Post London V

A 'False Encyclopaedia' double feature with Matthew Lindgren, discussing:
Christopher Shannon Spring/Summer 2014

Christopher Shannon took a trip through the fabric store for his spring menswear, picking up every bolt of fabric he could find: vinyl, denim, nylon, sheer. How Shannon used these fabrics seemed to be the idea of his collection: counterpoint. Sleeveless vinyl shirting, light floral silk sports shorts: unusual applications of fabric for traditional pieces. A strong sense of a range of athletics dominated the aesthetics, with some golf polos and double-waisted jogging shorts, but towards the end of the collection, Shannon's man went back to work in manipulated rubber shirts and shorts - a nod to the basketball courts he loves so much.
/MATTHEW

With a growing attention to textiles and an eclectic use of materials, Christopher Shannon is conducting an exercise in 'cross-dressing'. In this case, the term describes the (mis-)use of technological and feminine 'Stoffe' (synthetic fabrics) and therein ambiguous codes. Rubber and florals as pop cultural signs (for the fetish and domestic), projected as uniforms for a generation of 'Rausch' (excess) where codes of Hip Hop and transgender performance art submerge in acid, hair dye and vodka.
/HORST








1. Christopher Shannon Spring/Summer 2014
2. Comme des Garçons Fall/Winter 2012
3. Matthew Williamson Spring/Summer 2009
4. Mark Rothko No. 14, 1960
5. Robert Rauschenberg Untitled (Hoarfrost), 1974
6. Tupac Shakur 1971 - 1996
7. Paris Is Burning 1990
8. Christopher Shannon Spring/Summer 2014

All about Matthew Lindgren

Post London IV

A 'False Encyclopaedia' double feature with Bryan Rapp, discussing:
J.W. Anderson Spring/Summer 2014

When I was a kid, I used to play a lot of sports. I tended goals in both ice hockey and football. The former required wearing a jockstrap. For a short period of time, I tried my luck in the game of handball as well (but not as a goalie, mind you). It was one of my then-best friends, with the most common Swedish surname Andersson, who brought me to my first handball practice. I remember that our coach was a pregnant woman and that our team colours were red, blue and white. I quit the team after only a couple of weeks. Handball was not my cup of tea.

/BRYAN

When -isms collide and the gender revolution neutralises itself, anti-masculinity becomes the mere image of womenswear worn by men. Or men wearing womenswear. Plus. Minus. Zero. Slowly, the J.W.A. concept becomes a papier mâché set, loosely glued together, juncture points still visible. A reflection of one's own deconstruction:
Ad novum mundum creandum, primum delendus est vetus. Scissors, pins, ready.
/HORST








1. J.W. Anderson Spring/Summer 2014
2. Jeff Koons One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank, 1985
3. Joe Lally Pop 421, 2013
4. Wayne's World Game On, 1992
5. J.W. Anderson Fall/Winter 2013
6. Maurice Scheltens Forms Of Boredom, 1999
7. Comme des Garçons Spring/Summer 2011
8. J.W. Anderson Spring/Summer 2014

All about Bryan Rapp

Post London III

A 'False Encyclopaedia' double feature with Igor Guinau, discussing:
Astrid Andersen Spring/Summer 2014

Holiday fact: Jamaican men are beyond any doubt the most beautiful in the world!

I just wanna oil up and roll myself in them!

(Astrid Andersen on Twitter, November 18th, 2012)

The winner bares it all. Hypermasculine, confident and oozing with sex appeal, Astrid Andersen’s team is going for gold. Constantly balancing between strength and fragility, Andersen brings sportswear to the next level. Her trademark pieces – the oversized basketball tanks and the puffed jackets – are still there, but this time the focus is on a more body-conscious silhouette. Showing off the wearers’ envious physiques, sometimes veiled by a second skin of lace – another Andersen trademark. Ego-crashing and eroticizing at the same time, Astrid Andersen’s men evoke a ‘fuck me or fight me’ attitude. Who dares, wins.

/IGOR

Andersen did the same/not the same. While further exploring the ideal idea of the most 'masculine and brutal', the most 'gender-less and androgynous' male, her man left the street behind and went straight up the escelators of a multi-storey office building. Becoming an executive athlete equipped with a body of steel and glass. A little bit like Bret Easton Ellis for Calvin Klein. Or Jared French for Pierre Cardin. It was a good sequel for the 'Male Body Image', but not a new book.
/HORST








1. Astrid Andersen Spring/Summer 2014
2. Matthias Vriens-McGrath Tampa, 2010
3. Mugler Spring/Summer 2012
4. Rowan Papier Brooklyn Boys, 2013
5. Jared French Glenway Wescott, George Platt Lynes and Monroe Wheeler, 1940
6. Calvin Klein Spring/Summer 2008 & 2009, Romain Kremer Fall/Winter 2010
7. Terence Koh The Camel Was God, The Camel Was Shot, 2007
8. Astrid Andersen Spring/Summer 2014

All about Igor Guinau

Parallel Genesis

1. Jean Cocteau Le Livre Blanc, 1930
2. Roy Lichtenstein Laocoon, 1988  

When I saw the Lichtenstein exhibition in London, I felt a moment of 'enlightment'. When an expressive brush stroke and a fine pencil line meet in mythological thunder and lightning, two genius' minds make love.
/HORST

Eau De Sanctification

1. Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott Gucci Envy
2. Frank Miller Gucci Guilty Pour Homme, 2010
3. Daniel Jackson Calvin Klein Dark Obsession, 2013
4. Unknown Gucci Envy for Men, 1998
5. Bruce Weber Calvin Klein Eternity, 1991

Besides established themes like romance, it is interesting to observe a dominance of religious motifs within the realms of perfume ads. Ingredients such as patchouli and incense position the olfactory creation as 'holy water', a spritz of sin.
/HORST