• Tictail - #NOTFACELESS - The Future of Consumerism

    Written by Meghan Scott

    If you haven’t been immersed in fashion’s latest infatuation, it’s time to hop on board. Thoughout my long time in the fashion industry, I honestly have never really been into consuming the latest must haves that are thrown at us from every which way, especially these days though all the media platforms, it seems as if there is no escape. My personal style summed up is essentially contemporary and feminine with elements of a genderless toddler. I’m not stuck to one single brand, shy away from fast fashion and have a penchant for cool new designers and quality is very important to me. I was recently introduced to the Swedish online marketplace that focuses on new designers and retailers from 140 countries worldwide, Tictail. There is not only a vast selection of clothing and accessories,Tictail features homeware and art. With the success of Etsy as an online marketplace for independent sellers, Tictail has taken this concept to the next level, with more focus on slow fashion and a personal connection with its featured sellers and users. Placed on a clean graphic user interface similar to that of Instagram, it’s another user-friendly go to social media app that allows one to interact in similar ways of the aforementioned, discovering unique items of desire and sharing them with “the world”. You can even make your own stores and browse through others user's stores. I usually tend to shy away from more “internet stuff” that will inevitably distract me, but this one is a must.

    This past Saturday, I had the chance to meet some of the creatives and designers behind this spectacular innovative company. A small table of 25 in a cozy room at the historical Hotel Skeppsholmen in Stockholm, maybe haunted, fabulous nonetheless. Hosted by the Head of Global Communications, the lovely Briana Feigon, who is based in New York, Susanne Holsäter, who is the PR & Events Manager for Sweden and Europe and one of the founders, Carl Waldkrantz. It was a mix of Swedish press, bloggers, featured Swedish designers; including Alina Bendekova of Arèthe. And Rami Hanna, the Stockholm based photographer who shot the #notfaceless campaign. We started out sipping Champaigne in the quaint garden before entering and indulging on canapes and hearing a little more about Tictail from Waldekranz himself about the background of the company; he was raised in Sweden by a single mom who was an artist, depending on income solely from the sales of her art, he lived a kind of feast or famine lifestyle, per say. When you’re younger and all of your peers are decked out in the latest gear adorned with big logos from commercial brands, you can feel deprived or out of place, in a way. This is part of the reason for activating Tictail, today when Waldenkrantz looks through his closet, he sees a selection of non-mainstream designers, with knowledge of the origin of each piece. A social standpoint is addressed, the designer is has recognition. The evening was ended with a nice performance by Crying Day Care Choir playing a few of their favourite songs, including the newly released Sad Season.

    I had the chance to sit down and have a chat in person with Feigon before she hopped on a plane back to New York. She recounted the nostalgic ritual she and her mother have been having for years, as they live bi-coastal, mom in San Francisco, where she was raised. When the two finally unite in either city, they share their new fashion finds with one another, in either city. They share their new fashion finds with one another, enthusiastically sharing the process of acquiring each piece. She mused about her mother’s passion for clothing, the way she treats every piece like a piece of art; folding and hanging each item appropriately, merchandising them in her wardrobe, with pure respect for each garment. This mother daughter ritual they share, furthered the inspiration behind Tictail’s #notfaceless operation - to not use the commercial term campaign - and motivates Feigon to have a real sense of loyalty to her job. She recalls the meeting in which the #notfaceless term was coined at Tictail, they were in the conference room in NY planning a larger “campaign”, thinking about the bold brands, the contrast between slow and fast fashion, how each piece and designer have a story to tell. They kept speaking about the actual faces of the designers, and how most consumers never know, think or care about who is behind the curtain. The words ‘not faceless’, kept coming up amongst everybody and then lo and behold #notfaceless was born. The lookbook, shot by Stockholm’s Rami Hanna, using exclusively Mikas models exhibits bold captivating imagery with looks using 35 designers from 14 different countries, giving the viewer the sense of quality and individuality behind the concept. Artist Joe Cruz was commissioned to create special artwork over some of the imagery for the ‘campaign’ t-shirt and mural at the Tictail store on 90 Orchard St., in New York City.

    We begin to discuss the dark side of the fashion industry; Feigon informs me of the devastating fact that the industry is the second largest producer of pollution in the world, second to oil. She also dove into some very interesting points that we should all be aware of; comparing small designers to big fast fashion moguls. One single fast fashion house, such as Zara has 2200 stores in 90 countries, they make 11,000 unique products a year, add in sizing, and you’re looking at about 50 million garments a year, that is just ONE brand. On average, consumers only wear each individual piece around seven times. This is a MASSIVE waste that needs to be addressed immediately. Titcail has about 10k brands in 140 countries, this averages about four million products, minus the ones that are made-to-order. The discussion continues, pointing out how shoppers don’t have the tools or patience to shop this way anymore, they want a one stop shop. We are constantly bombarded with visuals, positioning products into our subconscious, perpetuating this need to fill the void. Slow fashion should be something everybody should be looking into, having the patience to wait for that special something to unwrap or treat like a piece of art, making clothing a special treat, like the mother-daughter bonding sessions of Friegon and her mother. If you take care of your things and try hard not to feed into the instant gratification you feel when making impulsive choices of latest trends and fads, and make smart purchases, life will become more satisfying and complete.

    Perfect for the #notfaceless ideology on the Tictail platform, Feigon is a kindred spirit with a true passion for humanity, she wants to learn about everybody from bartenders, baristas, taxi drivers, she desires to bring the kindness and realness out of people. And ultimately she wants to support new and young designers, educate people on slow fashion and change buyer behaviour as a whole and I couldn’t agree more with her. If you aren’t already a regular on the Tictail, app, sign up! Here are a few designers from the look book to follow, to get you started:

    https://tictail.com/cornaert

    https://tictail.com/moonkidjewellerydesign

    https://tictail.com/thebeessneeze

    https://tictail.com/arethe

    https://tictail.com/jennieellen

    https://tictail.com/doloreshaze

  • photography by CARYS HUWS

    Solange’s Performance Piece at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

    Written by Yasmine by Fashion Tales

    With the iconic interior of Frank Lloyd Wright at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Solange detracted and confidently filled the space with her own contemporary performance piece, An Ode To. An art installation of movement and expression where she used herself and the attendees as the medium on themes from her recent album, A Seat at the Table, a music script of personal and universal inquiries.

    As a part of Red Bull Music Academy Festival in New York this late spring, she had one of the most respected art institutions to show An Ode To, a creative statement that will encouraging further representation in the art world for musicians, especially black female musicians. Popularly, merging the pop-culture with the contemporary art scene.

    The limited number of guests, dressed in all-white looks, as per requested by the artist, presumably to have them be a part of the piece in the stark white spiraling venue. The documentation we see becomes a unity and strengthens the visual documentation of Solange’s performance, in the first gaze you cannot distinguish between the dancer and observer which I conclude is part of the realization. The audience were treated to a piece which comprehended modern dance choreography to a live set ensemble playing unrivaled funk, soul and R&B.

    Performance art has for decades inspired and captured the eyes of art enthusiasts, Meredith Monk and Marina Abramović being two of the most recognizable. Yet, it is in modern times, artists have really merged with the contemporary music scene, catching the eye of the mainstream. Marina Abramovic and Antony Hegarty, and The Velvet Underground and Andy Warhols famed 1967 performance, Exploding Plastic Inevidable, for example. Yoko Ono and Lady Gaga are two very prominent proclaimed performance artists. For these artists who have paved the way, performance art has been able to show the astonishing quality it has, a role that has had the chance to enter the mainstream.

    In a timeline where we have been captured and amazed with performance artist Vanessa Beecroft installations, she has received the light beyond the art world network once her work united with the music sphere and fashion collection Yeezy season 1-3 at New York Fashion Week together with Kanye West. The worlds of art have always collided, but nowadays, with greater access to information and a daily influx of visual and audio impressions, the mainstream can embrace the unconventional more and more. Beecroft’s previous installations using the human bodies, creating her army have become an inspiration, not only for Kanye West and Solange, but other music and fashion designers. Not to mention, the work of Meredith Monk, the first to use the rotunda for a performance, a tradition that has been ongoing since the late 60’s.

    An Ode To have been critical acclaimed for its creativity and pureness, unfortunately we can simply witness it through photographs and film. Nevertheless, that is one of the glories of performance art; it lives in the present of the artwork itself and is infrequently at its best when it gets reproduced through documentation such as photographs and video. Peggy Phelan, a scholar in performance studies, emphasizes that performance can’t be saved, recorded or documented; once it does so, it becomes something other than performance art. (1993,146) An Ode To, had a no-cellphone policy, which I conclude made the guests alive to fully engage in the experience from start to finish to live in the moment and embrace the art piece.

    Being able to enter the high art institutions such as Guggenheim, it’s a movement that has been developing over decades. And now recently, the MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art in New York City) has initiated various events the past years inviting more than 750 artists, including pop artists Solange, Jamie XX, and Grimes. And with their Party in the Garden, held in the MoMA’s Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, an annual event that takes place in the beginning of June, included musicians James Blake and Kaytranada. This merge gives performers and contemporary artists a bigger arena and show their work to a larger audience.

    It is apparent that more musicians are seeking diverse forms of performance that captures a broader audience; movement, design, installations et al.

    Solange performance piece has definitely been given a seat at the table.

    Source Peggy Phelan statement:
    Peggy Phelan, Unmarked: The Politics of Performance, Psychology Press, 1993

    photography by KRISANNE JOHNSON
    photography by STACY KRANITZ

  • Interview with Mihoko Ogaki

    Written by Mari Florer

    Edited by Jörgen Axelvall

    Mihoko Ogaki creates a galaxy of life and death

    There are a lot of emotions represented and evoked in Mihoko Ogaki´s artwork - all feelings you can imagine in a life, if you ask her.
    She has just finished her exhibition: “Threshold” at Ken Nakahashi, Tokyo, and the latest installation of her “Milky Way” series.
    Her art reminds us about our mortality; that death and life are one, memento mori, memento vivere.

    It´s the daily life that has inspired her the most. Ogaki herself has struggled for life; she has survived cerebral bleeding. When you look at her artwork, it’s as if you understand something, but it’s hard to define what. Her installation with lights from inside an elder man’s body, it’s beautiful and terrible at the same time. She brings the observer on her own inner journey about her view of life and death.

    MB: Can you tell me about your exhibition Threshold, that you have just finished.
    MO: “Threshold” exhibited works from my “Milky Way” Series of three-dimensional works. Placed in a pitch-dark room, it resembles an aged man, with innumerable holes on the surface as a metaphor for the number of emotions a man embodies in a lifetime. A built-in light source illuminates the work, shining through the holes like stars, also projecting a galaxy on the surrounding ceiling and walls.

    MB: What response did you get?
    MO: I'm glad that many viewers took long moments to appreciate the work.

    MB: Tell me about these glowing sculptures you show? Who are they?
    MO: They do not resemble specific men I know, but somebody of my imagination in the form of elderly people.

    MB: What feelings are involved in these models?
    MO: All emotions a person feels through time, ever since he or she was born. From joy, sorrow, envy, to relief… every single emotion that there could be.

    MB: Tell me a little about your background. Where did you grow up and with whom?
    MO: I was born in Toyama prefecture. I attended high school in Kanazawa and college in Nagoya. Then I moved to Düsseldorf in Germany. Now I live in Ibaraki prefecture. I've met and spent time with many people in many places.

    MB: You have survived cerebral bleeding. In what way has it changed you?
    MO: My surgeon told my family that he had damaged a vein during a procedure and that I might become brutal, but I actually became calmer than before. My husband was surprised and said I turned gentle as a Buddhist monk. I feel positive all the time now.

    MB: Why do you want to work as an artist?
    MO: I had created ever since I was a child, so I have never doubted my living as an artist.

    MB: You have graduated with a major in oil painting, but you use a lot of different kind of materials in your art, especially sound and light, did you change plans on the way?
    MO: I do use many different techniques, in different dimensions, in videos and in performances, but all I am doing is selecting the form that suits the image I wish to create.

    MB: You have studied in Aichi Prefectural University, Japan and German National Kunstakademie in Germany; where did you develop the most and why?
    MO: I believe I developed the most in Kunstakademie. Given much time as a student, I thought hard and created many pieces.

    MB: What cultural differences have you experienced in the art world between Asia and Europe?
    MO: Food!

    MB: What are you going to do this summer?
    MO: I am planning to visit Germany and Italy to see Kassel Documenta, Munster Sculpture Project, and Venezia Biennale.

    MB: Any favorite artist you like more than others?
    MO: I like Kiki Smith, Joel-Peter Witkin and Kazuo Ohno.

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