Fashion Symbols with Aynura Maye

Bringing together the opposites

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Milan Fashion Week SS21: Thousand Faces of a Dream?

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I wonder whether the fashion has ever been really about fashion. I always thought of the fashion as the mirror of the spirit of its time. Yet, on the last day of the Milan Fashion Week, looking back the previous years, I think fashion means way more. It may also harbinger big social changes yet to occur. As close as three years ago, the runways were all about experimental deconstruction. To a point it was hard to understand what we feel about them. Now, in the midst of social, political, environmental crisis and debilitating pandemic, I, in retrospect, want to allow myself to believe that fashion or designers were heralding this perfect chaos. This crippling predicament that we’ve put out on the face of the world after seasoning it for some years inside the dark alleys of our mind.

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One may ask, what these thoughts have to do with this week of fashion? Now, going carefully over the shows, I see one major line, one dream. A theme that to my mind, have been replayed and brought to runways and our screens in a thousand different ways. Each house and brand, in its own way, played the idea of going back to roots, home and DNA – the guarantor of serenity and tranquility. In times of unprecedented discord and agitation to feel once again in charge of life to recharge and re-orient. To be able to be hopeful again.

Thousand shapes of one story

Although at first sight unlikely, each of these houses played the same theme in line with their core values. Maybe the most direct take came from Valentino by going back to Italy, its country of birth. Dolce & Gabbana revisited the patchwork tradition of its home, Siciliy with a grotesque set design. Etro, likewise, paid a tribute to its roots in a very Etro-ish colorful presentation. In total contrast to the splash of bright colors, Fendi had its models walk down dreamy, delicate white runway decorated with nostalgic yet kind of romantic white curtains… once again, in a tribute to its family traditions. Luisa Beccari, in a poetic way, dedicated the show to her own family. Holding tight to its DNA, the rule-breaker Missioni was home again. Probably the only house capable of elevating knitwear to high fashion and extending it into home and lifestyle, Missioni reversed seasons, revealing autumn-winter collection (to me, rightfully). Armani, who rose and shone with fabrics, went back to roots in his own way. We’d just witnessed a showcase of fabrics of almost ambrosial taste. Versace, born out of the instinctual lust and subterranean carnal desires was back in chthonic land of the Gorgons. Prada occupied itself with “a fundamental examination of the meaning of Prada”. Moschino outdid itself with its already viral doll show in quest of reinventing its DNA of playfulness. Even an emerging brand, Act-1, which is born out of bottomless doubts and identity crisis once more considered this dreadful theme against the staggering reality we live now.

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More Earth Colors, More Flowers

What I am writing next may sound bizarre. Maybe it’s kind of bizarre. Fashion houses, regardless their story of inspiration, have seriously resorted to the Earth Colors. This palette, besides being a bare testimony of us painfully and slowly waking up to our prejudices, has a distinct meaning. Starting from the milkiest beige tone to the dark brown the earth colors symbolize the Earth, the mother earth, the mother, the safe harbor. Resorting to this color palette, to me, says a lot about our state of mind. To this train of thought we can easily add green color (Mother Nature), and flower details.  

When the drives behind manifestations are studied, really the pieces of the puzzle come together – the cry of our soul to feel safe again expressed in so many different ways and colors. The stories of inspiration revolved around what we long for – returning home, roots, family or brand DNA. To bath in the unfailing serenity and tranquility to recharge and re-orient.

Symbols of sexuality – 2. Deer hunt

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Here comes the second most classic symbol of sexuality – the Deer Hunt.

Heads up to everybody! From now on when you see a hunting scene, especially in the artworks from middle ages (especially, miniature paintings), do not be fooled. Many times it is not really about a hunting scene. Well, not in a sense that we generally understand it. It actually talks about the intercourse! Well, you can call it a different kind of hunting.

The subtle difference of this symbol is in its reference to qualities rather than an action – a hunter obviously stands for the male principle, which conquers the female principle in the form of a deer. The deer here symbolizes the feminine grace and shyness.

Click to decipher another symbols of sexuality
The cup and the spoon
The ax and the door

To put it in another way, this variation has more romantic air than the first one. While the cup-spoon makes direct reference to the act, this one talks more about feelings and emotions.

In fact, I ca’t get rid of my prejudice about this expression. In my native language there is a “teenagerish” expression that is a perfect sample (Jeyran ovuna cixmag). I shivered out of disgust every time I heard it. I literally hated that expression and found it very low. During my studies I was astonished to find out that this “lowness” was in fact a universal and classic symbol. I can’t say I like it now. Yet this was one of the very first things that made me wonder more about the dark alleys of our psyche and look for more similarities in the unconscious images and expressions.

Click to decipher another symbols of sexuality
The cup and the spoon
The ax and the door

Instagram – Friend or Enemy of Fashion?

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The Barren Land and the Phenomenon of Alessandro Michele –
My thoughts upon seeing GucciCruise19.

Sometimes things touch us so deeply. They stir certain inexplicable emotions to the point we feel our hair stood on end yet we can’t explain why, like Promenade Des Alyscamps as venue of the GucciCruise19. Because the choice of venue talks about something that is known, yet unknown. Something that we knew once, but have forgotten long ago – the wisdom that once upon a time death wasn’t the end of life, it was the way of receding of the old for the new life to bloom. Life cycle was considered circular not linear, the concept behind the Ouroboros – recurring symbol in Gucci design. That is why the birth of a new collection in the land of death was so fascinating to many. But it takes quite some effort to make this connection to realize why such a choice unconsciously hits the “soft spot” and triggers such deep emotions.

GucciCruise19 - death as inspiration for new collection. Photo. Internet
GucciCruise19 – death as an inspiration for new collection. Photo: Internet

I intend neither to describe nor to analyze another much-debated, much-intriguing and much-putwhateveryouwant show of Gucci for Cruise19. First, people talked enough about it in just one day. Secondly, a thorough analysis of all the concepts and all the symbols would take days and days (which actually I am doing slowly). On the contrary, I’d like to share my opinion on what kind of paradox the Instaeuphoria created for the world of fashion and how his genius Alessandro Michele “reversed the flow” tapping this paradox online and on the runway.

Promenade Des Alyscamps - Cemetery turned into a Promonade. Venue for GucciCruise19. Photo: Gucci.com
Promenade Des Alyscamps – Cemetery turned into a Promenade. Venue for GucciCruise19. Photo: Gucci.com

Two faces of Instagram

The day Instagram went viral it paved a way to a paradox for the world of fashion that has been ripening silently. Precisely, the obsession of our eyes for ephemeral beauty and the cry of our souls for eternal grace.

Captivating the world with the spell of picture-perfect ephemeral beauty was the main card for the world of fashion in those good old paper days. But when ‘gram made picture-perfect beauty so mundane, the internet got inundated with beautiful images without depth. Instahype broke the “beauty” spell of the fashion world. Fashion started to feel like sex without love. It felt good right at that moment, but nothing to remember couple of minutes afterwards. Minds bloated with another “barren” beautiful image started to look for something more meaningful than just good looks. Something that could stir deep emotions within and leave some traces in the memory. This was the paradox. While the whole fashion herd rushed to Instagram to harness fame and awareness, they exhausted the bullets of the strongest weapon they had – captivating power of ephemeral beauty.

Disarmed beauty, bloated minds, inundated Instagram

No matter how much one loves ephemeral beauty there is a limit to which point one can stomach. After hitting the saturation point, we start to search for something that talks of depth. Something that doesn’t talk about egoistic and snobby individualism (that was and still is central to modern beauty), but something that goes farther. Something that talks about continuity of life, participation in society, courage to experiment, embracing identity – all of which give sublime messages of hope. Here enters the stage Alessandro Michele.

Thousand faces of beauty

This is exactly what he does resiliently and persistently. The looks he runs through the runway can hardly be called beautiful by the modern standards instilled in us. Yet, every show hails like a storm in the Internet. He questions the ephemerality of the very concept of beauty by re-creating thousand faces of beauty across ages and cultures. In the same time, the core concept for his creations goes beyond the ephemerality of physical look. The imagery always offers depth and refers to symbols that are impossible to comprehend with rational thinking. They in a sense talk about inexplicable hope. Hope for regenerating capacity of our nature – something new, yet something was once known but forgotten, the Ouroboros.

In times when we feel like lost souls in the ocean of information with no horizon in sight, deep inside we are desperately looking for some clues to navigate our way. When something resonates with us so deeply, we realize that is the clue we’ve been looking for. The clue is the in conventional wisdom that lies in our memory deposit. That is where we feel at home, recharge and make our way back into the future.

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Gucci sends fashion back to roots – RTW Fall/Winter 2018

Lamb – Not Your Usual Animal

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What’s in there for me: An eye-opening fact that would make us think twice before making “religiously discriminating” statements. Here it goes – To our consciousness Lamb maybe only a household animal, but not for the unconscious. Just to scratch the surface, Lamb, at least for the descendants of Abrahamic religions, is a symbol of humility, willingness to surrender to higher power or higher order. It symbolizes acceptance of and repentance for shortcomings and malevolent deeds. The sacrifice of Lamb means to symbolically exterminate the aspects of human nature that have tendency to inflate to the point that may hurt others. For example, our anger, ego, jealousy, self-importance, among others. It is a mechanism of our psyche to keep our worldly attachments in control.

This post makes part of the post “The Secret Stories for Symbols“. Click the link to read more about the wonderfully secretive nature of the symbols. 

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Me and the Lamb

These days, when one talks about Lamb as sacrifice, automatically our mind associates it with Islam. Does this symbol really belong to Islam only? From what I found out, absolutely NO.

While in Argentina when I started these studies, one of the things I was surprised to find out was that one of the names of Christ was also The Lamb. He himself represents sacrifice in this case.

Lamb in religious symbolism together with symbols of Evangelists. Group of four elements is typical in religious depictions. Photo: Internet
The Lamb together with symbols of Evangelists. In general, group of four elements is typical in religious depictions. Photo: Internet

Currently I live in Rome and this place is just heaven for those interested in evolution of thought. Just by walking down the street one can learn so much by carefully observing monuments. This city is also home to the oldest catholic churches, which still carry old facade paintings. This is what I love about Rome. History is live here. Cut to the chase, about 4 blocks from my home there is an old church. Over the façade of this church there is an image of the Lamb right at Christ’s foot. After seeing this I started to inspect the facades of other churches. Interestingly, I found a handful of them with similar illustrations. So this has been a recurrent symbol.

The Secret Story of Lamb

True, The Lamb is almost a forgotten image in Christianity these days. However, I guess, everybody knows that it is a very living symbol in Islam. It is a symbol of Muslim holiday Eid-Mubarak. Again, it is a symbol of sacrifice. Also, Torah mandates Jews perform sacrificial ritual of Paschal Lamb on the eve of Pass Over (Pasqua).

To sum up, to our consciousness Lamb maybe only a household animal, but not for unconscious. Just to scratch the surface, Lamb, at least for the descendants of Abrahamic religions, is a symbol of humility, willingness to surrender to higher power or higher order. It symbolizes acceptance of and repentance for shortcomings and malevolent deeds. Sacrifice of Lamb means to symbolically exterminate the aspects of human nature that have tendency to inflate to the point that may hurt others. For example, our anger, ego, jealousy, self-importance, among others. It is a mechanism of our psyche to keep our worldly attachments in control.

Why such a bloody ritual? Pain in body makes soul suffer and suffering is fundamental for spiritual growth. Just like a famous expression goes: Light enters through wound.  That’s why normally religious rituals are violent and harsh.

This post makes part of the post “The Secret Stories for Symbols“. Click the link to read more about the nature of the symbols.

Secret stories of symbols

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What is in there for me: Awesome tips to those who take “spirituality thing” very seriously. These days it is cool and “spiritual” to meditate and do yoga to “attract good vibes”. That is true, serious dedication to meditation would ultimately lead to some deeper connection with inner self. Yet, it has some high prices to pay. I ask myself: Would I dedicate myself to it without supervision of some sort of guru? Absolutely, NO! Because that means embarking on an internal journey towards the dark depth of the unconscious, an unknown territory for us. Plus, we have no knowledge how to deal with powerful forces of the unconscious. This journey is potentially very dangerous for an untrained rational mind.  Especially, in modern times when we tend to deny anything that we can’t explain with help of the reasoning. Before opening up its healing aspects, the unconscious throws all the rocks, bugs, snakes, monsters on the path of the one who meditates. Only the most victorious ones get to drink the elixir of life. Just like in the story of Buddha, or in the tales of Sinbad, the most precious gems are kept in the deep wells where venomous snakes live. To get the gem, the Hero should kill the snakes first. If the language gets really weird now, I’d suggest that you go on reading the post to learn why.

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Signs Are Not Symbols

Our daily language is full of metaphors, symbols, logos, trademarks etc. But not all of them have the same power and impact over our psyche. Jungian psychoanalysis divides them into two generic groups – Signs and symbols. Which falls into which group? To describe very roughly, signs are man-made but symbols are produced spontaneously by the unconscious. How we decide which one is which? Here is the differentiating factor: Signs by themselves do not mean anything. They acquire a certain meaning due to deliberate use of that specific sign over an extensive period of time for a specific purpose. For example, when we see Golden arch of McDonalds, we know what it stands for. Other globally perfect examples would be Android, LG, Pantene, UNESCO etc. In other words, Signs are products of the conscious and used for a specific end or reason beyond which they do not express much.

Allusions to celestial spheres in Valentino piece. Dream motifs. Photo: Internet
Allusions to celestial spheres in Valentino piece. Dream motifs. Photo: Internet

On the contrary, symbols are produced by the unconscious and their meaning stays more less the same. Normally, they have more to their meanings than what we know about them. If we muse over them, we may get some vague sense about their meanings, but it will be impossible to fully decipher them. Their unconscious meanings have so many intertwined layers and far reaching connotation that it is almost impossible to exhaust with interpretation. They express what is inexpressible in words. They talk about the realities of our psyche in a dimension that logic can’t penetrate. They are the “letters of the alphabet” of the Unconscious and influence us on the unconscious level. This is the reason religions and moral doctrines resort to picture language. Those images transcend boundaries of duality and make logical explanation fail big time.

Faces of Symbols

Our instincts are psychical urges, like hunger, sex-drive, self-protection, fears, desires etc. But they have their own way of self-manifestation in the unconscious. These urges get personified and take a relatable shape in our psyche. So they have a living nature. The ogres, monsters, fairies, sirens, centaurs we read about in fairy tales, or falling, flying, life-regenerating breeze, deep waters, pregnancy (in case of men) and all sorts of bizarre dreams are not to be taken literally. These symbols are shared across humanity. Jung has called them “archetypes of collective unconscious”.

Their job is to kind of represent the processes happening in our soul in a highly symbolic form. But they are not produced randomly, without a purpose. They are kind of transmitters of traditional wisdom that lays in the unconscious. They call the consciousness to act upon the troubles going on in the emotional life of a person. Among other things, they talk about the psychological challenges of adaptation in different periods of human life. Going even further, they give hints about what expects us at the end of different paths. They pass this wisdom on to us in dramatized language of myths and fairy tales.

Power of Symbols

These symbols are no joke. Without doubt they underlie the patterns of our conscious behavior because they are pure manifestations of our life instincts.  Yet we fail to recognize them when we come across them in pictures, monuments, riddles, myths, fairy tales, dreams, religious texts, hallucinations etc. Because they are alien to logical thinking.

They are products of creative energies of the unconscious and possess enormous energy projected on certain images. This is why religious pictures and objects hold so much emotional charge for devotees.  Even though we do not understand their meanings, we feel that they hint to something hidden.  They pass their messages to us on a very deep level. They are in a sense numinous. They evoke deep, inexplicable feelings inside us like Mecca for Muslims, cross in Christians, idols for idolater etc. If recognized and integrated, the healing aspects of the unconscious manifest itself. Put in religious terms, the grace dawns upon. If not, they turn into repressed energies chasing one in form of hallucinations, morbid dreams, inexplicable sufferings, loss of interest in life until they drive one into pure madness and schizophrenia. If I put this in the language of our unsuspecting ancestors – one becomes possessed by daemon.

Yet their power lies in this enigmatic nature. Once explained logically, they lose that power of spell over our psyche. Just like Sun has lost its “God” image once explained with the help of science.

What are specifically those symbols and myths? Follow fashion posts to learn about them.