Atelier

art film culture

The INTERNATIONAL

issue

sixteen

dollars

Con tents #66 On the cover: Sky Ferreira hangs out in Terry’s studio.

Photographed by Terry Richardson.

DEPARTMENTS 3

Introduction In memorium : Fausto Vitello by Roberto Williams

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Current Tread with Caution: Pants drop as market crashes

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Enfant Terrible Annie Sebel catches up with our old pal Uffie

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Toybox Sneak Peek

30 Style Street Trendspotting 32

Hitlist One-Stop Shop

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Film Lost in Translation

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Reviews Reading Rainbow

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Perspective Roof Deck

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Pop Life Laura Marling chats about her new album

FEATURES 8

The Dream Factory An exclusive insight into the world of Garance Doré

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Kawaii Kids Tokyo youth culture as recounted by Jess Gardner

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Beyond Borders The Art of Stephan Jay Rayon

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Showstoppers

by Annie Tucker

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California Drearmin’ with Eric Elms

by KAWS

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Shephard Fairey A Ghost in the War Machine by CR Stecyk III

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Is Nothing Sacred?

The Photography of Terry Richardson

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Basil Wolverton and the Spaghetti-and-Meatballs School of Art

by Kenny Scharf

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Opposite page image credits, clockwise from left: Tom Beard, Terry Richardson, Lance Acord, Charlotte Finley, Lance Acord, Terry Richardson

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pants drop as market crashes NY editor bec couche

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ife for me in New York has oscillated constantly between amazing highs and plummeting lows. On one hand there’s the hedonistic plethora of art, amazing parties and people and life-changing experiences, not to mention the lustful dating scene keeping the metro pulse beating. On the other, the stark reality is that I am living on barely no money in a rubbish apartment with intermittent hot water and a view of my neighbour masturbating most mornings. This kind of instability is a pretty accurate representation of life here over the past few months, as the reports from Wall Street will attest. The threats of global recession has had an interesting effect on the New York resident – specifically this one, me.

As the finger of responsibility pointed squarely at New York for the possible permanent downfall of the world’s economic system, everyone went into panic mode – especially those in the financial sector. In case you need any confirmation, look no further than the journalist’s trusty source of information, Facebook, via the Society for the Appreciation of Pictures of Stockbrokers In Visible Pain group.

Most of my friends are not bankers or brokers and treat their jobs as a means to be able to do the things they want in life. For once, given the financial climate, living life paycheck to paycheck seemed to be a good thing – if you don’t have any money invested, you can’t lose

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image credit Bob Adelman

Tread with Caution:

...In one corner the indie chick is being wooed by the lawyer, in the other the sculptor is impressing the accountant with his artistic prowess, all saluting the future, albeit with a cheaper brand of tequila.

it, hurrah! We win! Blow another paycheck on a round of tequilas! Unless of course, you fall prey to the trickle-down effect of the crash, and stop getting that paycheck… as has happened to my friends and, well, me. A hangover as a consequence of the war-cry the night before, “This round of tequilas is on me”, gets really nasty when punctuated with a letter of dismissal.

Whether it’s a search for stability and meaning, or simply a desperate grasp for passion, the trend of “Recession Sex” is catching on. I’ve also overheard people talking of quitting the New York dating game in favour of some traditional relationship time. Perennially single (and now questionably employed) male and female friends gushing, “I just want to settle down” or the more jaw-dropping… “I just want a baby”.

With the bankers’ portfolios in tatters and the rest of us looking down the barrel of making ends meet, boundaries have been removed. New Yorkers are united and on an even playing field. Dive bars and music venues are filled with the once rivalling hipsters and bankers, uniting a formally polarised social dynamic. In one corner the indie chick is being wooed by the lawyer, in the other the sculptor is impressing the accountant with his artistic prowess, all saluting the future, albeit with a cheaper brand of tequila. This unbridled sense of camaraderie, coupled with drunkenness has led to an equally unbridled sense of unlikely coupling and, for me, a sense of concern.

Casual sex alarmingly on the rise at the same time as citywide soul-searching suggests dangerous territory. Unless one’s childhood dreams involved having no money and shacking up with a completely inappropriate person – tread with caution.

With the exception of my neighbour, whose self-obsession has undoubtedly protected him against such a threat, I implore New Yorkers (and remind myself) to learn from the recent mistakes, and when it comes to investments, research and invest wisely. Just because the bottom’s dropped out of the market, doesn’t mean you have to drop your standards (and your pants) too.

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Enfant Terrible image credit Natalie Canguilhem

words annie sebel

You’re now a mum, is it hard to juggle motherhood with a music career?

Most definitely, it’s hard juggling anything with a career.

What kind of show can the crowd expect at Parklife?

It’s a lot more live music-wise in terms of a band. But it will still be a fun, crazy and spontaneous event!

What are you listening to at the moment?

The Strokes are making a huge comeback on my iPod. Love The Drums, Black Lips, The Flowers, Biggie, Jay-Z, and Guru.

What are your favourite movies?

Donnie Darko, Running with Scissors, Blade Runner, Lord of War. Who are your heroes?

I think you should be your own hero.

Uffie’s album Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans is out now and she’s touring with Parklife parklife.com.

We catch up with the electro pop tart and former Atelier covergirl Uffie to talk music, films and Pharell with her…

How would you describe your last album Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans?

It’s a diary of the past few years… my transition out f adolescence.

What was it like working with Pharell?

Amazing. I have always loved his work, so it was a bit of a dream come true.

He’s a really lovely person so it was a pleasure.

Do you think you have changed as an artist?

Definitely, I think the whole gift of getting to be an artist is to evolve, change and grow. What’s interesting in repetition?

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Are you still good friends with Fafi? What do you guys do when you catch up?

Fafi is great. Sadly, I don’t get to see much of anyone these days with the crazy schedule though.

You originally studied fashion, is that something you’d like to go back to?

Yes, I am actually doing a collection for a brand at the moment.

How would you describe your style?

Trash vs Class.

Do you still live in Paris? What do you like about the city?

I do. But I think I am ready for a change and fresh start!

Uffie 101

• • • • •

Her real name is Anna-Catherine Hartley.

She was born in Miami, raised in Hong Kong and is now based in Paris.

She got her musical start in 2005 when her then boyfriend, DJ Feadz, convinced her to provide vocals for a track of his.

She used to be married to graffiti artist André Saraiva – with whom she had a daughter Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans is her first full-length album and took four years to make.

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many use to translate their understanding of popular cultural events, movements and trends.

For their authors, the medium is fast becoming a profitable one and their sites can be a means by which to leverage capital as well as artistic expression (if you’re talented enough). This, perhaps, is what fuels the attempts. Technorati have 1,250,446 blogs listed as existing online alone at present; 4,623 of these being fashionspecific. To actually garner an audience though the size of Doré’s is another story and is what distinguishes her as a real tour de force and her life as a dream come true.

Fashion blogger, photographer and illustrator Garance Doré calls The Satorialist hers, and has helped bring an industry back to life with her intimate musings.

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arance Doré’s mantra for life – and what undeniably attracts the mega 70,000 unique visits each and every day to her street style blog-cum-online personal diary-cumcultural phenomenon of sorts just sings “Follow your dreams”. Indeed, just as she has.

Wouldn’t it be fair to say many people look at blogs more consistently throughout the day now than they read the news, eat a meal, brush their teeth or embrace their lover? Blogs are cementing themselves as a priority on many people’s start to the day regardless of their industry. They are the channel of information

The fashion industry has been transformed by the phenomenon of the blogger. Somewhere along the way, having an online presence became vital to success for fashion folk and newsworthy to those who are intrigued by it. Doré’s blog has played a huge part in this transformation.

To paint a picture: it is fashion week. Paris.

The last of the four cities in the schedule and arguably the most important. It’s the Tuileries.

A beautiful crisp fall day. Bare birch trees and architecture with golden points fit for Nefertiti dance across your eyes. It is the most beautiful city for this moment alone. Spoilt, it is also the place where the world’s top editors dash from show to show to see what the new season will be meditating. Documenting the spectacle and attending alongside them now are the bloggers.

The news, aside from the collections, is what these editors are wearing; of late, their street style is just as relevant as the work they produce.

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FACTORY words stevie dance photographs charlotte finley 8

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And it is fashion bloggers like Doré who have shed a voyeuristic light on the industry and made stars of its previously unknown, its once even unaccredited stylists and editors.

And, it is fun to watch. Regardless of how devout you are to the Devil and her Prada. It is a true spectator sport, which is part of the cache Doré has helped create. Even just for the walks of life it bares: there are the minimal chic pedigree pack, head-to-toe in Philo’s Céline, neat in every way as they always have been, blogs or not. There is the daring bunch, the individual flamingoes in couture looks, worn just the once, from the bangles to the bows to the bobs, and who are the undoubted stars of the week purely for their ability to have fun with fashion. There are the new lots, the nameless ones, who are still piecing together their mantras. They wear what they love, what they think they love, what they know they should love and hope for the best – their photo taken. There are the socialites who attend to parade a new coquettish dress each and every new day. There are the quiet ones who love to tie their shoelaces ever-so-to-theleft and their belts ever-so-to-the-right, who are often buyers and a bit more demure but indulge in being clever with their layering and the finer details. For the most part, what these varied characters all share in common – apart from their love of fashion – is that they all would love to be shot by Doré.

“My presence in Garance’s blog has changed my life, and my career, because I become visible,” the infamous Japanese Vogue editor and blog celebrity Anna Dello Russo writes to me in an email littered with Italian, French and joie-devivre exclamation marks. It is the only comment in English but the one which rings true. Touted

by Helmet Newton as a “fashion maniac”, Dello Russo changes outfits up to six times a day, has launched a perfume, and walked the runway for Lanvin post her exposure on fashion blogs.

She is a prime example of how the industry has evolved since the rise of the fashion blogger.

“Why do I love bloggers?” asks Dello Russo. “’Cause they make us in contact after years of deafness in our golden cells. Garance is my fave fairy teller.”

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They wear what they love, what they think they love, what they know they should love and hope for the best – their photo taken.

And she is right: Doré’s blog offers a rather idealistic forum – an open arena to infinite visitors in a free environment, uncensored and without the fine print clauses of an institution and as personal as it is interactive. One only has to see the average 150 comments per Doré post to understand how infectious people find her and the medium.

Perhaps what further projects the point of interest and this fairytale is that many of the fashion bloggers considered the most elite and successful are self-made. They, like Doré, have little formal training as journalists, photographers, columnists or art directors, yet are appreciated and advocated with more dedication than that born of an institution with a name we have grown up knowing from our mothers’ subscriptions and our sisters’ walls. This could be said true of both the general public to the upper echelons of the industry. From Roitfeld to Rykiel to everyone at home.

Dello Russo touches on something when she notes, “When I first met Garance, I was taken aback by her strong personality wrapped in a such a sweet spirit”. This may be attributed to her upbringing: Doré was born in the French region of Corsica, which despite being the birthplace of someone as monumental as Napoleon Bonaparte, a simple Google search reveals as an idyllic tropical oasis of palm trees, dirt roads and seaside candor. Very much a product of her origins, Doré has a lovely smile, speaks with the lilt in her voice of someone who insists on remaining optimistic always, and enjoys working on her illustrations. When asked

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“Why do I love bloggers?

Cause they make us in contact after years of deafness in our golden cells. Garance is my fave fairy teller.”

to imagine what she would like to be if she wasn’t herself, she answers: “I was thinking, like, a very good dog: very faithful and nice”. And she is, in the most genuine of ways.

Like a Bruce Weber golden retriever: fashion-savvy, classic but oh-so-sweet.

True to Doré’s disposition is how she uncovers the heart in each of her subjects and, subsequently, in her posts.

This is the core of her allure. She understands what is most important about great personal style – a great person – and enjoys shooting unknown individuals just as much as, if not more than, fashion faces. “People have to make me dream, you know, for me to shoot them. I think the woman I shoot is always embodying my vision of the ideal woman. So it’s not really about the fashion, you know. The fashion is like a nice wrap, but I think it all goes together.

I’m one of the blogs that shoots the most girls in jeans and a t-shirt. The simple things. But I think it’s just what I feel about a girl, you know, the way she walks, if she’s good about herself. For me it’s all a really romantic vision of the people I shoot.”

Doré’s own romance has also been a part of her blog. Her readers have watched it unfold with fellow blogger Scott Schuman of The Sartorialist – an infamous powerhouse in and of itself and arguably the original street style site to really find an audience. Schumann spoke to me of Doré’s command: “Her blog is the way she really is, she’s not putting on a persona. I mean, that’s really the person she is. I read her writing when she’s overseas, I read her posts, and it makes me feel like she’s writing that right to me. I’m sure that everyone feels that way. And that’s just the way she is. I mean that’s the thing that’s so brilliant is she knows exactly how to tap into that best girlfriend or BFF kind of thing and it’s so real.”

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An interesting and powerful team dynamic working within the same field at a point when the medium is certainly exploding, you only have to read either of their blogs to revel in the adventures the two have embarked on together. “We both consider each other our Number One editors, you know. I mean, everything I do goes through Garance’s filter. I don’t think it’s ever really been competitive and we’re in love so nothing makes me more happy than to see my woman be successful,” says Schuman when asked about their professional rapport. “I think the reason people appreciate us is because we’ve really grown together and I think they feel the honesty of it. You know, we really need each other because even in the smallest amount of time we have been doing this, we can already see how blogs are changing.

We’re starting to see blogs we know turn around and kind of start to go to the dark side; new blogs are just selling out right from the very beginning. People want to achieve that success and they’re willing to do almost anything to do it. So they’ll accept money to do certain posts, they’ll do all this kind of stuff because they want that as opposed to the artistic expression which is all Garance and I would ask for.”

So, how does one tap into Doré dream, brimming with artistic expression and heart-toheart prose? When I ask her how she chooses her subject matter, be it fashion faces or the real girls that she shoots for her column Une Fille Un Style for Vogue.fr, she says: “You know, my blog is really about what I want to be, and

in the beginning there was this desire of, like, evolving and meeting girls and guys like me.

And so shooting them was a great way to get into contact with them, with the people who would inspire me. I am not, like, shooting like crazy on fashion week. Also, if they want to be shot. There’s that. You can feel that, I think.”

Some things to note about Doré: she loves Woody Allen, Bonjour Tristesse and Lauren Hutton. She is happy; she values people who are themselves and anyone who can make her laugh. She is in love. She is incredibly messy, but infectious. And if you are lucky enough to cross paths with her, as I have been, make sure you say ‘hello’. I have never felt more myself in a photo or more comfortable with its taker than I have with Doré. Even for someone who is terrified of the camera (me), something about Doré and her intentions makes you feel very grateful for the connection.

Since the launch of her blog six years ago, Doré has been busy living her dreams. Shooting for magazines like Vogue and Elle, the Moschino and Westfield campaigns, collaborating with GAP alongside Pharrell Williams and Pierre Hardy, moving to New York. You name it, she has done it. So where does that leave her for what’s ahead? “I think I have such a great freedom on the internet and there is no limit to what you can do. And I would just like to concentrate on working with people that I love and people that enable me to do more beautiful things. I have that luck and I don’t want to let it go.”

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words jess gardner

Take the fast train to the bright lights of Tokyo...

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s the train left Narita airport the scenery morphed from perfect parallelogram rural plots to dense apartment living. Commuters silently packed the carriage. They’d shuffle on, avoiding the backpack-wielding ‘gaijin’ (me = foreigner) and sway peacefully and perfectly in time to the train’s oscillations, like their own private commuter waltz. I felt like an invisible observer, hidden by my anonymity - amongst the bustle of 35 million greater Tokyoites - I was travelling solo.

The best days were those spent strolling serendipitously, unhindered by guidebooks, from moment to incongruous moment.

I KIDS

AWAi

photographs simon lee

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Harajuku Sundays Each Sunday, cos-play girls hang out on the bridge over the tracks from the JR Harajuku station, waiting for curious travellers to snap their crazy Anime and J-pop inspired costumes.

There’s no harm in checking it out, but I got bored quickly and found there’s more to see around Harajuku than attention-seeking tweens.

You can shop up a storm or right next-door is Yoyogi Park, a fascinating collision of activity.

One particular Sunday offered up umbrella art installations, shuttlecock competitions, bongo drummers, a Saturday Night Feveresque rockabilly dance group and drag queen buskers, all contributing to the eccentric mix. A pop-up dance party was most peculiar. Beats radiatingfrom a foldaway gazebo housing decks inspired about 200 people to dance until the sun went down ... and then some. No flyers, no posters, just an understanding that this congregation would be somewhere in the park each Sunday.

Initially I stood and watched, bewildered. But then the groove got the better of me. A random person handed me a beer, and I began to understand the organised chaos of Tokyo.

My favourite pastime was standing at major intersections, waiting for the man to go green and then just watching the crowds ooze from one kerb to the other. But there were moments when a break from the hustle was needed. Buddhist temples, palaces, hardens and Shinto shrines are dotted around Tokyo and they are truly oases of peace and tranquility.

Shopping If the only reflection you are seeking is in the changing room mirror, then Tokyo is a nobrainer. Shinjuku, Shibuya and Harajuku are teeming

with shops and sneaker freaks would do well in Ameyoko Arcade. But there’s more interesting shopping to be found. All the hand-waving lucky cats and plastic sushi keyrings you need can be found cheaply in wholesale outlets in Asakusabashi. Kappabashi Dori (Kitchen Town) is the destination for the city’s restauranteurs - you’ll find chopsticks, crockery and amazing knives. If electronics is your bag baby, head to Akihabara, home to all the gadgets, DVDs, and manga porn you’ll ever need. But be warned you could easily spend your whole trip shopping!

Sunrise Sashimi If it’s the freshest fish that you’re after, a dawn shopping adventure is essential. Arriving at 5am after an all-nighter in a nearby Internet cafe (the trains do not start early enough to arrive after a nights sleep) I was glad I didn’t do like other gaijins and come to the Tsukiji Fish Markets after a night in the clubs. As I wander through the stalls, spying seafood of various shapes, sizes and squishiness, I was in perpetual danger of being run down by one of the many speeding mini-trucks dragging walrus-sized tuna about the place. Urban legend has it an ambulance is called to Tsukiji once each day. Auctions of premium tuna in the refrigerated warehouse are the highlight. The action is over by sunrise, and once you’re satisfied you’ve seen every shellfish known to man, around 7am is the perfect time for out-of-this-world, fresh breakfast sashimi.

Must See Meiji Jingu Shrine, the giant crossing at Shibuya, behold the beauty of a Japanese department store’s food section, vintage shopping in Shimokitazawa, Sensoji Temple at Asakusa, the Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka and so much more.

Getting Around With a map that looks as organised as a bowl of ramen, the subway is deceivingly simple to negotiate and the trains are predictably fast, clean and efficient. Keep an eye on your stop; the Japanese penchant for train naps is quite contagious. If you have time, hiring bikes is a great way to explore the pockets of the city. It’s totally acceptable to ride on the footpath without a helmet too.

Going Alone There were moments when I yearned not to be a Nigel-no-friends...

• Karaoke: It just wouldn’t be Tokyo without a boozy all-nighter in the song booths of Shibuya. Swedish backpackers proved enthusiastic co-vocalists.

• Eating out: Ramen, udon, shabu shabu, yakitori, izakaya or just plain miso.

Whatever you choose, odds are it will be so freaking amazing that you will need to tell somebody about it afterwards.

• Hanami: The spring arrival of cherry blossoms is causes for celebration.

Parks are jammed with picnics and parties. Each breeze through the Sakura trees brings a shower of blossoms - inspiring dancing and delight from those sitting below. It’s heartbreaking to watch from afar.

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