Tokyo Diaries V

A mental travel preparation.

Ikuo Amano Shiseido クレ・ド・ポー

Intensity is what I expect. Purity is what I assume. There is nothing but pink lipstick - the world and every human being immersed in its lucid gloss. I want to be blinded by artificial beauty.
/HORST

Tokyo Diaries II

A mental travel preparation.







Yoshihiko Ueda Mies van der Rohe, 2012

The foreign view and observations of a visitor - a fundamental exercise of Modernism. Accept, adapt, react. Ueda embarked on a pilgrimage to photograph and document more than just a site but an emotional state.
/HORST

Barbara Did It First? III

1. Barbara Kruger Untitled (Bleed Us Dry), 1987
2. Raf Simons Spring/Summer 2014

The appropriation of consumer culture has proceeded to check-out. From analogue receipt to digital barcode scan. In your face and in your basket: a polished product and sneering "Let them have it!" smile.
/HORST

Barbara Did It First?

1. Barbara Kruger Untitled (You Can't Drag Your Money Into The Grave With You), 1990
2. Raf Simons Spring/Summer 2012

I might have to accept the fact that it is no longer about 'Who Did It First' or 'Oops I Did It Again'. Appropriation is an art form, so why should we except fashion from it? The new question being posed now should rather be 'Why Does It Exist Again'? And 'What does it add to the Now'?
/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

Granularity VI

1. Raf Simons Fall/Winter 1999
2. Jil Sander Fall/Winter 2008
3. Dior Fall/Winter 2013
4. Raf Simons Fall/Winter 2008
5. Raf Simons Fall/Winter 2013

The Raf Sander universe is a hermeneutic one. Mind-picking one element, one detail in its recurrent shape. The neck as one centre of his architecture. When something fluid becomes solid, we might baptise him Raf Sandior.
/HORST

Drawn

Comme des Garçons Homme Plus Spring/Summer 2013

Manga men, spiked headbands and evil perfection. The male equivalent to Anime beauty. The appropriate proposal for a pre-apocalyptic world. Japanese reality as tomorrow's fate: To die or to dye?
/HORST

Helmut Dialogues VI

1. Helmut Lang Spring/Summer 2004
2. Dior Spring/Summer 2013

When he presented his first ready-to-wear collection for Dior, Raf Simons wore a denim jacket with three painted stripes from Helmut Lang, released in 1995. The year when Raf Simons started his own menswear label.
/HORST

Helmut Dialogues III

1. Helmut Lang Spring/Summer 2004
2. Jil Sander Fall/Winter 2012

It was the tear-dropping, last and celebrated collection of Raf Simons for Jil Sander for Helmut Lang. A metallic homage that left (no one) speechless. But the battle for fatherhood will be continued on an arena known as 'Dior Haute Couture'.
/HORST

Helmut Dialogues II

1. Helmut Lang Spring/Summer 1997
2. Jil Sander Fall/Winter 2009

If Raf Simons' stepmother is Jil Sander, his anticipated father would be Helmut Lang. A figure that punished him/us with distance and retreat. Thus, he is left with an Oedipus complex that demands psycho therapy and a few collections more.
/HORST

Re-View

Raf Simons Spring/Summer 2013

Already looking forward to spring. The season as well as the 'season'. Spring/Summer 2013 to be exact. Raf Simons Spring/Summer 2013 in particular. I still have no winter coat, by the way.
/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

Mesh-Up Syndrome

1. Viviane Sassen Indian: African Drum Beats, 10 Magazine Spring/Summer 2009
2. Ann Demeulemeester Spring/Summer 2001
3. Raf Simons Fall/Winter 2012

The consolidation of two themes. The grid reappears as handprinted mesh (Ann Demeulemeester). The stripe as furry clip-on (Raf Simons). Together, they build 'A Short History Of Stripes & The Grid In Popular Tribal Culture'.
/HORST