No one enjoys chaos more than Edward Buchanan. “The creative process, for me, simply consists of regurgitating everything that I see around me,” the Ohio-born, Milan-resident designer says. And by everything, he means everything: highbrow, lowbrow, tabloid, catwalk, sidewalk, street and elite collide in his high-speed brain, translating into a streamlined, pragmatic vision. Continue reading “Edward Buchanan: An American in Milano”
Category: Issue 05
The Rebel Abides: In Search of Ben Wallers
Even by the generous standards of modern garage lo-fi hipsteria, Benedict Roger Wallers seems inept and incongruous; a charismatic lone wolf in a cowboy hat or trilby and a tie whose electrified howls are too idiosyncratic to be broken down into market-oriented terms. It is difficult to sketch a thumbnail summary of a musician who has amassed a vast and unwieldy discography under a variety of names and genres: the most widely acclaimed is probably the Country Teasers, but he also moonlights as, or in, the Rebel, the Company, the Male Nurse, the Beale, the Stallion, the Black Poodle and Skills on Ampex, across folk, country, garage, post-punk, no wave and electronic pop. Continue reading “The Rebel Abides: In Search of Ben Wallers”
“It’s StIll Amateur Hour Round Here” Eric Isaacson talks to Bill Kouligas
Much is disputed or simply unknown about the mysterious, iconic label Mississippi Records, but a few facts are clear. Based on Mississippi Avenue in Portland, Oregon, like its namesake record shop, the label has spent most of the last decade releasing and selling fine vinyl-only releases and reissues of roots, gospel and unclassifiable obscurities, alongside essential new music from the lively art-punk scene. Eric Isaacson, one of the three dedicated people running the label, insists, “It’s still amateur hour round here.” We are inclined to disagree, but when J. Spaceman describes Mississippi’s output as “unbelievably beautiful”, who are we to argue? Continue reading ““It’s StIll Amateur Hour Round Here” Eric Isaacson talks to Bill Kouligas”
Hans Feurer talks to Filep Motwary
I wasn’t sure how the legendary, legendarily private photographer Hans Feurer would react to my call. But he answered with a friendly tone. It seems he was ready to talk, maybe for the first time in a while. Continue reading “Hans Feurer talks to Filep Motwary”
Sarrasine: Junya Watanabe and the Death of the Author
“My entire body of work should and can best be perceived by observing all of the garments that are presented each season,” the Japanese designer Junya Watanabe says. One of contemporary fashion’s most inventive minds, Watanabe is also one of the shyest. Pas mal: in the era of the fashion designer as tabloid megastar, such a rigorous focus on the clothes alone is admirable. Not that Watanabe inclines to the polemic; he is simply polite and reserved to the point of cryptic silence. Continue reading “Sarrasine: Junya Watanabe and the Death of the Author”
McKenzie Wark in conversation with Ilias Marmaras
McKenzie Wark is an Australian writer whose many books examine hacking, game theory and, most recently, the Situationists. He teaches at the New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College in New York. Ilias Marmaras is a media artist based in Athens. Continue reading “McKenzie Wark in conversation with Ilias Marmaras”
Helmut Lang talks to Filep Motwary
Dapper Dan has waited two long years for this conversation to take place. The visionary independent designer whose work most definitively embodies the 1990s, Helmut Lang was considered an artist long before he decided to become one. His work as a fashion designer is still relevant, though it’s been almost seven years since he left it to focus on sculpture instead. The designer who refined an era now intrigues us with a new spectrum. Continue reading “Helmut Lang talks to Filep Motwary”
The Glamour Of The Clandestine
In Dapper Dan’s fifth issue, the media theorist McKenzie Wark dissects the everyday life and glorious times of the Situationists; the visionary designer-turned-artist Helmut Lang talks about his past and future; Eric Isaacson, co-owner of the iconic label Mississippi Records, insists that “it’s still amateur hour round here”; the artist AA Bronson sits down with pirates, Indians, shamans, Nazis, demons and Joseph Beuys; We also visit the engimatic designer Junya Watanabe; the international street-collage gangster Michael Anderson; the charismatic front man Ben Wallers; the quintessential American in Milano, Edward Buchanan; While the writer Angelo Flaccavento muses on presence and absence; and the legendary fashion photographer Hans Feurer talks to Filep Motwary.
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Issue 05 on Press
Coming out February 27 in Paris and London, closely followed by the rest of the world, Dapper Dan magazine’s fifth issue features, among others, AA Bronson, Helmut Lang, McKenzie Wark, Ben Wallers and Junya Watanabe. More from our S/S 2012 issue soon.