Text by Flora Yin-Wong
Hamburg-based haute couture fashion designer Silke Wilhelm, presents a thought-provoking selection of music, co-compiled and mixed by KoweSix, one half of Moonbootica on a double disc format. Released this February 2010, the compilation features a mix of the old and the new. I speak to Wilhelm on how she created the collaborative project and why.
What inspired you to take on this audio-visual couture concept of launching CDs alongside your fashion line?
Silke Wilhelm: I love to tell stories. All my inner inspirations and visions come out whilst listening to music and film scores. The idea is to give back all these emotions, whilst opening all your senses. I love the idea of taking time to do something because you are touched deeply. To work togehter with KoweSix was the opportunity to broaden the whole world and vision behind Silke Wilhelm I. When you do a show, you only catch a limited audience. But doing a CD (and maybe someday a film) that combines all your visions behind fashion with music, moving pictures, a fantastic plot and other senses, that is what really can reach a lot of people out there.
Who is the woman you design your clothes for?
Silke Wilhelm: I design for women - full stop. In my opinion women have suffered a lot in our history and still today in many countries and they have to fight very hard. When I design I have all that in my mind and that's because my fashion is about pain and beauty, war and freedom, fights and hope, hate and love. What's important for me is that in end there is beauty, the freedom, the hope and the love in strong and beautiful women.
What do you think the link is between music and fashion beyond 'creative arts'?
Silke Wilhelm: Music and fashion are languages beyond words. You impress, express, protest, touch, thrill, shock, caress and so on by playing a song or wearing a specific dress or outfit. Both "emotions" or "words" may be changed quickly from one mood to another while switching the song and the dress. I love that vast variety of possibilities to tell and live stories in that way.
More specifically, do you see a relation between perfume and music? Maybe the non-visible?
Silke Wilhelm: You never forget a smell or a melody. Both stays always in your mind and every moment you smell or hear it it touches you immediatley and reminds you of a personal moment or something you have already forgotten. That's why people have one special song together or a certain scent. You will never forget this deep moment of love. It stays timeless and I think we need these kinds of moments in our world to feel light.
How would you describe the music of Moonbootica and Kowesix?
Silke Wilhelm: Moonbootica and KoweSix are two different kind of beats for me but they have one thing in common: They are strong and deep and they have this kind of climax that can make you high. You feel the love and creativity behind it and you cannot stop dancing or listening to it.
Is this what you'd listen to in your own time?
Silke Wilhelm: I listen to KoweSix in my own time, his music and how he compiles the compilations are very special. They tell stories and they have a message. I've often started to cry when I first heard them as they make me so happy... Moonbootica is different. Moonbootica needs to happen live. You have to see and to feel the power and I love their concerts. But my favourite artists now include Soap&Skin, Tricky, ZubZub, Shawn Lee, Hans Zimmer, Clint Mansell, Chopin and KoweSix ...x*s, Fever Ray and Charlie Winston.
© by DazedDigital
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