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The Store; a carefully curated blend of retail, dining, broadcasting and creative space is making its way to London from its first space at Soho House Berlin – and to no lesser building than 180 The Strand, the forboding brutalist structure which stands in close proximity to Somerset House and The West End. To coincide with its opening, the space will play host to a new exhibition titled ‘The Infinite Mix’ in collaboration with The Hayward Gallery and music and arts enterprise The Vinyl Factory, showcasing audiovisual work from the likes of Martin Creed and Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. ‘The Infinite Mix’ will explore the relationship between art and sound, combining thought-provoking documentary, entertaining theatrics and immersive composition.

Ahead of the opening on September 9, we talked to Alex Eagle, creative director of The Store about the upcoming installation and what we can expect.

The Store currently occupies the ground floor of Soho House in Berlin: what motivated you to start The Store and why did you choose that space in Berlin?

The ground floor and basement space in the Soho House Berlin building had incredible ceiling height and light and it wasn’t being used. We took the opportunity to bring something that reflected the creativity and vibrancy of the city to this space – the whole world comes through the Berlin Soho House at some point and therefore it was the perfect place for us to launch The Store. For us, Berlin was the ideal city to begin to incubate our concept because it’s so fluid – driven by creativity with no boundaries between how you live and work.

Now you’re coming to 180 Strand for The Infinite Mix. What attracted you to the project and how did your approach differ for this project?

We are very excited to be hosting a collaboration between The Hayward and The Vinyl Factory for the launch of The Store at our incredible new space in central London. We’ve long been inspired by Ralph Rugoff’s incredible curatorial skills and ideas and of course The Vinyl Factory is known for premiering immersive audio visual experiences by artists such as Ragnar Kjartansson, Carsten Nicolai and Richard Mosse in large scale off-site spaces such as Brewer Street Car Park, so the pair were perfect partners to create this unique experience within The Store. The artworks in The Infinite Mix in every way showcase the fusion of art, music, style and creativity that is the very DNA of The Store.

What can we expect from The Store at 180 The Strand?

The Store at 180 The Strand is the launch of our network of studio spaces in the building called The Store Studios. The Store Studios will also have its hangout and work spaces, books, magazines records to enjoy and The Store Kitchen. All of these elements have their own unique contribution and at this stage this combination of creativity, the kitchen, a social space and places to find inspiration are what drives The Store at 180. Alongside this social space, we’ll offer a handful of curated items inspired by the exhibition – including books, records, t-shirts and some special collaborations to come – working with some great designers and presenting their work in a new way, as an installation and experience.

Pick a few of your favourite pieces from the upcoming ‘The Infinite Mix’ pop-up and tell us why?

We have some unique collaborations underway, all of which reflect the concept behind ‘The Infinite Mix’ – including these top 3 pieces:

A hardback book co-published with The Hayward
T-shirts created in collaboration with Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Stan Douglas, Cameron Jamie, Jeremy Deller
Vinyl editions by The Vinyl Factory with Cameron Jamie (music by Sonic Youth), Stan Douglas (music by Jason Moran) and Jeremy Deller

Whose work are you most excited about hearing/seeing at ‘The Infinite Mix’?

The exhibition as a whole is going to be a pretty incredible experience, with such a variety of artworks on display, but some of the pieces I’m most looking forward to include:

The premiere of Jeremy Deller and Cecilia Bengolea’s first collaboration – they’ve been working with a Japanese dancehall artist in Kingston, Jamaica over the summer and the piece sounds really exciting!
I’m looking forward to seeing Rachel Rose’s film ‘Everything and More’ which samples vocals from Arethra Franklin with hypnotic imagery shot in a NASA astronaut test centre among other spots!
French artist Dominique Gonzales-Foerster’s holographic work is really haunting – she’s presenting a ghostly hologram of opera legend Maria Callas which floats in mid-air.
Cyprien Gaillard’ s piece ‘N ightlife’ will be projected in 3D into the underground car park of 180 The Strand – it’s a perfect example of a work that combines mesmerising imagery, soulful music and a politically charged concept – I can’t wait to see it all in the space itself!

‘The Infinite Mix’ is interesting as it combines not only art and music but also retail and dining in a way that’s very sophisticated and seamless. Do you see this as the future of temporary installations and art events?

I do see this as the future for the use of space, whether it is for work, retail, leisure, dining or inspiration it all merges in to one experience or event. The fact the experience might change in a space for whatever its use is definitely the future.
The Store is not a conventional retail or pop up space. The new future of retail in our opinion is about broadcast and community. You communicate whatever you want to talk about whether it’s fashion or music or culture by inviting people in to experience and hang out or by directly broadcasting to them via all the channels now available. The main aim of The Store is to hang out in it and come and see what’s going on or to provide a platform for people to broadcast from. The first phase of Berlin was to create a place to come and hang out and see what’s going on and the second phase will be the creation of studios to broadcast, communicate and work from.

I love your previous work in both Berlin and the Alex Eagle stores with some really classic British brands usually renowned for their menswear. What drew you to old-world makers like New & Lingwood and Swaine, Adeney and Brigg?

We’ve been lucky enough to collaborate with some fantastic brands over the years – all stemming from the fact that we value craft in contemporary design, and try to bring a new perspective on traditional brands. We’re passionate about the longevity and tradition of these brands, which only exists because of the skill, quality and craft behind them. The items are beautiful, not throwaway. I believe in well made products made to last – from the food to the artwork, furniture – whether they’re past classics of future classics – we have a really exciting future working with artists such as ceramicist Luke Edward Hall, or Romy Northover. New & Lingwood – classic tailors who are known for creating the Eton uniform have collaborated with us on some great unisex luxury items that have a timeless quality. Swaine Adeney and Brigg have been inspiring to work with – creating some beautifully made luggage which can be an everyday item, a design object for the house and something to keep for a lifetime.

The aesthetic of The Store is unique and precise. Talk to us about your main influences for that and how you decided on that distinctive look?

Conventional retail and gallery spaces sometimes seem to be too narrow in what they offer compared to how we live our lives these days. By limiting the offer in a space, you can run the risk of limiting opportunities for communal experiences and an exchange of ideas between creatives, designers, artists and chefs. This is something we wanted to change – to create a unique experience for visitors.
180 The Strand is a unique and special place in London overlooking the Thames, just moments from Somerset House. I’m inspired to create this space in one of London’s most exciting new cultural hubs. The raw industrial look of the space has been a really exciting challenge to bring something new and fresh to – we’re looking forward to it developing in the future with more collaborations.

Martin Creed

Cyprien Gaillard

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster 

www.theinfinitemix.com

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Eau D’ Bedroom Dancing from Joseph Delaney.

Rollacoaster returns this January, kicking off 2016 with the freshest faces of season. For our SS16 menswear issue, White Cube artist, club-kid and all-round troublemaker Eddie Peake reworked our logo across two limited edition covers. Inside, he discusses life as one of Britain’s most fascinating young creatives, and offers us a few never-before-seen artworks.

Cover star, Prada’s new poster-boy and Glue actor Billy Howle talks to Nellie Eden, we shine a light on Olympic Gold-winner and serial record breaker Max Whitlock, and Wolf Hall’s Edward Holcroft walks us through the weird, weird world of Hollywood 2016.

We swap truths with genre-defying dancehall-pop crossover J-Hus and Kanye-cohort Novelist and chat to the likes of Martine Rose, Christopher Shannon and Nasir Mazhar about the Fashion Space Gallery’s breaking menswear exhibition, Mad About The Boy. All this, and the most exciting, out-there menswear fashions of now.

Treat yourself to a taster of the issue with all of the boys from our fashion cover lip syncing to Bikini Kill’s “Riot Girl”, shot by Joseph Delaney. Dreamy.

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Photography from YOUTH HOTEL by Gosha Rubchinskiy 

If there’s one fashion related exhibition you should go to this year it’s Mad About The Boy at the Fashion Space Gallery located in the London College of Fashion. Curated by SHOWstudio’s editor, Lou Stoppard, it’s a group exhibition exploring fashion’s preoccupation with youth and, in particular, the way collections and images shape ideas of teenage boyhood. It will engage with the multitudinous incarnations of the young male that exist in fashion’s imagination – including the raver, the sexual fantasist and, of course, the rebel – all of which will be amplified by tableaux and environments specially designed by Tony Hornecker.

Interested? You should be. But when you hear who’s contributing you definitely will be: some of fashion’s greatest youth-centric designers and image makers are on board, including Raf Simons, Alasdair McLellan, Gosha Rubchinskiy, J.W. Anderson, Larry Clark, Christopher Shannon and Nasir Mazhar. Oh, and Nick Knight and Undercover. Yep, that’s a pretty all-star cast of creatives who are contributing everything from videos and photographs, to editorials, films and select looks from seminal collections. Subversive design duo Meadham Kirchhoff will even be re-staging their celebrated SS13 Menswear collection for the duration of the exhibition. Fittingly enough, Mad About The Boy opens on the first day of London Collections: Men (this Friday!), so you can really get your menswear fix. See you there!

Photography by Alasdair McLellan, ‘The Perfect Kiss’ (12 inch version)

Raf Simons SS16 (image courtesy of Raf Simons

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Taken from the Summer Fashion Issue of Wonderland 

One new creative director, a staff of 5,200, a 54-piece debut haute couture collection, and 270 hours of raw footage – an intense creative endeavour captured in one emotional, powerful 89-minute documentary. Out internationally, Frédéric Tcheng’s Dior and I is a work of art. Having co-directed Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel and co-edited and co-produced Valentino: The Last Emperor, Tcheng is no first-time documentarian. His handling of Dior’s recent transitional phase – following John Galliano’s anti-Semitic outburst and subsequent dismissal from the fashion house – is testament to that.

It was in Paris during a presentation of The Eye Has To Travel in 2011 that Tcheng first met Olivier Bialobos, the Head of Communications at Dior. “Dior were looking for a new designer,” Tcheng tells Wonderland. “That’s when we first started discussing the idea of making a film and Olivier said we could open the doors of Dior for the first time.”

A year later, Tcheng was introduced to Galliano’s replacement, Raf Simons. “The scene in the movie where [Raf] comes in, that’s the moment that I met him,” the director recalls. “No prior meeting, I saw him on camera for the first time. That was very different from any documentary I’d done before. Everything happened so fast.” It took some convincing to get Simons to agree to cameras being there at all. “He was pretty reluctant to be on camera! He quizzed me about my favourite films and told me his reasons for being reluctant were to do with privacy and the celebrity culture that surrounds fashion. He’s not attracted to that and I’m not either. That’s where we connected.”

Born in Lyon to science-loving parents, Tcheng self-educated on all things film. Growing up on a diet of David Fincher, Todd Haynes and a host of other auteurs, the director took a left turn from his degree in engineering at 24, enrolling on a film studies course.

Weirdly mirroring this, Simons hasn’t always been immersed in fashion either. The son of an army night watchman and a cleaner, the designer grew up in Belgium and studied industrial furniture design, a field he pursued professionally until an internship with Walter Van Beirendonck saw him trade furnishings for fashion. It was in 1995 that Simons started his eponymous label. Pillaging references from both rebellious youth cultures and traditional menswear codes for his “Summa Cum Laude” collection in 2000, he riffed on everything from Manic Street Preachers album artwork – re-appropriated as patches smattered on skinny-cut suits – to the dress codes of gabba, the noisy, pummelling techno subgenre.

Ten years on, in 2005, Simons was named Creative Director of Jil Sander, where he made his debut foray into womenswear. Often mislabelled as a minimalist, he’s one of the few designers who has kept his private life under wraps, remaining something of a fashion rebel despite his heightened status. The outsider taking the reigns at one of fashion’s most prestigious institutions: it’s easy to see why the fashion milieu so eagerly awaited Simons’ first collection for Dior. For his couture line, Simons employed a midcentury technique – imprimé Chaîne – and prints mirrored those of American artist Sterling Ruby, Simons’ long-time muse. Always pushing against the grain, one scene in Dior and I shows him ordering his cobbler to bin the skyscraper heels a model is wearing during a fitting, telling him he “hates thefeeling of a guy supporting [a girl] on a staircase”.

The first step in building the Tcheng-Simons bond was trust. “After week one, the process was very hands off with Raf,” says Tcheng. “He knows how to give creative room to the people that he works with.” But how much of the real Simons do we see on camera? One day during filming, Simons approached Tcheng with a simple request. “He said: ‘Fred, please don’t make me into a caricature,because I often see that in documentaries, especially fashion documentaries, people latch onto one aspect of someone’s personality then blow it up, and that makes for a caricature, a one-dimensional portrait. I know that’s what audiences like in many ways, but it’s not fair.’ I really took that to heart, to make him a three-dimensional character.”

That’s exactly what Simons is: three-dimensional, honest and real. He may want to shy away from the lens, but Tcheng gets under his skin. Interrupting scenes with archive footage of Christian Dior and voiced excerpts of his 1956 autobiography spoken by Tcheng’s friend, writer and poet Omar Berrada, Tcheng examines the parallels between Simons’ and Dior’s working practices. Similarities arise in how they question their role in society, too. “It’s almost the feeling of a split personality when you become part of the public arena. That was part of Dior’s experience and Raf’s experience as well,” explains Tcheng. “Dior wanted to be an architect and Raf is an industrial designer, so they have that in common too. And art. You know, Christian Dior ran a gallery and Raf is very inspired by art so there are many, many things that unite their personalities.”

Of course, Simons is fully aware of his similarities to Dior. In one particularly striking scene just before his debut show in Paris, he sheds a tear  – a glowing hint to the fact that, like Dior’s rise from designer to deity, everything’s about to change for him. It’s these painstakingly intimate moments that make the film relatable for not only the fashion elite, but those who aren’t in the know. Despite his glamorous repertoire of documentaries, Tcheng is a filmmaker, not a fashion insider. “It’s always the case when you make a documentary,” he comments. “You always try to reach an audience that’s not just a fashion audience, because it’s too limiting. That’s not who I am.”

The night before the showcase, his devoted team is gathered at the atelier slaving away over a final dress. Each working on a different piece, the collaborative aspect of fashion is expressed in one beautiful moment. Eight weeks of hard work reach a crescendo when Simons’ debut Dior Haute Couture collection is presented in a Parisian mansion. The models walk through five sensory chambers – rooms wallpapered floor-to-ceiling with fresh peonies, dahlias, carnations, orchids and roses. At the time, Simons referred to his masterpiece show space as “Jeff Koons’ Flower Puppy inside out”.

When the models appear in Sterling Ruby-printed prom dresses, re-invented ball gowns worn with cigarette pants and tuxedo silhouettes born from the Dior archives, the space is audibly buzzing with energy. The fashion elite are digesting Simons’ new language of Dior. Fighting back tears, Simons steps onto the catwalk and out from the shadow of Christian Dior.

Months later, Tcheng’s final edit was complete and Simons took a DVD home to watch Dior and I by himself. A moving text message to Tcheng followed, expressing his love for the film. “That was the best response I could hope for,” says the director. “He was genuinely moved by the film.”

Dior and I, in selected UK cinemas: www.diormovie.com

Words: Brooke McCord

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Visual art and music can, oddly enough, seem like two distinct entities, one for the gallery or instillation, the other for the headphones or club. Autograf, three guys based in Chicago, take a different approach, dissolving the boundaries between the visual and the sonic they are as much artists as they are musicians. With a varied range of backgrounds, including a derivatives trader (whatever that might be exactly…) and an almost-solider, they’re an original and thoughtful group with a clear vision; to put a sense of the aesthetic into the EDM scene.

EDM is that distinctly American name for dance music and its US scene that’s frequently populated by neon-clad jocks waving glow-sticks, essentially. Cue Autograf, who with their intelligent remixes, fresh sounds and visual approach are changing the game – they first caught attention for nailing animal-shaped-blackboard cutouts around Chicago during one of the city’s EDM festivals. Now, with a new track ‘Metaphysical’ out recently, as well as a forthcoming album, don’t be surprised to hear more from these guys as they alter the face of the EDM scene, one glow-stick at a time.

We sit down for a revealing chat with the Autograf guys, who are every bit at as funny, subversive and as interesting as you would expect.

You started out as a visual art project: can you tell us about your background?

Jake Carpenter: I almost went into the military but went to art school instead for painting and sculpture, so that was a pretty big 180. Initially my parents weren’t too thrilled about art school but when I said I was thinking of enlisting in the army, all of the sudden they were very supportive of the art. Ironically, I built this 8 foot robot for my sculpture thesis that an army colonel saw at an art gallery. He immediately offered me a job at the Department of Defense.

Mikul Wing: I did different kinds of street art like wheat paste, stencil and graffiti along with some pop art techniques like screen printing and wood cut outs. Me and my friends would rent out these raw loft spaces and do all kinds of things with it like turn it into an art gallery, screen printing studio, or clothing store. And of course threw lots of art parties.

Louis Kha: I guess I was the derivatives trader turned musician turned artist. When I was a kid, I never thought I’d be any of those things. There’s so much to do in life, why limit yourself? You can be anyone you want to be. That’s the whole mantra behind Leave Your Autograf. We’re all born artists, leaving our mark on the world.

You caught some attention for your Chicago-based, blank-canvas-safari-animal stuff. Could you talk about that a little?

Mikul: We started Autograf because we were getting tired of what electronic music was becoming. The art and fashion scene was pretty closely tied to the music back in the early Indie-dance or Indie-Electro days of Justice, MGMT, Digitalism and Empire of the Sun. Then all of the sudden the neon wearing YOLO “EDM” generation came along and kind of dumbed everything down to just getting “Turnt Up” and mindlessly jumping up and down at festivals. Somehow the art and fashion got lost with electronic music. So we made these blackboard woodcut outs in the shape of safari animals, nailed them around outside North Coast Festival, and left a bucket of chalk next to them. It was to encourage the new EDM generation to make art.

Jake: Oh and of course by the end of the festival one of the giraffe’s heads got ripped off. It was probably some overly “Turnt Up” bro raging to EDM haha

Louis: I hear there’s lot of drugs involved at those things.

Jake: Uh yeah..

When did you decide to move from visual-art to music?

Louis: We were all doing music beforehand so it was kind of inevitable.

Mikul: We started Autograf as a creative outlet to do visual art because we found ourselves getting away from it.

Jake: We all had this background in art but weren’t using it at least I wasn’t using it as much as I thought back, when I was in art school. I was using my metal sculpture welding skills by working at a welding factory. Not exactly the most inspiring creative place, so we said heck let’s start this art project to make some damn art.

Louis: Yeah we modeled the group as our sort of own Andy Warhol factory, just this space where 3 individuals came together creatively to make cool stuff. And one of those things eventually was a song. The music did so well online initially, we just kept going and going with it. And now here we are, a band.

Is Chicago an important place artistically to you given that it’s the birthplace of House.

Mikul: Yeah all the old school House DJs still play around the city. Guys like Paul Johnson, DJ Funk, Derirck Carter, Gene Ferris. They’re all legends and you can still see them play regularly. So those guys plus all the old school house heads that have been following them from back in the day are at these shows, and you know they’re all super snobby about their House music, so it keeps you rooted and also keeps you on your toes.

The “E.D.M” movement has really picked up traction and mainstream success in America in the last few years, but obviously British Rave Culture and the music at its core has been extremely influential since the early 90s – is it something you look to/know a lot about?

Louis: Oh yeah the original raver and their huge JNCO jeans. Ummm yeah.. that was me haha. EDM is the second coming of the raver. It’s kind of weird. I thought trends aren’t supposed to recycle that fast.  When are bell bottoms and disco making a come back? I listened to all that 90s electronic music, and then the Electro Clash stuff of the mid-2000s with Felix da Housecat and Tiga, but what got me really into electronic music was the Indie-dance stuff like Justice.

Mikul: I was really into Aphex Twin and Square Pusher.

Jake: Daft Punk all the way.

Lots of your output is intelligent remixes of familiar songs but who are some of your favourite musicians?

Jake: Danger, Trentemoller, Royksopp, Chemical brothers, Bassment jaxx. And for right now, Majid Jordan.

Louis: New Order, Joy Division. I haven’t listened to this in forever, but I used to have Bob Dylan’s “Desire” album on repeat.

And, following on from the previous question: which visual-artists (contemporary or traditional) do you find inspiring?

Mikul: Faile, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Roy Lichtenstein

Jake: Javier Marin

Louis: Basquiat, Van Gogh

Outside of music and art, what else inspires you to get creative?

Jake: I find a lot of inspiration in mundane laborious tasks like yard work or other manual labor. That’s why I bought Logic in the first place. I was working in a welding factory and hearing all these songs in my head, so I just had to go home and make the songs that were playing in my head.

Louis: Nature and traveling for me. It’s really hard to get inspired sitting at a desk or on a computer. You need to get out there and see the world. Actually touring is really nice because there’s this down time while traveling that forces you to think creatively. Whereas if you were at home your mind would be too preoccupied with doing all the things you have to do.

Mikul: It seems the common theme is you need quiet time to let your mind wander.

Are we going to see an L.P. anytime soon?

Yes finishing it up now!

Lastly, where do you see yourself in give years?

Louis: If the past is any indication, then I probably won’t be doing whatever I’m doing now.

Jake: 5 years I don’t know, but in 50 years you can find me in Sardinia painting!

Mikul: In 5 years, I’ll be leaving my Autograf.

WORDS: Benji Walters

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From the 10th Birthday Issue of Wonderland.

Martine Rose

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We love Hattie Stewart over here at Wonderland – which obviously hasn’t got anything to do with her scrawling all over our cover in her trademark style… She’s an East-London based illustrator who made a name for herself by revitalizing magazine covers (not just ours, but also Vogue, i-D, and Playboy) with tongue-in-cheek graphics that mock the earnest world of fashion with a distinctive retro edge. Since those magazines, Hattie has become one of the most in-demand illustrators in the world, working with the Oscars, Pepsi Max and MTV: kind of a big deal then.

Now she’s putting on a new exhibition that we’re super excited about called ‘Pattern, Shape, Fluidity, Versions’ at the renovated No Walls gallery in Brighton – always a space that encourages cutting edge talent and fosters up-and-comers.

It’s Hattie’s second solo show, following on from her sell-out debut, ‘Hello Cheeky’, and will feature 100 new illustrations by the artist that will both experiment and riff on established themes in her trademark bold style. The opening night is the 2nd October, so head along if you’re in Brighton and check out the tasters below.

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Greenwich Peninsula’s recently opened NOW Gallery is hosting Phoebe English’s first exhibition, merging the worlds of fashion and art once again. Showcasing English’s creative process – with an in depth look at her sketches, notebooks and pieces – Polly Brown was inspired by her experimental designs. Phoebe English has risen to fame rapidly since her graduation in 2011, is illustrated through an expansive archive of powerful imagery, reference points and drawings.

Set within the modern, sleek space of the NOW Gallery, English and her creative team created a gothic tactile introspective. Brown shot the experience on film, providing images for English’ debut book Floating | Falling | Drowning | Flying, which also includes an exclusive behind the scenes look at the NOW commissioned installation – a draped bead-constructed centre piece. Brown’s beautiful low-key images epitomise the details and process of a celebrated British talent with polaroid charm.

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Get ready, adidas addicts, and we know there’s a lot of you out there, your sportswear brand is moving on up to a chicer place. The new Harvey Nichols space will be the pride and place of exclusive adidas designs and the creme de la creme of adidas collections, including adidas by Raf Simons, adidas x Juun. J, adidas by Rick Owens and adidas Originals = Pharrell Williams.

The huge 500sq foot space is a visualisation of the strength to strength leaps that adidas have taken in the recent years complete with a gallery of Y-3 campaigns covering the walls. Inspired by their infamous sportswear street style aesthetic, adidas’s creative team has amalgamated jock lockers and steel panels with the lavish luxury touches of Harvey Nichols in glossy white shelves and sleek design. This collaborative space will be the hub of action for the year to come from adidas, launching special collaboration projects and the most fashion forward sportswear adidas produces.

Words: Elli Weir

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