7 October 2019

For His Eyes Only: The Women of James Bond


 
Let’s get this out of the way first: I am a long-time fan of the James Bond films. I can enjoy watching a Bond movie, even a bad one, for the thrill of an action movie that falls safely away from a blockbuster. I am okay with certain Bond movie clichés and stereotypes. But I have to admit that, as a cinephile, whenever a great new Bond movie arrives or just an interesting element of surprise occurs in the narrative, I rejoice. It happened with On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), the first disruption in the narrative tradition in the series that allowed 007 to function as a human being with fragile emotions. It happened again with the darker, grittier, less fun and less far-fetched Licence to Kill (1989), introducing a Bond (Timothy Dalton) that is tougher but also more realistic and humane. It happened once more with Casino Royale (2006), which went on to become my all-time favourite, again a different type of Bond film, with a story anchored in reality, and with a Bond who would once again be darker, sharper and edgier, but also more humane than the earlier Bonds, except for Timothy Dalton. And it happened with every Bond girl that went against the type, that is every Bond girl with her own past, future and present agenda.

For His Eyes Only: The Women of James Bond, edited by Lisa Funnell, and published by Columbia University Press, is an anthology of essays that offers a scholarly look at the representation of women in the Bond universe. It is not the first scholarly work about the women of James Bond, having been predated by cultural historian Robert A. Caplen‘s “Shaken & Stirred: The Feminism of James Bond”, released in 2010, and which I have yet to read. The Funnell book offers several essays by multiple authors, who are analysing the roles played by Bond girls, Judi Dench’s “M” and Moneypenny throughout the years and in the life of 007. The result is less objective than I would have expected from an academic study and somewhat redundant, repetitive and condescendant to serve as an open and constructive discussion about female representation, complexity and evolution in the Bond franchise.

Don’t get me wrong. I am all for non-archetypal female characters in Bond movies. After all, I have repeatedly written about female characters who have challenged the portrayal of the Bond girl as a one-dimensional lust object and/or collateral damage. They are the ones who have made a lasting impression, distinguishing themselves through a lot more than skin and looks – although they had the looks, too, alright. They are in a league of their own, rather a real match for Bond instead of helpless side-kicks: Eva Green in Casino Royale, Carey Lowell in Licence to Kill, Carole Bouquet in For Your Eyes Only or Naomie Harris and her alt Bond girl in Skyfall – she may be the only one who has proven that she can capture Bond’s attention (and hold it) regardless of any hierarchy or sexual politics, which is why it is somehow hard to comprehend Lisa Funnell’s criticism on the treatment of women in Skyfall.

But, mind you, being a Bond fan, this is not to say that I disregard by any means all the other Bond girls who have populated the 007 movies and their influence. And I understand why, for some, Ursula Andress will always remain the epitome of the Bond girl. Especially that the Bond girl formulaic drivel is churned out just as frequently as the seduction game appears as a two-way street, with Bond girls being the hunters and 007 the prey just as much as the other way around. And especially that, if you look closer, there’s much more than what meets the eye to even the most typical of Bond girls. And the best argument comes from this very book. In her essay, “Designing Character: Costume, Bond Girls, and Negotiating Representation”, Andrea J. Severson makes an in-depth analysis of costume design and character for the first Bond film, Dr. No, and Ursula Andress’ archetypal Bond girl, Honey Rider, and for Casino Royale and Eva Green’s Bond girl of a new era, Vesper Lynd. Although the great rhetorical effectiveness of Vesper Lynd’s costumes has often been documented, by myself included, the apt study of Honey Rider, in relation to her costumes, is not only about the first writing I have come across so far that brings into discussion the complexity and duality of her clothes (famed bikini included, as it turns out that its connotations go beyond the mere male gaze and that it was specifically designed to mitigate a different kind of effect, too, as it was intentionally given a threatening edge by the creative team by positioning the dagger on her hip, in close proximity to her hand, ready to be used to defend herself), but a fair-minded opinion that the book otherwise often times lacks.

“For His Eyes Only: The Women of James Bond” should be more of a conversation starter and less of an interpretation as fact. If, as a culture, we’d make it a practice to censor character behaviour in movies, as I was writing in my piece, Women in the World of Film, in The Artbo magazine, by trying to accommodate every opinion, by trying to be as tolerant as possible, by trying not to get anybody offended, we would not have any artistic diversity and freedom of expression, and we wouldn’t have movies that make us think and that ask for long-due social change either.

Posted by classiq in Books, Film | | Comments Off on For His Eyes Only: The Women of James Bond
1 October 2019

La Gomera: In Conversation with Costume Designer Dana Păpăruz

Rodica Lazăr as Magda in “La Gomera”, 2019 | 42 km Film

 

On a little island in the Canaries with very rocky terrain that in times past made communication very difficult in the absence of modern day technology, the locals invented a whistling language, a whistled version of Spanish, “El Silbo”, that is still being used today. That was the idea where Corneliu Porumboiu’s latest film originated. The island is called La Gomera. The film La Gomera (The Whistlers) is a neo-noir thriller with inflictions of black humour and it is indeed woven around El Silbo. In the true vein of classic noir, the film portrays a post-crisis period, with morally ambiguous characters, especially the main male character, Cristi, played by Vlad Ivanov, a corrupt cop – alienated from society, on the edge of moral conduct and law, flawed yet human, charting a course through a disillusioned life and towards a doomed fate he seems to have no control over. Cristi is schooled in this whistled language on the island in order to get a crooked businessman out of prison and this initiation becomes a crucial part in his journey.

The time of day is appropriately night, because the day always seems to vanish rapidly like the cigarettes the characters are incessantly smoking, the idyllic island gradually turns into a dark and chilly place, the meandering scenario only thickens as the plot advances, everybody is making you doubt them. It is a life and death world. But Corneliu Porumboiu’s world is a highly stylized world, skillfully constructed, blending reality and imagination, a clear and intentional departure from the realism of the Romanian New Wave and taking a new and fresh direction. It is also an homage brought to cinema in general and to classic cinema in particular, with Hitchcock, Jean-Pierre Melville and western film references throughout the entire story. Ultimately, it is a beautiful piece of cinema and a visually complex film where every camera movement, every frame, every use of colour, every piece of clothing, every dim light counts.

In my interview costume designer Dana Păpăruz, we talk colour, costume and visual storytelling. Dana reveals the collaborative visual work for the film, how she used colour to establish the character of the femme fatale, the Greta Garbo influence and what part Picasso’s blue period played in the movie.
 

Catrinel Marlon (Gilda) and Vlad Ivanov (Cristi) in “La Gomera”, 2019 | 42 km Film

 

We first see Gilda, Catrinel Marlon’s character, in the present day, on the island of La Gomera, but we are properly introduced to her in a flashback, immediately following. In both sequences she is wearing a red dress. In the flashback, when she is in Bucharest, she is wearing a blue/grey trench coat first, blending in with the grey surroundings of the cold city, but then she takes it off and appears in the red dress (different than the one she wears on the island). Was the colour of the dress important to establish her as a femme fatale?

I will start by trying to explain what this project was based on, not just what I, as costume designer, wanted to achieve in this film. First, I would like to say that the entire film was well thought out and tightly controlled from a visual point of view. All the persons in charge of the different visual departments met, talked, made suggestions and eventually came to conclusions. And I am not only talking about Corneliu Porumboiu, the director, and about Mircea Tudor, the cinematographer, but also about the production designer, the costume designer, the light engineer, the make-up artist. Arantxa Etcheverria, the artistic director, was the one who came up with the idea of dividing the film in chapters, with each chapter revolving around one of the colours of the rainbow. So, apart from the fact that each chapter is introduced through one colour, that same colour is used in the respective chapter in different subtle ways to build up the plot, to attract the attention to certain things. La Gomera was one of the few projects in the present day (a complete surprise for me as well, this kind of approach for a Romanian film) where the crew had this desire to work together in order to create a unitary product, stylistically and chromatically.

We all met in the first part of pre-production, we made camera, lighting, filter tests and every other possible test that could influence the image of the film, all sorts of camera movements along with changes in lighting setting or the actors’ placement. We came with suggestions regarding materials, textures and colour combinations… in short, we thought just about every scenario that could occur during filming in different situations or locations, that is to say our future space for play and creation.

So the first chapter, named Gilda, is red, representing the first colour from ROYGBIV (or ROY G. BIV). And what colour would have been better for Gilda than red, a colour loved by a femme fatale, a character played so naturally by Catrinel, if I may say so? Of course, red is used in other ways, too, not just in Gilda’s dresses. The sofa in Cristi’s living room where Gilda takes a seat is also red, as a coincidence filled with humour, irony and as a confirmation of the fact that what is supposed to happen, will happen. Nothing looks pleonastic in the sequence where the two splashes of red meet, but rather slightly surreal, otherworldly, just like the feeling I had on the island. The grey of the city and its ugly parts were faded out by these chromatic ideas which were able to create a new reality where the spectator is transported to for one hour and a half. The time of day for filming was also important, that’s why a lot of the exteriors were filmed at night, so that the lights could play their own part.

I am glad you mentioned the grey city, because there is indeed something different that I noticed about the Bucharest depicted in this film. In many contemporary Romanian movies, Bucharest seems to be a character in itself, and it’s somehow become a repetitive image. What I loved about La Gomera, is that the world it depicts is a fabricated, highly-stylized world, a world that skillfully blends reality and imagination, leaving behind the realism of the Romanian New Wave and taking a new direction. What was the general feeling working on the project?

Trying to steer away from the harsh reality, the sadness, the depression, the ugliness that surrounds us in this grey city does not mean you can not create emotions; it’s just that these emotions are an intentional departure from this realistic new wave. Therefore, I had specific discussions with Corneliu Porumboiu on the subject, as he expressed this clear intention of trying to avoid the depiction of this crude reality by choosing to film at night most of the time and by making use of different types of lighting and thus creating a more plastic and optimistic setting and atmosphere of the movie.

So the general feeling was one of freshness and new, without challenging the principles of style too much just for the sake of showing off or of being different. Everything makes sense from the visual point of view and I believe this should be the guide line with every project. And I don’t think this costs more money, at least not as far as the costumes are concerned. Bad costumes can cost just as much as well made/chosen costumes.

So we have chapters and specific colours – I actually realised this halfway through the film when I watched it the first time and then paid proper attention when I watched it again. The colour is sometimes used to define the character through costume, like in the case of Gilda, or to advance the plot in some other way, like the yellow bag in the third chapter (the colour yellow also appears in the motel), or the violet tulips in the Magda chapter (Magda’s shirt is also violet). And, from what I understand, not everything was in the script, it was a work in progress.

The colour was definitely not meant just to shape the characters. Part of what we initially thought out didn’t make it in the editing room, but a big part of the concept is still in the film and it helps guide the viewer through the narrative… The yellow bag with money from Zolt, the Chinese woman’s yellow bag, the tulips and the shirt, Magda’s top at the end, but others, too, like the violet medical uniforms worn by the Spaniards in the hospital, as well as the shirts worn on La Gomera by Paco, Cristi or Kiko. Some of the chromatic elements I think of right now unfortunately don’t appear in the final cut, so their mentioning would only cause confusion. I somehow find it hard to straighten out the sequences at the moment, more than one year since the filming ended, because each detail was treated with the same importance, the ones that made the cut and the ones that didn’t. I think I should watch the film again at least once.
 

Catrinel Marlon in “La Gomera”, 2019 | 42 km Film

 

Did you come up with the idea of the yellow bag? I have to admit that sometimes I tend to read too much into details and costumes, which is maybe why it made me think of Hitchcock’s Marnie and Tippi Hedren’s yellow bag as she walks on the platform in the train station (the sequence in La Gomera also takes place at the station). Was this, by any chance, another cinematic reference from the part of Corneliu Porumboiu, as in the case of the motel?

The idea of the yellow bag belonged to the set designer, but I came up with the idea of the yellow bag and of the yellow details in the Chinese woman’s scarf. Anyway, I don’t think it would be fair to say a certain idea belonged to someone in particular, because it really was a collaborative effort to bring subtle contributions to each chapter and its chromatic.

And, yes, Hitchcock was one of Corneliu’s influences, not necessary a film in particular, but rather the atmosphere, a feeling, the suspense. There were nonetheless certain characters who were built with Hitchcock’s characters in mind. For example, Istvan Teglas’ character (the manager of the motel), who had as inspiration Anthony Perkins in Psycho; or the character who is monitoring the recording cameras in Cristi’s home – this is a Hitchcock reference too. Even from a stylistic point of view, Corneliu wanted the characters to transcend time, he wanted to go back to the classic style and streamlined aesthetic of the 1950s. Along with Hitchcock’s films, classic westerns were another reference; it is a western that is playing at the cinema where Cristi meets Magda, and the place where Zolt and the Spanish gang are caught and killed is also a western set.

The sequences with Istvan Teglas and with the policeman who is watching the recording cameras from Cristi’s home (and it’s incredible how those scenes, confined to that little space and with only this character in close-up keep your attention up) are so well thought out and I love it that there’s a trait of humour in them, just as it was in all Hitchcock’s films. But the film’s unified, visually distinctive look (a clear collaborative work of all the artistic directors, as you said) also reminded me of the films of Tarantino and Almodóvar. You also mention the westerns, and I wanted to bring this into discussion, too. Cristi invites Magda to the cinema to try to cut a deal with her and there is a John Wayne movie playing. And it’s not just any cinema, but Eforie, about the only remaining cinema in Bucharest that still projects classic films and world cinema movies. Did Corneliu want to tell us something by that? The film is like a love letter to cinema from the director.

That’s right, with the two western scenes inserted in our film (the western with John Wayne, but also the Sergiu Nicolaescu film they watch at the Ana Aslan sanatorium), Corneliu pays homage to both the classic western and the Romanian classic cinema. There is a trait of humour in that, too, and subtle irony. For the sake of these films and for all those who love film, I hope the closed cinema theaters will be reopened.

Corneliu Porumboiu is undoubtedly a director who pays great attention to every detail. Do you usually talk about the costumes with a director or is it more a conversation about characters and their evolution?

As I have tried to stress out, my collaboration with Corneliu was not merely a presentation of his ideas and my execution of those ideas, but a collaborative work in the true sense of the word, the way it should be on every film, no matter how small, or regardless of budget. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen every time, it also depends on each director’s sensibility, on his/her visual training, but also on their willingness to devote time, attention and energy to every single detail that goes into the making of a film. For some directors, it’s only the relationship with the actors and their working on the script that matters, for others, as was in our happy case, everything mattered. After all, any screenplay is just a pretext for creating an imaginary world in the viewer’s mind. Everything that surrounds this text, this script, makes the film whole, because what looks good on paper doesn’t necessarily translate well on screen. Maybe I am too exigent, but that’s what I think. Working in cinema is hard enough and I wouldn’t want to belittle it by making do with creating a few costumes, doing a little shopping and a couple of fittings. Only when the spectator notices these elements which you have also observed and starts asking questions, only then the film becomes a creation. La Gomera was a great gift for me form this point of view and I would repeat the experience any time.
 

Rodica Lazăr in “La Gomera”, 2019 | 42 km Film

 

Magda (Rodica Lazăr) is a prosecutor. Her clothes are sharp, buttoned up, menswear inspired, she is always impeccably dressed, fit for the job. There seems to be no double-talk about her character. Is that what her clothes suggest?

Even Magda was inspired by an iconic figure of classic cinema. The character, but also Rodica Lazăr‘s presence, reminds of Greta Garbo, and by that I am referring to Garbo’s characters or the moments when she wore her well known avandgarde 1930s looks, menswear inspired, but very feminine nonetheless, and elegant, she seemed unattainable somehow, and that was due to both her acting and her costumes. So the wide-legged and high-waisted trousers, the short-waisted and body-hugging blazers and the buttoned-up shirts, the trench coats and classic coats fit Magda like a glove. Not only style-wise, but revealing a clear trait of the “incorruptible prosecutor” character who can not be fooled by appearances. Everything is straight about her look, serving its purpose, but never affecting her femininity.

Did you watch any Greta Garbo films to prepare for this character? Or any other films as research? I have read that Corneliu Porumboiu watched and re-watched many classic noir films when he was working on the script.

Yes, I had a long list of noir films I had to watch for research; I partially managed to watch them in the short period of time that I had, or at least parts of these films or archive footage. Regarding Magda’s look inspired by Greta Garbo, I think that was my idea, as a result of constantly looking for proper references for this character, the beautiful prosecutor. She too is a character enveloped in mystery, difficult to be placed in time.

We come to the third female character in Cristi’s life, his mother. Julieta Szönyi, who is known for the classic Romanian films Toate pânzele sus (All Sails Up) and Felix and Otilia, plays her. She is a woman of a certain social status and her clothes and poise show it. What exactly did you want to reveal about her past through her look?

The character Mama, played by Julieta Szönyi, for sure is a character with a past. She doesn’t give the impression of having been either poor in her youth, or without a well established status before the revolution, and she certainly was a very beautiful woman, she still is. She is elegant, she is wearing discrete but valuable jewellery, I would even say she looked a little eccentric in some sequences which unfortunately were left out, so I won’t get into these details. This is a character that required a lot of stylistic research through references and different fittings in order to be shaped the way she appears in the film.
 

Vlad Ivanov in “La Gomera”, 2019 | 42 km Film

 

Let’s talk a little about Cristi. He dresses inconspicuously, in simple, classic clothes, but they are fine clothes nonetheless, they are not a faithful representation of real-life policemen (there is an obvious difference between his clothes and his colleague’s, Alin’s, clothes). Yes, he may be higher in rank and towards the end of his career, but his look also alludes to improper ways of earning more money. His expressions are very subtle, too, his movement is minimal, his character evokes feelings of both escape and imprisonment from/in certain rules, system, society. He doesn’t seem to belong to either world, he is very detached, he seems resigned, and I see his clothes as an important sign in regard to this character attribute. How would you describe him?

Cristi also draws from these classic characters. Two sources of inspiration for him were Yul Brynner and the characters from Le cercle rouge. The same stylistic simplification was applied to his character. I have to admit that at the beginning of the project I found it difficult to resist the temptation of being too showy or of revealing too much with some details or characters, but I came to realise that sometimes less is more. And it was a joint effort, a team work, always searching, negotiating even, and eventually reaching the best decisions. I am not saying I wouldn’t change anything right now, I am saying that at that moment, in the little time we had, each one of us gave their best.

Yes, Cristi is clearly a different personality than Alin, a different age, a different generation, mentally and as to how liable he is of being corrupted, but he is also after all a man pushed to his limits. I think your description is very correct and that is also what we wanted to transmit through his costumes. But Vlad Ivanov was also asked to lose some weight for the role, so I tried to elongate his silhouette by using ton-sur-ton looks. Throughout the film, Cristi always wears navy shades, with very little exceptions, like his clothes on the island, where the overall look of some frames was asking for something different. You don’t really know what to make of this character, it is as if time has stood still for him, he is consciously detached from his clothes, as opposed to other characters.

Zolt, on the other hand, looks like a guy who pays attention to his clothes. That is the impression I got from his character. He wears muted, natural colours, too, but the image he projects is different (I recall the cardigan with a rich fabric), and he seems to have worked hard at his overall look in order to project a certain image. Am I wrong?
Zolt was another character that required much research, especially that his scenes didn’t require a large variety of clothes. He practically comes disguised when he first meets Cristi, then the next outfit (including the cardigan you mention) is the one he is wearing when he is caught and then taken to interrogation, then the clothes he wears when he is taken out of the hospital could have very well been given to him by those who kidnap him.

I have to admit I was very happy with the choice we made for Zolt’s arrest sequence, because, if you are paying close attention (and for those who have the knowledge), those frames, chromatically speaking, seem depicted from Picasso’s blue period paintings. All this preparation and work we did were also supported by the post-production colouring. We tried to solve most of the chromatic part during filming, everything was thought out as a whole, everything had to be in relation with the surroundings (characters, decor, plus lighting, filters, etc.), then the wonderful team in charge of colouring made the necessary improvements.
 

Julieta Szönyi as Mama in “La Gomera”, 2019 | 42 km Film

 

A costume designer’s job is to reinforce the story and help the actor form an identity of his/her character. But what exactly goes into the work of a costume designer today? How much ready-made shopping, how much vintage and how much making did the costumes in La Gomera involve? Did you also talk to the actors about their clothes?

I have talked in detail about their characters with some actors, with others unfortunately hardly at all, but that doesn’t mean the supporting characters were not invested in properly. I don’t think there is a rule, each project is different when it comes to making or finding the costumes. Yes, it is a combination of making, shopping, thousands of alterings and sourcing vintage objects. For Gilda, for example, half of her wardrobe was specifically created for the film, there were also a few other outfits that didn’t make it to the final cut, but which were necessary so that we had a larger variety we could choose from on the day of filming, to have freedom of choice. Practically, there is always a stock of costume, even if each costume is usually decided in advance when discussing each sequence. We are always on the lookout, always prepared to face unpredictable situations. And that is because sometimes changes occur to the script to the very last minute, or because of the weather, or even as a result of the on-going discussions we are having during filming.

Which were the costumes you specifically made for Gilda?

Most of the dresses were made: the two red dresses from the first chapter, but also the grey-blue coat, the green skirt and the yellow shirt dress she wears on the island in the sequence after the beach (the one with the red car), her navy dress from the end of the film, in Singapore – we also had an ivory version for this one, but decided not to use it because of the weather (it was raining, so the dress would have been too revealing). And there were a couple of other dresses which didn’t find their place eventually, but I don’t regret it, I think we made the right choice for every Gilda moment.

Often contemporary costume design does not get the attention it deserves and it is the historical, period or fantasy films that are considered more fascinating in a visual way and more challenging for a costume designer. You have done both. How do you feel about that?

If I were to choose what challenges me more, I wouldn’t know what to answer. If I were to say what I prefer, I would say period costume. But indeed I have done and will always do both. Because in this way you can be challenged in different ways and if I succeed to get the public’s attention with a contemporary project, then I find that even more valuable. In other words, both La Gomera and the HBO tv series Umbre (Shadows) have a special place in my heart.

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26 September 2019

Northern Light

Lessons in style and good living from Stockholm

Stockholm | photo: Classiq Journal

 

It was the end of March. Winter was casting its last streaks of biting cold and wind over Stockholm. It was probably not the best time of the year to make your acquaintance with the Swedish capital, especially if you were coming out of a few grueling dark months of winter in your own homeland. But it definitely was the best time to learn a thing or two about style and the quality of lifestyle – because, let’s face it, in summer, when the sun stays beaming in the sky well throughout the night, it’s easier to be absorbed by the Swedes’ effervescent celebration of summer and life and see only the best parts of it all. But if you want to get a real feel of the city and its people, bundle up and face the cold. You will be served a lesson in genuine style and good living. Just in time for the cold season we are entering.
 

Jantelagen. The law of Jante. It is a Swedish unwritten law of conduct that is carved in stone in the public awareness. It basically says “You are not better than anyone else”. Don’t brag, don’t show off, don’t pretend to something you are not. But don’t complain either. Just get to work and do it well. Understatement.

People don’t walk around looking at their phones all day long.

They have good reason to look up, too. There is beautiful and well-preserved architecture everywhere and there is a palpable sense of value, history and design.

People don’t look at their phones all the time when they are indoors either. They socialize, talk and take in the beautiful design they are surrounded with. And get creative about it. Many restaurants are redecorated from season to season. The Swedes breath design.

Children are treated respectfully as they should, as little people. They are encouraged to explore their surroundings with little interference from their parents, they are involved in their parents’ activities, whether it’s running in the park together, biking to school/work, setting out the table, or going out for fika.

Children spend a major part of their day, even in winter, outside – many parents put their babies to nap in the stroller outside even when the temperatures are below zero degrees Celsius. In the parks, you see moose, deer and wild rabbits. The playgrounds are very creative and many are themed around nature and are stocked with tricycles, balls, buckets and shovels.

One of the most beautiful children’s museum in the world, created around books, and numerous themed play centers around the city. The reading culture is amazing. Here is what a day at Junibacken looks like. And this reminds me of how important it is for children to see books around them from an early age and see you read even when you are not reading to them. When your child is playing by himself/herself, resist the urge to leave the room and resume your work or house chores. Don’t be lazy either, and, for God’s sake, don’t take out your phone (I trust your better judgement that you are even leaving the phone outside the room your child is in). Pick up a book and read. You are sending them a message and it will stick.

Men and women are equally involved in raising their children. They split everything, from child care, to running the household. They are a team.

There is no bad weather, just bad clothing. Consequently, there’s no need for you to be gloomy when it’s freezing cold outside. Embrace it!

Black, white, grey, beige, brown, blue. Just keep it simple, classic and timeless. Everyone dresses well in Stockholm. There are no people more stylish than the Swedes. Period.

People are fit. Exercise is something they are raised with. It’s in their genes. Everybody walks, bikes or takes the metro everywhere. Even in winter.

Mysig. It is rather hard to define in English, but it technically means “smiling from comfort,” or being cosy. Swedes even have a word for curling up indoors on a Friday night, fredagsmys, which literally means “Friday cosiness”. You light candles, cuddle under a blanket on the sofa and watch a movie. Making the best of a long dark Swedish winter evening spent indoors. It’s a tradition.

 

Djurgården, Stockholm | photos: Classiq Journal

 

Posted by classiq in Journeys | | 3 Comments
23 September 2019

Reused Remade: Raising Awareness with Beautiful Design

photo: Reused Remade

 

I grew up in a household that valued the weight of balance and self-made sustainable success. There were no plastic bags in our home when I grew up, just a couple of cotton bags my parents would use for shopping. Hardly anything came packed in plastic. Not the milk, not the bread, not the rice, not the fruit, not our toys, and we certainly did not wear anything that was made even in the slightest percent of plastic. I am 38 years old. I did not grow up with plastic. It was not that long ago. What happened? How did we let this world be swallowed by plastic?

People who lived in the countryside, like my grandparents, produced almost everything they ate. They made their own bread, grew their own cow for milk, grew their own cereals, vegetables and fruit. They valued their belongings, they reused everything, they mended what was broken, they bought with intention. My parents loved and still love beautiful clothes, yet their wardrobes have always been comprised of only classic, essential items. “Always buy the best you can afford. You’ll have it for years. Don’t buy three of everything, just buy a good one,” they would say. And they have always had a good tailor. Their clothes always fit perfectly, even if they don’t always do when they buy them off the rack. But they both know how to mend a garment, too, in case they can’t find time to go to the tailor. My father, with the help of several other men and after his own drawing, built our family country house. Now we’ve lost the desire and ability to make with our own hands. People used to go out there and make things happen, now they take everything for granted. Now we buy everything others make for us and we buy more and more, and everything, if it is not made of plastic, comes wrapped up in plastic, even the organic food. More is not better, more is just more.

My upbringing is the touchstone for my trying to live a full and meaningful life, but it was my recent conversation with Josephine Alhanko, the co-founder of Reused Remade, that has made me realise that it is not enough to make changes yourself, but that you have to voice your beliefs and your freedom from consumerism, that it is not enough to raise awareness, but that you have to do it in a peaceful yet powerful way, that you first have to find your own peace of mind and value your existence as a balanced, happy person in order to make things happen for yourself and for the world, that you can do it with beautiful design rather than with raging protests, that you can dramatically reduce your environmental footprint by gaining confidence in your own style.

Reused Remade was founded on the idea of making use of what we already have. They take hotel bed linen that have come to the end of their life cycle and turn them into textile bags. They take something old and transform it into something new and beautiful and eco-friendly. That sounds pretty smart and it certainly is vital in our present day. I have talked in detail to Josephine about the idea behind the brand, about her background as a professional ballet dancer and a performing actor, and about the important things in life and why and how the human spirit should be nourished.
 

photo: Reused Remade

 

People are becoming more and more aware of the disaster caused by plastic to our planet and although we are yet to reach a global plastic bag ban, they are reaching for more environmentally friendly solutions, individually or in other ways. But was it something in particular that made your brand idea take flight? Something that inspired you to make it more than a personal choice, that made you realise you needed to bring awareness to the problem and contribute to the cause in a bigger way?
For me personally, the UN conference that I heard on the radio in 2015 was an eye opener. I had no idea that plastic waste was such a huge problem. If we don’t take action, there will be more plastic than fish in our seas by the year 2050. That is pretty soon, and my kids will be roughly about my age today when that scenario may become reality. That got me thinking and, more importantly, do changes in my everyday life. I became aware of how many plastic bags I use just once before I throw them away. At the same time, I feel resigned when I hear the alarm reports about global climate change and the major change of living we need to make to stop it. I believe that people do respond better to hope than fear and by giving them a chance to take simple actions, they are more likely to change their behaviours.

This easy way to act positively is important to us and was no brainer to implement in our business ideas. To do something little can have a great impact, one-person can’t do everything but together we can make a big difference. It’s also important to us that the design of the bags is appealing and smart looking. People not only like to do good, they want to look good too while doing good. I think that the combination of the increased awareness and the look of the bags have made it easier for us to establish our brand on the market. You can have a great business idea, but if the timing is wrong, it won’t matter how good of an idea or product you have. Timing is so important.

I think you are making such an important point here, that people are responding better to hope than fear. I remember when I watched the documentary The Salt of the Earth about photographer Sebastião Salgado, who together with his wife has been working to regrow the drought-stricken remains of his family’s once-thriving farm and the Brazilian rain forest of his youth. Salgado photographs, which have chronicled our species’ hardest, lowest and most horrific moments, from famine to savagery genocide, as soul-shattering as they may be, did not make me cry, but his Instituto Terra did, precisely because it gives you hope and faith. Hope about our planet, faith in the human race, hope about our future and our children’s future, faith in ourselves. And I also wholeheartedly agree with the fact that people respond better to beautiful design, because not more than five years ago I think, ethical fashion and design did not exactly translate into appealing and good looking. So what I want to say is thank you for being part of the solution. By choosing old bed linen as your raw material you are challenging the current production of both fabric and plastic bags. How do you source it? What is the most challenging part of the production process?
Sourcing used bed linen in the quantity that we do is definitely something new. Our global trading over the last centuries has traditionally been to place an order at a factory where they use new materials in the production. We want to do it the other way around. We use bed sheets, an already produced fabric, that have a set shape and form and transform it into textile bags. We call it the reincarnation of textile. It is not easy to be one of the first companies that do this, and we have run into numerous different problems with law regulations, custom policies, transportation and export rules. It sure is not easy to take the first steps in this field. Hopefully, we can set an example and other companies can follow our trace when awareness grows about how and what outer things we can use and transform into new goods. We surely learn new things every day and the positive aspect of this is that people start to realise that the old regulation may no longer be applicable when we need to move towards a circular economy.
 

photo: Reused Remade

 

Tell me a little about the beautiful prints on your bags. What sustainable way have you found for printing your bags?
We use screen print with water-based colors. We are always trying to improve the production process and limit unnecessary transportation, cover materials and other needless materials. We try to keep a simple approach to what we do and really take a step back and think about how our grandparents would have tackled similar situations. Simple solutions sometimes might be the answer to complex situations.

Reused Remade is a brand committed to people who want to make a difference, who want to make the smart choice. Do you think it will take mass action (and what would that be?) to curb our addiction to mass-produced, cheap products? And what do you think is the first thing every individual should do in order to lead a more sustainable way of life, any tip that may help someone else just starting out on their journey?
We believe that one person can’t do everything, but everyone can do something and by beginning with a positive change, no matter how small it is, it will have an impact. It is up to everyone to make choices that are sustainable if we want to leave behind a healthy earth to future generations. We believe that by adding a positive change instead of changing a negative one, it is easier for people to adapt.
 
 

”Simple solutions sometimes might be
the answer to complex situations.”

 
 
Speaking of mass products and textile waste, the textile industry and its products have shaped the contemporary world more than anything else and is largely responsible for the disaster our world is in. Do you think people are finally starting to move more towards an idea of a personal style than to continue along the lines of fashion, especially fast fashion?
This is a complex and difficult question to give a short answer to. It is so complex. We have to bear in mind that fast fashion has only been around for a few decades in the human history. Yet, it has been a gigantic success never heard off in history. Its growth and expansion has only been possible through the trading, technology and economic development that evolved after the Second World War. Before that, cloth was expensive and fabric was considered a luxury item. Fast fashion has played a major part in the world’s development and, to a certain extent, it has also been a democratic factor for the western countries.

On the other hand, many people, especially in the developing countries, have paid a huge price for our mass consumption. Their health and work conditions have not been prioritised, nor has the nature. We do face a rising disaster if we don’t take immediate action. There has to be a major transformation in the whole fashion industry from sourcing to production, and consuming. This successful receipt has been around for several decades and nearly every fashion company existing today has built their success around it. No wonder they are hesitant to take actions against it. To go through such a major change is not pain free or easy. I would love to say YES to the question that people will start to move towards a more personal style rather than fast fashion, but, at the same time, great forces are working to keep us in this system, and even though the companies talk loudly about sustainability very little is actually changing. Unfortunately, I am a bit pessimistic about the situation in the fashion world. We need to see real changes in the fashion industry that I have not yet seen in order for the system to change on the scale that we need it to happen.
 

photo: Reused Remade

 

The Reused Remade bags are not only the eco-friendly version of the plastic bag, but also a very stylish alternative, and even a conversation starter. What does style in the bigger context mean to you?
People like to look smart and stylish. It’s more likely that we use something that looks good and makes us feel good. A bag for everyday use should look nice and appealing since we are supposed to use it frequently at different occasions and in different seasons. We wanted to come up with a design that was both practical, yet resembling to people’s recognition, and last but not least, stylish.

You are an inspiration for design with purpose. But who and what inspires you on a daily basis?
I find inspiration in nature, art and in cool design. I have a background as a professional ballet dancer as well as a trained actress. I have worked within the performing arts for over 20 years and I also have a master’s degree in Art History. I am more comfortable in the art and theatrical societies than in the business environments. This makes me a little like the black sheep, which I think is a good thing because I tend to have a different approach on things and dare to think outside the box. I also like to see myself and our product as a link in the chain of history. There is nothing new in our design, quite the contrary, the bag looks like a traditional plastic bag that was designed in the 1960th, but the new thing is the material in combination with the design that gives it a modern twist.

You have a background in performing arts. What made you change paths, besides becoming more environmentally conscious as you said at the beginning of our interview?
My dream as a young girl was always to be a stage performer. I started my professional ballet training at The Royal Swedish Ballet School at the age of 10. I then did my secondary school at The National Ballet School in London. During my teens, I got hooked on books and movies and when I saw “Gone with the Wind” for the first time I realised that I needed to become an actress. I felt an urge to express myself not only through movement but also through words. I anticipated that acting would give me the chance to portray more complex characters. I was accepted into the Stockholm University of the Arts at the age of 22. After my graduation, I worked for over 15 years at The Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm and did a number of movies and tv-series.

It was after my third child was born that I realised how extremely demanding a life as an actor is, especially if you want to combine it with motherhood. I felt that I needed to own my time better and my focus shifted from me, myself and I, to my kids and to the next generation. I felt that I wanted to be able to look my children in their eyes and assure them that I had done something lasting and contributed to a positive change in the world. This was in the year 2015 and it was during this identity crisis that I heard about the huge amount of plastic waste that circulates in our oceans and ends up on our shores. It was really an eye opener for me. I was at home with the flu one day and listened to the radio about the UN conference in Paris and I stated to fantasize about what other material would be possible to produce bags from, and the idea to use discarded bed linen popped up in my head.
 

photos: Reused Remade

 

”I would like to encourage people to invest more
in healthy and happy relationships. These will help you
grow and challenge yourself as an individual. We also
need to start mending and reusing things.”

 
 
We live in a hectic world and more and more people are trying to go back to basics, to find a balance, to live mindfully. How do you find balance every day? How do you live life as a conscious choice?
I love spending time in the forest and by the sea. And as I said earlier, my comfort zone is in art, both as a performer and as a spectator. I gain energy from being able to express myself and to interact with people. I also need alone time and chose to be a lot with my children and husband. Family is so important and to me it is a safe heaven. My home is where I can relax and feel completely loved no matter how the business is going or how well I did in the last show. That is of tremendous importance.

In this time and age, what do you wish people appreciated more?
I hope that the growing awareness makes people appreciate what they already have and start taking care of their belongings. It has become almost a human right, at least in the western world, to consume, and for many of us our self-esteem is boosted by the things we buy. For my grandmother, who was born in the 1920s, it was a necessity to re-use wrapping gift paper and ribbons at Christmas when I was a kid. She had lived through the war when there was shortage of everything and as a consequence of this, things were given a higher value. The way we have lived for the past 60 years or so is hopefully a bracket in human history and hopefully we will go back to being wiser and smarter on how and what we consume. I would like to encourage people to invest more in healthy and happy relationships. These will help you grow and challenge yourself as an individual. We also need to start mending and reusing things. This is not something new.

I feel there is a small, or maybe not so small anymore, community of people who are inspired by and moved by this idea of the backlash – the idea that everything doesn’t have to be so fast, that we should cherish what we already have, that the meaning of a fulfilled life has nothing to do with the material side. Do you think every socially conscious person should be more vocal in reminding people that they can do that?
No one can make money by suggesting you should spend more time outdoor in nature or spend time with your loved ones, those things that will actually give you more joy and peace of mind. It is hard for people to suggest just that and to be heard in the constant chattering in our world. We have lost the quiet places that used to be around and that is a problem. Our mind can’t keep up with all the buzz. I personally try to keep it simple and spend time and energy on the things that are important to me and that can never replace my family, my relations with my friends and my relation to myself and time in nature. The human spirit needs to be nourished and that can’t be done through material things. I do believe that we should listen more carefully to our needs and do less if we want to achieve a more content and happy life.
 
 

reusedremade.com
Instagram: @reusedremade

 

Posted by classiq in Beauty & Beautiful Living, Interviews, Style | | 5 Comments
19 September 2019

The Man With No Name, but with an Iconic Look

Clint Eastwood in ”The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, 1966 | Produzioni Europee Associate, MGM, United Artists

 

The hat, with a high crown and pulled down low, not the usual cowboy hat. The fringed buckskins and leather waistcoats, not anywhere in sight. The poncho, not like anything seen on an American horseman. The neckerchief, no pristine accessory, but gathering dust. The jeans, black, not the essential all-American blue jeans. The duster coat, olive green and long-waisted, rarely featured in westerns by then. The character, “The Good”, but not entirely good, nor entirely bad either, just a different type of scoundrel than the other two. Clint Eastwood in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) subverted the conservative cowboy type and reinvented him as a righteously ambiguous drifter. He didn’t want to be the hero, he wanted to wrangle the hero, and not just any hero, but the American hero, the western cowboy. And in Sergio Leone’s The Dollar Trilogy, he became the ultimate antihero, with strengths, weaknesses and a lack of virtue, laconic, cool, coming from nowhere, going nowhere, without a past, without a future. Clint was in his mid-thirties when he had his breakthrough in A Fistful of Dollars (1964), taking the roles with Leone because no one in Hollywood would hire him, except in a television western series (how resembling is this to Rick Dalton’s story in Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood?). That was very anti-establishment, too. So was the rough devil-may-care look of his Man With No Name.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the last film in the trilogy, after A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More (1965), had a huge success worldwide, was both acclaimed and disdained by critics, some of which finally started to take Sergio Leone seriously. As his long-time collaborator, Ennio Morricone, says in the book Ennio Morricone: In His Own Words, Leone had the irony, lucidity and “a gun-slinger spirit emblazoned with rock ‘n’ roll arrogance” that enabled him to reinvent the western genre at a time when the American western was in decline, reimagining it as a mythical universe. It was not the story of pioneers, nor was it the story of law and order, of the bad or of the good sheriff, the two categories into which the classic western falls into, according to Howard Hawks, as Susan Liandrat-Guigues reports in her BFI monograph of Red River. Leone changed both the look and the style of the traditional western, the American genre, going for instinct over prudence and cynically transforming western clichés into operatic compositions, with everything starker, more brutal, more dramatic, more flamboyant, rewriting “the western genre by linking it both to the American model and to the Italian commedia dell’arte, deviating from either as little as possible so that they remain recognizable and also look fresh and innovative.”
 

Clint Eastwood and his olive duster in ”The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, 1966
Produzioni Europee Associate, MGM, United Artists

 

I recently rewatched The Good, the Bad and the Ugly after I had read Ennio Morricone’s book. What stood out for me was indeed the look, the sound, the overall style of the film. From the way Morricone’s music evokes “that common yet differentiated identity shared by the three characters” – the same melody played by different solo instruments is associated with each one of them: a flute for “the good” (Blondie), a voice for “the ugly” (Tuco) and the ocarina for “the bad” (Angel Eyes) – to the highly stylized costumes, Leone showed that cinema is as much image as it is sound. This film is image and sound, image and sound, long shots and close-ups and music, words come last. An exercise in style.

Carlo Simi was the costume designer, but Clint’s look is not attributed to anyone in particular. Eastwood reported that he had bought his costume from a Santa Monica wardrobe store, borrowed the leather gun belt, pistol and suede boots from Rawhide, the tv series he played in the 1960s, before starring in A Fistful of Dollars. Yet Sergio Leone had told Christopher Frayling that the transformation of Rowdy Yates (Eastwood’s character in Rawhide) into The Man With No Name had been mostly his idea. Wherever the truth may lie, Clint Eastwood’s character’s sense of visual style placed him in the collective memory in a way not many film costumes do and has stood the test of time to this very day. It was more about intuitive expression of character and the way it triggered a seismic shift in the public’s consciousness, capturing the zeitgeist of the time and of the spaghetti western.

Because it was about more than clothes, it was this blend of attitude and personality and laid-back approach to both character and costumes from the part of Clint himself that made The Man With No Name iconic, and Clint Eastwood himself summed it up well in his interview with Christopher Frayling published in the book “Clint Eastwood”, from 1992, and republished in the book “Clint Eastwood Interviews”, in 2013: “It was mostly the people who were in the clothes. Gian Maria Volonté had a good face, and all those Spanish, gypsy faces – that was just general…everything kind of tied together and made an interesting-looking film. You ask most people what the films were about and they can’t tell you. But they tell you “the look” [he mimes throwing the poncho over his shoulder] and the “da-da-da-da-dum’ [he hums the opening bars of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly theme], and the cigar and the gun and those little flash images that hit you.”

Eastwood further explained his contribution to the role in an interview with David Thomson appeared in Film Comment in 1984: “The character was written quite a bit different, I made it much more economical. Much less expository. He explained himself a lot in the screenplay. My theory to Sergio was, “I don’t think you have to explain everything. Let the audience imagine with us. […] I’d sort of coerce him into going for it on that level, like a B picture. But he did go for it. He wasn’t really coerced, he liked the style. I think the producers of the film were a bit shocked. They didn’t know what was going on. They said, “Jeez, this guy doesn’t do anything, doesn’t say anything, just stands there with the cigar.”

Indeed, The Man With No Name isn’t a man of many words, nor does he do much, nor does he let you in whether he is remorseless or vengeful. With his cigar permanently dangling from his mouth, his squinted gaze, his languid walk, his poncho wrapped around his shoulders, he is so ambiguous and far off a typical western character that sears into your mind and just keeps you guessing. The only sure thing about him is his gun shot. Devil-may-care about everything else. In the true spirit of Sergio Leone’s westerns.

 

Clint Eastwood in ”The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, 1966 | Produzioni Europee Associate, MGM, United Artists

 

Posted by classiq in Film, Film costume | | Comments Off on The Man With No Name, but with an Iconic Look