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By Ksenia Galouchko

Q: What inspired your DESQUVAL guest post?

Living in Sydney, we are past winter and now well into spring. This time of the year, I am always inspired by bright bold colors and stunning flowers in my interiors and fashion. I find lots of inspiration for my home decorations during my weekly visits to the Saturday flower market, which is full of my favorite flowers such as peonies, roses and hydrangeas – the flowers I buy determine how I decorate for the week!

Q: What was your initial goal when you started your blog? What makes your blog unique?

I had a corporate career and I have always had a love for fashion and interiors, and my blog was a way to reach out to talented individuals with a common interest. Ada & Darcy is a blend of femininity, color, beautiful interiors and fashion, with my own home and products being featured very often. I guess my blog is different through its love of color, which always has a feminine charm rather than an edgy feel.

Q: Where do you find inspiration for your daily posts? And how would you describe yourself? I know that you own your own design store?

My inspiration comes from everywhere—other blogs, magazines or things I see out and about. The direction of each post comes from my mood and how I am feeling that day.

I tend to always be positive and full of energy. My blog posts are much the same, I don’t tend to say lots and lots, just bits and pieces, and I like to let my images do the talking. My decorating has the same feel to it.

My store, called Ada & Darcy, is an online boutique of beautiful home decorating items. I love patterns, color and interesting yet pretty pieces, and my store is a collection of all these things. I love to play with products and photograph them so an online store was the perfect outlet for this. I worked in a corporate setting for a long time and realized my creative side needed to be let loose. I have always loved decorating and wanted to have my own business so thought I’d give it a shot!

Q: You love fashion and design – what is it about fashion that excites you? What would you like to see evolve in the world of fashion and design?

What I love about fashion and accessories is how they make you feel. For me, if I love what I am wearing it affects everything I do and how I feel about myself. I also love pattern on pattern in fashion, accessories and interiors. Really, I see fashion as an extension of my love for interior decorating!

Being Australian, I’d love to see more of the European influence here and people appreciating the beauty of high-quality pieces. Perhaps it’s because of our relaxed nature but Australia is still not as fashion-conscious as other destinations.

Q: How would you describe your personal style? And if you were to change it two days a week, what style would you want to be?

My personal style is colorful and feminine, I tend to steer clear of anything edgy. I love ballet flats and don’t own a pair of running shoes. If I could change my look, I’d love to try classic and sophisticated – “the less is more” approach. I love it on others, I just feel uncomfortable when I try that look myself!

By Marina Kolobova

It is pitch black. A man in a Supima cotton leotard by Narciso Rodriguez slowly straightens his legs out on a dark platform, toes pointed. Jet black Swarovski crystals glisten on his arms.

This dance macabre is a rare collaboration between Rodriguez and artist Jonah Bokaer, created for MOVE! at MoMa PS1.  The stage, positioned in the middle of this darkened room, is the nexus where art becomes fashion and fashion becomes art.

Two floor above, Rodarte groups with Mexican installation artist Brody Condon. This time, the space is glowing turquoise. A team of people dressed in white move gold poles along the walls.

Visitors are expected to walk amongst the performance artists. They are also confronted by blue and white dancers, a room full of mirrors by Rob Pruitt and Marc Jacobs and The Makeover You Never Knew You Wanted by Cheryl and American Apparel, a glittering Halloween studio with potions and powders by Lancome. In this maze, visitors might, for instance, learn to dance, face the catwalk and have their picture taken within the space of an hour.

A young 1990s Kate Moss gathers form on large white wall through a projector on Floor 1. Amongst the video art, David Blaine circulates, casting surprised expressions across painted faces with his magic…

The set of artist Tauba Auerbach and designer Ohne Titel’s performance art piece Pause/Applause.

David Blaine performs card tricks at PS1.

Visitors learn choreography to Lady Gaga.

Here is who we met at the event.

Effie Yang gets a makeover at MOVE!

Jenna Phillips models vintage furs with an Alexander Wang bag.

Carolina Bittencourt wears weekend jeans with a soft grey coat.

Amy Gould all in black.

Katie Sharrar wears a Libertine jacket with skulls on the sleeve.

Gia Kuan, Christine Ahn and Gemma Giasano.

Kuan said she enjoyed the interactive element of MOVE!

Ahn wears a pair of satin shorts.

Gaisano in a wool coat from Bedo.

Emma Angstrom an architecture student from Sweden checks out the event.

When the recession forced many design companies to turn away from artistic creativity and focus on functionality, the Dutch-Belgian design duo, Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel, known as Studio Job, revolted and declared themselves artists, not designers.

“We recently said to each other, ‘O.K., from now on we really stop making design because design now forces us to go into functionalism, and we don’t want to go there,’” said Smeets in a recent interview for the New York Times Magazine. “So from now on we will just make art or something.”

Indeed, Studio Job’s art and furniture couldn’t be more different from the usual playful and functional Dutch design. The duo dislikes and “refuses” the association with other Dutch designers, saying they prefer to be seen as European artists.

“I feel that creativity surpasses borders, and won’t stop at some political border,” said Smeets in the interview.

The duo’s designs, which range from two-meter high teapots to giant stained-glass windows to crystal-studded table lamps, are influenced by Jeff Koons, Biblical themes and European history.

“Studio Job’s work is drawn from an artistic tradition that infuses everyday objects with grand historical themes,” said Smeets.

In spite of the critics’ complaints that the company’s design objects are overpriced, confusing and dysfunctional, Smeets and Tynagel, who live together in their studio in Antwerp, have enjoyed international appreciation, resulting in last year’s major retrospective at the Moss gallery in New York and “The Gospel According to Job” show in Milan.

“Nynke and I have always been working on the threshold between art and design, but we started off as designers,” said Smeets. “And now, after 10 years of studying, we are a little bit more on the side of artists than that of designers.”

Studio Job’s book, “Book of Job”, will be launched at Cooper Union New York, 7 December 2010.

For more Studio Job’s designs and to meet Job and Nynke, go to www.studiojob.nl

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From left to right, Marcus Wainwright, David Neville, Naeem Khan, Phillip Lim, Maria Cornejo

“We wouldn’t have been able to achieve what we have if we did it in Britain,” says British designer Marcus Wainwright, “Everything is in New York.” Rag & Bone’s flagship store stands at the heart of New York City’s West Village.

The Rag & Bone story began in Kentucky in 2002, when Wainwright and his colleague David Neville began learning how to make jeans. The company went on to sew American denim in U.S. factories, which use traditional, 50-year-old techniques, the Rag & Bone website proudly announces. The two designers have even collaborated with America’s most established manufacturers- take for instance, Waterbury Button, the oldest button maker in the U.S. But they’ve never forgotten their roots.

Rag & Bone’s cool American grunge is undercut by a British tendency towards tailoring and hard lines. A dark tweed jacket that would make the Queen of England and her corgis proud appears on the stage of The New Yorker. Yet true to Rag & Bone style, there is a bleak and sinister edge to this item. The designers lets us in on the story of the jacket, which they says is about “exploring the world.” “This is inspired by a man who mounted Everest wearing a tweed suit,” says Neville, “He never made it back down but his body was found in 2002 and they re-fabricated what he was wearing.” “It’s a cute jacket, yes,” he adds, “But if you can tell the history behind the fabric, there is something very special about that.”

Look from Rag & Bone’s Fall Collection

The puritanical look, with its leather boots and knee-high socks, was also formed through years of tough military schooling. “Growing up with tailored clothing was a huge influence on Rag & Bone,” says Neville, “And growing up in a school where you were surrounded by military figures was a big influence on Rag & Bone,” he adds. As the model shows Rag & Bone’s fall season deep green shorts, it becomes evident that every detail is shaped by the designers’ past.  “British boys have to wear shorts until they are ten,” says Neville, no British sarcasm intended, “Seriously!”

Look from Rag & Bone’s Fall Collection

Two other Fashion Forward panelists have a special relationship with America, creating some personal and imaginative designs.

“I grew up in California and it was like two worlds to go to school and speak English and go home and speak Chinese,” says Phillip Lim. Tough New York beauty Debbie Harry inspired one of his fall garments on display today. “I was looking at Blondie and there was always a context of severity around her,” says the designer, who replicated the austere geometry of New York’s punk princess in a skirt layered with trapezoids.

Look from Phillip Lim’s Fall Collection

Indian-born designer Naeem Khan mixes the cold urbanity of the American city with his personal history. A shattered window he saw became an inspiration for a hand-beaded design, says Khan. “I am taking something modern like a broken window and infusing Indian culture,” he says. Pouring his heritage into the piece, the designer explains that an item can take up to 300 hours to make using traditional Indian artisanal techniques. The inspiration board he displays at The New Yorker Festival shines with color, inspired by his recent travels. “I had been spending a lot of time in Miami!” says Khan.

Naeem Khan’s Inspiration Board

In New York’s melting pot, the designer-panelists have fused genders as well as nationalities and locations. “My mom is a doctor in London,” says Rag & Bone man Marcus Wainwright, “She always wore trouser suits but was very feminine. That juxtaposition was very feminine.”

Maria Cornejo, whose clothes are straight and masculine around the shoulders, concurs “I took a picture of my shadow and it was very manly and that’s what inspired this collection,” says the womenswear designer. Her personal experience of women’s clothes have deeply influenced not just the look but the feel of her designs. “I hate getting dressed up,” she says “I dress like a man half the time. Just because you dress casual does not mean you are not feminine. Now fashion is catching up to that.” Cornejo looks at her designs on a model. “She is wearing a graphite coat and sweater,” says the designer, “It is something you would wear every day, because that’s my lifestyle.”

Now a Michelle Obama- favorite, Cornejo too is a foreign-born designer in New York. Exiled from Pinochet’s Chile at the age of 11, Cornejo had an unusual childhood, she told the Huffington Post. A decade ago she launched Zero + Maria Cornejo, opening three stores in New York. “I like producing in New York,” she says, “You get to be part of the process.”

Once production is over, the designers await the public reaction. Phillip Lim says he wants to have contact with his customers and to make them feel confident and comfortable. “I wish I could always be there assisting people, seeing how they react,” says Lim. “The worst thing is to create something and see it on the sales rack,” he reflects. When an item is well received, on the other hand, the designer is elated. “The ultimate form of flattery is seeing someone in the street spending their hard earned money on a Rag & Bone product,” says Marcus Wainwright of Rag & Bones.

They often say that in America the streets are paved with gold. In New York the same is true of the runway. However, as always few make it. Take it from those that did: “New York is a very open city. Everyone can at least have a go,” concludes Maria Cornejo, “Doesn’t mean you succeed, but you have a go.

Author: Ksenia Galouchko

Slated for the main part of the New York Film Festival, Benjamin Heisenberg’s “Robber” and Aleksey Fedorchenko’s “Silent Souls” couldn’t be more different. “Robber” is an action film based on a true story of a professional Austrian marathon runner who robbed banks and ran off from the police until he couldn’t bear such life any longer. Fedorchenko’s “Silent Souls” follows a mythical journey of a widower driving his dead beloved to a ritual burning in suburban Russia. But despite apparent cultural and style differences of the two films, both tell a love story that crosses international borders.

“The film is full of mythology and symbols, but the love triangle between men and women is eternal and familiar to everyone,” says Fedorchenko. “Although the triangle is more like a circle here, it’s very gentle, it should be very clear to the world audience.”

Aleksey Fedorchenko

Heisenberg, whose movie was inspired by Hollywood action films, is equally confident that the U.S. audience will understand the “Robber.”  “It’s a touching and emotional story behind his constant running, behind the feelings of a person driven by insanity who at the same time yearns for a normal human relationship, while knowing that he’ll never be normal,” says Heisenberg.

The robber, played by Andreas Lust, is in a complex, yet loving relationship with his girlfriend Erika, who leads a normal life but sacrifices it to be with him, says Franziska Weisz, who plays Erika’s part.

“It’s not a common kind of relationship, both of them are strong characters, have their own lives. He wouldn’t be able to live with a woman who follows him. It’s this happy freedom, ability to let go of each other that keeps them together,” says Weisz.

Franziska Weisz

“This woman is very mature, she’s built up a life, but she has her needs and is vulnerable in that respect. She has the courage to go with this strange guy and to think he’ll be the one she can find the emotion she is looking for with,” says Heisenberg. “And to me this is very touching because she manages to find something in this guy and they have a relationship together.”

For both Heisenberg, 36, and Fedorchenko, 44, filmmaking is a new enterprise. Having gained international recognition with their first feature films in 2005, they are enjoying their second movies’ victorious parade through European—and now U.S.—festivals.

Benjamin Heisenberg

Raised in the German countryside near Frankfurt, Heisenberg studied fine arts and sculpture at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts for six years before realizing that filmmaking was his true passion. Fedorchenko, who had worked as an economist at a Sverdlovsk movie studio in the Ural mountains for eight years, at 32 decided to enroll in a scriptwriting course at the State Institute of Culture in Moscow.

“I was 35 years old when I made my first movie. Once in 12 years my body transforms itself completely. I used to be a very good economist, but then everything disappeared and now I can’t imagine doing anything else but film,” says Fedorchenko.

Franziska Weisz, Benjamin Heisenberg and Michael Kitzberger

Heisenberg and Fedorchenko say that securing funding remains a major challenge for emerging movie directors in this economy. But the biggest challenge, they claim, is staying true to one’s taste and style, even if the market says otherwise.

“My advice is that you have to follow your own dream and do what you believe in. It will lead to something, because people will feel that you have emotions that you’ll be able to bring out in the film,” says Heisenberg. “It’s a matter of intensity and faith, not how large your budget is.”

Fedorchenko says that if someone was pushing him to make films, he would no longer be a director. “This has to be a natural condition of the soul. One should film what they like. With some scripts that I don’t like, when I read them, I feel like an electrician reading a manual and thinking: What is casting, what is a scene,” says Fedorchenko.

“I am sure that one should make films for oneself, not for others, not for the audience. Because if you try adjusting your film to a general audience, this means you disrespect your audience, you think you are smarter than them,” he added.

Aleksey Fedorchenko

Author: Marina Kolobova

Photo credits: William Eckersley and Alexander Shields

Embarking on a new project, William Eckersley and Alexander Shields put the pedal to the floor.  Flying down the highway, they considered photographing a shooting range for their new book ‘U.S.80’, a documentation of their trip, when they ran out of gas. William waited in the car at the gas station while Alexander went to pay. Alexander would come back a little later than expected. With a Colt 45.

As it turns out William’s colleague had enquired about the location of the nearest range inside the station. “You want to see a gun?” said Tommy, one of the other customers, “I’ve got one right here.” He then proceeded to pose with it against his head for the photographers.

William recalls this spontaneous moment as “slightly voyeuristic,” “from another world.” Working with a large format camera, the photographer relies on contingency. His 30-year-old lens has a longer exposure time than digital equipment. Every click has to be perfectly timed.

His camera gives ‘U.S.80’ a cinematic quality. “ ‘Paris Texas’ is such a saturated, colorful film,” William says of his inspiration, “‘Vanishing Point’ and ‘Easy Rider’ as well, they have an old-fashioned look.” True to this style, William’s road-side landscapes have an uncomfortable, forgotten quality. A Japanese weed consumes an American forest. A purple sky looms over a rockabilly gas station with a Jesus is Coming billboard.

Alexander’s portraiture offsets William’s eerie panoramas. “Every character we met, every person was amazingly kind and willing to talk,” says William, “Among them were some extreme stories.” At the Touchstone Museum of Wildlife and Art in Eastwood, Louisiana, they met Lura. Inside her family museum are dozens of stuffed animals. The taxidermy stands against a painted safari backdrop. She poses with her exhibition pieces in bright purple suit and looks into the camera.

Searching for moments of tension and danger, William and Alexander, who self-published ‘U.S.80’, had to face uncertainty. William says the project came from “an acceptance that if you want to get ahead, you have to take risks.” William is also almost completely self-trained. “My father gave me a camera for Christmas when I was 15,” the photographer recalls.

Working with Alexander, William became a Stucco Press publisher when the duo undertook a project shooting London’s abandoned buildings. It took them to Victorian mental hospitals, old school rooms and squat houses full of damp cigarette butts. Their first book, ‘Left London’ is a concoction of litter, rot and peeling wallpaper, mysteriously arranged to reveal some kind of strange, dilapidated beauty.

Returned from his trip across the Atlantic, William is now back in London where his art career began. Here, he patiently and modestly awaits the timely opening of the ‘U.S.80: Exotic Country’ exhibition on Oct. 13 at Cole Contemporary, Little Portland Street, London. After months of detailed layout work, he looks back amazed that the book is finally finished, complete with an introduction by respected British journalist Jon Snow. “It’s like a garden,” he says, “You get this acorn of an idea and it grows. Then it just has a life of its own.”

For more information see: www.stuccopress.com

Photography: Svetlana Didorenko
Interviews: Ksenia Galouchko

Alana, 22, and Nicole, 22, New York, NY

Favorite up and coming designer: Tara Bliss, their bejeweled bags (in the photo)

Show most excited to see during Fashion week: Jewel Stewart

Fall-Winter season 2010: old fashion is coming back with a modern twist on the classic

Mahela, 26, and Marlena, 36, Italy, Rome

Show most excited to see during Fashion week: Chanel, Chloe, Celine

Fall-Winter season 2010: fashion is more about what you are feeling like

Hillary Alexander, London, UK

Favorite up and coming designer: Juan Carlos Obando

Fall-Winter season 2010: unusual prints, inspired by animals

Elizabeth S. Kott, 25, Los Angeles, CA

Favorite up and coming designer: Rad— their amazing structure is exciting and very American; Rachel Zoe

Show most excited to see during Fashion week: Prada, the whole experience is full of energy

Fall-Winter season 2010: amazing oversized bags, chunky jewelry

Marissa Grumer, 31, New York, NY

Show most excited to see during Fashion week: Marc Jacobs, Jill Stuart, Jason Wu

Fall-Winter season 2010: Floating dresses, femininity, camel, beige, faux fur

Elizabeth, Los Angeles, CA

Favorite up and coming designer: Christian Seriano—bold, edgy

Fall-Winter season 2010:  faux fur, silhouette is wide, high boots

Bob Bland, Brooklyn, NY

Show most excited to see during Fashion week:  Jones New York—versatility, wearability, perfect for every occasion, even maternity

Favorite up and coming designer: Charlotte Ronson

Fall-Winter season 2010:  Bold bright colors, bringing back rock

Emmaria, 23, Rachel, 25, Washington, DC

Show most excited to see during Fashion week:  Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld

Favorite up and coming designer:  Boxing Kitten—she mixes a lot of prints, including African designs

Fall-Winter season 2010:  Knee socks and chunky sweaters

All NY Fashion Week photos