To say Maxime Büchi has been busy is an understatement. Father of three, tattoo artist and founder of Sang Bleu Studio, publisher of the iconic now defunct Sang Bleu magazine and TTTISM magazine, he has also designed fonts for Swiss Typefaces, watches for Hublot and clothes for Sang Bleu Studio. We had a chat in his studio in Dalston to the soundtrack of a continuous buzzing of tattoo needles. Continue reading “Maxime Büchi”
Jean Paul Gaultier doesn’t have a menswear line anymore but most of today’s best menswear lines have a bit of Jean Paul Gaultier.
The migration of avant-garde ideas from the university, the art world and intellectual bohemia towards mass commerce and prime-time television marks the cycle of their cultural acceptance, of what is generally understood to be “mainstreaming.” The people you consider marginal end up shaping the reality of your children. The drag queen your father’s generation had locked up now sells lipstick to your daughter. Progressive minds find this is proof of the positive evolution of society. Which is why it’s so disturbing to hear Jean Paul Gaultier say: “I feel that if I were starting now I couldn’t have done what I had done at the time.” Continue reading “L’Homme Objet: Gaultier’s Male Gaze”
If we were to make a list of all the professions in the world and write a name next to them, for “curator” we would probably choose the name of Hans Ulrich Obrist. Born in Zurich five decades ago, Hans Ulrich Obrist is perhaps the most recognisable curator of the contemporary art world both inside and outside of it; his open approach to curating across many disciplines since the 1990s has paved the way for new combinations between art and other fields of human expression and knowledge. At the same time, he constantly collaborates with artists to question and reinvent the way we understand and experience art to begin with. A dedicated facilitator and self-proclaimed “helper” of artists everywhere, Hans Ulrich Obrist is at home in the art world but never ceases to travel and explore, both mentally and geographically. He discussed with us his ideas about curating in different contexts, the urgency of curating in the 21st century, and just why everyone uses the #curated hashtag on social media these days. Continue reading “Hans Ulrich Obrist talks to Kiriakos Spirou”
Gucci’s ingenious creative director, Alessandro Michele, and Italian artist, Maurizio Cattelan, cross paths in a dream which will be brought into existence on October 10, 2018. Their exhibition project will take place in Shanghai, the homeland to “the copy is the original” thought. Continue reading ““The Artist is Present”: Maurizio Cattelan curates Gucci’s forthcoming Exhibit in China”
DAPPER DAN explores Anthony Vaccarello’s continuing transformation of Saint Laurent’s menswear in a film featuring Lennon Gallagher wearing Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello SS18, shot in Volax, Tinos
DAPPER DAN is hot off the press with its 17th issue, in which we pore over Anthony Vaccarello’s take at Saint Laurent, probe Jean Paul Gaultier on the male gaze and investigate Clare Waight Keller’s stealth subversion at Givenchy. We also speak to arguably the world’s most famous curator, Hans Ulrich Obrist, who tells us about interviewing artists, and conduct our own artist interview with Katerina Jebb, ahead of the upcoming exhibition at The Met Museum in which she was involved. In addition to this, Swedish blues singer Brør Gunnar Jansson tells about mixing music and storytelling, and we visit multi-talented tattoo artist/designer/publisher Maxime Büchi in his studio in London.
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”
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 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.
It’s questionable if, during the 80s, when he raised the flag of New York’s underground gore Cinema of Transgression and shot for porn mags, Richard Kern had visualised himself decades later: shooting Instagram-friendly young models and interviewing them about their dreams, aspirations and addictions with the tenderness of a kooky uncle. Kern’s lifelong career is characterised by an unending adaptation to the constantly shifting social patterns of each epoch. What has remained constant is his liberating depiction of young women. He celebrated the girl-next-door concept before it was cool, handing down a legacy for a new generation of artists—like Petra Collins, his muse and protégée—to play with and take a step further through a female lens. Yearning, desire and nostalgia are not only the characteristics of a Richard Kern photograph—they are also the virtues behind his charming personality. After our Skype started, I was feeling safe and relaxed enough (I guess that’s a talent one masters after shooting some hundreds of nude teenagers) to share my own Richard Kern “transcendental” experience. Continue reading “Richard Kern talks to Stamatia Dimitrakopoulos”
