Satuday 7th Dec: Meadham Kirchhoff "Fashion In Motion" at The V&A

Yesterday the V&A invited me down to take-over their Twitter and Instagram feed from front row of their "Fashion In Motion" show - the latest designer act to be presented being Meadham Kirchhoff.   Here are some of the snapshots from the retrospective catwalk show in the Museum's Raphael Gallery with a greeting card style set by Philip Wiegard.  The running order was divided into divisions of seasons separating A/W10 dressing-up box cracker crowns and veils to S/S11 candy colour Courtney Love cut layers to S/S12 "the girl on the cake" to the the A/W12 tinsel sequin disco dolls thru to S/S13 Nasir Mazhar bow emblazoned boater hats with brocade suits.  James Pecis revived each signature hair style from corkscrew tendrils to spectrum dyed rainbow weaves and Florrie White's makeup sprinkled the sparkle dust and crystal beauty spots.  Jeffrey Hinton compiled the soundtrack as usual which was a perfect fit with his own film installation adjacent in the "Club To Catwalk" exhibition.  Princess Julia was pretty in pink with a sequin turban on the front row and other guests included a cluster of Gothic Lolita girls in these kawaii court shoes and lace trimmed pop socks.

Thanks to the V&A for asking me to be the guest blogger for this event, taking over the hot seat from Susie Bubble who reported from last month's Kansai Yamamoto showcase.  Thanks also to my hat-appreciation partner La Touche for a few of these shots as my finger wasn't quite quick enough on the trigger to snap and type Tweets in the same manoeuvre! 

Friday 6th Dec: TEED Zine by Dan Wilton

Last night was the launch of Dan Wilton's photography zine documenting his time on tour with Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs in Croatia. The packed out event at the Wayward Gallery on Mowlem St included a DJ set by the man himself with a little help from his dino girls and on show was a selection of the snaps featured in the zine. The pictures are great documentation of what has been an incredible year for the TEED clan, and feature some beautiful shots of the croatian landscape.

 Dan captures perfectly the friendships and good humour of Orlando and his crew, providing a great insight into the dynamics and fun nature of the group and... as the saying goes, what goes on tour… ends up in an art gallery in east london (!)

Words Amy Lee

Photos:  by Fred ft. guests Top to bottom - Daryoush Haj-Najafi w/ Isa GT, Stephanie Sian Smith w/ Dan Wilton, Orlando Higginbottom w/ Nina Ribena, Yunus & Eliza

Thurs 5th Dec: Andy MacGregor Christmas Window & MONOCHROME @ Darkroom London

Last night saw the unveiling of illustrator, art director and set designer Andy MacGregor's Christmas window installation at Darkroom on Lambs Conduit Street. 

Embodying his love of three dimensional structure and working with paper, his festive display offers a futuristic take on a traditional snowy topped mountain-scape. Displayed on the irridescent  angular mounds is a handpicked selection of Darkroom's super cool Christmas stock, including a taster of the black and white items that will be available in the OTHER/ SHOP X DARKROOM pop-up shop 'MONOCHROME' launching next week, perfect for scoping out original gifts for the design-a-phile in your life.

Andy's window will be on display up until the New Year and MONOCHROME will be at 15 Foulberts Place from Monday 9th December.

Words by Amy 

Pictures by Fred 

Thurs 5th Dec: SIBLING's Christmas Knitivity at Bistrotheque

Thanks to Sibling and their long time supporter Bistrotheque, we kicked off the festive season with our very first Christmas dinner. Complete with ALL the trimmings it came to a surprise final course ℅  a choir serenade of contemporary carols including a rendition of Katy Perry's "Roar".  Before we sat down to feast on the merry-making amazing meal, we congregated at the alter of the knitwear label's "Knitivity" installed atop the restaurant's grand piano.  Here you can see a detail of the immense woolly scene of shepherds, wise men and the family to which we annually honour, with baby J in his crochet manger.  I love the way the King's crowns are over-size, true to the brand's signature style and the sheep constructed of loops of fleece with a pom pom fringe - a perfect celebration of the animal to which they owe their trade!

As this was my first taste of Turkey for the season, no other subsequent Christmas dins will quite match up to Bistrotheque standards, so its game over in the anticipation stakes.  For starters (after pop-corn appetisers) we politely picked at Mackerel Pate with pickled cucumber, seared tuna and beat salad, charcuterie of cold meats and horseradish.  Then we tucked into the turkey roast accompanied with pears'n'parsnips, sprouts'n'chestnuts, and unapologeticly tasty bread sauce.  Pudding steamed in as a choice of two crumbly fruity or death by chocolate affairs with vanilla specked Crème anglaise.  For those who hadn't sunk enough bubbles along the way, the dijestif was a wake-up shot of Tequila and slice of sharp lime.  All consumed under a canopy of baubles seamed in festive knitted jumpers, it was altogether a trippy alternative to your regular pigs in blankets.  David Waddinton took over the Queen's speech slot by saying a few words of how the partnership with Sibling first came about and thanked the team for all their hard work since plans began in the summer…… and also for the genius title of "Knitivity".  

Thank you David, Cozette, Sid and Joe ……… may I say, a paper cracker crown has never looked so good as over a Westwood Mountain hat!

Weds 4th Dec: British Fashion Awards 2013 via Keely Hunter

Thanks to Keely Hunter for her snaps from Monday's British Fashion Awards which she attended with the Headonism collective of contemporary milliners headed up (mwahahahaha pun) by Stephen Jones.  See the full list of winners including Terry and Tricia Jones, Miuccia Prada, Agi & Sam and Sophie Webster here.

Follow Keely's hatastic adventures at her Twitter and Facebook.

Mon 2nd Dec: Michael Clark Company at The Barbican

Realising this blog has just reached its 6th birthday, I had little look back at my first few pages of posts which included a  Michael Clark Company show at The Barbican. There have been subsequent shows in the intervening years but I have missed out on getting tickets as they are so over-subscribed.  But this year, I got in there quick and booked up for the gala closing night.  It was absolutely amazing and well worth the wait!  The one singlualr word to sum up the experience in its entirety is JOY.   The whole thing from the music to the moves to the costume and set is purely uplifting which is my favourite emotion to transmit and receive.  The other word is L.O.V.E which was the name of the Jarvis Cocker track used for one of the sections of the three part performance, which also included his new musical outfit "relaxed muscle".  This futuristic-slash-retro-slash-glam-rock on crack was genius and hilarious, giving Jarv even more cudos to his already cemented cool.  Clark 's new work continues his history of close collaboration with other contemporary artists and designers such as lighting design from Charles Atlas, and costumes by Stevie Stewart.  Stevie's signature streamline body stockings ranged from block colours to hand-dyed pastel gradient hues to optical popping patterned panels.  Heaven!