Fashionista: Bite Me

A few months back Handbag and I traversed a few towns in the south west and made note of some interesting discoveries: Celebrity culture is alive and well in our tidy little regional towns.

At the Rink in Bunbury, we managed to snare and snap the gorgeously stylish Ree Ree and Indi making a hasty exit from the zone-de-skate. We were so greatful she obediently elected not to wear her skates in the carpark...

Delighted as we were by this, we were equally impressed by the spirit of the Balingup Girls in Bridgetown; with Handbag in tow they cut a strinking scene going about their daily business whilst awaiting the Saturday afternoon fantastic gymnastic exodus from the local recreation centre where our little darlings were flinging themselves about in rubbery ways we can only dream about doing nowdays (as our husbands no doubt dream also) as the limbs barely remember such distant leaping recollections from our spritely youth.

On we traveled, my handbag and I to accost more innocent Balingup girls only to plunge them into the Handbag Dreaming series where we all suddenly become superhuman celebrity types who gorgeously dash about importantly from one appointment to the next...or from the General Store to the Bronze Gallery for coffee...

Handbag & Helie

I am fortunate to have understanding friends who are prepared to put their reputations and egos on the line in the name of art.

We took a roadtrip to Pemberton recently with Helie in tow to see the Helen Grey-Smith show. On the way home we call into Manjimup and took advantage of the scenery.

Helie shows us all how life can be lived to the fullest, with great style and enthusiasm.

Handbag becomes a ritual talisman equivalent to a mask in theatre: in masking our breasts with those of the beast we cannot help but respond in kind. This sort of street theatre-sports cannot be underestimated in it's ability to bring out the beast within.

Interestingly enough, touted as a handbag - the ultimate fashion fetish - she becomes an obliging wife or maid, ever responsive to the needs of her man in keeping him well-serviced and maintained in true silver screen goddess style.

Remember ladies in the 'missus' category: Our men need us. Bettina Arndt says we should 'just do it' and roll over like a good dog who will feel the heat rise mid-coitus. What do you think?

Handbag Evolution

Image: Protoype 1

The Handbag concept evolved as a response to an emotional outpouring; a ‘spill your guts’ moment followed sharply by deep regret and remorse akin to the embarrassment of a stumble and spill in a public space.

In the midst of my shattered ego-mourning shame I began to consider ideas of contents, containment, emotion and a certain propriety governing my gender as a handbag bulging with undisclosed truths hidden from the public sphere of judgement then suddenly and unceremoniously dumped in full view.

I had always had an issue ‘containing’ myself within the required space of acceptance yet ironically fought with myself to be ‘contained’,  to be a good girl: Aren’t we supposed to live in a post-feminist era where these things don’t matter/have been resolved?

The Handbag as object and performance tool had the potential for me to speak of these spaces and this conflict.

I wanted to create a handbag that would discomfort slightly by shifting and manipulating norms regarding the female form, fashion and functionality. I wanted to use this object as performance piece, symbolically re-enacting my ‘spill your guts’ moment over and again by spilling the contents of the bag in various public spaces to see what response I would get, if any.

Image: Layered Handbag Patterns

My desire was to challenge the idea of containment, the feminine façade of smiling sweetly with a wave of the hand in demurring sweet virtues of ‘oh it’s nothing’ over the war raging within: spilling my contents would become an act of defiance and strength rather than an admission of weakness and vulnerability.

The handbag would have the capacity to attract and repel in its state of beautiful ugliness revealing the contradictions inherent in ‘woman’ by drawing out people’s personal, societal and generational values and beliefs in response to it.

Crafting

Image: Handbag Draft Pattern 1 (above)

In designing and creating the bag I considered a variety of materials but the form stayed consistent:  in the shape of two large pendulous breasts.

I designed several different bags from calico, old tea-towels, faux fur, lingerie and lace before deciding that animal skin would be the most impacting and powerful material to use as it resonated with my intention to speak of the hidden layers of woman.

            Image:  Handbag Trial (Empty Socks, below)

Fur and leather spoke of her basest form; her animal instinct, her hairy flesh, her form as function, her skin of the beast that is desperately clipped, snipped, burnt, waxed, sliced, trimmed, injected and manipulated to hide. And hide she does: deep within the beast lurks like a ghostly apparition of our pre-‘civilized’ past.

Image: Recycled Fur Handbag with Pocket

The process began to take over as the crafting of the bag became the point of focus as ‘origin of the species’ commenting upon the continuous and cyclic nature of the fashioning of the female form and identity. I have amassed various patterns, bags and process documents that detailed the crafting process that became of interest in and of themselves as spokes on the wheel of the process cycle.

In revealing the construction of a handbag that replicates the female form as beastly I hope to draw out some of the hidden values and assumptions lurking below the Skin of the Beast that quietly insist upon appropriate feminine behaviour and appearance. 

Image: Pattern Trial in Calico