FASHION THRIVES ON REFERENCE. SO DOES PUBLISHING + ART. WHEN RICHARD PRINCE STOLE LOVEWANT INSTAGRAM POSTS BY CARA STRICKER INTO HIS OWN WORK, IT WAS BOTH ABSURD + FLATTERING. APPROPRIATION FELT GREAT.

LOVEWANT. THE ORIGINAL FASHION  FANZINE. BUILT AS A VISUAL REWIRE. NO TRADITIONAL SECTIONS, NO MARKET PAGES, NO INSTRUCTIONS. JUST IMAGE AND INSTINCT. STIMULATION. OBSESSION OVER OPINION. WITH ENTIRE BOOKS ON JULIA NOBIS BOOK AND ABBEY LEE AND SO MANY OTHER FAN GIRLING MOMENTS BUILT ENTIRELY AROUND ONE PERSON, ONE IDEA, ONE FACE, ONE POINT OF FASCINATION. AND SO MANY GREATS HAD THE SAME IDEA. JUST LOOK AT ALASTAIR McKIMM’S ‘MICA’ BOOK. OUR EARLY LOVEWANT CONTRIBUTORS LIKE VALERIE PHILLIPS’ PERSONAL SINGLE-SUBJECT BOOKS, ALL BEAUTIFUL RENDITIONS OF SIMILAR PERIODICALS BY PEERS AND CONTEMPORARIES LIKE TELLER AND ARAKI, THE MODEL AS MUSE. FROM BRUCE WEBER’S DIARIES TO EARLIER EXPERIMENTS LIKE THE LATE SAM HASKINS’ FAMOUS 1964 BOOK ‘COWBOY KATE’, TO NIGEL SHAFRAN WITH ‘RUTH ON THE PHONE’. THE LIST IS ENDLESS. ALL SINGLE-SUBJECT BOOKS. NO ADVERTISING, NO OTHER CONTRIBUTORS RE-IMAGINING THE SUBJECT. WALTER VAN BEIRENDONCK LAUNCHES ‘A MAGAZINE CURATED BY’ IN 2000 AND DOES A BRILLIANT JOB AT CREATING THAT MULTIVERSE AROUND SINGLE SUBJECTS. SO IT’S NOT A NEW OR UNIQUE CONCEPT. THE VISUAL DOCUMENTARY IDEA. PURPLE MAGAZINE CREATED ENDLESS ADDITIONAL ZINES TIPPED INTO THEIR BIANNUALS ON UNIMAGINABLY COOL SINGLE SUBJECTS.

WHAT DID COME NATURALLY FROM THOSE FEW INSPIRATIONS THAT EXISTED THEN WAS LOVEWANT ASKING PHOTOGRAPHERS LIKE STEVIE DANCE TO SHOOT 30-PAGE EDITORIALS ON A SINGLE GIRL IN A SINGLE LOOK, BECAUSE, AT ITS CORE, LOVEWANT HAS ALWAYS BEEN A MODEL FANZINE. WITH FASHION, WITHOUT FASHION. THE PERSON AND OUR OBSESSION WAS THE JUICE FOR US. PEOPLE YOU FALL IN LOVE WITH, PEOPLE YOU WANT TO BE WITH. YOU FIND SOMEONE COMPELLING ENOUGH THAT THEY CAN HOLD AN ENTIRE SECTION. THEN AN ENTIRE PUBLICATION. THEN YOU BUILD A WORLD AROUND THEM. THEIR ARCHIVE, FRIENDS AND LIFE.

I HAVE NO ISSUE WITH SEEING THOSE IDEAS BUILD. WE HAD NO RULES, JUST BLANK PAGES. AND NO ALTERNATIVES. WE WERE INSPIRED. IN SO MANY WAYS, THAT IS WHAT YOU WANT. YOU MAKE SOMETHING BECAUSE YOU BELIEVE IN IT, THEN YEARS LATER YOU SEE ITS VISUAL LANGUAGE APPEARING EVERYWHERE. UBIQUITY, RIGHT. UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS. BUT IF YOU’RE GOING TO BITE MY STYLE, YOU HAD BETTER BE BETTER THAN ME.

THERE’S THAT SILLY BUT NONETHELESS HAUNTING PICASSO LINE, “GOOD ARTISTS COPY, GREAT ARTISTS STEAL.” I’VE ALWAYS THOUGHT THE INTERESTING PART IS THE DISTANCE BETWEEN COPYING AND STEALING. TO STEAL SOMETHING CREATIVELY MEANS YOU HAVE ABSORBED IT SO DEEPLY THAT IT COMES BACK OUT CHANGED. THE SOURCE HAS BEEN PUSHED SOMEWHERE ELSE. IT HAS PASSED THROUGH YOUR OWN ACCUMULATIVE TASTE AND HISTORY, AND MORE SO YOUR OWN MISTAKES. WELL, THAT’S HOW I SEE IT. I KNEW THE CULTURE AND RESPECTED IT. I WASN’T NAIVE ENOUGH TO THINK MY PEERS WOULDN’T NOTICE. I CELEBRATED THEM. IT WAS A COMMON VERNACULAR WE SHARED.

RICHARD PRINCE, PERHAPS THE MOST NOTORIOUS APPROPRIATION ARTIST OF HIS GENERATION, ONCE LIFTED LOVEWANT INSTAGRAM POSTS FOR HIS SERIES. CARA STRICKER'S PICTURES FOR ISSUE 4, ARE ABSORBED VERBATIM INTO HIS OWN WORK, A PROVOCATIVE APPROPRIATION ART SERIES IN WHICH PRINCE TOOK SCREENSHOTS OF INSTAGRAM PHOTOS POSTED BY OTHERS AFTER COMMENTING ON THEM. ENLARGED AND PRINTED AS LARGE INKJET PRINTS ON CANVAS. THE NUMEROUS SUBJECTS OF PRINCE’S DOCUMENTATION VARY FROM SUPER MODELS, PORN GOTH COMPANY SUICIDE GIRLS, TO LOVEWANT. NONE ARE GIVEN CREDIT BY PRINCE.

IN A STRANGE WAY, IT FELT ALMOST PERFECTLY ON BRAND FOR HIM. PRINCE HAS BUILT AN ENTIRE CAREER AROUND THE UNEASY SPACE BETWEEN REFERENCE, THEFT AND AUTHORSHIP. TO FIND LOVEWANT CAUGHT INSIDE THAT MACHINERY WAS BOTH ABSURD AND STRANGELY FLATTERING. WE HAD BECOME PART OF THE THING WE WERE ALREADY TALKING ABOUT. 

COPYING IS WAY DIFFERENT. YOU CAN STILL SEE THE ORIGINAL UNDERNEATH. AND THAT IS WHERE IT BECOMES SLIGHTLY UNCOMFORTABLE. THERE IS A PARTICULAR AUDACITY IN WATCHING PEOPLE IN CLOSE PROXIMITY, ARRIVE VERY CLOSE TO THAT SAME FORMAT AND ACT AS THOUGH THE ROUTE WAS ENTIRELY THEIR OWN. EYE ROLL.

NOT BECAUSE THE IDEA BELONGS TO ME. OR US. IT DOESN’T. BUT HEY, DOES LINEAGE MATTER OBVIOUSLY NOT TO SOME. AS THEY SAY, ‘MAY THE BRIDGES I BURN LIGHT THE WAY’. AND THE GLOW IS BRIGHT. I GREW UP AROUND GRAFFITI, WHERE THERE WAS A MUCH SIMPLER WORD FOR TAKING OR MIMICKING SOMEBODY ELSE’S LANGUAGE TOO CLOSELY. BITING! EVERYONE LOOKED AT EVERYONE ELSE. THAT WAS PART OF LEARNING. YOU STUDIED SOMEBODY’S HANDSTYLE, HOW THEY MOVED THROUGH IT ALL. BUT IF YOU TOOK TOO MUCH, PEOPLE KNEW. AND IT HAD CONSEQUENCES. PHYSICAL ONES. THERE WAS NO NEED TO INTELLECTUALISE IT.

FASHION + ART HAS ALWAYS BORROWED. PUBLISHING HAS ALWAYS BORROWED. LOVEWANT ITSELF EXISTS INSIDE A LONG HISTORY OF FANZINES, INDEPENDENT MAGAZINES, PHOTOGRAPHERS AND OBSESSIVE IMAGE-MAKERS. THAT IS EXACTLY WHY GIVING CREDIT MATTERS. THAT’S THE CULTURE. BUT AUDACITY IS AT AN ALL-TIME HIGH. IT IS STRANGE TO ME THAT ACKNOWLEDGING INFLUENCE IS SOMETIMES TREATED AS A WEAKNESS TO BE AVOIDED. NO ONE WANTS A GENERATION THAT ASSIMILATES WHILE NEVER LOOKING AROUND TO READ THE ROOM. THINK THE OPPOSITE PEOPLE. SHOW THAT YOU KNOW THE CULTURE YOU ARE WORKING INSIDE. A RISING TIDE LIFTS ALL SHIPS.

SEEING OTHERS COS PLAY AS EDITORS OF IDEAS WE AND OUR PEERS DEVELOPED OVER 20 YEARS IS FLATTERING. BUT TAKING THAT IDEA, BUILDING IT AS YOUR CORE AND SAYING IT’S UNIQUE, THEN ASKING BRANDS, PHOTOGRAPHERS AND COLLABORATORS TO REINTERPRET YOUR REFERENCES, AND VOCABULARY, IS INTERESTING. RIGHT. SEEING IT REPRODUCED WITHOUT ANY MEMORY OF WHERE IT CAME FROM IS SOMETHING ELSE. 

THE PICASSO LINE ONLY WORKS IF THE THEFT PRODUCES SOMETHING NEW. OTHERWISE IT IS JUST BITING!