lNo.4| Ouctober 2020 sh. YOUR CITIZEN BY SIMONE DI SALVO TWIN FLAME - FASHION DIALOGUE lush. Editor-in-chief Iason Raissis Art Director Elisabetta Mako Editor-at-Large Terry Raissis Street Style Editor Athina Krizel Runway & Global Editor Iris Zimble Archive Editor Fivos Dimitrakopoulos Global Editor Laura Lamberti lushbyir.org/magazine THE OCTOBER SELECTION lushbyir.org | 02 Editorial 04 Cover Story 08 Photographer's Eye 13 Global Industry 15 Opinions 17 Archive lushbyir.org | 1 In Memoriam of The Man Who Embraced Diversity in Fashion Kenzo Takada. By Terry Raissis Kenzo died on Sunday, October 4, at the age of 81. Born in Japan, he was the first to introduce the Japanese culture into fashion and his work paved the way for dozens of other Japanese designers, such as Yohji Yamamoto και Rei Kawakubo. With his extraordinary talent, he created a new aesthetic that transcended borders, colors, and cultures, "embraced" diversity, was not afraid to innovate and influenced an entire generation. Kenzo was born on February 27, 1939 on Honsu island and from a very young age showed his love of fashion. He studied at Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo and his talent was quickly recognized. But his real contact with haute-couture took place in 1965 in Paris, which fascinated him ever since. He started his career in Paris by selling sketches of his designs to fashion houses, for 25 francs each. He saved money, working as a stylist, to create his first collection. Shortly afterwards, one of his designs makes cover on ELLE magazine. This legend of Japanese fashion was the first to harmoniously combine Japanese and Western cultures and worked with great success for the theatre and cinema. His designs were best known for their asymmetrical forms, while avoiding (the obvious) seams and zippers, pre-judging more free designs. Kenzo's creations stood-out for their wide sleeves, which gave volume to the clothes, while the colors and designs aimed to surprise. EDITORIAL lushbyir.org | 2 Since 1993, the “Kenzo” brand is owned by the French luxury goods company LVMH. In 1999, Kenzo announced his retirement from the fashion world to test his skills in the field of art and interior design. Since 2011, the artistic directors of the house are Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, who are also its chief designers. The Flower by Kenzo, the famous fragrance released in 2000, was listed by Vogue's website as one of the best classic French fragrances of all time. In 2016, Kenzo was honored by the French government with the Legion of Honor medal for his contribution to the fashion and design industry. Kenzo made history as the designer who made "fashion for all", since as he himself told the New York Times in 1972: "Fashion is not for the few. It is for all people. We shouldn't take it so seriously”. EDITORIAL lushbyir.org | 3 Editor: Laura Lamberti Media: YOUR CITIZEN YOUR CITIZEN by Simone Di Salvo Émile Zola once said that “The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.” These are the words that come to my mind as I sit across from Simone Di Salvo in my small kitchen in central Rome, setting up the recording for what I believe to be this artist’s first interview. Di Salvo does indeed have a gift, but unlike the numerous artists who have always known they had a calling, a proclivity for art, he discovered his gift and passion as a result of an obligation to engage in it. After only a couple of years, Di Salvo, who wholeheartedly dedicated himself to this newly discovered gift of his, is able to boast various recognitions in international art competitions, a well- established art page on social media, a brand of his own, and various commissioned projects among which one involving one of the renowned theaters of the Italian capital. L.L. : “Talk to me about your artistic project. How did you get into the art world, how did it evolve from solely drawing, to entering the universe of graphic design and in addition to this experimenting with fashion?” S.D.S. : “I was never aware of the fact that I had any artistic inclination, until I was forced to take art classes as part of my high school curriculum. Witnessing myself develop a set of skills, a style, I realized it was something I wanted to pursue. In the last few months of high school I got the chance to exhibit some of my first works, and consequently got the chance to see how people interacted with it. Seeing that motivated me; it made me aware of the fact that people who did not know me were nonetheless interested in my art, legitimizing my view of my work as that; art. I then started developing my goals and started illustrating in one -line.” L.L. : “The choice to start showcasing your art came pretty early on, and the means through which you decided to expose your work was through a social media page, is that right?” COVER STORY lushbyir.org | 4 S.D.S. : “Yes, I opened the YOURCITIZEN Instagram page pretty early on. That’s my art name. It started a little like it did for Banksy. I started creating stickers with my original drawings and hiding them around school. No one knew where these stickers came from, or who made them, because I signed them as YOURCITIZEN. The message I was trying to get across was that the person disseminating these bits and pieces of art was among them, but they didn’t have to know who it was, because it didn’t matter. People started getting curious and I found myself playing a little bit of a psychological game.” Di Salvo’s YOURCITIZEN page soon gathered a considerable following, giving him the exposure that then led him to the next steps in his artistic career, namely collaborations with other artists and the founding of the homonymous minimalist fashion brand. L.L. : “Would you say that there is a connection between the name and the tone of your art? Your art is very human, extremely relatable, but at the same time, it often consists of one- line, which results in the figures’ facial structure not being extremely delineated. Do you see a connection to the universality of the name YOURCITIZEN?” S.D.S. : “I think that there is definitely a connection there. I mainly draw faces, I am fascinated by facial expressions, but typically when you see a face as a portrait, or in realistic cartoon form, you can identify that that’s a face straight away. The one-line technique on the other hand, opens up the viewer’s imagination, because it forces the viewer to piece together the fragments to, to create the whole. Even if it only takes one additional millisecond, that’s what makes it stick, what makes it a good drawing. I think it is the norm for people to relate to paintings, drawings, illustrations at an emotional level. Art does that, it transmits emotion, but very few works have the ability to ignite the viewer’s imagination. That is precisely what I want to do.” And as Di Salvo passionately speaks about how meaningful it is to him to see viewers interact with his art, I cannot help but think of an interactive art installation I stumbled across at the Fábrica de Arte Cubano in Havana, where multiple senses were awakened by the use of fragrances, live music, and dancing as part of the exhibition. I ask him if he would ever consider diving into this field of interactive art himself, and as he takes a drag of his vape, he shakes his head and explains that while there is a possibility of him following the path of interactive installations, he would focus on interaction through the use of technology in the world of graphic design. “There are a lot of 3D creations and installations that are based on the overlap of sound and movement and I think that could be the next step in my art.” COVER STORY lushbyir.org | 5 L.L. : “There is one aspect of your art we haven’t addressed yet. We followed your development until your social media page. From there you launched your own brand, what prompted that switch?” S.D.S.: “That was a dream. I always dreamed of wearing pieces created by me, which truly spoke to me. I wanted something that could fit my personality, my minimalist style, so I decided to stop dreaming and start creating. It’s not about the money or the approval, it’s about the message I’m getting across. What I want from this endeavor is to be able to walk around and see people I don’t know wearing my clothing; to have people relate to it. As you will have noticed I do not advertise the brand excessively, that’s because I want to preserve the niche nature of the audience, I want the customers to have sought out the pieces.” L.L. : “Independently of the degree to which you want to focus on advertising the fashion brand itself, exposure for a new talent like you is essential. What is your advice to other budding artists who are seeking exposure, who look to have their works showcased?” S.D.S. : “When it comes to exposure, contests are an incredible asset. My following increased significantly after receiving the Honorable Mention at the London International Creative Competition. And the following you gain from competitions like the LICC is a type of following focused on the technique, on the style, not simply on how aesthetically pleasing a work is.