Buenos Aires, 2024. But still why is everyone dreaming on living on the past? Gold, animal print and Donatella Versace, in spite of being an universal reference, dates back to Argentina’s golden years (for the privileged only): Menemism 90s and the early 2000 times, where normal people could aim to be something more glamorous that what they thought they could ever be. Argentina as the world champion, Diego Maradona and this kind of brutalist house in a trashy neighbourhood in the city of Buenos Aires that we rented for this shoot. Princess Tatiana allows the possibility of recreating something similar to those times. 2024, another economic crisis, ¿Is ambition getting lost again? The massive consumption of social media and the visual ecstasy that it provokes, the fear of not being able to even pay the rent and the ephemeral trends in fashion, only make young people dissociate about every single aspect of life; most of all, when they think about the future.

Fashion always looks for a way back. Young people, the eternal changing, the feeling of belonging but still having trouble to pay all the bills, the misunderstood with the older generation. ¿Is it more attractive wearing anything rather than a piece valued for its brand? The non accessibility to those pieces its what makes it cooler in Buenos Aires; the nac and pop culture, the embrace of the homeland. After all, its seems like fashion is forever attached to the socio-politics problems, especially in countries of the third world.

¿What is cool and what is not? ¿Who even knows? and ¿Who has the power to determine it? Cool fashion kids resemble and renovate the sense of fashion of its own; the dissociation of what are they wearing as a metaphor with the 2000s most trendy drug, the ketamine. I spend hours a day scrolling Instagram and Pinterest, to the point that I don't even know anymore what I like or what the social media is making me like, I feel controlled sometimes and unattached other times.

It can be seen as an act of rebellion, the internet gives me plenty access to so much information that evidently im going to translate that to my own person, through fashion. Because after all, I realized that I don't really need to do ketamine to dissociate of the broken world I live in, I can look for dissociation in other forms; not escaping from reality but making a different reality on my own, creating a universe of my own worldview and materializing it in every aspect of my life. In this way, is how Princess Tatiana is born, as an audiovisual materialization of my own universe.

The Ketamine Chic trendless trend represents this graphically. ¿How far can I get? ¿Does my aesthetic has any limit? And most of all, the fact that I don’t have to pay thousands of dollars to achieve it (it even became trendy to use fake brand logos); in this way, fashion became more accessible in the post pandemic years where economic crises arise, and dreams had fallen to ashes. We as individuals are constantly absorbing information, images and videos in an excessive way and we cannot liberate from that, I started embracing it and i’m still trying to find a way to make something good of it rather than complain.

I think that through Princess Tatiana I found the possibility of pushing every boundary of trends, in tune with a broken society and a broken economy, specially in my hometown, Argentina. Socks are reachable products, economically speaking, they are not expensive; and the fact that they classify as accessories, gives people the possibility of styling them in infinite ways and forms. The socks that I create are sublimated with all kinds of different designs, patterns and photos; with sublimation I found the freedom to create as much designs as I want: everyone can get them, everyone can wear them, everyone can be part of Princess Tatiana’s Universe. In each production and photoshoot, I am able to recreate visuals from my mind, ideas from my subconscious and the fantasy worlds I always dreamt to conceive.

These shots represent an era of possibilities; as short as that era endured, the abundance, the glamour, the excesses and the ambition were in the main picture; and as shattered as the society was, the idea of achieving dreams and aspirations was forever immortalized by gold, marble and champagne.

Production done by me and my friends:

Photographer: Pampa Aramburu

Photographer assistants: Kato Aramburu & Esteban Penovi

Model: Valentina Quiroga

Creative Direction: Pampa Aramburu, Tatiana Lauda & Valentina Quiroga

Styling: Tatiana Lauda & Valentina Quiroga

Makeup & hair: Sofia Lisa

Producer: Catalina Alvarez

PRINCESS TATIANA’S UNIVERSE