Tokyo Diaries IV

A mental travel preparation.

1. Pleats Please Happy Anniversary, 2012
2. Nobuyoshi Araki Shokuji (The Banquet), 1993

Hyper-aesthetic and hyper-realistic images of food. Hyper sould food - as in hyper fashion, as in hyper sex, as in hyper orgasms. A preview to multiple hyper olfactory and hyper gustatory experiences.
/HORST

Posing With Cars

1. Steven Klein L.A. Portfolio, L'Uomo Vogue 2006
2. Steven Klein Spread Eagle, Dutch Magazine 2002
3. Steven Meisel Speed Racer, Vogue Italia 1997
4. Thom Browne & Zac Posen Infiniti Q50, 2013

Steven M. and Steven K. are united by their love for hot wheels and naked flesh on cold steel. The car as metaphor for a 'large penis' has established itself as fashion accessory and, lately, statement collector's piece. Car pin-ups Thom Browne and Zac Posen agree.
/HORST

Wishful Thinking #5

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Barcelona Daybed, 1929

For my pseudo-psychotherapeutic Freud sessions and as replacement for a random corner art installation, I am requesting a daybed. Alternatively, I do also accept designs by Rick Owens or Hedi Slimane.
/HORST

Wishful Thinking #2

Front Chess Table, 2009

A table for rivalry (as self-described by the creators), this black-and-white checkered object has proven itself a valid display for naked bodies wrapped around - perfectly shown in the photography project Inside The Box by Erwin Olaf and Marcel Wanders.
/HORST

Horst Decoration, Issue 8

1. Cabinet Snickeriet, X-Frame Glass Top Table Artek
2. Globe Lamp Verner Panton, Glass Bathtub Boffi
3. Vase Piet Hein Eek, Glass Chair Shiro Kuramata

Welcome to my every hour glass home. I love a clear plastic raincoat, my dear Raf Sander. Thus, I have created its appropriate surrounding, a perfect stage. Everything is so transparent, you can look right through.
/HORST

Worm Therapy

1. Proenza Schouler Fall/Winter 2013
2. Ettore Sottsass Bacterio, 1978
3. Proenza Schouler Fall/Winter 2013

With his pattern design for the Memphis Milano movement, Ettore Sottsass turned geometric forms into texture, and laminate became textile. What originally had an op-art effect on furniture, turns into fake fur on clothes.
/HORST

Hamburg Picks

While appearing reserved and distant as a city, Hamburg offers a different view once following the right angles and perspectives, once willing to step out and find them. A fine selection of places, many still to be unveiled.

Best Exhibition Space
Deichtorhallen
Deichtorstraße 1-2

The grande, semi-circular hall hosts contemporary art exhibitions. Amongst others Anselm Reyle who took over the space and divided it into a light and a dark half. Even equipping the entry hall with blinking, shiny and rusty 'atelier trash'.

Best Shop
Werkhaus
Große Elbstraße 146

Alexander Wang, Dries van Noten and SILENT Damir Doma for men, Helmut Lang and Acne Studio for Women. Situated directly at the sea side in an original red brick style 'Kaufmannshaus' from 1772.

Best Flagship Store
Jil Sander
Neuer Wall 43

Visiting a Jil Sander store always feels like an exhibition, especially for retail travellers. 'Exhibited' side by side are pieces by Raf Simons for and Jil Sander as Jil Sander. Next to an arrangement of Asian antiques for an ascetic aesthetics.

Best Gourmet Food
Mutterland
Poststraße 14-16

Grey sea salt, chai tea honey or sea salt caramel. Unconventional, original and delicate combinations, products designed for display rather than hiding away. They still do exist.

Best Design Shop
punct.object
Große Elbstraße 68

A marble dining table, wooden chairs, a cubic writing desk. Here, furniture is beautifully arranged, creating geometric lines - almost like a studio-size still life. Again, a retail experience with exhibition character.

Best Spa Hotel
SIDE
Drehbahn 49

Designed by Robert Wilson, the neon light installation pending above the lobby provides a spectacular mood and luxurious 2000s feeling. Perfectly complemented by spa and pool areas as well as a high class breakfast buffet.

Best Architecture
Hafen City
Am Kaiserkai

A piece of water, elevated from its depths into the sky. The Elbphilharmonie Hamburg marks the starting point for a newly constructed, artificial yet mesmerizing city disctrict.

Brutalism's Banquet

Photos Rick Owens

When you discover that brutalism and classicism harmonize as beautifully as the word 'liaison dangereuse'. And suddenly, the person 'Rick Owens' feels deeper, closer and more monarchic than before.
/HORST

Garage Martin Margiela

1. Maison Martin Margiela Fall/Winter 2010
2. Maison Martin Margiela Fall/Winter 2011
3. Maison Martin Margiela Fall/Winter 2011

Hardware as neutral (metallic) matter to be evolved into 'whatever' form of man-made design. Therefore, it is best described as 'substance'. By combining and manipulating its elements, the raw becomes 'something' luxurious.
/HORST

Numerica

Marble shelf Paolo Ulian

My love for numeric numbers has become quite obvious during the years, pursuing the concept of a continuous 'series' (i.e. Balenciaga Questions or A Short History). Now the numeric number comes in marble.
/HORST

Stijl

Gerrit Rietveld Sideboard, 1919

I am currently looking for a sideboard. It should be modern, almost invisible but yet significant on closer inspection. Surrealist, weird, unexpected, maybe sexual, maybe perverse. Which model would you recommend Horst?
/HORST