And so Biennale fever begins..

On Monday, a few of the TOS crew ventured out to the ‘Central

Promontory Site’ (seriously the most unhelpful venue name ever - even though the invitation had a map on it) on Marina Boulevard for a talk by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban/Club 21’s Art of the T exhibition. We were under the impression the event would be housed in a marquee, but instead, we were greeted with an artful facade of containers (the industrial kind that movie mafia bosses keep dead bodies in) and what we later discovered were gigantic waterproof cardboard pillars. Initial verdict: cool.
Not gonna lie - we were there for the clothes, so we mainlined for the retail container after scoping out the contents of the other containers - mini art exhibits all paying homage to the mighty t-shirt. It was a neat little concept except for the lack of ventilation which left us soaked in sweat. After shoving our way through the other fashionistas, we successfully picked up a couple of Kulte tees and a Marc Jacobs shirt. The only sore spot was the number of past season t-shirts on sale…

While noses were stuck in labels and logos, Shigeru Ban was giving a highly insightful talk about sustainable architecture that we kind of wish we paid more attention to. Mr Ban - quite possibly one of the most environmentally friendly architects around - promotes the use of recyclable paper to provide fast, affordable housing to disaster victims, and has designed cardboard structures all over the world including the Musée d’art Moderne Georges Pompidou in France and a one-of-a-kind Japanese Pavilion for the 2000 Hannover World Expo in Germany.

We left with a better understanding of the cardboard-and-container structure, newfound respect for an amazing architect, and a respectable haul of designer threads. All in all, a successful night - we just wish there had been more t-shirts.