Michael Anastassiades talks to Vassilis Karidis

Photography by Vassilis Karidis

Best known for his lighting creations and his minimal, utilitarian aesthetic, Cypriot-born designer Michael Anastassiades works for some of the world’s leading architects, including David Chipperfield and John Pawson. An Industrial Design graduate from the Royal College of Art in London, his work is featured in the permanent collections of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the FRAC Centre in France, and the V&A Museum in London, and he has designed products in collaboration with furniture company Herman Miller and lighting manufacturers Flos. Dapper Dan’s editor Vassilis Karidis visited Michael at his home and studio in Waterloo, London, where the designer produces his signature collection of lighting, furniture, jewellery and tabletop objects for his own brand. Continue reading “Michael Anastassiades talks to Vassilis Karidis”

Angelo Flaccavento talks to Nicholas Georgiou

Photography by Vassilis Karidis

Far from the frenzied crowds of the fashion capitals, journalist Angelo Flaccavento retreats from the shows to pen his analysis of the collections in the comparative calm of Sicily—a lifestyle choice that points to a character full of contrasts and contradictions. Indeed, quiet yet bold, shy yet daring, Flaccavento is known for his somewhat confrontational reviews, yet he couldn’t be more polite and reserved in person. The fashion oracle writes for heavyweight publications such as Business of Fashion and Il Sole 24 Ore, and was Dapper Dan’s very first fashion features editor. We checked in with him to take the current temperature of the fashion world and to find out whether those no-holds-barred views had been getting him into any trouble lately. Continue reading “Angelo Flaccavento talks to Nicholas Georgiou”

Luca Guadagnino talks to Carlo Antonelli

Photography by Luca Campri

Luca Guadagnino is one of the greatest filmmakers of our time. His complex filmography includes extremely accurate, biting portrayals of the global privileged class, from the worldwide success I am Love in 2009, to the more recent A Bigger Splash in 2016, as well as the upcoming Call Me By Your Name and the following remake of Dario Argento’s horror masterpiece Suspiria. He has also created thought-provoking theoretical and political documentaries such as Inconscio Italiano in 2011 and Bertolucci on Bertolucci in 2013. Guadagnino is a man possessing a multi-layered knowledge of deep aesthetics—a rare and impressive quality. Dapper Dan talked to him to find out more about the source of this exceptionality, which seems to be entirely natural and inherent in him. Continue reading “Luca Guadagnino talks to Carlo Antonelli”

Peter Lindbergh talks to Filep Motwary

Peter Lindbergh has been a photographer for more than 40 years. It is hard to find the right words to describe his vast body of work and singular vision—an approach based on simplicity and the truth embodied in each of his images. Rising above changes in the fashion industry, his work remains as pertinent as ever. An emotional boldness is echoed in the models’ faces, their surroundings and the clothes they wear. From September 2016 to February 2017, Kunsthal Rotterdam, in collaboration with guest curator Thierry-Maxime Loriot, gives access to the photographer’s archives with Peter Lindbergh: A Different History of Fashion Photography, an exhibition featuring over 200 of his most iconic images, along with original pieces by 25 renowned fashion designers from different eras and previously unseen additional material, including personal notes, contact sheets and films. Dapper Dan spoke to Lindbergh just after he finished working on the latest Pirelli Calendar. Continue reading “Peter Lindbergh talks to Filep Motwary”

Pierre Hardy talks to Filep Motwary

Photography by Vassilis Karidis

I am having a video call with Pierre Hardy, who is known for the various shifts in colour and shape in his work. He appears on the screen wearing a vibrant orange jumper and during our conversation he reveals his fondness for black at a younger age, how he worked simultaneously for Dior and Hermès in his mid-twenties and how dancing and sports formed the man he has become. Confusing? You bet, but his work is creative, constantly flourishing and continues to be copied throughout the world. Continue reading “Pierre Hardy talks to Filep Motwary”

Sebastien Meunier talks to Filep Motwary

Photography by Marie Déhé

It’s been almost two years since Ann Demeulemeester chose Sebastien Meunier as her successor. Since then, the brand’s atmosphere has moved towards a freshness with a sense of an urgent appeal for a new start. One would expect that a great loss for fashion would follow this enormously onerous transfer of responsibilities, but thankfully, Meunier’s collections are far from being a failure. The clothes are good, the sales are good, the mood is good—and today is a bank holiday in Belgium to boot. Continue reading “Sebastien Meunier talks to Filep Motwary”

Mirko Borsche talks to Vassilis Karidis

Photography by Vassilis Karidis

Dapper Dan visited Mirko Borsche, founder of graphic design studio Bureau Mirko Borsche, at his Munich HQ.

VASSILIS KARIDIS: Were you born in Munich?

MIRKO BORSCHE: I was born outside of Munich, near lake Tegernsee. It is a very beautiful lake—it looks like something from Heidi! The whole area looks like that.

VK: Then you went to study in London?

MB: I went to study in London because I had some police problems in Germany doing graffiti. I really had to leave. Continue reading “Mirko Borsche talks to Vassilis Karidis”

Olivier Rabourdin talks to John Jefferson Selve

Photography by Vassilis Karidis

Olivier Rabourdin is an actor. His face encapsulates the myriad paths of French cinema. He represents both the most niche arthouse cinema and today’s mainstream cinema, characterised by television series. This actor has both a man next door side to him and an unsettling strangeness, thanks to his deep blue eyes, somewhat unexpected or out of place in this face marked with lines that have been lightly and perfectly etched into it over the passage of time. It is in his dulcet tones that he tells us more about himself and his work. Continue reading “Olivier Rabourdin talks to John Jefferson Selve”

Chrisitian Braad Thomsen talks to Kim Laidlaw

Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Christian Braad Thomsen photographed by Rolf Konow

Danish filmmaker Christian Braad Thomsen is a man of many talents, with a CV encompassing feature films, documentaries and books about the silver screen. At the last Berlin Film Festival he showed his documentary, Fassbinder: To Love Without Demands, examining the life and work of iconic director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who was a close friend of Thomsen’s until his death in 1982. Thomsen took time out from promoting the film to talk to Dapper Dan about his approach to filmmaking, his influences and, of course, the legendary work of his old pal Fassbinder. Continue reading “Chrisitian Braad Thomsen talks to Kim Laidlaw”

Kostis Bezos, a Greek Chameleon

The Kostis Enigma

Rebetiko, plural rebetika (Greek: ρεμπέτικο, ρεμπέτικα respectively), is a term used today to refer to originally disparate kinds of urban Greek folk music which have come to be grouped together since the so-called rebetika revival, which started in the 1960s and developed further from the early 1970s onwards. The word rebetiko is an adjectival form derived from the Greek word rebetis (Greek: ρεμπέτης), a word nowadays construed to signify a person who embodies aspects of character, dress, behaviour, morals and ethics associated with a particular Greek subculture. It is closely related, but not identical in meaning, to the words mangas (Greek: μάγκας) and mortis (Greek: μόρτης) but its etymology remains the subject of dispute and uncertainty. Rebetika, an often raw and uncompromising music, was simply not allowed into Greek recording studios in its genuine forms until about 1931. Continue reading “Kostis Bezos, a Greek Chameleon”