Oaxaca is beautiful and safe, says Elliot Stoller, who visited in December 2011. He recently wrote to me and ordered the self-guided tour map of Teotitlan del Valle to prepare for his trip next year. Elliot’s photos are so beautiful that I want to share them with you (with his permission, of course). And his testimonial about safety deserves attention.
” I felt as safe in Oaxaca as I feel in any city in the USA. The people are friendly and helpful. In fact, in the evenings, I felt safer in Oaxaca than I do in Seattle because there were so many people out and about… socializing, eating at sidewalk cafes, watching performances of folk dancers or taking part in Las Posadas (religious processions) and enjoying the wonderful weather.
Oaxaca: Rodolfo Morales Museum, Ocotlan de Morelos
“I know about 40 words of Spanish but I always found that the Oaxaca people would be patient and we found a way to communicate. Once, I was in a restaurant and I couldn’t read the menu. I was trying to order tortillas with different fillings. The cook motioned for me to come up to where everything was cooking and she took off the pot lids so I could point at the fillings I wanted.
“A guide we hired took us to Teotitlan Del Valle but we stopped at only one workshop/home. I returned to Teotitlan on the Fundacion En Via tour (a non-profit that fights poverty through micro-finance) so I was able so see more of the town and a more realistic picture of the townspeople.
“I love Oaxaca. I plan to go back again in December this year for two more weeks. And I’m fantasizing about retiring there. I fell in love with Oaxaca as you can probably tell from my photographs.
“Thank you for your wonderful blog,”
Elliot Stoller, Seattle, Washington
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Upcoming photography workshops in Oaxaca: Portrait Photography, Market Towns and Artisan Villages, and Day of the Dead
Jean Paul Gaultier, Bad Boy of Fashion, Madonna and the Virgin of Guadalupe
In 2007, French fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier introduced his Spring/Summer 2007 Haute Couture Collection - Virgins on the Paris runway. It was controversial, ethereal, and evocative, garnering applause and criticism throughout the world.
The animated mannequins draped in Gaultier’s vision of Virgin were singing hymns and crowned in areolae so magnificent, I could feel the aura. Costuming a saint-like human figure takes imagination and courage.
In 2007, Gaultier selected a Paris strip-tease queen to wear one of his virginal outfits on the runway — a statement about repentance or redemption, perhaps? He designs clothing to make you think, question, respond to society’s issues, ideals, undercurrents. (Gaultier clothed Madonna for her Blonde Ambition tour in 1990, see sketch below, introducing his famous cone bra — the epitome of punk style.)
In her book, Madre: Perilous Journey with a Spanish Noun, author and linguistic anthropologist Liza Bakewell discusses the Mexican man’s pre- and post-marriage image of woman. Before marriage, she is The Malinche, the whore, sexual and fiery. After marriage, she becomes the Virgin, revered mother of his children, unapproachable.
Gaultier captures both identities and blends them perfectly into an alluring, sexual goddess who is both approachable and revered.
The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk closed at the deYoung on August 19, 2012, but will travel to other locations worldwide.
Check out our two upcoming fashion design workshops in Oaxaca, Mexico, set for winter 2013. (1) Felted Fashion Design and (2) Painting on Silk Art of the Rebozo clothing design.
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Posted in Cultural Commentary, Oaxaca Mexico art and culture, Photography, Textiles, Tapestries & Weaving
Tagged blogsherpa, fashion, Mexico, Oaxaca, textiles, Virgin, workshops