PHOTOS: RICCARDO SLAVIK

MODEL : TON HEUKELS @ ELITE MILANO

Upcoming top boy Ton joined me and Lorenzo Marcucci in Shanghai last week to shoot a local menswear brand, L2. Shot in a studio, and in the crazy setting of local hangout Ruby’s Club, the label was given the ”disco lights” treatment and a bit of Flamboyant styling.

R.S.

PHOTOGRAPHY by LORENZO MARCUCCI – lorenzomarcucci.it
STYLING by RICCARDO SLAVIK
Make.Up: Elena Barosi
Hair: Piero Marsiglio
Hair & Make Up Assistant: Asia Erminio
Models  Lubomir  @ 2Morrow , Bradley @ I Love,  Sam @ Elite, Conrad @ Independent, Gianluca @ Fashion

Alexis Mabille came to my attention a few years ago as the man responsible for the big comeback of the bow-tie, after a succesfull carreer in designing accessories for various big brands, he launched his first line of neck accessories, Treizeor, creating wonderful and elaborate bow-ties and ties for both sexes, then, with Impasse 13 he launched a rather unisex clothing line: in a few seasons he was showing in Paris under his own name with 3 lines: menswear, womenswear and couture. His latest venture is a collaboration with Hom for L’Hom de Alexis Mabille, his own men’s underwear line. I met him and had a little talk with him when he came and presented the line in Milano last month.

RS- What persuaded you in joining Hom in this collaboration? You’ve been doing underwear for a while now..
AM- Yes I’ve done it in my collection for a long time and I was a bit frustrated as we were doing it by ourselves and it was a small production, so it was very expensive and very complicated in terms of distribution, because as you know underwear goes through different channels from ready-to-wear, so just a few boutiques bought it, just for fun, you know? It was never a real market.. I was connected to Regine ( Weimar, CEO of HOM ) through Facebook and she contacted me about something else completely, to invite me to a presentation, and I started thinking that maybe we could do something together, she’s really nice and we hit it off and decided to do this.. and it’s their first time, they never did a designer collaboration before… We created a completely new collection, it will be presented in a separate corner and everything, the packaging, the furniture in the corner, everything will be different from the rest of the Hom products.. It’s supposed to function by itself, also it’s going to be a longer collection, this will be in stores for more than one year, so clients will be able to get used to it.
RS-So it’s not just a Spring Summer collection..
AM- No it will go on at least for next season too and we will keep some of the pieces, it’s supposed to be a sort of ‘‘modern classics’’ collection, it’s a simple collection, but with interesting details, and there’s a lot of work in terms of comfort and cut, you know the waist is low, it’s sexy but not too aggressively sexy, I really wanted it to be featuring a new sort of ‘‘bourgeoise elegance’’ in underwear, which I think is rather lacking in the market… I wanted it to kind of sit in the middle, not too basic, not too classic, not too sexually aggressive, but flattering to a new kind of body, more natural…
RS- There does seem to be a lot of very sexy underwear around nowadays, it almost goes from porn-shop material to white basic brief..
AM- This is why in the show ( whic featured a lot of underwear) I used boys that weren’t too big or built, personally, I, as a client, have quite a hard time finding what I love, so that’s one of the reasons I was doing underwear in my line.. I also think this kind of sweetness, the non aggressive sexiness can be attractive to a girl buying underwear for her boyfriend, or a gay couple, it’s not just for young people and with the amount of research and detail we put in comfort and cut you can be sexy and comfortable even if you’re a bit overweight.. Also this time Hom had a boy’s point of view on underwear, because at Hom they’re all girls so it was interesting for them to have a male perspective, of course it’s a pont of view.. And I think it’s sexy to be a bit sweet you know..
RS- Some of the pieces are rather sexy though..
AM- Well I think the simpler ones are the sexier ones, and it’s all in the cut, or the slightly lower waist, it’s not overtly sexy but still..it’s not ‘‘queen’’ sexy, it’s sexy in a simple way, you can make it sexier with your personality but you can appreciate it even if you don’t feel particularly sexy..
RS- I thought girls bought underwear for their straight boyfriends but men seem to be more conscious about clothes and accessories nowadays
AM- Apparently 75% of the market is men buying underwear for themselves, there’s a lot more attention to it in every niche of the market, and menswear is more alive than ever before..

RS- There seems to be a lot more interest in fashion at any level, than, say 6-7 years ago, men know and want to know about fashion
AM- they have developed a certain sensibility and this is good for the market..
RS- I personally find menswear a lot more interesting than womenswear at the moment, it gives me a frisson that womenswear hasn’t been able to provide for a while..
AM- It’s interesting because this evolution, it’s happening in a strong and fast way, it’s like a mutation, it’s all happening in a short time.. even though living in conservative countries as we do sometimes we have to push things to make it happen, in England they’re more open, young people are more interested in fashion even in more adventurous ways..
RS- Here for young people it’s more about investing in recognizeable accessories, but still I guess it’s a good time to invest in underwear, when will the line be availeable?
AM- It’s going to be in shops in about a month, it’s going to be a smaller distribution, because the prices area bit higher than basic Hom underwear, mainly department stores, like Coin in Italy, Printemps in France, Selfridges in London, Galeries Lafayette in Berlin, also in Japan and many other countries, which has opened a new market for me, so the home-wear is basically borderline pret-a-porter, the tshirts and top of pijamas can be worn as tops, the prices are good, you can use the top of a pijiama as a shirt for about 60€, when I was doing underwear by myself the briefs were about 100€, we sold some, but now they are 40€, which is higher than some of the market but I wanted the quality to be really good, so I hope they’re worth it..also investing in quality makes them last longer..Another thing that took us a long time was creating new fittings and cuts, we didn’t want to use the same as Hom, as we’re doing a different product and it would be in nobody’s interest to just jazz up some of their styles, so we fitted the underwear and swimwear on many types of boys to make sure the cuts worked best..
RS- So this is the ‘‘basic’’ Mabille for Hom collection and you’re gonna build on that..
AM-Yes now we have the shapes, the cuts and patterns and from here we can go in different directions..
RS - I’m very happy for you it seems like a great progression in your career
AM- I’m very happy myself because now I have my own underwear! The way I did the collection is basically what I’d would have wanted for myself..
RS- I think the collection strikes a very good balance between sexy and sweet, with the extra graphic touch which makes it even more modern and interesting..
AM- I tried to give it a sort of innocent feel, like something you used to like in your childhood, also there’s only one white brief and no black, every piece has some cut or detail, and the only logo thing I did was the funny bow-tie pattern, which is a bit japanese, i didn’t want it to be too serious you know?
RS- Speaking of basics I love for example that ou can go to American Apparel and have briefs in every possible color, and I love using them in shoots, but the quality is not so good, and like you were saying you need the know-how and the technique to make good underwear.
AM- I love working with Hom because this is what they do and they have the techniques and they have their own factories, and you wouldn’t believe how complicated some of the simpler pieces are, for example the striped briefs have different patterns for the right and left side because we cut the fabric on the bias so the extension is not the same, and they would be crooked if we didn’t have differnt patterns, so, like I said, I’m very happy to be working with Hom, it’s a great team, and they’re all girls! We get along very well.. And hopefully people will buy my underwear.. The reception’s been good and it will be in stores shortly, so we’ll see!
RS- I’ll pop down to my local Coin to buy some for sure!

R.S.

Humberto Leon and Carol Lim are from LA, Vans are part of their history and DNA, as anyone who’s ever lived in the LA area knows, the whole surf/skate/Vans scene is inescapable, whether you like it or not, and honestly, what’s not to like? Vans are, with Converse All Star and Doc Martens, classic teenage/alternative footwear, the surf/skate connections are long gone, even though it’s a market they will never abandon, but through collaborations with bands like Gorillaz and designers like Marc Jacobs the classic Vans slip-ons and skate lace-ups are now classic street-wear. The two young designers’ overhaul of the Kenzo legacy has started with an exploration of the brand’s history of prints and sportswear in their first collection ( SS12) it seems then quite a logical, natural progression that they would fuse these elements in a cool collaboration with Vans. Available in Kenzo shops, on www.kenzo.com and selected shops like Opening Ceremony, Colette, Harvey Nichols, Bosco Milan, Lane Crawford, etc, starting from the middle of May, these super cool shoes are a must have of the season, and at about €90 they’re quite a catch!

R.S.

iPhone backstage pics from the Candy shoot by Riccardo Slavik

Red hair suits Cori, she’s a tall, chic glamazon and the flaming tresses are the exclamation point on her new life.. She tried to play her fabulousness down for a bit, changing life, sex, beliefs and career isn’t certainly easy, especially when you’re not quite a teen anymore, but red looks right on her now, and it’s proof she’s ready to face the world with a confident face and a higher heel… Heels, they’ve been a problem for her for some time, as a very tall girl with a size 43 foot finding decent footwear has been pretty hard, as she told me when I interviewed her for Candy Magazine last month, ‘’ Big sized footwear falls in 2 cathegories: ‘’ Lay Nun’’ or ‘‘Club/Prostitution’’ , and you can hardly wear your Lanvin with a go-go dancer’s plexi-platforms or with old-lady ballett shoes’’. Having a pair of shoes made for herself launched and instant shoe-designing career when she had to request 18 extra pairs for her friends, so Cori Amenta shoes were born, a line of footwear designed for big girls, they go from size 39 up and they’re designed to make larger feet more feminine ‘’ I had a problem with my favorite model, the back of the heel was too high and the pattern maker told me it was because it was a men’s 39, and i told him, it’s not a man’s 39, It’s a woman’s 44! It’s a completely different concept, I want the shoes to be very feminine even in a 45, they’re designed that way, to make feet look a bit smaller, the heel, the way they’re cut, my goal is to make shoes for tall women, then of course it’s a niche market so they’re for transexual or gay people too, for anybody really,  but I want Michelle Obama to wear them…’’ . The bottom goal of the line is to create modern classics, elegant shoes in big sizes to be sold in high-end shops ‘’ another problem with big sizes is they’re sold in specialized shops, so they’re a bit embarassing to buy, if you walk into one of those shops you’re screaming to the world ‘’ I’ve got Big Feet!’’ ‘’. Cori’s shoes instead are going to be sold in Via Spiga 2 from June, as a start, a bit earlier in the season, to get people used to the concept, the models and materials aren’t specifically thought for a colder climate and colours are chic neutrals so they’ll work in any season. It’s really a ‘classics’’ collection with cool, modern touches, chic and desirable, they make me wish I was doing drag still, just to have an excuse to wear them!
R.S.

PHOTOS. LORENZO MARCUCCI

STYLING: RICCARDO SLAVIK

GROOMING: ELENA BAROSI

ALL HATS BY STETSON

WOYTEK WEARS SUIT BY MOSCHINO, BOW-TIE BY ALEXIS MABILLE

MODELS : MILO @ I LOVE, JOE @ 2MORROW,  WOYTEK @ WHY NOT,  ADIN @FASHION

Stetson is the first name that comes to mind thinking of the classic cowboy hat, their “Boss of the Plains” hat, which John B. Stetson designed in 1865 basing it on his adventures in the West is still closely associated with cowboys to this day. What people tend to forget, or might not even know, is that Stetson has produced all sort of hats for more than a century, making everything from boaters to aviator caps, even the classic explorer hat, that strange object caroon characters perch on their heads when they travel to Africa, can be found on their rich catalogue.. We had fun playing with some of these styles on set during fashion week, enjoy the pics and find your favorite style!

( And Remember a Beautiful Thing On Your Head Is a Joy Forever)

( and YES this was just an excuse to post beautiful boys in hats, and Milo in a boater, could you DIE?)

R.S.

Photo: Mauro Balletti
Make-up: Stefano Anselmo

cover art for:  Salomè ( 1981)  and Rane Supreme ( 1987)

Mina by Balletti

I first came in contact with Mina and her three-octave range as a very small child, my father was a fan and I would play her 45 rpm singles on my orange portable record-player, we were in the early 70s, Mina was arguably the best italian singer ever and an iconic presence that couldn’t be avoided: she was on tv, on the radio, on your stereo. Her look was striking and chic, her life was free and glamorous, her songs dramatic and modern. It was a great time to be an italian singer; pop was leaving the easy bubblegum fun of the 60s to explore the drama of love and sexuality. Mina was a perfect candidate to embody the emancipated woman, pop’s ‘’ bad girl’’ : she had even been banned from italian tv for a while when in ’63 she refused to be secretive about her relationship with Massimiliano Pani, who was separated but still married and the child she was expecting from him; but the ban didn’t last long , the public was always on her side and clamored for her to be back on tv. Her public smoking, dyed blond hair, shaved eyebrows and heavy make-up, short skirts and free attitude made her a model and an icon. Without trying or meaning to, she pushed the strict limits imposed on italian women by the catholic church, while still being a sex symbol to the men.

Much as she was a free, modern, woman, Mina was always a quite private person, rarely giving interviews and mostly letting her songs speak for her. In 1978 Mina left the stage, vowing not to perform in public again, live, recorded or otherwise, ( I remember my father going to her farewell concert and recording it on his portable cassette player, we used to listen to that dodgy recording every time we took a long trip by car), but she never stopped recording her albums. Between 1972 and 1995, she published a double album each year. From 1973, her LPs and CDs have been characterized by the genius of art director Luciano Tallarini, artist Gianni Ronco and photographer Mauro Balletti. From the 1980s, the design of the album covers was trusted to Balletti, (with Ronco still drawing her from time to time), he has been the filter between Mina and her public since. Together they have created the iconic images which not only were the means to present Mina’s work, but also the only visual communication between the artist and her public. Their means to this end, their chosen medium, was quite often ‘‘Camp’’, Mina bares herself through artifice and make-up, Mauro hides her behind retouching, collages, art, often with an irony lost on some of the critics at the time. With the disappearance of the physical star the icon appeared, her natural likeness gradually evolving into mythical creatures which were at turns ironic, dramatic, over the top, even silly; this was the only visual accompaniment  the public had for the sounds coming from her records, thus she could finally live her private life without a care about her image, leaving behind the continuous diets and weight shifts that her perfectionist nature imposed on her body before she finally gave up her ’’public persona’’ in ’78. Salomè and Rane Supreme came out towards the beginning and the end of the 80s, and both show Mina at her most iconic, ironic, camp. Hiding herself behind a long, flowing blond beard she is playing subtly with the biblical implications of the album’s title while at the same time looking both glamorous and a bit ridiculous, her look of slight scorn makes it hard to judge her attitude and intentions. Baletti’s painterly background and command of ironic visual quotations is quite apparent in the chiaroscuro of earth tones the make-up artist Stefano Anselmo applied to her face, giving her a surreal, bearded Monna Lisa look. Her camp,  gay sensibility, is most evident in Rane Supreme, which shocked some for showing her head grafted on a bodybuilder’s body, and for the hilarious song ‘’Ma Chi E’ Quello Lì’’ a tale of a lonely woman’s trip to the grocery store, where she tries to pick up men, describing them with a drag queen’s verve and vocabulary ( the video for the track featured another gay icon, Monica Vitti, on a rampage in a supermaket ), it has obviously been a hit with italian drag queens ever since… Drag and Camp have been part of Mina’s life for a long time, she even did a cover of ‘‘Sweet Transvestite’’ from The Rocky Horror Show, which is probably the campest song ever written. Her forays into camp play quite often with accepted notions of  ‘’ good’’ taste , but then again, if ‘‘camp’’ is on the menu, there is only one mantra to follow, Franco Moschino’s : ‘’Il Buon Gusto Non Esiste!’’ ( ‘’ Good Taste Does Not Exist!’’). What Balletti and Mina did with her covers was turning upside -down the concept that ‘’good’’ art should be simple, honest and true, through artifice and kitsch they uncovered the clichè in art and art in the clichè, revealing in the end everything by studiously hiding the artist, creating the icon for the voice to heard.

‘’I Don’t miss those times. Maybe because I’ve lived them fully, without reserve: Knowing fully well what I was doing and how. Knowing the difficulties and lightness of that which is treated as ‘‘minor’’ music. Mistreated pop songs. Which sometimes have ingrained in their heart a truth that’s not so simple.’’  Mina

Riccardo Slavik , written for and first published in  Candy Magazine Issue 3

SAMUELE VISENTIN @ D’MEN

PHOTOS: LORENZO MARCUCCI

STYLING: RICCARDO SLAVIK

We shot upcoming italian boy Samuele for a story that’s just out in Fiasco magazine, unfortunately Sam didn’t make it to the final edit, and since we hate throwing good things ( or boys) away, we thought we might as well publish the pics here, hope you appreciate it and love us just a tiny bit more for it!

credits: from top

blue coat: Aquascutum    rubber biker jacket:Frankie Morello   tshirt: Vivienne Westwood

plastic coated hooded swetashirt: Vintage Raf Simons    shorts: Costume National Homme

nylon geometric print jacket : MSGM    tshirt: Jil Sander   hodded green nylon coat : Frankie Morello  shorts: Jil Sander

R.S.

PHOTOS RICCARDO SLAVIK FOR FLAMBOYANT

I must say following season after season of Marras’ retro/baroque take on the Kenzo legacy, my first reaction to the first Kenzo collection designed by  Opening Ceremony founders Humberto Leon and Carol Lim wasn’t a very positive one. Mind you, I did like the collection, I just couldn’t  relate to it as part of the Kenzo universe. Most of the takes on Kenzo we’ve seen so far relied heavily on his use of ethnic influences, which has often made us forget that Kenzo was, at his zenit, a thoroughly modern designer, one of the first ones to eschew couture and work from the street. So ultimately it does make perfect sense for the Opening Ceremony team to take over the house; the FW12 collection mixed sportwear, optical and fruit ( yes fruit, grapes to be exact) prints and some oriental influences for a more recognizeable Kenzo look, but still kept things fresh and modern, giving the house a certaimly younger, fresh twist made of mostly easy pieces with a certain everyday-cool feel. The show, which took place on all five levels of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie ( being seated in small corridors and having to go up and down 5 flights of stairs annoyed the hell out of quite a bit of the Italian press), enlisted the Los Angeles-based electronic mega duo NGUZUNGUZU to create a nearly 15 minute-long mini mix, comprised of original tracks. It was one of the strong points of the show and you can listen to here.

SHOWTUNES: KENZO FW12 – by NGUZUNGUZU by OpeningCeremony

R.S.

PHOTOS RICCARDO SLAVIK FOR FLAMBOYANT

In a flurry of pop-bowtie prints, feathers and light-luxe, Alexis Mabille presented his FW12 collection in Paris, we were there for the show and for a sneak-peek at the backstage, enjoy our exclusive pics!

R.S.

PLASTIC DIVAS PHOTOS: RICCARDO SLAVIK

If a club can be considered one’s home, then KILLER PLASTIC has been mine, both phisically and spiritually since 1986, it was love at first sight, I went from having just heard and read of it and its fabulous clients to going there every single night ( except for Mondays when it closed to give us a bit of rest) in a matter of a few years I was working there, it’s still probably the biggest chunk of my curriculum, even the job I have now I found it there because I ended up assisting a bartender whom I found out was a stylist in a weekly magazine. I still work at that magazine. I met the only guy I’ve had a normal and serious relationship with at Plastic, the Chanle party, chic, non? He gave up his job as a researcher in physics to work at Plastic, he’s still there now. Plastic has a way of permeating your life and sucking you in, not in any negative sense, but because it’s basically one big family made of different circles, it’s easy to end up being adopted. I was adopted a long time ago, and Lucio felt like a stern father figure for a long time, Nicola was my teacher and I still have nightmares about him scolding him for emptying the dancefloor or fucking up a mix. I know that walls are just walls, and Plastic’s were constantly redecorated, repainted, redone, and I know that wherever the Plastic family will go it will still be my family of sorts, but I’ll miss those walls, those 3 rooms, the walk back and forth from a house to the other ( I’ve lived near Plastic for about 20 years, just so I could walk there). But however one puts it a part of my life is over tonight, so forgive me if I shed a tear….

R.S.