Gone are the voluminous puffer jackets and aprés-ski wool sweaters we saw last season; in their place, sheer fabrics, slinky dresses and skirt suits. There were nods to wintry weather, like shearling and quintessential fall hues of brown and red, but all styled in a less-is-more credo that dominated the runways. Case in point: turtlenecks slashed and wrapped around the torso like a bandage in Marc Jacobs’s off-runway, digitally-released collection.  

Frostbite concerns aside, there was so much to love this season. Grand, glitzy dresses and billowy maxi skirts were made so luxe at Altuzarra, Oscar de la Renta and Carolina Herrera. Hemlines went up and oodles of sequins trickled down the runways, in what can only be interpreted as life, post the worst parts of COVID, getting better. As we ooze out of the cozy, lounge-y, bundled-up feeling of 2021, things are definitely looking up. 

Here, our round-up of the hottest fall/winter trends from New York Fashion Week, a premonition of what we will be wearing come fall. 

Party Like It’s 2019

The parade of sequin paillettes on dresses at Oscar de la Renta, Christian Cowan and Altuzarra sent one clear message: we are so ready to get into clubs again. More after-dark dressing took the form of slinky off-shoulder dresses; standouts were a ruched Victor Glemaud dress in a warm latte hue and a white one-shoulder piece from Khaite. 

Sheer Thing

And the party vibe just kept going. Sheer pieces screamed show ‘em what you’ve got, from a dress with a sheer skirt and arms at Christian Siriano, to a completely see-thru top dress at LaQuan Smith. A sheer black striped dress at Jonathan Simkhai took the spotlight, declaring in one gorgeous gown that the time for the re-emergence of glamor is nigh.

Hole-y Julia Fox 

Cutouts have become a fashion week staple, and this season, “It” girl Julia Fox started the trend off with a bang at LaQuan Smith. Fox stormed the runway, fierce gaze in tow, in a black floor-length turtleneck dress with slashes above and below her chest. The crowd went wild. Other shows—like Prabal Gurung and Elena Velez—had dresses with cut-outs in the same spots. 

Up and Away

As much as maxi skirts had their moment this season (that pleated leather black maxi skirt at Altuzarra, paired with a striped sweater and fur-collared jacket—so much ooh), hemlines were on the rise. There were miniskirts in bold, saturated colors and prints at Sergio Hudson and Adam Lippes, and feather-trimmed short dresses at Lisa Von Tang and Bronx and Banco– all clear signs of a collective movement away from the loungewear year that was 2021. 

Cold Shoulders 

Bustiers and corsets, renewed for yet another season, were a dominant go-to party look on the runways. Our faves: a Madonna-esque corset at Carolina Herrera mellowed down with a pair of tailored trousers, leather moto and furry, winter-appropriate bustiers at Dion Lee, and another made sheer and accented with beads and glittery bands at No Sesso.

Edited by Demi Vitkute.

The post 5 Trends Spotted at New York Fashion Week appeared first on The Urban Watch Magazine.

It was 9 p.m. on a Saturday and my French friend Louisiane and I were sitting on the warm concrete lining by the Seine river waiting for the email that would finally disclose the night’s rave location. It was set to start in three hours.

Around two dozen of arguably the best French producers were in store for us. It was the inaugural event of a new Paris-based DIY party series. These types of events, though they happen worldwide, are not easy to find. In attempts to evade police and to avoid going through the complex process of obtaining permits to run a party, DIY organizers in Paris typically have a private arrangement with a warehouse owner on the outskirts of town, where they pay under-the-table to rent the lot, bring their own sound equipment, and hold the party under the radar.

But earlier that day the promoters announced on the event’s Facebook page that unfortunately, due to unidentified circumstances, the original venue had fallen through, and they were working to find a suitable replacement.

I wasn’t convinced. For a crowd as big as was expected that night, I doubted there’d be a sizeable option available on such short notice, especially without a proper permit. And what if the rent cost was far out of their budget? Not to mention the bathrooms? A bar? Coat check? And most importantly — lighting, a proper sound system? These things require serious consideration and planning even if you’ve got the staff willing and ready.

About one and a half hours before the expected start of the event, we got the location. It was in Le Blanc-Mesnil, a suburb an hour from central Paris.

We ran to the apartment, changed our shoes, and scrambled to the metro before it stopped running for the night.

Three different trains later, we had ridden public transport to its end out of Paris. We were still 20 minutes from the venue. On the street outside, teenagers dressed in multi-colored jeans, crop tops, and oversized jackets stood around lost. We knew we were heading to the same place and joined a group to split a cab.

Pulling into a dark street, we heard the bass shaking the world from a mile away. We had arrived at the venue.

“What are you here for?” the driver asked, curious.

“Une soirée techno,” we said, “wanna come?”

Over 1,500 people had shown up. And to our great surprise, the party did have bathrooms and, albeit, a makeshift bar, and even a coat check, as well as lighting and a proper sound system.

This story is one of a string of my Paris rave experiences last summer, where I spent more than one night in that very same warehouse. Beyond being extremely cathartic, dancing for up to 12 hours straight carries more meaning.

The DIY scene is an interminable emblem of freedom to marginalized communities around the world. In Brooklyn, for instance, a unique collective of people operates within a familial-like social circle unbeknown to outsiders, raving at nearly every underground party together. These friends connect with, depend on, and support one another in myriad ways: be they physical, emotional, financial or otherwise. And while they have their differences, what unites them with a bond as strong as blood is an open mind and an undying love of music. Implicit and understood at each rave is the underlying, unwavering, and unconditional acceptance of the other. It’s a safe space to unwind and unleash the most raw, authentic, and unashamed version of yourself. Inherent in each illegal party is a defiance of the establishment, a disregard for the rules; it’s a place without boundaries. Among these ravers is a space that, beating society’s attempts at suppression, continues to exist and even thrive, much like those in it. Ravers relish in that knowledge, and feel empowered by that freedom.

Why is there so much freedom abroad when it comes to organizing and maintaining DIY parties while back home, New Yorkers struggle to keep a party of 50 afloat without getting it shut down?

In France, “organized raves,” as they are called, can get away with being illegal, co-founder of international artist collective RAW Valentin Morize revealed.

He explained that promoters find warehouse owners that are eager to make money off their venue and set up a contract. The night of the party, the organizers inform local law enforcement about their “private event,” which, with under 500 people in attendance, is completely legal. Organizers also ensure that these venues are in an industrial zone away from residential areas to avoid noise complaints. If the police do show up, organizers not only have a rent contract to show for, but also event insurance, which can be purchased annually, that prohibits the police from entering the venue. The police can’t prove there are over 500 people inside, and they know that ravers can’t get back to the city from the suburbs after the trains have stopped running anyway. So they’re usually left alone. Thus, organized raves are technically legal if certain conditions are met — under false pretenses, of course.

Meanwhile, New Yorkers not only lack venue availability, but also struggle to meet rent costs and what seems like a never-ending list of permit prerequisites.

“It’s that way on purpose so as to discourage amateurs and small operators from doing anything of the sort,” NYC-based DIY organizer Seva Granik said.

In New York, events held in spaces not already geared toward large assemblies of people are known as “off-premise events.” These may include warehouses or temporary structures like tents. Events with over 75 people inside, or 200 outside, require two separate permits: a liquor license and a Temporary Place of Assembly (TPA) certificate of operation, both of whose applications together can cost upwards of thousands of dollars to file.

The liquor license is issued by the State Liquor Authority only if you already have a TPA, and must be approved by the police precinct of the event area.

You must apply for a TPA earlier than 10 days before an event, city policy states. To qualify, the NYC Department of Buildings (DOB) requires not only the landlord’s signature, but an application request from a either a N.Y.-licensed architect or a licensed engineer. All temporary structures, such as platforms and stages, must be certified as meeting the code requirements of the design prior, and be accompanied by technical reports signed by a design professional who takes responsibility for the work to be performed, according to DOB policy. A separate work permit is also required for some cases with its own stipulations, including at least three different types of insurance: workers’ compensation, fire code safety (with eight stipulations of its own), and compliance with Disabilities Benefits Law. It must also comply with the 13 stipulations of the NYC Building Code, such as occupant load, emergency flood lighting, proper widths and exit paths, and sanitary requirements.

After the application process, DOB and FDNY each send an inspector to verify that all the requirements have been met. And only once they have both agreed, the TPA is approved — usually the day before, according to Granik, or sometimes not until the day of an event.

“Typically only well-oiled and well-budgeted productions, like fashion shows or after-events or giant parties like TekSupport or Cityfox, can really pull this off,” Granik explained, referring to commercial techno events run in Brooklyn.

And as far as noise ordinance goes, if the event is within a residential area, any complaints are filed will be considered valid to shut down a party even if all of the above criteria are met.

After all of that, almost no one on a low budget would think it’s worth the legal trouble. And even if they did, given the lack of rural space in New York compared to other successful underground scenes like Paris, fielding noise complaints is difficult. But despite the complexities and challenges of organizing raves in places like New York, DIY parties remain critical to the communities they serve. That’s why they are still going strong—even if quietly. For now, supporters can only hope that someday, the DIY scene in New York will gather enough resources to be completely off the radar, without risk of getting shut down each time. For now, as Granik put it, Paris remains the ultimate “underground wonderland.”

However, how long can Paris remain the “underground wonderland”? In October of 2019, the French Senate approved a bill that aims to increase rave regulations. The law would require organizers to notify the local mayor’s office one month in advance of an event with 500 or fewer people, it would adjust permitted noise levels, increase fines, and would permit search and seizure by the police. The bill will go to the National Assembly next for a final vote.

Edited by Demi Vitkute.

The post Why Paris is the “Underground Wonderland” of Raves and New York is Not appeared first on The Urban Watch Magazine.

The first weekend of May, thousands flocked to a massive, white enclosed tent on Randall’s Island to visit one of the largest art exhibits of the year: Frieze New York.

Holding two Guinness World Records for size and this year—home to over 190 galleries from 30 countries—Frieze’s international three-day art fair has, once more, proven to be the premiere art fair.

Visitors had the option to either arrive by ferry—a scenic 30-minute ride along the East River—or via ground transport. There were spacious, grassy grounds, and the looming tent itself, featuring galleries, talks, live performances, and even restaurants.

The entire presentation was divided into smaller clusters of galleries. Though each day drew thousands of visitors, it did not feel crowded because of how large the tent was. There was time and space to examine each artwork individually. Gallery representatives stood amidst each exhibit, ready to answer any questions and sell. Visitors were given a chance to learn much more about their favorite art pieces than they would have been able to in a regular museum.

“Frieze New York offers the opportunity to encounter an exceptional quality and range of artwork, featuring the world’s most exciting emerging talents together with iconic names in modern and contemporary art,” Frieze.com reads. “Independent curators have specially advised on sections Frame and Spotlight to encourage discovery and connoisseurship.”

Each section had drink and food vendors, as well as seating for maximum comfort. There was no time limit on how long to spend at the exhibit, so visitors could spend all day eating, relaxing, and taking in art. For those feeling fancy, even champagne was available for purchase. Frieze also featured a Reading Room, where visitors could buy a curated selection of arts and culture publications.

Art varied from surrealist paintings to contemporary photographs to mixed-media pieces.

Galleries are required to apply each year in order to be selected to participate. The selection is determined by a committee of gallerists. The fair gives three awards recognizing the best presentations each year. The Frame Prize and two Frieze Stand Prizes.

This year, The Mumbai-based gallery Jhaveri Contemporary and Nuno Centeno from Porto, Portugal, have won the Frieze Stand Prize and Focus Prize respectively for their presentations at Frieze New York. Each gallery receives $7,500. The Frame prize, for emerging galleries, was awarded to Toronto’s Cooper Cole Gallery, who showed the work of Tau Lewis.

Representatives of each gallery fly from all over the world yearly just for Frieze. To name a few, participating gallery locations this year included Hong Kong, Cape Town and Mumbai. Frieze is not the only destination for art galleries, however. One gallery, Massimo de Carlo of Italy, revealed it participates in up to 10 shows a year, successfully making sales at each.

Frieze New York was a refreshing blend of formal and casual, educational and self-explanatory. People of all ages and incomes attend, whether they are there to merely observe or to purchase. The art fair offers all a chance to admire some of the highest-quality art in the world.

The post Looking Back at Frieze New York 2018: The Hit of the Year, Again appeared first on The Urban Watch Magazine.

“All sorrows are less with bread,” claimed Cervantes in the 1500s. Our obsession with the Chelsea (area in southwest London) bun and New York bagel prove that more than five hundred years later, Cervantes is still right… but which snack is a bite above the rest? Let’s take a deeper look.

Chelsea buns can be traced back to the 1700s, to the Old Chelsea Bun House bakery where 50,000 people, Hanoverian royalty among them, turned up to queue for the first baker’s dozen. The buns, often paired with hot cross buns to celebrate Easter, quickly achieved cult status with a following to match. A strong police force was required to keep the Good Friday queues calm; the buns themselves were sold out of shutters in the side of the bakery lest riots ensued.

While Chelsea buns have been whipping crowds into a frenzy since their inception, bagels have also charmed the masses for decades. Bagels made such an impression that in the early 1900s, a select group of people decided that they liked them so much that they would, effectively, put a ring on it.

Cue the International Beigel [sic] Bakers’ Union. For years, bagel production in New York was tightly controlled by this bagel monopoly. An exclusive society, only sons of the original members were allowed to join the fold; wannabe bagel-bakers were threatened with broken legs if it appeared they were going to be baking their own bagels on the sly.

What about the bun and bagel of today? Both, in fact, are bastardized versions of their ancestors; the two have been super-sized and reinvented in crazy flavors at the behest of hangry Instagrammers, outraging bagel and bun purists alike. A blogger even called for government action, proclaiming, “This kind of perversity should be prohibited by law.”

One of the most controversial elements in this bread-ataclysm came out of Lender’s Bagel Factory. They opted to steam rather than hand-roll and boil the dough, managing to double if not triple the output of their traditionalist neighbors. The resulting “roll with a hole,” however, lacks the iconic chewiness of its predecessor, a loss that Mimi Sheraton, former New York Times’ restaurant critic, finds to be “completely deplorable.” We wonder what Sheraton would have to say about the rainbow bagel deviants that ‘broke’ Instagram this past year.

Bagels may prove more popular online but the Chelsea bun is no less revered. Since its inception, it quickly became a literary muse, popping up in the works of Charles Dickens, Anne Manning and Lewis Carroll. In the 1700s, a local poet even wrote an ode to the humble Chelsea:

Fragrant as honey and sweeter in taste!

As flaky and white as if baked by the light,

As the flesh of an infant soft, doughy and slight.

            – Anon.

Candid, artistic and not just a little disturbing (“flesh of an infant”?!) this poem is the icing on the proverbial Chelsea bun.

So, let’s review. The Chelsea bun wins the tale of the origins because the fact that Chelsea buns caused actual bun fights is too good to go unrewarded. The bagel also gets a point, however, for having a history that enabled a Beyoncé reference. And so we arrive at a tie but there can be only one winner and when it comes down to the wire, nothing beats a bagel in our books, not even the poetic creations of sheer bun-induced madness. Roll on bagels! We salute you.

Edited by Ivy Joseph & Demi Vitkute

The post New York Bagel or Chelsea Bun? appeared first on The Urban Watch Magazine.