Like the scream of a frightened soul coming face to face with a monster, “Arrrgh!” is the title of a recently opened exhibition at Parisian gallery Gaité Lyrique, which deals with “monsters in fashion.” The playfully extravagant exhibition, running through 7 April, is based on the first comprehensive investigation…
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Our latest favorite music for avoiding the outdoors
As winter sputters along in New York, we’re finding plenty of reasons to be homebodies —an activity that calls for the appropriate soundtrack. Like Atlas Sounds’ opener “The Shakes,” some of the best music for the season seems engineered for playing on vinyl, a choice that helps conjure warmth on even the coldest, darkest nights. We also included some cheerful songs, perfect for the intimacy of always being indoors, and a few rebellious shouts (“Yella Diamonds” by Ricky Rozay, Waka Flocka and Ludacris on “Rich and Flexin'”) to get you amped for work when you’d rather be snuggling. Remember, you have to be ready to be reborn come spring.
A classic anthology from the masterful mind of John Cage
Best known as an avant-garde composer, John Cage spent his entire life writing, a fact often overshadowed by his achievements in music. “A Year from Monday,” an anthology of lectures and poems originally published in ’67, proves that genius is never bound to medium; his written work gives a glimpse into his creative mind.
Much of “A Year” is in the form of a ‘literary mosaic,’ Cage’s method of essentially compiling diary entries into a somewhat cohesive, visually-striking composition. Every fragment serves as a single thought or anecdote, sometimes referring to others but more often not. What results is a clear train of thought, laid out on a beautifully constructed page, allowing the reader to follow his ideas not as something he is telling you, but as an ideology that he is guiding you to find for yourself.
Perhaps most valuable to fans of Cage’s music, his lecture to the Julliard class of ’52 serves as a manifesto of his understanding of sound. The piece, metrically arranged in columns to time to David Tudor’s piano playing, uses Buddhist anecdotes to attempt to explain his profound understanding of everything musical.
Pick it up on Amazon to curl up with some brain food.
Otherworldly fashion from Copenhagen’s emerging avant-goth designer
Defining her work as “dark avant-garde,” Danish fashion designer Barbara Í Gongini divides her work into two collections, the highly experimental Main Line and the slightly less radical Black Line. Both—continuously produced in collaboration with photographers, filmmakers and musicians—freely blur the boundaries between fashion and art.
The look conjures dark elves and pale fairies but mixes in an urban and unorthodox (almost creepy) mood, which comes to life in her most recent beautiful video. Without any nostalgia, echoes of the ’90s and Japanese fashion designers define these clothes, centered around deconstructed shapes in all shades of black.
Starting with square forms, Gongini creates a silhouette where sharp edges and corners disappear thanks to the choice of natural materials such as organic cotton and wool, lamb leather, goat skin and fur. Her attention to in-house production, recycling and fair trade even earned her a nomination for the Danish Fashion Award Committee’s 2010 Ethical Award.
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