2012年4月30日星期一

Another Level

I didn't really want to title this post with a naff band name from the early noughties that covered Silk tracks and called it their own, but all I could really say yesterday, over and who again was "That was AnOther Level!!!"   I am of course speaking in reference to Simone Rocha, which in amongst a slew of brilliant things I saw yesterday, did manage to surpass the rest just because it was her on-schedule debut (discounting her shows with Fashion East) and quite literally took everyone's breath away.  There was a rollercoaster giddiness felt after the show because you were so excited to witness the rise of yet another London duckling that only added to the hub-hub over LFW (I've just added yet another shoutout of "LFW is so great" to the chorus of articles in the latest isssue of Pop).

It was somewhat of an inevitability.  Her off-schedule show had people in raptures and forevermore,wholesale coach handbags, the contrast between white lace trapped in kinky clear PVC stamped Rocha as someone who knows a thing or two about texture games.  She didn't disappoint for her A/W 12-3 collection and refined her aesthetic even more,monster beats in ear headphones, so much so that her MA collection seemed like a distant memory.  You forget, that she's only really been four seasons in.  She upped the tactability factor by looking at tribes of Papua New Guinea and then 1930s street urchin children of her native Dublin.  I'm also reminded of Irish photographer Niall O'Brien's Good Rats series that depics street tribes at their most quiet and strangely beautiful.  It's this mix of regal and untamed that underscores the collection.  Slick mirror leather is the hard counterpart to the soft fluffy wool knit collar.  A spotty print hide or sheeny shiny black ponyskin has a wildness to it that is coaxed back to elegance in a boxy oversized coat.  PVC gets an burst of tufted yarns that could be likened to Papupa New Guinea tribal costume.  The ladylike connotations of Melton and Linton tweed (oft used by Chanel) gets a layering of tulle to form a barrier of refinement.  It's as if Rocha knows exactly when materials start looking cliched and banal and has the ability to stop them from doing so, with the wave of her texture-driven magic wand.

It's this precise knack for contrast and balance that got female hearts racing in the audience.  I came away wanting to dress head to toe and submerse myself completely in Rocha's work.  That's a hard feat for someone who craves the mix n' match. 

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In the shoe department, Rocha has long displayed a maturity that is beyond her years.  The idea of working perspex into a brogue has the potential for becoming a design classic, as recognisable as Hussein Chalayan's wooden table skirt or Issey Miyake's Pleats Please technique.  Rocha went for a pure stable of flat brogues and pumps and the perspex became a thin accent embedded in the sole, shining in clear,Gucci Hobo Bag, lime or coral.  With two pairs of Simone Rocha's already in the closet, it invariably means that I'll now have to go the whole hog and continue that tradition with this season.  That's no hardship considering the choice at hand. 

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2012年4月29日星期日

What I won't be eating...

>> I know I know,coach outlet online sale, it's harsh to reduce the city of Montreal to a dish that is probably neither symbolic nor representative of its full culinary delights.  However, I know next to nothing about the city other than this dish here because people seem to love banging on about the lushness of 'poutine' - fries doused in gravy with cheese curds.  I'm fairly confident that I won't concur given that I don't really eat cheese.  So I know what I WON'T be eating...

But perhaps some of you can enlighten as to what I WILL be doing... it's travel-tips hunting time again.  Any words of wisdom regarding what to do, what to see,beats by dre headphones sale, what to eat (other than things involving cheese...),Nike Air Max 2011 Mens, where to shop in Montreal would be much appreciated...

The few things I am sure of are... I know I'll be finally meeting and putting a face to the lovely personality of Angie of I Heart Norwegian Wood... seeing the Complex Geometries boys... seeing Reborn for real... but I'd like to of course, cram the days with plenty more given that I'm there until Sunday.

Poutine

2012年4月28日星期六

Who can Soar higher

>> The obsession with playing swapsies with Tim Soar pieces between myself and Style Salvage Steve continues and even a legitimately menswear piece such as this elongated silk dress shirt couldn't escape my clutches.  It is officially Steve's and with his CdG Ganryu suit, he wears it well indeed.  

However with the vividly abstracted print at the back where a man's torso can be traced out under Rothko-esque shades of colour, I couldn't help but  do the "Hey I'm wearing a men's shirt and I just don't care" thing.  Except there are no sexy gams or bed head going on underneath (I'm looking at you Bel of The Hour, who keeps stupidly falling for bonehead Hector, hence the post-coital men's shirt wearing).  Instead, I've gone for some dip dying courtesy of the NY-based interesting sweatshirt line Aiko and some sturdy foot foundations from the Hilfiger x G.H. Bass loafers from the Selfridges launch a while back.  Despite the insociable position, I'd turn my back on people as much as I can just to show off the print.  It especially looks rather good in motion with shirt flailing about in the wind, in manner of Take That circa 1993 in the Pray video.  There's a reference I never thought would ever crop up...   

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(Tim Soar shirt,beats pro headphones, Aiko red cotton dress and dip-dyed top, vintage Ozbek navy skirt, Tommy Hilfiger x G.H. Bass Weejuns loafers)

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Ra Ra Ra

I'm cheerleading chanting because a) I'm back in London (at least for a while...) and b) despite the manic timetable of the weekend, it ended on a roaring RA note in Antwerp.  Dan Thawley of Dan the Scout contacted me to alert me to the store/project/creative outlet that is RA13 so off to Kloosterstraat I went to discover RA 13 in its unfinished form, complete with builders, sawdust and plastic-wrapped clothes.  Despite all of that though, I got that egg-cited feeling and my head has been planted with seedlings of enthusiasm for RA13.

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Two recent Royal Academy of Antwerp grads Romain Brau and Anna Kushnerova came together at a party and night-dreamed up this store that has gotten more ambitious by the day.  RA13 will officially open next week so I'm of course gutted I won't be there to check it out in person but this sneak preview has set in motion the need for another Antwerp-bound trip.  Firstly, let's just get the label selection over and out there as it's a vast one...

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ra 1st floor | Gareth Pugh | Giles | Louise Goldin | Ann Sofie Back | Charles Anastase | Hannah Marshall | David Szeto | Damir Doma | John Rocha | Juun J | Commuun | Frank Leder | Richard Nicholl | Wilfried Mayer | Ute Ploier | Mikio Sakabe | Akira Naka | Tillman Lauterbach

ra 2nd floor | henrik vibskov | stine goya | fabrics interseason | material boy | makin jan ma | julia&ben | cosmic wonder | bless | b-store | chloë sevigny for opening ceremony | peter jensen | kitsune | arne & carlos | ek thongprasert | facetasm

ra accessories | uncommon matters | jordan askill | maria francesca pepe | fleet ilya | sayaka yamamoto | heaven tanudiredja | stephen jones | j.smith esquire | yannick de witte | six scents

ra collaborating designers | katie eary | trushar | helena lumelsky | giuseppe virgone

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... it's not just that the range of labels are vast but that there's a very global emphasis when it could so easily have been Antwerp-centric.  Having had a peek through the racks, the guys at RA have bought a mixture of commercial/wearable/buyable pieces as well as more daring pieces which is a feat considering the number of labels coming into the store.  I only snapped a few but you get the idea I think with the list above.

Hannah Marshall // Charles Anastase

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Richard Nicoll - still vastly in love with his A/W 09 collection...

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Gareth Pugh - not that his pieces need captioning...

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Even in its unfinished state, I could also get a feel for what the 800 sq metre space will look like what with its emphasis on natural materials and surreal portions.  I'm sure I'll need to update this post once it's finished but I saw outdoor spaces integrated with the store, reconstituted foam strip changing rooms, a thatched cottage that houses the tills, talk of an astroturf hill running inside the store and chickens running around in the hut that forms the entrance to the store.  The space is also going to be home to a music area, a bookstore, exhibition area, food area as well as a designer vintage section.  So RA has got 'concept store' DNA running through it all and whilst, yes none of these elements are particularly new to a store but I think it's the combination of the design aesthetic, the selection of designers, its location on the charming Kloosterstraat (no playing 'hard to get' here like some stores like to do) and also Brau and Kushnerova's enthusiasm for supporting young, creative talent that will drive even more fashion affectionados to Antwerp if they haven't been already.

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