Friends of Closed

A multi-channel content and interview series for German fashion label Closed, featuring creative tastemakers the world over. Published in Closed’s Hard Copy print magazine and on its online channels, it showed each protagonist in their favourite Closed wardrobes and introduced the brand audience to their worlds at home and work. Sourcing brand ambassadors from Los Angeles and New York to Milan and Amsterdam, I directed the stories and, if not writing the story myself, commissioned and edited global writers. All stories were published on Friends of Friends, too.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Richard van der Laken fights social injustice one design challenge at a time

In his 1938 book, Design in Motion, artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy urged the design world to see the profession as an attitude of resourcefulness and inventiveness. In conversation with Richard van der Laken, the co-founder of the global design foundation and conference series, What Design Can Do, Moholy-Nagy’s thoughts immediately spring to mind. For What Design Can Do, this attitude relates to creating solutions that not only respond to the needs of both individuals and society, but stimulate change. A trained designer with over 30 years of experience—in 1995, he co-founded De Designpolitie, an Amsterdam-based studio, with Pepijn Zurburg before introducing What Design Can Do in 2011—Van der Laken, and his team of researchers and designers, ask creative thinkers to interpret global shifts and climates.

Whether social, political, or cultural, they are ubiquitously subjected to far-reaching challenges; some of which, according to Van der Laken, governmental organizations rarely tackle. By developing multidisciplinary conferences and workshops, What Design Can Do engage an eclectic cast of visionaries—emerging or established—worldwide, from their base in Amsterdam to Mexico City. They address climate change, provide support for the victims of man-made and natural disasters, help asylum seekers settle into new communities, and even champion social justice. Yet the projects also resurge an interest in making, whether by hand, mechanically, or digitally, and embody recent shifts in design culture as it becomes more diverse and inclusive. It’s a big ask, one that has concerned van der Laken for most of his career. Read on Friends of Friends

Los Angeles, USA

In the Laurel Canyon with Iranian-born, Los Angeles-based stylist Maryam Malakpour

Maryam Malakpour handles the maddening roadblocks in Laurel Canyon with an unflappable sense of calm. Confidently careening past traffic cones, around dirt roads, and passing cars, she is a silver bullet in her 1970’s Porsche.

Malakpour, who is a fashion stylist and creative director, says the car is perfect for Sunday drives around Mulholland’s winding curves. It’s nearly 50 years old but roars obediently to her every maneuver, of which there are many on these treacherous detour paths. The car is a perfect aesthetic reflection of Malakpour’s attention to detail and fondness for breaking the rules. “I love the gold accents against the silver paint. Mix the gold and silver together, come on—you have to mix it all up!”

Malakpour has pulled off an impressive career: a woman from Iran who rose to be a highly celebrated stylist, particularly to rock stars writ large. Her skillful styling has been employed by The Rolling Stones, Lenny Kravitz, LL Cool J, Marilyn Manson, The Strokes, Coldplay and countless other celebrities; a client roster that could figuratively paper a teenage bedroom wall. As such, she is called upon to inhabit or create a persona, assemble it through runway clothing or designed costumes, and then “push it forward,” by layering in her sense for verve. At other times her work as a stylist is about making it appear “that there was no stylist involved,” like with longtime collaborator Keith Richards, “It has to be so real, and feel lived in,” she says. Read on Friends of Friends

Milan, Italy

Iris Roth embraces original crafts—and gives materiality new meaning in the process

Can the cultural value of crafts revive design? In the case of ceramicist Iris Roth and her collaborations with local Italian artisans, the answer might just be yes.

It’s surprisingly quiet in northern Milan’s Dergano neighborhood, a former rural village that has now established itself as a hub for contemporary design. Upon entering the studio of Michele, however, you feel as though the clock has been turned back. Archetypal canzones emit from a radio, permeating the room with the full-heartedness of la dolce vita. Shelves are littered with handmade ceramic casts, tableware, and sculptures. Michele has run the studio since 1976. Witnessing him work the spinning wheel and his wife carefully cutting a cast, reminds you how, for centuries, craftspeople have clung to the artisanal heritage of their work, uniting passion and formal quality. It’s easy to see why ceramicist and designer Iris Roth frequents this place; not only to oversee the production of her understated, everyday tableware, but to feel inspired by its owners’ slavish adherence to tradition. Friends of Friends

Uckermark, Germany

Photographer Stefan Heinrichs captures tangible moments, inside and outside the studio

Rolling hills, vast fields, secluded lakes, rustic farmhouses, and quaint farm shops selling local produce. A description of Brandenburg’s Uckermark region easily reads like a romanticized travel cliché.

A popular enclave among Berlin creatives, the rural region about an hour northeast of the capital attracts urban dwellers seeking tranquility. Set against sprawling lawns, photographer Stefan Heinrich’s project Kleines Haus in Flieth is hence no rare occurrence; over the course of two years, he has reconstructed a century-old barn into an open-plan living space surrounded by towering grass and oak trees. In Flieth he is part of a close-knit community; his next-door neighbors, Horst und Gaby, have called the unassuming village home for almost fifty years.

Heinrichs’ outside dining table is a smorgasbord of local treats: freshly baked bread, cheeses, cured ham, ripe tomatoes, and boiled eggs are served alongside homegrown grapes and berries from shrubs planted all over the premises. His residence serves few reminders of his commercial background—the agency he works for is based in London, a city he never felt the urge to call home. “This is where I open up and let my guard down. I’m 100% in my element. The distractions you have here rather support you or help you advance; gardening, listening to music, and reading all clears my head,” Heinrichs says about his new-found joy in a streamlined lifestyle. “You broaden your mindset,” he continues, rephrasing Günter Grass. “It’s about discovering something new, but in a simple way.” Here in Flieth, his ease and relaxation are almost palpable, feelings that he ascribes to a journey he embarked on without longing for it. Only in hindsight he is able to grasp his need for a change of scenery. Read on Friends of Friends

Berlin, Germany

Judith Haase fashions a unique architectural language rooted in austerity

Integrating light is at the forefront of architect Judith Haase’s interdisciplinary practice.

Judith Haase is sitting in the laid-back, understated far office in the Gonzalez Haase Atelier Architecture Studio. Over her shoulder, weighty-looking books line a utilitarian shelving construct. Manila folders with top secret, unpublishable prospective projects rest on the table in front of her. Somewhat disarmingly, a half-finished oil painting, bright in character and color sits off to the side atop another surface crafted from resolutely functional chipboard. It is, Haase earlier explained, the work of her teenage daughter, who has grown up used to the crossover between creative workspaces and creative home-life. She smiles and answers the question she was just asked with a resolute: “No. Everything we do is thought-through. There is no accident.”

The question concerned lighting design, for which Haase and co-founding business partner Pierre Jorge Gonzalez’ “studio for architecture, scenography and lighting” has gained considerable renown. Specifically, whether she could remember an instance where beautiful light had appeared unexpectedly in a space they had designed. It was a naive question, one built on the tendency to regard light as something that exists at the more magical end of the design spectrum. Of course the truth is that, in the work of architects and designers such as Haase, light is akin to any other material—like wood, like marble, like glass—to be harnessed and manipulated with expert precision, in order to achieve a certain result. Read on Friends of Friends