I love to rise in a summer morn,
When the birds sing on every tree;
The distant huntsman winds his horn,
And the skylark sings with me:
O what sweet company!

But to go to school in a summer morn, -
O it drives all joy away!
Under a cruel eye outworn,
The little ones spend the day
In sighing and dismay.

Ah then at times I drooping sit,
And spend many an anxious hour;
Nor in my book can I take delight,
Nor sit in learning’s bower,
Worn through with the dreary shower.

How can the bird that is born for joy
Sit in a cage and sing?
How can a child, when fears annoy,
But droop his tender wing,
And forget his youthful spring!

O father and mother if buds are nipped,
And blossoms blown away;
And if the tender plants are stripped
Of their joy in the springing day,
By sorrow and care’s dismay, -

How shall the summer arise in joy,
Or the summer fruits appear?
Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy,
Or bless the mellowing year,
When the blasts of winter appear?

The School Boy – William Blake

http://patrikervell.com/

Yesterday we attended to the Launch of the 26th issue of iconic french fashion magazine Encens. It took place at non-any-less-iconic NY store Atelier on Hudson street. Needless to say, the cream of the crop was to be found among the attendees. Pictured here Zana Bayne (wearing a very impressive new piece of hers), Nikki Moose & jewelry designer Jonathan Goldstein.

Hair & head prop artist Tomihiro’s first show during the London Fashion Week is at 6:30pm on the 17th of September at Studio Private, 1 Kingsland Road.

Promising a phantasmagorical spectacle from Wendy Bevan and avant garde performance artist Masumi Tipsy Saito.

‘Whole project of this new head piece collection is directed by Neon O’clock Works – Tomihiro Kono & Sayaka Maruyama.
We designed new head pieces and made all the costumes and for the characters and portrayed pictures of each character.
We’ll have a short film screening and the strangest performance show, along with photo exhibition….’

More info here & here

For invitation/rsvp contact -  julie@balconyjump.co.uk

I was so pleased to be invited over seas to Barcelona 080. Originally, I just thought I would go spend some time with some Spanish friends who I was missing very much. Little did I know I would be getting in touch with a more relaxed side of myself altogether. Granted there was the occasional confused point of view and the lewd and lengthly display of poorly spent money. Over all, I have to hand it Barcelona 080 for putting together a show that rivals many of the fashion weeks that are now all over the map. Not since Stockholm have I known a European city, that is not London, Paris, Milan, or Rome (I wish Rome still had a fashion week) to present a handful of designers with a vibe that could be counted as defining of a geographical aesthetic. Granted, some of these designers were out of towners who had made an emigrant decision of some sorts. Here are just three designer cohorts in a sort of laid back style surely rooted in seaside confidence. Not lacking, but free from frills and trappings that ills the fashions and inhabitants of more panicked metropolises. Barcelona may be hot but it is clearly not bothered.

Below in vertical rows: left column – Yiorgos Eleftheriades, center column – Josep Abril, right column – Jean Lu Mes.

More Below…

I initially imagined the duo, Cardona Bonache, as a very serious potential business. Something that would work on a global scale and aesthetically akin to classic Calvin Klein. A friend argued that it was more aligned with Balenciaga and the argument that these are really involved patterns is a point well taken. Taken out of the context of comparisons there is no comparing this teams sleekness in the abbreviated week and, credit due, they speak their own language. A decisive maneuver around the concept of bellows that followed through the collection down to the shoes.

Last Image: Victor Cardona and Israel Bonache, A couple of tattooed dudes who’s entire crew has been marked by Sang Bleu contributor, Jon Dix.

After the show, I overheard Stefania Borras telling the press that her collection was about Mediterranean life. There was also a detail reference to jellyfish. I imagine it somehow far away from the sea in the black box of a modern dance studio. I would really love to see her collaborate on a dance performance here in New York. I wanted to stick her in my luggage and bring her home to Bill T Jones. It may prove more affordable (and comfortable) to float her her own ticket.

My favorite example of this Mediterranean ease in menswear was Karlotalaspalas. Not only does the collection strike me as completely comfortable and completely comfortable with its Catalan identity, Karlota has a really nice way of making simple and sublime points. Wafts of smoking incense in the breast pockets of suits calmed the crowd  while printed burning ends emblazoned pieces in other passages. I suspect this kind of quiet no nonsense continuous thread is what cements Karlota’s essence. There was something in this collection that felt like it was the spell of someone that had travelled down from the Spanish countryside to wash the world with a cool calm. It only made perfect since to me, when I discovered days later while relaxing under the eye of the sleeping giant, that she was part Boris Bijan Saberi’s team for many seasons.