A license to look strange, with the blessing of Bless

[imomus]

"The typical Bless shopper," reports Unlike Berlin, "is usually from Japan, subtly dressed in avant-garde from top to bottom and thrilled to spend about 500 Euros for a handbag that can also be turned into a sweater." I've been looking into the Bless store on Berlin's Mulackstrasse for six years and, yes, usually with a Japanese person. I even know Japanese Berliners (like jeweler Naoko Ogawa) who've interned with Desiree Heiss and Ines Kaag's conceptual clothes company.



What I've never done -- not until yesterday, anyway -- is bought an item of clothing at Bless. As the Unlike text suggests, it's absurdly expensive. You tend to go in there as you'd go to an art gallery, to admire the ideas. Bless is a master of eccentricity. Here you'll find outrageous combinations of things: a graph-paper shirt with a hood tucked into a little packet under the collar, another one with a sari-like scarf sewn onto the back, an enormously heavy chunky-knit sweater, a sort of toddler's garment with a huge middle-section that you have to scrunch up, accordion-style, by lacing braces around tabs. They also do decorated USB cables (a big influence on Hisae's Mizutani Cable Knit Company cottage industry, now discontinued because it was taking her a month to produce each cover), stools made of hollowed-out wood, and other curiosities. It's basically all stuff you've never seen anywhere else, though once you glom onto the ideas, you could probably go and do your own knock-off for a fraction of the price.



Yesterday, six years after starting to visit Bless regularly, I actually bought my first garment from them, the... well, the thing you can see in the photo (not the shaggy hood, which would have doubled the price). It's a pair of very wide felt trousers which dangle at the bottom of a tight woolen boob tube thing. Instead of being held up by a belt of some kind, the trousers are kept in place by the boob tube clinging to your chest.

I was only able to purchase this weird garment with the justification that I'll wear it on stage when I play my first-ever gig in Warsaw next weekend at the Song Is You Festival (my gig is on Sunday evening). And because it was in the Bless Workshop sale, where prices are deeply slashed. The sale is held in a different location, up in a wilderness of housing estates at the top end of Ackerstrasse, a place usually used to construct the clothes.



It was lots of fun trying improbable outfits on there yesterday with Emma and Joe and various strangers (we all shared one big dressing room). The thing about Bless clothes is that they're so bloody peculiar that putting them on is also dressing yourself in the permission to look that odd -- Bless' blessing, if you like. It's this legitimation of complete visual eccentricity, this implicit license to deviate, that interests me. It suggests a parallel world in which we're all allowed to look like kindly monsters on the street, like characters from Maurice Sendak.

Comments

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I suppose the polemical antithesis of the idea of clothes being sold along with an implicit permission to wear them would be Sade's maxim: "Pity the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another."

Not a big fan of the social contract, Sade.

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

You know what those sorta remind me of? Sagyouhakama.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Hisae said it reminds her of yakko-san, the traditional samurai servant made of origami:

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[(Anonymous)]

And if anyone's children find you scary they can go to hell, as Sendak said. Good trousers, though. Didn't Bowie wear something like that once? White, though, and fastened at the waist.

Have a good concert, Nick.

Stephen Parkin

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Actually a little girl came with her parents while we were in Bless. She was in the middle of a tantrum when they arrived, but as soon as she saw the general atmosphere of dressing up and looking like monsters she cheered up instantly and began making this drawing:

[sveltelife.livejournal.com]

Actually those pants/things are fresh.

I remember back when I was in junior high, I was sure that it felt comfortable to sag my pants below my waistline (my dad would always remark: "that can't be comfortable!"). Your new garment looks like it has a 14 inch tall waistline, starting at your chest. In a way that's sort of opposite from my skater pants (which basically did away with a waistline), yours has turned your mid-body into total waistline. And I can see that being comfortable, too.

[count-vronsky.livejournal.com]

I don't know how you pull that look off but you do :) And those cheap bastards should throw in the furry hood for free!



also - yay kuma.

[count-vronsky.livejournal.com]

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Damn that dandy Woody Allen, always upstaging me!

[lana-sv.livejournal.com]

oh, an overall...very usefull

Where *are* the wild things?

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

When you mentioned Maurice Sendak I was reminded of an anime called 'Nekome kun' from the late 70s. Momus, I remember you saying that the late 70s were your favourite years aesthetically, and I cant blame you really:



The textures in this anime are beautiful. Its enough to make me cry at how ugly and terrible childrens animation has become over the last 30 years.

Re: Where *are* the wild things?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I remember you saying that the late 70s were your favourite years aesthetically, and I cant blame you really

I was talking about the 1070s in Heian Japan, of course!

[(Anonymous)]

Ooh, now that is too weird. I had a dream about you last week and in it you were wearing that exact outfit. Shaggy hood and all.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Was I with my best friend Beth?

very kabuki

[(Anonymous)]

speaking of japan, the american press is having a "shit-fit" about obama "groveling and deeply bowing to the emperor of japan!!!" i don't know. i thought it was kindof charming and cute; just like akihito and michiko themselves.

jealous in London

[(Anonymous)]

Nick, you have to go back and get that poodle carcass you're wearing there. It's kind of amazing.

Re: jealous in London

[(Anonymous)]

yeah, just shove it down your pants when no one is looking and walk out. I don't think anyone is going to question why you would have a bulge in that area.

Fashion doesn't have to be fashionable

[(Anonymous)]

Most people in the taste industry have zero taste - any old shit will do! Wear hats by Philip Treacy too. Whatever!

Re: Fashion doesn't have to be fashionable

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Style and taste are two different things: tasteful isn't always stylish, and stylish is rarely tasteful.

[count-vronsky.livejournal.com]

I see those pants on you and all I can think is... finally, room enough for your penis.

[count-vronsky.livejournal.com]

What, nothing?

I know you're out there, I can feel the popcorn.

[milky-eyes.livejournal.com]

ouch, no response.
I had the similar thought.... room enough for both of your penises.

penis. What a word. and penises... thats just a mess.

so...
movies...

where the wild things are .... good or bad? I didnt see it and probably wont because it looks awful...

fantastic mister fox... good or bad? definetly good. If its not amazing I will be very surprised.

Momus... the pants look cool. But with the funny face and all you make them look goofy. What I think you need is to have a flowing baggy top that works with the pants and in someway shows the 'booby' top part of the pants as well... I'm sure that have something there thats very expensive that works with it. the furry thing is also very cool....

I'm bummed that there arent many (only one place) places in ny that carry bless. I love clothing and 'artistic' clothing. I may not buy or wear them, but I love to look them over.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Two penises now, is it? That bulge like bra-less boobs at the top of whatever unfeasible pants I wear? Compensating for the missing eye, perhaps?

I think I prefer the monstrous me in your imagination to the modest reality.

[count-vronsky.livejournal.com]

Movies? That's easy. Michael Jackson's This Is It. I saw it yesterday in an empty theater and was just amazed at how good it was. there is something about Michael that short-circuits the critical section of my brain and goes straight to its pleasure center.

It was amazing how moving just watching rehearsals was. And yes he had lost a step here and there, and he was saving his voice, but that only added to the sense of pity and wonder. But to see him work a stage, looking like a zombie grasshopper from heaven -- it was impossible to take your eyes off of him. We even got up and danced in the aisles for a bit. (Michael always had gorgeous, dancers legs)

Best time I have had at the movies in ages.

oh...

[milky-eyes.livejournal.com]

I guess I was just comparing the two 'kid' movies...

but thanks for the cue, I will go see This is it.
MJ was magic, he had the power to raise above the hype, which seems imposible.

to delve into to 'rape is rape' theme which we all hate to start up, he too, had some pretty heavy issues going on, as far as little kids go... but in the end, we are literally moved by his spirit... which goes to show,,, the law isnt always the law... people are emotionally biased and 'fair' is really what we 'feel' in the end...

you mentioned he was saving his voice, the account I remember reading is that at that point in his life he wasnt able to sing... his lungs had some disease? or something?

Re: oh...

[count-vronsky.livejournal.com]

I don't know, let's come at the child rape thing from another perspective. His last accuser was a ten year old cancer patient right? Bald from the chemo, frequently hooked up to IVs, etc... If you think about it, how much chance is this kid going to have with the ladies anyway? Now here comes a preternaturally talented, childlike billionaire who takes an interest in him and offers to let him live in his fantasy mansion, sleep in his bed and watch movies with him, drink wine and ride his choo-choo train, and all you have to do is occasionally fondle him, some oral and then maybe some gentle penetration? Maybe it's just me but I'm not seeing the downside here. Much less a crime.

Re: oh...

[milky-eyes.livejournal.com]

of course. I'm on the same page as you, with that...

but I doubt those in charge of the legal system, or media, etc, are.

Re: oh...

[milky-eyes.livejournal.com]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/11/19/michael-jackson-evan-chandler-dad-of-boy-jordy-molested-by-star-wanted-justice-from-jacko-but-ended-up-destroyed-by-case-115875-21832905/


we spoke a bit too soon... oops

[niemandsrose.livejournal.com]

That makes me want to start crafting the clothes in my head so that I can actually dress that way I want to. At least a little bit, at least sometimes.