We at Sub Rosa are proud to make our first post to the KDU Network. While we’re currently busy going where no man has gone before, check back often for updates and shiny moon rocks from our recent projects or hit our site for a look at some recent intergalactic exploits.
Up, up and away…
I thought I should try the cargocollective thing. I found it interesting and quite nice & simple. So I started to upload stuff there; quickly I found out that I didn’t update my portfolio from a while so I started to upload new stuff and still uploading. So please show me some love and if you feel like sharing please do, if not recycle it and get over it.
www.stefanlucut.com
We’re crazy about vintage. Decades ago it was in order to access an opportunity to experiment with sartorial nuance. As a one-time Bostonian, for me it was Dollar-a-Pound and The Garment District, both vintage destinations in Cambridge. That was the second half of the eighties. Vintage allowed for styling that was unpolluted by overtly marketed elements of trend and which was free of any associations that didn’t derive solely from someplace between the unique physical garment and our own utterly individual perceptions.
If I was learning about garment construction from this activity, I was doing it by osmosis.
But enough time has passed that my orientation to vintage has evolved considerably. I’m that slow a learner that it takes a quarter-century or so. Somewhere along the line I accidently played my cards right enough that it’s now my giggle-every-morning-on-the-way-to-work privilege to be able to incorporate my relationship with vintage garments into my daily routine. The search, acquisition, documentation, examination and translation of archival detailing within contemporary designs represents a critical part of the design process undertaken everyday by myself and the team I work with at DENHAM. This ethic is traceable via the Militant Guild of Rural Tailors reasearch blog as well as our Denham Garment Library.
The stylistic potential which used to dominate my attitudes toward vintage has now been at least matched (if not overtaken) by a blunt awareness that these garments manifest our best opportunity to learn about quality and that understanding them better might allow us a small chance at contributing to the great historical trajectory of menswear design itself. I used to think it was healthy hubris to willfully push aside the work of predecessors in order to assert something youthful and “new” of our own devising. Despite seeming more modest at first blush, I now think it represents an even greater ambition to attempt embracing the work of those same predecessors and endeavoring to put a shoulder against the fuller weight of this shared tradition in order to push it forward… if only by inches.
At any rate, these musings resonate along some unexpected avenues inline with current trends. Our awakening to the wastefulness of built-in-obsolescence as contrived in the form of the idea of “the New” in fashion. A new hunger for both tangible and narrative substance among all generations. Call it a new value construct, steampunk (God forbid), the Americana grandpa style, Labels of Common Kin (as rallied by Bread & Butter), Otaku authenticity,… Whatever it is the creators of View Magazine (View on Textile, View on Color, Bloom, and View 2) have allowed a little grandstanding on the subject via their new View Network website. It’s subscriber service but it is out there and certainly the View franchise has always represented unrivaled quality. Maybe worth a look.
Updated my website with a few new works, ongoing projects and a cleaner layout, check it out: http://www.onrepeat.net/
weareunit.com
This is an identity and branding project that really pushed us to develop some next level imagery and really get back to our illustration roots. it was an amazing journey and we couldn’t have done the work for a better band. Makeshift Prodigy is a 5 member idie/rock band out of Chicago.
the mingadigm e-store
Alright kiddies, here she is… my new online store Mingadigm. fully functional and awaiting to be ravaged by viewers much like yourself. have a look and help put the mingadigm store on the map. thanks for the continue support.
An illustrated type treatment done for my alias as Black Minga. the idea for this piece was sparked by a gallery show i put on in Milwaukee at Di Carlo salon. it was a fashion forward show and the space there was amazing, really inspirational. I wanted to have something that spoke volumes of my style and techniques and thus here it is.
I haven’t updated my site in a while and fancied a change from flash to html along with a visual update and new work, so keep your eye on destill.net soon! Above in a preview of something new…
This colourful set of photographs reveals the beauty of two models, the American Guinevere van Seenus and the Russian Elena Sudakova. The shoot was made for Vogue UK.
I just wanted to say a quick hello to my comrades in the KDU
across the world.
Cheers Si
Born in 1981, living and working in Katowice, Poland. Self-taught and full-time freelance artist with five years of experience in print and webdesign. Valp has established himself as a creative digital artist – after years of experimenting and playing with imagination he has build his own style with high attention to details, colours and textures. Graphic design for Valp always was something more than just a profession.
During last two years of his full-time freelance work he was commissioned by Back Row Productions, Platige Image, Weinsten Company, Warner Music Poland, Armada Skis to name a few. Valp designed illustrations for such a great musical Pricilla – Queen of the Desert; he was also a judge for iStockphoto’s Battle Royale and his work has been widely published.
Valp is also a member of Keystone Design Union and Depthcore digital arts community.
Visit Valp’s portfolio at www.valpnow.com and check out his official blog.
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of Vogue Russia, magazine decided to perfect famous Russian Matryoshka doll. They took a traditional wooden doll shape and turned it into a carved female body. The new shape became slimmer and taller and lost a sense of untouchable traditions so the designers untied their arms and work without any regrets.
Then they called famous fashion designers to create Haute Couture outfits. Later 31 dolls were painted following designers artworks.
The new Matryoshkas took a part in fashion photoshoot and where exhibited on Vogue pages along with charity auction. Each piece costs 5000 Euros.
During the period I had the great-good fortune to work with (and learn from) the Visvim crew there was a guy there named Naoki Ei. Together with Nakamura-San, Naoki developed Visvim’s unbelievably refined packaging and branding elements including the first several iterations of their now famous seasonal collection Dissertations.
My experience collaborating with Naoki included the opportunity for my wife and I to host him at our studio in Amsterdam. The impression he had already begun to make during my Tokyo visits solidified completely while he was here with us. A unique mix of quiet modestly combined with very particular standards of taste and quality. A slow burn. Taste and quality being subjects about which he was slightly less quiet. He revealed himself as a character who was reluctant to compromise look, touch or feel.
But it turns out look, touch and feel weren’t even his first love. It had been sound all along. It’s been a few years but I finally heard from Naoki again last week. I knew he had been pursuing his audio passion. He was excited about the launch of his Audio Arts Recordings and seeking to confirm my address so he could share his current activity in a more tangible way. I’m out of the loop with respect to music packaging. Between Spotify and I-Tunes I haven’t handled music’s physical dimension since I bought Tool’s last boxed CD (3d glasses and a book of corresponding artwork, like the golden age of Alice Cooper novelty albums). So it was a treat to see what Naoki has been up to since I know him as somebody committed to these sorts of details.
But we’re talking about music. After coveting the velvet flocked packaging and the pair of integrated lapel pins I put the CDs in the player. Enough to say they’ve been in rotation all day today but I won’t attempt to describe the tracks themselves here except to say we’re liking the sound a whole lot. Look for more from Naoki Ei here.
|
May 18 |
POSTED BY: |
|
May 14 |
POSTED BY: |
|
May 12 |
POSTED BY: |
