Baneen:
What is your relationship to the other person in the shoot?/Relationship to self love?
My relationship to self love is a work in progress. There are days where I am so happy, feeling like I am on top of the world, really confident but I also have thoughts where I am like am I enough? Not everyday is good but I have this ability where I can radiate joy and make the people around me happy and as long as I can do that then I am okay
What is something you love or admire about yourself?
Something I admire about myself is my smile, my eyes, my confidence and recently my bravery and just being able to keep a positive mindset in the tough times
Who and what do you direct your love and enthusiasm towards?
I direct my self love towards my writing. I write everything down both good and bad and I love doing it, and I know I am good at it. In terms of people, I direct that love towards my sister, my friends and to those around me. Even if we just meet once but we have a good connection and I enjoy spending time with you and I’ll never see you again that to me is also love.
What would you say your main love language is?
My main love language is quality time. I love making plans, going out, getting coffee, trying new restaurants or doing an activity with the people I love. Even if we don’t see each other every day or text as long as we make plans and when we see each other the vibes are good and I’m happy.
Do you see fashion as a way to affirm your love of yourself or more as a commodity?
Both, I have to wear professional clothing because of my job but I view fashion as a huge form of expression of self love. I have a thing where I try to match my lipstick with my outfit and I feel so much more confident when I do that and even with my identity and culture, I love wearing Pakistani clothes. They are vibrant and help me to connect with that side of me.
Rosie:
What is your relationship to the other person in the shoot?/Relationship to self love?
Self love to me means doing what makes me happy and being in tune with myself and my needs even if it’s not the easy option
What is something you love or admire about yourself?
I love how passionate, creative and sensitive I am and how I am able to channel those qualities into different areas of my life to make art and express myself
Who and what do you direct your love and enthusiasm towards?
I’m very lucky to be so close with my family and the people I surround myself with are very special to me. I’m completely enamoured with all of my friends and they inspire me so much everyday. I direct my love and enthusiasm towards my passions like singing, dancing, acting, writing and all the different ways to be creative!
What would you say your main love language is?
All of them! It depends on the relationship I have with the person.
Have you received or given a gift that was particularly memorable? Fallen in love with an item you just needed to get?
I love wearing clothes that were given to me by people I love. Most of my wardrobe is actually made up of things that were passed on to me by my friends and family members who either thought I might like the item or decided they didn’t want it anymore. It’s a really nice way to give the clothing a new life and feel connected to those who gifted it to you.
Do you see fashion as a way to affirm your love of yourself or more as a commodity?
I 100% see fashion as a way to express myself and affirm self love. I like to dress based off of how I’m feeling, or sometimes I’ll dress for serotonin, meaning I’ll wear whatever gives me a boost of happiness that day. I love playing with fun earrings and vintage clothes and a good outfit makes me feel really connected to myself
Ciara:
What is your relationship to self love?
My relationship with myself hasn’t always been easy because I’ve always tied it to
appearances and superficial things, but lately I’ve been trying harder to relate my
feelings about myself to my interests and what I can do for myself and for other people.
I’ve started taking self-love to mean how I feel when I do things I enjoy, or when I do
something for others and I get to see that make them happy. Self love to me really just
means doing things for myself that I enjoy, rather than worrying about how I look or what
I do and how others perceive that.
What is something you love/admire about yourself?
I think I admire my ability to find something that I enjoy in things I might not necessarily
like as a whole. Whether it's things like cleaning that I generally don’t enjoy or lectures
that I find boring, I can always find something within that to motivate me and help me to
have fun in what I’m doing.
Who and what do you direct your love and enthusiasm towards?
I always try to direct a lot of love to my friends and partner the same way that they do for
- I think it’s so important to show people that you love them and how important they
are to you, and I’ll always try to give that to someone. I also direct a lot of my energy
towards what I do in college with Societies and the Express, and just things that come
along with college that make it a lot more fun. It’s important to me that I make the
experience of college more than just a degree.
What would you say your main love language is?
Definitely physical touch and words of affirmation. I just generally love getting a hug or if
someone tells me I’m doing a good job at something, especially if it’s something I
haven’t done before.
Have you ever given or received a piece of clothing or jewellery as a gift that was
particularly memorable? Have you ever fallen in love with an item you just needed
to get?
It’s a bit of a cliché but I really love it when I mention liking something offhand and
someone remembers it and gifts it to me after the fact. It’s not so much that the piece
itself is really memorable for me, but more knowing that the person I was with paid
attention to something I said in the moment and remembered it later on. I commented on
a bracelet once in a shop, nothing crazy expensive or anything I just didn’t particularly
feel like buying it that day, and my friend that was with me gifted it to me a couple of
months later because she was in the shop again and remembered that I liked it, so that
meant a lot to me. As far as loving an item so much I just had to get it, I did a vampire themed photoshoot before and Nine Crows Cork had given us some clothes for it. I was
wearing a black leather trench coat and I loved it so much that when a couple of friends
and I went to return the clothes I immediately bought it when we took it out of the bag.
Do you see fashion as a way to affirm your love of yourself or as more of a
commodity?
I think it can definitely be both! Sometimes I see getting dressed and ready to go out as
a chore, but other times it can be really fun to play around with things. As a non-binary
person it’s also really fun to play with gender expression in clothes. I think I started to get
more into fashion when I was able to unlearn gendered ideas of what people wear, as
well as unlearning that clothes are supposed to fit you, you don’t exist to fit into them.
Especially recently I’ve been playing around with fashion more but I think I just need
more confidence in what I’m doing to express myself with clothes out and about.
Lauren:
What is your relationship with self love?
I think it’s pretty strong. I have a strong sense of self love. Obviously when you’re a teenager it’s different because you can struggle with hormones, school and what you’re going to do with your life. Those kinds of issues. But I think now as I’m going into my 20’s it’s very strong. I do love myself, it’s really cringe but I do
What is something you love or admire about yourself?
I love my confidence and how independant I am. I feel like I can walk into any situation and I can fall back on myself. I’m very capable in that kind of way and that allows my confidence to come bursting through in social situations.
Who and what do you direct your love and enthusiasm towards?
It would definitely be my friends. Obviously there’s my family who I’ve grown up with but my friends are special to me. I still have friends from secondary school and we have our little friend group. We’re just very supportive of each other. When I find I’m able to sit there quietly with someone and when I’m comfortable enough to sit in silence, go on our phones, do our work, then we’re friends friends. I love that sort of support that we have especially during stuff like college and exams.
What is your main love language?
I actually did do a quiz, I’m such a nerd. I love doing quizzes like ‘What Kind of Bread am I’. So I did a quiz on love languages and my top ones are acts of service and gift giving. I think that is very true to me, not that I love gifts but what I love is someone not being with me and seeing something and thinking of me. I’ve gotten gifts from friends like some of the stuff I’m wearing now, like this bracelet my friend handmade me, this other one a friend gave me and the earrings I got as a birthday present. When someone just sees that and goes “oh Lauren would like that” or “that’s something she would wear” I love that. Acts of service is very similar like “oh she looks cold let me get her a hot chocolate” that is just love to me because you’re putting someone else first
Have you received or given a piece of clothing or jewellery as a gift that was particularly memorable?
I get a lot of jewellery and my friend for my Christmas present actually made me a bag. She’s my best friend, she hand made me this cute little shoulder purse. It has sunflowers on it and it’s dark green. She must’ve taken so much time to do that. She crocheted it and did an inner part so stuff doesn’t fall out. When I got it I was nearly in tears. She’s made me cry so many times just from gifts alone. I love giving gifts as well. I love doing a competition which might be kind of toxic but I just love giving gifts and seeing people happy and seeing them use it.
Do you see fashion as a way to affirm your love of yourself or more as a necessity?
It depends in what I’m doing but mostly it would be expression and self love. If I’m going hiking obviously I bring hiking boots and be practical but other than that I always like to show my personality when I dress. Sometimes, I think, I dress according to my moods when I’m down I wear comfier and darker clothes and then when I’m happy and I’m going to go do something then I’ll wear something like neon bright pants which I love to death. So I think it would definitely be an expression of love.
Samira & Konrad Interview:
How would you describe your relationship?
Samira: We have such a good relationship. Even though we are two different people it works together. We are always learning new things from each other, we have new experiences together and we have similarities that really compliment each other so it’s a great dynamic
Konrad: It’s mainly because we’re from two different cultures. Traditionally you wouldn’t see couples from opposing cultures together. We can learn from each other and we can grow together. It’s beautiful in that way.
What is something you love or admire about the other person?
Konrad: What don’t I admire should be the real question! I think Samira is the perfect person for me. I actually got so lucky.
Samira: I admire his confidence, I really look up to him.
Konrad: Literally
Who or what do you direct your love towards?
Samira: I love my sister. She’s ten years younger than me so I kind of looked after her like my own child so I feel that maternal instinct towards her even though she’s not my child. I love her. I love seeing her grow and go through different phases in life.
Konrad: I would say my younger brother. He’s always looking up to me and I’m trying to set a great example for him all the time.
What would you say is your main love language?
Samira: My love language is touch so I like hugging and chill affection in that kind of way. He doesn’t like being touched too much so it’s different but we work through it.
Konrad: I definitely think its words. I like being told thank you and stuff like that. I really appreciate compliments and I think quality time is also important to me.
Samira: Yeah, quality time would be my second one as well
Have you received or given a piece of clothing or jewellery as a gift that was particularly memorable?
Konrad: Last Christmas Samira gave me a snoodie, it’s a massive one, the biggest size. I wear it all the time. It’s the best gift i’ve ever received
Samira: I remember it was one of our first Christmas or anniversaries, my hands are always cold so Konrad got me love heart hand warmers which was very thoughtful.
Do you see fashion as a way to affirm your love of yourself or more as a necessity?
Konrad: I usually just wear what looks comfortable and sometimes Samira guides me on what looks good.
Samira: I’m big into fashion, I don’t always follow one trend and I don’t have an aesthetic but whatever looks good I wear it. I put pieces together from different things and that’s how I go about it. For me it’s like I’m showcasing what I’m into and who I am. I love expressing myself through fashion.
