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9 years ago
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This week, while we are trying to figure out how to somehow incorporate bodysuits into our late-Summer wardrobe, or how to convert a shirtdress into a layering piece, Paper Magazine has issued a fantastic round-up of 15 fashion stars-to-come that you need to know about right now .
These designers are fresh out of design school, probably excited to hit the ground running this September when the official 2015 international Fashion Week season returns after Summer hiatus.
Here's a sneak peak at FOUR of the designers featured in the round-up that are going to be household names by the time the 2016 Fashion Week season cycles in.
You're welcome.
1) Jon Max Goh, Parsons The New School for Design
Photo: Hiu Zhi Wei
Talented design, who also has a great singing voice, creates gender fluid ready-to-wear that doesn't conform to mainstream norms. “I’m interested in asking why and how we design the way we do—and answering these questions by designing in a way we don’t,” Goh tells Style.com.
2) Samantha MacDonald, Savannah College of Art and Design
Photo: Samantha MacDonald
This designer-to-watch will not be as easy to find on future high-fashion runway but she will certainly influence popular style as in-coming Assistant Fashion Designer at Macy's starting this Fall.
3) Elizabeth Hilfiger, Rhode Island School of Design
Photo: Elizabeth Hilfiger
Tommy's middle daughter might prove to be a chip off the old block, effortlessly creating preppy fast fashion like h[...]
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9 years ago
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There are two different ways to write about The Amina Profile, Sophie Deraspe’s startling new documentary about Syrian activist Amina Abdallah Arraf, author of the blog A Gay Girl in Damascus. One way is to tell the story that has already been covered in the press but is not necessarily that widely known in this country. The other is to review the movie up to a point, leaving a big chunk of it vague for anyone who may not be familiar with the narrative (and doesn't conduct a Google search before finishing this paragraph). Maybe there’s a sort of middle ground?
The doc begins with texting between two young women who have connected on a social media site: Amina, a Syrian American living in Damascus; and Sandra, a French Canadian living in Montreal. It soon becomes flirtatious and sexual, mainly on the part of Amina, who seems starved for this kind of forbidden contact. The film shows Sandra recalling the genesis of this digital relationship and how she becomes intrigued by details of Amina's life as an activist circa 2011, at the dawn of the Arab Spring. She gets caught up in Amina’s daring new blog A Gay Girl in Damascus and the latter's reports of police harassment due to her outspoken views. At one point the mainstream press picks up on the post “My Father, My Hero,” in which Amina describes how her dad defended her against the police. She becomes a heroic figure in the blogging community, a sympathetic symbol of the Syrian revolt.
Punctuating this na[...]
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9 years ago
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Is there a such thing as a stupid question?
According to our second grade teachers and parents, no. However, in the world of music journalism, the response not as positive. According to some outlets, yes, there definitely are stupid questions. Especially when it comes to interviews.
About six months ago, Nosiey ran a piece about what to ask and what not to ask during an interview with a band. The article amounted to a list of taboo questions that the author, Dan Ozzi, determined to be “shitty.” The list was drawn up based on the the premise that if a question could “be asked of literally any band ever...[then] it is a bad question. Do not ask it." Questions like "What does your band name mean?" and "What are your influences?" were the first to be stricken from use. Both those questions are fairly popular, so it makes sense that Ozzi would want them taken out of circulation. However, this unforgiving stance on the content of interviews fails to address several things.
Firstly, how old a band is. Not how long have they been a band or whether they're tweenie-boopers, but rather how long have they been in the public eye. Are they a known band? How long have they been sitting down for interviews and fielding questions? If the band has only ever done an interview with their hometown newsletter, it’s safe to ask about the origin of their name and how the band members met. If the band is The Foo Fighters, those kinds of questions are best left off.
Ozzi has a point in[...]
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9 years ago
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Bushwick Open Studios wrapped up a while back and this year featured a lot of wild installations, fantastical sculptures, and a return to painting. While I was there, I stopped in Pablo Garcia Lopez's studio where I saw his work that mixed all of the three. A couple of weeks later, I went back to sit down with him and talk about his practice and transformation into an artist.
Garcia Lopez did not begin working professionally as an artist until recently - his background is actually in neuroscience. He holds a PhD and still teaches classes. One of his published papers on Santiago Ramon y Cajal, known to many in the field as the father of modern neuroscience, plays heavily into his artistic practice. Cajal moved away from the accepted comparison of the mind to machines, and rather pursued the idea of comparing the mind to nature, specifically plants. Cajal said, "The cerebral cortex is similar to a garden filled with innumerable trees, the pyramidal cells, that can multiply their branches thanks to an intelligent cultivation, sending their roots deeper and producing more exquisite flowers and fruits every day." Writing in the 19th century, his words come into play much later in the silk sculptural installations by Garcia Lopez.
After learning of his background and interest in this matter, I was immensely curious as to how exactly it manifests in the artist's religiously charged works. He explained that his use of silk relates to the individual fibers of the brain, and [...]
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9 years ago
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Holy mandels, New York Fashion Week: Men’s edition premieres this week with designers like Thom Browne and Public School and Rag&Bone, Hickey Freeman presenting looks for Spring 2016! As you keep from sweating, waiting in anticipation for Women's fashion week to kick off September 10, check out some of the fresh, masculine looks hitting the runways this week!
What's interesting about this week's Men's Fashion Week in New York, which kicked off on July 13, and closes July 16 with a showcase by John Varvatos is that the biannual event might just get the attention that's it's been so eager to receive for a very long time, on account of the uptick in menswear sales.
Business of Fashion reports that, in the UK, "men have become so fashion-conscious that they are now outspending women on items like shoes." As Euromonitor International reports: "By 2019, menswear is expected to contribute close to US$40 billion in sales to the global apparel market."
So here are three things you need to know about Men's Fashion Week:
1) If You Want To Know What's Hot, You Need To Follow @StevenKolb
With respect to this year's fashion week, Steven Kolb, chief executive officer of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, or CFDA, the group that organizes New York’s fashion weeks, is the Grand Poobah of the week.
He's everywhere you'd want to be, hobnobbing with celebs, and capturing excellent looks from the front row, and immediately posting images and Vines on his Twitter pa[...]
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9 years ago
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https://vimeo.com/124416402
As we arrive at the conclusion of another school year, Art for Progress arts ed programs are developing and evolving in new ways. The music program at Humanities Prep has been flourishing, and we recently held a student and faculty talent show, showcasing the wealth of talent that has been incubating within the school. Performances spanned a wide range of instrumentation and repertoire, and even included some original pieces and songs written by the performers. AFP's Young Adult Enrichment Program has now spawned three bands, which are now gigging around NYC. Statik Vosion, the core project of the program, also recently played alongside my own band, Bad Faces at the AFP live music series “We Deliver” at The Bowery Electric on Manhattan's storied Lower East Side. Other projects are in the works for the summer, including a recording project to produce an EP release for Statik Vision and a music enrichment program in partnership with the Upper West Side JCC which will provide music instruction for under-served elementary school students. I taught the classes last year and if was a blast!
At Humanities Prep, in Chelsea, I have been teaching music to high school students for the past three years. Some of the talent that has been emerging from the program is truly unbelievable. I have seen a number of students who had never played an instrument before become capable, and even inspired players, while others have come to me with some experience and s[...]
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9 years ago
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Mable by Spraynard
When: July 10th
Spraynard was started in 2008 by high school friends Pat Graham, Mark Dickinson, and Patrick Ware. The group released several splits as well as 2011’s amazing Funtitled, which earned them a strong and rather devote following. However, just as the anticipation seemed to be building to critical mass, the band announced a hiatus in 2012. Fans were left with a compilation album, The Mark, Tom, and Patrick Show, put out by Asian Man records in 2014. The record would ultimately serve as an impetus for Spraynard to eventually reformed, but this time with Jake Guralnik replacing Dickinson on bass. With their new line-up, the band signed to Jade Tree Records where they now plan to release their newest record, Mable. The tracks “Everywhere”, “Applebee’s Bar” and “Bench” can already be heard throughout the internet. From these first listens, it seems that the new record will have all the clever, introspective, punk goodness of the old Spraynard and it will be as if the band never left.
Nina Revisited: A Tribute to Nina Simone by Various Artists
When: July 10th
The recent release of Liz Garbus’s What Happened, Miss Simone?, a biopic on Nina Simone, has sparked a renewed interest in the legendary singer. The film, which was made available via Netflix on June 26th, joins a bumper crop of Simone-centered pictures slated for release this year. 2015 should also see the release of the documentary The Amazing Nina Simone as well as the Cynthia Mort mo[...]
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9 years ago
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Damian Marcano’s debut feature, God Loves the Fighter, is a raw, highly stylized film about life in the rough Laventille neighborhood of Trinidad and Tobago’s capital, Port of Spain. Replete with a cast of colorful characters (played by an all-Trinidadian cast), eye-popping visuals, and a strong soundtrack of music by Q Major and Freetown Collective, God Loves the Fighter is a loose, impressionistic film that makes up in grit and atmosphere what it lacks in cohesion. It’s also a rare depiction of the struggling inhabitants of a city that has one of the highest crime rates in the Caribbean.
The film is largely narrated by King Curtis (Lou Lyons, half of reggae/spoken word duo Freetown Collective), a charismatic street poet and vagrant who describes Port of Spain’s poor east side as “a dirty, nasty concrete jungle of fallen leaves.” Curtis introduces us to a variety of characters, filling us in on their often-bleak back stories. These include main protagonist Charlie (Muhammad Muwakil, Freetown Collective's other half), who is trying to find legitimate work; Dinah (Jamie Lee Phillips), a young prostitute who finds solace in a local church; Moses (Simon Junior John), a middle-aged taxi driver who runs drugs in order to make ends meet; and Putao Singh (Darren Cheewah), a sinister thug who spouts bad ethnic jokes as he commandeers a combination bar/brothel/cocaine ring that controls just about everyone in the film. These characters (there’s also a young boy and his grieving, ab[...]
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9 years ago
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No doubt about it, fashion and music have an almost symbiotic connection. Tastemakers like Gwen Stefani make it look so easy, right? However, with the hit-and-misses of musical fashion designers like Kayne West, finding a way to successfully meld the two together is not an easy feat.
That's what makes former fashion accessories designer Krista Retto such a fascinating subject. She's flawlessly applied her talents in marketing and advertising into successful jewelry-making career, and then reinvented herself again (of course using all the skills she's mastered) to create a music company.
She's the co-founder of the Big House Companies, comprised of a music publishing house (Big House Publishing) and a indie record label (BHi Music Group), that has found a way to harness all of her past experiences into one all-encompassing career.
Ready to reinvent yourself? Krista gives some insight into how it's done. Read and learn after the jump. BhpNewYork.com
Jacqueline Colette Prosper, yummicoco.com
1) Tell us how you got into jewelry making.
I fell haphazardly into the world of jewelry. I went to Senegal, West Africa for music (out of pure love) and, while there, also discovered the beauty of gems and jewelry-making. When 9/11 hit, I stepped out of my corporate life and volunteered for months at the World Trade Center site, came home each night and made jewelry to steady myself. I had lost more than 30 people that I knew and I was more than rattled. Out of she[...]
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9 years ago
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New Jersey's pop punkers Man Overboard released their newest album Heavy Love today. The record is the follow-up to their 2013 release Heart Attack. The band has been steadily putting out music since their founding in 2008, beginning with the self-released Hung Up on Nothing. Not long after their EP came out, the band signed to Run for Cover Records and released another EP Dahlia. The following year, the band released Real Talk and signed to Rise Records. While the group has cycled through a few drummers and shifted its formation to some extent during this process, they’ve also largely stayed the same. Band members and childhood friends Nik Bruzzese (vocals, bass) and Wayne Wildrick (guitar) formed the group, recruiting Zac Eisenstein (guitar, vocals, piano) and then-drummer Justin Mondschein to join soon after. There was some reshuffling of the line-up in those early years and a period where Wildrik briefly left Man Overboard, but band’s current iteration seems to be sticking. The newer members guitarist Justin Collier and drummer Joe Talarico fit seamlessly into the band's sound, creating no disruption for this new record, which in it's nature is full-blown pop punk.
You can hear the famed inflection in Heavy Love’s opening track “Now That You’re Home”. Bruzzese nails that almost nasal-y tone without sounding whiny and lets listeners know within the first three minutes of the record that Man Overboard is committed to the genre. As if naming their group after a Blink-182 [...]
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10 years ago
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Eran Riklis’s A Borrowed Identity starts out on a humorous note, as we see young Eyad (Razi Gabareen) attempting to improve his family’s TV reception by adjusting the roof antenna, while his father Salah (Ali Suliman) shouts instructions out the window. Though Eyad loses his footing, falls and is knocked unconscious, the generally blasé reaction of his family lets us know he’ll be OK. We learn that Eyad and his family – Salah, mother (Laëtitia Eïdo), grandmother (Marlene Bajali) and several brothers – are Arabs living in the Israeli town of Tira. Although the film, which is set in the 1980s and early 90s, retains moments of levity throughout, it soon becomes a serious coming-of-age story about a young man who is caught between two often clashing cultures.
According to a 2013 census, over 20% of Israel’s population are Arabs, citizens of Israel who consider themselves Palestinian by nationality. A Borrowed Identity is based on the semi-autobiographical novel Dancing Arabs by Sayed Kashua, who also wrote the screenplay. It’s a clear-eyed look at the difficult situation of people who are not full members of the society in which they live, as well as the well-intentioned attempts by those in power at bridging that gap. In one early, mordantly funny scene, young Eyad casually announces, “Mom, I brought home my Jew,” the result of a school program endeavoring to bring together Palestinian and Jewish children.
We learn that Eyad's father attended university as a youth, but[...]
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10 years ago
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Haven: Saturday, July 25th at The Mothership, Brooklyn- 7pm - 1am
It's summer and it's time to celebrate with great music and art! AFP is co-hosting this rooftop soiree with our good pals over at NOoSPHERE Arts.
Barry Komitor's (AFP's Art Education Manager) band Bad Faces is set to perform with solo music performances from Lesley Kernochan and Charles Davi. Also, AFP's Executive Director Frank Jackson (aka DJ Gatto) is breaking out some select choices from his vast vinyl collection, and longtime friend DJ/Producer SR SERGE will be spinning a late set for your dancing pleasure. To add to the flavor, we have AFP artists Daniel Maldonado (Gashouse Films) and Jeanne Wilkinson creating video installations, while Cat Del Buono will present her "Beauty Box" installation. Last but not least, the very talented performance artist Duckie L'Orange will intrigue us with her creativity. Check out the invite below, grab a six pack or a bottle of wine and let's celebrate!!
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