9 minute read
STUDIO 34 /RachelSAUNDERSCeramics
RACHEL SAUNDERS CERAMICS
With intentionality and a natural approach to ceramics, Rachel Saunders has grown a cult following on Instagram. Her organic shapes and muted earth tones are inspired by raw material which can be found on the lands of Mexico, Morocco, and Greece. Bulbous and curvy, each piece is thoughtfully handmade by Rachel and the RSC team in Victoria, Canada. Rachel's work inspires us to find joy in the everyday. One of her most iconic pieces, The Woman Vase almost always instantly sells out on every restock.
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PHOTOGRAPHY by RACHEL SAUNDERS TEXT by RACHEL RUBÍ
THE NOW
THE NOW
Top left PHOTOGRAPHY via NICOLÒ CAMPO Bottom right PHOTOGRAPHY by YAZ YÜCEIL
fashion postQUARANTINE TEXT by LISO CEZA
With the global issue we’re facing, many have been wondering about how businesses within the fashion industry are going to recover from COVID-19. Enthusiasts contemplate upon the direction the industry will move towards— whether there will be a sense of escapism from what we’ve known or whether the industry will be demanding more efficiency than ever before. I question how designers across the industry will showcase their future collections and how some companies will keep their customers loyal to the brand. Having a look at historical records during dark killed an estimated 25 million people, birthed the Renaissance. The Spanish Influenza of the early 1900s and the First World War sparked the Golden Twenties. Times of hardship allowed the arts to evolve beyond the boundaries and head dive straight into the unknown. Moments of darkness encourage individuals to invent new ways of expressing their form of dress.
ESCAPISM IN FASHION Escapism is a vessel used to leave the present and enter but a fleeting moment of happiness; fashion can be used in the same manner. In a time where people are confined in their homes, designers and students around the world are given the opportunity to rethink fashion and the direction the industry is going. Redefining what clothing means to me
“Escapism is a vessel and enter but a fleeting moment of happiness...
times in history, there’s a pattern of humans finding innovative ways to express themselves and the rebirth of the new world’s post-world crisis. When we look at examples in history, we recognize the events that remain deep within the collective subconscious, eventually birth movements. The ‘Black Death’ of the mid 1300s, a tragic disease that nearly calls for entertainment and delight while I experiment with styles, silhouettes and design. Experimenting is a catalyst for inspiration during times of melancholy and boredom throughout quarantine. Almost frozen in time, this glitch in the system gives creatives of all mediums an almost daunting and endless amount of time to reflect on and re-evaluate the way we work.
For once in our capitlist society, time grants us the luxury to reframe the kind of creative we want to be and the changes we wish to implement in the uncertain future. Essentially exhausting creatives of their resources, the industry continues to move at a fast pace. That's just the nature of capitalism; We are undergoing a crisis in the industry which is simply over-saturated with fast fashion business models, overproduction and overconsumption with the sole purpose of prioritizing profits over quality creation. I hope that as a society, we get to wake up from all the noise so we don’t have to feel the need to escape anymore. I want us to have the chance to ground ourselves back down to Earth.
SHOWCASING FASHION ON DIGITAL PLATFORMS comfortable with the unknown, and scrap everything they ever knew. Digital technology has been paving the way for virtual presentations as seen in SHOWstudio’s “Fashion For The Future Human Psyche - 'Ceremonial Formality'” by Frederik Heyman. Through such collaborations SHOWstudio has incorporated 3D digital models and artificial space to debut pieces from brands. That being said, this opens doors to young and less established creatives to showcase their projects in an affordable and experimental manner. Platforms such as Instagram and Twitter make it that much more accessible to interact with these digital productions. This form of showcasing talent can also be a substantial tool in the post-COVID-19 future and shouldn’t be
neglected simply because people will be able to one day reunite in a physical space.
BRAND LOYALTY & RELEVANCY Particularly now, practicing compassion at the workplace has been celebrated on a global scale; it essentially allows us to form an emotional bond with the company because the interactions are made to feel that much more genuine. Creating an authentic bond helps build a sense of connection, enabling the business to maintain brand loyalty. During quarantine, certain businesses have continued to reach out to their customer base. Fashion brands such as Bottega Venta, LOEWE, 1017 ALYX 9SM, and J.W. Anderson created an interactive space for their customer base to share inspiration, music, film recommendations and conduct online interviews submitted by their audience, allowing people to entertain themselves in the comfort of their homes. Giving the impression that brands aren’t just solely focused on the distribution of products while inviting their loyal customers and new audiences into the world of their brand storytelling creates an escape for people to in-
dulge into and encourages optimism to move towards. This perhaps has the potential to be a substantial means of digital marketing and tactful customer services for luxury companies. It is rather vital for businesses to maintain the connection with their demographic and it is perhaps what will keep them relevant and beloved. After all, community heals.
Creating and debuting new collections in quarantine is an issue many designers have had to face, spending months exploring and strategizing in ways we never had to think about before. What seems rather intriguing is how much room for creativity has been in the delivery of fashion shows. Fashion Week being postponed forced everyone to push the boundaries, get
INTO THE FUTURE post-pandemic
TEXT by LISO CEZA
Just as the Great Depression changed the course of fashion for the people of the 1930’s, the outbreak of the Coronavirus will have an impact on the fashion industry of 2020 greatly, and into 2021 as well. The Depression altered the transition of style forcefully rather than naturally, somewhat, as it does between decades. We normally see silhouettes evolve but with the Depression, all traditions were completely left behind and instead we looked to novelty and historical influences as a way to deter ourselves from the harsh new reality. Rather than excess, we opted for streamlining and modernity which very much reflected the new way of life, however we incorporated with it antiquated influences of the American Civil War and Queen Elizabeth I—both of which were heavily imbued in American plays, novels, and films. Despite the setbacks the fashion industry faced, we saw some great and influential womenswear designers emerge to prominence and notoriety through innovations that the current economic state implemented and yet realized into art and fashion. Two prominent figures leading the way were Elsa Schiaparelli and Madeleine Vionnet. Schiaparelli pulled the streamline ideals into her silhouettes with tubular dressings. She also partnered with artistic greats like Salvador Dalí to incorporate contemporary art into her designs, most notably the high-heeled hat of 1937. Vionnet, on the other hand, pulled influences of antiquity through Greek statues and art, and became widely known for a bias-cut in her dressmaking—which allowed for the accentuation on the female form while simultaneously allowing stretch for the wearer. This is all to say, during times of duress, the fashion industry will go through a period of adaptation and growth, just as all industries do. Designers will have to think about the new jaded society that has undergone a pandemic and forecast a new way of fashion thinking. Will we opt for more leisure dressing, which has become our everyday uniform, or will we jump back into the way things were before? I don’t think we know yet. People will, and I can attest to this, miss the act of dressing up and going out and being a part of the normal we used to know—but to what extent? Are we going to be willing to spend on fashion and material goods as we were before or are we going to lean more on thrifted goods and living for experiences rather than looks? I think it’s going to be a two-sided coin, or perhaps a Libra scale of weighing the balance of these two ideas and working them into our new normal. In either case, if designers want to stay current and afloat in whatever new landscape is created, I think they’ll have to think of the consumer now more than ever. Beyond the scope of designers, a new form of business that is crucial to our ever-evolving fashion landscape will face hardships in a way that we’ve never experienced: influencer culture. We all know it—it’s ubiquitous, and either you love it or hate it. In either case, the fashion industry will have to be careful in the way they approach the utilization of influencers. We’ve seen examples of tone-deaf comments celebrities have made about their experiences in quarantine and while their experiences are valid, their comments can be insensitive to the quotidian person. Will designers have the same problem? Pushing products on an economicallychallenged society could fall heavily on the masses, unlike the upper class who haven’t been affected as substantially. Backlash could be public disapproval and with the heightened use of cancel culture, it could result in less than ideal circumstances. Not to say influencer culture will become nonexistent by any means. We’re a narcissistic society that feeds off of self-promotion and what better way to feed into that than to buy products to make our online presences as pristine as possible? I don’t know one. This is all supposed or theoretical though, right? We, as a collective, haven’t experienced something like this in over a century—which leaves us with so many open-ended questions for the state of the fashion industry in particular, and what it’ll look and feel like postquarantine. Fashion, though, is adaptable, thought provoking, it pushes boundaries, and is ever-evolving—and this is sure to be no exception.
