05/10/2012

Global Fashion Show Trend Overview – Summer 13

Global Fashion Show Trend Overview – Summer 13

Here at The Blogazine, we’ve been following the SS13 runway shows from the fashion capitals; New York to London to Milan and rounding off in joli Paris. Each city is unique and creates its own buzz and attitude. We’ve been analyzing closely the key trends and have selected some of our favorites.

CUT OUTS


Cut outs are popular this season with designers creating slick laser cut geometric shapes, from rounded geometric shapes at Rue du Mail to harlequin diamonds at Balmain or more nature inspired leafy cut outs at Sass & Bide on leather and crisp cottons. Layered or simply worn against the skin, it seems to be the next move on in a more bold form of the lace hype.

RUFFLES

Ruffles came cascading down the runways in many shapes and forms. From romantic flounces in chiffon at Chloe and Dries Van Noten to more structured and sculptured voluminous shapes at Balenciaga which created a more dramatic “Flamenco” style.

FUTURISTIC

There was a definite shift towards a futuristic space-like trend for some designers. Incorporating metallic and high-tech fabrics in Star Trek-like silhouettes, colour-blocking taking on a 90s clubwear look from London and Tokyo at the time from Junya Watanabe. You could also spot alien like make-up, all of which created a back to the future zoom.

50 SHADES OF ORANGE
We mentioned orange being hot in our NY fashion week report. Across the globe orange has still been standing out as a key bright for next summer. From acidic orange to peach, pumpkin and rusty orange, all possible shades are creating a vibrant positive note to the season.

SWEATSHIRTS


The humble sweatshirt is still looking strong for next season. Designers interpret the item into sheer structured silhouettes at Stella McCartney to more Sloppy-Joe style at Ashish or embellished and decorated at Holly Fulton. This versatile item can be transformed into any look.

JAILBIRD STRIPES

Black and white jailbird stripes could not go un-noticed this season. It was a must-have amongst many hitlist designers. Translated into many forms from 60s mini dresses at Marc Jacobs, 80s paper-bag waisted trousers at Balmain, square boxy shape suits at Acne and Devastee to more feminine dresses and long flowing pleated skirts at Kors and Victor & Rolf.

SPORTSWEAR


Sportswear continues to be a big influence to many designers. Designers have created molded volume shapes using functional details like zippers and draw-strings and combining sporty fabrics such as airtex mesh and light weight performance nylons. In some cases a more luxurious attitude was mixed in using sequins in sporty shapes combined with sweatpants giving a 90s feel to the silhouettes.

80s ICONS AT JEAN PAUL GAULTIER

And last but not least, we couldn’t resist picking out Jean Paul Gaultier’s show, with this theatrical tribute to some very recognizable 80s music icons. We’ll leave you to guess who’s who!

Tamsin Cook

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04/10/2012

Fashion’s Lifecycle Revisited

Fashion’s Lifecycle Revisited

After an unparalleled age of affluenza, in which the rat race of obsessive materialism reigned supreme, the irrepressible desire for more appears to have become a relic of the past. That is, for an ever-increasing group of conscious fashionistas who have made re-evaluating their consumption habits a priority.
 In tandem with the persistent economical malaise and growing environmental concerns, the practice of downshifting and lowering our individual carbon footprint has become a mainstream paradigm.


In the field of fashion and retail, examples of this alternative, more sustainable modus operandi are ample and diverse. 
For example, today’s vogue for vintage, in the form of re-using old clothes, whereby items are almost magically elevated from ‘rags to riches’, embodies today’s practice of recycling par excellence. In fact, rummaging through flea markets, luxury consignment shops or vintage boutiques in the hopes of finding a vintage treasure, has moved from a niche market to become the habitual realm of the everyday shopper. 
Upgrading or customizing used clothes, by converting already worn clothes into new materials or entirely unique, new items, also coined as ‘upcycling’, are similarly high on the rise. As such, most vintage stores offer a selection of these types of re-constructed, re-commodified apparel. 
It is a different, more durable outlook on fashion that Martin Margiela, dubbed by iconic fashion critic Suzy Menkes as “fashion’s founding father of recycling”, already initiated with his clothing in the late 1980s, as a means to let fashion re-think its role and function.

Additionally, the manual, démodé act of knitting, stitching and seaming, in bygone times the ultimate praxis of domesticity and femininity, has equally become a peaceable pastime for a growing group of (mostly) women. In result, this busyness is occasionally organized collaboratively via knitting collectives or through the numerous Etsy Labs that are coordinated worldwide.


Ethical, self-reliant Do-It-Yourself fashion, as subrogate for clothing that is mass manufactured by use of dangerous chemicals, is more in style than ever.
 By the same token, the manufacture of ‘green’, eco fashions have become thriving industries in contemporary time. Accordingly, the urge to reduce environmental degradation has set a new imperative for today’s entire fashion hemisphere. 
Organic denim label Nudie Jeans takes the sustainable creed a step further by lengthening the lifespan of their garments, by means of repairing – entirely free of charge – one’s old pair of Nudie denim. In addition, clients can trade in their used Nudie jeans to let it be recycled or re-sold as second hand. In line with this development, many shoe stores have begun a similar strategy, whereby clients acquire discount when they hand in their old, worn out pairs to let them be recycled. 
Prolonging the lifespan of clothing and thus extending fashion’s lifecycle has as such, become the new mandate. In view of these progressions, the traditional, ruthless, capitalist mode of producing apparel, has surely reached its lifespan.

Claire van den Berg

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03/10/2012

The Editorial: Shit We Say

The Editorial: Shit We Say

The Shit Girls Say meme was a mini revelation: an a-ha treasure trove of hilarity. Zing! American girls, look at how hilarious and absurd you are! Except that, as clever things on the internet tend to do, it grew to become just a theme on which countless variations (hyperbole: it’s just more than 700, apparently) would be made. Before long it had become “Shit (insert-group-here)-ers/-ites/-[etc.] Say” and everyone had been parodied–girls, guys, gangsters, gringos, gays, geriatrics, gorillas, giraffes, Greeks, Germans, Georgians – and if you know someone who kinda fit into any of the boxes, you were on the floor in stitches.

It was almost as if we were holding up mirrors to our friends’ faces. Except, what we were (and remain) oblivious to is that mirrors were being held up to our own imperfect faces. To illustrate, the star of the “Shit…” video parodying the citizenry of my very culturally unique home state in the USA has become a local folk hero of sorts, and has gone on to be featured in television commercials and print adverts. Her portrayal of the accent, linguistic quirks and localisms was spot on and we loved her for it. But few realised that it was in fact themselves, ourselves!–our accent, our quirks – who made any “Shit…” video hilarious. I don’t talk like that! I don’t sound that moronic!

So, great. We’re all both predictable and ridiculous. But since we hear an awful lot about social media’s fragmentation of society, it seems counterintuitive that such a hyperindividualistic (I probably just made that word up) society could be painted in 700 or so odd brush strokes. The videos merely seize upon some broad particularities of broad groups, yet that so many of them ring so true is more than a small reason for us to take a long hard look at ourselves.

A growing number of sociologists who contend that since social networks encourage grouping with like-minded individuals, we are inadvertently sequestering ourselves into neater and more well-defined (and perhaps confining) boxes than ever. You are a teen girl and are therefore predictably ____. Zing! You are a twentysomething who lives in Brooklyn and are therefore predictably ____. Zing! Some even blame recent bursts of extremism, from Al Qaeda to the Tea Party on this dynamic: like minded people with bad ideas in a post-geographic community of critical mass. But shouldn’t it be easier in this day and age to transcend the most basic assumptions about who we are and avoid being reduced to hapless, unthinking stereotypes?

Now, go watch the video that best parodies you. Will you laugh?

With some seriously well-styled images, Kyle Humphrey and Graydon Sheppard have turned the online phenom into a nifty little book that launched last week in London. Pick up a copy at KK Outlet in Hoxton Square.

Tag Christof – Images courtesy KK Outlet

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02/10/2012

New York Art Book Fair

New York Art Book Fair

It takes only a short stroll in the Internet to figure out that September and October are tightly packed with various book fairs around the globe. From Paris and London, to Brussels and New York, the art book market seems to grow like mushrooms after a long rain. Was it because of a dry summer with no events, it’s hard to judge, but the autumn/winter book publishing season definitely seems to be quite demanding. With all the love we nourish towards books and independent publishing, it’s difficult not being critical about the current state of the game.

From being a shy events for a niche of book-lovers, the art book fairs have grown to become a major cultural happening. Even though sharing the ideas, developments, historical insights and beautiful craftsmanship that underpins book-making is surely a great thing, maybe a more critical approach should be taken towards the whole idea of the book fair and independent publishing. This is precisely why the New York Art Book Fair is to be admired.


The ‘Queen of the fairs’, New York Art Book Fair is almost a historical event promoted by Printed Matter, a non-profit organization devoted to promotion and distribution of artists’ books and independent art publishing, founded back in the days by a group of acclaimed artists. Held from the 28th until the 30th of September, this year’s edition, as usual, was packed with events, exhibitions and talks, while allowing a long list of international publishers (precisely 283 of them) to exhibit their production. Among the events, the lucky visitors at MoMA PS1, could see three exhibitions of “individuals whose contributions have enriched the field of artists’ books”: “An Homage to Mike Kelley”, “In Memoriam: The Book Catalogs of Steven Leiber” and “In Memorium: the Publications of John McWhinnie”. If this wasn’t enough, the tireless visitors had the chance to participate in the Contemporary Artists’ Books Conference, a two day event focused on emerging practices and debates within art-book culture, with Lucy Lippard and Paul Chan as keynote speakers.

If the array of events offered by NY Art Book Fair didn’t quite fill-up the most passionate ones, don’t worry we will keep you posted on the next not-to-be-missed-but-not-that-incredible book fairs, which definitely still have a lot to learn from our beloved Long Island ‘queen’.


Rujana Rebernjak

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01/10/2012

Chloé’s Kaleidoscopic Attitudes

Chloé’s Kaleidoscopic Attitudes

To celebrate its 60th birthday, La Maison Chloé presents an exhibition retracing the history of its passions. Chloé Attitudes is a path through memories, insights and inspirations of a brand able to give birth to iconic and influential styles. The show, which is now on view at the amazing space of Palais de Tokyo, features archive objects, never-published shots and drawings by renowned artists, along with sketches of selected pieces by Chloé’s creative roster, the nine top designers who glamorized the brand years by years: from the founder Gaby Aghion, through Gérard Pipart, Maxime de La Falaise, Karl Lagerfeld, Martine Sitbon, Stella McCartney, Phoebe Philo, Hannah MacGibbon, to the present Clare Waight Keller.



To accompany the tracking of attitudes displayed by the fashion house, 2DM’s talent Carolina Melis – an Italian illustrator and art director, based in London and with an international professional background that led her to invent moving pictures for major clients such as Prada, Vogue Japan, Sony, Barclays (just to mention a few) – was commissioned to design and direct an original animation spotlighting the unique colours and textiles, which have always characterize lady Chloé. To do this, once again, Carolina turned to a charming and hypnotic tool: the Kaleidoscope that gives theme and title to the film. Images that remind magnetic mandala, rotating geometric figures and coloured patterns pinpointing beautiful symmetric compositions – virtually – made of embroideries, crêpe de chine, cotton popeline, chiffon floating to the tune of Colleen’s sound track creating multiple reflections.

As a gift for all vintage lovers, the Maison will re-edit some emblematic items, which will be available in Chloé boutiques from February 2013. Among the artists who interpreted the key moments of Chloé’s flair we are proud to count Sandra Suy with her romantic and alluring illustrations such as the Top Ananas by Stella McCartney, the Violin by Karl Lagerfeld, or the virginal A-line blouse by Phoebe Philo.

Chloé Attitudes will run until 18th November 2012 at Palais de Tokyo, 13 av du Président Wilson, 16th. M° Iéna. If you turn up there, don’t miss it!

Monica Lombardi – Illustrations Carolina Melis & Sandra Suy

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01/10/2012

Little Red Riding Hood Is The Wolf

Little Red Riding Hood Is The Wolf

Kiki Smith (German-born in 1954, but a long-time New Yorker) has been investigating the relation between space and human bodies, psychology shaped by instincts and fantasies since 90’s.

The works by Smith – mainly sculptures and drawings on paper with a sharp and direct mark – reflect her introspective and intimate concept of art, somehow seen as a post-traumatic experience and lived as a sort of exorcism. Showing female images – sometimes stained with blood, laid down on the floor, in a mystic ecstasy, or crawling and losing their entrails – the artist recalls mother and childish figures immersed in dreamlike atmospheres like fairytale characters, but not necessarily “positive”.


With evocative poetry, which gathers together ancestral and esoteric symbols: mythological creatures, owls and fawns that bring to mind the eternal interchange between brightness and darkness as in Persephone’s rise and descent from and to Hades, Kiki Smith shows the perishability of human bodies and their vulnerability. Using wax, chalk, china, bronze and dropping them on organs such as hearts, wombs, pelvises, and ribs, the artist seems to play an archaic and, at the same time, erotic and twisted ritual, expressing a strong and primary aptitude, which tends toward death. Fighting against patriarchy is a key factor that always rules her works, but while for Louise Bourgeois (25 December 1911 – 31 May 2010) this approach was focused on men’s destruction, Smith moves her attention to women’s diverse forms of mourning.


In By the Stream at Raffaella Cortese Gallery, the artist makes use of photography as a mean to retrace her hold dear subjects and imaginative worlds; once again living beings have been thrown into the nature of fabulous and timeless scenarios. Shooting details of her creations, Smith opens the door to numerous interpretations: a red cap hides one’s face, is this the image of a woman who fights the wolf, succumbs to it, or learns to live in symbiosis with it and, more in general, with the mother earth? She could be fragile, scared and abused, but also well aware of her nature, able to move between objective and unconscious reality, embodying the maiden, the mother and/or the Mistress of animals as an evolved archetype: a sort of contemporary Hecate.

Kiki Smith’s exhibition will run until 15th November 2012 along with the solo show by the Czech photographer Jitka Hanzlovà, hosted in the second space of the gallery.

Monica Lombardi – Many thanks to Raffaella Cortese Gallery.

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