Silly Girl Club

Ayoola Solarin meets Nikki Millar, founder of nostalgic brand Silly Girl Club, which turns old bedding into the most fabulous clothes…

Nikki Millar, founder of Silly Girl Club

Nikki Millar, founder of Silly Girl Club

You’re most likely to find Nikki Millar in her home studio, face to face with some of the most well-known celebrities of our time. With her flat stacked wall to wall with hundreds of Disney bed sheets, Nikki hardly has any time for real-life people as she spends her days with Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Buzz Lightyear and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Her sharp sewing skills and childhood penchant for all things ’90s has manifested into career passion project, Silly Girl Club – a brand dedicated to upcycling nostalgic fabric to produce eco-friendly, affordable fashion. Nikki, the one-woman team behind the Leicester-based project, has been collecting long-forgotten fabrics of animated heroes since she was 14. Silly Girl Club has now grown into a fully-fledged business, producing dresses, bumbags, playsuits, patches and more, while maintaining an ethos to encourage recycling and ethical sourcing.

How would you describe Silly Girl Club? Carefree, fun and nostalgic. And I think the recycling also has a big part. Well, I like to think so because it’s the part I’m most passionate about!

How did it begin? I used to go to car boots all the time when I was younger. I love cartoons and whenever I saw fun bed sheets, I’d collect them. I had piles of them around my house. I started sewing in 2004 and making my own clothing because there was nothing I liked in the town that I lived in. And the bedding was just so bright and amazing.

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When did you start making stuff for other people? I hadn’t made or sewn anything for years after I left university because I absolutely hated studying fashion. But then my make-up bag broke and I made a replacement and put it on Instagram. People loved it! I put something on Depop and it sold within minutes – I couldn’t believe it. I made a few more bits and they sold again, and that’s when I figured there’s a demand for this. I kept making things alongside my full-time job as a hobby to get myself back into sewing again.

I managed a bar for eight years but as Silly Girl Club developed a stronger online presence, I would end up working a 9am-6pm shift at the bar and then sew before work and afterwards – it was exhausting. I thought something’s got to give and I didn’t want it to be Silly Girl Club.

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What’s the deal with nostalgia, anyway? Nostalgia takes you back to a carefree time when you didn’t really have any worries, when you felt more free. It’s got that lovely feeling about it. This a major reason why I started Silly Girl Club – nostalgia makes people happy and I just feed off people’s excitement. Cartoons are fun! I love the colours and how anything can happen in a cartoon. It makes life less boring, doesn’t it?

How do you source your fabrics? I’ve accumulated so much over time. I’ve been collecting fabrics for years so I used to have suitcases and boxes full. But now I’ve been getting through it really quickly. There’s a guy in America that goes thrift shopping for me, he is my absolute hero. Other than that, my favourite hobby is charity shopping and nowadays, followers send me stuff too. They’ll say “Oh, I had this in my cupboard and I don’t use it anymore, do you want it?” – it’s the nicest thing in the world.

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How does recycling and sustainability factor in? For me, I don’t really buy anything new from shops unless I really have to. I’ve always bought secondhand and it’s been a conscious decision for me because I don’t like waste. Recycling and knowing where something’s come from is a massive deal to me, I don’t think I could make clothing that I knew wasn’t recycled.

There’s a quote from a BBC report that hit me hard – it said if clothing consumption continues as it is, by 2050, fast fashion  will account for a quarter of our total impact on climate change. And ethically speaking, I always look at my clothing and the stitch lines and think, a human has made these. They’ve probably worked the same amount of time as me, maybe more, and they are most likely not getting a fair wage. I don’t think people often think about it. People are very enthusiastic about recycling but they don’t think of fast fashion in the same context.

What does Silly Girl Club represent? I want it to be fun, but also conscious and inclusive. I try as much as possible to make things that are easily worn and affordable. When I first started SGC, a few people emailed me to say how much they appreciated no fastenings on the clothes. It’s important for everyone to feel included. Even monetarily, for people who are less able to afford things, I’ve started prices from as little as £2.50 so that anyone can be part of Silly Girl Club.

What does running a small business mean to you? Honestly, it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. Every day I wake up super happy and I jump up into my sewing room straight away because it’s crazy, I’m doing what I love. It’s given me some confidence I never thought I had, which is amazing.

Follow Silly Girl Club on Insta @sillygirlclub

Chef Kim Alter

We were very lucky to meet chef Kim Alter and try her wonderful tasting menu, while she was making food magic for a short guest spot at Carousel London. She’s the founder of Nightbird in San Francisco, and creates a fortnightly tasting menu inspired by ingredients from the rich Californian coastline. We had a chat to find out more about her inspiration.

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Kim, tell us about your tasting menu, can you talk us through its creation? How do you decide what to use and how? It was a little hard in London, since I base my menu on what I can physically pick out at a farmer's market in San Francisco.  But I just based it on what was in season and what could I make best in an unfamiliar kitchen.  

We know you're very inspired by San Francisco, what is it that you love most about the place and the food? The product is probably number one.  I go to the farmers’ market every day and have strong relationships with every farmer, to the point of knowing the name of the animal or what the captain's name is on the boat that caught the fish. The community is amazing too, we always take care of each other – whether it is stopping by for a drink or to borrow something when needed. I have travelled a lot, and our hospitality in SF is at the top I think.

What do you most want Londoners to learn from your menu? Is it different to what you have created in SF? I guess I would want them to see that you can be in a casual setting and have a plate of food that isn't too precious but showcases technique and tastes delicious. That is what we try to accomplish at Nightbird.  I wouldn't say the menu done was a 360 from Nightbird, but you would get a very different experience in SF.

When did you fall in love with cooking? Do you remember the moment you knew you wanted to be a chef? I fell in love with cooking early, not through family traditions, but I like making people happy.  Cooking for school projects and seeing the excitement on people's faces when you made something was very gratifying. 

What's it like being a woman in what is traditionally a male-dominated industry? Do you think it's changing? I mean I could go down a #metoo road here, but I think our business is very hard and if I am treated unfairly or in a way I wouldn't treat someone, my mind always goes to, "Is it because I am a woman?".  Maybe it is, but all that does is make me work harder to prove to myself – being a woman only makes me stronger.

What do you love to do outside your cheffing world? How do you relax? There isn't a lot of time when you own a small business. I work every day, but when there is a break, I normally try to look after my health. Lots of acupuncture, barre class and then drinking and eating with friends

What are your hopes for the future? For you and your food? I have a lot of hopes. I hope hospitality isn't dying! It's getting harder and harder to be in this industry so I hope I can grow with the changes and technology, but not lose who I am as a chef.  I only can hope for evolution, always. Being stagnant is not an option for me, my staff or my food.

Next time, we’d like to try Kim’s food against a San Franciscan backdrop. Give Nightbird a follow on Insta @nightbirdsf and head there if you’re in the area.

We love Lynnie Z

We caught up with artist Lynnie Z about her exhibition at The Book Club, her plans for the year ahead and where her inspiration comes from.

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Hi Lynnie, we loved seeing a glimpse into your studio space back in issue 38, what's changed? Are you still in the same space? We have since moved our studio to Peckham/South Bermondsey. I share a studio with Hattie Stewart, Sara Andreasson and Annu Kilpeläinen. These dream women make it a lovely place to be!

Do you think where you work is important? What does your desk look like? For me, I need to change it up quite a lot. I used to think this was a neurotic trait but actually I realise it’s a freeing privilege that fires my productivity. 

I work between my home studio and my shared studio. With some projects I am energised by being in a collaborative environment, with other ones I crave the solitary mind flow, and I can find it immensely mediative working in my own space. 

My desk is often messy, because it feels like the work’s never done! I tend to keep sketchbooks and pens out, ready for my return so I can just slip back in the same creative state – the invite is there! But the truth is I like to finish a drawing in one sitting.

Your latest exhibition at The Book Club gives a glimpses into your creative flow, so where's the starting point for each of your pieces? Where do your best ideas come from? Each day and night, working into this collection, I wanted to keep an uninhibited approach and let the drawings lead me into new and unusual places. A lot of this has to do with not thinking at all, which I imagine is trickier for everyone as the years go on. When work is created out of instinct, personally I find it to be the strongest. Whatever you have created has made its own journey and it feels like some sort of alchemy has taken place. 

Sketchbooks have always been an integral part of my process, I love delving in and seeing all the ideas cooking up amongst each other. They’re always a great place to revisit with a fresh perspective

What can we expect from your exhibition? What's your favourite piece, or is it impossible to pick? I want the exhibition to be an intimate experience that displays the fluidity of the creative process in a joyous light that people can connect with. The work takes the form of bold paintings, stripped back ink drawings, experimental collages and large wall murals. I also got to collaborate with The Art of Ping Pong to create a customised ping pong table. I wanted to share a spectrum of my process and how I get from A to B as I think it’s a more relatable experience for whoever’s watching. 

The collages are some of my favourite pieces. They serve as a bridge from loose ink work to my fuller bold work, constructing these visuals ideas into a plethora of possible outcomes. They also resemble the state of my desk or the energy of my sketchbooks.

Did you make any new year's resolutions? I think I aim for the same thing every year, just being more present, reaching higher and having endless fun. 

What does 2019 have in store for you? Hopefully a ton of good surprises! There are a few exciting projects in store which I can’t wait to share. Other than that, I would like to get a good solid art residency in this year, the aim is to work in Greece for a month. 

Lynnie Z Studio is a free exhibition at The Book Club curated by Liat Chen running until 17 February.

Win £100 to spend at Joanie

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Oh Comely has teamed up with nostalgically inspired clothing brand, Joanie to offer one lucky reader the chance to win a £100 spend on their website.

Known for sweet styling, unique slogan knits and pretty details, the brand has quickly gained a cult following of style bloggers and celebrities who love Joanie’s individual look and affordable pieces.

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Launched in 2016 and inspired by all things nostalgic, Joanie cuts through the noise of uninspiring fashion to create vintage-style clothing with a twist, giving a nod to the retro look (think peter pan collars, classic stripes and feminine silhouettes) – all in sizes 8–22.

Joanie’s bestsellers don’t stay online for long, so we’re giving you the chance to snap up their signature styles with a £100 voucher to spend on the website

To be in with a chance of winning, simply answer the question below.

In what year was Joanie Clothing launched? 2007, 2014 or 2016. Give your answer here.

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Follow Joanie on Instagram

Joanie T&Cs: Winner’s voucher will be issued as a code for use on Joanie’s website: www.joanieclothing.com. This code will be one-use only and must be used in its entirety in one single transaction. Non-transferable, no cash alternative. Entrants opting in for brand communications will receive periodic marketing emails – these can be unsubscribed from at any time. Winner must claim prize within 72 hours or another winner will be drawn.

Iceberg T&Cs: The competition closes 20 January 2019. A winner will be chosen at random from all correct entries after this time and notified shortly after. Full terms and conditions are at icebergpress.co.uk/comprules.

Last chance to see Renzo Piano: The Art of Making Buildings at the Royal Academy of Arts

Renzo Piano: The Art of Making Buildings installation view, 2018. Photo: David Parry.

Renzo Piano: The Art of Making Buildings installation view, 2018. Photo: David Parry.

Last chance: see the Royal Academy of Arts’ uplifting architecture exhibition, Renzo Piano: The Art of Making Buildings, in the New Year.

This January, escape into the world of Renzo Piano, the inspirational architect behind The Shard in London, the Pompidou Centre in Paris, and the 1.7-kilometre-long Kansai Airport in Japan. During his 40-year career, Piano has made a huge contribution to the modern city centre, not least on his own hometown of Genoa, where his regeneration work truly transformed the industrial harbour into a public space.

This stirring exhibition is like walking into one of Piano’s architectural logbooks. Daylit, bright and airy, the gallery houses 16 tables filled with original sketches, technical drawings, detailed models and in situ photos of some of his most important projects. Highlights include the first sketch of The Shard (which Piano drew on the back of an envelope in a restaurant), as well as 1:1 mock-ups of engineering elements, which his 150-strong team produce to test their scale and surface.

Renzo Piano: The Art of Making Buildings installation view, 2018. Photo: David Parry.

Renzo Piano: The Art of Making Buildings installation view, 2018. Photo: David Parry.

Each of these reveal the vision and invention behind Piano’s pioneering constructions, and the truly global scale of his work. Designed and curated in close collaboration with Piano himself, join us for the first exhibition in London to put the spotlight on Piano in 30 years.

At the centre of the exhibition is a darkened room screening an intimate documentary with Piano, as well as the most imaginative object in the show: a metropolitan ‘Island’, created by Piano and his team, which brings together over 100 of his buildings at a 1:1000 scale into one landscape.

Renzo Piano: The Art of Making Buildings installation view, 2018. Photo: David Parry.

Renzo Piano: The Art of Making Buildings installation view, 2018. Photo: David Parry.

Renzo Piano: The Art of Making Buildings is open until 20 January 2019. 

Book now

Exhibition organised by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in collaboration with Renzo Piano Building Workshop and the Fondazione Renzo Piano.

Oh Comely readers can enjoy 20% off tickets using the code ARCHI18.

*This is a sponsored post*

What we're loving this Christmas

Need some last-minute inspiration for presents or what to do on your festive break? Here’s a round-up of what we’re loving this Christmas…

Clara Bow in Dangerous Curves 1929. Photo by George Hommel. Source: BFI National Archive

Clara Bow in Dangerous Curves 1929. Photo by George Hommel. Source: BFI National Archive

We’re laughing out loud with the pioneering women of clowning in the BFI’s Playing The Fool exhibition, which draws on photographs and publicity materials from the BFI’s Special Collections. You can view it on the mezzanine gallery.

The exhibition is on until 6 January. Find out more here.

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We’ve been burning this Christmas Koppraia candle every day in the office to get into the festive mood. All Koppraia candles are made with a signature coconut, rapeseed and soy wax blend, which produces a cleaner burn than paraffin alternatives. Plus, they’re cruelty-free, vegan and sustainably produced.


 
 

Were you as obsessed as us? We devoured every single story in the Sweet Valley High and Babysitters Club collections when we were teenagers? And so our fave book of the moment is Gabrielle Moss’s Paperback Crush which is taking us on a trip down memory lane… It’s a totally radical reflection on teen fiction of the ‘80s and ‘90s.


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We want everything from Wanderlust Life Jewellery. The collection is inspired by travels past and present, and features gold rings, necklaces, studs, hoops and bracelets. The shapes are all simple and gorgeous.

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We reckon this peanut butter jar bauble will look really sweet on your tree.


Get one from
wagreen.co.uk

 

Liam Gilliver wrote a first person story about Coming Out, Twice in issue 43. He’s now written his debut novel, We’re Worried About Him. It’s a book about falling in love and self-discovery, inspired by Liam’s travels to Italy, his experiences with men and the personal barriers he has overcome. A heart-wrenching read.

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Re-Fashion is our new go-to for charity shopping. They believe the future of fashion is circular, inspiring us to recycle the clothes we no longer wear and buy pre-loved clothes.

You can order a donation bag from their website, and browse donations too.

 
photo: Justine Desmond

photo: Justine Desmond

Wandering Womb is a thought provoking display at Royal College of Nursing’s Library and Heritage Centre in London until 22 March, exploring the history of women’s health – and how how women have long been seen as at the mercy of their own biology –and the roles nurses have played in challenging such generalisations. The title comes from a belief in the ancient medical world that a “wandering womb” could cause suffocation and death. Find out more in the display, and its series of associated events.

 

We found out about A Printed Wardrobe thanks to our friends at the excellent daily newsletter Domestic Sluttery. Sets of kits with everything you need to put together one of their designs – backed up by online tutorials to guide you through each make. Just one question: which skirt should we make first?

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Courage Calls to Courage Everywhere makes for an inspiring stocking filler. Jeanette Winterson’s call to action about how much women and men alike need to do for true gender equality. You also get a copy of Emmeline Pankhurst’s landmark Suffragette speech ‘Freedom or Death’ as a reminder how far we’ve managed to come since 1913.

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Finally, we’d like to think that Oh Comely is exactly the kind of thing you’d like to find under the tree come Christmas day. You can order a hand gift-wrapped subscription here, or treat a friend (or yourself) to an issue here.

Mapping 100 Years of black and asian history

We sat down to talk to Kaia Charles, the curator of Another England: Mapping 100 Years of Black and Asian History which was displayed at NOW Gallery in November.

“We had archival imagery and new pieces that were commissioned for this exhibition on display. The contemporary commissions are so lovely to show how these communities are represented today. It’s across the UK but a lot of these images are focused on London because that’s where a lot of these communities were first based,” says Kaia. Another England is a project that Historic England launched over a year ago and it maps places of significance to black and asian communities.

“The new commissions are from artists that I find really interesting. They expand on themes that we know the archive touches on. It’s evident when you walk around the exhibition that they’re in such a dialogue with the archive images. It’s so important to document this history that’s still in living memory. The amazing images of Olive Morris from the Squatter’s Handbook are so incredible. She wasn’t celebrated in her short lifetime so it’s amazing to showcase her work. She endured a lot. It shows us how important it is to conserve these archives.”

If you missed it, the photography can be viewed on the NOW Gallery website.

Three young girls chatting outside a Methodist chapel, 1950-59, from Historic England Archive

Three young girls chatting outside a Methodist chapel, 1950-59, from Historic England Archive

Photo by Sarah Maple

Photo by Sarah Maple

London market, from Historic England Archive

London market, from Historic England Archive

Protection exhibition for Amnesty International UK

We’re can’t wait to go and see Protection, which is a new exhibition curated by our friends Riposte in partnership with Amnesty International UK. On display at Coal Drops Yard in London from 10 December.

by Jasmin Sehra

by Jasmin Sehra

To mark the 70th anniversary of the declaration of human rights, Riposte, in partnership with Amnesty International UK, has curated a group exhibition featuring women and non-binary artists. It will run from 10-16 December at Coal Drops Yard.

There’s a line-up of 30 inspirational artists (some who have graced the pages of Oh Comely over the years), including Guerilla Girls, Esther Mahlangu, Erin Aniker, Hattie Stewart, Juno Calypso, Lotte Andersen, Lynnie Zulu, Maisie Cousins, Mona Chalabi, Nathalie du Pasquier, Phoebe Collings-James, Steph Wilson and many more. All contributing artists have been invited to create work in response to the theme of “Protection”. All profits from art sales will be donated to Amnesty International UK.

Drafted in 1948 following the atrocities of the second world war, the declaration provides a universal set of minimum standards for how people should be treated worldwide. It is rooted in a desire for dignity, equality and fairness for all. It has been translated into over 300 languages and it laid the foundation for the human rights protections that we have in the UK today.

by Steph Wilson

by Steph Wilson

As part of the Amnesty Collective, Riposte wanted to bring together a global collection of artists to reflect on important human rights issues that affect us all. On the global spread of the artists involved in the show, editor of Riposte and curator of the exhibition Danielle Pender said, “We made sure that the artists involved were a global mix to reflect the myriad of ways that we’re affected by the issues around human rights. We invited established artists and designers such as Guerilla Girls, Nathalie du Pasquier and Esther Mahlangu alongside younger artists to explore the generational reaction to the issues covered in the declaration.”

The exhibition opens on Monday 10 December, RSVP here.

by Hattie Stewart

by Hattie Stewart

Long live kitsch, long live Ana Ljubinkovic

Tahmina Begum travels to Belgrade to meet Ana Ljubinkovic

Ana Ljubinkovic is something special. That’s how she was described by Nenad Radujević, founder of Belgrade Fashion Week earlier this October as we headed to Ljubinkovic’s show. It’s also what I thought when her first model walked out.

Ljubinkovic has made a name for herself outside of the Serbian walls she grew up in, in all honesty, she was the only fashion designer I had heard of before heading to Belgrade. Her shows in London tend to be packed as everyone wants to see a Ljubinkovic creation. They are never ‘clean cut’ or ‘streamlined’ and, at first, they don’t seem practical for everyday, even though you could most definitely wear all her pieces outside of the catwalk. Seeing the effects of the 1999 Chinese embassy bombing in Belgrade and experiencing the solely heteronormative culture, walking around beautiful, binary and broken Belgrade, I was curious to understand how Ana Ibrinchovich came up with such queer designs: sleeves mimicking puffy wings, gay dicky bows and fine art portraiture slammed in the middle of medieval lace-trimmed gowns.

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“Art is important for me,” she says while describing the birth of her collection, “that’s the part of the collection that holds a part of me”. This comes as no surprise, Ljubinkovic studied painting at the University of Belgrade and fell into fashion design accidentally while dreaming up fashion sketches, never really thinking they’d ever come to life.

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What is a surprise is how keen the fashion designer is to keep kitsch culture alive. Fifteen years ago this wouldn’t be a problem as the pre-Instagram world had designers like Meadham Kirchhoff who cared about the whimsical. But Ljubinkovic who still lives and designs from Belgrade (and when asked why when she could live anywhere with her international recognition, she reflexes with “why not?”) cares about bringing the art via clothing to Serbia, then to the rest of the world.

“I really love kitschy details. To play with kitsch as an element, you have to have the aesthetic knowledge to do it the right way. From the pearl drops to the diamantes. Great designers have to feel the rhythm, proportion, balance, form, to know the colour theory, to know the fabrics, the technology”. And Ljubinkovic is right in that for those who don’t understand kitsch style and culture, for those who just see it as ‘bad taste’ fail to see the irony in not taking yourself too seriously in fashion – an epidemic that seems to have spread even more so as fashion has become about the numbers thanks to social media.

Ljubinkovic favourite kitsch designers are Manish Arora, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Pam Hogg, Mary Katrantzou, Vivetta and “of course, Gucci” – they are “the real superstars” as, in her book, it’s all about the attitude. “You have to be brave and humble at the same time”. The kitsch style would suck if in the process of having fun – but also making fun of yourself – you had an entitled personality to go with it. It’s only then that the oversized earrings and obnoxiously feminine pieces can make you look dated.

There’s a sense of heritage that comes to play with Ljubinkovic’s pieces. She loves to learn about art, architecture, technology and read the biographies of Nikola Tesla or Marina Abramović  – hence the history lesson across her puffy dresses – she makes it clear that she doesn’t have time for anyone else’s fashion. She’s interested in people’s stories and in response, what they put on their back and in their minds. Her sense of tunnel vision when it comes to only her fashion enables her fashion shows to have a strong narrative but also for there to be a consistent house style. You know an Ana Ljubinkovic dress when you see one.

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So when I ask her what does the future look like for her and kitsch culture, she responds matter of factly with the way trends work. “Now is the time to be brave, to experiment and to be eclectic. But even in a house like Gucci, trends get boring. There will be the nude basic craze [as in the normcore trend] all over again”. But that doesn’t seem to be the case with kitsch style, maybe it’s Ljubinkovic’s lime green peplums, her doggy illustrations or the sweetheart dresses, or maybe it’s because it’s so out of place that people always search for it. In a way, being kitsch seems to be trendless.

Or what it really could be is how aspirational is the confidence it generally takes to wear an Ana Ljubinkovic trouser suit for example. To that, the fashion designer says, “real avant-garde is to really be yourself and be unapologetic about it”.

The designer is currently working on her next collection

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Issue 46 playlist: midwinter

illustration: honey debney-succoia

illustration: honey debney-succoia

The history of pop music is filled with cruel twists and turns. Stars that burn brightly for one dazzling moment that proves to be sadly short lived. Our midwinter playlist celebrates those artists who enjoyed only a brief blaze of glory, as well as those with long-lasting careers that continue to be defined in our collective memory by just one song.

Turn it up loud to enjoy their musical gifts, which encompass everything from poignant ballads to dancefloor fillers. And, in this festive period, join us in raising a glass to these musicians who gave it – and us – their best shot.

Take a listen here.

Come join our craft workshop weekender

Get yourself in the festive spirit, and perhaps also ahead on the pressie front, with our craft workshop weekender held in London on Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 December. 

We’re delighted to have teamed up with Birdsong and Beyond Retro to offer a weekend filled with sessions run by some of London’s most brilliant designers, illustrators and makers. 

Pop along to Beyond Retro’s Dalston Store, and you can join social enterprise Juta to make your own reclaimed leather or vegan shoes, have fun block stamping your own sustainable top with Gabi & Maya and learn more about natural dyeing with SALT Textiles. Get your fingers celebration ready by crafting party rings with accessory and prop maker Rosy Nicholas, while crochet queen Katie Jones will be sharing her pom pom tree decorations (pick up a copy of our forthcoming midwinter issue – out 13 December – for more Christmas treats from Katie).

Grab your friends or come along to make some new ones. Prices start at £10 and you can buy your tickets here. Look forward to seeing you there!

Muslim Sisterhood

Tahmina Begum introduces Muslim Sisterhood, a photography project capturing Muslim girls and women in the UK

Zeinab, Sara & Lamisa, founders of Muslim Sisterhood

Zeinab, Sara & Lamisa, founders of Muslim Sisterhood

As I scroll through Muslim Sisterhood’s Instagram account, the first question that comes to mind is “what have we all be doing all this time?”. By “we all”, I mean mainstream media outlets and magazines that can choose to have a variety of women and non-binary faces across their pages. Yet it’s been the work of Zeinab Saleh, Sara Gulamali and Lamisa Khan that’s allowed us to see a range of Muslim women the minute we log into Instagram.

The DIY photography series, which chronicles the breadth of Muslim girls and women in the UK, began when Lamisa Khan was working at Amaliah, a platform for millennial Muslim women, and wished to see “normal Muslim girls who aren’t bloggers, fashionistas or British Bake-Off winners” represented as well. Inspired by the way Saleh incorporated her faith with her art and Gulamali’s campaign with Variant Space where the women were “unapologetically Muslim” (and decked out in Adidas of course), Khan approached Saleh and Gulamali and only a few months later and a few Muslim Sisterhood photography exhibitions down, they are already alumnus of V&A’s Friday Lates.

Muslim Sisterhood at V&A Friday Late

Muslim Sisterhood at V&A Friday Late

Starting off as an Instagram account, Muslim Sisterhood’s following went from zero to over a thousand followers in just two weeks. Khan recollects that “we really didn’t expect it to be such a big deal but because Instagram is such an accessible and widely used platform, it’s a free place to exhibit and share work, it means that we can reach Muslim women on an international scale.”

For those who are bored by the conversation of diversity, you are either most likely already seen as the norm or you’re exhausted from constantly asking for it. Co-creator of Muslim Sisterhood Sara Gulamali explained the importance of platforms like Muslim Sisterhood is so not only are Muslim girls celebrated for once (and their representation is also shaped by Muslim women who come from a place of understanding) but that images like these are relatable.

Billions of Muslim continue to be generalised in the West and the consequence of this is the toxic stereotypes. From being terrorists to being uneducated, poor, a refugee or simply old-fashioned, Muslim women are typecast as having no agency. They are shown in only a handful of ways, resulting in those growing up Muslim questioning if they are 'Muslim enough’. “Therefore by showing the multiplicity of Muslim women,” Gulamali adds, “this helps rid any misconception of what a ‘normal’ Muslim girl looks like because that image simply does not exist.”

But Muslim Sisterhood is not just portraits of pretty Muslim women, it’s also tackling issues within the Muslim communities. One of them being anti-blackness, which prevails through many Muslim communities, both international and national. With only 10% of Muslims in the UK coming from a black background, co-founder Zeinab Saleh explained tackling these problems was crucial as the series was “made for us by us and why it’s important for us to raise these important issues that impact our Ummah (community)”.

Model: Amaal Ali / Photography: Zeinab Saleh / Stylist: Lucy Savage / Make-up: Maha and Hala / image belongs to Muslim Sisterhood

Model: Amaal Ali / Photography: Zeinab Saleh / Stylist: Lucy Savage / Make-up: Maha and Hala / image belongs to Muslim Sisterhood

“We celebrate women from all different backgrounds and also recognise colourism as a problem within our community. We don’t want to reproduce the same toxic Western beauty ideals so we constantly check ourselves and make sure we bring awareness to the conversation” explains Saleh. An example of this was when the founders went on the Islamic channel, a TV network that is broadcasted internationally, and brought up the topic of anti-blackness to an older generation of Muslims who often hold these views. In other words, to speak outside the echo chamber.

When asking the three curators what they have learned about Muslim women and people in general, Lamisa Khan simply said: “I think our community can often be quite divided because of racial and cultural sectarian differences. It’s just been so refreshing to meet women who understand where you're coming from.” The feeling is clearly mutual, as Muslim Sisterhood’s engaging supporters have meant the trio have been able to not only been able to capture the throng of different Muslim women but also to show at We Are Here UK at the London School of Economics to mark 100 years of partial suffrage and celebrate what it means to be a British BAME woman in 2018.

In the latest V&A’s Friday Late, Muslim Sisterhood collaborated with The Savage Sister Vintage in order to exhibit exclusive photographs from the project, and did I mention, their photography has been used to illustrate Mariam Khan’s awaited book It's Not About the Burqa: Muslim Women on Faith, Feminism, Sexuality and Race, set to be released in 2019? Muslim Sisterhood are putting in the work for what we all benefit from and want to see: more diversity within diversity around Muslim women, please.

Model: Yasmin Moeladi / Photography: Zeinab Saleh / Stylist: Lucy Savage / Make-up: Maha and Hala / all images belong to Muslim Sisterhood

Model: Yasmin Moeladi / Photography: Zeinab Saleh / Stylist: Lucy Savage / Make-up: Maha and Hala / all images belong to Muslim Sisterhood

Insomnia by Marina Benjamin

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Our autumn issue is inspired by dreams and sleep. Marina Benjamin’s fascinating new book explores the opposite state: Insomnia. Our book club editor Terri-Jane Dow takes a closer look.

Marina Benjamin’s slim meditation on sleeplessness makes for interesting bedtime reading. Maybe I’m leaning into the wakefulness, but I think it’s more likely that the directions Benjamin spins off into are too interesting for me to sleep on. Instead of reading myself to sleep, the musings in Insomnia keep my mind ticking over long after I have turned off the lights.

At just over 150 pages, Benjamin’s latest memoir doesn’t take long to read, but I go back and forth through it, making mental notes of sleep experiments, of theories on sleeping, of ideas of why we chase sleep so hard, and why it is sometimes so elusive. Living with an insomniac gives me an interesting perspective; I take on the sleeping role of Benjamin’s husband, only ever referred to – somewhat enviously – as Zzz, while my partner finds the snippets I read to him disarmingly accurate.

The list of sources at the end of the book is vast, and promises to keep me awake for many nights to come. Art, philosophy and science jostle together, the fragments flowing in and out of each other. Things that seem unrelated on the surface become entwined with one another. In the art world, insomnia is romanticised. Sleepless nights are full of stars and lovers, and the state of sleeplessness is evocative of something ancient and grand. Poets find a place here, as do many painters. In his early work, Edward Burne-Jones depicted ladies draping themselves all over the place, suddenly overcome by a need to sleep, and Benjamin writes about his pre-Raphaelite paintings beautifully, looping back to them at the end of the book. (Serendipitously, Burne-Jones’ paintings are the subject of a new exhibition – his first since 1933 – at Tate Britain.)

The intensity of each snippet of the book is not to say that it isn’t also very funny. Benjamin’s CBT group and attempts at sleep-aids are portrayed as torturous; exercises devised by people who have never had trouble sleeping. (“That, or they are sadists,” says Benjamin). She misses Zzz recounting his dreams to her because she has earplugs in. She refuses meditation, “terrified of the blankness”. Her book muses on her marriage, the early days of bed-sharing with Zzz, and the ways that they comfort and accommodate each other both in waking and sleep. There are many, many comparisons between sleep and love: falling, potions, and the hours of research into the science of both.

Early in the book, Benjamin writes that insomnia is as much to do with longing as it is to do with sleeplessness. “To be without sleep is to want and be found wanting.” Insomnia does not reach a conclusion, there’s no cure. Benjamin is no more able to sleep at the end of the book than she was at the beginning. Instead, she asks what it is that her wakefulness wants of her, what it is that writers and artists and philosophers have been seeking to express, and how we can find rest in restlessness.

Insomnia by Marina Benjamin is published by Scribe Books. More tales of dreams and sleep in the autumn issue of Oh Comely.



Anni Albers

Anni Albers in her weaving studio at Black Mountain College, 1937.  Photo: Helen M. Post, Western Regional Archives, State Archives of North Carolina

Anni Albers in her weaving studio at Black Mountain College, 1937.
Photo: Helen M. Post, Western Regional Archives, State Archives of North Carolina

Innovative textile artist Anni Albers is currently being celebrated at London’s Tate Modern. As a female student at the radical Bauhaus art school in Germany, Albers was discouraged from taking up certain classes. She enrolled in the weaving workshop and made textiles her key form of expression. The exhibition explores the artist’s creative process and her engagement with art, architecture and design and displays the range of her work, from small-scale ‘pictorial weavings’ to large wall-hangings and the textiles she designed for mass production. We spoke to curator Ann Coxon to discover more about this pioneering artist – and why her work remains so relevant to today.

This is Anni Albers’ first major UK exhibition. Why do you think it’s taken so long?

It’s because of the media. Because Anni Albers was first and foremost working with weaving. Because the art that she made was made with thread. She stopped weaving when she was older, because it was quite physically demanding, and started printmaking. Quite late in her life, she made some comments about how when you’re working on paper it’s considered art but when you thread it’s considered craft.

That legacy of dividing into art and craft has continued, even though the ethos of the Bauhaus – where Anni Albers studied – was to bring design, craft and art together. Even though that happened 100 years ago, I think we’re still just catching up! It’s really important that Tate Modern is showing that textile can be used as a fine art medium and putting it centre stage.

Black White Yellow 1926 / 1965, original 1926 (lost), re-woven by Gunta Stölzl in 1965, cotton and silk, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Everfast Fabrics Inc. and Edward C. Moore Jr. Gift, 1969 / Art resource / Scala, Florence © 2018 The J…

Black White Yellow 1926 / 1965, original 1926 (lost), re-woven by Gunta Stölzl in 1965, cotton and silk, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Everfast Fabrics Inc. and Edward C. Moore Jr. Gift, 1969 / Art resource / Scala, Florence © 2018 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/DACS, London

Could you tell us a bit about the weaving workshop in the Bauhaus?

At the Bauhaus, students took a preliminary course, then chose a workshop. We don’t know exactly how it came about but we do know that the weaving workshop became known as the women’s workshop. That women both gravitated towards it and were encouraged to take it up and discouraged from certain other disciplines. For various reasons, weaving wasn’t her first choice, but she took it up and really fell in love with it when she found her creative outlet there. And so this incredible thing happened at the weaving workshop, when these women were exploring weaving as a form of modernist art making.

The Bauhaus disbanded in the mid-1930s with the rise of National Socialism and Anni, and her husband Josef, were lucky enough to be offered to be offered teaching posts at Black Mountain College in the United States. But some of her peers were not so lucky. Otti Berger, a contemporary of Albers at the Bauhaus, unfortunately died in Auschwitz. Anni was of Jewish heritage as well. In the 1960s, she got back in touch with Gunta Stölzl, who was head of the weaving workshop, or Gunta Stölzl reached out to her, and together they recreated some of the beautiful wall-hangings from the Bauhaus era that had been lost during the war.

Going around the show, you really get a sense of how naturally experimental Anni Albers was.

I think the interesting thing about weaving is that you’ve got this quite rigid format, with the vertical warp threads that are set up on the loom, then the weft threads get woven across and through and so you’ve got this grid framework really at the heart of the endeavour. What Anni Albers’ was interested in exploring is: what can I do with that? What are the variations? What happens if you twist the warp threads? What happens if you use this technique? Or this one? She was really thinking about how to push all the possibilities.

I’d previously seen her work as photographic reproductions and it’s amazing how different they look when you see them in person.

That’s something that really comes through in textile media. We tend to privilege the visual and the optic. What comes through with textile art is that there’s this tactile and haptic register: not just what’s seen but also felt. I think Anni Albers’ work really makes you think about the tactile. She was very vocal in saying – even at the time that she was writing in the 1960s – that we were starting to lose touch with what it means to make things with our hands and she gave the example of when you go out to buy your sliced bread, it’s very different to kneading the dough to make the loaf of bread.

Study for Unexecuted Wallhanging 1926 The Josef and Anniversary Albers Foundation © 2018 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/DACS, London

Study for Unexecuted Wallhanging 1926 The Josef and Anniversary Albers Foundation © 2018 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/DACS, London

There’s something of a recent revival in weaving. Do you think it’s that desire to get back in touch with our hands?

Everything is very visual and the touchscreen fills our day. More and more, we’re all glued to our phones. Everything is communicated very visually and perhaps it’s that longing to get back to something a bit more tactile, literally a bit more homespun. Certainly, lots of a younger generation of artists seem to be making reference to Anni Albers’ work or beginning to use textiles again as part of a multimedia practice, such as Sarah Sze – whose work has recently come into the Tate’s collection.

The exhibition also emphasises Anni Albers’ wide range of cultural influences. 

When Josef and Anni came to North Carolina in the 1930s, they travelled by road down to Mexico, and they both fell in love with Mexico and Mexican culture, history and making and they made several trips to different Latin American countries, such as Peru. Anni Albers  referred to the Peruvians as her “great teachers”. She was very interested in pre-Columbian textiles, unpicking them to see how they were constructed and fascinated by the way that weaving was really the most ancient form of communication, of technology, of civilisation. To take that, to inspire her to make weaving a modern project. She’s really taking that ancient art form and making it modern.

Anni Albers, Six Prayers, 1966–1967. Cotton/linen, bast/silver, Lurex. 1861 x 2972 mm. The Jewish Museum, New York, Gift of the Albert A. List Family, JM © 2018 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/DACS, Lond…

Anni Albers, Six Prayers, 1966–1967. Cotton/linen, bast/silver, Lurex. 1861 x 2972 mm. The Jewish Museum, New York, Gift of the Albert A. List Family, JM © 2018 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/DACS, London

What would you say is Anni Albers’ masterpiece? 

The very beautiful work, Six Prayers. It was commissioned by the Jewish Museum in New York as a memorial to the holocaust. It’s beautifully constructed. There’s a kind of light that shines out of it – it really is a masterpiece.

Anni Albers is at Tate Modern until 27 January 2019. Read about a stay at the Bauhaus here.

Taxidermist Elle Kaye

In our autumn issue, we spoke to five women working with death in some way. Death needn’t be mysterious, these five women told us about their day-to-day reality and why it’s so important to talk about dying and grief. This is an extract from the feature, Elle Kaye tells us about her life as a taxidermist.

Portrait by James Stittle

Portrait by James Stittle

Elle Kaye, taxidermist

I didn’t grow up surrounded by taxidermy. I didn’t even know it could be a career. I grew up wanting to be a vet. I loved animals, but not in your typical, ‘oh that’s so cute and fluffy’ way. In a way where I felt compelled to be a part of their life, aiding them or nurturing them in some way. After some heartache in the sciences, I ended up studying fine art and sculpture. In a quest to include animals in my practice, someone suggested I try taxidermy. I was already looking at anatomical illustrations.  The harmony of science, anatomy and preservation and artistry, sculptural accuracy and model making within taxidermy, places it in both an artistic, and scientific context. Being able to use the skins in this way, presented a platform for me to learn about animals, and to teach others about them, too.

Knowing that the work I create will outlive me is a rewarding concept. It gives me a huge sense of pride and will be my legacy. I administer a dual preservative, essentially preserving the skins with two complementary techniques, so when I go to bed at night, I know the animals will be okay. This isn’t particularly textbook, and certainly not a necessity, but is more of an assurance to me.

I realise that I am operating in a sensitive sphere, with the addition that it is not a ‘commonplace’ job, so I do appreciate people may make incorrect assumptions about what I do. I experience a lot of ‘hate’. But, to devote your professional life to working with animals, recreating them for education and appreciation – you must love animals to do that. I could never kill an animal myself. 

I source all the animals I use, that way I can ensure they have been obtained legally and lawfully, are in a good condition, and aren’t carrying any transferable diseases. I receive my specimens from zoos, aviaries, sanctuaries, ornamental breeders, falconries, and farms. It’s important to me that the animals die of natural causes. It’s also essential that paperwork is provided with the specimen, so I can see the cause of death and log the specimen correctly.

A typical day for me, sees me get in to the workshop early in the morning. I’m on a farm, and the landscape is beautiful, especially in the autumn with crisp mornings and coloured trees. I store all the specimens carefully in big freezers, to prevent them from decomposing, so I will take an animal out to thaw overnight and spend the next morning skinning and cleaning it. This might involve de-fatting, on a machine, or using a beam to thin and remove the membrane on the inside of the skin. This then gets soaked, in a chronological set of baths. Either salting and pickling for mammals, or alcohol and chemical baths for birds. This is followed up with bubble baths and blow dries! Specimen dependent, I can re-freeze the skin, and spend the afternoon mounting a cleaned, thawed skin. When the animals are dry, they need airbrushing and fumigating, so this element is interweaved amongst the others. Typically, I have lots of different projects on the go. Sometimes I work off site, retrieving animals from locations across the country. 

If I could work on any specimen in the world it would be a whale – they’re my favourite animals. This would be an extremely unusual case, due to their size and lack of captivity. But, it has been done before, in Sweden. 

Nothing ‘grosses’ me out. I expect animals to have flaws and defects, just like humans. Sometimes, there are eggs still in birds, or trauma inside an animal. Prolapses, or blood clots, or shattered bone due to window death or impact.

Meet the four other women in our autumn issue.

The many colours of Guatemala

Lydia Swinscoe takes a look at the colourful history of Guatemala’s traditional clothing

Photos by Lydia Swinscoe

Photos by Lydia Swinscoe

The most colourful countries are always my favourite. I’m obsessed with India: saris and bangles in every shade, the bright turbans of the Punjab and bold marigolds, piled high in baskets on street corners. Bolivia captured my heart with pink flamingos, the enchanting street demonstrations of La Paz and decorated llamas. While Myanmar dazzled with shimmering golden pagodas, maroon robed monks and markets filled with exotic bright fruits.

My first big trip alone was to Guatemala – another of these addictively colourful countries – almost 13 years ago. Years later, I found myself back in the crumbling, colonial city of Antigua, just a few hours’ drive from Guatemala City waking up in one of the beautifully decorated rooms of Hotel Sor Juana. Surrounded by traditional Mayan fabric bedspreads made me realise how much I wanted to learn about Guatemala’s textiles, weaving and the clothing that makes this country oh-so-colourful.

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The crumbling walls of Antigua hide hundreds of secret courtyards and many places to pick up these traditional textiles. Nim Po’t Centro de Textiles Tradicionales has walls covered in huipils dating back to the 1930s and arranged by region. Huipils are worn by women all over Guatemala and are perhaps the most common item of clothing. A loose fitting tunic made from woven fabric, traditionally on a back-strap loom, they seem to be more like detailed pieces of art, rather than clothing.

Making these wearable pieces of art is an important cultural practice for Guatemalan women, young girls learn from mothers and grandmothers, not only the practice of weaving, but also designs that identify specific indigenous groups. At a time when many families live below the poverty line, the income from weaving enables many families to simply survive. Each region of Guatemala has its own designs, symbolism, colours and details, women spend months weaving them often including hidden messages and meanings. Mayan women can read information like cultural identity and religious background just by looking at another’s huipil, it’s about as far removed from the Western worlds current fixation on fast throwaway fashion as you can get.

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I wanted to see how the wonderful multi-coloured fibres made their way into beautiful geometric patterns, so I travelled to San Juan Atitlan to find out. A mountain village nestled on the shore of Lake Atitlan, (once described as the most beautiful lake in the world) it’s hard to imagine a more idyllic setting to watch the ancient art of back-strap loom weaving at work.

Not as brightly coloured as many of the neighbouring towns dress, the textiles of San Juan are dyed naturally using carrots, achote (a red seed) and tree bark. Wandering around the cobbled streets, it’s easy to find women weaving. Through open doors I see them quietly working with the back-strap loom. The loom is fairly simple, long threads are stretched between two horizontal sticks, one which is fixed to something in the house or a tree trunk, whilst the other is attached to a strap that goes around the weavers back. The cross threads can then be woven through the long threads to create patterns and symbols. Just round the corner in San Pedro, a short tuk-tuk ride from San Juan, you can sign up for weaving classes at the women’s collective, Groupo Ecologico Teixchel.

After my second trip I realised that for the women of Guatemala, traditional dress means so much more than fashion, it’s a way of life. Faced with decades of political violence and oppression during the thirty-six year long civil war, weaving and embroidery have provided an important outlet of self-expression for Mayan women. Their resilience in character can be seen in each tread of every piece.

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Modern Couples: Art, Intimacy and the Avant-garde

Photographer unknown, Rodchenko and Stepanova descending from the airplane. (for the film The General Line by Sergei Eisenstein), 1926. Courtesy Rodchenko and Stepanova Archives, Moscow

Photographer unknown, Rodchenko and Stepanova descending from the airplane. (for the film The General Line by Sergei Eisenstein), 1926. Courtesy Rodchenko and Stepanova Archives, Moscow

words: Victoria Rodrigues O’Donnell

With institutions like the Tate and National Gallery becoming more vocal about collecting and exhibiting works by women alongside projects like Katy Hessel’s The Great Women Artists Instagram account (featured in our current issue), the new exhibition at the Barbican, London, challenges our understanding of art history and women in Modernism. Showcasing the works of over 40 artist couples, ‘Modern Couples: Art, Intimacy and the Avant-garde seeks to reassess modern art and the influence of intimate collaborations on its development from the late 19th to mid-20th century. Little did I know that I would end up spending the next three hours walking through the space in enthrallment.

The modern couples in question vary from sexual orientation to location as well as artistic style and each room is dedicated to either a pair or group whose relationships inspired their creative output. It’s an understatement to call this an ambitious project, but I felt it succeeded most in shedding light on the works of women that have largely been overshadowed by their male partners and contemporaries. They even quote a reporter writing for the New York Evening Sun in 1917: "Some people think that women are the cause of Modernism, whatever that is."

Friedrich (Fritz) G Walker, Emilie Flöge in Chinese Imperial costume from the Qing Dynasty in the Gardens of the Villa Paulick in Seewalchen at Attersee 13 or 14 September 1913, 1913. IMAGNO Brandstätter Images, Vienna

Friedrich (Fritz) G Walker, Emilie Flöge in Chinese Imperial costume from the Qing Dynasty in the Gardens of the Villa Paulick in Seewalchen at Attersee 13 or 14 September 1913, 1913. IMAGNO Brandstätter Images, Vienna

Firmly established in the canon and soon to be celebrated in an exhibition at the Royal Academy, Gustav Klimt is joined here by his lifelong partner Emilie Flöge. While most of us are familiar with the legacies of Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli, Flöge’s contributions to fashion design and success as an entrepreneur remain virtually unrecognised. In 1904, Flöge opened the couture house Schwestern Flöge with her two sisters where they would sell the latest in women’s fashions and accessories. Photographs of Schwestern Flöge on display show its changing rooms decked out with designs from the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshop) – a style that would go on to influence Art Deco and Bauhaus. Flöge’s daring designs for modern women are perhaps best encapsulated by her free-flowing kaftan-esque smocks which rejected the rigidity of a corseted silhouette.

Sonia Delaunay, Stroll, 1923. Collection of V. Tsarenkov

Sonia Delaunay, Stroll, 1923. Collection of V. Tsarenkov

Other women who worked with fashion and textiles as part of their oeuvre were Sonia Delaunay and Varvara Stepanova. The latter was a key figure in Constructivism, the Russian avant-garde movement better associated with her partner, Alexander Rodchenko, while the former is known for her colourful concentric paintings and patterns. Like Klimt and Flöge, these couples were advocates of art and design being integrated in all aspects of life. Although he dabbled with Neo-Impressionism, Robert Delaunay’s committed revolt against conventional painting methods and interest in colour theory would ultimately impact on his wife Sonia’s approach to designs for other mediums such as textiles, theatre and interiors.

In the wake of the Russian Revolution in 1917, Stepanova and Rodchenko were similarly dedicated to design that would be both decorative and functional. In the words of their collaborator and friend Vladimir Mayakovsky, “the streets shall be our brushes, the squares our palettes”. Not content with the limited reach of creating book covers, posters or photomontages, Stepanova moved her focus onto designing clothes for the everyday proletariat, concentrating on flexibility and dynamism – think bold colours, geometric shapes and chevron. 

Queer love, particularly between women, is at the centre of a section entitled ‘Chloe Liked Olivia’. Referring to a line from Virginia Woolf’s seminal essay A Room of One’s Own, this ‘exhibition within the exhibition’ is devoted to the female artists and writers drawn to Paris’ Left Bank in the 1920s. The display features personal letters, photographs and publications capturing the intellectual and erotic exchanges between the women who moved within these circles. For over 60 years, Natalie Clifford-Barney, nicknamed ‘the Amazon’, ran a weekly literary salon frequented by the likes of Sylvia Beach, Gertrude Stein, and Djuna Barnes as well as Colette, Jean Cocteau and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Paintings by Romaine Brooks, her long-term partner, line the walls of the circular space and epitomise her distinct use of a monochrome palette. 

Claude Cahun, Self-portrait (reflected image in mirror, checked jacket), 1928. Courtesy of Jersey Heritage Collections

Claude Cahun, Self-portrait (reflected image in mirror, checked jacket), 1928. Courtesy of Jersey Heritage Collections

The significance of Woolf’s Orlando and its dedication to her lover Vita Sackville-West are also explored in the display. Inspired by this affair, Woolf wrote in her diary that the novel is “a biography beginning in the year 1500 and continuing to the present day, called Orlando. Vita; only with a change about from one sex to the other.” Moving fluidly throughout time and gender, Orlando continues to be just as transgressive as it was when first published 90 years ago.

Elements of the display reappear elsewhere in the exhibition, like the room dedicated to Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore. Spanning across 40 years, Cahun and Moore’s relationship was already established when Cahun’s mother married Moore’s father in 1917. The two would go on to challenge gender stereotypes via experimental photography and collage throughout the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s. The importance of mirrors, queer desire and subverting traditional notions around female vanity feature heavily in the couple’s work and are echoed in Cahun’s surrealist autobiography: “I am one, you are the other. Or the opposite. Our desires meet one another.”

From the tempestuous and obsessive to the intimate and tender, I was still contemplating all the ways in which art and love weave into one another during my tube ride home. ‘Modern Couples’ is a superb celebration of what can arise when these two coalesce; forging new paths into the unknown and shaping modern art as we know it.

Modern Couples: Art, Intimacy and the Avant-garde is at the Barbican until 27 January 2019.

Feminists don't wear pink

We are devouring Scarlett Curtis’s new book: Feminists Don’t Wear Pink & Other Lies. It’s a collection of essays by 52 women on what feminism means to them. In her words, “I made this book for my 15-year-old self.” So we asked the activist and writer to tell us more about it and recommend her top five feminist books.

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In the 1970s, the phrase ‘CLICK moment’ became widely used to describe the moment when a woman or girl stumbled across their feminist awakening. I like using this phrase in the context of modern feminism as I think, for so many young women today, their ‘click’ moments happen on the internet where a wealth of feminist dialogue and interpretation is simply a ‘click’ away. Despite the growing online bubble of feminist talk, my own feminist awakening came about through reading books. I love the internet but I find the mass amount of feminist thought out there a little bit overwhelming at times. As soon as I’ve read something I agree with I will click on a completely opposing opinion and find myself agreeing with that too. Then I fall into an endless wormhole of fighting and agreeing and liking and hash-tagging.

There’s something beautiful about the sanctity of feminist writing that is held within the pages of a book. It pulls its reader toward a quiet moment on a Sunday, where one can sit and lounge for hours with a highlighter and a brand new book and work their way through the pages without being interrupted by the madness of online activity.

My feminist reading began at around 16 and since then I have taken a four-year degree in women’s social movements and collected a hefty bookshelf of books that I love, hate, and love to hate.

For the past year and a half I’ve been attempting to create something that might earn it’s own place on this shelf. I could never have written a feminist book on my own, so this book is a collection of essays by 52 women on what feminism means to them. It’s called Feminists Don’t Wear Pink & other lies and its contributors range from activists (Dr. Alaa Murabit, Trisha Shetty, Emi Mahmoud) to Hollywood actresses (Keira Knightley, Gemma Arterton, Saoirse Ronan) to fictional characters (Bridget Jones!). I also include ten teenage girls, all of whom understand feminism and activism in a way that is innate and natural and wonderful. All the royalties are gong to an incredible charity called Girl Up and while the book is by no means perfect I’m hoping it’s worthy of its place next to some of my other favourite feminist texts.

If you buy the book, I hope you like it and I hope it might encourage you to take your feminist reading further. Below are five of my favourite feminist books (Feminists Don’t Wear Pink not included).

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
The first book on feminism I ever read (I didn’t know there were any others!) and still a complete masterpiece. It’s a fascinating insight into early 20th century women and also in some ways entirely timeless.

This Bridge Called My Back curated by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa
An incredible feminist anthology and one of the major inspirations for Feminists Don’t Wear Pink. A collection of writing by 31 women of colour and one of the leading texts in the intersectional feminist movement of the 1980s.

Headscarves and Hymens by Mona Eltahawy
This 2015 book by journalist Mona Eltahawy was my first deep introduction to Muslim feminism, which is topic that is far too often misunderstood and appropriated by white women. The book touches on both misogyny in the Arab world and also the West’s misunderstanding of Muslim feminism. It’s a tough but brilliant read.

Feminism is for Everybody by bell hooks
Simply put, feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.” this quote by hooks continues to be my primary definition of feminism to this day and her book of essays Feminism is for Everybody is an incredible example of hook’s unparalleled skill at translating the true goals of the feminist movement. Buy this one for the men in your life and keep your eye on them to make sure they read it!

My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem
A less academic offering by feminist superhero Gloria Steinem, this book was one of the first things that made me want to commit my life to activism. Written in the style of a memoir it spans Steinem’s life of campaigning and if you weren’t already a fan of the 84-year-old wonder women then this book will make you one.

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Feminists Don’t Wear Pink & Other Lies is out now. Follow Scarlett on Instagram for motivation and activism @scarcurtis. You can also read Scarlett’s What I Stand For feature in issue 41.

The Other Art Fair – Not 30%

Did you know that 60% of art graduates are women, yet in gallery representation, museum collections and exhibitions, the presence of women artists amounts to a maximum of 30%, often far less. To mark its 30th edition, The Other Art Fair is launching a second site dedicated to showcasing women artists. ‘Not 30%’ is part exhibition, part protest against the male dominated art world. And we’re delighted to spot some names who have also featured on the pages of Oh Comely over the years, including illustrator Hattie Stewart and taxidermist Elle Kaye (who tells us about her art in our latest issue). We caught up with the exhibition’s curator, Kate Bryan, to find out more about the line-up of women artists and why it’s so important to support them.

Untitled by Elle Kaye

Untitled by Elle Kaye

Where did the idea for Not 30% come from? I love The Other Art Fair and have always been a big fan of its democratic, fun attitude to art. When they asked me to curate a section to celebrate their 30th edition and present 30 artists, the numbers spoke for themselves. At best women get only 30% representation in the art world. I am a big champion of women artists and so this was a natural way for me to go.


How did you pick the artists involved? Will their work have a thread of protest running through it?
Everyone in Not 30% applied to be in the fair, I then selected them and shaped the format and the idea. There are quite a few of the artists who make work which is explicitly feminist but it’s not a prerequisite. We just wanted to make a statement in a safe space – The Other Art Fair has always been equal and diverse with its artists so it’s a nice position to make this kind of statement together.

Yellow Taxi by Alice de Miramon

Yellow Taxi by Alice de Miramon

What is the highlight of Not 30% for you? The highlight will be the moment when everyone is set up ready, and the doors are just about to open. I can’t wait for that buzz in the air, the artists ready, the art up and the sense of anticipation. It’s a great feeling for lots of people to get behind the same statement.


How do you hope it will inspire other women artists?
I hope it makes them feel like we have their back. We are starting to get somewhere in the art world, things are changing, I just want to play my part to hurry things up.

Sailing to Dia by Lori Cuisinier

Sailing to Dia by Lori Cuisinier

We hear that Femme Fatale will be doing a pop-up tattoo studio, tell us more… Tattoo artist Emily Malice will be tattooing. She’s created a flash sheet of new designs just for the fair. There’s no booking necessary – just turn up and get inked! 

Emily Malice will be tattooing at the exhibition

Emily Malice will be tattooing at the exhibition

Tattoos still often get negative press, has the idea caused any controversy? I think given that the context is the art world where anything goes, it’s a bit easier, but I agree that tattoos are still taboo which is crazy, it’s 2018!


Do you think, perhaps, tattoos are the ultimate form of protest art?
I think they can be – take someone passionate, intelligent and with a statement to make. A placard is one thing, a tattoo is next level.

Checkers by Hattie Stewart

Checkers by Hattie Stewart

Not 30% is on until 7 October 2018 at The Old College, Old Central St Martins, Southampton Row, London. View the artists here saatchiart.com/30.