The binding of Venus’s hair within Botticelli’s Birth of Venus feels allegorically representative of the call for women to fit into a singular narrative, as the mother or the whore, as the wife or the sinful seductress - names given that write over a woman’s own, each as crucifying as its opposite. Is a woman only a woman if she is one demure, one feminine, one complacent, all to the exact degree willed by onlookers? Tainia awaits a conversation discussing the gilded cage and painful restriction, with belts embroidered with flowers caught up in Venus's hair, all illustrated in embroidered zari.
The piece is left to the viewer and the wearer to be interpreted in two ways - one of the idea of self-binding and projection of external circumstances onto free will, with the wearer being Venus, is bound in their own hair; and the second, of binding by a third party, where the idea of the self is entirely removed from responsibility.
Worn the Kalypomai Skirt.
Colourway: Salmon with Muted Gold.
Fit: One-Shouldered. Flouncy. Fitted at Waist.
Fabric Composition:
Cotton Chiffon
Jute Blend
dry clean only
