James Coward is a design-centered project upstarted by two friends who possess backgrounds in industrial design and philosophy, respectively. In anticipation of their upcoming offering the label has produced a set of visuals with photographer Antosh Cimoszko entitled, "Exhaustion." The editorial is recently featured here in Kennedy Magazine, a publication with intersectional sensibilities to the label itself.
The images and ideas expressed in the Exhaustion offering emerged as an exegesis of the effects of exhaustion on the human condition. Feelings of exhaustion materialize under duress, and at the end of expressive and productive cycles; they also can act as a catalyst for inspiration and creativity.
The designers offer a revision of traditional assumptions and preconceptions of exhaustion through a conscious rejection of a lens of standard interpretation. Modernist Austrian philosophical writer Robert Musil stated: "To experience the need for (artistic) representation […] means to depict something: to represent its connections to a hundred other things; because objectively nothing else is possible, because only in this way can one make something comprehensible and tangible, … as even scientific understanding can only arise through comparisons and connections, and as this is the only way human understanding can arise at all." Exhaustion is a conduit that numerous, variegated conditions of our existence pass through; artistic expression is a precondition to understanding its scope and breadth.
Rather than drawing reference from within the framework of fashion, the designers draw from a nexus of personal insights, architecture, photography and music in constructing "Exhaustion." This project incorporates a strong sense of the madness; a madness that leads to the world around us becoming increasingly surreal as our regular points of reference are clouded by the lethargic and elliptical consciousness that accompany exhaustion.
Diffuse, disorderly and chaotic, the warehouse space of the editorial in many ways reflects the tired and cluttered mind of exhaustion. The notion of a dialectic emerging between personal tragedy and absurd comedy is palpable, as is a contrast between the simple notions of light and dark. The robust fabric and construction of James Coward not only imbue its wearer with autonomy and freedom but an ability to hide within their garments and take respite as they grow weary of the world around them.
To complete the offering, James Coward also presents a special audio mix to soundtrack the experience. The mix is crafted by Wolfey and can be heard on the player below:
