Quiet Rebellion
Interview by Lesley Chee
Photography by Romeo Pokomasse
& Ivania Carpio
The social media landscape has been a challenging one to define and make sense of, especially when it is largely populated with bloggers and their sponsorship deals. Yet there is also an emerging breed of influencers, who are using their clout to create social impact and spread positivity. Enter Ivania Carpio. A resolute proponent of conscious living, Ivania is unfazed by the growing fad of social value, choosing instead to lead her life one physical experience at a time.
To claim that Carpio is an embodiment of minimalism is an overstatement. In the words of boyfriend Romeo Pokomasse, "the terms aesthetic and minimalism are now connected." Best recognised for her all-white wardrobe and daily style ensembles, the doe-eyed mother of one shares DIY tricks, style musings, inspiring visuals, most notably her personal anecdotes on minimalism as a lifestyle on her website. Inside this oasis, the content is embellishment-free: you won’t find a visual element or word that is unnecessary. Stimulating, persuasive and at times contentious, Love Aesthetics sends a message, even if it remains as understated as the colour white.
Unsurprisingly, Carpio's influence is seen in the disembodied wash of colliding Instagram feeds, mimicked in mono-chromatic schemes by her legion of followers. In this special collaboration with Vulture, the Aesthetics couple and daughter Lois brings us a slice of their life and everything else that truly matters.
What do you think of fashion and style today?
Ivania: I think personal style is very interesting. What I dislike about fashion is that ideas and products are disposed of very quickly, with so many collections each year. What I love about fashion is that there are a few visionaries that show a new and fresh point of view each season.
Lois: It is fun to dress up.
Romeo: Sometimes personal style is confused with fashion. As soon as someone posts picture of themselves on the internet, a lot of people see that picture as public property and try to replicate that style or mood—but without a deeper understanding or the personal meaning or references.
Are there some important issues in fashion that you feel should be covered more widely?
Ivania: Overconsumption in general. Not only with fashion, so much food is thrown away, products disposed of...
Romeo: We produce a crazy amount of waste. We have to take better care of our planet. We don’t need that much.
How would you say your styles have influenced (your daughter) Lois? Is she taking after the two of you, or is she exploring on her own?
Ivania: Like all kids she is influenced by us. However, we give her the space to discover and develop her own identity, we don’t force our interests or style on her.
Romeo: Lois is her own person. We surround ourselves with a lot of different kinds of people, who are all influences and examples for her.
Ivania: I feel so lucky to have such a fantastic group of talented, wonderful, unique people to call our friends.
Have you both always dressed this way (Ivania more in whites, Romeo more in blacks)? Was there a moment where your style evolved overnight, or can you remember a particular moment or thought that changed the way you looked at your clothes, and at fashion?
Ivania: I also wear black and grey. No, it was a very slow, and still ongoing process for me. I’ve always had an aversion to decadence. It slowly started to manifest in my life as I got older and got to design my own life: my wardrobe got smaller, my life got simpler. I only hold on to my most worn, most loved clothing items, which happened to always be the white t-shirts and monochromatic clothes. My last coloured item, a pale pink coat, got edited out of my wardrobe about two years ago.
Romeo: Jeans and white and black tees are the core of my wardrobe. I have phases of obsessions with colours, materials and prints. But black is something I can always come back to.
Lois, what is it you like about Ivania and Romeo's styles? Is there something you don't like?
Lois: I like my dad’s style, he is cool. I like that his jeans and t-shirts have holes and you can see his tattoos through them. I don’t like it when his hair is short and tidy on the side, it’s better when it's longer and messier.
My mom has cool nails and I like her art. She made a video in Hong Kong where she made an art work with bubble-wrap. She has very big trousers with little bows on them that I like. I don’t want her to throw her old clothes away; I’d like her to keep them for me. I don’t like it when she wears big oversized T-shirts, it looks like she’s walking around in her underpants.
An aside from Lois: My parents are not like most parents. Moms and dads can work together and take care of kids together. In this future you can make your own rules.
Do you think minimalism is a ‘trend’ that some people follow only in aesthetics, but not in value, as you do?
Ivania: Ironically it is a trend. Hashtag minimal on everything white. Minimalism does not equal white.
Romeo: The words minimalism and aesthetic are now connected, although the words have nothing to do with each other. It’s funny to see people on Instagram refer to ‘aesthetic’ accounts, or ‘aesthetic’ style, when what they mean is white feeds with a minimal style.
Is there a reason why you don't own a TV? For example, is there something that you're trying not to expose Lois to?
Ivania: To me, TV feels like a very outdated medium, a thing of the past. It is not so much that I don’t want to expose her to anything (although, I don’t mind her not seeing any of the brain washing commercials). The Internet is much more empowering. You decide what you watch, when you watch it; you are much more in control and can develop your interests in an in-depth way. You can also feed whatever you're interested in and learn much more about the world. TV sets the agenda—online, you set your own agenda.
Romeo: But you can already tell that commercials are transitioning to the internet. I am afraid that in the end, the internet will become just like TV.
Ivania: Commercials, brainwashing opinions and time-consuming nonsense are things that we don’t want taking up any of our time. In 1939, The New York Times predicted that television would fail because people wouldn't have time to stop and stare at a screen. I think they were right.
Lois, do you mind not having a TV?
Lois: I don’t care. I’d rather play outside with my friends, or play on my iPad, or FaceTime my cousins and friends. Sometimes I want to watch my favorite Nickelodeon series, but I can watch it online.
Where do you find your sources of inspiration from, if not on TV or from the internet?
Ivania: Materials, textures and textiles are a big inspiration to me. But also nothingness, and by that I mean the lack of something. An empty room, a construction site, a blank page in a notebook, a roll of fabric—that’s where I discover new possibilities.
Romeo: My surroundings. Music and sounds are a very big source of inspiration for me. Most of my inspiration comes from places that have nothing to do with fashion or design.
Ivania: I agree with that last part. That is also why I stopped reading fashion blogs and websites on a regular basis—if you see too much, it will influence you, subconsciously.
Romeo: We also feed off each other. When I’m brainstorming, for example, and Ivania tells me about one of her ideas... I visualise something completely different and vice versa. We push each others’ quality [of ideas], and ask each other the right questions.
Ivania: I am a very enthusiastic person. It can sometimes be very over the top. Romeo is the opposite, and rarely gives a compliment. I think this is a great combination that pushes the both of us forward. We also try to build our own archive with images that we took ourselves and found objects that we can draw inspiration from.
Ivania, you share a lot of your style and DIY ideas on your blog and on Instagram. We've seen a lot of other Instagrammers who seem to have a similar style as you: the monochromatic wardrobes, the faded, washed-out hair colours. How do you feel about this?
Ivania: I feel very honored that my work and style serve as inspiration for so many people—it is very special when people come up to me on the street or at a festival and tell me that my style inspired them to dye their hair, reduce their wardrobe, or even get a similar tattoo. In the beginning it shocked me a bit; now I am used to it.
Romeo, on a related note, is there a reason why you choose to stay out of the limelight and behind the lens?
Romeo: I have a love/hate relationship with the Internet. I never had a Facebook account—I like to meet people in person. Before, I never saw a reason to brand myself or show myself—essentially it is about the work you do right? But it has also been great to personally connect with people around the world whose work I admire and people who appreciate what I do.
Ivania: Which requires showing your face now and then.
Were there any dilemmas you had about exposing Lois to social media and 'sharing' her with the world, so to speak?
Ivania: I keep her life off my channels right now. I don’t want to use my kid as a like-generator on my social media channels. She deserves privacy. When she is old enough she can decide for herself what she puts online. Once something is online it will be there forever.
Romeo: The pictures of Lois on my account are all spontaneous: brushing her hair or getting ready for school. We always have a camera around. We also always ask her for her permission to post her picture online. Sometimes she says no and we respect that.
Ivania: What worries me is that likes influence young kids. Likes are an instant way to measure opinions from other people—you shouldn’t care about opinions from others! Especially when someone is very young, and still searching for their own identity, it is so important to make autonomous choices. The amount of likes can steer someone very talented in the direction of conforming to general opinion and mainstream beauty standards.
Ivania: Lois do you know what social media is?
Lois: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr.
Ivania: Wow how do you know that?
Lois: I hear you guys talk about it. There is a funny video of a llamacorn on Instagram.
Ivania: What’s a llamacorn?
Romeo/Lois: It is a llama and a unicorn. A llama, with a unicorn horn!
Ivania: Tell us about the Youtube videos that you watch Lois: Music, pranks, videos about koalas, seven super girls (a channel runned by American sisters ‘Katherine and Rachel’). Tutorials, all kind of tutorials: piano, dance, afro dance, special effects make-up artists. I watch Vice munchies and street food. Sometimes trailers, full movies. Klokhuis, Buiten dienst. Every day I watch something different.
Ivania: Is there something you know that you are not allowed to watch?
Lois: You don’t say I can’t watch it because then I will know what it is.
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