Julien d’Ys talks to Filep Motwary

Selfportrait by Julien d’Ys

Julien d’Ys is more than a hairstylist. He is a storyteller, a poet and a fashion veteran who finds amusement in mixing the strangest materials together for the sake of beauty. Each of his projects serves as a testimonial—a point of reference in contemporary fashion’s history and the key to the gates to dreamland.
A good fashion show is everything together: the clothes (of course), the music, lights, casting, hair and make-up. The most incredible hair stories have carried his signature for almost 40 years. He also likes to paint, keep his notes in sketchbooks, and to flirt with photography. Julien d’Ys responds to my phone call in a very good mood. He has just returned from New York where he participated in “Art of the In-Between”, the Metropolitan Museum’s retrospective on Comme Des Garçons and Rei Kawakubo, with whom he has worked closely for more than two decades creating the hair for her shows and occasionally the make-up as well. He asked me to call him precisely at 11:32, as 32 is his lucky number. Continue reading “Julien d’Ys talks to Filep Motwary”

Mats Gustafson talks to Filep Motwary

Mats Gustafson, Eric, 1991

Fashion illustrations, landscapes, erotic portraits, plants, floating swans; the broad sweep of his brush transfers the most exquisite garments, senses and emotions, memory and fragility to paper, suggesting an almost poetic arbitrariness. A solemn simplicity even!
Mats Gustafson boldly uses watercolour to express his personal thoughts, desires or virtues, but most of the time to reflect the work of others through his talent in illustrating fashion. Ever since his multi-chaptered creative journey started around 45 years ago, his majestic work has been featured in the glossiest of the glossies while being exhibited in museums since 1986, as well as in galleries and renowned publications. He is soon to present a series of unrevealed works in Tokyo’s MA2 Gallery. I call him at his wonderful apartment in Sweden where he only arrived the day before, straight from New York. Continue reading “Mats Gustafson talks to Filep Motwary”

DAPPER DAN 16 Is Out!

DAPPER DAN 16, autumn/winter 2017

DAPPER DAN is back with its 16th issue, on the theme of poetry, in which Daniel Askill— Sia’s filmmaker of choice—tells us about what it’s like to have reached meme-able status. But would a man by any other name be as dapper? To find out, we interviewed hair stylist supremo Julien d’Ys who tells us about his creative process in collaboration with Rei Kawakubo, artist duo Elmgreen and Dragset who take us to the Istanbul Biennial, and fashion illustrator Mats Gustafson who shows us his previously unpublished nudes. There’s also a dreamlike trip on the Trans-Siberian railway and a reflective piece by Angelo Flaccavento on less being more. In addition to this, Chinese fashion designer Sun Yun shows us the collection he debuted in a former slaughterhouse, photographer Michel Lamoller fractures our perception of time and space with his collages and Thomas Persson—the man behind Luncheon magazine—gives us a tour of his London studio.

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Cornerstone, a refined meditation on contemporary style

Photograph by Vassilis Karidis

Most of Earth’s creatures enter and leave the world in the same way: naked and covered in blood. So the choice of Abattoir 1933—a sprawling, bunker-like concrete slaughterhouse-cum-contemporary art space in Shanghai—was the ideal place to present a début collection from a designer fixated on the metamorphosis of the useless into the precious. Continue reading “Cornerstone, a refined meditation on contemporary style”