THE SPRING ISSUE
Future Stars of Fashion
Spotlight on Craig Green
Balancing light, shadow, and reflection the young designer creates conceptual and wearable fashion. London-based menswear designer Craig Green has already placed a mark on the fashion industry with attention constantly focused on his next step. Earning both a BA and MA at the prestigious Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, he went on […]
Cres. E. Dim.
To those not in the industry, it sounds like the glamorous life. The latest styles, the hottest events, flashing lights, and beautiful, confident people. And while this isn’t an untruth, it’s not the whole truth, either. Behind every collection and runway show that’s oohed and aahed over, there are countless hours of sketching, measuring, planning, […]
Don’t Shoot The Messenger
The Berlin-based label Don’t Shoot the Messengers (DSTM) has an immediately recognizable aesthetic, articulated through sculptural and provocative leather accents, delicate sweeping silk, and, above all else, the color black. It’s a label in constant dialogue with the designer’s adoptive city and Berlin’s notoriously avant-garde disciples. Jen Gilpin, DSTM’s 34-year-old Canadian founder, established the label […]
Continuum: 3D Printing
“Maybe data is the new black,” quips Mary Huang, half of the pioneering design duo Continuum. It might take a moment to wrap your head around, but she and her partner, Jenna Fizel, are onto something—and their work has been making waves across the fashion and design communities over the past few years. With the […]
Nordic Attire
Usually a straitjacket is a fashion don’t, but 2013 Designer’s Nest winner, Camilla Jæger, found a way to turn crazy into sassy. Jæger’s award winning line includes three ensembles that flaunt flowing fabrics and a basic color palette. “I wanted to interpret the clothing patients were wearing during hospitalization at an historical asylum in Aarhus, […]
Bernadette Alice Francis
A kaleidoscopic happiness explosion of epic proportions would be one way to describe the work of 23-year-old fashion designer on the rise Bernadette Alice Francis. Based in Melbourne, Australia—and also head-buyer/visual merchandiser at much-lauded Alice Euphemia—Francis is fascinated by the human condition, particularly “the fine line between the ephemeral, permanent, and the pursuit of happiness—how […]
Kristy Barber
A mere three years ago saw the birth of womenswear label Kuwaii, the creation of designer Kristy Barber. Following her award as Student Designer of the Year at the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival, Barber cut her fashion-teeth through internships with cult Australian brands Arnsdorf and Lover, as well as a stint in New York at […]
Black Fashion Week
Fashion history is wrought with imagery defying our perspective of what is beautiful: tall, slim, blonde, blue eyes…characteristics you’d normally attach to a white person. Fashion has always made it harder for the darker skinned girls, despite the few that triumphed such as Naomi Campbell, Chanel Iman and Joan Smalls. There just isn’t enough demand, […]
Joseph Singh
It’s risky. You’re being reckless with your life. You’re wasting your time. It’s not going to be easy. Are you sure? Chances are, if you took the artistic route in life as a career path, you’ve heard at least, (if not all) of these in some sort of variation at least once in your life. […]
Luly Yang
Seattle – Phrases like: “High-End design,” “Couture,” and “Fashion-Forward” aren’t usually the first words to pop into mind. Not the second either. Words and visions like: “Green,” “Jimi Hendrix,” and “Rain” flit across the psyche more readily. Beautiful scenery and whatnot, but beautiful dresses? Not so much. Enter Luly Yang. A passionately creative designer from […]
Everlane’s Affordable Luxury
Any fashion garment carries specific costs: fabric, zippers, buttons, factory production, shipping, overhead for human resources, warehouses, offices, computers and heath care. Rather than allow the final price to increace by up to four times the base manufacturing cost, Everlane sells directly to customers. The tangible result is an online store, featuring a basics […]
Ichiro Suzuki
Leading the menswear and tailoring industries single-handedly is young London-based, Japanese-born fashion designer Ichiro Suzuki. Suzuki breathes life into the English designs, offering a fresh take on the country’s classic menswear tradition. At once a skilled atelier and an innovator, he meticulously merges his craftsmanship skills with intricate, animated designs. Where other conceptual designers sometimes […]
Mimi Iwasaki
As Mimi Iwasaki’s instructor, Michael Carbaugh, suggested to her during her junior year at the Academy of Art University, “inspirations are strongest when they are personally related to you.” It’s a good thing Iwasaki comes from a line of artistically inclined people. Her father, a talented illustrator, chose to focus on music, while her grandfather […]
Rumi Iwasaki
Rumi Iwasaki only just graduated from San Francisco’s Academy of Art University and showed her very first runway collection at The Cannery this past May, but her unique take on menswear speaks of an aesthetic that is finely honed and developed beyond her years. Iwasaki, who counts disparate talents Hedi Slimane, Ellen von Unwerth, and […]
Emilia Wickstead
Text by Katia Ganfield New Zealand designer Emilia Wickstead’s innovative take on traditional garments is to gracefully manipulate them with a modern, British twist. “I’ve been [in London] for 15 years so I’ve been inspired by having English friends, by entertaining in the English countryside… it’s all triggered a lot of ideas. And obviously, I’m […]
CARIN RODEBJER
Carin Rodebjer takes a common objective of women’s wear—to offer high fashion with a relaxed, accessible vibe—and succeeds where so many labels fail. The Rodebjer label does not imitate renowned fashion houses or jump on trend bandwagons. She designs for a woman who is comfortable in her own skin—refined, casual and stylish. Born in Sweden, […]
FYODOR GOLAN
With their hearts firmly placed in the British fashion capital, this designer duo from Latvia (Fyodor Podgorny) and Israel (Golan Frydman) were the proud and well deserved winners of the UK’s prestige Fashion Fringe title. One of the highlights of their career, the exposure has garnered this married couple worldwide recognition. Their Spring/Summer 2012 collection […]
PETER LOC TAN NGUYEN
Representing androgyny, Peter Loc Tan Nguyen’s collection defines the portrayal of masculinity and femininity brought into several pieces. Effortless, sophisticated, and understated are just a few words to describe the collection. As a recent graduate from Academy of Art University with a degree in both Fashion Design and Knitwear, Nguyen combines the two styles together […]
LIZETTE AVERINI
Presence is the first attribute that comes to mind upon viewing Lizette Avineri’s clothing. The collection was inspired by a recent trip to Israel, where Avineri experienced a case of the Jerusalem Syndrome: “A mental phenomenon comprising the presence of delusions, obsessions or religiously-themed ideas that are triggered by visiting Jerusalem.” This syndrome creates a […]
Sruli Recht
Draped, raw and digital – these are the three words describing designer Sruli Recht’s first venture into fashion as we know it, with his debut menswear collection presented in Paris last January. A multi-faceted designer, Recht set up his design studio to work on cross-disciplinary projects. In 2008, he began producing a series of monthly […]
Ying Gao
Geography, urbanism, distances and the shape of cities – unusual elements to be found in fashion, they form the basis for the work of Chinese-born, Montreal-based designer Ying Gao. But Ying Gao is not just a designer – she is a researcher, an interactive developer of ideas, and, more formally, a professor at the Ecole […]
Simon Spurr
The one name test is the only certified litmus for major designers. Ralph, check. Donna, check. Karl, check. Oscar, check. Simon, no check (yet). Even though Simon Spurr has not quite permeated into the cultural lexicon, he’s nevertheless a major talent and significant player shaping the vision of American menswear. With Anna Wintour in his […]
Iris van Herpen
Every artist dreams of making music that destroys boundaries and forces listeners to accept them on their own terms. On his self-titled debut album, James Blake has that and more with a panoramic suite of tunes that demolishes the structures of pop music to build a glittering new edifice on the rubble. Blake made the […]
Berlin Fashion
Berlin is coming up in the fashion industry. A pubescent youngster when compared to cities like New York and Paris, the Berlin Fashion Week is steadily advancing towards becoming the international fashion community’s unexpected prom-queen. While not there yet, there is a lot of potential in this dynamic city full of independent artists and unconventional […]
