Swedish Kittens
Stockholm Magazine
Fall/Winter 2011
Photographer: Andreas Öhlund
Models: Mona Johannesson and Bo Develius
It might be the middle of Summer, but I am already on the lookout for cosy knitwear (and a Norwegian Forest kitten).
xxxx
Monday, 25 July 2011
Saturday, 23 July 2011
The Maison
Maison Martin Margiela
for View on Colour
04/02/1998
(BEGINS)
WHAT IS COLOUR?
An intensity, a temperature, a clash, a harmony.
AND
HOW DO YOU USE IT?
When it asks.
WHAT IS BLACK?
An absence, a presence, a mood, a mantle.
WHAT IS RED?
A blush, a flush, a fever, a command.
WHAT IS SKIN?
A protection.
WHAT IS FABRIC?
A medium.
WHAT IS TEXTURE?
A result of time.
WHAT IS CONSTRUCTION?
A means to an end.
WHAT IS FUNCTION?
A reply to a need.
WHAT IS ART?
A need to reply.
WHAT IS CRAFTSMANSHIP?
A fruit of time.
WHAT IS CLOTHING?
The final layer.
WHAT IS FASHION?
A series of propositions.
WHAT IS RECYCLING?
Another chance.
HOW DOES RECYCLING FIT INTO YOUR WORK?
By nature.
HOW DOES A CONCEPT DEVELOP AT MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA?
Time, a question, a reply.
HOW DOES A CONCEPT DEVELOP AT HERMES?
Time, another question, another reply.
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DEVELOP? BESIDES CLOTHING?
An understanding.
WHAT WORDS DO YOU LIVE BY?
We.
(ENDS)
-
"Trash is always abundantly decorated: the luxury object is well-made, neat and clean, pure and healthy, and its bareness reveals the quality of its manufacture"
- Le Corbusier
-
With or without Margiela at the helm, the Maison still provides dependable basics. But I wish Martin would come back.
Dex - edIT
xxxx
-
"Trash is always abundantly decorated: the luxury object is well-made, neat and clean, pure and healthy, and its bareness reveals the quality of its manufacture"
- Le Corbusier
-
With or without Margiela at the helm, the Maison still provides dependable basics. But I wish Martin would come back.
Dex - edIT
xxxx
Thursday, 21 July 2011
A Waking Dream
Fall/Winter 2009
The first look of Yohji's Fall/Winter 2009 collection has been a personal inspiration for a number of months now - the long silhouette, the slightly extended cuffs, the full wrap skirt, the long hair, the beard, the passing reference to Rasputin. However the collection as a whole was admittedly not one of his strongest. It was too broad in its references, and a certain number of questionable printed silk boxer shorts worn over trousers seemed too forced compared to Yohji's customary jokes. Yet despite that, there are looks that I still feel strongly about, and indeed rank amongst my personal favourites.
In a number of looks I was fascinated by the subtle obfuscation of the body, either through obscuring the silhouette or merely layering in an unexpected manner. Fashion has become one of the main ways in which the modern self negotiates identity, and it is done so through interaction with the body. Outward appearance is paradoxically seen as inherently deceptive, but also somehow expressive of a deeper truth (whether it be identity or the self). Indeed that paradox is something that has always intrigued me, questioning what we are expressing when we dress - either consciously or not, and how it is read by others. Dress is at once both extremely intimate and extremely public. We are a society of dressed bodies, and reflective surfaces notwithstanding, our clothed selves are usually seen by others more than ourselves. Dress becomes an armour in the modern city, a sliver of identity for others to read in ever-increasingly fleeting moments. And in this collection that armour was apparent, not literally in terms of sharp silhouettes and strong lines, but in layers, deconstructed tailoring and a masking of the body.
With the skirted look and the heavy knitwear look, for example, the traditional silhouette of the masculine body was obscured and transformed. It was relatively subtle, and indeed a more striking example would not be hard to find, but it was that subtlety which was part of what I enjoyed so greatly. What was captured was the inherent duality of clothing in its relation to the body, especially once in movement. He highlighted the relationship of clothing both concealing and revealing (the body, but at a deeper level, the self), but more importantly, highlighting the dual notions of presence and absence. By covering the body in such a manner, whether it be the legs that are traditionally thought of only in bifurcated garments (just think of the logo for the men's toilet), or the chest and torso engulfed in ostensibly shapeless knitwear, the expected signals and meanings were thus subverted. The garments become aporetic, and through this process the inherent meanings of what would otherwise be a simple tailored or knitwear look were changed, and thus questioning those expected traditional meanings.
The first model walks out but his legs are obscured. The iconic image of a suited man striding forward is transformed. The masculine image of strong shoulders and chest is present, but the legs are hidden. Their shape is suggested through the skirt as his front leg pushes out, creating a tension across the garment. Similarly a model walks out draped in heavy knitwear, covering his body, almost swallowing him in sensual comfort. The body is hidden, but added upon, creating an even larger silhouette, hinting perhaps at strength. But what would otherwise be overbearing strength, were it executed in sculpted tailoring, is undercut by the choice of soft knitwear. Elsewhere deconstructed workwear jackets, or baggy shorts worn over slouchy leggings, transform the body, creating new shapes and thus new meanings. What we see is a play upon traditional dress, but more than that, a play upon identity. Dress can be used to create, to transform, to subvert, however subtly, the very notion of what it is that dress is thought to express. It was not his best collection, but I still think of Yohji as the master poet.
xxxx
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
[Im]mortality
Dante In Exile, Anonymous (-?)
Jason and Medea, John William Waterhouse (1907)
Gianciotto Discovers Paolo and Francesca, Jean Ingres (1819)
Damir Doma, Menswear, Spring/Summer 2010
Gianciotto Discovers Paolo and Francesca, Jean Ingres (1819)
Damir Doma, Menswear, Spring/Summer 2010
Tilda Swinton, W Magazine, July 2011, Tim Walker
Uma Wang, Fall/Winter 2011
Uma Wang, Fall/Winter 2009
Yohji Yamamoto, Fall/Winter 2009
The Soloist by Takahiro Miyashita, Fall/Winter 2011, Keiichi Nitta
Uma Wang, Fall/Winter 2011
Uma Wang, Fall/Winter 2009
Yohji Yamamoto, Fall/Winter 2009
The Soloist by Takahiro Miyashita, Fall/Winter 2011, Keiichi Nitta
You do not need to look for long to notice the cracks, but once you see them, they are almost all you see.
xxxx
Sunday, 17 July 2011
First Blush
Ode Couture
(Summer 2011)
Photographer: Nick Knight
Model: Ming Xi
"Last flutterings of delight,
White wings lost on the white"
The Evening Darkens Over, Robert Bridges
"Last flutterings of delight,
White wings lost on the white"
The Evening Darkens Over, Robert Bridges
xxxx
Friday, 15 July 2011
A Shirt
Ann Demeulemeester
Fall/Winter 2011
Cotone Shirt
(images via LN-CC)
It was one of those moments when you see something that immediately calls out to you, and so you approach it, only to have to leave the moment you do so. The image stays with you, you remember it, and it seems to flower inside your mind. As time passes it grows into something ever more beautiful. You tell yourself that you will soon return to give it your full attention - to hold it, to try it on, to take it away with you. The image you construct is an image based upon what you saw, but it becomes more than that. It becomes a dream, a fantasy, better than it was because you give it full meaning. What you hold onto is nothing but an image, barely tangible, and yet what it is connected to is itself just as elusive. If seeing is believing, than surely touching is worship. Such grandiose terms for an attraction to a mere material object? And why not? "To be modern is to tear the soul out of everything", but I yearn for that soul. Perhaps it is more than just a material object. If not to others, then to me, and that is all that matters.
A shirt is a shirt is a shirt, but when you put it on it transforms you. Not creating some unknown, but drawing out something you always wanted to be there, and maybe it was, but you just never knew how to express it. Fashion has become one of the central ways in which we negotiate our identity, but what is that identity? The modern self is a reflexive self, and in the practice of dressing we are engaging with the tension between artifice and authenticity - do we dress to present an image or to express some sense of true self? How do we even know that it will be interpreted as such? It is not just the shirt that is important, but the ideas and meanings behind it - those that are already there, but more importantly, those that you bring to it. How can a piece of cloth be invested with such great meaning and importance? It is just a piece of cloth, but because of how you perceive it, it will always be anything but. A dream, a memory, a moment, a feeling, a piece of you. Forget about trends, forget about style, forget about trying to express, just think about what you find beautiful and try to share that.
xxxx
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