Eva M. Tuschman photographed for Style Facts in Beyjin, China by her father and photographer Mark Tuschman
The robot portrait:
Name: Eva M. Tuschman
Birthday; December 14, 1983
Horoscope; Sagitarius
Place of birth; Palo Alto, California
Place of living: San Fransisco Bay Area
Studies: Cultural and Social Anthropology, Visual Art
Occupation: writer, artist
Most favorite Occupation: Cooking for Tassajara Zen Mountain Monastery, Big Sur, California
The Fact Interview:
What makes a person stylish?
Sensuality. Allure. Mystique. Inner qualities as expressed through a glance, a posture, a slight gesture. it's a synergistic collaboration between one's own innate beauty combined with choices for adorning and wrapping the body. It's also about how one moves through the world, whether it's with grace one afternoon or bold defiance the next.
What is the difference between style and fashion?
Style is one's own intuitive sense of aliveness, one's artistic way of imagining and being as expressed through materials, form, colors, textures...Style can be timeless, it can last a lifetime, manifesting in various ways, but always with the integrity of the curator. Fashion, on the other hand, is temporal, often more performative and subject to the ever-changing labels of popularity.
Who has the most distinctive style, dead or alive?
Audrey Tautou first comes to mind, but I think it may be her unusual beauty, which seems like it is of another era, that makes us turn our heads.
How can one become a fashion victim?
By overlaying the body with whatever it is "The Stars" are wearing at the moment, whatever the media commands that you buy in order to be more "sexy" or to supposedly have more fun in life, without taking into account if this authentically expresses how you feel about yourself from the inside out.
Who is your favorite designer and why?
I have a hard time choosing favorites in this category. Recently though I was looking at an online gallery of contemporary Japanese fashion from the Kyoto Costume Institute. Some of the dresses, sculptures really, by designers Issey Miyake and Junya Watanabe, among others, were just incredible. Their minimalist aesthetic and attention to detail is hauntingly beautiful.
Would you ever shoplift an item of clothing that you just had to have?
How tempting! I certainly have a secret transgressive streak.
What is your favorite phrase?
"Last night I dreamed..."
What is your favorite artwork?
I physically struggle to pick just one! I am constantly falling in love with different works. But today I am very attracted to the sculptures by Steven de Staebler and Manuel Neri. There is something so evocative, almost achingly so, about some of their respective forms.
Who is your favorite artist?
Again, this is too tough to choose. A few that I admire in no particular order are Susan Rothenberg, Eva Hesse, Ann Hamilton and Ruth Bernhard, but there are many, many more on the list.
What is your favorite color?
Other then black, i gravitate towards earthen colors: a mossy velvet, the grey of the ocean, graphite silver, ox-blood orange.
What period costume would you most like to wear?
The romantic in me wants to wear something chic from the 1920's or 30's. Anything couture. My alter ego wants to wear a hot pink mini dress from the 80's.
What is for you a little black dress?
Depending on the design, it can speak to anonymity and the alure that comes from that: "She was a woman in the crowd in a black dress". But most of all it is essential femininity.
Do you have and wear one?
Yes, more than one. The choice depends on the circumstance. One is for people watching or writing in cafes. Another is for doing errands or going to the market. But the one I love most is made by a designer based in Tel Aviv. Everytime I zip into it, I immediately feel like I am in a different era, that I can be more sophisticated than I actually am.
Stylistically, what is your favorite movie?
Anything by Almodovar. I particularly loved his last film "Broken Embraces" The precision of design-how carefully articulated every object was in every space-perfectly juxtaposed the underlying messiness of the character's emotions. Almodovar has a lush, sensual aesthetic that infuses most of his work. In contrast, I was also struck by the visuals in "The White Ribbon". Every frame was like a stunning still black and white photograph.
Who is your favorite photographer? Or more than one.
Of course, I must say my father first. After that I love Edward Weston's nudes, Irving Penn, Michael Kenna, Olivia Parker and a dozen others, of course.
How do you want to be photographed? How do you see a photograph as your own image?
in black and white. And without a smile-just looking into the aperture. I see a good portrait as capturing what exists of a person after language has reached its limits. It's much more truthful and powerful than spoken words.
What is your greatest weakness when it comes to clothing?
Actually, it is the little black dress. I keep telling myself that I don't need any more, but each one says something different, like variations on a piece of music or the difference between exposures taken of the same image.
What is your most prized possession?
Strangely enough, the first thing that comes to mind is a collection of Japanese ceramics - a few which I have made, but mostly ones by master potters. Their cracking glazes and earthen surfaces always return me to something essential - an intuitive recognition as to how I approach and see the world. I also have a bracelet which belonged to my great grandmother after whom I am named. It has "Eva" inscribed on it in cursive; there is something evocative about holding an object, with all of its history, worn by a woman I never knew.
Who is the most important musician? Or more than one.
I can't say he is the most important, but Steve Reich's work (particularly "Music for 18 Musicians) affected me very deeply in my late teens and early twenties. I think what he did for minimalism in the world of music was revolutionary.
Which world leader has the most distinctive style?
Without knowing enough about her political career, Yulia Tymoshenko certainly has distinctive style. I admire how daring she is in taking risks.
For which famous person would you most like to do a style makeover, and what would you do?
No idea.
What attire would you rather be caught dead in ?
A hospital gown. But I wouldn't want to be caught dead in that either.
What is your style philosophy?
Basic pieces - solid minimal colors of good quality fabrics - that can be dressed up with a beautiful textile and an elegant jewelry or dressed down for a trip to the market. Oh yes, and one can never have too many little black dresses.
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