The fashion observer

> Silent Word by Michael Kenna

> NARS 15X15 Project

> CANDY es el nuevo proyecto editorial de Luis Venegas. La primera revista de moda completamente dedicada a celebrar el transvestismo, transexualidad, androginia…Una auténtica oda a la libertad y al respeto de la expresión individual con la colaboración habitual de los mejores fotógrafos de moda del panorama internacional.

En un momento en el que todos cuestionamos lo que hay y sentimos que queremos algo diferente es fantástico ver que alguien se anticipa y se embarca en proyectos tan visionarios. Ole Venegas!

CANDY 1 from Luis Venegas on Vimeo.

Miroslaw Balka. Tate Turbine Hall Installation

> Miroslaw Balka , polish scuptur ,  has been selected as the 10th artist to fill the Tate Modern´s Turbine Hall for the annual Unilever commission. A monolithic installation of a cavernous black hole takes Tate´s visitors to the dark side.

Click here for more information.

> La exposición sobre Annie Leibovitz ” Vida de una fotógrafa 1990-2005″ se inaugura hoy en la sala de exposiciones de la comunidad de Madrid . La muestra cuenta con 200 fotografías de los últimos años que representan un homenaje a su familia, amigos y sus viajes.

Annie Leibovitz es una de las retratistas más importantes y de mayor poder en nuestro tiempo. Sus retratos son un importante catalizador de la sociedad y la cultura de fín de siglo.

Su obra, tras su unión con Susan Sontag, da un  giro y recupera su lenguaje inicial, más documental e intimista.

Por encima de todo, Leibovitz ha conseguido crear un estilo propio,  imprimir rasgos de su propio carácter y retratar , mejor que nadie,  la expresión de las emociones.

Exposición Annie Leibovitz ” Vida de una fotógrafa 1990-2005″. Sala de exposiciones de la comunidad de Madrid ( c/ Alcalá 31). Hasta el 3 de septiembre.

Dries Van Noten. Fotos Cortesía de Nomenus Quaterly

 > Nomenus  Quaterly es un proyecto colaborativo que agrupa  artistas de diversa índole : pintores, fotógrafos, ilustradores , diseñadores de moda.  Erik Madigan, su editor , describe la idea como ” un espacio donde el trabajo individual de cada artista toma una nueva dimensión al formar parte de un espacio colectivo”. La noción de publicación  se transforma desde lo tangible a lo efímero y se muestra en ediciones trimestrales on-line, junto a limitadísimas  ediciones impresas .

Nomenus Quaterly es un espacio donde el artista muestra una nueva faceta creadora y nos acerca de manera más personal a su particular universo creativo.

Adam Fuss. Foto cortesía de Emenus Quaterly

Este número cuenta con las colaboraciones de Lucian Freud, Adam Fuss, Anselm Kiefer, Ann Demeulemeester, Katie Paterson, Dries Van Noten, Roger Ballen, Hussein Chalayan, Azzedine Alaya y The Costume Institute. Los trabajos de todos los artistas son creados especialmente para Nomenus Quaterly o son trabajos inéditos hasta el momento.

Ann Demeulemeester. Foto cortesía de Nomenus Quaterly

Nomenus Quaterly cuenta con afiliados estratégicos, entre los que se encuentran Metropolitan Museum, Flanders Fashion Institute, White Cube, y Dover Street Market, entre otros.

The Costume Institute. Fotos cortesía Nomenus Quaterly

El recorrido por Nomenus Quaterly es un verdadero lujo que nos descubre y acerca  facetas desconocidas  de los mayores creadores del momento:  la aproximación a la adolescencia a través de la  fotografía de Ann Demeulemeester, la videocreación de Hussein Chalayan, acuarelas inéditas de Ansel Kiefer, o el  mapa con la localización de las estrellas muertas del Universo por Katie Paterson, son algunos de los maravillosos proyectos que podéis contemplar en la revista  online http://www.nomenusquarterly.com/.

> ” The collaboration between Takashi Murakami, Pharrell Williams, and Jacob & Co. was finally unveiled at Art Basel, and it sold within twenty minutes for a whopping $2 million. The piece, called “The Simple Things,” features seven of Pharrell’s favorite items: Johnson’s Baby Lotion, condoms, Doritos, ketchup, a can of Pepsi, a cupcake, and a sneaker, re-created in metal and diamonds. Lots and lots of diamonds. Not exactly what we think of when we think “simple.” High Snobriety has a video featuring Pharrell discussing the work, and the simple things in life that get “overlooked.” “These things are the glue to my personality,” he says. Hear that, Johnson & Johnson? We feel a spokesperson deal coming on.” ( The cut)

> El mundo de Hermés  fotografiado por Tim Walker en la próxima edición de su revista Le Monde D´Hermés. El universo creativo de la marca reinterpretado por uno de los fotógrafos más artísticos vinculados a la moda. Todo un ejemplo de renovación coherente de identidad de marca.

Theo Mercier at Envoy Gallery

>  Theo Mercier : ” I tried to developpe a language between different medias as photography, sculpture, and fine arts in general. This independant activity offered me to work with people  and institutions like, DIOR HOMME, MATERIO, BERNHARD WILLHELM, FRAME, MATTHEW BARNEY, TERENCE KOH…”

Mercier has already collaborated with Bernhard Willhelm creating look books and invitations for Willhelm’s runway show, worked in the New York atelier of Matthew Barney as well as showing in group shows in New York, Prague, Paris, Moscow and Riga.

Theo Mercier has now his first solo exhibition. An exploratory jouney into his work and his unique talent for transforming old  and common simple things into spectacular creations, totally out of the common logic.

More information at Theo Mercier at his web : http://theomercier.free.fr/ 

The exhibition will open on 6 th june at Envoy Gallery ( NYC)

Yoshiguro Yamagata´s photo courtesy

> Yoshikazu Yamagata is a japanese designer who studied fashion design at Saint Martins School in London, and returned back to Japan. He created the brand Writtenafterwards which is a fashion label for ladys’ real clothing, that provides communication of an education, society, culture and environment into fashion.

He has been commited to different projects that express new kind of fashion freely, and now is using his new approach for teaching fashion in Japan. ( You can read more about this project at Diane´s Pernet  blog).  

Yoshikazu Yamagata Earthbackpack. Photo courtesy Diane Pernet

  He has a particular and vision about fashion that I´ve extracted from an early interview to the designer that I´ve considered could be a guideline for new designers in search of fashion as self-expression : 

” I would like to work in a different style from existing designers’ works. I guess it comes down to self-expression.  I think due to the quick development of internet technologies, the way of expressing oneself will change and differ. Does it mean people will not express themselves throughout clothings in the near future? …. New designers will easily get snapped off by the huge companies, and after two weeks of the newest fashion show, the copies will be in the high street shops everywhere. Even in such situation, I don’t want to give up attracting people through fashion and expressing fashion in different ways. We might need to change the system of fashion from top to bottom though… Maybe we will find some possibilities for the future through the changes in society, such as the intimacy between customers and designers through use of the internet... From clothing, space, system to picture books… I would like to realize many possibilities to seek new platforms of fashion”.  ( Complete interview to Yoshikazu Yamagata here ).

Yoshikazu Yamagata is presenting his new collection next week at Arhemmodebiennale.

For a complete overview of Yoshikazu Yamagata you can visit his web.

Hedi Slimane new menswear campaign for Prada. Photo courtesy of Prada

Hesi Slimane diaries. Photo courtesy Hedi Slimane

Hedi Slimane diary

>  Hedi Slimane’s  has been focusing on photography since he exited Dior Homme last year . Hedi Slimane main interest has been portraits of  street teens in black and white, which are not only beautiful but a sharp documentary of today´s adolescence. Hedi´s new collaboration with visionary Prada  means a new step forward in the menswear commercial arena, focusing  more on feelings an unconventional attitude.

Complete overview of  Heidi Slimane here .

>  Walter Raes comes from an artistic family in Belgium and moved to London in 1989. After living in the UK, he observed, “I think that what is thrown away in London and around the world is criminal; it’s from these consumer society throw-outs, that I make my designs.” For the last 6 years, Walter’s obsession has been creating WEARABLE & DESIGN ART entirely from household and industrial materials, frequently recycled from skips. His artistry is totally inspired by these rejects. In short, he takes the disposable remnants of our everyday lives to create his brilliant pieces, explorations in form and function. Isabella Blow, the late international fashion guru, was very passionate about Walter’s art. She included his Video Tape Boogie Dress in her article Avant Garbage, alongside Galliano and McQueen designs, with the following quote: “What is so exciting is how Walter is able to transform the objects in such a way that the original use is hidden.”

Working along his own lines, outside the normal fashion seasons, gives Walter the freedom to create his work from recycled materials that spontaneously excite his talent and approach the challenge of creating WEARABLE & DESIGN ART. He´s an innovative representative of a ” recuperation couture”  that enriches with brand new concepts just launched.

> ”Miles Aldridge’s images depict a stupendously glossy and magnetically vibrant world with ultra slick, hyper-lit models, signature acid tones, and mysterious narratives. Cinematic expression marks Aldridge’s work; his dream-driven, erotic style has been compared to Bergman, Bunuel, David Lynch, and Hitchcock. Aldridge is first of all an artist of the subconscious, secondly a fashion photographer”.

Now he´s showing a complete overview of his fashion photographs together with pictures for photographs at Steven Kasher gallery ( NYC). “ Scrawled in pen or pencil, the black-and-white drawings generate ideas for potential photographs and map out series of pictures like a film storyboard. Sometimes dotted with raunchy hand-written notes — such as “green/yellow bra” or “painting nipples with lipstick” — Aldridge’s drawings are crucial to his photographs”.

M·A·C Cosmetics is taking part of this project as has a long- standing relationship with Aldridge as they have collaborated on nearly every beauty image for the brand over the past 5 years a.

Miles Aldridge: Pictures for Photographs will be on view May 28th through June 20th, 2009 at Steven Kasher Gallery ( 521 W. 23rd St., New York, NY 100119

For a complete overview of Miles Aldridge you can visit his web , and for more details about the exhibition please search at Steven Kasher Gallery website

> La revista View on Fashion  adelanta la próxima campaña de Christian Laboutin, Still Life. Una extraordinaria nueva campaña en la que sus icónicos zapatos son reinterpretados formando parte de una naturaleza muerta,  con una puesta en escena completamente pictórica a modo de bodegón del siglo XVIII. Peter Lippman ha realizado las fotografías, la dirección creativa ha sido de Nicolas Menu, y el estilismo de Amandine Moine. El resultado final resulta soberbio y todo un ejemplo de las infinitas posibilidades de reinterpretar el pasado. Es un verdadero placer ver este ejercicio artístico y de estilo, en el que la marca consigue elevar su imagen de marca lejos de lo meramente comercial. Bravo!

SUMO, edición limitada de fotografía de Helmut Newton en el atril de P.Starck

> SUMO, es un libro-joya gigante que  Helmut Newton realizó con la editorial Taschen hace una década , en el que recogía  374  fotografías que abarcaban la trayectoria completa de Helmut Newton. Fotografías de moda, sus icónicos desnudos y retratos, en una edición de 10.000 copias, firmadas por Helmut Newton. El libro incluía  un atril diseñado por Philippe Starck, para exhibir este libro de gran formato. La obra se convirtió en una pieza de coleccionista cuya edición de se agotó.
Ahora, en conmemoración del 10º Aniversario de la publicación de SUMO,  la Fundación Helmut Newton organiza una exposición en la que , por primera vez,  se podrán contemplar  las fotografías de SUMO, muchas de ellas inéditas, junto a la obra de tres asistentes de Helmut Newton: Mark Arbeit, George Holz y Just Loomis, en una exposición bajo el nombre de “Three boys from Pasadena”.

Al mismo tiempo la editorial Taschen presentará una reedición de SUMO asequible al gran público.

Más información sobre Helmut Newton: Sumo &  Three boys from Pasadena: Helmut Newton Foundation

> “In 1971, nothing like the American artist’s cross between sculpture and adventure playground had been seen in a national gallery. The public went wild. The slides, seesaws, tightrope, climbing frames and crawl spaces lasted just four days at Tate Britain …Visitors to the gallery – have survived the vertiginous Carsten Höller slides, and Doris Salcedo’s Shibboleth : it’s not about eliminating risk but managing it” ..
Bodyspacemotionthings is part of UBS Openings: The Long Weekend at Tate Modern  throughout the bank holiday weekend, offering live events and activities.

"12 Instances" Heist Gallery

>La Polaroid, además del valor sentimental, tiene una  importancia histórica fundamental. Fue la primera imagen/gratificación instantánea en fotografía.Esa captura inmediata, directa, simple, sin posibilidad de archivo ni retoque supuso una manera de expresión de lo espontáneo y lo cotidiano, teñido a veces de poesía por sus particulares  matices cromáticos .Quizá por eso aún sigue teniendo muchos seguidores que, aunque digitalmente, copian su particular formato.La galería Heist de NY organiza la exposición “12 Instances” con una preciosa recopilación de instantáneas que podéis ver aquí