Love Thy Woman Issue 05

LOVE THY WOMAN ISSUE

Women Stripped Bare

Women Stripped Bare

Celebrating Women of all Shades, Shapes and Sizes

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EDITOR’S LETTER Welcome to the first issue of 2011!

I would like to personally thank each and every one of you for taking an interest in Complexd Magazine since our launch in 2010.

In this issue we revise and revisit. We revise our cover and vow from this day forth, the Complexd cover will represent our central concept of celebrating an un-stereotypical and diverse range of beauty. It will embrace a ‘rare and real’ beauty that is not often seen on the covers of other popular fashion titles. In doing this I hope that you will start to appreciate not only yourselves in your rawest form but every other woman stripped of the facade of styled hair, made up and airbrushed to perfection.

We also revisit the Woman: the complexed species I am continuously inspired by and glad to be part of. Since my days as an art student, my visuals and projects have always explored the various shades, shapes and sizes women come in, which is now the Complexd mantra. I remember trying to recreate the curves and grooves of their bodies, which I could never draw with one linear sketch, and trying to perfect the variations of flesh tones but having to layer different mediums to achieve the right hues.

In this issue we revisit their minds, bodies and souls. What drives them, what they are trying to achieve and

Sub Editor | Darcel de Vlugt Creative Director | Rachel Irwin

Cover | Tarren Johnson

By Gregory Prescott

Contributing Photographers Mala | www.mkvphotography.com Wyatt Gallery | www.wyattgallery.com Matt Brandon | www.thedigitaltrekker.com Gregory Prescott | www.gregoryprescott.com Maxi Kohan | www.flickr.com/photos/kohanart Frederique Rapier | www.frederiquerapier.com Rene Timmermans | www.renetimmermans.com Luca Gargano | www.flickr.com/photos/lucagargano Christine Zenino | www.christinezenino.wordpress.com Kevin Hayes | www.thedirtiestlittlerainbow.blogspot.com

how do they see themselves in wider society? We also present the women outside of our western society through visuals that show the intensity in their stare, the experience of life on their faces and the exquisite nature of their cultural dress.

I sincerely hope you enjoy this issue as much as I have enjoyed putting it together! Happy New Year!

Kered Clement Editor-in-Chief

CONTENTS 4 | Complexd Hair + beauty | Define Your Curls 8 | Complexd Style | The Stylish Housewife 10 | Complexd Profiles | 5 Determined Women 22 | Complexd Features | Tarren Johnson Stripped Bare

All Walks Beyond the Catwalk 48 | Complexd Fashion | A state of Undress

A Womans Wrath 70 | Complexd Man | Portraits of Strength by Damien Nikora 76 | Complexd Travel + Lifestyle | Global Swagger

Portraits of Strength ‘Breast Cancer affects over a million women worldwide’

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COMPLEXDHair & Beauty

GIRLS WITH CURLS Meet Wendi Levy and Kim Etheredge, founders of MixedChicks, a range of hair care products for women with mixed textured hair.

3 T op T i ps Fo r M a n a g i n g C u r ly H a i r 1. Do not use a brush. Only comb through when wet, with a big tooth comb to avoiding pulling.

2. Use a good conditioner like MixedChicks Leave-In-Conditioner, specially designed for curly mixed textured hair. – EDITOR’S CHOICE 3. Chose products that are creambased rather than water-based to avoid static hair.

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KIM ETHEREDGE - I was fortunate to grow up in a condominium complex in California where all of the kids came from different backgrounds so I never really felt different because we all looked different. However, whenever I would visit my grandmother in New York, where she lived in a predominantly white area, we received a lot of stares. To make it worse, I hated how my hair looked! It was either one big puff ball or a slicked back grease monkey. Wendi wore her hair curly more often and I wanted to know what she used. After a comedic and lengthy conversation, it was prevalent that both our struggles with our hair texture was bigger than just the two of us! When we launched MixedChicks, the name wasn’t popular, but our products are for everyone because

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we all have combination hair. My day begins with coffee; I wake up at 6am, dress simple but chic and take my daughter to school. I get into the office by 8:30am – we are currently working on new products and expanding our line as well as marketing our product. So my day consists of creating, approving and brainstorming. We are women with mixed heritage hair textures so I think we are more of an expert than any owner of a company or manufacturer trying to solve our hair dilemmas. Our faces, hair textures and the various beautiful skin tones and colours are becoming the majority not the minority. If you want to start your own business, ‘I can’t do it’ is never the answer.

WENDI LEVI - I grew up in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Being Black, Jewish and Irish, I knew I was different when we had to hang a flag that represented the origin of your last name in school. Mine wasn’t as simple as the others and nor was my hair. When I was young, I felt like having European hair would have been a hell of a lot easier. This is why we launched MixedChicks products, because we knew there was a need for it. Each day I wash and dress in something comfortable, which always looks quite bohemian. I feed my two-year-old and myself and then have a coffee. Once at work I then get down to processing a few hundred individual web orders while answering calls from salon and beauty supply orders.

I have a few meetings and return at least a hundred emails throughout the day. I then pay all the company’s bills and oversee the warehouse and our seven employees. I have

to wash my hair with new batches of products that need approval and sometimes I do all of this with my two-yearold dangling on my hip. In the evening we play and I finish the day by hugging my husband and getting a good night’s sleep. Starting a new business is well worth the struggle… but you have to be consistent, persistent and prepared. If you’re in a relationship you also need to be sure it’s with someone very secure.

MixedChicks is stocked in the U.S., Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Canada, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Jamaica, The Netherlands, Norway, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad and the U.K. Or visit - www.mixedchicks.net

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COMPLEXDStyle

The Stylish Housewife Some people can just afford fashion and some people are born with style, like SHAN SHAN

My name is Shan Shan and I am 30 years old. I was born in Qin Tao, China and I am currently living in Osaka. In the morning I am a housewife, who goes into work mode as soon as my husband leaves for work. In the afternoon I am a creative textile artist who likes to take photographs and unwind with a coffee in the park. My style is dependent on my mood or scenery; it can sometimes be a mix of various elements inspired by style movies, photographs, picture

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books and culture. Since I was a kid I have always disliked doing the same thing as others, this is why it is not important to me if people don’t like my style, but I am happy if they do. On my Tinytoadstool website I display my hand-crafted accessories made from wool. It is a continuation of a project I did when I was a student. I also sell vintage pieces I have collected over the years. Being creative is second nature to me. As for the future, I want nothing more than to make crafts with my future children, in my future vintage shop/cafe.

Visit: www.tinytoadstool.com

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COMPLEXD PROFILES

5 DETERMINED WOMEN

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‘Being a woman allows me to access the world of women in a way a man simply can’t.’

KATE BROOKS The Photo Journalist Age | 33 Place of birth | New York Current residence | Istanbul In September 2011 my first book will be published in conjunction with a retrospective of my work and my film The Boxing Girls of Kabul will be released as well.

Over the years, I’ve missed a lot of important moments in my friends’ and my family’s lives. There is a great deal of personal sacrifice that comes with this job. Most female photojournalists never marry. It’s much easier for a man to find a woman who will wait for him than it is for a woman to find a man who will wait for her. Luckily, I have a supportive family and wonderful friends, who understand who I am and what I

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do. My boyfriends have generally been other journalists, who spend a lot of time in the countries I do. A lot of men might be attracted to the idea of me, but most men don’t like the reality of being with someone who travels several months a year. One friend once said, “I’d love to be with you, but I would never marry you. Who is going to cook and look after the children?” That’s the reality of photojournalism, but when I began to understand how this medium could be used to convey the feeling of loneliness of a house servant in apartheid South Africa. I knew then that all I wanted to be was a photojournalist.

On every assignment I have risked my life, until I’ve risked my life again on the next one. I have survived by adapting to the various cultures and religions by showing respect for other people’s traditions and values. Over the years, I’ve lived in Russia, Pakistan, Lebanon and Turkey. Being a woman allows me to access the world of women in a way a man simply can’t, especially in Muslim countries. There are only a handful of female photojournalists and we all know each other well. www.katebrooks.com

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JOUMANA HADDAD The Writer & Journalist Age | 40 Place of birth | Beirut Current residence | Beirut I am Lebanese; but in the true sense of identity, I don’t believe in the concept of ‘belonging’ and don’t wish to be defined by factors which I inherited (nationality, religion, background, etc). I am a citizen of the world. I am Editor of Jasad Magazine; Cultural Editor of An Nahar newspaper; I have a company that sets up cultural initiatives in the Arabic world; I am a writer who travels constantly to do readings of my work and I am a mother of two wonderful kids.

I publish a strong, different and much needed cultural magazine called Jasad. People refer to Jasad Magazine as controversial because most themes relating to the body and sexuality have become a taboo in our recent history and culture. But the body is both my passion and my tool and I felt frustrated that our beautiful Arabic women had been deprived of an important part of its potential vocabulary and imagination.

I wrote the book I Killed Scheherazade: Confessions of An Angry Arab Woman because I wanted to address the generalizing clichés in the West about the Arab world. I also wanted to try revealing

the points where hope for today’s Arab women lies, while at the same time exposing their points of weakness, the challenges they are confronting, and the problems that they are facing or not dealing with.

There are so many humiliating stereotypes about the Arab woman.

She is often seen as a ‘victim’ who is condemned from birth to obey the men of the family, and as a powerless and defenceless soul who doesn’t have any control over her destiny. While that might be true in some cases, it does not reflect all Arab women at all. I am working on the Arabic version of I killed Scheherazade.

The book has been translated in 10 languages, but I believe it is important to make it available to Arab readers. I am also setting up a forum called Angry Arab Women, which I want to be a platform for women to speak up and contribute in change. Freedom of thought, judgment and choice is what gives a human being a true life experience. www.joumanahaddad.com

‘Arab women are often seen as powerless and defenceless. It does not reflect all Arab women at all.’

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NINA KELLY The Campaigner Portrait by Frederique Rapier

Age | 27

Place of birth | Coventry Current residence | London

I’m the online editor at Runnymede Trust, an independent race equality organisation. I uncover facts that reveal that 30% of the population in London is from an ethnic minority, but only 18% of local councillors belong to a non-white ethnic group or that there are currently no women from ethnic minority groups appointed as Police Chief Constables.

Nor are there any female ethnic minority judges in the UK’s House of Lords or Court of Appeal. My job is to make these facts accessible to your average reader and not just academics and policy makers. These facts are stark and don’t help towards creating a sense of understanding or community cohesion.

I think it’s important to learn about and celebrate your own culture and others.

We just need to find a sensible way to celebrate difference without having to separate people.

I have never worked in the race and equality sector before so I think it is important to have an understanding of culture and cultural differences. I am mixed raced, my dad is from St Vincent and my mum is British/Irish. I have travelled to a few Caribbean islands but I felt more of a connection to St Vincent.

Not because of my father but because it’s quite a mixed island, in terms of the hues of skin tone, you can see a lot of diversity in the faces of the people of St Vincent due to colonization. I also visited China last year which was an incredible experience. It was a cultural eye-opener

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because things which I thought were universal everywhere weren’t in China.

The strangest thing for me was that people didn’t see me as western. They would only relate to my friend Georgia whom I was travelling with as being western because she was White British.

I also noticed that in warmer parts of China people would encourage me to stay indoors in fear I would become too dark. This is because their beauty industry promotes being lighter and whiter as better. When I spent some time in Tibet, I found out that Tibetan, Taiwanese or Mongolian people who are usually slightly darker were seen as the ethnics of China. One of the main differences between the cities in China was that the ethnic families could have more than one child, so their families were significantly larger, making them the majority. It was all very interesting how things were turned on its head in China. I am considered to be an ethnic minority in the UK, but in China, Georgia felt more like a minority and my skin tone linked me to people of the majority. These experiences have allowed me to think with more of an open mind about race and culture.

I feel proud that I can make a difference within my role for race equality but I feel very strongly that there is not enough done to combat violence against women, which is why I have always been involved in the women’s sector.

I am also the media co-ordinator for

Million Women Rise. It’s about ending violence against women be it domestic, emotional or sexual. The women who run it are not academics or media savvy women operating at a high political level. They work with vulnerable women in the refuges, women centres and on the streets. With not much money between them, they organise this massive march, which happens every year around International Women’s Day where more than 5000 women and children march down a central route in London. The aim is not to exclude men, they’re welcome to cheer from the sidelines but the fact that it’s just women marching makes such a huge difference.

It’s very empowering, especially for women who don’t feel that empowered for the rest of the year.

Women also have the opportunities to tell their stories on a massive platform in Trafalgar Square. It’s not for whatever you perceive the stereotypical feminist to be, it’s very much led by a group of multicultural women across all social classes who think that it is massively important to protest against all forms of violence against women.

For more information on the two organisations mentioned visit www.runnymedetrust.org www.millionwomenrise.com

‘I feel very strongly that there is not enough done to combat violence against women.’

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ANYA AYOUNG-CHEE The Designer Portrait by Wyatt Gallery

Age | 29 Place of birth | New York, USA Current residence | Port-of-Spain, Trinidad

I’m from Trinidad and Tobago, a unique place with an ethnic make-up of people of all races. I am of mixed origin, mainly Chinese, Indian, African and Caucasian, and although my particular mix is a minority, I represent the unusual combination of ethnicities that defines us as a people. This is why my fashion label PILAR is produced and inspired by the Caribbean, a region overflowing with a richness of history, heritage, cultural hybrids and inimitable references. The line maintains its roots here to provide a unique product to the rest of the world but mainly supply Caribbean women with items of clothing that express the diverse and sensual elements of their unmatched identities. My collections are inspired by people who dress to fulfil the needs of their daily life, but do so with individuality and inherent style. For instance, the Bobo-Shanti (a Rastafarian sect originally formed in the Caribbean and upon whom my first collection was based) dress to reflect their culture. It’s the people on the streets who express themselves through their clothes who inspire me, and particularly those people who constitute the fabric of the Caribbean landscape. For my next collection I am drawing on the evolution of the practical into the beautiful in the clothing of indigenous people around the world.

For me becoming a fashion designer is the ultimate achievement, and by reaching this goal, I carry on Pilar’s legacy. Pilar is my late brother who died in a tragic car accident two years ago at eighteen years old. It is through my label that I have found a way to live his life and mine. My days can be very scheduled or ever-changing. I wake up around 6 am then go for a run or do a yoga class. Afterwards I take some time to meditate, read the newspapers, have a cup of coffee then get dressed for the day. My style is currently taking a big turn from the bohemian-inspired

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maxi dresses of my beauty pageant days, to a much edgier, somewhat androgynous look.

Some days unfold organically while others take on a specific plan that I have laid out ahead of time. I love the balance I create by allowing these possibilities to take form, yet still operating within structure and regularity. I tend to end my days with time spent catching up with friends or family. On nights off I read, watch some TV or have a glass of wine with my mum.

The Caribbean has an under-developed recognition of fashion as a viable contributor to economic growth, resulting in a lack of support from the public and private sectors but I still have the opportunity to cater to a very specific audience. As a Caribbean designer I am committed to designing for Caribbean women, who come in all shapes and sizes. To my benefit I currently make all my pieces to fit my individual clients, thus allowing for a wide range in possibilities in my line. I believe that the perception of beauty in the global fashion industry still has a long way to go in terms of encompassing all forms of beauty.

Fashion as a career can take on many forms – to me this is one of the beautiful things about the industry. Once the student gives him/herself the opportunity to discover their distinct strengths and passions the direction taken is then clear. I am most equipped to advise the student who knows for sure he or she wants to launch a clothing line right off the bat – do your research, get to know your customer, begin with a small, well-honed collection and learn from every experience that follows. I advise all students, no matter their path, to enjoy and embrace every moment of the process. You only get to experience each moment once! And each moment is ripe with opportunity to learn and grow. www.pilarbyanya.com

‘As a Caribbean designer I am committed to designing for Caribbean women, who come in all shapes and sizes.’

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SUE TILLY The Iconic Figure Portrait by Frederique Rapier

Age | 53 Place of birth | Wimbledon Current residence | Camden Town

‘It's quite liberating to think the whole world has seen me naked.’

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I get up at 7am; I pick up my phone see if I have any message. I turn on BBC Breakfast, have a bath and then have some toast for breakfast. I then put on my make-up and get dressed and leave for work at 8:30am. I take the bus, which is a boring journey I know so well, so I play a game, giving people marks out of 10 for style and fashion.

I finish work at 5pm and get the bus back home, I may have a little social after work or go straight home. I have several chats on the telephone which is a big part of my life and then I go to bed around 10pm. Then I do this all over again the following day.

My days are not very exciting but the things that have happened to me in my life have been rather extraordinary. It all

started with Lucian Freud, who I met through a mutual friend. He decided it would be very good for me to work with Lucian so he put the idea into Lucian’s head and organised a meeting. From then on a series of four paintings were done. The painting of me lying across a sofa in the nude sold for $33 million.

It’s quite exciting but sometimes I can’t believe it, and then I don’t think about it for days and wonder, ‘How werid is that? How did that happen?’.

Furthermore, each day brings new surprises like having been played by somebody on Broadway.

I pay no attention to the critics that label me as ‘overweight’. I know I’m fat but I don’t care. To be honest it’s quite liberating to think the whole world has

seen me naked. When people I meet complain about their shape I say ‘for goodness sake run through the streets naked that will sort you out’. I think you are what you are and you should make the best of what you’ve got. The world would be boring if everyone looked the same. I might not be everyone’s cup of tea but I have a few admirers.

My one piece of advice to young women with body insecurities is to get over them, don’t waste your life worrying about it. It’s my little project to get people to learn to love what they have so others can love them for who they are.

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COMPLEXD FEATURES

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TARREN JOHNSON Stripped Bare Portrait by Gregory Prescott

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‘I don’t like to affiliate myself with a particular race’

T

he first question people ask me is: ‘What are you?’ I feel like it comes from their need to categorize everything. They want to know if I consider myself to be Black or White.

Personally I don’t like to affiliate myself with a particular race.

I am neither White nor Black. I am simply Tarren Johnson, a 20 year old, born in La Jolla, Southern California. Maybe subconsciously I’m trying to help people see that they don’t have to adhere to categories that force them to alienate parts of themselves. I believe people should ignore these categories and try to claim their own unique identities.

If you must know, my mother is of Western European and Native American descent and my father is a Creole AfricanAmerican. I spent two years of my childhood living on Maui and the remainder in Southern California. I was raised primarily by my loving grandmother. I never met my father, and my mother was a flighty free spirit, who never quite had what it took to be a mother. As an only child, I spent a lot of my time playing and imagining alone. When I did have company it was always with people much older than me. When I was 18, I left for San Francisco to see what >

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the world had to offer and experimented with a number of living arrangements. It was in San Francisco where I really cultivated my goals and love of art, finally making the choice to study Art and Dance at California Institute of the Art. I have always had a passion for drawing, writing, and dance; I started dancing when I was 4 years old and found it to be one of the most liberating, beautiful means of self -expression. That’s why my favourite part of my body is my legs, because they are strong and lean from dancing. I spend a lot of time stretching and increasing their flexibility and range of motion.

I can‘t say that I have ever had an average moment in my life. There is not a huge amount of consistency; however I almost always wake up at 7:30am in the morning on school days. I live with a good friend named Lynn, in a classic 1951 three-bedroom cottage. It is the first house I have ever had that I can call my own. We usually ride to school following the hidden bike paths so we can take in the brisk morning. We study Ballet and Modern Dance for three hours. I then spend my breaks listening to the musicians practice whilst drinking coffee and smoking a cigarette or planning the performance of our art music project Lynn and I started called ‘Psyche Delos’. We head home around 5 or 6 in the evening. To unwind, we love cooking and baking. We drink, sing and

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play the piano, deep into the night. Our living room is filled with musical instruments, amps, a few chairs and a couch.

Once we had a huge party at our house for Lynn’s birthday where our band premiered. We just left the decorations up and incorporated them into our everyday living. I feel like we are constantly celebrating.

My weekends are always crazy. I do most of my photoshoots around my school schedule so I don’t have to miss too much class. There have been a number of high profile directors and photographers that I have been lucky enough to work with and the exposure has led to other great projects. I can’t name a time where I felt I was “discovered”. I believe you need to take charge of your own career and not wait for others to carry you to where you want to be. I do think I have had a lot of unique experiences because I have a very different look that isn’t encountered often. A lot of the projects in Los Angeles involve finding a bunch of people who are all good-looking but more or less look the same. I’ve received a lot of questions and comments that I would consider rude, but I brush them off, because I know they come from a place of curiosity and wonder, so I try not to be offended.

I am someone who owns my look and I am not apologetic about not fitting the stereotypical images portrayed of what a woman should look like. I stand to challenge people to

Portraits Kevin Hayes

be more creative and open-minded. The photographers I have worked with never want the makeup artists to put a lot of make up on me. Sometimes I do wish that I could wear extravagant make up but they never want to cover my freckles, I guess when they do it is a long process with strange results.

I have built a career from standing out and I hope to continue to offer an alternative to what is considered beautiful so that people’s minds can be broadened through visuals. Once I was on a bus and the driver told me that he knew someone that could ‘fix my hair’. But it is this hair that has gotten me a lot of jobs and has inspired a lot of visual art. The thought of ruining that and hiding who I am by burning my hair into being straight is very odd to me and the idea that straight hair is better is even odder. The issues that plague the modelling industry are the same ones that plague all of mainstream society because in a lot of ways fashion is steering the desires of the public. People are tired of seeing the same thing and they are tired of the same alienating messages. Women need to be strong and competent. A lot of the ideas floating around about beauty cause some women to be overly insecure and competitive with each other. I don’t want to be a part of anything that is >

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‘I have built a career from standing out, people hire me because they want something that is rare and real’

standing in the way of women uniting and reclaiming value for themselves as a group. No amount of money is worth my dignity and morals as an artist, dancer and model. In general people hire me because they want something that is rare and real.

Times are changing rapidly and we need innovative artists to help create the images that represent new thought. If I could have one wish I would wish for strength, support and success for this project my grandmother and I are starting.

We are creating an artist’s retreat and art therapy ranch in central California. This is something that I have wanted since I was a little girl. The creative spirit that births culture and art needs to be nurtured. There aren’t enough places for artists and people who want to get in touch with their creativity and find their voices. I want art to be more available to all people rather than a formal luxury. I also want it to be in a beautiful place filled with various types of people that inspire me.

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On The Couch With

All Walks Beyond The Catwalk!

Portraits by Maxi Kohan | Interview by Kered Clement

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Who: Caryn Franklin, Debra Bourne and Erin O’Connor What: Complexd meets with three women, who have taken it upon themselves to campaign to promote and recognise diversity within the Fashion Industry.

Where: Debra’s House When: We arrive in the afternoon and Caryn is being interviewed by a production team. Erin dashes out to take an important call, whilst Debra and the rest of the clan tap and tweet away on Macbooks.

Why: Debra, Caryn and Erin hold a wealth of experience within the fashion industry in crucial areas such as Modelling, Fashion PR, Print and Television. Each day they thrust themselves into the task of campaigning for diversity in the mammoth fashion industry around Debra’s breakfast table.

We begin our interview with haste on a red couch with Debra and Caryn.

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What are your personal reasons for setting up ‘All Walks Beyond The Catwalk’?

Caryn: I was working in TV when fashion started to favour the heroin chic and

models worryingly started losing weight and becoming super-waifs. I felt that my television programme should start commenting on that and it was quite a fight to get a mini documentary within the programme off the ground. Things just kept on going to a place where fashion imagery became less and less about the individual, which was very different to the environment that I started in 30 years ago with I-D magazine. It was an exciting time because we had so many different role models and I look around now and I think the imagery has become very uniform now.

Fashion has become uniform; appearance has become uniform, which is why regular Botox and racial deletion is one of the fasted growing cosmetic surgeries.

Even if a woman is fleetingly beautiful, she immediately needs to worry about losing it all when getting older because our culture doesn’t promote ageing. That’s why our campaigns feature beautiful older women with wrinkles untouched so women fight against this consumerist society that needs you to buy products you don’t need. The All Walks campaigns also feature curvy models and models of all skin tones because women are yearning to see something more realistic to validate what true and real beauty is outside of the industry. A thin blonde woman isn’t less real than a darker-skinned curvy woman. I don’t think women feel the fashion industry is solely responsible for the uneasiness because there is a whole media system putting value-based judgements on women. I think that women want the fashion industry to validate a more realistic type of beauty. As a mother with two daughters I feel that all women are under much more pressure than they ever were than in my day to embody this ideal. I look at our industry and know that our un-thinking behaviour is definitely a contributor to that. I’m not saying people in the fashion industry get together and think: ‘Let’s make people feel really insecure’. I know they don’t. But it’s an un-thinking level in the sense of: ‘Let’s not think about how our fashion industry is making women feel’. But for me, Debra and Erin, this is something we do think about all the time.

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So you established that you were going to represent a diverse range of women, but where did you draw the line?

Debra: We worked with eight

designers and eight models between the ages of 18-80. We tried to tick as many boxes as we could but we most certainly knew that the chosen models weren’t going to be based on tokenism. The most important thing was that we aimed to represent age, skin-tone and body shape. Sometimes you can try too hard and you have to realise there is only so much you can do, but we were passionate about trying to do as much as possible.

Caryn: To a certain extent we prioritised the models as our visual presentation because we believed the women we chose were the kind of women that should be seen at London Fashion Week anyway. We wanted to make a realistic statement rather than a novel statement so that the designers we collaborated with didn’t find it impossible to adapt to a different body type.

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‘We knew we needed to b the heart of London Fashion Trojan horse’ – Caryn

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be involved in n Week like a

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So how did the fashionista’s react?

Caryn: We had to prove ourselves visually. Fashion industry people are very visual, so they needed to see proof that this would look right in photographs and once we did that, we found it much easier. What we did was really quite mundane but the fact that people were so unsure about the end result says a lot about people’s reluctance to move away from a winning formula. That’s what made us think, ‘Let’s go into education’. We knew we had to influence and broaden what’s being taught on fashion courses so fashion students started embracing it and taking it in at the beginning of business practice. I heard students say they have wanted to work with curvier models and it has been tutors who have recommend they use a ‘proper model’ because that’s what’s recognised in the industry. With All Walks Beyond the Catwalk we firstly wanted to show students that there are people out there doing it in industry but also encouraging the educationalists to embrace diversity as a part of their curriculum. So we are providing a catalyst for change in education but we also knew we needed to be involved in the heart of London Fashion Week like a Trojan horse.

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Debra: There was a lot of fear from the fashionistas, quite naturally because there was a big model health enquiry and size zero debate going on. The British fashion industry is there to promote British fashion globally and it’s a fantastic industry.

In 2009 when we launched, it was also the 25th Anniversary of London Fashion Week, so we didn’t want to undermine them. Sometimes it was hard to talk about diversity without it being linked back to the size zero debate but that’s just a tricky subject to avoid. I have an MA in Physiotherapy Body Training and for the last 10 years I’ve been increasingly thinking about the body in relation to image.

Having worked in fashion PR for years, I’ve seen since 1985 how things have shifted so radically in terms of the images put out there. I feel there was a fear from the fashion world that this could be dealt with in a credible way that people would find visually attractive and that also showed the outfits in a flattering way.

It’s hard to try to change a system within a system so that’s why I believe it begins in the classroom because every student sitting there is not a size 8, so I wonder how they feel when they’re working to perfection when they know that’s not true in reality. That’s why we have a project coming up where we are working with students for Graduate Fashion Week, which is really exciting. Many of the young designers haven’t worked on anything else other than a size 8 mannequin. We are looking forward to getting them to come out of a 2-D space and engage with the human body in 3-D. And 3-D means being empathetic so the person they are designing for stops being an object and starts being a person.

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Do Editor’s of established Magazines; have a responsibility to present diversity in fashion?

Caryn: I would like to say that any editor has a responsibility to be making

conscious choices about the content in their magazine. Having said that a lot of editors feel they are walking a fine line between keeping the advertisers happy and the advertising revenue up. Changing that is also asking someone to step away from a successful formula that has always worked for them. Individuality is what I-D Magazine is all about and it has remained true to its original ethos, which is why we took All Walks Beyond the Catwalk to them when we launched. Our mission is to not antagonise people so that they shut the door on us, so we are very careful about how we verbalise what we are doing and we are very inclusive because we would far rather have an endorsement from someone who agrees at least emotionally but can’t get there quite as quickly pragmatically.

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Do you think the public want to see a change in the way women are represented?

Debra: There is a complete longing in our culture for women to feel acknowledged

and appreciated for who they are. Those messages start in the home and they could be affected by the relationships between your mother and father and how he displays his appreciation of her beauty. As women we need to find ways to appreciate our own beauty first. Unfortunately, what happens is that women go to fashion to give them something they need and when it doesn’t meet them at an emotional level, they end up becoming very vulnerable to the message it is portraying. In many ways, it can never fulfil what they are looking for because it’s the wrong place to look. So women end up with the wrong energy as opposed to feeling like their own beauty and the way they look is being accepted.

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Thus far do you feel you have fulfilled or answered Susan Ringwoods question, as to whether you can show fashion on a range of inspiring bodies?

Caryn: It’s one thing to answer the question and it’s another to have had to work

18months without a wage to craft an answer, or more like graft an answer and that is something that we are still working at. I look back and think, ‘God I had no idea what I was getting myself into!’; the 16 hour days, wondering whether you will be able to pay your bills because you have to put everything on hold to make something happen , so for us it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster. And after that we will book ourselves into the Priory.

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Erin O’ Connor returns to add her final thoughts I got involved in the set up of ‘All Walks Beyond the Catwalk’ with Debra Bourne and Caryn Franklin because I felt increasingly limited in my job as a fashion model.

I’ve had a fruitful career and established my name modelling, but I was relieved when my body – along with my confidence – began to grow and the hard-edged lines I was once famous for had begun to soften and make way for a more feminine silhouette. In the past, though accepting of my height and slender frame, I had felt somewhat betrayed by my body’s lack of curves that make a woman supposedly

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womanly so whilst I was thrilled about my new hips and bosom, my new look didn’t fit in with the fashion industry and they were not so convinced.

It all started when I entered into the Face of the UK competition when I was 17 and won. At that time ‘thin was in’ and I felt relieved that my body was emulating a trend, but what I didn’t know then was how many young models suffered mentally and physically, as a result of the demands the industry imposed upon them. When it was my turn for my body to take its natural course and gain a few inches, I realised

‘The designer asked “what happened to you?”, without thinking I replied “make em bigger then” and that was that!

I lost the show but I’d gained my dignity.’ just how limited the industry can be. Backstage at a show I was defeated by a pair of miniscule trousers; when the designer asked, ‘What happened to you?’, without thinking I replied, ‘Make ‘em bigger then’ and that was that! I lost the show but I’d gained my dignity and the right to use my voice.

In 2007 the ‘size zero’ debate flared up and by the time it hit London, I was targeted as a villain. They used my name as an exemplar, to highlight the concerns they had about the industry and the modelling profession. In my first press interview, when asked about my thoughts on the debate, I replied, ‘All opinions welcome!’, much to the journalists’ and my own surprise. Part of a model’s job is to perpetuate a look in its extreme and at that time, a lot of assumptions were being made about our health and integrity based on 2-D imagery dreamt up by an art director.

Ultimately, I think I have always understood the importance of making fashion accessible it should not be viewed as a present up for grabs but as a treat for all. I also see how powerful a tool the fashion industry is in potentially dictating what is deemed desirable and in some cases even socially acceptable. When the All Walks Beyond the Catwalk message began to fire through the industry with forceful impact, I began to understand that the designers, editors and educators were also fearful, some even pessimistic about the possibility of change.

Ultimately, it gave me much-needed insight into the pressures faced by all in equal measure, which was an important realisation. We know that some of the world’s most established and influential designers might not budge. That’s why it was crucial to appeal to the educators of the creators – they are the ones who have the real power to positively influence how we will all relate to our bodies in the future. My ongoing aim is to encourage a wider audience from different walks of life to engage with the fashion industry and express ‘the beauty of diversity’. I am delighted on behalf of All Walks to continue to reinforce that.

For more info visit www.allwalks.org

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COMPLEXD FASHION

Crochet Dress | Ioannis Dimitrousis Fur Gillet | Niki Charlton

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A STA O UNDR

Fashion | Sarah-Adia www.sarah-butler.com

Photography | Aless www.alessandrovasapolli.com

Jacket | E.G. by Emma Griffiths

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A ATE OF RESS

ana Butler

sandro Vasapolli

Jacket | Jacob Kimmie Leather/Wool Trouser | Niki Charlton Knee High Boots | Topshop

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Fur Jacket | Niki Charlton Denim shorts | Bitching and Junkfood

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Open Cup Bra | Mint Siren by Josefine Wing Jumper | Florencia Kuzoch

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Strap Body, Torso Harness, Cage Skirt | All by Mint Siren by Josefine Wing

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Jacket | E.G. by Emma Griffiths

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Dress | Florencia Kuzoch Shoes | Niki Charlton

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Leather Jacket | Niki Charlton Strap Knickers | Mint Siren by Josefine Wing See through Dress | Elliot Joseph Rentz Knee High Boots | Topshop M.U.A | Lina Dahlbeck using Mac Pro www.linadahlbeck.com Hair | Yusuke Ukai www.yusukeukai.com Post-production | Gretchen Hilmers @ G-TOU

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A WOMANS WRATH Photography | Javier Galue www.atlantistarget.com Styling | Susana Ă lvarez

Coat | Amaya Arzuaga

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Pants & Top | Amaya Arzuaga

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Top & Turban | Amaya Arzuaga

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Body Neoprene | Casco Antiguo

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Dress | Veneno en la peil Shoes | CouplĂŠ

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Dress | Amaya Arzuaga Sandals | Roger Vivier

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Body | Antonio Sangoo para Moda Cálida Boots | Castañer Coat | Amaya Arzuaga Bag | Calvin Klein Collection Hair & Make-up | Tania Shostak Model | Julia Heil@MD Models Division Photo assistants | Nora Leithaus, Sandra, Andrea, Alexandra y Virginia Stylist assistant | Marta García All diving accessories | Casco Antiguo

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COMPLEXDMAN PORTRAITS OF STRENGTH The Portraits of Strength exhibition is a series of intimate photographs of women battling with breast cancer. Meet the photographer Damien Nikora and his beautiful family who currently reside in Orewa, Aotearoa, New Zealand.

I consider myself… to be Maori, native of Aotearoa (New Zealand).

Even though my father is ‘Pakeha’ (a white person in New Zealand) I am proud to be both. Both cultures have an influence on my work. My Maori side helps me to think with my heart and my Pakeha side helps me think with my head; they make a great team.

5 years ago… when I was living in Australia, I wanted to do something with my photography that would help change lives and make a difference.

I feel photography has the power to make change in this world, so I embarked on the series ‘Portraits of Strength’, an exhibition of topless portraits of women living with breast cancer. This project has allowed me to see a very personal and sensitive aspect of these women; they taught me to grab life and give it a massive hug and to always be grateful for what you have.

The New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation… introduced me to Rosylne Bowing who helped me find over half of the Maori women in the project. Without her it would have almost been impossible, they trusted her and her belief in the project so it allowed me to build a relationship with them a lot easier. I was amazed at how positive they all were. For the final portrait shot I encouraged all the women to bring as many people as they wanted for support.

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My goal was to photograph them in a way that feelings of anxiousness and vulnerability were replaced with courage and empowerment.

I want ‘Portraits of Strength’… to express each woman’s strength and courage, admiration and inspiration in sharing their journey with breast cancer. The portraits are meant to shock and confront the viewer, so it gives people a real sense of what cancer does. The ultimate goal was to make everyone aware of the effects of breast cancer and to encourage women to get tested for early detection.

Thus far… there have been tears and smiles during the viewing. The public have shown huge support for the brave and bold stance of the women featured. People who were very apprehensive initially have completely changed their mind after meeting with the women and seeing their portraits. When each woman saw her final portrait at the launch along with the ten other women who took part, it gave them all strength and pride for what they had done.

To all women… I would like to say, keep good friends, spend time with good people and when you find your partner be sure to put each other first. Finally, chase your dreams, work hard and live life for giggles. www.damiennikora.co.nz

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Ira Edwards

‘I feel absolutely wonderful, being stress-free is good.’

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‘The portraits are meant to confront the viewer, so it gives a real sense of what Cancer does.’

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Helena McAlpine

‘Try everything once, twice if you like it. Each day should be a celebration of the last 24 hours.’

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‘This project has allowed me to see a very personal and sensitive aspect of these women; they taught me to grab life and give it a massive hug and to always be grateful for what you have.’

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Tr av el & Life st y le

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Woman and child from Tanzania

by Mala

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GLOBAL SWAGGER A look at fashion outside of the western market

"No-one around the world has swagger like us."

Cuban woman in the streets of Havana

By Rene Timmermans

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Indian, Ladakhi women in traditional costume jewellery

By Matt Brandon

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A South Asian Bakarwal Gujjar woman in traditional dress

By Matt Brandon

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Tattooed girl in Natitangou market in North Western Benin

By Luca Gargano

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Local tribe women in Baka, Vietnam

By Rene Timmermans

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Muhimba girls in Angola

By Luca Gargano

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Chinese Zhuang women brushing their hair

By Rene Timmermans

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Tanzania woman

By Mala

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Woman at a Saturday souk in Morocco, Mediterranean Coast

By Luca Gargano

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South West Angolan women

By Luca Gargano

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Young woman and child of the Karen Paduang tribe in Thialand

By Christine Zenino

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West African Fula girls

By Luca Gargano

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Red Zao tribe women in Sapa, Vietnam

by Rene Timmermans

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Woman praying outside the tomb of Nizzamudin in New Delhi

by Matt Brandon

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For daily updates visit www.complexdblog.com

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