Brian Lichtenberg's RIP YSL tee shirt and other goodies

Blood Is the New Black is Mitra Khayyam's fashion-art tee line that features the work of up and coming American artists and designers.

From sunny L.A. Mitra is supporting and aiding the careers of people like 19 years old Milano Chow, Keith Shore or Brian Lichtenberg, designer of the (un) famous RIP YSL tee shirt.

This T almost-sold out in a record time but Mitra is trying to re-edit due to its popular welcome. Keeping fingers crossed.

My World. FLY magazine featuring Prada. The latest not the last.

FLY magazine has just launched its new website FLY16x9, where they'll upload editorial content in the form of moving fashion films, the same format they do with their magazine.

The news is that such high resolution videos will be able to be seen on iPods, iPhones and all kind of video enable PDA's portable music players.
You need to suscribe to have this service but it means you'll be able to enjoy your FLY magazine on the subway ride and not only on your home computer.

I wonder how often they will upload new content or how good this thing will work but so far the site is covered with many interesting videos featuring designers such Ann Demeulemeester, Junya Watanabe, Louis Vuitton or Maison Martin Margiela.

Their latest video is tittled My World, a fashion short film directed by Stephen Blaise featuring all designs by Prada, starring model Masha Yakovenko.

This video was recently exhibited at Foam Museum in Amsterdam.

Ren Rox, photographer

I discovered the work of Ren Rox totally by chance.

I was looking for up and coming photographers to contact for a future project when i stumbled upon her work in two different occasions.

In both cases i didn't even look at the pictures photographer's name, i just teared down the page and saved it with the others. Then I realized my two favourite images were signed by her. And just felt in love with her work.

Ren Rox is a London based Spanish photographer.

You've seen her work published in magazines such as The Face, Neo2, Milk or The Telegraph.
She has worked with Spanish style celebrity Gala González aka Am_Lul for a photo shoot called Suicide Blonde and has photographed the coolest young musicians working in London city...
her work is really something to keep an eye on.

ALL images © Ren Rox

People in Spain by Ramiro E.

Ramiro E. is a Barcelona based photographer who became very popular at the beginning of the decade thanks to his editorials on Neo2 and his wonderful work with La Casita de Wendy, a Madrid based fashion label famous for dressing Björk with one of their designs and for being probably the first ones in doing a DIY campaign in Spain, pasting posters of their catalogue's images all over Malasaña, the Williamsburg of Madrid.

Such campaign was signed by Ramiro E.

Ramiro E. for La Casita de Wendy fall winter 0203

The photographer is now documenting the street style of Spain, Madrid and Barcelona mainly, and uploading the images in a photo blog called I Blog Ramiro E. hosted on YoDona's own website.

And what's YoDona? YoDona is the women's magazine of newspaper El Mundo.
What I like of this blog is the respect that Ramiro pays to his portraiteds, no mean comments here, which is a relief in a street style blog.

Other than that... I saw some of my students here, Claudia & Alberto!! That was sweet to see :)

Quote of the Day._ Stefano Pilati on Fashion

Fashion could be more relevant. It needs to be understood rather than just consumed.

Stefano Pilati

Stefano Pilati photographed by Kai Junemann for the German Art magazine, Monopol
(via A shaded View on Fashion)

Bubbles of Cava as Every Year for Christmas

Remember the Spain's synchronized swimming team fashion controversy at the Olympics this year?

Gemma Mengual, captain of the team, and her girls were banned at the Olympics to wear swimsuits with lighting due to some policy of "no accessories" during the performance.

The Spanish team won the Team Free Routine nevertheless and this Christmas they will star in Freixenet's 2008 Christmas ad.

Freixenet is a cava (Spanish champagne) label that every Christmas chooses "the celebrity of the year" to star in their ads.


Last year Martin Scorsese directed the commercial...



Sharon Stone and Antonio Banderas starred it in 1992...



Ballet dancer Angel Corella and Gwyneth Paltrow in 2006...




And now......... The Spanish Synchronized Swimming team !

Some People Call Me The Space Cowboy, Yeahhh

Last week there was a three days fashion exhibition at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid.

Why such a short exhibition, I don't know, but those who attended said it was worth a look.

I couldn't attend the event because I knew about it once was over but my friend Maria went and took pictures and explained everything to me...

Jockey Underwear, inventor of the men's brief, was celebrating its 75 anniversary. For this memorable date Spanish fashion designer Carlos Díez Díez was called to design several pieces for them.

The exhibition was divided in three sections:

1_ A retrospective of the more significant pieces of the label, from an original linen shirt from 1790 till the Andy Warhol's brief that appear in the cover of Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers.

2_ The collaboration between Carlos Díez Díez with Jockey for this ocassion. (these are the pictures I'm showing from)

3_ Original underwear from Carlos Díez Díez... that is, underwear used for him. Some of them dated back to 1963.

It's really a shame i found out about the date of this exhibition so late!.

Photos: María Serret

Changing Room Winter 08_ If in Barcelona, don't miss it!

Another season, another Changing Room.
It takes place in Barcelona so I won't be able to attend, actually, i've never been there but i've heard really nice things about this event.

It's basically this; One hotel, Chic&Basic Barcelona. One day, December 13th. And 20 young Spanish designers along different rooms of the hotel selling their collections ...

comentrigo
la white
peseta
montse cañadas
juan vidal
barone baronne
intrepida mu
gemma degara
gonzalo cutrina
dora romero
gentz suarez
iris morata
juan vidal
isaacymanu
capricho de muñeca
just4fun .........

music, discounts and gooooood prices.
get ready for Chirstmas ! :)
Hopefully El Fashionista will attend and will tell us all. (She's from BCN>>>)

Quotes of the Day._ Diana Vreeland on London and on being vulgar

_ "The best thing about London is Paris"
_ " Never fear being vulgar, just boring"

Diana Vreeland

---------------------------

_ "Lo mejor de Londres es París"
_ "Nunca temas ser vulgar, si no aburrida"

Diana Vreeland

Diana Vreeland by Louise Dahl-Wolfe

Lie Sang Bong's aw 08*09 or the Blade Runner collection...

I discovered the work of Korean fashion designer Lie Sang Bong while I was working with Dragos from Rozalb de Mura label at The Train trade show in New York City (oh, and that's another story i need to tell you about).

He was showing his collection a couple of stands further away from us and I remember being amazed at the construction quality of his garments. Although not quite my style, I couldn't take my eyes off the geometric shapes that formed the SS09 collection.

Dragos told me he's quite a famous designer so shame on me... as soon as I get home i turned internet on and went to his site.

His aw 08-09 collection could be perfectly worn by Rachael (Sean Young) in Blade Runner...

Presentation of lamono magazine in Madrid

lamono magazine is a free monthly magazine based on Barcelona.
I've been collaborating with them since August but never met them personally till last Thursday when they threw a party in Madrid to introduce their latest issue; En Femenino (Feminine). For such issue I interviewed American artist Maya Hayuk, one the most rebel feminist artists I know.
Here's an extract of the interview:

You are one that defends women rights more than anyone else I know, and i remember once you denied the participation in an important exhibition for the fact that you were the only female among 20 something males.. How do you see the situation of women artists such Agathe Snow, Kiki Smith or yourself in contemporary art?.


I'm always amazed and offended when i am invited to be in a "expose of contemporary art", but am the only woman involved. I find myself having to ask often why there are so few or no women involved, then send around ever-growing lists of women artists who i admire. It seems obvious to me that since there are about 50% women and 50% men in the world, and since there's nothing that would make a man biologically better at making art, that it would be a given that in any art show you'd see this statistic reflected in the gender of the artists. What i hear so often - from men who are putting the shows together - is that they "just don't know any women artists" and i wonder if they live under a big penis-shaped rock. I say that i don't want to be in shows that tell the public that women artists are a minority. I don't have the time or the energy to be the poster child for women or the token woman artist so the curator sleeps well at night. I honestly believe that in a few years we will look back on this time and shake our heads at how ridiculous this time in history was.

The party took place at Fast Cool art gallery in Huertas, one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city.
We got there late but was already crowded; I saw photographer Luis Díaz former assistant of Daniel Riera.
Anna Parini, illustrator, whose work has been featured in the cover of this issue, was there on a 'live-painting-show' (pic above).

My Friend Ainne on Style.com !!

She's the one on the bottom right corner...

The picture was taken on the H&M flagship on 5th Ave in NYC... waiting in line to buy Comme des Garçons for H&M, isn't she cute?? :_)

here is the story

New Shoes Thanks To...

I was always a little suspicious when companies would offer me free samples of their products to write about for my readers, or invitations for events that 'could be interesting for my readers'.

Of course it's tempting but I was afraid that accepting or attending these events my blog would become a subliminal fashion ad blog.

I'm quite against those bloggers that write about the 'amazing' qualities of such and such product when the product just sucks; it's like those celebrities that agree to put their faces in ads of products that, ehem, are SO BAD. Credibility to the drain.

Last summer I received another offer but this time i thought it twice before saying no... I realized that we bloggers are always free to say the truth, whether is good or bad for the companies; they never force us to write 'positive' about their products, they just offer us the possibility of trying and talk about the experience. That's all. And I was ready to talk bad about mine...

For this reason and for the first time in my blogging life I agreed to get a free product in exchange of a post. I really wanted to see how the business work.
And let me tell you, I had a big surprise.

The company that contacted me was Solestruck and they did so through a lady called Danielle.
Danielle offered me a pair of shoes from their web, at no cost for me. I could choose any of the models on view, whatever size and color.

When she contacted me i was packing and getting ready for my European sojourn of 9 months so time was really tight to get anything and my mind was everywhere but where it should be.
I remember watching at the shoes they had on the web and although the type of product they carry is not really my style, I found these lovely Jeffrey Campbell mary-janes (above) and ordered them forgetting that i was leaving for Paris in less than a week.

When I apologized Danielle for my slip (she had sent the package already) she told me not to worry at all as as soon as she read the email she contacted the courier to change the date of arriving; and i got my new pair of shoes right on time for Paris fashion week :)

So what can i tell you? No bad word on this company from my keyboard.
Lovely shoes, and Danielle such a nice person.

Music with no instruments but with fashion

When I started to work at IED (Istituto Europeo di Design) university in October I wasn't aware of the cool projects that this school was involved with. Actually, it isn't involved but it's the promoter of.

Some of these works can be seen in their youtube page.
Here I wanted to show you one project made through the IED Moda Lab, the fashion department of the school.

"In February 2008, the band Giganto developed a workshop at IED Madrid ModaLab, where students from different courses modified and transformed fashion creation tools into musical instruments. In only sixteen hours and with any previous musical knowledge, they formed an orchestra that ended into a live composition "

Here is the result... absolutely AMAZING

Fashion Lectures at the Museo del Traje in Madrid

Located in one of the most beautiful buildings in Madrid (I know it doesn't seem like in the picture but trust me, it is really impressive!), the Museo del Traje (The Costume Museum) is offering a series of lectures on modern fashion designers.

It started September 18th so many talks have been given already... in any case, every Thursday and till November 13th, at 8pm and free entrance, journalists and fashion historians will lecture on different designers, from Jean Lanvin to Viviene Westwood to Jean Paul Gaultier.

Unfortunately I have missed some but went to the talk given by journalist Abraham de Amézaga on Paco Rabanne who has met the journalist several times.
The best part came with the questions, some were really funny although I can't recall any of them now..



Next week Jean Paul gaultier by Charo Izquierdo, editor in chief of YoDona magazine.

BLESS nº36 show inParis

BLESS nº36 Nothingneath was the first fashion show I've ever been invited to during Paris fashion week.

I received the invitation at my friend Antoine's house because in Paris you need to give a Parisian address to get your invitations. The first thing I saw when I arrived at my friend's was the envelope with the invitation on his desk...

The show was a surprise, in every sense.
First, because I stumbled upon friends from Madrid and New York by total chance.
Second, because one of the models was a friend of mine that i didn't know she was in Paris let alone modeling for BLESS! And third because of the show itself; it wasn't a show at all and for the first time i felt how a model feel when people stare at her...

The happening took place in a Le Marais's private house where there was an arrange of models situated on the staircase wearing the pieces of the collection. There wasn't time really to stop and look at them (at the pieces), it was a little violent to do so because of the proximity of the models to you; then i realized how safe is to have a catwalk between you and the models... Therefore you could just go up the stairs, have a very fast peak at the clothes while passing by and down again, this time in an elevator. And the show was over.
Susanna Lau was in front of me in the line, all the time... Maybe I should say something to her, but didn't.

pictures by me

video courtesy of BLESS