We've been told in therapy that compartmentalizing our feelings could lead to a regrettable emotional outburst. At 28, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, however, Givenchy artistic designer Riccardo Tisci proves that compartmentalizing a couture wardrobe could lead to an outburst of unrelenting chicness-and that, of course, is anything but regrettable. Uprooted from its home on Avenue George V, the label's new Parisian flagship represents the house's recent rejuvenation at the hands of Tisci. 'This space is the natural setting for our new designs. It represents the modernity of Givenchy,' says CEO Marco Gobbetti. 'It also gives us the opportunity to define the new image and language of the brand with even greater precision.' Tisci collaborated with architect Jamie Fobert (of London's Tate Modern) on a space that reflects a divide-and-conquer approach to fashion, breaking the store up into five compartments that mimic the famous Givenchy boxes used to deliver the garments. Each box contains some wisp of the brand's history (the interiors of Box No. 1, for example, are sculpted from the same white plaster moulding that's found in the couture Salon of the Avenue George V store), that offers historical contrast to the current line displayed within their walls. According to Fobert, '[Riccardo Tisci and I] experimented with materials, looking for surfaces and textures to alter perceptions and trigger memories that would be contemporary but emerge with a subtle romanticism.' The result of their efforts is a store deeply aware of its origins without falling victim to the pitfalls of nostalgic design, and balanced by a fresh, zen-like energy that is sure to sustain the house through the next hundred years. Catherine Blair Pfander

Exemplifying the different strokes for different folks aesthetic in more ways than one is a new book titled Italiens, brought toyou by adance/art/music troupe that answers to the name of The Changes. In 2007, they arrived in Italy for a party celebrating an exhibition opening during Milan Design Week. One year later, they're releasing a book of the adventure that once was. Think sci-fi sound tracks, tortellini alla panna, re-interpreted ad campaigns, punk music overtones, mozzarella, disco and mama-style momentos featuring everything and more from fellow clique members including Fergadelic (Tonite UK), Skatething (BBC/IceCream JPN), and Shauna & Misha (PAM). Highly recommended viewing for anyone who gets off on being lost in translation or better still, for those who consider themselves connaisseurs of what the French call n'importe quoi. A definite must-have for any bookshelf with balls.

Blame it on the economy, the stratospheric cost of crude oil, the Tibet-China crisis on the eve of the Olympics, or the general looming threat of global annihilation, but fashion is in a dark mood this season. The day after the Fall/Winter 2008 collections ended in March and the last blackest black look left the runway, photographer Mario Testino took to the Paris streets to shoot the standout clothes and the new class of rising supermodels. From New York to Paris, Armani to Vuitton, Amanda to Toni, V53 spins through the looks and the faces that matter, leaving no stone unturned. We're shining a light on some of the darkest (and most brilliant) clothes around.

The crowds at Coachella weren't the only ones shaking their tail feathers last weekend. One only had to have witnessed guests at the Adidas x Jeremy Scott party on Saturday night held at the former residence of Frank Sinatra in Palm Springs to have understood the level of musical appreciation in full effect. M.I.A., Liberty Ross, Sia Furler, JD Samson, and Cassette Playa's Carri Mundane were spotted dancing up a storm in the living room (where DJs Sam Spiegel and Pedro Winter set up the decks beside a baby grand piano, naturally). Meanwhile, André Saraiva and fiancé Uffie lounged pool side with Sarah from Colette, and siblings Paul and Chloë Sevigny. 'I had such an awesome time I don't know if I will ever be able to go back there again after that,' confessed host with the most, Jeremy Scott. Fortunately the memory isn't showing any signs of fading soon, thanks to a grade-A souvenir of the party-a giant beach towel imprinted with an image of the designer. 'I love working with Adidas,' says Scott. 'They are the only company who can completely understand the humor behind a trompe-l'œil beach towel imprinted with an image of myself and a logo of their brand.'

Union Pool's gold-framed stage was awash in up-tempo psychedelia this past Saturday as New York's latest dance sensation, Apache Beat, blasted its unique brand of electro-for-the-tribal-set. Singer Ilirjana Alushaj, an Australian native and the editor of online mag Pop Manifesto, echoes Fay Ray's Sheila Macartney, Berlin's Terri Nunn, and the quavering croons of Siouxsie Sioux. Underneath her eerie vocals, the band drives a hard 4/4 techno rhythm that somehow manages to sound earthy and organic. Like drum machines in the wigwam, there's nothing quite like it. Bartholomew Dougherty sat down with Alushaj and guitarist Philip Aceto after the show.BARTHOLOMEW DOUGHERTY Your name was borrowed from the late Klaus Dinger of Kraftwerk, right?PHILIP ACETO Yeah, in the nineties he started calling Motorik the Apache Beat. Motorik was the name the music press had given to Dinger's 4/4 beat. I wrote a song called The Apache Beat for one of my old bands and it was because I'm a huge fan of Neu! and Klaus Dinger, anything he does. That song was very political, about the army manipulating the Apaches to go against each other.BD Dinger's Apache Beat, seemed mechanical, motorized. You stray from that with more of an organic, tribal cadence.PA Native Americans used a certain type of trance-like pulse. And I think they were trying to get to more of a rhythmic trance. I guess that's what we're doing.BD Beyond music, what's influencing you right now?PA A lot of minimal film and art in general-just the same idea as the Motorik beat and what not. It's very minimal, something built on repetition through time. It's more of a non-Western way of looking at things. And a lot of art I like is moving in that direction in all mediums. I'm just bored, you know what I mean? You get kind of bored playing certain types of music, like rock 'n roll. I've been listening to more world or classical music; just moving music, you know, and how do you incorporate that into a pop song?BD Ilirjana, you've lived in the States for four years. How has the music scene changed over that time?ILIRJANA ALUSHAJ I got here when the Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs thing was exploding and it was kind of amazing to be around at that time music-wise. And all of this new stuff fashion-wise was coming out. And then there was this lull for a while and now it's like in the last year all of these amazing bands are coming out of Manhattan and Brooklyn. It's obvious, I feel, they're making it because they love it. I feel like in other countries people make music because they can get famous. I think people here are not, like, more knowledgeable about music, but they listen to much more of a variety of things. So you can talk to any New York band and they have these random influences. BD Cool to be a part of that. What's motivating everyone? PA I think it has to do with is the political environment. People are just so fed up that it's like, Where else do you go but forward? That's the way of getting it out and that's why a lot of the music now is a lot more experimental. It's almost like an awakening. I think it's pushing away from all that's corporate. You're just like screw all that stuff. I get that stuff shoved in my face on the television, on the radio. We're a mess right now and why be a part of it, why not just break it? People want real shit. If you're really putting you're heart into something, it's going to translate. And even if it translates with two people, whatever.

Cato Van Ee (IMG) Age: 18Hometown: Bentveld, The NetherlandsDiscovered: At my hairdresser in Amsterdam. He insisted I give modeling a try.Favorite food: Sushi, fruit, and grilled vegtables.Favorite drink: Lemonade and tea.Who are your heroes? My parents.What is your earliest fashion memory? Wearing a men's shirt from The Gap everyday when I was 5!Where do you see yourself in ten years? Looking back on a successful career as a model with a degree from NYU.

I'm a little bummed out that I didn't go to the Coachella festival this year, especially when my friends continuously flooded me with text messages like 'OMG PRINCE IS AMAZINGGGGG' and 'OMG PINK FLOYD! INFLATABLE PIG FLYING OVER THE DESERTSSSS.' Still the toughest message had to be from a friend who texted to let me know that the new reunited Swervedriver (one of my all-time fave bands from the early '90s) was playing an amazing set to a half-empty tent on Sunday afternoon. Luckily, I can relive my college glory days when Swervedriver play NYC in a few weeks, but the cruel text still prompted me to go dust off all my old shoegazer records, including Swervedriver's Never Lose That Feeling EP, which I vaguely remember shoplifting (yeah, I said it, shoplifted!) from a record store in Oklahoma City during my senior year of high school. (To my credit, the record had been erroneously placed in a bargain bin and was priced for only $5, which would have equaled two meals for me back in college.) This band was always a little more straightforwardly rockin' than most of the bands they got lumped in with (My Bloody Valentine, etc.), but they wielded the mighty wall of guitar sound with the best of them. Despite the fact that Swervedriver had not one but two members sporting questionable dreadlocks, I still obsessively bought all of their records until they eventually broke up. Hearing this now takes me back to a time in my life when buying records (or stealing them) was still this exciting opportunity for discovery, and I played this record on my best friend's stereo while we all sat around doing bong hits and feeling utterly cool and just so happy to be hanging out together and no longer living with our stupid, clueless parents. It's a feeling I hoped I would never lose, even though I eventually did.

It's a BAPE eat BAPE world. Especially when it comes to sneaker heads, hip hop heavyweights, and art stars from the motherland showing their support for the brand which singlehandedly brought bling into a world of colored camo print. Or so it seemed last night in L.A. at the BAPE store opening on Melrose Avenue as guests and a dedicated pack of die-hard fans flocked to congratulate streetwear king and fellow BAPE founder, Nigo.Clockwise from top left: Cassette Playa's Carri Mundane, Pharrell Williams,Takashi Murakami, Nigo, Colette's Sarah, and N*E*R*D's Chad Hugoat BAPE Los Angeles, April 22, 2008Photography Linlee Allen

Last Monday, it may have been a school night, but that didn't stop a group of V staffers and close friends and family from coming down to the West Village's Kingswood Lounge to salute the new members of the V and VMAN teams-Jesse Ashlock, editor of VMAN and vman.com; Derek Blasberg, senior fashion news and special projects editor of V and VMAN; Jay Massacret, fashion editor of V and VMAN; and T. Cole Rachel, music editor of V and VMAN. DJ Spencer Product spun the latest and greatest sounds, the Belvedere flowed like no tomorrow, and 15-year-old music prodigy Hayes Peebles graced the group with his presence as well as his seemingly boundless music talent.

Anyone who has crossed Harmony Korine of late will notice that the dirty T-shirts, prankster overtones, and hallucinatory whirlwind (the infamous guest spot on Letterman, hello?) have taken a back seat to a more focused frame of mind. Enter 35-year-old Korine, whose newfound appreciation for the art of filmmaking is about to blast across theaters with his latest effort, Mister Lonely. Earlier this week Linlee Allen took ten minutes to uncover his thoughts on three people and two experiences thus far.On co-writing the film with his kid brother: 'Avi is eight years younger than me and I hadn't seen him for a while as I moved to Nashville a few years ago. He was always busy going to see boxing matches and eating chicken nuggets with this honey that I used to send him. One day I picked up the phone and lured him to come see me and promised I'd pay for the honey if he came. So he got on the plane, he stayed on my futon, and when he got here we started writing. Sometimes we stopped to play basketball and to eat fried chicken but otherwise we basically hung out and wrote.'On Samantha Morton: 'What more can I say? She is one of the best around. I've known her a long time and she is always someone I have really wanted to work with so I'm lucky that I got the chance to make that happen. She is very, very special. And she's always very expressive and emotionally ready.'On Werner Herzog (and a particular scene depicting a priest and a broken-hearted alcoholic): 'Sometimes directors make great actors. Werner is an old friend who is one of my favorite people and as a filmmaker, I live for moments like that scene. I've always been attracted to those sorts of people who make up their own logic. To those who think outside of the system. To those who invent as they go along. These kinds of people are the biggest dreamers of all and so I suppose that's the reason why they are always the ones who end up getting hurt.'On agnès b.: 'I love Agnès very dearly. She's a poet and is someone I have an extreme fondness towards.'On the dark years: 'Well, it's no secret that I used to love narcotics. I was in such a dark period of my life that I wasn't sure I would ever make movies again. I started at a very young age and everything came very quickly to me so at some point I guess I lost that love for film. I felt disconnected from the rest of the world. So I went to a place where I didn't know anyone and basically became a ghost. Somehow I started to build myself back up and to re-attach myself. I started to laugh again. Then one day I saw a small woman walking her invisible dog down the road. I asked her what she was doing. She told me it was time to make a movie. I took her word for it and now, here I am.'

If there's a been an art-world power shift to the left coast in recent years, it's certainly been aided by the existence of the annual L.A. Art Weekend-a four-day series of openings, parties, and art events held each April. Now bigger than ever in scale and scope, the weekend saw everyone from Lawrence Weiner to Anna Sew Hoy kicking back under the Los Angeles sun.Click here for a slideshow from L.A. Art Weekend 2008

In artist Marlene McCarty's new series of surreal ballpoint pen drawings, a minimal ink-and-graphite aesthetic belies transgressive tales of sex, murder, and depravity. For 'CANDY. CRY. STINKER. HUG.' at Sikkema Jenkins & Co., the American artist presents sketches of fantastic primates and free-loving men and women in a kind of freeform, multi-layered technique, in which arms and orifices are never where you'd expect them to be. Her hermaphroditic, trans-species figures kiss, fuck, give birth, speak in sign language, and engage in warm embrace, but the backstory is not so innocent. McCarty bases much of her work on true-life stories of incest and perversion-from bestiality to pedophilia in Mormon communities-creating a clash between the heavy themes and a naïve, vaguely '70s sketchbook style.

I've been following the Little Ones for a couple of years now. I first saw them back in 2006 (I think) and I was so enamored that I bought a copy of their Sing-Song EP and lingered around their merch table to try and chat them up. I was stoked to hear that they had eventually signed to a major label and were slated to unleash their debut LP sometime this year. Unfortunately, like so many great bands, the Little Ones were dropped from their label just as their full-length was about to be released. Rather than go home and cry, the crafty L.A. band opted instead to release the album (called Morning Tides) themselves and will do so a little later this year on their own Branches Recording Collective. In the meantime, the Little Ones deliver this 6-song EP to tide the world over. I'm a sucker for any band who can write big, shimmery, buoyant pop songs that make you want to run around in the sun and do happy things like blow bubbles or chase rainbows or kiss unicorns. These songs actually make me want to do those things, which is no small feat considering that I generally dislike sunshine and prefer to be indoors. Here's to the little guy sticking it to the man!Download: the Little Ones' 'Tallies' MP3

8. Daria Strokous (IMG)Daria is undoubtedly one of the best new girls to have arrived on the Fall/Winter 2008 scene, but this season things didn't blow up quite as huge as some had anticipated. Sometimes a slow New York season belies the storm that is Europe. And a steady start with exits for Narciso Rodriguez, Gap, and DKNY did set a platform for Milan, where she walked Jil Sander, Pringle, and Daks. Paris, although quiet, saw her star turns at huge houses like Lanvin and Givenchy, before she headed back home to finish school. With an innocent (yet totally intelligent) ingénue look to her, there's no doubt in my mind that next season this young Russian will claim her rightful place among the new runway stars. For the here and now, be sure to catch her in V53's IMG Powerhouse feature, photographed by Mario Sorrenti.

Jill Bauwens (Ford NY)Age: 18Hometown: Antwerp, BelgiumDiscovered: On the street by Tom Van Dorpen of Dominique.Favorite food: Desserts-dame blanche, tiramisu (with fruit or cinnamon, not always coffee), eclairs, lots of Belgian chocolate, and American cheesecake!Favorite drink: Grape juiceWho are your heroes? My sister who is eleven months older than me and studies fashion in Paris. She's my role model and like a second mother to me. I live with her in Paris and when I'm in New York, she calls me every day. She's so supportive and I wouldn't know what to do without her.

At the first of a three-show residency at Mercury Lounge, Brooklyn favorites French Kicks took to the stage clapping raucously, and launched right into the first track off their freshly recorded new album, Swimming. The show, lasting well past midnight, included new tracks interspersed with classics. The oldie Trial of the Century prompted one female audience member to repeatedly and uncontrollably shout, fuck yeah! Another favorite, One More Time, transformed the entire audience into a singular writhing mass of flannel, leather, and horizontal stripes. Even as the band left the stage, the crowd's fervor flagged not a hair-fans roared when the Kicks played their encore, Lindsay Buckingham's Trouble.

Sometimes saying it with flowers is really the only way. Back in early December, Nick Knight photographed the perennially inspiring Kate Moss wearing the season's power dresses-from Jil Sander's fiery red pouf to Yves Saint Laurent's asymmetrical violet stunner-in an epic two-day shoot. The results were A) a story in V52 in which the images were turned on their side to push the concept of Kate as a blooming flower. And B) this short film currently screening on SHOWstudio in which the supermodel recites words written on-set by the British poet Roddy Lumsen. Using 35 individual cameras from 360 degrees, Knight has captured Kate frozen in time and space, morphing into Day-Glo flowers and back into herself over the course of sixty seconds.

1. What are you working on right now?I'm working on the most incredible product line that launches in July.2. What has been inspiring you lately?I always get inspired by comic books and by working with Alex White.3. What is your aesthetic?I think anything can be beautiful, so for me its liking all types of beautiful women.4. Who are your heroes?Ara Gallant, Alexandre of Paris, and Christiaan5. If you could invite five people, living or dead, to a dinner party,who would it be?Elvis Presley, Steven Meisel, Tuesday Weld, Donatella Versace, and Britney Spears. And if I could just have one more, it would be Mango from Saturday Night Live.

Georgina Stojiljkovic (Women)Age: 18Hometown: Belgrade, SerbiaDiscovered: By an Italian agent at a fashion show in Belgrade.Favorite food: Anything Greek-seafood and salads!Favorite drink: Water and Starbucks skim white mochaWho are your heroes? A boy named Gulò (a character from my favorite book).What is your earliest fashion memory? When I decided never to let my mother dress me up ever again. I was about 7.

The very first 'big' interview I ever conducted for V (and the first real celebrity interview I ever did) was with R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe. I wrote about Stipe for the Heroes section because, well, he is one of my heroes and because R.E.M. were about to release a career-defining best-of collection. I have never been as teeth-chatteringly nervous as I was the day I took at cab to the Mercer Hotel to wait for Stipe (and super publicist Liz Rosenberg!) to do our interview. When I think back about that day (and my geeky, typewritten notes) it makes me smile. Michael was warm and wonderful and funny and couldn't have been kinder or more thoughtful. It's a good thing, given that R.E.M. were so iconic in my own musical coming of age it would have been beyond disillusioning if he had been a jerk…and I might have thrown in the towel on trying to become a real music journalist. Anyway, it's nice to be able to look back on that day now as I sit and listen to Accelerate, which is arguably the band's best record in a decade. Short, sharp, and focused, the record sidesteps the meandering production of the band's last couple of albums in favor of airtight, guitar-heavy jams that harken back to the band's best and most overtly rocking work (Monster, Life's Rich Pageant). My tastes might have changed somewhat over the past few years, but I can still say that R.E.M. remains one of my all-time favorite bands. This record is evidence of why they also remain one of the most important.