Nomadism. Technology. Migration. Utopia. Body Politics. The myriad themes considered in the work of Hussein Chalayan are unlike that of any other contemporary fashion designer. Hussein Chalayan uses fashion as a medium for presenting and discussing the semiotics of clothing. Chalayan interrogates standard cultural signs and materials by demystifying the common values related to fashion such as superficiality and frivolousness.
     After graduating from the Türk Maarif College, Chalayan continued his studies at London’s Saint Martin’s School of Art. For his senior thesis project in 1993, his Tangent Flows collection featured silk dresses that had been covered in iron filings, buried in the ground for months and then unearthed just before the show and presented with a text that explained the process. The garment’s rituals of burial and resurrection referred to life, death, and urban decay in material objects. This collection not only launched his career (his label was created only a year later in 1994), but helped him achieve global success as someone working between the complex mix of contemporary artist and fashion designer. Chalayan has twice been named British Designer of the Year and has received numerous awards and honors since Tangent Flows.

Have you ever wondered why Japanese design is so damn good? Here is the answer – the Japanese do not differentiate between fine arts and design like we do in the West. They treat both the artist and the artisan equally. This is the way Tomoaki Okaniwa, the designer behind the young label The Viridi-Anne, thinks. Born in Nagano, he moved to Tokyo as a teenager to study oil painting, but then switched to fashion. He launched The Viridi-Anne in 2000. Clean tailoring prevails in Okaniwa’s work, but upon closer inspection subtle details like curved seams and seamlessly incorporated extra pockets give the clothes a sense of vitality that is not aggressive, but rather subdued. “The main concept of my work is based on the beauty of simplicity and the effects of time,” Okaniwa says. “I want to create garments with roots in the ideal of ‘wabi-sabi’ that incorporates the aesthetics of imperfection, incompleteness, and the effects of natural processes, but I want to mix it with a modern vision.“ Okaniwa’s clothes possess a good mix of European and Japanese cultures. His latest collection is based on Picasso’s Blue Period. We asked the designer to answer a few questions about his work.

How did you become a fashion designer?
I began my creative life as a painter. I was inspired by modern art in general, and one Japanese artist, Leonardo Fujita, in particular. He was an oil painter who lived and worked in Paris. His use of colors, fine sense of balance and choice of subjects were extremely beautiful.

Brooklyn-based designer Shabd Simon-Alexander is something of a jack-of-all-trades. In addition to participating in Saviour Scraps, a textile-based artists’ collective, she is adept at photography, sculpture, and several other forms of visual art.
     When it comes to her eponymous clothing line, however, Simon-Alexander resists the urge to display the range of her ability. Instead, she adopts a meticulous, straightforward approach, channeling her energy into creating unfussy silhouettes from natural fibers. Drawing from folk tradition and her dedication to environmentally conscious fashion, Simon-Alexander begins the construction of each new garment with leftover fabric from the last one. Inspired by imagery of star life cycles captured by the Hubble telescope, the individually hand-dyed prints are rendered in delicate pastels. In addition to her own designs, Simon-Alexander also lends her handiwork to basic pieces, including tees, leotards, tanks, tote bags, and bikinis.
     For her A/W 2010 collection, Simon-Alexander doesn’t plan to stray far from her successful technique. Instead, the latest collection features an improvement of her craft, as she experiments with complicated Shibori methods of dyeing. As Simon-Alexander’s website states, her pieces “bring design, chance and chaos into a perfect balance”. With the juxtaposition of natural and man-made structures influencing her latest collection, the conscientious artist has produced a unique rendering of her latest inspiration.

When Coco Chanel began to design the clothing that would usher in the laissez-faire attitude of the Roaring Twenties, she distinguished her work with an unusual color palette and fabric. Her controversial use of low-cost jersey in sportswear piqued the interest of her wealthy clientele and sent a ripple through the fashion world. Decades later, the fabric has become commonplace throughout the industry, but in the hands of the right designer, jersey can still turn heads.
     Enter Christiane Gruber, the designer behind the Austrian line Awareness and Consciousness. A graduate of Vienna’s University of Applied Arts, Gruber honed her craft under the tutelage of Raf Simons and has also logged hours with Haider Ackermann and A.F. Vandevorst. Clearly influenced by the clean lines of her mentors, Gruber’s own line, founded in  2005, has built a reputation on uncomplicated silhouettes rendered in multiple layers of high-quality draped jersey.
     While shapes of her collections remain consistent, it is Gruber’s ever-changing color palette and one-of-a-kind, often hand-dyed prints that make her work unique. The earthy hues of Awareness & Conscousness’ spring 2010 effort produced an effect much like the unpredictable beauty of agate, which was strung up on chains and used as pendants to accessorize the collection. Striking a delicate balance between painstakingly manipulated design techniques and an effortless and natural final product, Gruber appears poised and ready to redefine the use of jersey yet again.

Rag & Bone, the hip American clothier, was founded in Kentucky in 2002, at the beginning of the premium denim craze. The idea was simple, to make great jeans. The business took off quickly and in several years the company went from a manufacturer of good denim to a full-fledged clothing company with fashion shows on the New York calendar. Fast-forward to today and the company is going back to basics — pun intended. Rag & Bone recently introduced three new women’s lines, JEAN, SHIRT, and KNIT, that, according the press release, are supposed to “constitute the foundation of every modern girl’s wardrobe”.
    Last Friday, the new duds got a New York home of their own. The prime real estate on the corner of E. Houston and Elizabeth used to house Café Colonial, somewhat of a neighborhood landmark. Rag & Bone paid homage to the former tenant both implicitly — by keeping the original tile floors — and explicitly — by writing a love note on the side of the building. Inside, the no-frills wood and metal décor is in tune with the no-nonsense offerings. The modern girl gets three types of jeans (made in the USA), seven different tops (from the oxford to the shirt-dress), and several t-shirts. There is also an adjacent shoe store that houses footwear and accessories from the main line.

Rag & Bone, 73 East Houston St. New York, NY.

On a recent afternoon during the Paris menswear fashion week Stephan Schneider, the German fashion designer of the esteemed Antwerp school, was milling around his brightly lit showroom, talking to the buyers and eyeing over the models that were changing clothes like human jukeboxes. A soft-spoken man in his forties, Schneider has been working since the mid ’90s, gaining a loyal following among those who, although interested in fashion, would not be caught dead next to a fashionista. His clothes possess a quiet, quirky spirit that is easy to overlook, a spirit of a reflective kid who stands in the school hallway during the break watching other teenagers act out their lives. Acting is the last thing that comes to mind when looking at Schneider’s deceptively simple, almost preppy creations. “There is no drama in my clothes,” says Schneider.
     That is not to say that the clothes are not alive. The little details, such as different shades of color on the sleeves of a coat or a contrasting band peaking out from under the shirt’s collar, give Schneider’s garments their zest. “My customer is always a boy inside, even a man who is 70,” says Schneider. “The charm of my customer is that they can keep a boyish attitude inside, and that I want to keep in the clothes. There is always a bit of humor in them.”

Schoolyard taunts and bookworm stereotypes aside, eyeglasses have accompanied many a trailblazer into the annals of iconic style. For the latest generation attempting to achieve the bookish vibe of Buddy Holly and Woody Allen, however, a glut of expensive eyewear has made the market a potentially prohibitive one. Declaring the state of the industry unacceptable, four bespectacled students at Wharton decided to try and level the playing field. With a potent blend of good design, economic savvy, and customer service, the masterminds behind affordable prescription eyewear line Warby Parker are slowly democratizing the industry both stateside and abroad.
     Named for Zagg Parker and Warby Pepper, two of Jack Kerouac’s early fictional characters, Warby Parker’s first collection consists of twenty-seven limited-run styles inspired by vintage frames. The handcrafted cellulose acetate glasses boast grandfatherly names like Fillmore, Miles, and Huxley to complement their sturdy, old-world charm. Yet the frames are hardly carbon copies of their vintage predecessors; they’re available in black and various tortoise variations, as well as bright purples and greens.
     The glasses are only sold through Warby Parker’s website, which keeps each custom-fitted pair at a manageable price of $95. In order to recreate the experience of visiting an eyewear boutique, the company is willing to send five pairs for customers try on at home for free.

Released this spring by Assouline, Olivier Theyskens: The Other Side of the Picture features beautiful behind-the-scenes photographs by Julian Claessens, which capture Olivier Theyskens rapid, international ascension as a fashion designer. Theyskens dropped out of design school at the age of twenty to design his first collection in 1997, for which publications such as Women’s Wear Daily, The New York Times, and Harper’s Bazaar noted his singular talent. Later that year, Madonna even wore one of his dresses to the Oscars. In the thirteen years since, Theyskens has revamped the house of Rochas and moved on to become artistic director of Nina Ricci.
     Claessens’ photographs explore the variety and careful skill in Theyskens’ designs, while simultaneously exposing the intimate moments, craftmanship, and authenticity behind the veneer of a fashion show. The book is a valuable read not only for its lush overview of Theyskens’s unusual, revolutionary career but also for the thoughtful layer it adds to our occasionally all-too-superficial perception of the fashion world.

Olivier Theyskens: The Other Side of the Picture is available for purchase at www.shopassouline.com.