Melbourne based accessories brand mettle / Fair Trade is known for both their directional aesthetic as well as eco methods. They produce their entire line in Cambodia and Indonesia using small, member-owned cooperatives. "We see people, not just producers of goods," they explain. "In line with this ethos, all pieces are made from recycled materials. The end result is a hand made eco luxe piece to be cherished for all the right reasons."
And who wouldn't cherish this amazing hinged breastplate, head-piece (below) and other exotic pieces, all of which struck me as very Xena Warrior Princess, were she to give up swordfighting in order to start catwalking.
But I found it striking, the way these pieces brought to mind a warrior adorned. Her courage will change the world. This narration ended every episode of Xena, and is a metaphor, I think, for making sense of the massive change that characterizes life today. "Birthed out of the quasi-Greek mythical world of the almost-equally-popular Adventures of Hercules series, Xena mixes Greco-Roman mythology with contemporary and historical cultural tropes like the western, the often criticized and parodied beauty pageant, Indiana Jones-like archaeological adventures, Dantean visions of Heaven and Hell, Roman crucifixions, Hun-like hordes, and even the biblical figure of Goliath," observes David A. Adcock, a retired professor of history, social science, and philosophy at Rice University. "Xena equally reconfigures and experiments with conceptions of gender, class, and ethnicity, as well as religious symbols and ideas."
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By mashing up influences without regard to context - time, geographic location, ethnicity, culture - the resulting worldview is disconcertingly off balance while, at the same time, comfortingly global-village familiar. A world of postmodern magpie'ish cherrypicking reconfigured into previously unimaginable possibilities. "Exploring the worlds which Xena transforms, changes the way experience of the world unfolds," continues Adcock. Whether something is "real" no longer matters. What does? The experience. Real and virtual continue to merge at the speed of Social Media. While exhilarating, it's unnerving. And cause for much soul-searching in every age group today. Xena performs a mythological reconstruction and reconfiguration of the self," says Adcock, "and this performative text projects new possibilities for imagining ourselves and the world."
But even if we're still not sure of who we are, exactly, in the midst of so much upheaval, at least we can be well adorned world-changers.
- Lesley Scott
The rough-hewn, warrior-like feel of this jewelry is very congruent with the vibe of the Apocalytical fashion tribe which has a chic cloud of effitalltohellalready Doomsday & End Times that seems to follow them everywhere. For more of my posts and podcasts about the Apocalytical tribe, CLICK HERE. To learn more about each of fashion's four mega-tribes that I track, START HERE.
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