At the recent MET Gala, Dame Vivienne Westwood donned a piece of jewelry she made herself.  It was an oversized laminated photo of WikiLeaks Whistleblower, Bradley Manning (click on his name to learn more!), she chose to wear at the media-saturated//star studded event to show her support for a man who wanted to show the public the “true costs of war, spark worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms”.

The video of her on the red carpet, where she attempted to explain the broach, has been removed from YouTube as of this morning.

check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cu41UHA_xI#action=share

Here is an excerpt from her blog:

more here :http://www.activeresistance.co.uk/ar/?p=3251#more-3251

 images are from guardian.co.uk, nymag.com & vivienne west wood’s blog.

Berbers are nomads who are distributed in the deserts of Northern Africa. They arrived  in the year 2000 BC, long before the Arabs had settled there. They were originally called “Amazigh“, which  translates into “free man“.  After the Greeks invaded their land, the term “Berber” was given to them which translates to “non-Greek“.

The Berbers are made up of several different ethnic groups and have endured many invasions from the Romans to the Arabs,  yet they have remained a strong unified force, through their language, traditions and heritage.

Berber women are strong women that we can think of as female rebels who continue to fight the stereotype, which was brought on by the Arab invasion (7th century CE) and the rise of Islam. The identity of a Berber woman is expressed through her artful clothing, which have extraordinary embroidery details. They also wear over- the- top ornate jewelry not only as an artistic expression but to convey a message of strength and symbolize their ethnic identity, which they are determined to preserve for the generations to come.

Berber woman (south of Morocco) wearing a vibrant and colorful garment which was created from the Earth’s natural dyes .

Berber woman of North Africa covered in ornaments, colorful  tassels and bells . 

-Maie Zoheir

SFK & Meredith Wendell collaborated this season to create a collection of limited edition camera straps. Utilizing materials from past Meredith Wendell collections, the pieces feature pop-colored rope, Italian leather, chain, and genuine Scottish plaid. Styles are available for both small point-and-shoots and larger format cameras such as SLRS. Each is named after hiking destinations in Scotland and the southern U.S.A.They officially launched during NYFW Auntumn/Winter 2013. They are for sale HERE!

CASTLE HILL DELUXE

DEVIL’S TRAIL DELUXE

ARABIA ROCK MOUNTAIN DELUXE

RUBY RIVER SUPER DELUXE

SHINING ROCK SUPER DELUXE

YELLOW MOUNTAIN SUPER DELUXE

SOUTH COVER SUPER DELUXE

BLACK ROCK SUPER DELUXE

CALDERWOOD SUPER DELUXE

LADY HUNTER SUPER DELUXE

Reporting from SFK headquarters: we want to share one of our favorite shoots of late. Entitled WOMEN POWER, it was shot by Mel Bles and styled by Vanessa Reid. Click HERE! to see the rest of the S/S 2013- issue #19.

Next up in the SFK online gallery is NY/LA based Jacqueline Di Milia . Check it out HERE and discover more below…

(Self portrait by JDM with her Mamiya camera and an SFK + Meredith Wendell strap) 

Please tell us a bit about this group of work?

This is a mix of a body of work I call Moon Gardens and other personal work that is casually shot. The Moon Gardens, which is a on-going body of work, has never necessarily been intended to exclusively stand alone – but it’s technique is why I consider it a project of it’s own. They are landscapes collaged, layered, or manipulated all in camera on film. The prints aren’t digitally manipulated. I think the other images still build into saying a similar thing, even though they aren’t made the same way as the Moon Gardens.

Where did you shoot?

The photographs were shot in a myriad of places that, for the most part, I travelled to with the intent of shooting. Some of the images are less planned, and often shot when with friends or at home.

The larger ongoing body of work includes images shot anywhere from Big Sur, Palm Springs, Tulum, Yosemite, Los Angeles, Zion.

What kind of camera do you use?

I shoot 99% of my personal work on film cameras. I own two Mamiya’s which do most of the work, and a 35mm Nikon thats as heavy as a brick.

This year I finally broke down and bought my first serious digital SLR. Though I would use them for work, I just avoided buying my own for a long time.

 What are you reading these days? 

Well, I’m usually reading something super nerdy and scientific base, a piece of fiction, and then there are the things I read religiously. I just finished this great book Mind, Life, and Universe: Conversations with Great Scientists of our Time. Its a collection of conversations with greatly influential scientists. It pieces things about the bigger picture together without stating that as an intent. The Varieties of Scientific Experience by Carl Sagan is next. I don’t have a piece of fiction picked out yet – but I am always reading poetry by Richard Brautigan and Carlos Williams Carlos. All of these things have a good deal of influence on my work.

 Oh and what is the mystery bug in that image?

It’s a Phidippus Johnsoni – or a red back jumping spider.

I got into spiders when I first started living out in Los Angeles. There were so many everywhere, and so many varieties. Previously, I had been bitten by a brown recluse so I kind of have a thing about maintaining good spider karma. Which involves not killing them and respecting their space.

http://jacquelinedimilia.com/