Foregoing a traditional parade, Elena Vélez counterprogrammed the Super Bowl with a costumed literary salon on Sunday night, calling it “an opportunity to bring the fashion industry to my community of writers and podcasters, public intellectuals, poets and philosophers.” . (Full disclosure is that I didn't make it, not because of football; I just ran out of steam.)
By way of explanation, Vélez spoke by phone about his affinity with the academic and social critic Camille Paglia and her 1990 book “Sexual Personae.” “I love all the unconventional ways that she talks about femininity and the history of femininity, and how she talks about Scarlett O'Hara as a very dynamic proposition of the past and the present,” she said of the latest antiheroine to be re-examined at through her work and during the salon, where “Red Scare” podcast host Anna Khachiyan led a discussion on “Gone with the Wind.”
Vélez dressed attendees in romantic and lustful looks that ranged from a cream silk corset over a cascading ruffle skirt with high slits to an off-the-shoulder dress, southern belle yet sexually liberated, incorporating expensive silks and drapery fabrics. of humble acetate, or all the “remnants and splendours” for which the creative of the Midwest is known.
“I guess I'm a method actress, I like to create with the same hand and technique as my source of inspiration,” she said.
As a young independent designer, Vélez has been open about her financial problems, but was able to find sponsorship for the event from independent publishers Passage Publishing and Encounter Books, Ace Hotels, and self-described new social media platform Guide:human . as a place to share ideas “free of trolling and clickbait”, among others.
“The good thing is that I have been able to build a parallel economy of people who are enthusiastic about my work. “I'm fascinated by how we can translate fashion into other cultural contexts that wouldn't immediately identify with fashion but would care about aesthetics,” he said, mentioning a vehicle for young designers to make money through events and the hospitality space. maybe. (What if he had charged admission?) “A lot of people are excited: writers, publishers, publishing companies and magazines.”
Vélez hopes that EV Salón 001 will be the first in a series.
For more New York Fashion Week reviews, click here.
