The super inspirational Mannheim-based creative studio Deutsche & Japaner was formed in 2009 by Moritz Firchow, David Wolpert, Ina Yamaguchi and Julian Zimmerman: working in the field of graphic, product and interior design with a rich and highly aesthetic style. Since their start we’ve always been a big fan of their multidisciplinary work. The studio focuses on communication, regardless of its physical condition, environmental, haptical or visual, but always in regard of sustainable experiences, which over the course of the last years resulted in incredible free work, which blends smoothly with commissioned assignments. Next to Moritz' endeavors under the Deutsche & Japaner flag, he has also been running another important source of inspiration named Arcademi; an online publication focusing on (autonomous) creative work from all over the world. To which he added two other amazing projects in 2012; Aesthetics Habitat, through which content is created in collaboration with brands and creative visionaries with thrilling results so far, and lastly in the same year he co-founded a distinguished winery named Love Me Los Angeles, together with wine-expert Katharina Riess, Florian Breimesser. Having been constantly inspired by the creative mind of Moritz, we now ask him about his - general - inspirations. [ Continue reading ]

We are very inspired by LTAF ORIGIN. A design and craft research project by Jorinde Meline Barke, creator of label J-M-B JEWELRY, and Frank Michels, co-initiator at the great Berlin-based industrial design studio GECKELER MICHELS. The outcome of the project is a set of four different jewelry pieces implemented in an ancient indian lost-wax casting technique called Dhokra. During preliminary research, anthropological literature led to Dr. Jaidev Baghels’ workshop in Kondagaon — in the city of Chhattisgarh, India — a renowned hotspot for Dhokra. The jewelry pieces were crafted on site under Frank Michels' assistance with both primitive and thoroughly fascinating means. Dr. Jaidev Baghels’ son Buphendra Baghel played a decisive role with leading the making and his team of skilled workers. The seemingly simple process turned out to be a complex and almost alchemistic affair, reminiscent of the Bronze Age’s enormous power of technical and social revolution. Into operation came materials such as sulfur yellow beeswax and black industrial paraffin way, river bed mudd, cow dung and earth from termite’s nests. Remains from used brass vessels were being recycled, and two hens were sacrificed in order to arouse a succesful casting operation. [ Continue reading ]

The new independent magazine named At Large was conceived in early August of last year with the clear goal to be not just another lifestyle magazine. The ambitious premier issue is dedicated to the talented artists, writers, photographers, and designers who came to Editor-in-Chief Randall Mesdon and his team, as friends and collaborators, which resulted in photography-driven stories honestly portraying the subjects as they actually are. The debut issue of At Large has no less than four covers —including rising stars Jack O’Connell from Unbroken and Luke Grimes from American Sniper— both shot by Randall himself. Bruce Weber contributes a beautiful original portfolio to the first issue, to go along with photo-collages by Jack Pierson and limited-edition bandanas by Young. A third cover, our favorite, features pro surfer Ben Skinner, photographed here by Ben Weller with styling by Julie Ragolia, with an accompanying candid seaside story within. The fourth cover, with artist/model David Alexander Flinn is shot by Mark Abrahams, styled by Deborah Watson. The long-haired Travis Smith takes center stage in another fashion feature, photographed by Matthew Brookes and dressed by Bill Mullen in the season’s sharpest, cleanest sportswear pieces: completing a very elegant first introduction. [ Continue reading ]

With the release of the imagery for the Ø L Å F cap one of the most promising names in Dutch fashion at this very moment, Olaf Hussein, presents the first sneak peek at the new upcoming Autumn/Winter 2015-2016 collection, which was shot on location in Los Angeles by photographer Violette Esmeralda. While at first the waterproof fabric creates a clean and technical aesthetic, the branded velcro strap shows another side to this headwear piece as a clear sign to become part of the street style in Amsterdam and beyond. With its nuanced bolder look, the Ø L Å F cap has set the tone for what’s to come, which seems to be another ambitious move forward for the Amsterdam-based label. As the cap is created from a waterproof rubber fabric, the Ø L Å F cap, at first sight, stands for the familiar clean aesthetic, but at the same time evokes curiosity how technical innovations continue to become part of the collection, which were first to be found within last year's first full range by the label. As for the cap, as stated by our friend Olaf himself: wear it as you please, as long as it’s on your head. We highly anticipate the actual collection by the hard working Olaf and his team. [ Continue reading ]

At the end of last year the Berlin-based Croatian photographer Katja Kremenić shared some of her latest dairy shots with us and they are, like her earlier work, quite stunning. We first wrote about Katja's work after the release of the highly remarkable series named 'Rip Currents', which was preceded by other beautiful grainy black and white series with similar themes named 'Corse Noir' and 'Bonanza', in which the photographer explores areas with the sea and beach holding a prominent role as the iconic backdrop for the often-times softly portrayed subjects of her images. In these recent diary shots her love for analogue techniques, the beach and female appearances is again very apparent, always maintaining a significant sentiment of soft- and even tenderness in the images she creates. The motivation for all of Katja's work lays in catching certain feelings and an overall atmosphere at the particular moment in time, when she encounters, people, places or even clothes, which she directly aims to communicate to the spectator. Consistently resulting in remarkably appealing images, making us look forward to more beautiful work by the very talented photographer. [ Continue reading ]

Michaël Verheyden is a Belgian designer, based in the city of Genk, birthplace of Martin Margiela for one, in the West of Belgium. The very talented creative mind creates fashion accessories, home accessories and furniture with a distinct elegant robust aesthetic. Verheyden graduated as an industrial designer in 2001 and before starting his own design label, worked together with, among others, another Belgium design master; fashion designer Raf Simons. The highly influential designer coached Verheyden's graduation project and commissioned him to make a series of leather bags for his Spring/Summer 2003 collection. In the same year as working on the pieces for Simons, Verheyden started his own label focusing on leather bags and accessories, which trained his exquisite eye for detail and dealing with all kinds of different materials. [ Continue reading ]

The Amsterdam-based fashion project Black Rabbit fascinates us profoundly. The story behind the project is both romantically intriguing and proof of a relentless love for collecting and exquisite eye for quality. The story starts with one of the founders, Leo Velimir Brancovich, visiting Mongolia about 20 years ago. There he met a teenage boy, who eventually agreed to trade his unusual earth colored trench-coat for the spotless NATO parka Brankovich was wearing. That mysterious coat remained with Leo for the next eighteen years. He was very intrigued by it, but a rectangular label on the inside pocket was the only thing to identify where it had come from. The label bore the initials “БЯ” in cyrillic script and between these two glyphs was placed the roman numeral “III” on a deep red-brown vertical band. In the following years Brancovich started searching for more garments and found six more of these exceptional and mysterious garments. In his quest he also met fellow-collectors, of whom Taro from Tokyo played an important role by introducing him to a lady living in Casablanca and her much larger Series III collection, stored in an 1970‘s brick villa near Avignon. These two collections, of Taro and the lady from Avignon, proved to be the foundations of the Black Rabbit project to reissue these captivating garments. The group’s name - Black Rabbit - is a homage to the mysterious “БЯ” initials - the only feature common to all of the original Series III source garments Brancovich and his partners have so far discovered. [ Continue reading ]