DOCUMENTING STYLE
‘Escape Issue’ Introducing one of the most exciting menswear designers right now: Mr. Who Says Hi! 26 extra ordinary bikini’s, 30 travel bags, 25 fine high heels and 29 fresh sneakers Bobby Vaughn: Riding the wave or suburban surfing Farmer style! Urban farming in New York Urban technical: A new category in menswear
ISSUE 15 SUMMER / AUTUMN 2009 8,95 EUR / 6,50 GBP / 90 SEK / 60 DK
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GO BACK TO THE ZOO Cas Hieltjes and his band find local success, with Filippa K as their fashion fairy godmother.
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WESLEY HARTWELL Creative director of Nobody Jeans fills us in on what makes this Australian company tick.
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SARA ROSEN After ten years as a company man, New York party girl and former marketing maven of powerHouse Books is chasing a new dream.
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NNEKA Nigerian-born songstress sings from the heart.
CASELY-HAYFORD Urban Nomads, father-son team Joe and Charlie Casely-Hayford trace their influences.
STYLE
INTERVIEW
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AGROPOLIS, PT. I Urban farming takes hold in Brooklyn and beyond.
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AUDACIOUSLY INVENTIVE Canadian outdoor brand Arc’teryx turns the tables on performance wear with a new line.
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AGROPOLIS, PT. II Young farmers tell their stories of life on the land.
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MICHAEL LERCHE Danish fashion entrepreneur, designer, and owner of the label Mr. Who Says Hi may be the most exciting menswear designer of the moment. Get introduced.
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BOBBY VAUGHN Formerly unknown co-founder of Von Dutch hitches a ride to Rockaway Beach (New York) to launch his new suburban surf label, FTW.
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26 EXTRAORDINARY BIKINI GIRLS Aspiring models get a first shot at fame, while showing off some of the best bikinis for this summer.
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THE STORY OF THE TRAMPLER AND THE TRAMPLEE A torso-torturing fetish, narrated from both sides, and a look at the nicest high heels for the fall/winter season.
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INTO THE LIGHT Tales of the spiritual life, wrapped in fall/ winter styles.
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GOING PLACES: A SHOPPING SPECIAL ON BAGS Thirty fine ways to carry your life.
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SNEAKERS ‘Sneakerlover’ Raju Doerga selected some of the finest sneakers.
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STORES What’s in store? Some of the best shops around.
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STYLED LIFE All the essentials to live in style.
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T-SHIRTS Some of our favorite shirts this summer.
BRANDS
REPORT
GALLERY
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CODE BRANDS Some of the freshest brands of the moment.
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BRANDS DELUXE Brands for the upmarket buyer.
URBAN TECHNICAL Classic tailoring gets a makeover from technology-minded designers.
SILKE WERZINGER German illustrator Silke Werzinger releases her book “Pimp my life”. CODE checks her out.
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EDITORIAL
BEN SULLIVAN
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‘Escaping p g that is,, not escapism’ p
The Summer of 2009 will be remembered as either one of the most dramatic or one of the most exciting, depending on personal fate. However we might look back upon them, these are times in which we need to adapt to the challenging circumstances, not by fleeing the scene, but by actively moving forward. It’s all about perfecting your skills and exploring alternative solutions. It’s been said before; these times call for new ideas. Some might associate the word ‘escape’ with ‘barely surviving.’ That’s the negative connotation. For this ‘escape themed’ issue, we defined the act of escaping as the art of moving from one situation to another situation while at the same time redefining reality a bit. If this fifteenth issue of CODE happens to be the first you’ve managed to get your hands on, and you wonder whether you have not been paying attention, rest assured. Three and a half years ago we started CODE, an Amsterdam-based magazine written in Dutch, made with an international team. That first issue hit Amsterdam like a bomb. CODE was different. No ultra-skinny fashion models, concept shoots, or picture-perfect beauty, but rather real people, imperfection, and true style: Qualities we tend to consider as more fascinating than those echoes of the glamorous 90s fashion industry. These last three years we took our time to find our form, find the freedom to break our own rules while at the same time digging for the core of the creative soul of this magazine. The word got around. With good magazines disappearing or downsizing, it seemed logical for this magazine to venture in the opposite direction. Starting this summer CODE is raising its ambitions and reaching for a wider audience by publishing in English.
So for this issue we met up with Bobby Vaughn who moved from California’s West Coast to New York City’s Atlantic Shore looking to establish his definitive suburban surf brand. A bit further up the road, in Upstate New York we got introduced to a new generation of farmers, representing what has become an inspiring global trend: D.I.Y. food culture. Some call it urban farming, some call it guerilla farming, but this is one trend to watch. We talked extensively with Conroy Nachtigall, a designer who uses menswear classics to design outerwear that, while meant for city slickers, still uses the most technically advanced materials and construction the outdoor apparel industry can put on the table. With Georges Bataille in mind, we explore the extreme form of escaping by surrender to taboo with a series on trampling. And we took a close look at the dream of being a model. In a photo editorial/art project, we asked aspiring models to have themselves photographed in their homes, wearing one of the bikini’s we sent them. The result was a body of amateur photography I find simply fascinating. Is it fashion? Is it art? Does it fit ‘a magazine like this’. For me it’s clear. The honesty of many of these images can’t be touched by any production on this subject we could have conceived. Yup, it was an interesting journey. Did we escape? Did we return with something fresh and valuable to present to the reader? You be the judge.
Peter van Rhoon Editor in Chief peter@codemagazine.eu
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COLOFON Publisher
006 CODE Magazine BV PO Box 69654 1060 CS Amsterdam Phone: +31(0)20 4085511 Fax: +31(0)20 4082280 E-mail: redactie@codemagazine.eu Website: www.codemagazine.eu
Styling
Jason Jules, Clyde Semmoh, Equiline van Doorn, Valéria Siniouchkina
Creative director
Peter van Rhoon
Art direction & Graphic design
Toko (www.toko.nu)
Editor in Chief
Peter van Rhoon
Colorprole (www.colorprole.nl)
Production / Ass creative director
Nadine van Asbeck
Lithography & prepress Printed by
Editors
Martijn Haas, Jason Jules, Marieke Ordelmans, Victor Verbeek, Raju Doerga, Mo Veld, Rachel Perry, Clyde Semmoh, Annika Priest, Teri Duerr, Marloes Versluys, Fleur van den Berge
CODE magazine is a carbon neutral production printed by Chevalier International (FSC and ISO 14001 certied) using vegetable inks
Head of sales
Patrick Hoand patrick@codemagazine.eu
Subscriptions
Want to subscribe to CODE? Go to www.codemagazine.eu For questions regarding subscriptions send email to: subscriptions@codemagazine.eu. Want to cancel your subscription send a letter regarding ‘CODE magazine’ to: S.P. Abonneeservice, PO Box 105 2400 AC Alphen aan den Rijn The Netherlands Tel: +31(0)172 476085
Photography
Sander Tiedema, Tribble & Mancenido, Kareem Black, Tyrone Lebon, Ulrike Biets, Bob Kronbauer, Stefano Galli
Copy Editor
Daoud Tyler-Ameen
Text Corrections Anneke Bisschops
0-9 2pr: www.2pr.eu A Acne: www.studioacne.com Acronym: www.acronym.de Adam Kimmel: www.adamkimmel.com Airbag Craftworks American Apparel www.americanapparel.net Analog: www.analogclothing.com Andrea&Joen: www.andreaandjoen.com April 77: www.april77.fr Arcteryx: www.arcteryx.com Arena: www.teamarena.com Asics: www.asics.nl Avril Gau: www.avril.fr B Barielle: www.barielle.com BBC: www.bbcicecream.com Bellerose: www.bellerose.be Bench: www.bench.co.uk Benetton: www.benetton.com Best Behavior: www.bestbehavior.dk Beyond Retro: www.beyondretro.com Björn Borg: www.bjornborg.com Blue Blood : www.blueblood.com Bruxe: www.bruxedesign.com Burton: www.burton.com C Calvin Klein: www.calvinklein.com Camilla Skovgaard: www.camillaskovgaard.com Camper: www.camper.com Carhartt: www.carhartt.com Cette: www.cette.com Chantal Thomass: www.chantalthomass.fr Chris & Tibor: www.christibor.com Chrome: www.chromebagstore.com Cia Maritima: www.ciamaritima.nl Collision Theory: www.collision-theory.com
Converse: www.converse.nl COS: www.cosstores.com Cruyff: www.cruyffclassics.com Cyell: www.cyell.nl
I Icecream: www.bbcicecream.com Incase: www.goincase.com Insight: www.insight51.com
D DC: www.dcshoes.com Dickies: www.dickies.com Diego Dolcini: www.diegodolcini.it Diesel: www.diesel.com Diesel Black Gold: www.diesel.com DIM: www.dimparis.com Durex: www.durex.com
J Jean Paul Knott: www.jeanpaulknott.com Jelske Peterson: www.jelskepeterson.com Jerome Dreyfuss: www.jerome-dreyfuss.com
E EASTPAK: www.eastpak.com Edwin: www.edwin-europe.com Element: www.elementskateboards.com Emerica:www.emericaskate.com EnD: www.evandelie.com Etnies: www.etnies.com Evisu: www.evisu.com F Filippa K: www.lippa-k.se Filson: www.lson.com Final Home: www.nalhome.com Firetrap: www.retrap.com Folk: www.folkclothing.com Forrest&Bob: www.forrestandbob.com Freitag: www.Freitag.com G Goliath: www.goliathgames.com Gourmet: www.gourmetinyourface.com GRAM: www.gramdesign.se Gravis: www.gravis.com H Hand Me Down: www.howies.co.uk Headporter: www.head-porter.org HM: www.hm.com Hope: www.hope-sthlm.com Hugo Boss: www.hugoboss.com Humör: www.humoer.dk
K K.Bell: www.kbellsocks.com Kato: www.katobrand.com Kostym by Cheap Monday: www.cheapmonday.com Krane: www.kranedesign.com Kswiss: www.kswiss.nl Kuyichi:www.kuyichi.com L LA gear: www.lagear.com Lacoste: www.lacoste.com Lee: www.lee.com Levi’s: www.us.levi.com LeWhif: www.lewhif.com Liu Jo: www.liujo.it M Madé: www.madebymade.eu Mads Norgaard: www.madsnorgaard.com Makr: www.makr.com Martin Margiela: www.maisonmartinmargiela.com Masterpiece: www.master-piece.jp Maurice van de Stouwe: members.home.nl/m. vandestouwe N New Look: www.newlook.co.uk Nicholas Kirkwood: www.nicholaskirkwood.com Nike: www.nike.com Nikita: www.nikitaclothing.com Noonsolar: www.noonsolar.com O Oakley: www.oakley.com Ontour: www.ontour.nl
P Parra: www.rockwellclothing.com Patrizia Pepe: www.patriziapepe.com Paul Frank : www.paulfrank.com Paul Smith: www.paulsmith.co.uk People Of The Labyrinth: www.labyrinths.nl Pierre Hardy: www.pierrehardy.com Pinko: www.pinko.it Pointer: www.pointerfootwear.com Pussy Deluxe: www.pussy-deluxe.de R R.Newbold: www.goodhood.co.uk Ralph Lauren: www.ralphlauren.nl Red Flag Design: www.redagdesign.ca Red Wing: www.redwingshoes.com Replay: www.replay.it Rick Owens: www.rickowens.eu Robert Clergerie: www.robertclergerie.fr Rock, Paper, Scissors: rockpaperscissoramsterdam.nl Roxy Heart: www.roxy-heart.com S Samsoe & Samsoe: www.samsoesamsoe.dk Serani: www.seranisport.com Silver Adidas: www.adidas.com SPRMRKT: www.sprmrkt.nl Stampd’: www.stampdla.com Staple: www.stapledesign.com Stone Island: www.stoneisland.com Stussy: www.stussy.com Suburban Bliss: www.suburbanbliss.co.uk Superdry: www.superdry.com Superheadz: www.superheadz.com Supra: www.suprafootwear.com
Surface to Air: www.surface2air.com T The Devoted: www.thedevoted.co.uk The Hundreds: www.thehundreds.com The Local Firm: www.thelocalrm.com The North Face: www.thenorthface.com The Vael Project: www.vaelproject.com Thelin: www.thelincompany.com Think of The: www.thinkofthe.com Tiger Of Sweden: www.tigerofsweden.com Tommy Hilger: www.tommyhilger.nl U Unif Clothing: www.unifclothing.com United Nude: www.unitednude.com V Velina Volante: www.jannissima.com Vision: www.visionstreetwear.com Vive Maria: www.vivemaria.nl W WESC: www.wesc.com Wild Fox: www.wildfoxcouture.com Wings and Horns: www.wingsandhorns.com Y Y3 Adidas: www.adidas.com Yarn Unit: www.yarnunit.com Z Zadig&Voltaire: www.zadig-et-voltaire.com
www.lacoste.nl
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WHO THE F IS CODE
THE CONTRIBUTORS
A blurb on some of the contributors of this issue.
Teri Duerr
DAOUD TYLER-AMEEN Daoud Tyler-Ameen is a writer, editor, musician, and burgeoning blogger. Based in his hometown of New York City, he served as the Managing Editor of Brooklyn publisher powerHouse Books through 2007 and 2008, editing nearly 80 illustrated books, artist monographs, and memoirs. Daoud has covered arts and culture for PAPER Magazine, The L Magazine, and WNYC Radio, and is the founder This Song / That Song, a blog about thematic connections in popular music. He is also the leader of the indie-pop outt Art Sorority for Girls, whose debut album will be out this fall. When he has time, he copy-edits CODE. www.thissongthatsong.com STEFANO GALLI Italian photographer Stefano Galli has worked in photography for ve years. Love brought him to Copenhagen, where he currently resides. Stefano loves shooting with different cameras and has never stopped using lm. His techniques and style are geared toward creating strong, clean artistic images that emphasize simplicity and elegance. For this issue of CODE he shot Danish fashion entrepreneur and designer Michael Lerche. Stefano says: “I love my mum and dad, Gabri, and my Contax G2!” www.stefanogalli.com
Annika Priest
ANNIKA PRIEST Australian writer Annika Priest hails from Melbourne via Perth. She gave up the beaches of the West to get lost in Melbourne’s maze of grungy alleys, bars, galleries, and vintage shops. An entertainment journalist for seven years, she writes about music and the arts for Leader Newspapers, is an online producer at the Herald Sun, and hosts a weekly radio show at community radio station PBS FM in between gigs, festivals, the theater, volunteer work with refugees, and camping trips to escape the big smoke and soak up the stars. Who but she could interview Australian mogul Wesley Hartwell on his activities for Oz denim label Nobody?
Stefano Galli
Toko
Daoud Tyler-Ameen
TERI DUERR Teri Duerr lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she co-runs Horse + Dragon NYC, a boutique agency that puts creative talents to work on publicity, editing, design, and events/exhibitions for culture renegades, artists, sharp dressers, good dancers, and people and organizations making the world a better place. She’s a founding editor of www.nyartbeat.com and has spent the last year launching lms at festivals like SXSW, Sundance, and the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival. Other current projects include arts collaborations and a home-building campaign for Projects of Hope in Kenya. Her editorial and photo production work has appeared in The Source, Vogue Korea, Vogue China, Tokyo Scene, Kansai Scene, Chief Magazine, Best Life, and her personal favorite, Mystery Scene. For this issue of CODE she interviewed powergirl Sara Rosen, among others. TOKO After being conceived in Amsterdam and edited in New York, CODE is designed in Australia. Dutch design agency Toko, a.k.a. Michael Lugmayr and Eva Dijkstra, moved three years ago to Sydney in search of a bit more quality of life and have never looked back. Toko was awarded best design agency in Oz this year, and design books frequently credit their expert “Dutch Design”—though that’s a concept Michael and Eva refuse to believe in. “It’s a limiting notion. We only believe in good design,” they say. Toko develops a new font for each issue of CODE. www.toko.nu
NOW HIRING CODE IS LOOKING FOR * A SALES MANAGER A self-started, experienced sales professional with a solid network and a passion for people, fashion, and art. Email a short note + cv to gunforhire@codemagazine.eu
* A PRODUCTION INTERN A media/journalism/design student with work experience (2-nd internship) who can act independently and insightfully? Someone with a love for magazines, a drive to stand out and the ability to juggle ten balls at the same time. Email a short note + cv to gunforhire@codemagazine.eu Email gunforhire@codemagazine.eu
* FASHION EDITORS Fashion writers with a strong sense of context ranging from street to ready to wear. Or general writers with a strong sense of style. Email a short note + cv and two articles to gunforhire@codemagazine.eu
Discover the legend of the Zodiac race at onitsukatiger.com
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MARTIJN HAAS
MARC DEURLOO
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“WHAT IS NEW, ANYWAY” Go Back To The Zoo
Universal Music Group offered them a contract after the executives saw them play one song on a Dutch TV show: an ecstatic performance of their first single, “Beam Me Up.” Since then, the members of Go Back To The Zoo—decked out in Filippa K—have been cutting their teeth on the live circuit, with a full-length album slated for late 2009. Singer Cas Hieltjes explains the creative union of Go Back to the Zoo and the Stockholm design firm Filippa K thus: “After Universal gave us a contract, we were happy, but wondered if we could push our luck a bit more. We all like the elemental tailoring of Filippa K’s suits; their stuff is cool, and sharp as a razor. So we just called them and asked if they would like to sponsor us now that we were signed.” No other Dutch band had tried it, but Filippa said yes. “We were asked to come to their store in this chic area of Amsterdam, the PC Hooftstraat, and when we got there they said to pick out whatever we wanted,” says Hieltjes. “It was like living a dream for a few minutes.” Of course, their pitch might not have worked if not for the strength of the music. Go Back to the Zoo have an ear for arrangement that turns frenetic bass and guitar lines into bouncy, melodic pop-rock. Hieltjes
is the main attraction, leading the group with deep, gravelly vocals and a magnetic stage presence. The members met several years ago while waiting in line at an Amsterdam concert hall to see the Strokes, who have proven an important musical and philosophical reference point for the band. Says bassist Lars Kroon, “The Strokes embody this feeling that a lot of things have already been done, so the important thing is just writing good songs. We agree with that. What is new, anyway? If you focus on being ‘new,’ you’re setting yourself up to be forgotten.” So far, the band has delivered on this conviction, finding myriad ways to take inspiration from old sources. Kroon, who is currently pursuing a research master’s degree in Literature, recently reworked a poem by the obscure but highly regarded Dutch poet Martinus Nijhoff into a Zoo song. As he describes it, “It’s called ‘De Wandelaar’ and it’s about a man who observes the world. When we tried it out as a song, it immediately made an impression. Like the poem’s protagonist, we also like to observe rather take part in absolutely everything. We know the world is a bit bigger than us.” www.gobacktothezoo.com
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ANNIKA PRIEST
KAREEM BLACK
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“ OUR HOME IS IN FITZROY” Wesley Hartwell
The Australian alternative jeans label Nobody was born ten years ago in the backstreets of bohemian Fitzroy, a suburb of Melbourne. The brainchild of brothers Nick and John Condilis— who had twenty years experience in their family’s denim laundry before starting their own—the brand is known for its high-quality denim, woven on authentic looms from Japanese mills. But as least as important to Nobody’s success is its approach to communication; CODE met up with Creative Director Wesley Hartwell, who explained the label’s rebellious philosophy. I started at Nobody in 2001, when the label was two years old. Before that I’d studied psychology at university and worked about seven years at a major department store. When I met Nick and John, they impressed me with how passionate they were about jeans. We decided on an ethos that would fit the label’s namesake: no hero designers. It’s all about our culture and team, not any one person or personality. We focus on creative integrity where other brands focus on image. Our home is in Fitzroy, where the attitude is artistic and independent. There are no chain stores or restaurants; it’s an area where artists and students live, and has an energy all its own. Our laundry and head office have been there for the last thirty years, and it’s become part of our lifeblood. Our hand-customization techniques are self-taught, self-developed, and completely unique. We think of our process like cooking: we do our best to be the most innovative, credible chefs we can, knowing that in addition to the recipe, the ingredients, and the technique, this art comes down to finesse. In general each wash takes several days to complete. We use the highest quality fabrications and try to ensure a perfect fit, but we also try to wear our jeans with an unfussy attitude. It’s a very Australian, and particularly Fitzroy, outlook: be down to earth, appreciate and enjoy life, but
don’t be too pretentious about it. I think that thought resonates in Europe as well. A year ago we were approached by Café Wa s in Hollywood. We’d already collaborated with them on their uniforms; now they were interested in supporting an organization called Charity: Water that builds wells in Africa and other developing nations. I’d never been involved in anything like that before, so I went to LA to discuss it with Scott Harrison, the founder of the organization. Our involvement is as simple as this: 4,500 kids die every day from diseases related to unhygienic drinking water. Every “Nobody Wa s Thirsty” T-shirt we sell can give two people clean water for twenty years each. I couldn’t resist being a part of it. Everyone involved, from musicians like Nas and KT Tunstall, to the UK editor of Vanity Fair, to the actor Alan Cumming and the photographer Mick Rock all donated their time for free. Nobody Jeans isn’t anti-branding— which, after all, is just a version of branding. The label is about making something creative and interesting, and then following it with other projects that represent that same integrity. All the marks on our jeans are like signs that you are part of the community, but they aren’t tied to any great “brand message,” “endorsement” or “way of being.” My creative briefs, then, are always about different perspectives on life and self, which sounds off the wall, but it’s just another way to explore a collection and an idea. The label has been put together to work on different levels; you can read it simply as great jeans, or you can look deeper, like you would with art, and try to find meaning.
www.nobody.com.au
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JASON JULES
TYRONE LEBON
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“MY GRANDFATHER WAS THE FIRST URBAN NOMAD” Casely Hayford
With a résumé that includes designing stage costumes for The Clash and serving as creative director of Gieves and Hawkes, one of the oldest firms of tailors on Savile Row, Joe Casely-Hayford has built his career on contrast and contradiction. Now in its second season, Casely-Hayford—the label Joe co-runs with his son and partner Charlie—is growing quickly. The London-based father-son team makes a twisted kind of product, one that has as much to do with the street style of contemporary east London as with the deepest roots of traditional menswear, and gleefully subverts the vast range of cultural influences that lie between the two. From classic suiting with dark West African-inspired palettes to luxurious silk jogging pants with classic English puppy tooth patterning, from a classic trend coat with classic Duffle coat button fastening to pleated tweed pants with wideOxford bag hems, their work mixes the grit and grime of the east London rude boy, the sartorial precision of the British aristocracy, and the rock-and-roll radicalism of Ziggy Stardust. Growing up black in 1970s London, Joe encountered plenty of cultural restriction and pigeonholing, which would become a major factor in shaping his design aesthetic. “I’ll always be an outsider and an insider simultaneously, and I think that’s played a major role in the way I approach my work,” he explains. “I’ve always held the exact same view as Charlie—that it’s very important to embrace as many things as you can.” Being outside the mainstream is something they’ve not only come
to accept—it’s become an integral part of their work, almost like a family tradition. Charlie quips, “I’d say my great grandfather was the first urban nomad. When he was in Cambridge he’d wear his Kente cloth, and when he was in Accra he’d wear his Savile Row suits.” On one level, the clothing stands as the outcrop of a conversation between two generations, between a father and his son, between two creative minds. “I think every garment in the collection has arisen from some lengthy discussion between the two of us—not necessarily about clothing, but about culture, things that have influenced our design,” says Charlie. “We try to take those ideas and distill them into something very pure.” On another level, Casely-Hayford’s work is a response to the death of the designer as we’ve come to know him over the past two decades. “The role of the designer has been significantly devalued in recent years,” Joe asserts. “We like to address this with a commitment to justify each piece we design; there is always a narrative behind each item.” Though they come from different perspectives and their partnership is a constant push and pull, the two creatives manage to meet somewhere in the middle. “We’ve reached a point now where people like to take things out of context, and we both endorse this idea,” says Charlie. “From our standpoint, we’ve put so much narrative into each garment that as you wear it, more meaning comes out of it.” www.casely-hayford.com
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TERI DUERR
KAREEM BLACK
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“EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED” Sara Rosen
Having spent the last decade helping make Brooklyn’s powerHouse books the gutsy, renowned urban and contemporary publisher it is today, Sara Rosen is breathless—not from exhaustion, but from excitement. “If this were any other time, I’d be giving you the powerHouse story,” she says. That story would include Rosen’s start as the company’s Marketing Director with little more than a journalism degree and a can-do attitude under her fashionable belt. It would also include the trail of edgy projects, hot parties, and trendsetting style the powerHouse enterprise has blazed through publishing and pop culture over the years. “But now,” she says, “everything has changed.” At 36, Rosen is a mixture of Virgo-influenced taskmistress, professional party girl, and (more recently) happiness-seeking sage. “I loved being a company man,” says Rosen, “and powerHouse has been good to me, but it was time for me to ask, ‘What’s next?’” Rosen is leaving behind her view of the Brooklyn Bridge to found Miss Rosen—a media, arts and culture, publishing, and publicity powerhouse of one. While some are lamenting the demise of print and the uncertainty of the times, Rosen contends, “Life would be boring if we did the same thing for 20 years. But where there is a vacuum, something will step
up to fill the gap, and that is where I’m looking.” Rosen’s expertise, creative agility, and sense for innovation are valuable commodities in a shifting landscape where many companies are being forced to scale back. Her publicity chops and fresh perspective are already inviting collaborations with publisher Marta Hallet (of Glitterati) on the celebrity photo project Untouched by Johnny Rozsa, the book and exhibition of American Youth with Marcel Saba of Redux Pictures, and a book on the history of rock and roll photography from esteemed author Gail Buckland. She’s also savoring the chance to spend more time doing marketing workshops with artists, participating in portfolio reviews, and discovering new talent. “I like connecting ideas and creating things that are totally new from nothing,” she says. For now her new non-office will be based out of the spacious Upper-Manhattan home she recently bought and shares with artist boyfriend Orkan Benli and their cat, aptly named “The Cat.” Best of all, she’ll be calling the shots: “Instead of fifty projects a year I can do five and care about them from start to finish. I’m allowing myself to go in new directions. I don’t know what they are, but I’m comfortable with saying ‘Let’s see,’ which is very unusual for me. It’s taken me a while, but I finally have the confidence to know I’m good enough to do whatever the hell it is I’m meant to do.” www.missrosen.us
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VICTOR VERBEEK
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“THERE’S SO MUCH THAT NEEDS TO BE SAID” Nneka
Nigerian singer Nneka Egbuna, 28, is a curious sort of storyteller: her songs are full of suffering and anger, but her voice and delivery are so smooth and soulful they let the audience off the hook—sometimes. Nneka was born in the small town of Warri in Ogoni land, an oil-rich region of Nigeria afflicted by corruption and oppression. In 1995, writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, who dared to criticize the Nigerian government and oil companies like Shell and Chevron, was arrested and executed. In 2006, Nneka was one of 100 writers to contribute to the book Dance the Guns to Silence: 100 Poems for Ken Saro-Wiwa. She shares his activist attitude: “Since I have a public voice, I feel I must show the courage to speak my mind. There’s so much that needs to be said, within Africa, within Nigeria, from Africa to Europe and the other way around.” At 19, Nneka moved to Hamburg. “I came to Germany not knowing anything about it,” she says. “The language, the mentality, everything was totally different, and having to handle it all alone made me want to know myself better. I wrote down my thoughts, and eventually I started putting them in songs.” In Hamburg Nneka met DJ Farhot, originaly from Afghanistan. Their collaboration resulted in an EP and her first full-length album, Victim of Truth. “All of that happened organically; we had no plan. Farhot was living at his parents’ house. He had a cracked version of Cubase on his computer and we began recording ourselves just for fun.” Nneka’s music covers a wide variety of styles, from the hip hop, R&B, and soul of Farhot’s early production to the reggae and afrobeat of 2008’s No Longer at Ease. Her vocals evoke both Billy Holiday’s grainy melancholy and Nina Simone’s voice of protest—not to mention a touch of Bob Marley. Nneka is aware of these musical and topical echoes, but says they’re unintentional: “I never really think about what my music should sound like. If you use your head too much, your heart won’t function.” Sometimes, she says, she’d like to be a little less serious about herself and her relationships with other people. “I think shallowness can be a gift. It allows you to take risks. Considering all the consequences can hold you down. I try to be shallow, but I’m not good at it.” Nneka tours Europe this summer, and on July 31st will perform at the RAW Rhythm Festival in Amsterdam. www.nnekaworld.com
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How urban farming is reshaping our cities and our ideas about food and sustainability.
— Nature is making a comeback in the American metropolis. In Philadelphia, a group of volunteers aims to replace 40,000 empty lots with orchards to provide food in the city in many poverty-stricken neighborhoods. In large, depopulated parts of Detroit, vegetables are now sprouting where old cars once rusted away. In certain sections of hipster Brooklyn, rooftop arugula beds are proliferating at an ever-increasing rate. Community organizers and a growing group of green-minded members of the creative class are redeďŹ ning the urban environment as a place to connect with nature and to grow affordable and healthy food.
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VICTOR VERBEEK
The first thing I noticed when I moved to the South Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook was the remarkably translucent light. This is a peninsula in the Upper New York Bay and the sun reflects on the surrounding brackish water in a way that’s rare in this city of shadows. On a good day, the endless rows of yellow school buses and the nineteenth-century red-brick warehouses all exude the timeless Red Hook glow. On cobblestone streets with names like Van Brunt and Dikeman it takes little to imagine yourself in the port of New Amsterdam. The area is divided up into countless little pockets, each with its own specific atmosphere. Depending on your route you can have the sensation of walking through one of the last active waterfronts of NYC, a sleepy Midwestern town, a vibrant post-industrial artist commune, or a gloomy low-income ghetto, cut off from public transport and economic opportunity.
Part of the city’s demand for fresh, healthy food is met by an everexpanding network of farmer’s markets, which debuted in 1976 and have grown in popularity ever since. These markets create a dialog between the urban and the rural lifestyle; local producers will tell you everything you could possibly want to know about the origins of your food, from the location of the pasture where your lamb chops once hopped around to the organic credibility of the grains eaten by the free-range hens who laid your eggs.
I was on my way to the grocery store on a breezy spring morning when I first noticed the field with the young cornstalks in it. On a lot enclosed by a chain-link fence, they were swaying in the wind as if their location was the most natural thing in the world. There, across the street from a brand-new IKEA, I had accidentally discovered the Red Hook Community Farm, an urban farm growing more than three-dozen different crops on a layer of black soil and wood chips spread atop an old asphalt baseball field. Eric, a young university graduate with a major in urban studies, was busy preparing a raised soil bed. Meanwhile, two twenty-something girls were sowing lettuce seeds. I was surrounded by tomatoes, eggplants, and vertilaga, a Caribbean stretch-limo variant of zucchini. The smells of basil and compost moist from the sprinklers made it feel like the countryside, even though it was just a tiny plot in industrial Brooklyn and those smells were mixed with the occasional whiff of exhaust from passing trucks. Red Hook is a typical neighborhood in transition, partly gentrified—by people like me—and partly stuck in its struggling past. Urban agriculture has been especially successful in these kinds of shifting environments: revitalized neighborhoods that once suffered from urban blight, crime, and social isolation. During the eighties, many vacant lots and burned-down tenements in traditional immigrant neighborhoods (like Manhattan’s East Village) became community gardens, landscaped refuges that boosted the quality of life in these areas. Today, the same initiatives that spawned these green oases are the driving force behind many urban agriculture projects. In Harlem, the South Bronx, the East New York section of Brooklyn, and on vast stretches of unused land in declining American cities like Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Detroit, urban farms are thriving. It’s a simple matter of supply and demand: the supply of undeveloped space and the demand for healthy and cheap food. In poor neighborhoods where liquor stores are likely to outnumber grocery stores ten to one, fresh produce is considered a luxury, and urban farm crops are a welcome supplement to the existing food palette. Besides growing crops, the Red Hook Farm educates school kids, trains interns and volunteers, and distributes farmer’s market coupons among Red Hook residents in need. The slogans of farms like these bespeak lofty goals: “Food security”; “Growing food, skills, jobs, and communities”; “Eradicate hunger!” It is clear the farmers do not take their work lightly. I can afford to cook my own dinner from fresh ingredients. Red Hook just happens to be the location of Fairway, one of the best and most affordable organic supermarkets in the city. Yet there are only three locations serving 8 million New Yorkers, and affordable is really a relative term here. Whole Foods, a comparable market chain with stores in all the expensive neighborhoods in Manhattan, sells some of the best quality organic food there is, but at prices aimed primarily at the elite. The average income in Red Hook is $ 18,000 a year, before taxes. Food prices are a matter of priorities. If you’re looking for a good deal on a pair of sneakers, a flat-screen TV, or a bucket of chicken wings, this is your city. If you want to find a bundle of asparagus for under eight dollars, good luck.
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For a growing group of New Yorkers, buying at a farmer’s market has been a first step toward changing the way they think about farms and food production. Riesling from New York State’s Finger Lakes region? “Italian” goat cheese from Long Island? All of a sudden, anything seems possible in and around New York. The next step, then, is doing it yourself. Eli Zabar, a scion of a famous New York delicatessen dynasty, has turned the rooftops of his two buildings on the Upper East Side into a gigantic greenhouse that produces endives and berries, which he sells to his well-to-do clientele in the store downstairs. Since last January, a city council member has been pushing a bill to legalize beekeeping within New York’s city limits. Urban farming can be as simple as filling some old lemon crates with compost and putting them on your fire escape to see if anything will grow. There is a practically endless amount of flat space in this town that can be put to agricultural use; just think how much more interesting the city would look with its rooftops full of cabbages, cucumbers, and chickens. The idea of producing one’s own food using sustainable methods is not new to Americans—in fact, during World War II, growing food in urban areas became a government policy. The so-called “Victory Gardensî or “War Gardensî provided 40 percent of food production in the United States, and the current “Great Recession” has inspired White House talk of reviving them. The urge to reconnect with nature isn’t new either—ever since [nineteenth-century American writer and proto-environmentalist] Henry David Thoreau there have been “back to nature” movements, which advocate escaping the city to return to a more simple and honest life on the land. But the current urban farming movement takes that sentiment in a different direction, one less nostalgic and more holistic. Urban agriculture is not so much about going back to nature as it is about going forward and integrating nature into modern life. The idea is simply that we’ve been missing something, that city life in our consumer society is incomplete, and that eating strawberries we grew on our own roofs just might help fill the void. Hundreds of blogs—with up-to-date pictures of said rooftop strawberry beds—are being written by critical consumers who want to know exactly where their food is coming from and how it was produced. All over the world city dwellers have begun to cultivate their private little patches of urban jungle. At the same time engineers, designers and scientists are working on large-scale versions of the simple but effective “compost on asphalt” concept used by the Red Hook Community farm. The basic idea stays the same: optimizing the use of urban space for growing food in a sustainable way. It is only a matter of time before high-tech utopian superstructures like the vertical farm will be a reality. With more and more community farms providing food for low-income neighborhoods and high-quality ingredients for environmentally conscious chefs, urban agriculture is becoming a social movement, an environmental movement, and a foodie trend rolled into one. It’s about vegetables that taste, well, like vegetables, and it’s not likely to lose momentum anytime soon. The farmers you’ll see on the following pages embody this same dedication to food quality and meaningful agriculture. Most weren’t born on farms, and many never set out to be farmers—yet they are happy to sacrifice comfort, free time, sleep, and financial security because they believe that their efforts can make a difference. Sustainable farming has become a rebellion against Big Food and Big Ag, helmed by those who have made the conscious choice to get involved.
Some specialize in eggs, some in herbs and lettuce, some in meat, and some in produce—but more than anything, these farmers focus on establishing a community based on quality of life rather than social climbing. Many of them have studied agriculture at college, yet all have come to find that the real education is right here, in the thick of it, on the land. CODE documents.
PHOTOGRAPHY TRIBBLE & MANCENIDO STYLING JASON JULES
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Sisters Hill Farm — Stanfordville, NY —
Sisters Hill is a 141-acre organic farm. Six of those acres are devoted to growing vegetables, flowers, and cover crops that feed over 200 member families. Bria: It’s definitely a lot of work but it’s good work—I don’t have to workout because I do that during the day. People are meant to use their bodies; it was normal fifty years ago for most people to have a little garden or a cow in their backyard. Now it’s like a novelty, but it’s coming back—like local foods, local farms, the idea of supporting the local community. It’s great that I know the people I’m growing food for and they know me and we have developed a relationship already. As it becomes more and more popular it becomes more sustainable, because it’s really about people understanding the system and realizing how vital it is to their health and the earth’s health.
I grew up in a rural area, half an hour along a long dirt road, so this is nice for me because it’s what I’m familiar with. Some might argue that you miss out on a lot of cultural things, which is understandable—but at the same time we bring out our own culture. A lot of farmers are musicians; we play our own music, we make our own music, we create culture in the community that we’ve built. Certainly it’s not as diverse as what you’d find in the city, but we make it happen. We also get off the farm sometimes; that’s essential. You do need to leave, and leaving makes it that much more beautiful when you come back.
www.sistershillfarm.org
Awesome Farm — Tivoli, NY —
Awesome Farm sells whole chickens, eggs, lamb, wool, and sheepskins. There are 70 ewes, 110 lambs, 1,200 meat chickens, and 100 laying hens on its 30 leased acres, and soon an additional 17 acres will be annexed for cutting hay. Owen: Kaycee and I first met on a vegetable farm in 2007. We started Awesome Farm in 2008. A business plan would have been useful, but we had a lease on 30 acres, some cash, some laying chicks, and some ideas of what we wanted to do, so we managed. We’ll be able to pay ourselves something this year—last year we had to get part-time work here and there—so we’re on the right path. Tracey: I grew up in a farm area, but I was never interested in farming until I took some time off from school to travel. I worked on some farms along the way, and when I came back I decided to start working on a vegetable farm here, which is how I met Kaycee and Owen. I’m still at college, technically studying Religion, but my thesis is going to
be about beekeeping and honey and their cultural history. The Egyptians and the Mayans and other cultures used beekeeping and honey as models of community systems and of sustainability, so it’s sort of a religious history too. I’ve been working with different hives in the area, and this summer I’m going to be purchasing a couple and keeping them myself, which should be a lot of fun. But I really enjoy working with animals and working on the farm, and hopefully will continue to do that for a while. What really got me into farming in the first place was the manual labor and being outside. I’m academic in the sense that I feel that it’s important to go through that system, but I feel more comfortable in a rural setting, which is why I’m only at school part-time—I prefer to have a life outside of school. I live pretty near to New York City but I’ve only gone five times in the past four years. www.awesomefarmny.com
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TRIBBLE & MANCENIDO
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One Earth Farm — Kerhonkson, NY —
One Earth produces fresh and dried herbs, as well as gourmet and heirloom salad mixes, on its half-acre of land. Lindsey: I’ve done a lot of farming and I studied sustainable agriculture at college, but my main interest is actually working with youth, so I teach an after-school gardening class. I thought maybe the kids would be bored or wouldn’t understand some of the activities, but it seems to fill a niche in their lives. The kids have been totally responsive and fantastic; they’re basically my driving force for continuing to farm. Part of my education in college was living and working in Costa Rica and Nicaragua with really impoverished coffee farmers and seeing their version of sustainable agriculture, of meeting their communities’ needs
with food and producing product for export. And so in years to come, I’d like to incorporate exchange networks with farmers from all different walks of life into my farmland, to try to expand our concept of what sustainable farming really means. It’s not just growing organic and selling to gourmet restaurants in New York City—it’s really trying to reach the youth and families in need, families who wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to the concepts of organic or local agriculture. We’ve moved pretty far away from local food systems, in America especially, so as we come back around it’s nice to try and include everyone.
www.onearthfarm.com (coming soon)
Esopus Creek Farm — Lamontville, NY —
Esopus Creek has five beehives and 22 laying hens on its 58 acres, three of which are used for growing and harvesting heirloom fruits and vegetables. Jacob: I’m originally from upstate, where there’s loads of farmland. I didn’t know what I wanted to do after school; I needed a job and a place to stay, so I started farming three days out of college and haven’t stopped. I did environmental studies at college, so I had sort of the outdoor focus, and school taught me that was what I needed—to be outdoors, to work with my hands. My mom, like all moms, wants me to be secure and have insurance, so she does worry. But she also wants me to be happy, and she knows this is what makes me happy. I’m not a nine-to-fiver, I’m not an academic; this is my life, and I work really hard at it. My social life is about nonexistent right now. Between the birds and the greenhouse, on a sunny day I can’t leave for more than three hours—the plants in the greenhouse will fry in five. Right now I’m working a 80-hour
week with no income, and it’ll be that way for six months. I think I’ll have to get other farm jobs during the winter: I milked cows for three years, so I’ll probably try and do that and just sort of scrape by. Ever since I was little I was enchanted by the Catskill Mountains—I was like, there’s something about this place. For the last few years I’ve just been trying to focus on being in this area. I thought it was too pricey to buy land, but this opportunity came up and I jumped at it. I’m actually leasing the land—the owner has put more money into it than I could ever afford—so it’s this great balance: I do the labor and he gets to live in a beautiful place with great food, while supporting a young farmer. I don’t have a huge overhead cost, but it’s still risky. All of a sudden this is my income; I don’t get a weekly paycheck, I don’t have health insurance. But the thing about farming is it’s not just a job, it’s a lifestyle. I wake up and I’m at work. I go to bed and I’m still at work. Day or night, there’s always something to do. www.esopuscreekfarm.com
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Ryan’s Farm — Wurtsboro, NY —
Ryan’s acre of farmland is home to about 250 laying hens that produce organic, farm-fresh eggs for distribution. Ryan: I raised chickens when I was a kid—I was in 4H club and stuff like that. I’m from a city, but I’ve worked with food since I was 18; now I’m 30 and I’m expanding into producing food. I feel a calling for it. I came up with the idea to start this place late last fall, and so far, so good. One thing I’ve learned is that chicken mortality is high—I didn’t realize how sensitive they are. I started with about 130 and got down to about 100 laying hens. It got cold really quickly this winter, and what happens is they pile on top of each other for warmth and the ones at the bottom suffocate.
Most of the work on this place came in putting it together. Now that I’ve got it up and running, it only takes me about an hour to come here, feed and water the chickens, and collect the eggs—but I do have to get here at least once a day to take care of that. They essentially feed themselves—I have to fill the feed about once every two days. I’m working on getting my own cartons, but for now I’m working with recycled ones. I carton them up here and then bring them to my house, where I fill up the sink and scrub them off so they’re ready for the consumer. I have so many eggs at my house right now, since market hasn’t started yet.
Regeneration CSA — High Falls, NY —
Regeneration CSA is so called because it regeneratively grows its vegetables, flowers, and herbs, using permaculture techniques that refresh the soils of its one and a half cultivated acres. Sarah: Prior to the farm we worked on for a year, I was a Willing Worker On Organic Farms—the WWOOF program—in different countries. When I came back to New York, where I grew up, I decided to work on different landscaping projects and learn about native plants so that I could eventually start a CSA [community-supported agriculture] farm. Kevin: I grew up in a kind of rural environment in Northern Idaho. I did my twenty years in the city, trying to knock it down in the fancy world, and now I’m here growing food.
People are going back to farming for all lots of reasons: the threat of global warming, the desire for a meaningful life, not wanting to be part of the suicide culture and economy that is killing us all. People know that eventually, we’re going to have to feed ourselves locally; rebuilding that local capacity in the Northeast is going to be important if we don’t want to leave a lot of people hungry. It doesn’t seem that way right now, because you walk into the store and say “What are you talking about? I’m at Whole Foods and there’s food everywhere!” Well, we’ll see.
www.regenerationcsa.org
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REPORT
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The Birth of Urban Technical …and the End of Fashion?
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URBAN TECHNICAL
JASON JULES
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— Recently, a handful of forward-thinking designers have taken a bold step into the territory where outdoor and sportswear meet tailoring and urbanwear. We at CODE think it’s an exciting development, one we’ll explore in a new segment we’re calling “Urban Technical.” One of the most noteworthy undercurrents in menswear right now is a trend that’s giving tailoring a technology-driven overhaul. With the flair of a James Bond novel or a Jason Bourne film, designers are pairing the cool understatement usually reserved for the business suit with extreme-condition materials, feeding an appetite for clothing that equips the wearer well beyond his everyday requirements. Says Michael Kopelman of the Hideout store (London), “As a concept, I don’t think it’s new—it goes back to those early indications that technical apparel was becoming increasingly appropriate for modern urban living.” It’s an inevitable evolution, integrating the various aspects of an active lifestyle. No longer a purely aspirational trend, it has become—for the designers, at least—a new menswear division, a new way of approaching clothing, which has as much to do with problem solving as with style and appearance. These designers are directing their work toward a new male consumer, one who is educated about clothing through developments in sportswear—especially extreme sports such as snowboarding and skiing—and eager to pull together an increasingly fragmented and busy urban lifestyle. Among their ranks are Aitor Throup, Joe and Charlie Casely-Hayford, Stone Island’s Massimo Osti, Conroy Nachtigall of Arc’teryx (featured later in this issue), and Acronym design team Errolson Hugh and Michaela Sachenbacher. Launched in 1994, the German brand Acronym began as a design consultancy for brands including Massimo Osti and the snowboarding retailer Burton, but launched their own product—the Acronym Kit 001—in 2002. Hugh and Sachenbacher’s designs are known for fusing advanced technology with style-focused apparel, and there are few labels in this arena with whom the duo hasn’t had some involvement. Their history includes collaborations with or consultancy for Idiom, Arc’teryx, Recon/ Subware, Burton and even KHS Tactical Equipment, military manufacturer for Germany’s Special Forces. Kopelman, who has had a longstanding relationship with the brand through his Hideout store, swears that the first technical suit jacket he ever saw was an Acronym design. Joe Casely-Hayford asserts that “designers like Errolson Hugh are bridging the gap between new sportswear and new urban wear.” One of Acronym’s latest efforts is the Stone Island Shadow Project. The series combines sportswear design and militarily technology, using materials such as RASO-R with Windstopper, Teflon, and Gore-Tex. And yet, the clothing is still appealing for everyday wear; to the untrained eye it still displays all the classic elements one has come to expect from Stone Island over the past twenty years. The pieces are designed, like a bespoke suit, to respond to the particular needs of the wearer. The 28-year-old Aitor Throup graduated from the Royal College of Art in London in 2006, and despite his young age has emerged as a master of conceptual functionalism. While just as purpose-oriented as Acronym, he approaches this new technical spin on menswear slightly differently. His articulated Anatomy collection (another Stone Island collaboration), acknowledges the body as a flowing, animate object, and creates clothing that will respond intelligently to movement. Where most industrially produced clothing is flat and straight, designed to fit the wearer in a static pose, this collection is pre-programmed to move with the body.
Throup recently collaborated on the new England football kit for Umbro, working closely with Umbro’s in-house designer David Blanche and tailor Charlie Allen. On the outside the clothing looks classic, even minimal—but it combines bespoke tailoring with technical details, such as a placket to help thermal regulation and inverted seams to reduce friction during movement. What’s developing is a new language for clothing and a radical way of evaluating menswear. Another pioneer in this field is Joe Casely-Hayford, along with his son and design partner Charlie. “We introduced the term ‘Performance Tailoring’ to describe this area of our collection,” says Joe. “We are tailoring in 200-gram technical wools, super-light and waterproof, taking the function of the suit into new territory.” Here, Joe and Charlie combine knowledge of bespoke tailoring with an appreciation for product design. Their clothing is born out of a European tradition, using new fabrics from Italy, a British aesthetic, and Japanese construction. There are pea coats and duffel coats and cropped, double-breasted jackets, but within these classic pieces lie labyrinthine technical elements, which reveal themselves to the wearer only gradually. The collective dictate for these designers, whichever field of expertise they occupy, seems to be purpose first. London bespoke tailor Everest recently worked in collaboration with the UK cycling brand Rapha to create a cycling suit. While from a distance it resembles the classic 1930s hacking jacket and britches, this three-piece suit features breathable, stain-resistant, waterproof fabric, as well as the MP3 player pocket which is obligatory in streetwear. Other brands embracing the philosophy of perfecting the past with today’s technology include Nike Sportswear with its M54 jacket, Arc’teryx with its Veilance line, and The North Face with its Purple Label. As Kopelman describes it, “The new Arc’teryx label Veilance is maybe the purest example of this category. But the North Face has been exploring this arena for a few years already with its Purple Label. From a classic trenchcoat, which on the outside might be mistaken for something Burberry or Aquasqutum might produce for a city gent, to a puffy jacket in a deceptively understated tweed outer fabric, the Purple Label is a perfect example of this new genre.” Thus far, The North Face’s Purple Label is only available in Japan. Indeed, Japan seems to be leading the way in terms of market maturity for trends like urban tech, the one whose industrial infrastructure is set up to sustain brands like the Purple Label. “The Japanese are ahead of Europe,” says Joe Casely-Hayford. “As usual, they have been able to spot the shift in public perception.” [Ultimately, what this new development in menswear achieves is the meeting of an otherwise conflicted view of an unpredictable and dangerous, but also exciting world – whereby confronted with increasing social uncertainty we both need modern technology, but, unlike in the past, no longer have total faith in all it has to offer.]
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INTERVIEW
BOB KRONBAUER
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AUDACIOUSLY INVENTIVE
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The peculiar story of an outdoor performance brand, hailed by some as the best in the world, and how its new line of “performance menswear” tests the boundaries of category.
“It was never the intention to reinterpret classic menswear items. We used these items only as a starting point.”
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CONROY NACHTIGALL
PETER VAN RHOON
Our story begins in the Canadian city of Vancouver. Situated at the North American West Coast and shielded from the heartland by mountains, Vancouver is characterized by a temperate rainforest climate, meaning it rains a lot. Residents with a sense of humor refer to the rain as “liquid sunshine.”
divisions of military units worldwide (the LEAF line, short for Law Enforcement and Armed Forces). It’s also constantly being copied. Ever wondered who came up with the waterproof zipper, which can be found in any outdoor jacket made today? It was Arc’teryx—they forgot to patent it (“We made some people rich,” laughs Mike Blenkarn, one of the main designers). Likewise, the technology of sewing with micro-seam (minimum seaming with substantially less seam tape) was perfected in Vancouver.
Vancouver is also the warmest city in Canada, making it “the home of the homeless.” A vagrant community has put up bivouac permanently in the city center—in fact, the term “skid row” may have originated in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Adjacent neighborhood Gastown is rapidly becoming the trendiest part of the city. Nearby ski resort Whistler Blackcomb will host the winter Olympics next year. Sports and the outdoors are big in Vancouver; no matter how bad the rain gets, you’ll still see people riding all-terrain bikes up and down the hills. Staying t and eating healthy are simply part of the lifestyle. Life is good in this part of the world. The city is spacious, liberal, and wealthy. The nature is vast. And the Canadian banks are conservative. Yes, apart from the constant rain, Vancouver could qualify as the promised land, and it is from here that a new menswear product will be launched this fall. Its name: Veilance. The company: Arc’teryx. Arc’teryx was launched in 1991. It sprung from the minds of two climbers, Dave Lane and Jeremy Guard, who started the company making revolutionary climbing harnesses, and followed that up with a line of backpacks. When, in 1998, they had the audacity to begin making clothing—outdoor performance jackets, to be precise—they did the impossible by becoming successful at it. The brand consistently won awards for its designs, setting new standards of weight, construction, comfort, and waterproong in every eld they took on. They stuck by a philosophy of constantly asking “Can we make it better?”, resulting in the most minimalistic designs on the market. Arc’teryx will never be a mainstream company. Their products are expensive and they’ve never had any interest in developing a cheaper product line “for the masses.” While arguably elitist, this conviction has enabled them to deliver on their pledge to settle only for the best in performance wear. So what makes Arc’teryx so successful? Is it superstar endorsements? No, Arc’teryx has no world-famous sports heroes signed to their label. Instead they sponsor people like free skier Greg Hill, whose blog The Meanderings of Greg Hill is a radical testimonial to free skiing as the embodiment of freedom (the real thing, not the mass-marketable variety). Is it sponsorship of the most challenging events in the world? No, you won’t see Arc’teryx logos at the Winter Games next year. Arc’teryx is a brand for those in the know. Its products consistently win rave reviews in outdoor and mountaineering magazines. It delivers products to the most secret
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At the end of the day it’s also a matter of factors like company culture, logistics, and the mixed bag of people—all of whom are into outdoor sports—who make up the workforce. Strangely enough, you won’t read a lot about the history and culture of the brand on its almost hermetic, product-oriented website. “We Canadians are not that good at bragging about ourselves,” says special projects manager Kate Paterson. “I’ve left the company three times, was burned out twice. Right now this is a very democratic company, at times almost too democratic. But it wasn’t like that before.” All designs are constructed right above the marketing and sales head ofce on the second oor of the building. This is where prototypes are assembled and patterns are drawn. The factory, where 300 workers produce a third of the complete production, is a 20-minute ride from North Vancouver and is located close to the heart of the city. Until now, Arc’teryx has remained an interesting brand with a great outdoors product but no fashion relevance, except to some style heads who love the ultra-clean and minimalistic aesthetics that are its trademark. That all changes this September with the Veilance project, a capsule collection that is denitely not just another casual outdoor line. Designer Conroy Nachtigall has interpreted menswear classics and combined them with state-of-the-art manufacturing techniques, creating innovative and even radical new products. Consider the blazer, a style item through and through—Nachtigall’s model, made of Windstopper, manages to be functional as well as stylish, as does his eece-lined Gore-Tex car jacket. To wear these items is to be reminded that good design is logic translated into lucid aesthetics, and that the best designs create a rationality of their own. For the people at Arc’teryx, the Veilance project is a venture into the world of fashion, a world that seemed alien to many at the company (albeit a cultivated alienation). That may explain the product’s otherworldly name. Marketeer Tom Duguid provides this denition of Veilance: “A construct meant to capture the relative capacity to unite, react, or interact, possessing a degree of attractiveness in an individual, activity, or thing. A thing that mysteriously conceals, disguises, or obscures a greater thing.” I visited Vancouver and met up with Nachtigall to nd out what the hell he was thinking when he combined classic tailoring with high-tech utility, and what a St. Martins graduate is doing working at an outdoor company.
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CONROY NACHTIGALL
“It’s not a question of compromise but a question of balance.”
— You nished your MA in menswear in 1998 at Central St. Martins. What made a Canadian designer, with a love for snowboarding and the great outdoors, leave for a fashion school in London? I was interested in fashion because of its strong connection to identity, although personal identity clearly is not only visual. St. Martins actually was the cheapest option at the time, especially compared to schools in the US. They were the only school that didn’t require an application fee. Living in London, on the other hand, was very expensive. After graduating from art school in Calgary I couldn’t imagine myself locked in a studio and knocking on gallery doors hoping to get an exhibit. It seemed to me too much like working in a vacuum with little relevance to the outside world. I found I didn’t have much to say unless I was presented with a specic situation I had to respond to, but then I would do everything possible to not respond directly to it. My whole time at art school was like the prototype of Maurizio Cattelan’s art career. Ironically, he never went to art school himself, and I never thought that my art school avoidance tactics could be turned into an art career. Design, at least, has problems that need to be addressed directly, so I started exploring design. I had already experimented with clothing as sculpture, or, to be more precise, sculpture as clothing. It dawned on me that there was an immediacy, the immediacy of the body intimately interacting with an object, that was relevant. I wasn’t so much interested in fashion as in design, the design process, and how our identity is manifested in the objects we surround ourselves with. When I started at St. Martins, I expected the approach to be focused on the design process, but it really was about the world of fashion rather than the clothing. I learned that fashion operates at a level which, like the art world, is detached from the practicalities of everyday life, and like art, has an overinated sense of self-importance. At the same time I think it’s all very fascinating. Still, as much as I was intrigued by this world, I learned I could never be really comfortable in it. I appreciate the pragmatic aspects of design, the nuts and bolts, the way clothes are constructed and the fabric that goes into them. I learned to construct clothes simply by doing it myself, making all the patterns from scratch and just guring it out as I went along. In the outdoor apparel world, on the other hand, the calculated emphasis on functional and commercial qualities seems to ignore any psychological or social component. I nd those components both interesting and relevant. So again, on one hand I’m fascinated by the technical construction, and on the other hand I like to explore the context of how clothing ts into the environment in which it is being worn.
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— How did you come to work at Arc’teryx? I originally wanted to do my own label that was going to be technically focused menswear, but the whole process of setting things up was so daunting that I needed to nd some backup work: something part-time, or a contract for a limited amount of hours, enabling me to still concentrate on my own project. I approached Arc’teryx to nd out whether there were any possibilities there. To my surprise, they were thinking of doing a line with the same approach I had been contemplating. It required a full-time commitment but the chance to work with the best fabrics and techniques was too good to pass up. The project didn’t come together at that time, so I worked on the summer sportswear (24) and snow sports (Whiteline) lines until the project got revived again by Tyler Jordan, the president of Arc’teryx. —How would you describe the Veilance project in short? Technically focused menswear, based on knowledge gained by constructing premier outdoor apparel. The goal is to create a new category, occupying a territory between, for example, the requirements of traditional menswear, needed for those occupations that require this as a symbol—i.e., business attire—and the overly casual attire from our younger days that no longer works in more sophisticated environments. We call it performance menswear. — What did you want to achieve with Veilance? What was the mission? We felt that there have been such huge technical achievements and improvements in the tools that we use in our everyday lives: mobile phones, laptops, et cetera. Knowing that we had become part of that same drive by building outdoor apparel, it became obvious that this technical innovation of construction and fabrics was lacking in our daily apparel. The mission was to demand as much from our urban apparel as we expect from the other devices and utilities in our lives. We want to change the expectations of what menswear can be. — What made it logical for you to execute nonperformance-based designs with performance materials? In other words, why reinterpret classical menswear rather than make more stylish sportswear? It was never our intention to reinterpret classic menswear items. We used these items only as a starting point. We knew we wanted to create something new, to take all the things we had learned while building the best outdoor apparel and bring them to a consumer who is concerned mostly with style and image. To make this technological approach accessible it was necessary to keep the style from screaming “techie.” We already had a small sportswear category in our outdoor line and we wanted to make sure there was a clear distinction between the two categories. To us it is very important to keep building the best outdoor product for its intended use, so the only solution was to build the
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best urban product for its intended use. There is no blurring of these two categories other than that the approach in creating them is the same.
“The interesting parts of a city are always off the beaten path. The periphery, industrial areas on the outskirts, or the inner interstitial areas that every city has.”
— Did you compromise on performance anywhere in the designs? One could argue that by choosing designs that are rooted in the history of tailoring, you made a compromise from the start. It’s not a question of compromise but a question of balance. The performance criteria that are necessary for outdoor are different than the performance requirements in an urban environment. Within the Arc’teryx lines, the performance criteria are also different between our outdoor and snowsports products, but obviously much closer to each other than either one is to urban. In this way we respond to the specic requirements of each category. Hand pockets don’t exist in our outdoor hardshells because pockets can’t be accessed easily while wearing backpacks and harnesses. But in daily life it’s important to get at your keys and wallet easily. It’s also a question of experience, the user’s experience. By eliminating weight, increasing durability and mobility, and enhancing weather protection, you will have a better experience while doing outdoor activities. Instead of simply transferring what we know about outdoor performance, we recognized that the urban environment has different needs, including such things as comfort and adaptability. Adaptability can mean moving from indoor to outdoor spaces, incorporating mobility without obvious visual clues to it. Adaptability can also mean blending into any environment while at the same time remaining distinct from it. We liked the benets of the performance we had achieved in our outdoor garments and started questioning why we couldn’t get them in our daily clothes. Simply wearing outdoor gear all the time wasn’t quite the answer, although for a long time we tried to think it was. The requirements were different, so some things that were outdoor-specic weren’t needed, and other criteria that we never would have built into our outdoor garments were. Fits changed, but are still built on articulation, 3D structures, and human movement. Weight is still important because rigorous attention to weight builds lighter, more supple garments that are more comfortable to wear all day long, are easier to travel with, dry quicker if they get wet, and can alleviate fatigue. Reducing the restraints of conventional clothing opens up new possibilities. — You took classic menswear items as a starting point for Veilance. Does this categorize Veilance as fashion? Ah, the dreaded F-word. Working at a pure function-driven outdoor company, “the dreaded F-word” is an expression that is used often when an aesthetic decision starts to override a functional one. Even though the former does not reect my personal
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relationship with fashion, in my view classic menswear items exist outside of fashion. The iconic pieces have been around for a long time and are not subject to the whims of the continual change. Yet the adherence to tradition means that a lot of classical menswear does not get updated to reect our changing environment and the availability of new materials and construction techniques. That said, to me it doesn’t matter if Veilance is fashion or not; it doesn’t change the product, only the perception. A lot of effort has been made to include all the techniques we have in our garments without relying solely on these technical features or textiles for their appeal. From the outset the collection has been designed to be both unique and distinctive, while maintaining the ability to blend in and not stand out. This contradiction is reconciled by making the details part of the whole. The technical constructions and fabrics are combined into a subdued style. There are no visual signiers to what the garment really is or is meant for. For this reason it is important that the starting point is familiar. The familiarity makes it more accessible and approachable. Even the colors were chosen to be solidifying and cohesive without drawing attention to themselves. Even though the original intention was to build it all in black only, this idea was eventually dropped because black in itself is a statement, an explanation point, an absolute. — If Veilance were a city, which city would it be? Or which area of a city? The interesting parts of a city are always off the beaten path: the periphery, industrial areas on the outskirts, or the interstitial areas that every city has. The clash of the old and new and the clash of pristine clean and grimy dirtiness—it is in this in-between space that Veilance exists. — Is there a connection between splitboarding and Veilance? Backcountry touring is a great place to check ts and functionalities; it’s a great testing ground. Splitboarding in particular is also an activity that exists between categories. It completely misses the “cool” factor of snowboarding, and it can’t claim the acceptability and established discipline of ski touring. It’s a fringe activity that isn’t trying to be a fringe activity. The appeal only exists if there is a strong desire to travel, self-propelled, into the backcountry during winter. There are other ways of doing this, using snowshoes or just resorting to ski touring. Yet despite these more established modes, for me splitboarding is not a compromise, it’s an “in-between” activity that dynamically combines the ow of snowboarding with the backcountry experience of touring. So its connection to urban performance wear and Veilance is in existing, and nding a reason to exist, in these interstitial spaces.
VEILANCE ANALYZED CAR COAT
FIELD JACKET
- Material: Gore-Tex. - Based on the car coat style, which tends toward a three-quarter length and warmer textiles than most trench coats. - Uses a Gore-Tex fabric with a warm eece bonded to the inside. - Removable hood with its own pocket inside the jacket (doubles as a wallet pocket). - Gasket cuffs seal the wrists off without being binding or restrictive. - Back opening based on the military shtail parka, since the complex construction needed keep the coat waterproof with the eece interior precludes a normal back vent.
- Material: Pro Shell (the most robust Gore-Tex fabric). - Passes Gore’s most extreme weather test; armor-like quality creates condence for the wearer. - Lots of pockets that stay waterproof without zippers; two additional zippered pockets hidden beneath the pocket ap to secure items. - Stow hood is smooth and clean on the outside and provides a cozy seal against the neck when stowed. - Slider tab at cuffs instead of velcro. - Large stretch document pocket with extra hidden pocket laminated to the inside.
BLAZER
CARGO PANTS
- Material: Windstopper - Clean, stealthy look is again meant to both blend in and be distinctive at the same time. - Windstopper fabric and nishing tape add to the element of protection. - Pockets have a vertical opening, to be functionally used as hand pockets. - Larger inside document pocket. - Invisible sliding snap front closure.
- Material: Windstopper - The practicality of cargo pockets without the decidedly casual saddlebag effect. The pocket is based on the seam architecture of the Stealth pant, which puts it on a diagonal across the thigh, providing easy access when sitting. The bottom of the pocket is shaped so the objects inside don’t fall to the back where you can sit on them. - Windstopper fabric offers great weather protection, while the soft, brushed interior makes the pants comfortable all day long and wicks away moisture in warmer conditions. - Hem adjuster to close off any extra fullness at the bottom.
Since the 1960s, young women all over the world have dreamed of escaping ordinary lives to become something extraordinary: models. CODE decided to visualize this ubiquitous dream by giving a few ambitious women the chance to see themselves in the magazine. We put out a call on the web for aspiring models, and from an overwhelming 150 submissions we selected 26 favorites. Each woman was sent a bikini, and in return we asked for a picture of herself wearing it at home. The models enlisted friends, lovers, assistants and mothers to snap their photos; some even set their camera timers and photographed themselves. The result of the experiment is a body of amateur photography that is as exciting as it is strikingly personal.
CATHY, INSIGHT * IMAGE BY CATHY
ANOUSHKA, DIESEL * IMAGE BY TIM BENNE, BOYFRIEND
ALEKSANDRA, DIESEL * IMAGE BY SVETLANA ORLOVA, BEST FRIEND
CHARLENE, ARENA * IMAGE BY JILL DIK, MAKEUP ARTIST
AMANDA, H&M * IMAGE BY ANGELINA VAN HERWAARDEN, MOM
DEBBIE, ROXY * IMAGE BY AMANDA, FRIEND
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TRICKY, NIKITA * IMAGE BY TRICKY
JAQUEMIJN, CALVIN KLEIN * IMAGE BY LINDA DE MAN, SISTER
HISKE, ROXY * IMAGE BY JORD JANSEN, FRIEND
MARLINDA, ROXY HEART * IMAGE BY DAVE VAN LOON, BEST FRIEND
DEE, PUMA * IMAGE BY BLANCHE SPEELMAN, FRIEND
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BIKINI GIRLS 049
ILANA, PAUL FRANK * IMAGE BY ILANA
ROBIN, CONVERSE * IMAGE BY ARCO WOUDA, BOYFRIEND
ROOSMARIJN, BJORN BORG * IMAGE BY MARJAN TEN BERGE, FRIEND
ROSE, EVISU * IMAGE BY ROSE
TAMARA, VIVE MARIA * IMAGE BY GRADY VAN ELDIK, MOM
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AJLA, H&M * IMAGE BY RAMIZA ETEMOVIC, MOM
JENNY, DIESEL * IMAGE BY MONIQUE ELZINGA MAKE UP ARTIST
KIMBERLY, BENETTON * IMAGE BY SHAIEN WILLIAMS, BOYFRIEND
LISA, CONVERSE * IMAGE BY TILLE PAANAKKER, MOM
LISA NINA, PUSSY DELUXE * IMAGE BY MARGREET, MOM
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BIKINI GIRLS 053
DJAMILLA, MADE * IMAGE BY TANJA SCHOUTEN, FRIEND
MANDY, CYELL * IMAGE BY YVONNE GLASBERGEN, MOM
CINDY, TOMMY HILFIGER * IMAGE BY SUSANNE REURTS
MELANIE, CIA MARITIMA * IMAGE BY MALON DE KAN AND DANIQUE VOGELS, FRIENDS
ORTAL, CIA MARITIMA * IMAGE BY LINOY VRIEND, SISTER
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INTERVIEW
STEFANO GALLI
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NEW SKIN FOR THE OLD CEREMONY
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One of the most exciting menswear designers of the moment is based in Copenhagen, Denmark. For those who can listen, Mr. Who is here to tell a story.
“Three things are important to me: aesthetics, functionality, and timelessness.”
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INTERVIEW
PETER VAN RHOON
There’s only a small chance you’ve heard of Michael Lerche. He may have once had a career in PR for two of the most applauded menswear labels of the nineties (Burro, Bikkembergs), but Google his name and you’ll nd little more than a LinkedIn account. Which is not even his own. Google his label, Mr. Who Says Hi!, and you’ll be lucky to nd anything at all. It seems someone here embarked on a deliberate course of non-branding. Still, this gentleman designer is as exciting as Thom Browne was in 2005, and it’s about time people got to know him.
We walk up the stairs to his home/showroom/studio and enter an apartment that is meticulously decorated with Danish designer furniture from the fties, jazz records, and a Bang & Olufsen Beosound 3000 system. Some walking canes are standing in a corner.
May 2009. Copenhagen is bathed in bright sunlight. Lerche is waiting for me at the train station before taking me to his home, which doubles as a showroom, on Vesterbro Street in the heart of Copenhagen. He has been reluctant to do this interview. “What’s the fun when you tell it all?” he asks. “I like to leave something to the imagination.” Lerche breaks down the area: “This street divides two parts of the city. To the left is the rougher area. It’s where the new bars and restaurants continue to open up. To the right you’ve got the Frederiksberg area, which is—with its expensive shopping street and posh stores—the opposite of Vesterbro. Dan Turèll, a famous Danish poet and writer, has professed his love for these streets in his work. He even used a picture of Vesterbrogade on the cover of one of his spoken word recordings (Happy During Opening Hours, 1996). I love how the light ows in this area in the evening, just before nightfall. It’s quite special.”
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Against the wall stands a rack with a compact fall/ winter collection of coats, blazers, pants, shirts, shoes, hats, bags and suspenders. The collection includes no more than 25 to 30 pieces in total. The sales season has nished; these are samples waiting to be resold, sweaters in solid materials like cashmere and jackets and dress pants in sturdy woolen varieties. “I studied design management at the academy in Kolding, in Jutland,” says Lerche. “I really started out in fashion with my rst internship. That was at Burro, which was at the time kind of the Commes des Garcons of the UK. I think that was ’97. The label doesn’t exist anymore [Burro will be relaunched in 2009—ed.]. That internship became a PR job; I stayed for a year and learned tons about production and design. It showed me the importance of being organized, focused, and precise in what you do. Chaos is important to a certain level, but you can’t let it take over the complete process. After that job, I worked at Bikkembergs in Paris for a year, during which time I professionalized his PR. “After Lerche got his degree, he was headhunted for Junk Deluxe to become their sales and PR manager. “For me that was all about seeing the commercial side of the business.” Two years was enough.
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“You could say Mr. Who is based on old-fashioned values of fashion.”
“In June 2001, I started Another Agency, and later I became the agent for Mads Norgaard and Holland Esquire for Northern Europe. In 2007 I started Mr. Who Says Hi. I always knew I wanted to start my own company, have my own collection.” When looking at Mr. Who garments, what strikes the eye instantly is that the lapels, collars, and cuffs on quite a few of the jackets have rounded corners. At rst glance it looks a bit peculiar. But the consistency with which this design signature has been implemented make the clothing undeniably distinctive. If design can be subdued, then this is subdued design. It’s when you try them on that these designs come together in a wonderful way. The tailored and angular silhouette, combined with the rounded details, create an instant impression of sophistication, one both manly and gentle. Lerche explains his design: “The aesthetic of the roundness combined with something sharper is something you would see a lot between 1900 and 1950. When you look at the shirts of that period, for example, you see that collars were often rounded. In a lot of ways I make them just like they did back then, but of course I give them twist of modernity with different cloth and different cuts. Back in those days, a suit would feel like a brick the way it was constructed. Clothes were very stiff. But I still use very sturdy materials. You should be able to wear my clothing every day if you’d like to. In the past, people would have one good pair of shoes, one set of pants, et cetera, and in a way things like that keep everyday life simple and precise. That is why my collection is not huge; that’s what I want to protect. Each piece should speak for itself. You should be able to work and live in it every day. When it comes to clothing design, three things are important to me: aesthetics, functionality, and timelessness. That early part of the twentieth century, from which Mr. Who draws its inspiration, was an era when men were still real men. “Charlie Chaplin, Frank Sinatra, Humphrey Bogart. Those are icons. Sometimes I wonder: Where did the gentleman go? Being a gentleman is something that comes from the heart. It’s not a set of forcefully cultivated manners or rules about how to behave, it’s a way of life. Values from back then will disappear if we don’t pass them on.” Bart de Groot, owner of some of the best stores in Amsterdam (Cowboys to Catwalk, Acne) says: “What Michael does is spot on. And he does not compromise on one single detail. Nowhere else will you nd such amazing materials, such ne tailoring. I’ve been following him every season and love what he does. His refusal to compromise his clothing makes it very expensive, and a lot of people seem to prefer big brand names, so I can’t order from him at the moment. But I’ll continue to follow the label.”
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Carsten Hensberg of the Aarhus store Works Unltd. has taken the jump already: “We sell a mix of young designers like Peter Jensen, Henrik Vibskov, but also Levi’s vintage denim. I bought Mr. Who because of the craftsmanship and the quality, something that has become rare in fashion nowadays. You could say Mr. Who is based on old-fashioned values of fashion. Of course it’s not cheap, but that comes with the way it’s made, so I have to educate my customers a bit. So far, they all like it. This season was the rst season I carried it in my store. Sales were maybe not enormous, but in terms of interest it was probably the label with the highest prole.” Carsten Kunst, owner and buyer of Berlin store VorOrt, says: “You can feel the love in this product. It’s the most tailored product in our shop. We are more street-casual guys, but it mixes really well with some of the denim we sell.” Lerche feels no need to compromise. He sighs when asked about his invisibility on the web, and explains: “It’s simple. It’s like they used to say back in the days: All good things come to those who wait. Good things need time. I have been to so many launches, so many kickoff events, and the amount of sales you receive from an event is almost impossible to measure. It’s not that I want to be a brand in hiding. I just believe that eventually the right people will nd it.” Like Thom Browne several years ago, Lerche is selling an extremely high-end product to a limited number of shops and some private clients—but with a few big differences. One, the collection of Mr. Who ts a regular person. And two, for Lerche there will never be a designer’s award with an impact like the one Browne received in 2006, simply because there’s no European menswear award of any magnitude. Browne was rst worn by New York banksters; Happy young men of the most conservative corporate tribe embraced a designer who made men show their skinny ankles, an implicit nod to the days of ska-punk and a stylish “fuck you” to the rest of the world. Copenhagen, however, how directional it may be, is not the style capital of any particular scene. Will Lerche ever become even remotely as recognized as Mr. Browne? He doesn’t know, nor does he care. “I know this can become solid. It’s something special; I hear it from my clients and I can feel it in myself. Fashion has nothing to with Mr. Who Says Hi. Mr Who is tradition, not fashion. And I’m not in a hurry. I don’t do this because I want to be famous. I do it because it’s what I love.”
FREITAG RENEGADE Another classic from the Swiss brand, this two-in-one weekend bag will ďƒžt snugly in an airplane luggage compartment. 280 euro. www.freitag.ch
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GOING PLACES
SANDER TIEDEMA
1 INCASE SKATE BAG Born in Irwingdale, California, bag specialist Incase caters to skaters and many more with this piece. Equipped to handle a complete skateboard setup with spare decks and parts, plus storage for personal items on top. 193 euro. www.goincase.com
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2 AIRBAG CRAFTWORKS AIRBAG VS. PLAYHOUSE Everyday bag, handmade in Germany from genuine elk leather. 139 euro. www.airbagcraftworks.com 3 SURFACE TO AIR CARGO BAG 100 percent calf leather bag with red and blue classic tartan check lining by French-American collective. 375 euro. www.surface2airparis.com 4 ACNE SWIFT BAG Weekend bag in black leather, with two handles for exible carrying and a detachable shoulder strap. 650 euro. www.acnestudios.com 5 HEAD-PORTER DJ BAG The foremost Japanese bag brand for the urban warrior brings this ballistic nylon DJ bag with a padded main section for records and laptop, plus top and front compartments for CD. 369 euro. www.headporter.org 6 MAKR Florida’s Makr was founded by designer Jason Gregory. All products are made in the USA, including this three-pocket, mediumsized duffel in suede and waxed canvas, with riveted leather straps and Cordura lining. 215 euro. www.makr.com 7 KRANE MIKRA CARPENTER DUFFEL Chinese designer Ken Chow graduated with a menswear degree in Toronto, Canada and launched Krane. CODE selected this oiled cowhide leather duffel bag. 530 euro. www.kranedesign.com 8 BURTON LIQUID LOUNGER Polyester bag with 24-pack beverage cooler, ice compartment, integrated stereo speakers and amp with auxiliary input. 190 euro. www.burton.com 9 JEROME DREYFUSS HANDBAG Young Paris-based designer Jerome Dreyfuss’s rst collection features this beautiful lamb leather backpack. 675 euro. www.jerome-dreyfuss.com
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JANNISSIMA VELINA VOLANTE Dutch designer Jannita van den Haak made a backpack just for the ladies. The prize-winning bag is made of water-resistant fabrics. 2500 euro. www.velinavolante.com
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GOING PLACES 1 BILINGHAM CLASSIC 550 The 550 was the rst soft camera bag manufactured in Britain. It’s continuing success, both as a spacious camera bag and as a general travel bag has meant that, apart from a few very minor improvements, it remains much the same as when it was rst introduced. 380 euro www.billingham.co.uk
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2 CHRIS & TIBOR CHRIS&TIBOR FOR JUUN Two French designer labels collaborated on this backpack, shopping bag and shoulder bag in one. Made of leather. 860 euro. www.christibor.com
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Jörg Haas, Beinghunted & The-Glade
3 FINAL HOME BACK SATIN BAG Tokyo-based Final Home presents its take on the backpack. Comes in beige, khaki, and navy. 360 euro. www.nalhome.com 4 ACRONYM 3A BACKPACK Army-inspired design, with plenty of pockets and pouches in TecSys webbing. 625 euro. www.acronym.de 5 ARC’TERYX MISTRAL Versatile, large-volume commuter bag with accessory pockets. 120 euro. www.arcteryx.com
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6 CHROME PAWN BAG Los Angeles bag specialist brings us an enigmatic roll-top waterproof backpack with wet-dry pockets, daisy chain lash points and haul loop handle. 132 euro. www.chromebagsstore.com 7 ADIDAS Y-3 MOBILITY BACKPACK Adidas’s take on the backpack for the urban warrior. 180 euro. www.adidas.com/y-3 8 VAEL PROJECT VAEL MESSENGER Los Angeles creative director Coleman Horn’s Vael Project started with shoes and moved into bags, like this messenger in water-resistant, coated cotton canvas with a laptop-protecting padded back panel. 148 euro. www.vaelproject.com 9 HAND-ME-DOWN BACKPACK The British label hired Vermont’s Chad Yonkman to put out this heavy waxed canvas day bag with padded shoulder straps and pockets for laptop, camera, and mobile phone. 217 euro. www.hmd.howies.co.uk
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GRAVIS BARRIER Duffel-style bag with removable backpack straps and wet/dry compartments to keep surf and street gear separate. 85 euro. www.gravisfootwear.com
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GOING PLACES 1 RED FLAG DESIGN AUM DUFFEL Canada’s Red Flag Design produces bags from recycled Dacron sailcloth, like this duffel with nylon webbing handles and external zippered pocket. Doubles as a backpack. 188 euro. www.redagdesign.ca
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2 MASTER-PIECE NINE BACKPACK Tokyo’s Master-Piece made this 60 percent nylon, 40 percent cotton backpack with cow leather trim. Comes in several bright colours. 172 euro. www.master-piece.co.jp 3 GOODHOOD GOODHOOD X R.NEWBOLD FELL RUNNER BACKPACK Collab of one of London’s nest stores with a sub-brand of Paul Smith. 168 euro. www.goodhood.co.uk
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4 NOON SOLAR ELSTON Chicago-based designers Jane Palmer and Marianne Fairbanks wanted to integrate renewable solar power into daily life with this messenger bag in Bavarian leather with organic hemp/cotton lining. 332 euro. www.noonsolar.com 5 BRUXE THE LLOYD BAG Heavy canvas and lasercut patent leather by Montreal brand. Padded computer compartment and padded back panel with air channels. 74 euro. www.bruxedesign.com 6 EASTPAK X RICK OWENS TRAVEL BAG Eastpak collaborated with designer Rick Owens for the Eastpak DRKSHDW collection, which offers a large variety of bags in minimalist goth designs, like this great travel bag. 200 euro. www.eastpak.com
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7 ADIDAS SLVR COAT TEAM BAG Weekend bag made of tarpaulin material. 130 euro. www.adidas.com/us/slvr 8 THE NORTH FACE ROLLING THUNDER Go-cart frame with aluminium chassis and reinforced in-line skate wheels, plus wing handles and compression straps. 215 euro. www.thenorthface.com 9 STONE ISLAND SHADOW MESSENGER BAG Straps and buckles can transform this messenger bag from Stone Island’s Shadow project into a handbag and a backpack. Made of water-repellent cotton satin. 430 euro. www.stoneisland.com
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‘In essence, the domain of eroticism is the domain of violence, of violation.’ — Georges Bataille —
PHOTOGRAPHY: ULRIKE BIETS STYLING: VALÉRIA SINIOUCHKINA STYLING ASS: YARA REIS
JILL: SHOES: ROBERT CLERGERIE TIGHTS: DIM VINCENT: UNDERWEAR: BJÖRN BORG
When did you nd out you liked being trampled?
I discovered that I liked being under the weight of women when I was very young; let’s say 10 years old.
Describe the scene. What happened and with whom?
It started with a foot fetish, became a high heel fetish, and moved on to trampling. It just started with playing child games with girlfriends where I tried to smell their feet or get under their feet. For example, when I was 14 years old, I was working in the garden of my school. A girlfriend was wearing small heels. I put my hand next to her feet and, accidentally, she stepped on it. She excused herself, but I told her that such things happen and that I even liked it. She found that amusing and did it again.
When did you nd out you liked to trample people?
The rst time I did it, it was a strange experience—I was standing on someone! But that person liked it, and when I saw that he enjoyed it, that he went into ecstasy, I stopped thinking about it and enjoyed it too. After a few times, it gave me a special feeling, and so it became a special experience between him and me.
How long have you been trampling?
Not so long, a year. But it’s not something I do every week.
Who was the rst person you trampled? Vincent.
Who trampled you for the rst time?
Can you describe the sensation of trampling another person?
Can you describe the sensation of being trampled upon by another person?
What makes trampling sexy?
That was a prostitute in the Schipperskwartier of Antwerp. I was only 19, and I really wanted to feel high heels on my chest. This was the only way to try out my fantasy at the time.
It gives me a certain adrenaline rush and kick. It feels like getting a massage.
What makes it sexy to be trampled?
The feeling is difcult to describe. When I trample someone I feel ecstatic, like I’m walking on clouds just for that moment. I compare the feeling with an orgasm. But I guess it’s different for each person; it’s a unique and very subjective experience. Sexy? I don’t know. You’ve got to make it sexy. It’s something special between you and the person you trample. Is sex sexy? Sex is also between two people, so trampling is sexy the way sex is sexy.
That I’m completely in the power of that person. She can do what she wants. I have nothing under control at that moment.
Which part of the body do you like to trample most?
On which part of the body do you like to be trampled most?
Which shoes are the nicest to trample with?
For starters, the chest. After a certain condence has been built up, she can also stand on my nipples. This creates the most exciting feeling, but also hurts the most. If she is barefoot, she can also trample my face. The smell of the feet is wonderful.
Which shoes are the nicest to be trampled by?
High heels, especially stilettos. I would like to be trampled once by BZ heels [modied heels with a hollow point for extra pressure], but I’ve never found anyone who has them.
The chest.
I always trample with my pumps with high heels.
Is there anybody in particular you would like to trample? No, I do not have wild dreams about trampling. My partner for doing this is Vincent.
What is your profession? I’m a student.
Is there anybody in particular you would like to be trampled by?
Well, in my dreams I imagine being trampled by some celebrities—like Linda De Mol, Anouk, Evy Gruyaert, Kylie Minogue, or some of the Italian beauties.
How do you get in touch with people you’d like to be trampled by?
Through the Internet, or by just walking around and asking for it.
In general, how do women react when you ask?
If you tell a story about a bet that you can win if you have an imprint of a shoe on your chest, most girls are willing to assist. Most of the time they are amused and laughing.
JILL: TOP: SOCKS: SHOES:
BELLEROSE K.BELL 1.2.3.
JILL: SOCKS: SHOES:
CETTE LEVI’S
VINCENT: JEANS:
WESC
ABOVE JILL: SHOES: JARETELLES:
JEAN-PAUL KNOTT CHANTAL THOMASS
VINCENT: UNDERWEAR:
ZADIG&VOLTAIRE
RIGHT JILL: SHOES: TIGHTS: STRIPED HEEL: YELLOW SHOES:
JEAN-PAUL KNOTT DIM CAMPER NEW LOOK
MODEFABRIEK 26&27 JULY 09 AMSTERDAM
DIEGO DOLCINI 650 EURO
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WELL HEELED
075
DIESEL 240 EURO
PIERRE HARDY 770 EURO
ANDREA & JOEN 200 EURO
COS 129 EURO
MAURICE VAN DE STOUWE PRICE ON REQUEST
AVRIL GAU 340 EURO
CAMILLA SKOVGAARD 360 EURO
NICHOLAS KIRKWOOD 1448 EURO
DIESEL GOLD LABEL 590 EURO
FILIPPA K 340 EURO
CAMPER 175 EURO
LISE BRUNT PRICE ON REQUEST
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STYLE
076
JELSKE PETERSON 650 EURO
LIU JO 210 EURO
SURFACE TO AIR 350 EURO
REPLAY 160 EURO
HM 39,95 EURO
PINKO 340 EURO
CAMILLA NORRBACK 219 EURO
END PRICE ON REQUEST
UNITED NUDE 136 EURO
HUGO BOSS 430 EURO
TOMMY HILFIGER 109,90 EURO
ACNE 350 EURO
PHOTOGRAPHY: TYRONE LEBON STYLING: CLYDE SEMMOH AND EQUILINE VAN DOOREN (HOUSE OF ORANGE) HAIR/MAKE-UP: SEVERINE VAN DONKELAAR (HOUSE OF ORANGE) PRODUCTION: RACHEL PERRY AND FLEUR VAN DEN BERGE
HERMELIJN HOODED SWEATSHIRT: LEGGINGS: SHOES:
WILD FOX FILIPPA K MARTIN MARGIELA VIA SPRMRKT
ROZEMARIJN JACKET SHIRT
E.N.D. THELIN
SIMON JACKET SHIRT PANTS SHOES
DIESEL BLACK GOLD KUYICHI SAMSOE&SAMSOE DIESEL BLACK GOLD
CEDRIC BLAZER SHIRT HAT
TOMMY HILFIGER PEOPLE OF THE LABYRINTH MODELS OWN
MARIANA CARDIGAN (COLORS) CARDIGAN (WHITE) T-SHIRT
MADS NORGAARD YARN UNIT FORREST & BOB
LEONI VEST SHIRT JACKET NECKLACE
BEST BEHAVIOR ROXY HEART RICK OWENS FORREST & BOB
QUINTEN SWEATER PANTS SHOES GLASSES
TIGER OF SWEDEN LEE VIA 2PR RICK OWENS THE LOCAL FIRM
PIERRE VEST T-SHIRT PANTS SHOES
XH-SA LEVI’S VIA 2PR SAMSOE&SAMSOE DIESEL
HERMELIJN HOODED SWEATSHIRT: SHIRT: LEGGINGS: SHOES:
WILD FOX BLUE BLOOD FILIPPA K MARTIN MARGIELA VIA SPRMRKT
EQUILINE JACKET PANTS TEE VEST
HUGO BOSS HOPE VIA SPRMRKT ACNE VIA SPRMRKT KOSTYM BY CHEAP MONDAY VIA ROCK/PAPER/SCISSORS
Hermelijn van der Meijden 37, FREELANCE JOURNALIST/WRITER
Energy healing— four years of training with the Barbara Brennan School of Healing Europe
Rozemarijn van West 29, STUDY COACH FOR REFUGEE STUDENTS IN UTRECHT
Meditation, yoga, silence, music, laughing, anything else that feels good
I was on the train home from work and a man sat down next to me. We talked for a while and got off the train together. After ten minutes he asked if I would join him for a course next weekend—he didn’t know exactly what kind of course it was, but that didn’t really matter to me. I thought he was so lovely that I would have joined him anywhere. Besides, I felt he had crossed my path for a reason. Late that Friday evening I arrived at a spiritual center in the countryside. It was dark and deserted and I began to seriously doubt my decision; this could be a cult. But when he opened the door I felt my tension disappear. The course was about working with angelic energies. I never heard of it, but during that weekend something changed in me. I opened up and felt energies flow through my body. I also felt more grounded than ever and I cried the entire weekend; just focusing on subtler energies made me feel happier and more alive. Afterwards I explored ways to further integrate this feeling into my life, and the Barbara Brennan School for Healing seemed to offer one of the most sophisticated programs. I enrolled soon after. Barbara Brennan is a scientist, clairvoyant and psychologist. The program she has designed combines all of these elements, helping people explore their experiences and gain an understanding of our multidimensional reality. It has brought me more in touch with myself and others, giving me a chance to consciously live in multiple worlds. When I give someone a healing, I experience everything just perfect as it is.
For me, spirituality has mostly to do with the way I look at life. I believe that life on earth is really a learning path for the soul, so I stay tuned with this essence by meditating every morning and taking care of my body through yoga and dance. For the past three years, I’ve also been attending trainings, workshops, and twice-yearly silence retreats with the Buddhistinspired spiritual organisation for young people Stichting Eigenwijze. Spirituality has helped me view things I might once have considered to be annoying obstacles or coincidences as tools for my development. This has given me a much more positive attitude towards the things that happen to me, and enabled me to accept that whatever situation I am in is the exact right thing for me at that moment. Doing so takes quite a lot of discipline; I take half an hour every morning to feel my body, concentrate on what I find important in life, and train my mind in awareness through meditation. Of course, sometimes I don’t feel like it and I skip it every now and then, but I always return to it, even when I don’t feel the effects immediately.
The rewards do come with a price—the program is expensive and very intense. During my first three years I worked full-time as a journalist, which had a huge impact on my social life: I felt quite restless and sometimes lost my inner peace, the thing I needed the most. Now that I have finished my training, the peace has returned to me in a different way, though I still sometimes go through intense emotional processes that are not always easy to grasp for others. For most people the visible and mental reality is the only acceptable one. I find this difficult at times; it appears as if I live in a completely different world, and it can make me feel lonely. Once you begin to walk a spiritual path there is no way back. In my romantic life I always try to practice awareness, to express myself, to be mindful of the energy and intent behind my words. This goes for my friends and family too. And as a journalist I connect with people prior to meetings, through visualisation and meditation, to create a pleasant atmosphere. People mostly feel at ease, which often results in beautiful stories.
I believe that everybody has his or her own path to follow, which makes it easier for me not to feel responsible for all the pain and violence in other people’s lives. I realize now that I should not and cannot save others; at most I can inspire them by living by my own values. More important than what you do is the way you do it, which should be with love and attention. I work on Fridays as a waitress in a lunchroom where I can focus completely on the quality of the product I serve people: good food and drinks along with a friendly word. I am no longer interested in having a good job or a respectable career—I just want something I can do fully from my heart.
Leoni van de Water 22, HUMANISTICS STUDENT
Vipassana meditation mindfulness
Pierre Alexandre 31, ENTERTAINER, SINGER
Santeria clairvoyance
Equiline van Dooren 29, FASHION STYLIST
Barbara Brennan School of Healing
I’ve read spiritual books for years, but it was only a year ago that I decided to experience all the beautiful things those books describe— increased awareness, non-delusion, self-control, peace. So I started a course in Raja meditation, but it didn’t suit me. Then I found out about Vipassana meditation, a technique that aims to bring happiness by eradicating mental impurities. It is nonsectarian, which I like, and there are no rituals. The focus is on the self, on simply feeling what you feel without judging. If you pay close attention to your breath and bodily sensations, the laws that operate one’s thoughts, feelings, judgments, and sensations become clear. I went to an intensive 10-day course, where you meditate eight hours a day and you’re not allowed to speak, and I discovered I’m stronger than I thought. The first time I did a “strong determination hour” [no movement allowed], I started to sweat and feel nauseous and finally
It all started one day when I was around four or five years old, living with my father in Port-auPrince, Haiti. I had this experience of my soul coming into my body; I remember very vividly being outside the house, seeing my hands and feet, and thinking, “Okay, so this is the body I have to work with.” I don’t really remember anything that happened before that day. In my twenties I started practicing all kinds of disciplines, and at 23 I had my first kundalini experience. I had been doing qigong and meditating daily for a few months, and one day I felt this orgasmic sensation in my whole body and sensed my soul moving out of it. It was a very strong physical sensation and I freaked out a bit, but because I wasn’t in my body there was nothing I could do. At the time I was working with a spiritual coach, who explained to me later that this had been a kundalini experience.
Last February I went to Guatemala with a friend and I guess that’s where it all started. Before that trip I felt restless, asking myself questions I couldn’t answer; I knew I was looking for something more, but I didn’t know what or how to find it. We stayed in San Marcos, a beautiful little village on a lake surrounded by three volcanoes. The place was so vibrant, so full of energy. I started meditating at Las Pirámides del Ka [a non-denominational meditation center]. A few days later, we were watching a Mayan ceremony and my friend complained about a pain in his back. Without knowing where it was, I put my hand on exactly that spot and I felt the energy going through. My hand became hot; it started tickling and just wouldn’t stop. I felt confused, disoriented— a whole new world was opening up to me.
ran out crying—but after releasing that tension I understood that stillness is just a mindset, and from then on it went very well. Our culture pressures us to be happy, pretty, smart, and successful all the time, which makes us vulnerable. Vipassana made me understand that pain and failure aren’t the end of the world. For me, the hard thing about spirituality is finding a balance between my responsible and pleasure-seeking sides. I am constantly aware of what I “should” do to make the world or my own life better, but part of me just doesn’t want to think about it. I want to buy things even though they are bad for the environment or aren’t ethically justified—things produced by child labor, for instance. I want to eat organic, but it’s too expensive to do all the time. So I do the best I can without giving up either side.
After that I got into clairvoyance, communicating with the spirit world via séances, which opened the door to Santeria. Santeria is actually a Cuban branch of the Yoruba religion, which originated in Western Africa and is the softer version of Haitian voodoo. Since Haiti is part of me, I went with the softer version in order to bring out my milder self. Santeria has helped get me in touch with my ancestors, which makes it easier to understand who I am, and has also brought me closer to my father, who passed away. Throughout my twenties I was focused on my spirituality, basically living in my own bubble— but I had to take a step back from it in order to live a more “normal” life. It still helps me as a performer; I enter a different persona the moment I get on stage. I haven’t been able to strike a good balance yet between the superficialities of the entertainment world and my everyday life, but I when I sing I sing from the heart, and spirituality has made that easier. I have become a storyteller.
That friend told me about Barbara Brennan. Right now I’m taking a BBSH workshop in Miami called “Creating the Life You Desire.” It’s about taking a look at yourself: What is it really that I’m longing for in this life? Where am I right now? It goes beyond first instincts, beyond materialism; it’s for me a confrontation with my deeper self. My work as a stylist can be stressful and hectic, but this helps me to stay grounded and reflective. It brings rest into my life, brings me in touch with myself, and helps me accept myself as the person I am. That restless feeling I had still comes up once in a while, but now I know such things happen for a reason: to help me to grow.
Cedric Laquieze 28, ARTIST AND STUDENT THEATRE DESIGN
Alchemy
Mariana Paiva e Silva Mourao 31, RECEPTIONIST AT AN INTERNATIONAL BRANDING AGENCY, DESIGN BRIDGE
Reiki
Simon Manchester Maandag 28, B2B/B2C TROUBLESHOOTER FOR RABOBANK
Judaism, Hinduism, meditation, and positive thinking
I grew up in France with a very catholic mother and a completely atheist sister, so spirituality was often a subject of debate. I struggled to find my own system of belief, and when I stumbled upon alchemy it was love at first sight. Alchemy focuses on the miracles of life that hide in plain sight—how we live, how everything grows and transforms. It is both a philosophy and a practice aiming to accelerate the evolution of things into their higher state. It takes patience and discipline, but it has helped me find my place in the bigger picture.
symbolism in my painting and sculpting as well, and it has helped me open up artistically and explore new ground; I have come to see the world for the exciting mystery that it is. The hard part is explaining it to others—given that alchemy has such diverse roots, including chemistry, quantum physics, and Kabbalah, it can be difficult to sum up in a coherent sentence. Basically it’s more of a personal journey, and that’s a hard thing to share.
Alchemy has existed in many places with many variations, but for most of its history its followers have been persecuted, forcing them to encode their techniques and philosophies in a multitude of symbols and metaphors. Those techniques might take a lifetime to study, but investigating them is exciting—the research is my favorite part. I use a lot of the alchemical
Reiki is a form of spiritual healing that uses “universal life energy,” which is channeled through the practitioner to the recipient in order to harmonize body, mind, and spirit. When I was 12 years old, my mom was studying Reiki, and one day I asked her to take me with her.
It can be quite hard to find the time and money for spiritual practice when you’re a single mom, but reiki doesn’t require much of either. Self-study books have helped me a lot, since I can use to them study at home. I don’t use reiki at work, but it is really helpful after a stressful day.
My first real amazement struck me one morning, a few weeks after my first course. I woke up from a great night’s sleep and realized that I’d been sleeping well ever since the course. I had always had trouble getting to sleep; nothing ever helped, so I couldn’t believe something as simple as reiki had worked. Reiki balances the energies in my body, relieves pain, enhances my personal awareness, reduces stress, and releases blocked and suppressed feelings to help me feel at peace.
I was raised with two seemingly opposing religions,—Judaism and Hinduism— by my parents. My father was Jewish and he met my mother in Nepal. They lived two years in India. We, my brother and I, were raised in this spiritual discipline. I may not be a fully practicing Jew, but do go to synagogue. I added the discipline of positive thinking to this mix and consider creating your own happiness to be of my own beliefs. In the past I used to meditate for twenty minutes each day before going to sleep, but right now I consider my regime of working out five times a week my daily meditation. If I have to describe my discipline I’d say: “To honor the higher force in such a way that I’m honored back.” The strongest experience I’ve had was one in which God spoke to me. Call it a direct experience of God. Indirectly, I see every time that what I believe becomes reality.
By believing I create my own happiness in such a way that I become happy. Isn’t that what we all want? Finding a profession that leaves enough space for my spiritual way of life and that suits my thinking methods has proven not to be easy, though. I have had many jobs, worked even for a while as a stripper, and recently quit my work at the bank. But I have no doubt something else, something good, will come up.
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INTERVIEW
KAREEM BLACK
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FTW
BOBBY VAUGHN / /
“My style has always been a mix of surf and street influences—like taking your customized low rider car to the beach with some boards in the back.”
“With some of these dudes you can no longer tell whether they’re surfers or hitmen.”
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INTERVIEW
VICTOR VERBEEK
Surfer and entrepreneur Bobby Vaughn, 34, is the kind of man who will start anecdotes with the phrase, “That’s another long and crazy story.” He usually delivers. The fact is, he has a bizarre, fascinating—and, at times, more than a little sketchy—past. So when Vaughn left Santa Cruz for New York’s Rockaway Beach to open a surf shop called FTW, his reputation caught up with him and locals started talking. Says Vaughn, “I’m not a gangster, but I want to make a surf brand in which street kids can recognize themselves.”
potential punching bag. Vaughn has FTW inked on his cheek, like a tear. “I like how this logo has so many hardcore connotations,” he says. “People come into the shop and ask, ‘Does that stand for what I think it stands for?’ We usually say it means Feel the Waves, or sometimes For the Win.
Rockaway Beach is hardly uncharted surf territory. Ever since the fties, great names have dropped by here to ride the breakers that come rolling in from the Atlantic Ocean. Locals have built a small but dedicated community, and surfboards are a common sight on the A train from Manhattan. But compared to more established surng spots in California, Hawaii, and Australia, Rockaway is still a surng frontier. “In LA, you have designated spots for every level of surng. It’s a certain order and you don’t cross those lines. Out here there is chaos in the water.” The Rockaways, as the cluster of communities is collectively called, are spread out over the entire length of a long and narrow peninsula, parallel to the coastline of Jamaica, Queens. This skinny strip of land, about an hour from downtown Manhattan by subway, is cut off from the rest of the city by JFK Airport and a patchwork of water, swamps, and small islands. On the western tip there’s Breezy Point Park, a nature reserve. Further towards the middle are Fort Tilden, with its crumbling military buildings, and Jacob Riis Park, with dunes and beach pavilions that have seen better days. On the eastern side are rows and rows of public housing projects. “On one end you have all the small-time gangsters, and on the other you have retired cops and the occasional retired gangster who made it big,” Vaughn explains.
“The best waves are near Beach 90.”
The FTW shop is located only steps from the surf at Beach 105, in a neighborhood of wooden houses. “The best waves are near Beach 90,” says Vaughn. “When it gets big you’ll be surprised just how good the waves are. At rst I didn’t even believe this place existed. Then again, before I opened FTW, most of my New York friends had never been here either.” The contrast between the gritty urban buildings on the shoreline and the vast Atlantic Ocean appealed to Vaughn right away. It is precisely this juxtaposition of beach and street, ghetto and ocean, that FTW is modeled upon, right down to the logo. That logo has been part of counterculture for years. It’s a popular design, but some tattoo artists will talk you out of getting one, since the Hell’s Angels have laid their own claim to the letters—Forever Two Wheels—and might target you as a poser and
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“Or,” he adds, grinning, “Feed the World.” Bobby Vaughn grew up an orphan, but knows he’s of Mexican and Japanese descent. He was adopted but ran away to “do his own thing” when he was 12. Vaughn rst started surng in Venice Beach, California. “In school I would mostly hang with the Mexicans; I could relate to them because I look like one. I still love that West Coast Latin culture and style, the gangster rap and everything.” Venice was dangerous in those days. Tough guys like Jay Adams, of Dogtown fame, and Jesse Martinez were the ruling locals. Their sponsor, Bronze Age clothing, picked up the young Vaughn as well. “The brand was owned by Michael Cassel and everybody knew he was a big-time drug dealer. It was cool though, kinda like Stussy. The street wear was a pure front operation. I would come to the warehouse and see all the homeboys hanging out. No one ever seemed to be working, and yet they had a bunch of Ferraris sitting around. I was still a kid, and just for surng I received huge bags stuffed with thousands of dollars worth of clothing. I wasn’t asking any questions.” High school was when Vaughn got serious about surng. At the same time, drugs and gang culture were increasingly becoming a part of his life. “I would be in the water in the afternoon, and afterwards I’d hang with my boys and get into a lot of shit. It got to a point where one of my school friends shot someone right in front of me.” The next day, Vaughn bought a one-way ticket to Hawaii, and on the north shore of Oahu, he started surng full time. Then there was Von Dutch—crazy story, short one too. Cassel—just out of jail—rst asked Vaughn to do the marketing for Bronze Age in Hawaii, then invited him over to live in his house in California. “I had seen the cars and heard the stories but I’d never met the guy. I was just riding for the company. Now, all of a sudden I found myself living with Mike—and his wife. I mean, it was just the three of us. They had gotten married on a prison yard and they took me in, adopting me like a son almost.” Bronze Age had become a serious brand in those days and Vaughn was involved with everything from running ads and sponsoring guys he had met in Hawaii to going to trade shows and setting up distribution. “We were doing great, but at some point the rotten core of the brand became too much of a burden.” Bronze Age went under.
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BOBBY VAUGHN
“We were doing great, but at some point the rotten core of the brand became too much of a burden.”
Eager to start a truly legit company, Cassel, Vaughn, and a few partners obtained the licensing rights to the artwork and name of Kenneth “Von Dutch” Howard, the infamous hot rod ame style artist who had died in 1992. Howard’s daughters lived in a trailer park. They weren’t aware of the cult status of their father’s artwork, and had never liked him that much anyway. “Von Dutch was not only a talented artist, he also was a racist nut-case. Cassel immediately saw the potential in that whole fties denim, hot rod, James Dean, Marlon Brando style.” The brand was successful, so successful in fact that it exploded in the hands of the founders. Within two years Von Dutch moved from being credible and interesting to being washed up, selling millions of trucker hats along the way. By that time Vaughn had been bought out for a ridiculously low sum. He only recently got the settlement deal that helped him found FTW. “Some of the biggest surf brands have embraced streetwear and gangster aesthetics now. You see wife-beaters and Dickies copies everywhere, but that has nothing to do with the roots of those labels. Clothing-wise, surng was always about neon day-glo shorts that go up to your chest and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s the heritage of the sport. Now even Kelly Slater has shaved his head and is wearing black beanies. With some of these dudes you can no longer tell whether they’re surfers or hitmen.
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It’s all cool but I don’t think it’s authentic.” With the FTW brand Vaughn wants to offer an urban style alternative to the ower-avored style of surf apparel. “My point is that kids from the street, kids who are into grafti and tattoos, who make it into the water, should have a surng brand they can relate to.” Vaughn has seen a lot of violence in his life. He maintains that surng helped him “stay out of trouble and keep a positive perspective,” but that all changed the day one of his oldest friends, in a haze of paranoia and drugs, pulled a gun on him. Vaughn red rst. The court ruled self-defense, and Vaughn was acquitted of murder. Vaughn is very open about what happened and how it is eating his heart. “When sober, this friend was one of the sweetest guys you’ll ever meet, but when intoxicated he was dangerous and really threatening. I loved him, but the gang life he was born into was too corrupting. He could kill someone on a dime. I had to make a choice. I did and I’m still alive.” Vaughn’s move to New York can’t be seen as separate from this drama. He isn’t hiding from his past, but the West Coast native hopes to make a new start with his brand and store on the East Coast. “For me that’s what FTW stands for. If the world is all good, FTW can be seen as a slur, but if you see how fucked up this world really is, it’s a cry for something positive.”
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BRANDS
MARIEKE ORDELMANS / MO VELD
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Smythe www.smythelesvestes.com
Who For two high school friends from Toronto, an old wish was fulfilled in 2004: the start of their own company. Christie Smythe graduated from Parsons the New School for Design in New York City and worked for Prada and Celine. Adrea Lenczner used to be a banker, but found herself reading Vogue far more often than The Wall Street Journal. Because they don’t particularly like telling women how to dress themselves from head to toe, Smythe and Lenczner only design coats. Label look Smythe is known for its original designs, full of slim cuts and clever fits. The designs vary strongly from piece to piece, yet a few signifiers—mainly bright colors and nostalgic prints like country buffalo checks, checkered frontier plaids, and herringbone patterns—make them instantly recognizable. They are as appropriate for the office as for a bear hunt in the wilderness. What’s new This spring’s collection is big on nautical influences; think tailored. double-breasted blazers with three-quarter sleeves in navy, red, and white. Recurring items include the long boyfriend blazer and the classic trench coat. As for must-wear items, there’s an olden-times sleeveless blazer, a shiny black parka/hoodie with an oversized hood, and a trim leather jacket with duffel coat “walrus teeth” toggle-fasteners. They say “Our goal is to perfect fit and make an essential wardrobe piece that is both modern and emotional.” We say Though they’ve been preceded by knit hats, plaid shirts, and mukluks, we were pleasantly surprised by Smythe’s stylish designs. Canada—who knew?
Obesity and Speed www.obesityandspeed.com
Who Best friends Lyz Olko and Josh Connor started the women’s streetwear label Obesity and Speed from their modest New York apartment in the fall of 2004, as a celebration of their shared obsession with anything dark—including a cultivated sleep deprivation. The name Obesity and Speed was sampled from lyrics by their favorite back-inthe-days punk band. Bloggers unite over a shameless Obesity and Speed rip-off by Forever 21, but honestly, all Obesity and Speed prints would look awfully familiar to those who witnessed punk al its gory glory. Label look Obesity and Speed is mostly known for their unfinished or distressed tees, tie-back tanks, and sweaters with rebellious, goth-looking, mostly hand-drawn prints saying “Nothing Sacred,” “Ignore Orders,” or “Wasted Youth,” but as their label has grown they have developed more “serious” pieces like hooded flannel shirts, capes, gloves, and dresses. What’s new After collaborating with Earnest Sewn, Oak, Nylon TV, Hint Magazine, and British band the Horrors, this year Obesity and Speed designed a summer collection for Urban Outfitters called “Nothing Sacred” and hooked up with “shelter-torialist” Tod Selby (theselby.com) for his European expo tour. They say Happy people don’t complain. We say Happy people protest in style.
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BRANDS
MO VELD
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Koos www.koos.biz
Who Dutch designer Nynke Fennema and Japanese counterpart Shinichi Kato started selling their Koos shoe brand in 2002 in Japan, where the simple-styled, flat-soled, handmade-quality boots and shoes became an instant hit. Three years later they introduced the brand in the Netherlands. Koos, a familiar Dutch boy’s name as well as a known Japanese sake brand, connects the designers’ cultures, as do their products. In Japan Koos sells at 500 stores and is supported by some 8000 bloggers. Amsterdam has the only Koos flagship store to date, but that may change soon as they restructure production to meet European demands. Label look The sober designs of Koos sandals, shoes and boots can be combined, and with full-grain and suede leather or leather-rimmed canvas uppers in a natural color range, they match with Koos’ vintagelooking leather and canvas bags. What’s new Although Koos regularly adds new styles, they are not a “new new new” kind of company. In fact, the “news” section on ‘Koos’ website will tell you how to take care of your Koos purchases so you can enjoy them longer. They say Koos believes we have to enjoy what we do. We say That’s exactly what Koos feels like. We hate to call it Zen, but it’s a close call.
Adidas SLVR www.adidas.com/slvr
Who Launched in October 2008, Adidas SLVR is the purest fashion label in the Adidas Sport style division that also includes Y-3 and Adidas Originals. SLVR has just been available in Adidas-controlled environments in Paris, New York, Bangkok, Beijing, Moscow, and Berlin, the second SLVR collection for fall 2009-2010 will hit selected retail outlets beginning in mid-July. Label look Simple and subdued, the vast Adidas SLVR collection consists of men’s and women’s apparel, footwear, and accessories. It’s highly contemporary, super laid-back, and affordable too. With its toned-down palette built around the collection’s signature ‘gun-metal gray’ color and its design credo of reducing complexity while committing to smart, sustainable solutions, Adidas SLVR is a sure bet, and practically unbranded at that. What’s new The “One-Piece Tee” and the “7 Piece Shoe” make fine examples of waste reduction with design enhancement (sport shoes are normally constructed of some 25 pieces glued together, while the “7 Piece Shoe” is made of a six-piece upper stitched to a one-piece outsole). Also check out the line’s great range of jackets from blazer to trench coat, the loosely sized, homey knits, and their high wedge fashion boot. They say The next-generation collection from Adidas. We say A truly exciting new line.
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Firetrap www.firetrap.nl
Who Firetrap brand denim. The premium UK brand has teamed up with denim head Toine Neggers (former Senior Product Manager at Diesel) and his company, The Magic of Blue, with an eye towards expanding the brand worldwide. Label look Since its launch in 1993 UK-based Firetrap has been capturing the edgier impulses of urban style-makers and weaving, stitching, and washing it into their eclectic, rough-glam, industrial lines of denim, men and women’s wear, accessories, and footwear. What’s new Sleek fits with metal details and slick sheens combined with ergonomic seaming, surprising zippers, and coated denim, create a future warrior meets rock ‘n’ roll feel. For the men, a modernistic Bauhaus-inspired feel with even darker, more subversive urban influences than previous collections, and special pieces like doublefronted garments and u-necked jerseys. For the women dark color palettes contrast with bright sequin details, clean lines oppose crumpled fabrics, and leather complements silk for sexy jeans, tops and dresses. They say The Firetrap brand has always been a word-of-mouth success with inspiration straight from the streets. “We’re in the middle of developing a fresh and new futuristic denim look that nobody (as far as I know) is doing at the moment,” says Neggers. “Our slogan is ‘The Future is Ours’ and it refers to jeans being the uniform of those who will create our future.” We say The Tiger Pant for men, the Rapture jeans for women, the edgy leather pieces and the electro-inspired pieces of the new collection are all exciting pieces and show where Firetrap is heading.
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Superdry www.superdry.com
Who: Superdry head designer James Holder first entered the fashion game as the man behind the brand Bench. He and retail manager Julian Dunkerton launched Superdry together in 2003, and were joined just over a year later by Theo Karpathios, who now oversees global distribution. “Even though we sell a lot of garments,” says Holder, “we still get excited and text each other when we see our products somewhere. I don’t think we’ll ever lose that that hunger and enthusiasm.” Label look: The brand brings together a Japanese-inspired attention to detail and bold graphics, the cuts and fabrics of vintage Americana, and a faint but undeniable British sensibility. From heavy leather biker jackets to workwear-like denim, from floral dresses to vintage-style T-shirts, the range of garments is overwhelming. Holder explains, “We try to make the whole thing an adventure. It’s not, ‘Here’s one garment with one graphic on it,’ it’s ‘Here are a hundred T-shirts with a hundred different graphics.’” What’s new: Everything; the label is constantly reinventing itself. Even its most iconic item, the OSAKA 6 T-shirt, whose place in fashion history was cemented several years ago when it was spotted on David Beckham, continues to go through hundreds of variations. They say: “Because we kind of come from a provincial background, we’re not really caught up in that fashion mindset,” says Holder. “We just go with what we believe is right.” We say: Though they may have escaped the fast-paced fashion frenzy of London and other such hip cities, they have come to exercise an influence all their own over these very places.
Wildfox Couture www.wildfoxcouture.com
Who Two and a half years ago, childhood friends Emily Faulstich and Kimberly Gordon set out to create this all-American, vintage-inspired women’s knitwear brand, all made in LA. Eager to deliver that l ong-foregone super-soft feeling, they feverishly hunt down faded rock and roll shirts and Native American artwork in second hand stores, to be resurrected into Wildfox couture tees, jumpers, and jersey dresses. None other than world-renowned jazz saxophonist Jimmy Sommers happens to be Wildfox’s sugar daddy. Operating as president and CEO, Sommers managed a quick and slick high-profile visibility of these couture tees on celebrities and glossy pages, propelling Wildfox into the international high-end marketplace. Label look Very “girls just wanna have fun,” A-grade shirts and neon red lipstick included. The look-books read like summer holiday fantasies: gorgeous young things donning sexy tees and dresses, adorned with girly prints of hearts and bows and baby tigers, or seductive slogans like “Kiss Me—You’ll Love It.” What’s new Fall 2009 will see the debut of “Little Fox,” their brand new kid’s line with similar qualities, and even more fun prints. They say She is the Native Heart, she is all neon light, she is a love child. She is a Wildfox. We say Flower Power meets Beverly Hills 90210. Who would’ve thought it could work?
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Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair
Astrid Olsson’s background in tailoring techniques and design degree from Textile School of Fashion in Borås, Sweden, combined with Lee Cotter’s on-the-job training as a buyer and freelance designer for several men’s fashion brands, proved a fertile mix. Shoe Repair managed to win the hearts of fashion drivers the world over from their first collection on. Apart from their own boutique in Stockholm, as well as a brand new 140-square-meter flagship store by Guise architects to open this summer, they currently sell at Barney’s and Opening Ceremony in the States, IT in Hong Kong, Daily Projects in South Korea, Isetan and Via Bus Stop in Japan, and Traffik in Moscow. Their online store will begin delivering to Scandinavia in June, and worldwide starting next season.
No, they don’t repair shoes. The name Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair pays homage to generations of craftsmanship and tradition. Swedish designers Astrid Olsson and Lee Cotter met at an old London shoemaker’s shop. When they started the brand in 2004, initially showing delicate knitwear and sweater experiments for women only, they chose old-school tailoring skills as their leitmotif. Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair soon evolved into a full-blown men’s and women’s brand, merging traditional skills with a progressive design direction.
Shoe Repair’s trademark architecture, sculpture, and cubism-inspired tailoring fuses draping techniques with classic patterns in a predominantly black, white and grayscale palette. Their semi-couture line Shoerepair by the No. offers impulsive, dramatic, handcrafted pieces, numbered at birth and sold upon direct order only.
www.shoerepair.se
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Engineered Garments
Engineered Garments, based in New York and designed in partnership with Todd Killian, derives its name from the feedback their first patternmaker gave them in response to the vast amount of functional details involved in each design. Apart from high-quality fabrics, designs made to last at least a lifetime, and an indefinable twist in cut and taste, Suzuki adds a quintessential Japanese ingredient: a deep love for the beauty of flaws and user-unique signs of wear and tear. In short, when you lose a button and replace it with another, not-exactly-matching one, your Engineered Garments jacket will look even better. Initially targeted to the Japanese market, Engineered Garments now sells to Barney’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdales, Fred Segal, and specialty stores throughout Europe, including the Bellerose chain.
Daiki Suzuki is not your average American workwear otaku. He started out in Boston as a buyer for several prime Japanese stores, hunting down America’s finest in traditionally crafted gear like handmade moccasin shoes, authentic hunting wear, Ivy League shirts, and hand-knitted sweaters. A decade later, in 1999, Suzuki had not only become a major connoisseur in this time-defying field of (predominantly male) wardrobe essentials, he had also launched his own label.
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In January 2006, Suzuki made a big impact at Men’s Fashion Week in Milan, debuting his limited-edition collection for Woolrich, America’s oldest woolen mill. The line is based on original fabrics, archive pieces, and traditional American manufacturing methods, all finished by hand and produced in highly collectible editions of 70. www.engineeredgarments.com
The near-forgotten skills and quality standards of old-school craftsmanship are fast becoming the new trend, and Carga Bags is one such example. Argentinean-born, New York-based architect Mauro Bianucci handcrafted the first ever industrial wool felt Carga Bag for private use, simply because he had some leftover materials lying around from a previous project. In a testament to the bag’s eminent qualities, it was immediately picked up by a proactive buyer, and soon after the condensed collection of three models was born. Branded with serial numbers instead of logos, Carga bags come in three sizes governed by sheer functionality: one for your laptop, one universal briefcase, and one carry-all tote. Executed in supple but strong Brazilian recycled industrial felt and held together with eye-catching aluminum rivets and grommets, they look stripped down to the very essence of a bag, but are in fact fine-tuned to the millimeter, and come complete with a leather gadget pouch and key ring inside. It sounds like a simple success, but getting production started and sales going, required the same attention to quality and detail that Carga gives to its products. Bianucci managed to haul in a family of artisans in Buenos Aires who now also produce the line in top-grade leather, using the finest, most eco-friendly tanning and dying methods. With so much care involved in the brand’s every aspect, clients can’t help but share the love.
www.cargabags.com
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Bambi by Laura On March 30, 2009, Bambi by Laura designer Laura Figueras launched her Bambi Mint diffusion line for Topshop in the midst of relocating from her native Barcelona to London. What better way for a consistently hot little label to break new ground than on a tipping point? Catalan designer Laura Figueras graduated with a BA in fashion from ESDI Barcelona in 2002. After collaborating with Preen and lingerie label Women’s Secret for two years, she started her own women’s ready-towear label at age 23. Now on her 10th collection, Figueras has been picked up by watchful buyers from Dernier Cri in New York, Pineal Eye in London, Le 66 in Paris, and K3 in Tokyo. Masterfully constructed, juxtaposing the utterly feminine with a strong, independent, and contemporary edge, Bambi by Laura proves there’s nothing sissy about elegance. Over time, the high-end collection’s base of silk dresses has been complemented with lambskin pieces, cashmere knitwear, and heavier outer layers like this fall season’s perforated wool coats. Says Figueras, “With the ongoing Bambi Mint diffusion line, which is more affordable and easier to sell, Bambi by Laura will become a notch more extravagant in design and materials. Moving to London has been real good; business-wise it is much more interesting than Barcelona.” Keep your eye on girl surf label Roxy next summer; Bambi by Laura is up next for their designer collab project Roxy Heart, which is sold in selected stores worldwide.
www.bambibylaura.com
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De Fiat 500, nu met gratis Dualogic-automaat en 14% bijtelling Schoon. Zuinig. Zakelijk. Voor 5 12.695,Gem. brandstofverbruik: 4,7 l/100 km (1 op 21,3) CO 2: 110 gr/km. Prijs incl. BTW, excl. kosten rijklaar maken en verwijderingsbijdrage. www.ďŹ at.nl
INTERNATIONAL FASHION TRADE SHOW
JULY 01 TO 03, 2009 STATION-BERLIN || LUCKENWALDER STR. 4|6 || 10963 BERLIN
WWW.PREMIUMEXHIBITIONS.COM
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Forged Identity There’s really nothing forged about the identity of brand new, New Jersey-bred menswear label Forged Identity Clothing. It’s all American fashion industry galore, but with a contemporary twist: far from the usual purist workwear brand, the label plays with the interchangeability of its pieces, both day and evening wear. Mixing industrial and high-fashion aesthetics in a quality “anti-glamour” menswear collection, Forged Identity delivers on its “masculinity meets elegance” design credo. Founded by childhood friends Joseph Cassesse, Joseph Troiano, and Kevin Goldstein, Forged Identity perfectly mirrors its creators’ own alto-sartorial style of moody, shaded, slightly worn-in men’s classics that would look perfect on now-elderly style icons like Sean Connery and Al Pacino. The label’s finesse shows in its expertly applied materials, like a herringbone used on carpenter pants. Their wellcomposed, understated fall 2009 line of 44 pieces consists of various blazers, peacoats, high-buttoned waistcoats, knit collared shirts, and a variety of matching pants, including a vintage long john. Their look-book presentation betrays close ties to fashion industrial heritage, presenting pieces in different arrangements on men of various ages. The company’s online profile boasts its “Made in New Jersey” identity, highlighting the region’s heritage as “the silk capital” by way of enhancing their manufacturing credibility. A good look at this brand and its debut presentation tells you Cassesse, Troiano, and Goldstein are here to stay; they fit the new menswear direction of “something old, something new” like a glove. www.forgedidentityclothing.com
Wrangler Blue Bell Wrangler’s vintage-inspired men’s sub-brand Blue Bell, first launched in 2002, returns this fall after several seasons on ice. The Wrangler brand, introduced in 1947 after the highly successful Blue Bell Overall Company acquired a company called Casey Jones Work-Clothes, was specifically targeted to western wear. Wrangler hired Polish immigrant tailor Ben Lichtenstein, also known as Rodeo Ben for his champ status in this particular scene. His early “Cowboy Cut” Wrangler jeans, named 13MWZ (Men’s Western Zipper), were made from a revolutionary fabric, durable and Sanforized for minimum shrinkage. Tested and fine-tuned on rodeo celebrities like Jim Shoulders, Bill Linderman, and Freckles Brown, these jeans became the number-one choice for horseback fans, and remain so iconic that horsemen are now trained to “sit so the tips of your W’s rest on the saddle.” The Blue Bell line celebrates this past; the 98-piece (and counting) collection includes five original jean fits from slim to loose tapered, the original pleated 11MJ jacket, and other heritage classics such as heavyweight jersey sweatshirts, a preppy-ish blue Oxford shirt, denim shirts in various washes, a Western cut chambray shirt, a down-filled blouson with leather chest panels, and a suede jacket with lumberjack lining. This comeback collection will initially target only 15 top-end accounts worldwide. www.wrangler.com
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Jefferson Hotel www.jeffersonhotel.nl Elandsgracht 57, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Jeffrey Sluijzer’s father spent forty years in fashion and retail, so it came quite natural for Jeffrey and his brother Michael to carry on the family tradition by founding and running several fashion boutiques in Amsterdam. After a break from the high street, managing a beach club, Jeffrey Sluijzer opened his brand-new menswear concept store Jefferson Hotel on March 7, 2009. “This store is the sum of two of my biggest passions: fashion and hospitality.” True to the name, Jefferson Hotel looks like a contemporary five-star hotel lobby, and host supreme Jeffrey always welcomes his guests with a perfect espresso at the front desk. The warm, laid-back atmosphere enhanced by slick piano music and subtle scents lures you to the back of the store, where a design sofa is begging you to put your feet up and check out the wall cabinet filled with design books, whiskey glasses, Memo Paris home scents and a selection of exclusive perfumes. Jeffrey’s younger brother Robin designed the interior, from the cabinets all the way to the little front desk bell.
Storm www.stormfashion.dk St. Regnegade 1, Copenhagen, Denmark Fifteen years ago, Rasmus Storm and his wife Line started out in Copenhagen retail with a men’s specialty store named Storm, selling designer underwear, accessories, and jewelle ry. In 1997 they launched a women’s store, and began adding more high-end fashion collections, including some by Belgian designers (whom no one in Copenhagen was carrying at the time). The stores managed to boost their neighborhood to hot retail turf, and Storm gained even greater notice when they merged their men’s and women’s wares in a new, 200-square meter location on Renegade, next to the likes of Acne. Storm has become known as “the Danish Colette,” and was honored with the Danish Fashion Award for Best Retail Space in 2008. Apart from selling daring picks from Thom Browne, Dries van Noten, Ralph Lauren, Comme des Garçons, Raf Simons, Chloé, Ann Demeulemeester, and Haider Ackermann alongside a vast range of handpicked must-have accessories, rare cosmetics, music, DVDs, and art books, Storm initiates regular collaborations and art shows. In 2007, Rasmus teamed up with Copenhagen-based bag label Mismo to develop a new canvas and leather line, which Storm launched at the Pitti trade fair in Florence as well as in-house in 2008; afterwards, the line was introduced to selected stores like Dover Street Market and Colette. Rasmus concocts regular art installations and pop-up stores at Storm—including an upcoming launch event for Alpaca knitwear team the Inoue Brothers in August.
Once a relaxed mood is set it’s time to browse the racks, filled with a premium casual wear selection from Diesel Black Gold and Wrangler Blue Bell to Vintage 55 and Refrigiwear, not to mention some fresh sneaker styles including Converse John Varvatos, Adidas Originals, some limited Nike’s and Stampd’ LA. The basement holds local streetwear as well as a faux Spa display including embroidered robes and terry slippers. Jefferson Hotel is indeed a pleasant distraction from the city’s usual hurried hustle.
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Dutil www.dutildenim.com 303 West Cordova Street, Vancouver, Canada
Eric Dickstein started denim specialty store dutil. back in April 2006 out of sheer necessity. dutil. became the only store selling raw denim in the land of the Maple Leaf. “I simply love the idea that denim is an international language. If you are young or old, rich or poor, black or white, Japanese or African, Jewish or Christian, in a society where pretty much no one shares the same opinion, people will all agree on denim. It’s beautiful!” Offering a strong mix of brands, ranging from Canadian Naked and Famous (best quality Japanese denim, no frills cuts and great prices), to Japanese cultlabel Omnigod to regular classics like Edwin and Levi’s via a range of at least ten other exceptional denim brands. dutil., based in Vancouver’s historic Gastown District, is accessible and enthusing to all customers. That may have to do with its comfy interior (mint green walls, lots of wooden organic touches). It may have to do with its easy-going non pretentious staff. Or it may have to do something with the BC mindset in general. Whether you’re the savviest denim freak or struggling with style insecurities, it’s hard to leave empty-handed or uninspired. dutil. closely monitors local denim preferences—straight legs in cleaner washes for men and a notable “boyfriend fit” trend for women—but is most excited about their own top-notch jeans, to be launched sometime this year. A quintessential men’s slim straight and an equally perfected skinny for women, made in the best possible materials are highly anticipated by the dutil. crew. Recently Dickstein teamed up with Darrin Kenigsberg, who helped launch the Ernest Sewn Denim brand worldwide, as his new business partner. Together, they are set to branch out with multi-store locations and their own dutil. brand, aiming to link denim with eyewear.
G-Star www.gstar.com P.C. Hooftstraat 24 -28, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Since the launch of G-Star 20 years ago, the Dutch-originated label has established more than 5,860 retail points worldwide, of which 170 are mono brand stores in 70 countries. In May, Amsterdam finally got its own G-Star store. A 450-square meter block of denim fashion located in Amsterdam’s most up-market shopping area, the P.C. Hooft street. The store, all in dark natural colors, is designed by G-Star’s in-house team. Concrete and a denim wall are the back drop for a wooden interior. Only building materials in their most basic, raw forms are used. The result is the specific, elegantly militant denim signature the brand is known for. The women’s and men’s collections, as well as accessories, can be found in the basement and on the ground floor. The mezzanine level is dedicated to the brand’s top denim styles, the NY Raw couture range – which is launched each season during New York Fashion Week – and the exclusive G-Star by Marc Newson Limited collection. There is some exciting stuff to be found here. It’s also where the affluent among us can be advised, styled, and dressed in a private lounge with hidden changing rooms, which give you all the privacy you need. Twenty years later G-Star has become a lot more than “just the product.”
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RAJU ‘ILOVESNEAKERZ’ DOERGA
LA GEAR LA Gear Kid Chewing Gum. Price € 99,95
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GRAVIS Gravis Talia. Price € 50,00
Spring ’09
POINTER Pointer Soma II. Price € 59,95 CRUYFF Cruyff Phantom Strike Mid. Price € 119,95
LACOSTE Lacoste Niseko 2 Hi. Price € 109,95 REEBOK Ex-O-Fit Strap. Price € 120,00
SERAFINI Serafini Price € 199,95
BE POSITIVE Be Positive Chukka Red Mesh Chukka. Price € 169,95
RUCANOR Boston Heritage. Price € 74,95
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RUBBER & CANVAS
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CLAE Clae Khan. Price € 154,95
ADIDAS Adidas Forest Hills. Price € 89,99
ICE CREAM Ice Cream Canvas Waffle Low Top. Price € 179,99
DC DC Girls Spruce Hi. Price € 89,95
STAMPD’ Stampd’ Acid Hi. Price € 99,99
EMERICA Emerica Tope. Price € 75,00
ETNIES PLUS Etnies Junior Plus FRESH JIVE. Price € 120,00
BBC Billionaire Boys Club Deep Space High Top. Price € 199,99
THE HUNDREDS The Hundreds Johnson Mid. Price € 69,99
SUPRA Supra Thunder. Price € 99,95
ONITSUKA TIGER Onitsuka Tiger X-Calliber. Price € 89,95
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K-SWISS K-Swiss Grande Court. Price € 84,95
GRAM Gram 449g. Price € 199,99
ASICS Asics Gel-Lyte Speed. Price € 119,99
DIESEL Diesel Strappy. Price € 139,95 GOLIATH Goliath Oval. Price € 69,95
NIKE Nike Air Max Original. Price € 140,00
PUMA Puma Suede Classic. Price € 70,00
VISION Vision Crusader Mid. Prijs € 65,00
QUICK Quick University. Price € 89,95
WeSC activists Lady Tigra, Love Eneroth, Jonas Wiehager, Chris Pastras and Mika Edin and Ricky Sandström contributing to ”We are the Superlative Conspiracy” Pick up a copy at your nearest WeSC retailer. For more information visit www.wesc.com
PRODUCTION MARLOES VERSLUYS PERFECT UNISONS X PARRA HEADPHONES € 349,- WWW.THEPERFECTUNISON.COM LASONIC BOOMBOX € 149,- WWW.LASONIC.COM YUENTO MUSIC BALLOON € 39,50 WWW.IDEA-IN.COM LOGITECH WIRELESS GUITAR CONTROLLE € 142,50 WWW.LOGITECH.COM
THINK OF THE SPEAK-ER € 85,50 WWW.THINKOFTHE.COM SCIENCE + SONS PHONOPHONE € 475,- WWW.CHARLESANDMARIE.COM KEITH HARING DOMINO € 45,- WWW.PAULSMITH.COM RUBIKS CUBE MIRROR BLOCKS € 26,70 WWW.AUDIOCUBES.COM
OAKLEY SUNGLASSES € 99,- WWW.OAKLEY.COM LEE X DAHON BIKE € TBA WWW.LEE.COM ULTRA MOTOR BY DOUG BLACK € 1.952,- WWW.ULTRAMOTOR.COM DIESEL HELMET € 185,- WWW.DIESEL.COM MARTIN MARGIELA X ATELIER RUBY € 740,- WWW.MAISONMARTINMARGIELA.COM DESIGN HYPE METRO CUFF € 17,- WWW.DESIGNHYPEINC.COM STUSSY UTILITY KNIFE € 40,- WWW.STUSSYDIRECT.EU OFFICINA PILLOW MIST € 10,50 WWW.OFFICINA.CA SUPERHEADZ BLACKBIRD CAMERA € 90,- WWW.THELISTMAG.COM MYVU CRYSTAL VIDEOGLASSES € 299,99 WWW.DESIGNGADGETS.COM
DUREX PLAY O € 13,95 WEBSHOP.IKDOEHETVEILIG.NL JVC BATH MP3 SPEAKER € 185,- WWW.AUDIOCUBES.COM JIMMYJANE AFTERGLOW MASSAGE CANDLE € 39,- WWW.JIMMYJANE.COM LEWHIF CHOCOLATE INHALER € 40,- WWW.LEWHIF.COM MUJI ARM MASSAGER € 6,70 WWW.MUJI.EU BARIELLE 60SEC MANI-PEDI € 17,50 WWW.BARIELLE.COM ISEE360 EYE MASSAGER € 107,- WWW.VORTEXPRODUCTS.COM.AU ENFREN THERAPY STATION € 277,85 WWW.ENFREN.COM HOMESTAR PRO HOME PLANETARIUM € 200,- WWW.AUDIOCUBES.COM
Going above and beyond the aesthetics of fashion. Brought to you by the students of AMFI - the Amsterdam Fashion Institute
www.mintmagazine.nl IN STORES NOW
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SILKE WERZINGER / /
“Silke Werzinger is one of 13 international illustrators newly represented by the young London agency PLN Management, which launched their illustrators division in January 2009. “We believe in illustration as another form of communication,” says the agency. PLN has its sights set on New York and Paris in the future.”
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SILKE WERZINGER
Silke Werzinger is a 28-year-old Berliner who spends her days wandering ea markets in search of nice papers on which to sketch, reading magazines, and discovering inspiration in the “little things in daily life”–people on the streets, conversations with friends, music, watching the skies, and generally observing the world around her. All this discovery manifests itself in her ink and marker illustrations, visual stories where adolescent notebook doodles, slick downtown style, and tongue-in-cheek irony nd themselves entangled beneath the school bleachers together.
Her freelance work has appeared in publications like Neon, Die Zeit, Nylon Magazine, and in work for clients like Vidal Sassoon, and Peugeot, but the real buzz is around her rst illustrated book, Pimp My Life, (Onkel & Onkel, 2009) for which she has already won a prestigious red dot design award. Pimp my life is about the demonstration of identities on the Internet: self exposure and self masking in social communities like MySpace, Facebook,...” Says Werzinger, “I like pictures you can discover step by step, pictures telling a story, pictures that cause a reaction, hopefully a smile.”
Pussymaster (Pimp My Life, 2008) “This represents a certain topic I love to illustrate: All the little freaks in this world.”
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65Dinge (Annabelle Magazine, 2008) “I got a text about 65 things a woman should have done in her life (quite funny stuff) and I was able to choose the ones I liked best for my work.�
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Remix (collaboration with Chris Fladung, 2008) “My rst remix of somebody else’s work.”
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Buddy (Pimp My Life, 2008) “This represents a certain topic I love to illustrate: All the little freaks in this world.�
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Some of our favourite shirts this summer
APRIL 77 Price 45,00 euro
BENCH Price 29,90 euro
COLLISION THEORY Price 24,00 euro
ELEMENT GIRLS Price 25,00 euro
ONTOUR Price 36,90 euro
ANALOG Price 40,00 euro
SUPERDRY Price 40,00 euro
LACOSTE Price 49,95 euro
UNIF CLOTHING Price 27,00 euro
HENRIK VIBSKOV Price 75,00 euro
THE DEVOTED Price 34,00 euro
SUBURBAN BLISS Price 35,00 euro
FIRETRAP Price 35,00 euro
GARBSTORE Price 35,00 euro
POWE RE D BY TE X TILIA FOR T H E FAST A N D T H E FAS H I ON A B LE
World Fashion Centre Amsterdam verandert op 22 september in een kart-arena. Race met vrienden, klanten of collega’s voor de team-eer en de prijzen. Deelname alleen voor modeprofessionals. Drinks, bites en dj’s in de loungeruimte. Startgeld: ¤ 500,- per team van vier personen, all inclusive.
Locatie: World Fashion Centre, Koningin Wilhelminaplein 13, Amsterdam Datum: Dinsdag 22 september ‘09 Tijd: 16.30 - 22.30 uur Inschrijven: www.fashionrace.nl
kswiss.nl/kspace