Last weekend I saw ‘Club Kid’ in a cinema in Amsterdam. JORDAN FIRSTMAN’s debut film, and the subject of his cover story in Fantastic Man, is AMAZING! What a film! You should see it, and you should read LUCA GUADAGNINO’s interview with JORDAN on pages 134-147 of our latest issue (or here online). ■ “But you know,” answers JORDAN FIRSTMAN to a question from fellow director LUCA about the autobiographical nature of all JORDAN’s creative outings, “in ‘Club Kid’ there’s a lot of me in it but it’s not me or my story.” It’s part of the power of the film: where does lead character PETER end and lead actor JORDAN begin? They’re both adorable, and very funny, and they both have a child (PETER’s is 10 years old, JORDAN’s six months), etcetera. ■ ‘Club Kid’ is so recognisable, so hilarious, and such a glorious tearjerker. Bring tissues! The story is great, the music is amazing, and since I love clothes: the costume department did a wonderful job. (A handsome look on JORDAN/PETER, somewhere halfway through the film, is a black LACOSTE polo over a pair of vintage G-STAR Elwood jeans – remember those!)

Isn’t old technology gorgeous? Maybe it’s me being nostalgic, but I would love to think that the machines LARDINI uses to produce their knitted jackets indeed still run on floppy disks, as this film implies. ■ Also, how amazing are all those intriguing, beastly appliances for knitting and stitching. The family-run tailoring house from Filottrano, central-east Italy, has been perfecting its craft since 1978, and surely they’ve kept some of that vintage machinery around. ■ This 86-second film follows the making of their signature merino-wool KNITTED JACKET, invented in 2013, still popular today. I popped into the LARDINI flagship store in Milan the other day to try one on (this, in brown merino wool) and can indeed confirm that it looks as sharp as a blazer but feels like you’re wearing a cardigan, or a pullover, or a fleece, or nothing at all. Have a look.

On the subject of new clothes: KIKO KOSTADINOV has a new collaboration out, with CROCS. You read that right: CROCS. But as with all shoe collaborations from KOSTADINOV (think CAMPER, ASICS), they look great. He’s just a very good shoe designer, on top of everything else.

American author ROBERT GLÜCK appears to be paying a visit to the Netherlands this weekend – he’s speaking at the opening of ‘Family Album’, a queer group show at Kunsthuis SYB in Beetsterzwaag, a tiny town all the way up in Friesland. And why not? ■ Included in the show are works by HERVÉ GUIBERT, UGO RONDINONE and PETER HUJAR (above). The announcement of GLÜCK’s involvement reminds me of this riveting review that CHRISTOPHER BOLLEN wrote for Fantastic Man last year, on GLÜCK’s reissued ‘Jack the Modernist’.

The recent ACNE STUDIOS runway show in Paris came with the peculiar concept of Vikings taking over Versailles. Indeed, leave it to the great Swedish brand to do something fabulous. ■ I’m almost old enough to remember their origins as ACNE JEANS thirty years ago, and look where they are now! Denim still runs through the collections (how great are the crazy trompe l’œil jeans that JONNY JOHANSSON designs) but the company now obviously creates a whole universe of ACNE-ness, including its own Paris gallery and a publishing leg, ACNE PAPER. ■ At the post-show dinner I sat opposite ACNE PAPER’s Editor in Chief THOMAS PERSSON and next to the legendary perfumer FRÉDÉRIC MALLE. ■ One thing Mr. MALLE said about ACNE STUDIOS, if I remember correctly, is that he thinks they always do great timeless pieces. Sure, but what I love about the brand is that you’ll always find something delightfully WEIRD in their stores, whether it’s a transparent roll neck jumper, or a foxy leather short, or indeed those aforementioned fantasmagorical printed “jeans”. ■ For Fantastic Man’s current print issue we shot an homage to ACNE STUDIOS’s origins in denim, including a reissue of the very first pair of jeans they made (featuring red stitching). Photos by DEO SUVEERA and PAMELA DIMITROV, with styling by HELENA HIEGEMANN.

Given that he’s a huge pop star in China, our issue featuring 28-year-old KUN on the cover sold out in our webshop within an hour. Wow! We managed to locate a few more in our warehouse, so they’re available again for as long as they last. Be quick. Just like KUN’s idol ELVIS sang, it’s now or never.