André Bryson - Guerrilla - Emerging Fashion Designers at NYFW

For those of you who may not be familiar with the term, Guerrilla is the name given to irregular military combatants, like a 'Resistance' army; not an official army... In my correspondence with the designer André Bryson he tells me that these 60's 70's silhouettes are a reference inspired by the tensions of the day, both in the USA; and tensions in the UK epitomised by the Mods and Rockers. Clearly André sides with the Mods on the style front. And quoting Bryson directly "Only the five primary colors (black, white, red, yellow and blue) I wanted to express that every color known to man is derived from these five colors in hope to bring unity to this collection as a complete story." I suspect the colours chosen also represent a message of unity in more than just the designs. My photos are of some of the highlights from the Guerrilla range, shown with Bracé Designers Emergent De la Mode NYFW at The Stewart Hotel, NYC September 2017.

I love the blocked colours and bold stripes, patch pockets and windowpane broken-checks, black with white or white with black, playing with positive/negative combinations. The innovative Nehru jacket as an open-front blouse with a scarf or pussy bow tied at the collar, a personal favourite of mine. Curiously, weeks later I saw similar concepts being sent down the runway in my news feeds from the Paris shows.. Weeks later.. Bryson seems to have the zeitgeist a fashion designer needs on his side. Love his designs? You can contact him directly via his instagram below. For more shots, just scroll down!

https://www.instagram.com/andre.bryson/
SFS New York Edition is Sponsored by White Caviar Life, Destination Travel.

Telling Stories in Pictures all over..

Kent Johnson, Sydney, Australia.

0433 796 863

kent@artcommunication.com.au

www.kentjohnsonphotography.com.au

www.fashionphotographysydney.blogspot.com/

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Joanna Frank - Magnitude of Dissonance at Goodspace Sydney

I'm getting to like Goodspace in Chippendale more and more. Sure it's a little rough but that is certainly part of it's charm; and that allows the work on the walls a kind of authenticity.. truth.. that you don't get in your perfect pure white cube. Anyway, it's interesting to see the current growth of text as art, in this show - something we were warned NEVER to do when I was at art school - but then Joanna Frank is a well seasoned creative with plenty of design, art and music projects under her belt and can pick and choose subjects of her own desire. I asked Joanna if PUNK was back; creating a magnitude of dissonance all my own - I can see it's much more than that! Love those slogans, the gold, the black and the paintings with a positive/negative geometry and of course, cultural iconography too. It was one night only, last night; however you can track down her work on IG and her Frank website here.

Artist Joanna Frank at Goodspace Gallery.

http://joannafrank.bigcartel.com/
https://www.instagram.com/madrasmade/
https://www.instagram.com/good.space/

Telling Stories in Pictures all over..

Kent Johnson, Sydney, Australia.

0433 796 863

kent@artcommunication.com.au

www.kentjohnsonphotography.com.au

www.fashionphotographysydney.blogspot.com/

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Getting My Geek On at Fred Wilson Chess Books NYC!

What makes for a perfect travel souvenir? It's a really tough question isn't it; and one that will have a different answer at different times of life too I think. So at this stage of my life; I'm mostly happy with the pictures I take while I'm away as souvenirs of my journey. That said, for the last few years I have been playing chess again, and the search for nice and affordable chess sets has also become a bit of a thing. Where do all the chess pieces and chess boards go? I mean there must be millions of them out there, and yet they seem quite hard to find. At least attractive sets seem harder to find than you would probably think! New York City is of course a famous chess playing city so I thought where better to find an interesting vintage chess set than New York.. Continued below

Now before I left Sydney I did a bit of google searching for Thrift and Chess shops, hoping to turn up something nice without a specialist store or antique shop price tag. I found an interesting cluster of Thrift shops around East 23rd and Third Avenue including the City Opera Thrift Shop - nice - and my favourite Vintage Thrift Shop, "Nonprofit vintage-goods flagship store benefiting the United Jewish Council of the East Side." The latter shop had had a mid century modern Hermann Ohme Chess Set I spotted on their Instagram in the weeks before the trip, but unfortunately for me, already snapped up. They did have another set when I visited the store made of stone or marble, way too heavy to bring back; and not really the sort of thing I was after. So then it was a trip even further downtown to Fred Wilson's Chess Book store on East 11th Street in the hope he might have what I was after.

Bijan Royal (props) on 11th Street

Fred's is not a street front shop; the book shop is up on the 3rd floor, so it was great to get inside an old commercial building with a beautiful ornate cast iron staircase - right outside the lift - on just day two. It's along the corridor and around the corner but very easy to find. And there it, and he were, and is in the pictures below. And Fred had just what I wanted, just what I was looking for, even if I did not know it myself.

An early to mid 1940's "Drueke's *American Made* Chessmen" Red and Cream #23 in the original box, a simple folding cardboard red and black board. And to top it off a volume called "Russians Verses Fischer," I mean does it get any more NY & American than that! All ready to go in the left of the portrait below. So there it was, a perfect NYC souvenir for me and I had a great time chatting with Fred,  talking about how bad my game is and I don't even understand why I like the game so much.. While there I also met a Ukrainian player who like me had found the shop via Google. Yes Google works. A week later I headed back to see if Fred had managed to dig out any Kasparov books for me. Again he came up trumps with a well annotated volume "Kasparov's Fighting Chess" and also recommended his own volume "Simple Attacking Plans" to help me get my game a little sharper. Fred, I am reading it and enjoying "Simple Attacking Plans" direct, simple and effective concepts and game examples. Thank you! One last thing; one of the other uses for the souvenir chess set is that I like to work it into a shot of the place we have visited, sometimes with Vivienne for her travel website White Caviar Life; after all that's the real reason we were in NY in the first place. We did one, and that shot closes out this story below with a perfectly styled outfit. Hope you all like it. So don't forget to check out White Caviar Life too, New York, Prague, it's all happening, and Viv is now playing chess for real too!

Fred Wilson at Fred Wilson Chess Books.

http://www.fredwilsonchess.com/
Fred Wilson Chess Books
80 East 11th Street, Suite 334
New York.
http://whitecaviarlife.com/

Telling Stories in Pictures all over..

Kent Johnson, Sydney, Australia.

0433 796 863

kent@artcommunication.com.au

www.kentjohnsonphotography.com.au

www.fashionphotographysydney.blogspot.com/

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Dexter Simmons - On The Runway @ Art Hearts Fashion NYFW 2017

Even after editing these 25 or so pictures of the DEXTER runway show from Dexter Simmons. I still can't decide how much of this range is wearable; and how much is the pure showmanship that helps sell the shorts, tee shirts, singlets, caps and jackets that are the backbone of Streetwear sales. And I'm not even sure any of this is for sale but I did see a woman in a DEXTER singlet shirt in the queue to go into the show so I imagine the basics will be out there - they are pretty out there already so you certainly wont miss them! Continues below..

 I love that Simmons seems fearless in his appropriations, I mean who mixes boxing shorts with Goth? I mean really, who? He's mixing on season Camo, Heavy Metal, Punk, freakey 70's Bubble Gum Card/Astrology, graffics illustrations by Caitlin Mattisson; patches from 1970's icons of rock and well, whatever.. that bondage/batman black jacket and hood - with little ears; was that JUST for GOTHAM? The red lips and fangs motif that appears as patches or large on hats, sleeves, shirts and very large on the back of jackets seems to riff on both the Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Rolling Stones..I certainly hope Simmons gets his trickier pieces off the runway and into the stores. I for one would love to see all these designs out on the street. Check the shots below - Big thanks to White Caviar Life for this superb engagement, go check them out straight after you are done here - Now on with the pictures! PS finally back on Instagram.. or Follow on Facebook!

http://dextersimmons.com/
http://caitlinmattisson.com/

Previously - Art Hearts Fashion -
http://streetfashionsydney.blogspot.com.au/2017/09/purvi-doshi-at-art-hearts-fashion-new.html
http://streetfashionsydney.blogspot.com.au/2017/09/a-captive-line-up-for-art-hearts.html

Telling Stories in Pictures all over..

Kent Johnson, Sydney, Australia.

0433 796 863

kent@artcommunication.com.au

www.kentjohnsonphotography.com.au

www.fashionphotographysydney.blogspot.com/

Facebook Twitter Instagram