Molly Bair & Jing Wen in “The Overlook Hotel” by Yvan Fabing for Garage Magazine, F/W 2016

Molly Bair & Jing Wen explore the couture of crazy in “The Overlook Hotel” by Yvan Fabing for Garage Magazine, F/W 2016. Molly runs wild making her way through this manic madhouse. Aching to escape the asylum like setting, she starts with a gallop only to break into a prance like pirouette. This doesn’t revolve around the idea of good versus evil, rather, it’s a tale told about the tenants of transience. Is it real or is it pure fantasy? Phoebe Arnold finds fluid fashions that fuel the lunatic fringe, with designs that range from delicious to deranged. Visual artistry offers a haunting look at the fabric of insanity… as primary pigments pop off page, pictures gives an impression of strange. Behind every corner and around every wall, we are met with two, young girls longing for order. Hiding in the closet Molly peers thru shadowy shudders as secret mysteries start to unfold. In one scene a white, smock like gown flows down, in another, a dark dress evokes a sense of twisted symmetry. Fabing projects a prophetic effect, as we feel the childlike emotion we fall into a domineering trance.

Molly Bair cries out as Jenny Coombs creates beauty in the form of flowing black tears. Marks of dried up mascara stream down her skin allowing her pain to symbolically speak. Like an innocent princess she hides under the bed, watching the wicked queen as she waits overhead. Looking into a mirror she aches to see something new, while sitting in the bottom of a lonely closet she longs for more. Jing’s natural features are so captivating, even in the absence of color, drama ensues. Highlighting powder gives each girl a glow, showing skin’s luminescence. Brows are bleached out leaving a bounty of deep mystery, while orange sweeps over the lips with a surprising, bright hue. Martin Cullen keeps this story fluid, by giving Wen a nurses cap and Bair a series of childlike bows. Whispers of thrilling wonder fill the scene as hair accouterments play into the theme. Flipping the script, Nurse Ratched ends up in a corset like straight jacket, proving we can never be sure what truth lies beneath the surface.

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