Contrast Volume 10, Issue 1 by Vassar Contrast

CONTRAST

Vassar College Fall 2016 Volume Ten Issue One

Instagram: vassarcontrast Blog: vassar-contrast.tumblr.com

Table of Contents

Letter from the Editors

Girls Gone Grunge

A Step in Time

Worn Stories at Vassar

Reel Time

A Conversation with Ivan Bart

1969: Fashion Show

Ophiuchus The Snake Bearer

Executive Board

Dear Contrast Reader, Time is an interesting concept; it is an illusion, a dimension and a smooth flowing continuum. In less than a second the past meets the future, and the present is what remains. We are constantly left with only the memory of what has been and expectation for what is to come. Just as time passes, so do the trends in our lives; especially the trends of art and fashion. Trends react to the past, whether by rejecting or embracing it, and through these trends we are able to relive the past.

Letter from the Editors

For this issue, Contrast sought to slow time down a bit and to explore eras that were dynamic, but fleeting. From our ’69 themed Fashion Show, to the ’90’s grunge shoot, to features on nostalgic items, this issue is an attempt to peer into moments and extract their essences. What from these moments would we like to keep? To critique? To cautiously remember? Art seems to be a fundamental way to accomplish all three. This issue looks forward, too—to changes in astrological cycles, the future of the modeling industry, the ways that students continually reinvent the past in a chaotic pipeline to the present. It is a thrilling task to chronicle these events. We hope you enjoy this issue as much as we enjoyed creating it. Ellie Winter & Paulina Vigoreaux Co-Editors in Chief

Girls Gone Grunge Photographer: Leah Pan

in my Calvins

I W A N T C A N D Y 8

Red Hot Chili Peppers

A Step In Time Photographers: Leah Pan, Lucas Kautz & Andrew Wang

Worn Stories at Vassar Inspired by Worn Stories, a book of “sartorial memoirs” collected by Emily Spivack, we decided to delve into the memories stored within Vassar students’ wardrobes. Author: Allie Pilkington Photographers: Leah Pan and Lucas Kautz 17

Luke Dowker ’17 is from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. “It used to belong to my dad. Probably whenever he and my mom started dating. I only started wearing it two years ago. I love it a lot. A personal philosophy is just that I don’t like to buy new things a lot. I usually wear things until they wear out. When I got it, it was pretty much naked. I started modifying a little bit with patches and pins. The patches were all sewn on at different times. A lot of them are bands, record labels: a cultivated curation of self-interest. To get the patches on, my mom taught me how to sew, which was, I guess, a big shared experience for us. One of the first times I wore it for an extended period of time was the first time I went Westbound. I went on a really big road trip down in Austin, Texas over New Years 2016 with my best friends from high school. I was wearing this jacket every single day, and it covered an unbelievable amount of mileage over a week.”

Vanessa Rosensweet ’19 is from Jersey City, New Jersey. “I got this hat after senior prom. It’s a tradition with a lot of North Jersey schools to go down the shore to Wildwood. We just go to the beach and drink the whole time—it’s really fun. On the boardwalk there are these beach stores that sell really expensive stuff and some dumb little magnets. We went into one of them and got all excited cause they were selling these snapbacks for $1. It was the only thing I bought that weekend, and it reminds me of those two days of being with my friends and going to the beach.”

Eilif Rønning ’20 is from Sandefjord, Norway and has also lived in China, Pakistan, Thailand, Italy, Ethiopia, and South Africa. “It’s my grandfather’s, and my paternal great grandmother knitted it for him for his high school graduation. He’s had it since he was 18, and he wore it through his youth. He passed it down to my aunt when she was going to college. Last year, for the first time ever, I lived in Norway, which is where I consider home. She gave it to me, and I wore it throughout the year in Norway. It’s pretty worn, and I’ve fixed it in different areas. My grandparents grew up across the street from each other in this small town in Southern Norway that used to be a whaling port. They got married, and now they are back in the same town. Having never grown up in one place and moving every three years, Norway has always been my home. I’m not distinctly Norwegian: I don’t have the language well, and I didn’t have many friends there before last year…However, I have this connection to my Grandparents house, and it’s been in the family for over a hundred years. My great, great grandparents bought it, and every summer my family and I would spend time there. My family is now spread out on three continents, so we may decide to sell it. This past December might have been the last time we have christmas in the house. So I guess this sweater is my connection to that place.” 20

Reel Time Photographer: Dana Chang

Moonrise Kingdom

Virgin Suicides

Amélie

A Conversation with Ivan Bart Author: Gabby Miller Photographers: Lucas Kautz and Leah Pan 24

October 26th, 2016 marked the sixth annual Vassar Contrast Fashion show in the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. This year’s theme: 1969, a time marked by political resistance and sweeping changes for both Vassar and the nation. Vassar went co-ed, making it the first all-women’s college to open its doors to other non-female identifying folks. 1969 was also situated at the cusp of the Civil Right’s Movement, uncoincidentally the same year that 34 African-American female students occupied Main Building in order to hold Vassar accountable for meeting the needs of its Black students. It’s no wonder then why Ivan Bart, president of IMG Models, was the guest speaker for this 1969-themed fashion show. A long-standing icon in the fashion industry, Ivan Bart has discovered and signed the likes of transgender model Hari Nef, Joan Smalls, disability model and activist Jill Mercado, the Hadid sisters, supermodels Tyra Banks and Kate Moss, transgenerational model Laura Hutton, curve model Ashley Graham, and many more. Bart is known for taking what many would consider risks but for him was “just a gut feeling” within the “superficial world of fashion”. By shifting representation within today’s global consumerist economy, Bart believes the fashion industry cannot only help influence but even redefine conventional standards of beauty. I sat down with Ivan and we spoke about everything from the performative nature of fashion to failure to intersectionality. GM: You spoke about the industry in the past wanting models to essentially be “clothes hangers”, and obviously it’s changed because I follow a ton of model personalities on Instagram like Chanel Iman and Hari Nef. So what role is fashion particularly doing right now with that? IB: I don’t know if fashion is particularly embracing this, and that’s why I feel like it’s my obligation. For years, as a manager servicing the fashion industry, I would have to service what they wanted and now I tell them, I’m going to sell you what you need. And by doing that, and being brave, we started taking more diverse clients on. And by the way, I need to stress on race, size, gender and age. GM: You talk a lot about vision, and that vision has had risks -- your career is on the line. What made you decide to take those risks?

IB: I didn’t feel as though that was a risk. It was a gut feeling. Again, I get excited about the person, not so much a standard physicality. And I really felt lost in that era of no name model, like maybe I should leave the industry...maybe I don’t belong here. But then I just kept going and I realize now what a strong voice I have and how much more I can do, so now I’m not going to stop. GM: What have been some of your biggest moments of rejection or failure? IB: Well, I’ve been fired by models. And one of my darkest days was being fired by a model that I personally started and Stephanie Seymour, on the same day, right before Christmas. I had a terrible Christmas. And then you know, January came around and I just looked around the room and I said, “I’m going to concentrate on that one.” and that model became really 25

really big. And interestingly enough, after ten years, Stephanie came back. So unless you fail, you’ll never know what it’s like to be successful. And in failure, you’re going to learn something. And I think the people around you are going to see what you’re capable of too. If you have a vision, you just need to keep going. GM: What does fashion mean to you? IB: You know, it’s the kind of thing where you think about the first thing of the day. We all wake up and we think,”Who do we want to be today?” [We’re] constantly thinking about our outer appearance and fashion is something that is in our cores. I think we need to get better at providing more options for everybody. Size diversity is very important. I would love to have it so that all clothing stores have sizes 0-20.

GM: How do you feel like IMG has resisted tokenizing its models? IB: I feel like it comes down to representing our clients as individuals. For instance, well what about Jill Mercado? You mean the girl in the wheelchair? Um, yeah, so what? By continuously affirming to the person asking that we’re meeting all the categories and requirements, what does it matter what size or shape they are? If they’re [disabled], if they’re transgender? The thing I say about Jillian all the time too, a lot of cosmetic companies have asked me through the years that they really wanted to focus on the latin market because it’s so important. Well, [ Jill] is latin, you’ve asked me for twenty years to find you a latin model, I just did. And the person that does [sign Jill], and trust me it will happen, it will be sizemic news, we won’t stop reading about it for weeks.

Check out our blog ( vassar-contrast.tumblr.com) to read the full-length interview with Ivan Bart.

1969

The Sixth Annual Contrast Fashion Show Photographers: Leah Pan, Lucas Kautz and Jake Brody

Woodstock Rocks the World. America Lands on the Moon. Vassar goes Coed.

Most won’t admit it, but at some point or another, we’ve all flipped to the back of a magazine or a newspaper to read the horoscope section. To say the fortune-telling paragraphs written by a stranger don’t raise any interest would be a lie when, in fact, so many people strongly identify with their astrological sign. This explains the media uproar when news broke of a NASA report proclaiming the existence of a thirteenth constellation in the Zodiac. The so-called “new” sign Ophiuchus, represented by a man entwined with a snake, falls from November 29th to December 17th. Accepting its legitimacy would push the other twelve constellations to entirely new dates, listed below. Someone born on August 5th, for example, is technically no longer considered a Leo, but rather a Cancer. Those who follow horoscope updates should know that anyone born under Ophiuchus is said to be fiery, enchanting, and at the same time, jealous and moody. Ophiuchus is a sign influenced by the element of water, meaning that the sign values emotions. This is particularly relevant for most people that used to identify with Sagittarius, as their birthday now most likely falls into the domain of Ophiuchus. Tracing back over 3,000 years, astrology is thought to have originated with the Babylonians. In their efforts to make sense of the movements of celestial bodies, they

divided the zodiac into twelve even sections, each corresponding to a constellation the sun passes through as it traverses the sky. According to NASA, however, Babylonian astrologers actually knew of the thirteenth constellation but chose to leave it out to more neatly allocate the signs throughout the calendar year. Horoscope enthusiasts wouldn’t hear it, though, and rebuked NASA on social media for supposedly changing the zodiac signs without basis. Naturally, news outlets ranging from CNN to Cosmopolitan quickly poured out new articles when they heard of the disturbance in what was trending. Meanwhile, the government agency persisted in its reports that they simply “did the math,” and that astrology isn’t a true science in the first place. But this doesn’t mean people will stop being interested in their horoscope. After all, you are the only one who can determine how and to what extent you are in tune with your sign. There is something of a mysticism in astrology being older than “science” itself, and institutional legitimacy doesn’t necessarily have to be the primary goal in reading horoscopes. What NASA considers unscientific might just be the highlight of your day. So, keep breezing to the back of your Elle every month to take stock of what the stars have in store for you!

Ophiuchus The Snake Bearer Author: Aidan Zola 32

Horoscopes Aries The Ram April 18 – May 13 Taurus The Bull May 13 – June 21 Gemini The Twins June 21 – July 20 Cancer The Crab July 20 – August 10 Leo The Lion August 10 – September 16 Virgo The Virgin September 16 – October 30 Libra The Balance Scales October 30 – November 23 Scorpio The Scorpion November 23 – November 29 Ophiuchus The Snake Bearer November 29 – December 17 Sagittarius The Archer December 17 – January 20 Capricorn The Goat January 20 – February 16 Aquarius The Water Bearer February 16 – March 11 Pisces The Fishes March 11 – April 18

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