Fashion in Film Festival

Festival Poster starring Irma Vep

If in London, don’t miss the Fashion in Film Festival, now in its second edition. Co-curated by Marketa Uhlirova and Christel Tsilibaris and titled “If Looks Could Kill,” it tackles the links between fashion and crime in cinema--two inextricable themes, as the earliest incarnation of the cinematic woman of fashion—the vamp—perhaps starts to point out.

The festival takes place across the city in a number of different venues and shows an equally diverse range of films, from Dario Argento’s terrifying horror movie The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) to Cindy Shermann’s “darkly humorous flick” Office Killer (1997), and the silent film series by Louis Feuillade Les Vampires (1915) starring Irma Vep—perhaps one of the earliest yet most compelling incarnations of the feminine criminal in film.

The impressive line-up of movies is matched by an equally impressive array of speakers, including the renowned film scholar Tim Gunning and the fashion designer Bella Freud, to name just two.

Francesca

Still from Feuillade's Les Vampires (1915)

anp quarterly no.10

From ANP Quarterly, Issue 10

The new issue of ANP Quarterly was just published and, among other topics, it features a sprawling interview by Brendan Fowler with Sarah Lerfel--one of the owners and the main buyer of Colette--on her role in the art and fashion worlds. Also included is an article by Aaron Rose on the men's magazine illustrator Tom of Finland as well as an interview with the owners of the new Chicago concept store Golden Age.

The LA-based magazine, edited by Brendan Fowler, Aaron Rose, and Edward Templeton, is now in its tenth issue and can be found free of charge in a number of stores across the US, but in actuality one might have to subscribe to read it on a regular basis. However you get your hands on it, it makes for an engaging read, particularly as it gives ample space to its subject—the interviews tend to be many pages long. It reminds one a bit of the much-missed magazine Index both in the interview-format and in the range/type of people it tends to cover.

Francesca

Books on Fashion and Sustainability

If in London, don’t miss the London College of Fashion and the Centre for Sustainable Fashion’s celebration of the launch of Eco Chic The Fashion Paradox by Sandy Black. The event, which will take place Wednesday May 7th, will start with a a round table discussion and Q&A session with Abigail Petit of Gossypium, and Orsola de Castro of From Somewhere and will be followed by a book signing. (It is scheduled to take place at 6:00pm at the Terrace in the London College of Fashion, 20 John Princes Street, W1G 0BJ).

Also out is another book on echo fashion Sustainable Fashion and Textiles by the engaging theorist and practioner Kate Fletcher. The book which can be ordered on Design Journeys is sure to satisfy the need for practical as well as symbolic solutions to issues of sustainability in fashion. Fletcher is, in fact, one of the pre-eminent theorist/proponent of Slow Fashion—a concept, which developed after the Slow Food Movement, with the aim to create meaningful networks and relations through clothes by slowing down processes of productions, consumption and care.

Francesca

International Fiber Collaborative

International Fiber Collaborative, W.R.A.P.

The International Fiber Collaborative just completed their yearly project...The collaborative was started with "the goal to provide an opportunity for people who enjoy working with fiber arts, to come togethe to express their concern about the worlds extreme dependency on oil."

"This year’s project is called the World Reclamation Art Project (W.R.A.P.). Participants have crocheted, knitted, stitched, patched, or collaged 3 foot square fiber panels that expresses each participants concern about this topic. Simply by designing and creating these panels and participating in this project they are, in the larger picture, expressing their concern about this important subject to the rest of the world. All the panels have been sewn together to completely cover an abandoned gas station in central New York State."

Certified Authentic?

Slow and Steady Wins the Race, After Balenciaga and After Gucci Bags, 2004

Don’ t miss the student symposium Certified Authentic? Counterfeits, Copies, and Constructions of Culture at the Bard Graduate Center (on 38 W. 86th St), which will be taking place this friday, April 25.

The keynote speaker, Susan Scafidi will be discussing fashion and counterfeiting. Scafidi is a Visiting Professor at Fordham Law School and member of the law and history faculties at Southern Methodist University, is author of Who Owns Culture? Appropriation and Authenticity in American Law (2005), as well as a blog on law and fashion design, Counterfeit Chic

Also, on the topic of counterfeiting is Lynn Yaeger's article in this week’s Village Voice. The author’s visit to the Murakami exhibition at the Brooklyn museum and, particularly its accompanying Vuitton store, spurned her musings on Canal Street and fake Murakami purses.