ellecanada feb12 rick genest

8/3/2019 ElleCanada Feb12 Rick Genest

1/382 ELLE CANADA ELLECANADA.COM

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spoligh. text: Laura DeCarufeL

ThE DARkARTs

Photographer

Rankin collaborated

with artist Damien

Hirst to create

Myths, Monsters

and Legends .

is name was Adam. He stalked our high-school

hallways wearing a leather trench coat, chipped

dark polish and a moody expression. His hair

was silky black, and mascara flecks dusted his pale skin. Hewas Edward Cullen before Robert Pattinson had adult teeth,

and I loved him from afar with a fervour that only shy teen-

agers can muster.

That was in the 90s, when darkness cast a stylish shadow

over music, film and fashion: Nine Inch Nails ruled the air-

waves, Marilyn Manson starred in David Lynchs Lost

Highway and Rei Kawakubo designed seven shades of

black for Comme des Garons.

Now, more than a decade later, pop culture is in the throes

of another gothic crush. Vampires and their ghoulish rela-

tions dominate TV hits like The Vampire Diaries and Game

of Thrones, as Edgar Allan Poe, played by John Cusack, h RANKIN

h



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prepares for his Hollywood close-up in

The Raven. On the fashion front, jewel-

lery designer Delfina Delettrezs skeleton

bracelets and spider-web rings add a

sexy twist to horror chic, while shopperssnap up Daphne Guinness goth-tinged

collection for M.A.C. The style icons

beauty inspiration? Pigeon blood.

There is something really appeal-

ing about darkness, muses Nicola

Formichetti, designer of Thierry Mugler,

mega-stylist to Lady Gaga and overall

sartorial master of the dark arts. On a

shoot the other day, a friend asked me

why all my models looked so sour. I said,

Because theres certainly no mystery in

them smiling.That mystery is perhaps gothics most

alluringand enduringquality. Its

the charisma of deviance, explains

Valerie Steele, director and chief curator

of the Museum at the Fashion Institute

of Technology in New York, where the

Gothic: Dark Glamour exhibition

attracted record crowds in 2008. The

show traced the growth of gothic from

architecture introduced by Germanic

Goths (condemned by Renaissancepainter Giorgio Vasari as congestions

of heavy, dark, melancholy, monkish

piles) to modern creations by gothic

designer Rick Owens. However, a fas-

cination with family curses and demon

lovers found its first major pop-culture

expression in early-19th-century gothic

lit likeJane Eyre and Northanger Abbey,

along with poetry by the original goth

boys, Keats, Byron and Shelley.

So, gothic has been part of our cul-

tural lexicon for centuriesa dark wave

periodically rising to claim secondary

elements like horror and punk. But this

latest upswell represents something new.Theres the season, for one. A glum win-

ter is one thing, but what does a sinister

spring imply? Alexandra Smith, a trend

forecaster for the Mintel Group, attrib-

utes the trend to recession anxietywith

a twist. When the economic crisis first

hit, we saw the rise of what I call humble

minimalism: comfort food, an uptick in

Friends viewership, says Smith. Now

that it has been three years, our response

to doom is evolving. People need a differ-

ent form of escapea sexier way to feelgloomy. Enter the gothic bombshells

who stalked the spring/summer 2012

catwalks at Emilio Pucci and Betsey

Johnson. If youve ever yearned for a

skull-patterned mini-romper, Johnson

has got you (just barely) covered.

But sex appeal doesnt explain the

popularity of zombiesthe new It mon-

ster that has been lurching from the cult

milieu into the mainstream on hit shows

like The Walking Dead. Smith, for herpart, sees similarities between the zombie

trend and the Occupy political move-

ment. Its never about one zombie, she

says. Its always a collectivea mass of

people rising up. They set aside their dif-

ferences to fight for a common cause

and become united as one. Or a darker

motivation: Perhaps the demands of our

narcissistic agein which our carefully

crafted identities strut and fret on the

social-media stagemean

that theres relief in losingyourself in the crowd.

Rick Genest, a.k.a.

Zombie Boy, likens the ap-

peal of zombie apocalypse

to the elemental thrill of

anarchy: When everything

is lost, all that matters is

survival. The system col-

lapses and you have to

either run or be lunch,

enthuses the performance

artist and current museh

BetseyJohnson

T

hierryMugler

The Walking Dead

Rankin cites this

Medusa-inspired

image as his

favourite of the

Myths, Monsters

and Legendsseries.

MONsTER MAsh

I dream about the devil a lot, says Rankin, lightening the con-

fession with a grin. With Myths, Monsters and Legends, a new

photo project with artist Damien Hirst, the famed British photog-

rapher pays tribute to his nocturnal obsession by creating images

of startling primeval power. As embodied by model Dani Smith,

shots range from the dark beauty of Medusa (Theres something

empowering about the fact that youre forbidden to look at her)

to terrifying creatures of the uncanny. Weve spent the last

18 months creating things that were so monstrous, people

wouldnt want to look at them. My challenge is to make the

horrific beautiful. For more, visit ellecanada.com/February. RANKIN(medusA);ImAxtRee(RuNwAy);pIctuRe-desK(thew

alkingdead)



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to Formichetti and Lady Gaga, who borrowed Genests

spooky aesthetic for her recent Grammy-nomination con-

cert performance. Montreal-based Genest began his full-

body skeleton-tattoo project at 16, but hes not bothered

by the fact that zombies are so hot right now. I get it, hesays. Its the same reason why people love Santa Claus

you step out of the realm of reality.

As one of todays most acclaimed novelists, Colson

Whitehead is well versed in exploring the outer reaches of

possibility. His latest novel, Zone One, takes place over

three surreal days several years after a zombie apocalypse,

as civilian volunteers clean up the destruction. For

Whitehead, who grew up reading Stephen King and watch-

ing George Romeros zombie flicks, the day of reckoning

holds a strange appeal. I remember watching Dawn of

the Deadand Invasion of the Body Snatchers and connect-

ing them to a fear of people, he recalls. For me, the nightof the apocalypse is the night when the truth comes out.

Everyone around you pre-

tends to be normal, but

they really want to eat and

destroy you. It speaks a bit

about my damaged psy-

chology, he adds, laugh-

ing, but there it is. So, is

the timelessand timely

appeal of all things gothic

that they reveal our trueselves: twisted and capable

of anything?

For Whitehead, stripping away civil-

ization to reveal its sordid foundation

also offers the chance to discuss our

apocalyptic present. Monsters are rhet-

orical props used by creators to talk

about how we live, he says. Im trying

to discover what it is about contem-

porary life that is zombiefied now.

Were walking around disconnected,

practically devoid of life.The image of BlackBerry addict as

zombie seems aptthe distracted, shuf-

fling walk recalls the lurch of the undead

while following an established path that

links technology to anxiety. Gothic

always flourishes at times of rapid tech-

nological change, when people fear being

at the mercy of forces they cant control,

explains David Punter, the worlds fore-

most critic on everything gothic and

the editor of the forthcoming A New

Companion to the Gothic. Even Bram

Stokers Dracula [1897], which was written during a time

of great technological and societal upheaval, is crammed

with [then revolutionary] typewriters and telegrams.

Punter also points out that, with gothic, the medium is

often the message. The first Frankenstein and Dr. Jekylland Mr. Hyde films were made at a time when cinema itself

was seen as virtually supernatural.

And that is gothics inherent magnetism. People say we

like to be frightened, but its not that simple, says Punter.

We like to test the limits of our fear. Gothic takes us to the

edge, but its not as scary as tsunamis, volcanoes and stock-

market crashes. Its a different order of terror. Were taken

to the brink, we look over it and then we can draw back.

As for Adam, the gothic hero of my high-school days, I

wonder if he has retained his dark roots or joined the rest

of us, gripping a latte on the subway, thinking about last

nights episode ofAmerican Horror Story. I hope not. Thereis something eternally romantic about the true outlawby

turns defiant and fragile, raging against the

light, ultimately doomed maybe but, for

now, thrillingly, dramatically alive.n

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Modern gothics most interesting contribution

to pop culture? The rise of the anti-hero. While

villains become evil caricatures, new heroesdisplay a compelling human complexity. As Alex

Smith explains, So many recent superhero

movies have fallen flat, but the ones that didntlike Batmanhad protagonists

who werent 100 percent good guys. Or girls. Lisbeth Salander, the tortured

titular heroine of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, may dress all in black, but her

fully realized character is painted in shades of grey. Trish Summerville, a costume

designer and stylist celebrated for her work with No Doubt and Black Eyed Peas,

landed the coveted gig of transforming Salanders complexity into clothes. We

spoke to her about creating a visual identity for the blockbuster gothic heroine.

What were your starting points for the design? In contrast to the Swedish ver-

sion, our Lisbeth isnt loud and overt in her dress. I didnt want her to come acrosslike she is in a band, flashy or longing for attention. She is not a clich of what

goth should look like; her clothing is dark and worn, dirty at times, and nothing is

new. How did you introduce the subtleties of her character through clothes?

The character wears them to disappear, not stand out. There are a few moments

where the costume variations help show her trusting side. In one scene, Salander

and Blomkvist are together in the cabin and shes wearing only socks and his

oversized cardigan. It shows that she is comfortable and still a sexual being after

being damaged for so long. How did you translate that vision into the capsule

collection for H&M? I took specific pieces from Salanders wardrobe, cleaned

them up a bit and gave them a more fashionable silhouette and detailing. The col-

lection still has the essence of Salander but focuses on subtler aging and details

in each garment. For more, visit ellecanada.com/February.

hER DARk

MATERiALsTrish

Summerville

(centre) with

designs from

her collection

for H&M

ellecanada feb12 rick genest

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