fashionRIP

fashionRIP is a multidiscipline, transmedia installation of chapters, an exploration of perceptions and beliefs. It’s a platform that explores ecosystems health, generative economics, social justice, cultural and creative diversity. Starting with recycouture garments, the story became the Project. It is now an evolving experiment, designed to explore meaningful relationship based constructs that put human potential and whole systems health over the abstract ideas of faux "the real world."

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Species on the Verge

hummingbird in the backyard, today!

I have been playing with this title for months and it finally dawned on me that this is IT!

Species on the verge of extinction juxtaposes with species on the verge of evolution -by conscious choice.

It was there all the time and yet elusive; as my mind got in the way and bossed me about, trying to convince me that i needed the full title to shout the losses.

But the reason for the RIP project is to highlight change as emancipating, caring, full of grace style and beauty, peaceful, creative, expanding and in our control. If we can imagine this kind of world we can create it.

The "us them world" the fear of the unknown, the greed of stuff and power...all that is rather moldery now, isn't it?

Saturday, February 14, 2009

the Westlake Valentine

"please forgive Seattle"

Another misunderstood local hero
ahead of his time.
but i remember what you told us
and miss what you didn't have time for.

L, deborah

Friday, February 13, 2009

NSCC

fashionRIP
Renee V photographer

is maximass.
With Lynda.com and an edit suite i am finally logging clips for the "Species on the Verge" video. It is very exciting, trust me....like watching one's baby trying to stand up for the first time.

That is metaphoric, as pulling out of comfort zones is what gives us our next step....so many people circle in routine safety they forget they were meant to grow and bloom and end up with shriveled limbs instead of wings. Why is that?

Happy Friday the 13th!

Friday, January 30, 2009

video edit time

The Phoenix is a multicultural symbol of transformation, resurrection, evolution, change..
Old ways die as new ideals are nurtured.

and now need to learn Final Cut (though i know Avid Express it is rare in this town...being such a picky software). So am doing an over the shoulder crash course at SCAN waiting for producer classes but can start this week to work at NSCC...thanks to a Media Center staff that understands the world possible. NSCC is a great local educational resource where i found new friends that are now working with me on the RIP, education is much more than the classes.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Moving on

as i was free to walk away knowing my ideas were in the good and capable hands of others. The positive surprises they created far exceeded the few "mmm perhaps that should go...." moments, proving that hydras work! though an evil beast in the Hercules myth perhaps it was hierarchical bias even then! hey one hero per story dude! cos one head is better than 9.......what's with that?

in Motion

Emily wears a metaphor

Renee the magician of hair and make-up and

photographer too, as a girl can't have too many metaphoric hats!

Tree people

Aezja

Cheryl

we ran out of time to shoot an ensemble idea Cathy and i had visualized. The good thing is that it will transfer to the "Water" chapter. However "tree people" showed up and as they helped with other jobs on the set it was a very good thing. It is necessary to plan for weird incidentals and double the expected time...guerrrilla video is a fine line between known and opportunity and the best way to juggle them ....like in life, it's about adding the new ideas that can sometimes change many things. that's the thrill! and the hope! (albeit the risk)

Saturday, January 17, 2009

and

Jackson awaits his cue

as does Barney the Grim

Lights

the location pictures were shot by Nick, Cathy, Mark, Jody, Sharon and me. i am gong to start another blog for credits and crew, model stuff, lost and found all the detail works that now are important. Soon! email for info if you want.

we can do it

After seeing the footage, the original phoenix idea
is out . some ideas just need to go! Flash to the rescue!

and we did!
i was impressed with the generous help and guidance the fun, the harmony and patience that prevailed on location. it was a longer day than i had thought it would be and yet more than half the party helped with clean-up. collaboration works and the minor upsets were cues for my "do it better next time list."

day of the RIP

Emily strikes an Isadora pose in a stenciled tee
& skirt remade from pants from the Ryther Thrift shop in Ballard

Maddy hands me the Quetzal memorial illustration
- as the future is hers.

Dawn pretty pose, 30s lacey refashion

Madeline in tieback top and skirt made of remnants
and donations

Thendara in the first dress made for the RIP
started as a 70's jumpsuit. Silk leaves from old flowers.

Holly in Viva La Evolucion!
made from the slip of the 30's lace dress and a donated velvet robe
with remnants from my success/excess quilt

Maggie in the 20's chemise with an India import flocking underskirt
from the Goodwill

Friday, January 16, 2009

rehearse

Carol in lace topped empire dress
from a thrift store blouse and panne left over from the Evolucion jacket

the draped staircase was a brilliant Cathy idea. The tricky part was walking gracefully down them while nimbly avoiding the tripper folds on the stairs. No one fell; whew -going to show that sometimes a little risk just makes the shot!

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.