Spotlight on Barlow - Continued

ABOUT BARLOW (excerpted from their own description)
The conception of Barlow stems from the friendship between designer Molly Girard Coonan, and muse Alice Barlow. Like their friendship, BARLOW is the dichotomy of “tomboy and vixen”, “sex and geometry”, “his and hers”, “avant-grade and traditional”. They are inspired by the unexpected, and find humor in everything, from marshmallow peeps to Bayside High.



My Q+A with Molly

What was the inspiration for this collection?
Chino biker, power 90's and future parka

How would you define your collection?
Cool sportswear. Some cozy, some sporty, some sexy.

You used to design for Cynthia Vincent and also worked with menswear designer Andrew Buckler. –What’s the biggest change now that you design your own collection?
I don't get edited.

How did designing menswear inform your current collection?
New shapes, details, construction

Your press bio says that Alice Barlow is your muse. What does that mean exactly?
She amuses me. hahaha she is able to be cool and unpretentious all at the same time.

What are you currently reading/watching/listening to?
**the lovely bones
**you tube music videos, Current TV’s Vanguard, Food Inc.
**Kleerup, the new Jay-Z and Rihanna albums, The XX, Miike Snow, Dead Mans Bones, Mayer Hawthorne

You’re in LA but were in NYC before. How do you see the difference in fashion/style on the 2 coasts?
**NYC- Comfort reins above sexy. You can’t as easily prance around in 4 inch stilettos and valet to your favorite club. Even fancy people have to do a lot of walking.

** LA- I'm still trying to figure it out. Lots of different styles- similarly to all the different architecture you see jammed into one neighborhood- confusing and interesting

Where do you like to go out in LA? In NYC?
LA- Music shows. People get into it and spaces are bigger.
NY- Beatrice. people danced on tables and didn’t care how dirty the floor was. Chinatown. Brooklyn always.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever given or received?
Own it.

WHERE TO GET IT

Barlow will arrive in stores worldwide this January including Fred Segal, Harvey Nichols Hong Kong, shopbop.com and more.
All photos from the Barlow Spring 2010 LOOKBOOK

The Uniform Project: 1 Dress, 365 Days

ELIZA STARBUCK & SHEENA MATHEIKEN ROCK THE UNIFORM PROJECT

Eliza Starbuck is the designer of the uniform dress that is the backbone of the uniform project. With a BFA in fashion design from Parsons School of Design and several years in the fashion industry she created a dress that can be worn both front ways and backwards or as an open tunic. She also created deep pockets to "appease my deep aversion for carrying purses" states Sheena. It's made from a durable cotton to make it as all-weather as possible.

Sheena Matheiken is the performer in what I see as a socially conscious ongoing performance art piece. Each day she wears the dress with accessories donated, found at flea markets or designed by aspiring designers. The details of her accessories for each day can be found on the site and you can also find information to donate something that you've created.

ACCESORIES DETAILS:Vintage dolman sleeve blouse from eBay seller Hi Vogue. Vintage embroidered gloves from Old Hollywood Brooklyn and 60's pumps from eBay.
And all of this is a fundraiser for the Ankanksha Foundation a grassroots movement that is revolutionizing education in India. At the end of the year, (meaning May 2010, a year from the beginning of the project) all contributions will go toward Akanksha’s School Project to fund uniforms and other educational expenses for children living in Indian slums. This project has already raised over $40,000 to date and this month E-bay will match your donations dollar-for-dollar.


ACCESORIES DETAILS: Vintage hat with blue stockings fashioned as rosettes. Vintage Koos maxi dress donated by Scully and pumps from eBay.
In addition to being a fundraiser, this project is a radical challenge to our consumer culture that encourages us to always buybuybuy moremoremore. I know that when I'm considering buying yet another thing that I might not really be able to afford the biggest deterrent is when I remind myself I can generally wear only one top, or dress etc at any given time. So will this particular piece I'm considering win out over my favorites? They say we all wear only 20 percent of what's in our closet 80 percent of the time. How great a reminder of how creativity can bring something fresh to an old dress this project is as well.


ACCESSORIES DETAILS: Vintage altered blouse and metallic tank from eBay, tights donated by Sockdreams, and platforms donated by Tara St. James.

And on why she chose fashion as a vehicle for fund-raising, Sheena said:
Fashion is such a visual and subjective medium, it offered an intrinsic draw. I wanted to take the daily act of dressing up – a routine everyone relates to – and make it a part of something bigger, something more consequential. The repetitive model of a 365 day project brings viewers back on a regular basis, which made it a great platform for fundraising.


ACCESSORIES DETAILS:Vintage blouse donated by Kristina at Beulahveda, stockings from Sockdreams and vintage wide rim hat and ankle boots from eBay.
So I encourage you all to go on The Uniform Project and check out all the other photos of Sheena's looks for inspiration and the sheer fun of it. And by all means contribute what you can as well.

A little Q + A with Kink Ador

Katya - You guys are based in Nashville.

Sharon - The move to Nashville happened because I knew I wanted to make music and Nashville is a place I could afford to do it. And there’s a lot of rock bands doing really well being based out of Nashville.
Brad - And everyone who goes there is…they’re dreaming so hard and so there’s this dome of hope over the city because we’re all working so hard to make something happen so it’s just an awesomely inspiring city.
Sharon - And if you go by city mottos – they call it music city!

Katya - Who are some of your inspirations – musically or otherwise?

Sharon - Well you mentioned one before we began the interview which is Prince. Not so much stylistically but as an amazing performer who puts on a killer show every single night no matter what and that’s something we love to do and are inspired by. And The Red Hot Chili Peppers…The Yeah, Yeah Yeahs…
Brad - I think the spoken word: writers, poets and those who just want to do there thing and give it back.
Katya - What about writing the songs? How does that work?

Sharon – I come up with the structure, the lyrics, the melody and then I bring it to the guys. I have to have it as a complete thought or idea that I can defend and then let them hack away at it and then we polish it and it becomes a song. It really is collaborative but I start by steering it in a certain direction.
Brad - and then we steer her in another direction!

Katya - Are your songs based on your own life?

Sharon - We base them on a lot of things
Andrew - Class struggles of the Russian Oligarchy!
Sharon - Our song Animal is inspired by Toni Morrison’s book Beloved. The idea of freedom and finding your own path.

Katya - So you’re currently touring. How do you like it?

Andrew - We love it. We’ve all had day jobs and this is the best one so far.
Brad - When you go to a show and you feel that and are gone from your reality…and you leave and feel better…that positive energy that comes from being a part of that –that performance- that is what it’s about.
Katya - Do you feel like people in different areas have distinct energies or are the audiences kind of the same everywhere?

Andrew - I think everywhere we’ve played people have slightly different expectations. We’re sometimes playing with what seems like very random acts so you don’t know what the audience is expecting. But we’ve found that the more we play the more we realize that whether or not people have an idea about us by the end of the set we’ve won them over. Like we were in Chicago a few weeks ago and there was this man…this giant tree of a man that could break you in half and we thought whoa this is gonna be a tough crowd but by halfway in the set he was dancing his ass off. And that’s just an example…it’s not anything we know how to do, it’s just there’s this connection between the 3 of us that people are drawn to –they see how much fun we have and they can’t help but smile.

Katya - It’s infectious!

Andrew - Yeah, like swine flu! (laughter)
Brad - It’s fun! Somebody said to me you know I don’t know what it is about it – I don’t know what I’m gonna hear but I know I’m gonna have fun.

Katya - So you have an album out called Animal. How would you describe it?

Sharon - The EP "I Am Animal" is a collection of songs that really define the Kink Ador sound. Especially the song ' Animal.' The grit of the guitar sounds, the primal rawness of the bass and drums, and the journey that is happening in the lyrics create a unique tension that defines the sound of the band. We tried to go for fresh sounding rock and roll on the record, and i think we have achieved that.

Katya - And where can people get it?

Sharon - Get it off of iTunes or directly from us on the Kink Ador website.

Katya - Okay, that's it. Thanks guys!

Andrew, Brad and Sharon rocking out!

L'Armoire du Styliste

When I met Beagy Zielinski recently at the Paper Magazine/Adidas party and she told me about L'Armoire du Styliste, I was utterly intrigued and wanted to learn more about this haute couture rental studio and the woman behind
it.
KATYA Did you start out as a stylist?
BEAGY I started out as a stylist and I’m still styling. First I was in design and merchandising and then a bunch of friends and I started a magazine called SLY and just out of…lack of funding in the beginning – we just had to do it ourselves and so I began doing all the shoots and found that I really enjoyed it. And it grew from there and other people started asking me to style for them and I was doing this for free as a hobby and then realized I could be charging for it!
KATYA So what is L’Armoire du Styliste?
BEAGY This is a clothing rental showroom. I rent clothing, shoes, and accessories to other stylists for photoshoots, celebrity appearances, concert tours etc.

KATYA Is this a common thing?
BEAGY There actually are a few of them in the industry. None of us alike, and what I specialize in there is none other in the United States. I specialize in couture and new designers. Most of the new designers that I carry do not have any other representation in the U.S. so I’m the only place you can get these samples.

KATYA Wow! How do you find them?
BEAGY It’s kind of a hobby of mine! A lot of them come from the Royal College (in Belgium), a lot of these are graduate collections, believe it or not! I feel like the collections abroad are pushed more to make art in school, while here we’re pushed more to make wearable garments. And that’s the difference. I don’t steer away from US designers, if there’s a designer who can, you know, hang with these designers I absolutely will represent them and I do have a few designers from the US. It just so happens that the designers abroad just have this wild imagination to them and, I don’t know I find them everywhere – I have friends acting as lookouts all over the world. I used to live in Europe so my friends from there will send me photos of collections or blogger friends will send me information and if I like it I’ll get the designer’s contact information immediately.

KATYA That sounds like fun, actually.
BEAGY It is! It’s like a scavenger hunt around the world for the best, coolest design!(going over to the clothing)This is one of my current favorite designers. Her name is Eva Nyíri and she’s from Hungary and I don’t even begin to know how her brain works. She’s a young designer. This is her first collection. She’s not represented or sold anywhere else…and there are a few other pieces mixed in here...

KATYA So how did you find Eva?
BEAGY Eva, I found on Facebook!

KATYA Shut up.
BEAGY I find these people on Facebook. I have a ton of Facebook friends and this is partially why. I like to scavenge through my Facebook friends and Eva came to me by sending me a message “I heard about your showroom and think it’s really cool” and I looked at her photos and said “I think you’re really cool and I’d love to carry your stuff. And this just came in yesterday.

KATYA How does your showroom work?
BEAGY Well usually a stylist will call me up and tell me what they’re looking for and even send photos of inspiration. For example a stylist came in yesterday and said “I’m going for a futuristic look” and while I was unpacking Eva’s clothes I was thinking “You can’t get more futuristic than this!” The stylist thought it was perfect, asked me for the prices on each piece, I told her and she’s good to go. Because I’m rental it’s really really simple.

KATYA And the designer gets the publicity.
BEAGY Correct. I get the rental, the stylist and photographer get great pictures and the designer gets the publicity which means more money for them in the end. I see no reason for this not to benefit everyone in the process.

KATYA And you've been doing this for how long?
BEAGY I just opened in March, this year!
KATYA How has that worked out during a recession?
BEAGY Well, we’re affected like everyone else in the industry. No one gets their regular day rates but I do believe it’s kind of a good time to test out a new business…I can test different ways to do things in a way I couldn’t if it was too busy.

KATYA From your work are you seeing any big trends coming up?
BEAGY I don’t think these are designers that follow trends. These are really seasonless designers. The one big thing right now –which has been around for awhile now- is shoulder pads. Shoulder pads are really in demand. I even have extras lying around for girl’s to rent. But these designers don’t stay on trend because they are couture. They go with their vision. And of course, I don’t only carry new designers, I have well established high end designers as well such Givenchy or Ann Demuelemeester...but I really like to bring out the new designers so they get to shine…because that’s what’s fun!

Give this girl a break

So recently Kate Moss was quoted saying “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” and caused a minor publicity storm. (although the full quote was “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels -you try to remember, but it never works.” She goes on to discuss how she likes making jam.)
Online columnists claimed she she was encouraging anorexia and comments from people ranged from calling her “tragic” to “pathetic” –and those are the nicer ones. I’m bringing this up because I am tired of people thinking it’s okay to constantly criticize how women look –whether "too" skinny or "too" fat. These are some of the main points that are being made and my response.

• Unrealistically thin women promote anorexia.

Ummm….our culture that values women more for how they look than their accomplishments promotes extreme behavior from anorexia to breast implants to putting make up on 5 year olds and parading them about in beauty contests. You can’t blame this solely on models! If girls got as much attention for their artistic and athletic ability we’d have less anorexia (and probably fewer middle school girls giving BJs)

• Women should have curves. Like Beyonce and Scarlett Johansson for example!
  

Isn’t this just another standard of beauty? And one that is as unrealistic to attain if it doesn’t come naturally as is a model physique?

• Fashion should be about “the average woman”

News flash: fashion is a fantasy. It is fulfilling a designer’s vision and a fashion show is not just the clothes and model but hair and makeup that “the average woman” wouldn’t normally wear. If this vision is in sync with the public it may be successful. No, models don’t have “average” bodies. But neither do ballet dancers who are also underweight and conform to a certain aesthetic. If you don’t like it don’t go to fashion shows. Or the ballet.

And instead of attacking one another for being too skinny or overweight, or listening to a Britney Spears song one day and calling her a slut the next we can challenge what we don’t like with how we choose to consume. Stop watching television shows that seem too limiting in their representation of women and cancel your magazine subscriptions if you want. And then make sure you let the Editors or Producers know what you’ve done and why. Better yet, make a petition with friends and send it in.

And don’t vapidly buy into something because a celebrity with minimal talent is wearing it. Writing Style Defined I get emails almost daily from PR people requesting I promote their products and the majority of the time there is a celebrity name attached to it. By principal I won’t promote it. I don’t believe that a paid sponsor validates a product –and I am mildly insulted that someone thinks I will be impressed with such endorsements. But this is the culture we live in. And if we don’t like how the media represents women we need to respond with how we buy things because that’s how we’ll get their attention. And as for Kate Moss: the quote was taken out of context and it’s her opinion. So let’s give her -and each other- a break already and stop judging.

An Interview with Marie Evelyn, CoDirector of Devotion Gallery

You're one of the Directors of Devotion Gallery, which recently opened in Williamsburg. What's your background? What lead you to open a gallery?

My background is a hodgepodge: I have an undergraduate degree in Mathematics and an impending Ph.D. in Computational Biology; I am a sound- and conceptual-artist; and I serve as the founder and Executive Director of Analogous Projects, a not-for-profit committed to Interaction Art.

I codirect Devotion Gallery with Phoenix Perry, a designer, artist, and digital-media curator I met through a prior collaboration. Phoenix had initially asked me to serve on Devotion's founding Board of Directors, which currently consists of Brian Jackson, David Last, Jeffers Egan, and Meg Schedel. From that point, my involvement in the gallery increased and she asked if I would, instead, oversee the Board with her as Artistic CoDirector and Gallery CoDirector.

What is your vision for the gallery and/or how is it unique relative to a traditional art gallery?

Like any gallery space, Devotion serves as a venue for discourse. Because of this, we take an integrated approach to curation: Each exhibition, in addition to tangible artworks, incorporates sound and video performances, lectures and workshops, and handmade and limited-edition wares by local artists. We are especially interested in works that incorporate other disciplines -- such as fashion, biology, architecture -- or utilize new media.

The current show is called "Aire:The Second Fourfold Root" and is the second of four exhibitions. What was the first one and what are the ones following?

"Aire: The Second Fourfold Root" is part of a larger six-week exhibition titled "The Fourfold Roots of Everything", which references the four classical elements and Plato's recasting of Persephone as Pherepaphe "for seeing that all things in the world are in motion". In order to celebrate this in-motion quality, we decided to incorporate a series of events as part of the exhibition.

The first event, "Pherepaphe: The Fourfold Roots of Everything", took place on Halloween and focused on Pherepaphe as the primordial of the four elements. "Aire: The Second Fourfold Root" will highlight "Atmospheric/Pressures", the Cyberoptix collection constructed almost entirely of vintage military weather balloons. This second event will be one part immersive art installation, one part performative exhibition and will feature hand-crafted and upcycled fashion works with a romantic aesthetic. The third and fourth events will focus on fire and earth, and will manifest as modest private functions for Devotion members and other friends of the gallery.

This show has a strong focus on clothing as the material of artmaking. How do you see fashion intersecting with art?
It always confused me that fashion and interior-design are sometimes regarded as narcissistic (rather than creative) practices. It seems most natural that visual creativity would express itself through the decoration of self, loved ones, and the immediate environment. Fashion, design, the arts-and-crafts movement, and the practice of graffiti are all very human: They reference everyday life, the art of living, and our own mortality.

Do you view dressing day-to-day as a performative event?
Definitely. Children grasp this innately: Shy and outgoing children alike express themselves through their choice of color, fabric, pattern, and combination. Architecture, fashion, crowd dynamics, and the natural environment all contribute to the living installations that take place each day in our public spaces.

I am told time and again that NYC is no longer the creative hub it once was. It's too expensive, it's a bunch of capitalists etc etc. What's your take on the creative scene in New York and how do you refute the naysayers?
There is a wealth of creative dialogue in New York. New York is well-suited to the exploration of contemporary art forms -- such as social sculpture, microeconomies, psychogeography, performative ecologies -- and there is an overwhelming amount of current examples to point to. A favorite of mine for a few years has been Natalie Jeremijenko's ongoing "Amphibious Architecture" project, which was recently commissioned by the Architectural League of New York for the "Toward the Sentient City" exhibition.

A few of Karlo's Favorites

We interviewed Karlo Steel of Atelier New York recently. While he is not a trend follower we think he definitely qualifies as a taste maker and asked him to show us some of his favorite pieces. It should also be noted that while Atelier carries only "mens" clothing many pieces are wearable and worn by women as well.

ITEM 1: The Coat by Julius

This is a coat by a brand called Julius. It is unstructured, very long and there’s a lot of volume - a lot of fluidity -that’s something that I am very drawn to. I like the shawl lapel, the tie belt; it has a very monastic feel, which I like a lot. And beautiful movement.

ITEM 2: Kilt by Comme des Garcons

This is a pinstriped kilt by Comme de Garcons. It’s taking a very traditional material like grey flannel pinstripe and doing something a little adventurous with it. You can wear it back to front or front to back depending upon how you want to look. It’s not for everyone and one would have to be drawn to this particular thing in order to want to explore it.

ITEM 3: Jacket by Boris Bidjan Saberi

This is a washed lamb leather jacket by Boris Bidjan SaberiHis clothing has a nomadic feel. This particular garment is made and then it's washed so you get this pre-worn look and feel.

ITEM 4: Cashmere Loungewear

And to wear underneath it all we have cashmere underwear created by m.a+ as a project with Atelier New York. As it's cashmere it's more to be seen as loungewear than as actual underwear. There are coordinating cashmere tops as well.