On May 13th, will be inaugurated at Palazzo Mora’s the first exhibition, for the Venice Art Biennale, by Ariela Wertheimer, curated by the Farkash Gallery in Tel Aviv. The exhibition will run until November 26th and it’s titled Jaffa Venice light boxes: it shows various works by the Israeli artist which uses different techniques and materials, always relying on the light – shadow theme, introducing us in an innovative and unique way with works and portraits in light boxes.
The significance of the exhibition is a long reflection on the meaning of our lives: everyone has a story, is a character trapped in a small or large prison, from past to the present, and the purpose, for the art of Wertheimer, is to look for a wider sense of living. Born into a prominent family in Israel, the artist began her career in the medical field, and for twelve years she was in the armed forces: a living environment where she took the inspiration and creative techniques for her artistic talent. Mother of five children, when she’s not devoted to art, she volunteering plays in the oncology department at the Rambam Hospital in Haifa. Wertheimer began to exhibit in groups since 1997. The exhibition in Venice is hosted by the European Cultural Center.
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Month: April 2017
FARFETCH AND GUCCI: STORE TO DOOR IN 90 MINUTES
Farfetch inaugurates an exclusive partnership with Gucci to launch Store to Door in 90 minutes and reveals some details about their Store of the Future concept. This partnership will allow customers to shop from a range of Gucci pieces via the Farfetch website and app, and receive their orders in just 90 minutes. The Store to Door in 90 Minutes service will fulfil orders directly from select Gucci stores in the following 10 global cities, across 4 continents: London, New York, Dubai, Los Angeles, Madrid, Miami, Milan, Paris, Sao Paulo and Tokyo. The Store of the Future concept at FarfetchOS, a conference organised for luxury brands and retailers, is presented by Huawei. This idea of the commerce is the final piece in Farfetch’s augmented retail vision to link the online and offline worlds, by using data to enhance the customer journey and drive personalised customer experiences. Store of the Future will tailor technology solutions to each brand, each city and each store, humanising the retail experience, delivering personalisation to customers and empowering the store staff. A BETA version of Store of the Future will be shown at the conference, demonstrating how technology can deliver a significant competitive advantage to retailers and brands. Later this year SOF technologies will be launched in Browns, as well as the flagship Thom Browne store in New York.
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farfetch.com
gucci.com
Art Meets Fashion at Basel Hong Kong
Established 5 years ago, Art Basel Hong Kong, the youngest fair under the Basel banner, has definitely grown up. The increased selection of participating galleries as well as more sophisticated artworks on show drew nearly early 80,000 visitors this time. Exhibition openings and parties were packed with jetsetters from all over the world, which flew in to join the ceaseless roller coaster of social events. Significant sales with a strong response from Asian collectors, including those from Korea, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Japan, secured Hong Kong Art Basel position as a powerful outpost on the global art stage.
With a history steeped in trade, and no artistic heritage, it’s hard to imagine a place more hard-wired for commerce than Hong Kong. And while the fair it’s building up its reputation within the conservative art world, the identity of the Hong Kong art scene it’s more and more connected with fashion. This boundary less creative flow is perhaps what makes Art Basel Hong Kong unique, differentiating it from the other art fairs. The action of luxury brands and retailers goes behind simple merchandizing, and aims to give to the public a real insight into the creative world of fashion designers, while creating a real crossover between the two fields.
In this context Joyce Boutique‘s flagship store on Queen’s Road Central gave carte blanche to London’s Gazelli Art House Gallery, which transformed the space of the iconic store through a series of pop-up exhibitions featuring selected artists from Gazelli’s eclectic offering of international talents, including pop artist and fashion designer Philip Colbert, Charlotte Colbert, Mila Askarova among others. Shanghai Tang Mansion got a makeover too, as artist Kirk Cheng has transformed it into a Suzhou-inspired garden via a large floral installation.
Christian Louboutin collaborated with New York-based Australian artist CJ Hendry, as she debuted her first show, ‘Complimentary Colors’, in Asia during Art Basel week. Best known for her iconic monochromatic hyper-realistic pen drawings, the artist used color as a medium for the first time, presenting highly rendered, mesmerizing drawings of thick oil paint in different color ways, paying homage to the iconic Christian Louboutin soles with red highlights. To express the incredibly rich and eclectic creative universe of Alessandro Michele, Gucci has invited Dan Thawley, Editor-in-Chief of A Magazine Curated By, to present a multimedia exhibition. The immersive showcase gave new depth to the content featured in the latest issue of A Magazine, which was curated by Michele, and celebrated the work of photographer and muse Petra Collins, who also has an important section within the magazine. Taking the form of a trilogy, the exhibition premiered in Hong Kong from 22–26 March and will travel to Beijing and Taipei.
Marking the Itch Series of its ‘Fusing Art with Fashion’ project, London shoemaker R. Sanderson showcased its latest Shadow II shoe collection, which was presented alongside a complete portfolio of Andy Warhol’s Shadows series comprising six original and unique screen prints. The Warhol portfolio is number 6 of 10 sets ever to be produced by the revered artist, marking the first time a complete portfolio of Andy Warhol’s Shadows series has been on public display in Hong Kong.
Last but not least, the niche luxury brand Cherevichkiotvichki installed a life-size sculpture within the avant-garde concept store INK in Causeway Bay. Victoria Andrejeva and the Cherevitchkiotvichki’s team created a giant figure in the shape of a female body by using the fabrics off-cuts from the last collection, hand-stitched together in a beautiful patchwork skin. Andrejeva spent three days in the store giving the final touches to the artwork, giving costumers a glimpse into the artisanal universe of Cherevitchkiotvichki. Titled A Toppled Anatomy the sculpture embodies the idea of primitive femininity, powerful and delicate at once, quintessential to the Cherevichkiotvichki’s brand identity.
artbasel.com
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Men in Media: the case of FourTwoNine
The dynamics of the web are changing the rules of the publishing game, animating a new species of independent magazine that not only is gaining traction, but also has solved the paper versus digital puzzle in a way that surpasses all expectations. In fact, despite the high-speed world of internet consumption, the allure of paper continues to hold its own, as can be seen from the vast and diverse offering of lifestyle publications that cast photography and art direction as the lead players and paper as the blank canvas of full expression to produce a performance of stunning creative impact.
But the greatest challenge faced by the publishing platforms, both new and established, is to deliver increasingly richer interactive content and to engage the reader in a one-to-one relationship. To learn more about this particular publishing story, we spoke with Richard Klein, founder of Surface magazine and now publisher of FourTwoNine, and Maer Roshan, the top journalist appointed to helm the magazine, which debuted in 2013. Founded as an independent endeavour to harness collective power through talks and meetings, the project then morphed into a glossy magazine featuring some of the globe’s top editors, artists and photographers. Every issue of FourTwoNine showcases the latest in fashion, design, entertainment, sport, technology, media, business and politics, shining the spotlight on the thought leaders and innovators who are guiding and influencing contemporary culture.
How did you get into publishing and what led to the launch of Surface?
Richard Klein: My background is in design and art direction. I launched Surface when I was in my early twenties, originally as a gallery in the SOMA district of San Francisco. The idea was to create a social space to spotlight young artists and to bring creative people together to socialize and exchange creative ideas. FourTwoNine is similar in concept but leverages technology and a social network to connect and aggregate people. We organize conversation diary events, cocktail parties and other happenings throughout the United States to which we invite business and industry leaders to give thematic talks. We gave Maer Roshan the support needed to build on his extensive publishing experience (New York Magazine, details, Radar, Talk, Hollywood Reporter) and free editorial reign to take FourTwoNine in edgy new directions.
How did the idea of FourTwoNine come to life?
Richard Klein – Maer Roshan: FourTwoNine started off four years ago as a magazine and social network directed at the gay men, influencers and creative leaders that work and live in America’s major cities. Our current format builds on this important target market while embracing the fact that sexual orientation has changed significantly in the past decade, with the boundaries between gay and straight becoming much looser, especially among the younger generations. Many urban men don’t identify as gay but still share the same irreverent, creative, push-the-envelope approach to life. Moreover, we noticed that some of the magazine’s most enthusiastic fans were straight men and even some women so, although the website and the magazine will both continue to feature some gay content, most of our stories and style coverage will be broad enough to attract a wider audience.
How do you see the future for magazines versus the web?
Maer Roshan: FourTwoNine is designed around the fact that print and online publications have different strengths and metabolisms. The web is ideal for streaming new information as it breaks so the 429.com website gives us a way to dynamically enrich our content while informing readers about many of today’s trending topics in business, politics, culture, finance, style, travel, art and design, music and fashion. The challenge for magazines in the digital age is to offer something that the web cannot replicate. For me it comes down to aesthetics and the senses. Our focal point is photography and art direction. For example, our masthead cites not only some of the world’s top photographers but also some of the most talented emerging lens masters. There is nothing better than curling up and feasting your eyes on a beautifully curated magazine. The magic of a color photo on special paper cannot be appreciated on a screen. There’s something more enduring and special about a magazine that you can hold in your hands. It’s something to treasure and keep, unlike the seemingly ephemeral nature of most web content. In fact, my latest project is a perfumed issue of FourTwoNine in which each story will be infused with a specific fragrance that the reader can actually smell. You can’t do that on the Internet.
From San Francesco to Los Angeles: tell us about the magazine’s new shift in direction
Maer Roshan: FourTwoNine is a national magazine that differs from America’s other publications in that it operates not out of New York but Los Angeles, which gives us a fresh and unique perspective. In recent years the pendulum of culture has swung dramatically from the East Coast to the West, where the obvious points of reference are Hollywood, Silicon Valley in San Francisco and Seattle’s music scene. But other West-coast cities like Portland and San Diego are creating their own political, music, art, fashion and food buzzes too. We want to give these local stories the coverage they deserve but don’t get in most magazines, while continuing our nationwide dialogue.
How will you avoid falling into the trap of gay stereotypes and clichés to, instead, offer a more compelling point of view?
Maer Roshan: I am 100% allergic to clichés and stereotypes and believe the magazine reflects that. The latest issue of FourTwoNine features four guest covers: The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah, the star of Moonlight Ashton Sanders, the iconic filmmaker John Waters, and the world’s first gay superstar Brian Anderson. This to show that being gay is not a question of one-size-fits-all and that our interests and tastes are wide-ranging. Gays live in a vast and variegated universe and different things appeal to different people, so gay issues are not something I feel the magazine needs to obsess about. In fact, rather than offering solely gay content, FourTwoNine builds on the creative sensibilities of the LGBTA community, breaks down boundaries and blends irreverence with style.
What does the future hold in store?
Maer Roshan: We are keen to grow FourTwoNine as a cutting-edge magazine and to make the 429.com website even more dynamic and market responsive, covering the latest news and innovations in technology, entertainment, design, media and politics. Also the success of the events and conferences held across the United States means we will be organizing many more networking opportunities.
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“Blooming” by Lucie Hugary
A minimal approach to sportswear turns chic during a spring walk in the woods.
Foto: Lucie Hugary
Fashion stylist: Nicholas Galletti
Model: Amine @ Rock Men
THE (LIGHT) WEIGTH OF THE SUITCASE
Which features must a suitcase have to be perfect? It must be lightweight, strong and stylish. This is how Samsonite has answered, with an exceptional global campaign, called “The Serious Traveller”, and shot by the famous portrait and fashion photographer Rankin. In this campaign nine international influencers are filmed while they are ironically showing the functionalities of their luggage, that makes their journeys even more confortable. Among the selected influencers, there are the Royal Ballet’s soloist Eric Underwood and the model, presenter, DJ and blogger Charlotte De Carle. Samsonite has met the needs of those who, like them, have to travel a lot, by combining functionality and style: the new collection Curv® mixes the best materials and the most modern technologies with innovative and timeless designs, which assure strength and protection without adding more weight. The careful attention to the details distinguishes also the inside, upholstered with an extra soft fabric and organized in sectors with adjustable strips to maintain all the garments perfectly tidy. MANINTOWN interviewed these two influencers for you.
Eric:
Which is the most important feature of a suitcase for those who travel a lot, like you do?
Considering I’m on the go often, a lightweight suitcase is the most important feature for me.
How did you start dancing? Did you ever imagine it would become your job?
I started dancing after forgetting my lines at an acting audition, I saw a few girls doing splits preparing for a dance audition and thought well I’ll have a go at dancing. I had no idea there was a chance I could pursue this as my dream job.. wow!
How is your relationship with fashion?
I’ve always taken an interest in fashion, working as a model and the love of great menswear!
Who are your style icons?
My Style icons are Sammy Davis jr. and Frank Sinatra
Which passions do you have, other than ballet?
I’ve had the opportunity to work in television a few times and that’s a discipline I love and feel quite passionately about.
Do you have a dream or a project that you want to realize?
I have a few projects and dreams I’d like to pursue and hopefully they’ll come true, stay tuned to the telly (hint) lol!
Charlotte:
Which is the most important feature of a suitcase for those who travel a lot, like you do?
I’m not sure I can just pick one to be honest. For frequent travelling there any many factors to be taken into account. I need a suitcase to be durable because we all know airports don’t look after suitcases as well as they could. I need it to be manoeuvrable as the more I don’t have to carry my case the better. I also it need to still look good which is why I love Samsonite. The cases are wonderfully slick, strong and attractive. So it’s an all round natural winner! Got my vote!
What cannot be missed in your suitcase?
That would definitely be deodorant. I don’t mind not wearing clothes, having a dirty face or not having my favourite tea but my armpits have to be fresh.
Talking about fashion, who are your style icons?
To be honest my mum is my style icon. She doesn’t have a huge budget but always manages to look classy and expensive. She also loves taking risks which is admirable. Her PVC trousers are an absolute treat!
You seem a very cheerful person, what is your tip to always see the silver linings in life?
Life is too short. You don’t need to worry about what other people think or do. Do what you enjoy, what makes you happy because at the end of the day life is a gift so focus on the present
Do you have a dream or a project that you want to realize?
To be honest my dream has always been to bring people joy and a small distraction from everyday life. So to work with Rankin on this shoot was amazing because I love all the creativity and fun he puts into his shoots. So maybe to continue what I am doing but on a grander scale would be the end goal for me. Take a leaf out of his book and go hard or go home!
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No Waste Philosophy: Freitag opens the first store in Milan
A few meters from two luxury shopping streets in Milan, Corso Como and Corso Garibaldi, the Freitag store, famous Swiss brand for bags made of recycled truck tarpaulins, will be the first in Italy and will feature even for the high aesthetic impact of the location that in front of the Giangiacomo Feltrinelli foundation, is placed exactly at the crossroads of trade and culture. The store, located in a typical industrial building of the nineteenth century, with granite pillars and terracotta archway, will present 1500 unique pieces amor bags and iconic accessories of the brand, also the biodegradable F-Abric collection entirely produced in Europe with recycled materials and fabrics, made from flax and hemp fibers, yarns even in some Milanese areas. Back to basics, as they say. For the occasion, MANINTOWN met Daniel and Markus Freitag, the two brothers founders of the brand.
So, the first Italian store. How did you choose this location?
It’s been a long and well thought out research. Milan is an electrifying mix, a unique and continuous walkway of ideas, designers, stimuli. We wanted an easy to reach store, both for tourists and also for people living in the city, a place to create some partnership and maybe exhibiting installation, and finally we wanted a space that was close to “traceable” places, museums or things of cultural interest and architecture, just as the Feltrinelli Foundation.
Who are your Italian customers?
Creative, designers, architects, even very young people. We really like the idea that in a place so attached to fashion etiquette par excellence, like Italy, our anti-statement idea, so to speak, our not so mainstream concept of fashion, have been appreciated a lot in these years.
Any plans to propose something limited edition for the Italian grand opening or not?
It could be, but we have not planned anything. First of all we want to bring the entire collection of naturally 100 % compostable. products and accessories as in the rest of the stores in the world. Later, perhaps, given the enormous curiosity and creative spirit that revolves around Milan we will pull out something (they both laugh n.d.r).
What about the materials you use, we know that there are new ideas on which you are focusing.
We started working with recycled truck tarpaulins in the 90s, and today we want to experiment, to explore new territories. The basic idea is based on sustainability and recycling, a trendmark that defines us forever.
Our identity is “devoted” to the ethic and qualitative to the materials we use, methods of processing, production and industrial cycle. We design and manufacture only models of accessories and clothes that we wear ourselves or our team. They are prototypes, often, that require a large investment of energy and money to be developed; we really love Eastern countries because the price of our items there is perceived with no inferences of any kind, they know what it takes to fully realize a bag or an item. To do it all yourself in a sustainable way.
What is the creative process of your work?
We frequently depart from the problems, dilemmas. We did very long brainstorming with our team – the part of collaboration is everything in our company – we talk about the fitting, what is wrong, we raise objections and from there we draw inspiration for new projects, alternatives. We often end up to get very far from the starting point but this is an integral part of the trip, isn’t it? The essential thing for us is to plan our energy, knowing how and where spend it, for example, for the next three weeks. The commitment is rewarding, altghough it is always optimized.
Do you take a lot of work on the mono-material of the trucks tarpaulins?
Not really, a lot less than what we would do. The fact is, especially when it is very worn, that this material can undergo just little and few change, we can not even print it. We will plan to do more, to dare, but it is not always possible. And this is another reason why we want to try and explore other universes stylistic and with the material.
Where does the inspiration for your project come from?
We would say from far away, even from the first trips to India, we were so young. We saw all these people who collected trash from the street and turn it into other. Then we took our streets, in graphic design, art, visual, and we realized how many energy are wasted in that professiona business sectors, today. And Freitag was born just then, along with the awareness to create something that looked to resources and it was really useful and durable. We thought about bike messenger and those who cycled in Zurich, from north to south, to go to work. In time it came the idea of trucks tarpaulins, the first prototypes we did in San Francisco and New York, the mecca for bicycle messenger and gradually, over time and so much effort, the results came. Milan store, in a few days, is another rewarding crowning of our journey.
What is your greatest ambition also in ideal terms regarding to recycling and sustainable living?Instinctively we would say hotels and condos. Design a series of objects and products to live in hotels that make the residence experience itself a kind of experiential path on how and what we could do to be comfortable without producing trash or waste good resources. However, even the biking industry, and accessories to better carry their belongings. We’d like a lot to investigate that area, maybe because we love biking and we know all the functional and practical issues that sometimes can happen.
FREITAG STORE MILANO
Viale Pasubio 8, 20154 Milano
www.freitag.ch
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