Fri 11th Feb: threeASFOUR Resonance show today

threeASFOUR FW 2011 RESONANCE
WWW.THREEASFOUR.COM

Best of luck to my best friends in NYC for their show today............. cant wait to see! If anyone is there please send me photos.............

Fri 11th Feb: My "Cut Out & Keepsakes"

Lovely picture of my "Cut Out & Keepsakes" make your own paper accessories kit in the V&A gift shop I discovered on Lee Appleton's blog.........

Thurs 10th Feb: "Little Glass Clemintine" Studio Visit and Selfridges window

To wrap up my coverage of "The Bright Young Things" I'm going to complete with Little Glass Clementine just in time for Valentine's Day. Clemmie's unique necklaces are comprised of antique shrapnel, discarded time pieces, trinkets and mementos all tied together with narrative and twine. Previously having studied Humanities at SOAS, Clemmie's innatley drawn to the art of accessorizing from an anthropological perspective. Tribal decoration and body adornment serve as a key inspiration in her hands-on instinctive method to treating her components.
The label takes residence in the ethical scheme of London Fashion Week within the Esthetica area due to the sustainable element of her ethos. By bricolaging together bits and bobs from the bottom of flea market boxes, she is conjuring up desirable and collectable items in their own right, ready for a second life.
It all started out when Clemmie was 16, first of all working with glass beads which gave the title to her enterprise. The operation ran off a blanket laid down on Brighton Beach or opened out on the floor of festivals. Its Clemmie's love for circulating the festivals that was the unconscious motivation to keep creating each piece to sell as she travelled. Another venture on the back burner of her long term plan, is restoring her grandmother's gypsy caravan (see postcard on pinboard). The goal is to have a movable museum / theatre to share more of the "Little Glass Clemintine" world and literally take it on the road. But just for now, imminent opportunities are taking presidence on the agenda............ including her window for Selfridges and exclusive collection of limited pieces for the project. The installation is a whirlwind of artifacts arranged with same tender touch and eye for composition as the jewellery itself. Inbetween flying manuscript and rocking horses you can focus your eyes and zoom in to see the necklaces nestled in amongst the heirlooms hung all around.

To sign up and have a go for yourself under the guidance of the girl behind the beading, look up the workshop in store at Selfridges on the 19th of Feb in Time Out listings.

If your in Europe, you can purchase pieces at Clemmie's Italian stockist Luisa Via Roma

(Top photos at studio, bottom 3 images of Selfridges window. All images by me except top portrait c/o Clemmie)

Weds 9th Feb: Incandescent Meta-morph-incessant"

Here is a teaser for my next film venture with Elisha Smith-Leverock and Kim Howells........with soundtrack by Ben Esser......... to capture my new collection AW11 "Incandescent Meta-morph-incessant" with special pieces by Rosy Nicholas and more......... much more info to come.

Showing on schedule at LFW in the Digital Screening Room of Somerset House, 21st Feb.

(Thanks to Teo Connor for the invite artwork which will be winging its way out to press in the post)

Weds 9th Feb: Cocknbullkid "Hold Onto Your Misery" by Elisha Smith Leverock

For the final flower feature, here is the latest release from one of my favourite songstresses - Cocknbullkid. Director extraordinarre Elisha Smith-Levorck commissioned me to make Anita a floral Frida Kahlo inspired accessory and then replicate it exactly 6 times for mini versions of Anita. Each one was coloured to match the teeny tiny girls cast in this cute promo for "Hold Onto Your Misery" from the album "Adulthood". Both Elisha and I have always wanted to work with Anita so this was an absolutely brilliant opportunity. Its very exciting to see who else Anita has been collaborating with to record her debut album (Chilly Gonzalez , Liam Howe, Joy Joseph, Jamie Morrison).......... some of which you can see in this little excerpt "CockNBullKid talking about stuff"............ which is essential viewing. Ive also included an interview with Huw Stephens where Anita explains about working on the video...........



To read more and see a few pics from behind the scenes of the shoot, see my first post here and ROWDY SUPERST*R's blog who styled the film.

Weds 9th Feb: Archive

This is how that particular flower shape came about. A few years ago Teo Connor asked me to make something for her to wear to a wedding to match a skirt with a floral pattern. I tried to recreate the illustrated flower so Ive got no idea what the actual biological type of flora it is! From here it evolved into a piece in my S/S08 "Dahlia Fantastia" collection.......... and most recently the paper flowers for Patti below....... and headdress for Cocknbullkidd which I'll post next......

Mon 7th Feb: "Dreamscape" Flowers for Patti Wilson Vogue Italia

Vogue Italia, February 2011
Photographer: Sølve Sundsbø
Stylist: Patti Wilson
Model: Melissa Tammerijn
Flower Accessories: Fred Butler

Mon 7th Feb: Paper Flowers for Patti

One of the very first stylists to understand my vibe and commission bespoke pieces for shoots was Patti Wilson. Inbetween shifts making baby-cinos for yummy mummies in Kentish Town, I was sticking minute Swarovski crystals to ping-pong balls in a leopard print for Patti. It was such a life saver, pouring my creative energy into the accessories requested and the possibility of seeing them published in Vogue. One particular piece was a Zip necklace I made to fit a Punk theme which was never used but was latterly discovered by Selfridges........... put in a Herve Leger window....... and started a long and fruitful relationship with the store (moral of the story, hold onto your archive!)
Fast forward 5 years and my most recent pieces rustled up for Patti now appear in the Feb issue of Italian Vogue. She asked me to create chrysanthemums for a romantic soft story to be shot with Solve Sundsbo. Here are snaps of the prototypes I practiced with to illustrate my ideas for the final thing. This last shot is a version created more recently, individually coloured in a palette of cotton candy hues specially for a present........ alongside a cosmic chrome silver one for another gift..........which flew to NYC before I got to photograph it!

Sun 6th Feb: Julie Verhoeven's "Cocky Bastard" in "Dandies Ball" at Ritter/Zamet

Julie Verhoeven's Cocky Bastard in "Dandies Ball" at Ritter/Zamet
Details of illustration on canvas .......... with embroidery by Laura Lees.

Sun 6th Feb: "Dandies Ball" at Ritter/Zamet

A little while ago Julie Verhoeven sent me a link to see a recent piece of hers in a group show "The Dandie's Ball" at Ritter/Zamet Gallery. Luckily the show has just been extended and I finally got a chance to catch it this weekend. Its up for the rest of this month so I recommend the trip to see a collection of contemporary artwork including Terence Koh and David Bailey, alongside nineteenth-century prints, books and ephemera. The layout is really cute with the assembled selection of dandy themed treasures displayed high on a shelf above the main works in the airy open loft space.
Having spent time in NYC with threeASFOUR, I have been exposed to the city's young art scene at close quarters with personal insight to the world of their contemporaries. By visiting Ritter/Zimmer, its been a really nice opportunity for me to be back in London and get to see some here! The last Nate Loman work I witnessed was a special preview of "Come As You Are Again" at the beautiful upstairs home of Salon 94 owner Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn. From an Upper East Side townhouse to an East End conversion - this was a brilliant London discovery. I can't believe Ive never been before (German art dealer Marcus Ritter and British art critic / consultant Kate Zamet opened the gallery in Nov 2003). What was also great = seeing an actual real copy of "The Yellow Book".......

Images top to bottom:

1) A view of The Ritter/Zamet Gallery showing Terence Koh's sculpture in the foreground.

2) "The Krays" by David Bailey from 1965 and a print by Nate Loman

3) A biography of the essayist/parodist/artist Max Beerbohm with one of his own caricatures on the cover. Beerbohm took over from George Bernard Shaw as drama critic of the Saturday Review and also produced more than 2000 caricatures during his lifetime.

"The Dandie's Ball" - the book the exhibition has taken its name from to encapsulate the subject of Dandyism and its associations.

4) "Dandies, Pansies and Prudes" flyer from Hernan Bas exhibition at Daniel Reich Gallery 2006. Bas in another young American artist whose work makes reference to Wilde, Huysmans and other writers of the Aesthetic and Decadent period in literature.

5) "Englische Exzentriker" (English Eccentrics!)

6) A postcard of Matthew Barney's The Loughton Candidate from Cremaster 4 shown resting as a book mark in an Aubery Beardsley monograph open at a self portrait for The Savoy Magazine 1896

7) "The Yellow Book" journal with cover by Aubrey Beardsley who was the title's first art editor and attributed the idea for making it yellow after the French custom of wrapping lewd manuscripts in yellow paper when purchased.

"Somerset House 1971 : Gilbert & George" A flipbook series of photos of Gilbert and George together outside Somerset House, originally printed in an edition of 800 numbered and signed copies


8) 'Diary of a Victorian Dandy 14:00 hours' photograph by YINKA SHONIBARE

"The Adventures of a Gentleman" by Pelham (a classic "fashionalbe novel" which was a style focusing on the manners, habits and lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Pelham made fun of the genre but also shed an amazing light on a time and circumstance of the first half of the 19th Century which is so different to modern life now).........


RITTER/ZAMET GALLERY
UNIT 8, 80A ASHFIELD STREET
LONDON, E1 2BJ
Wednesday – Saturday 12 – 6 or by appointment
TEL: +44 (0) 207 790 8746

Sun 6th Feb: Vasa Prisms

I spied these Vasa prisms in a shop window walking back thru Spitafileds last evening. Wo! If anyone wants to treat me to a Valentine prezzy............ they are only couple of hundred quid a pop! (think I might need to get on sugardaddy.com)