As if skateboarding wasn’t cool enough, bespoke denim label 3×1 has added an extra chill factor to the sport through its collaboration with NY-based photographer Ben Watts.
Founded by Scott Morrison of Paper Denim & Cloth and Earnest Sewn, the brand has created Ben Watts + 3×1, a collection of limited edition skateboards with designs featuring Jessica Hart, Lake Bell, Elsa Hosk, Behati Prinsloo and Chanel Iman in the label’s tailor-made pieces on Watts’ signature diamond motif and Hipstamatic lens backgrounds.
With all proceeds going to charities such as Studio in a School, Food on Foot, Polaris Project, Goods for Good and Keep A Child Alive, there’s no excuse not to add to your collection of decks. Even those of us with two left feet needn’t miss out; these skateboards also make for a pretty stylish wall decor.
Santorini is the latest super hot spot marked out for art domination. With the mission of promoting emerging and established artists, right now the Biennale is calling for artists to send in their material for consideration.
Working to the theme of The Past: Memory and Nostalgia, the exhibition will be a melange of everything from graphic design to sculpture and industrial design.
In particular, Curator of Illustration for the Santorini Biennale of Arts 2012 Nicky Peacock, has her eye casting out for fashion illustration. She says, “I will be living in Santorini for four months this summer during the biennale and this will no doubt be somewhat of a culture shock for a town-based girl like myself.
“With this in mind, I’m interested in works that are a little incongruous to a paradise island – a little discordant and out of place. As an artist and curator, this is the kind of thing that fascinates me and keeps me on my toes – something dark to contrast with all that sunshine!”
Santorini Biennale takes place form 01 July to 30 Sept 2012
Go to www.santorinibiennale.gr to submit your work
Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present is a powerful documentary which takes its viewer inside the mind of one of the Twentieth Century’s most provocative performance artists.
Directed by Matthew Akers, the film is an account of Abramović’s three decades and counting career, her both professional and personal relationship with Uwe Layseipen, and a behind the scenes look at the emotional journey leading up to her extensive 2010 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
At the three month-enduring retrospective, the Belgrade-born artist engaged her viewers in a performance piece which entailed a varying audience member sitting across from her at a table in silence, solely staring into the 65-year-old’s eyes in an attempt to question the concept of art becoming life.
Marina Abramović has always been a fascinating creative force, but this documentary will be the first opportunity to see the woman behind the legendary artwork. It might just be her most inspiring performance yet.
Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present is set for release on July 6. marinafilm.com
Ever since John Galliano’s departure from Dior in March last year, the fashion industry has been playing its own game of ‘designer ping – pong’ bouncing names back and forth in speculation as to who will take the creative reigns of the Parisian couture house. Jacobs – Tisci – Ackermann – Jacobs – Simons – Kane – Ackermann – Simons… It went on.
However after a year-long debate the rumours were finally put to rest yesterday as LVMH CEO, Bernard Arnault, announced that Raf Simons will take over as Artistic Director. Having left his previous post as Creative Director at Jil Sander earlier this year, Simons will commence work at his new design home with immediate effect, preparing for what will be his first Dior collection, which will be showcased at Couture Fashion Week in Paris this July.
In the space of a few short years, Gemma Cairney has gone from fashion graduate to styling Florence and the Machine before a complete volt face into radio and TV presenting.
On the eve of her first breakfast show for Radio 1, Twin caught up with the rising star and asked for her top eight tunes…
You were a fashion stylist for a number of years and styled a number of musicians – was music always an inspiration to you?
Subconsciously, definitely. I”ve always shied away from considering myself a “muso” of any sort, but I”ve always adored it. Especially dancing to it.
When I was styling I knew some musicians and we all wanted to work together so we orchestrated some fun photo-shoots, that’s how it started really.
What have the past three years been like for you, the career change, finding yourself in front of the camera and on the radio?
Bonkers. I like trying things that make me excited and my stomach churn. When you try new things, I”ve found you continue to meet new inspirational people along the way. I was 22 when I decided I wanted to do more than just fashion and that I should try radio presenting. I loved it. The past three years has just been a continual stomach churn.
What”s your everyday mantra?
It”ll be alright.
What does being on Radio 1 mean to you?
A mind boggle of joy.
What else are you excited about for the future?
I have two documentaries coming out later this year that are quite serious, it will be good to share what I”ve been sinking my teeth into for quite a while now. Obviously, getting settled into my new Radio 1 role and lastly (the most boring) is putting up some cork tiles in my house! So that I have fixed notice board & can get more organised.
Gemma”s top eight tracks…
1/ Erykah Badu ft. Common – Love of My Life (Ode to Hip Hop)
I”ve been in such sparkling awe of Erykah Badu from around aged seventeen onwards. I just thought she was amazing, all of her songs hold such special nolstalgia for me. I remember finding out that she”d once been out with Common and I could hardly cope I found it so cool.
2/ Dub Phizix – Marka
This is new(ish) record that we played on 1xtra and I was gripped by the genre journey I was taken on. That sounds stupid, but if ya haven”t heard it listen and you”ll see what I mean.
3/ So Solid – 21 Seconds
The sheer frothing peak of garage raving. This tune is massive.
4/ Spice Girls – Spice Up Your life
Just beacuse I so did, most probably a generational thang.
5/ Mikey J and The Female Allstars
Rock the mic – female musical power in its current form.
6/ Barry White – Can”t Get Enough of Your Love
I used to swoon around the lounge to my mum”s Barry White section of her cd collection on repeat.
7/ Lauryn Hill ft. D”Angelo – Nothing Even Matters Such a beautiful song. You JUST get it. Not to mention how stand out brilliant the album it”s from is.
8/ TLC – Creep
It was hard to choose between TLC and Destiny”s Child – who I”m obsessed with – but I had the Crazy Sexy Cool album on cassette before Destiny”s Childs” Writing”s On The Wall, so they win.
Listen to Gemma”s playlist
From 7 April 2012, listen to Gemma Cairney at the weekend, 7am-10am, on BBC Radio 1.
Conjuring up images of everything from Maharajas to Marilyn Monroe, diamonds hold highest rank when it comes to wonder gems. So it’s fitting that for this month only diamond specialists, Cartier, have taken over Selfridges’ Wonder Room for an exhibition entitled Cartier Loves Diamonds.
Enriched with over 150 years of history and heritage, Cartier are sure to captivate visitors with their savoir-faire on the subject of sparkling stones. Part of the space houses a special “bridal lounge” as well as an exhibition composed of archive imagery and stories on legendary Cartier stones which have ultimately become just as famous as their eminent wearers.
Diamonds have long been associated with idealistic views of romance and love – something that is much of a focal point in Cartier’s series of short films entitled True Love has a Colour and a Name, all of which are available to view in the room’s “interactive space”.
Pride of show is the renowned “Oriental” Tiara; a platinum headpiece dating back to the beginning of the Twentieth century featuring over 1,200 diamonds – We’ll be adding this to our Spring wish list then!
Cartier Loves Diamonds is on now until 29 April located at The Wonder Room, Ground Floor at Selfridges, London. selfridges.com
Spring is sprung. Continuing their collaboration with Liberty of London, Nike Sportswear have taken the luxury store’s iconic floral motifs and flowerbombed their classic running trainers. From the Cortez to the Air Max 1, the Make It Count collection is about making fashion work hard for you.
Twin has its eye on the Destroyer Baseball Jacket in particular. Make sure you check out the Nike pop-up space if you’re in London this April.
The time of the YBAs feels like an eon ago. It’s a feeling galvanised by the simmering of retrospectives for artists who were part of the irreverent gang. Last year saw a retrospective of Tracey Emin’s work at the Hayward and for 2012 it will be hard to avoid Damien Hirst, once his show hits the Tate Modern this week.
Meanwhile at the Whitechapel, Gillian Wearing is the subject of a major retrospective of her work. Wearing as an artist will be forever tied to the golden years of the Nineties; winning as she did, the Turner Prize in 1997 as New Labour and a new focus on British culture came to the fore.
Her work also documented the change in how individuals engage with society. With its confessional quality, Wearing’s work has long negotiated the lines between public and private.
Influenced by Seventies documentaries, she has a history of taking private individuals and unveiling them as objects of interest. Her ability to persuade subjects to make private secrets public foreshadowed the reality TV generation, proving fact is every bit as beguiling as fiction.
Gillian Wearing is at the Whitechapel Gallery until 17 June 2012
If you don’t already have plans for today, Twin recommends heading down to Jacob’s Gallery in Butler’s Wharf for The Responsive Eye exhibition.
The original The Responsive Eye was an exhibition held at MoMA in New York in 1965. Bringing together artworks by so-called ‘Op’ and minimalist artists such as Bridget Riley, Josef Albers, Viktor Vasarely and Almir Mavignier, audiences were challenged to rethink ways of viewing art.
For 2012, Twin’s own Francesca Gavin has curated an exhibition of contemporary optical artworks, with the same aim of exploring our mental and physical relationship with art. And as part of South London Art Map Late Fridays the exhibition will be open until 8.30pm tonight. Utilising digital techniques such as gifs as well as video, this is optical art brought to date.
The Responsive Eye is at Jacob’s Island Gallery until 12 May 2012
If you haven’t already, check out Simon Annand’s illuminating portraits of actors at The Idea Generation Gallery. Taken moments before they step into the footlights, each portrait is a study in concentrated emotion. Often pensive, with an air of mystery, they are private moments shared with the photographer.
Annand has been photographing actors in the final half an hour before curtain up for 25 years. In 2008 he published The Half, a book of his work, but he continues to add to his oeuvre and the exhibition includes new and unseen images of London’s leading theatrical lights. His work gives theatre lovers unprecedented access to a who’s who of performers, with humour, fear and always intimacy. The Half brings the dressing room to life, making it a stage of its own.
Simon Annand: The Half is at the Idea Generation Gallery until 8 April 2012
French sweetheart, actress and musician, Stephanie Sokolinski makes emotionally charged and soul searching songs her way. With her debut album I Thought I Was An Alien out now, Twin asked SoKo, to name the nine songs that are important to her…
1/ The Wire: Outdoor Miner
My favourite punk song. It gives me motivation when I”m down. It makes me want to make music!
2/ Youth Lagoon: Afternoon
Afternoon song. I”ve listened to this album so much since it got out. Instant crush kind of music that makes me feel peaceful that makes me travel.
3/ PJ Harvey: The Last English Rose
Favourite track off her new album. I”ve listened to that song on repeat so much! It makes me wanna dance and shout in a mic and wake up in a good mood !
4/ The Shivers: Beauty
So much beauty. The song I wish I wrote. The song I wish someone wrote for me. The feelings I wish someone would have for me.
5/ Talking Heads: Road to Nowhere
My favourite morning song. A smile on my face all day is almost guaranteed if I wake up with Talking Heads!
6/ Kings of Convenience: Winning the Battle, Losing the War
These harmonies…these words…breaks my heart.
7/ My Morning Jacket: Hopefully
“Hopefully it occurs to me that there”s one thing I cant stand. That”s the thought of a single day, without your head in my hand.” Perfect lyrics, perfect love song. My Morning Jacket”s always touch my heart.
8/ Kurt Vile: My Sympathy
Kurt Vile is the one artist I”ve listened to the most this year. I can never get sick of his amazing finger picking…voice.. melodies…lyrics…
9/ Cass McCombs: Full Moon or Infinity
Cass McCombs is the one person I wish I could do music with. This song is the most comforting song I can think of listening to.
From portraits to reportage and award-winning advertisements to Pirelli calendars, the images of Brian Duffy are an iconic documentation of decades past. Now the Proud Chelsea gallery is making a tribute to the photography legend, who passed away in 2010, by displaying a rare collection of his signed prints.
Starting his career in the Fifties as a freelance photographer for Harper’s Bazaar, Duffy went on to photograph the likes of Jean Shrimpton, John Lennon and David Bowie, most memorably for the cover of his Aladdin Sane album.
Duffy, alongside David Bailey and Terence Donovan – nicknamed the Terrible Trio by British press – innovated the style of documentary fashion photography by capturing the zeitgeist of Swinging London in the Sixties.
After making the decision to abandon still photography, the English photographer and film producer famously attempted to burn all of his negatives in 1979. Fortunately, a few priceless artifacts remain, making this exhibition both a poignant photographic homage and an unmissable visual experience.
Duffy: The Lost Portraits is on display until May 13 at Proud Chelsea, 161 King”s Road London SW3 5XP.
If you aren’t already listening to Grimes, then it’s time to catch up. The 23-year-old Montreal based musician, aka Claire Boucher, blurs the lines between singer and producer by making and recording her own records. Delivering influences from lullabies to Nicki Minaj through her lisping four octave range voice, Grimes whispers of vulnerability but is powerfully mesmerising.
Totally committed to the creative process, for her fourth record offering, Visions, Boucher blacked out the windows and merged night with day for three weeks. Oblivion, featuring a compulsively watchable video by Emily Kai Bock, is a floor-filling pop song with shadowy undertones. We love her strong brows and free-spirit style. Look out for Grimes in Twin’s new issue next month.
One jacket, a multitude of stars. That’s the premise behind Chanel’s new Little Black Jacket exhibition at Toyko’s G-building in Aoyama. Featuring over a hundred beautiful and talented faces from the fashion jet set, styling out one timeless Chanel tweed jacket in their individual way, this is about icons wearing an icon.
The exhibition is an exciting preview for Chanel’s new book The Little Black Jacket: Chanel’s Classic Revisited by Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld which hits bookstores this autumn. While the images are chic in the Chanel way its adoring public demands, the project is a testament to the star pulling power of the fashion house and the endurance of great fashion design.
Featuring Chanel perennials like Laetitia Casta to striking characters such as jeweller and actor Waris Ahluwalia this is more than just an ode to feminine elegance, it’s a document of modern style culture right now.
Little Black Jacket is at G-building, Tokyo until 15 April 2012 chanel.com
“Necessity is the mother of all invention” So goes the saying, and so it was that in 1858, trunk packer Louis Vuitton innovated a stackable luggage trunk to ease transportation of the prodigious wardrobes of travelling madamset mademoiselles. In doing so, the wheels were set in motion for a brand now estimated to be worth over $19 billion.
Those wheels are turning faster than ever over a century later, under the skilled tutorship of Marc Jacobs. The brand and its designer, whose signature sense of irreverence and fun has seen models arrive on the catwalk via a full-size carousel and most recently, a moving locomotive engine – complete with steam – are now the subject of a new exhibition: Louis Vuitton – Marc Jacobs.
Two floors of the Louvre’s Musee des Arts Decoratifs, have been dedicated to exhibiting the French luggage icon and its Artistic Director since 2007. “Marc always starts with the bag”, says curator Pamela Golbin of Jacobs’ approach to each collection, and all 53 bags he has designed for LV are among the exhibits – which include those original
trunks – displayed in a larger-than-life “chocolate box”.
His exceptional brand vision is behind such successful collaborations as those with artists Stephen Sprouse in 2001 and Takashi Murakami in 2003 – the resulting bags creating waiting lists that took the idea of an ‘it’ bag to a whole new level.
If you find yourself in Paris between now and September and have more than a passing interest in art or fashion, don’t miss it.
Louis Vuitton Marc Jacobs is at Musee des Arts Decoratifs until 16 september 2012. The official book of the exhibition by curator, Pamela Golbin, is published by Rizzoli in April.
The residence of Sigmund Freud serves as a fitting space to showcase the work of sculptor Louise Bourgeois, whose exhibition The Return of the Repressed explores her thirty years of ambivalent attachment to psychoanalysis.
As an artist who drew on her childhood experiences, French-American Bourgeois was primed to blossom in the Fifties, but her path was impeded by the precipitous domination of abstract expressionism, spearheaded by the ‘macho’ art of Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Subsequently, only four commissions for one-woman shows between 1953 and 1978 followed.
Her surrealist artistry with its lack of signature style and use of materials including meat, wood and latex rubber, was completely divergent to the idealism of classical sculpture.
She remained on the periphery because the art world found her profound technique and emotionally fragile inner world difficult to negotiate and comprehend.
Nonetheless, in 1982, at the age of 70, Louise Bourgeois, the artist who utilised her visceral pain to awaken a higher state of consciousness in the viewer, was given a retrospective by the Museum of Modern Art in New York; therebyembracing this gloriously fearless late bloomer with mainstream acclaim which had eluded her for so long.
Louise Bourgeois: The Return of the Repressed is at the Freud Museum until 27th May 2012
Inge Jacobsen uses embroidery, cutting, and collaging to create new images out of magazine fashion editorial and newspaper imagery.
As well as a response to the mass of imagery that makes up the modern world, her work comments on the way the female body is used as a commercial object. Intricate, time consuming and unique, her craft ruptures the gloss and glamour of the fashion world to create something lasting.
The 25-year-old’s work will be on show at the SHOWstudio shop as part of their Selling Sex exhibition from Thursday.
Twin spoke to the artist about her work…
What came first for you, art or craft?
Art. I was very interested in drawing and painting before I started university and I still do it from time to time. I spent much of my childhood and teenage years painting, and I originally wanted to be a painter.
When and why did you first apply embroidery to images of women?
When I started studying Fine Art at Kingston University in 2006. We were encouraged to think outside the box and explore ideas rather than specific techniques, so there was a lot of freedom to do as you pleased with your work. It was difficult at the beginning because I was surrounded by all of these incredibly talented and creative people, so I found it hard to create anything original.
I stated collecting fashion magazines knowing that I wanted to work with that sort of imagery, I just needed a way to intervene into them. I had found some embroidery pieces from my school days in Denmark when I was moving to university and thought that that would be a great method to use.
Your work has been embraced by the fashion industry – how important is it to you to keep your point of view undiluted by commercial projects?
Well I’m incredibly stubborn, so I find it quite easy. I don’t mind doing commercial projects if I think they will complement my ideas, such as the one I did with the Georg Jensen campaign. That worked for me because they have a long traditional craft based history (silversmiths) and a lot of their pieces are still made by hand in Denmark. I felt this was important because my work is handmade by me and it is a very traditional craft embroidery. I am happy to do commercial projects as long I don’t feel like I’m compromising the bases of my work and ideas.
What challenges does having feminist sensibilities, but also enjoying fashion, pose for you?
I think the two can work very well together. It can be difficult at times to distinguish whether women are being empowered or exploited but it certainly isn’t a not a black and white issue. I love the clothes but I often have an issue with the size of the models. They seem to be getting younger and skinnier and its not a great look in my opinion.
Clothes and fashion can help some women, and men, feel empowered but magazines and other imagery from that industry can also be great at making you feel awful about yourself. It does set unrealistic standards on ‘real’ women which I do find frustrating. The same is true for some types of porn, particularly those made by large industries. I was sad to learn that the only three industries where women earn more than men is in pornography, prostitution and modelling. We need to do better than this as a society.
What fashion designers do you admire as artists?
Christopher Bailey because he has done such a brilliant job at Burberry and Miuccia Prada because Miu Miu and Prada always make me smile with their bright colours and quirky designs.
Can you tell me a bit about your participation in the Selling Sex exhibition for ShowStudio?
The exhibition is made up of female artists and is really a look at how male gendered our visual culture is. The gallery contacted me and asked if I would like to include some of my stitched porn illustration in the show and any other work that I felt would contribute to the theme of the exhibition.
I was so flattered to be included and have my work next to such great artists. The subject is also one that is very important to me as a woman and as an artist. It is refreshing for stitching and embroidery to be displayed as equals to painting and sculpture because, like many crafts, it is so often mistaken for a lower form of art and people need to understand that that is not the case.
How long does one of your ‘covers’ take on average to complete?
You know, I get asked this a lot, and I can see why people are interested considering how intricate some of the pieces are, but honestly, I don’t keep track of the time. It all depends on how detailed an image is and how big it is. Sometimes I’ll start working on a piece and then leave it for days without touching it, so it’s hard to keep track of time. I have said 30- 50 hours in the past but I think it’s more around the 20 hour mark now that I’ve become quicker at it.
What’s next for you?
I am currently working with photographer Rebecca Thomas and using a series of her images. I’m also experimenting with different type of stitch to create a paint like effect, with stitches that resemble brush strokes.
Selling Sex opens on March 22 and runs until June 1 at SHOWstudio Shop, 1-9 Bruton Place, London
Ari Seth Cohen’s blog, Advanced Style, has always been a standout in the online world thanks to its mantra of “capturing the sartorial savvy of the senior set”.
A fresh departure from the often youth-orientated direction of most street style blogs, Cohen’s documentation of the timelessly stylish 60 years plus crowd has garnered him a cult following, so the news that his photographs are soon to be released in book form is sure to please both young and old.
With over 200 images of eccentric elderlies and interviews by the likes of Dita Von Teese, Advanced Style proves that aging doesn’t mean having to compromise. After all, like Yves Saint Laurent once said: fashions fade, style is eternal.
Advanced Style by Ari Seth Cohen is out May 22, published by powerHouse books.
In recent years, film has fallen in love with fashion. An industry packed full of eccentric characters just waiting to be shot to stardom, fashion is a goldmine of entertainment. Moviegoers flocked to see the September Issue and Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel is just one of a few films in the cinema pipeline.
This weekend though, UK fashion lovers can finally catch the joyous Bill Cunningham New York, one year after its release in the US. A street-style veteran and innovator, Cunningham was at the forefront of photographing real people in their clothes donkey’s years before the blogosphere erupted.
With his crumpled slacks, cheap waterproof, bicycle and film SLR, the octogenarian has dedicated more than three decades to filling the pages of the New York Times with street style.
Famously eleusive, it took eight years to make him agree to the documentary, but it was worth the wait. Bill Cunningham New York introduces the man behind the lens, along with a few fashion legends such as Anna Wintour and Michael Kors. More interesting though are the quirky characters that make up Cunningham’s life with in the artist’s apartments of Carnegie Hall.
To look at Cunningham’s work is to explore the fashion jungle that is New York. As he says, “The best fashion show is on the street. It always has been and always will be.”
Bill Cunningham New York is in UK cinemas from today
Heavily manipulated images with an exaggerated sense of reality form the signature style of Chinese fashion photographer Chen Man.
Since shooting her first cover for Chinese avant-garde style magazine, Vision, Man’s work has gained increasing recognition. Having worked with brands such as Adidas and Nike, she’s most recently collaborated with MAC cosmetics. The Chen Man range, subtitled Love & Water, is described as a ‘bold, sensual and lyrical colour collection’, based around her fascination for love and water, represented by pink and blue.
The ascendancy of Man’s star coincides with China’s own as a burgeoning economic powerhouse. In forging her own path, Man’s bold, innovative style has been credited with inspiring a visual revolution in China.
For her first UK solo exhibition, Man‘s photographycollates modern Chinese city landscapes with ancient architecture, which provide a backdropto explore the assorted themes of science fiction, consumerism and popular culture.
Despite the complex and myriad layers of post-production employed to control and manipulate the finished product, the natural beauty and poise of her models forces its way through her art. Otherworldly and eccentric Man’s imagery reflects an obsession with perfection and the impossibility of many beauty aesthetics.
The Chen Man exhibition is showing at the Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester until 7th April
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