From 7th of May onwards the city of New York and the world of fashion will be with the eyes wide open to follow the new exhibition of the Metropolitan Museum. Entitled “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations”, the show will trace parallels between the work of the two Italian female designers: Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973) and Miuccia Prada (1949).

Inspired by the title of the exhibition, The Gentleman website decided to publish here an opposite idea, the “possible” conversations, in reference to the dialogue between two other designers: the French Hedi Slimane (pictured above on the left side) and the Belgian Raf Simons (on the right). Slimane is returning to the maison Yves Saint Laurent, where he worked between 1997 and 2000, to assume total control of the creative direction. Simons is  the new creative designer of the womenswear and couture collections at Christian Dior. They will show the first results of their work on the upcoming seasons in July and October in Paris.

Actually the dialogue (or competition?) that might be established between those two names tend to be quite fruitful. Slimane and Simons have a lot in common. Both learned their craft in menswear: Hedi Slimane made the skinny jeans popular all around the world when he still was the creative director of Dior Homme and Raf Simons developed a new sense for masculinity, more young and fragile, in the collections for his eponymous label founded in 1995.

Simons actually was for quite a long time only known in the Parisian fashion scene and didn’t talk to the press for years. It was only when he took over the creative direction of the label Jil Sander in 2005 that his work and influence could be noticed. Nevertheless his first menswear collections are surprisingly current and wearable.

Those two talented names provoked together important changes in the wardrobe of the contemporary man: both were responsible for putting the slim silhouette in fashion (Raf Simons being sometimes credited for doing it much earlier than Slimane) and both accelerated the cross over between music, art and fashion in the digital age – as both have a huge interest in music and youth culture. The similarities even can be looked through their preference to cast non-professional models for their men’s shows (many of them adolescents from the streets of Berlin or Paris).

But the comparisons should stop here: Slimane and Simons might perhaps follow very different routes in their respective new roles while creating womenswear collections. After all each of them will have to revisit the legacy of two maisons that were historically always rivals: Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Dior.

Time will tell how the dialogue will look like… But on the meantime you can learn more about those two designers and their work here: we prepared a quiz for you to test your knowledge about the future kings of fashion.

Check it out below and click on the “Start” button!
(In case the quiz doesn’t load, please click here to answer it in a new page) 

Text, quiz test and collage: Hermano Silva

One of the things that distinguishes a man from a real man is the ability to open a beer bottle despite the lack of a bottle opener. On the Internet it’s possible to find more than 30 different ways of doing it, so not having an opener should never be used as an excuse really…

Two easy ways are:

1) To open a bottle with the help of another bottle

Just hold firmly the bottle you want to open with your strongest hand. Position your fingers around the neck. Position the other bottle and its cap close to the bone of your top finger. Then put pressure under the cap while moving the second bottle downwards. And voilà!

2) To open a bottle with a plastic lighter

Hold the neck of the bottle firmly. Make sure that your fingers leave a small space under the cap to accommodate the bottom of the lighter. Then position the lighter the same way as described above, close to the bone of your top finger. Put some pressure under the cap while moving the base of lighter upwards. This should make the cap pop off. In case you are not a smoker, you can still gently ask for a lighter to your friends who smoke. But only ask that to your friends, as the lighter’s surface may be slightly damaged.

Unsuspicious objects such as an i-Phone and even a well-folded sheet of paper could also do it. Just follow the same principle of putting the pressure between the cap and your finger bone.

Watch some examples of bottle opening tricks on our Facebook page:  facebook.com/thegentlemanblog

Read also: how to save money on your Opera ticket

Photo: Hermano Silva © Berlin 2012

Three Feet chair (1947), Joaquim Tenreiro

Rio chaise (1978-1979), Oscar Niemeyer and Anna Maria Niemeyer 

Astúrias rocking chair (2002), Carlos Motta

África chair (2006), Rodrigo Almeida 

Ipê bench (2009), Zanini de Zanine 

Berlin is hosting an important exhibition about Brazilian furniture design at Zeitlos gallery at Stilwerk center. With over 80 pieces, the exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of two different periods of Brazilian design: the modernist, from 1940s onwards, and the current, with contemporary designs.

“This is certainly the biggest exhibition of Brazilian furniture ever made in Europe”, claims the collector Raul Schmidt Felippe Jr., who owns great part of the pieces presented and who is also one of the curators of the show. “We have selected iconic pieces from a generation of designers and architects that were influenced by Bauhaus school during the 1940’s and, at the same time, we looked at the design of a younger and active generation that is giving shape to what is produced nowadays”, explained him to The Gentleman website.

The visitors will have the opportunity to see well-known pieces such as the Three Feet Chair by Joaquim Tenreiro, Poltrona Mole by Sergio Rodrigues and Rio Chaise developed by the architect Oscar Niemeyer together with his daughter Anna Maria. This not to mention the vivid and colourful work of the contemporaries Campana Brothers, Sergio Matos, Carlos Motta, studio Ovo, Domingos Tótora, Zanini de Zanine and others.

But what defines the Brazilian Design? The design critic and author Maria Helena Estrada answers the crucial question in the introductory text of the show’s catalogue: “In truth we don’t have a single formal identity, or even a single direction to point towards. We also don’t have traditions or historical background that can prevent us from creating something new. It is possible that freedom, lightness and spontaneity are what define us”.

More information at the “Brazilian Design” exhibition’s website.

Credits of images: Andre Nazareth for Mercado Moderno; Rômulo Fialdini; Marcos Cimardi and courtesy Zanini de Zanine.

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It takes a long period of time for a new idea to be accepted and assimilated in men’s fashion. Currently it’s all about the scarves: a classic that was forgotten. Well, not anymore.

When using a neckerchief remember that the rules are more or less the same as for the pocket squares: it doesn’t necessarily need to match to anything else you are wearing. Still it doesn’t mean that the combination of the scarf with the rest of your outfit is something simple.

The successful combination is a science by itself. It will depend a lot on personal style and intuition. Let’s say  that to look good, a scarf has to look charming and discreet. It also helps to do some tests in front of the mirror before leaving the house.

Be sure to follow our Facebook page: we published some examples of how to use the scarf like a gentleman.  facebook.com/thegentlemanblog

Text and photo: Hermano Silva © Berlin 2012
Model: Fernando Guallar (M4 Models)
Credits for the clothes: Striped shirt Daniel Kroh and vintage silk scarf.

The first time I had contact with the work of Brazilian artist Alex Flemming, 58, was like many other millions citizens of São Paulo city: when visiting the subway station Sumaré. Flemming developed a public artwork especially for the station in 1998.  It comprehends a group of paintings on glass plates that also serve as windows of the station. Each mural/vitral features a portrait of anonymous people that are superimposed with passages from books by Brazilian authors. I was completely fascinated by the explosion of colours, words and poetry.

In fact it is since the 1970s that Flemming has been delighting Brazil and the world. His work is often marked by the visual representation of the human body, the use of letters and the presence of autobiographical themes. All of that expressed in the form of painting, printmaking, installation or even videos.

In the 1980s he decided to live in Berlin on the East side, but couldn’t go along with the socialist regime of German Democratic Republic. It was only in 1991, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, that he returned to the city and since then he lives between Brazil and Germany.

The year 2012 will also have a particular fondness for Flemming. He is getting out of a three years period of semi-reclusiveness that he spent creating a new series of paintings. Now he starts showing the result in exhibitions in Europe, the first one at Brasilea Foundation in Basel, Switzerland, at the end of March. There will also be a new book published in Brazil this semester focusing on his photographic work.

Recently I had the opportunity to visit Flemming’s studio in the district of Prenzlauer Berg in Berlin and, in between some cups of coffee, he gave The Gentleman website firsthand access to the new series of paintings, entitled “Chaos Series”. The first part of our conversation is posted below. The full interview will be available in May, when The Gentleman website will celebrate its three-year anniversary with a surprise. Wait and see!

Berlin: how did you end up living here?

I already had lived here during the 1980s. I returned to Brazil and then went back to Berlin again in 1991. Berlin I know from my grandmother’s stories: she had German ancestry. What has always fascinated me about the city was its schizophrenia. When I visited the city for the first time it was divided by the Wall, so everything here was divided and at the same time duplicated. Since there was a zoo in West Berlin, the other side also created its own zoo. Since the two operas were based in East Berlin, the West side had to build an opera as well. It was like that with everything. This is a very deep kind of schizophrenia and also a very German one, historically and ideologically based, but in a sense I like this very much. Here ideology is taken serious. It’s not like in Brazil where you say one thing and then immediately it’s forgotten. Brazil is an eternal Carnival. Today we see less of this schizophrenia in Berlin, but it is a city marked by the scars.

How does the art produced in Berlin reflect this German Ideology?

There is no doubt about this connection. When talking about art here no one is playing around. Unfortunately in Brazil I feel that people are playing: both, artists (or pseudo-artists) as the art market and the pseudo-art-market. There is very little content and too much marketing in Brazil. In Germany such a thing doesn’t exist.

And what about São Paulo? What is this city for you?

I wouldn’t say it is schizophrenic but São Paulo is a chaos. São Paulo is the city I love par excellence, it’s the city where I was born. São Paulo is the future; it’s the entropy of the world already nowadays. São Paulo is what Europe will be in the 22^nd century: total modernity together with very large misery. The results are conflicts, right angles and scissors – which obviously are not good things: angles are pointy and scissors are sharp… This is São Paulo and this will be the 22^nd century Europe.

“The Ophthalmologist”, one of the paintings from the “Chaos Series”

Tell us about your latest series, the paintings. How many did you do already?

Until now there are more than 40 paintings that I did in the last three years. I call them “Black Paintings”, or “Chaos Series”, and all of them are portraits of people I’ve met. For example: I portrayed the policemen from the Military Police of São Paulo; the sushi man who is actually the guy who works at the place I lunch almost every day; or the waiter, who I know from the place where I used to drink brandy almost every night. The mason: the portrait of the guy who made the reform of my apartment here in Berlin. The art collector: a friend of mine, and so on. I’m still working on this series and I am very pleased with the result.

Why did you give this name to the series of paintings: “Chaos Series”?

“Black Paintings” was the first name I’d given because I think people live their dignity despite the surrounding chaos. Since the people are represented all transparent and with no skin, it means that the series is also about death. We will all die and we’ll all be part of the chaos.

How many have you sold?

I didn’t show them anywhere yet, but already sold 8 paintings.

From the aesthetic point of view, is it possible to define “Brazilianness”?

Brazil is almost a continent by itself, a country that speaks its own language, has its own history and has another identity in comparison to other Latin American countries. So how this identity is reflected artistically? I could not tell. But I can say how it is not reflected. I do not identify myself with bananas for example. Brazil is too rich to have something that reduces it and defines it.

What is Brazilian in your art then?

For me it is very clear: the colours; the metallic, vibrant, loud colours… The opposite of ton sur ton. It’s the contrasts: this is Brazil to me. People come here and tell me, “Flemming you are really not a German painter”. This is indeed very clear, there are no doubts!

To know more about Flemming’s work: www.alexflemming.com

Interview and portraits: Hermano Silva © Berlin 2012  / Paintings: courtesy © Alex Flemming

After Milan, Paris, New York (as also other capitals like São Paulo and Berlin), the season of menswear fashion shows ended with London Fashion Week last Wednesday (22.02).

The Gentleman website had a look on the main trends for fall/winter 2012/2013 and presents here its first impressions. (Be sure to keep following us for more analysis which will come within the next months).

For now we propose a closer view at the three most important trends of the season in combination with our three favourite collections and their respective videos. Read (and watch) it below:

1. THE NEW SUIT

This time it’s not about a suit that resembles your fathers’ neither one that is a boring uniform. The suit is updated and has a contemporary version now: it’s closer to the body and the jacket is slightly shorter. The suit should preferably be combined with playful accessories – pins, buttons and colorful pocket squares.

This is a season that rescues the tailoring tradition in a wider sense, being the long coat and double-breasted blazer the main pieces after the suit (good examples came from Valentino, Prada and Burberry collections). Tailoring communicates security and stability and perhaps that’s why the models were more dressed up now than in the recent seasons.

The Italian label Bottega Veneta proposes perhaps the most intriguing version of this new suit. The designer Tomas Maier adds colored and shiny applications on slim suits, creating an almost tridimensional effect. The graphic lines gives the body a more vertical appeareance (who doesn’t want to look taller and thinner?). It’s definitely a collection that will please short men.

Below you can watch the Bottega Veneta show presented in Milan, January 2012.

2. THE KINKY LEATHER (or the Mapplethope mania)

The photographer Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) revolutionized the art world during the end of the 1970s and 1980s with his provocative photographs. His contact with the gay underground world of New York was central to define his aesthetics and also to define his own personality. He often photographed himself and his friends in leather fetish outfits. To understand better his personality we recommend you to read the book “Just Kids” from Patti Smith – which seems to influence many people from the creative industry now.

That said, it’s quite interesting to see how many interpretations the ‘Mapplethorpe look’ has this season. Black leather emerged as an important material. It is present in various ways - beyond the classic biker jacket. Everybody wants to take a glimpse of Mapplethorpe’s universe: from the more commercial brands like TopMan to the more intellectual designers like Raf Simons in his last men’s collection for Jil Sander. One tip: if you want to enhance the fetish look, you can wear a pair of leather gloves.

Perhaps the most successful collection in this style was the one from Stefano Pilati for Yves Saint Laurent (just recently confirmed as his farewell men’s collection for the maison). All the elements of fetishism are there but in a very chic way, with fine tailoring, being sometimes almost too powerful and mysterious to indulge yourself into it.

Below the YSL show with the voice of Mapplethorpe’s boyfriend Sam Wagstaff in the soundtrack. The collection was presented at Sorbonne University, Paris in January.

3. IT’S NOT ABOUT BEING FASHIONABLE: TO LOOK MASCULINE IS ENOUGH

The title of this topic is quite self-explanatory. But in case you didn’t notice: there was a switch few years ago that made all hipsters from stop looking like Justin Bieber to start looking like a rough lumberjack. That was when the designers embraced a look closer to working-class stereotypes and started to celebrate individuality.

This season the ideal man could be a sailor (Louis Vuitton, Lou Dalton, Mugler); a soldier (Dior Homme, Umit Benan) or a suburban (Givenchy, Christopher Shannon, Martine Rose). And even looking back, it’s remarkable what the Japanese designer Junya Watanabe did in his last collections. In the end it doesn’t matter anymore where these designers are looking for inspiration because the main message is: “as long as it looks masculine…“.

This season it was Lanvin who made all these complex layers of masculinity come together. The designers of the house, Alber Elbaz and Lucas Ossendrijver, achieved some roughness but in a gentlemanly way. With an amazing tailoring and very luxurious fabrics, a box fighter never looked so smart. The trousers are high waisted and a bit wider at the bottom; the jackets have inserts borrowed from motorcycle gear while the big shoulders convey strength. These clothes are dialoging with our times. This is a collection that will captivate women too, especially those ones that appreciate good manners as much as strong arms.

Below the Lanvin show presented in Paris in January.

Another video with the full Lanvin show can be found here.

Text and collage by Hermano Silva

Credits for images used in the collage: Dior Homme backstage and greeters at entrance of Yves Saint Laurent show (Kavin Tachman/NYT), shadows at Jil Sander backstage (Danilo Scapeti/NYT), catwalk images of Bottega Veneta (Yannis Vlamos/Style.com), Lanvin and YSL (Monica Feudi/Style.com).

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(Click on the images to enlarge)

Jacket by Hussein Chalayan for Puma Black Label, jeans trousers by Daniel Kroh/Reclothings and straw hat by Jack&Jones

Double faced jacket by Hussein Chalayan for Puma Black Label

Saharienne jacket and chino pants by Selected Homme, backpack by Mihara Yasuhiro for Puma Black Label and cap by Milch

Jacket by Mihara Yasuhiro for Puma Black Label, t-shirt by Hussein Chalayan for Puma Black Label and trousers by Daniel Kroh/Reclothings

Trench coat by Daniel Kroh/Reclothings, shirt Aluc and straw hat Jack&Jones

Jacket and t-shirt by Hussein Chalayan for Puma Black Label and trousers Daniel Kroh/Reclothings

Navy sweater by Selected Homme and straw hat by Jack&Jones

CREDITS:

Photos & styling: Hermano Silva © Berlin 2012

Model: Fernando Guallar (M4 Models)

Special thanks to: Bernd Jünger, Alex Mutter, Merlin Ambrogini, Reynaldo Paganelli, M4 Models, Ronja Bollack,  Zucker Kommunikation, Eva-Maria Scholz, Carina Bischof, On Time PR, Atilla Yoeruek and Christian Brach.

Brands’ websites:
Aluc
Daniel Kroh
Hussein Chalayan for Puma Black Label
Jack&Jones
Mihara Yasuhiro for Puma Black Label
Milch
Selected Homme

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Detail of raincoat of the Swedish company Stutterheim at Seek event in Berlin. Each piece is signed and numbered by the seamstress.

It is a fact that high-street brands took over the clothing business with the so called “fast fashion”. We’ve seen clothing companies produce and sell affordable interpretations of luxury brands within very short time periods following the launch of new ideas on the catwalks. Most of the items are cheaply produced in China, Taiwan and India and often are consumed as fast as burgers.

Fashion, which has always reflected the promise and uncertainty of the future, has been accelerating the temptation of the consumers by offering them new identities that alter at the speed of light. Indeed, the contemporary situation might express the fragmented moralities of cultural diversity and social uncertainty, as the author Rebecca Arnold pointed out in her book: “Fashion, Desire and Anxiety: Image and Morality in the Twentieth Century” (2001).

On the other hand, a whole group of people is reacting against fast consumption and questioning the ecological sustainability of this wheel*. Some consumers are starting to give more importance to Upcycling – which means to recycle, remix and improve old clothes. Some others are reacting with a classic: the craftsmanship. Handmade items are living a renaissance especially among young men.

Not many years or even seasons ago the handiwork of gifted tailors, shoemakers and hatters seemed to be less appreciated because their manual labour demands a different time frame and is not priced as competitively as mass-production brands. “Often, the work of an artisan is seen as manual labour, forgetting about its real meaning: the ability to invent, make an object”, explained the editor of “Vogue Italia”, Franca Sozzani, in an article about the term ‘artisan’ from 2010. She pointed out that in a virtual world where everything is the same, the artisan is a unique figure, different and exclusive; he is “someone who creates something that no one has”.

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The printing technician Lars in action at Martin Schröder Drucker workshop inside Bread & Butter fair in Berlin.

Lars prepares metal plate before printing one business card.

Several craftsmen showed how they execute their work. The area also promoted a new German publication totally dedicated to authentic items, The Heritage Post.

The owner of the brand Stutterheim from Sweden, Alexander Stutterheim, shares the same point of view as the editor Franca Sozzani. His company is a small-scale brand based in Sweden that is specialized in raincoats. During the last Berlin Fashion Week he brought his brand to the city to show his pieces at the Seek showroom after being spotted by the organizer Oliver Saunders. Stutterheim’s company has only four seamstresses: Lena, Birgitta, Evy  and Ingrid. Each piece they produce is numbered and signed by them.

“We noticed that our client is concerned about how clothes are produced. Once they know that there was a person behind that product it becomes much more human and interesting for them”, explains Alexander. “The reaction has been very positive so far: in a rainy day in Stockholm people might approach each other to talk about the coats they are wearing and end up checking their number or who produced them”.

Although the craftsmanship appeal always existed, it was for a long time forgotten. Even luxury brands had to go back to their archives to rescue their history and tradition from the oblivion. Now they are all trying to tell about this tradition in a new way (actually any brand who has handmade items in its DNA). From a marketing perspective there was not a lot they could do to compete with Zara and H&M.

But why the role of individual artisans and their potential are being requested again?

It’s all about the appreciation of products that a younger generation is only getting more conscious about now. Handmade clothes set a different standard in quality and have a great story which is always nice to be told. It’s also related to something we discussed here previously in the article “Individualist World, Individual man”, that in the context of many financial crises – especially in Europe and USA – the male consumer has become more purist and more conscious about his choices. But, most of all, when someone chooses a well-crafted item, he is also choosing something that has a better quality and will most probably last longer. In other words: a good and solid investment.

Text and photos: Hermano Silva © Berlin 2012

*= A good example about the need of being conscious about what you wear comes from an initiative of the Belgian designer Bruno Pieters. He developed a new line called Honest by Bruno Pieters that is available on-line. Nothing new if it wasn’t for the fact that the visitor of the on-line store can find very detailed information about each piece, such as where the zipper and buttons come from, how much the materials cost and how much time the item took to be produced. It’s about transparency on how the business is managed. It’s for sure an innovative idea that will help to shape how we see fashion (and ethic) in the future.

Read here about our visit to one of the Saville Row tailors in London

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Berlin, Autumn/Winter 2012 – The shows of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week are a good starting point to understand the fashion of next season. But not the only one.

The biggest strength of the city is to offer interesting streetwear and here buyers from all over the world find a good selection in events like Premium, Seek, Collect, Capsule and Green. Above, the opening of the Bread & Butter fair at Tempelhof Airport.

From all that was shown in menswear, the most interesting was this workshop dedicated to all kinds of fashion craftsmen inside B&B. There you could observe several of them working on shoes, suits and even stationery items. It seems that tailor and handmade things are the new black – at least for men (read more about it here). Truth is that a nostalgic feeling is in the air.

Right beside Tempelhof Airport, Columbia Club hosted the Toast & Jam vintage Fair. It was a good opportunity to acquire original pieces from different decades that are now are being revisited on the catwalks. This not to mention the nice atmosphere created by the guitarist Stavros Skouras, who played live.

At night, many parties. Some even with a lounge for Very Unimportant People. In another room, Bryan Ferry says “hello”.

Every season the opening party of the fashion week is organized by Projekt Galerie – a showroom for new designers. This time the guests were tempted to join the dance with this image from the walls of the venue, HBC club.

The White Trash club, on the other hand, decided to do it’s own fashion week  in parallel, called “Trashion Week”. It was also funny at its neighbor club, Bassy, where all things are vintage too.

The music follows some sort of radicalism: only songs from before 1969. On the walls Robert Redford says “hi”.

The marathon of shows – and cocktails – ended with the party FIN, from the fashion newspaper Derzeit. On the corridors of the amazing venue there was a chance to learn German with this sign but, at the same time, to be confused with it.

As often happens when in Berlin: all the ways lead to the dancefloor.

Click here to read about a new German talent in menswear

Click here to know about the look of the moment between the Berliners

And here to read about some of the photography exhibitions in town

Photos: Hermano Silva © Berlin 2012

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Berlin, Autumn/Winter 2012 – Different from the woman who has the makeup as a resource to express individuality, the man has the facial hair. A true gentleman is aware of this fact and plays with his beard for his own benefit. An excellent example of this came from friendly German journalist Jan Joswig, who we found in the tent of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Berlin.

Mr. Joswig has an irreverent Chevron moustache that is combined with round frame glasses and a hat typical from the region of Bavaria called “Trachtenhut”. He, who went to the shows with his bicycle, opted for the moustache after years using a full beard.

It’s very interesting to notice the use of moustaches more and more present among young people on the streets of Berlin. Sign of the times considering that the beard is a common sense now.

Have a look on our fashion editorial inspired by beards and moustaches from 19th century

+ Read here article about the new moment in fashion

Photos: Hermano Silva © Berlin 2012