#one thing about me is i will be wearing black garments from the 1990s

[opiumvampire]

so i did just spend like $200 on clothes this weekend but it was all secondhand stuff to wear to my new jorb and its so cute and i love things

[meirmakesstuff]

Hello! My group of Wayfarers has now built themselves a building which serves as a general meeting place, as a prayer space, and a last resort retreat in case of monster attacks. Which, if wikipedia didn't lie to me, is not unlike a Synagogue. So I was wondering if men would wear a kipah/other hat inside even if they're just gathering to eat. There're also strangers regularly entering the same space to eat. Would that make a difference?

Oh, spectacular. I love this question because it has so many different layers to it. Once again you’ve asked a deceptively simple question that’s going to take me several paragraphs of background to address, and I’m going to expand it to include Jewish head covering practices other than men wearing kippot while we’re at it, as well as touching on the nature of Jewish sacred spaces. 

First of all, congratulations on naming your Jewish-coded culture! Wayfarers is a fascinating name and opens interesting implications about your world. I remain incredibly curious about the story you’re telling.

Second of all, my usual 2J3O (Two Jews, three opinions) disclaimer applies, especially this time, because I’m going to be talking about a lot of different Jewish practices with regard to head coverings, and while I’ve spent some time in a wide variety of different Jewish spaces and movements, I’m not deeply immersed in all of them, so for Jewish readers, if I make an incorrect generalization about practices in your movement I’d love to read your corrections. I’d also like to point anyone reading this toward Kermab’s previous ask for context on this conversation. 

As it happens, two years ago I conducted a series of interviews across denominations about head covering practices and feelings for a book I used in my fourth through sixth grade classroom. While I don’t have legal permissions to share those interviews for any purpose other than classroom teaching, I’ll be referencing them as we go along here. 

The first and most basic question is who covers their heads, and when. Your ask shows some basic and reasonable assumptions: men cover their heads in the synagogue. That’s not untrue, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.

You might remember from the other ask that rabbinic Judaism, which most of us practice today, didn’t develop until the sacrificial system was becoming unfeasible and eventually impossible to maintain. At that point, it seems that a cultural convention was for men and women to cover their heads at all times, with the similar explanation of modesty. Modesty seems to take on a different connotation when we’re discussing men or women--avoiding self-aggrandizement for men, sexual rectitude for women--but in essence covering one’s head was universal. I haven’t made a particular study of the shifts in this custom over time, but I can note that many examples of historic Jewish women’s costume from different regions includes one or another type of head covering--as did the non-Jewish women’s fashions of many of those places. At some point it became accepted that only married women needed to cover their hair, that since a woman’s hair was to be understood as a symbol of her sexuality, an unmarried woman’s visible hair was a way of communicating her availability. Men’s headwear meanwhile shifted as well, as did other religious wear such as tzitzit and tefillin. Tefillin settled into a tradition of being only worn during weekday morning prayer. Tzitzit developed into two garments: a tallit katan worn under a boy’s or man’s clothing at all times, and a tallit gadol worn over the clothing only during the morning prayer service. In communities where it was becoming uncommon for non-Jewish men to cover their heads, especially in places where the Christian convention was to remove one’s hat upon entering their houses of worship, it became expected in a synagogue that men might need to be told that the convention was to cover their heads, and kippot began to be provided to them there. 

However, the convention isn’t actually to cover one’s head out of respect for the building. As you learned in your research, a synagogue building isn’t a locus of holiness but a location where holy activities take place. The expectation that developed was that men should cover their heads when engaging in religious activities. What are religious activities? Prayer, certainly, but also any activity that includes prayer, such as lifecycle occasions, home rituals, and eating. 

There’s a memorable scene in George Eliot’s famously well-researched novel Daniel Deronda in which Daniel sits down to a Shabbat meal with a Jewish family. Eliot describes the family and their guests pausing before they ate, the men putting on their hats, and a benediction Eliot and her character do not understand taking place before the meal is eaten. From my perspective as a modern American, it was notable to me that they didn’t put on kippot but resumed the hats any Victorian man would take off upon entering their home, which these men had apparently also taken off, but put back on for the brachot before eating (Eliot doesn’t specify, as far as I can remember, whether they kept them on through the meal). 

Daniel Deronda makes passing reference to the split that was already underway at the time in European Jewry, the development of the Reform movement. Early Reform practice developed out of a desire to be as little distinguished from the surrounding Christian culture as possible without actually worshipping a tripartite deity. Changes included, among others, abandoning all unique cultural garments, including tefillin, tzitzit, and any indoor covering of heads. At the time Eliot was writing, “Reformed” and “Rabbinic”--now Reform and Orthodox--were the only two distinct movements of European Judaism, though Hasidic groups, under the heading of Rabbinic Judaism but each having developed unique traditions, were many. My knowledge of what non-European Jews were doing, sartorially, at the time is very slight and I would welcome knowledgeable input. 

The development of the Conservative movement is generally credited to the 1880s, when a disagreement within the Reform movement about how far to assimilate and which traditions to abandon culminated in the famed “Trefa Banquet” at which those who wanted to conserve practices such as keeping kosher are said to have walked out due to the flagrantly non-kosher menu. The symbolic incident speaks to the differences in practice between the movements: Reform Judaism in the 19th and early 20th centuries might have been indistinguishable from Christianity in all but theology, while Conservative Judaism would have been indistinguishable from Orthodox Judaism in all but a few liturgical and practical leniencies. Today, Conservative Judaism is dwindling due to a lack of clear leadership or identity, while the Reform movement rediscovers practices they had once abandoned, and certain Orthodox communities make motions of various kinds toward the center as well; nothing is simple in the story of Jewish life, and nothing is ever finished developing.

Here’s where the gender thing complicates, because in the mid to late 20th century Jewish practice began to egalitarianize in Reform and Conservative Judaism. I won’t go into the step-by-step development of women’s prayer attire and the path to women’s ordination and full inclusion from a historical perspective, but my own experiences are pretty illustrative about the development of practices from the 1990s until today:

I grew up in an Orthodox congregation, a university Hillel, a Conservative congregation, and a Conservative parochial school. The Conservative congregation was the only one of these that owned its own building; the school rented the top floor of the JCC and both the Hillel and the Orthodox congregation met on Saturdays and holidays in all-purpose rooms on the university campus, and when those were unavailable in whatever spaces they could secure. In all of these communities, boys were required to be wearing kippot at all times; in the Orthodox congregation men sometimes wore hats, while in the school there was a clear distinction between hats, which were impolite to wear indoors as a function of 20th century American culture, and kippot, which boys were required to be wearing at all times on school property; a boy who forgot to bring his own kipa had to walk to the office, deposit 25 cents in the tzedakah box, and take a plasticky black kipa to wear for the rest of the day. In the conservative synagogue, men were required to wear kipot, and women who were taking an active role in the service of any kind were required to cover their heads as well, with a kipa, a hat, or a provided lace doily. Women in the pews were permitted to make that choice themselves. 

As a girl*, I was and remain uncomfortable with that dichotomy, in a way that is separate from the fact that I turned out not to be a girl after all. An Orthodox adult offered the paltry reasoning that women were simply closer to God than men, and that being thus not required to take part equally they were therefore barred from doing so, which at eleven already read to me as Victorian essentialist nonsense.  As an adult I know women for whom that reasoning or a softened version of it is spiritually meaningful but I have also known many, so many women for whom that logic was a source of frustration and hurt. 2J3O. 

I began wearing a kipa at the age of eleven, at first only as a form of protest against the principal’s daily “We will begin; all boys put on your kippot,” and later because wearing it became meaningful to me in ways I still struggle to put into words. I began to wear my kippot at all times that a boy was expected to do so: at all times on and around the JCC where the school was, on school field trips, at the synagogue (we had by that time tapered off participation as a family in the Orthodox congregation and were splitting our attendance between the Hillel and the Conservative synagogue: I later learned that this was because my mother was concerned that my brother would adopt the sexist attitudes she had overheard from men in the campus Orthodox group; all I knew at the time was that the communities I was in were struggling with how much and in what contexts to adopt egalitarian practice. 

I was not the only girl* who formed our small brigade of kipa-wearing heritors of our mothers’ feminist battles, but we were not many. At school, the principal still opened the prayer service with a reminder that all boys were required to put on their kipa--and as we moved up into middle school, tallit and tefillin--and every day I stood up with the crowd of grumbling boys and wrapped myself in the tallit I had sewed and tied with my mother’s assistance and the tefillin my parents had bought me at my request. Once or twice I forgot my bag at home and went without, and the principal said nothing, though boys would have copped a lunch detention. Once I lost my kipa somehow on the bus to school and marched myself to the office to put my quarter in the tzedaka box and take my shameful plasticky kipa; the office manager watched me and said nothing. Boys struggling to put on their tefillin began to ask me for help rather than other boys or the principal; I was the only one in my grade clearly doing this by choice; I got an early taste of what it is like to teach and began to learn to lead without judgement or blame. 

My bat* mitzvah celebration took place on a Sunday rather than a Saturday. I wore my tefillin with a fluffy floral, crinolined Easter dress and a kipa my mother decorated with fabric flowers. I spoke in my sermon about feminism, about equality, about arguments for a gender essentialist practice that I had heard and rejected already as I took the traditional first steps into Jewish adulthood. Besides me, men and women participated equally in the service: the Hillel rabbi shopped around among the Jewish professors in my parents’ social circle and created a breakdown that satisfied us all. A few of my father’s cousins declined their invitations, but no one I was actually acquainted with. 

I went to public high school and for the first time was spending my every day in a context where boys’ heads--and therefore mine--were uncovered and Jewish topics rarely came up in conversation. I made close friends, I dated Jewish boys my friends recommended, that I should have instead made friends with, and I wondered who I was. The summer before Sophomore year I came back from a week at Jewish teen camp and did not take my kipa off. I have worn it every day since then, for more than twenty years. 

My mother, who had been my model and cheerleader in exploring my Jewish, feminist development was initially uncomfortable. I remember a morning when her discomfort escaped in the form of snark: “[Meir] thinks she’s* going to a religious occasion.” I snarked back, adopting a theatrically pious tone for my “Life is a religious occasion,” but snark aside that’s actually the way I experience it. Wearing the kipa every day, whether I’m teaching Hebrew or taking out the trash, is a way of expressing that my religious life is not compartmentalized in certain actions and locations: I am the same Jewish, trans, complicated me, wherever I am and whatever I do. 

In graduate school I worked in a Reconstructionist synagogue, and I do again now, and the practice in the school I taught in then was to require all students to wear kippot at all times in the synagogue: that’s been the case when I’ve taught in Reform congregations as well. When I taught in a Conservative congregation I was permitted to encourage but not to require girls to wear kipot, but I was asked to require the boys to do so. Since that wasn’t a community where I felt I could be transparent about my trans identity, I wasn’t able to bring my personal experiences to use there, and that’s what set me on the road to creating my book of interviews with as many different kinds of Jews as I could gather. 

My interviews with other Jews about their head covering choices revealed a wide diversity of feelings. I had a cis male Conservative rabbi/professor tell me he only covers his head when he is specifically teaching on religious subjects (he also teaches history, I believe), and that when he was a child in an Orthodox parochial school his rabbi advised the boys to wear baseball caps to cover their heads on the subway so that if they misbehaved it wouldn’t reflect badly on the Jewish community. I had the son of the same rabbi tell me he wore his kipa at all times as a matter of habit, but his fiancee had asked him to pocket it or wear a hat if they were going to a restaurant on Shabbat, because that was contrary to the practice of both of their youth (traditional Shabbat practice forbids using money and cooking or instructing someone to cook for you). I had a cis male Reform rabbi tell me that he wore a kipa at all times because, although he didn’t keep kosher and didn’t refrain from going out to restaurants on Shabbat, he wanted to make the point that those too were legitimate practices of legitimate Jews. I had a cis male Conservative rabbi tell me that he preferred to wear a bandana rather than a kipa unless the occasion was too formal to allow it. I had a Lubavicher woman talk to me about the deep and the practical meanings she found in different methods of covering her hair and why she had shifted those practices throughout her lifetime; I had a non-Hasidic ultra-Orthodox woman say almost identical things, and I had a third Orthodox woman tell me she had worn hats that covered most of her hair when her children were young so that they would be able to fit in, but now that they were adults she wore the smallest hats she could find without actually being a kipa, to the mild agitation of her community. I had a hospital chaplain, not a rabbi, tell me that he used his kipa with a team logo on it to connect with patients, but that he rarely wore it outside of work situations. I had a gender-fluid person talk to me about different ways she has covered her head, or her hair, at various times in her shifting personal identity, to fit in with various different communities. I had so many women clergy and lay people tell me about harassment they had experienced from ultra-Orthodox men and non-Jews for wearing a kipa in public that I couldn’t use all of them. Some of the women talked about having given up covering their heads except in the synagogue or Jewish holiday meals. Some talked about wearing hats to look more like Orthodox women, or wearing beaded kippot that could pass as hair accessories. Some talked about defiantly wearing their kippot despite the aggression of Orthodox men demanding that they conform to Orthodox proscribed gender performance or non-Jews demanding that they engage in discussions of Israel politics while grocery shopping, or using public transportation. I had a Black Lubavicher woman tell me that when she wore a tichel (headwrap) she was frequently mistaken for Muslim, but that when she wore a shaitel (wig) she was frequently mistaken for Christian. In particular my students were moved by that tension: for so many of the interviewees in the book, the benefit and the drawback of their head covering choices was being identifiable as Jews, and here was someone covering in extremely mainstream ways and going unrecognized even within her own community. 

Every single person I interviewed who was in any way a parent, teacher, or community leader talked about the hope that, whatever their practice was, it would inspire children who look to them to do the same. 

Among interviewees who wore a kipa as part of their practice but not all the time, there was a general agreement along the lines of “I wear it when I engage in prayer, learn or teach Jewish subjects, or eat with a Jewish group.” The practice isn’t tied to the location but the activity. However, there are some locations that are so strongly associated with those activities that one might be expected to cover one’s head there regardless of the specific activity. 

Looking specifically at the Wayfarers’ gathering-house (a literal translation both of the English term “Synagogue” and the Hebrew “Beit Knesset”), I would certainly say yes that they would cover their heads in one way or another when sitting down to eat; you can make a call about whether they would do so to engage in community politics or conduct diplomacy, and I would imagine there might be other priorities on their mind in the event of a monster attack. I will say that the border between religious practice and cultural practice, when it comes to Judaism, is not really meaningful, so if the community comes together for, say, a wedding or a holiday party, modern Jews who wear kipot would almost universally put on a kipa for such an occasion. It’s your call as to whether the gender divide is a meaningful factor in your imaginary culture; I will say that from Rashi’s daughters wearing tefillin to Rabbi Regina Jonas tending to her community in Nazi Germany to the ordinations or admissions into rabbinical school in the past few years of openly nonbinary clergy or prospective clergy in the Reform and Conservative movements, it has never been truly black and white. The choices you make in that regard will tell a story about who the Wayfarers are and how they fit into the larger history of your world. 

*A note on gender: like Jews, trans people have a wide diversity of opinions and attitudes, including toward their childhood selves. What is comfortable for me is not necessarily comfortable for other trans people. Referring to myself as having been a girl is honest with regard to the way I experienced things then; referring to me as a woman now would be an aggressive act of rudeness. Referring to someone as their assigned gender when speaking about their childhood is not and should not be the norm unless the person has specified that it’s their preference: I only do it in certain contexts and do not prefer that others talk about me as having been a girl. I chose to do it in this context because I was discussing choices I made at a time when I would have described myself as a girl. Today my pronouns are exclusively He/Him and it is not my practice to reveal my previous name. 

[onthewavenojetski]

WALLABEES, CREEPERS! I’m OBSESSED!!.

Clark’s wallabees are back and this creeper is here for it!

Since the Neanderthals walked the earth, humans have relied on fashion to define their image or others’ perception of them. Throughout the different eras of civilization, different shoes have been the staple statement of high fashion. Sandals in ancient Egypt, pointed shoes in medieval Europe, and today, from the Chelsea boots to the obsession inciting dad sneakers, shoes are the foundation on which a lot of people build their image and express their style.

Times in fashion and style have evolved so much that you can literally wear any style of garment you want and turn heads now. It’s a matter of having the right audience for your style. Fashion and style are no longer a singular idea. My thing for some time now has been adding creeper soles to footwear. Creeper soles give formal shoes a kind of different look and morph them so they can be paired with any outfit to give the identical vibe sneakers would.

I have personally customized two of my favourite shoes to creepers(a style of shoe which has thick crepe soles); one black Giorgio Brutini work boot, now with red creeper soles, and the other is a Cole Haan black patent leather derby with suede markings which I added a black creeper sole to. I’ve rocked these footwears on any outfit and it sparked a great sense of total accomplishment in my style until I found myself a pair of burnt orange wallabies. My jaw drops every time I look at myself in the mirror before leaving the house. Piggyback when I said I love creeper soles, seeing a naturally inspired, well detailed original creeper took me off balance. I got the same exciting feeling from these as I get from wearing the Nike air force one sneakers. It has a different vibe to it though, man! It’s so fire! There is this gratified sense of style I feel when I put on shoes with creeper soles (no I’m not short, I’m 6.1, so please don’t reach). There are various footwears with creeper soles, like the Brothel creepers, Rihanna’s Fenty Puma Creeper and a whole lot more. Most recently though, I have found a new obsession; WALLABEES!!!

To buttress my obsession with wallabees, I present to you THE CLARK’S WALLABEES and why I’m excited about the idea of them coming back into style.

The Clark Wallabees is a natural-born creeper sole shoe and has been part of Clark’s core offering since 1967. Wallabees are classic, timeless, and comfortable. Clark’s Wallabee has been some-what of a staple pop-culturally relevant product and has been infused into music, art and even high fashion. It’s been successfully exported around the world since the time the shoe was first picked in the early 1990s.

In 1993, a New York-based hip-hop/rap crew Wu-Tang Clan even rapped about Wallabees.

Clark’s is famous around the world foremost for the quality and timelessness of its footwears and to be honest, Wallabees are its less-known offerings. However, the shoe has a huge influence on the brand among niche fashion communities, especially its original Wallabee silhouette. Notable personalities like Lebron James, Drake, Pharell Williams, Kanye West, David Beckham and Ellen Degeneres are known to have sported these sexy creepers.

With one of the most select fanbases in footwear, Clarks has managed to connect with various subcultures the world over since its inception, with different iterations of their signature crepe-sole synonymous with different style tribes.

There are tonnes of major collaborations with Clark’s Wallabees, and streetwear giants, supreme are the most recent with a paisley collection. Supreme reworked Clarks Originals classic Wallabee silhouette with a water- and stain-resistant GORE-TEX suede upper and a lightweight Vibram sole.

The Wallabees is here to stay, pair it up with virtually any outfit and watch your jaw drop.

[fashiontrendin-blog]

The Definitive Guide To Terrace Fashion

http://fashion-trendin.com/the-definitive-guide-to-terrace-fashion/

The Definitive Guide To Terrace Fashion

Ordinarily, getting kitted out head to toe in your most expensive clothing might be something you’d reserve for a date, a wedding or a black-tie event. However, if you were a devotee of terrace fashion, a matchday trip to the pub would be the only excuse you’d need to get yourself suited and booted.

Of course, by “suit” we mean a grand’s worth of designer Italian outerwear and by “boots” we’re referring to hen’s-teeth-rare Adidas trainers. Because the terrace lads’ definition of finery is a far cry from your standard Savile Row tailoring.

Followers of this subcultural movement refer to themselves as “casuals”. To the layman, they’re football fans who choose to clad themselves in designer “casual” clothing rather than their team’s colours. In the early days of the late 1970s, this was done in order to more easily infiltrate rival firms for fights – something that has seen the term become synonymous with hooliganism and thuggery.

But not all casuals are or were hellbent on weekend, lager-fuelled barbarity. For many, their love for the scene revolves around the fashion and music. Scratch below the surface and you’ll find there’s more to terrace fashion than just flying fists and Stone Island logos. In fact, the scene has influenced modern menswear in ways you probably weren’t even aware of.

The Rise Of The Casuals

Terrace fashion has its roots in the late 1970s. The success of English football clubs saw young fans travelling overseas to Europe for matches and developing a taste for new and exotic sportswear in the process. They brought it back home, others saw and wanted it, and so the cycle began. This was really the beginning of hype sportswear.

The subculture developed its own uniform and a selection of core brands. “Farah, Lois, Diadora, Nike, Adidas, Puma, Sergio Tacchini, Fila, Ellesse, Cerutti 1881, Australian, Lacoste, Lyle and Scott, Pringle, Kappa,” says Neil Primett, owner of 80s Casual Classics, a dedicated casual shop that has supplied wardrobe to films such as The Firm, This Is England and The Business. “These are the labels that made up the outfit of your typical 1979-to-1985 casual.

“Exactly where it started is more difficult to say. I could not pin this on any one place.”

Many credit Manchester as the birthplace of terrace fashion, others namecheck Liverpool. Wherever it began, one thing was for certain: this new way of dressing was offering young, working-class men a space where they could engage with fashion.

“Then we got into one-upmanship,” says Primett. “It was all about who had the best and the latest gear. You might have started out wanting the best Patrick football boots to be like the best footballer. Next thing you know you were after the latest must-have Patrick cagoule. And so it continued.”

The Evolution Of Terrace Fashion

The one-upmanship meant that terrace fashion evolved quickly, especially during the 80s. “The style changed rapidly and dramatically,” recalls Gary Aspden, a footwear designer and brand consultant for Adidas, and cult figure in terrace fashion. “It went from skin-tight jeans to flares to a tapered fit to a 501 fit to a loose, baggy fit – all in the space of a decade. It would literally change overnight. It was street fashion in the truest sense. You had to be part of it to keep up with it.”

During the 90s, cornerstone brands such as Sergio Tacchini and Fila gave way to the likes of Stone Island and CP Company. High-end names, such as Prada, Burberry, Aquascutum and Gucci also began to creep into the stands as casuals continued in their bid to outdo each other.

However, the constant peacocking wasn’t to last. The advent of new technology and online auctions saw previously rare items becoming more easily obtainable and the casual look plateaued. “The playing field is so different to how it was when I was a teenager,” says Aspden. “And that’s down to the internet.

“Nowadays casual style has a much more set look and whilst it still exists there isn’t the same urgency in the style one-upmanship that used to go on. The only two brands I can think of that had the longevity to maintain their relevance right the way through were Adidas and Lacoste.”

Terrace Fashion In Modern Menswear

Today, terrace fashion has swaggered out of the stands and into the mainstream. Brands that once had heavy links to football violence have shaken off those negative connotations and become more accessible. It’s the result of the casual look moving beyond its sports-tribe roots and becoming a lifestyle for style-conscious men.

It’s something that Aspden recognises from his work on Adidas’ Spezial line – a collection of clothing that has been bringing casual style to a wider audience. “With Spezial we acknowledged that there is a hardcore Adidas-dedicated audience here in the UK and across Northern Europe that has its roots in casual style and bears little relation the sneakerhead-hype-basketball-inspired sportswear culture that permeates the US.”

Music has also had a huge part to play in opening the casual uniform up to a wider audience. The advent of acid house in the late 1980s and early 1990s brought sportier styles and big logos into the spotlight, while artists such as Liam Gallagher, the Stone Roses and Kasabian have all played a part in keeping the style alive today.

Terrace Trainer Culture

The word “sneakerhead” probably isn’t something you’d tend to associate with the rain-battered terraces of English football clubs, but trainer culture is rife in this country thanks to the casuals. However, while traditional sneaker enthusiasts fawn over all things Nike and New Balance, for the terrace fashion set there’s only one brand worth striving for.

“Adidas has always made the best football products and for me that is at the root of it,” says Aspden. “Where I grew up, when the whole terrace thing kicked off in the late 1970s, it was young kids that adopted the brand’s football shoes as a fashion staple.”

Most of Aspden’s generation were introduced to Adidas footwear through football shoes like the Kick, the Mamba, the Bamba and the Samba. As the 1980s rolled on, all manner of Adidas styles became popular – not just football-inspired models. “We were wearing everything from tennis, running, training, indoor and even the leisure shoes that Adidas made at that time,” Aspden remembers. “There was also a huge subculture of kids travelling over to Switzerland, Austria and Germany to get hold of Adidas trainers that weren’t available in the UK.”

After spotting the demand, savvy retailers such as Liverpool’s Wade Smith and Manchester’s Oasis (not the band) circumvented the company and began importing Adidas shoes themselves. This opened things up to a wider audience and made copping rare trainers more manageable for UK enthusiasts, further cementing the brand with the three stripes as the go-to for casual footwear.

“I think most terrace lads like the simplicity of that Adidas aesthetic from the 70s and 80s,” Aspden adds. “Adidas footwear is synonymous with casual style in the same way that Doc Martens are synonymous with skinheads.”

It’s a trend as evergreen as Converse All-Stars, but even so, the modern obsession with retro sneakers has brought 80s and 90s styles back into fashion.

Key Pieces

The typical terracewear aficionado’s wardrobe will be packed to bursting point with expensive coats, technical jackets and rare trainers. However, the bulk of it can be divided up into seven distinct categories. These are the key styles you need to know about.

Mac

If you’ve ever been unfortunate enough to have seen Green Street, there are likely two things you remember about Charlie Hunnam’s football-firm-boss character. Number one: his shockingly badly acted Cockney accent. And number two: his pristine, Stone Island trench coat.

In the 1980s, casuals made a move toward British luxury brands, the two main ones being Burberry and Aquascutum. These two labels are known for producing some of the finest long-length outerwear and it wasn’t long before beige, knee-length coats were flooding football grounds.

In more recent years, the style has lost ground to more technical styles but still remains a cornerstone of casual culture.

Hooded Jacket

The north-west of England is arguably the spiritual home of terrace fashion. Rainy, outerwear-loving cities like Manchester and Liverpool gave rise to the casuals and as such, the scene’s affinity for anoraks and cagoules is deep rooted.

Terrace fashion is about two key things: who’s go the best clobber, and keeping the elements at bay while watching the match. This set of requirements has seen high-quality, high-end hooded jackets become the defining garment of the scene. Brands like Stone Island and CP Company have become the gold standards, but sailing and outdoor brands such as Henri Lloyd, Fjallraven and Paul & Shark are also popular.

Track Jacket

Before all the Aquascutum trench coats and CP Company goggle jackets, the humble track jacket reigned supreme in the casual’s wardrobe. This sporty, retro piece is still a common sight at matches today, but it was when fans started bringing tracksuits back from trips to Europe in the late 1970s that it really go a foothold in the subculture.

Italian brands like Sergio Tacchini, Ellesse and Fila soon came to define the look. The fact that these names weren’t available in the UK at the time only made them all the more appealing to young football fans keen to outdo one another in the fashion stakes.

Jeans

While corduroy trousers and even flares have enjoyed waves of popularity in terrace fashion, it’s straight-leg denim that has prevailed. Ever since the early days in Liverpool, jeans have ruled the roost and as the casual look continues to evolve, so does its followers’ taste in denim.

Traditionally, mid-wash and stonewash fabric from Emporio Armani was probably the most widely worn – almost an afterthought to an expensive jacket and nice pair of trainers. However, today’s terrace-fashion aficionados are more clued up on their weights and wefts, often opting for heavy, raw denim from dedicated brands like Edwin and Nudie.

Scarf

A multipurpose accessory, useful for both keeping the chill off on wintery terraces and obscuring faces before and after a post-match scuffle, the scarf is deeply entrenched into the casual way of life.

Often worn to cover the nose and mouth, checks and tartans are what it’s all about. British brands, such as Burberry, Aquascutum and Barbour are all popular choices and are still a common sight at football grounds today.

Cap

For those casuals intent on fighting, baseball caps have always provided another handy means of keeping their faces hidden from CCTV cameras and police patrols. This practical use has seen the cap permeate terrace fashion making it the headwear of choice for for both violent and peaceful terrace lads alike.

Again, Burberry is a favourite brand, due to its luxury price tag and distinctive all-over check branding. Meanwhile, Polo Ralph Lauren and Lacoste are solid options at the lower end of the price spectrum.

Trainers

Terrace fashion is probably at least fifty per cent about the trainers. Having the most sought-after kicks is a huge part of causal culture and although the Reebok Classic is a staple option, it’s Adidas that rules the roost as far as footwear is concerned.

Classics like the Gazelle and the Samba have remained popular over the years. But during the early years, young fans were often travelling back and forth to Germany to pick up rare models that couldn’t be found in the UK.

[putthison]

Transitioning out of Dress Codes Altogether

I’ve always paid attention to what I wear -- I specifically remember the floral tie and pegged pants I wore to my first dance, where I awkwardly box-stepped with a girl, shout out to Junior Capers and the Tredyffrin/ Easttown school district--but I didn’t really think about it in relation to others’ clothing deeply until I started going to work. In a cubicle. Wearing a tie I stole from my dad.

Most weekdays since then (for over a decade) I’ve left my house in the morning to work in a traditional office, and worn what I’d like to consider thoughtful business casual. The boundaries of business casual are rarely clear and tend toward the khakis-and-polo side of things. As Derek wrote, “Not as interesting as casualwear could be; not as sharp as the traditional coat-and-tie. It’s just vanilla bland.” It’s one of those areas where we’re technically free to wear nearly anything but unwritten rules often keep us boxed in, or else we’ll raise the eyebrows of our Kirkland polo-d co-workers. I mostly wear OCBDs (lighter cotton weaves in summer), cotton twill or wool flannel trousers, and extra-casual sportcoats (like Engineered Garments or Camoshita might make) or a cardigan.

Last week, though, I started working from home close to full time. My new situation has a lot of benefits -- I can access snacks at any time -- but it’s made me wonder whether my business wardrobe is obsolete. I have a decent desk setup with natural light, I literally do not have to leave the house; who am I getting dressed for?

Of course, many men work mostly on their own terms, don’t have an office, and cope just fine. I asked a few guys who’ve been working this way for awhile how they approach dressing for the home office.

The Tailored Uniform Approach

Mitchell Moss is an editor and writer working for a church in Cincinnati, but he lives and works in an older house outside of Nashville. He likes tailored clothing, mostly Italian, and doesn’t let the lack of a conference room and water cooler stop him. “I usually wear open collar shirt and sportcoat, and jeans or dress pants. I’m almost always in tailoring. That’s how I like getting dressed.”

So no sweatpants. “The slob thing? I cannot do that. Tailored clothing -- it’s what I’ve spent money on for years, and didn’t buy it just to hang it there. Plus I get on instagram in the morning, and a lot of accounts I follow are in Europe, and have already posted cool outfits -- it gets me excited about wearing a jacket again.”

In the two years he’s had this work style, Mitchell says he’s gotten more casual and wears ties less often. “I do wear jeans a lot more -- almost every day now. Wearing a tie with jeans just feels weird. Part of my philosophy is trying to keep it real: ‘OK dude you’re working from home.’ I have a very strong utilitarian streak in me, I live in the real world -- and there’s no point in putting wear and tear on nice pants.” Plus he does have to set up and break down for photo shoots sometimes, which is better to do in jeans, and shoes he won’t scratch.

What does he do in the summer swelter of the South? “At the extremes of the seasons, when it’s hot, I will forego a sportcoat. No shorts! Don’t quite go that far.”

The Approach That Changes Day to Day

Eric Cano runs a fashion casting agency -- that is, he connects brands with the right-looking people for photo shoots or runway shows. Striking out on his own a couple of years ago after a long time working for a single company, he’s changed his style with his role and the shifting sands of men’s style. “I don’t have to worry about what I look like. I consider myself a fashion person, but on any given day I can kinda wear whatever I want. I don’t really have to put a suit on, which is a shame because I have so many.”

When he was in ad sales, wearing tailoring felt like it fit the role. “My uniform was sports jacket, woven shirt, nice pants, and shoes. I’d show up to meetings with Nike, it was kind of my calling card to be the guy in this market in a suit, meanwhile it was just a sports jacket. Asking a company to do a media buy, it would have felt funny showing up in a tshirt, jeans, and Jordan Is asking someone to spend that much money -- a navy blazer justified what I was asking for. I don’t know, maybe people thought I was a narc.”

Now he balances his interest in fashion with the different demands he has every day: sometimes meeting clients or models, sometimes spending the day at his home office or co-working space answering emails.

“I want to be comfortable, and functionality is great, but I still want to look nice. When it’s my first time meeting someone other than email, want them to think ‘Oh, that’s what he looks like, that’s really sharp.’ Then next time we meet I’ll be in sneakers and a trucker jacket.”

When I talked to Eric (over the phone), he was in post-gym-wear -- snow boots, sweatpants, and a bubble jacket. “I’m meeting people for dinner later, I’ll probably get out of the sweatpants. I’ll wear good jeans, a knit, nice shoes, and call it a day.” Eric, who’s in his 30s, told me he likes Dior Homme for jeans but also Levis 511s or 501s, recently picked up a shawl cardigan from Martin Margiela, which he’s been paying attention to, he estimates, since 2003.

He’s always liked black boots, and guesses he has 40 pairs. Recently he’s been wearing Balenciaga biker boots or Dries Van Noten chelseas. “Work hard, buy nice things. On sale of course.”

The Sophisticated Traveler Approach

Gus Walbolt works as an artist’s licensing agent and business consultant--selling his publishing business in the early 2000s afforded him the opportunity to set his own work style, which includes a couple of phone calls a day in his home in Walnut Creek, California. “Then off to gym; it’s one of the advantages of selling your company.”

While in publishing, he witnessed the casualization of the workplace in the 1980s and 90s. “When everyone still dressing up a lot, I still got questions-- ‘Gus, why do you get so dressed up -- it’s your company, you don’t have to dress up.’ But it’s all about showing style. In the 1990s my uniform was a double-breasted blue blazer, jeans while traveling, and gray flannels when I arrived. And I wore a tie. During that time, because we were selling art-based products, I felt it was important to project style. I thought it was necessary to show that I understood style in order to sell style and design.”

Nowadays Gus, who’s in his 60s, mixes his tailored taste with modern dressed-down looks, mixing the vibes perfected in global style capitals. “When I started working for myself, I started wearing what I wear today: American jeans, English shoes, and Italian shirts. Maybe LVC 1954 jeans, an Italian collared shirt, a casual sport coat -- like Ring Jacket, Japanese made in an Italian style.”

In the last year, Gus has started to favor cardigans rather than sport coats all the time. "Cable-knit cardigans, maybe with pockets; not so much grandpa cardigans, a stand-up rather than shawl collar, with a scarf."

“Every now and then, my wife goes 'Everything’s so casual, don’t wear a jacket; can you wear something else?’”

[memyandin]

Hair Style Trends In 2005

Among the best mediums to witness the resurgence in is style, most especially in the world of t-shirts. Lots of people use this style for pattern purposes and also not due to the fact that there is any nostalgia attached. As a matter of fact, one that is not fashion conscious nowadays does not obtain much significance. You could appear appearing like all the other sheeple, or you could take some time as well as do some study and also really stand apart from the crowd with your option of 80s fashion items. Bollywood started as a system for theater artistes and also went on to become a business entrance to the young people and also hopefuls for a profession in the film as well as apparel industry. In a comparable style, the early 80's saw the rise of the grunge style which continued till the 1990's. Like all pure, genuine social activities, it had not been long before The Guy discovered a cunning method to profit from the rise of Grunge culture. She was not just a great singer, she likewise played guitar and also verified on greater than one occasion that she was every bit as capable as the people. Many thanks to the exercise as well as aerobics movements of the 80s as well as Hip Jump society, combined with the much enjoyed film Dirty Dancing garments formerly seen only at the gym bordered right into the road. They were a staple in the 80's and have stayed a staple in European as well as american style for the last 30 years. Flashy and elegant look and its value for the health and wellness of the foot into the limelight, as models of ladies Nike footwear are simply a few of the most prominent shoes versions by 2014. Several of the 80s senior prom outfits had ruffles at the neck, shoulders, waistline and hem. Because I was such a wild young thing in the 80s that that songs just hits me at a mobile degree, have to be. Although it does not get anymore 80s than this, it's still classy and totally do-able today. As we could see, fashion as well as technology can grow together and can even aid one out one another. Furthermore, retro has ended up being an essential component of a woman's closet; not simply for style mindful individuals, yet additionally for everybody. Concerning the style accessories of the 1980s, men used to wear rounded black goggles, particularly glam metal celebrities. . Likewise Louis Vuitton and Tommy Hilfiger were substantial name brand names in the 1980s too and still naturally today. Lots of start-up style firms have actually had the ability to prosper in the market due to killer crowdfunding campaigns online. A major impact on British fashion was the all-girl pop group The Flavor Girls. Some individuals today keep in mind a couple of things about the 1980s; the hairstyles in the 80s, the shoes worn in the 80s, the fashion accessories put on in the 80s, and so on Do not be amazed that they have actually sonnenbrille herren noted their visibility at bridal fashion runaways too. These last two types of footwear are still popular among a multitude of darker subcultures. When Valley Girls, preppies and also shoulder pads ruled the day, you can still look back with desire on the patterns you adhered to. In 1984, ladies's fashion was dominated by just what was at the moment known as menswear. Teenagers of the present times have actually entailed themselves a lot with style that they don't get enough time for various other job.

[shinyalternatives]

Q&A with Simon Rose of Libidex

1)  Can you provide a short bio of your background in fashion?

I am Simon Rose, Libidex owner and creative director and co-founder. I have a Psychology degree from Lancaster University. I am an avid reader, world traveler and latex fashion trendsetter.

2)  How did you discover latex as a material to use in fashion?  Did you have a personal interest in wearing latex or what it just a material that you found interesting?

I grew up in a military family and from birth I was surrounded by uniforms, rubberized chemical warfare suits and gas masks (one of my favorite toys).  From there I discovered Atomage and early Skin Two magazine and everything fell into place.

3)   At what point did you decide to take your personal interest in latex and transition it to a vocation?

In 1994 I was working with English latex designer pioneer Helen Saffery at Libidex in London. The label was still in its infancy and earlier on I spotted a huge opportunity to take Libidex to the next level making it the fetish powerhouse that it is today.  

My inspiration came from the idea of offering customers, both fetish and fashion latex clothes in one place.

4)  A business has a number of things that one must deal with that sometimes dim one's passion.  You have rent, insurance, utilities, materials, employee salaries etc.  Is the market for latex adequate to balance the pressures of business?  What end of the market absorbs more time - the celebrity couture or the consumer market? How do you balance your passion for creativity with the need to be profitable?

Most certainly the consumer market.Celebrity endorsement doesn’t pay our bills in fact we turn away quite a few celebrity requests, from stylists, photographers etc. We just make sure we design popular items that are also creative, fresh and new.

5)  Latex can be described as a "Fetish," a "kink," "Alternative fashion" or simply "fashion" Do you prefer one description over another?

Whatever name people are comfortable with. I like Fetish better. Because that is what it is after all.

6)  It seems many latex outfits are designed to be body hugging.  I've heard latex referred to as a "Second Skin."  Do you agree that latex should be used for tight outfits or does it lend itself to "loose" outfits? If it's a "second skin" does it mean it needs to be worn without "undergarments"?  Does that intimidate people from wearing it?

Not necessarily as many designs in our range are loose fitting. For example, our Swing Circle Skirt or Rebelle Dress as well as our Pyjamas to name but a few. Not everyone like to be squeezed in on tight latex.

There are no rules and if there are, I live by the motto the rules are only there to be broken. If you feel freer wearing your latex with nothing underneath that is your own personal choice. The Scottish have done that for centuries. But if you prefer to have pants and bras under your latex garment and that makes you feel good, go for it!

7)  In your experience, how concerned are people concerned about body image when considering fashion choices.  Does latex, as a material, help or hinder these decisions?

Do you feel latex tend to express one's body with honesty as if is was no different than a "second skin" or is it more of a fashionable type of shapewear that fixes a person's perceived "flaws."

We have customer of all sizes and we cater for them offering a size range that goes from XXS to 6XL so you will always find something that will suit you. Everyone is different and some people prefer tight fitting catsuits and corsets and other want to be able to breath and be comfortable while wearing latex, so they should do whatever they feel the most comfortable with. Some people wear it for fetish and some for Fashion

8)  How do you find the market for latex wear distributed between men, women, cross-dressers (men or women), celebrity couture?

We probably sell a bit more for our male customers, but women buy a lot from us too as do the transgender community. We cater for everyone.

9)  What is your favorite piece of latex that you've created in your career for a man and for a woman?

Ummm that’s a hard one but one my most fun was My Black Betty catsuit which is for all sexes and trans.

10)  People can state that they don't like latex because of the smell, or   because the material doesn't breathe and they sweat to much, or because it's too tight or it makes them look like they're selling sex.   How do you address those concerns?

Latex is like marmite you either love or hate it. You can be converted into it by a loved one or a friend but mostly it like a fire that burns you up inside, an uncontrollable desire to dress head to toe in shiny latex.

11) What is your design philosophy?  What drives your creativity?

I have many different sources of inspiration, from classic literature, to films, music, art, period costumes, contemporary fashion.  The fetish scene in Europe and its many clubs and events is an endless font of inspiration. Seeing what people are wearing is a fun and fabulous way to come up with new designs and ideas.

12)  Less or More?  Do you prefer designing a latex outfit which is more on the revealing side or leaning towards full coverage.

It depends of the occasion, what collection I am working on. More is definitely more.

11) How do you feel is the best way to integrate latex into an everyday   "public" outfit.  How would you mix it with other materials?

Latex leggings can be beautifully paired with jackets, or a latex skirt with fabric blouse.  Guys can have a classic latex jenas in some funky colour with a cotton T-shirt.

12) What are your goals for your future in latex design?

To keep bringing, affordable,  exciting and innovative collections to our customers.

13)  What is your favorite part of being a latex fashion designer?

Designing new collections. The research process is very exciting.

14)  What is your “Blue Sky” accomplishment to achieve in the world of latex clothing or fashion in general?

From gluing my first suspender belt in 1990 to the present day, Libidex has had to overcome a huge number of challenges and obstacles. Every collection photographed and each of our fashion shows are always memorable moments. The fact that we are still here, bigger and better and appreciated by rubberists the world over, over 25 years later is what gets me out of bed with a smile on my face.

15)  President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated that "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."  People tend to be fearful of things that are different.  They express that fear thru aggressive or  demeaning behavior towards others to express that their position is superior.  Even without external pressure, a person can be fearful due to internal thoughts over how people will react.

This brings us to fashion.  You can say the more different something is from the norm, the more people will react negatively.

Do you agree with this?  Is latex "too different" from what is accepted fashion to be common place.  How much more extreme is it than wearing leather?  Women often wear leather to corporate jobs.  Is latex that   much more extreme?  Is men's latex wear more "extreme" than women's wear?

What do you say to someone who deep down would want to wear latex in Public settings?

This is 2017 and latex fashion is everywhere, Pop videos, TV, commercials, youtube, Instagram, social media have done wonders to remove the stigma associated to latex. And it all depends how you present it. Of course if you turn up in full Dominatrix gear you will raise the wrong kind of attention but if you wear something more fashion orientated, you could be fine even at your work place. Society is changing and so is people’s perception of latex wear.

No I don’t think men’s wear is more extreme than women’s at all.

Go for it, start with something bright and colourful, mix it up with something quirky and you will be fine.

16)  Women's clothing seems to have such variety.  Can men's latex be as interesting?  What are your thoughts on men's latex fashion?

Yes 100% men clothes can be exciting, varied and colourful.  The new Male fashion collection we are working on at the moment is a testament of that.

17) You have expanded your line greatly.  What drives the expansion?

Demand, our customers always want new styles and designs and as long as there is interest from them we will be more than willing to oblige.

All photos are copyright of Libidex Ltd.

[jessicakehoe]

Vancouver-based Writer Lydia Okello on the Future of Fashion They Would Like to See

“Oh. I guess I wear pants now….” It’s a seemingly unremarkable statement for someone to have made in 2016. But the notion was a major turning point that year for both my wardrobe choices and my gender identity. As an AFAB (assigned female at birth) person who grew up adoring frills, floofs and fanciful garments, I would never have been seen in a pair of pants, let alone jeans.

Looking back, it’s easy to see how my history shaped a narrowed view of how to clothe myself. I’m a first-generation Canadian-Ugandan who was raised in a conservative evangelical Christian home. Gender roles were rigid and in plain sight, and my penchant for frocks played right into my assignment as a young woman.

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Week 19. Hi! It’s been a busy week(s) — finally feeling like summer consistently here. Which doesn’t exactly have the same ring to it this year BUT trying to remind myself that I don’t need to stay in full recluse mode.⠀ ⠀ One of my favourite months, August always feels a touch restless but full of promise. I loved the feeling of *new school year, new Lydia* as a kid, and since I have a September birthday it always felt like more of New Year to me. I find myself pondering a lot of future things right now… so many seem like huge questions. Admittedly, this does make me a bit anxious as we are still in a pandemic. But, it also reminds me that hope is never far away. I had so plans for this year — even though they have changed course, I’m holding on to daydreams and future, far flung getaways. One day! Let’s get to the outfits shall we?⠀ ⠀ ⠀ Monday — buzz buzz! Sometimes, extra is exactly what’s called for. • @sotelaco Papaya shorts and Pomelo shirt (gifted), @shoparq bralette (gifted), @puntopigro_official sandals, old Cheap Monday sunglasses. ⠀ ⠀ Tuesday — literally a walk (and sit) in the park. • @powerofmypeople shirt (gifted), @nettlestudios pants (gifted), @sevillasmith Lydia sandals (gifted).⠀ ⠀ Thursday — kiss me hard before you go… a little classic summertime serve. • Jungmaven tee from @selltradeplus , Forever21 shorts (old), @sevillasmith mules (gifted).⠀ ⠀ Friday — errands were run! This tank top is one of my faves; I always fall for bright blue print on crinkly vintage jersey. • @communitythriftandvintage tank top, ES Florence shorts (gifted, not available currently), Vagabond mules.⠀ ⠀ Reminder: you can tip me in my bio. All tips help me continue to bring Style is Style’s delicious content to you. I appreciate everyone who has contributed — thank you for seeing the value in my work!⠀ ⠀ Black Lives Still Matter.⠀ ⠀ How are you planning on spending the first week of August? #nonbinaryfashion #psootd #tombabe

A post shared by LYDIA OKELLO | they/them (@styleisstyle) on Aug 1, 2020 at 5:27am PDT

I often looked to 1990s pop culture for fashion inspiration. Utterly infatuated with sitcom protagonists, I pined after the clothes I saw on Family Matters, Saved by the Bell and Full House. D.J. Tanner’s tiered skirts always caught my eye; I also admired Uncle Jesse’s wardrobe but didn’t think too much of it. Watching Grease in the second grade, I was as much in love with Danny’s iconic greaser looks as I was with Sandy’s sock hop attire—two sides of expression, but at that time, I only consciously tended to one.

I awkwardly navigated my teen years in lace-trimmed tank tops and vintage skirts, questionably styled. I still held tightly to the perception that I needed to sustain “femininity”—though what feminine meant was a moving target.

As an adolescent bibliophile with lots of spare time in the summer, I pored over books about the golden age of Hollywood and the fashion industry’s heady past. I spent hours thumbing through reference size tomes of Christian Dior’s New Look and the history of Vogue and was entranced by Ken Russell’s images of postwar Teddy Girls; it was a foray into the fundamentals of fashion. I didn’t realize it then, but I was building a knowledge base that would eventually inform my career and my style.

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peep the boots — this was a just-before-quarantine #OOTD. I remember feeling apprehensive but in a “what will the next two weeks be like” way. WELL. If I could go back, I’d tell pre-pandemic me “You have enough chickpeas. Remember that the couch turns into a bed and breath deeply once in a while.” What is past you saying to the present?

A post shared by LYDIA OKELLO | they/them (@styleisstyle) on Jul 21, 2020 at 9:16pm PDT

I didn’t come out as a queer person until I was 25. I was scared, nervous and trepidatious. I wasn’t sure if I was even allowed to be queer. My limited perceptions of LGBTQ+ folks—who weren’t gay men—were based on gruff stereotypes, caricatures of people. As I came to accept my pansexuality, I loosened my grip on my high-femme personhood—for me, the two were intertwined. My internalized homophobia and transphobia meant that I had a very specific script of who I was permitted to be. Coming out allotted some breathing room in ways I didn’t expect. There was self-exploration of what it meant to be me: to be queer, to be Black. My plus size body no longer meant I had to be femme—it was something I could choose instead of be assigned to.

As I became more explorative in my identity, including being non-binary, I found myself seeking new inspirations and icons. Writer and performance artist Alok Vaid-Menon, whose style is composed of a mix of saturated hues and who rebels against gender “norms” in an unapologetic and fully realized vision of selfhood, and Héloïse Letissier, who fronts the band Christine and The Queens, are just a few of the folks who helped me unpack what I had previously considered to be limitations.

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These days I’m often planning outfits for little getaways and adventures. The new @rothys Lace Up are virtually effortless (not to mention sustainable). These kicks are light and easy — the 3-D knit texture is exactly what a park hang calls for. Comfy, cozy and excellent for taking things one day at a time. #ad #RothysPartner

A post shared by LYDIA OKELLO | they/them (@styleisstyle) on Jul 30, 2020 at 7:53am PDT

Vaid-Menon (and other nonconforming and non-binary people) has taught me to continually search outside the white gaze of gender expression as Black people, Indigenous people and other people of colour have pre-colonial histories of varied genders; I come back to that often. And Letissier reminds me that style—even extravagant or ostentatious style—is not limited to traditional concepts of femininity. She sports puff sleeves and ostentatious trousers, but neither fall into the territory of “feminine wiles.” Vintage infused and never demure, Letissier’s clothing choices hold space for frivolity—a fanciful nature that isn’t just reserved for ball gowns.

Today, I often tag my outfits on social media with #tombabe—a designation somewhere between “tomboy” and “babely.” I do it to make a statement that androgyny doesn’t have to be monochrome baggy pieces; it can mean a boldly hued sundress and badass boots. It can mean anything you damn well please. And that’s the future of fashion I want to see.

This story originally appeared in the September 2020 issue of FASHION Canada. Pick up your copy on newsstands now, via Apple News + or the FASHION app. 

The post Vancouver-based Writer Lydia Okello on the Future of Fashion They Would Like to See appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

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[mastcomm]

Let’s Take This Conversation Offline

It’s getting to the point where when I walk past all the abandoned storefronts strafing New York City, I begin to imagine all the other things they could be used for. Impromptu raves or hardcore shows. Floor-to-ceiling floral displays. Short-run theaters for one or two-person plays. Housing for the unhoused.

The idea that they might someday again be stores is beginning to feel fanciful. There is perpetual tension between, on the one side, soaring rents and the increasingly clichéd and untrue notion of New York as a moneyed town and, on the other, the cold realities that living here, creating here and shopping here are less tenable than ever.

Forgive the mangled Jane Jacobs, but storefront shopping thrives when there is an active sense of civic engagement, and it is a crucial feeder of that energy. Without stores, you’ll just stay home, scroll through memes, buy a toothbrush off Instagram, and lie about how happy you are that you don’t get enough sunshine.

In this climate, any seedling attempting to break through the ashes of New York’s retail apocalypse is welcome, especially in men’s clothing, which is historically underserved even at its peak. And which, thanks to Supreme and its many direct and indirect imitators, has essentially been reframed as an online game in which winners win garments and also the right to profit off those garments by selling them to those who are bad at the game.

Still, it is now essentially imperative to figure out your value proposition online before attempting to express it in a physical space. Such is the case with 18 East and Adsum, newish men’s wear brands making artful post-street-wear, which both have opened storefronts in recent months. Adsum is in a basement space in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, just across from the three-story titan that used to be the overextended emporium Gentry and now sits empty, a testament to the burst men’s wear bubble; 18 East is in a former massage parlor in NoLIta.

Both brands frame their release cycles in terms of drops, after the Supreme model of frequent (or in these cases, semi-frequent) releases. Both emphasize sustainability and transparency. And both brands take structurally similar but aesthetically distinct approaches to infusing elegance into active clothing.

At Adsum, where the placard outside the store reads “For athletes and aesthetes,” the clothes are mannered and concise, a range of well-executed basics with appealing twists. The striking work shirts, in colors that include bright magenta and chalky periwinkle, are made of Italian moleskin (and manufactured in India) and have contrasting hidden-snap chest pockets ($175). The cotton on the long-sleeve pocket T-shirts has the proper heft ($75).

Perhaps the best offering is the barn jacket, a sleeker version of what you may find at L.L. Bean or Eddie Bauer, and with less drape, but with a collar that retains its firmness ($112, down from $225). On the whole, the clothes are quiet problem solvers, designed to be unremarkable even when they’re, sometimes, remarkable.

Of the two, 18 East has grander and more vivid ambitions. The brainchild of Antonio Ciongoli, who worked at Polo before heading up the Neapolitan casual line Eidos (a sub-brand of Isaia), 18 East takes function-oriented basics — with nods to skateboarding and hip-hop — and refracts them through global artisanal processes: block printing from India, Cham weaving from Vietnam and so on. The results both rethink what constitutes American heritage wear, and also find a common ground between slow production techniques and streamlined release cycles.

The richness of the fabrics here is consistently striking. About a year ago, I bought a fleece vest with a crimson-colored floral chest pocket from one of the company’s early drops, so there was no need to double down.

But there were plenty of other appealing options: a meaty black roll-neck Irish fisherman sweater with yellow embroidered embellishment made with Inis Meaín ($545); a filmy purple corduroy work shirt block-printed by hand in Bagru, in Rajasthan, with a leaf motif ($95); even the Donegal on a bucket hat made with Molloy & Sons ($135) that collapses in just the right mid-1990s way.

Though they’re working similar ideological territory, the stores differ widely in their tack; 18 East is a more particular proposition than Adsum. Also, the silhouettes at 18 East are a little wider, and sometimes lumpier, and vary from item to item, while Adsum is consistently slim. The 18 East clothes feel lived in before they ever leave the rack.

Nevertheless, the sensations of visiting these stores is strikingly similar. I went to both twice, a couple of weeks apart. In each store, it was the same person who greeted me both times, a laid-back guy who appeared to be enjoying the hanging out and soft-sell casual conversation that you can’t replicate online.

For these companies, physical retailing is just a small part of the broader business, and accordingly, there is something tentative about these ventures — the spaces are modestly sized, the sell is very informal. (The 18 East office is in the rear of the store — you can peek into it.)

It wasn’t that long ago that we were thinking about newish stores in the city as locales for community, places for people to gather. But the realities of running a store have all but decimated that model. Now, just getting the chance to breathe is a victory.

18 East

146 Elizabeth Street, 646-866-4238; 18east.co

Adsum

97 North Seventh Street, Brooklyn, 917-909-1455; adsumnyc.com

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[dippedanddripped]

Daniel “Dapper Dan” Day has seen it all.

At 75-years old, the New York couturier continues to take two morning buses followed by three blocks of walking to get to his multi-million dollar Gucci atelier in Harlem.

The workspace, opened in January 2018, pays homage to Dap’s early beginnings when he operated Dapper Dan’s Boutique on 125th Street in the late 1980s and early 1990s. There, he cut extravagant and logo-heavy designs from athletes, local hustlers and legends such as Mike Tyson, LL Cool J and Salt-N-Pepa. At the time, Dap attracted a predominantly black audience who were too often overlooked by luxury fashion houses as a worthy clientele.

Instead, Dap created his own ecosystem, re-defining the meaning of luxury by re-appropriating the its symbols — before getting shot, sued by Fendi, and enduring the closing of his original store. Most of all, he has refused to leave Harlem, the neighborhood he loves.

On the evening of his book launch for his memoir Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem at Gucci’s Milan store, hundreds came out to buy the book and meet the man behind the myth. Before the signing, Highsnobiety caught up with Dap at his hotel. Speaking at length, we got Dap’s perspective on a number of contemporary phenomena, including cultural appropriation, mumble rap and his love for The Beatles.

On A$AP Ferg

I mentored his father, and after he passed away, I’d never seen the son [A$AP Ferg] since he was very little. One day I’m going to the store across from my house, and I see these guys jump out of the car. One walks over and tells me his father had told him all about me and that he’s been looking for me for two years. This was like four years ago. We’ve been together virtually every chance we got since then.

[Ferg] is a great guy, a great spirit, and he’s part of a great legacy. So I try to impart on him all the history that his father would’ve told him had he been here. And he adapts to what I tell him. One day I said “I want you to put all your jewelry away and be a regular guy, we’re going to take a walk through Harlem. We go through Harlem and I introduce him to all the older guys in the hood who knew his father, so that he could hear stories about him. And that’s what I like to do, bridge the gap between the generations who didn’t get the feedback I got from the older guys. The departure from this kind of cultural tree came about because of the crack epidemic and it broke up the lineage of families. It just separated that generational respect that takes place on the street.

On Harlem

To really understand Harlem, you have to be from somewhere else. I didn’t understand the cultural power of Harlem before I started going to other cities. I think my 9th grade teacher, put it best when she said: “Who is it that knows London when only London they know.” And let me tell you the difference. Growing up, my best friends were poor Greeks and Italians. In no other city did I see that. I went to Chicago, I said: “Where the Italians at?”

“I believe that when you use symbolism, you increase the power of a garment.”

A lot of young people in Harlem today haven’t ever had friends like that, the diversity is what created the culture. So it changed. The first wave came for the culture. The second wave that’s coming now is coming for the real estate. IEverybody moving into Harlem now are middle and upper class. In certain ways it elevates Harlem but I think that you [should] have a balance of both.

On Symbolism

While I was teaching myself about symbolism, this guy — the godfather of black Harlem — came into my [original] store wearing a Louis Vuitton pouch with nothing but $100 bills in there. And everybody looked up to this guy and is excited about the pouch, right? But I’m into textiles and deal with the science behind what you put on. So I look at the pouch and say: “Why they all excited? That’s nothing but $5 worth of vinyl.”

Then I look closely and understand that it’s the symbols. Diamonds and gold had the same power as the fabrications I was dealing with. So I taught myself textile printing so I could make images of those symbols to create garments and by doing so give them the same [value] as diamonds, furs and pearls. I believe that when you use symbolism, you increase the power of a garment.

On Buttons

The most significant thing of a garment isn’t only its buttons, but the trimming. You can reach the heights and depths in fashion with that. Someone with sophisticated taste will look at your garment and see the fabrication, but what symbolizes the status is the button. That’s what I love so much about Gucci. I also have to give credit to Versace because the Greek key symbolizes eternal life, and then you also have the Medusa head.

On Spirituality

It came to me when I was turning my life around. When I was 23 years old, I went into a historical bookstore called Tree of Life on 25th Street where all the new age people went to learn about metaphysics. So I go in there and get a book called Back to Eden, it’s a book about natural healing. They didn’t have it so I walked up to this guy that looked so spiritual as if he had a halo. He said, “No brother, but look right here,” showing me a book called Man’s Higher Consciousness by Hilton Hotema. That book altered my whole life. It taught me about religion as an appendage of ancient science. So from that point on I studied the symbolism associated with religion that took me back to ancient science, which dealt with man as a microcosm of the macrocosm and that the source of who we are is within us and we can connect to that.

On Ralph Lauren

One of my heroes is Ralph Lauren, but what Ralph represents is aristocracy. And when you represent aristocracy, you’re not challenged like the Beatles challenged everybody. And sooner or later that’s going to collapse, because the foundations on which it was built are too exclusive. The world is changing and what happened with brands like Ralph Lauren is that social media and musical platforms extracted young white people away from aristocracy. Young people who follow Ralph Lauren are like: “So what?” That’s why I was able to sell young people — I didn’t give them one horse, I gave them the whole carriage.

On The Beatles

The Beatles are really big to me, and I talk about them a lot because they’re the height of rock and roll. Appropriation in a good sense is what the Beatles did. They took all musical platform sand challenged the social standard of European culture. And that’s the message. The Beatles went into India and brought back the Maharishi. Deepak Chopra, who is the extension of that, teaches that philosophy today, but the Beatles initiated that.

And they’re so important to black culture once you understand what they did. They took a medium of black culture and told the world we’re one. They brought us all together in a beautiful way during the 1960s when black people were struggling with their cultural identity. We were challenging the oppressive system, you know, but the Beatles were challenging the foundation from which the oppressive system developed, which was the spiritual foundation of western civilization.

“Young people who follow Ralph Lauren are like: ‘So what?’ That’s why I was able to sell young people — I didn’t give them one horse, I gave them the whole carriage.”

On Today’s Rap Music

I wanted to get into this last night with A$AP Rocky, I think probably even rappers today are engaged in things they don’t even understand like sampling LSD and psychedelic drugs without realizing where it comes from. When you go back to the 60s, you understand that it was something you used for spiritual elevation. That’s what music does, it takes you on an evolutionary path [but] somebody’s going to have to evolve it because the big problem today is that nobody challenges what they believe. Until someone comes along and lays out their foundation, we can’t come together in harmony.

On Fake News

My aspiration was to be a journalist back in the day. Fake news just didn’t start with these guys [today]. I’ll give an example. Let’s go back to Genesis. Adam and Eve, something took place, they blame Eve, right? And as a result of Genesis they said the woman shall leave thy mother and thy father and cling unto thy husband and he shall rule over thee. That’s fake news. In one part of Genesis you read of a talking snake, but you aren’t going to take that literally because you realize that’s symbolic. But the other part of it that says the women shall cling unto thy husband people do take literally. That’s led to misogyny today.

In the same way today, Trump wants to challenge every issue. He twists it and has to make a presentation and then tries to get the supreme court [on his side] so he can prove that he won, he can stack the deck. Fake news starts there. It starts with the people in power and influence.

On Pancakes

Pancakes are amazing. I always get upset about pancakes because they’re easy to mess up. But the pancakes I ate last night were really, really thin and perfect. It’s 4 a.m. in the morning and I can’t sleep because I’m reading, and these pancakes were so perfect that I had to text [my grand kids] and tell them how amazing these pancakes with syrup were. After I ate them, I felt like I could speak Italian. But this morning I was upset because I was looking forward to the pancakes again, so I had ordered them again but they were too thick. I said the chef must have taken the day off today.

On Inclusivity

Inclusivity is that which goes beyond tokenism. Inclusivity and cultural inclusion have to create an opportunity that levels the playing field. So when you come in there’s got to be room for you to expand and room for you to grow based on your ability. I don’t want nobody buying anything that I made because I’m black, I want it to be because of the idea. On the other side of the fence, I don’t want anyone taking my ideas without them allowing me to make something of it.

On Cultural Appropriation

The infusion of cultures has allowed us to have an appreciation for all cultures across the playing field. The biggest problem comes when you have people who don’t understand symbols. Something isn’t just [a button] it’s much bigger than that. I don’t see how [people] could miss it, they just don’t think about it. Whether it’s either a cross or the star of David, all these symbols have a powerful effect, so you have to understand that people take symbols very seriously.

“In fashion you have to define what’s real. A fake sweater is real to a certain segment of the culture.”

On Suits

It goes back through the aristocracy again. Listen to this carefully, right? Nothing disarms the ruling class quicker than a suit. You see me coming in a suit and tie, you’re pretty much welcoming me. If you see me coming in a hoodie, you’re alarmed by me. That’s the power of the suit.

On “Fake” Products

You can reverse the fake. Gucci took the fake and made it real. Let me tell you something about fake products. In fashion, you have to define what’s real. A fake sweater is real to a certain segment of the culture. I was born out of that, my induction into fashion came out of what people would consider “fake fashion.” It wasn’t fake, but simply another artistic view relating to fashion. [My designs] became real to a lot of people. I always say I created knock-ups. It’s a beautiful thing.

On Bringing Black Culture Into Luxury

It’s the most important thing I’m doing right now. I’m looking at fashion as a thing that brings us all together, that’s the biggest thing man. And when you look at [my work with] Alessandro Michele and [Gucci CEO] Marco Bizzari, this is amazing. Being on the fence between my community and the European [luxury] community put me in a very precarious situation. I never intended to feel good about this, but as it unfolded the more I embraced it as something that’s happening. It’s about saying: “Look at this culture, it’s valid.” And when you look at Alessandro and Marco, they spearheaded that. They made it possible for [the collaboration] to happen. Because it could’ve been different.

[itsyourchoicedevotionals]

Bionic Breed

“…You Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. …the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. “ Eph 2:19-20NLT

Jesus loves the little children, All the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, All are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world. A song written in the 1800’s by Clare Herbert Woolston, depicts— God doesn’t see skin color.

As Louis was reading Ephesians 2 this morning, a picture came into my mind. During the early 1990’s we attended a church in Michigan: Picked the church by its telephone book name. We were greeted by a black woman and an oriental man. In the sanctuary, I looked around at the sea of faces. Congregation topped one thousand plus, made up of every ethnic background. Blacks, whites, orientals, India descent Indians, Malaysians, and Mexicans too. For the racist at heart, this church would’ve been disturbing. To me, it was a taste of heaven.

Did you know according God sees only two races on earth— Jew and Gentile? Every person who becomes a Christian is born out of their ethnic Gentile family, into the family of God and His DNA. 2Cor 5:17NASB “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature…” Eph 2:10-11NLT. “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts.” Col 1:27NASB “to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Through Jesus’ death and resurrection God was busy making a new race, God’s family. This breed is made up of what humans call every race, including Jews, every DNA order under the sun. By infusing this race with POWER from the Holy Spirit He made us the Bionic Breed. Jesus said: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you:…” Acts 1:8KJV. “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.” Lu 10:19NASB “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.” Mt 10:8NASB.

Paul informed us how God created this new breed in 2Cor 5:21NASB. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Afterwards Paul informed us of our superpower garments and weapons inEph 6:14-17TLB, “you will need the strong belt of truth and the breastplate of God’s approval. Wear shoes that are able to speed you on as you preach the Good News of peace with God. In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan. And you will need the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit—which is the Word of God.” I once heard a preacher say, the armor makes us look like Jesus. The devil can’t tell the difference between us.

Are you still concerned with your ethnicity? Living like you’re simply human?  I’m going to live Bionic. How about you? It’s your choice. You choose.

PRAYER: Papa I’m so glad that You aren’t like humans. You didn’t divide by color, but by love. You loved the Jew first, then the Gentiles. Thank You! Help us to see how powerful you have made us to serve You, in Jesus’ name I pray.

by Debbie Veilleux Copyright 2017 You have my permission to reblog this devotional for others. Please keep my name with this devotional as author. Thank you.

[lisaspow]

Supporting Statement - Light

How I interpreted the theme of light in my project:

My interpretation of the word light, could be anything but I feel that the most used way is being a source of light or bringing light into a situation, giving a happier feel to a mood or self being. Things in which could be explored within the work would be to see how much different sources or light there is and how light is used within many objects and things you wouldn’t even think of using light in them. Also, you could search reflective materials which links to how light prisms represent the use of light, seeing the way the light is beamed through objects and materials.

Research:

One of the designers I looked at were Cute Circuit - Francesca Rosella & Ryan Genz who created a range of fashion which incorporated neon lights, in a way of manmade meeting technology, giving a futuristic approach into the fashion world. The dresses are safe to wear and are made from completely with no hazardous materials.  Beautiful and magical and give the wearer a feeling of empowerment and connectedness is the way the designer had took into mind as they had designed this range of clothing.

The main dress which attracted my eye was the dress in which they designed with twitter in mind and other social media sources. The way they have done this I feel it gets the public involved within the design, sending live tweets what they post showing on the dress, which makes an exciting new way to link to technology. The dress was commissioned by EE for a special launch of the 4G network.  The dress was a Black floor-length evening dress made out of metres of delicate and floaty french chiffon. Magic Fabric with MicroLEDs that create extraordinary animations and receive Tweets in real time. The dress was designed for the singer Nichole Scherzinger, which gives a celebrity face to help promote the style in which her fans would notice and want to look more into it, which is how they get their name out there, and become more brand popular.

As I looked at the previous designers from Cute Circuit, I found another dress which attracted my attention, it was another source of light which was linked in the material of the dress, but the dress was designed for Katy Perry for the Met Gala red carpet. The Dress was a one-shoulder couture gown. Metres of flowing ivory and blush silk chiffon and over 3000 full colour MicroLED lights. It created a rainbow colour which also reminds me of the light prism spectrum, having the rainbow style showing how the source of light can be made. The lights changed colour as she moved around the event, which makes the dress never looking the same. It fits the style and the mood of the person wearing it and brings attention to who is walking around in it. It inspires me for my work as i want to create designs which use light flowing materials but have some source of light through them, and this is the perfect combination of the two. Also this uses a celebrity as the muse for the dress, which gets people talking about it and drawing attention to them, the same way as they would when Nichole Scherzinger would wear the twitter dress.

Another designer I looked at was Yayoi Kusama. Her work gives a unique way of how light is incorporated in designs. But my main focus was on the way she uses one object to create a pattern over a variety of her work, and as soon as you see that pattern you know exactly which designer you would link that with, giving it a very distinct style to her. First she had designed the Infinity Mirror which by Installing hundreds of flashing coloured LED lights into mirrored rooms. The pinpricks of light in the dark room reflect in the mirrors, making you feel like you are in an endless space, which is one way she incorporated light into a whole room, giving a wide space to be worked into and letting you become part of. The other side of the way she incorporated light was within her fashion which was a limited marketing for LOUIS VUITTON. The collection included a yellow drop-waisted dress with a frill skirt; cropped trousers in red and black; classic trench coats, given a surreal twist with the artist’s vibrant spots; and silk scarves. Avant garde fashion. Her work inspires me as i love the unique and creative way she makes use of one specific pattern and uses it over a range of products, using bold and vibrant colours. Her Fashion matched the style in which she creates the rooms, which instantly you know where the inspiration is from. Her rooms consist of Neon colours and lights and mirrors, which are perfect examples of different uses of light and how they can reflect around an area, lighting up the whole space.

Anton Conrad Light dresses painted. London based Advertising, Fashion and Art photographer. He physically paints the subject with light brushes in a blackout studio whilst remote triggering the camera. I could use his work as inspiration of my own to create dresses with a programme digitally which has the use of lights, putting them onto my own models, i could do this by experimenting with weavesilk or with photoshop.

I looked at a range of surface pattern designers which all done similar style of work, such as Elizabeth Olwen, Rachel Taylor, Natalie Lea Owen and Jessica Wilde. The one who attracted me the most was Natalie Lea Owen Illustration, bold patterns and contemporary colour. Worked with Hallmark Cards to produce a range for the ‘Waitrose Graduation Collection’. Products are now stocked internationally in stores including Fenwicks, Museum of London, The National Archives and We Built This City. Which shows that her design can be placed on a Varity of fashion based products. This is the style I would like to do in my work, gathering a pattern together using one image in a Varity of sizes and layout to be used over a number of clothing or accessories. Another method to use this would be to create a backdrop to put my designs onto, creating a link to place all the pieces together as one thing.

Fashion sketches have been a big inspiration of my work as it is the main basis of what I want to create for my own project. I found whilst looking at these that there is many different styles you can draw these or create them. High end fashion designers tend to keep their sketches detailed and precise wanting the sketch to be as close to the end product. When I looked into more of the sketches I found sketching onto black paper worked more effective as they looked like you actually are drawing with lights and are illuminating from the page. To experiment with this I can use chalks, pastels, paint in bright colours to stand out on the paper which would give the same effect as these give and to create different styles of shading and colours.  

For the shoe design I looked at a number of different styles of shoes, ranging from shoes in which you could just use as sculptures and shoes in which you could wear, comparing the difference between the two. I found that designing shoes to wear would work more effect as it would sell a lot more and be good for the branding itself. Two of the main shoes I focused on was Irregular choice and Christian Louboutin. Two of the higher end fashion marketing. Irregular choice are brightly coloured, unusual designs were created in response to “boring” and “very black and brown” British High Street fashions in the late 1990s. Irregular Choice trademark is the character heel. The heel becomes a main image of the whole design and you can style the shoes around that one image, which link everything together nicely. The shoes are suitable to wear but also could be used as a sculpture piece. Christian Louboutin, High-end stiletto footwear incorporates shiny, red-lacquered soles that have become his signature. Shoes finding favor with celebrity clientele. These attracted my eye as they are designed with the basis of normal looking shoes but with the red soles being the signature look, everyone instantly knows the shoe brand just by looking at that, and this helps me by wanting to get my brand out there, using something as its signature look to instantly know who I am designing for. I could use the simple style just to add colour in my fashion designs or i could place a pattern on top of a neon colour to help it stand out with it being a plain block colour.

 Outlining the brief:

The outcomes in which I aimed to design were to design a range of fashion surface patterns and illustration prints. I want to do a complete brand design to get my fashion label into the public world. The line will be women’s fashion all styled with the word light, incorporating the different styles you can get the word over. For the branding, I will be creating a logo which would make it easy to identify.  It will be distributed across a range of social media and over a range of fashion designs on outfits and models, and preferably high brand fashion magazines.

Secondary Research – Artists and Designers.

The artists which have influenced my development and experimentation are the ones which I had listed in my previous research, trying their techniques to put into my work.

Weavesilk fashion was something I experimented with, which I took inspiration from the photographer Anton Conrad, but also inspired by bioluminescence. The work he had done on photographing models and then placing light digitally on them, made me want to use a programme which I could use fashion to be placed onto models. The Bioluminescence inspiration took from the shapes of the creatures in which lurked below the water. They glow in different colours, mostly the jellyfish, and I found that they had looked like some form of skirts, so using this programme I tried to also create a fashion garment of the shapes of those creatures.  The colours are neon and almost look they have been created using neon lights. The different formation of lines show the movement within the fashion, which show the realistic fit of the body.

Chalk fashion was something which I found by looking at the fashion sketches and different ways they draw them on different types of papers. The chalk lets you blend and create lines more easy and create the right shades on certain areas of the clothing where they would have the light hitting onto them.

Feather fashion, As i looked through my research i had found using different textiles to place onto flat drawings, making them look 3D and give them a touch feel effect on them, even when digitalised and edited they still look like an object you can touch on the paper. I took inspiration from looking at mixed media art, which they use real life natural objects to incorporate into their drawings to get the same effect and to give a whole new meaning to art.

My digital print patterns are based around the surface patterns in which I looked at in my research. I used them to create one main onject and create a pattern around them, changing the movement of the images around and having them randomly placed around to pull together as one image. This was to be used across products as a pattern overlayed on top. I played around with the contrast and colours, changing them to different styles, but found as it did this, they became to look more like balloons rather than light bulbs as you wouldn’t typically see bulbs in the colours they had came across. The coloured patterns i feel would fit perfectly if i were to design a range of kids clothing but doesn’t look suitable for an adult target audience in which i am going for.

Typography was taken from Da font and a variety of different fashion brand labels which I found worked best for my own branding. I think taking these into consideration was important as you want to create something easy recognizable and easy to read and understand what it is you are trying to promote out. Through my experimenting and developing I used a range of handwritten fonts and digital. I found that the digital fonts worked best as they were professional and could be easily changed if needed with size and colour. The handwritten fonts were effective and give a personal feel but I feel as for a high end fashion brand it wasn’t something what would come across as professional looking. Ichanged the colours and contrasts around in the development to find which colours worked best, but I found that keeping the basic black and white style like other fashion branding worked effective as it linked instantly to what it was and it also gave a professional finish and would stand out on a number of different things in which I would need to use.

Final Outcomes:

For a final design of the shoe patterns I chose to place the patterns onto the shoes in which I created using glow sticks and the bulb pattern I had coloured digitally. I chose three styles of shoes in which you could wear with a number of fashion, choosing two casual shoes in complete different styles and one which you could wear for a fancy occasion. The three shoes I chose were Christian Louboutin, Vans and Dr Materns. I feel these shoes would be easy to place the designs onto as they all give a block of colour and space to work onto like a canvas.  I messed around with the surface pattern changing the vibrance and saturation so I could have more of the purple tones into them, which is the pantone colour of the year being ultra violet. This makes the shoes keep on trend. The shoe brands themselves are highly known brands in the fashion world, which make my work seem like having limited edition work on these, which helps get the brand name out there. I placed these on a page using the pantone at the side as I think it looks professional and something which is highly linked to in the fashion world, showing what colours were exactly used.  

For my whole final piece, I created a mood board with a number of my designs and experiments stuck onto it. The layout of the mood board is a magazine style. The logo I chose was placed at the top of the page to show exactly what the brand was in which the boards were promoting out. I went with a simple style logo, which links to magazines Vogue, Elle and You, which creates a clear link with the mood board style I went for. Each board contains the magazine in which I took inspiration for my logo. Each of the magazines represents the magazine in which I would see those fashion categories going into. The evening wear in a higher branding magazine such as vogue, and the day time casual style in more of a lower end such as you and Elle. My mood board take the logo from high brand shoe designers to show my inspiration as I feel this needed to be on so it can link easy to who I look up to for my designing style. The boards show my designs and process through the design principles, ranging from digital drawings, surface patterns, logos and fashion illustrations. My muse for the fashion on these were based around the style of Kim Kardashian, I felt as though using a celebrity face would help advertise the clothing range out there as she is high in the fashion industry, already having connections to designers herself, so using her would make my brand more known and brand it more out there.

I decided to use the pantone colour app to select the main colours in which are used within the patterns which are on the shoes. I wanted to find if the shoes i designed were on trend of what the high fashion colour is this year. When i checked i found that it contained a lot of the purple shades, which links to the trend, as the colour is ultra violet, so having other shades of purple work really well to fit with that. Having pantones allows people to know what the exact colour is to use so everything stays the same, the shade doesn’t change at any time throughout a lot of designs. Having the pantone showing like this looks highly professional and gives you a sample of the colours which is used. This allows whoever takes the design to know the exact colour in which they need if they are creating a whole range of these products, so that they whole style never changes. The images are clear and eyecatching as they are just placed on a page on their own, drawing attention to the main product in which you are trying to brand out. Having this also show that the shoes can be decorated or they can be used to be on a range of different products within the fashion world. The pantone is for the pattern which is overlaid on the top, so it can be used as its stand alone image to sell different fabrics.

To conclude, if I was to take my fashion brand further I would look into designing a range of mens and kids wear aswell as the womens clothing as it would give my audience a wider range and would attract more to the public eye. As I processed through I found websites in which I could design and get printed my own fabrics, so instead of doing the fashion models I could just create a range of surface pattern fabrics to sell for people to purchase and make the clothing with. The website allows you to preview your work and also allowed you to buy the actual product with your design on it. The website I found to do this was Contrado, it means that you will be able to see your design physically without making it yourself, which would save a lot of time process as I didn’t have time to make the actual clothing itself. It also gives you a view in which it would look like on an actual person.  To further my designs I could show the range on a select of celebrities using them to brand my items out, seeing how they would look in my clothing range.

[titoslondon-blog]

New Post has been published on Titos London

#Blog New Post has been published on http://www.titoslondon.co.uk/mugler-returns-a-first-look-at-casey-cadwalladers-debut-collection/

Mugler returns: A first look at Casey Cadwallader’s debut collection

On the northwestern outskirts of Barcelona, the head office of architect Ricardo Bofill rises up from a garden of olive and cypress trees like the Tower of Babel. Carved out of the shell of a disused cement factory La Fábrica, as it is known, is a place where Escher-like staircases lead to nowhere, colossal oxidised metal beams soar between béton brut walls and rooftops are coated in lush green lawns.

Here, on a balmy Sunday in April, Vogue came to meet Mugler’s new artistic director, Casey Cadwallader. Though he may not be a familiar name, there’s a good chance you have worn his designs. Until now, the American designer has worked largely behind the scenes at TSE, Loewe and J. Mendel, before becoming design director for women’s ready-to-wear and accessories at Narciso Rodriguez, and then design director of Acne Studios’ pre-collections. Cadwallader’s aptitude for, as he puts it, “translating yourself through the lens of the brand” will be an invaluable asset to Mugler, which has lost some of its momentum in recent years.

Established in 1974 by Thierry Mugler, the French fashion house pioneered the aggressively sexy, angular hourglass silhouette—achieved through padding a woman’s every curve and cinching in her waist—which became synonymous with the 1980s and early 1990s. Mugler was the man behind the iconic little black dress Demi Moore wore in Indecent Proposal, Diana Ross and daughter Tracee Ellis walked in his shows, and in 1992, he was director and costume designer for the era-defining music video for George Michael’s hit “Too Funky”, starring the likes of Linda Evangelista, Eva Herzigova and Tyra Banks. His creations transformed women into ice queens, superheroes and even motorbikes—creations famously reincarnated in 2009 when Mugler acted as creative adviser and costume designer to Beyoncé’s “I Am…” world tour. (The outfits go on display in February for the Thierry Mugler: Creatures of Haute Couture exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.)

Despite its success and enormous influence, Clarins—which has owned the Mugler name since 1997—was forced to close the house in 2003 due to substantial losses, but the ready-to-wear line was revived seven years later under Nicola Formichetti, who built a lot of buzz around the brand thanks to his frequent collaborations with Lady Gaga. His successor, David Koma, created beautifully cut designs favoured by the likes of Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon, but the brand was far from regaining the stature of its heyday. Probably should note it was revived with RTW only.

We spent two days with Cadwallader as he shot his debut collection on a diverse cast of women. By bringing together the likes of literature graduate Jess Cole, who enviably landed an exclusive with Céline in her first season; hip-hop star 070 Shake; French Olympic swimmer Anna Santamans; actress Anna Brewster; and original Mugler muses Amy Wesson and Debra Shaw, he wants to “start a conversation around what powerful modern femininity means.” The photographs, taken by Arnaud Lajeunie, will be previewed in a private penthouse in Tribeca, New York on Wednesday, where guests will see the designs firsthand.

“This project is really about bringing variety to Mugler. Recently, [the brand] was only about evening wear, it didn’t really do more than dress elegant women, models and beautiful actresses for the red carpet,” the 38-year-old explains as he adjusts the collar of a black leather biker jacket on Cole. With its oversized belt buckle and broad shoulders, the references to the original Mugler are there, only softer and more supple—the armholes dropped to the top of the arm rather than jutting out at an angle, and the material itself only lightly buffed, not lacquered to the point of being fetishistic.

Later in the day, Cole changes into a trench coat made in collaboration with the artist Samara Scott. A zany concoction of ingredients are trapped between the two layers of clear vinyl from which the garment is cut, ranging from hair gel to curry powder and toothpaste. When opened up and held against the sun, it is a thing of ethereal beauty that resembles a basking butterfly—a subconscious nod to Mugler’s spring 1997 couture collection.

There’s a similarity between the way Paris-based Cadwallader, who hails from New Hampshire and holds a degree in architecture from Cornell University, is approaching Mugler and the way Bofill converted the cement factory—demolishing part of its structure to reveal concealed forms. Rather than tearing up the original Mugler manifesto, Cadwallader is “blowing down the walls of the brand” to extend its design vocabulary for the 21st century woman. “When I looked back at Mr Mugler’s archive, he made sportswear, swimsuits, he turned women into creatures, he had dancers, performance artists and musicians at his shows—there was this movement around him,” Cadwallader enthuses. “For me, women’s empowerment then was about having big shoulders to stand up to men in the workplace and also to attract their eye. [Whereas today] women still dress for power but for themselves. That is the big difference—not to be accepted by men but to be true to yourself and feel the power of self confidence, and choose your own destiny.”

The following day at a Bofill-designed summer house, Cadwallader’s attention to structure and form comes to the fore. Shaw, a long time Mugler muse, is electrifyingly elegant standing at the side of the red-tiled pool in a knitted dress and a Marco Panconesi for Mugler ear cuff that spouts white crystals like firework sparks. Meanwhile, 070 Shake is changing into a denim two-piece that teases the mind with its painstakingly assembled spiral seams, which seem to have no beginning or end. Perhaps one of the most literally referenced pieces in his collection (available at Net-a-Porter, Bergdorf Goodman and the Mugler store in Paris from August) is a fully canvassed jacket based on a men’s design from the Mugler archive, which comes in teal and black. The cut has been adapted to better suit a woman’s body, with laces so “any woman any size can adjust the strings and define their waist”, explains Cadwallader.

The designs aren’t short of ingenuity or craftsmanship, and although Cadwallader views this first body of work as an “experiment”—having only had seven weeks to design it following his December appointment—the 30-style collection is a coherent celebration of individuality. Going forward, the plan is to show the collections on schedule, but rather than pouring money into a runway show, Cadwallader intends to continue doing special events or presentations.

But how does it feel to wear Cadwallader’s Mugler compared to Thierry Mugler’s? Who better to ask than the women who have inspired both designers? “A Mugler suit made you appear strong even if you weren’t. It’s a special human power—you put on the suit and it gives you strength,” Shaw tells me over dinner that night. She pulls out her phone and shows me a photo of her and Amy Wesson modelling side-by-side in the Thierry Mugler Autumn/Winter 1998 couture show. This shoot, she believes, is the first time they have been reunited since that day. “Casey has really captured that spirit,” she continues. “To do that and still be in your own creative space is genius. You feel a bit of the old Mugler but it’s an advancement of today. It’s a perfect example of how [Thierry] would evolve with the times.”

1/20 Hip hop star 070 Shake, who signed to GOOD Music (Kanye West's Def Jam imprint) last year

Image: Christopher McCrory

Actor Anna Brewster

Image: Christopher McCrory

Mugler’s Artistic Director Casey Cadwallader dressing British model Jess Cole

Image: Christopher McCrory

Japanese model Ami Suzuki

Image: Christopher McCrory

Swiss model Vivienne Rohner

Image: Christopher McCrory

Japanese model Ami Suzuki

Image: Christopher McCrory

Casey Cadwallader and long time Mugler muse Debra Shaw

Image: Christopher McCrory

Marco Panconesi for Mugler ear cuff

Image: Christopher McCrory

British model Jess Cole

Image: Christopher McCrory

Hip hop star 070 Shake

Image: Christopher McCrory

French Olympic swimmer Anna Santamans

Image: Christopher McCrory

Original Mugler muse Amy Wesson

Image: Christopher McCrory

Actor Anna Brewster

Image: Christopher McCrory

Artist Samara Scott

Image: Christopher McCrory

Mugler’s Artistic Director Casey Cadwallader

Image: Christopher McCrory

Long time Mugler muse Debra Shaw circumvents Ricardo Bofill’s red-tiled pool

Image: Christopher McCrory

French Olympic swimmer Anna Santamans

Image: Christopher McCrory

The Ricardo Bofill-designed summer house with red-tiled pool

Image: Christopher McCrory

Ricardo Bofill’s La Fábrica

Image: Christopher McCrory

Ricardo Bofill’s La Fábrica

Image: Christopher McCrory

The post Mugler returns: A first look at Casey Cadwallader’s debut collection appeared first on VOGUE India.

[alexandersimonmartinezstyle]

Diadora, back the B. Elite sneakers loved in the 80s

To present the P / E 2018 collection, the sports brand, which this year celebrates its 70th anniversary, has involved young and talented artists and influencers Passion, authenticity, audacity. These are the values that represent the “crew” made up of interesting and promising young creative talents of the moment, chosen by the Diadora brand for the new Powered by Defiance campaign. Joan Thiele, Federica Abbate, Felipe Conceicão, Valentina Pegorer, Jack Saunders, Yxng Bane, all under 25, are the protagonists of the new project born to tell the spirit of the collection for spring/summer 2018; a group that reflects the values of the brand as the desire to get involved, the dynamism, the tenacity, the adventurous spirit and the optimistic gaze towards the future. All the guys were proud to wear the iconic sports models of the legends of the past that today come back to the fore in a modern way to interpret the latest trends in street fashion. Among these, the most loved shoe among those signed Diadora: the B. Elite, once worn by the most famous tennis players of all time and today at the feet of new generations. The model retains the shape that made it famous, but returns to office with new colors and options in the B.Elite L. As for the clothing items, the proposal is really wide and very cool. The streetstyle collection in fact is inspired by the ’80s, back in fashion in style, and offers garments like the track jacket or the polycotton overalls revisited and characterized by truly captivating colors and details. The retro style of the past glories of tennis merge with research and stylistic innovation to create a truly original and exciting collection that has also won the protagonists of the POWERED BY DEFIANCE project. We met some of them to get to know them better. Valentina Pegorer – Born in 1990 in Milan, she is fascinated by dancing, television and acting since she was a child. After having participated in several advertisements as a child, she worked at Deejay TV and joined Claudio Bisio and Frank Matano in “The Comedians”. The fame comes, however, thanks to Beijing Express where in 2017 wins in pairs with Ema Stokholma. She would like to conduct new types of programs in the future to be able to “modernize” today’s TV. What do you like most about Milan? In Italy, in my opinion, it is the most projected city in the future and unlike London, where I lived for a while, it is less confusing. My favorite places are The Prada Foundation, the Bicocca Hangar and the Apollo Club. What relationship do you have with social networks? I follow them directly and I like to post photos, but only when I feel like it. I do not have to feel it as an obligation. Are you a sportswoman? I practice yoga, climbing and I love running. With the dance I was confronted during the participation in the program “Dance Dance Dance 2” and this experience has shaped me a lot. Above all, he taught me the value of constancy. Even when I do not practice sport I love being comfortable and almost always wearing sneakers. I have a lot of them and my favorites are those high and bright colors. Jack Saunders – London, began his radio tour with Fly FM, the student radio of Nottingham Trent University. In the summer of 2014 he joined Kerrang! Radio then moved to Radio X in 2015. Every month he organizes an evening of music called Hopscotch and invites some of the most interesting emerging bands to perform at The Social, in central London. The event has attracted the attention of prestigious magazines such as The Times, Guardian and Music Week and is fast becoming a highlight for new bands in search of visibility. In 2017, Jack collaborated with MTV and presented the UK Blog Awards. Your biggest satisfaction? Having brought several youth bands to the fore. Their success makes me really happy. What are your artistic dreams? I would like to become one of the greatest talent discoverers internationally. At the moment I’m not interested in becoming a record producer, I just want to hunt for talent. The dive city would you like to live? I would like to live in Australia in the future. Where the environment, from the radio point of view, is similar to that of England, but the climate is quite another thing. London is really too messed up! What types of garments do you prefer to wear? I love the leaders of the English street culture of the 90s. In particular, the jackets with zip as the track jacket by Diadora, a cult among the boys of the time that in recent years is back in fashion. Felipe Conceicão – Genoese Vlogger, is one of the emerging stars of video production in Italy. Passionate about music and computer science from an early age, he makes the first video at 17 and is noticed thanks to Youtube. Among his latest works, the direction of the video clip “New generation kids” by Luca Cikovani, photography of the latest video of Benji and Faith “Love Wii-fi” and that of Leo Stannard feat. Chiara Galiazzo “Gravity”. What relationship do you have with sport? I’m not a very sporty type even though I find it important to dedicate time to one’s physical well-being as well as one’s own passions and intellect activities. On the other hand, my favorite style is sportswear. Do you love to travel? Where would you like to live? I like traveling the world but do not leave for short trips. I like to stay in a place to really understand the culture, the customs and the way of thinking of the people who live there. Currently I moved from Genoa to Milan but one day I would like to live in Los Angeles. What are your future goals? I would like to become a successful director and give life to science fiction films or TV series that intertwine with the real world. Yxng Bane – British rapper, grew up in Custom House, a district in the London borough of Newham. At 19 he is noted with the piece “Lone Wolf” published on Soundcloud. After collaborating with Yungen for “Bestie”, he launches “Fine Wine” feat. Kojo Funds and part for a long tour that sold out in different locations, including Dubai and Ibiza. With “Rihanna” he enters the top 40 of the United Kingdom last year and gets great visibility. Ed Sheeran complimented his cover of “Shape of you” which has depopulated on the web and currently has 16 million views. Have you always wanted to sing? In my family, music has always occupied an important place. At the beginning I only had fun doing remixes and only two years ago I discovered a passion for singing. Are you hyper-connected? Do you personally follow your social profiles? Before making music the social world did not interest me in the least, then I was forced to use the various Facebook, Instagram, etc .. to give visibility to my work and now I have a manager who takes care of it. But I have a good relationship with my followers and I’m happy to tell me about them. Are you a sporty type? What are your favorite items? Years ago I played football and basketball, now I do a lot less sport but I’m always on the move. I love the suits and for the Diadora campaign I chose to wear the track jacket with white and black zip with gold logo. A perfect match with my golden necklaces.                                                                                                               Article taken from https://www.gqitalia.it/moda/trend/new/2018/03/20/diadora-tornano-le-sneakers-b-elite-amate-negli-anni-80/#!#%2Ffullscreen%2F0%2F1%2F

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[caredogstips]

Why are deadly extreme athletics most popular than ever?

Five parties died in the French Alps last weekend in boasting occurrences from paragliding to wingsuit hovering. What pushes people to test the eventual limits of their own security?

Darios ready, adds Dario Zanon. Three, two, one, remarks Graham Dickinson. Vive la France! they both wail as they leap from the summit of Le Brvent in the French Alps and spread their offstages to begin the Rock Star Line, one of the most hazardous routes in one of “the worlds” most dangerous sports.

Zanon and Dickinson are members of best available, however. Utilizing the flappings of cloth that connect their limbs and legs, they skip expertly past cliff margins and between trees at more than 110 mph. After less than a instant they liberate their parachutes and stray down, whooping, over Chamonix. A daytime after Zanons footage of the flight was posted last September, it had been watched a million times. Since then, it has been watched at least 10 million more.

On Wednesday 8 June this year, Zanon returned to Chamonix and climbed the Aiguille du Midi on the other side of the hollow for a solo flight. On the Sunday his figure was found on the glaciers 5,000 ft below. Most likely no one will ever know is which small-minded occasion went wrong. Small things become large-hearted instantly at 110 mph. He was 33.

Dario Zanon flying the Rock Star Line in September last year. He died in France in June.

It does happen to the best. Mark Sutton, “the mens” who parachuted into the London Olympics stadium garmented as James Bond, was killed wingsuit hovering in the Swiss Alps in 2013, while filming for EpicTV. In May 2015, Dean Potter, a famous US climber and wingsuit flyer, expired with his friend Graham Hunt. They had rushed from Taft Point in Yosemite Park, California. In July last year, the record-holding Colombian wingsuit flyer Jhonathan the Birdman Florez died during rehearse in Switzerland. The Briton David Reader succumbed two weekends ago. Last weekend five people croaked in separate incidents in the French Alps: two climbers, a paraglider, a hang-glider and a wingsuit flyer. Wednesday introduced two more, in separate accidents: an as yet unidentified British “mens and” Uli Emanuele, Zanons former piloting partner. Be a Hero, answers the video they obligated for specific actions camera company GoPro in March.

It is hard to find exact fleshes on the notoriety of extreme sports, but it is even harder to find anyone who is of the view that they arent smash. In 2006, the British Parachute Association entered 39,100 first jump-starts. Last time there were 59,679. Counts of full members regular skydivers have been rising at a same pace. The British Mountaineering Council had about 25,000 individual members in 2000. Last September there were almost 55,000. The number of people clambering Everest has rocketed since the 1990 s. The balance of status of women climbers is increasing too, up from about 16% in 2002( BMC illustrations) to 36% now( Sport England figures ). Hang-gliding figures have suffered since the 1990 s, according to Michelle Lanman at the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association( The kit is so much heavier ). But paragliding and paramotoring( paragliding with a monstrous love) are doing very nicely. SurfingGB also reports that British surfing continues to grow rapidly.

Uli Emanueles video for GoPro. He croaked this week.

You precisely get into it and then progressively build up, be developed further mentions Jess Cox, 27, an instructor at her leaders business, Fly Sussex Paragliding, near Lewes. Better flights involve get higher, further, doing debagging or acrobatic material. Sorry, debagging? She indicates me a video on her phone. It was recorded by a pal shortly after they had both hopped off a 7,000 ft mountain in Turkey. Cox is moving high-pitched above a sparkle body of water when suddenly she falls from her harness, surely to her fatality, until a brand-new paraglider unfurls out of her knapsack and she swoops away. Woo-hoo! she squeals, watching. I adore it! That was one of the best days of my life. Its exactly the most exciting circumstance Ive ever done. The high-pitched lasts for daytimes. Youre walking around on a cloud when you have a great flight. You actually experience what you do. You really cherish it

Of course, the drawback of detecting something you adore this much is having to do without it sometimes. You cant make the crack be too long or you get itchy feet, Cox says. Some people become wholly haunted, retire their jobs, live in a van and only circulate round the world with textile in the back, leaping off material. It does kind of devour you. Its entirely addictive. When possible, Cox actually flies to work in the morning with her paramotor. Shes never fright, she says, unless you weigh nerves before rivals. Nor should she be. Like more extreme athletics these days, paragliding is much safer than it appears, as long as its done properly.

Jhonathan Florez, seen here contesting in the Wingsuit World Championships in China in 2013, died during tradition in Switzerland last month. Picture: Long Hongtao/ REX/ Shutterstock

For others, theres no denying that danger is part of the entertainment. On his website, Dickinson says that when unpredictable episodes happen( birds, dead tree branches, etc) I feel like I am operating in pure survival mode. I can feel my heart rate speed up, my appreciations increase, and my focus narrow so that everything seems to nearly slow down. During these instants I try to only focus on the current, the immediate here and now. I think this integrity of thoughts and thought is one of the many reasons I continue to do what I do. Being able to escape the interference, clutter and business of daily life is a rare treat in this world.

Its the luminous beginning of a red-hot daytime and Tim Cox meets the amateur paragliders and explains what they are going to do. I weigh 16 men as well as four girls. Mark, 28, and Andrew, 39, are both musicians at Glyndebourne. We had this day off and I concluded, Lets go and do something stupid, Andrew pronounces. Hes done a skydive once before and it panicked him. I only recollect contemplation, Deem it together, nurse it together, prop it together. I was hopeless to be on the ground. Hes hoping this will be a bit calmer. Mark, on the other handwriting, is a struggle director and well up for it. Hes done a bit of kite-surfing, diving and caving, but has still not been anything up high. I think its just for people who dont do very well at a barbecue, he reads. So many of our colleagues are happy to sit with a bottle of prosecco in the sunbathe for four hours, he tells. I get fucking birthed. Gives go and jump out of a mound! Hes made his GoPro, primarily to take times which could be used to scoff his partner, who wishes she were here.

How wingsuits toil

Sometimes referred to as birdman suits a wingsuit flight intents by distributing a parachute.

Martin, 25, is working in advertisements in London. He did a tandem paraglide with an teacher only a few years ago, and the experience lingered, so hes back to have a go on his own. He acknowledges to being a little bit apprehensive. Among all the josh of the others, he seems quiet and solicitous. Paul, 59, has been paragliding four times before, twisting his ankle on the last. He works in insurance and has always enjoyed trot, dive and climbing. He formerly had a captains licence. When he was diagnosed with cancer six years ago, he got more serious about his fitness and finally lost enough weight to try paragliding. He announces his cancer Nigel and takes pleasure in ignoring its requests. This is one in the eye for Nigel, he announces, as we climb the hill up to the launch area. He postponed some chemotherapy to be here.

Paragliding examines easy, at the least to start with. The equipment is not a parachute but an inflatable offstage, which is laid flat on the hilltop, then fills with breeze, takes shape and face-lifts leaflets off the dirt. Once the basics of territory and equipment-checking are illustrated, the tandem fliers are fastened into a big pitch-black fanny, hooked up to an teach, dragged back by the glider attracting as it rises, then a few speedy stairs launch them sends into the air. The first pamphlet, Andrew, is up 10 instants after we arrive. Bloody hell, mentions Martin.

The rest take off, and its clear theyre having a good time. Smoothly, gracefully, they fly backward and forward over the hillside until it seems almost dull, this boating around, as the initiated called it. Drifting down from the tandems return grabs of conversation that you might well exchange over prosecco. When involved, their teachers liven thoughts up with big-hearted changes and coilings, which appear very exciting. Their domination is so good that they can come over and waver within touching distance while we talk.

Mark Sutton, “the mens” who parachuted into the London Olympics stadium dressed as James Bond, was killed wingsuit moving in the Swiss Alps in 2013. Photo: CHAMUSSY/ SIPA/ REX/ Shutterstock

Science teacher Becky, 35, sits next to me, watching her banker boyfriend, John, enjoy his 39 th birthday present. Its like wearing a nappy, he enunciates when first fastened in. That was awesome, he says on property. Becky did a skydive formerly( crazy at the beginning) and a bungee rush( much worse, because you have to step off ). They didnt provoke in her the addiction that it did in Jess. She talks about the skydive like it was a first taste of marzipan good, yes , not over-rated , no particular need to do it again. Its trying brand-new circumstances, isnt it? she reads. Life would be a bit boring if you dont try new things.

Was life boring before extreme plays? It was surely less safe than it is now.( Gaze up the violent crime and road accident statistics .) Some do Evel Knievel started the cult by showing girls that roughly croaking “couldve been” refrigerate. Some say nonsense, “its been” Sondre Norheim. Or Otto Lilienthal. Or Franz Reichelt. Or Leslie Irvin. Or George Freeth. If you have no idea who those people were, then we havent reached the phase yet where the pioneers of downhill skiing, gliding, parachuting, skydiving and surfing are household names, but it is clear that what they started is no fad. You maybe know somebody who has done all the things these men were considered lunatics for trying. You may have tried a few yourself.

The Dangerous Sports Club needs a special mention, in part for exemplifying the crazed inventiveness and nonconformist ethos of extreme play. Organized by a group of well-to-do sidekicks at Oxford University, the DSC liked to think up perilous capers to play-act wino and in black tie, such as a ancestry down the ski slopes of St Moritz on a Louis XIV dining decide or a grand piano, or voyaging through gusts to the remote islet of Rockall, then accommodating a tea party. A younger is part of the DSC afterward constructed the monstrous trebuchet, which shot beings 100 ft into a net, eventually killing a 19 -year-old student announced Dino Yankov. The enormous gift of the DSC, nonetheless, is bungee jumping, which they acted for the first time on Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol on April Fools Day 1979, after a nighttime of boozing, without any preliminary tests.

Sutton with stuntman Gary Connery, in 2012 in Henley-on-Thames, preparing for a jumping. Photo: Gary Connery Archive/ Getty Images

Safety goes more thought these days, but the spirit of experimentation has never undermined in extreme sport. A decade ago, plain basi startle was the new frontier.( Instead of skydiving from a plane, you use a construct, feeler, encompas or Earth cover not bridge because the founders “ve decided that” babe hopping might not be taken as gravely, according to Phil Mayfield, who was one of them .) Today base jump-start is tame without a wingsuit, and wingsuits are tame unless you use them to get close to happenings, from time to time so close like Emanuele piloting through a 2.6 m defect in the rock-and-roll that it is obviously dangerous. But the peril reached him famous.

Perhaps next it will be jet-powered surfboards.( They prevail .) Or kids everywhere will model the Russian roofers who get themselves photographed hanging precariously from towering structures, and often autumn. Last-place month Luke Aikins became the first person to skydive without a parachute. After a descend of 25,000 ft, he landed in a giant net. It is breathtaking, he discovered.

At experiences the inventiveness is virtually ludicrous. Base jumping blindfolded, or with your bird-dog( that was Potter ), or with a parachute attributed to perforates in your back: youll find all of these online. But then, thanks to rugged cameras, video hosting and social media, these brief but stunning times of extreme play are as well-suited to 2016 as “couldve been”. No broadcasters offer billions for skydiving or skateboarding privileges just yet, but GoPro, Red Bull and others sponsor some of best available athletes to roam the world stirring exceedingly marketable clips. If we want a reason why extreme athletics have flourished so much this century, this neat fit between the producers and the money looks just like a good guess.

The number of first-time parachute rushes in Britain has increased by 50% the past 10 years. Photo: Ken Fisher/ Getty Images

And these may still be early days. Harmonizing to a report from the US presentation busines Delaware North, 100 hours of GoPro video are uploaded on to YouTube every minute, and sales of war cameras are growing at 50% a year. By 2020, extreme plays will objection professional and collegiate squad athletics for the claim of most-watched category of plays material, research reports responds. Today theyre a blip on the screen compared to the big business of professional sports, but participation in action and undertaking athletics has outshone conventional plays at the recreational level.

And where their commercial limits lie, it is hard to say. BMX and snowboarding are Olympic occasions now, and clambering, skateboarding and channel-surf will be in 2020. But I wonder whether plays such as wingsuit hovering had now been passed the limit of safety. Perhaps the same get for freediving, in which people rival to swim as deep as is practicable while hampering their breath, and where leading proponents, such as Natalia Molchanova and Nicholas Mevoli have recently died.

Pushing is part of sport, of course, but whats being pushed here is safety. A good footballer or tennis musician always wants to be tested against better opponents, but their opposings are human, so that can only proceed in so far. In extreme athletics, the antagonist is danger. As one of the worlds best known climbers and wingsuit flyers, Steph Davis, wrote in January, the limit comes when you hit the terrain. Instead, she advocated, Perhaps advance intends something very different. Perhaps it makes refining the experience, becoming safer, more beautiful and more mindful. Davis has been married twice, to Dean Potter and Mario Richard. Both men died in wingsuit collisions( Potter after their divorce ). Perhaps the future of extreme sports is hearing to be less extreme.

Read more: www.theguardian.com

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[nofomoartworld]

Hyperallergic: At the 2017 Dallas Art Fair, Big Ambitions and the Big Mo

Enoc Perez, “The Statler Hotel, Dallas” (2016), oil on canvas, 30 x 42 inches (photo courtesy of Peter Blum Gallery, New York)

DALLAS, TEXAS — Here in Texas, things can be big — vast expanses of ranch land and sprawling cities born of oil and other big-industry money under very big Texas skies. To spend time in these iconic American cities is to notice the dynamism and diversity of their cultural communities and institutions, and how much more they deserve to be recognized on the national and international scenes.

With unabashed pride, the annual Dallas Art Fair opened here on Thursday. It will run through this Sunday, April 9, serving as a locus for the ever-stronger vibe of this city’s growing visual- and design-arts scene, and the institutions and resources that have developed to support it.

At a time when a reactionary federal government is targeting the National Endowment for the Arts, public broadcasting, and public education for destruction, Dallas’s civic leaders, unequivocally, all seem to get it — that a city’s vibrant cultural life is not only good for society but, in contributing to its overall quality of life, is good for business, too. Nowadays, any politician who fails to grasp that irrefutable, vital link between culture and the economy deserves to be given the boot (with a fine, handcrafted Texan snip-toe) into those dry, far-away pastures where only tumbleweed roams.

Sedrick Huckaby, “Just the Two of Us” (2017), oil on canvas, 30 x 24 inches (photo courtesy of Valley House Gallery & Sculpture Garden, Dallas)

Mayor Mike Rawlings recently announced that the city’s annual Dallas Arts Week would become Dallas Arts Month, starting on April 1. Its centerpiece, the Dallas Art Fair, now in its ninth edition, has become a symbol of the local arts scene’s impressive growth and increasing momentum. At the fair itself, those trends are reflected in the greater visibility of galleries from other parts of the United States and overseas, as well as in its deepening relationships with local collectors and museums.

Money-where-their-mouth-is evidence of this kind of partnering was especially notable in a $100,000 purse provided by the Dallas Art Fair Foundation Acquisition Program to the Dallas Museum of Art. These funds, contributed by a pool of local collector-donors, enabled the museum to acquire works by the artists Justin Adian, Katherine Bradford, Derek Fordjour, Andrea Galvani, Summer Wheat and Matthew Wong from various exhibitors at this year’s fair.

The DMA’s new director, Augustín Arteaga, calls Dallas “an exciting city, with the largest arts district in the US.” Born and educated in Mexico City, Arteaga took over his new role here last September after several years as the director of the Museo Nacional de Arte (known as “MUNAL”) in Mexico’s capital.

Garth Evans, “Mirror Mirror” (1990-91), epoxy resin, fiberglass over foam board and paper, 28 x 17.5 x 13, and, at right, small watercolor-on-paper drawings, circa 2016-17 (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

Against the nation’s current political backdrop of racism, xenophobia, and disdain for culture, science, and the life of the mind, Arteaga’s appointment sends a strong signal that the region’s bicultural history and heritage have been enthusiastically embraced by the Dallas Museum of Art, which has firmly positioned itself as an international institution.

By coincidence, one of the museum’s current, large exhibitions, México 1900-1950: Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, José Clemente Orozco and the Avant-garde (on view through July 16), which had been on its schedule before Arteaga’s arrival, focuses on one of the richest art-historical periods of his native country. Presented completely bilingually, this broad survey recounts Mexican modern art’s development across genres in the first half of the 20th century, showcasing paintings, photographs and other works by leading figures of that time.

Back at the art fair, painting in its many forms is highly visible. Some galleries are showing smatterings of drawings, sculptural objects, photographs, or photo-based works. Mixed-media installations are few.

Joe Mancuso, “Chandelier” (2014), steel, roses, concrete, approximately 84 x 48 inches (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

Dallas galleries tend to represent artists from Texas as well as other parts of the US. Among these exhibitors, Conduit Gallery’s booth features Houston-based Joe Mancuso’s spooky-elegant “Chandelier” (2014), a seven-foot-long, cone-shaped, wire-framed structure hanging from the ceiling and adorned with long-stemmed roses that have been dipped in concrete.

Conduit’s founder, Nancy Whitenack, who told me she appreciates fine craftsmanship, is also showing the collage and assemblage artist Lance Letscher’s newest works made from flattened and stapled-together pieces of antique metal toys. Conduit is also featuring small-scale, oil-on-gessoed-panel portraits by the British artist Sarah Ball, who in the past has produced unassuming but eloquent portraits based on police mugshots. With similar modesty, Ball has based her recent paintings on photographs of immigrants taken by Augustus Frederick Sherman, a registry clerk and amateur photographer who worked at Ellis Island from 1892 to 1925. He routinely asked his sitters to wear their home countries’ native garments.

Marc Dennis, “Jacob’s Ladder” (2016), oil on canvas, 58 x 48 inches (photo courtesy of Cris Worley Fine Arts, Dallas)

Dallas’s Cris Worley Fine Arts is showing new paintings by Marc Dennis, who, in the past, working in a hyperrealist mode, conjured up cheeky send-ups of art history, such as a picture of two superheroes and a Russian mobster ogling the barmaid in Édouard Manet’s iconic “A Bar at the Folies-Bergère” (1882), or a version of Diego Velázquez’s “Las Meninas” (1656) featuring a disco ball. At the fair, Dennis’s new paintings fill canvases with explosions of luscious flowers, like classic still lifes on steroids. Worley is also exhibiting paintings by Paul Manes, an artist who recently left New York for Colorado and whose images regularly feature circular forms. Here, his big, oil-on-canvas “Jammed” (2017, 78 x 104 inches) depicts a pile-up of cut logs that serves, he has suggested, as a metaphor for today’s political stagnation.

Sarah Ball, paintings from the “Immigrants and Accused” series, 2016-2017, oil on gessoed panels, each piece 7 x 5 inches (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

Worley, who opened her gallery in 2010, said, “Local collectors who used to buy art whenever they went out of town are finding an ever-bigger selection and range of available work right here in Dallas. Plus, thanks to the Internet and the easy availability of information about art, people are better informed than ever before and more interested in art. These trends have helped the Arts District here develop.”

Dallas dealer Erin Cluley, who opened her eponymous gallery a few years ago after working at Dallas Contemporary, a non-collecting museum whose programming is local, regional and international in scope, said, “The Dallas Art Fair has fueled its own success by helping to educate people about art. This fair feels friendly and welcoming, and for many people here, it offers an opportunity to make discoveries. All of this has helped encourage buyers.” Cluley’s offerings include Dallas-based artist Nic Nicosia’s black-and-white photographs of scale-model set-ups of rooms filled with wire sculptures and other objects he makes himself. Meanwhile, at Cluley’s gallery space in West Dallas, the little props Nicosia uses in these staged photographs are now on view.

Sedrick Huckaby, “Gone But Not Forgotten: Sha Sha” (2017), oil on canvas, 72 x 36 inches (photo courtesy of Valley House Gallery & Sculpture Garden, Dallas)

One of Dallas’s oldest venues for modern and contemporary art, Valley House Gallery & Sculpture Garden, is featuring new pictures by the African-American painter Sedrick Huckaby, whose commitment to portraiture reflects his abiding interest in the theme of families and communities as extended families, and by the Georgia-based artist Miles Cleveland Goodwin, whose portraits and images of nature or people in nature — farm fields, leafless trees in wintry settings, a little boy pulling his ailing dog along in a small cart — capture moments of heightened awareness of the world around us and, in reaction to it, of the stirrings of the soul.

Valley House co-director Cheryl Vogel recalled, “Miles Cleveland Goodwin seems quite reserved when you first meet him; he is a quiet man, but not aloof. One time he said, ‘I don’t talk much,’ and then, after I asked him a simple question about a painting, he went on to speak movingly, for two hours, about art, his ties to the land, and life. It was fascinating.”

Miles Cleveland Goodwin, “Mountains” (2017), oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches (photo courtesy of Valley House Gallery & Sculpture Garden, Dallas)

From New York, dealer Peter Blum is showing paintings by the Puerto Rico-born, Long Island City-based artist Enoc Perez, who has long been interested in architecture and employs a complex process of pressing a sheet of paper covered with oil paint against the surface of a canvas, and then drawing on the back of the sheet as it if were a piece of carbon paper. He has referred to this method as “printmaking.” It gives his finished images a haunting quality: modern hotels, Philip Johnson buildings, and Puerto Rican casitas become mysterious monuments, trapped in time.

Serge Attukwei Clottey, “Beauty and Presence” (2014), plastic and wires, 75 x 51 inches (photo courtesy of Jane Lombard Gallery, New York)

Also from New York, Johannes Vogt is showing elegant abstractions — a wall-mounted, mixed-media sculpture and gentle watercolors on paper — by Garth Evans, the British sculptor who was once a teacher to such sculpture-makers as Richard Deacon, Antony Gormley and Tony Cragg. Manhattan’s Jane Lombard Gallery is featuring the work of the Ghanian artist Serge Attukwei Clottey, who uses cut-up pieces of large plastic oil or gasoline containers and little bits of wire to craft tapestry-like wall hangings with rich textures and a sculptural presence. A red-plastic afro comb affixed to a yellow tile on one of these large works serves as a reminder that Clottey’s found, repurposed raw materials once had practical value in someone’s daily life. Also from New York, De Buck Gallery is showing splattery, acrylic-and-broken-glass-on-canvas abstractions by Shozo Shimaoto (1928-1913), a member of Japan’s post-World War II, avant-garde Gutai group.

Serge Attukwei Clottey, detail of “Beauty and Presence” (2014), plastic and wires, 75 x 51 inches (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

Numerous dealers from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Japan and other countries are participating in this year’s fair. Newcomer Eduardo Secci, from Verona, Italy, is showing conceptual artist Andrea Galvani’s photograph of an aircraft breaking the sound barrier (which the Dallas Museum of Art just picked up thanks to the Dallas Art Fair Foundation Acquisition Program), as well as a kinetic wall piece by the Swiss artist Zimoun, in which small, motorized cardboard tiles flutter like a bird’s wings. “Zimoun loves for his mixed-media sculptures to make noise; he likes the texture of sound,” Secci explained as he showed me photos of some of the artist’s large installations, in which 240 motorized cardboard boxes wiggle in a warehouse-like space, or 329 motorized cotton balls attached to strings pop and fly around a round, white room.

Merlin James, assorted recent drawings, ink and other media on paper, variable dimensions (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

From Dublin, Kerlin Gallery offers a selection of bold-stroke drawings on paper by the Welsh-born artist Merlin James, who now lives in Scotland. Their subjects: trees, buildings, a curious tower, and a printing press. Hales Gallery, which has branches in London and New York, is offering a rare view of mixed-media drawings by Jeff Keen (1923-2012), a British maker of fast-paced underground films of juxtaposed imagery — today they would be considered visual mash-ups — who came from Brighton and whose art voraciously gobbled up its source material — found film footage, comic books, and more.

Leonora Carrington, “Matsya” (1969), gouache on vellum, seven sheets, 12.5 x 6.75 inches (photo courtesy of Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco)

From San Francisco, Gallery Wendi Morris, long a champion of Leonora Carrington’s work (as well as that of other, less-familiar Surrealists), has on display some unusual, small Carrington works on paper alongside the geometric color weaves (paintings in acrylic on paper or canvas) of the veteran American abstractionist Peter Young. At Miami’s Cernuda Arte, one of the leading outposts in the US for Latin-American modern art, a fine selection of Cuban modernists’ works is on view, including Manuel Mendive’s oil washes on canvas depicting wispy spirits from a primordial dreamland.

From Los Angeles, Richard Heller Gallery is showing some of the humblest but most memorable selections of the whole fair — the Swedish artist Joakim Ojanen’s cast-bronze sculptures of cute-quirky animals; human heads with long, ribbon-like ears; and little heads with caps or top hats. With their subversive charm, free of self-conscious irony, this is the kind of art a tired ironist-entertainer like Jeff Koons could not even imagine creating. That’s because, for all its offbeat aura, Ojanen’s work is filled with soul.

At the opening of this year’s fair, co-founder Chris Byrne told me, “In 2008, when John Sughrue and I co-founded the Dallas Art Fair, we considered ourselves to be the audience; our intention was to create an event which, in addition to exposing the city to galleries from other parts of the world, would build upon the strengths of the local community.”

Joakim Ojanen, assorted bronze sculptures, (2017), variable dimensions (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

In a conversation with one gallery director from overseas, I remarked, “There’s a lot of money in this town.”

“Yes, and I hope to find it,” the dealer quipped, adding, “You know, I’ve done a lot of fairs, and of course everyone wants to sell. This is a business, after all. But I came here because the infrastructure of relationships they have built up between museums, collectors, galleries and the public really is attractive.” Another dealer, from London, said, “This business is all about building relationships; the commerce flows from those relationships.”

For all the bluster these days about the “art of the deal,” when it comes to dealing in art, infusing the familiar art-fair model with a discernible human touch might just be this event’s most valuable contribution to the field. In true Texas fashion, that alone is something big.

The author was invited to present a film at the Dallas Art Fair, which helped cover his expenses to attend the event.

The Dallas Art Fair continues at FIG (Fashion Industry Gallery) (1807 Ross Avenue, downtown Dallas, Arts District) through April 9.

The post At the 2017 Dallas Art Fair, Big Ambitions and the Big Mo appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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