1.

"Untamed Fashion Assembly"
Screenshots from a documentary about the untamed fashion show festival in Riga, Latvia that ran from 1990- 1999

WATCH the documentary here:

Some quotes:

"international event; exchange of people and ideas is vital"

"i was inspired by mountaineers, skiers, motorcyclists"

"Latvia, a small state in the Soviet Union in a time when basic goods were unavailable, the festival continued to grow"

"a roll of fax paper would cost one month's salary"

"Soviet Union never permitted a fashion industry, most people made their own"

"theatre influence, unlimited fantasy, humour and wit, all so serious in the west"

-sculptors making clothes by using cheap materials-

"looks like expensive dutch satins on the catwalk but is really basic lining materials"

"fooled us"

"when the clothes are off you realise they are made out of absolutely nothing, the effects they are getting out of these hideous fabrics is amazing"

The untamed fashion show is the most playful and fun presentation of a fashion show I have ever come across. It is also the first time I have seen footage from a 90s fashion show in Northern Europe and I now plan to seek out more art and culture from Latvia. The documentary presents the designers and makers from Russia and former Soviet Empire states making humorous and witty collections out of the materials available to them; the materials did not need to be expensive or high quality to produce extravagant collections and performances at the festival.

A few of my favourite collections shown in the video include: Ironic Angels; Botanical Ballet; Shit & Piss and Collection on the Beach. Sandra Straukaite is a designer from Lithuania who made both collections 'Shit & Piss' and 'Collection on the Beach' in 1992. The former is inspired by mountaineers, skiers and motorcyclists but when I watch the models perform on the catwalk I think they look like bugs and the choreography involves hopping and jumping around, moving in lines like a chain of ants or as part of a mechanism. I may be thinking this because I have also recently re-watched Pixar 'Bug's Life' which had an impression on me and could still be sieving through my mind. I like the idea of being inspired to make clothes by different movers especially extreme sports or people who travel at speed and become the activity they are doing..... a person in their ski kit or costume become a skier and then imagining how a group of hybrid skier-mountainee-motorcyclist models, wearing a fashion collection might move around on a catwalk! - and using their whole bodies and the full space on the stage rather than the focus being on a 'walk' alone.

Sanda Straukaite's 'Collection on the Beach' involves sculptural clothes and looks like kites attached to the body as a form of beach ware. As they parade around the beach the wind catches them and brings the kites to life dancing around the bodies. This moment reminds me of a section in the Eva Hesse documentary where Eva and fellow artists travel to the countryside to make wearable sculptures to put on a sculptural parade. This is an idea I want to pursue soon especially now i have realised I am excited by fashion and sculptural clothes. These documentaries have also made me curious to making outdoors on a beach or in the grass and open air and how the temperature and weather effects what you are making.

Interviewees in the documentary describe the designers and performers from former Soviet Union states as having a "theatre influence, unlimited fantasy, humour and wit" and this being striking to them because fashion is "all so serious in the west"

Julia Zileniene from Lithuania was a student at Vilnius Academy of Arts and uses cut out forms, hessian and basketry weaving to make a playful reflection on Lithuanian's national dress. (second image on the right above)

2.

A kite in the local park

3.

Making clothes with India: using cotton and left over food for natural dyes including hibiscus tea and avocado stones for your pinks. And turmeric for a bright yellow and mood lifter.

Recycling fabrics from my own old clothes and clothes dropped off outside by friends moving out of London during the lockdown

Creating prints together by drawing onto naturally dyed fabrics with inks, starting at different sides of the fabric and working upside down on top and underneath

I am feeling very inspired by the untamed fashion assembly documentary to make from what I already have and especially when spending so much time in the place I am living I am being resourceful and seeing everything as a potential material to make something with.

Thinking about the 'Collection on the Beach' in the untamed fashion assembly (where beach wear was being a kite because the beach is often windy) and making strange outfits for future functions.