Tag: paris

Emon Toufanian // fashion editorials and collages of glitchy wonderlands

The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well. – Quote from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol.

Emon Toufanian is an artist whose primary mediums are photography and collage. Working in the music industry before, discovering his talents as an artist was a happy accident, and now sees him producing fashion editorials and beautifully trippy collages. His images look as if he has taken inspiration from the imagination of Lewis Carrol and glitch aesthetics, creating his own morphed wonderlands.

The images he uses for his collages look as if they are melting into one another, while others are torn and overlaid on to others. “I prefer art that’s visceral and lets you decide your own meaning. I try just to create an atmosphere that allows viewers to better understand their desires, pain, dreams, whatever,” Toufanian mentions in an interview with Metal Magazine. This is combined with his ability to make the subjects in both his collages and photography carry a feeling of vulnerability and fierce engagement with viewers. The intention of this is to allow the viewer to construct their own interpretations of his work, and assist them in unpacking their own feelings.

“Collage is ritualistic to me; I need to be alone and with music. I look for a moment of transcendence when a character or story reveals itself, driven by whatever record is on. Editorial is collaborative so the challenge is finding a compromise between my vision and the reality of what’s possible on set.”

Working between New York and Paris, he places fragments of these cities in his work. He has been recognised by publications such as Dazed, PUSS PUSS, Vogue Italia and Document Journal among others, with his work being used for covers.

Fall down a very deep well and go on a visual adventure by visiting Toufanian’s website to view more of his work.

2 August 2018
Vincent Michéa // celebrating black consciousness with the use of photomontage and pop art

The artist within Vincent Michéa emerged when he moved from Paris, France to Dakar, Senegal in 1986. Dakar, which has been called “the Paris of West Africa”, became heavily influenced by the Negritude movement after the nation obtained independence from France. Negritude was a black consciousness movement that aimed to counterbalance European colonial thinking by asserting pride in African cultural values. Paris became a meeting point for the African intellectuals that started the Negritude movement. The French educational system alienated them from their heritage so they united in the creation of a contemporary African identity through literature and politics. Senegal’s sovereignty was an organic moment for Negritude’s framework to permeate and heavily influence the physical and cultural architecture of the surrounds.

Just once glimpse at Michéa’s works and it is obvious how deeply he was moved by the cultural rhythm that Paris and Dakar share. As Michéa said, “I paint the things that surround me, close to me, the within my sight: point of view in existential surroundings, consciously lived in but also consciously experienced.”

After training as a graphic designer at the university of graphic arts and interior architecture (ESAG) in Paris, Michéa’s intent was to practice in Dakar. A year later and he had his first exhibition at the National Gallery of Senegal. Following this exhibition, Michéa assisted renowned graphic artist and photographer, Roman Cieślewicz for four years. Cieślewicz encouraged Michéa to pursue his career as a painter.

Michéa’s works are riddled by Pop Art and feature the vibrant colours and hard edges of traditional West African textiles. He makes use of Ben-Day dots like Roy Lichtenstein in order to make his figures stand out from their surroundings. His works contain large areas of flat, unmoderated colour reminiscent of Ed Ruscha and early David Hockney and takes images of celebrities, like Andy Warhol.

Michéa also makes use of photomontage. “I cut, I slick, I make incisions, I snip, I slash, I hack off, behead, I dismember…A table, scissors, some glue and images in shambles – Voila! The arsenal of a photomontage artist…Conceiving and manually producing photomontages with simple and common tools is a meaningful act that allows create sensitive images, charged with extreme tensions.”

The glorification of Dakar’s past and the city’s contemporary allure is evident in all Michéa’s works and his closeness to the place, the people and the history may attribute to the effectiveness in which he captures the Senegalese. Despite his use of multimedia and his white gaze, Michéa manages to celebrate black consciousness and leave the vibrancy of blackness intact.

2 November 2017
IAMISIGO SS17 IDENTITY collection

The striking fusion of audacious and minimal design aesthetic has been brilliantly executed again by designer, Bubu Ogisi in her latest IAMISIGO SS17 collection, IDENTITY. Delightfully voluminous yet playfully hugging the feminine frame, the construction of the shades of red, white and navy blue pieces are bound to Ogisi’s cultural heritage.

The Identity collection is inspired by the Itsekiri people of Warri, a people who pride themselves of their food, dress and dance. The Itsekiri people’s famous tribal dance, Omoko, is the pulse of this collection.

An Omoko dancer confidently enchants the crowd with a grand layered arrangement of scarves and bells tied around the waist while performing a unique waist wriggling technique.

Reminiscent of an Omoko dancer’s ensemble, the pieces of this collection are beautifully layered with ruffles, bell shaped sleeves and the tasteful tying together of material to create various silhouettes.

You can now freely indulge in the exuberant lookbook and fashion film for the IDENTITY collection. Moreover, the independent brand, IAMISIGO, which is primarily based in Lagos, has pieces available in its Johannesburg, Lusaka, Accra, Addis Ababa and Paris retail stores.

Lookbook Credits:

Photography Joe Penney

Production and Styling Compozition Studios

Art Direction BOFC

Model Ifeoma Nwobu

22 February 2017
Laetitia Lotthé – Beautiful Chaos, A Cross-Continental Experience

Glowing in the soft morning Lisbon light, her radiance exudes beyond the digital screen. Laetitia Lotthé voice echoes in Parisian lilts. Embodying a cross-cultural experience – with a mother from Central Africa and father from France – she moves between spaces with adaptability and ease.

Laetitia first experienced Johannesburg at the impressionable age of twelve. After attending the local French School Lycée Jules Verne she left South Africa and returned to Paris to complete her studies in business management. However, she had already lost her heart to the city of gold.

Her pre-adolescent years are peppered with memories of playing hide-and-seek with her sister amongst reels and reels of fabric at the Oriental Plaza. A tactic used in order to resist immanent boredom at the thought of being dragged to yet another material store by the hands of her mother. As a bespoke tailor, Laetitia’s mother acted as the figure who first immersed her in fashion. She remembers reading the designer magazines scattered around the house and the bolts of material in her home-bound studio.

By the time Laetitia reached high school, she was already designing pieces for her mother to execute. Some of which still reside in her vast wardrobe. However, she soon found that her real interest was located in the business of fashion. On annual vacationing trips to France as a teenager, she would source and then buy popular breakdancing brands to sell out of a car boot to local b-boys, monopolizing the market of the sought after goods.

Her parents soon announced, “you’re meant to be doing business” a quality they recognized in her even as a young child. After an internship post-studies at Dover Street Market Laetitia’s career was launched into Comme des Garcon where she has spent the last six years. The Japanese fashion label translates to ‘like boys’. Her journey at the brand began doing wholesale, she now operates as brand manager for Gosha Rubchinsky.

Comme des Garcon follows a particular philosophy and “doesn’t follow trends”. The space runs like a family in which one is encouraged to grow organically. Employees multi-task and juggle the twenty other fashion lines at the company – including Gosha Rubchinsky. The new line has become an incredible success as “one of the hottest brands on the market at the moment”.

Laetitia reflects that, “I love the brand, because I love the designer”. She went on to say, “Gosha is such an amazing person. What I like, is that he has a specific goal – to inspire young people, especially in his environment. He grew up in Moscow where I think young people don’t really have anyone to look up to, and they don’t understand what they’re able to do or not.”

The young designer has begun to destabilise some of the perceived obstacles around breaking into the fashion industry. “He is really inspiring teenagers to start and do their thing and go for it. I think for me, that is the most important.” He navigates around the purely capitalist model of consumer goods into something more meaningful. Their casting system operates predominantly through Instagram – a space that is becoming increasingly important as teenagers online have developed a virtual community through branded identity and an affinity towards Gosha.

Fashion exists on a personal level; Laetitia uses it as platform of self-expression beyond the confines of her career. On an evening shoot with South African photographer, Chris Saunders, she was captured on the streets of Paris. Located nearby her home – the space is a central melting-pot of cultural and class experience. The road transitions from clusters of sex workers into ‘Little Africa’ further down the road – peppered with the salons Laetitia has hair braided at. A “beautiful chaos” is how Laetitia describes it. A space of in-between and everything.

Look 1 – Laetitia wears: Jacket by Ovelia Transtoto, Top by Jacquemus, Skirt by Comme des Garçons Girl and Shoes by Eytys

Look 2 – Laetitia wears: Top by Jacquemus and Dress by Pull & Bear

Look 3 – Laetitia wears: Jacket by Comme des Garçons Black, Top (vintage Tommy Hilfiger), Sweatpants by Gosha Rubchinskiy, Shoes by Nike

Look 4 – Laetitia wears: Top by Gosha Rubchinskiy, Dress by Comme des Garçons Tricot, Jeans (vintage Levi’s 501), and Shoes by Monki

21 September 2016