ISSUE 84/MODEM/AUGUST 28, 2010
LEADER OF THE PACK
WORDS: JILL SINGER ,
PORTRAIT: NOAH KALINA
As a teenager growing up in mid-'90s Cologne, Germany, fashion designer Siki Im was never far from the fringe. "I grew up with hardcore music, hooligans and skinheads," Im says. Obsessed with American street culture, he became a skater and a graffiti artist. "I was never in any sort of traditional scene," he says. So it makes a twisted kind of sense that two seasons' worth of his menswear have drawn inspiration from some of literature's most derelict antiheroes. Leaving behind a senior designer job at Helmut Lang, Im presented his first outting last September just a month after he struck out on his own, heavily influenced by the outsiders from Lord of the Flies. For his 2010 fall/winter collection, Im found his muse in the morally questionable protagonist from American Psycho.
ISSUE 84/MODEM/AUGUST 27, 2010
FLASH DANCER
WORDS: BECKY SUNSHINE ,
PORTRAIT: NICK DOREY
"I love a frill. I don't know why, but I need a frill in there somewhere or I'm just not happy. Whether it's leather, or whatever. I'm quite Valentino about it," admits London-based designer Graeme Armour, whose first fall collection has just landed in stores. The 30-year-old, Glasgow-born Armour launched his label last year with a £5,000 loan from his mother, following his master's at Central Saint Martins (where he was a classmate of fellow Scotsman Christopher Kane) and a stint working for both Alexander McQueen's mainline and his McQ diffusion.
ISSUE 83/MODEM/AUGUST 2, 2010
SURFACE PRESENTS THE 2010 AVANT GUARDIAN PORTFOLIO SEMI-FINALISTS
WORDS: STAFF
After receiving hundreds of entries, Surface has selected 10 semi-finalists for its annual Avant Guardian Portfolio (AVG) photography competition under the guidance of an expert panel, which this year included Alexis Bittar, Dean and Dan Caten, Nicolas Alan Cope (2009 AVG), Kelly Cutrone, Nian Fish, Tim Hamilton, Reed Krakoff, Sean Patterson, Todd Selby and Viktor & Rolf.
ISSUE 79/MODEM/DECEMBER 16, 2009
JULIAN LOUIE
IMAGES: WALLING & MCGARITY ,
WORDS: TRANG CHUONG
This Santa Cruz native and graduate of Cooper Union is a triple threat. Not only a fashion designer, Julian Louie is a photographer and artist whose work has exhibited in New York galleries Vagabond and Stay Gold. Perhaps that's why Calvin Klein's Creative Director Francisco Costa personally chose him to mentor.
ISSUE 79/MODEM/NOVEMBER 3, 2009
ODYN VOVK
WORDS: SAMEER REDDY ,
IMAGES: WALLING & MCGARITY
At only 22, Californian Austin Sherbanenko launched his own Los Angeles-based label Odyn Vovk after dropping out of the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in 2007. Turning out a brooding, slightly savage menswear collection that contradicts the West Coast’s sporty-casual reputation, he’s already been picked up by, among others, Barneys New York in Tokyo as well as H. Lorenzo and Sartorialoft in his hometown.



















