Nu-Mode´ Magazine #10 "Who Am I" Spring/Summer Edition

NU - ModE´ DESIGN ART & CULTURE MAGAZINE

WHO AM I Devyn Abdullah Niza Huang Nastya Ptichek

Ashlee Anne

Titania Ingles Poliça Path Christopher Lee suavé Suzanne Julie Tremblay Mathieu Mirano Lena Ivanova Mariella Pilato Trust Longhouse Projects Harare

Hientz

Edamame Ty Cole marge luttrell Photography Christopher Polack SPRING/SUMMER 2014 WHO AM I issue NO. 10

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NU - ModE´ DESIGN ART & CULTURE MAGAZINE

WHO AM I

Devyn Abdullah Devyn Abdullah Niza Huang Nastya Ptichek

Titania Ingles Poliça Path Christopher Lee suavé Suzanne Julie Tremblay Mathieu Mirano Lena Ivanova Mariella Pilato Trust Longhouse Projects Harare

Hientz

Edamame Ty Cole marge luttrell

P h o t o g r a p h y Coco alexander & shawn engler SPRING/SUMMER 2014 WHO AM I issue NO. 10

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NU - ModE´ DESIGN ART & CULTURE MAGAZINE

WHO AM I

Natalie Keyser Devyn Abdullah Niza Huang Nastya Ptichek

Titania Ingles Poliça Path Christopher Lee suavé Suzanne Julie Tremblay Mathieu Mirano Lena Ivanova Mariella Pilato Trust Longhouse Projects Harare

Hientz

Edamame Ty Cole marge luttrell Photography JD Barnes

SPRING/SUMMER 2014 WHO AM I issue NO. 10

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PRESENCE

Inside this Issue Identity Of An Artist Pg.15 Words Latoya P Henry A Quest For Extraordinary Pg.16 Words Irina Romashevskaya Reconstruction Of the Obvious Pg.20 Words Irina Romashevskaya Photography Christian Di Stefano The Art Of Figurative Speech Julie Tremblay Pg.23 Words Irina Romashevskaya Photography Max Yawney Margaret McInroe Christophe Cochart Thomas Petri Jack Of All Trades Pg.30 Photography Peter Nevett Styling Timothy Morley Impact Pg.41 Words Alexandra Stevens A Fusion Between Art & Technology Pg.46 Words Latoya P Henry Poliรงa Pg.52 Words Alexandra Stevens Photography Cameron Wittig A Moment In Space & Time Pg.54 Words Irina Romashevskaya Oh Luja! Pg.60 Photography Valeria Mitelman Styling Ricky Ha Phan Rich Stranger In Town Pg.72 Photography Nicolas Torres Stylist Chantelle Asciak I am Enough, But Who Is Judging? Suzanne Heintz Pg.82 Words Irina Romashevskaya Travel Through Soud, Eat Edamame Pg.93 Words Alexandra Stevens Trust Pg.96 Words Alexandra Stevens Photography Jean Baptiste Toussaint The Top 5 Albums We Love Pg.97 Words Kristine Musademba Alexandra Stevens

Inside this Issue Wintour Is Over Pg.99 Words Alexandra Stevens Dzhus Archetype Pg.107 Words Latoya P. Henry Photography Olga Nepravda Seek, And Ye Shall Find Nastya Ptichek Pg.108 Interview Latoya P Henry The Raven Pg.113 Photography Cavier Coleman Stylist Raytell Bridges The Aesthetics Of Contemporary Minimalism Pg.127 Interview Latoya P Henry Photography Liu Zhe Yao Inks, Paper‌ Fashion! Pg.132 Interview Irina Romashevskaya Conceptual Fashion With A Wink Pg.135 Interview Irina Romashevskaya The Hidden Art Behind Make up Pg.140 Words Azra Red Basket Brawl Pg.147 Photography Christopher Polack Styling Faisal Westheimer Shanghai Pg.182 Photography Richard Ibrahim Styling Carlos Mangubat Portrait Of A Woman Pg.190 Words Irina Romashevskaya Longhouse Projects Abdolreza Aminlari Benjamin King Pg.193 Words Irina Romashevskaya Making Faces Pg.197 Words Alexandra Stevens Photography Coco Alexander & Shawn Engler Styling Renessta Olds Mariella Pilato Guilty Pleasures Pg.210 Interview Irina Romashevskaya A Journey Into Art Pg.215 Words Irina Romashevskaya Neo Genesis Pg.222 Photography JD Barnes Creative Direction Kim Iko Styling Raytell Bridges Stocklist Pg.238

Illustration leigh viner

N U - M O D E´ EDITOR IN CHIEF & CREATIVE DIRECTOR LATOYA HENRY LATOYA@NUMODEMAG.COM MANAGING EDITOR JOHN MARK JOHN-MARK@NUMODEMAG.COM FASHION & ART DIRECTOR Irina Romashevskaya Irina@NUMODEMAG.COM FASHION EDITOR RENESSTA OLDS RENESSTA@NUMODEMAG.COM

ashlee Wears batwing sweater adidas originals wool-blend turtleneck sweater j.w anderson hammered art diamond earrings yves saint laurent sydney watch adidas originals Photography christopher polack Styling Faisal Westheimer

BEAUTY EDITOR AZRA RED AZRA@NUMODEMAG.COM FEATURES & MUSIC EDITOR ALEXANDRA STEVENS ALEXANDRA@NUMODEMAG.COM nu-mode´ EXCLUSIVE director Daniel Rampulla Daniel@numodemag.com Contributing Writers Kristine musademba PHOTOGRAPHERS Christopher polack . coco alexander . shawn engler peter nevett . richard ibrahim . nicolas torres Valeria Mitelman . Max yawney . Thomas petri Margaret McInroe . Christophe Cohart Cameron Wittig . Michael Chandler . Olga Nepravda Jean Baptiste Toussaint . JD Barnes . liu zhe yao Cavier Coleman . gerd bayer . christopher logan

Devyn Wears shoes Carolina Espinosa Gown Phoenix Keating Photography coco alexander & Shawn engler Styling renessta olds

STYLING faisal westheimer . renessta olds . carlos mangubat ricky ha phan bich . raytell bridges . Chantelle Asciak Timothy morley ADVERTISE CHRIS FONSECA ADVERTISE@NUMODEMAG.COM

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NU-MODE´ MAGAZINE PUBLISHER LATOYA P. HENRY BROOKLYN, NY 11238 T. 7 1 8 . 8 1 2 . 5 8 1 5 WWW.NUMODEMAG.COM Natalie Wears Trench Coat DKNY Leather Opera Gloves GUCCI Photography jd barnes creative direction kim iko Styling raytell bridges

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Contributors

christopher polack Christopher Polack is an Australian-born photographer, who set off his career by shooting BMX lifestyle for more than a decade.

Inspired by the experience and industry know-how, Christopher soon started to focus solely on fashion and portrait photography.

Having worked across disciplines from sports to advertising with a variety of mediums including film and print publishing, Christopher is actively collaborating with international brands and creative professionals to share his keen interest in visual storytelling.

The Melbourne native is particularly drawn to the documentary aspect of his art – he is always striving to capture the spontaneity that unfolds in front of the camera. Christopher’s adventure-seeking personality allows him to transcend all the unexpected elements into visually and emotionally striking editorials. Considering traveling as a second nature, Christopher feeds his restless curiosity of the world by jet setting between time zones, immersing himself in vibrant cultures, and never compromising his youthful rock’n’roll spirit. In his own words: “shoot first, explain later.”

Faisal Westheimer The clock strikes two and a concept arrives much like Count Dracula through an open window (minus the garlic). Westheimer’s creative direction is heavily inspired by tune anything from a Violin Concerto by Sibelius to a Tinnie Tempah limerick. With the upmost respect, given to the silhouette, Westheimer’s strengths lie with the combination of blue-blood structure and clean lines inspired by his SW3 beginnings. With attention to customised accessories and key pieces, Westheimer brings a touch of Anna Karenina drama to any image.

Westheimer has been able to focus his energy solely on styling and developing his eye while fine-tuning his portfolio of advertising clients and editorial publications. An avid appreciation for art and film is expressed throughout his work drawing upon a unique interdisciplinary aesthetic.

peter nevett Peter Nevett is an emerging fashion photographer from the creative streets of Melbourne, Australia. After a brief stint in Los Angeles & New York, Pete rediscovered his ultimate passion for fashion photography. A graduate from the renowned RMIT Bachelor of Photography program and at just 25, his refined style demonstrates maturity and sophistication. Peter’s dedication, persistence and ever-creative vision for fashion photography makes him one to look out for. Now based in London.

Richard Ibrahim Richard Ibrahim is a photographer & retoucher based in Melbourne, currently emerging into the beauty and fashion industry after an 8-year background in photography incorporating portraiture, commercial and wedding. His work has been both published and awarded in Australia and internationally, and he has also worked in Sydney and Tokyo and with a variety of makeup artists, stylists and studios across Melbourne.

carlos mangubat ‘Carlos is a Melbourne based fashion stylist specialising in mens and womenswear, product and flatlays. Editorial features include David Magazine, Culture Magazine, Fashion Trend, Fashion Journal, Manifest, LabA4 and AndMen Magazine.

Regular clients includes mens labels Dom Bagnato, Jack London, Bell & Barnett, Dangerfield and St Lenny as well as womens label Alannah Hill.’

Nicolas Torres I began drawing portraits and Illustrations back in 1992, Art to me was a way to see the world from another perspective and focus all my attention on that piece, and it was my passion. All through my school years my grades would suffer, could be the result of countless hours spent in art class. Drawing gave me a window into understanding light and shadow, something important for my future in photography. Straight out of High School as I would do the odd job and work with my father my side passion and what would replace the grey lead for a camera, was Fashion Photography. Something about the clothes and how they were photographed in these magazine would capture my eye and has forever change me as an artist…

NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .11

Editor’s Letter

WHO

AREYOU? When meeting someone new, small talk usually consists of divulging little pieces of your person - who are you? Where you live and what you do are the outermost layer, but properly understanding and expressing ourselves is a struggle many people don’t even realize they’re facing. What if someone were to stop you and ask you to define who you are? Self-actualization lies far beyond the menial tasks you complete in your everyday life - true understanding is found in the mind, in vices and psychoses, in aspirations and pleasures. Our spring/summer edition explores how composers of music, photography, design and contemporary art attempt to determine who they are, through their work and inter-personally. Through the eyes of celebrated make up artist Azra Red, we delve into the foundations of make up, revealing a storied past that goes beyond mass consumerism and gravitates toward art. With each explanation and extension of self-realization, we are able to gather ideas about personal happiness, about passion and existence. “Who Am I” is characterized by the personal perspective of an individual, and our journey in curating the insight from a collective of artists, all with a message waiting to be heard.

LatoyaP Henry

Latoya P. Henry Editor In Chief

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wwW.timlabenda.com

TIM LABENDA

ART

6 Divorces 2014 acrylic on canvas 50x 70 x 4 cm

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ROBERT PROCH One to watch

Identity

of an artist Words Latoya P. Henry

ART

One Year In two hours 2014 acrylic on canvas, 150 x 120 x 4 cm

His paintings are the focal point on buildings throughout Europe, on canvases in numerous galleries and live animation on screen. Based out of Poznań, Poland, painter, muralist and animator Robert Proch distinctive style demonstrates the feelings of displacement, despair, pride and ambition. The storylines of his work are centered upon realism and part abstraction, which is defined as the motive of his paintings.

From each emotion described, the artist captured personal confessions in a series of characters with vivid colored lines, shapes and smooth strokes. The intensity of Proch’s work is manifested through composing alternate dimensions of a modern city. Reconstructing the theories of fine art with urban art, his combination of the two illustrates his unique aesthetic which carefully translates into a new genre of art.

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jewelry designer Niza huang interview

a Quest For

E X TRAOR D I N AR Y

A

Design

WORDS IRINA ROMASHEVSKAYA

s a London-based jeweler that works with precious metals, Niza Huang references to her “imagination and environment to create beautiful sculptural jewelry,” which is always created by hand. Her background in the arts and jewelry making is supplied with a degree in industrial design, an evident trait, when you look at the level of scrupulosity with which Huang’s jewelry is crafted. Surprisingly ergonomic and aesthetically pleasing, her creations speak to the heart, coming to life a result of a well thought-out concept.

Huang started her brand as personal query into unknown, an exploration of self and the world that surrounds her. “I’ve always adored the physical feel of jewelry. It reveals one’s personality, history, emotion and memories, and these elements are pivotal in making my jewellery come alive. I wanted to express myself, and I also wanted for people to see my unique point of view,” she says stressing that “The process of making jewelry comes to life by adding character; and realizing an idea into a 3-D wearable sculpture attracts me tremendously. These are the reasons why I created Niza Huang jewellery line.”

The talented designer gathers her inspiration from a variety of sources: “I love street art, and I observe small elements around me. I love to spend time in natural environments, with plants and as close to the earth as possible. I pay attention to the smallest of details. I also admire installation artworks and draw my inspiration from them. When a huge 3-D art piece interacts with the space, the visual outcome is often very shocking. Henrique Oliveira’s monumental wooden installation is one of those examples.”

Niza Huang doesn’t have a strong interest in following fashion or trends, but rather prefers to create the artwork and trend completely of her own making. Inspired by the powers of nature, she dives into the depths of creation, searching for new ways of expressing her vision, connecting to the divine and inventing new techniques along the way.

And her recent collection is the proof of that.

“My latest collection, Crush, is a continuation of my fascination with the natural sculpture of organic formations. I delve even deeper into the subject. For Crush, I developed a different technique, using a very thin metal to create shapes, and it was a difficult challenge,” she points out. “Crush surveys our connection to the planet, highlighting the

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Design NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .17

Design NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .18

jewelry designer Niza huang interview

Design

I’ve always adored the physical feel of jewellery. It reveals one’s personality, history, emotion and memories, and these elements are pivotal in making my jewellery come alive. cyclical nature of life on earth. Although the pieces have a glam rock edge, this jagged effect is the result of very delicate and painstaking work.”

Huang’s fascination with self-exploration and her powerful bond with nature are also responsible for strong connection with her customer base. “Most of my customers are either designers, or have a job in a creative field, and they are often very expressive when showing their appreciation for my work. And I can’t say it doesn’t make me feel deliriously happy and blessed.”

The designer creates her unorthodox pieces in gold plated or sterling silver and spirit quartz.

Her jewelry is also often unisex and as Huang points out, “cufflinks are one of those unisex pieces.” She explains her startling attention

to details as a way of explaining someone’s mystique. “I think the smaller details and elements tell more about the inner character of the person. A man will stand out in the crowd if he has a nice pair of cufflinks.”

clever inventions can be deemed as a definite success story. She strives to create even more unforgettable gem and metal art pieces, feeling blessed with what she had achieved and looking fearlessly into the future.

Amidst her very busy work schedule, Huang makes the time to ponder and recharge, finding infinite inspiration sources in her travels.

“I haven’t been to many places in the world, but my trip to New Zealand in 2011 inspired me a lot. I was touched by the pure power of nature; which made me feel, on one hand, so small and simple, but content and appreciated at the same time. This trip freed and influenced me deeply, affecting all of my work as a result.”

“I am very happy about what I have created so far, and as long as I am happy with what I’m doing, I think I’ll do well. I am planning to add two additional product lines: one is simple and more affordable, and another one is fine jewelry, which will be made in real gold and platinum.” We can only imagine how glorious the two new product lines will look like, and we are waiting impatiently to see them.

Niza Huang’s mission to create extraordinary by means of passionate exploration and NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .19

Design

Reconstruction

of the obvious WORDS IRINA ROMASHEVSKAYA Photography Christian di stefano

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Eugenia alejos one to watch

Design

A mastermind in the areas of mixed media illustration and collage, Eugenia Alejos creates evocative, groundbreaking imagery, as seen on the pages of various fashion and design magazines. And lately she’s been dabbling in clothing and accessories design.

Holograms, high-resolution prints, 3D technology – these are just some of the innovative techniques Eugenia Alejos has been using in her limited edition capsule collections. The intricate garments are finished with exclusive trims and details, hand dyed and tailored; metal and polyamide accessories are lined with soft suede, creating unusual textures and shapes, but without compromising comfort or wearability.

Alejos’ interest in fabric technology paved the way to her increased exploration and experimentation with different materials and techniques. She uses exotic and recycled leather to achieve startling textural results,

plays with polyamide and neoprene to create unusual shapes, and reimagines traditional application of fabrics such as silk, cotton and viscose, to turn them into something out of the ordinary.

Blending her love for illustration with her insatiable drive for design, she channels her layered deconstructed compositions into garment and accessories design. In her “Proto3Dype” collection she uses an innovative 3D printing technique and incorporates it in the design of shoes, bags, eyewear and clothing. Her work is imaginative, conceptual and strikingly beautiful. Every piece of the collection is a unique statement, and it’s created with great care and pride.

In her illustration work, Alejos mixes pencil and watercolors with fabric, leather, and plastic, drawing, slashing and stitching her art pieces together. Similar technique is used in her “A dixit” collection,

where she exercises an unconventional approach to menswear, attempting to tap into yet another area of design. Combining traditional sweater knits with unusual textures, bondage leather and deconstructed detailing, she searches for new aesthetic and creates groundwork for menswear of the future.

The secret to designer’s aesthetic, however, is the fact that she feels her work through and through. By deconstructing what’s on the surface, she reconstructs what was always beneath: the elements that create the imagery, separate concepts of design, necessary for the whole image to work. “Why not take the obvious ingredients of the design, bring them to the surface, mix them all up and recreate something entirely fresh?” She asks herself and crafts the extraordinary.

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Continuum I and II NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .22

artist Julie Tremblay Interview

THE ART OF FIGURATIVE SPEECH

Julie Tremblay.

ART

WORDS IRINA ROMASHEVSKAYA

Fluid, spacious and vivid, Julie Tremblay’s air-weight sculptural art pieces raise above the floor in unexpected formations. You can’t help it but try to study them closer. Nu-Modé had a pleasure to chat with the talented artist and get a closer look.

Having studied art and sculpture at Pratt, the Quebec City-born artist moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, where she lived for five years before finally settling in Brooklyn. She spent the early years of her career trying to figure her artistic way into the world. “I always knew I was an artist but wasn’t sure at first what my medium would be.” She tried her hand at being an actress, gave a thought to becoming a writer and attended a graphic design program for a year before realizing that fine art was her calling.

Tremblay’s initial interest in sculpting led her to develop an appreciation for all things out of the ordinary, but in a much broader creative arena than sculpture. “I am primarily interested in creating dynamic

forms in space with unusual materials. I have been making sculptures for over 20 years. For much of that time, I was making figure-based works. Not so much for the representational aspect of the work, but more for the power of the metaphor they can carry and because I was interested in universality – and still am to this day. My first sculptures that got some attention were figures made from left over sheets of metwal used to make bottle caps. I loved how the stamped out holes in the sheets allowed me to include negative spaces inside the figures. Suddenly, they became inter-connected with the space around them, which was actually no longer exclusively around them, but continued inside.”

Constantly looking for the out-of-the box ideas to broaden her scope of unusual components, she searches the field high and low. “Working with bottle cap scrap material made me want to study geometry. I then learned about fractal geometry, which basically changed the way I looked at the world and made me more interested in the shapes and patterns that link everything big and small in the universe. ProgressivNU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .23

artist Julie Tremblay Interview

ely, it made me depart from working almost exclusively with the human figure, to working with more biomorphic and anthropomorphic forms.

The figure is still present in my work, but now it’s just a part of a greater, interconnected ensemble.”

Tremblay’s inspiration is largely anchored in the work process itself, in the materials she uses and manipulates to create various art forms. “It’s all about being attentive,” she says, adding that her extensive travels and environments she lived in have influenced her work nevertheless.

“During the five years I lived in Copenhagen, I have made the most homogenous body of work to date. It was so unlike me in a way, but as I realized later, it must have been due to the fact that Copenhagen felt so uniform and consistent compared to New York. Sure enough, coming back to New York, my work just exploded.”

Working out of her studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Tremblay finds inevitable influence of street art and “the general visual language of those gritty streets.” Part of her inspiration can also be attributed to her appreciation for science – physics and chemistry in particular – and her interest in fractal geometry, which “has had an increasingly big influence on my work practice since 2009,” as she admits. “I also love fashion and occasionally get influenced by a garment – for example a marvelous vintage pleated cape I own prompted me to start playing with pleats in my work.”

ART

Julie Tremblay’s work is as varied as the range of materials she finds herself working with. She loves to explore and innovate, quite often developing new art techniques along the way. “When working with unusual materials, I have to develop the technique myself, which was the case when figuring out a way to work with the leftovers from bottle cap production. Much of what I do is about picking up something, manipulating it and figuring out how I can use it.”

Always finding inspiration in unlikely sources, Tremblay is not opposed to the use of conventional materials, but more often than not, she’ll discover a new approach for their application. “More recently I have developed a fascination for charcoal. The use of charcoal in art is very traditional and goes way back, but I wanted to work with it in a way that is not at all traditional. That basically turned into a chemistry and physics project and is a good example of how the gap between the way I work and that of a scientist is narrowing. But I also love traditional techniques as well, such as casting, which requires a lot of precision.”

Like the work of the contemporary artists she admires – Sarah Sze, Loise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse – her multileveled work is laced with a hidden meaning, sense of innovation and unrestrained desire for experimentation. “I have a great deal of admiration for the work of Sarah Sze. I love the scale shifts in her work, the way she is messing around with perspectives as well as the complexity and wit of her installations. I also have been a long time admirer of the work of Louise Bourgeois, who I had the pleasure to meet back in 1998. I love her materials and her formal resolve. I find her work to be much like her, seemingly cold and hard one instant, soft and touching the next. To the list [of my favorite artists] I will add Eva Hesse, who also had her way with form and materials and was a pioneer. Her resonance can still be seen in the works of young artists working today.”

To keep things fresh and exciting artistically, Tremblay tries to step out of the comfort zone as much as she can: “It keeps me on my toes, and I feel that this is when I do some of my best work,” she shares. “I just love that feeling of throwing myself in the unknown and seeing multiple doors opening as a result. That feeling is probably one of the greatest rewards of a creative life. But there are also times needed to expand those

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When working with unusual materials, I have to develop the technique myself, which was the case when figuring out a way to work with the leftovers from bottle cap production. Much of what I do is about picking up something, manipulating it and figuring out how I can use it.

fission

HMITM

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artist Julie Tremblay Interview

During the five years I lived in Copenhagen, I have made the most homogenous body of work to date. It was so unlike me in a way, but as I realized later, it must have been due to the fact that Copenhagen felt so uniform and consistent compared to New York. Sure enough, coming back to New York, my work just exploded.

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Portrait with fission NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .27

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Red Handed NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .28

artist Julie Tremblay Interview

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Drawings

discoveries into bodies of work. I like the balance between times of exploration and times when I am elaborating and expanding on something.”

Tremblay is staying busy and is currently working on a series of different projects. “Much of this year will be spent working on my largest sculpture to date. A 29 x 10 x 12 feet aluminum mesh sculpture that will be hung in the atrium of a mixed use building in Markham, Ontario, situated just north of Toronto.” And when not working creatively, she spends her time away from art with her daughter. “I have an 11-year-old daughter, so much of my free time is spent with her. This past winter we have been enjoying the new ice skating rink in Prospect Park. It has been really lovely.”

As Tremblay continues her exploration of new artistic ways of expression, she expands her horizons into a completely different medium. “I am in the middle of a series of works on paper – my first! Even though most people will be compelled to call them drawings, I still look at them as sculptures. It involves powdered charcoal and gesture, but no marks in the traditional sense. I throw the charcoal at

the paper and I let the gravitational forces make the marks.

The charcoal, all by itself, re-creates forms found in nature.

What happens before my eyes when I make these forms is so amazing, I feel I can hardly take credit for them,” says a humble artist, intriguing us even more with countless possibilities of her future artistic experimentation. Definitely something we will be looking forward to.

Drawings Julie Tremblay Red Handed and HMITM Max Yawney Continuum I and II Thomas Petri Portrait with Fission Margaret McInroe Installation shot Christophe Cochart Fission Julie Tremblay

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ack f ll rades

PHOTOGRAPHY Peter Nevett STYLING Timothy Morley

coat Katie Eary knit john smedley Necklace stephen einhorn

Jacket issey miyake top issey miyake

suit vivienne westwood shirt kenzo Necklace stephen einhorn

knit top issey miyake bag issey miyake trousers vivienne westwood

jacket alexander mcqueen trousers alexander mcqueen

suit vivienne westwood shirt kenzo Necklace stephen einhorn

jacket alexander mcqueen trousers alexander mcqueen shoes christopher shannon for kickers

Jacket issey miyake top issey miyake leggings american vintage shoes sandro

jacket sandro waistcoat vivienne westwood pants kenzo Photography peter nevett styling timothy morley model jack t at d1 london

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designer Titania inglis interview exclusive

I m p a c t WORDS ALEXANDRA STEVENS

D

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design

Designer Titania Inglis floats around her home studio in a boxy leather crop top, a barren strip of stomach exposed down to the textured wool of a full skirt. Her personal wardrobe tends to come mostly of her own design - partially for self-promotion, but mostly to have the experience of her own creations. By exposing her clothes to life outside, Inglis can better understand the fit, the fabric, and how her materials break down. It also gives her ideas on how to evolve her designs when coming back to certain cuts or fabrics.

“I think it’s really important to wear your own designs. As a small designer you don’t really get the chance to quality-test your fabric the way larger companies do, and one way to do that is to just wear things.” Inglis is meticulous and thoughtful in her intent, and aims to design garments that provide flexibility and longevity, without ever being boring. Behind her stands a clothing rack stuffed with multiple design collections, a wash of neutrals and blacks with the occasional peek of buttery yellow. Inglis pulls garments from her latest collection out of bags, unveiling the rich textures and lush materials of Isostasy, Fall/Winter 2014. Italian veg-tanned leather appears as pants and a rawedged jacket, and a structured wool coat hides beneath its fluffy, Icelandic sheepskin collar. The collection is about 21 pieces including its accessories, and was inspired by its fabrics and a recent trip to Japan.

“The inspiration started with this textured leathers that I sourced,” Inglis said, pulling a pencil skirt off of the rack. The front is shaved leather with a pearly sheen, cut with soft natural patterns that evoke the shapes of the earth. The back is Italian wool flannel; heavy enough to hold its own with leather, but soft enough to be comfortable and practical. Inglis finds most of her leather from a wholesaler in Queens, while knits and wools come from a Chelsea wholesale factory.

The textured leather that appears throughout Isostasy is dead stock from a defunct American tannery, making it a unique fabric thats use creates no additional environmental impact. In its markings Inglis saw an antique map, vague images of geological formations, mountains, and land masses.

“It just has these really gorgeous gradations of brown, and apparently... makeup?” She says with a laugh, swiping at an oddly-colored smudge. “That’s from the shoot.” Earlier this week Inglis and friends went to upstate New York to shoot an abstract video featuring her latest collection. An abandoned resort served as a haunting backdrop, providing peeling paint and decrepit lounge chairs encased in a sheet of ice.

Inglis describes the Chernobyl-like setting, saying the video should be released online soon with musical support from a yet-to-be-named collaborator. Her plans also include a holiday collection, a smaller line she intends to release between seasons.

“A lot of the time collections develop from whatever I feel like is missing in my wardrobe, and a lot of time it develops from pieces that I didn’t get around to making for a previous collection,” explained Inglis of why she’s choosing to release an additional collection by the

designer Titania inglis interview exclusive

I love that idea of valuing imperfections. The imperfections are what adds unique qualities to things..

design

end of the year. Smaller design brands often don’t have the time or means to produce collections between Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer, so this year will be a first for Inglis.

“The inspiration tends to build the further you get into a collection, but of course the closer you get to your deadline, the less time you actually have to make all of these things,” she said. Inglis hopes an additional project will allow her to expand on pre-existing design concepts, giving her the chance to work with great ideas that never came to fruition.

“I came back with a lot of inspiration, but not very much time,” Inglis said of her recent trip to Japan. Inglis and her boyfriend spent their time exploring the country for over two weeks, visiting museums and fabric sources and coffee shops. Though it was her second time visiting the country, it was her first time truly exploring the country outside of the hub of Tokyo. She’s found herself stricken by the rich visual culture of Japan, especially inspired by the concept of wabisabi. Dating back thousands of years, the wabi-sabi aesthetic focuses on the beauty of imperfection and asymmetry.

“I love that idea of valuing imperfections,” Inglis said. “The imperfections are what adds unique qualities to things.” Inglis found immense beauty in the everyday objects of Japan, like one museum’s display of tea ceremony objects.

She describes her favorite facet of the Japanese aesthetic as “simple but with a beautiful finish,” and something she wanted to draw from in her own design. She also frequently sources fabric from Japanese companies, whose ethical and stylistic choices often fit her own.

“I work a lot with organic cotton, and the Japanese are - in my view - the best in the world at working with it,” said Inglis. “In the states, when you find fabrics made with organic cotton they tend to be pretty rough, and not very durable. It’s not genetically modified like most cotton is now, so the fibers are actually shorter.” She goes on to explain the importance in tightly winding yarns before weaving a fabric.

When creating a garment for her Spring/Summer collection last year, Inglis found that a Japanese organic cotton fabric was wound so tightly that the only means of color saturating it evenly was by screen printing. Though it added an extra step to the process, the fabric is undeniably durable, and the dye method added an interesting finish.

Inglis also describes her fascination with indigo, from the chemical process to the variation in its uses. Indigo is the only natural dye that is color fast on cotton without pretreating fabric, and darker shades are achieved by dipping, not soaking. In Japan, Inglis visited a factory that specialized

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in indigo dye, where she saw rope-dying in mass quantities.

She hopes to work with indigo in her next collection, fascinated by its unique dye process and properties. Despite being a naturally-sourced dye, Inglis is mostly drawn to it for its visual properties.

“The branding and the aesthetic of the brand are separate from the sustainable aspect,” she explained of her deliberated design decisions. “The sustainable part is really personal for me. I just don’t see why anyone wouldn’t work that way, except for - of course - the expense. As a responsible human being, it’s the only way that makes sense to work, but I don’t think that it necessarily bears aesthetic onto the design.”

Her previous collections have included lots of artistic collaborations, from the stage work for a runway presentation to extensive accessories. For her most recent venture, Inglis pared down her pieces for a smaller overall collection with only one collaboration. Isostasy’s accessories were created with friend and designer Elaine Tian of Studio Joo, a Brooklyn-based design brand. Studio Joo specializes in light fixtures and bowls, earthy wares of gleaming porcelain and stone. The pendants designed for Isostasy show that Tian’s skills are also perfectly suited to jewelry, and the pieces meld beautifully with Inglis’ aesthetic.

“[Tian] developed a wax treatment to create this sort of gouache effect,” Inglis says of the flat porcelain charms in her hand. Their soft white surfaces are stained with a gradient of India ink blotches, and when the pendants collide they sound like wind chimes. The necklace is elegant and simple, a singular porcelain piece at the end of a long, black, y-shaped cord. Inglis described the harness as a “wearable dreamcatcher,” showing the various ways the piece could be worn. Despite being bigger and more statement-making, the harness still possesses a certain fragility.

The clasp is a tiny golden stone, a custom design by Nettie Kent. The sustainable jewelry designer created the fastening for Inglis’ 2013 fall collection, who has been using them for garments and accessories ever since.

Inglis has recently found herself playing with texture, especially in leather, expanding on various different experimental treatments. She is now up to a working prototype for a faceted leather handbag, which she says has been in development for a while in the quest for perfection. Isostasy included pieces using washed leather - Inglis bathed fabric in warm water before hand-stretching and crinkling to create stiffness and texture. In contrast to the clean, structural designs Inglis has known an affinity for, the washed leather

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designer Titania inglis interview exclusive

design

Inglis bathed fabric in warm water before hand-stretching and crinkling to create stiffness and texture. In contrast to the clean, structural designs Inglis has known an affinity for, the washed leather takes on an easy, broken-in feel.

Inglis’ designs breathe new life into the pre-existing, experimenting with ancient techniques and unused material.

Instead of simply creating new, a story is developed from what already is. Familiar fabrics are treated and combined in unexpected ways, and she frequently adapts design concepts from bygone eras, like her modern take on the 1920’s bias cut.

A resonating mew comes from beneath the clothing rack, where a wide-eyed cat announces her arrival. Squeak is one of two black cats that call Inglis’ studio home, basking in the sun-washed luxury of her work station.

“I think we all have a responsibility to consider the impact of our design decisions,” said Inglis, scratch-

ing a loving Squeak behind the ears. “That includes where we’re sourcing from, the methods we use for production, and just the greater ramifications all that has.” She continues on to speculate fashion is probably one of the biggest industries in the world in terms of reach and impact, second only to food and farming. “It just seems a bit obvious that it’s important, where things come from.” She argues that synthetic developments have overtaken traditional methods due to price and convenience, but at the cost of negative impact on a larger scale.

“Realistically as a small designer, my production runs are pretty small. I’m not making a huge impact on actual production methods in the world, or supporting a whole lot of organic farmers out there, but at the same time I think I can be an inspiration or influence for other designers. It never hurts to do your own, small part. It’s nice to show the world that you can make beautiful things in a sustainable way.”

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art fusion exhibition

afusion

ART

between art & technology WORDS LATOYA P. HENRY

How would you define art? For most it could be a spiritual connection between the viewer and the artist, or a message waiting to be delivered. The art scene has rapidly grown into a lucrative foundation for the struggling and wellestablished artists to showcase their talent to the public through advance technology, social media, portfolio platforms and sites dedicated to the arts. Furthermore, these methods have also played an important part in brewing a broader audience of art lovers, collectors and buyers alike.

Artists now have more ways than ever to express themselves publicly, granting visual access of their workspaces, snippets of their latest work, and details on upcoming exhibitions. Behind each painting, sculpture, illustration, and visual concept there are obviously many complexities, but viewers often don’t have access to such background. By having a personal understanding of an artist through visual connection, audiences are able to define a better sense of NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .46

who an artist is, and gain a more thorough understanding of their work. When seeking out curators here at Nu-Mode´, we have what we call the “sheep and search” phase - it’s a period where we spend almost 20 hours per day searching for the newest spectrum of artists on the web, street, library or local coffee shops that produce an incredible amount of deeply rooted and new contemporary artists. At Nu-Mode´ the artists are selected for their talent of reinventing the fundamentals of art by introducing refreshing concepts within mixed media, multidisciplinary and abstract arts.

ART

Martine frossard EFFIGY II 2012 acrylic & pencils 19 x 24

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Daniel Gordon portrait in orange and green 2012 c print 24 x 20 NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .48

Ernesto artillo Un Hombre 2013

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Andreas Nitschke Verkappte

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ART

art fusion exhibition

vanessa lellouche & Sabrina grasso illustratures NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .50

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Kwangho shin untitled 204 oil on canvas 193.9 x 130.3 cm

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music NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .52

poliça listen now

music

WORDS ALEXANDRA STEVENS Photography Cameron Wittig

With the release of Give You the Ghost in 2012 and last year’s Shulamith, Minneapolis-born Poliça has proved themselves experts in shamelessly auto tuned synth pop done right. Channy Leaneagh provides warbling vocals over the masterful production of Ryan Olson, who is replaced during live sets by Chris Bierden on bass, and Drew Chritopherson and Ben Ivascu on drums. With two albums and a kick-starting collaboration with Mike Noyce of Bon Iver under their belts, Poliça has released a powerful selection of refreshingly abstract synth-pop.

Though their lyrics about often about the usual pop strife of love and loss and self-doubt, they are much more artfully crafted. Poliça actually has all their lyrics available on their website, and they really hold their own as forlorn poetry.

Several memorable music videos further flesh out Poliça’s well-roundedness, from the sensual and surreal “Warrior Lord” to the graphic and powerful “Tiff” featuring Justin Vernon. “I Need $” and “So Leave” from Give You the Ghost were merged into one intriguing video, one song effortlessly flowing into the other at the arc of the video’s plot. Poliça serves as a reminder of what auto tune sounds like when it’s used to enhance what’s already good, instead of to hide what’s bad. Other highlights from the band include the oft-remixed “Chain My Name,” a collaboration with Mike Noyce of Bon Iver titled “Lay Your Cards Out.” Poliça pins down the formula for the play-that-song-again pop effect with music that is catchy, melodic, and sometimes a little melancholy.

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I

f you have an interest in architecture or design, you’ve probably seen one of Ty Cole’s photographs on the pages of Metropolis and Dwell; or if a Brooklynite, you’d probably recall that Absolut Brooklyn photo campaign from 2010. Nu-Mode´ caught up with a busy photographer to chat about his work, trade secrets and his unusual hobbies.

A Moment In Space & Time.

photography

WORDS IRINA ROMASHEVSKAYA

Originally from Alabama and now residing in Brooklyn, Ty Cole is known for his spacious architectural imagery, his intimate environmental portraits and majestic landscapes. An avid photography enthusiast myself, I’m curious to hear his story as I ask Ty about his first steps in the field.

“It all started for me in 8th grade. In our art class, I was given my first photography assignment. I remember my father driving me out to the corn and cotton fields outside my hometown. I photographed a large sprinkler system that spans the length of a football field, an old crop duster airplane and some old highway signs. After seeing those objects come to life in the darkroom, I was hooked. Ever since then I knew I was going to be a photographer.”

Every artist from time to time likes to ponder what his or her life would have been if they didn’t choose their current profession. For Cole that question arose a few times. Ten years ago he gave serious thought to becoming an architect, but as he points out, “Since then, I have worked so closely with architects and have come to learn it’s a very challenging profession. Now, I’d have to say, my second choice would have been industrial design. Not that that profession is easy, but I don’t think it is as daunting of a process as being an architect.”

Some photographers prefer spontaneity in their work and a few follow specific routine, developing a defined concept ahead of time. I wondered if for Cole it was different. “It really all depends on the assignment.

Most editorial clients give you a synopsis of the story and send you on your way and trust you’ll come back with something cool and interesting. With architectural clients there is a bit of planning and plotting, otherwise you may not be in the right place at the right time,” points out Cole. “Advertising has a much more definitive concept going into the shoot. In all cases though, I am always open to spontaneity and adjusting if it makes for a better picture.”

Ty Cole is largely known for his architectural photography. The buildings he enjoys photographing so greatly are carefully projected, infused with light and suspended in time. I assume that to achieve this dramatic result there must be some sort of a secret, a key in making a built structure come to life.

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Photographer ty cole interview

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Photographer ty cole interview

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I’m obsessed with Google street view and finding myself, often, navigating down a rural road in some country on the other side of the world.

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photography

For me a portrait always has two components, the person I am shooting, and the environment they are in. I am fascinated how one affects the other. I’m looking at the surroundings and how the person fits just as much as getting the right reaction from the person. Many things go into a great portrait but what really matters is, can the viewer connect with the subject?

“There’s more than one way to photograph a building. Deciding which way is best, depends on what you want the building to express. By shooting a flat elevation – up close with a wide lens – the building will appear more monumental in most cases, and very “in your face”. If you move back and view the building at an angle, it will show more of the environment and its place in the landscape.”

Cleverly positioned shadow, a ray of light, a coy smile, or a friendly pet looking into the distance – these are tools of the trade carefully selected to tell the story. “I’m interested in how humans interact with their environment, especially man-made environments. So I look to create images that best expresses that relationship. I guess you could say the story dictates the way I tell it.”

What constitutes a good shot is often invisible to the eye at first. Space, light and color all come into play to produce an image worth seeing, but what’s more important than the actual components, is the story that’s being told, and Ty Cole is a great storyteller.

When photographing people, Cole pays atNU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .58

tention to the surroundings almost as much as he features the subject. The result of this unorthodox approach: an intimate portrayal of someone in his or her comfort zone, a complete story of someone’s life. “For me a portrait always has two components, the person I am shooting, and the environment they are in. I am fascinated how one affects the other. I’m looking at the surroundings and how the person fits just as much as getting the right reaction from the person. Many things go into a great portrait but what really matters is, can the viewer connect with the subject?”

It seems Ty Cole likes to toy with his viewers, giving them just enough to develop an interest, but leaving them wondering what could be next. His “Billboards” series looks almost eerie, there is a sense of anticipation for something to come: for a car to drive by or for a stranger to pass…. His choice to shoot billboards was essential in grasping an unexpected moment of beauty in otherwise prosaic terrain.

“When driving down Interstate 65 in Alabama, while back visiting family, I noticed a ton of billboards. This format of advertising is almost synonymous with our landscape.

It puzzled me how these very distracting objects were placed in a location that demands all of your attention, on the interstate.

I wanted to photograph them as beacons in a landscape, so I exposed for the landscape blowing out the billboards.”

Capturing a precious moment in time, Cole seems to engage in a conversation with his audience: “I’m a very curious person and love to explore, and I truly enjoy sharing my experiences with other people. I get the opportunity to shoot some really cool landscapes, architecture, people, etc. and I just want to share what I’ve learned with my viewers, ” he says, adding that he also has an unusual hobby: “I’m obsessed with Google street view and finding myself, often, navigating down a rural road in some country on the other side of the world.”

This curiosity is what makes Ty Cole’s work so different and appealing at the same time.

What’s invisible to the eye at first turns into a question and then leads into a much longer conversation, attracting the viewers time and time again, making them wonder, where does the story end? Well, from Cole’s point of view, it’s definitely up for our imagination.

Photographer ty cole interview

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oh L u j a !

PHOTOGRAPHY Valeria Mitelman STYLING Ha Phan Bich

Suit Asos Blouse Equipment Shoes Zara

Top Strenesse Coat Ganni

Blouse Karlotta Wilde Skirt Stefanel Accessoires Asos

Earrings Vibe Harslof

Jumpsuit Rebecca Sammler Vest Rebecca Sammler Ring Stylist Own Shoes Zara

Top Beth Richards Skirt Zara Coat &otherstories Earrings Asos Socks Stylist Own Shoes Zara Glasses Miu Miu

Top Karlotta Wilde

Top Strenesse Pants Cos Coat Ganni Shoes Zara | Ring Stylist Own

Top Beth Richards Pants Zara Shoes Zara Hat Borsalino

Top Zara Ring Stylist Own Photography Valeria Mitelman Styling Ha Phan Bich Make up Artist & Hairstylist Anna Kuerner Model Luja at m4 models

stranger in town PHOTOGRAPHY Nicolas Torres STYLING Chantelle Asciak

Russian Blue blazer Calibre Hurricane shirt Orphn Fake jean black wax THING THING Chukka cow print shoes Rollie sunglasses worn through out stylist own

Super Fine V neck Federation Super Fine V neck Calibre

The mini tex cardigan Calibre Swedish jig shirt VERRY kerry Para pant 2 sienna THING THING Derby black distressed Rollie

Ivy league sport coat Clemente & Talarico Cap shirt THING THING Russian blue pant Calibre Chukka cognac distressed Rollie

Spade print shirt Calibre Twill tab pant & Solid crimson bow tie Calibre Derby red distressed Rollie

Reversible bomber Calibre Glasses stylist own

Division button up dirty hawai Federation Forest pant Calibre Derby black distressed Rollie Accessories stylist own Photography Nicolas Torres Styling Chantelle Asciak Make up Artist & Hairstylist Jessica Kramp Model Rory Pierce at Chadwick Models Photography Assistant Jonathan Torres Photography Assistant Sebastian Avila

art

I A M E N O U G H, BUT WHO IS JUDGING?

Suzanne Heintz INTERVIEW IRINA ROMASHEVSKAYA

As a self-proclaimed “unusual Artist”, Suzanne Heintz specializes in what could be called a satire-infused photo and videographic imagery.

Through the means of satire she engages a difficult conversation, addressing some of the toughest issues the society faces today. “Who am I and what defines Me?” she bravely asks, shocking her viewers into thinking. What’s wrong with the picture painted centuries back and still being used to this day? Why do we have to fulfill societal and gender quotas to feel complete? Aren’t we enough without adding any noise to our own persona? The questions continue to pile up as she delves deeper into the subject, uncovering the list of social taboos and misconceptions and making it tougher to ignore them as we go off living our lives.

Do you have any special memories growing up?

I was raised in Yonkers, New York, the youngest of four red-blooded American kids, and the only one to not marry and have children. My NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .82

family was your classic Suburban Family, and Mormon to boot. That provided the frame of reference for my work. I’m no longer Mormon, but the social expectations of the church did leave a mark. It was the end of the ’60s and start of the ’70s, and the roles of women in regards to the institution of marriage were beginning to change, but heck, I was a kid. I didn’t know. All I knew is what I saw.

My Parents divorced when I was fairly young, so I saw a side of family life that seemed to contradict the ideal image projected by the church, and by the Ozzie & Harriet image still prevalent in the media of that time. I never knew anyone who was single with no children. Everyone in our neighborhood had two parents, and a bunch of siblings. The only time I remember hearing about someone who lived differently was in reference to my Great Aunt Ruthie. “Oh Ruthie, she was a wild thing, always joking around. You know, she never married. She had a boyfriend though. I think he was a Gangster.” Sounded pretty exotic to me.

But I think it was the first time I came across the concept of a Spinster.

Photographer Suzanne Heintz interview

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Photographer Suzanne Heintz interview

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I don’t think I can change the world by myself, but I believe you ought to speak up about the issues you want to fix, in the most effective way you can. Start a conversation by some means available to you. Then do what you can to get the conversation to multiply.

What is your artistic philosophy?

What inspires you the most and why?

People who take outrageous chances for the sake of doing something extraordinary. Leaving routine. Completely getting lost in another culture. Those are all the things that are positive inspirations for me, but what motivates me most to do something is when I see and feel something that is negative, impairing, and that I’m frustrated or angered by. It makes me think “That’s a load of bunk. Why does it have to be that way? Somebody ought to do something about that!”

And then I realize that somebody could be me. I don’t think

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I use my own experience to bring up a larger subject that resonates with everyone, but only if they’re willing to take a look at themselves. I think humor is a gravely underestimated tool in the Art World. I use it to penetrate where heavy-handedness can’t. I see it like this: if the point of art is visual communication, why not use the most effective means available to reach the widest audience? No matter what medium is used, photographs, video, performance art – for me, it’s about impact. I want to leave viewers as if after a good conversation, where each feels more thoughtful and aware, maybe more unsure of what they believe anymore, but knowing they felt something. I believe you should speak from your own experience. Struggle with Self has always been a place from which I can speak truthfully.

Emergence from a framework of beliefs that are part yours, and part not, to be at peace within your own mind – is a lifelong pursuit. Really, if you break it down, it’s the shaping of a soul that I’m intrigued by, the centrifugal force from within, pressing against external forces that push at us, causing our lives to take shape over time. What human can’t relate to that?

I can change the world by myself, but I believe you ought to speak up about the issues you want to fix, in the most effective way you can. Start a conversation by some means available to you. Then do what you can to get the conversation to multiply.

Tell us about your latest project, “Life once removed”.

What was the idea behind it?

Initially, to get people to leave me alone about my single status, and to get them to think about what they were really saying when they questioned it. What they were driving at was that if I wanted a chance at the Good Life, then I ought to get off my high horse, hurry up and find a man, and somehow force him to propose, or I’d be sorry. I’d end up a Spinster.

The idea is so antiquated. An unmarried woman a hundred years ago was a problem. She had few prospects to support herself. It was a terrible affliction! Nowadays, the remnants of that belief still exist. If you’re unmarried there must be something very wrong with you, otherwise, you’d be taken.

Where is it written that there is a social imperative to marry and have children? That’s what I’m driving at. Is my life wrong because it doesn’t follow an expected pattern?

Would I be better off if I had gone through the motions and married for the sake of running out of time? Would my life be quantitatively better if I had a family to pose with in front of the sign at the Grand Canyon?

Yet, I am not against Marriage. I think it’s a fantastic idea.

But I will not accept someone telling me that my life is lost because I’m unmarried, and I haven’t had children.

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Photographer Suzanne Heintz interview

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We are somehow never enough, just as we are. Even if we do have a finger in each of those pies, there is never enough time to do any of them to our satisfaction. We are constantly set up by our expectations to feel as though we are missing something.

Photographer Suzanne Heintz interview

this is not just about me and it is not just about Marriage either. This is about any aspect of ANYONE’S life that doesn’t fall in line with expectation.

Those expectations only trip you up when your life turns out differently. Why do we feel we’ve got to conform to some sort of external or even internal expectation, or our lives will have gone down the tubes? I’m hoping to get people to let go, and realize their lives cannot be wrong.

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Is humor an important part of all of your work?

It hasn’t been in the past. But over the years, I’ve found that being didactic doesn’t work. How many people do you know that have come to Jesus as a result of hearing a Street Corner Preacher? My work has been described as equal parts photography and theater. Working in Television has taught me that to get through, you’ve got to connect with your audience. My work is intended for everyone, not exclusively the art educated, so I use mediums that have a strong universal appeal. Humor is usually taboo in the art world, but I feel it’s my most important medium. My work has been labeled “Artertainment,” which makes it sound like I do it for a cheap laugh, which couldn’t be further from the truth. I use satire because it aids in the digestion of what could be perceived as a bitter pill – social criticism.

What does it mean for you to be a woman in today’s society?

This is a weird time in Women’s History. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pleased as punch that I was born when I was. I have more choices and opportunities than any generation of Women before me, but our roles have never been more complicated by deeply ingrained mixed messages from both previous and present generations. The term “perfect” is no longer used to describe what we’re all striving to be.

Now it is called, “fulfilled.” But for Women, the path to fulfillment is not through one thing, it’s all things: Education, Career, Home, Family, Accomplishment, Enlightenment… If any one of those things is left out, it’s often perceived that there’s something wrong with your life. We are somehow never enough, just as we are. Even if we do have a finger in each of those pies, there is never enough time to do any of them to our satisfaction. We are constantly set up by our expectations to feel as though we are missing something.

In my case, it seems I was missing the Family component, and was suspect for that gap in my resume as a successful woman. I thought it was high time to call this nonsense out publicly, because this notion is not just about me, nor only about Women in regards to Marriage. It’s about anyone whose life doesn’t look the way it “should.” Rarely does anyone’s life turn out the way it was expected; and if by NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .88

some miracle it does, what he or she expected, isn’t what he or she thought it was. I’m simply trying to get people to open up their minds, and quit clinging to antiquated notions of what a successful life looks like. I want people to stop being so quick to judge each other, and themselves, and embrace their lives for whom it made them, with or without the Mrs., PhD. or Esq. attached to your name. Whatever happened to “Live and Let Live?” I thought we already went through the ’60s.

What does it mean to be a female artist?

I can’t say what it is for other women. In some cases, it may not even be a relevant issue for an artist.

I can only speak for myself. For me it is particularly relevant in this body of work. It sprang from my personal experience as a female struggling with expectations of being female. Not just female, but an older female, and what it means for a female to be “past her prime.” I felt I needed to react against a Stigma in order to declare its injustice, and my own self worth despite public opinion. I feel that this work goes beyond its female voice, and speaks to everyone who is being branded by social expectations that don’t fit. Somehow, no matter what choices you make in your life, they are always suspicious to someone. Someone is always trying to categorize and judge you, and it seems that we are never enough as we are. Feeling insufficient in life is a terrible way to spend it.

Do you consider yourself a spontaneous person?

Spontaneous with ideas, but in their execution, no.

I will take 500 plus photos of the same image to make sure I have exactly what I want. Just like with anything, I think you need to go into a situation with a general plan, and then permit serendipity have its way. I find that if you try to control any situation too much, you prevent it from coming to its relation.

What makes you happy?

Making people lighten up and laugh. Connecting with complete strangers all over the world over common experience. Letting my imagination run away with me, and then seeing if I can actually make it happen. That, and a fresh new mannequin.

No, really, I’m just kidding.

Which of the following questions is more important to you as an artist: “When?” “Who?” or “What?”

“What.” That is the meat of any situation. The “When” or the “Who” is completely contextual, only serving to describe the “What” of any occurrence. The “What” is the thing that makes the art

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Photographer Suzanne Heintz interview

I want people to stop being so quick to judge each other, and themselves, and embrace their lives for whom it made them, with or without the Mrs., PhD. or Esq. attached to your name.

Whatever happened to “Live and Let Live?” I thought we already went through the 60’s.

Should we expect more personal projects from you in the future? What are you working on right now?

Absolutely. Everything I do stems from a personal experience. But right now, I’ve got my hands full with “Life Once Removed.” The project is not yet complete. I feel as though I am just beginning to make an impact, and that if I want to really make any sort of a dent in social expectations, then the conversation has to continue, and needs to be brought to more people. So I am making a three part documentary film on the project. It’s called “Playing House.”

another international trip to try out another culture’s reaction to my message.

If you had a chance to do a dream project, what would it be? What kind of message would you send to your audience?

I feel like I am already working on my dream project. This project has all the components that I could ever ask for.

These mannequins act as a platform to launch into virtually any subject that deals with the image versus the reality of being human. (Don’t be fooled into thinking that it only relevant to the topic of Spinsterhood.)

I feel that my work should come from personal experience, which this project does. It involves comedy mixed with a positive social message of acceptance. Plus an entire closet full of Vintage Clothing! What more could I ever want?

Chapter one covers the process of traveling with the mannequin family, and covers our first international trip to Paris. The second chapter will be a commentary on the Wedding Process. It will feature my Mannequin “Husband” and I, renewing our vows in a lavish wedding ceremony, and photo shoot, complete with guests and a full reception.

It will address the topic of Wedding as Fantasy. The third will feature my Mannequin “Child” in the schoolroom, and address the effect of Image Projection on the next generation. We’ll be filming the photo shoot and subsequent conversation with the class for their opinion on the matter.

Honestly, will I want to work with Mannequins the rest of my life? Nope. They’re a big pain in the neck. But for now, they are a helpful tool to raise public awareness about an issue that everyone can relate to, that of being made to feel insufficient, no matter what you do in life. No matter what project I take on in the future, I’m fairly certain that at the bottom of it all, I will be doing it to stress that, yes, I am enough, you are enough, and that we shouldn’t make our life choices based on appearances.

Editing this film, and hopefully publishing a book on the project, and the subjects it raises, should keep my plate quite full for 2014. After that, I am setting my sights on

Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible. - Albert Einstein

What is your favorite quote?

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relevant to more than the artist. It is a shared experience or meaning. The same “Whats” have been happening to people since the beginning of history. The “Who” and the “When,” you can fill in the blank. I am merely speaking out against a perceived injustice, a pretty common topic. I’m sure you can name a few people who’ve done that before me.

music

music composer Edamame interview

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Travel Through Sound, Eat Edamame WORDS ALEXANDRA STEVENS

it, I guess. A more up-to-date feel on world music. A little more danceable, I suppose.” Muffled murmurings and subtle hip-hop style scratches keep it all from sounding like the Rainforest Cafe, merging urban edge with dreamy, organic sound. Harris first began to experiment with music production at the suggestion of friends, who urged him to merge his talent and passion for computers and music. Harris describes Audiotool, the browser-based music making platform that he first began looking at production on.

“It essentially looks gives you a first-person view of looking down at a table, covered in different production toys,” he said. “So I would just experiment on there, like ‘Oh, what is this crazy-looking machine that has 12 buttons on it?’ Then you drag it on to the table, grab a little keyboard, and start clicking on stuff.” After familiarizing himself with a bare-bones outline of music production, Harris created and recorded what he describes as “little primitive beats.”

“Obviously it’s different when you have actual instruments and equipment,” he said of his initial attempts.

“It kind of just sparked by excitement and curiosity about making cool electronic sounds.” Eventually graduating onto programs like Fruity Loops and Ableton, which he almost exclusively uses now, Harris struggled for months before creating anything he was ready to share.

“I installed and uninstalled Ableton like a dozen times,” Harris admits. “I tried new stuff on it, couldn’t figure it out; I’d get frustrated, be like ‘screw this!’ and uninstall it. Then one day I was like alright, I really wanna learn this.” And so he did. Now much more confident, though always learning, Harris has released an impressive amount of music in a short amount of time.

“On my first CD, I have a song called Rumpl,” he says with a laugh. “It’s named after my old roommate, Dave. We had this weird joke where we would say that his mating call was him going ‘Dave Dave!’” Harris sort of chirps it, intoning a childlike robot. “So one day I actually sampled him going ‘Dave Dave!’ and used it in a song.”

A joke between friends not only ends up sounding cool (seriously, go listen to “Rumpl” and appreciate how melodic NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .93

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Edamame is actually not a nickname, Ed Harris admits.

Edamame is simply the chosen monicker for a unexpectedly successful musical project, and has little to do with actual edamame. Harris likes eating it, in normal amounts, but was mostly drawn to the appearance of the word itself.

“Edamame: it’s a very curvy name, all the letters in it are very up-and-down,” Harris said. “It just looks like a fun word.” And so the Illinois native went from experimenting on production platforms as “Swatch,” to releasing music as producer Edamame. Since the switch, Harris has released three EPs, three albums, performed at a music festival and mixed on live radio.

Just a few years ago, a weary Harris gave up “screaming at people around the country” with various metal bands for a more traditional career in graphic design.

With screeching vocals and van life behind him, Harris admittedly spends most of his time now in front of a computer. A self-professed anime nerd and tree-hugger, Harris reconciles his digitized job requirements with exotic influence.

“I’m self-taught,” he says of his technical skills, which he now applies as the lead designer for a Chicagobased company. Careers in skill-specific fields can often be almost impossible to obtain in the current American culture of degrees and debt, but Harris finds himself surprised and flattered to have made it this far without schooling. He credits much of his interest in the arts to his father, also a graphic designer, and his brother, an illustrator. His visual and audio art merge in the artwork for Edamame, each a piece of colorful and complex digital art.

“Some of my [album artwork] is all graphics, some of them are a photographs of mine that I take and play around with a little bit,” he said. “I was always surrounded by art forms, so I guess I sort of inherited a creative side,” he said.

“I was also raised on world music,” he adds. “Everything from crazy, tribal type stuff to relaxing pan flutes, zen music.” His music attempts to capture a personal take on the globally-sourced sound he grew up listening to. “I try to do something similar,” he said. “But with a modern twist on

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I want to make the people who are listening to my songs feel like they’re somewhere that maybe they’ll never get to see. a faux-mating call can really be), but it serves as a part of music as a story. The two-syllable sample captures a look at a friendship, at something funny, and at a moment in time.

Meaning is then seamlessly melded into music, giving intent to ambient sound. And inside jokes are far from the extent when it comes to Harris’ creativity in finding and creating new noises to sample.

“I occasionally field record on my phone, birds chirping and stuff, and put those sounds in my songs,” Harris said. Always on the hunt for unconventional ways of interjecting life into his music, Edamame creates samples out of everything from audio clips of YouTube videos to simply hitting things together to create percussion. Wind, the familiar jingle of car keys, and even his roommate’s voice find their way into Harris’ music, splicing electronically-based sounds with organic noise. Not only is his use of the unexpected forward-thinking and inventive, but it is also a nod to the allencompassing access technology has brought to the music makers of today.

“My music is a little bit more background-ish,” Harris explains. “It’s not rage-your-face-off electronic music. It’s more like you can just put it on, click and do whatever you gotta do while it’s on. You’re probably gonna bob your head to it, and to me, that’s great.” Since the release of Greenhouse in 2011, Harris has relied on not only Ableton and his Akai MPK mini keyboard, but reinforcement from those around him.

Surrounded by passionate and talented artists in Chicago and from afar, Edamame is also supported by his fellow creators in the beat culture brand The Soul Dojo. The California-based record label and art collective is made up of talent in both visual and audio creation, who focus heavily on drawing broad cultural influences. Fellow ear-catching producers like AbJo and Lakim are among the fresh faces that make up the Soul Dojo collective, a network of like-minded individuals like Edamame to hype each other’s endeavors.

Despite the current restrictions of his current home base of Chicago, Harris feels most at home in nature. He describes an ideal day as just hanging out outside, camping or chillin’ on a beach somewhere. Cues from mother nature can be found throughout his songs, which often evoke outdoor atmospheres.

“It’s funny, I make all this world-music-influenced type stuff, but I’ve never actually left the country,” Harris said wistfully. “I feel like it kind of seems like I’m more cultured than I am because of the music I make,” he adds with a laugh. Even having visited all 48 contiguous states, mostly NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .94

thanks to his touring with metal bands, Harris yearns from culture not accessible by van.

“I have that longing to leave the country, to go sit in a rainforest somewhere for ten days.” Harris explains that he wants his music to provide a sort of outlet for metal travel, to serve as a means of escape without physically going anywhere.

“I want to make the people who are listening to my songs feel like they’re doing something, or that they’re somewhere that maybe they’ll never get to see,” Harris said. Song titles like “Manchurian” and “Arnhem Land” evoke far-off imagery before even hitting play. In “Bayaka,” from Edamame’s second album Coalesce Colors, Harris samples an audio bite from the BBC’s Human Planet.

“Whether using a river as a drum kit,” intones a British voice, while nomadic Mbenga Pygmies sing in the background. “Or incorporating animal calls into their work songs, the Bayaka consider music to be their greatest gift from the forest.” The enchanting calls of the Bayaka are suddenly exchanged for a powerful, rhythmic electronic beat.

“Maybe it stems from me not actually traveling anywhere,” Harris muses. “Maybe I make these songs subconsciously as a way to feel like I’m there.” Harris hopes to rescue a puppy soon, and I tried convincing him that cute dog noises should definitely make an appearance in a future track. He happily obliged, maybe only half-jokingly, to the idea of “happy dog songs.”

“[My music] kind of accents what’s going on in real life,” Edamame said. He gives the example of listening to a song that includes bird calls (maybe “Filling Bird Feeders”) while riding your bike on a nice day. The birds could be in your headphones, but they could also be around you. The “everyday sounds,” like the honks and screeches of traffic, give the illusion of listening to life, only better - more melodic.

While this kind of ambient sound may not be catchy, or resemble any form of club hit, its impact is in its subtlety.

Edamame invokes distance and range, and creates the kind of sound with longevity and truly thoughtful influence. Anywhere People plays as I write this, and I can actually convince myself, if only for a moment, that I’m sitting in a lush jungle somewhere. Never mind that my squeaky radiator is a poor excuse for sunshine, and that the closest thing I’ve got to forest is a winter-barren Prospect Park. Edamame’s sound transcends physical restrictions, serving as a mystical and imaginative portal to other worlds.

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a moment with TRUST

TRUST WORDS ALEXANDRA STEVENS PHOTOGRAPHY Jean Baptiste Toussaint

The March 4th release of Joyland marks the first solo album for Robert Alfons of Trust. After touring around North America and Europe following the release of their debut TRST, Alfons used the energy from live performances as inspiration for his newest album. Following the departure of partner Maya Postepski after their first album, Alfons continued Trust’s synth-pop sound on his own. Drawing influence from acid house, old-school techno, and video games, Trust has a sound caught somewhere between the past and future. Alfon’s deep, rambling lyrics are punctuated by the occasional wailing hook, backed by synth and percussion heavy instrumentals that are often reminiscent of 80’s new wave.

Layers of voice alterations overlap pulsing beats and heavy synths throughout Joyland, providing an after-hours club music feel.

This is what plays during the after party’s after party, when the sun is coming up and people are still partying despite the girl passed out in her shoes and lipstick. With a complete sophomore album and several appearances at this year’s SXSW, Alfon is to be back on the road in April. The now one-man Trust will be touring North America once again alongside Yeasayer and Faint.

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Albums we love

the Top 5 Albums We Love 1. Pharrell Williams - GIRL Whether or not the time spent with Nile Rodgers and Daft Punk is the driving force behind Pharrell’s latest sound, there is no one who can deny that a change for the better has occurred since the days of Neptune and N.E.R.D. With undeniably catchy choruses and lyrics filled to the brim with appraisal and positivity, GIRL is a ball of sunshine that both your eight-year-old kid and your 70-year-old grandma can enjoy.

The shaker-heavy yet light tempo beats, which have become a signature staple of Pharrell’s sound, have a steadfast exhibition on a handful of tracks. As do the frequent use of funky guitar riffs, groove-filled baselines, and neat, nifty vocal clips which make for essential auxiliaries to showcase the instrumentals laying behind Pharrell’s ballads. Cameos by Justin Timberlake, Daft Punk and Alicia Keys work perfectly in the landscape of their respective tracks.

The album left me with a yearning to travel back in time, to the late 1970’s and early 80’s, as it invoked the funky sound of tracks like the Brothers Johnson’s

2. Mø - No Mythologies to Follow Powerhouse songstress Mø’s larger-than-life voice remains mostly intact on her latest collection of works, her debut album No Mythologies to Follow. The album openers, which include “Fire Rides” and “Maiden” and the 4th track, “Red in the Grey, ” showcase a sound we haven’t heard before from this fiery vocalist.

Galactic electronic waterfalls and sharp trap snares offer themselves as wonderful instrumentals, but can overshadow the Mø’s uniqueness when combined with almost overly thought-out vocal production. Perhaps the best thing about Mø, and what made me fall in love with her in the first place, was her rawness, her weirdness, her simplicity, of which, was often highlighted by the striking yet minimal production that lay behind her earliest releases. And with that, I have to say that some Mø’s distinctiveness gets lost on some of this album.

Two of her oldest records, “Waste of Time” and “Pilgrim” received pretty significant alterations from the production side on this new album. Both tracks lost a lot of the wonderfully simplistic, jolting, echoed, and tropical-themed feeling they once exhibited, and ended up becoming tamed and

3. Nick Waterhouse - Holly

4. Zhala - Prophet EP Last month, pop powerhouse Robyn presented the first ever non-Robyn release on her label, Konichiwa Records. The four track EP, Prophet, is the debut for fellow Swede Zhala Rifat. A must-listen for fans of alternative pop like Grimes and Purity Ring, Zhala steers clear of any bubblegum synth-pop tropes without sacrificing any catchy, melodic goodness. Produced by Mathias Oldén, Prophet is a taste of the beginnings of a unique style of sound, self-described as “cosmic pop” and “religious rave.” Characterized by whispery lyrics and heavy voice effects, the tracks offer stuck-in-your-head melodies layered over manic, frenzied beats. Zhala’s break in American media was surprisingly through the use of 2012 release “Slippin Around” in episode of MTV’s “Teen Wolf.” Apparently there is still new music on MTV, occasionally, but the only way to find it is to delve deep into entire episodes of supernatural teen dramas.

Influenced by Bollywood, R&B, and rave culture, Zhala’s music is (according to her Facebook page) a reference to “the shimmery times when

5. Lo-Fang - Blue Film After being hand-picked by Lorde to open for her as she tours America this spring, life has changed a lot recently for Matthew Hemerlein. Peforming under the name Lo-Fang, Hemerlein proves he has a lot to show off in his debut album Blue Film. Hailing from Maryland but influenced by his international travel, the 30-year-old is a classically trained musician who plays every instrument on the album himself. From violin to piano to banjo, Blue Film provides an impressive and varied range of sound that is a clear testament to Hemerlein’s musical talents. Blue Film was released by indie label 4AD, where Lo-Fang is signed alongside acts like Bon Iver, St. Vincent, and Spaceghostpurrp.

Blue Film is a mature, richly produced take on pop that is hindered almost solely by its weak lyrics. “Look Away” and “#88” are stripped down, claps-and-acoustics style tracks that showcase Hemerlein’s vocal skills.

“Interlude” is a beautiful, 30-second production teeming with orchestral energy that ends entirely too soon. Filled with your typical angst-ridden laments and muses, most of Blue Film’s lyrics barely even scrape the surface of their potential. Hemerlein’s soulful voice and melodies feel prepared to host a barrage of emotions, but fall flat in content. “Permutations” has Hemerlein repeatedly

Best Tracks: “Gust Of Wind,” and “It Girl” Rating: 4/5 mollified into softer, “almost-pop” versions of their past-selves. Between the few tracks that sound like they’re awkwardly falling through a dangerous vortex of “almost-pop” are a few really special songs that showcase the power of Mø’s hauntingly beautiful vocals. The best tracks serve as reminders of how good she sounds in the midst of deep guitar riffs, tin drum samples, and with as little “extra” as possible. These are the ones to run to when the vortex starts to suck you in. Overall, the collection showcases a decent amount of variation from track to track, and will keep you paying attention during this impressively lengthy debut album, equipped with stripped down “Night Versions” of a few numbers on the track list. Most importantly (and perhaps this is really all we can ask of an artist), No Mythologies To Follow is lyrically a true display of Mø herself, of both her vulnerability in love and of her defiance in life. It also is a great start to what I think will be a lucrative career as an artist who is far from a one-hit-wonder.

-Kristine Musademba Best Tracks: “Slow Love” and “XXX 88” Rating: 3.5/5 to the mind, body and soul. It will take you back to an older, classier time, touching upon a panorama of classical R&B sonorousness that you don’t realize how much you crave until Waterhouse sets this soulful set of audible gems on a plate before you. Advice, story-telling, and beseeching display themselves in Waterhouse’s words, which are perfectly complimented by instrumental solos that are are neither too long nor too short in duration. Waterhouse is said to consider himself somewhat of an introvert, but a listen to Holly, with its crystal clear libretto and bold variations on R&B and rock n’ roll instrumentation, will make for assumptions of the opposite case when you hear the fiery vivacity that this 28-year old artist brings to his music. -Kristine Musademba

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Huntington Beach native Nick Waterhouse’s newest album is a soulful sonic picture, illustrating mountains of sound and emotion, valleys of pointed piano work, and a deep river flowing with old-school jazz percussion and gospel-summoning emblems, all painted under the hairs of a bouncy rock n’ roll themed brush. The album, which was partially inspired by Chinatown, could have very well been the soundtrack to the 1974 mystery film set in early 20th century LA. Passion escapes nowhere on this 10 track record. Ominous background vocals, a slowed down swing din, and sleuth piano solos charmingly creep into a binding jive on “Hands On The Clock,” while dry, straightforward lyricism team up with an energized sax and electric guitar on “This Is A Game.”

Though not as hard-hitting and aggressive as Waterhouse’s 2012 record, Time’s All Gone, Holly still makes a sharp impact that is revitalizing

“Stomp!” and the vocal smoothness on Curtis Mayfield’s “Little Child Running Wild.” Though many tracks from GIRL seem to be a modern take on the funk and groove of that era, not all are reminiscent of that vibe; “Lost Queen” and “Know Who You Are,” act as standouts, making a pointed consideration to a world music vibe. The usage of sensual, tribal-esque drums, deep a cappella vocals, and beachy, reggae influences sit at the forefront of the sonic vista.

With its allusions to romance, sex, obsession, and desire, GIRL has been criticized by some as being lyrically vapid, which I would say is true on some levels. We can’t forget the feel-good hit that is “Happy,” an undeniably catchy and well-produced track that relies a little too heavily on repetition and bland lyrics. But it seems like the album’s main goal, to cajole the women of the world and act as an effective mating call to even the most reluctant female in the midst of a refreshing and buoyant sound, was met, and met in the sleekest way.

-Kristine Musademba

Best Tracks: “Let It Come Down” and “Dead Room” Rating: 3.5/5

Pop Music was bloody serious and there were no barriers between fine arts and popular culture.” I have no idea when or what these “shimmery times” were, but they sound cute and I’m totally on board. Zhala’s Tumblr-ready music videos come complete with glitchy, kaleidoscopic animations of clouds, shapes, and the cosmos. While the music is genuinely interesting and refreshing, the rest of Zhala’s packaging can feel a little gimmicky. Zhala’s live television performance with Robyn at the 2014 Grammis (the Swedish equivalent of the Grammies) looked a little forced, but by the end left you with a good feeling. Though production is definitely lacking in some spots, Prophet is overall a well-rounded and intriguing debut from a country that can’t stop churning out pop stars. I feel like it can’t be too harsh under Robyn’s wing; Zhala has the potential to become something big, especially in Europe. -Alexandra Stevens Best Tracks: It’s only a four song EP - and two of the tracks are just different versions of the same song). You might as well just give the whole thing a listen.

Rating: 3.5/5 looking to the stars and sea and the skies and the moon, and I’m hoping he’s just looking for for less corny lyrics. The occasional murmured “shit” or “fuck” doesn’t lend any edge to run-of-the-mill lyrical fodder, and the emo-boy cover of “You’re the One That I Want” from Grease is honestly more confusing than compelling.

Not making any excuses for mediocrity, but apparently people are so used to painfully bad lyricism that don’t seem to mind the lack of depth.

Luckily Lo-Fang makes up for it in production value and gorgeous arrangements, and overall Blue Film makes for an exciting debut. Just a month after its release and Hemerlein’s internet presence is already littered with adoring fans, many of them gushing about how incredibly he performs live. The question remains whether the praise was intended for his music, or his chiseled cheekbones and pretty boy hair. Whether plucking the violin like a tiny guitar or crooning into the distance under moody lighting, Hemerlein is undoubtedly talented, and looks good enough that people might not even notice his shortcomings.

-Alexandra Stevens Best Tracks: “When We’re Fire,” “Interlude,” and “#88” Rating: 4/5 NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .97

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Culture christopher lee sAUvé interview

Wintour Is Over

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WORDS ALEXANDRA STEVENS Images courtesy of christopher lee sauvé

In 2009, America was in the midst of financial crisis, and people were starting to lose things. From Darfur to the housing market, everyone and everything was in need of saving. Entertainment and media took hits, and rumors began in the fashion industry that Vogue’s editor was soon to be replaced by Carine Roitfeld. Despite “freaking out” over the recession and joblessness, artist and designer Christopher Lee Sauvé’s satirical humor kept him afloat. Upon hearing the Vogue rumors, he stylized a black-and-white profile of Anna Wintour and released a graphic featuring her floating head above a black bar that read “Save Anna.” He loved the juxtaposition of saving something that was a symbol of luxury, and the graphic quickly went viral. As the image swiftly circulated the internet, it became a campaign, a t-shirt, and the first in a series of memorable graphics that continues today.

“I’m drawn to certain words and things. I like to create controversy, like with ‘God Don’t Like Ugly’,” he said, pointing to the white leather top laying in front of me. Even with oversized studs and a mesh back, this shirt is the least embellished of the ones on currently on display. Printed across the front is a screened image of a stippled Jesus, superimposed with the Chanel and Vogue logos, staring into the distance above the phrase ‘God Don’t Like Ugly’ in bold typeface.

Sauvé argues that it could be interpreted from a Christian standpoint, with “ugly” in reference to one’s insides, and how the ambiguity of the statement is important.

We admire silk-screened Jesus in the sun-washed Hotel Particulier, an art space and gallery in downtown Manhattan that hosts and

supports Sauvé’s art. The term hôtel particulier is a French phrase that refers to a grand townhouse, with intents to receive frequent visitors, but not offer accommodation. Located in a former loading dock, Hotel Particulier is a “curated art establishment involving the unrestricted use of all artistic disciplines in the shaping of a particular artistic concept.” The art and culture platform was created in 2012 by Frederique Thiollet, and has since served as a gallery, event space, and workspace for collaboration and creativity.

“Some artists silk screen and put it on a canvas and put that on the wall and sell it,” Sauvé said. “I silk screen on t-shirts and sell those, because I like the work to be on the street.” Sauvé has adapted the t-shirt as the ultimate pop art canvas, a symbol of American culture. His popular viral graphics are screened on to limited runs of shirts and stickers, making even mass produced t-shirts somewhat exclusive and collectable. Working without factories or automated machines, all of Sauvé’s tees are silk-screened by hand. Details are often hand-painted on or over prints, and the printed silhouettes are all built on Vector-based platforms from Sauvé’s original sketches. His latest design venture is a collection called Mad Maus, which is thus far a series of iconic portraits that are intentionally logo-like; simple and symmetrical, but also playful.

Mad Maus is described as “a marriage between infamous Mickey ears and iconic figures, two strong graphic visuals and traits making the ultimate icon.” From Lynne Yaeger to Ziggy Stardust to Grace Jones, the collection features an array of graphic likenesses of NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .99

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some of the most iconic faces in fashion and entertainment, in mouse ears. Sauvé hasn’t been able to stop coming up with new character concepts since the idea was born, and he plans on adding to the line up of Maus-ified faces.

“I take an image or a photo and look at the structure, architecturally, of the face,” Sauvé explains of his illustration process when creating a new character. The eyes, eyebrows, and face shape, along with any telling traits, become sketches. Sauvé is also working with an animator to create his own characters, influenced by the style of animation during the 1940’s. His first original character is a cartoon mouse, in the same gloves and buttoned pants as Mickey, also wearing a bowtie.

Every inch of exposed skin (do cartoon mice have fur?) is covered in vintage-style tattoos, and a Cheshire Cat smile lies beneath unsettlingly swirled, dinner-plate eyes.

“I love Mickey Mouse,” Sauvé says, rolling his hand over to display a Mickey Mouse tattoo on his forearm. “He’s the most recognizable character in the world.” Thiolett adds that there is art to the Mickey Mouse shape itself, and how the three interlocking circles suggest strength and unity. “A perfection of iconography,” she declares it.

“I want Mad Maus to be a lifestyle,” Sauvé said. The artist has teamed up with Suzanne Bartsch, one of the most renown characters in New York nightlife, to host monthly Mad Maus parties. The themed events often involve costumes and props, all part of the Mad Maus image. Sauvé has planned an entire evolution of the brand, and plans to collaborate with stars like Kimora Lee Simmons. He says he is steering his fashion in a more feminine direction, with the use of looser, thinner fabrics. The new designs will be more pattern-based, but with the same flavor that Mad Maus has now.

Sauvé began his career designing posters for rock bands before becoming the senior designer for anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters, whom he credits inspiration for some of his more politicallydriven art. He went on to work design and art direction for names like Alexander Wang and Diane Von Furstenburg, along with working stints for publications like the Village Voice and New York Magazine. Many of the most recognizable campaigns from beauty giant MAC were designed by Sauvé, featuring celebrities like Rihanna and Nicki Minaj. His career as a t-shirt designer, though, was an accident. When graphics like “Save Anna” blew up overnight and started selling, Sauvé realized the potential in clothing as a means of communications. He now sells products in concept stores like Patricia Field in New York and Restir in Tokyo, as well as creating capsule collections for specialty retailers in countries like South America. Sauvé reminisced on his early days in New York, sleeping on a mattress on the floor of an industrial loft, living out the grounding reality that meets so many starry-eyed New York transplants.

“I couldn’t buy shoes, but it was fun,” he said, a huge smile crossing his face. “We had so many awesome fucking parties.” Now his designs are often worn by the iconic figures they imitate, or are picked up by celebrity stylists. Anna Piaggi, editor of Vogue Italia, sent Sauvé a snap of herself donning a shirt he designed featuring her likeness.

Miley Cyrus ordered twenty of the Miley Maus printed tees, the symbolic mouse ears lending even more meaning to the image of a former a Disney star.

Since his start with “Save Anna,” Sauvé has created a welltimed flow of logo-like graphics, often featuring recognizable faces. The characters he chooses to portray are easy to identify, and they somehow encapsulate American pop culture at a specific point in time. From Lady Liberty to Lindsay Lohan, Sauvé takes advantage of cultural and entertainment phenomenon to create bite-sized art pieces. Amanda Bynes’ well-documented public breakdown spurned a “Free Amanda” image, while an “I die. Bananas” shirt actually resulted in a cease and desist from Rachel Zoe herself, whose lawyers insisted she had trademarked “bananas.” Sauvé took the shirts down, and replaced them with a new

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Photography christopher logan NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .101

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Some artists silk screen and put it on canvas and put that on the wall and sell it. I silk screen on t-shirts and sell those, because I like the work to be on the street.

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campaign - “Free the Fruit.” He argues that fashion icons, even five years ago, weren’t what they are now.

“Now they’re kind of rockstars,” he said. “Anna Wintour is a household name, Karl Lagerfeld is a household name, now Andre Leon Tally is after The September Issue came out. But at the time [of “Save Anna”], it was like putting a mirror in the faces of editors. They create the fashion world, even more than designers. They’re saying what is and what isn’t, and putting them on a t-shirt was kind of revolutionary.”

Fast forward to 2014, post #worldsmosttalkedaboutcouple, and it seems like Anna doesn’t need to be saved at all. In fact, Sauvé recently declared that “Wintour is Over” with a new graphic, featuring the same visage of Wintour from “Save Anna” but this time laying beneath a bold, red no symbol. Versions of the graphic include Vogue stylized as a Bible, or with a snow-covered background image.

“Career suicide!” Sauvé joked gleefully when I mentioned the image. “I feel like American fashion right now does not have the voice that it needs,” he continued, in a more serious tone. “And it’s not a personal attack on [Wintour], even though it sounds like it is. I think that Vogue...” he pauses. “I’ll just say it - is a retirement home. People are completely out of touch with whats happening, and its affecting fashion. I know Vogue is not the only magazine out there, but its the one that reaches the most people. There’s so much talent in America, and for them to be putting out pictures of women in khakis jumping up and down, shot by photographers who are getting millions of dollars from Condé Naste... It makes no sense.”

Sauvé sarcastically says he’s already submitted his resume to fill Wintour’s position. He insists that his standpoint has little to do with the editor herself, and is more about the symbol she represents in the commercial market of fashion and media. Sauvé describes the top players in media as a form of government in fashion, who have a responsibility to represent the industry. Vogue’s heralded September Issue now features as many as 700 pages of ads, and content often feels tainted by money-making politics. Despite his own work being endosed in the pages of Vogue in the past, Sauvé recognizes the immense lack of coverage when it comes to talent and artistry in America.

“I’m kind of on the fence about it because I feel like it is sort of mean,” Sauvé admits, looking at the “Wintour Is Over” graphic on his phone. “I don’t do mean. I don’t like to make fun of people, I don’t like to put people down. She’s just a symbol.”

Past projects include one-of-a-kind art pieces like the column of shirts on display at Hotel Particulier. Some were made exclusively for the gallery, while others come from an Amanda Lepore runway in 2009. One features the visage of the late Alexander McQueen, a tribute following his death, and the heavily safety-pinned number below it NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .104

controversy.

shows off a smiling Britney Spears shaving her own head. ‘PUNK’S NOT DEAD’ the shirt proclaims beneath the infamous image, the halfbald graphic of Spears sitting between sleeves made of wig hair (“It’s Beyoncé’s hair!” Sauvé joked). Each shirt is decorated and destroyed with deliberation, jarring and statement-making in its intent. His work also serves as social commentary, asking pointed questions about the obsessive nature of celebrity culture.

“I’m guilty - I love going on TMZ,” Sauvé said. “I’m not on NPR, looking at arts articles.” He likens celebrity gossip to mental junk food - a guilty, mindless break from the constant overstimulation of modern American life. He’s seen House of Versace at least five times, and professes to loving Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber (mostly for being a fellow Canadian). Being both a consumer and producer of mass-marketed media gives Sauvé the knowledge to understand pop culture from both ends of the spectrum.

T-shirts and parties are just the beginning of the Mad Maus brand, which is slowly starting to infiltrate even the high brow art culture of New York City. Famed jeweler Fabergé is taking over New York this spring with their second Big Egg Hunt, an art-based charity initiative. The hunt will include over 200 fiberglass egg sculptures, each about 2½ feet tall and featuring a unique design by some of New York’s most celebrated creative minds. Out of thousands of applicants, Sauvé was chosen to create his own egg, which will be auctioned off alongside eggs by designers and artists like Jeff Koons, Diane Von Furstenburg, Patti Smith, and Carolina Hererra. When the hunt ends, the eggs will come to nest at Rockefeller Center (April 18th - 26th) where they will be displayed together to be auctioned off by Sotheby’s.

Proceeds of the auctions go to Studio in a School, a New York based non profit, and Elephant Family, a conservation charity.

Participants of The Big Egg Hunt have a chance to win one of three specially designed Fabergé egg pendants dripping in diamonds, emeralds, and rubies. The contest will be run through a free smartphone app that allows a check-in at each egg. Fabergés first Egg Hunt in London, during 2012, saw over 12,000 participants, giving everyone in this year’s event the potential to reach a huge audience.

The location of each egg will remain secret until it reaches ten checkins, at which point the egg’s location is accessible on an in-app map.

The giant eggs will be “hidden” all over the city starting in April, and those on the hunt may or may not want to head downtown to Hotel Particulier come April 1st. A short video recently posted by Sauvé shows sped-up shots of him collaging his egg with Mod Podge and Mad Maus graphics.

“I always said that I would never carry t-shirts, or tote bags, in my curated shop,” Thiolett said with a sly smile, looking at the tshirts hanging on the wall of her gallery. “But Christopher changed my mind.”

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design

DZHUS One to watch

words LATOYA P HENRY Photography Olga Nepravda

Creating conceptual wear for the intellectually conscious, DZHUS’s aesthetic transforms ready-to-wear garments into a form of architectural structures with the use of technical textures and characteristic features.

After launching the articulate brand in 2010, Ukrainian designer and stylist Irina Dzhus interprets her contemporary garments as each “carrying a distinctive ideological message”. In doing so, DZHUS’s spring/ summer 2014 collection, entitled “Archetype,” derives from the complexities of spirituality and structure. The designer’s avant-garde perspective features and geometrically constructed pieces are collectively made with a series of textiles. Exposing raw hems and seam allowance carefully outline the silhouettes of each piece, creating a sense of harmony between the wearer and the garment.

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Nastya ptichek Artist interview

Seek, and ye s h a l l f i n d

art

Nastya Ptichek

INTERVIEW LATOYA P HENRY

Shrouded in mystery, Polish artist Nastya Ptichek developed an early interest in art after pursuing the footsteps of her sister. Illustrating a composition of print designs, drawings, paintings and digital art. The artist theory is to create an atmosphere that slightly challenges the viewer’s perspective by merging attractive and unattractive elements to her work. Gathering influences from renowned artists such as Frida Kahlo and Georgia O’Keefe, what is the mystifying energy that draws us into Ptichek work and how does each part of the artist artwork affects our mental state. For the first time with Nu-Mode´ Nastya Ptichek discusses the significance behind her work and the message she wants to deliver to the observer.

Tell us who is Nastya Ptichek?

She’s Clark Kent by day and a sleepy artist by night.

It’s a bird, it’s a girl, it’s Nastya Ptichek.

When did you gather your interest for Illustration and Digital Art? What continues to motivate you?

I’ve been involved in the art atmosphere since my early years. My sister studied theory and practice of Fine Arts and I endeavored to take after her. Can’t say that I succeed, because of my childish laziness and quick shift of interests, but at that time I understood that I would go hand by hand with art from then on.

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Speaking of Digital Art, first I didn’t get it at all. I considered it to be a low genre of arts cause of its seeming “simplicity”. Now I work as a designer and visual creator in an advertising agency and I can firmly state – it’s not easy by any means.

What is the personal connection you share with your illustrations? Does each image have a secret message?

It surely does, otherwise my works wouldn’t be that weird.

Each element has its own meaning, which may appear singly or in sum with other elements on picture. It resembles a rebus that requires a little investigation. Even for me, all of my new work is a process enveloped in mystery. It’s like a gradual psychoanalysis of my unconscious – I never know what I want to express and the final image is way unpredictable.

Are there any artists that have influenced your thoughts on creating? How does this affect your work?

My favorites are Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keefe, Helen Simmonds, René Magritte, Bruegel, Bosch and many others. I try to mention their influence on purpose, putting some Easter Eggs into every part of my work so that it turns into an interactive piece with viewers. Seek, and ye shall find.

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Nastya ptichek Artist interview

Each element has its own meaning, which may appear singly or in sum with other elements on picture. It resembles a rebus that requires a little investigation. Even for me, all of my new work is a process enveloped in mystery.

Your work has such a realistic approach, blood, children, animals and death, play a substantial roll in quite of few of your illustrations. How are these thoughts placed together and why?

I’m a Japanologist by profession. Apparently this country with its unique culture, art and philosophy influenced me a lot. Japanese history may be divided into several periods with prevailing aesthetic categories: mono-no aware, yugen, wabi-sabi, etc. They can differ from each other cardinally, but the core is almost the same – beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So I place oppositions like ugliness and attractiveness together to show that beauty depends on viewer’s perception. Open-mindness is the clue to catharsis.

Exactly what do you want to say to the viewer through your illustrations? How important is it to relay the message?

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Obviously, nobody can have a complete picture, except those, who can expose all the allusions, hints and tricks hidden here and there. Thus, relaying the message is not a key goal.

Do you plan on exhibiting any of your work in the near future and what should we look forward too from Nastya Ptichek?

I had several exhibitions in Kiev and it was a great experience in terms of organization process, viewer’s reaction and my further development, but I still don’t see any extra benefits in showing artworks to the audience this way. There are several blogs with all the necessary materials on tumblr, facebook, behance and flickr, so that everybody can see my painting and illustration in high resolution all day long.

Concerning future, I hope I’ll achieve career goals in Digital Art and Creative fields, and become Wonder Woman. Why not? nastya-ptichek.tumblr.com

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The

Raven PHOTOGRAPHY Cavier Coleman STYLING Raytell Bridges

Feather Coat 3L

Feather Coat 3L

Coat Prada Shirt 3L Skirt 3L Pants Prada Glasses Vintage

Feather Coat 3L

Mask Vintage

Shirt Eli Tahari Skirt Stylist’s Own

Coat 3L

Coat Prada Pants Prada Scarf Stylist’s Own Gloves Patricia Field Hat Stylist’s Own

Feather Coat 3L Pant Prada

Coat / Prada Shirt & Skirt 3L Pants Prada Photography Cavier Coleman Styling Raytell Bridges Model Luca Schmitz at New York Models

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designer Janine Broshe interview

the aesthetics of c o n t e m p o rary minimalism INTERVIEW LATOYA P HENRY

You mostly work with clean lines, powerful shapes and sharp silhouettes, how would you interpret the man wearing Path?

A confident individual with a sensitive understanding of design, beauty and creativity. A man without being shy to wear bold prints and without being afraid to catch attention with his look. At the same time someone who isn’t trying hard to be fashionable or following every trend or more like a person with their own aesthetic, individual style while combining different design / labels. A contrastive person with plenty of shades in his personality and interests, who is open and forward thinking.

What is the design philosophy behind your spring 2014

collection “Presence”?

This collection is kind of hard to explain. I can’t really tell where exactly my inspiration comes from, since it’s a mixture of very different things that inspire me and sometimes it happens unconsciously, especially for the prints. It has something very fragile, but in the same time it might appear hard. I used images that show a guy holding up his hands, what you usually do while boxing. You can find this image with blood on the prints, which in my eyes has no violent approach but is beautiful and artistic to me. There an image with a small plus sign on it, for me it means sharing some positivity. Then the red and black marble print, a lot of recent feelings came alive. Therefore it is a very emotional collection and the name ‘Presence’ seemed to be the perfect fit, since it was the direct reflection. I also used Chinese characters 此刻, which means ‘Moment’ or ‘Now’ to illustrate that feeling.

design

After graduating from ESMOD Berlin in 2007, designer Janine Grosche went on to explore a divergent genre of menswear, devoted strictly to an archetype of the modern man. Based in both Europe and China, Grosche launched the epic label PATH in 2011, distinguishing her approach to menswear as contemporary minimalism, radical modernism and nonchalant elegance, providing the wearer with a non-traditional sense of menswear. With a focus on clean lines in both masculine and androgynous silhouettes, Grosche explains the gentleman of PATH is a confident person who appreciates the aesthetic of design and is unafraid to take risks. The focal point of the spring/summer 2014 collection “Presence” was clearly the digital prints, which revealed the labels sportier characteristics, without losing the refined look. Escaping trends while focusing on the craftsmanship and quality of the designs, PATH is deeply aware of the fashion forward man. Designer Janine Grosche talks to us about her newfound interest in digital prints, and how she wants to reformat how we perceive menswear.

For your most recent collection, you played a bit more with several types of prints compared to previous collections. Could you explain the transition and the creative process behind developing each print?

It’s been sometime that I wanted to work with digital printing. I like the technical approach, especially the possibilities of creating a very unique print and therefore my very own fabric.

The images that are placed in this photo collage, weren’t meant to be used for this matter in the first place, they were basically images that I saved from a while ago. These images that I collected for inspirational reasons had an emotional impact on me. When I started with the collection I picked certain photos for myself to create a mood board, NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .127

designer Janine Broshe interview

I feel there is a misconception that menswear needs to be traditional; too many men feel the need to fit in with the crowd of a certain style. Style was never meant to be uptight. direction and color palette for the next season. At the end, I decided to use some of the images, after editing and adapting to them, from there I placed the images together as an all-over collage for the prints. I used a layering technique and mirroring effects to create a unique look.

Are you considering using an abundance of prints in future collections?

Of course it’s hard to predict what you are going do in the future, but at the moment and for the next collection I will definitely develop more prints. 3D design is also something I could consider for the future.

Describe your creative workspace and are there any surrounding elements that inspire your style of design? design

My workspace takes place in my home. It’s a two floor apartment and the basement area is used as my working space, I try to keep it as minimalistic as possible, which doesn’t work most of the time with the samples, fabrics etc. Sometimes I prefer to go out and work in coffee shops to keep myself focused. Those can be either modern or quiet cool Chinese style places in the Hutongs.

Define the biggest misconception people have when approaching menswear? Do you think the style of menswear is evolving and why?

I feel there is a misconception that menswear needs to be traditional; too many men feel the need to fit in with the crowd of a certain style.

Style was never meant to be uptight. But I think the style of menswear is definitely evolving thanks to the massive support from social media, blogger community, more upcoming menswear magazines, all those misconceptions are definitely changing, since it’s very easy to have access and gather new style ideas.

During the beginning stages of development, what is your main priority as a designer when creating a collection?

I start to listen to my inner self. Unconsciously I’m already processing lots of ideas and directions in my head, without even realizing which idea in particular, neither being aware of the direction. I would start collecting images to visualize what’s in my head already, step by step it would become more clear and suddenly it’s right in front of you. For me personally that’s the most exciting part but it gets interesting during the realization of the first samples. It’s funny because even during that process there are spontaneous mutations that could change things again.

It’s hard for me to predict the outcome, especially when it comes to the prints. I think it’s important to be flexible within that process and to be open-minded. The worst is to stick with only one direction without developing.

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designer Janine Broshe interview

design

My design aesthetics are in general minimalistic, modern and contemporary. Although for the SS’14 collection there is a sporty approach, but still, a look to merge wearability with a high end fashion appeal.

You describe PATH as contemporary minimalism, radical modernism and nonchalant elegance. Why did you decide to aim your brand of menswear into this particular direction? Do people understand and embrace your concept of design?

My design aesthetics are in general minimalistic, modern and contemporary. Although for the SS’14 collection there is a sporty approach, but still, a look to merge wearability with a high end fashion appeal. I have to admit that my previous collections were far more androgynous, while this one has more masculine cuts. It’s definitely easier for men to understand and embrace. I think it was a good development, especially when I think about all the positive feedback it got.

Where do see the future of “PATH”? Do you plan on marketing your brand in additional countries?

America are very much interested in the design as well.

Beginning May we are attending the trade show ‘Passion Origin and Belief’ in Italy, we’re hoping to meet a lot of interesting people there.

For aspiring designers, what inherent qualities make a successful designer?

Besides creativity and the professional knowledge, I think it’s very important to observe, to stay focused and disciplined.

Photography Liu Zhe Yao 刘喆尧 Model Liu YANG 刘洋 at Longteng, CN Hairstylist & Make Up Artist Dalpa Lee

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Artist mara cespon interview

Inks, Paper...

Fashion!

art

WORDS IRINA ROMASHEVSKAYA

Just barely out of college, fashion illustrator Mara Cespon is quickly becoming the one to watch, crediting top fashion companies on her list of clients.

This Philippines native moved to New York at the tender age of 14. “I grew up in the Philippines and I was very much used to sunny and rainy weather so moving to New York was a real eye opener. I learned English in school, so it was relatively easy to communicate, but it was the chilly weather that really bothered me. I’d only seen snow in the movies and I’ve always found it beautiful, but upon realizing that it felt icy to the touch, I’ve grown to hate it more than love it for its beauty.”

Cespon’s choice of illustration as her medium wasn’t accidental as she explains. “I didn’t want to simply do fine art. I wanted to be more communicative, to have a relatable story to tell in any kind of media, shape, or form.

When it came time to figuring out what major I wanted to get into, illustration seemed to fit the bill perfectly. And I would like to think I didn’t make a mistake in choosing it.”

Finding inspiration in films and music, what influences Cespon the most are “The scenes and emotions that just stick for days on end. They are usually the ones that dictate what I want to draw next.” Her inspiration takes her further, making an interesting NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .132

fashion subject out of anything she sees. “It really depends on how I’m feeling and what I feel like drawing at the moment. But it’s always something clever!”

Citing Jean Paul Gaultier, Tod’s, Luisa Beccaria, and Toga as her favorite designers of the season, Cespon’s favorite model at the moment is Nova Malanova. “I saw her whilst looking for pictures from Paris Fashion Week. She was one of the models from Undercover the A/W 2014 show and I just completely fell in love with her facial structure. I was compelled to draw her face right then and there.”

Cespon’s style has been described by many as “quick”, “sketchy”, “simple yet elegant” and “natural.” And as the artist explains: : “It’s true that I sketch quickly, but I prefer to keep my work simple by only taking in the details that interest me most in that moment.

I use watercolor inks for majority of my illustrations and, when allowed more time, I scan them into Photoshop, clean them up and play with the colors.”

She greatly admires the illustrative work of such masters like Ohgushi, Stina Persson, and Clym Evernden, and hopes one day to follow in their footsteps. With Ohgushi she shares her fascination with facial structure, Persson – expressive watercolor brush strokes, and with Evernden, it’s her appreciation for black ink that creates a power-

ful link.

Her latest sketching adventures include live sketching for Nanette Lepore during presentation at Bloomingdale’s Collective and Pamela Roland F/W 2014 runway show, which she thoroughly enjoyed. For Pamela Roland she created both watercolor illustrations and series of effervescent animation images, a project that was both challenging and fun.

When drawing on location remaining focused is a daunting task for Cespon.

“It’s quite taxing to draw live, so when I do get to do it I have to be very selective. It’s frustrating to leave things out but that’s unavoidable, and I have learned to move on from that when I draw on location. I only take very little when I draw live. Just small sheets of card stock, a refillable brush, and a choice of two to three watercolor inks. I try to keep it as limited and light as possible.”

When asked what power she would choose if she had a chance to become a superhero, the artist exclaimed: “Invisibility! With that, I can go to places where I can’t normally go; I can go across the globe without bothering to pay for airfare, hotels, or shows. Then I can draw anything, anyone, anywhere and no one would bother me. Yes, very much illegal, but if I could do that I wouldn’t miss it for the world!”

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Designer lena ivanova interview

Conceptual fashion with a wink Interview IRINA ROMASHEVSKAYA

Always daring and original, Ukrainian designer Lena Ivanova started her eponymous brand Ivanova with a clear message: “creativity without any limitations”. Ambitious and unconventional in her design approach, she likes to delve into complexities of conceptual art and thought, intriguing her customers with unusual selection of fabrics, prints and textures. Her clothing, at times simplistic and minimal, is never without a hint of playfulness and surprise. The designer is setting her sights high and is not afraid to experiment, enjoying the ride all the way to the top.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you started your brand.

You are based in Kiev, Ukraine. How would you define your city’s fashion?

I’ve traveled a lot around the world and would have to admit that Kiev is one of the trendiest cities I’ve seen. We are blessed with many young fashion designers and conceptual artists, photographers and journalists.

People in Kiev love to dress up. And they love their clothing with a bit of sparkle to it. Not unlike lots of other big cities, Kiev is full of young girls who enjoy fashion, love to wear high heels, play with accessories, and even wear evening ensembles in the morning! The situation is changing for the better, I think.

What is your design philosophy?

My motto: control over everything that’s happening, personal participation and absolute individuality. Thin plastic fabrics, which act as an extension of the body and cocoon it with multiple layers, but without making you feel uncomfortable; complex colors, provocative appliqués, clean-cut designs, comfort, playfulness and expression of one’s individual vision – these are all distinct features of Ivanova design aesthetic.

How would you describe your customer?

My ideal customer lives in the complex cosmopolitan world, but gets inspired by the simple things. The girls who love to wear my clothing always find the time for shopping and dressing up; it brings them great pleasure putting their outfits together. They are also not the ones to compromise, and they choose clothes designed specifically for them.

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I founded Ivanova in 2007. Before launching my own brand, I worked as an assistant for a number of well-known designers. I also worked as a stylist and merchandiser for Chanel. And then finally came the time to truly express myself. Just six months after launching Ivanova, I showed my first collection on the main stage at Ukrainian Fashion Week.

Designer lena ivanova interview

design

I love to keep my eyes open, but my soul closed. So the color black helps me to hide and look around at the same time.

What is your most important inspiration source?

long silk skirt in crimson. This fabric turned out gorgeous!

I love watching; I notice everything that happens around me. I like to imagine myself living in another city, another country, perhaps, and every time it’s a completely different place – from densely populated China to remote Alaska.

I find inspiration in people, in cities; I am a big urbanist.

Tell us about your past and future collaborations with other artists and designers.

Do you have a favorite color or a particular construction technique that could be called your signature?

The basis of almost all of my collections is a school dress with a little collar – these dresses in all of their interpretations are very popular among the target audience of Ivanova. I’m in love with the color black and the combination of black and white. I love the hidden femininity and am quite inspired by monastic aesthetics. I often use modest, almost puritan silhouettes in my designs.

I’ve had a lot of different collaborations, but I remember one very special one. Last year, I presented my F/W 2014 collection at a different location during Fashion Week, a beautiful contemporary art gallery well known in Kiev, My Gallery. For this collection I collaborated with the artist Ostrovskaya, who made collages of Kiev city views, which were then printed on tunics. The tunic design was specifically created for this project. The collaboration was a huge success! I also intend to do a collaborative project with a jewelry designer soon.

If you had a chance to work with any model of your choosing, who would that be?

In your collections you like to experiment with the use of different fabrics. Which fabrics inspired you for S/S 2014?

I like our Ukrainian top model Alla Kostromichova. She’s a really big star and always looks great. I’d love to work with her, but she is always so busy...

My last collection was built around the idea of Jesus’ crown of thorns. Therefore, the main focus of the collection was a plain fabric with an intricate print. We designed a special thorn crown graphic and printed it on cotton, silk and jersey. We used different colors, but my favorite piece was the

Tell us about your personal style. What is one item in your wardrobe that you absolutely can’t live without?

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I always put comfort first! In my wardrobe there are a lot of jersey pieces and black dresses, leather trousers and white

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t-shirts. I also love rings and sometimes I look like a rock star! The fact is, I love to keep my eyes open, but my soul closed. So the color black helps me to hide and look around at the same time.

I will be launching a secondary line, which will be called, Ivanova sweet.baby.jesus, and for this line I want to concentrate on simple black and white jersey garments. The entire collection will mimic everything I have in my wardrobe.

Do you enjoy traveling? What is your favorite travel spot?

Yes, traveling is my passion! I try to travel a lot, but unfortunately I’m always short on time, especially right before the shows. In general, I am mostly inspired by Europe and Asia, especially flea markets and little shops, which are always full of treasures and surprises.

Have you ever had a fashion faux pas?

I don’t know... I hope not! Anyway, I don’t remember any great fashion mistakes in the past. I always tend to totally control everything, and at the same time I treat everything with humor. Extreme seriousness is terrible!

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introduction to beauty

THE HIDDEN ART

beauty

BEHIND MAKEUP WORDS AZRA RED

As the definition of art is controversial, makeup or cosmetics as an art form can be hard to classify. One thing, though, is clear: makeup and cosmetics have been a form of expression throughout human history.

The theory of art as an expression is held to reflect the inner state of the artist. The core meaning of expression is the outer manifestation of an inner state. Works of art are publicly available objects or things, made by the artist and viewed by the audience. Every work of art occurs in a medium, meaning that there is some physical object or series of events by which the work is communicated to the recipient by means of his/ her senses. In painting, the medium is paint, in sculpture, materials such as stone, wood or plastic, and in makeup, the face or body acts as a canvas, with makeup as its medium.

There are many ways to classify the arts: by their purpose, by their intentions, or by their effects. The most usual and the most fundamental method of classifying art is by their mediums. Visual art includes drawing, painting, and three-dimensional visual art, such as sculpture and architecture. A combination of these two is called visiotactual art, and makeup falls into such a category. All of these arts appeal to the sense of sight first, and the artifact is an object in the visual medium.

The history of makeup and cosmetics spans about 6,000 years, and is apparent in almost every society on Earth. Cosmetic body art was

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the earliest form of ritual in human culture, dating over 100,000 years ago. The evidence for this comes in the form of red mineral pigments, including crayons, associated with the emergence of homo sapiens in Africa. Evidence of cosmetics also date back to well-documented accounts from ancient Egypt and Greece. Early major developments include the Egyptian’s use of castor oil as protective balms and creams made of beeswax, olive oil and rosewater, described by the Romans.

Cleopatra used lipstick that got its hue from ground carmine beetles, while other women used clay mixed with water to color their lips.Most notable, though, was the ancient Egyptians’ use of kohl. Both men and women would paint kohl, a mixture of metal, lead, copper, ash and burnt almonds, all around their eyes.

Kohl and henna have their roots in north Africa. Remedies to treat wrinkles were recorded at the time of Thutmosis III, containing ingredients such as gum of frankincense and fresh moringa. For scars and burns, special ointments were made of red ochre, kohl, and sycamore juice. An alternative treatment was a poultice of carob grounds and honey, or an ointment made of frankincense and honey, which acted as a thick, sticky bandage to prevent infections and growth. To improve breath, ancient Africans chewed herbs, frankincense, or licorice root stick, some of which is still in use today. Jars of what could be compared with modern-day ‘setting lotion’ have been found to contain a

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Photography Michael chandler NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .142

introduction to beauty

In Japan, geisha wore makeup made of crushed safflower petals, using it to paint the eyebrows and edges of the eyes as well as the lips, and sticks of bintsuke wax, a softer version of the sumo wrestlers’ hair wax, were used by geisha as a makeup base.

the sun. The higher a person was in status, the more leisure time he or she had to spend indoors, which kept their skin pale. Thus, the highest class of European society were pale, resulting in European men and mostly women attempting to lighten their skin, or using white powder on their skin to look more aristocratic. A variety of products were used, including white lead paint which also may have contained arsenic, which slowly poisoned fashionable women and killed many. In many parts of Asia, skin whitening continues to represent the ideal of beauty to this day, and a huge variety of products are widely available to lighten pigment.

At the very end of the 1800s, portrait photography had become very popular. People would save up to sit for one picture to have of themselves, and applying makeup before that picture became standard. Mirrors also became increasingly more affordable at this time, and more people than ever owned one in their homes. These two factors were crucial in the development of makeup, but nothing would play a greater role in the mainstream use of cosmetics than motion pictures. At first, actors were wearing heavy paint that didn’t translate very well, and it would crack easily. In 1914, Max Factor, who provided wigs to Hollywood studios, developed a greasepaint foundation that wouldn’t cake or crack. The greasepaint was popular with movie stars both onscreen and off, and it marked Factor’s first major success in the cosmetic industry. Factor would go on to develop lip gloss and an eyebrow pencil, along with popularizing the actual word “makeup.” Around the same time, T.L. Williams started Maybelline Company, and the first mascara was born when his sister Mabel mixed coal dust with petroleum jelly to paint her lashes. Williams distilled the formula into cake form and eventually found great success in selling it to the public.

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mixture of beeswax and resin. These doubled as remedies for problems such as baldness and greying hair.

Cosmetic use in Persia and what is today the Middle East can be traced back to ancient times. Kohl was also widely used across the Arab world, as a powder or smeared to darken the edges of the eyelids, similar to eyeliner. After Arab tribes converted to Islam and conquered those areas, cosmetics were often restricted if they were to disguise the appearances in order to mislead or cause uncontrolled desire. In Islamic law, there is no prohibition on wearing cosmetics, but there are requirements as stated above, and that the cosmetics must not be made of substances that harm one’s body.

In China, people began to stain their fingernails with gum arabic, gelatin, beeswax and egg white from around 3000 BCE. Colors were used to represent social classes. Royals wore silver, gold, black, and red, while lower class were forbidden to wear bright nail colors. In Japan, geisha wore makeup made of crushed safflower petals, using it to paint the eyebrows and edges of the eyes as well as the lips, and sticks of bintsuke wax, a softer version of the sumo wrestlers’ hair wax, were used by geisha as a makeup base. Rice powder colors the face and back; rouge contours the eye socket and defines the nose. Ohaguro (black paint) colours the teeth for a ceremony, called Erikae, when maiko (apprentice geisha) graduate and become independent.The geisha would also sometimes use bird droppings to compile a lighter color.

In Europe the Middle Ages, though it was thought sinful and immoral by church leaders to wear makeup, many women still adopted the fad. From the Renaissance up until the 20th century the lower classes had to work outside, usually in agricultural jobs, and the typically light-colored European’s skin was darkened by exposure to

introduction to beauty

The entire fashion industry is inextricably connected with makeup and its fluctuating trends, with fashion designers and makeup artists collaborating to creating new looks each season. Runway and editorial makeup can range from the avant-garde to looks that will easily transition to the street and everyday life.

beauty

Soon Max Factor began marketing his makeup to the public with the claims that they could look like their favorite movie stars. During the early years of the 20th century, make-up became fashionable in the United States and Europe, greatly owing to the influence of Hollywood, as well as ballet and theatre. Factor and Williams weren’t the only ones who saw the opportunity for mass-market cosmetics at the time, and competed against the likes of Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein. Modern synthetic hair dye had been invented in 1907 by Eugene Schueller, the founder of L’Oréal, who also went on to invent sunscreen in 1936.

Coco Chanel and flapper style greatly influenced cosmetics during that time, which famously embraced dark eyes, red lipstick, red nail polish, and a suntan. The eyebrow pencil really took off in the 1920’s, in part because it was now technologically superior to what it had been due to a new ingredient: hydrogenated cottonseed oil. The early commercial mascaras, like the one from Maybelline, were simply pressed cakes containing soap and pigments.

A woman would dip a tiny brush into hot water, rub the bristles on the cake, remove the excess by rolling the brush onto some blotting paper or a sponge, and then apply the mascara as if her eyelashes were a watercolor canvas. Previously, tans had only been sported by agricultural workers, while fashionable women kept their skins as pale as possible. In the wake of Chanel’s adoption of the suntan, dozens of new fake tan products were produced to help both men and women achieve the “sun-kissed” look.

Major advancement were also being made in nail polish production, an even further extension of cosmetics for the body. Prior to the 1920’s, nail care meant buffing ones nails, and buying a car meant getting a black one from Henry Ford. Ford first used black lacquer paint on his cars because it dried more quickly than other colors, but other companies begin using fast-drying lacquer paints in multiple colors to compete. These quick-drying lacquers were

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co-opted by other businesses, including cosmetics companies. The main ingredient was nitrocellulose, which was also used in smokeless gun powder and false teeth. In the 1950’s, Revlon made nail polish popular in United States, and advertised matching nail polishes and lipsticks, which is still a trend to this day.

During the 1960’s and 1970’s, many women in the western world influenced by feminism decided to go without any cosmetics. The anti-cosmetics movement was an outgrowth of the feminist movement; the objection to cosmetics’ role in the second-class status of women stated that it made women appear as mere sex objects who must waste time with their appearances. Even mainstream use of cosmetics in the 1970’s were then divided into a “natural look” for day, and a more acceptably sexualized image for evening.

Fast forward to today, where the culture of makeup reaches far beyond its every day use. The entire fashion industry is inextricably connected with makeup and its fluctuating trends, with fashion designers and makeup artists collaborating to creating new looks each season. Runway and editorial makeup can range from the avant-garde to looks that will easily transition to the street and everyday life. The expansion of digital platforms has given cosmetic culture a sprawling new facet made up of beauty websites, online makeup gurus, and makeup tutorial video bloggers.

By showing off their prowess with brushes and lipsticks, entire careers can be created from the right online presence.

From the attainable to the unexpected, a quick search can yield results ranging from a “New Year’s Eve smokey eye look tutorial” to a Sailor Moon cosplay tutorial, complete with pony-tailed wig and sailor suit. The new age of makeup further solidifies makeup as an ever-expanding art form, with more and more artists dedicating their lives to the craft of cosmetics.

beauty

Photography Craig Mc dean for Interview Magazine NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .145

BASKET BRAWL PHOTOGRAPHY Christopher Polack STYLING Faisal Westheimer

batwing sweater Adidas Originals Wool-blend Turtleneck Sweater worn underneath J.W.Anderson Hammered Art Diamond Earrings Yves Saint Laurent Sydney Watch Adidas Originals Gold Tube Ring 2/5 Balenciaga

Sequined Bomber Jacket H&M worn underneath DS Wind Jacket Adidas Tennis Wristbands Adidas Customised Gold Logo Earrings Adidas Originals

on Ashlee Black Clima 365 3-Stripes Cap Adidas Customised White Logo Hoop Earrings Adidas Cotton T-Shirt T by Alexander Wang Padded GFX Elbow Sleeve Adidas Fluid Viscose Jersey Trousers Giorgio Armani worn underneath Supernova Long Tights Adidas on Catherine White Clima 365 3-Stripes Cap Adidas Customised Gold Logo Earrings Adidas Originals Seamless Strap Tank Adidas by Stella McCartney Cotton Jersey Demi Bra Dsquared Underwear Fluid Viscose Jersey Trousers Giorgio Armani

Black Clima 365 3-Stripes Cap Adidas Cotton T-Shirt T by Alexander Wang Padded GFX Elbow Sleeve Adidas Fluid Viscose Jersey Trousers Giorgio Armani Supernova Long Tights Adidas Pyramid Stud Lace-Up Bootie Guiseppe Zanotti

on ashlee Black Clima 365 3-Stripes Cap adidas Customized White Logo Hoop Earrings adidas Cotton T-Shirt t by alexander wang Padded GFX Elbow Sleeve Adidas Fluid Viscose Jersey Trousers Giorgio Armani Supernova Long Tights Adidas Pyramid Stud Lace-Up Bootie Giuseppe Zanotti on Catherine White Clima 365 3-Stripes Cap Adidas Seamless Strap Tank Adidas by Stella McCartney Cotton Jersey Demi Bra Dsquared Underwear ProFit iPhone Armband Belkin Fluid Viscose Jersey Trousers Giorgio Armani Pyramid Stud Lace-Up Bootie Giuseppe Zanotti

On Ashlee Black Clima 365 3-Stripes Cap Adidas Hansine Knitted Dress Diane Von Furstenberg Trishy Belt By Malene Birger 3-Stripes Light Sweatshirt Adidas Alien Tooth Peep Toe Bootie Guiseppe Zanotti on Catherine Black GG 2409 Sunglasses Gucci Hansine Knitted Dress Diane Von Furstenberg Trishy Belt by Malene Birger Nitrocharge Woven Jacket Adidas Alien Tooth Peep Toe Bootie Guiseppe Zanotti

Push-Up Grips Adidas Black Run Cw Gloves Adidas Hammered Art Diamond Earrings Yves Saint Laurent Knit-Fit Flair Dress Parker at Christensen Copenhagen

Hammered Art Diamond Earrings Yves Saint Laurent Drop Pendant Necklace Chanel Black Presentation Tracksuit Adidas Medusa Link Belt Gianni Versace Sydney Watch Adidas Originals Alien Tooth Peep Toe Bootie Giuseppe Zanotti

on Ashlee Hammered Art Diamond Earrings Yves Saint Laurent Response 3-Stripe T-Shirt Adidas Boxing Gloves Sting Belt Adidas Fluid Viscose Jersey Trousers Giorgio Armani on Catherine Customized Gold Logo Earrings Adidas Originals Boxing Catching Pads Sting Response Dual Baggy Short Adidas Belt By Malene Birger Fluid Viscose Jersey Trousers Giorgio Armani

on Catherine Hammered Art Diamond Earrings Yves Saint Laurent Eyewear Alexander Wang Neoprene White Collection Top Elasrs Tennis Wristbands Adidas on Ashlee Black Clima 365 3-Stripes Cap Adidas Gold and Pearl Earrings Chanel Eyewear Moncler Neoprene White Collection Top Elasrs tennis wristbands adidas

Hammered Art Diamond Earrings Yves Saint Laurent Eyewear Alexander Wang Neoprene White Collection Top Elasrs

Black Clima 365 3-Stripes Cap Adidas Gold and Pearl Earrings Chanel Eyewear Moncler Neoprene White Collection Top Elasrs Silk Scarf Christian Lacroix Collier de Chien Cuff Hermès Multi Chain Bracelet Balenciaga

on Catherine Nitrocharge Woven Jacket Adidas Trishy Belt By Malene Birger White Collection Pant and Mesh Skirt Elasrs Tennis Wristbands Adidas Paint Splatter Sneaker Maison Martin Margeila on Ashlee Quilted Nylon Vest Ralph Lauren Trishy Belt By Malene Birger White Collection Skirt Elasrs Tennis Headband (worn on leg) Adidas Paint Splatter Sneaker Maison Martin Margeila

on Ashlee Montana Muse Midnight Hat Lack of Color Gold and Pearl Earrings Chanel Tennis Headband worn around neck Adidas Broken Zig-Zag Dress M - Missoni Pink Violet Maxi Pochette M - Missoni Alien Tooth Peep Toe Bootie Giuseppe Zanotti on Catherine Black Clima 365 3-Stripes Cap Adidas Hammered Art Diamond Earrings Yves Saint Laurent Tennis Wristbands Adidas Broken Zig-Zag Dress M - Missoni Green and Violet Maxi Pochette M - Missoni Vintage Embossed Skirt worn underneath Missoni Alien Tooth Peep Toe Bootie Giuseppe Zanotti

Montana Silver Haze Hat Lack of Color Hammered Art Diamond Earrings Yves Saint Laurent Plaid Peep-hole Top & Plaid Wrap Skirt Gisele Kaya Metallic Champion Belt Adidas Originals Collier de Chien Cuff Hermès Gold Skull Open Bangle Alexander McQueen Medallion Ring Topshop Multi Chain Bracelet & Gold Tube Ring 2/5 Balenciaga

Eyewear Moncler Customized Gold Logo Earrings Adidas Originals Blazer & Trouser Tibi at Christensen Copenhagen Cotton Jersey Demi Bra Dsquared2 Underwear Supernova Long Tights worn underneath Adidas Medusa Link Belt Gianni Versace Alien Tooth Peep Toe Bootie Guiseppe Zanotti

White Clima 365 3-Stripes Cap Adidas Hammered Art Diamond Earrings Yves Saint Laurent Tennis Headband worn around neck Adidas Vintage Pleated Skirt worn as a dress Chanel Medallion Ring Topshop Gold Tube Ring 2/5 Balenciaga Alien Tooth Peep Toe Bootie Guiseppe Zanotti

Tennis Headband Adidas Hammered Art Diamond Earrings Yves Saint Laurent Eyewear Alexander Wang “0” Bag Elasrs x Elyse Metaxas Black Collection Pant Elasrs x Spheric Collier de Chien Cuff Hermès Chain Bracelet Topshop Gold Tube Ring 2/5 Balenciaga Alien Tooth Peep Toe Bootie Giuseppe Zanotti

On Ashlee Hammered Art Diamond Earrings Yves Saint Laurent | Bangles Cartier Fringed Tweed Dress McQ by Alexander Mcqueen | Latex Skirt Topshop Supernova Long Tights & Run Load 3 Stripe Waist Bag Adidas Patent Zip Clutch Vivienne Westwood | Patent Leather Two-Tone Lace-up Shoes Miu Miu On Catherine Hoop Earring Celine | Bangles Cartier Fringed Tweed Dress McQ by Alexander Mcqueen | Latex Skirt Topshop Patent Zip Clutch Vivienne Westwood Run Load 3 Stripe Waist Bag Adidas | Knee High Sock Wolford Patent Leather Two-Tone Lace-up Shoes Miu Miu

On Ashlee Eyewear Jeremy Scott x Linda Farrow Hammered Art Diamond Earrings Yves Saint Laurent | Bangles Cartier Fringed Tweed Dress McQ by Alexander Mcqueen | Latex Skirt Topshop Supernova Long Tights & Run Load 3 Stripe Waist Bag Adidas Patent Zip Clutch Vivienne Westwood | Patent Leather Two-Tone Lace-up Shoes Miu Miu On Catherine Eyewear Jeremy Scott x Linda Farrow Hoop Earring Celine | Bangles Cartier Fringed Tweed Dress McQ by Alexander Mcqueen | Latex Skirt Topshop Patent Zip Clutch Vivienne Westwood Run Load 3 Stripe Waist Bag Adidas | Knee High Sock Wolford Patent Leather Two-Tone Lace-up Shoes Miu Miu

on ashlee Hammered Art Diamond Earrings Yves Saint Laurent White Collection Dress Elasrs Blazer Tibi for Christensen Copenhagen Bicycle Reflectors worn on ankle Adidas Octavia Platform Sandal Charlotte Olympia

Hammered Art Diamond Earrings Yves Saint Laurent White Collection Dress Elasrs Blazer Tibi for Christensen Copenhagen Bicycle Reflectors worn on ankle Adidas Octavia Platform Sandal Charlotte Olympia

oh Ashlee Hammered Art Diamond Earrings Yves Saint Laurent Draped Satin-Cady + Duchesse Satin JacketEsteban Cortazar Trishy Belt By Malene Birger Metallic Neoprene Dress Topshop Knee High Sock Wolford Octavia Platform Sandal Charlotte Olympia oh Catherine Vintage Bijoux Heart Earring Chanel Draped Satin-Cady + Duchesse Satin Jacket Esteban Cortazar Trishy Belt By Malene Birger Metallic Neoprene Dress Topshop Knee High Sock Wolford Octavia Platform Sandal Charlotte Olympia Photography Christopher Polack Styling Faisal Westheimer Make up artist Yvonne Borland Hairstylist Sue Frey 2nd Make up artist & Hairstylist Andrea Micich Models Ashlee at Giant Management & Catherine at Scene

Shanghai PHOTOGRAPHY Richard Ibrahim STYLING Carlos Mangubat

Jacket & Pants Chris Ran Lin Sweater Calibre Shoes Alexander McQueen for Puma from calibre

Jacket Chris Ran Lin Shirt Z by Zegna Tie Calibre Skirt Et Al Shoes Hugo Boss

Vest Chris Ran Lin Pants Instead We Smile Shoes Hugo Boss

Jacket Calibre Pants & shirt Jack London Tie Calibre Shoes Hugo Boss

Blazer Jack London Jacket Hugo Boss Shirt Calibre Pant Jack London Shoes Nike

Jacket Jack London Shirt Calibre Polo Shirt Calibre Sunglasses Bailey Nelson Photography Richard Ibrahim Styling Carlos Mangubat at Unsigned Management Make up artist Shella Martin at Salon XVI Hairstylist Phoenix Thomson at American Crew Model Mikael Jasin at Vivien’s Model Management Styling Assistant Lucy Cooke

Portrait of a woman WORDS IRINA ROMASHEVSKAYA

A

woman who likes to wear Mathieu Mirano’s clothing knows what she wants. She is feminine and strong, she loves embellishments, yet prefers a subtle color palette, she’s quiet, but she would never miss her chance to shine.

She is a modern woman after all.

It’s hard to label Mirano’s style. And who would really need to. It’s subtle. It’s powerful. It’s all the things a modern woman would want to wear: a flattering cigarette pant paired with a smart leather jacket during the day, an elegant cocktail dress in the evening, and a show-stopping gown for that special occasion. The clean lines of his clothing are supplied with rich textures, furs and elaborate embroideries – impeccable craftsmanship evident with every touch.

Mirano’s attention to detail is unfathomable. The designer is known to have gone to great lengths providing his clients with the best. And it comes as no secret that Lady Gaga is one of his most beloved clients.

It can be argued that in designer’s previous collections the accent was made on artistry of the garments and not as much on comfort. But pleasing the critics is never an easy task. No matter how elaborate in execution, Mirano’s garments are always flattering. Every piece is created with a woman in mind.

In his latest collection for fall, designer’s usual play on feminine versus structural was replaced by an overwhelming array of power dressing options. The lack of embroidery – substituted by an abundance of textures: from smooth leather to fur, intricate knits to sequins and feathers.

The show was opened by a model wearing a long motorcycle jacket – designer’s personal favorite – and followed by a lineup of classic silhouettes in black, white and silver. His fascination with sheer from past seasons was present in a floor-length dress accompanied by a leather bustier.

Mixing classicism with innovation, in just a few collections Mathieu Mirano already accomplished what others have been trying to achieve over decades: bring a clear direction to the brand and establish a distinct aesthetic, challenging yet again the notion of what could be expected from a young designer.

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Designer Mathieu Mirano Interview

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abdolreza aminlari & benjamin king exhibition

Abdolreza Aminlari Composition 16, 2012 Thread on paper 25 1/2 x 33 1/4 in. framed 22 x 29 1/2 in. unframed

Benjamin King White Sparkle, 2009 Acrylic, glitter, sand, and ceramic paste on canvas 93 1/2 x 73 1/2 in.

Benjamin King Untitled, 2013 Acrylic, sand, and enamel on canvas 60 x 50 in.

art

Abdolreza Aminlari Untitled, 2013 18k gold thread on paper 22 x 28 3/4 in. framed 19 1/2 x 25 1/2 in. unframed

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longhouse projects Abdolreza Aminlari Benjamin King

art

Words IRINA ROMASHEVSKAYA Images courtesy of Longhouse Projects

Founded just over a year ago, this Hudson Square gallery has already established itself as a purveyor of cutting edge contemporary art and sculpture. In its latest exhibit two distinct points of view were on display: one by Iranian-born Abdolreza Aminlari and another by North Carolina native Benjamin King. The work of these seemingly different artists, who currently live and work in Brooklyn, resonate uncommonly well with the each other – a perfect example of both artistic and cultural dialogue.

Clean strokes of Abdolreza Aminlari’s paintings zigzag through the canvas, wondering into space and leading to a much bigger context. The eye, as it seams, is pointed to an invisible ladder, jumping step-by-step to the top, trying to see the world beyond the canvas. Sewn with thread on paper and executed with precision, Aminlari’s paintings are surprisingly light-hearted and yet unequivocally poignant.

Textural and simplistic, the art of Benjamin King has a unique balance of unconscionable depth and joyful color play. His work is vivid, spacious and imaginative. Through the use of bold expressive strokes – a mixture of both naïve brushwork and stylization – the artist manages to pull you in for an emotional roller coaster, but at times, leaves you wondering on a quest for the uncanny.

The group show of Abdolreza Aminlari and Benjamin King is currently open until April 25th.

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art

1. Benjamin King Silver Throw, 2013 Acrylic, sand, glitter, and enamel on canvas 50 x 60 in.

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2. Abdolreza Aminlari Untitled, 2013 Thread on paper 47 3/4 x 53 3/4 in. framed 45 x 51 3/4 in. unframed

art

Abdolreza Aminlari Untitled, 2013 Thread on paper 54 3/4 x 54 in. framed 51 3/4 x 51 in. unframed

Benjamin King Untitled (installation), dates variable Acrylic on paper Approximate dimensions 22 x 27 each framed Approximate dimensions 18 1/2 x 23 1/2 unframed

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Gown Phoenix Keating NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .196

WORDS ALEXANDRA STEVENS PHOTOGRAPHY COCO ALEXANDER & SHAWN ENGLER STYLING RENESSTA OLDS NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .197

Dress & Skirt Son Jung Wan Strappy Sandals Carolina Espinosa NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .198

SUNGLASSES Shauns Jacket Son Jung Wan High Waisted Briefs Tocca Shoes Carolina Espinosa NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .199

SUNGLASSES Shauns Blouse & Skirt Tocca NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .200

Blouse S.I.L.K. Pants S.I.L.k.

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Dress Andrew Marc x Richard Chai NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .202

Feature Exclusive Devyn Abdullah Interview

Born and raised in the Bronx, Abdullah said she would sooner leave New York entirely than move to another borough. Her love for modeling began as a teen, where she appeared in commercial work before deciding to take a break from the industry. She put her career on hold to finish high school as a “normal” teenager, while modeling temporarily sat on the back burner. Abdullah eventually found herself working multiple jobs in retail and restaurants to support herself and her infant daughter, and needed a boost to get her back into the game.

While continuing her search for modeling opportunities in 2012, Oxygen was hosting open calls for their newest reality show. The Face would be a modeling competition, hosted by Nigel Barker and three of fashion’s favorite faces - Naomi Campbell, Coco Rocha, and Karolina Kurkova. Abdullah never thought she would be in reality TV, but appeared on the premier season of the show, mentored throughout each challenge by Karolina Kurkova.

Over the course of the season, Abdullah beat out 11 other girls to become the first winner of The Face. Abdullah became the spokeswoman for beauty brand Ulta, and got the kickstart she needed to get back in the industry.

The show opened doors both in her work and personal life, creating opportunities for work and friendship. Abdullah was finally being recognized for doing what she loves and no longer needed three extra jobs, and she came out of the experience with meaningful friendships. Abdullah says she still keeps in touch with Karolina Kurkova, whom she bonded closely with over their shared experiences in motherood. Kurkova’s son is close in age to Abdullah’s daughter, so the two found common ground in their lifestyles.

Unlike many contestants who “fangirl” at the sight of their idols, Abdullah felt like working with Campbell, Rocha, and Kurkova was simply a sign that she was finally in the right place.

Since she began modelling, Abdullah has always been inspired by models like Campbell and Linda Evangelista, each an embodiment of a powerful, beautiful woman. She gushes over Evangelista’s ever-reaching range of looks, her perfect portrayals of sexy or sweet or edgy. Abdullah’s cropped hair has lent her a powerful androgyny in previous projects, but she now wears long waves to demonstrate her versatility. She stresses the importance of not being tied down to any roles, to keep herself from being labeled as any “type” of model. She is acutely self-aware, and genuinely confident, exuding an undeniable presence and energy.

“I’m not intimidated by anyone,” Abdullah said with a shrug and a smile. Her off-duty look usually falls in one of two extremes: super casual, or done all the way up. Her jaded brand of coolness and in-your-face confidence leaves no room for doubt. Despite the positive effects of her win, Abdullah hopes viewers don’t take everything they see on “reality” TV too seriously. She admits she doesn’t watch any of it herself, and never wants to compete in a reality competition again. But however skewed many of the dramatic TV moments may be, modeling competitions like The Face do give viewers some insight to the challenges of the industry. Abdullah appreciates that the show does present an idea of what it actually means to be a model, and the interpersonal skills it takes that are far beyond just looking pretty.

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Top Phoenix Keating Skirt Andrew Marc x Richard Chai Shoes Carolina Espinosa Cross Body Purse Chanel NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .204

A lot of girls think that once you’re a mom, you have to stop being yourself, that all you can be is your child’s mother. You should still try and do what you love.

Dress Song Jun Wang PHOTOGRAPHY COCO ALEXANDER & SHAWN ENGLER Fashion Editor Renessta Olds MAKE UP ARTIST & HAIRSTYLIST NICOLE BLACKMAN Fashion Assistant Lee Avant NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .206

Feature Exclusive Devyn Abdullah Interview

“You have to know to to present yourself,” she explains. “You have to know how to speak in public, and be in front of people.” Photo shoots and runways can also be physically strenuous; Abdullah recalls working a swimsuit campaign for Target that required shooting on the streets of Manhattan in the middle of a brutal winter. She stood outside for hours, surrounded in heat lamps between takes, shivering beneath a blanket before leaping out into the cold wearing practically nothing.

And though the glamour of the industry looks alluring from the outside, career models constantly face negative stereotyping, frequently (and unfortunately) from other women. Sexual and salacious might be the look for a company’s campaign, but the traits are often misplaced onto the personality of the model instead.

Models are assumed to be vapid or promiscuous solely based on their career choices - just a pretty face with no real skills or work ethic. Abdullah fights back, trying her best to show the world that pretty girls can also be intelligent, capable, and powerful. She likens her job to acting, comparing a photo shoot to wearing a mask.

“I’m just playing a character,” she said. “I’ll be whoever I need to be, it’s my job.” Since The Face, Abdullah’s career has expanded into experiences as a public figure. Pursing her passions has helped her develop her persona, which she in turn uses to inspire and to influence others. She is now a confident public speaker, and uses her position to help other young mothers.

“A lot of girls think that once you’re a mom, you have to stop being yourself, that all you can be is your child’s mother,” said the 22-year-old. “You should still try and do what you love.”

Abdullah wants to change the conception of motherhood as a sacrifice; she knows her daughter to be a gift and a blessing, and balances her responsibilities as a mom alongside her personal aspirations. She frequently takes her daughter along when she travels for work, and stresses how important it is that she love every moment of the time they do spend together.

“It’s better for both of you if you continue to be your own person, instead of giving up your entire life to be a parent,” she said, sounding wise beyond her years. Abdullah plans to continue working with underprivileged children and mothers, hoping her own story can serve as an inspiration for other young moms to strive for their passions.

Devyn Abdullah

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Designer Caroline Fuss Interview

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A HARARE WORDS ALEXANDRA STEVENS

fter the wrap of a successful New York Fashion Week debut, we chatted with young Australian designer Caroline Fuss about her womenswear label Harare. Started in 2013, the New York-based Harare is named after the capital of Zimbabwe, the birthplace of her mother and grandmother.

Fuss’ first NYFW presentation took place at the High Line Loft, where she presented a collection inspired by abstract and expressionist artists.

“It really started with Diebenkorn and Frankethaler, and the color field movement,” Fuss said of her initial creative cues. “I was drawn to the exploration of parameters of space, geometrics, and dispersions of color. That’s really where the collection started, and from there it moved into very linear, rectangular shapes, broken-up lines, and geometric patterns.”

Using artwork as a huge basis for the choice in color palette, Fuss’ collection is an array of bold yellow, burgundy leather, and jewelgreen knits. “Winter lends itself well to gemstones; rich, stone colors,” Fuss explained. “You want to pop colors in with black - people tend to wear darker hues, so for me it was trying to keep it fresh, but also giving it a very winter-like feel.”

Harare’s Fall/Winter collection playing with what Fuss and her team already know of textiles, and pushing what she had done in previous seasons. This collection also incorporated a whole lot more fabrics than the budding designer was used to working with, like knitwear, meshes, and wool.

“It’s my first time ever doing knitwear,” said Fuss. “I’m obsessed! We work with this incredible company in LAm and it’s all handknitted. We import all of our wools from Peru, so it’s all alpaca highland wool.” A model walks by in a oversized, chunky-knit scarf in an eyecatching yellow, and the luxe wool looks soft and practical.

“When you’re a young designer, you’re constantly growing and learning,” she said. “Any designer will kind of look back sometimes and go ‘whoa, what was I doing or thinking last season?’ It’s just the method to this.” She uses her current collection as an example; she is exceedingly proud of her work and loves the collection, but is slowly starting to think more and more about what’s next.

“Our girl lights up the room,” Fuss said of the kind of girl who wears Hararare. “She’s happy, she’s travelled, she wanders around the world. She’s a little bit of a gypsy, but she’s also super cool and high-end. I feel like she’s someone you want in your life.” Fuss smiles, looking like a perfect embodiment of her own inspiration. “She can be young, or she can be old, but she has a zest for life.”

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Mariella Pilato

design

guilty pleasures INTERVIEW IRINA ROMASHEVSKAYA

From the island of Bali comes a line of jewelry abounding in mysticism and sprinkled with innovation. Each piece is imaginative and bold, striking and simple altogether. Mariella Pilato explains the magic.

What is your background in the arts?

I was born in Sorrento, Southern Italy. After I graduated from art school I continued my studies at The Naples Academy of Fine Arts where I pursued a degree in stage design.

What ignites your passion for jewelry?

I have always been involved with the creative process using whatever media came to hand. When I came to Bali I discovered gemstones and started my own bench work, learning silversmithing techniques, experimenting hands-on how to realize my ideas and turn them into jewelry.

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What was the first piece of jewelry you ever made? Do you still have it?

I made a necklace with a large lapis lazuli. I still have it, still love it and still wear it!

Why did you choose Bali as your living and working destination?

Bali is an island with a very colorful and strong religious tradition.

Like most of the people from south East Asia they are very welcoming. For this reason Bali has a large expatriate community, it is like a melting pot of cultures. Everybody is immersed in the creative process.

I find this very inspiring.

Jewelry designer mariella pilato interview

design NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .211

Jewelry designer mariella pilato interview

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Luxury is a lifestyle. To me it’s all about atmosphere: a beautiful setting, the everlasting feeling of joy and happiness when surrounded by the people I love... design

How would you describe your work process? Take us through your typical day at the studio.

I draw a lot of sketches and endless variations on a theme until an idea manifests itself, which I can then develop into comfortable, wearable jewelry. Most of the time I like to get hands-on at my bench and make the first sample. I spend my days in my studio, working together with a few talented silversmiths.

All of the jewelry is made in the studio in limited numbers and then distributed around the world.

What kind of materials do you prefer to work with?

I love everything; the possibilities are infinite! At the moment, I love to work with the ice-cold contrast of the crystals and the silver, but with a little touch of color. The challenge is to create a piece of jewelry that is different and comfortable to wear.

What stands behind the name of your

latest collection “Patterns of Crystallization”?

My son and I work together writing the description of each jewelry piece. In the brainstorming process he analyzes the designs, helping me to put into words the concepts behind the drawings. He is very good with words and he named this particular collection, “Patterns of Crystallization”.

Who is the woman that wears your jewelry?

Strong, independent, risk-taking fashionista. I create pieces that satisfy my taste, and I wouldn’t make something that I wouldn’t wear. I like accessories to be bold and to make a statement about the woman wearing them.

What would you consider to be the most important aspect of your jewelry work?

I love fashion, but I make what pleases me and when others love it as much as I do, that

is affirming for me.

What does luxury mean to you?

Luxury is a lifestyle. To me it’s all about atmosphere: a beautiful setting, the everlasting feeling of joy and happiness when surrounded by the people I love.

What is your ultimate guilty pleasure?

My guilty pleasures?

There are too many. Guilty pleasures are amongst life’s greatest pleasures…. Indulgence? I could name few, but they are too intimate…. As an Italian, I love to eat.

Can you share your professional goals and dreams with us?

To me it feels great to be able to make a living doing what I like most… to be creative.

Pursuing my dreams has helped me grow and accomplish a great deal.

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A World Lit Only By Fire encaustic, ephemera 44 x 36 x 3

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Artist marge luttrell interview

A journey into art.

When I stumbled upon Marge Luttrell’s work I was instantly transferred into an inner world of imagination and self-discovery. The memories from my own past poured in: floating thoughts of what could have been, every piece of life’s puzzle filling in the empty spaces…. To be honest, I didn’t expect to be so touched by someone’s art and I had to share this special story.

From the humble beginnings, spans a life that reads like a novel. Growing up in Metuchen, New Jersey, in a family of an accountant and a nurse, Luttrell was lucky enough if there was an envelope to draw on in the house. And yet, looking back, she always had a creative way to express herself. “Play-doh and Spirograph filled the void in a house where it wasn’t acceptable to trail paint across the floor. I was always asking for painting sets but usually the closest I got was Paint-by-number kits for birthdays and such. They never really did it to me,” she says. “In the eighth grade, my sister gave me a real painting set for Christmas. Granted, it was the small skinny tubes and one brush in a wood box, but it was a revelation for me. I saved my allowance and bought a big flat canvas board on which I painted a girl going up in flames.” As Luttrell recalls, “It must have been something about my repressive Catholic school education or my weekend alcoholic father, but what I do remember is that I loved that painting and proudly displayed it in my room.

When a visitor would come to our house, my mother would take it down and put it next to the garbage can out back, and I would have to go out and retrieve it and hang it back up.

This went on all through high school: her taking it down, me

sneaking it back.”

Luttrell’s journey into the art world wasn’t that simple in the beginning. “I didn’t choose art. It chose me. I went to Tennessee for college – I liked the way Chattanooga sounded what a great word! I remember my father saying to me, ‘You can be a nurse, a secretary or a teacher, choose!’ Those were my options.” So she had to forgo a BFA and a teaching degree to finally get into art. “That was the deal. I taught for a while then moved to Knoxville to get my MFA at the University of Tennessee. And while I was there I finally got a handle on what I was trying to say, and so began the thread sewn into the fabric of my art.”

Even in the early days of her career Luttrell’s work always involved mixed media. “I was never totally happy with just drawing or painting.” But what really started her interest in the creative storytelling was the estate sale of an eccentric old lady named Evelyn Bowman, which she attended by chance back in 1976. “Mind you, estate sales were few and far between in those days. Before you could load your history onto a computer, people kept their family history intact or rather sacred, especially in the South, where stories and history are more important than food.” A story of a woman that tried to make it as a dancer in New York in the early part of the last century, and “apparently shook a lot of branches on her family tree”, resonated with Luttrell. She spent every penny she had, buying every item she could afford. “It fascinated me: the dreams she must have had, and the guts to go to New York in the 1920s from a small Southern town.

NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .215

art

INTERVIEW IRINA ROMASHEVSKAYA

The Beautiful and the Damned encaustic, ephemera 24 x 44 x 3

art

Artist marge luttrell interview

By creating a new history from discarded photographs and physical remnants of other peoples lives I am reintroducing and saving a little bit of that past. It’s actually the greatest recycling project ever. Granted, it’s not actually connected to them anymore and for the most part doesn’t even relate to them at all, but as long as a physical piece of them is in my work, they live through it.

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The Presence of the Numinous encaustic, ephemera 12 x 16 x 2

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The Fate of Ariadne encaustic, string, map pins, ephemera 16 x 16 x 2

The Uses of Enchantment encaustic, leather, metal, string, ephemera 12 x 12 x 2

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Artist marge luttrell interview

Andromeda Waits encaustic, string, map pins, ephemera 11 x 14 x 2

Forgotten photographs, misplaced memories, pieces of the past, never remembered until now. “That’s when the idea of the universal story and memory became the overriding theme in my art. I have gone through mediums, color phases and of course my own life experiences, which have geminated and expanded that idea throughout the years. But the theme seems to stay the same: life is cyclic, and the only thing we are actually able to carry forward are our memories and the stories that we have been told, which we in turn have to pass down to future generations. If they are not kept and retold, our mark and the tangible evidence that we ever existed on this earth disappear.”

And so it started…. A vintage button, a twig, an article from an old newspaper, a photograph or a postcard – old world memorabilia collected into a collage, connecting the dots and providing a passage to the past; a piece of someone’s life that’s been forgotten or lost until now, becoming a powerful tool of visual expression. “By creating a new history from discarded photographs and physical remnants of other peoples lives I am reintroducing and saving a little bit of that past. It’s actually the greatest recycling project ever.

Granted, it’s not actually connected to them anymore and for the most part doesn’t even relate to them at all, but as long as a physical piece of them is in my work, they live through it.”

Luttrell’s chosen medium makes it possible to elevate to the

surface the depth of what used to be one’s life. It also gives a painting a slight three-dimensional effect. Explaining her painting technique in detail, the artist adds, “What I do now is a hybrid of what I have always done. It’s still mixed media, but back in 2007 when I took a workshop with Catherine Nash, a pioneer in her field, I was introduced to an old but forgotten medium of encaustic painting. It was an epiphany for me! Produced as a mixture of beeswax, resin and pigment, encaustic medium is heated to a melting point, then applied to a hard substrate, just as if you would do any painting, the only difference being that every time a layer of wax is applied, it is heated with a torch or heat gun and fused to the layer below to get stabilized. It’s one of the oldest art forms in the world, and it was used in grave portraits throughout ancient Greece and Egypt to enable the departed to be recognized by their relatives in the underworld.”

To give an authentic voice to otherwise forgotten life, involves a talent of a storyteller. “I have lived in Tennessee now for so long I think I have adopted the regional trait of raconteur: Faulkner, Capote, even country music… all storytellers – it comes with the territory,” jokes Luttrell.

She is a master of artistic dialectic, providing a ground for the quest, but never supplying the answer. “I start the narrative, but play the coquette, the teaser. The story is there for the viewers to tell, and it reveals itself over time. I might give you a hint at what it meant to me, but I will never reveal the whole message, it looses its magic if I do.”

The artist prefers to separate her work into interconnected series, where each part is a continuation of the next. In the Constellation Series, completed largely in bright blues and greens, it’s the parables and epos of the Ancient Greece that brought the series to life. “I keep gravitating back to Greece, there is something so elusive and powerful, and encaustic medium is connected to it back then and now. It’s the reason I started researching the Constellation Series. The connection is not so much in imagery as in spirit. And these stories are still relevant to this day.” Her Switzerland Series, which NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .219

art

But what really got me though, was the idea that her family was trying to sell her life away along with her possessions.

Not approving her way of life, her family members were selling off everything that defined her; it felt like they were erasing the very fact of her existence. I distinctly remember feeling incredibly sad at the time. So I wanted to create a second life for Evelyn, pay her homage. And as a result, my work became a narrative account of my version of her life. I became her alter ego, her second chance, so to speak.”

Artist marge luttrell interview

art

We get so caught up in living that as the years go by, life can get unimaginative if we let it. I just try to make sure I step back from the immediacy of it all, to experience and see the flashes of brilliance that are around me every minute. took a few years to complete, are subtler in color – “an influence of all that snow in the Alps” – and infused with history as it coincided with the artist’s extensive European traveling. The Switzerland Series leads in turn to Excavation Series, “larger more abstract pieces that are collaged underneath with a complete narrative, and like an old wall, revealing themselves in fragments little by little. What is not revealed is as important as what is – a sidelong gaze back to the elusiveness of memory.” And thus the memory circle of the universal truth emerging from the ground up is complete.

It wasn’t easy for Luttrell to continue on her artistic path.

“I always intended to be a working artist. But I had a lot of loans to pay back. So I taught classes and maintained a dedicated studio practice for a while. I was exhibiting at selected shows and galleries primarily in the South. I even went to New York to find gallery representation. Then I had three kids and it became harder to do both. I felt that as soon as the last one was in kindergarten, I would be able to go back to a full-time studio practice again. The problem was, Tennessee was forty-seventh in the country in education and the public schools in my area were abominable. So that’s when I supplemented my kids’ education by trading out teaching art in private schools wherever they attended.

All the way from the time my youngest was three, until they all graduated high school. They got a great education, but it came at a great cost too. But hey, life is like that. I don’t regret anything.”

Paying it forward with art takes on special meaning for Luttrell. “And I do love teaching. Wait, let me put it this way: I love being in my studio, but can go on a binge for three weeks and not come up for air, and that’s not really that NU-MODE´ WHO AM I S/S 2014 .220

good for you. So teaching helps with that. I recently came back from Switzerland where I have been teaching on and off for a few years and that beats anything I have done in the States. I have always loved to travel, even when I was teaching in Tennessee I would organize all the student overseas excursions so I could travel for free. Thirty-two trips abroad with students certainly impacted my work, but you have to really love traveling to take 40 kids to Uluru in the heat of [Australian] summer!” she exclaims. “I just turned down an invitation to go back to Switzerland next year. I have waited a long time, a lifetime to be an artist. I still have my hand in teaching adult encaustic classes at schools like Penland in North Carolina and Arrowmont in Tennessee, but that’s about all the teaching I want to do for now.”

Sharing the stories of bygone past, Luttrell inevitably shares and her own: her insatiable thirst for life proudly displayed on every painting. “I like surprises, something unexpected and fresh in art,” she says. “I have traveled a lot and the closer I can get to the authentic, wherever I go, the more I like it. New York, Paris, just as long as I can find a corner that isn’t contrived. I hate places like Disney World. It sucks the imagination dry. It’s places like the fabric souks of Morocco or a food stand in the middle of Bangkok, where I always get a glimpse of that bigger historical picture. It usually takes the breath out of me […] Also, I’m a pretty animated and energized person. Lately, I catch myself realizing that it is all going by way too fast. Now I just try to notice more and take the time to experience it. We get so caught up in living that as the years go by, life can get unimaginative if we let it. I just try to make sure I step back from the immediacy of it all, to experience and see the flashes of brilliance that are around me every minute.”

art

The Key To the Majestic encaustic, ephemera 24 x 44 x 3

Rhetoric Is Impossible Here encaustic, ephemera 6 x12 x 2

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Neo genesis PHOTOGRAPHY JD Barnes creative direction kim iko STYLINg raytell bridges

White Dress shirt ALEXANDER WANG Sleeveless Tuxedo Dress Vest Balenciaga

Chiffon Layered Top PROTAGONIST Chiffon Tunic KATRIN SCHNABL Black Tights DONNA KARAN

White Dress Shirt CLUB MONACO Sleeveless Marble Pleated Dress ZARA Wedge Slingback Bootie LANVIN

Sheer Asymmetrical Dress Shirt PARKCHOONMOO White Front Pocket Button Up PROTAGONIST

Sheer Asymmetrical Dress Shirt PARKCHOONMOO White Front Pocket Button Up PROTAGONIST

Light Blue Bib Tunic PROTAGONIST

Asymmetrical Leather Jacket With Straps CAROLINA SARRIA White Harem Shorts PARCHOONMOO Black Leather Shirt ALLSAINTS Long Knit Sleeveless Dress FRANZSIKA FOX Black Tights WOLFORD Shoes L.A.M.B.

Black Leather Shirt ALLSAINTS Long Knit Sleeveless Dress FRANZSIKA FOX Black Tights WOLFORD Shoes L.A.M.B.

Mock Turtleneck Dress CAROLINA SARRIA

Lace Peplum Dress ZARA Leather Peplum ZANA BAYNE

Vintage Sheer Bodysuit MOSCHINO Leather Bustier Zana Bayne

Trench Coat DKNY Leather Opera Gloves GUCCI

Black Deep V Satin Gown ARMANI Silver Collar Brace BOND HARDWARE Silver Hand Harness BJORG Photography JD Barnes Creative Director Kim Iko Stylist Raytell Bridges Make up artist Sandradene Fearon Hairstylist Ro Morgan Model Natalie Keyser at Fusion

www.emilyabay.com

Stocklist

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Topshop www.topshop.com

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Longhouse Projects GROUP SHOW: TEST 2 ABDOLREZA AMINLARI AND BENJAMIN KING

M A R C H 7 - A P R I L 2 5, 2 0 1 4

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