Back To Black. Batsheva Resort 2024

July 21, 2023July 21, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

“I get uncomfortable when there are too many things in the collection that aren’t pieces that I love. So I’ve really tried to make it what I want to wear now.” Meaning: Batsheva Hay has a colour palette of black, white and gray on her mind, and likes to wear variations of dresses in 1950s style. That’s clearly reflected in her resort 2024 offering. In recent seasons Batsheva has been experimenting with various directions she can take her New York-based brand without completely abandoning what has made her successful in the first place. For this season that meant vintage-y silhouettes and barely any printed cotton. “It’s really all about different fabrics,” she said. Highlights included a black velvet long sleeve dress with a white lace-up detail running from bust to shoulder; a streamlined maxi dress with flared sleeves and a slight mockneck in shiny black sequins, and a long ruched body-con velvet dress in a dark wine color (one of three colorful pieces in the collection) with a high neck and a slightly padded shoulder. Hay may be queen of the dress, but she loves a matching set, and she had some great options, including a black high waist a-line skirt and button-down with a “funny firework embroidery” in sequins; a four-button jacket with dramatic ruffled sleeves and a matching maxi skirt in an abstracted floral silk jacquard; and a black taffeta button-down and matching cropped bootcut trousers decorated with all-over rhinestones. Though it skews more serious than her usual offerings, resort still bears her off-beat charm.

A couple of my favourite Batsheva pieces you can shop now:

Batsheva cropped leopard-print cotton-velvet top

Batsheva x Laura Ashley ruffled floral-print cotton-poplin mini dress

Batsheva lace-trimmed pintucked embroidered cotton-poplin mini dress

Batsheva pearl-embellished faille blouse

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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What’s Hot (21.7.23)

July 21, 2023July 15, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

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July 20, 2023July 15, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

I Sewed For Us. Małgorzata Mirgo-Tas at Brücke Museum.

July 19, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

The Brücke-Museum (the art-sanctuary of Die Brücke group’s practices, designed by Werner Düttmann in Berlin’s most greenery Dahlem district) invites for the second time a contemporary artist to enter into dialogue with its historical collection. Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, born in 1978, works in sculpture, painting and film, and especially the medium of collage. Mirga-Tas is Bergitka-Romni and grew up in a Roma settlement in Czarna Góra, Poland, where she still lives and works today. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow and besides her artistic work, she also works as an educator and activist.

Her tactile works depict everyday scenes from contemporary Roma communities, often integrating personal textiles and objects of the sitters. They show autonomous individuals beyond stereotypical representations. Based on the Brücke-Museum’s collection, these culturally and historically still predominant racist forms of representation of Roma are contrasted and thematized. The curator Joanna Warsaw writes of the artist’s work: “She creates an image of Roma as proto-Europeans, a multilingual, transcultural, and nonviolent group that reshapes conventions and decolonizes imaginary worlds.” Mirga-Tas represented Poland at last year’s Venice Biennale and was represented at Documenta Fifteen. She is currently a fellow of the DAAD’s Berlin Artists’ Program. This is her first solo exhibition in Germany, and you just can’t miss it if you’re in town! It’s on until the 3rd of September.