T.B.L. Talents Presents: "em" by Mauricio Herrerabarria + Interview

A really great video made by my fellow blogger Mauricio Herrerabarria from Trou Noir fashion blog, a project for the Artblock festival held yesterday at the historical Casco Antiguo in Panama City...On a personal note I really loved this video and its dark, mysterious, symbolical and historical references and I also think Mauricio (or Mau as I like to call him) is one of the most talented people I´ve met so far a very dedicated guy with a lot of creative ideas a strong point of view and I know he will just keep stepping it up each time...all I can say is I´m looking forward to see every single one of his future projects..I also did a little interview which you can see below. Enjoy!

Rest of the entry on the "mas informacion" link below 

1.       Hello Mauricio, is really great you get to be my first blogger interview and after seeing your video my first question will be ¿What was your inspiration for this video?

R. Uh, I’m the first J well when I got the idea of making a short film I was reading a book about the lost heritage of Mary Magdalene & I’ve always been sort of … drawn to those esoteric & religious topics, not that I’m a devoted catholic but I mean, faith is everything we live for, faith in ourselves, faith in God, faith in the future. So it is about the light & how women are the light of life.

2.       I know it´s your first time making a video and editing it ¿What was that experience like?

R. My God it was exhausting! You know I studied a year of photography so I thought it was much related & in fact they are very much the same but the editing part was so far from what I was expecting. I spent 2 weeks editing it from 10 am to 11 pm at my university, which is a freezer, I was isolated from everyone, but I think it was worthy, I’m so happy with how it turned out J

3.       I also know your blog and personally I love it but I got a question ¿Why the name Trou Noir?

R. Hahahaha this is a very common question. Basically I wanted to name my blog after something that dragged people, so the first thing that came to my mind was a black hole, but “Black Hole” is not a very fashionable name so, since my favorite language is French & France is the epitome of fashion I translated it & Trou Noir came to life J

4.       ¿Who would you name as your fashion icon(s) and why?

R. I always say that we are our own fashion icons, that our body is our canvas. But I’ve always have admired the work of Alexander McQueen, he is my idol, my icon, my inspiration, my everything. He was so unique, a genius, there won’t be another one like him, I was so devastated once I heard the news about his death, but when an artist dies, his work becomes a true relic & we are responsible to value it & make them precious. I find amazing how he used to blend death & dark inspirations with the baroque elements & still it wouldn’t look like a costume, I would wear EVERYTHING he made & the effort he put in all his shows really makes you see how serious he was about his own art, he was a trend by himself.

5.       ¿How can you describe your style?

R. I think I’ve come to find my true style, I love denim, love black & slouchy t-shirts, LOVE outer wear, even though we live in Panama, a living oven, I always find the opportunity to wear amazing jackets that I find in thrift shops & stores, I cannot live without accessories & sunglasses, if I were millionaire I would spend all my fortune in shades. But, I’m very very John Varvatos, Rick Owens, Costume National, Gareth Pugh  but I also have my D&G, Junja Watanabe, Raf Simons, Jil Sanders, Viktor & Rolf side.

6.       I saw really beautiful clothing pieces on the video ¿Did you want fashion to be an important part of it and why?

R. Because fashion is art, & people here in Panama do not appreciate fashion as it should be appreciated & you know that, so I’m always trying to merge fashion with art to seed that idea in people’s minds, fashion is the closest side of art we have, we live it in a daily basis & still people believe fashion is superficial, & that total bullshit.

7.       ¿Who is the girl in the video and what was like to work with her?

R. Her name is Peggy Bousounis J at first it was going to be one of my best friends, a model, Amanda Díaz, but something came up in her schedule & she told me like a day after the shooting so I was collapsing trying to find a model who filled all that I wanted & then I remember that Peggy is also a dancer, which is always a plus, cause they have a special tenderness in their movements, it was very … express the way we worked in pre-production. Peggy is so sweet & nice, I really enjoyed it, she follows instructions like a pro, and I’m considering her for the next 2 short films I’m doing for ARTBLOCK.  

8.       If you could choose a model  to work with ¿Who would it be and why?

R. Andrej Pejic, because is a man whose bone structure is womanly, he walks menswear , couture & womenswear shows, he is SO versatile & his features are really beautiful, Freja Beha would be another one I’d love to work with, I’m in love with androgyny.

9.       Let’s talk a little about the music ¿Was it hard to find the right song and what were you looking for the song to have?

R. It was love at first sight. It has the perfect mood. I just wanted a song that would fit with the iconography & compositions I had in mind, once I had it I started getting the scenes synched with the sound effects & tones & then I added the voices, editing the voices was much harder because I also composed the script, so I wanted to put everything but not all the things were right where I wanted so I had to cut like a 10987 lines.

10.   Thank you very much for answering and I hope to see more of you in the near future. Finally, ¿Do you have any advice for fellow bloggers?

R. Thank you for the interview J Once I heard Maristella González, a friend of mine & fabulous blogger saying that the best advice for a successful blog is to put some piece of you in it, make your own material, try to find your niche, whether you are good at photography, illustration, graphic design, anything! Always try to make all the things you publish, the point of having a blog is to bring something new to people’s life & amaze them with your talent, it’s ok to post pictures from style.com or from fashiongonerogue but it would be better if you take your own pictures or you know what’d be so freaking cool if someone translates the editorials to paper, Now with the boom of short films in the fashion world you have the opportunity of making your own films, the sky’s the limit man, you just have to find which rocket is the right one, once you know that,  you’re going to get where you want in the shortest time.