InCompany by Attire Club Autumn 2019

The Lantern Bearers by Maxfield Parrish (1908) 2 | InCompanytAttirehClub

Editorial: Le Monde à l’Envers There is a German song that says that “Alles hat ein Ende nur die Wurst hat zwei (everything has an end, just the sausage has two)”. While it may be a questionable song to sing (first and foremost because it’s not true), it is actually an indicator of a symbolic position towards the ending of a cycle that is often found in philosophy and art. The change of the world, or better said, the change of a world is often met with a distance and with a seemingly humorous approach. As not only the second decade of the century comes to an end, but apparently an entire cycle of life, we are now witnessing a world turned upside down, where the rare and the secret spill over into the mainstream and where everything is met with confusion and a sense of anxiousness.

In this sense, our autumn edition is the first one to be covered by a woman (not a very unusual move for a men’s magazine, but a carefully chosen premiere). Moreover, in this issue, we explore le monde à l’envers, as we strongly focus on clowns, jesters and the circus - not only in terms of crazy dressers, but as symbolic entities as well. A magazine made to look at suits and cars is exploring the ins and outs of the philosophy of a world of magic.

The world of the odd is always present in society, but comes out in public only when the world turns upside down, a mark of a change in everything.

We live in troubled times moving towards change and we’re not sure what the landing will be like. This is why people’s aesthetic interests these days are non-classic as we look for a deep type of balance.

Often, the end of something overlaps with a beginning. The upside down world is a part of a world that is going through change. In this sense, at such a time, a wave of hybrids, the extraordinary and the unusual become ordinary, as we have reached the social “marginalia”, which is covered in the strange (in Medieval manuscripts, the margins of a page were adorned with bizarre or unconventional images). This is meant to complete the cycle and to allow for the rebirth or rejuvenation of the world.

The Attire Club Team

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InCompanyt AttirehClub Released by FRAQUOH AND FRANCHOMME Chief Executive Officer Dan Dimitriu Creative Director Iosif Trif Write letters to the editor iosif.trif@attireclub.org Visit our website attireclub.org Contact & Advertising office@attireclub.org Address Theresiengasse 50 Top 1 1180 Vienna Austria Telephone 0097 150 12 801 73 Follow us Facebook: facebook.com/attireclub

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A bow tie designed by Attire Club on the map of Budapest, Hungary Photo: Attire Club

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Contents

Autumn 2019

Editorial Le Monde à l’Envers The upside-down world. u3

Culture A View of the Louvre from the Musée d’Orsay Brothers in Arts. u 10 Fashion History Furs Back in the day... u 11 In Their Own Words Konstantin Chaykin and His Treasures Amazing Russian watchmaking. u 12 World of Clothes Tsarouchia Greek pom-poms. u 18 Fashion World The New Autumn Collection by Eliran Nargassi Memories of the Middle East. u 20 Fashion History The History of Buttons Details of time and places. u 21 Attire Club Style Portfolio Brandmania Who's obsessed with AC? u 22

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Tamar Morali Off the Record How a shy Jewish girl from Germany stepped in the international spotlight A trip down memory lane. u 28 Watch Watching The Undone Type XX: A Custom Experience A new vision. u 34 The Philosophy of Circus Aesthetics A rite of Passage Step inside... u 38 Value Proposition Updates from the world of watchmaking Edox, Casio and MB&F. u 41 The Estro Edit Masks and Dolce and Gabbana’s new take on masculinity A new take on the world. u 42 Style Diary All the Colors of the World Scrapbooking round and round. u 44 Secrets of Fashion Clothes on a UFO Clothing from another world. u 54 Travel & Culture O for Ontario Keeping it beautiful. u 56 Watch Guide 4 Tips on Buying a Watch What to know. u 58 A Report on the Party and the Guests Vienna Fashion Week 2019 Fashion from the City of Dreams. u 62 attireclub.org |

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Current Obsessions How Do You Say... VidĂŠos?

Great videos. u 68 Fashion Philosophy Understanding Halloween Costumes Why dress up? u 71 Pictorial Pack Your Trunk A break from the past. u 74 Fashion Philosophy Clowns, Clowns Everywhere The role of clowns. u 78 Fashion & Technology Blockchain: The New Fashion Trend Innovation is in style. u 82 The Attire Club Mood Diary Our Moodboard as a Visual Journal Fairy Tale Magic. u 86

Attire Club World The Truth about T-Shirts A look back at the style portfolio from last years. u 100

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QR Code Glossary Discover the Brands Presented in this Issue Use your phone or tablet to discover the websites of the brands featured in this issue. u 102

YListen to a song with the cotents!

Cinema Culture The Film Dossier Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz and more! u 92

InCompanytAttirehClub

The Smart Magazine Attire Club is offering a complete men’s style, fashion and lifestyle experience, centered around the AC website.

To discover our universe and over 1000 articles that will offer you the tools to develop your style, as well as fashion inspiration and cultural insights and to interact with us and be part of our community, visit us online.

attireclub.org +See our QR Code Glossary at the end of the magazine

C U LT U R E

From the Attire Club Travel Archive

A View of the Louvre from the Musée d’Orsay Paris is one of the most visited cities in the world. It is the home of world-class museums, which have become part of the French capital’s soul.

The Musée d’Orsay is housed in the former Gare d’Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1914, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. It also houses the largest collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces in the world.

Among some of the most paintings present here are L’Origine du Monde by Gustave Courbet, Van Gogh’s self-portrait and The Gleaners by Jean-François Millet.

Just a few minutes away from the Musée d’Orsay, on the right bank of the Seine is the Louvre, which is the world’s largest art museum. Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, The Venus de Milo by Alexandros of Antioch, the Winged Victory of Samothrace and many other world-famous works of art are here on display. The Louvre has a myriad of sectors, all dedicated to various types of art. There are also lesser-known, but nonetheless amazing works here, which are waiting to be discovered.

Photo: Attire Club

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FA S H I O N

H I S TO RY

In history, furs were much less processed than today and, generally, clothing or other items made from fur resembled the original animal as a sign of the order of the world, in which man dominates over nature, while still living in communion with it.

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T H E I R

OW N

WO R D S

Konstantin Chaykin And his Tr e a s u r e s Konstantin Chaykin is a Russian clock- and watchmaker. He has become a known and respected figure in the global watchmaking world after creating a series of impressive pieces and even patenting a number of ingenious watch complications. His most famous piece is definitely the Joker watch, which brought him to international prominence through its unconventional design. His other pieces often focus on quirky ideas, but also on very serious concepts and aesthetics, thus composing a true spectrum of timepieces. Konstantin is the only Russian watchmaker who is a member of the Académie Horlogére Des Createurs Indépendants and has managed through his work to be one of the few people to add Russia to the international map of high-end watchmaking.

What can you tell us about your background? You have not always been involved in the watch industry, as you started out in the radio communications industry. How did the shift take place for you?

Konstantin Chaykin: If we talk about my history before watchmaking, then I can say I was born in the Soviet Union in 1975. Since childhood I was attracted to radio engineering and had a passion for various radio components, so I went to the radio club, studied the Morse code, and dreamt of devoting my future to radio engineering. As a result, having served as a signalman in the army, I realized that this specialty was not very impressive to me. But this left a kind of an imprint on me, since mechanics and radio engineering are not connected on the one hand, but are quite similar on the other.

In both areas there are complex miniature structures that consist of a large number of parts. After the army, I worked in various specialties, including leadership positions, until I opened my watch-selling business in 2000.

12 | InCompanytAttirehClub The Joker watch

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The Moscow Comptus Easter Clock

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The Tourbillon 55

One of your first hits was the “Computus Easter Clock�, which was also featured in the Russian Book of Records - what can you tell us about this amazing piece?

KC: The Easter clock was first created in 2005, when I patented my first invention related to the date index of Orthodox Easter. The one you are talking about was included in the Russian Book of Records - this is one of my last Easter clocks that were created in 2017. This is the most complex. In total, four Easter clocks were created - in 2005, 2007, 2016 and 2017. Each subsequent model was more complicated than the previous one.

The very first Easter clock contained 2 disks, specially programmed and containing groups of holes; through special optics one could see the intersection of the holes relative to a fixed scale of 35 days, a specific date for a particular year. The next three clocks contained more The complex indicators of Easter dates and had not a position but a hand indication, where the hand showed the Decalogue Rega dates of Orthodox Easter. The complication contained about 300 parts. In addition to Easter date indicators, the clock has another 25 different functions, including unique ones such as the analemma [Ed. a solar analemma is a graph or plot that shows the position of the Sun in the sky at a single location and at the same time of the day throughout a year] , which was not found anywhere else.

The back of the Carpe Diem watch

The Quartime

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The Hijra

The Joker watch is probably one of the most popular pieces you have made - why do you think it has been so successful?

KC: There were several factors that have led to the success of the Joker watch from my point of view. Firstly, they turned out to be the most inexpensive watches in comparison with my previous works, since the watches from the very first collection cost about 7000 euros, and, before that, my cheapest watches cost 12-16000 euros. Despite the low cost, the watch turned out outstanding. In my opinion, they have opened a new direction in watchmaking. Currently, watches are not a subject for measuring time, but a kind of accessory, many used to showcase status. But, as a rule, people make the decision to buy with their hearts and emotions. And the Joker in this sense is one of the most emotional watches, and for this reason they it has gained such popularity. The design itself is also attractive - positive emotions can be spotted by humans from afar - that is called pareidolia. Also, the name Joker is a symbol for good luck - this is an additional factor that attracted a huge number of fans.

Generally speaking, how do you go about creating your watches and clocks?

KC: Each watch I create implies a huge amount of work, where you try to establish every detail. Doing this is at the level of intuition. It is also necessary to compose and compare various proportions and other elements in order to get a result that you like from all sides.

The Shabbat

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The Genius Temporis

What do you think are some of the future trends that will shape the watch industry soon, both in terms of creative and business side of the industry?

KC: From a business point of view, I think that trading through the Internet will develop, interesting decisions related to digital, which are not available today, will appear. Perhaps some kind of virtual watch will appear as a status symbol or as a necessary accessory. I think a wide variety of niche brands and watches, based on various ideas is what awaits us. First of all, emotional watches.

Many brands create watches as pieces of art, not just for indication of time. The number of such brands will only increase.

LievArts.com

Four Seasons Art

W OFRALS DH IOOFN CW LO R TL HD E S

From the Attire Club Culture File

Τσαρούχια

A tsarouchi (σαρούχι; plural: τσαρούχια, read tsarouchia) is a type of shoe, which is known nowadays as part of the traditional uniform worn by the Evzones of the Greek Presidential Guard, featuring a red base and black pom-poms.

However, other forms of tsarouchia (the plural form) exist, as these shoes, which go back to Byzantine times, were the most common type of footwear worn by both urban and rural Greeks, mainly men, but also by a lot of women.

As a fun trivia fact, Tsarouchis is also a Greek surname.

Photo: Attire Club

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YRead this article with a song!

Tsarouchia are generally made of a number of pieces of stiff leather that arehand-sewn together, in a moccasin fashion. They have a characteristic pointy, tip, which is usually covered by a large woolen pompon. This type of decoration is often seen in Turkey as well. The pompon was a relatively late addition, originally it was simply a way of making the shoe nose waterproof, but little by little, it became an essential feature for their decoration. Simpler versions of these shoes exist too, and are made from one piece of leather held in shape with thongs (a very common type found everywhere in the Balkans and Anatolia, e.g., Opanak or Charvuli) and without any decoration.

FA S H I O N

The New Autumn Collection by

Eliran Nargassi

NARGASSI’s new autumn-winter 2019-20 collection is inspired by the home of the designer’s grandparents in Jerusalem, by his Moroccan roots and the raditions and superstitions that were present all around when the Israeli designer was young.

The hamsa, as well as other traditional elements (including shapes, etc.), were included in the clothes.

The collection consists of 20 outfits in three color schemes: one, black, white and nude; the second scheme features smoked red and purple and the third one is described by metallic colors: gold and copper.

Eliran Nargassi is a designer who places a lot of personal emphasis on his clothes and yet through his last collection, he managed to communicate not just his past and his current relation to it, but a collective past as well.

His clothes are a bit unexpected, but many of them are highly wearable and practical for everyday settings.

Photo Credits: Photographer: Alina Braginski Model: Jonah Kozlovski for Brick Personal Management

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WO R L D

FA S H I O N

H I S TO RY

From the History File

The History of Buttons

Photo: 1970s Eastern European buttons.

Photo by Attire Club attireclub.org |

YRead this article with a song!

Buttons have a very long history. These small sartorial details we use every day were originally not meant to have a function, but to be only decorative. The oldest buttons found originate from what today is Pakistan and go back 5000 years. Later on though, buttons started having a functional side as well and in Ancient Rome, they served both as functional pieces and as aesthetic decorations to clothes. In the Middle Ages, buttons were a thing that mostly the rich could afford. The purpose of buttons was often to make sure that one’s clothes fit very tightly, thus certain parts of the body (the arms, etc.) being accentuated. The first button-makers guild formed in France in 1250 and since then, buttons started their journey as (more or less) part of the everyday. Soon enough, buttons came in many sizes and styles and were an important part of clothing-making. George Washington’s 1789 inauguration brought the world its first political button. This was made of copper, brass or Sheffield plate and was meant to close a pair of breeches or a jacket while simultaneously announcing the wearer’s politics, which soon enough became a thing. The Industrial Revolution brought of course even more acceleration to the spread and use of buttons. The 20th century saw buttons as a sign of one’s attitude, with expressions like “buttoned up” appearing and the sexy side of “unbuttoning” becoming a thing.

Buttons, even though they may be a small detail, can tell a lot about not just the wearer, but about the whole cultural, political and artistic context that provided them.

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AT T I R E C LU B S T Y L E P O RT F O L I O

The 2019

AttirehClub Style Portfolio: Brandmania

Every year, we create an AC Style Portfolio, in which we highlight through custom clothes or accessories what we think is current in the world and in our world. In the past, we focused on t-shirts, eclectic bow ties, ties, pocket squares and more. Generally, our style portfolios are custom-made items, but this time around we decided to process some simple items into new pieces.

In this sense, we created a small collection of photographs featuring a simple striped bag featuring the words Attire Club on it and a few big wallets with Attire Club written on them. These were of course done manually.

The play between black and white is a dual reflection: on one side, we wanted to bring to the forefront of the discussion the idea of simplicity, elegance and new art, especially as new brands emerge (a new logomania if you will) and on the other hand to have a rather social take. In this sense, the black and white reflect the strong polarities that unfortunately shape today’s world. Not only is the world of 2019 of no color, but it is also not one of many gray areas. This caricatured view of the world is present almost everywhere these days and we wanted to work with it in our no-color-black-and-white Brandmania portfolio.

Ultimately, we wanted to make something fun and cool and to focus mostly on the idea of the new culture that is emerging and the fresh logomania, which, in most cases these days, is hand-made. It’s the dawning of a new age, but now, most of the newcomers are just in buds.

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Tamar Morali Off the Record 28 | InCompanytAttirehClub

All photos by Attire Club

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amar Morali became a media sensation when she entered the Miss Germany contest and won the Miss Internet category and made waves as she became known as the first Jewish contest to make it into the finals of the pageant. This gained the Israeli-German a lot of attention who has since embarked on a series of projects. The 23-year-old quickly became a popular voice among young Jews (and not only) by hosting the Jewrovision contest and speaking at the German Israel Congress. She and her siblings (she has two brothers and two sisters) are growing social media stars, with many young people following and engaging with them. Slowly, but steadily, Tamar is becoming a new star and will very likely be one of the big names in popular culture as we move in the 2020s. Her vision is also a fresh one, as Tamar is open-

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ly talking about how important it is for the young generation of today to celebrate who they are but to also connect with everyone else and to experience life first-hand.

Tamar’s rise to popularity started when she won a styling contest organized by a magazine in Vienna, Austria. Even though at the time she was down on herself, she decided to participate in order to step out of her comfort zone. The fact that she could apply online was of great help, as she was able to still keep a distance and still take the risk. “If it would have been a live casting, I don’t know if I would have went” she says. “When I was on stage, I thought ‘this is my chance to prove to myself that I can do more than I think I can’ - and then I won. However, I didn’t make a big deal out of it because I thought it was a small

competition, but the truth of the matter is that you never know who is watching you” she explains. After the contest, someone who heard that she was living in Germany recommended her to participate in the Miss Germany beauty contest and the rest is history.

When remembering her participation in the pageant, Tamar recalls “the story was published all over the world within 48 hours […] and since then I’ve been constantly on the road, talking about my journey and meeting many people in the fashion industry. It’s amazing to have a platform on which you can share your thoughts and beliefs with people around the world.”

For Tamar, keeping an open dialogue is crucial. She often talks about how for her, both Germany and Isra-

el are her home and how she sees herself as both Israeli and German - a contradiction that many people from past (and present) generations would have been fearful of for all the right reasons. And that is the idea behind her message, namely that things can change for the better and that things can reenter a normal path. Probably one of the reasons why Tamar’s story has been so mediatized among different Jewish communities and especially in Israel was because it spoke to a very sensitive topic in the Jewish world, namely the idea of associating being German with being Jewish. The echoes of the horrors of WWII are still impacting the Jewish world and presenting an image of a young girl who is trying to make being German and Jewish a normal thing is sure to draw a lot of eyes.

To her surprise, not only were some Israelis circumspect about her being so vocal about being German, but many of her German acquaintances were asking her whether living in Israel is not dangerous, given the many conflicts in the region. That is part of why Tamar is an image of a generation, as she divides her life between different countries and cultures and manages to make it all somehow work for her. Surely, Israeli culture is very open these days and, according to Tamar, most Israelis have a positive outlook on the future relations between their country and Germany, despite the news of a new wave of Western anti-Semitism that is coming from all over. Tamar herself also claims that she was never the target of anti-Semitic sentiment in Germany.

The attention Tamar received from participating in the pageant and the numerous TV interviews and projects she did have helped her come out of her shell and gain confidence, which was something she was lacking as a child and teenager. “I think that everything has changed for me”, she says. “In the beginning, I did not know how to handle it, but nowadays I can stand in front of 4000 people and host a show and not be as nervous as I was when I

was back in school and had to give a presentation and was shaking and scared of people’s reaction. Today, I feel much more confident - I learned that everything is in your mind and that you can really train yourself to be yourself and to be confident in who you are. A lot has also changed in my private life and my family’s life, but I am happy that I can balance everything. While I do want to pursue my dream, I still want to be well-educated. I’m thinking about

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our hands, a topic that is indeed an important one for the teenagers of today. For Tamar, it is essential to “look at people” and understand each other, as social media is turning us more and more into caricatures. On her Instagram, Tamar does focus on stressing the fact that what we know about someone or see in their IG feed is not a complete image of that person and that we should bear this in mind at all times.

pursuing a second degree.” While Tamar’s first degree was in Communication and Media Studies, which landed her a few jobs in advertising and media, for her second degree, Tamar is thinking of studying Fashion Design as she is planning on launching her own fashion business in the near future. But that is still to come.

At the moment, Tamar is engaged in a conversation with the youth of today about the importance of understanding that there is a difference between the “real” world and the world we see on the screens in

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As many people of her generation, Tamar is raising an eyebrow not just in regards to social media, but to the news we are bombarded with as well.

“It’s just not real”, she claims and adds that no one in her age group is even watching TV. This is why Tamar thinks that our personal experiences are what we should care more about and that that is where the truth lies. In this sense, when she spoke at the 5th Deutscher Israelkongress in Frankfurt am Main in 2018, she wanted to talk about her daily experience as a young Jewish German girl. In many ways, this was a wise choice on her part, as it would not have made much sense for a beauty queen to lecture a room full of politicians and businesspeople on world politics. During her speech she said: “Really fast, I understood that a girl’s dream grew into a woman with a mission - a mission to get people to talk and listen to each other.”

For Tamar, being in close contact

and empathizing with people is important. She has dedicated much of her time working with children and volunteering for various organizations. “To give something to the world is for me everything” Tamar explains as she thinks about her time working and playing with small children on Saturdays.

This is how she came in contact with Jewrosvision - a Eurovision-type song contest that went from being a small even held literally in a room to being held in a theater in front of 4000 people and being streamed online. A few years ago, Tamar was volunteering with them (she was in charge of checking whether all the children who were participating were there) and in 2019 she was one of the hosts of the event. It was a big step for Tamar, who recalls “I don’t know what I was feeling: it was amazing, it was scary… the Jewish community was always a part of me and doing this in Germany was amazing. Netta [Barzilai] was also there and it felt again like I was connecting Israel and Germany.” A few weeks later, she met Netta again at Tel Aviv Fashion Week, which brought in a way the experience full circle. Kan (the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation) also broadcast the Jewrovision event.

The fame, as limited as it may be for the moment for Tamar, has also had its downsides, as Tamar has had to learn that often people don’t have all the positive intentions in regards to her. She noticed that many times, journalists would try to force her to say things in interviews that could be quoted out of context and that can lead to a scandal in the media. Little by little, she now learns to deal with all the things that are often unseen or downright hidden.

But Tamar has also learned to own her actions and to address herself the issues others may try to turn into negative news. For example, she recalls that during the Miss Germany finale, one of the other girls accidentally stepped on her dress and she fell. On this occasion, the me-

dia was kind and the editors of the show did not focus on her falling, but one media article placed a lot of accent on her falling on stage.

Now, she has no issue addressing it and is proud of the fact that she was quick on her feet and stood up immediately without crying or showing the tension she was feeling. In the end, the event was broadcast in Israel because of her and her family and friends were watching too, so she did it for them. “I remember my entire body hurt”, she recalls “but I thought that sometimes in life you fall, so you need to get up immediately.”

Also in regards to the night of the Miss Germany finale and the reaction people had to it, she remembers how something of extreme simplicity for her was of great impact for many people watching. During the show, Tamar greeted the audience with “good evening” both in German and in Hebrew, which to her is a normal thing, but many people, especially of the older generation back home in Israel, found that to be a powerful moment.

The audience even stood up and clapped. This side-by-side greeting was something many older people

did not think could be a normal thing again.

Tamar Morali is humble and tries to inspire people, even though she would never want for others to want to be like her. She is also starting to become connected to the world of Hollywood, having traveled to LA and having met with important people in the business (all under her father’s careful supervision). She giggles when people compare her to Gal Gadot but says that, at least for now, Hollywood is not for her.

Maybe, like Gal, she would take on that world once she is a more established woman and has a family.

Tamar has set as her goal in her re-

lation to her career to, as she puts it, “be as normal as I possibly can”.

Unfortunately, the success she’s had so far has made some people turn against her (some even claimed her success is too much for them to handle), but Tamar is determined not to let others dictate her path and to make the best of what she has built so far.

Tamar is a young girl with grand dreams and enjoys the support of her family, her friends and the professionals she knows. She lives in a world of amazing possibilities, and thus, if taken in the right direction, her ambitions can change the lives of many and turn into fantastic achievements. attireclub.org |

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WATC H

WATC H I N G

The Undone Type XX A Custom Experience

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ecently, Undone launched a new watch, the Type XX, inspired by the heroes of aviation and based on a watch created in the 1950 as a pioneering flight piece for the French Air Force and Naval Aviation personnel.

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ndone is known for their strong emphasis on uniqueness, ever since we discovered the brand soon after its launched, their focus has always been on offering their customers watches that have so many customization options that you can not only be in a way the designer (or, let’s say, stylist) of your watch, but that you can also wear a watch that nobody else will wear.

This is a great concept that can be used not just on an

individual level, but also on a group level: for example, you can order a highly customized watch in more models so that just the members of a certain group will have them: a watch for a society, if you will.

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pon the launch of their new watch, our friends at Undone have also decided to make a custom Type XX for us, featuring the Attire Club logo on the dial.

The logo is sharply printed and looks really amazing.

Moreover, it contrasts very well with the white background, being highly visible, but, at the same time, not taking away from the bold design of the watch. And, indeed, the watch has a bold design, featuring a big crown, a coin bezel and bold numbers, thus conveying

the dynamic and powerful vibe of aviation. Moreover, its large sub-dials and contrasting hands make it very easy for the wearer to read it, which makes it just the right for those who are always on the go. The new Type XX is bigger than many military watches you’ll find.

It has 41.5 mm / 1.6 in in diameter and is 12.5 mm / 0.5 in thick. The lug-to-lug length is of 48.5 mm / 1.9 in and lug width 20 mm / 0.78 in. Even though it is a rather imposing watch, it is very light at just 52 grams / 1.3 ounces.

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n terms of style, the Type XX comes in some variations, but our AC watch is based on the black and white Panda model. This model is a very versatile one,

as it is based on a chromatically neutral design, thus making a good addition to both minimal outfits (such as a white shirt - dark blazer look) and working as a balancing point for more colorful outfits. The fact that the straps are interchangeable makes it even more versatile, as, through a simple strap change, the watch can go from street party to dinner party. Undone has even more customization options when you purchase a watch, which include options regarding the back (you can choose between an exhibition back and a closed back, both with the ability of being engraved), which makes it a complete personal experience.

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ltimately, it can be said that the Undone Type XX is a strong presence on the watch market, with a bold design and good technical specs, making it a wonderful addition to anyone’s outfits.

With its customization options, it can also be a unique timepiece, which is something many people are sure to want to wear.

More: undone.watch Photos: Attire Club

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ue to its versatility and simple style, the Type XX Panda is, in our opinion, a very good watch for travel as well, especially if you don’t have much room to pack a bunch of watches.

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n short, what we love about it is the customization factor and that there are so very many options to choose from, but also the design of the watch itself, which works as a great canvas on which you can unleash your creativity. This watch makes a great addition to one’s own wardrobe or collection, but it is also makes for a great gift or souvenir. The Type XX is a personal experience and all good style should be personal.

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From the Online Edition

Attire Club is the ultimate resource for complete style guides, fashion inspiration and cultural insights that provide you with the tools you need for a continuous style development. Geared towards the sharp modern man, Attire Club offers practical “you can do it, here’s how” articles that will make you not only look better, but also feel better and more confident. With a groundbreaking new concept, AC is the essential online publication that brings out the best in who you are.

The Philosophy of Circus Aesthetics A Rite of Passage 38 | InCompanytAttirehClub

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thing created culturally and nature.

For example, a room painted in a calming blue reminds us of a calm lake or of a spring sky, which implies that there is no danger, while a red room gets our blood pumping and makes us more attentive to everything that is going on around us, as red is associated with fire.

While we do have this image in mind, which is quite a fair picture, if we were to try to explain or analyze why the circus exists and why we go there, it could turn out to be quite hard. Surely, the primary answer is that the goal of the circus is to entertain and that they do it by showing things one wouldn’t normally see. But, going deeper, if we were to analyze the aesthetics of the circus, both in terms of the elements that compose it visually and in terms of the aesthetic experience, most of us would have a hard time.

In order to better understand the circus, or any artform, it can be useful to look at when and how the elements that compose it appear in nature, as we often base our emotional and intellectual responses on the associations we make between some-

The circus is a stepping into the twilight. The twilight is a symbol for the limit and thus, the circus is a symbolic entering into the unknown or, more precisely, beyond the limit.

hen we think of the circus, most of us have a stock image in mind. A round tent, featuring white or yellow and red lines coming down from the top ceiling, in which people sit and watch a show that features a variety of acts of so-called unbelievable things, is the common image we all have in our thoughts. During a circus show, clowns fill the arena and do gags, contortionists bend their bodies, magicians impress children with their tricks and acrobats leave everyone bouche bĂŠe.

The images are a selection from a series of photographs depicting a pit stop of a traveling Eastern European circus.

Speaking of red, the main color of a circus is red. However, this color is usually paired with another one, mostly with yellow or white.

Interestingly enough, these colors are culturally associated with other things that are connected to the night or evening, such as brothels or bars. A circus show is usually put on at dusk. Thus, the red and yellow or white, don’t mimic just the flames of the night, but it can also be said that they are a reflection of the twilight touching the Earth.

The radially-disposed rays emerging from the top of the tents are similar to the rays of the sun which goes down. When one enters a circus tent, it may seem that he is now entering a new realm.

Looking at things from this perspective, everything seems to be falling into place: the animals engage in very controlled acts, thus seeming to go beyond their traditional status.

They are also adorned and dressed,

Photos by Attire Club

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do tricks but don’t always succeed, they seem naïve and sometimes they do manage to pull things off that impress the audience. In short, the clown is the audience.

thus seeming to be placed at a high value, which is contradictory to the lower value at which animals are usually placed. The contortionists seem to go beyond the physical capacities of their bodies and the magicians and illusionists play with the people’s minds. The clowns, who would normally be odd characters, are here the most normal ones: they

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The question that is being raised in this stream of thought is, of course, what the purpose of this is?

What is the deep meaning of the circus? Why do people, and especially children, need to go to a place where everything is different, where the laws of the common daily lifestyle are suspended? The answer to this could be that the circus as a show, given its strong focus on children, is a collective initiation ritual. The apparent chaos of the

circus, which is in fact a new order, offers children and teenagers the sense that there can be more to their experience than the everyday. Here, they get to experiment and to learn to come not just in contact, but to come close and even interact with the things with which they would normally not interact due to their mystery and the fear they generate.

Children learn that more is possible and that sometimes, the secrets that make the world go round are placed in hidden places, in the dark and beyond the realm of the everyday.

Now, what people do with the aesthetic experience they have during the circus and how they relate to it is up to them, but the circus is a semi-open door to philosophy and deep thought.

Often, circus shows are filled with symbols and allegories which make sense to children and adults alike; most of the times though, unconsciously rather than consciously.

VALUE PROPOSITION T Edox Chronorally is the official watch of Julius Tannert Originally from Zwickau, Germany, Julius Tannert is a rally driver in the in Junior WRC (World Rally Championship), a road safety ambassador and a race coach.

The 29-years old is a friend of Edox and wears the Chonorally on his wrist, a watch designed and built to withstand even the harshest racing conditions.

The Chronorally has a 48 mm diameter, a titanium case and resists underwater up to 10 ATM. The glass is a scratch-resistant and anti-reflective sapphire crystal and the strap is made of rubber and features tyre imprints, which comes as a nice touch to the overall vibe of the piece.

T G-SHOCK reveals Middle East launch of the new GA-2000 Military Color Series This summer, CASIO Middle East launched its new G-SHOCK GA-2000 Military Color Series. The new collection of military design inspired models features three strong colorways. The new series is considered to be the most affordable G-SHOCK line to make use of the Carbon Core Guard case design and also the first to feature a quick-release band. The new watches measure 51.2 x 48.7 x 14.1 mm and weigh 64 grams. They have some impressive qualities, such as the strong shock resistance, the 200-meter water resistance, the showing of the world time (48 cities + UTC, DST on/off), a 1/100 second stopwatch (24 hours, with split), a countdown timer feature (24 hours), 5 alarms, hourly time signal, button tone on/off, full auto calendar, 12/24 hour format, dual LED lights (Super Illuminator LED and LED backlight for LCD with 1.5/3-second afterglow), and an estimated three-year battery life.

Priced at AED 545, the new GA-2000 models can be found at Dubai Duty Free, and at all G-SHOCK stores, Virgin Mega Stores, Watch House, On Time and Watch Corner outlets across the UAE as of the summer.

T MB&F “discovers” the HM7 Aquapod Platinum Red The newest jewel from MB&F features not just an amazing design and a tentacle-shaped winding rotor offering 72 hours of power reserve, but also a case crafted in platinum 950, limited to just 25 pieces; a striking red bezel in sapphire crystal, featuring numerals and indexes filled with Super-LumiNova; three-dimensional, “floating” numerals indicating the hours and minutes; a tourbillon bridge in sapphire crystal and an interchangeable rubber strap that comes in in red, black or white.

The retail price of the watch is CHF 155,000 + VATattireclub.org | (USD 165 000 / EUR 144 000 before taxes).

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The Estro Edit q Vivo Masks: Italian Quality and Style Carnival, Halloween, Purim, New Year’s Eve… there are many occasions in the calendar that can involve in one way or another a costume party. If you are on the look out for a cool mask, we definitely recommend checking our Vivo Masks, a US-based e-store that offers high-quality masks made in Italy. Often, buying masks or costumes online can be tricky, as they can be of extremely low quality and not as advertised, but Vivo masks are truly strong, good-looking pieces, that won’t break easily and that do look as presented on their website - we got the chance to review them and encourage others to check them out!

More: vivomasks.com

q Dolce and Gabbana: Own Your Masculinity Recently, Dolce and Gabbana released a new fragrance for men. The perfume, called K was announced through a strong ad campaign featuring InCompany by Attire Club cover star Mariano Di Vaio. The video, set on the Bandini remix of Ennio Morricone’s L’Estasi dell’Oro (The Ecstasy of Gold) from Sergio Leone’s film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, suggested that men should celebrate their masculinity and advised men to #OwnYourCrown.

This campaign comes as a great surprise, after Dolce and Gabbana were recently heavily criticized for another ad. The reason why this is a surprise is because their campaign goes a lot against the general feeling towards men that has taken the world by storm over the last years.

In the past, there were a lot of issues regarding the relations between the sexes and many writers and activists did have a lot of good points about the problems that were. Those were topics addressed on AC, but, unfortunately, since then, the ideas have pretty much gotten off the rails and morphed into a man-hating monster.

On AC, we’ve always encouraged men to “own their crown” and there seems to be a trend these days that the strong, multi-dimensional male is bound to make a come-back. Many brands, which have over the last years proposed hyper-feminized looks for men are now starting to go the other direction and suggest more masculine clothes for their customers. Some brands like Dolce and Gabbana or Armani have never really let go of the masculine vibe in their men’s collections, as they know their customers very well. What the world needs these days is probably a little bit more balance. Surely, there can never be exact balance, as this would mean that we are at a standstill, but a little more balance could not hurt. This hard imbalance has made culture not just dull, but quite annoying.

A Dolce and Gabbana caption on social media read “Embrace your masculinity, a constant source of strength.” Maybe it is time for men to embrace their masculinity and to see it as something positive, rather than as something negative.

Things change and we all have the power to make positive change in the world. Dolce and Gabbana actually proposed a very beautiful concept of the perfume, which is something that many can use as great inspiration. They said “He is the king of his everyday life. He follows his own path, cherishing his family and loved ones above all else. Effortlessly charming, and not afraid to show his vitality, he remains true to his roots, respecting tradition while embracing modernity.” Maybe that’s what we need more of.

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S T Y L E

D I A RY

ALL THE COLORS OF THE WORLD 44 | InCompanytAttirehClub

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Scarf by Gagliardi

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Vintage watch by Poljot

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Bow tie by Attire Club

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A custom F&F leather jacket by Mont5

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Watch by Atto Verticale

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S E C R E TS

O F

FA S H I O N

Clothes on a UFO

about space. And, that is a bit of an understandable thing… if we can make a quick analysis. Firstly, the 1990s were a time when UFOs and aliens were on everybody’s lips, from shows like the X-Files being extremely watched to documentaries about alien abductions and spaceship sightings being extremely popular among young people. These days, we are seeing a strong comeback in ‘90s aesthetics, as the generation that was then very young has now the economic resources to consume a lot and thus, in a rather dark time like ours, the 1990s represent the peak of nostalgia and a longing for a “safe place” for many. And so, space comes along with the package. Surely, there are also other, deeper reasons why space is trending these days.

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pace as an umbrella theme has been very much on trend over the last few seasons. A few years ago, Attire Club did announce in the annual trend forecast that space, with all that it encompasses in modern culture, will be something that not only fashion designers will use as a source of inspiration for their collections, but something that will be highly present all over not just the artistic, but also the social and political landscape.

And so it happened that not only models walked the runways in space suits and that retailers like H&M or Zara featured NASA t-shirts in their stores, not to mention the abundance of space watches presented during Baselworld, but space was also a big theme in other spheres as well. For example, the talks about a landing on Mars and a new Moon landing increased, with concrete plans being made and space suits being put in place.

From web browsers to podcasters, everyone went gaga

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mong all the craziness revolving around the theme of space, the concept of aliens has once again made it into the mainstream - not so much about alien abductions (as with social media you can get labeled for life), but more in a mysterious creatures type of context.

One of the main “events” that characterized the aliens craze was the Facebook event that proposed a taking by storm of Area 51, which claimed that if enough people would try to overtake the secretive zone, the US government would not be able to shut them down all at once. Over 2 million people marked their interest in the event, which was scheduled for September. In Mid-August the founder of the event announced that he would organize an alien-themed festival called Alien Stock in a town with an extremely small population (apparently just 54 people live there), which lies extremely close to Area 51. Could the event have all been a PR stunt for his event? If it was, it seemed that it had worked, as many people showed interest not just in aliens, but in creating a community around the idea of releasing and discovering who these “foreigners” are.

Symbolically speaking, aliens are foreigners and the parallels between modern migration corridors and the descending of being from outer space should be more than obvious.

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xtraterrestrials have been the subject of so much talk, that even their clothes are something that has been discussed. One of the first people to do so was Master of Yoga George King, who also wrote about UFOs. He was actually the one who perpetuated the stereotype of the futuristic perpetual onesie that never changes. In a pamphlet he published in 1964, he wrote that when a Martian or Venusian comes to Earth, it is not the atmosphere itself that they fear, but the bacteria in our atmospheric belt, against which precautions need to be taken. According to King, all enlightened men, whether Earthlings or from other planets, have one thing in common and that is the knowledge and ability to exert conscious control over the Universal Life Force.

This is supposedly done by correct breathing and other techniques, mostly based on the nervous system. In this sense, the one-piece suits would protect aliens from the bacteria that might interfere with their capacities.

Moreover, the suits are said to give off a particular musical note, which drives away the bacteria from around them. The note is almost inaudible to the human ear, as it has a high frequency. This way, an extraterrestrial could be always protected from the bacteria found on Earth.

King also explained that it is possible to bring into being a similar type of “seamless one-piece suit� which would protect the wearer while surveying the bottom of the ocean. The properties deemed necessary to afford such measures of protection can be incorporated in the suit upon manufacturing. Apparently, some of these suits are materialized by thought by their wearers.

On 20 September, when the Storm Area 51 event was scheduled, as predicted, nothing really happened.

While some people did gather at Area 51, no gateway to extraterrestrial secrets was opened. Thus, humanity still didn’t find out whether aliens really do wear onesies or any other mysteries revolving around extraterrestrial beings. attireclub.org |

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T R AV E L

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C U LT U R E

O for Ontario Ontario is one of Canada’s most-known provinces and the home to many beautiful natural surroundings as well as to beautiful buildings and cities.

The region has a long history and an interesting present, being a very cosmopolit city and a strong touristic draw from people from around Canada and worldwide. Discover some facts about the province.

ONTARIO IS CANADA’S second largest province, as it covers more than 1 000 0000 square kilometers / 415,000 square miles. The size of the area is actually larger than France and Spain combined.

ONTARIO WAS ONE OF THE ORIGINAL four provinces that joined together in the Canadian confederation in 1867.

THE BOTTOM of Lake Ontario is so cold that skyscrapers use it as a coolant for their AC systems.

SINCE THE REGION was one of the first areas in Canada to industrialize, Ontario is home to some of Canada’s oldest companies.

THE PROVINCE’S NAME comes from Lake Ontario, which derives from the word for “great lake” in the Huron language.

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TORONTO is Ontario’s capital city. The GTA - Greater Toronto Area has 6 000 000

Hotel Fairmont Château Laurier

people, which makes it Canada’s largest and most populous city.

OTTAWA, the capital of Canada, is located in Eastern On-

tario on the border with Quebec.

THE FLAG OF ONTARIO is called the Red Ensign.

It features the Union Jack, representing Ontario’s ties to Great Britain, and the coat of arms of the province.

Ottawa river

The Parliament ceiling in Ottawa

THE OFFICIAL FLOWER of Ontario is the trillium, a delicate white three petalled flower that grows in profusion in the wild woodlands of the region in early spring.

THE AMETHYST is the official gem of Ontario. Large deposits can be found in Northwestern Ontario.

THE OFFICIAL TREE is the eastern white pine. The tree was an important source of income and trade during the pioneering days, and continues to be a valuable resource for Ontario.

YRead this article with a song!

THE COAT OF ARMS of the province consists of a green shield with three golden maple leaves surmounted by the Banner of St. George and a red cross on a silver background. The banner indicates Ontario’s close ties with the UK, while the colors, green and gold, are Ontario’s official colors, where green stands for the land. Above the shield is a bear, with a moose and a deer supporting the shield; all representing the rich animal life of the province. The Latin motto is translated as “Loyal She Began, Loyal She Remains.” The shield was granted by Royal Warrant of Queen Victoria on May 25, 1868, and the crest, support-

ers and motto by Royal Warrant of King Edward VII on February 27, 1909.

THE CITY OF KITCHENER, Ontario, Canada which has a population of 200 000 is home to the largest Oktoberfest celebration outside of Germany.

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WATC H

G U I D E

4 Tips on Buying a Watch

Today, watches are more a style statement rather than just simple timepieces.

With so many gadgets that surround us these days, one can always reach for their pocket to check the time, what date it is or anything else one might need to know. But, even so, a lot of men are choosing to wear watches around their wrists for one reason: a quality watch is a style statement that expresses luxury, status and elegance. A watch around your wrist is also an indicator of a man who pays attention to detail and who values good craftsmanship. Moreover, the type of watch one wears speaks a lot about the wearer’s personality: pilot and dive watches are the reflection of an explorer or of a generally sporty personality, while bold watches embellished with precious stones and metals are the indicator of a man who loves luxury and wealth.

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great watch makes a good investment in your style. Not only is it going to add a lot of flair to your outfits, but wearing something that makes you feel great will boost your attitude as well.

When you are investing in a timepiece, there are a few things you should take into consideration, to make sure that you will make a great and relevant purchase.

1. Style When you are shopping for a watch, the first thing you need to think of is the style of the piece.

Think of whether you wish to purchase a minimal watch, a sporty watch, an opulent watch, etc. Your watch should be a reflection of your personality, taste and style – don’t settle for something that does not reflect you or that you are considering buying just because it is has a certain label; your watch needs to please you and not somebody else.

Our recommendation is to only invest your money in a watch you will want to see and wear. If you have doubts or second thoughts, let it sit for a day or two and then come back to it later. If you still want it then, go for it!

Another thing you should consider when it comes to style is whether you want a watch that is on-trend or a watch that features a timeless elegance. Even though most watches are like cars and lose their value in time, sometimes a watch can become valuable as time goes by.

On-trend watches have a tendency to lose their value

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more over time, but, who knows, they might become tomorrow’s vintage.

2. Proportion The proportion of your watch is key. When you are picking out accessories in general, you should always consider that they should be proportionate to your body. In this case, men with bigger wrists should wear bolder watches, while men with slimmer arms should wear slimmer watches.

Wearing a watch that does not match your proportions might make you look off-key and disproportioned.

Moreover, if you consider buying a big watch, think of whether you want it to be the main piece of many of your outfits: wearing a watch that is very big might be so distracting, that you will always need to tone down your outfits to balance it out.

3. Versatility If you are going for a watch that you want to wear on a daily basis, you should think of how it fits with the rest of your wardrobe. If you only have sporty clothes, a gold and precious stones watch might not be the best thing for you, you should go for either a dive watch or a pilot watch and vice versa.

One thing you need to remember is that metals are neutrals and can be worn with anything and with each other. This means that regardless of whether you have a

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golden or a silver watch, you can wear it with any color and with any other metal: for example a silver watch does go with a golden chain.

4. Find a trusted source Of course brand-owned stores or authorized retailers are the best and safest place to purchase a luxury watch.

However, not everybody can go to a high end shop and purchase the watch of their dreams. At many times, luxury goods are at times simply not accessible physically.

This is where the magic of the Internet as well as the danger of it comes in place. Finding a trustful source can be difficult, as many websites feature replica watches sold at the price of an original piece.

There are three main things you can do if you wish to purchase a luxury watch online: a) Buy it from the website of the brand b) If the brand doesn’t have an e-shop option, send them an e-mail and ask what online retailers sell their pieces c) Find a source that has many recommendations and is trustworthy This way, you can be sure that you will invest in and own an authentic watch.

Wearing a watch you like is a wonderful way to express your personality, to let others know a little more about your interests and to style up any outfit, as accessories have the ability of making even the blandest of bland outfits look better. However, this is not the only function a high quality watch has; as such a timepiece can also give you attitude and a lot of confidence.

Watch: The Briston Clubmaster Automatic Photos: Attire Club

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It’s All about Passion for Fashion

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R E P O RT O N T H E PA RT Y A N D T H E G U E S TS

VIENNA FASHION WEEK 2019

MQVFW, short for Museumsquartier Vienna Fashion Week is Austria’s main fashion event, which takes place every year downtown Vienna and brings together a great number of brands, designers and fashionistas. Discover our diary of this year’s event.

Photos: Attire Club

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Marcel Ostertag

lebrities, artists and statespeople attending the show.

Among the guests to the show were Russian vionist Lidia Baich, singer Kim Cooper, Gabriele Benz from Le Méridien Vienna, Sonja Klima, the new leader of the Spanish Riding School, British singer James Cottrial, Tanja Duhović - a former Miss Austria, many photographers, business people and officials. And, of course, Attire Club was also represented.

The opening night was followed by a week filled with runway shows and other fashion events.

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ienna’s biggest fashion and style event, MuseumsQuartier Vienna Fashion Week returned for a new edition in mid-September. Between 9-15 September, the runway tent was placed again in Vienna’s museums area, which was the host of the event since its beginning.

Over the years MQVFW has changed and developed, more in some areas, less in others, but it’s always been a rather important event on the Viennese calendar, especially for the gliteratti of the Austrian capital.

The opening of the event was marked by speeches by Austria’s chancellor Dr. Brigitte Bierlein and Veronica Kaup-Hasler, councilor for culture and science. Michael Gigerl, an Austrian media personality moderated the show. Austria’s First Lady, Doris Schmidauer, wife of president Alexander Van der Bellen was also present.

The FW of the City of Dreams is usually a mix between a focus on Austrian designers and a focus on a few international guests, especially from neighboring countries.

This year, there was a rather fresh lineup of shows, as many household names were not scheduled in the program. Over the last years, the shows by Roee, the oversexed Karl Michael and the chic Juan Carlos Gordillo were some of the most attended shows and were quite the draw, so the new FW was, even before it started, under the sign of the new. Some other names that were also strongly associated with the event did return. Of course, Callisti, one of Vienna’s most popular brands was there and so were Rozbora Couture or TrueYou, who are also fan favorites. Other staples of the event also returned, such as the Look! Style Awards, the night dedicated to Thai designers and Mario Soldo’s Closing Show.

The changes brought on by the decision of some brands to not return was an opportunity for the returning and the new brands to gain traction with the Fashion Week’s audience.

Colombian brand Chirimoya presented its first show in Vienna and brought a premiere on the Austrian runway, as, The official part was followed during a part of the show, by the first runway show of models literally ran up and the week, as German designer down the runway. 2069 by Marcel Ostertag showcased his Fred Kobayashi proposed a newest collection. Ostertag, an futuristic runway show that alumn of the Esmond School seemed really to be out of this for Fashion in Berlin and Central Saint Martins College is Brigitte Bierlein (center) with an excited Zigi Mueller-Matyas world. His show really takes known for winning the Moët & Chandon Fashion De- the cake for cohesiveness and originality. Another newbut award in Berlin and for showcasing his collections comer was Niko Niko Design who offered us much of in London and New York among other cities. He is also what we wanted to see but didn’t until now at MQVFW: known for making sure his clothe are all made in Germany.

The show itself consisted of two collections, themed “Lovers” and “Heroes”. The clothes featured mostly natural tones, with colors like dark green, orange and soft pastels being the main takeaways. Most of the pieces were “flowey” (more or less) and some had an interesting movement to them, an effect created by the use of fringe.

The evening was a star-studded event, with many ce-

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a superdynamic, entertaining and fun runway show, which came as a great balance to the overall serious tone most of the others Viennese runway shows have. We recently wrote that exciting runway shows will make a come-back and it’s great to see that Niko is ahead of the curve. Manuel Essl Design, another newcomer, also brought fun and upbeat fashions to the runway. El_In_ Es also made a good impression with a fabulous collection made only from zippers.

change. The direction in which the change will go as of 2020 remains to be seen, but we do encourage everyone to really focus on collaborations, on promoting value and of leaning an ear towards the new emerging voices in Central European and global fashion.

#MQVFW

While many household names did not make a comeback this year, we could definitely see a great interest in a refreshing of Vienna Fashion Week, as many of the newcomers do want to really push the event to be its very best and to reinvent it in a fresh and upbeat tone.

From the now-classic presences at MQVFW, we really loved the shows by Smaranda Almasan (who last year had a bit of a fashion scare as the power went out during her show), Richard Rozbora from Bratislava and Ana Maria Cornea. Speaking dresses, we also really loved Gina Drewes’ collection (especially the African safari part) and many of the Passion by D looks.

The Thai Fashion Night featured four shows, three of which were collaborations between Austrian and Thai brands. Firstly, there was a show created by Thai label Munzaa and Austrian label Shakkei. Secondly, we could see a collaboration between Ek Thongprasert from Thailand and Kayiko from Austria. The third show featured clothes by Wisharawish from Thailand the Vienna-based Sabine Karner, which was one of our favorites from the entire week. The nigh ended with a special presentation by Wonder Anatomie from Thailand. And, speaking of Kayiko, Karin Oèbster also had a solo show, which was once again very creative and captivating. We really appreciate her ability to communicate a message through individual clothes and their relation to one another in a collection and still leave room for personal interpretation and thought.

Overall, while there was a decrease in attendance and a shift in participants, we can see that there is a lot of interest for the event and that a new generation of designers and brands is emerging. It is, of course, up to the organizers to decide the direction in which the event will go, but we think there is a lot of potential to make Vienna Fashion Week an event that will be of great interest not only to some circles in the Viennese and Austrian landscape, but also a calendar highlight for businesses and audiences from the surrounding countries (Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia). There are many talented people (designers, bloggers, photographers, models, etc.) who participate in the event and they deserve to be highlighted more and to be promoted heavily. This can be a win-win situation in the long run. Also, we would love to see more menswear, which was almost completely lacking (there was not even one single show dedicated only to men’s fashion).

All in all, the last MQVFW of the decade was one of

← ↑ Niko Niko Design brought much needed colors and fun to the runways of the 2019 MQVFW. →A musical number. ←Maria Oberfrank’s Pitour booth in the Pop-up store. →Austrian label Verdandy was again part of the event with a strong selection of clothes in the pop-up store. ↓TrueYou managed to sell out the tent and had the show with the most attendance. ↓Interview time.

←From the collaboration between Thai designer Ek Thongprasert and Viennese label Kayiko. ←One of our favorites: Wisharawish and Sabine Karner.

→VIP seating.

→Party poster.

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Chirimoya’s first MQVFW presentation showcased what Colombian designer John Bocanegra does best: a collection of minimal, simple and functional clothes infused with colorful elements inspired by South American culture. The Invasion collection was inspired by the conquest of Latin America by the Spanish Empire, but some outfits were also based on elements that define Austrian art, such as Gustav Klimt’s works of the Vienna Opera Ball.

Newcomer Manuel Essl from Graz made a great impression with his wearable, but runway-ready creations. His collection was fun and modern and also featured numerous accessories, which we really liked. Manuel comes from a graphic design background and does everything himself, from prints to leather work. He is definitely a promising voice and is appreciated by many, so he is for sure a designer to follow and keep up with.

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Fred Kobayashi is the artist behind the new 2069 collection, which took us on a journey in space and time. The futuristic aesthetic was present in all forms, from the clothes and accessories to the styling and sountrack (which was also put together by th designer), but, besides this cohesion, we also really enjoyed the fact that the collection also left a lot to be interpreted by the viewer (and wearer).

Lydia Schupfer, the designer behind EL_IN_ES is truly “reißverschlussverliebt” - meaning in love with zippers. Her collection consisted of amazing pieces made only from zippers and at her stand in the popup store, she also showcased some very creative pieces (some can be hung on a wall), including a bag that won a design award in Germany. Her collection was one of the most cohesive and coherent of the entire event, as it had a clear point of view and was easily identifiable, as it had a clear personality.

Designer Gabriel Baradee from Austria had a great collaboration with Thai brand Munzaa. The photo above was a great look from their collection. attireclub.org |

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Current Obsessions New or old, some videos are amazing sources of inspiration. From Chanel and Philippe Dufour to snotty influencers and vintage Mugler, check out some of our fav videos

EXCLUSIVE! CHANEL CRUISE BY VIRGINIE VIARD! by Loic Prigent Loric Prigent did a great video on the emotions and artistic implications Virginie Viard faced as she took over Chanel. Definitely a must-watch of the year!

Highlights: Thierry Mugler 80s - 90s How do you say... Mugler...

Thierry Mugler’s runway shows from the 80s and 90s were truly amazing and worth re-watching.We think exciting runway shows will make a come-back, as we wrote in the article “Future Trend: Exciting Fashion Shows”, which was published on our blog.

George Michael - Too Funky “I am not trying to seduce you.

Would you like me to seduce you?

Is that what you are trying to tell me?”

George Michael’s 1990 video is one of the most amazing model videos from back when supermodels were really super!

Face to Grace Last year, in 2018, M2M released a series of interviews conducted by the amazing Grace Coddington.

The short series features great guests in interesting and insightful discussions at Mr. Chow.

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#Gancini | Salvatore Ferragamo This short video from Ferragamo received too little views compared to what it deserves, as it is a fun satire of influencers and social media done by influencers themselves. Maybe not too many were in on the joke? Who knows?

How do you say...

Vidéos “Once Upon A Time...” by Karl Lagerfeld

In 2013, Chanel released a short film signed by Karl Lagerfeld imagining in a very idealized way the origins of the Chanel brand. While the film may not be strong on story or writing, it is a great dreamy production with fabulous cinematography.

Philippe Dufour 70th Birthday Celebration In 2017, Philippe Dufour celebrated his 70th birthday with an amazing celebration.

TheWATCHES.tv shared a fabulous video of the party on their channel, which is definitey worth watching. attireclub.org |

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PH I LO S O PH Y

Understanding Halloween Costumes

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This in a way goes to show that, even outside old and deep religious practices, people still have the need to dress up as something they would normally fear.

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t can be said that wearing a mask is something embedded within the human spirit. Everywhere you look, each culture, old or new has a certain holiday, ritual or occasion which is connected to the idea of wearing a mask. Usually, wearing masks was done in the past with the purpose of a spiritual ritual. In modern times, while some tribes maintain this and while spiritual leaders still wear specific garments for performing religious ceremonies, the focus of dressing up in costumes has moved towards masquerades and dressing up, which is presented as something fun and quirky.

However, wearing clothes that are unusual and hiding your identity still has a spiritual meaning. Halloween is an interesting example, as, on this holiday, people are dressing up as something they consider weird, unusual or downright horrifying.

Halloween is a complicated holiday, as its roots lie in a wide number of holidays and rituals from different cultures, but the idea of dressing up and partying on the evening of the 31st of October is a rather new one.

Interestingly enough, this practice grew as people started to drift away more and more from religion. Before that, the carnivals before lent were the main occasion during which people would put on costumes that were sometimes odd and dark, and would act a fool. But as religion started to be treated more and more lightly, dressing up moved from February to October. Coincidence?

In ancient times, it was a usual thing to wear a mask when you wanted to do something you would not generally do or to take on a new role. To give an example, certain groups used to wear masks or paint their bodies (another form of the same concept) when they would go to war. This way, the war spirits would take over their bodies, or better said, they would symbolically become (embody) these war spirits and their victory was thus easier to obtain. In a way, it can be argued that this is associated with unexpressed guilt since it was acceptable to do certain things while wearing a mask that were otherwise unacceptable. But we can’t dig too deep into this, since we can’t exactly know how people thought in those days. Moreover, masks, body paint or other body modifications were often part of rites of passage.

Sometimes, a rite of passage was even marked through a simple clothing change. For example, in parts of Eastern Europe, even today, during a wedding, the older women of the community dress up the bride in new clothes that mark the fact that she is now part of the group of adult women. Rites of passage are an overall interesting concept and today, unfortunately, they have disappeared to a great extent, as our technology and the consumer’s society allow us to extend our teenage years for decades.

Back to Halloween; this is one of the most known and celebrated costume-related holidays in the Western world today and is become more and more known in other parts of the world as well. Fundamentally, the night between 31 October and 1 November is marked in the West by a rather somber holiday. Halloween originated in the old Celtic civilizations; even though it seems that its actual origin was in the Bronze Age. The Celts would call it Samhain (pronounced sah-win). For the Celts, the day we today call October 31st marked the end of the old year; the end of the summer and the death of the sun; which can be a reason for the death-element that Halloween has attached to it. In short, it was

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It appears that the custom of dressing up appeared in the Middle Ages and includes Christmas wassailing. Speaking of this, it’s quite interesting that an alternate name for Halloween is All Hallows’ Eve or Hallowmas (resembling the name Christmas). However, it was only in the late 1800s when people started throwing costume parties.

believed that people could actually come into contact with the spirits of the other world in this night.

The holiday itself derived many legends and customs, the most known is of course the Jack O’Lantern pumpkin, which originated in the custom of farmers putting candles in turnips to light their way home from the land they worked. Many years later, when the immigrants came to America, they kept the custom, just that they used pumpkins.

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The tradition of modern trick-or-treat-ing as we know it appeared in the 1930s, when, because of many violent events on the night of Halloween, the American authorities decided to transform the holiday into a kid’s holiday. However, the custom has its origins in the late medieval concept of “souling”. Souling describes the practice which involves a poor person going from door to door on Hallowmas (November 1st) to ask for food.

That person was given food in the return of his prayers on All Souls’ Day (November 2nd). Of course, there is a big Christian, especially Catholic influence to the holiday as well, which mixed the old pagan holiday with the Celtic New Year, the holiday of the dead and All Saints’ Day — which was a holiday dedicated to all the saints who did not have a day of their own or who were unknown.

Tracking the history and concept of Halloween can be quite hard and involves a constant back and forth, as the traditions, concepts and ideas that compose this holiday often intertwine. They are all tight up to each other in one way or another. For example, it is clear that souling became trick-or-treat-ing, now done by kids in costumes. According to several sources, people used to dress up on Halloween to scare the bad spirits away or to please them. It is kind of complicated to understand this: did they want to scare them or to please them? Probably both, but at different times in history. It would make sense if we agree that the people of the past thought this night was a gateway to another world and

that they would do anything to avoid creatures from another world, by either scaring them away (although if you wish to scare a ghost away, why dress like one?) or to make them think you’re one of them.

These reasons are not quite convincing (even though at a deeper level of thought they make some sense - for example a costume can help you learn about something or how to deal with it - for example, one can learn how to deal with creatures - by giving them something; or can cause confusion for the entities), which is why, in order to have a better grasp over this phenomenon, we can take a look at the first principle of dressing up as something else. On carnival, people used to hide their identity and do scandalous things in order to release those things from their personal and collective mind.

It was a way of releasing yourself from tension, and of conquering or, even more so, understanding the things you feared. Doing, in one way or another, things that were unacceptable, such as drinking too much, etc. was a way of understanding why a taboo is a taboo and would, in the long run, reinforce social standards. Interestingly enough, in today’s society, body modifications, costumes and masks are becoming more and more common, especially throughout the Western world. In such a society, the “abnormal” (better said unusual) is becom-

ing normal and the normal is becoming the exception.

Bursts of costumes and identity shifts at a social level usually involve the approach of a dark period (after carnival, Lent would come, after Halloween, winter would come) and the end of a cycle (Good Friday, the winter solstice), followed by a rebirth in conventional conditions (Easter, spring). While dressing up is expected occasionally, in order to act as a valve, when non-values become values and everything is upside down, the society is close to its end as it is.

The oral character of Halloween makes it hard for us today to make clear sense of it. There are so many things mixed here that it’s hard to see what the motivations behind it are. However, certain patterns allow us to understand it and to make sense not only of the holiday itself but of our own progress through time and culture.

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PI C TO R I A L

Pack Your Trunk A break with the past

In order to move into another place in life, one must break with the past. Breaking with the past does not mean running away from it or acting as if it’s forgotten (since that is not something that can be really done), but rather packaging it and placing it somewhere as reference. The past is a strong teacher and is the place we come from. It contains information as compartmented by and in time. The reason why a break with the past is still “a break” is because one can’t move into a new place if they are still living in the old one. In this sense, the past should be packaged, understood and accessed when needed. To quote the movie Orlando, “ever since she let go of the past, she found her life was beginning.”

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FA S H I O N

PH I LO S O PH Y

CLOWNS, CLOWNS EVERYWHERE

The Meaning of Harlequins, Clowns and Jesters

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hen we think of colorfully dressed characters like clowns, jesters and harlequins, most people think of somewhat of a caricature. Generally speaking, clowns represent either fun or fear. Some people are afraid of clowns due to their heavy makeup and costumes which don’t allow much interaction with the person beneath and thus appearing threatening, while others associate them with the circus, the carnival and a good time. There is, however, a lot more to the idea of “clown” than meets the eye. In fact, there is a very complex universe behind these characters and their symbolic meaning, which goes extremely far in the human mind and culture. Clowns are actually a part of our deepest thoughts about the world, society and the workings of the universe.

The clown in the form of a circus or carnival clown has its roots in the 19th century or so, but the basis of this image goes back hundreds, if not thousands of years.

Jesters and harlequins have been around for so much time, that they have become an integral (and essential) part of human existence.

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n order to have a better understanding of why clowns, jesters and harlequins are important, one can look at their context: where we see them and what their role is.

The contemporary clown is a character associated with

a very specific world, which has a very specific aesthetic.

Clowns are to be found in the circus, a traveling fun fair or during the carnival period.

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he carnival period is a time that has a profound meaning, not just socially and culturally, but also from a religious point of view. Carnivals usually take place before Lent, a period of restraint before Easter. During carnivals, people indulge in things they wouldn’t normally do: they exaggerate their consumption of alcohol and food, they dance too much, make noise and “let themselves go”, all under the protection of masks. Carnivals are decadent or exuberant events, which mark a symbolic end of the world. During carnival, everything that is a norm is thrown out the window, everything is exaggerated and overdone, all to be followed by a period of strict rules and calmness, represented by Lent. After a period of 40 days of abstinence and penance, Easter comes at a time when the sun begins to shine brighter, as Christianity’s most important holiday brings back daily living on track and starts out the freshness of the new year. Similarly, the Jewish costume holiday of Purim also takes place at the end of the winter.

The clown is in all this a symbol for the upside-down world, a symbol for the world turned over and in some contexts, an usher of the end. Even though this can be creepy, clowns are needed in order to symbolically complete the picture.

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ther types of clowns also have a very important role when it comes to the establishment of order in society. For example, court jesters were the only ones allowed to make fun of the king. They were the “outsider”, a symbol for the fact that not everything can be contained in the hierarchy of society, thus reinforcing the structure of the world. The purpose of the jester was not just to bring social and emotional relief through his jokes, but also to reinforce the frame of society by showing what is outside the norm. At a deeper sense, the jokes of the jester work as an open door between everyday life and the hidden knowledge.

This is what fair clowns do as well: they do all the things that are out of the norm. They are the misfits that define the rule. We can see it in the form of their actions: they pretend to do things, they act strangely and, most importantly, they don’t fit.

We can see this visually in terms of “fashion”: their shoes are too big,

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their hair is unnatural, their pants are exaggerated and the colors they wear don’t match. Their makeup is overdone and they are overall over the top. The gags clowns are involved in are also about not fitting in: one can see too many clowns in a box and so on. On an everyday basis, clowns are important because they represent a valve for the chaos within us. Humans contain a good dose of the upside-down world, and if not let out or expressed, this can lead to a muted, but strong explosion.

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he same one can see at the circus: acrobatics, flips and turns, it’s all about spinning. However, the clown is the most distilled version of this continuous spinning, which seems to have no point (even though it does, given that one can be changed after the wonder of the ride or the show). Clowns are strong representatives of this breakdown of meaning: they work a lot with accidents, they fall down, they make someone else fall down and so on and that is what accidents are: breakdowns of meaning.

Clowns are also always associated with circular things: they ride a monocycle, they walk on a ball, they circle the round arena, and so on. This means that the clown is in a way a symbol of the spindle that turns the chaos into order. When analyzing these performances, one can notice the strange attitude these activities give the clown; in a way, he is aware of the world and thus, above all the rules and at the same time takes the breakdown with a light heart. He is, if we can make this leap, that he is a stoic: he takes things with a light heart because he has an overview of the world, but which does not mean that he cancels his feelings.

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lowns and jesters are above the world because they are aware of the world. Maybe this is why people who have had DMT trips claim to have seen jesters - as an opening door?

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he harlequin differentiates himself from clowns and jesters by being a type of philosopher artist: the harlequin is often portrayed as a goofy character, always looking for things some may consider superficial, when in fact; he is on the look-out for the most important things in life. No wonder that the skomorokhs, which were a type of East-Slavic harlequins got into so much trouble before being completely banned and having to move to the underground cultural scene.

Ultimately, it can be clearly said that while clowns, jesters and harlequins may seem as simple characters, they are at their core very complex entities who point to the mysteries that govern conventions; they organize through chaos and work the mechanics of the cycles of life.

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ut things go deeper than that. Traveling fairs and amusement parks are in many ways a symbol of the edge of a cycle, which encapsulates a whole retrospective of the world. Ferris wheels, carousels and everything else at fairs is spinning: they are a symbol for cycles of life. When you are in a wheel, it goes up and then down, just like the famous Carmina Burana lyrics say: “O Fortuna velut luna statu variabilis, (…)

Sors immanis et inanis, rota tu volubilis,

O Fortune, like the moon you are changeable, Fate - monstrous and empty, you whirling wheel”.

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A N D

T E C H

Blockchain: The New Fashion Trend

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ver the last years, the word blockchain has become more and more popular, even though, for most people, it is still a rather abstract and novel concept, as is everything when it is just starting to emerge. Most people heard about blockchain when discussing cryptocurrencies, which have oscillated a lot in worth over the last years. For a better understanding, it can be said that the blockchain is the system or technology on which these currencies run.

This means that it’s not just cryptocurrencies that can run on the blockchain, but that a lot of other systems can as well. In simple terms, a blockchain is a shared database or digital ledger that makes automatic updates across a network, without any need for an intermediary. Changes in the database are updated automatically via the internet and because every single entry is connected to everything else, the system is fair and powerful. A blockchain can be public or it can be private; it can be available to everyone or only to a group of people, companies or organizations.

The technology, which was invented back in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto, which is probably a pseudonym, since it is not known who really invented the blockchain, has become more and more of an integral part of many industries, as different companies, especial-

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ly companies with very strong profiles, are starting to adapt it for their everyday work.

Currently, there is an increase in blockchain-based projects in fields such as banking, medicine or even transportation. In many ways, blockchain technology is connected to the IoT (Internet of Things), which can digitalize entire systems.

The fashion field is also increasingly interested in using blockchain, which is to be expected, as fashion is a rather conservative industry. However, lately, many brands have started to adapt to the newest developments in the area and working with blockchain technology. Surely, one of the most obvious one was to create a fashion coin, but other uses have come to the forefront as well.

For example, encrypted networks based on blockchain are now used to track and trace a product, with the goal of verifying its authenticity. With a huge market of counterfeit goods, this initiative is highly embraced by both brands and customers. Moreover, using blockchain-based systems, some companies are now working on allowing their customers to track and trace the materials from which the things they own are made. This is especially important for those who are concerned about the sources of gold, diamonds or other rocks. This can ensure the wearer that the things they have were mined and crafted in a way that one can wear them without having to worry about their provenance. For example, De Beers, the world’s biggest diamond producer utilizes Everledger blockchain-based technology to follow, source and check the authenticity of the diamonds at

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each point of distribution. The attributes of the stones included in a piece of jewelry, for example, can also be encrypted in a blockchain-based system.

At the moment, blockchain is a rather open field, with no regulations or standards governing it. However, it is increasingly popular among both companies and consumers, who see it as a new type of freedom generator, which can be an amazing tool for future developments.

The enthusiasm for blockchain is certainly present in the fashion industry, but at the moment people are still careful about the potential downsides the blockchain

can have, even though, at a first glance it seems to be a rather good solution that, if used correctly can solve many issues for which the fashion industry has been highly criticized over the last years.

In the long run, blockchain-based systems will dominate the world and can ensure a better workflow in a highly-connected, but contrasting and dynamic world.

Blockchain Facts M About 90% of European and North American banks were exploring blockchain in 2018 M By 2024, the global blockchain technology market is estimated to accumulate $20 billion in revenue M At the moment, only 0.5% of the world population uses blockchain Blockchain can reduce 30% of banks’ infrastructure costs M Financial companies can save up to $12 billion a year from using blockchain M In 2017 alone, blockchain has facilitated over $270 billion transactions M More than 90% of people engaging in bitcoin are men 84 | InCompanytAttirehClub

Your Style Is Worth Your While

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THE ATTIRE CLUB MOOD DIARY Our mood board as a visual journal

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Het gebochelde paardje by P. Jersjow Illustrator: N. Kotsjergin Printed by Radoega Moscow

Fairy Tale Magic Fairy tales are a quintessential part of growing up. The reason why children are told stories again and again is because these contain condensed truths about the ways in which life works. They communicate essential information about life, both in a symbolic and a concrete manner. Fairy tales lead the mind to greater realms of knowledge and seed the mechanics of the world inside of us. attireclub.org |

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Beauty and the Beast - An Art Nouveau Postcard Illustrated by Charles Folkard 1930

Die schönsten Kindermärchen der Brüder Grimm Illustrated by Paul Hey ca. 1935

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Tailor of Gloucester

“Across the Rainbow Bridge� part of the Moore-Wilson Readers

by Maude Moore and Harry B. Wilson.

Illustrated by Dorothy Rittenhouse Morgan 1927

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Ivan and the Chestnut Horse, a Russian Fairy Tale Illustration by Edmund Dulac

Mecki bei den Eskimos Illustrator: Professor Wilhelm Petersen Köln. 1979

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Das Cabinet der Feen oder gesammlete Feen-Mährchen in neun Theilen, aus dem Französischen übersetzt.

Germany, 1820

Přes tři oceány / Across Three Oceans by Jiří Havel, Karel Franta Prague, 1968 “The Magic Stone, the Rainbow Fairy Stories”

by Blanche Elizabeth Wade. Illustration by by George Carlson 1917

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C I N E M A

C U LT U R E

1 Discovering Reality: An Analysis of “Alice in Wonderland” (1951)

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lice in Wonderland is a classic animated film directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson and Hamilton Luske. The movie, adapted after Lewis Carroll’s novel with the same name is a production that has been seen by millions of children (and, why not, adults) from around the world. The story, while it may be packaged as an easy children’s journey, can be seen as

is a book on history, a choice that tells the viewer that Alice is, more or less by choice, interested in discovering the world, but that she is presented only a controlled, superficial version of the world, as history can be correctly described as the current establishment’s view of the world.

a philosopher’s exploration of the real world, in a way similar to Plato’s cave story, of a man who goes outside the cave where he and his fellow people could only see shadows on the walls, thinking they were reality and then telling them about what the world really looks like, its colors and shapes but is disregarded and mocked by his people.

passed by everyday objects that compose the medium in which humans live.

Right at the very beginning of the film, when Alice is sitting under a tree, she is reading a book. The book

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It’s not long before the beginning that Alice starts chasing the rabbit that is always late and soon enough she finds herself going down the rabbit hole. As she falls, she is first passed by objects of art, the highest expression of people’s emotions and living and then she is

In order to be able to pass through the door she encounters, she drinks what others call poison. It can be said that for ages the truth has been seen as something that is not be wanted and presented in a negative light. The first encounter with something different is of course a negative one: soon enough Alice is sad and floating on a sea of her own tears. She regrets it because it’s not what

she expected or wanted, but there is no going back, regardless of what she may want.

Looking for the white rabbit who is in a hurry, she enters the forest, a clear symbol of the mysterious and the natural. The first characters she meets are Tweedledum and Tweedledee. These two characters, which appear human, but immediately show that they are not are trying to keep Alice from going further, they want to lure her with their actions and words and the reason is not apparent. They are the distractions one meets along the way: they make crazy images and sounds, they morph and don’t get hurt when hit and act silly and foolish making an illusion of interest, when in fact they are just there to keep a philosopher from going. The “razzle dazzle” is something a veritable philosopher always encounts: the flashes of the world, of arts and culture that seem to be full of meaning, but are not more than an empty way of spending time trying to make sense of them.

After getting away from the two, Alice meets The Dodo.

While he is a cheerful and polite character, The Dodo is also absent-minded and quite aggressive. He is the reflection of a politician whose main problem is that he does not know where his job begins or ends. The confusion that is in his mind leads to a lot of harm, for which in a way, he cannot be directly blamed.

Alice is now slowly making sense of the world, she is confronted with all the appearances and obstacles that compose the world. No wonder that at this point, every time she eats something she becomes either very big or very small. Every truth she comes in contact with, every decision she makes is taking her on a rollercoaster.

A philosopher either feels on the top of the world for conquering things or small as an ant in the face of the discovery of what is yet to be discovered.

After having faced entertainment in the shape of distractions and politics in the shape of collateral damage, she needs to be faced with one of the biggest challenges: the talk of the town. While some people have physical power over you, the chatter of the community can “talk” you to non-existence quite easily. To express this, Alice meets with some flowers who mistake her for a flower, lacking the ability to see beyond their world. While they appear to be friendly, as most moralists in life do, the flowers become quite aggressive and condescend towards her quite rapidly, only one young and innocent flower being able to see Alice for who she is and saying she liked her.

After dealing with the three blocking entities, Alice starts to meet the holders of the truth. She first meets with a caterpillar. Pretentious and wise, the caterpillar is resembling a guru who knows things, but whose overconfidence can do him harm. He asks Alice who she is and she says that she is not herself anymore. To our heroine, everything is confusing, but not to the caterpillar.

What is remarkable in the conversation between Alice

and the caterpillar is that she says she doesn’t remember things the way she used to. And that is a sign of a strong philosopher, who, after dealing with the façade of the world and coming in contact with truth speakers, does not see the world, and more specifically, their own world the way they used to. A truth seeker does not get stuck in the way they perceived the world when they were younger, he reconsiders his past and his present, seeing them through a different prism.

After taking the big step and overcoming her caterpillar-caused frustrations, Alice meets with one of the deepest characters of Wonderland. She meets the cat.

The cat, whose presence is mysterious and captivating, is a representation of the detached “madman”. He knows so much about the world, that the world would see him as the complete outsider. And the cat is OK with that – he knows that he can’t dumb himself down for the world and that those who refuse his truths won’t grasp them, regardless of how much he may try. This is why, he has no intent to make himself like the others. Alice is scared, she says she does not want to go among mad people, but the cat explains that there almost everyone is mad. If the outside world is fake, then the “underworld” (an Ancien Greek type of underworld), or Wonderland is the truth.

However, given that in Wonderland the creatures use the same language as they do in the outside world, one needs to understand that “madness” in Alice in Wonderland actually means “right”, “correct” or “true”.

Meeting the cat is just an introduction to “madness”, as the next characters she meets are the Mad Hatter and the rabbit who were having the maddest of mad tea parties. Right from the start, the couple seems odd: they celebrate when somebody doesn’t have a birthday, an indicative of the fact that people can be more than it says on their birth certificate. The fact that the Mad Hatter celebrates any other day but one’s birthday shows that a person who sees the truth can choose very well who they are. A philosopher selects and makes his own choices about who he is, he does not follow society’s dictates. It’s about choice rather than giving in to defaults.

Alice is asked whether she wants “more” tea, but she replies that she cannot ask for more, given that she did not have any yet. However, the Mad Hatter replies with a deep thought, that you can have more of nothing. With this, he puts the pin on life as acceptance: this sentence is a brief, but compelling discourse on the nature of the anti-element, of the fact that an element can have two types of opposites, the non-element and the anti-element and that they are not equal and the same.

When Alice mentions the cat, mayhem breaks and it takes some time until things cool down. The rabbit tells Alice that if she does not think before she speaks, she should not speak. This remark is in relation to the fact that language is extremely important, not only in the Looking Glass, but everywhere and that words are the tools which we use not only to understand, but also to attireclub.org |

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shape the world and establish its boundaries.

Tired and fed up, Alice wants to go back home and she finds a path that she thinks will take her home. However, a dog shows up and sweeps it away. The dog is a usually a symbol of trust. In this case, it can show the creator’s thoughts that one needs to trust the road to cohesion in thought and that once that way is taken, there is no going back.

At this moment, Alice realizes that there is more to the truth than wisdom. As she is angry and sad, she says that she gives herself good advice, but has a hard time following it. She thus understands the difference between the abstract knowledge and the actions one needs to take. At this moment, the cat appears again, being the right companion for a mood where you have a hard time taking things seriously.

Alice learns that all the ways are the queen’s ways and that there is no way reserved for her. She must either take the path between the roads or follow one of the queen’s paths and see what happens. Having little choice, Alice takes a path that goes to the queen’s castle.

The first interaction she has in the land of the queen is with some playing cards whose job it was to paint all the roses red. The queen is angry and downright furious all the time and asks for the roses to be painted red for no apparent reason. She is a symbol of a tyrant (not necessarily a political one) who forces everyone to do as she wants, otherwise placing bad consequences on others.

She is the symbol of the unhappy person who is always forcing others into her unmotivated unhappiness. The white rabbit Alice chased throughout the story finally shows up for his job at the court and we understand why he was so scared all the time. Not only from a narrative point of view – because he had a job, but also from a psychological point of view: the rabbit who can never be on time is a symbol of a person living in the shadow of a tyrant who can never be pleased and who imposes their requests through aggression and blackmail.

The king, a character who has a just heart does not seem to have much power, but he influences the way things happen in a strong manner. He is the person shaping people’s minds and events from the background, he is a symbol for the unknown people who stay in the shadows of rulers and who influence the world for good, without the tyrants to notice or to change. He is a hidden gem.

Right when Alice was going see the queen’s fury, she remembers that she had some mushrooms in her pockets, which she eats and grows large enough to scare the queen for a while. She then has the courage to tell the queen everything she thinks about her, before turning small again.

This is a powerful symbol, the mushroom here is a placeholder for consciousness, relating maybe to experiences people have when exploring their minds with the help

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of different substances. When taking in mushrooms, representing her own true consciousness, Alice not only grows a lot, but finally sees the world for what it is and dares to speak the truth in a manner that resembles the way the cat talks, detached and ironic.

But such a position does not last for long (just like the cat always quickly disappears) and Alice must run away from all the chaos that is around her. She runs through a tunnel resembling the cat (the highest expression of “madness” – again, in the looking glass “madness” being “reason” and “truth”) and finally goes back to her outside self.

While Alice did learn about truth in her excursion in Wonderland, she must get out or else she can end up badly. She puts order in her consciousness and structures information, but in the end, she must get out because living only inside your mind can have some bad consequences. We need the world, but we also need “dreams” or deep thoughts to be able to navigate the world. To learn about the workings of the world, one needs to go in their consciousness, that is where structured and uncensored information lies. Through systematic learning, a philosopher will get to be able to merge the two: the physical world and the truth.

We may not live only on one part of the world, just like we can’t have a completely careless life. In the end, if it wasn’t for problems, we would not go down the rabbit hole. In the end, this is what the white rabbit is: he is someone full of problems and dysfunction. Alice follows him and discovers the truths which will help her have a full and virtuous life. In a way, he is a symbol of the cross one bears to eventually find the truth.

The book and film have been analyzed in a variety of ways: as a fairytale, as a biography, as a social satire, many of the names of the characters being references to movers and shakers of the time, but also from a mythological (referencing Persephone, Proserpina and even Ēostre), theosophical, philosophical and even a mathematical point of view (for example, the cat could be a reference to the “catenary”, which is a shape of a perfectly flexible chain suspended by its ends and acted on by gravity).

Anyway you look at it, “Alice in Wonderland” is a profound story about how curiosity might lead to trouble, but how it is also highly rewarding, as, as Alice would say, “it would be so nice if something would make sense for a change.” And that’s the veritable mission of the philosopher.

2 The Psychology of Philosophy: An Analysis of “The Wizard of Oz” (1939)

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he Wizard of Oz is one of the most iconic and famous cinematographic creations, which has inspired and entertained millions around the world. It is one of the big cinematic myths, representing one of the fundamental film works.

It deals with very important topics, namely the topics of belief and of truth, similar to other productions such as “Alice in Wonderland” or “The Matrix”. In fact, “The Wizard of Oz” is one of the masterpiece foundation stones and points of reference for many films of various genres and from different eras, from “Eyes Wide Shut” (1999) to “Avatar” (2009).

The film, which is based on the 1900 book by L. Frank Baum, was directed by Victor Fleming and George Cukor and released in 1939 and starred Hollywood darling Judy Garland. The film tells the story of a Kansas girl who, in a troubled situation, finds herself ending up in a faraway kingdom. There, she meets with three friends and together they go on the search of the wonderful Wizard of Oz who can grant their wishes.

embedded with a large series of symbols: the end of the rainbow is where a pot of gold is found, it is the place where dreams come true, it is a symbol of the covenant, it means serendipity and all things philosophy. Thus, the rainbow is the road or the gate she must go on or through in order to reach wisdom and happiness.

The movie starts out with a dedication, which says “For nearly forty years this story has given faithful service to the Young in Heart; and Time has been powerless to put its kindly philosophy out of fashion. To those of you who have been faithful to it in return …and to the Young in Heart …we dedicate this picture.”

We are then starting to begin to see the connections between her life in Kansas and her world in “Wonderland” – “Oz”, when one of the workers tells her that she has no brain. Since her neighbor, whom she calls a “wicked old witch”, wants to destroy her dog, she runs away from evil only to soon meet Professor Marvel, who is like an oracle. His “importance” comes with the recommendation of being recognized by the crowned heads of Europe, so Dorothy asks him to read her past and present. As it turns out, professor Marvel is nothing but a merge between a connoisseur of the human heart and mind and a con artist, tricking her to go back to her aunt.

In a sepia tone scenery, we meet Dorothy, a Kansas farm girl, who is trying to communicate the problems she’s having with a neighbor with whom she entered in a conflict because of her dog, Toto. Her aunt, however, cannot pay her much attention and neither can her other workers at the farm. Everyone is busy working and cannot give Dorothy the answers she is looking for. Her aunt tells her to find a place where she won’t get into any trouble. Dorothy ponders on whether such a place exists and says that there must be a perfect place, but that that place is not somewhere you can get by a boat or a train, but that that place must exist, “somewhere over the rainbow”. The first song of the film, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” is probably one of the most emblematic songs in cinema history. Dorothy thinks of this amazing place, of which she heard “once in a lullaby”, meaning in her innocent childhood. The rainbow is

As she goes back home, a twister comes and, as she falls on her bed, the house is taken by the wind only to land “somewhere over the rainbow” as the music theme suggests and as Dorothy mentions. On her way, she sees things, from the ordinary to the… not so ordinary as she spins in circles in the air. The spiral is definitely a symbol for the transition between one world and the world of dreams. In it, regular things mix with extraordinary ones to compose a brand new world, with different rules and with different characters. As Dorothy steps out of the house, the whole world is no longer in a sepia tone, but in full color, as Dorothy discovers the magical plants, people and places of Oz. She meets the good witch, who asks Dorothy whether she is a good witch or a bad witch. As in most philosophical stories, Dorothy is confronted with having to define herself, she needs to state who she is or, at least, who she thinks she attireclub.org |

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knowledge can spread into different directions and that the road you choose to go on can take you to different destinations.

At the crossroads, she meets the Scarecrow.

He gives her directions on how to take him down and she frees him immediately. The Scarecrow is upset because he cannot do his job and is a failure because he doesn’t have a brain. He even tells her that some people without brains do a lot of talking – thus showcasing wisdom and knowledge for a second time. After explaining that he would even risk a box of matches for a brain, the Scarecrow asks her if he could go with her to Oz to ask the wizard for a brain. So, the two move forward. is. The good witch tells her that the munchkins have called her because a witch has dropped a house on the bad witch. Thus, Dorothy is symbolically assigned a new identity, which she at first refuses. She claims that witches are old and ugly, at which the munchkins laugh, making us understand that they see Dorothy as naïve, not knowing that you can also be a good witch. Glinda tells the munchkins that Dorothy has fallen from a star called Kansas, which is not only a reference to the US flag, but also to the fact that she did come from the sky, as somewhat of a deity. However, a new witch comes to Munchkin City, who wants to take revenge on Dorothy.

However, Glinda points out the ruby slippers, which have somehow appeared on Dorothy’s feet. We don’t really find out what the slippers can do; only that their magic must be strong, as otherwise the bad witch would not want them. In a way, the ruby slippers are similar to the ring in the “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, which does not seem to have a very strong power, but the power to give power. As we will learn later, similarly to the ring, the slippers have the power to make one disappear from one world and enter into another dimension.

Being overwhelmed by all that is happening, Dorothy wants to go home. She has doubts about the new world she has found and wants to get out immediately. However, she realizes that, as with a true philosopher’s journey, once she went down the rabbit hole, there is no going back. She then learns that to go to Kansas, she cannot go back the way she came, but she might be able to arrive there in another way, and, the one who knows how to get there is the wizard of Oz who lives in Emerald City.

Dorothy is told to follow the yellow brick road. The yellow brick road is a symbol for knowledge: it is a rabbit hole that takes you to wisdom and, which is shaped as a spiral, becoming wider and wider as you go along on it.

Dorothy takes the pointed road, but she soon discovers that the yellow brick road splits into more directions.

This can be regarded as a symbol for the way in which

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We see the wicked witch hiding behind a tree as the two companions enter a garden of apple trees. Dorothy wants to pick an apple, but the apple tree does not let her. They get yelled at by the tree and Dorothy explains that she was just hungry, but the tree does not allow her to pick any apples. The Scarecrow uses reverse psychology and gets the tree angry, resulting in it throwing apples at the two, which they pick up to eat. Thus, the Scarecrow proves once again the does possess know-how and intelligence. While picking the apples, Dorothy discovers the Tin Man, who tries to tell them something, but cannot do it because his mouth is rusty. The Scarecrow has, again, a good idea, and suggests that they oil his mouth to allow him to speak.

The Tin Man has no heart and is sad about it. Interpreted in a psychological manner, it can be said that people with no symbolic hearts become rusty and freeze – they get stuck in aggressive manners, such as the Tin Man, who claims to have been holding the axe up for ages. While he does hear a beat, he claims not to have a heart. Dorothy invites him to go with them to give him a heart, but just as they were discussing, the wicked witch appears again and throws fire at them. The Scarecrow starts to burn, but, the Tin Man shows that he has a heart and puts the fire out.

They all decide to go to Emerald City and Dorothy claims that she feels that she’s known them forever; pointing out what was obvious to the viewer already, namely that the new friends she was making were mirrored images of her loved ones. And, of course, the witch of her bad neighbor.

Then, as night falls, they meet the Cowardly Lion, who was feeling down because he lacked courage. Of course, at the very beginning, the Lion is pretending to be tough, as many people who lack courage do. He claims he hasn’t slept, an important note on a psychological level, as the lack of courage often causes scarcity.

They convince him to go with them, even though he

claims that he would be ashamed to be seen in the company of a cowardly lion – again, the story teaches us another psychology lesson: those who claim to be something they are not, are quite often ashamed and need to be “rescued” by others who believe in them or in their potential, as Dorothy and her buddies do.

It is quite interesting as, as the story progresses, the yellow brick road becomes broad enough for all of them.

Once again, we are taught a great psychological lesson: the more friends you have, the broader your knowledge becomes, as the yellow brick road is the road to wisdom.

As they find themselves close to Emerald City, the wicked witch casts a spell and makes them go through a field of poppies. The field of poppies has been interpreted as being a symbol for addiction, since poppy seeds are used to create opium. And, as it happens, Dorothy falls asleep in the poppy seed, not seeming to be able to continue her journey. As it is often the case with wise men, Dorothy falls in the sea of addiction and cannot get up.

She refuses the help of her friends and falls asleep. In this moment, as a side detail, the Tin Man begins to cry, showing again, that he does have a heart, but is not aware of it. Glinda sees what is going on and casts a good spell, causing it to snow, which wakes Dorothy up.

Snow is a symbol for purity, as purity is often the solution to breaking out of an addiction or vice. However, too much purity can be overwhelming to some at the wrong moment, as the Tin Man, confronted with purity is too weak and rusts again, but his fellow travelers help him out this time again.

They have now overcome the obstacles they needed to overcome to reach the capital of wisdom and truth that will grant them their wishes.

As they prance towards Emerald City, we hear the beautiful “Optimistic Voices” song: “You’re out of the woods You’re out of the dark You’re out of the night Step into the sun Step into the light Keep straight ahead for the most glorious place On the face of the earth or the sky Hold onto your breath Hold onto your heart Hold onto your hope March up to the gate and bid it open”.

As they arrive at the gate of Emerald City, the guard tells them that they cannot meet with a great wizard because nobody gets to see him and that he has not even seen him once. Dorothy asks he even knows that there is a wizard then, which gets the guard all riled up. They tell him that the good witch has sent her and in order to prove it, the Scarecrow suggests showing the guard the red slippers. As it happens, the slippers seem to be the

only reason why the guard lets them in. Once again, the Scarecrow has shown his good ideas.

As they wait to enter to the Wizard, the lion sings a song during which he shows his desire for strength and through his performance; he seems to gain the respect of his friends. As they symbolically crown him king, he says that the mere concept of being a king will make him not fear anything. He tells them that all the things he could do would be due to courage. This moment is the moment that the Lion does not see his power coming from a title, but the title coming from the power. “What makes a king out of a slave? Courage!” he says. Thus, he understands that, while one can find his strength because he is the king, one can become a king by having courage. At this moment, he drops the symbolic cape and wears only the crown that had been placed on his head, marking the true content of being a king, which lies outside the formal aspects.

They go to see the Wizard, who seems to be what we today would call a hologram and, after scaring them with fires and smoke, he tells them that he will grant their wishes if they are able to bring him the broomstick of the Witch of the West. This would imply that the four travellers need to kill the wicked witch.

Soon after they enter the witch’s territory, Dorothy is kidnapped by the servants of the Witch of the West, who take Dorothy to the witch’s castle. As a cinematic side note, some viewers of the film will notice a resemblance between the forest where the Witch of the West lives and the land of Mordor in “The Lord of the Rings”.

In the Witch’s tower, Dorothy is asked to give up the slippers and, forced by blackmail, she decides to give them to the witch. However, she does not seem to be able to take them off. Once again, the power of the slippers is brought into discussion with not obvious explanation as of why the slippers are important. Is it maybe that the slippers are Dorothy’s destiny? The slippers definitely seem to be something that only Dorothy can possess: is it her strength or personality?

To rescue Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion dress up as being servers of the Witch of the West. As in many movies, the three characters need to disguise as evil or enter evil (once again, think Neo entering agent Smith) to conquer it. This is a theme that can be discussed more in a Matrix-related text.

In the final confrontation, the Lion shows again his courage to go for Dorothy, the Scarecrow has the brains to use the Tin Man’s axe to make the chandelier fall on the soldiers and it all ends with Dorothy throwing water on the witch, causing her to melt. The symbolism of water is quite clear. Water symbolizes purity and life and can act as a weapon against evil – think of holy water. In other words, Dorothy kills evil with life.

The four buddies go back to the wizard, and discover attireclub.org |

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that he was in fact just a man behind a curtain; a scene playing on the onstage/backstage concept. The Wizard of Oz was using illusions (smoke and mirrors) to convey an illusion. In the end, the Wizard is no better than any of them, but, using his status, he manages to grant them their wishes. In a way, his presentation can be interpreted as people needing to look important in order to be important.

is a different Dorothy. Dorothy is now an enlightened philosopher who got out of Plato’s cave and is now conflicted, but happy. They obviously do not believe her as she speaks about the true world, but for her, it’s not important anymore, as she is home; the home being a symbol of one’s own mind and self. Above all, she is with those she loves, which is why she is not burdened with contemptus mundi.

He then grants them their wishes: First, he gives the Scarecrow a diploma. Then, he takes the Cowardly Lion by his arm and explains to him that he is the victim of disorganized thinking. Thus, by thinking that he runs away from danger, he thinks that he has no courage.

The Wizard explains that the Lion is “confusing courage with wisdom”, which is quite the psychology lesson. He then gives the Lion a medal to express the fact that he has courage. The Wizard then tells the Tin Man that he doesn’t know how lucky he is not to have a heart, but proceeds to giving him a heart-shaped clock. The clock is a symbol of time, as for the wholehearted, time is important and extremely valuable. He then tells the Tin Man that a heart is not judged by how much he loves (for he can love the wrong things), but by how much it is (truly) loved by others.

“The Wizard of Oz” has a dense story, with a lot of details and symbols, which is why it remains an all-time classic production appealing to many people from all walks of life.

The Wizard then leave the three to rule over Oz because their virtues, kindness and courage. He decides to take Dorothy back to Kansas, but fails to do so and Dorothy remains in Oz. Before that, he tells them that once he accidentally landed in Oz with a balloon and that the people of Oz made him a wizard. This short story is not just a parallel to Dorothy’s story, who came from up above and takes on a role she did not ask for, but is also an allegory for the concept of royalty. The Wizard of Oz is a simple man, who did not ask to be there, but made it his mission to rule to the best of his capabilities.

While he does come from another world, he does not seem to be much different from the creatures of Oz, his understanding of the mechanics of the world is the only criteria that separates him from them.

And so, since Dorothy could not be taken back to Kansas, the good witch returns and tells her that she had the power to go back to Kansas all the time, but that she did not tell her because then Dorothy would not have believed her. Just as in other later films, if we may bring up “The Matrix” again, she needs to discover who she is and what she can do for herself, or at least believe enough in herself in order to do the things others tell her to do. Dorothy explains that what she learned is that if she cannot find her happiness in herself, she won’t find it anywhere else.

As told by Glinda, she then knocks her feet together and says “there’s no place like home”, which transports her, through the spiral-vortex, back to Kansas.

She wakes up in the sepia-tone world we saw in the beginning and meets her family, but this time around she

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The film is carefully crafted and, even though it may seem naïve and childish at times, it is definitely a masterpiece that conveys extremely powerful messages. The core narrative of the story of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and all the other characters is that the things we want to be or the attitudes we wish to have can be found in our minds. As humans, we seek validation, which makes sense, since you’ll never know if others see you as you see yourself in the absence of validation; but that the attitude itself comes from inside us. And, above all, that in most cases, we already have it, but don’t know that it is within us.

This poses the very interesting question (and sometimes, the question is the answer), of whether people can change or whether only circumstances and validation moments reveal who they are.

There are many other things that one can derive from the film. For example, the fact that, as in many other movies and works of art and religion, we learn that the mirrored world (but not the upside down world) is where the truth lies. As mentioned, one of the workers tells her that she has no brain before she arrives in Oz, only to discover that it was him who was lacking (or acting as if he was lacking) a brain. While most characters in “The Wizard of Oz” are mirrored between the two worlds: the three buddies are the workers, the witch is the neighbor, the wizard is the professor, only one is not mirrored in an explicit way; which leads us only to make the implicit connection that her aunt is Glinda, the good witch. If in Kansas, her aunt is nearby but does not do much, in Oz; Glinda is not nearby but influences Dorothy tremendously, being the catalyzer for her journey. Glinda is the Morpheus of Oz (à la Matrix), which would be another explanation as of why she is the only one not mirrored in Kansas.

At one point, the witch claims that the slippers can make her the most powerful of Oz, which would mean that there’s more to them than the power to teleport yourself. In Hebrew, “oz” means “power”, so the slippers are most likely to represent the very notion of power being in someone’s hand. In this sense, the message of the film is that your psychological universe and the wisdom one gains through philosophy can determine power.

2 Chimeras and the Uncanny Valley

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he concept of chimeras has been around for thousands of years: ancient stories are filled with creatures that are a mixture between two or more animals and between animal-human mixes, such as the Minotaur.

Recently, two films have brought back this concept.

To make things even more odd, they arrived at a time when talks on actual chimeras have filled the internet.

The two movies in question are the new Lion King and the Cats movie, which will be released soon. The Lion King is a remake of the 1990s animation movie, only this time around the characters - all animals - were CGI-d with extraordinary care, being probably some of the most realistic animated animals cinema has ever seen. On the other hand, the Cats are a mix of humans and animals, only slightly CGI-d. What is also an odd choice in the Cats movie is that the characters all look like humans dressed up as cats, only that they were cat-sized.

discomfort in the viewer due to the phenomenon called “The Uncanny Valley”. The Uncanny Valley is a theory formulated by Masahiro Mori, which is based on the idea that, as robots become more human-looking, they become more and more familiar. However, once a robot reaches a certain degree of human resemblance, but it is clearly not human, it starts making us uncomfortable. This is why, Masahiro Mori suggested that robots should not be made to look like humans. The reason why the Uncanny Valley appears is not 100% clear, but it is probably safe to say that it arises because our reason and our emotions drive us in two different directions at the same time when faced with such a presence. Our emotions tell us that the presence is human and thus encourages us to relate to it, but our reason tells us that it is not, and thus encourages us to flee from it. This approach is often used intentionally in films where the goal is precisely to feel uneasy when a character appears, but until now, it has not been common to see such characters in children’s movies, comedies or musicals.

The two films in discussion have appeared in the mainstream discussions right when Chinese researchers have announced that they Each of the two movies pro- Theseus Victor of the Minotaur by Charles Edouard Chaise, ca. 1791 have created the first huposes a very strange phenomenon, namely that of the man-monkey creatures. Basically, their stated goal is to human-animal. create animals with human organs so that these can be In the case of The Lion King, the characters looked very later harvested for people who need them. Of course, life-like, the movie has a very documentary-style feel this is not only an example of the commodification of to it. This is definitely an odd choice, as this does not humans, but it is also an open door to many experimake the animals more relatable, but extremely lifeless. ments which in many countries are banned.

In most animation movies, when animals are personified, they usually also borrow expressions of humans, Today, we are definitely seeing a trend in the “humaniso that we can relate to them. In a way, what anima- fication” of animals: from political activists who see anitions that feature talking animals usually do is what a mals as equals to humans to artistic representations such fable used to do: they apply human traits on an animal, as these two movies, it seems that there is a clear push so that we can relate to them. In the case of The Lion for the blurring of lines between humans and animals.

King, this effect has been heavily reduced and now, the And, who knows? Perhaps soon we will see a Pegasus animals simply… talk. The reason why this is extremely and later down the line a centaur. Which would, of bizarre is because while we may easily join a creative course, place huge ethical problems, that, undealt with, convention where animals talk if they are personified, can lead to a lot of damage. Should we let our imaginaseeing normal animals simply talk is just odd. tion run, it can be even said that these creatures existed In the case of Cats, the characters are neither cats nor once before on Atlantis, which “fell” under the weight people, which confuses our brains and makes us feel dis- of its own creations, and that the myths we have are just comfort. Both The Lion King and Cats generate this stories of old. attireclub.org |

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The Truth about T-Shirts AC Style Portfolio

The 2018 Attire Club Style Portfolio consisted of a series of cool t-shirts that featured colorful patches, prints and embroidered motifs. These added a lot of character and style to what would otherwise be a simple collection(if that).

Some of them were outright branded items, having Attire Club written on them or featuring an embroidered logo.

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Photo: Attire Club Model: Tudor Gheracostea

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