At the Delvaux HQ in Brussels, this February marked the unveiling of an exclusive collaboration between the luxury leather-goods house and Antwerpian fashion designer (the curator of NºA) Dirk Van Saene.

Van Saene was approached by the Delvaux Studio to design a scarf for their ever-expanding collection, joining the ranks of Belgian names such as Hannelore Knuts & Bruno Pieters who have collaborated with the heritage brand in the past. Dirk’s realization of the challenge presents us with two visually seductive silk carrés, articulating the designer’s whimsy and encapsulating Delvaux’s iconic handbag, aptly named the “Brilliant.”
The print, a reproduction of a painting by Van Saene, exists in contrasting colourways to represent “Jour,” framed by vibrant yellow and “Nuit” by red.

This collaboration sees Van Saene take on the role of both designer and artist – through his evolving creative expression, sculpture. Dirk applied his playful craftsmanship to mould ten ceramic vessels on which to present the scarves, with each bust depicting the face of a celebrated fashion model from the 50s to the present, including Twiggy, Alek Wek and Belgium’s own Anouck Lepere.

Buy Dirk Van Saene for Delvaux here.

“Anouck Lepere” bust by Dirk Van Saene.

Above: “Alek Wek” bust by Dirk Van Saene.

“Twiggy” bust by Dirk Van Saene.

Above: Delvaux par Dirk Van Saene, “Jour” scarf.

Above: Delvaux par Dirk Van Saene, “Nuit” scarf.

Above: Leather scarf loops by Dirk Van Saene for Delvaux, with his signature bow.

Text by Christie Fels, Antwerp.
Photography by by2 photographers.

A BLOG is happy to announce a new exhibition from contributing photographer & artist Marina Faust, in her hometown for Vienna ArtWeek. Marina’s theoretical approach to art practice requires the viewer to absorb much more than her raw, spare aesthetic – to look through her abstract objects in order to understand a challenging, critical exercise in empathy, timing, opinion & perspective.

Marina presents a series of several units entitled Shelf, containing 28 images. Shelf can be seen as an extension of the images hanging or leaning on the walls next to it. It as an image stock and allows the possibility to choose and exchange images as one wishes. Shelf is a transparent structure and therefore all images stocked in Shelf are seen from both sides, from their backs as well as from their fronts. The images are based on a collection of anonymous drawings of shoes, a technical imagery used as a recognition tool in the shoe industry. They are inkjetprint enlargements of various dimensions.

Shelf is Marina’s second outing at the Song Song gallery – a progressive space fostering the more obscure, artisanal links between fashion and art. Previously the gallery has hosted exhibitions by the Maison Martin Margiela & Dirk Van Saene, and will soon showcase the works of Walter Van Beirendonck.

As in her first exhibition with the gallery (wherein a group of second-hand chairs equipped with wheels for rolling at once asserted themselves as a total artwork, and refused to offer up any rules for engaging them as such) Shelf returns to the problematic boundary-zone of what constitutes a ‘state of art’.

This time the project addresses a moment in the object’s life that is not it’s ‘art’ moment, that is some place perhaps just before or after art, an off beat wherein the ways by which we identify the object are made unstable, called into question.

In Shelf, the frame (or apparatus of support) skews the object against the context, opening a rift in the space of the gallery through which another identity of the thing can be seen, equally true though not at all appropriate to the moment.

As much storage device as means of exhibition, Shelf uses the space of artworks as the platform for a question of what a before-art or after-art work is, of what an artwork becomes if it is in no position to be looked at.

*                                    *                                     *

Vernissage for Vienna ArtWeek, 7pm on Tuesday November 16th, 2010.
Exhibition runs until 20th November, 2010.

Song Song is located at Praterstrasse 11 A-1020, Vienna.

www.marinafaust.com
www.songsong.at

Just after Walter Van Beirendonck’s ‘READ MY SKIN’ show for Spring Summer 2011, A BLOG caught up with Walter at his showroom in the Marais in Paris, to open a decade old can of worms. As the creator of the original NºA Magazine  (when it was A, B, C, D, E…), Walter discusses the origins and intent for the magazine concept, the frustration of Belgian designers, and his hope for fashion and the wider world.

A MAGAZINE: How did the magazine begin?
Walter Van Beirendonck: It started in 2001, the magazine was one of the six projects that I was presenting that year in Antwerp because the city of Antwerp asked me (through the fashion institute) to come up with an idea to promote fashion and to show in fact what was happening in Antwerp, to unveil the fashion in Antwerp. I really wanted to make a connection with the city and that’s why I was working with different locations, I was working with the colour codes through the city also, and I didn’t want to just do fashion shows. I really tried to go deeper into the content of fashion. That’s why I wanted to have these different exhibitions.

One was about two women – around the work of Coco Chanel and Rei Kawakubo. Then there was Mutilate about how bodies are reshaped by fashion, and sometimes mutilated by fashion or by ethnic tribes. The third was The Radicals, which was a photo exposition on the harbour of Antwerp on publicity panels. And then there was Emotions, which was a video installation of hundreds of testimonies from people about their experiences in fashion and how they were emotionally touched by things that were happening in fashion. That was in the Police Tower in Antwerp.

What else? There was also a childrens project that didn’t come through, and then the fifth project was the magazine. In fact, the main reason why I wanted to integrate the fashion magazine is that we don’t have a Belgian fashion magazine on the international level, because I don’t think that any image that is made in Belgium makes it out of the country. It was a big problem that we were feeling since the 80s when we were starting up, that there is no power from the magazine world in Antwerp. It was also a big frustration for a long long time for us. Because if you had something shown in The Face it went worldwide, and with everything we did in Antwerp, we just had this point of 200km of distance, it’s a very strange feeling that you are making a kind of fashion which could be internationally known, but that you cannot get out of your country.

The idea was really to make a magazine that was really showing the work of Belgian designers, that was the main idea. And to always have a different curator, but always working with Belgian designers. And ‘Belgian’ is a very wide thing that people who are working out of Belgium, or graduated from the school, or installed in Belgium could do it. But, it was not meant to be an ego trip. I used a lot of different curators for the different projects, I worked on The Radicals and Mutilate (those are the two that I really put myself in), but the others were from different curators – I found it very important to keep it dynamic, that’s why I also chose to do it A, B, C, D – to show that it was evolving, going from one project to another.

A: How was it first received?
W: I think we had a lot of respect and I think people really liked it. It was a rather radical way of thinking about how to introduce and show fashion. Also what I liked a lot about the first issue was that so many people are involved. Dirk Van Saene did of course the main styling and ideas, and the idea not to do a cover was an important decision. He worked together with so many different designers that were selected for the magazine.

Above: The cover of NºA featuring Dirk Van Saene.

A: Who would you like to see make an A MAGAZINE today?
W: Well I would firstly say myself, as noone ever invited me to do it! Also I think from Belgium, Peter Pilotto & Christopher De Vos or Mikio Sakabe could also have something interesting to say.

A: How has your brand changed over the years?
W: My brand W&LT (Wild and Lethal Trash) became a huge project with Mustang with over 600 clients – we were producing worldwide and selling worldwide. It was a huge brand with a lot of people involved. WLT was in the 90s, it was a lot about experimenting with materials, with shape and form – and also making clothes for youth culture – that was really important. Then of course aestheticterrorists® was a transgression because I couldn’t use my own name, and then now back to Walter Van Beirendonck that is using my own name and back to the original spirit. I think I have a much better relation with fashion than I did at that time. As I really scaled down my company into a small business, that I can do what I want. I can do my statements, decide what I am going for every season. I don’t have this pressure from companies, not that I don’t like pressure – but that I don’t have other people decide for me. I bought back my freedom. I don’t think my spirit has changed over the years, its just I still want to experiment and push my boundaries and try to be making interesting fashion. And of course now it is related to 2010, it’s a different time.

Above: aestheticterrorists® by Walter Van Beirendonck Fall Winter 2003-04.

A: For your mens Spring Summer 2011 show, what is the significance of “READ MY SKIN”?
W: Its not about tattoos, definitely not. It’s about different races. I am so fascinated how quickly the world is changing. I mean I see so many multi-racial people. If I just look at my students, they all have different nationalities and they look also very international. Asian, Eurasian mixtures, and I think it is very interesting to see how the world is changing so fast. Originally, if I think back in the 80s, every country had a certain vision and look. Also in the show I want to show an international, wide look of different people. All these different skins and colours. Its about messages on the body, but also about how the skin is telling something.

A: And the idea of “HOPE”?
W: Hope is hope of course, I think the world and the fashion world is going through a crisis. There is so much aggression, and war and problems all over the world, and I think it is very difficult. We talk about fear and we talk about fate. We have so much fear yet still we have fate. I wanted to show this through this collection, and show that I still believe in fashion. I think it is difficult for everybody, and definitely for young people who are living in this time. Also I think that anyone who has can communicate to a wider audience and has something to say, should say it.

A: There seemed to also be a tone of aggression through the collection…
W: A lot of people (I read some blogs) thought that it looked like bullet holes on the clothing, and of course that is an underlying idea but originally, because I liked this motif from military costumes that gave a very different volume easily, and sometimes it looks very festive. The broderie anglaise also was not about bullet holes either, but it fit the concept.

A: How about the menswear corsets?
W: Corsets? Something I have been doing since Sex Clown. I like to work with some details that come originally from womens fashion – I think about red nails and lips. Normally there were more models with red lips but they all didn’t want to do it. I don’t understand it. You see that even in 2010 people are still not so easy with how they feel about gender and perception of gender. The corsets and the jewels (by Erickson Beamon) I bought across also from womenswear. Originally they (corsets) were also worn by men, but now it creates a sort of tension, especially when I mix it with sportswear. Its not about this feminine feel, it becomes very masculine.

I want to push forward my boundaries about mens fashion, to create certain tensions. And that’s what I like; otherwise I wouldn’t keep putting so much effort in.

Above: Walter Van Beirendonck Spring Summer 2011.

The idea that clothing can be an experience greater than pure aesthetics seems to be a core ideal of Hussein Chalayan’s mission – whether as dramatic as a mechanical moving part or as simple as an interesting texture. In one of the more controversial articles for NºC, this idea was investigated in a series of interviews with three blind people.

Offering each of the candidates a clothing rack of fifteen outfits (from Chanel to Walter Van Beirendonck, the two women and one man each chose a silhouette to wear, to be photographed by Lieve Blancquaert in the headquarters of the ModeNatie in Antwerp, Belgium. The ensuing interviews are a heartfelt and honest window into the thought processes of dressing without sight – the importance of associations, of weight and fabrics, the awareness of one’s own body coupled with the heightened trust of outsider opinions. From Katty who was born blind to Hans who only became blind after a car accident, we are opened to the full spectrum of blindness, and how one copes with having sight and losing it, or never having it at all.

Above: Martine Van Malderen wearing Dirk Van Saene.

Above: Katty Geltmeyer wearing Jurgi Persoons.

Above: Hans Bellens wearing Dries Van Noten.

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

Before there was A MAGAZINE, there was Nº – a concept devised by Antwerp Six designer Walter Van Beirendonck for the Landed-Geland fashion festival in Antwerp, Belgium in 2001. The first issue was curated by fellow Belgian designer Dirk Van Saene, who created NºA featuring Dirk Van Saene.

To view it online – click here.

The editor Gerdi Esch explained the concept like so:

“Why a new magazine?
We want to return to a poetic, fresh and “pure’ fashion magazine.
A magazine that makes a statement against homogenisation and for individuality.
A Magazine that is made out of respect for the design and the designer.
A magazine in which we want to question fashion because we are fascinated by it.
A magazine in which we want to share the parameters of the designers we love:
passion, emotion, fascination, spontaneity, craftsmanship, authenticity.
This magazine is initiated by fashion designer Walter Van Beirendonck as one of the fashion statements in the MODE2001 LANDED-GELAND project.
It will follow the rhythm of the fashion seasons, has a name that changes with the letters of the alphabet, and aims to be different, surprising and innovative.
Each issue will be host to a different guest creator.
Because we wish to oppose ‘globalisation’, we take up a clear and controversial position when it comes to adverts. We ask advertisers to depart from the usual marketing strategy and opt for a new creative adventure.
Our first guest creator is Belgian designer Dirk Van Saene, known for his ever-changing collections, his passion for couture and his cultural statements with non-conformist attitude to the system.
We are happy to present to you this first issue, ‘designed” in the same way as a fashion designer creates a new collection.
Thanks you Dirk Van Saene, for you creativity, thanks you all contributors for you homage to Antwerp, and thank you everybody to shared our enthusiasm.”

Gerdie Esch.

As such, we are proud to release NºA online on the 1st of May 2010, as the first of five special online releases, as a part of the history behind A MAGAZINE curated by. Keep reading as we divulge the contents of NºA, exploring the contributions within this issue, a true celebration of Antwerp and it’s fashion scene through the eyes of Dirk and his collaborators.

To be followed by:

NºB featuring Bernhard Willhelm – June 2010

NºC featuring Hussein Chalayan – July 2010

NºD featuring Olivier Theyskens – August 2010

NºE featuring Viktor & Rolf – September 2010

Welcome to NºA featuring Dirk Van Saene - the very beginning of the A story.

Last night the MoMu fashion museum in Antwerp opened its doors on the new ‘Masters of Black’ exhibition celebrating the world’s darkest fashion – from historical costume to cutting-edge couture. Lurking in the shadowy rooms are many of the finest pieces from designers close to our fold, with stunning creations from our curators and their collaborators.

Belgian fashion holds a strong presence in the exhibition, as does the Paris catwalk, and the ceremonial and formal clothing of bygone eras. Artworks from the Belgian masters from 17th century to present day accompany the works, with pieces by Goethe and Van Dijck complementing the clothing, and adding historical weight to the exhibition – with the context of black textile dyeing in Antwerp during these times. Separated into thematic areas, the exhibition explores the concepts of specific designers and wider themes such as ‘Romance & Rebellion’, texture, film noir and the ‘Little Black Dress’. Mannequins are swathed in the most luxurious of black fabrics – from heavy wools to the lightest silks, techno-synthetics to feathers and fur. Both embellishment and minimalism are celebrated, though the favour certainly swings to the former, with decadent displays of beading, jewellery, pleating and ruching.

A stunning ballgown from Givenchy haute couture by Riccardo Tisci stands guard over the exhibition, and a final salute comes from a simple shift dress with asymmetric pleating from Yohji Yamamoto, (above). Comme des Garçons takes centrestage with deconstructed silky jackets, next to Junya Watanabe’s thick quilted dress from FW09. Ann Demeulemeester personally styled her own display, using a mix of new and older pieces for a sparkling, gothic display featuring chainmail, crystal beading, leather coats and a coque feathered waistcoat. Raf Simons‘ has taken over the circular anteroom for a dramatic display of capes, and Nick Knight’s film for Gareth Pugh plays in the cinema room.

Other screens dot the exhibition, showing videos from Comme des Garçons and Raf Simons, and several mannequins revolve in a soft, eerie movement. Accessories lie trapped under glass cabinets – with feathered fans, ebony hair combs and other vintage pieces, and a leather-covered skull from Natalia Brilli.

Other contributions from our collaborators include a cut-out skull dress from Undercover’s Jun Takahashi,

a fluid wool skirt and jacket from Haider Ackermann,

black bow dresses from Dirk Van Saene,

and a triangular-shaped mourning dress from Viktor & Rolf.

The exhibition is directed by Kaat Debo – editor of A#6 & A#7, with scenography conducted by Bob Verhelst. The delicate balance of history juxtaposed with contemporary references is refreshing, offering new context to catwalk garments and allowing the viewer to think deeper and darker into the world of black fashion – where it began, and where it is going.

Masters of Black in Fashion & Costume

25/03/2010 – 08/08/2010

MoMu|
28 Nationalestraat,
Antwerp 2000 Belgium

www.momu.be

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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