Venus from Chaos
"If Earth was born of Chaos, Chaos will be Earth's end. We see that here and now. In this world, life exists under the conditions of an insurmountable regime of destruction, subjugation, cruelty and control. For longer than we care to recall, we have rallied against it with our deepest fibres. We have waged war on its terms, staging rituals and coups against its impenetrable fortress - acts of divine feminine mutiny.
Rather than fight to dismantle this agenda, for now, we disengage and define our own. Rather than look outside to find a world that actualises our full potential, we discover it within. It is a world governed by my systems and ruled on our terms; a world where the gravity of patriarchal oppression is countered by the power of conviction and the lightness of imagination, bringing our bodies, minds and souls into fullest bloom.
They say that women are from Venus, and so, in an act of spiritual rapture, to Venus we return. We bask in the heat that they have taught you to think is oppressive; it renders armour built for earthly battles as brittle as glass.
Rigid, corseted carapaces in hefty hides and the cinched tailoring beloved by the corporate man peel away in the sulphur we take deep into our lungs. Spurred on, we parse through the scorn and false confidence that had sedimented deep within.
Layers of mesh and snakeskin are shed, bringing new flesh to the fore. Bejewelled tresses tumble down from the scalp and slick onto moist skin; fronds of hair sprout from places we'd too often been told to trim like harpies' plumes.
Here, what men of power would call a toxic atmosphere is as freeing to breathe as alpine air. Stripped back to its most elemental, our bodies embrace the promise of new thoughts, new languages, new traditions.
The founding values of this new
world are etched into our skin - a sacred reminder of the day that Earth fell to Chaos, and out of it Venus was born.
Of course, no world can be built entirely alone. Envisioning "Venus," a world of female liberation, we partnered with Converse, supporting in bringing this vision to life. Transforming classic Chucks to a part of the Venus world, where they are transformed to something different. We'd also like to extend special thanks to leather artisans Whitaker Malem, with whom we collaborated on the collection's closing look, and Jonah Slater, whose tattoo art is painstakingly hand-etched on its surface. There's a special place on Venus for you all. " - Dilara Findikoglu
