A To The Scene

Steven Klein Lone Star (Dutch Magazine), 2000

Using an inflationary term, this is most probably the 'best' fashion story 'ever'. Everyone seems to still be trying 'hard', while others have already achieved 'everything'. Today is a prudish age. No one cares to dare anymore.
/HORST

Grand Poop

LAZOSCHMIDL Spring/Summer 2015

A collection that follows the storyline of contemporary performance art. Tracking down the fascination of body liquids such as piss, shit, sperm and spunk, the garments turn the perverse universe of Sarah Lucas, Paul McCarthy and Gilbert & George into rich textures and embroidery. Stains are re-interpreted as crystal applications on silk dupion and screenprint on organza. The obscene turns into decadence.
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Drawn Faces Fight

1. Jan Lehner No Colours Anymore, I Want Them To Turn Black, 2014
2. Pablo Picasso Untitled, 1945

Looking back to the beginnings and discovering the category The Fight. Visual analogies that built the foundation of this aesthetic commentary. And let's face it, everything else is travesty. Yet, one could always wear Alex Bottenberg.
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A Short History Of Rent Boys In Popular Culture (Interlude)

1. José Manuel Ferrater Beach Goth, 2009
2. John Galliano Spring/Summer 2001

Boots as a man's men's essential. Or, respectively alternatively, thigh-high socks. The high shaft correlates to an emphasized or exposed crotch area. How I wish for a return of the 2000s.
/HORST

Walter's Monsters

1. Jürgen Teller Believe, 1999
2. Walter van Beirendonck Spring/Summer 2015

Today, 'arts and crafts' as aesthetic principle and technique (not movement) has a bad reputation. Undeservedly so. One wishes, there was more handcraft without calling it 'couture'. Breaking the human body, the human clothing into bits and pieces before reassembling its most crucial and visually most entertaining parts. Hail Walter.
/HORST

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?
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Full Circle, or: Happy Quickly After

1. Jürgen Teller Sarah Lucas At Home, 2013
2. Raf Simons/Sterling Ruby Fall/Winter 2014
3. Alasdair McLellan Arena Homme Plus, 2014
4. Raf Simons/Sterling Ruby Fall/Winter 2014 & Jürgen Teller Sarah Lucas At Home, 2013

What started between Sarah and Jürgen in an intimate home story, has been picked up and processed in a labour of love between Raf and Sterling - just to be shot again, with Alasdair washing the acid dishes.
/HORST

Tokyo Diaries IX

A mental travel preparation.




Hedi Slimane Vogue Hommes Japan, 2008

The eroticism of exotism. The beauty of revealing truth within a cliché. The kimono as pop artefact. The modernity of tradition. The moment when opposites merge. This day is approaching.
/HORST

The Prarf

1. Prada Fall/Winter 2001
2. Prada Fall/Winter 2001
3. Prada Fall/Winter 2001
4. Daniel Riera Fantastic Man, 2014

A mischief comeback, the neckerchief is back - "want you back for good". Hard to pull off, it is rather and most likely to be tied - and not pulled off - around one's neck. Slim necks preferably. Prada, too.
/HORST

On Waking Up, And Never Being Tired

1. Alasdair McLellan Boxer Beat, Love Magazine 2009
2. Alasdair McLellan Club, Vogue Hommes International 2013
3. Alasdair McLellan Boy, i-D Magazine 2008

Together with Olivier Rizzo and Joe McKenna, Alasdair McLellan's pictures are reassuring the need and possibility for men in skirts. In this regard, Rei Kawakubo's collections can be seen and felt as an act of remembrance. We shall not be tired.
/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.
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