Kaya-Marisa Wornette

Our new stylist wornette talks visual mystics, haphazard patterns, and fearless female adventurers

By: wornette

The two words I would use to describe my life are travel and music. My life has been like an eclectic music video featuring scenes from Toronto, Jamaica, India, Thailand, and Japan.

I grew up living between Toronto and Kingston, Jamaica, and travelling whenever possible with my mother, a flight attendant and passionate globetrotter. When she took me to New Delhi, India when I was 13, I watched with fascination as she haggled with the shop keepers. The colours, textures, and grit of the city opened my eyes and flipped the ‘on’ switch to my creativity.

My personal style is highly influenced by my mother. I have a distinct memory of looking up at her in her long plaid skirt, leather boots, with her thick Sade-like hair in a long ponytail, and thinking she was wicked white hot cool and the most beautiful woman alive. I think of myself as a bohemian style chameleon. I like to try new things with the way I look, with the caveat that they be adventure-ready and comfortable. I’m frustrated with the retail experience, so lately my style has turned almost 90 per cent vintage. I love the experience of stepping into a quiet store and experiencing shopping with other people who love clothing as much as I do.

I currently moonlight as a freelance stylist, set designer, and art director. Beyond the high of simple aesthetic satisfaction, I have a passion for telling stories (my own and others’) along with an avid interest in fashion anthropology and the cultural identities. I find myself most inspired by nature’s textures (leaves, flowers, the patterns on the bark of trees), and the stories of fearless female adventurers.

Current Inspirations

Ted Polhemus
This is my latest find. A well-respected author, journalist, photographer, and curator with several books under his belt, Ted Polhemus draws on his background in anthropology with a focus on body art and adornment, chronicling fashion trends for their deeper revelations on human nature. He’s a thought-provoking instigator and his writings keep me up at night.

OkayAfrica
From hip hop greats ‘The Roots’ and the creators of OkayPlayer comes OkayAfrica. This is a great resource for the latest news, fashions, trends and music coming out of the African continent and Diaspora. Check out the ‘Africa In Your Earbuds’ section for booty bumblin’ music.

Street Etiquette
A wicked NYC style blog, creators Joshua Kissi and Travis Gumbs are the kind of storytellers that keep you on the edge of your seat, waiting for the next explosion of visual dialogue. Embodying a sophisticated approach to street trends, they elevate the sartorial journey to high art. We need more male role models like this.

Patternity
All things patterned related—in nature, fashion and art. I am in awe of the haphazard patterns found in nature and the city and can easily spend time staring at broken pavement on the road, the texture of the bark on a tree, or peeling paint on the side of a building.

Bjork
I’ll never forget the moment. I was strolling through the halls of Jackson Square Mall in Hamilton when I came upon HMV and decided to peruse the ‘world music’ section. My ears became astutely aware of a song slowly building in momentum and the lyrics blasted, “twist your head around, it’s all around you, all is full of love.” The song was like a warm hug from your favourite auntie. This is how Bjork met me. I have enormous respect for her as a musician, singer, performance artist, nature lover, and visual mystic. I like that she has maintained a child-like playfulness and fearlessness with her style.

text // Kaya-Marisa Meadows
photography // Laura Tuttle

T-Shirt Manifesto

Threadless tells the story of how an idealistic vision became a design revoluion

By: wornette

Threadless is not just a t-shirt company that produces inspired graphic work, and it’s not just an internet upstart that championed “crowdsourcing” and social networking. In the words of co-founder Jake Nickell, Threadless “is a living breathing community of people that can’t be told what to do.” In Threadless: Ten Years of T-Shirts from the World’s Most Inspiring Online Design Community, Nickell chronicles the scrappy start-up’s rise over the past 10 years and makes a pretty good case that the company is something of a (t-shirt) revolution.

Nickell is joined by a cast of new media experts, designers, and fans who collectively recount the company’s deal: users are encouraged to upload designs and visitors vote on which t-shirt will go into production. Guest essayist Seth Godin writes that Threadless is, “a company that hires the unhireable, codes the uncodable [and] markets the unmarketable,” and Jeff Howe notes, “The genius of Threadless is that they put the community on a pedestal and then stepped into the background.” The mini-essays illustrate a company that democratizes art, and are the highlight of the book’s written content.

Text is dwarfed by the technicolour t-shirt designs and I found myself recognizing a lot of the prints as I pored over the pages, like this graphic of a badass Scooby-doo fanfic drawing of Velma with a shotgun and a bloodthirsty Scooby. Threadless’s designs have become pervasive over the past decade, and my sentiments on ubiquity were shared by those interviewed. Barnaby Bocock from New Zealand, speaking of his design “Nuts” said, “I think the ultimate compliment is seeing how much it has been ripped off. It was especially surreal when I found fakes being sold in Bangkok.”

Nickell’s strength as a businessman is sharing the spotlight. And although he’s writing about the company he started, the charismatic and critical engagement of other thinkers and artists are what put his success into a broader context and make it shine. As Nickell says: “Threadless is a community of people first, a t-shirt store second.” He gets away with wide-eyed utopian statements because the book is just as much an inspiring testament to sticking to your principles as proving that innovation can be more than empty business jargon. Threadless isn’t so much a coffee-table book as it is a colourful manifesto.

further reading // Threadless: Ten Years of T-Shirts from the World’s Most Inspiring Online Design Community by Jake Nickell and Jeffrey Kalmikoff // Henry N. Abrams // 2010

book report // Cayley James
images // Brianne Burnell

Lydia Wornette

Our new stylist intern talks frilly, girly details and the pizzazz of Diana Vreeland

By: wornette

Sometimes I like to imagine myself as the most interesting person you could ever meet, but usually I’m just your ordinary girl who’s found herself deeply seduced by the glamour and mystery of fashion. While so many people find solace and comfort in black, I regularly dress as if I’ve exploded out of a children’s cartoon. I believe that more is more: colours, prints, and heavy texturing. Load on the accessories and layer the clothes. The louder, the better. Why bother making a statement if no one can hear it, let alone feel the impact?

Personal style provides a fluidity that factual information never can. What I wear says much more about me than what I study or where I work. You can know me before I even open my mouth. The way I dress embodies my mood, my identity, and my aspirations. It’s how I express myself to the world. The meaning of dress, and the creation of beauty through what people wear, is the all-consuming focus of my thoughts.

That’s it. That’s Lydia, the new styling intern at WORN.

Current Inspirations

Diana Vreeland
I absolutely adore her personality and what she stands for. Her work at Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, and The Costume Institute in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is inspirational. Her pizzazz is legendary and her point of view is so unique and distinct. Her creation of fantasy and her constant drive for the unexpected is motivational.

Susie Lau
She has a quirky cartoonish style filled with frilly, girly details and an intelligent point of view to boot. What’s there not to love?

Katie Grand
The magazines that she started (Pop, AnOther and Love) are thick, juicy, and always filled with the most interesting editorial photos. Her distinct point of view is so undeniably original. I love her amalgamation of playfulness with tailoring and luxury.

TrendLand’s Editorial Page
The dirty dirty truth is that a lot of the time I look through fashion magazines just to see the editorial photos. (Except when I’m reading WORN, of course). TrendLand saves me the trouble of flipping through dozens of glossies by posting all the amazing editorial photos right online, with descriptions of models and stylists.

photography // Laura Tuttle

Laura Wornette

Meet our new photography intern

By: wornette

I grew up in a small town outside of Toronto that was just a little too country for me, so I moved here when I was 18 and couldn’t be happier. I’m a lazy sort of fashion lover—give me baggy sweaters, loose jeans, and oversized scarves. I love layers and I love warmth, as I am constantly cold. My mother has just recently begun teaching me how to sew, so in the future I hope to be able to make my own clothes, and I can make them as baggy and as comfortable as I like! My other likes include: vintage film cameras, wicker baskets, secondhand book sales, and antique shopping.

Current Inspirations

Shopsterium
Fashion photography from Toronto’s own streets. This website is perfect for finding inspiration for your outfit, as well as where to buy the items seen in the photos.

Kendall Donaldson
Toronto-based fashion blogger who shares pictures of her outfits a couple of times a week, and gives a quick story about each. She is definitely an inspiration to me; she’s always wearing the boldest looks.

Textstyles
A Toronto-based fashion blog that gives you insight into great local fashion finds as well as coverage of fashion events from around the globe.

Fashion Served
A collection of photo shoots from around the globe. This website provides more inspiration to me in a photography sense, as it is always giving me great ideas for fashion shoots I want to do.

photography // Claire Ward-Beveridge