Katya Sander

I once knew a woman who had decided to see the world through her sunglasses for the rest of her life. She listened to the radio all night, slept most of the day, and spent the rest of her time drinking coffee and chain-smoking in the kitchen. We were sitting there talking one day, and I made a remark about something that I thought looked nice to which she replied: "Yes, even I can see that through these dirty glasses". She then told me that the reason she wore sunglasses was that she didnÍt want to see all the ugliness. Her sunglasses gave the right color to the world and she couldnÍt stand looking at it without them.

Making a drawing is a bit like looking at the world through your favorite sunglasses, but you look out through them, and while making a drawing you turn the other way, towards yourself. A drawing is not a cutout of reality like a photograph is. ItÍs more like a reflection over some personal experiences. Drawings focus on detail, and that is also what this issue of Plum Velvet is about. In these pages you will find a lot of drawings that relate to fashion in one way or another, through details, locations, attitudes, patterns, shapes. Together they begin to tell some new stories about who we are. While doing that fashion comes out of focus, and instead we get a glimpse of our dreams and desires.

Maria Finn