Author: Greta Rabensteiner

This Issue interrogates the handbag as a symbol of the constructed self—sculpted through mechanisms of difference and exclusion. It questions the “face” of fashion, shaped by advertising and magazine imagery, where polished surfaces and aspirational narratives influence how we perceive ourselves and others. Through the lens of the handbag, we examine how consumer culture manipulates… Continue reading Projection 2 – SELLF Magazine

This iteration takes handbag advertisements from social media and magazines and removes them from their shiny, glossy context, placing them instead in real-world settings, on real bodies, and printed on cheap paper. Suddenly, an item we typically assign such high value to is reduced to a small paper cutout. By subverting and deconstructing the materiality… Continue reading Projection 2 – Iteration 5

In conversation with Amber Pickup, an MA student at Central Saint Martins, we discussed what gives a bag its value—and whether true belonging is ever possible within the fashion industry. In conversation with Virginia Rolle, creator of the blog The Big Bag, Club about bags as symbols of both absurdity and identity. In conversation with… Continue reading Projection 2 – In conversation with…

These are two more portrait series I created for Unit 3, Projection 2. The first is a continuation of Projection 1: I took the bag objects I had previously photographed from people and transformed them into literal faces—creating portraits made entirely out of the objects each person carried in their bag. The second series explored… Continue reading Projection 2 – Iteration 4

Actively observing numerous logos throughout my day prompted me to reconsider the extent of our exposure to advertisements, not only in physical spaces but also across digital platforms like social media. I then came across a 2023 video on the Morning Brew YouTube channel, where the host meticulously counted every advertisement he encountered in a… Continue reading Projection 2 – Iteration 3

When looking at these bags all day and observing, the one thing that I unconsciously was looking out and cut through the blur were all the different logos, which on one hand were also what I was looking for in terms of identifying the bag. It made me realize by how many logos we are… Continue reading Projection 2 – Iterations 2

It still felt a bit unclear to me how exactly I wanted to proceed with my idea of portraits, but I decided that I wanted to look at bags in a real-life scenario, where people interact with their bags unfiltered, so I went outside on the street. I went to four different places in London:… Continue reading Projection 2 – Iterations 1

From the three key concepts that emerged during my Projection 1 work—Portrait, Outline, and System—I decided that the best approach would be to pick one and continue iterating. Since my enquiry still felt quite broad, I took some time to research and get a clearer idea of what I wanted to do. During Feedback Cindy… Continue reading Projection 2 – Research

I wanted to explore the material and see how I could delve into the container system, the idea of revealing and hiding something through folding, outline, and form. To begin, I asked people to look at the contents of their bags and classify their objects from most private to most public. Specifically, I inquired about… Continue reading Projection 1 – Posters