GLAMCULT / 2014 / ISSUE 8 / #107

FREE 2014—Issue 8 #107

“Candlelight and soul forever.”

Glamcult Independent Style Paper

www.replay.it

Issue 8 #107 Update

Cult 6 Albums 11

Kindness 34 Cancer 36

Platform

Visual Essays

Wool Week Amsterdam 12

Fuck it, let’s toast... 38 I love it when... 46 Say I’m perfect... 52

Interviews

Banks 14 Agi & Sam 16 Berlinde De Bruyckere 22 Benji WZW 26 Minna Palmqvist 30

Report

American Apparel Factory 58 Plus

Stockists 63

Colophon Editor-in-Chief Joline Platje joline@glamcult.com Creative Director Rogier Vlaming rogier@glamcultstudio.com Fashion Editor Leendert Sonnevelt leendert@glamcultstudio.com Copy Editor Megan Roberts Editorial Intern Iris Wenander iris@glamcult.com Sales Intern Daniël Heijl daniel@glamcult.com Sales sales@glamcult.com Art Director Marline Bakker marline@glamcultstudio.com

Graphic Design Glamcult Studio: Beau Bertens Rutger de Vries Graphic Design Intern Yuki Kappes Contributors: Christie Bakker, Daniëlle van Dongen, Hanka van der Voet, Jean-François Adjabahoué, Kelsey Lee Jones, Maricke Nieuwdorp, Sander van Dalsum, Sarah Johanna Eskens Photographers: Arjen Roos, Barrie Hullegie, David, Gomez Maestre, Duy Vo, Edel Verzijl, Emma Hardy, Enzo Addi, Frida Marklund, Matin Zad, Simon Burk, Williams + Hirakawa Cover Photography: Barrie Hullegie Styling: Lidewij Merckx—House of Orange Hair and make-up: Eva Copper— House of Orange Model: Lee—RPH Model Management

Assistant photography: Meriam Rouabah Assistant styling: Mary-Lou Berkulin Assistant hair and make-up: Magdalena Loza—House of Orange Special thanks to The Woolmark Company and The Campaign for Wool Dress Christian Wijnants via The Woolmark Company (exclusive for Wool Week Antwerp), shirt A.F. Vandevorst, boots Chanel Quotes Candlelight and soul forever.

—Spice Girls Fuck it, let’s toast and listen to Michael Bolton.—Frank Ocean I love it when you flex like that.

—Dizzee Rascal Say I’m perfect game.

—When Saints Go Machine

Publisher Rogier Vlaming / Glamcult Studio B.V. P.O. Box 14535, 1001 LA Amsterdam, The Netherlands T +31 (0)20 419 41 32 rogier@glamcultstudio.com www.glamcultstudio.com Distribution distribution@glamcult.com For all subscriptions please contact Abonnementenland P.O. Box 20, 1910 AA Uitgeest, The Netherlands T +31 (0)251 313 939 F +31 (0)251 31 04 05 For subscriptions www.bladenbox.nl For address changes and cancellations www.aboland.nl Eight issues a year The Netherlands € 37 Europe € 59,50 Rest of the world € 79,50 Prices subject to change

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Subscriptions can start at any time during the year. Subscriptions need to be closed for at least one year and will be automatically renewed until further notice. Cancellations must be submitted written and at least six weeks before the expiry of the subscription period to Abonnementenland.

Changes of address must be submitted written at least three weeks in advance to Abonnementenland. © All rights reserved. Nothing from this publication may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher and other copyright holders. The publisher cannot be held responsible for damage done by incorrect provision of information in the magazine. The views expressed in the magazine are those of our contributors and do not necessarily represent the views of Glamcult or its staff.

ISSN: 18741932

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Cult

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A/W14 collection, Embezzler

A/W14 collection, The Haters Club, photography: ZhongLin

A/W14 collection, photography: Paul Jung

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Marije Seijn

Huajia Studio

Yii 5 Still from Rosebud, 2013, courtesy of Cabinet Gallery and Rodeo Gallery

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James Richards

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Aanmodderfakker 2

There’s something oddly compelling about former glory. The 1975 documentary Grey Gardens (directed by Albert and David Maysles, among others) perfectly captures this sentiment by showcasing the everyday life of bankrupt American socialites “Big Edie” and “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale. Absorbed by these women’s “food cans, ice cream buckets and treasures from the past”, Gerrit Rietveld Academie graduate Marije Seijn created a womenswear collection that—just as sentimentally— blurs the boundaries between past and present. The emerging designer based her pieces on found materials, which she fused into woolly, voluminous garments. Damaged goods were (literally) bathed in the fabulousness of the past, but simultaneously got to keep their deconstructed quality.

Embezzler, as Seijn suitably named her collection, lingers somewhere between rags and riches, never going for one or the other. Or, as Big Edie would have put it: “You can’t have your cake and eat it too, in life.” By Leendert Sonnevelt

Kuala Lumpurian menswear designer Yii immediately takes you back to the film The Little Rascals with his A/W14 collection The Haters Club—not only because of the reference to the He-Man Woman Haters Club, but also because Alfalfa is omnipresent in the lookbook.

Only this Alfalfa seems to have lost his bow tie and suspenders and replaced them with an oversized cable-knit sweater and another with layers of cut-outs. The turtleneck gets its groove back, tucked away under a long coat and sweaters with haunting prints inspired by the manga series Spooky Kitaro. This clash describes Yii best.

He has—in his own words—a morbid personality, but also a kid’s heart and believes strongly that every child is an artist. Yii wonders if we should ever grow up and to be honest, so do we.

Yet we’re happy Yii didn’t invent a potion to remain a child, because his designs are breathtaking. And with a little imagination and whilst singing along to Alphaville, we could be forever young. By Daniëlle van Dongen

www.marijeseijn.tumblr.com

www.y-ii.net

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Some folks—such as fashion designer Jia Hua—just can’t sit still. In addition to running her own label, Huajia Studio, she’s editor-in-chief at Wulun, an art and design platform that attempts to bring young talented artists and designers together. Born and raised in China, after graduating from the Academy of Art and Design at the Tsinghua University Jia Hua moved to New York to follow the MFA programme at Parsons The New School for Design.

But don't let us bore you with her entire résumé; let’s get back to her A/W14 collection, which was inspired by artists such as Mickalene Thomas, Caroline Larsen and minimalist maven Dan Flavin —the last of which is apparent in her collection film, where the pieces light up. Mixing traditional craft techniques with modern sportswear, Jia Hua has created wearable silhouettes for her oversized sweater dresses with chiffon peeping out underneath. The collection—rendered in dark green, dark blue, purple and orange—is topped off with T-bar heels worn with bright coloured socks. A strong, feminine wearable collection—we like! By Daniëlle van Dongen www.huajiastudio.com

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As the youngest nominee for this year’s Turner Prize, British video artist James Richards caught our eye with his cutand-paste imagery and haunting sound compositions. Richards creates— with his gentle yet hard-core touch— eerie and unique video landscapes.

In his piece Rosebud, his contribution to The Encyclopaedic Palace at the 55th Venice Biennale, he works with what he calls “parallel imagery”. He combines pictures of censored art books—which he came across in a library in Tokyo—with footage from a small underwater camera. Richards wanted to gather his own material, with the camera acting like an extension of himself. “Although the material in itself isn’t abstract, I treat it in a way that is very abstract,” he says.

For Richards, his work is more like a painting or an abstract sculpture than a video installation. Check out his work this winter in London, Hamburg or New York. By Iris Wenander

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Thijs (Gijs Naber) is your classic eternal student. He hangs around, lives off his mother, doesn’t study at all and ignores a threatening stack of tax mail. He earns some beer money at a media megastore between his sleeping hours and bar visits, and is still dropping off his laundry at his sister’s house. Thijs shares a filthy apartment with a bonedry bearded figure who is, sadly enough, more realistic and worldly as our frat-boy protagonist. Thijs has missed the boat, that’s for sure. When he meets the over-ambitious teenager Lisa, Thijs realises—slowly—what he’s missing out on in life. Buried with Golden Calves (Dutch Oscars), com­ edy Aanmodderfakker, directed by Michiel ten Horn and written by Anne Barnhoorn (who previously created The Deflowering of Eva van End together) is reminiscent, in its tone of voice, of early Eddy Terstall scripts. And that’s kind of fresh! By Maricke Nieuwdorp Release 6/11 NL

Turner Prize 2014 Nominees, until 4 January 2015, Tate Britain, London Raking Light, until 6 December, Cabinet Gallery, London Cut to Swipe (Group show), until 22 March 2015, MoMA, New York Ars Viva 2014/2015, until 19 February 2015, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg

Cult

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Still from Crab Nebula, Frederik Heyman for Wouters & Hendrix

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A/W14 collection

Wouters & Hendrix 30 years 9

Martine Rose

Untitled, 2014, photography: Kerry Ryan McFate, © Tara Donovan, courtesy of Pace Gallery

Naoya Ikegami Kazuo Ohno in My Mother, 1980 courtesy of sprout curation

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Dancing light / Let it move you

Tara Donovan 6

For A/W14, London designer Martine Rose follows on from previous collections with another exploration of her fascination with music. This means the night is still young—and she’s throwing us another party. This season Rose collaborated with alt-culture publisher Steve Terry and his Wild Life archive to visualize an ode to London and New York’s dance scene of the late ’80s and early ’90s. Borrowed imagery and youth ephemera from the vault of Wildlife Press have been reworked into an extraordinary winter collection.

It’s a hedonistic mix-up of references— loose acid-house vs. disco lustre imagined in a fusion of camo, red moc-croc, pink muslin, faux fur and silver lurex. Silhouette and shape play with volume, and the oversized trousers provide the perfect celebration pants. Now where’s the party? Let’s dance! By Kelsey Lee Jones www.martine-rose.com

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This year Belgian jewellery label Wouters & Hendrix is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary. For the past three decennia, designers Katrin Wouters and Karen Hendrix have been enthralling and amazing the world with their authentic, cool and thoughtful adornments.

In the early days, when affordable and trendy jewellery design didn’t really exist yet, friends and family declared the two insane for starting their company. “People had the choice of either buying lush classical diamonds or funny plastics. We were lucky we could follow in the wake of the Antwerp Six, joining them on their trips to fashion events over the borders of Belgium.

It paved the way for us to start something new,” they state modestly, while having selling points all over the world.

The combination of the completely different personalities of both women is what makes every design so intriguing.

“We know each other by heart and we keep on challenging each other by not having the same taste. Together we’re unstoppable.” Each Wouters & Hendrix design tells its own story, using daring combinations of materials and bizarrely ambiguous references. They don’t just make jewels; they create complete fables. While looking back at their body of work, they’ve detected five recurring themes: surrealism, romanticism, humour, contradistinction and

nature—most of the time all five combined within a single item. To celebrate their 30 years of being in the industry, Wouters & Hendrix have embedded their legacy within five uniquely designed time capsules that contain statement artefacts and represent the five themes that characterize their work. With these small universes the two keep their fingers on the pulse of today’s zeitgeist, and look forward to the future. At the backdrop of a digital revolution, every capsule was translated into a 3D short movie directed by our beloved visual artist Frederik Heyman, who grasps their unique balance between traditional craftsmanship and contemporary trends that is so typical for their designs. Here’s to many more years! By Joline Platje www.wouters-hendrix.com

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Tara Donovan creates majestic and poetic works of art from common household objects like buttons, toothpicks and Styrofoam cups. Her sculptures often originate from the materials she uses: Donovan doesn’t draw or sketch but lets her materials act as co-creators of her work. In that way she manages to produce art pieces that go beyond paper or plastic—or whatever material she’s working with—and transcend into landscapes or alien-like objects. “I work very much like a scientist or an architect in the studio. I clean everything up, isolate the material and then perform experiments with it,” Donovan once told Louisiana Channel. Light also plays a big part in her work; she mainly uses reflective objects, which are lit in a way that changes the viewer’s perception of the pieces as he or she moves around them. Donovan feels that the beholders should “feel what they feel and experience what they experience” without having a predestined viewpoint. Her works are therefore usually left untitled—and “open for magical things to happen”. By Iris Wenander

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“A photograph is a photograph, and a dance is a dance.” Stillness versus movement; initially the two may appear contrary, but the exhibition Dancing Light / Let it Move You (in collaboration with the Flamenco Biennale) proves the opposite. The exhibition, on show at Amsterdam’s Huis Marseille this winter, casts a new light, presenting photo­ graphy as the perfect medium to capture dance. It’s a celebration of the raw expression of dance, its primal power and its ability to move us (both literally and figuratively). Taking par­t icular inspiration from flamenco and butoh, the enthralling mystery and enchantment of these particular dance styles are explored through apparently irreconcilable opposites like joy and sorrow, and hope and death. Dancing Light is not just a beautifully inspiring display of work, it’s an education. Make sure you see it—let it move you. By Kelsey Lee Jones 13 December until 8 March 2015, Huis Marseille, Amsterdam www.huismarseille.nl

Gc Update

Cult 10

Photography: Martijn Savenije

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Cooly G, photography: Pani Paul

The Trouw Book Mommy

Rewire x Hyperdub 13

Still uit The Hornhunter

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Noël Loozen The Skeleton Twins 10

Canadian film prodigy and all-round cool guy Xavier Dolan has done it again: he’s conjured a new movie out of his top hat. Mommy, his fifth feature, deals with the relationship between mothers and sons—one of his favourite themes, as Dolan (J’ai tué ma mère, Tom à la ferme) told us in person last year. In Mommy, a flamboyant widow is trying to raise her unruly 15-year-old son Steve in a suburb of Montréal. Amidst the chaos of their household a new neighbour offers her help. This time Dolan did not play the lead role himself, instead casting the promising young AntoineOlivier Pilon. The soundtrack, always an important element in Dolan’s work, consists of a mix tape that Steve’s deceased father put together, including songs by Lana Del Rey and Beck.

By Maricke Nieuwdorp Release 13/11 NL

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To celebrate a decade of pioneering electronic music, Rewire Festival presents 10 years of Hyperdub. The Londonbased label has an extensive back catalogue that includes the works of Burial, Laurel Halo, Ikonika, DJ Rashad, Zomby and many other experimentalists. Ranging from early dubstep to grainy techno to short bursts of footwork, label head Kode9 has a keen eye for genre-bending artists. Together with two of his disciples, he’ll show The Hague what this club of musicians is capable of. Not much is known about former Hype Williams starlet copeland, but her hypnotic, loopy pop compos­ itions and dreamy vocals have been haunting minds for a while now, especially with this year’s arrival of debut album Because I’m Worth It. Cooly G, meanwhile, translates sensual R&B into the dark synth music of the ’80s, never losing sight of her dubby house roots.

With Kode9 along for the ride, this trio will serve an evening of wonderfully cacophonous electronic sounds.

By Sander van Dalsum

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TrouwAmsterdam, undoubtedly one of the Dutch capital’s most cherished venues, will officially close its doors on 3 January 2015—sob! The former printing press of Trouw newspaper provided a unique multidisciplinary venue, functioning as an art space, restaurant and, of course, as a Mecca for clubbers.

Trouw has hosted some of the finest allnight parties that will stay permanently etched in the memories of many—but just to be extra sure you never forget them, the club is releasing a special book to commemorate the last six years.

Olaf Boswijk, creative director, bids farewell with a heartfelt letter and a thorough history of the unique venue.

Dance-floor tales, exclusive pictures, interviews and anecdotes make up this commemorative hardback, modestly called The Trouw Book.

Get your copy this December then head to Trouw for one last hurrah.

Doei! By Kelsey Lee Jones www.trouwamsterdam.nl

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Until recently, sound was virgin territory for visual artist Noël Loozen. He graduated from the photography department of the Rietveld Academie in 2009 with several cool video installations and photographs in his portfolio. With his first short fiction film The Hornhunter (2014), developed during a master’s programme at the Dutch Film Academy, Loozen examines the audio aspect accompanying his images for the first time. After an extensive search, Loozen came across men who place ship horns on their cars, “listening” to them with noise-protection headphones.

Then they post these scenes online.

Bonkers—but Loozen’s inspirations generally are: previously, he was inspired by kids’ rides and how their movements seamlessly matched the beats of the Bronstibock track he was making a music video for (in collaboration with Anne Huijnen). For more visuals and a series of self-portraits (Noël, 2014) with outrageous Christmas sweaters, check out his website.

By Maricke Nieuwdorp

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A well-made family tragedy that’ll make you cry your eyes out requires a ton of laughs as well. It is a combination of conditions these two Saturday Night Live alums can probably guarantee in The Skeleton Twins. Comical talents Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader play once inseparable twins who’ve grown apart during the last ten years. Now they meet again during an uncomfortable reunion after a handful of near disasters. What the hell went so terribly wrong that both their lives are in this terrible shape? That their woolly mother is neglecting the fact that her adult children are unhappy? That their father died early? That Milo’s acting career in Los Angeles has not yet led to an Oscar? And Maggie, despite having a lovely husband, is cheating on him with her diving instructor? A bittersweet American indie that tackles the grand themes of life in a both warm and comical manner. By Maricke Nieuwdorp Release: 20/11 NL, 7/11 UK

www.noelloozen.com

Rewire Festival, 7-8 November, several venues, The Hague www.rewirefestival.nl www.hyperdub.net

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Gc Update

Zeeuws Museum

Handwerk

Antoine Peters

In het eerste deel van dit project staat de vouw- en plooitechniek uit de Zeeuwse streekdracht centraal. Modeontwerper Antoine Peters en de studenten van Meesteropleiding Coupeur leren de fijne kneepjes van het vak van de Middelburgse mevrouw Vos (91).

Zij is meester in het stijven en plooien van mutsen en jakken.

In de speciale HANDWERKPLAATS kunt ook u aan de slag.

vanaf 22 november 2014

Uit elkaar gehaald jak, Walcheren, 1850. Proefvouwlap, Antoine Peters, 2014. Foto: Lonneke van der Palen. Ontwerp: Glamcult Studio.

Abdij, Middelburg

Meesteropleiding Coupeur

www.zeeuwsmuseum.nl

Cult 15

By Leendert Sonnevelt

Body Container comes to life in Hong Kong 2013, knitted shredded travel maps, performed by Movana Chen, filmed by James Vyner

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Body Containers come to life in Seoul 2010, knitted shredded Korean history books & art magazines, performed by Movana Chen & Euan Park, filmed by James Vyner

Movana Chen

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While collaborating with Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen on its current exhibition highlight The Future of Fashion is Now, we ran into the woolly—but really, not so woolly—wearable art of Movana Chen. By creating what she describes as “magazine clothes” or “sculpture installation”, the young visionary from Hong Kong explores the relationship between our daily attire and the media. Knitting the words of many different languages into “body containers”, Chen attempts to create new opportunities and spaces for cultures to come together and to start communicating with each other. Her work also poses the ever-recurring questions: How do we wear our identity?

And, How do we experiment with it?

Much like a—huge!—game of Scrabble, Chen extracts the yarn for her extremely dense “kniterature” from a colossal pool of words. Subsequently,

she converts them into poetic physical objects/cultural artefacts that counter the fast pace of contemporary con­ sumer culture. Chatting to Glamcult, the Chinese artist comments on the lasting allure of paper in an increasingly digital world. “When I read something online, the feeling is too cold and flat. When I read something held in my hands, I can smell the history of the paper and feel its temperature, texture and weight.

The edge and blinding of books and magazines are so unique.” Having produced her unique form of art for almost ten years now, Chen expresses that she has “pleasantly” learnt a lot.

“The greatest thing I have learnt is twoway communication.”

By placing her body containers in cities all over the world, the artist spells out what she calls a “new language”. When we ask her how people on the streets have responded

to the somewhat intimidating sculptures, she replies, “Some may see them as mummies or monsters. To me, they explore the relationship between human beings. How people react varies from city to city. In Hong Kong, for instance, people are curious but they either completely ignore me or take photos from afar. In Seoul, the reaction of the Koreans is much more direct. The people of London are very accustomed to performance art, so they are usually less taken aback. France seems to be filled with curious people; even strangers talk to me for more than half an hour, questioning the meaning behind the containers and asking where they can find my work.”

In 2009, Chen initiated a new project under the moniker Traveling into my bookshelf. Shredding and knitting together the pages of precious books donated by her good friends, the artist

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engaged with their marked leaflets, their memories, their love stories and their specific smells. Sewing the torn pages on to canvas, Chen breathed new life into the words—and into her relationships. Presently, the artist is navigating her way around the world to “travel into your bookshelf”, as she likes to say. Carrying with her books from all around the globe, she gets in touch with locals from London to Seoul and Paris, and invites them to knit words with her. “The travelling bookshelf allows me to taste a never-ending dream world, connecting imagination and experience. Every time I’m invited into a friend’s bookshelf, the book lover’s stories and his or her everyday life, I turn them into art. Being together is such a moment of joy; secret stories are shared, being connected brings people to a new destination. I hope to invite many more literature lovers to take part in this

project, eventually threading together thousands of novels, stories and people.”

Chen’s practice is most of all an art of friendship, a contemporary form of communion, which finds its victory in sweet and spontaneous encounters.

Fellow artist Elizabeth Briel perfectly characterizes the power of Chen’s kniterature with a charming anecdote: “She even managed to break through famous Sicilian machismo. Someone said, ‘If you manage to get a Sicilian man to knit, I will buy you a pizza!’ And Movana did. I hope she got her pizza before setting off on her next adventure.” www.movanachen.com

Gc Update

Albums 18+

Arca

Brassica

Dan Bodan

HAERTS

Trust

Xen

Man is Deaf

Soft

Giving Up

Houndstooth

Mute

Civil Music

DFA Records

Columbia Records

What happens if you deny a meme one of its core elements? The debut album of internet-sensation 18+ might be the answer. The New York/Los Angeles-based duo has invaded the web with videos filled with cyberspace aesthetics and sleazy hip hop, creating works that are as intriguing as they are wonderfully distasteful.

Listening to Trust, the first full-length by the illustrious boy/girl group, there’s no imagery to casually complement the debauchery. Without the awkwardly dancing 3D-rendered models, the flying gummy bears or other digital enchantment, little remains of 18+ but some awfully average hip-hop music. Their voices remain a monotone layer slowly quivering over generic beats—and, to add insult to injury, the album comprises old songs, many of which have been previously released on various mixtapes. As a performance-art act or video-based outfit, 18+ still thrives, but stripped of its essence, its talent is gone to waste. By Sander van Dalsum

Mutated strings slither over imposing percussion and intense abstractions on Xen, the debut album of pop’s odd man out, Arca. Most sounds remain stunningly unrecognizable; the producer praised for his work on Yeezus and FKA twigs’s LP1 bends melodies and disposes of genre. Named after his genderless-but-feminine alter ego, this selection of 15 songs has more stretch than his EPs, giving the artist lots of space to progress his visceral form of composition into deeper realms.

That makes Xen a long but intriguing drama, with some bombastic highlights and some much-needed breathing space. The beautifully orchestrated Failed, for example, is an alluring ballad that serves as a bridge between high-octane, melodramatic songs like Family Violence and Slit Thru. The title track and Thievery, meanwhile, are signature Arca, with teasing influences you might know but can never quite touch. With Björk’s forthcoming album being co-produced by the man, lots more oddities are bound to be on their way. By Sander van Dalsum

You know something’s up when a musician names his album Man is Deaf.

Coming from a producer who also calls himself bra666ica—and likes to dress up like KISS with his buddies, if we’re to believe Instagram—one would expect this record to be a hellraiser.

Brassica’s debut is none of the above, however. In fact, Michael Anthony Wright’s creative process celebrates disorder in a very delicate way. Or, as the London-based artist describes it: “Rather than write with a theme or clear vision in mind, I work with semiinformed but broadly indiscriminate strokes, throwing ‘paint’ around, observing where it lands.” The resulting 11 tracks form an aurally dark but clear palette, informed by Brassica’s obsession with divergent musical genres, sonic detail, vintage synthesizers and avantgarde electronic structures. Despite its nervous gloom, Man is Deaf is an accessible, even laid-back (disco) record. Sit back, get up, relax; the devil comes as an angel of light.

By Leendert Sonnevelt

Just a few days ago, Dan Bodan (together with fellow Glamcult darling Kelela) infused Berghain’s sold-out Panorama Bar with a live rendition of his debut album, Soft. The combination might, at first, sound somewhat odd.

Who’d expect a super-sentimental R&B singer in Berlin’s darkest club? Perhaps the answer can best be found in Soft’s musical paradox; its sweet, jazzy romance is accented by dark, arresting electronics—Bodan is signed to DFA, after all. There’s more to the paradox, however. For his album artwork, the vocalist/producer collaborated with comic illustrator Julien Ceccaldi, whose Disney-gone-dark illustrations perfectly portray the double-edged quality of this debut LP. After a few listens, silky-smooth ballads turn out to be all but serene. And when Bodan’s voice cracks on the sweeping album closer Good Time Summer, the almost unbearable fragility turns into a beautiful sadness. Blessed are the meek.

By Leendert Sonnevelt

NY five-piece HAERTS is a multicultural affair (Germany, England, USA) that scored support last year with modest hit Wings, co-produced by St Lucia.

Drawing inspiration from Fleetwood Mac, the song Wings (and the video) instantly won us over with its anthemic chorus and energy, shedding pristine light on their impressive first EP, which paved the way for Giving Up. The collection of songs comprising this first album highlights the talent and intelligence of an act really adept at showing the best qualities of pop music.

Despite the cascade of indie-pop hits that feel immediately universal yet intimate (Wings, All the Days), HAERTS manages to channel the best of modern synth-pop dreaminess on tracks like Call My Name and Be The One. After comforting us throughout the summer of 2013, the heavenly voice of Nini Fabi will probably continue to ravish our haerts all winter long.

By Jean-François Adjabahoué

Lemontrip

Les Sins

Tinashe

Kiesza

Savages / Bo Ningen

Sound Of A Woman

Words To The Blind

Hollow

Michael

Aquarius

Lokal Legend

Pop Noire / Spoken Recordings

Fog Mountain Records

Company Records

RCA Records

So okay, last summer Calgary’s EDM princess Kiesza scored a massive radio hit the old-fashioned way with Hideaway: in cars all over the world people were singing/screaming, “Ooh, aah, aah, ooh…” The story behind the interesting-looking redhead is quite impressive too. The young Kiesa Rae Ellestad had to give up a very promising ballet career (due to a knee injury), sailed around the world from the age of 13 on huge vessels, and while she was hoisting the mainsail, perfected the art of sharpshooting to such excellence that she was almost recruited by the Canadian army as a markswoman.

Little doubt remained about her chances in the music biz. Now Glamcult values tasteless, vocal-driven house, epic pop ballads and kitschy outdated club beats pretty highly. Hypotheti­cally, we could appreciate an Enya-inspired cover of Haddaway’s What is Love: we’re all for cheap thrills. Practically, however, we feel Kiesza’s debut, Sound Of A Woman, reads like her biography: a bit too much all over the place. By Joline Platje

Words To The Blind is a collaborative, conceptual, cool recording between two London-based punk/avant-rock four-pieces: the girls from Savages and the Japanese boys from Bo Ningen.

After the first four minutes of artistic Japanese and French whispering it seems as if there’s going to be neither vocals nor structure on the 37-minute track that makes up this performanceturned-album. In a non-aggressive way the eight musicians communicate chaotically with each other. In the last ten minutes the pool of undetermined, eerie noise evolves into a wonderfully arranged choir of fuzzy guitars, drums and post-punk hymns, providing are panicking brains some recognition and relief. The experiment, initially performed in May 2013, was inspired by the Dadaist concept of the “simultaneous poem” —a verse read in multiple languages by several people at the same time, turning it into a collection of incomprehensible words. You get it.

Right? By Joline Platje

The music of Pepijn Gaalman doesn’t sound as Dutch as his name; nor does it sound international. Instead, the tracks he makes as Lemontrip are a prolonged rest stop in limbo, dwelling in thick layers of vaporous techno and mystical ambient, defying the rules of time during each listen. The Amsterdamvia-Tilburg producer has a knack for creating his own worlds, and this is artfully showcased on his debut album Hollow. While opener Regret channels sinister pads and industrial drums, the title track is an uplifting, club-ready piece of work that, like the human life­ span, has a clear beginning and end.

Away and Her have similar narratives, keeping heads nodding while embracing pitch-black sounds that could easily compete with the dark catalogue of Tri Angle Records. While Lemontrip may have explored somewhat radiofriendly dance music in the past, Hollow is nowhere as amiable—but will keep you dancing anyway. By Sander van Dalsum

Chaz Bundick achieved stardom with the release of a handful of solar pop albums, thriving on poolside music vibes. The man behind Toro Y Moi always excels at renewing himself with each record, extending the potential of his music to endless possibilities.

Les Sins sheds light on his house-leaning alter ego—with Michael, Chaz offers a kind of tribute to the French influence (the nod to Mr Oizo is pretty obvious), ’90s hip hop and cartoon/movie soundtracks. Equally as refreshing as his initial project, Bundick plays with the established references of various musical genres to extract his vision of what’s best about them, living up to his favourite quote “Don’t try to be original, just try to be good” (Paul Rand). While Bother embodies the bouncy feel-good side of Les Sins, Why explores Bundick’s pop sensibility. Michael is a bright and playful demonstration of Bundick’s ability to shape upbeat music, delving into pop and irresistibly drawing you to the dance floor. By Jean-François Adjabahoué

Conjuring the sweatiest dance-floor catchiness of R&B songstresses like Janet Jackson or even Aaliyah on the sultry 2 On back in January, Tinashe hits the bull’s eye with a stunning debut.

Previous mixtapes put her talent in the limelight, revealing the astounding assurance that led to standout collaborations (Ryan Hemsworth, Jacques Greene, Erik Hassle, David Sitek). These defining experiences have eased her mind into the myriad influences perceived through Aquarius. Supported by an all-star team of collaborators (Schoolboy Q, Devonté Hynes, A$AP Rocky, Future, DJ Mustard, Stargate and Mike WiLL Made-It) she manages to craft a record that makes sense as a whole, warm and luxuriant with an unvarying mood throughout. It would have been really easy to dub Tinashe as the new Ciara, but she’s more than a one-hit wonder and her confident debut is solid proof that you can be a major-label artist and still amaze.

By Jean-François Adjabahoué

11

Gc Update

Wool Week Amsterdam Entering its third edition, Wool Week Amsterdam presents a cosy exhibition of iconic woollen blasts from the past, reinvented by contemporary designers. Upcoming fashion designers Anbasja Blanken, Liselore Frowijn and the MAISON the FAUX collective have each used a coat from Milo as a tabula rasa and injected it with their own design aesthetic.

MAISON the FAUX

Liselore Frowijn

Having graduated from ArtEZ in 2013, Liselore Frowijn is the co-founder of The Much Much, a collective of 18 ArtEZ alumni that presented a guerrilla show at Paris Fashion Week in 2013. She currently resides in Milan. Inspired by paintings, Frowijn builds up every look in her own work with layers of fabric, colour and print. Used to working mostly with silk and Lycra, designing with wool was a challenge, she admits: “My starting point was the material.

In my investigations, I discovered the contrast between the soft black fabric of the coat and rough white paint.

I deconstructed the whole coat and started painting every single part by dipping it upside down in a bathtub of white paint. When I turned the parts, the paint started to run into a unique pattern and dry at the same time, which influenced the silhouette.”

Frowijn incorporated her own identity by using elements of her latest collection, Fracture Space. “I’ve reassembled the coat with reflective orange piping used in sportswear.”

By Daniëlle van Dongen Photography: Arjen Roos

Anbasja Blanken

MAISON the FAUX’s core team consists of Joris Suk, Hans Hutting and Tessa de Boer. After graduating from ArtEZ in 2013, they founded the collective, which specializes in non-gender- or age-specific “humanwear”. “For every project, different people from different design disciplines contribute. The collective is a big faux wink towards the current ruling fashion houses. It’s a lifestyle in every­ thing we do, say and create,” they explain. The inspiration for the MAISON the FAUX coat came from deconstruction, contrasts and a big dose of opsmuk, the Dutch word for frippery.

“We started from scratch, tore the house down and built it back up.”

MAISON the FAUX has big love for denim, and has worked with wool in previous collections. The contrasts between black and white, trash and

beauty, broken and fixed describe MAISON the FAUX’s design identity best, and are visible throughout their work.

As for their coat, well, “Sometimes a coat is a coat, sometimes a cow is a cow,” they tell us. “We can share everything about our design, but perhaps it’s nicer, prettier and way more beautiful not to break it down into words.”

Wool Week Amsterdam is part of The Campaign for Wool, the global crossindustry ini­t iative—launched by eco champion Prince Charles—that supports sheep farmers and the textile industry. Showcasing wool in design,

the exhibition Centuries of Wool: heritage and craftsmanship in The Netherlands is on display from 5 until 8 November at Pistache, Amsterdam.

Anbasja Blanken graduated in 2013 from the Utrecht School of Arts with a passion for designing patterns and using pastel colours. Blanken stepped firmly outside her comfort zone by designing a piece completely made of wool: “I usually work with silky fabrics,” she says. The biggest challenge for

Blanken was to inject her identity into the coat without erasing that of Milo, the original designer. “My goal was to re-create the coat by shaping it in a modern, feminine way with a harmonious pattern play. I’ve used technical skills, round shapes and a bit of embroidery; these elements represent me as a designer,” Blanken explains. Taking inspiration from enlightenment—“the possibility of creating a new meaning of understanding towards a subject or even a garment by combining identities really excites me”—to experience it in a literal way, Blanken added lightreflecting elements in the embroidery.

“These become visible when you take a picture with flash.”

www.campaignforwool.nl

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Gc Update

Interviews

14 l l i t s m ’ I “ : s B a n k g w h at I n i n e r l a b a le t r o f m o c l e ” . fe g n i r sha

16 Agi & Sam counter global injustice with a smile.

22 Berlinde De Bru yckere values the pow e r of religion, but se e nature as the bi s g g e st force of creatio n.

30 : t s i v q m l a P Minna e l p o e p d i a r “I was af t ’ n s a w I k n i would th e s o h c I f i t n e i n te l l i g .” h t a p n o i the fash 36 s u s e v a e l r e c n a C r e d n o feeling w bre. m o s y l l u f

26 : W Z W i j n e t h B g u a t n o i h s e a v F “ o l o t w o me h versions.” r e p y m

3 4 Kindness : “ is entirely My music of what reflective I ca n d o on my own .”

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By Kelsey Lee Jones Photography: Williams + Hirakawa

Banks Sultry LA songstress Banks burst on to the scene with her sublime and lusty electronic R&B—a fusion of sensitivity, strength and soul with a hint of spice—in 2013. Since then, she’s worked with the industry’s finest and her star is definitely on the rise. Which makes her a much safer bet than most actual banks these days…

Like all the coolest female singers— from Grimes to Lorde—Jillian Banks is better known by the enigmatic mononym Banks. On meeting the California native, Glamcult dove straight in to find out why: “It feels feminine but it also has masculine traits,” she explains. “It’s strong, and it perfectly represents me and my music.”

Banks took the scene by storm just over a year ago, when she appeared as an anonymous artist on SoundCloud.

Her unique and tonal darkroom sound, and her lyrics of heartbreak, longing and lust, soon earned her a devoted follow­ ing. Since then she’s worked with a not­ able list of electronic luminaries du jour, including Lil Silva, Jamie Woon, Sohn and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs.

If you’re still trying to place her (and trust us, you won’t have difficulty for much longer), Banks is the girl who famously handed out her phone number on Facebook, so just as Glamcult called her up for a chat, her fans are free to reach her in the same way (here’s her number if you don’t believe us: +1 323 362 2658). “I get some amazing messages,” she says. “People really seem to open up, I think because it’s the one-on-one thing. The nicest messages are just people expressing that my music is helping them through something difficult.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, Banks likes to do things her own way. She’s walking to the beat of her own drum—or rather, swaying to her own key sounds: as a self-taught musician, Banks completely made up her own rules for playing the

piano. “I got into music when I was about 14, I fell naturally into it when I was given a keyboard. I felt good from the second I started. I became addicted,” she con­ fesses. “Music is all that matters. Nothing else fulfills me.”

Banks spent her childhood growing up in the infamous San Fernando Valley in LA—but she maintains she’s no typical “Valley girl”: “Growing up in LA was great, but I don’t think my experience neces­ sarily would have differed that much from anybody else’s,” she demurs. Citing Tracy Chapman and Fiona Apple as the stand­ out musical inspirations of her youth, it’s not hard to hear their influences. “The first time I was touched by music was hearing Fast Car (by Tracy Chapman) play over the radio in my mom’s car. My all-time favourite would have to be Never Is A Promise (by Fiona Apple).”

Banks’s parents separated when she was 14, and she talks of an ensuing darkness that music helped alleviate, offering the emotional release she needed to cope with her melancholy: “I needed an outlet,” she states simply.

For Banks, music is therapy, and this translates through intimate lyrics where she lays her most private feelings bare, exposing herself at her most fragile and vulnerable. Paradoxically, although her confessional lyrics are something like an open diary, Banks admits she’s much less forthcoming in her day-to-day life.

“I’m still learning what I feel comfortable sharing because I feel like I share so much in my music,” she admits. “Every one of

my songs is my own story, whether it’s black and white or whether it’s grey. You can count how many times I was in love in my music—or at least how hard I felt it.”

When she started out performing, Banks suffered from crippling stage fright, which she overcame by introducing meditation into her life. “It’s always good to stay grounded and centred,” she says.

“Even while I’m touring, I still make time to take a walk, and meditate. The idea that you’re doing this for yourself helps a lot because sometimes stage fright comes from fear of others. Now some of those nerves are transformed into adren­ aline on stage.” And she’s sure done a good job of becoming comfortable with herself: she performed her first ever gig in London back in July 2013, and by November that year she was supporting R&B superstar The Weeknd on his North American tour. “I’m really just having so much fun at the moment, I’m so grateful,” she gushes.

Modest, and seemingly genuinely awed by her success, how might Banks’s friends describe her, we wonder?

“Honest, compassionate, passionate, sensitive… and spicy,” she insists, using one of her favourite words: “Spicy means so much!” Sartorially, Banks is a hyperchic fashion fan—“fashion is an amazing way to express yourself visually”—with a predominantly black aesthetic, who cites Helmut Lang, Alexander Wang, 3.1 PhilLip Lim and Cushnie Et Ochs among her favourite labels. “I love wearing black,” she says. “I feel it has all of the colours

15

in it. It’s the most powerful thing to wear.

It can be strong, it can be scary, it can be quiet and it feels nocturnal.”

Banks’s personality and aesthetic perfectly encapsulate her sound, shad­ owy, soft and sultry vs. powerful, dark and sexy. “I think my music has some very fragile and feminine points and some really strong points. Sometimes it feels aggressive and sometimes it feels soft.”

Her debut album, Goddess, brings love stories and break-up jams, slow-burn electronica infused with some R&B soul styling. And everything—sound, aesthetic, personality—comes together within moodily framed film-noir videos. For Banks herself, Goddess is defined by the idea of empowerment: “My album is based on me expressing who I am and being honest, and showing me at my most fragile and most strong, me at my most centred and me as a complete mess.

I feel like they are such human things.”

It’s empowerment for her on a personal level, and empowerment for all of us: “I want to empower people with the idea that it’s all natural, to remind them that they don’t need to apologize for who they are. It’s human to be a goddess, and you’re a goddess because you’re human.” www.hernameisbanks.com 15 November, Paradiso, Amsterdam (NL) 23 November, O2 Brixton Academy, London (UK)

Gc Interview

By Leendert Sonnevelt Photography: Enzo Addi Styling: Edem Dossou Hair: Yoshiko Haruki Make-up: Emilie Plume

Models: Amine Recap—Casting Office, Luca Fixy—Success Models Assistant photography: Kamel Bentot Thanks to The Woolmark Company and The Campaign for Wool All clothing Agi & Sam A/W14, Watu Nguvu

When a duo known for its vibrant prints turns the runway black and white, you know something’s up. This season, Agi & Sam flawlessly portray how humour in fashion doesn’t have to be corny or even colourful. In fact, the emerging twosome manages to take on one of the most worrisome global issues with a dark smile. So here’s to love, to peace, to harmony and to the end of dick oil. Yes, you read that right.

17

Gc Interview

Agi & Sam

Agi Mdumulla and Sam Cotton are not the type of designers you’d readily associate with political expression or idealistic statements. Since their debut during MAN (a platform by Topman and Fashion East), the London-based lads have quickly become known for their print-based, comic twist on classic menswear. After studying fashion design and illustration (respectively), Agi and Sam met in 2008 while interning at Alexander McQueen. They went on to work for brands such as Karl Lagerfeld and J.W.Anderson, but soon decided to join forces. Not at all inaccurately, Style.com described the duo’s first show at London Collections: Men in 2010 as “restless” and somewhat naïve: “Their collections vary widely from season to season, but it’s usually safe to say

they’ll be brightly coloured and boldly printed.” Surprise, surprise—not this time!

When Agi & Sam speak to Glamcult, they charmingly note: “As we mature, our humour matures with us.”

Attendees of Agi & Sam’s Autumn/ Winter presentation got primed for change by show notes revealing a mysterious collection title: Watu Nguvu.

“It stands for People Power in Swahili,” Sam explains. “The idea was inspired by Agi’s travels around the north of Tanzania earlier this year. He went back to visit his family. When they made a journey towards Kilimanjaro to attend a wed­ ding, he discovered that his grandfather was actually a Maasai warrior. We wanted to show a collection that asks some serious questions about the ex­ ploitation of Africa and the confusing

juxtaposition of affluence and poverty.”

The elements often associated with customary African dress—traditional jewellery, screen-printed cloth and ceremonial face paint, for example— were deliberately left aside. “We wanted to show a different side of Africa, and bring out the textures and weaves. It was a nice transition to look at black and white as print, rather than as colour.”

Opening their show with live percussion that gradually blended into an electronic soundtrack, Agi & Sam voiced their concerns about the rela­ tionship between the third and the first world. “We worked with an art director called Harris Elliott, who introduced us to the drummers and to Gary Powell of The Libertines. Gary put together an amazing score, blending industrial

18

beats with African influences.” Despite the chiefly black-and-white colour palette, Agi & Sam once again approached traditional tailoring from their distinctive, quirky perspective, adding long flowing layers and reflective accents to classic items such as the suit jacket and doublebreasted coat. From a total of 24 looks, only three outfits included a coloured print. The designers wouldn’t be them­ selves if these vinyl prints didn’t include a healthy dose of absurdity. “DICK OIL” read the first bright proclamation, soon followed by “OIL MIHASS”—bluntly countering the violent influence of large oil companies and other conglomerates on the African continent. The designers explain: “The fact we used a lot of binman references with reflective inks and taping, as well as the parody ‘crude’ oil

Agi & Sam

references, shows a darker kind of humour than previous collections.”

Agi & Sam not only took a stab at unjust power relations, they also intend to rejoice in culture, religion and ethnicity in a positive fashion. Regarding the use of ethnic imagery, Sam comments: “I think it’s a good thing for people to reference cultural influences and heritage. That’s what this world is about: sharing in the beauty, and helping people to accept and appreciate vast and different cul­ tures. To use these features is a celebra­ tion, as it shows them in an inspirational way, rather than the typical negative connotations of stereotyping.” But calling Agi & Sam’s collection a political state­ ment might be a bit too much, according to the designers. “It’s more of a challenge to people’s perceptions. We wanted it

to be about harmony and peace, like a modern version of the peace sign.”

An important part of Agi & Sam’s practice is collaboration. In 2012, the designers created an entire footballinspired collection for Topman, also known as The Owls. For their current collection, the two worked together with the “spiritual hat makers and prac­ tical philosophers” of YashkaThor. “We had wanted to work with them for a while, but the project never seemed to fit,” says Sam. “The evolution of the hat was great, as it started as something quite different to what we finished with, based on a variety of influences, including baseball caps and fezzes.”

Another of Agi & Sam’s important part­ ners is The Woolmark Company, which provides them with the wealth

of knowledge and contacts for helping to find the best wool quality, suppliers and opportunities. “Woolmark have been amazing to us; we’ve always loved using wool!” However, for young design­ ers the economics of employing highquality wool can be a problem. Good thing there’s such a thing as fake it till you make it: “When we couldn’t afford it, we simply printed the synthetics we used, so that they would look like wool.”

With support from British fashion icons Paul Smith, Christopher Raeburn and Thomas Tait, the future looks prom­ ising for Agi & Sam. “We want to make a business that can withstand the test of time,” they state very clearly. “Mak­ ing solely concept-based menswear will always be a struggle. Wearability is a big factor for us; in menswear there

21

are rules and guidelines you must adhere to.” Being named Breakthrough Fashion Designers by GQ and pocketing the British Fashion Council’s Emerging Mens­ wear Designer Award has only height­ ened the expectations. Yet the young artists remain humble. “Even after receiv­ ing these awards, we’ve learnt so much.

We still have a lot to find out before we can crawl our way out of this bracket. We have a few things coming up our sleeves, though. Agi & Sam are still emerging!” www.agiandsam.com

Gc Interview

22

J.L., 2005 - 2006, photography: Mirjam Devriendt

By Joline Platje

Arched, hollowed-out headless bodies made of pale and flesh-coloured wax; iron horse carcases; watercolours in a bloody palette: Berlinde De Bruyckere likes to focus on those things most people would rather not see. But the Belgian artist builds her seemingly morbid creations around themes that are familiar to all of us, even though we wish they weren’t.

23

Gc Interview

Cripplewood, 2012 – 2013, photography: Dirk Pauwels

Berlinde De Bruyckere

Stitches, scars, blood: Berlinde De Bruyckere’s work is about finding ways to make us look at those painful things that we tend to suppress. Her installations, sculptures and drawings possess an enormous force of attraction, but are repelling at the same time. “Some people are turned off by my work, because although there is never any intention at all to shock, the human body, the suffering is not presented in a graceful way. Still, often a certain curiosity remains.” The visibly suffering body is the thematic source of De Bruyckere’s whole oeuvre.

And even though our eyes are getting more and more used to horrific images spread by the media, De Bruyckere proves that we’re not immune to suffering after all. Her creations show us that we all share the same fears. We’re all scarred and we all dread vulnerability, mortality and isolation.

De Bruyckere was born in a suburb of Ghent, where her parents owned a butcher’s shop. She grew up without brothers and sisters and at the age of five was sent to a Catholic boarding school run by nuns. Even though it’s tempt­ ing to dig into the psychological con­ nection between her childhood and her work, De Bruyckere prefers to remain abstract about her personal life. She’s ambiguous about the institution in which she was raised, because it both gave her a chance to be amongst peers and caused feelings of loneliness. To escape the solitude she started drawing, some­ thing she still does today: in her water­

colours, De Bruyckere above all explores psychological topics. It was one of her teachers that encouraged her to attend the Sint-Lucas Art Academy in Ghent, where she studied Monumental Art. Although De Bruyckere wishes to remain silent about her time with the sisters, her work is still heavily influenced by the rituals of the Catholic Church: “Faith brings comfort. It has defined history and this is a big source of inspiration for me,” she admits. Her fascination is not so much with the religion itself but in her focus on the symbols Catholicism provides to point people the way.

As some of her biggest inspirations, De Bruyckere lists the Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, with whom she shares a fascination for religious symbols, as well as European literature, Renaissance painting, current political events and the South African Nobel Prize-winning author JM Coetzee, who is, just like De Bruyckere, not afraid of touching raw nerves and whose words, she says, impregnate all her work. When in 2013 De Bruyckere was chosen to represent Belgium at the Venice Biennale, she invited Coetzee to write an inspirational text to accompany the installation she created for the Belgian Pavilion, Cripplewood. This striking installation shows the transition from an imposing tree to a fragile body.

The fallen and wounded creature, part plant, part human and part animal, is partially based on the story of Saint Sebastian, the Christian martyr who refused to give up his faith so was tied

to a tree, shot with arrows and left for dead. Even though he was brutally tortured—killed, even—he held on to his belief. De Bruyckere: “I love this character because of his stubbornness. The way he resigns his fate, the pride he keeps.

You’ll never catch even the slightest sign of pain in his face. It tells me something about human will power, about the things we’re capable of.”

Just as much as De Bruyckere’s work is influenced by faith, it is shaped by her fascination with nature. The idea for Cripplewood originated when De Bruyckere drove through a forest on her way to Burgundy (France) a couple of years ago. “A heavy windstorm had ripped the crowns of the tree trunks and smashed them to matches. The scent of the splintered wood was overwhelming.

One of the enormous trees was split in half and forced with its crest on the ground. A tree, the symbol of life, was visibly ripped to pieces.” De Bruyckere couldn’t let the image go. “Nature is larger than life. It’s superb. It existed before us and will last longer than we will, in all its powers both creative and destructive.” In De Bruyckere’s installation the wood is replaced by wax in the colour of greyish pink skin. “Stripped of their barks, trees remain fleshy, human even; they look like tendons and bones.”

Characteristically, De Bruyckere’s sculptures do not have faces. This goes for all the arched, lanky bodies she has created over the last three decennia as an artist. She doesn’t want her installations

24

to be recognizable, since they’re not individuals. De Bruyckere uses plaster casts of real human body parts to create her wax sculptures.

Her models are often dancers, who move around in her studio. “I capture their athletic, expressive physique and translate it later on in the twisted wax forms.” Her sculptures are not specifically male or female; they’re somewhere in between man and woman. “In my drawings and sculptures I analyse the anatomy of the body and how it ex­ presses lusts. In doing so, I don’t eschew gruesomeness and excessiveness.” In Into One-Another II To P.P.P. we see two bodies (heads, arms and genitals missing) intertwined, merged until one, displayed inside a traditional glass case. “By showing my work on pedestals and in windows, I address the audience and confront it with its own damned side. I don’t do this to provoke. Rather, by sharing the agony I want to show com­ passion, and if possible bring comfort.”

In a different compilation De Bruyckere’s current exhibition Sculptures & Drawings: 2000-2014 at S.M.A.K. (until 15 February 2015) in Ghent will travel on to the Municipal Museum in The Hague (Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, from 28 February 2015 until 31 May 2015) as Berlinde De Bruyckere— Pick Up the Pieces. From 27 November until 10 January 2015 you can also see her work at Hauser & Wirth in London.

Into One-Another III to P.P.P., 2010 - 2011, photography: Mirjam Devriendt

Parasiet, 1997

Parasiet, 1997

Berlinde De Bruyckere

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Gc Interview

By Christie Bakker Photography: Matin Zad Styling: Marcus Cuffie Hair and make-up: Trexy Ching Model: David Vaicekavicius窶年ew York Model Management All clothing: Benji WZW A/W14

Curiosity has lured Glamcult into the world of provocative Canadian fashion designer Benji WZW. Behind his outgoing personality hides an obscure and gloomy side, which he only reveals through his outlandish designs. In a heart-to-heart, the designer—whose graduate-­ collection yellow motorcycle jacket has been worn by none other than icon of weirdness Lady Gaga—reveals the inspirations behind his A/W14 collection.

27

Gc Interview

Benji WZW “Architecture taught me how to be a designer,” declares Benji WZW. “Fashion taught me how to love my perversions.”

The Torontonian designer, who was raised in Hong Kong and Canada, initially studied architecture at the prestigious University of Waterloo before realizing it was a compromise too far. “It was a natural choice to keep my parents hap­ py,” he admits. “They thought it’d be the perfect balance between art and fi­ nance.” But those “perversions” kept resurfacing, and midway through his architecture degree Benji crossed the Atlantic to enrol in the Fashion Design programme at Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts. It proved to be a good move for a man who once declared that if he weren’t designing, he “would be dead”.

“Antwerp was a place to be free and to discover who you are—the person you were always afraid of being,” says Benji, with a provocative glint in his eye. And it turns out Benji’s hidden self is much darker than his effervescent char­ acter would suggest. Dressing as outra­ geously as he wanted was part of ex­ ploring boundaries, turning his body into his canvas and exploring his initial attraction to fashion: the ability to create a character and identity via something that’s so close to your body. And it’s not just his external appearance that was constantly reinvented while he learned his craft from such top-notch designers as Dirk Bikkembergs, Dries Van Noten and Walter Van Beirendonck: his body went through more transformations than Christian Bale in an Oscar-bait flick. “If I want to design for skinny boys, I get skin­ ny; if I want to design for bigger guys, I bulk up. It’s important to feel something,” he says.

A different aspect of what Benji feels is revealed with every collection, by a process of zooming in and dissect­ ing his emotions. In his A/W14 collection Fall in Love with Machinery he turns the tumultuous tribulations of heartbreak and self-destruction into something tangible.

Whether obsessing over such subjects is therapeutic or destructive doesn’t really matter; self-analysis is an inherent part of his process—“but it won’t always be a direct translation of an experience,” he explains. “It can be an interpretation of my dreams and memories.”

Inspired by the Japanese biker subculture bosozoku, Fall in Love with Machinery is as loud and powerful as the roar of a customized Suzuki bike engine.

At the beginning of his research, Benji watched the 1976 Japanese documentary Godspeed You Black Emperor!, which follows the exploits of Japanese biker gang the Black Emperors. Despite bikers’ badass reputation, the Black Emperors are heavily dependent on their mums, and the majority join the gang for something to do while growing up in the suburbs. Benji relates to the bikers on a personal level, having grown up in the suburbs himself, daydreaming of turning his fantasies into reality.

Digging deeper into this subculture, Benji became fascinated by the curves

28

of the motorbikes they customize. “The shapes I found became a source of inspi­ ration for building up silhouettes in the collection,” he says. Leather, belts, chains and car-paint finishes bear witness to the bosozoku influence. In spite of the collection’s unique street-wear vibe, there’s a nod to classic tailoring in the clean, sharp silhouettes that reflect his preoccupation with form-fitting shapes.

Studying under a Savile Row tailor taught Benji the basics of creating cleaner fits and customizing to different body types.

Spending eight-plus hours a day making patterns and tailored suits from scratch, he now adds his own spin to classic cuts and turns them into a more contemporary version, where bosozoku merges with street-wear influences.

In his creative process Benji inclines towards a combination of tradition and technology: “Technology is fascinating but you need a human hand in it that gives it a bit of warmth and something personal. A personal touch makes things so much more special,” he says. We see a perfect marriage of the two in his use of 3D printing and hand stitching. Chokers and appliqués have been developed by a 3D printer, the latter being embroi­ dered on to the garments by hand. Next to his 3D creations, iridescent features such as holograms have been hand cut and stitched on to outfits one by one.

Benji creates his eerie prints—exploring the dichotomy of the physical and digital life—by using new digital technologies such as 3D modelling programs. “I drew inspiration from the idea of gangs and youth tribes, and how they build up a certain set of symbols and iconography within their own cultures,” he explains.

Benji’s “gang” is represented by angels, embryos and crescents, reflecting the representation of life and death in various cultures. A new tribe has been created, comprising new iconography originating from his travels and endeavours in Europe, his Asian heritage and his Canadian homeland. This alchemy of different backgrounds, surroundings and emotions has resulted in a new visual language with a dark undertone—and one we’re intrigued to see play out. www.benjiwzw.com

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By Hanka van der Voet Photography: Frida Marklund All clothing: Minna Palmqvist Intimately Social 10.13

Minna Palmqvist couldn’t care less whether you call her a fashion designer or an artist: it’s her message that counts. “As long as we live in a patriarchal system where women, their knowledge, their work and their bodies are valued less than that of men, I cannot understand why people wouldn’t call themselves feminists.”

31

Gc Interview

Minna Palmqvist

Like so many other designers, Minna Palmqvist (b.1980, Å land Islands, Finland) showed a flair for fashion from a very young age. Though fashion played no significant role in her family—Palmqvist’s father is a sea captain and her mother a midwife—she started creating her own clothes in high school, marking them with tiny embroidered tags saying “mi”. But even though she’s been making all her own clothes since she was 16, being a fashion designer wasn’t always a con­ scious plan. “Growing up in a small island community, for me fashion was something in magazines and on MTV, not something one did for a living,” Palmqvist explains.

“I realize now I was actually afraid people would think I wasn’t intelligent if I chose the fashion path, since all my other friends went for academic studies.

After high school, I did a semester of gender studies, then luckily my sister told me about this design school in Turku where she thought I should apply. And I think I was halfway through my bachelor studies when I realized I could—and should—be a designer.”

Having heard and accepted her calling, after receiving her bachelor’s degree, Palmqvist continued with a mas­ ter’s in fashion design at the prestigious Konstfack College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. It was here that Palmqvist began the ongoing project Intimately Social, through which she is “challenging the traditional fashion

seasons and exploring the obsession with the female body, by merging social commentary with fashion and art”. The project stemmed from questions about the role of the fashion designer that kept popping into Palmqvist’s head: “‘Why did I do fashion?’ or ‘What could I use my creativity for?’ I always worked with a vague idea of true persons hiding them­ selves in their clothes to give a presenta­ tion of themselves that meets the ideals of society. During my master’s project, I dug into a lot of books and essays on sociology, fashion and the body. This is where I stumbled upon Mary Douglas, a sociologist with the idea that we all have two bodies: one intimate body that we keep mainly to ourselves and show to very few others; and one social body, which we present to our surroundings through clothes, make-up and so on. It was like finding what I had tried to express for so long but hadn’t found the words for. I started working with the clashes that emerge from the perfect world of fashion meeting our mundane everyday lives, and since then the project has emerged and developed.”

Intimately Social 4.09 (2009) will be on view until January 2015 in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, as part of the exhibition The Future of Fashion Is Now. The installation consists of a series of flesh-coloured balloons with dark rings that remind of women’s breasts. During the course of

the exhibition the balloons will slowly deflate, light-heartedly referencing the way many women experience their bodies and showing us that our youth, our vanity, is fleeting.

In the coming years, Palmqvist would like to further develop the Intimately Social series: “The project and my work has started to take a wider view on feminism, not just focusing on the woman’s body—although this will always be the core of my work—but also on the social pressure women feel to be what­ ever society wants them to be: pretty, hard-working, motherly, sexy—but not too sexy, thin—but not too thin, curv­ aceous—but not too curvaceous. I see myself going further down that path of social justice, and continuing to express my questions and thoughts through clothes as well as art installations. Instal­ lations and video works are a big part of my process, and in many ways give me new ideas for my clothes, too.”

The Intimately Social series is a total artwork in which the various parts support one another and reinforce Palmqvist’s story. It is a running collection, with new designs added several times a year, and comprises wearable fashion as well as Palmqvist’s art, because when she starts to work with new ideas, Palmqvist doesn’t always know what the physical outcome will be. “I always start from concept,” she says. “I am driven by telling stories and raising questions. Even

32

though my main focus is always the same—the stress upon the female body, consumerism, feminism, the facades of fashion and much more—I find new takes on it and develop my previous thoughts and ideas over time. Sometimes my work will fall outside the frames of clothing, and my process takes me wherever I find the idea needs to go.” Though she always begins with a concept, experimenting directly on a mannequin is essential to her work process as well, making her designs an organic process: “My design­ ing process always starts in my thoughts, where I keep and develop an idea by making quick notes and scribbles in my notebook. I don’t do any proper sketch­ ing; I just start draping and sketching directly on the mannequin. My ideas are, at the early stage, mainly about a detail, a cut or a drape that I want to test and then see where that initial idea takes me.

It’s not until the work on the mannequin that things really start happening. I love mistakes, for example—or at least, un­ foreseen things happening as I work, things that I could have never thought of or sketched in 2D.” In the seven years since she grad­ uated from the Konstfack College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Palmqvist has man­ aged to carve out a special niche in the fashion world, but that didn’t happen easily. “When I graduated in 2007, I felt very lost in the fashion system, at least in the Nordic countries. But in the last few

Minna Palmqvist

years, a lot has happened in our way of talking about fashion, even though I feel we still have a lot of boundaries to break down. It seems like the interest in ideas, concepts and small-scale productions has grown and a lot of platforms for us ‘unconventional’ fashion creators have emerged. Take Not Just A Label [a sustainable-oriented networking platform for fashion designers; see www.notjustalabel.com], this is a place where I feel very at home. These guys really believe in and work hard for the fashion system to change, for the sake of the environment, the economy and creativity. With them the boundaries between the labels ‘fashion designer’ and ‘artist’ are blurred.”

Palmqvist’s Intimately Social 4.09 will be part of the exhibition The Future of Fashion Is Now, on view in Museum Boijmans van Beuningen until 18 January 2015. www.minnapalmqvist.com

33

Gc Interview

By Sander van Dalsum Photography: Emma Hardy

Kindness It’s hard to categorize the work of Adam Bainbridge. The Peterborough-­ born, London-based singer-producer also known as Kindness certainly knows his pop, but draws inspiration from other genres like a musical magpie. Working with the likes of Blood Orange, Robyn and Kelela, his sophomore record, Otherness, is a timeless hybrid of free jazz, funk and gospel, plenty catchy but never truly “radio friendly”. “This is how I want pop music to sound.”

Spending his last phone credit on our long-distance conversation, former re­ search fellow-turned-pop-soul artist Adam Bainbridge takes our call in Berlin, having just returned from a meeting about one of his upcoming music videos.

“It looks like I’m going to have to direct it all on my own,” he says cautiously.

“And that was a thing I didn’t want to do, because there’s just a lot happening when an album’s coming out.” The followup to his first full-length, World, You Need a Change of Mind, has just been re­ leased, and like his self-directed videos, Otherness is a record with a solitary vision, created without the help of a co-produc­ er. “Now, the music is entirely reflective of what I can do on my own. I’m trying to make mistakes myself, because that’s the only way to get better, really,” Bainbridge explains.

While the production credits be­ long solely to Kindness this time (he worked with acclaimed French producer Philippe Zdar on his debut), the artists contributing to Otherness have stacked up, bringing Blood Orange mastermind Devonté Hynes to the studio, as well as Swedish pop star Robyn and Fade to Mind/Nightslugs alumni and R&B icono­ clast Kelela. As a singer, Bainbridge takes a step back on this album, allowing

his friends to do what they do best. “I think it’s important to trust people completely,” he says. “You have to let them go crazy, because it can get you one step further than what you initially had in mind.” He pauses, then acknowledges that the preponderance of guest singers on Otherness is perhaps a reflection of his own self-perceived limitations. “I don’t try to do things that I can’t do. I don’t see myself as a singer, but at least I can do it better than before,” he says, laughing.

“I know where my limits are.”

Having helped Dev Hynes write and produce his most recent album, Cupid Deluxe, their collaborations are the result of a reciprocal friendship, but the origins of his work with Kelela tell a different story. “I was trying to meet her for a while because I heard that Kingdom song Bankhead, which I thought was in­ credible,” he says. “I’m friends with Ezra [Rubin] from Kingdom, but I’m much closer to the Night Slugs guys. So when I was in LA, I asked them to put me in touch with her.” A day later Bainbridge and Kelela were in the studio, neither knowing that they would end up recording a song in a single take. “We just put her in the main studio, rather than in an actual vocal booth, and played the song really loud through the speakers,” Bainbridge ex­

plains. “The very first thing she just impro­ vised to the track, I knew that was going to be on the record.” Geneva was born.

At first listen, the music Bainbridge produces as Kindness and Hynes’s work for Night Slugs couldn’t be more different; the former takes pop on a funky detour through jazz and gospel, while the latter turns clubs upside down with abstract electronic music that refers to grime as much as it does to house music. Irrespec­ tive of difference, the guys have each contributed to the other’s compositions.

“We work together on a very subtle level.

I played keys and tambourine on Bok Bok’s single with Kelela, Melba’s Call,” says Bainbridge. “And on my album, I couldn’t get the intensity with the kick drums I wanted to use, so Night Slugs sent me theirs. I used them for all the drum programming on Otherness, and that changed everything for me. It gave it a lot of rawness that wasn’t there before.”

That raw edge to Kindness’s new material is undeniable, but when Glamcult tells Bainbridge that his music sounds more polished, more professional than ever before, he’s rather surprised. “You… I’m sorry, wait. You think this record is more polished than my debut? I can’t really say it with more exclamation marks and surprise in my voice—but really? I honestly

35

thought it sounded very unprofessional, but I’m happy if you think so.” Listing all the accidental noises and feedback lurking in the background of Otherness, Bainbridge seems genuinely surprised when we suggest the listener won’t notice any of that. “I suppose that’s true, I never thought of it that way. To me it sounds like it’s a record full of chaos!”

One of the sounds that listeners will hear on the song With You, even if they’re not paying too much attention, is the sample of Art of Noise’s Moments in Love.

Here Kelela sings over a minimalist com­ position of bass slaps and late-night sax­ ophones, when all of a sudden a familiar sound jumps in at the bridge. “I quite like sampling stuff that you shouldn’t sample.

On a financial level, it can be horrible,” Bainbridge admits. “I always put these samples in my songs for fun and personal satisfaction, but soon it becomes part of the track and it gets pretty hard to take it away after that. We had to ask the Art of Noise very nicely.” The original version of With You even contained a sample of Prince, Bainbridge says, delighted. “Of course, he said no! But I have that version at home for my own pleasure.” www.kindness.es

Gc Interview

By Leendert Sonnevelt Photography: Simon Birk

Cancer Danish duo Cancer consists of two lead singers who just released Ragazzi, their first touching 30 minutes of poetic music made together. The six cloudy and otherworldly folk songs created by Nikolaj Manuel Vonsild (When Saints Go Machine) and Kristian Finne Kristensen (Chorus Grant) shed a light on unexplored sides of both frontmen’s talents, leaving us feeling wonderfully sombre.

Let’s start with the question you probably hear most often: what does “Cancer” as a band name refer to?

Our friendship, and thus the duo constellation, was born and blossomed at a time where we as individuals were going through tough times. These ordeals weren’t the same but as cancer had— shockingly and unexpectedly—taken a loved one and left in its wake the darkest, most troublesome years filled with sad­ ness and confusion, we chose to work on songs together under the name Cancer.

In doing so we try to give the word new meaning and honour the love and hon­ esty that emerges when going through tough personal tragedies.

Space. We find that it’s very important to respect each other’s projects, and as we’ll most certainly be friends the rest of our lives there was no need to hurry things along.

Nikolaj, your last album with WSGM came out about a year ago. Was Cancer the next step, or had you already started the project during the creation of Infinity Pool?

We’d already begun the process of writing songs together but since there’s no pressure connected to doing some­ thing that no one knows about, we just figured that we’d wait until it felt right to finish Ragazzi.

When and how did you decide to start working together?

The very first time we met was early in the morning at the airport in Oslo, Norway. We’d played with two separate bands at the By:Larm music festival for upcoming acts and ended up sitting next to each other in the departure area at quarter to six in the morning. We didn’t talk much on that occasion. Later we started hanging out at each other’s houses (we found out we live very close by in Copenhagen) and naturally began sharing thoughts and ideas for potential new music while sitting in front of the speakers. We didn’t consider the fact that we were laying the foundations of a possible collaboration, but just found great joy in slowly piecing together songs that were different from the kind of music we were used to making in our separate musical lives. We began searching for “a third path”—something that varied from what we were doing individually.

And what about you, Kristian?

As Nikolaj was doing a lot of touring and work related to WSGM’s Infinity Pool, I found myself free, eager and motivated to work on my solo album,

Both of you play and sing on the EP, so who did what in the creative process? And what does the division of labour look like when you’re on stage?

We’re a four-piece band when we play live with drums, bass, guitar, sampler, effect boxes and our two voices. The recording process included the same elements and line-up as live, as we wanted to capture the joy and freedom that we experience when playing live as a band. Ragazzi was recorded in three days in December and was a pro­ cess that was characterized by a lot of openness towards the song structures and a willingness to “see what happens” in the process. We went into the studio not knowing whether or not this was us actually making a record or just another step towards finding out what we wanted to do in the end.

Is there a specific artist, text, song, artwork or other source that inspired Ragazzi?

The short answer is “no”. If, how­ ever, we were to mention one tiny piece of the thousand-piece puzzle of inspir­ ations floating around our minds it would be the song Reparto Novita by the Italian band Stormy Six.

Everything on the album that wasn’t done at home or in the studio Nis was a part of in some way. We love the guy and are super proud of the outcome.

Throughout the six songs, the EP contains quite a few dark undertones. In what kind of state were the lyrics and instrumentals written?

During dark conversations, sadness and confusion. Loneliness, light, love and hope.

What does the term “hope” mean to each of you? Does it relate to Cancer?

Nikolaj: Hope is for us a lot of different things—it’s something very hard to define and not an easy thing to grasp and talk about. Being a bit paranoid by nature I just hope that everything will be all right.

Kristian: Without hope, to me there is nothing and no reason to do anything. www.cancermissyou.com

Co-producer Nis Bysted (Thulebasen, Iceage) is very explicitly credited on the EP cover.

What role did he play in the outcome of the tracks?

We had a lot of conversations about our music and music in general with Nis, and he ended up mixing the album and also became our co-producer.

36

Gc Interview

Visual Essays

3 8 Fuck it, l e t ’ s and liste toast Michae n to l Bolton .

P h oto g

raphy: B

arrie Hu

llegie

46 en h w t i e v o . t Il a h t e k i l x e l f u o y Pho

Vo y u D : y h tograp

52 Say I’m perfe c t game.

Photography

: Edel Verzijl

Dress Damien Ravn via The Woolmark Company (exclusive for Wool Week Antwerp), turtleneck Stills Atelier, shoes Sergio Rossi via De Bijenkorf, necklace Alexander McQueen via Shoebaloo

Dress Maison Martin Margiela via Van Ravenstein, wool jumper A.F. Vandevorst, gloves Dolce & Gabbana via Shoebaloo, choker & Other Stories

Top and shorts Monki, socks Falke, shoes Simone Rocha, headpiece VJR Jewels

Dress Simone Rocha, shirt Hermès, gloves H&M, ring Wouters & Hendrix

Dress Dries Van Noten via Van Ravenstein, wool top J.W. Anderson via Stylebop, necklace VJR Jewels

Wool coat and trousers Hermès, boots Dolce & Gabbana, necklaces Wouters & Hendrix

Wool dress Christian Wijnants via The Woolmark Company (exclusive for Wool Week Antwerp), shirt A.F. Vandevorst, boots Chanel

Wool jumper Christopher Kane via De Bijenkorf

Photography: Barrie Hullegie Styling: Lidewij Merckx—House of Orange Hair and make-up: Eva Copper—House of Orange Model: Lee—RPH Model Management Assistant photography: Meriam Rouabah Assistant styling: Mary-Lou Berkulin Assistant hair and make-up: Magdalena Loza—House of Orange Special thanks to The Woolmark Company and The Campaign for Wool

Nicky Coat Carin Wester, jumper Avelon, top Acne Studios, jeans Replay Hyperflex, belt The English Hatter

Cheraine Top Alexander Wang x H&M, shirt Monki, jeans Replay Hyperflex, necklace Marc by Marc Jacobs via Mytheresa, ring The Boyscouts

Kevin Jacket Kenzo, shirt Replay, jeans Replay Hyperflex, shoes Vans

Germaine Coat ASOS, top Dagmar, necklace Marc by Marc Jacobs via Mytheresa

Anton Coat ASOS, jumper Acne Studios, shirt Velour, jeans Replay Hyperflex, shoes Vans, socks Falke

Cheraine Jumper Acne Studios, scarf Marc Jacobs via Mytheresa

Nicky Jumper Avelon, top Acne Studios, jeans Replay Hyperflex, shoes Dr. Martens, socks Falke, belt The English Hatter

Germaine Coat ASOS, top Dagmar, jeans Replay Hyperflex, shoes Dr. Martens, socks Burlington, necklace Marc

by Marc Jacobs via Mytheresa

Anton Coat ASOS, jumper Acne Studios, shirt Velour, hat stylist’s own

Film stills: Duy Vo Photography: Lotte van Raalte Styling: Lisa Anne Stuyfzand Choreography: Jeffrey Mack-Nack Edit: Marlon Bos—Orfixmedia Hair: Magdalena Loza for Balmain Hair—House of Orange Make-up: Chiao-Li Hsu for Clinique—House of Orange Models: Anton, Cheraine, Germaine, Kevin and Nicky Assistants: styling Julia Suyker, hair Kim Theylaert, make-up Willy Kiefte Visit www.replay.it for more information about Replay Hyperflex and watch our series of short films on www.glamcult.com

Dress Dior, hat Irene Bussemaker, gloves Maison Martin Margiela, bag and earrings Anne-Rixt Gast

Woven dress Marije Seijn, silk dress Lanvin, pants Duran Lantink, shoes Hugo Boss, head piece Bibi van der Velden, necklace Chanel, earrings vintage

Coat Giorgio Armani, dress Dries Van Noten, bra Love Stories, hat Irene Bussemaker, brooches Walter Van Beirendonck, bangles Pablo Valencia, star bangle Bibi van der Velden, diamond bangle Chanel, earrings Anne-Rixt Gast

Sweater & Other Stories, dress Jil Sander, pants Maison Martin Margiela, shoes Marije Seijn, head piece Tijme Veldt, arm piece Barbara I Gongini, brooches Walter Van Beirendonck

Photography: Edel Verzijl—Stickystuff Styling: Duran Lantink Make-up: Kathinka Gernant for Chanel—UNSPOKEN Model: Lieke—Tjarda Model Management Assistant styling: Casta Carola Thanks to Fred van Wordragen and Daens Den Haag

Sweater H&M, underdress Dries Van Noten, hat Irene Bussemaker, earrings Anne-Rixt Gast Sweater Walter Van Beirendonck, skirt Mattijs, earrings Anne-Rixt Gast

American Apparel Factory

By Sarah Johanna Eskens Photography: David Gomez Maestre

In downtown LA, against a backdrop of palm trees, clear blue skies and the laidback street vibe that epitomizes the City of Angels, an artdeco pink former railroad depot houses the one and only American Apparel factory. Designing and producing all its clothing right there— up to one million sweatshop-free garments each week—American Apparel’s colourful basics are shipped globally from Korea to Israel.

Glamcult stopped by for a tour.

The factory in all its glory. It used to be a Southern Pacific Railroad depot.

Ever wondered where your favourite American Apparel leggings were made? Well, your conscience can rest easy: all American Apparel clothing is made onsite in a bubble-gum hued factory in sunny LA, where employees practise yoga together and get massages weekly.

Initially founded as a wholesale business that sold basics to other apparel and uniform companies, in the early 2000s American Apparel began to incorporate retail into its business model and moved to its current location in LA’s fashion district. Their vertically integrated business model dictates that American Apparel owns all processes in the production chain—from product design to cutting, sewing, trimming, graphic design, advertising, shipping and customer service—all of which are operated in-house. Which means total transparency for the end consumer, who can shop knowing all items are sweatshop-free, made by garment workers who are fairly paid and working under reasonable labour conditions.

Inside the factory Glamcult met staff from all different departments hailing from all over the world. Employees chatted happily in English and Spanish, listened to electro music or foreign radio stations and all had lunch together in a

massive canteen on the fifth floor. By centralizing all departments in a single building, American Apparel not only saves time and money, but also stimulates collaboration. Everyone is invited to suggest new looks once a week or to bring in new fabrics—no matter what department they work in.

During our tour, Glamcult tried to follow one specific item so we could show the whole production process.

Sewing floor manager, menswear designer, photographer and tour guide all ran around while texting colleagues in an effort to track it down. We didn’t succeed—mainly because garments rarely go through all process in a single day—but we had a lot of fun trying, and we did stumble across an Adonis from the shipping team, who started his modelling career later that same day.

Which just goes to show that when a company thinks outside the box, a whole­ saler can become a retailer—and a logistics worker America’s next top model. That’s our kind of company…

Want to see the factory for yourself?

Good news! American Apparel organises Factory Tours during the week. www.americanapparel.net

David shooting Jose [Shipping Associate—just started last month].

He was scouted as a model earlier that day while he was carrying boxes for shipment.

Lizette (Studio Assistant­— two years employee) working on some photo shoots.

The vast majority of the factory space is taken up by the sewing department.

58

American Apparel Factory

Samples are fitted on people in the office and dress forms—with the small poppet wearing a diaper to achieve the right fit. They can go from an idea to a sample in an hour, and as soon as the sample is approved it goes straight into production (which happens to be on the next floor).

Hugo [Fabric Warehouse Manager— 12 years employee] in his everyday habitat. Difficult fabrics to produce, like leather and the super-new foamed neoprene, are purchased from other suppliers.

Once upon a time, it all began with high-quality American Apparel fabrics. Most of them are woven in the factory.

Freshly produced jelly flats. It’s always summer somewhere—including here, practically—so these seasonal items are produced the whole year round.

The shoes are cast in these moulds.

Piles of new fabrics waiting to be converted into T-shirts, dresses, skirts and sweaters.

A flowchart explaining the vertical integration model.

59

Gc Report

American Apparel Factory

The factory includes a medical clinic, offering a doctor’s service and general healthcare.

The main entrance of the factory, guarded by security personnel.

Jose [Shipping Associate—just started last month] showing his natural posing skills. A few seconds later he was officially recruited as a new American Apparel model.

Somewhere in the factory thousands of mannequins are stored.

All animal skins are different, so a computer scans the leather, calculates how to get the most out of it and then sends its details to a laser-cutting machine.

60

American Apparel Factory

The company is proud of the fact that not only plastic clogs and jelly sandals, but also real shoes are manufactured in-house with the help of George [Shoe Cobbler—three years employee].

The machines spit out socks. Threads come in above, are knitted together and then the machine expels a sock. Simple!

Yarns and fabrics in all possible colours need to be kept close to the creative offices.

Luc (Vintage/Cali Select Department—four years employee) just delivered some items to the factory store, where American Apparel sells samples and slightly imperfect garments to visiting fans.

Solar-panel installation on the roof of the factory. Not using solar energy in LA would be a pure waste of resources!

61

Gc Report

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Section

I want Glamcult

Stockists & Other Stories www.stories.com

Lanvin www.lanvin.com

Acne Studios www.acnestudios.com

Maison Martin Margiela www.maisonmartinmargiela.com

adidas www.adidas.com

Marc Jacobs www.marcjacobs.com

A.F. Vandevorst www.afvandevorst.be

Marije Seijn www.marijeseijn.tumblr.com

Agi & Sam www.agiandsam.com

Minna Palmqvist www.minnapalmqvist.com

Alexander McQueen www.alexandermcqueen.com

Monki www.monki.com

Alexander Wang www.alexanderwang.com

Replay www.replay.it

Anne-Rixt Gast www.foxytrix.com

Simone Rocha www.simonerocha.com

ASOS www.asos.com

Stills Atelier www.stills-atelier.com

Avelon www.avelon.me

The Boyscouts www.theboyscouts.nl

Balmain Hair www.balmainhair.com

The English Hatter www.english-hatter.nl

Benji WZW www.benjiwzw.com

Vans www.vans.com

Bibi van der Velden www.bibivandervelden.com

Velour www.velour.se

Burlington www.burlington.de

VJR Jewels www.dewoelmuis.nl

Carin Wester www.carinwester.com

Walter Van Beirendonck www.waltervanbeirendonck.com

Chanel www.chanel.com

Weekday www.weekday.com

Christian Wijnants www.christianwijnants.com

Wouters & Hendrix www.wouters-hendrix.com

Christopher Kane Clinique www.clinique.nl Dagmar www.houseofdagmar.se Damien Ravn www.damienravn.tumblr.com Diesel www.diesel.com Dior www.dior.com Dolce & Gabbana www.dolcegabbana.com Dries Van Noten www.driesvannoten.be Dr. Martens www.drmartens.com Duran Lantink www.duranlantink.com Falke www.falke.com H&M www.hm.com

Glamcult is released eight times a year, providing a platform for rising and established talent from the realm of fashion, music, art and film. We don’t tell you what to wear, what music to listen to, or which parties to attend. We simply give a unique impression of what

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