GODDESS is a new fashion label founded by designer David Siferd, a graduate from the fashion department of the Kent State University in Ohio, who has also attended the Paris-American Academy. His first collection, simply entitled “Volume 1″, is now available on the label’s website and combines digital prints with shiny materials and suburban chic. The collection comes with a beautiful look book that can be ordered online as well. We’ve interviewed David about his approach as a designer and his idea to create streetwear that breaks with the usual stereotypes. For more pictures of the collection please check out www.goddessclothingco.com.
Since I was very young I knew I wanted to be a fashion designer. Growing up I would always like to draw people and I loved imagining clothes for them to wear. When I was older I moved to college and studied fashion design in Ohio where I grew up, then also studied design in Paris and New York. It had always been my plan to have my own label, and when one of my friends began his own label just after graduating, it really inspired me to start my own label as well.
How would you describe the influences for your first collection? Did you have a certain “traget group” or scene in mind when you designed it?
The main idea for my first collection was essentially to make a number of pieces that I loved, and that were something completely new. I was inspired by my friends and a few people whose style I admire – people who are originals, who always do and wear what they want regardless of society’s standards. When I go shopping for clothes these days, I feel so bored and uninspired by what I see; everything seems to be targeted for a certain specific demographic and I find that a bit patronizing and unsavory. Instead with GODDESS I want to create designs that anyone can feel inspired by and comfortable to wear. MORE >>>
+++ CocoRosie have released a beautiful new track entitled “Gravediggress” (cover above), which will be on their new album “Tales of a Grass Widow” (due May 27 in Europe)/ 28 in North America). Stream and download it here:
+++ Kool Thing have a catchy new single entitled “TV Tower”, which will be the leading track of their debut album they’re about to release on March 4. Stream the tune here:
The internet doesn’t provide much information about Engel Leonardo, except for the fact that he is based in the Dominican Republic (supposedly in Santo Domingo), works as an artist and filmmaker and has directed two beautiful music videos full of nature scenes, religious symbolism and subtle, multi-facetted eroticism. His latest video was shot for the song “Morí Viví” by El Gran Poder de Diosa, a collaborative project by musician Eddy Nuñez, former member of the Santo Domingo based band Rita Indiana y los Misterios. It is a wonderful follow-up to his clip for “Da Pa Lo Do” (“There’s Enough For You Both”) by Rita Indiana y los Misterios from 2010, which commented on the difficult relationship between Haiti and the Dominican Republic in its own powerful way. I’ve posted both videos below, you find a third one entitled “C-70″ on Leonardo’s vimeo page and a fashion video he directed in December on YouTube. I’ve found out about Engel thanks to the wonderful club fonograma blog.
Berlin queer underground and DIY heroes Scream Club have two pretty good reasons to celebrate these days, and we celebrate with them: Not only has the electro-hip-hop duo just released a beautiful new video to its new single “Fire” (directed by Berlin based artist Chris Wiegand and shot in Stockholm) …
John Cameron Mitchell might not have a new film out at the moment, but he’s in Berlin for the film festival with plenty of other activities keeping him busy. On a break from writing the stage sequel to Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Mitchell was invited by the Berlinale Talent Campus to speak about cinematic depiction of sex for Thursday’s “Some Like It Hot” panel at HAU1. Later that night, he and I will join Shortbus stars PJ DeBoy and Paul Dawson for MATTACHINE Berlin, the first European edition of their semi-legendary NYC dance party, taking place at Monster Ronson’s.
SADAK is a Berlin based fashion label founded by designer Saša Kovacevic, who has graduated at the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee in 2010. Kovacevic was born in Serbia and was a dancer at the National Theater in Belgrad before he decided to dedicate his live to fashion – the label’s name refers to a traditional sleeveless jacket from the Balkan. The designer has just recently finished the shooting for the lookbook for his new collection “Mendeš”, which pays tribute to one of his friends from Bosnia, who lived as a refugee in Amsterdam after having to leave the country as a result of the war. The collection is a mixture between traditional Bosnian costumes and Mendeš’ very own style. Below you find a little preview of the last four SADAK collections (full collections linked in the headlines or on Facebook) – the beautiful spring/summer 2013 looks will soon be distributed via WUT Berlin (Tokyo). All pictures below (c) SADAK by Daniel Samo Bolliger.
“I was living in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Oaxaca producing videos”, wrote me artist and Catch Fire contributor Paul Rodriguez about his exhibition HIV CA LA. “I ended up in Mexico City to show this work, but I had to get out of the country. HIV CV LA was a one night video installation in Los Angeles. I am interested in making videos that change the way a space feels by using color.” The show was curated by Philippe de Sablet, for more pictures and videos please visit the exhibition site.
boychild is an emerging performance and make-up artist currently residing in LA and soon to be based in NYC, whose work after a show at Art Basel Miami and collaborations with Hood By Air and make-up artist Robin Black has spread quickly on the internet during the last few weeks. My most recent contact with the young artist’s work was Jack Halberstam’s lecture “Going Gaga” (see below), which concludes with a video of boychild re-performing Rihanna’s “Rude Boy” during a show San Francisco – a performance which for Halberstam stands for a new sort of ”wildness” in pop culture that subverts and transforms ideas of gender, race and sexuality. The following collection of photos and videos show some of boychild’s most recent works and collaborations – for more of the beautiful make-up looks please check out boychild @ Instagram (preview below).
What do Jay-Z/Kayne West, rapper Angel Haze and emerging performance artist Boychild have in common? All three of them are prophets of a new social (dis-)order, at least in the eyes of queer theorist Jack Halberstam, who believes that we might slowly be drifting towards a new order of queer anarchy and post-civilisation. With the lecture “Going Gaga – Chaos, Anarchy and the Wild”, which derives from the book Gaga Feminism from last year and was held both atSilverfuture and at ICI Berlin last week, Halberstram tried to make these shifts in the meaning of sexuality and gender in contemporary pop culture visible. The idea was to perceive these cultural moments of “wildness”, especially in the field of music, as indicators for bigger changes in society as a whole, defining “anarchy” in a new, more abstract and less formalized way.
The talk is now online and can be streamed on the ICI website (If you ever wanted to know what my voice sounds like stream discussion video 3). Below you find a little excerpt the center uploaded on YouTube, and I posted some additional video material of stuff mentioned in the lecture below that. For more Halberstam please check out bullybloggers.wordpress.com and jackhalberstam.com.
+++ Cakes Da Killa‘s new album “The Eulogy” is now online and can (and SHOULD) be streamed and downloaded for free via Bandcamp / Mishka NYC or right here:
+++ Planningtorock has released a new song Misogyny Drop Down - a wonderful, de-gendered hymn against gender-based discrimination with nice house references. The song will soon be released on a new EP on the new exciting Human Level label, which also released Planningtorock’s Patriarchy over & out split single with rRoxymore last year.
+++ THEESatisfaction have a beautiful new EP dedicated to Erykah Badu. You can stream “THEESatisfaction Loves Erykah Badu” here and buy it via Bandcamp (price on a sliding scale):
+++ Portland based duo Unicorn Domination aka Chelsea Dixon and Clint Havard have self-released a cute synth and beat based debut album entitled “Status” in March last year. Last week I’ve stumbled over the video to their single “Babblestacks”, and since then I can’t get the track out of my head. The video shot in Los Angeles was directed by artist and filmmaker Jessie Kahnweiler.
The tickets for the 63. Berlinale are now on sale. We’ve taken a closer look on this year’s program and put together a list of the film screenings we’re looking forward to the most. For the individual screening dates please check out the film’s pages on the Berlinale website linked below the trailers.
Hélio Oiticica
Director: Cesar Oiticica Filho
Short synopsis: Found-footage documentary about Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica (1937-1980), the filmmaker’s uncle.
In 1989 British artist Malcolm McLaren (1946 – 2010) invited vogue legend Willi Ninja (1961 – 2006) to London to record a spoken word introduction to his song “Deep In Vogue”, with which he wanted to present the New York ballroom culture to a new audience. The main part of the song was performend by singer Lourdes Morales and released as a single from McLaren’s album Waltz Darling in a remix by producers Mark Moore and William Orbit, which McLaren liked better than his own version. Singer Lordes today claims that McLaren stole the original idea for the song from house DJ and producer David Delvalle, while Willie Ninja shortly before his death criticized McLaren for misspelling his name on the single and not mentioning him as the writer of intro’s lyrics.
McLaren for his part later on openly criticized Madonna for stealing his idea of introducing ballroom to the mainstream with her single “Vogue”, which was released one year later: ”I found myself on the same bill as Madonna at some Greenpeace concert and I remember her watching my dancers voguing from the side of the stage. A few weeks later she had stolen all my dancers, brought out her own single and carried it over into the mainstream. The cheek of her!” It is said that Madonna learned about voguing through actress Lauren Hutton, who was McLaren’s girlfriend at the time.
The epic video to “Deep In Vogue” starring ballroom legend Willi Ninja and his crew was shot in 1989, shortly before the release of “Paris is Burning”, which already existed on VHS at that time. It was director Jenny Livingston herself, who allowed producers Mark Moore and William Orbit to use samples from the film for their version of the song.
