Inspiration Monday | Vanity

Written By Leroy Wan

Hello Vancouver!

Welcome to Monday, the PMSing, MANopausing, tired relative of The Week. But be it the most grey and rainy of Vancouver weather, Yours Truly, vowed to make Mondays a bit more bearable; by writing a column named Inspiration Monday dedicated to the haute fashion and inspiring icons in a neighbourhood near you.

This Fun-day, I have for you the beginning of a series of fashion art projects made by a group of designers that I work with called the H.A.U.S of Kolbee.

To start, I wanted to begin with the definition of the word ‘Vanity’ :

VANITY:
Excessive pride in one’s own self and achievements.

H.A.U.S of Kolbee ( http://hausofkolbee.tumblr.com ) is a collective of artists and designers who are dedicated to mainstreaming and exposing all the voices that usually don’t get heard or even get muffled in the mainstream fashion industry. Because we sincerely believe that the future of beauty, of fashion, is real beauty.

So we want to purposefully find subjects that are maybe of colour, of a different background or sexuality, not the stick-thin blonde 5’11 model you see on all the runways; and glamourize it. Glamourize the disenfranchised. Purposefully vain. To make you believe that regardless of race, wealth, religion, sexuality; this is sexy. Celebrating our own sexxxy.

This fashion film was a partnership with brilliant photographer Czarinna Bravo Tabobo (http://czarinnabravotabobo.com ) who spent days with the H.A.U.S discovering the concept and the styling of this film. It is a film where there is an intention behind every single shot and the order of them. It is a journey of loving oneself so intensely that it manifests as something completely fierce and unnessesary. It glamourizes the right things, and at the end, rejects a major prop used in the video. So, in hopes to push the boundaries of fashion, the ideas of beauty, and the concepts of what is socially acceptable; this is our haute lovechild:

FASHION CREDITS by H.A.U.S (Accesible Art):
- *Miranda Sandberg – Venice Mask
- *C. Tabobo – Feather Neckalaces, Chains, Rings, Masks
- *H.A.U.S of Kolbee – Styling, Make Up, Hair
- Cherrybomb – Punk Leather Accesories
- La Vie En Rose – Lingerie pieces, one pieces
- Aritzia – Bronze Skirt, Black Silk Scarf
- Net-A-Porter.com – Chokers

More to come! Don’t go away too far from this H.A.U.S party!

With love and HAUS musique,

@leroywan