DUST
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At the moment, young straight guys are really behind gay guys when it comes to making beautiful soft porn that crosses over into art. Something should really be done about this so we can write about it. It would be insanely popular. Otherwise, we'll have to keep writing about gay stuff like DUST. Sometime power couple Luca Guarini and Luigi Vitali aka Lugi and Luca, and Antonio Mingot, are the Berlin and London based editors behind the bi-annual magazine. The skinny Italian couple—who could almost be twins—are in their twenties and became known in the art world, for shooting fashion editorial-style, pornographic pictures of themselves. Not just because that's a hot thing to do, but "because showing intimacy is a way of showing people at their most real".
A lot of work, has gone into finding both well-known art photographers and almost complete unknowns to shoot for the debut issue of DUST (we bet a lot of fashion guys are taking notes) and integral is the idea that the stories have meaning and purpose, alongside the clothes they are selling, as illustrated by the photographer interviews that accompany nearly every shoot. They're really into the magazine as a manifesto for changing what's possible in the fashion industry and even in culture itself.
The idea of a magazine having a manifesto is not new, but in this case they see that manifesto not as a set of content guidelines, but as a way of changing fashion and culture. The theme of the first issue of DUST is Seeds, because they think something new has to be done to prevent the financial power of brands becoming paramount over everything else. The idea of Seeds is a reset, with DUST being their laboratory for creating a fashion magazine with they reckon, "integrity".
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Vice: Why did you want to start the magazine now?
Luigi Vitali: The idea originally came from Luca and Antonio, the fashion editor. He felt that it was a good time for a magazine that was refreshing and was created with the intention of doing something with real feelings and quality. It is not mainly fashion-oriented, but more like a presentation of different artists and photographers work, though featuring fashion. Everyone was chosen because we feel they are capable of expressing something more than than style in their images.
So the theme Seeds...
LV: It's what we believe in. We really think it is time for something new to happen. The situation we are in now culturally, and have been in for the last decade, is pretty bad. Nothing new is happening in literature, film, art, photography, or music. It is all just repeating itself. This attitude that creating value without substance is OK is the sickness of our time and that has generated the economic crash and the degeneration of capitalism. We think this idea that beauty doesn't have to have a substance as long as it's appealing is false.
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Vice: How did you choose the contributors?
Luca Guarini: Many of them are friends and people we know personally, so we appreciate their personal perspective. We edited down a long list we'd researched in an attempt to be really current. We have a nice mix of established people and newer emerging names. We care more about the concept than the name. We go from Greg Gorman to someone like Jordi Gual who isn't even published yet.
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Photo: Diana Kunst. Styled by the splendidly named Garden in Hell.
So what is in this first issue?
LG: We have a couple of shoots that look at the degradation of fashion, for example. We have an interview with Walter Van Bierendonck as a designer, but also as a teacher. Then we have work from Slava Mogutin and Brian Kenny who are really at the center of something in New York.
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What do you mean by the degradation of fashion?
Luigi Vitali: We think that fashion is exhausted. It is degenerating because it doesn't have to fight for anything any more. Fashion used to be about getting rid of constrictions. When there were political, moral, religious, or social restrictions placed on people the way they dressed would be a way of making a statement. Fashion was a way to liberate people. Now we have finally got rid of a lot of social restrictions fashion has become restricted again. In turn, it has become the best friend of our economic system. Fashion has become just a look and it doesn't seem to have any spirit anymore. It should be fighting against its own canons and restrictions. The driving force of the young designer should be to redefine fashion.
You seem very serious about the state of things within fashion at the moment. Why is it so important to you?
LV: Because it is massive—as an artistic expression it is the most important one to people right now. Brands for young people are incredibly important. It used to be that people would associate, for example, with music through what they wore. Historically, music - from opera through to pop - was the way of culturally representing yourself. Now, it is simply fashion, or the brand, that is important. The idol is fashion.
LG: Not just the brand, but also the style codes that you see internationally. Some of them are based around provocation, but it is useless provocation, because it's not related to anything. Like Lady Gaga.
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Photo: Jordi Gual
Do you like or dislike her?
LV: It doesn't even matter, whatever. She is the end. From Andy Warhol to her is like the dead end of the road. It's gone as far as it can go. Ultimately, she is essentially a part of that same idea—the financial market and the cultural market following the same trajectory. She has completely sold herself to fashion.
Photos: Holger Homann
So she's the ultimate fashion sell out?
LV: Unconsciously, yes. I don't think she would stand by that or is aware of that. She really represents the end of this era.
LG: She's dated. This way of thinking is over, nothing can come out of that.
LV: At the same time, I can see why the world is so obsessed with her. She is all about reinterpretation. She really represents the decadence of our time, she doesn't fight or criticize anything, she just wants to embody it. She takes from pop culture, from respected high art, from underground and subcultural references. She shows how everything is on the same level, how everything is just a part of this corrupted game. She embodies this way of thinking in a very nihilistic way, she doesn't criticize it. She is like the last martyr of fashion as religion.
WILLIAM OLIVER
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