because you are gold

I have never been so happy about the end of the week, as I’ve been about the end of this particular one. Now I’m just counting the days until the end of this year. I’m pretty disgusted with the number of times I had to travel to the nearest workers’ union for legal advice, having to double-check every single word after my employer, and being faced with loads of bullshit. So I’m typing up a letter to the internal workers’ union, which will probably be taken for someone charging at windmills. Oh well!
On a slightly brighter note: I will be happy to find myself in Amsterdam this Wednesday for another visit to Individuals, which has changed the name to ‘by AMFI’ – they are installing a whole new concept store within their space, and I am handcrafting an article on that subject with great enthusiasm.
So yes, the new material for the magazine is flowing in, it’s taking an interesting shape and the deadline is set for February!
In other news – I’m jumping of joy, because I just won this Bernhard Willhelm sweater on eBay:

I’ve been drawn to anything black and gold lately, especially if the garment has some surprising detail and doesn’t look festive or dressed up. Even though black and gold combination is being abused by all high-street brands without exception, I see it more as an effortless weekend option for a lazy outfit which can be recycled for the evening of drinks.

I’d love to have enough golden watches to pile them on as bracelets, an oversized clutch bag, a pair of tapered trousers, and some special headgear. Very much inspired by this very perfect outfit: for a second I even wish my hair were white and messy!

a ghost train*ing

It seems ages have passed since the RA opening – so much I talk about them, but there’s always a distinct reason. If you would like to discover the essence of RA as an arena for displaying and producing a portfolio of products, site-specific projects, exhibitions, installations, performances, and all events that promote and enrich the creative and cultural discourse, then next Thursday you are invited to the nocturne for 'a ghost train*ing' by Dashenka Prochazka. Her work is poetic and morbid while being nonetheless cheerful filled with complex details we often only understand after a second reading. Her music possesses a delicate way of storytelling.


So on 3rd of December the former gallery space in Kloosterstraat shall showcase Dashenka’s multi-dimentional works throughout the space that has been reconstructed and renovated with respect to its historical architectural value.

RA – the initiative or Romain Brau and Anna Kushnerova - once again sets a collaboration with a guest contributor for another evening of unexpected and fabulous. Alongside to this shall I mention again the impressive list of brands they carry?
Henrik Vibskov, Fabrics Interseason, Bless, b-store, Cosmic Wonder, Chloë Sevigny for Opening Ceremony, Arne & Carlos, Stine Goya, Ann-Sofie Back, Gareth Pugh, Louise Goldin, Giles, Damir Doma, Ute Ploier… OMG(no, that’s not a brand, it’s just me sighing again!)

See you there!

the cronicles of random v 2.0

A Sunday well spent is the kind of Sunday when:
a) The breaks on the bike are fixed, so no more stopping with the help of the heels and in the bright morning hours I can take a ride to the flea market.
b) I score a vintage Burberry trench for 7€, five minutes later a black 70’s calf-length one for 10€. Viva les Marolles!
c) On the way back home the streets of St.-Gilles remind me of Aldgate East snapshots from one year ago. I miss the east side messy London.
d) The rest of the afternoon is spent knitting.
e) I have finally collected all the leaves that have fallen onto my backyard – welcome winter!
f) Manicure, pedicure, bubble bath, yeah


In between of the little pleasures I’ve been eager to DIY something at the (re-)discovery of the whole collection of Dylon fabric dyes in my closet. I used to dye a lot of fabrics during the studies in Antwerp because I like the uneven texture of bleached prints and added colour, but I never really tried to dip-dye anything before because somehow it always reminds me of the early 90’s. But in a matter of few minutes the pink powder and salt dissolved in a bucket of hot water – in goes my COS t-shirt – and I’ll be happy to look like someone has spilled a strawberry milkshake over my head.

On a more abstract note – I found yet another 3D zebra crossing in my neighbourhood!

chronicles of random

I’m probably being very boring right now, but I would love to have a little something imported from London. It’s Topshop – shame on me! But I feel some strange affection for lurex knits, antler prints and hexagon shapes.
While I’m deciding which one of those to order, please admire this link – Susie wrote a lovely article about Mieke Willems shop in Antwerp. I recommend to everyone!
By the way the RA press release is in, so expect some more RA doodles from my part tomorrow.

high needs low

12 dec. @Congress, BXL

individuals statement store

To anyone who takes interest in young talent – here’s one event for your agenda: Individuals Statement Store spring/summer collection presentation. As you may know from my previous mentioning of ISS – it is a concept store run by the 3rd year students of the Amsterdam Fashion Academy. It used to be the unique retail point for their collection that has been created collectively, but it has grown into a functional clothing brand sold in other boutiques in Holland. Next week I’ll be going to Amsterdam to discover more. Photos and review shall follow.

25th nov. from 17h @ Spui 23, A'dam

my space

I’ve been admiring spaces lately. There’s something enchanting about a well proportioned space with an installation to alter it and to boast its originality all at once. I’m collecting images in an inspiration folder, making selections of spaces treated similarly style-wise and colour-wise and hoping to use this inspiration as soon as the opportunity comes up.

I love the fruit stickers on the mirror (installation work by Denicolai&Provoost) and the glossy black wooden floors as a contrast to a fire-red grotto room. I’d hang the clothes from the branch and serve them to you in white boxes for food packaging…

too cool for school

So it finally arrived – the COS spring/summer 2010 collection! Seeing this now, I’m afraid I’ll be writing more about COS after I quit the company, because it got just a bit edgier, just a bit more simple and the dots are above the ‘i’’s this time around.

For spring COS lightens up which is a great relief after a horrid season of black black black (nomatter how much black I can cram in my wardrobe, I could never appreciate a shop stuffed with black like a turkey with apples and buckwheat) – the colours are kept within the range of cream, alabaster, pearl, acid yellow and surprising injections of gold and tar. There’s a side to COS that is incredibly futuristic, but in the 90’s way. The flattened out shoulderpads and slim silhouettes remind me a lot of Topshop’s current season with its endless flying saucers, so may be the 90’s rave references spring out from this similarity. Yet as usual COS keeps it cool and practical: skirts with huge collapsing pockets and draw-strings, zippers and rivets embellish otherwise basic trousers. The fabrics are textured but the shapes are clean – that’s where the catch is - and with even a minimum of decoration COS keeps the clothing balancing on a very thin line between romantic and conceptual.

I am in love with the trechcoat-dress in golden silk, the printed dress with bleached seams, the aforementioned draw-string skirt and the asymmetric white dress.

Yet there’s always the Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde – the romanticism turns around into the Raf Simons-like aesthetic. Haber-style mesh shirts gain shoulderpads and become dresses worn deliberately over white garments. This look is as sterile as a school lab where children play around with bottled frogs – surprising and yet so domestic and innocent.
A huge part of the collection draws inspiration from Erwin Olaf’s photo series ‘Grief’, Patty Smith and school lessons – poetry to science.

if i had a million...

There is definitely a big IF stuck in my way, but I can dream on Sunday night, right?

trench Weekday

bag Surface to Air

dress Stine Goya for Weekday

shoes United Nude

un animal devra mourir

What can be better than starting a Saturday with a cheesecake for breakfast?

Well, admiring my work completed is quite a reward (or rather just not seeing anything COS-related for a weekend) – the big Christmas change has transformed the shop, so all of you who are already thinking about the festive period can drop by rue Neuve 66 (i.e. COS Brussels) for the fix of black+gold+embellishment while the stocks last and to say ‘hello’ to your devoted origami-blogger while I’m still there. I am counting my last weeks at COS impatiently to move onto the next year that will surely be full of magical experiences and opportunities. The past two years have been a great school and I must thank everyone for putting up with me. Yet I’m eager to try something new and way more challenging because ‘I put my soul in what I do’ (yes, coming back to my latest favourite tune again).
Now moving away from mass production to something more elaborate and intriguing: yesterday’s presentation of Giuseppe Virgone's new collection held at RA13 in Antwerp.

There was something pagan about the embellishment, largely executed in fur, hair, feathers and metallics, the collection has grown from flesh toned soft textures that were at times contrasted by slashed effects onto the all-black and incredibly tactile, and finally onto the matte golden surfaces and draped effects. And the incredibly monotone and soothing drones acted as a background, as well as marble walls and ceiling. Yet there was no luxury under the cold contemporary light – one could trace tribal influences, in the best sense of the word, because the translation of such influences in the clothing remained simplistic within the paper cut-outs that formed a bond between the opulence of feathers or beads and nomad silhouettes.

Chapeau to the organization as well! The served dishes, the ingredients of which I wasn’t really able to decode (apart from the possible presence of blood sausage) were quite a stunner. I strongly advice the RA team to continue impressing it’s friends, and to any of you who missed this event sign yourself up for a newsletter and definitely be there next time instead of admiring the blurry photos produced by my shabby camera.

publish and be damned

http://www.publishandbedamned.org/
This one is more like a mental note of the self-publishing fair held in London at Bethnal Green. One – it makes me want to go to London and hang out in Shoreditch/Bethnal Green looking for a flat for rent. Two – so many DIY mags in one room is overly exciting. Three – good idea for next year.
Found it via this blog.

this week's hidden agenda

I don’t mean this blog to become some sort of a quickie agenda, but I don’t have that much time these days, so I’ll keep on posting about the places to go to.
This Thursday at Walter Shop in Antwerp (Sint-Antoniusstr.) you’ll find the Bury Me Standing – the presentation of Andrea Cammarosano’s collection.
Andrea Cammarosano takes funeral rites and submarines as the starting point for his new collection. With his perception of garments as coffins forming the link between the two, he designs utopian coverings using technical shapes and unusual materials, reframing the body for a better understanding.

On Saturday at RA13 (Kloosterstr.) is the 'un animal devra mourir' - a ritual by Giuseppe Virgone. This is the presentation of the menswear collection in conjunction with the musical performance of Nemoi and the scenography of Guillaume Airiaud.

I’ll come back with pictures from both of those, especially excited about RA13, as not only the event is worth a visit, but the entire shop is a magical place and the catalogue of all current fashion knowledge. So see you there!

late-night playlist

ooioo - not really sure what I like about them, may be the haircut of one of the girs...just give this band a try - it's amusing.


no bra - my OBSESSION

TWIN - just discovered them today and felt like I've been missing out.

Telepathe - re-considered after a re-read of the interview in the first issue of Under/current, but still can't tell them from School of Seven Bells.

These new puritans - 25 jan '10 London

Kap Bambino - why the only date they played in Belgium is in Liege???

rape blossoms

@The Strip (Kortrijk)
http://www.myspace.com/rapeblossoms

mixed business

Here's a merry clicker for those who admire the diy/low key publications.

Based in Sydney, Australia and always fascinated by the phrase Mixed Business used by many Sydney convenience stores, Joseph Allen adopted this phrase as an umbrella term for his unrestricted commercial art making. IzRock Mixed Business became a convenience (or possible inconvenience) store for graphic design, art direction, publishing, curation, zine making and general art tom foolery. Over here the Izrock publications are avaliable to us - the European folk namely at NOG Gallery in London (no wonder some zines looked familiar - NOG gallery is a diy zine gallery and an occasional gig venue serving as a platform for mostly experimental noise bands just on the corner of Brick Lane and Cheshire street in Shoreditch and just two steps away from my favourite Lik+Neon shop), but there are also stockists in Berlin, Hamburg and Copenhagen.

Thanks, Koenraad, for the link!