Celebrity Life

There’s no doubt Alex Lam inherited his musical talent from his parents, his father being Cantopop legend George Lam Chi-Cheung, and his mother, Sally Yeh. Still, the singer-songwriter and actor hasn’t let privilege get to his head — he’s not afraid to explore other paths, from a stint in Los Angeles to discover yoga and becoming a yoga teacher, to dipping his toes in fashion.

Lam met Hiro Yoshikawa, founder and designer of Washi Jeans, a Japanese denim brand, a couple years back and was intrigued by the designer’s backstory. Now based in Hong Kong, Yoshikawa is the 18^th generation of a revered sake maker in Okayama, Japan, and the first to leave the family business to pursue his own passion in denim-making. By chance, Yoshikawa had found an old document that charted out his family’s history, written on washi paper. Inspired by this, he developed and patented the Washi No. 6 paper yarn, which he utilizes in his first solo collection launching this month.

Lam, who has always had an eye for detail, quickly became an ambassador and muse for Yoshikawa, and took it upon himself to bring the recognition Yoshikawa deserves by helping him stage his upcoming solo debut.

We sit down with Alex Lam and Hiro Yoshikawa at Washi Jean's studio to talk about style and the upcoming debut of Yoshikawa's solo collection Life on Earth.

Can you describe your style? What are your wardrobe essentials?

AL: My style has always been inspired by musicians. I grew up watching some of my favourite bands like The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and today, I'm inspired by singers like Drake. For me, my summer essentials include a sleeveless vest, a good multi-functional blazer and a pair of high-quality designer jeans.

Have you always been passionate about fashion and did you want to work in fashion?

AL: I have always cared about how I look and my outfits since I was a kid. I remember there was one time when the collar of my t-shirt wasn't right and I wouldn’t wear it out until my parents fixed it for me. Having friends who are in the fashion industry allows me to execute and experiment my ideas during workshops, like the ‘marshmallow’ colourway of the t-shirt I’m wearing right now. 

How did the both of you meet?

AL: I met Hiro-san thought some of our mutual friends.

HY: have been making jeans for other brands for the past 30 years and it has always been my dream to have my own denim brand. I have always hung out with people from the fashion industry, and meeting Alex from the music and acting world has made my life more fun and exciting.

Can you tell us a bit about your project with Hiro-san?

AL: I was hanging out with a group of producers and we often talk about fashion shows, designer brands’ videos, installation art and music. Once we found out Hiro-san wanted to launch his own denim brand this year, we decided to catch this opportunity and put our ideas together. We are organising a VIP launch event with a fashion show on June 11, 2021.

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome with this project?

AL: I think the rules of the game changed after Covid started last year. We looked at online fashion shows last year, without the tradition styles, and we knew our team needed to do it in a cleverer way. The restriction for event gathering is 30 persons at the moment, so we were not able to invite too many friends and make the event as big as before. Plus the campaign and fashion show video shoot all in one day, that’s the biggest challenge in this project.

HY:  We have been staying in our studio almost every day is the past few months, meeting different parties like our PR team, models, videographers and producers.

What else are you up to this year that you can share with us?

AL: I have released a new song and I just finished a music video for another song. I have also been working on my YouTube channel and created a few series, but it’s been slightly slowed down because I was focusing in this project.

Has the pandemic affected the way you work or changed your priorities?

AL: Before Covid, I was busy working with clients, who often prepared everything. With changes and restrictions during this period, I am able to organise and create more content by myself.

What are you currently inspired by?

AL: There are many indie musicians and young kids out there who are doing their music in their unique styles. I admire them a lot as they can release songs as long as they think it sounds good. I used think good music requires the best studio and recording equipment, but turned out a lot of indie musicians are producing high quality songs just by working at home.

You have a YouTube channel, you're into fashion, music as well as classic cars. How did you get into each of those passions and how do you balance it all?

AL: Project by project. I’m now focusing more on quantity over quality and I'll keep learning from the progress and mistakes.

Do you have a motto you live by?

Stay healthy. As I was a yoga teacher, I still practice yoga for two to three hours each day. It’s a good way to reflect on myself and find peace.

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Renowned auctioneer, curator, collector and art advisor Simon De Pury has recently lent his talent to curate the art for the towers of the Waldorf Astoria in New York, now undergoing a massive renovation. We ask him how he chose artworks for the landmark property and his views on the art industry during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Simon de Pury is dynamic, even over Skype from his home in Monaco. It’s obvious how passionate and animated he is about his career, with an energetic and entertaining style at the podium that’s earned him the moniker “the Mick Jagger of auctions”. Having re-founded Phillips, one of the world’s leading art auction houses, de Pury is a leading fugure in the global art industry. Since selling his stake in the firm, he’s worn many hats, including leading a large number of charity auctions.

“I feel very, very privileged being active in the art world, because this has been one of my main passions and interests since I was a teenager,” he says. “I feel it’s a privilege to be doing professionally what you enjoy most.”

Despite his achievements and fame, de Pury is humble and very friendly. Like everyone else, Covid-19 has drastically impacted his career. “In 2019, I conducted 36 charity auctions around the world. In 2020, since the pandemic started I’ve only conducted four. I do most of my work over the phone with artists, collectors and clients. I’ve found you can even curate exhibitions without having to travel all the time.”

Because de Pury previously travelled so much – “I spent a third of my time in London, another third in New York and the rest travelling around the globe” – his client base is international. It certainly helps that he’s fluent in English, French, German and Italian.

Given how badly art fairs have been impacted by Covid-19, I ask whether or
not he sees online showrooms as the future of art fairs. “It’s extraordinary to see how rapidly the market has switched to being mostly online. In the auction world, you see the main auctions now being conducted entirely online, with people seeing the auctioneer live on screen. And they’ve been very, very successful. It’s been more problematic with art fairs, with literally all of them being cancelled since the start of the pandemic. And so yes, you spend a lot of time attending shows online.

“People always feel intimidated about the art world”

Simon de Pury

"There’s a danger that it can induce a kind of digital fatigue, because you’re constantly bombarded from galleries, asking you to attend this showroom and or that showroom. And even if you’re a very active collector – or, in my case, a professional – you’re not going to devote all of your time just visiting showrooms. That is the main challenge for galleries, to try and get the attention of their top clients in this digital world.”

As for collecting strategies, de Pury places emphasis on the collector rather than purely following market trends. “People always feel intimidated about the art world,” he says, “and they don’t dare to admit what they really like and what they don’t like. They feel that they’ll be shown up as being non- connoisseurs by admitting what they don’t like. So, the most important thing when I work with somebody is to try and find out what they really like.

“Everyone has personal preferences and affinities, and there are things that, for whatever reason, don’t appeal to us – and there’s no point trying to impose on people something that won’t appeal to them,” he says. “I first like to go with potential clients to an art fair or to go just to look at art books, to get a feel of what makes them tick. When I understand better what excites them personally, then I try within what excites them to define works or find works of particular quality that would be of particular interest – and, of course, that have potential growth in market terms. Because once you start spending money and buying art, you want to make sure that this money is wisely spent. Even the most passionate and purist collectors want to make sure that they don’t just throw the money out the window.”

The owners of the Waldorf Astoria approached de Pury to help curate the art for the property’s renovation, which is due to be completed by 2022. Having spent a lot of time in hotels during his career, de Pury understands how important their interior environments are to guests and residents.

“Often in hotels or in residential projects, they just put up bland corporate art, but I wanted to have artistic choices that are as valid as those that you would choose for your own homes,” he says. “I was very happy to help with this project, especially since I stayed at the Waldorf Astoria on my first trip to New York. And when I was curator of the Misa collection many years ago, the Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza – whose massive collection is housed in its own museum in Madrid – favoured the Waldorf Astoria as his go-to home in New York, and so that’s why I started staying there. I love New York. It’s an extraordinary city, because it’s where everything comes together. You have all countries, all nationalities, all cultures–it’s a great big melting pot.”

The art de Pury has chosen for the hotel reflects this sentiment through an eclectic collection of paintings and sculptures – a magnificent fountain sculpture has been chosen for lobby – to ceramics and glass works, with many more to be added along the way. “We have works by artists from Korea, Cuba, Switzerland, Canada, Britain and Africa,” he says.

“And then, of course, with a project of this magnitude, you have budgetary constraints, so you can’t just put together your ideal collection. There were some artists whom we felt would be hard to work with from a budgetary point of view, but the artists themselves viewed the Waldorf Astoria as a culturally important project, so they made some sacrifices and concessions regarding the acquisitions, and it was very gratifying to see that they’re all onboard with the concept of doing something exciting for the hotel and the city alike.”

Some of the artists de Pury has chosen – particularly Minjung Kim, whose career has taken off – have been vindicated by the marketplace, showing that de Pury’s eye is still as sharp as ever. De Pury, who made a cameo appearance in Netflix’s hit show Emily in Paris, shows no signs of slowing down. Aside from being a DJ – who’d have guessed? – and photographer, he identifies himself as a juggler, throwing a couple of ideas in the air to see which one he can catch and execute. When asked about future plans, he simply says, “I’m quite superstitious, I don’t like to talk about my future plans, but I can say for sure that I have a couple of ideas brewing.”

Given the drastic changes going on in the world, we can’t wait to see what the mercurial Simon de Pury has up his sleeve.

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ART REPUBLIK 19 presents a series of visionary individuals and groups in the art world

The post ‘Breaking Boundaries’ – ART REPUBLIK 19 Celebrates the Pioneering Spirit appeared first on LUXUO.