Certified Authentic?

Slow and Steady Wins the Race, After Balenciaga and After Gucci Bags, 2004

Don’ t miss the student symposium Certified Authentic? Counterfeits, Copies, and Constructions of Culture at the Bard Graduate Center (on 38 W. 86th St), which will be taking place this friday, April 25.

The keynote speaker, Susan Scafidi will be discussing fashion and counterfeiting. Scafidi is a Visiting Professor at Fordham Law School and member of the law and history faculties at Southern Methodist University, is author of Who Owns Culture? Appropriation and Authenticity in American Law (2005), as well as a blog on law and fashion design, Counterfeit Chic

Also, on the topic of counterfeiting is Lynn Yaeger's article in this week’s Village Voice. The author’s visit to the Murakami exhibition at the Brooklyn museum and, particularly its accompanying Vuitton store, spurned her musings on Canal Street and fake Murakami purses.

Yeti on Leigh Bowery

Leigh Bowery outside his flat, 1993

Yeti—the Portland based journal—just published an interview I conducted with Nicola Bowery.

I had visited Nicola Bowery—wife of the late Leigh Bowery—in her Brighton, England home last summer, to interview her for my PhD thesis, a chunk of which revolves around Bowery’s extravagant costumes and performances from the ’80s and ’90s. My interest in Leigh Bowery had been spurred by Hilton Als’ New Yorker profile, which discussed Bowery’s varied “career” from fledging fashion designer to notorious club figure to performance artist—three strands of his practice which remain inextricably intertwined.

Nicola was extremely kind in taking the time to show me a number of her husband’s elaborate costumes which, having been painstakingly made to measure to Bowery’s large girt, appeared eerily empty—particularly as a complex systems of understructures kept them in shape, further highlighting Bowery’s absent body. Nicola also took the time to discuss her role as the slime-covered baby in the humorous, unsettling “birth scenes” which Bowery staged as part of his performances with his band Minty, from the early ’90s until his untimely death in 1995.

Francesca

Leigh Bowery, Ruined Clothes Exhibition, 1988

Lowbrow Reader no. 6

We interrupt our usual announcements to inform you that the sixth issue of the Lowbrow Reader is just out. Albeit dealing with comedy rather than fashion, with contributions from John Waters and Justin Bond of Kiki and Herb, as well as longer articles from Neil Hagerty and our own contributor (as well as editor of the Lowbrow) Jay Ruttenberg, this issue is not to be missed. The heavily illustrated journal can be found in larger stands and independent book and music stores across the United States and in London, as well as directly on their site, www.lowbrowreader.com

Nieves Library at Ooga Booga

The LA concept store and art space Ooga Booga is presenting a one-month exhibibition of artists' books and zines published by the Swiss publisher Nieves. Alongside books and zines by the Zurich-based publisher in the main shop, there will be a zine reading room in a temporary annex across the hall, where one can find rare and out-of-print titles by many Nieves-related artists. The exhibition, which opens Thursday March 6th, will be open through April 3rd.

While there, don't forget to look through Ooga Booga's otherwise vast collection of rare fashion and art books and zines, as well as their great selection of clothes and accessories by Susan Cianciolo, Bless, Opening Ceremony and many others.

Francesca

Ann-Sofie Back Interview

Ann-Sofie Back, Fall/Winter 2004. Tweed fold hat, and “sad shirt in spandex.”

Fashion Theory just published an interview I conducted with the designer Ann-Sofie Back in its December issue (Volume 11, issue 4). The interview came out of Fashion Projects’ long-standing interest in the designer’s work, which started with Patty Chang’s interview with Back in our first issue.

For those who are not already familiar, Fashion Theory is an academic journal on fashion as an interdisciplinary area of studies. It’s published quarterly by Berg and was started in 1997 by Valerie Steele, who is currently the director and chief curator of the Museum at FIT. The only journal of its kind, it is an indispensable resource for fashion scholars and students. It is generally available in academic libraries and/or via Ingenta and other online academic indexes (which are accessible free of charge through subscribing libraries). Individual subscriptions are also available through the Berg website. There is currently a promotional sale going on and it might be a good time to subscribe if you are interested in fashion curation, as there are two special issues coming up on the topic—one edited by Valerie Steele and the other by Alistair O’Neil, who is a freelance curator, author and head of the BA in fashion history and theory at Saint Martins.

Francesca