It was a very 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 industrial city Genk, in a green area towards neighboring Hasselt. Last year, Verheyden debuted as one of the names on Wallpaper* Magazine's Power List —underlining the widespread international recognition for his work— but even before that moment we were very curious to learn more out about his creative vision, basically from the moment we discovered his work in the beginning of 2015. The first appointment we made to get together dated back to March of this year, but time after time we were forced to reschedule due to different emerging obstructing circumstances on both sides. Eventually, we got in the car and finally traveled to the Belgian province of Limburg on a Friday afternoon in the beginning of June. Right after a period of extreme rainfall, which caused a lot of problems in the North of France and different parts of Belgium.

When we arrive Michaël is still in his jackboots, having just taken care of some minor water damage in his garden shed workplace –the one for heavier work– because of that rain. It is very clear that he isn’t too impressed by the damage though. In his mellow voice, speaking in the local soft toned accent and with lively eyes behind his spectacles, he tells us: “it will be fine.” A sentiment he continues to embody throughout our conversation during and after his guided tour of the wonderful house he calls home together with his wife and business partner Saartje Vereecke. [ Continue reading ]

At the beginning of this month the Brussels-based Stems Gallery has opened yet another great show in 2016. After it presented 'apocatastasis' by Greek artist Panos Tsagaris in January, now, for the first time in a solo exhibition, they created a show named 'Gemini' featuring new work by the very talented American painter Sarah Faux.

According to astrology the Boston-born is a Gemini (who are characterized for a violent temperament) which forms a starting point for this show. Without being a devout believer in astrology, Faux does strongly believe in the idea that a single person contains multiple selves — resulting in a exhibition full of pairs. 'Torn at the shoulder' and 'Into her inner' are mirrored reflections of each other. In one a woman looks back at her own naked body through scraps of fabric. In the other, her image is overwhelmed by a deep green field of desire. Calm versus anxiety and openness versus impediments. In a looser pairing, 'Dig me in' and 'Dig me out' derive their compositions from twisted aloe stalks winding through the surface of each canvas. Both are meditations on painting itself: a tongue lapping up a twisted gray to reveal intense ultramarine behind it; hairy legs shooting through pink gaps, leaving smears of umber in their wake.

In all, the dynamic created by pairing pieces as the described example, ensures a captivating exhibiting, in which even different pairs seem to communicate with each other filling up the space of the Stems gallery, catching every visitor that enters..
Like doppelgangers, the twins in this show harken back to each other in ways both familiar and strange, providing one another with company while eerily unsettling any static notions of sensory life. [ Continue reading ]

We first mentioned Dublin-based ROADS at the beginning of the year, when they just had released their incredible Africa inspired new fragrances. At that moment we also shared that next to being an inspirational perfume house, the brand also houses a documentary film production section and a printed publishing section, with all areas producing inspirational high quality creations. Out of the publisher another gem will be released on the 31st of June, which we were just introduced to and really appreciate. The new book named 'The Fashion Set' highlights the importance of the creative process behind the modern fashion show, which has kept aiming continuously for a more impactful, grander scale over the course of the last 10 years in which the internet has created a complete new environment around the existing ecosystem of high fashion.

One of the results of these new preconditions is the need to combine the creative and practical in a fashion show, creating an artistic performance in which the different leading fashion houses try to effectively exhibit their new collections to the world, having to compete with (or when successful temporarily become part of) the visual tornado that is around us at all time. Fashion houses need to stay on top of their game in their complete presentations at all times, finding the right visual language expressing what it stands for twice a year (not even counting the recent 'Cruise' and 'Resort' trend of showing new collections). The insightful new book by ROADS features some of the most impressive set designs from this transitional period in which the spectacle became more and more important, among which are the shows of names like Alexander McQueen, Chanel, Dries Van Noten, Givenchy, Prada, Maison Margiela and Anya Hindmarch, portraying the producers, set designers, and hundreds of craftspeople who together create 12 minutes of runway magic. [ Continue reading ]

We have appreciated and admired Italian menswear house Boglioli —formerly run by brothers Mario and Pierluigi Boglioli— for its elegant tailoring in the last few years, but since they appointed Davide Marello as their first creative director last year, things are really moving to the next level. Alongside Marello, our most handsome Another Something family member Roel Nabuurs took the role as assistent, so we feel a little proud ourselves for the just presented Spring/Summer 2017 collection, the second under the helm of Marello, which clearly shows the new modern direction for the Milano-based house.

Soft tailoring is the key in the new creative manoeuvre, both as the aesthetic and as an attitude. Timelessness is the ambitious horizon for Marello and his team. Rich in a patina that is pictorial, lived-in and ultimately human, color and texture give a subtly sensual spin to a classic wardrobe of malleable staples: unstructured blazers, fluid summer coats, pragmatic blousons, compact knits, lace-up brogues and loafers. The silhouette is easy yet precise, allowing for freedom of movement without forsaking appropriateness. Hints of workwear - functional patch pockets, sturdy surfaces, a garment-dyed rucksack - suggest an idea of hands-on elegance. We are very impressed to see the already established immaculate tailoring being pushed into the realms of a highly modern color palette, luscious innovative fabrics and soft confident lines, resulting in a potential frontrunning role in the interesting field of 'Italian' menswear for the house in the years to come. [ Continue reading ]

We have been following Bergen-based elegant rainwear brand Norwegian Rain from the very inception of the label in 2009. Over the years it has found a close following worldwide, both through their ever-evolving cutting-edge collection of supreme quality outerwear and because of their now famous  founders, designer Michael Tetteh Nartey also known as T-Michael and Alexander Helle, being the perfect ambassadors of what the brand stands for, having become street style blogs favorites since they arrived in the menswear world. Two weeks ago, an incredible new chapter started for Alexander and Michael, when they opened their first stand alone store outside of Norway —where they house in hometown Bergen and Oslo— crossing the water of the Northsea landing at an iconic London location, taking a big step forward in their endeavors. Opened on the 11th of June, the 1450 ft2 space houses the entire collection of Norwegian Rain’s iconic rainwear for both men and women including their signature pieces like the Raincho, the incredible Moscow coat and the Warrior. The store will also stock suits, shoes and leather goods from T-Michael's namesake label, as well as a carefully curated selection of Scandinavian mid-century furniture by Modern Tribute. When in London make sure to step into the elegant universe of Norwegian Rain, and what better place to do so in another city (next to Bergen — the rainiest city of the world) renown for its rain. [ Continue reading ]

Today, on World Refugee Day 2016, UN refugee agency UNHCR released its latest annual global trends study and the numbers are shocking. The words 'refugee crisis' have been used continuously over the last few years in The Netherlands, and throughout Western Europe for that matter, yet with every encounter they slowly seem to lose their representation of urgency. With the new numbers being released, for us, it's very clear now that the problem hasn't been more urgent, ever. And that, despite European politicians seeming to hope that the problem will dissolve by itself at one point or another and all that needs to be done is to stall until that moment, without any structural solutions being enforced. Today's numbers leave no room for misinterpretation. 'Refugee crisis' is currently predominantly being used for the flow of Syrian refugees into Europe via Greece, yet the 'crisis' clearly is a worldwide phenomenon, in which we feel that we all should help a little to find a way to tip the momentum in the opposite direction than its been moving towards for a little while now.

As of the end of 2015, 65.000.000 men, women and children were forced from their homes by war and persecution last year, leaving, one in every 113 people a refugee, internally displaced or seeking asylum at the end of 2015, according to the numbers just released by the UN. These numbers rose sharply compared to last year, increasing from 59.500.000 in December 2014 to 65.300.000 in December 2015. This means that every minute 24 people are being displaced. It also means that if the 65.300.000 were to be counted as the population of a single country, it would be the 21st largest in the world. Quite shocking indeed.

In order to just raise a tiny little bit awareness about the current precarious situation, on a day like today, we would like to share the latest work by Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei, being exhibited in Athens at The Museum of Cycladic Art (MCA) since the 20th of May. Ai Weiwei’s collaboration with the MCA begun in 2015 and following the Museum’s invitation, the artist visited Athens as well as the island of Lesbos. He has since set up a studio on the island to create art that will draw attention to the refugee crisis in Greece. The MCA will be donating 10% of all exhibition proceeds to two NGOs; Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the Greek NGO METAdrasi, who are providing valuable aid to the refugee crisis in Greece. [ Continue reading ]

Next month, on the 12th of July, American publisher Rizzoli will add another fashion orientated publication to its excellent catalogue with the release of the very first comprehensive book on the work of Japanese avant-garde punk designer Jun Takahashi of UNDERCOVER — which we discovered through our good friend Samuel de Goede (make sure to subscribe to his weekly newsletter for more tips like this!). Takahashi —together with two Japanese designers who were also granted Rizzoli publications on their work: NIGO of A Bathing Ape and Hiroshi Fujiwara of Fragment Design and the recent (temporary) cutting-edge retail concepts The Pool Aoyama (now closed) and THE PARK - ING (opened since April)— is an icon of Harajuku streetwear and the presumptive heir to the heavy mantle of Japanese deconstruction (officially crowned by Rei Kawakubo herself). Although all three have (and still do) played an integral rol in this second wave of worldwide influential Japanese fashion design succeeding the designers of the Eighties, it is arguable that Takahashi has left the biggest or most resonating mark on 'the culture', especially from the moment some years ago when he started his still ongoing collaboration with Nike for the GYAKUSOU line, which stayed very close to his creative vision, but introduced his designs to a much larger audience than his own labels.

From the very beginning of his rise, the fashion of Takahashi is not born out of an excessively intellectualized agenda. While not quite populist, his generative influences are instead romantic —sometimes even gothic. A fixture of the Paris collections for more than ten years—plus seventeen uninterrupted seasons in Tokyo prior to that—Takahashi’s life’s work confirms a maturation from self-conscious artifice and rebel pastiche to a steely, withering elegance all his own. Hailing from Gunma Prefecture like his friend NIGO, Takahashi’s long association with the undisputed king of Ura-Harajuku in the early 1990s is now the stuff of local fashion lore. But Takahashi would blaze an entirely different path to legend and notoriety. The violent rending and hasty reassembly that characterized his early work, its calculated imperfections and sutured seams, have given way to collections that he himself now calls "sexy and feminine."

Seeing the deeply emotional vision of the designer, stretching over 27 years, collected in the elegantly designed book, makes one realize how profound and influential the vision of Takahashi was and still is, which makes this book by Rizzoli a must have. Make sure to get it (pre-0rdered) soon, as it will sell out in no time once its released.. [ Continue reading ]