Diane, A Shaded View on Fashion

Kristopher Houser reports on Air New Zealand Fashion Week | Day One

Dear Shaded Viewers, 

I arrived in Auckland, New Zealand two days ago after a quick stint in London for Fashion Week. Right before my flight I did a studio visit with Charles Anastase, who was picking out his music for the finale. I jumped a plane for a 28 hour flight and flew halfway around the world to attend the opening events of ANZFW. My first day was heavily programmed but the two shows that stood out from the pack were:

twenty-seven names who gave us a strong look into New Zealand fashion. The collection had a "boy by Band Of Outsiders" feel to it.  Designers Rachel Easting and Anjali Stewart showed us printed suede jackets, cropped pants and tailor styled looks. 

www.twentysevennames.co.nz 

Second was Zambesi who showed their collection at the Skycity Theater. A needle-shaped skyscraper adjacent to the harbor. The collection titled The Enigma was an artful production using the theaters stage and screen as well as a seemingly complicated choreography. Showing many cropped tailored suits, dark sheer separates and lattice structured coats. The collection was keenly styled mixing wovens and prints. 

www.zambesi.co.nz

The day was filled, between shows, with two of my favorite bloggers style.com & purple DIARY's Linlee Allen (linleeloves.blogspot.com) and PAPER Magazine & themalcolm.com's Yale Breslin. We did studio and market reviews along Ponsoby Road and drank tea pots full of fruit-flavored cocktails at the Zambesi afterparty. 

 Me and Yale on Ponsoby Road

Yale and Linlee at Cassette Number Nine on Vulcan Lane for the Zambesi Afterparty 

Cheers, Kris

EGR reports from Casa Septiembre , Puerto Vallarta México

 Villa  Casa Septiembre is conveniently located  in  Conchas Chinas Beach  which is one of the prettiest beaches around the area in Puerto Vallarta Town. Everytime i come to visit i feel lucky to be here and this time i wanted to share this experience with the shaded viewers, i hope you enjoy it.

You can rent by the Day,Week or Month INFO www.casaseptiembre.com

AMALFI

by Daniel Wakahisa

dear shaded readers,

a fine line separates tourists from travelers. a line tourists and travelers never dare to cross. I belong to the later category for reasons I cannot—dare not—remember.

FASHION is now closed until september.

it wasn't my intention to embark on this journey. I had finer (melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic) arrangements to attend to—great orchestrations—but one must travel regardless of transitions, modulations, and endings.

travel as a student of human nature.

I know nothing about this place (other than it's name), I don't care and I don't ask. I take pictures, I write stories. all the most when fashion is closed.

all the most when all that remains is traveling.

Later,

Daniel

Daniele Mari photographs Monumentale in Milano

Dear Shaded Viewers,

This is a bit out of sync, but I just received these images from last month in Milan at the Monumentale, all images taken by Daniele Mari.

photos by Daniele Mari, parasol ....thank you Akiko Hamaoka

Miguel Villalobos and Graham Tabor's last day in Paris and our visit to 'Estampille' flower shop

Miguel Villalobos and Graham Tabor and bulldog made in India at the "Estampille" flower shop

Dear Shaded Viewers,

12 rue Dupetit-Thouars, 75003 Paris 

The city is absolutely on fire, 33 degrees today, we made one last stop to the "Estampille" flower shop.

All Diane's photos taken with Samsung ST50.

Later

Goodnight Vienna

The entrance to the summer palace.

All of Diane's pictures are taken with Samsung ST-50

Later,

Diane

Day 2 in Vienna for the 9 Festival of Fashion and Photography - ASVOFF screening tonight at 20h at the Filmhaus

Vienna girls do Tokyo style

Dear Shaded Viewers,

I've been feeling sick ever since I arrived but none the less I'm  trying not  to spend the entire day in my bed. This morning I had breakfast with Imran Amed, The Business of Fashion,before he went back to London and  then I met Daniel Wakahisa, one of my contributors. We went to see the Cy Twombly exhibition, a must see if you are in Vienna.

All of Diane's pictures are taken with Samsung ST-50

20h tonight Filmhaus Kino Spittelberggasse, 3

I cannot imagine a trip to Vienna without a visit to a tea salon and some pastries, much as I should have avoided it, we went to Demel.

The cake was too rich for me to finish not to mention I should not have been eating it in the first place.

There weren't any events for the 9 Festival of Fashion and Photography today but at 20h tomorrow there will be a screening of ASVOFF, I hear that it is sold out.

 Daniel Wakahisa

Later,

Diane

SEE NAPLES THEN DIE

by Daniel Wakahisa

I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea, and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the Stern Fact, the Sad Self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from.
Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803 - 1882]

Dear Shaded Readers,

In the haunted house where I live souls come and go, according to a rhythm so ferocious patterns dissolve in deranged convolutions so comforting there's no need to answer the door. One might as well leave it open.

A week ago an unexpected guest arrived [they're all unexpected] bearing a Linhof, Polaroids and Sfogliatelle. This could only be Peppe Tortora, fashion photographer and ghost — not to mention, un guagliò napoletano.

One morning Peppe knocks on my bedroom door and asks me to join him in an expedition to Naples. Illicit shoestring operation, no questions asked. "Bring the G9," he commands. "At last," I think to myself after deducing the implications of the expression "see Naples then die."

If I am still alive I do not know. On photographs I certainly appear so [at least on some of them], and occasionally I ache for Sfogliatelle nonetheless. Yet ever since I returned from Naples the house is quiet and the doorbell mute — albeit everything else remains just as I remember — unrelenting, identical.

To be continued...

Daniel

One day in Krakow, Poland

Dear Shaded Viewers,

To round out our Poland Experience, Robb Young and I spent one day and night in Krakow as guests of Fashion Philosophy Fashion Week Poland. Better hosts, you cannot find. It's hard to believe, but we even took a ride around the city in a horse drawn carriage.

All Diane's pictures taken with Samsung ST50

Later,

Diane

Leaving Warsaw and arriving at the Revelo Hotel in Lodz for Fashion Philosophy Poland

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Just left Warsaw and arrived in Lodz. This is the home of a major film school called Roman Polansk, and where he studied and made Knife in the Water. David Lynch is considering opening a cultural center in Lodz. . Show you more after today but wanted to show you our rooms at the Revelo Hotel, it is other worldly, 3 rooms only. I'm on the jury today so more on fashion later.

Robb Young in his room in Revelo, Lodz.

Later,

Diane