Reclaim the Street
image by Luma Von Perfall
Cultural Consultant & Writer. June 2021. Feminist fashion editorial with Sample-cm x Luma Von Perfall for Curated By Girls digital magazine: https://www.curatedbygirls.com/reclaim-the-street/
This project was a collaboration with conceptual sportswear label Sample CM and photographer Luma Von Perfall, along with an amazing creative team, to produce a fashion editorial for feminist digital magazine Curated By Girls. Sample CM’s designer, Margot Charbonnier, has a dual background in fashion and sociology and her design concepts investigate gender, body, and space through the lens of typically male-dominated sports. Her recent collection had delved into the space of martial arts, and the disruption that occurs when women occupy such spaces and challenge gendered expectations of behaviour and physicality. She wanted the editorial to extend this investigation, to explore how women can disrupt or reclaim urban spaces.
As a cultural consultant, my role was to provide a research background for the editorial’s narrative, and to collaborate in the visual construction of the story. I used my background in urban anthropology to draw out the conceptual framing and to identify potential shooting locations in Berlin. We wanted the shoot to illustrate the how the patriarchal values of our society are encoded in the body-space relations of the city, so I scouted and photographed various locations that could exemplify where women may feel unsafe or unwelcome in public space.
The shoot itself became a field of collective research-creation. As an all-woman/queer femme creative team, we explored how small shifts in posture, styling, or movement in different locations could easily become subversive, drawing out their political and visual impact through our creative choices, and observing the intervention of these subtle gestures within the sociospatial dynamics of the city. Afterward, I wrote the editorial as a sort of mini-ethnography, reflecting how everyday practices of urban mobility and visibility can be understood as acts of resistance.
CREDITS
Photography - Luma Von Perfall (@lumavonperfall)
Creative direction & concept - Margot Charbonnier (@sample.cm)
Words & anthropological consulting - Shannon Turner (@fringe_element)
Styling - Sara Tazor (@saratazor)
Styling assistants - Helena Grant (@rxptors), Arona Ngom (@asup_roma)
Makeup & Hair - Naomzz (@naomzz)
Makeup & Hair assistant - Caroline Raick (@caroline.raick)
Photography assistant - Leonie Hugendubel (@leonie.hugendubel)
Casting - Margot Charbonnier (@margot_charby)
Models - Elsa (@Mirrrsmodel). Laura (@rayne.falling). Philisha (@philisha_kay). Paxia (@paxionfruit). Shiva (@shiva__krh). Theresa (@theresagmbh). Harjeet (@tigers_mgmt).