Havana Club x Aries

Back in November we saw the release of 'Butterfly' - a multimedia collaboration with Sofia Prantera, the glorious woman behind the streetwear brand Aries, Havana Club and photographer Joshua Gordon.

Joshua spent a month living in Havana, documenting what life was like for the trans woman their, he dived right in to exploring the art and music scenes, having drinks with many of the trans woman in his images and even going to some of their favourite drag clubs. He'd spent most of his career photographing outside or in studios but these women invited him into their homes and this opened up a whole new door for Joshua's imagery.

There's a short preview of the film he created which I stumbled upon last month, the raw and personal nature of how its shot and the way the camera captures these women simply had me in awe and I couldn't wait for the full 22 minute film to be released!

The book and film 'Butterfly' documents what life is like in Cuba's capital for a trans woman - to me the nine-piece capsule release was absolutely stunning! Sofia Prantera want to reimagine La Giraldilla, a female figure whom has watched over the Cuban capital for three centuries. The images produced by Joshua Gordon were simply breathtaking and according to an article in Dazed and Confused, the shoot of the garments that went alongside the collaboration were captured with a polaroid film, produced and developed on the day with no retouching at all.

Sofia speaks about how her collaboration with Joshua and Havana Club allowed her to focus outside of fashion and turn it onto gender identity, which she says has been a theme that informed her work from the very start.

Overall I think the collaboration resulted in one of the most beautiful ones I have seen in a long time, from the imagery, clothing and the video. The way all of the women were captured is simply stunning and I hope to see a lot more of this stripped back style in the up and coming future when it comes to collaborations.