KATE MOSS DOES HER FIRST MEN’S COVER IN 17 YEARS

Lucky Esquire. They’ve convinced Kate Moss to do her first ever men’s magazine cover in 17 years (the last one was for the now-defunct Arena) – and they’ve even convinced her to do it naked! Well, partially naked. A glittery bejewelled bodysuit by Marios Schwab is the only thing protecting her modesty. Well, that’s one way to get vajazzled, we guess? [HuffPo]

DOES PLUS SIZE SELL BETTER?

It’s an old adage in fashion that skinny sells – but it turns out that plus size might just sell better. Nika Mavrody spoke to online retailer Modcloth, who revealed that the average plus size customer spends 25% more than their thinner counterparts and that it’s selling more plus size clothing as a result. Meanwhile, H&M (above) has scored a viral hit by including a plus-sized model in its regular swimwear campaign. Of course, this might only apply to more commercial retailers and labels – but it’s an encouraging sign that consumer demand is capable of encouraging size diversity. [The Fashion Spot]

SOCKS AND SANDALS – THE BIGGEST FASHION FAUX PAS AROUND

Sure, they were everywhere on the SS13 catwalks, from Vuitton to Kenzo (above), but a survey by Debenhams revealed that many regard socks and sandals as the ultimate style mistake. According to a Debenhams spokesperson, “It might look chic on a catwalk but this isn’t a look that many of us want to see on our local high streets.” But honey, what if the local high street is your catwalk? [Telegraph]

WHAT’S THAT JINGLE IN THE AIR? OH, IT’S HENRY HOLLAND, ICE CREAM VAN MAN

Food trucks? So over. The newest pop-up du jour is the mobile boutique. Henry Holland is taking his high summer collection on tour in a converted ice cream van called Mr Quiffy’s – and if you’re lucky, you might get to meet Holland. The designer’s stipulated that every member of his team, himself included, has to work a day in the van. Look out for Mr Quiffy’s in London and Manchester. [BoF]

JIMMY CHOO, WHO? TAMARA MELLON LAUNCHES NAMESAKE LINE

The ex-Jimmy Choo CEO knows what works in business – which is why we think Tamara Mellon, her debut label, might just be one of fashion’s success stories this year. If the collection preview, is anything to go by, the line will be an enticingly luxurious take on the glam-meets-sexy toughness that Mellon pulls off so well. Plus she has a unique “buy now, wear now” business proposition, which means the autumn/winter offering will go on sale when it’s actually cold and not in the height of summer. Sounds good to us. [Vogue, FT]

This post is brought to you by vintage Kate Moss walking:

Words: Zing Tsjeng (Follow Zing on Twitter @misszing)

The post Kate Moss Goes Sheer appeared first on Wonderland.

What unites Naomi Campbell, Run DMC, Noel Gallagher and Jade Jagger? Trainers. More specifically, adidas trainers. Their collectables – along with 600 other pairs of vintage, deadstock and other rarities – are now on show at #Spezial, a pop-up exhibition at the Hoxton Gallery, curated by ardent adidas fan and brand consultant Gary Aspden.

Aspden and his team trawled the country, knocking on doors and requesting trainers from only the most passionate fans – all the while collecting an array of personal stories and experiences from sneaker freaks of every subculture who’ve partied through the ages with adidas on their feet. Aspden spoke to Wonderland about curating the show and the unlikeliest of trainer fans – Trent Reznor.

Could you describe your first ever pair of trainers?

They weren’t from any brand and were from a shoe shop in my home town of Darwen (Lancashire). My first pair of branded trainers were adidas Kick – my mum bught them for me in the late seventies from an independent sports shop called John Harrison sports. John Harrison was a retired, ex professional football player who had a sports shop (also in Darwen). He kind of looked like a member of a 10c.c. – like a roadie from a 70s soft rock band. They were all black leather (with a black suede toe piece) with three white stripes and came in that beautiful blue shoe box with brand slogans in German, French and English on the side.

What’s your favourite pair in this exhibition?

That’s like asking a music fan for their favourite album. I love the Y3 Hacienda crib shoes for sentimental reasons – they were my son’s and are the only pair in existence, and I attended the Hacienda regularly when I was living in Manchester in the late 80s.

I had the timeline of the project planned, but my wife went into labour 6 weeks early in another part of the country. I had to make a lot of calls and send lots of emails from the Labour Unit in Gloucester, and when I returned from paternity leave there were 2 tiny shoe boxes from the Y3 team – a pair of Hacienda crib shoes and a pair of Hacienda kids shoes.

Who’s been the unlikeliest trainer fan you’ve met so far?

Unlikely? Trent Reznor . . . I know a few years ago I discovered that he was secretly buying up trainers – he’d buy them online and have them delivered to his studio.

How many trainers do you own?

Well over 700 – I thought I had about 350 or so until we began collating them for the exhibition. I started keeping shoes that I liked or had worked on over the past 14 years and became a collector by default.

Why adidas, specifically?

I felt that the topic of trainers and the subcultures that surround them was just too broad of a subject for one exhibition to cover. I guess we wanted to take an angle on that subject from the perspective of one brand – the brand which for me has the greatest design back catalogue and greatest cultural significance. That brand for me is adidas.

We didn’t want to ask the company to borrow stuff from their archive as that would have felt like cheating. The exhibition content needed to reflect the passion that people have for adidas. All the other contributors – Robert Brooks, Noel Gallagher, Mike Chetcuti, like myself only really wear adidas.

So describe the process of curating the event.

The work began in February 2013 and took about five months. We contacted Gary Watson (graphic designer) and Lee Stanley (photographer) to tell them the idea – they are old friends of mine from my hometown. We drove around the north west gathering together my shoes from the various trusted friends’ houses where they were stored. We filled a garage with the shoes and set up a makeshift photographic studio next door – I then headed back to London and left them to shoot, inventory and box the collection for storage.

The great thing about the show is it unites lots of other sneaker collections, too.

We contacted other contributors to see if they were interested in being involved. Robert Brooks has some great vintage shoes and the Spezial project benefitted massively from his support. Next we approached Noel Gallagher. I knew for sure he had some good vintage adidas shoes tucked away. After a couple of weeks of waiting he eventually found some of them (it was the adidas contents from just one of his 6 storage units!) and sent them across. We took what we could get from him and hand carried them up north to get them shot. We also secured various odd pairs of shoes from others we knew like Barry Bown, the CEO of JD Sports.

Why do you think the popularity of trainers is still going strong?

I think that is quite a difficult question as there are so many different audiences that buy into trainers – from football fans to B-Boys to pop kids to fashionistas. They are comfortable though aren’t they?

#Spezial is on at the Hoxton Gallery till 27th July.

Words: Zing Tsjeng (Follow Zing on Twitter @misszing)

The post Sneaker freak fun at adidas’ #Spezial exhibition appeared first on Wonderland.

Right now, Riitta Ikonen and Karoline Hjorth are one of our favourite duos working in medium format photography. Taking their beat-up Mamiya camera to out-of-the-way locations (swamps, marshes – anything goes), they stage elaborate pictures of senior citizens decked out in seawood, driftwood and all manner of scavenged flotsam.

The resulting series, Eyes As Big As Plates, is a wry, tender attempt to transform people into gentle mythical figures from local folklore, and it makes for alternatively hilarious and touching moments. We spoke to them after their Recess in Red Hook exhibition in Brooklyn, New York.

You’ve said that the project is a play on Norwegian folklore – what’s so distinctive about Norwegian folk tales?

KR: The project started in Norway, looking at Norwegian folktales, their origins and personifications of nature. As we went round Sandnes interviewing people in their phenomenal native landscape, we did hear that the locals in our area were “very practical and didn’t have time to turn rocks and wonder what’s under”… Comments like these reshaped our quest slightly more towards imagination. Finland and the Finns we found to be even more rationalistic in their relationship with their all-surrounding lakes and woods.

How did you two meet?

R: I was searching around internet for a collaborator for a residency in Norway and typed in: ‘Norway + older people + photographer’. Karoline’s name came up at the top of the search results (she had just written a book about the grandmothers of Norway ). I liked what I saw, emailed her and asked if she would like to work with me in Sandnes. She said yes, and we met first time at the door step of the 20 square foot flat we were to live for the next month and a half. It was lucky we got along as well as we do.

Your subjects all wear oversized, elaborate headpieces – how do those get made?

KR: First comes the plan for the image, the location and the general idea for the character. Then location scouting, gathering materials, arranging and attaching.

How do you find your subjects?

KR: From sitting opposite to them at dumpling houses, indoor gardening societies, senior centers, previous projects, neighbours, relatives, friends…

You travel to bogs, swamps and remote woods for your photos. Why not just set up in a cosy studio?

KR: We seek these locations out on purpose. Sometimes a bog or an arboretum can be challenging but that is what makes it all interesting.

We find these pictures quite surreal but strangely touching – is that something you deliberately set out to do?

KR: Humans are both those things. Humans loaded with nature, and in nature is at least triple the blast. I guess we must have known the formidable elements we were experimenting with, but it all turned out way more charged than we could have imagined.

What was your favourite folk tale as a child?

Folktales get associated with children a lot. But telling tales surely isn’t reserved for children only. Just like modeling isn’t for when you are 17. We once got asked what we thought about working with two clichés; Nature and Old people. The question threw us completely. Old people aren’t any more cliched than pink plastic bits, middle-aged people or fluorescent lights.

Some people online have described the photos as being very funny – did you have a sense of humour in the work?

KR: Absolutely. The making of the work is fun and we are glad it shows.

For more of the series, head to the duo’s official site. http://eyesasbigasplates.wordpress.com/

Words: Zing Tsjeng (Follow Zing on Twitter @misszing)

The post The strange, surreal photography of Eyes As Big As Plates appeared first on Wonderland.

RIHANNA VS LIZ JONES: GODZILLA VS MOTHRA

It’s the bizarre showbiz feud we never knew we wanted: Rihanna, cannabis aficionado and sometime musician, versus Liz Jones, the ship that launched a thousand hand-wringing thinkpieces about the state of women’s journalism. Opening salvo: Jones brands RiRi “pop’s poisonous princess” in her Daily Mail column. Return fire: Rihanna takes to Instagram to accuse Jones of being a “sloppy menopausal mess”. Somewhere, Louise Mensch is taking notes. [Mail Online; Instagram]

JAMES FRANCO LOVES HIMSELF, ALSO GUCCI

The multi-hyphenate entertainer has been recruited by Gucci to launch Made To Measure, its new men’s fragrance. It’s the continuation of a beautiful love affair between Franco and the house: earlier this year, the actor made a documentary about Frida Giannini’s work entitled The Director. Mert & Marcus will shoot the campaign and Drive’s Nicholas Winding Refn is on directorial duties for the video. (We still kind of prefer Franco’s little brother, though.) [NY Daily News]

CARA DELEVINGNE, LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL

The Mulberry campaign star took to the drums to support make-up artist Charlotte Tilbury’s House of Rock & Kohl pop-up at Selfridges. Cara can sing, she can drum, she’s approximately 1/8th the accumulated age of the Rolling Stones and she’s probably statistically less likely to expire of a heart attack onstage – let’s just stick her on the Pyramid Stage instead, shall we? [charlottetilbury.com]

INDUSTRY INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK

Whatever happened to fashion critics, you ask? Well, Lynn Yaeger’s still going strong. The esteemed critic charts her rise to success from the Long Island town of Massapequa to the front row of Paris Fashion Week, and dishes out some solid advice to would-be fashion journalists: “Don’t lose sight of how most people live and become seduced by this dream world of money and fashion so that you lose all sense of reality.” Right on. [BoF]

MODEL KITCHEN DEMONSTRATION OF THE WEEK

Now that Well Dunn with Jourdan Dunn‘s over, Miranda Kerr steps up as the next supermodel to show off her kitchen skills. Well, in the broad sense of the word – she’s only making a smoothie. We like a healthy shake as much as the next girl, but a part of us wishes Dunn would bound in and chuck Kerr’s bowl of spirulina into a deep fryer. Also: since when is vegan rice a thing? [YouTube]

This post was brought to you by Rihanna dusting that Mail Online dirt off her shoulder:

Words: Zing Tsjeng (Follow Zing on Twitter @misszing)

The post Rihanna officially hates Liz Jones now appeared first on Wonderland.

THE ONE FOR A VISIT TO MOUNT OLYMPUS: DOLCE & GABBANA

It’s been a drama-filled week for Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, so one can forgive them for turning to the gods. Sicilian mythology provided the inspiration for their spring/summer offering, with postcard-ready images of Greco-Roman ruins streaked (sorry) liberally across suiting and outerwear. The pair are turning out to be quite the connoisseurs of iconography – although as the streaker in its final act proved, nothing quite attracts the eye as much as the naked form.

THE ONE FOR A DARK TROPICAL PARADISE: PRADA

Palm trees and sunset motifs: in the hands of a less talented designer, we might have been in for a Tiki Tiki cocktail time. But Miuccia Prada is made of sterner stuff. Out to question “the cliché of the exotic – and the cliché of summer”, she produced a darkly romantic collection that earned the name ‘Menacing Paradise’ with slouchy, silk blousons and loose tailoring. Pour yourself a cocktail and watch the napalm rain.

THE ONE FOR A MEMBER’S CLUB ON FIRE ISLAND: VERSACE

Donatella Versace has gone over all disciplinarian for her spring/summer offering, with an uber-masculine aesthetic that doesn’t worship athleticism so much as lick its strappy Medusa-studded sandals. But this being Donatella, there was a sense of fun, too, with go-faster fluoro stripes across clothes and cheeky flashes of briefs. After all, half the fun of going to gym is checking out what everyone else is wearing, right?

THE ONE FOR AN ICEBREAKER CRUISE: DIESEL BLACK GOLD

Diesel Black Gold went ice cold with crisp, bright whites, muted indigo blues and greys and occasional splashes of flowered jacquards and acid wash. Leather shorts cropped up again (boys, make talcum powder your best friend this season), paired with tuxedo jackets with complementary leather panels and jazzy wide leather boots.

THE ONE FOR A VESPA TOUR OF MILAN: ICEBERG

Federico Curradi kicked off his new position as Creative Director of Iceberg with this zippy vision of “life in the big metropolis”. Mixing and matching daytime and evening options – an abstract graphic knit for the day here, a tailored nylon parka for night there – Curradi proposed a versatile wardrobe for the man with a 24/7 iCal schedule. Get on your bikes, everyone.

THE ONE FOR A VISIT TO A DANISH DESIGN MUSEUM: JIL SANDER

New Wave graphics collided with the Jil Sander precision aesthetic to produce a uniform for the “accidental tourist”. Loose, baggy culottes – extra wide and almost easily mistaken for kilt-like skirts rubbed up against A-line coats and boxy jackets – a breezy update on the short suit . It wasn’t all austere minimalism, though. Day-glo oranges and a particularly searing shade of salmon pink interrupted the chilly expanse of white, with textured jacquards amping up the sophistication quotient.

Words: Zing Tsjeng (Follow Zing on Twitter @misszing)