fashionRIP: July 2009

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Soundtrack

jaimerobert johnson at NSCC graduation 6/08

Finally all things have come together to to put the music to the "Verge." This has taken awhile to fall into place; hardware, software and bi-coastal communications issues can be smoothed out but in this case meeting up at the media lab is the better plan.

jaimerobert Johnson came west to work and play music with some old friends during summer break. In this mix he is taking time to lay the tracks at the very lab the video was made. It is great to be past these tech hurdles and onto the raison d'etre.

Sometimes patience is a good thing.

Video cast pictures are at the ArdisAllyn Picasa site.
Posers Flickr spot has a slide show of "Species on the Verge" pictures.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Western Gallery

I am a slacker on the blog but that doesn't mean I am not working!

A few days ago I found out that Western Gallery wants a sustainable fashion show (and I am negotiating fr a mini version of the fashionRIP installation. This based on the argument that clothing in context, like art and words is the truer statement aka artist's intent, for what is ground breaking, visual shifting or radical etc becomes part of the lexicon after awhile and therefore loses impact. This is especially true to fashion and I will go into this in an article I want to write for the Ethical Fashion Forum- a shameless tease)

Showtime means Water dresses are on the cutting table and under the needle. After all that black mourning this blue, green, lavender palette is a joy to play in despite the undercurrents in the topic. The relative and the juxtapose, the relationship and the idealized futurism.....its all there! its always all there.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Eco Design Fair

Nicola (Beautiful Soul) and Jaime

People Tree Fair Trade at the Eco Design Fair

Sums and me

Sums and Mathew

show shot

Manon Flener

party after the Eco Fair party, thanks to N & J

London was fabulous. I am posting photos of the wonderful group brought together by Nicola of Beautiful Soul (website will be up soon) and Jaime to make this stay one of the highlights of my life! I will write more later, but have to get an article to the Ballard News Tribune.

If you are new to this blog please go to the links on the left and see the Ardisallyn photos of the video shoot as well as the Flickrr slideshow on the Posers link. If you click on the photo a caption appears and this will help you get an idea of the first chapter of fashionRIP "the Species on the Verge"

I am going to have to get a blog for this "new to the site thing" as my cards are now global wanderers and this blog is a scrolling journal affair. When the Verge premieres a proper website will be necessary but til then the money goes elsewhere. Gallery, showing space suggestions are wanted as the original venue didn't get their grant..... thank you. (please respond as all ideas are welcome...go to the Teachstreet link to contact me)

Why it Matters

What's the matter with more and more fashion choices?

It sounds good; we love to be able to pick the perfect outfit. You wear it once or twice and then ....what was the real cost here?

Your time to shop and the money spent, not so much ....go a little deeper and consider the fiber source, the dyes and chemicals used, the health toll on the workers, the energy to run the machines, the transporting carbons...and now it just takes up closet space. But so what? It's been going on for-almost-ever and you didn't make the rules.

In fact we are told this is what a "healthy" economy looks like.

You will recycle it after all, give it to charity or your sister. This is more transportation and more release of those greenhouse gases. We are using a lot of our personal energy and the resources of this planet to make, use and dump "trash" Some rags, remnants and tawdry bits will molder for eons in landfills, as nature's microbial actions are hampered by our normalized, everyday toxic lifestyles.

This goes beyond dumps as the breakdown cycle that nourishes the life of this planet has been sorely challenged by GMO crops, fertilizers, pesticides, antimicrobials..RIGHT!!. All the "living better through chemistry" propaganda after WWI and II- AKA how to sell your "garbage," is our legacy. Well no more, not on my (our) watch, we are seeing things quite differently.

As we now carry 298 toxins in our bods that weren't there in the 1930s the toxic residues of normal are haunting us more and more. Ironic, no? Advanced is merely a word.

Go to the So Whats the Point blog in February for the numbers.

fashionRIP posts are copr at time of posting thank you

Extinctions ...So What?

Life evolves, some species survive some don't. We like to allude to Darwin's "natural selection" or Herbert Spencer's "survival of the fittest" because we are so good at reproducing and taking over this planet and justifying that side of our natures. The fact that we are wiping out the food chain by destroying habitat, fouling air and water and generally behaving like arrogant, tinkering idiots, is called business as usual. .....Well I and others are no longer buying that "sell."

We are wising up to the idea that we too, are dependent on these resources. We too, are physically an organic species and we really don't know what little extinction will be the start of the chain reaction that collapses the structure that we too, are dependent on.

Is this the price we are willing to pay for a pair of plastic shoes?

I say no, that despite the focus on the physical, we are more. We are heart and soul, mind, body, spirit. We are born of stars and we can and will leap over this world view based in old, untrue beliefs led by a science of isolation and religions of patriarchal, hierarchical constructs (your basic dominating Dad- with self reflective rights to rule). It is time to come together and heal. To transition into our fuller expectations and open the new possibilities. We are born with genius...let us help each other get to where we all can shine.