first edition
vol 01 | december - lauren bowcutt | international alt - fashion magazine | Dominican Republic
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table of contents 07
music
- playlist -
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trends
- alternative fashion -
playin’round - finding your niche -
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on the cover - the shady flower -
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creatives - profiles -
featured creatives
leah slava
lia sued
adrian mc
ana valeria
nastygal.com
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issue 01
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first edition
A magazine challenging the way you see fashion; Removing you from the obvious styles and photography.
hello
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let’s chat
general: info@removemag.com press: press@removemag.com
the team
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bts
founder: lauren bowcutt editor: claudio javier music curator & illustrations: lia sued collages: leah slava main stylist: rosalia pau cover photo: lauren bow
connect removemag.com twitter
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@removemag
typography - III semester CHAVON - chago garcia 05
content lauren bow
founder lauren bowcutt
editor santiago garcia
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music
wonder where we land - SBTRKT
LP1 - fka twigs
obsidian - baths
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#POTM playlist of the month
01 worsening by baths 02 give up by fka twigs 03 year zero by kele 04 sierra lift by blue hawaii 05 deep honey by goldfrapp 06 san pedro by doprah 07 the light by sbtrkt 08 unravel by bjørk 09 deep space by blank banshee 10 stranger people by doprah
playlist by lia sued remove mag - 08
music
...more
11 sick beat by kero kero bonito 12 broken flowers by danny l harle 13 gasoline by halsey 14 vyzee by sophie 15 mad hatter by melanie martinez
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collage by leah slava
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trends
the
trends What’s in? Three key items: platform sneakers, “athletic chic” and psychedelic. The platform sneakers are being used more and more to take a some-what basic outfit to the next level, also to take you to the next level, get it? Height... Anyways, the athletic chic has been “in” for a while now but now it’s makin’ it bigtime! And of course the unicornstyle/ psychedelic feels, I just have one thing to say about it: there’s never too much rainbow/mirror/unicorn dust/glitter. :)
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trends
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fka twigs
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style
instagram @fkatwigs
Twigs is known for her experimental-avant-garde style; she is quick to highlight her (perhaps overlooked) elegance. “People’s perception of her is that she’s really out there or really wacky. But actually twigs is really refined and very elegant.” Her look is defined as avant-pop.
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trends
alternative fashion piece by lauren bowcutt |
dominican
republic
Alternative fashion is defined as fashion
that stands apart from mainstream commercial fashion (a.k.a. the fake shit you see in magazines). It strays away from the perfectly retouched skin and distorted bodies, perfect teeth, and the caked-on made-up faces. This style of fashion includes the styles or inspiration of specific subcultures such as emo, scene, goth subculture, hip hop, heavy metal fashion, industrial and cyberpunk. Some of the trends include the always popular Dr. Martin’s boots, leather jackets, and really anything else that’s black. I guess that really only sums up the emo, goth and heavy metal fashion. As for the hip hop fashion, it’s constantly changing and adding unexpected trends to the list. For example, the latest has been the whole sporty-chic look which is pretty basic with jeans (the higher the better), tank tops or t-shirts and some sort of tenis shoes (mostly nike or adidas). I find the hip hop fashion a little closer to being the basic tumblr post look of the day but there are ways to style it up to keep if from going too “Kylie Kardashian seen at the
movies”, if you know what I mean.
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what else... What else, what else… well, the style that I refer to when I mention “alternative fashion” is a style that is straying away from the basic. Polaroids, faded colors, very white girls,
very dark girls, bold makeup, simple outfits, contorted poses..all things that I think of when on this topic. These are all things that separate the original/alternative from the usual in the world of fashion magazines. Everyone has their own taste and I feel that those that don’t like the flavor of those stale basic fashion editorials, and barely-there models can enjoy the newness of something cool and aesthetically different. Alternative fashion may have diverse influences that vary but have many basic similarities that exist between them. Some examples of those influences are: vintage and retro fashion trends that may have fallen out slightly since the beginning of it’s time which are now revived by this new generation, dress styles like those of Japanese street fashion, various forms of visual and performance art, notable personalities (famous or known influences such as, models, musicians, etc), personal tastes (becoming more accepted since the uprising of this “genre”), personal attitudes or opinions towards concepts such as self-expression, and of course as many other styles the music is a large influence.
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trends
pt.1
platform sneakahsss
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The platform sneakers are a trending topic and definitely an eye-catcher. These photographs were taken on a mini adventure around la zona colonial with pit-stops in colmadOHs and cool street spots.
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¨ • photography by lauren bow
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model rosalia pau
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styling by leila polini remove mag - 18
trends
¨ jacket vintage shop shorts f21 socks american apparel
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trends
pt.2
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top vintique belt urban outfitters shoes o’mighty
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¨ ¨ photography by lauren bow
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model rosalia pau
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styling by leila polini remove mag - 22
trends
choker o’sweet handmade pearl stickies your gem shack
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playin’round
playing with film
coverage by mel green
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photography katie amanda
| camera asahi pentax K1000
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styling carlos zuric
model cicely scates
hair sarah elena
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playin’round
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playin’round
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finding your niche piece by lauren bowcutt |
dominican
republic
I was always asked when back in the day, what I wanted to be when I grow up… I always answered something childish like a police officer, those that know me know that I could not be a police officer today. But, when I’m asked that today I really don’t know what to say anymore. I want to do so many things but how is it that when I was young and naive I could answer without any hesitation and yet, now that I know more and have learned more I can’t decide on a solid answer. I recently realized why this happens to me; my answer is constantly changing along with the new information that I’m learning every day. I mean, I know that I want to be creative, I want to
create visually appealing pieces of art.
I also realized that nowadays that we’re almost being brainwashed in to picking the answer that has the best reputation and pay instead of what we actually want. I’ve decided that I don’t have to make myself choose or settle on any certain answer, that I will just have an idea and work my way towards it. If it changes, then it changes and if it doesn’t then it doesn’t but I won’t limit myself in to choosing one. I was always an artsy kid and my mom was one of those arts-and-crafts-time moms. I loved it and still do! She was always getting us to be creative with things that we already had, popsicle picture frames (that’s a classic), pom poms out of yarn, etc. Always something fun and colorful to do with that mom of mine.
Before getting to this point in life i’ve tried everything. My mom had told me before that she wanted my sister and I to try everything that we could to figure out what we really were interested in and what we really liked. We did ballet, piano, guitar, chorus, karate, surfing, tie-dye, painting, motor cross, wake boarding, and probably anything else that you could imagine a fiveyear-old doing. It was great!
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Well, I don’t remember all of it but I’m sure that it was a good time. I mean, it got me where I am today with my likes and dislikes and I’m pretty satisfied with that part of me at this point so it must have been a good experience. I really think that that’s what figuring out your niche is all about. To find
out what you’re really good at and what you really like, I think that trying it all could be the key. Going head first in to new things will leave you, 1. with no regrets and 2. with a somewhat decided mind on what you are kind of leaning towards.
I am grateful that I had and have parents that push me to do my best and to work my ass of to get what I want. But those of you that didn’t get that opportunity when you were younger, get out there and try things. Try as many things are you can! Continue going head-first in to new and exciting adventures to not only keep yourself fresh and young but also to figure out what you want to do and to give yourself something to work towards. Having goals is a huge part of progressing.
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o-mighty.com 31
nastygal.com
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on the cover
on the cover:
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the shady flower article about getting inspired and staying motivated
location cabarete
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photography lauren bow
| model cicely scates
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on the cover
Inspiration can be found in anything; when you’re looking for it or when
you least expect it. The best is when it hits you like a big OMSA bus. Being curious helps; ask yourself as many questions as possible to get as many weird or random answers as you can. One thing leads to another…and another and another until you have so much information that you can pick and choose what you want to work with. Thinking “outside of the box”, as cliché as it sounds is something that we all endlessly search for; being just another piece to the puzzle that fits perfectly isn’t exciting. How much more interesting or mind-fucking is it when you find a piece that doesn’t fit anywhere? It happens a lot here in the DR but not just with games missing pieces, it’s all over: streets missing signs, streetlights missing lightbulbs, asking yourself what some handsignals mean, or some slang that you heard at the colmado, and of course cars missing tail-lights (happens more often then some might think) and the list goes on and on. I’m sure many of you have never thought about it like this, reaching that point of curiosity; beginning to realize these things happening every moment around you is just one step in the right direction to helping yourself get inspired.
Society has a lot to do with the way you think and your process.
Someone who takes the metro everyday doesn’t have the same way of thinking as someone who drives to get to their destination; the same way someone who eats at home everyday has a different way of thinking as someone who eats out. They are all different experiences that come with different reactions and thoughts. I realized this from many practices and classmates; one person may interpret something a certain way while I interpret it another. Being that our living situation, work situation, financial situation, etc are different we process things differently. But that’s something that’s actually very interesting to see in action. Try telling twenty people to draw the same object just by saying the name of it and see how many different results they come up with. You’d be surprised at what some come up with; experiencing this inspires me to open up my mind and not be so literal about things.
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“Society and your situation has a lot with how you think and create.�
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on the cover
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“Motivation comes in all forms.�
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How can we be original without straying too far from our own personal style? It’s hard to get inspired, none-the-less stay that way. Sometimes I find myself starting a project and then shortly after, losing interest. But, I have also been through the opposite; I can start a project uninspired and then find a boost of inspo halfway-through and turn out falling in love with the creation and the process that accompanies it. The
worst is when you’re given a project where you have total and complete creative freedom; the concept, the design…everything is up to you. That’s when I find myself a little bit lost and caught up in a giant tornado of five-hundred ideas all running through my head at once. I’m sure whoever is assigning it is probably thinking that they’re making it easier on us, but *hoping that those are reading this* You’re not making it easier on anyone! But thanks for trying…
When this happens all I can think is, whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy; GIVE ME RULES! This is when it’s so hard to find exactly what direction you wanna go in, because there are so many possible directions. With those directions or let’s call them, roads. With so many roads comes more chances of getting lost and without “GPS” or in this case, any kind of creative direction, we have no chance and will most likely either have to re-design or make many modifications to the project at hand. In those cases inspiration (some damn strong inspiration) is needed. Don’t get me wrong, starting off with something some-what small can lead to another idea and so-on, but getting started? It’s not exactly the way we all hope for, but every thing helps. It’s like trying to leave the house on a motor that has little to no gas left; but then you tip it to the side, Dominican-style, and get that one drop of gas you need to just barely reach the gas station, but you get there.
So how exactly am I supposed to move up on this ladder of originality? Well, recently I worked with
someone who really opened my eyes about this gem. You cannot try so hard; don’t force it upon yourself to be original. Trying too hard just throws you back in to the pool of unoriginal basics which is somewhere we’re trying so hard to keep away from. Putting so much effort (or thinking that you are) in to being new and innovative could possibly just hurt you and/or your project. It will just make you hard to work with and eventually you’ll just settle for whatever you think “kinda” works. No bueno. Brands don’t want something that’s “kinda” good, or “kinda” what they’re looking for… You have to find it. All of this: originality, innovation, and new design all
comes back to your motivation and inspiration.
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on the cover
charles eames said,
“We don’t do art, we solve problems”.
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Okay okay so now I’m bringing motivation to the picture. Motivation…let’s look it up. Motivation is defined as “the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way”. So, let’s think about it this way. Here in the DR the AMET don’t exactly have the best reputation, as most of us know. But, one day you see a few of them actually doing their jobs (shocker) and this motivates you to be a little kinder or maybe a little more patient the next time you see an AMET on the road, at least until the next one gives you a reason to become impatient again. Here’s a little more of a basic example; you’ve thought about working out (you think about it a lot) but never actually do it. Why? Probably just laziness, or maybe you just figure your time is better spent watching that new Netflix series. Until, you come across some chick on Instagram with a body to die for (that people have probably actually died for, but that’s not the point) and it motivates you to actually start working out.
Okay so now we get the whole motivation thing but how does that apply to projects and creating? It has everything to do with it. Without
motivation how were you planning to come up with a bomb concept and design? It wasn’t gonna happen. Sometimes it’s others who motivate you;
it can really be anything. Just make sure it’s positive and helpful for the situation. When it comes to projects or jobs, I feel that you really have to be motivated in other things before you can pick up something that should be treated as “important”. Every project is “important”, you
really never (emphasis on the “never”) know where it might end up.
When I say the whole, motivated in life thing, I’m referring to that you should get up and do those dishes that you’ve been meaning to do, go apply for that internship that you’ve been wanting for a while, and so on. There are people that resolve and there are people that get things resolved for them (there are probably more classifications but I’m going with these two). Charles Eames said, “We don’t do art, we solve problems”. This is the simplest way to say it; every design should be designed to solve a problem even if just a small one, a problem is a problem. You have a question and all you need to do is find a functional answer to that question; your design is the answer. When you’re designing you must remember that something being good-looking or trendy does not make it functional. Pretty doesn’t always work.
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on the cover
Story-time. Here’s all that I’ve said about motivation and inspiration, put to work. My class was recently given a project for a pizza company here in the DR. It was a project that we were not particularly excited about but, what could we do?; we took it on like the future bosses that we are. All we could think in the beginning was, ok so we have 3 days to come up with five designs for the box that will be used for every pizza box for the year of their 35th anniversary. Seems easy enough right? Let’s just make some cool-looking designs and slap them on the top of the box, done. Um… not done. It was a lot more complicated than we expected and no one was motivated in the beginning, at all. But it hey it was a great opportunity and I wasn’t about to turn it down. From there we brainstormed, where we came up with roughly four different concepts and ended up going with two of the four. At this point I was slowly becoming more motivated. Each person was assigned to a job based on their strengths; that definitely boosted my moral a bit more. Little by little the project seemed to be coming together; each cover became a very fun yet conceptual creation. Based on different artistic movements and styles. This was one of those cases where I was not motivated in the slightest when we started but definitely grew to love it by the time we were getting closer to the final results. Some things work out better that way, you never really know. Everything happens as it
should but you can always help with extra motivation for yourself and by allowing yourself to be inspired by all of the wonderful things around you; you might pass them every day but the one time you take an extra second to recognize something that has always been there you never really know of all of the places that it could take your mind.
The project is something that I really hope goes through, not just because it is great looking but also because it has everything that they asked for and more. I wanna see it on those glorious cardboard boxes! On top of that we all worked our asses off day-in and day-out for three days on this project until the time necessary to accomplish what we did... and it shows through the treatment of each design and even in the presentation of the designs. To me, seeing hard work and dedication as well as, motivation come through in someone or many people’s work is a huge accomplishment and really something to be proud of. Behind work like this, there is a story and that story is passed on along with the project; that takes it past it’s artsy outside shell and turns it in to a more meaningful creation. It takes something ordinary and makes it extraordinary.
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conclusion I’ve learned so much and I’m still learning more and more every day; waiting for the next project, the next mental-prep session to continue teaching myself how to be easily organized, inspired and motivated. Be positive and keep a good mind-set; keeps your eyes on the prize and let everything inspire you on the way, as you can also inspire others.
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creatives
leah slava experience 5 years
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dominican republic
profession freelance photographer
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+ student
hobbies collaging, graphic design & experimental photog
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proof of talent:
snap/ig/tweets @leahslava @leashartrd society6.com/leahslava
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creatives
lia sued experience 6 years
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dominican republic
profession freelance illustrator | hobbies dj-ing, film photog & art
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+ student
proof of talent:
snap/ig/tweets @liamrsds www.liamrsds.com
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creatives
adrian mc experience 2 year
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dominican republic
profession fashion photographer |
+ student
hobbies yourgemshack, styling, creative direction
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proof of talent:
snap/ig/tweets @adrianmatac @xoxo_amc @yourgemshack www.yourgemshack.com
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creatives
ana valeria experience 4 years
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dominican republic
profession lifestyle photographer hobbies film, watching movies
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+ student
proof of talent:
snap/ig/tweets @anavaleriacast www.theminimalista.com
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