Danish fashion brand Rützou has just announced the launch of their publication ‘The Chronicle’ – a new visual-oriented biannual magazine.

The magazine is designed in a way where it’s easy for the reader to tear out the pages and bring them into their own moodboards, to pin favourite images up on a wall, re-paint them or use them to write a letter to someone special. The hope by this design is to make it a humble contribution from Rützou to other creative people by presenting what The Chronicle find interesting within art, photography, people and places.

The first issue includes memories of artist Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), ‘From Fauna to Flora’ by American photographer Arthur Meehan and 12 pages with inspirational snap shots.

The Chronicle no. 1 / Poetic Realism – 10€

Maman by Louise Bourgeois

This Monday, a new book, “The Men + Women of Marc Jacobs,” makes its debut. It’s a photo essay of more than 150 employees, photographed by Brian Bowen Smith, the photographer behind the firm’s celebrities-in-the-buff charity shots from 2006.

“The Men + Women of Marc Jacobs” has its origins in a series of snapshots Brian Bowen Smith started taking three-and-a-half years ago. At the time, he was traveling with the Marc Jacobs crew to store openings and business trips; at each stop, whether Milan or Moscow, Smith would take photographs of the staff — just because.

“We never really planned anything,” he explains. “An employee would run out with me for 15 minutes and do one of those shots. It was very spontaneous.”

When Smith and Robert Duffy (Marc Jacobs business partner) eventually decided to produce the book, the formula stayed the same. “No assistants, just the kids and me and my little Leica. We’d go and bang the shots out,” says Smith, adding, however that “after people knew what I was doing, the word spread. They were ready for me if I came into town.”

I have yet to find out where to actually buy this book – I’ll keep you posted.

Going to fashion exhibitions and shows is more than a fulltime job – that’s why the fashion departments in the respective fashion media split up to cover as much as possible – but still it’s impossible to reach it all.

I’ve just spend a weekend in Stockholm to, among others, view the Annie Leibovitz and Vee Speers exhibitions and I’ve hardly arrived Copenhagen, turned on the computer before new and exiting exhibitions lies ahead – this time in New York!

From 17 September The Museum at FIT exhibits Japan Fashion Now – an exhibition looking at how the Japanese ‘fashion revolution’ of the dramatically 1980 transformed the world of fashion. We all know Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto and the ‘grand’ Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons – but who are the new Japanese fashion designers? And how has Japanese fashion evolved since the 1980s? What is the role of Japanese youth fashion? Etc.

The focus on Japanese fashion will be further manifest itself with the publication of the book Japan Fashion Now on 8 November 2010 with essays by among others Chief curator and director of The Museum at FIT Valerie Steele.

For more info:

Museum at FIT

Japan Fashion Now

Louis Vuitton Christmas decoration 2009

Although summer is hopefully not quit over yet (4 more days before it’s officially autumn) Christmas preparations have already begun.

I’m a sucker for Christmas (you might remember the photos I posted last December of various Christmas windows in London) and I cannot wait to stroll through streets of Christmas lights and lavish and creative window displays.

This year Louis Vuitton has already announced that their Christmas windows will have an Indian flavor. Starting Nov. 5, displays will pay tribute to Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, an ancient and joyous occasion to light oil lamps, wear new clothes and distribute sweets.

Vuitton has teamed with Indian artist Rajeev Sethi to conceive the windows, which will feature hand-painted paper trunks glowing from within.

Look forward to December where I again will show some of the most beautiful Christmas decorations and window displays - which will most definitely also entail Louis Vuitton’s Indian light fairytale.

Light installation by Rajeev Sethi

Summer! – time to absolutely forget about fashion, autumn’s trends (well, not quit – but it’s ok to keep it in the back of your head for your two to three weeks vacation) and just relax, enjoy the sun and read! Most of you almost certainly read more than one book over the summer.

It’s healthy (I think!) to get away from the whole fashion buzz once in a while – and as much as I dislike soft sex-and-the-city-wannabe / I-love-fashion books, just as much do I love books, which looks at fashion with either very analytical or humoristic and sarcastic eyes – and of course a books in beach-friendly sizes (coffee table books are for crawling up on the couch autumn and winter).

Here are three of my favourite fashion and anti-fashion books:

Like I give frock  – fashion forecast and meaningless misguidance

This book doesn’t need much of an intro – let me just quote one page:

“Eyes up – You can say what you like about fashion – it’s frivolous, indulgent, fun – but it can also be downright evil. Take the playsuit for instance. Is the distance from shoulders to possum standard across all women? I think not. One girl’s comfort zone is another’s camel toe. So when faced with a friend in a changing room asking if the playsuit splitting a most valuable asset apart, keep your eyes up, take a deep breath and blame the designer.”

“Fact: A camel’s hump is full of fat and will shrink if the camel doesn’t eat. The same does not apply to the camel toe.”

…need I say more?

Fashion-ology. An introduction to Fashion Studies.

This book was an eye-opener for me. It takes fashion to a serious level, where history, communication, myths, structures etc. are discussed and explained in an easy-to-understand voice. You can both read it start t end or use it as an encyclopaedia for specific questions. A must have, must read book for those of you who want to argue your fashion interest.

Chanel – en kvinde I eget design / Coco Chanel – a biography

I’ve read, not all, but many many books about Coco Chanel – and this is by far the best. It’s written by the Danish author: Axel Madsen and is straight to the point and tells the raw, honest story abut this great designer and personality. This gives you the whole picture of Chanel – her life from birth to death.

Whatever you chose for your summer reading – enjoy!

Ridley Scott directing

One is behind films such as Blade Runner, Alien and Thelma & Louise, the other has created The Last King of Scotland.

Now Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald get together to make a film based solely on Youtube clips and invites everyone to record small movies from their everyday life and upload on Youtube.

The two men will then cut it all together and make a feature film with the title (so far) “Life in a Day”.

- Our ambition is to show the possibilities of user-generated films. We are looking for genuine treasures, real magic, says Kevin Macdonald to BBC.

If you are lucky enough to be chosen you will be credited as co-instructor on the film. Kevin Macdonald is responsible for the actual instruction, while the triple Oscar-nominee Ridley Scott produces “Life in a Day”.

Both innovative and courageous!

Ridley Scott on Life In A Day

Are the precise words written at the Maison Martin Margiela – the weird, innovative, one-of-a-kind, provocative and conceptual brand (derived from the name of a Belgian stylist – exhibition in London’s Somerset House.

Liking it or not and understand it or not – either or one has to recognise the brands ability to turn things upside down, be unique and fore frontal and last but not least create distinctive tailored conceptual clothing.

The first thing that hit me when I went to this exhibition was all the stylish and cool Japanese visitors – but of course they, with their unique taste and courageous style, would love a designer brand like this.

The things that stand out the most at the exhibition are the continuous reworked classics (trench, white shirt, tux and jeans), the trompe l’oil features, the creative invitations (made on chocolate bars, cigarette paper, as a newspaper ad etc.) and the ability to transform and innovate yet still be true to the brands DNA – definitely worth a visit!

Did you know that Maison Martin Margiela:

• communicate exclusively in the first person plural “we”, in order to focus attention on teamwork (16 nationalities) and to respect the creator’s wish for anonymity.
• have 11 stores in 8 countries
• ‘s employees wear white cats as a ‘uniform’ when serving the public
• ‘s main collection uses a plain white label with no writing, sewn into the garments with four white stitches. The other collections, of which there 12, are identified by a circled number on the label

See more on www.somersethouse.org.uk/margiela

Maison Martin Margiela's staff

When social responsibilities go hand in hand with fashion – it’s simply double jackpot. However, one thing is to know the eco friendly / organic / fair trade shops and events in the city you live in, another is to find them when traveling.

VERY magazine (launched in 1997) has launched VERY Ecological City Guides and VERY Ecological cities stylemap – guides that represent the cities through the eyes of who’s hip and knowing in fashion, music and art. With the launch of VERY ECOLOGICAL CITIES, each guide proposes ecological/sustainable/ethical options in our daily life. Current editions: LONDON, NEW YORK, PARIS, BERLIN; special edition: RIO DE JANEIRO, up-coming: MILAN and rumors says COPENHAGEN!

VERY FASHION guides are the essential pocket book for the eco-conscious fashion business-international traveler.

For more info: www.very-eco.com

Organic Rose Bakery @ Dover Street Market, London.