You cannot deconstruct unless you know how to construct. - Alexander McQueen

archive for the 'Fashion' department

Anja Dragan Imagines A World Where Our Superselves Would Live

Friday, April 5th, 2013

I am always rewarded by a stop at BPB, this time for an introduction to the work - or the world, in this case - of Anja Dragan. Below are brilliant looks from MES DIX VIES, her 2012 BA graduate collection for the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. In her back and forth with Branko Popović she said that, “[The collection] was all about a new beginning. About a new world where everything is still bright and pure. A new world where our super-selves would live.”

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I love what she did with the fabric for the following look. It’s as if her world is so new that the mud has just dried:

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The Serbians

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

Super sweet shout out from Branko Popović to Ana Ljubinković, Ivana Pilja and George Styler for their inclusion in the International Fashion Showcase during London Fashion Week 2013.

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Looks by Serbian designers (from left to right) Ana Ljubinković, Ivana Pilja and George Styler. Backdrop art by BECHA, who collaborated with Ljubinković for the tenth issue of FAAR Magazine.

In an effort to learn more about the designers, I came across these wonderful video portraits from THE LOVESTREET:

I love Styler’s portrait for its experimental film vibe:

Particularly impressive is Ljubinković, who helped take over an abandoned section of downtown Belgrade to co-found the Belgrade Design District:

Representing Serbia in London, Pilja told Fashionela she hopes that, “…Ana, George and I will open the doors to creative people from our country, with the message that originality always finds its way”. No doubt it will.

Part Nouveau and the Bleeding Cool Swipe File

Friday, February 22nd, 2013

Came across Part Nouveau via Hint, which aims to give credit where credit’s due. Lilah Ramzi, a graduate student of fashion history, created the site in an effort to identify, “…anything within the creative field that borrows, reappropriates or is directly inspired by a work which preceded it”.

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From “Arsenic and Old Lace”, which compares Edward Steichen’s photo of Gloria Swanson and Paolo Roversi’s photo of Tilda Swinton for Acne Paper magazine.

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Thom Browne Elevates Us Above the Mundane

Saturday, February 16th, 2013

“If Browne has always been determinedly, even defiantly, sui generis in his work, the outside world was tapping at his window today.” This statement from Tim Blanks’ enjoyable writeup on Thom Browne’s Fall 2013 show got me thinking about authors of their own reality. In fashion, this means folks like Diana Vreeland, Alexander McQueen and John Galliano. They are storytellers (were, in the case of Vreeland and McQueen, but I get sloppy with tenses when someone’s legacy is still so vivid. The internet keeps everything alive.) and aspire to archetypes. Their stories elevate us above the mundane, and they are often controversial figures. In the case of Vreeland’s authorship, she never let facts get in the way because that would be boring. “There’s only one very good life and that’s the life you know you want and you make it yourself.”

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Beware Elderly Dog Walkers

Monday, February 11th, 2013

Outstanding photos by Helena McDougall of her sister, who suffered color for her: “I’ve been subject to a helping out with my sisters photography by looking like I’m from another world and making elderly dog walkers confused…I dislike wearing colours so much.”

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via Tokyo Fashion

Tokyo Street Style, Dido Liu, Borre Akkersdijk and Blame

Thursday, January 10th, 2013

Please forgive the free association below. I blame the coffee because I am a product of my culture and we overcaffeinate. (On reflection, it is disturbing that my huge Cthulhu tiki mug has become a perfectly acceptable single serving of coffee.) Really this is just an exercise in sloppily stringing together some of the inspiring fashion items I’ve seen recently.

We begin with a great article over at Tokyo Telephone on Coconogacco, or the Coco-Ten Exhibition at Trans Art Tokyo. The idea here is that the students are able to present their clothes in context before the fashion show:

…the design students of the Coconogacco school curated a series of rooms to contextualize their work which served as art exhibitions in their own right, and it is those that we are going to be looking around today. What you are going to miss out on though is the very real context of these rooms, housed as they were in a deserted seventeen floor building where you could comfortably go 10 minutes without seeing anyone else, all in the chill of the Tokyo winter, the only sound being scraps of found music before you accidentally stumble across a noisecore band rehearsing.

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Chiaki Moronaga at The Coco-Ten Exhibition at Trans Art Tokyo.

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Yvonne Kwok: We Dance Like Little Mary’s Swaying to the Symphony of Destruction

Friday, November 2nd, 2012

Once you find a designer inspired by Russian philosophers there’s no going back.

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Yvonne Kwok’s graduate collection, We Dance Like Little Mary’s Swaying to the Symphony of Destruction, is inspired by Mikhail Bakhtin’s ideas around carnival, among other things:

The use of neoprene gives a fleshy effect and refers to how artist Folkert de Jong calls it: “gebakken lucht”, which is a Dutch saying and means “nonsense”. The use of cardboard and brads are inspired by the paper doll, which gives the collection a crafted feeling. The search for quick ways to optimize decorating is my reaction to the system because self-reflection is jeopardized by the lack of time, which for me is ultimately the essence of fashion.

Wow. Photos and more at thisispaper.

Ali Abdulrahim’s REVELATUS Collection

Thursday, August 9th, 2012

Many thanks to Branko Popović for introducing me to the work of Ali Abdulrahim. His graduate collection, REVELATUS, showcases outstanding embroidery skills and striking silhouettes.

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Influences include Magritte’s The Return of the Flame, clergy vestments and the typical Maasai color palette. Abdulrahim moved from Ghana seven years ago to pursue his studies in Belgium, graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts of Sint-Niklaas in June. I look forward to seeing more from Abdulrahim, as his own label, apparently, is forthcoming.

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More photos of the collection and a chat with the designer at BPB. More on REVELATUS here.

Fashion Beast Launches in September

Monday, July 16th, 2012

Fashion Beast is to be released, fittingly, in September. Avatar Press has the details. You can preorder the first of ten issues and variant covers through the site. Better yet, you can get them at your local comic book shop when it comes out.

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Fashion Beast wraparound cover by Facundo Percio

Fernanda Yamamoto Summer 2013

Monday, June 18th, 2012

For her latest collection Fernanda Yamamoto plays fashion geometer, influenced by the works of artist Hélio Oiticica and architect Luis Barragán.

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