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.
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