AN ONLINE FASHION, DESIGN & LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE BY CURATED
Curated is an online magazine that was founded in 2020 and explores various topics from the fields of fashion, design and lifestyle. With the new Editors Picks we always show you our favorites of the current season. We also combine interesting outfits from different brands for our Editorial.
As sustainability is very important to us, we have several articles on this topic in this issue: We show you the coolest shops in our City Stroll through Munich, tell you the stories of old clothes with our Worn Series, explain Sustainable Shopping and recommend appropriate some Sustainable Brands. Of course, well-known faces of the scene should not be missing. We have interviewed Ingo Brack and Myles O'Meally and tell you about their lifes and experiences.
You can also find out more about the numbering system of Maison Margiela in our Fashion Knowledge and get to know exciting Artists & People. And that would not have been possible without some amazing people I want to Credit.
Hey, my name is Elli.
Originally I come from a small village, but already in my early youth the feeling grew more and more that somehow I am not at home there. It was as if I had been sent to earth as an alien for an attempt at human integration, but apparently didn't quite understand my task. Directly after school, I took the chance of the newly won freedom and moved to Spain for a few months, which was very good for me. From there I went to Berlin. There I had finally found my home, like all crazy people. I was allowed to enjoy life there for almost four years. The colorful, the wild and the special had or has its attraction. During this time I studied acting. Finally the crazy had found a home. Until a pastor dragged me off to Bavaria. Wait what? Yes, that's how it was... probably he felt the need to offer me a "reasonable and regulated life in the countryside, in the fresh air". It was definitely a fallacy as far as the regulated life was concerned... considering that sometimes in the early morning some people ring the doorbell of our house and a short time later I find them at the kitchen table, crying their eyes out...while I try to make coffee with my eyes half closed, which didn't have enough time to get used to the light. I would say that my excessive party WG in Berlin was not much different.
But back then it didn't matter if my pyjamas were dirty or half torn, here it does. I found distraction from deep and important topics of the community in the theater pedagogical lessons I held in a secondary school. Before that, I probably never would have dared to teach anything artistic to a crowd of highly pubescent and sometimes very aggressive 10 to 15 year old children, but I have to admit to my own astonishment that this time was exciting, very instructive and extremely beautiful and also funny. Then came the modeling. How this fell into my hands, or more correctly expressed: how it was given to me, is however a story of its own, which I would be happy to tell you sometime during a cosy evening with a glass of wine.
Global head of creative services
& media at ESCADA
Ingo Brack has over 24 years of international experience in the fields of fashion design, artbuying, product development, material concepts, PR, art direction, creative direction, curation and exhibition design.
During this time he has been working with different styles and challenges, providing input and developing skills in art direction, leadership and teamwork with well-known luxury brands like ESCADA, TSE, Hussein Chalayan, Helmut Lang, Marc Jacobs, Bulgari and Swarovski. His career has taken him around the world and he has lived in Tokyo, Bangkok, NYC, Zurich and Munich.
His work has been published all over the world in major magazines such as VOGUE, ELLE, I-D, MADAME, HARPERS BAZAAR or MARIE CLAIRE.
Today Ingo is responsible for the Global Creative Services & Media department at ESCADA.
He leads the artbuying, campaigns, marketing materials and creative concepts for the brand.
That's the great thing about my job, there is no typical working day. Every day is different. There are always new challenges, needs and new tasks to master. Productions are usually based on new, creative and innovative concepts that you develop and implement, so every day at work is exciting and different.
It was clear from the very beginning that my studies had to include a creative component. Beginning with design and fashion to photography and marketing. I was always interested in art, fashion and already in high school I loved to follow brands, to see how they present themselves and how they could be developed creatively. To shape a brand by using all the creative components you have available. To tell stories or invent stories for a brand to make it interesting and exciting.
It's the combination of everything... I was lucky enough to live in Bangkok, Tokyo, New York, Zurich and now in Munich. I would not want to miss any of these stops.
Everything happened at the right time somehow. Each city had certain advantages, certain things I loved but also hated! Now I have arrived in Munich. I still travel a lot, looking back, every stage of my life was exciting, had certain challenges that had to be overcome and has shaped me...
I would like to go back to Bangkok in a few years, at the moment it is the city that fascinates me most, the city where I want to live again, the city where I want to grow old... Bangkok offers everything for me. The best symbiosis that a city can bring with it. I love big cities that offer many cultural possibilities. A city that manages to fascinate and inspire me every day anew. Bangkok is for me a city like that...
Yes, I have always been interested in fashion. This also comes with the history of my family. My mother is an art curator, my father is an architect, my grandfather had a large tailor shop... I grew up with fashion, art and the beautiful things in life, so to say. I had a lot of luck with my family. I was able to develop and unfold creatively and was always supported by my family in this area.We travelled a lot, lived in different places. My mother is very interested in fashion, and this has also been passed on to me.
The change came flowing. I started to work as a designer. Had a lot of fun in this field. I got to know great companies, lived in many cities, worked with exciting people... I got the chance to switch to marketing in a smaller company where I was responsible for both design and marketing.
Marketing offers me almost more possibilities than design. To shape the face of a brand and to carry it to the outside is extremely exciting. Telling the story of a company is also more in marketing for me than in design itself.
That's why I'm very happy to have gotten to know all the components in my industry and to have arrived where I am at the moment.
I don't really have a favorite piece of clothing like that. It always changes according to mood, desire and season. I have favorite designers. Rick Owens is one of them. I think he matches like no other the interplay of classic elements with clever, well thought-out details, uses high-quality fabrics and thus meets my zeitgeist. I don't want to look costumed, but I still appreciate the extraordinary things about certain pieces. Thus he creates for me the perfect interplay of fashion suitable for everyday use and unusual details.
Helmut Lang, with whom I worked myself in New York, has also achieved this... I still have pieces from him that I have owned for more than 15 years and have never lost the desire and pleasure in them.
This is what distinguishes true design for me and what makes the difference to high street fashion.
Inspiration can be found almost everywhere for me. Books, magazines, fashion, music, art, travel, friends, family... Just life in general...
I find the interplay of everything interesting. Often it is also small details that fascinate me, give an impulse and become bigger creative concepts... That is the exciting thing about our life, everything is realizable, you just have to keep your eyes open...
No, there wasn't. I still love my job... Because I was able to get to know all the different facets of this field, it was never boring. It was always exciting. I have always worked with great and creative people. Now I have a great team myself. For me it's also the people you work with that are not necessarily dependent on fashion.
Sure, there are days when you want to do something else... But who hasn't.
My industry still offers me a lot of freedom, creativity and leaves me room to realize my ideas and develop myself... What other job can you say that about?
I always try to travel with very little luggage. I am not a person who takes 1000 things with them. But a small sheep for luck (stuffed animal) cannot be missing, I always have it with me. It is called Igor, he has been accompanying me in my life for a very long time. Since I travel a lot, I appreciate it when colleagues are with me and travel with me.
In the past, business trips were more exciting for me. At the moment I still like travelling and I still love productions abroad, but I also like being at home in the evening. Enjoy a few minutes of rest, my free time, which is limited anyway, as there is always a lot of work and a lot of responsibility is in my hands.
The photographer captured worn clothes, shoes & accessories of different people, with visible signs of use that give an idea of the past behind the clothes.
You, the reader, should be encouraged to shop more wisely and care for your clothes & accessories rather than throwing them away or replacing them. Which is unfortunately not much done nowadays in this fast moving world.
The global fashion industry is estimated at an annual economic volume of 3000 billion dollars (Fashionunited)
Around 150 billion garments are produced worldwide every year 30 % of which are sold as discounted goods and 30 % are never sold
12.8 million tons of fashion end up in landfills every year
The fashion industry is responsible for 20 % of industrial waste water and 10 % of carbon emissions
Around 75 % of the fashion market is located in Europe, the USA, China and Japan
80 % of those employed in the textile industry are women
Cotton production accounts for 2.5 % of the world's agricultural land
The production of cotton accounts for 16 % of global insecticides and 6,8 % of global herbicides
In India 22,500 litres of water are used to produce one kilogram of cotton, in the USA 8,000 litres
The world's largest importer of fashion is the USA, 40 % of imports come from China
The biggest exporter of Second-Hand fashion in the world is the USA
More than 1,900 chemicals are used in global textile production
Almost 150 litres of water are used to dye one kilogram of textile.
The production of one kilogram of carbon black pigment results in CO2 emissions of 1.38 kilograms
In Germany, every adult owns around 95 items of clothing, one in five is hardly ever worn
Around one million tonnes of textiles are thrown away every year in Germany
My experiment begins with a confession: I’m terribly hypocritical. When I see the pictures of seas in which more rubbish swims than fish, I could cry. A few minutes later, I’m standing in the supermarket, buying cucumbers wrapped in plastic. As a fashion journalist, I regularly write about sustainable clothing, but when I need new underwear, I buy them cheap in a triple pack at H&M. In short, my lifestyle is a burden on the environment and I do not change much.
Now I’m pregnant. Like many women, this is an opportunity for me to rethink my consumption. The fashion industry pollutes rivers with chemicals and dyes, the cultivation of cotton requires more than 10,000 liters of water per kilogram, so much that entire lakes become wastelands. For years I have been thinking about making my wardrobe greener, now I want to make it happen. I want to be a good example for my child.
But is it even possible to dress completely ecologically? I want to find out for myself. With two conditions. First: The outfit must not cost more than 450 euros. That sounds a lot, and it is a lot, almost as much as the average German household spends on women’s clothing - in ten months! At the usual fashion chains such as Zara, H&M and Primark, I could redress myself at least twice for this, in every imaginable style. After all, fashion is like meat and flying: Prices are so low that people on low incomes can consume without restraint. This is expensive for the environment.
The second condition for my self-experiment: I need an outfit that I can easily fit in with my taste. The worst environmental sin is buying things you never use. And unfortunately this happens quite often in Germany: according to a study by Greenpeace, one in five pieces of clothing is hardly ever worn in this country, making a total of about one billion T-shirts, trousers or coats that just hang in the closet. So if everyone would only buy what they really wear, the ecological footprint of the entire country could be reduced by 20 percent.
I start my shopping trip at Hess Natur. The department store has been selling ecological fashion since the seventies and now has six stores in Germany. On the sales floor I discover tops in fashionable yellow and purple, wide cut culottes - and a beautiful green parka. It’s a classic that I can wear for many years and it’s also cut wide enough for my tummy to grow. The saleswoman assures me that everything is really going correctly with them: The cotton is 100 percent organic, i.e. free of pesticides, the lining is made of wool from happy sheep, and the delivery routes are kept as short as possible. First match. I think.
A glance at the price tag brings disillusionment: 349 euros. In order to stay within budget, I would probably have to walk barefoot and without trousers through the autumn. Also an experiment, but maybe more for the summer. Next, I go to Grüne Erde, a shop just across the street. The company from Austria is something like the Manufactum of the organic world. Everything is sold here, from bed linen to furniture, cosmetics and fashion. Unfortunately there is nothing I like.
A few days later I start the next attempt. This time not in the city centre, but in the Karo district at Glore, a small concept store. I found it in the app „Fair Fashion Finder“, where you can search for stores selling sustainable fashion. For Hamburg, it shows eleven stores: if you want to shop green, you get exercise and fresh air for free on top of it. The shops are spread all over the city, not bundled in the centre as one is used to.
At Glore, everything looks top, the clientele is young and hip. If I wasn’t pregnant, I’d find something here. But either things are too tight or the price is way out of my budget. I have the same situation in two other stores. My motivation is decreasing. It’s harder than I thought.
At least I fall in love with a fluffy light grey beanie of the label Inti. The wool is from alpacas grazing in the Andes, everything is produced there in a village in an environmentally friendly and fair way, the saleswoman at Glore explains to me. After three shops I have a beanie for 39,50 Euro.
On the weekend I try my luck in Cologne, where I live most of the time with my boyfriend. Cologne is a name in Germany’s sustainable fashion landscape. One of the biggest German eco-labels is located here, Armedangels. Founded in 2006, it now has 80 employees and produces over one million pieces a year. Lanius and Erlich Textil also have their headquarters in Cologne, and there are many other small sustainable shops. There must be something there for me!
And indeed: At Fairfitters, an „Eco Fashion Concept Store“, I see shoes I want to buy right away in the shop window: white sneakers by Veja. At 125 euros per pair, they are well within budget. The leather is tanned in an environmentally friendly way, the inner material is made of organic cotton, the sole of fair trade natural rubber from Brazil. Princess Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, was also recently spotted in the trend-setters. So I would be in good company.
Unfortunately, however, this purchase also fails: Firstly, I read on the Internet that Veja has been using chrome-tanned leather again since 2015. Even though the company is much more environmentally friendly than brands like Adidas or Nike, I see my 100 percent accuracy at risk. Secondly, I have to admit that I have six pairs of white sneakers at home.The owner of Fairfitters is Philipp Rodemann. He and his wife opened the store in 2015. If you want to be sure that your clothes have been produced responsibly, you should look out for certificates such as GOTS and the Fair Wear Foundation when buying, he says. In addition to various certified manufacturers, he also offers a wide selection of smaller labels. „Some small brands cannot afford certification at this time,“ says Rodemann. However, he makes sure that both the materials used and the finishing meet the highest standards. „For us, the rule here is: better 80 percent immediately good than waiting ten years for the 100 percent. That makes sense to me. A few minutes later I carry almost half the shop into the changing room. Many of the pieces fit and I like them. I decide on a dress by Jan N June for 95 euros. It was sewn in Poland, the material carries the GOTS seal and is made of 99 percent organic cotton, the rest is elastane from recycled plastic. Knowing that this mixture could get me into trouble afterwards, I go to the check-out. From earlier research I know that mixing cotton with synthetic fibres has its problems because it is difficult to recycle.
I check with an expert. Friederike Priebe works at EPEA GmbH, a company that deals with recycling and advises companies on recycling management. She confirms my premonition: "Even if the production is clean and exemplary, at some point your dress will unfortunately become unusable waste," she says. An item of clothing can only be really ecologically correct if you know all the ingredients, have sorted out harmful substances and can therefore recycle or compost it completely.And this is not yet possible with a fibre blend. It's a bitter realisation, but I won't reach 100 percent. Recycling and closed loop recycling management have been the big issue in the textile industry for some years now. The EU provides financial support for research projects, and large companies such as Adidas and H&M also invest in the development of new processes. A lot of work is being done to reuse old clothes. However, at the moment it is hardly possible to produce an equivalent fibre and the processes consume a lot of energy.Today, fabrics can be made from old milk, orange peel or pineapple leaves. One of the most prominent examples is the recycling of PET bottles. This plastic waste is processed into fibers. Priebe is sceptical: "This is even partly in the direction of consumer deception." Since recycled sea waste is in great demand at the moment, the demand can hardly be met. "Turtles dying from plastic waste - these are images that resonate with consumers. So well that now partly unused PET bottles are being turned into fabric to meet the demand. Complete insanity." The ecological balance of synthetic fibers is lousy in general. When washing, microplastics dissolve and end up in water.
After this conversation it is clear: I will not achieve my goal. But I want to get as close as I can to 100%. In order to wear my new dress, I need tights. I actually wanted to avoid online shopping for this experiment. Ecological fashion, which you can have brought home miles and miles in a van, doesn’t sound very sustainable. But I can’t find maternity tights anywhere. I came across the Boop label on the Internet - and again on plastic: it offers models made from recycled industrial waste. The material, it says on the website, is tested for harmful substances and bears the Ökotex seal. I order: for 31,95 Euro including shipping costs. The tights come by mail - in a plastic cover. A compromise, but still within the budget. I have long crossed underwear off the shopping list for cost reasons.
Back in Hamburg I stop at Hess Natur on my way home from work. Maybe the jacket has been lowered in the meantime? It hasn’t, but I find some leather boots that not only look great, but are also very comfortable despite the heel. The shoes are made of leather that has been tanned without chrome. They cost 279 Euros. I know that’s too much, but it’s 70 less than the jacket. I’ll go to the cash register.
The project sounded like fun: shopping with a clear conscience. But shopping is much more tiring when you have to pay attention to so many things - and still have to make compromises in the end. The fact that I’m pregnant is one of the biggest fun killers. After three attempts in two cities, I only have a dress, a beanie, a pair of shoes and tights. I have spent more than three-quarters of my budget and a guilty conscience.
My outfit is missing a jacket. I don’t have much money for it anymore. I put my hopes in Kirsten Brodde. The 54-year-old has been involved with environmentally friendly fashion for over ten years, now works for Greenpeace and has just published a guide on the subject with blogger Alf-Tobias Zahn: Simply Attractive. In 10 steps to an eco-fair wardrobe.
Her most important advice: "Before you start 'green shopping', you should look in the wardrobe," she says. I am relieved that I did that. You have to learn to appreciate old things again. In return, she says, used things can be made pretty again, broken clothes can be repaired - something society has forgotten how to do. A bad consequence of the triumph of fast cheap fashion is that nothing is repaired anymore. At the smallest hole, parts end up in the trash.
This gives me the idea of borrowing the missing jacket. This is especially popular for baby clothes: companies like Kilenda, Kindoo, Robbers and even Tchibo send out rompers and co. Borrowing was the most difficult thing she tried out herself, says Brodde. "Often there was nothing I liked at all." But sharing clothes and keeping them in circulation as long as possible is one of the most sustainable things you can do.
The experiment was actually based on the idea of buying new fashion. But doing tricks for the environment seems okay to me. One of the pioneers in fashion rental is the Kleiderei store in Cologne. I start my final shopping trip at a place where it's not about possessions: In a store in Ehrenfeld I borrow a coat for 25 euros, which only has to fit me this year anyway. In addition I am allowed to choose another three pieces. In the end it's three coats and a handbag. It's the best shopping experience I've had in a long time without buying a single piece. Because what is best for the environment is also best for my wallet. I have to sign the contract for three months, which means that for 75 euros I can be provided for three months.
Satisfied, I try on the complete outfit at home. My budget is overdrawn, but I am well dressed. I have spent 520.45 euros and I am determined not to wear anything else this winter. The most sustainable aspect of this experiment: I've had enough shopping for now.
Nina Piatscheck
Nina Piatscheck, editor at ZEIT Campus, DIE ZEIT, born 1982, studied fashion design. Through internships in New York, London and Hamburg she turned from textiles to texts. After a traineeship at the trade magazine „TextilWirtschaft“, she wrote for the departments of economy and fashion for almost eight years.
“Business is unusual,” says Myles O’Meally with a grin over FaceTime, “but I’ve always had to work around the clock.” It’s 8AM in Amsterdam, and sunlight beams through the window into his home-turned-office, a wall of art books and vinyl toys looming behind him. Despite the early video call, the 30-year-old footwear designer is energetic, “I think of time and the world as one thing. My friends and collaborators are international.” Myles pauses to organize the scattered footwear molds and samples on his desk. “The show must go on.”
If you don’t know O’Meally’s name, you must know that you’ve seen his shoes. As a former semi-pro tennis player, he’s been able to parlay his drive from the courts to the studio. He’s designed for Off-White and Nike; his fingerprints are all over Raf Simons’ debut footwear line. “I’m an interpreter,” O’Meally tells me. “You have to please the athlete with a product they want to create, while also understanding there are physical restrictions. Both design and production teams have different desires, speak different ways, have different needs. A good footwear developer gets 100 % in both design and performance. My job is to find the perfect balance.”
O’Meally started his career at Nike’s European headquarters in Amsterdam and temporarily relocated to Vietnam, where he juggled time zones and developed prototypes for the highly competitive market. In 2019, he started his own agency, Areté, which utilizes performance technology from sports for a fashion landscape. Named after the Greek phrase for “living your life to the fullest,” Areté’s designs are functional without compromising fit and form. As O’Meally asserts, ”Everything we do, we do with the utmost purpose.”
The 90s sneaker boom saw the likes of Nike’s Air Max and Reebok’s Pump technology infiltrate musical subcultures. His work for Virgil Abloh’s “The Ten’’ collection, in particular, referenced that legacy with deconstructed versions of Nike’s most coveted models. O’Meally’s work consistently challenges the possibilities of modern mechanisms: cleats from football boots, for example, are applied to silhouettes with the precision of Savile Row tailoring.
For O’Meally, sports-tech is an armour to combat unpredictability. We caught up with him, self-isolating at home, to learn more about how staying still has affected his flow, why he left Nike, and the business of creating a shoe as conceptual as it is comfortable.
The 90s sneaker boom saw the likes of Nike’s Air Max and Reebok’s Pump technology infiltrate musical subcultures. His work for Virgil Abloh’s “The Ten’’ collection, in particular, referenced that legacy with deconstructed versions of Nike’s most coveted models. O’Meally’s work consistently challenges the possibilities of modern mechanisms: cleats from football boots, for example, are applied to silhouettes with the precision of Savile Row tailoring.
For O’Meally, sports-tech is an armour to combat unpredictability. We caught up with him, self-isolating at home, to learn more about how staying still has affected his flow, why he left Nike, and the business of creating a shoe as conceptual as it is comfortable.
Myles O'Meally
I’m seven hours behind Asia, so when I wake up in the morning, I have a window to talk about communication and design. The middle part of the afternoon, I catch up with friends; in the evening, I work with people in Europe.
My business is incorporated in Singapore and our production is in China. Normally I would go back and forth to check on production, and visit Antwerp to work hands-on with Raf, but right now I’m at home. It just means I have to make really good tech packs.
When I was young, there were two things I was really interested in: P.E., and graphic design. I played a lot of sports when I was a kid, especially tennis. When I was 18, I was trying to go pro. I did it for a year before realizing I couldn’t make a living. I did an undergrad in Sports Technology, but my Masters was in Design Engineering. That’s where I learned the core skill of product design through the angle of engineering. I’m not a designer in the sense of, you give me a piece of paper and I draw you a beautiful image. I come from more of a construction background. I’ve always been interested in how things are made, how products are constructed. My passion for sneakers and design accumulated into the best job a graduate could ask for: Nike.
In Amsterdam, I was working in a market-driven, consumer-focused category, exploring how we interpret trends onto products. For three years in Saigon, I was working as an engineer and developer for the global category: performance football cleats for Europe and North America, cross-fit, baseball, special projects for Off-White. It was a wide range; way more technical. I was in the factory everyday.
I would receive a design and make two or three different versions. I would create a sample, send the prototype back for feedback, and from there, we would talk about what I had in mind for execution. It was a constant back and forth across time zones.
I was in the center of communication then, first talking to design and marketing teams in Portland, and later to development in Saigon. You’re like a translator, balancing both ends, trying to please the designer and athlete with a product they want to create, but also understanding the limitations of ideas. Both teams have different desires, speak different ways, have different needs, but you still need to hit deadlines. The calendar doesn’t stop.
Nike is an amazing brand, and I learned a lot from them; still, Nike is so big, and my role was quite technical. Yes, I’m a developer, but I also enjoy design, market research, building moodboards, and the end of the project, where you have the launch party. There wasn’t a job like that at Nike for me. So I left to set up my own version of the work I wanted to do.
I was on a non-compete for eight months, so I had time to figure out my plans. When you work for Nike, you can be in a bubble. You don’t really promote your work, you don’t make your services or skills available. I went to Paris and saw where the trends were, what people were talking about. We all saw this amalgamation of sportswear and luxury come together—I had to figure out how to tap into it.
A friend told me that Raf Simons was looking to design his own footwear line, and he put my name forward. When we first spoke, Raf was also in a transition period, leaving Calvin Klein and his partnership with Adidas. I met him at his Antwerp studio for what could have been an interview, but it was quite casual. To work with Raf, the developer needs to be able to interpret his ideas and references correctly. What he’s trying to achieve is very out there.
The relationship grows when there’s more trust. Raf is very open-minded. He understands and respects youth culture, and because of his experience, he’s able to take references from other eras. He’s also just a super nice guy.
Because I’ve worked across so many different categories, I saw so many ways of making footwear. That knowledge all goes back to the understanding of execution: the plates seen in the range are made with the same technology seen in football cleats. It doesn’t function the same way—you don’t play football with a Raf shoe—but the raw ingredients are the same.
At Nike, I learned that style is a bonus when designing performance sneakers; in fashion, performance is in the peripheral. With Raf, the concept stems from the idea that it needs to fit and feel like a runner. One of the first things he told me was: “I don’t want to make pretty shoes that people can’t wear.”
This is the moment when I started thinking about developing design-focused footwear. A good developer gets 100% in both design and performance. When I was working on Off-White, for example, it was style first; the function wasn’t that important. I enjoyed the process because I was exercising an artistic side.
Many of these fashion brands have stuck to making formal shoes: they work with amazing cobblers, but when it comes to making a sneaker—it’s completely different. I know how to make sneakers but I don’t know how to make formal shoes, so I also faced some challenges, like time.
We began designing the product in July and showed in January. After sampling a few rounds and development steps, we had four to five months to make a whole collection, which normally takes twelve to eighteen months. The high fashion calendar is absurd. We’re already working on Fall/Winter 2021 now.
It was crazy how fast things happened. I started working with Raf in July 2019. Six months later, we were showing his inaugural footwear collection. It was a nice moment, but I know the product can be better. I’m excited because with more time, we can continue to improve. There’s still a lot to expand on, but I’m in no rush.
Arthur Bray
He specializes in stories about fashion and music. He’s the former Managing Editor at Hypebeast and currently Editor-At-Large at Crepe City Magazine. His work has also appeared in 032c, FACT Mag, and Highsnobiety.
Martin Margiela.
It is enough to name him and an almost atavistic reverential feeling appears in those who read. Even a blaspheme of fashion, just by saying this name, can only be moved by a shiver, knowing that he has just heard something he knows but can not reference to. The Belgian designer graduated in 1980 at Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp that immediately captured Jean Paul Gaultier’s attention with his graduation collection, becoming his assistant in the following years. Enigmatic, eclectic and dodgy designer by definition, Martin is positioned on the same line as industry revolutionaries such as Rei Kawakubo and Junya Watanabe.
Margiela’s approach to fashion is cerebral.
With the years of experimentation of the Belgian school, which he attended together with the famous „The Antwerp Six“ (Dries van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester, Dirk Van Saene, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dirk Bikkembergs and Marina Yee) combines craftsmanship, materiality, gestured gesture. Pure devotion to the form that cannot be contaminated by any form of distraction, that is called color or identity, always hidden by Martin Margiela, in favor of clothes.White is the color par excellence of Margiela, a blank space to fill. This is the meaning of the famous brand label, first completely white, fixed by 4 stitches at the corners, to be easily removed. To this, in 1997 a new one has been added, with numbers written in black from 0 to 23, arranged in 3 rows. Each number corresponds to a product line and is circled in each case to indicate the collection to which the garment belongs.
To clarify a bit of the mystery and fascination that has always been lurking on the Maison founded in 1988 with Jenny Meiers, we offer you a quick guide to the references of Maison Martin Margiela.
Launched two years ago by a group of friends who’d met online, Peter Do is a brand for our age. Everything about it, from the clothes to the core values, is thoughtful and driven solely by what feels right to the group. The designs, which take cues from old Helmut Lang and Geoffrey Beene, are based around a tailored silhouette because, as Do sees it, men’s wear is beautifully constructed and made to be worn for years.For Do and his gang, functionality and wearability are key—there are pockets in everything, including skirts and dresses. Jacket linings possess a signature pleating that expands when the wearer moves. And much of the sleek knitwear, which is new for fall 2020, is sleeveless, offering warmth without the cumbersome layering. “I like to watch people, and when I see them struggling with something, it inspires me to fix it,” says Do.
His mantra: clothes for women to live in. Which is to say, clothes for women who get stuff done and look cool doing it, and are above reworking their wardrobes every season to account for silly trends. “They should just be able to grab whatever in the morning and know they look good,” says Do of his customer.
97cm is a Berlin-based atelier founded by Illya Goldman G. and Mehmet Cevik. Breaking the binary continuum of thinking and feeling, science and mysticism, and blurring the line between tradition and innovation, handmade and luxury goods, perfection and imperfection, their installations are emphasizing the complexity of human consciousness in order to unravel a better understanding of the self. Terminologies borrowed from the judaism and the islam are pervading their art works, serving as reminiscences to their cultural imprint. Integrating their ethnical designation into their work in new and unexpected ways is the product of a permanently sincere dialog between the two artists. The interference of multi perspectivity combined with self-reflection is thus creating a patchwork of sanity and new realms, merging believes and codes of the past with newly acquired knowledge. Searching for the universal key, each work is timeless –– it is a bridge to more knowledge that represents their presence and paradigms. Exploring the ambiguities of modern life, challenged by the rapidly shifting conditions of our period, 97cm creates multi-layered reflections of everyday perception. The artist duo transforms paradigms, materials, space, and time into works that invite beholders to reflect and feel. 97cm captures the moment, which in turn perpetually creates other moments yet to come. The result is a body of works in a constant state of flux, encompassing art and a deeper meaning of existence to gain a complex and fuller understanding of the self, to open minds and hearts and liberate their spirit.The atelier name 97cm derives from Illya Goldman (Gubin)'s initials and where they are located in the alphabet – I=9 G=7 – combined with Mehmet Cevik’s – CM – initial.
ABOUT THEMRemi Pisicchio, better known as Emir Shiro, born in Grenoble, is a French artist, designer and artistic director. Based in Grenoble (between Lyon and Nice) in France is where Shiro can be found compiling collages that are taking Instagram by storm. He has over 180K followers and counting, all interested in his collage composition, and of course, the merge of cheeky content.FC: Tell us about your background and how you became an artist...
He took a graphic design training in high school and then entered the entrance examination at the Beaux-Arts in Grenoble where he stayed 3 years to study art in its entirety. It was in 2014, at the end of his last year of studies in art school that he started to produce his first artistic projects. He really felt like an artist outside of art school and found freedom that he did not have in his art class. He works by hand and also on the computer and sometimes he mixes the two techniques.
Currently, I take more pleasure in making my collages by hand he says. Recycling images to create a piece is really satisfying. By working with existing media like magazine photographs, I can’t apply geometric modifications as one could do on a digital image. With a photo collage made by hand, the collage works or not, we can not cheat with the image. What I love also with collages made by hand are the different textures that are obtained by assembling different types of images he adds.
