10 Question Column: Dichroic Art Chair Inspired by Daft Punk

Blurring the lines between art and design, DJs and designers Juliette Mutzke-Felippelli & Diogo Felippelli, pictured at The Week club in Rio de Janeiro, are inspired by French experimental artists like Daft Punk, Etienne de Crecy & Cassius 

American designer Juliette Mutzke-Felippelli and Brazilian Diogo Felippelli first met on the dance floor at a club in Rio de Janeiro before they opened their design studio Joogii in Los Angeles. Today, French house music is still one of their key inspirations, especially for their dynamic new chair. Jeanne-Marie Cilento asked them 10 Questions about their life and work

French Touch's luminous layers, a homage to French house music   

FRENCH experimental artists like Daft Punk, Cassius and Etienne De Crecy inspired the design of Juliette Mutzke-Felippelli and Diogo Felippelli's latest work. Called French Touch, the chair pays homage to the nineties house music scene and its legacy to modern electronic music. Blurring the lines between art and design, the luminous colour spectrum of the chair's reflective surfaces and the puzzle-like lap joints are a metaphor for the conceptual way the music tracks were produced by layering disco samples with filters. "To create that distinct sound, it was all about mixing uplifting disco samples with heavy filters," says Mutzke-Felippelli. “I interpreted this layering and filtering process literally by using dichroic film, which acts as this beautiful colour filter applied to the flat acrylic surfaces of the chair, creating plays and reflections of light."

Playing to big crowds as DJ's at Rio's Museum of Modern Art

House music was always one of Juliette Mutzke-Felippelli's passions and while she was studying in Rio De Janeiro she met Brazilian Diogo Felippelli who was already a DJ in the city. Once they started dating they decided to deejay together at big clubs in Rio and also produce music. They then moved to Southern California and signed with a local label producing house music and doing shows in Los Angeles and Orange County.   

Designers Juliette Mutzke-Felippelli & Diogo Felippelli 

The couple decided to start their own company, Joogii, so they could open a studio together. They have been working creatively since they met nearly ten years ago and wanted to be able to work on design, art and music projects. While Juliette first completed her Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, she later decided to do a degree in Interior Design with an emphasis on furniture design at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. "Diogo's degrees in Communications plus an MBA have helped us build our design business," she says. 

The French Touch chair is designed and manufactured in Los Angeles and composed of dichroic film applied to CNC-cut acrylic, connected by steel bolts. “The film is cut and applied to the inner surfaces of the chair," Mutzke-Felippelli says. "The most important factor determining the design of the chair was to show off the 'dichroic effect'. So we created flat surfaces at every angle on the chair so you can see how the colors change while playing with light and shadow.” The chair will be available as a limited edition for $7,500. Scroll to the end of story to hear the mixtape created by the designers & DJs  for the French Touch chair.

Designing the J1 watch created by the couple's Joogii studio 

1.After working in music production and as deejays, how did you begin your career as designers? Music, like design, has a logic as well as an architectural building process. Musical tracks have different components like high hats and claps, that need to be considered the same way that form and function are considered in design. A great artist or designer also understands the value of resonating on an emotional level with their audience. I didn’t officially begin my career in design until going back to school to pursue my second degree in Interior Design. Diogo has been working in graphic design his whole career.

2. Why did you choose design as your artistic metier? We were hungry to create objects, concepts and environments that reflect who we are and what we love. The design industry has so many outlets where we can express ourselves, it feels like there are never ending possibilities to explore. 

Overlapping puzzle joints like music sampling

3. Can you describe the experience, person or training that has had the greatest impact on your design careers so far? There are so many moments that have brought us onto the path we are on today. I grew up around design as my father has worked in the industry his entire life (working in surface and industrial design) so he instilled in me an appreciation for it. Ever since I was a child, he would point out special buildings, like when we were in Argentina and he took my family to Faena Hotel which was designed by Philippe Starck. I feel in love with Starck’s whimsy and his ability to create magic in spaces. Diogo always had a passion for graphic design.   As a teenager he admired Washington Olivetto, the owner of W/Brasil, a famous ad agency known for their forward-thinking advertising campaigns. It influenced him to apply for a job in art direction at an ad agency after he graduated college. Since then, he has grown his passion for all types of art and design including typography and photography.

4. Where did you grow up and does this place inspire your creative work? Growing up in Newport Beach has always pushed me to pursue original ideas. The area is very traditional and conservative in a lot of ways and I think that has given me a very high appreciation for novelty.

The French Touch chair's layering of light & colours

5. Today, you are based in Los Angeles, what does the city give you creatively? We love living in Los Angeles. There is so much activity in the art industry right now in LA and it is so exciting to see so many new museums and that creative culture really bloom right in the front of our eyes. It feels like there is movement going on in the city and we are a part of it. One of our favourite things to do to get inspired is to visit the Brewery Art Walk downtown in the spring and fall. It's a great opportunity to see what local artists are creating in their own environment.

6.  Do you find your creative process when designing more rational or instinctive? I think we are both very instinctual. If we have an idea that feels right, we go for it.

Dichroic film on acrylic give the chair its rainbow hues

7. What do find the most challenging aspect of working as designers? Finishing. I think the easiest part of the design process is coming up with the idea. The hardest part is the details ~ especially towards the end of the project where the details are so critical to the design. And then once you have a prototype built, it can be difficult to evaluate it without emotional attachment. We design things that we love so it can be challenging to take a critical look at the finished piece.

8. What part of the designing and making process gives you the most happiness? We love being designers. To come up with an idea and figure out how to make it happen and then actually make it happen is so gratifying. I feel like half the battle in our industry is just perseverance. It’s always a question of willpower and belief to see a project through, especially when you are working on a project that is unorthodox or untested. The whole process can be thrilling and terrifying, but if you have belief and perseverance, I think you can create something special. To see other people enjoy the finished product is icing on the cake.

J1 watch designed by Juliette Mutzke-Felippelli & Diogo Felippelli

9. Do you have a set schedule of working creatively everyday or is the process more fluid?   It’s very fluid for us. I read once that Olafur Elliason (one of our favourite designers/artists) likes to do the thinking in the morning and the building in the afternoon and we try to prescribe to that as we think it’s effective.

10. In our digital age, what does design give us as an art form? Design is the new art. Advances in technology, especially 3D printing are allowing designers to test and create more intricately and faster than ever before. It is expanding the limits of design to allow for more artistic gestures, which we are embracing wholeheartedly.

Mixtape created by the designers for the French Touch chair:

Unguarded Moments: Backstage at Paris Men's Fashion Week AW16

Models backstage in Paris on the balcony at the Palais de Tokyo before the Issey Miyake AW16 show. Photograph and cover picture at Valentino AW16 Paris by Elli Ioannou Photomedia

Reporting from Paris, our correspondent Elli Ioannou captures the evocative backstage world of fashion shows where models & photographers are at the centre of the creative storm that ebbs and flows around the runway
  

Preened & dressed: ready for the runway 

DUE to the demands of social media, fashion shows are now either streamed live or released shortly afterwards. Capturing something backstage which is a truly unguarded moment is all about the models who are being prepared for the shows. From a photography approach, it has to be a documentary style rather than set up. There is a whole process based around life backstage for a model, a lot of waiting and being tended to by at least three to five people, from dressers to hair and make-up aritists and then more waiting to go on to the catwalk.  It is a life strung between infinite boredom and a high level of drama and pressure.

Waiting is a model's life: Issey Miyake AW16

Yet modelling can offer both excitement and opportunities as a profession, as the adrenalin rush kicks in once a show is underway and also at the exotic places it can take you around the world. Often the cities and the spaces where the shows are held are dream destinations. For example, models can step out on to the rear balcony of the Palais des Tokyo, for a short break  in foggy, wintry Paris between shows with the misty view of the Eiffel tower. For the professional photographer working during fashion week, there are essentially three areas for shooting.

Scrum of photographers compete for the best spot

There is the pit, as it is referred to in the industry because it can often be a real fight for the best position, even though most media have spots allocated. This is where the press photographers have to get the classic clean shot of the model looking down the lens. The second area (my favourite) is backstage and this is often one of the hardest to access but offers the most creative freedom.

Shooting backstage at Issey Miyake

Shooting backstage you need to be really mindful of not getting in the way and yet still be gutsy and assertive so you get the shots you want. A high level of professionalism is also called for and most photographers are not allowed to stay backstage once the show begins, unless they’ve been given prior permission. Then there are the ‘street’ photographers including bloggers and paparazzi who capture the atmosphere and the street style of those attending the fashion shows.

Paris Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2016: London Showrooms with Charles Jeffrey, Alex Mullins and Rory Parnell Mooney

London club style: designer Charles Jeffrey with his new collection in Paris. Portrait by Elli Ioannou for DAM Magazine

Art was the key inspiration in Paris this season for Autumn/Winter 2016 during men's fashion week. Emerging designers showing at the London Showrooms event, presented avant-garde and raw collections using collage, photo montage and Pop Art, report Jeanne-Marie Cilento and Elli Ioannou from the French capital.

The London Showrooms in Paris 

IN PARIS, walking into the London Showrooms for Autumn/Winter 2016 feels more like entering Andy Warhol's studio, with the designers' collections incorporating collage, photographs printed on fabric and Pop Art.

Charles Jeffrey, Alex Mullins and Rory Parnell-Mooney are star graduates of Central St Martins College of Arts and Design in London. All three designers' work is edgy combined with a fine attention to detail and tailoring. 

The designers were taught in the Master's fashion program by the late Louise Wilson, whose former students included Alexander McQueen and Jonathan Saunders. The designers' work at the London Showroom offers a great source of inspiration and fresh talent to Paris Fashion Week. 

All three designers' work is edgy combined with a fine attention to detail and tailoring and they produce their collections in the United Kingdom, keeping the tradition of the atelier alive

 

Alex Mullins' artistic collection in London

Showing their collections to potential buyers in the French city they receive feedback from experts who understand what their clients are looking for. 

In London, it's all about promoting the brand, with live fashion shows that are more like art installations.

Paris is where the designers get a taste of reality regarding who their customers are and how the clothes will fit. 

Also, if there is room for improvement to make their creations wearable and ultimately saleable.

The London Showrooms presentation offers a great source of inspiration and fresh British talent to Paris Fashion Week

Charles Jeffrey in Paris with his collection

In Paris, Charles Jeffrey's new collection was ordered first by a Japanese boutique and he also had a visit from Comme Des Garcons' Rei Kawakubo. 

The Scottish designer says Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo are his main heroines. 

“My collection was actually born out of a club I ran to support my Masters and I was particularly influenced by friends and characters who came to the club,” says Jeffrey. "Not just what they looked like but how they behaved even down to their body language such as twitching hand gestures and mismatched coat buttons."

The influence of club and street culture is one of the recurring themes in London designers' work and this kind of innovation appears to be in their DNA

Charles Jeffrey AW16 show at London Fashion Week 

The designer has translated these into the details of his clothes. 

The influence of club and street culture is one of the recurring themes in London designers' work and this kind of innovation appears to be in their DNA. 

During his internship at Christian Dior, Jeffery could also see the high level of craftsmanship that is possible in haute couture and how this could be incorporated into his own collections.

“My collection was born out of a club I ran, and I was particularly influenced by the friends and characters there,” says Charles Jeffrey

Rory Parnell Mooney at London Showrooms

Irish-born Rory Parnell Mooney says his new collection was inspired by painter Jan Van Duren, who also influenced the direction of early Balenciaga collections with his large-scale paintings of monks and nuns. 

Memories of Rory’s teenage self with lots of angst along with music from that time makes the collection quite personal. 

The designer got his break by being one of three designers selected to show at London Men’s Fashion Week for Topshop's TopMan sponsored event Fashion East. (Charles Jeffrey was also part of the show).



“Music and art are my main inspirations, this season I’m obsessed with Brian Molko from Placebo, known for promoting androgynous female aesthetics in the 90s," he says.

"Topshop nurtures emerging designers via Fashion East and the late Louise Wilson remains a massive influence even now.” 

“Music and art are my main inspirations, this season I’m obsessed with Brian Molko from Placebo and androgynous 90s female aesthetics," Rory Parnell-Mooney says

Rory Parnell-Mooney's new collection in London

Balenciaga's early work and Yohji Yamamoto are key influences for Parnell-Mooney too. 

The designer is more focused on style rather than trends and the process of making the clothes.

“Craft is important, the way things are handmade makes a big difference,” Parnell-Mooney believes. 

"Hand-made work is more interesting and creative and is one of the reasons why young London designers are desirable.”

“Denims are classically finished, and the arty, creative pieces have digitally printed photos onto calico, then I collage them back together,” comments Alex Mullins

Alex Mullins strikes a pose with his

work in Paris

Alex Mullins completed his BA in fashion at Central St Martins, followed by an MA at the Royal College of Art and this is especially evident in his work. 

Later, he also worked for brands including Alexander McQueen and Jeremy Scott before establishing his own label in 2014 with help from the British Fashion Council’s Newgen program. 

His latest collection resembles wearable art: photomontage with collage but with the finish of an atelier. “Denims are classically finished, and the arty, creative pieces have digitally printed photos onto calico, then I collage them back together,” says Mullins.

Creating and producing the work in house ‘atelier’ style is part of the brand's ethos of custom-made design. Mullin's mother taught him how to cut his first jacket as a twelve-year-old, as she was a pattern maker and fashion lecturer herself. 

“Coming from a creative family I was lucky to be able to discuss ideas and art references," Mullins says. "I didn’t realize this was unique growing up in a creative environment and having that support until I was at university.” 

Androgyny and custom-made clothing are the directions which all three designers say are the future trends in men’s fashion 

Alex Mullins AW16 collection 
featuring custom denim

Inspiration for the current AW16 collection stems from the everyday and mundane, such as the time spent waiting for a train or a bus. 

“Boredom is necessary to activate your imagination and encourages movement in yourself in a provocative way,” he says.

Androgyny and custom-made clothing is the direction that all three designers say are the future trends in men’s fashion and they all produce their collections locally in the UK, keeping the tradition of the atelier alive. 

Men's Fashion and the Future: Interview with Sacha Walckhoff

"It is a difficult moment to talk about fashion in Europe because it is very frivolous. But I believe you can still say a lot through fashion. I think there is the possibility to express something really interesting", says Sacha Walckhoff, photographed in Paris by Elodie Dupuis.

Christian Lacroix's Creative Director Sacha Walckhoff talks to Jeanne-Marie Cilento from his Paris atelier about fashion, creativity and the future. Photographs by CG Watkins 

TALL and handsome with an infectious laugh, Christian Lacroix's creative director Sacha Walckhoff brings his ebullient artistic energy to the house's menswear and lifestyle collections. After the eponymous couturier left the house five years ago, Mr Walckhoff has brought a fresh vision to the French brand. He worked closely with Christian Lacroix for 17 years so has a profound understanding of the house's artistic origins.

Sacha Walckhoff & Christian Lacroix during the glory years

Speaking from his Parisian studio, he says: “Today's collections are also very close to Christian Lacroix the man, even if we are not working together anymore. I'm still faithful to the spirit, the origin of the house. People associate Lacroix with very colourful prints. But I think there is another level of the brand which is about an artistic vision.” As a designer, Sacha Walckhoff works on many different projects for both fashion and interior design and brings a very passionate approach to his own creations. “I think everything in life is about what you feel, so feelings for me are very potent,” he says. “They are the foundation of the Lacroix brand too ~ it is all about creating emotions first. Then of course there are colours and prints. But the reason why the house is still alive is because it is built on feelings. I think that is why so many people are attached to Christian Lacroix.”


Dark flowers SS16. Photo: CG Watkins

He says the ideas behind the men's SS16 collections and Nouveaux Mondes home ware are contemporary yet still connected to the history of Lacroix. “I want to express tolerance and being open minded, this is what society should be. But it is very important for me to have an eye on the past and know where you are coming from. You have to know your past to go into the future. This is the theme of the collections this year. We still use the symbols of Lacroix, like flowers which could be quite traditional such as roses and peonies. But we put stripes on them and create a graphic statement and suddenly the flowers seem very modern.

"At Lacroix we have a story and yet we find a way to make it relevant. In the beginning, when I was appointed artistic director five years ago we went through the archives but I didn't want to change the designs otherwise people wouldn't recognise them. But we also realised very quickly that the things we took from the archives were not successful ~ because they were made at a special moment and now the times have changed."


Urban hubris SS16. Photo: CG Watkins

Looking at fashion on the streets, Sacha Walckhoff sees it as increasingly casual. "The problem with casual is that it is not very elegant ~ a very French statement! But you know in Paris in the 14th and 15th arrondissments, I see guys with beautiful suits and girls wearing beautiful dresses, jackets and hats. So the street style can look very good. But today people are lot fatter now than in the past and this is related to why they choose more casual wear."
As far as current trends in fashion, he still sees a slender aesthetic."People are wearing very slim lines, slim outfits and slim trousers, the young generation are still very body conscious."

The men who buy from the Christian Lacroix boutique in Paris are a heterogeneous group of artists, architects and lawyers from 25 years old upwards. "They are looking for something amusing with a good cut and good print with exquisite designs and fabrics. We are close to our clients. I am always trying to make the perfect shirts and suits. Pieces that you are happy to wear every day and then find them again in the next collection.When men find what they love, the right cut of pants or shirt ~ they don't want us to stop!"

Nature rules in the Paris suburbs. Photo: CG Watkins

Today, the fashion world has changed as luxury brands have some of their biggest clientele in Asia not Europe: "They were starving for fashion because of the political situations in their countries. I think what they are going through now is what we went through in the 1960s and 70s. Europeans are not our largest clients anymore. We have other situations that are very difficult here: people are too busy fighting for work, for places to live, really struggling. It is a difficult moment to talk about fashion in Europe because it is very frivolous. But I believe you can still say a lot through fashion. I think you have the possibility to express something interesting and the more that is expressed the better."

But the designer comments that he is surprised that many young designers are not expressing themselves as creatively as in the past with what they wear and design for themselves. "Today, when you look at men's collections that are very trendy, colourful and full of strange shapes ~ it is made for people to talk about and not to be worn. In the 1980s, we were making strange clothing but we were wearing it. We wanted to have originality and if you couldn't find what you wanted we made our own clothing. But now it is different as all of those young guys who are designing crazy outfits don't wear them. They are still wearing jeans and t-shirts as the designer and coming out on to the runway. It is very bizarre to me! It is like they are presenting clothes that they don't want to wear themselves.


Sacha Walckhoff as a young designer in Paris

"We were designing clothes and wearing them because we wanted to really express ourselves. I think fashion is becoming just an image ~ it is not real any more. Truly it is a feeling I have right now that people do not wear what they are designing. We need people who are a bit crazy and creative not only for the runway but also in real life." Mr Walckhoff  has an encyclopedic knowledge of fashion and can explain the history and provenance of a new jacket going back to influences from the Renaissance to David Bowie. But he thinks that the way new designers often just take ideas from the past directly without creating something new is very dull. "I don't think inspiration should be so literal as it is today ~ you need to transform it. I know the history of every piece of fashion. This is why at Lacroix I am always reworking designs from the past ~ but it never looks like the original. This is what is interesting in our world. I think it is a bit boring when you just take something and you reissue it. It is not something I would like to do."

Talking about the power of the fashion image today the designer believes it is more difficult to make an impact because we have visual overload. "We are bombarded by images today with the Internet and social media. It is difficult because you have to edit them all of the time. I am a bit afraid of being insensible to images in the future because there are just too many to filter through your mind. Even when you wake-up there are so many images to digest ~ even before having your coffee." Mr Walkhoff is also concerned

Colour & embroidery SS16. Photo: CG Watkins

about the increasing mechanisation of everyday life that makes us more distant from hand-crafted designs and nature.

"I was talking to [Dutch designer] Marcel Wanders, we were saying the machines will take over ~ they don't need food or rest ~ and one day there will be robots on the runway and robots making the collections and robots buying the clothes. We will be left at our country houses out of it all!" he says laughing. "With the new menswear collection, maybe it is about the fact that in an increasingly mechanised world nature is still much stronger than anything man can create. Maybe it is something unconscious trying to say that nature will always win ~ that is really the theme of this menswear collection."

Working with designer Jose Gandia, head of Lacroix's Studio Homme, on the collection, Sacha Walckhoff wanted to design classic clothes with a young and modern twist. There are very well cut suits in beautiful fabrics with linings made out of silk as well as prints and embroideries. All of the sweaters are from cotton so they are very breathable with others in Jacquard with embroidery. "The house is known for its mix and match, combining different things like prints, flowers, bright colours such as fuschia that in the end really work," says Mr Gandia. "This season we found the colours of Paris suburbs interesting, you feel like you could almost be in LA. It was very nice to shoot there."


Industrial Paris SS16. Photo: CG Watkins

For the collection's photo shoot, nature and the city were big inspirations. Mr Walckoff worked with photographer CG Watkins to shoot the pictures in the suburbs of Paris. “Nature is always stronger than man-made cities ~ here in the Parisian suburbs even though the plants grow in small spaces and on balconies ~ there is still a spirit of wildness. So we wanted to have the pictures taken in places which were quite built up but at the same time nature still managed to grow there." The photographer, who grew up in Australia, was very attracted to the idea of going to the outer suburbs in Paris to shoot. "It was really interesting and it was so busy ~ I didn't think the suburbs were so busy," Sacha Walckhoff says. "We went to a squat and saw this whole universe of people who are free and living with a certain wildness. They are constructing a new way of life. In some ways, it is a spirit that for me is quite close to what Lacroix is all about.The collection is based on both human nature and the wilderness which is coming out in the cities ~ despite the concrete."

Mr Walckhoff say the menswear collection expresses his vision of Lacroix. "Collaborating with CG Watkins who is British but raised in Australia we talked a lot about the dessert. You can feel it in all of his images. It is always good to have a link with the young photographers and the young magazines because it is the kind of customer we want to share the collection with. We have a lot of customers who are faithful to the brand. But it is also important to be connected to the young generation ~ it is a great way to do it working with young photographers."


Christian Lacroix's Nouveaux Mondes collection

The first collection of Christian Lacroix lifestyle was created in 2011. Mr Walckhoff is now responsible for overseeing the design of the menswear collections, eye wear, sunglasses lines, scarves and leather goods collections as well as home décor. The lifestyle and home wares collections have been very successful along with the menswear, but the creative director doesn't rule out a return to designing women's fashion again in the future.

Sacha Walckhoff has a special way of working artistically with his team at Lacroix. Designer Jose Gandia says: "It is a real pleasure working with Sacha as each season I discover something fresh as he presents a new book, a new artist for our inspiration. We share ideas then we work out what we want. We talk about the exhibitions we have seen and how that inspires us."

As artistic director, Sacha Walckhoff makes a presentation to his team twice a year and then the other designers have an input for specific collections. "Sometimes they propose things that make the designs richer," he says. "I like to have a creative dialogue with my colleagues when I am working ~ I feed them but they also need to feed me. I need interaction, this is my way of working. If I don't like something I just say it. But I love it when an idea comes from the studio and makes the concept deeper and more interesting. I welcome new ideas while keeping the vision of Christian Lacroix."

Basilicata, Southern Italy: A Place of Mystery, Magic and Secrets

Looking across Italy's Wild West, the rugged mountains of Basilicata with deep, austere ravines that are covered in a carpet of broom and violets in spring

Basilicata is one of the most dramatic yet least known regions of Southern Italy. From tiny, hilltop villages where you can listen to poetry while looking at the moon, to Francis Ford Coppola's beautiful hotel that draws actors and directors from around the world along with the Lucania Film Festival, this place is full of magic and secrets. Story & photographs by Mariangela Curci 

Glowing lamps at twilight on the terrace at Pisticci 

LIKE a great impressionist painting, Basilicata touches you with the mutable colours and subtle palette of its mountainous landscape, full of sinuous poetry and stark beauty. It is one of the smallest regions in the country ~ called the secret garden of Italy. Basilicata is a land rich in surprises from the coast to the wild mountains and from wide open parks to historical palaces.

The little villages up in the hills are intact and untouched as if time has stayed still, populated by simple, welcoming people who make any stay here quite unforgettable. But Lucania, the old name of the region, is not as isolated as it seems. Many artists, film directors, poets and composers have stayed here and been inspired, offering homage to this ruggedly beautiful region.



The ancient city of Matera looks to the future

Indeed in Basilicata, we find not only the third oldest city in the world with 10,000 years of history but also a place filled with innovative ideas. Matera, the ancient city of caves, will host the European Capital of Culture 2019, and today is known as an avant-guard incubator of artistic projects.

Late afternoon summer espresso in Bernalda 

Francis Ford Coppola, one of world's great film makers, is not only originally from Basilicata but is very proud of it. In Bernalda, the original town where his grand-father Agostino came from, Coppola has created a little paradise at the Palazzo Margherita, a hotel that hosts actors and directors who want to discover a real and authentic Italy.


Rivello lost in a deep and mysterious landscape

Lucania is an unusual place, where you can experience and live a unique way of life, far from everyday cares, and feel like you are in a film. You arrive in Basilicata on the old railway line with a train with just two carriages that leaves platform Nine and Three-Quarters like the express for Hogwarts. As the train trundles through the mountains, you look out and become immersed in the silence of a deep and mysterious country.


After the summer siesta in Pisticci 

Quotidian stress doesn't exist here, Lucania offers a spiritual aspect that welcomes visitors and soothes all of the senses. Your encounters with the places, tastes and people of the region always seem to be casual and authentic, things happen spontaneously. Here, it is enough to simply relax and let yourself be transported by the atmosphere of another, rather magical world.
In Satirano, during one day of the year at Carnival time, the men of this village dress themselves as trees and the surrounding forest appears to walk. In Lucania, you meet fortune tellers, musicians, and magicians. During the magic summer of Albano, you can still see traps set out to capture witches and symbolic fires lit to burn them, traditions that go back to medieval times.


The sun-baked main piazza of Salandra

Even more mysterious is Craco, a city of ghosts, that is completely uninhabited and abandoned between deep valleys and an arid earth. Every spring the calanchi or clay gullies around Matera blossom with broom flowers and wild violets, blooming across the sun-baked earth. This extraordinary landscape, unique in Italy, is where the population density is so low that you can roam for hours without meeting a soul.


Or you can leave the wilderness and go to the festival of Aliano, where you are able to listen to poetry while you stare at the moon or relax during the projection of a film on the terrace at Pisticci, the white city, where actors and directors gather during the Lucania Film Festival.

Poetry and films under the stars at Pisticci 

In all of these small towns, there is a cordiality on the smiling and curious faces of the people sitting on the benches in the main piazzas. It's impossible to not want to take at least one photograph of their sympathetic faces and bring them with you as memories of your voyage.
Pictured below is the Cinecitta Bar that overlooks the main square of Bernalda, designed by Sofia Coppola as a homely place for a good espresso and a pizza, while you watch the townspeople go by. It is at the front of the Coppola's 19th Century Palazzo Margherita which they renovated and restored with French architect Jaques Grange as a luxurious boutique hotel with a film screening room, beautiful frescoed salons and lush, leafy gardens and fountains. 

Francis Ford Coppola's Cinecitta Bar in Bernalda

Every village in Basilicata is different and enriched by it's own particular quirks. People tell different stories of their experiences, recounting the peculiarities of each place in their own way. Basilicata is like a small, secret world lost in time but looking out toward the future.

Translated from the Italian by Jeanne-Marie Cilento

Interview with David Adams: Filmmaker and Photojournalist

 David Adams riding across the plains during filming in Afghanistan of his enthralling documentary series "Alexander's Lost World."

Australian filmmaker and photojournalist David Adam’s exciting television series Alexander’s Lost World is broadcast on networks around the world. Jeanne-Marie Cilento interviewed the inveterate traveller about his adventures at his beautiful mud-brick home overlooking the Bilgola Plateau in Sydney

DAVID Adams and his cameraman travelled through the most remote regions of Afghanistan over a period of five years researching and filming the documentary series Alexander's Lost World. They travelled and lived like Afghans gaining a profound insight into the people and their culture. 

During the engaging six part series, David Adams takes viewers on a dramatic 2,400 kilometre journey through war-torn Afghanistan and Central Asia, following the course of the Oxus River. While the Ancient Greeks have long been credited for bringing ‘civilization’ to the East, Adams’ series shows how Alexander the Great discovered a highly developed civilisation that predated even the Persians. He explores the mysteries of the Oxus Civilisations and their tremendous fortress cities, recreated with evocative visual effects that make you feel like you are actually there amid the great walls of these ancient bastions.

As a filmmaker and photojournalist, David Adams is well known for his investigative work, particularly focused on indigenous peoples and their disappearing cultures. He has written, directed and produced many documentary films over the past 20 years, including Journeys to the Ends of the Earth, a 13-part documentary series made for the Discovery network.

Adams' passion for archaeology, anthropology and history has taken him around the world from Iran, Siberia and central Asia to the Pacific Rim, Northern and Central Africa. As a widely published photojournalist, his articles have appeared in more than 50 different countries and he has been a war correspondent reporting from Afghanistan and Georgia.
 

For more information about David Adam's work and Alexander's Lost World visit: davidadamsfilms.com.au.

Fashion and the Future: Interview with Sacha Walckhoff

"It is a difficult moment to talk about fashion in Europe because it is very frivolous. But I believe you can still say a lot through fashion. I think there is the possibility to express something really interesting", says Sacha Walckhoff, photographed in Paris by Elodie Dupuis.

On the eve of his menswear spring/summer 2016 collection arriving at Christian Lacroix next month, the house's Creative Director Sacha Walckhoff talks to Jeanne-Marie Cilento from his Paris atelier about fashion, creativity and the future. SS16 photographs by CG Watkins 

TALL and handsome with an infectious laugh, Christian Lacroix's creative director Sacha Walckhoff brings his ebullient artistic energy to the house's menswear and lifestyle collections. After the eponymous couturier left the house five years ago, Mr Walckhoff has brought a fresh vision to the French brand. He worked closely with Christian Lacroix for 17 years so has a profound understanding of the house's artistic origins.

Sacha Walckhoff & Christian Lacroix during the glory years

Speaking from his Parisian studio, he says: “Today's collections are also very close to Christian Lacroix the man, even if we are not working together anymore. I'm still faithful to the spirit, the origin of the house. People associate Lacroix with very colourful prints. But I think there is another level of the brand which is about an artistic vision.” As a designer, Sacha Walckhoff works on many different projects for both fashion and interior design and brings a very passionate approach to his own creations. “I think everything in life is about what you feel, so feelings for me are very potent,” he says. “They are the foundation of the Lacroix brand too ~ it is all about creating emotions first. Then of course there are colours and prints. But the reason why the house is still alive is because it is built on feelings. I think that is why so many people are attached to Christian Lacroix.”


Dark flowers SS16. Photo: CG Watkins

He says the ideas behind the men's SS16 collections and Nouveaux Mondes home ware are contemporary yet still connected to the history of Lacroix. “I want to express tolerance and being open minded, this is what society should be. But it is very important for me to have an eye on the past and know where you are coming from. You have to know your past to go into the future. This is the theme of the collections this year. We still use the symbols of Lacroix, like flowers which could be quite traditional such as roses and peonies. But we put stripes on them and create a graphic statement and suddenly the flowers seem very modern.

"At Lacroix we have a story and yet we find a way to make it relevant. In the beginning, when I was appointed artistic director five years ago we went through the archives but I didn't want to change the designs otherwise people wouldn't recognise them. But we also realised very quickly that the things we took from the archives were not successful ~ because they were made at a special moment and now the times have changed."


Urban hubris SS16. Photo: CG Watkins

Looking at fashion on the streets, Sacha Walckhoff sees it as increasingly casual. "The problem with casual is that it is not very elegant ~ a very French statement! But you know in Paris in the 14th and 15th arrondissments, I see guys with beautiful suits and girls wearing beautiful dresses, jackets and hats. So the street style can look very good. But today people are lot fatter now than in the past and this is related to why they choose more casual wear."
As far as current trends in fashion, he still sees a slender aesthetic."People are wearing very slim lines, slim outfits and slim trousers, the young generation are still very body conscious."

The men who buy from the Christian Lacroix boutique in Paris are a heterogeneous group of artists, architects and lawyers from 25 years old upwards. "They are looking for something amusing with a good cut and good print with exquisite designs and fabrics. We are close to our clients. I am always trying to make the perfect shirts and suits. Pieces that you are happy to wear every day and then find them again in the next collection.When men find what they love, the right cut of pants or shirt ~ they don't want us to stop!"

Nature rules in the Paris suburbs. Photo: CG Watkins

Today, the fashion world has changed as luxury brands have some of their biggest clientele in Asia not Europe: "They were starving for fashion because of the political situations in their countries. I think what they are going through now is what we went through in the 1960s and 70s. Europeans are not our largest clients anymore. We have other situations that are very difficult here: people are too busy fighting for work, for places to live, really struggling. It is a difficult moment to talk about fashion in Europe because it is very frivolous. But I believe you can still say a lot through fashion. I think you have the possibility to express something interesting and the more that is expressed the better."

But the designer comments that he is surprised that many young designers are not expressing themselves as creatively as in the past with what they wear and design for themselves. "Today, when you look at men's collections that are very trendy, colourful and full of strange shapes ~ it is made for people to talk about and not to be worn. In the 1980s, we were making strange clothing but we were wearing it. We wanted to have originality and if you couldn't find what you wanted we made our own clothing. But now it is different as all of those young guys who are designing crazy outfits don't wear them. They are still wearing jeans and t-shirts as the designer and coming out on to the runway. It is very bizarre to me! It is like they are presenting clothes that they don't want to wear themselves.


Sacha Walckhoff as a young designer in Paris

"We were designing clothes and wearing them because we wanted to really express ourselves. I think fashion is becoming just an image ~ it is not real any more. Truly it is a feeling I have right now that people do not wear what they are designing. We need people who are a bit crazy and creative not only for the runway but also in real life." Mr Walckhoff  has an encyclopedic knowledge of fashion and can explain the history and provenance of a new jacket going back to influences from the Renaissance to David Bowie. But he thinks that the way new designers often just take ideas from the past directly without creating something new is very dull. "I don't think inspiration should be so literal as it is today ~ you need to transform it. I know the history of every piece of fashion. This is why at Lacroix I am always reworking designs from the past ~ but it never looks like the original. This is what is interesting in our world. I think it is a bit boring when you just take something and you reissue it. It is not something I would like to do."

Talking about the power of the fashion image today the designer believes it is more difficult to make an impact because we have visual overload. "We are bombarded by images today with the Internet and social media. It is difficult because you have to edit them all of the time. I am a bit afraid of being insensible to images in the future because there are just too many to filter through your mind. Even when you wake-up there are so many images to digest ~ even before having your coffee." Mr Walkhoff is also concerned

Colour & embroidery SS16. Photo: CG Watkins

about the increasing mechanisation of everyday life that makes us more distant from hand-crafted designs and nature.

"I was talking to [Dutch designer] Marcel Wanders, we were saying the machines will take over ~ they don't need food or rest ~ and one day there will be robots on the runway and robots making the collections and robots buying the clothes. We will be left at our country houses out of it all!" he says laughing. "With the new menswear collection, maybe it is about the fact that in an increasingly mechanised world nature is still much stronger than anything man can create. Maybe it is something unconscious trying to say that nature will always win ~ that is really the theme of this menswear collection."

Working with designer Jose Gandia, head of Lacroix's Studio Homme, on the collection, Sacha Walckhoff wanted to design classic clothes with a young and modern twist. There are very well cut suits in beautiful fabrics with linings made out of silk as well as prints and embroideries. All of the sweaters are from cotton so they are very breathable with others in Jacquard with embroidery. "The house is known for its mix and match, combining different things like prints, flowers, bright colours such as fuschia that in the end really work," says Mr Gandia. "This season we found the colours of Paris suburbs interesting, you feel like you could almost be in LA. It was very nice to shoot there."


Industrial Paris SS16. Photo: CG Watkins

For the collection's photo shoot, nature and the city were big inspirations. Mr Walckoff worked with photographer CG Watkins to shoot the pictures in the suburbs of Paris. “Nature is always stronger than man-made cities ~ here in the Parisian suburbs even though the plants grow in small spaces and on balconies ~ there is still a spirit of wildness. So we wanted to have the pictures taken in places which were quite built up but at the same time nature still managed to grow there." The photographer, who grew up in Australia, was very attracted to the idea of going to the outer suburbs in Paris to shoot. "It was really interesting and it was so busy ~ I didn't think the suburbs were so busy," Sacha Walckhoff says. "We went to a squat and saw this whole universe of people who are free and living with a certain wildness. They are constructing a new way of life. In some ways, it is a spirit that for me is quite close to what Lacroix is all about.The collection is based on both human nature and the wilderness which is coming out in the cities ~ despite the concrete."

Mr Walckhoff say the menswear collection expresses his vision of Lacroix. "Collaborating with CG Watkins who is British but raised in Australia we talked a lot about the dessert. You can feel it in all of his images. It is always good to have a link with the young photographers and the young magazines because it is the kind of customer we want to share the collection with. We have a lot of customers who are faithful to the brand. But it is also important to be connected to the young generation ~ it is a great way to do it working with young photographers."


Christian Lacroix's Nouveaux Mondes collection

The first collection of Christian Lacroix lifestyle was created in 2011. Mr Walckhoff is now responsible for overseeing the design of the menswear collections, eye wear, sunglasses lines, scarves and leather goods collections as well as home décor. The lifestyle and home wares collections have been very successful along with the menswear, but the creative director doesn't rule out a return to designing women's fashion again in the future.

Sacha Walckhoff has a special way of working artistically with his team at Lacroix. Designer Jose Gandia says: "It is a real pleasure working with Sacha as each season I discover something fresh as he presents a new book, a new artist for our inspiration. We share ideas then we work out what we want. We talk about the exhibitions we have seen and how that inspires us."

As artistic director, Sacha Walckhoff makes a presentation to his team twice a year and then the other designers have an input for specific collections. "Sometimes they propose things that make the designs richer," he says. "I like to have a creative dialogue with my colleagues when I am working ~ I feed them but they also need to feed me. I need interaction, this is my way of working. If I don't like something I just say it. But I love it when an idea comes from the studio and makes the concept deeper and more interesting. I welcome new ideas while keeping the vision of Christian Lacroix."