12/07/2013

Chaos to Couture: The Book

“Punk has had an incendiary influence on fashion.” Andrew Bolton, curator at The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art concludes it well, speaking about the exhibition PUNK: Chaos to Couture, currently showing at the MET.


Today the editorial office received the beautiful book that on its 240 pages reproduces the expo in images and text. Together with the photographs from the exhibition, the book features a six page intro by Andrew Bolton and words written by personalities like John Lydon (maybe more known by his stage name Johnny Rotten), Richard Hell, Jon Savage and Vivienne Westwood. A punk archive, adding a bit of edge to our bookshelf.




From the Bureau 
Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
04/07/2013

Child’s Play

There has been a comeback for the one-piece. Different interpretations of the jumpsuit have been seen on the runway, season after season, Fall as well as Spring. How come such a childlike silhouette has become almost a must in our closets?

The jumpsuits in the Diane von Furstenberg 2013 Fall collection tell the story of a comfortable elegance through prints in somber colors and luxurious materials. The construction and use of the fabrics are creating a silhouette that is still young but more feminine and less junior, a key element in elevating the style from the play pen to the runway.

The monochromatic trend has been another vocal trend for many seasons. In the Viktor & Rolf pre-Spring collection for 2014 the LBJ – the Little Black Jumpsuit – is exemplified in all its simplicity; the black silk bow and the bottom cut at mid-calf has the look of giving a coquettish wink to a suit a boy in the early 20th century might wear. However the tailoring brings the mind back to the fashionable 2014.

At Maison Martin Margiela the collaboration of a plunging sweetheart neckline with a long wide pant legs give a feminine touch to formal wear without ever really crossing the line, making the garment accurate for both night and day. At Emilio Pucci the black jumpsuit became the canvas for uniting an urban silhouette – like the mid-calf cargo pants – with an Asian print.

The loose fit and the oversized t-shirt sleeves of the one-piece from Stella McCartney’s Spring 2014 collection are resembling the old work clothing from the 1940s, creating an urban feel to the piece and again, the construction and materials give it a modern and fashionable spin instead of a childlike state.


As discussed above, the one piece has – for now – a perfect fit in fashion due to its ease and playfulness, which is always in demand, not to mention its ability to transcend chic to comfort and work in harmony with other trends. It has also given designers a silhouette to a perfect juxtaposition, which is something that can generate unexpected items such as a trenchcoat jumpsuit as seen at the Chanel 2014 Cruise collection in Singapore. Something that is anything but childish.

Victoria Edman 
Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
04/07/2013

From the Beach to the City with Roy Roger’s

Summer is the time when surf enthusiasts take every chance to catch the waves, the city kids catch the air-conditioning and the rest of us catches anything that brings us to the beach. Summer is the time we associate with blue skies, bright sunshine, colourful surroundings, lazy days at the beach or hot days in the city. The fashion associations go to fabrics with prints, an overload of colours, loose fits and comfortable, yet chic, attires. The Blogazine did a dig into the Italian brand Roy Roger’s summer 2013’s beachwear and found denim replicates and hibiscus flowers, working at the beach as well as for a day back in town.

Roy Roger’s is a brand we normally look to for denim, so when we discovered that the denim had sneaked into the beach collection, we had to take a closer look. Denim goes all year around but for summer there is special love. For SS13, Roy Roger’s has taken some of their typical jeans washes and reproduced them on their beachwear shorts, giving them an authentic feel with the right washings and worn out effects. The beach “denim” has also been given a touch of colour when mixed with the brand’s famous flower prints, making the shorts differ from a regular pair of cut-off denim in more aspects than the fitted materials.

Surf Heritage is a collection we already had a sneak-peak at last summer, mixing functional materials and colorful prints with the comfort needed for an active day at the beach. Fabrics like Italian cotton-linen mix, colombian gabardine and Japanese chambray have been decorated with floral prints and the back pockets have been repositioned for a more comfortable fit for the ones who need to spend time on the surf board.

The fact that the beach line – featuring also pants, shorts and several models of shirts – seems to be designed with more than the beach in mind makes the whole concept a lot more interesting. When matching the denim feel or hawaiian prints with something more dressy, the shorts work perfectly as a part of any regular wardrobe selections.

Roy Roger’s will be available worldwide at Sevenbell.com within short.

Lisa Olsson Hjerpe – Illustrations by Jaume Vilardell 
Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
27/06/2013

4 Questions To – Anton Grahnström

Talking to creative and art directors from different parts of the world, The Blogazine took a moment to speak with Anton Grahnström, one of the founding partners of the Stockholm-based studio Unestablished. Before settling down in Sweden, Anton worked with some of London’s finest studios and his list of clients carries more than a few high-profile names. For The Blogazine, Anton Grahnström talks about not wanting to feel established, the importance of working with inspiring people and the ups and downs of being located in a city like Stockholm.

London to Stockholm, Burberry to Absolut Vodka, fashion to books to exhibitions to being a lecturer at Beckmans – your resumé has some width, to say the least. What type of projects do you enjoy the most?
I wouldn’t say that it’s as wide as it may seem. The process and the aesthetics in my projects have tended to be pretty stringent, although they have resulted in different kinds of output for different kinds of brands. For me, it’s usually not the projects themselves – the brand, media or the output – I enjoy the most. It’s the people I work with. Getting to collaborate with inspiring people is at the core of every good project I’ve been involved in. When I started out I think I had a clearer idea of what kind of end result I wanted, but as time went by I discovered that the result turned out to be less important, while the process and the people involved became increasingly interesting. The context, and the exchange between people, is always the core. My work is definitely not about being the lonely artist. It’s more about creating a context where good work can be done. Doing a great shoot, or whatever the actual job is, is such a small part of the challenge. When everything is in place, the result doesn’t seem “good”. It just seems natural.

You started Unestablished in 2010 – how has these first three years been? Do you feel established yet?
The name came from an idea of working with very established clients, but doing that from an underdog perspective. There’s a certain kind of energy in that. So in that sense, I don’t think I ever want to feel established. I want to stay with one foot on the outside, moving on to the next thing.

I think successfully starting a company requires you to be at a sort of tipping point – naïve enough to think you always know best, and experienced enough to actually deliver on the projects you take on. I think I was in that place when I started Unestablished. In one sense, I feel like we’ve come a long way in the last three years, and in another way, I feel like things could have moved a lot faster. In my mind, I’m way ahead of where we actually are right now. But when looking at the projects we’ve done in the last three years, I realize that it would have been impossible to do all that in a year and still do good work.

Unestablished is based in Stockholm and you have experience from working with Swedish companies, designers and magazine. How do you look on Swedish fashion and Stockholm’s position in the fashion industry?
Stockholm will always be a small town in northern Europe that nobody really cares about, and that’s a good thing. It turns this place into a play house, where everyone’s open to experiments. If it doesn’t work out, it’s not the end of the world. On the downside, as with all small towns, there’s a streamlining of expressions and ideas. There’s simply not room for as many different influences as there is in a larger city, like London.

Another positive aspect of Stockholm is the accessibility. There’s lot of talent here, and everyone knows everyone. If you want to work with someone, you simply call them up and they will be in your office an hour later, having coffee. That means creating the right context with inspiring people, as a mentioned earlier, a lot easier.

Do you believe that the location from where one works, Stockholm in your case, affects and influences one’s work in any way? How?
I think we are a lot more affected by our physical surroundings than we might think. Most of our influences come from our immediate surroundings – our upbringing, family, friends, the walk to work. I’m constantly surrounded by things that I don’t even think of as Swedish, or Scandinavian, but naturally, it’s not a coincidence that there is a Scandinavian aesthetic. It doesn’t come from nothing. At the same time, we become increasingly globalized. Everyone, all over the world, is browsing the same blogs. You would think that with the access everyone has to everything now, we would see greater variation in expressions, but usually it’s quite the opposite. We all see the same things at the same time. So we end up back in the process. The people you work with, that’s what makes the difference.

Lisa Olsson Hjerpe – Photos Evelina Nylander 
Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
27/06/2013

Outer Dark: Continuing After Fashion

During the 90s a group of emerging designers conferred a different shape and value to the fashion of that time. After a decade of excesses, bright and shiny colors – and opulence – there was a need of simplicity and a less superficial approach. It was during that time that names like Ann Demeulemeester, Martin Margiela, Alexander McQueen, Helmut Lang, Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo, just to name a few, changed the common rules by creating something amply defined as anti-fashion. 
The term is also synonym of fashion after fashion and they both indicate an uncertain age when the ideals of beauty were called into question. 
These designers started investigating deeper their own realities by meditating on what occurred along their personal path and trying to turn it into clothes; in doing so they went beyond an aesthetic that was overseen and saturated.


MAK – Museum Angewandte Kunst of Frankfurt has organized Outer Dark: Continuing After Fashion, an exhibition that displays several costumes of anti-fashion designers along with installations, videos, photos and artworks that better describe the universe around them. 
There will be for example two Super-8 films by Erik Madigan Heck that show Ann Demeulemeester’s creations and the documentary “This is my Dream” by Yohji Yamamoto.



The main aim of the exhibit, curated by Mahret Kupka and Matthias Wagner K, is to bring the visitors on the dark side of fashion, a path that ends with light and beautiful creatures; the show gives space to both the memorable avant-garde names and some of new local talents. Erik Madigan Heck, Barbara í Gongini, Maison Martin Margiela, Garland Coo, Leandro Cano, Augustin Teboul, JULIAHEUSE and Alexander McQueen are some of the present designers.



The exhibition is up until September 15th 2013.

Francesca Crippa 
Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
21/06/2013

Met at PITTI 84: Onitsuka Tiger x Andrea Pompilio

Andrea Pompilio is the designer who won Who Is On Next on his first season after starting the eponymous brand and now he’s the first designer chosen to show in Armani’s catwalk theatre during Men’s Fashion Week in Milan. The Blogazine have kept an eye on the designer for a while and yesterday we met the man of the hour for a quick catch-up between his two runway shows.


We meet again in Florence! How important has it been for you and your brand to show in Pitti?
It has been really important! Thanks to Pitti I have ‘grown up’ in an unbelieavable way and now after so many seasons, they are like my family! I decided to move up with my first line to Milan because I think it’s the right time for that, but in the same time I love doing something with Pitti, with my family! So, I decided to use Florence as the location for the Onitsuka Tiger x Andrea Pompilio collection and move forward with the Andrea Pompilio line to Milan Fashion Week.

Tell us a bit about your work with Onitsuka Tiger! How did it start and what has this collaboration given to your brand?
Well, it’s an interesting story because it all just happened. I was going to Japan and I was talking to my agent there about how I was feeling that I wanted to do some interesting sneakers for the last Spring/Summer collection, and they told me “Well, that’s fantastic but why don’t we go see Onitsuka Tiger to have a talk?” and I said “OK why not?” – and from there it goes! We created our partnership and started off with one sneaker model last summer and now here we are, one year later with an entire collection and a fashion show for both women and men. It’s a partnership that has grown very fast and we have an interesting relation. Onitsuka Tiger is a sports company while I’m still trying to create something a bit more fashion than just a regular sportswear collection. What we’re doing is really mixing the Italian with the Japanese culture and then mixing it with sportswear.

This season we were inspired by a lot of things related to Los Angeles. I went to L.A. and was really inspired by some of the areas and brought back a lot of information, and inspiration, from there. Beautiful emotions that in the collection take expression in prints – the collection is full of prints, something that also is a first for Onitsuka Tiger. The prints are on the sweatshirt, on the leather of the shoes, on the technical mesh – we are really using the prints, but in a very sporty way, and it’s what really shows the Andrea Pompilio mixed with Onitsuka Tiger.


And now you are chosen as the first designer to show in the Armani theatre during Men’s Fashion Week in Milan! What’re your feelings about that?
I am very pleased that I have been given this opportunity! I am, well we are, my whole team and I, very very very excited and I hope that everything is going to be great and that you will like the collection too! I’m pleased and emotionally touched by this offer – I mean, Armani is one of the biggest designers in the world. When I was still in school my reference points would be Giorgio Armani, Gianni Versaci and Yves Saint Laurent, so being chosen by Armani to show in his theatre in Milan is an honour. I have to thank Mr Armani for choosing me.

Two shows within a couple of days: is your pulse rushing?
I think that in this moment we completely stopped stressing. When the adrenaline is so high you don’t even feel the stress anymore, you just keep on running, running, running. I think the real stress is going to hit us at the end, when the adrenaline level goes down and the excitement is gone and I’m going to think “So what am I going to do tonight? Everything is done, I have nothing more to complete!” So at the moment we are feeling good: we are running like crazy of course, but we’re good.


We’ve been following you since the beginning, but what is your personal feeling about your “trip” so far? Has your way of working, both design- and brandwise, developed or changed along the way?
The brand has grown a lot for sure. From being the winner of Who Is On Next to the first fashion show at Pitti to the collaboration with Onitsuka Tiger to jumping ahead to Milan. So the first thing is just that we grow a lot. Aesthetically I think the message has been very strong from the beginning, I don’t think that I’ve changed “my man” – my man is always the same. What we actually do at the office is that we bring out each of the collections, from the beginning up until now, as an exercise to make sure that we are keeping our line, and in the end it’s the exactly same man as I started with. For sure sometimes the collection might feel a bit more heavy, especially in the winter, because there will be a lot of accessories. It’s cold and you want your hat, your scarf, your gloves and therefore the summer collections might feel a bit more minimal but it’s only because there I don’t need all those extra stuff.

Apart from that, my man stays the same. Even though we have expanded as a brand we have stayed very Andrea Pompilio. Sometimes there is another designer representing the name, but in our case it’s all about Andrea Pompilio: who I meet, my friends, my inspiration, the people that I spend my time with, the museums I go to – it’s a melting pot of things, but it’s all very personal.


What does the future hold for Andrea Pompilio – what’s the next step?
Oh darling, that is a very very very interesting question for all of us, because no one knows! Last season I had no idea I was going to be invited to show in Milan by Giorgio Armani! So for now I am very open to any surprise that may come our way.


Lisa Olsson Hjerpe – Images Alessandro Furchino 
Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
20/06/2013

PITTI 84: European Fashion Schools United

Lately The Blogazine has been busy in the world of fashion schools around Europe: in our special series, three out of six chosen schools have already been featured, with the remaining three coming up in the following month. Educational institutes are an important corner stone of the fashion industry and together with the Marzotto Group, the contribution of Linificio e Canapificio Nazionale and Bonaveri, Pitti Immagine is promoting a special project connecting three important schools together: Central Saint Martins, IUAV and the Florentine Polimoda.

Linen Yarn is the special project and exhibition put together by some of the most promising students from the three schools. Each school has been able to translate their universe and take on the linen yarn into a small collection shown in a common space during Pitti Uomo 84: menswear design with a dedication to linen, to promote a new and creative attitude to the fabric. The students from CSM brought the Englishness to Florence and presented a deconstructed and casual male silhouette inspired by the British heritage while the IUAV students present linen as an elegant option, playing with the codes of men’s evening wear. Polimoda – who more than being present at la Fortezza has also been busy with its own fashion week over at Villa Favard – showed linen inspired by the various ethnicities of Europe: volumes and forms were accompanied by prints and decorations.


Pitti Immagine has since 1972 been an important platform for men’s clothing and accessories as well as the fair and events around it are famous for being the place where many new menswear projects have been launched: for many young designers, Pitti is a starting point to something larger – a springboard, or stepping stone, to the world outside the atelier.


Lisa Olsson Hjerpe – Image courtesy of Pitti Immagine 
Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
20/06/2013

PITTI 84: Trends, Talents and Turkey

We’re at the beginning of the third day of Pitti Uomo: a lot has been seen, with a few main events yet keeping us on our toes. New talents have been elected and celebrated in the fifth edition of Who Is On Next, the first notions for the SS14 trends and tendencies are given and the first, second and maybe third round of browsing for brands and interesting collections are done. Following the words of Pitti 84’s fashion diary writer – Angelo Flaccavento – Pitti Uomo is a melting pot. Standing under the Florentine sun, we would say the word melting has a double meaning.


Despite the brightest of sun rays the gentlemen at Pitti manage to stay well-dressed and polished. The dress code goes from bright colours and prints to tailored suits, further to just the simplest of super-easy outfits. A few strict shirt-wearers might have let the policy collapse for something a bit more leisure, pants have been replaced by the comfort of shorts, while others keep the tie knot tight. The choice of rigs aside, SS14 offers a few bold statements, essential wardrobe choices in excellent materials and Spring given in prints and contrasting colours. Attention to detail and small adjustments that can make a piece your own are well describing expressions. The contemporary man will find his very essentials as well as what he wants: luxury travel pieces answering to the needs of functionality, lightweight sportswear brought back to the city and new prints to bright up the neatest of outfits: the latest being the bandwagon that no one seems to have missed.

The cultural influences are coming from east: with Turkey as the Guest Nation of both Pitti Uomo & Pitti W, Turkish designers will give their take on cultural clothing nicely packaged in a contemporary concept. The “Gentlemen of Istanbul: 7 Gentlemen from 7 designers from the city on 7 hills” blends deeprooted culture with modern designs from a country that today is becoming an important player in the area of fashion research.


The two(!) winners of Who Is On Next are also – even though not Turkish – two brands who know about tradition and roots. During the awards on Monday it became clear that the judging panel hadn’t been able to make a clear cut, and the fifth edition of the competition ended in a tie: the hats by Super Duper Hats and the shoes by Casamadre went out as winners together. “They are two brands that share the ability of knowing how to combine memory and tradition with new and contemporary details, in tune with the market’s most sophisticated demands” was the words of the jury.

Despite the colourful audience, the hot weather and the many guests making the streetstyle photographers, fashion bloggers and fashion enthusiasts crowding up at the main entrance, there’s a certain calm at La Fortezza da Basso: casual meetings and moments to breathe before we’re heading to Milan.



Lisa Olsson Hjerpe – Image courtesy of Pitti Immagine 
Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
18/06/2013

PITTI 84: With Menswear In Focus

It’s the end of June and The Blogazine, together with about 30 000 other visitors, is back in Florence to sweat under a luxuriating sun: it’s time for a week of fashion and events, old friends and new acquaintances during Pitti Uomo 84 and Pitti W 12.

Last night was the end to luxury e-commerce giant Luisa Via Roma’s fashion bloggers party, Firenze 4 Ever: a beautiful dinner around the Fontana dell’Isola followed by an all-night outdoor party in the Boboli gardens of Florence. It might have been only a few tired souls who woke up early this morning, but for the ones of us who just arrived last night for this week’s main event, Pitti Uomo and Pitti W, last night’s party was a great welcome to the sizzling city.


Pitti Uomo is the annual starting point (well, this year beaten to the punch by London Collections ) to an entire month dedicated to the world of menswear. With nearly 1050 brands present (not counting the female fashion brands also exhibiting) and the before-mentioned 30 000 visitors, Pitti is one of the largest buyers’ fairs for male fashion. Even with the purpose of buying in focus, Pitti is an occasion for us visitors to take part in amazing events, discover new brands, meet new people and finally meet the people we only met ‘digitally’ before. For the nearly 18 000 people coming from abroad, it’s also the occasion to get their annual dosage of Italian summer and Tuscan flavors.


New for the season is that the ladies moved in with the lads: instead of being split in two different locations, Pitti W has been moved to la Fortezza, conveniently marking its land with a sky full of pink umbrellas. The main court at Fortezza da Basso is though reserved for what this year is called Vroom Pitti Vroom – the theme for Pitti Uomo 84. The fair is dedicated to the passion for two wheels and a rider’s feeling of freedom. The motorcycle and biker lifestyle will be spoken about through styles, clothing and accessories during special events planned throughout the week. Talking about events, the Pitti calendar leaves no one disappointed: the special presentations of kolor and Damir Doma, the Onitsuka Tiger show for Andrea Pompilio and all the temporary events included in the Alternative Set calendar, to mention a few. Outside or inside the Fortezza, the Pitti people’s calendars sure are full and the week has just merely commenced – vroom is probably the right word for the week!

Lisa Olsson Hjerpe – Image courtesy of Pitti Immagine 
Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
13/06/2013

Dressed To Be Shot

Fashion bloggers, street style photographers – the phenomenon, hype, trend or just evolution of the fashion system: the subject isn’t foreign to The Blogazine. In Garage Magazine‘s short film “Take My Picture” the clinch between fashion editors and fashion bloggers is apparent, as well as the hysteria around the street style photographers’ darlings and stars-to-be.

When did the photographers start to outnumber the ‘objects’ to be shot? Has the extreme number of fashion/street/style/photography blogs not only created a possibility to be seen, but a need to be seen? Is everyone dressing up to be shot?

Bill Cunningham said “the best fashion show is definitely on the street – always has been, and always will be”. Then of course, Cunningham did street style photography before it even was an expression. No matter what one’s opinion might be about the statement, the truth is that the streets outside the show venues are as much of a fashion parade as the runway itself. The number of photographers and fashion bloggers trying to snap a picture of another blogger, model, it-girl, it-boy or fashion editor seems ridiculous, but who is to judge what also is an affordable alternative to an advertising campaign for young designers?

It’s a sure thing that all our digital tools have democratized fashion and created opportunities for brand publicity in a way that never was an option before. Even designers with a low, or no, budget can find ways of showing off their collections during the hottest periods of fashion weeks. The question is – does the situation, in the film compared to French warfare, create monsters, turning the glamour of fashion into a reality show? And does the great ones – fashion blogs as well as actually talented photographers – disappear in the crowd of peacocks and amateurs?

Lisa Olsson Hjerpe 
Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
Next Page » « Previous Page