Sthlm Fashion Week

It is once again time for Stockholm fashion week. A great opportunity to spot new Avant-garde designers! Amoung others Annika Berger, winner of the +46 award will be showing her collection. She started as a graphical artist which is still very visible in her brand SWD/Skyward.


Another event during the week is the fashion film festival You wear it well #2 which is making a stop in Stockholm. Diane Pernet ( a shaded view on fashion) is one of the curators. The festival is described as " the breaking point between film and fashion".
Watch one of the contributions Doll Face (from youtube)!

Levis blue has also opened their first european Pop Up Store this week in Stockholm (Krukmakargatan 46) right in time for the fashion week.

Avantgarde?

If Haute Couture can claim that every garment is a piece of art, then should any young independent creative designer be able to do the same? Yes, there are parallels between a highly expensive piece of art, one of a kind an often kept in a safe and the one of a kind garments owned by the richest fashionistas in the world. But art is constantly changing so shouldn't the younger generation have something more interesting to provide?
www.modabot.de might have the answer. The site presents them self as "Nachrichtagentur für Avantgarde mode" (News Agency for Avantgarde Fashion). People more brushed up on their german than I am, might well enjoy the articles. Personally I'm hoping that their event Internet Fashion Week is not just a great idea, but actually becomes reality. It's planned for "the beginning of the year 2008", so keep an eye out!
A further tip on the search for Avantgarde is Bea Szenfeldts collections. The piece/garment is from 2006, but hasn't lost its charm!

Agree? Disagree? Or just any other avantgarde tips you like to share?

Luggage

Saw the movie The Darjeeling Limited yesterday and the word luggage is what best summarizes it.
It is another one of Wes Anderson's strangely appealing movies in which the luggage, emotional as well as the actual physical one, plays a huge part. Wes Anderson had his brother Eric design the patterns for them and one of his friends, Marc Jacobs, design the actual set of suitcases, which I am sure will be iconic. Marc Jacobs (for Luis Vuitton) is also responisble for many of the costumes seen in the movie.
Considering how Lacoste got a push from Gwyneth Paltrows character Margot Tenenbaums wearing their dresses in Andersons movie The royal Tenenbaums, I can only assume that this free publicity will do nothing but good for Marc Jacobs. Both of them, director and designer are known for their kind of peculiar romantic and somewhat intellectual art which goes well together in the movie.
Should you have some extra money and time for a trip to N.Y. you can place a bid at some of the bags and other props from the movie at the Luis Vuitton store in One East 57th Street, New York, NY, 212-758-8877.
The proceeds go to Rawal Mallinathji Foundation and UNICEF.

For more info check out the movie's official website.

Art 101

Art tip of the day; the artcenter Barbican in London will soon open an exhibition called "The Martian Museum of Terrestial Art". The exhibition is meant to explain early contemporary art for somenone, like a martian, who sees it for the first time. Unfortunately I do not now if it will be showing any pieces related to fashion, but artworks like "Self-portrait as Kurt Cobain, as Andy Warhol, as Myra Hindley, as Marilyn Monroe", 1996, by Douglas Gordon will be on display. Opens on March 6 .

If anyone goes, please post a comment or send me a mail and tell me how it was!

Dressed like a movie star

Film is also one of the less respected art forms in the high culture society, and the artform that is probably closest related to fashion. Not only do clothes play an important part in the storytelling by telling you who a character is and how they are developping but the movies also have a huge impact on fashion. Recently movies that can be named are for example Marie Antoinette by always fashionable Sofia Coppola. The movie can be held responsible for bringing 19th century details back into fashion, very fitting in a time when haute couture is in vogue. It is not at all unusual to use a fashion designer to make the costumes for a movie, which can both help the movie and make the designer more famous.
Another classical example is Annie Hall, Woody Allens breakthrough as a serious film-maker, which had Ruth Morley and Ralph Lauren design Diane Keatons wardrobe. The duo created a whole new androgynous fashion style.
The perhaps most influential movie in fashion is Breakfast at Tiffany's. The movie, made in 1961, had Edith Head and Hubert de Givenchy as costume designers and made a fashion icon out of Audrey Hepburn and the Little Black Dress. Both of them are still as stylish and essential today as they were over 40 years ago!
Film buffs can watch the original trailer for the movie here.

More than a thousand words

If you are more into art that isn't wearable you might want to consider fashion illustration. Just like any other art form it evolves and changes through time and has perhaps the largest amount of different directions of all art forms. One of my personal favorites in the field is the lovely Liselotte Watkins, who has a very contemporary but also very expressive style. Her paintings are definitely something more than colourful illustrations for the fashion mags, and if I could afford one, I would gladly hang it on my wall!









If you happen to pass by London any time soon make sure to pass by Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen were there is an exhibition of the works by Will Broome. Broome has worked with designers such as Marc Jacobs, Gucci and Missoni. His illustrations are again of the wearable kind, but no less interesting!