Recently been featured in fashion156, Josefina Lar definitely polarizes with her autumn/winter collection that offers mainly pastel-colored 80´s shapes and highly detailed knitwear pieces. I kind of like it - not because of the wearability - more because of some great childhood memories. When i was a kid, my mom used to wear this strange shoulder-padded-batwing-high-waist-wide-leg-thing combinations and even beeing dressed in those ridiculous 80´s designers pieces, she then was the most beautiful woman in the world for me. Since grown up, I always asked her for this terribly ugly pantsuit (cutted like the suit shown below, but kept in the grossest green you can imagine) that she was wearing only on special occassions at that time - and shortly, before she passed away, she forced me to bear her on the attic where i had to sift through all these boxes full of clothes … you can imagine how shirty i was. But although beeing very weak and highly bemused by the cancer medication, she first keept quite when i found the green uglyness. With a bright smile from ear to ear, she was extremely happy to give it to me - and although i would never wear this terrible 80´s relict, i am keeping it like a treasure. Maybe, this is, why Josefine Lar´s collection seems so likable to me although it´s so superspecial. For those, who want to know more about Josefina Lar, check here.
Mwau…contemplating J.W. Anderson´s autumn/winter collection at first I almost felt confronted with a crossing-creation of forest trolls with an alpine folk music marching band. But of course, I was wrong! Not a single designer collection in the world would ever be based on such primitive sources of inspiration.
It´s Russia, the tsars and the communism that correlate with J.W. Anderson´s collection. Not to forget the mystical figure Grigori Rasputin. Combined with World War l and Egg-Maker Peter Carl Fabergé - for me, the collection description starts to become kind of overloaded. Not implausible, not disagreeable - just too much for me. So, I try to make it short: The bandwidth of Anderson´s collection goes from artsy-experimental to absolutely ready-to-wear. High-quality work, craftsmanship and the stitching of luxury materials are closely connected to the elaborated, detailed designs. Jewelry is sized, prominent and distinctive and underlines the theatrical character of Anderson´s creations.
With his second collection the 25-years old Irish-born designer slingshots himself into the front row of the most aspiring European young-designers and proves, that creativity and craftsmanship are not always a matter of age.
If it´s the knitted curiosities crafted by Donna Wilson and Vík Prjónsdóttir, soft flowing noble-creations from Louise Wahlgreen and Patafisic or the progressive knit-provocations by Sibling and cooperativedesigns - for me, knit is one of the most fascinating division in fashion design. As more designers I detect, as more excited I am, about the plurality of creations that come out of simple balls of wool.
And so, as a matter of course, there´s no getting around Sandra Backlund. Since graduating from Stockholm´s Beckmans School of Design in 2004 the young Swede is causing a furor with her sculptural knit-creations.
Using the human body as a starting point, Backlund composes, multiplies and drapes basic bricks into complex, exe-catching pieces that settle in between fashion and art. Indeed, vanguard and experimental, Backlund´s creations abjure any suitability for daily use, but still cause appreciative attention throughout the world with their characteristic aesthetics and thrilling complexity.
In an interview with über-blogger Diane Pernet, Sandra Backlund betrays how the name for her current collection “Last Breath Bruises” was born and which experiences conduced to become inspirational parts for her actual fashion-knitart-work. Read Interview here.
Few months ago, the limited Wear It For The Boy ladyfingers collection caught my eyes - light, summerly knit-dresses, manufactured with a special technique and knitted with a shiny cotton made in Italy. (You can see it here). And now the ladyfinger-story continues - i just detected the winter edition that´ll bring us joyful and humorous through the inevitable coming winter.
If Rosie Kent´s and Liria Pristine´s heads wouldn´t have flashed so über-blond and über-red, i certainly would have passed the window, the two were sitting in during a Berlin Fashion Week event. Instead of, I turned back and got enchanted.
Spreading both, a breeze of 20s Swing and water waves era and an urban cosmopolite-coquettish charm, Rosie and Liria, the heads behind Pristine Smut, presented their unique knitwear jewelry on a table and on their necks, arms and heads. Knitted jewels to reallocate, to adhere and to drape - so far, always an aversion to me. Too much knit, too much volume, too much extravagance, too much attention.
But against my expectations, the knitted jewels draped on real woman looked great. Precious and covetable, yes, even really charming and unobtrusive. There was no sign of this absurd seriousness and hyper-artsy attitude that made me feel so uncomfortable with knitted jewels so far.
And so, today I am looking forward to present the young jewelry label Pristine Smut to you and I really hope, the two Central Saint Martins graduates Rosie Kent and Liria Pristine let lots of heads turn while sitting in that window in Berlin.
From bobble to knit-tube -Anuschka Hoevener´s AW08/09 collection becomes more voluminous and sculptural without losing the genteel understatement.
Berlin-based fashion designer Anuschka Hoevener is well-known for her formal collections that shun the eccentric. Instead of shouting out loud, Hoeveners clothing is designed to outlast short-dated fashion trends. Calculating an accurate interplay of classic colors, geometrical forms, ingenious cuttings, Hoevener´s fashion is rather formal and strong in detail than wild-patterned in-your-face. Hoevener herself describes her work as a process that constantly advances while working with abstract themes such as compacting, overlay and accumulation. And so, for her autumn/winter collection Hoevener again experimented with narrow silhouettes and precise drapery and - that´s new - allowed the famous knit-bobbles to transform into knit-tubes that are draped around the neck, the back and the breast of the wearer. With a new sculptural volume Hoevener proves, how elegant ornamental bubbles can transform into warming tubes and gives her plain dresses an extra avant-garde kick. I read about Hoevener´s development process to knit “the perfect bubble” - so, it´s obvious that I am more than curious how soft or hard the knitted tubes are. Next week I am in Berlin - and it´s for sure, that I´ll visit Anuschka Hoevener in her showroom to touch and feel her collection.
Stay tuned - I will report.
Sibling bangs - barely two months old, the new bold and in-your-face men’s knitwear label leads the way. With luxurious materials, eye-catching designs and prices that make me dizzy, the three east-end designers Sid Bryan, Cozette McCreery and Joe Bates give knitwear for men a kick up the arse and subvert the classic knitwear styles in a playful and progressive way. With (for example) sequined Breton twinsets, beaded Leopard twinsets, a hand-embroidered Carousel pony head sweater the Sibling designs are totally avant-garde without producing a painful exerted impression.
Honor to whom honor is due - Sibling wow´s me away for today and I strongly recommend the interview with Bryan, McCreery and Bates, Hint Magazine published here.
Created by TBWA Paris and photographed by Vincent Fournier this campaign is for sure one of the most inventive ad series, we´ve seen for a long time from the detergent branch. It was Pieter from today and tomorrow who has seen the campaign at first.
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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 ... 
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