Counter Couture

Our fearless leader Angie recently went on a journey and wanted to share her fashion experiences with us, and how she sees inter-connectivity within the major hubs of New York City, London, Paris and Amsterdam.

///

I set a goal for this trip to be a creative reawakening for me, a cause for forward motion in new arenas and full speed ahead into how to keep meeting the CounterCouture mission. It did not disappoint.

New York City:

This lady means business; I’ve brought along three books to help coax out my inner creative goddess, Women Who Run with the Wolves, Future Fashion white papers, and the biography of Jimi Hendrix, titled ‘Scuse Me While I Kiss The Sky. Jimi lived in both New York City and London for a period of time as he was growing as an artist so I felt it was fitting. I also brought along Factory Girl (one of my all time favorite movies about Edie Sedgwick, Andy Warhol’s muse in the days of the Factory), and Persepolis (an animated story of an immigrant girls journey through life having experienced war, prejudice, and rebellion.)

The first outing I spent about 2 hours exploring the American Woman, Picasso, and modern art exhibits primarily. American Woman showcased fashion throughout the century (early 1800s to 1940s) and how it reflected the growth of our gender in relation to politics and power. Some callouts were The Gibson Girl (sporty casual style and iconic figure), the Hollywood starlits, the typical dress when women were fighting for their right to vote, the early 1900s Bohemian style (probably my favorite) and many more.

Check out the video of the gallery exhibit here.

The next day, I visited my aunt who works at the Guggenheim, taking in an exhibit called Haunted showcasing a number of photography works that circled around themes of destitution, death, loneliness and war with an emphasis on photography’s ability to evoke memories. Interesting concept, some works great some not so good. Check out the full description here; Definitely an interesting angle for anyone out there who knows how powerful capturing emotion within a 2-D plane can be.

SoHo shopping is great as always – my favorite store being All Saints because of their incredible fashion and even better merchandising. Here is a picture of the huge, old sewing machine-lined wall.

My aunt and I began our journey the next day by seeking out something I had come across online, (Re)fashioning fiber at Green Spaces. Green Spaces is an office space dedicated to entrepreneurs who crave collaboration and success in their respective social and green endeavors. The “exhibit” was pretty bare, nothing to really take in. We are on to bigger and better things, and chart off into territory unfamiliar to not only myself but to my aunt Karen (a 25-year resident), the East Village. I have heard great things about it and it did not disappoint.

Window shopping and boutique browsing were of main attraction to us. She knows so much about fashion, and helps me analyze fabrics, hems, cuts, trends, history of each garment. Slowly but surely I start appreciating every piece I put my hands on and I respect the labor and inspiration put into them. Appreciation doesn’t necessarily mean likability or wearability. There were many items that were purely fashion for fashions sake. Shorts are in, and strapless jumpsuits. And prints. We visited Skunk Funk, a nearly 100% eco-fashion brand that I didn’t realize was sold nationally. Cliche sells them locally. There is one after another after another small and beautifully decorated boutiques. This area is so lively with young people, not many tourists, fashion and food.

We dart into a small, Russian owned leather, shearling and fur store where I instantly spot an adorable, buttery soft leather jacket full of functional hardware and extraordinary printed lining. I try it on, boy meets girl, it is a match. I determine it’s jacket weather right there and then.

London, England

.

My first night in London I had a dream about a cute little dress that I designed somewhere in my unconcious state. It was a golden brown color, with lighter color paneling, a kimono sleeve, and a little tarnished gold glitz to it lining the panels. Perhaps one of my lovely designers will make one for me?

I had the great opportunity to meet with Rosie, the Public Relations director of Foundation Agency, Rosie Budhani.

Foundation is in the Shortditch area of central London, which houses many local establishments; One of which was a bike themed coffee shop. Perfect for our upcoming bicycle themed show!

Rosie’s visit was very insightful. I learned about her own career evolution; She was one of the first PR professionals in the UK within the ethical and eco fashion arena, she came on as Foundation’s first employee from Terra Plana. The agency now has about 7 full time employees and numerous interns. They currently have about 7 large active clients in the UK. Rosie said that they, like CounterCouture, believe that partnerships happen at the right time.

Here’s some valuable suggestions from Rosie for anybody out there driving to make change and show success as a brand.

What do you do if you may not have the marketing budget to afford someone like Foundation Agency quite yet? Make it a total brand experience; from the website to the packaging, have a retail environment right there on your website, and utilize social networking and bloggers to help spread the word.

There are leaders in the UK sustainable fashion industry, the ones to follow are brands such People Tree, Terra Plana, and Monkee Genes.

An interesting observation she made was that a great deal of buyers outside the eco fashion space expect you to have a shit product and shit way of running your business. So if you have a great quality piece rooted in strong design, are professional and meet your deadlines, you will already be surpassing the standard they hold you at. Bummer about the stigma, but good slice of information to get you really thinking about focused branding and marketing.

Another piece of good advice, don’t be too ambitious right away, take it slow. Focus on one to three profitable aspects to the business and do those really well.

All these strategies and more Foundation brings to its clients has proven successful thus far, as they are filtering product into mainstream fashion retailers and media outlets.

My sister and I (who I was there visiting) walked to Brick Lane, a fabulous stretch of street filled with boutiques and cafés. We find Junky Styling, a leader in upcycling fashion. They have showed in London Fashion Week’s Estethica Show the last couple years and sell wholesale in a number of shops globally. All the pieces are one of a kin, inspired by and re-designed from menswear. I tried on a strapless dress that to get into it, you had to unzip the fly, which was actually on the bottom of the skirt. I also tried on a charming halter dress fresh off the sewing machine from their production house in the rear of the building. I chatted with Kurt, the Manager, and Kerry, one of the owners. She is humble when I gush over their success in the upcycling biz (despite frequent design rip-offs by competitors I’m told).

The Victoria and Albert Museum hosted an exhibit also showcasing the history of fashion but was much more in depth than the exhibit focusing on the American woman at the Met in NYC. It was very informative, with a mixture of both modern and past centuries collections, with both mens and womens wear. I liked how it focused on the main fashion capitals of the world, but even more so how they raised fashion to a higher level by having a very defined style but also adding influence and intrigue to other areas of the world.

There were also some really interesting architecture within these old century garments, as well as risk taking and amazing attention to detail in new and traditional construction techniques. Here are some of my favorite inspirations.

*insert pics

- Sex and the City 2 -

The fashion was to the nines as expected. One of my favorite pieces was an orange pleated dress Carrie wore while strolling down the beach, pondering her career and marriage decision after a bad review from the New Yorker. In a review I read it said “The characters explicitly set out to have sex like men” which is so true and so like me.

We also talked about the women in burkas shown in the movie. Some prefer not to be seen because they don’t have to deal with outlandish and disgusting men, or feel self conscious about their outfit, hair or makeup, they can make faces at people and stare at strangers. But conversely, they aren’t seen at all as a woman. They have no visibility, voice, or sense of individuality. Interestingly, they wear designer clothing underneath their burka (which I already knew) but they break the rules slightly by wearing designer shoes to show their wealth and status. Luckily as an American woman I can choose whether I want to hide from the terrors of womanhood, or face them head on.

- The British Music Experience -

Let’s not forget about the way music has influenced fashion. Crazy characters and costumes make these fashions push the boundaries of tradition.

The museum was amazing, and also did a good job of incorporating new technology into the experience, like the smart ticket. You were able to bookmark certain things you liked or performances you did and view them later on the website.

Paris, France

My first full day in Paris we took an afternoon walk down Avenue des Champs-Élysées, which is lined for miles with high end boutiques and cafés. Huge labels, huge stores, huge price tags. Prada, Fendi, Versace, Valentino, Louis Vuitton, Jimmy Choo, they were all there. Very good window shopping. Paris also has a very large flea market with high street (and a fair share of low street) clothing north of the downtown area. There is stall after stall of clothing, shoes, jewelry, and more. I feel conflicted, as most consumers do, between price and quality. There were shoes for five Euro, but what am I sacrificing when paying this? I didn’t buy anything, despite my urges.

The Lourve is indeed massive, so we chose a small section to conquer. We saw lots of Italian classical works, mostly biblical. I  loved this piece of a woman getting bit in the nipple by a snake and looking quite at peace about it. Then of course I had to see the Mona Lisa. She is VIP, roped off from the onlookers by about ten feet and behind a pane of glass. I was able to get right up front and see the lovely lady.

Montemarte is a charming little area with shops, restaurants, food vendors, lots of people, and lined with cobblestone streets at the top of a huge hill in Paris. The cathedral at the very top is beautiful to me and the view of the city is even more unbelievable. Paris is packed as far as thee eye can see, from horizon to horizon.

It is not hard to fall in love with this city. I am almost angry that I was not born here, because the energy is so terrific. I literally say out loud to myself numerous times a day “I’m in Paris.” just to remind myself that this is not a dream. You can truly sense the romanticism of its history and fashion.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Amsterdam is littered, seriously littered, with bicycles. I love it. It is wonderful to see an environment even more progressive than Minneapolis. Residents make use of numerous forms of public transportation and the pace of life is reflective of their culture. We walked along the canals and window shopped in an area called Nine Streets. The bikers run the streets, aren’t in a hurry, and are dressed so casually chic. The city isn’t congested or dirty or too crowded. Everything is moving at a steady and enjoyable pace. Nobody is creepy or eccentric.

We make it to the Van Gogh museum. Now this guy was prolific, dozens of self-portraits, many depictions of Gauguin (I think he had a man crush), landscapes from his crazed days living in a hospital and gazing out the window, cityscapes from his artist collective days in France. We saw a number of pieces depicting Montemarte. I was especially taken with the artist ___, who was a more modern painter inspired by Van Gogh. There was also a Gauguin permanent exhibit and we learned about the relationship between the two artists; one that was not as balanced as Van Gogh would have liked.

One shop I was especially smitten with was Charlie + Mary; carrying all ethical brands including Monkee Genes. I snatched up a pair of organic cotton fair trade wonderfully soft dark washed jeans.

My last night in Europe I try and compare the cities I’ve visited. My favorites were Paris and Amsterdam.  I’d like to find somewhere with the culture of Amsterdam, the romance of Paris, the street fashion and ruggedness of London, and the history of all of them. As far as fashion, it was a challenge to find overarching trends that were more than just representative of the season. Amsterdam had a casual chic bicycle look, London had the punk inspired street fashion, and Paris had the romanticism of high fashion but also very casual. Leggings are still very in, paired often with flats and shorts or a dress. Oversized tailoring and menswear inspired pieces are in. Tribal prints and (unfortunately) animal prints are seen often. In NYC I saw a lot of cute rompers, but I didn’t see them in Europe. Mostly, the ability to be comfortable and sexy, not in-your-face fashion prevailed. It’s what I’ve been striving to do with my own wardrobe. My trip has come to a close. 17 days, 4 countries, 7 planes, 7 museums, countless trains, buses, drinks, and restaurants.

Final thoughts…

What have I learned from all this? I’ve learned to be open to all things, both planned and happenstance. I’ve learned more about what being open may mean. There are people you meet in far away places that could change your direction. There are far off places where you can feel connected to and embrace. Love can happen in the strangest situations. Friends can be international. Fashions can be representative of a person or place, or a cultural revolution.

I’m starting to realize that things like this is what it’s all about, and my youth is not permanent. You can learn so much from the world about people and about yourself. I want to be a strong businesswoman and a passionate artist.

As I continue to work my way through the book Women Who Run with the Wolves, the most recent section talked about stalking the intruder, fighting the predator who always percolates doubt and negativity within one’s creative self. This predator should be recognized, addressed, and fought. If this is a constant struggle you have, take this last quote to heart.
The cure for both naive woman and the instinct-injured woman is the same: Practice listening to your intuition, your inner voice; ask questions; be curious; see what you see; hear what you hear; and then act upon what you know to be true.