Photographs for today includes Jasper and Greta from TurnedOut.

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Light pale pink Repetto lace shoes for your eyes only.

It was an interesting story that illustrator Kat MacLeod was interviewed by the Melbourne newspaper The Age speaking about the high level of interest in her bedazzling work who like Julie Verhoeven, have produced highly tactile illustrations. In the article mentioned the grappling effect of computer-based art, which seemingly has dominated so much of what is so called ‘graphic design’. Some have said that its becoming dead but it isn’t as alarming as the global financial crisis. The only crisis would be the non-existence of a love for Graphic Design as both a discipline and a craft and not as a play toy. Thankfully, there is sanity in that for one, a number of institutions around the world govern the discipline of Graphic Design more artistically in teaching design and not that of honing pure personal creativity only. And whilst Art and Graphic Design are always in qualms with one another, their relationship has always been for personal integrity and a value and appreciation for art and design history. The Royal Academy of Art in The Hague in The Netherlands is the oldest art school in Europe with the affectionate title of its Dutch pronunciation, ‘Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten, Den Haag‘. The school providing both interdisciplinary levels of study including Graphic Design and Type/Media as well as Textiles and Fashion and Fine Arts, sees the school giving its students more aligned artistic skills and honing those skills in order to breathe and live Design as a bigger and broader picture. In one way, as outlined by the recent edition published by the International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD), Dutch Design can be seen in one light, only design for designers themselves. On the other hand, its a reflection that Design can be pushed intensively to its best creative extent than just for commercial sustainability.

Abi Huynh is one of the students currently studying at the Royal Academy of Art and has kindly taken some photographs of his studies at the institution. As the country for first establishing the only museum dedicated to the discipline of Graphic Design, the school in The Hague is still involving students in traditionalist studies embedded in the Type/Media program such as Typography and Calligraphy which is also a reminder of how the old French art schools taught students Art and Design too. As a saying goes, Grids and Typography keep criminals at bay, as such pen and paper keeps creativity alight.

A very charming editorial shoot for the latest new issue of Swedish Bon Magazine. This issue is also the introduction of Art Director Johan Avedal who has taken over the reigns of the periodical’s editorial direction. His name somewhat rings a bell but he has been working as the art director of GQ Style and as a past designer of the superb London based design studio, Saturday London. The new edition sees its pages retained and toned down, emphasising each page’s content whilst also adding bespoke typography to Bon’s own title and subsequent inner details.

Ever since the talented duo Alex Bec and Will Hudson graduated from the University of Brighton, they have surrounded themselves with an extraordinary array of diversifying contemporary graphic designers and illustrators, making work original of their own. Their newly established studio eponymously titled their second names HudsonBec has seen them produce work for YCN Online, Nike and of course, their on-going project of ‘If You Could’. The organised event titled, ‘Original Format Exhibition’ was setup as an accumulation of presented work by different designers on their recognised blog It’s Nice That and was shown during September to October in Plymouth. They all are great work examples currently right now of contemporary design.

For a full image collection, please visit here on the It’s Nice That Flickr page here.

For more information about the current projects by the duo and YCN Online, please visit It’s Nice That here and YCN Online here.

As true for most Belgian designers, they allow their clothes and the wearer to bear answering questions for themselves, what the clothes mean to them. Veronique is beloved by so many people and yet her appearances are so far few in between. Luckily enough, FashionTV were able to gain backstage coverage of her latest runway show for Spring/Summer 2009 during Paris Fashion Week and you can see herself in the video wearing her black tailored jacket. Please treasure your copy of A Magazine by Veronique herself or if you haven’t, find it and buy it!

Since 2005, Veronique has been working as the artistic course director of the Fashion Department at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

Never has a time being that we create a sense of nostalgia for ourselves as a glimmer of hope and optimism for things that used to be all dandy and happy. And now, that the times are more contemporary than ever and with though some designers such as Raf Simons would prefer to call his collections rather fluid than ‘futuristic’ that has never been such a time when utilitarian basics dominate and govern the way we dress so fondly. Though, womenswear seeking to use manufactured organic silks and cottons is a signal for green decisions in the whole entire designed process, one fabric remains distilled. So close in fact that it could be as old as the history of lace and its Flemish roots. Denim has never been that glamorous acting as a symbol of low social class than high wealth but as the creatively and musically talented could see its tactile properties being texturally enduring, and also its rich indigo blue in colour it has always been enhanced by young guns of icons and figures. Stephen W. Daniels who wrote the titled article, ‘A Study in Denim’ in Issue 10 of Tate Etc. discussed three portraits with profound effect. An oil painting of Peter Blake in 1961 wearing a matching denim jacket and jeans that showed on one hand a fine example of British Pop Art but also the change in an era where war was left behind and denim’s emergence was just flowering. Over the years, this piece of fine double-twilled fabric was always a labor of love through to another example shown in the article of singer Elvis Presely standing proudly with his pair of denim jeans in 1949. The portrayal of denim throughout our history has been as significant as Tartan, the use of plaid which became a considerable measure in the modern fashion industry. Though its use became antagonistic and subversive it a distinguishable piece of cloth and used quite considerably, notably by Comme des Garçons’ Rei Kawakubo. As Suzy Menkes mentioned about the universal use of Tartan for this season by a number of designers, its vivid colour, versatility, its edgyness and becoming post-modernist (a reaction to clothes made for being quite sensual), its touch which can create a swarming feeling of lightning bolts or more elegant scarf wool-like shades create greater contrast than something such as leather itself. As both Denim and Tartan and even Burberry’s own trench coat have come from a more dowdy and military upbringing, they share a common theme of identity and a sense of personal belonging - to a group, a class and a fade maybe.

The choice of denim used by Stephanie Downey is embraced by her new collection titled Friendship. Because denim is a living organic fabric and not as synthetic as it is today, its integral and develops a realationship or even a bond with one another. Though the embodiment of her concept ‘Dress Up’ as ‘an ode to vanity’ this new collection, we are able to view equally measurable pieces featuring denim and sheepskin. A denim jacket and skirt of tencel makes the denim less dense but softer and warm, the skirt is extended and a wool twist top in light beige with a broader shoulder line. The zipper skirt made from sheepskin is attached with a cute behind zipper with the buttoned denim vest having a fittingly snug rounded shoulders. In this collection, warmth and its elongated shapes with the full high-waisted jeans and long-sleeved black zipper dress is as assertively considered in character and in personality. Dress Up is growing with maturity and age.

The current collection of Dress Up is available at The PR Store in Sydney with the Autumn/Winter 2009 range soon.

Dress Up

The Stephan Schneider story on Cultures In Between was meant to have been up a short while ago but his office has been extremely busy with setting up their new collection for showings and buyers as well as setting up the individual shows early next year. Hopefully, Mieke from his office will be sending the new collection images soon. In the meantime, please enjoy some images, again taken by Hannes and the team from Tres Bien who recently made their buying trip to Schneider’s showroom setup in Rue de Montmorency, Paris. A wonderfully made collection where all garments are manufactured in Belgium and fabrics produced by Schneider himself. That’s true handscraftsmanship!

A first of many of street photographic images in Sydney. The photograph was captured in The Rocks.