SHOWnews: FEBEN Hearts Art, Bottega Hearts Soul, Jil Sander Hearts Architecture

FEBEN And Puma Present A Charitable Partnership

Funny how two weeks in SHOWnews provide personal references to contextualise our headliners. Last week was for Christopher Kane and now Feben Vemmenby has the floor. During the 2020 MA Fashion exhibition at Central Saint Martins, I walked around excitedly, observing the work of friends (Jegor and Herbert, Ella and Eilis) and fellow students. One particular mini-installation from Ethiopian designer Feben grabbed my attention. It sat opposite the pillar where Paolina Russo’s collection laid. Feben's grad collection was a lively mashup of power bob-era Whitney Houston, seventeenth century Dutch Masters colour execution and an imperfect, applied arts sensibility on asymmetric bettina fringe, petticoats and bustles gone Crayola. Her design name at the time even punctuated this jovial exercise in fashion, ‘IT’S FEBS!’ At the time I thought, ‘Crayon scribble suits with Abraham Mignon colours would appeal to Marni, she’s getting a job.’ Yet the task of translating where fashion can go is challenging, particularly when you are Whitney Houston’s colour, as Feben is, as I am. So maybe you do unorthodox things that people may never understand, but run consistent to your orthodoxy — that Vemmenby (nor I) never fit in anyway. So perceived faults become your strength. Maybe that is why she renamed IT’S FEBS as FEBEN. And four years later FEBEN A/W 24 was sponsored by Dolce Gabbana, the same designers Whitney Houston commissioned for her My Love Is Your Love tour 25 years ago.

Tomorrow afternoon, Feben continues to displace ideals of perfection. This time, she confronts what a fashion designer should do on a Saturday. Supported by Puma, FEBEN will partner with community-based non-profit organization Sistah Space. The partnership will host life drawing workshops designed to centre voices, passions and safety for the Sistah Space community, creatives, and the public alike. This interconnected, cross-disciplinary expression is very FEBEN. It gets her juices flowing. Sistah Space was established to address specific needs female survivors of African and Caribbean heritage who suffered domestic abuse have:

'This partnership with FEBEN means a lot to our charity as it provides a unique opportunity for our service users to partake in events that otherwise may not be so accessible to them. Whether it is used as a way of expression and healing or just a fun day out, opportunities like this are crucial at what can often be our busiest time of year. The fact that this partnership is supported by PUMA sends an important message to the demographic we support and represent. You are seen, you are heard and you are cared for'

- Djanomi Robinson, Operations Manager, Sistah Space

Advocacy from Feben and FEBEN provides guests an opportunity to sketch live models wearing FEBEN A/W 24 with Puma Speedcats, their signature trainer. Sessions will be photographed by South London-based photographer Liz Johnson Artur. Artur observes each photograph participant with her trademark lens that presents her subjects — generally existing within the freedom of the Black diaspora — in moments that matter specifically to them, to us. After each session ends, attendees can transform their completed artworks into something wearable for keepsakes, or to perhaps share with a loved one this Holiday season. Feben and Sistah Space will have Ethopian food from Gwada Kitchen and Ethiopian coffee on site for these experiences of humour, art and hospitality to ground collective generosity at St. Barnabas Church tomorrow.

‘There's always ways you can push creative ideas to spotlight and support the real change-makers in our communities. I want to raise awareness of Sistah Space with this event and have my community understand how they support women of African and Caribbean heritage who are victims of domestic and sexual abuse. Christmas is a time when they are most busy with their services, so this event is timed purposely ahead of that period. I was so happy they wanted to partner on this project, and Puma agreed to support it.’

- FEBEN

A Day of Life Drawing with FEBEN, supported by PUMA is Saturday 7 December at

St Barnabas Dalston, Shacklewell Row, London E8 2EA. Sessions are available at 2pm and 4pm, visit Eventbrite to sign up to sessions and see further information.

The Bottegas Are Coming!

Throughout December, Bottega Veneta’s world comprising their website, ad spaces, newsletters and store windows will be taken over by a series of charismatic objects called Bottegas. Since 2021, ‘Bottega for Bottegas’ is an initiative to support small-scale artisans who were impacted by the pandemic. Not quite elves, not yet reindeer, these plucky Bottegas are reappearing for a fourth consecutive holiday season to share their stirring renditions of Venetian craft tropes. To dial holiday camp down a bit, they transform as Venetian trademarks, not Santa-specific minions.

Signor Blum’s wooden block puzzle is not a gingerbread house panel! It suggests prototypical Venetian architecture.

Modiano’s playing cards are not for solitaire to avoid your annoyingly loud cousins after holiday roast. The deck is known as a Veneto deck, which is widely popular in the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia regions for games of Scopa (memory mindsweep gaming) and Briscola (card theft for the highest score).

Put that brass lion down! It is not Aslan cosplay! Fonderia Artistica Valese designed the brass representation of 12th century Venice, its tools are the iron head at the prow of a gondola which means three islands, six sestieri and the Rialto bridge. Go to Venice after New Year’s. You will understand then.

A tactile sense of craft from the material world turns our Bottegas into solid personas. A striped vase by Laguna~B and starfish by Bruno Amadi were created in tribute to Bottega’s glass ateliers' methodology with shape, form and pattern. This is embodied in the Murano glass vase, which is not to be used as a candy holder. While we always enjoy when the Bottegas visit, they provide a large amount of holiday frenzy. Keeps us on our toes.

Isamaya Ffrench Designs Sexual Chocolate For Nike

Industry-leading makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench is debuting her latest designs in collaboration with Nike. In typical Isamaya fashion, discomfort mutates into desire for a series of Air Max trainers that shapeshift the colour and texture of Air Max 98’s you might be used to. The Ffrench factor routinely challenges what beauty represents, as evidenced by that phallic Nike lipstick above. Her colourways turn the trainers into catalysts for aphrodisiacs. Presented in beige and chocolate brown options, brushes, bronzers and base coats from beauty languages take a pause in lieu of lust. Look at those trainers. Really! Take a look at ‘em...

Do you see those anal beads resting inside the sole? Isamaya Ffrench done subverted Nike’s pressure tubes to stimulate much more than high performance on the pavement. We knew she was on one with those flavours in dark and white chocolate. And we all know at this point what chocolate enhances, if Valentine's Day marketing is to be believed. Ffrench all but confirms the shoe is fourplay:

‘My favorite parts of the design are probably the rand and heel, where we were able to add metallic tones underneath a glossy acrylic, giving those parts of the shoe an even more extreme and textural look — juxtaposing them against the matte of the upper and sole.’

— Isamaya Ffrench

See the subtext! ‘Extreme’ and ‘textural’ with ‘underneath’ and ‘glossy.’ These trainers are the hardest thing to come out since Willy Chavarria’s dirty underwear. So if you are up for it, get up for it. Go check out a pair of Isamaya’s new candy-coated Air Max trainers, with chocolate anal beads adding graphic experiences to your footwear days ahead. They, and likely you too, release on 20 December.

A Massive New Jil Sander Flagship

The German design house Jil Sander founded has always promoted the purity of timelessly modern fashion. Well the Renzo Rosso OTB-owned iteration is injecting the mass of more into the Jil Sander operation, who always did more with less. Jil Sander just announced their largest flagship opening to this point with a new store located in Tokyo’s Ginza district. Building on Jil Sander success in Japan, where they operate 20 points of sale there alone, the Ginza flagship offers an experience of systematic clean interiors filled with marble plinths, floors carved from stone (an indirect callback to their new wave marble men's collection from 2008) and furniture from recycled compact disc cases.

‘We aim at evoking an emotional experience by creating spaces where you feel at ease, where the first thing you sense is the atmosphere.’

– Lucie and Luke Meier, Jil Sander Creative Directors

Known for Ms. Sander’s legendary partnership with architect Michael Gabellini, a new Jil Sander store is not quite straightforward capitalism. Sander shops were rational extensions of the Jil Sander sensibility. This is what aroused her dedicated customer base. The firm Casper Mueller Kneer seemingly understands this mission to achieve synchronicity with the Meier clan’s sensitivity across the store. Soft, natural light is designed for intimate interactions with their tactile collections. And for the first time, a Jil Sander store features an exhibition space dedicated to art installations. Here, the artwork of British sculptor Rachel Whiteread, Bergamo II, fits seamlessly into the overall design composition.

‘We continue to find beauty in materials, common and sometimes overlooked situations, as well as in mineral materials such as stones and marbles, which speak of the Earth’s geological time.’

– Marianne Mueller and Olaf Kneer, Jil Sander Ginza architects

Harmony and sophistication extend to other firsts, the Ginza location will debut a new range of Jil Sander Fine Jewelry. An offering of distinct designs in precious metals including white gold, yellow gold and diamonds. At Jil Sander, results remain crucial to intent.

Stone Island And DSM Collaborate For 20

Stockists are keeping Dover Street Market knee-deep in anniversary fest events this fall season. Old friends from Stone Island have become the latest Haymarket resident to celebrate 20 years at DSM. Stone Island rewinds to A/W 03-04 (add another zero for complete Stone Island understanding) to re-reference a selection of three jackets that update the COMPACT style for A/W 24-25 in this series for DSM’s twentieth birthday. They are also building a collaboration atop their DSM collaboration with an installation by filmmaker, longtime Stone Island visual effects dynamo Ken-Tonio Yamamoto. Here is your handbook to the project:

The COMPACT silhouette is a collision of Stone Island from 2004 and 2024. Paul Harvey (now head designer for C.P. Company) imagined the original as an aviation derived garment, which ties into Harvey’s exponential marriage between sport, innovative tech fabrics and military styles. COMPACT reproduced an intricate string and loop system on each side, front and hood, conceived to adapt body compression to atmospheric pressure in flight and prevent fainting. Too technical? Too product-design’y? That’s fine, if it’s good enough for rough, tumble Mancunian Casuals and Milanese Paninaros, you too will find a way into each style. Produced in black, the Stone Island_DSM20 capsule separates from its past with a DSM 20th Anniversary logo printed on each jacket’s interior. This addition relates back to the massively secret draw to Stone Island through time, worn by Oasis, Drake, Vince Staples, Russell Tovey and of course Kim Jones.

As we mentioned earlier, Yamamoto’s installation, titled ‘WRAPPED I/8115,’ culls inspiration from Stone Island’s historic colour palette — think Blue Kevlar A/W 00 or Charcoal Orange from A/W 03 — and material product research. The installation presents nuts and bolts from the COMPACT redesign. A garment dyeing machine is wrapped in each capsule fabric. Ropes secure the fabrics to the machine, directly referencing materiality tying 2004 to 2024. Both Stone Island_DSM20 capsule and installation are available right now at Dover Street (Hay)Market and on the DSML E-Shop.

New Songzio Flagship

South Korean fashion house Songzio opened its first shop in Paris’ Marais district this past week. Located at 10 rue Charlot, Songzio’s familiar avant-expressions that visualise chaos and disorder now have a home. Songzio’s horizontal and vertical metaphoric lines that relate to emotion and objects, provide a metaphysical blueprint to understand this otherwise brutalist angle in interior design for clothing. Inside, LED track lighting and ink-black oak structures embody concepts of asymmetry. Light and darkness, curves and angles, mass and division are all ideas contained within the interior canvas of Songzio’s new shop. Use of raw materials allows light to reflect off stone slabs and iron hardware. This provides the vessel for Songzio narratives of spring and autumn collections to evolve in pictorial narratives within the store.

Spread across five spaces and two floors, Songzio’s expressionary depth and avant surrealism can be experienced on still video screens or in two additional annex spaces within the building. Connected by a shared passageway, these rooms reveal exclusive pieces from Songzio’s runway collections. Songzio’s collections begin on canvas where ideas and emotions of the season are painted. From this painting, each look is meticulously drawn and shaped into a unified whole. Conceived by house creative director Jay Songzio and Hypnos XP, the new Songzio Paris boutique matches process to process, to unify five spaces throughout the building into a sense of duality that blends art into fashion collections.

The Songzio Paris Flagship is located at 10 rue Charlot, 75003.