POP 985 Monday 3 September 2012

Today's POP is Lily… Our girl collaborates on a charming "Child Is The Father To The Man" window on Dover Street.

5 reasons POP loves Wolf & Badger:

1. They're supporting young designers.

2. Strong in menswear, check out Lou Dalton.

3. Great eye for jewellery.

4. They collaborate with Lily Silverton, ie they know which way the wind is blowing.

5. Wolf & Badger is a great name, what's not to like?

wolfandbadger.com

POP 984 Weekend 1-2 September 2012

Today's POP is Stephanie. Gestures.

POP loves a Vaginal gesture. Cue Wilke & Schneemann. This past Thursday saw the opening of Sarah Lucas' fourth installation  the artist's space at Sadie Coles. [See POP A/W 12 back page]

With each installation, Lucas' SITUATION has seen a slight change, but this one was the real head-turner:

Lucas met Kiwi artist Rohan Wealleans in New Zealand & decided to hook up…

Coles has curated Wealleans' wallpaper of loud glittered Indian-coloured pussies behind the YBA's Bourgeois-esque sculptures.

Now that's the Situation.

Lucas + Wealleans at Sadie's place is POP.

READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY ⎯ ⎯ >

POP 983 Friday 31 August 2012

Today's POP is Rachel. Un Deux Trois.
 

Dimitris Alexakis – one amiable, friendly and enthusing half of Greek fashion duo Deux Hommes – has been designing together with Grigoris Triantafyllou from their Athens hometown for 18 years. He describes their signature as ‘a kind of liquid geometry,’ cutting in order to create a ‘very well defined silhouette out of fluidity.’

When we met at their atelier in Kolonaki earlier this year, naturally our conversation led towards the Olympics. At this point, our newspapers were in the middle of proclaiming a transport apocalypse. How did Athens feel back in 2004? ‘To be quite honest I skipped almost half of the month on vacation,’ he laughs. ‘Everybody that stayed here was talking about heaven, it was a totally different city. It was a city that was heaven to be in.'

‘It felt like the most important thing in the world, what was going on here. I was not really convinced because I knew that there was a kind of illusion to this joy and optimism. This kind of prosperity was a little fictitious. And the truth is Athens never became a bigger tourist attraction after the Olympics than everybody supposed so.’

Eight years on, the dilapidated Olympics buildings I passed on the drive to their studio from the southern suburbs lay dormant to this memory, the sprawling graffiti in full bloom. Sitting in the sunny Deux Hommes studio, the contrast between this historic city’s former Olympic paradise and the current situation is stark. But Dimitris is determined to combat any burgeoning disillusionment about the country’s future like a true local.
 

‘There are people who think that now this situation is a country full of people ready to migrate for financial reasons, as if it belongs to a third world country. In a way there is a serious problem, but still some things could survive out of this situation. Because otherwise, how can there ever be any kind of growth again? How can you go back into business if you cannot offer any new products?’ he asks.

Grigoris and Dimitris have been designing in Athens long enough to see an ever-changing cycle of attitudes and cash flow towards fashion. When they met at fashion school in the late eighties, ‘fashion wise, trend wise, nobody really bothered,' he admits. 'It was almost demonised to go into fashion design for a young guy’ – right through to the heady 90s when they established their label, and they were met by the Greek masses with back pockets full of credit cards.

At an outsider's glance – the streets’ cafés rich in conversation, spilling into the warm afternoon – the crisis appears paused. But here, life exists outside, and we are only a few roads away from Syntagma Square and Central Greek parliament. 

Our discussion continues below. 

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POP 982 Thursday 30 August 2012

Today’s POP is Rachel. Bag it up.

When art berlin contemporary approached A.P.C. about designing an exclusive tote to celebrate their partnership with Berlin Art Week this September, founder Jean Touitou couldn’t resist pairing the two acronyms together. 
 

The result? An A.P.C/abc flipside. 
 

With a new A.P.C. store in the works in West Berlin, and Berlin Art Week’s packed schedule from 11-16 September looking promising – we’re booking our flights.

Jean caught up with POP before setting off on his summer holidays to tell us more about what’s happening this Autumn. 

What spurred this collaboration between A.P.C. and abc?
Art berlin contemporary approached us to design a tote bag for their event in September. I could tell you I am interested in Art and Berlin (which is part of it) but actually I thought it was quite funny for A.P.C. to collaborate with an organisation called abc!

The A.P.C. totes have become significant in their own right for the brand’s ethos in casual contemporary design. Why did you choose the bags as your means of collaboration with abc?
Everyone loves a tote. But the idea here was to go an extra step and make it a bit more special and less throw-away. We have used archived  A.P.C. fabrics for each of the bags. As our fabrics are made exclusively for us, each of those simple totes are very limited in numbers.

What is it about the Fasanenstrasse area of Berlin which attracted you to open the new A.P.C. store there?
Fasanenstrasse is located in the Western part of Berlin and we thought it would be great to have a store in this area, as the current store is located in Mulackstrasse, which is in the more central, East area of Berlin. There are fans of A.P.C. from all walks of life and we have noticed around the world that people like shopping at a "neighbourhood" A.P.C. store. We recently opened a store in the West Village of New York and it has become extremely popular with the locals who actually live in that area. I wanted to do the same for Berlin. 

I am also very moved that the store will be next door to the Literaturhaus, a really inspiring place, and in front of a very, very decent Italian restaurant. It felt like home to me.

READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY ⎯ ⎯ >

POP 981 Tuesday 28 August 2012

Today's POP is Kusama. The ultimate POP Queen.

Can't afford art? Now think again.

If you happen to be in London, make sure to POP into the very nice Louis Vuitton store on New Bond Street and get yourself a VERY limited and numbered edition. So all friends of POP should run run run down there.

POP 980 Weekend 25-27 August 2012

Today's POP is Ethan. Seeing spots before his eyes.

If you had happened to be walking by New Bond Street within the past few days, you will have no doubt noticed the dwarfing red and white-dotted tentacles emerging from the Louis Vuitton store. Beneath them stands a lone figure of Yayoi Kusama, peering out the glass from her realm of psychedelia. This display however, has fallen prey to Selfridges' new 24-window dedication to the much-celebrated Japanese warrior of aesthetics. Lined up are rows of Kusama sculptures, toadstool recreations of the woman that has been challenging herself within her own world since the 50’s. Polka-dot legs stem from mannequins, colliding with a plethora of primary colours.
 

POP’s exclusive shoot with Louis Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama in the Autumn/Winter 2012 issue of the magazine harnesses this rapid-growing spontaneity, channeling the Pop Art spirit that the artist always manages to communicate. Shot by Viviane Sassen and styled by POP’s Vanessa Reid, models were contorted and revealed as if we were seeing images of Kusama in her youth, rearing her friendly backside for the camera. Silver balloons and neon circles keep the kitsch alive on set, models with painted boobs and swinging handbags spread themselves alongside the Artist’s manifesto “Stars, the Earth, I and You. We are but one Polkadot”.

The signature dots of Kusama’s have erupted. Make sure to check out the latest issue of POP for the lowdown: Can you spot the difference?

POP 979 Friday 24 August 2012

Today's POP is Jamie… Cover girl of the moment.

What is it about Franca Sozzani and POP towers? Sure she loves our mags (right from the FACE days she adopted our creatives first), but this cover synergy is getting spooky…

So from Joan Smalls to Jamie Bochert, POP and Vogue Italia walk hand-in-hand!

Jamie meanwhile walks first for Chanel (relegating Stella Tennant) and sits as #1 in Steven Meisel's beautiful line-up of the season's best model talent.

So Meisel Vs. Sassen? That's a tough ask… Meisel's a king and there's no denying that.

Although no-one zigs and zags like a zebra.

POP 978 Thursday 23 August 2012

Today's POP is Clementine. It's all about the money money money….

EASTPAK have teamed up with HiddenCity, a company who offer an alternative experience to bars, pubs, restaurants and shops in urban cities around the UK.
The HiddenCity experience can be enjoyed in groups, with participants following a series of clues sent via text to help them find the secret locations.

EASTPAK have given a novel spin on the idea by offering the winners a cash reward of £5,000! On the 28th of August an elusive character known as the "Insider" will plant the reward money in an obscure area of London.
 

How to sign on?
Go on to the HiddenCity website and follow the instructions.

HAPPY HUNTING!

POP 977 Wednesday 22 August 2012

Today's POP is Jessica. A further look at the warrior artist who executed our stunning new POP cover…

The new POP is something of a Viviane Sassen special. We spoke to Viviane at length about her incredible career that effortlessly spans the worlds of art and fashion. She is best known for her graphic yet surreal shots of Africa. These portray Sassen's vision of a continent she loves but also demonstrate the contrasts that set her work apart from others. Her vision is totally unique, extremely personal and at the same time the world she presents is abstract and impossible to define. It's sculptural and poetic work and if you don't have it already you should hunt down a copy of her recent book, Parasomnia. At the end of this year she is planning a book and exhibition of her fashion work that has the working title 'Laboratorium'.

"That's more or less how i see my fashion work. It really has that function in a way. It enables me to earn some money to spend on my personal work, but it's also a source of inspiration. The fashion and the art both inspire each other, but I feel that with the fashion I can go more crazy somehow. It's on a different level. My artwork is very close to my heart and for me the fashion is more like a playground. I still have restrictions though in the fashion world, showing product and so on. But it's these opposite forces that feed my imagination."

Photography Viviane Sassen