For Fall, Anne Sofie Madsen Awakens Primal Artifice With A Narrative Of Opposites

Danish designer+ illustrator Annie Sofie Madsen‘s AW/13 collection is one to definitely intrude your thoughts and leave a lasting impression. Having worked with two of fashion’s heavyweights – John Galliano + the House of Alexander McQueen – Annie was able to see pure art in the making where rules didn’t exist but existed to be broken. Departing from traditional Danish Design, Madsen’s avant-garde esthetic and her unique sartorial skills, manage to always produce great design with this collection as proof.

With inspiration found in Danish artist Jesper Just‘s art film, ‘Sirens of Chrome’ (2010), centering around four women driving through an empty Detroit city + end up at the Michigan Theater ruins which is currently used as a parking lot, a conceptual narrative is set in place. The collection becomes all about a woman, that regenerates from human to half monster + half machine. She is a siren – a female monster and the outcome of a post apocalyptic city where mechanics have begun to mend with the human. The digital print motifs were cleverly picked from the car reflections of the theater ruins inspired by the decayed marble + rusted surfaces.

It’s crazy how you can see the transformation happen before your eyes, through the different looks in the collection. The human woman is depicted through simple looks including pants with a tee, a white dropped waist dress + another dropped waist dress, but in black, accentuated by a belt + structured sleeves (row3-looks1-3). The regeneration then begins to unfold as you see models wearing a print of an animal or monster, on dresses (row1, look1 +2) and again on sweaters (row1, look4 – row3, look4).

The monster then surfaces in fur looks which are ingeniously created by a technique that includes fur being shaped by using hair remover (clever right?) + cut in graphic layers. This then makes the fur look fake while still looking animalistic. The machine finally surfaces in looks that have cutouts and loops, (loosely resembling works by Una Burke + Gareth Pugh) created from car interior fabric printed, laser cut and braided. When it came to accessories, they were all hand crafted moulded leather inspired by monster elements.

By using materials that are both hard + tough as metal + leather, yet smooth as silk + fur, the simple notion of ‘opposites attract’, managed to emphasize the transformation, while still maintaining balance.

(via NJAL)

Spring Sizzles With Limi Feu

Japanese designer Limi Fue‘s Spring 2013 collection is devoid of predictable pastels + metallics, but full of interesting shapes. Born Limi Yamamoto, it’s no wonder she’s Yohji Yamamoto’s daughter as she too favors black and asymmetrical cuts.

With a mostly black color palette, the designer manages to give us a more sartorial look for Spring, including suspenders, harem pants, bolero jackets, maxi skirts, fitted belted jackets with doll sleeves + tuxedo coat dresses, all of which, I think, definitely play into the underlying romanticism of the collection.

(photos: Limi Feu)

(via WE ARE SELECTERS)

A MUST: Antonio Lopez – Fashion, Art, Sex & Disco At The Museum At FIT

Not too long ago, I mentioned Rizzoli’s ‘Antonio‘ based on the inimitable fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez. Now, you can come to The Museum at FIT + hear from a few of his closest friends and or partners in crime on Tuesday, March 12, 6pm at Katie Murphy Amphitheatre, Fred P. Pomerantz Art + Design Center, First Floor, NYC. If you’re lucky enough to grab an invitation, here’s a description of what’s in store:

Authors Roger Padilha and Mauricio Padilha, along with special guests Pat Cleveland and Corey Tippin, discuss their first complete monograph on the work of extraordinary fashion artist and illustrator Antonio Lopez. For three decades, Lopez produced illustrations, paintings, photographs for Vogue, The New York Times, WWD, + other publications while executing campaigns for labels as diverse as YSL, Valentino, and Versace.

A book signing will follow the presentation.

But you better act fast + RSVP – event is FREE but registrations are required.

RSVP Today

Good luck!

(via The Museum at FIT)

For Those Who Love Instagram, The Instagram Socialmatic Camera Is Coming Soon, For Reals

(photo: ADR Studio)

Thanks to Polaroid + the indie designers over at ADR Studio, whom perfected this clever design, come January 2014, the Socialmatic Camera will be available for Instagram fiends and the like. The camera will feature all of the Instagram filters we’ve all come to love and later, look out for matching accessories. I especially love how they implemented the Instagram icon design as one of the camera options. The camera comes in two colorways-Traditional Instagram or Black. Don’t you love how thin the camera is?

(photos: ADR Studio)

You’ll be able to take a pic + adjust it with all of the Instagram filters provided. After taking the pic, you have the option to save it or print it on Polaroid paper with the iconic white border – it just gets better + better, right? So mark them calendars + add this baby to your wish or holiday list(s).

(via STUPIDDOPE)

Look at this great fashion film for Guava‘s SS/13 footwear collection. You definitely get seduced by the geometrical shapes of the shoes, especially those hot grey heels running up the stairs. Maybe I too will paint my face gold!

(via NJAL)

Check out David Bowie’s new video for his second single, ‘The Stars (Are Out Tonight)’, directed by the freakishly talented Floria Sigismondi, from his soon to be released album ‘The Next Day’. Now the stars might not be ‘out tonight’ but they certainly are in this video, starring Bowie + Tilda Swinton as a suburban couple + the celebrity couple that become their neighbors, played by transgender superstars, Saskia De Brauw + Andrej Pejic.

(photo: Floria Sigismondi)

Tilda + Bowie play the ‘perfect’ suburban couple, with Tilda sporting the only blond do, wearing the occasional bright light blue eyeliner, until their perfect world is infiltrated by their new neighbors right next door. Now the neighbors, a celebrity couple, accustomed to being watched + stalked, as it comes with being a celebrity, the roles get reversed with the stalked becoming the stalkers and the stalkers become the stalked.

It starts off with David + Tilda buying a celeb gossip rag at the supermarket – cut to them watching tv lovingly, all cozied up on the couch. Suddenly, they find themselves watching themselves, showing they’re being watched and poof, by magic, Saskia + Andrej are then watching them from the same couch. This is when the message becomes clear – celebrities call the shots. All of a sudden, Tilda + David become the puppets + the celebrity couple, the puppeteers. In fact, it becomes evident when you see Andrej + Saskia invisibly behind Tilda, in the dining room scene, puling her strings, which makes her crazy + scaring her hair straight + edgy. In real life, If such weren’t the case, why else would such a dumb section like ‘Just Like Us’, exist in US Weekly magazine, showing pictures of let’s say Blake Lively, caught drinking Starbucks, if we didn’t give ‘celebrities’ so much power?

(via The Guardian)

For Fall, Even With Quirks Under Restraint, Marni Still Made An Impact

Normally, when it comes to Marni, you usually think about shapes, pattern + color, that contour a woman’s personality rather than her body, but for their RTW Fall 2013 collection, designer Consuelo Castiglioni took to a whole new approach. This time, texture took center stage with lots of fur, tweeds + leather. At times, some of the lines were very reminiscent of a Fifties working girl, complete with opera length gloves, skirt suits + full skirt ensembles. Yet, what set these suits apart from losing themselves in looking too retro, were their nuances like the pencil skirt suit that challenged convention with a motorcycle style jacket adorned by a fur collar (below, look6) or the strapless dress with a full skirt, bearing a hint of skin through a chiffon insert, accessorized by a neck wrapped in a fur stole (row2-look6). In some cases, the fur stole notion look was taken to another level by it seeming to look as if the fur was attached to the top of a dress bodice (above) and jacket (row2-look1), as a fur wrap or fur cape, one of the most prominent ‘soft quirks’ in the collection. Normally, attachments like an attached shirt collar to a V-neck sweater is usually considered cheesy, but in this case, it’s tongue-and-cheek approach, whether or not intended by the designer, is refreshing. The other ‘soft quirk’ was the exaggerated fur stole, which was freakishly long but very appropriate, adding high drama to such a simple look, which I didn’t mind one bit.

The style of wearing a dress over pants was present but very luxe, with the whole dress or jacket being completely made of fur (row1-look1, row2-look5). Of the small amount of prints present, there were black + white concoctions of an abstract design of white on black and a pastoral scene in the same colors whereas other pieces, were emblazoned with imagery of a painted forest (top look).

This is a collection that definitely excites me for Fall, for as much as I’ve had enough of the cold already.

(photos: Davide Maestri)

(via WWD)

For Pre-Spring 2013, Issey Miyake Neatly Pleats Winter Away With A Very Light Hand

A smile came across my face when I first saw Issey Miyake‘s Pre-Spring 2013 collection. The lightness of certain pieces combined with the slight complexity of perfectly placed pleats (row2, look2), an innovative technique or treatment specific to Issey Miyake, just made me melt – in some cases, these same pleats created an accordion effect, resulting in a puckering effect (row3-look4, row5-look2, row6-look1), giving the piece even more dimension. Then, there were instances (row1, look1), like a diaphanous dress, whose fabric looked as delicate as petals under a microscope.

A play in color, pattern + silhouette was also in order, making my mind race, hoping my anxiety would summon Spring to be here that much faster. The punch of color in patterns, like in row1-look2, where you’re working with just two colors, + yet, the negative + positive space of the individual pieces, makes it a standout rather than a monotone dud; row3-look2, flirts with a traditional silhouette of a button-down shirt with an A-line skirt covered in a crazy print, while row5-look2, pairs a boxy buttery butterscotch-colored leather jacket, in a peacoat-style, with harem pants, slightly draped on each side, in a brightly colored pattern. Overall, it’s a fun + beautiful collection, perfect for the modern woman that likes to have fun with her clothes and has an eye for great design.

(photos: Estelle Hanania)

(via WE ARE SELECTERS)

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