I have only just found out about the new exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum so asked my blog informer Ben Fern's to make it his latest mission to investigate . Ben headed south to Zandra Rhode's exhibition space, duley paid the £5 and reports back with the following info for anyone needing a weekend exhibit tip off: 13 Swedish designers on a quest to challenge the stereotypical picture of the countries fashion. The jewellery is fun and the Aud Charlotte Ho Sook Sinding pieces are really exciting. Other jewellery I thought was worth a look was Dada's Diamonds (www.dadasdiamonds.se/) and Henrik Brandt. Sandra Buckland's work alongside Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair, is inspiring and the best in the exhibition. Fifth Avenue's conceptual and unusual designs were something to really admire.
On Sunday night I had the priveledge of seeing the 1st performance from Patrick Wolf's iminent album release "Bachelor". I saw him preview new material last year but had no idea how the themes have evolved and what creations have been invented since the initial incarnation. As an exponent of avantgarde experimentation in his dress, I was just as excited to see his new wardrobe as hear the new songs. And boy, the prolific talent has been hard at work collaborating with designer Ada Zanditon to perfectly polish the next chapter. I got in touch with Ada to find out exactly how it came about. Patrick played her some music and explained a brief for her to freely interpret: death, oblivion, battle, bones picked clean, an elegant carcus.....visuals to come out of songs such as "Vulture".
"i had this kind of idea for a klaus nomi inspired charachter - the suit a vulture - the vulture cape and a henry the 8th the younger like a battle hero
suit - polished cotton very thick - pop out coffin panel on the arm and generally inspired by coffins and vampires and oblivion....
vulture - vultures feathers as a suit of armour so its taking on the strength / sight / cunning of the vulture in a shamanistic way .....
the henry 8th via space - human hair shoulder pads . heat seam sealing tape to finish edges ......... henry the 8000th....
then the needles jacket was from my previous collection that is inspired by extending the skeleton out of the body extending the nerve endings touching the world with a magnification of what is microscopic..."
Ada, who just exhibited in the Aesthetica section of London Fashion Week opperates her business within parameters of sustainability and ethical design. Her aesthetic is to create cutting edge conceptual clothes from conciencsely considered materials. Patrick has metomophisised by shedding the shimmering sparkling Peter Pan era and emmerged by crackling open spiky and radical new wings. I went backstage after the gig to have a close look at the incredible garments that have given his presence such a radical new energy. The jacket with spears is covered in individually sewn sticks that bristle in wakes when moved. If you want to see the spectacle for yourself and missed the show at Heaven last night, you can catch the act again at Koko in Camden tonight. For non Londoners, check Patrick's upcoming tour dates: http://www.myspace.com/officialpatrickwolf
(Thank you to Ada for the snaps from her fittings and the other images I have lifted from Nova Dando's blog.)
Thank you to Sara Nobre who joined me from Ravensborne to help with the collection and has just finished her work placement. Before she heads back home today for Lisbon fashion week, she has given me one of her lego necklace creations, complete with incased spaceman. Awesome, thanks man!
In the midst of LFW preparation meltdown I received this crazily cosmic envelope in the post. The contents were equally gorge and here is one of the screen-print collage postcards. I didn't have time to investigate further................but just as soon as I could............look what I unearthed!!!!!!! Oh my God, how sparkalicious is this? Its the work of prop maker / illustrator Rosy Nicholas who has many sections on her website to have fun hopping around. But these images are from her Super 8 video work for which she built a space suit from kitchen foil, masking tape and felt-tip pens. My kind of choice materials! Infact I have the very same fluorescent stripey paper in my special paper folder so I knew we were on the same page.............(excuse terrible use of pun, they do slip in occasionally...........I fully lay blame at the feet of spadgerdisco)
This has been a long weekend of back-to-back gigs with Saturday's stint being the Salome screening on the southbank with live score by Bishi. I met up with her earlier in the week to get an idea of the original costumes to recreate something to adorn her hair. Its funny that I stayed faithful to the Aubery Beardsley theme but ended up with something intrinsically Bishi! I love that unconscious surprise in craft. So here is a screengrab from the 1923 film, a work-in-progress shot of my peacock headdress and two portraits from the event kindly sent to me by photographer Sara Ekholm. I think that I have seen Bishi perform more times than I have fingers & toes, and it has never ever been the same twice! From a small ukulele folk gathering upstairs in a pub, to The London Symphony Orchestra album rearrangement and then NYC prodigy organist Cameron Carpernter collaboration in East End churches, to a backing track P.A at Kashpoint, to the set of The Jonathon Ross show, to a solo sitar recital on the staircase at the V&R Barbican exhibition, to an alfresco summer acoustic birthday duo with Patrick Wolf....................what is next on the horizon?............South by Southwest in Texas?...........(that could be me spreading an incorrect rumour, I get confused who is doing what so check her myspace for gig updates!)
On Thurs eve Esser's stylist Kim Howells took me down into the depths of Selfridges to the Ultralounge for the launch of the recent Ray Ban project "Colorize". The newly coined covetable classic sunglasses label have introduced an idea similar to that of previous Adidas and Fendi popular DIY products. A pair of white Wayfarers come complete with a pack of felt tips to "colorize" your own pair. To introduce the limited edition line to the UK, Ray Ban commissioned 10 musicians/designers to customize a pair of specs and a Fender guitar to exhibit at Selfridges. Amongst the names asked were Biffy Clyro, New Young Pony Club, PPQ and the Mystery Jets and our friends Esser who performed live on the night. The Esser design was a collaboration with the band's art-director Elisha Smith-Leverock and illustrator Omar Hraib. Thanks to Kim for a snap from the night where you can see some of her canny styling in the form of a heavily embroidered pearly king jacket made for Ben by Judy Blame. Better detail can be seen in this backstage video from their recent stadium tour supporting The Kaiser Chiefs which came to an end the following night at Wembley.
Yesterday saw the beginning of the Paris showroom for my New Gen counterparts which was opened by special brunch hosted by Sarah Mower (who is a BFC board member). I asked Ashley Fletcher from the inimitable Louise Gray studio to fill us in on the happenings. The turn out was conde-nastically considerable with attendees including Angelica Cheung, Alexandra Shulman, Kate Phelan, Franca Sozzani and Kazuhiro Saito. But the headline biller was Anna Wintour who was anticipated to arrive at 8 a.m which may have potentially unnerved the troops buy apparently the experience was lovely and similar to that of meeting the queen! Thanks to Ashley also for the images of Louise at her Paris stand, her presentation in London and the video for her new collection by Cameron Smith. Best of luck guys, bag lots of buyers and keep the British flag flying to bring them all back here for next season please! Fingers crossed!
A few of my favourite things aligned one day when video directors Colin Henderson and Daniel Brereton worked with stylist Kim Howells to shoot Golden Silvers for their new single noir thriller "True Romance". With all these elements in the melting pot, the elixir was surely going to be medicinal magic. And so it is, if you need a fix of giggles for your funny bones, tune in. This is bloody hilarious! I got in touch with Colin and Dan to find out how the collaboration came about. At the initial meeting they discovered a mutual appreciation for all things pop and Prince relate,d which gives some indication to the purple hue of the set. The concept of their direction was to have the band performing on a fictional foreign language TV show. By researching videos of music shows from around the world, from the past and present, they decided to create a fictional country with it's own language. To illustrate this, watch the outtake footage here of the presenter Gabriel. The other stop-motion film below is by the band's resident photographer Graham who mixed his backstage snaps to the soundtrack of the single's remix by Michachu. If the green makeup reminds of you a certain genius video for Metronomy, there is no coincidence. In addition to Metronomy, the duo have also art directed the likes of Late of the Pier, Esser, Best Fwends, These New Puritans. This is the 1st feature that they have shared directorship and when I asked them to list their future dream clients a mix of Girls Aloud and thecocknbullkidd arose...............so watch this space! These outtakes were kindly sent to me by the guys (http://y-o-tube.blogspot.com/). Check http://goldensilvers.co.uk/category/video/ for news from thier recent world trip and further details....................
One of the referee's for my application to the New Gen award was Susie Bubble who has been a constant support and championer of my career. She dropped by the exhibition for our film presentation and took the opportunity to film Craig and I for her video wall on Dazed Digital.com. At each fashion week she is asking designers what they would like to transform into for a montage of soundbites from each city. As we are all tired and stressed the varying answers are quite surreal and funny. The most amusing from London is predictably Peter Jensen who single handledly never fails to CRACK ME UP! The other thing that made me laugh is Craig who says that he would like to be a cake because they are sweet. On that day I remember he was particularly over-tired and distracted with organising his film and runway show which were in a few hours of each other. His conversation consisted mostly of single word responses being "Sweet". That word even managed to get into this quote too but most probably totally subconsciously! Bless! Sweet!
Kathryn Ferguson has put together another stellar film screening as the fashion event of "Birds Eye View" festival. Last year the show reel was followed by a talk with Penny Martin and Toyin which was a great insight to the realm of all female film making. The video which I made for LFW to showcase my A/W09 collection has been added to the itinerary and fits very neatly into this parameter as the majority of the team were coincidentally female...........Director,, stylist, hair team, makeup team, choreographer, cast............ A few of the team also worked on the latest film by Hannah Marshall which will also be showing next Thursday. Here are some screen grabs for the film by Monica Elkelv and Darren Smith. In contrast to Hannah's trademark black palette, here are some multicolour shots from my film by director Elisha Smith-Leverock. At the first New Gen seminar I attended Hannah and I sat next to each other in perfect harmony looking like the exact personification of ying and yang. I was wearing all white with my long blond hair and Hannah dressed head to toe black with her long hair. Perhaps we should consider exploiting this spontaneous synchronicity to full affect for future photo opportunities! It must have looked quite weird, like we were characters that had just stepped off a chess board. (Hannah is showcasing her new collection in Paris from today until the 11th in a shared showroom with Marios Schwab, Peter Pilotto, Husam El Odeh and Josh Goot. "Rainbow Wave" is at 13 Rue De Sevigne, 75004)
This weekend sees the first ever screening of Oscar Wilde's Salome at the National Film Theatre with a specially commissioned score written and performed live by Bishi. It features music in collaboration with composer Neil Kaczor, who is also the pianist in her band. Bishi has always had an interest in the crossover between music and film. Apparently she has had an amazing time working on the project and learning all about the original production with the complex and fascinating interrelationships behind the scenes. The incredible looking set was based on Aubery Beardsley's illustrations from the book's artwork and costumes were designed by Valentino's wife?! The screening is going to be hosted by Immodisty Blaize and is part of the current "Bird's Eye View" festival at the BFI. Check the link for tickets...................... Thank you to Mishkin for supplying me with this iconoclastic image of Bishi which they worked on with set designer/stylist Alex Cunningham.
One of the nicest unexpected things to occur over the duration of my stand at LFW was to have an illustrator come and draw my pieces live and direct. Kila Carr- Ince was comissoned by The Daily to cover my collection by getting creative and colourful. I was so touched that time, effort and consideration went into the feature that appeared in the paper last Monday. Kila brought inks, paints and various pens to my exhibition space and spent substantial time reinterpreting my craziness in her sketchbook. Here is the result that was published which really captures the essence in a refreshing way compared to a straight forward digital snap. Kila coincidentally also has her own accessories line of hand painted wooden necklaces and illustrated pin badges which she sells at the Brick Lane boutique Lik & Neon. Beautiful!
