The Muse of SAPPHICA

The Muse of SAPPHICA

by Mark Baigent

To begin talking about my work is to begin to talk about the feeling I have when I start designing. Each collection is my attempt to create a dialogue between contemporary sociopolitical issues and fashion, to connect a topic that evokes feelings and identity with something tangible like garments. In this blog post I firstly want to give a bit of a background knowledge to the muse and main protagonist of my collection for spring summer 2026, the greek musician an lyricist Sappho of Lesbos.
I will connect her theoretical approaches to art with how we are experiencing the world today, to finally draw a conclusion as to how fashion can be a form of resistance through presence and creation.

Sappho of Lesbos, who lived in the 6th century BCE, is widely recognised as one of the earliest lyric poets in Western history. In contrast to the epic tradition of male poets such as Homer, whose works centred on war, conquest, and heroic narratives, Sappho explores internal conflicts. Her poetry focuses on intimacy, desire, longing, and the emotional dimensions of human connection. Most notably, she addressed same-sex love between women, a radical subject for her era (Uniyal, 2025, p. 2). Today, only fragments of her poetry survive, preserved through quotation and the passage of time. Despite their incomplete nature, these remnants hold an intensity that feels contemporary, as her work continues to be referenced today (Shively, 2025). Sappho’s voice resists existing in the space between absence and presence, which may explain why her work has enduring resonance. She wrote from a deeply personal perspective, inspiring artists such as Björk, Florence + the Machine, and Lana Del Ray (Pizzi, 2025 p. 3).

Sappho subtly shifted focus from actions to emotions, challenging the traditionally masculine traits regarded as strong and heroic, such as conquest, annexation, violence, and war. Through this redirection, her significance and resistance become evident, originating over two millennia ago. This serves as the foundation for my collection, SAPPHICA. While the dominant narratives of Sappho’s era celebrated power achieved through domination, monopoly, conquest, hierarchy, and ownership, Sappho’s work foregrounded bodily agency, identity, care, connection, and emotional maturity. I see clear parallels between these historical dynamics and contemporary issues in 2026, including the monopolisation of industries, their influence on legislation, the silencing of minority voices, and the regulation of women’s and trans bodies.



Sapphos Fragment 16 becomes central here:

“Some say an army of horsemen, some of foot soldiers, some of ships, is the most beautiful thing on the black earth. But I say it is whatever one loves.”

This line does not merely oppose war. Sappho's art reframes the value of war. It places desire, tenderness, and subjective experience above structures of control. In today’s context, where systems of power continue to dictate whose bodies are protected, whose identities are validated, and whose stories are erased, this gesture feels urgent. Sappho’s refusal to adopt dominant ideals becomes a form of resistance, one that operates not through confrontation, but through presence. With SAPPHICA, I consciously move away from distance and passivity. The world we are navigating now demands clarity, honesty, and connection. The past months have revealed how visible systems of power have become, how violence is framed, and how narratives are controlled. 
Within this context, I pose the same question that Sappho articulated in her own way: how do we redefine what is truly valuable?

My response aligns with Sappho: value is redefined through creation. The silhouettes in SAPPHICA are guided by instinct rather than rigid rules. Linen blends, airy cottons, and silks serve as both skin and armour, featuring raw edges and distressed finishes that reveal the maker’s hand. Like Sappho’s poetic fragments, my garments reject perfection and celebrate the beauty in rawness. This philosophy extends to the batik prints, where traditional techniques form a visual language that resists uniformity. Developed in collaboration with a batik master, the “Noda” (Indonesian for “Stain”) print embraces the stain as a presence rather than a flaw, a mark that cannot be erased, much like the emotional traces Sappho describes.
Deep basalt grey and malachite green serve as the collection's foundational colours. Malachite symbolises transformation and protection, offering a material representation of resilience. When paired with black, these colours create a dynamic tension between visibility and concealment. The chosen colours reject rigid gender codes and express fluidity, ambiguity, and emotional depth as forms of strength.

SAPPHICA embodies this philosophy. Sappho demonstrates that moving through emotions can lead to love as a form of resistance. I aim to use fashion as my medium of resistance, not through force, but through presence, making, wearing, and visibility. As we wear fashion, it becomes part of our presence in a space. So while Sappho claimed space through language, I claim it through textiles.


-MB






REFERENCES:

Alessia Pizzi,
“From Lyre to Pop: The Timeless Voice of Sappho in Contemporary Music”, February 7, 2025, https://femalevoices.substack.com/p/from-lyre-to-pop-the-timeless-voice.

Shively, R. (2025).
Joining the Sapphic Tradition: A Contemporary Approach to Translating Sappho and Catullus.

Uniyal, B. C. (2025).
Sappho - A Lyric Poetess. Research Journal of English Language and Literature, 13(4), 506–511. http://www.rjelal.com/13.4.25/506511%20Dr.%20Bipin%20Chandra%20Uniyal.pdf

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