Cornwall is my place of longing this year. Eternally long beaches, wild, steeply sloping coastal cliffs, alternately sharp wind, sun or “drizzle”, a kind of rain flurry that tingles on the skin, roaring surf – and I am right in the middle. I will do all of this on foot, always looking out over the endless water.
Colours and Materials in Autumn/Winter 2024/25
The ModEurop Colour Club Conference, which took place on 30 and 31 March in Düsseldorf and thus at an early stage, was attended by numerous representatives of renowned companies in the footwear and leather goods industry to jointly work out the colours for Autumn/Winter 2024/25.
„The big bang of the stylistic excesses of past seasons is taking a back seat in favour of a new clarity. It’s now all regarding focused, elegant classicism paired with minimalism and quiet passion,“ predict Creative Directors Martin Wuttke and Uta Riechers-Wuttke (nextguruNow). Sportiness will continue to be important as a consumer driver, but will be staged less boldly.
The complete colour/material range is shown in the ModEurop Colour Card for Autumn/Winter 2024/25, which will be available from the German Shoe Institute in Offenbach from the beginning of June: ModEurop
Beyond the trends of the future, the meeting is always an important moment to exchange views on current industry topics, but also on art and culture. The perfect start was provided by a visit to the magnificent exhibition „Machine Hallucinations“ at the Kunstpalast. The multi-award-winning architect and media artist Refik Anadol, known for his work with artificial intelligence and data, provided the fashion experts with numerous inspirations for their own work with colours, materials and shapes.
Thabo Bester has been free for a year following he was believed to have died in a fire he started in his prison cell, according to the BBC.
A search was launched last month following a new investigation showed the charred body was not his.
Bester was arrested on Friday along with his girlfriend and a suspect and will be extradited to South Africa. Police said the group intended to flee to Kenya.
Bester is known as the “Facebook Rapist” because he used the social network to lure his victims.
He was convicted in 2012 of the rape and murder of his girlfriend, model Nomfundo Tyhulu. A year earlier, he had been found guilty of raping and robbing two other women.
››› See the photo gallery ‹‹‹
(source: Mediafax)
“People in focus”
Women are often ignored and discriminated once morest in our patriarchal social order. Photographer Maria Haas, on the other hand, focuses on societies in which women play the leading role – matriarchy.
Maria Haas from Klosterneuburg focuses almost entirely on photographing women – strong women in the forms of society they have shaped all over the world. “I was fascinated by the fact that there are matriarchal societies in which the woman is at the center but is not a kind of ruler, it’s usually an egalitarian social system.”
Her first journey took her to China in 2016, where she met the Mosuo people. The portrait of a local matriarch adorns the cover of her first photo book entitled “Matriarchinnen”, which has meanwhile been nominated for the German Photo Book Prize. The passion grabbed her and since then she has been traveling all over the world – in Indonesia, India, Mexico and Costa Rica. There is already a second “Matriarchinnen” book.
Almost always created the necessary trust
She almost always manages to build up the necessary trust to ultimately be able to take the photos, as she explains: “I’m very careful with people. I try to start a conversation with them so that we can exchange ideas. I tell them regarding me, then they ask themselves, and trust develops. This usually happens very quickly, these people are very approachable and open. That always happens with translators, because English doesn’t get you very far there. Your own language is then often a door opener.”
Exhibitions in Berlin and Switzerland
She is currently preparing for an exhibition in Switzerland. Her pictures have recently been shown at exhibitions in Berlin, in Waidhofen an der Ybbs and also in Vienna at the feminist educational association “Frauenhetz”. “The ball is starting to roll faster and faster, which makes me very happy because I want to bring these strong women and their families and the matriarchal structures into the world more in general. Because I think these are values that we can learn from in our patriarchal culture,” says the Klosterneuburg photographer.