DONT WALK 'Revelation': The Creative Concept Part One.
By Serena Mundy
DONT WALK, one of the UK’s largest student-run fashion shows, will be showcasing this year’s theme: Revelation. The show presents a provocative ‘satirical comment on the shame and sinfulness of humanity’ and is a culmination of the preceding years’ themes. Revelation draws from artworks that consider morality, particularly the concepts of ‘holy’ and ‘innocent’, and simultaneously explores the ugliness that lies behind constructed masks of beauty.
Madame Yevonde, Lady Campbell as Niobe, Vivex colour print, June 1935, 11 3/4 in. x 14 7/8 in. (300 mm x 378 mm)
The Creative Team, led by Elise Morrison, chose Lady Campbell as Niobe (1935), by Madame Yevonde, as inspiration for their first shoot. The photograph depicts Dorothy Evelyn Whitall, Lady Campbell, the wife of Madame Yevonde’s second cousin, a famous racing driver. Yvonde’s references to classical and contemporary Surrealism were developed from the 18th-century trope of depicting society beauties as Greek goddesses. This was notable at the Olympian Ball at Claridge’s in March 1935. Lady Campbell’s character, Niobe, in Greek mythology, was the wife of Amphion, king of Thebes. They boasted seven sons and seven daughters, so much so that Artemis and Apollo took it as an insult to their mother Leto, casting their revenge by slaying Amphion and all children except one son and one daughter. Weeping for nine consecutive days and nights, Zeus took pity on Niobe, petrifying her, yet her grief was so profound that her tears protruded the stone. Madame Yevonde, and subsequently DONT WALK, have drawn on this theme to create a scene that equally epitomises sorrow and reveals the consequences of human vices that hide behind masks of beauty.
Lady Campbell’s teardrops were created using a mixture of Vaseline and glycerine, adapting the ratio with more glycerine until it entered her eyes to produce genuine tears. Notice her bloodshot eyes, indicative of intensifying pain and sorrow. The DONT WALK team drew from this, using glue and warm makeup hues to create a similar, yet modern effect.
DONT WALK 2022
This piece introduces the theme, immediately freeing the fashion show of its more self-evident materiality. Here, the clothes are not the focus, but rather the notion of a confessional reflection into our humanity and an interest in higher, introspective purposes takes shape. DONT WALK’S first shoot and their interest in Madame Yvonde’s work hints at how the show, Revelation, will vacillate between the ‘old and the new’, drawing from the past to uncover our present. The veil of perception is lifted and the mask is torn off to ultimately reveal the ‘carnal nature of this [present day] eschatological jet-lag.’ DONT WALK looks beyond the aesthetic, to inquire into the nature of the society in which we all live. A theme that, in these contemporary moments of crises, proves to be more relevant and poignant than ever.
Notes