'Folding In Love' Man

'Folding In Love' Woman

www.prada.com

By Lucy Mclean

Text by Anna Battista

Jean Shrimpton 'Plain Girl' 1963

Jill Kennington and Melanie Hampshire are chatting to bobbies on the beat and jumping on London buses wearing Mary Quant and Jean Muir’s designs; stunningly beautiful Carmen Dell’Orefice is elegantly posing in front of a pool in the Bahamas while French model Nicole de la Marge with dreamily closed eyes is surrounded by The Rolling Stones. These are just a few shots part of the exhibition “An Eye for Fashion” featuring 60 iconic images – selected from the Angela Williams Archive – by British photographer Norman Parkinson, that recently opened at Bristol’s M Shed.

Unanimously considered as a pioneer in fashion photography, Parkinson brought his models onto the street, making them pose on unusual backdrops, from working-class districts to the docks. Parkinson worked as a portrait and fashion photographer for Vogue, then moved to Queen as Associate Contributing Editor and, from 1964 until he died in 1990, worked as a freelance photographer.

The images included in the exhibition – carefully selected by Williams, a photographer herself who worked as Parkinson’s assistant in the early ’60s – follow ten years of British fashion, from 1954 to 1964. Among the most interesting pictures there are previously unseen and unused covers for Life and photo shoots for Vogue and Queen featuring famous models such as Melanie Hampshire, Celia Hammond and Tania Mallet or actresses like Jean Shrimpton in a striking James Wedge polkadot hat. Yet there is more than just a story of style and fashion behind the images showcased here together with a selection of costumes and objects from the same period of time: indeed these photographs indirectly show how women’s roles in society radically changed in the decade that marked the transition to the ‘60s, explains Catherine Littlejohns, Senior Collections Officer at Bristol’s M Shed.

Queen Magazine, 1960

Zoot Magazine: How was working with Angela Williams?

Catherine Littlejohns: Working with Angela was a brilliant experience. She knew the images and Parkinson’s career inside out because, as his assistant, it was her life too. What made it special was that Angela always had extra anecdotes about the pictures and the people in them, so Parkinson wasn’t just the subject of an exhibition: I feel that, now, I have a greater sense of him not only as a photographer, but as a person.

Z: As a curator, what fascinates you about Parkinson’s life and work?

CL: As a social historian there are so many things in Parkinson’s images that I love. There’s a really strong sense of time and place, particularly in the images from the early ’60s which were so different to what had gone on before. Then there’s the development of the fashion magazines and how women were portrayed, not forgetting the clothes too, of course! But it’s also Parkinson himself. He was a really flamboyant character and I think this comes through in his images. He seems to have been able to create a relation with his models and encourage them to work with him to push boundaries and express themselves. As a result, many of his pictures have an energy and movement about them that was incredibly innovative. There is also very often a sense of youth and fun in his pictures that still shines through today.

Z: What is the cultural significance of these images and what do they tell us about those years and about women’s image and role in society?

CL: That’s quite a big question. The period we focus on in the exhibition, 1954 – 64, was an incredibly important period socially and for fashion in general. During wartime women performed all sorts of new roles, from working in factories to flying planes. Post-War, although many of these women returned to ‘more suitable’ pre-War roles, things had already changed. Simmering away beneath the surface, the advances made by one generation of women were taken up by their daughters (and sons) as soon as social conditions, such as high employment, allowed. Comparing the photographs in the early part of the exhibition with those in the later part shows this transition through fashion. In fashion terms, the reality was that at the beginning of the ’50s the country was still gripped by post-War austerity measures. Although the photographs don’t necessarily show this, what they portray is still fashion aimed at women in their twenties and thirties, as it had been before the war. There was no such thing as teen fashion and most young people, once out of children’s clothes, dressed as their parents did. By the early ’60s that had all changed and fashion was young, exciting and experimental. Much of the period we look at in the exhibition is before the ‘Swinging Sixties’ kicked in, but so much of what happened then had its beginnings in this earlier time.

Norman Parkinson and Carmen Dell'Orefice, "In The Bahamas", 1959

Z: Which famous models and garments by Haute Couture houses and High Street retailers appear in these images?

CL: Famous models include Jean Shrimpton, Melanie Hampshire, and Nina von Schlebrugge (Uma Thurman’s mother). Garments in the pictures include everything from Worth to Wallis. There are significant high street options from the period such as Susan Small, featured in several images, but probably most significant were the emerging designers like Mary Quant, who were very quickly going to change the whole face of fashion.

Z: In your opinion, which is the most iconic Norman Parkinson picture included in the exhibition and which is your fave one?

CL: That’s really difficult as there are so many! Probably the most famous is the Cadbury’s Plain Girl advert, featuring Jean Shrimpton wearing a spotty James Wedge hat. However, there are several images featuring group shots of models wearing clothes by designers of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers. The images are beautiful as group shots but also highly significant because of their promotion of British Couture designers. The later part of the exhibition also includes several images from the ‘Brash New Breed of British Designers’ series, completed for Life magazine in 1963. The models, including Jill Kennington and Melanie Hampshire, are out and about in London, chatting to bobbies on the beat and jumping on London buses, wearing designs by Mary Quant, Gerald McCann and Jean Muir. There’s a real sense of time and place in these images, and of course time has increased the significance of certain designers. Choosing my favourite is probably even harder and it keeps changing. This week though, it’s a 1960 image of model Sue Kinnear wearing a Jean Muir cocktail dress. It’s a very quiet image, quite different to the energetic images Parkinson is better known for. To me it’s more about the photographer’s desire to reveal something about his subject, and his quest to show women and clothing as beautiful as they can be. It’s not an image that shouts, but, when you notice it, it’s very hard to look away.

Z: Why would the images included in this exhibition still be important to today’s fashion, designers and photography fans and what has been the visitors feedback so far?

CL: The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive so far and people really appreciate the different levels in the show – the photographs, the social history and the costume. The photographs are stunning and I think the energy and interest in the composition keeps them fresh. In fashion terms, the elegance and glamour of the clothing in the pictures will never be outdated and, of course, everything in fashion comes back around!

Z: Can you tell us more about the costumes also included in the exhibition, are they all selected from the museum collection?

CL: The costumes show how fashion magazines like Vogue and Queen influenced what could be bought on the high street, and therefore what most people wore. Key style features can be traced through the Parkinson photographs to the shop-bought and homemade items on display. Many Bristolians have contributed with their shopping memories of the ’50s and ’60s and with tales of net petticoats blowing up over their heads, or of stuffing long pointed tie shoes with cotton wool, so the realities of wearing the fashions have also been included.

An Eye For Fashion – Norman Parkinson Photographs, British Designers 1954-1964, M Shed, Bristol, UK, until 15^th April 2012.

Image credits:

Jean Shrimpton ‘Plain Girl’ 1963, wearing James Wedge © Norman Parkinson Limited/Courtesy Norman Parkinson Archive www.normanparkinson.com

Queen Magazine 1960 © Norman Parkinson Limited/Courtesy Norman Parkinson Archive www.normanparkinson.com

Norman Parkinson and Carmen Dell’Orefice, “In The Bahamas”, July 1959, Angela Williams Archive.

To celebrate 30 years of Reebok Freestyle, the brand are launching two new edition womens hi tops, revamping the must have sneakers of the 80′s with their iconic velcro straps and pioneering fashion-meets-sports style. The 2012 Freestyle Hi is available in two colours, the Anniversary and Olympic Creme inspired by pearls and mirrors with a unique and shimmering feminine look, or the Anniversary and Black which plays on black and gold with a special metallic sheen, featuring the commemorative 30th Anniversary Reebok badge.

www.shop.reebok.com

By Lucy Mclean

Freestyle Hi 30th Pearl

Freestyle Hi 30th Black

Griffehairstyle launched their new campaign “L’amour Toujour” dedicated to the Valentines month of love, featuring models Ruben Rua and Fabiana Capra as the ideal “griffe couple” portraying attitude and style unique to the Lisbon salon. In celebration of this special month, Griffe are offering all couples a two for one deal on hair cuts until February 29th so grab your other half and head down to the salon soon to catch this unique offer while you can!

Rua Nova do Almada, 100A. 1200-290 Lisboa.

www.griffehairstyle.com

Text by Anna Battista

As a young girl Russian fashion designer Lisa Shahno used to make her dolls’ clothes under the watchful eye of her elder sister who explained her the principles of pattern making. As she grew up, unsure about her future career and still toying with the idea of becoming an artist rather than a designer, Shahno started wearing bizarre outfits she created herself, and eventually enrolled in the pattern making department of Moscow Mossovet College. Her lecturers mainly based their classes on their knowledge of Soviet factories, classical sewing technology and traditional pattern making, but Shahno was fascinated and, after getting her diploma, she moved onto the fashion department of the Moscow State University of Design and Technology.

After winning in 2009 the Createurope fashion design contest held by the Goethe Institute, Shahno spent a year in Berlin where she interned at Andrea van Reimersdahl’s studio while preparing her new collection, “The Iteration”. In the latter Shahno applied the nodal points of the fractal cosmology theory to her garments, coming up with designs that seem to incorporate in their structure a multitude of patterns, sharing the same features and similarities of our infinite cosmos.

Zoot Magazine: Can you introduce us your latest collection?

Lisa Shahno: I used a similar principle in it as in my first collection – “Squaring the Square”. In that case I took basic geometric shapes and then divided them with straight lines. This time, though, I used a simple grid made of squares divided with diagonals. This grid has different scales for each design – like a different scale of fractal, so you can say that the designs represent a variety of matter levels in the universe, according to the Fractal Cosmology theory that inspired me. I believe that if a flat pattern looks beautiful, the three-dimensional object it generates will look beautiful as well. That’s why I juxtaposed grid graphics to the photos of my designs on my website, after all the grids themselves can be considered as independent art objects. I also tried to make this collection wearable so I didn’t use plastic and looked at the designing process from more practical points of view.

Z: Apart from fractal cosmology, the inspirations behind your collections include the universe, the hexaflexagon, geometry and science, what fascinates you about these themes?

LS: There’s a half-mystical modernism concept I appreciate about things – such as Dutch Neo Plasticism or Russian Suprematism – which we can’t imagine or see with our limited perception but can talk about, using the visual language of geometrical shapes. “The Iteration” was inspired as I said by Fractal Cosmology, but then I read The Cosmos by Carl Sagan and browsed the web on the universe-related theme. I was spellbound by the idea of the infinity of worlds nested inside each other. I’m an artist, not a scientist so I express my comprehension not through words, but through the things I make.

Z: Is there a Russian designer who particularly inspires you in your work?

LS: I like the works of Vera Mukhina and Nadejda Lamanova that they did for a publication called “The art in everyday life” (“Iskusstvo v bytu”). In these works they suggested the concept of clothes that are easy to make, supposed to be made using cheap materials – such as rectangular towels and square kerchiefs as after the October Revolution there was a very difficult time and industry just started to emerge so there was a shortage of good materials and ready-to-wear clothes. I love textile design and concepts of prozodejda – from Russian “proizvodstvennay odejda”, that is “clothes for the manufacture” – of Lubov Popova and Varvara Stepanova.

Z: You often do installations as well, do you consider yourself more an artist or a fashion designer?

LS: I’m more artist than a fashion designer. I don’t like the traditional way of presenting clothes. I’d like to explore a deeper interaction between presentations in galleries and fashion shows, wearable clothes, art objects and small scale production. I want people to ask more questions and to buy things not because a magazine or a blog told them that it is cool to do so, but because they understand and share the ideas which inspire the designer to create those things.

Z: What’s the fashion scene like in Russia at the moment?

LS: Russians are mainly interested in very expensive clothes that are supposed to show off how much money the person wearing them has, that’s a strong trend, in the same way it is also fashionable to follow the European and American trends. People in general do not trust local designers, preferring popular Western brands. Besides people are often afraid of something unusual, that’s why they choose classic rather than avant-garde or experimental styles. While there is no real indtustry and no national fashion market in Russia there are exceptions, such as design duo Nina Donis that I really like.

Z: Is it difficult for a Russian designer to emerge?

LS: I suppose it’s pretty difficult everywhere, but in Russia it’s much harder for quite a few reasons. As I said before, there’s no real fashion industry in Russia, so there’s a severe shortage of professionals in all fashion-related fields. The lack of professionalism is the worst problem, because in fashion you can’t just do everything by yourself, you need to work with many different people and so, even if you have a great idea, the final ‘product’ may end up being second-rate because of the amateurs you work with. The other thing is the lack of interest: I do receive a lot of interest – both press and customers – from abroad, but when someone wants to borrow pieces for a shooting, it’s very complicated because the Russian post is incredibly slow and unreliable. Last time, when I had such a request I had to pay 260 euros to ship the piece to Hamburg via DHL – it’s simply crazy! Another time I had a problem with Russian customs when I received my first collection back from an exhibition in Belgium, so you often feel you’re isolated from the rest of the world.

Z: Is it true that Lady Gaga wanted to borrow one of your designs?

LS: Apparently yes, it was at the beginning of last year year, when I just returned from Berlin. An employee of Brandon Maxwell, assistant to Nicola Formichetti, requested pieces for an upcoming video shoot for Lady Gaga. He said that the video was going to be shot pretty soon and it was going to be a big production with crazy and insane pieces. But at that time all my works were at an exhibition at the Mode Museum of Hasselt and I couldn’t provide anything.

Z: Where can we buy your creations?

LS: At the moment some pieces from “The Iteration” are available at «Teknopolice» store in Osaka, Japan. You can also contact me directly via email.

www.lisashahno.com

Text by Anna Battista

House Cabochons

A journalist’s job is mainly letting others tell their stories. Yet sitting down to hear a journalist’s own story can be equally fascinating and educational and Samuel Gassmann has a charming story to tell.

An art curator and freelance journalist, Gassmann found himself deeply drawn by a research for a documentary about the origin of the button. Further researches led him to concentrate on the history of the dress code and on how clothes were linked to day, evening or sport events and to a life of pomp and circumstance at the royal courts. Soon his journalistic research turned into the inspiration for a unique collection of “haute couture” cufflinks.

Handmade in Gassmann’s Paris-based studio, the cufflinks – in mother-of-pearl, coral, glass, incorporating ancient coins or decorated with acro numbering tacks, engravings of the sun and the moon or with letters designed by Alex Wiederin, Creative Director of Vogue Hommes International – tell a story of craftsmanship, style and quality.

Evening Cabochon

Zoot Magazine: When did you decide to become an accessory designer?

Samuel Gassmann: After studying Art History at La Sorbonne, I began working as a curator for numerous contemporary art exhibitions and as a freelance journalist for Arte’s Metropolis magazine.

In 2007, I began researching on the theme “Origin of the Button” – the smallest thing for a man’s clothes – for a documentary project. These researches led me to find small mother-of-pearl cabochons which looked as if they were made for cufflinks. I found enough to make 223 pairs of cufflinks. During this period of time I also developed an interest in the pre-French Revolution laws that told people how to dress up during different times of the day and occasions, from the morning to the evening, during sport events or for formal occasions such as visits to the court. I started my line soon after this research with an article on Elle magazine, becoming an artisan and designer by accident.

Colours

Z: Your collection started with the button-shaped cufflinks, can you tell us more about them?

SG: I moved from the traditional definition of “button” for a man’s shirt – 11 millimeters and four holes – and I called it the “Archetype”. For the day version I opted for mother-of-pearl because, until the ’60s, all buttons were made using this material. For the evening I used grey mother-of-pearl, while for the sport events I employed porcelain since I wanted a material that could be painted in the colours of your team or on which you could draw the number of the shirt of your favourite player, but that would still allow you to remove colours and numbers in case you change your mind!

Z: What about the colour-coded cufflinks instead?

SG: There are two ideas behind them: the first one is associated to art and the second one to the concept of temporality. I started the “Colour(s)” cufflinks as a representation of two opposite colours, blue and red. Then I tried to imagine a way to have a well-balanced system of colours using Mondrian’s orthogonal structure of representation. At first, I created two blues and two reds to have a square representation of the colours. At the moment there are four shades in the “Colour(s)” collection – blue, red, yellow and green. The second idea is that the colour has a temporary existence: think about Greek statues and how they lost their colours throughout the centuries or about how hair lose colours turning grey and then white. To produce these pieces, we used natural pigments that are sensitive to light to dye the shells made by François Mercier. In a few years’time, all colours will disappear completely but the structure will still remain. That’s why I called the line “Colour(s)”, putting the “s” in brackets to underline the fact that all the colours will eventually fade away.

Day Archetype

Z: How long does it take to make a pair of cufflinks?

SG: It depends on the material I’m using. I make the cufflinks by myself in my Paris-based studio and it usually takes a few days to make some of the cufflinks for the “pomp and circumstances” line, while for others it may take less than a day.

Z: Does your previous job as a journalist still inspire you?

SG: Yes, it does. I actually do not see any real difference between my job as an artisan today and my previous job as a journalist. My way of working did not change at all: before I create, I still sit down and carry out my researches, finding the meaning for a collection in the same way I would have started working on the background information for a documentary.

Z: Would you like to expand and create also other lines of accessories?

SG: I already came up with a day shirt for Japanese label Arts & Science (http://arts-science.com/). I like to describe this shirt as a cookery recipe, a perfect blend of measures and materials. Arts & Science interpreted my concept and had the shirt made by hand by one artisan. It will probably be available from the end of March and will be distributed only by Arts & Science in Japan. Now I’m already thinking about shirts ideal for day, evening and sport events or for all your “pomp and circumstance” occasions.

Day Alphabet

Images:

House Cabochon (white brass, bronze link): 130 Euros

Day Archetype (mother-of-pearl, silver link): 110 Euros

Day Alphabet (mother-of-pearl, silver link): 110 Euros

Colour(s) (tinted shell, silver link): 110 euros

Evening Cabochon (grey mother-of-pearl, bronze link): 90 Euros

All images courtesy of Samuel Gassmann

Text by Anna Battista

Books tell stories and last week accessories designer Olympia Le-Tan, well-known for her clutches inspired by rare first edition of famous novels, told her own tale to the visitors of her “Sei borsette in cerca d’autore” (Six Bags in Search of an Author) installation at Florence’s Museo Bellini.

Invited by the Pitti organisers to present her work through a special event, Le-Tan turned the refined private museum and gallery owned by a family of antiquarians into a boudoir in which her new collection of bags inspired by Italian books and films was surrounded by images of friends and celebrities taken by American photographer Max Farago, and recreating scenes from iconic Italian movies.

Federico Fellini’s films were celebrated through La dolce vita, La strada and 8 1/2 bags, but also through images of Victoire de Castellane as Anita Ekberg in the Sorelle Fontana-inspired “pretino” dress, and of Jennifer Eymere, editor of Jalouse, as Giulietta Masina in La Strada.

Alberto Moravia’s Il Conformista reappeared as a clutch bag, but also as a picture featuring André Saraiva as Jean-Louis Trintignant in Bertolucci’s film, while Hamish Bowles posed as Helmut Berger in the attire devised by Piero Tosi in Luchino Visconti’s La Caduta degli Dei.

Tilda Swinton starred as stylish Silvana Mangano in Pasolini’s Teorema while Le-Tan herself opted for voluptuous Mangano as the rice worker in Riso Amaro.

Further authors and directors celebrated included Dante, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Alessandro Manzoni, Luigi Pirandello (whose Six Characters in Search of An Author was also referenced in the title of the installation) and Michelangelo Antonioni with images and bags inspired by Deserto Rosso and L’Avventura.

Famous poses that originally featured Ave Ninchi in Italian comedy La famiglia Passaguai, Sophia Loren in “La Riffa” (an episode from Boccaccio 70), Alida Valli in Senso, and Claudia Cardinale and Alain Delon in Il Gattopardo, were recreated in Farago’s images.

Covers such as the original one for the Collins and Harvill Press edition of The Leopard by German-born Hans Tisdall – a textile design artist who created quite a few book covers for Jonathan Cape characterised by his strong calligraphic lettering – reappered on clutches.

The divertissement, completed by an all Italian soundtrack including Adriano Celentano’s “Chi Non Lavora Non Fa l’Amore” and Gino Paoli’s “Sapore di Sale” among the other tracks, worked well on a superficial level since deep down there was a tangible impression that the event wasn’t about paying tributes to those particular authors, directors, actors and actresses, but it was more about the people in the portraits (ubiquitous Olivier Zahm standing naked in a brave and bold pose wasn’t indeed a convincing representation of the horrors suffered by the victims in Pasolini’s Salò).

Can you tell us more about the bags you made for this project?

Olympia Le-Tan: For this event I made 36 book and mini-book clutches and film inspired bags. The latter come in a round shape, that represents a huge step forward for me, and that calls to mind a film box. As usual, the clasps are in brass and the structure is in thick cotton lined with Liberty fabrics. All the bags are numbered and limited to 16 pieces because I was born on 16th October.

What inspired this collection?

Olympia Le-Tan: I studied Italian while I was at the university and a lot of these books were part of my course. I didn’t read some of them, though I chose the ones to feature in this collection according to which titles I liked and which ones had good covers.

In your opinion, what makes a good cover – the lettering, the colours or the illustrations?

Olympia Le-Tan: There doesn’t have to be a lot of stuff on the cover, in fact I quite like simple and graphic ones.

Did you ever visit Florence before coming for this event?

Olympia Le-Tan: Last time I came to Florence I was 10 years old and in that particular trip I visisted everything because, as kids, my father used to take us to museums all the time. When I came back to select the location for this project I visited the Museum of Natural History, which I really loved, and the French Institute. Then we went to the Bellini Museum and, suddenly, I felt like we were in one of the houses featured in a Visconti film and the venue became an obvious choice.

The bags were accompanied by photographs that call to mind famous scenes from Italian films, what inspired you this installation?

Olympia Le-Tan: I wanted to do something that I never did before, so I asked a lot of people – from my friends to people I liked – to pose recreating scenes from Italian films. I myself posed as Silvana Mangano in Riso Amaro, with shorts and torn stockings, when she was more voluptuous. I tried to mix my collection with the collection in the museum, so as to have an assortment of pictures, bags and art pieces. The photos are a bit like parodies of Italian scenes, they’re more like a joke and I hope guests took them well.

Which are you favourite books and films from this Italian collection?

Olympia Le-Tan: In terms of books probably Alberto Moravia’s Il Conformista; in terms of films, Visconti’s Il gattopardo.

You worked as DJ and sound designer for a while, do you like Italian music?

Olympia Le-Tan: I was a DJ for a long time in various places, from Paris to Japan, but it was more of a past-time rather than a career, it was just because I like music – from The Smiths to girl bands from the ’60s – and because I have a big collection of records. I like Italian music and in particular artists such as Mina – who is one of my favourite singers – Celentano, Battisti and so on, and these were also the singers selected as musical background for the event in Florence, together with some soundtracks such as Morricone’s.

A while back you did some clutches inspired by Olympia Press titles, what fascinated you about these books or about their publisher, Maurice Girodias?

Olympia Le-Tan: To be perfectly honest, I discovered Olympia Press after I started doing the bags. When I was searching for covers I found out about this publishing house and now I have a big collection of Olympia Press titles, such as Lolita, Junkie and other William Burroughs books.

Did any publishing house ever contact you for copyright issues?

Olympia Le-Tan: Not yet, but that’s why the clutches are limited. I’m just assuming that if there’s just 16 of each it’s a bit like art objects and I hope they will be flattered as I’m not making a fortune off their backs!

Would you ever sell your clutches together with the book they pay homage to?

Olympia Le-Tan: I thought about that, but the clutches come in a fixed sized, while all books come in different sizes.

Where do you sell your bags?

Olympia Le-Tan: I’m at Colette in Paris, at Open Ceremony in New York and at Browns in London. I’m also online on my own site and Net-a-Porter is selling a capsule collection of my clutches.

You worked at Chanel with Gilles Dufour and also started with him a label, will you ever do clothes?

Olympia Le-Tan: For the next season there will also be some clothes, yet they won’t be inspired by books but by myself. I haven’t thought yet how I will be presenting my clothes, but I’m sure it won’t be through a conventional catwalk show.

Images by Katsuo Mifreki

Uslu Airlines is giving a new face to the lipstick industry with its new edition TOR lipstick, created by the “Uslu’s Eleven”; a group of 11 guys living and/or working on Torstrasse in Berlin. This mismatched bunch of photographers, gallerists, designers, skaters or soccer players may not be the most likely makeup specialists but they sure are a good representation of guys that women are trying to entice, right? Created by guys for girls, this new lipstick is sure to please any man-seeking female of the modern day…

Uslu's Eleven

TOR will be on sale in the shops, bars, galleries or hotels located along Berlin’s Torstrasse and if you are lucky enough to purchase yours directly from one of the Uslu’s Eleven you will receive a little something extra with your stick… Because, as well as creating this hot red lipstick shade, the gang have each come up with a unique gift to give away with each sale.

Jan Friese

Bureau MM

Laust Frideriksen

Soto Store

St. Oberholz

For more info and a map of where to find TOR visit www.usluairlines.com/2012/lipstick-tor

Also, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Uslu if you run a business on Torstrasse and would like to sell TOR.

www.usluairlines.com

By Lucy Mclean

MISSONISATION: Angela Missoni continues to “build” a man’s wardrobe in her Autumn/Winter 2012-13 collection

Text by Anna Battista

The hats donned by the models during Missoni’s Autum/Winter 2012-13 Menswear collection show may have called to mind gardeners and fishermen while the zigzagging motifs that turned into undulating waves on some of the jumpers echoed maybe nautical inspirations. Yet by looking slightly better at the Argyle and Aran sweaters or the Harrington jackets, you realised the designs betrayed a sort of Northern – at times Scottish (perfectly understandable since in 1982 Ottavio and Rosita did the costumes for Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor”…) – inspiration.

The British touch and the traditions were revisited in typical Missoni style, though, with colours and patterns turning into the main reference points and into the backbone of the collection, while high-tech nylon jackets and bombers with jacquard prints or with wintry landscapes and Converse Auckland Racers footwear introduced technology and a sporty touch to Angela Missoni’s wardrobe for men.

Missoni’s “put together” turned into an exercise in overlapping and layering with models wearing striped sweaters, checkered designs, cardigans and herringbone parkas in an earthy palette one on top of the other, matched at times with velvet-like trousers in mohair. Crocheted elements in reflective or coloured yarns peeked from under the various layers, breaking the rhythm of the safe autumnal palette and giving a sparkle of eccentricity to the pieces.

ZOOT Magazine: What are your first impressions about Missoni’s Autumn/Winter 2012-13 menswear collection?

Angela Missoni: One thing is preparing the collection, another is seeing the designs taking life on the runway and I must admit that only after re-watching the video of the show I felt genuinely happy about the final results.

Z: Can you introduce us the collection?

AM: For this collection we moved to England and injected a sort of British flair into our garments, reinventing the Harrington jacket and adopting English motifs such as the checks. Missoni’s Autumn/Winter 2012-13 man looks reassuring, but he is still eccentric and he expresses his humour, personality and style through the pieces that he chooses for his wardrobe.

Z: Did you use any luxurious yarns for this collection?

AM: There are always luxurious yarns in our collections, from mohair to cashmere. But in this specific collection there is a lot of velvet, so we devised a mohair-based velvet that is very soft to the touch and has the final effect of a devore velvet. We always try to add some innovative fibres, though: in this collection there is a tiny eccentric motif around the collars, a crocheted detail in a reflective yarn, representing a romantic touch in our technological age, and looking a bit like a precious piece of jewellery peeking out from the different layers of knits.

Z: While designing the menswear collections, do you ever set yourself any specific aims and objectives?

AM: Yes, during the last few seasons I have literally tried to create – almost ‘build’ from scratch, I would say – a man’s wardrobe. You see, a man’s wardrobe doesn’t change as fast as a woman’s and I like thinking that our man can add each season another garment to his existing wardrobe, opting maybe for a garment with a different silhouette or shape or a new blouse or accessory. I constantly try to add things that were missing in the previous season. For what regards the Autumn/Winter 2012-13 collection, we added more outerwear pieces and nylon designs, but, as usual, they were revisited and went through a ‘Missonisation’ process.

Z: What excites you about creating a man’s wardrobe?

AM: The fact that, as I said, the designs you create do have a longer life compared to a woman’s wardrobe, so they allow you to leave a tangible trace of your work and the wearer often grows fond of a specific item or garment and keeps it forever.

Z: In which way are you planning to project into the future the vision of the Missoni fashion house?

AM: You must always have some reference points in your life and our reference point is knitwear. So bringing the house into the future for us means working on our traditions with a tad of optimism, always doing our jobs at our best even in a moment of crisis.

Z: Which piece would you steal from this collection and add to your own wardrobe?

AM: The blazers. They’re unisex and I’m wearing one at the moment tied around my waist.

Z: The shoes in the collection were created in collaboration with Converse, can you tell me more about them?

AM: The Converse Auckland Racers feature a Lurex-based metal yarn that gives out reflective shades. We started making the prototypes for these shoes last year for 2012, the year of the Olympic Games, since they are basically sport shoes.

Z: Are you working towards further collaborations this year?

AM: The collaboration with Havaianas will continue for another season with new products. At the moment I’m busy with a different kind of ‘collaboration’, though, my daughter Margherita’s wedding. I must admit that, in a way, I’m not too worried, since we have acquired different skills in the family and one of them is organising parties and events, so I guess we are psychologically and physically trained also for this new challenge!

Check out more images from the Missoni Menswear runway at Milan Fashion Week on NowFashion.com

Text by Anna Battista

If you work for the fashion industry you know how boring, superficial and often useless the catalogues identifying the trends for the next seasons can be with their mix of randomly selected images of art works, buildings or films.

Moving from the traditional trend catalogue, but reinventing it in a more useful way, The Woolmark Company came up with The Wool Lab, a guide that identifies the emerging trends for what regards Merino wool fabrics and yarns. The most important thing about this guide is the fact that it also provides further information about the best spinners and weavers in the world.

"Rockabilly" cover

For the Spring/Summer 2013 season the moods go from the classic “Cool Wool” to formal “La Dolce Vita”, preppy “Newport”, colourful “Tribes”, influenced by street style, music, graphic and optical effects and punkish tones such as red and black, joyous “Pop” with fibres that are particularly suitable to absorb and maintain every type of dye, assuring lost lasting brilliance to colours, and eco friendly “Pure”, a trend that explores instead the green potential of Merino wool with no artificial dyes or chemical treatments.

"Pop" cover

The S/S 13 guide also includes delicate fibres ideal for wool crochet (“Saint Tropez” mood) and a limited edition section featuring the finest fabrics and yarns with a micron range going from 11 to 15.

Apart from the trends for the next season, the S/S 13 Wool Lab also looks at the new possibilities offered by yarns combined with high-tech materials and applied to sportswear to ensure breathability, temperature-control, elasticity, UV protection and fire resistance, proving that, while being less glamorous than sitting in the front row, going back to the roots of the fashion industry and discovering the potential of traditional materials, can be equally exciting.

"Newport'" cover (image by Alan Copson/JAI/Corbis)