The sixth issue of Viscose Journal focuses on fashion as constructed through words, language and writing. From the pens of fashion journalists and art critics to the conceptual wordplay of designers, the issue delves into the aesthetic and critical effects of “writing fashion” in and outside of fashion industries.

The fashion writer is a confidant, a storyteller, a forecaster, a mythmaker; they are evocative and poetic, forming words that shape, and in turn are shaped by, the latest fashions. From the salon shows to the pages of fashion magazines, their “expressions may be as ephemeral as the fashions they describe,” as Dorothy Hughes noted already in 1935. Early fashion writing played a key role in the transformation of clothes into fashion each season, and in igniting the machine of fashion itself. The historical roots of fashion writing— which was, at least in an industry context, a distinctly female practice— are grounded in the modernization and seasonalization of industrial fashion. And even today, in an age described by many as image-driven, this remains true: across various media platforms, language not only surrounds fashion but also continuously contributes to its creation.

The succinct, ephemeral poetry of the fashion writer still plays—nearly a century since Hughes’ observation—a transformative role in the seasonal turnover of fashion, but its role in the fashion industry remains seriously overlooked. Fashion invests substantially in seasonally refreshing the visual messaging accompanying its physical commodities, but language plays a similarly important support in this artful game of marketing. In this industrial context spanning from press releases to magazine production, writing is devoted to fashion promotion, prioritizing its fundamental traits of novelty, urgency, and semiotic complexity. In this context, fashion writing is a process of mystification, capable of revealing things that the image cannot. The material conditions of fashion writing—of being for fashion—generates a unique set of poetics and syntax. Fashion writing, or “written fashion,” as Roland Barthes asserts, is a form of signification that is simultaneously real and imaginary, connected to the real garment that it signifies, but largely unencumbered by its materiality. Given the constraints of economic, cultural, and political factors on fashion writing, it is perhaps more interesting to ask, what is fashion writing really encumbered by, and what would it mean to “unencumber” it?

Since Baudelaire, art critics have turned to fashion as source material for their practice, casting fashion in the role of art’s capitalist conspirator, temporal truth-sayer, or feminine alter-ego. This erratic history is one filled with both fraught politics (rooted in a gendered division of labor) as well as critical possibility: art writing gestures to a style of intellectualism and independence from industry that is largely foreign in fashion. Viscose Journal has, since its founding, aimed to detach fashion criticism from industrial frameworks that has historically premised it. At the same time, informed by a materialist politics of fashion labor, we wish to seriously level the largely female writing of commercial fashion publications with the masculine philosophical inquiries of fashion.

While “fashion writing” denotes a thematic category within the wider field of writing, our theme of “writing fashion” prompts an exploration of fashion writing as a mode of fashion production and critique. This issue aims to explore writing as a tool for shaping fashion and broaden its perspectives by presenting a survey of experimental, fictocritical, and poetic approaches to writing fashion. In this expanded field of writing, “fashion” unfolds as a ubiquitous and epistemologically complex phenomena of everyday life pertinent to all.

Accompanied by the exhibition “Writing Fashion“ at and published by the International Library for Fashion Research in Oslo, Norway, staged in June 2024, Viscose Journal 06 strives to be a thought-provoking journey into the captivating intersection of fashion and language. We are grateful to the library’s fantastic team and collaborators for their ongoing support and collaboration.

with works by: Osman Ahmed, Alba Aragón, Katherine Bernard, Ricarda Bigolin, Eileen Chang, Dal Chodha, Eduardo Costa, Jose Unzueta Criale, Femke De Vries, Becket Flannery, Kennedy Fraser, Laura Gardner, Patrick Greaney, Bruce Hainley, Elizabeth Hawes, Nakako Hayashi, Devin Hentz, Elaine Wing-Ah Ho, Juje Hsiung, Olivia Kan-Sperling, Jamaica Kinkaid, Chantal Kirby, Jeremy Lewis, Davora Lindner, Hanne Lippard, Shanzhai Lyric, Shizuang Magazine, Celine Mathieu, Derek Mccormack, H.B. Peace, Julie Peeters, John Perrault, Vogue Runway Rag, Rachel Tashjian, Jeppe Ugelvig, Elizabeth VR, Hanna Weiner, Elizabeth Wilson, Yohji Yamamoto, Bruno Zhu

File under: Osman Ahmed Alba Aragón Katherine Bernard Ricarda Bigolin Eileen Chang Dal Chodha Eduardo Costa Jose Unzueta Criale Femke De Vries Becket Flannery Kennedy Fraser Laura Gardner Patrick Greaney Bruce Hainley Elizabeth Hawes Nakako Hayashi Devin Hentz Elaine Wing-Ah Ho Juje Hsiung Olivia Kan-Sperling Jamaica Kinkaid Chantal Kirby Jeremy Lewis Davora Lindner Hanne Lippard Shanzhai Lyric Shizuang Magazine Celine Mathieu Derek Mccormack H.B. Peace Julie Peeters John Perrault Vogue Runway Rag Rachel Tashjian Jeppe Ugelvig Elizabeth VR Hanna Weiner Elizabeth Wilson Yohji Yamamoto Bruno Zhu Viscose / Copenhagen Periodicals Fashion Fiction / Poetry Textiles Art Performance / Dance / Theater

VISCOSE Issue 2

Clothes

2021

VISCOSE Issue 2
Clothes

2021, English
Softcover, 176 pages, 21.5 × 17 cm
Published by Viscose / Copenhagen

$42.00 - Out of stock

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Viscose is a new journal for fashion criticism. Launched between Copenhagen and New York in 2021, the periodical publishes critical writing and projects by a wide range of authors from the worlds of art, fashion, literature, and academia. Through specially edited thematic issues, Viscose gives space to projects that challenge and expand the possibilities of research, practice, and critique of fashion.

Issue 2 of Viscose inverts issue 1’s focus on the immaterial notion of style to instead explore the most material of fashion’s building blocks: Clothes.

Clothes are literally everywhere and cite complicated systems of production, distribution, and exchange on their paths around the world. Still, they never fully reveal their journey or destination, and may often signify little else than their own commodity status, the total genericness of the fashion product. Bringing together a wide range of artists, thinkers, and writers, the issue sets out to explore clothes as a signifier at once empty and over-burdened: as expressions of desires, people and places, as palimpsests for capitalist production cycles and histories of dressed bodies, and even, as nondescript material debris. While not necessarily foregoing an analysis of the fashion system, we hope to develop a form of fashion criticism that begins – and perhaps ends – with the single garment, that takes the everyday use of clothing objects as an intellectual starting point. What knowledge can we gather from the studying of fashion objects, be they material or immaterial? What is the difference between clothes and fashion? And to which extent is even "fashion" ever successfully signified by things?

Featuring Nina Beier, Anna-Sophie Berger, Paige K. Bradley, Laura Brown, Pia Camil, Dal Chodha, Victoria Colmegna, Exatitudes (Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek), Anna Franceschini, Laura Gardner, Rhonda Lieberman, Eric N. Mack, Kristian Vistrup Madsen, Christian Oldham, Kembra Pfahler, Carl Gustaf Von Platen, Mattia Ruffalo, Tenant of Culture, Torbjørn Rødland, Barbara Sanchez-Kane, Else Skålvoll Thorenfeldt, Jeppe Ugelvig, Femke de Vries, Issy Wood, Bruno Zhu.

File under: Torbjørn Rødland Nina Beier Anna-Sophie Berger Issy Wood Pia Camil Victoria Colmegna Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek Anna Franceschini Eric N. Mack Kembra Pfahler Carl Gustaf von Platen Tenant of Culture Bárbara Sánchez-Kane Bruno Zhu Femke de Vries Laura Gardner Paige K. Bradley Dal Chodha Rhonda Lieberman Kristian Vistrup Madsen Mattia Ruffalo Jeppe Ugelvig Viscose / Copenhagen Fashion Textiles Theory / Essay Art Sculpture / Installation Painting Periodicals Photography

Kaleidoscope #27

Summer 2016 (Sterling Ruby)

2016

Kaleidoscope #27
Summer 2016 (Sterling Ruby)

2016, English
Softcover, 272 pages, 22 x 29.3 cm
Published by Kaleidoscope Press / Milan

$20.00 - Out of stock

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Kaleidoscope #27 (Summer 2016) is issue is a key to enter the world of Los Angeles-based artist Sterling Ruby, exclusively playing the double role of subject and guest editor. Conceived as a viral, aggressive takeover of the magazine’s architecture, content and design, this hyper-vertical survey is the result of an intense dialogue with the artist and his studio, comprised of 160+ pages on his exuberant work and vision.

Ruby’s cover portrait is drawn from an extensive series shot by photographer Max Farago at the artist’s massive industrial studio space in LA. Inside, the Sterling Ruby Takeover decodes the artist's grammar through an intimate conversation with artist Piero Golia and newly commissioned writings by Alex Gartenfeld, Donatien Grau, Aram Moshayedi, Ross Simonini, Paul Schimmel and Catherine Taft; while his network of influences is explored through a series of guest features dedicated to his peers, heroes and collaborators, including Huma Bhabha (by Massimiliano Gioni), Cassils (by Francesca Gavin), Mike Davis (by Sterling Ruby), John Divola (by Alexander Shulan), Cyprien Gaillard (by Natalia Valencia Arango), Ron Nagle (by Sterling Ruby), Nancy Rubins (by Sterling Ruby), Raf Simons (by Alessio Ascari) and Melanie Schiff (by Sarah Workneh). All of this content is punctuated by stunning visual contributions especially created by Ruby for the magazine’s pages, comprising an unseen presentation of his Work Wear modeled by the entire studio team.

Born in 1972 on an American air force base in Germany, raised in rural Pennsylvania, trained in Chicago, Ruby moved to LA to finish his education, became Mike Kelley’s teaching assistant and quickly one of the city’s quintessential artists. Now 44, he runs a megastudio with a staff of over twenty under the big black sun. Complex to label in his unapologetic combination of compulsion and strategy, bigness and poetry, handcraft and seriality, darkness and psychedelia, hard and soft, Ruby is one of the most unique and controversial voices on the art scene, working incessantly across the most diverse media and platforms and stretching the limits of visual language. This hybrid editorial experiment coincides with the artist's major show at the Belvedere/Winterpalais in Vienna and participation in the “Made in LA“ biennial at Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.

Running independent from the takeover, the opening section of HIGHLIGHTS and the closing section of REGULARS complete the issue with a rich and varied selection of the best of the summer season and insightful contributions from our columnists and correspondents around the globe.

HIGHLIGHTS features profiles on Sean Raspet (by Franklin Melendez), Kienholz (by Gianni Jetzer), Marguerite Humeau (by Nadim Samman), Eckhaus Latta (by Chloe Wilcox), Sol Calero (by George Vasey), Renaud Jerez (by Tina Kukielski), Christopher Y. Lew (by Julia Trotta), Yngve Holen (by Cristina Travaglini), Home Economics (by Attilia Fattori Franchini), Valerie Keane (by Allison Bulger), Cao Fei (by Xin Wang) and Megan Rooney (by Harry Burke).

In the REGULARS section, “Producers” features Carson Chan in conversation with New York-based collective DIS; in “Futura 89+,” Hans Ulrich Obrist and Simon Castets (with Katherine Dionysius) interview young Portuguese artist Bruno Zhu; Fiona Duncan reflects on the figure of the go-go dancer in contemporary art and culture as part of her “Pro/Creative” column; in “Renaissance Man,” Jeffrey Deitch discusses the collaboration between artist Alex Israel and writer Bret Easton Ellis; Maria Lind's “Centerstage” presents Danish artist Marie Kölbaek-Iversen; Gean Moreno unveils Cuba’s new normal for “Panorama”; in “Pioneers,” Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen talk to Heimo Zobernig; and lastly, as part of the “What's Next” series, we look forward to the season with collector and curator Tiffany Zabludowicz.

File under: Alex Israel Bruno Zhu Christopher Y. Lew Cyprien Gaillard DIS Eckhaus Latta Heimo Zobernig Huma Bhabha John Divola Marguerite Humeau Marie Kölbaek-Iversen Megan Rooney Melanie Schiff Mike Davis Nancy Rubins Raf Simons Renaud Jerez Ron Nagle Sean Raspet Sol Calero Sterling Ruby Valerie Keane Yngve Holen Alessio Ascari Alex Gartenfeld Alexander Shulan Allison Bulger Aram Moshayedi Attilia Fattori Franchini Bret Easton Ellis Carson Chan Catherine Taft Chloe Wilcox Cristina Travaglini Donatien Grau Francesca Gavin Fredi Fischli Gean Moreno George Vasey Gianni Jetzer Hans Ulrich Obrist Harry Burke Jeffrey Deitch Julia Trotta Maria Lind Massimiliano Gioni Nadim Samman Niels Olsen Paul Schimmel Ross Simonini Sarah Workneh Simon Castets Tina Kukielski Xin Wang Kaleidoscope Press / Milan Art Fashion Periodicals Photography Theory / Essay

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