ACNE JEANS - AMBITION TO CREATE NOVEL EXPRESSION
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2 september 2010 - Remember playing memory games as a kid? Well, you can start playing it again, but in a fashionable way this time. Flemish photographer Barbara Iweins has been photographing people on the streets of Amsterdam for a while. She takes an hour or two per week to go bother these beautiful human beings at the corner of her house and takes pictures of their heads and legs. Combined, these pictures do not only make a beautiful exhibition, but also a fun and entertaining memory game.
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2 september 2010 - If you are too cool for school you need to stock up at your local Marc Jacobs store. Under the name Book Marc (yes, really) mr. Jacobs is bringing out cases, colored pencils and cool marble patterned tins. You can find all supplies on his website, under special items.
2 september 2010 - Yes… the rumors are true; after collaborations with Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Comme des Garçons and Sonia Rykiel, H&M announces the next collaboration will be with great fashion house Lanvin.
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Everyone scribbles a little every once in a while. During a boring phone call the best you can do is make funny little drawings on a post-it notes. Especially fun when you are good at it.
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Recently graduated from Kansas City Art Institute, Brian J. Hettler fuses digital images with heavily saturated colors, pop culture and virtual elements. His works are often chaotic, almost disturbingly colorful but definitely create an entirely new image.
Some of Hettler’s pieces are abstracted self-portraits that, according to the artist himself, although he mainly works in digital media, can act as paintings, densely layered, rich in projected surface quality, and built upon the precepts of formalism.
Funny thing is, Hettler draws inspiration from one of Holland’s renowned artists of the past, as he states on his website: ‘I pull inspiration from many places, although in my recent studio practice I have been studying the early paintings of Willem de Kooning and the layering process in which he searched for a resolved and emotionally relevant image.’
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While Kate Moss called it quits with her design duties at Topshop, another big brand revealed a little bit more about an upcoming collaboration. While rumors about H&M collaborating with Taiwanese haute couture label Shiatzy Chen were still going until a few weeks ago, breaking news hit BLEND’s headquarters. H&M supposedly reached out to top of the bill luxury brand Bottega Veneta for their annual collection of affordable high fashion.
While the Swedish clothing company didn’t make a statement yet, the brand released two videos that reveal some interesting characteristics of the man and female assigned to work on this special line. Their heavily accented voices, clothes and (according to an alert viewer) even their hands bear striking resemblances to those of Tomas Maier and Carolina Herrera. H&M will announce the designer’s names on September 9th.
This September, American musician George Lewis Jr. will release his debut album called Forget under the name Twin Shadow. With the sound of this record and his quirky style, Twin Shadow is the personification of the Brooklyn-based band hype. Lewis Jr. is right in the middle of the city’s musical epicenter and clearly knows his way around. The lush, romantic sound of his eighties inspired record received just a little bit extra from everything-I-touch-turns-into-gold production wizard Chris Taylor who's also partially responsible for the success of Grizzly Bear's album Veckatimest.
Today’s Tuesday Tune is the album’s stunner called Slow because it makes Twin Shadow’s dark and deep voice, which bears a striking resemblance to that of The Smith’s front man Morrissey, stand out and take you on a ride through his suburban, bedroom-recorded world of Forget.
Video games are a $40 billion-a-year industry, and have moved well beyond the simulated table tennis world of Pong. But is it art? Film critic Roger Ebert recently argued that video games can never be art. Author and game addict Tom Bissell begs to differ and breaks down his argument in his book Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter. However, the last thing you want to tell a gamer is what their medium can't be. Gaming by definition rails against that sort of arbitrary small-mindedness.
In 'Space Invaders: Art In The Computer Game Environment' the Netherlands Media Art Institute brings art and games culture together. In an artistic, playful yet serious manner, Space Invaders reveals the influence of games on art and society. This group exhibition with Dutch and international media artists examines the increasing blurring of the boundaries between game worlds and reality. In Space Invaders media art works illuminate the migration of the physical world into gaming systems. Conversely, gaming elements are more and more finding their way into physical space. By infiltrating both game environments and real spaces, the artworks clarify the nature and influence of the computer game environments, and provide greater insight into the role that computer games play in contemporary culture.
In short, Space Invaders shows the increasing blurring of the boundaries between the real world and the game world. In this exhibition gaming is more than sitting in front of a screen and playing a game; the relation with the real world is never far away.
Space Invaders: Art In The Computer Game Environment opens on Saturday, August 28th at the Netherlands Media Art Institute. The last day of the exhibition coincides with this year’s museumnight on the 6th of November.
VNFOLD - ISSUE III - LAST DAY PARADE BY CHRISTOPHER STARBODY from VNFOLD on Vimeo.
Argentinian foldable zine VNFold just released its third issue Close To Nature. Buenos Aires-based visionaries Agustin Merlo and Oscar Gómez Poviña founded VNFold; a magazine that you can check out online, open up on a table or hang on your wall.
VNFold’s shoots are beautiful, the content is absolutely renewing with fresh opinions when it comes to style and, not to forget, we’re just big fans of the sympathetic editors behind this fruitful South American concept. For BLEND’s paper issue, which is currently available, we did an interview with VNFold’s Merlo, which you can check out over here. Go to VNFold’s website to view the entire magazine.
To give its readers an impression of what’s going on behind the scenes of its marvelous productions, VNFold put a video online called Last Day Parade, directed by Chrisopher Starbody.
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American designer duo Meghan Lavery & J’aime Lizotte are both natives of Maine and have been collaborating since they met in 1999. Lavery studied tailoring at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC while Lizotte attended Massachusetts College of Art & Design and interned at Armani Exchange.
In the summer of 2009 they found themselves both living in Brooklyn and started working on their new label Shape Shiftr, which was a sort of case study about constant change in silhouette and form motivated by geometry.
The two designers like mixing muted colors with outspoken, lush tones and combine the use of wool and cashmeres with light fabrics such as silk. Their pieces look simple from a distance but are super detailed when viewed up-close. Shape Shiftr’s pieces represent the perfect venture into fall/winter dressing.
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Multi-instrumental American musician Sufjan Stevens is working on a new album, which will be released this year. In addition to the news he will be releasing this album called The Age of Adz in October, he dropped a first single for the crowd to download for free. This beat-heavy, sensitive yet strong five-minute-song is called I Walked and makes us curious for more.
This announcement and the free download come as a pleasant surprise, as Stevens just released his EP All Delighted People for digital download last week. Detroit-born, Brooklyn-based Stevens collaborated with his friends from indie rock band The National on their album High Violet. In exchange he was allowed to record in the band’s studio and the band will appear on some tracks of Stevens’ upcoming album.
The Age of Adz will be his first full-length album since 2005’s Illinois. Stevens is known for his obsession with outerspace, supernatural and apocalyptic fantasies, that’s why we’re not surprised by the choice of his title; it refers to the apocalyptic paintings of artist Royal Robertson. He used his artwork for the album cover and as general inspiration for the tone of the album.
These extremely high, grey flannel boots are characteristic for Alexander Wang’s ballsy designs. This 25-year-old American fashion designer was born in San Francisco and made his way up in the fashion scene by creating by one gorgeous collection after another.
Wang launched his first full collection of women’s wear in 2007, which caused an immediate buzz in the fashion scene. After winning a 200.000-dollar prize from CDFA/Vogue Fashion Fund his career took a lift. His edgy, somewhat masculine designs are simple but chic and these amazing, high-heeled boots represent his outstanding taste like no other.
ACNE JEANS - AMBITION TO CREATE NOVEL EXPRESSION
Text by: Joff
"AMBITION TO CREATE NOVEL EXPRESSION" better known under the acronym Acne, would most likely in retrospect be the nightmare of any fashion-gorilla if not any human being. A label name with the immediate association of a moonscape face or a pizza appearance is especially within the fashion system a definite "no go". Then again simultaneously the mere association with High-School, defective Clearasil, Levi's 501, Mac & Maggie, Nike Air Max and being an outsider, recalls a certain endearing pureness and honesty. And it is exactly this taste of adolescence that made the public grow hungry for Acne, if not starving by now.
Next to the ready-to-wear collections, several interesting collaborations and more so famous jeans, Acne is more than just that. Acne started in 1996 as a creative collective, which consisted out of four members. Each member of the group coexisted within it's own discipline creating together one vision. The idea was to build brands, their own as well as for others within the fields of fashion, entertainment and technology. From this collaboration several sub-divisions were born like Acne Creative, Acne Film, Acne Digital, Acne Paper and of course Acne Jeans.
I got the chance to meet up with creative director Jonny Johannsson in Paris during couture fashion week right after their most recent co-lab with fashion house Lanvin, to talk about the ambitions and the novel expressions that have made Acne the hottest label of the moment. Paradoxical enough, Acne in the core is not after certain “hotness”, but in fact prefer openness and an exploration for the audience to dive into. I would say it almost feels like an organized religion, but then again isn’t that exactly what fashion is about nowadays? It is not only about the clothes, it is about everything that comes with it; it is the philosophy you live with, believe in and create from consciously or not.
When a micro movement of kids back in the 1950’s started wearing original work wear “the jeans” as a fashion attire to rebel against their parents and society, it was quickly picked up by Hollywood in movies like “The Wild One” with Marlon Brando and “Rebel Without A Cause” with James Dean. This unknowingly created one of the biggest fashion items that we know of today. Since then it has returned and moved through every single sub-culture you can think of, and it as well found it’s way to Acne in the beginning years when Jonny created a small line of denim jeans with red stitching just to be handed out to friends, family and clients.
JOFF: So how was Acne Jeans born into Acne? And did you ever foresee being one of the frontiers of this new jeans revolution that is going on at the moment?
JONNY JOHANNSSON: When we started the creative collective Ance we wanted to have this Warholian Factory feel. We sat down and had these discussions about how we wanted to enter the fashion scene somehow. We saw fashion as something more than just a piece of clothing. We felt that the 5-pocket denim since the 1950’s was the most important piece of fashion in the times that we are living today. When you start analyzing fashion, you come to the conclusion that you have to start where you don't have any history. I don't know if we had any high-end idea or anything but we wanted to do a fine nice product and be able to treat it and make it happen in our way. What you can see with the denim fabric, it is the only fabric that has that kind of depth, and it changes all the time and it's personal and you save it for a long time. It's a piece of history.
Therefore it was quite an easy choice, but of course this is not what we wanted to do only, we wanted to create something that is more explored and designed more. So we wanted to have a crossover. I remember we said; let's have a couture dress and let's have a pair of jeans, let's clash them. And that is what we have done today with Lanvin.
J: I understood that Lanvin actually contacted Acne for a collaboration. How did that come about and is this something continuous or a one off?
J.J.: We do it once a year. We had mutual friends. I have some friends in the design team, and we stumble upon each other on fabric fairs. Albert Elbaz the designer at Lanvin, came up with this great idea. And the experience to work with Albert, just to hear him talking about denim fabric or fashion in general is worth it.
J: There seems to be an overdose of brands collaborating at the moment with younger designers and brands. The collaborations of Acne seem very carefully and well thought out. How do you differentiate Acne within the fashion system and in terms of collaborations?
J.J.: We wanted Acne to be an open brand. I know there have been a lot of collaborations going on, Comme Des Garçons has been one of the biggest frontiers in that. We worked as consultants for fashion brands, almost every Swedish brand including H&M. We like this kind of openness, that is why we do Acne Paper and say; "Hey we are not about, this is about what we like, this is about the people behind the scenes, this is about the creative process. This is not about a famous person, this is not about the latest hot stuff". And since then we’ve been exploring every season something differently, and of course everybody does that, but we kind off sacrifice quite a lot. What we wanted was to be long term; we wanted to have a long-term relationship with fashion. We wanted to have people follow us for what we are exploring. That is why I think we are 11 years later still around, we didn’t have a huge success in the start, we had some recognition. With that said I think we are in the fashion industry, but I won't say we are prêt-a-porter and I would not say we are street wear. For us we want to create our own island. We want to have something that is in the fashion industry, but it is not playing by all the different rules of the system.
J: 10 years ago young designers still had pretty much of a chance to make it on their own in the industry. Nowadays every big fashion house has a young designer aboard their ship, creating a big divide between luxury brands and young designers. Do you think this new jeans revolution is happening to break up the market again?
J.J.: It's a lot of things happening obviously. If you see Marc Jacobs for instance selling pants for 2 dollars, with his name on it. That is the extreme on one hand where the luxury brands are looking downwards and the street wear or young designers looking to create something that is amazing. But I think it is another thing that fashion has changed since the nineties. To compete today you have to be much more into construction, you have to know about fabrics, about tailoring you have to basically know much more. In the mid nineties we had this deconstruction area where a young designer could easily break the market because it was supposed to look deconstructed anyway. So you could actually buy an old piece and destroy it and put it back together, and it became high fashion. Also that movement has been changed. With that said: the tempo is just going up. Just one year ago, no one wanted denim. Everybody was like "Stop! I want suits, I want fluid fabrics, I want silk”. But denim is in the fashion scene; denim is more than just the latest thing. People just realized that again; “Maybe we shouldn’t drop that, this is maybe the basics of fashion, this should be in prêt-a-porter, this should be in street wear”. It’s the foundation for fashion today. That is what people on the street think, and sometimes I think the fashion industry forgets that. We are quite hungry for new things, and we forget what is actually important down that end, I am not saying that I am only here for the industry.
How do the different sub-divisions work and influence each other?
To be honest, it was more before. Then it was such a small company, everyone was in the same room, and today it is a little bit bigger. But the opportunity to go one floor up to talk about a certain obscure movie or to have a director talk about his work, or somebody else’s work from his perspective, is very inspiring and important for me. I work also obviously with Thomas, who does Acne Paper, but I also work with the stylist frequently on the collection and for me it’s very important to see it from different angles. Sometimes you stumble upon someone by the coffee machine, and sometimes you actively seek them up. It just depends of what you have going on for you.
Acne having such an open source and sort of family approach, is it hard to maintain this since the company has grown so much in the last years?
Growing is difficult. Ten people is good enough, and then you almost double, and your like “what happened?” You get kind off clusters within the company. This is one group this is one group and then you meet. It’s a social experiment basically. We once did a collection. We rented an apartment here in Saint German, where all the designers were living for one month. And we said we have 4 weeks, and then the collection is going to be ready when we come out of this building. We stayed there for 4 weeks, it was more of a social experience then actually a good design idea. We experiment also in that way, and I think it is interesting with people. I am interested in people, that is why I think I choose this work.
The acronym Acne as a label name is quite a daring brand name to have. How did this happen?
One of the guys in the collective was working in the advertising industry and he had some projects before. And he had the name “Ambition To Create Novel Expression” as a label name and we wanted this as a acronym. He was working on a project with the school at the time on acronym advertisements. I wanted to stick with this name because I felt it was important to speak about what kind of brand we should be. I think Michael the CEO told me about a survey they did in the top university of Stockholm, about the power of different words. They asked like a 1000 students what they associated with Acne, and over 60% said the jeans label versus skin problems. After awhile the meaning of a name becomes nothing.
What is you guiding vision being the creative director behind Acne?
Either you do everything your self, but then restrain your self. Or you enjoy what other people are doing. It is just two choices basically. For me it's life. When you take on a job, you live your jobs all day all night, then you have to enjoy it. And I think that you also have to consider, even though you get a lot of work and hard pressure, if you enjoy what other people are doing you get something back. It's an openness I think that is very important, and easiness towards the whole thing that I am looking for. It’s about what you do, it’s about what your passion is, to what you create. That is what is going to mater.