18/07/2014

The Future of Swedish Fashion | Part Two

Currently on show at Sven-Harrys museum in Stockholm (running through August 31), “Swedish Fashion: 2000-2015” traces the explosion of Swedish fashion creativity at the turn of the century. Among the authors represented in the exhibition, chosen by a panel of esteemed fashion professionals, are three young designers undoubtedly representing the future of Swedish fashion: Anders Haal, Leonard Kocic and Giorgi Rostiashvili.

After graduating from Beckmans College of Design in 2009, Anders Haal worked for the Swedish fashion designer Ann-Sofie Back, before founding his own brand HAAL in 2013. The first collection, showcased in Paris, featured an elaborate mix of different techniques and influences. Anders Haal, proponent of the line of thought based on reworking simple ideas, keeps the shapes clean, focussing, instead, on unconventional materials and finishes. The young designer aims to develop clothes which make the wearer feel comfortable and free.

Twenty-one-year old Leonard Kocic, despite still being a student at Beckmans College of Design where he will graduate this summer, was already awarded the Bernadotte Art Awards. The young designer, who was born in Serbia and moved to Sweden in 2003, finds his inspiration in abstract thoughts and structures. For his graduation collection, he was influenced by his mother and her look, resulting in a dark, romantic and elegant collection, made of materials like organza and silk.

Giorgi Rostiashvili was born in Georgia and after moving around to different countries such as Russia, Greece and Cyprus settled in Sweden nearly a decade ago. His work is often influenced by thoughtful observation, related to the many moves during his upbringing. Giorgi Rostiashvili’s BA-collection from the Royal Danish Academy, is called SUBSTRATUM and is inspired by the Americanization of Japan and the interesting mix of the two very different cultures. Fused with experimentation on material combinations, attention to details and craftsmanship, Giorgi Rostiashvili’s originality brought him the prestigious Danish Designers’ Nest Show award, confirming his position among young Scandinavian talents.

Hanna Cronsjö 
17/07/2014

The Red Dinosaur

Completed in 1973, the Gallaratese housing block established the name of Aldo Rossi (1931-1997). Situated in a north west suburb of Milan, the bulding is the fifth construction within a larger 440-unit complex designed by Carlo Aymonino, who invited Rossi to design Monte Amiata complex. It comprises five red buildings: twо eight-storie slabs, а long three-stories building, another three-stories slab, аnd аn interconnecting structure grouped around а central area wіth а yellow open-air theater аnd twо smaller triangular plazas. Іt іs sometimes referred tо аs the “Red Dinosaur” іn reference both tо the reddish color оf the buildings аnd the oddity оf theіr design.

According to Rossi, the form was a reference to the galleried ballatoio housing typical of 1920s Milan. The whole building is relentlessly basic and singular in its concept. The flats are arranged between parallel walls above the arcade on two or three floors with deck access. The complexity оf the skyline іs enriched by а number оf passages, decks, elevators, balconies, terraces аnd bridges connecting the buildings wіth each оther аnd providing а great variety оf pedestrian walking paths. Rossi had the idea that buildings should show the passage of time and these columns remind of the famous picture of the architect standing between the columns of the Parthenon on the Acropolis. He was interested in the form of the city and how its monuments gave it identity. For this reason, one of the distinctive element that elevates the bulding to a monument status, is the straight character of the recurrence of the septa: an almost neoclassical colonnade, with a lot of depth and shadow, as if it were an empty shell. Aldo Rossi based his work on formal logic reduction to basic elements of composition. His forms were always essential, coming from archetypical typologies, but overlaid with the imagination of the architect. He argued that buildings should be general in their form and non-specific about their function, because if they last their use will change over time.

Rossi opposes to the generic invention of the primary meaning of archetypal shapes, repetition and spatial value. The project ends here. Nothing more. Functionalism has been overthrown, just form remains. In the inside, a perspectival space, which, unlike the ground level, has no direct but only visual relationship with the surroundings. The inner space is characterized by a matrix field plan, based on the geometry of the facades. It produces a kind of hyper-relational field, capable of accomodating multiple configurations.Due to its significance and architectural correctness, Gallarate today is not just a bedroom community on the outskirts of Milan, but a space of relationships, of urbanity. While it is true that much cement was used, the extensive use of green surfaces, places of intrapersonal relationships and its impressive visual impact, make Gallarate a significant lesson in the history of architecture.

Giulio Ghirardi 
17/07/2014

The War of the Scrunchie

Inevitably, as time goes by, we repeatedly find ourselves talking about those throwback items you have sworn you would never wear again. This time around, the revival item of choice is the scrunchie: that cozy and, if read in a certain way, feminine accessory. Twenty years after its peak moment – how could we forget Madonna wearing an oversized scrunchie in Desperately Seeking Susan back in 1985 – some of the trendiest celebrities, partly supported by the fashion world itself, have brought the scrunchie back to a moment of glory. From Cara Delevingne to Suki Waterhouse, the trend is under our nose.

Taking this story step by step, we cannot but mention the origins of the scrunchie, created in Vancouver in 1984 by Jane Reid who named it “bunch bangle”. Nevertheless, the patent for the scrunchie is equally claimed by Roomy Revson, who called it “scunci”. At the time, the scrunchie was simply part of the cool uniform typical of the decade, usually paired with high waisted jeans, white socks, tennis shoes and oversized jumpers – the same we now buy at vintage stores and flea markets.

Equally loved and loathed, the scrunchie remains a tricky fashion accessory, meaning there’s no middle ground. From the hate camp, we can’t but remember Carry Bradshaw’s “Sex and The City” argument against the scrunchie: “Okay, but here’s the thing. Here’s my crucial point. No women who works at W Magazine and lives on Perry Street would be caught dead at a hip downtown restaurant wearing a scrunchie!” The fact is, even if Rag&Bone proudly ran the scrunchie on their last pre-fall lookbook, following the path of both traditional (Missoni) and fresh (Ashish) aesthetics, we are still asking ourselves which part we would side with.

Francesca Crippa 
16/07/2014

Through the Lens of Sophia Aerts

How, when and why did you decide to work in photography?
For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by photography. Growing up I used to play with my parents’ cameras a lot and at some point I decided to study fashion photography – I don’t think I ever considered anything else.

What influences your work?
I think it is all about the places I visit and the people I meet.

How do you approach your work – how and why do you choose your subjects?
Photography enables me to discover and learn about others and myself. Nature, the people around me and my travels are my main inspiration. I look for natural beauty, innocence and personality. I love it when someone is not fussed and has an interesting personality that shows in the pictures.

Being a young photographer in our times can be pretty hard. What do you think is most important in tracing the right path?
To create what you believe in. I also think it’s really important to discuss your work with others – friends, colleagues, people in the industry – in order to get lots of feedback.

What are you doing when you are not shooting? What excites you at the moment?
I enjoy travelling, cycling around, meeting up with friends, watching films and cooking a lot.
Lately I’ve been meeting a lot of new faces and it is great to see these young girls’ enthusiasm. There is so much talent around!

Interview by Agota Lukyte – Images courtesy of Sophia Aerts 
16/07/2014

The Ford Model

Twiggy, Grace Jones, Ali MacGraw, Lauren Hutton, Kim Basinger and Beverly Johnson all have one thing in common: they were all discovered by the genious Eileen Ford, co-founder of the Ford Modeling Agency.As the only daughter of Loretta and Nathaniel Otte, Eileen Ford had an idyllic childhood. In her own words her family believed she could do no wrong, often citing it as a reason for her high confidence. Early in her life Ford would become fascinated with fashion, clothes and etiquette, but at the time could not see her passion as a stepping stone to her future career. Instead, she attended Bernard College from which she attained a degree in psychology. In college, she met her future husband and business partner Jerry Ford and started to model a bit herself.

During WWII Eileen Ford returned to New York and started working as a stylist for Sears catalogs, gaining a key sense of style. In 1946, with a baby on the way, she thought her and her husband could use some extra money so she started to work as a secretary for some of her model friends, thus, unexpectedly, giving birth to Ford modeling agency. The agency quickly became popular, offering services that no other agency before Ford had, including clothing advice and career planning. Eileen Ford is remembered as being very firm, yet at the same time, nurturing and encouraging, always taking a stand for her models’ best interest. Many remember her inviting her protégées to live with her at her New York apartment, where she would give lessons in etiquette and advice on how to adjust to the city’s fast pace. Last week Eileen Ford passed away at the age of 92. She leaves behind a legacy of modernizing the modeling industry into what it is today. Empowering models and elevating their status from just a pretty face into something more. For this and so much more including guts and perseverance Eileen Ford will be remembered and admired.

Victoria Edman 
15/07/2014

DESTE Fashion Collection: 1 to 8

As it happens, museums, galleries and exhibiting spaces in general dedicate ever more often part of their annual program to the history, industry and culture of fashion. Not by chance, institutions like the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London have recently dedicated much of their time and energy in developing major fashion shows – met with equally great acclaim both by the critics and the public. Fashion has, indeed, become the very last form of cultural business.

Fashion curation is an emerging and flourishing field, an area of rapid growth in museums worldwide, which sees in viewers’ emotional engagement the key of its peaking popularity. But, when fashion crosses the boundaries of the art world, one main ontological question must arise: how should fashion be displayed within an art museum? An intelligent answer comes from DESTE Foundation, with its recent exhibition titled “DESTE FASHION COLLECTION: 1 TO 8” occupying the Benaki Museum in downtown Athens (on view through October 12, 2014).

Since 2007, DESTE Foundation has been conducting research on the meaning of fashion today, seeking the contribution of contemporary artists, architects and creative minds on the critical discourse around this fast-paced discipline. It is an incremental, evolving and potentially open-ended project whose main goal is to test and stretch the boundaries between art and fashion in an innovative and experimental way. Each year an artist is offered the opportunity to build a capsule collection for the Foundation’s archive and to freely re-interpret it through the means of art, graphic design, cinema, architecture, publishing or fashion itself. The project’s first edition was curated by the Paris-based graphic design duo M/M Paris, followed by photographer Juergen Teller (2008), fashion designer Helmut Lang (2009), writer Patrizia Cavalli (2010), artist Charles Ray (2011), film director Athina Rachel Tsangari (2012), architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro (2013) and photographer Maria Papadimitriou (2014). Next year will be the turn of Sonic Youth’s front-woman Kim Gordon.

This year’s exhibition assembled the first eight years of fashion experiments conducted by the DESTE Foundation in an original display designed by architects Mark Wasiuta and Adam M. Bandler, both professors at Columbia University in New York, and respectively director and curator of the school’s gallery. Through a visually catchy, but at the same time very rigorous system of moving chain walls, the installation itself reflected on the idea of fluid boundaries between disciplines, with fashion and art constantly penetrating each other’s territories.

The curatorial apparatus highlights unexpected relationships: on one hand, it revealed the differences and tensions between two disciplines by examining them separately; on the other it inscribed them within the same cultural domain. In fact, navigating through the exhibition display and its dissolving rooms – rather than limiting themselves to passive admiration of displayed objects – the viewers were asked to force themselves to reveal the cultural interpretations hidden behind each single fashion piece, rediscovering it as an original artist’s work.

Tommaso Speretta – Images courtesy of Matthew Monteith 
15/07/2014

Don’t Stop Now: Fashion Photography Next

Fashion and art, art and fashion: that’s an ever more common binomial, which keeps on offering challenging starting points for the synthesis of new visions and important contexts where different artistic experiences can coexist and dialogue. We are all used to hearing about fashion designers and brands that choose to get involved in the art world as collectors or founders and supporters of international art projects and venues; and it’s not unusual to learn of artists who put their creativity to use in collaborations for capsule collections and special edition products. The mutual and magnetic attraction between these two cosmos has existed for years, but what makes the contemporary cultural sharing really fruitful is the increasing recognition of fashion photographers, who are able to go beyond the boundaries of their fields, interpreting the urgencies of a market while maintaining a distinguishable artistic language.

Don’t Stop Now: Fashion Photography Next exhibition, arranged and co-curated by Foam and guest curator Magdalene Keaney, seems to take to stock of this situation, starting from a simple, but not always taken for grant fact: “fashion photographers are first and foremost photographers”. Fashion is always there, but it is showed in its different aspects, revealing different sceneries and subcultures, which have less to do with superficial slicks. As stated by the promoters of the show, there is a new generation of young photographers, which grew up absorbing the work of Mario Testino, Steven Meisel, Jürgen Teller or Wolfgang Tillmans, becoming, by now, undisputed talents, present in many exhibitions, fairs and art publications all over the world.

This new wave of artists follows a singular stylistic path and is, at the same time, able to stress the individual peculiarities of their work, wisely combining tradition and new technological tools. Analogue and digital confront each other, representing diverse devices to develop ideas and keep moments alive. Framed photographs, collages, polaroids, photo installations, videos and books featuring still lifes, landscapes and portraits are made to last more than a single magazine issue. The romantic and dark shots of Julia Hetta, young urban style depicted by Tyrone Lebon, formal neatness of Hanna Putz and genuine and ironic, somehow punk, always cool images by Tung Walsh and Ruvan Wijesooriya (among the others) will be on view at Foam museum in Amsterdam until September 7th. If you are around, even if you are not a fashion addict, don’t miss it.

Monica Lombardi – Images courtesy of Foam 
14/07/2014

Style Suggestions: Backpacks

Stylish and convenient: the backpack has gone through an extreme makeover, and we can’t get enough of it! You can find a variety of leather, exotic skins and colours that are fashionable enough for work or a night out. These are not the same nylon bags you once knew.

Orange backpack: 3.1 Phillip Lim, Red backpack: Proenza Schouler, Bracelet: ACNE, Cleanser: A.P.C.

Styling by Vanessa Cocchiaro 

14/07/2014

Makers Biennial at MAD in New York

What was the last time you made something from scratch? The art of making has, to some extent, become the art of contemporary living and chances are, you might be making or planning to make something – a loaf of bread, a new scarf, pottery or even furniture – at this very moment. Craft or, rather, crafting is the focus of “NYC Makers: The MAD Biennial” at the Museum of Art and Design in New York. The first exhibition to open under the new director, Glenn Adamson, needs to be read as a statement of purpose for museum’s future developments. Founded as Museum of Contemporary Crafts in 1956, since changing its title in 2002 the institution has lost some of its former focus, which Adamson, a craft specialist and former director of research at the V&A in London, is intent to bring back.

“NYC Makers: The MAD Biennial” surveys New York’s creative community through a selection of 100 makers, unlimited by disciplinary boundaries. Nominated by a committee of 300 cultural leaders and subsequently selected by a jury led by Adamson and the exhibition’s curator Jake Yuzna, the artefacts displayed vary from more ‘traditional’ crafting practices like fashion and pottery making, to food and avant-garde technology. Through the idea of craft and making, Adamson presents a new approach to creative discipline, where art and design are brought together by “making, skill, knowhow and expertise”. This exhibition, in fact, celebrates a diverse field of creativity, “trying to espouse an egalitarian understanding of art, design and craft, and presenting many different types of people on an even playing field.” Therefore, “NYC Makers: The MAD Biennial” presents a sweeping cross-section of the cultural production of these inventive individuals, living and working within a single city: from deliberately important names like Yoko Ono, Laurie Anderson and Gaetano Pesce, to small and relatively unknown businesses like the tattoo artists Amanda Wachob or Flavor Paper wallpaper company. “NYC Makers: The MAD Biennial” runs for 100 days, until October 12, 2014.

Rujana Rebernjak 
11/07/2014

100% Theatre: Rimini Protokoll

Theatre is artifice, scenes abstracted from everyday life and superimposed to achieve some kind of narrative effect in a blank or symbolic space. In this way performance is never an approximation, but a kind of distortion, an interpretation of some aspect of social or cultural life. Frustrated with these limitations, other performative genres have developed which attempt to overcome them. Documentary theatre is defined as the attempt to relive the truth of an event, whether by sticking to a factual narrative or using non-actors. In this sense it may have more in common with forms of performance found outside the traditional theatre, as radio travelogue or television documentary.

Berlin based theatrical group Rimini Protokoll have devised new and ever more ingenious ways to dramatise this emerging genre of documentary theatre. One work called Lagos Business Angels bought them to Lagos, capital of Nigeria, and one of the fastest growing urban economies in the world. Here they recruited more than a dozen individual small business people to tell their unique stories, which they laid out in a stage setting for the Brussels festival Kunstenfestivaldesarts in 2012. The audience was invited to tour around an listen to an extraordinary array of stories from Austrian textile merchants who sell their handmade fabrics exclusively to Nigerian clients for their weddings, to shoe salesmen, people working in technology and shipping, used car salespeople, and even a German pencil manufacturer who had had unfortunate dealings with shady traders and was eventually invited by the Nigerian government to work for one of their anti-corruption watchdogs.

Just knowing that all of these people genuinely would return to these jobs after the festival intensified the audience’s interest in their lives, in the same was perhaps as reality TV but with a more sophisticated format and approach. Another project, variously called 100% Stockholm, 100% Zurich, 100% Melbourne, and the upcoming 100% Darwin, on 9th August this year, find a proportionally representative combination of the population of a city in 100 random people. What is compelling about this project is not only that the individuals are chosen for how their characteristics match the general statistics of the city, but how the group manage to bring these unlikely individuals together to tell a compelling story – giving the audience a sense of connection both with the characters on stage and with one another.

Rimini Proktoll maintain an active schedule. Upcoming performances include: Situation Rooms – A multiplayer video piece in Hamburg, Lausanne and Berlin, Remote X in Lausanne and Vilnius, and 100% Darwin in Darwin.

Philippa Nicole Barr 
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