Fashion Symbols with Aynura Maye

Bringing together the opposites

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Fashion film, not fashion show any more – #MFW #AW21

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And my ten picks

Now that Milan Fashion Week Fall Winter 2021 is coming to an end, I’ll be consistent with the practices I’m trying to build and work out my 10 picks. To be honest, after so many months of disruption, I feel like there are oceans between me and the frivolous world of fashion.

During this period, with everything going platonically digital, sincerely, I find myself tuned more to the entertainment, theatrical side and immersive experience than to the collection. I wonder if there are people out there who can’t concentrate on old good catwalk like me? Catwalks were what I was looking forward to in the last season, but this sudden change of expectation I discover about myself makes me realize another thing. Maybe, much is said about it. Yet I am sharing my own thoughts as one should do on her own platform.

Apparently, something is happening that will never go away. Fashion design has gone beyond 2D presentation. Even after the pandemic is over (hopefully) and we resume our pretty flat two dimensional life, fashion design and presentation will never be two dimensional. The battle for fleeting attention of the global audience is growing more fierce. On top of product design, the designers now have to do in-depth study and experimentation to find new ways of three dimensional immersive experience. Right, experience is what fashion shows were about. But, there is some major difference – before presentations were constrained to the show venue as a backdrop. Now there is no such constraint. It is liberating in a way. Yet, now they have to create that all consuming, feel-real yet surreal digital backdrop that will not complement the collection and the concept, but enhance it. It seems like fashion shows are becoming short fashion films.

To sum up, I find it paradoxical, in the hey days of the fashion weeks I would kind of get horrified of the spending and vanity surrounded the shows. When there are so many living in dire conditions around the world and many kids lose their lives because of malnutrition, such extravaganza seemed superfluous and unjust to me. Now, with all this vanity existing only in the nonexistent dimension, I kind of find it beautiful and maybe even necessary.

I think, I’ve given enough explanation to declare why I’ve made my selection over total experience rather than collections only. It is true, I find the feminine yet resolute flare of Elisabetta Franchi enchanting. The chic, sharp yet flowing curves of Alberta Ferretti are simply beautiful. Yes, Armani as usual nailed it with fabulous fabrics. I have a feeling that Valentino’s designs, especially net outwear will become composed folk songs of the season. Especially, the tribute to the Piccolo Teatro, which holds so much emotional value for Milan and Italians is commendable. However, I’ll judge with foreign eyes, no emotional value attached, as purely fashion newbie from outside. This way around I’ll pick shows that were more than fashion show, were theatrical and immersive.

All that said, after religiously watching all of the shows, sometimes more than once, I’ve piled my list of ten fairly distributed between new names and established maisons. By the way, I find new designers more apt in this unfolding novelty and observe a more conceptual approach to immersive experience creation. Kudos.

Finally, let’s get into the names:

10. MM6 Maison Margiela

That inside out, upside down, reverse mood – each and every one of us, each and every day.

9. Francesca Liberatore

I do not know why she picked this theme. But her ascetic style made it even more powerful. War has been a deeply wounding experience personally to me about 27 years ago. It shaped my life, destiny and preconditioned many depressive cycles I’ve lived periodically. And it came back last year to my homeland after 27 years. Her collection simply talked to my heart.

8. Del Core

I am just in love with their magnificent images and conceptualism.

7. Vìen

Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of real life stories about mental health issues of (particularly) teenagers, or the youth going through a prolonged puberty. Some stories are appalling. Rising cases of adolescence suicides, I think, it is high time that fashion starts conversation about it. For this matter, I see this collection very relevant and timely.

6. Act 1

Ok, I’ll be very honest, I can’t be indifferent to these guys. One of the duo is from my homeland. From the way he relates to the traditions (of which I am part of) and the delicate way he dismantles everything into pieces I can recognize his pain. I can feel his personal quest to rebuild himself through the deconstructed lines. And the shows they put out is sometimes blood freezing.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CLwRjQyo5kE/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

5. Human Poetics by Polimoda

Besides being a wonderful initiative, I found this film as a great culture guide to Firenze. The imaging is spectacular.

4. Philipp Plein

Well, simply, I think, it is that immersive fashion experience. My 11 year old didn’t like the film, he called it “cringe”. But I think it is just that “hate whatever mom likes” attitude of a pre-adolescent boy. Well, I liked it. So here it is in the list.

3. Dolce Gabbana

Besides everything else, this duo should be crowned as masters of music choice – that very single thing that I could have my son agree with me. The music of the last season was awesome too.

2. Versace

Maze is the answer to everything. It has so many layers of meaning that we better not even start to question. Well, it is in the DNA of Versace and the show was a magnificent reinterpretation of the Greca pattern. If we exclude the monochrome styles that confused me and I had to remind myself constantly that I am not watching a Fendi show, but a Versace show, it was a sophisticated show put together with high flying models. And those platforms too…. I mean, I hope they just stay inside that fantasy maze and not make their way into the stores. Please, Donatella…

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CMCT7zvDBZy/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

1. Moschino

I do not know how many times I’ve gone back to see this show. I mean, laugh and humor is what has kept us going through this period, really. And this show to me was a production of genius mind.

Hit the play for some humor and quality time if you haven’t watched it yet. Do not miss the il gran finale! Lumière! Musique!

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CL2RJEYCGEV/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Featured image: moschino.com

Mother Archetype XI – Teenage Crisis – Libido

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Before wrapping up this series, a pit-stop is due. Not touching upon an important phenomenon would make this whole series incomplete. What we have been talking about in this whole series is really million shades of Libido and its dynamics. Now the question will follow naturally – what Libido is.

These days Libido, almost without exception (and sadly!), is used to refer to sexual drive. This definition in fact owes its roots to the the early years of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical theories. Interestingly, with time he changed his definition of Libido. He described it as life instinct, which is responsible for all sorts of urges and drives we feel, which also includes, obviously the sexual drive. Yet, in general use, Libido, over time, got reduced to the sexual drive.

Featured Image:
Inside the head of a teenager

SCULPTURE: Drunkness of Bacchus and Faun by Michelangelo.
Greek-Roman God Dionysus – symbol of Libido in erotic sense
(a.k.a state of mind, purpose and meaning of teenage years)

“The Dionysiac religion contained orgiastic rites that implied the need for an initiate to abandon himself to his animal nature and thereby experience the full fertilizing power of the Earth Mother. The initiating agent for this rite of passage in the Dionysiac ritual was wine. It was supposed to produce the symbolic lowering of consciousness necessary to introduce the novice into the closely guarded secrets of nature, whose essence was expressed by a symbol of erotic fulfillment.”

Jung, Carl Gustav. Man and His Symbols . Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

the image is taken from Internet

Libido Is Not (Only) Sex Drive

On the contrary, Jung introduced a broader understanding of Libido. He described it as totality of psychic energy. The laws of energy apply to it as well – it never disappears, always changes its form. As usual, in front of the lucidity of his mind, I do not know if someone can object this definition.

Usually, the widely practiced and generally accepted analytical psychoanalysis schools offer detailed description of the transfer of Libido during the first half of life – namely from mouth to anal to genital organs etc.  But they notably fail to explain the mental processes happen in the second half of life or anything that is not about erotic love. For example, the feeling of Empathy that especially gets upper hand in our mind in the second half of life. Even the love we feel for our own kids and parents. Or our mental set-up not to cease hoping for better, believe in magic, seek guidance of supernatural powers, need for spirituality etc. All these are part of life instincts and equally important urges in certain periods of human life. We know only too well that disregarding these urges may lead to tragic results and broken destinies.

To sum up, Jung, (I think) rightfully, understands Libido not as sexual force solely, but as totality of psychic energy. For him, the unconscious itself is this energy, it is part of nature. It is not a dirtbag for incompatible desires and fears only as regarded in Freudian psychoanalysis. It holds them too, but also is source of life growing germs too. He may have agreed with Freud when it is about the first half of life. He asserts that in the second half this energy gradually retreats from erotic life, diverting itself towards empathy, non-erotic love and spirituality. Not so good news, such transformations of this energy never happens slowly and quietly. They are tumultuous psychic processes and we experience them as existential crisis – namely, the second one would be mid-life crisis.

Libido and Teen Suicides

Specifically, in our Mother Archetype series, what we talked about was mostly the dynamics of Libido during adolescence, or teen years. This is one of the most transformative and most difficult to handle periods we experience as humans. This is a period, I guess both geniuses would agree on it – when Libido moves to the genital area. This is the phase of procreation and as Jung says, time to dive in and fully rejoice the carefully guarded secrets of nature. Put it plainly, walking erection and baby-making in full force. Yet this transformation doesn’t come as a prize. At this period, Libido – the psychic energy, through mental efforts of each individual, should detach itself from the safe zone of the childhood, the mother (the instinctual safe harbor and infantile bond) and channel up to the next phase.  This detachment would mean “breaking off” the shell of family protection to build an individual personality. Mythologically speaking, this process would mean to symbolically die to the previous self and reborn into a new life full of creativity and potential, but with great deal of uncertainty and doubts as well.

How would it feel?

Compare it to losing oneself in an unknown forest at night in some unknown spot on Earth and frantically trying to find the way home. Or waking up to find oneself in the middle of ocean with no land in horizon and all the while learning to swim, trying to stay afloat and finding harbor. Frustration beyond explanation, right? This is a mentally and physically quite destructive process. Rebirth and re-discovery of self should pass thru destruction, rule of thumb! Failing to go through this mental transformation is basically shrinking away from responsibilities of new life and hanging on to what becomes agonizing already. No wonder, currently we hear about so many cases of adolescence suicide, depression, obsessions with immoral behavior (a quick resort to hide from uncertainty), addictions, drugs etc. Lack of conventional wisdom, guidance and consumerism takes this whole process to a whole new painful level.

To round up Jung’s thoughts on it, the individual, who manages successful transformation (and we are talking about a process that lasts for years), would return to make part of the community not as a shadow of someone, but as “citizen” – equal member of the city, motherland, tribe, community whatever one belongs to.

For the myriad forms of transformation in boys and girls, check out the Mother Archetype to find your own type.

The next and last post will be about Incest – why sexual relationship between the same blood relatives is taboo and self-occurring source of guilt and shame. Why are we built in this way? Is Incest a problem or solution?

Mother Archetype I
Mother Archetype II – Son Lover of the Mother Goddess
Mother Archetype III – Don Juanism
Mother Archetype IV – Homosexuality and Impotence
Mother Archetype V – Exaggerated Maternal Instinct
Mother Archetype VI – Home-Wrecker With a Mission
Mother Archetype VII – Shadow Daughter
Mother Archetype VIII – Mom Hater
Mother Archetype IX – Part Human, Part Supernatural
Mother Archetype X – Motherland
Mother Archetype XII – Incest: Problem or Solution?

Mother Archetype X – Motherland

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I first wrote this post back in October, 2020 on my Instagram. At the time, including the summer of 2020, I was writing about the Mother Archetype. Due to a strange, bittersweet coincidence, I happened to deeply feel the bond we associate with “Mother” and our “birth place / motherland”.

War, re-discovered patriotism and suffering

Whoever has followed the series, already, knows, both phenomena are different manifestations of the Mother Archetype. The war of over 25 years ago, due to which I had become refugee and had eventually cooled into a frozen conflict, haphazardly reignited. I was totally consumed and shattered by the events. So much that couldn’t pull myself together to log into my site for months. I mean, even months after the war ended in 44 days.

Efesina Diana, Roma @museicapitolini

In the background of this war and crippling pandemic, fashion seemed so superfluous. I kept asking and still ask myself why I dedicated this blog exclusively to fashion. And again, after putting my life on hold for months, the blog is the first place I log in to have a sense of purpose and continuity. In these moments of deep perplexity, this site feels like a tie that bonds me to the physical life. It pushed me to channel my efforts in one direction when I was crumbling into million pieces couple of years ago. Now this is my refuge again to hold on to reality, and not roll back into that darkness of nowhere.

Honestly, I understand I have complicated relationship with fashion. It is both superfluous and the most natural way of self-expression, the undeniable connection with the other world. It is Godly, but without God. I better stop and share the post that I consider worthy to stay. As mentioned, it points out a very important connection between mother, city and country of birth – the motherland. This connection is often an overlooked root of patriotism and admiration for heroism.

Statue of Queen Tuya, Roma, @musei_vaticani

The original post with slight modification:

In these troubling times for my motherland, Jung’s writings on the Mother Archetype make more sense than ever to me. Living the experience is important to realize why we call our country of birth Motherland, why we can’t detach ourselves from it, our decisions, choices, even random tweets in the background are conditioned by our attitude towards the Mother Archetype. To break down a bit, by our attitude to our own mother, motherland, our city of birth, our own identity, alma mater, and even death.

As for this specific connection between the Mother Archetype and the “Motherland”, Jung refers to mythical monuments as a visual guide. He explains this intricate web of emotions and psychic processes as below. Very obvious, all the monuments share two not so little details – all are women and all carry City Walls on their heads instead of crown.

“The symbol-creating process substitutes for the Mother the City…. what was natural and useful to the child [ref. mother attachment] is a psychic danger for the adult, and this is expressed by the symbol of incest…: the infantile attachment [to mother] is a crippling limitation for the adult, whereas attachment to the city fosters his civic virtues and at least enables him to lead a useful existence.”

Therefore certain mythical female statues have city walls on the heads instead of crown. These monuments symbolize the transfer of attachment from actual mother to the motherland / “mothercity”. This is an indication of healthy dynamics of psychic growth. Does it explain why patriotisms and martyrdom are so revered?

Right here, these thoughts make me wonder. What Jung would have to tell about, from what I see, another round of failed globalism. This archetype gives us a pretty much rounded answer to why globalism is such a difficult process. No matter how amazing it sounds in theory, the process has more layers than we realize. But, I’ll just leave it there and come about to our series.

Read other posts of the series:
Mother Archetype I
Mother Archetype II – Son Lover of the Mother Goddess
Mother Archetype III – Don Juanism
Mother Archetype IV – Homosexuality and Impotence
Mother Archetype V – Exaggerated Maternal Instinct
Mother Archetype VI – Home-Wrecker With a Mission
Mother Archetype VII – Shadow Daughter
Mother Archetype VIII – Mom Hater
Mother Archetype IX – Part Human, Part Supernatural
Mother Archetype XI – Teenage Crisis – Libido
Mother Archetype XII – Incest: Problem or Solution?