PRESS & FOLD #1: The Luxury Issue
with readings at 8.30pm
Saturday December 7, 8pmFrom luxury characterised as uniqueness created by lowly and anonymous artisans in pre-democratic times, to made-to-measure haute couture and the cult of the star designer at the end of the 19th century, from the merging of mass market and prestige into ‘masstige’ (a term coined by Karl Lagerfeld, introducing his H&M collaboration in 2004) to the hunger for street credibility by luxury fashion houses causing them to sell 2000 euro hoodies, and from the conspicuous consumption showcased on Instagram to the explosion of wellness and self-care culture; luxury has had many faces over the past few decades.
Among a new generation of fashion designers, researchers, writers and curators, very different views on luxury, and fashion in general, exist. Motivated by the sorry state of the current fashion system and its exploitative labour practices, environmental pollution, depletion of resources and exclusionary marketing language among other things, this generation is not only critiquing the system, its individualistic approach and its limiting views on the concept of luxury (among other things), but also seeking to create alternative, more inclusive ways of defining luxury. In this issue, Press & Fold gives voice to these new ideas and propositions on contemporary luxury and its material and immaterial characteristics.
This issue of Press & Fold features contributions by A March Issue, Adele Varcoe, Agnieszka Chabros, Aimée Zito Lema, Amelia Winata, Annie Wu, Beau Bertens, Chet Bugter, Colby Vexler, Danielle Bruggeman, Elisa van Joolen, Femke de Vries, Jessica Buie, Johannes Reponen, JOIN Collective Clothes, Justin Clemens, Laura Gardner, Maria Kley, Rowan McNaught, Shanzhai Lyric and Storage Solutions.
Press & Fold, Notes on making and doing fashion is initiated by Hanka van der Voet in collaboration with art director and graphic designer Beau Bertens. The magazine is a collaborative research project that connects critical fashion practitioners from all over the world. Press & Fold aims to create a safe space for alternative fashion practices and dissonant voices within and outside of the fashion system, and communally explore fashion beyond the commodity. Through discussing our experiences through fashion, the Press & Fold contributors facilitate an alternative discourse that is not just about consuming the latest fashions.
