ellecanada feb12 rick genest
TRANSCRIPT
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8/3/2019 ElleCanada Feb12 Rick Genest
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Lov is in h i, ndgOThiC is in h
spoligh. text: Laura DeCarufeL
ThE DARkARTs
Photographer
Rankin collaborated
with artist Damien
Hirst to create
Myths, Monsters
and Legends .
is name was Adam. He stalked our high-school
hallways wearing a leather trench coat, chipped
dark polish and a moody expression. His hair
was silky black, and mascara flecks dusted his pale skin. Hewas Edward Cullen before Robert Pattinson had adult teeth,
and I loved him from afar with a fervour that only shy teen-
agers can muster.
That was in the 90s, when darkness cast a stylish shadow
over music, film and fashion: Nine Inch Nails ruled the air-
waves, Marilyn Manson starred in David Lynchs Lost
Highway and Rei Kawakubo designed seven shades of
black for Comme des Garons.
Now, more than a decade later, pop culture is in the throes
of another gothic crush. Vampires and their ghoulish rela-
tions dominate TV hits like The Vampire Diaries and Game
of Thrones, as Edgar Allan Poe, played by John Cusack, h RANKIN
h
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prepares for his Hollywood close-up in
The Raven. On the fashion front, jewel-
lery designer Delfina Delettrezs skeleton
bracelets and spider-web rings add a
sexy twist to horror chic, while shopperssnap up Daphne Guinness goth-tinged
collection for M.A.C. The style icons
beauty inspiration? Pigeon blood.
There is something really appeal-
ing about darkness, muses Nicola
Formichetti, designer of Thierry Mugler,
mega-stylist to Lady Gaga and overall
sartorial master of the dark arts. On a
shoot the other day, a friend asked me
why all my models looked so sour. I said,
Because theres certainly no mystery in
them smiling.That mystery is perhaps gothics most
alluringand enduringquality. Its
the charisma of deviance, explains
Valerie Steele, director and chief curator
of the Museum at the Fashion Institute
of Technology in New York, where the
Gothic: Dark Glamour exhibition
attracted record crowds in 2008. The
show traced the growth of gothic from
architecture introduced by Germanic
Goths (condemned by Renaissancepainter Giorgio Vasari as congestions
of heavy, dark, melancholy, monkish
piles) to modern creations by gothic
designer Rick Owens. However, a fas-
cination with family curses and demon
lovers found its first major pop-culture
expression in early-19th-century gothic
lit likeJane Eyre and Northanger Abbey,
along with poetry by the original goth
boys, Keats, Byron and Shelley.
So, gothic has been part of our cul-
tural lexicon for centuriesa dark wave
periodically rising to claim secondary
elements like horror and punk. But this
latest upswell represents something new.Theres the season, for one. A glum win-
ter is one thing, but what does a sinister
spring imply? Alexandra Smith, a trend
forecaster for the Mintel Group, attrib-
utes the trend to recession anxietywith
a twist. When the economic crisis first
hit, we saw the rise of what I call humble
minimalism: comfort food, an uptick in
Friends viewership, says Smith. Now
that it has been three years, our response
to doom is evolving. People need a differ-
ent form of escapea sexier way to feelgloomy. Enter the gothic bombshells
who stalked the spring/summer 2012
catwalks at Emilio Pucci and Betsey
Johnson. If youve ever yearned for a
skull-patterned mini-romper, Johnson
has got you (just barely) covered.
But sex appeal doesnt explain the
popularity of zombiesthe new It mon-
ster that has been lurching from the cult
milieu into the mainstream on hit shows
like The Walking Dead. Smith, for herpart, sees similarities between the zombie
trend and the Occupy political move-
ment. Its never about one zombie, she
says. Its always a collectivea mass of
people rising up. They set aside their dif-
ferences to fight for a common cause
and become united as one. Or a darker
motivation: Perhaps the demands of our
narcissistic agein which our carefully
crafted identities strut and fret on the
social-media stagemean
that theres relief in losingyourself in the crowd.
Rick Genest, a.k.a.
Zombie Boy, likens the ap-
peal of zombie apocalypse
to the elemental thrill of
anarchy: When everything
is lost, all that matters is
survival. The system col-
lapses and you have to
either run or be lunch,
enthuses the performance
artist and current museh
BetseyJohnson
T
hierryMugler
The Walking Dead
Rankin cites this
Medusa-inspired
image as his
favourite of the
Myths, Monsters
and Legendsseries.
MONsTER MAsh
I dream about the devil a lot, says Rankin, lightening the con-
fession with a grin. With Myths, Monsters and Legends, a new
photo project with artist Damien Hirst, the famed British photog-
rapher pays tribute to his nocturnal obsession by creating images
of startling primeval power. As embodied by model Dani Smith,
shots range from the dark beauty of Medusa (Theres something
empowering about the fact that youre forbidden to look at her)
to terrifying creatures of the uncanny. Weve spent the last
18 months creating things that were so monstrous, people
wouldnt want to look at them. My challenge is to make the
horrific beautiful. For more, visit ellecanada.com/February. RANKIN(medusA);ImAxtRee(RuNwAy);pIctuRe-desK(thew
alkingdead)
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to Formichetti and Lady Gaga, who borrowed Genests
spooky aesthetic for her recent Grammy-nomination con-
cert performance. Montreal-based Genest began his full-
body skeleton-tattoo project at 16, but hes not bothered
by the fact that zombies are so hot right now. I get it, hesays. Its the same reason why people love Santa Claus
you step out of the realm of reality.
As one of todays most acclaimed novelists, Colson
Whitehead is well versed in exploring the outer reaches of
possibility. His latest novel, Zone One, takes place over
three surreal days several years after a zombie apocalypse,
as civilian volunteers clean up the destruction. For
Whitehead, who grew up reading Stephen King and watch-
ing George Romeros zombie flicks, the day of reckoning
holds a strange appeal. I remember watching Dawn of
the Deadand Invasion of the Body Snatchers and connect-
ing them to a fear of people, he recalls. For me, the nightof the apocalypse is the night when the truth comes out.
Everyone around you pre-
tends to be normal, but
they really want to eat and
destroy you. It speaks a bit
about my damaged psy-
chology, he adds, laugh-
ing, but there it is. So, is
the timelessand timely
appeal of all things gothic
that they reveal our trueselves: twisted and capable
of anything?
For Whitehead, stripping away civil-
ization to reveal its sordid foundation
also offers the chance to discuss our
apocalyptic present. Monsters are rhet-
orical props used by creators to talk
about how we live, he says. Im trying
to discover what it is about contem-
porary life that is zombiefied now.
Were walking around disconnected,
practically devoid of life.The image of BlackBerry addict as
zombie seems aptthe distracted, shuf-
fling walk recalls the lurch of the undead
while following an established path that
links technology to anxiety. Gothic
always flourishes at times of rapid tech-
nological change, when people fear being
at the mercy of forces they cant control,
explains David Punter, the worlds fore-
most critic on everything gothic and
the editor of the forthcoming A New
Companion to the Gothic. Even Bram
Stokers Dracula [1897], which was written during a time
of great technological and societal upheaval, is crammed
with [then revolutionary] typewriters and telegrams.
Punter also points out that, with gothic, the medium is
often the message. The first Frankenstein and Dr. Jekylland Mr. Hyde films were made at a time when cinema itself
was seen as virtually supernatural.
And that is gothics inherent magnetism. People say we
like to be frightened, but its not that simple, says Punter.
We like to test the limits of our fear. Gothic takes us to the
edge, but its not as scary as tsunamis, volcanoes and stock-
market crashes. Its a different order of terror. Were taken
to the brink, we look over it and then we can draw back.
As for Adam, the gothic hero of my high-school days, I
wonder if he has retained his dark roots or joined the rest
of us, gripping a latte on the subway, thinking about last
nights episode ofAmerican Horror Story. I hope not. Thereis something eternally romantic about the true outlawby
turns defiant and fragile, raging against the
light, ultimately doomed maybe but, for
now, thrillingly, dramatically alive.n
Tktktkt tktkkt tktk
Modern gothics most interesting contribution
to pop culture? The rise of the anti-hero. While
villains become evil caricatures, new heroesdisplay a compelling human complexity. As Alex
Smith explains, So many recent superhero
movies have fallen flat, but the ones that didntlike Batmanhad protagonists
who werent 100 percent good guys. Or girls. Lisbeth Salander, the tortured
titular heroine of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, may dress all in black, but her
fully realized character is painted in shades of grey. Trish Summerville, a costume
designer and stylist celebrated for her work with No Doubt and Black Eyed Peas,
landed the coveted gig of transforming Salanders complexity into clothes. We
spoke to her about creating a visual identity for the blockbuster gothic heroine.
What were your starting points for the design? In contrast to the Swedish ver-
sion, our Lisbeth isnt loud and overt in her dress. I didnt want her to come acrosslike she is in a band, flashy or longing for attention. She is not a clich of what
goth should look like; her clothing is dark and worn, dirty at times, and nothing is
new. How did you introduce the subtleties of her character through clothes?
The character wears them to disappear, not stand out. There are a few moments
where the costume variations help show her trusting side. In one scene, Salander
and Blomkvist are together in the cabin and shes wearing only socks and his
oversized cardigan. It shows that she is comfortable and still a sexual being after
being damaged for so long. How did you translate that vision into the capsule
collection for H&M? I took specific pieces from Salanders wardrobe, cleaned
them up a bit and gave them a more fashionable silhouette and detailing. The col-
lection still has the essence of Salander but focuses on subtler aging and details
in each garment. For more, visit ellecanada.com/February.
hER DARk
MATERiALsTrish
Summerville
(centre) with
designs from
her collection
for H&M