Throughout the course of this year, Brunello Cucinelli evolved gradually into the world of absolutely insane lifestyle products. The company – best known for its classically conservative menswear made from the most rarefied fabrics – launched a walnut-wood globe earlier this summer for $2,195 USD. 

And look no further for those looking for something with more practicality on a day-to-day basis: the brand has just launched its own version of a reusable water bottle – but, of course, it's a little more elevated than a Nalgene. Listed as "a double-walled glass bottle carafe", it's yours for $995 USD. 

For fairness, the bottle is crafted in Solomeo, a small medieval Italian village that has become the site of Cucinelli's factories. And its double-layered structure — made of mouth-blown glass — is designed to keep its contents from hitting room temperature too quickly. 

In 1979, Brunello Cucinelli launched his couture house with a focus for women's cashmere garments. Every year, Cucinelli travels personally in the Mongolian mountains to buy cashmere directly from the farmers. 

The products of the company are all handmade in Italy. The family trust of Mr. Cucinelli holds 57 percent of the company's stock, which went public at €7.75 per share in 2012. The business has its headquarters in a castle dating from the 14th century on the top of a hill in the center of Umbria, a region known as Italy's green heart.

The company claims to be profoundly rooted in moral ideals, such as being a "humanistic enterprise" and using craftsmanship to lend moral integrity to the artisan as well as to the owner.

In other news, Rick Owens returns with a new footwear release in the form of the black Bozo Chelsea boot, after dropping the colorful Maximal Runner sneaker in an eye-catching burgundy and blue colorway.

Handcrafted with rubber strips, layered to mimic tape strappings, this boot is said to draw on the designer's passion for creative textural play. The Bozo is a reworking of the traditional Chelsea boot shape with elasticated side-gussets, a heel pull, and black leather lining.

Walnut wood and double-walled glass bottle carafe.

The creative director Anthony Vaccarello has hired the prolific German photographer to capture his Fall 2020 collection. Although studio photography is very rare for Teller — his style tends to be more reportage, capturing his subjects candidly in the middle of life — this campaign is an exception. Through basic studio portraiture, he captures Hartzel, using both black-and-white and color. Relying on the single set piece of a massive, sculptural lighting fixture, he sees similarities between the manner in which light plays across the multifaceted metal and the shimmering textures of Vaccarello's design. How much graphical unity and scope Teller can draw from just a few visual elements is remarkable. 

The campaign sets a clear objective: to show the power of Vaccarello's designs. Eschewing conceptual frills, compositions of Teller make subtle and clever use of pattern to accomplish this aim beautifully. 

Grace Kathleen Hartzel, of Zionsville, Indiana, is an American fashion model. At the age of only fifteen, she has been discovered while eating with her father at a St. Louis Cheesecake Factory. She "walked in almost every big show during the fall/winter 2015 and the spring/summer 2016 seasons," after being recognized in the fall/winter 2014 show as a muse of the then-YSL fashion designer Hedi Slimane. Slimane's spring 2014 show, when Grace Kathleen Hartzel has been an unknown, was "entirely made in Hartzel's image." 

Grace Kathleen Hartzel has been featured in a 2016 Salvatore Ferragamo short film, My Life is a Game, directed by Sebastien Grousset and filmed by Pawel Edelman.

Saint Laurent Creative Director | Anthony Vaccarello

In other news, Rick Owens isn't into doing anything halfway. The Paris-based California-born designer is known for some of the most controversial and envelope-pushing concepts in the fashion industry, with runway shows to suit. Yet Spring/Summer 2021 "PHLEGETHON" is another matter. The line, closely lensed by Owens himself, is a selection of repurposed pieces from the previous collections of Owens, accompanied by new designs and concepts.

Juergen Teller lenses Grace Hartzel in a new campaign from Saint Laurent.

SAINT LAURENT: #YSL33 FALL 2020 AD CAMPAIGN

Stonehenge's huge stones in Southern England originated from the area 15.5 miles away from the historic site according to a recent study by Science Advances. Throughout the English county of Wiltshire, the sandstone boulders, or sarsens, were moved from the West Woods. The sarsens reach up to 30 feet in height and weigh about 25 tons. 

"We have not known until recently that provenance of a stone like sarsen was possible," David Nash, the lead author of the report, said in a statement. "It was very exciting to use the science of the 21st century to understand the Neolithic history and to address a question that archaeologists have been debating for centuries." 

Nash believes the stones were moved eastward down the Wiltshire Avon Valley or along a western path through Salisbury Plain. Researchers used a portable fluorescent X-ray spectrometry to study the stones. "Subsequently, the researchers conducted inductively combined plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and ICP-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) of samples from a core previously drilled through a single sarsenic stone and a collection of sarsenic boulders from across southern Britain," the scientists said. 

The team found, after close study of the sarsens, that they came from West Forests. "The reason the builders of the monument chose this site remains a mystery, although the researchers believe the size and nature of the stones of West Woods, and the ease with which the builders could reach them, may have been factored in the decision." 

Two separate stone styles are built at Stonehenge. The sarsens are the smaller silica stones in the outer ring and middle of Stonehenge. Today, there are 52 stones on the site, but the researchers say there were originally 80.

In other news, due to the coronavirus pandemic, David Koma was unable to host a show or presentation this season. "I think it's important to remain true to yourself and to remain true to what you believe, no matter what," David Koma says from his London studio. The meaning of that in the Koma universe is glamor — but how to marry a Koma piece's sexy, slinky appeal with the slouchy, ready-for-Zoom style of COVID-19 self-isolation "work from home fits?" Koma's approach is a clever combination of coziness and camp.

Solving the long-held mystery behind the stone monoliths.

STONEHENGE: MYSTERY OF MIGHTY STONES SOLVED BY ARCHAEOLOGISTS

Helmut Newton, the Germano-Australian photographer, is being honored in the first posthumous documentary on his subject while we celebrate the centenary of his birth. This film, already released in Germany, entitled "The Bad and the Beautiful," offers previously unseen accounts - all from women - about the work of this great master of the nude and smoothing voyeurism. 

"Every photographer who claims not to be a voyeur is either an idiot or a liar" - a perfect example of Helmut Newton's outspoken attitude to life. He died in 2004 and is and will always be one of the world's most famous fashion and nude photographers. Imitated but never equaled, his photographs are all at once shocking, sensual and incredibly elegant and forged an international reputation for him. Starting in the 1970s, the Berlin photographer began to do nudes for major publications including Vogue, Vanity Fair and Harper's Bazaar. From the "Naked and Dressed" series where an army of models struck similar poses completely clothed and then wearing only socks, to the famously provocative portrait of Catherine Deneuve in 1976, the monochromatic oeuvre of Helmut Newton is filled with dominant and victorious women, all endowed with an assertive and overt sensuality. This photographer has long split opinions, often showered with compliments, often viewed as a misogynist objectivizing the female body. Yet what was the true ambition for Helmut Newton? 

That is the question raised by Helmut Newton's first posthumous documentary, called "The Bad and the Beautiful." Written and directed by the artist's close friend Gero Von Boehm, the film looks back on the life of a revolutionary who was far ahead of his time and exposed a previously unknown dimension of his personality: on his photo shoots we uncover a man overflowing with humor, as those close to him expose moments of laughter and unforeseen controversy. The documentary brings together the important women – and only the women – in his life and work to discuss him. A conscious decision by Gero Von Boehm whose specific intention was to place their voices at the core of the matter and the viewer's attention. So we see the wife of the photographer June Newton, the models Claudia Schiffer and Anna Wintour sharing their experiences alongside this great artist, among many others.

In other news, following his recent Spring/Summer 2021 showcase, Rick Owens unveiled a pair of white bondage-wrapped hi-tops. 

Recently, Sotheby's London auctioned off a Banksy 2017 triptych, entitled Mediterranean Sea View. The three paintings, after a bidding war between two unidentified investors, have been sold for £2.2 m GBP (about $2.8 million USD). The final cost was almost twice the initial pre-sale valuation of £1.2 m GBP (about $1.5 million) — marking the second-highest price ever for an obscure British artist's work. All proceeds will go to buy new children's rehabilitation facilities at the Bethlehem BASR hospital, and to build a new acute stroke unit at the clinic. 

The drawings were first made for the Banksy's Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem. They have been hang in the hotel lobby since 2017. The works consist of three oil paintings on canvas portraying 19th-century style seascapes alongside discarded lifejackets and buoys to shed light on the tragic deaths of thousands of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea in the midst of the global migrant crisis. 

"This work juxtaposes a classic form of fine art with grim contemporaneity," Sotheby's described in a statement. "While posing as the as the Natural Sublime paintings of the eighteenth or nineteenth century, the present work undermines and subverts the perceptions of the spectator to tackle a difficult contemporary problem." 

The Sotheby sale also included paintings by Rembrandt, Picasso, and Bridget Riley amongst others. Rembrandt's 1632 self-portrait has been sold for £14.5 m GBP (about $19 m USD). There was a total of 70 lots on sale at the live-streamed auction.

The Rembrandt to Richter auction was unique in that it spanned five centuries of Old Masters art into contemporary work. Helena Newman, the president of Sotheby's Europe, said the wide range catered for "a new generation of collectors who have less concern with the past conventional divisions of the art market." 

She added: "With the world art calendar changing, we, too, have taken the chance to do things differently."

In other news, "I'm not the type to make gowns for the ball or do hand-beading," says Rick Owens, the native of California from his Paris office. "It's my couture and my furniture. I use rare materials and specialist skills craftsmen to create unique, uncommon objects."

All proceeds will go to the BASR hospital in Bethlehem.

BANKSY’S MEDITERRANEAN SEA VIEW TRIPTYCH SOLD FOR £2.2M GBP

Sergio Purtell purchased a flight from New York to London each summer in the late 70s and early 80s, and then traveled across Europe on a cheap rail pass. He went to France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, making friends and staying in seedy hotels along the way. "Wandering made me feel smart," the photographer writes on the book's back cover. "At the age of 18, I left Chile for the US and fled an unfolding dictatorship. I studied architecture but then I fell in love with photography and my courses in art history convinced me that I needed to see Europe. Once I got there, I was immediately reminded of my life in Santiago: the mannerisms, the traditions, the architecture, the relaxed attitude towards life, the mornings in cafes drinking a cup for as long as one liked, the afternoons passed by the cool of a fountain, ending at a local bar with a glass of wine." 

Purtell captured strangers and casual encounters with a paradoxical intimacy: even though he had just arrived, their lives felt familiar to him. 40 Years on, Purtell's first book puts together a collection of photos from those roaming summers. Titled Love's Labour, the book captures the summer movements, the long-held poses, the endless hours. It's a window into seasonal pleasures, at a time when few of us have access to them. 

Purtell's pictures of statues reflect this tension in a romantic way. Young men and women are captured in poses reminiscent of statues standing in parks with fountains beside them – or is it the pose of the statue that resembles the youth in denim shorts? Purtell brings the granular focus to sensual movements and enigmatic relations that can be traced back to his MFA days at Yale, where he was taught by Tod Papageorge, who inspired a generation of artists like Mark Steinmetz, An-My Lê and Philip-Lorca diCorcia. As Barker said, "Tod is known for his work's elegance and you can see that elegance in all the photographers with whom he worked." Love's Labour oozes such leisurely ease, even pictures of people relaxing in the center of Paris look like they've been taken on the French Riviera.

In other news, under the Maison/Objects line Rick Owens has created a flurry of diverse homewares. The designer is known for his sleek, brutalism-inspired furniture; with similar design aesthetics, he is now adding wares to his namesake.

The sensual photographs of Sergio Purtell capture long summer days and endless evenings spent travelling across Europe.

SERGIO PURTELL: EUROPEAN SUMMERS OF THE 70S AND 80S

Located outside Truckee, a logging town turned pleasant mountain retreat just north of Lake Tahoe in California, Lookout House offers, as its name implies, panoramic views of the surrounding natural scenery due to the steeply sloping terrain, with the greatest benefit being that you can ski straight into it. The morphology and geological history of the site persuaded California-based practice Faulkner Architects to design a contemporary family house in dialog with the natural beauty of its surroundings. Putting together California modernism with the alpine vernacular, the house is a four-season retreat that pays homage both through its thoughtful architecture and sustainability emphasis to its glorious mountainside location. 

Discreetly perched on the steep hillside between volcanic basalt rocks and tall White Fir and Jeffrey Pine trees whose trunks have been stripped bare from years of heavy snowfall, the 650 square meter family house evolves as a cubist arrangement of low-slung volumes that evokes "the feeling of a smaller ski lodge," as architect Greg Faulkner puts it. 

Comprising three separate zones - common areas, the family's private quarters and a guest area - the house is built around a central axis that parallels the ski run on the east side of the property while allowing the family to ski directly into the living room through a narrow slot cutting through the structure.

Following the cue of the exterior, the interiors are swathed in reclaimed walnut panels, with exposed concrete walls and flamed basalt floors, the latter representing the volcanic geology of the region, as is the column of red-orange glass at the center of the building, referring to the color of the cooling magma. 

With some of Tahoe's best ski resorts nearby – the nearest ski lift is only a few hundred meters away – and with plenty of outdoor sports to choose from, such as rafting, surfing, rock climbing and mountain biking, the house is a true all-year escape.

In other news, Helmut Lang has finally launched its first eyewear partnership with Berlin-based brand MYKITA after debuting the sunglasses at its SS20 runway show back in September 2019. The set consists of two styles that deconstruct the concept of a wraparound sunshield into four individual elements, the HL001 and HL002. Contrasting lens colors like neon pink and orange, are the reference key colors from Helmut Lang's SS20 runway show.

When the weather is warmer, the motorized sliding doors retract to draw the family out onto an expansive courtyard with a hidden plunge pool and a separate terrace with an outdoor lounge.

FOUR-SEASON MOUNTAIN RETREAT WHERE CALIFORNIA MODERNISM MEETS ALPINE VERNACULAR

Celine Homme Spring/Summer 2021 is a mixture of the diverse inspirations of Hedi Slimane, from the classical western film Johnny Guitar to TikTok. Its name, "The Dancing Kid," indicates the space between, drawing influence for its vibrant clothes from the youthful app, without departing entirely from the rocker codes of Slimane. 

Although Fall/Winter 2020 delivered sophisticated tailoring with a touch of masculine subversion, SS21 delves completely into playfully bold patterns, prints and appliqués. The sparkling LED-studded jackets, oversized flannel shirts and leopard-patterned pants seem to be tailor-made for TikTok stars — indeed, the luxury house has already posted TikTok stars' Instagram Stories like @lilhuddy and @noeneubanks — already a Celine muse — styling the next season looks on their native platform. 

Soundtracked by Tiagz's TikTok smash "They Call Me Tiago" — edited exclusively for the 12-minute presentation by Celine Homme — "The Dancing Kid" extracts inspiration from Slimane's reaction to months of isolation, imagining a wardrobe appropriate for circumstance-stifled young creatives. The brand specifically cites "e-boys and current skate culture" as central to "The Dancing Kid" as both a movie and a collection, as well as the "reclaiming the night" theme. 

Such conceits are mirrored in the collared shirts worn under the sweaters of Celine, the hanging lock-laden necklaces and the ripped or "lacerated" Slimane's signature skinny jeans, seen stacked on top of the latest Z Trainers of Celine Homme. Tie-dyed layering pieces and knit beanies give the tiger stripe ponchos texture and sleeveless leather jackets that are reminiscent of the nightlife staples of yesteryear, while plaid tops, trendy eyewear and branded bags are a perfect fit for consumers of genre-fluid Gen Z. 

See "THE DANCING KID" in detail below and on the website of Celine.

In other news, Rick Owens isn't into doing anything halfway. The Paris-based California-born designer is known for some of the most controversial and envelope-pushing concepts in the fashion industry, with runway shows to suit. Yet Spring/Summer 2021 "PHLEGETHON" is another matter. The line, closely lensed by Owens himself, is a selection of repurposed pieces from the previous collections of Owens, accompanied by new designs and concepts. 

Channels E-Boys and Skaters in Confinement.

With Kering and LVMH announcing abysmal financial results, it follows that the coronavirus pandemic would strike their fellow luxury groups hard. Indeed, Prada Group reported a remarkable loss due to closures of the stores, declining travel and decreased wholesale, reporting a 40 percent fall in net sales, down to EUR 938 million (around US$ 1.1 billion). 

Unlike its rivals, Prada Group — which owns Prada, Miu Miu, and Church — fosters resilience during these difficult times, emphasizing diminished retail and buoyant e-commerce, which witnessed a 32 percent decline and "triple-digit sales growth during and after the lockdowns," respectively. The statement by the Company also highlighted its "disciplined approach" to cost control and efficient supply chain management as key factors to reduce losses, realized through lease renegotiation and a tightened marketing budget. 

In response to the outbreak, Prada closed 70 percent of its outlets, slicing wholesale by a whopping 71 percent, a drastic step from which the brand is only just beginning to recover. Unsurprisingly, the "whole Asia Pacific zone" has lifted Prada's fortunes as the country loosens its lockdowns, reportedly enjoying double-digit revenue growth in the month of June, the final month of the first half of 2020. Europe and Japan, too, are seeing a bounceback. 

"I'm incredibly proud of the dedication and sense of duty displayed by all our people in these circumstances," said Patrizio Bertelli, CEO of Prada Group, in a statement. "The first half of 2020 saw a temporary interruption of our growth trajectory which, in a situation of progressive pandemic management, we are sure will slowly resume as of the second half of 2020, when our store network will be completely operational again."

In other news, Adidas and Yohji Yamamoto have reunited for the second "YY EXCLUSIVE" launch following the debut of the sub-label last summer. The sub-label is distinct from Y-3, which mainly sees Yamamoto upgrading adidas classics, which is true for the latest collection of footwear and apparel.

The luxury house brought in less than a billion euros thus far in 2020.

CORONAVIRUS: PRADA REVENUE SUFFERED 40% DECLINE

Jenny Holzer and Avant Arte joined forces on new work, entitled URGE AND URGE AND URGE, consisting of condoms in a hand-blown recycled-glass pharmacy tank. The project has been created in conjunction with the New York City AIDS Memorial as part of a campaign raising awareness of the ongoing AIDS fight. Every gold, red, black and white condom wrapper features some of Holzer's iconic phrases such as "EXPIRING FOR LOVE IS BEAUTIFUL BUT STUPID," "PROTECT ME FROM WHAT I WANT," and "MEN DON'T PROTECT YOU ANYMORE." Others are printed with excerpts from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself.

A lot of the proceeds from the sale of URGE AND URGE AND URGE will support the New York City AIDS Museum, which offers shelter for those lost to AIDS to reflect and remember. The proceeds will fund educational and cultural activities, as well as continued memorial maintenance. A truck outfitted with LED screens will display animated texts by Holzer and Walt Whitman as it travels through historically significant sites in New York City today to mark the start of the research and to remember those lost to AIDS. 

"When I first met Jenny she had a Paul Thek book on the table and we spoke about his work," said Christian Luiten, Avant Arte's co-founder and creative director. "I hadn't known he was lost to AIDS like so many other artists. So when Jenny mentioned we're partnering with the New York City AIDS Memorial on this edition, it felt like a good chance to share some of those stories and also raise awareness to our community about the ongoing battle against HIV and AIDS.

Holzer is part of a generation of artists' feminist branch that emerged around 1980, searching for new ways to make narrative or criticism an implicit part of visual objects. During this time she had been an involved member of Colab. Other famous female contemporaries include Barbara Kruger, Sarah Charlesworth, Cindy Sherman and Louise Lawler.

In other news, Under the Maison/Objects line Rick Owens has created a flurry of diverse homewares. The designer is known for his sleek, brutalism-inspired furniture; with similar design aesthetics, he is now adding wares to his namesake.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit the New York City AIDS Memorial.

JENNY HOLZER RAISES AWARENESS OF FIGHT AGAINST AIDS

Marilyn Manson announced the release of a new album entitled We Are Chaos and a music video for its title track. The new project marks the 11th studio album Manson has released, a follow-up to his 2015 Heaven Upside Down.

We Are Chaos is a 10-track LP created by Shooter Jennings and provides a vivid preview of what kind of sound fans might expect. The song is set in a dreamy, nocturnal mid-tempo groove backed by vivid acoustic guitars and Manson's eerie vocals, clocking in at a little over the four-minute mark.  An artful music video filled with grim accompanying the album, eerie imagery that switches between surrealist motifs and Manson portraits. 

Manson gave a detailed account of the idea behind the album in a press release: "This concept album is the Shooter mirror, and I created it for the listener — it's the one we're not going to look at. There are so many rooms, wardrobes, safes and drawers. But the worst always are the mirrors in the psyche or the museum of memories. Shards and ghost slivers haunted my hands when I had written most of those songs. I had to think to myself, to make this record: 'Tame your crazy, stitch your suit.' And continue to say you're not an animal, but I knew that the worst of all of them is humanity. Mercy creation is like murder. Tears are the biggest production on the human body."

On September 11 Marilyn Manson's new LP We Are Chaos is set to release.

Marking the artist’s 11th studio album.

According to sources, Elon Musk noted that "Teslas are not affordable" during a recent conference call with investors. With the launch of Model 3, which starts at $37,990 USD, Musk has another idea to make his electric car and renewable energy business available to everyone. 

"It's about making the car affordable. The aspect that bugs me the most about where we are right now is that our cars are not affordable enough. We need to improve that, we need to get that fixed," he said. "We want to make the cars as affordable as possible and to optimize production." 

Musk's solution is to build the Tesla Model 2 which theoretically would be a lower-end vehicle developed and produced in Germany. Taking on the "hatchback of European style," the car will be a direct competitor to the lightweight hybrids that currently compete at the lower end of the price spectrum. Tesla recently opened a new Gigafactory in Germany, adding some validity to what Elon Musk said, and the production there will go after the European market the company had been seeking. 

Tesla is ranked as the best-selling plug-in and battery electric passenger car manufacturer in 2019 after having spent 11 years on the market, both as a company and by the automotive industry, with a market share of 17 percent of the plug-in segment and 23 percent of the electric battery segment. Tesla's global vehicle sales rose from 245,240 units in 2018 to 367,849 units in 2019 by 50 percent. In 2020, the company surpassed the one million mark of produced electric cars. The Model 3 ranks as the all-time best-selling plug-in electric car worldwide, with more than 500,000 supplied. 

On 1 July 2020, Tesla achieved a US$206 billion market capitalization, surpassing Toyota by market capitalization to become the world's most successful automaker.

In other news, Andre Courreges: architect, french air force pilot, and deputy of Balenciaga.

The “Model 2” could be designed and built in Germany at its new Gigafactory.

Marni faced criticism for its recently released flip-flop campaign, which featured a variety of black women in distressed ensembles amid a series of similarly controversial statements. 

Unleashed on the world through Instagram and spotted soon after by Diet Prada, the pictures depicted models wearing a series of 'ethnic' pieces like woven grass caps, chunky wooden Bayong necklaces and piles of bangles – none of which were part of the new collection of the Italian label. 

A model was pictured in a photograph - that has since been removed from Marni's IG page - with large chains close to her feet that, when you look very closely, looked like shackles. She had her skin decorated with clay patterns. 

And when you think that it couldn't get any worse, it does. Completing the whole thing off was an email send-out featuring a series of pictures finished with statements reading "Jungle mood," "Barefoot in the jungle," and "Tribal amulet" which are obviously intended to express the atmosphere and themes of the flip-flop campaign, but only serve to reinforce outdated racial and colonial stereotypes. 

Surprisingly, it was Afro-Brazilian photographer Edgar Azevedo who lensed the campaign art-directed by Brazilian-Italian Giovanni Bianco. In their own IG post Diet Prada put it: "Was anything lost in translation? More detail provided by the brand to clarify the vision and partnership with the photographer may have helped in this case, but it is needless to say that the damage was done when the marketing team agreed on those terms."

Marni has released a statement after deleting all signs of the advertisement from Instagram in which it apologizes for the hurt and offence caused by the advertisement, with Creative Director Francesco Risso also posting an acknowledgment on his personal IG page. Read the full statement from the company, and see the article from Risso below.

“What was intended to be a campaign that celebrated the beauty of the Afro-Brazilian culture through the lens of Brazilian photographer Edgar Azevedo had the opposite impact. Our oversights across the review process are unacceptable – and for that we are incredibly sorry.

The team at Marni is passionately committed to championing equity and celebrating the beauty of diverse cultures throughout the world. As we endeavor to create a more equitable world, through fashion and shared humanity, we sincerely regret that our efforts caused further pain. We have removed these images and we are redoubling our efforts to ensure our processes are carried out with thoughtfulness and intentionality through a strong equity lens. Our entire staff is committed to using this moment as an opportunity to leverage our platform to support and empower more voices and creators of color whose talent and insights are instrumental to creating a more inclusive and diverse fashion industry.”

Featuring problematic imagery and equally problematic messaging.

MARNI'S JUNGLE MOOD CAMPAIGN: IS IT RACIST?

Gucci's latest Fall/Winter 2020 season advertisement campaign discusses the concept of looking at something from a different perspective. Titled "The Routine," the photos show the Gucci models' everyday lives in the comfort of their own homes. The intimate photos and video clips, captured by the models themselves, represent a diverse cast of characters, offering a deeply personal, frank and authentic collection of self-portraits. 

Knitting, gardening, washing, jumping off a bed or skateboarding indoors are seen on the Gucci models. Such hyper-real photos show residents who are free to use their creativity to have fun and explore, being their own artists, storytellers, producers and scenographers. The playful campaign video, which evokes a powerful sense of freedom and joy, has been set to the song "Alright" by Supergrass. While the photos were recorded on a variety of devices ranging from disposable cameras to mobile phones, an emotional dreamlike quality was exuded during the visual experiment. 

"I wanted to let the clothes fly to the houses of cast models – the characters that have embodied my stories for years; I selected individuals specifically, over time, because of their individuality, which typically brings my campaigns to life," explained Creative Director Alessandro Michele. "I asked them to reflect their idea of themselves, to go public with it, to form the poetry that goes with them. I was encouraging them to play and improvise with their lives. 

"The unrealistic hyper-naturalism that I've always tried to convey comes out even more authentically and beautifully now," he says. "In fact, the overturning produces a paradoxical effect: the loosening of control created a narrative that seems to transcend my own capacity to construct fiction in strength. I am grateful for this creative experiment, because it has restored the power of my dream."

Take a closer look at the Fall/Winter 2020 campaign below.

In other news, Following his recent Spring/Summer 2021 showcase, Rick Owens unveiled a pair of white bondage-wrapped hi-tops. 

GUCCI'S FW20 CAMPAIGN: A DEEPLY PERSONAL SERIES OF SELF-PORTRAITS.

The Norwegian government has begun to tear down the Y-Block building in Oslo, Norway, featuring Pablo Picasso's massive murals. The government building had been damaged by the rightwing extremist Anders Breivik in the 2011 terrorist attack. The government announced plans in 2014 to relocate both of the concrete murals and to demolish the building itself as part of a massive rebuilding project. The decision has since caused an outcry on the part of preservationists, campaigners and politicians. Even the New York's Museum of Modern Art has joined the battle to save the murals, urging officials to "reconsider the demolition decision approval." 

The Norwegian government began deconstruction of the landmark Y Building on Monday. The 250-ton sandblasted façade design called The Fishermen and the 60-ton lobby piece called The Seagull were stored on site while the building was being torn down. In the new modern building, which is expected to be completed by 2025, those will be finally installed. As it's been noted by a representative of the Norwegian Directorate for Public Construction and Property, about five demonstrators protested against the demolition in person on Tuesday. 

Olso's School of Architecture and Design's professor of architectural history and theory Mari Hvattum, told Artnet News that demolition is "a massive mistake" and that "the relocation of Picasso's artworks will do nothing to rectify this mistake." Those who condemn the demolition of the building and the removal of the site-specific works believe that murals will not have the same significance if they are separated from the original environment. Those who support the demolition say it's for the site's safety, which is directly on top of a traffic tunnel.

*Back in February, officials from the Norwegian government approved the demolition of the Y-Block building in central Oslo featuring two murals by Pablo Picasso and the Norwegian artist Carl Neja. 

What happens to a mural when its context is destroyed?

PICASSO MURALS REMOVED FROM NORWEGIAN BUILDING AFTER YEARS-LONG DEBATE

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