A signal of times
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| Pedro da Silva Image courtesy of the artist All rights reserved |
Pedro da Silva was
born in a small town in the north of Portugal but
he has since lived in many places worldwide. In Berlin and Detroit, cities in
which the Techno movement emerged as a part of a process of rebirth, he got the
inspiration from their post-industrial architecture and a certain decadence
that he found especially magical, although it was in Berlin where he started
his biggest project in the field of fashion design: VAVA.
VAVA was born
from that post-industrial fascination and trying to create a spirit of
decelaration in front of the current high-speed society. The main factor in
VAVA is creativity inspired in asceticism always looking for reinterpretation
of perspectives.
Now Pedro da
Silva presents a VAVA’s collaboration with the designer and photographer Rad
Hourani who questions the boundaries of gender through his unisex clothing. The
collaboration was presented druing the Berlin Fashion Week along with an art
exhibition by Rad Hourani entitled “EYE” and we had the chance to make some
questions to Pedro da Silva about his vision of fashion, art and existence.
Why did you
decide to make a career in fashion design?
I do not consider myself a designer but instead a
creative. I have been working in the Fashion Industry since graduating as
Textile Engineer. I have a great flair for fashion as a result. As Creative and Art Director of VAVA, I like to
conjure concepts. I like to bring ideas that bristle with visual possibilities
to create most of the collection sketches.
I collaborate with two eyewear designers, Beate and
Laura, who support me with the translation of the sketches into technical
designs.
I do not create fashion, I try to create objects based
in a strong concept and logic process. I have established VAVA's and designs
follow certain logic.
Why do you think
fashion design is not considered as an artistic discipline?
Most of the today's fashion is about trends. A trend
is always a trap, a search for something “safe”. The fast path followed by
fashion and economics impose this “safeness”. At the start of each new season,
fashion industry scans the horizon for newsworthy “trends” inspired in the
past. Thus, it is more about being creative than really being a creator. And
Art is something else, it is about creating from scratch. This is why I chose
to not follow trends and fashion. I believe in a concept that evolves. I
see it more as a continuous evolution. Actually, I like to think more
about evolution, questioning / reflecting and digging / deepening. I like
consistency and particularly enjoy works that are representative of something
bigger.
That said however, I believe that creativity and
design, as practiced by quite a few Fashion Designers, is art. There are
Fashion Designers out there who keep defying convention in spectacular
ways. The purely retinal or visual nature of art, especially painting has
been always extolled. But for example Conceptual Art was a violent reaction
against such notions and against the art object’s status.
How would you
describe your style?
Minimal. The great challenge, for me, is in the
exercise of reduction of superfluous compositional elements, decoration and
romanticism to build a neutral gender.
But the idea or concept is the most important aspect
of my works, the style is the result of it. It means that all the planning and
decisions are made beforehand.
The brand concept is closely linked to the
"post-industrial" society in which we live, and the growing belief of
belonging to a "post-human" age.
We play around people's imaginary
and "science fiction”. Therefore we are very much inspired by
androgynous and genderless characters. This androgynous or genderless
figure helped us to create a minimal silhouette, monochromatic figure and
to produce gender manipulation.
Therefore I would define it not as much as style but
more as a signal of the times. Unisex is one of the ways to the future.
What are your
biggest influences in your art and in your life?
I’m inspired by minimalism in art (and as well in
fashion). I’ve always liked basic shapes, and I am very fond of artists
like Sol Lewitt, Malevich or Josef Albers. My keen interest for the Bauhaus
movement and minimalism goes a long way back. Basic and simple shapes,
like squares and rectangles, the most common shapes in the industrial world
stimulate my vision in fashion. Much of the man-made world is composed of these
shapes.
VAVA designs share the same minimalistic and
architectural approach. I like to picture eyewear as an architectural piece as
if part of a minimalistic imaginary as a result of the aesthetic of removal of
gender and emotion.
On the other hand I’m very much inspired
by science fiction films, like for instance Space Odyssey, that
can be read as the "racing stand-still" that is bound to result from
an excessively one-sided belief in technological progress. The brand's
mission is to represent the man in control of the technological world
whilst ahead of himself also, expressing the antithesis of acceleration
and rest.
I also love music, especially classical music, jazz
and techno. And is why the project has a strong connection to music.
I wanted to make a label that could associate the
highly conceptual language of machinery and the arts. The spirit of
VAVA is based on the same principle: VAVA is conceptual and visionary in its
essence.
Ultimately, the brand aims to achieve a contemporaneous
basic look and at same conceptual and timeless.
Don’t you think
we live in a society obsessed with image?
Overall yes and too much. This obsession stems from
the media (sponsored by the turbo-capitalism in order to feed mass
consumption). Every day we are bombard with beauty advertisements
in commercials, magazines, and social media. This has obviously a negative impact on society that
is obsessed with physical appearance.
I think is positive when advertisement draws
viewer’s attention to themselves, making them self-conscious. There are
also those in the creative community that are hard on the big business “fat
cats”.
Through History, fashion has been a way of self
expression (also a way of revealing social status). Fashion should
allow the wearer to satisfy the demand for individualism and
self-expression, and avoid self obsession. Creativity needs to be used to
protect our culture against the villains.
How do you see the
fashion scene right now?
In general, with few exceptions, I perceive it as
rather boring. Nowadays, in an environment of high-speed culture,
media overload and ecstasy of consumption, the phenomenon of mega trends
is a reality. There is just a few space for innovation and risk, capitalism
with its obsession for profit maximization is pushing society to a ecstasy of
mass-consumption, killing individualism.
At a time when fashion is omnipresent and somewhat
random, we should reacquaint what fashion should truly represent; A return to
quintessential design in fashion.
Do you think
Paris is still the centre of fashion?
In terms of “Haut Couture” and
true “Prêt-à-porter”, completely! London, New York and Milan can all
claim to influence fashion but in my opinion French Fashion is stylistically
and technically superior. The outstanding reputation of French clothing
industry can be traced as far back as the 17th century, and it has a reputation
that has only strengthened
since then. Even if an increasing number of cities are seeking to consolidate
their presence in the Industry, Paris remains THE fashion capital followed by
Milan, New York and London. And despite a considerable degree of competition
from these cities, fashion is a deep-rooted aspect of France’s culture and its
international profile.
Twice a year, we attend the Paris Fashion Week with
our own showroom in Le Marais and we feel that Paris is the right place to
showcase our vision, and it most likely always will.
Could you
explain us a memory from your childhood?
I grew up in a lovely small sea-side town in
the North of Portugal, as close to Porto as it is from the Spain border
(Galicia). My parents always lived close to the beach (literally 2
minutes away). My memories are about playing in the beach with
my friends, the endless summer holidays, the BMX races with the
neighbouring kids (and later on in scooters and then motos), being all the time
outside. Me and my siblings always had a lot of freedom, the place
where we grew up was (and still is) super safe and its natural surroundings
(amazing beaches surrounded by nature) was the perfect playground. Growing
up in such an unique environment had a strong impact in my growing process,
I believe that it helped a lot building the positivity and creativeness that
makes part of my character.
An interview by Juan Carlos Romero
VAVA vavaeyewear.com
Photo courtesy of Pedro da Silva
All rights reserved