Minsuk Cho | Jeremy Scott | Sarah Mower | Studio Job | Viviane Sassen Stimuli Fetish | Fashion Underground | Viktor & Rolf 3 hours T.V. Review | 24 hours with Frank Sinatra — Issue Nr. 4 — — 1 —
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CONTENTS Front of book Evan Gruzis 18 Roma Pas 20 Benny Cassette 22 David Barter 24 Cara Hetson 26
Profile Sarah Mower 28 Jeremy Scott 32 Studio Job
36
Review Viktor & Rolf On T.V. 40
Vanity Les Bon Mots 44 Bye Bye Botox 46
Olfactory Receptors
48
Portfolio Viviane Sassen
50
Architecture Minsuk Cho 56
Music Skin 62
Stimuli Fetish Franco Wright 67
Hans Ulrich Obrist 68 Roxanne Lowit 69
Erdem Moralioglu 70
Printed Matters Jeremy Leslie / Erik Torstensson & Jens Grede 73 Michael C. Place / Domenic Lippa 74
Home Improvements Dror Benshetrit 76 Joep Van Lieshout 78 Marije Vogelzang 79
Fashion Report Korean Menswear 80 Marit Fujiwara 82
Fashion Underground Anti-Patha Ruga 85
Ha Sang Beg 86 Garde Robe 87 Soeli Pedrozo 88 Marcus Constable 89
Stimuli Fall 2009 Fashion
90 96 Steam Heat by Ssam Kim 110 Continental Drift by Eric Frideen 122 Wild Country by James Mountford 134 Brandscape by Satoshi Minakawa Homecoming by Mark O’sullivan
Big Switch by Jorge Lepesteur & Judy Blame 144 Sizing Up by Virgili Ljubero 154 Splash Shots by Nick Dorey
162
Crowning Glory by Ssam Kim & Dominic Sio
170
Art Of Consumerism by Rama Lee 176
Stimuli Travel 24hours With Frank Sinatra
182
Stimuli Acronyms Quirky Abbreviations 190
Stockists Where To Shop 192
Cover Cecile Sinclair @ Silent Models, wore embellished dress by Chanel Fall 2009 Collection Photographed By Mark O’sullivan In Paris Styling by Niki Brodie Make-Up: Adam De Cruz @ punishmentltd.com using Lancôme Hair: Ben Mohapi @ punishmentltd.com
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MASTHEAD Guest Editor John Weich
Special Thanks to Johanna Lenander
Editor In Chief & Creative Director Dominic Sio
Editors Adam de Cruz | Robi Dutta | Hidetaka Furaya | Jared Johnson
Fashion Editor-at-Large Niki Brodie
Fashion Editors Georgia Ashdown | Tamer Wilde | Vinnie Pizzingrilli
Contributing Fashion Editors Judy Blame, Nic Jottkandt, Michelle Sumiko, Kathy Chan, Andrej Skok
Contributing Writers, Photographers & Artists Merel Bem, Gregory Sieradzan, David Hellqvist, David Waters, Nancy Macdonell, Fiona Bryson, Zarije Vogelzang, Dror Benshetrit, Joep Van Lieshout, Clements Odin, Joe Wilson, James Mountford, Mark O’Sullivan, Viviane Sassen, Eric Frideen, Satoshi Minakawa, Jasper Clarke, Jorge Lepesteur, Amanda Milius, Nick Dorey, Susan Connie Marsh, Nabil Elderkin, Virgili Jubero, Yong-Kwan Kim, Woo-Il Kim, Jungsik Moon, Ssam Kim
Design www.artofconsumerism.net
Art Department Jun Kit | Eugene Tee
Publishers Dominic Sio | Linda Ling | Adam de Cruz
Advertising
Marketing Director Zacharie A. Rajab
Special Project
zacharie@stimulimag.com
Jared Johnson
+44 [0] 798 476 1867
jared@stimulimag.com
+ 1 [708] 743 1159
Communication Director Ninette Murk ninette@pandora.be
Stimuli is published by STIMULI MEDIA 21 Girdlers Road London W140PS United Kingdom T: + 44 [0] 2076 0375 49 info@stimulimag.com
South East Asia STIMULI MEDIA SDN BHD Suite 63-2 Manor 2 Jalan Perkasa 9 Taman Maluri 55100 Cheras Kuala Lumpur Malaysia T: + 6 [0] 17 4787 305 ISSN 87989320
Printed by Lee Press www.leepress.com
This issue’s Guest Editor John Weich lemonscentedtea.com Most if not all the words in this issue were conceived or reconstructed by our guest editor John Weich, Creative Director of hip Amsterdam post advertising agency Lemon scented tea. John, formerly editor of ArtReview magazine, purposely trolled through his home town of Amsterdam for stories and inevitably ran into a few of Holland’s most inspiring individuals along the way, giving issue 4 of Stimuli a heady Dutch veneer.
COPYRIGHT Stimuli © 2008, by the artists, the authors & photographers. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. All prices and credits are accurate at press time but are subject to changes. This magazine accepts no liability for loss or damage of manuscripts, artworks, photographic prints and transparencies.
Evan Gruzis, Looking at Looking by Sabine Gottfried Evan Gruzis surreal combinations of apparently disparate pop-cultural quotations invite us to reassess the way of how we look at art, or, as the artist might amend: “the way we look at looking”. The content of Gruzis work is accessible to everyone familiar with American popculture, imbuing the work with a quasi universal appeal. Most strikingly though, Gruzis recurrently draws from the superficial and hyper-stylised vocabulary of the “Californian cool” — Ray Ban Sunglasses, palm trees, sunsets, retro graffiti tags, Venetian blinds and LPs. Gruzis was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1979 — a biographical footnote that might explain his fascination with these clichéd Californian tropes. Growing up between the two coasts, Gruzis says, “is so boring that you have to go somewhere else eventually. I was always interested in the exotic West and L.A.” With this perspective in mind, Gruzis’ works supersedes in combining 80’s advertising, retro-photography, urban textures, and the tragically decorative through an aesthetic language that could be termed ‘Pop-Noir’.
“When I started Gruzis work set up of a severe distance making these between the objects represented and drawings, my idea their representations as works of art was to set up this which leave the viewer to interpret philosophical if the conditions in the work are challenge: Imagine a reflection, dramatisation, or indictment of contemporary culture you are in a — or an amalgam of all three. theatre and you are watching a Though the subject matter is from play. There are truly “from life”, it is imbued characters on a formal elegance, technical stage and there is with perfection of almost photographic a vase of flowers.” quality, that seems to do ontological
“When I started making these drawings, my idea was to set up this philosophical challenge: Imagine you are in a theatre and you are watching a play. There are characters on stage and there is a vase of flowers. Even though they are real flowers sitting on the table, they represent flowers in the context of the play.” In his recent exhibition at the Berlin gallery DUVE Berlin, the artist turn away from the romanticism of earlier works towards scrutinising the conceptual limits of his oeuvre. Conceptual Monochrome (2009) for instance is a Ruscha-esque text piece that states, “CLOSE YOUR EYES, PLEASE”. The overt conceptualism of this piece creates an ambiguous humor by simultaneously being a send-up of text-based art, a critical statement on contemporary aesthetics, and a selfdepreciating instruction. Setting conceptualism aside, Gruzis returns to the still life in Two Things (2009). A dramatically rendered silhouette of a knife piercing a pineapple, here violence and beauty are evoked through two banal objects frozen in time. www.evangruzis.com
violence to these objects. The work becomes double artifice. This ambiguity is the hammock on which Gruzis swings between Miami and LA; low culture content and high culture execution. Handed down troupes of shattered sunglasses and graffiti text in hand-rendered drawings with ultra smooth washes and geometric passages give an air of commercialism, while their reduced subject matter revels in seductive vapidity.
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Roma Pas, Nothing is what it seems by Merel Bem It is a funny thing talking to Roma Pas. She is not the kind of visual artist who is all over you, raving about the things that inspire and delight. She will not bombard you with obscure magazine titles or never-heard-of artists’ names. No, she is pleasantly gruff, cautious and averse to coquetry. If she is inspired by a flickering neon sign in China, then she’ll be the last to inflict difficult theories on it. Most of all, she is unpredictable, which makes her interesting. Which is not to say the first half of our conversation went smoothly. It begins as a careful dance around several topics and conceptual ideas. She seems somewhat reluctant, even a bit unapproachable, as if unwilling to talk about her work. But with her glistening eyes and fierce comments she has something important to say, though she keeps naming names “that definitely cannot be published in your magazine”. In fact, when we stumble upon politically engaged art, we find common ground. This is because, to Pas, most political art has no real meaning. Instead, it has a kind of free meaningfulness. “Certain subjects are considered meaningful because they are constantly in the newspapers,” she says. “An artist has only to touch upon them, to show them without really having to say anything about them, and his work becomes art. I just don’t understand how some people can get away with this kind of sampling of media facts. They create a relationship with something, but in the end nothing happens.” Then she quickly retreats by adding: “But maybe that’s just me. Maybe I just don’t get it.” In her work, Pas never consciously tries to touch on the political, the social, the whatever-she-thinks-displays-aprefabricated-meaning-about-anything. She wants to translate the thoroughly mediated and intangible world around her into a language that is understandable and graspable.
At last June’s Fashion Biennial in Arnhem, Pas exhibited her latest work, On Shape — a collaboration with visual artist Lars Eijssen. The installation comments — or rather, reflects — on the relationship between While still interested virtual life and real life in the fashion world and the way our bodies — partly because of evolve between these two worlds. Central to the fascinating play the work are an unmade between the commercial bed, a television screen and the ideal — Pas and a computer — vital currently prefers to elements in young adult make work that is less lives, but also objects in about one particular which nothing is what context. it seems. Youth who appear on the Internet, virtually smashing and dapper, could in reality be lying comatose in their beds. They experience things without actually having to be there. This is what Roma Pas does: she takes on a subject and dissects it by analyzing its different elements. www.romapas.com
She seeks inspiration in everyday phenomena, like a room reflected in a blank television screen, and often finds solace in low-tech moments, like waiting for pictures to load on the computer. She translates those little things into personal and understandable installations — she researches “the physical side of media and the way we relate to it.”
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Benny Cassette, Alter Egos by Gregory Sieradzan When Benny Cassette walks in to the east Los Angles coffee shop at a punctual 3.00pm with a petit Persian creative director at his side, all heads turn his way. It could be his magnetic charisma, but it’s just as likely that they recognize him for what he is: the archetype for the 22nd century rock star. The Los Angeles native is intelligent, witty and well-spoken. Plus he has an incredible knowledge of and passion for art, poetry and classical music. Yet, he could chill with anybody. He is a fascinating crazy genius of the Warholian mold. And I’m not just saying that. Our conversation moves from his growing up in LA with friends like Will.I.Am (he of The Black Eyed Peas), summers spent touring with a national youth performance group, the Baha’i Faith and the tracks he’s produced for Snoop Dogg. But inevitably I’m here to Benny’s ultimate about Benny’s many fan wears heels with talk selves. You see, Benny has glitter on them and channelled his creativity into plaid leggings. She four alter egos, each of whom has a Bible in her is an important piece to the purse, but also Mace. Benny Cassette puzzle. You She has scholarships see, Benny has channelled his creativity into four alter to all Ivy League each of whom is an colleges, but she’s egos, important piece to the Benny not gonna go to any Cassette puzzle. For the sake of them. of clarity, he outlines each Benny for me. There’s Benny Casanova, revolutionary narrator, the ego that pens the creativity. He is a combination of Walt Whitman and Che Guevara. There’s Benny Hoffa, modelled on Mozart and Kraftwerk, he is the creator, the crazy germophobic genius, an anti-social introvert. There’s Benny Casablanca, the goaldriven, emotionless executive, a Gordon Gekko meets The Terminator. And there’s Benny Cassette, the artist.
“I want people to feel a certain way about my music, even if they don’t like it. I’m all about emotion.” Benny’s music is ‘club-rock’, a term he invented for his hybrid sound. “It has the energy, attitude and rebelliousness of rock music, but has the groove, sex appeal and excitement of club music.” I ask him to describe his ultimate fan. He paints a highly detailed picture of a desirable, 17 year-old girl that used to be an ugly duckling. “She wears heels with glitter on them and plaid leggings. She has a Bible in her purse, but also Mace. She wears sunglasses and you can still see her eyes, she wants you to see how she looks, but still remain mysterious. She has scholarships to all Ivy League colleges, but she’s not gonna go to any of them. Every dude wants to sleep with her and every girl wants to be her best friend, and vice versa. She listens to hard-core rap, jazz, disco, punk and club music. She’s the quintessential All-American girl in 2009 with a good heart, that doesn’t understand what’s happening in the world, but she’s trying to find out.” www.myspace.com/bennycassette
Cassette: “When I create music, I lock myself up for stretches of days at a time. I believe great art is created when you’re in a state of insanity. It allows you to go all the way to the deep end, to explore every possibility of creativity.” Benny likens this insanity to when Hendrix set his guitar on fire at the Monterey festival in 1967 — a defining historical moment.
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David Carter, Good Night Sleep Tight by David Hellqvist When David Carter says he is running the world’s smallest boutique hotel, he isn’t joking. Located on the top floor of his Whitechapel Queen Anne townhouse, 40 WiNKS only boasts two rooms. But these lodgings aren’t your average East End hostel. You see Carter — also a practising interior designer — has employed his visual talents on 40 WiNKS and made it into as much a live-in showroom for his eclectic taste in decoration, as a hotel. 40 WiNKS started its life as a busy shoot location for fashion and interior magazines: “I had all of these photographers, editors, models and stylists here to shoot, and many said to me ‘I wish I could live here as well while we work.’” That, in combination with the hardships of recession, made Carter dream up the concept of an exclusive and unique hotel in his own house. David Carter bought the house 12 years ago when the building was just a derelict shell. “There was no ceilings or floors and no running water,” he remembers. “I spent a year and a half restoring it, moved in and used it as a base for my interior design business.” Eight years ago Carter started letting it out to location agencies: “It’s been “The idea behind a fantastic experience — I’ve met so many extraordinary Bedtime Story people.” 40 WiNKS has only Nights is to rekindle been open since March this the love of literature, year, but the response has and as we dress been “brilliant”, both among up, we enter a new customers and critiques.
and exciting world. It’s phenomenally popular.”
Carter has recently also set up Bedtime Story Nights — an intimate gathering of about 35 dressed-up and specially invited guests being read fairytale stories by professional actors. “It’s a lovely feeling being read to,” he says. “The idea is to rekindle the love of literature, and as we dress up, we enter a new, different and exciting world. It’s phenomenally popular.”
food (or “naughty food”, as he calls it). “I’m still deciding on whether people should have to just wear lingerie, or more clothes. But it’s months away so they would have plenty of time to go to the gym and to get a tan,” Carter jokes. He is looking for a dose of “theatrical Viagra” and the quite “surreal but entertaining moment when the invited diners go from observes to actors in their own drama. The hotel name is a nod to the English expression for going for a nap, but it also acknowledges that this is no ordinary hotel (wink, wink) — there is no reception, no one to carry your bags, or to cook you breakfast in the morning, although you’re more than welcome to use the kettle and make yourself a cup of tea. “It’s about seeing how far we can push it,” Carter says with a twinkle in his eyes. And by the looks of it, he can keep on pushing it.
www.40winks.org
And there is more to come; expect to hear aristocratic gossip about a pop-up restaurant in his kitchen later on this year. Carter calls it “Haute Couture meets Haute Cuisine” and in November Carter is planning a night centred on aphrodisiacal
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Cara Hetson, Cousin Cara by Merel Bem Cara says: “Sure, I’ll wear a kimono with jeans. I’ll wear a kimono with a basic T-shirt, or with tight black pants. My basics are long-sleeved T-shirts from GAP and pants from Zara. I use them as my canvas to paint on.” Cara says: “Anyone can buy a designer outfit and look good in it, but it’s not very interesting, is it? It’s so much better to put your own personality in it.” Cara says: “So much of it has to do with having a good eye. There is a certain art to doing it. But I’ve never believed that you have to spend a fortune to look good.” Cara is my cousin. She is a New Yorker living in Paris, and a prolific vintage clothes collector, which she keeps in a large closet in her Montmartre apartment. Next to vintage clothes, Cara also collects vintage bags, jewelry, hats and shoes, items found at flea markets, consignment boutiques, little shops that are filled with crap. She always finds what she wants, and she rarely pays what is asked. I spend a day shopping with Cara because Cara has the gift of vintage radar — anything up to the early 1960s. The bulk of her collection harks back to those decades — a vivid red ice skating coat from the I watch Cara as 1940s, a jacket from the famous she bends, bows, 1940s/1950s San Francisco-based turns, pushes clothing company Lilli Ann, a aside, steps up and couple of leather bags made of baby crocodiles, to name a few. under. She jukes
and maneuvers. And lo and behold she returns with a beautiful 1960s black winter coat that fits me like a glove.
where you go into the bedroom, and the night tables have to match at either side of the bed? That’s not my style at all. “I’m not driven by labels, I am driven purely by aesthetics. I just look for what is beautiful.” Not too long ago we were in a Paris friperie. I was ready to leave empty-handed because half the clothes were too ghastly to touch much less try on, but Cara bends, bows, turns, pushes aside, steps up and under. And lo and behold she returns with a beautiful 1960s black winter coat that fits me like a glove. Cara says: “You have to look for what’s invisible. Take your time, and you’ll be surprised at the jewels that you can find.” I say: “Obi-Wan, there is still so much to learn.”
Cara loves her vintage. She regards her clothes as pieces of art. To her, they are “wearable sculptures”.
When Cara worked in New York as a copywriter for Saatchi, she used to come to the office wearing a stretch mini and one of her many 1940s jackets. Today, she walks the streets of Paris drabbed in one of her antique kimonos, tight black pants, a Yamamoto coat and a jade-tinted necklace. Cara says: “I’m not the matching night tables type. You know,
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www.eudonchoi.com
PROFILE
A Chat with Catwalk’s Most Profilic Critic by David Waters
Viewers of The September Issue — the fly-in-the-fashion-cupboard documentary behind the scenes on the largest ever issue of US Vogue — might be surprised at the hands-on involvement editor-in-chief Anna Wintour has in micro-managing her industry. She’s seen fluffing the careers of new designers such as New York’s Thakoon and, remarkably, suggesting Miuccia Prada use a lighter, more customer-friendly fabric for her dresses. If Wintour didn’t do this, the thinking goes (well, her thinking, we must assume), the industry that supports the world’s biggest fashion magazine would atrophy like a starved princess.This needs to be held in mind to understand fashion journalist Sarah Mower’s newly formed role for the British Fashion Council as Ambassador for Emerging Talent. “I’ve always admired the way Anna gets so involved in all aspects of our business,” says Sarah Mower as she orders a filter coffee with a diet Coke chaser. This is an extension of the nurturing work Wintour herself engages in, but under the watchful gaze and approval of her mentor, of course... photography by Eric Frideen at Serlin Associates www.serlinassociates.com
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PROFILE
The Ups & Ups of Fashion Designer Jeremy Scott by Nancy MacDonell
If it sometimes seems that Jeremy Scott is the only person in fashion who knows how to enjoy himself, well, he is. The Midwest-born designer has made a point of being cheerfully wacky ever since bursting onto the scene in 1997 with his cry of “Vive l’avant garde!” His modus operandi is the transformation of low-brow culture into high fashion, an undertaking that has seen him present beautifully cut collections based on everything from a spoof of a Hollywood awards show to his own inimitable take on 18th century France (troll de jolie, anyone?). If you don’t like it, well, Scott is having too good a time to care. Adidas and Longchamp have both tapped him for collaboration deals, Madonna calls him when she needs clothes and Beth Ditto is his BFF. Even the recession hasn’t dampened his disposition. As he once told an interviewer: “I make fashion to provoke, to make you smile, whatever. It can’t just be about consuming goods.” Stimuli caught up with him to talk about life in L.A., how he’d dress Michelle Obama and why he’s heading to London. Jeremy’s portrait by Dominic Sio / fashion photography by Nabil Elderkin
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PROFILE
A Change of Heart - from Product Design to Art by John Weich
For nearly a decade, Job Smeets and his partner Nynke (together Studio Job) have been producing some of the most uncompromised design objects from, first, Eindhoven, where they graduated from the famed Design Academy, then, Antwerp, where they currently hold shop. I first met Job in the Eindhoven years, and we’ve maintained steady but staccato contact ever since. Our conversations have always ostensibly turned towards the idea of the virtual Kansas that exists between being a designer and being an artist. Job has always swung uneasily between the two, though, to his credit, when asked in which camp he sat most comfortably he always answered in his characteristically forthcoming way that he was a designer. Until last spring, that is, roughly around the time of his off-site solo exhibition during the Salone in Milan. The exhibition, changed last minute to The Gospel (its working title was The Gospel According to Job), consisted primarily of three enormous hand-blown stained-glass windows that pictured, among other things, Mary and Jesus flying out of a nuclear reactor. Even by Job’s standards, it was irreverent and outrageous. In the weeks leading up the event Job and I talked on the telephone about our age-old topic of artist and designer. For the first time in our decade of on-again, off-again conversations, Job vocalized a change of heart: indeed, he sees his future in art. It was a conversation worth recording. The following is an excerpt. photos courtesy of Studio Job
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REVIEW
A play-by-play review of a 3-hour marathon Every summer Dutch public TV bestows three hours (!) of live TV time to a few local luminaries. It’s the pinnacle of slow TV, but fascinating from beginning to end because the interview is conducted through highly personal television fragments chosen by the guests — TV as a window to the soul. Kicking off this year’s season was fashion duo Viktor & Rolf. The occasion proved too big for Dutch viewers alone, so Stimuli decided to listen in and offer here a play-by-play commentary. Viktor Horsting & Rolf Snoeren on ornamental emptiness, slowness, opera as (bad) noise, Polaroid moments, homosexuality, control, fairytales and beautiful things. text & photography by John Weich
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Interviewer: “Why strive for perfection?” Viktor: “Why not?” Interviewer: “When is it perfect?” Rolf: “Never.” Rolf: “As creative people, we have the ability to transform our frustrations into creativity. You do it and it’s over.” Rolf: “The Polaroid moment is for us is important, but the lifestyle doesn’t really interest us.” 20.15: Introductory monologue by interviewer. Nothing we haven’t heard of before.... bla bla bla. Most interesting question: Are you standing here as individuals or as a duo? A duo, say they. Bummer. 20.21: First film fragment: Lotte Reiniger’s 5-minute silent animation of Cinderella. It’s like Kara Walker has taken over my screen. It’s all about the silhouette. Viktor: “A silhouette is a 2D image of 3D. It intrigues.” Goes without saying that Cinderella is the fairytale of transformation, a key element to V&R’s work. Obviously a reference to — if not the inspiration for — their Black Hole collection? Viktor: “Not the happiest period in our lives.” Transformation through clothing. Hmm. Hold that thought. 20.28: Second film fragment: The Women (1939), the B&W original, not the bad Meg Ryan remake. Orchestras, melodramatic fashion — purple velvet with fox fur lining anyone? Dresses designed by beloved Hollywood studio designer Gilbert Adrian, famous least of all for mastering Joan Crawford’s shoulders. V&R actually caressed the film’s key dress at a museum show and had an aha! moment: Things that work on the catwalk (or in film) don’t necessarily work on a hanger in H&M. They mention Coco Chanel’s journey to Hollywood that failed miserably. 20.38: Will we ever see V&R as individuals? We this, we that...When you really, really think about it, a bit weird…
20.39: Third film fragment: Funny Face (1957), unquestionably the predecessor to The Devil Wears Prada, but actually good. The fictive story of Richard Avedon at Harper’s Bazaar with George Gershwin intro music. Oh my Technicolor! This film is amazing! Go out and get it now. The woman who plays Streep better than Streep says: “If I let this issue go through I will have failed the American woman!” A rat-tat exchange: Interviewer: “Who determines the trends? You, Harper’s, Vogue?” Viktor: “The consumer.” An obligatory mention of Anna Wintour. Question: Is she important? Answer: When she comes to our shows, she is. They complain about the number of editorial pages allotted to beginning designers. They talk about how they attract big names to their shows: through a phalanx of PR agencies and also by hyping up their shows. Then the money question: Who’s the most important people in fashion right now? Answer (which one’s Rolf again? He’s not talking!): Suzy Menkes at the Herald Tribune, Style.com and Women’s Wear Daily. 20.53: Fourth film fragment: Top Hat (1935). Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers in dramatic feather dress twisting and turning. Looks like Olympic figure skating! Turns out V&R took tap dancing lessons for a few weeks and were only able to choreograph 20 seconds for a show. They gave up. Rolf (he speaks!): “Fred wasn’t the most beautiful man, but he was so perfectionist and he practiced for weeks for a single scene.” Viktor: “If you see how seamless, how reality merges with dance without a single hiccup, that is fantastic.” Rolf: “The control, we recognize that. Being perfect, and the frustration
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VANITY
“There’s no beauty without soul.” Dean Mayo Davies — Journalist, London deanmayodavies.blogspot.com “Vanity and beauty are all about youth...but youth is a state of mind.” Aaron Duncan — Creative Director of Playboy Inc. New York www.playboyenterprises.com “I embrace IMPERFECTION. It is the most beautiful thing that has happened to the beauty industry and keeps the industry alive!!” Ken Lim — Beauty Entrepreneur, Kuala Lumpur “Work like a slave, command like a king, create like a deity. Tools for young divinities.” Jean Charles De Castelbajac — Fashion Designer, Paris www.jc-de-castelbajac.com ‘Ugly people are always surprised by how annoying beautiful people find their beauty.” Alain De Botton — Philosopher, London www.alaindebotton.com “Aesthetics is the artist as ornithology is to the birds.” Nicholas Weist — Editor / Curator at Creative Times, New York, quoting Barnett Newman “Vanity hasn’t been relevant since the release of Purple Rain. Narcissism should have long since been abandoned in favour of political consciousness and environmental activism. You can’t gaze into the mirror (or at your navel) if the planet no longer exists!” Bruce laBruce — Artist / Filmmaker, New York City www.brucelabruce.com “There are no ugly women, only lazy ones.” Helena Rubenstein — Beauty Icon www.helenarubinstein.com “True vanity is an art, and like all art forms it should embraced. Ask any drag queen.” Lee Carter — Editor, New York City www.hintmag.com “Beauty is simple and complicated on the same level, and let us fake great secrets.” Claudia Rosa Lukas — Fashion Designer, Vienna www.lukas-by.com
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VANITY QUOTES FROM OUR BELOVED BEAUTY ENTHUSIASTS
“Beauty is red, and freckly! Thank you.” Javier Peres — Gallerist, New York www.peresprojects.com “You know, there’s nothing wrong with vanity in one’s privacy. But looking in a mirror in the company of other people is a bore.” Fake Karl — Unidentified Internet Celebrity fakekarl.blogspot.com “The more one judges, the less one loves.” Honore de Balzac — Dead Writer “I loathe narcissism, but I approve of vanity.” Nicolas Andreas Taralis — Fashion Designer, Paris www.nicolasandreastaralis.com “My friend has a ‘mirror’ face: she pouts and poses. Her mother’s French. Mine’s English and taught me not to be vain.” Anna-Marie Solowij — Contributing Beauty Editor, British Vogue, London www.vogue.co.uk “You will never get a British woman to admit to being vain because deep down we think it’s a sin. In mediterranean countries, it’s perfectly okay to like yourself. I wish I had been born in Rome.” Sarah Mower — Contributing Editor style.com and US Vogue “For those who know best their mirror, a conspiracy revolves around me, myself and I is Someone else. I want to gain control of your blaze.” Angelo Plessas — Artist, Athens www.angeloplessas.com “Clip-on ties is why there are wars in the world.” Jeffery Ying — Arbiter of Elegance, San Francisco / Beijing “We are all vain. I, for one, am profoundly vain. But it’s not self-love; rather, it’s a concern about what I really look like.” Rasmus Wingårdh — Head Designer and Creative Manager, Filippa K, Stockholm www.filippa-k.com
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VANITY
Headspace Alert! These days there's a scent for every mood, moment and season. And it's just as well we say because nothing beats a scented hint to stir memories and ease back life. Imagine your home as a paradise for your senses, full of highly evocative scent of unparalleled sensuality. Imagine no more with these everyday luxury choices.
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Left to Right: Pure by BOADICEA THE VICTORIOUS - invigorating, yet calming with pine, basil, amber and patchouli
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Cherrywood Falls by JONATHAN WARD - soothe your senses with mahogany, cypress, plum and cherry
www.jonathanwardlondon.com
Jardin de Kerylos by PARFUMERIE GÉNÉRALE - uncluttered and elegant with fig, sycamore and musk
www.parfumerie-generale.com
Bali by TOCCA - spiritual healing with sacred champaca flowers
www.tocca.com
Jasmine by RIGAULD - cleanse and revitalise with Indian jasmine, bergamot, orange blossom, rose and sandalwood
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www.roullierwhite.com
From left to right: Attention rock chicks! You now have a fragrance of your own, a weapon of seduction in the form of Lady Vengeance by enfant terrible Romano Ricci. He has adopted the perfumery secrets of his grand-father Robert Ricci who harks from the French perfumery dynasty. Inspired by a modernized version of Shakespearean romance meets rock, worthy heir Romano presents this audaciously sweet and dangerous scent which marries patchouli and just enough dose of vanilla to be a worthy pretender to the classic L'air du Temp. It all comes in a jet black bottle featuring the elegant thorny Bulgarian Rose. Lady Vengeance by JULIETTE HAS A GUN is available @ www.selfridges.com
Fantastic Man(the fragrance) is a modern interpretation of the classic eau de cologne. A collaboration between niche perfumery newcomer Byredo parfums founder Ben Gorham and Jop Van Bennekom and Gert Jonkers, the creators of Fantatic Man magazine. The composition features refreshing notes of bergamot, star aniseed, cardamom, geranium, incense, lavender, vetyver, moss and patchouli. An everyday classic. Fantastic Man Cologne by BYREDO is available @ www.lessenteurs.com
Hush hush - This creatively peculiar scent from Nasomato is perfect for autumn - intense with dark woody incense notes but burns slowly, giving a sweet and slightly pungent aroma and an intriguing sensation. Inspired by the forbidden hashish, Black Afgano is a crazy scent which aims to capture the best qualities of that medicinal plant without actually doing anything illegal. Black Afgano by NASOMATO is available @ www.liberty.co.uk
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PHOTOGRAPHY
by John Weich
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Viviane Sassen isn’t notorious in any way. No tantrums on the set, no sassy entourage, no irrational demands. You could say she shoots like Hemingway writes: confident, well lit and focusing on individuals who are, knowingly or not, on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Which is why on one quiet summer day in Amsterdam we cornered her just long enough to ask about opportunism, ambition, Africa and autonomous art, in no particular order. Even when working within the claustrophobia of a contrived set, she’s able to make things look spontaneous, even a tad bit weird. Often, the exquisitely clad models appear to be posing against their will, with faces that read: I’d really rather be off somewhere else, maybe curled up with a book or a stack of vinyl, most preferably staring at a wall, any wall, just as long as it’s anywhere but here. Viviane Sassen is one of Holland’s best photographers, maybe one of Europe’s, and over the years she’s shot fashion for Miu Miu, fashion spreads for the most iconic indie magazines of the past decade and even won the prestigious Prix De Rome for photography. So when we say she’s utterly down to earth, shy even, it probably has something to do with her Dutch upbringing.
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PORTFOLIO
VIVIANE SASSEN PHOTOGRAPHY
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PORTFOLIO
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ARCHITECTURE
Humanising The Concrete Landscape by Johanna Lenander
Despite the slightly frightening prognosis — by 2030 three out of five people on the planet will live in cities — none of us seem cognitively aware of the potential repercussions on how all this is going to affect the way we move, eat, sleep and live in the megacity. Think lifeless, sterile skyscrapers are affecting your humanity now, just you wait till your city’s population doubles in the next 38 years. Fortunately for us, someone is pondering the consequences. Massive Studies. The famed Seoul firm is combating the traditional skyscraper with its innovative silhouettes that embrace human interaction instead of accept social awkwardness. With Seoul in the midst of branding itself as a design center and designation as the World Design Capital in 2010, we caught up with Massive Studies frontman Minsuk Cho during a layover in the Bowery in New York. photos courtesy of Mass Studies
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Seoul Commune 2016 photography by Yong-Kwan Kim
“In design there’s the ‘creative’ camp and the ‘socially conscious’ camp. Both are busy making fictional worlds.”
Minsuk Cho is not an idealist. Nor is he a cynic. He just wants to make life in his city better. For the past five years, Cho’s Seoul-based architecture firm Mass Studies has successfully managed to humanize the concrete landscape of the South Korean capital by bringing in greenery, light, outdoor space and the opportunity for human interaction among the kind of monolithic structures that by necessity dominate the city. Mass Studies’ buildings display a modern and clean yet playful aesthetic that often contrasts sinuous, sloping lines with angular shapes. The façades and rooftops are frequently covered in plants, and there are small gardens sprinkled throughout the buildings as a way of bringing a bit of nature into a parkdeprived environment. “Architecture’s middle ground has evaporated in Asia,” he says. “On the one hand there are market-driven developers, and on the other there are serious firms who refuse to take part in the market and purely focus on meaningful things. Our choice is to maintain distance and autonomy but engage and compete in the market.” I meet Minsuk Cho on a rainy spring day at the Bowery Hotel. He’s on his way back to Seoul after speaking at the American Institute of Architects’ annual convention in San Francisco, but decided to take a break for a few days in his former hometown. Before moving back to Korea in 2003, Cho had spent 14 years in Rotterdam and New York. He is a reporter’s dream; articulate, cerebral, talkative, polite with sly sense of humor. He has a cold and is nursing an orange juice in front of the super-sized fireplace (“I get sick on every vacation”) and seems amused by the hotel’s artificially rustic environment (think Narnia meets Las Vegas). He also appears delighted to find out that the last person I interviewed in this same space was Mary Kate Olsen, and he is surprised that I’m surprised that he knows who she is. I suppose I had thought that he was too rarified to be aware of TV sitcoms and tabloid celebrity.
But he is a man who is keenly interested in the world around him. In fact, it’s his down-to-earth approach to his progressive ideas that sets the very tone of his practice. “In design there’s the ‘creative’ camp and the ‘socially conscious’ camp,” he says. “Both are busy making fictional worlds. While we are very selective with the developers we work with, we’re not the kind of firm who refuses to take part.” Thus Mass Studies has set out to find imaginative solutions to improve the quality of city life while dealing with Seoul’s existing conditions. The city wasn’t ever coherently planned, and instead seems to have evolved around the concept of cramming as many people as possible into as little space as possible, leading to 73-storey towers and a compression that Cho calls “brutal”. “In the 1960s, European avant-garde architects came up with these futuristic cities with absurdly massive scales. But that’s actually what we have now in Hong Kong and in some parts of Seoul. We’ve become numbed by the density,” he says. At the same time, he notes, South Korea’s frenzied, post-colonial development has left the country without a clear identity. The rural and urban populations live in two different worlds. “The country is growing so fast that it almost feels like everything is happening at the same time. We’re simultaneously experiencing our pre-modern, modern and post-modern eras,” he says. But the limitations also offer possibilities. “The large scale towers were market made, but their verticality is not all bad,” he states. “They make the city more sustainable. The compactness is the only thing that saves Asian cities.” The problem is the mind-numbing monotony and boxed-in quality that most of the structures display. “When the towers were invented in Chicago there was so much vision behind them,” says Cho. “The city suddenly expanded in a new dimension. But they
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photography by Woo-Il Kim
“We want to give people options to breathe so they don’t feel trapped in an airconditioned glass box.” evolved into a cookie cutter formula that would become the most anti-social and socially awkward construction.” By reconfiguring the scale and grid of a traditional skyscraper, Mass Studies has built elegant high rises with innovative silhouettes that offer a more humane approach to city life. For example, Mass Studies office/residential high rise S-Trenue: Bundle Matrix is composed of three towers that are leaning against each other and connected by bridges and gardens. “We try to open up more possibilities and display more diversity. We want to give people options to breathe so they don’t feel trapped in an air-conditioned glass box,” he says. Cho seems to have a deep sense of empathy and tenderness for the spatially constricted reality of Seoul dwellers. When he shows me pictures of a semi-crowded playground that is squeezed into a bleak space between highways, he is bemused by my horrified reaction. “You think that’s terrible?” he says, “To me it shows South Koreans’ ability to adapt to and enjoy whatever space there is.” One of Mass Studies’ most acclaimed works is a project that has yet to be realised. Called Seoul Commune 2026, it’s a radical vision of future living in South Korea. Cho pushed his theme of re-imagining the traditional residential tower a lot further. The 15 mass dwellings are organically shaped, bulbous structures covered in perennial plants that look more like mushrooms in a science-fiction film than skyscrapers. The idea is to merge park and tower into a seamless whole. A honeycomb grid features compact, hi-tech living ‘cells’ and spacious communal areas, promoting the ideal of owning less and sharing more. In our branding-obsessed age, a popular building can recreate a city’s image and design has become a vehicle for political success. Seoul is in the midst of branding itself as a design center and has been designated as the World Design Capital in 2010.
When I first spoke to Cho a year and a half ago, he conveyed optimism about his country and said that South Korea was a good place to be an architect since there were a lot of opportunities to be creative. Today, he is more reserved. “Recently all these politicians have become very interested in design. But they talk about it in these competitive, nationalistic terms. It’s not necessarily about creating something for the long term, it’s more about getting immediate results so you can move on to the next step in your political career.” In fact, when the current conservative president Lee Myung Bak was the former mayor of Seoul, his popular restoration of the city’s Cheonggyecheon River, which he turned into a scenic waterfront park after it had been buried under a freeway for decades, helped earn him the political currency he needed to be elected president. Shortly after my meeting with Cho in New York, South Korea is rocked by the suicide of its former president, the liberal Roh Moo-Hyun who brought a new level of democracy to the country. When I speak to Cho about it on the phone, he is sad about the suicide, which he interprets as a man pushed to the brink by bogus corruption charges. He is also worried that the country is going backwards politically. “I’m part of a generation that grew up under a military dictatorship that barely showed any consideration to human rights. When I moved to New York in 1989 I didn’t think I would ever return. But when I saw the progress and profound changes that had occurred I thought it was a good moment to come back. My firm started at the same time as Roh Moo-Hyun’s presidency, so it feels very personal.” Cho is worried that the current conservative administration is trying to undo the mindset of reform that Roh Moo-Hyun brought. However, he contends that once people get used to freedom it’s hard to go back. “There is a deep, collective expression of sadness on the streets. People know what it’s like to express themselves now,” he says. Hopefully, South Korea will continue to progress and Mass Studies will continue to make life a look and feel a little better.
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photography by Yong-Kwan Kim
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MUSIC
So I was riding along the freeway when my phone went off. Hello? ‘Hi, this is Skin.’ You’ve got to fucking be kidding me! Really? ‘Yeah, Skin.’ by Clements Odin
photography by Jeon styling by Karen Clarkson makeup: Adam de Cruz @ punishmentltd.com using Laura Mercier. hair: Kenichi @ Karen using Shu Uemura fashion assistant: Madeleine O Flaherty
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Clements Odin: Where are you?
CO: Must be a complete shift of mindset for you, having done the solo thing for so many years?
Skin: Italy, heading to DJ a set at 3am. CO: So is this like your day job? S: I’ve been DJing since I was 17, but over the last two or three years I’ve been doing it more. Or rather, I’ve been saying yes more often than no. I’m currently on a DJ tour. It’s really good fun but really hard work with all the travel. But from a certain perspective, you could say that I’m a bit out of my context. CO: How do they introduce you? S: I try not to get introduced. But some of the guys like to do this whole ten second Skin thing. CO: I’ve been wanting to ask you this for a long time, but you might not like it. You’ve duo’d with some really cool people: Björk, Kravitz, Maxim Reality of The Prodigy. Isn’t that a great way to cruise through life — duets? S: Actually, it’s quite frustrating. It can work well if you know the person, like I do Maxim. Truth is I get asked to do them all the time, and usually I say no, because six out of the seven times the guy’s just interested in making money off my name. CO: The new Skunk Anansie album, Smashes & Trashes — greatest hits plus some new stuff — comes out in September. So what’s that like, getting back together after nine years? S: It’s great. Relaxed. Especially when you think that our break-up was pretty definite — nine years! We’re approaching things as a new band, not really going down the nostalgic route or rehash the past. We’ll do the old songs, but we’re most excited about the remixes and the new stuff.
S: It’s definitely much more fun the second time around than the first time. You know, older and wiser. Going solo is always quite difficult because everything rests on your shoulders. With a band, everyone has his or her own thing but you share the responsibility. CO: How do you deal with the past? You know, that group that used to be so damn famous? S: What’s interesting about getting back together is that you realise how big we actually were. When putting together this album I kept thinking: we’re a fucking good band. You’re not going to escape that, should want to escape that. Trying to wipe out the past would be a big mistake, because you rob yourself of the opportunity to do things better. Without a past, you can’t move forward. CO: Completely random question, but since we’re teetering on the abyss of nostalgia anyway, you hit a pinnacle and enjoyed the fruits of the status. What were the finest moments? S: I think singing with Luciano Pavarotti was really special. Not just the singing, but the entire experience. I stayed at his house for a week and he and his wife looked after me. He trained me. We sang for the Dalai Lama, so we shook his hand and felt all that energy. Meeting Nelson Mandela and singing happy birthday for him with Michael Jackson, that’s pretty high up there as well. And of course headlining Glastonbury at the end of the millennium. That was a perfect day, the light was just right. Everything fell into place. Smashes & Trashes appears September 14 www.skunkanansie.net
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MY FETISH
THIS SEASON WE TAKE SOME TIME OFF TO SPEAK TO 3 UNIQUE INDIVIDUALS TO TALK ABOUT WHAT THEY ARE CURRENTLY OBSESSED ABOUT. by John Weich
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THE ART OF SMELL
Franco Wright, owner of iconic L.A. fragrance store Lucky Scent
“If there is anything that fascinates us about the world of niche fragrance, it’s not so much about one particular smell, but rather, the inherent beauty of niche is precisely the element of surprise. It is thrilling when we find fragrances which push the boundaries of conventional wisdom. Both niche and mass market fragrances are art forms in their own right. Mass market fragrances, however, cannot afford to risk losing money by creating overly challenging works of art. They must appeal to as broad a segment as possible in order to succeed and therefore suffer from a certain degree of homogeneity that is uncommon in niche perfumes. Comme des Garçons’ Tar or Garage, would never be considered appropriate inspiration for mass fragrances, but they are incredible. Etat Libe D’Orange offers Secretions Manifiique which tells a vivid story of the intimacy borne from intense sexual experiences. These are poetic interpretations of unusual emotions and concepts which you simply would not see at a department store fragrance counter. Fragrance balances art and commerce, but in niche, the weight is, in large part, on the artistic side. This is where we find the works of art that are driven by pure inspiration. The moments of wondrous discovery are the fuel which galvanize us to continue our never ending search for artistic expression through perfumery.” This fall Lucky Scent will release a fragrance based entirely on the smells of hashish — “Deep, resinous, lingering smoke,” White says. The ingredients were smuggled out of Yemen, delivering only enough raw materials to produce 2,000 30ml bottles. www.luckyscent.com
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Jeremy Leslie, Editor of MagCulture, on 032c
Erik Torstensson and Jens Grede, founders of Saturday London and editors in chief of Man About Town, on Egoist
Michael C. Place Founder and Creative Director of Build, on Underground
Domenic Lippa, Creative Director at Pentagram, on Interview and 2wice
All this talk about retractable thumbs (better to text you with, my dear) and digital natives can be such a bore, especially for paper pushers like ourselves. Reason enough to create a mini-celebration of those few pieces of printed matter that have the staying power to not just entice, but to absolutely inspire. We turned to four of London’s most prolific art directors to find out which printed matter matters to them most.
A brief ode. by John Weich portraits by Jasper Clarke
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Jeremy Leslie on 032C http://magculture.com www.wearebuild.com www.pentagram.com
There is so much lovely looking print out there today, it is difficult to focus on one single item that is uniquely inspirational. But that’s the task here, so I have selected a single magazine that represents what is great about magazines generally. In their most basic form, magazines remain one of the simplest, most intuitive and functional forms of interactive media. They provide a mediated experience for the reader to enjoy at their own pace and sequence. Now, later or tomorrow. On the train, in the living room or outside in the park. But take the same printed format and experiment a little with it, and you can quickly have something that stands out beyond the functional as genuinely special and inspirational. No matter how many beautiful limited edition posters or foil-blocked invitations I see it will always be a magazine that catches my attention. The best magazines do this by combining content and presentation to create a unique personality. The same print effects may be present, but they are used to reflect the content of the magazine. The two creative strands are worked on collectively to provide a truly engaging experience for the reader. Only a small percentage of magazines reach this highest level; the New Yorker has managed to longer than most, while others got there only to fade away (Rolling Stone and The Face, for instance). More recently Monocle and Fantastic Man have promised great things but are beginning now to appear stuck in their own too-rigid templates. My single selection today is Berlin-based contemporary culture title 032c. This quarterly magazine sets its own agenda, avoiding easy classification as it jumps from fashion to history via architectural engineering and politics. It has a distinctive small format with a pleasing double binding and a subtle use of different paper stocks. Recent issues have featured a controversial anti-cool design by Mike Meiré that has caused much debate in editorial circles. 032c is a perfect piece of contemporary print, taking an old format — the magazine — and reinventing it for today.
Erik Torstensson and Jens Grede on Egoist www.saturday-london.com
As an art director I read a lot of magazines, but the one I admire most is Egoist. Founded by Nicole Wisniak way back in 1977 — she is a one-woman act, functioning as its editor, art director, publisher and distributor — Egoist is everything that independent publishing should be. New issues are released when they are ready not when they need to be ready, advertising is often custom-made to appear exclusively in Egoist and often even created by Nicole herself. Its contributors have included the greatest legends of its era — from Helmut Newton and Richard Avedon to Ava Gardner and Princess Caroline of Monaco. It comes printed loose sheet in a heavy stock, oversized and heavy: for all practical purposes, it’s a coffee table book of a magazine with a price tag of £30, which might sound like a lot to habitual magazine readers but actually it’s a steal because you’re never going to throw these things away. Funny enough, the graphic design is really simple and helps underscore the outstanding content rather than compete against them. So call this my ode to Egoist, because with today’s media/design landscape so polluted with chock-a-block products hyper-controlled by focus groups and tight budgets, magazines like Egoist are becoming important tomes to how things should be, not how things used to be. And who cares if it doesn’t appear regularly?
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HOME IMPROVEMENTS
HOW-TO: ZONE YOUR LIVING ROOM by Dror Benshetrit
The living room is a great place because we use it for quite a lot of different types of purposes — watching a movie, playing a game, having dinner with a large set of people or just a romantic setting for two. Each one of those scenarios brings different challenges and different needs. I am most excited about transformation, so the first question I think anyone should ask himself or herself is how can you move things about. There are, unfortunately, a few living room givens. First, the TV is the center of most living room experiences, so the big question is what can you do with it, all those cables, huge remote controls. My solution tends to be to try to hide it. There are a lot of ways to hide a TV, the most common being encasing it is some type of cabinetry. However, a more pleasing solution can be a sliding media wall that reveals and conceals your TV in a way that completely changes the atmosphere of your living room. For example, a wall that slides from the living room to the bedroom, solving the two TV solutions. If you don’t like sliding, you can rotate. Either way, you’re going to need a carpenter.
This issue we asked 3 creative luminaries in their fields to help us out by offering a new perspective on our homes. So many rooms, so much uniformity. Reason enough to ask New York-based Israeli designer Dror Benshetrit, Amsterdam-based eating designer Marije Vogelzang and Rotterdambased artist and provacteur Joep van Lieshout to offer up some vision to the living room, bedroom and kitchen. Read and weep at how terribly boring your own layout is. 01 Dror Benshetrit 02 Joep van Lieshout 03 Marije Vogelzang
Another big obstacle of urban living rooms is the dining table, which is usually the second biggest object in an apartment (after the bed). If you’re anything like me, your table sits idle most of the time, becomes a default resting place for mail, books, other stuff. Periodically, you just sweep in and clear everything off. Yet the amount of time you spend eating on it is miniscule; most of the time it’s just this huge horizontal platform. So I’d like you to start thinking along with me about the idea of collapsibility. After all, a collapsible dining table can free of a lot of space in a room. Chairs are also one of those things that everyone who has in their apartment — after all, you have to be able to accommodate all the people you invite over. I have 12 chairs in my living room, but how often are they all in use? Rarely. The obvious solution is folding chairs, but the idea of stashing a folding chair away in a closet doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I’ve designed a chair that hangs on the wall. The idea is: if you don’t need the chair, you hang it on the wall like an art piece. I like the perception this chair brings with it: when a visitor arrives and you take it down off the wall, you are essentially offering them the most important item in your apartment. To sit on it is an honor. Adam Goodrum’s Stitch Chair for Capellini is a great example of this. It is beautiful when it is closed, and it saves a lot of space. Now the baubles, all those beautiful little objects most people these days collect: vases, cool toys, stuff like that. Those objects often find their way into the living room. Most people place them on the shelves, but then leave them there. I am constantly reshuffling things in my living room to refresh the environment and change perspective. I can’t recommend this enough, you’ll be surprised. I try to avoid thinking of a single destination for
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my things, or a specific corner. Not just something for a shelf, or on the floor. That type of thinking is too limited. In fact, I think more about the limitation of things rather than the advantages of them. Maybe that’s why I move so many things around. Yet perhaps the biggest challenge of the living room is how it adjusts from being an intimate space for a few people to a useful space for many. Most people have a couch (sits three), a few chairs, all circled around a coffee table. You always have this square or circle no matter what the occasion, which doesn’t really make sense. When there are only two friends coming over, you drag chairs around, pull the coffee table towards the couch, make it more intimate; when seven people come over you push the table back to create space, and rearrange again. Few people view their living room as a place that has the ability to shrink and expand, and they are always focused on the corners rather than the entire room. My solution is to avoid creating a circle around the coffee table. Instead of creating this circle around the coffee table, maybe you create a couple of circles, each with a small side table, one for intimate gatherings and the other for larger parties. Particularly with lighting, I try to create zones and areas. I particularly like the flexibility of floor lamps, which you can move around to massage your environment, and create new perspectives. I am always looking to be able to create three or four environments in my living room this way. One area to play chess, one to drink whisky, one for TV — you can create these intimacies between place.
Maybe it’s time to rethink New York designer Dror Benshetrit, whose recent foray into cheap, affordable furniture by way of Target represents a huge detour from his coveted luxury designs for the likes of Capellini et al. But the Target gig put a new perspective on things. “It got me thinking about smaller apartments and dorm rooms, places where people don’t stay very long and where the furniture is often disposable,” said the designer. This of course plays into a larger idea of disposability. “Think of Rosenthal, the china. Our parents used to buy that and give it to us, their kids. We don’t think like that. We think about our immediate needs and, as such, we end up buying a lot of things we don’t really appreciate or grow out of. I’m really interested in finding objects that can adapt to our different needs so that we can move them with us. Adjust it, use only part of it, half of it, make it a little shorter, that would be a huge advantage.”
One of the best tips I can give to anyone on how to improve the design of their living room is simply to invite people over. There are a few things that happen naturally when you invite people into your home. First, you realise what you are proud of and what you are not proud of. You say, look at this chair, but don’t look at that cabinet, I’m throwing that away next week. The second is that people gravitate to certain areas of your home naturally, to the couch, or to the kitchen, grab a dining room chair rather than sit on the couch. These are things you should try to pay attention to. Why do they all go into this dark corner, or towards the window? There are different energies that your setup can tell you in what is logical and natural. Don’t try to fight it, try to work with it and enhance it. www.studiodror.com
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SPECIAL REPORT:
KOREAN MENSWEAR While many fashion capitals are cutting their budgets, Seoul Fashion Week (SFW) is ambitiously increasing theirs. Of course, South Korean has been a reliable mainstay of beauty products and no-nonsense plastic surgery for years, but it’s always been predominantly a women’s world. Which is why it’s so ironic that Korean menswear is the foundation on which the city’s ambitions rest. Three menswear brands are leading the way: Juun. J, Songzio, and General Idea. Already visible in Paris and New York, it seems the fate of SFW rests largely in their hands.
by Hidetaka Furuya
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Juun. J
Songzio
General Idea
Internationally, Juun. J is best known for his trench coat obsession. Locally, however, he’s even better known for the fact that Karl Lagerfeld owns some of his clothes. Represented by Totem, he has been showing in Paris since the S/S 2008, and his ingenuity has attracted a lot of attention from buyers and press. “I fell in love with the trench coat in a flea market in London... I always want to change the basic trench coat into something new, which is why my design is largely based on it,” says the designer.
Zio Song, a graduate of ESMOD in Paris, is a highly sophisticated and successful menswear designer, and has established his fashion empire in Seoul over the past two decades. He started showing in Paris for the A/W 2008 season, but initially things didn’t exactly work in his favour. “At first, we couldn’t get many buyers to come to our showroom. But then a friend of mine in Paris introduced me to Totem, and we began working with them. Each season more and more people are discovering us.”
Designed by Choi Bum Suk, General Idea was the first Korean menswear brand to show at New York Fashion Week. New York was an entrepreneurial choice, and he benefited from the momentum created by womenswear designers such as Doo.Ri and Richard Chai in New York. Asked whether Korean menswear can follow in women’s footsteps, Choi answers enthusiastically. “Yes! I personally want to be New York’s most successful Korean menswear designer, and I feel I’m ready to be that.” He’s well on his way. His first last February collection received positive reviews, and there was even interest from several buyers. But he put everything on hold to land an order with Barneys New York.
His A/W 2009 collection is defined by a ‘contrast of silhouettes’ and is inspired by Grace Jones, the iconic 1980s model and singer. No wonder there are so many oversized rider jackets with power shoulders and skinny trousers. Asked about SFW, Juun. J admits there is still a lot to improve on. He points out the difficulty of defining SFW in the midst of so many other fashion weeks around the world. “I’m hoping we can schedule SFW after Tokyo collection, making it easy for people to visit.”
The theme for Songzio’s A/W 2009 collection is ‘aspiration’ and is inspired by people, movies, music, everyday life and, especially, the books Zio used to read as a child. Zio is particularly passionate about SFW and insists that the Korean government and the organisers must learn more about fashion history and help young designers grow. He doesn’t have to look far for a ready model, and readily points out the Antwerp Six of the late 1980s. “Receiving a lot more support from the government is crucial,” he says.
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The theme for Choi’s A/W 2009 collection is ‘spy’ and is inspired somewhat logically by his childhood dream of becoming a spy and his fascination with mystery films, solving puzzles and breaking codes. In reality, it’s a daring mix of military details with a classic feel.
mixologist
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These days, with risk taking minimised and bold new ideas being put on the back burner in favour of the commercial viability, Marit Fujiwara is a breath of fresh air. The Chelsea College of Art & Design graduate’s psychedelic textural illustriousness has the ability to blow you away gently as both sculpture and party dress. Take a closer look however and you’ll be blown away profoundly: her colours and surfaces are strikingly multifaceted. She does this through a method that combines the printing technique marbling with embroidery and pleating, In other words, she avoids glue altogether in the bonding process. Instead, she holds her garments together by meshing cotton, polyester, silk and PVC. An experimentalist with a keen interest in traditional techniques, Fujiwara -- herself a heady mix of Brazilian, Norwegian and Japanese -- has the ability to transport us to another world, and her pieces possess both intimate tactility with intricate beauty. by Fiona Bryson
more info: masfuji@gmail.com
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Welcome to the Fashion Underground, where, even in the shadow of struggling fashion houses, there’s an international happening involving fresh talent that continues to arise and surprise, innovate and create. Some people call it creative destruction, but, quite honestly, we wouldn’t dare! Creation as an antidote to the global recession, how novel! Yet here we are amidst the economic doldrums and we don’t need to look far to see a flurry of new labels, new methods and, most importantly, new inspiration. A new sense of realism is imbuing its way into designs and stepping on our coveted traditional preference of prim. Now more than ever there’s truth to the adage “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”, but these young designers have us craving seconds.
by Jared Johnson
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Serendipity led us to Anti-Patha Ruga, who can only be called South Africa’s high fashion redeemer. But to limit his influence to fashion would be a sin. As a fashion illustration and history major, Ruga combines fashion and photography in the forms of bold human installations capsulated “The elfin South Afrikaan artist as deep expressions of ideas and ethno political thought. The famous book publisher Phaidon Athi-Patra Ruga even took notice and at the ripe young age 25 lives in a fricassee named him one of the world’s best artists under vortex of his own the age of 33.
design caught somewhere Rugs most recent work at the Whatiftheworld between gallery in Cape Town is titled Mr Floating Signifier and the Deadboyz and it offers an Middlesex and erotic display of gender bending and playing the Marvelous upon what is expected versus what’s actual. His Land of Oz. An Oz aesthetic plays upon our mind and shatters our heavily instilled paradigms, opening up new derived from the famous L. Frank thought and acceptance. Baum series of books (circa 19001919) and not the MGM Technicolor extravaganza.” — Vaginal Davis
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BRANDSCAPE
TO START OUR FALL FASHION SPREAD, WE SHOWCASE FIVE DESIGNERS WHOSE DESIGN VISUALS HAVE CARVED AN UNFORGETTABLE IMAGE INTO OUR MIND — CLOTHES AND MODELS NOT INCLUDED — LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, MAY WE PRESENT TO YOU: BRANDSCAPE!
concept by Dominic Sio, photography by Satoshi Minakawa, art direction by Andrej Skok prop stylist : Helen Mearns
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Quilted satin Le Smoking jacket and black tailored trousers, all by Yves Saint Laurent.
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HOMECOMING
MAD TO LIVE, MAD TO TALK, MADE TO NEVER YAWN OR TO BE NORMAL, MAD TO A CENTERPIECE FOR THE SEASON.
photography by Mark O’Sullivan styling by Niki Brodie concept by Dominic Sio
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CECILIA wears sequins top by ASHISH, leggings by LOUISE GOLDIN, boots by SERGIO ROSSI, muffler by CHANEL.
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STEAM HEAT STEP INTO THE WORLD OF NANCY CUNARD
photography by Ssam Kim styling by Tamer Wilde art direction by Dominic Sio
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POLLY wore black dress with velvet detail by OMELA, all wooden Art Deco bangles by BELMACZ.
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This page: POLLY wore navy draping dress with gold pleated detail by MARCUS CONSTABLE, all wooden Art Deco bangles by BELMACZ. Opposite page: ROBERTAS wore grey & blue patterned wool knit cardigan, grey dottted shirt and brown creased trousers all by KENZO HOMME.
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photography by Eric Frideen styling by Georgia Ashdown concept by Dominic Sio
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ALEX wore scarf with metallic trimmings by HAIDER ACKERMANN.
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ALEX wore grey top by OHNE TITEL, chain bangles and necklaces by PEBBLES.
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Coat by PREEN, necklace by PEBBLES, boots: GIUSEPPE ZANOTTI.
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WILD COUNTRY THE RETURN OF PRIMORDIAL INSTINCTS
photography by James Mountford styling by Kathy Chan illustrator Joe Wilson @ Debut Art
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This page: Shaggy blue fur coat by TIM RYAN. Opposite page: Antlers by LOUIS MARIETTE.
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This page: Houndstooth dress by ALEXANDER McQUEEN. Opposite page: Ribbon headpiece by JEFFREY PORTMAN, cropped jumper by BRIONI, trousers by ARMAND BASI.
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BIG SWITCH GOOD GIRL GONE BAD IN A GOOD WAY.
creative direction by Judy Blame photography by Jorge Lepesteur styling by Vinnie Pizzingrilli
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This page: Dress by OSKLEN. Opposite page: Dress Bag and shoes both by OSKLEN.
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SIZING UP (Before Your Very Eyes)
BUFFING UP THE BOYS FOR THE URBAN CATWALK SKINNY
photography by Virgili Ljubero styling by Andrej Skok
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This page: Valentin wears 3 button suit jacket with trousers in grey by MIHARAYASUHIRO, black and white knitted sweater over the suit by CERRUTI, leather brown shoes by PAUL SMITH Opposite page: Valentin wears black blazer jacket and black cotton t-shirt underneath by WOO YOUNG MI, black blue coat with leather zipped sleeves by SONG ZIO, hat — stylist’s own.
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SPLASH SHOTS AIN'T NO AQUA VELVA.
photography by Nick Dorey styling by Nic Jottkandt concept by Dominic Sio
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This page: Waterproof parachute-silk coat, trousers and shoes by TIM SOAR, aquamarine-inspired EROLFA fragrance by CREED. Opposite page: Shirt and waterproof trousers by CHRISTOPHER SHANNON, Mackintosh by CARLY GARWIN, MANTA 1970 waterproof watch by BREIL MILANO.
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Shirt by CHRISTOPHER SHANNON, Mackintosh by CARLY GARWIN, T-Tech Hydro waterproof duffle bag by TUMI.
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CROWNING GLORY
SLICK HAIR FOR FALL
photography by Ssam Kim & Dominic Sio styling by Niki Brodie hair by Mitsutaka Enokida
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This page: Shirt and jumper by POLO BY RALPH LAUREN, Jacket, cufflink (worn as brooch) and pocket square by GIEVES & HAWKES, glasses by YVES SAINT LAURENT. Opposite page: Navy blue Aran Isle sweater by PRADA
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White cotton shirt by LANVIN, knitted vest by RICK OWENS, scarf by OSCAR DE LA RENTA.
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www.laurentdesgrange.com
CELEBRITIES, ART AND GOSSIP ARE MARKETED UP TO THEIR EYEBROWS NOW - ARE YOU BUYING IT?
concept & art direction Dominic Sio photography by Rama Lee styling by Michelle Rumiko
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The Muse (Inspired by a recent event at The Met Ball) Vintage black leather waist belt by Alaïa, sunglasses with reflection of The Met and Alaia logo by Persol, customised ‘Anna’ blonde wig and wooden antique hat stand. | Mixed media © Stimuli 2009
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Pop's Russian Offering Flower brooch set in gold and stones by Van Cleef & Arpels, altar, matryoshka doll, candle stands & paper serviettes. | Mixed media © Stimuli 2009
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TRAVEL
text and photography by JohnWeich
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Modern QUIRKY ABBREVIATIONS FROM OUR FAVOURITE BLOGGERS
WHAT WOULD OSCAR WILDE DO? (meant to be tattoed on your knuckles) Glenn Belverio, Editor / Writer, New York, USA.
www.ashadedviewonfashion.com
KEEP IT KOOKY! Julia Frakes, Fashion Blogger / Writer, Paper Magazine, New York, USA.
www.bunnybisous.com / www.papermag.com
KISS MY MOSS Paul Hunwick, Editor, Burlington Quote Club, London, United Kingdom.
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www.burlingtonquoteclub.com
I KNOW RIGHT?! Danny Roberts, Artist / Thinker, Laguna Beach, USA.
igorandandre.blogspot.com
FAUX FUR Delphine Desneiges, Journalist / Blogger, Paris, France
www.deedeeparis.com
TOTAL DOUCHE BAG
TFFF
Kenneth Courtney, Conceptual Artist / Blogger, Ju$t Another Rich Kid, New York, USA
www.thisheartsonfire.com
TOO FAT FOR FASHION
Lera Loeb, Fashion Blogger, Fashion Addict Diary (F.A.D.), New York, USA.
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www.fashionaddictdiary.com
STOCKISTS Acne www.acnestudios.com Agent Provocateur www.agentprovocateur.com American Apparel www.americanapparel.net Alexander McQueen www.alexandermcqueen.com Amphibian Sports www.amphibiansports.com Armand Basi www.armandbasi.com Ashish www.ashish.co.uk Borba Margo www.borbamargo.com Brian Atwood www.brianatwood.com Brioni www.brioni.it Breil www.breil.com Burberry www.burberry.com Bebaroque www.bebaroque.co.uk Calvin Klein www.calvinklein.com Carly Garwin carlyg24@hotmail.com Casely Hayford www.casely-hayford.com Cerruti www.cerruti.com Chanel www.chanel.com Child of the jago www.childofthejago.blogspot.com Christopher Shannon www.christophershannon.co.uk Christopher Kane www.brownsfashion.com Cutler & Gross www.cutlerandgross.com Derek Lam www.dereklam.com DSquared2 www.dsquared2.com
Dover Street Market www.doverstreetmarket.com Dries Van Noten www.driesvannoten.be Erdem www.erdem.co.uk Erickson Beamon www.ericksonbeamon.com Fabrics Interseason www.fabrics.at Falke www.falke.co.za Farlows www.farlows.co.uk Fiona Paxton www.fiona-paxton.com Fogal www.fogal.com Jean Paul Gaultier www.jeanpaulgaultier.com Giuseppe Zanotti www.giuseppe-zanotti-design.com Hana Kim hana@hanakimdesigns.com Haider Ackermann www.haiderackermann.be Holland & Holland www.hollandandholland.com Jeffrey Portman www.jeffreyportman.com John Rocha www.johnrocha.ie Kenzo www.kenzo.com Kim Keohane kimkeohane@hotmail.com Kinder Aggugini www.aggugini.com Kris van Assche www.krisvanassche.com La Prairie www.laprairie.com Lancôme www.lancome.co.uk Lanvin www.lanvin.com Laurent Desgrange www.laurentdesgrange.com
Louise Goldin www.rmo-sales.com Louis Mariette www.louismariette.co.uk Louis Vuitton www.louisvuitton.com Manish Arora www.harrods.com Marc Jacobs www.marcjacobs.com Marta Bitute akmenukai@yahoo.com Mawi www.mawi.co.uk Marni www.marni.com Melissa www.melissa.com.br Missoni www.missoni.com Miharayasuhiro www.sosu.co.jp Nauticalia www.nauticalia.com Osklen www.osklen.com Omela www.omela.co.uk Ohne Titel www.ohnetitel.com Paul Smith www.paulsmith.co.uk Pebbles www.pebblesjewellery.co.uk Petar Petrov www.petarpetrov.com Peter Pilotto www.peterpilotto.com Piers Atkinson www.piersatkinson.com Poltock & Walsh www.poltockandwalsh.com Preen www.preen.eu Pristine Smut www.pristinesmut.com Profumi del Forte www.profumidelforte.it
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Qasimi www.qasimi.com Quentin Mackay www.quentinmackay.com Retromania 6 Upper Tachbrook St London Sass And Bide www.sassandbide.com Scott Ramsay Kyle www.scottramsaykyle.com Sergio Rossi www.sergiorossi.com Sonia Rykiel www.soniarykiel.com Song Zio www.songzio.com Stella McCartney www.stellamccartney.com Rafaella Cassolari www.rafaellacassolari.com.br Tateossian www.tateossian.com Tim Ryan www.iqons.com/timothy Tim Soar www.soar-london.com Topshop www.topshop.com Tom Binns www.tombinnsdesign.com Tumi www.tumi.com Uniqlo www.uniqlo.com Viktor & Rolf www.viktor-rolf.com Vivienne Westwood www.viviennewestwood.com Woo Young Mi www.wooyoungmi.com Y3 www.adidas.com/Y-3 Van Cleef & Arpels www.vancleef-arpels.com Les Senteurs www.lessenteurs.com Roullier White www.roullierwhite.com
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