Takay, The Japanese photographer, filmed models in Yohji Yamamoto classic uniforms, some with new design twists in an imaginary show with soft and jazzy music and occasional close-up displays to show the details of the signature looks: easily recognizable Yohji styles with the slouchy silhouettes and military uniform garments. 

At times the composition of the fabric is shown, informing the audience about the material of an oversize jacket or deconstructed coat. This time a light grey linen jacket with unbuttoned sleeves and partially opened from the shoulder, hanging loose from the body and black linen suits with faded pout paint print, which felt like a street graffiti washed out. A red long coat had an eyeball shaped 'eye' as buttons and Japanese characters lined numerous coat trims, perhaps indicating fashion's capacity for perception. 

In the end, Yohji himself appeared in a black pantsuit with the word Fragile embroidered in both Japanese and English suggesting our present situation.

The designer keeps his voice and his clothes always his own. 

One of the last time actress Carice van Houten graced our screens for many of us when her character Melisandre, aka the Red Woman, fell into a cloud of dust in the final Game of Thrones season. 

And when we got to see her again in full costume it was a real treat, although this time in the role of a fashion muse. Coinciding with the launch of the first-ever digital Haute Couture Week in Paris, Dutch designer Iris van Herpen has taped her into a new short film entitled Transmotion. 

Rather than making a whole collection, Herpen simply crafted one look and made it the centerpiece of the film. Like her GoT part, Houten portrays a powerful, ethereal character as she shows off the couture confection: a diaphanous bloom of white silk organza with undulated plissed layers, filament strands with black crystal seeds and black satin branches rising from the middle. 

The video and the dress of the same name are influenced by Dutch graphic artist Maurits Cornelis Escher's illusionary theme. "Birth, development and creation," Herpen told The New York Times. "I wanted to express, without being literal, the feeling of these last months and symbolize the new beginning of things." 

Though both women are living in Amsterdam, the two had never met before. In fact, Herpen had never even seen Game of Thrones, but only knew about the actress from the Black Book movie. "I once wore one of Iris' dresses on a Dutch Harper's Bazaar fashion shoot, and I recall thinking, oh man, that's something entirely different," Houten told the NYT. 

"I still feel like I am wearing clothes that have nothing to do with me when I do photoshoots for magazines," she said. "I love fashion but the design world is a bit frightening." 

She noted that her fellow GoT co-star Gwendoline Christie (who made many best-dressed lists from past red carpets in Iris van Herpen's designs) had already collaborated with the designer, making it "extra cool."

More fashion films will follow tonight apter 5 pm UTC, Rick Owens and Yohji Yamamoto's are among them. Stay tuned!

Thank God for Lady Melisandre in Iris van Herpen.

CARICE VAN HOUTEN STARS IN IRIS VAN HERPEN'S COUTURE FILM

"I was thinking of quirky ladies," Virginie Viard tells of her fall haute couture line for Chanel. In particular, Viard remembered Karl Lagerfeld heading off to parties with his sometime muse, the madcap Princess Diane de Beauvau-Craon, who as a teenage debutante got an American crewcut to give a kind of punk edge to the beautiful but detested pink dress her mother had chosen for her coming-out ball. "The dream for me is to live with her around," Lagerfeld said of de Beauvau-Craon when he spoke to Vogue ("The Country Girl," June 1990), "because life must never be flat. She offers a spirit of light and she is deeply spiritual." 

In an edited collection of 30 pieces, after the simplicity of the spring couture, influenced by Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel's schoolgirl uniforms at the Aubazine convent, Viard decided to swing back to quiet opulence for fall. Since the collection will be primarily seen via photography (Mikael Jansson shot the look book and haute couture customers will also receive a portfolio of more documentary and informative pictures), Viard was thinking of "things I would not do in a show — punk fashion, fine jewelry." Such Chanel haute bijoux include yellow diamond lions (Chanel herself was a Leo), and Viard mentions that "I love them".

In addition, the only costume jewelry used in the collection is the Goossens cabochon stones — the storied Parisian house whose creator Robert Goossens collaborated with Chanel in the late 1950s. Viard uses those classic, Byzantine-inspired jewels on a black and white tweed jacket as embroidery elements. Tweed figures big in the day and night collection: a knee-length tunic worn over boot-leg trousers, or a minidress with the classic Chanel braid trim reworked in rhinestones. There is more impressive trompe l'oeil in the allover Lesage embroidery of a lean jacket worn with an ankle-long skirt, or in the Emmanuelle Vernoux – embroidered sleeves of a decorous wool ball gown, or in the Montex sequin and wool tufts of an off-the-shoulder mini dress. Ten looks are designed using tweeds made from Vimar 1991 fantasy yarns, another luxury fashion supplier recently acquired by Chanel to add such magical names as the Lesage, Montex, and Cécile Henri embroiderers and plumassier Lemarié to its stable.

Viard is always keen to highlight the remarkable work of the great suppliers of Paris, but she does so with an elegance that actually seems ideal. 

The de Beauvau-Craon touch erupts in the form of a short frothy taffeta dress and faille ball tops, or a full-skirted retro cocktail dress of floral black and white lace spliced with lacquered pink lace — Viard calls it "my doll" — and in trendy feather mohawk bangs worn in the hair, and lace-up court shoes that would have been suitable for dancing the night away in the great '80s nightspots, such as Le Palace and Les Bain Douches. 

Yet Viard also offers elegant sophistication in items that include a sheath of inky faille with bishop sleeves or a formal evening gown of gray steel silk velvet, discreetly dusted with waist and cuff embroidery, and jackets often worn with all-in-one stocking pant boots. The looks are best characterized by Viard as "casual and grand," and this is a well-behaved couture that whispers but never cries out.

"Haute couture?" Viard's questions. "It is forever; it is for always."

Still waiting for Yohji Yamamoto and Rick Owens men's digital shows to be published later today on Paris Fashion Week official website.

Discover the look from the whole Chanel fall-winter 2020-2021 couture collection designed by the artistic director of the fashion house Virginie Viard and photographed by Mikael Jansson.

KARL LAGERFELD INSPIRES THE CHANEL FW2021 COUTURE COLLECTION

Adidas and Yohji Yamamoto‘s long-running Y-3 label is expected to present its FW20 footwear collection in the coming weeks, and one of the main pieces is a new style called the Hicho. A platform take on adidas Originals‘ iconic Campus, the Hicho serves as Y-3's court shoe for the autumn season, elevating a classical style both figuratively and literally for a completely innovative look. 

Y-3 has produced: a black/white, an all-white and an all-black, the last of which has yet to be announced. Each strips the Campus's blocky build derriere to its bare essentials by using ultra-soft leather on the entirety of the upper part, even the collar and sock liner. While the white pair is completely tonal save for the black Y-3 stamp on its lateral bottom, the black/white pair adds white stripes to its medial side for a burst of extra contrast that suits its white Y-3 hit. 

Midsoles connect two parts of rubber together, with a lift placed between the upper and the conventional Campus midsole. Such unrealistic proportions are ideally in line with Yamamoto's design ethos, and reinforce the Hicho's elegant construction even further. While “Hi-Cho” means “by fire” in Japanese, it's doubtful that the smoldering translation has anything to do with the effortless charm of either makeup's stylings. 

The adidas Y-3 Hicho will release at retailers like Sneakersnstuff on July 15, and is priced at $280 USD.

Since 1980s, Yamamoto has established a devoted global army of followers. His two lines Yohji Yamamoto and Y-3 are sold in high-end department stores worldwide and, in 2007, clocked sales of $100 million, according to the group. Costume d'Homme, Pour Homme and Regulation Yohji Yamamoto are three other lines of the designer.

Yamamoto has been honored for his contributions to fashion with various awards including the prestigious Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon and Chevalier of Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

An elevated take — literally and figuratively — on the classic Campus.

YOHJI YAMAMOTO: ADIDAS Y-3 PLATFORM-STYLE HICHO SILHOUETTE

Louis Vuitton has given a preview of its Pre-Spring 2021 Collection ahead of the digital appearance at the Paris Fashion Week. The collection designed by Virgil Abloh is based on his interpretations of nuance, which is presented as a way of "communicating core humanitarian values through poise, elegance and grace." Virgil Abloh and Louis Vuitton reflect, through nuance, "the core values of diversity, solidarity and inclusion." 

This view of nuance is expressed through the mixing of luxury fashion with references to everyday wear that is defined in the collection notes as the "re-appropriation of elitist codes into symbols of inclusiveness." Referring to the concept of day-to-day essentials, the range has an emphasis on cold-weather outerwear including a green gilet featuring a new circular floral monogram and a windbreaker covered in a leaf pattern that further nods to the practical theme through its camouflage-like feel. 

Certain items include workwear and pajamas-inspired tailoring — further blurring the boundaries between luxury and everyday — while an intarsia sweater is a reference to a classic cable knit, and a printed T-shirt includes instructions on how to knit it. 

As regards sneakers, Louis Vuitton will also introduce a new Pre-Spring 2021 sneaker style, featuring a semi-transparent and shock-absorbent heel. In addition, new Derby and Chelsea boots will be launched, along with archival runners made from suede and mesh. 

The collection can be previewed in the images above, with a complete lookbook set to arrive later this month. The Pre-Collection will be released between the 13th November and the 20th February in a series of drops. Louis Vuitton will also be unveiling its Spring/Summer 2021 collection separately from this collection with a digital presentation on the 10th July.

Yohji Yamamoto and Rick Owens digital shows will be held tomorrow, on the 10th of July, at 17h30 and 18h respectively. We will be able to see Lanvin show on the 13th at 10h and Dior Homme at 14h30 on the same day. Stay tuned! No invitations needed this time.

Representing “the core values of diversity, unity and inclusion.”

LOUIS VUITTON PREVIEWS PRE-SPRING 2021 COLLECTION

Porsche Design is now bringing its watchmaking expertise to the next level, offering watch and car enthusiasts a full customization process to design their very own watch from the ground up, aiming to encourage 911 owners to create watches that suit their cars. 

Based on the Chronotimer Series 1 brand, this process will allow you to tailor different parts of the watch to your taste, including custom-made dials and bezels, six various winding rotors to choose from, personalized engravings on the case back, and over 300 strap combination configurations. In all, Porsche Design claims the watch can have up to 1.5 million different configurations. 

"Actually no other carmaker or watch company is offering such a system. The colors, leather styles, and decorative stitches on these chronographs all come from the manufacture of automobiles," says Jan Becker, the CEO of Porsche Design Group. "We have come into a full circle: Ferdinand Alexander Porsche laid the foundation for the Porsche Design in 1972 with the Chronograph 1 after previously designing the Porsche 911 and now we are taking the next logical step and applying the principles of sports car engineering to the development of our Swiss-made wristwatches. The custom-built Porsche Design Timepieces system is making a dream come true for many 911 drivers. 

The new Custom-Built Timepieces system by Porsche Design is now working in Germany and will launch in the United States and U.K. markets later this year in September. You should head over to the company's website to read more about it.

Earlier this year, the Swiss luxury watchmaker Hublot teamed up with one of the most avant-garde Japanese fashion brands on the Big Bang GMT All Black Yohji Yamamoto, to mark the opening of a new Hublot flagship in Tokyo. The handmade Hublot-engineered watch is the latest in a series of bold, fine watchmaking collaborations under the Art of Fusion tagline, within which watches featuring leather from Ferrari seats and partnerships with athletes like Kylian Mbappé and Ursain Bolt have been featured.

Boasting 1.5 million different combinations.

PORSCHE DESIGN: BUILD YOUR OWN WATCH CUSTOM PROGRAM

Mono no conscious is a Japanese concept, which reflects the impermanence of events and the feeling of wistfulness as they pass. 

Even if the eyes are turned to the West, Japanese culture still remains in your heart. 

A culture that has been closed to the outside world for about two hundred and fifty years during which it consolidated and established itself without the possibility of impregnating it by foreign influences. 

Zen Buddhist traditions and Japanese culture's expression in wabi-sabi still flavor the cherry blossom, the tea ceremony, Japanese raku ware, floral arranging, as the world and outlook of Japanese designers. 

The Japanese people have difficulty in providing clear definitions when asked about different concepts in Japanese culture, unlike Western culture which catalogs all knowledge. 

To Japanese people, things never have only one meaning, so it's hard to explain them in Western languages based on another worldview. 

If Western culture sees the world as being composed of objects, Japanese Zen-Buddhist culture sees it as a flow, as interactions among processes consisting of experiences. This is a complex concept being difficult for our Western consciousness, which is accustomed to perceiving absolute objects. 

This kind of philosophy was suggested in the West by Heraclitus, a pre-Socratic philosopher who claimed Panta rhei (everything flows), but his idea was overlooked, and only gained renewed attention in contemporary times because of the theories of chaos and uncertainty. 

If we examine the meaning of wabi-sabi, of course, we can not find a simple definition; wabi-sabi is not taught by the Japanese through the intellect, but the intuition of the heart. 

We have to be satisfied with a sense of understanding, rather than theoretical analysis, that comes from examples and experiences. 

When we see Zen as a theory, then wabi-sabi is its action, while we should genuinely treat it as unified and inseparable. 

Theory and practice are one, interwoven into every action, thought, and behavior of a person. 

The state of dualistic comparison we are familiar with — theory-practice, body-soul, inner-outer, up-down — does not exist when you see the world arising from systems rather than being formed of elements, from universal experiences. 

The Middle Way, the Buddhist path, does not see a thing as existing but as being in existence. There is no fixed universe, just as there is no absolute I, it is all in a constant state of being. 

If we are in a state of constantly becoming, being born, growing old, withering and dying to reappear in a different form in the world, thus too in what we are doing.

The Buddhist does not seek absolute, perfect, permanent beauty, because there is no perfection in his world, but rather impermanent and changing. 

The experience of observing something is never reduced to an analysis of proportions, composition, colorfulness or form as independent elements which constitute an esthetic experience; the experience also includes the sense of the marks of time and the use of the object, the way we interact with it, our relationship with others of its kind and its relationship with the context in which it occurs. The whole of it is as much a spiritual experience as a sensory one. 

So, when Yamamoto says he's designing clothing, that doesn't mean reductive cutting and forming fabrics, but fellow travelers' work on life's journeys. We should not be content with the question of whether they are stunning in our eyes, but also if they are perfect for our hearts and whether we believe we can articulate any kind of reality with them. Wabi-sabi is the moment at which the essence of the garment is formed. 

Some may argue that wabi-sabi is the beauty of things that are incomplete, impermanent, unfinished, and they would be right, but what should be added immediately is that all is partial, impermanent, and defective according to this philosophy, for this is the nature of our universe. Even if at this moment anything seems great, it's in a process of shifting beyond its presence in this moment, and designers have to look out for its evolving nature. 

The fundamental confusion of wabi-sabi is the basic Western premise that absolute understanding exists and that everything can be defined is inapplicable to wabi-sabi understanding. Once this sense of elusiveness occurs, the universe is infringed and it comes to knowing that there is no knowing. 

Japanese design, the design of Yohji Yamamoto, and perhaps the design in general, should not and can not be defined and fully understood, and emotions should be given considerable room to present the opinion of what lies beyond appearance.

The Middle Way, the Buddhist path, does not see a thing as existing but as being in existence.

WABI-SABI, PANTA RHEI, ZEN-BUDDHISM AND YOHJI YAMAMOTO'S VISION

On July 15th, 1997, on the steps of his Miami Beach mansion, Gianni Versace was shot execution-style with a.40 caliber Taurus PT100 as he returned from a morning walk on Ocean Drive. He was later declared dead at Jackson Memorial Hospital, at 9:21 a.m. Versace was 50 at the time of his death. Normally he would have an assistant walk to get his morning press from his home to the coffee shop, but on this occasion, he wanted to go himself. 

Versace was killed by a serial murderer, Andrew Cunanan, who had killed four other people earlier (including real estate investor Lee Miglin). Cunanan committed suicide eight days after the murder of Versace, on a houseboat. 

Cunanan was obsessed with the designer and often boasted about his close "friendship" with Versace, although this was symptomatic of Cunanan's grandeur delusions: he often claimed to have met celebrities in a false manner. Nevertheless, FBI agents assume that Versace and Cunanan had previously met in San Francisco, but it is still a mystery what their relationship entailed. Maureen Orth published a 2008 article in Vanity Fair claiming that Cunanan and Versace had met briefly in 1990 (according to several eyewitness claims) at a San Francisco nightclub and may have communicated on other occasions because they were both interested in sex-for-hire circles in Miami and San Francisco. Yet the family of Versace has always steadfastly denied that the two had ever met. Investigators also said they don't know why Versace was murdered. "I suppose we will never know the answers," Miami Beach Chief of Police Richard Barreto said. 

Versace's body has been cremated, and his ashes returned to the family estate near Cernobbio, Italy, and were buried at Moltrasio cemetery near Lake Como in the family vault. About 2,000 people, including Elton John and Diana, Princess of Wales, who got killed in a car crash just over a month later, attended the funeral liturgy of Versace, held at the Milan Cathedral.

Designer Yohji Yamamoto is one of those people who survived an assassination attempt in Paris.

FBI agents assume that Versace and Cunanan (Versace's murderer) had previously met in San Francisco.

Marked by a discreet triangular sign above an inconspicuous metal entrance, the Balthazar wine bar in Kiev, Ukraine was conceived by local architecture studio Rina Lovko as a sublime chic dungeon that makes the most of its subterranean position in the basement of Besarabsky Market, an elegant, historic indoor bourse in the city center. Working closely with the art director of the bar, the Studio built an intensely immersive experience by filtering through a prism of mid-century nostalgia and contemporary finesse the century-old industrial history of the building. The outcome is a modern bar merging the age-old wine cellar's eerie ambiance with the allure of an exclusive speakeasy. 

Opened in 1912, Besarabka was the first roofed market in Kiev and an architectural example of early modernism, as the historic bourse is locally referred to, with the grandiose architecture of the building underpinning its functionality. For example, the two towers that adorned the central façade served as water storage and compressor units while the basement housed a powerful underground refrigeration plant. The factory, which at the time was considered a technical breakthrough, was demounted only a few years earlier, thereby freeing Balthazar's basement to move in. 

The unique premises of the bar in the basement of a century-old building posed the design team with both architectural and bureaucratic challenges, and stretched the renovation process to one year and a half. From the height of the arched construction, which required a half-meter lowering of the floor level — a laborious process of digging tons of soil and other materials at night so as not to interfere with the regular daily operations of the market — to the requirements to waterproof the brick walls and create adequate ventilation through the main entrance, the design team has cleverly resolved a number of problems. 

The digging processes brought to the surface part of the foundation of the building that the design team cleverly transformed into a banquet seating continuing through the length of the bar, a long space that also includes a high seating area, complete with a cozy bar counter, intimate wall-mounted tables, and a lounge furnished with mid-century vintage armchairs and sofas restored by the designers. 

The overall aesthetic of the bar combines the gritty, industrial heritage of the building with a sensitivity of mid-century sophistication, underpinned by an earthy color palette of browns and greens, and mellowed by an intimate lighting design that favors soft accents of warm illumination by Ukrainian designer Vasily Grublyak's custom design lamps. 

Exposed brickwork, left intact or painted olive-green, cement floor tiles and metal furnishings, including the formidable entrance door that has been deliberately rusted and graffitied, are complemented by the use of wood from old wine barrels for entrance steps and a traditional table, while glazed, green-tinted Soviet tiles on the bar counter, walnut veneer covering the tabletops and sumptuous leather and velvet upholstery add a sense of refinement and sophistication. In the end, it is these fine-tuned juxtapositions of materials and textures that encapsulate the seductive combination of poised sophistication and brooding mystery in the bar.

Try to imagine how Yohji Yamamoto or Rick Owens designed restaurants could look like. Share your ideas with us. Possible, we are going to see one of the above by the end of the next year.

A minimalist wine bar has opened its door under the historic Besarabsky Market in Kiev.

The governing body of French fashion, Fédération française de la couture, has now announced its official schedule for Men's Spring/Summer 2021 Paris Fashion Week, which will take place July 9-13. 

Set to be supported Launchmetrics, Google, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Hylink in China, the event will serve as a digital take on the annual fashion celebration. Labels on the official calendar will offer video presentations which be viewed again after the initial broadcast. 

The Institut Français de la Mode fashion school will plan interviews, making-of clips and zoom meetings with participating brands and designers, cultural bodies, media companies and others. There will also be meetings, concerts and cultural events from experts and official partners such as DEFI, L'Oréal Paris and DS Automobiles. 

In addition, Sphère, a showroom devoted to young brands, will be held online, France's Canal+ Group will act as a channel for events, The New York Times will broadcast videos and Radio Nova will animate editorial material and events. The cultural institutions taking part in this fashion week include the Louvre Museum, the Palais de Tokyo, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Musée de la Style de la Ville de Paris and the Théâtre du Châtelet. 

Catch the official schedule for men's SS21 Paris Fashion Week on the website of the Fédération française de la couture. It is interesting to note that the Paris Fashion Week Women's SS21 will see physical shows with sufficient social distance, supplemented by a digital network, which will be held September 28 - October 6.

P.S. Yohji Yamamoto and Rick Owens digital shows will be held on the 10th of July at 17h30 and 18h respectively. Rhude and White Mountaineering on the 12th at 18h and 19h, we will be able to seer Lanvin show on the 13th at 10h and Dior Homme at 14h30 on the same day. Stay tuned! No invitations needed this time.

PARIS FASHION WEEK MEN'S SS21: OFFICIAL SCHEDULE

Alessandro Michele is always interested in shifting our point of view – to challenge, provoke and play. His F/W 2020 Gucci show put the backstage center stage – the make-up was front-of-house, while in Michele's words a transparent scrim revealed the process of dressing up the models, "making the heartbeats visible". It also unexpectedly made their entrance to the catwalk become not the beginning of a dream for the viewer, but its culmination, upward fashion norms, attitudes and aspirations. Turning the tables. It also played out to the words of another great Italian showman, Federico Fellini. 

Michele decided to continue doing so for his latest Gucci campaign in the fall / winter of 2020. Instead of the obsessive authorship of a figure like Fellini – in which Michele freely admits he usually reveals – he surrendered control to a group of characters from his show, encouraging them to develop a series of intimate self-portraits that decontextualize Gucci in everyday life, Michele's ideas have always been fascinating. There were no hair stylists or MUA, not even photographers. Michele decided on this "experiment" (his word) back when the process of shooting conventional fashion imagery was impossible in the planning of that spectacular February show-and before the Covid-19 pandemic. He called the "Routines" movement - and it honors daily rituals-dressing, living. Rituals that were interrupted, somehow. 

"It's so weird, because it's just that this weird time has given me the chance to experiment, to do something I really wanted to do. It never was the right moment. Before the lockdown forced everyone into this kind of situation, there was some sort of a strange creation at the last show in Milan. I thought [for the campaign] maybe we've got to work the same way, changing the perspective the way I did for the show."

"Now, when I see the campaign's images, it is like this is the only way I could work. But the reality is that during that work in Milan, on the show, I began the campaign. Since I was likewise thought, working from a different viewpoint to uncover the secret aspect of the work, I tried to imagine what would happen if we, as I really wanted to do for a long time, changed the perspective of the campaign to work in a different way?"

"I wanted to stop being the obsessive image director. In my imagination, the models were actors: I work it as a director. I thought, What if I do what Andy Warhol did? I want to see what happens if, before the experiment, my imagination is just the job I can plan? I was trying to change the point of view and then I was trying to get inside my guys' lives. I didn't just use them as models but also as characters. I wanted them to be their own Manager."

Designers such as Hedi Slimane, Boris Bidjan Saberi, Rick Owens, Alexander Wang or Yohji Yamamoto have crucially changed their approach toward seasoning and fashion business, in general, this year. Let's see how the fashion of 2021 will look like, stay tuned!

Alessandro Michele speaks about the concepts and process behind Gucci’s Autumn/Winter 2020 campaign, his ideas of creativity and his thoughts on the moment.

ALESSANDRO MICHELE: GUCCI’S LAST CAMPAIGN AND CREATIVITY

The Museum of Costume and Design, at the Pitti Palace in Florence last year, has set up an impressive zoo of peculiarities. Bejeweled insects have been trapped in Plexiglas handbags, herbariums and cabinets at the Animalia Fashion show, which featured extensive plant sketches alongside preserved butterflies and golden caterpillar coat pins. Fish and parrots posed behind feathered frocks and scaled coats. The connotations were endless: hedgehog hats and butterfly tops, coral sandals and shell corsets. This beautiful juxtaposition of contemporary fashion pieces created between 2000 and 2018 filled a total of eighteen spaces, sharing the spotlight with the zoological inspiration behind them. Animalia Fashion was a shocking and evocative installation where the museum of natural history meets the showroom of fashion-forward. 

Clothing, accessories, shoes and jewelry from fashion houses such as Margiela, Schiaparelli, Christian Dior, Balmain, Chopard, Yohji Yamamoto or Rick Owens were engaged in an ongoing conversation with actual stuffed animals and formaldehyde snakes from the Museo di Storia Naturale La Specola in Florence, spiders from the Associazione Italiana di Aracnologia, classical paintings and other pieces loaned from the Museo di Storia Naturale La Specola in Florence. With a section devoted to spiders, the show would lead us through swans, shells, hedgehogs, fish, corals, parrots, snakes, beetles, flies, bees and crocodiles, to end up with butterflies, creating a bestiary vestiaire that would confront us with the real, raw architecture behind nature. 

This was a remedy carefully set up to elicit thought art, in its purest form, the way of learning and being familiar with what we want to learn more about, so that we can either subconsciously identify with it or reject it. Fashion is a form of art. Try to think of leopard prints and zebra stripes as of the imaginative designs of nature. Prehistoric men in lion's manes did not cover their bodies for the sole purpose of staying dry. In a spiritual sense, they had to develop a kinship with the essence of the beast, its strength and fearlessness. Our aesthetics flourished as we grew up out of the forest and into the suburbs, and our appreciation of the living world around us was one of our many conquests. The mane of the lion has now been replaced by subtractive representations of the patterns of nature and technology has re-examined our sphere of influence within the kingdom of the animals. However, we're still beasts with animal instincts and fashion still has the power to engage us in a new identification game with our habitat. 

While being amusing and poetic, the show still simultaneously aims to sound an alarm at a time when climate changes, along with our increasingly diminishing interest in environmental issues. Art can raise significant questions, and eventually, haute couture should have the power to give nature far more than it has earned in return: genuinely interacting with our world and the living beings with whom we share it today can become a profoundly political act.

An unexpected encounter between Haute Couture and Nature at Pitti Palace to discover the wonders of the animal world!

ANIMALIA FASHION: WILD THINGS MEET HAUTE COUTURE

The May 2020 issue of Numéro returns to the 2017 exhibition Nobuyoshi Araki x Saint Laurent held in the now-closed Colette store in Paris. In the photos, the top model Anja Rubik, a Vaccarello's muse, is wearing Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello. The designer created 16 one-off pieces that were sold at Colette to mark the collaboration. The photographs are showcasing the vivid, sensual theme of the SL house. 

Nobuyoshi Araki is one of the most famous Japanese photographers and contemporary artists known by the mononym Arākī. More than 500 of his books have been published, mainly known for photography which blends eroticism and bondage in the context of fine art. 

Araki photographed Saskia de Brauw and Sung Jin Park in Tokyo for the 2015 spring/summer campaign commissioned by Italian luxury label Bottega Veneta.

Araki is famous for his bizarre access to models. He bragged, when asked about this in 2011, that he acquires access to them via sex. Kaori, a model who posed for Araki between 2001 and 2016, wrote a long post about her relationship with Araki in April 2018, in which she accused him of financial and artistic abuse. Kaori claimed that "she worked without a contract, was required to take part in intimate shootings in front of strangers, was not paid properly, and that her nude photos were often used without her permission." In 2017, when she demanded that he quit republishing or displaying any of her pictures, Araki wrote to Kaori advising she had no rights. She stated the incident has led her to psychological stress and nervous breakdown and added that she got motivated to speak out by the #metoo campaign. The allegations had raised concerns about a photographer's power dynamics with his subject. The activist group Angry Asian Girls Association has protested the launch of an exhibition of photos by Araki at C/O Berlin in December 2018 to raise awareness of Kaori's claims.

We were wondering why there has never been a collaboration between Nobuyoshi Araki and Yohji Yamamoto considering that both are number one artists in Japan (in two different industries), their work seems coherent and both masters are almost of the same age.

Anja Rubik, a Vaccarello's muse, wearing Saint Laurent for Nobuyoshi Araki shoot.

ANJA RUBIK BY NOBUYOSHI ARAKI FOR SAINT LAURENT CAMPAIGN

TTSWTRS are the provocative yet elegant Eastern-European brand creating clothing based on a wearable skin idea. Driven by the fascination with body modification in our society, TTSWTRS is designed to adorn your body with new, informative "skin." Their garments elevate our expression through design to an artistic level while remaining fully functional with a conceptual approach that is truly theirs. Each product, headed by the Ukrainian designer Anna Osmekhina, boasts artfully detailed design and a technically innovative approach to the construction of garments. 

The brand was founded in 2013 by Anna Osmekhina, a stylist and costume designer. Basic clothing with tattoos in nude and black colors – distinguishing feature by which TTSWTRS is known all over the world, mostly producing dresses, hoodies, trench coats, silk coats and scarves, mesh bodysuits, tops, and corsets. 

Drawings are being applied to the garments by printing and via embroidery. All the elements are anatomically arranged with precision. TTSTWRS has its own factory and printing workshop in Kiev which enables high quality control of the items. Creative TTSWTRS laboratory consists of 45 unique people with broad experiences in media and theater projects, music videos, and show productions. 

The first TTSWTRS collection was sold out in Colette within the one week only. The brand commenced sales in Japan from their second collection. Now TTSWTRS can be found in the US, Japan, South Korea , Hong Kong, China, UK, Austria, Russia, Ukraine, Spain, and Italy stores. 

All tattoos are created in collaboration with world-renowned and recognized tattoo artists. TTSWTRS has collaborated with ten masters for five years, each working in his own unique technique. Dark graphic works by the Belarusian artist @ien_levin, cartoon art works by the Korean artist @hugotattooer, tender and sensual drawings by @nesheva_ulyana and minimalist tattoo by @tattoo_sinyak are often being organically interwoven in the design of the TTSWTRS.

This is not the first case when designers are applying soviet tattoos or soviet prison tattoos on garments. Let's wait until Yohji Yamamoto will start utilizing Yakuza tattoos as a source of fascination for his brand followers. The high degree of secrecy surrounding the Japanese tattoos, coupled with the painful "hand-poking" process of the designs and the connection with the Japanese underworld, gives a mysterious appeal to yakuza tattoo Art.

Emerging Ukraine-based brand TTSWTRS has released a new clothing line featuring ink-like graphics for their Spring/Summer 2020 collection.

Aldous Huxley's novel The Doors of Perception has been published in 1954, it elaborates on his psychedelic experience of May 1953, under the influence of mescaline. Huxley recalls the experiences he encountered, ranging from "purely visual" to "sacramental vision," and focuses on the philosophical and psychological ramifications of these insights. He wrote Heaven and Hell in 1956, yet another essay that further elaborates on these reflections. The two pieces have since often been published together as one book.

For its assessment of psychedelic drugs as facilitators of spiritual understanding, the Doors of Perception provoked strong reactions with great potential benefits for science, art, and religion. While many consider the argument to be compelling, others including writer Thomas Mann, Vedantic monk Swami Prabhavananda, philosopher Martin Buber, and scholar Robert Charles Zaehner counterposed the subjective effects of mescaline and stated that those effects should not be conflated with empirical religious mysticism. Huxley himself continued taking psychedelics until his death and adjusted his views, which also influenced his final novel Island, published in 1962. 

William Blake, who influenced the title and writing style of the novel, was an influential English intellectual, mostly notable for his poetry and painting. Originally, The Doors of Perception was a metaphor written by Blake, used in his novel The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, written in London in 1790. The metaphor was used to reflect Blake's feelings about mankind's limited perception of the surrounding reality; "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.”

Huxley continued to take psychedelic drugs numerous times a year until his death, but with a cautious and temperate attitude. He would refuse to talk about the substances outside of scientific meetings, denied an offer to talk about them on television, and rejected the leadership of a foundation dedicated to studying psychedelics, claiming that they were only one of his diverse interests. 

The Doors of Perception novel has influenced Jim Morrison to name his band in 1965.

Various fashion designers, including Yohji Yamamoto and Rick Owens have had references to Aldous Huxley's Doors of Perception in their previous collections. Can you remember (without googling) or try to guess which ones exactly and don't hesitate to let us know.

Blake had a resounding impact on Huxley, he shared many of Blake's earlier revelations and interests in art and literature.

THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION: WHAT DID HUXLEY SEE IN MESCALINE?

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