The edition ‘Symposium 2: Seam & Star – Male Elegance’ compiles the proceedings of the symposium of the same name held on November 29th 2008 at the MoMu Fashion Museum Antwerp. The booklet gives an overview of 5 different observations on male elegance, with contributions by Dirk Lauwaert, Louise Wallenberg, Christopher Breward, Stella Bruzzi, Patrizia Calefato, Paola Colaiacomo, Erik De Kuyper, José Teunissen and Dr. Tamar Jeffers McDonald.

“Film costumes show us attire that is worn, in which someone moves about, with which a story is told and feelings are experienced. At the same time, this wearing, this movement, this narrating and experiencing discloses the potential dormant in any ensemble. The film costume endows the actor with emotions, while the actor confers emotions to the costume. As a rule, emotions in film are concerned with love, and as a rule they take place between men and women. As a rule, the woman is attractive to the male: she is coveted and the actress and director do everything in their power to kindle and preserve male desire. Amongst other things, clothes play an important role in this dynamic. So far, so good. Of course, there is a different side to the story: the woman who wants to be desired also desires for her part. How does the costume designer dress the desirable man? Elegantly or rough, refined or direct? In short, which vestimentary instruments does the costume designer equip the actor with? This is what is at stake in the following essays.” (Dirk Lauwaert)

‘Symposium 2: Seam & Star – Male Elegance’ will be sold for €20,00 via Copyright Bookshop

In our third and last ‘Making of” video reports we show excerpts from the presentation of the chocolates that were developped by Dominique Persoone in collaboration with Stephen Jones.

For the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin, MoMu, the Fashion Museum in Antwerp and Mercedes-Benz, invited Belgian art director Frederik Heyman and 4 fashion designers with exceptional signatures and outspoke styles – Bernhard Willhelm, Peter Pilotto, Henrik Vibskov and Mikio Sakabe – to create 4 installations.

At the heart of each installation stands a Mercedes Benz Young Classics. From these cars from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, 4 cars were selected that today have an undisputed cult status: W115, S123, R107 and C126. Not only the intrinsic qualities of the cars themselves, but also the widely diverse people happy to be amongst their proud owners have shaped how we think about these vehicles. Today our memories of these cars merge with our continually changing perception of luxury, craftsmanship, and functionality, and form exquisite material for fashion designers. Fashion only exists by the grace of our perpetual reinvention of the past, our rethinking of bygone style and fashion trends and our translation of these for the women and men of today. In their designs, we asked the designers to reflect on how the Young Classics can still inspire us today and to interpret the widely varying connotations associated with these cars into a contemporary context.

For each Young Classics, photographer and artist Frederik Heyman created a unique decor and used it only once in a photographic illustration. The design of tableaux and their photographic reproduction are central to Heyman’s oeuvre. Humour and a surrealist visual vocabulary are an intrinsic part of his artistic signature. His decors are built completely by hand, in collaboration with a team of sculptors and artists. In the final results, the handcraft, the construction and consequently also quality craftsmanship are always clearly traceable. Fashion designers Bernhard Willhelm, Peter Pilotto, Henrik Vibskov and Mikio Sakabe have added their own visions to the installations with each 3 new looks.

Look out for the preview videos of Recollection Quartett, which we will post on the blog in the next few days!

Recollection Quartett
19/01/2011 – 23/01/2011, 12AM until 8PM
(Friday 21/01 until 5PM)
Bühnenservice – Stiftung Oper in Berlin
Zinnowitzer Straße, Ecke Nordbahnhof, 10115 Berlin
Free entrance
http://www.recollection-quartett.com

This morning MoMu welcomed the 30.000th visitor of the exhibition ‘Stephen Jones & The Accent of Fashion’ since its launch on February 8th 2010. The lucky visitor was Donald Jacquemin, 29, from Tienen. He received a copy of the exhibition catalogue, chocolates by Dominique Persoone and free tickets to our exhibitions in 2011 from Deputy for Culture Ludo Helsen and our director Kaat Debo.

“I am a teacher at the St. Pieterscollege in Leuven and came to Antwerp to do some shopping. I heard about the exhibition and wanted to check if it would be interesting for a school visit.”

Kaat Debo, Donald Jacquemin and Ludo Helsen © Photography: Sven Goewie

The exhibition ‘Stephen Jones & The Accent of Fashion’, is also a celebration of the friendship and countless collaborations between Stephen Jones and the designer John Galliano.

Stephen Jones and John Galliano first met at London’s Blitz club in the 1980s. That was when Jones hung out with Boy George and the band Spandau Ballet. Galliano claims that the snazzily-dressed ‘mad hatter’ declined to make hats for the new graduate from Saint Martin’s School of Art and Design. “He looks at me and said: “I don’t think so, dear!”” recalls Galliano, who has now been working with Jones for nearly 20 years.

This mutual collaboration started with John Galliano and continued at Givenchy, after Bernard Arnault, chairman of luxury group LVMH, made the designer creative director of the Paris house. One legacy of that contribution was the pink heart-shaped hat that Madonna wore to the world premiere of Evita in 1996. When Galliano moved to Christian Dior the artistic collaboration continued.

“I often work through a mirror for most of my decisions and I always see Stephen’s reflection,” says Galliano. “He is reading my every nuance. He is studying my face. I don’t need to say anything – he can read my mind. We are definitely on the same page at the same time – before anyone opens his mouth,” he continues. “At that point there is not much talking. It’s a magical moment. It’s eye contact. We’re like a silent movie.”

John Galliano also wrote the introduction to the exhibition’s catalogue. You can read his text below.

It is my pleasure to introduce you to this exhibition of Stephen Jones’s work, collaborations and fashion friendships.

I have always been a great millinery aficionado, always loved hats and always admired those who create them.

Stephen Jones has worked with me at John Galliano, Givenchy and now Christian Dior for nearly 20 years. We both possess a passion for Millinery and his expertise interprets some of our wildest dreams. Each season I travel to new worlds and explore new ideas, and those ideas need hats. Once the design process begins I explain the concept and story behind the collection to Stephen then watch as he develops new shapes and toiles. He understands my style and shares a similar aesthetic; our reference points stem from English backgrounds and a love of history. Ideas bounce to and from between London and Paris until we have the perfect crown to complete the form we are innovating.

This exhibition is subtitled “The Accent of Fashion”, an apt description for the function that millinery performs so well. From fascinators to fascinating, hats need to catch your eye just as much as they need to serve a purpose and complete the outfit you are wearing. Over the years, Stephen and I have created an astonishing range of hats and developed a creative shorthand, and friendship, that is built on trust and mutual admiration. The complement between fashion and accessory is seen time and time again in my collections on the runway. Hats are as important as a great shoe or bag, and for each collection the partnership between elements must be fresh, new and always relevant to the spirit I am creating. I don’t want any hat – I want the right hat. In fittings our creative conservation explores all the options until we select the winning style. Stephen never gives up. He knows how to create a Galliano hat or a Dior hat and make it the perfect hat – that is what is important and sets him apart.

A hat can be a veil or an alibi, a head turner or a friend. It can give clues, or, like this foreword, serve as the introduction to all the wonder that lies within.

Enjoy!

John Galliano

Photo© Lesley Robeson; Georgina Stojilkovic models Stephen Jones’s cellophane veil for Christian Dior Haute Couture, A/W 2010-11

On Thursday evening 23/12 MoMu will organise a nocturnal evening on the occasion of Studio Brussel’s charity action for the Red Cross. From 6PM until 10PM MoMu invites everybody to visit the exhibition ‘Stephen Jones & The Accent of Fashion’ and enjoy a glühwein in the entrance hall. All proceeds of this evening will be donated to Music For Life. This year they are collecting funds in an effort to help AIDS orphans in Africa.

MoMu Nocturne For Life
Thursday 23/12 – 6PM until 10PM
with the support of Securitas

In addition to his own collections and collaborations with fashion designers over the last 30 years, Jones has completed countless assignments for film and music. Each of these mediums results in a very different collaboration depending on the effect the hats need to achieve.

Jones finds that designing hats for film, such as Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Atonement and Coco avant Chanel is a completely distinct process in comparison to his work in fashion. “Making hats for a film is all about detail. If you make a hat for a fashion show, people would see it from 20 metres away. As opposed to a film, it is the reverse. If Marlon Brando wears a leather jacket all the way through a film, the design of that jacket is absolutely crucial. Everything depends on it.”

For costume dramas, Jones never simply creates replicas if historical hats; directors approach him because they want his unique and unusual signature. “The costume can be period-accurate but the hat can be a little different to give it a bit of more modernity or freshness, or to add a little more of the character of the person who is wearing it.”

The list of musicians and pop stars who have called on the talents of Stephen Jones in recent years is downright impressive: Boy George, David Bowie, George Michael, Mick Jagger, Simon Le Bon, Rihanna, Madonna, Pink, Christina Aquilera, Kylie Minogue, … “For a pop star, a hat can be really fantastic because it immediately gives you a specific look.”

““Stephen understands how tiny details make the difference between a cute hat and a legendary hat. His chapeaux go far beyond the chic and in fact, become the reference for all others. His work manages to reinvent and redefine, rather than merely carry on the tradition of hat making. There’s something special that the masters of millinery from the golden age of hat-wearing knew, and Stephen has that rare talent that sets him apart from any other living hat designer. His joy in his work is visible in each creation””, says Dita Von Teese.

A special hat calls for a special packaging. The hats by renowned British milliner Stephen Jones are presented on striking hexagonal boxes produced and delivered by the Flemish firm Europal Packaging.

For the retrospective exhibition, Stephen Jones & The Accent of Fashion, at MoMu, a new dimension was added to the packaging concept by using it as the basis for the exhibition design. Europal Packaging extrapolated the hexagonal hatboxes into a fascinating exhibition design which represents a perfect translation of the packaging concept in term of space and environment. A special and striking setting within which the millinery masterpieces come into their own even more fully.

Europal Packaging is a division of Europal Group, which produces and sells cardboard packaging for transportation and other purposes. Its product portfolio is a swatch of packaging applications in corrugated cardboard and honeycomb cardboard, as well as a production line of corner profiles in compact cardboard. The sheet plant and R&D department have a total built-up area of 22,000 m2 and a processing capacity of 30,000 tons of paper.

Photo:Stephen Jones & The Accent of Fashion © Frederik Vercruysse