[ɛrəʊˌtiːm]

People use tarot cards to read their future, to know how the plot of their lives will develop and eventually end. What interests me, what interests the whole of humanity in a way, is the craving we all have for that  that which relates to what is set to happen to us and how it would be completely impossible to change once announced.

A form of control that we are not able to afford, except through accepting the role the tarot might give us. Tarot takes control, when we allow it, and answers the questions we cannot, or will not.

The fact that the future is theoretically impossible to know is a detail of no importance. When compared to the chance to play a definitive role in our own life, it is the same with fashion, which gives people the possibility to change their own character on a daily basis.

For the first issue of tarot deck, I wanted to express this duality in the plainest, simplest way possible, by using opera. Everyone knows that Tosca will die, everyone knows that Norma will confess her sins and everyone knows that Salome will dance her dance. what attracts people to Opera is not the unravelling of the plot, but the beauty bursting from every aria. Opera is an enhanced version of the present, where every moment has its own value. Opera has no interest in the future, it only references the past. From this point of view a relationship to fashion obviously comes to mind, as they both are deeply plunged in the constant repetition of archetypes. Every season, new femme fatales, new frivolous maids, and new high priestesses populate the international catwalks, always presenting themselves as new takes on the same stereotypes.

In merging these two worlds, I noticed that costumes for Opera are generally not as exciting as they should be. Costumes for opera have become antiquated and recycled. Modern fashion being an obvious if not utilised logical step. They are either replicas of historical dresses or, in avant-garde productions, just high street ready to wear. Styling an Opera with designer brands, seemed to fit perfectly with this concept. Theatrical dresses are always meant to be shown in fashion shows or in some sparse editorial on magazines. Being Opera, this is passion, let the audience experience the styling as a means of moving an image on to a stage,  at the same time separating and unifying performer and clothes, into just one single product.

My concept has also allowed me to cast models from a diverse artistic background. Lucian Freud’s muse Sue Tilley, singer and performer John Joseph Bibby, model Velvet D’Amour and bodybuilder Arthur Tainsh-Griffiths are just a few of the professionals who lent their physiques to the characters of tarot. The graphics of their bodies is enhanced on the back of the cards, with illustrations by artist Julie Verhoeven, whose light colour palette underlines the dreamlike atmosphere that so fluidly relates to both fashion and tarots.

EROTEME  

                                                           fashion tarot cards

a question mark

a note of interrogation

a rhetorical question

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