On making the first turn of the spiral up the Guggenheim ramp you too might question whether there is going to be enough to keep this exhibition of On Kawara going. It is one thing to walk the thirty-six Date Paintings permanently on view at Dia:Beacon, where the mind has been primed for the experience, and a whole other matter to walk in fresh off Fifth Avenue and immediately hit the ramp with three months of consecutive Day Paintings (“Everyday Meditation” 1971).
On a recent trip to Paris I visited the showroom our favorite perfumer, Mad et Len. Moving to a dedicated showroom has allowed the brand to fully showcase its universe, which includes candles, lava rock home scents, and blackened iron objects hammered by hand. At the core of Mad et Len’s ethos is combining the light and the ethereal (scent) with the dark and earthy (hammered iron).
These days when fashion increasingly seems to be on one continuous treadmill, it is becoming increasingly difficult to slow things down, to approach craftsmanship with care that a well-made product demands.
On a recent journey towards the historic ateliers of The Last Conspiracy, a Denmark-based footwear company, tucked away on a hillside just outside Porto, the second largest city in Portugal, I got a glimpse into how things can still be made the traditional way. The story of Roald Nore, a creative nomad and the brand’s founder, begins with his desire to make something genuine and lasting.
Photographer: Wenjun Liang; Stylist: Christine de Lassus @ Art Department; Hair: Shinya Nakagawa; Makeup: Kuma for MAC cosmetics; Photo Assistant: Kyle May; Assistant Stylist: Ella Cepeda
The Upper East Side outpost of L.A.’s Blum & Poe gallery takes up the top floors of an unprepossessing brownstone and is easy to miss. That said, you will most likely have the place to yourself, which is a special way to get to walk through the first New York solo show of Kishio Suga that takes up the gallery, including its courtyard-facing terrace.
Some time ago I visited the GUIDI tannery in Italy, nestled among the hills of Tuscany. GUIDI is one of the best tanneries that still employ traditional tanning methods, such as vegetable tanning. I witnessed the processing of the hides and the finishing applied to GUIDI’s footwear and bags. Below is my photo reportage.
I had forgotten that Doubleday editor Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis originally commissioned the photographs from Unseen Versailles by the late Deborah Turbeville that are on view at Staley Wise in 1981. The mind at first could not, perhaps did not, want to reconcile the withdrawn, intimate vision that is Turbeville’s with the stately, public and, one imagines, rigid New York of Kennedy Onassis.
Geoffrey B. Small fall-winter 2015 collection presented in Paris.
Recently I visited the workspace of the German jewelery maker Werkstatt:Munchen. Their studio is located in the center of Munich in the former foundry. Keeping with his label’s ethos of craftsmanship, Klaus Lohmeyer left the raw space intact. Hidden in a courtyard behind closed doors, this hidden gem of industrial space contrasts greatly with its clean-cut surroundings.
Let me get something out of the way – though my writing is critical more often than not, I don’t particularly enjoy blasting fashion. So, it is with a certain elation I would like to report that this past men’s fashion week in Paris was one of the strongest I’ve seen in a while.
For me it began last Wednesday night when Haider Ackermann presented his most convincing collection yet. Everything seemed to coalesce – from the muted but rich color palette to lush fabrics to nonchalant styling. It was presented at the Galleria museum, and the presentation and the clothes were just the right shade of decadence, a fantasy world of the rich and idle whose saving grace is impeccable education and impeccable manners.