HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY DOC MARTENS!

Just a few weeks after World War II, German Dr. Klaus Märtens invented the soles of what later became the iconic Doc Martens boot. He was a pioneer of his time using recycled materials: discarded rubber from the airfields, leather from uniform pants and shoulder parts of uniform jackets for the insoles. Together with his colleague Dr. Herbert Funck they worked further on the design and founded a company in Munich. The first Dr. Martens 1460 came to life on April 1, 1960 and was sold for only £14,60. The archetype boot was cherry red. In the 1950s there were already more than 200 different designs and more than 80% of the women over the age of 40 bought them.

Bill Riggs, owner of the traditional English company R. Griggs & Co. in Northampton bought the production license of the Germans, added the yellow seam and the up-curved front, named the sole Air Wair and launched the new Doc Martens boot on April 1, 1960.

The main characteristics of this boot has been the unisex wearability and the soles' and waxed leathers' resistance to water, oil, fuel and acid. Thus Doc Martens boots were suitable for 'life on the streets'. They were favoured by the working class, the left wings and non-conformists such as skinheads, punks, mods and psychobillys and became a political symbol of distinction. Today you can buy endless colours and designs and see them in high-fashion magazines. Joey Ramone and Sid Vicious are dead but the Dr. Marten's flagship store in London's Covent Garden is alive and kicking. Times and icons change but cult remains cult!

HUSSEIN CHALAYAN EXHIBITION - ISTANBUL MODERN

From July 15 - October 24, 
Tuesdays-Sundays 10 am - 6 pm 

Meclis-i Mebusan Cad., Liman Isletmeleri, Sahasi Antrep No 4, 34433 Istanbul
 

Istanbul Modern Museum exhibits a variety of the collections, films and art projects from Cypress born British designer Hussein Chalayan who has started his label under his name in 1994. Chalayan has graduated from London's Central St. Martin's College of Art & Design in 1993 and won the title "Designer of the Year" by the British Fashion Awards twice, 1999 and 2000. The exhibition is curated by Donna Loveday, senior curator at London's Design Museum.

(photo: wooden corset from the autumn/winter collection 1995/6 www.fashion-lifestyle.net)

ENCHANTMENT by MARINA BYCHKOVA

Paying sharp attention to details can only result in overall beauty - leaving you with feelings of overall enchantment. Vancouver artist Marina Bychkova is proving exactly this. Lately she has fascinated Berlin with her exhibition "Fragility Show" that showed her 34cm, ball-jointed porcelain dolls at the Strychnin Gallery. Whether nude or decorated with costumes, tattoos and accessories also relating to literary characters like Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, you can order a customized doll from her website. The dolls are made individually for you or your beloved one. You can choose haircolour, hairlength, freckles, skin tone, pubic hair etc. The cost of a nude doll without customization is $1.985 CND. To make your gift complete you can include Paul Gallico's fictional short story "Enchanted Doll" after which Marina named her dolls.

(photo from www.enchanteddoll.com)

"NEVER FEAR BEING VULGAR, JUST BORING"

Diana Vreeland (1903-1989) was the daughter of an American mother and British father. She was married and mother of two sons, living in London and New York, socially very well connected and a loyal customer and friend of Coco Chanel in Paris. Diana Vreeland was known to be very ugly and witty- she had jolie et laide. From 1937 she run her column in New York's Harper's Bazaar titled „Why don't you?“ and became then the magazine's fashion editor. In the early 1960s she advised Jacqueline Kennedy on how to dress and style. In 1963 she joined the American Vogue as editor-in-chief. 1971 she consulted The Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY. Artist Greer Lankton dedicated a life size doll to her that is still on display.  She wrote her autobiography D.V. in 1984. If you would like to indulge yourself in the world of Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart and Edie Sedgwick, this is the right book for you, with lots of timeless statements when it comes to matters of style, "elegance (is refusal)" and emotions - Beautiful and ugly!

(Photo: Diane Vreeland, 1980, Bernard Gotfryd, Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

FRIDA KAHLO - RETROSPECTIVE

Berlin, until August 9 
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Niederkirchnerstr. 7
10963 Berlin
Open daily 10am-8pm

While New York and Paris dedicated Magdalena del Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón exhibitions in 1938/39, her country appreciated her with an exhibition in Mexico City only in 1953, one year before she died. The current exhibition in Berlin shows nearly 150 drawings and paintings and is thus the most comprehensive show ever staged in Europe. It took curator Dr. Helga Prignitz-Poda three years to prepare this outstanding exhibition as most of Kahlo's work is owned by private persons and museums in Mexico and North America of whom no one owns more than one Kahlo. Frida Kahlo's grandniece Cristina Kahlo curates the photography part that shows impressions of Frida's life. The exhibition is organised by Berliner Festspiele and Kunstforum Wien/Bank Austria in cooperation with the Instituto Nacional de Ballas Artes (INBA) in Mexico.

We, being lovers of authenticity and individualism can only acknowledge Frida Kahlo and her work as being highly outstanding. Go, see and feel the power!

(Photo dpa/picture-alliance, Frida Kahlo with husband Diego Rivera at hospital)

THE PICTURE OF

ELIZABETH ROSEMOND TAYLOR

New York, November 2001: Sotheby's auction. British actor Hugh Grant bids successfully for Andy Warhol's turquoise picture of Liz Taylor (40x40 in.). This picture is one of a series of thirteen drawings by Andy Warhol around the year 1963. The year in which the movie "Cleopatra" gets finalized. New York, November 2007: Christies's auction. The picture goes under the hammer for appr. $35 mio.
Los Angeles, April 2010: The noble Ms. Taylor is currently in the press again. After eight marriages (1950, 1951, 1957, 1959, 1964, 1974, 1976, 1991) she might have her ninth marriage this year!
Well, congratulations to all of you involved, a great success story!

(Image: Andy Warhol, Liz-1963, Éditions Hazan, Paris, Spadem)

YVES SAINT LAURENT - RETROSPECTIVE (1962-2002)

PARIS, until AUGUST 29

Musée du Petit Palais
Avenue Winston Churchill, 75008 PARIS
Tuesdays-Sundays 10am-6pm

The exhibition under the direction of Laurent's partner Pierre Bergé and under the patronage of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy shows more than 300 of the most stimulating Haute-couture and Prêt-à-porter drawings, photos, films and designs. Since Laurent's 'death in June' 2008 this is the first holistic exhibition dedicated  to him. The last show was at the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 1983. 
A beautiful reason to visit Paris again!

(Photo Vogue.com, Paloma Picasso, YSL, Cahterine Deneuve, 1971)

BERLIN, MARCH 4 - GERMAN MUSIC AWARDS "ECHO 2010" - BETH DITTO perfectly dressed!

GOSSIP has won the Award for "Best International Band Rock/Pop". Beth, you go girl! Your dress suited you so well, you looked gorgeous!
(Photo dpa, 2010)

GEORGETTE DEE TOURING GERMANY

with "Wo meine Sonne scheint". Congratulations on your 30est Stage Performance Anniversary. You are astonishing as we live and grow!

Click on the link and listen carefully! Yes, EVERYBODY:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsahOE4rilM
Danke Hamburg!  

(Photo Hydra Productions, 2006)

NOW, IMMORTALITY IS ALL YOURS!

In Memory of Alexander McQueen who has died yesterday morning in his London apartment.
rest in peace

Die Erinnerung
Graun der Mitternacht schließt mich nicht ein,
Ihr Verstummen nicht, auch ist, in dem Namen der heiligen
Freiheit, jüngst kein Mord geschehn: dennoch ist mir
Ernst die ganze Seele.

Liebliches Wehn umsäuselt mich;

Wenig ist nur des Laubes, das fiel; noch blühn die Blumen;

Dem Herbste gelingt Nachbildung des Sommers:

Aber meine ganze Seel' ist ernst!

Ach mich reißt die Erinnerung fort, ich kann nicht widerstehn!

Muß hinschaun nach Grabstätten, muß bluten lassen

Die tiefe Wund', aussprechen der Wehmut Wort:

Tote Freunde, seid gegrüßt!

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock

ALAAF AND HELAU!

You make me smile, Kyle!

THE IMPORTANCE OF

GOETHE, STEINER AND ITTEN

Die Beschäftigung mit Licht und Farbe erscheint wie Spinnerei, ist sie aber nicht. Farbe ist Macht! Licht sowieso. Wie sie funktioniert, haben diese drei eingehend untersucht: Goethe im Sinnen über die Natur und die Musik, Steiner theosophisch über eine übersinnliche Welterkenntnis, Itten gestalterisch im Bauhaus. In der Malerei wendeten z.B. William Turner, Wassily Kandinsky und Paul Klee die Farbenlehre „hellseherisch“ an. Prof. Itten verdanken wir den 12farbigen Farbstern von 1921. Ob Goethe, Steiner oder Itten, sie reiten alle gleichermaßen auf Newton herum. Nun, er war ein wenig phantasielos, aber dafür war er Newton.
Es gibt also mehr, Steiner faßt es zusammen: „Das Auge dient als Vermittler der Reize, die über die Hypophyse direkt auf das vegetative Nervensystem und die hormonellen Prozesse einwirken.“ (Steiner, Das Wesen der Farben, S. 244)
So findet die wundervolle Farbenlehre auch unter uns Nicht-Optikern großes Interesse. „Jeder neue Gegenstand, wohl beschaut, schließt ein neues Organ in uns auf!" (Goethe, Die Farbenlehre, S.7).
Das Studium von Licht, Farbe und ihrer Wirkungen ist ein weiteres Mittel, sein eigenes Wesen zu verstehen. Die intensive Beschäftigung mit seinen naturgegebenen und eigenen Anlagen - körperlich, seelisch und geistig - gehört zum Erleben, zum Leben. Jeder Mensch besitzt eine farbliche Identität, einen genau auf ihn abgestimmten Farbenkreis. Wir betrachten die Farbenwelt als einen übersinnlichen Organismus.
Auf die Mode bzw. Bekleidung sowie das Make Up und den Schopf bezogen, ist in Bezug auf persönliche Farben viel Spielraum gegeben, wenn auch rücksichtsvoll begrenzt. Um 1974 hat die amerikanische Kunstpädagogin Carol Jackson das 4Jahreszeiten Prinzip als Basis für die Farbberatung entwickelt. Um 1978 haben wir uns in Europa mit der Hamburgerin Isabel Lied auf die 9erTypologie der genetischen Menschenfarben geeinigt.
Die eigenen, echten Farben rufen höchste Wohlgefühle hervor und reflektieren sie unentwegt von innen nach außen und umgekehrt, mit aurischen Farben und auch balancierenden Gegenfarben. Blau erzeugt Sehnsucht, zieht uns nach sich. Unruhige Kinder soll man in Rot kleiden, ruhigeren Naturen Grün/Grünblaues tun. Die Wirkung kommt aus der Komplementärfarbe, eine physikalische Umkehrung findet statt. Der Zweck bestimmt die Farbe und die Farbe den Zweck.
„Denn jedes neue Verhältnis, das an den Tag kommt, jede neue Behandlungsart ist brauchbar, oder aufregend und für die Folge nicht verloren.“ (Goethe, Die Farbenlehre, S. 82). Und Farben sind überall (vorausgesetzt es gibt Licht), wir können sie für uns arbeiten lassen. Sinneseindrücke sind unmittelbar. Das Faszinosum Eigenheit im Scheine des Lichts, der theoretischen Normen und des intuitiven persönlichen Geschmacks machen die Farbenlehre zu einem sehr schöpferischen Quell der Liebe, Gesundheit und des Friedens!