Tag: king

In the heart of Crackland, aka São Paolo’s notorious República district, where the streets seethe with drug addicts after a 10p hit of rock, video artist and photographer Supercondensador is living inside the scenes which his laconic, portentous works depict. Supercondensador’s debut film, ‘Aqui a Gravidade e Outra’ (Here the Gravity is Another) projected inside an installation of everyday detritus as part of an acclaimed group show in the city last year, recreates the kind of psychedelic experience that one can only have in the post-apocalyptic metropolis. 

Supercondensador’s rough-cut glitching technique and loops are combined with spectral beating drum refrains, recorded in a viaduct to emulate the noise of internal mental disturbance. It’s neo-shamanism, conjuring the space between life and death and underpins an ongoing shift in the iconography of psychedelia. Happy-clappers on LSD have been replaced with gold-toothed rappers and neon-sheathed Disney kids smoking DMT. It’s not art that needs to be interpreted intellectually, but felt subliminally. 

At the New York's Spring/Break Art Show a few short weeks ago, Dario Argento and DMT were top of the artists’ pinterests. Among 80 emerging artists exhibiting, New York-based, Mexican-born Aurora Pellizzi presented a psychotropic four-channel video piece, reminiscent of the “patterned grid world” Flying Lotus describes below. Pellizzi’s work has an unusual synaesthetic quality, each film a slow moving shot over painted fabrics. Combining digital and analogue effects, as well as traditional and modern ideas on the psychedelic aesthetic - recent works are inspired by visual experiences of indigenous artists taking Ayahuasca, brightly coloured renderings of spirits, trees, and animals. But they are also unusual in that their movement is important, yet they don’t lead anywhere, nor do they ever meet nor their patterns converge. Their non-linear narrative points to the same space summoned in Supercondensador’s portraits of modern psilocybin trips: the near-infinite, where ‘life and death are no longer opposed – one simply is, and the other, isn’t’. 

There are ridiculous naysayers that will insist Maison Martin Margiela can never be the same without the man himself at the helm.The truth is at a label as mysterious as Margiela is, it’s always been difficult to see which lab-coated individual was responsible for what and that was always the intention. MMM sans Margiela has been through a "Reboot. Recharge. Rethink." phase, which felt like it had hit a eureka moment at its latest show.Rehashing old Margiela-isms wasn’t going to cut the mustard.Instead, the Maison forged ahead with its own take on masculine tailoring in faded pinstripes, rounded at the shoulders, elongated in the sleeve, and often with the cuffs acting as sculptural detailing. Hair tucked into straps in-built into practically every single silhouette was one practical take-away point.The visual decoration was powerful. Streaked with paint, injected with circular patent panels, trussed up in PVC, scribbled with luminous knit yarn embroidery and finally "defiled" by shouty typographic slogan gowns – this wasn’t MMM respectfully doing Margiela by textbook.This was MMM working away, conjuring up pieces that delight and perplex in equal measure, just as it always did.

www.maisonmartinmargiela.com

Makeup: Hannah Murray

Models pictured: Nastya Kusakina-@Kusakina_Nastya, Juliana Schurig-@juliana_schurig, Yumi Lambert-@YlaUr_Mal, Katia Selinger-@katiaselinger, Aline Weber-@alineweber_real

CHER! (exclamation mark required) sitting in the frow at the Gareth Pugh show was the celeb spotting of day two of Paris. Once we got over that excitement of the Goddess of Pop in our midst, we got down to taking in the stately and arched beauty of Pugh's collection. The more intimate salon setting of the Hotel Salomon de Rothschild meant we were able to see everything up close. What we saw were floor sleeping gowns cut high to those armour-like proportions that we are so used to seeing from Pugh. In snow white and with gold branches creeping their way up from the hemline, it felt like a gothic fairytale was revealing itself, especially when the gowns did eventually turn black and into periods of deep blue.

Turns out, Pugh was looking at a modern day girl power tribe called the Asgarda, who reside in the Carpathian mountains in the Ukraine, seeking autonomy from men and kicking ass whilst wearing t-shirts and billowing folk skirts. This set the silhouette blueprint for Pugh. What made those dramatic shapes seem tangible though were the army-blanket-esque fabrics, lending a papery quality, which toughened up the full skirts and curved proportions.

"We used lots of fabrics we had reams of in the studio. There's a make, do and mend thing which I quite like," remarked Pugh. "It goes back to Asgarda, creating and making your own outsider society." It was joyful to see DIY culture enter the fray again. The most potent sign that Pugh had returned to his trash couture roots, which thrilled London back in the day? Dresses made out of bin liners. Real ones, sourced from a pound shop in Stoke Newington. They looked like the opposite of rubbish, woven and cut into topiary-esque, haute couture formations. They got Cher's seal of approval.

If you're looking for infinity, you'll find it harnessed on the third floor in Dover Street Market. Hedi Slimane's Saint Laurent collection – menswear, womenswear and accessories – is reflected to the hilt in a cabinet of dress-up geometry.

Appropriating techniques and materials from French Art Deco with Bauhaus influence, repetitive vitrines are constructed in poli mirror, brass and extra clear mirror, playing the House code of silver and gold in unison. It's the ultimate frame for Slimane's youth quake tailoring, leather jackets, suspended Paris heels and blue jeans, an item Monsieur Yves Saint Laurent had great regard for, quoting, "They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity – all I hope for in my clothes". This installation remains equally as potent empty of the ritualistic wardrobe.

It's not the first time Slimane has exhibited at Rei Kawakubo's original concept store, however, as the creative showcased his F System furniture project back in 2007, a series of artisan crafted loveseats and tables transposed – and disrupted – from historical silhouettes in stainless steel and ebony.

Mayfair's the hotspot where the impetus of other eras meets the future, it seems. All those mirrors make sure the romance bounces the right way.

Christopher Kane recently sold 51% of his company to PPR, the group with Gucci, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney in its brand portfolio. Yes, we're talking the highest fashion echelon, but take a minute to pay attention to those last two names: Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney. At the turn of the millennium, they too were brands, like Kane, held in place by a glass ceiling of funding and resources. Until PPR came along, did the 51%, and voila----a decade later there were two British supers battling Italian and French houses.

This is what, excitingly, lies ahead for Kane, who will be able to develop his label, and place an all-encompassing context around his clothes, culminating in own-brand stores.

If you're wondering how he addressed that through his collection, it was by employing a thumping, relentless soundtrack, and opening with major SAGA fur pieces that could rival any European house. If that got people talking about a 'change, then sending out mini kilts – a nod to his Scottish roots – was Kane telling us he's doing it his way.

The entrance was underscored by a collection that made use of Kane's archive, with dresses that ghosted the silhouettes of his earliest lace/leather/velvet collections, made even further luxe. One motif on a sweater and dress appeared to show a lightning bolt breaking through a skull, and touching the brain: literally mind-blowing.

It all happened in a shiny, glass City venue. First, we took an escalator, and then, a lift god-knows-how-many floors up. We were literally sky-high. Soon Kane will be too.

Hair: Guido Palau

Makeup: Lucia Pieroni

Models pictured: Katlin Aas (@AasKatlin), Marine Deleeuw (@DeleeuwMarine), Elinor Weedon (@ElinorWeedon), Anika Torsing (@anikatorsing), Sam Rollinson (@SamRollinson), Catherine McNeil (@MeowcatMccat), Julia Frauche (@Juliafrauche), Juliana Schurig (@juliana_schurig), Nadja Bender (@NadjaBender), Manon Leloup (@ManonLeLoup), Kirsi Pyrhonen (@KirsiPyrhonen), Jourdan Dunn (@misshourdandunn), Senait Gidey (@Senaitgidey)