PHILIP TREACEY flat cover

Philip Treacy by Kevin Davies

Fashion can be many things, likeable or not. Among these, fashion as theater is one aspect that gives it a certain kind of excitement. And by theater I don’t mean a mere parade of lavish outfits, but a convergence of the immaterial, in the form of designer’s ideas, with the material, in the form of a show that makes your heart jump even if for a second. Anyone familiar with the runway presentations of Alexander McQueen of Hussein Chalayan will know what I’m talking about. The fact that there is an incredible amount of painstaking work that leads up to the spectacle that lasts a mere fifteen minutes makes it all the more exciting because of how irrational the whole thing is.

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Boudicca F/W 2013

Entering Boudicca space at Vyner street, 45, I suddenly remembered why this address sounds familiar – designers used to host Halloween events here, for which they invited their fans to participate and show their baking skills in creating craziest cakes for the occasion. Results were unpredictable and sometimes impressive – cakes in shapes of human-size skeleton, broken hearts, and monsters. Boudicca fans have quite an imagination.

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Alexandre Plokhov at Atelier New York

Dear readers,

If you happen to be in New York this Sunday, you can stop by Atelier New York (304 Hudson St.) where the Russian-born designer Alexandre Plokhov will be holding a trunk show. You will have an opportunity to meet the designer and order items from his Fall/Winter 2013 collection, which we thought strong, in the size, fabric, and colorway that fits your specifications.

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M to M of M/M (Paris)

That graphic design can unite fashion, art, and music is an unusual proposition, certainly one I haven’t thought about, but going through the new book M to M of M/M (Paris) (Rizolli, $85) was an eye-opening experience. It makes sense on a basic creative level. All three disciplines demand visual representation and M/M, the design firm that has worked with the likes of Bjork, Yohji Yamamoto, and Hans Ulrich Olbrist since 1992 does it by putting the three disciplines through their own stylistic prism.

SZ Mix – Sruli Recht

Dear Internet,

Here is my aural journey:

Beginning with When Gravity Fails, two tracks, Moving through Cast By Shadows, Field Dressing, and up through Circumsolar, the birth of my son and the songs that put we sing to entertain or put him to sleep, and most recent collection Concentrated – these are the various and categorically unrelated songs probably most listened to during these milestones of the past two and a half years.

There is no real unification behind these tracks, but they capture past and present parts of my life. Each of these musicians, their words or sounds, captivate and take me to creative and inspiring places.

Sruli Recht

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InAisce Installation/Trunk Show at Atelier

Yesterday I stopped by the installation/trunk show of the New York label InAisce held in West SoHo at the menswear boutique Atelier. It is a first event of this kind for InAisce, where you can view the entire Fall/Winter 2013 men’s and women’s collections, pre-order the garments that you like, and chat with the entire InAisce team. You can also check out the remarkable wool felt pieces by the Dutch artist Claudy Yongstra.  The trunk show will go on through today.

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Studio Visit: Alexandre Plokhov

Yesterday I visited Alexandre Plokhov’s studio in New York’s Flatiron district to check out his Fall/Winter 2013 collection. Plokhov was in a pretty serene mood despite his mind-boggling schedule (he was hopping on the plane the same afternoon to go to Premiere Vision in Paris.).

The collection reflected Plokhov’s continuous refinement of his style. In a way Plokhov presented a full wardrobe, from the most casual to the most sophisticated looks – there was even his version of a tuxedo (perhaps for our fist black tie party?).