Visual arts curator and educator Erika Dalya Massaquoi brings us Fashiony, a collection of more than 300 images in all sizes and forms including contemporary art, garment sketches, and photographs culled from films, style blogs, fashion books, and magazines, with a special focus on Africana designs and Beijing street trends. Watch for Diana Ross hairdo throwbacks, psychedelic polka-dot-patterned stretch pants, feathered bibs, sparkly blue eye shadow, tubiform jewelry, shiny bowl cuts, dandies in pastels, giraffe-print leggings paired with giraffe-print platform heels, petals dipped in gold, towering rabbit-ear headpieces made from stiff black lace, paisley patterns swirling wildly around, and women wearing layers of delightfully clashy multi-flower print wraps while striding purposefully forward.
"Fashion dramatizes everything," Massaquoi says during our phone interview, "and that's what's so thrilling about it." This includes our moods, identities, messages, modern-ness, and even our most reasonable weather expectations, as evidenced by one of Nels Frye's Beijing street shots. In it, a woman captures a certain old-timey look in her cloche hat, scraped-back hair, silky long-sleeve button-front blouse and matching necktie, and vintage wool cape with a fur collar. "In Beijing, it gets hot as hell! Whatchyou doing with that fur on?" says Massaquoi, laughing.
Fashiony shows at Bumbershoot Sat-Mon, 11 am-8 pm, in the Fisher Pavilion.
