OPENING CEREMONY FEVER

I have Opening Ceremony fever at the minute, I love the selection that Très Bien Shop are selling at their online site. This cobalt blue dress is a particular favourite, I love the unexpected split at the back and the simple, linear design of the dress. It would look great teamed with the Opening Ceremony flare trench and the corset tied shoe boots also featured here. It was their collaboration with style maverick Chloë Sevigny back in 1998 that sparked off my interest with the brand. The ingenious collaboration continues with Sevigny creating a line of menswear pieces for AW/09.

POSTER OF A BOY

Darragh Shanahan is the Jack of all artistic trades; drummer, photographer, and creative director to name just a few of his career endeavours. He forms one part of the über cool band Dark Room Notes who are presently taking these shores and beyond by storm. He is also the photographer responsible for capturing Style-Sphere’s blog profile photograph and therein lies the story of how we first met and collaborated. One random night, after an even more random chat, we decided upon doing a fashion shoot together. A date was set and a meeting point decided upon. The spontaneity of our first collaboration developed over pints outside a Dublin nightclub. I provided the face, the fashion, and the theatre, while he came equipped with a snazzy vintage camera, charisma, a pair of ray-bans, and a box of smokes. I showed up at the shoot armed with costumes in superpower colours of gold, royal blue, and red á la Wonder Woman. Below Darragh discusses the symbiotic relationship between fashion and music and shares his precious style notes with us.


Style-Sphere: Earliest fashion memory?

Darragh: Probably getting a school uniform, I can remember asking my mother to take in my trousers so they were drain pipes, they're the first item I had any influence on changing how it fit me. There was also a yellow t-shirt with a cartoon rodeo on it I had as a young boy, I set fire to it and myself while playing with matches, I actually told the Garda that I was attacked and they went looking for this guy I called Joxer Lawlor, I'm scared for life.

Style-Sphere: Who are your style icons and how do they influence the way in which you dress?

Darragh: Everything is a style influence to me but probably film would be my biggest style icon. Watching how people interpret an era or watching some contemporary piece (check out The Jacques Cousteau Odyssey) is a great source to remind me that fashion is a language is so many ways.

Style-Sphere: Has your personal style evolved since the early days of Dark Room Notes?
Darragh: I've always been a one for natural selection, I'm a warrior, I don't shop a lot so my experiences bring clothes to me, and the people I meet share a lot. So if you start hanging around with a band it changes things, you meet designers like Pete Reddy who has been wonderful with his cast offs, Arran from the band showed me a new way to look at colour, the stage brought drama, the road brought the need for comfort, the photo shoots brought character and writing about it brings reflection, I've rediscovered nudity.

Style-Sphere: How would you describe the overall image of DRN?Darragh: It's evolving.

Style-Sphere: What has been the most outlandish outfit you have worn while performing in DRN?
Darragh: Green eyeliner, Mohawk dusted with green eye liner, a black Perspex magpie silhouette on a chain around my neck with a leaf going through the nadir, black Speedos, karate shoes called Men Shoes that have white cotton soles and a smile.

Style-Sphere: The latest video 'Shake Shake my Ceiling' set in Berlin follows you on your dancing journey through the city of Berlin wearing a pair of very slick shoes. Tell us about your look in that video and your reason for choosing to shoot in Berlin? Darragh: I am a big fan of scarves, gloves, hats, shoes and sun glasses for the reasons I talked about in your icons question. Over time I've put them together in different ways, certain combinations stick with me. Berlin was selected because of the director Rory Breslihin, he wanted to shoot in this bar called Dr Pongs. So we did, and the idea wasn't working, but for a few weeks before we left I couldn't stop dancing to that song and just for a laugh Rory agreed to dance around Berlin with me. You should see the out takes! x

INTRODUCING: ARTIST DARKO DRAGICEVIC

On my first encounter with the artist Darko Dragicevic he was wearing a fantastic Bernhard Willhelm check shirt and shopping for some Henrik Vibskov pieces. For Darko, clothes aren’t merely clothes but art in themselves and his interest in fashion lies far beyond the scope of a fondness for good design aesthetics. He prefers fashion that has a strong concept, an impacting ethos, and above all he admires designers who are multifaceted like design genius Henrik Vibskov. (C)Branka Dutina.

A native of Belgrade, Darko attended the New York film academy and his work as a film director in several different projects brought him back to Europe where he currently resides in Berlin. Darko devised the ‘Taste of Life’ exhibit in New York in 2007, the exhibit consists of 12 video pieces which are followed by 12 tracks and 12 pages from a selection of published works. The principal plot concerns time and physical absence in the domestic space such as ‘the apartment in the big city’. Under the name SCHNITT, Darko along with Berlin based architect Branka Dutina, organised and facilitated the ‘Taste of Life’ exhibit in and around Berlin. The moveable exhibit took place within a camper van positioned in various locations around Berlin. The exhibit is scheduled to wander further afield in the coming months. Below is an interview with the artist.



Style-Sphere: How did you conceive the idea for the 'Taste of Life' exhibition?
Darko: By observing what was going on in the boxes being called the apartments in the big cities…At the time I used to live in New York, so the concept of the space and everything that’s been happening inside of it was more dramatic than now. Then when I came to Berlin the idea of the videos was adopted to this place and it slightly changed. Many new things were born inside of SCHNITT, in collaboration with the Exhibit Architect Branka Dutina.



Style-Sphere: Has living in Berlin changed your overall outlook in your work ?
Darko: No, I wouldn‘t say so. The basics will always remain the same. My work is who I am and I don‘t believe that people change.



Style-Sphere: What element of the Berlin lifestyle has mostly influenced your development as an artist?
Darko: It’s structure. Buildings and people. It’s past. It’s landscape of diversities.



Style-Sphere: 'Taste of Life' is essentially a mobile exhibition, what places do you aspire to travel to next?
Darko: Places that would bring something new to the ‘Taste Of Life‘. Places with a completely different landscapes or social structures.Places where I could have a byte of something unexpected.



Style-Sphere: 'Taste of Life' took place in a camper van. Whilst living within the exhibition, what music did you play the most? what food did you eat? and what did you wear?
Darko: Apart from the music used for the videos, I was mostly listening to Cat Power, David Bowie, Bebi Dol, M83 and Bach played by Glenn Gould. I was eating whatever I had in the van or what my friends would bring over. That was always a surprise! The clothes I wore weren’t that impressive as I’ve mostly had to think about how cold it was both outside and inside (the doors were open for the visitors). It was always the same: military coat, scarf and hat, pants or jeans and warm shoes.

Style-Sphere: How would you describe Berlin in three words?
Darko:Bad news!Good news!Bad news!

Unisex Menswear

Regularly I stumble upon online shops with menswear that far surpasses the womenswear collections on offer however, I was happy to discover that Swedish label Odeur define themselves as a unisex menswear collection. The label launched in 2006 and is designed by duo Petter Hollstrom and Anna Lidstrom, it is stocked in several conceptual stores worldwide including; Temporary Showroom (Berlin),Rubber Soul (Oslo), Doshaburi (Barcelona) as well as a stream of stores throughout Sweden and Japan. According to Odeur "All garments are endorsed with the scent of Odeur- an androgynous, clean, white and light scent". I reckon it was imperative that I mention their adept description of this scent which is as follows, “the aroma chosen to represent Odeur is based on a number of visual factors; the clean lines of the clothing with an almost androgynous alien look. By using aromas that stem from the higher scale, the scent of Odeur has become a light, white and clean fragrance. The scent is meant to be clean and unusual, but not a quirky sexual fragrance. It is not gender specific, and the chosen aroma covers all natural elements. It is fresh, clean and modern”-Odeur.



Images from http://www.odeur.se/

It was the crisp white cardigan above that enticed my attention, it is so intelligently constructed with its strategically placed snap fasteners and its asymmetric drape to one side. The nonchalant styling in the lookbook suits the construction of the piece, I like how it is slung loosely over the low crotch black trousers and alternatively styled over white skinny jeans for a preppier look. I would probably wear a long black Isabel Marant linen top underneath and pop a vintage snakeskin belt around the waist for a slightly more feminine take on the look.

Back to Basics

Dress&leggings@ http://americanapparel.net/
T-shirts by Nakkna@ http://www.weekday.se/
L-R (clockwise)Dress& hoodie@ American Apparel, Jumpers@ Nakkna for Weekday , Zip dress@ Surface to Air

Personally, I find that good basics are always the most difficult part of a wardrobe to source or perhaps I'm just a fusspot, but when it comes to having the perfect black top to layer under a summer dress or when I want to keep my look simple by wearing monochromes, adding basic wear to a wardrobe can be a challenge. Needless to say one can easily find adequate basics from the likes of Primark but when you care about every little design feature or the quality of the fabrics that you wear, then basics matter a hell of a lot. From finding that suitable simple vest that is just long enough to cover love handles, to that slender slip dress that you require to create a layered look, the search for that item can be quite arduous. And once you do discover your love for good quality basics, there is no going back. A basics love affair also exists within menswear but it can prove to be even more complicated because there tends to be an abundance of basics, so choosing the right piece becomes the hard bit. Here are some of the best basics around.Enjoy.

L/R (Clockwise)t-shirts@ Acne ,trenchcoat@ Surface to Air
Unisex shirt@ Slow & Steady Wins the Race

A.P.C trousers @ Tresbienshop

Carin Wester for the Summer

A graduate of Beckhams College of design in Stockholm, Carin Wester launched her label in 2003. She was awarded “Newcomer Designer of the year” in 2005 by Swedish Elle magazine. Her collection has gone from strength to strength over the past few seasons and the mens collection is now well incorporated into the label.I first saw one of her lace pieces in Jalouse magazine and I have checked up on the label ever since. It was her AW/08 nautical series that I really fell head over heels for when I viewed the collection at Rendez Vous.I am the proud owner of the Ismeralda black dress and the Iris jersey dress.I will post a photo of one of these at the end of the post.The mens collection is not for the faint hearted man, it takes a brave young man to carry off pink pants but kudos all round if you can! The suiting is exceptional, I love the fact that is understated and a little sloppy, but still manages to be sophisticated in its own non-chalant way.

Weekday store in Sweden began a new project recently called Weekday Extended, whereby they hand -pick a Swedish designer to specially design a limited edition collection. Carin Wester was one of the selected and CW by Carin Wester turned out to be a fun mini collection. I would like to get my hands on the black jersey corset dress, a comfy corset, how is that possible?

My Ismeralda dress.