Controlled and conscious de-growth? Dedicating August – the holiday month par excellence – to a rural and bucolic life marked by natural rhythms, could be a good starting point. It’s a pity that afterwards September follows.

Andalusian woods early morning after a black coffee, in a perfect light.

Clam spaghetti, my favorite dish and also one of my specialties.

Peace and dim light of Casa Elisabeth, a rural accommodation in Baja Ribera, ideal for the famous Iberian “siesta”.

The scent of the Mediterranean fig, without which the holiday wouldn’t be the same.

The infinite Andalusian olive tree groves at dusk, perfect for a run to detoxicate from the technological stress.

There’s no nicer way to start out new month than with a delightful shopping trip to the newsstand to collect all the best magazines, fresh off the presses. Today’s review is about one of our perennial favorites, Rolling Stone Italia, which this month is bursting at the seams with the artwork of 2DM‘s talents.

The March issue, n.101, sets the spotlight on a range of public figures, including Julian Assange, John Belushi, Roger Daltrey, Michael Margotta, Mark Stewart and Elio Germano, just to name a few. And the gloomy eyes of Lou Reed grace the cover, photographed for the magazine by Mattia Zoppellaro.

The first of the three 2DM talents represented on the pages of this issue is Karin Kellner for the interview of Elio Germano, who is interviewed by Raffaella Giancristofaro about his work, colleagues and thoughts about work and life.

The B&W photoshoot “Una Cittadina Del Mondo” (A Citizen of the World), starring the actress Martina Codecasa was shot by 2DM’s own Vicky Trombetta, whose work here is an atmosphere charged with thoughts, dreams and memories.

On page 111, you’ll find the signature styled collage by Diego Soprana, featuring the article “Contro il revival” by Angelo Flaccavento on how the “remake culture” is killing creativity and originality in the world, and according to the author it’s not just happening in fashion.

As always with a new issue of the ‘Stone, the suggestions, glimpses and profiles left us energized. We’ve got lots to google!

Citofonare Trombetta / Wonder-Room

After a seasonal hibernation, Wonder-Room is back with a vengeance, in a new space with another not-to-be-missed artist / art director mashup. This time around, photographer Vicky Trombetta teams up with duo Studio Blanco for an event to showcase the heart of his work and his particular creative process.

An intimate glimpse into the artist’s personal space, the exhibition will be set up to recall his real-life workspace. It is his toolbox of inspirations, so to speak, and a window onto his creative process. On display will be selections from his body of work and his personal archive spanning two decades, all seen through the prism of the inspirations behind them. Citofonare Trombetta (“Ring Trombetta’s Doorbell”) invites you in for a look into the life of an artist who has lived through photos. It is a private piece of him on display.

The exhibition’s other filo conduttore – and an important sticking point in Vicky’s work in general – is analogue. Together with the personal research, memories, and experiences that have gone into the making of his photos, his images are heavily influenced by the space he exists in. Appropriately, the images will be displayed together with objects from everyday life, creating a real sense of their context and story.

Not to be missed is the event’s gift for the first to arrive at the opening. On a table constructed by the photographer will be boxes – from his archive – which will contain fifteen, very limited-edition silver prints in editions of nine.

Opening June 21 in a new venue on Via Arena 19 at February.

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.

Sean Frank / Alexander McQueen

Sean Frank‘s career in filmmaking is just beginning, and already he’s making waves. His fashion work evinces the sensitivity of a much more seasoned artist, and he has quite the knack for crafting cinematic tension. The 22-year-old Londoner got his start in New York, where he shot the short film for 3.1 Phillip Lim to accompany the label’s lookbook shot by 2DM’s Vicky Trombetta. He’s since been at Alexander McQueen, and his newest, a gorgeous, shimmering behind-the-scenes film of the label’s Autumn/Winter 2011 collection has been burning up the blogosphere from its release.

Hot on the heels of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art’s smash hit Alexander McQueen retrospective, “Savage Beauty,” Sean’s films take on an even greater poignancy. They come at a pivotal time for the Alexander McQueen universe, as its creator passes into legend and the label searches for its voice without him at the head.

Sean studied graphic design at both Goldsmiths and Central Saint Martins, and his sensibility as a visual designer certainly shines through in his films. “I’ve always had a passion for cinema and film, and for how it has the ability to momentarily transport you to another place while giving insight into different worlds and ways of seeing,” he told us in a short conversation yesterday. He draws inspiration from a range of artists, and interestingly, the wabi-sabi of everyday life.

Sean’s young work is extremely promising, and we can’t wait to see what might be up his sleeves over the next few seasons.

3° Atto / Opus Creative

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