N O V E L T Y / Charlie May aw13

Every season, my buddy Charlie completely blows me away with her new collections, collaborations and campaigns. But now she has really, really outdone herself. Behold some of the campaign images of her current autumn winter collection. Just today she launched her very own online shop( << click,click,click guys!) where you can get these pieces. Hurray for Charlie! So proud of her!

images by: Nicole Maria Winkler

N O V E L T Y / Mykro Magazine is Back

Do you remember Mykromag? Pioneer as the first true androgynous fashion magazine exclusively in black and white (2009). Founded by Sonny Groo who has had an incredible eye for what is now and has always managed to bring the most interesting features; Formicetti, Iris van Herpen, Guillame Henri, JW Anderson to name a few and also projects like a printed a set of books in collaboration with Rad Hourani.(If you’ve been reading my blog long enough you might remember that I also used to be a regular contributor to the Mykromag blog).

But the Black and white pages of Mykro (minus the mag) are back. With a small team based in Amsterdam they've made it happen after a two year break. It somewhat reminds me of interview magazine in the way that it shows a very personal and human side of the fashion industry. The 12 interviews in this issue include 91 year old Eileen Ford founder of Ford models, Tumblr 's Fashion evangelist (that's right, this is an official title) Valentine Uhovski, Esteban Cortezar and the iconic miss Daphne Guinness.

Mykro is a quarterly publication,
available at Colette, Paris and
Athenaeum, Amsterdam
Next issue will be launched during the first week of October.

N O V E L T Y / Finding the relevance of couture at Maison Martin Margiela

Haute Couture always felt like something very distant to me. Something that I'd only occasionally see presented on a dead plastic mannequin in a fashion exposition at a museum. Something that's only made for a small elite club from another era. Something that's so exclusive that it seems like it's taking place in a parallel universe to which we will never have access to. Though the reason why I love fashion so much is because it is so close to the body that it almost becomes a part of it, an extension of yourself, something that everyone must participates in and from which there is no escape. Haute Couture felt so untouchable and far away that I always regarded it more as art than as fashion. Basically I felt excluded and left out from it, not having a spare 10 grand to spend on a dress, not being a celebrity in need of a red carpet outfit and not having access to the intimate shows to see the garments in movement.

Attending the Maison Martin Margiela show forced me to think more about wether Haute Couture is still relevant in 2013. Yes we already know that it is about the detailing, the craftsmanship, the exclusivity, blablabla. But you never get to experience that by just seeing the collections through images, it just never comes through unless you see it in real life, in movement. I tell you, it is impressive.

I found how important Haute Couture can be for a house right now for many other reasons than selling clothes or having celebs wear garments (let's hope that Kanye never wears a Margiela mask again, to ironically, use it for its opposite purpose: getting attention instead of being anonymous). In The case of Maison Martin Margiela, who only have had couture collections for 3 seasons, it is a way to gain more freedom. Complete conceptual freedom, the design team gets to do whatever they want without thinking about sales or wearability. It's like going back to the core of the house. I have been told that some ideas that are too unwearable and get left out of the ready to wear lines are saved for the Couture shows. It is about showing what the maison is all about, what it is capable of, what techniques it can apply.

And as expected, Maison Martin Margiela broke all the rules of Haute Couture and send some worn down jeans down the runway. These were my favorite looks, paired with oversized collars and masks made out of large marble beads on bare skin. So simple yet so extravagant. Then there was the deconstructed and reconstructed vintage and antique garments; a 1950s prom dress, an Art Nouveau curtain and even some beadings from the Napoleon-era. Recuperating these vintage and antique pieces was such a respectful way to treat clothes, almost like an homage, making old clothes relevant again for the future. It could even be a statement from MMM connected to the relevance haute couture itself.

N O V E L T Y / Menswear, Neil Barrett ss14

I've almost grown to love menswear more than womenswear. Perhaps because menswear is somewhat more restricted, the silhouettes don't change every season as radically as they can in womenswear and it is focussed more on appreciating details, fabrics and tailoring. 'Trends' are much more subtle and individual pieces often much more classical.

I'm a huge fan of Neil Barrett's vision of spring summer 2014. Inspiration for the collection included the modernist work of Charles and Ray Eames, particularly the shape of the iconic curvy Eames chair. But also 1990s lumberjack plaid shirts, the red/black white/black kind. Barrett magnified the plaid pattern creating a larger, simplified block pattern. The last suited the Nirvana songs to which the boys walked down the runway so well. Besides the graphic prints, the garments were kept as clean as possible, all buttons, fasteners, zippers were hidden and jackets were held together with magnetic closures.

Although these clothes are literally the future and it'll be a year until we see them on the streets, it could have also been last years or next years collection. Like the Eames chair, designed more than 50 years ago but still fresh and modern as ever, I can't imagine this ever going out of style.

Images by Luca Campari
for Dazed Digital