Now & Then XIV

1. Raf Simons/Sterling Ruby Fall/Winter 2014 (Willy Vanderperre & Olivier Rizzo)
2. Raf Simons Spring/Summer 2003 (Mario Sorrenti & Panos Yiapanis)

Two power couples of styling and photography in the battle of decades. They fight for the attention of Raf, or RAF. Who will remain the winner? And why are we haunted by the ever-recurring image of rebellion/youth?
/HORST

The Nude Portrait VI (Posing Without Pants)

category g.1) 'bottomless' with shirt



1. Willy Vanderperre Men Are From Mars, Man About Town 2011
2. Alasdair McLellan "Together That Summer We Raised Some Hell, Yeah!", 2013
3. Thomas Whiteside Piccadilly Palare, The Wild #5, 2014

category g.2) 'bottomless' with dress, lifted

4. Tyrone Lebon Pop Magazine Fall/Winter 2013

category g.3) doubles/couples

5. Wolfgang Tillmans John And Paula, Sitting Bottomless, 1994
6. Terry Richardson Terryworld, 2004

category g.4) dropping pants

7. Flint-Fuyt The Belgian Beat, 2013

category g.5) from underneath

8. Wolfgang Tillmans Dust I, 2004

category h.1) 'bottomless' as campaign and magazine cover

9. Sølve Sundsbø Yves Saint Laurent M7, 2002
10. Mathilde ter Heijne & Amy Patton Gentle Men, Rediviva #23, 2013
11. Will McBride DUST Magazine #5, 2013

'Bottomless' is the ambivalent term for male models wearing nothing but a top. Not quite nude photography yet, fashion editorials are currently exploring the opposite to and much lower focal point of 'topless'. Quintessentially, the images are not 'sexy' or 'provocative'. Instead they do carry the nonchalance of naturalism.

Thus, the Penis Revolution is not a sexual one. It is something in between: a study of exposure and privacy, of dressing and undressing, of the male form that is accepted and documented as what it is. The images evoke tension as loosing the trousers first contradicts the regular, everyday process of undressing. As a result, the unagitated depiction always contains a certain notion of staged-ness. Irritation lends these photographs their strength.

The picture that initiated this new-found ease of presenting male genitals in a high fashion context is the Yves Saint Laurent M7 fragrance campaign shot by Sølve Sundsbø. Directing the beholder's view diagonally from headline to product still to Samuel de Cubber's casually exposed crotch.

A revealing motif that is common within the performing arts, particularly men's ballet where nude tights and suspensory gear create the trompe l'œil illustion of lower nudity. Signs are we will encounter this visual effect more often.
/HORST

Granularity VII

1. Jil Sander Fall/Winter 2011
2. Raf Simons x Fred Perry Spring/Summer 2014
3. Raf Simons Fall/Winter 2012

The Raf Sander universe is a hermeneutic one. Colours and prints re-appear. In general, everything about Raf Simons' design approach is 're-istic'. Layered or traced through paper, from gender to gender.
/HORST

Steampunk

Willy Vanderperre Faux Semblant, 2010

Organic, mechanic, bionic. Not much has progressed in menswear since future forecasts by H.R. Giger or Tstuomu Nihei. Their depictions unkindly agree that the future will be ugly.
/HORST

Post London VII

A 'False Encyclopaedia' double feature with Taj Ragland, discussing:
Agi & Sam Spring/Summer 2014

Agi & Sam get idyllic about city life. Snatching pages from the books of Paul Smith and Walter Van Beirendonck, Agi & Sam have been pumping out wonky quirk for the last couple of seasons, but for this outing the duo got a little crucial. Agi & Sam always seem to be designing for little boys in businessman drag, so in keeping with that they presented potent tailoring in 80's neon, trainer hybrids and an array of digital prints. Rich and playful in its context and references, the collection mimics its potential buyers; rich and playful.
/TAJ

The German term 'Alltag' describes the unagitated, the normal, the casual and everyday. Which is exactly what Agi & Sam did: hazardly dressing their man for Spring/Summer 2014. Establishing a kind of random, out-of-bed formal wear. In general, the 'accidental' seems to be a strong theme for a new season. Calculated chaos as mindset for the 2010s? An embrace and surrender to failure? A return to humanity? It would make a nice categorisation, in fact, the Unhappy Readymade decade.
/HORST








1. Agi & Sam Spring/Summer 2014
2. Lou Reed The Velvet Underground, 1973
3. Andy Warhol Mao, 1972
4. Bus Interior
5. Marcel Duchamp Unhappy Readymade, 1920
6. Willy Vanderperre Class Act, 2010
7. Wolfgang Tillmans Sportflecken, 1996
8. Agi & Sam Spring/Summer 2014

All about Taj Ragland

Men On Stairs

1. Marc Jacobs by Ryan Pfluger for Time Magazine
2. Raf Simons by Willy Vanderperre for Fantastic Man

Male fashion designers as interior pin-ups. Please note the obligatory girl portrait in the background as well as the glass and steel rails. Adding to the seductive staging of an invitation 'upstairs'.
/HORST