From the first issues of i-D and the rise of straight-up photography to Meadham Kirchhoff’s autumn/winter 13 show starring real kids on the catwalk, London street style has shaped the way we experience fashion. So it’s only natural that a couple of the city’s freshest stylists, Pandora Lennard and Lucy Greene, have chosen to create Anti-agency “for people who could’ve been models and decided not to, for people who are too cool to be models.” It’s not about how tall you are or how many shows you’ve walked in this season, it’s about personality, style, talent. “With both of us being sick to death of boring, anorexic and underage models,” says Pandy, “we decided to create Anti-agency. It’s a casting agency for people we think are fucking cool and deserve some air space!”

antiagency.co.uk
@antiagencyldn

Text: Dean Kissick
Photography: Kimi Hammerstroem and Ryan Stamatiades
Styling: Pandora Lennard, Lucy Greene
Hair: Nicole Kahlani
Photography Assistance: Ryan Stamatiades
Styling Assistance: Salome Bakpa
Make-up Assistance: Hayley Meredith
All clothing model’s own.

Ducking and diving in the duality of jaunty and morose, Oscar Scheller’s schizophrenic lullabies continuously confuse and eagerly excite the senses. Having released a trio of teasing tracks from his messy bedroom, this fast rising and wildly promising producer has left us wandering, wondering and waiting for more. Peeping over his bedsheets, the majestically muddled melody maker shares his tried and tested sleepy time soundtrack. Dance in your daydreams.

“Living in a big city, it seems to me that in order to survive you have to have some level of quietude, a respite from the sensory and information overload. It’s easy to forget to stop and just be still because you often feel like if you do, you’ll get run over. I need to go back to simple things every now and then, slower and softer. These songs take me to that place. Overall their mood feels remote and distant, in a peaceful way. I’ve had this mix for three years now and it’s stood me in good stead. Since the piano was my first instrument, I personally find the sound of it quite meditative. Maybe it has something to do with the timbre of that instrument harking back to early years, reminding me of that comfort of little responsibility. So, a lot of the mix tape is made up of those sounds and tones. I’ve road tested this playlist from planes to trains, to people’s spare rooms, night buses and night walking. I used to go through an insomniac phase during winter and it was often when I was most productive. There were a few times where sleep would be appropriate and so I turned to these songs and usually half way through Satie I would be nodding off. It’s also a good playlist if you want to stay up and dream, do things around the house, a soundtrack to help you feel like you own the world for those few silent hours.”

soundcloud.com/oscar_music

Introduction: Steve Salter
Images: Courtesy of Oscar

How does the work you’ve been making in Italy differ from the work you made in London? It is a very different piece from the works I usually make in London. I wanted to explore ideas of emotion and try to translate/mis-translate them into video and installation. It’s difficult as how do you express the idea of swallowing or the feeling of the sun in your face? It’s quite a soft piece… an escape.

The Whitechapel show drew on the historic idea of visiting the Mediterranean for inspiration. Do you think we’ve lost the physical act of experiencing places due the ease of experiencing things virtually? I believe we desire it even more as a medicine to put the brain at ease. The virtual gives way to only virtual feelings. It is in constant competition with reality. Being in the sun is always better than an image of it, but it’s a game we can play with the brain, using image and sound to trigger emotions, memories, and feelings. On seeing a raspberry, you get a little bit of its taste in your mouth…

Escapism and trying to glimpse utopia – are these ideas you explore within your work? It is more the idea of translating a feeling, offering no alternative but taking what is there and swallowing it. I like when Peter Kubelka talks about the taste of things and how we have learned from childhood to compare things through the way we licked everything – the taste of metals, plants, wood etc. If we taste a delicious raspberry we will always compare every raspberry to the best one we ever had.

What was it like to win an art prize open only to women (Max Mara). Do you feel a certain weight? I think it’s good. Of course it’s a question to ask through making a prize especially for women, but there are still many more male artists and an unevenness in art collections that it’s good for the issue to be raised. I was never very conscious or aware of the fact that I was a female artist, I have just been making my work without thinking about that, I was lucky to grow up in a very supportive environment but of course I can see there is still a lot of division, especially if we look in global terms.

laureprouvost.com

Text: Dan Szor
Video courtesy the artist and MOTINTERNATIONAL

Deep sleep makes the mind wander. Let it explore as chillhouse, introvert oOoOO creates enrapturing soundscapes cooked up to stimulate the subconscious.

Creating a sense of building tension while conveying a feeling of sonic stillness, San Fran producer Chris Dexter brews up eerie blends of haunting sounds. Trained as a bass guitarist, K-pop enthusiast Chris assembles slow moving, disjointed, 80′s esque anthems, distributed via his own recently established imprint, entitled Nihigt Feelings. oOoOO’s Chris goes i-N session especially for i-D, become familiar with his music, learn more below.

oOoOO is not pronounced “oh” but pronounce it however you want to pronounce it.
oOoOO means nothing. It represents emptiness.
oOoOO was very close with Lars Von Trier but they had a falling out at Cannes last year and haven’t spoken since.
oOoOO was a teenage drifter.
oOoOO was born in Kiev.

soundcloud.com/ooooosounds

Text: Milly McMahon
Film: George Ancock

For one week last June, a quiet hush hovered over the industry with eyes firmly fixed on Raf Simons as he presented his spring/summer 13 menswear collection for his eponymous label and introduced his vision to Dior in the space of just a few days. Brushing off the weight of expectation from his well defined shoulders, the poetic, elegant, and free-thinking designer dazzled and delighted. As commentators prepared themselves to compare and contrast his work with that of other talents, Simons floated off into a world of his own, leaving tired necks from never-ending nods of appreciation and stinging hands from ceaseless clapping down below. As he marked a momentous new chapter by adding his delicate touch and energy to the codes of a House rich in history, he first returned, renewed and reinvigorated his own roots in another.

Soundtracked by ‘Nevermind’, Raf Simons’ spring/summer 13 collection was both masculine yet feminine, familiar yet fresh, dark yet delicate. As Cobain’s cries faded, the designer’s menswear manifesto loomed large in the memory. It was a moment. A moment that didn’t go unnoticed by MRPORTER.COM’s Senior Buyer Terry Betts who proclaimed, “Raf’s use of colour and Kurt Cobain-inspired grunge florals combined to make his SS13 show one of our favourites.” With the online retailer unveiling exclusive collections with Ami, Beams Plus and Alexander Wang, the addition of Simons to the collaborative cocktail makes it an all too inviting mix. Adding to the collection’s original vase of beautiful blooms, this creative coming together welcomes uniquely-painted watercolour florals which have been used to transform staples of formalwear and sportswear. One week before the thirteen piece capsule collection blossoms online, photographer Jeff Hahn and stylist Madeleine Østlie practice the art of Ikebana on Dylan Hartigan. Look right, breathe in its bouquet and enjoy their arrangement of florals, Japanese inspired set design and hot Irish boy.

The Raf Simons x MRPORTER.COM collection will be available from 28th May.

mrporter.com
rafsimons.com

Text: Steve Salter
Photography: Jeff Hahn
Styling: Madeleine Ostlie
Photographers: Assistant: Simona Blasio
Fashion Assistant: Jimmy Freud
Set Design: George Lewin
Set Assistant: Alex Rowland
Model: Dylan Hartigan @ Models1
Hair: Jose Quijano using Catwalk by Tigi
Make-up: Danielle Kahlani using Jurlique Skincare
Special Thanks: Murray Arthur @ The Book Agency, Georgia @ 63 Sun Studio.

On display were the wonderful works of some all too familiar kingpins, myriad old hands and modern maestros — Takashi Murakami, Ai WeiWei, Lee Bul, Makota Aida, Yayoi Kusama, Xiang Yang, Cai Guo-Qiang, etc. — as well as i-D photographer Chen Man, Ye Hongxing, Jing Wong, Jacky Tsai and Wang Gongxin.

Numerous retailers and cult proprietors held flashy events and threw artsy bashes at the opening: JOYCE, Hong Kong’s iconic lux boutique chain, threw down at 3812 Contemporary with trance-inducing installationist Xiang Yang; Lane Crawford, Asia’s swankiest multi-brand merchant, revamped their aesthetic in the image of celestial sculls and floral patterns (by artist Jacky Tsai) and hosted a soiree entitled ‘Fashion Meets Art’ that brought in the A-listers.

In and around the crowd were numerous noticeable heartthrobs and bon vivants, including i-D cover starlet Xiao Wen Ju, sexpot Linah Matsuoka, actors Jackie Chan, Fei Fei Sun and Edison Chen; avant-gardians Yohji Yamamoto (in cahoots with D-Mop), Uma Wang and Tatsuro Horikawa (of Julius). Art gypsies, outsiders and waggish wannabes were also there en masse and made for a kind of yummy pluralism gone wild.

i-D online flew in to witness firsthand the friction and frisson of Hong Kong’s action-packed art push. Here are a few talents and goings-on that grabbed our eye and got our endorphin levels piquing…

Hong Kong Art Week is on now until 27th May 2013.

hongkongartfair.com

Text: Cody Ross
Photography: Courtesy of respective Galleries + Artists

Following on from the mega success of last week’s i-D Mix Glasto warm up party that featured Lee Foss and Karma Kid amongst others, we keep the momentum fast and flying forward by booking in June’s event for just two weeks time. Teaming up with London promo collective FOUND ahead of the team’s first ever festival, located at Haggerston park and fronted by Maya Jane Coles, Lee Foss, Huxley, Floating Points and Henrik Schwarz, i-D takes over XOYO once again for an ambitious, unadulterated night of deep house and techno. Headlined by OKO and Chilli Mint Music record label owner Betoko and joined by Berlin based DJ and producer Santé, Tom Demac, Casino Times and Voyeur warm up proceedings with individual hour long sets from 8.30pm curated just for you, entirely for free. Expecting demand to be heavy and standards of music play to be extremely high, we recommend everyone arrive early and enjoy i-D Mix’s XOYO based basement sounds, the ideal weekend warm upper. RSVP to avoid FOMO.

Listen into FOUNDS top 5 Summer tracks:

1. Santé – The Way
2. Tom Demac – Dirty Honey
3. Tom Glass – A Lot of Things (Betoko Mix)
4. Casino Times – That’s The Truth
5. Voyeur – Blame It On The Youth

foundseries.co.uk/festival

Text: Milly McMahon