Fax it To Me

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I really shouldn't be trying to make sense of all of this just before I get on a flight back home from Montreal but I just couldn't resist.  When a person puts in at least 14 pretty pastel shades in one email (mind you… normally different text colours in emails are plain annoying…) and sends me through imagery that casts me back to so many different things that are obscure to those that haven't been awash with Far East Asian tidbits, I felt compelled to get this out there before I go crazy on a flight thinking about things like… random TVB and Japanese/Korean TV series, poor CGI in said series and a plethora of anime that got the Cantonese import treatment…

Jen Fang is originally from Taiwan and now works in Tokyo.  She studied briefly at ESMOD in Paris as well as La Cambre in Belgium and then she moved to Tokyo to work with Mikio Sakabe on his label.  Believing that turning 30 meant she had to 'do' something, she has now started label Jenny Fax, derived from her own name as well as a pink fax machine that kept popping up in a recurring dream.  Dream is a good transition to describe her lookbook images which are less than conventional to say the least in ALL respects… some of you may see why I mentioned some of the things that were popping into my head…

Making sense of her collection 'I Am Me' isn't a simple task even when supplied with imagery, moodboards and concept text… Fang talks of a 'gray zone' and grey as a colour and that people who stay in this 'zone' are seemingly like wallflowers but actually they have more pressure than most to stand out and that they must use their 'weak pink weapon to explode and to fight for themselves.'  Nope… this isn't making sense to me either other than we're dealing with feminine heroics and repressed aggression… something to do with sentences that begin with "It's always the quiet ones that…" perhaps…

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Kasagi

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Jf try out 23

Wedding

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The following moodboards adds a few more strands.  Girls who don't know how to weld a weapon or are forced into situations of battle/struggle.  Setsuko from Grave of the Fireflies takes it to an even more chaste/innoncent level.  The lookbook images above with their deeply manipulated soft focus photography, some very bizarre photoshopped in backgrounds and a group of models that could well form the cast of a slightly surreal cult Japanese TV series that may or may not have existed all seem to decisively overturn conventions.  I doubt comments such as 'Oh these are so PRETTY!' or 'Cuuuuute' or going to be popping up on the post… not because the clothes don't belong to those adjectives but because the narrative of the images is so distinctive and above all, intriguing…

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I still can't really get my head round it all but just to say that I'm having a trip just cramming it all into my pea brain and that it is making me think of a slew of things that perhaps shouldn't be thought of simultaneously is good enough for me.  Beyond all the above though, this first Jenny Fax collection is available to buy online if you're practised in Japanese and taking away the soft focus from the clothes does leave you with things that are indeed pretty/cute… t-shirts embroidered with flowered roses, a gradiated black denim shirt, a prettified take on camoflage – a pattern I've NEVER been able to figure into the wardrobe and a lace all in one onesie that is definitely proposing a practical bridal alternative… or a fake bride, who's on a getaway mission with a bubble gum gun…

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JUMPSUIT MA-1„ÄÄLIGHT


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T-SHIRT-BLUE T-shirtyel

Flower1 Flower2

27 comments

  3. Finally, a look book that doesn’t sell sex. What does this sell? Bizarreness? Fantasy? Whimsical Violence? This reminds me of the movie Hausu… though admittedly a bit more benign. Check it out, there’s a lot of awesome fashion moments in the movie, and it’s a great feast of the bombastically bizarre. I predict you’ll like it…
    Here’s just a sample:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfHmX61CY0c&feature=related

  5. that first picture actually made me think of setsuko!
    very interesting concept and i do like the clothes

  7. wow, this collection is such a wild mix of so many things, military jackets and pretty pink guns (how weird this sounds), and then there are these blue and yellow roses, which might seem bizarre at first, but after looking into it, it all sort f comes together and makes sense
    vasilieva
    http://elenavasilieva.blogspot.com/
    xxx

  9. I love a lot of things about this collection especially since the last photo from the look book looks like a crazy Charlie’s Angels. I like the gown because it looks rugged and elegant. I also agree it looks fresh and new.
    JD
    http://iplayfaves.blogspot.com

  18. Wow… one of those situations where I’m not even going pretend to understand what the artist was attempting to convey. After looking at the lookbook I was expecting the clothes to be really “wow” but well…they weren’t. It seems like more creative energy and artistic vision went into the lookbook than the actual clothes. I understand how the two go together but surely the clothes should be the real priority?? That seems to be happening alot lately or is it just me??

  23. I am in love with the images, they are like a candy flossed version of Shuji Terayama’s work, thanks for sharing this with us!
    and the dip bleached denim jacket is just phenomenal! The way it has been dip bleached on the bottom part, but still has the stone washed puckered seams is amazing and I would love to know how this was washed to achieve the end look. Very interesting.

  24. what the hell is going on here? i like it. except for maybe that sock garter action that looks exactly like mine! ha. i do love all of this though.

  25. I agree with you. Here we know that our life have to have new thought, new type. New details can provide new really feel and new expertise to us. Just like your blog, it take me to some new state. It is so wonderful that I can not leave.

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