PARIS, Jan 20, 2011 / FW/ — Whether they work with clothes, accessories, photographs or instruments, these individuals share a willingness to be bold, challenging their creative limits, searching for alternatives and stepping out of their natural habitat.
ROMAIN TRINQUAND / ADRIAN SCHINDLER
Performance duo Romain Trinquand and Adrian Schindler place their own bodies at the centre of their creative process, using them as powerful tools taken out of their usual context.
Their performances play with social boundaries, sometimes involving the audience and pushing the absurd that one step further. their work is raw, grotesque and utterly funny, generating anything but indifference.
Romain and Adrian use taboos and rules as their starting point, each performance exploring primitive thoughts, natural instincts and spontaneous behaviour.
They will invest RA’s Parisian space for an exclusive act, which will be full of surprises.
http://trindlerschinquand.blogspot.com
TELFAR
New York-based TelfarCclemens envisages menswear in a futuristic and body-conscious way, creating clothes with sharp lines in lightweight fabrics.
Defining his approach as ‘simplexity’ and carefully avoiding any kind of referencing, his line has a cool, modernist edge, giving an urban and mathematical feel to his creations.
For Fall 2011 / Winter 2012, he continues his exploration of geometry and sportswear, granting the wearer enough space to personify each style. He’s also working on an innovative concept, which he hopes to unveil in Paris.
“I would like to create an interactive display incorporating the new collection in a video look book, which will be part of the Fall 2011 / Winter 2012,” says Telfar.
An androgynous aesthetic permeates his work, offering chic, stylish cyborgs perfect pieces for spatial down time.
ELISE GETTLIFFE
French designer Elise Gettliffe has had grunge on her mind this season.
However, don’t expect her to come up with some lazy check shirts and washed-out denim. She researches materials extensively each season and loves luxurious fibres.
Inspired by the heroic attitude of grunge, rather than its darker nihilism, her collection revisits the freshness and innocence of the early 90s.
An antwerp academy graduate,Eelise infuses her work with a strong sense of fantasy and joy, combining contrasting elements in a spontaneous and uninhibited way.
“I was thinking about Guns n’ Roses this time, getting into their decadent and whimsical world. It’s a collection that does not compromise, mixing male and female elements without fearing ridicule. For me, it as a unique menswear genre, blending manliness with sentimentality and humour.”
YANNICK DE WITTE
Belgian designer Yannick de Witte is taking on a new challenge this year, opting for sleek, stylized sex toys, which he makes in his Leuven atelier.
“Toys for boys” is the name of his latest endeavor, mixing powerful male elements with contrasting materials, such as plastic, silver and rubber. The idea came when he was looking for a gay wedding gift.
“I wanted something kinky, but special. In the end, I decided to make something myself and came up with a feathered, luxurious cockring.” Yannick’s work walks a fine line between sex toys and jewellery.
A former Antwerp Academy student, he had the forces of darkness in mind for this first collection.
“My pieces are for open-minded men who are not afraid to experiment. I see them as futuristic warriors, ready for the conquest of a new world.”
Form follows function in these striking items and ‘everything is perfectly hygienic’ as he nicely puts it.
