Opening Ceremony: one stop shop.
Interview by Dean Mayo Davies, Photographed by Jeffrey Graetsch, Styled by Delfina Pinardi.

Opening Ceremony is the New York store founded in 2002 by Humberto Leon and Carol Lim. Since then, the duo, who live and breathe shopping and collaboration, have established further spaces in Tokyo and Los Angeles. …Enter to see the full story

Opening Ceremony: one stop shop.
Interview by Dean Mayo Davies, Photographed by Jeffrey Graetsch, Styled by Delfina Pinardi.

Opening Ceremony is the New York store founded in 2002 by Humberto Leon and Carol Lim. Since then, the duo, who live and breathe shopping and collaboration, have established further spaces in Tokyo and Los Angeles.

Today they add their own menswear and womenswear collections, which you can pick up alongside their edit of as Proenza Schouler, Peter Pilotto, Pamela Love and pencil cases (that’s just the ‘P’s); CDs, candy, books and whatever other objects take their fancy.
Inspired by the rawness of hardcore thrifting and the mentality of travelling – they select and feature their favourite designers in showcases by country – Opening Ceremony has collaborated with names including Dr Marten’s, Levi’s, Pendleton, Sanrio, Spike Jonze, Timberland, Robert Clergerie, Uniqlo, Keds, Betsey Johnson and pal Chloë Sevigny – though this list is by no means exhaustive.
What better way to catch up with Leon than to channel all that excess energy into a quick-fire pop quiz? Get ready. Steady. Go!

Today I am wearing…
A vintage chambray shirt, a Gemeos tank top, Body Glove shorts, Tabio navy socks and vintage LL Bean desert boots.

But I wish I’d never worn…
Baby tees!

On my Autumn/Winter 2010 wishlist is…
A house upstate!

You wouldn’t know it, but I’m great at…
Hula hooping, ping pong, cooking and speaking Cantonese.

I was born…
A really fat baby at 10lbs.

My favourite colour is…
Green, but sometimes purple. And sometimes together.

My favourite word is…
Totally.

My ideal day would be…
Riding dune buggies on a beach all day!

The last person I spoke on the phone with was…
My mom.

The last thing I listened on my iPod was…
Love is in the Air by John Paul Young.

My favourite food is…
Chinese food, fried chicken, tacos, Vietnamese food. There’s too many to name, this would take 10 pages!

My ideal dinner party would be attended by…
My family and friends and maybe Elvis in the early years and John Lennon.

The biggest risk I ever took was…
Opening Opening Ceremony.

My worst vice is…
I love telling bad jokes that make me laugh.

But I’m great at…
Remembering things people shouldn’t remember and forgetting important things.

My karaoke tune is…
Anything Reo Speedwagon and Air Supply.

And my favourite drink is…
Lemonade and coconut water

My favourite country is…
America.

At high school I was…
A popular nerd.

I laugh when I think about…
My mom and sisters.

My favourite thing about Carol Lim is…
Her thoughtfulness.

My favourite thing about Chloë Sevigny is…
Her laughter.

My favourite thing about New York is…
Walking from neighborhood to neighborhood.

My favourite thing about Los Angeles is…
The suburbs.

My favourite thing about Tokyo is…
The ramen.

After answering these questions I  will…
Go back to reading my 6,574 unread emails on this July 4th.

CREDITS SPECIAL OPENING CEREMONY SHOOT:

Photo: Jeffrey Graetsch
Styling: Delfina Pinardi

Make up: Maud Laceppe @ Community nyc
Models:  ATAUI @ TRUMP model management and Salieuu Jalloh @ RED model management

Portrait Talent: Humberto Leon

All the clothes, shoes and hats  are : Opening Ceremony,
except:
look 6 & 8 : necklace, model own.
look 3 & 5 : gold necklaces, New York Vintage
look 2 : Sunglasses, vintage courtesy Silver Lining NYC, Hat, stylist own.

Federico and Jin are the shadows behind London menswear label Komakino, “For outsiders. We’re outsiders and this is who we’re speaking to.”  …Enter for the full story

by Dean Mayo Davies.

Federico and Jin are the shadows behind London menswear label Komakino, who have been quietly chipping away and building a following for the past six seasons. “I guess they’re strong clothes for strong minds,” Capalbo muses. “For outsiders. We’re outsiders and this is who we’re speaking to.”

It’s true that their aesthetic, along with a handful of other designers that share a certain dark soul, has crossed over into the mass-market recently, as a trend embraced by even the most pop brands that shouldn’t have touched it with a bargepole.
“That’s something very true,” agrees Capalbo. “Something that comes from the heart blew up to even the shittiest corner of high street womenswear. In six months the offenders will be doing pink and bows and sequins again. I’d like to say I appreciate so many different things – not just black! The one thing I hate is fakers. It’s been a while since inauthenticity has been so cocksure.”
Focused and coming out the other side, the future looks bright for the design duo, who hail from Italy and Korea. In September Komakino will present in New York for the first time, during an off-schedule event at fashion week. Listen carefully and pass it on.

You’ve decided to show not a catwalk in New York, but an exhibition at Envoy Enterprises…
We were actually approached by the gallery about doing an exhibition some time ago. Now we feel the time is right to present not only our clothes but our world in such a space, throughout a series of installations and text, of which we’ve collaborated with yourself on. It’s exciting.

I’ve found it a really inspiring collaboration. One we’re continuing, I hope. [Laughs].
Of course! [Laughs]. Our inspiration has come from college and high school, these universal symbols and experiences. Very concise American imagery but the clothes will remain very European. Codes like MA1 and slim tailoring are something we can’t move away from – it’s part of us, what we live and love.

Have you always been into fashion? You come from a very specific viewpoint…
Well music is obviously very important and a lot of references come through that – both viscerally and as detailing. I’m sure you don’t need a roll call – when you know, you know and that’s it.

There’s colour creeping in for Spring/Summer 2011…
In the right places yes, there will be a flash. But very, very precise.

What are your ambitions for the future?
We’d like more support at home really, London hasn’t been as receptive as you’d think to what we’re doing. It’s very cliquey here and not necessarily the big happy family the media paint things to be. There have been a few collections around that look ‘ready-made’, shall we say. It’s fucking embarrassing, patronising to those that actually design and make clothes. I bought a sandwich for lunch – does that make me a chef? I guess some of us will always have to fight for everything, and everything we’ve done, we’ve done ourselves. We want to be able to carry on and grow stronger. We are lucky to have people that do understand – a meaningful dialogue with friends and clients that share so much with us is worth the world.

Komakino exhibit and present Spring/Summer 11 during September 6-14 at Envoy Enterprises, 131 Chrystie Street, New York.
www.komakinodesign.com
www.envoyenterprises.com

Interview by Alban Adam.
Natalia Brilli is certainly one of the most promessing accessory designers out of the new generation of European talents. Her designs have this unique style that makes them immedialty recognisable… Enter for the full story.

Interview by Alban Adam.

Natalia Brilli is certainly one of the most promessing accessory designers out of the new generation of European talents. Her designs have this unique style that makes them immedialty recognisable. Leather is her sacred material and the modern update of the long forgotten encasing technique she’s using give her the world as a limit. She exented this technique to all fields associated with accessories: Jewelry, bags, objects and more, and her creativity was awarded with the Andam french fashion price in 2006. But it almost didn’t happen as accessory was not the path she was aiming for, we converse with Natalia Brilli at a Parisian Café terrasse, to learn more on her how she got to do what she is now known for, her inspirations, goals and other behind the scene insights.

Adam: Natalia, can you tell me about your journey between your teenage and your first accessory collection?

Natalia: Well in fact, it’s not that direct, as I was never really ment to do accessories, as I entered Brussels school of aplied arts La Cambre in 1991 to study scenography. This was really what I wanted at the time. But I didn’t really get on with the other students of the scenography department so i started hanigng out with the fashion students and did some work with them on textile design.

A: So was that when the fashion click happened?

N: No, I liked it but that was it, I helped out designers such as Xavier Delcourt at the time, passing nights before the show in his flat, sewing strass and doing some embroideries, but I was already getting jobs on scenography for Theaters in Brussels from my 3rd year at La Cambre. I then was in the scenography team of the National Theater of Brussels for 8 years.

A: Did you enjoy the job? And the life in Brussels?

N: Yes and No, Brussels is a very small town and you go around it very quickly and that’s what made me move to Paris, i needed to g out of this circle of post-communist hippies that filled the theater scene, so I left Brussels for Paris in 2000. It was also to join my boyfriend, Lionel Van Den Bendem who had a sportswear / urbanwear label called Epure.

A: Paris now, new life, what did you do there, more scenography?

N: Actually that’s when it all started about the accessories, as Lionel asked me to design a accessory collection for Epure. At the time i didn’t really know how to do that so I learned. I then joined the IFM (French Fashion Institute) where I interned in a shoe label, it was then that the leather became my obsession! I had to do a collection for he final year and along the garments I made accessories and shoes encased in leather.

A: So how did you decide to launch your own label?

N: I didn’t really decide, it happened. At the IFM final year exhibition in 2003, Marc Schills from the Rochas studio spotted my accessories and asked me to join him at Rochas under the artistic direction of Olivier Theyskens, meanwhile the buyers from Onward boutique in Paris expressed her desire to buy the collection. So I worked at Rochas and had to do a collection of my own! And it started there, the collection was quickly selling at Louis in Antwerp and Maria Luisa in Paris. Natalia Brilli, the accessory label was born.

A: It’s quite an unsual story, it’s almost magic! So will ever go further than accessories like developping ready-to-wear?

N: It was a quite instant moment, and no I’ll stick to accessories, there’s so much more to explore in that field. I’d love to do shoes but it is a real personnal and financial investment and needs to be done at the right time with the right partners. So the door is open to collaboration.

A: I would love to see Natalia Brilli footwear, and that brings me to think that there’s almost no limits for you on applying your leather encasing technique to almost everything, isn’t it?

N: I wish it was so, but leather is a living material, it ages, it cracks, and encasing has the tendency to erase the details that recovered, there’s also the limit of the leather size, it’s very limited. Encasing with leather is complicated process, you need to have a special tanning on the leahter, it’s a technique that no machines can do, and at Natalia Brilli everything is hand-made!

A: About that, remember when we met in Brussels fort he opening of the art group show you were part of at the Alice Day galery, you told me you wish you could invent liquid leather, any progress yet?

N: Oh, (laughter) I wish I had, but no, not yet, I would need to get into complicated scientific formula… not there yet, really!

A: You don’t have a completely fashion focused background, that’s probably what makes you different in the industry, but what would be your first fashion memory, designers often quote dressing their sister’s barbie, or going through their mother’s wardrobe…etc.what’s yours?

N: it’s very difficult to focus on one only, it’s all kind of blury, but there was this magazine in Belgium, called BAM magazine, part of the La Mode c’est Belge campaign promoting belgium fashion, and there’s of course Martin Margiela’s first show in Antwerp, amd an amazing pair of fuschia shoes from ADM, I really loved those.

A: It’s always so lovely to talk to you, but everything has got to have an end, so to finish this interview I’d like you to tell me more about your vision of Natalia Brilli in the future, short and long term…

N: First I want to keep doing what I want to, I would love to have a shop but this needs to be well thought about the timing and location, for now we’re working on our soon to be opened Pop-up corner at Printemps. Then I’d love to have more time to devellop limited editions and my work on art objects, like the drumset, the animal skulls and hunting trophies, I’m already happy to have started working with Brussels based Alice Day galery and want to have more to show there.

Interviewed by Marcelo Burlon, photographed by Sean Michael Beolchini
I don’t remember the first time I heard Devendra singing, I just remember the first time we had contact… Enter for the full story.

Interviewed by Marcelo Burlon, photographed by Sean Michael Beolchini

I don’t remember the first time I heard Devendra singing, I just remember the first time we had contact. Devendra is a funny, sensitive, and very friendly guy, almost a perfect human being. I say almost! When we finally came face to face it was like lighting struck. He held my hands and told me that he would never leave me, and of course I believed!

I’m pretty sure that Devendra doesn’t like hippies anymore but I was born and raised in a small village in the north of Patagonia, where most of the habitants are hippies. They started migrating in ’69 living together in communes enjoying and coveting each others goods from food to partners. These hippies also learned to cultivate in my land with the native Guachos putting their touch on handicrafts, culinary art to the collective creativity of theater and dance.
 Devendra has also kept his root and the way he makes his music is intimate with the feel of being homegrown, of being a native. He has an aroma of patchouli and contradiction with the essence of a lover and a friend.

What was the first song that you ever remember, from your childhood and where you were?  What’s the first song that you ever wrote and where it you were?
First song i heard was either some strange eldritch tune by celebrity puppet EL Topollilo, or Smells Like Teen Spirit …
First song i write was about plastic surgery, it was called “Were all Gonna Die” i was 9 or 10, in Caracas… needless to say, after “performing” it for my family  i was asked to never sing again…. (needless to say, i should have listened to them..)

What’s your favorite singer ever?
Terry Reid, Karen Dalton, Chet Baker, Barbara Lewis, Joseph Spence, Alicia Keys, Jeremy Enigk, Paul Butler, Antony, Nina Simone, Arthur Russell, Desmond Dekker, Dave Thomas (Pere Ubu), Atahualpa Yupanqui, Natasha Khan, R kelly, Sky Saxon, Son House, Blind Willie Johnson, Kate Bush, Maki Asakawa, Frankie Valli, Harry Nilsson, The Ink Spots, The Mills Brothers, Ivor Cutler, Jana Hunter, Alton Ellis, Rodrigo Aamarante, Mariah Carey…… the list goes on…..

What Song would you have liked to write?
Every Cramps song…

Can you tell us about Record Club?
Its an ongoing project Beck has going where he invites friends to cover an entire album in an afternoon …. we (Beck, his awesome band, MGMT, Andrew from Wolfmother, Binki from Little Joy and me)  did Leonard Cohens first album, theyve done VU and Skip Spence as well as a couple others…. its super fun and he’s a truly brilliant person.

Where do you live and where you would like to live?
I dont live anywhere right now, im renting a little place in Los Angeles till i find a place, i keep hearing i live in Topanga but i havent lived there for years……. i have no idea where i want to live….

What other job do you like to do?
Lets see… i like to look in the mirror, cause others pain,  and google my name … just kidding, except for the cause others pain part, and the look in the mirror and google my name part, what do i like to do?????hmmmmm…. since i dont smoke weed and have a general disdain for hippies i would make a good narc?

Can you tell us about A WAYS A WAY – Curated by Meredith Darrow & Devendra Banhart?
It was a show we curated together that brought together artists that are working in a variety of disciplines, for example, Fab Moretti is an amazing illustrator as well as best songwriter of all time and all around badass, I draw early 90’s surf brand (Gotcha, OP, Bad Boy Club, etc) style eyeballs as well as “Playing”  ”Music”….. etc..

Can you please make a playlist for us?
I would be delighted to, heres what ive been digging lately;

Hearts on Fire  - Cut Copy

I would hurt a fly – Built to Spill

Baby dont go – Dum Dum Girls

Key to the Gate – Burzum

French Navy – Camera Obscura

Pap Smear – Crystal Castles

Lady daydream – Twin Sister

Enough of the Night – Jackson Browne

You Saved my Life – Cass McCombs

Sex Intelligent – The Dream

Hold a Desert, Feel its Hand – Grouper

One Day – The Church

Little Girl Blue – Chet Baker

Blue Ocean Blue – Lake

I want you but i dont need you – Momus

Oh It’s such a shame – Deerhunter

Luv Goon – Pearl Harbor

These are the finest queer boys ive ever seen – The Frogs

You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine – Lou Rawls

Magic Arrow – Timber Timbre

To the East – Electrelane

A Dogs Dick – Jana Hunter

Breakaway – William Truckaway

Too Experienced – The Bodysnatchers

Love Me – The Cramps

Exit – R Kelly

Make you Mine – Best Coast

Sliver (solo acoustic demo)- Nirvana

Music for Marcel Duchamp – Markus Hinterhauser