Since June 18th, the Barbican Art Gallery in London has opened its doors to honor the Dutch design duo Victor & Rolf. The highlights from 15 years of Victor & Rolf fashion design are presented. And…what makes it spectacular? Mentioning is, that it´s the first exhibition ever in the UK that centers the work of the Dutch designers. Besides that, the most surprising fact is, that the key dresses haven´t only put from the designer´s fashion archive to the museum - instead of choosing the easy way, Viktor & Rolf reproduced every single key style in a puppet size.
50 dolls, dressed up in the 50 most mentionable designs by Viktor & Rolf are now standing around in the Barbican Art Gallery, waiting for admiring gawks, for ecstatic delights and for jealous astonishments. For those, who doesn´t live in the middle of London - you have time till September 18^th to book a flight or, you´ll find great pictures and more info at Viktor & Rolf and on the site of the Barbican Art Gallery.

Photos via Victor & Rolf

And here, the official press text follows.
A stunning new exhibition showcasing the work of Dutch fashion designers Viktor & Rolf opens on 18 June. This is the first time in the United Kingdom that an exhibition has been devoted to this highly influential duo. Over the past 15 years Viktor & Rolf have taken the fashion world by storm with their particular blend of cool irony and surreal beauty.
The House of Viktor & Rolf presents each of the designer’s signature pieces from 1992 to now, shown in a specially commissioned and characteristically theatrical installation that dominates the entire Gallery. Highlights include pieces from Atomic Bomb, 1998-99, featuring dramatic mushroom cloud-like cushioned necklines and Russian Doll, 1999-2000, in which a single model was painstakingly dressed by Viktor & Rolf until she was gasping under 70 kilogrammes of exquisite haute couture. For the collection Bells, 2000-2001, models emerged from a smoke-filled space in clothes embroidered with hundreds of brass bells, so they were heard before they could be seen.
Drawing on the Dutch tradition of silver plating a baby’s first shoe as a keepsake, the climax of Viktor & Rolf’s Autumn/Winter collection of 2006-07, was a strapless wedding dress with a wide petticoated knee length skirt, silver plated, including even the bride’s bouquet.

Publication
A 256 page hardback book, the most comprehensive on the work of Viktor & Rolf to date, including 400 fashion photographers, catwalk images and exclusive illustrations and polaroids, is available at a special exhibition price of £32.95 (RRP £35).

Text by Caroline Evans and Susannah Frankel. Designed by FUEL. Published by Merrell in association with Barbican Art Gallery.

The House of Viktor & Rolf Shop
Be sure not to miss The House of Viktor & Rolf shop. As well as selling the book that accompanies the exhibition, a specially commissioned silk scarf by the designers, limited edition versions of their famous perfumes and exhibition postcards, Viktor & Rolf have also selected a unique range of designer objects, books and curiosities that have inspired them.

Fashion Late-Every Thursday until 10pm
Throughout the exhibition, Barbican Art Gallery is open every Thursday evening until 10pm. Join us for late night themed evenings with a BIG difference. Enjoy fashion fun and games, performances, discussions, master classes, workshops and Off the Peg talks by leading fashion commentators.
Meet a friend at The House of Viktor & Rolf bar where you can enjoy a specially mixed cocktail.

The first Thursday of every month offers that extra bit of interactive fashion excitement. Part of Time Out First Thursdays.

The House of Viktor & Rolf events programme is presented by Barbican Art Gallery in partnership with Premsela, Dutch Platform for Design and Fashion.

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

Today, the couture will form the day on What´s Wrong With The Zoo so what would be more obvious than starting with rendering homage to the grandmasters? (more…)

There are car magazines - and there are car magazines. British Intersection Magazine is the one, you really enjoy, even when you are more in stories, lifestyle, design and fashion than in cars.
Intersection´s intention is to “mingle man and machine, art and design, fashion and architecture, music and film in the back of a parked car. Intersection is about experimenting with the way we experience cars as a part of the wardrobe of our fast paced and far ranging lives.”
With the current  cover theme “dress your car in couture” intersection magazine shows again to be a factor front and center.
The six designers/design teams that got on board for the project are all known for their conceptual yet sensual witty approach- it have been none other than: Bless, Maison Martin Margiela, Ksubi, Visvim, Adam Kimmel and Richard James. Each nominally represents the city they are based in, but all are interdisciplinary cosmopolitans, explore who revel in the transgressive possibilities of betraying genre distinctions and national limits. The Goal was, to let them produce some inverted portraits of fashion, to bring together fashion and other forms of design and to give birth to something new and unexpected.
And so, the Italian Alfa Brera that needed to be dressed travelled from New York to London, from Tokyo to Sydney, Paris to Berlin and finally back to Milan to be shown at the furniture fair. Why can´t there be more often such nice interdisciplinary projects?

Visvim
“We came up with a pattern for the cover based on the car´s specifications. We picked the materials: we wanted to use traditional American-style hand-quilting patterns, so we found materials that would work and welded them to Gore-Tex. Once that process was complete, we stitched our quilt pieces together and sealed off all the seams underneath with custom Visvim/Gore seam tape.
Many years ago we used “Folk + Engineering” as the theme for one of our collections, and that seems applicable to this project as well.”

Ksubi
“When we approach design our reaction is to insubordinate or subvert a product´s normal function. We found the idea of a mammoth black box that hovered two inches off the road whilst humming and blinking a tiny red light at you, exciting. We are amused by the absurd minimalism of the idea, and also by how obnoxious and powerful the simple form could be. I might add that it would also be a great as deterrent for would be thieves.”

Maison Martin Margiela
“The making off the car cover follows the same concept as our clothes design with a made-to-measure process.
First we wanted a fabric that was as close as possible to the cotton we always use for furniture covering and press material, that is a rough white boiled cotton, but taking into account the technical constraints of the purpose of the cover (water and wind proof, resistance, etc.). Then we printed a picture in real size of the car in a very contrasted black and white to create a “trompe l`oeil” effect. The challenge was to cut up the picture according to the parts of the car cover so when put together the parts reproduce the picture in 3D.”

Bless
“We like the idea that one could bring his/her favorite car upstairs and use it indoors for a different function and sit and sleep on it. It was meant to be in leather, but since it´s somehow a couture dress and needed a very complex pattern to fit, it took us so long to try this first. But you sould imagine it in a beige natural leather that ages and tans with time.”

Richard James
“It´s almost like a caricature of a suit. We decided the coat should represent a bespoke suit in the making - something that´s never seen by anyone other than the customer and the tailor. To begin with we made a calico toile, then pinned, shaped and sculpted it on the car to fit perfectly. Then we picked out some key design elements from the car - the wing mirrors, the classic Alfa grille and window shapes - and highlighted them with panels of canvassing and lining.”

Adam Kimmel
” I collected jumpsuits from various Italian mechanics for the car cover. In Italy, they wear them with colors and patches, unlike the bland grays and navy colored ones you see often in New York City. I wanted to use these suits to create something of a quilt to cover the car. I even left the arms attached to make the result more of an object. I figured, if we blew air underneath, the arms would flail and give some life. When all was done, the colors clashed so poorly that I threw the whole thing into a vat of black dye which brought back that New York feeling in the end. I can´t leave my roots even if I try”.

All photos from Intersection Magazine. Related posts: Ozon Magazine, Another Document, This is a magazine , GizMag, HopeHope, Dress Art, Intersection Magazine, Stefan Marx Coloring Book.
Others about Intersection Magazine: The Coolhunter, youknowmysenses.