is a platform for young photographers. current exhibition

´a specter from the land of if ´ just opened last week at the gallery of the antwerp  foto-museum.

in fact the show is less than half of the project. to understand the apparant randomly presented

works, you should have a look at the catalogue where each photographer presents a selection

of pictures from the huge archive of the  museum. Those images mark the startingpoint for

each of the contributers search of  a new subject.

mhh magic michèle matyns series of poster- sized polaroids:

funny, very him and a selfportret in disguise the work of frederik heyman:

contributing also:  sarah gerats, fien muller,  sarah van marcke, simon vansnick.

jan- jan van essche is doing it his way.

graduated 2003 in the antwerp royal academy  with fourfold award winning final year collection,

jan- jan launched his first collection yukkuri two weeks ago at  ateliersolarshop.

yukkuri, japanese for slowly, or taking it easy  is the common denominator for a contemporary , urban collection with

folkloristic influences.

good materials, embroidery, waving and braiding technics in sober shades of grey with a dash of light-blue denim

make this a laid back and  wearable  mens collection. for us it could perfectly work as a unisex collection.

below the designer himself in some of our favourites.

the collection is available off the shelf  and numbered and produced in small quantities.

tomorrow is the finissage in antwerp. in september the pop-up-solarshop will be open again

with jan-jan s collection, hui-hui and various other designers.

photographs: lookbook and banner  by Piëtro Celestina.

photographs of jan-jan by johanna hui

we do confess, we read her…

the gala, or better: we look at the pictures. its  not the vogue but we are

as happy as if -since in this issue its hui-hui scarfs in the fashion editorial.

allways a little nostalgic to see the show of the royal antwerp academy.

and impressive and inspiring.

failed to take sharp pictures, so this is a blurry impression on what you should defintely have a look at:

the work of all these talented people.

antwerp academy students elena minyeyevtseva,yuta yajima and erika mizuno still busy  for the

fashionshow which starts tomorrow.

first year students yuta and erika will show three silouets, a skirt made from calico,

a dress from popelin and a piece  based on an

experimental material.

second year student elena will show her astonishing

collection about  moskow s metro kids.

yesterday johanna was helping out erika mizuno , antwerp academy student, first year.

just before the show next week, the students have to present their pieces in front of the teachers jury.

great silouets and sensitive textile approach.

above: putting on the experimental piece.

peeping out of the bag is the skirt johanna wore for erika, more about that later.

two of her pieces and a nervous erika , just before going up to the jury.

of ria paquée.

last week we went to see her beautiful installation at exhibition-space LLS387, lange leemstraat 387,antwerp.

mainly photowork but also film and 3D which form a well composed overview of

the artists recent work.

it seems to be all about colours but captured in daily life scenes in amongst others: india, france and  belgium,

telling also a lot about the impact of clothing for the vision of a  community.

it reminded us on one of our favourite books of inspiration:

(un)fashion, by tibor and maira kalman.

it is a little magic, depending on what project you are busy with,

you keep finding images you seem to haven´t seen before.

in about one month the royal antwerp academy  students will show their work

during the three days fashionshow in a huge hanger at the  river schelde.

up from this week we will visit three of the students in their ateliers to get a glimpse on the daily life at the academy

from the first till the fourth year.

while we were doing the stocksale at designcenter de winkelhaak it was

snowing cherryblossoms in the garden.

hui-hui sale was fun. we met many people back from the academy.

raul egloff from fashion slave, helena lumelsky who presented her beautiful  black edition,

andrea kränzlin with her own collection, lenny leleu with badingsuits and jewellery, hanne and tikuta tiplushann with

their jersey collection and  many more.

thanks for everybody who passed by. and who didnt can still pass by at the homesale

in antwerp.

served by  eva balg with her label kid vanilla!

originally from germany eva studied in the antwerp royal academy.

she still lives there  with a view on the giraffes of the antwerp  zoo.

we did a mini interview with her:

*where does the name of your label comes from?

friends sprayed it on a car once, i just stole it…

*favorite icecream flavour:

pistache and chocolate

*can you give us a hint about the new collection?

it will be a collaboration with apetown and a part of the profit will go to the orang-oetan- foundation

*your song/ sound of the moment?

rude boy by rihanna

this looks like a tasty coupe, its the recent collection.

the designer  eva in front of her  painting collection.

our favourite sexy-tee and kid vanilla assistant sylvia. strawberry  gummis and print mix.

kid vanilla will  take part with the stocksales.

a homesale on the 22nd and  24th and 25th of april at the  fashionfarm.

we just discovered this cute  and eco- educative

shortfilms of isabella rosselini! great costumes and props, a little wes anderson/ spike jonze / bissy bunder like.

love it.