When Coco Chanel opened her first shop in 1913 in Paris, no one would have been thought that this woman would become one of the most influential designers of the 20^th century, a role model for the industrially expanding world and a precursor for female independence…. (more…)

Don´t worry, What´s Wrong With The Zoo isn´t going porn - instead, I have a look towards south. To Munich, Germany. In the midst of the Glockenbachviertel, the AMEN Store doesn´t only hawk unique mirroring but also cares about the good style. (read on) (more…)

At first sight, Berlin and couture match like Paris and curry sausage.
On closer examination, you, my dearest reader might notice that this thought is oafish one-dimensional - and unfair - and boring - and…whatever!
Like Paris isn´t only standing for the Grand Defilees and renowned fashion houses,
Berlin doesn´t only stand for edgy fashion and electronic music culture.

It´s time to look closely and envisage those that doesn´t “fit” at first sight, those who set themselves apart from the common fashion language of the town, who dare to do something different and those, who tie in with the times, when Berlin wasn´t only standing for “poor but sexy” but for glamour, style and extravagance.

It´s time for Scherer González.
A young label that courageously does the high fashion in Berlin, a label that connects couture with prêt-a-porter and a label that is currently attracting more attention abroad than back home in Germany.
Why seek far afield when the good could not be any closer by?

Constanze G. González and Paul Scherer met while studying fashion design at Berlin´s Lette Verein.
In 2004 the young designer duo founded their own fashion label and since them, Gonzales and Scherer recreate repeatedly award-winning feminine-vanguard creations that conjoin extremes in a gentle and harmonic way.
Cyberspace-aesthetics meets rococo-charme, fabulous robes strike bondage-elements, organic flowing fabrics meet cuts that master curves.

Besides the big robes it´s the complex corsages that emerge as collection highlights.
With a strong waistline, the shaping corsages punctuate a feminine way of moving and wearing.
In being voluminous and feathery at the same time and in combination with frail fabrics and soft flowing panels the corsages create THE tension and strength that a great collection inheres.

But it´s not only the cuts and shapes, the collection pieces and their interplay that pushes Scherer González in the front row of young couturiers.
It´s also the materials and their unconventional treatment that turns heads. Luxurious materials such as duchesse-silk, cashmere, ostrich feathers, kid and snake leather as well as lamb nappa achieve an unconventional look and extraordinary optics in being arranged individually with special coloring and washing. The high-class finishing is given through impressive and extraordinary details and it´s pretty obvious that Scherer González is more than ready to conquer the world´s catwalks.

Related posts: The high art of fashion, Miyake Paper Works.
Others about Scherer González: The Coveted, Obsessed with Shoes.
Photos via Scherer González

Usually, articles about James Francis Millar start with the statement: “Age is not important to be a great fashion artist”. This should be flattering.
In my Opinion, that statement is kind of  rash and flippant. It refers only to the aspect of talent. Supposed to deal with a exceptional talent  like Millar, from my point of view, age  plays a decisive role in design.

Looking at the two models that present both oversized knit-sweaters and  shine-through shirts and sequined dresses in a riant, jaunty implicitness it becomes apparent for whom the collection has been designed.
The ideal wearer of James Francis Millars fashion is member of a generation that lives the blurring of gender roles, that inhaled that educated middle-class insouciance by breast milk, a generation where everything is possible and anymore is allowed. Where the youth lasts to the 40es and where the hedonistic love of excess is as present as the pleasure for playing the gallery and profiling.

For naturally, with 25 years London-based, Central Saint Martins educated James Francis Millar is part of the generation of young grownups that are searching for independent and self-determinded forms of life and expression in an urban surrounding. How else could he be able to pick up and exaggerate the fashion tendencies of the subcultural club-milieu in such a natural, non-exerted way. The rompy exuberance of James Francis Millar´s collection, that apparently effortless connects vibrant prints with traditional knit, that adds up traditional and unconventional materials to a sophisticated composition of optimistic naivety, can only evolve with such an  easiness and implicitness if the designer himself knows and lives that generation-specific attitudes.

With only 25 years, James Francis Millar is an outstanding fashion designer who not only mixes elements of modern club culture with the seventies rock glam style in an intuitional way, but also a designer who draws the bow from the early eighties to the art DEco era, from artwork by Jean Paul-Goude to Janine Janet and consolidates the melange of inspiration in fabulous idiosyncratic garments.
James Francis Millar is an outstanding talent and i complement the statement: age is not important to be a great fashion artist”sometimes, a certain age is necessary to unaffected design fashion that mirrors the main attitudes of a generation”.
Chapeau Monsieur Millar.

Photos via James Francis Millar

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