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.

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.

Stupid Magazines

When you work with magazines, you never know.
Even when they give you an assignment, chances are (many) that the project doesn't get published. You can try to find another publication to run the story but sometimes the time you have to find it is so tight that the work just expires unpublished; magazines is a fast world.

I own a magazine and have lived the experience from both sides, the non-published professional and the one who decides not to publish something assigned; so I know.

As a stylist/photographer, it sucks when a publication rejects a job: time and energy, and so many times money, go directly to the drain.
But as a "decider", as a fashion editor, I know some works are just not what I expected and to be honest with the aesthetic of a magazine, you need to back up.

The good news is that now we have a wonderful blog that publishes very renown professionals' work that was rejected for magazines. They tell you what went wrong and how the shoot was made. Some works are good, some are not, but you will know first hand what the hell happened. The blog is called Stupid mags, and it's pure eye candy.

Full Time Sado by Tony Solís

Full time sado was made almost two years ago with the help of 'El Pana', my ex roomie who was a Venezuelan model. All the equipment and the clothes were borrowed from a rock/sado store. The day of the shooting was the last day of El Pana living on our apartment too, so I woke him at 8 am and in two hours we made this series. They are lots of images, so I tried to make a selection that represent the story I tried to tell. It couldn't be published for unknown reasons.

Hot Dogs by Colectivo Banquels

These polaroids were made like three years ago. We sent them to a magazine or something and they never were returned. It was a goofy work but I think they are great. The scanning is awful, but it is the only thing we have of them. Anyway, they don't look like what we are doing now at all.

Architecture for the Feet

Both Architecture and Fashion have always been my obsession but I'm really bad (and i mean what i say) at Mathematics so it was impossible for me to ever study architecture.

Fortunately many of my friends and family members are architects so they keep alive my love's flame. And my book's shelves for that matter!.

The fact that Fashion design is really architecture in a smaller scale was wonderfully analyzed by the exhibition Skin + Bones at the MOCA two years ago; garments house our bodies and can create new volumes and space around us.

If you have ever seen the sketches sent to the factories to create a garment you would be amazed at the similarities with architectural plans.

Now, fashion and architecture go together; and what about shoes?

Last year there was an amazing exhibition on Zaha Hadid's work at the Guggenheim in NY. I went to see it twice no matter the high price of the admission; she became one of my favourite architects alive.
I've been following her career ever since and now my surprise to see her work captured in a shoe, thanks to Brazilian plastic shoe manufacturer company Melissa.

image courtesy designboom

I tried to find Zaha's comments on these designs but couldn't find any interesting but "I have 30 years of research on different areas of architecture and design and this was a very challenging project, not only in design, but on the technical side." nymag.com
The shoes, unfortunately, will be only available at London's Dover Street Market, starting next month.

The making of a shoe model...

Hoy inauguración en Madrid!

A aquellos que esteis en Madrid, hoy a las 20h es la inauguración de la expo de Miguel Cococrash en La Casa de la Carne de Carlos Díez Díez (c/ Loreto y Chicote nº9).

La música correrá a cargo de La Casita de Wendy. Promete estar bien!

Christian Dior at YOOX

In a vintage madness era, virtual boutique YOOX is bringing to its costumers a rare selection of Christian Dior pieces found around the world in cities like New York, Paris and Florence.
With this project, Long Live Christian Dior, YOOX is ending a series of "specials" on vintage clothing which height was last year with Chanel, a sale that sold out in a record time.
Selection from the 40's to the 80's and beyond.
This is my own selection...

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

En una época de locura por lo vintage como la que vivimos, la boutique online YOOX aprovecha el tirón para lanzar una serie de prendas del couturier francés Christian Dior encontradas en diferentes viajes por el mundo, Nueva York, Paris, Londres, Florencia...
Con este proyecto, bajo el título de Long Live Christian Dior, YOOX termina asi una serie de especiales "diseñador vintage" que tuvo su punto álgido el año pasado con la venta de diseños de la gran Chanel, una venta que se agotó en tiempo récord.
La selección de Dior recoge prendas de los años 40 hasta llegar a nuestros dias... y aqui, mi selección personal...

Patricia on Patricia

The story of Patricia Field and her impact on New York street-fashion didn't begin, as one might think, in the late 90's with her work as stylist for über famous TV show Sex and The City.

Although the series and posterior work in the film The Devil Wears Prada brought her name into the fray, for those not familiar with downtown New York, Patricia Field has influenced the look of countless women since she opened her own store, House of Field, in Greenwich Village in 1966, when she was just 24 years old. .... [keep reading]

I am collaborating with art & fashion web 212DressignRoom/BLOG. Rachel, founder and super woman, contacting me weeks ago to be part of this very personal project and I chose Patricia Field to be my first post, a woman whose work and personality I truly admire.
To read the full article go here... I hope you'll enjoy it! :)

Silk Making In Thailand

Designboom is featuring the story of Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University Architecture professor Wichai Lailawitmongkhol who is "teaching a group of women the techniques involved in the ancient art of silk making", helping this way the village ‘hong hae’ with new ways of employment and self-sufficiency.

The fact that an architect is teaching a fashion technique to a little town in North-East Thailand in order to preserve the technique and the jobs in the area was the main reason why i started to read this interesting article. I miss stories like this in fashion blogs; we all are too concern on Paris, Milan, New York or London! Maybe we should travel a little more to see beyond! :)

HERE

image courtesy of © designboom

Creative Squat

In the neighborhood of Malasaña in Madrid there's a pizza-shaped area that includes Ballesta and the streets around it. It is the "red neighborhood" of the city, a place where prostitution and crime was not something rare.

Till not too long ago, the area housed several brothels, an area that was also one of the most beautiful of Madrid because is located in the old part of the city, where places and houses are really old (some are centuries old) and full of history.

Now some of those brothels have been bought by Triball (Triangulo Ballesta.- Ballesta Triangle) and donated for a month, under the name "Okupación Creativa Ya" (Creative Squat Now), to different artists and designers to promote the culture and bring fresh air to the area.
A total of 13 locations, among them old brothels, a dry cleaner and a meat shop, has been transformed into art galleries and upcoming designers' stores. A project that will last until May 10th.

These are some images from the improvised opening party at Maxluz (C/ Puebla, 13. Madrid) the artistic space by Lujan, Letoy and 100.000 Luciérnagas.

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

En el barrio de Malasaña en Madrid existe una zona que tiene forma de pizza y que incluye la calle Ballesta y alrededores. Esta zona digamos que es considerada el "barrio rojo" de la ciudad, donde prostitución y delincuencia eran el pan nuestro de cada día. De hecho, hasta no hace mucho, la zona albergaba unos cuantos prostíbulos y lugares de mala muerte, y esto en una de las zonas más impresionantes de la ciudad, en el Madrid de los Austrias, donde las casas y las calles tienen siglos de historia.

Ahora se quiere revitalizar la zona y sacarla un poco del estado en el que se encuentra. La inmobiliaria Triball (Triangulo Ballesta) ha comprado diversos locales, entre los que se incluyen antiguos prostíbulos, una carnicería y una tintorería, para la venta a artistas y diseñadores y así de esta forma traer aire fresco al barrio.
Durante un mes se han donado 13 locales a diferentes colectivos y diseñadores para que se haga lo que se quiera con ellos. La propuesta durará hasta el 10 de Mayo.

Estas imágenes son de la fiesta improvisdao que se montó en Maxluz (C/ Puebla, 13. Madrid) el espacio cedido a Lujan, Letoy y 100.000 Luciérnagas.

silvia from potipoti

Letoy toys

If We Ran It

Michael Romanowicz is a young guy (quite young actually, but let's keep the age aside) whose ideas keep my mind moving every time I meet him.

His latest enterprise, together with Marissa Shrum, is If We Ran It, a web-blog where contributors' requisite is to be under 30 and have something interesting to say.

The site is divided basically in 4 categories: people, ideas, actions and effects...

- If the article is focused on a person, call it artist, designer or cousin, then it goes to people.
- If the article it's a new material / dress/ item / design, then it goes to check it.
- If something's happening like a fashion show, then it goes to doing.
- And if "Gucci changes their line based on the trend", then it goes to effect.

After six months of delay (the launch was due by August 07) the site is already online and although brand new and little, the posted posts have no waste.
Still no fashion, but hopefully someone will post something soon...

New Magazine. News Paper. NEWWORK in Town

There's never been so many magazines around as nowadays.

Every time I go to Universal News (a popular news stand in NY) I just get really lost at the quantity of new publications that every month hit the stands... no that i'm complaining but, is there work for so many people?.

For those who know me that might sound like a very funny rhetorical question coming from my mouth... me?, who is building up a new magazine... in any case, my point is to introduce a new magazine, another one, but this one is a little special.

NEWWORK is brought to life featuring the work of 7 artists solely from New York and it combines fashion, art, politics and design in a newspaper format rather than in glossy paper.

The printing quality is quite nice as it's the work featured inside. I can only find one "but", and that's the way we'll be able to storage such publication... not very easily i would say, but hey.
Let's say well-come to the new work.

* special thanks to Michael Romanowicz for the images

Juergen The Great

Thanks to Claire from Enchant and Dorm that warned me about the opening in Lehmann Maupin gallery in Chelsea, NY, of Juergen Teller's latest work.

The opening took place last Thursday, February 7th and the place was packed, what was no surprise. The surprise was to see Teller himself, and Olivier Zahm, Michael Stipe... it was amazing to see so many indi stars all in the same room. Of course i didn't take any pictures of them... but if I tell you the truth I was longing for it.
Here comes Youtube to the rescue...

The show collects the latest work of Juergen Teller: ads for Marc Jacobs (the Posh picture is there and watching it so big and so close is quite interesting), pictures of Harmony Korine taken by Juergen for Purple magazine and the images he took in Ukraine that he was commissioned for to appeared at the Ukrainian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2007.

The same day of the opening I randomly bought the latest issue of the journal (it had a Teller photo in the cover so i guess i was in a Teller mood already) where the whole story about these images in Ukraine is told. It's funny because the magazine complements the exhibition like a tailored made glove: they should sell it at the gallery or at least having it for people to look at.

Another note I would like to add is my hands down for Lara Stone who models in almost all the pictures of Juergen while in Ukraine. They are images that need an open-minded and understanding person as Lara to get the point of it all and to make a good image out of it. She is a Top, for real.

Photos I took...

Did You Know That...

Katherine Hepburn played Coco Chanel in 1969's musical "Coco" at the Mark Hellinger Theater in NY?

Left: Katherine Hepburn as Coco Chanel in the play "Coco"

Her script from the play and other papers can now be seen thanks to the gift the actress' estate gave to the New York Public Library, (the best library I've ever seen in my life by the way, and i promise they're not paying me for saying this!), in the form of all Hepburn's stage career related documents: photographs, scrapbooks, journals, scripts, playbills, fan mail ...

The gift was given four years after the dead of the great Katherine, that is, this year, and now these materials are part of The Billy Rose Theater Collection, "the largest and most comprehensive archive devoted to the theatrical arts". As I said, the NYPL has some pretty good things...

"THE" script >>

Above Katherine Hepburn signed LP "Coco". For sale here

Other Platforms to Discover Fashion

Myspace or Iqons*, and now the new Dripbook, have been used as platforms for fashion creatives to show their work to the world community. But I always wondered what does it happen with those whose fashion activities lye in words, history research or sociology, whose not-image based work can't compete with, let's say, Chalayan. In other words, how can fashion historians, journalists and sociologists express their opinions and show them to the world without being overshadowed by their visual peers?... How can they make their point clear and succeed?

So far we had blogger, and it really helped, and I thought that was all we can dream of in terms of "free" fashion journalism until I randomly found SandraLondon63 in Youtube...

Sandra London is, I guess, from London, and she is like a fashion historian and a filmmaker who researches, edits and posts videos about fashion and art in Youtube, starting with the roaring 20's to the 50's decade.

I find her footage a delightful experience, well researched and eye candy for fashion lovers; have you ever wondered why hemlines dropped to the ankle during the 30's?, when the platform shoes were born (and it wasn't in the 70's)? or how 1941 fabric rationing during II WW leaded the fashion industry to create new products as rayon?... then watch her videos!

The short-films are silent with signs that tell you what's happening (the same way movies did in the 20's) and only the sounds of Duke Ellington or Rosemary Clooney accompanies the footage. I can't think of a better way to show what you know other than a coffee table book. So let's add youtube to our bookmarks.

My favourite decades... the 30's and 40's by SandraLondon63.


1930s - Fashion and Design during the Depression

1940s - Style and Fashion during the Wartime Era

Needles and Brush

My friend J, whose work and recipes some of you may already know through her blog Rosetung, is finally (everyone was waiting for it) selling her knitting work via Etsy.
The good news besides being able to purchase a warm splotchy or a cowl, is that she is selling her printing artwork that has been hidden for years in her room, therefore only close friends and family had the pleasure to enjoy them (i know this very well... I slept under one of her printings in New Orleans in awe, wondering why she never tried to sell them...)
So I'm more than glad seeing these wonderful things enjoyable for everyone. :)

Now We Have Dripbook

Years ago if you were an artist then you were poor (this still happens), therefore you couldn't afford to pay for a website, or you were too shy or lazy to ask some friend to design one for you.
When myspace was born everyone got very excited: a web to show our portfolios for free, yay!.
Myspace wasn't perfect though as it was too crowded of non fashion-related people and that made it difficult to find what we were looking for: promotion and fashion networking.
Then Diane Pernet came to the rescue with her co-founded iqons*, a myspace type of web only for creative minds and for a while was a wonderful thing; I discovered quite a few interesting designers the same way some of my peers bloggers did. The project is fantastic but it has its difficulties: the navigation is not very good (too slow and uneasy) and the artists' images are too small to really enjoy.

Now it's Dripbook to the rescue.


The site functions as myspace or iqons* but gives a more important role to the images than the latest.
With a very-easy-to-use design and navigation, Dripbook serves as a networking and web portfolio for photographers, fashion stylists or illustrators, but not only: they covet a wide range of type of work and kind of artists, from architects, hair stylists, art directors, tattoo artists, to woodwork artists or industrial designers.
It is a very complete web and such a wonderful source of creative minds and fashion-related professionals.
Unfortunately they only accept invitation-only sign ups but you can browse the work of the artists, which I can tell you, it is really worth it.