Irenebrination: Notes on Architecture, Art, Fashion, Fashion Law & Technology

Human Anatomy & The Anatomical Venus: Christopher Kane S/S 23

Mention the words "human anatomy" to any fashionista who may also be a fan of body-con designs, and they will shrug and say this is a topic they are not interested in. Yet, human anatomy is an important component of fashion.

Albeit designers do not create clothes for internal organs, having a solid knowledge of the nuts and bolts of the human body and of its raw mechanics, allows them to create perfect body-con dresses, designs that truly act like plastic surgery, sculpting or enhancing the human silhouette in impeccable ways (which automatically explains why a lot of things we see on the runways nowadays look like messed up rolls of fabrics wrapped up around a dummy - probably in these cases designers were so into creating Instagrammable looks that they lost the anatomical path...).

Mugler comes to mind, but so does "L'Ange Anatomique" (The Flayed Angel, 1746), a mezzotint of a fashionably coiffed anatomized woman by French artist and anatomist Jacques-Fabien Gaultier d'Agoty, a pioneer of medical colour mezzotint printing.

There was a strong human anatomy component in Christopher Kane's S/S 23 collection, showcased during the latest edition - a sombre one - of London Fashion Week.

The show that marked a return to the London schedule of the designer since 2020, wasn't actually just about human anatomy, but about forensic studies as well. As the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II finally took place yesterday and while the mourning period continues in the UK, Kane's main inspiration went along well with the rather dark funereal moods hanging over the country.

While an anatomy lesson was read on the soundtrack, the mechanics of the human body were evoked by the ribcage-like plastic strips decorating a gray sweater or forming bodices on lingerie dresses (inventive, but frankly, even to this day, it remains hard to compete with Schiap's 1939 skeleton dress…). The plastic strips also seemed to hint at the plastic curtains you may find in medical laboratories.

More surreal effects emerged in the fabric cutout hands with prints of red muscles and ligaments in full view. The hands were applied around the shoulders and bodice of a dress or around the waist of an ivory gown with a cape.

Scalpels were evoked by mini-dresses suspended from geometric panels and by the sharply cut boots, while medical instruments were also referenced in the metallic clasps holding Scottish cashmere cardigan, twinsets, or jumpers-cum-capes. Floral motifs were to be intended not for celebratory occasions but for condolences, so they were dedicated to the dearly departed.

The idea behind this collection was creating armours with skeletal structures, so the purpose was dissecting, while protecting, and playing at the same time with Kane's usual dichotomies - his passion for plastic and his appreciation of more luxurious materials such as cashmere, for elegance, but also for trash.

At some point Kane must have seen and studied the so called "anatomical Venus": first created in the late 1700s, these life-size wax sleeping beauties with real human hair and an expression of sexual abandonment (Clemente Susini's "Venerina" - or Little Venus - was particularly beautiful and also wore a pearl necklace), were actually anatomical models with removable layers that allowed students to discover the mechanics of the human body (was this inspiration behind the sliced and layered designs and the inset lace bra cups?).

Not everything was convincing, though, and at times some motifs ended up being repetitive. But, if you like the inspiraton, you can start building your own medical library that you may reference while you're working on your designs.

Among the volumes you may want to include there is the "Atlas of Human Anatomy and Surgery" by Jean Baptiste Marc Bourgery (1797-1849) a comprehensive and beautifully illustrated collection of anatomical treatises that features hand-colored lithographs by illustrator Nicolas Henri Jacob (1782-1871). The atlas features descriptive anatomy, surgical anatomy and techniques, general anatomy and embryology, and microscopic anatomy.

Besides, if you ever find yourself in London head to the Wellcome Collection and stop at its library for a day of discovery and study. Or, without moving from your own town, team up with a medicine student, a doctor or a radiologist to develop some clever designs inspired by human anatomy and forensic studies as well. Who knows what you may come up with. Luminol-inspired clothes? Maybe, but don't kill anybody to make sure the effect is more genuine. A new fabric? Well, blood, bacteria and virus repellent fabrics have already been developed, but the possibilities are endless.

The most important thing is that you remember this link between anatomy and design, the rest will follow. Andreas Vesalius stated in 1543 that "anatomy is an important part of natural philosophy". Let's hope Vesalius does not get angry if we dare to add that anatomy is also an important part of fashion.

Stitching Contemporary Histories: Dawn Williams Boyd's "The Tip of the Iceberg" @ Fort Gansevoort, New York

You can use words and images to tell a story, but you can also use scraps of textiles and fabrics like Dawn Williams Boyd does.

The artist usually employs donated or second-hand textiles (carefully removed from a variety of clothes including vintage prom dresses or wedding gowns to add more levels to her work, while she buys a variety of fabrics to create different skin tones) and quilting, embroidery and beading techniques to stitch representations of modern America as experienced by minority groups.

Born in 1952 in Neptune, New Jersey, Dawn Williams Boyd grew up surrounded by fabrics, needles and threads, as her grandmother and mother usually made everything they may have needed, from curtains to school clothes.

Boyd got her BFA at Stephens College, Columbia, in 1974, and first started painting on canvas, but she didn't feel satisfied with the technique. She eventually found her true vocation when she returned to the lessons learnt from the women in her family and started creating "cloth paintings," balanced combinations of quilting, embroidery and beading to stitch representations of modern American histories.

All the themes Boyd tackles are intense - xenophobia and immigration, racial violence and systemic racism, female sexuality, misogyny and abortion rights, physical and psychological abuses of power.

Her layered fabric forms often conjure up brutal scenes, shocking narratives and historical moments that provide us with a strong social commentary.

Fort Gansevoort (5 Ninth Avenue, New York) is dedicating Dawn Williams Boyd her first solo exhibition that will open later on this week.

"The Tip of the Iceberg" (September 21 through November 19, 2022) will feature twelve new large-scale works that move from political references and personal recollections. This presentation coincides with the last leg of the artist's traveling museum exhibition "Dawn Williams Boyd: Woe", on view at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York.

As the artist explains in a press release, the title of the exhibition was inspired by Boyd's observations of catastrophic headlines dominating the news in the last few years.

As Boyd states: "...others, more learned than I - scientists, historians, social commentators - were already discussing these matters and being mostly ignored. And yet, here we are, in 2022, on the very precipice of changes to the way we define ourselves - the tip of the iceberg that we know hides disaster if we don't make a course change immediately."

Boyd invites us to make that course change through striking compositions populated by life-sized figures rendered in vivid colours that are particularly poignant.

At times Boyd uses metaphors in her works: in "The Death of Democracy" (2022), Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong-un carry a casket, a representation of the fall of democracy, while on the left side of the scene, the artist represented the personification of evil, a character with fiery eyes and bloody claws.

In "Leaving Alabama" ( 2022), Boyd portrays a diverse group of women on a road trip, crossing the Alabama state line. but there is a deeper meaning behind this scene.

Check out the number on the license plate, 410US113, and you will realise that's the office citation of the historic 1973 Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court case. The idea for this piece came to Boyd in 2019 as Alabama's governor, Kay Ivey, signed a bill outlawing abortion at nearly any stage of pregnancy. As Roe vs. Wade was overturned in June this year, Boyd's work assumes new meanings about a woman's rights. Other works have a journalistic twist about them, "Fear For My Life" (2022) shows an aerial view of a young boy lying in a pool of his own blood, a toy water gun at his feet and police badges around his limp body. The torsion of the body calls to mind Pietà sculptures, hinting at sorrow and grief.

"The subject represents all the innocent mother's sons who have been murdered by those who are sworn to protect and serve," Boyd explains, while the title hints at the fear of Black children under attack in America, and the defense often used by law enforcement to justify irrational acts of violence against unarmed individuals. The technique in this piece is particularly striking as Boyd integrated in the work real police department patches sourced online and from a local Georgia antique market. The badges from across the U.S. point at the pervasiveness of police brutality that continues to perpetuate racism and ravage communities across America.

"The pen is mightier than the sword," says the old adage, but in Boyd’s case, it's the humble needle that does the trick, proving that artists can be at the forefront of political change and offer us informative and powerful works that can be used as social commentaries or to tell us stories about the past that can warn us about the future.

The Art of Small Things: Micro-mosaic Jewellery

In yesterday’s post we pondered about learning to look at the urban environment surrounding us to discover new things. Let’s continue the thread with a post about micro-mosaics and in particular jewellery made with this technique to train our eyes (usually more used to spot Instagrammable things rather than fine details…) to spot micro-details.

A superb example of a craftsman's skill, these mosaics were made with small - or rather tiny - oblong (rather than square) tesserae of glass, or in an enamel-like material (especially those ones made in Italy in later years).

The technique was employed to make small figures and museum collections preserve examples of ancient Roman micro-mosaics and Byzantine religious icons (usually dating from 1300 to 1450, so the Late Byzantine period). Byzantine examples, which are very rare, were usually framed and therefore used as portable paintings.

Micro-mosaics became popular in the Renaissance when they started being made in Italy. Rome was the centre of production and among the micro-mosaics collectors there were also Pope Paul II and Lorenzo de' Medici.

The technique became even more popular with the Grand Tour period (17th-19th century). Members of wealthy European families travelled through Europe and Italy was a popular spot for them. Tourists would purchase micro-mosaics featuring scenes portraying Italian landmarks such as the Colosseum and St. Peter's Basilica, or panels inspired by Roman mythology and wear them on their journey. At times, these panels were sent back home as if they were postcards to family and friends or they were given to artisans that could set them into pieces of furniture, vases, small accessories such as snuffboxes and jewellery. Historical sources say that the first micro-mosaics exhibition was organised in Rome in 1775 by Giacomo Raffaelli.

When multi-coloured tesserae started being produced, the artists refined their skills, imitating actual brushstrokes in mosaics, turning micro-mosaics into perfect replicas of large paintings, and mimicking a painters' technique. One of the most fascinating things about micro-mosaics is that the tesserae were so precise that the joints were imperceptible. You really need to inspect these pieces closely to detect the tiny tesserae.

As the years passed, the level of skill attained by artisans making micro-mosaics became impressive and they were able to perfectly reproduce even hair and fur. Clemente Ciuli, a famous micro-mosaic artist who had a workshop in Piazza di Spagna, Rome, became known for his minute mosaics inspired by statues that looked like chiaroscuro drawings (his head of Jupiter, with his head of intricate hair and majestic beard entered history).

It is not rare to spot micro-mosaic jewellery in museum collections (the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg and the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Galleries at the V&A in London preserve some beautiful micro-mosaic objects) or at auctions.

A great example is the 19th century micro-mosaic and gold parure featured in this post (pictures 3 to 5). Comprising a brooch, a pair of pendant earrings and a necklace, the parure features micro-mosaic medallions on black glass background depicting views of Antique Rome (Saint Peter's square, the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, the Tomb of Cecilia Metella, the Temple of Venus, the Arch of Titus, the Temple of Vesta and the Pantheon). The parure is currently part of a Fine Jewels auction at Sotheby's. As its starting bid - €6,000 - is not for us mere mortals, just try and learn more about this techniques and get inspired by it to create tiny details in your designs. Fashion-wise Gianni Versace's 1991 and 1997 collections were inspired by the glittering micro-mosaics of the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, so you will be in good company if you opt to go for a micro-mosaics-inspired fashion collection.

A New Way of Walking the City: Ginza Ecological Map by Shiseido Creative + Hakuten

Quite a few commercial companies have been researching environmental themes, trying to come up with more sustainable designs and solutions. Some of them - such as Japanese Shiseido - have also been developing installations to invite people to ponder about the beauty of nature in the hearts of our cities.

We may have partially forgotten about the COVID-19 pandemic, even though the virus is still out there, but, when it first started spreading and cities went into lockdown and streets emptied, we all got the chance to think more about the relationship between human beings, the urban environment in which they live and nature.

The empty streets of Ginza, one of Japan's most commercial districts, prompted beauty company Shiseido to study the ecology of the area where its headquarter is located and, with the help of architectural studio Hakuten, the company came up with the "Ginza Ecology Map".

The latter is a three-dimensional map of Ginza for Shiseido’s window display (inside there are further installations exploring three themes - "Plants", "Land", and "Human Activities"): the map is divided in boxes, each of them with a specimen collected in the area between 2021 and 2022.

The 72 sections of the shelves feature plants and soil collected through fieldwork in the area and neatly arranged and the map can be conceived as an environmentally friendly representation of Ginza and therefore an alternative map of this area that gives a new allure to Ginza, transforming it from a commercial area to a city of sustainability.

Hakuten's researchers Yosuke Nakazato and Koji Nakae found out that in Ginza many of the street trees are flowering trees, obviously inhabited by their unique ecosystem. The most surprising thing for the researchers was the fact that their fieldwork made them realize that, although they often walked around the area, they didn't know much about it. Nakazato and Nakae therefore started paying attention to things they normally wouldn't notice, from plants to living organisms and the soil that nurtures them.

The research also turned into a collective project as the designers interviewed people about the history and origins of Ginza and of the businesses located in the area, discovering another unexpected side of the distrisct that they didn't know about.

The map is therefore a medium for passersby to retrain their eyes to notice wild flowers, plants and creatures while walking along busy streets, coming up with a new way of walking the city.

Maybe the concept behind the map could be replicated in other cities around the world to teach us the beauty of nature is all around us - we just need to open our eyes and see it.

Stepping Back to Move Forward: Patagonia Founder Gives Away Company to Fight Climate Change

In the previous post we looked at commercial fashion shows and pondered a bit about the impact of the cult of celebrity in fashion. Yet yesterday there was also an interesting announcement that pointed to an alternative to being always under the limelight.

The founder and owner of outdoor brand Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, decided indeed to take a step back and gave the entire company to a uniquely structured trust and non-profit that will use Patagonia's profits to fight the climate crisis. The brand's website now states: "Earth is now our only shareholder."

But how does that work? Essentially Patagonia will continue to operate as a for-profit corporation based in Ventura, California, but the Chouinard family will no longer own the company nor receive any profits. The voting stock - equivalent to 2% of the overall shares - was indeed transferred to the Patagonia Purpose Trust. Overseen by members of the family and their closest advisers, the Trust will make sure the company's values will be preserved.

The other 98% of the company’s stock, its common shares, will go to a US non-profit called the Holdfast Collective, that, according to an official statement will use all the profits, and every dollar received "to fight the environmental crisis, protect nature and biodiversity, and support thriving communities, as quickly as possible". The Holdfast Collective is a 501(c)(4), which allows it to make unlimited political contributions and the family received no tax benefit for its donation.

A man with a passion for rock climbing, Chouinard, 83, first started making metal climbing spikes for himself and his friends, then moved onto clothing and eventually created his own outdoor clothing brand in 1973.

Chouinard has remained a free spirit, though, abhorring excessive wealth, living in modest homes and driving ordinary cars, revealing to the New York Times that he was horrified when he discovered he was listed in Forbes as a billionaire.

It must be said that, while forfeiting the ownership of the company was a unique decision, it may not come up as a total surprise: the Chouinards are among the most charitable families in the US and the company has always had a genuine interest in environmental causes and always focused on its employees' health and wellness (the company has on-site nurseries and allows employees to take afternoons off on good surf days). Besides, Patagonia started donating in the '80s 1% of the company's sales to environmental groups (the donation then turned in 2001 into the "1% for the Planet Scheme").

Patagonia was one of the earliest companies to achieve B-Corp certification, and became known for its adverts discouraging people to buy its products. The slogan "Don't Buy This Jacket" was meant to remind people how much clothes controbute to pollution, even though the brand's products are actually meant to last a lifetime, and are made using less water and the least dangerous chemistries and dyes (on top of this, the company also offers reasonably priced repairs). In more recent years, Patagonia turned more politically active as well, sueing the Trump administration to protect the Bears Ears National Monument.

Critics wonder if this plan will work out and if profits will genuinely rise now that the family is not interested in making any profits as they will not be receiving any; at the same time, with this decision Patagonia may have found new consumers especially among the younger generations who love sustainability and abhor greenwashing. 

For now, Chouinard's decision not to go public, but to "go purpose" and his choice to combine a thriving business with a thriving planet remains unique, going further than Brunello Cucinelli's "humanistic capitalism" and combining environmental and social activism. Not many, or probably nobody, will follow Patagonia's example, but the brand has just taught us a lesson - stepping back may be the key to move forward towards a better future.

From Safety in Numbers to The Horror Vacui Syndrome: When Fashion Prioritizes the Experience Rather than the Clothes

A basic principle was reaffirmed during New York Fashion Week - there's safety in numbers. It was definitely a "the more, the merrier" situation at the "Vogue World" event, for example, that took place on Monday in lower Manhattan to celebrate the fashion Bible's 130th anniversary.

A first-of-a-kind event (open to the public, but ticketed and with a limited number of free tickets for students), it featured designs from the A/W 22 collections of a wide range of fashion houses and labels going from luxury houses à la Dior, Valentino and Gucci to younger designers and on-the-rise talents such as Christopher John Rogers, Collina Strada and Matty Bovan.

As a whole, it was a sort of updated and commercial (some looks were shoppable) parade-like version of the 1973 Battle of Versailles, without real contenders, besides it was a way to celebrate a return of fashion in full-force after all the disruptions brought in the last three years by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Recently retired tennis champion Serena Williams opened the show in a resplendent silver gown-cum-cape by Balenciaga, but more stars and VIPs followed, from supermodels Naomi Campbell and Imaan Hammam to Lil Nas X, who did a surprise performance.

In between BMX riders, dancers, and other assorted shenanigans, this extravaganza revealed that the real call of Condé Nast Chief Content Officer Anna Wintour may be Broadway (how the hell did she manage to convince Mikhail Baryshnikov to take it to runway and dance along it, will remain a mystery).

That said, the show was at times chaotic and, well, desperately commercial. There is actually another reason why there should be a celebratory parade at Vogue: last week, Condé Nast workers won recognition under the NewsGuild of New York of a company-wide union.

In March Condé Nast staffers highlighted the need to form a union that may have regulated better pay and workloads. For months they continued campaigning and finally they got what they wanted in September - a union that will cover more than 500 U.S.-based employees, but also 100 subcontractors (or "permalancers" – employees originally hired on a freelance basis on a fixed-term contract, but who have become permanent, yet they do not necessarily enjoy the same benefits and job stability granted to a full-time employee). The real job for the company and the union starts now as they will have to start bargaining over employment conditions.

So, while the "Vogue World" event was a collective celebration of a magazine's anniversary, Fendi's Resort 23 show at the Hammerstein Ballroom on the first day of the fashion week, was a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the "Baguette" bag.

The "Baguette" has a special connection with New York, it is indeed almost an uncredited character in the "Sex & the City" series. Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw made it famous by telling a robber demanding her sequinned Fendi bag that it wasn't a bag, but "a Baguette."

For this special occasion, Fendi co-creative directors Kim Jones and Silvia Venturini Fendi collaborated with Tiffany & Co. Fendi is a LVMH brand, but, since 2020, also Tiffany has become part of the conglomerate's portfolio.

As we easily foresaw in a previous post, the brand is now being relaunched providing jewellery pieces for the fashion houses in LVMH portfolio. In this case, there were bracelets and layered necklaces, but also keychains with mini Baguette bags.

The jewelry brand also inspired designs in its signature teal-blue shade (including a satin jumpsuit unzipped down to the navel and covered with zippers and cargo pockets accessorised with a matching cap and donned by Bella Hadid) and diamond covered double-F logos on the bags. 

But that wasn't all, folks: Marc Jacobs was also enlisted to design a segment of the collection. At the very end of the show Silvia Venturini Fendi, her daughter, the jewellery designer Delfina Delettrez, Kim Jones and Marc Jacobs, all came out on the runway. Besides, supermodel Linda Evangelista, current face of Fendi, joined them in a Tiffany blue opera cape accessorized with a silver Baguette bag. Surprisingly, the entire cast of the Cirque du Soleil wasn't called to fill in the remaining space (but I'd better tone done my sarcasm and avoid giving them ideas for the next overcrowded show...).

The more you looked at the crowded runway, the more you wondered if fashion is suffering from some kind of syndrome linked to horror vacui, in this case there was indeed a sort of innate desire to fill all possible voids on the runway maybe caused by clothes and accessories that weren't extremely original nor innovative.

Fashion-wise the show was a celebration of '90s moods with boiler suits, fleece vests, sweatshirts, bucket hats and clogs, with supercommercial logomania prevailing especially in the Marc Jacobs segment (check out the Fendi logo clear plastic poncho and his signature block letter intarsias reading "FendiRoma"). Built-in Baguettes were everywhere, from beanies to gaiters, and even pockets were shaped like Baguettes. The infamous "It" bag was also turned into bum bags and backpacks.

One trick that may have shone - the tulle overlay tailoring (that can sometimes be spotted in museums to preserve delicate clothes and suits) - was lost in a sea of sequined skirts and Tiffany blue.

Such grand shows may be fun to watch, but do have some serious consequences: first and foremost, collectively distracted by the collaborations, the celebrities on the runway and in the front row (in this case Kim Kardashian, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kate Moss among the others), we forget to talk about the clothes and accessories in detail, we do not pay attention to materials, textiles and textures.  

Many magazines nowadays prefer to publish a series of images of runway shows, accompanied maybe by a few lines to mention general moods and inspirations, but there aren't too many in-depth pieces about shows anymore. As a consequence, we are not educating the next generation of fashion writers, or maybe we are educating them to spot celebrities rather than bias cuts.

Last but not least, we are probably sending out the wrong message to young people studying fashion as we are telling them that they may come up with the most extraordinary piece, but they will be judged from the numbers of collaborations or celebrities they manage to score. 

Yes, it is true, brands and houses that embark in such grand shows get great social media revenues, but, at the end of the day, they do not produce a memorable extravaganza à la Thierry Mugler, but a branding experience. Tiffany may have used this runway to introduce us the next Elsa Peretti, rather than to a vapid jumpsuit in Tiffany blue, and that would have been something to be happy about, but sadly, it didn't happen.

So, what should we be telling to students or young designers? Well, just ignore all the celebrity shenanigans and focus on your work, find your identity and opt for quality and originality, research and innovation. Only if your work is strong and powerful you will be able to avoid the overcrowded runway finale and have the luxury of hiding behind your designs like Martin Margiela did, living a peaceful existence thereafter. 

More Golden than Gold: From Sappho to Gabriela Hearst

Gold is slowly emerging as a trend for the next S/S 23 season: after materializing in the metallic crochet-knit designs on Proenza Schouler’s runway at New York Fashion Week, the bright shade reappeared in Gabriela Hearst's show.

The latter opened with a series of golden leather bustiers that pointed at Claude Lalanne's sculptures for Yves Saint Laurent's Haute Couture A/W 1969 collection.

But, while Lalanne’s pieces, as you may remember from a previous post, were plaster molds of Veruschka's breasts, torso and belly covered in galvanized copper and incorporated then in two dresses, here, rather than opting for wearable sculptures, Hearst turned nappa into soft breastplates. These armors still had a feminine flair as ruffled edges extended laterally or formed peplums around the waist (a trick that can be reproduced if you have a random piece of later and a good sewing machine or a few automatic buttons).

Gold bars were then used to decorate the lapels of jackets of chic black or white pantsuits or as decorative motifs on coats and nappa bags.

At times, gold appeared as a circle, almost a sun, on a white and black dress or top to create a basic geometrical arty motif on a sleeve, or was used in details, going from the folds of the accordion-like "Diana" bags to the prosthetic legs of double amputee and toxic shock syndrome survivor Lauren Wasser.

For fashion fans who love tactile elements, there were also three-dimensional gold thread embroideries on an ivory dress and a tailored suit and a super light and sensual silk ladder stitch knit dress.

The collection also featured Hearst's signature knitted pieces: the Uruguayan-American designer has made an effort since she launched her label to highlight the importance of handicrafts through knit or woven designs and her S/S 23 collection featured dresses and tops with ribbed sections or with crocheted segments around the bust.

Some of them, especially the ones with orange swirls, added a festival chic touch to a collection that otherwise featured quite a few designs for modern red carpet goddesses.

While gold was one the protagonists of this collection, it would be reductive to think it was just a vibrantly trendy shade for Hearst, who actually used it to hint at other themes.

The runway was lined with members of the Resistance National Revival Chorus singing "This Joy," a gospel song written by Pastor Shirley Caesar, and gold served to highlight the feeling of joy that we all need in our lives but that too often turns into something  elusive and fleeting.

Besides, gold was a reference to poetry and in particular to Sappho: the classic Greek poet often employed the word "gold" in her works. You can easily spot in fragments of her works lines about nectar being drunk in "golden cups" or a beautiful daughter compared to "a golden flower".

Sappho also employed a key expression "χρύσω χρυσοτέρα" which literally means "more golden than gold", a hyperbolical phrase that could be easily applied to this collection. Sappho's hyperbole is based on an impossibility (how can something be golden than gold?) that ends up giving this expression elegance and charm, two terms that could easily be applied to some of the designs in Hearst collection including a gold ribbed knit tunic with a matching poncho knotted on a shoulder, recreating the fashion of ancient Greek times and evoking the himation and the chlamys. 

Last but not least, there was also another metaphorical meaning behind the gold, a shade often associated with divinity. Hearst invited on the runway a diverse cast of women, from former president of Planned Parenthood Cecile Richards, author of the memoir/feminist manifesto "Make Trouble", to Mexican climate activist and a member of the indigenous Otomi-Toltec nation Xiye Bastida, author Roda Ahmed and anti-toxic shock syndrome (TSS) advocate Lauren Wasser. They represented an army of successful strong women, modern goddesses who use fashion to feel empowered, rather than to merely look trendy.

Gold Thrones or Golden Girls? The Return of Metallic Crochet-Knit Designs

In May 2022, Charles - now King Charles III, but at the time still only heir to the British throne – delivered the speech that started a session of parliament when his mother the Queen pulled out for health reasons.

In the speech Charles highlighted how the government's top priority was to "help ease the cost of living for families," yet he pronounced the very reasonable words in a sensationally grand place, sitting on a gold throne adorned with gems, in a uniform covered in medals and with a diamond encrusted crown next to him. So much for sobriety. Guess we may see him sitting on more splendid thrones now that Queen Elizabeth II is dead and he is the King.

But for us mere mortals, there are other ways to feel like kings and queens: we can do so through fashion, using for example metallic yarns to create metallic crochet-knit designs.

Popular throughout the '60s (Italian magazine Annabella did a shoot about gold knitted and crocheted designs in July 1960) when companies started launching synthetic yarns incorporating metallic threads, metallic crochet-knit designs and in particular crocheted pieces in gold or bronze shades became very fashionable. As the decades passed and more innovative and pliable yarns were produced, these garments also became softer and lighter compared to the early '60s ones that were often itchy and as heavy as armor (but my aunts still stoically managed to wear them for the sake of fashion, composure and elegance...). The extreme stiffness of some of the early yarns used to make these pieces also meant that you may still find in vintage shops or in your mother/grandmother/aunt's wardrobe an original metallic crochet-knit piece from the '60s in pretty good conditions. 

Metallic crochet-knit designs recently reappeared during New York Fashion Week on Proenza Schouler's runway. Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez’s show kicked off with angular tank tops with fringes peeping out of their hems matched with bubble skirts, but then the collection developed into molded lace shirts, twist-front dresses, designs with bell-sleeves that touched the ground and with ruffles that peeked from sleeves and from the hems of bell-bottoms. The exaggerated volumes - that hinted at the elements, the main themes of the collection and in particular at the fluidity of water - actually added an undesirable clumsy note to otherwise classic silhouettes.

The metallic crochet-knit separates and dresses stood out: the crochet-knit designs in the collection were the result of a collaboration with a community of weavers in Bolivia (the duo and the weavers collaborated via email and over the phone) that the designers employed for six months. The best pieces were the skirts and tops and in particular the crocheted top with long fringes, emulating the effect of the sun glistening on the sea. Hopefully, the duo will resume the collaboration with the weavers in future collections, or maybe visit Bolivia in person to understand better how they may benefit from their skills.  

There is a strong tactile power in knitted and crocheted pieces and gold crochet-knit designs are a good compromise between craft and glamour, a DIY aesthetics and heightened sensuality. Besides, gold and bronze crochet designs are usually ideal to hold onto the summer a bit longer, and keep on dreaming of golden sands and wavy seas well into September.

Can't afford designer crochet pieces but love the metallic crochet-knit idea? Well try and spot vintage pieces online or in your favourite vintage store (the luckiest ones among us can instead try and dig into the wardrobe of their favourite glamorous aunt...you never know what you may discover there). Better yet, if you have the time and the will, learn to make a gold crochet piece by yourself (opt for a skirt or, even better, a cropped top, a project that you will not find discouraging if you're not an expert, but you're an enthusiast). This is a trend for the S/S 23 season, so you have plenty of time to come up with the kind of gold outfit that, come next summer, will be more fashionable than a king's throne. Just don't tell it to King Charles III yet.

Future in Obsolescence

As they say, what goes up must come down: yes, most things, especially good ones (and, luckily, also bad ones…), eventually come to an end.

In a way, we are experiencing this feeling after the last few days following Queen Elizabeth II's death. By now her coffin has been enjoying a more active life than most of us, leaving her beloved home in Balmoral, arriving to the Palace of Holyrood and now being moved to St. Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh, before the final journey to London.

It may be disrespectful to start thinking about the end of the monarchy now as people are in mourning and tributes are still pouring in, but dissenting voices are already whispering behind the back of the royal family members. Now that we know who will take care of the corgis (Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson and here we're kind of sad for the corgis…), that the many colours of Elizabeth II's wardrobe palette were analysed in pictures similar to the iconic "Pantone Merkel" ones, and now that King Charles III has already turned annoying by getting angry at a pen tray, the ghosts of extreme privileges and Britain's legacy of colonialism are slowly rising.

The Queen was definitely a symbol of unity for the UK, but, now that she's gone, many are already wondering which of the 15 countries part of the 54 member states of the Commonwealth that still have the queen as their head of state (among them Australia, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea) will opt for independence.

Last year, the Caribbean island nation of Barbados removed Queen Elizabeth as its head of state and became a republic, following in the footsteps of Mauritius, which did the same back in 1992, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Dominica in the 1970s, and Fiji in 1987.

Who knows what will happen in future. We certainly can't say, or can we? There is something small that we may use as an inspiration, but also as a crystal ball – stamps.

In the last few decades stamps have become archaeological relics: most of us don't use them anymore, opting for faster digital means of communication, yet stamps still preserve a special allure. The advent of emails may have turned them into obsolete things, but some artists, recombining colours and shapes, started using them as the main materials for inventive collages with architectural twist about them, turning from collectors into builders, giving a new value to these otherwise obsolete pieces of paper.

If any of you ever had a member of their family keen on collecting stamps, you may remember albums filled with rows of coloured stamps, among them silhouettes and portraits of emperors and empresses, kings and queens.

My grandfather was an avid collector and history and geography combined in the pages of his albums: as he arranged his prized possessions in the albums, my brother watched transfixed by the colours and the trivia about the various countries and monarchs (shout of to him for pointing me at the images of the stamps featured in this post). Quite often, my grandfather's neatly arranged stamps with portraits of defunct kings and queens on red, blue, violet, sepia and green background, turned the grandeur of the royals into flat paper parades.

Those paper parades of dead monarchs could be used as cautionary tales: they remind us all that there are hundreds of stamps with Elizabeth II's portraits for nations that changed face, name and flag and that transformed with time or disappeared into other states – among them the Crown Colony of Sarawak, Perak, and the Colony of Aden, just to mention a few ones.

After Elizabeth II's death, the Royal Mail announced that stamps bearing the image of the Queen will remain valid till the end of January 2023. Yet, soon, like the stamps of colonies that don't exist anymore, they will become obsolete, replaced by images of a king, and, maybe one day, by the stamps of a republic.

In a world in constant turmoil, with the Russia-Ukraine war still going on, climate change dominating our lives even when we don't want to admit it and the spectre of a pandemic lurking somewhere, obsolescence is looming for the monarchy, like a stamp for a forgotten country. Turn this theme into your inspiration for the day - the power of seeing the future in obsolescence - because even a simple rectangle of paper can turn into a revealing crystal ball.

Mourning, Melancholia & Adornment: Jet Jewellery

In yesterday's post we looked at hairwork, jewellery made of hair to remember a loved one. Let's continue the mourning jewellery thread focusing on jet pieces.

Jet, a material found in Whitby, Yorkshire, indicates the fossilised remains of driftwood from the Toarcian Period of the Lower Jurassic.

Jet became the favoured material for jewellery after the death of Prince Albert in 1861.This fashion spread especially at the highest levels of society, becoming so popular that Whitby experienced a boom. Workshops producing jet ornaments grew there from 2 shops employing 25 people in 1832 to 200 employing 1500 people (among them men, women and children) in 1872.

There were workshops producing hand-carved pieces (as jet is hard and dense it was easy to carve it), but also manufacturers that mass-produced pieces turned on lathes. 

It wasn't actually only Queen Victoria's obsession with mourning that turned black jewellery into a trend. The increased demand was also dictated by a change in fashion in the 1850s and 1860s for heavier fabrics (for mourning, black crepe or bombazine clothes were favoured), which were well suited to relatively large items of jewellery. Indeed, while some pieces were more delicate, there were also more substantial jet necklaces featuring large medallions representing a female head (a metaphor for the night) surrounded by roses and leaves, and incorporating engravings such as epitaphs to honour the dearly departed, but jet was also used for elaborate parures that included necklaces, brooches, bracelets and earrings.

In yesterday's post, we highlighted how hairwork represented a certain degree of intimacy: the hair jewellery worn on the skin was almost a symbolic and wearable personal travelling reliquary, hinting at a physical connection between the wearer and a loved person or a dearly departed. Jet pieces, left matte or polished to a high shine, were instead often grand, fashioned according to the styles of the day. There were still some similarities between hairwork and jet jewellery, though, first and foremost the weight: jet is light and this meant that even more substantial pieces could be worn without discomfort. Besides, just like hairwork, not all jet jewellery was made specifically for mourning.

While jet was in high demand, the supplies were not sufficient, so quite often fans of the trend turned to alternative materials, including expensive onyx or black-enamelled gold, but there was also a parallel market for cheaper jewellery made of bog oak and vulcanite, a type of rubber. Dark glass - known as "French jet" (manufactured in Bohemia) or "Vauxhall glass", were also good substitutes for jet. Some pieces made with French jet, such as tiaras, were fashioned for the highest level of society as only members of higher classes would wear them.

British society publication The Queen stated in 1892 that "a superabundance of jewellery is in especially bad taste at seasons of mourning", but that "a few trinkets...must be worn, if only to accentuate the general sombreness of the costume". This is the main reason why we have seen members of the royal family wearing pearls at various events in honour of Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday. A couple of days ago, Queen Consort Camilla, stepped out in London with her husband King Charles III in a black dress and a four-stranded pearl necklace with a round diamond front clasp, a diamond knot brooch and a blue Van Cleef & Arpels bracelet. On second thoughts maybe she overdid it a bit with the diamonds, who knows maybe she didn't read The Queen's 1892 memo.