Double Feature III

A 'False Encyclopaedia' double feature with James Dobson, discussing:
Comme des Garçons Spring/Summer 2015

I'm going to be honest, I couldn't help but feel ever so slightly ripped-off at Rei's latest outing... there's a little part of me that cringes when I see constructions like this on the catwalk as I can instantly imagine it flashing on peoples TV screens during the late night news, in that little 'light relief segment' at the end as an illustration of how 'wacky' fashion is, and Brian and Shirley sitting at home dunking their chocolate wheatens into their milky tea having a little chuckle and saying something like "You'd look good in that Shirley". 

For a label that is capable of moving people to tears, this collection, dare I say it, felt a little predictable. Sure, red, the most provacative of colours (yawn), the colour of harlots, cardinals and baboon's arses has a lot of power but after a few seasons of these hefty assemblages staggering down the catwalk wouldn't the next unexpected step be something positively wearable? 

Wouldn't that be more provocative?

/JAMES

All I thought was organs, organs, organs. Sarah Lucas, Louise Bourgeois, Hannah Wilke. So, feminism is in fashion. But then, the clothes were anti-fem. Why doesn't Rei just throw pillows on women?
/HORST





1. Comme des Garçons Spring/Summer 2015
2. Comme des Garçons Fall/Winter 2014
3. Comme des Garçons Spring/Summer 2014
4. Cardinals Vatican City, 2013
5. Hannah Wilke Untitled, 1980
6. Louise Bourgeois Cell XIV, 2000
7. Sarah Lucas Nice Tits, 2011
8. Comme des Garçons Spring/Summer 2015

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

Superficial Implant

Part II of 'Duplicate Diptych Week'



1. Balenciaga Spring/Summer 1997
2. Gucci Fall/Winter 1996

From 'amorphous forms' (cf. Hans Arp) to 'organic plates' at Balenciaga and Gucci by Tom Ford, strict geometry is broken into fluid shapes. Designed as a golden armour, hidden as second-skin, revealed by cutouts.
/HORST

Wahrnehmungsstörungen

1. Calvin Klein Spring/Summer 2003
2. Jil Sander Fall/Winter 2012
3. George J. Sowden Interior Design, 1983
4. Comme des Garçons Shirt Fall/Winter 2012

When the mesh grid dissolves into blob formations, a short history is interrupted. We commit ourselves to a logical order of irrational systems. Structures that are bent to an extent that still allows identification as such. A geometry of freedom.
/HORST

Another Blob, Mythology

Artworks César

An artist called César quoting the ultimate birth of life through explorations of undefined matter. From dust to earth to blob. Artificial derivates of the human body, plastic genesis and cyber-mythology.
/HORST

Post Graduate II

A false encyclopaedic guide to the Central Saint Martins collections, presenting:
Sarah Simkins B.A. Graduate Collection 2012

1. Céline Spring/Summer 2012
2. Fritz Winter Untitled, 1931
3. Carol Christian Poell Block shoes

We are naturally influenced by what surrounds us. It's not a failure, it's not a weakness. It's an automatism that can be applied to anyone concerned with aesthetics and creation. We all walk in someone else's shoes.
/HORST

Conserved

Artworks Matthew Monahan

Humans, machines and domesticated objects. Armless, bodyless, dysfunctional. I stumbled upon the work of Matthew Monahan in a little antique book shop in Amsterdam. And it well deserves to be recognized.
/HORST