Ines Alpha | MAFF chat pt. 1

Jacquemus: A Coming of Age Story

The designer joined BoF founder and CEO Imran Amed on stage at BoF VOICES 2024 to share how he has built a successful independent business in such a competitive environment, understand his plans for the future and settle some of the rumours and speculation. When Simon Porte Jacquemus came on to the scene in 2009, he did so with a bang. The French designer’s playful take on Parisian fashion draws inspiration from 20th century sculpture, the French New Wave, and sunny afternoons in Marseille. His creations have catapulted him and his label into stardom, with the brand’s campaigns often going viral on social media. “It’s [all about] having fun,” said Jacquemus. “Having fun is being creative, it's going one step aside and it's playing with the system.”

Isabelle Huppert’s Closet Picks

The legendary actor returns to the Criterion Closet, where she shares her love for independent American gems such as Barbara Loden’s WANDA and Michael Roemer’s NOTHING BUT A MAN, talks about Roberto Rossellini’s work with Ingrid Bergman, and selects Italian cinema classics I KNEW HER WELL and JULIET OF THE SPIRITS.

Erményi Mátyás: Books I should have read

ACB Gallery (Budapest) in collaboration with animation director Máté Fillér related to the latest solo exhibition of painter Mátyás Erményi entitled "Books I Should Have Read". Narrator: Mátyás Erményi Interview, translation: Zsolt Miklósvölgyi Special thanks to Kata Balázs and András Heszky

BHAGYA SIVARAMAN

Sivaraman is a creative coach, self-taught inter-disciplinary artist, and an entrepreneur. She runs her own creative business in the combination of Healing, Fine, and Wearable arts. Her wearable art form sees the creation of contemporary handmade jewellery that is unique, created with intention and intuition to champion for unapologetic self- expression. Sivaraman uses polymer clay as a medium to fiercely express her love and curiosity for innumerable shapes and colours in the form of modern-day statement jewellery. Playing with clay also serves as her personal restorative practice of the mind.

In Your Face: Interview: Ryder Ripps

Ryder Ripps is an American conceptual artist, programmer, and creative director.

Joan Rivers finds humor in being yourself

On November 16, 2006, Joan Rivers spoke about her experience as a female comic in the early 60s and finding her comedic voice. Interview conducted by director Michael Kantor for the six-hour PBS comedy series, “Make ‘Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America” (2009).

The Funniest Girl in NYC

Darja Bajagić: “My work is a provocative exploration of society”

Darja Bajagić’s work confronts loaded thematic content and recontextualizes history, urging viewers to navigate the complexities of contemporary society through their own interpretations. We met with the artist at the Montenegro Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, in her exhibition It Takes an Island to Feel This Good. An exhibition that reframes the layered history of Mamula Island—a site once used as a fortress, prison, and concentration camp, now transformed into a luxury hotel. Through fragmented archival images and symbolic shapes, Darja Bajagić challenges viewers to confront the tension between historical memory and contemporary reality without offering clear answers. "My goal is to highlight the complexities of the world that we live in," Darja Bajagić explains, "and assert agency to the viewer." Scavenging images from the dark web and state archives, Darja Bajagić explores the tension between what is seen and what is hidden beneath. Through imagery and formal decisions such as shape and composition, she subtly intertwines historical references and contemporary issues through a deliberately disjointed narrative style. The resulting work is intentionally ambiguous, echoing her ongoing theme of obscured and fractured narratives. As an artist, Darja Bajagić resists offering her audience definitive interpretations, instead urging them to engage with the work on their own terms: "I don’t give instruction for the viewer on how to understand the work." Darja Bajagić (B. 1990 in Montenegro) is an artist whose research-based work is known for its provocative exploration of contemporary and historical themes. She splits her time between Chicago and Montenegro. In 2014 she received an MFA from Yale University. Darja Bajagić’s work has been shown at international institutions such as Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-οn-Hudson, US); Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland and Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Franc. In 2024, she represented Montenegro at the Venice Biennale.

Erik Yvon

Erik Yvon is a Melbourne / Naarm-based fashion designer redefining perceptions of femininity and masculinity. His bold, transeasonal pieces are a dynamic combination of colours, prints, shapes and textures – drawing inspiration from art, his everyday surroundings, and origins in the island of Mauritius. Having completed a Bachelor of Fashion Design at RMIT University in 2014, Erik gained experience training under iconic Australian labels such as Romance Was Born and Neo Dia. From here, he continued to find success in national design competitions such as The Wool Awards and the Australian Fashion Awards. Yvon launched his eponymous label in 2017 with a focus on sustainable and ethical production. Each piece is made to order, and every collections includes collaboration with some of Australia's brightest textile and jewellery designers. His works have a appeared in countless editorials and runways – recently opening the Next Gen Runway at Afterpay Australian Fashion Week (2021). As he continues to expand his reach across the globe, he hopes to continue to share stories of diversity and joy through his incomparable style and personality.

MICHAEL STANIAK

Michael Staniak’s work concerns the changing dynamics of images and materiality in light of the proliferation of digital culture. Grouped into the post-internet movement, Staniak’s process-oriented paintings explore the relationship between flatness and texture in digital images. To create his paintings, he builds up textural surfaces out of materials such as casting compound that he then sprays with acrylic paint, creating subtle gradients of texture color with minor stippling that evoke the effects of inkjet printers. The work oscillates between a sensation of a flat, screen-mediated image and the rich texture of an analog painting. For Staniak, the life of the painting both as object and image is crucial. “I consider the finished work as a moment in my practice; something to be considered and valued as an object that will ultimately end up as another picture entering the stream of the internet,” he has said.

Michaela Stark on subverting fashion's body ideals

In this episode of In The Studio With... body inclusive fashion designer Michaela Stark invites us into the creative chaos of her space where she's 'making a new kind of beauty'. Her boundary-pushing attitude is fuelled by “a lot of laughter and fun,” she tells Dazed, as she opens up on working with Beyoncé, the cultural impact of her reimagined Victoria's Secret show and being fuelled by the “body dysmorphia of my entire generation.”