In August of this year our friend Sergei Sviatchenko took his Close Up And Private project, which we've appreciated from the very beginning, to a new level by starting Private Classicist. The new label which roots deeply in the vision created through Close Up And Private aims to create a solid range of classic menswear items that verges on pushing the boundaries of current minimalist fashion towards the classic style championed by Sergei himself and his work by collaborating with an international rage of heritage brands and skilled craftsmen. When Private Classicist was introduced at the last Copenhagen Fashion Week, Sergei created a tie and belt. Last week the third staple piece was released in the form of a limited edition t-shirt marked undeniably with the letters CUAP in kobalt blue or white. Inspired by the shirt worn by Paul McCartney on the cover of the US edition of the HELP album and on the other hand Teruyoshi Hayashida's 'Take Ivy' photo trip through Ivy League universities in 1965, the t-shirt forms another elegant step towards a complete Private Classicist wardrobe. [ Continue reading ]
Over the last few years Instagram has risen to become the most revealing creative social medium which gives insight into the lives of people all over the globe. With technology now truly supporting the creative needs one can slowly observe something like a canon within photography disclosed within the unique preconditions of the now mature medium. A very interesting project out of this new emerging field is the series 'I Think Things Are Getting Better' by the New York City-based Amardeep Singh, which has been translated back into a more traditional form, a book, by Chris Black's Done to Death Projects, also responsible for our friend Mikael Kennedy's last publication 'California'. The new outing by Done to Death Projects documents a year and a half of the life of Singh caught in 97 digital photos, taken with his phone and initially shared on his Instagram account, with the final photo dating back to only 5 October 2014. The photographer has a tremendous eye for detail both when it comes to shape and color, which in the publication is underlined on every page through the juxtapositioning of the images forming an incredible example of what soon very likely will be seen as an important new genre within photography. [ Continue reading ]
In 2009 Paul Smith opened this incredible store in Seoul, South-Korea, which still is one of the most interesting designs we've seen in a long time. Considering the fact that the store is located in Seoul's densely built Gangnam-gu district, Paul Smith has succeeded gracefully in making a lasting imprint within the urban environment. The extraordinary shape of the building is open to all interpretations, depending on the unique perspective of each customer or even by-passer. The suggested figure, intended to create different stories depending on people`s perspectives and interpretations, was actually the result of a design that was constrained by legal regulations and the ever-demanding Paul Smith, who at times must have driven the architects, Chanjoong Kim of the Kyung Hee University and Taek Hong of The__System Lab, insane by being just as demanding as the state's strict rules. The result is nonetheless or because of these extremely difficult preconditions an incredible building, reminding of the work of the master Antoni Gaudí or even the Dutch artist Joep van Lieshout. Unfortunately the store is now closed, but its beauty and story remain. [ Continue reading ]
We have written about the very gifted Austrian artist and illustrator Stefan Zsaitsis, when we discovered his fascinating work earlier, in October of this year. Zsaitsis has an extraordinary signature running through all his work. He creates highly fascinating dark pencil drawings of childlike figures in which he oftenly seems to hybridize particular thoughts and emotions directly on or with the body part which is involved, mostly the head. One can always observe that sense of astonishment combined with a touch of fear, with the results surrealistic and sometimes even slightly repulsive raw images, which evoke a sense of unsettlement. Last week the very talented artist presented his second publication with work stretching all the way back to 2012 until this year. The artist published the beautiful book himself, like the predecessor 'Headsongs', with his second publication given the name 'Homunculi'. The hardcover specimen consists of 180 pages with 82 images, basically forming an elaborate catalogue of almost all drawings Zsaitsis created in the past three years. [ Continue reading ]
The Offenbach am Main-based David Schiesser is a very talented (tattoo-)artist of only 25 years old. He recently opened a small private tattoo studio where he works at least two days in the week, with the rest of the days focussed on his free work and preparations for exhibitions. After graduating in visual communication at the HfG of Main in the city of Offenbach he’s been working hard and slowly getting his work out, through his two main outlets. And even now he still follows the advice from renowned mentors, famous artist Manfred Stumpf and like-wise known graphic designer Eike König, who support Schiesser in his endeavors. His drawings show typical tattoo-aesthetic elements although in some work one even gets a sense of medieval artwork. Schiesser draws in ligne claire, reducing his work to the bare essentials, in which the artist succeeds to infuse a lot of personality through his unconventional juxtapositioning and overal subject choices. His main inspiration in these choices are the human body and its coexistence with technical expansion: how the sense of body have or will transform in the future. [ Continue reading ]
Although we celebrate his overal tasteful vision and have been following Erik Schedin since the beginning of Another Something & Company, the Swedish designer is most known for his iconic minimalist sneaker, of which the first sketch was made in his final year at Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm. Last year he, together with Comme des Garçons Shirt, celebrated the 10 year existence of his sneaker with a special edition, which recently was also released in a black colorway. But there was much more we loved in these last years, in which Erik ran one of the most exciting and elegant minimal webstores to be found on the internet. He for instance collaborated with Tegnässkidan AB to re-create their classical ski model Rajd and Schedin was the first one to reintroduce the first ever designed Gore-Tex boot, the Danner Light to the European market. We now ask Erik what has been inspirational for him in all these years in which he consistently was an inspiration for us. [ Continue reading ]
CITIx60 is a new pocket-sized collection of travel guides by Hong Kong-based viction:ary, the publishing brand of leading publisher viction workshop ltd, founded by Victor Cheung 13 years ago. The guides feature an artistic edge with a handpicked list of hotspots loved by 60 stars of the cities' creative scene, wrapped in a city map drawn by talented artists. Recently viction:ary presented, as an addition to the maps, a collection of collectors items in the form of beautifully illustrated maps, which were specially commissioned for the CITIx60 City Guides. The maps are produced as high quality art prints, in a limited edition of 60 respectively at A1 and A2 formats. Exaggerated details produced at gallery quality enable its collectors to re-explore the distinctive and elegantly portrayed landscapes of Tokyo, which was illustrated by Masako Kubo, Paris by Allan Deas and finally Berlin, by the talented Finnish illustrator Vesa Sammalisto. [ Continue reading ]