07/03/2013

Black And White Is Always Right

Black And White Is Always Right

Few colors have been used in fashion as much as black and white. Separate or together it seems like these two are a safe bet for any occasion. However, why has the combination of black and white been marked classic, while white and green is considered more capricious? As always the answer can be found by studying cultural and historical aspects.

The colors black and white have always been considered opposites within many cultures. In western culture black and white symbolize good and evil, or light and dark. Later, this came to be more apparent by dress code. White became synonymous with innocence and purity, particularly because white clothing or objects are so easy to stain. In most western countries this became a thought which developed the white wedding dress.

Black on the other hand was symbolism for dark times and death, and mourning apparel therefore came in black. In short, it can be said that black and white are colors that are understood through culture, but where does fashion fit in? After losing her beloved Prince Albert, Queen Victoria would naturally wear black making it unintentionally a fashionable color. Nevertheless it was Coco Chanel who introduced the little black dress in 1926, which was the beginning of bringing the mourning color onto the fashion scene.

Where black entered, its counterpart white naturally followed, and thus the black and white outfit of today started to develop. This can be linked to one simple fact: opposites attract. The reason why black and white go so well together has to do with their contrast. They enhance each other, making each of the colors pop, in opposite of what they would do next to a color closer to their own shade. Since both colors are deeply rooted within western culture it seems only natural for fashion to fall back on this color combination, for by looking at history it is not only classic, it is timeless.

Victoria Edman

06/03/2013

Morrissey and the Media: What Difference Does It Make?

Morrissey & Media: What Difference Does It Make?

It’s been a tumultuous week for Morrissey, even by Morrissey’s standards. First, he issued a press release stating that his sold-out show at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on February 28th will be the arena’s first entirely meat-free concert. Pretty impressive, yes, only the Staples Center doesn’t seem to agree. He followed that up by canceling an appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel show after being informed that the program would also feature the cast of Duck Dynasty, a reality show about a family who sells duck calls and decoys to hunters. Morrissey referred to the cast as “animal serial killers”, Kimmel blasted him for canceling last-minute, and a feud ensued. And if that weren’t enough, he also gave an email interview with Rookie, a teenage girl’s magazine, in which he advised readers, among other things, that “Life is a very serious business for the simple reason that nobody dies laughing.”

Funny, nobody seems to remember Morrissey’s last single.

The Moz has been overtly controversial for most of his career, and pro-animal since the age of 11. He named The Smiths’ sophomore album Meat Is Murder and even forbade his own bandmates from being photographed eating meat. “The most political gesture you can make is to refuse to eat animals,” he quipped in that same Rookie interview. “It was so when I was a teenager, and is still the case now.” True to his word, he’s blasted Paul McCartney for allowing himself to be knighted by the Queen (due in part to her immense fur collection), refused to play in Canada because of their gruesome seal-slaughtering pastime, and often refers to Madonna as McDonna. For obvious reasons, of course.

He’s also a man of sharp contradiction. He toured extensively in the United States while the nation was engaged in two corrupt international wars, has made several racist comments over the course of his career (he once called the Chinese a “subspecies”), and said, in the Rookie interview, that “If more men were homosexual, there would be no wars, because homosexual men would never kill other men, whereas heterosexual men love killing other men.” Right.

So . . . Morrissey loves animals, despises humans? Got it.

Confused? Don’t worry. The Pope of Mope allegedly has a memoir in the works, so there’s a slight chance that all of this might start making a little more sense in the near future.

Lane Koivu

05/03/2013

Pibal Bicycle by Philippe Starck and Peugeot

Pibal Bicycle by Philippe Starck and Peugeot

It’s been a long time since we’ve heard of Philippe Starck. Anyone, who has even a remote idea about design, surely is familiar with that name. Starck became widely known back in the nineties when a crisis in the design system and the rupture with the modernism has allowed him to emerge as a design superstar. Among his most iconic objects you may remember the juice squeezer shaped as a spider or a UFO, whichever pleases you best, or his lamps with the base which took form of a pistol, or even, one of his last designs for Steve Jobs’ yacht (which, as you may know didn’t end that well). Seen that he is so fond of both his superstar status in the world of design and the intentionally shocking objects which have earned him that status, it appears quite strange to see him involved in a project for a urban bicycle. Hey, but here it is, and it also seems actually quite useful and unobtrusive, two adjectives that Starck has deliberately rejected in the past.


The bicycle in question was named Pibal and it is produced by Peugeot exclusively for the city of Bordeaux in France. It is a hybrid between a bicycle and a scooter, specifically developed after the citizens of the town listed a set of needs and suggestions that would allow them to cycle more easily. In fact, the set of references they have submitted has been translated into a perfect urban bike that one may traditionally pedal or, when traffic is heavy, use the low scooter-like platform to push themselves along with one foot. Pibal is made of aluminium and has yellow tires for visibility and big racks at the front and back. Currently developed in a limited edition series by French car manufacturer Peugeot, 300 units of Pibal will be lent to the citizens for free by the end of June.


“Just like the pibale, undulating and playing with the flow, Pibal is an answer to new urban ergonomics,” says Starck, “thanks to a lateral translation which allows oneself to pedal long distances, to scoot in pedestrian areas and to walk next to it, carrying a child or any load on its platform. It only has the beauty of its intelligence, of its honesty, of its durability. Rustic and reliable, it’s a new friend dedicated to the future Bordeaux expectations.” It’s is strange to hear Starck speak of an object in these terms, but since we whole-heartedly support this initiative, we can only say, let’s hope he does so more often.

Rujana Rebernjak 

04/03/2013

Wandering in Silvia Bächli’s Ephemeral Worlds

Wandering in Silvia Bächli’s Ephemeral Worlds

Raffaella Cortese seldom, if ever misses a shot. After reviewing the women’s diverse expressions of mourning proposed by Kiki Smith last October, once again we return to the Milanese gallery to discover the first solo show by Silvia Bächli (b. 1956, Baden, Switzerland), another esteemed exponent of Ms. Cortese’s selected and intimist female art universe.


The Swiss artist, living and working between Paris and Basel, displays a bunch of her distinctive works created through the use of basic forms and materials: ink, gouache, charcoal, painting on white paper, characterised by a clean, delicate mark, tending to essential shapes with a light chromatism. Though reminding the abstraction of the minimalist American/Canadian artist Agnes Martin (1912-2004), Bächli’s approach is able to mix non-figurative and real elements strictly connected to the nature.

In her works flower stems turn into parallel lines, rectangles build vanishing forms and pale childlike female figures, apparently immersed in empty atmospheres, report an accurate, meditative construction of “unknown worlds where to wander, creating a space and exploring it, by acting with and against the paper edges.” 
In complete contrast to the present “spectacularization” of art, replacing the more and more flashy, shouted communication, the artist – who represented Switzerland at the 53rd Biennale of Venice – developed a low soft-spoken language made of slight, evocative and intimate words.


Exploiting the double exhibition space of the gallery, Bächli presents here, along with the series of drawings and paintings on paper of different sizes and techniques, a maybe less known, but still highly representative work. The photo installation entitled Hafnargata conceived with her husband, the Swiss artist Eric Hattan, and previously exhibited at the Kunsthalle Nürnberg in 2011, is the result of an explorative journey made by the couple in the barren landscapes of Iceland, a white primitive panorama, which perfectly reflects the essence of the artist’s poetic: “drawing means leaving things out.”


Monica Lombardi – Courtesy the artist and Raffaella Cortese Gallery, Milano © Lorenzo Palmieri

03/03/2013

Sunday Breakfast by Love For Breakfast

Sunday Breakfast by Love For Breakfast

A bowl of fruit as a silent ode of love to the spring that still seems so far.

Alessia Bossi from Love For Breakfast

01/03/2013

Your Childhood at V&A

Your Childhood at V&A

If you’re in London and looking for a way to ‘awaken your inner child’, the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green is the surest way to do it. Located in an airy, bright hall originally built for the Great Exhibition of 1855 and once part of the V&A Museum in South Kensington, the Museum of Childhood has an eclectic and delightful collection, bound to excite and inspire children both young and old.

Artefacts of childhoods recent and long-past are lovingly preserved in display cases. Within the permanent collection visitors can find treasures as varied as a doll from Ancient Egypt (1300 BC); a dollhouse from Restoration England; a complete Baroque puppet theatre; an unopened 1923 Christmas cracker (containing 6 different novelty caps, according to its advertisement); and a patchwork World War II party dress creatively made from scarps of material by its owner’s mother during wartime rationing. But be warned, you are just as likely to confront objects from your own childhood as from history, provoking all sorts of nostalgic memories. It is strangely reassuring to find your own treasures carefully labelled and artfully arranged in a museum, making you feel as if someone else cares as much about preserving your memories as you do.

In the middle of the first floor exhibit sits Sarah Raphael’s ‘The Childhood Cube’ (2000), a bright community art project created by Raphael and students from several schools. The cube is made up of 216 miniature rooms housing all sorts of mad-cap scenes and highlighted by dramatic optic fibre lighting. The effect is joyful and whimsical chaos, just as we would like to remember childhood. Mermaids lounge on sofas, the solar system hangs over black and white bathroom tiles and stairways shoot out in every possible direction.


However, the most disarming and affecting objects are currently to be found in the front room, where local community groups have been creating their own museum; exploring what it means to treasure something, what objects we treasure and why. Personal photos and objects are proudly presented: sometimes with accompanying quotes and stories, other times left enigmatically unexplained, leaving the viewer to draw their own conclusions. Appealing to your inner voyeur, the display gives the impression of rustling nosily through someone’s open drawers whilst they are in the other room fixing tea.

Best of all, you can enjoy the permanent collection and the exhibitions entirely free of charge. All in all, a great way to treat yourself and your inner child to some quality time together.

Jennifer Williams – Images courtesy of V&A Museum

28/02/2013

Guest Interview n°45: TT

Guest Interview n°45: TT

With his bold graphic work recently shown on the runway shows of Tim Coppens and Y3 during the AW13/14 fashion shows, Tom Tosseyn is not just a graphic designer. He is more of an artist, but one who can visualize and create graphics for his client; a TT piece of art but also a creation which reflects and compliments the client.

TT has a very clear handwriting and identity which is very contemporary and unique to him. The bold simplistic graphics are very distinct and simple at first glance but go behind his thoughts, and the sophisticated and intellectual way he works starts to shine through giving his work another angle.


You mainly design graphics and art for fashion right now, but how did you get into design?
I studied for 2 years product design at the Henry Van de Velde Institute in Antwerp, but wanted something more creative, so I switched to graphic design at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. Three years later I graduated from the Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Antwerp. I then moved to Italy and started my career in fashion, and worked for 4 years in the creative team at Diesel, followed by 55DSL. I was then recruited to create the graphics for the Hugo Boss Orange line in Germany. Two years later I returned to Belgium where I set up as a freelancer working for companies such as Eastpak, Fred Perry, Jil Sander, Acne studio, Y-3, Tim Coppens and Raf Simons.

Besides fashion, do you create graphics and artworks for any other industries?
I make a lot of work for the music scene, I’ve designed album covers and logos for R&S Records, the original techno label in Belgium, and also for some bands from America like Crossover. I recently started exhibiting and collaborating with other Belgian and international artists at Z33 in Hasselt, Annette De Keyser gallery and MX7 gallery in Antwerp.

Last year I made my own series of T-shirts and silk foulards under my TT label which I produced and sold. The foulard was initially part of a project and exhibition.

You also teach fashion and textile design at the Gent Academy of Art. What do you enjoy about tutoring students?
The best thing about teaching is to be able to guide young people in their creative processes as well as in their personal development and life path. Freedom for me is very important and I like first to show them how to deal with this liberty, especially for the young kids of 18 years old, as most of them are lost when you give them complete freedom. They should exploit this to the max; get the best out of it creatively as well as personally. It’s their journey but it gives me a great feeling when I see them evolve, struggle and yet find their way by absorbing and interpreting the information which I’ve given them. Like this I hope my work with them adds some positive & constructive value to their life.

You’ve recently been part of the project of 60 years celebration of Fred Perry, can tell us about this?
To personalize a reproduction of 1952 Fred Perry shirt I chose to design a flag, a medium often used to represent one’s devotion to a ‘group’ or subculture – whether it’s to a boy’s club, a football team or country. The design is inspired on hooligan flags, that explains the use of a gothic font that shouts out the word HONOR and the ‘O’ I changed into the Laurel Wreath symbol. The background base of the flag is a gradient of colours, this breaks the hardness of the graphic and gives it a more contemporary feel.

What influences you in your work?
Anything and everything. It can be a sign, a broken window which has been taped up. Other artists inspire me, art streaming, 1920s, the Bauhaus, 80s music, new wave. I’m in the city a lot so my urban surroundings inspire me a great deal. It can also be a person or even just how I’m feeling at that moment.

Tell us about your thing with numbers.
I don’t wear a watch but if I ever do see the time, digitally somewhere, it always has a sequence. For me it’s a graphical representation of time and it catches my eye, it’s a reminder for me to live in the moment without rushing after tomorrow or dwelling on the past. It’s about the here & now.

Which 3 words sum up Tom Tosseyn?
Unique, perfectionist, stubborn and bold. That’s 4!

Tamsin Cook – Photos: 1-2. Tim Coppens, 3. Capara – AnotherMagazine and Raf by Raf, 4. Fred Perry, 5. Tom’s logo. Courtesy of: Kris de Smedt, Yannis Vlamos, Betty Sze, Thomas Lohr

27/02/2013

Central Saint Martins Goes Ascetic: Fall 2013

Central Saint Martins Goes Ascetic: Fall 2013

You cannot talk about Central Saint Martins without thinking of the big names that came out from there, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen just to mention a few. It may be for this reason that, once a year, the eye of the fashion system turns around to have a look at promised famous-to-be fashion designers’ final presentations. On the 15th of February there had their last show and it seemed that this time an ascetic, almost religious inspiration struck most of the MA students’ minds.

Eilish Macintosh, with her first group, is definitely part of it, choosing long black tunics decorated only by long ropes; she is also the winner of L’Oréal Professionel Creative Award 2013. Similar path has been followed by Nicomede Talavera, who has shown a minimal approach covering his man with togas, characterized by simple cutting and alternating black and white. Marie Rydland took analogous choices, but she made her vests more feminine adding different print-colored fabrics to the main white one.


While Hwan Sung Park’s man is undoubtedly closer to heaven than to earth, all dressed up in white and covered with a full-body light lace, Hampus Berggren presents, instead, a kind of a dark warrior. They could appear as antagonists of each other.

Last but not least, Sadie Williams can be included in this ascetic field, considering the long, quite large shapes she worked with, presenting themselves in an imposing-severe way, downplayed thanks to shiny glittery robes. We are all curious to see what the future of these young fashion talents will bring, and certainly keeping an eye on their careers.

Francesca Crippa

26/02/2013

Le Corbusier’s Secret Laboratory at Moderna Museet

Le Corbusier’s Secret Laboratory at Moderna Museet

Whenever a major exhibition appears about an important artist, architect or designer, it is legitimate to ask oneself what it might tell us that we didn’t already know. Even though every retrospective is surely a perfect occasion to see in person the works we greatly admire, it is that unknown angle about someone’s oeuvre that we might unconsciously seek. Well, Moderna Museet in Stockholm has delighted us recently with just such show about Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, the great architect that is widely known under his famous pseudonym, Le Corbusier.


In more than fifty years of his professional career, Le Corbusier has changed the way both the public as well as the professionals think about architecture, promoting the ideas of modernism as the only possible solution for the future. The show at Moderna Museet shows us though, that even though Le Corbusier was passionately devoted to his rigid modernist aesthetics, he also had a more poetic formalist side. And it is precisely that oscillation between his celebration of mechanical objects and his search for poetic forms that the exhibition tries to highlight.

Curated by one of the most prolific theoreticians of Le Corbusier’s work, Jean-Louis Cohen, this show is organized in five thematic sections dealing with the major stages of his work: his purist paintings and the villas of the 1920s; his rediscovery of vernacular values in the 1930s; his preoccupation with the synthesis of the arts after 1945; and the complex reminiscences of his late work.


Each chapter of this three-dimensional story tries to unveil the complex relationship between the two different chapters of his work, his artistic experimentation and architectural design, using different materials and forms. The 200 works selected include paintings, landscape drawings, still-lifes, portraits, sculpture, tapestries, furniture, architectural drawings, models of buildings and of entire city plans, books, and photographs. Even though we may think we already know everything about this grand master of architecture, a curious peak into his “secret laboratory” shown in Stockholm may unveil a subtle hidden side of him.


Le Corbusier’s Secret Laboratory is on show at Moderna Museet in Stockholm until the 18th of April 2013.

Rujana Rebernjak

26/02/2013

Fashion Film

Fashion Film

Matthew Frost’s epic “Fashion Film” is a piss-take of the highest order: a timely, well-executed takedown of the unadulterated self-indulgence of “fashion films” in general. The film parodies the form, Portlandia-style, focusing on a dreamy-eyed model lost in self-involved oblivion. And like any smart, stinging satire, it is charged with a hurtful truthfulness that reveals quite a bit more than it might upon first glance.

Consider Anna dello Russo’s “Fashion Shower,” the pinnacle of the fashion film genre’s bad side. It’s a grating garbage heap, to be sure, and what essentially amounts to two-and-a-half minutes of droning, frightening emptiness. Not funny, not clever, not sexy, not social commentary. Just so sickly self-serving that anyone who doesn’t count Bryan Boy among his/her idols (likely everyone reading this) must wonder whether there is any chance she isn’t flagrantly, publicly mocking herself. (She isn’t.) Ol’ Anna is serious as a heart attack, and not even a well-deserved Fluorosulphric Acid Shower could wash away the sort of deranged smugness it must take to pull off such ego-driven acrobatics

(I’ll bet you sometimes think to yourself in French, too, don’t you, Anna? Profound.)

We all watched it because, like a fiery car crash, we just couldn’t look away. It was hilarious in its blithe ostentation. But is this really what fashion is? Smug stupidity? Thanks to our girl Anna and her fellow brain dead ilk, most people not actually involved with the long, painstaking, rigorous work of fashion’s production can only be led to think just that. After all, we can’t lament the legions of preteens (and grown-ups) whose favourite pastime is traipsing about making fabulous duck faces into their smartphones when we continue to feed them this shit.

So, Matt Frost’s spot-on blague is one hell of a well-deserved slap to a sick system rife with shallow insipidness. It holds up a zoomed-in mirror to all of fashion’s propensity for pimply pompousness. And though the fashion blogger masses seem to get the joke, not a one yet seems wise to the fact that they’re ultimately the butt of it all: he’s calling you out, fashionisti. It’s probably time to start showing the world you’re not just empty narcissists.

FASHION FILM from Matthew Frost on Vimeo.

Tag Christof 

 

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