Change Of Mood- The Fashion Philosopher

The Fashion Philosopher styled by The Fashion Philosopher

THE BLOSSOMS OF DEPTFORT- BLOOMING ART SCENE IN LONDONS TRENDY SOUTH- EAST- OPENING GALLERY SPACE 'PETER VON KANT'

The first cherry trees are blossoming. It is the end of March and the crazy and dead exciting London summer season is about to start. My social calendar is filling up with invitations and the best start for it all was an exhibition and party of the who is who of the new emerging south-east London art scene in the also up-and-coming Deptford market area.

My dear 'honeys' and ' meine jungen Herren '  forget Hackney, give a shit about Hoxton ( boys and girls the good old 1990's are gone for 12 years now) and goodness gracious me, how boring is Shoreditch! Go to New Cross-Deptford!!!

One of my best friends, art dealer Peter von Kant opened his new art gallery space for a preview party to friends. The location is on Tanners Hill close to Deptford High Street is not yet renovated and open to public. The actual opening of the gallery will follow in a couple of month. But the VIP crowed, me included, could already have a look around. The place is still quite run down but it will be amazing eventually when it is made up to house Peter's shows and exhibitions.
Peter bought a 16th century house in one of the oldest high streets still existing in England. The whole row of houses with shops is the last reminder of these kind of low rise shop-living quarters from the 16th century. Von Kant's preview of the gallery space opened with two shows: The Peter von Kant Poster-Project organised by Alasdair Duncan and the 'Ad Acta' by the artist Dzenana Hozic, a construct of installations of photographs which relate socially and politically to the gallery space, its past and present.

Peter von Kant and a guest

I met Peter while working on his meanwhile cult classic opera film ' Nine German Arias' by Handel. I was doing the costumes and styling of the singers and Peter was directing and producing. I fell in love immediately. He is such a visionary person who loves to try out new things without fear and with great impressive creative force.
And the old gossip I am, I must tell you his family background: His mother was a beautiful Iranian model in 1950's Paris, whose artistic flair and talent was inherited by Peter, and his father, an Anglo-German business man whose aristocratic ancestry goes back to the famous German philosopher Emanuel Kant. So beauty, the love of art and fine living installed in him by his mother and the willingness to succeed, feeling for business and intellect from his father's side, he grew up to become an art collector and gallery owner. Now you know why I was smitten by him years ago and my fascination for him has never stopped ever since.

To be honest the evening was an success and unfortunately Peter hardly had the time to speak to me about his first project in his new gallery. As far as I know he asked 10 trendy artists to create 10 posters for the space. Artists included Robert Rush, Alasdair Duncan, Anthony Faroux (Genius! I love him and his art and he is also the ex-lover of French writer Nataschka Moreau), Richard Healy, Emma Holmes, Matthew Verdon, Matthew Draper, Roisin Byrne. Richard Thomas and James Howard.
I will meet Peter soon again and ask him more about the ' 10 Posters- Project' and edit this post accordingly.

Five pictures above Peter von Kant's ' 10 Posters- Project

Simultaneously Peter showed ' Ad Acta'  by the rising star female artist Dzenana Hozic.
The following text is taken from the exhibition catalogue since you all know I am just a little black rain cloud and unfortunately not an art critic.  Here we go:
'In ' Ad Acta ' she [ the artist ] crosses a relation of historical avantgarde photography and collage with imagery relating to the ship building and docking industries that once thrived in this part of South East London. They are intended as a remembrance of local working class history, and a reflection on the how this might relate to the history now.
The title 'Ad Acta ' is Latin for put aside, to archive, that which is not actual anymore; referring her to the historical loss of local industry and the ensuing position of many local workers.
[ ... ]

' Ad Acta '-photgraph- collages by Dzenana Hozic

The viewer is thrown between the space and the historical imagery, that of the photographed installation on Hozic's studio, the space where photographs are taken (the not yet renovated gallery space) each space is implicated in the others' building a sense of meaning is constructed between the different places and times.

' Ad Acta '-photgraphs-collages by Dzenana Hozic

In installation with Hozic's work are pieces by two eminent architects, one Victorian, G.E. Street, the other being the 20th century Italian, Gae Aulenti. G.E. Street's Gothic revival armchair is built of oak, a traditional ship building material.
Gae Aulenti was at first at the forefront of mid 20th century industrial design; her Oracolo lamps dating from 1968 are no longer in production and are featured in museums and design collections including that of the Centre Pompidou.'
written by Peter von Kant: 25 Tanners Hill,  Deptford, London SE8

Peter von Kant and guest in front of the ' Oracolo lamps' by Gae Aulenti

G.E Street's Gothic revival chair made from oak, a material strongly associated with shipbuilding

And at last but no least the people and the party. Well, I was dressed in a double breasted cotton jacket in beige by H&M Trendlabel with a blue striped sailor t-shirt underneath. The outfit was inspired by Jaques de Bascher de Beaumarchais famous dandy of the 1970's and lover of both Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent during that period. Instead of bell bottom jeans ( which I will buy again this summer  but not boot cut- I really want bell bottoms again- death of the skinny jeans is officiallly announced!)  combined it with a worn- out blue jeans by my girlfriend and grey Chelsea boots from Topman- my 1950's fur stole around my neck and my beloved purple wool beanie from Urban Outfitters and a little English lily in my button hole. I had a brilliant time chatting with artist and set designers, models, musicians and writers. The special thing at Peter's events is always a really cool mix of people from different artistic and design professions which only Peter can create thanks to his years of working in all kinds of jobs.

Left: one of the most chic artists and painters right now in London, the gorgeous Matt Verdon and next to him, the star of the evening, the artist Dzenana Hozic and a guest.

Guests at the party at Peter von Kant's new gallery space in south-east London

Thanks a lot my darling Peter for all the effort you put always to make these really special, lovely and artistic meetings. I am looking forward to the next one. The only thing that was missing was a non-alcoholic drink!

Love The Fashion Philosopher

ATMOSPHERIC BEAUTY - ART AND FASHION BY CHRISTIAN SCHOELER

The first time I came across the German artist Christian Schoeler was two years ago through a fashion spread for AnOtherMan SS 2009. The fashion shoot was organised by fashion Director Alister Mackie and the idea was that half of the editorial were showing photographs and the other half of the pictures of the models and clothes, firstly photographed by Schoeler and than translated into oil painted pictures. The result were more than fashion illustrations it widened the idea about fashion and art - photography and paint. The pictures show Schoeler's  '...own fascination with the vulnerability, ecstasy and nonchalance of the young men.' ( AnOtherMan). His reputation in fashion circles lead to a cooperation between the Artist and Louis Vuitton. The first collection of hand painted bags could be bought in 2009 and lead to another one for AW 2010. I just love his paintings, they remind me a bit of these erotic french films from the seventies. The velvety texture of the oil paint creates images which seem to look at you from a dream like realm. The pictures oozes sensuality and secrecy almost as if you were in a drug-induced daze. His hand painted designs for Louis Vuitton have an almost 'Turner' like quality - like the morning fog or marble they create an almost organically atmospheric surface .  I just loved to be painted by him ( or to get my hands on one of the bags!!!).

Louis Vuitton AW 10

Louis Vuitton AW10

KING OF LIONS- LEOPARD PRINT IN MEN'S FASHION

Almost 5 am in the morning, again, I always get the most creative and busy at night. I have always been like that, I am a night person most of the time. Except during holidays when abroad, then I love to get up very early and to see the sunrise above the see or mountains, depends where I am. It's strange, isn't it, well I don' t care, that's just me. Flicking through the net and doing brainstorming,  I'm looking for the ' the moment', the ' spark of inspiration when it clicks  and I found it by firstly a post of one of my favourite fashion bloggers Eli  from The Art of a Avantgarde - Eli shows us how to wear leopard print with a ' dash of daring ' and Riccardo Tisci's Givenchy ad for SS11, in which, both, male and female, are wearing leopard print too.

The most amazing Eli Alcaraz ( soon to be first fashion assistant to Anna Dello Russo ) from The Art of Avantgarde

Leopard print craze and Givenchy SS 11

I wrote lately a couple of posts in regards to Givenchy's ground breaking attitude towards transsexuallity. Again Tisci's vision for SS11 plays with cross/ unisex dressing and using leopard print in a gender bending way. Leopard print for men, whooo whoo, difficult, dangerous but the way Tisci found a solution for it I find very remarkable. Firstly you have models walking the catwalk showing excellently cut fashion in uni colours like black, white and cream. This is suddenly interrupted by a female model wearing an all-leopard print suit!

Wake up!

Now it starts to become interesting, Tisci is adding slowly, and discreetly more and more leopard print to the show. Firstly on shoes, then underneath a white shirt and black leather trousers, on a long sleeve, just the underarms showing a bit of yellow- black print, then on jackets with a white shirt and white shorts. It goes on and  then the show reaches its crescendo in form a of an all leopard print suit for him- and the circle is closing ( interestingly the chairs of the catwalk are arranged in a circle too) Almost like evolution, the leopard print starts off on a female model and then ends with the same suit on a male model. So do we still have gender specific prints- no- leopard becomes unisex and can be worn by men and women equally well adding a bit of rock- star sexiness to an otherwise simple outfit.

On a long sleeve 

On a bomber jacket

All photos taken from the LA Times 

I personally think the leopard print works the best on men if used just in moderation. It is a very powerful print and for me it has nothing to do with gender. But for women I think you can do it like Eli and wear different leopard prints together to highlight the drama of the print.  But I love the way Tisci got it right again- the tricky business of unisex dressing. Just as a little note, the Givenchy SS11 collection is in more ways gender breaking than just in the use of the leopard print:. The use of lace on shirts for men and the shorts cut with an apron- like front looking like a skirt from one side and like shorts from the other, but these specialties can actually lead to additional  posts. 

And not only Givenchy jumped on the leopard print wagon,  Trussardi used it and many more menswear designers too this year. Just have a look of my small collection of examples I found on the net. Enjoy gggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!
Rajmund,.The Fashion Philosopher

Leopard print trousers by Peter Lappin

Japanese Magazine

( Below ) And again very simple styling at Trussardi SS11 brings the best effect. Just a t-shirt ( striped or white ) and a pair of  jeans. Just effortlessly cool!!!

Trussardi SS11

Trussardi SS11 

Kate Eyre SS11, I did a post of the collection back in January 

Of course, we can't  forget Dolce & Gabbana if we talk about leopard print. This time inform of an leopard printed Ipad case.

THE DEVIL WEARS LIBERTY- MEN AND SHAWLS

As a regular reader of the blog Style Salvage I love Steve's series ' Collections ' in which he asks fellow bloggers obsession with shoes, jewelry etc. I kept thinking what my obsession is, I keep trying to broaden my collection of jewelery but as loads of men I somehow never find jewels I would love to wear. Shoes? OK, I have a lot but I am not really collecting them. And then I remembered ' Miranda', the horror boss, played by Meryl Streep in the film The Devil wears Prada  . Miranda's obsession are terribly expensive shawls by Hermes which she constantly looses and her tyrannised secretary Andrea, played by Anne Hathaway, must always get them again in a dozen ( Hermes scarfs start at about £ 200.00 a pop ).

My collection from left: 1. blue scarf with pigeons ( H&M ), 2. blue white circle silk scarf ( Primark, sorry but true, I also went to Primark ), 3. white embroidered pashima ( H&M), 4. grey lace ( Topshop ), 5. blue, white, pink painted cotton, Indian style ( Trend lable, H&M ), 6. cream paisley ( Salvation Army), 7. black woven ( H&M ), 8. grey, red embroidered with glass pearls ( found on the street ), 9. dove- grey, fine cotton toile ( Cos). The ones you can not see are a 1950's fur stole ( vintage) and a green blue paisely and a simple black silk scarf ( again Primark )

As before and the one which you can not  see on the very right side is a khaki, net scarf again from H&M

This is my favourite scarf. Lucky me, I found it. The story is: I was working in a posh boutique in London 6 years ago and a costumer wore the scarf and I admired it. The client tried on some clothes and as he left the shop I discovered he left the shawl in the changing room.  I was waiting for two weeks and than I asked my boss if I can keep it. I have been wearing it for 5 winters now and ok, this winter it was the first time I did not wear instead I bought me a fur stole from 1950's as you can see from my picture on the blog.

Meryl Streep as Miranda in ' The Devil Wears Prada '

 I have always loved scarfs and shawls, I started wearing them already 15 years ago, long before over sized knitted scarfs and snoods came into fashion. I just was a big fan of the Regency period with its elegantly draped and knotted cravats of the early dandies and the Sixties with Jimmy Hendrix and Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones sporting their androgynous way of dressing.

Beau Brummel, the first Dandy

Jimmy Hendrix

Brian Jones from The Rolling Stones

And then in the first part of the Noughties, suddenly it became trendy to wear shawls and scarfs. One of the best examples and the coolest person too wear them was Pete Doherty.

Pete Doherty

But where do you get the most beautiful scarfs, ok I mentioned Hermes already, but the best selection of the most beautiful scarfs you will get in Liberty's the famous Arts & Craft department store at London Regent Street. Famous for their huge variety of prints they offer, you will find just a superb choice of colours, sizes and prizes. You will find what ever you want. Yes, as soon as I start earning good money you can believe me I will be at Liberty's once a month to build up a huge collection of scarfs and shawls but I will not loose them, believe me! 

Rose Pink Paisley Star silk scarf by Liberty

Coral Red Lanthe silk scarf by Liberty

Navy Russian Doll scarf by Meg Mathews, at Liberty's

Portrait Voile wool scarf by Laura Berens Baker at Liberty's

Green Peacock print scarf by Athena Porcopiu at Liberty's