Living in an era obsessed with unrealistic beauty standards and raised with the concept of marketing ourselves as products, anonymity is perhaps the most powerful tool for those seeking to escape the shallow trappings of social media and the Internet culture. Going incognito can relieve the pressure of getting liked for how we look and stop us from seeking approval. Which is why Checking Invoices’ comedic take on these issues is so refreshing and unexpectedly necessary, in particular for those working in the fashion industry.
It is a personal experimental project turned Instagram account that was created by two fashion workers who choose to remain anonymous. Their images and videos feature a faceless genderless body wearing the latest catwalk collections from brands like Burberry, Gucci and Calvin Klein. It hints at some of the most iconic looks by legendary club kid Leigh Bowery and Gucci’s Fall/Winter 2018 mask-heavy collection. All this makes for a combination of irony, fashion trend awareness and unintentional social commentary, a needed response and alternative to the selfie generation.
Aside from being visually appealing and funny, what keeps you hooked is the anonymity factor, raising the question as to wether our current oversharing lifestyle is the right path and questioning the role of fashion in creating our identities. It reminds us of Diet Prada, another Instagram fashion account that works as a sort of TMZ for finding out which designer is copying who. Similarly to Checking Invoices, it was run by an anonymous fashion duo. However, once their identities were revealed, one of its main draws was lost. Whilst the accounts content remains interesting, once the mystery was gone, so was its main appeal.
Aside from being visually appealing and funny, what keeps you hooked is the anonymity factor, raising the question as to wether our current oversharing lifestyle is the right path and questioning the role of fashion in creating our identities. It reminds us of Diet Prada, another Instagram fashion account that works as a sort of TMZ for finding out which designer is copying who. Similarly to Checking Invoices, it was run by an anonymous fashion duo. However, once their identities were revealed, one of its main draws was lost. Whilst the accounts content remains interesting, once the mystery was gone, so was its main appeal.
Who are Checking Invoices?
Checking Invoices are a duo consisting of a fashion stylist and a video maker in real life, but within the project, we are an imaginary no gender model and a photographer.
What is the purpose of the project?
Initially, the project was just for the duo’s entertainment, and the Instagram account followed for the same reason. It is a personal interpretation of high fashion in an everyday life with a hint of irony while showing that a faceless and personality-less being can transform itself into anybody while remaining nobody. In the end, what defines identity? And does it need a face?
How was the project born?
Due to the nature of the fashion stylist profession, it all started between friends trying out the looks of the next day's fashion shooting. As one part of the duo hates seeing and having the face photographed, a black fabric was put to hide it. The result was runway looks put on a person that had no face or gender. And that's how it all began.
Your first Instagram post was in December 2016. Your images back then were quite different. In some occasions, your faces were slightly visible. How has the account changed?
The account changed when we conceived the idea of using total bodysuits that completely covered the person. This was the result of the need to cover up even more and perfect the concept as well as the aesthetics.
How do you pick the brands you collaborate with? Do they reach out to you or the other way round?
We usually do not collaborate with specific brands, it's mostly the runway looks that the one half of the duo requests for shootings in magazines. The most important collaboration we made was with Gucci. They contacted us to get involved in their memes project with the best upcoming Instagram accounts and create an image for the watches campaign. That campaign was really early on when we began and gave us a lot of visibility.
Are there any Spanish brands you’d like to wear?
Palomo Spain and Loewe.
Instagram is by far the social network of image: the home of the selfie, fashion, image, etc. In such a world, what motivates you to mask yourself?
Today, everybody is so worried about their looks and makeup contouring! Furthermore, in these times of endless exposure, anonymity becomes by far more appealing. You probably wouldn't interview us if we had the exact same Instagram but with models. So finally, also if we didn't plan it, masking ourselves became also a strategy.
Would you consider yourself the anti-fashion or the opposite?
It could be interpreted in both ways for different and obvious reasons and in this sense we would answer with the cliché: the truth is in the eye of the beholder. Let's just say it's an ironic point of viewing fashion.
What are your thoughts on image both in Instagram and in general?
This question is the topic of a lot of books and studies in the last years, so it's a pretty complex concept to analyse here. Surely social media exposure is exaggerated these days and has created extreme social phenomena influencing human behaviour in many ways. However, we believe that, as everything else, it needs time to be explored and digested by society. But the new generations are already dealing with their self-promotion in a very different and conscious way, and very soon – hopefully – social media will be viewed more like tools than mediums.
What is the goal?
The goal is to create eye-catchy images and videos that capture the clueless part of the fashion world. A genderless model that could be a mannequin or an alien wearing a runway look and put in an everyday life situation as a supermarket. It is an experiment about how do real people react both while shooting but also on social media. Fashion is taken too seriously many times by the people involved in the system – we like provoking them too!
