Here are my top places to be, top things to do: Lie in the sun near the sea.

Sitting under that tree of grapes.

An afternoon walk with my dog in the woods.

A view from an afternoon walk.

A rocky beach with no people.

The spring issue of L’Officiel Hommes is on the newsstands almost worldwide. The quarterly men’s magazine with a fresh and dynamic approach to fashion has become, during the years, one of the most stylish points of reference among the international lifestyle publications.

Each edition of L’Officiel Hommes uses its own language to interpret and reflect cultural trends of different countries combining classic and unconventional looks. All the issues, with a common graphic taste and a special eye for high quality photography, are dedicated to a male readership interested in fashion, but at the same time they cover a wide range of topics – art, design, sport, music, architecture etc. –, which makes the magazine enjoyable for women as well.

This season L’Officiel Hommes Italia hosts, among many notables, shoots by its brilliant creative director Pablo Arroyo and the drawings by the skilled illustrator Ricardo Fumanal, both proudly 2DM’s talents.

L’Officiel Hommes Paris, on the other hand, along with the interesting piece about the conceptual artist Gordon Matta Clark – renamed Anarchitec, famous for his ‘building cuts’–, features an editorial of impressive 20 pages dedicated to the team of the creative studio of Acne, shot by 2DM’s Bruna Kazinoti.

We look forward to the next issue and we’re warming up for the next satisfying collaboration.

TANK/All New

When we saw the amazing work from 2DM`s Bruna Kazinoti 
and Pandora Lennard - Tribe – we couldn`t help dedicating an article to the editorial last week. As an extension of the editorial, we must cite that the Tank team has changed a lot recently. New Art Director Micheal Donkin (coming from British Vogue) brings a breath of fresh air to the magazine. With a host of new talents, pleasant editorials like Croatia based talent Bruna and newly assigned Tank`s Fashion Director Pandora`s `Tribe`may be a more common future.

Since the magazine was first published in 1998, TANK has devoted itself to original and creative interpretations. For this deed, not only collaborating with considerable writers, artists, photographers, stylists and illustrators who all standout, but also with contributors who are independent thinkers which enrich TANK`s identity. The more TANK team discovers new approaches and such new names, the more they will capture the emerging talents.

Before the new art direction, TANK was a largely fashion oriented magazine that was a representation of a typically 90`s style and approach. It seems like Micheal Donkin felt the necessity to close the time gap, making it sophisticated though more reachable, which has turned out to be useful, new way magazine. Keeping the origins, new style in fashion magazine that has a considerable story behind.

Not only uniting the forces with new photographers has created timelessness, but also by the alternative art direction – just to mention the attention paid to fonts and the quality of the paper which is semi-matte – the magazine in general is helping the readers experience an evocative change.

We are curious about what is coming next in TANK who has given the signals that they are going to continue seeking out the most interesting names and subjects, always ELITISM FOR ALL.

“Now, here’s the sum total: One gang could run this city! One gang. Nothing would move without us allowing it to happen. We could tax the crime syndicates, the police, because WE’VE got the streets, suckers! Can you dig it?”

Those memorable lines of the 1979 American cult movie “The Warrior” have echoed through the past thirty years. The story of the chase and fight between the gangs on New York has inspired the stand out editorial “Tribe” in the brand new issue of Tank.

The editorial is not only inspired by the cult movie but also carries strong elements of the iconic Comme des Garçons campaigns from the 90`s and Yohji Yamamoto‘s minimalism. Put it all together and you’ve got “Tribe” which is a gorgeous story flow giving the hints of youth culture.

The editorial was shot, appropriately enough, in an East London warehouse, by photographer Bruna Kazinoti and styled by Pandora Lennard. As warriors work behind the scenes – gang members were named after historical people in line with their characters – the casting was very much in tune with the story. There is a strong statement, character and reality among the models rather than just poses – Bruna strong imagery brings it out. The young models, who together look like a band are Eloise who is daughter of Cissy Chong (Creative Director of Cutler & Gross), then there is photographer David Bailey’s son Sascha and The Clash’s Paul Simonon’s son Louis. When the heritage of cult names come together with Bruna’s sense of character and Pandora’s amazing styling, we get a visual narrative flow of subculture and youth.

Under the header “Let’s Push Things Forward” in the current issue of i-D, Jo-Ann Furniss gorgeously summed up the uneasy tension that is men’s fashion. Her jam-packed paragraph touches on fashion’s current state of flux, and brilliantly points out that “There are two big battles to fight here: against the ‘gentleman’s wardrobe’ and ‘scally drag.’” She goes on to say she’d like to say “fuck you” to them both.

Harsh words. Count us in.

So on the eve of Pitti, as Florence’s hotels and bars are filled with international dandies and their punctilious wardrobes, Scott Schuman is likely licking his chops. Florence (especially during Pitti) doesn’t have to worry much about scally drag (unlike London and Milan), but it’s clear on a Pitti stroll through the Fortezza that the dandy paradigm has stagnated. The gentleman’s uniform has gelled around a vague mixture of midcentury, and the requisite neatly buttoned shirts, rich fabrics, formal accessories, and a subscription to Monocle. Pitti is The Sartorialist’s day in the sun. And his photos of the event’s looks are exactly the same from year to year. Yawn.

Now, gentlemanly attire is lovely up to a certain point. The return to formal elegance after decades of slop has been a much-needed swing of the pendulum back in the right direction. And the inspirations for the gentleman’s wardrobe are truly eternal: they are the bedrock of men’s fashion, and the undiluted points of departure from which all mens fashion invariably draws. Just as the Leica rangefinder’s pure, functional form has survived countless iterations (and inspired gorgeous modern interpretations like the Olympus Pen and the Fujifilm X100), classic men’s fashion is a paragon of aesthetic balance.

And just imagine how much more lovely travelling would be if the dowdy, number-crunching, cheap-suit-wearing masses of businessmen roaming the world’s airports looked more like their grandfathers and less like they just hit the bargain bin at Coin or Primark or Sears… But is a constant succession of warmed-over and refracted rehashes the most we can hope for?

Bruna Kazinoti for Quest. Somewhere beautiful between sartorial between dark, dandy and flamboyant.

Scally drag – perhaps the most beautifully succinct way to describe the over-the-top looks endemic among party kids and rampant on Lookbook (bravo, Jo-Ann) – is quite another story. It is clearly symptomatic of our copy and paste culture. We appropriate and share anything from anyone in vain attempts to rise to popularity on networks driven by “hypes” and “likes” and “reblogs.” The new and false sense of individualism social networks bring counterintuitively makes us all less unique. And, logically, since flamboyance is generally the most effective means of standing out, scally drag is the unfortunate result of the whole world resembling a giant high school.

The cacophonous visual and cultural landscape of our generation means that fashion has fewer solid fountains of influence to draw from. Generations are no longer united by one cultural wave or by one group of influential artists. Fashion, by nature is iconoclastic and rebellious, but scally drag makes clear that fashion today isn’t quite sure what it might be rebelling against. And despite its supreme connection to the zeitgeist, scally drag is just too trashy to drive fashion forward . Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. Trash to trash. Shock is dead.

But to its credit, the flamboyance is a powerful fight against the almost oppressive new elegance of its gentlemanly opposite.

Earlier in her mini-rant, Jo-Ann says, “I want to see something new that completely slaps me around the face and challenges me in the men’s world; a point of view that feels like it’s coming from a new generation and not just following an older one.” She goes on to cite a tension between auteurs and brands, but it’s rather this tension between beige dandy and flamboyance that could prove most important for fashion’s future.

Vicky Trombetta. Remix and masculinity for the future.

We hope that the two poles somehow begin to look forwards, instead of simply backwards (the dandies) and narcissistically inwards (the scallies). “There needs to be something else. Masculinity is more complex than that.”

Here’s hoping for some pleasant surprises from Pitti this year.

2DM / Hero 5 & Simon Nessman

We previously shared Bruna Kazinoti and Ana Murillas’ fantastic editorial on Malthé Madsen for the most recent issue of eye-candy-fest Hero.

Now that we’ve finally gotten our hands on the entire issue, we’re glad to share quite a bit more about the issue, including more excellent work from the 2DM universe. This month marks the start of a new section in the magazine, billed REFS – a reference of contemporary fashion. It’s to be a digest of the best models, photographers, stylists and hottest brands.

For the new section, Vicky Trombetta shot Kieran Martin in Christopher Shannon and styled by John Colver. Céline Marioni styled Amuary Baudoin in for photographer Antoine Seiter. And in case you hadn’t gotten enough Bruna Kazinoti last time around, she also shot Jack Manhood in Versace and styled by Harry Lambert.

This month’s cover features curly-haired god Simon Nessman, and inside you’ll find an 18 page feature on the Canadian model extraordinaire by Fabien Kruszelnicki and styled by Stevie Westgarth.

Hero’s hot, as usual.

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!