Academy of Art Collection Fashion Week Spring 2010

by CH Contributor

by Ariston Anderson

Standing out among the current New York Fashion Week insanity, seven talented young designers from the Academy of Art San Francisco took to the catwalk a collection of 1960s inspired womenswear, making for a Mad Men ambiance for their collaborative showcase at the Bryant Park tents.

Each designer spoke to the theme, their individual collections reflecting their personal take on the era with futuristic Mod looks such as Jetsons cartoon-like shoulder pads, knitwear flowers, draped geometry and quilted Lurex.

Highlights of the show include Kara Sennett, a designer who grew up on U.S. military bases in Germany and Brittney Major, from North Carolina.

Sennett's collection comprised mostly of wool and vinyl materials in bold pinks and blues popped against the white runway, with models sporting retro sunglasses and calculator wristbands painted with White-Out (pictured below).

"Being an American in Germany, I always wanted to be overly-American, and so I was really obsessed with California," Sennett told CH backstage. "The inspiration is David Hockney's Beverly Hills Housewife, a whole series he did on California houses and pools and how things that seem really beautiful are actually really flat." A concept she captured with seams made to appear as pockets and stitching that appeared as seams were actually pockets.

Major also turned to the mid-century housewife, speaking to her southern roots by creating a line of silk plaid taffeta ensembles. A housewife-meets-unconventional preppy look, she tells CH "I took more of my inspiration from my own experience living in the South and kind of the style that people dressed down there. I love the silhouette and I wanted to bring together a collection that was fun and sophisticated." The gorgeous cuts and ruffles revealed the designers technical skills, resulting in the most wearable collection of the show.

Cool Hunting Video Presents: Rye Rye

by Cool Hunting Video

by Gregory Mitnick

Checking in with M.I.A. protege Rye Rye, this video visits the rising star in the studio working on her yet as unreleased album and at a WWD Daily photo shoot. The 18-year-old Baltimore native shares the story of how she came up, a few dance moves and what she likes to rap about.

London Design Guide 2010

by Ami Kealoha

Just in time for visitors coming to London next week for the city's massive annual design event, the London Design Guide comprehensively lists the places, people and resources that celebrate design. The book organizes the destinations—boutiques, restaurants, hotels, galleries and more—by neighborhood, including a map of the locale and a local's narrative through it—naturally, all with a clean, well-designed layout.

Abetted by editorial features dishing on design trends among other topics and a resources section that wisely includes the excellent Athens-based design site (and CH friend) Yatzer, the guide is an essential for anyone exploring the London design scene. Pick up a copy (£10 in the U.K., £15 otherwise, shipping included) from the Design London site.

Olaf Breuning: Color Studies

by Phuong-Cac Nguyen

Part of his recent ongoing Color Studies series, Olaf Breuning's current exhibit in Los Angeles' Michael Benevento Gallery uses sculpture and photography as vehicles for luminous basic colors, offsetting them with deep black and bright white surfaces to striking effect.

A multiple-room exhibit, Breuning painted the gallery's first room entirely black, making the photographs depicting bright paint poured onto human figures appear to float in space. Sculptures with amoeba trails of paint challenge the horizontal and vertical forms.

A powerful contrast to the dark interior, the white room takes the mixture of color to a different extreme with photos of purposefully imprecise grids and lines. Breuning's gorgeously organic imagery pushes the concept to playfully explore the fundamentals of color and form.

The New York-based artist's eclectic work features a pop-culture element so singular it secured the Swiss expat a position at the 2008 Whitney Biennial. See more about his two-part installation for the exhibition in the CH video.

Color Studies
Through 22 October 2009
Michael Benevento Gallery
7578 West Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90046 map
tel. +1 323 874 6400

Bernhard Willhelm: Keep It Unreal Collection

by Karen Day

Extending his brand of irreverent eclecticism, Bernhard Willhelm's new line introduces his multi-referential fantasy to a sportswear collection called Keep It Unreal.

Including leggings and coordinating tops covered in psychedelic radiating lines, "bad taste" t-shirts depicting images like a bikini on fire and oversize mesh tunics emblazoned with African mask-inspired graphics, the pieces stay true to Willhelm's wildly playful, boundary-pushing style while simultaneously exploring a new concept for the designer—one of everyday leisure.

The lower-priced line comes as no surprise for the fast-rising Royal Academy of Antwerp graduate, who counts legendary fashion designers such as Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood, whom he assisted once completing his degree, among his fans. (Click on top image for enlarged view.)

To purchase the designer's first ready-to-wear collection, visit the Someday store in Melbourne, one of two boutiques to carry it outside of Japan.

For more on the avant-garde designer, check out a revealing interview with Willhelm at Hint Magazine.