BEAUTY: Painting--Justin Liam O’Brien

The narratives in the work of artist Justin Liam O’Brien are fascinating. I love how he places young men into images from classical Renaissance paintings (The Annunciation, Leda and the Swan), in addition to the contemporary situations of his subjects in slightly surreal positions.

https://justinliamobrien.com/

deary

Cocteau Twins have returned to us via a duo (Ben Easton and Rebecca Cockram) who call themselves deary. Their lovely, ethereal, shoe gaze sound is hypnotizing...here are three tracks to enjoy: "Sleepsong," "The Moth," and "Beauty in all Blue Satin.",

https://www.instagram.com/dearyband

Happy Pride Anniversary 2024!

HAPPY PRIDE ANNIVERSARY!

Fifty-five years ago today, a bunch of fed-up drag queens, hustlers, and assorted gay misfits at the Stonewall Inn in New York turned the tables on yet another unnecessary, unfair, harassing police raid. That resistance gave rise to a series of riots and ultimately to the birth of the modern gay activist movement. It seems like a long time ago, and while a few laws and minds have changed, we still have a way to go, and a lot more irrational fear, hatred, bigotry, and misconceptions to fight...especially considering the vicious, radical conservative and radical Christian-fueled wave of LGBT+--specifically Trans--hatred sweeping across our country.

We celebrate Pride Month and recognize Pride Day because it is a positive stance against the daily shame, social stigma, discrimination, and violence that the LGBT community still faces. In fact, a recent report from the policy research Williams Institute at UCLA showed that LGBT+ people in the United States are NINE TIMES MORE LIKELY THAN NON-LGBT+ PEOPLE TO BE THE VICTIMS OF VIOLENT HATE CRIMES. Gay youth are routinely kicked out of their homes and disowned by their families, gay kids and teens and young adults are routinely bullied or attacked or beaten and many end up committing suicide because they are told they are sick or going to hell, and many gay and trans men and women are attacked and beaten and murdered--sometimes in their own homes. That’s why Congress must pass the Equality Act to outlaw discrimination against people based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and stem the frightening tide of over five hundred anti-LGBT+ bills in state legislatures this year alone across the United States. 

Because the LGBT Pride celebration is about the right of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered individuals to exist without being prosecuted, persecuted, attacked, or murdered, not about "not being straight."

So today, we thank and celebrate all the brave individuals at the Stonewall uprising and the ensuing riots for saying, "ENOUGH. I AM A HUMAN BEING AND I DEMAND TO BE TREATED AS ONE!"

While The Stonewall Inn was already part of the city-designated Greenwich Village Historic District, and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999, it became an official New York City landmark on Tuesday, June 23, 2015 in order to preserve the site and honor its historic importance. Most importantly, on June 24, 2016, the Stonewall Inn was named the first U.S. National Monument dedicated to the gay rights movement.

I just visited The Stonewall Inn last month (see the photos below) and it was affirming to see such an important piece of history. And opening today is the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center right next door, where a sign says, "In the name of those who came before me, I pledge to be brave, to be true to myself, and to fight like hell for equality." I also visited Christopher Park, the little green park facing The Stonewall Inn which is the Stonewall National Monument under the U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service. The park features a bronze sculpture of two men and two women unafraid to show themselves to the world.

There is a very nice, informative, and moving Wiki entry about the riots and the history leading up to them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots

"They" by Hayden Thorpe

This musical and visual statement from Hayden Thorpe is fascinating. The song "Ness" starts with a spoken word section from a 2018 prose poem book of the same name by nature/landscape poet and author Robert Macfarlane. The "Ness" in the title is actually Orford Ness, a 10-mile stretch of shingle spit running along the Suffolk coast in Great Britain. This spot was used in both World Wars and the Cold War as a testing site for weapons and various types of radar, with many of the military buildings known as "pagodas" in ruins but still standing.

Thorpe says:
"It might be easy to think of this album as a less personal one, but my personhood was carried in Ness and in-turn, Ness in me. The same lifeforce that so possessed Robert Macfarlane to write the book carried forward like an electrical current. Ness is uniquely qualified to teach us of what has been and what can be. It is the place where weapons developers learnt how to train the sun’s energy onto those we disagree with. Today, amid new horrors and hostilities, Ness stands as a poignant reminder of those end-of-days-ways and the restorative powers of the natural world."

https://haydenthorpe.com/
https://www.instagram.com/robgmacfarlane

BEAUTY: Clothing--Thom Browne

When Thom Browne dreams up a collection, he truly commits to the theming of its presentation, something I admire about him. For his Spring Summer '25 women's and men's collection shown in Paris the other day, he took the upcoming Olympics in the City of Light as an inspiration. The show space held a static tug of war game as the audience filed into the Musée des Arts Décoratifs with its classically carved walls. The official start of the show saw The Spirit Of The Olympics appear to an orchestral fanfare worthy of any Olympics wearing a headpiece made of gold laurel leaves, and the tug of war teams went at it. But there was no apparent winner and they marched out of the space for the couture section to begin.

Browne's deconstructed suits and dresses came out in tones of white (a huge change from his dark collections of late), all made from lightweight muslin, the type of which is used in fashion house ateliers to mock up sample garments. But here, Browne used the material in various weights to create exquisite couture creations. Added to the Browne vernacular is intricate hand embroidery and beading, showing athletes in various poses on several pieces while models carried embroidery hoops with figures...the first model even wore an embroidery hoop hat. But one of the show stopping pieces was a dress showing on one half the human muscular system, as though the model had been flayed open. The other half showed the shape of muscles as seen with skin. And the wedding dress that closes the show is jaw dropping. Also of note: fantastic wrestling boots with cleats and an invisible heel! The final tableau was a trio of models in intricately embroidered and beaded jackets of, you guessed it, bronze, silver, and gold.

Do take a look at the video below. The show proper starts at 15:45. And the creations are wonderful.

https://www.thombrowne.com/

"Best Life" by Ben Böhmer

Ben Böhmer makes special dance music...textural, emotional, compelling. Here is his recent "Best Life" with vocals by JONAH, from the album "Bloom."

"There's no coming back
We're just memories"

*sigh*

https://benbohmermusic.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Misc. Paris Fashion Week

Men's Fashion Month in Europe draws to a close with the end of Paris Fashion Week. Here are some interesting details that hit me right from the Spring Summer '25 shows:

J.W. Anderson showed some fascinating pants at Loewe: voluminous and gathered trousers, harem pants out of cable knit, or gathered with an attached semi-skirt (reminiscent of the look of tying a shirt around one's waist and letting it trail behind), or slim with a double wrap belt which loops at the shirt as well as at the waist.

Jeanne Friot continues her fun graphic of belts and buckles printed on tops and sheaths. She also continues her enthusiasm for genderless garments!

Jonny Johansson's label Acne Studios continues their own similar idea with a lookbook featuring trompe l’oeil printed jeans...stacks of belts, frayed fronts, and long chains hanging from belt loops are not really there...they just look like it!

But then in the same collection, Acne showed some sharp tailored looks with some amazing tall boots with very wide shafts. I am in love.

Speaking of shoes, this is a nice segue to Feng Chen Wang's sci-fi inspired suction cupped soles, topping last season's shoes that had giant rubber covers that looked like the facehugger from the ALIEN films (seen here)...

Walter Van Beirendonck's collection was inspired by circus clowns and not in a good way... clowns are running the world, says he...and the Lego shoes were worth the price of admission.

And even more shoes from LGN Louis Gabriel Nouchi. His collaboration with Puma resulted in a rubber molded slip-on featuring soles of gripping teeth.

Songzio showed what appear to be wrestling boots but transformed into summer sandals. They are fantastic. In black, white, grey, or blue and pink!

https://www.loewe.com/
https://www.jeannefriot.com/
https://www.acnestudios.com/
https://fengchenwang.com/
https://www.louisgabrielnouchi.com/

https://songzio.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Dries Van Noten

Dries Van Noten is retiring and this is his last collection. Surprising that a designer with Van Noten's status would retire...usually designers are forced out of their positions or, not to be indelicate, die, naturally or otherwise. But it was nice that he announced his retirement before this collection so we could all feel the importance of what we are seeing.

Van Noten is one of the Antwerp Six, a group of fashion designers who trained at Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts between 1980–81, composed of Walter Van Beirendonck, Ann Demeulemeester, Dirk Van Saene, Dirk Bikkembergs, Marina Yee, and of course Van Noten (there is a sort of Fifth Beatle, an unofficial member of the Antwerp Six, Martin Margiela). Actually, Demeulemeester retired from her own house in 2013 so there is a bit of precedent. But still, after 38 years and an avalanche of incredible collections, Van Noten is leaving.

And his Spring Summer '25 collection is a high note on which to go out. It shows his deft hand at pattern and color mixing, in a restrained, whisper of a way (peach, adobe, and soft pistachio). On a runway strewn with real silver leaf which fluttered and stirred as the models (mature and young!) walked the runway, David Bowie's words from the documentary "Moonage Daydream" rang out: "Time: one of the most complex expressions. Memory made manifest. It's something that straddles past and future without ever quite being present." As his spoken word section concluded, "You're aware of a deeper existence, maybe a temporary reassurance that indeed there is no beginning, no end," it was clear that the emotion of the occasion was being imprinted on the space itself with the silver leafing being tramped down while other pieces escaped, a possible metaphor for time and all we know. This is the great power of creation which occupies the work of strong designers...it applies to all the arts but the basics--food, clothing, shelter--can turn into exquisite cuisine, haute couture, and interior design which touches something in us that goes beyond shelter, turning a space into a sanctuary.

This menswear collection was shown on men and women...Van Noten said, "It’s all one big happy world, and everybody can wear whatever they want." Sheer fabrics, python (on shorts, boots, shirts!), brushed wool fused to neoprene, a crinkled polyamide, a foiled chatoyant material that reads silver or gold depending on the light, and a gorgeous section of large scale florals printed using suminagashi, an ancient Japanese dying technique, all on Van Noten's exquisite cuts and tailoring (the way he cuts a simple trench coat  *sigh*). Please do take a few minutes to look at the video, with a soundtrack of remixed Bowie music, to see, hear, and feel the beauty. Thanks for 38 years of exquisite clothing, Dries!

https://www.driesvannoten.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--KidSuper

Colm Dillane's KidSuper label officailly debuted on the schedule for The Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode in 2020, during a global pandemic no less. He collaborates on not only his clothing line, but also his many other ventures: he paints and does art shows, records music, and makes music videos. Coming from Brooklyn, selling T-shirts from his New York University dorm room, and without any formal training, he now heads a global fashion brand which still retains a freewheeling, improvised sense. His dedication to art is very apparent as he regularly uses his own paintings as material to print onto coats. jackets, pants, and shirts.

So for this artful Spring Summer '25 collection, he collaborated with Cirque du Soleil to create a fanciful show centered on marionettes and circus performers. On display were many pieces featuring Dillane's paintings which resemble by turns works by Peter Max, Heinz Edelmann (art director for The Beatles film "Yellow Submarine"), Jean Cocteau, and various California Figurative Expressionists. And this collection adds Matisse-like monstera leaf cutouts, and leaves and flowers all appliquéd to create a 3D effect. I love his rich focus on art for its own sake.

https://kidsuper.com/