Saturday, January 31, 2009

Synchronous Saturday




Photos Bruce Weber

What are you wearing today? Just woke up and can't decide. I have nothing to wear. Except a pair of white longjohns. All black maybe? Black jeans, black boots, oversized sheer shirt. Or jeans with leather insert, a trashy NKOTB tee and a 90s leather jacket? I count on you.
/HORST

Friday, January 30, 2009

Naked Logo



Photos Michael Oats

I know someone who knows someone who desperately wants a YSL logo tee. And I know someone who knows someone who likes to see this someone dressed in a YSL logo tee. Only a YSL logo tee.
/HORST

Kitten Love IX




Mrs. Grace Jones. There is nothing left to say. She's a beast.
/HORST

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Shaved Legs


Photo Darryl Natale

Did he or did he not? If you zoom into the picture, it seems like cute Igor is keeping it all natural. Which somehow creates an interesting texture. Maybe a new look also for girls?
/HORST

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Break Every Rule





The Local Firm Fall/Winter 2009

I liked it a lot. The apocalyptic feel mixed with luxurious layering and ugly beautiful piercing styling. The show inspired me and made me re-think my ways of putting together my everyday outfit. Second conclusion: I want platinum blonde hair. Maybe this weekend?
/HORST

Picture credit Fashion Week by Berns

Who's That Girl


Prada campaign Spring/Summer 2009
Photographer Hedi Slimane
Model Louis Simonon

First thought: Wow, a girl posing for the Prada menswear campaign.
Second thought: Wait, it's not a girl, it's a boy.
Third thought: Ingenious.
/HORST

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Backstage


Stevie Nicks - Wild Heart

Forget the catwalk, forget the stage. The most beautiful moments can be caught backstage. Heartbreaking.
/HORST

The Horst Interview: Gyarfas Olah


Rozalb de Mura Spring/Summer 2009

Flamboyant exuberance and austere minimalism - a contradictory pairing that describes best the Rozalb de Mura collection. The creative work of Romanian designer and Lynn & Horst favorite Gyarfas Olah. Many kisses for the translation of this wonderful interview to Dragos Olea, a man of words, manners and incredible charm.




Gyarfas, how are you? Where have you been the last days?


I am excellent, thank you. I’m at the atelier working on the last details for the Fall/Winter 2009 collection and thinking a lot of London.

What about your future collection for Spring/Summer 09? Is there a signature piece? Or one piece you struggled with. Something you wanted to throw away but finally brought to perfection?


For the Rozalb de Mura SS09 collection I took inspiration from the intricate techniques involved in manufacturing a traditional Hungarian folk costume, as well as the distant and troubled past when wars were raging and freedom was ardently craved and fiercely fought for. "Vitezkotes", Hungarian for "the string of the brave", is the beautifully embroidered black string that nowadays is a graphic decoration on the traditional Hungarian male costume. This is the symbol that ignited my curiosity and made me delve into XIX century cutting and assembling techniques. Frankly, I struggled with all the pieces. But no, there is not a star piece as all of them are extremely beautiful.

The Fall/Winter 08/09 collection contains a lot of black, shiny plastic surfaces and applications, deconstructed classics like avant-garde versions of the down jacket. What's the story behind?


For the FW 08/09 Rozalb de Mura collection entitled “The Thing”, I loved the mystery and austerity conveyed by the sheer blackness of an all black lot. What I had in mind was the feel and look of an ancient lava specimen. It’s as if all pieces have been immersed in a black viscous liquid, and then brought to surface bearing the lobe-like traces due to the solidification process. I wanted a combination of organic excess and black camouflage, with many hidden details: curved cuts, hidden pockets, two-in-ones, false folds and other secret traits that sometimes only the wearer can really appreciate.



Fall/Winter 2008

What is the head/mouth piece about? Any historical references?


No historical references. Just the same delicious texture of frozen viscous lava that turned into an accessory. A brooch or a necklace.

I have the feeling there are two hearts beating inside of you: exaggeration vs. minimalism. Would you sign that?

You are a subtle observer. Indeed I adore minimalism, and paradoxically enough, I’m drawn to the flamboyant exuberance and foolishness of the '80s. I try to combine two extremes; to reach a well-balanced mix that in my clothes could be translated into bold ideas and apparently classical cuts. A contemporary look with a vaguely perverse air here and there, daring insertions and unexpected details.

When looking back at your first collection, what was the driving force and what would you do differently in retrospective?

It is not with the weight of a critical look that I consider my first collection. Anyway, a lifetime seemed to have passed since. Strange, white puffed-up volumes over the muscular bodies of the boys from the national Venezuelan canoe team. It seems really remote, also because I’m left only with some pictures of it.


Fall/Winter 2006

What fascinates you about myth and telling a story with your collections?


The urge to tell a story is the driving force behind a Rozalb de Mura collection. I don’t just make clothes, pieces of apparel that stylishly cover a body. I would be impossibly bored by the technicality of that. What moves me is plunging into an entire different world each time, which can be disconcerting at the beginning; nevertheless this feeling of being lost in a totally new world pushes me further.

Can you define a leitmotif of your designs? An unconscious motivation that makes you create?

A leitmotif could be this struggle to conciliate my ‘two hearts beating inside me’, as you said. Taming the gusts of exuberance or maybe enlivening the austere minimalism. Searching for answers. Allowing myself to be wondered.

What means Romania to you? And how was it to emerge from a country, seemingly not connected with fashion at all, please correct me if I am wrong...

Romania within me is rather complex a notion. I’m an ethnic Hungarian and live in a small town in Transylvania, in a magic landscape surrounded by mountains, where the pace of life is blissfully serene and out-of-time, really. Bucharest seems as remote as Paris or Saigon for that matter. Romania is the ex-communist country to which I belong, with a small, still struggling to coagulate fashion scene. It is definitely quite conservative and underdeveloped.


The view from Gyarfas' garden

Romania is also the amazing surroundings in which I live. Nature in its splendidly indifferent, almost crashing-you-down beauty. The Carpathians mountains and forests with their vaguely menacing air about them, lakes and wood and rocks, rough textures and materialities.

You understand Rozalb de Mura as multidisciplinary platform. What does that mean for you? What were the latest projects?


It’s about the exciting process of working with various artists. Rozalb de Mura's relation to contemporary art, music and film is a strong one. In the 21st century boundaries between fashion, art, and design became charmingly fluid. Together with the team I work with, we are involved in several multidisciplinary projects. Rozalb de Mura commissioned the British sound artist Mikhail Karikis to compose the music for our shows at Ideal Berlin and On|Off London. He in turn commissioned us to do special pieces for his performances and a special drawing for his stunning Morphica album that will be released this March. Other projects we are very proud of is the design of a limited bag for the Contemporary Art Biennale in Berlin – ‘When Things Cast No Shadow’ and the first museum exhibition "Anyone but me, anywhere but here"; a joint project with visual artists Olivia Mihaltianu. The exhibition was commissioned by the prestigious Contemporary Art Gallery of the Brukenthal Museum, Sibiu and was followed by invitations to major fashion & art projects.


Exhibition piece "Anyone but me, anywhere but here"

Since I’m passionate about interior design I had the chance to work with Liste Noire, an interior design team that came up with the three different looks of the Rozalb de Mura store based on the collections.

What would you like to do next? Designing a shelf system, creating a magazine, building a house?

You guessed right. I’d very much like to build a special home, wood and stone, in a beautiful village nearby.

And what about boys? I mean, we all adore them and I fell in love with the guy in dungarees of your Desert City collection. And most important: are you taken?


I was absorbed in dutifully answering your serious questions so this one took me a little by surprise. It made me smile. Antony Hogarty’s lyrics came to mind: ‘All those beautiful boys / Kings and Queens and criminal queers / All those beautiful boys / Tattoos of ships and tattoos of tears’.

Do you have a muse. If no, can I get the role?

Of course, but you will have to stand naked, smiling and frozen in a gracious position for 8 hours a day in my chocolate-brown workshop. Bearing a pineapple in your right hand.


Horst holding pineapple

I'm ready.

/HORST

Monday, January 26, 2009

Bonjour Tristesse III





London is a beautiful s***hole. Especially the Hackney people know how to decorate their cute little front gardens. A fashionable garbage bag here, a plastic crate there, plus some antique furniture that isn't needed anymore, et voilà!
/HORST

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Can't Hold Back

My favorites from Paris and Milan in no chronological or logical or sexual order.


Prada The winner studs it all.


Jil Sander Didn't like the female proportions but a skinny shirt, yes.


Ute Ploier I'm a Barbie boy.


Romain Kremer Once again to another level.


Thierry Mugler Say yes to BDSM.


Givenchy WTF I love it.


Blaak I wanna be him.


Lanvin Effortless.

The master of the sausage has spoken.
/HORST

XXXXL



Christina Berger Fall/Winter 2009

Christina makes our fantasies happen. Together with a friend, I once discovered XXXXL undies in a fetish online shop. And we decided to buy them and give them to all our friends as christmas gift. So they can 'grow into' them. Clever, hu?
/HORST

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Berlin Picks

Next week: Berlin Fashion Week. So if you got time for a little city stroll, Lynn & Horst recommend you the following spots. Proven and reliable. And don't forget to eat a cheap sausage on the streets!

Balls
Rosa-Luxemburg Straße 22

The shop interior is a mixture between modern showroom and cozy hunting lodge. But what can you hunt there? Well, men's underwear. One can never have enough. Only the best for your balls.





Bless
Mulackstraße 38

The German ambassadors of art fashion. Fabulous objects with a touch of weirdness: Cable jewellery, wooden watches, wig brushes. Always worth a closer look and definitely putting a smile on your face.





Made in Berlin
Neue Schönhauser Str. 19

Here we found Lynn's beautiful Findig shoes. I guess by now they are her best friends and follow her everywhere. I don't really know if I ever bought something there, but it's always fun to dress up in 80s shorts and Tiroler hat.





California Select
Alte Schoenhauser Strasse 41

The American Apparel version of a second hand boutique. And I have to confess they have the good stuff: girl's overalls, Ralph Lauren shirts, rare magazines, worn oversized t-shirts. A bitter pill are the prices though.





Paul's Boutique
Oderberger Str. 45-47

Robot toys, sneakers and vintage designer clothes. You'll get it all. And best of all: You can haggle. One tiny little thing I expect when I want to shop second hand. Recently I found some amazing black leather shows with a golden inscription saying 'Gallus' - also the name of the Frankfurt ghetto.




Bonanza Coffee Heroes
Oderberger Str. 35

A super nice interior with trashy plastic canes, fake flowers, industrial lamps and rough walls. The perfect place to start the day with a beautifully decorated coffee and a chocolate croissant.






Flohmarkt Arkonaplatz
Arkonaplatz

Small and nice, this flea market only offers the creme de la creme. Nice records from Amanda Lear, plimsole shoes for 1 Euro, big advertising sign letters, necklace charms. And once, I also found 20 Euros in a pair of shoes I bought. Definitely a good catch!





Weltempfänger
Anklamer Straße 27

For a Bavarian breakfast in Berlin, you have to go to Weltempfänger. Free WLAN and maybe the best breakfast in town, close to the Sunday flea markets and shopping spots at Oderberger Straße.





WoodWood
Rochstrasse 4

Besides the own line, WoodWood offers outrageous pieces by Henrik Vibskov, Commes des Garçons or Cheap Monday. As well as a selection of magazines, toys and beauty products. Even though it is very sportswear focused, you can definitely find one or two nice pieces for your closet.




Apartment
Memhard Str. 8

I will never forget the amazing Rick Owens leather waistcoat I once tried and instantly fell in love with. Unfortunately, they didn't sell it to me for the price I proposed. Anyway, the place is truly exceptional. You enter a totally empty white space and a little staircase leads you downstairs to the black heart of the shop.



extrafein
Tortstr. 116

Marios, Ann Hagen, Acne Jeans, Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair, Won Hundred and likes can be found in extrafein, located at Torstraße. At weekends you usually get free drinks and snacks. Check their basement for bargains, and get yourself one of their smiley tote bags.




Temporary Showroom
Kastanienallee 36

Here I found all the old issues of BUTT for my toilet collection. They also carry German and Scandinavian brands like Odeur, Pulver, qed and Reality Studio. For both men and women.






Pro qm
Almstadtstraße 48-50

Magazines, magazines, magazines. Everyone knows I am addicted. So I always have to browse through their shelves. Nowhere else you'll find trashy sex fanzines and glossy high-fashion magazines side by side.





Dr. Pong
Eberswalder Straße 21

The smell of spilled beer, cigarette smoke, and the sound of ping pong - At Dr. Pong you are instantly thrown back to good old school excursion days. Very dirty and rough and fun. Our beloved Charly Angel almost made it to the finals.





Picture credits berlin.unlike.
/HORST