A
Courtesy Federico Protto. Photographer: Katharina Reckendorfer
B
Courtesy Yamuna Forzani
C
Courtesy EUROHOBBYS
D
Courtesy GARB. Photographer: Djeneba Aduayom
E
Courtesy 1.4.1.3 Photographer: Sofiya Vetryakova
F
Courtesy Federico Protto. Photographer: Katharina Reckendorfer
G
Courtesy GARB. Photographer: Djeneba Aduayom
H
Courtesy GARB. Photographer Djeneba Aduayom
I
Courtesy Yamuna Forzani. Photographer: Sydney Rahimtoola
J
Courtesy GARB. Photographer Djeneba Aduayom
K
Courtesy Yamuna Forzani. Photographer: Sydney Rahimtoola

Fashion for junkies of the constant update: five designers from around the world operating out of Instagram by @m_j_c

, 15 November 2017
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‘Arrrrgggh! I’m soooo envious!! I would have soooo loved to style that jacket 😍😂😎I wish i could buy one. Have I seen this before? I love it. Piece of art! 👊🏼🔥WANT 😭I LIVE for it Oh yes! Oh yes! Oh yessss! 💕beeeyooooooond sick! dope 🆒 this is lit 🔥🔥💯💯💯🎉amazing denim! And the pink jacket….omg it’s soooo beautiful!!! You are a true artist!!! 😍😍😍😍This looks like PG @nastyneckface1 How much? Oooooo! Deeeeesire!! sk3lz0n3fir3 Ok woow I love your stuff’

Courtesy Yamuna Forzani. Photographer: Sydney Rahimtoola

The international, virtually mediated fashion scene is based on staging, affirmation, imagination, hypothetical possession and longing. The commodity itself has steadily become ephemeral, the process matters more than a finished product, an object’s duration has been compressed. The five artist-designers featured below are creating their own rules, all the while perceiving their garments as energetic artefacts, costumes, or performance kits. Their work involves questions of purposelessness, social norms, concepts of winning and losing, or shamanistic utopia.

Alongside textile design, performative acts, graphics and typography, the two makers of EUROHOBBYS coming from graphic design and art theory have also invented their own language that functions as an additional tool, establishing a zone which promises options for moving beyond the functional rules of the familiar game of commercial advertising. The creation of new meaning is not meant to effectively communicate nor to be understood, it is permanently morphing. Our high-speed consumption patterns are based on the constant update, as the scholar Wendy Hui Kyong Chun explains. She elaborates on the concept of the phantom vibration syndrome, which can be compared to our experience of using Instagram: the compulsion to repetitively check for an update, which stems from continuous expectation. We have become junkies of the update, gradually levitating from habituation, to addiction, to elusive novelty.

Users apply and rewrite narrative codes prescribed by designers. It has become routine to customize and appropriate infrastructure and modes of usage. These voluntary actions have a collective effect, operating globally to create traces, anticipate and shape consumption, forging an interplay between user and maker. Visibility and emotions transformed into a crowdsourced storyline are connected to the process of value appreciation. Co-creation makes us feel both potent and related to others, while emphasizing the collaborative nature of knowledge.

Read on for Instagram-sourced statements and descriptions of some designers to scroll through:

Courtesy 1.4.1.3

1.4.1.3 (London)

1.4.1.3 is the multisex brand bringing crazy neon-infused clothing for you to move your feet and body. Merging fashion with performance and encouraging freedom of expression, we aim for unique sustainable products at affordable prices that fit everyone.

Performance also plays a big role in in the creation process — we always try to present the pieces in a certain way, bringing the garment into a situation or story to set it alive. We tend to exaggerate our narratives to question social norms in a dumb and funny way.”

EUROHOBBYS (Kassel)

“Was sind EUROHOBBYS? LUL. NITS! Again and again like being in a loop, we play. Constantly working on our processes while reusing our own graphics produced in former projects – e.g. for posters, 2D or digital. Another version, in a new impression, a new joy of perception. Engaging differently with materials and surfaces. What we produce depends on the tension between our personalities. Physical and mental differences and dynamics. Where are u in life right now? But in 1 sense, everything that we’ve done and produced so far was more for us than to offer anybody something. We are on stage, in our own costumes, playing our hobbies seriously. EUROHOBBYS was born out of this intention in 2015. The next EUROHOBBYS collections will be influenced by distances. Let NITS be pls 100 – thanksy!”

Courtesy GARB. Photographer: Djeneba Aduayom

GARB (Los Angeles/Tokyo)

“GARB is an American fashion laboratory founded by creative director Jacob Garber. Launched in 2016 with the vision to create collectible creations rendered meticulously using reclaimed vintage garments, the result is boundary-pushing GARB that embraces the sustainability and restorative powers of the law of nature.

GARB has developed a conceptually strong aesthetic, equal parts experimental and underground-inspired. Each item is individually sourced, finished by hand, and reincarnated with the intention of reclaiming new life for a new era. The essence of GARB manifests itself through this restorative process. In both concept and craft, it is a tribute to the universal truth of evolution through revolution.”

Yamuna Forzani (Den Haag)

If I would have to put myself in a box, I don’t really consider myself an artist or a designer but more of a networker. I think we can be it all, if we want to. When I make things, I think my three main design principles are:

Coexistence, which refers to my politics, values and optimism.
Collaboration — I think working together is the key; lifting each other up and supporting one another to create beautiful things. It’s a driving force.
Colour — where I have fun, and can express myself.

Apart from creating things, my main goal is to bring people together and that’s why ballroom and voguing is so important to me.”

Courtesy Yamuna Forzani

Federico Protto (Vienna)

Uruguay-born Italian fashion designer, Federico Protto studied at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna. He worked for Marques Almeida, London, and Hildur Yeoman in Reykjavík.

“My favorite God is HERMES. My design is: 1) made with LOVE, new-theatrical, eclectic – ELECTRIC 2) spiritual artifacts 3) aiming at FREE SPIRITS & WILD ELEGANCES & HOBO SHAMANISM.

Relevant, timeless: 1) mythology of princess EUROPA 2) COW & CHICKEN 3) JOSEPH BEUYS 4) GAUCHOS transformed into GENDERFLUID UTOPIA 5) believe in ART!”**

 

@_m_j_c_ is a Cologne-based Instagram-addicted artist.