Winter 2010 campaign photographed by Venetia Scott

Frank Leder cannot adhere to conventional methods of presenting a men’s collection that season from season he shoots off into a tangent from a given point that questions the notion of what is tradition and contemporary. So often, tradition and classic is deemed as being old fashion, an antique tapestry maybe but given that as happy German men’s designer, Frank does not shy away from his own upbringing. In fact, it is what he has exactly experienced whilst living in his native country that really distinguishes his own collections from many other current men’s designers, of many are following a new order of British sartorialism that in some ways may confuse the act of dressing altogether.

Frank Leder doesn’t aim to design separates but he strongly conveys in his collections that a pair of trousers should signify its own signature and distinction. In ‘Holz’, a men’s range he has newly released, it anchors and is a physical capture of a boxer, a camerman and lumberjack. Frank communicates in this collection that it embodied the working class man, a strong wielded man who has firmly placed his strengths into action in the support for himself, his family and preoccupied civic duties.

We’re taken through a series of images that show the multi-skilled former boxer as a lumberjack in the forest woods of Germany, sawing wood and himself in-action chopping with his grand metal tipped axe. Organic wools have been sourced from a Baltic shepherd for the trousers and knitted garments, wood and metal buttoned enclosures for jackets and front pocket vests and rich vintage fabrics used for spread collar buttoned shirts.

The entire focus is not on Frank Leder’s new collection however. Primarily, it tells how one man has lived and the experiences he may express. You can see the harshness of his hands, his palm-lined face yet he will never lay down his essential working tools, only until he is unable to hold them up. In this old West Berlin cap, Leder succeeds in this collection for now just showing how he has managed to retain a contemporary wit and striving to source the most enduring fabrics but to represent a man, though having a tough working life can still have much pride in oneself.

www.frank-leder.com

Inside The Corner Shop in Strand Arcade, Sydney (top); Cultures In Between shown inside (above)

Cultures In Between had the absolute pleasure of being physically shown at the The Corner Shop in the Strand Arcade and on William Street in Sydney’s East. The Corner Shop is widely noted as promoting such names including Isabel Marant, Christian Wijnants and Vanessa Bruno. The discernible young women’s store co-run by the Belinda company is one of few stores to have a strong and eclectic mixture of women’s designers.

http://www.thecornershop.com.au/2010/06/cultures-in-between.html

In earlier May of this year, Crystal Dunn showcased MaterialByProduct’s Automne collection for 2010 at Sydney’s Westin Hotel. As both the label’ model, garmet maker and image-maker alongside creative directors Susan Dimasi and Chantal Kirby, Crystal had also worked with Georgia Lazarro, the latter rising to prominence now currently apprenticing at Calvin Klein and Narciso Rodriguez. Both involved in fashion, their skilful attributes aligning in also their enduring inspirations informed made costumes for Alice Topp’s Trace. The Australian Ballet showcased an inner workings video that provided an in-depth video allowing both designers speaking on behalf of their work.

http://www.australianballet.com.au/main.taf?p=4,2,1,1,36
http://www.behindballet.com/designing-trace-a-qa-with-georgia-lazzaro-and-crystal-dunn

Stephan Schneider’s work is of resolutely suaveness and boyish charm that gleans and becomes untamed within a modern framework. He is known to produce his own designed fabrics through his network of Belgian factories where fabric patterns are non-discriminatory for both his men and women collection. He brings out, literally the best in the modern men who he envisions to have ambition, happiness, yet all struck in an evocative and unequivocal balance. In his new ‘Furever’ collection, coining the term denoting the interior lining of his new anoraks in lined fur with a wool outer canvas, the coming-of-age boys with a Collier Schorr frame are in a buoyant spirit. Stephan who as suggestive to direct the photography within a background reminiscent of artist Cy Twombly’s atetlier apartment confirms his statement that, “I think the most attractive element of a man is his boyishness, which some men never lose their whole life” in ‘Modern Menswear’ published by Lawrence King in 2008. In the series of portraits shown on his website, each frame has a context but no time. Neither do his garments: long knee-length wool coats and peacoats, crisp buttoned shirts in individually developed checks and tartan patterns; fine-knitted sweaters, one with a minature shawl collar. Underscoring his menswear throughout, though masculinity will show its mischievous and sly self, stripping bare underneath Schneider’s garments, egoism is itself never in existence.

And whilst Stephan’s menswear has been his primary focus, it is his womenswear that draws both a heartfelt and dramatic allure. Carrying through the imagery that portrays his women’s clothes is an extension that gestures a freedom of expression. The impact of a shift dress or a sarong skirt or the masculine trousers it is an intelligent kind of ambiguity that permeates itself. German photographer Stefan Heinrichs who was commissioned by Stephan to photograph the entire campaign negated current forms of belle de jour expressions by female magazines but one in which frankly, gave the Furever collection sense and sensibility.

www.stephanschneider.be

FFixxed’s workspace, Shenzhen, China

The best attribute of Phoebe Philo’s new reign of Céline is her immediacy in what her clothes communicate and how they impact: something majestic, fluidity, movement and utter sophistication. Where there was flat front trousers cut so cleanly in cream white, rich camel brown or light beige, these were simply accompanied by a synthetic transparent white coat, a white gold trimmed canvas coat or a structured military trenchcoat with front extended flaps and epaulettes. Phoebe was able to cross seamlessly from a dresscode that could visualise an Egyptian holiday, a business appointment, urban day-to-day and evening with a neck collar dress gown in virginie white. Phoebe’s deft touch is how she manages to composure herself and give the most maximum impact to uncomplicated garments that when fused together take on another dimension. Sure she can induce color in the form of blocking a short-sleeved top and above knee length skirt and through an extended lapel bolero yet she retains an overall balance. The overall collection also featured a new contoured leather sandal, the Celine classic bag in sumptuous leather and silver and golden wristlets.

You couldn’t show a spectacular show without a spectacular venue and American designer Thom Browne encapsulated his Spring 2011 men’s collection by its interior staging within Brazilian architect Oscar Neimeyer’s Sede do Partido Comunista Francês or the French Communist Party Headquarters. The seating assembly arranged in a curvlinear fashion facing towards the front members’ table felt like NASA’s control room or the interior film design of 2001: A Space Odyssey directed by Stanley Kubrick. This is where the editors and journalists would seat and look from afar how Browne would contrast and recontextualise his formal shrunken suit. A series of walking astronauts appearing as The Stig’s space cousins, walked calmly in full procession and stripping off their astronautic white suits to reveal the familiar silhouette of Browne’s. These were grown-up versions of school uniforms with their calf-length woolen socks and short-suits in variegated fabrics from gingham, striped, patchwork and check. Whilst these patterns may violate formal suiting conventions and the feeling of being nonplussed, in many ways through self-confidence some ensembles produced by Browne could well work in day to day wearability. What he proposed is what one might consider to be spring suits, shorten for more mobility and lightness yet still confirming a formality in for example, the pairing of a lavender striped shirt and tie and the seasonal familiarity of his lighter grey jackets that were also differentiated by horizontal and grey matching stripes. The key stance from Thom Browne remits finding a new understanding for men to command a wardrobe co-ordination – why not spice it up?

www.thombrowne.com