Amulet
Clothes as protection against something you cannot see.
- Type
- Editorial concept
- Status
- Not yet shot
- Faces
- Always hidden
- Colour
- White, black, one red
- Movement
- Guarded, crouched, Butoh
Every look hides the face a different way: coral beads stitched into a veil like a screen, a leather hood that swallows the head, a cloud of smoke. The body is left to speak.
The sources are protection rituals from three worlds that never meet: folk amulets (coral beads, embroidered linen, tattooed forearms worn against harm), punk armour (studs, spikes, belts), and couture anonymity (Margiela's masked faces, McQueen's veils).
Polish roots appear once, as an object, never as costume: a net bag of potatoes held out like an offering.
Sicanje is a Bosnian and Croatian tradition, not a Polish one, so it is a reference for meaning, not symbols to copy; the markings on set will be original. The Polish thread is the korale and Abakanowicz. Possible last frame: every protective object laid on the floor, the five figures behind them, faces visible for the first time.
Soot
#181A1C
Dried blood
#523232
Ash
#6F6864
Pewter
#8A8F96
Bone
#CAC8C5
Chalk
#F3F3F3
Coral red
#A3201B
accent
Pulled from the pixels of the 20 references. The accent is chosen by hand.
Mock-ups made in ChatGPT to test each look before a shoot. They are not photographs.
- Casting
- Three models: androgynous, unusual bodies welcome, one older woman (60+)
- Location
- Whitewashed church hall or empty community hall; alternative: forest edge at dusk, Epping
- Light
- Flat grey daylight, or one hard flash
- Hair, make-up
- Hair scraped back or hidden; red lips only where the face shows
- Crew
- Photographer, HMU, one assistant
- Full-length, high angle from the corner of the room
- Three figures together, faces hidden, hands touching
- Detail: inked forearms
- Detail: beads over eyes
- Crouched Butoh pose against a wall