29/01/2013

Guest Interview n°43: Anja Cronberg

Guest Interview n°43: Anja Aronowsky Cronberg

In the last years, there has been a small movement of magazines that are rethinking the way fashion is presented on paper. On the side of ‘image-based’ fashion magazines like Purple or Self Service and ‘word-based’ academic journals like Fashion Theory or The Journal of Fashion, Beauty and Style, a new category has emerged. Examples of this new wave are Vestoj, founded and curated by Anja Aronowsky Cronberg, Fashion Projects, founded and curated by Francesca Granata, or Address, founded and curated by Johannes Reponen. What relates these experiences is the will to create new spaces and new ways to reflect on fashion where image and words constantly dialogue. As Paul Jobling argues in his “Fashion Spreads” (1999), the image and the word are two crucial and inseparable languages of fashion and these new fashion magazines show it clearly. To understand better this new method of thinking fashion, we interviewed Anja Aronowsky Cronberg who talks with us about her project “Vestoj. The Journal of Sartorial Matters”.

How, when and why did you start Vestoj?
Vestoj was started in 2009 in Stockholm. I was editing a magazine called Acne Paper at the time, and I was getting increasingly frustrated that we as a magazine were somehow always justifying the fact that we were a fashion publication (and brand marketing tool) by including material from other creative disciplines, art, architecture, film and whatnot. A lot of fashion publications suffer from this type of inferiority complex. It’s as if a magazine dealing with fashion can’t be taken seriously unless you include a heavy dose of material from the creative disciplines considered superior in the hierarchy of the arts.

At Acne Paper we did interviews with Noam Chomsky, Nan Goldin, Slavoj Zizek, David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky but since we, as editors, were far from experts in politics, linguistics, art, film or philosophy the finished texts were often a rehash of the subjects our interviewees felt comfortable with. We didn’t push many boundaries in other words. I started to feel that the only way to truly make a fashion magazine that knew what it was talking about, was to make a magazine about fashion. So, I quit my job at Acne Paper, moved to Paris and started Vestoj – a journal about dress and fashion that uses the way we wear clothes to study the culture in which we live.

What is its aim and how is this magazine different from other fashion magazines?
The aim of Vestoj is to be simultaneously inside and outside, both fashion academia and the industry. We aren’t strictly speaking an academic journal; Vestoj isn’t peer reviewed, it includes plenty of images, not intended to be merely illustrative but instead to provide an alternative way to deal with our themes, and the publication itself is an object to treasure and preserve. We want text and image to be in constant dialogue with each other and to provide an insightful and scholarly but always approachable way to deal with our discipline. We work with a lot of academic writers and aim to stay abreast of the academic discourse but we also always want to remain relevant for the fashion industry. Just as we don’t conform to the conventional academic journal, we don’t kowtow to fashion industry standards for publishing either. We don’t follow the seasons, choosing instead to publish annually in order to keep a slower pace that allows us to properly reflect and research our themes. We’re not news-based, we have no advertising and we don’t urge our contributors to use or refer to any particular brands.

As I mentioned in my earlier answer, it’s very important to us to focus solely on fashion and dress, we’re a fashion publication rather than one about ‘lifestyle’ in general. Were we to speak to Chomsky, Goldin, Zizek, Lynch or Jodorowsky we would ask them about what they wear and why. We’re interested in fashion as a mirror of our culture, and we try to choose themes that are both topical and slightly off-kilter: so far we’ve dealt with fashion and nostalgia for our first issue, fashion and magic for our second and fashion and shame for our third. At the moment we’re working on our fourth issue, on fashion and power.

What are the future plans for Vestoj?
As I mentioned, our fourth issue is our current priority. The idea is that the issue will be a close, investigative look at power and fashion, i.e. what are the rules in fashion and who sets them? We’ll look closer at topics such as money, ideals, politics and ideology and attempt to understand and expose how the politics of fashion allows power relations to be built and maintained. We’ll examine how dress can be a powerful weapon of control and dominance but how it can, at the same time, also be subversive and empowering. In addition, we’ll explore the link between power, social discipline, conformity and fashion, and examine how contemporary norms can be so entrenched as to be beyond our discernment, causing us to regulate and control ourselves without any deliberate coercion from others.

What, then, happens when we step out of line? We’ll also examine how the mechanics of demonstrations of power within the fashion industry are displayed and why so few today appear to challenge them. Is this endemic of a more widespread attitude in society? We’ll look at why it is so hard to be critical in fashion and at who gains from the industry’s rigid and static power structure. And in light of this we will ask whether it is in fact possible to challenge the status quo, and, if so, how?

Marco Pecorari

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25/01/2013

Haute Couture Spring 2013

Haute Couture Spring 2013

After the pre-season presentations and before we dive into the month of Autumn & Winter collections, Paris and La Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture let us indulge in Spring one last time during the couture shows – the event that only a few of the fashion houses and young designers are invited to attend.

The annual subject for awe and some tittle-tattle is the Chanel show. We have seen icebergs and seaworlds and the anticipation of finding out what Karl Lagerfeld would do next was as usual big: and big it was. A forest had literally been imported into the Grand Palais, where the Spring 2013 couture show was hosted as usual. Out came models in feathery hair and make up, presenting the exquisite tweed suits and what at a quick glance looked like prints, but in fact were embroideries (and hours of work by a couturiers hand). Focus was put on the shoulders, which appeared bare and slim due to large detailing just below. Though, it wasn’t the collection or the magical show venue that got the most attention at the end of the day, but the grand finale where Lagerfeld brought out not one, but two, spring brides, showing his support for same sex marriage.

There was of course also other “regulars” on the couture schedule worth talking about. Raf Simons did his second couture collection for Dior, inviting the audience into his spring garden of serenity. The short haired models showed a collection of floating materials, suits and layers. Armani Privé flirted with eastern cultures: from the headpieces to the small gilets and rich colour palettes, and Valentino gave a bit of the significant red and that couture perfection that 500 hours (for one piece of garment) of handwork gives.


Maison Martin Margiela, together with the young designers who are not yet fixed on the couture calendar, stood for the edge and the new. Margiela brought out a coat made of, what has said to be, thousands of metallic candy wraps and Rad Hourani showed his unisex collection: something only he has done. Iris van Herpen and
Yiqing Yin, other youngsters in the world of couture, showed their visions for Spring. Sculpted dresses and elaborate pleating came down the runway at Yiqing Yin while van Herpen played with 3D effects and electricity in her collection called Voltage.

It rests to see who stays on the schedule for the next selection by La Fédération, but this legally instated label which is held in reserve for those selected few, will keep the audience to pilgrimage to Paris for this art called couture.

Lisa Olsson Hjerpe – Images courtesy to the respective brands

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23/01/2013

Pre-Fall, Pre-Fashion Week

Pre-Fall, Pre-Fashion Week

Within a week, and continuously for the rest of the following month, the Internet will explode with street shots of people dressed up to their teeth (even though looking just casually well-dressed), hashtags with the two little letters F & W in combination with a city initial, and for the people behind it: a month of travelling. It is once again time for #fashionweek.

Like for any good movie, there’s an intriguing trailer to watch up until the opening night. In fashion words that would be the pre-fall collections: the ‘trailer’ filling up the space between the fashion weeks as much as between the seasons. The women’s pre-fall 2013 collections have showed a mash-up of upcoming trends.


The Pantone key colour of 2013, emerald, has made an appearance, just like rich shades of red: burgundy, oxblood and saturated red wine tones in rich wools and shiny-coated fabrics. The pre-season coats are big, boxy and over-sized while the quilting and padding from the continuous biker trend has been seen to move over to dresses, skirts and sweatshirts. On the illustrative side the presentations have shown geometric patterns, smudged graphics and textured prints as well as a softer side of folkloric florals in heavy brocades.


More than colours, shapes and knee-length shorts and skirts we have seen references from other eras. Clare Weight Keller at Chloé mixed French elegance with English heritage, while Acne found inspiration in the famous Swedish artist and playwright August Strindberg, and Max Mara looked to David Bowie’s Hunky Dory album.

The pre-fall collections might not be a true mirror of what we will see on the runway but nonetheless, they’ve intrigued us to see more.


Lisa Olsson Hjerpe, trends by Tamsin Cook – Image courtesy of Acne, Chloé & Burberry Prorsum

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17/01/2013

Let’s Capsule!

Let’s Capsule!

We often hear about partnerships between brands of the fashion industry. Deals, licenses, special collaborations that are initialed everyday. But what is a partnership? It is a consensual marriage of short duration. The reasons that lead two or more brands to join in the realization of a common creative product can be of different and depend on more than a thousand factors.

Tricker’s & Roy Roger’s

One brand is more related to sportswear and another one is closer to the luxury business. Other times one of the two has a great product but needs to modernize and improve its image. In some situations the partnership occurs simply for advertising and commercial purposes. And many others are formed to accost two companies, which until then had lived perched in their ivory towers of success. In very simplistic terms, it happens now between two fashion companies what happened not more than 60-70 years ago for some marriages of the European ruling class: a family put his prestigious title of nobility, and the other, generally belonging to the new entrepreneurial bourgeois class, the money.

Junya Watanabe & Comme des Garcons & Puma

The precious fruit of these partnerships is often contained in collections not larger than ten extra exclusive pieces, called “capsule collections”. Famous examples of understanding the strategic strength of an artistic collaboration in a limited edition are for example the capsule collection created by Junya Watanabe for the capsule-crazed Comme des Garcons and Puma, or the nine models of shoes made by Yohji Yamamoto for Salvatore Ferragamo, tattoo artist Scott Campbell‘s art on Pirelli tires and on the Pzero Dainese leather and carbon jacket, or the highly limited edition of 60 Super sunglasses made together with 10 Corso Como to celebrate their success in Seoul; partnerships concluded between a big fashion brand and a designer that does not belong to the entourage of the House, a celebrity or a personality worthy of note in the contemporary art scene.

Yohji Yamamoto & Salvatore Ferragamo
Super & 10 Corso Como

In partnerships, also happens – rarely, because otherwise it would lose value – that they occur between two brands with a creative imagination accompanied by a great history, with a very similar kind of customer type. As an example Tricker’s and Roy Roger’s, two brands that besides the possessive in the name, share long traditions of craftsmanship, success and high standards of quality and elegance of product, combining the quality and refined image of Tricker’s with the world of denim of Roy Roger’s.In this case, as in only few others, we can speak of “ad hoc” partnership, an union made like from the offspring of equally high ranked families.

Capsule collections are a way to communicate a vision, the direction where the companies intend to move forward. But also for customers is a great honor to buy the rare pieces of their favorite brands, a unique product that sum up two or more ideas as well as prestigious heritages. Secondly, the parallel markets have no interest in copying something that will not be sold on a large scale. In a period in which everything is reproducible in the time of a snap, something so special needs more attention and more resources to be spent on its realization. Hard job for counterfeiters, good sound for consumers and producers.

Scott Campbell & Pirelli PZero
Antonio Moscogiuri Dinoi 

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17/01/2013

A Vintage Store With A Twist

A Vintage Store With A Twist

When you think of vintage stores, a whole array of images spring to mind; charity stores with moth-ball cardigans, vintage heritage & denim specialized stores, high-end Parisian designer vintage boutiques, London’s East end favorites, and then there is Jutka & Riska.


This vintage store in Antwerp seems to stand out from the rest and offers a whole new shopping experience if you’re a vintage fan. When entering the store, you have a very light, clean and well-organized store layout with beautifully merchandised collections.

An eclectic mix of vintage and own design, Jutka & Riska offers a combination of hand-picked high-end original designer pieces from Chanel, YSL, Kenzo, Escada and Mugler among others, which sit next to own design pieces which have been created by young designers.


The whole feel of the store has a very strong 70s, 80s and early 90s influence. The colours, patterns and fabrics are rich and vibrant with plenty of shine and sparkle. What also makes the store stand out is that they create inspirational moods around the collections. Fun 80s memorabilia props like Barbie and Ken, 70s pottery, 80s Vogue & Glamour magazines and classic 80s LPs all evoke memories from this era. The wide range of jewellery and accessories on offer compliment the ranges, so you can create the total look.

The store is a firm favorite with stylists and designers as items can also be hired out, and the favorite address in Antwerp for Blogger Susie Bubble, it’s worth a visit if you’re in Antwerp city, if not, they also have stores in Holland; Amsterdam, Haarlem and Heemstede.

Tamsin Cook

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09/01/2013

It’s All About Knit, Match And Fix

It’s All About Knit, Match And Fix

Ex Central Saint Martins student, the talented Shao Yen has worked alongside names such as Hussein Chalayan and Alexander McQueen. Taiwanese of birth, he does not betray his good asiatic traditions in being able to work and assemble disparate fabrics and materials: nylon, cashmere, lycra and copper. Urban knitwear that mixes in a convincing potpourri sporty attitude and whispered eroticism. In short, there are not many young designers who can say they’ve created a bespoke suit for the legendary Björk.


Tell us something about your life in Yilan. What do you bring with you around the world and which suggestions do you impress in your creations?
Yilan is a very simple and friendly city. I grew up there, so whenever I return, I feel at ease. I think I have gained the love of nature and a kind of relaxing attitude towards life from my time there, which I think I carry within me wherever I go and when I create.

You did some interesting internships at Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan. In which way their kind of touch, their poetry and style have influenced your fashion approach?
Apart from their influential work, I was most impressed with their passion and attitude for work. My experiences at their studios also made me realize how hard this industry could get even for notable designers like them.


What is your idea of Woman?
Fashion is about the exterior, but a woman has to have the confidence and wisdom to manage what she’s wearing. I hope my designs will offer more imagination for a woman to re-create herself.

Knitwear and embroidery, mixing materials and matching surfaces: when practice becomes an integral part of garments. What does it mean for you?
Although they might be labour and time consuming, these techniques allow designers to have more room for innovation. The experimentation with fabric or textile is something I always want to keep in my designs.

Just a curiosity: what a stunning and mind blowing honor has it been designing a dress for Björk?
She is such an inspirational artist and she always keeps pushing the boundaries of art and music. I’ve been a big fan. So having this opportunity is like a dream come true for me.

Antonio Moscogiuri Dinoi

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03/01/2013

The Fashion Schools

The Fashion Schools

They’re the history of the creatives we admire and the cradle of the industry itself. They’re the institutions shaping the minds and skills of future designers, couturiers, writers, cool hunters and PR mavens. They’re the home of the students who are certain, even though curious, of the world they want to work, live and breathe in. Over the coming months, The Blogazine will take you on a tour in the world of the European fashion schools.


To say that you ‘study fashion’ is about as general as saying that you study the society as a whole. The subject itself is as wide as it is large and carries a whole bunch of professions. As many aspiring designers there are, as many (if not more) young professionals are aspiring, and needed, to work with and around those designers.

Most professions fit into the profile of a regular University – a well-known educational system where the engineer students share the hallways, or at least the seal on their diplomas, with the philosophy students. There are fashion studies programs and courses that appear on the list in between other subjects, but still you will find most of the students allocated over high profiled schools in cities like London, Paris, Milan and Antwerp.


Some say fashion students become limited, other say they become experts. In any matter, it is a fact that something is alluring enough to make them move over-seas only to attend that one particular school. From where comes the ‘need’ to educate yourself at a fashion school, and, is it a ‘must’ to acquire as much knowledge about the business as about your specific profession? Do fashion students in fact become fashion experts? Follow our series on fashion education and get the answers from the people who know.

Lisa Olsson Hjerpe – Image courtesy of Rhisiart Hincks & Jakob Hürner

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28/12/2012

Keeping Warm, The Old Way

Keeping Warm, The Old Way

Wherever you may be right now, whatever the weather, Christmas and New Year evoke many feelings of crisp cold mornings, snow-topped hills, icy breath and cold toes in bed. Young children in Victorian style Christmas cards – wrapped up with hands cozy in winter fur muffs – look somewhat romantic, but the reality of times before central heating and electric fires meant creating alternative ways of staying warm.


The hand warmer has been used in various ways around the world for centuries, and is still used by hikers and skiers. During the Victorian era ladies had elegant heated miniature water bottles which they would tuck into their fur hand muffs before taking a stroll. For less wealthy people, hot potatoes, coals or stones were bundled into their pockets to keep warm.

In Japan in the early 1920s, a Hakukin-Kairo hand warmer was invented resembling a cigarette lighter. Lit the same way with lighter fluid but with a lid on and slipped inside a velvet case, the wearer could keep his hands warms; slightly hazardous perhaps but non-the-less a beautiful item.

Still used today, the bed warmer, surely has kept many a chill at bay and warmed many toes. Originally a metal container filled with hot coals and used to warm the bed, it was a common household item. People used also pottery bottles filled with hot water, before the invention of rubber hot water bottles.

So if there’s a chill in the air, where ever you are, why not try keeping warm the old way – take a stroll with warm potatoes tucked in your pockets or if you’re lucky enough to have a vintage fur hand muff, take a walk in the park this New Year’s in elegant style.

Tamsin Cook

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21/12/2012

Christmas Fashion Wishlist

Christmas Fashion Wishlist

That time of year in which everyone starts considering the coolness of their closet has finally come. There’s no better season to throw away all those clothes bought on sale and never worn, and to replace them with brand new stuff. Clean your shelves and empty your chests: make space for the presents Santa is going to bring you! This time the repertoire can be much more pleasant, if you follow our suggestions. So let’s see what to add to your wishlist this year, no matter if you’ve been naughty or nice.

SOMETHING NEW: Shoppers.
Super expensive it-bags, your time is over. Empowering the right outfit with an outstanding accessory is so pre-2009-crisis, when we were rich and fabulous. Things have evolved, guys. Time to admit that even we fashion people are poor. So now the real trend is understate the right look with the easiest bag: the canvas one. So have Santa go to your favourite museum/bookshop/art gallery and he will bring you your new non-it-bag. Maybe he’ll learn some art too.

SOMETHING BORROWED: Boyfriend jumper.
They are called Boomerang Gifts, and they are one of the greatest products of the human mind. Here’s the basic concept: give someone something you will use afterwards. And the fashion declination of that is to give your boyfriend a lovely cozy jumper. Then steal it from his closet. Women’s sweaters are so boring, but men’s are great and they make you feel warm and cuddled when you wear them. Bonus: yours will smell like your boyfriend. Share the jumper, share the love. It’s Christmas time!


SOMETHING OLD: Vintage wristwatch.
This is a solution if you haven’t been so good after all. You just need to pay a visit to your favourite grandma/auntie/nanny (which is something you should do in this season anyway). You know she keeps all her stuff in that dusty attic. Ask her about the old times and here’s the deal: she will show you all her treasures. Leave behind bags (so 2006) and hats (spare them for next year), and go for the watches. Search for the small ones, with crocodile band and mother of pearl quadrant.

SOMETHING BLUE: Fur.
You may ask why. Well, why not? Blue fur is so little appreciated, but it should appear in the mainlines of all top designers. But be careful, we’re not speaking about that useless fur that lines cheap bags and ugly boots. What we have in mind is a big well-constructed all-fur coat in a fabulous pastel blue. It’s warming, almost magical and it makes you feel happier. Just as Christmas should be.

Sara Golfetto

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18/12/2012

Fashion history: Paniers, Baleines et Jabots

Fashion history: Paniers, Baleines et Jabots

In age of enlightenment in central Europe, fashion was as much a barometer of economic and social trends as it is today. Like a tailored corset, the marketplace for 18th century aristocrats and merchants was both luxurious and constrained. Brussels buzzed with activity of buying, selling and making their own brand of bobbin lace. But getting that lace into the hands of the people who loved it took both artisan skills and political subterfuge.

Enterprising ladies used their social connections to create business of creating and trading Brussels lace and its products to local aristrocrats and merchants. Meanwhile, clever tailors turned the lace into accessories – hairstyles, collars, ties or ruffles – which adorned the ladies at court. Business success was ensured by the access to the formal events of the court of Louis XV at Versailles or Paris, frequented by the high nobility. Yet profits from exploitation of Congo and other African colonies also kept demand among the merchant classes of Europe and the UK high. The production of Brussels lace began in the 15th century, but by the 17th century some authorities were moving to supress its great popularity. In 1662 the English parliament, followed quickly by France, passed legislation against the importation. These restrictions on trade where ineffective, the higher quality Brussels lace was renamed ‘Point d’Angleterre’ and smuggled over the borders.

English designs reveal a desire for greater comfort and pliability, perhaps due to the new interest in travel, exploration and transport, while the French garments and accessories continued to aim for refinement by restricting and containing the body with whale bone corsets, bustles and wigs. By the end of the century, however, woman had adopted a long and narrow form influenced by greco-roman antiquity, perhaps signifying a relaxation of restrictions on trade and movement.

Masculine elegance was also transforming. Influenced by oriental and colonial contact, some menswear of the period featured exotic birds, flowers and even palm trees. Shoes were pointed, collars fitted, waistcoats with flat sleeves flared at the hip. Culottes and breeches featured decorative edges, while buttons became the epitome of men’s style.

The Museum of Costume and Lace in Brussels has assembled several costumes and cloths from the age of enlightenment, illustrating with precision and details the cultural and economic changes taking place between 1700-1789. This exhibition will appeal to anyone interested in this craft or in how social and economic change can make themselves felt quite literally in new fashions. If you happen to be in Brussels for the Christmas holidays, we definitely recommend a visit in the Costume and Lace Museum, on until the 31st of December.

Philippa Nicole Barr

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