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With fashion performances (Slovenian and foreign designers), photography and video exhibitions, presentations and roundtables with guests such as Koji Tatsuno (a selection of his looks will be on display) and Kristin Knox of The Clothes Whisperer, Projekt Radar is a promise of a full course dinner for the fashion-starved. Do I have to emphasize I'm excited?

Along with fellow bloggers Ana (Fensišmensi) and Anže (Ulični stil) I have been invited to stay in Maribor from Friday to Sunday, blogging and tweeting from the event. If you can't make it to Maribor, count on us to keep you up to date.

Check out the Projekt Radar official program.

Countdown to Projekt Radar is a post from Dressful.
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Back in March I visited the Diana Vreeland After Diana Vreeland exhibition at Museo Fortuny in Venice, Italy. It was the day after the opening that was accompanied by an international symposium on Diana Vreeland, bringing to Venice notable scholars, curators and other fashion people I felt I should have recognized in the small, shaded streets surrounding the museum. When I saw a lady wearing a fabulous bright patchwork coat, I just knew she was not around by coincidence.

The exhibition, dedicated to Vreeland's life and work as fashion editor of Harper's Bazaar and editor-in-chief of Vogue, displays a selection of magazines and dresses by Yves Saint Laurent, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Emilio Pucci, Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli, Missoni and Ballets Russes costumes that Vreeland had collected. (Unfortunately they didn't let me take any more photos than the one above)

While I was tickled pink to share space with dresses by some of the best fashion designers of the 20th century at least for half an hour, the exhibition awoke a curiosity for Diana Vreeland's life beyond what you can read in encyclopedias and I longed for more biographical details. It mostly focuses on the philosophy and feeling of Vreeland: how she thought, how she worked, what she liked. Then again, fashion is never about revealing too much. Vreeland herself was the master of that.

The exhibition runs until June 25, 2012. Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, Italy.

Diana Vreeland After Diana Vreeland exhibition is a post from Dressful.
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Gone are the times when New York City and Yohji Yamamoto were a novelty, something unreachable. I have lost a good portion of my proverbial naivety, my notebook holding the words "I guess I'm no longer a dreamer". Perhaps the hibernation of poetic thoughts has sharpened my senses in a different way. Why are the most crushingly immense transitional places always metaphysical?

Long Live the Immaterial is a post from Dressful.
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Anna Dello Russo for H&M

I.
When the press release announcing the collaboration between Anna Dello Russo and H&M landed in my inbox, my initial thought was that these collaborations are getting old. While I had anticipated a number of them in the past with curiosity and enthusiasm, they no longer feel as exclusive and special because there is no space to breathe between one collaboration and the next. Once the hype in the media and online has subsided, you just know there's going to be a new collaboration tugging at your subconscious consumerist strings very soon. This cyclic course should really be linear because the way to progress is innovation, not repetition.

Though this is of little concern to H&M as their marketing strategy is collaborating with big fashion names – not even necessarily designers – to bring in tons of money, I would be infinitely more excited about high street brands employing young, emerging designers. It would reintroduce suspense and freshness, two elements almost all previous H&M collaborations have lacked (if you're familiar with the designer's signature style, you have a good grip of what the collaboration will be like) and contribute towards a less self-obsessed fashion industry.

Elsa Schiaparelli hats

II.
While H&M's decision to collaborate with Anna Dello Russo makes perfect sense in terms of appeasing the evergrowing online crowd of fashion bloggers, readers and commentators, the news about the revival of Schiaparelli took me by surprise. Diego Della Valle, CEO of Tod's, plans to open Maison Schiaparelli in Paris during menswear fashion week in June. His statement that "we won't be chasing the commercialism of the fashion world: this is a project that aims for the best in terms of taste and quality, and will provide all the calm necessary to achieve that" (source) indicates a possible radical shift in the brand's vision and aesthetic, much like revived Balmain. Elsa Schiaparelli was anything but toned down with her claw gloves, trompe l'oeil designs, walloping headpieces and lobster dresses. If she were alive today, her number one customer would be Anna Dello Russo!

The aim of the old-new brand is to revisit Elsa Schiaparelli's ideas in a contemporary style. Has fashion really become so dull that nobody has their own ideas? I don't think so. Besides, Schiaparelli's ideas were revolutionary in that moment in time. They would not have the same effect today, no matter how skillfully appropriated and turned inside out. It was easier to stand out in the 1930s than during reign of singers wearing raw meat to get attention.

III.
Refusing to employ new talent and ideas in the fashion industry is an enormous and deliberate waste of creative potential. As a creative person, you can achieve a lot by self-initiative, but you improve the most when you have to meet increasing demands that do not depend entirely on yourself.

The fashion industry is increasing its demands everywhere but in creativity.

Wanted: Non-Designers, Dead Designers is a post from Dressful.
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There are as many reasons for having a fashion blog as there are fashion bloggers. The degree of monetization that allows the blogger a comfortable lifestyle (I'm vary of "luxurious" over "comfortable"; a blog is not an accurate representation of the blogger's life because it only shows what the blogger wants you to see) is widely regarded as the peak of fashion blogger success. However tempting it sounds, there are bloggers who would actually not be interested in dropping everything on the spot to become the next Famous Fashion Blogger for reasons such as being in school, having kids, enjoying their current job etc.

Why do I blog?

My motive for starting this blog was essentially what I've accomplished in the past year: 1. establishing myself as a relevant blogger and writer attending major fashion weeks and 2. being accepted to London College of Fashion to study fashion journalism. It was through blogging that I realized I want a career in international fashion. In order to land the kind of jobs and projects I'm interested in, I need to be physically present in one of the four fashion capitals. I have a blog, but nobody is going to hand me a career, let alone my dream job, over the internet because thousands of others have tried harder, moved to New York or London and relentlessly started working their way up the fashion ladder. In this industry trying harder often pays off better than being talented.

Though the purpose of this blog has been partly fulfilled with my acceptance to London College of Fashion, quitting blogging is not on my agenda. In fact, one of my dreams for Dressful has always been to publish exclusively original content (photos and writing). I think that's the number one thing a quality blog should have. I don't post outfit or street style photos, so creating original content that fits the theme of this blog constantly is only possible in a city with a huge fashion scene and many events. Therefore the fulfilled blogging purpose opened the door to a new purpose. Let's hope London will be everything it's cracked up to be and more.

Why do you blog? is a post from Dressful.
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Mogoče bo humoreska, mogoče drama, vsekakor pa žur besed, idej in lepega. Na eni strani odra modna ustvarjalka Janja Videc, na drugi jaz, modna blogerka. Ne, ne bo STEREOtipov!
Pridi, noter te spustimo brez kakršnekoli vstopnine.

Vidimo se v sredo, 25. aprila, ob 19h v Kinu Šiška!
//pofočkaj se na Facebooku//

Obleka: Janja Videc. Fotografija: Tania Mendillo.

Art dialog: Eva Domijan in Janja Videc is a post from Dressful.
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I got accepted to London College of Fashion to study MA Fashion Journalism two weeks ago. Since then I've been experiencing a burnout further intensified by seemingly endless pages of uni work. You can always choose a few different paths in life and all of them will be relatively good, but studying fashion journalism at London College of Fashion was what I was putting the majority of my hopes in for the past year, there weren't really any other options. When I got accepted at the interview with the course director in London, I was thrilled that now I had a future and a chance to learn, improve professionally and do much more than I could ever do in Slovenia. It also meant, however, that the once vague idea that my life would change drastically one day suddenly became reality, hence the burnout. Whenever you work hard for something, regardless of whether you succeed or fail, in the end you're left with this vast nothingness. I suppose the next half a year (I move to London in September) will primarily be about adjusting.

London Calling is a post from Dressful.
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fashion week is the flirtation of clothes with buyers and press

Fashion week is when it becomes crystal clear to you that it is impossible to write properly about collections based on photos. The flirtation takes place on the runway, not through the screen. However, often not even a front row seat will ensure you will be able to see and take in every detail on the garment (this is especially true for haute couture, which is built upon exquisite craftsmanship). I think the ideal way to experience a collection is this: first, you go to the show to see the clothes on models, in motion, to discover how the garments behave. After a day or two, you go to the showroom to take in the details and see how the garments are made (the runway is always about the bigger picture). Buyers work this way, as well as editors and (some) fashion journalists.

Last week I saw a Maison Martin Margiela dress, the defining aspect of which was the sound of velcro straps holding the skirt together being pulled apart. If I saw a photo of the dress, I wouldn't give it a second thought nor realize that due to adjustable velcro straps you can wear the dress in countless ways. It's not just individual garments: many times I've attended a show and the official photos released afterwards didn't look nearly as dashing as the runway. Though photos make clothes immortal, they often don't convey all their magic.

Experiencing clothes is a post from Dressful.
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The 11 brands that participated in the exhibition were: AI_Andrea Incontri, Pedro Lourenço, Leitmotiv, Benedetta Bruzziches, C.B. Made in Italy, Mungo Gurney, Vernissage, Joanne Stoker, Shourouk, Hexa by Kuho and Ricostru. Of course, with a large number of designers comes an equally large number of (different) visions. The exhibition was too diverse to be summarized in a single post, so today I'd like to share just my favorite part of it: shoes by Joanne Stoker and AI_Andrea Incontri.

AI_ANDREA INCONTRI
The pink pump with silver specks is fairy tale material, almost too fragile to be worn. Then again, fashion never comes quite alive when put on display.

JOANNE STOKER
Because I see an abundance of beautiful clothes and accessories at fashion weeks, my friends often ask if it's difficult for me to constantly be exposed to covetable pieces, all of which I obviously cannot have. The truth is that the more I immerse myself in fashion, the less often I feel the desire to actually buy it. I think it's precisely because I see so much of it – as terribly ephemeral as it makes it all sound, if I skip something I like, there will most likely be a new, similar piece soon that I might like even more. With Joanne Stoker's shoes, however, I immediately knew I need not look any further: the first pair, perhaps in a slightly brighter colorway, might as well be my dream pair.

Joanne Stoker shoes at Vogue Talents Corner is a post from Dressful.
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At Sonia Rykiel's Fall/Winter 2012/2013 show in Paris, I experienced the ugly side of the fashion industry for the first time.

I was supposed to attend the Maison Martin Margiela show in the 8th district before Rykiel, but I hadn't received the invitation and the PR people didn't find me on the list either. They told me to wait and once everyone has been let in, they would check again with someone else, but I was afraid that if I stayed, I'd miss Rykiel – for which I did have the invitation – so I decided not to waste time and head directly to the Tuileries by metro.

The show was running standardly late; in the meantime, a giant group of photographers gathered on the side of the venue near the entrance, snapping photos of celebrity attendees, front row, the usual fashion week distractions (do you remember when the press actually focused on, you know, clothes?). The surprise that left a bad taste in my mouth was that in the midst of this superficial paparazzi chaos, Sonia Rykiel's arrival went literally unnoticed. Emerging from backstage, two men supported her as she walked; once she sat down in front row, it was as if she wasn't Sonia Rykiel, one of Paris's most legendary designers, but a completely anonymous woman. Her entrance got approximately as much attention as mine. Nobody bat an eyelash. Nobody took her picture. Nobody interviewed her on camera. Flashes kept flashing and cameras clicking on the other side of the venue, undisturbed by the presence of the woman who had founded the house whose show we were there to see. Some people came to say hi to Rykiel after a few minutes, but you could see they were old friends who have known her forever.

Though Sonia Rykiel has quit designing (last March was when her daughter Nathalie took her bow alone for the first time after the show), this naive ignorance was very bad manners. In fashion, I've been lucky to have been surprised with mostly good things so far. This, however, is the other side that many fashion insiders are happy to keep secret. Why? Because it doesn't make everyone look saintly and appearances are everything.

+++

The Sonia Rykiel Fall/Winter 2012/2013 collection by Nathalie Rykiel and creative director April Crichton was a big step away from Rykiel's signature playful, bright and sexy Rive Gauche chic towards a mature look that seemed more "global" than "Paris" (even headbands looked serious). This change of vision has been apparent for longer than one season, but it also goes hand in hand with the Rykiel family having recently sold 80 per cent of the label to Hong Kong-based investment company Fung Brands.

It will be interesting to observe how this move will affect the upcoming collections. The new investors are planning Rykiel's expansion to the US and China, therefore it is likely they will encourage further globalization of the label so that new customers worldwide will be able to relate to it (and spend money on it), not only existing Rykiel enthusiasts. If the aesthetic of the label changes majorly, though, the loss of the label's essence will alienate precisely these enthusiasts who have sworn by Sonia Rykiel for years. Much is at stake here, but I do hope Rykiel's identity will be preserved despite the increasing need to sell more, more, more.

Sonia Rykiel Fall/Winter 2012/2013 show is a post from Dressful.
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