Diane, A Shaded View on Fashion

DENISE MARCHEBOUT SS08 FWM , MEXICO CITY .

THE MEXICAN AMERICAN DENISE MARCHEBOUT PRESENT HER FIRST SOLO SWIMSUIT COLLECTION AT FASHION WEEK MEXICO , SHE MENTION THAT HER MAIN INSPIRATION FOR THIS SHOW WAS BY A ¨ WARRIOR ¨ SILHOUETTE .
THE BEAUTIFUL COLOR COMBINATION ON EACH PIECE IN THIS COLLECTION MAKES EASY TO APRECIATE THE SIMPLICITY OF ELEGANT & DELICACY .
GOOD FOR YOU DENISE !

FOR INFO PLEASE CONTACT : denisemarchebout@clinicastore.com
ALL PICS BY DAREN SANCHEZ .

Marc Audibet for Vionnet

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Marc Audibet for Vionnet, Pleated Lame Gown

A dress made for a goddess. Thank you Marco de Rivera for all the effort it took to send this one image. At long last I could open it.

picture courtesy of Vionnet

Later,

Diane

Browns Focus spooks Gareth Pugh tomorrow nite!

Dear Shaded Viewers in London,

BROWNS FOCUS INVITES YOU TO CELEBRATE HALLOWEEN WITH GARETH PUGH
8pm–1am Wednesday 31 October 2007 Automat Club 17 Berkeley St W1J 8EA
The first party to take place at AUTOMAT CLUB in Mayfair (hopefully guests will ignore the scaffolding), BROWNS FOCUS are delighted to pay host to a special Halloween celebration with designer GARETH PUGH. Guests will enjoy Leblon ‘Bang on Midnight’ cocktails, spooky tunes courtesy of: Matthew Stone (BoomBox), GARETH PUGH and friends, and a plethora of deformed pumpkin lanterns. M·A·C Cosmetics will be providing a full make-up team for guests prior to the event.

This is the first season that GARETH PUGH’s collection has been available to buy ever and BROWNS FOCUS celebrates with a dedicated window display of his work installed by the designer himself, who will host a cocktail reception for customers prior to the party. An exclusive DoomBox mix for Halloween by Andrea Gorgerino, will be given to customers with purchases for a 4-day period from tomorrow while stocks last.

Gareth Pugh and Michelle Lamy, the muse and girlfriend of Rick Owens and the woman that made it possible for Gareth Pugh to produce his beautiful collection that Browns Focus is celebrating in their window display.

Happy Halloween to you all and I will report back to you from Santiago de Compostela and the NOOVO festival.

Later,

Diane

Another cause for celebration is the fact that on November 1st, the planet of communication and thought, Mercury, turns direct in motion.Things will become more clear and if you need to sign a contract, now is the time.

http://www.iwantobeapilot.com/

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Omondi is the name of the character in the film played by Collins. Omondi is an HIV child that recites a poem that tells us his dream. Unfortunately the free upload of the film is no longer available. You can, however, purchase the film or visit the site and hear the poem. Diego Quemada-Diez, the director, wrote the poem that Omondi recites.

http://www.iwantobeapilot.com/

Venya, A Shaded Viewer, sent me this link. He had read the piece posted a few days ago on the Gap and the child sweatshop. Another Shaded Viewer, Jesus Sandoval sent me the article from the Observer 28-10-07, both I choose to share with you.

A statement from the Director:

"After the amazing experience of working in the film The Constant Gardener I wanted to make my own film in Kibera. My intention was to find a powerful story that would show the extreme situation in the slums of Nairobi.
So I went back to listen to the kids from the ghetto, to hear their stories, their feelings, their dreams.

On August 2005 I interviewed about 50 orphan kids in one of the classrooms from Raila’s School.
David Mugambe and the school’s principal helped me organize the interviews. David passed away just a few weeks later in a car accident. Wherever he is now, I thank him deeply from my heart. The film would not be what it is whithout his help. This film is dedicated to him as well as all the victims of AIDS, poverty and social injustice around the world.

Most of the kids I listened to had lost both parents at a very young age, and all of them from AIDS. The parents were all in their twenties at the time of death.

The kids told me about their feelings of loneliness, their sorrows, their complaints about corruption, pollution, the lack of clean water and sanitization, religious fanatism, the exploitation by adults, and most importantly, the lack of love in their lives, the absence of hope for a better future.

I will never forget how an eight year old kid explained to me how he used decantation to get clean water from black, extremely infected, polluted water. It took him hours, just pouring from one glass to another, waiting for the solids to settle, over and over, so at the end he would boil it and drink it.

All the kids cried for help, one after the other.
They asked me for school uniforms, for books, for food, for water, for money to pay the school’s tuition, for pencils/pens and many other things.
I was overwhelmed, I just listened as deeply as I could.

When asked about their dreams and hopes most of them wanted to be airline pilots, doctors or nurses.

After a few hours, I left home very moved.
Suddenly, it was as if something hit me:
80% of them wanted to be airline pilots!
I thought: “I Want to Be A Pilot”.

Then I started writing.
I started crying.
Writing, crying. I could not stop either one.
Somehow the words were pouring out of me.
After two days the poem was completed.

Then I went back to Kibera with the sound crew to record the kids reading the poem. After eight kids read the poem, there was one that had a powerful sadness in his voice. It was as if he carried everyone’s sorrow.
I had found him. It was Collins, who in the film plays Omondi.

A year later I went back with a Super-8 camera and shot the images for the film.

That’s a little bit of the story of how this came into being, I really din’t know where it was heading.. I just wanted to listen to them and create something that would inspire us to want to take action.

There are millions of kids in the world victims of the injustices of our industrial civilization, while we are distracted buying things, evading reality.
Our neocolonial policies are taking their toll on our children, on mother earth and all living beings we share this planet with.
Their suffering is ours.
Wake up!"

Diego Quemada-Diez

Later,

Diane

Chez Costas Argiriou and last night in Athens

Dear Shaded Viewers,

For my last night in Athens, our music master, Costas Argiriou invited Antoine Asseraf and I to his home for dinner with our friends from Athens. In the course of the evening he introduced us to the amazing work of Clara Rockmore (theremin) and Alvin Lucier (brain amplifier)

Clara Rockmore

"In the mid 1930's, Leon Theremin built two custom instruments: one for his patroness Lucie Bigelow Rosen, and another similar one for Clara Rockmore. These instruments were more elaborate than the RCA theremins and had, among other things, several different timbre settings. Thereminist Howard Mossman, who has been a tireless supporter and promoter of the theremin for longer than most of us have been alive. It's an amazing instrument and if you are curious, please visit http://www.peterpringle.com/customtheremin.html to learn more. Costas just bought the instrument and is learning how to play it.

Alvin Lucier

"Alvin Lucier has pioneered in many areas of music composition and performance, including the notation of performers' physical gestures, the use of brain waves in live performance, the generation of visual imagery by sound in vibrating media, and the evocation of room acoustics for musical purposes. His recent works include a series of sound installations and works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, and orchestra in which, by means of close tunings with pure tones, sound waves are caused to spin through space."

audio vision of my voice

Costas is working on the soundtrack for the making of the festival d'Hyeres 2007, he also created the original soundtrack for the festival d'Hyeres 2006.

Costas Argiriou at home and last look at my room at the Athens Hilton, which I must say is far superior than any other Hilton I've ever stayed in.

Later,

Diane

Michel Gaubert in Bejing

As promised, Michel Gaubert in Bejing. The reason for his trip? He was asked to do the music for the Fendi show. Location? The Great Wall of China.

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Well Beijing was a real trip, did not know what to expect, until we arrived at night straight to the hyatt hotel that was turned into a fendi hotel for the occasion.

It is funny to find out that the word baguette applies to many things :
baguette de pain ( hence the fendi bag that you carry like a baguette ) chopsticks , so the chinese need two, or again drumsticks, that you also need two of.
it is like a pair of shoes in a way.

The chinese are logo hungry, i guess it tastes better. They have all kind of fakes where they even mix logos together, or even have logos like givenchy on the floor of hotel lobbys.
My driver had the best shoes, black suede loafers mixing emporio armani and louis vuitton.

This is where the hair and make-up was done in the hotel lobby at the foot of the great wall with the Givenchy logo in the marble floor.

The show was incredible, who would have thought I would do music to show fashion on the great wall of china, it was the best way of seeing it.

The last day we met with Cyril Duval aka Item Idem, my good friend from Tokyo who took us to the military museum where we had a great time and reminding us of the mugler pictures from the 80's.
Cyril pulled out his mask from Munch to pose next to chinese weaponry.

That is also the place where we saw the No Trans Passing sign, we did not know that transexual was part of the communist vocabulary.

Best,

Michel Gaubert

Michel Gaubert in Mumbai

Dear Shaded Viewers,

When I saw Michel Gaubert at the launch of his luggage line for Longchamps he told me that he was going to do the music for Gucci in Bombay and the music for Fendi at the Great Wall of China. I knew that Shaded Viewers would be interested to see the world through Michel's eyes so first a taste of Mumbai.

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Diana Vreeland was right when she said that pink was the navy blue of india.

en taxi mauve

That shade is everywhere.

Mary Curry

Cafe Samovar and Undercover

We were there during fashion week that happened to be at the same time as postal week.
I found it more interesting to see the new stamp collections, and easier to relate to.

sleepy dog and soap opera

Best

Michel Gaubert

Stay tuned for Michel in Bejing.....

Later,

Diane

Heaven Tanudiredja

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Accessories from Heaven Tanudiredja, a student at the Royal Academy of Antwerp with a very bright future.

Photographs ANNICK GEENEN

Later,

Diane

Incident at Acropolis and K & D Plus God and THe Best Thing Ever

Dear Shaded Viewers,

image of Antoine Asseraf by Filep Motwary

Antoine Asseraf had never visited the Acropolis and the Parthenon so our friends decided to take us there.

chez Maria Mastori

Apostolos Mitropoulos and Filep MOtwary

THe guard in the white shirt and black skirt is the one that hated me on site

The Acropolis is free to Greeks on Sunday, we started walking up the hill...when suddenly a mad woman came running after us explaining that I could not enter because she did not believe that I was appropriately dressed.(That is her in the white shirt and black skirt) A Greek drama ensued where I was flatly told that dressed as I was I was not able to enter the Acropolis. We were directed to another entrance and then to two more people that would decide if I was would be permitted to enter the most famous natural feature of Greece. After much discussion the powers that be explained that traditional dress was not permitted in the Acropolis, and Olivier Bobin, that includes Brides and Grooms. We assured them that this was my normal style of dressing and it was not representative of any particular culture or country. Finally we were permitted entry as long as we did not publish pictures from our visit. Later on, as we were walking down the hill, another mad female guard came running up to us shouting that my traditional dress was a problem. She ran faster than light to alert the guards of my presence on the site. For some unknown reason, perhaps the changing of the guard, we were able to exit in peace. The light was beautiful, the weather lovely and I promise never to return to the Acropolis again. Funny when I was there last year with Robb Young and Christos, we had no problems at all other than a few people asking me if I was an actress. THis incident is on a par with the one a few years ago in a cafe in Vienna, I was thrown out of a cafe because I asked the waiter what kind of fish they served.

photos by Apostolos Mitropoulos

.

Antoine Asseraf goes to the Acropolis

photos by Filep MOtwary

The Best THing Ever

After that weird Acropolis experience we decided to visit The Best Thing Ever which is an installation by 5 artists, Richard (George & Dragon), Lucy Dodd, Christopher Kreitling, Liliana Sangino and Robin Schulie.
The idea was for the artists to live and work in te gallery for 10 days, blurring the lines between studio and show space. They started out with raw materials fromthe streets of Athens and donations of wonderful printed Eley Kishimoto fabrics. They worked with traditional greek olive oil, candlelightand the final show was in the glow of the candles.

Liliana and best zoo ever

I was very proud to find myself as the best blog ever

The audience is invited to view the space as a sculpture, including the process, the artists, the materials, what the artists are wearing, what they were wearing but now hangs on the wall... We had to miss the performance as Costas is cooking us dinner tonight. Los Angeles based artist Lucy Indiana Dodd will perform "The Best Thing Ever" at 19h tonight.

If you are in athens tonight, 15 Leonidou St, Kerameikos, Athens, Greece until 21h.

More on Athens Fashion Week on Filep MOtwary

Later,

Diane

Hellenic Fashion Week - COn't

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Maria Mastori Filep Motwary

Maria Mastori Filep Motwary

Maria Mastori Filep Motwary

Amanda and Costas Argiriou and Richard of George & Dragon and I after Maria and FIlep's show

Kreiling& Dodd George and Dragon Sunday 2-9 (later for that) and Maria and Filep.

Avtandil

Avtandil

Yorgos Eleftheriades and his 2nd line Collage Social

Yorgos Eleftheriades

Off to dinner with friends

MariaFlora Papapanagiotou, the commercial for Christopher Kane, in Christopher Kane

Costas Argiriou with his mother and his girlfriend
Later,

Diane

Sexual Harassement and You

http://www.spikedhumor.com/articles/129161/Sexual_Harrassment_And_You.html

Thanks to Yoann Lemoine

Child sweatshop shame threatens Gap's ethical image-Observer 28-10-07

THis article was sent to me by Jesus Sandoval

Child sweatshop shame threatens Gap's ethical image

Amitosh concentrates as he pulls the loops of thread through tiny plastic beads and sequins on the toddler's blouse he is making. Dripping with sweat, his hair is thinly coated in dust. In Hindi his name means 'happiness'. The hand-embroidered garment on which his tiny needle is working bears the distinctive logo of international fashion chain Gap. Amitosh is 10.

The hardships that blight his young life, exposed by an undercover Observer investigation in the back streets of New Delhi, reveal a tragic consequence of the West's demand for cheap clothing. It exposes how, despite Gap's rigorous social audit systems launched in 2004 to weed out child labour in its production processes, the system is being abused by unscrupulous subcontractors. The result is that children, in this case working in conditions close to slavery, appear to still be making some of its clothes.

Gap's own policy is that if it discovers children being used by contractors to make its clothes that contractor must remove the child from the workplace, provide it with access to schooling and a wage, and guarantee the opportunity of work on reaching a legal working age.
It is a policy to stop the abuse of children. And in Amitosh's case it appears not to have succeeded. Sold into bonded labour by his family this summer, Amitosh works 16 hours a day hand-sewing clothing. Beside him on a wooden stool are his only belongings: a tattered comic, a penknife, a plastic comb and a torn blanket with an elephant motif.

I was bought from my parents' village in [the northern state of] Bihar and taken to New Delhi by train,' he says. 'The men came looking for us in July. They had loudspeakers in the back of a car and told my parents that, if they sent me to work in the city, they won't have to work in the farms. My father was paid a fee for me and I was brought down with 40 other children. The journey took 30 hours and we weren't fed. I've been told I have to work off the fee the owner paid for me so I can go home, but I am working for free. I am a shaagird [a pupil]. The supervisor has told me because I am learning I don't get paid. It has been like this for four months.'

The derelict industrial unit in which Amitosh and half a dozen other children are working is smeared in filth, the corridors flowing with excrement from a flooded toilet.

Behind the youngsters huge piles of garments labelled Gap - complete with serial numbers for a new line that Gap concedes it has ordered for sale later in the year - lie completed in polythene sacks, with official packaging labels, all for export to Europe and the United States in time for Christmas.
Jivaj, who is from West Bengal and looks around 12, told The Observer that some of the boys in the sweatshop had been badly beaten. 'Our hours are hard and violence is used against us if we don't work hard enough. This is a big order for abroad, they keep telling us that.

Last week, we spent four days working from dawn until about one o'clock in the morning the following day. I was so tired I felt sick,' he whispers, tears streaming down his face. 'If any of us cried we were hit with a rubber pipe. Some of the boys had oily cloths stuffed in our mouths as punishment.'
Manik, who is also working for free, claims - unconvincingly - to be 13. 'I want to work here. I have somewhere to sleep,' he says looking furtively behind him. 'The boss tells me I am learning. It is my duty to stay here. I'm learning to be a man and work. Eventually, I will make money and buy a house for my mother.

The discovery of the sweatshop has the potential to cause major embarrassment for Gap. Last week, a spokesman admitted that children appeared to have been caught up in the production process and rather than risk selling garments made by children it vowed it would withdraw tens of thousands of items identified by The Observer.
He said: 'At Gap, we firmly believe that under no circumstances is it acceptable for children to produce or work on garments. These allegations are deeply upsetting and we take this situation very seriously. All of our suppliers and their sub-contractors are required to guarantee that they will not use child labour to produce garments.

It is clear that one of our vendors violated this agreement, and a full investigation is under way. After learning of this situation, we immediately took steps to stop this work order and to prevent the product from ever being sold in our stores. We are also convening a meeting of our suppliers where we will reinforce our prohibition on child labour.

Gap Incorporated has a rigorous factory-monitoring programme in place and last year we revoked our approval of 23 factories for failing to comply with our standards.

We are proud of this programme and we will continue to work with government, trade unions and other independent organisations to put an end to the use of child labour.'
In recent years Gap has made efforts to rebrand itself as a leader in ethical and socially responsible manufacturing, after previously being criticised for practices including the use of child labour.
With annual revenues of more than £8bn and endorsements from Madonna and Sex and The City star Sarah Jessica Parker, Gap has arguably become the most successful brand in high-street fashion. The latest face of the firm's advertising is the singer Joss Stone.
Founded in San Francisco in 1969 by Donald Fisher, now one of America's wealthiest businessmen, Gap operates more than 3,000 stores and franchises across the world. In Britain Gap, babyGap and GapKids are very successful, their own-brand jeans alone outselling their retail rivals' lines by three to one.
Last year, the company embarked on a huge advertising campaign surrounding

Product Red', a charitable trust for Africa founded by the U2 singer Bono and backed by celebrities including Hollywood star Don Cheadle, singers Lenny Kravitz and Mary J Blige, Steven Spielberg and Penelope Cruz. As part of the fundraising endeavour, Gap launched a new, limited collection of clothing and accessories for men and women with Product Red branding, the profits from which are being channelled towards fighting Aids in the Third World.
On its website the company states that all individuals who work in garment factories deserve to be treated with dignity and are entitled to safe and fair working conditions and not since 2000, when a BBC Panorama investigation exposed the firm's working practices in Cambodia, have children been associated with the production of their brand.
Gap has huge contracts in India, which boasts one of the world's fastest-growing economies. But over the past decade, India has also become the world capital for child labour. According to the UN, child labour contributes an estimated 20 per cent of India's gross national product with 55 million children aged from five to 14 employed across the business and domestic sectors.

Gap may be one of the best-known fashion brands with a public commitment to social responsibility, but the employment [by subcontractors ultimately supplying major international retail chains] of bonded child slaves as young as 10 in India's illegal sweatshops tells a different story,' says Bhuwan Ribhu, a Delhi lawyer and activist for the Global March Against Child Labour.
'The reality is that most major retail firms are in the same game, cutting costs and not considering the consequences. They should know by now what outsourcing to India means.

It is an impossible task to track down all of these terrible sweatshops, particularly in the garment industry when you need little more than a basement or an attic crammed with small children to make a healthy profit.
'Some owners even hide the children in sacks and in carefully concealed mezzanine floors designed to dodge such raids,' he explains.

Employing cheap labour without proper auditing and investigation of your contractor inevitably means children will be used somewhere along the chain. This may not be what they want to hear as they pull off fresh clothes from clean racks in stores but shoppers in the West should be thinking "Why am I only paying £30 for a hand-embroidered top. Who made it for such little cost? Is this top stained with a child's sweat?" That's what they need to ask themselves.'

· The investigation was carried out in partnership with WDR Germany.

This article was amended on Sunday October 28 2007
Dan McDougall
Sunday October 28, 2007
The Observer

Hellenic Fashion Week - My Days 1 -2 (actually HFW days 3 & 4)

Dear Shaded Viewers,

I missed the first 2 1/2 days of Diners Athens Collecions In Style which has been dedicated to Billy Bo. We barely checked in to the Athens Hilton, when we were wisked off to th Parthenis Show.

Parthenis

YWITW2

YWITW2

YWITW2

Costas Argiriou and two Shaded Viewers at the You Wear it Well 2 screening

Athens answer to Michel Gaubert, Costas Argiriou and his mom, designer Maria Mastori

Loukia

L'Eclaireur's Martine and Armand Hadida under the moonlight.

Day 2

Baby Kiss

Mr. and Mrs. Kiss

Dimitris Dassios

Dimitris Dassios

Dimitris Dassios

Andonis Kioukas and Armand Hadida

Billy Bo exhibition

Avtandil (Georgia designer) and Antoine in showroom of Filep Motwary

Filep Motwary and Maria Mastori a few hours before their fashion show

To be continued,

Diane

EGR SS08 WORLD PREMIERE

TE AMO , MEXICO CITY .

I WAS PLEASED TO SUPPORT MY FRIENDS RAFA CUEVAS & ROBERTO SANCHEZ WHEN I FIND OUT THEY WERE READY TO SHOW THEIR FIRST FORMAL FASHION COLLECTION IN GARAGE GALLERY , THANKS TO PEOPLE LIKE THIS DUO THIS COUNTRY KEEPS THE FASHION HOPE ALIVE.
PICS BY : http://domesticfinearts.blogspot.com/
http://diariodefiestas.blogspot.com

XOXO
EGR

Today - You WEAR IT WELL 2 screens at the : Hellenic Fashion Week

We have an exciting, new lineup of films and videos from fashion houses, designers, filmmakers and other creatives from around the world, including contributions from Erwin Olaf, Maison Martin Margiela, Kim Jones, SHOWstudio and Nick Knight, Ali Mahdavi featuring Dita Von Teese, Gareth Pugh, Diane Pernet, Alex Czetwertynski, Mathias Montero, Charles Serruya, Antonio de la Rosa, Nicole McDonald,Patricia Canino & Serge Pescei, and more!

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www.youwearitwell.tv
www.ashadedviewonfashion.com

YOU WEAR IT WELL 2

ROSTER OF FILMS THAT WILL BE SHOWN

The name of the film is listed below the image, that is when there is an image.

APPROXIMATE TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 1 H 30 M

TITLE DIRECTOR

'Fash-Off: Make-up-a-thon' by Gareth Pugh, 2006. Courtesy of SHOWstudio.com

Machine Wing Shya

LOveREAL Antonio de la Rosa

Le Dernier Cri Erwin Olaf

Verao 07 Osklen

De bordjesdraaier Freudenthal / Verhagen

Una Favola Nicole McDonald

Dita Ali Mahdavi & Suzanne von Aichinger

Beauty Invaders Gruppo Ragnatele

Rouge Erwin Olaf

Pinguis Malcolm Pate

Camion / Chic / Marlon & Marlene (the series is acted by Anne Billette and Ludovic Gauthier
all 6 films are directed by Charles Serryta
Tour Eiffel /
Cigarette / Mais /
Piscine

Goodnight, Stockholm Mathias Montero

Pli Selon Pli Patricia Canino & Sergei Pescei

Reply Patricia Canino & Sergei Pescei

Emma’s Return Tomas Nasstrom

Lutz Diane Pernet & Alexandre Czetwertynski

Eley Kishimoto Diane Pernet & Alexandre Czetwertynski

'The Sound of Clothes: Anechoic' by SHOWstudio, 2006.

Kim Jones / POPLIFE Will Davidson

Summer 2007 Maison Martin Margiela

'Sweet' by Nick Knight/Jane How, 2000. Courtesy of SHOWstudio.com

'Beasting' by Nick Knight/Simon Foxton, 2007. Courtesy of SHOWstudio.com

Doll Face Andrew Huang

5 Positions Emil Klang

Looking forward to seeing you in Athens and please vote for your favorite film.

Later,

Dino and Diane

A day and night in Paris

Dear Shaded Viewers,

I was on my way to edit films for Swiss Textiles award at Antoine's when I ran into Two Tom.

Two Tom

It was an "Hyeres in the air" kind of day because when I got to Antoine's he was wearing his new Eric Lebon jacket and feeling very good in it.

Antoine Asseraf

After the edit I saw Shaded Viewer contributor, Mario Canal, he's back in town.

Mario Canal

Later from Athens,

Diane

WHITE SOUL At home with Philippe Cohen Solal and Prisca Lobjoy

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Philipe Cohen Solal, Luna and Prisca Lobjoy at home

On the 29th of October The Moonshine Sessions $olal Presents will be released. Today I went to visit Philippe Cohen Solal (Gotan Project) and his wife, the filmmaker, Prisca Lobjoy. I guess you can say that we are old friends. Luna, their daughter, pictured in the middle, was a baby the last time that I saw her. I remember the beautiful announcement of her birth. Today is her 15th birthday. Philippe toured extensively with Gotan Project. He is currently planning the world tour of Moonshine Sessions. One day a week ago or so I received a link to Luna, Moonshine Sessions and was so delighted that I could not stop playing it. More about our visit later.

"It was to Nashville that the native Parisian travelled with his guitar to exorcise his personal demons, he found a haven in the legendary Three Trees Studio Tennessee where under the influence of Moonshine and in the company of Bucky Baxter's trusted friends and musicians he completed his new album."

Philippe Cohen Solal

I might add that Bucky Baxter played assorted guitars (steel, slide, dobro, etc.) with Bob Dylan to give Dylan's band a softer, more country like sound. Bucky Baxter felt like Moonshine Sessions, both the album and the film, were blessed from above. I think he's right.

YOU CAN WATCH THE MUSIC VIDEO "LUNA'S SONG":
http://www.moonshinesessions.com/LunasSong.mov

The album was recorded in Nashville with the best blue grass musicians Philippe could find. The single Luna was named after their daughter, and Prisca made the video that I am just about to pop into my DVD.

Later,

Diane

Cerruti names successor to Nicolas Andreas Taralis

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Jean-Paul Knott has been named the successor of Nicolas Andreas Taralis at Cerruti.

Later,

Diane

astrologyandbeyond.com

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Remember: "Our smallest actions may affect profoundly the whole lives of people who have nothing to do with us. The story I have to tell would never have happened if one day I had not walked across the street. Life is really very fantastic and one has to have a peculiar sense of humor to see the fun of it." -- Somerset Maugham, from the introduction to his short story, Virtue and lifted from the site astrologyandbeyond.com.

Mario Canal: FIAC+SLICK

Dear Diane, dear Shaded Viewers, I am sorry that I am late with this post but I finally found my card reader.
So, let's begin with FIAC.
It is nice to have real lights above the stands both in the Grand Palais and at the Carreé du Louvre-. It is the first time that I see a fair with natural light.
Besides that, nothing new under the sun. I believe that all the good galleries went to Frieze in London and only the big parisian galleries were represented in Paris.
Here are some of my favorite pieces at FIAC.

SORRY: SOME PIECES ARE NOT UP!

My beloved friend Alberto Garcia-Alix chez Mennour.

Mine and Diane's beloved Ann Veronica Janssens. THIS PIECE GOES UP.

Every body's beloved JMBasquiat.

Lisson only brought Julien Opie, this screen was lovely.

The russian artist who made this piece was the sensation of the last Venice Biennale.

Anne de Villepoix displayed these fridges. So manierist...

This is an hommage to all the right wing political parties of the world -in my opinion-.

I loved the simplicity and strenght of this piece: makes me think of the immigrants arriving to the spanish coast, frozen after a cruise in hell. It's kind of reivindicative. Didn't wrote tha artist's name though.

AND, then last weekend we also had a parallel fair in Paris, with new and brave young galleries placed in a horrible place -The Bellevilloise-. Too small for such big energy.

And I finish this post with one of my favorite pieces in Slick, it's from an italian gallery. Sorry, the place -the Bellevilloise- was so small that I didn't have space to take my notebook out -bad axcuse, I know-.
best>>>m<

Material World - EASTPAK Raf Simons at Colette

Dear Shaded Viewers,

I am really feeling mercury in retrograde with my internet icons disappearing along with my connection from both my desktop and laptop. The laptop suddenly says there is no airport card and of course apple care is constantly busy....

This morning I made it over to the Water Bar at Colette for the presentation of the new Material World - Eastpak Raf Simons collaboration. On route I was noticing some of the ugliest back packs on the streets of Paris but of course I knew that was not what I was going to find at Colette. You all remember the wonderful backpacks in Raf's Spring/Summer 2008 collection? They look even better close up. Imagine what I could carry in that black one...my Jas MB bag is already overloaded beyond it's natural limits and Raf's backpack is even larger.

Raf thinks that with everyone so connected to the internet these days that there is a lack of concrete experiences. Hence the material world. Some come with parachutes, not sure how successful that would be when jumping out of a plane but hey, they look great.

The collection will be exclusive to Colette 214, rue St. Honore - 75001 and the Raf Simons boutiques in February.

press contact: Vincent Varache vincent.varache@zmirov.com
www.eastpak.com

Later,

Diane

Ideal Villa Noir-Berlin

Thoughts on Claire Dupont

photo by Françoise Huguier

Dear Shaded Viewers,

When I moved to Paris one of the first people that I met was Claire Dupont. Like Isabella Blow, she is nolonger with us. Below are a few comments from her friends:

Je crois bien que claire nous suivait, de près, de loin, toujours avec beaucoup d'esprit, affectueusement, subtilement, depuis les années patou il y a vingt ans. Ce dont je me souviens en appre