by Sheila Heti
CHRIS: I hope you got some clothes out of that. Is that something that’s strange for you? Doing those campaigns?
KIM: Hedi [Slimane, creative director of Yves Saint Laurent] asked me and my daughter, although they never ran her pictures. I was disappointed, because she looked amazing.
CHRIS: Do you see a shift in the way fashion is treated today from when you first started out?
KIM: As a visual artist, I just like to look at clothes. I’m comfortable with being associated with fashion. I’m not a designer. I don’t think of myself in that way. But I’m interested in the whole machinery of fashion and how it relates with culture. There was that show at the Met this year . . . Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity. It was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. I don’t know if you’ve ever read Émile Zola’s book The Ladies’ Paradise. It describes the beginning of consumerism and the first department store and how the department store is this big machine in the neighborhood and how the owner feels like he has the ladies’ pleasure and he’s in control of it and whipping it up into a frenzy.
CHRIS: People forget that, especially in the case of Manet and Renoir, those paintings are about fashion. The fashion element has been completely eclipsed in art history, but those artists were basically presenting new ways of dressing and new styles and the culture that was being built around it.
KIM: And showing how those styles allowed women to go out in public. Like the day dress. Showing a woman sitting at a café having a beer by herself, I find all of that really fascinating.
CHRIS: Do you think the machinery is good for women?
KIM: I mean, it just is. Now men are pulled in, too. The metro male. It’s beginning to be as big of a market for men, and men are now involved in consumerism in that way. It’s just part and parcel of the whole consumerist society.
CHRIS: Do you think there’s less of an opportunity to revolt now? That there are fewer opportunities for young people to be creative?
KIM: It’s become all so democratic. Anyone can look cool. Which is great. But it’s harder and harder to find things that are really authentic or to create your own identity. I think it’s become about smaller gestures. That’s how you make fashion your own. I mean, I look at the way my daughter dresses, and she’s kind of minimalist, tomboyish.
CHRIS: She doesn’t borrow your clothes?
KIM: Oh, she does. But she always has to make it her own. She isn’t an overconsumer. She seems to have much more of a sense of style than I did at that age. I think she probably has a better innate sense of what looks good. She’s just a cool girl.
SURVEY What’s the situation with your hair?
You noticed, eh? My hair is thick—thicker than any hairdresser I’ve ever been to has seen. So thick it takes about twenty-four hours to dry after I’ve washed it, and if I used a hair dryer I’d be standing there, pointing it at my head for a few hours. So I don’t. I wash it before bed and wake up and it’s usually still damp. My hormones fuck it up constantly—dry one day, greasy another day. I tend to avoid the hairdresser like I avoid the dentist. I find it takes so much time. My hair also grows very slowly. It grows out thick instead of long. Sigh.—MICHELLE BERRY • Oh, fucking heck, I hate my hair.—AMANDA MILLER • Used to be bright blue. Now short, I sometimes wear it in four braids. Normally a ponytail.—ADA EZE • It’s spaghetti straight. It’s great to tie in a knot, but for everything else it is too straight and heavy. I hate blow dryers. I think in an ideal world, where I had a hairstylist every day (and more hours to kill), I could look ravishingly fantastic. But in my life, I just take a rubber band every day and tie my hair in a knot. —SOPHIE ZEITZ • It’s frustrating at the moment. I used to have my hair done once a month, but I am not working anymore, so I am not able to do this. Which is horrible! At the moment I have not been to the hairdresser in six months.—ALIYA JACOBS • I’m forty-two and getting gray, so I’m putting a little red in it, which I really like.—JEANA DELROSSO • It’s in the awkward place between two lengths. Then there is the onion sprout. —MEGHAN BEAN FLAHERTY • I have an expensive sandy-blond long bob with bangs. My hair changes a lot. (I own a hair salon.) —JOHANNA FATEMAN • My mom used to comb it with a bristle brush and it was a disaster. When I got older and learned that curly hair needs a wide-tooth comb, things got better. My husband loves it very long, so I wore it like that for a few years. He would comb it for me. I once had a boyfriend, though, who said I had to have long hair, so I nearly shaved it off.—MELANIE PAGE • My hair is in dreads down below my navel.—RAINBOW MOOON • It’s thick, dark, coarse, and wiry, and it grows out from my head in the Asian fashion. I think the only hair that truly works for me is long, witchy hair. —JILLIAN TAMAKI • Absolute war ever since I dyed it green when I was eleven and fucked it up forever. —TALITA S. • The higher the hair, the closer to God! I’m very into volume.—ALICIA BERNLOHR • After years of confusion, I finally understand my hair. It’s all thanks to one hairdresser. My hair is wavy, but it was always being cut straight and styled straight. I’ve used straightener so much of my life that I actually think it started to damage my hairline. But one day I went to this hairdresser who gave me a cute medium-length cut with the intention that the hair would wave or curl in whatever direction. She threw a little curling cream in and told me to twirl it and voilà! I now officially have one of the easiest hair regiments of anyone I know. —JENNIFER CARROLL • It’s in an okay state right now. I used to wear it very long and completely flat-ironed (for all of high school). I have curly hair, though, so this took forever. I now wear it short and curly. It’s sort of triangle-shaped. I cut my own hair. I like it.—LINDSAY ALLISON RUOFF • I would love to have long hair, but it looks bad on me. My hair is cut in a short bob that I call the “mom cut.” —KRISTIN SJAARDA
PROJECT
WEAR AREAS | RIVKA GALCHEN
1 Hyperdeveloped Masseter Muscles, from lifelong devotion to jerkies, toffees, and long silences
2 Pineal Gland of Ordinary Caliber, characteristic of faith
3 Abrasions of Medial Epicondyle of the Humerus, from chronic learning about youth culture exclusively by reading about it on Wikipedia while leaning on unpadded elbows, with mood of one learning about Easter Island’s Lost Civilization
4 Hyperejuvenative Keratin, gainsaying professed bouts of diminished interest in “going on”
5 Fingers of False Hope, of a length suggestive of a height of six feet, a height never achieved, either on account of misguided nutritional standards, or embarrassment
6 Hypodeveloped Calf Muscles, from diminishing need for travel, dairy, praise
7 Medial Malleoli of Comfort, site of reliable accumulation of dead skin, carbon, philosophies
PROJECT
RING CYCLE | FIFTEEN WOMEN IN A NEWSPAPER OFFICE PHOTOCOPY THEIR HANDS AND TALK ABOUT THEIR RINGS
HONOR JONES The engagement ring was my grandmother’s, and when she died, my oldest cousin got the ring. This cousin called Daniel and said, “No pressure, but if you’re going to propose to Honor, do you want this ring?” One of our friends was going to Cincinnati and so he stopped in Pittsburgh and got the ring and brought it back to New York. I really loved my grandmother, so it is really special to me. It’s from the forties. There’s one funny story about the ring. Apparently, my grandmother lost it for a while and couldn’t find it anywhere. The family was moving to a new city, and their last day in the house, my youngest aunt was hungry, but everything had been packed except for an old box of cereal. When she poured it out, the ring fell out, too! The wedding ring is just a ring that went with it. We got it together, Daniel and I.
INELL WILLIS The gold one is a wedding band. The original wedding band has been lost. I also like to buy ten-dollar, fifteen-dollar rings at flea markets, like this purple one. I like purple, it’s a royal color. You always hear Oprah talking about “We’re royal women.” I don’t remember where I got this turquoise one from. It’s a dome shape, but it doesn’t catch on my gloves. I like the colors. I’m into bright colors. None of these are hei
rloom. My mother has a ton of rings. You can see the aging process in her hands and fingers, which seem to be shrinking and twisting with arthritis. I look at her hands and think, My hands will look like that someday.
CAROLINE HIRSCH It was originally my grandmother’s. I did meet her, but she died before I really got to know her. I visited my aunt in Deauville, she came across the ring and said, “You’re the one with little hands, maybe this one will fit you.” It did, and I’ve been wearing it ever since. My grandmother was a painter; apparently we had quite a bit in common, and similar taste in rings. I like that it’s kind of an eye.
RUTH LA FERLA I have three rings from my family here. My mother’s wedding ring. My father’s wedding ring that she had lying around. Then, years later—because, as with many couples, they couldn’t afford diamonds or whatever—he got her this one, so that’s also my mother’s ring. My mother gave me the two wedding rings, but when she died I got the diamond one. I wear it a lot. Then sandwiched in there is a dolphin I bought last summer in Greece, in Corfu, just because it was like an emblem of Greece, of Corfu. Then—so tight because I’ve put so many rings on—that’s a Cartier triple band I bought as self-indulgence sometime in the seventies. If I bought it now, it would cost a lot more. I do switch them around a lot; I choked my fingers today. These are part of ten, these skinny little things; they look kind of tribal, they are Me&Ro, they’re gold. I mix gold and fake and everything. This one with the chain is from a flea market in Chicago. That’s just some old ring, but I knew it would look okay stacked; I love stacking them for some reason. People say with Taurus your power is in your throat, so you should wear a big chunky necklace or something, but I feel armed when I wear a lot of rings, and I switch them around. It’s armor. I definitely feel armed in rings and not in other jewelry.
ROBERTA ZEFF This one my husband gave me for one of our anniversaries. I don’t remember what year. The little one was my grandmother’s original wedding ring from 1936, from a time when they didn’t really have money. It’s just a very simple little unfancy ring. She ended up later in life with fancy rings, but this was the starter ring, so I just always loved that. It has an inscription. It has my grandparents’ initials and the date of their wedding: H.P. to C.L., 2-1-36.
MAURA EGAN So this ring I got in Vietnam five or six years ago, in Saigon. I was by myself, it was my birthday, and I was there for work, it was so hot and very chaotic and I was tired and ready to come home. I was like, I’m just going to go buy myself a birthday present. I bought this in a random store and it wasn’t super-expensive. People say, “That’s your ring from Vietnam,” like it’s some fancy, fancy ring, but it’s not. These are from an artist who casts the objects you get out of a bubble-gum machine. These were plastic cameos that she set in gold. They’re from a store in SoHo called Legacy. I’ve always gone there, and I’ve been buying her stuff for years and years. I’ve never met her. She’s a Brooklyn artist. She did all three and they’re stackable. Then this—I guess I buy a lot of my own jewelry—I’ve always liked black diamonds, and I like rose gold, and I bought this two years ago, as a present to myself. All my jewelry is a present to myself. No man’s ever bought me jewelry, because you know what? Every time they do I never like it. So I buy my own stuff, which is probably a control issue.
JENNA WORTHAM This is just my look going into the winter season. It changes all the time, depending on what I’m into and what suits my mood. The way they’re stacked looks tribal, witchy to me. Powerful. I got the rings from Forever 21 and Etsy. Small stakes in case I lose them, which I very likely will. I had a fantastic gold cat-ears ring from an Urban Outfitters in L.A. that I adored but lost the first time I wore it.
ALEXANDRA JACOBS The one on the bottom is just my wedding ring. We got it at one of those 47th Street places, someplace called, like, A Thousand and One Engagement Rings. The second one, which looks like two but is actually only one, my husband got for me for our tenth anniversary, and it’s coral and diamonds. I love it because—he didn’t do this intentionally, but maybe subconsciously—to me it suggests us and our two children, who are of course the diamonds. But I love it, I adore it. And coral is not my usual—I usually go with a cool palette—but I love it, I love it. He was choosing between two. I wear a lot of costume jewelry, and the reason he picked coral—believe me, he didn’t pluck that out of his head—is that I had this big flamboyant Kenneth Jay Lane ring with lots of little orange faux-coral beads. It’s a big honker. He was considering two rings and was like, Oh, she likes coral, and one of them was like the Lane one but real, and the other was this one. And he could not decide, so he consulted with a dear friend of mine and she picked this one. So not only does it represent us and our children, but that a friend was involved in choosing it makes me very happy. The sister I never had. In the winter, when I think more about what I’m wearing, I wear it at least once every two weeks. It’s a great ring. It goes with a lot—tweeds—it’s amazing what you can make into a neutral when you want to. I wear it less in the summer because I’m scared of losing it. In the summer, I tend to wear more costume jewelry because of pools and the travel. I admire those women of yesteryear who would wear their jewelry all the time, but I’m too scared. I lose stuff all the time and I cannot lose this. It’s a little stressful managing it, because if I lost it that would be devastating. My nails look good. I’ve been taking biotin.
AURÉLIE PELLISSIER The first one is a gift from my godmother that she gave me a very long time ago. It was a ring that her husband had given her when they first met. The second ring, my boyfriend gave to me for our tenth anniversary, it’s a Trinity ring. The last one is a gift from a friend; it had a little emerald in it but I lost it, so I wear it as a little chain.
AVIVA MICHAELOV The ring is my wedding band, and it’s the only ring I wear. When I bought it with my husband, he was very nervous about how untraditional it was. It looks somewhat industrial and it’s rose gold. It’s a little loose now because I was five months pregnant when we got it.
DEBORAH AUER I got it on Bleecker Street probably about ten years ago, and the thing is, when I bought it, it was quite garish, and had little black stones in it, which have all fallen out. Nobody talked about it, because it was just “bling,” and it’s one of those semiprecious green stones. It was really flashy and trashy-looking. As it got dirtier and older, people would go, “Wow, look at that great ring!” My nephew says, “Wow, is that an emerald?” Yeah, if it was an emerald we’d be taking a car service. That’s the best thing about it. I always wear rings. I don’t feel dressed if I don’t have rings on, so even if I’m late for work, I put on a ring.
SNIGDHA KOIRALA I wasn’t wearing rings today partly because I had no time to think before I left the house, and also because my nails are a mess and I felt like there was too much going on with my nails a mess—wearing the bracelet, not having had time to think about which ring I wanted to wear. So I came to work completely bare. But this is a bracelet that I wear pretty much every day. This is what I’m in love with right now. The bracelet is something that I saw just clicking around online, and it’s from this interesting program. I believe Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, is doing this “gun-buyback” program, which encourages people to turn in their guns. Then a company called Jewelry for a Cause takes some of those guns, melts them down, and turns them into beautiful artifacts. They have the gun ID number as well as the city on them. I thought it was cool. I like toe rings. You have to get really comfortable ones, otherwise you get all sorts of things poking into your toe.
ALEXANDRA ZSIGMOND These are a recent acquisition, actually, and I’m interested now in wearing rings high. Low on one hand and high on the other. Just for a contrast. Sometimes I’ll wear on the same hand a ring that’s lower—I don’t have that today—but there’s just something very delicate and elegant about wearing rings higher up. I got the idea from a friend of mine who lives in Berlin. She was always wearing rings like this and I thought it was really cool so I adopted it. She was a roommate of min
e, she had great style, and we were always getting inspired by each other.
GAIL COLLINS We got married in 1970, and of course we didn’t have any money or anything, so we went to Caldor’s, which I don’t think exists anymore, but it was like Kmart, and it was the only big store in Amherst. They had these rings. They were something like forty dollars each. And that’s what we bought. Years later—five, ten years ago, for our anniversary—my husband replaced them. So I now have a ring that’s much more expensive that looks exactly like the ones we got in Caldor’s.
SARAH WILLIAMSON I was very, very close to my grandmother, she and my mom raised me, but she was as important as my mom. When she passed away we went to her safety deposit box; she had a lot of jewelry and gold because she and my grandfather were antique dealers. I saw this ring and right away I thought, I have to have this ring. So I took it. I never took it off except during the 2004 Bush election. I went to vote that day and I put it in the zippered pocket of a hoodie sweatshirt. I lost it for two years and was sad for two years. I cried every time I thought about it. And then I was in my closet and saw the hoodie and thought, “I haven’t worn that forever,” and I opened the pocket and found the ring. Now I never take it off. She had far nicer and probably more valuable things in the deposit box, but it wasn’t about that to me. I love the whole design of it and feel like it suits me. It’s my grandma to me and it’s very special to me. I really got along with my grandma, we did everything together. I’m sad because she never got to see me in my twenties, or even now when I’m in my thirties. She only saw a much younger version of me.