10/05/2011

Karin Kellner / Rolling Stone

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Karin Kellner / Rolling Stone

We’ve been seeing a lot of 2DM’s Karin Kellner on the presses lately. And in addition to her excellent magazine work, she even brought our Opus Creative collaboration with boutique brand Neroli Cashmere to life. The German-born illustrator, known for her evocative watercolours and ethereal environments, worked her magic this month across the pages of Rolling Stone Italia.

Her works for the issue include three for the Rock & Roll style section in an article called “The Thieves of Wall Street,” as well as the key illustration for a hilarious piece by Gianni Vattimo entitled “The Liver’s Mail.” Finally, she made a lively portrait of economist Oscar Giannino which accopanies his informative editorial “Euro che va, neuro che viene.”

This month’s issue of Rolling Stone, features a bird-flipping Dave Grohl on the cover and an interview with the Foo Fighters frontman entitled “Kurt Was My Friend.” It’s an excellent read. The issue also features interviews with Ben Harper, Ricky Gervais, articles on Johnny Depp and Thin Lizzy, a look at Fondation Cartier exhibition on voodoo objects billed “Vaudou Child,” and an excellent mix of news, happenings and opinion. It even, unfortunately, features an article with photo of a barrel-chested Snooki.

Excellent work, Karin!

Tag Christof – Images courtesy 2DM & Rolling Stone

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06/05/2011

3° Atto / Opus Creative

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3° Atto / Opus Creative

Opus Creative’s third act bows today: 10A Suspender Trousers Company, a new paradigm for Made In Italy.

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03/05/2011

Panorama’s Icon

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Panorama’s Icon

We got our hands on a paper mockup of of the Panorama’s newest magazine, Icon just before it officially hit newsstands on Friday. This shiny new effort is a men’s fashion and lifestyle journal that will instantly join the ranks of serious men’s magazines.

It recalls Esquire, and like that storied publication, evokes a modern incarnation of the cultured, mature, self-realised man the original GQ conquered several decades ago. It covers travel, mixology, and has a nice sartorial bent to its fashion (and provides some handy how-to’s and making-of’s throughout). And in addition to the requisite glitzy editorials, there is an interesting series of articles ranging from musing on the colour black to a look at the mod in fashion. And for this week’s Royal Wedding-crazy audience, there’s even a handy article about Windsors and changing of suit.

We’d definitely call it a welcome edition to the pantheon of distinguished men’s publications.

Contributors to this first issue include Ugo Bertone, Suzy Menkes, James Gulliver Hancock, and many others . And we’re honoured to have gotten our hands on it before anyone else. With cinema villain par excellence Vincent Cassel on the cover, the tone is set for the makings of a new Icon!

Tag Christof

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02/05/2011

Daniel Sannwald / Pluto and Charon

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Daniel Sannwald / Pluto & Charon

Photographer Daniel Sannwald is force in the making: his fashion work is groundbreaking and dramatic, often exploring themes of the supernatural and the extraterrestrial. He’s appeared in the very best of fashion publications and did an editorial and heart pumping video for Test alongside the lavish stylings of 2DM’s Tamara Cincik. We caught up with him this Friday, just as his exhibition opens at the prestigious Festival Hyères in the idyllic south of France, where he’s currently enjoying a Provençal cottage, local fare and the company of excellent friends. We talked bodily constellations and the cosmos, his new monograph and tea with a very fascinating nonagenarian…

So, your exhibition opens today at Festival Hyères. What can we expect?
The show is curated by Michel Mallard, who I deeply respect. The show will be my work trough his eyes. He made a great selection of works and the room will take the visitors on a journey trough my visual world over the past five years.

Are you having a nice time in Provence?
I rented a nice country house with some friends from London. Its a wonderful house with a huge garden surrounded by fields and trees. We even have goats in our garden (and goats are one of my favourite animals). Its just lovely. More Friends are arriving from France, Germany and Belgium this evening. It feels like a nice holiday and we are enjoying the time together; grilling fishes, taking boat trips on the sea, reading poems, exploring nature and having late talks at night with wine and cheeses.

“The moon always follows the sun,” the title of the exhibition, is gorgeous and evocative. What’s behind it?
I am fascinated by the fact that things come to you and find you in the right moments. You just need to be aware and open, and not on a search. Last year I experienced the loss of a great love and was unable to understand the concept that the world kept on turning. For me everything stood still and I was extremely confused by the fact that my world stopped, yet the outside world kept on turning. One day in an African bookshop I found a poem titled “The moon always follows the sun.” It gave me much strength at that moment. I thought it would be a wonderful title for my first exhibition and a good link to my book title “Pluto and Charon” and my fascination with the universe…

Speaking of cosmic things, I saw a couple weeks ago on your a href=”http://danielsannwald.blogspot.com/”>blog that you discovered a series of markings on your body that exactly mirror Ursa Minor. That must have been a revelation.
I am dreamer and often I lose contact with the world around me and drift secretly away into my own. The discovery of the star constellation Ursa Minor on my body was very exciting to me. In my head I dream about missions and adventures and about who would solve the mystery of the markings on my body. The universe and its Great Unknown always fascinated me… and adventures too. (of course!)


What other concepts and realms of the mind have you been exploring lately?
You should join my friend Rose and I for our weekly tea parties. She is 90 and the oldest friend I’ve ever had. We talk about lovely things, and great concepts and wonders. Its hard to talk about concepts and realms of the mind without a nice cup of tea.


Oh, and the book! Tell!
It’s my first monograph, which I published this year with LUDION Publishing and Michel Mallard. The book is called “Pluto and Charon” and shows a great selection of my editorial work of the past 5 years.  Pluto and Charon are unusual among planetary systems in that each is tidally locked to the other – Charon always presents the same face to Pluto, and Pluto always presents the same face to Charon. My book plays with the concept of these two bodies, it’s a kind of love letter to what will come, and what has already been.

Thanks, Daniel!

Interview and Introduction Tag Christof – Images courtesy Daniel Sannwald
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26/04/2011

Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair / Autumn 2011

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Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair / Autumn 2011

From jersey cocoon to aluminium butterfly…”

In seven years, V Avenue Shoe Repair has gone from a small-scale jersey-experimenting designer duo to one of Stockholm’s most intriguing couture houses. And one of Vogue Italia’s design talents of 2010. All without abandoning its traditional craftsman ideals. Quite the contrary, in fact. With the recently revealed Autumn 2011 collection, The Shoe Repair duo, consisting of designers Astrid Olsson and Lee Cotter, has delved deeper into its own aesthetics than ever before.

“We started to look what the great creative minds we admire had done before, and realised that…it wasn’t close to our own idiom, which was kind of a blow…”

Olsson spoke during the recent Stockholm press event about how the team, in its home inside a 19th-century brewery, approached this new collection. They started by trying to use the old fashionable inspiration-tool. To the process, they added a hint of mint, and some strategic benchmarking. But in the end, the most crucial part of the collection’s journey became the use of the archetype archive. By throwing a respectful eye into their own rear-view mirror, they could move their heritage forward. Bring new life to their own past.

“We have realigned our priorities. We needed to deliver a stronger sensation and expression with the collection, we needed a new tone, a new voice.”

Their usual cocoon-silhouette has been forced to make way for an edgier sex appeal, with a new focus on accentuating body parts instead of treating them as a unit. And where black has always been the label’s dominating colour, some grey, beige and other neutrals have entered the picture.

”We realized that even though black is our signature colour, it creates an optical illusion but no details. We’ve worked with pale white, the shade you see before your eyes when squinting…”

The most significant parts of the collection are the atelier pieces all made of aluminium, originally intended to be made out of plexiglas. The hand made corsage is a collaboration with an art student located in Stockholm. We also find spiral shaped armlets, metal shoulder detailing, and a fringed top with aluminium edges.

This collection explores a new world of fabrics and materials. Besides old stalwart cotton, the periodic table is very much present, and represented by elements such as aluminium. Other than that, we find skyscraper platforms in rubber – with rabbit fur-details, some steel, plastic and leather.

“I used to have the idea that stitchery was defined by the amount of time used in the process, but with this collection, I draped some pieces on a mannequin in 30 minutes…”

Highly advanced avant garde meets easy breezy draping-techniques – Olsson sums up the collection with these words. VASR are pushing the boundaries of minimalism, to the very sharp edges of a knife. Where they once drew a line between their prèt-à-porter and V Ave Shoe Repair By The No.-couture line, the boundaries are now much less clear… The usually arduous sewing-technics and materials such as cotton and wool are now sharing the runway with the atelier-designs. The “a button here, a pocket-there”-utility standard hooks up with a modern Pierre Cardin-fembot to unite in holy matrimony, utill the next collection do them part!

Petsy von Köhler – Images courtesy Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair

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21/04/2011

Bruna Kazinoti & Ana Murillas / Malthe for Hero

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Bruna Kazinoti & Ana Murillas / Malthe for Hero

We’re enjoying lots of new magazines this week! Issue 5 of Hero, the young UK zine packed to the brim with gorgeous guys. The art direction is excellent, as always – bold, brash and British – and new issue are always a treat, as they come out only twice a year.


2DM’s photographer Bruna Kazinoti, whose bad boy editorials are a fixture in Hero, shot this feature on model Malthe Lund Madsen from Ford, together with rockstar stylist Ana Murillas. And the two make quite the team!


We’ll let the photos speak for themselves. The mix-up, forward fashion comes courtesy Givenchy, Dries Van Noten, Yamamoto, YSL, Paris Vintage, Dior Homme, Raf Simons and others. Hooray for Hero!

Tag Christof – Images courtesy Hero

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20/04/2011

Vicky Trombetta / Wonderland

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Vicky Trombetta / Wonderland

New issues of Wonderland are always killer. And the latest, The Reality Issue” is covered in pop siren Sky Ferreira (or Tyler, The Creator). And to make it even better, Vicky Trombetta shot five pages for the opening of the issue, all styled by Julia Sarr-Jamois. Utilitarian icon was the name of the game, with features The Alligator (Lacoste), The Accidental Genius (Dr. Martens), Master of the Bulge (Calvin Klein), The Working Man’s Hero (Paul Smith) and The Grandaddy of Denim (Levi’s). And Tommy and Tasha Franken from Elite modelled gorgeously.


In addition to Vicky’s series are editorials by Rafael Stahelin, Daniel King, Kevin McIntosh, John Balsom, and Driu & Tiago. Plus, two fantastic interviews with the covers stars, cheekily called “The Creation” and “The Sensation.” And since the issue deals heavily with pop culture’s current obsession with reality (departing from Editor-in-Chief Huw Gwyther’s thought-provoking editor’s letter), there is a thick section of features on Gaspar Noé, Wim Wenders, and a host of photos and words of individuals dubbed Reality Royalty.


Tag Christof

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15/04/2011

apartamento #07

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apartamento #07

Issue 07 of apartamento is out! Featuring a cover by Juergen Teller, the compact little digest is choc-full of excellent writing, warm photos and tactile paper that makes it nice to touch. It’s perfect, as always, to curl up with for a long read.


There are interviews with Alice Waters of Chez Panisse fame, Vuokko, Juana Molina, Bruce Benderson, illustrator Liselotte Watkins (who we interviewed a couple weeks ago ourselves), and design photography great Marirosa Toscani Ballo, in addition to others. There’s a snappy piece on fast-food burgers and other food features.


Tucked neatly inside is a neat supplement called “oficio y criterio” which explores the lives and roles of 10 Spanish maker-shakers. And of course, there’s a wealth of imagery by apartamento co-director and 2DM photographer Nacho Alegre. His brick still-lives are especially gorgeous.

Tag Christof

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14/04/2011

10A Suspender Trousers Company / The New Black

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10A Suspender Trousers Company / The New Black

From the fertile minds of designers Daria Dazzan and Matteo Cibic was born 10A Suspender Trousers Company. The line’s raison d’être is straightforward: gorgeously tailored, high quality trousers. And through rigorous research and highly evolved design, 10A manages to make garments that are beautiful, versatile and exceptionally durable.

Dazzan hails from the tailor-centric fashion world around Belgium, having studied at the Royal Antwerp Academy and cutting her teeth at Véronique Branquinho before moving on to Hussein Chalayan. Cibic is a product designer whose experience in materials such as ceramic informs his work in textile; he’s nothing short of a master of imaginative practicality. Their synergy is evident from the crisp craftsmanship right down to the very finest details of the line.

The brand is an outgrowth of the duo’s atelier AAAAAAAAAA, which makes a limited edition of ten bespoke trousers per month. 10A is a larger-scale progression of their original tenets: research, European fashion, and function. And while the collection has traditionally been reserved for men, they’ve released one women’s model with more to follow.

The trademark suspenders are integral and add an unexpected touch of refinement and timelessness. The collection comes in a delicious mix of fabrics – from raw denims to fine linens to radical wools – with a range of cuts (clochard, standard, slim). The line also includes handsome essential leather bags. Made of durable, lightly tanned leather, they age brilliantly (Matteo carries his everywhere) and are big enough to fit a big laptop. And lots of other things.

As a sweet, sweet cherry on top the sundae, 10A’s garments are produced in a factory in Northeastern Italy that operates on 100% solar energy. That’s sustainability we can get behind.

This season, the masterminds behind The Blogazine teamed up with 10A for an exclusive lookbook. With 2DM’s sharp, incisive photographer Vicky Trombetta both behind and in front of the camera alongside editor-in-chief Tag Christof, we got intimately acquainted with the label.





10A is a positive manifestation of modern Made in Italy: classy, well-informed, responsibly produced. In an age of transition, temporariness and fleeting fashion 10A’s values are a beautiful thing. 10A is both fresh and enduring. 10A is style. And as far as we’re concerned, 10A is The New Black.

See the line’s display at Verger on Via Varese this week during Salone del Mobile.

From The Bureau – Very special thanks to 10A

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12/04/2011

Guest Interview n°26: Lucas Kalda

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Guest Interview n°26: Lucas Kalda

With clients like Valentino, Vogue, Galliano and Acne under his belt, the Swedish model Lucas Kalda is on the verge of becoming a model with a capital M. Born in Stockholm, he’d prefer to live out an American dream in New York City. Maybe someday with his own billboard in Times Square…

So… who is Lucas Kalda?
I’m a 21 year old model from Stockholm, Sweden. I have been modelling since I was 15, so I’ve been in the business for a while. I would say that now’s s the best time in my career. For the moment I live in Stockholm with my girlfriend Louise and my little dog Prince, working at the Swedish brand Tiger Of Sweden. I see myself as a very down to earth guy who is very easy to be around.

How did you get your start as a model?
I started off because a booker at the Swedish modelling agency Stockholmsgruppen approached me in a shopping mall in Stockholm. And the rest is history…

Did you ever have thoughts of modelling before being approached?
Yeah, I had. A lot of people around me, as my friends… and even my parents told me I should send some pictures to agencies, but I never made it before Stockholmsgruppen scouted me.

What was your first job?
It was a show for a couple of small boutiques in an area called SoFo, which is the trendy and fashionable area in Stockholm.

Which myth about being a male model would you like to kill?
That it’s a very glamorous life and a lot of money. As an example, before doing fashion shows there’s a lot of work! You do different castings for four days, and you have maybe around 6-10 castings per day. If you do both Milan and Paris Fashion Week, you have around 50-80 castings in eight days. Then, maybe, you get one show! When getting a show, your agency takes between 50-70% of your proceeds. But the thing with fashion weeks is that it’s the best place to show your face! So it’s important if you want to do the big campaigns. There’s the glamour and money, but getting there isn’t easy.

When it comes to your own sense of style, who is your favourite designer and why?
My favourite designer is Rick Owens. I don’t exactly know why but every time I look at his shows or his collections, I love it. There’s something mysterious about his design…

Try to describe the biggest moment in your career so far?
I think it has to be when I did the Galliano show in Paris. I had the chance to meet John Galliano in person.  I only had the chance to say hi! He just told me to walk boldly and quickly. But there was something special about him, for sure…

How do you prevent yourself from being dragged into the dirty side of the industry?
I have never personally experienced the “dirty side” but I’ve heard strange stories about it. Maybe I will in the future but I think that the industry is better now than before. I also think the female models have it much harder than male models. They get asked to do things they shouldn’t, and so on…

And when you’re not working, what do you do?
I love football so a lot of my time goes towards playing and watch games. And of course hanging out with my friends. And my wonderful girlfriend and dog!

Has modelling helped you find yourself as a person?
It has made me much more aware of who I am. I have learned so much from modelling and I’m really happy I’ve had the chance to do it. To get around all by yourself and managing situations you never would have if you didn’t model. That part is great. Before I was a bit shy but after the years as a model I’ve changed. Now I don’t have any problems with that.

Who’s the coolest person you’ve met?
If not John Galliano, I’d have to say Nicola Formichetti. He’s the main stylist and editor of Vogue Japan, but is probably more known as Lady Gaga’s stylist. The master behind the “meat-dress” and all the other crazy stuff she wears. I did a shoot for Vogue Japan and he was styling. He was very funny and easy to hang out with. One funny thing was that when I told him that I came from Sweden, he replied with ”I hate Sweden and it’s fucking cold there!”

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve done as a model?
I haven’t done anything too weird. However, when I did a presentation for Valentino, I had to stand still in the same position for four hours. We were six models who were placed in a room, wearing Valentino suits while people were watching us. I literally felt like a tailor’s dummy!

You’ve always been very interested in fashion, so what is your next step?
As a model, it’s to do my very best and develop my network! I see myself as a fashion buyer after my modelling career, so it’s a great opportunity for me to get to know people in the fashion business. My plan is to maybe study in Paris or in Sweden. But I don’t know when, time (and work) will tell!

Tell us about your dream job, modelling wise.
My dream would be to do one of the really big campaigns. If I hade to pick one it would be CK Jeans. Only me on a big billboard at Time Square in NYC!

Interview Swedish-English Translation Emelly Blomqvist – Images Courtesy DNA Models
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