merry x’mas

Dear friends family and strangers, merry christmas!

It’s been a great year, I’m grateful. Excited for 2010, how about you?

Merry X’mas from freshness and safari.

Filed under: personal

spread the bird love

nothing to do with androgyny but i drew some birds today. found some love with some wooden bird toys? Haha but because they cost 55 pounds each, i can only be satisfied with these drawn versions. D:

Filed under: personal

tilda swinton by craig mcdean

Love the reference to David Bowie in this collection. And maybe to Annie Lennox as well. In short, gorgeous, really.

Filed under: fashion

show them to us and them

Was looking at some shows. Uhmmm I’ve always been very interested in fashion shows but maybe not quite those regular ones. I’ll share a few that caught my eye recently.

Viktor & Rolf Fall 2008. 
“Funny, No is such a lil word, but such a heavy lil word.”

Comme Des Garcons Fall 2009
I love this styling!
Love the idea of having certain trademarks to group the whole lot of clothes into one family.

Viktor & Rolf 2009 Spring/Summer
Their gigs are almost theatric, it’s no longer just fashion anymore.
And I love their hair for this? It looks so masculine-short but most are actually their long hair tied up. Some sort of duality that lingers within. 

I would share a whole list of Viktor & Rolf.

Nothing particular special about the show. The usual straight ones. But I’m in love with Vivienne Westwood’s clothes and her styling. Oh yes punk roots! They all look fresh yet they dealt with the technical back-to-basics of drapery and silhouettes.

I love jeremy scott so much as well! His designs are always so fun!

Filed under: fashion , comme des garcons, viktor & rolf

Fashion’s Class Photos

Looking at the different approaches to androgyny, let’s take a look at VMAN’s October issue last year on the spring/summer collection of the big stars and their boys.

armani and his boys

donatello and the versace boys

Italo Zucchelli for Calvin Klein

Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci

Massimiliano for Ferragano

hello lanvin boys

bruno pieters and hugo boys

Kris Van Assche and his sultry boys

Tomas Maier and the Bottega Veneta boys

McQueen and his royal guardsmen

Dean and Dan of DSQAURED showin' hip hop honors

Frida Gianni and the Gucci boys

Mister Smith and his bicycle boys

Malenotti with the Belstaff boys

Silvia Fendi and the Fendi boys

It’s not all about androgyny but it’s still fun to take a look!

Filed under: fashion

For Pop Up Arthouse

Junhao dropped me a MSN message so randomly last night, just like the content of the Pop Up Arthouse. Dear friends, check this out www.popuparthouse.com

The two pieces I handed in. Refined version of my 2 older works. Made into poster prints.

For Jesvin in Typography 3. 

For Pam in 2D.

Well, why are these posted up other than I’m quite proud of my certain works, more importantly I’ll like to look into the ideas of female graphics and male graphics. Maybe they are not the best representations, BUT THE POINT IS, somehow there is still a difference, a gender classification, even in graphic design. Actually, I would like to think that Lost in Time, is more anonymous in gender than male. Sorry, I don’t have any tough-style graphics to display. HAH.

Oh yeah, reminds me of the 2 books Winnie showed me once, Girls Graphics and Boys Graphics. Sadly, ADM library doesn’t hold them and they cost too much to be bought at the moment. D:

Filed under: discussion , graphic design

Jil Sander for Uniqlo

And the peasants rejoice!

A personal favorite designer Jil Sander, and tada! A collection for the commoners/mass/me. Sometimes I refer her to the fashion statement for Bauhaus. German, minimalist and the understated elegance. It’s mainly made for her, the executive cool chic her. Simple, with refined tailoring and well-constructed lines.

Okay and 2 October 2009, the semi long-awaited collaboration with Uniqlo is launched! I’m not sure if Singapore carries it, ah days when I wish I’m still in Tokyo. I’m not sure if I can say it’s the higher end of Calvin Klein? A clean familiar, yet new look but in much more luxurious fabrics.

Looking at identities and stereotypes, I often see the cynical designers dressed in Jil Sanders, oh yes, the Queen of Less. Or maybe cynical designers obsessed with typography. Like how I described Calvin Klein as a faceless typeface, it seems quite similar in the case of Jil Sanders as well, maybe sleeker. I remember my boss from Neighbor, Shaun, yeah, his favorite fashion designer is Miss Sanders, he pretty much introduced Helmut Schmidt to me as well. Really, can you see what I’m driving at?

Filed under: fashion , jil sanders, uniqlo

hello my design project

Hello friends,

I’m working on an androgyny-fashion project. As part of my research, I’ll be collecting lookbook entries from all over. Interested in contributing? Each outfit must have an intention to dress up, either for an activity or event or just plainly want to be dressed up.

Here’s the format!

Collect a week’s worth of outfits you have. From head to toe. It need not be exactly everyday of the week but a minimum of 3 outfits will be good!

1. Pictures of the outfit.
2. Activity/event/mood for it.
3. (optional) Influences/Inspired by.

Include these.
1. Name
2. Age
3. Occupation
4. Music/Film/Arts heroes, if any!
5. Any comments at all.
6. Any way to contact you. 

Just mail me the images! 

Oh also, I am not particular looking for androgynous dressing, just up as you do usually!

PS. The images may be used on the upcoming blog for this project or published as part of my thesis.

Thank you so much!

cheers,
huimin
supermeforme@gmail.com

Filed under: discussion, fashion , project

red tears

I was talking to Wenshing one day and she asked if I was interested to know more about her project and here goes.

I ripped this off from the booklet. Red Tears brings us to a space that captures the beauty and essence of the human spirit, touching our lives through the passage of time. It portrays an interesting interplay of cultural collision in terms of values, beliefs, and contemporary practice and shows how these conflicting ideas and forms can be interweaved to co-exist in our present society.

I am very happy to  meet Danny who is the artistic director and choreographer for this dance. It is a piece of rather personal interpretation and inspiration. A combination of original and contemporary moves with Chinese texts and Teochew opera. Kinda reminds me of my Fading Tradition project huh?

hello mr danny and miss wenshing

Okay really, what does this have to do with androgyny? On stage or in theatre, it is not about gender but characters. But it is still true, characters can be feminine or masculine but not necessary female or male. There is this air of being anonymous on stage.

the authentic make up and headgear

love the idea of stylized gestures

 The emphasis of a single look on stage, ah, that’s impressive. The idea of a feminine touch or a masculine stare. It’s just a split second, about the passing moment. The idea of gender is almost ambiguous on stage. I’m trying to say that it may be true the characters have a gender but it’s not just about being male or female. Stage gives a variety of approaches to the gender. Yes. 

getting into it

hello pictures

love the extravagance

flying colours

I must say it is amazing to portray a different character on stage. It may be fun or interesting but it’s definitely not easy. To settle down and calm down and sink into a total different. How sure can you be? It’s a lil haunting, no?

A lil tired. I’ll elaborate more on this when there is a need.

Filed under: everything , dance, teochew opera, theatre

sexless change

Pandrogyny, a term, Kenneth highlighted to me. This is kinda overdue. Flipped through these during my research in music two weeks back. I am not exactly sure if I should archive everything here, maybe just the interesting tidbits.

Okay back to the smart talk, what’s pandrogyny really? Genesis Breyer P Orridge – founder of the bands Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV – has been an icon of the psychedelic and industrial rock music underworlds for some 30-odd years, pretty much coined this term. Jaye Breyer (best known as Lady Jaye), his/her other half passed away pretty recently due to heart failure. The two had previously embarked on a years-long pursuit of pandrogyny, undergoing painful plastic surgery procedures in order to become gender-neutral human beings that looked like each other. As s/he explains, this was not about achieving a standard of beauty. Once the body is no longer viewed as sacred, the possibilities are endless.

“We started out, because we were so crazy in love, just wanting to eat each other up, to become each other and become one,” explains Genesis. “And as we did that, we started to see that it was affecting us in ways that we didn’t expect. Really, we were just two parts of one whole; the pandrogyne was the whole and we were each other’s other half. DNA is really the new battleground for evolution. If we want to survive as a species, if we want to hopefully colonize space and do incredible things, we have to completely reassess how the human body works and realize that it’s not sacred, it’s just stuff. It’s time for us to step away from the prehistoric acceptance of the human body as it was and design ourselves. Why can’t we learn how to hibernate if we are going to go into space? Best way to travel to space is to be asleep for long journeys. Animals hibernate, so it can’t be that difficult.”

After reading through his interview, it brought me new light into why do androgyny, or in this case pandrogyny exists. Okay please assume that I am just talking about deliberate androgyny. Is there actually a greater good that people are seeking through this statement of physical traits? I start to ponder about looking like either gender, unisex and neutral. Are these terms different, or actually mean the same? There are different voices behind androgyny but are they all very different, or what can androgyny say for you? I was reading up on something something about it. It strays too far from pandrogyny, I’ll introduce in my next entry, coming up in a few hours time! Haha.

he just doesn't make a very pretty girl, but nonetheless we figure the idea behind this

Pandrogyny is deliberate changes from unlikeness to likeness. How about deliberate likeness without the operations? I wouldn’t confirm the deliberate part, well, it’s highly debated. Oh, that’s not the point, just get to the pictures already.

 

bianca jagger absolutely looks strangely like mick jagger

pandrogyny or whatever gender terms aside, I really love her dress?

the bowie family of alikes

hello angela bowie

But I will like to highlight that angela bowie did go to some measures to resemble david bowie. Yes the hair, the hair was deliberately cut short. Okay, think in terms of couplehood, that’s quite romantic maybe? Haha, I’m not that sure. Brad Pitt dyes his hair to whatever his other half’s hair color is. I’m not too sure about this idea behind. Is looking like each other romantic? I hear that a lot, when two people start to hang out together a lot they begin to look like each other, works even between for man and pets. Well maybe, I’m not exactly going to fight this out, I’m more concerned about being alike right from the start. And so what does that say as well? The ego of your amazing looks? Is it amazing to date a somebody just like you? Or to prove that you can be another gender too? Really, tell me what you think about this.

Filed under: music , bowie, jagger, pandrogyny, personalities