This season Owens showed outside of Paris for the first time in forever. It was a presentation that was “reductive,” as he put it, in at least two senses. His “skeleton” crew of around 20 colleagues and 20-ish models showed a livestreamed collection in part as pragmatic negotiation with life in the times of coronavirus: “It feels like we are able to orchestrate something with fewer instruments.”

As he said in an outtake of the filmed interview: “There is a reclusiveness, an isolation that I’ve found here that appeals to me. The beach never becomes crowded. I’ve had the same cabana for the past 10 years…and I go every morning with my coffee and I have my computer and I just work there all day. I jump in the sea and then I work and then I jump the sea.… And that’s my summer. And in recent circumstances I’ve stayed here even more: Paris has been a little bit difficult. And I decided to really buckle down and stay in Italy and kind of focus and be with the factory more…the minute the factory was able to reopen, I came right away.”That factory is in Concordia, Modena, around a three-hour drive from here—and where Owens also has an apartment (plus an Owenscorp cafeteria) to base himself in during periods of sustained focus on production. For this show, though, Owens had his team make the short hop back to the Lido to present his collection against the rationalist architecture of its Palazzo del Casinò. Aesthetically, this building’s facade is a Venetian cousin of the Palais de Tokyo, Owens’s usual Parisian venue (which was this season snapped up in his absence by Chloé). Unlike the Palais de Tokyo, the Casinò, a little like Owens himself, is a structure whose monumentally imposing exterior—“graphic severity,” as he puts it—belies an interior marked by humor and abundance: “I didn’t realize it was going to be so extravagant. There’s murals and there’s crazy Murano chandeliers, and the proportions are extreme…”

All of the fittings and last-minute prep work took place about 100 meters down the road, in the Hotel Excelsior. This is where Owens first stayed when he became a regular here. Even now, settled as he is in his nearby apartment, he maintains that Excelsior-operated cabana (which is one among hundreds being dismantled along the beach to mark the very end of summer). Built in 1908, the Excelsior is a Moorish fantasy whose starting point was the true Venetian articulations of that Arabian style, including most famously of all the Doge’s Palace: This more-ish update was built as a Disney-fied pleasure palace for the sybarites of the early 20th century. “Its legend has always captivated me,” said Owens, who cited Nijinsky dancing on the beach here as one favorite point of reference. Today both the Lido and the Excelsior are famed for playing host to the Venice Film Festival, but outside of season and festival time the hotel and its surroundings are quiet. The beachside restaurant where Owens flexes his Italian is the only one open, and only remains so because he asked its owners to keep his team in victuals during the run-up to the show.

Reference-wise, the Lido is probably best known for its key role in Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice. “It always struck a chord with me,” said Owens, who added that the book (and film) “is one of the reasons that I moved to the Lido.” Owens added: “Here’s this ascetic creator who retreats to the Lido because he’s got writer’s block. He sees a youth and he is inspired and euphoric. And then gradually, that turns into some kind of obsession…. But I think the part that resonates with me is the part about aging, and that’s a big part of the storyline. [He’s] recognizing a moment in this youth that he misses, that he misses deeply and profoundly, and maybe which he never even experienced. And he’s seeing that this golden moment is out of reach, and that he’ll never ever experience or capture it, and it turns into a degrading experience. So you have this full arc of euphoria and inspiration and stimulation that gradually corrupts until it becomes this torture.”

Parts of the beach—the beach where Mann’s Aschenbach fulfills the novel’s title—seem to be constituted entirely of dead shells. They crunch underfoot. The water is flat and limpid, and there is no visible line of horizon where it meets the sky. The air is salty, even a little dank, and seagulls bicker as diggers trundle up and down dismantling cabanas. In Death in Venice Mann describes “the limbo between creation and decay,” and his description of why Aschenbach is so drawn to this place could as easily be projected onto Owens. As Mann puts it: “His love of the sea had profound roots: the hardworking artist’s desire to rest, his longing to get away from the demanding diversity of phenomena and take shelter in the bosom of simplicity and immensity; a forbidden penchant that was entirely antithetical to his mission and, for that very reason, seductive—a proclivity for the unorganized, the immeasurable, the eternal: for nothingness.”

Of nothingness, Owens observed: “I’m not one of the pessimists who thinks that we’re going to destroy the planet. I feel like it’s going to evolve into something else, and I think it would be arrogant of us to think that we have that power…I think death is part of all of our lives and everything needs to evolve into something else. Anyway, that’s my fatalistic attitude.”

The show started five minutes after its advertised start time. The models each had two changes, which saw them becoming gradually more clothed: There is no way that Owens’s “wader” boots, platformed thigh-highs presented as a coping mechanism for the Phlegethon (river to hell) after which the collection is named, can be changed mid-livestream. Michèle Lamy watched on as Tyrone Dylan Susman and the rest of this pared-down team worked through the rack, replenishing the looks as the models returned from their fierce circuits of the piazza. Behind the rope, that straggle of spectators included an elderly couple in pastel puffa jackets, with a poodle: Owens later said they are his downstairs neighbors. Lights pulsed from inside the palace. A drone moaned above. Judd’s mix built and built to the crescendo it would never reach.

“During quarantine,” said Owens: “I noticed that speaking to a lot of friends, a lot of relationships had evolved. Our relationships with loved ones deepened, and relationships that were inessential kind of fell away. Everybody was able to have a minute to define what was most important to them, which was maybe a silver lining to that cloud.”

“Italy Is Where I Create, and Paris Is Where I Am Judged”

Rick Owens chose to be close to his other home – not the Paris home near the Assemblée Nationale but his second home in Venice to stage a live-stream fashion show with no audience in an area known locally as Lido di Venezia, which is a barrier island in the Venetian lagoon in the piazza in front of the Lido Casino, a rationalist palazzo built in the 1930s where, as the designer said, he “walked by and worshipped everyday on my way to the beach.” Lido di Venezia as Owens reminded us is also the site of Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice about a writer’s obsession with a youth, and about death during the cholera epidemic.  

Located about two hours from the Italian factory that has produced Owens’ collections since the very beginning, this majestic Venetian piazza allowed him to assemble his team from the factory to make a live streaming show that he characterized as “cozy, truthful and spectacular all at once.”  

The smoke machines were still there although much smaller in scale on both sides of the Lido casino, spurning out white smoke like a giant incense burner at the entrance of a Buddhist temple, whose marble frontage and piazza gave a familiar air to the outside of the Palais de Tokyo where all the recent Owens show took place. At first glance at the live stream, it felt like coming back home in a strange way where distance and closeness were just relative, not physical descriptions. 

From a far-off camera angle from above giving the audience a panoramic perspective of the entire spacious area of this piazza, empty of people, the small shadows of the models walking and wearing a black one-shoulder micro dress and black thigh-high boots, a pink strapless chiffon dress, and high blood-red boots, or the lean long black sleeveless jacket and of course high-heeled boots gave the comfort of continuity and the sense of command at this exceptional Owens show, not only for actually staging the show in his own way by not relegating the sense of giving the clothes a backdrop of a citadel but also by the uniqueness of the clothes. Owens’ stage ‘construction’ now barren is always central to his fashion vocabulary that filters into every product under his brand name whether they are men’s and women’s apparel, footwear, or his large range of furniture designs.  

One remembers a Rick Owens signature shape or garment or that a certain image of an Owens boot that sticks around in our mind simply because of this educational process that is his fashion shows. Here in Venice, the new conversation for spring started where the last sentence ended last February.

Unfortunately, the dialogue was interrupted by one season. This past July the men’s show could not have taken place due to the lockdown and pandemic; in lieu, the audience saw a black and white ‘video-film’ made like a surveillance taping with several camera angles showing the same actions from different sides where the professor-designer performed a series of fittings at his studio with one model. It was like an instructional manual on how to assemble a complete look. But this women’s show shared the same title ‘Phlegethon’ which is the name of the fire river in Greek mythology, or in Owens’ own words: “one of the rivers in the inferno described in Dante’s Divine Comedy, not quite the center of hell but on the way there.”

“My last fall runway shoulder freak-out wasn’t about power, it was about defiance – defiance in the face of threat. Black grain de Poudre tailoring is oversize with sleeves ripped off of hulking shoulders … straps allow the wearer to strip jackets off and cinch around waists as a beach bustle … satin rib waist bombers that have that are an exaggerated middle finger to doom,” Owens explained regarding how the new sleeveless jackets in this show came about. These sleeveless silhouettes came in the form of a white two-button narrow lapel single-breasted long coat with the shoulder pads hanging out of one side of the sleeve holes, a black long coat with satin bow waist tie, or as a white leather biker where the shoulders have been replaced with giant protruding shoulders wrapped in white cable knits. A black sheer organza over-the-head vest worn over a white cotton tank or the sheer black chiffon zippered coat both seemed to be just mere shadows of those bulky Fall 2020 heavy pagoda-shoulder-shaped jackets. Perhaps these shadows may completely disappear next season and reemerge several years from now. 

The tailoring works performed on these jackets and coats are extremely detailed in their sophisticated maneuvers. Here are two examples of expert tailoring – the structure of the black cropped one-button midriff sleeveless jacket was so rigidly secured, and the curvatures of the black gabardine wool falling from the top of the shoulder blades.

The soft chiffon in pink and long black wool cape with a front shape that curved around the side of the body to the back and the cape ended just slightly above the cement floor so that it seemed like it was floating. The thigh-high platform boots should be considered more as a garment here than an accessory. 

Look closely and there are plenty of great clothes to wear as well like those short knit dresses in light grey and pink, or even those hot shorts with huge white cotton outsized pockets or the long pink cotton side-slit dress, or a red/orange cutout caped shirt. Just don’t let the thigh-high platform boots intimidate you. Furthermore, these dresses are both sexy and a bit, well, maybe romantic, not really adjectives to describe Owens’ clothes. Those fishnets tank dresses were reincarnations of similar versions from the fall 2012 collection. And Owens does leather like no one else – here in a white all-around front-zipper coat, white ‘dashboard’ front cape or red sleeveless blouson vest. Some of the paillettes on the black denim shorts are made from recycled plastic. The clothes shown here in Venice are both consistent signatures and they are also new.

Those who caught the live stream show today were treated to a special remix by Jeff Judd of Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ which would be different if they were to catch a replay on YouTube afterwards. “This song has always been a reassuring and stabilizing anthem for me but here it gets as dark and delirious as falling into a K-Hole, fitting this moment perfectly. Copyright restrictions did not allow me to post it on YouTube so I had to post a substitute version, but Donna went hard for the live show at the Lido,” as Owens explained the different sound between the two moments. I never thought I could quote any designer using the word K-Hole but hey, it really is the right word to use for this moment of multiple and seemingly unending crises. 

At Rick Owens, fashion is a continuous dialogue – one season flows into the next, one experiment perhaps repeats again in a new way, one garment from the past remade anew, or one mistake in a previous year’s show now corrected.

REVIEW OF RICK OWENS SPRING 2021 FASHION SHOW

High Risk editorial for Glassbook Magazine Styled by              Barbara Constantin 

ΥΨΗΛΟΥ ΚΙΝΔΥΝΟΥ:    HIGH-RISK ❌ GLASSBOOK MAGAZINE 

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

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

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.

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

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

Photographed in St. Tropez on the southern coast of France by artistic director Hedi Slimane, the campaign highlights the Celine house's latest Plein Soleil collection. The young model offers an effortlessly cool energy coupled with a natural beauty that fits perfectly with the last days of summer feeling. Slimane captures her in his black-and-white signature style, seeking a sense of soft harmony between his subject and the surrounding wildflowers and trees. 

Though understated and softly stunning, the campaign forms a significant moment for Celine. Recently, Hedi Slimane faced criticism and accusations of racism, and his personal instagram account – which consists of his creative work and does not feature a single non-white person – was pointed out as clear evidence. Celine's account is faring a little better. Especially in the reign of the Black Lives Matter movement, concerns were raised about whether there was no deep tension between what Celine values as a brand, and who its creative director is as an individual and artist. 

This campaign is only a beginning to rectifying those issues, but it is a beautiful one. The presence of black models and other people of color should be a norm, not something that needs to be celebrated, so it's awesome to see these Mombot images so naturally and beautifully integrated into Celine's existing aesthetics. She's a young model and a fresh face – this is her first big campaign, and it appears to be one of her best ever ads – and Celine has helped her make a beautiful first impression. We are superexcited to see where her career is heading, and hoping to see more progress from Celine.

Essoye Mombot stars in a new campaign from Celine.

CELINE FALL 2020 AD CAMPAIGN WITH ESSOYE MOMBOT

Mercedes-Benz today revealed it is partnering with multi-hyphenate artist Virgil Abloh to produce a special piece of artwork. 

The artwork, named Project Geländewagen, would modify and reinterpret the G-Class SUV from the German carmaker, a rugged off-road vehicle with a distinctive boxy profile that was first unveiled in 1979. It draws on the Mercedes-Benz brand's hallmarks: luxurious fabrics, excellent craftsmanship and highly evolved design; and seeks to offer a fresh concept of luxury, identified by exchanging ideas and disciplines. 

In the preview announcement, Abloh calls the project "a great chassis to interject the ideas of contemporary artists on what the future can be in terms of style, within conceptual car design."

Mercedes-Benz chief design officer Gorden Wagener, echoing Abloh's passion for creative experimentation, says they're "set to create something unseen" in car design, fashion and art. The project articulates the role of Mercedes-Benz as 'more than a luxury carmaker, it is a symbol of quality and a luxury label."

On 8 September 2020, at 4pm CET, Project Geländewagen will be announced online to a global audience on mercedes-benz.com. 

Recognizing a responsibility to help the arts and the international artistic culture in a time of turmoil, Mercedes-Benz and Abloh decided to auction off a home-scale version of their original artwork after the launch case, with all proceeds donated to a charity that supports the arts. The Auction winner will also receive a personal introduction to Abloh and Wagener, to learn more about the artwork's inspirations and intentions. 

The full story on Project Geländewagen, with exclusive preview images, will be released on Cruvoir newsstands from 20 August.

Most of the shoes were kept clean, with white rubberized tape swaddled sporadically. Although much of the shoe is covered up, parts of the high-top outlines of the silhouette, such as the heel, laces, and rubber toecap, can still be seen. Sitting next to two small vent holes, providing easy access, contrasting silver-toned zippers can be found along the medial sides. Completing the minimal feel, the midsole of the shoe is also lined, finished at the heel with three jagged staples. 

Creating a unique artwork inspired by the G-Class automotive.

PROJECT GELÄNDEWAGEN: VIRGIL ABLOH X MERCEDES-BENZ COLLABORATION

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