The self-proclaimed “multimedia magazine in a box”, Aspen, lasted just 10 issues, released over seven years, from 1965 to 1971. It was founded by Phyllis Johnson, former editor of Women’s Wear Daily and Advertising Age, and although it was a niche publication at the time, it is now recognised as a seminal event in publishing, with a list of contributors that reads like a sale catalogue for Christie’s Post-War & Contemporary. The archetype of multimedia expression and experience that it established is played out today in the tactile sensuality of Visionaire, the arch exclusivity of Egoiste and the whimsical intellectualism of McSweeny’s. Continue reading “The Medium Is The Massage”
Category: Issue 01
Juergen Teller talks to Filep Motwary
I first met Juergen Teller at a lunch at Café Marly in Paris in 2004. He had recently shot Charlotte Rampling for the new issue of POP magazine, and five minutes later, in walked Miss Rampling herself. I had not met her before, but I did not think to introduce myself: I felt I already knew her, from Teller’s intimate, opulent photographs. That was just before Steidl published his book Louis XV, another collaboration between Teller and Rampling. We met once more to talk flash, flesh and feeling. Continue reading “Juergen Teller talks to Filep Motwary”
Texas Is The Reason
Josh T. Pearson looks a lot like Jesus, if Jesus came from Texas. He is a tall, broad-shouldered, magnificently bearded, twill-and-cowboy-boot-rocking dead ringer for the Son of God. Some years ago, he was the singer in a band called Lift to Experience. They released just one record – The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads, a terrifying, glorious augury of death, destruction, exodus and apocalypse – and promptly suffered death and destruction of their own before melting back into the Texan desert. Continue reading “Texas Is The Reason”
Lucas Ossendrijver: L’etranger
Photography by Vassilis Karidis
Lanvin shows are a joy. Everything this venerable French house – pardon, maison – puts its stamp on, from the set to the music to the catering (not to mention the clothes), seems conceived to convey a sense of happiness, frivolity and legeresse, with an unmistakably French quirkiness. A few seasons ago, it served framboise and cassis macaroons – oh, those hyper-calorific, Technicolorful, Marie Antoinette, cream-filled meringues from paradise that generate the eternal stampede of super-sized tourists outside the Ladurée shops on rues Royale and Bonaparte – that were exactly the same shade of pink and purple as the clothes unleashed on the catwalk a few minutes later. Another season, the theme was the circus: sweets and drinks were served from a striped tent. Yet another season, it was cheesy disco and mirror balls – at 10am! PartiaI as I am to macaroons (indeed, to the French pâtisserie in its entirety), I confess that what gives me the greatest joy at each and every Lanvin show is the finale. Men’s shows are the best. Here you have creative director Alber Elbaz alongside designer Lucas Ossendrijver, together on the catwalk, taking the bow. You should see: they are Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Where Elbaz is round, short and clad in a Chaplinesque, all-black ensemble of floppy jacket and rolled-up trousers, Ossendrijver is tall and lanky, all jeans, unpressed shirts and skinny jackets. Both shy and a tad goofy, they’re as far from the designer-as-Hollywood-star à la Tom Ford as can possibly be: a breath of fresh air. “Me and Alber, we are totally complementary,” says the softly-spoken Ossendrijver. “We are both similar and different. Work-wise, we function together perfectly: we talk a lot at each and every step of the collection’s development, but we need not be together all of the time. In fact, we don’t even share a workspace. We can see each other from the window – Alber’s studio is right across the street from mine”. Continue reading “Lucas Ossendrijver: L’etranger”
Damir Doma talks to Filep Motwary
Photography by Vassilis Karidis
Damir Doma is not famous. He refuses to follow trends and avoids seeking attention for its own sake. Unlike most young, tailoring-obsessed menswear designers working today, Doma sculpts a soft, simple, yet imposing silhouette. More than simply making clothes, he is quietly sketching out the shape of a new kind of man. Croatian-born and German-raised, Doma studied fashion in Munich and then Berlin, and graduated in 2004 with honours for best collection. He then moved to Antwerp, where it did not take long for him to attract the attention of Raf Simons, whose work had exerted a profound influence over Doma’s own. Under Simons’ mentorship, Doma was encouraged to develop an intensely personal vision of masculinity; for him, fashion design is a means of exploring the fragile, ephemeral nature of the body. Despite its conceptual origins, Doma’s clothing is beautifully wearable, balancing the solemnity of heavy textiles with a feeling of freedom and fluidity. He showed his first menswear collection in 2007 and is about to launch a womenswear line next month, at Paris Fashion Week. But, he says, his eponymous label has never really aimed for commercial success – it’s actually “a huge art project”. Continue reading “Damir Doma talks to Filep Motwary”
Scatter The Germs Of The Beautiful
Dapper Dan’s first issue features Josh T. Pearson, among others, interviews by Damir Doma, Lucas Ossendrijver and Juergen Teller. Contributions by Amandine Alessandra, Alexandre Bettler, Jared Buckheister, Lauranne Corneau, Panos Davios, Mara Desipri, Angelo Flaccavento, Laurent Folcher, Dada Ioannides, Yorgos Kakanakis, Christos Kalafatis, Manthos Kaloumenos, Lydia Kamitsis, Peter Lyle, Will McBride, Socrates Mitsios, Emily Moore, Filep Motwary, Mariaflora Papapanagiotou, Jerome Rigaud, Andy Salzer, Frederic Sanchez, Eugene Souleiman, Jesper List Thomsen and Yianni Vassiliou.
Thanks to Genevieve Majari, Nikos Dimitros, Michail Adamis, Ben Palmer and Jonas Lehec.
The children of the revolution
Although I’m not too much into symbols or symbolisms, this is some date to publish the first post on Dapper Dan magazine’s blog: Twenty six years after the uprising against the Greek military junta, which ended up with a tank crashing through the gates of the Athens Polytechnic, in the early hours of November 17th, 1973. A day regarded as a heroic act of resistance against the military dictatorship and therefore a symbol of resistance to tyranny.
Well I guess this as an ideological overkill, considering that we are talking about a men’s fashion magazine—but I don’t care.
Everything that inspires us, every thought that motivates us to communicate our ideas and beliefs and to excite creative freedom, is to my mind, legit.