Prada presented their 2021 fall-winter womenswear collection Possible feelings II: Transmute at Milan Fashion Week. Designers Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons were inspired “by the idea of change and transformation, opening possibilities.” The collection explores contradiction with both designers reinterpreting typical menswear with a feminine touch. The collection was full of eye-popping elements from colourful prints, glitter coats, brightly coloured outerwear, sequined coats and skirts. The models had slick back hair playing with the idea that women have masculinity embedded in them. The collection has classic tailoring with ruched sleeves and skirts with slits all over. Moreover, feminine touches were displayed through faux fur, glitter, and sequins. The collection took on an androgynous form towards the end of the show.
Italian brand N°21 released its autumn-winter 2021 collection at Milan Fashion Week. Founder and Italian designer Alessandro Dell’Acqua reflects his aesthetic of masculine meets feminine in this collection. Alessandro’s collection has some risqué designs by having shorter hemlines covered with fringing revealing underwear, bralette under styled jumpers, and sheer dresses. Not only women wore sheer clothing, but men also wore sheer shirts. Layering is a crucial element in this collection, whether it is layering outerwear over shirts or outerwear over undergarments. The colours used by Alessandro are dark earthy with pops of green and purple.
Alessandro Enriquez presented his 2021 autumn-winter collection at Milan Fashion Week. Italian born designer envisions the party life after the pandemic. As the short fashion film says, “new amore, new life, new table, new friends”. Enriquez’ collection uses incredibly vibrant colours, a mixture of oranges, reds, greens, blues and many more. There is a lot of creativity and playfulness in the collection. Enrique mixes clashing patterns and multiple prints; we see hearts, shapes inside circles, stars, floral. There are various silhouettes in this collection. To highlight the key looks, we see full-length skirts, shoulder pads, ruching, balloon sleeves, and for the menswear, we see a lot of trousers lower than the waist to highlight their colourful underwear, which blossomed the styling.
Erdem’s 2021 autumn-winter collection carries us to ballet. Margot Fonteyn inspired the performative show filmed at the Bridge Theatre in London. “The collection explores the juxtapositions of performance and rest, age and expectations, formal costume and informal clothing,” says Erdem.
For the show, Erdem employed models who were and are ballerinas. To reflect its ballet influence, the show was understandably performative with its gracefulness and movement. There were lots of motion in the garments themselves; the skirts and dresses had many flounces added with the pleating. We see the contrast between “costume wear and informal clothing.” The costumes were dazzling with sequins, feathers, beading and bold prints. From what seemed like informal clothing, we saw a mixture of silhouettes, ones with a cinched waist, fitted outerwear and the use of more straightforward prints.
Danshan presented their 2021 autumn-winter collection titled Sentience at the beloved London Fashion Week. Danshan is a London based brand by Danxia (Dan) Liu and Shan Peng Wong, both Central Saint Martins’ graduates. Their aesthetics are exploring effeminising masculine silhouette.
The collection uses various surface design techniques in the collection, including embroidery, distressing materials, and print. There’s also a use of contrasting fabrics such as satin, chiffon, wool, and jacquard. The overall silhouette of the collection is positively boxy, with a soft structural aesthetic.
Not long ago, Ray Chu, a disruptive a-gender RTW brand established in 2016, released their latest autumn-winter collection at London Fashion Week alongside a short film named Centipide Love which utilised CGI to bring out the new.
Talking about the collection Chu said: “I have always been interested in technology and how it may (or may not) enhance my brand. CGI is something I’ve experimented with but never truly brought into the fold – and on this occasion, following a time of global in-person abstinence, felt it was the right time to encompass it more productively.
My collaboration with Pigo Lin is very meaningful. The artist and I have wanted to collaborate for some time and considering our incredibly diverse global understanding of fluidity, borderless, genderless, the characters depicted are both gay, straight and everything in between. The centipede character within all the graphics represents the epicentre of sexualism – are you the sexually centrist or, on the side of inclusivity. The artistic depiction of the graphics are both but also, neither.”
If you’re a fan of Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek this three-minute clip in which he gives a speedy summary of the history of music will be perfect watch for you. Žižek talks about Bach, Wagner, Mahler, Schönberg and Berg.
Slavoj Žižek is a notable Slovenian philosopher who is a researcher at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Ljubljana Faculty of Arts and the international director of the Birkbeck Institute the Humanities of the University of London. Žižek has written over thirty books and has contributed opinion pieces for publications such as RT, The Spectator, The Independent, and Los Angeles Review of Books — to name a few. Žižek was also one of the first philosophers to write about COVID-19.
Edeline Lee presented her 2021 autumn-winter collection through a podcast called Memory of a Dress. The 15-minute podcast is in collaboration with veteran podcaster Paul Bae and focused on a woman named Georgia. She reminisces in the memory of her mother, who twirled in front of the mirror in her favourite dress. She was supposed to wear it to her daughter’s wedding; however, she was buried in it when she passed away.
Throughout this collection, earthy colours such as green, brown, yellow, black and white are present. The silhouette has a lot of flounces formulating lots of movements in the body of the fabrics. Talking about the collection Edeline said, “I wanted to make some luxurious, sustainable staples that one could wear out but also sleep in. You can roll out of bed and take a Zoom call in these pieces!”
February 2021 saw the release of the music video for Chelsea Wolfe‘s Anhedonia, directed by Cressa Maeve Beer. The track, which speaks to grief and rebirth, is accompanied by a poignant set of visuals from Beer. Her skill for communicating powerful emotions was on full display in her 2020 short film, Coming Out, and returns with quiet melancholy for Anhedonia.
In her artist’s statement, Cressa said,
“The core idea of the video came from an artist Chelsea and I both love – Jess Schnabel from Bloodmilk – who created a “grief moth” inspired by real moths that drink the tears of sleeping birds. It’s an idea I’ve wanted to animate for a while. So that become the backbone: the lifecycle of a moth literally born from overwhelming sadness. During quarantine, I found myself confronting my own grief and deeply rooted trauma. I suffer from PTSD that envelops me like a black void. I wanted to visually articulate how that feels, as well as feelings like disassociation and loneliness; the way that trauma can physically alter your body and mentally reshape the world around you. But still, the moth can fight its way out, can fly, can follow the light; just like the comfort in the final verse of the song, I wanted to still show that healing is possible.“
Last year, Our Culture had the pleasure of interviewing Cressa about Coming Out, and we’re delighted to talk with her again about how she approached Wolfe’s track.
Thank you so much for talking with us again, Cressa. How have you been?
I’m always unsure how to answer that question without oversharing or sounding forced, ha!
Your new music video for Chelsea Wolfe is remarkable. How did you get involved?
Thank you! I’d had the pleasure of briefly working with Chelsea some years ago, and stayed in contact with her as well as her bandmate Ben Chisholm, and Cathy Pellow who runs Sargent House. They are all incredibly sweet people who actually paid attention to my stop motion when I would post it on my social media. I’ve been a big fan of Chelsea’s music probably for a good decade now, so I took a chance and reached out to them to see if they would be open to a music video pitch. I’m grateful for where that ended up leading.
Profound visuals abound in Cressa Maeve Beer’s video for Chelsea Wolfe’s Anhedonia.
The song is moving and poignant, and that’s communicated beautifully in your video. How did you approach it?
I hoped I would do the song justice. When Chelsea first sent it to me, I cried – it really struck a nerve, and I think part of what makes her so special is her ability to really transmute emotions into her music. I honestly try really hard to do the same thing with my art; I want to be less about ‘getting it’ and more about ‘feeling it.’ And what I heard in this song was that special mixture of ache and hope, it’s so hard to put into words what that specific feeling is. I love moths, and have wanted to animate a moth life cycle after I was inspired by Bloodmilk Jewel’s “grief moth” which is based on real moths that drink tears of sleeping birds. So before I’d even heard Anhedonia I’d sent this idea to Chelsea, and it ended up blossoming into what we have now. Some kind of cosmic timing. The rest of the visuals are expressions of my relationship with my own grief and trauma; things I have trouble articulating in any other form, I try to purge through art.
From your statement, much of the song’s themes echo your own experience. That idea of trauma enveloping you like a black void is brilliantly depicted in the amorphous clay surrounding the figure. Was there a catharsis in making this?
When I watched the finished cut for the first time, I felt a sort of release, like letting go of a breath you’ve been holding for a long time.
Obviously, you’re no stranger to stop motion. What made you want to use it for this video?
Stop motion is my chosen medium for all work. The look for Anhedonia was very much inspired by Allison Schulnik’s stop motion.
Grief and rebirth in Chelsea Wolfe’s Anhedonia.
The animation of the moths is just gorgeous. Did you construct the models as well as animating them?
I wish I had the craft skills for that. I had the basis for what I wanted, but my dearest friend and collaborator, Phoebe Jane Hart, who also has made most of the sets and props you may have seen in my Godzilla videos, took my very vague outline and ran with it really beautifully to design the moth and chrysalis. She made a handful of them, different sizes even. My other fabricating partner in crime is Megan Barbour, who’s also been making sets and characters for recent and upcoming commissioned work I’m doing. She did the final moth construction based on Phoebe’s design, and that’s the moth you see in the video.
If you were to direct another music video (and we hope you do!), are there any artists or genres you’d like to work with?
I’ve done a couple stop motion music videos now but the two artists I would die to make a stop motion video for would be FKA Twigs and Arca. I would love to make something really experimental and challenging (both to make and to watch). I like getting outside my comfort zone with each new project.
Finally, what’s next for you?
I’m in the planning stages of a very personal short film that will be a mixture of different animation styles (stop motion, papercraft, 2D, etc). Hopefully by writing it down here and putting it out into the universe, I can hold myself to this plan.
We can’t thank Cressa enough for this latest interview. You can keep up to date with her latest work on Twitter.
This interview’s header image was taken by Julia Durr.
Dan Griffith, or better known as Gryffin, is one of the most listened to artists in the world of electronic music today. Gryffin’s success climaxed in 2019 with the album Gravity, which towered at number one in the US Top Dance/Electronic Albums (Billboard). With millions of plays across his discography and numerous unforgettable collaborations, he released his latest song with Two Feet named ‘I Want Love’ — just a few weeks ago. To talk about his latest release and music in general, Gryffin joined us for an interview.
Hi, how are you, and how is your 2021 going?
2021 is going OK so far. I’m feeling like there is generally more optimism and things are starting to turn the corner so that’s been nice.
You’ve recently released your song ‘I Want Love’ with Two Feet, how did the idea for the song and the collaboration come about?
We’ve been fans of each other’s music for quite some time, and we finally got connected last summer and began working on ideas. He sent over the idea for ‘I Want Love’ which I thought was super cool. I took his vocals and flipped the production around into my world and sound, and then we finished the record together over e-mail.
Did you use any new techniques to write the song, or explore something fresh with it?
I explored different vocal textures with Two Feet that I hadn’t done before. Used a lot of new bass and brass sounds which I hadn’t used before in my music.
With the song released, have you got any more releases lined up for 2021?
I’ve got a ton of music coming, which I hope to begin releasing with increased frequency very soon.
Looking back over your widely successful discography, is there a song you personally love the most?
One of my all-time favorites is ‘Nobody Compares To You.’ That is probably my favorite of all of them, but I am proud of each and every track I have released.
Many of your songs have millions of plays worldwide, with music being such a universal language, why do you think your music clicks with people so well?
I focus so much on the emotional aspect of the songs. The topline and lyrics, the
production elements, and the lead melodies. If each and every one of those aspects of my music are giving me an emotional reaction or response, then I feel I’m on the right track with a song. Also, I spend a LOT of time working on these songs.
Are there any upcoming artists you are currently listening to and are hoping to collaborate with?
I really am digging SG Lewis’ music at the moment. There are so many artists I’d love to collaborate with in the future.
Finally, if you could give one piece of advice for aspiring musicians, what would it be?
One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was to FINISH your songs/ideas. It’s a really important process to go from an idea to finishing the concept and being done with a song. A lot of people just get stuck in the idea stage forever, and never actually get to the finish line of a song. To take the next step as a producer/artist, you must learn to finish your songs.
Also, don’t be afraid to upload your music and send it out. You will learn a lot, and gain valuable feedback and insight from others who are able to hear your music.
