Mystic Visions

Photographs by Zsuzsanna Alexandrovna Marinka.

I get a lot of really junky PR emails in my inbox, most of them irrelevant, or completely off target. For example, I've been receiving solicitations from a boy's sporty clothing line, probably sold at Kids'R'Us, which begs me to wonder if people even bothered looking at the blog before hitting the send button. Such are the dangers of putting your email address out on the web. Nonetheless, I do check them all, because once in a while something wonderful is hidden in there, like Hungarian designer Klara Kalicz's collection, "The Mystic." Klara is still a student at the Hungarian University of Art and Design, and her dramatic creations already are making appearances as costumes in the contemporary theater scene. Her latest work features sculptural protrusions that jut forth from the body, forming dinosaur like spines, and starbursts. Their intriguing textural qualities and their sturdy sculptural forms make me curious as to what they're made of, as the dresses look like they're formed of rubber tubing and metal clips of an unidentified origin. I somehow doubt that they would be very comfortable to wear, but nonetheless just want to reach out and touch them.

Lookbook photographs by Attila Udvardi

-Tiffany

The New Math

Last month, I had the pleasure of stopping by the Issey Miyake store with Brandon for the launch of the 132 5 collection. I was in an unfortunate rush to get to my own party, so I didn't have time take photographs, but Brandon, being the Issey obsessive that he is (I've seen him stop women wearing Issey on the street to thank them for supporting the designer), was kind enough to email over the press images and photographs.

As one would expect, the collection is so high-concept it almost makes your head spin. When laid out flat in the store, the pieces look like gorgeous folded fabric origami ornaments, and are completely unrecognizable as garments. At the store, I made the mistake of picking up this perfectly shaped creation, only to have it to magically spiral out into a full fledged 3-D geometric garment that I could no longer restore to compact 2-D form, inspite of my desperate attempts, and my natural talent for origami. The garment, which looks somewhat like a buckyball rendered in fabric, is quite glorious on the figure, and it seem like quite a remarkable transformation from the flat shape.

Issey and company explain it far better than I ever could: "132 5 begins with 1 piece of cloth manipulated through 3-dimensional molding that can be returned to a 2-dimensional plane, and creates a 5th dimension when the garment is worn and comes to life." If that sounds a bit scientific to you, that's because the 3-D shapes are conceived in collaboration with computer scientists. I might not be able to understand or appreciate the math or science behind the construction of such of futuristic garment, but I think we all can appreciate the breathtaking final results.

-Tiffany

Shambolic

Yesterday, a video of Joe Zee's new reality show All On The Line was leaked on Racked. The show features a different emerging designer each episode, and ostensibly saves them from inevitable financial ruin and disaster with the help of Zee's witty mentoring and design critiques. It sounds like it's the natural evolution of Project Runway, concentrating on more viable designers who might actually have a future in the industry, and the first episode focuses on local talent Leila Shams.

The thing is, I already really liked Shams as a designer, and I don't really think her design work needs that much tweaking, much less a full on overhaul. Her Fall "Bad Luck" collection featured plenty of covetable digital printed pieces with images of shattered mirrors, howling black cats, and of course, my favorite number, 13. I saw Shams's Spring collection back in September at the D&A tradeshow, and I loved the giant prints of galloping white horses, albino alligators, and posing peacocks. I even made a personal order for the oversized owl-print shirt in the photo above.

In fact, the only item that I didn't like was the single piece that Shams collaborated on with Zee during the course of the show taping. It's a pretty traditional looking black evening gown with a large peacock printed on the train, and it looks out of place with the rest of collection (I heard that most people who had seen that piece were similarly unimpressed). I'm sure the show will be great entertainment, and I also think it's amazing publicity and exposure for Leila, who might even become a household name depending on the success of the show. Hopefully it will even help her alleviate some of her financial woes. But it might also inadvertently reveal that being a great fashion editor, vocal critic, or funny television host isn't synonymous with being a good designer.

-Tiffany