Living Art for SOMA Magazine photographed by William Lords with styling by Bryan Marryshow.
Human League for SOMA Magazine photographed by Jacob Hodgkinson with styling by Keith S. Washington.
Purple Vision for SOMA Magazine photographed by Mike Kobal with styling by Andrew Mukamal.
Choosing a perfume merely for its scent is passé. Here, we pair uniquely stunning vessels with a directional look from the same designers’ fall/winter 2012 ready-to-wear collections.
As co-creative directors for Bally, Michael Herz and Graeme Fidler oversee the Swiss brand’s overall aesthetic. Renowned for impeccable shoes and leather goods since 1851, the company turned to Herz and Fidler to revitalize ready-to-wear and the brand’s broader lifestyle appeal. While clothing had been part of Bally’s offerings since 1976, shoes, boots and bags […]
Text by Jessica Egbu Interior architecture has been revolutionized. Constructed inside a Parisian landmark, the newest luxury boutique for French brand house Hermès redefines expectations. For the past 175 years, Hermès has substantiated their exquisite fashion standpoints on style and apparel. Now Hermès presents their interpretation on modern interior architecture with the striking, intricately woven […]
I-Pose is the latest addition to SOMA’s ongoing tradition of introducing unique, cutting-edge features to our magazine. This section portrays the winners of our online competition, where SOMA readers posed as their favorite icons. In this issue, we feature young creative minds from Tokyo and ask them to explain the reasoning behind their choices. Text by […]
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 […]
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 […]
Alex Brown Church, the central figure behind the Los Angeles-based musical entity Sea Wolf is uncomfortable. Twitchy and evasive, he populates silences with filler phrases, then ends up mumbling, “I don’t know,” when his thoughts remain unarticulated. Luckily, this communication impairedness doesn’t present itself in Church’s music. In fact, on Old World Romance, his latest […]
A low electronic growl. A flicker of light across a black screen. A nude female figure, stark white, writhes in restraints, fading in and out of the darkness. The soundtrack sizzles and pulses, and the images grow choppier. Lightning strikes. Patterns fly across contorted struggling bodies—electric stripes, stark cross-hatching. Luminous purple cloth flutters in slow […]
Dorian Duvall, the artist known as Onuinu (On You, In You), calls his music Disco-Hop, a moniker that obscures as much as it reveals. While the energetic thump of disco and the erratic beats of hip hop are evident in his sound, the songs on Mirror Gazer, his striking debut, can’t really be tied down […]
“In Colombia, we are living in a war that is not ours.” This statement by Flor Ilva, one of the subjects of first-time filmmaker Nicole Karsin’s We Women Warriors, captures the striking premise of the documentary. The film manages to condense the multifaceted conflict of Colombia by focusing on the account of three women: Doris, […]
JON GASPARINI 15 Romolo, Rye, Rosewood, Rye on the Road – San Francisco Designer-turned-serial-restaurateur Jon Gasparini keeps busy. With three bars (15 Romolo, Rosewood, and Rye) and an A-list cocktail catering venture (Rye on the Road), Gasparini also acts as a consultant all over, from local distillers to brands like Jim Beam Global, and […]
A new collection by Bally Switzerland is always special. The company has been crafting luxury leather goods for more than 160 years and is known the world over for its beautiful designs, distinctive style and exquisite quality. The new Lips for Life capsule collection, however, is extra special. Bally has joined forces with DKMS […]
In the search for the freshest in ready-to-wear, fashion has gone global. New designers are sprouting up, and the style-obsessed are taking notice, looking beyond their nearest fashion capital to curate truly international wardrobes. In the full promotion of fashion without borders, SOMA presents three of the most promising international designers. Sofie D’Hoore From […]
1. What’s your connection to the fashion world? 2. What’s your most cherished accessory or clothing item? 3. What influences your fashion choices? 4. What do you think is the most fashionable city? 5. Pick one word or phrase to describe your fashion sense. Photos by Jena Cumbo Azra Red 1. Make-up artist 2. […]
Castro and Market, a corner we San Franciscan’s are well familiar with, has another great reason to stop by. There, in the heart of leather and lace, sits what is becoming a sweet tradition. The Crème Brûlée Cart, with its array of growing flavors brings to life an adult’s fantasy of the ice-cream truck. With […]
Offering bespoke and ready-to-wear suiting from NYC’s Nolita neighborhood, White Chalk represents an international view of modern style. The humble shop on Mulberry Street is the brainchild of owner, head-designer and creative director Aaron Black. Black’s philosophy is to embrace traditional techniques, historical details and modern touches in moderation. His expertise lies in sorting through […]
Award-winning shoe designer Nicholas Kirkwood dreams in color. And if you want to color yourself pink – or blue, yellow, white or red – you must visit his Meatpacking district flagship store. This museum-style store, alive with animated shoes that burst with rich, saturated hues, is a glorious Alice in Wonderland retreat for shoe lovers, […]
San Francisco-based accessory company TOKYObay was born when Dory Isaacs, a British art and fashion design major, met Jun Kobayashi, a bass-guitarist and product enthusiast, as the two were passing through Toronto. Though from eclectic backgrounds and cultures, the two saw in one another what Isaacs calls “a great symmetry of aesthetic choices,” and knew […]
Cutting-Edge Collaborations Between Designers, Artists and Brands Over the past decade, designer collaborations have become de rigueur for brands to simultaneously attract attention and outsource innovation. Taken by Surprise does not chronicle how designers became the new celebrities and celebrities became the new designers, but it does offer the most conceptually and visually interesting examples […]