An example of excellent craftsmanship and creative taste is the brand Atsuko Kudo, which designs and manufactures a full range of ladies wear, exclusively in latex rubber.

Bras, corsets, dresses, hats and even stockings and shoes…the selection is very wide. The result is a seductive collection of garments that give an extreme feminine shape. Some pieces have a strong retro flavor, others seem stolen from the wardrobe of a super woman of the comics. The strength of these proposals is their versatility. A black shiny pencil skirt can give an unexpected flavour to an evening outfit, a body cage can awaken the couple’s routine in a boring winter and a latex hat could make us stand out in an elegant cocktail without necessarily seem a mistress in her day off.

Atsuko Kudo is now a well-known brand, published in prestigious magazines and worn by many celebrities. It is not accessible to all as quite expensive, but it remains a ‘good source of inspiration for those who want to dare with style.

http://www.atsukokudo.com/

http://moodyandfarrell.co.uk/

The Jakarta Fashion Week (the largest fashion event in the Southeast Asia region) this year has featured 240 Indonesian designers/labels including those specializing in Moslem wear.
So I would like to bring under your attention the work of Dian Pelangi and Nur Zahra.

Dian Pelangi’s collection is a gorgeous explosion of colours and layering, that seems to me a fanciful desert explorer. Nur Zahra outfits look more traditional, bringing us back to the rural origins of the dress through a sweet and bucolic figure. Both the brands remind me the work of the Italian designer Antonio Marras, master in bringing into fashion the deep roots of his homeland, through meticulous research and high artistic expression.

Dian Pelangi http://dianpelangi.com/

Nur Zahra http://www.nurzahra.com

Only after a few days I understood the meaning of certain choices made in this Greek film that has won a couple of awards at the Venice film festival.
This film tells a terrible story of family abuses, but does so with a extremely quiet narrative, with rhythm and framing meticulously defined. Style that at the first view can be found boring, too static, but now I appreciate it.
The film begins with the explosive event of the suicide of an young girl. Then it starts the slow discovery of the truth which corresponds to the same atrocious path that all the victims of family violence, are obliged to follow. They see the most obvious certainties to crumble to make room for the daily nightmare, like a storm after a sunny day.
A difficult subject, narrated without too predictable images or easy drama.

May in the summer is a good story, well acted and well directed.
It is the story of a woman who simply stumbles and undermines a recently announced big decision: to marry the man who is convinced to love.
Due to the return to the family, which always destabilizes, due to the disagreement of her mother, fervent Christian against a Muslim fiancé, due to the general stress, this woman who seemed so determined, undergoes a transformation.
Finally, the tough decision to say no and break off the marriage, gives to her and to the spectator, a sense of liberation and rebirth.

This is a female story, but not sticky. It is about having the courage to say no, to start over, to fall in love, even if it seems too late.

Excellent work of the director Cherien Dabis, who directed and starred a movie that I really enjoyed.

During my first night in Venice I had chance to see “The Canyons” a non-competitive film directed by Paul Schrader. Director and main actors where present, except for Lindsay Lohan, who apparently was, as usual, into rehab.
The film tells a murky web of unhealthy relationships based on sex and lies and the corrupt, ruthless and decadent film industry’s system, also in relation to the progressive abandonment of the cinemas in favor of a home vision and the passage from the film to the digital age.
I believe that the strength of the film is the main character, Tara, played by Lindsay Lohan, which brings on set, through her troubled story and personality, a honest and real performance. So real that I immediately thought that the clothes worn by the actress had not been chosen by the costume designer, but by herself. Intuition confirmed by reading an article where there was talk that Lindsay also decided to wear a bright red swimsuit in order to direct the focal point of a scene on herself.

She appears morally and physically decadent but I personally like a lot the melancholic result of the mix between surgery, drugs abuse and depression.

Too bad the film fails to really dare, it remains a little too prudish and flat, but perhaps really coincides with the reality that describes.