Bad Unkl Sista

What can I say but "I'm in love!"
The label is called Bad Unkl Sista and I had my first exposure to this creative venture last weekend at the External Spring Show in the SOMArts building.

It has truly been a long time since a designer, a local one at that, has deeply sparked my imagination so much that it brings tears of joy to my heart. Bad Unkl did such a thing and in honor of the week of love, this blog is dedicated to my new favorite fashion muse.

I have not personally met Anastazia Louise (the woman behind the designs) of this magical label, but her ability to passionately mix art, clothing and extravagance into a performance is very true to my own vision. Anastazia is pushing boundaries, living pure expression through her clothing and creating shared community experience through her medium.

Let me explain. Bad Unkl Sista was the last act of at least 10-12 previous designers in a runway show that lasted around an hour and a half. Amongst the other designers was a whole gamut of styles ranging from chic, wild, trendy, to just plain average. Most of the clothing line presentations followed the typical runway model; one model enters at a time, wiggles around, pouts, blows you a kiss, and retreats to the back of the stage to be followed by another model and so on. This is fine and dandy, but frankly after strutter #44 the routine feels pretty stale.

The audience reflected this, and as our attention wandered, we talked amongst each other, eyes scanned around the room people watching, we clapped but it was pretty minimal, a hoot here, a holla there, but the energy in the room was struggling to be truly engaged with the show. We needed something to move us, to captivate us all and transport us to another place.

Bad Unkl Sista knows about these things. Like a bizarre dream, when their show began out comes Anastazia (already a very dramatic woman herself) dressed in black, dancing Butoh with a gorgeous solemn-looking ballerina. Simply and slowly they moved their way towards us on the runway. And then the suddenly as if a circus let loose, all types creatures emerged, one after another until the stage was cluttered with an assortment of people dressed like Narnia-meets-The Yellow Submarine-meets tribal Africa-meets-Alice in Wonderland.

The mood of the room changed instantaneously. Trancelike, we all gazed with delight and held our breath as we took in the spectacle. Together, as a whole the entire audience was sucked into this fantastical world where bizarre is beautiful and dreams become reality.

When it was all over, you felt like you wanted to hug everyone around you, we were somehow closer, as if after having experienced a trip to the moon and making it back alive.

For me, it reinstated my own path of creating events that unify the crowds, takes them to other worlds, in a night of experiencing beauty in all forms.

Thank you Anastazia, you bring light and magic into a world that craves raw expression. You made my night, my week, my month and probably my year.

Here's to you and all the other people out there who take their craft deep into the imagination, unabashedly using talent and skill to create the un-creatable. You empower us all to live our life to the fullest and cloak ourselves as the kings and queens that we are.

Best of all, you took an ordinary night and made it extraordinary. You are a magician, you are Ix Chel the Mayan Goddess of Creativity, the dreamer, the artist who out of nothing makes something. From the malaise you awaken us; you startle us, frighten us in beauty, daring us to pinch ourselves, wondering where you came from, the tribe we strayed from, the lost city that birthed us and now is found again. Thank you.

Her blogs are great too, check them out at: http://people.tribe.net/stazia