A BLOG curated by is happy to announce the fourth edition of the Arnhem Mode Biennale, an international festival and exhibition in Arnhem, The Netherlands that brings together a carefully selected group of designers to examine the very nature and diverse culture of fashion today.

Exhibited at three picturesque locations in the historical Dutch city (including the Museum for Modern Art) the Biennale offers a veritable ‘carte blanche’ to fashion designers and maisons from across the globe, with dedicated spaces for all manner of artistic installations, fashion displays and audiovisual presentations.

As a sweeping theme for the edition, artistic director JOFF has personified the biennale with the character ‘Amber’, a cheeky pun on the festivals ‘AMB’ initials. He penned a letter to this imaginary muse, which was read aloud at the Biennale’s press conference on February 21st:

A LOVE LETTER TO AMBER

“Dear Amber,
We have known each other for quite a while now.
You appeared that day and revealed your face to me, only to disappear into thin air. You left me there, confused, with only a fleeting image of you. That first time, it was your flaming red lips; another time, it was the way your moustache curled against your cheek; the other day, it was the click of your stiletto heels calling to mind the serene chords of a harp.
Over the last few years, you have played this trick on me several times – completely different at every turn, each time you radiate a new beauty, and occasionally an apparent ugliness. By now, you have left me bewildered more than a million times. I will simply admit it: I am addicted to your deceit and seduction; I will never be able to live without this on-again, off-again relationship. And for this I want to thank you, for this eternal farewell and infinite reconciliation. Again and again, you show me who I am, where I am, and where I want to go. You give me perspective; you make me see anew. You are the one who opens my eyes. Wide open. Making sure I will always see that new allure.
Amber, you are a phenomenon. And as much as I would like to hold you close and never let you go, I, more than anyone, know that this would mean the end of you. I accept your volatility; I accept that you are not only mine to have. Fortunately, I know that we have something special and that we will find each other time and time again. Your name is like music to my ears; your scent washes away all my fears. With you, my life is like a film, a photo album of magnificent moments. You illustrate my life’s constant flux. I am the canvas; you are the painter. With resolute strokes of subtlety, you colour my most precious moments.
Amber, never stay who you are, but stay with me forever, or at least keep coming back to me. I want you always to be different, because that is who you are. What will happen in June is a tribute to you. I want everyone to know who you are. You are capricious and frank, and I want them to know that is OK, that this is what makes you who you are. The ultimate transformer – the one who shows us beauty and who helps us to determine who we are.
Amber, you are the most beautiful.
Your devoted admirer,
JOFF”

To represent the Biennale’s mascot, the Dutch team of photographers Anuschka Blommers & Niels Schumm together with Uta Eisenreich have constructed the abstract vision of ‘Amber’ (pictured above), a shadowy still life in which Amber sits amongst inanimate objects, illuminated by a crystal prism that splits light into into it’s infinite spectrum. It’s a rather poetic metaphor for this exciting exhibition, that offers an enriched and alternative view of the complex world of fashion. A must see for 2011.

Arnhem Mode Biennale, from the 1st of June to the 3rd of July, 2011.

CONTRIBUTING DESIGNERS & CREATIVES include:
A.F. Vandevorst
Ann-Sofie Back
BLESS
Commuun
Damir Doma
Fashion In Film
Inge Grognard & Ronald Stoops
Iris van Herpen
Juun J
Maison Martin Margiela
Nicholas Kirkwood
Nico Muhly
Ohne Titel
Patrik Ervell
Preen
Prada
Rad Hourani
Raf Simons
Rodarte
Siki Im
Six Scents
Thom Brown
threeASFOUR
Wendy & Jim.

To register and see past exhibitions, go to www.arnhemmodebiennale.com

Follow the coloured chalk lines and unravel Bernhard Willhelm’s colourful maze of friends and budding cooks, in this DIY spread in NºB. Posing 15 questions each to seven friends (even his mum), the article shines with intimate moments and an obscure window into each different personality, and what comforts them in the kitchen.

From world famous French chef Paul Bocuse to the local Antwerp fast-food restaurant manager, from avant-garde design duo BLESS to Bernhard’s own mum, the characters each proffered a recipe from their own expertise – be it as rudimentary as As Four’s 1,2,3,4 coffee-making steps, as luxurious as Monsieur Bocuse’s elaborate Pot au Feu, or  as traditional and wholesome as Rosemarie Willhelm’s traditional German cheese dumplings.

Ludivine Billaud’s softly colourful graphic interpretations of each recipe are accompanied by a few brief answers to the questionnaire, that support the nature of each entity. Whether it be the collective sterility of As Four and their caffeine issues, the conservative and routine perfection of Paul Bocuse, or the homeliness of Rosemarie Willhelm and Ann Demeulemeester’s husband Patrick Robyn in their respective cotton blouse and dressing gown, we glimpse a charming new side of each fashion and cultural entity.

Questionnaire
01. What do you wear when you are cooking?
02. Do you change clothes after preparing a meal?
03. Do you listen to music when you are cooking?
04. Do you use a cookery book?
05. Which dishes do you prepare and prefer?
06. Do you like desserts? Which ones?
07. Or do you prefer first courses?
08. Are you vegetarian? Why or why not?
09. Do you like to experiment in the kitchen?
10. Which garment do you associate with the dish you have chosen?
11. Do you drink a glass of wine or a glass of water when cooking?
12. What about setting the table? Is it important?
13. Do you eat in the kitchen or in the dining room?
14. Do you invite unexpected guests to share the meal?
15. For whom do you cook (friend, child, husband, family, yourself)?

Rosemarie Willhelm’s “Allgäur Käsespätzle”
01. When cooking I like to wear a tishirt or a cotton blouse, easy to wash.
And I always wear a cotton apron.

As Four “Coffee”
05. We As Four do not know. We are never cooking but we love music allllways.
06. No, we As Four have no kitchen.

Alix Browne‘s “Toast”
08. I’m a huge fan of desserts, especially tarte tatin with vanilla icecream – which I have enjoyed immensely in many restaurants but have never made myself. Veronique Branquinho has promised to come to New York and make a tarte tatin from scratch, but I’m still waiting!

Patrick Robyn’s “Breakfast”
02. My activities in the kitchen are restricted to preparing breakfast (in dressing gown), feed the dogs, make flower arrangements, clear and clean.
07. Bread and cheese of course.

Paul Bocuse’s “Pot au feu”
02. I wear a slip, shirt, black trousers, a cooks’ jacket and a traditional white apron.
(en effet, the same type of clothing since 1942.)

BLESS SauerkrautnudeIn
06. Our cooking is based on experiments and advice.
Emergency help by phone from our boyfriends/parents occurs.
08. All of them: the richer, the better.
09. On top of it.

Dave Vanderveken (manager of Quick, fastfood restaurant in Antwerp)
Wokked fried chicken with fruit.
06. I prefer a dessert and my favourite is banana split with hot chocolate.

For Bernhard Willhelm’s NºB, seven friends answered fifteen questions about cooking. From Ann Demeulemeester’s photographer husband Patrick Robyn to Bernhard’s own mother and the design duo of BLESS, the seven chosen represented a diverse bunch (in both age, origin and ‘style’). Within the questionnaire, each personality was asked to choose one recipe, that was then illustrated by Ludivine Billaud (in part one of Cooking). For the tenth question, Bernhard asked them each “Which garment do you associate with the dish you have chosen?”.
After choosing these items, Dutch still life photographer Maurice Scheltens took the pieces and transformed the editorial concept into this vibrant kitchen-inspired shoot, with surreal suspended objects and simple, tasty ingredients to match each person’s recipe and their garment. With cups floating in mid-air and dusted flour rings on benchtops, pasta shoes and a knife balancing on it’s point, the shoot is an exercise in Scheltens’ laboriously constructed sets (with wife Liesbeth Abbenes), and a rather kooky look into the more personal realm of Bernhard’s friends and their kitchen cupboards…

Above: As Four: 10. A garment by As Four.

Rosemarie Willhelm; 10. A sweatshirt by Bernhard Willhelm.

Alix Browne: 10. A dress by Veronique Branquinho.

Paul Bocuse: 10. A dress by Dirk Van Saene

Patrick Robyn: 10. Trousers by Ann Demeulemeester.

BLESS: 10. A handbag by BLESS.

Dave Vanderveken: 10. Trousers by aestheticterrorists® by Walter Van Beirendonck

In this subversive editorial for NºA, Dirk Van Saene chose to place a series of luxurious designer accessories within a bourgeois living room, contrasting the aesthetics of modern Belgian and French fashion design with traditional Flemish interior decoration.

Photographers Bert Houbrechts & Kurt De Wit have reproduced a nearly identical image five times over, creating a crisp continuity between the shots – even to the point where the actor on the television screen has barely moved. Their black and white images catch the bright sunlight streaming into the frame from the right, casting shadows that add to the already heavy mood of the room. The space is ornately decorated with heavy brocade lounge chairs, wood panelled walls and ceiling, and many traditional ornaments – including a hurricane lamp and polished log clock on the mantlepiece and decorative plates on the walls.

Styling the story himself, Dirk Van Saene chose an unusual selection of dark womens accessories and placed each one around the room, causing the viewer to explore all corners of the image to pinpoint the nearly hidden pieces. A pair of leather gloves by Dries Van Noten goes almost unnoticed on the edge of the mantlepiece, and a Comme des Garçons belt seems little more than a strip of shadow resting amid the window glare on the back of a lounge chair.

The effect is unsettling and gives a strange power to the chosen objects – as though a handbag, shoe or glove is disturbing the perfect normality and order of this starched, austere environment.

Above: a Christian Dior handbag, nestled on the right side lounge.

Above: a BLESS necklace resting on coffee table, next to the silver server.

Above: Yves Saint Laurent black shoes, at the foot of the left side lounge.

Above: A Comme des Garçons black waist belt, lying on the back of the right side lounge.

Above: Black gloves by Dries Van Noten, resting on the fireplace to the left of the hurricane lamp.

Returning to the early days of our journey we are delighted to present A#1, curated by Maison Martin Margiela in 2004 –  the first in the numerical series of A after the founding issues by Dirk Van Saene (NºA), Bernhard Willhelm (NºB), Hussein Chalayan (NºC) and Olivier Theyskens (NºD).

Maison Martin Margiela is known for a subversive, intellectual and often satirical style that permeates through a signature white-washed world, becoming famous in the 90′s for its deconstructed garments and guerilla fashion shows – the antithesis of populist fashion of the times, and a vein being explored in parallel by Comme des Garçons designer Rei Kawakubo in Japan. All garments are labelled with four white top stitches in a rectangular form – a “response to the tyranny of the logo” – a design originally created for easy removal that has evolved into one of the most distinguishing, visible labels one may wear today.

Born in Belgium in 1957, the designer Martin Margiela graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp in 1979, and later spent some years assisting Jean Paul Gaultier before opening his own house. The collective moniker of ‘Maison Martin Margiela’ has signified the work of Martin and his team since 1988, cultivating an anonymity and the effect of a group mentality ever since the first defilé for womens Spring Summer 1989. Martin has remained entirely invisible to the public in the past twenty years, and the house answers all interviews via fax or email.

Throughout the month of February and beyond, A BLOG explores Maison Martin Margiela’s truly iconic magazine – an organic and interpersonal study of the brilliant people who have touched the house in weird and wonderful ways over its two decades in operation. Centred on both Antwerp and Paris, the contributions within the title include handwritten notes, typed working documents, collages, photography, interviews and installation art from the likes of Mark Borthwick, Marina Faust, BLESS, Ronald Stoops, Nigel Bennett and Patrick Scallon. Many contributors have not only been associated with the house externally, but have worked behind its closed doors as designers, models, photographers etc.

Please click here to see A#1 online at WWW.AMAGAZINECURATEDBY.COM, with another back issue released each month. A#2 by Yohji Yamamoto, A#3 by Haider Ackermann, A#4 by Jun Takahashi, A#5 by Martine Sitbon, A#6 by Veronique Branquinho, A#7 by Kris Van Assche and A#8 by Riccardo Tisci are also all available to view online now.

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