THE FINE PRINT ISSUE #1 by THE FINE PRINT MAGAZINE

CULT OF DANG ADAM KATZ SINDING JEAN ANDRÉ ROX BROWN STEPHANIE LOPES SIMOES

DANNA GRACE WINDSOR, better known to the online community as Cult of Dang, is a Brooklynbased Israeli illustrator recognized for her anime-inspired, feminine yet provocative drawings, which she describes herself as “surreal, queer and odd”. You can read our full exclusive conversation with her on THEFINEPRINTMAGAZINE.COM

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“The Fine Print” logo redesign by Israeli illustrator DANNA GRACE WINDSOR

Dear readers, The artists involved and selected features in our first issue were carefully curated to reflect how timeless content can be, pushing the limits of creative innovation. We didn’t follow trends, or “what’s hot”, but what and who we thought were simply groundbreaking and pushing boundaries in their own unique ways, and will continue to significantly impact their respective industries for years to come. As editor-in-chief, I’d like to personally thank you for supporting emerging and established visionary talents by picking up this issue. We truly hope you too will be influenced and inspired by their leadingedge journeys. Estelle Gervais Founder/Editor-in-Chief/Creative Director ESTELLE GERVAIS Graphic Designer GARRETT NACCARATO Fashion Editor/Creative Consultant BIANCA DI BLASIO Copy Editor SLOANE MONTGOMERY Contributing Writer JERA MACPHERSON Feature Photographer ANDREW BOYLE

Special thanks to Nathalie Basil, Francis Bitonti, Laurier Blanchet, Gabrielle Boisvert, Andrew Boyle, Rox Brown, Andrea Carrera, Torchia Communications, Carolyne De Bellefeuille, Bianca Di Blasio, Emy Filteau, Daniel Gervais, Andrew Gethins, Tom Hancocks, Jim Hu, Cedrik James, Danielle Keita-Taguchi, Marianne Kodaira, Jera Macpherson, Lukhanyo Mdingi, Sloane Montgomery, Garrett Naccarato, Jerry Pigeon, Noa Raviv, Karim Rekik, Adam Katz Sinding, Allie Smith, Izabel Soucy, Kimberly Watson, Danna Grace Windsor. Published by THE FINE PRINT MAGAZINE/ESTELLE GERVAIS, in Montreal, Canada Printed by IMPRIMERIE MARQUIS ISSN 2369-5536 Cover by ANDREW BOYLE. Rox Brown is wearing: Top VFILES SPORT PLUS (VFILES); Coat JESSICA WALSH; Cuff VIBE HARSLOEF (HENRIK VIBSKOV); Sunglasses SUPREME (MODEL’S OWN) Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited THE FINE PRINT is not responsible for unsolicited material Please contact us with any advertising, partnership inquiries or submissions at STL@thefineprintmagazine.com

VISIT US AT THEFINEPRINTMAGAZINE.COM

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A Conversation with Adam Katz Sinding AN INTIMATE AND EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH GLOBE-TROTTING STREET STYLE PHOTOGRAPHER AND FOUNDER OF LE 21ÈME By Estelle Gervais

elf-motivated and self-taught NYCbased photographer ADAM KATZ SINDING travels all year long, chasing style across the globe. SINDING was one of the prestigious guests of this year’s Festival Mode & Design in Montreal. Editorin-chief Estelle Gervais shared a few laughs and drinks with him while he was in town. *Check* THE FINE PRINT: Tell me a bit more about yourself. How has your career evolved since you’ve been in the industry? ADAM KATZ SINDING: I worked in the hotel industry forever, carrying bags, making reservations, etc. I bought a Nikon D70 in 2004 and began to shoot around as a hobby. Going with my coworkers after our shift and taking night photos of old abandoned neighbourhoods, ruined buildings, etc. It was loads of fun. I didn’t start to shoot people until October of 2007 when I started, what was then called, “Le 21ème Arrondissement.” I would walk to work to the hotel with my Leica M8 and shoot people on my way. After I moved to New York City on New Year’s Eve of 2010, everything changed quite quickly. It was only necessary to have a “real job” for the first year, and after that I made photography my career. It’s baffling to look back on how it all happened.

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TFP: Most people imagine street style photography has being staged, and only a part of it being candid. Could you clarify? AKS: 99% of my photos are authentic and candid. I get quite annoyed when I see “street” photos being set up or choreographed. To me, this creates a false reality, which I feel is not honest for the viewer. I would prefer to have a 8/10 photo of a girl crossing the street out of necessity versus a 10/10 photo of her doing the same after she’s been requested to do so. This is not the real action. You can see, at least I feel, the tension in the neck, the fixed gaze, etc, which is boring. If I wanted to setup photos I’d shoot an editorial. We [photographers] are out there to document. That’s it. However, it is very, very hectic and you miss a lot of shots, so some photographers ask the subject to pose. I try not to partake, or if I do partake, I take a more passive role. Shooting the subject from the side while she’s watching the other camera. To me, it’s reality: she’s posing for him, not me, and I’m documenting this. It’s a bit of a strange idea, but I require some sort of “story” to be told with my photos, not just “Look, pink shoes!”

TFP: How do you think street style photography has evolved from when Bill Cunningham started to today? AKS: Today street style photography seems to be primarily about consumerism. You see some trend, and you know a magazine will buy the images if you can create a photo narrative that speaks to this trend. I try not to partake in that consciously. I prefer it to happen organically, if possible. Also, the whole concept of people arriving to be shot at shows, and who aren’t attending the show itself - people who want to have their picture taken for the world to see, who are just about the status and social recognition; I think the majority of the

leading photographers can see through this and we tend to avoid them. That being said, if a girl shows up in a full next season Valentino look to the Valentino show, chances are MANY people will photograph her. Something like that is very eyecatching, and photographers react. Personally, I’d rather see understated women in T-shirts and jeans, clean and simple, but with oozing confidence. I like to shoot the girl who just wants go to the show and go home, the girls who don’t give a fuck about me, or about whether I’m there or not. I like the hunt. My ideal subject is the girl who I can NEVER get a great photo of because she’s “over” having her photo taken. It’s like a relationship. If you tell me you love me

on the first date, you’re going to probably bore me. TFP: Biggest difficulties in the industry? AKS: We work very long days...without breaks...for 30 days at a time. New York is 8 days, on the last day we hop on a plane to London, get off the plane and head directly to the first show. Same with Milan after that, and Paris after that. We often start shooting at 9 a.m., and in the summer months don’t finish up until 10 p.m.; only to then go home and edit all night to meet deadlines. It takes its toll. You can’t really skip a day, or skip an important show. I’ve missed big shows before, and there’s nothing more gutting

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“ PERSONALLY I’D RATHER SEE UNDERSTATED WOMEN IN T-SHIRTS AND JEANS, CLEAN AND SIMPLE, BUT OOZING CONFIDENCE. ”

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than seeing the photos the others guys got while you were late to the show. It sucks. I really want to take the best photo every time, and you just can’t do that if you’re not there. TFP: Travel essentials? AKS: Deodorant. Running shoes, running clothes; I get depressed if I don’t exercise on a regular basis, as it can get very lonely travelling this much. Beside the equipment, one pair of jeans that I wear the whole month until I bust out the crotch. A Bang & Olufsen A2 Bluetooth speaker to listen to while I slave over my edits for eight to ten hours a night.

TFP: Do you have a life lesson or “mantra” you live by? AKS: I guess Nike’s “Just do it”. We often work 20 hours a day, it’s tough. Get your ass out of bed, and sleep when the season is done. Well, in my case the circuit has become a year round trip, pretty much non-stop, and I will think of this phrase to motivate me. It’s become difficult for me to take time off. I find that If I stop shooting, my body begins to hurt when I start again. I made this analogy with hot sauce: If you eat it non-stop, it never really gets that hot. It’s only when you STOP eating it that you feel the burn. I’ll just keep eating for a while.

TFP: Meeting the fashionalities: any muses? AKS: Christine Centenera, Markus Ebner, Larissa Hofmann, Hanne Gaby Odiele, HollieMay Saker, Dominik Hahn, Adonis Bosso, Isaac Larose and Florence Provencher-Proulx are also incredible to shoot. I love shooting them, as every time I encounter them I come out with a shot I’m proud of.

Photography ADAM KATZ SINDING

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JEAN ANDRÉ WHETHER COLLABORATING WITH LOCAL FASHION AND MUSIC LABELS OR FILLING SKETCHBOOKS WITH INKS OF FEMALE CURVES, GRAPHIC DESIGNER AND ARTIST JEAN ANDRÉ IS A STAPLE IN HIS HOME OF MONTMARTRE. TAKING A PAGE FROM THE MEN’S LIFESTYLE MAGAZINES THAT INSPIRE HIS EROTIC IMAGERY, ANDRÉ IS HIMSELF THE SORT OF UNFATHOMABLE RENAISSANCE MAN THEY ENDORSE.

By Jera Macpherson

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“Cute but psycho but cute” and “Fuck everyone but you” are some of the phrases that jump off the wall of French artist Jean André’s art installation at the 2015 Art Basel Miami titled No New Neon. The new art director of the French record label Ed Banger, Andre’s personal art practice involves both lovesick phrases like those named, as well as aphrodisiac illustrations. Fittingly, André refers to his portfolio as “Gentleman Art”. Allusion to the vintage pin-up images of the 50’s is conveyed in the model’s poses as well as André’s soft pastel palette. As in year’s gone by, the subdued tints dulcify the lascivious nature of the images. In a similar fashion, André sells both originals and copies to be ‘pinned-up’ on the wall and admired: thus the self given title of Gentleman Art. His intimate watercolours rarely exceed 15cm x 15cm in size affording the viewer ample room to fantasize with the covetousness of the small scale, similar to how the pastel colours helped libidinous audiences soothe their desires. In addition to borrowing from the pornography’s pin-up origins, André takes much from the strategy of men’s magazines. He shows just enough to convey the taboo but not

enough to destroy the fantasy that is for sale. But in 2015, emoticons sometimes serve to censor female genital in André’s illustrations, sometimes, not always. Despite the title of “Gentlemen Art” Andre claims that he wants his drawings to be enjoyed by everyone. To a degree, this is true. The women depicted are always involved in solo sexual acts, masturbating as if for their own sole enjoyment. That being said, the drawings are voyeuristic, as they offer up the pleasure of the visual: both aesthetic and sensual, and therefore the enjoyment is not solely the subjects’. Jean André’s has authored these lustful snapshots for a supposedly gender neutral audience. Most recently, Jean André took part in a collaborative exhibition titled Mauvaise Reputation at Berlin’s H8VW Gallery. The unique exhibition paired André’s hand drawn posters inspired by vintage tattoos of women with professional tattoos by the Crayoner, a Paris-based tattoo artist who by appointment turned the gallery into a tattoo parlour.

Illustrations by JEAN ANDRÉ

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MEET ROX BROWN, NYC PARTY DOYENNE AND VFILES’ FASHION DARLING

ROX BROWN IS THE STAR OF OUR FIRST EDITORIAL AND CHATTED UP WITH EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ESTELLE GERVAIS ON HER LIFELONG RELATIONSHIP WITH FASHION AND MUSIC, AND WHAT SHE REALLY THINKS OF YOUR ‘IT’ BAG AND THE BLOGGER PHENOMENON. Photography Andrew Boyle Creative Direction Estelle Gervais Styling Bianca Di Blasio (Dulcedo Artists) Make -Up artist Allie Smith (Sarah Laird & Good Company) Photography assistant Danielle Keita-Taguchi Interviewed by Estelle Gervais

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Earrings and choker I STILL LOVE YOU NYC (INTERNATIONAL PLAYGROUND); Rings (MODEL & STYLIST’S OWN); Bodysuit THE BLONDS.

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Context on the grotesque: Please note that most of the interview was conducted the day of the editorial in the back of an NYC yellow cab and on the floor of the smallest hotel room in Nolita, while we were surrounded by the funkiest clothing selection you’ve ever seen. It was also 40 degrees Celsius that day, and the team was even hotter. THE FINE PRINT: What is your relationship towards music. How does it influence your daily life? ROX BROWN: I grew up listening to the likes of Missy Elliott, and Busta Rhymes, who were super creative with their videos. Missy’s “Sock it 2 me” space video clip was super interesting to me. I think after a while music videos started being the same to me - girls, cars, cash. I couldn’t relate to them as much as before. Since then, I’ve taken another approach towards it. I listen to like, Lil’ Kim or Britney in the morning, that gets my day going, helps me decide who I wanna be that day, how I will dress. I invent my own videos in my head and that’s how it now influences me. TFP: What’s your “style timeline”? How has your style evolved through the years? RB: My mom moved from Jamaica to America and had to start over and make do with what she had. That being said, as a kid, you want to be cool, fit it and make it work for yourself. Having a lot of brothers growing up inspired my own personal style. I was wearing their clothing sometimes, and I am still super into menswear. You can make it feminine and still rock it. Developing my own style growing up, kids at school would start copying me, and I was like “I gotta be onto something here!”

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I eventually decided that being in front of cameras was what I wanted to do with my life. I tried broadcast journalism for a while, but it wasn’t a good fit for me because you had to be conservative with the way you dress, and I wanted to keep it real. At that point in my life, I was going to a lot of Pharrell concerts and was very persistent with my intentions of working for him. I then got a job at Billionaire Boys Club. As for the present, being a personal shopper and stylist, I apply all this to myself and my customers. I can only work somewhere I relate to, if not I can’t sell it. You have to understand their needs and be bluntly honest so people trust you. There is always a solution to someone’s fashion problems. I think I am here because I’ve always been honest and made it work my own way. TFP: What is your position at Vfiles? I feel you are so all over within the company, you don’t have an official title. RB: I don’t - everything is relative. I relate to the company because it speaks to me, and I can associate myself with it. The way you look makes you feel good about yourself, how you carry yourself, how you behave. Fashion is literally everything, because without actually knowing someone, you judge them on how they look. It’s like music, you also relate to an artist because of the way they dress, it brings an audience other than the sound. I’m also really involved in the downtown party scene. I have a lot of friends in music, like Justine Skye and A$AP Mob. No one knew them or me, but we grew up together and supported each other creatively. Street kids are really into high fashion, we like expensive things.

Earrings I STILL LOVE YOU NYC (INTERNATIONAL PLAYGROUND); Rings, throughout, (MODEL’S AND STYLIST’S OWN); Top and pants DISCOUNT UNIVERSE (VFILES); Platform sneakers YRU.

DEVELOPING MY OWN STYLE GROWING UP, KIDS AT SCHOOL WOULD START COPYING ME, AND I WAS LIKE “I GOTTA BE ON TO SOMETHING HERE!”

Earrings I STILL LOVE YOU NYC (INTERNATIONAL PLAYGROUND); Rings, as before; Top and pants DISCOUNT UNIVERSE (VFILES); Platform sneakers YRU.

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Top VFILES SPORT PLUS (VFILES); Coat JESSICA WALSH; Cuff VIBE HARSLOF (HENRIK VIBSOV); Rings, as before; Sunglasses SUPREME (model’s own); (ABOVE) Coat JESSICA WALSH. (LEFT)

I THINK I AM HERE BECAUSE I’VE ALWAYS BEEN HONEST AND MADE IT WORK MY OWN WAY.

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Jacket MARYME-JIMMYPAUL; Reworked Kappa top MADE BY THC (Y2K-WORLD); Pants LAFAILLE.

STREET KIDS ARE REALLY INTO HIGH FASHION, WE LIKE EXPENSIVE THINGS.

TFP: Speaking of, what is your take on ‘IT’ items, spending a lot on name brands? RB: I like what I like, whether it is designer or cheap. People carry Chanel and Céline purses for the status that they bring them, they literally are status symbols. Brands like Chanel, though, are creative with their classics - they do doll bags, vinyl, denim pieces, I am more into that. It doesn’t have to have a logo in order for me to like it. If a black t-shirt is 300$ and I like it, then it doesn’t matter. Maybe I like the length, maybe it’s the sleeves or the fabric. Another t-shirt might not make me feel good in the same way. What I wear sets the mood for my day. Like the other day, I showed up to work in my prom dress. I still think it’s dope, and that day, that’s who I wanted to be. TFP: Tell me more about the NYC downtown party scene. How does one get recognized what do you like best about it? RB: The downtown party scene is the melting pot for fashion. Everyone is there. Every type of fashion. No party has one style. The New York party scene allows everyone to be themselves without being judged... Maybe your shoes will be judged, [lol], but not much else.

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TFP: You are very active on social media, especially Instagram. What do you think of the blogger world replacing traditional journalism, and the whole “‘like’ generation”? RB: Blogging and social media has given everyone a chance to be seen and heard. TFP: Three things you can’t live without? RB: I can’t live without my phone, of course, I don’t think anyone can. I can’t live without rings. I need A LOT of rings all the time. I can’t live without a brow pencil [lol]. TFP: Last word. What would you have to say to someone who wants to break into fashion, music, or even art? RB: My advice to anyone trying to break into the fashion industry is ALWAYS be you. You’d be surprised at how many people think like you creatively and support whatever it is you do. Sometimes it takes that one fearless person to make similar people comfortable. Be that fearless person.

Clip-on parka MARYME-JIMMYPAUL.

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IT ISN’T OVER TILL WE SAY IT’S OVER STEPHANIE LOPES SIMOES is an Antwerp-based artist born in South Africa. Using magazine cutouts or shots taken by photographers she collaborates with, her artwork involves paint, digital alterations, and collage skills. You can read our exclusive interview with her on THEFINEPRINTMAGAZINE.COM

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TOM HANCOCKS THE 3D EFFECT LUKHANYO MDINGI BESSNYC THE MACRO SHOT CLOSER

TOM HANCOCKS is an Australian self-taught visual artist specialized in physical, digital and graphic design. His constant quest on building a thoughtful relationship between human and object is at the centre of his artwork. His aesthetic can be described as geometrical, symmetrical, minimalist and abstract. You can read our full exclusive conversation with him on THEFINEPRINTMAGAZINE.COM

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“The Fine Print” logo redesign by NYC-based visual artist TOM HANCOCKS.

Founder/Editor-in-Chief/Creative Director ESTELLE GERVAIS Graphic Designer GARRETT NACCARATO Fashion Editor/Creative Consultant BIANCA DI BLASIO Copy Editor SLOANE MONTGOMERY Contributing writers/Special features ANDREA CARRERA, MARIANNE KODAIRA, JERA MACPHERSON Feature photographer LE PIGEON

Special thanks to Nathalie Basil, Francis Bitonti, Laurier Blanchet, Gabrielle Boisvert, Andrew Boyle, Rox Brown, Andrea Carrera, Torchia Communications, Carolyne De Bellefeuille, Bianca Di Blasio, Emy Filteau, Daniel Gervais, Andrew Gethins, Tom Hancocks, Jim Hu, Cedrik James, Danielle Keita-Taguchi, Marianne Kodaira, Jera Macpherson, Lukhanyo Mdingi, Sloane Montgomery, Garrett Naccarato, Jerry Pigeon, Noa Raviv, Karim Rekik, Adam Katz Sinding, Allie Smith, Izabel Soucy, Kimberly Watson, Danna Grace Windsor. Published by THE FINE PRINT MAGAZINE/ESTELLE GERVAIS, in Montreal, Canada Printed by IMPRIMERIE MARQUIS ISSN 2369-5536 Cover by LE PIGEON. Gabrielle is wearing: Top LES MATIÈRES FÉCALES Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited THE FINE PRINT is not responsible for unsolicited material Please contact us with any advertising, partnership inquiries or submissions at STL@thefineprintmagazine.com

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United Nude x Francis Bitonti Studio 3D Shoes.

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FRANCIS BITONI STUDIO The Studio was founded in NYC in 2007 as the result of the nomination of then architect/industrial designer Francis Bitonti in a competition, where he presented an ecofriendly and cost-efficient bike rack, available in a variety of materials and numerous finishing options. The Studio has since then been one of the driven forces of the 3D industry in terms of product design and development, applying the technology to fashion, design, objects, and accessories. THE FINE PRINT: What has first intrigued you about 3D printing? FRANCIS BITONTI: Since my first experience with the technology, I was hooked. I couldn’t connect all the dots at that initial moment, but I knew that the most important thing that I was seeing was a means of production absent of traditional tooling. I knew this technology was something that was going to transform contemporary design forever.

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THE FINE PRINT: Does 3D printing allow as much creative freerange as other mediums? FRANCIS BITONTI: In many ways, nothing has changed. The only difference is that you are negotiating a different set of constraints. For example, for traditional machining you are incentivized financially to produce designs that are high volume, and low surface area. With additive processes, we are being pushed to produce low volume, high surface area geometries. This is one example of how additive changes the way we need to be thinking about form. THE FINE PRINT: Do you think the technology will reshape the accessibility to the masses, or will it endanger people’s original work in terms of having their designs stolen or copied?

FRANCIS BITONTI: This technology is going to change the way we value and perceive design and material production. People’s work will certainly be stolen and copied, it will become even easier to do that. When that happens it’s the best possible sign for the industry. When we are able to pirate digital designs we have entered a new age with an entirely new relationship to physical matter. I can’t wait to see what happens, and I am equally excited for the opportunity to address all these issues as they arise.

Photography courtesy BITONTI STUDIO

FRANCIS

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NOA RAVIV Israeli womenswear designer Noa Raviv was awarded the Fashion Designer of the Year award at the 2014 3D Printshow in Paris. The three-dimensional addons and pieces from her Hard Copy collection were directly inspired by defective digital images that were created with her 3D software, and then put forth the tension between the real and the virtual. THE FINE PRINT: What first intrigued you about 3D printing? NOA RAVIV: 3D printing is a very exciting tool for a designer to work with. It enables me to create and imagine shapes and geometries that I couldn’t create with anything else. Also, as a fashion designer I was mostly familiar with soft materials, and 3D printing gave me access to a world of rigid structures. THE FINE PRINT: It’s something that is relatively still new - how did you teach yourself how to use it and make it produce your desired result? NOA RAVIV: When I was at college (Shenkar College of Engineering Design and Art), I took a couple of 3D software courses (I joined the

jewelry design department for those courses). Asides from that, I saw a lot of Youtube tutorials, spent hours in front of the computer, met many great people along the way, and luckily they were happy to share their knowledge and expertise.

NOA RAVIV: I think that even if one day the machine will be perfect and super easy to operate, the challenges will always be related to the design, I don’t know if you can democratize that.

Photography RON KEDMI THE FINE PRINT: What do you think will be the biggest challenge when it comes to democratising the machinery?

WE’VE TALKED TO THREE DESIGNERS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE ON HOW 3D PRINTING AND WEAVING IS CHANGING THE GAME FOR GOOD. By Estelle Gervais

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ONE MORE DIMENSION ‘Dedicated to design and techno development’, One More Dimension is a London-based studio founded in 2015 by Taiwanese Central Saint Martins’ graduate and L’Oreal Young Talent Award winner, Jim Hun. The red dresses he presented as his BA collection were embellished using a bespoke loom to create 3D woven threads. THE FINE PRINT: Can you explain to us the different between 3D printing and 3D weaving, as they are two distinct technologies? JIM HU: Visually, 3D weaving’s outcome looks similar to 3D printing’s and confusion between the two occurs all the time. There are two kinds of 3D printing technologies, one builds up the object layer by layer: for this one, no matter what kind of material is used, it would have grains along the layering direction, and because of this, its outcome would be physically weak at a certain angle. The other type of 3D printing is CLIP (Continuous Liquid Interface Production), and this one solves the problem the previous has, as it has a better material consistency. Either way, their material range is limited. In the case of 3D weaving, technically it’s a hybrid of traditional weaving and composite material making, which enables the technology to incorporate techno outcomes from both, so the full strength of a material can be realized. Although it doesn’t mean 3D weaving can actually

print everything we could potentially imagine, its shape and structure are bonded to how it is made, in this area it cannot match with 3D printing. Respectively, the only thing 3D printing could duplicate from 3D weaving is shape. THE FINE PRINT: What first intrigued you about 3D weaving? JIM HU: The birth of the 3D weaving applied wasn’t planned, it was initially driven by the urge to make a medium/vocabulary to capture my thoughts about cause and effect, searching for a mean to represent the imaginary picture of how fundamental particles collect, to depict the hidden formula behind things, which is often absent from our perception of this world. Later I felt I wanted to compose the next chapter of this work, its weakening figure was luring me to explore more. I had this idea that what if someone or something is wrapped by it, then the relationship of inside and outside would be disturbed. I wanted to talk more about it, and this eventually became the core of my graduation collection (though I didn’t finish it completely). THE FINE PRINT: Do you see 3D weaving being a common fabric in the future? JIM HU: Yes, but maybe less about fashion. I imagine it is more likely to be adopted in other fields, like aforementioned, as it is very suitable for making woven structures that are ultra-light, yet strong and durable. For fields that require this feature, applications of 3D weaving won’t be hard to imagine.

Photography ZI YU

BESS NYC FAUX FASHION By Jera Macpherson

Doug Abraham has reinvented himself as an artist about as many times as his creative project @BESSNYC4 has been deleted by Instagram.

These images are meant for consumption; and Abraham has done just that. He has chewed them up but spit them out before swallowing: the faces of Dior models juxtaposed with bloody

First a painter, second a jewellery designer, third a fashion designer, and fourth a collage artist exploring the creative affordances of social media as a fashion expat. Doug Abraham, and his fashion label Bess famously occupied the space that was once Keith Haring’s Pop Shop in SoHo, where it put a high fashion face to punked up Victorian-era fashion. Still, as Bess’ retail shop draws to a close, Abraham has invented a new place to reside, a small pocket of internet where art and fashion co-exist yet accommodate extravagant viewership.

and battered film stills, Barbies with Prada bags draining the blood of their decapitated Kendoll victims. Men spreading their cheeks prepenetration censored with a sliver of Versace runway. Surprisingly, he has faced very little backlash for his fashion campaign rewrites. In an interview with Interview magazine editorial director Fabien Baron, Baron was thrilled with what he had done with some of his images. They also laughed about the double standard of American censorship. Specifically, how images of violence come through multiple mediums unscathed, yet Instagram community policy has made it its mission to shield eyes everywhere from female nipples. According to their nostalgia, the nineties had a lot more nipples in it and it was better for it.

Uncollaborative, his collage works are bastardizations meant to shake even their maker out of the monotony of a corporate fashion stupor. Abraham knows all too well the production value that goes into a fashion campaign, especially that of luxury brands. Additionally, he understands the creative limitations involved at that level. In a move of ingenuity, he has created a new job for himself using the by-products of a tired fashion industry by applying as minimal production requirements as a guerrilla party. Thus the same public relation obstacles faced by high-end fashion houses no longer apply. In this sense, Abraham is a scavenger, a doctor Frankenstein of the fashion spread. His monster is a constantly reinvented splice of brand logos, fashion advertisements, horror films and general gore (relating back to the paintings he did as an MA at Hunter College), pornography and bondage, and images from the general storm of digitally available pop culture.

Thanks to the positive reaction of his fashion peers and his Insta fandom, Abraham has been allowed to let more than one nip slip. Oftentimes this is managed through the semi-abstraction of the close-up; a new trend in Abraham’s work is to stamp macro images of body parts, make-outs, and nature with brand logos. These gestures reflect on how fashion branding is very rarely about the garments, and more about a constructing a saleable mood. Incorporating the pre-existing grid structure supplied by the app, Abraham plays with monochrome groupings to create a secondary photomontage based on the latent artistic affordances of his chosen social media medium.

Images @BESSNYC4

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LUKHANYO MDINGI

LUKHANYO MDINGI IS AN UP-AND-COMING SOUTH AFRICAN DESIGNER WHO HAS A LOT TO SAY ABOUT HIS WORK AND HIS JOURNEY INTO FASHION. HE IS DOWN TO EARTH AND TAKES HIS SUCCESS WITH ENTHUSIASM AND EXCITEMENT. HIS CAMPAIGNS ARE INTRIGUING AND HIS DESIGNS THEMSELVES ARE SIMPLE, YET STUNNING IN DEEP HUES OR VIBRANT WHITES. HIS WORK REPRESENT HIS INDIVIDUALITY AND REFLECT WHAT WE BELIEVE AT THE FINE PRINT TO BE A FRESH AND INNOVATIVE TAKE ON FASHION DESIGN. By Andrea Carrera Lukhanyo Mdingi is a menswear designer based in Cape Town, South Africa, a place where one does not usually look to find the next fashion trend. However, Mdingi is changing all of that. The designer states that he loves South Africa and wants to help his country experience and celebrate both art and culture through fashion. With his team that consists of “South Africa’s most talented creatives” Gabrielle Kannemeyer, Travys Owen, Amori Birch and Amber Caplan; Mdingi strives to build his label. He described his creative process to us as “trial and error”, dealing with creating his pieces, but states that the experience is extremely rewarding. All of Mdingi trial and error has paid off, and he created a stunning SS/16 collection that featured deep navy blue colors, which he describes as being very “pure” and “taintless.” The collection is photographed on a beach and the message of the ocean is conveyed clearly to the observer. Even the models are painted blue, and it seems like the color of clothing and skin blends together effortlessly. It creates a monochromatic effect which contrasts greatly with the sandy location of the photo shoot. It’s not the clothing itself that is bold, but how he chooses to represent this color that makes the collection strong.

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Mdingi approach to creating flawless layering can be attributed to his patient work ethic. He chooses each pattern and fabric individually and adds onto the pieces slowly, much like an artist adds layers of paint onto a masterpiece. The clothes themselves are loose fitting and are practical for the summer months, as they are simple in construction allowing for multiple layers. Strong models, such as Sanele Xaba, also help convey the message of a strong collection with their striking looks. With this collection alone, Mdingi has created such a powerful image that he has to work hard to keep the image of his brand on the same level, but according to Mdingi this won’t be a problem. He told us that “Gabrielle and Travys have that on lockdown!”, persuading us to believe that his next collection will be more breathtaking and stunning than the last. Mdingi is creating a movement in South African fashion and art, and it’s clear from the quality of his designs and his work ethic that this will not be the last we see of the Cape Town native. In fact, we’re excited to see what mark he leaves on his community and the world.

Photography TRAVYS OWEN

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FRAGILITY / PERMANENCE / LOCALITY THE MACRO SHOT AND THE MAGNIFIED EYE IN DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY. By Marianne Kodaira

All images are - by their own definition - problematic. An image is and can only be partial of the actuality it attempts to depict; although it may latently align itself with a privileged subjectivity, and a facsimile which limits the reality of a situation to the purely optical sense. Even the seemingly benign selfie or generic ‘gram is a forcible framing of ourselves into an attractive image in a visual economy of envy. There’s a crucial intention and ambition involved in the act of taking a photo and in deciding what should be photographed and how. The photograph is not a pristine, frank reflection of its subject – and it would be dishonest if it claimed to be - but a visual confession of subjectivity and of an alternate reality, a facet of a totality. Whatever sincerity we may appreciate in a photograph is not from our own hypothetical relation to what it depicts, but from the palpable subjectivity of the photographer and of his or her perceived position one of dominance, inflated equivalence or sentimental relation - to the article being photographed. A photograph is not a report – it’s a sub-ordination to the limits of your own perception. In bleak prescience, the German philosopher and anthropologist Ludwig Feuerbach observed the photograph as the presentation of a world more desirable than reality, one which favors appearance before experience. The unobstructed applicability of Feuerbach’s theory to Instagram’s cubic pseudoart reveals a kind of predictability of human behavior and to the social patterns of avatars that emerge in systems that fail to sustain or engage their artistic and intellectual inhabitants. Instagram has conveniently – compassionately - abbreviated the rituals of film development into a swipe-enabled motherboard of digital filters and modifications so that any mildly dexterous smartphone holder can participate in its collective hallucination and game of avatars. As a forum of pure aesthetic fantasy, Instagram has become the apparatus par excellence for the Millennial identity – for a generation whose self-image is constructed through ‘personal branding’ and publicly aligning with desirable people, organizations or objects.

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While fiction or fantasy itself is not unethical, presenting stylized, sterile static images as the empirical – rather than fantastical, or supernatural reality of ourselves is not only dishonest, it is unethical. Admitting its synthetic intentions is one thing but posturing these images as concrete reality plants the seed of cognitive dissonance – a reality sanitized of dirt and bacteria. We know that life isn’t photogenic, curated and glamorous - and yet we allow ourselves to be emotionally affected by these slick images anyway. But in response to a landscape of false engagement, some Instagram photographers are slicing through the molasses of visual excess and are subliminally subverting the gram’s artificial simulacrum from within itself. The Macro shot - or the extreme close-up - imposes a scrutinizing, pensive and confrontational perspective into the virtual realm of blurred detail and postcard portrayal. While a static image doesn’t seek to represent its subject but to obscure it, the Macro examines – but also accepts- phenomena and detritus in brutal clarity. The tension between each non sequitur shot wafts between Instagram’s threeper-tier limits to mimic human memory: modicums of texture, fragrance, warmth. It magnifies its subject to grotesque proportions and hovers on its new canvas the curve of a hip, a side profile, natural symmetry - on details appearing where they shouldn’t, the absence where they should. Keenly aware and passively sympathetic, its raw, unflinching gaze has always been harnessed in orthodox art to draw the eye to the magnetism of imperfection and to require the act of viewing to become interpretative, introspective. Consider Les Larmes, Man Ray’s enlarged portraiture of a woman’s eyes from which pearls of glass descend in an enactment of tears, while her ambiguous source of despair and recipient of her despondent gaze remain notably anterior to the frame. Or the voyeuristic opening scene of Alain Resnais’s “Hiroshima Mon Amour” in which the intimacy of the cinematic gaze immediately forces the eye to create a new, ambiguous form of a lover rebuilt from and with its Other. The

Hiroshima, mon amour, Alain Resnais (1959)

Hiroshima, mon amour, Alain Resnais (1959) contained forms of a gendered body are dissolved - any contours of individuality are incoherent, unrecognizable and useless. Set in the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Resnais postures his new epicene body as a tabula rasa cleansed of emotion, morality and politics – but also of context and memory. The infamous Macro shot of Jean-Luc Godard’s film “Two or Three Things I Know About Her” blandly, apathetically stares into a stirred cup of coffee as its foam swirls against a whispered, agonized philosophical monologue, intensifying the narrator’s voix off lamentation of the solipsism of subjectivity in this specific scene. His extended analysis and unnaturally prolonged focus on an everyday object of habit makes it seem at first strange - the centripetal swirls of the coffee resembling a view of a terrible cosmic storm, a rotating galaxy or abyss – but which darkens to morbidity and suffocation, at how alien, flat and indifferent the modern world appears. Godard’s obsessive examination of minutiae doesn’t collapse to reveal a robust proto-reality – but a vacuum, the heart of unreality itself. What the Macro achieves through its provocative proximity is a return to a molecular way of regarding the ‘ordinary’ – a vision which renders the loss of this very quality. The static image is problematic because it fortifies the garish false reality of perfection, which has become the norm, even authority, for the way things appear to us. These false images of ourselves and our lives convert objects of desire

Les Larmes, Man Ray (1932) into something obscene, commodified and profitable –achieved through the ‘right’ combination of material experiences – and by proxy, becomes an aestheticizing of desire itself. Instead of depravedly obsessing over subjects and insignia as a sinister endorsement of certain lifestyles and consumption patterns, the Macro doesn’t tell us what to desire – it shows us how to desire. Its fragmented presentation of scars, failure, fragility, distortion, disorder reveals a visual virginity, a chastity left in a world saturated by its own fantasy. To consider ourselves on a microscopic, fragmented level not only severs old ideas of permanence, but recovers an organic fragility and transience – we are encouraged to embrace strange reality and all of its inconsistencies, desiring and desired negativities. The Macro strives for a de-territorialization of desire - not by shattering its illusion, but by sincerely, unapologetically, confessing its own parameters and geometry of subjectivity. Only through this honesty and the confession its own restrictions is the Macro able reframe the terms of our existence and offer a re-vision of the visual flux of the world, and remind us of the true coordinates of our reality.

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CLOSER AN EDITORIAL ANNEX TO THE MACRO SHOT FASCINATION. Photography Le Pigeon Creative Direction Bianca Di Blasio (Dulcedo Artists) Production Design Carolyne De Bellefeuille Styling Izabel Soucy (Dulcedo Artists) Make -Up & Hair Artist Emy Filteau (Folio) Model Gabrielle Boisvert

(RIGHT)

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Pants LAFAILLE.

(LEFT)

Necklace LES MATIÈRES FÉCALES; (RIGHT) Pants LAFAILLE.

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TURN IT, AND FLIP IT STEPHANIE LOPES SIMOES is an Antwerp-based artist born in South Africa. Using magazine cutouts or shots taken by photographers she collaborates with, her artwork involves paint, digital alterations, and collage skills. You can read our exclusive interview with her on THEFINEPRINTMAGAZINE.COM

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