Makayla V Graduate Booklet by whitehouse-design

type of: fairyland, fantasy world, phantasy world.

Photography: Makayla Vanthavong Styling: Makayla Vanthavong HMUA: Makayla Vanthavong Talent: Tanisha Prasad Garment: Ranya Gillamac Jewellery: Siren the Label

editors editors letterletterParacosm, a beauty and fashion editorial, delves into the Paracosm,journey a beauty fashion editorial, intoofthe intrinsic of and self-discovery throughdelves the lens their intrinsic journey of self-discovery through the lens of their childhood self. It follows the narrative of three imaginative childhood self. It followswhich the narrative ofby three imaginative realms and characters, are driven my childhood realms and exploring characters, which are driven by childhood creativity, existential questions ofmy emotional creativity, exploring existential questions of emotional fulfilment, purpose and existence. fulfilment, purpose and existence. This trend story captures the essence of the recurring This trend story captures of the recurringand mermaidcore, utilising the the wet,essence sleek look, rhinestones, mermaidcore, utilising thethe wet, sleek look, rhinestones, and sheer garments. Through use of photography, digital editing sheer garments. Through the use of photography, digital and manipulation, and illustration, this editorial conveys editing new, and manipulation, and illustration, this editorial conveys new, altered perceptions of water and reflections. It invites the altered perceptions ofthat water Itemotionally invites the audience into a realm is and bothreflections. creative and audience into a realm that is both creative and emotionally resonant- a safe space for individuals to discover peace and resonant-within a safe space individuals to discover peace and serenity their ownfor imagination. serenity within their own imagination.

Photography: Makayla Vanthavong Styling: Makayla Vanthavong Talent: Tanisha Prasad Garment: Ranya Gillamac

Photography: Makayla Vanthavong Styling: Makayla Vanthavong Talent: Chelsea Williams Garment: Arman Martirosian

Faded, We're fragile, In a universe so beyond our years, We question our morality, The existence of an alien marked and scarred with fragility There’s blue skies, blue seas, beneath us, A world out there beyond our reach, Questioning our inevitable fatality, The existence of an alien marked and scarred with fragility

alien own

our form

Illustration: Makayla Vanthavong

LEE BROOM Little Lens Flair Pendant Light

Photography: Makayla Vanthavong Styling: Makayla Vanthavong Talent: Caitlin Wibly

if one is lucky , a can totally

solitary fantasy transform a

Why was I blind to a lethal liability, Rotting cream in my roots, I need help finding the lines in my disbelief, between The fog is clearing, yet, Me, myself and I, I’m stuck teething, walls within me, I can’t I was blinded The by the bliss, reach me, Stuck in the clouds, Where is myself to I? Now, I’m stuck in this, No colour in my vision No colour in these halls of mine, Pink, blue, skies saturated the lies, I’m falling deeper, I’m falling deeper, Into this room, I cry,

WHITE ROOM

I need help finding the lines between Me, myself and I, The walls within me, I can’t reach me, Where is myself to I? No colour in my vision No colour in these halls of mine, Pink, blue, skies saturated the lies, I’m falling deeper, I’m falling deeper, Into this room, I cry,

STUCK IN THE CLOUDS, now, WE’RE stuck in this

PIXIE ALEXIS

HALLOW

AND

PURGATORY MUNROE

pixie hallow and purgatory SONG, LYRICS BY ALEXIS MUNROE

I can't help but fear what I don't know Told me I'm like a dream Trapped between Yet I live in a nightmare somewhere and nowhere But I don't get scared Stuck in a nightmare, I rip at the seams what happened to all of my Fall apart and I tear dreams? You try, but can't fix me Yeah, yeah I'll take you away No, I don't belong here To where I was made Somewhere between Pixie You won't last a day inside of my mind I'm lost, you can't find me So don't try to save me

I can't help but fear what I don't know I can't help but fear what I don't know

Trapped between somewhere and nowhere Stuck in a nightmare, what happened to all of my dreams? Yeah, yeah No, I don't belong here Somewhere between Pixie Hollow and purgatory Trapped between somewhere Trapped between somewhere and nowhere and nowhere Stuck in a nightmare, what Stuck in a nightmare, what happened to all of my dreams? happened to all of my dreams? Yeah, yeah Yeah, yeah No, I don't belong here No, I don't belong here Somewhere between Pixie Somewhere between Pixie Hollow and purgatory Hollow and purgatory

Photography: Makayla Vanthavong Styling: Makayla Vanthavong HMUA: Makayla Vanthavong Talent: Tanisha Prasad Jewellery: siren the Label

Photography: Makayla Vanthavong Styling: Makayla Vanthavong Talent: Tanisha Prasad

Photography: Makayla Vanthavong Styling: Makayla Vanthavong Talent: Chelsea Williams Garment: Arman Martirosian

Illustration: Makayla Vanthavong

In awe of the walls that surround me, Devoured in a sugary-sweet, soft, clouded dream, The tender taste of cotton candy lie within my teeth, Sugar-coated, I’m devoured by own fragile fantasy, Why was I blind to a lethal liability, Rotting cream in my roots, in my disbelief, The fog is clearing, yet, I’m stuck teething, I was blinded by the bliss, Stuck in the clouds, Now, I’m stuck in this,

ARE WE

dre

eamING

Photography: Makayla Vanthavong Styling: Makayla Vanthavong HMUA: Makayla Vanthavong Talent: Tanisha Prasad Jewellery: siren the Label

design, experience design, or think about design? Growing up in a theatrical background certainly influences the way I do my presentations. I like to bring a sense of drama to those presentations and make them more of an experience. Take me through your traveling exhibition “Park Life”: What was the inspiration behind it, how did it come together? I wanted to have a different focus for our exhibitions for 2019. Last year, we did a tour of our new collection “Observatory” after we launched in Milan. It was the first time I would be taking a show on the road and presenting it in about eight different cities. It got me to thinking about this idea of presenting my work in countries that have supported me but where I haven’t presented rather than sticking to the same roster of shows. I tried to think of the furthest place to go, and that was Australia. We have a dealer that sells our furniture and lighting in there called Space. They’re the biggest furniture and contemporary lighting store in Australia. It started off with me doing presentations in their stores in different cities. Then they presented me with the idea of doing a larger presentation in an underground carpark below their store in Sydney. Because of the sheer amount of space, I’d wanted to do this idea of a garden maze with all of my product that would take you on a journey through a kind of contemporary version of an 18th century maze. It was the perfect location to do it because it had the size and no ceilings. So just the idea of an industrial carpark and creating something that was completely opposite in it really appealed to me. It turned into a 4 ,0 0 0 - square- foot presentation of all of my lighting collections—over 100 pieces—and it was a very poetic, atmospheric journey through a very modernist

“All of those different disciplines instil this emotional way of designing and seeing everything I do as a sort of performance,” shares Broom, when we spoke to him during his recent visit during Singapore Design Week in March. “I like that when people come to see my shows, they don’t just have a visual or tactile reaction; they have some kind of emotional response.” -Hong Xinying, 2019

Illustration: Makayla Vanthavong

Henry Molaison, known for years as “H.M.,” was famously unable to form new memories. If someone he had met left the room only to return several minutes later, he would greet that person again as if for the first time. Because of surgery to treat intractable epilepsy, H M. lacked a sea-horse-shaped brain structure called the hippocampus and had amnesia. His case helped establish the hippocampus as an engine of memory. In recent years scientists have discovered another essential deficit that burdens people with hippocampal amnesia: they can’t envision the range of possibilities that must be considered to make future plans. When researchers asked a group of people with hippocampal damage to describe themselves in a fictitious scene—say, lying on a white sandy beach—they came up largely blank, producing only fragmented images. Brain scans of healthy people, by contrast, showed that their hippocampus was engaged even more when they imagined the future than when they summoned the past.

Studies of neural activity in rats have since come along to support the idea that the hippocampus plays a central role in imagination. “It’s still responsible for creating memories of what is happening right now,” says Loren Frank, a systems neuroscientist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of California, San Francisco. “And now it seems it is also responsible for rolling out possibilities.” Frank and his colleagues make their case in a paper entitled “Imagination as a Fundamental Function of the Hippocampus,” which was published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. That dual role makes sense, experts say, in part because imagination depends largely, if not exclusively, on memory. “Why do we talk about imagination separately from memory? From the public point of view [talking about them together] is a crazy idea. But you can put it in a simple way: there is absolutely no way you can imagine anything without the past,” says György Buzsáki, a systems neuroscientist at New York University, who was not involved with the paper. In addition, both skills involve essentially the same process: combining bits and pieces of experience with emotions, inner commentary and things people have read or heard about, says Donna Rose Addis, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Rotman Research Institute in Toronto and the University of Toronto, who was also not involved with the recent review. This process can even distort memories by mixing them with imaginary material. “Memory is a form of imagination,” Addis says. -BY INGRID WICKELGREN, 2023

Photography: Makayla Vanthavong Makeup: Tanisha Prasad Talent: Tanisha Prasad

WHITE pool There’s a white substance filling the cup of my vision Consumed in a void, so unknowingly, Am I here? Are you near? As I immerse in this pool of an unforeseen fear. Is it myself who I fear?

There’s a white lens fogging up the precision of my peripherals, Swallowed up in a whole, so unrecognisable, I don’t know where I am, I don’t know where I place, As I immerse in this bath, alone, and in my thoughts, Am I terrified of this subtle, subconscious space?

So, what can you do if your imagination has atrophied? Is the situation hopeless? Not at all! You must bring your imagination back to life. Firstly, you must learn to play again. For it is in play that imagination truly achieves power and potential. Play frees your imagination from the constraints of reality and allows it to enter the realm of fantas So, give yourself permission to play. Play with toys. Play games. Play with possibilities in your mind. Stop and admire the view and think about what you see and what you do not see, but which you can see in your imagination. Imagine exotic animals walking across the landscape. Imagine objects floating in the sky. Imagine anything you want. Imagination need not be limited to fantasy. If you want to change your life, you must fist imagine that change. Then you must imagine the steps you need to take to realise that change. Then you can do it. All change starts with imagination of change. Spend time every day in the realm of your imagination for it is the most marvellous place in the world. It is where you first ever thoughts formed and where your last thoughts will stay with you. It is where ideas are born and shared ideas are visualised. It is the creator of the next reality and all the realities after that. That, my friend, is the incredible power of your imagination. -JEFFERY BAUMGARTNER

are we solely in our own ima

Paracosm is a term that most people have never heard of — in fact, I couldn’t even find it in the Webster dictionary — yet it is perhaps my favorite word of all. It perfectly captures that oh-so-human yearning to merge reality with the creative sketches of our imaginations.

y existing agination

Simply put, a paracosm is a detailed, imaginary world, typically dreamt up in childhood, that lives and grows across time inside the mind of its creator. -David Smart, 2021

makayla vanthavong Paracosm, a beauty and fashion editorial, delves into the intrinsic journey of self-discovery through the lens of their childhood self. It follows the narrative of three imaginative realms and characters, which are driven by my childhood creativity, exploring existential questions of emotional Makayla Vanthavong is a Sydney-based fulfilment, purpose and existence. multi-disciplinary creative, driven and inspired by the imaginative realms, stemming within her This trend story captures the essence of the recurring childhood. mermaidcore, utilising the wet, sleek look, rhinestones, and sheer garments. Through the use of photography, digital editing With her love for mystery and thriller fiction, and manipulation, and illustration, this editorial conveys new, coupled with a deep connection towards nostalgia altered perceptions of water and reflections. It invites the and inner child healing, her works confront her audience into a realm that is both creative and emotionally past, present and future self, and the world that resonant- a safe space for individuals to discover peace and surrounds her, through merging both mature, yet serenity within their own imagination. child-like motifs. Makayla’s works continue to challenge social norms, pushing new boundaries of artistic and self-expression. Makayla utilises unconventional concepts, illustrations, styling, photography and digital curation to showcase her unique and distinctive style. She aims to create a safe space for herself and for others; a realm of individuality.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSCREATIVE DIRECTION:

EDITING:

Makayla Vanthavong

STYLING:

TALENT:

Makayla Vanthavong

Tanisha Prasad Chelsea Williams Caitlin Wibly

PHOTOGRAPHY:

Makayla Vanthavong

GARMENT:

Victoria Williams Tanisha Prasad

Ranya Gillamac Arman Martirosian

GRAPHICS:

JEWELLERY:

Makayla Vanthavong

Siren the Label

ILLUSTRATION:

HMUA:

Makayla Vanthavong

ANIMATION:

ASSISTANT:

Makayla Vanthavong

Tanisha Prasad India McDowell-Male Bronte Hall

VIDEOGRAPHY:

Makayla Vanthavong Tanisha Prasad