Here at Amelia’s Magazine HQ this week we are all feeling rather revitalised, thissalve with the prospect of spring safely in our sights and a stomach full of Easter eggs we thought what better time to share our energized disposition with you are faithful readers, and boy do I have a treat in store for you fashionista’s today.
It comes in the form of exciting new Aussie talent Fashion Designer Josh Goot, heralded as “modernisms new messiah” it’s enough to get anyone in the fashion sphere jumping up and down excitedly in their Chanel heels. Goot first catapulted his way into the fashion sphere in 2005 after winning Young Designer of the Year Award in Sydney, but only made his debut on the London fashion circuit at this years London Fashion Week with his S/S 09 collection
Goot studied Media Art and Production at Sydney’s University of Technology where he graduated in 1999. This background has shaped his distinctive approach to fashion design, renowned for his use of print and his minimalist aesthetic Goot has injected a healthy dose of artistic expression onto the catwalk.
Goots A/W 09 collection did not fail to get our taste buds flowing, paying homage to the natural world it’s an explosion of texture and colour. Heavily inspired by geology the collection focuses on organic lines and silhouettes.
Goot’s exquisite tailoring techniques come to the forefront in his A/W 09 collection. Enthused by the erosive textural quality of rock Goot uses angular tailoring with reverse contour lines to mimic the harsh lines that occur in sedimentary rocks. This masculine tailoring is then softened by his subdued use of colour; the palette is a hazy of distilled greys that merge with soft violets, yellows and blues to create quixotic and distinctly feminine pieces. His modernist aesthetic creates a look that is both functional yet expressive, with styles ranging from tailored jackets, panelled shirts to asymmetric tops and body con suits.
The most enthralling element to the A/ W collection has to be Goots Marble effect series. Audiences were mesmerised by the haze of colour gliding down the catwalk. To me it conjures old childhood memories of marbling from art class. I remember excitedly leaning over a tank of water mixing oil inks and eagerly gliding my stick through the water to create patterns. I was mesmerised by the beautiful hues merging together to create such vivid canvases of colour. Goot encapsulates this perfectly in his prints, which were created from large-scale digitally printed water coloured pieces.
After such awe inspiring pieces in his A/W collection I am eager to inspect what else Josh Goot has tucked up his sleeve. With stores such as Browns Focus in London and Marie Luisa in Paris already stocking his collections I have no doubt Goot is set to take the fashion sphere by storm!
Lewes’ quaint, story cobbled streets and Dickensian finery belie the town’s rebel status and heritage. Thomas Paine, ask 18th century philosopher and all round radical was a local while the annual bonfire festivities are the kind of Pagan perverse, politically loaded Wickerman shindigs that grab national newspaper headlines. Situated slap bang in the life-affirming environs of the Sussex Downs and home to Harvey’s ale, it’s easy to see why Lewes is something of a hippy haven – genteel on the outside, pretty bizarre on deeper investigation. The perfect host to the neo-psychedelic revolution. Or a place where a bunch of bearded dudes get to hang out and discuss obscure Nuggets. Either way, I was home.
The happening unfolded in the All Saints Centre, a church where, most appropriately, Pink Floyd played in 1966. Heightening the sense of lysergic lasciviousness that characterised the night was the mind mulching lightshow provided by locally sourced hero, Innerstings. Such visual freak-ery was offset perfectly by the evening’s DJs who, for the most part, dealt in psychedelic music of the guitar based variety. No bad thing, especially if the crate digger behind the decks is Richard Norris, whose set seemingly unearthed the kind of gems Lenny Kaye would kick himself for missing. As was the desired effect, this all blended perfectly with the live performances which served to give the evening a modernist sheen and kick several shades of shit out of any sense of nostalgia that pervaded. Take, for example, The Notorious Hi-Fi Killers, whose singer resembled Jerry Garcia but whose band kicked up a beautifully godless stoner-rock racket. (Un)natural heirs to Rocky Erickson’s throne perhaps, they tore their way through an acid-spanked set of psychedelic garage punk and sounded far bigger than you’d expect from three blokes from South London.
Having obliterated the dance floor of rug cutting psychedelic Mods, it was left to headliners, The Yellow Moon Band, to restore some kind consensual good will. This was entirely apt as the Yellow Moon Band’s founders are Jo and Danny, hirsute curators of the Greenman Festival. Consummate professionals to a hilt, they play note for note the majority of their recent (and peculiarly danceable) debut album, Travels Into Several Remote Nations Of The World. On paper, their Steeleye Span meets Slayer schtick looks decidedly unappealing but, bathed in a wash of kaleidoscopic lights and played out with merciless efficiency the Yellow Moon Band are a strangely alluring, downright compelling and very psychedelic experience. Just ask the mass of people throwing shapes and gyrating down the front. Pouring out into the graveyard post show, chatting with likeminded souls and new friends, it seemed Lewes had given birth to a new spring time institution, one worthy enough of taking its place next to the other grand traditions of this beguiling and beautiful town.
The Otesha Project team are an ambitious lot. They want to tackle climate change, more about poverty, cheap injustice, and educate thousands of young people on how to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Their weapon of action? The humble bicycle. You heard me! But the folks behind Otesha are a clever and forward thinking bunch. They can achieve more with a bicycle and a deceptively simple mission statement then most global corporations could possibly dream of.
Back in 2003, the team that would go onto create the Otesha Project in Canada had recently returned from working in Kenya. Rather than being inspired by life in Africa, Jocelyn Land – Murphy and Jessica Lax were dismayed to find vast inequalities between the North Americans and the Kenyans. The extent of the unfair trading, irresponsible over consumption and labour exploitation that they witnessed left a bitter taste in their mouth but equally seemed too insurmountable a problem for two people to tackle. The feeling of powerlessness acted as a catalyst for their own personal change. On return to Canada they began to alter their lifestyles to reflect the change that they wanted to see in the world. And thus began the Otesha way of being. It’s a beautifully uncomplicated concept, and practically the only one that we can adhere to when all of the world’s problems seem too huge to tackle – that change can occur on the most massive scale by simply altering your own life – in other words, be the change! So this is what they did, and set off through Canada on their bikes, stopping off to make presentations to young people about the importance of social change. Seeing that this was a resounding success, and that they made over 250 presentations to more than 12,00 young people, Otesha was ready for more!
This brings us to the Otesha Project UK, which promotes social change in a number of ways. The most well known way is through their cycle tours. I met with some of the team behind Otesha UK; Liz McDowell and Hanna Thomas recently, and they filled me in on these expeditions. Needless to say, I am not much of a cyclist, but even I was segmenting off part of my summer for the following year to join the next wave of cycle tours. So, for any of you that are interested in spending your summer doing something slightly different to the status quo, this is how it works. A team of volunteers (like yourself, or me after I have done a couple more spinning classes) cycle around a particular part of Britain for around 6 weeks; last year the venues included Cornwall and Wales; this year’s venues are East Anglia, a section of Scotland, and the coast of Wales. Whilst on the travels, the team stop off to speak at schools and communities about environmental and social sustainability. They don’t just speak; plays and workshops are also performed. Whilst on the road, the team record their experiences on journals and video recorders.
There is a bit of a travelling circus element to it; and Liz and Hanna told me that the team clearly love what they are doing. Equally as important – the response from the groups that they speak to is always overwhelming. Many of the group return year after year; Otesha are good to their teams! As well as stopping off at schools, the team also have excursions organised for them. In Wales they get a couple of learning days at the Centre for Alternative Technology, as well as a visit to a permaculture farm. Those who head over to East Anglia get a chance to stay in a tipi at a Roman archaeological site. While this is all good fun, the skills that the team take away with them are invaluable. Getting a head start in public speaking, learning to work alongside and live with a large team of people – and maintain a great relationship with them – are attributes that can be taken anywhere.
When they are not cycling around Britain, The Otesha Project are working with groups of young people over longer periods of time to help create change in their local community. They work from the Otesha Handbook, which highlights issues such as Food, Money, Fashion, Energy, Trade and Transport. Last summer, Otesha worked with students in Tower Hamlets Summer University, who chose to do a project about food; specifically the issues of seasonable and organic food. The students approached local cafes, shops and markets to discover who was using organic, fairtrade food, and wrote to their MP’s asking that organic food be subsidised. This culminated with the students creating a Seasonal Summer Feast for their friends and family, which by all accounts was a great success.
Other projects have included Getting Ethical About Fashion, held at the Princes Trust XL Club in Barnet, where students discussed issues in fashion that are often swept under the carpets, such as sweatshops, child labour, and the chemicals put in clothes. My favourite sounding workshop was the Dirty Weekend held at Goldsmith’s EnviroClub Community Gardens. Ok, so it was not that kind of dirty weekend, and it involved plans for creating a garden for the local residents and students, but at least the students still got their hands dirty!
The Otesha Project like to say that they are germinating good things, and it does seem that way. Everything that they do is for the benefit of the Earth, and the people who are inhabiting it. If you are interested in working with them, get in touch at: info@otesha.org.uk
After last years’ unforgettable appearances from Bobby Digital, physicianFelix Kubin, onlineGay Against You and Agaskodo Teliverek amongst others, one cannot help but be wracked with anxiety about what they can pull out of the bag for this years’ follow-up Futuresonic Festival. The festival will be taking place between Thurs 14th – Saturday 16th of May, this year.
Taking a glimpse at the line up it promises to be something to rival last years’ festival unequivocally.
Starting off with Mexican electronic pioneer Murcof (& AntiVJ) with Jóhann Jóhannsson, the festival then dips its toe into Hip Hop with the New York collective ‘The Anti-Pop Consortium‘. From this we trawl through some dark and muddy psychedelic rock from Electric Wizard. A real highlight comes in the form of a one off performance from the legendary Philip Glass; playing Etudes and Other Work for Solo piano.
Not to omit an audio assault from Ariel Pink with Marnie Stern and Crystal Antlers. It’s gonna be an absolute monster of a year for the futuresonic team.
“The best, most explosive, most all-encompassing Futuresonic music line-up to date, covering genres as diverse as dubstep, contemporary classical, lo-fi indie, electronica, deep house, math rock, leftfield hip-hop and italo disco.” – The Futuresonic team.
Some of the venues sequestered for the festival include the RNCM, The Deaf Institute and Urbis, where you will see “a celebration of musicianship and a salute to those who perform on the cutting-edge”.
Photo by www.andthewardrobe.co.uk
With oodles of other events going on over the entire weekend including exhibitions, theatre productions and club nights, there’s no excuse to completely miss out, unless you’re in a coma that is.
You may not have heard much about My Tiger My Timing – yet – but I guarantee that you will be hearing their curiously titled name a lot more in the upcoming months. This is a band destined for success. Their songs are an irresistible mix of hypnotic dark alt pop and potent melodies . Sung by smart and self aware South Londoners, drugs they have a killer style, approved a strong image and are in it for the long haul.
I sat down with three members of the five piece recently, abortion Anna, James and Jamie, to talk about their debut single, ‘This Is Not The Fire‘, as well as their musical style and influences, and what it means to be geeky and sexy at the same time.
So, your new song, ‘This Is Not The Fire’ is released this week. Tell me a bit about the first single –
James: The song it’s quite rhythmic. It’s a dark pop song.
Anna: It is kind of about the moment that we are at now. With our lyrics, we want to be universal but at the same time not vague. The lyrics are about that moment when you know something that no one else does. It could be when you are about to unleash something; this is the moment when we are about to unleash the fire. But equally it is a personal song about the breakdown of relationships. We want people to be able to relate to the song as well as to be able to dance to it. Having an emotional side to the music is something that we try to do as well.
There is a brother and sister team here somewhere?
Anna: Yeah, James and I.
So who does what?
James: I play guitar and bass, and Jamie does the same. And we all sing. We have a new guy, Sebastian who is on synth, so we have now become a five piece. Which is logistically a bit difficult getting everyone in the car at the same time!
And you are all from New Cross, is that right?
Anna: Yes, we are based around there, and we formed just over a year ago. We were all in different bands; Seb was in The Cock N’ Bull Kid.
You have a good pedigree behind you – can you explain this?
Jamie: Andy Spence, who does the producing of New Young Pony Club has produced our new single “This Is Not The Fire’ , which was also up for single of the week on Radio 2 recently.
Anna: We lost out of the single of the week to Bat For Lashes – who we love, so that’s fair enough!
Jamie: There seems to be a Mercury Music Prize trailing us! (laughs) She beat us for Single Of The Week, and she was nominated for a Mercury Music Prize . Andy produced us, and he was also nominated. And we have just recorded with Joe from Hot Chip – who has also been nominated!
How did the Hot Chip connection come about?
Anna: We met him at a party – he knew our manager Brian, so we got chatting. We talked about the band name – we were named after a song by Arthur Russell. He was one of our initial influences, he was a New York based electronic artist; quite avant-garde. We bonded over that and he got in touch the next day.
You have a very strong image. There is a bit of an 80′s electro vibe going on, right?
Jamie: Our image is very important to us. You get up on stage and people are paying to come and see you, it’s almost disrespectful to ask people to watch a bunch of scruff bags jumping around! (laughs). It’s definitely important, it’s to do with us being quite exuberant. And our music is quite fun and vibrant, and that comes through with what we wear.
Anna: The whole visual side of things is very important to us, even beyond what were wearing on stage and in photos. We also want to incorporate light shows and visuals into our shows.
James: One of the things we decided early on with our visual side was that we wanted our images to be back to basics, using almost solely primary colours. So we are aiming to hone a streamlined, simplified look. We don’t adhere to a particular image or era. Overall though, it’s about putting on a show.
Are you all inspired by the same music?
James: No, it’s rag tag.
Anna: We are all big Blur fans though. It’s a mixture of pop and the dark stuff that we like. Happy Mondays, Primal Scream– we definitely like dark British pop music.
Jamie: Also, musically we are influenced by each other. There is a friendly one up-manship in the band. Especially with the brother and sister!
Anna, how do you find being the only girl in a band full of guys? Do you get to rule the roost?
Anna: I am a bit of a tomboy, so I feel like one of the guys most of the time. But I can get away with not having to lug amps – although I actually can do it (laughs)
James: It’s cause we a band of gentlemen. We have old fashioned values. (All laugh)
Jamie: Anna is definitely not out on a limb – she is the driving force!
There was a great description of My Tiger My Timing on your website – that you are geeky and sexy. Who is the geeky or sexy one, or are you all a bit of both?
Anna: We are all a bit of both, the two terms aren’t mutually exclusive.
James: We wear that oxymoron on our sleeve.
Jamie: We like the French phrase – “jolie/ laide”, which means ugly/ beautiful – the common definition about what is cool and sexy is so arbitrary.
Anna: We are making quite dancy music, quite rhythmic music but we are all quite…. white!.. so we are not particularly cool! (laughs!)
James: What’s wrong with being geeky? It’s part of the geeky thing to be into anything in an obsessive way, like how we are with music. And that is always going to come across with us.
Where do you see My Tiger My Timing heading? What are your goals?
Anna: We are writing an album, we hope to have the beginnings of an album by the end of the summer, and we are trying to tour a lot.
James: It’s rocketing along pretty quickly, we just don’t stop writing. If you had told us last year where we would be…. it’s mad, we wouldn’t believe it. We are doing festivals, we’re playing The Great Escape in Brighton, Hinterland in Glasgow and we have a few lined more lined up, and a few to be confirmed, which is all pretty exciting. As a band you don’t want to go into festival season and not be on the line up!
Anna: We have got a bit of an alternative band name, and every time I say it, people go “what?” (laughs) so one of my goals is that we so well known that we won’t have to say the band name twice! And we also want to champion the idea of British pop music.
In a world of fast fashion and cheap labour for inflated profit margins it’s sweet relief to meet a person who is wholly true to her craft. Xuan-Thu Nguyen (pronounced Swan-Toe nuhWEN) is a Parisian haute couture and prêt-à-porter designer whose approach to each isn’t altogether different; when it comes to materials and execution she spares nothing to perfectly produce the design in her head, stomach at times closing that typically wide divide between couture and ready to wear. Her mix of Old World skill and care with innovative techniques results in garments and accessories that are both exquisitely crafted and fashion-forward.
Thu offers us a glimpse into her work and explains what makes her pieces so extraordinary (with some prodding, and she’s very modest!)
Tell us a bit about yourself, Thu?
I was born in Vietnam and grew up in Holland. When I was 10 years old I wanted to become a florist, but I always wanted to design, so I decided to go fashion design school. Up graduating in 1999 I started my own label in Amsterdam before coming to Paris to open my boutique four years later, in 2005. I began showing my prêt-à-porter collections at Paris fashion week then added the haute couture, which I’ve been showing since July, 2008.
Can you take us through your creative process?
I design in my head, see the pattern and work out the adjustments before I begin putting anything together. In school I would do up the sketches after I’d made the garment! I have so many ideas, it can be difficult to focus on one thing and I have to separate my ideas and choose one direction. Sometimes the starting point is something as simple as a colour, a shape or a technique. My creations are a mixture of modern and geometric pleated shapes with fragile and delicate accents like handmade embroideries. I use natural fabrics like 100% cotton, silk or wool which give the garment even more of a delicate expression.
Do you have a design team???
No, I design everything myself.??
Where is your prêt-à-porter made???
Some pieces, like the accessories, are made here in Paris. I do the first few myself. The prêt-à-porter is made in Holland. My parents own a textile factory there and the numbers I need are small enough that I’m able to produce there.
??Do you find that allows you to control the production???
Yes, I have some unique finishing processes that I’ve had to work hard to get right on the production side, but in the end I’ve gotten things made as I want them. I could have my clothes made in China, but for me, it’s not about bigger profits. ?
With that kind of commitment to detail in your prêt-à-porter it seems you blur the lines a bit between that and your haute couture collection, would you agree with this?
??You could say that. I will do some prêt-à-porter pieces like haute couture, like if I really want to use an expensive fabric or trim I will, or I might spend a lot of time to get the detail just right. Many of my pieces look very simple from the outside but have a lot of work on the inside. It’s not about making a big show of it; these are likely things that just the wearer and I will know. (Ed. note: Whilst browsing Thu’s Paris boutique I noticed some examples of this understated yet significant detailing: her placement of jacket side pockets, invisible button holes on shirts and the extensive finishing on the underside creates clean lines and gives the garment a polished simplicity. Truly chic.)
Your Fall/Winter 2009 collection is very light and summery; what was your thinking behind that?
I don’t really follow the seasons; I design what I want to at that time. Also, many people live in places where they don’t have winter or they need clothes for warm holidays, and I don’t want to restrict myself to working in just wools and dark colours or be dictated by a season. And we could all use some brightening up during the winter!
We’re working on launching the brand in Asia for 2010..
Xuan-Thu Nguyen will be showing her A/W collection at Paris Haute Couture week in July, so we can anticipate more inventive and truly beautiful clothes that will surely brighten the spirits, regardless of the season!
Written by Denise Grayson on Thursday April 16th, 2009 3:45 pm
Illustrations, sketches and first photograph by Jenny Robins, all other photos courtesy of Pop PR
Sorapol’s S/S 2013 show ‘Euphoria’ was an ecstatic exhibition of excess. Anything less would surely have disappointed the audience, which included a large number of guests in utterly ridiculous outfits: even my view of the shoes from my seat on the floor in front of the photographers (better for sketching) was extreme.
I’m sure there were plenty of celebrities from the fashion world present but I am unfortunately rubbish at knowing who they are. Having said that I was pretty excited to spot Ruth Brown of The Voice fame on the front row: much more my kind of celebrity. She was wearing Sorapol’s many tailed creation from his A/W 2012 collection as well, so presumably a fan.
Likewise I couldn’t possibly comment on whether any of the creepy masked caricatures portrayed by the catwalk models were based on specific celebrities. The off-her-face-and-sweary model, the twirl-and-flash-your-bum model, the air-kissers and over-the-top posers, the pair of giggling twins who staggered down the runway bouncing off of each other, till faced with the photographers at the end they became suddenly media savvy and struck the right poses. One character beckoned a black t-shirted lackey out of the crowd and into the spotlight, to cojole and then slap.
Each look seemed to have a corresponding act, seemingly sending up and/or celebrating the behaviour of privileged London party people. The story in the press release reinforced this, telling us about Catherine, who ‘Sparing no expense in her efforts to quench her thirst for more, tried everything.‘
Luke Worrallwalked down the runway wearing (as well as shiny leather hot pants) a hat with his name on and many arrows pointing to it. The majority of the models wore grotesque masks with melting mottled surfaces and painted on eyelashes and lipstick. These were by Achraf Amiri, an illustrator known for his distorted disturbing fashion figures.
Exhibitionism, excess, celebrity, waste, disgrace, decadence, ideas that were also riffed on in the musical choices (‘we’re all stars now in the dope show’) and the giant sparkly line of cocaine (presumably sand – no-one’s that excessive) down the centre of the catwalk. Presumably the irony was not entirely lost. A grumpy commenter on my first ever fashion write up once told me ‘High fashion and Couture is about Fantasy and creating an artistic vision‘, and Sorapol Chawaphatnakul and Daniel Lismorehave certainly achieved that. But what about the clothes? Isn’t that what fashion is supposed to actually be about? Here are my catwalk sketches…
A great variety of shapes and colours, a peplum here, a ra-ra there, an orgy of sparkle, brocade, billowing trains and structured corsets, tassels, hotpants, fluorescent platform brogues with giant pompoms on, and big purple hair. All very feminine in a certain way. The sex, drugs and rock and roll mantra was referenced very literally with prints and accessories featuring hundreds of little bicoloured pills, and the final piece, which was a Marylyn Manson-esque gothic dress featuring a double necked electric guitar attached to the front.
The clothes were actually great – ridiculous and sublime like the whole event, and not pretending to be anything else. The show started with a jaguar shaped motorbike, and ended with an amazing performance by Vince Kidd (also of The Voice), cigarette in hand, singing The Rolling Stones and swaggering all over the place (this is probably why Ruth was there too I guess). A very excellent excessive sleazy glamorous night out.
Written by Jenny Robins on Friday November 2nd, 2012 11:24 am
“It was when we were awarded a giant golden penis at the Erotic Awards, pilule that has to be my best moment here so far. It was a fashion show that went really well and everything came to plan.” Holly Jade picked up, cure with grinning pride, a huge, winged and golden figurine of male genitalia. As manager of a successful London business, you might expect a more contained answer from Holly, who sits adorned with silver chains, ripped tights and purple streaked hair. Wait a second. Scrap that.
Prangsta Costumiers is far from conventional. “We don’t try and be something that we’re not.” And quite rightly so. Why play the fashion game when their concept already oozes the type of London decadence, imagination and crisp tailoring that one would expect from the likes of Westwood? Seem like an overstatement? Well, yes. But don’t knock this place until you’ve seen it.
I first came across Prangsta when strolling through the streets of New Cross with my mum (as you do). We stopped outside the barred up, clouded shop window and strained our eyes through the metal, trying to fathom what this place was. Despite my mum’s adamance that it was a brothel, she confidently ducked under the corrugated iron and called out for any possible inhabitants. A French lady emerged. She beckoned us inside, casually wearing a riding helmet (as one also does).
An Aladdin’s cave still is the only way to describe it. Trunks and dressers spilling with jewels, brooches, elaborate belts, crowns and masks; dishevelled bustiers heaped with wigs and mad fabric; a trapeze swinging from the ceiling. There was no order. It was undisputed beautiful chaos.
The best part? Every costume is hand-made and tailored by the tight-nit Prangsta team. “We try to purchase as little material as possible so we go to a lot of vintage markets and also get a lot of materials donated to us. We take apart old costumes and old fabrics and then restore them and make them into our own Prangsta designs.” This kind of eco-awareness has been a core principle of Prangsta ever since Melanie Wilson founded the company in 1998. “She studied fashion at Central Saint Martins and really hated how wasteful the fashion industry was portrayed to her.”
Theatrical and period costume dominates Prangsta’s extensive mish-mash gallery of stunning work. A Victorian suited wolf, a burlesque fox or perhaps a two of diamonds playing card? (The shop does have an astonishingly brilliant Alice in Wonderland collection). Simply enter their hidden world and you could transform into characters you barely knew of. Hell, you could make up your own! Or at least leave the imagination to Holly herself, who styles her clients’ costumes rather than creating the pieces in their 1500 square foot studio in Deptford.
I of course guided the conversation onto that 21st birthday party of one Daisy Lowe. Daisy, her mother Pearl and several members of the star-studded guestlist were dressed by Holly and her talented team. Daisy, in particular, wore floor-skimming jaw-dropping ‘Ice Queen’-esque attire. “It was great… They are rock n’ roll royalty. Daisy is a lovely girl and a pleasure to dress.” ? ?And their impressive list of clients doesn’t end there. Prangsta have also dressed The Noisettes (Shingai, the lead singer, used to work for the company), the Moulettes, the White Stripes, the BBC2 comedy drama ‘Psychoville’ and, get this, have even dressed Florence & The Machine.
Holly insists, however, that dressing such high-flying stars aren’t considered amongst Prangsta’s greatest achievements. I know. ‘You what?’ was my reaction too. But she continued… “I think it’s more of an achievement that we’ve been going like this for 12 years. We’ve made everything ourselves and we’re a London-based local business. Everyone works really hard. We work long hours, sometimes 12 hour days, and keeping the business running I think is more of an achievement.”
And she’s right. The Prangsta team do seem to work incessantly hard. They don’t just simply lend beautiful costumes to individuals. They tour all different festivals throughout the summer. They organize community nights for local performers and artists. They scour markets and thrift stores for the beautiful trinkets and treasures you’ll see placed around their shop. They even run their own dressmaking classes which take place in their Deptford studio. “Classes are taught by Mel and two of her seamstresses,” she says. I then of course comment on the advantage to the class members by being taught by Melanie, being an ex-Saint Martin’s student and pioneer of this mad palace. Holly even mentioned to me how Melanie began squatting in the building that we were sitting in. “Mel started out completely alone, from nothing.”How’s that for a success story?
I also just HAD to ask about that haunting but quirky shop-front that had my mum so convinced we were about to come across prostitutes. Holly laughed when I told of her of this. ?“We do what we can. We’re in New Cross, not in Soho. And I guess we’re quite an urban team. We’re quite subversive, eccentric characters. It is quite dilapidated but we’re a small business in a rundown area.” But no excuses were necessary. I really and truly loved the subversive exterior. And, well, the mysterious look of Prangsta is certainly parallel with the mysterious Melanie, who apparently prefers not to do interviews (damn, eh?). ? ?Prangsta sure has got a good thing going, but they’re not stopping there. They have pretty big plans for future expansion. “One day we will have an online shop. People will be able to click on, say, a little hat and will be able to request one to be made for them. Within the next five years I’d say we’d like to be working on expanding our costume collection and maybe pump out a fashion collection aswell. We’d like to break through this wall to next door so that we can have an exhibition space and put a lot of costumes up on the walls like a bit of a gallery, have some music playing with a DJ, have some chai on the go. Above all, we want to provide a really quality service by restoring and recycling aswell as contributing to the community.”
After seeing the place for the second time, and speaking to Holly, it appears that not only Prangsta’s enchanting costumes, but also it’s intriguing story and extensive achievement is a true example of what those young, fun, London minds are made of.
Prangsta can be found at 304, New Cross Road, London. ?Costumes are between £80-100 to rent for 5 days and are also sold at individual prices. ?Their next dressmaking classes begin on Wednesday 22nd September from 7 – 9.30pm and cost £200. There is a maximum class size of 10 (so get in there quick if you’re interested!).
Written by Georgia Takacs on Friday August 20th, 2010 4:56 pm
In a world of fast fashion and cheap labour for inflated profit margins it’s sweet relief to meet a person who is wholly true to her craft. Xuan-Thu Nguyen (pronounced Swan-Toe nuhWEN) is a Parisian haute couture and prêt-à-porter designer whose approach to each isn’t altogether different; when it comes to materials and execution she spares nothing to perfectly produce the design in her head, at times closing that typically wide divide between couture and ready to wear. Her mix of Old World skill and care with innovative techniques results in garments and accessories that are both exquisitely crafted and fashion-forward.
Thu offers us a glimpse into her work and explains what makes her pieces so extraordinary (with some prodding, she’s very modest!)
Tell us a bit about yourself, Thu?
I was born in Vietnam and grew up in Holland. When I was 10 years old I wanted to become a florist, but I always wanted to design, so I decided to go fashion design school. Up graduating in 1999 I started my own label in Amsterdam before coming to Paris to open my boutique four years later, in 2005. I began showing my prêt-à-porter collections at Paris fashion week then added the haute couture, which I’ve been showing since July, 2008.
Can you take us through your creative process?
I design in my head, see the pattern and work out the adjustments before I begin putting anything together. In school I would do up the sketches after I’d made the garment! I have so many ideas, it can be difficult to focus on one thing and I have to separate my ideas and choose one direction. Sometimes the starting point is something as simple as a colour, a shape or a technique. My creations are a mixture of modern and geometric pleated shapes with fragile and delicate accents like handmade embroideries. I use natural fabrics like 100% cotton, silk or wool which give the garment even more of a delicate expression.
Do you have a design team?
No, I design everything myself.
Where is your prêt-à-porter made?
Some pieces, like the accessories, are made here in Paris. I do the first few myself. The prêt-à-porter is made in Holland. My parents own a textile factory there and the numbers I need are small enough that I’m able to produce there.
Do you find that allows you to control the production?
Yes, I have some unique finishing processes that I’ve had to work hard to get right on the production side, but in the end I’ve gotten things made as I want them. I could have my clothes made in China, but for me, it’s not about bigger profits.
With that kind of commitment to detail in your prêt-à-porter it seems you blur the lines a bit between that and your haute couture collection, would you agree with this?
You could say that. I will do some prêt-à-porter pieces like haute couture, like if I really want to use an expensive fabric or trim I will, or I might spend a lot of time to get the detail just right. Many of my pieces look very simple from the outside but have a lot of work on the inside. It’s not about making a big show of it; these are likely things that just the wearer and I will know. (Ed. note: Whilst browsing Thu’s Paris boutique I noticed some examples of this understated yet significant detailing: her placement of jacket side pockets, invisible button holes on shirts and the extensive finishing on the underside creates clean lines and gives the garment a polished simplicity. Truly chic.)
Your Fall/Winter 2009 collection is very light and summery; what was your thinking behind that?
I don’t really follow the seasons; I design what I want to at that time. Also, many people live in places where they don’t have winter or they need clothes for warm holidays, and I don’t want to restrict myself to working in just wools and dark colours or be dictated by a season. And we could all use some brightening up during the winter!
We’re working on launching the brand in Asia for 2010..
Xuan-Thu Nguyen will be showing her A/W collection at Paris Haute Couture week in July, so we can anticipate more inventive and truly beautiful clothes that will surely brighten the spirits, regardless of the season!
Written by Denise Grayson on Thursday April 16th, 2009 3:45 pm
Monday 20th October Design Museum, ailmentwebsite Alan Aldridge: Until Jan 25th
28 Butlers Wharf, try Shad Thames
Retrospective of Aldridge, an illustrator and graphic designer whose work includes album covers such as the Who and Elton John.
Tuesday 21st Rich Gallery, ‘Reflect Refract’: Pilita Garcia, Daniel Medina, Esperanza Mayobre, Eduardo Padilha, Lucia Pizzani, Dafna Talmor: Until 30th October
111 Mount Street, London W1K 2TT
Bringing emerging Brazilian, Chilean and Venezulan artists to the forefront, with photos, drawings and objects focusing on the themes on reflection and refraction, spaces and urban environments.
Thursday 23rd Beyond Retro, ‘Rob Flowers Vs East End Lights’ at beyond Retro: 6-8pm
100-112 Cheshire St, E2 6EJ
The opening of the new East End Lights exhibition promises Halloweeny frocks, tricks and drinks as well as macabre illustrations and films by Flowers. His influences include Victorian sideshows, seaside images, owls and circus posters.
Friday 24th b Store, 24a Saville Row, ‘ONGALOO’: Yamataka EYE, Paperback Magazine and Magical Artroom: Until 13th November
24a Saville Row, W1S 3PR
PAPERBACK magazine, b store and Magical Artroom present the first London exhibition of artworks by Yamataka EYE.
Conway Hall, ‘Small Publishers Fair 08‘:Fri 24th-Sat 25th 11am-7pm: Admission Free
Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL
Celebrating books by contemporary artists, poets, writers, composers, book designers and their publishers, together with a programme of readings and talks. Keep an eye out for ‘Pick and mix’ press publications.
Saturday 25th ICA, ‘Incredibly Strange Comics’: Until 26th Nov
The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH
The world’s weirdest comics: Amputee Love! Hansi, The Girl Who Loved The Swastika! Trucker Fags in Denial! My Friend Dahmer! Mod Love! are all here for your viewing pleasure. American presidents as musclebound superheroes, warnings about the perils of smoking, communism and the A-bomb and promotions for popsicles, prunes and poultry feed.
Having a minor obsession with denim, cost and more specifically, decease7 For All Mankind, doctor I couldn’t be more enthused to see what 28-year-old, pop artist, Stuart Semple has created using my favorite brand, along with others including, Levi’s and J brand, as the canvas for his latest exhibition, Cult of Denim.
Last Thursday evening, I strolled into Selfridges for the quite impressive opening. I was expecting the usual, small, crowded room filled with art and free drinks along with a bit of live entertainment if we’re lucky, but this far surpassed my assumptions, as we were graciously ushered from one floor to the next to tour Semple’s work displayed throughout the store. Using mixed-media, his contemporary images can be found on square, denim canvases as well as directly on pairs of jeans. Giving off a street-art vibe, he explores the exponential influence denim has, not only in the fashion industry, but in everyday culture, as he considers jeans a “ perfect second skin for billions of people worldwide.”
It was quite impossible to get bored throughout the night, as we were served a variety of beverages and had an interesting line-up of musicians including an acoustic set by Zac Harris, and ending the evening with a lively performance by the Subliminal Girls, who have worked with Stuart Semple on projects in the past including a music video for their Hungry Like the Wolf remix.
Zac Harris
Subliminal Girls
Subliminal Girls
The Cult of Denim will be on display in Selfridges from October 17 through November 15, so be sure to head down to Oxford Street to check it out. If interested in making any purchases, the limited edition prints and apparel are for sale, with 20% of the proceeds going to Refuge, a charity campaign to stop domestic violence.
When you think of the humble pom-pom you think of children’s clothes, orderbuy of gigantic sombreros for tourists, generic unsightly snow boots and poodles with dodgy haircuts. Experimenting with pom-poms always seemed to be a bit like tequila shots – one was fun, two was adventurous, any more was way overboard and enough to make you gag.
NOT ANY MORE! Somebody somewhere decided it was time to wrench those pom-poms from the cheerleader’s sweaty grasp and boom! Stick them in the right places and we’re in love – and it turns out you can have hundreds of them!
They might have come to our attention bobbling out all over the catwalks in fashion week and with the high street following suit, but this is a look that could be even cheaper for the creative recessionistas amongst you. Make your own! Check it.
If you ever find yourself sat staring into space on the tube, you could be churning out a whole lot of pom-poms instead. Worn the right way I think it’s a really easy and fun accessory to jazz up an outfit– this cute Peter Jensen ring as a prime example:
We’ve seen some girls wearing them in their hair, which make a nice woolly alternative to bows, and of course the contentious scrunchie.
BIGGER:
BIGGEST:
THE KITCHEN SINK:
Don’t be wearing those in the cinema mind you.
It’s amazing that something so simple has been culturally reinterpreted so often over the course of history. That might sound grand but something that’s gone from dangling off the edges of sun hats in Central America, to being mass marketed to children all over the world to making on the Paris catwalks is pretty unique. Yikes, Pom Pom international even reckons they can promote world peace. Maybe that’s one tequila too many. Sporting them could almost seem a throwback to childhood, a fashion revival harking back to the days of hats and mittens (I’d like to say ‘and snow and toboggans’ but let’s face it, it doesn’t snow THAT often).
The last thing we can learn about pom-poms is from cheerleaders everywhere, who if nothing else, seem mind-bogglingly happy. Why? POM-POMS!
“At a T-cross-section go to the left. On your left hand you will see a hill. At the end of the hill, tadalafil on the top, this you will see a green cottage. That is where you can find me. If I am not there I might be outside doing some experiments.”
Holland’s answer to a modern day Darwin, Theo Jansen has spent the last 19 years playing god and taking evolution into his own hands. An arrogant way to spend the best part of two decades you might say, but not when you see what incredible results this passing of time has produced. Jansen’s kinetic creature creations exist in a carefully crafted overlap of art and engineering.
From a physics background to a study of painting via an interest in aeronautics and robotics Jansen arrived at 1990 with a thirst for breathing autonomous life into mechanical sculpture. What started as a highly technical computer animation program is now only reliant on the power of the wind with no machine assistance and only minimal human input required, and even that Jansen hopes to eventually phase out.
My personal attraction to what Jansen does comes from my deep seated loathing of plastic waste, which he cleverly conquers by incorporating discarded plastic bottles as part of a complicated wind energy storage system and he sources metres and metres and metres of yellow plastic tubing- 375 tubes per animal to be exact- to create the skeletons for his beautiful monsters.
He claims he started to use the plastic tubing because it was unbelievably cheap and readily available although he quickly discovered that a more perfect material for the project would be hard to find as they are both flexible and multifunctional. He draws comparisons between the plastic required in his art and the protein required for life forms. “in nature, everything is almost made of protein and you have various uses of protein; you can make nails, hair, skin and bones. There’s a lot of variety in what you can do with just one material and this is what I try to do as well.”
The heads of his giant beings act as sails, directing the intricate frames to glide gracefully across the nearby beaches to Jansen’s home and laboratory. The insect-like wings catch gusts of wind and propel the body forward. When there is no wind not even for ready money, the stored energy in the belly of the beasts can be utilized.
Jansen’s vision is of a landscape populated by herds of these sculptures taking on entire lives of their own. The versions of models that made it into existence have raced and won survival of the fittest contests through his computer program and having studied these ‘winners’ Jansen designed creatures so developed they are even capable of self preservation, burrowing themselves in the sand when the gusts are too powerful for them to use constructively.
His imagination like his Strandbeests (literally translated as ‘Beach Animal) is an ever evolving self perfecting organ. He envisions a point at which he will release his creations ‘into the wild’, which he speaks about in the same loving tone you would expect from a parent preparing their nest to be flown by their offspring. “I imagine that two animals will meet each other and compare their qualities in some way; have a demonstration somewhere on how they run and how fast they can run and also do some quality comparison on how they survive the winds. And the one with the better quality kills the other one and gives the other its own genetic code. There could be 30 animals on the beach, running around all the time, copying genetic codes. And then it would go on without me.” It’s not so far fetched after all to consider what Jansen does as god-like. He plainly and rather humbly philosophizes, “I try to remake nature with the idea that while doing this you will uncover the secrets of life and that you will meet the same problems as the real creator,” he added. Theo Jansen is simply a genius though his genius is far from simple. Amen.
It has been a while since I have found a political party that I feel that I can get behind. Politics seem to have descended into a misguided mess. Anytime I read about a Tory or Labour MP, more about it is usually because of a scandal. What is going on environmentally and economically seems to play second fiddle to infighting and lies. Meanwhile, living in East London, I have become friends with a couple of people who are involved in the Hackney Green Party. They don’t seem to lie, or cheat, or claim expenses – this is a party that I can support! I wanted to find out more about them, so I sat down for a cup of tea with Matt Hanley, who is the Green candidate for Stoke Newington Central.
I really liked the political broadcast; I thought it was very astute. The message is not that we have to step outside of our comfortable lives, but that the Green Party are the only political group who can deal with the contemporary and current issues that the world is facing; both politically and environmentally.
We have changed in almost a 180-degree way, twenty years ago the stereotype was beards, sandals, pipes, hemp clothes, it was almost like lecturing the public – it was unsophisticated. Twenty years ago was what, 1989? Scientists for the first time had come to an agreement that climate change was happening, and that it appeared to be man made. I guess when that news was first out there; people were like ‘look, its GOT to change’. Now we are a bit savvier. We have to present policies which are palatable to the voting public; there is no point in standing on the side lines and finger wagging, if we present a policy which will save money but drive down carbon emissions – that is what we are all about. I see the environment agenda of the Green Party very much subset of our core goal, which is social justice. Everything we do, we put the welfare of the human being at the very core. If they are not benefiting from our policies then… I don’t want to know…. that is what the Green Party stands for. So we work for human rights, LGBT rights, promoting the local economy, promoting local business, right though to reducing carbon emissions, they are all under this umbrella of social justice. We are providing a very electable platform, which will improve people’s lives. We are a very well run political party with extremely good innovative ideas to get ourselves out of this economic mess and we are also challenging climate change and enabling our communities to do the same and preparing ourselves for peak oil.
There have been a many protests organised recently, a lot of people who have never protested before are taking to the streets. What is the Green Party’s stance on direct action?
We are the political wing of the New Social Movement; we are the only party who advocate non-violent direct action. The Green Party leader, Caroline Lucas, is probably the only leader with a criminal record, she has been arrested at a nuclear base up in Scotland. We support legitimate protest. There is a place for the protesting, and a place for the parliamentary process. So we are the elected wing of the protest movement.
Other parties don’t like their protesters do they?
Absolutely not, they just want you to nod along. Like good citizens, nod along like The Churchill Dog! (Laughs)
For people who have only heard of Hackney and have not been here, the first words that would come to mind would not be “sustainability”, “communities” or “grow your own”, but plenty of people are living by these ideals here and there is actually quite a healthy sized green movement in Hackney….
There is a massive opportunity for a green movement here, and massive support for us. It is unbelievable. In the last elections, the Greens reached second or third in every single ward in Hackney.
And you have a good relationship with Transition Town Hackney as well?
Yes, but they are completely different organisations. The Transition Town movement doesn’t want to be in the thrall of the political party. We definitely support the parties and their principles. We are all about a localised economy, we should be able to feed ourselves, produce our own energy, and I should be able to send my kid to the local school. The Transition Town model is about preparing for the onslaught of climate change and equipping communities for that transition, and that is also what the Greens are all about.
Can you see Hackney functioning well under a Green Party council?
Absolutely! They are doing it in Lewisham at the moment, which is a similar demography. They are doing all these fantastic things, for example, they have set a system up where you can go to the library and hire energy reading meters which you can take home and fix into your energy meter and this allows you to do an audit of your energy usage. I definitely want to see this launched in Hackney. It’s an innovative, creative way of thinking. It’s about putting sustainability at the core of everything, which also saves lots and lots of money!
I see The Green Party as being very accessible to young people as well.
The average age of people joining is mid to late 20′s. They are not wedded to 20th century politics, a lot of older labour supporters can’t bring themselves to leave. We have the same agenda that Labour did, back when they were good Labour. Only we can add the environmental agenda. We stand up for peace. We stand up for nuclear disarmament, no other party does that. We want public services to stay public. We want to renationalise the railways – the cost of rail tickets hits young people very, very hard. Younger people can see that we are standing up to big businesses, supporting local shops, and standing up for individuals. We have a whole plethora of progressive policies……..
And also The Green Party a very media savvy bunch – you are on Facebook, you organise lots of activities….
Absolutely! In fact next week we are going paintballing – ‘Paintballing for Peace’
(Laughs) What other way is there to find peace?
(Laughs), and we are going on a Hackney Greens bike ride down to Brighton, we are organising a summer solstice away down to the coast. And we go on alternative pub-crawls. (Laughs)
Speaking of young people, Matt, you are 30 years old and you are standing for Stoke Newington Council for next May. What prompted this move?
I don’t like politicians – they are all the same, especially with what is going on with news about their expenses at the moment.
Working for the Green Party, and seeing the good that they are doing, I thought, you have to step up. I know that I can do a good job. Labour are failing miserably both in Hackney and in the country. The Conservatives are the same, the Liberal Democrats are no different, and so as a Green, you just have to step up.
What will you do if you won and had the power to implement any idea? What’s the first thing that you would do?
Free insulation! It’s a scheme that stems from European legislation, which states that energy companies are obliged to give a certain percentage to energy efficiency schemes. But the councils have to apply for that. The Green Party in Kirklees is on the local council, so every single person in Kirklees gets free insulation. It drives down energy costs, and drives down the carbon emissions and creates local jobs, so it’s a win win situation. Why every single council on the country is getting on this I don’t know. It saves everyone money, make peoples homes warmer, make them healthier – it stops people going to NHS with colds and flu and also reinvigorates the local economy by producing jobs. It creates a programme of very sustainable jobs. We tried to implement it before, but the Labour Councellors called it ‘daft’, dismissed it out of hand and didn’t give a reason beyond that!
That doesn’t make any sense!
The Labour and Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats are on the wrong side of history, but there is a new movement, and it takes into account the Green Party, Transition Town and Friends Of The Earth…. Amnesty International, trade unions, CND etc and all these community grass routes organisations. This is a wonderful new social movement that can be called green with a small g and is a new paradigm of social and political engagement…. this is what the 21st Century is coming to now, but the three big parties are still clinging onto the coat tails of 20th Century ideology. This whole new multifaceted social movement (of which the Green Party are the political wing) is the new politics of the 21st century.
Can you tell us the best changes that we can make to our lives to make our world more sustainable?
Number one is vote Green! Although I don’t want to lecture people about being ” eco trendy”. Eco trendiness and eco consumption is not going to sort this mess out. We need strong government action to allow this country to change to a sustainable economy. But back to things that you can do as an individual: don’t use your car as much. Don’t eat as much meat. Cut down, you don’t have to stop eating meat completely, just don’t buy from supermarkets. Stop shopping at supermarkets altogether, because that is killing the environment, and your local towns. Support your local shops instead.
Wise words! Thanks Matt.
While the rest of us spent the winter windblown and wet-toed, viagra knitwear designer Craig Lawrence was dreaming of a resort escape, prostate with all the bells and whistles. And what hard earned sunburn doesn’t deserve to be soothed by an embarrassingly oversized tropical drink with all the tacky accoutrements. And ‘splash’ inspiration is born! Those fanciful toxic colored fishbowls of liquor with their cascading garnishes were all the visual inspiration Craig needed to create his first collection since graduating from St.Martins last July. Knitted up with satin ribbons and swirling metal yarn, the knitwear newcomer’s sugar sweet confections made it to Vauxhall Fashion Scout’s runways and onto the lips of the fashion heavies.
I understand sweets and cocktails were the inspirations for your recent collection. What are some of your favorites?
After my degree collection for St.Martins I needed a bit of time to catch my breath so when I started designing again it was winter…cold and grey. I was eating sweets in my studio and daydreaming of beaches and tropical drinks. Some of my favorite things are peach daiquiris, parma violets. My favorite sweet is probably chewy toffee and favorite drink is that fizzy orange drink irn-bru. What do you recall as the first piece of knitwear you ever made?
A wooly, salmon colored scarf that I actually lost on the train. That and an awful grey ruched square-shaped polyester thing I had to make for my A levels. If given the chance to collaborate with anyone who would you have in mind?
I’ve always thought of doing pieces for a more theatrical environment. I would love to work with Slava Snowshow.
You recently worked with stylist Katie Shillingford on a shoot for your recent collection. There’s so much movement in those images which really brings your knits to life, how did you manage to capture that?
I’d wanted dancing and movement but the studios’ ceilings were too low and they were all too expensive. So we brought a 9 ft family size trampoline to a rooftop overlooking the city and had the girls bouncing up and down on it. A bit risky actually as there was really not much there to stop them from going over if we weren’t careful. We did the hair and make up at home with the help of my boyfriend and flatmates, one of which is a model, which definitely helps when you need someone for fittings. Did you start out interested in knit or did you find your way to it while studying fashion?
Actually, I wanted to do menswear while I was at London College of Fashion, by the time I got to St.Martins they encouraged me to do knit because they saw that all my stuff to that point had been designed in jersey. And I loved the chunky quality of knit.
I hear you managed to do the impossible and actually design 6 seasons of knitwear for Gareth Pugh, while doing your BA, AND working a retail job once a week. How were you able to do that and how many of yourself did you have to clone?
I was in school at the time and had knitted a scarf for a friend who’s flatmate wore it on a date with Gareth, who mentioned he was looking for a knitwear designer. He got in touch and said he needed to have pieces made up in a week. So it was all quite fast. All that while doing my BA degree and working in the stock room at John Lewis on Saturday mornings, sometimes having to be there at 6 am. You get used to not sleeping. And a year after graduating you were showing at Vauxhall Fashion Scout?
My PR agency BLOW called me up a week before the show and said they had an opening for me, so I made up some accessories and a few pieces to fill out the collection I’d been working on. I was given a team of hair and make up artists and we were off.
Which comes first for you, the yarn or the garment?
Usually the textiles come first for me. I’ve learned alot about them along the way, like for example needing to use a flat knit for tight fitting garments. Are there any textiles, practical or not that you’re really keen to use?
I’d like to do something with little leather strips or pvc something shiny and bright. Maybe even strips of diamante. What is one of the more random things you’ve used to knit with?
You know those yellow rubber gloves used for washing up/ i found a guy in Dalston Market selling a gaint roll of it and bought it. I cut it up into tiny little strips and started knitting it up but as a garment it was incredibly heavy and totally unweareble.
Could you give us a peek into the inspirations for your next collection?
At the moment I’m interested in accessories, chenille, and fireworks!
Look out! That is some recipe. Craig Lawrence wants to expand our minds and preconceptions, to push knitwear into places we’d least expect it. Can’t wait to see what Molotov cocktail awaits us next season!
Prepare yourself for copious amounts of black eye liner as this week sees us take an awe-inspiring look at one of London’s fashion firmament Hannah Marshall. A rapidly establishing icon Marshall has been injecting a healthy dose of rock and roll back onto our catwalks since her break through debut in 2007.
I tracked down Hannah to find out more about this talented lady
How are you doing? It’s a lovely sunny day in London; hope your enjoying the sunshine?
I have escaped from London to work from home today in the beautiful Essex countryside; the weather is beautiful here too.
Take me through life since you’re A/W 09 collection showcased at London Fashion Week?
The Autumn/Winter 2009 collection ‘Armour’ was shown at London Fashion Week as part of the New Generation exhibition sponsored by Top Shop. In addition, store I did my first presentation at the On|Off space with Ipso Facto in the Science Museum. The collection was also shown in Paris and New York and there has been a very positive reaction with UK and International press and buyers alike. Since fashion week, ed I have started working on more music collaborations, approved which is really exciting.
Your one of the few designers I have come across that you really get the sense that your personal style plays prominence in your designs, would you agree?
I think it’s important to practice what you preach, and at the end of the day I am designing what I want to wear, that I believe isn’t out there already. I am obsessed with black, shoulder pads and eyebrows. My brand is an extension of me and my aesthetic and vision, which is about empowering women through clothing.
Every girl needs her staple black dress, for me anyway there is a sort of salvation and self-assurance in black clothing, would you agree?
When I design, I design in black. It’s the strongest and most powerful colour there is. Black is the perfect tone to create bold and interesting silhouettes with. For me, the iconic Little Black dress is the epitome of timeless clothing and is the wardrobe staple that is exudes a powerful elegance, authority and quiet confidence. When I launched my label in 2007, I just showed 12 black dresses – for me, a black dress is all you need.
What would you say stimulates you to create your collections?
This season the Hannah Marshall woman wears her own suit of armour. Her body is encased in steel line panels, protected with angular breastplates, concealed with pronounced contours and shielded with moulded hips. This body armour concept allows pieces to offer the illusion of strength and lend the wearer a sense of security.
My design philosophy stems from my continuing obsession with the human form and bodily contours, resulting in carefully orchestrated designs that fit to perfection, inspired insect exoskeletons references such as the beetle’s armoured shell, mimicked through protective interconnecting segments. Black takes the main stage once again, in contrasting and tactile fabrics to create a second skin concealing what lies beneath. The introduction of caviar- look stingray, luxurious stretch velvet and taught elastic is added to my ritual butter soft leathers and lustrous stretch silks
I know it’s a generic question, but which designers out their would you
pinpoint as inspirations?
I am obsessed by Thierry Mugler and the super tailored, sexy designs from the 80′s period. I love the minimalism of Jill Sander in the 90′s and appreciate the sculptural shapes from Japanese designers like Yohji Yamamoto.
You utilise black very heavily within your work, would you say “black is
the new black?’
Always – black is irreplaceable and will always be around throughout each season.
I know you’re enthused by music, you recently used Ipso Facto as muses for you’re A/W 09 collection, which other bands blast out of your headphones?
Ipso Facto of course, as well as The Kills, Iggy Pop, Skunk Anansie, The Black Keys, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Florence & The Machine, Prince, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Nirvana, Siouxie & The Banshees, and more…
If you could work with any iconic figure from the past, who would you choose any why?
Cristobal Balenciaga – pure genius.
Do you have any advice for budding designers eager to break into the fashion sphere?
Believe in yourself, otherwise how can you expect others too. Also, I would advise any young designers to get a mentor and do their ground work.
The more that I delve into the world of Hannah Marshall the further in awe I become. Marshall creates collections that are not merely appreciated as catwalk objects, she creates pieces that tap into every woman’s subconscious. Her Designs follow a distinctive aesthetic, beautifully crafted with architectural precision but with a sensibility that just screams wearability.
I think on a subconscious level we are all black aficionados, when your endlessly trawling the deepest realms of the wardrobe on those bleary eyed mornings, what brings us the utmost in self-assurance and feistiness? Without a doubt it is the quintessential little black dress that consoles all dilemmas. Its been engrained into our sub conscious, think avante garde, think Audrey Hepburn. The back dress prevails time, it still retains the same stylish potency now as ever. Regardless of occasion Its my one true ally admist the abysses of print and colour that can often just make the head spin. Blacks connotates effortless dominance, sexiness and style.
So watch out world we have a new queen of darkness on our hands!
It’s such a beautifully simple idea that you can’t believe you didn’t think of it first.
A is for ‘Alternative Accomodation’ by Zoe Campagna
Take 26 photographers all with first names beginning with unique letters of the alphabet running from a to z. Get them to each to submit a brief with key words running from, site yep you guessed it, sildenafil a to z, corresponding with the letter their name begins with. Make it both ongoing and international running over one year and several continents and voila! You have the most interesting collaborative project since Miranda July’s learning to love you more.
That gives you a whopping 676 photographs and a whole lot of talent. With the project only just completed from ‘Alternative Accommodation’ to ‘Zigzag’, the project is hoping to exhibit here in London and bag themselves a book deal. I took some time out with project curator, photographer representing ‘S’ and artist responsible for the project brief ‘Stop a Stranger’ Stuart Pilkington and had a bit of Q and A.
How long was it between dreaming up the Alphabet Project and its actualization?
Do you know I can’t really recall now. It’s only since late 2007 that I’ve started to get off my backside and actualize anything at all. I think the idea may have been brewing for quite some time – maybe even a couple of years.
Eventually I sat down and created a basic site for the project and then posted the concept on a few sites like craigslist and Facebook to see if it connected with anybody. This was in late 2007. I didn’t really hear anything from anybody until January 2008 when an Australian photographer called Paula Bollers e-mailed me and said she was interested. She also sent the idea to some people she knew who then started to contact me. Until then I was about to abandon the idea but this was the catalyst I needed and I haven’t looked back since.
How was the project put together? Did you find photographers or did they find you? Was there a criteria for choosing artists, such as previously unpublished?
I used a variety of methods to track down the remaining photographers. Some of the people I knew namely John Wilson and Emli Bendixen. I asked if they wanted to be involved and they both said ‘yes’. Emli suggested some other photographers like Rachel Bevis and Burak Cingi and I’m very glad they all came on board – some great British talent.
I also started to contact photographers who had joined some groups I had set up on Facebook to celebrate the work of Alec Soth and Joel Sternfeld. I started to look for photographers who use a variety of disciplines like Lomo, art photography, fashion photography, large format, polaroid etc. I also consciously started to look for people from all over the world.
Was it your intention to be a multinational project or was that pure chance from who got involved?
Not originally but when I started to enrol people from various corners of the world the more this idea excited me. Part of the concept is to do with interpretation, with people’s individual responses, and I realised that if I had photographers from different countries and different disciplines then the variety of images would be all the more exciting.
Do you have photography on your walls at home? Is it your own, people you know or that of renowned photographers?
Funnily enough I am painting my rooms white at the moment and I don’t have any pictures on my wall at all but I hope to have a couple of large William Eggleston prints soon and some prints from 20×200. I also would like to rotate images from a number of the photographers I have been working with.
How do the response photographers work? Do they respond to all 26 projects or individual briefs that they are interested in?
Okay so originally the Alphabet Project was going to involve just 26 photographers, all with a first name beginning with an unique letter of the alphabet. However, I soon realised that a year is a long time for 26 people to remain committed so I needed to have another set of 26 photographers, similarly with first names beginning with an unique letter of the alphabet, in case anyone needed to pull out. I called this group of 26 photographers ‘responding’ purely because the only difference between them and the original 26 was that they didn’t set a task, they purely responded to each task set. The only requirement for all photographers involved was that they completed all 26 tasks by the end of the year.
Which brief took you the longest to come up with an idea for? Which did you know straight away?
To be honest I am the least imaginative when it comes to photography. This is probably one of the reasons I am moving away from creating images to being an art photography curator. An assignment was set like ‘broken’ and ‘thrill’ and I could only think of the most obvious responses whereas the other photographers came up with the most ingenious and leftfield images. Some of them were surreal, some of them incredibly clever and funny. I really enjoyed seeing what they came up with each fortnight.
Who or where or what would be your dream subject to photograph?
I want to get out into the great landscapes of the US with my Wista 5×4 – to photograph places described in books such as ‘Moon Palace’ by Paul Auster and ‘Walden’ by Henry David Thoreau. There’s something that really appeals to me about epic spaces.
After the book what are your plans for the Alphabet Project? What personal projects are you working on?
I am currently exploring avenues and looking for venues/galleries in London. Currently I am curating a couple of other projects by the name of 12 Faces, and the 50 States Project, (50statesproject.net). These are both ideas that evolved out of the Alphabet Project. I also have a number of other projects in mind and one I’m very excited about which will take place in 2010.
(Thumbnail: K is for ‘Kitchen’ by Kristal Armendariz)
Paris- based Nelson (JB Devay, cialis 40mg Gregory Kowalski, cialis 40mg David Nichols and Thomas Pirot) are four dashing purveyors of technical trick-clickery, information pills instrument swingers and moody wordsmiths all finished off with a dash French cool. Their new wave vibe skitters from a Factory Records vibe to the spooky storminess of the early Animal Collective records. They are refreshingly unique for a band that emerged from a Paris scene awash with mini Pierre Dohertys and wannabe Carl Berets. Nelson are never afraid to experiment with genre and technique creating an intelligent type of music, songs that are both danceable and deep; like bopping around a copy of Sartre.
I ate their tortilla chips and spoke to them about making the channel crossing to the notorious London gig circuit, cultural perceptions of French music and having Berlusconi over for dinner, we laughed a lot. From this I can whole-heartedly conclude that you should embrace a new entente cordiale because they’re ferrying over to start a revolution…
JB Devay: Hello, nice to meet you, we are Nelson from Paris…How did you manage to be here? My parents made love 23 years ago…
(laughter)
JB: That’s disgusting…I don’t talk to girls who speak like this.
(laughter) I apologise, so you guys have been playing a lot of gigs in London this week (93 Feet East, Old Blue Last, Buffalo Bar), I was wondering if you could tell me about how you view the differences between the Paris music scene and the London one?
Gregory Kowalski: The thing is we are playing in clubs in London, and from what we see in clubs for 3 or 4 years is that London bands are not really original, in Paris they’re used to be this rock scene that started 4 years ago but now it’s kind of quiet.
Thomas Pirot: I would say that London has lots of bands, so there are a lot of bad bands.
I guess what I always noticed was that the Paris scene is smaller…
David Nichols: Yeah, definitely, but it’s more diverse than the London scene, we haven’t seen too much of the rest of England yet. In Paris there was this thing that bubbled up 4 years ago, with new bands and bands that hadn’t otherwise had a chance to play, now that’s quietened down; there are the bands that stopped and bands that have moved onto a more professional career.
Ok, you were saying that when you come here you play clubs; do you all think that it’s hard for continental bands to make it here? or maybe that there’s a stigma attatched to being a French band? I think people have really specific preconceptions of “French Music”
Thomas: I think so maybe 3 or 4 years ago, but now because of the Parisian scene; that’s kind of changing, there seems to be some more open-minded feeling.
Gregory: Many people we meet after gigs say “oh a French rock band there is something sexy about that”.
(laughter)
David: We’ve reaped a lot of benefit from the electro scene; like Justice and Ed Banger, I mean we’re not at all part of that scene, but for the first time in January we weren’t just another French band, people were asking if we knew Justice also the French Revolution nights at 93 Feet East have done a lot for (hammy French accent) ze freeench cauuzzze!
Gregory: Are you German?
David: Ja.
(laughter)
JB: The change will definitely happen when we have one big French rock band breaking through….
I think Ed Banger is important, even if you’re not affiliated with it because it encourages a two-way cultural export, where as before it was uniquely British bands being exported to France, now French music is cool again in the British public eye…
I was going to ask you why you sing with an English accent?
David: JB doesn’t…he created his own brand of accent.
Gregory: It’s just the music we grew up listening to.
JB: Yeah like Ed Banger, Daft Punk, Phoenix
(laughter)
David: It’s really just the accents each of us naturally have when we sing.
Thomas: Plus we have our very own English teacher. (points to David) You mean David, who learnt English when he was at school with Justice and Air, right?
(laughter)
So I was reading about your influences, a lot of them are cinematic or literary; how do you think that affects your music?
David: Well it’s all things that have touched us personally, things that we’ve connected with in all sorts of art…
JB: I think at the end we’re all trying to say the same thing…I don’t see such a big difference between music, art or literature; it’s all a different way to express emotions. I can talk to James Salter or a guy making movies like I would to another musician.
Gregory: It’s all the same artistic world.
Hmmm, with regards to your literary influences and as well as English being your second language- do you think that affects how you approach song-writing? When I write in French my writing voice totally changes…
Thomas: I think it’s easier to express yourself in another language, there’s a distance.
Gregory: You can play with something when you don’t really know the rules; it’s a nice game, you have weird images going together even if its not really proper; I think it works. I guess it’s the Nabokovian thing of collecting words by their shapes and sounds and not by their meaning, it’s interesting in terms of abstraction but also creates a new intimacy with language; I can see that in your lyrics…
Gregory: Definitely, our first album (Revolving Doors) was definitely about collecting words this way, but now, with the second we are trying more to tell stories.
David: Now we know how to collect words by shapes and sounds; it’s naturally part of our writing process to do it and now we know how to do that, we can now focus on writing stories…but we still have the sense of “I like that word there and how it sounds, so I’ll put it there and the story will fit round it”
Thomas: It’s because naturally our lyrics come from yaourt… Yoghurt?!
(laughter)
Gregory: It’s Franglais!
David: Yaourt is French for when you don’t know the words but sing something anyway… Like Goobledigook?
David: Yeah! Once you find the rhythm of sounds and structure, then you find the words to fit.
Thomas: Words always come with the music and sound, never before.
Cool, there’s a sense of fluidity about how you work, not only with lyrics and working in the studio but also with not really having assigned positions within the band, you all swap instruments- is this fluidity important to you?
Gregory: Yes, definitely.
So what’s coming up for you guys in the future?
JB Devay: A gig in two hours.
(laughter)
Gregory: Then back to Paris for drinks with Daft Punk and Justice!
(laughter)
David: I have a dinner with Air!
Nelson’s Manager Nico: Well, you won’t have much to eat then will you?
(laughter) That’s a good one- I’ll put that in!
Finally, if you had to have 5 people over for dinner who would you choose?
JB: Clint Eastwood for me.
Thomas: Matt Berninger. (singer of The National)
Gregory: (something that sounds like Evita) Evita?!
Gregory: No, Avey Tare. Oh Avey Tare! (singer of Animal Collective) nice choice!
Gregory: Berlusconi as well actually, he’d be an interesting guy… He could do a pasta!
(laughter)
Nelson’s Manager Nico: Scarlett Johansson
(sounds of masculine approval)
David: I’d say Woody Allen. Who’d do the washing up?
David: Probably me.
Gregory: I’d do it with Scarlett Johansson… I bet you would!
Nelson’s debut album Revolving Doors is available now on Ctrl Alt Del Records (UK) and Diamondtraxx (France).
They play The Luminaire on 30th May.
Photos of Nelson playing at the Centre Pompidou appear courtesy of Julien Courmont
Awesome backdrops (in photos) by Ahonen & Lamberg
We normally post our listings on a Monday, viagra but there are quite a few events going on this Bank Holiday Weekend that we wanted to share with you.
First of all, sale who has not seen a screening of “The Age of Stupid” yet? If you haven’t, then there are plenty of opportunities on Friday night, thanks to the numerous places which will be taking part in the genius ‘Indie Screenings’.
If you need more of an incentive, anyone who comes along to the 7.30pm screenings across the country will get to watch an additional webcast as well. The Age Of Stupid have teamed up with the Royal Society of the Arts to bring you an exclusive live webcast. Directly after screenings finish across the width and breadth of the UK at 9PM, they will go live from London with an interactive web panel beaming directly to anyone holding an event. On the panel they’ll be joined by:
– Franny Armstrong (Director of The Age of Stupid, McLibel and Drowned Out) ?- George Monbiot (Prolific climate change journalist and author of HEAT)?- Sir Nicholas Stern (Author of the Stern review and economist)?- Dr Richard Betts (Head of climate impacts at the MET office)?- Dr. Mohammed Waheed Hassan, Vice-President of the Maldives
Have a look at the Age Of Stupid website to see where these screenings are place. One particular screening which has piqued our interest is going to be held at the fabulously named Stoke Newington International Airport (needless to say, not a real airport), but “a performance and rehearsal venue where extremely interesting people get up to brilliant things.”The film will be shown in order to raise money for the Nottingham thought criminals, so come along and bring all your mates. It’s a great little venue, and all money taken on the door will be split between them and those naughty people what thought about possibly maybe conspiring to do nothing.
Those who follow this blog will hopefully know a little about the wonderful work that Transition Towns are doing. This weekend they are holding a conference which will last from May 22 -May 24. If you want one of these places please call Kristin on 07950542351. Places cost £85 which gives you access to the full smogasbord including workshops, open spaces, evening events, entertainment & lunch. It promises to be a wonderful weekend. Take a look at the programme for the full picture
The conference programme has been announced. It’s a packed schedule, with workshops happening throughout the weekend covering every aspect of Transition. Here is a list of what to expect.
Here’s the full list:
Saturday Morning
Energy Descent Planning
Growing Communities
Oil, Climate & Money
Learning >From Coin Street Community Builders
Constellations: a Practical Experience
Creative Environmental Education
The Transition Guide to Working With Your Local Council
Ensuring & Maximising Diversity in Transition
Transition Training & Consulting: who we are and what we do
Can Britain Feed Itself? Bringing GIS Mapping to the Question
Crowdfunding & Fundraising
Saturday Afternoon
Local Currencies
The Transition Guide to Food
Wha’s Like Us? The Scottish Experience
Climate Change Goes Critical
The Work That Reconnects
Harmony Singing
Wild Food & Wildlife Walk
Turning The Corner
Transition Training & Consulting: working with businesses & organisations
Animate Earth
Economics Crash Course
Sunday Morning
Food EDAPs
Weaving Magic
Making The Most of The Media
Transition Web Project Bringing Transition Together
Conflict Resolution & Communication
The Heart & Soul of Transition
Energy Descent Planning for Transport: The Oxford Example
Personal Resilience
Asking the Elders
Transition Timeline
Wild Economics: Wolves, Resilience & Spirit
The Transition website also lists places to stay if you are coming from out of town, so you will not be stuck for a place to stay.
Elsewhere, Rootstock and Radical Routes are holding a free one day conference and workshop which includes a talk by the key note speaker, Marsh Farm’s Glenn Jenkins, who will be asking “How can we protect our remaining social and economic resources from the convulsions of capitalism?” The event will be on Saturday at the Conway Hall in Holburn, London. Radical Routes is a network of radical co-ops whose members are committed to working for positive social change. The network is made up mainly of housing co-ops of various sizes (none with more than 16 members), a few workers co-ops and a couple of social centres.
Four times a year, the member co-ops get together at “gatherings”. These weekend events have a social function, but are also the places at which all important decisions are taken. They are open meetings and anyone is welcome to attend.
The event will run from 10 am – 6pm. But it doesn’t finish then! Afterwards, Radical Routes will be throwing a party to celebrate their 21st birthday. Music and entertainment will be provided by Attila the Stockbroker, a performance and punk rock poet, as well as David Rovics, Babar Luck, Clayton Blizzard and Smokey Bastard. Food will be provided by The Anarchist Teapot Kitchen Collective from Brighton and Veggies Catering Campaign from Nottingham.
Tickets for the evening’s party are £8.00/£4.00 concs or if you include food, £11.00/£6.00 concs. Tickets can be booked by calling 0113 262 4408 or emailing bookings@radicalroutes.org.uk
Who are Worried about Satan? Worried about Satan are a duo based in Leeds comprising of Gavin Miller and Thomas Ragsdale who produce atmospheric soundscaping far in advanced of their relatively young age.
Their live shows are an incredible, prescription blistering assault on the senses that leave you whimpering in the corner like a kid who’s lost his blankie. On receiving their new album ‘Arrivals’, I have to admit I was more than a little concerned. I couldn’t really imagine how they’d be able to match this on stage furore on record. Yet, no sooner had the disc started spinning when my worries disappeared in the fug of a post rock, techno wrestling match. The despair, the fear and the power is as prevalent here as it ever has been on the stage. Nothing compromised, nothing lost.
Each track builds up to an almost unbearable hiatus. One part electronic, another part rock with some mind melting jungle beats on the side. It shares a little with Dub step hero Burial, if I had to name anyone, who they have shared a studio with. The mixture is balanced out perfectly with an accompaniment from some rather unusual spoken word samples from Patricia Hearst amongst others; altogether creating a sound that is both ethereal and heart wrenching. It was like being hit over the head with twenty chairs and then pile driven into a concrete canvas. But I’d do it again I tell you, again.
The album is now due to be released at the end of May on Gizeh Records.
Andy Council and Amelia’s Magazine are old friends. Mr Council penned some superb illustrations for us back in the day and since then has gone on to produce some of the hottest material to be had on the British graphic art scene.
When it comes to parallels the man himself cites the work of cult comic book illustrator/hero Geoff Darrow and the sublime master of anime Miyazaki, side effects but for me Council’s style can’t be described as anything other than a true one off. The intricacy with which he renders his visual feasts is phenomenal, unhealthy and catches both the eye and the imagination.
Those of you lucky enough to reside in Bristol may have come across local resident Council’s window work, though his artwork that graces everything from posters and flyers to skate decks and murals can be found the country over. He is also one seventh of a new collective calling themselves Boys Who Draw.
He was kind enough to indulge me and my love of quirky quick-fire questions, the results of which can be found below.
Which illustrator or graphic artist do you most admire and why?
There are so many illustrators whose work I admire. I really admire the work of my friend Mr Jago as he has gone really painterly and expressive with his work. I wasn’t sure if I should say that as he doesn’t like me saying and got a bit funny about it before!
Which band past or present would provide the soundtrack to a film of your life?
Sonic Youth I guess – they are my favourite band and have been the background music to most of my life. Funnily enough though, for key moments in my life like my wedding day and when I found out my partner was pregnant I have had Guns and Roses songs in my head. I’m not really a big fan of the Gunners.
Tell us something about Andy Council we might not already know.
I own a Taxidermy duck called Stufty.
Album Cover Art for Earmint
What is your pub quiz specialist subject?
Cryptozoology. Anything to do with Bigfoot, Nessie and other creatures that might not actually exist.
If you hadn’t become an illustrator and all round cool dude, what would you be doing now?
I don’t think I ever got round to becoming a cool dude. I would probably be a paleontologist.
If you could travel back or forward in time to any era, where would you go?
I would of course go back to the time of the Dinosaurs!
What single piece of modern technology could you not bear to live without?
My computer and the internet. I’m totally addicted to it, which is why I don’t have it at my art studio so I can actually get some work done!
What or who is your nemesis?
Static.
What is your guilty pleasure?
Eating custard slices. My partner caught me in the centre of Bristol once eating one and it was all over my face. This was in the early stages of our relationship and amazingly she has stayed with me.
I say ‘Falloumi’, you say…?
I would say that surely you mean halloumi, the squeaky salty cheese that is great served with roast veg. (I actually mean the falafel halloumi wrap cross breed that we here at Amelia Towers boldly invented as a lunch favourite last week. Moving on.)
If you were taking Amelia’s Magazine out for a night in Bristol, where would we go?
I think I would start off at an exhibition opening in a squatted space such as the Emporium on Stokes Croft. Would then go onto to a local pubs such as the Bell where all the local Street Artists hang out. Quick stop off for some nasty chips at Ritas and then on to either The Star and Garter for some late night dub and drinking or The Black Swan for Dub Step, bon fire and carnage. Hmmm, I actually quite like staying in and looking after the little un these days.
What advice would you give up and coming illustrators?
The usual thing of keeping at it and relentlessly promoting your work I guess. Other than that, I would say it’s really good to get your work up on walls, windows or wherever it can be seen large by the public.
Who would be your top 5 dream dinner guests? Who would do the washing up?
The Beast of Bodmin, Skeletor, Richard Angwin (BBC west local weather man), Godzilla and the queen who can do the washing up if she hasn’t escaped being eaten by my chum from Bodmin.
Andy Council, we salute you. Would you have him round for dinner?
Thanks to Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s utterly perfect bit of cinema, for saleAmelie, this you’re probably more likely to associate Yann Tiersen with Place de la Concorde in Paris than with Concorde2 in Brighton. But he has travelled north, and I have travelled south to converge on this charmingly dark and sweaty rock venue for the unveiling of his new material. The new album, Dust Lane, will be released later this year, and Brighton is getting an earful tonight.
After some encouragement from the crowd, the band emerges and grabs their instruments. Already, I’m suspecting this is not going to sound quite how the Amelie Crowd expect. There are three guitarists, two with electrics, pedals all over the floor, I think I saw a violin, but nobody’s holding it and, woe is me, there isn’t an accordion anywhere in sight. They’re planning to rock us, aren’t they? Oh hang on, maybe not. All starts with an ambient drone, and suddenly two of them grab melodicas. Phew! It’s gentle, poetic, soothing, evocative. It is the Yann we know and love… for about a minute and a half. Then Yann looks at his colleagues authoritatively, drops the melodica and starts thrashing out a 5/8 guitar riff with a harsh aggressive sound. The whole band explodes in, following his beat tight as hell, and with no embellishment. Thrash, thrash, it just gets bigger and more and more epic, Suddenly the drummer derails into an even-numbered beat while everyone else remains the same, which results in brain-freeze for one lady in the front row. Yann is clearly not one to be pigeonholed, and this sounds more like mid-career Tortoise turned up to eleven.
I can’t help but wonder if some have come here just because of the Amelie-link. There are people who watch that film every day, you know? What are they thinking now?
Sure enough, I turn around to see a couple of skinny Brighton boys sucking their thumbs and clinging onto favourite teddies for consolation. A dozen soppy-faced girls weep into Cath Kidston hankies, for they could not possibly meet Mr. Right here, with this soundtrack. And it’s only the first song.
Nevertheless, everyone else seems pleased. Raw power, thick sound, and tight band. Yann seems pleased, too. He walks his asymmetrical 38-year-old mild-mannered French grin up to the mic. “Cheers”, he says then nervously scuttles off to be a band-leader. “Un-Deux-Trois-Allez-Oop”, it’s all-rocking pacy stuff for the first four or five songs, but with a fair few changes of mood. Sometimes it feels like the moments on Serge Gainsbourg’sJane B. album which chug-chug along beneath manly utterances, and sometimes the whole band is singing in unison, alongside bulbous synth eternities and roaringly full guitars, like a crescendo in an epic prog-rock stadium-filler by Yes. There’s also a vaguely detached feel to some of it, which reminded me of Air’s10,000hz Legend album – it’s a simulation of a rock band, an effect that’s been layered in there to satisfy a composer’s whim.
But the thing that really shook the crowd was an Earth-shattering rumbling apex of a full-on rocker, which died out as Yann picked up that violin. He lilted and scribbled and finally picked out a lick motif. It’s a few minutes of violin soloing that brings the whole room to a standstill, the moment of reassurance that entry-fees were worth it, the rush of blood to the heart. It’s the first time that his dexterous skills are laid bare, and as the song returns to full band chugger, he’s still licking it, and everyone is in love with him.
There is a lot of moving around onstage. The only one who sat still was the drummer, as one guitarist also played a synth, the other also played a microphone with some effects and read a book, the bassist had his melodica, the keyboardist also played ukelele, and Yann himself was all over everything (except for his poor, neglected accordion). At one point, I was sure that the second electric guitarist had switched to some new-fangled wind instrument, only for the lighting system to settle down to reveal that he was, in fact, just swigging some Evian.
One of the most memorable songs was We’ll Still Be There At The End. This was a repeated vocal à la full band, with driving chord changes which hints at the Pixies with an evangelical grandeur, perhaps a whiff of Arcade Fire. After a while this breaks down to a frenzied twiddle on a machine that sounded like a cross between a Kaosspad and a Tardis. This is new ground for a lot of people here tonight.
But is the Frenchman protesting too much? The only dose of familiar that we got was the second, and final, encore, which after about thirty-two bars I realised was La Valse D’Amelie. That sweet chord progression was buried in there somewhere amidst a swirl of firebreathing synths and competing guitars. I had to ask myself if he was playing it hatefully, parodying it. It all left me with more questions than I arrived with. I didn’t go to Brighton in the hope of hearing Amelie hits, but because I knew enough of Tiersen’s work to respect him as a master of delicate, poly-instrument, emotional beauty. But, having mastered that, he seems bored of it. On the day that Dust Lane is released, we’ll see one of two possibilities. Either he’s desperately trying to sound utterly unlike “the Amelie guy” and losing his heart, or he still is a master, who has moved into new terrain of power instead of tenderness. It’s very difficult to say because his music has never been about catchy melodies, or hooky songs – not a gig poster-boy for noobs. And one obvious difference is that on an album, it will be possible for him to play all the instruments at once. So for the gig to feel unbalanced, in that there was too much of four guitarists chugging in tandem and not enough of virtuoso expressive instrument loving, may not bode badly for the album.
But the old fanbase will have to reassess Mr. Tiersen’s repertoire, and make a little room for their new moshy friends in the crowd. Amelie herself may have to replace her stupid grin with a rock-pout, and start chugging the Gauloises.
M. Tiersen has not only the obligatory myspace, but also the hoity-professional dedicated website. Be Intrigued!
Editor’s Note: What have you guys thought of our French Revolution recently? Kitsune, The Do, Nelson, and now Yann- Pretty exciting isn’t it?
Monday 25th May
Permaculture Design Course – The Urban Edge
Venue: ‘Waterside Centre’, information pills
9am -5pm
Stonebridge Lock, troche
Tottenham Marshes
Date: Monday 25 May 2009 to Friday 26 Jun 2009
Description: Located on the real urban edge, this participatory and practical course offers a range of learning opportunities, with hands on development and design of this exciting site, within the basin of the River Lea. This non residential course is run from 25-29th and May 22nd-26 June 2009
Contacts: Marianne londoncourses@naturewise.org.uk
?Web Address: www.naturewise.org.uk
Tuesday 26th May
International Court for the Environment
6pm
Herbert Smith,
Exchange House,
Primrose Street,
Broadgate, EC2, London
Discussion about the feasibility of pressing the case for a court. Info: Environment Court/ icecoalition@googlemail.com/ 7466 3285/ 7374 8000/07973 770942
Green Left is an eco-socialist, anti-capitalist current within the Green Party, which started in June 2006 when 36 Green Party members agreed its launch statement (the Headcorn Declaration).?? Sarah Farrow, Green Left co-convenor said then: “Activists in the Green Party have founded Green Left because many Greens believe the only path to an ecological, economically and socially just and peaceful society has to be based on an anti-capitalist political agenda.”??This evening guests from Green Left will be discussing their agenda, and launching a new pamphlet on the issues at hand.
Thursday 28th May
Taking Root – The Vision of Wangari Maathai
Amnesty International Centre
The Human Rights Action Centre,
17-25 New Inn Yard
EC2, London
Info: 7033 1500/ 7033 1664/ sct@amnesty.org.uk
The Green Belt Movement and Amnesty International are proud to present the UK premier of ‘Taking Root – The Vision of Wangari Maathai’.
‘Taking Root’ tells the dramatic story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai, whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights and defend democracy.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with a panel led by Wangari Maathai and including the film maker Lisa Merton and IIED Director Camilla Toulmin.
A suggested donation of £10 is kindly requested on the door. All donations will go towards the work of The Green Belt Movement.
To reserve a copy of ‘The Challenge for Africa’ at RRP £20.00 (hardback) or ‘Unbowed’ at RRP £8.99 (paperback), please e-mail The Green Belt Movement at gbmi@greenbeltmovement.org.
Saturday 30th May
11am to 5pm Economic and Environmental Recovery: from Downturn to Steady State. Creating a better world to recover from the credit crunch and the nature crunch
Cecil Sharpe House,
2 Regents Park Road,
Camden, London
NW1 7AY. Nearest Tube: Camden Town
With Fritjof Capra, Physicist and systems theorist, director of the Centre for Ecoliteracy in California; Ann Pettifor, Editor of The Real World Economic Outlook, Satish Kumar,
Editor of Resurgence Magazine.
Organised by Resurgence Magazine, Schumacher College, The Temenos Academy, The Scientific l & Medical Network & The Gaia Foundation.
Tickets: £25.00, Concessions £15.00
RSVP: Peter Lang, Resurgence Events Director at peterlang@resurgence.org 020 8809 2391. www.resurgence.org
Date: Sunday 31 May 2009 ?Time: 10am – 5.00pm
Bonnington Centre,
11 Vauxhall Grove,
Vauxhall, London SW8 1TD
Description: LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY, EXTREMES OF WEALTH AND POVERTY and now FINANCIAL WOBBLES AS WELL!
WHAT IS GOING ON? AND HOW CAN WE HANDLE IT?
Not just in our minds but in our hearts and feelings.
Come and find out how we can move from a way of life devoted to consumption, greed, exploitation and endless economic growth – until it fails! TO A truly life sustaining one. Joanna Macy’s “Work that Reconnects” offers a safe space to ground our feelings and access our power in nourishing, inspiring, uplifting and energising ways.
Contacts: Places are limited: please contact Jim Scott on 020 7640 0492 as soon as possible
E-mail: saveourworld@ntlworld.com
?Web Address: http//:www.save-our-world.org.uk
A geezer called Art Buchwald once observed that nostalgia was a misconceived notion that “yesterday was better than today”. Post Bush-adminstration, approved mid-swine flu, this web the commencement of the recession – you don’t even need no rose-tinted specs to see that yesterday quite frankly delivers a swift sucker punch into the sorry face of today. Inevitably, people everywhere are starting to get nostalgic for the 90s.
A while ago I came across a hoody on the Face Hunter and within ten minutes I had tracked down it down as coming from CTRL, a Helsinki based range that came into the world as a skate brand. Skateboarding seems very much the preserve of the 90s, and it’s tempting to euphemise those chilled out dudes with the beanies, baggy jeans and zoots in their back pockets, and I love how CTRL roots itself in this vibe but given way to a more playful and fashionable edge. Taking the philosophy of one of the best parts of street culture and giving its wearers a positive voice that can speak even from the way we look, it’s a brand that feeds back into the subculture it borrowed from in the first place.
Set up by two pals back in the halcyon days of 1995, CTRL started life making t-shirts, and gradually has expanded to produce all sorts, the best being some ruddy ace cardigans that you’ll look sharp in even if you’re not zooming up and down halfpipes in your spare time. They’ve even got a womenswear range going on, despite their art director Freeman confessing (in true skater style) to not knowing very much about girls.
They’re some really vibrant, unabashedly boisterous statement pieces that might well alarm the conservative in you, but are ultimately indicative of an enjoyment of life – urban life in particular – that might have got abstracted somewhere along the way.
Recent flick and 90s nostalgia fest The Wackness makes life’s dopeness its hero, and that philosophy seems strongly eminent with CTRL, a philosophy that could be learnt from the grunge kids of yesterday and couldn’t be more perfectly timed. There’s got to be room for that in your cupboard.
Freeman calls their clothing as representative of the individual “speaking with a megaphone and the top three stairs of the pyramid”. He has also spoken out about a desire to support Greenpeace, Amnesty International and other causes to prove that street culture can be a viable beneficiary source to others, not just to itself. So it ain’t just a bunch of pesky kids with low slung trousers, no sir – it understands that fashion can be about who you are and where you’re from, a street mantra because community is a paramount idea. Street culture and skate culture aren’t dirty concepts for Freeman like they are for the frenzied tabloids, they can be places of community that breed mutual respect for your peers, something that’s deeply ingrained.
They got some pretty fine threads too. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
What do you guys think? Has CTRL successfully made the transition from skaters to the masses?
Written by Jonno Ovans on Thursday May 21st, 2009 5:35 pm
Fraser Moss and Jimmy Collins borrowed legendary designer Raymond Loewy‘s slogan ‘you must create‘ to launch their label back in 1995. The brand constantly evolves, better known by the acronym YMC, but the ethos behind Loewy’s words resonate through the heart of the clothing label even today.
A YMC show feels a bit like respite on the London Collections: Men line-up. The Corbusian mantra ‘form follows function’ runs through the core, and to judge them against Craig Green or Astrid Andersen would be totally missing the point. Relaxed tailoring with a modern edge, minimal silhouettes and unassuming, stylish, wearable separates have become the brand’s signatures.
This season the YMC boys took over the Old Sorting Office where I’d previously seen Topman Design. I derived pretty quickly that this was going to be right up my straße in comparison. A quietly confident crowd saw striped blazers and bombers with matching shorts, fusing the brand’s utilitarian aesthetic with a fun summer flavour.
These bold opening offerings were quickly followed by the brand’s unmistakable denims, tees and casual shirts. A quilted jacket was given a modern twist with a haphazard, swirling design in Chombray. Crisp, linen shirts featured oversized polka dots and revealed intricate, childlike patterns on the reverse. Sportswear complimented these subtle twists, from tapered joggers to sleeveless bomber designs with zip pockets. Floral shirts were worn effortlessly.
Oversized checks then made an appearance in subtle blues and greens. Basic white t-shirts with luscious marine-blue gradient hems made me yearn for a decent fucking summer.
A range of jackets closed the show: a blue overcoat with synched hood and sleeves, a play on the French utilitarian jacket and an oversized overcoat-cum-poncho with slits in the sides to expose arms.
Many a menswear designer could learn a thing or two from YMC‘s inimitable, laid-back blend of cool.
Written by Matt Bramford on Friday June 28th, 2013 9:55 am
Style Passport is the brainchild of Sarah Walter, formally a fashion director at Marie Claire, now retail entrepreneur. Realised as a one stop shop for the ultimate holiday wardrobe, Style Passport champions many smaller designers and artisan makers. I caught up with Sarah to find out how she got into the internet business, how her previous career has impacted her work and what she recommends for the ultimate vacation look this season.
Hi Sarah, I believe I did a short work experience stint in the fashion cupboard when you were still at Marie Claire… what drew you to working in magazines during the first part of your career?
Did you really? How did you find that experience? I too started in a cupboard in a fashion department at Vogue, it still seems to be the only way to break into the business. Why was I drawn to magazines? Well, when I started they were wildly creative with photo shoots taking up 20 pages and really extending the editors’ and photographers’ imagination. Coming from art college this merged my two great loves – art and style – so was the perfect career path for me.
How did becoming a mother inspire your career swerve into retail?
I experimented in retail just before I had my first daughter and found the whole experience pretty interesting. Not only was I trying to create something interesting to wear but then I got to see if it was actually bought and worn by someone. My daughters became experts in spotting a dress or bag I had created and we all shared the same excitement. It’s pretty addictive actually. Oh, and the pay is generally much better.
How has your experience of working on fashion editorials influenced the way that you approach retail?
Creating a story in a magazine has all the same elements as creating a window in a shop or a page on a web site. All need a good idea to start with, then great creative and copy that hooks you in. The fact that more and more editors have left magazines in recent years to move into e-commerce and retail just shows you how blurred these worlds are now, whereas 20 years ago there were distinct barriers. The internet and technology has changed and will continue to change everything.
What factors do you consider when looking for a new brand to stock on the website?
Well, we start by thinking ‘Where is she going and what does she need to take with her to ensure she has the easiest and most stylish trip possible?‘ We love colour (we do mostly think of holidays in colour, not black and white, don’t we?), print and items that are easy to fold up, so jersey features strongly and unstructured jackets too. Some brands particularly scream ‘holiday’ like Matthew Williamson and Antik Batik; you can literally imagine yourself on the beach when you see them. We have a broad price architecture too, it’s very much the Fashion Editors‘ choice, so we try to choose what you can get for a reasonable amount of money (Armor Lux bretons for example are perfect, you don’t need to buy a designer version).
What have been your most exciting discoveries when hunting down new labels? Are there any particular finds which stick in your mind?
I’m very excited about Visconti & du Reau gladiators which will be on the site in March. Sam and I saw them in Paris and literally dropped everything on the spot.
Where do you source your artisanal goods from, and why are these products so exciting to you?
Artisanal goods to me have always been the holiday ‘finds’ which tell the stories of your adventures and create your personal style. They are personal and remind us of the best times in our lives. We find our artisanal items from our own travels and now increasingly, artisans approach us with their goods and we love to find out about them and bring their stories to our customers.
How do you balance your stock of expensive high end products with more affordable items?
It’s all determined by our approach to style. Items on the site are there because they are loved and we believe they are worth the money. Sometimes it’s a designer piece that will make all the difference and sometimes a trusted basic or artisanal find. To me, this combination is true style.
How do you decide which beauty brands to promote on Style Passport?
Again, we try to focus on brands we love which support our travel ethos. We have to have suncream and mosquito spray so our customers really can come to us and get their bag packed in one place.
Style Passport mood board.
You’ve spoken of plans to expand the website to include menswear and kidswear – what else would you like to do with Style Passport in the future?
One step at a time! We would love to eventually have our own label associated with the best travel items, so let’s see what happens.
Style Passport mood board.
What have been the best and hardest parts of going it alone with your own business?
The best is creating what you want in the way you want to and surrounding yourself with hugely passionate, talented people. The worst is raising money to drive forwards and getting the call at 1am when the alarm goes off in the warehouse.
Putting it all together: Style Passport looks.
Lastly, what are the three most important things to pack: for a hot destination?
1. A scarf that keeps you relaxed on the plane, is nice enough to wear out at night, can be doubled and belted to make a skirt and of course used as a beach coverup or a hair protector…… I can go on about scarves for ever.
2. Great sunglasses. Nothing makes you feel more glamorous and in the mood like these. Plus, after a long journey they cover puffy and tired eyes.
3. Your favourite dress. Dresses are the easiest way to get dressed as most decision making is removed. For me they are the most versatile of items. Very little work is required to take the same dress from a market shop (basket, flats, headscarf) to a dinner (heels, lipstick, ear rings).
Some of my key holiday looks are included in this blog. For S/S 2013 I’d go for a Matthew Williamson blue shirt waister dress, an Indonesian sarong – always a sarong, the gladiators in lizard and neon by Visconti & du Reau and a Seafolly Goddess swimsuit which just fits and improves every body that it is put on.
And for a winter holiday this season?
A down coat. ADD and Barbour are great. Light, warm and stylish.
Lip salve – the cold really affects your lips. Carmex is the original and best in my view and the yellow pot is very friendly.
Base layers. American Vintage cotton fitted longjohns and roll necks should be the first thing you put on after your underwear.
Thanks Sarah! It’s so interesting to hear from someone who has created a successful retail experience. Do visit Style Passport to discover more great holiday ideas.
Written by Amelia Gregory on Monday February 4th, 2013 10:40 pm
It’s the day before the general election and the concluding part of Amelia’s Magazine interview with Think Act Vote’s Amisha Ghadiali. Tomorrow you have a chance to vote. Use it.
Why do you think if “politics were a brand, visit thisonline no one would wear it!”?
This statement is about Westminster politics, capsule in many ways the system we have is out of date for the world we are living in now. I don’t see people wanting to “wear” it as it is. This is why I really support the work of campaigns like Vote for a Change that focus their around how we can make the system work better for us.
How can fashion be used to engage people in Politics?
I think that fashion plays a key role in how we express ourselves and we use it to communicate things about ourselves or messages that we care about. The campaign t-shirt has become iconic as a phenomenon. At the beginning of the campaign, we ran a competition to design the perfect campaign t-shirt, which was a great opportunity for up and coming illustrators to showcase their work. The winning design by Jesson Yip was selected by a judging panel that included Katharine Hamnett and Daisy de Villeneuve. The symbols represent each word, with different fonts to represent different people’s voices. The design was then printed onto Earth Positive Eco T-shirts and is now on sale.
Through working in the ethical fashion industry I see fashion as a key way to think about sustainability. We all wear clothes, and the fashion industry affects so many people across the world as well as the environment. I work closely with Ethical Fashion designers at EFF and am one myself with my jewellery label. As an ethical designer, you don’t just have to make sure that your collection looks and fits great, but you spend a huge amount of time researching new fabrics, new technologies and finding out who is telling the truth about their labour standards or production methods. You need to be pioneering and inquisitive as you think through your entire collection and its impact on the environment and people at every stage.
Ethical Fashion designers are always pushing boundaries and are extremely passionate about what they do. I wanted to include this talent in the campaign and asked leading ethical fashion designers to create a show piece or an easy DIY customisation using a Think Act Vote t-shirt and off cuts from their collections. The designers that took part included Ada Zanditon, Junky Styling, Traid Remade, Tara Starlet and Beautiful Soul. The pieces that they created in just a week are stunning.
Photography by Ben Gold
Think Act Vote discusses the negativity imbedded in modern politics – Were there any particular examples that spurred you into action?
There are loads of examples, just try and think when the last time you heard something positive about politicians or about changes in our communities. We are always focusing on people’s failings and the ‘fear’ out there. Just last week the country spent two days focusing on the story about Gordon Brown saying a woman was a bigot.
Is this negativity the reason, do you think, for the decline in the number of votes?
Not the only reason. Things have changed a lot over the last few decades. I think two features of the neo-liberal British political landscape are related: the rise of consumerism and the demise of traditional participation. I think that the way we express who we are is different now, not that many people are lifetime members of political parties. Political identity is no longer inherited.
As mentioned before I don’t think the political system reflects who we are, which makes us lose interest.
Have you been watching the Leader’s Debate?
I have seen bit of them, but not all the way through as have been doing talks and events most evenings in the past few weeks. I think it is great to have the leaders on TV, as it has really helped getting people talking about the election. I am not sure how much of their personalities and policies we are really seeing as the whole things does feel a little over polished. I think it would mean more if we had a vote on who was PM as well as on our local MP. I would also like to see some of the smaller parties be given this platform too.
Will you be voting this election?
Yes I will be voting, I think this is vital. I haven’t decided who for yet. I will decide on election day. I am deciding between three parties but then I went on Voter Power and saw that my voter power in my constituency is only 0.039. It is an ultra safe seat. So I am thinking about voting through Give Your Vote. It is a fantastic campaign about Global Democracy which allows you to give your vote to somebody in Afghanistan, Ghana or Bangladesh. It is an act of solidarity with those who do not have a say in the decisions that affect them.
Join Amisha tonight at: The Future I Choose with Live Music, Poetry, Fashion, Photography
The City and Arts Music Project, 70-74 City Road, London, EC1Y 2BJ
5.30pm til 9pm
Having spearheaded the new London folk scene with their debut album, theremedicalNoah and the Whale are back with their hands full up, releasing a new single, album and film out this summer. We talk school plays, Daisy Lowe, weddings, gardening, Werner Herzog in the studio with the effortlessly charming frontman, Charlie Fink.
Photos by Katie Weatherall
Amelia’s Mag: You’ve got a whole host of new releases coming up – single, album, film – how are you feeling about it all, happy/nervous/excited?
Charlie Fink: All of the above… I dunno, we did the album so long ago… From the last album, I realised the only satisfying feeling you’re going to get is the feeling you get when you’ve finished it and you think it’s good, that’s the best it gets. Reading a review of somebody else saying it’s good is good to show off to your mum, but it doesn’t really mean anything. Likewise, if there’s something you believe in and someone says it’s bad, you’re still going to believe in it.
AM: And the live shows must add another dimension to that?
CF: Yeah. What I’m excited about really is that this record realises us as a band more than the previous one. So that’s going to be really exciting to go out and play that live to people.
AM: And is there anything in particular that has done this or has it been the natural progression of the band?
CF: It’s a million small things, from us playing together more, us growing up, learning our trade a bit better, from what happens in lives and the records you listen to. I very much try to rely as much as I can on instinct and satisfying myself. And this is not a selfish thing because the only way you can supply something worthwhile to somebody else, is if you’re totally satisfied with it yourself. Doing the right things for us and hoping that’ll transfer to the audience.
AM: Was there anything in particular you were listening to whilst making the record?
CF: The things I’m listening to now are different from the things I was listening to when I wrote the record. When I first started the record, I was listening to ‘Spirit of Eden’ by Talk Talk, which is a different sounding record to what we did. Nick Cave, lots by Wilco…
AM: So tell me about the film, ‘The First Days Of Spring’, that accompanies the album (of the same name)… which came first?
CF: The first thing was the idea of a film where the background and the pace was defined by an album. But it totally overtook my whole life. It’s one of those things you start for a certain reason and then you keep going for different reasons. The inspiration was sort of how people don’t really listen to albums anymore, they listen to songs. We wanted to try making an all emersive record where the film puts people into it. We’re not dictating that this should be the only way people listen to music, we just wanted to offer something alternative. On a lot of records these days, you don’t feel like the unity of the album gives it more strength than each individual song. Whereas with this record, the whole thing is worth more than the individual parts. That’s how I see it anyway.
There’s this quote from I think W. G. Collingwood that says, ‘art is dead, amusement is all that’s left.’ I like the idea that this project, in the best possible way, is commercially and in lots of other ways pointless. It’s a length that doesn’t exist. It’s not a short film or a feature, it’s 15 minutes and the nature of it is that it’s entirely led by its soundtrack. It’s created for the sake of becoming something that I thought was beautiful.
AM: And Daisy Lowe stars in it, how was that?
CF: She’s an incredibly nice and intelligent person. I met with her in New York when we were mixing the album and I told her I was doing this film… She was immediately interested. And her gave her the record as one whole track which is how I originally wanted it to be released. Just one track on iTunes that had to be listened to as a whole and not just dipped into. She sent me an email two weeks later, because she’s obviously a very busy person. With her listening to the album, a kind of live feed of what she thought of it. Making a film and having her was really good because she kept me motivated and passionate. She genuinely really took to this project. The whole cast as well, everyone really supported it and it was a pleasure to make. I had to fight to get it made and understood. It’s one of those things that people either passionately disagree with or agree with. From thinking it’s absurdly pretentious or beautiful. Fortunately all the people working on the film were passionate people.
AM: So is film making something you want to continue with?
CF: Yeah, definitely! At some point I’d like to make a more conventional film. The thing that really stuck with me about making a film was surround sound. When you’re mixing a film, you’re mixing the sound in surround because you’re mixing for cinemas. You realise the potential of having five speakers around you as opposed to just two in front of you. The complexity of what you can do is vast. So I’d love to something with that. If you record in surround sound you need to hear it in surround sound, so maybe some kind of installation… Then another film after that…
AM: You’ve been put into a folk bracket with your first album, is that something you’re ok with?
CF: I like folk music, I listen to folk music but then every folk artist I like denies they’re folk. It’s one of those things, it doesn’t really matter. We played last year at the Cambridge Folk Festival and I felt really proud to be a part of that. It’s a real music lovers festival. That was a really proud moment so I can’t be that bothered.
AM: I recently sang your first single, ‘5 Years Time’, at a wedding, do you ever imagine the direction your songs may go after you write them?
CF: Wow. That’s really funny. I’ve had a few stories like that actually. It’s touching but it’s not what I’d imagine.
AM: Do you write songs in that way? Some bands set out to write a love song, dance song etc…
CF: I can’t really remember how I write… I was writing last night but… do you drive?
AM: I just recently failed my test.
CF: Perfect! Well, you know when you start driving you have to think through everything – put my foot on the clutch, take it off the clutch etc. Then when you’ve been doing it a while, you just do all those things without even knowing you’ve done them. That’s how it feels with songwriting, I can’t really remember doing it. It just happens how it happens. Or like gardening… you’ve just gotta chop through and it’ll come.
AM: Is being in a band everything you imagined it to be?
CF: For me it’s more about being creative. I do some production for people, the band, the writing and now the film. I just love what I do and just keep doing it. I follow it wherever it goes. The capacity I have for doing what I do is enough to make it feel precious.
AM: So are there any untapped creative pursuits left for you?
CF: At the moment what I’m doing feels right. I never had any ambitions to paint. I don’t have that skill. I think film and music have always been the two things that have touched me the most.
AM: So how about acting?
CF: I did once at school when I was 13. I played the chancellor in a play the teacher wrote called ‘Suspense and a Dragon Called Norris.’ Which had rapturous reactions from my mum. I don’t think I could do that either. When you direct though you need to understand how acting works. It’s a really fascinating thing but I don’t I’d be any good at it.
AM: Do you prefer the full creative potential a director has?
CF: The best directors are the ones that build a character. Building a character is as important as understanding it. It needs major input from both the director and the actor. You can’t just give an actor the script and expect it to be exactly right. You need to be there to create the little details. The way they eat, the way they smoke… That’s an important skill.
At this point, Charlie asks me about a note I’d made on my reporter’s pad, which was actually a reminder about a friend’s birthday present. Which draws the conservation to a close as we recite our favourite Werner Herzog films. Turns out, he shares the same taste in film directors as my friend.
If Charlie from Noah and the Whale tells us he likes Wilco, then we like Wilco. It’s as simple as that. It’s time to get educated.
Wednesday 26th August
The Hot Rats
The Old Blue Last, London
Otherwise known as half of Supergrass plus hot shot Radiohead producer, The Hot Rats get their kicks taking pop classics by, amongst others, The Beatles and The Kinks and infusing their own alt-rock psychedelica – worth a gander.
Thursday 27th August
KILL IT KID Madam Jo Jos, London
Their blend of durge blues, barndance and freestyle frenzy jazz blues make KILL IT KID a gem to behold in a live setting.
Friday 28th August
Swanton Bombs Old Blue Last, London
If you like your indie adorned in Mod and brimming with angularity, then Swanton Bombs will be pushing the trigger on your buttons.
Saturday 29th August
South East in East Festival – Teenagers In Tokyo, Tronik Youth, Ali Love, Publicist Vibe Bar, London
It’s all about South East London – full stop. In this cunning event, it up sticks to East London, where synth-pop Gossip descendents, Teenagers In Tokyo headline a night of New X Rave.
Sunday 30th August
The Gladstone Open Mic Night The Gladstone, London
As it’s Bank Holiday Weekend and all the bands are at Reading/Leeds Festival, London is starved of big gigs. No fear, The Glad is here – A little known drinking hole in Borough that continually serves up a plethora of folkey talent… and pies!
Sunderland born designer Rosie Upright is truly passionate about design. Aren’t we all I hear you say? Well, health she’s up, recipe all hours, medical day or night… cutting away with her trusty stanley knife… stopping only when her numb fingertips plead for rest. Do your fingertips bleed? I thought not! Rosie developed her unique hand-crafted techniques whilst at university in Epsom, where she learnt all the usual computer design programs… and then decided to steer clear of them. She’s fled the suburbs of Epsom now, to live in London town with all the other hopeful new freelancers. She spends her days photographing, drawing, organising balls of string… and deciding what hat to wear.
We caught up with Rosie for a little chat…
Hi, how are you today?
I’ve got a bit of a sore throat coming on, the irritating children over the road are noisily playing some kind of shooting game, a car is beeping its horn continuously just below my window, itunes is refusing to play anything other than Billy Idol (which I’m not in the mood for), my coloured ink cartridge has just ran out, I’ve got a blister from my favourite pink shoes, an uninvited wasp is stuck in my blinds, my ginger hair has faded to a weird brown, I forgot to buy milk and Ronnie Mitchell is still crying on Eastenders – but apart from that I’m topper thanks.
What have you been up to lately?
Fingers in pies, fingers in pies!
Including…cross-stitch and a week in a cottage in Norfolk (no telephone signal or internet connection, bloody lovely!)
Which artists or illustrators do you most admire?
I don’t think I would have done a degree in graphic design if my ever-encouraging parents hadn’t taken me to a Peter Saville exhibition at the Urbis in Manchester many moons ago. Made me see the ideas process at its very best and the crucial-ness (that’s not even a word!) of initial doodles and sketchbooks.
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” Where would any of us be if it weren’t for Dr Seuss?
I really love a bit of Russian Constructivism, in particular Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova, bloody genius. Mr Vaughan Oliver, for making us all think differently about where to crop the image, for being an ongoing influence and for that opportunity. Harry Beck, Robert Doisneau and most recently Philippe Petit.
If we visited you in your hometown, where would you take us?
Stroll down to Seaburn beach because when you don’t live next to the sea anymore you really miss it, and it has really nice sand. Then to my very best friend Sarah Bowman’s house, to play with Peggy Sue the kitten, have mental vegetarian sandwiches off a cake stand, and a glass of red wine, ice cubes and coke. We should pop to an art shop in Darlington and then to The Borough, the best pub for tunes, a pint of cider and a Jaeger bomb.
Who would most love to collaborate with creatively?
Mike Perry and YES art studio please. Thank you.
When did you realise you had creative talent?
When some hippy artist came into my junior school to create banners for some event at the local library with us. I was told after five minutes of colouring it in that I had to go away and read because I couldn’t keep within the lines.
If you weren’t an artist, what would you be doing?
A teenage Mam or an actress, haven’t decided which yet.
Where would you like to be in 10 years time?
I’d like to be the designer than graphic design students hate because their tutors always tell them to get their book out of the Uni library. And I’d quite like to have my own shop in London, Brighton or maybe Newcastle (or all three, and maybe Paris then if we’re going crazy) selling things made by me!
What advice would you give up and coming artists such as yourself?
Take other peoples advice but make your own mistakes, don’t be a dick and always colour outside of the lines.
How would you describe your art in five words?
Hand made/ typography/ narrative/ personal/ I’d like to say idiosyncratic too but don’t want to sound like a twat.
What is your guilty pleasure?
Seeing people fall over.
(and cake)
If you could time travel back or forward to any era, where would you go?
It was horrific enough moving away to University and into London and trying to find a job and start my life up. I think if I had to go backward or forward to another era I would probably just straight up die. Having said that though I would like to be a highwayman’s assistant.
Tell us something about Rosie Upright that we didn’t know already.
I can’t wait till I’m an old lady so I can wear those lacy nighties from Marks & Sparks and I love animals in clothes.
What are you up to next?
Going to make a cuppa tea, kill this wasp and then take over the world.
While most of us at the tender age of 19 rooted our existence in smacking down vodka jelly shots at the bar with kebabs at four in the morning and the Hollyoaks omnibus on a Sunday, pilule some people, of course, are born to shine in different ways. Take, for instance, London College of Fashion student Millie Cockton, somebody who has already had their work featured in a shoot for Dazed and Confused, styled by Robbie Spencer.
As a lover of clean lines and beautiful silhouettes, Millie looks for the wearer to bring their own identity to her gender non-specific pieces. At the moment under new label Euphemia, with her AW09/10 about to be stocked in London boutique and gallery space Digitaria, after being chosen to be the first guest designer at the Soho store. Check out the Dazed piece to see some brilliant Shakespearian-style ruffs that Millie has also created working with paper (a material proving popular as with Petra Storrs, who I featured last week).
Each to their own, mind you. I could totally do all that, if I wanted to.
At the age of 19 you’ve already received quite a lot of attention – how has that been?
It’s been great so far! It’s very flattering but its also very daunting! I am on a constant learning curve and my work is developing all the time so although the attention is great it creates a lot of pressure!
Describe your design aesthetic in three words.
Clean, sculptural, understated.
Who do you see wearing your designs? Are they reflective of your own personality?
I like to think of a real mixture of people wearing my designs. I love the way that the same garment can look completely different on different people- for me its all about the individual and how they carry themselves, bringing their own identity to the piece.
I don’t think that my designs are necessarily a true representation of my personality and personal style. I feel that my designs are more of a reflection of the aesthetic that i find desirable and aspirational.
Thinking about the ruffs featured in Dazed, people have touched on the theatrical nature of your designs – is the idea of performance important to you in fashion?
The idea of performance within fashion is something that interests me but I wouldn’t say that it’s a key element within my own designs. I like the notion of a performative element within a piece or a collection as i think that it helps gain a further understanding and insight of the designers thought process and inspiration.
What else do you respond to?
I am constantly discovering new sources of inspiration, being so young I know that I still have so much to learn!
I like to use elements of craft within my designs, such as origami style folding. Craft elements can add interesting details to simple pieces.
What are your plans for the future? Who would you like to work for?
I am about to launch my new collection which will be stocked in Digitaria, recently opened on Berwick St, Soho. I have just started to work with Digitaria’s creative director , Stavros Karelis and stylist Paul Joyce on some future projects which are really exciting and I am thoroughly enjoying. I want to continue learning and developing my ideas, challenging myself and most importantly keep having fun!
‘Having fun’ of course might well translate to ‘becoming future fashion empress of the galaxy’. This is a talent to watch out for.
The Camp for Climate Action 2009 is almost upon us – now’s the time to gather ourselves and prepare to swoop. Convinced that the response to climate change needs more? Ready to share skills, stomach knowledge and experiences? To be part of the grassroots swell of people demanding a difference? To get out there and do something?
Be ready next Wednesday, 12th August, from noon, in London. We’re going to swoop on the camp location together. The more people the better. Secret until the last moment, you can sign up for text alerts and join one of the groups meeting scattered about central London before moving together to the camp.
Why Camp? We can all meet each other and learn stuff – reason enough? – I mean, an enormous, public, activist-friendly child-friendly student-friendly climate-friendly gathering with an ambitious and well-prepared programme of workshops covering all things from Tai Chi for those of us up early enough, through histories student activism, DIY radio, pedal-powered sound systems, legal briefings, stepping into direct action, singing, dancing, jumping and waving.
Why London? Climate Campers have listed ten reasons to focus on London – right up the top of that list is : tall buildings and low flood plains. London is big corporate central, the City square mile itself accounting for a huge proportion of the UK economy, that FTSE100-flavoured slice of barely accountable, shareholder driven pie. And yet, as the Thames Barrier should always remind us, the whole city sits low on the ground. Just check out what the centre looks like with a few metres rise in sea level.
So what’s first? The Climate Camp Benefit party/shindig/jamboree/palooza/knee’s-up/gala ball/discotheque/rave/soiree at RampART, 9pm-3am this Friday 21st August. Consisting of fun/revelry/ribaldry/tomfoolery/jocularity/jive/merriment/high kinks, low jinks, jinks of all stature/cheer/gambol/horseplay & frolic. With bands & DJ’s including Rob the Rub & Sarah Bear & those amazing skiffle kids ‘The Severed Limb’. That’s at:
9pm-3am
rampART, 15 -17 Rampart Street,
London E1 2LA (near Whitechapel, off Commercial Rd)
Donations on the door much appreciated (and needed!) – all going straight to Climate Camp
And then? The Swoop – Night Before – Londoners and out-of-town visitors are welcome to ‘the night before the swoop’ – near the bandstand in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, 7-8.30pm, Tuesday 25th August – for any last minute info, a legal briefing and an opportunity to join an affinity group and get excited. Lincoln’s Inn Fields is just behind Holborn tube station – this map here might help.
Awesome. See you soon.
Ctrl.Alt.Shift dropped us a line to let us know about a comics-making competition so get your promarkers and layout pads at the ready. Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmarks Corruption is giving you the opportunity to design a unique comic style story. Ctrl.Alt.Shift is the experimental youth initiative politicising a new generation of activists for social justice and global change. The competition hopes to raise awareness of the Ctrl.Alt.Shift and Lightspeed Champion goals and views by inspiring this generation of designers to work together.
Oscar nominated Marjane Satrapi, medical V V Brown and Lightspeed Champion are amongst the judges for the Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption competition launched today. Corruption is both a cause of poverty, and a barrier to overcoming it. It is one of the most serious obstacles to eradicate.
Entrants to the competition will be in with the chance to create a unique comic style story in collaboration with acclaimed musician and writer Dev Hynes aka Lightspeed Champion. After the first round of judging at the end of September, shortlisted entrants will be given Lightspeed Champion’s comic script as inspiration and asked to create a visual adaptation of the story.
The winning commission will be published in a comic alongside new work exploring the issue of Corruption by some of comic’s greatest talents. The work will also be showcased as part of a new exhibition, Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption, later this year at Lazarides Gallery, Soho.
To enter the competition please send relevant examples of your visual work along with your contact details to Ctrl.Alt.Shift by Friday 25th September by visiting www.ctrlaltshift.co.uk/unmaskscorruption.
Five short listed artists will then be given a comic brief to respond to and a winner chosen by a panel of judges including: Marjane Satrapi (Writer and Director of Academy Award Nominated Animated Film Persepolis) Paul Gravett (Comica founder), V V Brown and David Allain (Musician and Comic Book Writer/Artist duo), Lightspeed Champion and Ctrl.Alt.Shift.
The competition is restricted to UK Residents only
For further information about the competition please contact John Doe on 020 7749 7530 or Hannah@johndoehub.com / Jo.bartlett@johndoehub.com Brooke Roberts is my favourite new designer. Why? Well, more about after exchanging several emails with her over the last few weeks, for sale for a young designer making such waves in the industry, her witty and playful personality has impressed even via my inbox! Having worked with such characters such as Louise Goldin and Giles, her avant- garde aesthetic really shines through in her highly tailored and retro-feel designs. Miss Roberts is going places, and she’s more than willing to take us along with her!
What made you want to be a designer? What’s your design background?
I’m definitely not one of those designers who always knew that’s what they wanted to do. I did a degree in Applied Science at Sydney University (I’m from Australia) and worked as a radiographer for a year before moving to London to find out what I wanted to do. I did some work as a stylist with a fashion photographer (random hook-up). I knew his girlfriend and she knew my massive extensive collection of vintage clothes and shoes. My mum had a boutique when I was growing up and I loved clothes – I just never knew it was going to be my career.
I did a few jobs in London (pub, bank – more randomness) before realising I wanted to study fashion. I went to London College of Fashion and Central St.Martins (graduated 2005) wanting to be a pattern-cutter or tailor. I really wanted to create, rather than design. I get most satisfaction from making beautiful things and being involved in the whole process. I have a close working relationship with my suppliers, and go to the factories to develop my garments. I cut them all myself, which is probably bordering on control freakery, but I feel it shows in the final product and I can realise my designs exactly as I imagine them.
I’m waffling. I worked for Giles for two seasons after I left Uni, and started with Louise Goldin when she launched her label. We worked together for three years (until last October when I launched my label).
What are your inspirations for your collections?
I get lots of inspiration from my radiography job (I do that part-time to fund my label). So I’m running between the hospital and my studio all the time. I have used CT (cat) brain scans this season to create knit fabrics and digital prints. My obsession with reptile skins never seems to go away, and I have worked with Anwen Jenkins (awesome print designer) to create skull slice python skin prints. Basically, the python scales are replaced with multi-dimensional skull slices.
Apart from that, I research at museums and LCF Library. This season went to the British Museum and discovered Yoruba sculpture and traditional costumes. I researched these for silhouette and style lines. I also looked at Niger garments. They’re beautifully colourful, vibrant and flamboyant.
What are your favourite pieces from your latest collection?
Umm. I wear the cat suit most. I actually met my boyfriend the first time I wore it. So I’m renaming it Lucky cat suit. I also love the Flex jacket in red snakeskin. The razor sharp points make me feel like I am ready for world domination!
What was it like working with Giles Deacon and Louise Goldin? What did you learn from them?
I learnt that I hate taking orders from others! I’m really not one to toe-the-line. I am a perfectionist and this drives other people mad sometimes. I was a pattern-cutter at Giles, doing mostly tailoring, which suited me fine. Most people wanted to do the showpieces, but I was most happy cutting jackets. Giles is a really lovely bloke. Working with him was really my first experience of doing shows and the pressure and stress of getting everything done.
With Louise, my job was broader because in the beginning it was just the two of us. I learnt so much, I can’t even write it down. I worked in the London studio and the knitwear factory in Italy. I had the opportunity to learn knitwear programming, selecting yarns and cutting and constructing knit. I still work in the factory for my own label and really love it. The other big thing was learning about running a business and starting from scratch. The hoops you have to jump through, the process of getting sponsorship, doing shows, sales and production… It’s a massive undertaking starting your own label. And I still chose to do it! Bonkers.
Who do you think are the most important designers of your generation?
Hmm. Well, I like the work of Tina Kalivas and Gareth Pugh. If we’re talking most important, it has to be Gareth.
What do you think are the problems facing young designers at the moment?
The biggest problems are funding and dealing with suppliers, particularly for production. Creating a beautiful product that you can reproduce is actually really difficult! You need to understand the technicalities of fabrics and construction (or hire someone who does) otherwise it all goes wrong.
What’s next for Brooke Roberts?
In fantasy land, what’s next for Brooke Roberts is a holiday. In reality, I’m working hard on marketing and sales for London Fashion Week. I’m collaborating with jewellery designer Chris Edwards and shoe and bag designer Laura Villasenin on side projects for the label. Look out for skull slice stacked rings and metal bone-fixation embellished super-soft bags for SS10!!
Not slim tomatoes, viagra dosage narrow cucumbers or squashed, um, squashes – no, we’re talking about digging for victory in our own meagre abodes. With allotment waiting lists stretching beyond a century in Hackney and not many of us owning the half-county some how-to books seem to assume, options on grow-your-own approaches might look limited. But before you get the howling fantods at the piling impossibilities. As those of you who read the Amelia’s Magazine review of Growing Stuff (an Alternative Guide to Gardening) will know well, even the meagrest city apartment can burst forth in cornucopic life.
And but so then it seems the thing to do is simply to get a pack of seeds and a container and get growing, no hesitation about it. If a brief pause in favour of screenreading sounds like it could lead to better inspiration, I entreat you, read on. There’s a glut of blogs and enthusiasts all over the place to speak to or read up upon. Here are just a few of our favourites.
Life on the Balcony tells Fern Richardson’s encounters with gardens small and smaller, great for fresh faces and old hands alike, with an awesome friendly dirt cheap ways to garden.
Carrie, of Concrete Gardening blogging fame (true in a juster world), digs organic urban gardening, and has gotten into gardening without the erm, garden, since buying a house in the city (Philadelphia) and sees all the possibilities of planting up, sideways and over – just recently blogging about taking things to the next level and climbing up on her roof to plant out veggies, seedlings to sit and soak up sun.
Herbs and Dragonflies is written by a group set up by Kathy Marshall back in 2008 for the Pudsey Carnival and have been creatively, craftily planting since, encouraging others to get their green fingers dirty – doing activities with children and volunteering about the place. Most recently, they encouraged us blog-readers to leave the comfort of plastic planters and terracotta pots – most anything can sit with some soil in it. They suggest novelty Cadbury’s Fingers tins, I’ve used fancy jamjars, and seen anything from skips to wellington boots enlisted in the service of greenery.
Emma Cooper (I’m cribbing now from the ‘Growing Stuff’ contributor biogs page) lives in Oxfordshire with two pet chickens – Hen Solo and Princess Layer – and six compost bins. She has written an ‘Alternative A-Z of Kitchen Gardening’, which Karen Cannard The Rubbish Diet reckons is ‘an inspirational tour of an edible garden that can be recreated in the smallest of backyards. An essential guide for a new generation of gardeners who are keen to join the kitchen garden revolution.’And she blogs about anything from compost to pod plants to the future of food…
Madeleine Giddens loves herbs, which I guess you’d guess from the name of her blog – Mad About Herbs. But there’s nothing off the wall about any of it, she’s plunged into an obsession and come out smelling of roses and lavender, buzzing about bees too, recently, and their favourite flowers.
So there you have it, just a few spots and pointers. Good evening, and wishes for a fruitful weekend from Amelia’s Magazine.
The Royal Bank of Scotland. RBS. Formally known with pride as the “oil and gas bank” due to their close alliance with the fossil fuel industries. What on earth would I have to do with them? They may have lost the unfortunate moniker, treat partly due to a hugely successful campaign by People and Planet student activists who launched a spoof ad campaign and website named the Oyal Bank of Scotland before delivering a host of greenwashing awards – but they’re certainly not due for any special ethical mentions yet.
Not yet.
There was of course a massive £33 billion bank bailout from the taxpayer for RBS last year. But RBS didn’t spend the money on anything worthwhile. Oh no, the truth is that RBS still has oily blackened hands. Most people will remember the Fred Goodwin debacle, he who managed to retire at the age of 50 on a £16 million pension funded by taxpayers. But that’s not the whole of it – since the bailout some of our money has been used to arrange loans for the fossil fuel industries worth a staggering £10 billion, including a substantial sum for E.ON, the company that wants to build a new coal fired power station at Kingsnorth. Despite the best efforts of activists – there was an impromptu snowball fight during the winter, Climate Rush held a luncheon dance and Climate Camp set up camp down the road at Bishopsgate – RBS continues to invest in unsustainable resources.
But the good news is there is hope for change!
As I’ve got more and more involved with activism I’ve got to know members of PLATFORM, who together with People and Planet and the World Development Movement have launched a legal challenge against our government to make sure that public money used for bailouts is put towards building sustainability. PLATFORM is an organisation that combines art with activism, research and campaigning, so in many ways we are perfect partners and I was really excited when they recently approached me to collaborate on an exciting new project at the Arnolfini gallery in Bristol.
As part of a wider festival named 100 Days, PLATFORM will be co-producing over 50 events, installations, performances, actions, walks, discussions and skill shares over a period of two months. This season is called “C words: Carbon, Climate, Capital, Culture” and is intended to highlight what needs to be done to change the world in the run-up to the incredibly important (but unlikely to solve anything) COP 15 conference (think Kyoto 2 – it failed first time around so why would it succeed now?) in Copenhagen in December.
Your part in this audacious experiment?
We’re going to re-envision RBS as a bastion of sustainability – the Royal Bank of Sustainability in fact. And it will be down to you to create the artwork… once more I will be running one of my becoming-somewhat-regular open briefs. We would like you to submit either a logo or a poster (or both) that will suggest a swing in the direction of all things sustainable in the most imaginative way possible. Around ten of the best artworks will be shown for a week at the prestigious Arnolfini gallery in Bristol as part of the whole shebang, culminating with a public judging and prize-giving overseen by yours truly and helped out by the folk at PLATFORM and no less than the Marketing Manager of the Arnolfini, Rob Webster, and Fiona Hamilton of Soma Gallery (Bristol), a woman with great taste in the arts who runs a cult art shop that has been a long standing supplier of my print magazine. We might even invite someone powerful from RBS! (invite being the operative word) After the event PLATFORM will profile you on their website with links to yours, and prior to the actual event I’ll be posting the best entries onto my website – one good reason to get your artwork in as quickly as possible.
If you are interested read on:
What you need to know:
Ideas:
Yeah yeah – we all know wind turbines are great news and polar bears are having a terrible time, but for this brief we’d like you to think a bit outside the box. We’ll be looking for the most refreshing ways of thinking about how we can live in the most sustainable way possible, and most importantly how RBS could play a possible role in aiding this transition to a low carbon world. Don’t forget that we, the taxpayers, own 70% of RBS – why not make it into the people’s bank? You should make clear in your chosen design the re-imagining of the old RBS into the new. Instead of investing in carbon-intensive industries the new RBS will serve the public interest by investing only in socially conscious, ethically driven, and environmentally sound projects.
Style:
Think serious or earnest, kitsch or ironic, warm and fluffy, abstract or illustrative; whatever best communicates the concept and appeals to the broader public, the press and perhaps even people in government. It should engage and inspire. You can collage photography on your computer or paint with your fingers and toes – what matters is the outcome. We want to see imagery that speaks of something new, radical and POSSIBLE. Think positive social force. We love the Obama image that was used in the run up to his election – the reworking of his image in a simple pop art style somehow speaks volumes about new, positive change – and has fast become an iconic piece of graphic design, so we thought we’d use it here to demonstrate that you don’t have to be too literal in your interpretation of the brief to create a successful image. If you choose to create a poster remember that it could be made as an advert.
Technical specifications:
your image should be created to these sizes and scannable or put together on a computer:
A1 for the poster.
A2 or squared off A2 for the logo.
Please send me a lo resolution version but make sure you work to these sizes. We will arrange for the printing of your image should it be chosen.
Deadline:
We need your submissions to reach me by Monday 2nd November. Please send lo res versions of your design to info@ameliasmagazine.com
Future projects:
Please bear in mind that if we really love your work we might want to use it in further literature and exhibitions. Just think, your work really could persuade RBS to change course at a pivotal point in our history. What a fabulous idea!
Join the facebook event here to stay in touch with updates
And join the “Stop RBS using public money to finance climate change” facebook group here
Below is a list of links you might want to peruse for inspiration:
Get scribbling folks! Any queries please contact me directly via email rather than on the comments below.
If you have been to a UK festival in the last few years, pharm chances are that at some point you found yourself dancing in the OneTaste tent. Having residency at Glastonbury, sicknessBig Chill and Secret Garden Party to name but a mere few, OneTaste have acquired a devoted fan base of festival goers who want a guarantee that when they walk into a tent they will get the following components; top quality live music, an high-spirited and friendly crowd, and twenty four hour revelry.
OneTaste in Hyde Park, London
Yet their festival appearances are just one aspect of the multifaceted music troupe. When they are appearing at say, SGP or Glasto, they perform as a collective of musicians, poets and artists who, for many of the festivals, break bread and share space with Chai Wallahs. When they put on events in Greater London and Brighton, (where every night is different from the last), their roots run deep, towards diverse and innovative singers, performers and spoken word artists. They are fiercely proud of their reputation of facilitating and nurturing emerging talent; promoting, not exploiting it, connecting with the audience and creating a true OneTaste family, both onstage and off.
I have known of OneTaste for years, being friends with some of the artists who have performed with them. Having shamelessly utalised their tent at this years Secret Garden Party to dance, drink, chill, detox and then re-tox, I felt it was time to get to know them a little better. The perfect opportunity came at the recent OneTaste night at the Bedford in Balham which I attended recently on a balmy Thursday night. The vaudeville past of the Globe Theatre within the Bedford was an apposite setting for the style of event that OneTaste puts on. As the preparation for the evenings entertainment began in this deeply historical building, I managed to catch a quick chat with the creator of OneTaste, Dannii Evans, where we talked about the rhymes, reasons and the meaning behind this unique and innovative event.
photograph by Kim Leng Hills
When I saw OneTaste’s excellent night in the Jazz Cafe a while back, I saw a lot of different styles of music and spoken word. What would you say is the one common thread that unites everyone?
We’ve always been trying to find out what the thread is! It is definitely not genre, we do every single style and welcome every style, probably the only genre we haven’t booked yet is heavy metal! The thing that links us all together .. (pauses)… is that everyone has got a massive social conscience; it is not always explicit, but it is implicit within a person, it’s in their art. It’s something that holds us all together, everyone at OneTaste has that in mind – that there is a bigger picture and that we need to better ourselves in everything that we do.
The OneTaste music and spoken word night, started four and a half years ago by myself, and Jamie Woon. We basically started it in order that these musicians can do something where they could get paid.
You pay the performers? That’s so rare!
Definitely. We wanted to put on a night where the quality of every single act was really high and it could be where musicians could start their career, so that was the premise. Also the concept is that the event is always half music, half spoken word.
So is it a collective, a record label, an event? I’m kind of confused!
It started off as an event, with us meeting a number of artists and acts that we got on really well and gelled with, who we took on tour around festivals, and then out of spending three months together we formed the OneTaste collective. It started becoming an artist run collective where people would help with the actual event production and then it ended with them all collaborating on material together.
How do artists become part of OneTaste? Is it something that they can dip in and out of?
Absolutely, it’s not exclusive. It grew organically, it’s not an in or out thing – it happens more naturally than that.
Do you have to audition to get in?
To take part in the OneTaste night, either myself or someone running it have to have seen them live. Audience engagement is very important to us, to reach out and to be able to communicate with the audience is really vital. The live aspect and their live dynamic with the crowd is so important, so while they don’t audition, we do need to see how they will perform.
So it seems to have grown hugely in the last four years; Can you give me an idea of the numbers of acts that you have worked with?
In the collective, we have around 30 acts that we are currently championing, but in the last four years we have worked with around 300 artists. The audiences have grown from 40 people to 300 here at the Bedford, 500 at the Jazz Cafe, and 5,000 at the recent gig we did in Hyde Park.
How does OneTaste promote its artists?
It has always been very grass roots, we’ve never done an advert, it’s always just been people coming down and then telling their friends and from that it grew really quickly.
Are there many of the artists signed to labels, and do you help them along their way?
We do, we give them industry advice – we develop their music, or spoken word, we try to help where we can. Some of the artists like Jamie Woon or Portico Quartet have gone on to get more media attention and they kind of carry the OneTaste name with them and still do gigs for us.
What is the direction that OneTaste is heading in?
Potentially, we might have our own venue at festivals next year, which is really exciting. We have a digital compilation coming out, the first one will be coming out in September, and eventually we may form a OneTaste record label.
Gideon Conn performs at OneTaste Bedford.
Dannii and I continue chatting for a short while, and after this she has tasks to do. The audience is filling up, and the night is about to start. Sitting on a bench in the back with a big glass of red wine, I watch the event unfold. The performers are electric, and completely different from one another, yet equally complimentary. Most appear to be old friends, and loudly cheer each others performances. The atmosphere is infectious, I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed myself so much at a gig (and it’s not because of the wine!). I’m quite au fait with the open mic nights and acoustic gigs of London, but I haven’t been to a night which is as cohesive and inclusive as OneTaste. If you want to experience it for yourself, OneTaste are easy to find. Check out their Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Flickr for images, articles, and dates about upcoming shows, which include a September 8th gig at The Distillers in Hammersmith and 27th September at The Hanbury Club in Brighton.
This week Climate Camp 2009 swoops on London, this site aiming to pressure politicians ahead of the Copenhagen climate change summit in December. Climate Camp will achieve this by encouraging individuals to think about lifestyle changes possible both collectively and personally to prevent climate change.
Sharing these sensibilities, the French Collective Andrea Crews encourage a new life philosophy outside the corporate rat race so often associated with London and other major cities. Being introduced to the fashion/art/activist collective Andrea Crews felt like a breath of fresh air often associated with Amelia’s magazine, a long time supporter of sustainable fashion, craft, activism and individual design.
Andrea Crews Collective express their desire for economic and social change through “the use and the reinterpretation of the second-hand garment” calling it “a social, economic and ethical choice.” A choice displayed by the sheer volume of abandoned second hand garments used throughout the catwalk shows, art exhibitions and activist events. The group criticise the relentless waste of modern consumption, fast fashion has helped to create, through visualising the stress on land fill sites around the world in their staged events. Subsequently by ignoring market pressures: mass seduction and seasonal calendars, Andrea Crews re-introduces a slower, more individual fashion culture through the processes of sorting and recycling.
The Crews Collective march to the same tune as Climate Camp, not only by caring for the environment but in their dedication towards an alternative developed sustainable economy. Andrea Crews encourages mass involvement stating that the project “answers to a current request for creative energy and social engagement. Recycling, Salvaging, Sorting out, are civic models of behaviour we assert.” Thus the power of low-level activism or grass roots activism becomes apparent, if enough people participated with Climate Camp or The Andrea Crews Collective. The pressure on governments to look for an alternative way of living would be undeniable.
The ever-expanding coverage of ethical, eco fashion on the internet plays testimony to the idea that the individual is changing. The Andreas Collective through their exquisite catwalks –particularly the Marevee show with the appearance of clothes mountains which the models scrambled over to reach the runway- draw attention to the powerful position regarding sustainability, fashion can occupy if it so chooses.
All quotes and images are from the Andrea Crews website. DIY LONDON SEEN The Market Building
Covent Garden, doctor London WC2 8RF
Until 5th September
DIY LONDON SEEN hopes to illustrate the growth of the movement inspired by the ‘Beautiful Losers’, doctor which is now a global phenomenon, generic by showcasing the work of local artists whose work takes the ethos of the Alleged gallery Artists and runs with it.
Show runs from: 28th August- 2nd September ’09,
with a preview on the 27th September from 6.00-9.00pm
Artists: Ellen Burroughs presents intricate technical drawings of a surreal nature, Sophie Axford-Hawkins shows bespoke jewelery that follows an identical theme.
The Jake-OF Debut UK Solo Show
Austin Gallery
119A Bethnal Green Road,
Shoreditch London E2 7DG
Running from the 3rd-16th September.
The opening evening is on the 3rd at 6:30pm.
Featuring a collection of his best print, sculpture and instillation work from the past four years. The show will include prints from the Quink series and the first original Quink painting to be exhibited.
So Long Utopia East Gallery
214 Brick Lane
?London ?E1 6SA
Until 2nd September
EASTGALLERY is proud to present the first solo exhibition of UK artist Sichi. ‘So Long Utopia’ will feature a thematic collection of new paintings and drawings. ??‘So Long Utopia’ is an energetic exhibition focusing on the theme of the lost Utopian dream. The artworks in this collection are of portraits, statements and imagined characters, where any premonition of ‘Utopia’ is quickly dispelled by the creatures inhabiting Sichi’s dystopian world.
Opening 19 August 6:30 – 8:30
20th – 31st August
Free
A busy August Bank holiday weekend is almost upon us, dosage and if you cant make it to Climate Camp starting on Wednesday there is plenty of other events to keep you occupied this week.
Festival of The Tree 2009
Delve into the world of wood and trees with sculptors, workshops, walks, art exhibitions and more with all proceeds going to treeaid, a charity that is enabling communities in Africa’s drylands to fight poverty and become self-reliant, while improving the environment. Weston Arboretum has a week long run of activities, with the organisers calling it a radical transformation from last year with exciting new additions.
Check the full programme of events here.
From Monday 24 – Monday 31 August…
Open daily from 9am-5pm?Admission: Adult £8, Concession £7, Child £3.?
Camp for Climate Action
A week long event kicking of this wednesday with with a public co-ordinated swoop on a secret location within the M25, make sure you sign up for text alerts and watch Amelias twitter for updates. Join your swoop group here, the locations have been revealed so get planning your route.
Check the great list of workshops here, and get ready for some climate action.
There’s workshops to suit everyone from direct action training to consensus decision making for kids, as well as evening entertainment from the Mystery Jets among others. Come along for a day or the whole week.
Wednesday 26 Aug 2009 to Wednesday 02 Sep 2009
E-mail: info@climatecamp.org.uk
Website: www.climatecamp.org.uk
Carshalton Environmental Fair
The Environmental Fair is one of the biggest events in the London Borough of Sutton. 10,000 people attend with over 100 stalls with environmental information, arts and local crafts, with stages showcasing local musical talent, a Music cafe and a Performing Arts Marquee. Food stalls and a bar thats also showcasing some local talent. There is a free bus operating from Sutton.
Adults £3, concessions £1 and kids get in free.
Monday 31st August
Contact: fair@ecolocal.org.uk
Website: http://www.ecolocal.org.uk/
Green Fayre
Range of Green craft workshops where you can learn about the most pressing environmental issues and how you can live a more sustainable life, all set in the Welsh country side. Yurt making, permaculture design, spinning, screen printing, pole lathe, bird box making, cooking from the hedgerows and much more.
Date: Friday 28 Aug 2009 to Monday 31 Aug 2009
Weekend Camping for the family £40?E-mail: info@green-fayre.org
?Website: www.green-fayre.org
Benefit gig for Anarchists Against the Wall
At RampART social centre, music with Hello Bastards, Battle Of Wolf 359,Suckinim Baenaim (Israel), Julith Krishum (Germany). The AWW group works in cooperation with Palestinians in a joint popular struggle against the occupation.
Monday 24 August 2009 19:00 RampARTSocial Centre?15 -17 Rampart Street, London E1 2LA?(near Whitechapel, off Commercial Rd)
London Critical Mass
Cyclists get together to take control of the roads around London usually with a sound system in tow. The London Mass meets at 6.00pm on the last Friday of every month on the South Bank under Waterloo Bridge, by the National Film Theatre.
Not got a bike, dont worry, any self propelled people from skateboarders, rollerbladers to wheelchairs are welcome.
Friday 28 August 2009
Website: http://www.criticalmasslondon.org.uk/ Earth First Gathering 2009 was held over last weekend. It’s an event we’ve been looking forward to since it appeared in our diary back in July. Check out our Earth First preview for more information. We all pitched up our tents in the wettest place in Britain which unluckily lived up to its name, doctor but although it didn’t feel like summer it didn’t stop any of the numerous workshops from going ahead and there was even a handy barn where people could take refuge if their tents didn’t survive the downpours.
There were chances for people to get to grips with water activities like building rafts and kayaking on the nearby Derwent lake, help plenty of discussion groups and chances for people to learn new skills. A forge kept many enthralled, viagra me included, and it was great to see the dying trade in action and people learning from the experienced blacksmiths.
Seeds for change, a group that holds workshops for action and social change, were down at the camp, get in touch with them if you’re thinking of holding your own event and they will be willing to facilitate a range of engaging talks and discussions. Tripod, a Scottish based training collective working with grassroots and community groups is another to check out – there is plenty to benefit from with training and support that gears towards social action.
Earth First has been going for decades and with direct action at the heart of what they do, it has helped and nurtured many to get involved and start taking action themselves rather than relying on leaders and governments. Look out for the next gathering, as EF notes, “if you believe action speaks louder than words, then Earth First is for you.”
We legged it up the amazing waterfall that created a great backdrop to the camp before tea one evening to get some great views over the valley.
Joining the queue for our meals was a daily highlight, you could browse the radical bookstall along it that had numerous zines and books for sale. Then the food, put on by the Anarchist Teapot, was amazing and i was queueing up for seconds at every opportunity. Evening entertainment was put on by a ramshackle group of poets and musicians and hecklers, and sock wrestling was also a new experience for me, got to try that one again.
On cue the heavens opened on the last night, but I managed to get my tent down and joined the chickens in the barn where I literally hit the hay.
Just thought I’d say well done to the police FIT team who were able to navigate the windy and tricky road to turn up most days: good effort! The Legion in Old Street has undergone a bit of a refurb since the last time I was there. Vague recollections of dodgy sauna-style wood panelling on the walls and a Lilliputian stage awkwardly occupying one corner are now banished by what seemed like an even longer bar than was there before. The venue has had a fresh wave of new promoters which appears to have progressed it from a jack of all things club-based, website like this in an area drowning in the like, there to somewhere incorporating a broader musical palette. A case in point tonight, being the headline band, Death Cigarettes.
I’d seen Death Cigarettes a couple of times around various East London venues over the last twelve months. For a band whose reputation is in part founded on an explosive live show, the cavernous confines of the Legion seemed to take some of the sting out of them, compared to more intimate settings.
Musically, they inhabit that driving New York No Wave inspired sound – thrashing guitars, pounding drums and rumbling bass coupled with urgently delivered vocals. An obvious comparison is with early Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and there is certainly more than a touch of Karen O in enigmatic lead singer Maya.
With this band though, the music is only half the story. Coming on unusually late for a Sunday night, Maya emerges from the encaves of a slightly startled audience to take the stage to join the rest of the band as they thrash away around her. It’s not long though before she heads back out into the throng… One group of people were ensnared by her mic lead, another was treated to an intimate introduction with a flying mic stand before Maya suddenly reappears behind the audience, exhorting the crowd before her from atop a table. At this point, the guitarist also wanted a piece of the audience action and decides to go walkabout, before concluding the set with a piece of probably not premeditated Auto-Destruction, reducing his guitar to matchwood.
Death Cigarettes have certainly been making a few noises of late, with the likes of Artrocker and The Fly singing their praises, and they are set to appear at the Offset Festival (new guitar permitting). For a band with a distinct approach to their music and performance, it will be interesting to see if they will, over time, develop their sound to the same extent that NYC steadfasts, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, have so spectacularly done. Liberty prints have become something of a British Institution in the fashion world, cialis 40mg inspiring the current vintage scarf and headband trend as well as influencing designers to include whimsical prints in their own creations (basically everybody on the high street). Prints conjure up an image of refined country values, thumb and have a truly English feel to them, stomach reminding us of our grannies chicly riding their bicycles in winding country lanes after World War 2 (maybe that’s just my overactive imagination!)
Until 2nd September an entire exhibition is being dedicated to this quintessentially British item on the fourth floor of the London Liberty store, and Amelia’s Magazine think you should get in touch with your inner fifties housewife and check it out!
Aptly entitled Prints Charming, the designs at Liberty’s exhibition certainly do what they say on the tin. Six designers were invited to contribute to the show to create their own unique take on Liberty’s iconic prints. Designs span from the pottery artist Grayson Perry’s enigmatic creations featuring tombstones, teddy bears, knuckle-dusters, swings, roundabouts and bicycles mounted on fabric, to uber-famous Meg Matthews’ teeny floral print wallpaper pieces given an injection of rock and roll heritage (like Meg herself) with snakeskin and skulls motifs. Other artists involved with the project include Paul Morrison, Mike McInnerney, Michael Angove, Anj Smith and Simon Hart, each taking an individual and modern approach to the eponymous Liberty print.
The exhibition reads like a piece of installation art. In fact, art aside there is much more happening. Take note of the furniture and décor (mirrors, chairs, chandeliers and tables) coated in Liberty prints, heavily featured throughout the window display designed by Interiors company Squint. Not forgetting that the store’s entire exterior is decorated in the Betsy micro-floral print. The show also includes full size dolls dressed in Liberty rags, a Wendy house covered in strips of print by artist Helen Benigson, and vintage bicycles by classic bike-maker Skeppshult redesigned with a Liberty twist (complete with feather headdress!)
Being an exhibition, the history of the iconic print is thrown in for good measure too. Documentation of the label’s historic collaborations can be found throughout, featuring modern legends such as Chloe Sevigny for Opening Ceremony, APC, NIKE and Kate Moss for Topshop. This is an art-fashion collaborative experience not to be missed!
Everything designed is available to buy; whether that be in fabric, notebook, scarf, luggage tag, boxer short, wellie boot or lampshade form! With the endless list of talent involved, there’s no doubt something to catch anyone’s magpie eye. Several prints are one-off pieces made especially for the show, such as Matthews’ wallpaper, therefore ensuring a chance of grabbing a piece of history in the making. And who doesn’t love a bit of print patterning? After all, with the current revival of all things retro, Liberty prints are up there with shoulder padding and acid wash in fashionistas’ hearts! So get down to the exhibition before the opportunity to soak up the artistic atmosphere disappears (like most the stock will be sure to do!)
Swap shops, ampoule Freeshops, generic give away shops, visit this site they all aim to go against the capitalist framework, and often people can’t quite get their heads around the idea, that, yes it is free and you can take it!
When I dropped by the free shop near Brick Lane, I received firsthand experience of this when a woman asked the way to the ‘trendy’ Shoreditch area and when invited to look around the Freeshop declined with a shrug of the shoulders. It appears it just wasn’t hip enough, that or she couldn’t quite comprehend the idea of a piece of clothing for under 50 quid.
When speaking to some of the squatters, the Freeshop felt like an organic progression from the original squat in the building: “The idea of this Freeshop had come out from a series of workshops held in the squatted building last month. Originally, the building was opened up for a free school, and when that was over we realised we had this shop front on Commercial Street and felt it would be interesting to kind of undermine the shops down the road.” Donations from friends helped to get it off its feet and now they seem to be undated with more than enough.
With our ‘throw away society,’ Freeshops can form direct action and can engage people to think about the way they live and consume. They also see it as a chance to try and engage with the community, which means the squatters don’t get isolated in the neighborhood. They also feel the shop was an important medium of communication to people. It seems to be working well with most people having a chat or picking up leaflets when they come in to look around. The basic idea is that it should not just be about taking things, but sharing ideas too.
The squatters make efforts to engage with the community, with flyers sent out when they set up shop. Although the state has rigid bureaucratic rules to follow regarding squats they hope that support from the community will help their cause. The court date regarding an impending eviction is on 28th August, but they are hopefully looking to get it adjourned. Signatures and people giving support certainly can’t hinder their defense.
As well as offering clothes, shoes and household items, the Freeshop also has space for regular workshops and events where members of the community and network can get involved. A wind turbine course is in the pipeline so make sure you drop in to check when it’s happening.
I had a chat with one of the squatters to get a better insight into the ideas and experiences behind the Freeshop.
Have you had any experiences of Freeshops before you came here?
Berlin, Barcelona, Bristol all have set up freeshops and there are plenty more around the world. One time in Barcelona went down the main commercial road with a stall, loads of people came to pick up stuff, completely ignoring the chain stores. It was like people were just interested in consuming products wherever they came from. The cops were called of course.
Can you get moved on for that?
Maybe, I mean, but look at the number of people selling sausages in the centre of town – it depends on how big or moveable the stand is. We had the idea of maybe setting something up down in Hanbury Street, just at Spitalfields Market, but that’s just an idea so far.
What kind of people do you get coming in?
Some homeless people come in and others, how shall we say, are like the kind of people who go down Brick Lane on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. There’s a really broad range.
Can people get involved in the Freeshop?
Come along to say hello or to the meeting on Tuesdays, that’s a good place to start, talk about and organise things we want to make happen, maybe do a shift in the shop.
Do you look to publicise, and how do people find out about the Freeshop?
There’s a big difference between being on the net and Facebook/social networking, and just relying on old style traditional methods, just by being here, and it works like a shop that people can just come into. It’s good to see how far just traditional ways can get us, and if that works well, then maybe others will do the same. It’s not rocket science, there’s no big intellectual concept behind it, it’s just a free shop.
Located on Commercial Road at the end of Quaker Street, drop in to pick up some new stuff while it lasts and offer your support.
What was formerly the Lush store in Covent Garden’s main piazza is now host to the exhibition ‘DIY London Seen’, this site a homage to the subjects of the film ‘Beautiful Losers’.
The film recounts the story of a group of likeable young suburban artists who, approved despite creating work outside the established art system in 1990s NYC, more about very quickly rose to commercially vaunted fame and success.
Their ethos, borne of skateboarding, punk, graffiti and DIY living, was to be an artist without adhering to art history or education. Doing what you love whatever the rest of the world thinks. These artists, Harmony Korine, Ed Templeton, Mark Gonzales, Barry McGee, Shepard Fairey, Jo Jackson, Thomas Campbell, Deanna Templeton, Stephen Powers, Chris Johanson, Mike Mills and the late Margaret Kilgallen were united by the then curator of Alleged Gallery, Aaron Rose, now Director of the film “Beautiful Losers’.
In the 90s, the Beautiful Losers’ work was outsider. In 2009, the art exhibited at DIY London Seen is mainstream commercial fodder that is regularly used for major branding.
However, this fact doesn’t reflect negatively on the spirit of the artists’ work or the exhibition itself. It merely highlights an unprecedented support for the arts (commercial or otherwise) and a vastly adjusted attitude about what it means to be an artist where to be commercial does not mean being a ‘sell-out’.
The space is donated by Covent Garden London, which provides gallery space in the West End to diverse forms of art through part of Covent Garden’s Art Tank movement.
The exhibition is curated by Bakul Patki and Lee Johnson of ‘Watch This Space’. Their previous experience in the commercial and critical art markets spans over ten years and as a result, they know how to put together a good exhibition.
The private view, replete with canapés filling enough to make a full dinner, was packed mainly with trendy young adults in their 20s and early 30s and a few stylish characters in their 40s. The invitees milled about in the two-storey, three-roomed space, drinking free cider, looking at the art and gathering in pockets outside to chat and smoke.
The exhibition space boasts 52 pieces of mainly original art including a seven foot tall mirror-tiled bear created by 21-year-old Arran Gregory and a lightbulb suspended from the ceiling, revolving on a record as it spins (I kept hoping that the bulb would eventually melt the record but instead the record keeps endlessly spinning).
There is a lot of illustration and photography of the sort you see around in many galleries in East London and on various advertising paraphernalia and as usual, some of it is good.
What stands out most about the exhibition is how, in a decade and a half, enough has changed so that what might once have been outsider art is now perfectly at home and fully catered for in the bustling centre of one of London’s most well-trafficked areas.
Young artists and older artists, property organisations, the public and the commercial world are a blur, shaking hands in every direction.
Disused property is now the breeding ground for emerging artists and successful commercial art curators are there to provide fully functioning and well-run exhibitions.
Whether the Beautiful Losers were the seminal artists paving the way for opportunities afforded to such artists as those of London Seen or not, they were lucky enough to rise to success. The acceptance of skateboard, graffiti, DIY culture could have come earlier, later or not at all.
London Seen and Beautiful Losers are reminders that in a commercially driven market making art isn’t about how much the public loves, or ignores, what you do. As trends come and go, their message is to never forfeit the ethos of doing what you love whatever the rest of the world thinks. History will always move forward and with it, the randomness of success.
Check out DIY London Seen in Covent Garden until 5th of September at 11, The Market Building, Covent Garden, London WC2 8RF.
Beautiful Losers is now available on DVD from the ICA.
Are you a budding comic artist? By that I don’t mean stand-up of course, approved but rather someone who fancies themselves as a bit of a comic stripper…
Well, visit this if so you might fancy getting your teeth sunk into this little competition from Ctrl.Alt.Shift.http://www.myspace.com/lightspeedchampion Judged by such luminaries as Dev aka Lightspeed Champion and Paul Gravett – who directs the Comica festival at the uber cool ICA and has authored countless books on comic art – this should be an excellent chance to get your work seen by a wide audience.
So what happens then? If your work is picked as the winning entrant you will be asked to interpret a comic script written by Dev, which will then be featured in a 100 page book about corruption in politics and contributed to by all the best names in the world of comics and graphic novels. 5000 copies of the book will be sold in aid of charity and your work will feature in a month long exhibition about political comic art in the Lazerides Gallery in Soho during November.
The suggestion is that you pick as your submission something that is applicable to the theme of the competition (ie. corruption in politics), but bear in mind that the final entrants will be chosen on the basis of their visual flair rather than subject content. You can see the competition flyer below.
This is your chance to have your work included a really great project with a whole host of the best names in comic art. Plus it’s for a really worthwhile cause… Sounds like a great plan to me!
Here at Amelia’s Magazine, sales we’re aligned more with uplifting, buy information pills good time folk than gut wrenching, angst-y emo. We just think, why be so sombre? So when an album lands on the doormat like the Mariachi El Bronx‘ new output, well, we couldn’t be happier. Those formerly depressed LA lads in The Bronx, have employed a guitarrón, knocked back a heavy dose of tequila and picked up their maracas to deliver an album that is more Latino fun times than their usual emotional dirge.
A quick glance over the track listing tells you that they haven’t lifted their mood all that much, as the titles still bemoan tales of ‘Cell Mates’, ‘Litigation’ and ‘Slave Labor.’ Although tracks on this album have been masked by a scrim of vihuela solos, trumpet fanfares and accordion bellowing.
Mixing traditional music with a hardcore ethos is nothing new – think 90s Finnish folk metal of Finntroll and Moonsorrow – which blend a 6-piece folk band with paganism tales. This combination of Hispanic sounds and wailing of lyrics, such as “The dead can dance if they want romance/All I need is some air” on ‘Quinceniera’, seems to make perfect sense when you consider the Mexican celebration, Day Of The Dead, where they leave out food and gifts for the deceased.
Despite sounding like the tough LA outfit have gone soft and found God, take a closer listen to tracks like ‘Silver Or Lead’ and you’ll find they’re singing, “Quit asking Jesus for help/Go out and find it yourself.” Rather a rebellious punk rock move, when sung in the musical style of a devoutly Catholic culture.
El Bronx might not be everyone’s cup of tea (-quila), but it’s a fun, refreshingly, tongue-in-cheek album whose Mexican flight of fancy will have you in the mood for a corona and nachos in no time. I say more bands should get out of their comfort zones and explore new genres like El Bronx have – ¡Arriba!
“Why wear a skirt upside down? You do if your waistline has expanded and you can’t close it at the waist.”
The fashion community from Marc Jacobs to Ashley Olsen (The Twins are often credited with continuing to have fun and make ‘mistakes’ with fashion) has embraced little Edie’s alternative style and self-expression. Play is inherent in her choice of clothes and embellishment. It is Edie acting as herself that transformed her into a style icon. The film is a credit to Albert and David Maysles skill and compassion as documenters in how they managed to capture the two Edie’s individual spirits. For this reason the film becomes truly special as it replicates on screen their at times complex loving, resenting and co-dependent mother/daughter relationship.
The documentary is peppered with half-told remembrances to make past lives bearable, poignant for Big and Little Edie’s heartbreaking denouncement of each other’s memory. The dialogue throughout the film is often refreshing for their –intentional or unintentional- political philosophical undertones.
Near the start of the film, a five-minute conversation discusses the symbiotic relationship between freedom and support (Little Edie argues the opposite to her mother, saying without support you can’t be free). A prophetic conversation, whose sentiment is applicable to the British Government’s ever increasing reliance on business and continuing refusal to accept the pressure big business places on the climate.
Big Edie: “You can’t get any freedom when you’re supported.”
How can the Government make a rational decision on Climate Change when they build over-familiar relationships with Heathrow BAA and the aviation business?
Big Edie: “When are you going to learn Edie your part of the world?”
Whilst Big Edie’s comment is more of an undertone, this is what I hope the Government will realise this week during the Climate Camp protests. That governments and societies cannot exist without the physical world. We must be accountable for looking after the planet.
The film is beautifully composed enabling Big and Little Edie to have their moments in front of the camera, both alone and together. The film’s editing conveys an idea of a romantic time endlessly passing, though quite still and almost stagnant. It is the perfect fashion moment and Little Edie’s style becomes timeless in it’s absence.
The film watches Little Edie reminisce refuting her life choices, whilst Big Edie forever reminds of how different the past looks as one ages stating, “everyone thinks and feels differently as they get older.”
The documentary records the power struggle between the two women choosing and not choosing their unconventional decaying life style. Within each conversation, the viewer senses that Big Edie is the controlling personality and Little Edie the controlled. The relationship is summarised with the phrase “I didn’t want my child taken away, I would be entirely alone.” The sadness of the film occurs at the references to the stories off stage, which appear to surround the two Edies’ day after day. Forever acting out their parts within their own play. In front of the Maysles camera the endlessly groomed Little Edie becomes a star. Grey Gardens is a celebration of complex relationships and the unique individual, additionally highlighting the frequency at which fashion’s history is plundered to influence catwalk designs today.
“Why wear a skirt upside down? You do if your waistline has expanded and you can’t close it at the waist.”
The fashion community from Marc Jacobs to Ashley Olsen (The Twins are often credited with continuing to have fun and make ‘mistakes’ with fashion) has embraced little Edie’s alternative style and self-expression. Play is inherent in her choice of clothes and embellishment. It is Edie acting as herself that transformed her into a style icon. The film is a credit to Albert and David Maysles skill and compassion as documenters in how they managed to capture the two Edie’s individual spirits. For this reason the film becomes truly special as it replicates on screen their at times complex loving, resenting and co-dependent mother/daughter relationship.
The documentary is peppered with half-told remembrances to make past lives bearable, poignant for Big and Little Edie’s heartbreaking denouncement of each other’s memory. The dialogue throughout the film is often refreshing for their –intentional or unintentional- political philosophical undertones.
Near the start of the film, a five-minute conversation discusses the symbiotic relationship between freedom and support (Little Edie argues the opposite to her mother, saying without support you can’t be free). A prophetic conversation, whose sentiment is applicable to the British Government’s ever increasing reliance on business and continuing refusal to accept the pressure big business places on the climate.
Big Edie: “You can’t get any freedom when you’re supported.”
How can the Government make a rational decision on Climate Change when they build over-familiar relationships with Heathrow BAA and the aviation business?
Big Edie: “When are you going to learn Edie your part of the world?”
Whilst Big Edie’s comment is more of an undertone, this is what I hope the Government will realise this week during the Climate Camp protests. That governments and societies cannot exist without the physical world. We must be accountable for looking after the planet.
The film is beautifully composed enabling Big and Little Edie to have their moments in front of the camera, both alone and together. The film’s editing conveys an idea of a romantic time endlessly passing, though quite still and almost stagnant. It is the perfect fashion moment and Little Edie’s style becomes timeless in it’s absence.
The film watches Little Edie reminisce refuting her life choices, whilst Big Edie forever reminds of how different the past looks as one ages stating, “everyone thinks and feels differently as they get older.”
The documentary records the power struggle between the two women choosing and not choosing their unconventional decaying life style. Within each conversation, the viewer senses that Big Edie is the controlling personality and Little Edie the controlled. The relationship is summarised with the phrase “I didn’t want my child taken away, I would be entirely alone.” The sadness of the film occurs at the references to the stories off stage, which appear to surround the two Edies’ day after day. Forever acting out their parts within their own play. In front of the Maysles camera the endlessly groomed Little Edie becomes a star. Grey Gardens is a celebration of complex relationships and the unique individual, additionally highlighting the frequency at which fashion’s history is plundered to influence catwalk designs today.
