Goth at FIT

Once again the serendipitous play of the universe beckons for attention.

The gallery at the Fashion Institute of Technology has a show with the title: gothic dark glamour (lower case intentionally theirs!) now until February 21, 2009.
"Walter Benjamin argued that fashion has traditionally turned the living woman into a kind of mannequin, "a gaily-decked out corpse." " quote from the FIT website of the show......do visit in virtual as it is well worth the time! and if going to NYC do it live; i am going to try, hoping February has better travel conditions.

Thank you Linda for once again being the messenger, an intuitive connector and great friend!

Snow

In Seattle there are hills and people on top of them, so when it snows people on top of those hills either slide down or stay safely on the tops. The shoot was canceled until January which gives us time to play with those extra little details which will make for a better overall production.

Emily, an artist and Verge model showed up on the 14th despite the snow and posed with snow au natural ...black and white in color.

The snaggle in momentum has me discombobulated...oh well, though the reason escapes my human ability it is there somewhere...maybe later i will know it ...curiosity and the path of life...a step on the highwire.

theTrees

Just finished a backdrop for the shoot and must say i am pleased with the outcome. The trees are from mourning dress and other project remnants; machine sewn onto an old damask tablecloth. They grew from available scraps and hey i am liking it a lot!
Why is the new one always a favorite?

Grace of the Universe

Last post about SCAN i should have mentioned that they are another great community resource; like the Abbey, The Sanctuary Art Center and the NW Senior Center they reach out to offer services, social networking, shelter, knowledge, space and other means of bridging gaps in this rather silly and dysfunctional culture.
The non profits try to patch the crumbling foundation we were built on and like recyCouture they are great transitional tools. They are the labs where a lot of "new think" can bubble up from.

On the "Verge" front, i am feeling awed by the beauty of people coming forward to be a part of this project. Thank you.

inspiration

Poppins Grounded

The Verge shoot is on the calendar; December 14th and i am in a pause mode with the RIP until that baby gets wrapped. In the meantime SCAN has reformatted its agenda and i have applied to volunteer there in order to cover classes in Final Cut. I learned the Avid Express software a few years ago but am rusty, so this is a great op and a necessary part of any shoot. The edit shapes the art of the story.

Fremont Abbey Art center

The Fremont Abbey Art Center is helping fashionRIP by letting us shoot the video in their great hall with its old church windows for the unusual price of volunteer hours in a sustainable barter exchange. This is how community action looks and how we can better combine talents and resources at the neighborhood level. i say it is splendid and more people should give it a try. What magic we might achieve as we bridge some of the gaps left from too many middling mens and wimmens and other forms of social divisioning.

All The London

Fashioning the Future posts are going onto the fashion ethos blog....and then to the Sustainable Style Foundation; that is "where the action is". Oh myo, grade school calling...you see there was this show....
The RIP video is in the works but getting all the elements, human and else to gather together at the same time and place is tricky!

Victorian Goth Kabuki recyCouture

Looks like a challenge.....sustainable fashion is the new radical chic. Photos/ Make-up/Styling courtesy of Renee....the best! It must be that big cocky hat that fires up my oversize can-do!
As i've said before, fashion instigated this buy and toss attitude; now fashion is obliged to change it. i have a real sense of what is fair and all isn't; not even in love and war. Stupido cliche!

Stills of the RIP

This is a preview of the photographs that will go to the Posers Flickrr site. The characters and costumes will be in the video shoot. The recyCouture dresses are a stand alone part of the installation ....after all sustainable fashion was the seed that grew the project!

Think Global, Act Local

That is a pull quote from the early days of sustainability. Maybe it's still batting about, in which case I'm giving it a vicey-versey plus.

I was invited to take part in the Fashioning the Future Summit 2008 (10/27 & 28) at the London College of Fashion (GB) to consider the question; can fashion bring about a long term lifecycle change to move us towards a more sustainable economy and better lives? Key industry informers and decision makers are attending and will lead seminar groups. At the end of the day we will meet together and pool outcomes. This is the collective information I am eager to bring back home and share, so we can get out from under this "olde think" pall.

In sharing infomation we expand our capacity to act for the better good, as no one person, group or culture has 360 degree vision. Which is why fashionRIP is becoming a product of its own collaborative process. Explaination later! I have learned to edit my interconnetive rambles.

P.S. The fast fashion ads quoted in the Hall of Shame entry on Fashion Ethos are indicators of the "olde" market we are in.

Blog Lag and Synopsis

I promised a synopsis and its only right to deliver on promises.

Mourning Glories for Species on the Verge of Extinction
This is a story about a funeral. The recyCouture dresses worn in this video are inspired by the Victorian penchant for full scale mourning. There are 7 dresses representing 7 species that are on the brink of extinction or are only "alive" in zoos because their habitats are destroyed.

The fashion runway strut becomes somber as the recyCouture model is handed the portrait of a doomed one which is carried to the coffin. A blurb of that species will go to the screen as in silent films.
This is repeated for all 7. A name and date scroll at the side of the coffin reiterates the poignancy and the rate of current era die offs -as opposed to natural evolution.

A couple models will illustrate how this impacts human life.

The end is a beginning, as the coffin opens and a phoenix arises. The symbol of transformation starts the death scroll rewinding and it becomes apparent that we are still in time to be intelligent designers of our own evolution.