On Sprezza's content-activation flywheel
At the end of last year, we sat down with our friend Clayton Chambers to talk about the rise of his inspirational menswear platform, Sprezza, and to hear his perspectives on the state of online content and media. We first connected with Clayton in early 2023, right after he had landed in Amsterdam, where he was planning to stay for a few months. We had discovered his inspiring newsletter sometime the year before. Sprezza had launched as a side project during the pandemic, delivering weekly dispatches of Clayton's (micro-)trend-focused observations, outspoken opinions on style, and his personal tastes in contemporary menswear. In many ways, it reminded us of the blogosphere, translated into today’s digital landscape. A few months after our initial meeting, we collaborated on a dinner activation for Atelier Munro during Pitti 104. Soon after, Clayton’s time in Amsterdam ended, but in the second half of that year, Sprezza really started to take off. [ Continue reading ]
Into the wild universe
We recently met up with Rop (/Rob) van Mierlo and Remco van der Velden to speak about their brand Wild Animals. Having just moved into a new space in the north of Amsterdam, which opened the week before our visit, they explained how a new phase is about to start. Having just introduced two new directions of products that will be available next season named Patterns and Flowers, for the first time moving beyond depictions of animals, they are ready to show the wide range of Rop’s signature wet-on-wet aesthetic.
The current moment also marks the end of a period that was dominated by three major brand collaborations, out of which the H&M kids wear partnership had by far the most impact on the duo. It introduced their work to a global audience, but at the same time (for the first time in their existence) it alienated some of their core followers that didn’t appreciate the fast fashion affiliation. Now, they are ready to move on, with a myriad of new insights, and with the space (financially and time-wise) to finally start growing their Wild universe into new realms. [ Continue reading ]
with Ryan Willms
More than ten years ago we were proud sharing and selling the first issue of INVENTORY magazine; ‘a curation of Ideas in Product, Craft & Culture’ by Ryan Willms. The magazine was published for years, gained a big international following and with that knowledge of culture Ryan created a solid practice of brand building and design, collaborating with the likes of Stüssy a.o. After a few years of refuelling and redefining the self and well-being Ryan is back with Into the Well, ‘a platform for connection and learning to live in harmony’. With an online publication, newsletter and a podcast together with Sean Hotchkiss it’s becoming an interesting landing point to guide you through contemporary mindfulness, movement and well-being. We asked Ryan for a little intro, his favourite run and the latest books to read. [ Continue reading ]
Exploring the mysterious world of the young Belgian painter
The Lange Leemstraat is one of Antwerp’s longer continuous streets. It starts at the edge of the city center and cuts straight through the Klein-Antwerpen area, which is more commonly known as (a significant part of) the Jewish neighborhood. The street divides the segment of the Belgian city between the Mechelsesteenweg, the Van Eycklei, and the Belgiëlei into two halves—together forming a perfect triangle when viewed on a map. Most of the tall but narrow houses along the street are at least four stories high, and an overall multiethnic feel prevails, alongside the omnipresence of the orthodox Jewish community. When entering the street, one is instantly struck by a metropolitan vibe. It feels like a miniature Brooklyn in the heart of Antwerp. For me, it represents one of the many (hidden) qualities of the city, with its remarkable cultural diversity and unique urban structure, which has only been partly transformed for the modern age. [ Continue reading ]
Making it simple with TOSSIJN
There are few places left in Amsterdam’s most central areas that have enough character to withstand the ever-growing storm of tourists and those who cater specifically to them. At times, especially in the summer, the city feels like an urban amusement park. With no end to this development in sight, the once-authentic center is slowly turning into an empty shell of its former self. Fortunately, there are still some spots that offer a genuine cultural experience (let’s hope it stays that way!), with the Zeedijk being one of our favorites. Located in the small but dense Chinese quarter of the Dutch capital, the street is famous for its restaurants and supermarkets, but also for being the original gateway for heroin into the country in the late sixties. In recent years, it has also been embraced by a growing number of brands, seeking an authentic environment for their stores. With TOSSIJN being the latest excellent addition to the area, we dropped by to see his inspirational new space. [ Continue reading ]
Brings the Carribean to the world
There is a significant need for new personal stories in today’s hype-driven, free-for-all fashion world. Despite a rather boring tradition in that realm, some of the names we find interesting and who have the potential to do just that come from The Netherlands. Following in the footsteps of Paul Helbers and Sebastiaan Pieter—both talented Dutch designers with young labels (based outside of The Netherlands)—last month’s Royal Academy of Antwerp graduate Rushemy Botter seems to be next in line to step up. His graduation collection (Autumn/Winter 2018), titled Fish or Fight, marked Botter’s debut during last week’s Amsterdam Fashion Week. However, we had already seized the opportunity to briefly meet the rising star one day after his graduation show in Antwerp at the beginning of June. [ Continue reading ]
The Head of Fashion of The Royal Academy of Art The Hague on his return to designing
After discovering the extraordinary work of Belgian fashion designer Jurgi Persoons by chance, a little under ten years after his eponymous label closed in 2003, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp graduate remained very much an enigma. The legacy of his raw-edged romantic vision includes punk-spirited seasonal presentations in Paris, along the banks of the Seine and in a deserted parking lot, at a time when he was breathing new life into the anti-fashion spirit of the Antwerp Six (+ Martin Margiela), who had emerged a decade earlier. As most of Persoons' vision (who withdrew from the fashion world after 2003) remains hidden in a time before the internet began absorbing everything that took place, only bits and pieces are still to be found today, with an occasional piece from his hands popping up on eBay.
Six years ago, after years of working in the printing workshop of his partner, Persoons returned to fashion, but in a completely new capacity: as a teacher at the Royal Academy of Art The Hague. He became Head of Fashion and Textile in 2013, which finally granted me the chance to sit down with him and learn more about what had fascinated me for so long, right before the 2016 graduation show. With the new graduation show upon us tomorrow, we sat down once again to speak about the rather eventful last twelve months and how they brought Jurgi new perspectives, both as Head and through the (highly surprising!) return of fashion design to his life. [ Continue reading ]
On the heartbeat of luxury
We meet Italian fashion designer Davide Marello at an interesting time in his life. Only a few weeks before the sunny Saturday afternoon at the end of February, when we meet in Bar Luce at the Prada Foundation, he had left his position as the very first creative director of Boglioli: the 100-year-old tailoring company that reinvented itself at the beginning of this century with a distinct broken-in and garment-dyed aesthetic. Marello’s departure took place quietly, gathering even less attention than his surprising—and thus underexposed—appointment two years earlier. Nevertheless, for those who were paying attention, the recent ‘intimate’ presentation of the Autumn/Winter 2017 collection, instead of the usual runway show, could clearly be seen as a marker that things were, to say the least, in turmoil. [ Continue reading ]
Talking contemporary visual culture with the British artist
Unfortunately, it took a little longer to share this than we hoped, as it’s been a few weeks since we sat down with British artist John Stezaker during his visit to Antwerp for his duo exhibition, which closed today at Gallery Sofie Van de Velde. The exhibition juxtaposed his collages with the work of legendary Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers. Meeting Stezaker gave us a highly enlightening conversation, but due to our busy schedule in the following weeks, it took time to prepare the text for sharing. What's particularly striking is the (shameful) fact that we’re publishing the conversation on the very last day of his exhibition in Antwerp. It almost feels like the perfect metaphor for the artist’s entire career: starting in the 70s but having to shift from art to lecturing, as nobody seemed to understand his surreal vision in the era of British conceptual dominance. [ Continue reading ]
Last Friday, the doors of the beautiful Capital C building in Amsterdam opened for BIG ART, a new initiative by curator Anne van der Zwaag, presenting over 50 XL artworks by contemporary artists and designers. The exhibition runs until the 27th of November in what was once the Diamant Exchange of the city. It's a unique mix of acclaimed names and up-and-coming talents, featuring monumental paintings, drawings, large sculptures, big photographs, and huge installations. As one of the official partners of BIG ART, we will present some of our favorite artists included in van der Zwaag’s curation. Today, we focus on a longtime favorite of ours: Amsterdam-based artist Marijn Akkermans, with whom we discussed the development of his work since graduating from the art academy 15 years ago, the pressures of modern society, and the installation-like presentation of his incredible work at BIG ART. [ Continue reading ]
This coming Friday, the doors of the beautiful Capital C building in Amsterdam will open for BIG ART. The exciting new initiative by curator Anne van der Zwaag presents over 50 XL artworks by contemporary artists and designers and will run for 10 days in what was once the Diamant Exchange of the city. It’s a unique mix of acclaimed names and up-and-coming talents, featuring monumental paintings, drawings, large sculptures, big photographs, and huge installations. As one of the official partners of BIG ART, we will present some of our favorite artists included in van der Zwaag’s curation. We begin with Rotterdam-based painter Katinka Lampe, with whom we discussed the democratization of contemporary visual culture, the rise of artificial self-representation, and how this is reflected in her haunting, distorted paintings of young human figures. [ Continue reading ]
Talking (sub)culture with the April77 and Satisfy founder
In 2001, Brice Partouche became a prominent name (without ever stepping into the limelight) in the so-called ‘rock era’ of fashion when he founded the Paris-based jeans brand April77. The brand played a pivotal role in bringing the slim silhouette in menswear from the stages of pop venues and runways to the streets of the mainstream. Last summer, Brice launched a new project called Satisfy, this time infusing a fresh cultural elan into the world of performance-oriented running gear. Inspired by Partouche's exciting new endeavor—now with its second collection in stores—we gave him a Skype call (fresh out of the shower after his evening run) to ask about his love for running, the differences between starting a brand now and 15 years ago, and his plans for his subversive new movement in athletic gear. [ Continue reading ]
Visiting the immaculate world of the Belgian designer
It was a long time coming when, three weeks ago, we finally met one of Belgium’s most exciting contemporary designers, Michaël Verheyden, in his beautiful home on the edge of the industrial city of Genk, in a green area toward neighboring Hasselt. Last year, Verheyden debuted on Wallpaper* Magazine's Power List—underscoring the widespread international recognition of his work. But even before that moment, we were very curious to learn more about his creative vision, basically from the moment we discovered his work at the beginning of 2015. The first appointment we made to meet up was scheduled for March of this year, but time and again, we were forced to reschedule due to various emerging obstacles on both sides. Eventually, we got in the car and made our way to the Belgian province of Limburg on a Friday afternoon at the beginning of June, right after a period of extreme rainfall that caused problems in northern France and different parts of Belgium. [ Continue reading ]
The artist speaks his truth
It’s always special to meet an artist you admire—especially when that artist is the incredibly talented Cleon Peterson, one of our undisputed favorite contemporary artists. His highly distinctive style and unfiltered observations on the world around us make his work stand out, not to mention the turbulent life he’s lived before reaching where he is today. So, last week was, to say the least, an exciting moment. [ Continue reading ]
For the just released 12th issue of Journal de Nîmes we travelled to Antwerp to speak with retail pioneer and well-respected figure within the fashion industry: Geert Bruloot. The curator of the current shoe exhibition in the ever-inspiring MoMu has played a pinnacle role in the road to stardom of the infamous Antwerp Six, which he sold before any one else at the avant-garde designer store Louis and exclusive footwear boutique Coccodrillo. On that rainy wednesdayafternoon we sat down with him and talked about the main theme of the issue 'new vintage', the importance of the experience in a fashion store and the need for rebellion in these times of homogeneity. [ Continue reading ]
Frederik Vercruysse is a very talented Antwerp-based photographer whose beautiful work we discovered some years ago. He describes his work as still life photography in the broadest sense of the word, always aiming to photograph the subject in its purest form, sometimes realistic, often minimalistic. Distinguishing features of his work are fresh, graphic images bathed in a soft light. Vercruysse has an eye for detail and a well-defined sense of aesthetics. He is an expert in creating compositions, regardless of whether he is photographing architecture, an interior or a still life. With Frederik being such an inspiration for us, we asked him about his inspirations in life. [ Continue reading ]
We have been following the very talented Japanese designer Yusuke Seki for a couple of years in which he is constantly taking his work to the next level, whether it was for the Interior Design Office in Tokyo, corporate clients such as AU or Sony, and his independent projects on design products and architectural space design, of which many have been exhibited at the Milan Salone, Designer’s block, the Tokyo Style Exhibition, Stockholm Furniture and Light Fair. After establishing his own studio in 2008, Seki has designed for a variety of spaces, from shops like his incredible design for the Kyoto-based kimono store Otsuka-Dofukuten and his work at Nakagawa Masashichi Shoten-gai, to candy stores and salons like his work for Kolmio+LIM and most recently the utterly incredible Maruhiro Flagship Store. With Seki being such an everlasting source of inspiration, we asked him what he finds inspirational in life. [ Continue reading ]
We discovered the thrilling work of the Berlin-based Croatian photographer Katja Kremenić through her incredible series ‘Rip Currents‘, after which she has been creating a body of work in her signature romantic free-floating style - both for fashion orientated clients as her personal projects in which she has explored some of the most beautiful beaches of the globe, proving to be an everlasting source of inspiration in her photography. Blending her signature aesthetic in all areas of the work she produces, the photographer excels in translating emotions into her photographs. Making the fragmentations of her unique photographic gaze images which resonate through feelings rather than just the representation. As Kremenić has been such an inspiration for us in the last few years, we asked her about her inspirations. [ Continue reading ]
The New York Times recently named him a 'Digital Tastemaker for Young Men', and although we aren't as young as we were when we discovered him through his inspirational blog 'Words for Young Men', the multitalented New York-based creative Chris Black continues to be one of the people out there we hold in the highest regard for his inspirational vision and output. Before starting his blog 'Words for Young Men', the Atlanta-born was part of the early wave of people creating campaigns for social media, leading the way in a field of practice which has slowly devaluated into a metrics-obsessed monster of mediocrity and boredom, worlds apart from the cutting edge creative thinking that dominated it in the early days. Chris himself has been doing so much more than just social media in recent years, working through his creative agency named Done To Death Projects. Next to a focus on strategy and creative direction for clients, he does whatever he feels like: from publishing books and zines with different highly talented young photographers to putting out t-shirts. With Chris being such an inspiration for us, we asked him some questions on what inspires him in life. [ Continue reading ]
With globalization of the creative industry at an all time high and digital interaction just one mouse-click away, we seem to have entered the most fruitful period ever of unlimited cross-pollination within the global creative community. From a different perspective one could argue the exact opposite by pointing out the copycat culture which has become a significant element of the digital era's zeitgeist. We try to look at it from the first angle and appreciate the worldwide exchange of ideas, inspirational collaborations and formerly unexpected joint ventures. If the new (copy enabling) preconditions make that one has to be more critical then ever to separate the wheat from the chaff, the collateral damage of the digitalization is nowhere near life-threatening for great work to be created and discovered. One of the most exciting collaborations we recently discovered comes from England, where two of our favorites: Joe Cruz and Jack Davison have found each other. Although they lived far from worlds apart before they got together, it was still the internet that opened the door for the newly created work. To learn more about the works we've asked Joe Cruz some questions on the collaboration and can only hope that this is only the start for more to come by the two talented artists. [ Continue reading ]
After premiering the first half of Ashkan Honarvar's ‘King of Worms’ last week, we now present a selection of the second half of the biggest project till date created by the Norway-based visionary. Ashkan has been producing collages for almost a decade now, both under his own name as the pseudonym Who Killed Mickey, always finding inspiration in the dark side of humanity and from the questions that rise about it. The extraordinary new project is no different; consisting of 107 collages, divided in 10 chapters with a unique aesthetic, although undeniably marked with Honarvar’s signature style. Today we ask him about that particular style and his vision, inspirations from the dark side, Jane Arden’s film ‘The Other Side of the Underneath’ and how he translated this into a major work like 'King of Worms'. [ Continue reading ]
The Amsterdam-based Raymond Lemstra has been one of our favorite Dutch artists for some years now. The creatures he creates (mostly drawn) show his interest in distortion as a result of selective emphasis; parts of interest are emphasized, unimportant parts reduced or left out. His distinct characters therefore often come out big headed, with focus on the faces and the body trimmed to its essential properties, all marked with his personal style, tough often very different in specific form. As he has stated on his vision and aesthetic: "The contrast between my naive and at the same time sophisticated approach to my work gives it a somewhat awkward taste. It is a clash of intent, simultaneously assuming simplicity and complexity, randomness and reason, flaws and perfection." We've been following Raymond since the very beginning of Another Something & Co and feel extremely grateful to have collaborated with him during the first Our Current Obsessions. Having been this inspired by his work for all this time, we now ask him about his inspirations. [ Continue reading ]
The super inspirational Mannheim-based creative studio Deutsche & Japaner was formed in 2009 by Moritz Firchow, David Wolpert, Ina Yamaguchi and Julian Zimmerman: working in the field of graphic, product and interior design with a rich and highly aesthetic style. Since their start we’ve always been a big fan of their multidisciplinary work. The studio focuses on communication, regardless of its physical condition, environmental, haptical or visual, but always in regard of sustainable experiences, which over the course of the last years resulted in incredible free work, which blends smoothly with commissioned assignments. Next to Moritz' endeavors under the Deutsche & Japaner flag, he has also been running another important source of inspiration named Arcademi; an online publication focusing on (autonomous) creative work from all over the world. To which he added two other amazing projects in 2012; Aesthetics Habitat, through which content is created in collaboration with brands and creative visionaries with thrilling results so far, and lastly in the same year he co-founded a distinguished winery named Love Me Los Angeles, together with wine-expert Katharina Riess, Florian Breimesser. Having been constantly inspired by the creative mind of Moritz, we now ask him about his - general - inspirations. [ Continue reading ]
Joe Cruz is a very talented artist, illustrator and textile designer, which we have been following since we discovered his work some years ago. In this period he has been consistently creating very strong images, distinctly using a toned down color palette and collage techniques. Joe was born in London in 1988 from a multi-cultural background: with roots in France, Spain, Austria and Morocco. He graduated from Norwich University of the Arts in 2010 with a BA in Graphic Design, specializing in Illustration after which he worked on commissions for clients such as Mary Portas, Stussy and Nokia, next to his free work which seems to have been influenced by his eclectic background in one way or the other. We were very happy to collaborate with Joe in Journal de Nîmes Nº 9, for which the artist created an extraordinary collage using vintage photographs out of the Tenue de Nîmes private collection named 'Denim Anonymous'. Having been inspired by Joe's incredible work for all this time, we now ask him what inspires him in life. [ Continue reading ]