enfants terribles
the Lunar New Year issue
enfants terribles - the Lunar New Year issue enfants terribles editor in chief art direction styling Søs Uldall-Ekman words illustration CÊline Hallas copy editor Sienna & Ella models
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Contents Editor’s Letter Born in the Year og the Horse Magic Magazine Making The Childlike Empress HAPPY Lunar New year 2014 Little China Girls Traditons surrounding the Lunar New Year Celebration L’Orangerie Orientale Finding China in Copenhagen
7 8 10 12 36 38 62 64 90
editor’s letter Welcome to Issue 2 of Enfants Terribles! With this issue we decided to colourbomb the month of January, to make up for the lack of light and liveliness, that tends to rule with the beggining of the new calendar year. Both Céline and I celebrate our birthdays in January and growing up we both enjoyed that childlike excitement and anticipation of good things to come all through January. To us the party wasn’t over. The fun was just about to begin. This is the feeling we wanted to share with you The excitement of good things to come. And what better way to do it, than by inviting you to our own little birthdayparty, a visual tribute to the celebration of the Lunar New Year, so full of colour, life and fun. All about marking and celebrating the new beginnings and oppurtunities for new things to grow. The new moon promises that Spring is just around the corner. And the story has just begun. Søs
Cover shoot Photographer: Céline Hallas Model: Sienna Headpiece: Top Shop Kimono: Den Kinesiske Butik Backdrop: Marimekko
Søs Uldall-Ekman
born in the year of the horse Both being born in the year of the horse according to Chinese Astrology and seeing how this Lunar New Year we’ll be entering the Year of the Horse, we’ve decided to make the contributors descriptions one of the character traits that go with being born in this Zodiac Sign. Just for the fun of it.
Horse - Chinese Zodiac Animal Lucky Colors: green, red, purple Lucky Numbers: 3, 4, 9 Lucky Flowers: giant taro, jasmin
Personality People born in the year of the horse are extremely animated, active and energetic. Horses love to be in a crowd. With a deft sense of humor, horses are masters of repartee. They love to take center stage and delight audiences everywhere. Sometimes, the horse is a little self-centered, but it doesn’t mean that they will not be interested in any problems except their own. However, a horse person is really more cunning than intelligent, that is probably due to the fact that most horse people lack confidence.
CĂŠline Hallas
Health Basically, horse people are very healthy, most likely because they hold a positive attitude towards life. However, heavy responsibility or pressure from their job may make them weak. Therefore horse people shouldn’t do overtime too often and then come home very late. Also, they should refuse some invitations to join parties at night.
Career Jobs involving communicating with others attract horse people most. The sign of horse stands for leadership, management and decision-making. Horse people dislike taking orders. The horse can make it in any career that demands neither solitude nor meditation, for he is an extrovert and he needs to be surrounded by people who approve of him and flatter him. Good career choices for horses include: publicist, sales representative, journalist, language instructor, translator, bartender, performer, tour operator, librarian or pilot.
Relationships People born during the year of the horse have a pleasant, amiable, easy going disposition. With good humor and geniality, they are extremely comfortable to get along with, for they have the ability of instantly putting people at their ease. They are very quick-witted and are right in there with you before you have had the chance to finish what you were saying; they are on to the thought in your mind even before you’ve expressed it. All these guarantee their popularity and a large following of friends.
Want to see what sign your are? Go here.
magic magazine making by Søs Uldall-Ekman
Looking for China in Copenhagen Even though Copenhagen is home to many people, originating from the Middle Kingdom, the city doesn’t have an specific district that you would call Chinatown, so we had to go on a treasure hunt around town, to find fragments of China and other exotic, oriental places, while locating inspiring spots for the our own, personal Lunar New Year celebration. Our girls were invaluable collaborators in this initial research. We wanted to let them explore all the exciting details and experience it all first hand, before we shot any of the editorials. Also, children can be wonderfully inspiring and often have a surprisingly interesting angle on things, if you remember to ask them. So we did. And we observed and learned from them.
Play = Happiness It’s really important to us that we all have as much fun as possible doing this magazine, as it involves the whole family and takes up quite some of our precious together time. Additionally, how can we preach play, if we don’t practice it ourselves? Enfants Terribles Magazine aims to inspire you to play more, every single day. We know work gets in the way and that the dishes don’t do themselves, as the piles of laundry grow to impressive sizes. We don’t want you to feel guilty for not always taking the time to indulge in playful activities?, because we know you are doing your very best. What we wish is for you to remember that life is so much more than these dreary tasks and busy work schedules and remind you of your own original and fanciful childhood, and awaken your thirst for playing.
Magic is something you make The admirable childish approach to the everyday embraces the revelation that anything is possible. Dragons might be real, fairies live in the forest, one day you will learn how to fly and all your greatest wishes will come true. Enfants Terribles Magazine is about celebrating that particular approach to the everyday life, because we believe that within it lies a tremendous potential for living life to it’s fullest. If you engage with that playful approach and use the full range of your imagination, while playing with your children, not only will your kids be thrilled, you can be pretty sure, that you will graduately become happier and more satisfied with you everyday life. It’s not magic - but feels just like it! You’ll find the road back to that happy place you used to go to as a kid and the benefits will be for all. Not to mention the amount of ideas and creativity that will spring from your brain the minute you start doing this.
Want to try it? To make it easier to approach this playful attitude, we divided this issue into three thematic steps to outline some of the actions you might try, in order to find and free your inner, most curious child. We sincerely hope you will find childish joy and inspiration within these pictures, and even get so excited, that you’ll have to try this out with your own precious family. Enjoy! Please feel free to @enfantsterriblesmag on Instagram or Facebook to share with us your own celebration of the Lunar New Year. You can use the #thelunarnewyearissue. We would so love to see your take on this issue and also you might inspire us to do new things.
discover • explore • perceive Turn your everyday into a daily treasure hunt. Look for signs of things not being what they usually are when travelling through your city or supermarket. Maybe it’s street art, or it could be an accidental trash pile, looking as if there are weird and wonderful monsters living in city trash cans. What you’re trying to achieve is to trigger your own and you kids imagination in your daily routines.
Photographer: Céline Hallas
Location: Thai Supermarket, Istedgade 134, 1650 København V, Denmark Kimonos: Second Love • Gold Shoes: Petit by Sofie Schnoor • Black Shoes: China
The Childlike Empress
In this issue, our initial visit to the Asian supermarket was exactly about this. We told the girls a tale of two oriental princesses having lived all their lives in a castle, but now that was no longer, due to terrible misfortunes. And the princesses now lived in Wonderful Copenhagen and had to go grocery shopping just like everyone else. Seeing how this was the first time the princesses had to do this sort of everyday task, for them it was like entering a fairytale of food and play. Everything was new and exciting and had to be discovered, explored and perceived, as for the first time.
a shoe • Umbrellas: Den Kinesiske Butik • Furs: Stylistes own
HAPPY Lunar New year 2014 For this 2nd issue of Enfants Terribles Magazine we endeavoured into the visually, immensely inspiring, traditonal Chinese celebration of the lunar new year - also referred to as The Spring Festival or Chinese New Year. We gave loose to our inner child and set of in a marvellous hunt for colour and adventure around the city of Copenhagen. We we’re looking for signs of East Asian culture in all the places we could think of. With the girls in hand, we visited restaurants, shops, museums and supermarkets to discover and learn. The result of our travel is for you to discover in this issue. We’re telling the tale of child’s play, treasurehunt and travel all within our own city and you can do it too. At least we hope that this issue will make you want to. In the following you’ll get a quick introduction to the whats, whys and hows of this festive tradition. We aim for you to feel inspired to play a long with us and create your own celebration of the wonderful new year, full of new oppurtunities.
Gung Hei Fat Choy Is what you say to eachother when wishing Happy Chinese New Year. Loosely translated it means something in the likes of: Congratulations/Good luck/may fortune come your way. The Lunar New Year is a time of feasting with the family, celebration, fireworks and gift-giving. It lasts for 15 days and begins on the first day of a new moon. In 2014, Chinese New Year is celebrated on January 31st. In the Chinese calendar, it is the year 4711, and we are entering the Year of the Horse. Chinese New Year is also called the Spring Festival because it marks the end of the winter and the beginning of the spring in the Chinese calendar. Before Chinese New Year, families springclean their homes from top to bottom, washing the windows, cleaning out the bad luck and misfortune before the New Year starts. It is also custom to decorate the house with sprigs of tiny, pink blossoms symbolizes rebirth and reminds us that without blooms, there would be no fruit. Ancient Chinese legends tell of the Nian, a man-eating beast from the mountains which came out every winter to feast on humans. To scare the Nian away, the people used loud noises such as firecrackers and fireworks, and bright colours, particularly red. These customs led to the first New Year celebrations.
Little Ch venture - ta Looking for China in Copenhagen turned into a fun and challenging game for us. For a week, we were constantly on the lookout for signs and symbols of the land of far far away. We wanted to find a Chinese Restaurant to shoot one of the editorials in. So we looked up all the places we could find and visited, tasted and played. For every sign of China in Copenhagen we each managed to discover, we got points and we told the kids all that we knew of this foreign culture. What we didn’t know, we googled. Like, for example, what the dragons symbolize or why there is so much red and gold in the Chinese restaurant interior design.
Photographer: Céline Hallas
Location: Long Feng, Torvegade 50, 1400 København K, Denmark Sienna: Skirt: Scotch R’belle • Stockings: H&M • Hat: Den kiesiske Butik • Pink Ella: Blouse: Den Kinesiske Butik • Shorts: Scotch R’belle • Stockings: H&M • B
hina Girls aste - play All in all, we ensured that learning about a different culture was as much fun as possible, all the while we, ourselves, where getting smarter. For this particular editorial, we pretended that the girls had were running their own little Chinese restaurant and therefore could eat all the banana splits they wanted. Admittedly, their look is somewhat of a mix between the infinitely cool Japanese Harajuko girls and little China girls. But who’s counting? We’re playing, remember?
shoes: Angulus Blue shoes: Petit by Sofie Schnoors • Monchhichi necklace: Stylists own
Traditons surrounding the Lunar New Year celebration 1. Decorate with the colour red to ward off Evil. Red represents power, happiness, vitality (and scares away monsters). The use of gold represents wealth and good fortune. 2. Spring blossoms, bamboo and fresh fruits are also used for decoration and offerings at the family altar, as they are a sign of good luck, fruitfullness and fertility. The pink blossoms symbolize rebirth and reminds us that without blooms, there would be no fruit. 3.The dragon is a symbol of strength, goodness, good luck and supernatural forces. The dragon dance has the purpose of scaring off bad and evil spirits. The same goes for firecrackers and sparklers. 4. Children receive good luck money in little red enveloppes. Sometimes also chocolate coins. The celebration is also about spending time with your family, eating delicous foods and having a good time. Everyone tries to be at their best behaviour, as it is said that the actions that take place on the first day of the new moon, are the ones that will determine the year to come. Many kids get a haircut and a new set of clothes (red for luck).
L’Orangerie Orientale create - enjoy - Party
We had a blast both planning and shooting the Oriental Orangerie editorial. We went all in on the decorations, took time to do some creative play and DIYs with the girls, because of course, we had to finish all the hard work with a magnificent tea party. We made fire-breathing dragons from kitchen paper rolls, dug out all the play fruit and China props we could find at home and even found beautiful spring blossoms and lucky bamboo for that final touch.
Photographer: Søs Uldall-Ekman
Sienna: Blouse: Myrorna • Shots: Tutu Du Monde • Green leggings: H&M • Pink Ella: Dress: Pierrot La Luna • Horse leggings: Mini Rodini • Red shoes: H&M • Ob Props: Lucky Boy Sunday • Den Kinesiske Butik • Chang Feng Varehus • Stylist ow
We then had the girls set up their very own little tea party with their favorite dolls, dressed in their best jewelry. We added some colorful (store bought cake) and voilà instant joy and good times! Really, you can work with what you’ve got and the magic will still happen.
k shoes: Angulus • Bag: H&M bi: Stylist own scarf • Butterfly Hairclip: Tutu Du Monde • Necklace: H&M wn
finding china in copenhagen Den Kinesiske Butik Rosengården 13-14 1174 København K Denmark This wonderful shop has so many ingredients to spice up your Lunar New Year Celebraton. You’ll find clothes, props, decoarations as well as remedies and ingredients for cooking Chinese. Among other things this is where we found the chinese paper umbrellas, hats and big paper butterflies that we used in the L’Orangerie Orientale pics. Second Love Dronningensgade 55 1420 København Denmark Here we found some wonderful vintage silk kimonos that we used in the Thai Supermarket shoot. Chang Feng Varehus Frederiksborggade 25-27, st. 1360 København K Denmark Here you can find anything. Really they have it all. You name it, they’ve got it - in some sort of plastic fantastic chinese version. We found the lanterns and some of the decarations here. Thai Supermarket Istedgade 134, 1650 København V Denmark This is where we shot The Childlike Emperess shoot. You’ll find all the ingredients for oriental cooking at a very reasonable price.
Nationalmuseet Den Etnografiske Samling Ny Vestergade 10, 1220 København K Denmark For some research and just regular good times learning, make sure you visit the Nationalmuseum in Copenhagen. Restaurant Long Feng Torvegade 50, 1400 København Denmark Is where we shot the China Girls series - it’s a small but cosy restaurant in the heart of the wonder Christianshavn, near the center of Copenhagen. Food is reasonably priced and service kind. Shanghai Chinese Restaurant Nygade 6, 1. sal 1164 København K Denmark Wonderful interior and one of the oldest Chinese Restaurant in Copenhagen. We didn’t eat there - so we can’t tell you if it’s good. Restaurant Canton Vesterbrogade 20 1620 Copenhagen V Denmark Amazing entrance, wonderfully kitschy interior.
Thanks for reading, now go play...
enfants terribles on-FONT terr-EE-bluh
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Terrible children. One who acts unconventionally. French expression traditionally referring to a child who is terrifyingly candid by saying embarrassing things to adults, especially parents. However, the expression has drawn multiple usage in careers of art, fashion, music, and other creative arts. In these careers, it implies a successful "genius" who is very unorthodox, striking, and in some cases, offensive or rebellious. Classically, one who "thumbs their nose" at the establishment, or challenges it.
January 2014 issue #2