A’N’D Keep it Surreal…

So, I was looking for the best place to find a range of Olympia Le-Tan’s minaudières (not sure if that is the correct plural of minaudière, but you get my meaning!) in Paris. Colette came up in my search. I am so going to visit Colette. While I was perusing the Colette wares online, I discovered this phantasmagoric label. Have you come across the most awesome Azumi & David yet? If not, you are in for a treat!

Azumi & David’s latest collection ‘keep it surreal’ draws inspiration from the book ‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat’ by neurologist Oliver Sacks. The book was first published in 1985 and describes case histories of some of his patients. I first read it at university and found it unputdownable. If you haven’t read it, it’s a winner. I promise.

‘Keep it surreal’ will challenge your perceptions of everyday normality by confronting you with distorted visual interventions using digitally printed garments and accessories, subtly mutated leather items such as bags and wallets, gold and leather plated objet trouvé jewellery, subverted familiarity using trompe l’oeil illusions to propose multiple interpretations of reality. (Azumi and David)

Have I mentioned what a fan I am of trompe l’oeil?

Azumi and David both studied fashion at Central Saint Martins, London but met in The Troubadour Coffee House, in London’s Earl’s Court in May 1995. They got married in Hackney Town Hall, London on March 10th, 2000 and had their wedding reception on October 14th, 2001 in Nagano, Japan. They celebrate birthdays on the 8th and 10th April, designating April 9th as A’N’D day.

Since first coming together in 1995, Azumi and David have progressed through a variety of creative projects – initially with limited edition artist’s books and performance art, moving gradually on to fashion and accessory associated ‘things to wear’.

Azumi and David presented their first fashion accessories (‘piercing’ and ‘ear wax’ – foam and wax earplug earrings), branded A’N’D, to The Pineal Eye, London … followed by Colette, Paris … their first two stockists. They have shown their new collections of ‘things to wear’ twice a year in a Paris showroom every year since 2003…

Their ‘things to wear’ are stocked around the world in over 40 stores, in cities such as London, Paris, New York, Tokyo and Milan etc… Just not Sydney, apparently.

If you’d like to check out their website, you can here. There is also an online store