It is nearly impossible to describe the experience that is South by Southwest (SXSW). Imagine tech nerds, film buffs, and music heads from all over the world crash landing in the capitol of Texas. Add countless networking opportunities, sponsored parties and open bars from “it” brands in every field, 12 blocks of E 6th St swollen like someone 10 months pregnant, and celebs walking around in the midst of it all. (The Biebs strolled past me this year, NBD)
Between the days full of events and nights full of live music parties, I took a few moments to soak it all in. I ate my weight in tacos. Posed for all the street style pictures the paparazzi's hearts desired. And met some really cool people.
One of the coolest was my friend Greg of Greg Noire who's beautiful photos populate this post and bring to life SXSW Music.
Enjoy!
Wish you were there,
xoxo Anastasia
Below: A low-res iPhone 4 Anastasia sandwich with (L to R) Daniel and Sean of Joywave after their set at the Fader Fort (Photo: A friend of Joywave)
Vic Mensa crowd surfs at the MTV Woodie Awards during SXSW Music '14 (Photo: Greg Noire)
Jay Electronica photobombs Solange during the Saint Heron x Puma party at Cheer Up Charlie's (Photo: Greg Noire)
Iggy Azalea performs at the MTV Woodie Awards during SXSW Music '14 (Photo: Greg Noire)
Lil Wayne mid-air at the MTV Woodie Awards '14 (Photo: Greg Noire)
Childish Gambino dazzles the crowd at the MTV Woodie Awards '14 (Photo: Greg Noire)
Erykah Badu center stage at the Fader Fort presented by Converse '14 (Photo: Greg Noire)
Austin PD on E 6th St in downtown Austin (Photo: Greg Noire)
Rick Ross poses mid-performance at the Fader Fort presented by Converse '14 (Photo: Greg Noire)
Travi$ Scott vibes out with the crowd at the Fader Fort '14 (Photo: Greg Noire)
Fader Fort presented by Converse '14 crowd awaits the next performance (Photo: Greg Noire)
Fashion Group International nominated our CEO Nicole Aguirre for the Rising Star Media Award
We are excited that she was nominated for an award with such a historical significance and wanted to thank everyone that has worked on Worn Magazine with us!
Stories of Acceptance: Barneys Initiates a Transgender Movement in Fashion and Beyond
In late January of this year, leading fashion retailer Barneys New York made a bold statement with their use of transgender models in their new fashion campaign, “Brothers, Sisters, Sons and Daughters”. The LGBT community has increased over the years, and along with it, the appearance of transgender men and women in television and in the media. History reveals a select number of transgender models gracing the pages and covers of fashion magazines, but the industry as a whole has not endorsed these unconventional models nor offered widespread assistance in social reforms. While androgyny has always been a trend in fashion since the days of Grace Jones to today’s models like Willy Cartier and Agyness Dean, there has been some resistance with accepting a larger integration of transgender models.
Collaborating with the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and the LGBT Community Center, Barneys New York used their campaign and models’ stories to spark a movement to push stereotypes in the fashion industry. The campaign’s photographer Bruce Weber embraced the beauty of models while looking to raise awareness about the “T” in the LGBT community. With the fashion industry having a reputation for being stringent, the cast of the campaign’s seventeen transgender male and female models broke gender and racial barriers. A diverse mixture of non-models and models were featured, with photographs captured in black and white as the campaign was launched on Barney’s blog, “The Window”.
“Brothers, Sisters, Sons and Daughters” was more than just a shoot; it was project and a statement. After hosting an open casting call, Weber and Vanity Fair’s, Patricia Bosworth, delved deeper into each of the models lifestyles, interviewing and shooting and recording them amongst loved ones to get more of an idea of what life is like for one who is transgender. Some of the models even included past photography and video from their past as they expressed their struggles and triumphs throughout their sex change with Bosworth. The whole production is a 36-minute film covering the shoot with shorter model testimonials available to watch on “The Window”.
[Valentijn de Hingh on the left is a 23-yr-old, student, dj and model based out of Amsterdam, watch her video interview HERE.]
The industry has already been impacted by the campaign. At DKNY’s fashion show during New York Fashion Week, they not only featured transgender models on the runway, but made an emphasis to cast racially diverse celebrities and models off the streets of New York. This winter Olympics in Russia, LGBT issues were also in the the minds of the whole world, and many advertisers like Chevrolet and Google made sure to make their stance on the subject widely known. As brands and media continue to break away from the stereotypes not only the fashion industry, but society, has placed on a standard of beauty, a revolution is destined to happen. We welcome it.
Reported by Raessa Belnavis, Edited by Worn Creative Staff. All pictures were photographed by Bruce Weber for Barneys New York.
Millennials are a generation ever infatuated with image and images. We're immersed in visual content every minute of every day. Tumblr and Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube.
At this point, we're used to seeing the likes of stereotypical imagery. Like Air New Zealand's latest "world's most beautiful safety video" for example or Dr. Pepper's Manliest Low Calorie Soda in the History of Mankind commercial. Whether intended to add some fun and personality or comical relief, we see boxes being placed around imagery, most often based on gender and/or race.
Millennials aren't buying it, figuratively or literally.
So how is it that much of what we see doesn't mirror most of who we are?
Young and creative. Career-oriented with family values. Tattooed in corporate America. Hustlers in the start-up community. Tech savvy. Dads who do the dishes. Gasp!
Sheryl Sandberg and Getty Images get it.
Getty Images partnered with Sheryl Sandberg's LeanIn.org to produce stock photography that portrays women and men in a more modern, less stereotypical light.
Pictured above: A photo from the LeanIn collection begins the slide on the Gettyimages.com homepage. All photos are property of Getty Images.
The contemporary woman is neither standing around in a stiff suit holding a briefcase or off somewhere oozing sexuality, staring in a mirror, twirling her hair. There is a modern edge and individualistic twist that is missing in media and stock photography that Getty Images' LeanIn collection aims to fix. With Getty's three most searched terms being "women", "family", and "business", it's about time.
We're thrilled to share this mass media update. Our multi-cultural, female led team at Worn Creative is consistently gagging at stereotypical marketing both online and off. Getty Images offers a 150 million image library that services 2.4 million customers. Expanding this database to include the LeanIn collection was a smart move.
Millennials are here and now and the most diverse generation ever. Get with it, or get left behind.
One day, our CEO Nicole Aguirre asked what I thought about Facebook so I shared my honest opinion: Facebook has become a wasteland for disgruntled 9-5 cubicle dwellers trolling and posting on company time, old people, and our bad friends back home who got married or pregnant in their teens or 20s trying to shove their “cute” kids’ pics down our throat. We’re not interested.
OUT WITH THE OLD.
Personally, I think Facebook’s gotten “old”. I prefer social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, or Vine to Facebook or, Tom forbid, MySpace. Not only do those just feel old, but the platforms they offer us are too. Facebook has tried updating their user interface several times to no re-branding avail. A timeline of endless updates sandwiched between too many posting options and too many random advertisements. It’s broke and we’re not particularly interested in seeing it fixed. We’d prefer to just move on.
MOVING ON: WE’RE OUR OWN BRANDS
Twitter is where I went first because it offers a creative, 140 characters or less, straight-to-the-point approach for what’s most important for my fellow millennials and I: branding. ourselves. In a generation that emphasizes the overnight celebrity, we want followers not friends, and a way to self-promote that is simple and clean and allows for more individual creativity. The character count limit requires more creativity in sharing, a proverbial “get to the point” where I can express myself as a brand briefly. Micro-blogging social media platforms like Twitter give an immediate, simplistic approach to feed our need for celebrity status. A follow, like, retweet, and/or reply are all us millennials want from the hoards of strangers around the world we are instantly, and frequently inadvertently, connected to because of another follow, like, retweet, and/or reply. Thus, allowing our following to flourish with one of the 21st century’s most basic marketing tools.
Instagram, for example, is a no sweat cycle of posting pictures and videos that at worst require a “filter”. A place where millennials like Aly Antorcha (better known on the world wide web as Aly Horchata) can acquire 46k followers with lots of pictures of her face and her friends, her pets and travels, and all the other adventures being our age has to offer. Friends of mine like Aly are just a drop in the new power of micro-blogging bucket to see why it’s so appealing. STATS TELL THE TRUTH According to a report last fall by royal.pingdom.com, 65% of current Facebook users are 35 or older.
I’m not surprised. Royal.pingdom.com cites the average Facebook user is 40.5 years old. I find this very representative of all those cubicle folk Facebooking on the job as well as our grandparents and aunts who are always trying to “friend” us. Slow to adapt, my great-aunt just started using Facebook as a way to connect with friends and family, and I for one think it’s great she’s trying to stay “in the loop”.
While the site also reports the average Twitter user is 37.3 years old. I think it’s more a case for all the business savvy CEOs who promote their brands and companies with ease to millennial masses. With 45% of Twitter users under the age of 35, it’s safe to say we’re into it. For how long? One can never know.
Don't Blame IMG Fashion--Smaller Venues at NYFW Will Not be the End of the Blogger Profession
by K. Juliet Otoya
Many fashion bloggers voiced their frustrations as soon as IMG Fashion’s news broke out about reducing their venue’s capacities, and the blogger presence as result, at fashion shows this season. When an invite solidifies one’s importance within the world of fashion, it’s imaginable to see why making fashion bloggers expendable by default would put their new titles as “full-time bloggers” in jeopardy.
The fact is, it’s not personal.
Catherine Bennett, senior Vice President and managing director at IMG Fashion Events and Properties, explained this decision to the Wall Street Journal: “What used to be a platform for established designers to debut their collections to select media and buyers has developed into a cluttered, often cost-prohibitive and exhausting period for our industry to effectively do business.” Last September Oscar de la Renta was also outspoken about why he decided to cap the seating at 350 people, and invite true decision-makers in the fashion industry.
Bloggers have been enormously beneficial in the success of spreading brand awareness to the millennial consumer, that IMG Fashion—and the CFDA who are in support of this new plan—are not denying. So what exactly do fashion bloggers do at the shows that supports their case to be invited?
1. Take photographs during the show to post on their blog + social media handles
2. Wear designer clothes that get captured in street style photography
3. Report on who they saw, what pieces they loved
4. Reach out to brands or vice versa on collaborations, coverage on blog, gifting etc..
From a broader perspective, top bloggers like Susie Bubble, Leandra Medine, and BryanBoy contribute two important things. 1. They provide editorial content that engages the millennial in the same way that a magazine or online fashion news source would. Unlike Who What Wear, Elle, or Refinery29, blog content is oftentimes more personal so readers are able to bond emotionally to the blogger. 2. Bloggers provide free publicity during and outside shows by what they wear and who they’re seen with, creating buzz around social media. This is great for brands from a PR perspective, with the audience who follow these bloggers bringing in sales in a thrice-removed way. But these reasons aren’t enough to continue sending hundreds of invitations each season to bloggers over buyers.
When the first “strategized” New York Fashion Week began and the tents came up at Bryant Park, buyers and the media suddenly had a central location to see the show. Gone were the days when they had to sprint across Manhattan to see a collection. Since then, the fashion shows have diverged from their original focus of selling a collection, to a free for all street style competition of self-promoters. By “banning bloggers,” as many have misrepresented the goal of the newest venue reductions, IMG’s intent is to bring the fashion shows back to their original, industry focus.
This doesn’t sit well with everyone, especially bloggers. Some argue that buyers need bloggers to bring insight into what the average consumer wants. That thinking misses the point - especially when buyers have years of experience selecting pieces of a collection for customers of various sizes and taste, curated for the stores they represent. It’s their job to know what will sell. Buyers also have tangible data on what was bought in store and online, what the trends are on the streets all across the world, what styles are a constant favorite, and the eye to know when they’ve come across new pieces that will start a trend. It’s not surprising that a head buyer, with the power to buy thousands of pieces off a runway show, would expect to be treated as the priority.
In an interview with Garance Doré—photographer, illustrator, and blogger—Kate Foley, then a buyer at Opening Ceremony, said she does not rely on bloggers or reviews to make buying decisions. Like Kate, I don’t see Ken Downing of Neiman Marcus, Toby Bateman at Mr. Porter, or Ikram Goldman looking at the opinions of fashion bloggers to make decisions. More often than not, bloggers are instagramming, tweeting, and blogging about pieces that were already on a buyers wish-list.
Even without an invitation to shows, fashion bloggers will still write about the collections and readers won’t stop engaging with that content. Bloggers will still present their opinions; wear, be photographed in and write about the clothes gifted/loaned to them; buy pieces they love; and collaborate with retailers and designers. As frightening as it is for fashion bloggers to imagine not getting as many invites to NYFW, their profession doesn’t hang on the balance of attending as many shows as possible. It’s what bloggers do online that drives potential advertisers and others to their websites.
IMG Fashion’s new rules concern a show’s capacity, and by minimizing the seating available they hope designers and their PR teams will send out invites to true “fashion insiders”. Despite the uproar, who gets invited is not up to IMG Fashion or the CFDA. The social media frenzy that surrounds a designer during fashion week won’t die despite the lack of bloggers, if it does, you can be sure the velvet ropes will open again for bloggers next season.
*Front row at Monique Lhuillier as witnessed by my camera phone.
Here at Worn Creative, we are incredibly excited for the start of 2014 and a new chapter in our agency. We are thrilled to have worked with such talented artists and companies in 2013. Instagram worked as a mini photo-journal for us, and we wanted to highlight a few instances that made this year so memorable:
1. Joining other #millennialentreprenuers at 1776 in DC
2. Worn Creative producer, Anastasia Thomas, holding up proofs for our 5th Issue of Worn Magazine, always exciting!
3. Working with Saint Clair Jewelry to create a lookbook for their Spring/Summer line
4. Shooting the music spread for the “Raw” issue on top of Union Market—the photographer, our CEO Nicole Aguirre
5. Seeing our work for &pizza come to life as they continued their expansion
6. Co-hosting with the House of Sweden at an intimate opening, which showcased some amazing Swedish artists
7. Putting on our 1st #CreativeCapitol with 1776, the 2nd at Malmaison, and now a third will be happening in January, stay tuned!
8. Getting to go to Brazil for Fashion Week, seeing some beautiful work and meeting great innovators
9. Shooting a video for Hailo all over Washington, DC
10. Going to a Wizards basketball game as members of the &pizza family
11. Seeing a number of Nicole Aguirre’s and John Edmonds art showcased at Vivid Gallery Solutions
12. Celebrating our sixth Issue of Worn Magazine with our fab stylist, CEO, designer, and producer
Worn Creative best friend and Issue 5 spotlighted artist and model Kota Eberhardt is featured in Pharrell’s just released 24 hr video for the song “Happy.” That’s her with mint green hair dancing with Pharrell on the beach at 5am.
(Watch the video starting at 1:08.)
W: How did you get in this video?
Pharrell found me via my instagram! That’s the crazy part. I dyed my hair blue and went to Burning Man this year and they found those pictures.
W: You’re in the 5am hour of the video. Did you actually shoot at 5am?
Kota: Yes! I didn’t know I hadn’t officially booked it until 12am that morning and we started filming at 5am true to the video in Griffith Park in L.A.
W: What happened when you met Pharrel for the first time?
Kota: Pharrell hopped out of this black SUV and he just walked toward me. I felt so high. I felt like I was flying. He was like “What’s up?” Then we stood there for a few minutes and waited to take direction while the sun came up.
Then he started asking me a lot of questions. He reminded me of a young man but he had this wise spirit. We started talking about DC and I told him that my mom used to date Marion Barry.
W: What’s happening in your scene together?
Kota: The directors (We Are From LA) said to me ”You’re interested in him but not really. He’s trying to get you to dance and you kind of do but you don’t pay too much attention to him. You’re just beautiful.”
W: Did you get to talk to Pharrell between takes?
Kota: Yeah! Between takes he asked, “What are you?” And I said, “My life is on fire right now.” He said “I can tell. You’re my first take of today and I feel invincible.”
W: What was the most memorable part of the whole experience?
Kota: When he said to his friends about me “She’s in tune. She’s one of us.”
Kota is the epitome of the uber-talented multicultural millennial that doesn’t see a division between work, passions, and play. We can’t wait to see what she does next. We’ll keep you posted.
Featured in Issue 5 of Worn Magazine. Story by Nicole Aguirre.
Only the greatest talents are known by a single name. Kota is poised to become one of those greats. Recently named the new face of Olay’s "Fresh Effects" campaign, Kota is a quadruple threat of beauty, brains, musical, and artistic talent.
Born at Howard University hospital in 1989, Kota navigated a difficult childhood. She grew up in D.C. during the crack epidemic to a mother who was a chronic drug addict. “My mother was the Marilyn Monroe of real women everywhere. Tragically beautiful, I knew her in the days she was really strung out, but she never let me see her snort or shoot something. Losing her when I was 17 was hands down the worst and best thing that could have happened to me. It gave me space for truth at an early age,” she says.
Life for Kota was chaotic until her father moved her and her siblings to Fairfax, VA. Modeling since she was 15, Kota was discovered on a family trip to Virginia Beach and got her first big break on a global campaign for Abercrombie & Fitch shot by legendary photographer Bruce Weber. “I never thought in a million years that could happen to me. I was this skinny awkward kid. I couldn’t even afford to shop at Abercrombie,” she recalls. Modeling paid her way through college. To this day, she’s never gone on a casting call she didn’t book.
Kota eventually enrolled as a science major at Howard University on a full academic scholarship and planned to go to medical school until a chance jam session with friends in 2010 led her to record a demo. The recording made it into the hands of Thievery Corporation’s Eric Hilton who featured her voice on “Free,” the closing track of the album Culture of Fear. She later debuted the song at a Thievery Corporation concert on the Brooklyn waterfront in front of 40,000 fans.
Now working as a full-time model in Los Angeles, Kota’s days are filled with castings, vocal lessons, yoga classes and recording sessions. Her life would already seem enviable to most, but Kota has her eyes set on a much higher goal. “My goal is to be the voice of a generation,” she says. “I want to help people discover what’s already within them.”
Kota radiates positive energy. “You have to be vulnerable to love,” she likes to say. Kota is the kind of person who makes you feel great about yourself. Her sentences are full of compliments, encouragements, and motivational stories, many of which she texts and emails to friends to remind them to go after their own potential.
Kota says the most fascinating part of her job is getting to be an independent woman. “God bless the child that has his or her own,” her father used to say. “L.A. has given me a wonderful opportunity to be myself,” says Kota. She’s open to wherever her career might lead. “I want to live around the world, but for the moment my spirit has called me here. I may eventually live in D.C. again, but for me, this is where I need to be now.”
Still, there are a few downsides to living in L.A. “There’s an element of superficiality and sugarcoating that is inescapable. People define themselves by what they do and try to put me in a box,” she says.
“It’s frustrating when I’m told I can’t do something when I know I can. Usually I don’t put too much energy into it. I feel like Flanders from The Simpsons when he’s happy all the time,” she says. In an entertainment industry defined by constant rejection, self-confidence is invaluable to accomplishing your goals. “It’s like handing someone your mixtape and saying ‘I have a mixtape. It’s just alright ...’ You have to sell your dream and believe in it, or no one else will.”
Kota believes a dreamer is a doer. “What is a dream without action, without fire?!” she says. “A dream is nothing if you don’t work on it.” And work on it she does. Kota was on a trip to Houston once when her car was broken into. Taken from her were her modeling portfolio full of one-of-a-kind polaroids, her computer, backup hard drive, and family photos from her deceased mother.
Most people would wallow in the setback, but Kota used it as a tool to jump start her career. “What do I want to accomplish in the next year?” she asked herself. “I want to sign with a modeling agency in New York and L.A., I want to work with an amazing photographer on a new photo shoot, and I want to record with a major producer.” She crossed every item off her list in just two weeks.
Even Hurricane Sandy couldn’t set Kota back. Visiting friends near Wall Street when the storm hit, she got a call that Olay wanted her back for a second audition the following day. It was the opportunity of a lifetime. In classic Kota style, she managed to finagle a car to pick her up from New York City and drive her to rural Connecticut, where the last plane for the next several days was taking off for L.A. She made it back in time for the casting and got the job. Now you can see her beautiful face on the back of the April issue of Cosmopolitan, with Kim Kardashian on the cover.
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