A plastic shopping bag + a blonde, portly US astronaut = Maja in Kris Van Assche’s silky kaftan. A cassette tape + A map of South America = Anne Vyalitsyna in Maison Martin Margeila A/W 09. A blue swimmer crab + A spiral galaxy = Kasia Struss in shimmering black Givenchy Haute Couture. And, Jonathan Zawada so kindly assures us, A bicycle + wireless router = Ponystep. 

 

If you haven’t heard of Fashematics, where have you been over the last year-and-a-half? Since July 12 2008 – the logged date of the first official Fashematic, The hilarious Pope + Absolut Vodka Bottle = Valentino Couture equation – Zawada’s ridiculous-slash-genius fashion equations have been everywhere, featured on every blog, courted and copied by the editorial elite. Pop are fans. As are Urban Outfitters. The fansites and imitators squeel with superlative praise like teenage girls vying for Beyonce tickets. To find out more about the web's latest obsession, Ponystep chats to Zawada, fashion’s hottest mathematician.  

 

Hynam Kendall: Jonathan, how exactly did it all begin?

 

Jonathan Zawada: I put the first Fashematics together to illustrate the Bjork Volta cover for a music magazine I was working on at the time. Unfortunately the magazine never saw the light of day, but a year later the concept of Fashematics came in handy when we were trying to think of content for mine and Shane Sakkeus’ (now defunct) Trust Fun blog. 

HK: What are the motivations? Is it satire? 

JZ: I don't know if the motivations are anything all that subversive or clever. Really it’s just how I see the clothes that are on the runway. I love the fun stuff and I find the straight stuff boring and uninspired, so I guess it’s my little tribute to the imaginations of the designers who bother to put a bit of effort in.

 

HK: Like you say, you seem to like the fun stuff. With this, your cult fashion comic Petit-Mal, and even with your clothing line, you seem like you’re trying to bring fun into the industry

JZ: Yeah, definitely. We've worked a bit with fashion designers in the past and I think it’s a bit of a fallacy that they take themselves seriously. It’s obviously a serious business, but in our experience most of the people involved just want to have fun. We said when we very first started our projects that we were only going to do them so long as they remained fun, it’s fairly obvious that it’s next to impossible to make any money out of it and the goal of fun seemed both more realistic and more rewarding.

HK: So what’s the technique? Do you have lots of trial and error until you find the exact right images? 

JZ: Yeah, by far the most time is spent looking for just the right picture of say, a piece of crumbled cassette tape. It can be really frustrating when I know there's a picture out there but I just can't find it. Sometimes it'll seem right in my head but end up not looking right when it's all put together so I have quite a few abandoned ones that just didn't seem that interesting or were too obvious or also too abstract. The actual idea normally doesn't take very long, it normally pops into my head straight away when I see the runway shot - I just don't ever seem to have enough time to spend trawling through style.com!

HK: Which ones didn’t see the light of day?

JZ: Plenty. I have one which is Marvin the Martian + the dirty woman from behind the dumpster in Mulholland Drive = Lil' Wayne, which, although very funny to me, didn't seem totally kosher.

HK: How long does each Fashematic take from conception to finished product?

JZ: They can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 hours, I reckon. I've spent way too long on google images looking for just the right picture of an orchid in the past.

HK: Have you ever got into trouble over one of your equations?

JZ: Not that I'm aware of, although we tried to have a go at W Magazine, but I don't think they noticed.

 

HK: Because they stole your formula?

JZ: Yep, I'm sure they suffered a great loss in readership because of our graphic attack! (That's sarcasm)

HK: Is copyrighting ever an issue?

JZ: I'm sure it is to some people, but so far it hasn't been to us. I think it would be a shame if anyone were to ever bring us up on a copyright issue as, in my mind, we aren't ever altering the original meaning of the source images we use, we're just adding to them. And hell, we don't make any money off it 

HK: Have you been approached by people wanting to get featured? Fashion houses, designers etc?

JZ: A couple of times, but normally they haven't been the sorts of people who produce anything inspired enough to be Fashematics worthy. It’s the sort of thing that’s really hard to force.

 

HK: You did a bespoke Fashematics for Ponystep, can you explain it…

 

JZ: Hmmmm... I'm not so good with words, hence all the pictures... I guess I just thought about the bare minimum of tools required to be a contemporary opinion leader with your finger on the pulse - something we saw Ponystep as exemplifying. I imagine that the staff of Ponystep probably have wireless internet too.

HK: Are the non-visual ones tricky to come up with?

JZ: Like I said, they are impossible to force. The Moment blog on the New York Times site asked me to come up with some non-fashion Fashematics for them which I was incredibly excited about. After 2 weeks of trying really hard though I had to concede that I was beaten and couldn't come up with anything and I wrote to them explaining how hard it was and I never heard from them again... 

HK: Will you branch out and create Fashematics the brand? The project lends itself to the idea of coffee table books…

JZ: I'd love to…

HK: It would certainly help you finally make some money from it

 

JZ: Unless there's a billionaire benefactor out there whose interested, I don't see it being a big cash-cow.  

 

HK: You could always make your money sueing the hundreds of copycats

 

JZ: You know how I feel about fun. It's so much fun to do, how could I get mad about people having fun?