Takashi Nishiyama, a 23-year-old designer inspired by computer games and monsters, is the winner of this year’s ITS competition: a seal of approval bestowed by judges including Viktor & Rolf and John Galliano. Nishiyma’s collection features voluminous layers of dark fur, drowning the models in monster silhouettes; it is simultaneously fantasy and nightmare. Continue reading “Takashi Nishiyama talks to Filep Motwary”
Walter Pfeiffer has been making pictures since the early 1970s. His photographs and short films evoke both the glamour and the grit of hedonistic youth. His influence is seen in the work of photographers like Juergen Teller and Wolfgang Tillmans, who have achieved the kind of recognition he has never enjoyed. He has published six books with Ringier and Hatje Cantz: odes to homoeroticism, drama and imperfect beauty, measured out in off-kilter crops and that omnipresent flash. Here, he chats with Dapper Dan from his home in Zurich. Continue reading “Walter Pfeiffer talks to Filep Motwary”
Rei Kawakubo is, without a doubt, the high priestess of the avant-garde, and Comme des Garçons is the cult she has created. Not only does she possess a religious following and a body of work that spans four decades of uncompromising radicalism, but her cryptic silences, black-clad persona and commanding bob make even her most absurd style declarations – men in skirts being a favorite – sound serious rather than ridiculous.Since Kawakubo arrived in Paris in 1981 with monochrome designs that radically challenged common perceptions of beauty and completely rewrote the staid relationship between clothing and body, nothing has ever been the same again. Hiroshima chic was the not entirely complimentary descriptor bestowed on those early, allblack, hole-y, asymmetric efforts. In hindsight, though, it is apt; Kawakubo’s debut was akin to a creative atomic bomb. And she accomplished all of it without sacrificing commerce on the altar of creativity. Forty years on, she is still the president and owner of her own independent, profitable company. Notoriously a woman of few words, Kawakubo knows how to deliver a resonant sentence. She never draws, preferring words to brief her team. Her latest men’s collection, which features tutus and skeletons, bears the jolly riddle of a title Skull of Life. Continue reading “Rei Kawakubo talks to Angelo Flaccavento”
The legendary, and legendarily private, Yohji Yamamoto has recently surprised his fans by publishing a biography. It was co-written by a longtime Yamamoto collaborator, Ai Mitsuda; spanning memoir, fiction and philosophy, it is both more abstract and more deeply personal than a traditional biography.
This March, meanwhile, the V&A in London will pay homage to Yamamoto with a full-blown retrospective. It is, of course, no traditional exhibition, but a series of site-specific installations that lead visitors around the V&A and raise questions about process and permanence. With Yamamoto, the journey is, as ever, the destination. Continue reading “Yohji Yamamoto talks to Filep Motwary”
In Dapper Dan’s third issue, Angelo Flaccavento studies the cult of Rei Kawakubo; legendary designer Yohji Yamamoto pulls a bomb from his heart; Berlin-based artist Christopher Kline guides us through the stations of a snakebraid; Thomas Eberwein and Jerome Rigaud discuss the creative potentials of technology; photographers Charlotte Ballesteros and Hubert Marot explore the paradox of beauty; Epic artist Jannis Kounellis declares art a sacrifice; Filep Motwary discovers talent in the work of new designer Takashi Nishiyama; Walter Pfeiffer is having a nice day; Shumon Basar shares an excerpt from his novel-in-progress and Jeff Clarke talks about his polka-dot guitar.
Coming out late March 2011, Dapper Dan 03 will be available worldwide at selected newsstands, bookstores and fashion boutiques.
Featuring, among others, interviews by Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto, Umit Benan and Walter Pfeiffer, Dapper Dan’s third issue will hit the newsstands across Europe by the end of March, with the rest of the world to follow.
“Gentle” may not be the most fashionable adjective in the intense, often harsh fashion world. Dries Van Noten, though is an exception: he, and his clothes, are most definitely gentle. Cacophony is not his thing. The subtle blend of romanticism, exoticism and eccentricity that exudes from any piece of clothing with his label on it; the cozy atmosphere of his eclectic shops, conceived not as temples but as houses or bazaars; the dreamy air of his shows, which are forays into a parallel dimension of pure, multi sensory joy: all of this comes from someone who expresses himself in whispers rather than shouts. “There is so much of myself as a person in the things I create, it’s almost scary,” he says with a laugh. “Sometimes I feel like I am baring it all in front of the audience.” The serene flow of his speech is accented by a piercing Belgian “r”. When he talks, he looks straight into my eyes. This is the first time I have met the famously reserved Van Noten in person, and it is the man, not the designer, who I hope to get to know. Continue reading “Dries Van Noten Is A Romantic”
Rick Owens is probably the only designer in Paris who can be classed as a genuine phenomenon. Although he is never seen in any act of socializing, commercial networking or frivolous appearance, he is always somehow at the top of the list. Fashion loves Owens, as do many men and women. He is a loyal servant of style, and his loyal customers grow wiser out of each collection every season. His furniture and garments recall elliptic, curving typography; Bauhaus; darkness. Every time I talk to him, it is a new experience. Teach me, Rick. Continue reading “Rick Owens talks to Filep Motwary”
Dapper Dan’s presentation at the “Minimum, Magazines that say more with less” exhibition, held at the Hadrian Temple in Rome from 29th – 30th January 2011; curated by Angelo Flaccavento: An exploration of lo-fi language in contemporary fashion publishing; a selection of websites, magazines and blogs that pursue a personal language, based on trends and rhetoric in the industry. Other participants included Encens magazine, The End magazine, loseupandprivate.com, notmyshoot.tumblr.com, cotonblanc.tumblr.com.
Over a lengthy career, Ari Marcopoulos has continually shed his skin, like a serpent, to reveal another, shinier skin underneath. His photographs are naked and honest – what you see is what you get. He has been documenting American culture, and subculture, since the early 1980s, and has collaborated with Warhol and Basquiat. While not precisely mainstream, Marcopoulos’ still and moving images are evocative markers of the times we are living through. Over a prolonged inter- continental telephone call, he discusses his three new projects: the camera bag he has designed for INCASE alongside a limited- edition book of unpublished photographs, Now is Forever; a forthcoming show at the Confort Moderne gallery in Poitiers, and a film that features the spring/summer 2011 Yves Saint Laurent collection. Continue reading “Ari Marcopoulos talks to Filep Motwary”
