Milan Fashion Week

Alexander Mcqueen was fun and Raf Simons for Jil Sander was sublime. Not entirely sure about the woolen leggings from Prada. though they could be worked with an oversized t shirt/cardie// although actually fuck it! at least they are not a suit.

designer

Junko Shimaden

Designer

daniel herman

designer

romain kremer

ARTISTS

Maurizio Cattelan

Yong-ho JI

Willie Cole

Yasumasa Morimura

Artists, Designers, Photographers

Today I like:

Designers

Alexandre Herchkovitch
Jeremy Scott
Jason Wu
Tsubi
Chapurin
Norma Kamali
Junko Shimada
Cut 210

Artists

Wolfgang Leib
Ingar Dragset
Fabrizio Plessi

Photographer

Terry Richardson


See in the latest issue of Sleek Mag: www.sleekmag.com to see some of these delights

6+ Antwerp

This book is necessary. Newly released in 2007, it charts the rise of designers from the Antwerp Royal Academy - mainly 6 who were crucial in shaping modern fashion design: Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Marina Vee, Walter Beirendonck, Dirk Bikkembergs, Dirk Can Saene.

To see where such London designers as Cassette Playa take influence from, look no further than Bernhard Willhelm's a/w 2003-2004 collection, picturesof which are in the book. the resemblance is uncanny.

The book also contains a brilliant essay by Cathy Horyn of the New York Times about Belgian Designers with a focus on Raf Simons.

but my favourite bit is an incredibly well-researched and intelligently put article on fashion and make-up by Caroline Evans, which poses questions about the very existence of femininity, calling it an assumed mask, one of many, that can be taken off over and over again. This stance is strongly rooted in contemporary feminist discourse, especially works by Judith Butler:

'When make up is done- as here- by an avant-garde make-up artist like Inge Grognard, contrivance comes to the fore. From behind the scenes, the invisible puppet mistress manipulates the masquerade. A woman in these images can become a pirate, a warrior, the walking wounded: all of these things are possible, yet none of them is a fixed reality. Endlessly played out on the surface, there is no 'authentic' gender behind the masquerade of womanliness. There are just limitless facades on which to enact the drama of femininity as a form of choreographed deception.'

I have never found anything that echoes my own feelings about clothes and make-up more than this.

This book is published by ludion: www.ludion.be