Mat Collishaw, Narcissus, 1990. Courtesy Tate.

If fashion truly is this thing that swirls and surges forth, if it changes and shapes our times, what happens when a designer stands still? Is perpetual self-homage a welcome, steady approach in uncertain times or does this dogma lead to a dead end? Staring into black mirrors we all play Narcissus, fascinated by our own faces, so can we...

Keywords: 'Real' women, Perpetual self-homage, The After After Party, The Donald Trump of Fashion, Wokeness

Fiction

The Song of the Shirt

May 30, 2019

By Thomas Hood

D.W. Griffith, The Song of the Shirt, 1908. Courtesy Library of Congress.

Oh, Men, with Sisters dear! Oh, Men, with Mothers and Wives! It is not linen you're wearing out, But human...

[READ MORE]

Opinion

Decolonising Fashion

Defying the 'White Man's Gaze'

May 21, 2019

By Angela Jansen

Walter Crane, Imperial Federation: Map Showing the Extent of the British Empire in 1886. Colour lithograph. Published by Maclure & Co. as a supplement to The Graphic, 24 July 1886.

Evaluating the work of designers outside the established fashion capitals according to (references made to) their cultural identity not only...

[READ MORE]

Prose

Tutti-Frutti Camp

Acts of Defiance

May 14, 2019

By Karen Van Godtsenhoven

Carmen Miranda's brief life span ended abruptly in 1955. Known as 'the Brazilian Bombshell' throughout her life, she was trapped...

[READ MORE]

Fiction

My Flannel Knickers

May 8, 2019

By Leonora Carrington

Once I was a great beauty and attended all sorts of cocktail-drinking, prize-giving-and-taking, artistic demonstrations and other casually hazardous gatherings...

[READ MORE]