In the weeks leading up to the new menswear collections being showcased, we find there was very little in the way of fashion news in our inboxes. So instead of the usual collabs and capsule launches, we saw stuff about art, fragrance pop-ups, brands discovering their fun side and some great new luggage ideas. All things to write home about – maybe on a director’s stationery? Here is what caught our eye this week.
James Turrell opened the largest Skyspace called ‘As Seen Below’
Immersive sculpture can be a surprisingly powerful thing, as anyone who has experienced the work of Richard Serra or Olafur Eliasson up close would know. American artist James Turrell has made a name for himself with huge architectural structures open to the sky, which he calls Skyspaces and which he hopes invite the viewer to view the world in a slightly different way. So far, he has created ninety-nine of these across the world, and now, in June, he opened his hundredth, called ‘As Seen Below’ here in Denmark. Situated in the grounds of the ARoS art museum in Aarhus, this will be the largest ever Skyspace, and visitors are able to see it in ‘Open Sky’ mode, where the focus is on the aperture at the top or at one of the hourly ‘Colour Shifts’ when the entire place is bathed in different coloured lights. If you get your timing right, though, perhaps the most impressive will be the ‘Twilight’ events, where you see the light change from day to night in a very unique way.
Acqua Di Parma opened a Seaside Boutique in Italy’s Paraggi
Designer pop-up stores in fashionable seaside towns are an ever-increasing phenomenon it seems, especially in France and Italy (no one has yet to brave the English coast). The latest is by Italian heritage perfume brand Acqua di Parma, who are opening a quirky retail unit in the swanky resort of Paraggi, just outside Portofino, for the summer. Normally, the brand has a rather classic, sober image, but this time, they seem to have found their whimsical side with a special branded collection called Acqua di Parma for Langosteria with flacons decorated with cartoon lobsters in frilly dresses and mermaids on a beach. Alongside these are candles in cute jars, pétanque sets and straw hats, all in a rather fanciful shop interior featuring bottle tables and big sculptural lips on the wall. Will anyone decide to do a pop-up in the English resort of Blackpool next year? Unlikely…
Rimowa gotta catch ’em all
Another brand discovering its lighter side is usually a very serious luggage maker, Rimowa. Now that the world is full of random stuff hanging from everyone’s bags, they have decided to join the likes of Loewe, Dior and…er… Labubu with a series of charms that celebrate thirty years of Pokémon. Made from leather, they depict Pikachu, Charmander or Charizard in bright colours that will certainly make your bag easier to spot on the carousel. If this is one step too kawaii for your rigid aluminium case, then instead you can opt for a set of custom Poké wheels to pimp up your carry-on. Needless to say, these are all exclusively available only in Japan.
Louis Vuitton introduced new aluminium suitcases
In more luggage news, Louis Vuitton’s iconic monogram design has lost a lot of its cachet over the years and is now more associated with fakes sold from blankets at the seaside than the golden years of travel. But, logo-phobic as we are here, we had to admit that its latest incarnation on a new Marc Newson-designed range of cases is really rather lovely. The new carry-ons and bigger suitcases are made in Newson’s trademark aluminium – a first for LV – and feature the monogram embossed as a relief in the surface. Not only does it give the required flex at check-in, but it also strengthens the shell. The designer says he really wants the cases to get bashed about and show the patina of age, and we can’t help but agree that they will look pretty good after a few years.
Wes Anderson teamed up with Astier de Villatte for a letter-writing notebook
Graham might honestly be the only person in the world who cannot bear Wes Anderson’s films (too arch, too mannered, just too annoying), but even he likes the new notebooks and letter-writing pads that the director has come up with in conjunction with Parisian product studio Astier de Villatte. Homing in on the trend for all things analogue and handwritten, Andersen is encouraging people to write more letters by producing letterhead notepaper that comes from some of the fictitious hotels and businesses in his movies. So expect something in the post soon, seemingly written at the Grand Budapest or from the offices of The French Dispatch (hopefully the contents will be more interesting than the films… )
