Last night I went to the opening of the James Nizam show at Gallery Jones on 3rd. As expected, crowd was interesting and well-dressed (unlike most fashion events in Vancouver.)

James’ work is really interesting, and once I looked into his older work, I’ve realised that this recent collection is much more to my taste than his older work. It is photography of sculpture and installation, and its amazing. He told us a bit about the process, and it was really interesting, but rather than try and recap it all, I’ve included a blurb from the invitation on the bottom of this post.

Images from the Gallery Jones website.

Here I am with a very old friend, Jessica Clark, from Quince Fine Flowers. I’m wearing Atelier 1 coat, Uniqlo Jeans, vintage handbag, Hermes necklace, and Finsk shoes.

I had to show you all a few more photos of my shoes, which got many compliments. I have yet to unleash my entire Finsk collection on Vancouver, but I can tell you there are many more amazing pairs that need christening.

The giant zipper pull looks amazing when it sings back and forth when you walk.

The pleated leather is divine.

More on James Nizam’s work, from the exhibition invitation.

“On the occasion of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Gallery Jones is pleased to announce James Nizam’s exhibition, Memorandoms which continues Nizam’s use of vacated domestic interiors as the backbone of his photography, the provisional location of his studio, and the source of materials. In this case the site is the former Little Mountain housing project on 33rd to 37th Avenues, between Ontario and Main Street, what was the oldest public housing development in Vancouver, recently demolished to make way for a higher density combination of market condominiums and social housing. At one time these low rise buildings situated around grassy common areas across the street from Queen Elizabeth Park would have been attractive housing. Large windows threw light onto hardwood floors of square well built rooms, but that was decades ago. One year ago Nizam was granted access to the slated complex where he assumed residence to an empty third floor apartment. There he set up a camera, and over the course of several months, documented a series of ephemeral sculptures that he constructed from accumulations of remnants such as doors, drawers, shelves, and various other standardized architectural furnishings. Similar to each of Nizam’s previous photographic series two dominant and constant ideas persist with this new body of work: the lost or abandoned domicile, and that the personal is political. In Memorandoms, though the type of the home used has shifted towards the social, Nizam’s work in them continues to move towards greater refinement and sophistication.”

My good friend David buys a lot of Comme des Garcons for his concept store in Kiev, Atelier 1. He said that the Comme shows were sometimes very frustrating, because there was rarely a lot of clothing on the catwalk that could be worn by real men. He and the other buyers used to sigh and try and fill their quotas with the shirts (which, by the way, are the some of the best menswear shirts on the market.) So I was very surprised to see a ton of easy clothing in this collection, in fact, its probably my favourite Comme des Garcons menswear collection ever.

I Adore…

lots of grey velvet, and fur trimmed parkas.

the slick grey tailoring, the blue socks and shirt, and the asymmetrical vest.

rugged tailoring and the visible pocket bags.

the shiny slick hair, black outfit, and pink socks.

pink shoes and blue socks.

I Loathe…

four piece shorts-and-trousers suits made with tacky fabrics.

crotchless grey chaps shorts worn over blue trousers. (I guess I should be happy they are worn over something, and not nothing at all!)

more crotchless chaps shorts, this time way too long.

All images from GQ.com.