Video: Iris Van Herpen x Russell Maliphant

Culture, Fashion

This video with clothes by Iris van Herpen and choreography by Russel Maliphant was shot by Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones, who have collaborated with Bjork and Alexander McQueen, for AnOther Magazine. The music is by Salvador Breed, who has done all the music for Iris van Herpen (and not just because they are a couple!).

Martin Margiela: The Artist is Absent

Culture, Fashion

One of the premieres at the current TriBeCa Film Festival is a mini-documentary on Martin Margiela, “The Artist is Absent,” directed by Alison Chernik. How do you make a documentary about a designer notoriously recluse? You interview other important people.

Among them, Jean-Paul Gaultier, the designer who gave Margiela his first job, the fashion critic Suzy Menkes, Raf Simons, who credits seeing a Margiela show for the first time with his desire to become a fashion designer, and our dear friend, the Belgian makeup artist Inge Grognard, who did the makeup for those iconic early Margiela’s shows.

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Sacai: A to Z

Fashion

Despite her commercial success and critical acclaim Chitose Abe and her Tokyo label sacai are still a pretty well kept secret among the fashion industry’s cognoscenti. A product of the Comme des Garcons design lab that is adept at turning out prodigies, Abe has launched sacai in 1999, while she was at home nursing her child (Chitose is married to Junichi Abe, also a CdG alumni, whose label is kolor).

Nostalgia: Undercover at Pitti Uomo

Culture, Fashion

Undercover was the special guest at Pitti Uomo the first time I attended the Florentine fashion fair. I took a video of Jun Takahashi and his team making a Grace doll, which, in the typical, lightly sinister Undercover signature, is made by gutting teddy bears. It was one of the most unforgettable fashion moments and I wanted to share it with you. The phenomenal music was a live performance by Kan Takagi and Atsuhiro Ito. File under nostalgia…

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COMME DES GARÇONS | PERFUME

Fashion, Features/Op-Ed

It is no big secret that “perfume” is a bit of a dirty word in fashion. Often, it is seen, not without justification, as an easy way to make money by capitalizing on one’s brand name. The typical arrangement is to license out one’s name to a big perfume conglomerate, tell them what you want it to smell like, and sit back while the money rolls in. A successful perfume can be immensely profitable. Thierry Mugler, to take one example, has not designed a garment in decades, but his enormously successful perfume “Angel” has made him a millionaire many times over. All you need is a brand name and a good formula. It is no wonder then that every newly minted fashion designer and celebrity is eager to sign a perfume deal.