Amartya Sen

Currently I'm reading Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen, the Nobel-prize winning economist. It's a book from 1999, but a real classic so still an important read. In chapter 8 he writes about the importance of development of women. Something closely related to what I try to do in Malawi through my colleagues at the foundation and with the local women. Their empowerment and development influences the whole social structure around them. It gives them a voice, and not just that. Health, child care, decision making in the family and around the family, education levels of the whole family, improved food access etcetera.
Sen writes:
These different aspects (women's earning power, economic role outside the family, literacy and education, property rights and so on) may at first sight appear to be rather diverse and disparate. But what they all have in common is their positive contribution in adding force to women's voice and agency- through independence and empowerment. For example, working outside the house and earning an income tend to have a clear impact on enhancing the social standard of a woman in the household and in society.

All this is very important for a sustainable, equal future.

Still Life

Treasures I found while travelling in Scotland, displayed in my window frame.
The striking resemblance between the lobster shells and the ladies' dresses on the photo; is that historic design thinking or just coincidence?

Ma Ke

The V&A is one of my favourite museums in London. Here's their fashion curator Oriole Cullen at an event in 2009:
Today's Fashion in Motion is by Ma Ke whose clothes are on display in our China Design Now exhibition which is currently showing in the temporary exhibitions space. We really wanted to tie in with that and showcase some of the emerging designers coming from China.

Ma Ke is a very well established designer in China. Her brand, Exception de Mixmind, is one of China's most popular brands. In 2006 she set up Wuyong, her artistic label. Wuyong means 'useless'. The idea behind the brand is that Ma Ke looks at objects which are discarded, sometimes regarded as useless by people, and then takes a different viewpoint and fashions them into some of the amazing clothes that we have seen here today. So, for instance, the idea of recycling an old tarpaulin or a paint-splashed sheet or ripped, ragged clothing and creating something new from that.

So the message really that's coming across is sustainability in fashion. Also very much about the individual's point of view, and that's something that Ma Ke really values.

So the idea of sustainability, ethical fashion, is very much in the headlines at the moment. It's something that the Museum has been engaging with and so we were delighted to be able to welcome Ma ke here today for this event.

The usual format for Fashion in Motion is a catwalk show in the Raphael Gallery space and the audience is seated either side of a long runway, but for this show, obviously, we've really departed from that. So we've taken a bit of a gamble, in the sense that it's audience that are in motion, but the idea of showing fashion on a live, breathing model is still there; that's inherent in the display, although the models themselves aren't moving.

I find the work of Ma Ke very inspiring. Ma Ke has an original voice, and a skill to make the ordinary into something special. The ugly into something beautiful even. The sense of craft is very strong in her work. We have to look around us and see what we really need, what we can re-use. It doesn't have to look unfashionable; it can also look like couture!

Zissisnotaglossy #5

Today in Athenaeum Nieuwscentrum the fifth issue of this photo paper by Serge-Henri Valcke. He himself is, next to being a well respected actor, a very good photographer who has an eye for beauty in decay. His reportages are colourful and sometimes funny but there is also a certain sadness in them. There is so much ugliness that it becomes very beautiful indeed.
This issue's 'red carpet' is for Lucas Hillen, a recently Rietveld-graduate and for myself. I'm very honoured to being in this issue with rather contrasting photo's.

Experience

Leafing through my Harris & Lewis diary of 7 years ago I came across this lyric I scribbled down while at an exhibition. From the Scottish band Runrig whose texts are their own combined with local songs from the past. This one is a perfect description of the relation between thoughts and place. I took the photo on Barra, having climbed to Heaval, the highest hill, and facing south towards the uninhabited islands.

I'm lifted where I stand
On the never ending land
I'm coming to a sense of home

Standing in the face of the gale
A raging night on the island

Sundown on barren words
That can't describe
Your island paradise

All questions and answers
Flowing down the river
To the ocean

As Catherine Duncan wrote in her preface to Paul Strands' book about the Hebrides: "There is a moment of reflection, a sudden stillness when everything stands on the edge of discovery. For those who live them such moments are outside time, when the view is detached from the surface of things and restores to them their essential meaning."
Outside time- moments; a beautiful expression of a real experience.

What's Up

Today I attended the 'What's Up' event by Fuse! Incentives.High above the city on the 32nd floor of the Rembrandt Tower. An amazing view, and an amazing morning. Fuse! Incentives does marketing in an innovative way. It's about understanding, passion and a smile.
George Parker was there. He's also amazing. A great speech about the magic of communication, and what's underneath the surface. What a great storyteller he is, and a magician in his own communication.
The energy of change, the challenge of not-knowing, and the power of sense.
By the way:
From now on I will be involved in Fuse! Incentives as their CSR-developer.

Get Real / Real Self

Yesterday I went to Arnhem, the Fashion Biennale. The best exhibition was in the MMKA; Arnhem's modern art museum. Curated by Joke Robaard and Giene Steenkamp, the exhibition is an interesting research of the relation between fashion and language. In fashion magazines we read statements like:'time to get real', 'gold is the new black' or 'red is the new black' etcetera. What is real, and what makes a garment into fashion? The very first garments were just large pieces of woven fabric wrapped around one's body.
Later they became 'dresses, coats, skirts' etcetera. Based on philosophical quotes from Roland Barthes about 'real' the exhibition explores how functionality and beauty relate to each other in fashion.
According to Barthes 'real' clothing is divided in 3 layers: the real, tangible garment, the written garment and the imagined garment. In a fashion magazine the 'real garment' is absent; all we see is a representation of it in images and words. The curators keep asking during the exhibition: what happened to the real, woven garment? The chosen items show a great sense of craftmanship, with beautiful elements; very real.

Mars der Beschaving

The well of revolt has sprung. There are initiatives against destructive budget cuts all around.
This is the so-called 'March of Civilisation' due Sunday till Monday.
Be civilised; support!