Cult Gaia. Fall 2022
If there is a period in time that we are currently rhyming with, in using the great American writer Mark Twain's quote that "no occurrence is sole and solitary, but is merely a repetition of a thing which has happened before, and perhaps often", it would be the late 1970's and early 1980's. Of its similarity of political, global and economic turmoil. Yes, a pandemic did set this off, but we may all have been moving in that direction regardless, as our finite resources under climate climate are beginning to bite. Very much like the 1970's oil crisis and stagflation, in which the mid 1980's had that terrible scourge of the AIDS virus, three decades later it may have seemed that humanity's hope in technological advancements and globalized stability would guide us, could be said was all but an illusion.
Fashion in the last decade has been flirting with that said period of the 1970's hedonism and 1980's excesses, by inserting the Studio 54 days of cocaine parties, disco and one night stands. Yet, we have all become so much more conservative in the 21st Centaury, despite recopying the elements of the risque and recklessness as a prepacked simulacrum relayed through our social media channels. It certainly feels less original and distinct as a aesthetical reworking, however I’ve always found it fascinating when a designer attempts to invoke the Eros of the last four decades and glamour of a period when nuclear annihilation could have happened at any point.
Does all this sound doomdayish? Maybe, but being close to the edge of destruction can and in most cases push the creative to new heights, stress when channeled into the arts can prolificate change, as we all await a counter culture that still remains illusive. Is Jasmin Larian Hekmat's Cult Gaia a sign? The name of her brand offers at least some clues in its semantics and so does the styles.
Cult Gaia's Fall 2022 lookbook collection was shot over a desert backdrop, which feels out of place for an array of satin cocktail and thigh high slip dresses, however it does, paradoxically tie in with an unforgivable natural landscape. That sweet spot of that cult of appeal, which was 1979 and 1983 shines through with Hekmat's latest collection, showing to the world that it is at ease with itself and effortlessness in the styles presented, despite the turmoil. Maybe we all should a visit that cocktail lounge at the end-of-the-world.
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A.Glass 2022
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