And now the shoes...

... as promised. Daphne Bikkers designed these shoes for her graduation at the Academy of Arts in Arnhem, The Netherlands in 2006. They are all handmade and she even made pairs. She designed her collection in the style of the collection of Antoine Peters graduation at the Fashion Institute Arnhem. In so doing she scored a) brilliant pictures and b) attention from very important fashion people who attend the graduation shows in Arnhem every year.

Very rarely you see cool shoes for men like these ones...

She now headed for London where she is doing her master degree in MA Fashion Footwear. That means we just have to wait a little more until her prototypes turn into buyable products.
To see more check out her profile at the Virtual Shoe Museum - which is worth a visit anyways.

Do you like my big sweater?

Antoine Peters is obviously a huge (!!) fan of the world of sweaters - or is it more the other way round? His 2006 project is called "A sweater for the world" and he (the sweater) claims to wanted to be worn by "only" one percent of the world population.
Antoine Peters wants to go on a world tour with his two-person sweater - Amsterdam and Paris have been on his way so far. He is taking pictures of the people willing to wear his sweater. For his current collection he made a print of the pictures taken by now and turned the fabric into clothes itself.

But also in his 2006 collection he was kind of obsessed with great sweater - dresses.


I want one too!! But since I am only 1,59m tall (not small) i would probably drown in it - no, not probably - definitely!. Aren't the shoes great as well? They deserve a post of their own, so tune back in...

stylin'

photo taken from www.myspace.com/tayako

StilInBerlin just posted some pictures about this aerobic rave on the streets in Berlin. The 80s do not seem to be exhausted. Of course we saw it all coming since American Appaerel is such a hype... We had the leggins and the big shirts (just to mention a few things) for some time now, but I think there is still more to come - like neon and all other flashy colours.
You probably heard it - New Rave. Maybe Rave is more a nineties thing, but New Rave when it comes to the fashion is
definitely inspired by the 80s.

photo taken from BigShinyThing

To sum it up and to give you some more inspiration here is a video of the 80ies heroe / icon Mr.T commenting on fashion.

just pop

Tado is a duo from the UK who do graphic design, illustration, animation, toy design and everything in between. I came across them when I was actually looking for wallpapers - they also made wallstickers.
When I visted their site (very cute btw) I found the follwoing in their portofolio. They did the wallprints for a fotoshoot for ELLE UK titled 'Tokyo Pop'.




I just love the whole styling.

They also used the vases of Jamie Hayon - I saw them last year on the IMM Cologne. They are just great and all the hype about him is justified.

// website update //

Probably you did not know that, but we run a label for fashion accessories,Gabriel & Schwan.


We updated our website and our new collection is now online...

::pimp your walls::

Sharmila Banerjee is a Cologne based Illustrator and Graphic Designer. Her colourful world is full of little animals and odd creatures in phantastic landscapes.


She made illustrations for the RheinDesign Flyer and now you can purchase some of her work as wallstickers, available at tapetenagentur.

I really like her work because it reminds me of some artists that create vinyl toys. The mister and I are totally into collecting these little characters...

little people

Via modernieteter I found out about Little People.

It is so brilliant! I always wondered what to do with this tiny figures from the toy train shops. I really had a good time watching all the installations they made.
You can also buy prints of their pictures.

Abfallaufwertung...

Generally I am not a big fan of recycling fashion or design, but some people just know how to do it!
I came across the works of Stuart Haygarth earlier, but since all that eco-discussing has started, I can put it in another context.


His chandelier is huge (150 cm diameter) and made from empty plastic bottles and containers and basically anything else that is kind of transparent.
When i was looking for other recycling artists/designers i came across this site: Superuse. Different artist or designers propose how to re-use stuff - or better how to give garbage a new meaning.
The follwoing two examples I liked most...

This is a bedroom in a former pipeline in an old industrial building. Click on the picture to see a bigger version (of course you did know that).
The Architects of Lot-ek did a good job restyling this bulding into a beautiful loft. Be sure to visit their website.

The other items are slightly smalller...
...old knives turned into bottle openers. They look so oldfashioned in a french way (cannot explain, but i know you understand). Made by cuttingupknives, unfortunately the website does not work - maybe you are lucky. But you can buy these via Pension für Produkte. A nice website btw.

There is a nice book of Superuse, too, by 010 publishers.

Pastel Shades

I simply love Audrey Kawasakis art. I love the way she paints and what she paints. I love the fact that she paints on wood, which gives her paintings immediately a kind of vintage attitude. Her paintings are innocent on the one hand but with a slight hint of erotism on the other. Also it reminds me of some Art Nouveau tableaus while her depictions are sometimes even surrealistic.

I picked out two paintings that have that twenties thing going on.

The first one reminds me of Marlene Dietrich (which makes it of course a bit more a thirties thing).

trying to be positive about the weather...

... so i show you some swimsuits of kymare. It is a dutch brand and owned by Kim Wormgoor who also studied in Arnhem. (Well i come across arnhem fashion designers very often in the last couple of weeks... coincidence? NO!)


We visited her studio in Arnhem lately and I was lucky to get a hold of a bikini of an older collection. yeah, my first bikini who deserves to be called a bikini - sorry h&m!

Zeigt her Eure Beine...

Meike Diedeling has dedicated herself to the design of stockings... Most of them have a text printed on them, but my personal favourites are these ones:

Little bags spread over your legs! They come in different colour combinations but I stick to the always fresh and classy red and white combination.

comuun

...just posting some pictures of a friend of mine...
Kaito Hori has a very refined style and i love the graphic appearance of his designs. They have this special "ZEN thing" about them. A great contradiction to my last post and to what I have seen in Arnhem in general - my eyes just needed some rest.

Arnhem Fashion Biennale

On saturday we went to the Arnhem Fashion Biennale. As I studied in Arnhem it was a nice opportunity to get an idea of what is going on in that little town I left two years ago. Saturday was the last day of the exhibition so we were lucky to get a package of pappabubbles candies when we purchased our tickets. HAPPY FASHION was the motto of the biennale.

I decided to show you the following designs, because of what I saw they were the most striking.
Yoshikazu Yamagata in collaboration with knit artist mafuyu knitted and crocheted dresses as an allegory of his hometown. A very poetic approach to create something that can be worn, used as a product or that is just something to play with.


Bas Kosters could be called an all-round-designer more than just a fashion designer - he even makes music nowadays. His installation in Arnhem resembled a white-trash-trailer-park, except for the trailer was not a living space but a kiosk.

LOOK at RHEINDESIGN

Nadine & Nicole, designer of Nani Coldine


Marie, author, & Paul, mediadesigner

goldig

Finally we have a new up to date fashion store/boutique in cologne... GOLD, Antwerpener Straße 13. Being up to date is kind of their motto, as stated in an addition to their actual name: GOLD - Mode zur Zeit. They sell fashion and accessories from young designers from Europe and besides that, books and records. Some name dropping follows...Kaviar Gauche, Cheap Monday, Eksempel, Presque Fini, Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair, Wood Wood, Sabrina Dehoff etc. In the music department you can find a selection of smaller/indie record companies e.g. Ghostly Records, Kompakt or Noisedeluxe Rec.

on the streets in cologne #3

Julia


Tina & Oliver


C'mone

Die verkappten Roboter

Sue Denim of electro duo Robots in Disguise shows us around in BERLIN.

While searching the internet for nice things to wear (that I cannot afford), I came across the online shop of Le Train Bleu. They have a really nice range of clothing there. I found this dress...


...and fell in love! Unfortunately it is sold out already. It reminded me of something Vitkor & Rolf would or could have designed as the bow was kind of their trademark for years. I tried to find a picture of a breath-taking dress by Viktor & Rolf that was exhibitetd in the Groninger Museum until last year.







I could only find this one, which is kind of the white version of the black one I am talking about. Both dresses were fabulous though, pleated and with bows allover.


And if you are in Milaan take a look at Viktor & Rolf's boutique...
It is like a viktorian ballroom turned upside down.

NERDY ANYONE?

Okay, we cannot escape from this new trend - the NERD Look.













I googled some old highschool pictures to give you some original inspiration. And please, if anyone recognizes him or herself here... this is not to mock you but to show you were a fashion pioneer!



Of course there are some designers that take this nerd-thing to a more sophisticated level, such as Yuko Yoshitake, which I found via bored & beautiful...






...and our all time favourite 80ies-sporty-nerd-provider American Apparel provides us (as I just said) with some ultra hot glasses...




And for those among us who need a little bit more check out this video from weird Al "white & nerdy". It is of course not really a fahionable inspiration but more a research on what nerdy actually means...

Jen Stark

A little while ago I found a picture of one of Jen Starks sculptures. She makes the most colourful sculptures from paper. When I visited her website, i found a lot more... For example the very delicate cut-out leaves - I assume she did the cutting on the fresh leaves and lets them dry afterwards!?