It took Samantha Casolari four days to shoot the four cycles of Richard Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen” (the Ring Cycle) at New York’s famed Metropolitan Opera. Using a Canon 5D Mark II, the Italian-born, New York-based photographer and filmmaker captured the full dress rehearsals with a discerning eye and surreal predisposition. Approximately seven days of editing later, she had transformed this raw footage into what she describes as a “waking dream,” a four-minute film for the Avant/Garde Diaries that succinctly portrays the epic (16-hour-long) nature of Wagner’s magnum opus at the same time it encourages limitless viewer interpretation, and stokes the desire to see the live opera. The below film debuts today with an opening party, but we were lucky enough to secure a preview and an in-depth look into its creation.

Erin Dixon: Why did you choose the opera the “Ring Cycle” as the subject of your film?

Samantha Casolari: I took a class in German philology when I was in college and I read a lot of the Nordic sagas (Poetic Edda, Beowulf, Nibelungenlied …) based on which Wagner loosely wrote his “Ring Cycle.” I was fascinated by those stories full of heroes, dragons, both strong and vulnerable women, and otherworldly mythical creatures. They are epic and dark tales, with an incredible depth, and I found myself extremely entranced by these stories and their characters. Being attracted to Wagner’s “Cycle” was a natural consequence of this interest and when last year I read about the new “Cycle” production at the Metropolitan Opera, I knew right away I wanted to document it closely, as it managed to portray those tales I had read in such a beautiful and truthful way.

Erin: What is your favorite part of the “Ring Cycle” and why?

Samantha: I can’t really select just one part…the “Cycle” is so convoluted and elaborate and fascinating… and long (about 16 hours for the full cycle), but I can certainly say that some of my favorite parts are: the Prelude of the Cycle, showing the beginning of the world, and the Rhinemaidens (it is one of the most stunning pieces of music I have ever heard); when the Gods leave on the rainbow bridge on their way to the newly created castle, Valhalla, at the end of the first opera, Das Rheingold; the breathtaking love duet between the siblings Sieglinde and Siegmund in the first act of Die Walküre; and definitely every time the Valkyrie are on stage. These are certainly some of the parts that left me the most breathless.

Erin: What do you admire about Wagner’s work?

Samantha: Wagner’s work has a abundance of layers that is rare to find in most of his contemporaries. The “Ring Cycle,” for instance, not only talks about an epic saga but it also explores an incredible variety of themes. It portrays the birth and the death of a world, the loss of innocence, the pursuit of knowledge at all costs, the never-ending struggle of love, the extreme compromises made to gain ultimate (and somehow useless as the world’s is doomed to end anyway) power. He also anticipated a large amount of ideas that were later introduced by Carl Jung. It is a “promothean” investigation of human nature on a scope almost never seen before. And what is even more fascinating in this research is that its grandiosity is mirrored on the stage and in the music. Wagner—who wrote the music and also the libretto of the opera, which took him about 26 years to complete—envisioned choreography and stagecraft that was unparalleled at the time, but also very hard, if not impossible, to be put into life properly because of lack of adequate theatrical techniques. He, therefore, designed a opera house just for that opera, which was built in Bayreuth. It still exists and nowadays the Bayreuth Festival Theatre takes place there, and it is uniquely devoted to Wagner’s operas. He even had new tubas designed in order to play special effects that no other existing instruments could play. It is absolutely fascinating to read about this man’s megalomaniac and genius way of making art.

Erin: What is one thing that surprised you when watching the performance?

Samantha: The Machine that Robert Lepage and his team at Ex-Machina have built onstage is astonishing to see live. It so well represents the monumental nature of that opera. All through the almost 17-hour-long performance (over different nights) it, at various turns, takes the shape of a forest, the depth of the sea, a castle, a rainbow, horses ridden by the Valkyries, of the end of the world.. It is an absolutely incredible piece of engineering.

Erin: What would you like your film to communicate to the viewer?

Samantha: One of the concepts that struck me the most while researching Wagner’s opera is his way of reaching into the subconscious to gather ideas, his heavy reliance on intuition. For instance, the beautiful prelude (which I have used as soundtrack to the video and which Valentin Stip has remixed), he claims came into his head through a waking dream. That is what I tried to show by editing the video in a somehow trippy, surreal and dreamy fashion. I would like people to feel that this is a story they are actually watching inside their heads, in their subconscious, where they are meeting archetypal characters that can help bring emotions, memoirs and premonitions back to the surface in a sort of awake/visual meditation or a vivid waking dream. I have always been surrounded by lots of rationality and structures, that is why I am obsessed with anything that is the opposite of [those constraints]. Der Ring des Nibelungen is the perfect example of the infinite richness of a man’s subconscious and intuition, and it was such a incredible project to work on.

The Cycle Revealed – Narrated by Bernard Gilbert from The Avant/Garde Diaries on Vimeo.

The Brooklyn-bred novelist, artist and philosopher Henry Miller was likewise disparaged and lauded for his alternative moral code. Judgments to which he responded, in his 1934 novel Tropic of Capricorn, “The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.” In his attempt to “live,” Miller traveled the world, settling in Paris, New York and Big Sur, California, where today the Henry Miller Memorial Library rests. This week, the non-profit bookstore and arts center travels east to Williamsburg for a weeklong event titled: Big Sur Brooklyn Bridge. The festivities officially began on Sunday but the staff party, which is open to the public, kicks off today at the City Reliquary. The schedule also includes a concert on May 15 at Spike Hill with Peter Stampfel, Zach Brock, Al Rose and the Bushwick Gospel Singers presenting music inspired by Miller. There will be a panel discussion, “Henry Miller: Libertine, Communard,” on May 16 at Spoonbill & Sugartown Booksellers; an evening of short films form the Big Sur International Short Film Screening Series and the Brooklyn Short Film Festival at Videology; “Tropic of Laughter,” an improvisatory performance by the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater at the Knitting Factory, and more. To purchase tickets visit Big Sur Brooklyn Bridge.

Image by Studio Ouruse

At Dossier, we’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with Elle Muliarchyk a number of times on fashion editorials. Each time, the result has been a complex and highly saturated tale—both in color and character. So when Elle wrote me with news of her latest project, “Escapes from Paradise,” with a subject line reading: My most special project ever!!! I was intrigued, by both her passion and her subsequent description of the project as a multimedia interactive online gallery/blog/diary.

Elle, a model/photographer and much more than those words signify, has never been easy to place in a box; it made sense that this personal project would be equally enigmatic. But multimedia understates its innovation. “Escapes From Paradise” is a sensorial experience (comprising artwork, photographs, GIFS and original music compositions). It is lacking only aroma, which is easily appended if the viewers immerse themselves enough into the project and their own subconscious to conjure elapsed memories of starry nights and surreal moments, and the associated scents of these recollections. For Elle, “Escapes” served as a creative cleanse that enabled her to reset her internal compass. For viewers, it serves as a reminder that in order to develop we need to dream, and do. We have included a short preview of stills here, but to sponge advice from the artist herself: We highly recommend that you visit the site , make it full screen and use headphones.

Erin Dixon: What was the catalyst for the trip?

Elle Muliarchyk: I had been visiting Chadwick Bell’s studio while he was working on his Spring ’13 collection. I was inspired by the woman he imagined. I saw her as a romantic ideal of myself: a 2013 Georgia O’Keeffe—a city girl, an artist, escaping into the desert to find clarity and reinvent herself. I hadn’t really left the city for at least six years, and I thought it was perfect timing to become the fantasy woman Chadwick had invented. I thought of the trip as a fashion experiment and a performance, but it turned into something more intimate.

Erin: How did you decide upon the route?

Elle: Chadwick was inspired by the 1920s photography of the serene, vast desert, so I started in Arizona and Utah. From then on, my journey was nearly as spontaneous as Jack Kerouac’s On The Road. I traveled the West and East Coasts seeking magical, yet understated landscapes.

Erin: How did the contrast of tailored clothing and nature activate your creativity or inform the character?

Elle: The fashion industry thrives on characters. It manufactures a plethora of fictional personages that we happily inhabit. We are so seduced and over stimulated by them that we never think of discovering and creating a character of our own. Having been a model and a photographer in New York City, I’d accumulated so many masks that my creativity became diluted. I wanted to strip off those masks and create something new. That is why I am unidentifiable in the photographs. I want anyone be able to invent his or her own character or story while they’re on the website. I don’t want them to see “Elle Muliarchyk in a black wig.”

Erin: How did the collection influence the shots?

Elle: I wanted to be an observer blending into the environment. For example: In the image with the big cactus, I’m wearing a dress with similar vertical ridges. I’m wearing a snow-white jumpsuit next to a snow-white adobe church.

Erin: Did the words come before, after or during the trip?

Elle: It happened simultaneously. I had never kept a diary until this trip. Every few days, I’d send a new entry to the writer Anne B Kelly. She would then weave it into a single fiction story and send her progress back to me. Her words inspired me for the images to follow.

Erin: What was the most challenging medium in which to work?

Elle: It was the layout. I worked with my team to recreate individual elements that evoked my experiences from the trip, be we needed to put them back together! I guess it’s like synthesizing various scents and combining them artfully into a perfume. It would have never happened without Jacob Wildschiødtz’s art direction.

Erin: Is there any part of the experience not featured in the project?

Elle: Time! I wish I could make the website feel like you’re on a several months’ journey, while keeping the reader captivated. Even Marcel Proust hardly succeeded at it. Our attention span is so short—but that’s the side effect of our age… My hope is that people will linger on the website and actually take time to read the story. Take time for magic in your life!

Erin: How did the project help you evolve as an artist?

Elle: On one hand, I absolutely thrive on collaboration and believe that you can create greater things working together. On another hand, with collaboration there is always feedback that taints your creative instincts. Often the final creation is just a sum of compromises. Even when you work alone (let’s say photographing a friend to feature on a blog), you’re always creating a “product” for a particular audience. The “feedback” is always in the back of your mind. However, they say the true “geniuses” are “selfish.” They are ignorant of external opinions and don’t bother to “please” anyone but themselves. For “Escapes,” I decided to suspend the approval/feedback-seeking desire and just create images I loved. In fact, I wasn’t planning to share and publish them until halfway into the journey.

I would recommend this exercise to every creative person. It’s like a reset button. I feel like I rediscovered and reinvented myself creatively on this journey. I have more faith in my visual language and message.

Erin: Did you learn any fundamental truths about humanity or human nature? What was the most surprising thing you learned about yourself?

Elle: I think we’ve become cyborgs. Even when we get together with friends, our conversation mirrors the technology. We either “reblog” (recycle old information or gossip) or “Instagram” (report the events from our lives, tinting them with our favorite “filters”). I discovered the magic of fashion for the first time in my life seven years ago, when I secretly took self-portraits in hundreds of changing rooms. I didn’t try on those expensive garments in order to post the photos on my blog—there were no fashion blogs then! I was captivated by the transformative power of fashion. I discovered that my mission now is to inspire women to discover and experience the magic of fashion on their own terms. Dress for yourself, try to not think whether what you wear would be snapped or snubbed by a street-style photographer.

Erin: What place were you most affected by and why? What is your favorite shot from the trip and why?

Elle: Perhaps it was in the middle of the night, on the rocky beach on the East Coast (the shot with white umbrella). There was a tiny harbor with sailboats chiming in the wind. It sounded like a hundred little churches were ringing their bells. t actually happens when the lines lightly bump against the mast. I’d never heard this sound before and it was magical. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTP9Y8bGKaA

Erin: Where will you go next?

Elle: I’m preparing for a similar collaboration with another designer and model I love. I want to continue creating these little “fashion wormholes” through which you can transport yourself into a fairytale—or you can crawl in bed with it as with your favorite book.

Photography by Elle Muliarchyk. Art Direction by Jacob Wildschiødtz. Story by Anne B Kelly. Music by Superflux. Covers artwork by Tarik Mikou . Website design: Plume.net.

To celebrate global fashion and the African continent, in particular, we’ve teamed up with Urban Outfitter’s Space 15 Twenty for a month-long pop-up shop in Hollywood, titled BAZAAAAAR. Beyond our general support of global fashion, our soon-to-debut Spring/Summer 2013 issue features a portfolio of notable fashion brands either based or producing in Africa. Covering a broad spectrum of styles, these brands include eco-cool surf brand Bantu (Senegal); sharp and chic tailoring from Maki Oh (Nigeria); chill beachwear from Makono (Malawi); men’s streetwear from Gold Coast Trading (Ivory Coast); and colorful apparel and accessories from Fashion Rising (Ghana)—to name just a few. Most of these brands will be selling their wares at BAZAAAAAR.

There will also be an opening night party at Space 15 Twenty this Friday, May 3, from 7pm to 10pm to kick off the collaboration. It will be headlined by Theophilus London and feature a DJ set by Kilo Kish as well as a live performance by Jagari Chanda of WITCH. Perhaps most importantly, 10% of proceeds from BAZAAAAAR will go to Fashion Rising, an artisan-produced fashion collection launched by Studio One Eighty Nine in support of V-Day’s One Billion Rising, to support their mission to end violence against women and girls around the world. If you have no plans to be on the West Coast in May, however, fear not: a curated selection of the Hollywood space’s goods will appear in a NYC version of BAZAAAAAR, opening May 9. Stay tuned for more details.

BAZAAAAAR runs May 3 to May 27, from 12pm-8pm daily, at Space 15 Twenty, 1520 North Cahuenga Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028.

“I don’t think I exploded onto the scene. It’s definitely been hard work.” Christopher Esber is something of a rising star. While the expression appears a devastating, hopeless cliché, in Esber’s case it’s very much true – the 25-year-old designer grows more luminous with each collection. At just 23 he made his Mercedes Benz Australian Fashion Week debut; soon after he nabbed the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival’s National Design Award, something of a big deal in the sunburnt country. He was one of six labels submitted to a British Fashion Council project identifying the best emerging designers across the globe during London Fashion Week. For those who appreciate subtle textures and sober, thoughtful choices of fabric and cut, Esber proudly presents himself as the go-to guy.

With an unimpeachable work ethic (“as frivolous as fashion seems, you need to be really disciplined”) and a sharp knowledge of his client’s habits (thanks to a one-year mentorship with luxury retail store Belinda), Esber is well prepped for the accolades. His latest ready-to-wear collection abounds with sheer, golden-brown tartan, raw silks and clean cut, asymmetrical leather. The kind of garments that turn the right heads, employing an understated minimalism that gently insists on a second glance. Cleverly evading the tendency to cite new muses by the month, Esber surprised himself this season when he was drawn to 50s heiress Nancy ‘Slim’ Keith. “I looked at how she would just be in a flannel shirt with a gun, a tomboy on the ranch. I’ve never felt that influence before with a girl, but we did reference her style, that ‘undone’ look.”

Esber and I talked in the week following his Spring/Summer 14 show. The busyness of Fashion Week didn’t seem to have slowed at all; he was already taking pre-orders.

Laura Bannister: First up, a question I like to ask designers. Is there such a thing as being too ambitious?
Christopher Esber: Not at all. You need to be ambitious; you need to challenge yourself. If something seems a bit hard, going for it is really important. Even if you don’t achieve what you’ve envisioned exactly – sometimes I sketch something that seems too ambitious or isn’t physically attainable – but along the way you refine your ideas to what is possible. You get to a nice place.

Laura: Tell me first thing you notice when you meet a stranger?
Christopher: Good question. Ok I’m visualising me saying “Hi, how are you?” – then I’d go in for a handshake. I think I look at the mouth, or the chin area. I never really look people in the eye, which is a really bad habit.
Laura: It can be hard to make eye contact.

Christopher: Some people are so good at it though. Then they go into a deep handshake; they get it right in there! Whenever I catch people looking in my eyes intensely [on first meeting] I feel like they’re staring into my soul.
Laura: You debuted at MBFWA in Australia aged just 23. What were you doing before designing? Was it always on the cards for you, career-wise?

Christopher: I always knew I wanted to start my own label, but I did a lot of work experience with other brands first. [If you’re starting a business] you want to work your ass off and put all your energy into it. I’m still only 25; I have the energy now… I knew if I was to start a brand – now was the time. You might as well build your own legacy rather than enhance someone else’s.

Laura: That’s quite a shrewd take on it really. Tell me about your SS 14 collection…
Christopher: I was looking at what I’ve done in the past – my focus is always on shirting, leathers and tailoring. Normally what I do is quite structured and the fabrics are really rigid. I wanted to create an ease throughout all of these elements, loosen things up a little. The shirting is a lot softer and more raw; the collars have been torn off in some cases. The leathers were much more supple and on stretch backing. It was all about ‘coming undone’.

Laura: Much of the press surrounding your show this year has involved praise for your choice of location – a cavernous warehouse replete with bright blue scaffolding in Sydney’s inner west. Was the setting a way to offset the femininity of the collection?
Christopher: Definitely. I needed to find a location that was very on brand.

Laura: You’re all about keeping on brand – the use of unexpected textiles is one of your label’s hallmarks. Are there fabrics you’re drawn to more than others?
Christopher: I love working with leather and the combination of shirting and leather. A beautiful fitted skirt worn with a white crisp shirt – for me it’s such an iconic look. I do a variation of it each season… For this season, all of those fabrics that looked like linens and hemps – and that sheer check that was almost like a floating tartan – they were all hand-woven silks produced specifically for the collection (I’ve worked with the Weaver’s Guild since I was in college). It’s nice creating something that’s completely your own, outside the realm of the digital print. My whole stance with digital printing is there are always a lot of designers who will do it far better, so stick to what you know best.

Laura: Do you have a specific designing process? Are there certain rituals?
Christopher: It’s very organic… I pattern-make about 60% of the collection but will change things as I go along and fit them to the body.

Laura: Being so physically isolated, there’s a rite of passage many Australians take up, relocating their work overseas. Is that on the cards for you?
Christopher: I think it’s all about keeping it in Australia. My contacts are here [and] I’ve built relationships with them. Not just over the last few years, since high school I started buying fabrics from people, going to certain factories. I’ve built a base here. Traveling with my collections and showing internationally is definitely something I want to do more consistently but I’d like to keep things made in – and based from – Australia.

Laura: Are you satisfied as a designer?
Christopher: Never.

Laura: What are you afraid of?
Christopher: The fame.

Laura: What’s your working mantra?
Christopher: Ah, I completely forget! It’s upstairs… I know it what it ends with: Finish on time.

There are plenty of reasons to talk about Vandana Jain. Firmly entrenched in Brooklyn’s musical world, by way of India and London, Vandana Jain brings a new stimulus and plenty of head-bopping, outperforming most of the current wave of electronic-based artists. She was surrounded by music from an early age, absorbing everything from Bollywood hits, to Miles Davis, The Police, and The Beatles. Raised in India and educated in London, Vandana has collected an eclectic tapestry of both musical and aesthetic influences over the years, all of which find a place in the music. Not only does Vandana possess serious musical chops, but she brings a unique and brilliant visual imagery to her music as well. Drawing on her background in graphic design, she bends the creative boundaries resulting in a remarkable friendship between sound and vision.

Last year she released her EP Vandamner which included her own intricate album art, handmade record sleeve and limited pressing all sealed with a touch of red wax and twine. It is that same attention to intimate detail that infects her music as well, lending both to its beauty and to its raw, uncomfortable quality. She is now gearing up for her first full-length release, due out later this year. Vandana graciously took some time out from her busy studio schedule to sit down via email for an interview and talk about her musical past and future.

David Shults: Could you describe your early musical background? How did you get started and what were your earliest influences?
Vandana Jain: Not only is music an integral part of the Indian culture and you’re surrounded by it no matter where you go, but at home, my dad and I spent evenings singing and playing Bollywood covers, note to note. We would go on long drives just to listen to music non-stop. My earliest influences were soundtracks from the 60′s and 70′s, gospel choir at my all girls Catholic school, and The Police and Beatles cassette tapes that I found in my fathers drawer.

David: When did you move to London? How did that experience shape or change your music?
Vandana: London is where the genesis happened. I moved there to study art, design and typography. I was exposed to what to my ears at the time was extremely odd music. I remember listening to Miles Davis for the first time and found it so difficult to digest but something really drew me to it and I kept listening. Same with other bands which have impressed on me in a big way. I was also very much into the London drum and bass scene. Having had no ‘theoretical knowledge’ of music, my brain just soaked in all these new inputs and the years in London I think was the gestation period for what is coming out of me now. 

David: What made you decide to come to New York? How has your time here been?
Vandana: I was on holiday in New York and applied for a job at an advertising agency as a graphic designer and they sponsored me, so I just stayed on even though leaving London was heartbreaking. However, I adore New York city, the people I meet, the sheer vastness of what’s available to you. 

David: You mostly work solo, what prompted you to start working with Yusuke Yamamoto? How has that influenced things?
Vandana: I met Yusuke last year at Studio BPM in Williamsburg where I was recording my EP. Got him to play keys on a few of my shows and realized that he really resonated with my vision. I have a wild musical style and a warped ear, I like experimenting, perhaps far too much and Yusuke is just this amazing musician versed in jazz and classical music but still with a sense for the uncommon. He helps keep the craziness in check and bring a brighter sound to the music.

David: What do you hope people will experience or take away from your live shows?
Vandana: A new stimulus, intensity and good head bopping. 

David: You have a full-length album coming out, and some other projects, could you describe those? What are you currently working on?
Vandana: Yes my debut full length Anti Venus will be out later this year. The direction for this album has gone back to the sound of my demos, electronic, heavily synth and beat driven. There will be a lot of dance tracks on this one, think synth-noir-post-punk-pop. i am also collaborating with people I really admire on the art side of things – album art and videos. I’ve come to think of collaboration as a shared system for outperforming yourself.