Sixty years ago, Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary took the first steps on top of Mount Everest. Tenzing Norgay, his face covered with an oxygen mask, stretches his right arm toward the sky, triumphantly waving his axe on the Mount Everest summit. Against the sky, flags of Britain, Nepal, the United Nations, and […]
Elizabeth Brunner, creator of SF-based label Piece x Piece and pioneer in creating clothing out of discarded fabric swatches, is a fashion designer. Her feelings toward fashion, however, are ambivalent. “I enjoy it creatively,” allows Brunner, but foremost in her mind are the devastating ecological effects of the garment industry. Over 4,500 swatches of non-biodegradable […]
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 […]
Multimedia artist, producer and director of films and videos, head of her own record label, songwriter, musician and political activist. Jihae does it all. But it’s music that nurtures her heart and soul. Jihae is a force of nature. She never stays in one spot for long, artistically or geographically. Since she landed in New […]
1. What are you looking forward to about NY Fashion Week? 2. Who’s your favorite designer? 3. Who’s your fashion muse or style icon? 4. What’s a spring trend you’re excited to see? 5. What trend do you wish would go away? Photography by Jena Cumbo Nami Scott 1. Seeing how people react to the […]
The art of DJ-ing requires a lot of patience, an innate sensitivity that is keenly in tune with a crowd’s temperamental emotions, along with the confidence and ability to recognize what will bring the masses pleasure on the dance floor—even when they themselves don’t know or aren’t quite sure. Put those skills into practice for […]
We think of New York as a city of skyscrapers. But nestled within the stature of it all is the exclusive Norwood Club, a London-style members-only establishment. This private club located in the heart of lower Manhattan is now part of the National Registry of Historic Places and the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. […]
After a year of success, SOMA is proud of its tradition of creating stylistic imagery through iconic themes. In this issue, SOMA readers again posed in homage to their favorite icons. These young creative San Franciscans offered their own portrayals of these inspiring legends. Text by Nathaniel Jue Photography by Maria del Rio Styling by […]
The love story between Billy Kidd and Heather Huey is one born from mutual admiration of each other’s work, and it was their work that ultimately brought them together. Kidd, an aspiring photographer, moved to New York with the intention of working for the late, great Irving Penn. Sadly, as Penn passed away within a […]
In a country that’s famous for its bizarre experiential hotels— from the IceHotel in Lapland to the floating Utter Inn that features an underwater aquarium for guests to sleep in—comes a new take on the red eye flight. Arlanda’s Jumbo Stay hotel repurposes a retired Boeing 747 and turns it into a travel experience, offering […]
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, […]
Andrew and Daniel Aged look like high school truants hiding out at Chico’s, their local Mexican food stop in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Cloaked in hoodies with multitudes of rings flashing on their collective fingers, the baby-faced brothers—who are 28 and 26, respectively—are hardly shirking responsibilities. The duo has left its music-making […]
How does Christian Louboutin, master of the red-soled shoes and innovative fashion icon, stay one step ahead of the saturated designer footwear game? Already a household name known for shoes that range from demure to sensuous and classic to bold, Louboutin introduces the next in must-have shoe fetishism (of which we are all guilty). Just […]
Spring is here, which inevitably means abbreviated clothing. Be it Missoni bikini bottoms, Isabel Marant zipped and studded paisley Daisy Dukes, or Alexander McQueen gold-sequined micro-shorts, the conclusion remains the same: It’s time to go bare. And that means waxing. For those who regularly undergo the dreaded bikini wax, the very idea of can induce […]
A unique kind of buzz was in the air at New York Fashion Week this year, the undeniable excitement about fashion’s blossoming romance with technology. From live streaming and live tweeting to models Instagram-ing from their smart phones on the runway (thank you, Kenneth Cole), no one can deny the current focus on technology in […]
Fact: Originally an ancient Indo-Persian term invoking ecstasy, and later used by the Greeks and Romans to refer to the body, the word “SOMA” has meant many things over time. Aldous Huxley described it as a holiday from the ordinary, while William S. Burroughs used it to hypothesize the posibility of a non-addictive form of […]
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 […]
“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 […]
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, […]