When you happen to read about stories like the one of the 29 year old jewelry designer Heaven Tanudiredja, you start believing to fairy tales.

His fashion life started when he was 15 years old, working as an assistant designer in Indonesia. He then studied and graduated at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp in Belgium and soon had some working experiences at Galliano, first, and Dries Van Noten later. But the fact is he never intended to become a jewelry designer: he just made a first jewel for a teacher of his at school, she liked it, everybody noticed it and people started placing orders. Heaven himself says he started as an accessories designer just because he had no budget to start a womanswear fashion label… and now his jewels, all hand beaded in his studio in Antwerp, are sold for around 5.000 $ at Barneys New York, just to name one.

He uses a lot of vintage beads because of his love, inherited by his mother, for 19th century antique pieces, especially 1930. He used to browse Porte de Clignancourt flea market in Paris looking for beautiful ancient glass beads, and that’s why his jewels are so unique and personal.

For me, it’s like if exotic flowers meet robotic shapes, giving the woman who wears his creation a super contemporary but in some way cyborg-romantic allure.

At the moment Heaven is still thinking about a clothing collection, though. He says: With jewelry, you only have the space around the neck to work in, and that’s it, you have to put everything there: your thoughts, your creativity. It’s almost like a dream, and the clothes bring it into reality.

Ariko

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‘Born Sleepy’ is the name of JW Anderson’s last collection. We previously talked about him, but finding on the web this exclusive preview of the male line, photographed by Alex Sainsbury on MDX, make his strong graphic signature catching our eyes again.

Colour blocks in strong shades that we first saw on JW Anderson women’s aesthetic find its way in the designer’s Fall 12 men’s offering. Bold, ironic and all the more stylish for that, JW Anderson is keen to set itself apart from the generic muddle of latter day menswear.

The Born Sleepy man is a young character living in a tv series of the ‘70, ready to go for a sky or walking around the corridors of his high scool. It’ probably the font chosen for the brand that makes me imagine him also on a boat, to advertise some tuna brand. Even if his creepy eyes wouldn’t suggest it our sleepy boy looks calm and easygoing, someone you would not be afraid of. He gives a nice feeling and explains me why I never could throw away my ‘70 coloured and padded skyjumper.

Is that printed cock there to balance the manhood of the collection? Don’t worry boy, colours and irony don’t take off any of that!

julikafrombudapest

The beginnings of seasons are like the silence before the storm. The shoots are done, the issue is out and we are ready for new collections. When I first saw the Oscar de la Renta collection (in the first image), I was thinking: ‘Oh what an interesting choice of color order!‘ It instantly reminded me of my time in university and our Traffic Light themed parties where everybody would dress according to their relationship status. Red would be unavailable and green would be ‘Go for it’.

Besides the university anecdote, after seeing the whole season together, I realized that most of the designers went for the same color combination of traffic lights! These bright and enchanting color selections bring an energetic vibe to our wardrobes. However these are colors that need attention while wearing. You never know what can hit you or hit on you while wearing these.

Miu Miu, Louis Vuitton and Michael Kors used what I call “the Jacket Over” styling technique in their collections. They have combined similar or same color outfits and styled them with jackets over the look. To have the bright colors of orange/yellow, red and green as a jacket over a simple white pants suit or even bolder, the same color outfit will bring your look to a whole new level. So to achieve the look either go for a white or nude color underneath outfit and get the color pop up or you can wear the same color on top and the bottom and shine like the sun.
The second option is to go long and lean. I prefer to be honest using this kind of bright colored long dresses and one pieces with oversized, vintage, even mens jean jackets to take to edge of and avoid looking like you’re walking the red carpet. Accessorizing here is extremely important and highly recommended. Dsquared, Giambattista Valli and Valentino are the leaders of this trend. This is very ideal for the summer nights.
A third final option for me is to wear these colors in pants combinations. Style a silk red shirt with, red pants or green shorts with green sleeveless top like the green Akris look. Gold could be used as a version of yellow therefore Alexander McQueen’s golden mermaids and Roberto Cavalli’s mythical goddesses. Go for Balmain with a gold pair of skirt of skinny pants with a denim jacket and gold accessories.

Whatever trend you follow, 20s, Mermaid, tehcno just colour up this summer in red yellow and go go go.

niente by nil

Jacket Over

Long and Lean

Pants under

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During Milano ModaUomo I went to the Vivienne Westwood show in corso Venezia. The show featured a contemporary Ötzi, a kind of defrosted Neanderthal man, a traveller in elegant checked suits or fun sporty printed leggins, with backpack and coloured male melissa plastic shoes or embroidered house slippers.

The frosted beards were there to focus our attention on the responsabilities we have for dangerous ice melt in the world’s ecosystem.

I felt at home beacause Ötzi is austrian-italian as I am… so I went with no fear to the backstage right after the last model to meet him and get to know him better. Back there I made this video of andreas kronthaler, who wears a beard like he does and designs the male collection with his wife Vivienne, while he was explaining the reasons of the rainforest t-shirt all models were wearing for the finale (unfortunately this one was very hard to take sorry).

In between all the classical male fabrics I liked the colour accents and the crazy prints, but most of all I enjoyed having dinner next to Vivienne on a roof apartment later that night and chatting with the many austrians in her staff. I also got a push to go on with the little thing that can help the planet: I always annoy friends and collegues asking them to recycle, and sometimes I feel stupid too, but seeing her worry about left over plastic plates at her own party, taking care that they weren’t thrown away, made smile satisfied.

If I am, at least, I am a pain in the neck as She is!

julikafrombudapest

pics by paolocolaiocco more backstage pics on the fb page

pics by kristinnkis

A dark and feminine circus populated by puppets, horses and mysterious ghosts: this is what I thought when I saw Stine Goya’s FW collection. The Danish designer, who started up her own label in 2006 after graduating at CSM the year before, combines special features and details to create beautiful fashion that adhere to people who seek authenticity and individuality in the everyday. Some elements of the collection made me also think to the tale of Pinocchio, the puppet who wanted to become a real boy: the donkey masks, the puppets… the collection itself is very sober and edgy but thanks to these kind of references it keeps a playful mood that intrigues me.

“The concept for aw11 was brought out from the world of performance and performance art. Theatres, string dolls, puppet shows and screaming phantoms all lie as inspiration for elements that are part of the collections silhouette, prints and colours. This sets a darker mood and prominence for the prints and colours in mauve, aubergine, red wine and curry.”

I especially liked the illusion jumpsuit with the puppet show print – the jumpsuit is a recurring item for Goya’s collections – and the last piece on show, the heavy knitted double colour (b/w) dress.

Ariko

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Backstage photos: Kristine Jacobsen

Full story on: Julia Frauche by Yelena Yemchuk for Dazed and Confused January

Prints over prints over prints. We will never get tired of prints and they will never leave us. The season we’ve seen the floral, art deco, paisley, jungle and even vegetables! Altuzarra, Louis Vuitton, Dolce Gabbana,Vivienne Westwood, Comme Des Garcons and many had the classic floral prints besides many others on their collections. Now, using these prints on a daily basis is tricky. It might seem over done or as barely making a fashion statement.

I’ve put this ‘how to wear floral prints’ on a daily basis schema. There is really not a single way to use the florals on your cupboard as this season many stylists have interpreted this trend with a different approach. This summer and also the following fall we will dress in full floral dresses. The important thing to keep in mind here is firstly the color palette of the dress and the proportions. Layer this maxi-dress with a short or mid-length jacket possibly wide on the shoulders if the dress is fitted to give a leaner silhouette. Right after the maxi dresses is ‘the coat’. Applique, lace, silk printed or even silver leather like the Marc Jacobs look #45 give the floral attitude on the outerwear.

Personal opinion: leave the layer inside very simple or don’t even wear one. The flower appliqué is one of my favorite trends this SS as I used to love it as a young child and also as a teenager. Combine this type of fabric with a really skinny top or bottom depending on what you are wearing. As these fabrics are voluminous in nature having skinny legs underneath a coat or a top or having a silk neither here nor there top will help reaching a better hour-glass shape. If you think these are too girly and there is no way to wear flowers and be in the boy zone Altuzarra, Gucci and Dries Van Noten is what you are looking for. Pair a floral item with pants or with a wide boy-friends jacket or even a blazer. Shirts are really important in achieving a look as such.

Mix and match as a part of art deco is quite visible in the Spring Summer trends too. You don’t have to be the flower bomb head to toe and break the stiffness of the print by combining it with another print or floral but in different colours. Too bad if you’re not a fan as the designers have them on their Pre Fall 2012-2013 collections too and now even the menswear designers are going for this trend.

Better get the floral in your mind * as for me: my lovely floral appliqué Armani skirt * and combine it to be whoever you want to be.

niente by nil

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Carnovsky is a Milan based artist/designer duo comprised of Francesco Rugi and Silvia Quintanilla.

I got to know their work by accident, and I was totally impressed by their RGB series, a project started with wallpaper design for the famous Italian wallpaper house Jannelli & Volpi, and then translated also into prints and smaller surfaces. the Jungla series have won a Wallpaper* Design Award 2012 in the Best Wallpaper category.

The project is so called because of the use of the RGB technique, consisting in overlapping three different images, each one in a primary color (Red, Blue, Green). When you look at the overlapped images what you see is a confusing ensemble of lines and shapes, beautiful as an abstract work of art, in which you are not able to separate elements of each single “level”. But through a colored lens or light, it is possible to see clearly the layers in which the image is composed. The filter’s colors are red, green and blue, each one of them serves to reveal one of the other three layers.

This is how the designers explain their inspirational concept:

The represented subject is the antique theme of the metamorphosis intended as an unceasing transformation of shapes from a “primigenial chaos”. For this purpose we have created a sort of catalogue of natural motifs starting with the engravings from natural history’s great European texts, between the 500 and the 700, from Aldrovandi to Ruysch, from Linneus to Bonnaterre. A catalogue that does not have a taxonomic or scientific aim in the modern sense, but that wants to classify both the real and the fantastic, the true and the verisimilar in the way medieval bestiaries did. In each image three layers live together, three worlds that could belong to a specific natural kingdom, but that at the same time connect to a different psychological or emotional status that passes from the clear to the hidden, from the light to the darkness, from the awakeness to the dream.

Currently exhibition of RGB at Jaguarshoes in London.

Ariko

Personae is not a blog, it’s the 2009/2010 series of pictures taken by artist Albrecht Tübke in Florence. So when better than after the first day of Pitti Immagine Uomo to investigate how one presents his or her individual identity in the mass confusion of urban stereotypes? The individuals show their choice of stance and gaze embody their own multifaceted public persona, which exists to mask or accentuate individual identity.

Tübke‘s portraits employ a neutral background of street and wall as a stage for personal expression and also a conceptual framework documenting aspects of contemporary Europe. As the artist has stated:

I want to show people from a variety of different backgrounds, as I am interested in the range of ways in which people present their public face. Through constant exposure to the multitude of public personae with which we are presented, we have become anaesthetised to the range of individuals that surround us. In this project, I am attempting to distil something of the essence of that individual.

This artistic research can really be a useful and meaningful stop or alternative in between many personal blogs, specially if you look and check at them many times a week. It is like a pause key for your eyes. I am ridiculously used to just check trends and styles in pictures on blogs or magazines that at the end all have the same look; and this for sometimes you tend to forget that clothing should be all about personality and should take you beyond the surface.

I really appreciate Tübke’s work and I find it very appropriate. Check his site to start adventures into other human categories if you need a longer pause after your Italian Journey .

julikafrombudapest

C.A.2 is a creative project coming from the collaboration of two young designers who in life are separated by seven hours of time lag: Catia di Carlo, momentarily living in China and Andrea Bonfini, living in Italy.

A long distance project which made them win the international fashion design competition Who’s Next 2011 in Paris, where they showcased their first collection of leather accessories during the ‘Premiere Classe’ tradeshow.

C.A.2’s esthetics are inspired by ancient Chinese paper-cut artworks combining graphic research to high quality material, binding their psychedelic vision of exotic animals and caleidoscopic carnivorous flowers to subtle pieces of fine leather and thus realizing accessories such as gloves, scarfs, stolas and masks, who conform to the body almost like tattoos.

Go meet them in Paris again this month, where they will present their second collection true to the concept of accessories made of selected material and distinguished by sinous graphics unvealing the body in an act of joyful openwork.

Ariko

It’s easy to compare Wallenberg with the cultural movement that has animated the Bauhaus, I think that the singer could be easily considered as a student of the German school, a devoted adept to colours and geometric shapes.

Watching her clothes and the picturesque world she creates during her performance, we can consider Wallenberg the queen and master of camouflage, Oskar Schlemmer would be so proud to see these human dolls. The cover title of her last new single summarises the entire concept of her music: ” Where is the Ocean” is indeed filled with nostalgia and reflection, sirens enchant sailors into death among the coral reefs and rocks.

But the thing that impressed me most was without any doubt her fantastic and sometimes frightening dolls illustrations. It’s clear that her passion for camouflage comes from here, or maybe the opposite, but her drawings give birth to very interesting and brand new experimental figures, a New Population.

She makes of contrasts and sounds a new way of expression, she stages a play made of gestures and creativity, mixing all with a personal taste for fashion.

Morethanlove

Oskar Schlemmer