Twin » designer

Acceptable in the Eighties

boudicca — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 08:50:58 +0000

Claude Montana’s signature silhouette defined the age of excess. His was a New Look for the Eighties and Montana’s glamazons wore cinched-in waists, topped off by razor-sharp shoulders. It was a universe of bold colour, luxe leathers and power tailoring, where Montana reigned supreme. However the Nineties embrace of minimalism saw his vision without an audience, and in 1997 he filed for bankruptcy.

While the designer now lives quietly in Spain, his name retains its ability to evoke a decade of design. The Montana legacy has been compressed into a new book, written by the designer himself with the help of fashion journalist Marielle Cro.

Claude Montana looks at the principles and practices that underpinned his world. Punctuated throughout by catwalk images, sketches and tributes from former collaborators, including photographer Paolo Roversi, embroiderer François Lesage and fellow designer Alain Mikli.

With rumours that Montana could be lured back to designing under the right circumstances, we can only hope the book is less a eulogy, than the prelude to a restoration.

Claude Montana: Fashion Radical is available from Thames & Hudson, thamesandhudson.com

Words by Boudicca Fox-Leonard.

Images courtesy of Guy Marineau and Paolo Roversi.

High Heaven

Ana — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:52:54 +0000

Thursday should be crowned the new party day for Germany´s young ladies, in honor of the Hamburg debut of Weekday – Sweden’s answer to Topshop. Both Weekday and its sassy little sister Monki are the brainchildren of Orjan Andersson and Adam Freiberg, who founded Cheap Mondays. Now the famed skinny jeans brand will sit alongside capsule collections by top Scandinavian designers Carin Wester, Minimarket, Stine Goya and store brand MTWTFSS. With the launch of super-affordable, playful but cool clothes at Monki, plus sharp chic next door at Weekday, this day will definitely be enshrined in Hamburg’s high street history.

Guts for garters

Ana — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:39:36 +0000

Originally named Garter & Asp, an appellation merging a harmless snake with one that is poisonous, the Berlin-based design duo Don’t Shoot the Messengers (pictured below) create elegant yet subversively sexy feminine garments. “There is a sort of darkness that we look at,” says Canadian Jen Gilpin. Alongside her partner Kyle Callanan, she sums up their aesthetic as, “Geometric, molten and just a little bit rock and roll.” We likey.

www.dont-shoot-the-messengers.com

photographs by Maxime Ballesteros