Sunday, August 2, 2009

“Moments of Myths” with Stephan Schneider

Obsession for money, fame, the perfect abs—and the list goes on and on. But are these simply media-inspired mania? Hollywood fixations? Maybe popular demand? Or do they stem from all the above?

These are just a few of the questions that the 2009 a/w collection of Stephan Schneider evokes as he explores “Moments of Myths.”

Born in Germany, Stephan Schneider graduated in 1994 from the Royal Academy for Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium, with an award-winning collection that earned him a place at Paris Fashion Week and bolstered him to immediate fame.

As a professor at the Fashion Department of the Berlin University of the Fine Arts, Stephan is based in Antwerp where he designs with handcut pieces, giving his menswear a more “gentle appearance” that balances nostalgia with reality.

Stephan’s construct of reality concludes that human and personal aspects have vanished from contemporary fashion as a direct result of the media’s obsession for power, glamour, and sex. Once protecting the fashion community, our myths, dreams, and ideals have been destroyed by “replaceable and repetitive images” of various marketing campaigns.

For this reason, Stephan opens “Moments of Myths” with the pervasive aesthetic attraction of the masses for action, horror, fitness, and eroticism, all of which are ironically portrayed in a series of video covers. He then wistfully returns our attention to a real identifying and unambiguous look, which pervades his collection.



Photo 2009 a/w collection Copyright Stephan Schneider.
Slideshow 2009 a/w collection Copyright
Stephan Schneider.