26.10.10

a different light




How long have you known me now: a year? Year and a half, tops? It's time I come clean: I'm not really interested in fashion. I mean, not in the 'must have that bag' sense. I really love style, and I love the creativity of some designers more than others, but I hate hate hate the business of fashion, and- I'm so glad Jen had the courage to talk about it in her Savoy post - the whole PR machinery.. yuck.






As we speak, I am poaching pears and figs in a cloves, cinnamon and a little allspice, with brown sugar. The figs were a bowl for a pound @ Borough Market on Saturday, before we went to the Tate Modern. The pears, we actually picked from a tree near a pub, in the car park actually, in the countryside. They were falling on the ground and rotting: beautiful pears. Meant to be admired, in a bowl, then eaten. Tonight I ate one perfect pear. Perfect ripeness. With pecorino cheese. And it made me think of Arte Povera.




What I love is finding beauty in the ordinary. That's what drew me to photograph 'street style', and continues to. I love when I admire something someone is wearing and they have a story about how cheaply they got it, or someone gave it to them, used and worn. Or they found it in a charity shop, unloved and discarded, but saw the beauty in it, and transformed it into something desirable. Just simply by seeing it in a different light.

This was all shot at the Tate Modern on Saturday, and some, like this piece, was from a great exhibit called Arte Povera: a movement started in Italy in the Sixties, which basically combines my three favourite things: Italy, the Sixties, and.. 'beautiful poverty'. The opposite of bling. Poached figs and pears, picked ripe from a tree.

That's why the previous post - Roz's idea - means so much to me. Thank you for spreading Roz's vision around. It's just such good karma, and I really believe it is helping her heal with miraculous speed.





Oh and I love when we go to a museum: after an hour or two, everything starts to look like art.

5 comments:

SabinePsynopsis said...

The Embankment is always so picturesque, but your pictures really show a special light. I understand what you mean, Jill, and I often get frustrated by the 'buy, buy, buy' attitude. Blogging makes me think about why and what I love about fashion and clothes, and more and more I realise that creativity and self-expression are my main driving factors (but I guess I'm not alone in that).
BTW, yum!, I had Christmas spicy pears in red wine at the weekend. Too good!

P.S. Planning to go to the Robinson Pfeffer press day on the 3rd. You gonna be there?

Anonymous said...

Boy am I with you! I'm currently refraining from more shoes but the thing that offends me the most is fashions current addiction to real fur. It's just nauseating in this day and age. Fashionista's have the ability to change the world in positive ways and in so many ways they refuse to do that.

I'm trying to buy key pieces these days instead of just being a blind follower of fashion but as a human some days it is really hard to not go "ooooh shiny"

Li said...

those photos fit perfectly with the content. and the last sentence was hilarious!!!

xx

daisychain said...

I love this post Jill,

and I do hope you've saved me some figs. YUM.

Tallulah Keats said...

Hey Lady!

I do love the tate, and loved that exhibition too. When I go to the tate I fall in love with Roberto Matta's black virtue paiting. I also love all the Bruce Davidson New York subway pictures... that is how I see you a bit Polka Dot, like a zeitgeisty photo journalist, capturing a small piece of london life.