The Round of Shame
How does this tie into SHAME, Amriel’s first collection?
The Round of Shame image is really to show that shame is human nature, and it’s something to be aware of, to use, to inform an intention to do the right thing — but also the idea of making peace with the fact that we will not always do the right thing, because we are human. “If God wanted angels, he would fashion man wings” — that’s an excerpt from the artist statement.And the whole idea of SHAME, the collection, is basically just trying to look at one extremely simple but extremely impactful emotion — really just a state of being — through every possible lens. Every lens I can think of myself, as Reeno, and then also how every other artist we work with views shame. It’s such a universal thing, everybody has a take on it, and that’s what I was interested in covering. How can we bring everybody in? How could we just look at one thing through a thousand lenses? That’s really it. SHAME is an experiment of that.
Where do you see Amriel in five years?
In five years I see Amriel as just an irremovable part of culture. Something that has helped to crack pavement on how clothing can be done and rolled out, and how expression can happen through fashion in the current age — especially from the point of view of young and independent designers. Obviously legacy labels, things like YSL, that’s different.Amriel exists to be a mirror held up to the world, to reflect culture. One of the effects of that is people will see that everybody has a voice, and an ability to create worlds within their fashion line, or their clothing. It doesn’t have to be something in rollouts, or something exclusive to music. Everything can feel magical in the way it’s presented, in the way it hits you. I think that will be one of Amriel’s effects.
What should people feel when wearing Amriel?
They should feel like themselves.
What’s the next project that will beat this?
It’s never a question to me of beating my previous work, really. It’s just how can I strip off more and more layers of lies from myself, to where the only thing left is a pure, unadulterated expression. So just becoming more and more me — that’s my only concern. The work improves as that happens.
A reflection on my personal Shame — the ambition for peace within the cyclical human tendency toward vice and transgression in the pursuit of control.Which only felt home on the skin of man.