It's not enough one post to describe the following accessory designer. Well, the title as 'accessory designer' is such underrating itself. What he does is beyond that. Art? Perhaps. But who can really describe art precisely?
AND_i, or Andreas Eberharter.
What he does is to convey a visual representation of a design, idea, and/or mood. What he creates are not merely combined work and craftsmanship realised in metal and colours. In the following masks in particular, a pair of metal masks with imagery of bad and good clown (which I tried on, the bad one), I suddenly contemplate Carrie Bradshaw's fear of birthday clown, a funny looking clown for common people, but scary as hell for her.
It shows how deep his thought in representing the impression of clown; it's love-it-or-hate-it situation. And just in life, what people see as joyful entertainment sometimes can be frightening (me personally HATE clown. Poor people who have to look horrible in ever-sweating heavy outfit).
His collaboration with Nora Rieser is another shocking point. Shown along with her sci-fi smelled bodytight latex numbers, his accessories are even more blatant in showing his vision. Nora herself is amazing. Her conception to create all-size outfits with inspiration in my mind taking from futuristic era, is what I call the groundbreaking collection. When people out there fight and argue about white-black models and racial issue, I'd say, to the left please. Nora casted her models in a really diverse way; twin, acromegalic people, and bringing up the theme of slavery and flattering alien-like figures.
Watch the video below.
His brilliant collaboration goes on endlessly. One is braver and bolder than others, that it's difficult to compare. With Thierry Mugler, he created eye patch, a simple thing with tremendous benefit (note: pirates wear eye patch so that they have the eyes adapt quickly when going from darkness to light. Did you know that it can take up to 25 minutes for them to adapt when going from bright light to darkness?), making the 2009 menswear collection seems sensible. Paco Rabanne also borrowed his holey eye patch (which looks like a one-eyed glass frame). Mother Monster wore 50 pieces of studs in her infamous Paparazzi clip. Bentley, Red Bull, Absolute Vodka... the list goes on and on. But one thing is sure, that his talent is so incredible that those prominent brands entrusted him to create something for them.
This is what I love about his creativity. I must admit that it's not such a commonplace accessories you'd wear in daily basis, but neither is your couture piece or something. Or in comparison, you'd not show your Van Gogh paintings if you happened to posses one in your living room to people who aren't really able to digest and appreciate art (once I went to an exhibition of his and a woman said, "Even my 5 year-old daughter can make that kind of painting. I call them artistically challenged people). I mean, these pieces are created so valiantly that it can speak for itself. A head-turning and show-stopping. And that's what art pieces do; making you feel disturbed and be busy with your mind when you can not understand it. But when you do, it's so desirable that it hurts.
Signorfandi, and those pieces speak so loudly...