays is someone who represents our world, or age, in any way -- in social media, in style, in every way. But the thing is, you can’t call someone an icon right away. In twenty years, maybe, but not now [winks]. So … we’ll see!

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Mica Arganaraz: Model @ DNA

“An icon is somebody who represents everybody”

Glenda Bailey

Editor in Chief @ Harper’s Bazaar

“I think that icons are LEGENDARY. They are the people that you aspire to be.

They create the history of tomorrow and you want to be them today.”

Jessica Hart Model @ The Lions

“Icon means unique individuality”

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Erik Van Gils Model @ Re:Quest

“An icon means… an application on your phone!”

Julia Fleming Model @ Next

“An icon is someone who forges a path that is individual of others… so whether that is in fashion or anything else, it’s someone who stands their ground and holds their own.”

Jillian Mercado Activist and Model @ IMG

“An icon in 2016 is someone who’s determined and awesome”

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Rina Fukushi

Model @ Women

“My icon is Kate Moss”

Mckenna Hellam Model @ IMG Worldwide

“My icon is Gisele”

Gala Gonzalez: Blogger

“An icon is anything that works better than it did in 2015”

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Julia Nobis Model @ DNA

Icon is a very loaded word... and I think -- I don’t like saying someone is an icon because someone is just iconic to other people so it’s like anyone can have their own and it doesn’t matter who. I don’t believe in icons.

Giovanna Battaglia and Liya Kebede

Contributing Fashion Editor @ W Magazine and Senior Fashion Editor at Vogue Japan; Advocate and Model @ IMG

“What does icon mean to YOU?

*

*

Editor’s note: Seriously, what does it mean to you? Think about it, then email us, tag us on social media, send us a letter, call us in the middle of the night -- whatever it takes to reach us -- for a chance to be featured on our website ;-)

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK REVIEW pictures and words by

Em Odessor

except where specified otherwise

SS17

GOODNIGHT LADIES AT MORGAN LANE // 90

EVERYONE’S INVITED TO A CHROMAT PARTY // 94

BABYGHOST IS SUPERNATURAL! // 98

PERVERTED HAGIOGRAPHY AT NAMILIA // 104

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G O O D N I G H T

L A D I E S

MORGAN

A T

LANE

For a long time now, I’ve had a folder stored on my computer called “BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL LINGERIE”. Because, you know, a girl can dream. A few tabs are from the vintage community, but the majority are from CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund Finalist Morgan Lane. I’ve respected the brand for a while now: each piece appears to totally deserve it’s respective price tag.

You can see that that they’re well crafted and functional, which is important, but they’re uniquely sexy and dreamy with high quality details and perfect shapes and it’s easy to lose yourself swooning over the silk on the emerald Yarden bra, or the little bit of strategic lace on the Madeline or -- well, you get it. This season, the brand made their fashion week debut and released not only a doll like and energetic collection, but staged a full-on live music dance party bathed in a blushy pink light.

Invitations can certainly set expectations for a show, and the Morgan Lane one proved to be an example. The lingerie brand sent out lucite boxes with tinged flowers (soft and pale centers fading into a wash of green) announcing the details, and on the show day, the set itself was made to look like a nature heavy candyland. Visual Creative Director Nate Brown built all white sprigs of 3-D wildflowers and cheeky mushrooms that complimented the energy and primary motifs of the collection itself.

The show was closely connected to American band Sofi Tukker’s single “Drinkee”, which invites listeners in

P H O T O S B Y S O P H I A W I L S O N

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sultry and poppy Spanish to dance with them, and the aesthetics of the music video were present in the model’s sweaty cheeks, endearingly frizzy plaits, and electric green and purple lids. As the boy-girl duo performed, they wore custom matching PJ sets that Lane was so excited about she joked -- perhaps!

-- about expanding her brand to cover menswear.

In truth though, she really had delved into new grounds and developed her first swimwear pieces inspired by smoothed over sea glass. The lingerie looks were sheer and sweet, and the lark of a group of butterfly girls with unbuttoned and hanging and sheer tops, with tenderly lacy edges and ranges of milky pastel stripes isn’t something to forget.

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E V E R Y O N E ’ S

I N V I T E D

T O

C H R O M A T !

There’s a good reason for why casting directors are revered throughout the industry. The models​ who are chosen to walk in a show represent the brand and stand to show customers that, if they wear certain clothes, they could turn into an glamorized version of themselves. A good collection should feature models that are talented and reflect the message of the show and values of the brand. Through most of fashion history, the code has been to create a wild fantasy in a runway and thus, the models who got the most bookings have unrealistic bodies. You wouldn’t see someone like Nadja Auermann in your hometown.

Recently though, there’s been an insurgence, and a force of new designers have entered the industry and fought to change the rules.

They present streetwear, swimwear, or athletic wear, they ignore tradition, and they work on creating the absolute perfect wardrobe

for a girl or boy who already exists, rather than one who is idealized. Chromat, the swim brand created by Becca Mccharen-Tran, upholds the institution of using fashion as a medium to make women into the strongest they can possibly be. But, Mccharen-Tran has rebelled, and is one of the leaders of the new movement to conceive what the modern, pre-existing woman today needs. It’s important that her shows reflect the woman today, and luckily, her shows are notoriously well loved for their wonderfully inclusive casts. The SS17 HYPERWAVE show was no exception. Muse and upcoming mother Mela Murder opened by snaking through the runway, creating insanely geometric shapes with her body as she waaked, vogued and death drop, and the energy never dropped from there. The crowd was whooping with glee and screaming out “yes girl!” throughout as Princess Nokia’s “Tomboy” (“My lil titties and my fat belly! My lil titties and my fat belly!”) blared out. Models including Maya Monès, Diana Veras, Aube Jolicoeur, Sabina Karlsson, and Lauren Wasser made appearances in septum piercings, blue eyebrows, and wicked and heat reglating material. The walks alone differed from those in most other SS17 shows: hips swayed, smiles stuck, and stomps, albeit the fact that they came from slidecovered feet, reverberated. No one would resist the energy — but it’d be hard not to get swept up.

The collection itself was even more dynamic. It was inspired by the strong women that are the centerpiece of the brand, specifically, both Mela Murder and those who play active water sports: Katie Ledecky, Simone Manuel, and an array of flyboarders including Gemma

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Weston. Mccharen-Tran always creates drama with her use of technology — last season, models wore light up clothing — but, like most NYFW designers, has a chunk of her mind on business. The looks she showed, under the #ChromatSWIM line (ready to provoke social media buzz), were an amalgation of the consumer-focus, the muses, and the innovative tech. An icy blue to fire red pallete created a nice arc, while the black panels creating hourglass effects on almost every piece tied it all together. Bodylabs had live-scanned Murder’s every move, and during the show, Formlabs Printers began what Mccharen-Tran nicknamed a ‘digital pregancy’: bonding and configuring liquid molecules to 3-D print her sharpest poses. This was the ultimate and superb nod to inclusive fashion: it was a reference to their goal to start a trend, a revolution, of 3D printing to customize every garment at home.

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B A B Y G H O S T I S

S U P E R N A T U R A L !

Babyghost’s creative team decided on something new this year: instead of a presentation, they were going to host a breakfast. Ju would style, this time with the other models, Josh and Ran would continue their creative genius, and, to include their avid and international fan base, the spectacle would be live streamed on the Chinese app Weibo. The party itself was intimate, a chance to thank friends and muses alike as the cast and crew giddily loaded their plates full of noodles and mugged for blue polaroids. The looks of the collection were then modelled

by Japanese model Mona Matsuoka, shot in advance and professionally released after the live stream - a modus operandi that created a fresh effect. Lookbooks are platforms to really convey the strengths of a brand, and Babyghost showed off theirs in spades.

As usual, the collection was dense with vintageinspired details and evidence of a strong understanding of texture. The team focused on a group in the new age who called themselves

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indigo kids, crystal children, who believed they possessed special supernatural abilities. Faintly psychedelic patterns in green that looked like both tarantulas and phosphenes were introduced, as were the brand new, very first accessory of the house: trippy, hexagonal white fishnets. The ornate crater of metal usually worn as a ring on a model’s’ finger was strung across a braided shoestring and left to hang comfortably above her collarbone. This time, the chunk was carved into a ram’s head over a pentagon. As the collection advanced, taking a little from the last look and shifting to new territories, it became easy to imagine Mona in all her smokey pink eyes glory with paranormal capabilities. The gothic and slinky Babyghost silhouette of an overly cropped sheer sweater and tight calf grazing tank dress helped, and the jagged, banded, and ruffled hems, sneakers laced only around the ankles, and decals of a crying madonnas that read “I desire the

B E A U F I L L E

MAKES YOU FEEL SPECIAL, OOH!

Beaufille’s SS17 presentation was staged in what feels like the official new favorite spot for young New Yorkers: The Standard Hotel across from the Highline.

Once I passed the monochrome yellow pillars and wall to floor mirrored hallways, I entered the wooden showspace and was met with thirty two glowing models,

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basking in sunlight and standing united as a plaid and vicose consortium. It was the kind of room you almost immediately feel excited to be in. Floating throughout were eighties songs ringing with brash confidence: the first I noticed was The Waitresses’ “I Know What Boys Like”, the second The Pretenders’ “Brass in Pocket”.

The playlist fit the show well. After all, the Beaufille ethos, right down to the very name of the brand (which translates from French to “handsome girl”), is finessing a sharp and smooth contrast between soft, hard, masculine, and feminine. The Gordon sisters found the line and ran with it, playing with divergences to make a full and cohesive collection. Just like Chrissie Hynde teases, they make their consumers feel special, and it’s thrilling to witness.

There was an interesting balance between the youthful and playful looks and the seductive and modern ones that has come to define the Beaufille aesthetic.

When the sisters wanted to flash skin, it was through strategic placement. On one look, a bulk of black ruffles from the neck to hip had been carefully excised, with the two remaining ones acting as a frame to the now exposed small of the back. It was certainly sexy, but devoid of anything louche or dirty. This was

Fashion

refined, polished, and sweet appeal. When there was a fishnet, it was only under the hem of long, bleached, perfectly aged denim or pulled under white silk to cover bare hip bones.

When the sisters wanted to add a free spirited edge, they looked at nature. The influence of Brazilian landscape artist Robert Burle Marx was paired with the easygoing sixties ideal of wearing flowers in your hair, and silver jewelry was melded into swirling floral shapes to add an extra breezy flare around the neck and wrists. Fluted pant legs moved smoothly enough to look like The designers explained to Emily Farra that they wanted to “take a girl’s average look to the next level, but without feeling like she’s going to work in a costume”, that the collection was “still fashion, but not unwearable”.

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N A M I L I A Remember that the SS17 “You’re Just A Toy” collection was only the third that Nan Li and Emilia Pfohl have created for their brand. Their first was already dramatic. An ode to this generation’s female pop stars, the presentation featured exaggerated takes on stars’ social media portrayals. Namilia introduced brocade corsets tumbling into snake-headed plastic tubes, a healthy amount of velour and latex, and their now signature “dick bras” -- which are exactly what they sound like. The next time around, the pair notched up what had been introduced, handed out some Babeland vibrators to their fans (thanks!), and organized a well staged presentation to denounce women’s hypersexualization in the media, complete with girl gangs and a merging of eroticism and daily life. The fabrics and color schemes were present, as was the rebellion against the degrading perception of women, but the concepts and shapes were reconsidered and rendered into winter styles. It was obvious after those two thorough seasons that the brand’s ideas would lead them to meteoric success, but the fashion industry is like molasses. Especially for the younger crowd.

Meteoric is usually a relative term. With Namilia though, this wasn’t the case. The brand held their first runway show -- a big upgrade from the presentation setting -- this season with casual nonchalance: backstage, Nan smiled and shrugged, rubbing an elbow and announcing shyly to the cameras that it was “pretty cool”. No matter how unphased he seemed, it’s obvious how much time and consideration was invested. The brand has reached a new level of charged, feminist ideologies; they’ve reached a new level of couture

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sensibilities. As the crisp manifestos on each bench declared, they’re the “Invincible All Girl Namilia Cult”.

And they know how to put on a show.

There were six key features the designers set out to underscore through their thirty two looks, and they’re too good to not quote directly.

The first -- “Visualization of the extreme power and madness of teenage fandom and turning boys into sexual playthings”. This was first evident in a red and trailing plastic jacket with screws, bondage straps, roses and nailed in cutouts of Leo Dicaprio in his prime Titanic stage, and later popped up when Zayn Malik and Justin Beiber were superimposed on tulle and leather with, respectively, alien spaceships and scenes of saintly crucification. It was all wildly perverted hagiography.

The second -- “Reversing patriarchal society’s concept of female sexualization of objectification”. X marked pasties and collared harnesses with covered by hands-off chains; both the dick bras and a plastic

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leotard supposedly connected to jeans but ripped off to show off a triangle on each upper thigh sported ladylike roses. That’s covered.

The third: “A mash up of harcore fetish-wear, provacative slogans, and nsfw visuals to create the true [here, there was a dramatic line break, allowing the next words to hit harder] fashion activist”. A certain orange colored and delusional politician, who I’ll confront in just a second, was photoshopped onto a graphic pornography screenshot, emblazoned on a patch, and slapped on girls clad in stars and stripes.

The fourth: “A Celebration of the deviant and the freakish; reinterpeting the rebellious and sexual codes of punks and goths”. Remarkably fitting and intelligent -- considering that the punk women in the conservative London streets were the first to embrace fetish wear; remarkably present in a black statue of liberty hat chained to an over sized tee shirt and hoodie combination that was perfectly Hot Topic

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with dashes of tulles and angry crosses (i counted at least eight).

The fifth: “Freeing yourself from the common rules of decency and letting your most inner fantasies run free”.

Read all I’ve described so far.

And finally, the sixth, in it’s delightful bluntness: “Take down Trump”. They sent out battle girls storming down the runway, full intent of smashing any misogynist or weakling with gelled back pigtails and a six inch lucite heel. This cast was not merely models but boudiccas in pasties.

All of this was presented with simple and sterile white walls, bright lights, and Biebs’ “Sorry” as backdrop music.

Youtubers like Madison Beer bopped along delightedly and ogled at how face masks were made to look like condoms, how Mcqueen’s Bumsters were inverted in a denim dress, proudly displaying a model’s ass but covering the rest of her backside, how the hoop earrings were bigger than a face streaked with chunky kohl. None of the details felt excessive.

The technical craft and organization throughout promoted a cleanliness, allowing the brash designs to shout.

High fashion truly can serve as a platform to spread a message -- Nan Li and Emilia Pfohl understand that acutely. They took the simple and important current trends of NYFW: encouraging showgoers to vote, toying with pop culture, and streetwear and turned it into an utter dream.

One of the top looks was a black tee shirt that promised “IT’S ONLY THE BEGINNING”. As the show erupted and we all broke out in raucous applause, I can promise that no one doubted the continuation of Namilia’s greatness for a second. The crowd swarmed backstage, hoping for an induction into the invincible cult that Li and Pfohl have fortified.

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BEHIND THE SCENES photos by Em Odesser

Isla Fisher

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Finnlay Davis, left, and Gracie Hartzel, right

Liya Kebede and Giovanna Battaglia

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Alice Metza and Andrew Sherman

Sara Sampaio, Taylor Hill and Romee Strijd

Cara Taylor

WHAT ON EARTH IS AN ICON? Kennedey Bell

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Trade ad for Johnny Cash’s single “It Ain’t Me, Babe”

live in a town called Mount Vernon, in Ohio, which is populated mostly by corn stalks and Confederate flags. The most interesting place we have in town is called Southside, and it is typically frequented by elderly ex-factory and farmer couples.

The place is covered in chipped 1950s vinyls, a lot of broken bikes and posters of 1940’s actors. As cool as that restaurant is, Mount Vernon is not really much of a modern hotspot. The idea of icons aren’t mentioned much,

other than the devotion the town still has to Justin Bieber and Johnny Cash.

Therefore, when I first read this issue’s theme, I really had no idea what I was going to write about. An icon? I asked myself, aren’t icons artists and fashion designers, only known by those who go to the New York Museum of Modern Art weekly and attend Fashion Week every year? What even is an icon? I found two definitions to answer that question and from there, I have found my own idea of what an icon is.

According to Urban Dictionary, an icon is “a legend, role model or superstar” I attended the Kenyon Review Young Writer’s Workshop -or KRYW- in June this year, and met an incredible group of people.

Some came from LA, others from New York, one from Tennessee and another from Michigan. All came from different backgrounds and were headed somewhere dif-

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ferent in their life. Of course, they all had one thing in common: their passion for writing. Ugochi created her own writing workshop, Em is the editor-in-chief of an international magazine and each one was dedicated to their work and were working on publishing their pieces. Those eight people became role models to me and increased my drive to write. Without them, I would not be publishing this nor would I be working more efficiently on my poetry. Their dedication to their own work has inspired me, becoming an icon in my eyes.

Roman Atwood is a vlogger from Millersport, Ohio. He vlogs about his two sons and makes prank videos with his girlfriend, Brittney. My brother, Charlie, adores him. He often attempts to pull his own pranks now, although they’re typically along the lines of attaching BoobyTraps to doors and popping out from behind couches. Through a five minute conversation with Charlie, I have learned where Roman lives, where he’s traveling now and his entire backstory, complete with children and a messy divorce. He often talks about starting his own vlogs, purely because of Roman. Charlie looks up to Roman for his vlogs and pranks as a role model to gain inspiration.

Fiona Keller is one of my closest friends. She is seventeen, and a senior with me at Mount Vernon High School. She does entirely too much for one person but is a role model for me with all of her work that she’s done.

Last year alone, she did over 100 community service hours through Key Club, a student-led service organization, and is now the lieutenant governor, meaning she overlooks twelve different schools in our Key Club district.

She is also our National Honor Society president and worked on almost every project we did last year. Her passion for Key Club has made me very passionate about National Honor Society and I have tried to do as much service as I can because of her.

An icon can be defined as someone to follow, a role model to inspire one’s work. My friends from camp inspired me to publish my work and their dedication to their own work pushes me to continue writing every day. Roman Atwood is a role model to my brother who creates his own pranks and hopes to one day do the work that Roman does. Fiona motivates me to volunteer more often and as much as I can. As amazing as these people are, they are not idolized in the eyes of society as the typical icon is.

Icon [ahy-kon]: n. a person or thing that is revered or idolized.

If paper dictionaries were still relevant, a picture of Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator and writer of Hamilton: An American Musical, would be next to the definition of ¨ïdol¨. His

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Pablo Picasso - Jeune Fille Endormie

ability to create such a lively version of history has touched many people.

In a time where diversity and immigrants are so prevalent in political and societal discussions, his diversity in Hamilton and his focus on the fact that Alexander Hamilton was an immigrant makes the society today adore him. He has won many awards for his work, and his play took over Broadway for almost a year and still is sold out for until late 2017. He is idolized for his work being infallible due to his diversity and his odd musical choices, so much so that society, a year

after Hamilton’s release is still adding attention to it every day.

Last year in my Spanish IV class, we learned about Spanish artists. Pablo Picasso, of course, was the first one.

Picasso is known mostly for the eccentricity in his art and his seemingly sudden changes from realism to cubism. However, merely by typing his name into the Google search bar can you find hundreds of pieces of work dedicated to him. Using the term ‘Picasso’ can give anyone the idea of eccentricity. The career of David Hockney, an already popular British artist,

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was changed in 1980 when he began to use Picasso’s cubism in his work after Picasso’s death. Many popular artists sell their Picasso-inspired work online for thousands of dollars.

Because of Picasso, modern artists have brilliant new forms to work with and the daringness to find their own form.

His work is revered as the best of its kind, shown by the publications in famous museums, the high price of the pieces and the dedication students have to studying it.

J.K. Rowling has been idolized since the late 1990s, with the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and is idolized now for the loving generation she created. She is revered by writers because she did not create Harry Potter until she was 25 and then on a napkin. She persevered for seven years and was denied by twelve publishing houses before the first book of a brilliant saga was created. Still, nine years after the final

book was published, fans fawn over her own personal story and the series she wrote. Five psychologists submitted a study to the Journal of Applied Social Psychology in 2014 showing that children and teens who read the Harry Potter series were more likely to be accepting of minority or judged groups. She has opened the door for a more open political generation that will hopefully create great change in the future. Rowling’s still dedicated fanbase and the celebrated generation she created shows the idolization people give her.

What is an icon? An icon is someone idolized or a role model. It’s that simple. There’s no need for a fan base or national recognition. Fiona is an icon because she is my role model. Pablo Picasso is an icon because he changed the world of art and has inspired thousands of other artists. An icon can be a local model that inspires a little girl or boy to dedicate their life to the art of modeling. It can be a famous fashion designer who creates a stunning new neckline. An icon is anyone who motivates you to succeed and improve upon yourself. Writing this, I focused on who my icons were and I became excited once more to improve on my habits and actions. Take the time to find out who inspires you.

Culture

YOU’RE A REALLY COOL PERSON Ingrid Zhang

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he TIME 100 has been released to readers annually since 1990, over two decades ago. A list of the 100 most influential people in America, as decided by ‘a debate among American academics, politicians, and journalists’. These people are considered the icons of our society. They were chosen because they represent something, and represent it well, earning them fame and power.

Ranging from the likes of supermodel and computer coder Karlie Kloss, to the contentious and largely ridiculed Donald Trump, it is obvious that there is no clear correlation in personality or character among these 100 people. The world’s current metaphorical ‘Hall of Fame’ contains icons such as Martin Luther King, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, and Miley Cyrus. What they have in common, is that they are not common people with common beliefs and careers.

They dare to diverge from the mainstream, and are idolised by society for their non-conformity. They were not necessarily loved or welcomed

initially, but they stuck to their guns and made an influence on people with their individuality. What makes an icon an icon, is their ability to be different, and roll with it.

Google ‘pop-culture icons’ and you’ll find hundreds of links to thousands of websites and blogs with their own lists of icons. There seems to be an addiction to classification and structure, which has influenced the way our society works for as long as it has existed. We use lists and complex class structures to define ourselves as belonging to a certain sector of society. Now, in a rapidly progressing world, labels are supposed to mean less. Diversity is beginning to be celebrated, and our youth are told to express themselves and encouraged to form their own unique identities.

But in reality, labels mean more

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than they ever have before, allowing people in the public eye to be respected for their diversity, while people in smaller communities still struggle to gain this respect.

Traditional ideas of conformity and social pressures come to mind when we use the word ‘labels’. It triggers memories of social cliques and that iconic scene in Mean Girls where all the girls rock up to school with holes in their tops, just because Regina George did. This may be an exaggerated example of conformity, and American teen movies may be an inaccurate representation of what high school is actually like, but the principle is there. Peer pressure and the fear of judgement lead a lot of today’s youth to subject themselves to conform to society’s standards

and stereotypes which can ultimately limit their ‘potential’. It is easy to think about being different, but when you’re the only one not wearing Regina’s holy accidental fashion mess, it’s hard to avoid the strange looks.

It takes grit and a whole lot of confidence to be the one to do something different. Lovable Friends character Phoebe Buffay’s penchant for telling the truth is slandered when she is fired for advocating animal rights to children. She sings “Then the farmer hits him on the head and grinds him up, and that how we get hamburgers.” The interesting part is that the children enjoyed her performance, but the parents put a stop to Buffay anyway. It is this recurring idea that tradition wins over change, that forces people to resort to tradition even

Miley Cyrus’ ascension from Disney starlet to pop culture icon has given her the platform to endorse and support issues like LGBTQIA rights.

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Phoebe Buffay, the fun-loving and eccentric blonde addition to classic 90’s television show Friends

pool of diversity. We can use them to inspire ourselves, and to conquer society’s norms. Australia’s Troye Sivan, now openly gay, struggled through his journey thinking that “If no one accepts me, at least Miley Cyrus will.”

Cyrus’ presence as an advocate has probably helped thousands more accept their own identity. Icons like Cyrus can really use their platform to spread the message that diversity is okay.

Icons are usually different, but loved for their differences. Icons are somethough they want change. Buffay’s thing special, something irreplacecomplete loyalty to her own opinions able. The classification of icons as and individuality is hard to find, and icons means that ultimately, we remarks her as an icon. member the people who are different.

Diversity is something of a hot top- The people who were not afraid to be ic lately. The LGBTIQP+ community different in a society that condemns and the #blacklivesmatter campaign and alienates difference. We are all show that our society has a long way different, but icons are those who are to go, until diversity becomes okay. not afraid to show it. Let’s all take An obsession with what’s ‘normal’ Phoebe Buffay’s mantra. and having social Repeat after her: norms means “I’m a really cool person.” - “I’m a really cool that diversity Phoebe Buffay person.” Iconic? will always be an Maybe not. But alien concept, icons may become a thing of the past, and the diverse will always be alien if we can all find the courage to make people. Sure, progress is progress. different the new normal.

Icons of equality like Miley Cyrus are accepted and loved for their voice.

But when it comes to smaller communities in families, or schools, or towns, diversity becomes a much scarier concept to face. We idolise diversity in the media, but seem to be afraid of it in our personal lives. We can use these icons as a floatie in the

Azealia Banks by Emily Shur

GOOD ICON BAD ICON Nina Fletcher

We live in an era in which, due of the advent of the internet, our icons are increasingly reachable. This (as with almost all things) has pros and cons—for both us and celebrities. For one, celebrities are increasingly called upon to become political, and their role in politics and activism is not clear.

Do those with a platform have the responsibility of voicing their views and talking about “important” things? Do they have the right to remain silent? And if a celebrity voices an opinion that we don’t share, how do we respond?

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If you search Iggy Azalea’s Twitter Piers Morgan is that the mothers of account for the phrase “Black Lives police shooting victims, appearing Matter,” exactly one result shows up, in Beyoncé’s visual accompaniment a January 22 tweet in which the rap- to her album Lemonade, were “used per replied to another user, saying, [...] to sell an album. It smacks of “then you wanted to be [sic] bring shameless exploitation.” Furtherin black lives matter and say i dont more, artists like Fetty Wap and care about it because im not a so- Raven-Symoné have come under cial activist.” Azalea has come un- heavy fire for speaking in support der fire for her of All Lives MatWhether an icon stays sisilence about ter. Fetty Wap lent or speaks up for either the issue, espedeleted his tweet cially since her side of an issue, they will (“My kids are feud with fellow endure a backlash. It seems mixed… #AllLi(and similarly they can do no right. vesMatter”) the named) rapper day after posting Azealia Banks, who accused her of it and apologized, but it hasn’t endapathy regarding the movement. ed the controversy. @deROCKSohd Although Iggy has expressed regret tweeted recently, “I really loved Fetfor how her words towards Azealia ty Wap until he said all lives matter.. may have been misinterpreted as Like, why would you do that to me? relating to Black Lives Matter, she I liked you. I really liked you!” Alhasn’t said anything else, and she most a month after issuing his apolhas not stopped receiving criti- ogy and retracting his words, they cism. Yet as Iggy Azalea said her- have not been forgotten. self, perhaps she simply is “not a So what is the role of a celebrity in social activist.” Does having a fol- politics? Whether an icon stays silowing require one to become po- lent or speaks up for either side of litical? Some think so. As user @ an issue, they will endure a backpanama1019 tweeted, “I’m sorry @ lash. It seems they can do no right.

IGGYAZALEA but mack [Mackle- Of course, when your life is made more] is rigth [sic] alot of you white public, nothing you do is going to artist [sic] take from black culture please everyone, so perhaps it is a but dont fully support black lives celebrity’s duty to take advantage of matter.” their invisible loudspeakers. ConOn the other hand, artists like Be- versely, perhaps they have the right yoncé, who have been outspoken to keep whatever they can—their regarding Black Lives Matter, have politics, for example—private. been both celebrated and criticized. If a celebrity chooses to present The opinion of former CNN host their opinions on a sensitive subject,

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they will undoubtedly influence many of their more impressionable fans. When we admire and follow someone for one area of their work (their music, movies, etc.) then it can become easy to trust that they know what they are doing in other areas of their lives as well. This is especially true when they appear so flawlessly well put together on their social media accounts. However, it is important to consider that many entertainers may know even less than their fans about a social movement or political cause. As Fetty Wap said in his apology regarding All Lives Matter, he “didn’t fully understand the hashtag.” Ideally, the negative response he received would motivate him to educate himself on the movements. But for those who believe that celebrities have the responsibility of speaking out, it could have an adverse effect, steering him away from outspoken political involvement in the future.

It is difficult to conclusively define what the role of a celebrity in activism should be, and that is only one side of the discussion. What is the role of their fans? In other words, what are our roles? Do we encourage our idols to speak out, and “call out” all the ones that have the courage to voice an opinion we don’t agree with? Do we condemn celebrities who choose to keep their opinions behind closed doors? More so now than ever, we have the opportunity to interact with our idols in multi-

ple arenas. No rules have been written, and mostly likely, no rules ever will be. It is up to us to determine what we believe—about celebrities, about their roles in social movements, and about social movements themselves.

Most importantly, we must remember that each of us, celebrities and fans alike, has a voice. Figure out what you believe, and share your opinion if you would like to.

In the end, it’s up to you.

Culture

ON THE ROCKS A defense of Hillary Clinton’s ‘frigidity’ A. A Reinecke

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t is all too easy to forgive Bill Clinton his faults. Can his flaws and failings not be put away, as though an unfavorable sweater, among the stack of his many qualifications and successes? Don’t we, in that simple manner of liking, and not of alliance or of strategy, feel an affinity for the man? His ramblings are our ramblings.

His lackadaisical, good-natured failures are our own. His cheating scandal bears close enough resemblance to that of our good or brave or courageous or decent cousin Richard or Tom, the one with the hunting rifle and the knack for American history. Unfortunately for her campaign, his wife is a different story. Hillary Clinton might be the brains between the Clinton duo, but that leaves her with all the calculation and none the charisma. And as for her perceived ‘coldness’? Right now, America’s just not ‘gonna have it.

Difficulty holding a smile is no new trait of Clinton’s, however, until she secured the Democratic Party’s endorsement, a personality rearranged around masculine traits has been advantageous for the candidate. But today the very traits

which enabled her such a pedestal are threatening to topple her from it.

Clinton’s dominant nature has afforded her, practically, every victory she has to her name. It was the leadership role she took during protests on the Wellesley campus that garnered the kind of respect which earned her the commencement speaker role; it was through her offensive courting of Bill Clinton that she stepped into the privilege of turning down not one, but many of the politician’s marriage proposals. If ever an individual was molded by experience, so was Hillary Clinton by encouraged masculinity. We can safely infer that the candidate’s early success through rejecting her femininity has, as though lack of use, barred her from tapping of such resource.

One might argue Clinton was given plenty encouragement for displayed femininity. This is not unreasonable; the skyrocketing of her public opinion polls in 1998 during the fallout of the Lewinsky scandal, during which many “sympathized with her as a victim” can attest such a claim. However, so too can another of her likability apexes—that which followed her domination of a discussion with 60 Minutes, in which she saved Bill’s presidential bid from another of his indiscretions—cough the inverse. Many more public hurrahs for her masculine nature can be found, including the effective employment of the “two for the price of one” strategy

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in Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential bid, woman to control my emotions.” and her breadwinner earnings in the While at times like these, when the op70s and 80s, to name a few. posing candidate is both a threat to our SNL may poke fun at Clinton’s having self-perception and our outside reputato “yell into small boxes” rather than ex- tion as a nation, traits such as ‘warmth’ press herself emotionally, but the can- and ‘likability’ shouldn’t factor into our didate’s acquired political meditadistance from We want to like our tion, the truth is public display candidates. We want that they do. We of feeling is no want to like our to feel for them a simlaughing matter. candidates. We This long-trained ple, human affinity. want to feel for development may them a simple, huprove to be a key flaw in her campaign. man affinity. Lack of qualification isn’t According to a study undertaken by Clinton’s problem. It never has been.

Princeton professor Susan Fiske, as Beside her opponent’s lack of foreign “women, unlike men, are rarely per- policy experience and his sustained tenceived as warm and competent” they dency for racist harangue, her unfamilare placed in an unfortunate “catch-22 iarity with a certain arrangement of the situation.” Clinton explained this situa- gums sounds extion herself in a recent Humans of New ceptionally trivial.

York post: Does her lagging “I was taking a law school admissions in the polls point test in a big classroom at Harvard. . . . to a widespread And while we’re waiting for the exam sexist conspiracy? to start, a group of men began to yell In some ways, yes. things like: ‘You don’t need to be here.’ In others, no.

And ‘There’s plenty else you can do.’ It Though we atturned into a real ‘pile on.’ One of them tempt to cast even said: ‘If you take my spot, I’ll get ballots with our drafted, and I’ll go to Vietnam, and I’ll heads, it is imposdie.’ And they weren’t kidding around. sible, of course, to It was intense. It got very personal. But extract from any I couldn’t respond. I couldn’t afford to decision the govget distracted because I didn’t want to ernance of a pulse. mess up the test. So I just kept looking It doesn’t matter if down, hoping that the proctor would we comprehend, walk in the room. I know that I can be intellectually, the perceived as aloof or cold or unemo- fact that orators tional. But I had to learn as a young like Obama or

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charmers like Kennedy are far and few between; that part of us which beats for such leaders simply cannot be willed to enthusiasm for Clinton. This is not to say we are backwards. The phenomena really has less to do with her being a woman than it does with the multiplied expectation that comes with the label.

Had she been a less than charismatic male candidate, a dearth of some sort might have been considered, however, it is unlikely, given the lesser emphasis on emotion as a necessary facet of the male persona, that such a fault would prove itself similarly catastrophic.

In other words, the extent of sexism present in our country cannot be determined simply by the checking of or against the box for a certain candidate’s name. In analyzing it, I’ve had to remind myself it is not a strictly binary question of ‘sexist or not sexist?’ It cannot be pigeonholed nearly as easily as many such aligned situations, such as the fight with my father in which I, over a plate of mac and cheese, jockeyed to sit at the table’s head, or how, in speaking last week to an academic acquaintance, I found myself ashamed at my own surprise of her brother’s choice of career—the mention of which, I’ll admit, despite being quelled with mention of a more than respectable ballet academy, conjured images of men in black tights).

The questions raised by means of Clinton’s campaign are those of a less than simple sexism. The dilemma which this election season poses us goes beyond the asking of: Is America sexist, (check

yes or no)? It is unreasonable to dismiss it as such. Clinton once wrote: “The truth is that sometimes it is hard even for me to recognize the Hillary Clinton that other people see.” Feminists have idealized her. Republicans have caricatured her. Somewhere in the process the majority has failed to recognize her any longer as a person. She is cold, we say, but this is just the reverse side of ‘driven.’ She is ‘calculated’ we say, which is another word for ‘effective.’ The most of us are hypocrites, for we allude the absence of those traits in Clinton we, as a nation, are responsible for having sanded out of her.

In regard to this November’s question; advantage rather than abuse it. Pour yourself a drink if you must. Assure yourself that the right thing is often hard. One need not hold even a banner or peg even a lawn sign so as one checks the correct box on the ballot; it might be anonymous, should it be wished. There is a lovely provision in our government which allows for such things. If much can be maintained through compromise and little through steadfastness, must we always settle with little?

I’m sorry if you’ve found this year difficult to swallow. I’m sorry if you should rather, in the fates, some other mintsprig shaking. And as for those of you with a derisive napkin-scribble to pen about Hillary Clinton’s smile? Such can be allowed. It matters not to me with what degree of puerility you take your drink, so long as you take it.

EYE

DOLLS

Oona Kyung

ple of this phenomenon had its humble beginnings not too long ago.

He was a simple toe-headed boy from rural Washington who happened to be at the right place and at the right time. His diction, his countenance, and his image pacified a restless generation. Plastered across the walls of every teenage bedroom like a shrine, Kurt Cobain became an enigma; his image served as a reminder of adoles-

F

rom a young age we seek people, moments, and places that remind us of something we fear we may lose. The consistency of Marilyn Monroe on the walls of every diner across the nation symbolizes something far greater than just the byproduct of fame or adoration. For many of us, the visual reminder of our idols is far more poignant than perhaps we’re willing to admit.

As a society we have more or less selected people to be iconic.

We purloin their image and we create a persona for them around a preconceived ideal that believe they ought to fit.

It’s a habit we’ve formed akin to the adolescent idolization of our parents, teachers, and elders.

Perhaps the most significant exam-

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cent unrest and his voice, a rendering for their grievances.

Other instances of this can be found among the likes of someone like Jane Birkin, whom the French people have adopted as their own; an icon for an entire era following the new wave age of film. Her gamine figure and bemusing allure bred an iconic look, one that exemplified the poise of an entire nation. While she had wits to charm a dozen, it was her perplexing affair with Serge Gainsbourg that captivated so many - their romance as charming as it was repulsive. The

two lovers were provocative without being ostentatious, the French people took note, and the rest of the world followed suit. Their image symbolized the unexpected romance - something that we as a society yearn for idealism.

It is perfectly healthy to have icons to look up to, to have figures with whom we are familiar, and to rely on them as a sort of standard of normality.

We often lean on people like Audrey Hepburn for a standard of immutable grace and beauty. To us, people like her are beyond morbid imperfection,

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untainted by the society in which we live. We hang posters of her in our homes, we watch her movies, and we sing along with her to Moon River. We see her throughout our adolescence, we admire her, and though we may change, she does not. While the delight and comfort of nostalgia is seemingly harmless, it unfortunately also poses as a serious risk.

Idealism creates a sort of manic standard. Though we may be insistent that they don’t, our icons do, in fact, taint us. When we rely on people, images, places, memories, and so on to satiate our intense reliance on nostalgia, we often do not take into consideration that perhaps things were not as terrific as we might recall. This is especially relevant when looking through the lens of the last decade or so.

While social media has given us the unprecedented outlet to connect with others, we have also simultaneously maintained an idyllic standard for people who change far too transpar-

ently for us to keep up. Looking back thirty years ago, someone like Molly Ringwald was idolized by young girls for the characters that she portrayed.

With that came a sort of set persona that was simple enough to follow, but edgy enough to be admired by legions of teenaged girls. Today, accessible outlets like social media have complicated the simplicity that was once found in women like Ringwald.

We can now see into the lives of every single person and, in turn, the allure has grown nearly nonexistent. With this we are left to come to terms with the reality that we are living in an era that might not be able to produce any idols.

We have now risked having icons in favor of the luxury of accessibility.

Though many of us may be impartial to this, the severity of it extends far beyond the surface. We rely on icons because they provide us with the nostalgia that pacifies the truth and hardships that we face in our everyday lives. They are a familiar face at the grocery store, or a familiar song in the lobby. Without these strings of commonality, we hinder the development of our culture. We need a face for our fights. Without one, we are aimless.

Be it Jane Birkin, Kurt Cobain, or Molly Ringwald, we make who we want to be iconic. It is part of our natural instinct to seek familiarity, allowing us to relate to one another.

Without icons, we risk our cultural identity.

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Concept: Caitlyn De Groot Photography: Kristian Heijkoop Model: Nisaa Pouncey @ Re:quest Ny Makeup: Tadatoshi Horikoshi Hair: Michael Braun Styling: Em Odesser

Color Catches On Echtego FW15 Brooklyn Top Vintage Guess shorts, pearl necklace borrowed from Flip and Flex Vintage NYC

Makes Her Marc Jennifer Chun Distressed Bias Hem Crew Neck Sweater ALAS Stripe Jersey Maxi Dress Anna Sui Beanie (sold at VFILES)

Gucci-Vicious Nika Tang Kiana Faux Fur Coat Undertop SS17 Bodysuit Stylist’s own vintage Gucci Sunglasses

Body and Blades Not shown - Undertop SS17 Bodysuit

Karma’s Baddest Bitch Vintage Versace dress purchased from What Goes Around Comes Around NYC Echtego Luca Bomber Model’s own Converse sneakers

Revival S’MM SS17 Pink Round Jacket Calvin Klein Belt (worn as ring) Ellames Women’s Vintage 50s Tutu

Long Live McQueen!

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