Here at Hermès we use an equestrian phrase that seems particularly apt in this day and age: ‘Straight ahead, calm and poised.’ Fashion maintains a strange relationship with time: it consumes it. Yesterday tends to be devalued in favour of novelty, supposedly the only carrier of the future, but modernising does not mean throwing away the time that came before. We can’t erase the past. The frantic and superficial aspect of fashion is not helpful and doesn’t interest me. We should focus on creation first. I am optimistic: we are all artisans of innovation!
Véronique Nichanian of Hermès, in Fantastic Man No.32 (F/W 2020/21)
Fashion brings joy, inspiration and beauty to many, but increasingly it seems like an unmanageable beast stuck in a rigid and unsustainable set of parameters that is has constructed around itself as it tries to plough ahead in the distracting and pleasurable business of producing new and desirable garments.
As my thoughts go; I want to start something of my own, namely a business selling things I make myself.
But what is this thought worth if you never start working towards a realisation of it? Starting is the hardest part, making the first move. Once you’re in the flow, you’re flying. But getting the engine going… how?
By doing you, by not going the copy cat route. Define what it is that you really want, where these urges really do come from, and start using that as the fuel man!
That’s right!
Let me list it out for myself, because who else is here to get inspired by these words than myself (at this point) really. There are two ideas floating around, and it’s worth finding out where these ideas come from (what motivations/urges) and what it would take to get started (realistically, not hypothetically):
➊ Clothing line
Where it comes from: – Against fast fashion (new collection every season) – Against continues sale (sign of overproduction) – Against unsustainable practices (of production, of wearing things once) – Against the copy cat nature (‘globalisation of style’) + Pro paying for quality (high price, high value) + Pro ‘never out of fashion’ (keeping things available for longer) + Pro upcycling (there is already enough out there) + Pro individuality (local styles, designs with a story/concept)
What it means: ➀ Translating inspirations into clothing pieces/designs ➁ Using memories of places to inspire (visual) research and design ➂ Creating a representation of the world, spreading local identities globally, without becoming a globalisation of style ➃ Creating a flexible brand identity that can adapt to/represent cross-cultural pollination (instead of monocultures)
➋ Online gallery
Where it comes from: – Against uninspiring ‘art’ (‘wall fillers’ encountered in short-stays) – Against the short lifespan of pictures (instagram fast feed) – Against the business of representation (quality approved by…) – Against exclusivity of art photography (limited supply) + Pro alternative visual expressions (tools for pondering) + Pro slow photography (analog methods, careful selection) + Pro self-representation (being able to earn of your own creations) + Pro domestication of art photography (inspiration is for everyone)
What it means: ➀ Printing and framing photographs from my archive ➁ Using photography to represent something between the abstract and picturesque ➂ Creating a website that is inspiring as a portfolio while simultaneously being functional as a commercial environment (there can’t be confusion about it being a webshop, but it has to equally be able to inspire) ➃ Creating a brand identity that encompasses more then myself and photographic print sales alone
Now these two business objectives could be realised onto separate lanes, but don’t necessarily need to exclude each-other. They could merge into one. And to be honest, the fact that they don’t usually overlap should not be a reason for me not to do so either. If it works for my, if its my dream to do so, then so be it. Be yourself and do you. After all, the motivations behind both these business ideas are rather similar; out with the homogenisation of creativity and culture, in with the independence and affluence of styles.
How to start while in limbo
Living in temporary accommodation with most, if not all of our personal belongings in storage, I find it hard to even find the motivation to sit down and do this (write these words). Finding motivation/inspiration to even think about making work seems to take a lot of energy at the moment. But luckily that’s changing by the help of a list I started writing ‘those that inspire’, of people that are able to push me in the right direction just by doing what they do best.
Some smaller scale things I can start working on, that help me work towards my larger goals (as described above) could be the following:
✪ Draw without the pressure of ‘working towards something’ (contradictory but true) ✪ Organise my reference library into one place (migrate all to Are.na) ✪ Research brand positioning (instagram, SEO, naming, business plan)
➊ Embroider items of clothing I hardly wear ➊ Create graphic designs that could be screen printed onto something
➊ & ➋ Think of a name that is scaleable (with the potential of combining everything into a single platform)
➋ Select photo’s to be printed from those that I have already scanned ➋ Compare printing/framing costs and calculate cost vs selling price ➋ Sell some prints to my network (via instagram)
2020, what a year it has been. Might I share some thoughts on that tomorrow perhaps, if I may, I may. But not today, as today I’m trying to settle into the couch for the first time in a while. It’s (after all) the start of my holiday. And while I’m slowly adjusting to relaxation, but am still with a busy/full mind, I’m starting to observe habits of mine that I’d like to break with in the year ahead. One of those observations I’d like to capture here today as it has come back to me multiple times over the past year, is as follows;
❑ You don’t have to be interested in everything
❏ You don’t have to know everything about your interests
❑ You won’t ever be fully up-to-date, learning never stops
❑ You don’t need to collect/archive if you won’t exploit it
❑ You don’t have to rely on out-side sources for inspiration
These mental notes have came to me every now and then this year. At times I can be so soaked up by it all that I don’t actually get to think for myself anymore. I want to get back into my inspired, creative and curious self again. And no excuses; don’t fool yourself. You won’t do better when you are ahead of yourself in terms of knowledge, or references. These come with time and come when the time is ripe. I learn through practice, doing.
Although there was much ambition to be read in the previous updates I wrote here, not much has come to fruition. After all, what a chaotic year it has been, to make any ambitions come true. But that is not to say you can’t do a thing during a pandemic. Somehow we (the well-off global middle-class) have become used to the idea that everything gets better, grows larger, and generates ever more returns. And when it didn’t this year, that was a shock to the expectations we had gotten used to. Suddenly we are not able to fly everywhere, go out to drink expensive coffee’s in cafes or beers in pubs and aren’t able to just do whatever we’d like. Because the pandemic limits our lifestyle you’d almost think that life is based solely on the things we are currently limited to do. Which isn’t the case. This all to say that during this year I have tried to set some goals or aims as a substitute to all the supposed other things that would have filled my time if there wasn’t a pandemic to live through. This to give myself a sense of purpose it seemed. But I didn’t do any of it. Which is fine. Because something isn’t only important or worthwhile when it has a seeming sense of purpose. Reading for example, or relaxing on the couch or watching a film for the second time.
This year has brought a big change in my lifestyle; We moved countries (from The United Kingdom to The Netherlands) while keeping my job at Applied. These were all unforeseen life events that we had planned to do in the future, but did not think possible in a pandemic year. And after all that, I even managed to get a new job (starting January 2021) to top it off. So there you go; ambitions are good after all – just don’t be too strict with planning them. It’ll happen when it comes to you most naturally.
It has been a long time since I was a ‘local’ in the scanning room at my University (HKU in Utrecht, The Netherlands). They are days to reminisce about as it felt a bit like a club-house for like-minded creatives (including analog photographers). I have sat many hours in the scanning room (until late on Thursdays if I remember correctly) with my best friend Nathan; listening to some music, joking around, while waiting for this slow scanning process to finish. Such is the nature of analog photography these days; although we shoot on film, usually we want to end up with a digital image because – you know… (Instagram?).
Finally the day has come that I can sit behind this machine again, waiting for those emulsified memories to appear as fresh and clean pixels on my screen. Not at the University this time but at my own desk in my own home. I’m finally a proud owner of an Epson V800. And I have indulged myself by getting SilverFast 8 AI Studio along with it, giving me even sharper scans and better colours. Purchasing it from Scandig (a decent Germany transparency scanner expert) made it feel even more legitimate somehow.
We are still house-bound during the 2020 Covid-19 Lockdown (London, UK). Scanning negatives seems like the perfect quarantine activity you’d almost wish upon anyone who doesn’t know what to do with themselves after prolonged days of boredom. Not that I’m one of those people. I’m so busy with other projects (embroidery, sewing, drawing etc.) that, as a matter of fact, I find the task of scanning my ever expanding archive of negatives slightly daunting. There are currently still about 40 rolls awaiting to be processed and probably more then 60 to be scanned (let alone re-scanning those done on lower-resolution machines in the past while I was waiting for my future purchase).
