A power cut that kindled fears and aroused the imagination.
The date was 9th November 1965 and over 25 million people were thrust into the dark in an area that covered New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Jersey and some parts of Ontario in Canada.
Renè Burri, out and about in the streets during that strange “black magic” created a photographic report that captured many aspects of the great metropolis in the dark. This suggestive mix of the weird and wonderful can now be viewed in the volume Blackout New York, published by Moser Verlag Gmbh with a limited print run.
Slim jackets and pants for him, draped dresses that wrap the body and deconstructed kaban for her. Army green, khaki and natural grey. Treated fabrics: cotton, muslins and washed silk. An easy mood for world citizens.
Monumental yet fragile structures a breath away from destruction: Belgian artist Frederic Geurts explores the extremes of the law of gravity. He enjoys experimenting with sculptures at the very limits of what could be called constructional stability. Poised halfway between an inspired architect and an artist besotted with the constructional calculations and the resilience and properties of building materials.
The lion’s share of her work focuses on themes of power and man’s relationship with nature. The results are images which the photographer Maria Friberg uses to play with issues of social hierarchy, identity and subjection.
“I seek a meditative state to help me accept and reflect on isolation and solitude, two of our current epoch’s “gifts”, the artist says about her work. “My men fight against this as they strive to find balance in a world that’s all chaotic and turbulent”.
To give form to something that does not have it. In this case, dust. This is the latest concept from photographer Ujin Lee. For example the dust from a field – a white cloud, or dust from a sawmill or even from a museum. Instantaneous shots that cleverly capture what can never be repeated in a suspended and poetic manner.
Considered one of the greatest portrait artists of modern-day photography, for more than a decade Pierre Gonnord has worked and investigated the psychological force that springs forth from a face. His favourite subjects are street people – silent witnesses hovering on the margins of society – whom he portrays with fidelity and colour reminiscent of the oil paintings of Goya and Caravaggio.
“Uniting both the organic and the inorganic, combining the traditions of Italian tailoring with cutting-edge research: I work to bring my approach to the very wefts of fabric. This new type of nanotechnology makes everything come alive – each piece of clothing is like an organism in continual transformation.”Ennio Capasa
Costume National’s man chooses classic tailoring: these are easy-to-wear items but also clothes whose intricate weaves and wefts enrich them. Fabrics meld into each other thanks to new workmanship techniques that allow the fusion of different materials: Cloth, flannel, wool-silk, mohair and knitwear, lamè weaves covered with opaque and wool-steel sequins celebrate a timeless rock and roll spirit.
Coat jackets are soft and structured: they are extremely detailed with livid cuts and knitted sleeves. Fabrics used are cloth, flannel, wool-silk and mohair. Wool-silk waistcoats are always worn even with pullovers and rollnecks.
Pants come tailored in two ways. Jogging style – wide on the leg and then narrowed in at the ankle with elastic – and straight to be worn with timeless army boots of crusty hide with laces and buckles.
“Fashion has to look forward and continue to experiment: our planet needs this.”Ennio Capasa talks about his latest CoSTUME NATIONAL HOMME menswear collection and his vision of organic tailoring with its unusual details. He mentions his passion for biotechnology and new applications and his green heart.
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