13/02/2013

New York Fashion Week

New York Fashion Week

It’s around again, New York fashion week is under way with next winter 13-14 collections being shown. Despite the heavy snow storms, models, designers and buyers are continuing business as usual, apart form the Marc Jacobs show which is delayed until early next week.

So whilst there are many key trends which we could point out, we felt that it has been particularly interesting to note how the silhouette and proportions have evolved over the last few seasons. Whilst sportswear and grunge were very key messages during the SS13 runway shows, the continuation of these trends is clear for AW13-14 but with a move on. Fabrics are becoming more sophisticated, silhouettes are moulded from neoprene fabrics creating a wide – either boxy or rounded and sculptured – upper part of the female body, which is then tapered in at the leg with either pencil fit skirts or pleated tapered pants.

We have also seen the crew neck sweatshirt for the last few seasons making a strong comeback, AW sees this basic item transformed into luxury leather, again with the rounded shoulders at Phillip Lim. Embellished and embroidered with gold metallic yarns, all-over sequins and brocade styles are all the new lean on luxury sportswear.

Camouflage, military and utilitarian influences have also moved on from the SS13 lines. Fur camouflage blocking on jackets and bold geometric camouflage patterns freshen up and make modern this military trend. Tangerine and coral are fresh bold colours which compliment the khaki and grey shades which are very dominant.

Biker jackets are still very much here to stay in many shapes, colours and forms. Shrunken proportions with bomber and biker styles worn with high-waisted front pleated tailored trousers give a new masculine edge to womenswear at Rachel Comey.

Tamsin Cook

Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
13/02/2013

We Bandits

We Bandits

“Broadly speaking, one may say that the use of this subordinate, but by no means unimportant art is to enliven with beauty and incident what would otherwise be a blank space, wheresoever or whatsoever it may be.” 

William Morris, The History of Pattern Designing

We Bandits know how to play with patterns. Beginning as a pop-up clothing store in different spaces in Vienna, any space they curated excited the eye with forms and colours. The products were always high quality clothes, shoes, bags and accessories, imprinted with enlivening patterns, colours and textures. From diamonds, stripes and triangles to goldfish, leopard and sharks, We Bandits was not so much a shop as a form of curation, gathering clothes according to theme, pattern, geometry and silhouette.

Since the shop design was inviting like a children’s playspace, but mature enough to be made of the best, it follows that men and women were encouraged to be playful with their choices, whether they are for patterned stockings or handmade printed bow ties. Perhaps this is why the quote above from William Morris is relevant, a writer and a pattern designer who promoted the arts and crafts movement of the late 19th century which exalted decorative, playful and folk styles. Indeed many items on display in We Bandits store are one of a kind works from local or European designers, such as the bow ties from Denmark, which require more than 15 hours of labour each. More endearing than efficient, but that is what a play of patterns is all about.


We Bandits began life as a pop-up. When they sold out of products they bought more pieces and launched again. And again. Right now, in fact, they are selling out of menswear. When the clothes were sold their organisers gathered a new collection from their sources of local artisans, Scandinavian and Korean designers. Now it is still likely to pop-up in diverse spaces. In a more permanent site at Theobaldgasse 14, We Bandits maintains the same unique curation style, while the location may be permanent, customers and friends are constantly surprised with new themes based on ornament and personal taste rather than trends. 
Handmade one of a kind items are sourced from local designers alongside backpacks from Sweden and printed stockings from Seoul, or else a pleated cashmere silk top by Ingrid, matched with a Sandqvist Hans red backpack, as well a scarf by Henrik Vibskov from Denmark. Other brands include Hansen and Libertine-Libertin from Denmark and Our Legacy and Uniforms for the Dedicated from Sweden.

Visiting a We Bandits shop is like looking inside a kaleidoscope. You never know what amazing patterns will emerge, and that you will be invited to be a part of.

Philippa Nicole Barr
 - Images Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek & Mato Johannik 

Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
12/02/2013

Book Machine at Centre Pompidou

Book Machine at Centre Pompidou

The idea of artists producing books isn’t that new or that special. Since the turn of the last century, modern and contemporary artists, lacking other – maybe more expensive, maybe more difficult or maybe less adequate – means, have delved with the production of books and printed matter. If we speak about Kurt Schwitters, Rodchenko, William Morris or even Dieter Roth, we aren’t surely discovering a brand new world, yet it somehow still appears to be an strangely unexplored and unfamiliar to many.


Hence, even if for those immersed head-to-toes in the world of books and independent publishing this might come as a bore, we feel obliged to speak about a new initiative that will take place at Centre Pompidou. Starting from the 20th of February, as a part of the fourth edition of “Un Nouveau festival”, Centre Pompidou will open a new platform for contemporary art publishing: Book Machine. The Book Machine was conceived as an event dedicated to book production in the largest sense. In essence, the commitment of the artist to the realization of their book or catalog is an extension of their body of work, and this results in the creation of what we call the artist’s book. The structure of the event will try to engage the public with the process of production of books, the ideas, theories and methods behind the production process through a series of conferences, events, lectures, discussions, screenings and performances organized and proposed by the publishing house Onestar Press.


Christophe Boutin and Mélanie Scarciglia, co-founders of Onestar Press and Three Star Books state: “At the heart of this engagement and from the depths of the Forum -1 at Centre Pompidou, there will be an atelier and office of book production open to the public, where visitors will witness a daily array of visual artists, writers and designers creating their books.” Besides the artists creating their books, the public will be offered the chance to actively engage in the production of books at the specially created “Book Machine Press”.

It seems that the Book Machine will be the perfect occasion to grasp a hint of that elusive and ever-evolving wondrous world printed paper and artist’s books.


Book Machine, 
Centre Pompidou, 
20 February 2013 – 11 March 2013, 
from 11 to 21.

Rujana Rebernjak

Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
11/02/2013

Ettore Spalletti, Sol LeWitt

Ettore Spalletti, Sol LeWitt

The works of artists Sol LeWitt (b.1928 Harford, Connecticut-2007 New York) and Ettore Spalletti (b. 1940, Cappelle sul Tavo) have never before been engaged in direct, exclusive dialogue at the Massimo Minini’s gallery in Brescia. At first sight, this juxtaposition of the two oeuvres certainly comes as a friendly reunion. LeWitt and Spalletti are among the most widely influential and most important artists of their generation. From the 70s their works have been included in numerous international collections and are exhibited in renowned museums and institutions.

LeWitt’s objects are marked by a reduction to simplest geometrical shapes and surfaces in neat colours. With his large sculptures and wall paitings he belongs to the group of artists who, in mid-60s America, started developing the basis of the american Minimal Art inspired by the aesthetics and culture of the early 60s. That was the era when he coined the term “Conceptual Art” in his pivotal essay “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art” published on Artforum, in June 1967. From that day on, the influence of this great master can be found in great many series of artistic expressions: from the younger generation of artists as well as in architects and designers who took inspiration from Lewitt’s work.
 The art displayed in this exhibition includes his “structures” and paintings in a close and intense dialogue with Spalletti’s works.

Since the mid-70s, Ettore Spalletti has created a language that is suspended between painting and sculpture, focusing on light and space, an approach which is reminiscent of both Minimal Art and the geometry of the purest tradition of the Italian history of art: from Giotto until the present day. 
His chromatic backgrounds cover essential forms which, through the apparent containment within their geometric outlines, become evocative due to the quality of the painting they are imbued with. 
The forms are drawn, then transferred to wood, paper or stone, and finally painted. The drawing is therefore simply the support for the work, which only comes into being when the paint materializes. 
The thickness of the paint is obtained by applying successive layers of mixtures of plaster and pigments, a slow process which takes account the varying times required for the paint to dry. The colour is only revealed in the final moment of this long process when abrasion causes the decomposition of the pigments, making the surfaces powdery, like velvety skin, with an infinite range of shades and slight 
variations.

In both artists there is no “painting” in the traditional sense of the term, but identification between paint and support, between colors and pure structure; there is no “sculpture” in the sense of shaping, because everything here seems to be a projection of one idea or concept more than a result of artists’ gestures or attempts. 
Both Spalletti’s and LeWitt’s works are painted in delicate and precise colours that cancel all signs of emotivity: the result is a visual ambient of purity and contemplation, oscillating from an open relation to a definitive structure, 
giving each surface a breadth that alludes to life and its figurativeness without figures.

The exhibition will run until the end of March 2013.

Riccardo Conti

Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
10/02/2013

Sunday Breakfast by Love For Breakfast

Sunday Breakfast by Love For Breakfast

Create an intimate chemistry with the food you love, it will turn into a slow discovery of who you are.

Alessia Bossi from Love For Breakfast

Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
08/02/2013

Paris in Colour

Paris in Colour

Dramatic and alluring, Paris is the European capital of art and the artistic. After all, it is the birthplace of the Belle Époque, the land of the Impressionists, a playground for literary greats (Hemingway, Stein and Fitzgerald spring to mind) and a city of love and revolution. And then there are the locals. Synonymous with elegance, the Parisian, and their unparalleled sense of ‘no fuss’ style, have an in-built appreciation of all things beautiful.


But nowadays there’s more to the artistic scene of this thoroughly modern city. Yes, being exquisite, traditional and passionate are rather wonderful traits to have, but true French contemporary character is found in the lesser-known backstreets. There’s something perfectly charming and just a little bit subversive about Paris’ vibrant street art.

Covering the corners of the Marais and spreading across the city from there, these little works, painted anonymously onto walls in the dead of the night, mix quirk, whimsy and daring. Any work that springs up in the Marais quickly becomes part of a greater collage; plastered, painted or tiled over by the next artist with a creative enough thought in their head. A crepe or a falafel in hand (you’re in the food-loving Marais after all) you can spend hours pondering images of cars, space invaders and monsters in every imaginable shape – and wonder who exactly left them there. No doubt throngs of locals will join you in your ambling.


For street art with an intellectual flair head to the Latin Quarter, the centre of Parisian academic life. Packed with libraries, bird-filled squares, cafes and the Sorbonne, the art you find here may not be as chaotic and compact as that of the Marais, but it’s certainly thought-provoking. Adapted quotes, reclaimed street signs and a yearning for freedom; here colour and zeal reign supreme.

Naturally, the Musee d’Orsay, Musee de l’Orangerie and Louvre must be visited – few things are as grand as a roomful of Monet or Grand Masters – but for the newest, most uplifting art you’re going to have to take to the streets.


Liz Schaffer – Images Angela Terrell

Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
08/02/2013

Pretty in Pink: John Cale at the Brooklyn Academy of Music

Pretty in Pink: John Cale at the BAM

John Cale recently returned to New York to perform his landmark 1973 album, Paris 1919, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. At 70, he remains as captivating a performer as ever, although his hair – always the hair with him – continues to look like a bag of cotton candy caught in a rat’s nest. But hey, this is the guy who co-founded The Velvet Underground with Lou Reed, the guy who ate copious amounts of barbiturates and then wrote songs about getting off on getting whipped, and who once – in a fit of drug-fueled rage – decapitated a chicken onstage and beat its lifeless body into a pancake with a steel meat cleaver. Dude can wear it any way he wants.

Cale made a name for himself early, abandoning his musicology studies at Goldsmiths’ College in the early 60s to move to the States and study with Yannis Xenakis and La Monte Young. He would spend the next fifty years dabbling in drone, folk, punk, classical, chamber pop, rock and roll, and avant-garde. Along the way he’s produced albums by Nico, The Stooges, Patty Smith, and The Modern Lovers, and collaborated with the likes of Nick Drake, Brian Eno, and LCD Soundsystem. His unpredictably eclectic solo catalog has often been called too weird for pop and too straight for the avant-garde, and he has the distinction of being the only artist ever to play eighteen-hour drone compositions with John Cage and appear on the Shrek soundtrack.

Paris 1919 is an appropriate choice for a BAM retrospective, as it finds Cale in complete control as a songwriter, arranger, and producer. His early contributions to the Velvets gave Lou Reed’s narratives a deliberate and unnerving edge, particularly on tracks like “Venus In Furs”, “Black Angel’s Death Song”, “Heroin”, and “Sister Ray”. By contrast, the songs on Paris 1919 are instantly hummable, intimate vignettes of Cale’s childhood in Wales. Which might explain why Cale’s been keen on revisiting the work in recent years: It’s his most accessible and personal statement. “This is nostalgia, pure and simple,” he said in a recent interview with The New York Times. “I’m writing about the stuff that I miss about Europe.”

His set at the Brooklyn Academy of Music included material from year’s Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood and his Velvet Underground days. At the end of the night, when he started in on the opening notes of “Venus in Furs”, I half expected Lou himself to walk out and say hello. But it wasn’t meant to be. (They don’t get along, and besides, Lou was across town that night at an Allen Ginsberg poetry event.) This was Cale’s night, anyway, and rightly so.

Lane Koivu

Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
07/02/2013

The Pillars of FW

The Pillars of FW

For many they are an unparalleled economic opportunity, for others just a cliché replaceable with different marketing and communications tools. During those days the drivers whizzing running through the streets in search of the client’s most generous tip. Bars, restaurants and bistros flock to the same rate as the prices for their à la carte menus soar. On the scene, fashion weeks, the most discussed: Paris, Milan, London, New York and the newcomer Berlin.

Every nation is rooting for its own. Because, apart from the fun theater which is celebrated every hour in front of the entrance of the shows, this mechanism called Fashion Industry translates on paper in billions of dollars, thousands of jobs and a good amount of social implications.


This anxiety often ends up devaluing the real pregnant strength of each. It would be more conscious to take note of what every Fashion Week has good in its DNA. In London we celebrate the feast of Underground. The youth subcultures, the fresher, lively and less affected by the global logics, go up on the catwalk. In Milan it comes to expertise, craftsmanship, excellence of the hand-made, that hallmark all people show reverence; Made in Italy. In Paris slips off creativity. Everything you claim to be above, much closer to dreams and desire. In New York you decide the season’s trends, what you sell, what consumers want and what the market will give them. Cultural inspirations coming from North and miscellaneous agitations that include the british, street, punk and gothic style join together in Berlin, the fashion week that we have just learned to follow, that we foresee to be the next big thing. The deutsche city of contradictions has a little more than for a couple of years stood in front of World Fashion System face.

It’s almost impossible for one of the five face the game for all, because the beauty and the interest of press and buyers from all over the world lies in the diversity that characterizes each fashion week.

By the way, being sharp, you could do just a note to London and Milan Fashion Weeks, which often become a shapeless conglomeration of shows and presentations concentrated in a few days, to meet the wishes of foreign operators, who do not like being out of the country for too long. Well done instead for Paris and New York that, through a clever interplay of corporation, always manage to put big names at the beginning and in the end of the event, “compelling” gracefully professionals to stay in town for every day of the shows. This mechanism allows the city to take a breath, operators to see with no hurry everything that is proposed to them, and tourism organizators and servicers to have a large catchment area delayed with several days.

Strengths and weaknesses aside, we like to think that the reason that still drives hundreds and hundreds of people to move from one end of the planet to see “only” clothes, is not the mere and coveted money, but also other factors. Creativity, expression of oneself, research, delight for the eyes? Who knows. Perhaps, in times like these, people have a desperate desire to dream. Or rather, what they want is “the illusion of dream you can dream again”. So that’s okay.


Antonio Moscogiuri Dinoi

Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
07/02/2013

Nostalgia: A Ghost From A Fashion Past

Nostalgia: A Ghost From A Fashion Past

There is a moment, a grievous one, when we start thinking of our lost youth. But since we can’t regain that fresh skin of our green days, we have to try another way to go back and feel younger. No need to go for plastic surgery and hair transplant, we may just need to open the closet. We all have those certain pieces that we haven’t thrown away during years of spring cleanings, because we had the feeling that sooner or later we would have use of them again. Hidden behind the gym stuff, or in the lowest drawer, they are there, ready to be used once more.

Don’t wait until the trend repeats itself, take them out now. Use your creativity, be visionary, improvise a kickass styling, and here we go! Trends always look back, we know, so you must do the same. Forgotten things from the past could become the it-pieces of your tomorrow’s style, if used wisely.


Grandma’s closet
She has always known how to look elegant and refined, doesn’t matter if she was going to a wedding or working in a factory. If you are lucky, she has kept her favourite pieces. No need to go for the jewelry; hair turbans, long gloves and dancing shoes will be enough to give your style some retro allure.

Mum’s closet
Your mother lived and wore the best and the worst of the 70-80s. This means that in her drawers could be found shoulder pads, colourful fuseaux, XL t-shirts bought during her holidays and at concerts. She could be very ashamed of all that stuff, denying the possession of such. Your task would be to show her that the style has reborn.

Your own closet
This is where the magic will truly happen. You may have forgotten them, but some clothes from your childhood are still there: eyed-sandals, plastic rucksacks, printed allovers and Peruvian hats. And if you really want to dare: fannypacks and Fornarina shoes. If they don’t fit you anymore, you can always re-buy them in your actual size.

There is only one rule to follow: use irony. You don’t want to look like you’re going to a masquerade party, just having fun with fashion. The last thing you need is not to let yourself be intimidated by the strange looks that other people may give you. Seeing items they haven’t even thought about in decades will take them by surprise at first, before running to their own forgotten closet spaces. Double aim accomplished: feel younger and more stylish with just the aid of an old forgotten item.

Sara Golfetto

Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
06/02/2013

Guest Interview n°44: Stine Riis

Guest Interview n°44: Stine Riis

R II S is the brand created by the Danish designer Stine Riis in 2011, the same year as she graduated from London College of Fashion and was chosen as one of The Best Student Worldwide by Vogue Italia. In 2012, she was also the first winner ever of H&M Design Award and did, besides the small collection for the Swedish fast-fashion chain, a collaboration with the Italian luxury store Luisa Via Roma. To say the least, things have been going good for Stine Riis. The Blogazine met with the designer after her A/W13 runway show during Copenhagen Fashion Week to talk about expectations, inspiration and the future.

2012 was a big year for you: the H&M Design Award among other things. Did you feel any pressure or anxiety over expectations while creating this collection?
Well, the collection I did right after the H&M Award was definitely a challenge because I thought I had a lot to live up to and as well, I had a lot of projects going on: I did the collaboration with Luisa Via Roma, I did the collection for H&M and then again, my own collection. Simply, there was a lot going on but with this collection I had more time, and more time to work into details, which I think really shows!

So you felt more relaxed about this collection?
The fall/winter season certainly is my comfort zone and last season was my first spring/summer collection ever, so in that way that was a big challenge. Today, with this collection, everything really came together and I am very pleased. I’m…I’m just speechless!

What was the process up to this A/W13 collection like? What was your main inspiration?
I was looking at geological studies of different materials and that is where the inspiration to do colours came from. I was also looking a lot at still life paintings and the symbols often used in them, such as hourglasses and other symbols that reference to the fast pace of life, which also links into fashion for me.

What is your philosophy looking at fashion from this time perspective?
Fashion changes so fast and that’s my constant dilemma as a designer because I’m trying to design these items that you want to wear more than one season, and that’s also why I really look into the materials I use.

And now, what lies ahead for R II S?
I try to make time to sometimes step away from my everyday life to try to see the big picture and plan for the future, I think that is really important.

Can you give us any hints on what the future holds?
Not yet, but definitely going abroad, that’s a plan.

Lisa Olsson Hjerpe – Image courtesy of Copenhagen Fashion Week®

Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
Next Page » « Previous Page