Rub + Rubbing + Clubbing

Maison Martin Margiela Spring/Summer 2015

The most amazing menswear collection that has happened in a long time. And although the Rosso Diesel system has taken ownership, the team around Matthieu Blazy delivers high quality true to the eponymous founder.
/HORST

Graduate Charts II

1. Asai Andrew Ta CSM BA Graduate Collection

2. Harry Evans CSM BA Graduate Collection

3. Flora Cadzow CSM BA Graduate Collection

They are coming. Mummified youth culture and shredded patchwork phantoms, miraculously not falling apart (Asai). They are twisted. Historic crochet sisters and fanatical knit nuns. Meet Marie Pearl Harbor (Harry). They are angry. Transparent tattoo bikers and religious tomboy boxers (Flora).
/HORST

Image credits Vogue

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

Fashion Charts II

1. Julien David Fall/Winter 2014

2. Comme des Garçons Homme Plus Fall/Winter 2014

3. John Lawrence Sullivan Fall/Winter 2014

Longing for dysfunctional tailoring, from Art to Deco. A psychological study of misplaced pockets (Julian), doubled lapel (Rei) and origami paneling (John). A physical readymade of the newly discovered, already established and ever ambitious. My top three.
/HORST

Cut-Coat

1. Yohji Yamamoto Fall/Winter 2008
2. Lucio Fontana Concetto Spaziale, 1959

Slitted, double-layered trompe l'oeil coats that demand relevance again. Sexually precise cuts, brutally forbidden peeks. Pastel-coloured 'destroyed' canvases that demand attention through irritation.
/HORST

Stepsisters: Jil and Miuccia

1. Jil Sander Spring/Summer 2014
2. Prada Spring/Summer 2014

Two women, two collections, two extremes. While Sander and Prada pursue distinctly different paths, they synchronously define fashion's pecking order. Together, they reassured one parallel rule of feminity: women wear bras. As bandeau version or trompe l'œil bustier insert.
/HORST

Moiré Moanings

1. Ed Ruscha We Humans (spinach & egg white on moiré), 1974
2. Alexander van Slobbe Spring/Summer 1999
3. Ed Ruscha Magnetic (blueberry on moiré), 1974
4. Céline Spring/Summer 2011
5. Ed Ruscha Babycakes (blueberry & egg yolk on moiré), 1974
6. Rodarte Fall/Winter 2011

An unresolved trauma and my unfulfilled desire: to wear trompe l'œil metaphors. Moiré as sociologic experiment, food as paint. Letters on canvas, textile as art, clothes as buildings.
/HORST

Naked, 2012

or 'What You Get Is What You See'

Top Maison Martin Margiela x H&M
Trousers Ann Demeulemeester
Belt Maison Martin Margiela x H&M
Coat Jil Sander

Upon public pressure and repeated request, I am posing completely nude. Exposing my trompe l'œil tattoos on bare skin. Sheer trousers cinched with an invisible belt. Only protected from outside views by a see-through coat.
/HORST