Alexander Wang presented his much awaited début collection for the house of Balenciaga during the Paris a/w fashion weeks this March. Given that he only had four months to familiarise himself with the house codes and conventions after he was appointed in late November 2012, one cannot expect him to travel too far from the heavy past of the house. He expectedly returned to the origins of the house, offering his take on recognisable Balenciaga couture propositions and fabrications adding his personal …read more
This year long photography series is the size of a tall, slowly unraveling column, much like an exquisite corpse or a totem pole. Piled on top of each other, each monthly-published image continues the body from the visual lines of the other, taking a good long look at the seasonality of fashion and nature. …read more
We are delighted that Address issue 1 is currently featured in the Norwegian magazine Personae, issue 3+4.2012. What initially appears as a glossy, is in fact an intellectual take on fashion in its cultural context, at least we think so. Unfortunately we can’t speak Norwegian but if you can, you might want to take a look. Anneke Smelik’s article ‘The Performance of Authenticity’, first published in Address issue 1, has featured alongside some interesting photo shoots. …read more
When I’m not writing or editing a column for Address online or working on the next issue, my time is spent thinking about fashion criticism as part of my research degree at London College of Fashion. Criticism is very difficult to define and most of my research is drawn from discussions and definitions from other disciplines such as graphic design, product design, music, theatre and film, where the subject is more evolved. Against these, fashion is starving for, not just criticism, but also discussions …read more
With the intention of researching British clothing manufacture since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution (yes I know, that small topic!), I decided to go to Derbyshire in England, for a few days. Numerous conversations with my Gran and two booked train tickets later (one for me and one for Gran), I was fascinated, excited and already overwhelmed. We went straight to the birth place of the two first water powered cotton …read more
American philosopher and one of the leading voices in defining art criticism, Noël Caroll divides the task of a critic, in his book On Criticism, into two parts. On the one hand critics describe, classify, contextualize, elucidate, interpret and analyse artworks and objects. All of this suggests that a critic should have an ability to capture the object of criticism and to position it against something bigger: frameworks, contexts, narratives or histories. In order to do this, critics must have …read more
This year long photography series is the size of a tall, slowly unraveling column, much like an exquisite corpse or a totem pole. Piled on top of each other, each monthly-published image continues the body from the visual lines of the other, taking a good long look at the seasonality of fashion and nature. …read more
For a while now, I have suffered from an acute boredom when it comes to fashion magazines. I used to buy every single magazine I could get my hands on, but now only a few will come home with me from the newsagents. As a diagnosis for this, I can only offer one explanation: I have become more of a reader rather than a viewer. Fashion magazines have always been more about imagery than writing, but it seems to me that this is even more so now. The glossy magazines are …read more
I’m pleased to announce that Address is now stocked at the beautiful Totokaelo shop in Seattle, US. You can also find it in ICA, London and Papercut, Stockholm to name a few places or order it online via our Magazine section. …read more
Long time Address contributor and this year’s Artist in Residence Riitta Ikonen along with Karoline Hjorth will be working on a new chapter in their ongoing collaborative series Eyes as Big as Plates as part of Recess’s signature program, Session, from February 15th until April 26th. Session invites artists to use Recess’s public space as studio, exhibition venue, and grounds for experimentation. Over the course of their Session, Ikonen and Hjorth …read more
Before my relationships with wedding dresses began, I hadn’t given much attention to them as a garment. I was working as a trend researcher, at the time (2007) when a close friend was getting married and I agreed to go to the National Wedding Show at Earls Court, London, taking my questioning mind with me. Intrigued by dresses people spent thousands on, I put the supportive friend act to good use …read more
Now that our new website is up and running, we are ready to start working on Address – journal for fashion criticism: issue 2. The print issues of Address do not follow thematic formats, instead we want to publish a variety of visual and written criticism dealing with contemporary issues and ideas surrounding fashion. In line with our philosophy, Address allows a platform to think, talk and test ideas around fashion criticism whether scholarly underpinned, experimental or entertaining …read more
Last week, the film folk gathered to celebrate the 85th Academy Award ceremonies at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood. We, the fashion folk, are always eager to see who is wearing what and, more importantly, which brand on the red carpet. This year, Valentino eagerly spread the word that Anne Hathaway was going to be wearing a dress by the brand but in the end, the actress appeared in powder pink Prada …read more
This year long photography series is the size of a tall, slowly unraveling column, much like an exquisite corpse or a totem pole. Piled on top of each other, each monthly-published image continues the body from the visual lines of the other, taking a good long look at the seasonality of fashion and nature. …read more
I went shopping to find out. The Westfield centre in Stratford in East London, to me, is a kind of hell. Every shop pumping music from dodgy speakers, too many people lacking spatial awareness, and it’s hotter than the Mediterranean in June. Not great for puffa jacket wearers in doors, especially if also wearing thermal undies. However, I thought it a good location to meet people wading the last dregs of the January sales and incoming fresher stock. To have a look at what is new in fashion …read more
Every collection starts with a concept. It provides a frame of reference for design generation, a narrative for development and a focus for editing. It is the holy grail of fashion design thinking now. Since tailors and dressmakers became Fashion Designers, on a par with artists, the concept behind a collection has become a paramount component. Each collection just has to have a concept and the more ‘complex’ the concept, the more ‘conceptual’ designers are labeled. …read more
My mother had a button tin– an old sweet tin that was once given as a Christmas present. It had been full of butterscotch – my Grandma’s favourite – and that taste just explodes in my mouth… On the tin were some indentations. I had not really looked at them too closely before, but now, as an adult, looking, feeling, I realised that it was a footprint. A small, rounded, solid dent from a child’s shoe …read more
This year long photography series is the size of a tall, slowly unraveling column, much like an exquisite corpse or a totem pole. Piled on top of each other, each monthly-published image continues the body from the visual lines of the other, taking a good long look at the seasonality of fashion and nature. …read more
At least, not as nice as I thought… When I began researching fashion at street level back in 2005, interviewing for the FashionMap at Nottingham Trent University, in collaboration with the Future Laboratory, I became immediately aware of my assumptions of other people before I approached them to interview about their clothes. It shocked me as I’d mostly considered myself a good person, equal, but there I was, in Nottingham city centre with sweeping statements flying out of my mouth about people I didn’t know …read more
Fashion is produced and consumed in vast quantities. Take luxury level fashion brands for instance – they are all committed to making not just the seasonal s/s and a/w collection but also mid season resort and fall collections. Only fractions of the designed collections are seen on the catwalks, which in most cases are reserved for the edited statements. Then there are of course the diffusion lines, childrenswear lines, sportswear or denim lines as well as bags, shoes and jewellery lines along with the rest of it. On the high street …read more
Address started off as an experiment to test different ways of discussing, commenting and critiquing fashion. The content of the first print issue instinctively led to a varied selection of voices, making our first proposition: fashion criticism can come in all shapes and sizes. As an independent publisher, time was afforded to take a step back and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the first issue. During the last year, we have reflected on the look, feel and read of the first issue, discussing new ways of going forward, from …read more