intellectual properties

FHM: the creator

sad news from the underground fashion world:

Influential fashion designer dies — designer Tiffa Novoa, credited with creating the look referred to generally as “techno tribal” or “feathers and leather”, and sometimes negatively referred to as “trustafarian peacock“. her work was simply gorgeous - WOW.

the author previously wrote an article on the SF underground fashion scene and the influence of Tiffa, which sums up very nicely what so many of us love about it, despite the negative assumptions often made about vanity and cliquey-ness: the creativity, the ingenuity, the poetic love of beauty, the self-expression, and the inspiration that so many of us find in that little part of our culture.

That fashion sense has carried over onto the streets and into the clubs of San Francisco, giving an open and otherworldly feel to many parties. There’s a constant updating of wardrobes, with much of the shopping done at fabric stores and sewing collectives like Stitch Lounge, and other outfits constructed from modified thrift store items or outrageous duds from places like Haight Street’s Piedmont Boutique.

“By now everyone in San Francisco has a closet full of costumes. You don’t see that in LA or anywhere but here,” Bullock says. “It’s also an icebreaker. How many times have you gone up and said, ‘Wow, that’s a really great costume,’ and then you can start to talk or flirt.”

It can also be a personally transformative experience. “At first, this was all costuming, but now it’s who I am,” says Matty Dowlen, who manages El Circo’s operations and looks like a cross between a carny, a hippie, and a trapper. “I really love Burning Man. It helped me discover who I am as an artist.”

i would also offer that whether you are an aspiring artist or not, finding your own personal style also helps you discover who you are as a human: what you value and what you don’t.

it’s sad to lose someone so creative and influential, especially if the speculated cause of death - drug overdose - is true. i often feel like some kind of square because i wish so many of my friends would stop doing so many drugs. “responsible drug use” isn’t an oxymoron, but it’s a very, very fine line to walk. personally, i don’t think it’s worth it, and the more people in my community we lose - or almost lose - to drugs, the more i become an anti-drug/pro-sobriety advocate.

THIS CHANGED EVERYTHING is a beautiful recounting of how this designer changed one person’s - and probably thousands of others’ - life.