Fashion and clothing

This is huge news in my book. I am a big fan of Dirk Schonberger's work. I love his vision of deconstructing formal garments, adding a little grit and roughness to the items we normally associate with polish, such as tux jackets, blazers, and dress pants. Something has been amiss for him in the past several years - I hope his new position lets him fully unleash his creative and sartorial talents. Smart move on the part of all-but-defunct Joop as well. Good luck, Dirk.

FWD report.

Yes. I am not sure if they hired someone new to make the new website, visually it's largely the same. Boy, a long time Raf Simons friend and model (Raf has used many of the same guys as models throughout his career, some of them are his friends) was responsible for creating the first one. I think the best feature of the new website are the videos from the old fashion shows - it not only lets you see the dynamics of the shows, but also peek at pieces that were never produced. AW 00-01 is my favorite. Enjoy.

http://www.rafsimons.com

That's right, in quotation marks, because I will not view it any other way. I am a long term admirer of Helmut's work, and the fact that it is becoming a jeans'n'tshirts line under Link-Theory is just heart-breaking. You can read the latest article on the demise of the label in The New York Times. I highly doubt that a Lang customer, who admired not only Lang's clothes, but his vision, his minimalist-with-a-quirk philosophy that made his clothes intelligent and intriguing, will come back for this. Will they find a new clientele? Maybe. Oh, and no disrespect to Mr. Calvos of Habitual, but saying that Helmut made the decision to leave when he sold his company is a lie. Helmut made a decision to leave when the Devil started interfering with his creative process. They might have as well fired him. Oh, and it would do Mr. Calvos good to learn the difference between the terms Modernity and Modernism.

I absolutely disagree with Mr. Wilson. Helmut's last collection's that featured bondage details were one of his best. What killed Helmut is dilution of the brand under the "auspices" of the Prada Group management.

Ladies (and Gentlemen!), if you want to stand out from the brown monogrammed Louis Vuitton bag crowd, look no further - Henry Beguelin is your man. Mr. Beguelin is a prolific leather goods maker whose quirky designs and stunning high-quality leathers make a beautiful and unique hand-made product. Just touch the leather, and you will be sold. He was launched into niche US stardome by Barneys, and they know their sh.. stuff. I will not chew your ear off with biographical details, I'll scrape them off his website directly, as well as some pictures. Yes, it's expensive, but not more than the fugly Guccis, and you will get a much higher value for your thousand dollars.

1971 HENRI opens a craft center-cum-shop in a little corner of a square that overlooks the sea. It was named "HENRY CUIR".

1981 His products were sold at PUPI SOLARI, a shop in Milan. He felt that he'd reached the limit of what he could do on his own so he decided to enlarge his craft center and gathered more workers.

1982 HENRI meets a shoe maker. A comfortable-to-wear moccasin was invented, which later became one of the vital items. HENRI gradually developed his interest in making interior products/furniture such as cushions, mini-tables and chairs. The company gradually expanded.

1985 The first shop opens in Milan. His name was used for the label except the spelling was changed into HENRY BEGUELIN. He has a crucial encounter with BARNEYS NEW YORK. As they were strongly impressed with HENRI's products, BARNEYS displayed them in show windows, which led to the recognition of the label in the American market.

1997 He developed doubts about the direction of the expanding company, and also the way his partner was managing the company. He decided to leave his job.

1998 He launched a new label. As a departure from HENRI BEGUELIN and to restart his creative production, it was appropriate to take the name of the little craft center-cum-shop in Elba, "HENRI CUIR" which was his starting point. "Cuir" means leather in French as well.
In the same year, his first shop opened in Minami Aoyama, Tokyo. His products are also available in some outlets in Europe and Barneys, New York.

1999 Milan store opens.

2002 HENRI CUIR Aoyama flagship store opens in Kotto-dori, Aoyama.
More shops opened in Kyoko, Osaka and Nihonbashi, Tokyo.

HENRYCUIR

@BARNEYS

Leave it to Guy Trebay to expose the shallowness of the fashion world. Although sometimes his articles border on socialite commentary, they have often been my guilty pleasure because of his witty and sharp style. He first got my attention with his article on fashion forgery called "Imitation is the Mother of Invention," exposing big-time designers who often ironically complain about lack of copyright protection. This article has become iconic and is taught in fashion colleges and law schools alike. His article in the current issue of New York Times exposing the sillines of Milan fashion week is just plain hilarious. Thanks, Guy.

GoGuyGo!

I meant to post this a while ago. In the link below is the coolest video of a fashion show staged in Milan by Carol Christian Poell. It's another testament to Carol's genius. I believe that show was for the F/W 05 collection, but I am not 100% sure. It was called "Mainstream - Downstream." I think what Carol was trying to say is that it's high time we flushed the dull mainstream "fashion" down the toilet, or, to be more poetic, let it go down a steam of water, into the ocean, far far away. Amen.

CLICK HERE

I hate magazines. Honestly. I am not even talking about mainstream thinly veiled advertisements catalogues like Vogue, with their ten thousand must-haves lists that the mindless sheep eats up in steady monthly doses. I am talking about pseudo-creative, pseudo-intellectual, pseudo-indie magazines that sell pseudo-rebellion culture to trust-fund hipsters in Williamsburg. Purple, Nylon, Tokion, etc. - all these poseurs can shove it - their blandness and fakery is mind-numbing. i-D is only half-passable because they still have decent editorials, while the rest of the content is filler.

What's a boy to do? Enter "A" - my savior. This magazine is backed by Mode Natie, and is the most creative magazine I have seen to date. It is only in it's 4th issue (before that I think it was called A-Z magazine), and it hasn't disappointed yet. I don't know what they feed them in Antwerp (must that excellent beer), but the amount of creative talent that has and still is coming out of there is staggering. Anyway, each issue of A is curated by a different designer. This one is done by Jun Takashi of Undercover. You can pick it up in Universal News on Broadway (where else?!), and St. Marks Bookstore. It costs an eye-brow raising $26, though - so if you steal it, I won't blame you.

ISSUE 4 - CLICK

I know lots of you go ga-ga for Cloak. In a way I do, too, but only for the designs. Cloak needs to fix their quality control, which is really erratic. However, for those of you who don't give a damn about silly things like a durable garment, Cloak boutique is in the final days of clearing their SS06 merchandise, which is now at a whopping 70% off. There are still plenty of dress shirts, polo shirts, some jackets, and some pants left. I am providing several pictures here. Mostly sizes S and XL (that is XS and L in normal sizes).

Cloak Boutique: 10 Green St., New York City