ELITISM FOR ALL Volume 8 Issue 3 · £8 · Spring 2015
Mexico city, November 2014 2 0 / ta n k
Photography by Sohrab Golsorkhi-Ainslie Styling by Elizabeth Black Text by Thomas RouechĂŠ
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Tank arrived in Mexico City in mid-November 2014. There to document the city’s recent cultural explosion we were rapidly drawn into the whirlpool of activity that has come to characterise the largest city in the Americas. We stumbled between design fairs and protests; gallery openings and traffic jams, endlessly amazed by the city’s richness and its generosity. This shoot took place over three days, with street-cast models, in many different streets and corners of Mexico City. The quotations are taken from Francisco Goldman’s forthcoming chronicle of Distrito Federal, The Interior Circuit, which tells the story of his life in the city in the wake of the early death of his young wife, Aura.
Time in Mexico City, at least to me, seems somehow slowed down, so that days feel twice as long there as they do in New York. A mysterious energy seems to silently thrum from the ground, from restless volcanic earth, but it is also produced, I like to think, by the pavement-pounding footsteps of the millions upon millions who labor every day in the city, by their collective breathing and all that mental scheming, life here for most being a steadfastly confronted and often brutal daily
challenge, mined with potential treachery but also, in the best cases, opportunity, one sometimes hiding inside the other as in a shell game; also by love, desire and not so secret sexual secretiveness, the air seems to silently jangle with all that, it’s like you breathe it in and feel suddenly enamored or just horny; so much energy that in the late afternoons I don’t even need coffee. –p.107, The Interior Circuit: A Mexico City Chronicle (Grove/Atlantic 2014)
Illustration by rachel levit
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The ghosts of Mexico’s repressed past always eventually rear their heads. Born out of the spirits of the earth, spilt blood, sun and volcanoes, they are made manifest in acts of barbaric violence committed upon its people. A people driven to despair by the corrupt and flagrant abuses of the state. A society of 120 million that is really two societies, so stark is the disparity between rich and poor, where just 39 families enjoy most of Mexico’s wealth. And at the top, Carlos Slim, the second richest man in the world. Yet the politicians’ promise of modernisation has turned out to be nothing more than a pipe dream; the wave of reforms that began in the 1980s resulting in few meaningful changes other than a perpetual state of civil unrest. When the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed in 1994 with Canada and the US, commercial activity and foreign investment were supposed to double and triple respectively. Despite this, we’ve seen no change in levels of poverty or inequality, and economic growth continues at a pitiful rate. Evidently democracy isn’t a priority, so long as we keep up appearances. Our young people are beginning to vocalise their frustration with a government that has failed to provide them with a viable future. One has to look no further than the rates of suicide and murder (the biggest killers of Mexican youth) to comprehend the depths of their despair. They, like other young people around the world, have made social media a powerful weapon of dissent. Yet their calls to arms have had little effect, other than aggravating the other camp, which wants a political system that offers more than just marches, blockades and vandalism.
In pre-Columbian times the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlán (which can mean variously “in the moon’s belly button” or “between the fruits of the nopal”) centralised the vast and diverse Aztec Empire. The Spanish Empire subsequently sat on its ruins, maintaining its historic and central status, which continues in the post-Independence era. A mestizo culture that includes indigenous, Spanish, African, Chinese, Arab, French and modern Anglo-Saxon elements, Mexican culture has been growing in the backyard of the United States since the 19th century. Since the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America
was proposed in 2005, Mexico has aspired to the ultramodern, learning from the US’s renewed propensity for aggressive foreign policy in the wake of 9/11. Under President Calderon between 2007 and 2012 Mexico waged a war against drug trafficking (with financial support from the US) that left 120,000 dead or “disappeared”. Violence and fear reign in many parts of the country and local governments are more likely to engage in corruption than uphold the law. Furthermore, economic paralysis has allowed the black market to prevail, which facilitates both illicit activity and tax evasion. The adverse conditions in Mexico and its restive people present a serious problem for the government, which, in spite of some macroeconomic successes, has failed to address three crucial areas: respect for human rights, prevailing corruption and maintaining its authority. Furthermore, this autumn saw two instances of barbarity in Mexico that have resonated around the world. First, the execution of 22 individuals in a reported confrontation with the Mexican army in Tlatlaya. It was months before an officer and three soldiers (of the seven that participated) were charged. The second is, of course, the kidnapping, torture and murder of 43 Ayotzinapa students in Iguala Guerrero, as well as six subsequent executions. The latter was a direct result of organised crime and its perpetrators were complicit with the municipal government and police. The most troubling aspect of such events is that they are in fact a daily occurrence – far from the “exceptional” or “sporadic” incidents that official sources would have us believe. The government claims to adhere to international human-rights conventions, publishing reports and statistics as evidence of this. The UN and Amnesty International have suggested otherwise. They have revealed instead that the Mexican armed forces and police systematically violate human rights and engage in torture. We only have to look at the barbaric activities of soldiers, police and hired assassins to realise that the government is distorting the facts. They present a narrative of successful reforms and modernising processes to the rest of the world while failing to maintain a lawabiding state. In short, this is a fundamentally illegal state, which functions outside of and against the law while purporting to uphold it. A state of violence and instability thus prevails, which can be traced back to the failure of the supposed war against drugs, the authorities’ complete lack of control, and the complicity between powerful heads of state and organised crime. Take the Michoacán case as an example, in which high-ranking civil servants were found to be willing accessories to violent crime. On September 26, 2014, a run-in between the local government of Iguala and a school in Ayotzinapa (“the River of Little Squash”) revealed these harsh truths. That night, a group of student teachers boarded buses at the central bus station in Iguala to drive to the school to prepare for a demonstration. While en route, the buses were apprehended by municipal police who fired on the students, killing three. At the same time, another armed group happened upon a second bus and car and opened fire, killing three more and injuring a further 25. In total of 43 students were abducted and later murdered. Their bodies were set alight to conceal the evidence. Some weeks later, the Mexican authorities discovered their ashes and several bones in dumpsters nearby, and by December, thanks to DNA testing conducted by the University of Innsbruck in Austria, they identified the first of the individuals: Alexander Mora, aged 19. A second case stands out among the 43: that of 22-year-old Julio César Fuentes Mondragón. Terrified by
the attack on him and his companions, he fled the scene, only to fall into the hands of the police. Some hours later his body was found in an industrial area in Iguala. He had been tortured, his eyes had been gouged out and his face mutilated. What is evident is that the federal authorities, who were informed of that night’s events in real time, refused to intervene. The leftist Ayotzinapa community and its schoolteachers are known for their anti-establishment approach; they charge those seeking transit through their territory, demand petrol from cars from out of town and occasionally even seize vehicles for use in protests and blockades. Even so, there is absolutely no justification for the atrocities committed against the 43. US NGO Human Rights Watch has described the acts of brutality in Guerrero as the worst events to happen in Mexico since the massacre of dozens of people in Tlatelolco Plaza during the student movement of 1968. People are calling for widespread action in response to September’s events and their total absence of justice. They hope it will achieve more than mere political reorganisation, and demand the establishment of longterm democratic order.
Mexico City, the fourth most densely populated city in the world according to the UN, is situated in what was once a series of lakes, on a plateau 2,500 metres above sea level and 350 kilometres from both the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. The capital is extremely vulnerable to seismic activity. Cinna Lomnitz, a well-known seismologist, likens Mexican earthquakes to a professional boxer who seeks out and exploits the weaknesses of his opponent: “It is the enemy that always catches us off guard.” The 1985 earthquake in Mexico City left an estimated 10,000 dead, destroyed hundreds of buildings and damaged thousands more. When the authorities failed to react adequately, civilians took matters into their own hands and spearheaded the rescue effort. There are lessons to be learned from the relationship between the capital’s geology and its society. Their similarities are symbolic of what Mexico has been and what it will continue to be: a multicultural, rich land characterised by continual instability; a victim of colonial and postcolonial exploitation, today for its natural resources, tomorrow for its cheap workforce; a land caught up in geostrategic policies, currently targeted not only by the United States and the machinations of global organised crime, but now increasingly by China.
Lomnitz describes a way of counteracting the seismic forces that involves introducing shock absorbers, like those in cars, into buildings’ structures. This protects them, she says, “from too much movement, thus enabling them to handle even the strongest of tremors.” If one were to extrapolate and apply that logic to Mexico’s social structure, it wouldn’t work. In Mexico, the political apparatus is incapable of providing support for disasters either natural or man-made. For most, the only consolation left is the lyrics of the mariachi: “I don’t have a throne or a queen, or anyone who understands me, but I’m still the king.” Translated by Carmen Ogilvie and Lux Paterson
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In the new documentary film Dior and I (to be released in the UK in March), director Frédéric Tcheng captures Raf Simons entering the Christian Dior design studio for the first time. It’s nobody’s ideal first day at work and no amount of experience in the limelight could prepare you for the level of attention and scrutiny of a film crew chronicling your every move. Most designers’ first days are marked by a carefully worded press release by a sympathetic journalist, but Dior had agreed to welcome a filmmaker known for interrogating his subjects in forensic detail. His previous films were 2011’s The Eye Has to Travel, about legendary fashion editor Diana Vreeland, and 2008’s unflinching portrait of Valentino in The Last Emperor. In an industry with notoriously “protective” PR machines, bringing the cameras in might have been seen as a high-risk strategy especially for a house for whom the dust was yet to settle after the departure of its last creative director, John Galliano. You’d have thought they would have preferred a bit of peace and quiet. Simons has the demeanour of a scientist or librarian and simply dressed in a jumper and jeans, looks almost boyish, like the youngest person in the room of anxious and excited staff. It is a simple coronation. He speaks English to the assembled seamstresses, secretaries, pattern cutters and technicians gathered in the overcrowded entrance hall. Thanking them, he promises to do his best, and insists they call him “Raf”, rather than the “Monsieur Raf” that couture convention dictates. He is informal, without the hysteria or preening that so often plague creative geniuses. He barely notices the camera crew, and later we learn he had little idea of who they were and what they were doing. Some weeks after seeing the film I meet Simons for lunch in New York. The shy reticence he demonstrates in the film in group situations isn’t in evidence. Instead
he is relaxed and friendly, able to make his point with intelligence with a wide-ranging references. I start by asking about his planned approach to Dior. As a designer known for his austere pared-down, almost Calvinistic vision, how was he going to follow in the footsteps of Galliano, whose Dior universe was all high baroque drama and embellishment? “At first, I was mainly looking back at the first decade of Dior’s work,” he explains. “I took a very simple approach and I thought, ‘They’re taking me because they are interested in seeing how I’m going to deal with it.’ So I just tried to link how I see things to the original founder. “I think it’s crucial to look at the house’s work over the whole time span, and not only what just came before you. It’s not that I want to reject anything on purpose because I think John [Galliano] did amazing work. But then, analysed over the total time span, I don’t define the house as baroque because the person who stayed as creative director the longest was Marc Bohan. He was there for 30 years. So this is not about what was strong or what was not strong; it’s about what is possible in the brand. Bohan wouldn’t have been there for 30 years if he hadn’t been loved; that’s a long time. I just tried to connect the house to what’s outside, with women and their lives today, reality, and this moment in time.” In the film Simons visits an art gallery and spots a Gerhard Richter painting that inspires a print for a dress. The technical challenges involved come from his selfimposed demand for perfection in realising his artistic vision. I ask him about the art world and the role it plays in his creative life. “I don’t really look at it as an art world, just as art,” he replies. “But I think it’s ingrained in my system because after music it was the first thing that interested me, and it is always going to stay with me. When I was 16 there was this Belgian curator named Jan Hoet, who
did an interesting exhibition in Belgium called Chambres d’amis. Hoet went on to do Documenta. And ever since that exhibition art has become a daily thing for me – it’s like breathing. People ask me, ‘What are you interested in?’ and it’s very difficult for me to say, because it’s something that I look at everyday. There is no day that I’m not looking at artworks.” What luck for the 16-year-old Simons to have stumbled on such a legendary show! Chambres d’amis was a groundbreaking work of curatorial genius. Hoet was, at the time, the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Ghent, northern Belgium. For the 1986 show (whose title translates as Guest Room), he commissioned more than 50 contemporary artists to create site-specific works in private homes around the city. Hoet created an art exhibition that had escaped the museum and exploded across the city and into the lives of ordinary folk. It’s easy to see how it might have impacted on a young, bright and impressionable mind and how it could lead to a lifelong fascination with art. Raf Simons only got into fashion after working as an industrial designer for a couple of years, and getting bored. His motivation was as much social as aesthetic: “When I made the switch to fashion I felt very happy because I was suddenly in such a social environment. You immediately have lots of things around you. You work on the human body; you work with a lot of people you know, human beings, people who stitch, people who produce.” He created his first collection as a way of gaining entry to the fashion-design course at Antwerp’s legendary Royal Academy of Art, except Linda Loppa, the director of the fashion course who is credited with the discovery of the Antwerp Six, turned him down. Not because he wasn’t good enough, but because he was too good. As far as she was concerned the young Simons didn’t need academic training
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at an undergraduate level. Instead she recommended him to a commercial agent – one who also represented fashion superstar Helmut Lang. So his application to become a student of fashion ended up with him becoming an overnight fashion sensation. “It all happened in a couple of weeks,” he says. “I drove to Milan and in the showroom there was Helmut Lang with a few other designers. Immediately I had 11 stores, and I had to think seriously, ‘OK, what am I going to do with this?’” The Raf Simons menswear line grew rapidly, thanks to critical acclaim and a strong customer base: “I was very young – 26 – and in the space of two years I suddenly had 18 employees. I had a real company.” The distinguishing feature of his work has always been a direct connection with street fashion and music. He also had a talent for casting young men with a certain look, which quickly became his signature and something others strove to emulate. “I would go to clubs; I was always going out,” he explains, “and that’s where [my label] had its roots. The aesthetic came from how I lived my life, the environment I was in and the people around me.” In 2005, Jil Sander called and he was appointed creative director of the label, which had been in something of a crisis since the departure of its eponymous designer. He had the backing of the critical community from the get-go, even if he may not have designed womenswear before. Yet his sensibility was so in tune with the German founder’s conceptual minimalism that he was the obvious choice to bring the brand back to commercial relevance. His seven years at Jil Sander gave back the label instant credibility that had been lost since Sander’s departure in 2004. How did he tackle the task? Did he review the archives? “She did not keep an archive – there were no clothes to look at,” says Simons. “She threw everything away. There was a very, very limited language and Sander had been very strict about it.” The exact opposite of the challenge at Dior, where the past is always present. In the film we see Simons and his assistant Pieter Mulier wearing white gloves and fumbling their way through
Christian Dior’s sketchpads, working books and exquisite fashion illustrations like museum assistants handling manuscripts. Yet Simons has a way of seeing through these mountains of archives and discovering what resonates with his own vision: “Dior has a very architectural approach that links to my own approach. But it isn’t recognised as a revolution in the language of shape because it was connected in people’s minds with a nostalgia for the belle époque”. But I think what he did in 1947 was shockingly revolutionary. To have the guts, after the war, with economicaesthetic restrictions on so many levels, to say, ‘Here I am, and the skirt is 15 metres of fabric!’ I think it was very radical and that also attracted me.” In the film, viewing the potential location for his first couture show, a concept presents itself to him almost instantly and with a click of his heels he turns and says quietly, “I think I have an idea for the show”. He mentions Jeff Koons’ flower puppy to the blank faces around him. The film then shows us the monumental work of realising an idea as crazy as it is spectacular: the entire building’s interior is covered in a thick layer of fresh flowers. Each room is covered with a different kind of flower, which had to be kept alive and refrigerated for a couple of days, each in the perfect uniform hue. I attended the show in the summer of 2012 and, like the rest of the invited audience, spent the first 10 minutes trying to look less agog than I felt at the immensity of the spectacle. Aside from the sheer technical achievement of using what seemed to be the entire output of the Dutch cut-flower industry suspended floor to ceiling, it was a perfect analogy and defence of couture: impossibly expensive, totally ethereal, ridiculously ambitious, and worth every penny. Photographs are a pathetic medium for conveying the idea and words don’t fare much better, you had to be there, breathe the air, and have your brain short-circuit with the sheer intensity of colour. That is the magic of couture, the suspension of disbelief. You can only ever experience it with all your senses, sometimes all your senses aren’t even enough. There is another fantastic moment in the f ilm when Dior’s éminence grise,
Olivier Bialobos, the devilishly handsome and quick-witted International Communications VP of Dior Couture, takes Sidney Toledano, their suave CEO, to one side, out of earshot, to tell him the rough cost of 150 florists installing 1 million flowers round the clock. You expect him to faint; instead he simply nods his approval. But then the illustrious house of Dior needed a shot in the arm: it had been in trouble for a while before Galliano’s much-publicised meltdown. For some years the house seemed to be operating on the unsustainable idea that you could create spectacles with your fashion shows to get column inches, on the back of which you could sell accessories and perfume. The more baroque the collections became and the more over the top their execution, the more distant and irrelevant the house of Dior felt to the lives of the women who should have been its core customers. It’s something Simons is well aware of: “The world moves on. Women evolve all the time and fashion is about what women desire. It’s not about what the designer desires alone.” What Simons offers Dior is more than a tonic of novelty and undeniable talent, he brings in relevance. An acute connection with the energy and vitality of contemporary life and culture, and a direct translation of this into highly relevant and highly desirable clothes. What Simons is doing isn’t a reinterpretation of the “New Look” or rehashed versions of the master’s sketches. Simons has done what has been needed for a long time, which is to ask, “What would Christian Dior have done if he were alive today?” The hardest thing to do for a house with history is not to look to the glories of the past but to imagine the glories to come. At Jil Sander, Simons effectively created a new heritage and palette for the label: “I thought, I have the guts to do this because the house needs to have more to build on in the future. It’s going to get stuck in minimal language”. At Dior he is forging a new path forward. Or, as he puts it in the film, “The past is not romantic to me; the future is romantic to me”. Masoud Golsorkhi
www.diormovie.com
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All clothes by Dior Photography studio 88 Styling caroline issa Hair Leรณn Downing for Color Wow Make-up Ivana Kiss Photography assistants Sohrab Golsorkhi-Ainslie and Aldo Ayllรณn Styling assistant Madeleine Ruggi Production Mitzi Golsorkhi-Ainslie Model Charlotte Lindvig at Ford Models New York
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When Forrest Gump strolls into a men’s locker room in the 1994 movie, he instantly assumes everyone there is called Calvin, from the name emblazoned on their briefs. For Kevin Carrigan, designer of Calvin Klein Jeans, Calvin Klein Underwear and Platinum, the joke is a reality: “Normally when you introduce yourself, the question is, ‘What do you do?’ And I say, ‘I work at Calvin Klein; do you wear my underwear?’” Of course, the answer is always yes. When we meet at Calvin Klein’s New York headquarters Carrigan is full of energy despite having just arrived from Brazil. A funny and energetic Englishman, he moved to New York after graduating from the Royal Academy of Art and is now a consummate New Yorker, as well as an innovative part of the fabric of Calvin Klein, the label he joined in 1998. Since then he has come to shape the brand’s development while staying true to the core of what Calvin Klein himself created in his 30-year career. Working for such an iconic label entails a particular approach that respects the archive without slavishly copying it, and requires an understanding of the brand but mixed with a freedom to think beyond it. “You know how I start my collections?” asks Carrigan, “I write. Which is not like a lot of other designers. I don’t go on a trip and immediately decide to do a safari collection. No. It’s literally words taken from newspapers, magazines and friends, which I try to really bring together into a succinct, thorough process that then starts the season. From there I choose fabrics, then sketch the two-dimensional images to get the three-dimensional form.” The genius of Calvin Klein underwear and jeans has been to bring luxury – and a healthy dose of sensuality – to simple, everyday staples. Carrigan manages to invest the simplest of items – like the famous jeans – with a sense of indulgence, while remaining within the label’s codes of minimalism. “I might be designing underwear, denim, ready-to-wear, but really I am designing the part of the line that affects how men and women live their lives,” says Carrigan. “We’re all really busy, we’ve all got jobs to go to and this idea of dressing with practicality and functionality for yourself, for your comfort and your real everyday life is important. That’s what architects think about when they build buildings; it’s the way industrial designers think. It’s about how we can make things better, and design-wise enhance your life.” The explosion of denim on the catwalks has resonated with Carrigan’s approach to the day-to-day realities of Calvin Klein’s customers. A mood of streetwear permeates the SS15 Calvin Klein Jeans collection. Jeans are slung low on the hips, worn loose
and relaxed. Carrigan’s denim has been broken in and bleached out. A powdery peach jacket and 1990s Calvin Klein logo, across sweatshirts and tees, appears sun-bleached. Then there are the concealed seams and deliberately unfussy stitching that reveals an awareness of the importance of reality and paired-back minimalism. “Calvin was always about that,” the designer says. “So when he introduced a pair of jeans on Brooke Shields, they were clean, pared-down, sexy jeans. Then when he introduced Kate Moss, she was very natural. She wasn’t heavily made up – she was less theatrical, and more real. There’s always been this sense with this brand and that’s very me, too.” For Carrigan, this sense of simplicity and reality in life matches a deeper trend in contemporary dressing. “I am really interested in understanding the shifts and changes in culture of how we want to be seen and live and dress,” he says. “The whole thing about comfort, ease, speed, this acceleration of cycles. While there is a democratisation of fashion happening, there’s also a gender blurring – which I think is really important.” Calvin Klein’s enduring relevance, born of the original designer’s death-defying reinventions, always made the label something of a phenomenon in the world of fashion. It’s something not lost on Carrigan: “I think about what’s happening in the world and what’s the relevance factor of what I’m doing. That’s what made Calvin amazing at staying relevant in the 1980s when he launched CK Jeans with Brooke Shields, and in the 1990s with Kate Moss. He was always changing the face of beauty. Looking at what was happening around him and saying, ‘Hang on a minute, I want this new change of beauty.’ And today that new face of beauty is offered by Lara Stone.” Last year Stone became the face of Calvin Klein’s latest marketing foray. The label launched an Instagram hashtag: #mycalvins, inviting its consumers to post photos of themselves in their Calvins, and usually their ripped bodies, on the socialnetworking site. “It has literally been like a runaway train. It’s had a life of its own. It’s so provocative, the voyeurism. There are a lot of shots of faceless people too”. Carrigan laughs. For the designer, it’s all about going forward, transcending the form, “how do you make jeans absolutely exceptional? How do you transcend them? You use the best cotton, the most innovative techniques, the best innovation in materials and the best research. One of the phrases I’ve been playing with is ‘transcending the norm’. How you push a simple pair of jeans and make them exceptional.” caroline issa
Photography by JONAS LINDSTROEM Styling by BOBBY HOOK
All clothes by Calvin Klein Jeans
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“Fashion is so overpopulated and oversupplied with ideas that at some point in the future (and even already) the fame of a designer will not be able to assure the credibility of their work,” says the collective Vetements over e-mail. “At least that is what we hope.” It is of little surprise that some of the group (how many, they won’t disclose) cut their teeth in the studio of the famously elusive Martin Margiela, of whom there is only one press shot in circulation. “It surely shaped a certain aesthetic and the creative approach. We learned to study clothes themselves and to neglect the storytelling,” they say. “However, it is an old Margiela aesthetic that we grew up on. What we desire today is modern – it’s what people wear right now.” With Vetements, nothing is precious: the hem of a pair of jeans is wonky and frayed, shirtsleeves trail over the hands, one dress is stitched on top of another, leather jackets are so oversized that they are near comical. Vetements’ deconstructions lend attitude to their conceptual approach. They understand that clothes aren’t always hung in walk-in wardrobes, but rather tossed about and worn until they fall apart. Vetements is democratic: “Everyone participates on different levels of making of the collection, a lot of brainstorming. However, everyone has full responsibilities in their specific field, whether it is fabric research or draping or concept development or market research.” Since the SS15 show, Demna Gvasalia has emerged as one of the designers, but from the beginning, Vetements decided to push the product rather than personalities. “There is no concept of anonymity whatsoever,” they conclude. “It’s a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy.” Naomi Bikis
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All clothes by Vetements
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Shoes by Cherevichkiotvichki
“Repeat after me: tree-vitch-ki-at-vitch-ki,” says Lithuanian shoemaker Victoria Andrejeva, slowly pronouncing her label’s name, Cherevichkiotvichki. “That’s not too difficult, is it? It’s old Slavic for ‘a shoe by Victoria’, but said in a playful and childish way.” The etymology recalls Andrejeva’s childhood under Soviet rule – often the root of her inspirations – while the lighthearted language sums up her personality and approach. To the unfamiliar eye, Andrejeva’s shoes are unsettling. She deliberately scuffs the leather, splashes water across a pair of tan heels and fastens peep-toes to shoes with discoloured strips of fabric. She also experiments with unorthodox finishes: avocado peel, melted copper paste, cotton dyed with nuts and apricot pits. This season she turned to Surrealism and the Dadaists for inspiration. “When I first started my research, one of the things I found most appealing was the whole utilitarian look they obtained. Their approach was minimal yet playful. So it felt very relevant to me. This is the pair that speaks the most about Surrealism – they represent the collection,” she says, unveiling some unassuming off-white Derbys. “In the showroom, clients would completely brush them aside. I would yell, ‘Just a minute! Just a minute!’ and show them that although they’re a pair, they have teeny-tiny differences.” Such as one lace being red, the other a piece of string. Under closer inspection, every pair in the collection has subtle variations in the stitching, heels, material and colour, like Cherevichkiotvichki in-jokes. “It’s that sort of playful thing that my studio is about,” she says. “Having two different shoes that form a pair. It’s discreet, but that’s what spawned the collection and sets the tone for my work.” Na z anin Shahnava z
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All clothes by Maryam Nassir Zadeh
In 1971 Esmat Reshad opened Mimi, a fashion boutique in Tehran that stocked the latest fashions from Italy and France. Nearly four decades later and 9,800 kilometres away in Manhattan, another store, Maryam Nassir Zadeh, opened. Its founder, designer Maryam Nassirzadeh, is Reshad’s granddaughter. It was Nassirzadeh’s husband, Uday Kak, who she met when asking for directions in New York, who saw her potential for retail when she was working in a friend’s boutique. Together they opened their own store and shortly after, a showroom. The store has made Nassirzadeh’s name and has given her the opportunity to design her own line, Maryam Nassir Zadeh, which is now in its third season. “Working, having a store and buying made me see so much and refine my eye and taste,” she says. “I never felt competitive or jealous of the designers that I was working with in the showroom because I felt so fulfilled to have the store. I had an outlet and now the store helps define my aesthetic.” Nassirzadeh’s own line could be for a librarian, a conservative professional in twin sets and sensible shoes. But the textures and colour combinations are deftly handled and dispel the seriousness of her shapes. Hers are clothes that feel thrown together, not painstakingly styled. “To be honest a smart designer would be thinking about what sells really well,” she says. “I should do more of that, but the line is less about thinking about what’s going on in the store and more about what is my ideal, perfect wardrobe.” She’s come full circle for another fan, too: her grandmother: “She loves the store and for her it gives her so much joy that someone really connected to what she did.” Naomi Bikis
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All clothes by Charles Harbison
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Last October, Charles Harbison spent the day in a chandeliered salon in the East Wing of the White House. The designer was there for the Fashion Education Workshop, hosted by Michelle Obama and attended by some of fashion’s most influential figures, including Anna Wintour, Jenna Lyons and Jason Wu, as well as teachers, theorists and entrepreneurs. It was a long way from his Lincolnton, North Carolina roots. “Being there was a dream come true,” he says. “Even when I think about it now, I’m overwhelmed. I’m just a working-class boy from North Carolina and to be able to show what I’ve created in that space alongside some of my idols and mentors was such an amazing opportunity.” Harbison studied fine art and architecture and worked with Michael Kors and Billy Reid before striking out on his own in fashion. “I felt like I had something particular to say in the realm of American sportswear and womenswear,” he explains. “I hate the idea of a woman having to exist as if she is on display. Not being able to be in the moment and be in her life because she’s dressed like a cupcake. I don’t understand it and it’s not powerful.” The result is a bold, functional aesthetic. This season suggests an undercurrent of 1970s Americana, with customised elements such as adjustable silk appliqué pieces, pencil skirts that can be worn as aprons over trousers, and jumpsuits with extra-long ties that can be wrapped around the body. The clothes are at once feminine and masculine, luxurious yet sporty, playful but refined. “My point of view can be quite challenging, but I concentrate as much as possible on making a great product,” Harbison says. “It’s a very interesting, paradigm-shifting time for me. I feel like I am in purgatory, just in a waiting room where you can see the potential of your future.” Nazanin Shahnavaz
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Dress by Pringle of Scotland
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Pringle of Scotland’s last serious innovation arrived in the early 1950s: the twinset. Since then, the brand has produced an endless stream of golfing sweaters in its signature diamond pattern. But over the last two seasons, it has embraced a new revolution – the digital age. “The attempt was to work any type of tool I was given, traditional or innovative, in a very accessible way,” explains Pringle’s creative d irector Massimo Nicosia. “Something wearable is very modern; over-conceptualising fashion is not.” Researching materials for AW14, he came across the work of Richard Beckett, a materials scientist and architect who is exploring digital fabrication. Nicosia knew little of the technology’s intricacies, but nevertheless challenged Beckett to mix traditional cashmere with that most artificial of materials, nylon powder. “Interweaving through 3D printing is what emerged,” Nicosia explains. The AW14 collection incorporated the resulting high-tech chainmail panels into traditional, handwoven roll-neck jumpers. “The SS15 collection was about trying to lighten knitwear to the very limit,” he continues. “I am trying to work 3D printing not as embellishment but as a fabric.” The collection features silky racer-back tops, dresses with Perspex triangles in relief and sleeveless knits incorporating 3D printed panels attached using a crochet technique. Not that you can tell which pieces use the technology – which is how Nicosia likes it. “I am enjoying blurring the lines between what is knitwear, what is woven and what is 3D printed,” he says. “I like to keep a sense of naïvety in this technology somehow. As soon as you become too much of an expert in this technology, you feel stuck in it. If you have a naïve approach, you’re like a kid working with a touchscreen: they don’t even question why it’s working this way. This is good because you ask for the impossible.” naomi bikis
Hair Takuya Uchiyama using Bumble and bumble and Bed Head by TIGI Make-up Emily Mergaert using Tom Ford Beauty Videography Martin Senyszak Set design George Lewin Photography assistant Kareem Abdu Styling assistant Molly Knot Hair assistant Marine Tagawa Set design assistant Bryony Edwards Models Zen at IMG London and Duncan Pyke at Premier Model Management Thanks to Jelica at Apiary Studios
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Shirt by Carla Fernández
“I think the best-dressed Mexican women are in San Juan Chamula,” says Carla Fernández. “My dad used to work in museums and when I was a child we travelled around Mexico a lot. So I met a lot of indigenous communities and I’ve always been impressed by their style. It’s incredibly different from the concept of fashion we have in the big cities. They make wonderful colour matches, superpositions, layering, silhouettes, and of course they mix their traditional clothes with more urban elements. The first time I saw a woman wearing a huipil with jeans I thought, ‘This is so cool!’” Most of Fernández’s collections are not presented on traditional catwalks. “My first catwalk was inside a museum. An art curator did my marketing strategy; my clients are art galleries and museum directors, and some are artists. They like sophisticated and unique clothes. I think of myself as more of an activist than a fashion designer. I want to tell beautiful Mexican stories that people can’t even imagine, and I love to narrate them through clothes. I want people to fall in love with the traditional dress of my country, with its geometry, its sensuality and its ambivalence, because this kind of fashion is simple and complex at the same time.” Fernández has spent 10 years researching and cataloguing traditional Mexican costumes that are at risk of disappearing, and makes a point of paying and crediting the indigenous and rural artisans with whom she collaborates for their ideas. “The more I work, the more often I am surprised,” she says. “It’s amazing to discover how indigenous Mexican women create masterpieces like huipiles with just a little cotton and eight sticks of wood. It’s alchemy. Mexico is as sophisticated as Paris; it is just that our haute couture is not in the cities. It’s in the mountains.” Mónica Isabel Pérez
Photography by SOHRAB GOLSORKHI-AINSLIE Styling by BOBBY HOOK
This page: jacket by 3.1 Phillip Lim; trousers by 22/4 Hommes Femmes; sandals by CMMN SWDN; bag by Fendi Opposite: jacket by Damir Doma; shirt and trousers by Peir Wu
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Photography by mate moro in collaboration with andi galdi vinko Styling by bobby hook
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This page: suit jacket and trousers by Dior Homme; shirt by Iceberg Opposite: Coat by Gosha Rubchinskiy; shirt, trousers and bag by 22/4 Hommes Femmes; vest by Calvin Klein Collection; trainers by Margaret Howell
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This page: coloured jacket by MSGM; dark green jacket by G-Star; coat by Berthold; trousers by 22/4 Hommes Femmes; sandals by Camper Opposite: suit jacket and trousers by 22/4 Hommes Femmes; vest by Lee Roach; sandals by Carven
This page: suit jacket by Boss; polo by Lacoste; trousers by Tiger of Sweden; sandals by Jimmy Choo Opposite: coat by Raf Simons; trousers by Prada
Opposite: jacket by Diesel Black Gold; suit jacket by Carven; T-Âs hirt by Gosha Rubchinskiy This page: suit jacket and zip-up jacket by Balenciaga; trousers by Tiger of Sweden Hair Takuya Uchiyama using Bumble & bumble Make-up Emily Mergaert using Tom Ford Beauty Videography Martin Senyszak Styling assistant Sophie Hetherington Model Harry Curran at AMCK
Top by Margiela Défilé; coat and skirt by Prada; shoes by BOSS; necklace by Finchittida Finch
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Photography by olya oleinic Styling by steven westgarth
Jacket by Chanel
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Top and shorts by Antonio Berardi
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Dress by Erdem
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Dress by Dior; jacket by Tod’s
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This page: shirt by J.Crew; skirt, jacket and shoes by Marni Opposite: top and trousers by Gucci Hair Roku Roppongi at Saint Luke Artists using Bumble & bumble Make-up and nails Bea Sweet using M.A.C Cosmetics Casting David Steven Wilton Set design Miguel Bento Photography assistant Alex McBride Wilson Styling assistants Gary Moore and Ashlee Hill Hair assistant Miho Emori Make-up assistant Daisy Harris-d’Andel Set design assistant Joanna Goodman Models Emily Bostock and Sophie Yall at IMG Models, Ellery Romanko at Union Models With thanks to Jump Photographic
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Photography by pAOLO DI LUCENTE Styling by BENOÎT BÈTHUME
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Tennis dress and buttoned sweater by Maison Margiela; dress by Calvin Klein Collection; belt by CĂŠline; socks by Falke; loafers by Loewe
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Dress by Maryam Nassir Zadeh; cardigan by Eric Bompard; tights by Falke; shoes by Prada; bag by CĂŠline
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Jacket by Miu Miu; jumper by Eric Bompard; top by Prada
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Top by Loewe
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Dresses by Maryam Nassir Zadeh; jumper by Eric Bompard; top by Giorgio Armani; belt by CĂŠline
Coat and belt by CĂŠline; dress and bag by VĂŠronique Leroy; jumper by Maison Margiela
Coat by Prada; jumper by Equipment
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Opposite: Coat and top by Louis Vuitton This page: blouse by Tod’s; top by Maryam Nassir Zadeh Hair Loris Rocchi Make-up Tiziana Raimondo Videography Andrea Beer Photography assistants Marco Valeriani and Claudio Zanni Styling assistant Marine Lescieux Model Kim Peers at Next Model Management
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This page: coat and jumper by Louis Vuitton Opposite: jacket by Ralph Lauren; hat by Richard Malone
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Photography by rory van millingen Styling by nobuko tannawa
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This page: coat by Pavane; knit by Sportmax; skirt by Joseph; waist pockets by Danielle Romeril; trousers by 1205 Opposite: top and trousers by CĂŠline; trainers by Keds
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Opposite: coat by Katie RobertsWood; trousers by Craig Green This page: top by Fred Perry x Bella Freud; vintage jacket from Beyond Retro; shorts by J.Crew; trousers by Miu Miu; army overboots stylist’s own
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Opposite: blouse, vest and trousers by Givenchy This page: dress by Pavane; vintage shirt from Beyond Retro; skirt by Danielle Romeril; trousers by Simone Rocha; army overboots stylist’s own
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This page: shirt and trousers by Craig Green; shirt worn on top by BACK by Ann-Sofie Back; boots by Richard Malone Opposite: coat and shoes by Prada; jumpsuit worn underneath by Akris; belt by Miu Miu
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Opposite: long shirt by Meadham Kirchhoff; dress worn on top and skirt by 1205; trainers by KEDS This page: jacket by Maison Margiela; jumpsuit by Studio Nicholson; socks by Hunter; army overboots stylist’s own Hair Kota Suizu at Caren using Oribe Make-up Yumiko Yamamoto using Shu Uemura Videography Sohrab Golsorkhi-Ainslie Photography assistant Sofie Middernacht Styling assistants Ayano Santanda, Marianthi Chatzikidi and Mollie Knott Retouching Vanessa Merrill Model Manon Leloup at Storm Model Management
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