Photographic Spotlight #2 - Rinze van Brug

Rinze van Brug began his love of art at a young age. With inspiration from movies such as BEAT STREET and WILD STYLE Rinze's artistic approach blossomed. Drawing and then graffiti were the first methods of expression for Rinze and he worked commercially while in Amsterdam creating art murals for stores and restaurants while continuing his personal art as well. At 19, Rinze purchased his first Macintosh computer and began exploring new programs such as Painter, which allows users to develop their own art work in a much shorter time span. Learning these computer programs escalated the extent of artwork Rinze could achieve. Able to finish projects in one hour that would have taken weeks, Rinze was able to explore new genres of art.

During art school Rinze excelled in graphic design and photography graduating to enter the advertising world. At Ogilvy he worked with clients such as Philips, Canon, Mercedes, Red Bull, and many other Fortune 500 companies as an art director. To work through his ideas with clients he would sketch out pictures of how he wanted the photography to look and, in doing so, realized his calling was photography and design.

Much of Rinze's inspiration comes from music that helps him to continuously mold his personal style. With new music consistently hitting the scene Rinze utilizes the fusion of music, life and art in his photography. Rinze has worked with high end fashion companies and at Fashion Week, as well as portfolio work and editorial, to documentary and integrated art styles. Each photograph shows Rinze's ability to capture the moment, the pose, or the scene as he brings each photograph to life.

The B-Devs Wear DMAG !!!

Let's suppose an outside observer were to take a glance at Duke or any other U.S. campus for that matter and look at its student body as a whole. If what they saw was the two Duke students featured in this month's issue of DMAG (go towards the end of the post for more about this exciting publication) things could not be better. However his or her first impression of the college sense of style cannot be best described by a bell-curve distribution that ranges from the pathological slob to the campus fashionista as expected but is sadly rather more skewed towards the former category.

What I personally think is that the average Dukies alongside most other college students are quite lazy when it comes down to dressing up (pun intended) and going to class. I can vouch that my friends are probably already tired of me kindly reprimanding them for wearing sweats to class or flip-flops in sub-32 December weather although I hope that they do not take it amiss (It's all from the heart guys!).

I'm sure all of you Dukies reading this, have either heard, thought of or used one of the worn-out excuses of how strapped for time you are in the morning, how nobody cares about what they wear anyway or how seeing others slacking in terms of appearance justifies your doing the same.

Fashion should definitely not be a chore and nobody has ever said that you should leave your dorm room in the morning as if you were going to prom. All we're saying is that you should spend a bare minimum of 5 minutes every night or if otherwise occupied, in the morning, thinking about what you would like to wear. When I find myself strapped for time I utilize my daily shower time to try to think of something nice to wear. Now isn't that multitasking at its premium and is it too much to ask? I'm not going to go into much detail about what I approve of per se, because I and many others believe fashion is a choice of personal style, much like one's taste in music, food, etc but I will say that if you do tend to abuse that favourite Blue Hoodie, that matching pair of sweat pants or worse the matching Crocs, you are on your way to become a victim of your own doing. College is our last "playground" before actually stepping into the real world and if we don't all participate in this exciting game pr better yet this preamble of pretend, chances are the real world will not be too kind with you when your times come to really give those sweats away ( Just think how you would cope now without having ever played pretend shopping as a child. Would you be as able to shop for your daily items?). 

Now if you really can't quit wearing your Snuggie, Crocs or Sweats entirely, you can have at least a couple of days every week where you try putting on a nice pair of jeans or a clean ironed shirt, don a tie if you're a guy (or not if you are comfortable with it) even if you're not going to a semi-formal. and wear any pair of shoes other than your running sneakers, which if you were wondering are not actually meant for day-to-day use.

But enough annoying banter and more of what I am really excited to present to you. I have recently been introduced to a new publication, dubbed DMAG, created and published entirely by Duke students. DMag deals with fashion from a student's perspective and is more importantly written for students. This makes it more than perfect for a campus-wide distribution, maybe along with the Chronicle as a monthly supplement?! The writing style is very accessible for all student readers all the while keeping away from being over-pompous. The magazine features many interesting articles that deal with campus style, local fashion outlets, world fashion news and not only! I have especially enjoyed the pictorials featured in the magazine and I say this not only because I know quite a few of the people featured in them or that the setting is one of the locations that is most dear to me, but because they are well thought and quite aesthetically pleasing(the "Campus Sartorialist" on page 51 was definitely a kicker!).

You can find the online version of DMAG for free here and access the DMAG blog, which I predict will soon take off quite nicely, here.

I am definitely looking forward from seeing your next issue DMAG!

FashioNation - Embracing Fashion As An Art Form

I have been asked countless times why most runway fashion shows contain so many outfits that are clearly unfit for actual 'street-wear'. As best as I can put it, fashion should not be viewed solely as a reservoire of ideas for personal style but moreover as a form of art in itself.

To that extent, modern day designers have gone from simply searching for pragmatic fashion approaches and have ventured into exploring the interactions between the human body and anything that comes into contact with it, and thus becomes a second skin. In such a world, the fine line between the male and female genders becomes less distinct and elements of both worlds blend to form a disgendered ideal:

One website that I simply love and which is almost entirely dedicated to promoting the artistical qualities of contemporary fashion is FASHIONATION.

(Photos from top to bottom: Comme des Garçons/Y. Yamamoto - model Kerry Degman; A. Symons/J. Richmond - model Ryan Thomas; VMan - Swimsuit Edition)

Burberry Totalus!

Harry Potter's heartthrob Emma Watson took some time off from the sets to be part of Burberry's new Ad campaign for the 09/10 Winter Collection.

While Burberry has used celebrities in their ad campaigns before, having Emma Watson as their poster child definitely brings a new perspective to urban chic. Her smoky eyes and semi-grungy hair style finally portray Emma Watson as what she probably would like people to see her as. A good-loking stylish teenager who wants to be normal.

An award does not necessarily make you a better (fill w/ noun)

…but is sure does get you the extra attention designers need nowadays, in times of financial recession.

Yesterday marked the day of the 2009 CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America), which to all American-based designers and a lot of fashion-aficionados is a day to look forward to. For Designers an award can represent the culmination of a lifetime of work or the beginning of nationwide exposure while for followers of mode it was something on the lines of a mini-Oscar ceremony.

Founded in 1962, CFDA is a not-for-profit trade association, whose 350 members are amongst America’s foremost fashion and accessory designers. The CFDA awards have several categories but the most important ones are of course Designer of the Year (Menswear, Womenswear and Accessories), the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award and the International award.

Womenswear Designer Of The Year

The Award in this category went to the Californian-based Rodarte, who has seen a meteoric rise to celebrity since the two Mulleavy sisters started their company in 2005, after graduating from U.C. Berkeley. Rodarte’s founders have been featured on the cover of Women Wear daily and have even met with the infamous Anna Wintour, Edito of American Vogue Magazine. Several Rodarte pieces have been seen on celebrities such as Cate Blanchett, Kirsten Dunst, Keira Knightley and Dita von Tesse.

Menswear Designers Of The Year

This year, the award was given to two designers since results of the voting declared it a tie. Scott Sternberg of Band of Outsiders (Left) and Italo Zucchelli (Right) of Calvin Klein Collection both received an award. Scott Sternberg had received the Emerging Talent award last year so this year’s achievement only enforces his talent and vision, showing that he has not disappointed his fans.

The Award for Accessory Designer Of The Year went to Jack McCollough & Lazaro Hernandez for Proenza Schouler. There were also three Swarovski awards which went to Alexander Wang for Womenswear, Tim Hamilton for Menwear and to Justin Giunta for Subversive Jewelry.

The Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Anna Sui for her long and successful career in fashion. Having started working out of her apartment in the late 80s and early 90s, following with the launch of her store in 1991, Anna Sui is now a staple in womenswear as her clothing, shoes, fragrances, cosmetics, and accessories are recognized globally in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Sui now joins the ranks of Yves St Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Diane von Furstenberg and Bill Blass, who are all past recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award.

International Award

Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton was recognized again this year by being awarded the International Award,his fourth CFDA award having won one the erry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent in 1987 and thus becoming the youngest designer to ever receive this accolad, one in 1997 for Womenswear and one in 2002 for Menswear. This year Jacobs was ranked 15th on Out magazine's annual list of "50 Most Powerful Gay Men and Women in America" and this month he has announced his intention of marrying Brazilian advertising executive Lorenzo Martone, his boyfriend of one year, in Provincetown, Massachusetts later this year.

Popular Vote Award

This year also marked the first ever Popular Vote Award. Through a website hosted by wwd.com, the public was given the opportunity to vote for its favorite fashion designer. An overwhelming number of votes were cast and the winner of the Popular Vote Award was Ralph Lauren, who came alongside his beautiful wife Ricky. His award is definitely well-earned and goes to show the recognition and gratitude shown by the American public for one of the founding fathers of Modern American Style.

Besides the usual crowd of designers and Fashion magazine editors and photographers, this year’s CFDA Award ceremony had two special guests that are very dear to me. One was the First Lady, Michelle Obama who was awarded the Board of Directors’ Special Tribute Award. The other person was Gossip Girl’s own socialite Serena Van der Woodsen aka Blake Lively who wore a beautiful neon-pink/fuschia dress by Michael Kors, a former CFDA Awards recipient himself in the Womenswear and Menswear categories in 1999 and 2003 respectively.