Worn Fashion Journal

Worn, Issue 3

Reading Broken Pencil—the definitive guide to zines and underground publishing—we came across a review of Worn, a Montreal-based publication which sets out to deliver "intelligent and insightful content dealing with style, clothing and wearing." This journal covers "independent designers, fashion history, subculture studies, personal musings, and relationships between art, music, film and fashion."

The current issue looks quite promising, as it covers topics ranging from the history of Bakelite to the the styles of Weimar Germany to bark cloth, and counts ROM curator Alexandra Palmer among its contributors.

Francesca

Iqons.com

Speaking of Sandra Backlund, over at Iqons.com her portfolio was just chosen as one of the best by Walter Van Beirendonck, the fashion designer from Antwerp. Iqons.com is a new networking sight like Myspace, but for those in the fashion industry. Meant to equalize the playing field and get emerging designers and professionals noticed, the site was founded by Suran Goonatilake and Rafael Jimenez, two entrepeneurial partners in the fashion industry. The official Iqon mentor is none other than Diane Pernet, of the established fashion blog A Shaded View on Fashion.

A new stunning collection by Sandra Backlund is out!

Sandra Backlund,"Don't Walk." Photo by Denise Grünstein

Titled “Don’t Walk” and made entirely of red knits, it is the fifth collection by the Swedish designer, who started out by studying fine arts in college, then textiles and art history and only later decided to pursue fashion and enrolled at the Beckman’s School of Design in Stockholm. Her varied background shows through in her beautifully constructed, intricate work, which often stands away from the body yet at times reiterates it in the very material she uses to create clothes. Her very first collection “Body, Skin and Hair,” partially employed human hair, which she carefully and painstakingly “styled” into garments by sewing it onto a fabric lining, then combing, cutting, braiding and finally pinning it.

Most of her work plays with the traditional silhouette, often distorting and transforming it in different ways. She admits to working along the lines of a sculptor rather than a tailor in building her clothes from a number of small pieces which she then joins together in different ways to create novel and ever-changing shapes. (see, sandrabacklund.com)

Francesca

Game On: The World Fashion Conquest

Wessie Ling "Game On"

A new art installation by Wessie Ling (a London-based artist) is opening at Exhibit in East London. Titled “Game On: The World Fashion Conquest,” it is meant as an exploration of the way cities use fashion to achieve a range of goals beyond simply promoting the local fashion industries.

"The focal point for the exhibit is a catwalk, which has been transformed into a giant game board with a world map on the runway. This interactive exhibit encourages viewers to play a role in the global fashion system, more specifically the fashion weeks held in 85 cities around the globe. Ling's game, inspired by the world domination game 'Risk', considers the many conflicting roles a fashion week may play in a city–from endeavouring to brand a city as a fashion capital to merely using the event to generate tourism.

Wessie Ling is a London-based visual artist whose work concerns the relation among fashion, identities, and cities. Interactive-ness is key to her work. She uses interactive installation to consider how fashion represents and connects our cultural selves. Ling is currently a Senior Lecturer at the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London." (From Release)

Nicola Liberatore's Exhibit

Nicola Liberatore, Passi Pellegrini, 2006

This is probably off the beaten path, but Fashion Projects’ printer and art historian Fiorenzo Ferreri has organized an exhibit of the Italian artist Nicola Liberatore, whose work recalls Arte Povera. He explores the themes of memory, mortality and the passage of time through the use of quotidian materials such as old cloth, gauze, veil, and lace. (For more info, see http://www.artinfabrica.it/)

Francesca