David Hellqvist

PORT Magazine: AMI for Mr Porter

Mon, 20 May 2013 07:38:26 -0400

French designer Alexandre Mattiussi presents his capsule collection for the online retailer

“You have to keep it simple and authentic. Style is definitely not just a question of clothes.” Alexandre Mattiussi is spot on. His take on fashion not only refers to clothes – it’s about style and, more precisely, a certain lifestyle. The Paris-based designer and his AMI brand refuses to let fashion dictate his creative output: “I just do clothes that I love to wear. I try to keep it elegant, effortless, cool and realistic. I don’t do fashion for fashion. I like to see people wearing my clothes. And feeling good in them.” For Mattiussi, the end product is part of the story and the customer is integral to the process, rather than just a bloke buying his clothes. “It’s more about the attitude than the clothes themselves because AMI is not a concept. The story we tell is a story of a guy you know, a brother, a boyfriend, a friend.”

That’s why Mattiussi’s latest retail adventure, having recently opened up his first standalone store in Paris, makes complete sense. In collaboration with online retailers Mr Porter, the former Dior Homme and Givenchy employee is this week launching an exclusive capsule collection. Mr Porter is only a few years old and, like AMI, still the new kid on the block. Nevertheless, thanks to a focused buying team and a trail blazing attitude towards editorial retail, the Net-a-Porter brother has quickly settled in to the cyber throne in the church of E-commerce. The collaboration series, part of spring push from Mr Porter, also include capsule collections from Raf Simons, Alexander Wang, Beams Plus and Globe-Trotter.

Consisting of the kind of understated and subtle pieces AMI has already made into a signature look, the collection boasts a denim jacket, khaki shorts, stripy cashmere and check shirts – the ultimate holiday wardrobe: “I just imagined a guy at a ‘terrace de café’ in summer having a break with friends. I always project the clothes with someone in mind. It’s pieces that you could wear easily. Kind of timeless pieces you could wear for a longtime.”

“For this exclusive capsule, I used bright colours like purple, blue and navy but also beige on timeless pieces; an Oxford t-shirt, a washed cotton military jacket and light denim jacket, a deep blue brogue. I like to match things together. It’s like when you open anyone’s closet, you won’t find only black and white clothes in it.”

This is the strength of AMI, one that Mr Porter appreciates. The collection, like mainline AMI, is part of long term wardrobe solution, not a clothes suitable for a fashion whim. These are the sort of clothes that define Mr Porter, as it should be. Arguably, clothes as expensive as these should be seen as an investment rather than the result of an impulse.

Stamp Magazine Interview by Joseph Delaney & Felicity Ieraci

Wed, 15 May 2013 06:48:07 -0400

‘I’m not into fashion’ states ex-Dazed Digital and Port Magazine Online Editor David Hellqvist; a bizarre statement for a man who, one might be forgiven for believing, lives and breathes men’s fashion. ‘Who I am is not defined by what I wear, but the other way around.’ He is of course referring to the concept of style, of either having it or not; hoarding Ikea bags filled with old clothes, of Helmut Lang, Raf Simons and Dior Homme ‘my old…life’ and how somehow they represent a time and place like nothing else; ‘it’s kind of like a snake just [shedding] its skin.’

As we arrive at his hackney apartment glimpses of the man we’ve seen litter the clean, open space; I notice a bottle of Port resting on the kitchen counter as he pours a cup of tea – a comical nod to his latest endeavour. We begin at the start, a history lesson in the life of David Hellqvist; moving from a remote Swedish town at the age of 21, the natural transition to London, often erroneously referred to as Sweden’s fifth most populated city; ‘I was just like “I need to get out of here”, you know?’ jumping on a place because ‘it’s close and you know the language… it was the first time I’d ever sat on a plane.’ Starting where so many begin at the heart of the high street, working through the retail ranks from Topshop, a now closed boutique called Burro – ‘it’s kind of like the YMC style of brand and all of a sudden I met people where I lived and where I worked that actually were like me’ – to South Molten Street’s Luxury Mecca Browns ‘sort of by accident’.

Suddenly exposed to brands and the kind of clothes that ‘I’d never bought because I couldn’t afford them or didn’t really know much about and all of a sudden I’m like “this is the shit, this is what I want to do”.’ It’s familiar tale, but a refreshing one; in an industry obsessed with the burgeoning talent of youth, the endless lists of ’30 under 30’, to hear the honest, self professed uncertainty of the twenty-something, and the hard graft to make it happen once that clarity comes about. Perhaps some small hope to the rest of us that all is not lost, however it is the emphasis placed on this period that feels the most refreshing. ‘That was my education – all of a sudden you’re selling a Jil Sander suit for a grand you have to know why it is a grand and what makes it good, so that was my education; that was how I learned about these people, these brands, these designers.’ It ‘introduced me to all these things and all the people coming in who actually later on in my career would be pivotal in introducing me to people and giving me jobs and so’.

Crediting the period to introducing him to those who later down the line would be pivotal in meeting the right people and, in turn, jobs. Beginning writing as much as possible for publications like German magazine Zoo, (‘not the lads mag’) and the London Paper, London’s daily free sheet: ‘one of my first stories [there] was writing about the fall of Northern Rock, the bank that crashed – sort of the beginning of the recession – so without knowing it, it was like writing my own professional obituary.’ ‘No one was going to give you a job at that time’ so, enrolling in an MA at Goldsmiths in Art & Politics he began working for the first time with Dazed Digital alongside the likes of Morgan O’Donovan, who would later team up with Hellqvist in the release of their eponymous publication. ‘…and as I was doing my MA Susie Lau [of fashion blog Style Bubble], who used to do my job [Online Editor] left and I was like “shit, could you not have left six months from now when I finished my masters so I could have applied?” but I thought fuck it, I’ll go for it anyway.’ Undertaking the mammoth task of both finishing the dissertation of his Masters degree and re-launching Dazed Digital, a testament to an unparalleled dedication to the craft. ‘That summer was kind of crazy.’

Joining at a time of great development for the site, the most recent digital re-launch similarly marked another chapter in the publication’s online story, one for a new editor. ‘You always need to be hungry, you always need to learn and do shit…and that’s your motivation, that’s your ambition there: “ok, what’s next?’” With that hunger dwindling, the decision was made that someone else, perhaps someone with the same hunger that he felt the last time around, should take on the role; a move some dubbed risky, ‘A lot of people were like “are you insane, why would you do that?” but for me it was a question of developing and moving on.’ Moving, then, meant applying that editorial direction somewhere else, seeking out a job at Men’s lifestyle magazine Port; ‘I feel that I’m able now to define my role in a way that I wasn’t before. Dazed Digital was something that already existed; although, of course as an editor you can always be part of shaping and forming and taking in whatever direction you want to see, it wasn’t my website, it was Jefferson’s [Hack, owner of Dazed group].’

‘With Port Online, because it’s brand new, I’m actually able to do what I want with it.’ Specifically the task is to develop it; ‘we’re lucky because whenever you have a print magazine running alongside you, you can use that for inspiration; as in this is the direction were going in this is the type of content were talking about’ so taking that as a basis, the task is to develop that quarterly content on a daily basis, ‘so that in itself is a massive task.’ ‘Port is about telling a story, it can be in food or philosophy or literature… and menswear, that’s obviously what I want to bring to the reader, I want to make port a menswear destination. Finding new readers online who may not have experienced the magazine, and creating new, daily content for those who have, sheds a small light on the complexities of the relationship between the two. ‘We just covered menswear week, they’d never done that before, so all of a sudden we’re introducing Port to a new world, we’re introducing the world to Port as well and that’s great.’

Speaking of the city’s inaugural men’s fashion event, London Collections: Men, brings us to his own foray into print, last year’s Hellqvist & O’Donovan Document No 1, a self-proclaimed ‘celebration’ of the collections. ‘I think that was an eye opener in many ways because I realised I can do it by myself, or in this case with Morgan [O’Donovan]’ who contributed heavily to Dazed Digital with his stylized backstage photography. Having worked on online content for three years, the pair thought ‘you know, this needs to be something you can feel.’ Its content lends itself to the insistence that ‘it’s not a book or a magazine’, not for a lack of insightful fashion focus which is more than present, but more that that focus is more than merely a fleeting glimpse at the collections. ‘The world does not need another fashion magazine, we [don’t] want to cover the next menswear shows, it’s a document, a snapshot of a time and a place.’

Sparse and structured design emphasizing the limited nature of its publication and featuring a notably selective range of shows sees in depth discussion between Hellqvist and the likes of Martine Rose and Christopher Shannon. Third party input from menswear blogger Steve Salter and Guardian Assistant Fashion Editor Simon Chilvers and an inside look at talent nurturing initiative Fashion East from mentor Lulu Kennedy, offering a decisive and thought provoking retrospection. The issue’s release was a testament to the pair’s status. A launch at the expansive IPR studio saw them generously giving away four hundred of the individually hand numbered copies that made up what looked like marble slab in the studio’s centre. Keeping just the first hundred to sell not only solidified this celebratory sentiment perfectly, it also posed the wider notion of what the issue came to represent.

An interesting point of not only the nature of their own publication, whatever form it may take from this point, but the nature of print media and the direction it’s headed – that its place must be fought for or pale into insignificance. ‘I think that’s bullshit. They coexist for me beautifully, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to do both. The consumer is not going to one day go “you know we’ve decided now, we’ve voted, it’s gonna be this.” Is not gonna happen.’ But there is, of course, an undeniable shift in purpose with the advent and advance of digital media? ‘Print is going to change of course, I think the book is an excellent example of how it will change – it will become more niche, it will come out less often, it will be thicker perhaps – Print will have to adapt and it has, along the way, it will just have to sort of look at the needs of the readers.’

And what of their own experience of the merging of the two? ‘Online is very difficult to make money from, I don’t think anybody does that, from just online I mean. We have a website, we want to be able to express ourselves through an online voice as well it’s just different. We’ve put the whole book online, so people can look at it.’ So, what of the future of Hellqvist & O’Donovan? ‘It can be whatever we want to focus or turn Morgan’s camera or my pen at, as long as I’m the one writing and he’s the one shooting it can be whatever.’ Comment on taking focus wherever they want hints at a geographical shift, though cautious not to spoil the mystery. And Hellqvist alone? A list of notable names and functions roll on, ‘It’s this constant thing about where do you make the money, nothing to do with cash, but something else. It’s about finding the balance.’

http://www.stampmag.co.uk/david-hellqvist/

Words by Joseph Delaney and Photography by Felicity Ieraci

C6 DIGITAL ACCESSORIES PRESENT THE ‘C6 LIFE’ FILM SERIES

Mon, 13 May 2013 09:17:25 -0400

C6 DIGITAL ACCESSORIES PRESENT THE ‘C6 LIFE’ FILM SERIES

Oki-ni SS13 Shoot: Techno Tailor Soldier Spy

Thu, 09 May 2013 14:22:00 -0400

http://www.oki-ni.com/styled/styled-by-david-hellqvist-ss13

Photo: Christian Alegria, Styling: David Hellqvist, Grooming: Joshua Gibson, Model: Alamantus at Elite

Life isn’t black or white… it’s grey. People who try and live by one idea alone, stubbornly refusing to compromise, tend to be uninspired and one-track minded. The key is to look around, to be influenced by different people, several schools of thought and completely opposite styles. By embracing this sartorial, intellectual and philosophic mish mash, you’ll find your own unique approach to life and clothes. Somewhere in the middle something new and exciting will be born.

Techno Tailoring is all about fusing the best of both worlds. Look at your life; there’s an element of formal strictness, whether you like it or not. You might subscribe to a casual lifestyle but no doubt you’ll need to dress up from time to time. Instead of hiding the crisp formal shirts and well-tailored coats, move them to the front of your wardrobe. Wear them with technologic sportswear. But the key is finding the balance; no-one dresses in stiff, formal and starched collars seven days a week, just as full-on outfits of innovative high performance gear only makes sense on athletes. Neither of them work as one-way versions of your everyday wardrobe. Techno Tailoring is about mixing sporty details with smart looks, about accessorising clever streetwear with well-made and qualitative bits of Savile Row aesthetic.

FUSShop: Uniform 003

Wed, 01 May 2013 07:21:18 -0400

A. New Balance 574 - Burgundy: Choosing a pair of New Balance trainers never requires an explanation or motivation. Not owning a pair, on the other hand, does.

B. Penfield Lansdale Shirt - Floral: I love brands that give you quality design without charging ridilocous amounts of money. This floral shirt is one of the better Penfield prints for a long time. A subtle background colour with a stylish accent flower print in wine red? Yes please.

C. Norse Projects Wool Flat Cap - Dark Grey: Next after Ebbets Field Flannels, Norse Projects make the best flat caps around. This one, in grey wool, has a great shape and the white N is a testament to subtle branding, something these Danes master.

D. Carhartt Dozier Bomber - Dark Navy: Carhartt is one of the most reasonably priced brands around today. Decent price tags, superior design… how can you beat that? This is a great example of Carhartt adding its unique design DNA to a plain jacket… they own it now.

E. Edwin ED-71 - Rider Wash: To go with the navy blue jacket, these Rider Wash Edwin jeans in a 12oz denim is the perfect choice. Even though raw denim is the everyday choice, a nice pair of worn out jeans are a must have for any decent wardrobe. Great for spring.

http://fusshop.co.uk/blogs/uniform/7763523-uniform-003-david-hellqvist-port-magazine

Man About Town SS13: Trunk Call

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:30:00 -0400

Defined by the laws of gravity and age, there are a few universal sartorial rules that a man must adhere to. First among them is, that the fewer garments he’s wearing, the more the attention that must be paid to how they interact with the male body. Swimming trunks are the perfect example; nowhere else is a man seen in public wearing as little as a pair of briefs or shorts, than when he’s lounging on the beach or swimming in a pool. Today, trunks are cut differently from year to year, from season to season – some designers prefer slinky numbers that leave little to the imagination, while others favour an extra-long, surf style à la 1995, often in a loud colour and all-over print, making you look like you’re 12 all over again.

But that hasn’t always been the case: during the Fifties, actors such as Steve McQueen, James Dean and Paul Newman popularised a revolutionary look, both on and off screen, by showing off their trim bodies in a flattering shape – a slim and short silhouette that ushered in a new era in design. Having been told to cover up as much of the body as possible, this represented a ultra-modern way of dressing – or rather undressing – for men.

The secret is finding swimming trunks that keep you decent but still add a layer of sartorial charm – just like every other garment in your wardrobe. Why should swimwear be an exception to that rule? The recent appearance of Fifties-styled shorts on the catwalk are the perfect solution, as they cover you up yet are tight enough to lend an attractive silhouette. Brands such as Missoni, Orlebar Brown and Vilebrequin have adjusted the 60-year-old aesthetic to a 21st-century wardrobe. The shorts might have belt detailing for extra character, but come in a single colour or subtle pattern. The high-waisted design and perfect leg length give you a stand-out look, and an opportunity for people to turn round and look you over once again, but for all the right reasons.

T Magazine (New York Times) - COMMON - Not Your Everyday Swedish Label

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:48:00 -0400

Saif Bakir and Emma Hedlund, the duo behind the Swedish fashion brand Common, are buzzing on a sartorial high. After recently receiving the Scandinavian Elle Magazine’s Newcomer award — even though it’s not a women’s-wear brand — they’re now officially introducing their third collection with these exclusive images. The fall/winter 2013 season continues Common’s quest for a modern elegance while adding the uncharacteristic visual layer of repeated logos. “We looked back at our first encounter with fashion as teens; growing up in the ’90s, we were subjected to brands that took pride in emblazoning our chests with massive logos,” Bakir says. But there’s a thought process behind Common’s logo abuse: “It was both a fashion statement and a feeling of belonging to a certain group. It has come full circle to the point where we can laugh, wear it and not feel ashamed about it.”

Even though Common is only a few seasons old, Bakir and Hedlund have years of combined high-end fashion experience behind them. Having studied at two of London’s premier fashion schools, the two helped Kanye West set up his fashion label, and Hedlund then worked at the Paris-based Korean men’s-wear label Wooyoungmi. When the time came to start their own men’s vision, they decided to move back to Sweden — but not to Stockholm, where most creatives live. The pair work out of Malmo, southern Sweden’s biggest city. “It’s cheaper to live here and easier to distinguish yourself from the rest; but, admittedly, you’re far away from ‘the business,’” Hedlund says.

Earlier collections presented subtle yet loud prints, but the color palette for this season took on a distinctively somber cloak. Working with monochrome shades — along with the odd khaki green and gold — the collection reminds you of what Scandinavian fashion is famous for: minimal and simple lines in black and white. This notion is contrasted with the very un-Swedish idea of flashing and self-promoting logos. “As a young label, we’re often asked to define our style and brand aesthetic in relation to our Swedish origin, and therefore we explored the common stereotype of Scandinavian fashion for FW ’13 and dug deep into our heritage of minimal monochrome aesthetics, mixing it with the kind of bold prints we’ve become known for,” Bakir says.

The “bold print” that Bakir refers to is thanks to the illustrators they work with each season. Classic Swedish illustrators, like Lars Jonsson and Hans Krondahl, are this season exchanged for the young and hyped Paris-based design agency Stsq. Next in line is a New York-based street artist. The collaborations are key to the brand’s DNA. In the fall collection, the logo print not only develops Common’s aesthetic but also helps further the brand. “We wanted to create an abstract print where the logo is not instantly recognizable,” Bakir explains.

Key pieces from the collection include garments that are carried over from season to season in updated fabrics and colors, like the mac coats and bomber jackets that have always been part of the fundamental design concept. For fall, many of them show up in a dense mix of alpaca and virgin wool. Logos or no logos, Common will no doubt get its name out there, and it won’t be based on shameless self-promotion but creative talent and an unquestionable eye for subtle color combinations, suave details and a dedication to elegant modernity.

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/not-your-everyday-swedish-label/?ref=t-magazine

Photo by Patrick Lindblom and styling by Andrej Skok

PORT Magazine: Top Five - Mario Hugo’s Favourite Record Sleeves

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 08:21:05 -0400

While exhibiting Being Dreaming at KK Outlet, one half of the NYC-based creative agency Hugo & Marie talks us through his favourite album artwork

A few weeks ago, as their KK Outlet exhibition Being Dreaming kicked off with a dinner and an almighty party, New York-based creative duo Hugo & Marie took their artist rooster to London. One part sleek branding agency and one part gallery agents, Mario Hugo and wife Jennifer Sims has filled the Hoxton Square gallery with well over 100 pieces of works, colliding “art with science.” The two world views are often seen as opposites but, as we know, opposites also attract. In Being Dreaming this is visible through a wide array of techniques and sub topics: Through painting, drawing, weaving and video work, each of the 12 artists tackle anatomy, botany, ecology, geometry, energy and mythology.

Having operated out of Brooklyn, NYC, since early 2008, Mario & Hugo today represent a worldwide force of creative talent including Hisham Akira Bharoocha, Deanne Cheuk, Tom Darracott, Merijn Hos, Hvass & Hannibal, Jules Julien, Micah Lidberg, Santtu Mustonen, MVM, Mike Perry and Kustaa Saksi – all of who are represented on the walls of KK Outlet this month. The duo also worked with PORT Magazine issue 7 on creating section dividers. One half of Hugo & Marie, the charismatic husband, Mario Hugo, has since an early age been obsessed with music. But, as a designer and illustrator, Hugo also approach the music from a visual point of view; he’s enjoys the album with both ears and eyes, as it were. This fascination has led Hugo and the agency to work on quite a few record sleeves over the years.

When you think about it, the album cover art, single sleeves, posters and overall visual communication for a band with an album out and tour about to start, is of course immensely important. That’s probably why they go to Marie & Hugo to sort it out. So far, they’ve worked with Rihanna, Soft Rocks, Land of Light and Shocks, to mention but a few. In light of this, we asked Mario Hugo to select his five favourite record sleeves, and tell us what he likes about them…

Ariel’s Pink Haunted Graffiti, Round and Round: “Seriously, what could give you more pause than this display of incredible, unabashed intimacy. Saimon Chow created a series of artworks featuring humans kissing animals and insects, and this canine kiss was appropriated for a fantastic Ariel Pink track. I’ve always coveted sleeves as artworks in and of themselves – there is some je nais se quoi about the format’s limitations – decades and decades of twelve square inches to tell stories as rich as many, many minutes of music. I have no idea what this cover has to do with the song, but it absolutely reeks of Ariel Pink.”

Pulp, His ‘n’ Hers: “In addition to being one of my favourite albums of all time, Pulp’s His ‘n’ Hers was designed by The Designer’s Republic and illustrated by Philip Castle. I’m not really sure a pedigree of creative talent gets more impressive than this.”

Speidel Presents, Let your Feelings Show: “I’d be remiss if I didn’t pick a random from my Mom’s collection. Nothing quite touches gorgeous 70s vinyl. How many different phenomena can we possibly capture on a single record sleeve? Space, rainbows, waterfalls, endless love, and the biggest nameplate bracelet of all time in one concise, stunning, voluminously airbrushed package. Unicorns are conspicuous in their absence. One of my favourite details is the back, with separate bracelets for each track.”

Michael Jackson, Dangerous: “I talk a lot about vinyl – I love vinyl. I direct, illustrate, and design vinyl throughout the year. But I’m a child of the 80s – I was raised on dusty cassette tapes, and my first genuine fascination with an album cover also happened to be the first CD I ever owned – Dangerous. I was about nine when the album came out and I remember hours studying every cryptic little detail – and this level of detail was incomprehensible to me at that time. Mark Ryden’s painting reads like a flemish miniaturist’s pop hell – at once weird, enigmatic, masonic, tacky, and absolutely beautiful.”

Soft Rocks, The Cure of Soft Rocks: “I mentioned earlier that I create a lot of album packaging throughout the year. I’ve worked with acts and musicians of varying sizes, but I feel most rewarded by direction and design for ESP Institute. They’ve got a general apathy for commercialism, and they let me explore the themes they way I’d like to explore them, and if I think the juxtaposition of Soft and Rocks is best communicated by a fruit bowl of kiwis, dismembered hands, ears, wings, eyeballs, and an occasional rock in a tense, tangled gravity – well, it floats.”

Guardian G2: Timberland - 40 Years of the Yellow Boot

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:14:37 -0400

The Timberland boot is one of fashion’s most recognisable fashion classics – favoured by everyone from working men to fashion designers and pop royalty, so what’s the secret of its success?

Made up from 39 components and constructed via 80 separate factory floor steps, you’d be forgiven for thinking the subject in question is a piece of Nasa technology. This, however, is the drill dedicated to the creation of a pair of yellow, eight-hole Timberland boots. It’s one of fashion’s most recognisable pieces of footwear, favoured across the board, from hipsters to workmen, rappers and pop royalty. This boot, which gave Timberland its company name, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year and can truly be dubbed a fashion classic.

For a shoe to become so popular – and still sell millions of pairs each year – it must transcend fashion and penetrate another pop-cultural sphere. It’s not enough to have a loyal following of fashionistas, you have to reach outside the industry bubble. Similar success has been achieved with the help of music or art by other labels, such as Converse – which had Hot Chip front its campaign in 2010, and currently has ads shot at gigs and in clubs around the world. Often, though, this additional dimension isn’t chosen by the brand, it happens organically; it’s all about being in the right place at the right time with the right look, style and attitude. That’s what Timberland did – and it shows in its earnings.

Bought by sportswear giant VF Corporation in 2011, the brand saw net income increase by 13% in the first nine months of 2012, reaching £479m. You can be sure that the yellow boot accounted for a fair chunk of that. Timberland treasures … the classic yellow boot, Earthkeepers boat shoe and Earthkeepers Cupsole boot “It all began in the early 70s, when Sidney Swartz noticed that the American “working man” had a genuine need for durable leather boots that kept them dry while outdoors,” says Chris Pawlus, Timberland’s creative director. “So he made one, with the wheat-coloured waterproof leather … and it caught on pretty fast.”

Defined by this yellow boot, the brand took off in the 1990s when US hip-hop artists wore Timberlands. Wu-Tang Clan, Mobb Deep and DMX wore the boots and gave them the all-important street cred. Producer and rapper Timbaland was even given his stage name – by Jodeci member DeVante Swing, according to his biography – due to his fondness for the boots. Interest in the boot hasn’t faltered among contemporary musicians; it’s the footwear of choice for artists such as Rihanna, Jay-Z, Kanye West and A$AP Rocky. “I like the classic yellow boot as it’s exactly just that, a normal no-frills boot,” says Elgar Johnson, fashion editor at British style magazine i-D. “It’s extremely masculine and incredibly versatile, it can be worn by 90s jungle heads and everyday builders. The boot is so popular because it doesn’t conform to one certain genre, it can be put with anything and help create a look.”

“The hip-hop community liked the authenticity of the yellow boot, it became a key part of their wardrobe,” Pawlus explains. “We continue building gear so people can enjoy outdoor experiences while still looking good. They can also move into a more stylish space; you can wear the boots any place and with anything.” As such, the wheat-coloured boot joins the likes of Converse Chuck Taylor, Nike Dunk and Clarks desert boot: effortless classics untainted by time. Many of London’s hottest menswear designers, including Martine Rose, Matthew Miller and Shaun Samson, have recently put Timberland back on to the catwalk in various customised incarnations.

“It’s all about function, that’s what makes it an iconic piece of design. Every stitch, every piece of material and every step in the construction process. It works on so many levels, for everyone from rappers to riggers,” says Matthew Miller. Timberland was one of the first boot brands to advertise on television, and helped introduce the idea of putting logos – in its case, a tree symbol – on the outside of the footwear, hyping itself to create brand awareness. Now the brand is keen to put more emphasis on its green index.

A growing area is its Earthkeepers line, Timberland’s most eco-conscious footwear. It is designed for disassembly and at least 50% of the materials used can be recycled. The brand’s commitment to nature also goes beyond the products; staff plant trees to replenish forests around the world. In China, Haiti and the Dominican Republic they’ve so far planted 2.5m trees. The purpose is not only to produce food, fuel and shelter but to help the 2,000 farmers involved on the Caribbean island to, according to the brand’s website: “increase the productivity on their farmlands by more than 50%, thus resulting in increased income for their families.” In China, the trees help to prevent sandstorms and desertification.

Made in an eight-plantation-strong factory outside Santiago in the Dominican Republic, the Earthkeepers boot is waterproof thanks to a midsole injection of thermo-plastic rubber. With more than 2,000 employees, the factory churns out a million boots and 500,000 boat shoes a year. Although there’s a lot of heavy machinery, a surprising amount of the detailing is still done by hand. “We are investing in automation but not to replace the workforce, simply to improve quality and consistency,” says Alejandro Ordoñana, head of Timberland’s Caribbean operations. “

You cannot underestimate any of the jobs, but I think cutting the leather is our highest-skilled job. There are just some things you cannot change from a manual process. You could mechanise the cutting but you’d still need someone to spot defects like a scratch or a tick mark. The cutter makes sure that the particular piece is apt, so I guess that’s the most detailed job we have, that and the hand-stitching of the boat shoe.”

This attention to detail goes some way to explaining Timberland’s enduring appeal.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/fashion/2013/apr/16/timberland-40-years-yellow-boot

PORT Magazine: Higher Than The Sun - Très Bien x Sun Buddies

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 07:29:24 -0400

Très Bien brothers Hannes and Simon Hogeman launch Sun Buddies, their new premium eyewear brand

In Persona, Swedish film director Ingemar Bergman’s 1966 movie about the blending of characters, actress Bibi Andersson rocks a pair of fly sunglasses. This cinematic moment was the starting point for Très Bien’s latest design project, a pair of mean and lean sunglasses inspired by the sartorial atmosphere created by Andersson’s outfit and Bergman’s colour palette. A series of well-made sunglasses called Sun Buddies is launching this week with Type 01, a pair of hand-made sleek frames in premium Acetate. Available in black, clear and tortoise, all optics are provided by Carl Zeiss Vision. That means the frames are of high quality, which is exactly what we’ve come to expect from Hannes and Simon Hogeman, the brothers behind Très Bien.

The choice of inspiration, though, is less obvious; even though pop cultural influneces – film, music and art – has always been integral to the company and its WELCOME project, the choice of Bergman’s monochrome master piece as reference point is an inspired one. Shot on Fårö, the Swedish island where Bergman lived, in the summer time, amazing cinematogographer Sven Nykvist managed to perfectly capture the beautiful light. Aesthically, the film is superb because the light really shows off the black clothes worn by Bibi Andersson and her co-actress, Liv Ullman. “It’s a film we grew up watching, like so many other Bergman movies,” says Jakob Törnberg, co-founder of Très Bien.

Sun Buddies is also a quite casual and humourous name, which nicely contrasts the seriousness of Ingemar Bergman’s work. “But the name refers to the idea of connecting and collaborating with artists, designers and other creatives, to create new products and make the brand interesting. We call them our ‘Sun Buddies’,” says Hannes Hogeman. So there’s a certain amount of quirkiness to the name, it’s not meant to be too serious: “It’s a funny name, backed up by quirky campaigns but with high quality products,” Hogeman continues. The concept of high quality is of course not to be taken lightly. Over the years, whether it’s a line produced by the Swedish company or clothes and shoes bought from Japan, America or England, Très Bien always strive for original quality. Hannes Hogeman: “It’s a brand and product sprung from Très Bien and the way we always have taken on the world of fashion. For Sun Buddies, we worked with premium hand-cut acetate; it’s a high quality product all the way through.”

Also the visual language for the Sun Buddies campaign bear the Très Bien hallmarks. Shot and art directed by curator and Libraryman publisher Tony Cederteg, the images – a few of them premiered here – are in line with Trés Bien’s fundamental aesthtic. What future styles will look like is unkown, so far only images of Type 01 has been released. But it’s a good launch, the style is simple yet powerful. The design is minimal, just like Bergman’s Persona film. “With the first model we aimed to create a classic shape with a round, smooth top but with sharp edges at bottom for a little bit more aggressive look. Sporty yet smart. They’re also made slightly thicker for a more bulky look.” Few things are certain in life but if you only remember one thing, then know this: Très Bien’s Sun Buddies are here to stay.

http://www.port-magazine.com/fashion/higher-than-the-sun/

Photo and Art Direction Tony Cederteg

Paul Smith Blog: David Bowie - Style Icon

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 07:41:00 -0400

David Hellqvist explores the creative aesthetic of David Bowie, and finds out why his influence on fashion is still prevalent today.

‘Fashion – Turn to the left / Fashion – Turn to the right / We are the goon squad / And we’re coming to town’

– David Bowie, ‘Fashion’, 1980

Few artists have understood the importance of role-playing in pop music as well as David Bowie. Most stars only have one persona – the public version – the one you see on stage and watch on a talk show. For many, that’s more than enough. What makes Bowie unique is that during his 50-year recording career he has lived a number of different lives. But these personalities – most notably The Thin White Duke, Ziggy Stardust, Major Tom and Aladdin Sane – were more than just stage personalities. For long periods they defined Bowie the man. It’s no wonder Bowie also boasts an extensive acting CV: he is a master at playing characters. Though schizophrenic to some, this desire to explore is, without a doubt, a sign of Bowie’s creative diversity. It wasn’t enough for him to write new songs; he had to write new lives to go with them. Crucial to these characters were the clothes, haircuts and make-up he chose. Inspiration came to him from all over the place.

Many of them, like Major Tom, were astronaut and space influenced. Bowie had seen Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. For Bowie, space must have represented the last frontier, the great unknown. What better place to take his sartorial exploration of the human psyche? You can tell how his Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane outfits – basically different stages of glitter and glam rock – coincided with Bowie entering absolute stardom. Those glamorous looks – platform boots, face paint, tight silhouettes and androgynous poses – were of course a manifestation of that particular time, the 1970s, but they also personified a true star and a pop icon’s wardrobe. This legacy can be seen in the V&A’s Bowie retrospective, and also in Tate Liverpool’s current Glam! The Performance of Style exhibition.

The second half of Bowie’s 70s was dedicated to Berlin, working with Brian Eno and Iggy Pop. A trilogy of albums heralded a new era, a less extraterrestrial-obsessed sound that also could be seen in his clothes of choice. Clean, minimal, monochrome and sleek, this was a Bowie sartorially and sonically inspired by German krautrock. Gone were the wild haircuts and bell-bottoms; Bowie in Berlin was all about black leather and suave suits. Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, in a city quite literally divided by a battle line, Bowie’s wardrobe sobered up into a sombre, but razor-sharp, phase.

Sartorially speaking, The Thin White Duke look was anchored somewhere between Saturday Night Fever’s glamour – the last traces of Bowie’s glitter rock days – and a Mancunian post-punk aesthetic. Still fundamentally androgynous, Bowie looked smart and formal. Sure, the shirt might have been unbuttoned one button too far, but the tight waistcoat and pleated trousers helped shape a silhouette that was more American Gigolo than Velvet Goldmine. Trilby hats, trench coats and sharp knitwear accessorised the tailoring. His inspiration came from a well-judged mix of books, films, travelling and dreaming.

David Bowie is a style icon today for two reasons. First, he was part of a generation that rebelled. In the late 60s and early 70s, fashion and music came together as a powerful force against convention and sartorial indifference. On a more personal level, Bowie brought a sense of reality to his own dream world while at the same time injecting fantasy into the real world. His music and the clothes he wore were the result of his vision. It turned out to be a vision that many people shared and identified with, and it’s still the case. That’s the definition of an icon. David Hellqvist is online Editor at PORT Magazine, co-founder of Hellqvist & O’Donovan and a freelance menswear writer David Bowie is, V&A from 23 March to 11 August 2013 Glam! The Performance of Style, Tate Liverpool until 12 May 2012 Image: Annotated back cover image for Hunky Dory album, 1971. Courtesy of the V&A.

http://www.paulsmith.co.uk/uk-en/paul-smith-world/opinion/david-bowie-style-icon

PORT Magazine: Lavenham x Casely-Hayford x H by Harris

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:10:10 -0400

Charlie Casely-Hayford and Harris Elliott pose exclusively for Port in their Lavenham jackets

To be honest, we don’t necessarily need another batch of collaborations right now. This way of merging brands, aesthetics, styles and continents — let’s call it the x factor — is often just an easy opt-out to excite customers about yet another wave of products. But that’s not to say they don’t fill a purpose, and — I’m the first to admit it — I do like a good collaboration myself. But they have to give me something, there has to be a reason for them and the brands must seem to benefit themselves from working with another label with a different sartorial point of view.

Luckily, that’s the case with both Casely-Hayford and H by Harris’ current collaborations with the UK’s unofficial quilt masters, Lavenham. So what is Harris Elliott, himself a quilt aficionado, doing collaborating with Lavenham, you ask. Surely that goes against aforementioned theory about two brands bringing something different to the table. Well, that would have been the case had Harris not explored another, for him new and exciting, corner of Lavenhams’ Suffolk factory. His jacket and bag collection is centred on a stunning khaki varsity jacket with mesh sleeves, but also comprises a belted jacket and mesh-infused coat. Elliott has, as such, taken the opportunity to further himself through Lavenham’s expertise, and together they have created a unique collection of H by Harris attitude and Long Melford craftsmanship.

Joe and Charlie Casely-Hayford, the father and son duo behind east London’s most elegant punk brand, went straight for Lavanham’s quilt jugular, reinterpreting the classic Denham style. At its core, Lavenham has equestrian roots and nowhere else is that as obvious as in this particular jacket style. So teamed up with Casely-Hayford’s harsh urban treatment, Denham was in for a culture shock, to say the least. And what’s better than questioning traditionalism and shaking up the establishment? With black leather sleeves and two-toned jackets in subtle colour combinations, Joe and Charlie have managed to uproot the jacket from its countryside retreat and plant it in Hackney’s beautiful concrete jungle.

David: How and why did you hook up with Lavenham?
Charlie: We were interested in the cultural significance of the Lavenham jacket, specifically on the streets of London. It has this old world refinement; it’s worn as a staple of the countryside uniform, even in city. But it has also been adopted by London ‘rude boys’ as a style statement of a subculture worn with their sportswear, and that juxtaposition is a perfect combination for the Casely-Hayford House. Harris: H by Harris and Lavenham both make specialist quilted products here in the UK. Their quilting capabilities are off the hook, so it was a no-brainer that we should unite and work on a project. Steve [from Sane PR] suggested I meet with Nicky at Lavenham; there was mutual appreciation from the get-go and with that the H x L collab was born.

David: What is it about Lavenham that you like?
Charlie: It’s totally purist. Although they now have a full collection, I love brands that do one thing and do it better than anyone else. Harris: Lavenham are unique as they are genuinely one of a few brand-manufacturers that make everything in their factory in the UK. That in itself, in this day and age, is amazing; their state-of-the-art machines are brilliant to work with.

David: What was your starting point for the jackets?
Charlie: We wanted to combine the classic Lavenham jacket with a streetwear bomber jacket to accentuate its cultural significance within the London style scene. The final piece for us is a simple concept that for us brings both worlds together.

Harris: The collection is called Urban Cowboy. Lavenham’s heritage is creating blankets for horses. My brief to myself was to highlight their equestrian sensibilities while introducing a contemporary twist, by combining a jockey style fused with an urban aesthetic.

David: Describe your jackets…
Charlie: The jacket has an exclusive Casely-Hayford black watch lining that is a continuation from the mainline collection. We combined the classic Lavenham design with black leather sleeves and a rib cuff to bring the country and the city together.

Harris: The varsity jacket is the obvious standout piece that definitely turns heads. Military mesh sleeves, that allows you to see the colour of your under garment – and you can feel the breeze, which is perfect for a summer collection. As both brands are known for a certain quilt signature but I wanted to create something unexpected without the external use of quilt – otherwise it would have been too predictable. All the jackets have either detachable quilt liners or quilt detailing in the pockets. You have to look inside to find the quilt detailing. I was able to create a 3D quilt, which makes the pattern come to life.

David: What do you think about each other’s collaboration?
Charlie: Love the varsity jacket! I tried to steal it when he wasn’t looking!

Harris: Charlie and Joe always manage to combine materials and finishes that you often wish you had designed yourself. The Casely-Hayford jackets are new but seem familiar at the same time, a good combination.

David: Any other collabs coming up?
Charlie: We’re currently working on a collaboration with the Hostem store on Redchurch Street and will be launching a made-to-measure suit project at the beginning of next year. We’ve chosen some of the best Italian and English fabrics available, so we’re very excited.

Harris: I’ve been speaking to a notable footwear brand about creating some pieces for them, and also developing some pieces of furniture, with some amazing crafts people.

http://www.port-magazine.com/fashion/exclusive-lavenham-x-casely-hayford-x-h-by-harris/#!prettyPhoto&panel1-1

Photography by Nikolas Ventourakis

PORT Magazine: At Work - Tillmann Lauterbach AW13

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:38:57 -0400

David Hellqvist visited the German-born designer’s studio space ahead of his Paris catwalk show

In Buttes Chaumont, a leafy suburban corner of Paris in the 19th arrondissement, Tillmann Lauterbach is busy preparing his comeback collection. Although he showed a smaller capsule collection last season, Autumn Winter 2013 is the German-born designer’s proper return to the Parisian menswear schedule. With his scaled back aesthetic, sombre colour palette and keen eye for details, his Joy Division collection is a master class in subtle luxury, defined not only by the qualitative fabrics but also Lauterbach’s personal investment and time dedicated to developing an aesthetic in line with his own view of life. Anyone visiting Lauterbach’s house will get a unique insight to his universe, almost as detailed as when viewing in the Rue de Commines catwalk show. It’s clear that Lauterbach is not satisfied with separating the day job from the rest of his life, they are inter-linked and feeding off each other. On the walls and shelves of his three storey house, art pieces and objects share the space with sewing machines and fabric swatches. Venture down the basement and you’ll come across a bonafide, albeit small, industrial factory.

Two days before the show, when Port visited, the energy levels were sky high; samples sewn, details refined, trainers modified and looks put together in conjunction with stylist Hannes Hetta. All this with Polka, a beautiful Dalmatian, running around, curious why there’s so many people around the house. The ground floor living room functions as a board room, but there’s nothing strict and formal about Tillmann Lauterbach and his crew. On the contrary, spend time with him and his associates and you get the sense of a creative collective at ease with work, life and fashion. Upstairs, in Tillmann’s own private studio space, the view of Paris is stunning. Mood boards and art fills the room. Adjunct is a small bedroom. Actually, all mod cons like bedroom, kitchen and bathroom are cramped. This is a house dedicated to the craftsmanship of Tillmann Lauterbach the brand, not individual needs. As such you get the feeling the brand is about a creating a lifestyle, not a fashion fad. The collection fuses sartorial highlights such as neoprene detailed shearling jackets and kimono style tailored coats with cashmere cable knits and raincoats with a woven shirt collar and exposed zippers.

Talk to Tillmann about the process and stories behind his fabrics and you’re in for a treat. It’s quickly obvious that he invests a lot of time and energy in finding not only the right material but also the right people to help him realise the ideas. He points towards a pair of raspberry red trousers: “I worked with an Italian family run mill on these. It’s a perfect washed finished which makes the super twisted cotton heavy and stiff. Another favourite is this washed wool which has a 3D jacquard-like texture – we used the inside of the fabric to make it look it more rough. Mostly I use Japanese and Italian fabrics. I hate overlocking so my garments are often better finished on the inside compared to the outside, and the Japanse’s love of detail and very complicated fabrics make them a good fit for me.” Individual highlights from the collection, as picked by Tillmann, include a laser cut wool mac coat in either grey and navy blue. “It’s made by an old Austrian felt producer called Lorden Steiner. It’s a family-run company making honest products. But it’s a very classic look so I wanted to make it more modern. I went to one of Europe’s most modern laser cutting companies in Italy. We did the laser cutting in the same check pattern we use on other garments and to make it appear older we erased some of the burn holes – it looks like erased laser cut patterns.”

A second coat, shown in green and maroon red on the catwalk, comes belted and with multiple pockets. Looking closer at it in Tillmann’s studio, you are struck by the gentle softness of the fabric: “Yes, it’s an alpaca jacket with the big curl on the outside and cut with a raw edge detail on the seams. It’s like a very comfortable morning gown that you can wear underneath a big coat, or on its own in the spring. It’s very soft and warm. For me, alpaca is more precious than cashmere; it’s used less often and the abilities of the fabric is more attuned to urban life; cashmere is very warm but alpaca has a certain air conditioning element to it, it gets less warm due to the fibres.” Thirdly, Tillmann points out a key knitwear piece from the collection. The grey oversized jumper was the fourth piece to hit the catwalk: “It’s a cashmere cable knit, but with added a sportswear detail through the frontal V on the collar.

Around the cable curve we’ve printed an X so you can see an anarchy A from a distance. I like the idea of having a super soft cashmere but making it a little bit coarse with the colour. The starting point for the collection was the concept of anarchy and how you perceive your life, it’s about questioning how things are done and what fabrics are normally used. The Joy Division collection is built to last, it’s a non-seasonal idea.”

PORT Magazine: In Conversation - Piero Tosi, Costume Designer

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:01:33 -0400

In an extended interview from the Daniel Day-Lewis guest-edited Port 9 issue, the Italian movie legend talks about iconic actors and stylish films

There’s many ingredients to a good film… it needs to be plausible on so many levels; a brilliant movie resonates with the audience because they believe in the storyline, and true emotions – sorrow, anger, joy, and bewilderment – are evoked within them. But what and how the actors speak is just one part of that. Interiors, make-up, location, hair and clothes all help accomplish that. The clothes worn by the actors has to be as credible as the lines and facial expressions. If they fail to communicate who the character is and what he or she is going through, the costumes and, indirectly, the film has failed. That’s why the role of a costume designer is one of the film world’s unkown heroes. Sure, they can win Oscars but few filmgoers pay them much attention. Luckily, the actors realise their importance. “If clothes make the man, then certainly the costume designer makes the actor! The costume designer is not only essential, but is vital for it is they who create the look of the character without which no performance can succeed,” Audrey Hepburn said in her speech at the 1986 Academy Awards ceremony. But is it even correct to call them costumes?

The word makes you think of Halloween pranks and circus clowns. In most films, costume design is the polar opposite; it’s not about attire for special occasions, it’s an everyday wardrobe, the clothes you are comfortable in on a daily basis. The role of a costume designer is to tell a story. All good narratives contain different elements and together they form a web of intrigues, destinies and lives. Costume design does that to films by giving actors a sartorial tool, a way of describing emotions without saying anything. Sometime this is made more difficult by the fact that the film is based on real events; the people portrayed actually lived and the clothes need to reflect that. But the everyday-rule obviously doesn’t apply to all films and costume designers.

Italian film legend Piero Tosi has lived and worked a larger-than-life career. His credits include Senso, Bellissima, The Leopard, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Death in Venice, The Night Porter, and La Traviata on which the BAFTA Award winning costume designer worked on with film directors Luchino Visconti, Federico Fellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini. The Tuscany-born Tosi, with his work in 20th century European cinema, laid the foundation for the modern day costume designer that we feature, together with Tosi, in the latest Port issue.

David Hellqvist: How did you get into costume design?
Piero Tosi: It all started with a bit of luck… Visconti [Luchino, film director] came to Florence in 1948, during the Musical May Festival, to work on Troilus and Cressida. I was in Florence then and was asked by Franco Zeffirelli, whom I knew well, to be costume designer Maria de Matteis’ third assistant. Of course I was so pleased and accepted straight away. This is how my career started, really. I was later asked by Visconti to work as a costume designer on his next movie Bellissima with Italian actress Anna Magnani. I was only in my early 20s, but I was very courageous, strong and passionate…

David: What is your research process like?
Piero: I believe that an actor’s costume has to mirror the character wearing it, and also life. Therefore, it is especially important to know the historical period where the movie is set and to research into traditions.

David: Where do you look for inspiration?
Piero: What inspires me are things that are far away from what I am looking for!

David: What is the importance of costume design in films, according to you?
Piero: It is definitely one of the most important elements in the making of a movie as it helps bringing characters into real life. I especially admire English costume designers and I consider them to be among the best. Films like Dangerous Liaisons, The Madness of King George, Quartet – they all are very high calibre works of costume design.

David: Who, and why, is the most iconic actor you’ve worked with?
Piero: Marcello Mastroianni, because he always managed to become the scripted character and to bring him into life. And Jean-Maria Volonté. Best actresses I worked with… definitely Silvana Mangano and Sofia Loren, for their incredible elegance and acting talent.

David: Which one of all your films was the most stylish, and why?
Piero: Death in Venice, for sure – Silvana Mangano had this unique gift of wearing a dress and turn it into something very special, thanks to her personality and incredible style. But I would also like to mention two low budget movies, but particularly good ones, I worked on… La Viaccia and Metello.

David: What projects are you working on now?
Piero: I now teach at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, part of Cinecitta in Rome. I love this new role of mine, I am learning a lot from my fantastic students!

http://www.port-magazine.com/fashion/in-conversation-piero-tosi-costume-designer/#&panel1-1

Translation by Roberta Arcidiacono, Photography by Laura Sciacovelli

We Are The Market: The Power Of Uniforms

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:37:27 -0400

You know how women are attracted to uniforms, especially those of firemen and Air Force pilots? Well, it’s true. And it’s the same goes for men, but not necessarily in a sexual way. What self-respecting boy hasn’t admiringly stared at soldiers and police officers and wanted to do their job just because of what they get to wear? Even bus drivers, post men and bouncers step up their unglamorous game by wearing a uniform—white, crisp shirt, black pleated trousers and polished shoes.

There’s several reasons behind this phenomena. First and foremost, it’s a question of power. A uniform says you have an important position of authority. When a uniformed person speaks, you listen. That’s it. This sense of respect makes them feel powerful and us, the masses, feel in awe. There are also quasi-uniforms – for example the suits worn by politicians. It’s a uniform since all politicians, without exceptions, wear one. In their case, it doesn’t work; We don’t listen, we don’t care, we despise and ridicule them. That’s why, these days, they try and loosen the formal grip by removing ties and rolling up sleeves. But imagine if our politicians wore army uniforms… it would most certainly mean the country was run by the military, and that’s rarely a good idea!

The other week, I went to the Dominican Republic. I was there to do a factory visit with a certain boot company known for their yellow work boots, made popular in the 90s by hip hoppers (talk about a uniform, btw!). Wherever I go, I always look at the uniforms around me. They say so much about the country. The UK, for example, has silly police uniforms while the French tuck their trousers into the boots = good look. In the Dominican Republic there were quite a few kick ass uniforms, as these images show. There’s always a downside to uniforms on the streets of course, especially army ones. I saw firearms and shotguns all over town. And many of them were quite careless and casual with the guns. It made me wonder if they were even loaded, but I suppose they were.

DR is close the US and you can see signs of American influences throughout the country, on every level. That went for the uniforms as well. I saw plenty more than this, but didn’t get a chance to stop and shoot them. When I did ask them, they were all very nice and willing to pose. The two dudes in in khaki uniforms , one of them holding a shotgun, were guarding a department store – but when I found them they were sitting down and chatting. Siesta time, perhaps? The guy in blue toned camouflage never spoke, just nodded and posed. He was stationed at Camp David, a restaurant at the top of a mountain overlooking Santiago. The house, which was quite suitably named, used to belong to General Rafael Leonidas Trujill, a dictator who ran the Dominican Republic from 1930 to 1961. I bet there were even more uniforms and guns on the streets back the. It’s a fine balance, uniforms and power abuse…

http://wearethemarket.com/the-power-of-uniforms/

PORT Magazine: In Conversation with Hiroki Nakamura from Visvim

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:07:00 -0400

The Japanese designer and David Hellqvist dissect the completely different worlds of two cardigans from the Autumn Winter 2013 collection

There’s two major schools of thought in Japan when it comes to sartorial matters. You have the old masters – Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake and Rei Kawakubo etc – who put Japanese fashion on the map by conquering Paris over thirty years ago. For long, their conceptual designs defined the Japanese ‘look’, with the rest of the world soaking up a fresh and daring take on contemporary fashion. Of late, though, this avant-garde catwalk approach to fashion has been challenged by a modern streetwear wave, a form of fashion that’s more concerned with functional workwear than a dreamy and abstract vision of style. This option has, in the last decade or so, crystallised as a second major Japanese fashion movement, with its very own Yamamotos, Miyakes and Kawakubos at the forefront.

Brands like White Mountaineering, Nanamica, Engineered Garments and Wtaps are all flag-bearers of this aesthetic. As different and unique as they all are, there’s a loose red thread running through their output; focused on traditional heritage, smart sportswear, functional outdoors garment and technical solutions, they all obsess over authentic craftsmanship and qualitative fabrics. The missing brand from that list, the one that should – according to many connoisseurs – be mentioned first, is visvim. The 13-year-old label started out focusing on footwear but soon applied its design and manufacturing philosophy on clothes. Founded and designed by Hiroki Nakamura (right), visvim sums up the Japanese approach to street and workwear: whatever other designers have done well in the past, we can do better. And they’re not wrong.

The mentality of these brands is often – but far from always – to look at existing design ideas, preferably vintage Americana, and improve the design and construction. Whether it’s a Converse trainer, a M65 jacket or an Oxford shirt, Nakamura adds his own unique quirks and details. When recently visiting the visvim showroom in Paris, I spoke to Nakamura, a genuinely friendly and immensely well-researched designer, about two items from his AW13 collection. Attached to the wall of the loft space, next to an aluminium-coloured caravan from the 50s, were two zipped cardigans. Made with completely different techniques and channeling two clashing cultures, the garments sum up visvim’s commitment to not only speak through garments, but also vice versa. Here’s what Hiroki Nakamura had to say about…

The Modern Manufacturing Process

“I like to mix interesting products and raw materials from all over the world, using various artisans and techniques. Modern manufacturing is great because you can take advantage of quality and price but at the same time, the output of modern manufacturing increasingly looks the same, and I like to see character. I’m working with different artisans and sources to add character to the product. I believe in using natural colours and dyes – I think the natural dying process still has a lot to offer. You won’t get a completely flat dye, it won’t be perfect, there’s an element you cannot predict – but I like that, it’s key to our product.”

The Beige Cowichan Natural Dye F.Z. Cardigan

“I wanted to make the cochineal-dyed sweater looking like an old Americana-inspired piece; rough and strong. I really like them because they have a very human feel, they’re not perfect. The brown parts are mud-dye, from the Amami Islands in Japan, and the white is the sheep’s natural colouring. The yarn is naturally hand-dyed but only in bunches, and that creates an uneven colouring as the dye goes into each bunch differently. The colour is not uniform and creates depth. It’s made with Shetland wool, this yarn was spun on an old machine from the 1920s, which gives the material an unevenness.”

The Indigo Crochet FR Cardigan

“This one is made by French artisans using a traditional French crochet method using a naturally dyed yarn from Japan. I wanted to mix traditional French fine yarn and Japanese natural dyes. I used natural dyed indigo and red cochineal to dye the yarns. We use a Parisian company called Golden Hook for the crocheting. We’ve been working with them for a few season – their artisans are grannies! The cardigan is inspired by an old American calico fabric but made with our own techniques, using natural dye. For this one we use a finer yarn, made using a different machine but, again dyed naturally, and crocheted by an old Grandma called Simone.”

The Inspiration

“In my head, the idea was the concept of old Americana and Navajo. The crosses on the cardigans are from the Navajo. But the cross design is also used in Tibetan cultures. Both cardigans are influenced by Indigenous people using the same motif, which is a very natural and traditional sign. I’m curious about what inspired those old artisans and where they got their ideas from. Sometimes I’m amazed to see such similarities, like with the the Navajo and Tibetan artisans… They’re from completely different continents and time in history but they’re using the same colours, patterns and motifs? I think that’s fascinating.”

The Final Results

“There is beauty in each artisan technique. I wanted to present the strengths of those different processes and mix natural Japanese dyes in with the traditional crochet technique and an Americana-type piece. I would’t necessarily choose between them, they both have depth. Both cardigans are completely handmade. I like them both and think they are both strong pieces with different strengths, each with its own beauty.”

http://www.port-magazine.com/fashion/in-conversation-hiroki-nakamura-from-visvim/#&panel1-1

PORT Magazine 9: The Boots - Fit for Lincoln

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 11:43:39 -0400

On Manhattan’s Howard Street, cornered by modern fashion retailers, lies one of New York’s oldest cobblers. E.Vogel was founded in 1879 by German immigrant Egidius Vogel and is today run by Dean Vogel and his cousin, Jack Lynch. A lot has happened to the Soho area since the bootmakers moved in but for E.Vogel, it’s business as usual: “Not a lot has changed for us in the last 134 years. There is a tremendous amount of hand work in all of our boots and shoes, and they are all custom made to the client’s measurements,” Lynch says.

E.Vogel make men’s shoes and riding boots, and over the years they have become a worldwide export product, worn by the US Olympic equestrian team. But it’s not just private customers and leading riders that cherish the boots: E.Vogel made the boots worn by Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln. “I had met Daniel some years earlier when he brought his wife Rebecca in for a pair of boots,” says Lynch. “I knew he’s an experienced shoemaker in his own right so I jumped at the chance to work on this project. Daniel was a tremendous help because he fully understands the process and made excellent recommendations.”

Day-Lewis’ Lincoln boots are primarily black with two pieces of burgundy French calf pieced into the top of the boot, and they stand about 15 1/2” tall, not including the heel. “We discussed the toe shape in detail and made it as close to what we felt a worn pair of boots would look like. Every part of the boot was scrutinised from the extension of the sole to the shape of the boot shaft. Daniel had to spend long periods of time in these boots so not only did they have to look authentic, they had to feel good as well.” The boots and shoes E.Vogel make represent a lost art in America; not many family run businesses have been around that long. Who knows, had Egidius left Germany for America 15 years earlier, maybe he’d been making boots for Abraham Lincoln himself. David is Port’s online editor

PORT Magazine 9: Dressing the Part Feature

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 11:07:13 -0400

DRESSING THE PART

Forget French: the language of costume design is a whole lot more than past participles

Although Mark Bridges’ clothes have been seen and admired by millions of moviegoers, most of them have no idea who he is. The costume designer dressed Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Master, Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood and Tom Cruise in Magnolia, and for him it’s about more than just clothes. It’s about creating a world that people can immerse themselves in, where detail has to make sense. “It’s like filling in the colouring book of a film. Actors have method acting, we have method shopping,” Bridges says over the phone from his Hollywood studio. “If clothes make the man, then certainly the costume designer makes the actor! The costume designer is not only essential but is vital, for it is they who create the look of the character – without which no performance can succeed,” Audrey Hepburn said in her speech at the 1986 Academy Awards.

Acting is a way of communicating feelings, and costume design plays a pivotal role. “Hopefully, the costumes speak volumes about the person, place and time. Sometimes the actors don’t have to open their mouths because the clothes say it all,” opines Bridges. Richard Taylor, who worked on the costumes and props for Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, goes a step further: “In my view, [costume] design is second only to the script in filmmaking. Without design you have a film lacking in visual integrity, and the sophisticated audience that watches cinema today is as deserving of great design as any audience over the past 100 years.” However you choose to view costume design, it requires close working between members of the production team. “Yes, it’s an amazingly collaborative process – an exchange of ideas, thoughts and inspirations to make all areas of our collective work as strong as possible,” Taylor says. “With the help of Peter [Jackson] and his fellow writers, we were able to access any and all background development that they may have used for their scriptwriting, and similarly we shared our mood, texture and fabric sampling for them to utilise in their own work. It’s one of the most enjoyable parts of the filmmaking process.”

Crucial to the image of the actor, costume designers help define characters and personalities, and also assist the audience in keeping track of time and movement. “We use a palette of colours to subtly differentiate between places and times. You get a sense of being somewhere completely different because of the colour-coding; it’s visual storytelling with clothes,” says Bridges. Colour certainly makes the job easier but Bridges, who also worked on The Artist, has had to learn to cope without. “With black and white films you have to work with textures and fabrics like satins and brocades. You use crisp high-contrast black and white shades for characters at the top of their game. If their star is down, you use a medium-value palette of mushy and flat greys. Contrast equals interest in black and white. And when there’s no sound, the eyes take over from the ears. You get your information from the clothes and other visual elements like photography, art direction, makeup and hair.”

Costume design not only gives actors a sartorial tool. It’s also a way for audiences to identify with a film based on real events – but because the people portrayed actually lived or still live, the clothes need to reflect a certain period. British costume designer Joanna Johnston, who worked on the Steven Spielberg-directed and Oscar-nominated Lincoln, knows this only too well: “It’s an honour to do it right as I know relatives will see the film, people who actually know what [the characters] looked like. Throughout the research process we looked at photos from that time and then translated it into costumes. It needs to be true and appropriate.” The Lincoln era of the 1860s is a kind epoch for costume designers, with plenty of characteristics and intricate details to play with. “I was very drawn to the cuts of the clothes; the sleeves on the men’s coats were cut in a curve that made them swell out in the middle of the sleeve. It was more formal back then; men wore waistcoats and interesting neckwear. Lincoln himself wasn’t interested in clothes but one of my favourite details is the lining of his hat – it was made out of a red Moroccan leather,” says Johnston.

As with so many other aspects of filmmaking, preparation is key. “It’s imperative that you base your design on thorough research and never forget that it has to complement the aesthetic of the whole film. Only when an audience believes the film can they truly enjoy it,” says Taylor. Another crucial phase is fitting sessions with the actors. “It needs to feel like the person I’m creating,” states Bridges. “For There Will Be Blood we had seven-hour fittings with Daniel Day-Lewis. It’s a demanding time for everyone involved. There’s a magic moment in a fitting when the third person emerges: the character. It’s the eureka moment everyone’s waiting for,” he says. According to Piero Tosi, the legendary costume designer of Bellissima, The Leopard and Death in Venice, not much has changed over the years: “The method is always the same: research, deep knowledge and understanding of the characters as well as the historical period and settings of the movie. Hollywood’s costume design was fabulous in the 30s and 40s. They didn’t care about fashion and never really followed trends, but always managed to create their own, very typical style… their own world.” One of the most challenging jobs in costume design is creating a wardrobe for sci-fi films: the costume designer, together with the director, must build a whole new universe from scratch.

Michael Kaplan, who got his break working in the wardrobe department for The Sonny & Cher Show, created the look for Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. “All other designers thought of space suits for its futuristic theme. But to me, the script read as a Humphrey Bogart movie, like film noir. It had an atmosphere of the old Hollywood about it – a Sam Spade feeling – so I gave the film a 1930s and 40s silhouette. We used details from the past instead of the future, changing them to give them a futuristic edge. That’s why Blade Runner had an odd and strange silhouette: it evoked feelings of a period drama but took you to a new place,” Kaplan remembers.

Mary Zophres, a longtime collaborator with Joel and Ethan Coen, has managed to create her own sartorial calling card. Nine Cohen films in, her most recognisable character is arguably The Dude in The Big Lebowski. “We prep in both verbal and visual ways – it’s a collaborative medium. A Coen script is very evocative in that you automatically picture what the characters will look like when reading it,” Zophres says. For her, The Dude’s appearance was summed up when the script described him as “terminally relaxed”.

“Jeff [Bridges’] character lived in the Venice area of Los Angeles, and it doesn’t get much more laid-back than that. I bought all his clothes – slouchy knits, trousers with elasticated waists – in local thrift shops. It was important to maintain that beach vibe,” she recalls. The film’s most iconic scene, when The Dude walks into a supermarket and pays for a carton of milk with a cheque, shows how costume design can hammer home the point: “Jeff was wearing a T-shirt and shorts but for that scene I made him wear a bathrobe on top – they don’t call him The Dude for nothing.”

HYPEBEAST MAGAZINE #4 COVER STORY: Hedi Slimane Essay

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 10:53:26 -0400

Late on a Sunday evening in January 2013, Hedi Slimane showed his first men’s collection since leaving Dior Homme six years earlier. Now, as Creative Director of Saint Laurent, Slimane is once more at the beating heart of menswear. On the last day of the Autumn Winter 2013 season in Paris, Slimane took over the Grand Palais. Anyone who’s experienced a Slimane catwalk show immediately recognised the shiny black interiors, thumping rock soundtrack and the anticipation in the crowd. Even the way the models walked in line as the show finished was textbook Slimane. Having seen the Saint Laurent womenswear show a few months earlier, we knew the fundamental direction of Slimane’s vision, but with only a few SS13 pieces available online, this was the first proper menswear debut at his new sartorial home. Having designed Yves Saint Laurent Pour Homme between 1996 and 2000, just before he took the Dior Homme job, this was also return to the mother ship for the Paris-born designer. It was this fact, and the tsunami of expectations, gossip and rumours whipped up by the press, that pitted Slimane against Raf Simons, the new head of Dior’s Ready To Wear, when debuting their womenswear collections in October 2012. But whatever aesthetic you buy into and whoever you support, there’s no denying Slimane’s extraordinary journey and the role he’s played in developing and refining menswear.

In February 2001, almost to the day 54 years after Christian Dior launched his famous ‘New Look’ collection in Paris, Slimane presented his own groundbreaking silhouette, but one aimed at a male clientele. Monsieur Dior revolutionised womenswear in post-war Europe by giving his clothes a nipped-in waist and a voluminous bottom shape. Slimane’s idea of the ideal menswear proportion was of course different, but he shared Dior’s total disregard for what his contemporaries created and, only half a century apart, the two designers craved a fundamental change in direction when it came to Dior’s image, silhouette, business model and all around perception. Both, in their own ways, were successful. But there’s no point in labelling neither Hedi Slimane nor Christian Dior ‘the most influential designer ever’, as is often done, and listing them in order of importance to fashion on a Top Ten list. There are too many designers and brands that have brought something new, ground breaking and exciting to the table to merit such statements; Versace made vulgar chic, Marc Jacobs introduced us to high end grunge, Fred Perry invented the polo shirt, Raf Simons made punk activism look good, BAPE re-generated camouflage, and Helmut Lang and Jil Sander ushered in minimalism etc. These designers, looks and garments all play vital parts in the sartorial family tree, each and every single one pivotal in fusing and forwarding fashion.

Having said that, and to align this text with the Archetype theme of this issue, it is important to acknowledge the effect Hedi Slimane and his ‘New Look Dior Homme’ has had on 21st century menswear. When showing ‘Solitaire’, his first ever Dior collection, in early 2001, Slimane changed the way we wore clothes by proposing not only a new silhouette, but also a new image. His was a new language, and each garment new words in his sartorial vocabulary. Enough has been said about the skinny jeans, slim suits and how a certain fellow designer lost waist to fit into them: these facts are all known and acknowledged. What is new and exciting, though, is what lies ahead. What will the future hold for Hedi Slimane and his loyal followers now that he is the Creative Director of Saint Laurent? The history and career trajectory of Slimane is well known and you’ll need few reminders. Having presented 14 collections for Dior Homme, Slimane declined to renew his contract in July 2007. His former assistant, Kris Van Assche, was installed as head of Dior Homme. The Belgian designer straight away took the label in a more minimal, formal and scaled back direction. Slimane, much like Helmut Lang two years earlier, disappeared from the catwalk scene.

But, unlike Lang who reintroduced himself shortly after as an artist, Slimane went back to his roots, taking up photography again. The art of photography was Slimane’s first love; long before trying his hand at fashion design, Slimane was given a camera, learnt how to develop his own film and quickly established his sharp and monochrome aesthetic. As a with his catwalk collections, Slimane’s photography portrays his worldview: in black and white, the lines are simple and plain. But, looming over the physical motifs, is a feeling of adolescent energy sprung from an urban youth culture, and this can be sensed in all his work, whether it’s fashion, photography, graphics or furniture design. His images are in love with shapes and proportions, and there’s a fascination with details and emotions that can be traced back to his time with Dior Homme. Like all great creatives, Slimane merges different disciplines to form a unique streamlined output; the photography feeds into the fashion, and his catwalk creations influence the images. “Photography is a personal, protected and hermetic space, an independent career both on the level of personal projects and on that, when it is right, of commercial photography. Moreover, this activity is essential for me and naturally informs my activity of fashion creation on a daily basis. The place of photography is thus unchanged and will in particular be meaningful at Yves Saint Laurent, where my photography project will blend in with fashion, in the expression of a signed and renewed image of the fashion house,” Slimane stated in a Vogue Paris interview from August 2012. With his photography and fashion design existing in symbiosis, the young boys Slimane encountered while casting his shows often appeared in books, or on his quite unique website, in an ongoing visual diary of parties, fittings, fashion shoots, films, portraits and what is beautifully labelled as just ‘Rock’.

Looking back at the books Hedi Slimane has published, starting from 2002 and going all the way up to the spring of last year, a handful of cities appear to have been of huge importance to Slimane; you can almost chart his design career based on what city he was obsessed with at the time. Berlin, London and Los Angeles have all played pivotal roles in Slimane’s outlook on life and, therefore, his aesthetic. The early days of Dior Homme – and the last collection he showed while in charge of Yves Saint Laurent’s menswear in the second half of the Nineties – were all about the gritty cyber punk vibes Slimane picked up while spending time in East Berlin. Slimane’s last few seasons with Dior were more anglophilic in its influences as he cast his eyes towards London’s indie elite for inspiration, incorporating The Libertines’ Pete Doherty, Razorlight, Alex Kapranos from Franz Ferdinand, and The Rakes etc. in his Dior Homme vision. Lastly, and this is if nothing else obvious as Slimane still lives there and designs Saint Laurent from his California studio, Los Angeles is the current city where the designer and photographer feels at home: ”I feel fine there, or more precisely, better than elsewhere, curiously at home. I no longer think I could live anywhere else again… Artistically, Los Angeles is without doubt the ‘best’ city today, a constant territory of experimentation,” Slimane said about his new base in the Vogue Paris piece.

But Berlin is really the quintessential Dior Homme city. At a time when electroclash ruled the clubs, Slimane went there to discover a new breed of boys willing to model for him; slim, pale and androgynous, not interested in conforming to the surrounding world’s body conventions and ideas of the perfect male body. The bodies, the music, the jaw lines, the nonchalance, the cigarette smoke, the clothes, the attitude; it all came together in beautiful sartorial harmony. As a leftover from the 90s, muscular and ripped jockey models were still the body shape of choice for big brands. Slimane wanted to challenge that, and a few seasons in, for Autumn Winter 2003’s ‘Luster’ collection, this aesthetic peeked in a show of epic proportions. I was fortunate enough to experience this on a very personal level. A few months before the show, a Saturday night in November 2002, I went with a few friends to London’s Kings Cross to visit a club night called Electric Stew. At this time Kings Cross was still a quite seedy area at night, far from the re-generated hub of creativity it is today, and it was the perfect location for another one of London’s pulsating electroclash clubs featuring live bands and Nag Nag Nag DJs. The genre combined synthpop melodies and techno beats, adding a dash of screeching punk guitars. We brought the attitude, energy and asymmetric haircuts ourselves. While there a tall and slim man walked up to me saying he worked for Dior and asking if I wanted to maybe model in a show? If so, I was to call the phone number he wrote down for me on a piece of paper on Monday morning, and everything would be arranged. I did, and it was. The man who approached was of course Hedi Slimane, but I didn’t know that at the time. He introduced himself in a very humble way, almost like he wasn’t Creative Director of Dior Homme but in charge of casting, or just a staff member. He was very shy, and still comes across as such when you meet him or see rare filmed interviews. This is of course a good trait, it shows that he is in the business for the right reason; his love of designing and creating beautiful clothes; the media circus and attention that follows are merely symptoms of the job. But if he was timid when I met him in the nightclub, Slimane was the complete opposite once I reached the fitting room at the Dior Homme headquarters in Paris in late January 2003. He came across as self-assured, in control and comfortable. As in a dream, I walked into a built-in wardrobe worthy a Hollywood film studio, but with an added mini-catwalk; he had all the clothes, shoes and accessories from the collection laid out when me and the other boys arrived. Slimane was constantly photographing me, other models, the clothes, people and objects around him. If anything, I was the nervous one now. This was new to me and quite scary, but exhilarating at the same time. I was chewing gum when I walked in, probably to calm my nerves, and as I was commanded to walk down the catwalk in different outfits, Slimane spotted my gum. “Why don’t you chew when walking the show”, he said. “It looks natural”. And so I did. At the show venue, the old Carreau du Temple market in Paris’ Republique area, Slimane got involved with every aspect of the show; lighting, set design, seating plans, rehearsals, make up, hair – everything was inspected and signed off by Slimane himself. The actual show is a bit of a haze, I remember entering the catwalk, being blinded by the lights and just walking, trying to straighten up and looking sharp. I do recall the after party at the Pop In bar, though, or at least the early bits.

The ‘Luster’ collection was modelled by, except for street cast boys like myself, a range of the early 00’s top male models. Jack Brennan, David Lindwall and Boyd Holbrook all helped Hedi Slimane usher in his new look and although it naturally wasn’t liked and appreciated universally, Hedi’s boys helped conceive a truly unique look. Creating a darker aesthetic with ‘Luster’, Slimane used heavy leathers, draping, spots of neon colour, textural layering and long oversized wool coats, some of them with golden military regalia details, to fashion a Dickensian yet futuristic look, full of hard attitude mixed with soft fabrics. Not that he is a trusted authority on menswear in any way, but Elton John was spot on when he, interviewed after the show by Tim Blanks, described it as a “grotesque dandy look”. In many ways this was the genius that is Hedi Slimane personified in one collection. But before taking over at Dior Homme, Slimane had – as mentioned – directed Yves Saint Laurent’s menswear collections for a few years. This was just before Tom Ford moved in and took control of both YSL and Gucci, taking Saint Laurent’s menswear in a completely different direction. Yves Saint Laurent’s business and life partner, Pierre Bergé, invited Slimane to take control of the brand’s men’s collection in 1996 having encountered Slimane as he assisted Jean-Jacques Picart on a Louis Vuitton project in the mid 90s. He designed Yves Saint Lauren Pour Homme for several seasons. Although, traditionally, Yves Saint Laurent is a great deal more classic in its silhouette and image compared to Dior Homme, for anyone clever enough to pay attention there were plenty forewarnings of Slimane’s menswear vision to come in his latter Rive Gauche collections. Though many shapes and colour ways whispered of 1970s influences in a 90s packaging, Slimane still managed to translate what he saw as YSL’s heritage and DNA into a contemporary version of the brand. But his last collection for Yves Saint Laurent, AW00’s ‘Black Tie’, was a predominantly dark and moody affair, featuring both slim body-hugging silhouettes and loose proportions, just as his work at Dior Homme. Sleeveless pieces, leather garments and a generous helping of androgyny pointed to what was about to be unleashed. One wonders what would have happened with Yves Saint Laurent had Slimane stayed instead of declining to sign another contract with new owners Gucci Group, today called PPR. But by then, perhaps, he knew about his new lease of life with Dior Homme.

What must have been an attractive prospect, and quite similar to what he is currently doing with Saint Laurent, is the carte blanche he was given in terms of basically re-shaping the brand from scratch. Before Slimane’s arrival at Dior there was no such thing as a Dior men’s Ready To Wear line. Focused more on making suits for a few select and selling silk ties at airports, Dior Monsieur was a non-brand. Slimane changed the name, the fit, the colours, the image, the store interiors, the website, the logo. He changed everything. And, looking at his current venture, that is exactly what he is doing all over again. Once Stefano Pilati was dismissed, Yves Saint Laurent owners PPR – with the blessing of Pierre Bergé - invited Slimane back in to once again take control of the brand, and this time with added creative direction of its womenswear lines. Like Raf Simons, when he as appointed as head of Jil Sander in 2005, Slimane had yet to design any womenswear. Quite tellingly, though, Slimane’s Dior menswear had been popular with a few female celebrities; what Slimane designed for Dior Homme could be re-appropriated as womenswear. According to Paul Deneve, CEO of Yves Saint Laurent, Slimane is the “true successor to Saint Laurent”. And it is easy to see why. Compare the two companies – Slimane’s former employer, Dior, and his current House, Saint Laurent – and the two will throw up more similarities than differences. As two French Ready To Wear and Haute Couture Houses formed in the mid 20th century, they share many fundamental sartorial aesthetics. Yves Saint Laurent worked for Christian Dior for a few years at the end of the 60s and, aged 21, he even took over as Artistic Director for three years when Christian Dior died in 1957. Of course, the directions of both brands are very much defined by who’s heading up the creative direction at the time. Tom Ford, who took over YSL menswear after Slimane in 2000, adopted a luxe 70s feeling for the brand. At Dior Homme, due to the lack of catwalk presence for Dior menswear until then, there was no sartorial blueprint to follow, and Slimane had to ‘invent’ his own Dior Homme look. Traditionally, at least from what we’ve seen so far, Saint Laurent often goes down a more subtle and traditional route. This was also evident in the work of Ford’s predecessor, Stefano Pilati, who scaled back Ford’s sexy heritage. But with Slimane’s first Saint Laurent collection in mind, we can see a continuous desire to infuse a young and rebellious rock attitude in his work.

As Slimane settles in, having redefined and revolutionised menswear with Dior Homme, it will be interesting to see what direction coming collections will take. Especially since Kris Van Assche finally has found his feet at Dior Homme. The Belgian’s first few seasons were arguably safe and uneventful; instead of taking any chances he honed his tailoring skills in the atelier and worked on perfecting the Dior Homme suit. Of late he seems to have ventured outside the studio, looking both backwards to history and forward, into the future, for inspiration. In womenswear, the battle has been pitched as Slimane at Saint Laurent versus Raf Simons’ Dior. The comparison also works for menswear: having had a few years to find his feet, Kris Van Assche’s Dior Homme is now a worthy competitor to Hedi Slimane’s Saint Laurent. It is obvious, considering the name change, website re-design and AW13 collection, that Slimane will aim for that perfect and hard-to-achieve balance between his own distinct design DNA and the brand’s strong heritage. You can tell it’s the work of Hedi Slimane, but you can also spot Yves Saint Laurent himself in the collection. Slimane has taken his trademark approach to classic Saint Laurent pieces; there is a sense of refined luxury presented in an edgy and contemporary way, a bit like when Yves Saint Laurent infused his 60s design with a youthful street spirit. There was plenty of archetype Saint Laurent pieces in the show, with Slimane tracing the linage back to the 60s when YSL was founded, and the 70s when the Yves Saint Laurent aesthetic was cemented worldwide, but adding a dash of 21st century magic. Trench coats, tuxedos, bowties and plastron shirts helped shape the brand, but also made men appreciate luxurious fabrics and fitted garments at a time when directional menswear were all but non-existent. That sudden interest in menswear we talk about today, that male thrill that’s sweeping the globe when it comes to buying directional clothes, a lot of that can be credited to Yves Saint Laurent, and a few of his fellow contemporaries, who helped men subscribe to style; they realised there was more to fashion than wearing a drab uniform of grey and black suits. Before that, clothes were a means to an end, a necessity. Yves Saint Laurent helped change that.

Today, Hedi Slimane does what all great designers have to do: look to the history to create clothes for the future. In order to know what tomorrow will look like we must first understand what happened yesterday, and nowhere else is that as important as when working for such a prestigious House as Yves Saint Laurent. The challenge that Slimane has set himself by going back in time to the 60s through using the old name and the Helvetica logo is how you make such ideas and clothes relevant to 2013. For Slimane, the answer seems to be to continue his excursion into the mind and wardrobe of teenage renegades, young rebels, and adolescent heroes. Looking closer at the AW13 collection, that is exactly what he’s done: gangly indie boys modelling skinny ripped jeans, Cuban heels, cropped leather jackets, moody capes, embroidered army jackets and check shirts. The first Saint Laurent advertising campaign, for Spring Summer 2013 and shot by Slimane himself, also sets out a continued agenda to pursue androgyny and challenge the consumer’s notion of gender and what is meant to be worn by who. The black and white images – portraits as much as fashion imagery – feature Dutch model Saskia de Brauw, a female model who abandoned modelling at the age of 16 to study art at Amsterdam’s Gerrit Rietveld Academie, before returning at the age of 29. The Saint Laurent collaboration is fitting on so many levels; both Slimane and de Brauw left fashion to pursue art and photography before coming back. But the choice of de Brauw and his use of female catwalk models is also important as it reinforces Slimane’s commitment to blurring the gender boundaries - it even pushes the message further as Slimane never used female models while working at Dior Homme. The difference is that the he now also designs womenswear as creative director of the Saint Laurent House. His response to this new job description, the critic’s judgement and resulting spats has been well documented.

Like it or not, Slimane managed to pay homage to Yves Saint Laurent while at the same time injecting his own aesthetic and sartorial vision for Saint Laurent. And for further evidence that Slimane wants to run the men’s and womenswear lines in tandem, a few SS13 items available from the web store are unisex, removing the gender barriers that were set by centuries ago. Having been seduced by Slimane’s dystopian vision back in 2003, I have followed his artistic careers since. I might not have known of him when we met to the tunes of Tiga’s ‘I Wear My Sunglasses at Night’ and Fischerspooner’s ‘Emerge’ at Electric Stew, but ever since then Slimane has been omnipresence on the worldwide menswear stage, always leading and never following. Slimane’s influence was even felt during his sabbatical, shooting covers for AnOther Man, Dazed & Confused, Man About Town and i-D Magazine, to mention but a few. Even when without biannual bouts of rock-influenced clothes, Hedi Slimane managed to stay ahead, in charge and on top of the game. Imagine then, if you like, what he’s able to do now that he once again has the might of a French Ready To Wear House at his disposable. If Slimane is able to keep the Yves Saint Laurent spirit alive while injecting his unique sense of sub-cultural energy, then he will not only keep existing customers but attract a whole new generation of fans: as long as it stays fresh and relevant – a modern take on history – then this might very well be the New Look Mark III.

PORT Magazine: Steve Mason & Monkey Minds In The Devil’s Time

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 10:49:00 -0400

The ex-Beta Bandfrontman gives David Hellqvist his honest opinion on politics, banks, the lack of rebel music in 2013 and the horse meat scandal

With Monkey Minds In The Devil’s Time, I wanted to see if I had the balls to make a political concept album, deciding to do it when you have lots of reasons not to – because it’s not always going to be the most popular choice! People in Britain don’t really like their politics and their music to mix – I don’t really know why as it didn’t used to be like that. When I was growing up politics was everywhere in music. You had The Specials who, just by the very fact that they existed, were a political statement at the time! And then, obviously, you had The Clash, The Sex Pistols and Bob Marley – being into Reggae in Britain then was a massively political statement. You knew by the music people listened to what their politics were. That’s been completely lost, there’s no political music at all any more in this country. I think that, generationally, an interest in politics has been systematically drummed out of young people. If you went out now and asked young people ‘where do you stand politically?’ or ‘what do you think of Cameron’s bedroom tax?’ they’d not know what you were talking about. They systematically avoid politics and think it’s not for them; they think that they don’t have a voice. And they think that politicians operate on the same level as the banks, which is just another world from the one they exist in.

But that’s not the case. I mean, decisions are being made on a daily basis that fuck them over, really screwing young people into the ground, turning them into little capitalists and consumers and that alienate them from everything that made them human beings in the first place, when they were born. Personally, I think that’s being done deliberately so that we end up how we are now: a two party situation where the Liberal Democrats are dead, the Tories are destroying themselves with their policies and Labour… can we forgive them for the Iraq War and for Tony Blair in general? I know I never will. I’ll never forgive the British political establishment for what they’ve done to this country. I don’t differentiate between parties, once those people are in power they all bend over for the military-industry complex, energy companies and the banks – and really, the politicians are just a conduit for the Banks to get what they want, through policies. And that’s why we need an enormous shift in this country away from the system we have now, which is utterly outmoded and unsuited for human beings. It’s a system that promotes greed and promotes people who are unhinged and slightly psychopathic to rise to the top, that’s the capitalist way; coldness and a lack of empathy are behavioural traits it promotes. Whereas, if you do care about people and you aren’t prepared to make decisions purely based on money, you’re kind of punished for that. I think decentralisation would be key start with. It’s not really my job to provide answers but I will say is: If we start to have a conversation about what’s happening – to everyone, in this country and beyond: Spain, Greece – and we establish a dialogue, the way the system is set-up, everybody is really divided.

There used to be things called Trade Unions which would stick up for people in the work place, that system wasn’t perfect but there was something there for people who had trouble at work to fall back on. But those things have gone and not only that but in the work place people are divided from each other and there’s this level of competition that goes on. There’s been a shift from the workers to the people who have power but it’s a bit more sinister than that; it’s a dehumanisation of the workers so that they feel they’re just a cog in the machine who needs to shut up or else they’ll be sacked. Obviously nobody wants to lose their job because times are very hard, we have children, mortgages, you cannot afford to lose your job and that fact means you do not have any power. Essentially, in terms of solutions, I switch between various solutions but for me some kind of decentralisation of power, in almost every aspect of life, is key. I’d break-up the banks and have a government-led one for each area – it would simply be a case of lending people small amounts of money. I’d break-up the supermarkets and have much more locally-based markets based, as much as possible, on produce that could be developed within that area.

Look at this ridiculous horse meat scandal: if you’re surprised that horse meat has ended up in the human food-chain then you don’t understand capitalism. The surprise is that we’re surprised. I’ve known that something is very very wrong for a long time and there’s political songs on some Beta Band records and there was definitely some political songs on The Boys Outside LP. But I think that we’re reaching a critical point as human beings – in the whole world, not just this country – where if we don’t take control of our bodies and mind very quickly I think we’ll very quickly get to a point where it’s much harder to get rid of the system that’s in place. It’s about acting now, certainly. I didn’t make this record in order to say ‘this where we are, this is what we should do’ – I did it to attempt to start some sort of dialogue, like this, because people in general just don’t really talk about politics. But this is really human politics on a very basic level: free-will, the right to breathe clean air – basic things! I’m not talking about coming at it from a right or left wing stand point, it’s about human politics and that’s something that anyone can relate to. But I’m not interested in forcing anything on anyone, that method would never work.

I’m sure there are people coming into politics with the best of intentions – it would be stupid to imagine that everyone who gets into politics is a psychopath, that isn’t true at all – but their intentions don’t matter because they’re hampered and hindered and stopped from doing anything of any worth at every turn. The civil service is a job for life, they’re not voted in and they are the people who the banks, military-industrial complex and the energy companies are getting to tell the politicians what to do. That’s my view of it. So you can have the best intentions but it does not matter because you’re not allowed to change anything. The whole point of the civil service is to keep the stays quo so that the system never changes. I don’t know anyone who’s attempting to really say anything in music today. I think, generally, the disappointing thing is the lack of any sort of expression about anything other than what Rhianna wore to the MTV awards. You see people talking about that in interviews as if it were a valid thing to talk about but it’s just a way of keeping everyone behind the closed curtains. They know that if people got behind the curtain then – hopefully – some kind of change would happen, once they saw the filthy, disgusting, beast that’s running the world!

Photos by Morgan O’Donovan