H MAGAZINE

What I also love about fashion week are the free magazines everywhere... Check out h magazine's current issue here. And these are my favourite pages:

Balenciaga shopping list

Yes, now we are able to preorder our favourites from next season's balenciaga collection. Browns is prepared and so am I, well emotionally, not financially to be honest ;-(




Well I'll check out H&M's trend department in Frankfurt tomorrow. Guess there's nobody out there who planned to donate some Euros so I can start preordering my favourites? At least some of the shoes? Helloooho?


Danke mary für den hinweis...

Credit: style.com

styleserver

Berlin based Online Shop Styleserver - run by two very nice guys called Florian and Jan - had a temporary Salesroom during Berlin Fashion Week.

Between July 12th and 15th they offered pieces from current collections from over 30 independent international designers like Awareness & Consciousness (Wien), Aleksandra Wisniewska (Zürich), Ayzit Bostan (München), C.Neeon (Berlin), goyagoya (Frankfurt), Kristin Hensel (Halle), Pulver (Berlin), Reality Studio (Berlin), Sarah Heartbo (Berlin), Saskia Diez (München), von Wedel & Tiedeken (Berlin) und USE unused (Fashion Label of the year Hungary) amongst others.

Normally you can only buy their stuff online at styleserver.de

I couldn't resist the temptation to buy a piece. A very nice summery dress by Berlin based label c.neeon. They also showed their current collection at Berlin Fashion Week. View their ss 08 collection here.


Thanks to Florian and Jan ♥

Credit: styleserver.de

waterloo

You've probably noticed that I've included an advertising bar to my blog's left hand side. It's not that I'm making loads of money from blogging now - well let's see what will happen ;-) ...
Amongst my first advertisers is Buenos Aires based T-shirt label Waterloo.

Waterloo's online store was opened in November 2006. Previously, they started making T-shirts in January 2005 selling them to their friends, friends of their friends...and so on....

They design all the clothes offered on the site. You won't find them in stores. They offer unique retro, vintage designs of cool rock bands, classic movies, cartoons, etc. Really cool ones in my opinion. So don't hesitate to order your cool summer shirts from Buenos Aires. You'll get 10% off if you use the code "fnart" while ordering.

Credit: ilovewaterloo.com

le tour de france, c'est fini!

peut-être vous ne sont intéressé pas...
Anyway. I'm even more interessted on how this cycling-doping-problem will continue. Well Alberto Contador won this year's tour at last. I wonder how it feels to be booed (?) while standing at the podium!?

All this doping fuss could do my love for cycling no harm. I miss my bike and will be happy to ride it again at the end of this week. Meanwhile I enjoy Skoda's new TV spot (you must know, that I don't have a TV at home so first thing I do when I visit my parents is swithing the TV on.).
Isn't it fantastic? They destroy the car!!! They don't handle it properly! Oh I love it... Guess I'm weired sometimes!?

frankfurt, again

I'm on the road again, so postings will be fewer the next couple of days. I'm in/near Frankfurt right now and quite busy and not as connected as at home (well actually now I'm at home, but...).
I've planned to meet some friend I went to school with, talk to my parents, try to shop a little and visit some exhibitions like John Bock at shirn-kunsthalle; Das Kapital, Tino Sehgal and Maurizio Cattelan at the mmk and the current exhibitions at the portikus and the frankfurter kunstverein. Will be back in Heidelberg around Thursday, so expect some great pictures around that time, probably earlier, but I won't promise ;-)

Credit: Sameli @ flickr

Miroike aw 07/08 favourites

These are my favourites of Miroike's aw 07/08 collection. You should definitely take a closer look at their current shoe collection ♥

Their spring 08 collection isn't bad either. modabot was at their presentation at beck's fashion (horrible website, sorry!) experience temporary store during Berlin Fashion Week. You can view all pictures here.



MORE

documenta 12 - so what?

"With over 500 works from all over the world the exhibition is regarded as one of the most important exhibitions of contemporary art and draws attention from all over the world. Sadly however the British art critics don’t like this year’s exhibition. "The worst art show ever" was the headline in the Telegraph from Richard Dorment. "Freelance curator Roger Buergel and his art historian wife Ruth Noack," Dorment wrote, "have managed to stage the single worst art exhibition I have ever seen anywhere, ever."
Heavyweight Guardian critic Adrian Searle was equally scathing describing it as "100 days of ineptitude." Searle did admit to liking some works though he called the custom-built Pavilion "ghastly". [...]"

That's not the only upsetting thing I've heard about it. Well I'll be there in three weeks.
The only thing I can say about it so far is that the first magazine on "modernity" is horrible. Couldn't stand reading it. Far too overtheoratical. Booooooring!!!

So please enjoy this video. Has nothing to do with documenta, but takes place in kassel, there's a cute skateboarder in it ♥ and the music is nice...



Credit: artrabbit.com

look of the day

Agathe aka style bytes really rocks (literally) in this pictures (well, actually she always rocks ♥). Althought this outfit is one I myself would never wear like that (except for the latex like pants - well you all know my love for black shiny fabrics...) it's a combination I really like. Her pink heels are killer, the harley davidson shirt is simply brilliant. Very well done Ms. Bjørnsdatter (soon to change!).

Credit: stylebytes.net

reader's mail

... not yet!

I love getting emails like that (concerning that post). They really chear me up. Thank you ♥
By the way, does anyone want to offer me a really nice well paid job? I would appreciate that... Just write me an email ;-)

"just read about your phase/crisis. don't get too worked up over it. your doubts about painting are understandable & have been around since modernism's beginning. I'm not particularly a close reader of arthur c.danto, but I think he once stated that there will no longer be any great art movements but there still will be some great art. proof of that is in your recent discovey of danilo buccella. those are really cool paintings - and a figurative artist besides! ( "the figure in art is dead" how old is that one?!) maybe it doesn't have a matter. look at all the horrible nonsense going on in the world right now. is painting that bad of a thing?

I've been an artist my whole life. I'm not successful at it & 90% of the time I even doubt if I'm any good. but I'm still glad I am. perhaps painting is dying but I don't think it will be an easy death. it has survived photography, film, tv & is still hanging on in the digital age. I don't know if there will always be painting. but think about it, painting/art was one of the first things people ever did. think of how great those first artists were, who decorated those caves in france & spain, or the beautiful rock paintings in australia. that alone still inspires me.

don't let theory get you down. continue to do what your doing - finding & looking at art not only in it's plastic forms, but in people & fashion as well. its all good.

sincerely, GFD"

Painting will always be there, that's for sure and be it only because of tradition. I don't know...

Jennine wrote something nice aswell:

"[...] i know what you mean about paintings, especially if you develop a taste for conceptual art, performance, video, sculpture... etc. paintings at times can seem rather illustrative.

but lately i've been seeing some clever work, like my friend bill rhea, who does traditional type paintings of san francisco, has begun taking it to a more allegorical level with a twist. i find that satisfies my need to get heady around art."

I like that "need to get heady around art". My needs aren't satisfied too often. I probably want too much ;-(

fashion = art = fashion

Fashion isn't art - I would say. At least not automatically, but that doesn't mean it can't be. There are a lot of examples to proove the art ability of certain fashion designs (guess we would have to define what art is first!?). But what is it, that makes fashion arty? Is it the not wearability? The pushing-it-to-the-edges use of certain fabrics - like wool in the case of Sandra Backlund - the hardcore knitter?

modabot did an interview with her just after she'd won the fashion category of this year's Hyères Festival International de Mode et Photographie:

"What attracted you about knitwear design? I guess I have found the ultimate way to express myself through my heavy wool collage knitting. I am very inspired by almost every traditional handicraft technique. It is the real thing and everything that the fashion industry of today is not. Very consuming in terms of time and money and a real trial to one´s psychical and physical strength. All the levels of skills you have to pass before you can even think about starting to improvise. For me it is the absolute challenge. [...]

Could you tell us a little about your collection “Ink Blot Test”?
When I start on a new collection I always take off from a diffuse idea. Then I begin to experiment with different handicraft techniques and materials to find a couple of concrete bricks to develope into garments. One thing leads to another and in the end the collection is like a three dimensional mind map. This time the starting point was the idea of the ink blot test, you know when you take a blank page, spill some black ink and water, fold it in the middle and then unfold to discover what chance gave you. Like a symmetrical accident. [...]

What/Who are your artistic inspirations?
I always work with the human body as an inspiration when creating a garment. I am really fascinated by all the ways you can highlight, distort and transform the natural silhouette of the body with clothes and accessories. [...]"

Read the whole interview here



I was very happy to be able to see Sandra Backlund's designs in real life at this years Ideal Fashion show during Berlin Fashion week. Although we had seats, we could hardly see the show. Well we saw all the models coming out of the dressing rooms, but couldn't for example see the shoes, which was very bad. Fortunately modabot with a much better view took some nice pictures. You can see them here.

Another interview - moving pictures this time ;-)...



Oh I love Sandra Backlund. She definitely is one of my favourite upcoming designers ♥

Walk it out

Is there somebody out there who is willing to sponsor me some dancing classes? Oh how I miss it...
Thanks to slight fever.

Danilo Buccella

Since I finished my art theory studies - and especially Clement Greenberg's modernism theory - I really have a problem with painting. What actually is it supposed to be? I somehow can't find a matter in it anymore. This definitely is just a phase/crisis (?), but I'm living it right through at the moment. But nevertheless I still love a lot of contemporary paintings and be it just for the sake of aesthetics.



At scope art fair basel this year, I dicovered the work of Danilo Buccella via Vanina Holasek Gallery from New York.



I'm totally blown away by the Tim Burton like ghostly femmes, very stylish, fragile and deep. I can't stop looking at those pictures and they are even better in real, I tend to be soaked up into them, dreamlike... oh they are so poetic, undescribable...





more pictures

Credit: piccola galleria

look of the day

The dress on the left hand side caught my eye. I loved most of the parts of the current Marni collection anyway. The Sartorialist once more proved he has a good eye for sleek, stylish, sophisticated style...

Credit: The Sartorialist

Rise of the amateur fashion editor

Just found this article via copenhagen streetstyle. It somehow matches perfectly the "fashion bloggers not allowed to fashion week"-discussion. It's all about beeing afraid of change, isn't it?

"(The fashion industry) can get so insular [...]. They're only interested in how it looks on a magazine page, not how it looks on the people. But the most important thing is the people: how they're wearing it and who they're wearing." [...]

Streetstylebloggers vs. Fashion industry!?
Read the whole article here.

Pic: Mary Scherpe of stil in berlin at work. photo taken by moi.

bfw 07 ::: premium

premium celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. The Station (there's a nice little video showing the whole space in their website link: premium tv!) shows about 700 international women's and men's collections as well as accessories and shoes.

Each season premium invites high representatives of the international fashion industry to discuss current themes and trends. This time it was dedicated to the theme "Fashion and Ethic". I wasn't there this time, but modabot was. The video isn't uploaded yet, but please check the the site from time to time...



Premium recognized three up-and-coming talents with the Young Designer's award. This prize is awarded twice a year and offers a stand at premium. The winners for the Spring/Summer Season 2008 were Dean Penn/Denmark (Womenswear), Vincent Schoepfer/France (Menswear) and Chronicles of Never/Australia (Accessories). Really nice stuff - the websites are definitely worth a visit!!!



One of my personal favourites was c'est tout from Berlin. Unfortunately they haven't got neither their ss08 nor their fw07/08 collection online. So you'll have to believe me that their designs are really very nice. It's Katja Furhmann - one of the two designers - on the photo wearing one of their styles. C'est formidable! Please download their presskit (pdf) here.



Last but not least Chie Mihara shoes. OMG. I love them so much and they even go up to size 42 (well not all of them but at least some...). I'll definitely post more about them later, promise. Definitely something to remeber!!!

no bloggers at san francisco fashion week

Jennine - The Coveted - will not be attending San Francisco Fashion week. The organisers do not issue passes to bloggers.

That's kind of narrow minded isn't it? I don't think that bloggers should automatically be called "press" or "journalists" (citizen journalism might be the right term) but that shoudn't exclude the possibility of bloggers beeing journalists. The increasing influence of bloggers and the high quality a lot of them reach is a fact that established media can't get around - web2.0 - the machine is us/ing us!

IMG seemed to have done their homework. Last October they handed out 40 official press passes to bloggers. They took their time to sort out parts of the huge amount of fashion related blogs to invite some of the better established like manolo's shoe blog, go fug yourself and fashion addict diary (these are the good ones - well I shoudn't complain, but among the chosen ones are also blogs I wouldn't want to have on my fashion show - hey it's not always only about the readership rate - I hope they'll refine their selection criteria soon).

Tricia of bits and bobbins says:

"SF fashion week's interest is to protect their established network, and any intrusion upon their network by other types of voices (who might be divergent) is threatening.

one of the great things about blogging these days is that it allows for intelligent, diverse voices...who are not connected directly to the industry machine. many people who blog are telling it how they see it, how it really is...and the people, the readers are LISTENING, and can relate. it is refreshing to read dispatches from the grassroots, rather than being force-fed by corporations and industries who are protecting their own interests.

the main objective of this event and the fashion industry anywhere is to make MONEY. the "accredited journalists, buyers, and stylists" are being PAID to move product, whether or not it's aesthetically pleasing. nevermind if it's interesting, or innovative...it's not the point. what is TRULY interesting and innovative doesn't produce as many dollars. and they don't have enough dollars to bother with "bloggers". [...]

And also really important:

"the thing is...they can't control you or what you say in your blog, because you're not part of the "accredited members" of their network. they can't trust you to move what they WANT you to move." [...]

I totally agree with high fashion girl:

"Determination of which bloggers would be easy. You could determine it by content, traffic, and writing ability. I mean, allowing 5 top area bloggers wouldn't have been a big deal. I really think their decision reflects censorship of New Media." [...]

Uhuh San Franciso Fashion week screwed up this time. Well, let's wait and see what will happen next season ;-) and stay tuned. I'm curious how Jennine's - the coveted - fashion week thriller continues... Good luck dear ♥

Kunstakademie Stuttgart Sommerausstellung 2007

I'm back home and brought some nice pictures for you. I've been to the Rundgang of the Kunstakademie in Stuttgart a couple of hours ago, which opend yesterday and will be open until Monday. Please download the floorplan (pdf) here



In my opinion student's exhibition are always kind of problematic. Although many of the students might have had good ideas, they often aren't capable of transforming them into actual communicating products, pictures, installations, photographs, whatever. Well you might say now, that they are there to learn, but in most of the cases I'm not sure if they'll ever learn it. So, what I'm trying to say is that Rundgang exhibitions can be very exhausting since you'll always have to deal with loads of crapp before finding a diamond.



Besides art (sculpture and painting) you can also study architecture, industrial design and graphic design at the Stuttgart academy. My friend Carolin Jörg - I exhibited her work at my flur gallery recently - also studied there.



I'm really sorry for the bad quality pictures. I urgently need a new camera but somehow can't afford one right now ;-( Pictures will be better in future, I promise!

on the road...again

I'm off for the weekend. I'll be in Stuttgart to visit some friends and to visit the "Rundgang" at Stuttgart Art academy. On our way we'll make a quick stopover at Metzingen to shop for some Hugo Boss stuff at their outlet.


Nice photo huh? more

If you could...

I find a lot of stuff to write about on myspace. There I also found out about if you could...:

"'If you could' is an annual publication set up by designers Will Hudson and Alex Bec. Aiming to showcase the best in design and illustration, contributions are welcomed from both established and up and coming artists on the theme, If you could do anything tomorrow, what would it be? Each publication is launched alongside an exhibition, showing every single contribution received, meaning nobody's work goes unseen." [...]

Doesn't it sound fantastic? I wish I could haven been there for the launch of the 2nd edition at 5th of July at exposure gallery (Little Portland Street, W1 - London I suppose!?). See photos of the book launch here. The exhbibition is still on until 27th July - be quick. Or buy the book here.



Prints of all the images from issue 2 are now available to buy until 30th of July. For further information click here



See them all here
Visit ifyoucould on myspace

Credit: ifyoucould.co.uk

bfw 06 ::: Diana Brinks

Another designer at the ideal showroom I really liked. I somehow fit totally into Diana Brinks target group I guess ;-)

"Diana Brinks hopes that the clothes will speak to women who have developed an individual sense of personal style and want to wear something unique but useful." [...]

Well I'm still working on the personal style, but hhm somehow that sounds like the direction I'll see myself going. The "colours" are simple and minimalstic - hey black and white - and the cuts amazing. Her clothes can be worn in many different ways. I love it when you actually buy one piece of clothes and get so many possibilities out of it... Unfortuntaltely there isn't her ss08 collection online yet, but it's definitely worth to check her website every now and then.


Spring/Summer 2007


Diana Brinks at the bäng! opening reception photographed by the facehunter and stil in berlin wearing one of her Spring/Summer 2008 styles.

Credit: moi, Diana Brinks, facehunter and stil in berlin