Just a little intermission from the minimalism to show some love to our dear friend and Sang Bleu contributor Ellen Von Unwerth aka Ellen Von Underpants. This is a special dedication to the queen of the fräulein lifestyle and all things boudoir. Ellen, I couldn’t help but think of you as I was viewing this labor of love by Bibian Blue. I wonder if Bibian and her tattooed crew of rock-a-billy beauties ever sleep. I imagine endless weeks of being knee deep in corset construction and careful placement of lace and frills. PS – I would be thrilled to see someone execute this make-up concept in the form of a real tattoo.

The team at Totem brought two very modern Korean designers as guests to Barcelona 080. Check out the clean futursitic flow of Juun J. (top half) and Songzio (bottom half). Korea is definitely flexing on an international level and I find the menswear from this part of the world especially promising. These guys are showing that just a touch of sci-fi on the right guy can be pleasing to the eye. Juun and Esther Kim were on hand to enjoy the festivities with us as well as Songzio’s family and his teenage son was working overtime as English interpreter… so endearing. Its a family affair indeed.

The top 4 rows above – Juun J.

The bottom 4 rows above – Songzio

It has been over a week now that I was in Barcelona for a long over due visit with some OGs and checking out Barcelona 080. It’s been a non-stop flow since I’ve returned to New York helping out our family over at V who are tirelessly producing what must be a record number of shoots in a record short period of time for the upcoming issue of VMan, shooting with our crew over at Public School who are gearing up for a new buying season, enjoying our UK/stateside posse that is now the Worldtribe that is M.I.A. as we collectively conjured up a deadly electrical storm under the moonlight on Governor’s Island, and a meeting with my favorite creative director, “Invisible” Macs Iotti, and a handful of designers who are already in the throws of New York Fashion week. This combined with the regular chores of credits, edits, and accounting have made for little rest in the testing heat of late July in BedStuy. Thankfully, life is a never ending work in progress and I know our friends in Barcelona know this, nonetheless, postings of 080 have been pending and I am just now kicking off what will be a weekend of postings from Barcelona’s fashion week with a few inspiring tattoos I spooked during the event.

Props to my man Isreal and his girl who drove me up to the sleeping giant for an all out carnivore fest at Boris and Lilly’s Belly R+B mountain maison.

This is the last show I still had to post from Paris mens. Legend Johji Yamamoto. I must admit that my critical tools are not sharp enough to judge such a show. So I just laid back and enjoyed the view!

I realize I have a real stron taste for formal fashion. Who would have thought? Dunhill & Thom Browne. Love them, I just do.

Fashion weeks are a fascinating thing. I love them. For a few days, you gather with friends and peers from all around the world in the perspective of celebrating creativity and elegance. It probably sounds naive, but I don’t care. Let me think that. I have similar feelings towards art fairs, but in the former, the commercial aspect is so natuarlly embedded and obvious that there is not even the somewhat uncomfortable double-bind one finds in the latter.


Still, there are two things that really disturb me about fashion weeks (and I know I am not the only one.)

1—The schedule/location management. I know there are some historical reasons for not revealing location of the shows and stuff, but this is 2010! Having 100+ people travelig from the Belleville to George 5 the back to Gare d’Austerlitz, during rush hours in the middle of the summer does nothing but annoy the public and pollute illegitimately.

And 2—Production people (Thank god, not all of them. A lot of people are very serious, reliable and honest.), especially at the doors giving you attitude, not knowing who is who, getting overwhelmed, losing control of a buch of fashion freaks, while it’s exactly what their mission is and what they are payed for. It is pathetic, unprofessional, but more than that: it can really make a show a bad experience and induce a certain amount of bad will in a fashion critic or journalist (not me because, as you know, I am too introspective and focused ;)).


Fashion culture and its players are not anymore in an ivory tower, and they are very happy about this, because—admit it—in an ivory tower, you dont have legions of customers either. There is a certain amount of self-suffiency and arrogance, but negligence too, I cope with as a inextricable correlate of fashion culture (not that I am any better than that, or even try to not be that way too!), but at the end of the day, we are all here to A:enjoy ourselves and B:make business.

Let’s accepts that times change and that we are part of a highly advanced industry, and behave accordingly. We’ll just make it better for everyone including ourselves!

I know you probably already saw all this in 200 other blogs, still, as I finally got a new computer which lets me process RAW files again, i thought I would disclose my shots of the show nonetheless. Sorry for the belated report. Additionally, I have the feeling I am nissing a bunch of looks. Anyway, if you really feel like you’re missing something out, please check Style.com!

Now the show started (for me) not so well as the stressed out door people got really rude, managing to piss off a pretty large amount of people among those: me. Anyway, the location and the show were beautiful so I left delighted. Yay!