The ANTIFASHION ART – The Anti-Aesthetic is in Style
Project Type
Journalistic chronicle work
Date
October 31 2019
Location
Bogotá Colombia
Printed publication in ADN newspaper and digital magazine in the Crossmedia Lab at Jorge Tadeo Lozano University
Role
Writter & Reporter
Original Language Spanish
The most recent anti-fashion event took place on September 5. It revolved around a theme evoking all the glam of the eccentric 1980s: a night full of bizarre concepts, color, and wardrobe proposals outside the ordinary. The party, held in cold and irreverent Bogotá, was set to 80s sounds: New Wave, Synth, Pop, Disco, and Post Punk.
Sector 9 of the Kapput Club opened its doors around eight in the evening to a space that manages to create an exciting, energetic, and aesthetically distinct universe. Climbing three levels of exterior metal stairs adorned with plants and neon lights, we found a hallway where we could choose whether to go to the game area, the dance floor, the patio, or backstage.
In the center of the patio, under an open sky, there is a classic car covered in graffiti. It’s lit from below, with blue leather seats inside and a bathtub in the trunk. However, that night, the car was overshadowed by the outfits of the attendees: extravagant accessories, animal print, leather, patent leather, platforms, neon, wool, feathers, metal, corsets, wigs, nails, glasses, suits, dresses, capes, crowns, masks, and makeup.
From a large window with oval finishes, one could see the DJ’s turntable on the dance floor. A large disco ball cast flashes of light on all those strange, eccentric creatures dancing to the beat of an 80s pop track.
The arcade area is located on both sides of the dance floor. It’s a paradise for lovers of classic games: more than 30 arcade machines with 80s video games like Pac-Man, Contra, Donkey Kong, Mario Bros, Mortal Kombat, among many others, always available for those who wanted to take a break from the party’s rhythm with a classic arcade-style match.
In 2019, I covered an emergent event in Bogotá that has remained a symbol of queer freedom and self-expression in the Colombian capital to this day. I took photographs and wrote the following journalistic report.
The Anti-Fashion Art: The Anti-Aesthetic Is in Style
By Juan Diego Rosas
The art of anti-fashion is a movement that seeks to break everyday standards through four artistic expressions: photography, film, music, and fashion. It is a proposal in which its creators, promoters, and bearers challenge, through performance and deconstructed garments, the social conception of how an elegant person should look.
It was born from the grunge movement of the 1990s, [which emerged as a consequence of a musical and cultural movement derived from rock]. In grunge style, people opposed following trends set by large corporations, wearing old, cheap, torn, and worn-out clothes as a political act.
Poster of the event held on September 5 in Bogotá.
Event attendees seated in the car located in the courtyard of Kapput Club.
The anti-fashion aesthetic was created in 2010 out of the need to introduce different perspectives to the people of Bogotá. Driven by the Issue Collective movement, led by Andrés Bernadette, it sought to open a space for experimental artists and creators who, in essence, projected a unique, irreverent, and strange style, combined with a basic concept of going against the current. The project began in a small art gallery called Cero. A call was made for fashion designers interested in creating and experimenting from a non-commercial perspective with new patterns, textures, shapes, and colors.
This first runway show was supported by fashion designer Julián Pinzón, who at the time was 21 years old. Pinzón has been known for harmonizing a dark, lascivious concept in his garments with glam and futuristic aesthetics. He is also the owner of the brand Mayson Finch (which, to date, has dressed important public figures and worked with the most prestigious photographers, models, and stylists at Nickelodeon Mexico).
With Julián’s help, a call was made for the first anti-fashion show. Twenty-five non-model models were recruited—people with unconventional physical features or unique traits to make the runway more striking. Each selected model needed the attitude to not only wear the garments but to own them and display them with elegance and extravagance.
The attendees gathered around the runway, eager to see the outfits that would be presented that night.
A few meters away, behind a curtain backstage, a chaotic line of models, stylists, makeup artists, and designers began to form, all working under the pressure of the moment to perfect every last detail.
Finally, around eleven at night, the Fashion Show Glams 80 began. Not a single more person could fit inside; no one wanted to miss a moment of the performance. Suddenly, flared pants, sequins, gigantic skirts dragging along the floor, coats, and an endless array of lines and colors appeared. The models carried horns, masks, bulky shoes, and wild hairstyles with elegance.
For 40 minutes, the show evoked the unique style of the ball culture born in 1930s New York—an epic dance battle between marginalized groups such as Black, Latino, and LGBTQ+ communities, competing in the ballroom for a prize that brought recognition to their group.
Once the runway ended, the party continued with a live music show with hints of electronic and post-punk. On one of the patio walls, a fire escape-style staircase led to a terrace. There, the atmosphere was different, with other types of music, heaters, and comfortable seating.
The club’s main stage was a hall with red lights waving across the ceiling and an illuminated dance floor. The event closed there with some new wave and pop classics by artists like Michael Jackson and Madonna.
Andrés Bernadette is a 38-year-old Bogotá-based artist. He describes himself as an octopus: a renowned photographer, fashion editorial producer, stylist, art director, teacher, and musician. He began his career in the audiovisual world studying Film and Television. Later, he worked on producing commercials for Fox TV Colombia, RCN, and Caracol. Then, realizing the absence of fashion styling in Colombia, he created his portfolio and had the opportunity to work at In Fashion and Fucsia magazine in their early days. To date, Andrés has trained 30 generations of fashion stylists in Cali, Cartagena, Bogotá, and Medellín.
Currently, he works at Issue Collective, his company, alongside five others: Isaza, who leads fashion production and styling; Pantera Tirana, the project’s art director; Andrés Sánchez, a fashion designer focused on experimental pattern making; and Georgina Carreiro, a professional makeup artist and fashion editor. Together, they produce events and runway shows.
Taking inspiration from similar formats seen in cities like Berlin, New York, and Tokyo, Issue Collective explored the Colombian market and established itself as a scene.
The Art of Anti-Fashion officially formalized three years ago. It is now a tradition celebrated two or three times a year. So far, it has been held at the Bolera de San Francisco, Billares Londres, art galleries, and in the city of Medellín.
Since May 2019, The Art of Anti-Fashion has found a home and room to grow as a movement at Kaput Club, which bought the show and became its lair—its façade and interior perfectly fitting the anti-fashion vibe. The project envisions evolving through various themes: What would a futuristic anti-fashion look like? Or an anti-fashion with a drag theme? The possibilities are endless; the idea is to challenge participating creatives to expand their vision of these proposals and create around them from an anti-aesthetic perspective.
On the left, fashion designer David Monsalve; in the center, drag artist Isis Camelia; and on the right, Sofía Gallego.
The dynamics of the event after the alliance between Issue and Kaput have allowed more people to join the production team. The number of attendees continues to grow, reaching up to 400 people.
Anti-Fashion has free entry and has managed to remain that way because its designers, makeup artists, models, musicians, photographers, artists, and promoters all contribute their talent voluntarily.
Issue’s plan for The Art of Anti-Fashion is to fully exploit the event’s potential, exploring possibilities to take it to other countries, help it grow, and ensure it continues to transcend. Next, they plan to travel to Berlin to engage in a cultural exchange, showcase this wave of Bogotá-based artists, and learn from Germany’s anti-styling scene.
This is a special event, both in its meaning and in the cultural role it plays. It aims for outsiders and participants to be enriched in many ways and to explore proposals that are often rejected at first glance or considered unthinkable. It invites people to open their minds to the unknown, to a new form of art, to other forms of beauty and fashion. It offers a space where the strange and the eccentric can feel comfortable showcasing their outfits and expressing who they are, finding new perspectives on what a party can mean, and providing a platform for designers and artists who have no place or space to exhibit their work.
Anti-Fashion proposes the possibility of expanding vision and possibilities; it invites you to question what you have culturally learned as correct or appropriate and to break free from these frameworks—or escape them for just one night.
