Diane, A Shaded View on Fashion

Who is the Edwige look a like?

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Here is a clue, it is someone that you all know.

Later,

Diane

P.S. We love you Edwige.

Happy New Year Shaded Viewers from Beniamino Marini

by Beniamino Marini

Greetings from Vincy.org for 2007

1907 : naissance d'Hergé. Vous allez en baver autant qu'avec Mozart.
1947 : premier frestival de Cannes complet. Les 60 ans ça se fête.
1957 : traité de Rome, naissance de l'Europe. Espérons qu'on ne nous l'enlèvera pas.
1967 : Belle de Jour. Deneuve sera l'héroïne de la cinémathèque française au pirntemps.
1977 : inauguration de ma soeur mais aussi du Centre Pompidou (qui célèbre Hergé)
2007 : année disruptive selon un ponte de la pub, année Royal espère Onfray, ovale selon les sportifs en tous genres. Quoiqu'il arrive, il en restera un peu d'abîme sur vos lèvres...
Rendez-vous le 31 décembre 2007 pour ce même rituel. Avec d'autres espoirs.

Galileo Universe to A Shaded VIEW on fashion

A present from Galileo Universe to DP

by Galileo Universe aka Lex
Dear Diane,

I would like to join those who have sent their best
wishes for the new year and thank you for your
inspiration....courage....candor....great stimulating
force....and last but not least magic.......therefore
a little present, I hope you like it....

Sincerely

Lex

Thank you xxx

Happy New Year from Jesus Sandoval

Jesussandoval.com

Memories - LA photos by Brian Beker

Dear Shaded Viewers,

It's the end of the year so a good time to reflect on one's past and to imagine where you want to be this time next year. You Wear it Well was born in 2006 and I hope that she/he will continue to grow for another hundred years. Dino and I are launching the open call now for 2007 You Wear it Well.

The first edition of You Wear it Well was held in Hollywood’s landmark CineSpace Theater on August 1, 2006. The international moving show was then screened at the Supper Club in San Francisco. Following LA and SF the festival made it’s European debut during Copenhagen Fashion Week as a guest of designer Henrik Vibskov. In September You Wear it Well was invited to the MoMu Museum in Antwerp where it stayed as an installation on 15 screens for a period of three weeks during Antwerps Vitrines. The next stop on You Wear it Well’s frist world tour was as a guest to the 48th edition of ZINE_BI with a screening at the Guggenheim Bilbao museum.

Dino and I in LA at CineSpace announcing the winner of You Wear it Well -Hollywood.

December 1st YWITW was invited to the MID_E festival in San Sebastien. There were two screenings, December 1 and 2nd. February 1st 2007 You Wear it Well will be screened at Cornell University in New York followed by a screening later that month in Stockholm during their fashion week and other TBC
.

If you look closely at the 2nd image above you can see Dino Dinco standing in the doorway and I'm in the middle of the wall. This was the 2nd screening of the lst edition of You Wear it Well at the Supper Club in San Francisco.

Brian Beker flew me in his private plane from our Los Angeles screening to the one in San Francisco. It was the smoothest flight I ever had. The photos with the red parasol are taken at Brian's hanger.

">You Wear It Well is the first showcase of it’s kind dedicated to fashion video. The idea is to provide a place for artists who have been experimenting with themes of fashion, beauty and style and to inspire designers and filmmakers to consider the intersection of these worlds by creating new films.

Next time we want to contact people like Pedro Almodovar, Wong Kar Wai and other filmmakers that we admire and would like to see what they would come up with given our brief

Onward and upward for all Shaded Viewers. Dino and I would like to see your shorts...

Later,

Diane

all photos by Brian Beker

P.S. I often go to www.cainer.com to read my horescope. This was Friday's but seems appropriate for everyone here and now.

'When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.' The secret link between these apparent opposites has fascinated many poets. I mention it now because it's too easy to take a superficial view of a deep situation. You must go beyond the obvious if you want to make true progress in 2007.

Make-Up-athon on youtube.com and New Years Greetings from Slobodan

Galileo sent me this link: Gareth Pugh applying make-up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeAW0t4Fp8I&mode=related&search=

Later,

Diane

And a very starplusstar New Years greeting

Dress by Slobodan Mihajlovic

Beniamino Marini reports in from New York City

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Beniamino gives a last report from NYC before flying back to Milan.

the "Meeting", by James Turrell (1989) at PS1 - MoMa (Queens)
this room, as any other permanent installation at MoMa PS1, belongs to the artists. It is open only at dusk. The room has no ceiling. You can sit and look at people looking in the air. You notice what goes on in New York sky: airplanes, birds, clouds. It opens (weather permitting) only at dusk. Wonderful.

MET chandeliers by Hans Harold Rath (1960) at Moss Gallery, SoHo. The small one 21,000 $
They are part of "The 180 year Waltz", Legendary crystal from the archives of J & L Lobmeyr, Vienna. Much better than Swarovski.
The chandeliers were designed by Rath for the Metropolitan at Lincoln Center (by architect Oscar Niemeyer)

Later,

B

Adam Levin at Mozambique Fashion Week

ADAM LEVIN AT MOZAMBIQUE FASHION WEEK

The setting is a surrealist's delight. By 9pm, the breeze off the Indian
Ocean has brought some respite from the day's relentless warm drip. The red
carpet that ascends the gracious staircase of Maputo's historic City Hall is
spectacularly lit. With the cameras poised for a live national broadcast, a
young MC descends and welcomes her audience in lashings of sensuous
Portuguese: They are a mix of shorts, beaded leopard print chiffon twin sets
and voluminous afro-garb on slip covered white plastic chairs, but the
'Welcome to Miami' remix lends an absurdity to this moment of national
pride. When my name is announced as a judge, I smile and wave at the nation,
but secretly I feel certain apprehension as to the relevance and
plausibility of Mozambique¹s second Fashion Week.

Arguably, fashion is a luxury an indulgence reserved for developed
societies where there's sufficient disposable dosh to obsess with the next
season's colours and textures. Then again, everyone has the right to a look,
and young Maputo wants to feel part of a world beamed through their
satellite dishes -- even if they happen to live in a poor, devastated
country, where the main export is cashew nuts and the only fashion training
available is a three-month dressmaking course at Bernina. But hey, if the
rest of the world can have a fashion week, why can't Mozambique?

Understandably couture wasn't a priority during the sixteen years of civil
war that raged here post independence in 1975. The scars of that era are
still visible ghostly, towering apartment blocks left unfinished by the
Portuguese colonists and limbless landmine survivors begging on the streets.
At the faded Art Deco Café Continental, the waiters serve expressos and
pastel natas under the frozen ceiling fans. But since the signing of its
peace treaty in 1992, Mozambique has been licking its wounds: Portuguese and
South African investment has forged a new elite that dines in
air-conditioned chic at the trendy Cristal Restaurant.

Downtown, around 9 pm, the modest 'Desfilas Nacionais' commence: six
emerging designers and six established names. Most are completely
self-taught. With half a dozen garments each, the concept of a collection is
foreign. The evident scarcity of fabric means two choices: either garish
pink or gold chintz or satin or the cotton capulanas or plaids printed for
the local market and cheaply available in the Indian run fabric stores
downtown with very little in between. The naivete is a humbling reality
check for any jaded fashionite.

The local models make their way down the staircase, along with two striking
Face of Africa winners. Their synthetic Chinese hair has been sourced at the
local fresh produce market. In all, the show is far more professional than
the clothing. There are some moments of hope: light printed cottons in
inventive styles and sassy hot pants and revealing tops in a cheeky Latina
mould: Nothing remotely avant-garde, but clearly some crowd pleasers which
is what matters here.

Among the emerging designers, there is a clear winner. Although there¹s
nothing wildly original about Marinela Rodriguez¹s cotton suits in geometric
African prints, they are at least relatively well cut and unfussy. While the
other designers evidently tried their luck with a different style for each
piece, Rodriguez's collection is cohesive. With few resources and scant
experience she succeeded in pulling of a capsule collection that would stand
its ground at a student show anywhere.

The established designers collections are trickier to judge. Some of them
have been making clothes for over thirty years, but what clothes? There is
no inkling of trend global or local. Amongst the predictable bustieres and
turbans, we see some rough hand painted caftans and chintz flamenco dresses.
A local judge, a retailer in sequins, is pushing for the hand painting but
we settle on Adelia Tique, who at least shows some hope of originality, with
her simple silhouettes and combo of Africa and shimmer.

Then the big moment: The box from an expensive new Bernina is marched down
the stairs and presented to the winner, as Mozambique looks on. I'm tempted
to write it off as a cheesy game show moment, but a pro sewing machine means
a lot here.

The following night, we head down to the superbly restored railway station,
designed in 1910, by none other than Gustave Eiffel, for a retail show.
Again the setting is splendid, on the platform, beneath the steel dome, a
model chugs in on the front of a train. The clothes betray local
aspirations: white suits and chinos for the men and floral chiffon dresses
for the babes -- but everyone seems far more interested in the after party
at Mambos, a buzzing little venue in a historic alley near the port -- and
of course, tomorrow¹s swimwear show: Perhaps they¹re better off in bikinis?

It all seems quite indulgent: Can fashion really be a tool for development
in a country where the average income is $3 per day or is the event just a
folly to score mileage for the sponsors? Then again, what seems so glaringly
obvious in such an unlikely context may offer us a mirror to the elements of
vacuous excess on the global fashion circuit. As Jan Malan, the show's
producer expresses optimistically,'Of course we're starting from scratch
here; but you have to start somewhere.'

And a good Bernina is a good start.

Adam Levin

Pics: Werner Puntigam

DESIGNERS’ BUILDINGS ARE GROWING IN THE UBER-HIP LOWER EAST SIDE

Dear Diane and Shaded Viewers,
There’s been a lot going on during the last couple of years in the Lower East Side of New York City. L.E.S. used to be the first neighborhood for the immigrants, expecially jews. Any Manhattan jew has got ancestors who lived either in Orchard, Ludlow, or Rivington St. Like any other gentryfication process that took place in Manhattan or Brooklyn, there first arrived a few artists and musicians (if you want to see the next year’s coolest band playing alive, just go to one of the district’s clubs), then cafés and fancy restaurants (my favorite is Falai bakery and restaurant), along with small vintage boutiques (clothes and XXth century furniture), finally, the real estate developers. We are at the last step.
Take a look at the 16 story pixel building on Delancey St “The Blue”, by the swiss architect Bernard Tschumi (the one who designed Parc de la Villette in Paris and has been teaching at Columbia University for years), on its fancy website or the nextdoor (much smaller) The Switch.

(The Blue)

Prices are already very high, starting from more than 800,000 $ for a one-bedroom apartment (with view), up to 3,4 million $ for a penthouse with terraces. Not as high as in the top co-ops of the Upper East Side, but still a lot, if you think that the rest of the area is almost all tenements buildings.
Moving north-west from The Blue, you’ll find another new high-rise building, the Hotel on Rivington, brand new, all glass, floor to ceiling windows facing Midtown: I would love to sleep in room 153 one night (it has the best view).

(Hotel on Rivington)

Going west, towards the Bowery (we’re almost in Nolita, but it’s still L.E.S. to me), you’ll see the new Richard Meier’s skinny building, where Martha Stewart just bought a duplex. It oversees Spring St until the end of Soho.

(can you imagine Martha waiting for a cab on Bowery?)

Just across the road, murmurs say Lachlan Murdoch (yes, that Murdoch) wants to renew a landmark building (Bowery and Spring). And walking north on the Bowery, you can see the works going on to build the New New Museum of Contemporary Art, by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa.

(the New New Museum will open Fall 2007)

I heard one of the curators will be 30 y.o. rising star Massimiliano Gioni (best friend of Maurizio Cattelan), currently curator of Fondazione Trussardi in Milan.
More new signature buildings (in other districts) later,

B.M.