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PUNK: Chaos to Couture at the Met

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The new exhibit on punk and its influence on fashion by the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York may, naturally, raise questions, such as “What the fuck”? What is punk, with its emphasis on anti-establishment and disobedience, doing in the halls of this grand dame of culture? Would Sid Vicious hang out with the queen of England in her drawing room? Things get weirder if you start thinking about tonight’s gala and all the celebrities in ball gowns it will draw. Will they at least slash their Carolina Herreras with razor blades? One might only hope that Marc Jacobs will show up in plaid boxers.

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The New Sruli Recht Boutique in Iceland

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The new Sruli Recht store is located in the cent re of Reykjavík. The new store presents Sruli Recht’s complete collections, show pieces, and arsenal of non-products over two floors.

The fittings and tables are made using laser cut layer slices of three dimensional models, then hand assembled and stained white.
The lighting fixtures designed by Sruli Recht were made for the store in collaboration with lighthouse.is.
New seasons are presented to clients personally with private fitting appointments available.

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Belgium at Milan Design Week

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Here at StyleZeitgeist we are fascinated with all things Belgian. There is just something in the air in that country – a mix of unparalleled cultural literacy and awareness coupled with a lack of snobbery so often found in design capitals of the world – that makes Belgian design both prescient and fresh. Below, our Brussels-based editor, Philippe Pourhashemi, reports on his Belgian interior design finds during Milan Design Week.

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Guy Bourdin – A Message for You

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When in 2006 the German art book publisher Steidl first released the book by one of the most famously provocative photographers, Guy Bourdin – A Message for You, it quickly sold out. The gorgeous two-volume series documented a period of Bourdin’s work from 1977 to 1980 with the dancer-turned-model Nicolle Meyer as his muse. Seven years later comes the second edition.

Bourdin was a notorious photographer; a precursor of in-your-face sexuality that now seems quite banal because of countless imitation and image overload. But not back then. Bourdin’s loud colors and unbridled sexuality of his subject matter were positively scandalous in the 70s. There is no denying that the women in his photographs look objectified. But it seems that Bourdin’s intent seemed to be reflecting and magnifying what he saw around him.

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Rene Burri: Impossible Reminiscinces

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The work of the Swiss photographer Rene Burri is well known, especially the iconic photos from his Magnum Agency days. Just search Google Images for Che Guevara and his famous shot of Guevara smoking a cigar is one of the first that pops up.

Though most of Burri’s famous images are black and white, he has done a substantial amount of work in color. The new book Rene Burri: Impossible Reminiscences (Phaidon, $100) explores this underexposed side of the photographer’s oeuvre.

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Iris van Harpen and Daphne Guinness at SHOWstudio

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It’s no secret that fashion was late at adopting the Internet. The photographer Nick Knight is one of the few figures who early-on realized its potential as a platform for doing awe-inspiring things with fashion, especially the role of video. In 2001, he created what would become his virtual project lab, SHOWstudio. It is only natural that SHOWstudio’s latest undertaking, Splash!, involves Iris van Herpen, the Dutch couturier whose 3D printing techniques are equally innovative.

From April 3rd through April 9th, a live video feed from SHOWstudio will document van Herpen creating a Crystallization dress for Daphne Guinness. In lieu of a garment pattern Knight will film Guinness being doused with black and clear water. Van Herpen will then use Knight’s footage as a model for creating a one of a kind 3D printed dress. The entire process will be broadcast live. As the finale, Knight will shoot Guinness in the new dress, which will be displayed at the new SHOWcabinet space in London in June.

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Comme des Garcons Black

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In 2009, in response to recession, Comme des Garcons created BLACK Comme des Garcons, a line of reasonably priced classic CdG garments replete with their own boutiques around the world. The practical nature of the project was reflected in the small, minimalist spaces themselves.

As part of the ongoing effort to outfit the various sides of the Comme des Garcons universe with their own scent, CDG is launching the BLACK perfume this week. The cedar and vetiver based scent also somehow seems practical and well-rooted. Comme des Garcons is no stranger to woody, incensey scents, having done the Hinoki and Sequoia perfumes, among others. BLACK continues the strong cedar base with hints of leather, liquorice, birch tar, and pepper wood, and tops it off with black pepper from Madagascar and incense from Somalia.

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Peter Hujar at Pace/McGill

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So finely attuned is Peter Hujar’s (1934-1987) photographic voice that the eighteen black and white photographs comprising the mini-retrospective at Pace/MacGill are more than sufficient to present his world and his take on it.

A prominent artist in 70s and 80s New York, the at-ease portraits of William Burroughs, Vince Aletti, Paul Thek, John Waters and David Wojnarowicz included in the show are properly seen as portraits of friends as much as of art world luminaries; with that said, the head-on ’78 close-up of a cow mindlessly chewing on a strand of barbed wire is brutally economic in alluding to the harsh environment that was downtown New York City back then, AIDS crisis to come (to which Hujar himself would succumb).

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LONDON’S LN-CC REBOOTS

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London’s favourite progressive retail store is located as far as possible from the obvious touristic shopping routes – in the heart of Hackney – and is only open to customers who request an appointment by phone or email ‘to control the amount of people in the store’ as its co-founder Dan Mitchell explains it. Though LN-CC (Late Night Chameleon Cafe) is a rather new store on the market, its clever mix of fashion brands, selection of books curated by Conor Donlon of the underground Donlon bookshop, and its rare Japanese music collection, hand-selected by Chee Shimizu, the owner of the Tokyo-based record store Organic Music, – has made the whole ‘concept-store’ idea sound exciting again. Recently, the shop underwent some renovations and last week I went to see what it was all about.