it's a youthquake!

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it's a youthquake! ࿇

Commentary by photographer and stylist, Chloe Nicole Crispin

Red is passion, fury, and speed, although it is also a metaphorical middle finger at fascists' and misogynists. Exhibit A; Elizabeth Arden’s 1941 ‘Victory Red’ lipstick. Similarly, YOUTHQUAKE is repressed fashion, potentially a parallel can be made between the red scare, so intensely powerful in its nature it shall be crushed, counteracted and removed.

For young people, perhaps a lighter, pale shade seems more typical, yet red pervades all that is. It subverts any expectation of submission or reluctance associated with youth. It withholds a sexuality so deep it is deemed incompatible for the submissive, patriarchal woman.

Don’t be loud, don’t be bold; this is what red protests. Conversely, red showcases empowerment within its sensual psychology and deep essence with its ability to tease, infuriate and incinerate oppressive stigma and beliefs.

To replicate the lens of a photographer in the essence of 1966’s Blow Up, capturing the sultry and erotic essence, the female gaze is adopted in oppositional fashion as it reclaims the lens and emboldens the composition. The masculine figures withhold the ability to tease, yet without objectification as the male gaze would present the feminine figure. The characters arouse the camera with a playful, erotic nature, a youthful bounty of synergy with much left to the imagination.

I can’t help but allude to one of my favourite films, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls; in all its campness it expresses the playful nature of overt female sexuality. It depicts a strangely fun view of the arising ‘60s Sexual Revolution and Free Love Movement. Marcia McBroom encompasses the essence of the model Nikki bathed in her babydoll attire. Her beauty does not require a statement when she gazes forth, yet her energy is eternally wild as it screaming.

Blue eyeshadow is integral to the feminine look. It expresses the strong, complex nature of female characters through the bold shade. It withholds a boldness acting as a barrier to submission, piercing straight through the lens like a dagger into the retina.

With its subtle nod to French New Wave, from Jean Luc-Godard and his muse Anna Karina to Bridgette Bardot in Contempt. These are the quintessential looks of an empowering era. In YOUTHQUAKE, the 1960s is alluded to through a deep, dark twist that unapologetically takes up every inch of space in its physicality as it does in its message.