Amelia’s Magazine | London Fashion Week S/S 2011 Catwalk Review: JW Anderson

sara anderson by laura callaghan
Sara Anderson by Laura Callaghan.

Every now and again fashion week throws up something truly astonishing that I didn’t know about before… and on this occasion that honour must surely go to the unexpectedly fabulous graduate show from the Swedish School of Textiles, view showing for the first time at LFW. I sat with my old intern Sarah Barnes of Uplift Magazine, information pills so we had a good chance to catch up on the gossip before the show started to a very under capacity audience.

Swedish Textiles SS2011 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles SS2011 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Stina Randstad. All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Of course, buy more about it is to be expected that the crowd might be a little sparse for the first year that someone shows at LFW, but it is nevertheless somewhat bemusing to be provided with so little information about the contributing graduates; nothing beyond the flimsiest of explanations on our seats. Not even a list of designers! It baffles me that an institution would go to all the cost of sending their graduates over to the UK and then neglect the most basic of PR opportunities. To keep up I had to take photos of the projection of the back wall between collections, and then squint through them to label each designer correctly. About the individual students I know nothing more.

Swedish Textiles SS2011 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles SS2011 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Emelie Johansson.

I had absolutely no expectations bar a pretty good gut feeling that as a former textile designer myself I was going to like what I saw. I could not have been more on the mark.

Swedish Textiles 2010 students photo by Amelia Gregory
Students rollcall.

The opening collection, Prepositions by Sara Anderson, was a pretty good indicator of things to come. Models strode down the catwalk in what looked like the lime and carrot angular offcuts of some 60s furniture factory mishap – great angular bulks attached to head, waist and shoulder. Glistening metallic fabrics and foiled polka dots completed the look. And instantly my interior art director gremlin was hopping up and down with excitement just thinking about what our illustrators could do once they sunk their teeth into this.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Sara Anderson.

Next up was a fabulous menswear collection from Johanna Milvert. Just the right side of barking, it featured massively oversized sleeves and bulbous mismatched proportions that cocooned the models in deep orange deck chair stripes and ribbed knits. A lopsided leather man bag was a particularly individual touch.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
johanna milvert by laura callaghan
Johanna Milvert by Laura Callaghan.

This was followed by a relatively calm collection, Efterklang by Elin Klevmar, in which the lopsided theme continued apace as the models strode down the catwalk in softly draped pebble and cream coloured loungewear.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory

Stina Randstad’s Breed hit the catwalk in an outrageous large shouldered ruffled denim affair that Leigh Bowery would have been proud to wear. Mixing African fabrics, Scottish tartan and 80s pop art club kid inspired prints shouldn’t work but it somehow did – we need more of this kind of inspired madness at the shows. Tartan rara skirts, veil like head necklaces, knitted cockerel crests, crazy facepaint and huge superhero shaped tailoring: this collection really did have it all… and I say that in a good way.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Stina Randstad.

Structure is Everything by Emelie Johansson appeared to have been influenced by coloured pencil shavings. Taking oversized accessories to the next level some of the headdresses resembled alienesque head tumours that would surely not look out of place on the deck of the Starship Enterprise. Peeking out from beneath the styling madness were some really wonderfully constructed primary coloured garments.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Emelie Johansson.

Another menswear collection from Jennie Siljedahl – Control Me As I Control You – showcased autumnal themed pieces in quilted golds, reds and burnt orange, all accessorised with big recycled necklaces and arm jewellery. I particularly liked the overgrown eyebrow glasses.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Jennie Siljedahl photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Jennie Siljedahl photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Jennie Siljedahl photo by Amelia Gregory
Jennie Siljedahl

Elin Sundling’s monochrome collection I Paint Myself Into A Corner featured models who looked as if they had been dragged through the cobwebs of an attic – gauzy face netting gave a sinister feel to (another) lovingly cut lopsided collection that featured some fabulous dusty and oily prints.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Elin Sundling.

For sheer styling nuttiness though the prize had to go to Ellinor Nilsen with Nobodies – who sent models down the catwalk in strange eyeless masks, fake hair protruding from all the wrong places in all the wrong colours. One can only presume the models practiced beforehand by counting their steps, for it all went off seamlessly. Beneath the amazing masks knitwear and tailoring took inspiration from the hairy fuzzy scratchy parts of bodies. Particularly odd was a hair print dress. Unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Ellinor Nilsen.

Charlotta Mattson’s dark collection was perhaps most instantly notable for her angular neck adornments that echoed the theme on many other catwalks this season, but I also particularly liked the use of swirling linear black on white prints that encased legs, head and fabulous shoes. Oh and did I mention the fabulous shoes? Fabulous they were.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Charlotta Mattson.

Hommage featured bulky pants, cowled hoods and bleached floral prints on menswear from David Soderland, all accessorised with giant resin scorpion jewellery. An open shirt over bleached print jean shorts held up with red braces was a particularly strong look.

Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
David Soderland.

Finally Helena Quist showed a kimono and kaftan inspired collection in which the colouring was particularly strong. Stripes, overgrown pompoms, metallics, tassels and block prints jostled together in a stunning combination that closed the show.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Helena Quist.

I hope the Swedish School of Textiles will be back next year. Somehow I don’t think they will have any trouble packing out their second show…

sara anderson by laura callaghan
Sara Anderson by Laura Callaghan.

Every now and again fashion week throws up something truly astonishing that I didn’t know about before… and on this occasion that honour must surely go to the unexpectedly fabulous graduate show from the Swedish School of Textiles, sickness showing for the first time at LFW. I sat with my old intern Sarah Barnes of Uplift Magazine, generic so we had a good chance to catch up on the gossip before the show started to a very under capacity audience.

Swedish Textiles SS2011 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles SS2011 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Stina Randstad. All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Of course, pharmacy it is to be expected that the crowd might be a little sparse for the first year that someone shows at LFW, but it is nevertheless somewhat bemusing to be provided with so little information about the contributing graduates; nothing beyond the flimsiest of explanations on our seats. Not even a list of designers! It baffles me that an institution would go to all the cost of sending their graduates over to the UK and then neglect the most basic of PR opportunities. To keep up I had to take photos of the projection of the back wall between collections, and then squint through them to label each designer correctly. About the individual students I know nothing more.

Swedish Textiles SS2011 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles SS2011 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Emelie Johansson.

I had absolutely no expectations bar a pretty good gut feeling that as a former textile designer myself I was going to like what I saw. I could not have been more on the mark.

Swedish-Textiles-2-by-Lisa-Stannard
Sara Anderson and Emelie Johansson by Lisa Stannard.

Swedish Textiles 2010 students photo by Amelia Gregory
Students rollcall.

The opening collection, Prepositions by Sara Anderson, was a pretty good indicator of things to come. Models strode down the catwalk in what looked like the lime and carrot angular offcuts of some 60s furniture factory mishap – great angular bulks attached to head, waist and shoulder. Glistening metallic fabrics and foiled polka dots completed the look. And instantly my interior art director gremlin was hopping up and down with excitement just thinking about what our illustrators could do once they sunk their teeth into this.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Sara Anderson.

Next up was a fabulous menswear collection from Johanna Milvert. Just the right side of barking, it featured massively oversized sleeves and bulbous mismatched proportions that cocooned the models in deep orange deck chair stripes and ribbed knits. A lopsided leather man bag was a particularly individual touch.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
johanna milvert by laura callaghan
Johanna Milvert by Laura Callaghan.

This was followed by a relatively calm collection, Efterklang by Elin Klevmar, in which the lopsided theme continued apace as the models strode down the catwalk in softly draped pebble and cream coloured loungewear.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
elin klevmar by laura callaghan
Elin Klevmar by Laura Callaghan.

Stina Randstad’s Breed hit the catwalk in an outrageous large shouldered ruffled denim affair that Leigh Bowery would have been proud to wear. Mixing African fabrics, Scottish tartan and 80s pop art club kid inspired prints shouldn’t work but it somehow did – we need more of this kind of inspired madness at the shows. Tartan rara skirts, veil like head necklaces, knitted cockerel crests, crazy facepaint and huge superhero shaped tailoring: this collection really did have it all… and I say that in a good way.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Stina Randstad.

Structure is Everything by Emelie Johansson appeared to have been influenced by coloured pencil shavings. Taking oversized accessories to the next level some of the headdresses resembled alienesque head tumours that would surely not look out of place on the deck of the Starship Enterprise. Peeking out from beneath the styling madness were some really wonderfully constructed primary coloured garments.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
LFW Swedish Textiles Emelie Johansson KAYLEIGH BLUCK
Emelie Johansson by Kayleigh Bluck.

Another menswear collection from Jennie Siljedahl – Control Me As I Control You – showcased autumnal themed pieces in quilted golds, reds and burnt orange, all accessorised with big recycled necklaces and arm jewellery. I particularly liked the overgrown eyebrow glasses.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Jennie Siljedahl photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Jennie Siljedahl photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Jennie Siljedahl photo by Amelia Gregory
LFW Swedish Textiles Jennie Siljedahl  KAYLEIGH BLUCK
Jennie Siljedahl by Kayleigh Bluck.

Swedish-Textiles-Jennie Siljedahl-by-Lisa-Stannard
Jennie Siljedahl by Lisa Stannard.

Elin Sundling’s monochrome collection I Paint Myself Into A Corner featured models who looked as if they had been dragged through the cobwebs of an attic – gauzy face netting gave a sinister feel to (another) lovingly cut lopsided collection that featured some fabulous dusty and oily prints.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Elin Sundling.

For sheer styling nuttiness though the prize had to go to Ellinor Nilsen with Nobodies – who sent models down the catwalk in strange eyeless masks, fake hair protruding from all the wrong places in all the wrong colours. One can only presume the models practiced beforehand by counting their steps, for it all went off seamlessly. Beneath the amazing masks knitwear and tailoring took inspiration from the hairy fuzzy scratchy parts of bodies. Particularly odd was a hair print dress. Unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Ellinor Nilsen.

Charlotta Mattson’s dark collection was perhaps most instantly notable for her angular neck adornments that echoed the theme on many other catwalks this season, but I also particularly liked the use of swirling linear black on white prints that encased legs, head and fabulous shoes. Oh and did I mention the fabulous shoes? Fabulous they were.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Charlotta Mattson.

Hommage featured bulky pants, cowled hoods and bleached floral prints on menswear from David Soderland, all accessorised with giant resin scorpion jewellery. An open shirt over bleached print jean shorts held up with red braces was a particularly strong look.

Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
David Soderland.

Finally Helena Quist showed a kimono and kaftan inspired collection in which the colouring was particularly strong. Stripes, overgrown pompoms, metallics, tassels and block prints jostled together in a stunning combination that closed the show.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
LFW Swedish Textiles Helena Quist KAYLEIGH BLUCK
Helena Quist by Kayleigh Bluck.

I hope the Swedish School of Textiles will be back next year. Somehow I don’t think they will have any trouble packing out their second show…


Weird glasses rabbit girl, ambulance illustrated by Maria del Carmen Smith

The international fashion press often remark that fashion journalists come to London to see what the people on the street are wearing rather than what the models on the catwalks are wearing – and so with tremedous pleasure I present to you a (small) selection of peeps who I’ve spotted out and about so far. Some weird, prescription some wonderful. Some go for understated chic. I like. Some appear to have got dressed in the dark and warrant the NHS installing mirrors in all bedrooms. I like even more. I’ve also thrown a few celebs in for good measure.

Here you go! (Plays trumpet)

Love it:

Elle’s Alistair Guy:

LOVE this guy’s look. Oh, visit this site hang on a minute…

The rough one from the Sugababes (who actually looked gorge):

I like this guy’s scarf, a lot:

My pal, Hilary Alexander:

LOVE Brix: (but my love is conditional and if that fur is real, good riddance.)


Weird pirate boy, last seen at the opening of 123 Bethnal Green Road, illustrated by Maria del Carmen Smith

This gal makes her own hats. Evidently:

Brix today:

These are both men.

Love this trousers:

A vision in blue:


Super chic girl, illustrated by Maria del Carmen Smith

LOVE this:

Oh pal. It looked so much better as a scarf. You wally.

SO chic:

What better way to finish than with a pic of Suzy Menkes, OBE? I LOVE her and her trademark pompadour do. I would do anything to give her a little squeeze.


Weird glasses rabbit girl, website like this illustrated by Maria del Carmen Smith

The international fashion press often remark that fashion journalists come to London to see what the people on the street are wearing rather than what the models on the catwalks are wearing – and so with tremedous pleasure I present to you a (small) selection of peeps who I’ve spotted out and about so far. Some weird, cost some wonderful. Some go for understated chic. I like. Some appear to have got dressed in the dark and warrant the NHS installing mirrors in all bedrooms. I like even more. I’ve also thrown a few celebs in for good measure.

Here you go! (Plays trumpet)

Love it:

Elle’s Alistair Guy:

LOVE this guy’s look. Oh, information pills hang on a minute…

The rough one from the Sugababes (who actually looked gorge):

I like this guy’s scarf, a lot:

My pal, Hilary Alexander:

LOVE Brix: (but my love is conditional and if that fur is real, good riddance)


Weird pirate boy, last seen at the opening of 123 Bethnal Green Road, illustrated by Maria del Carmen Smith

This gal makes her own hats. Evidently:

Brix today:

These are both men.

Love this trousers:

A vision in blue:


Super chic girl, illustrated by Maria del Carmen Smith

LOVE this:

Oh pal. It looked so much better as a scarf. You wally.

SO chic:

What better way to finish than with a pic of Suzy Menkes, OBE? I LOVE her and her trademark pompadour do. I would do anything to give her a little squeeze.

Illustration by Katie Harnett

This post is being written nine days after Kinder Aggugini’s ‘Africa’ inspired show. This season, more about lazy naming of the sources of inspiration bandied around aplenty – it appears designers and their copy writers, rx forget Africa is not simply ‘Africa’ but a complex continent subdivided via colonial rule and consisting of multiple languages and cultures. But for the purposes of fashion, Africa has been relegated to Tiger skins and “super fantastic” Safari outfits. For a supposedly fashion forward industry; fashion is (un)surprisingly chained to peculiarly conservative ideas of wealth and escapism.

Illustration by Gemma Randall

It was not ‘Africa’ which inspired Kinder but a European idea of Africa, an idea which often fills the pages of Vogue’s distasteful summer fashion shoots of caucasian models in ‘Colonial Explorer’ inspired outfits striding the Safari. In a twist for a Spring Summer collection inspired by Africa, the catwalk featured Linen Jackets with trousers to match alongside simple shift dresses. The most exciting thing that appeared on the catwalk were the cardboard hats made by the fantastic Stephen Jones.

Fashion survives and feeds on escapist desires, Dior encapsulated a sense of jubilance with his “New Look” after years of rationing. Whether you want to or not we buy into the idea that what we wear is a projection of our opinions. As a result an entire industry (the High Street,the Ateliers and the Fashion Press) has developed to transform ideas created on the catwalk into the trends currently seen dominating shop window displays. Suddenly have an urge to feel like a pre-Second World War pilot? Then why not buy the Burberry inspired aviator jacket?

Illustration by Gemma Randall

Since Kinder’s show, London has finished, Milan began and ended and Paris is in the process of starting. The month of Spring Summer is drawing to a close. Trend spotters who have been waiting eagle eyed for clues to what we will be wearing next season, will have produced trend forecasts. The main problem, lies not with the designers such as (Sorry to keep using you as an example!) Kinder Aggugini who are transcribing their inspiration into garments, but with the increasing dislocation between clothes and the wearer. Fast Fashion means you can be one look tomorrow and another tomorrow, resulting in the constant plundering of the 70′s,60′s,50′s etc aesthetic. Catwalk shows can be absolutely beautiful and there were moments in Aggugini’s show of breathtaking draping alongside playfully deconstructed jacket hems and the aforementioned collaboration with Stephen Jones was exquisite.

Illustration by Katie Harnett

Illustration by Katie Harnett

This post is being written nine days after Kinder Aggugini’s ‘Africa’ inspired show – it appears designers and their copy writers, dosage forget Africa is not simply ‘Africa’ but a complex continent subdivided via colonial rule. consisting of multiple languages and cultures. But for the purposes of fashion, Africa has been relegated to Tiger skins and “super fantastic” Safari outfits. For a supposedly fashion forward industry; fashion is (un)surprisingly chained to peculiarly conservative ideas of wealth and escapism.

Illustration by Gemma Randall

It was not ‘Africa’ which inspired Kinder but a European idea of Africa, an idea which often fills the pages of Vogue’s distasteful summer fashion shoots of caucasian models in ‘Colonial Explorer’ inspired outfits striding the Safari. In a twist for a Spring Summer collection inspired by Africa, the catwalk featured Linen Jackets with trousers to match alongside simple shift dresses. The most exciting thing that appeared on the catwalk were the cardboard hats made by the fantastic Stephen Jones.

Fashion survives and feeds on escapist desires, Dior encapsulated a sense of jubilance with his “New Look” after years of rationing. Whether you want to or not we buy into the idea that what we wear is a projection of our opinions. As a result an entire industry (the High Street,the Ateliers and the Fashion Press) has developed to transform ideas created on the catwalk into the trends currently seen dominating shop window displays. Suddenly have an urge to feel like a pre-Second World War pilot? Then why not buy the Burberry inspired aviator jacket?

Illustration by Gemma Randall

Since Kinder’s show, London has finished, Milan began and ended and Paris is in the process of starting. The month of Spring Summer is drawing to a close. Trend spotters who have been waiting eagle eyed for clues to what we will be wearing next season, will have produced trend forecasts. The main problem, lies not with the designers such as (Sorry to keep using you as an example!) Kinder Aggugini who are transcribing their inspiration into garments, but with the increasing dislocation between clothes and the wearer. Fast Fashion means you can be one look tomorrow and another tomorrow, resulting in the constant plundering of the 70′s,60′s,50′s etc aesthetic. Catwalk shows can be absolutely beautiful and there were moments in Aggugini’s show of breathtaking draping alongside playfully deconstructed jacket hems and the aforementioned collaboration with Stephen Jones was exquisite.

Illustration by Katie Harnett
sara anderson by laura callaghan
Sara Anderson by Laura Callaghan.

Every now and again fashion week throws up something truly astonishing that I didn’t know about before… and on this occasion that honour must surely go to the unexpectedly fabulous graduate show from the Swedish School of Textiles, decease showing for the first time at LFW. I sat with my old intern Sarah Barnes of Uplift Magazine, so we had a good chance to catch up on the gossip before the show started to a very under capacity audience.

Swedish Textiles SS2011 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles SS2011 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Stina Randstad. All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Of course, it is to be expected that the crowd might be a little sparse for the first year that someone shows at LFW, but it is nevertheless somewhat bemusing to be provided with so little information about the contributing graduates; nothing beyond the flimsiest of explanations on our seats. Not even a list of designers! It baffles me that an institution would go to all the cost of sending their graduates over to the UK and then neglect the most basic of PR opportunities. To keep up I had to take photos of the projection of the back wall between collections, and then squint through them to label each designer correctly. About the individual students I know nothing more: I can’t even find their blooming website.

Swedish Textiles SS2011 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles SS2011 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Emelie Johansson.

I had absolutely no expectations bar a pretty good gut feeling that as a former textile designer myself I was going to like what I saw. I could not have been more on the mark.

Swedish-Textiles-2-by-Lisa-Stannard
Sara Anderson and Emelie Johansson by Lisa Stannard.

Swedish Textiles 2010 students photo by Amelia Gregory
Students rollcall.

The opening collection, Prepositions by Sara Anderson, was a pretty good indicator of things to come. Models strode down the catwalk in what looked like the lime and carrot angular offcuts of some 60s furniture factory mishap – great angular bulks attached to head, waist and shoulder. Glistening metallic fabrics and foiled polka dots completed the look. And instantly my interior art director gremlin was hopping up and down with excitement just thinking about what our illustrators could do once they sunk their teeth into this.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Sara Anderson.

Next up was a fabulous menswear collection from Johanna Milvert. Just the right side of barking, it featured massively oversized sleeves and bulbous mismatched proportions that cocooned the models in deep orange deck chair stripes and ribbed knits. A lopsided leather man bag was a particularly individual touch.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
johanna milvert by laura callaghan
Johanna Milvert by Laura Callaghan.

This was followed by a relatively calm collection, Efterklang by Elin Klevmar, in which the lopsided theme continued apace as the models strode down the catwalk in softly draped pebble and cream coloured loungewear.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
elin klevmar by laura callaghan
Elin Klevmar by Laura Callaghan.

Stina Randstad’s Breed hit the catwalk in an outrageous large shouldered ruffled denim affair that Leigh Bowery would have been proud to wear. Mixing African fabrics, Scottish tartan and 80s pop art club kid inspired prints shouldn’t work but it somehow did – we need more of this kind of inspired madness at the shows. Tartan rara skirts, veil like head necklaces, knitted cockerel crests, crazy facepaint and huge superhero shaped tailoring: this collection really did have it all… and I say that in a good way.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Stina Randstad.

Structure is Everything by Emelie Johansson appeared to have been influenced by coloured pencil shavings. Taking oversized accessories to the next level some of the headdresses resembled alienesque head tumours that would surely not look out of place on the deck of the Starship Enterprise. Peeking out from beneath the styling madness were some really wonderfully constructed primary coloured garments.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
LFW Swedish Textiles Emelie Johansson KAYLEIGH BLUCK
Emelie Johansson by Kayleigh Bluck.

Another menswear collection from Jennie Siljedahl – Control Me As I Control You – showcased autumnal themed pieces in quilted golds, reds and burnt orange, all accessorised with big recycled necklaces and arm jewellery. I particularly liked the overgrown eyebrow glasses.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Jennie Siljedahl photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Jennie Siljedahl photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Jennie Siljedahl photo by Amelia Gregory
LFW Swedish Textiles Jennie Siljedahl  KAYLEIGH BLUCK
Jennie Siljedahl by Kayleigh Bluck.

Swedish-Textiles-Jennie Siljedahl-by-Lisa-Stannard
Jennie Siljedahl by Lisa Stannard.

Elin Sundling’s monochrome collection I Paint Myself Into A Corner featured models who looked as if they had been dragged through the cobwebs of an attic – gauzy face netting gave a sinister feel to (another) lovingly cut lopsided collection that featured some fabulous dusty and oily prints.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Elin Sundling.

For sheer styling nuttiness though the prize had to go to Ellinor Nilsen with Nobodies – who sent models down the catwalk in strange eyeless masks, fake hair protruding from all the wrong places in all the wrong colours. One can only presume the models practiced beforehand by counting their steps, for it all went off seamlessly. Beneath the amazing masks knitwear and tailoring took inspiration from the hairy fuzzy scratchy parts of bodies. Particularly odd was a hair print dress. Unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Ellinor Nilsen.

Charlotta Mattson’s dark collection was perhaps most instantly notable for her angular neck adornments that echoed the theme on many other catwalks this season, but I also particularly liked the use of swirling linear black on white prints that encased legs, head and fabulous shoes. Oh and did I mention the fabulous shoes? Fabulous they were.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Charlotta Mattson.

Hommage featured bulky pants, cowled hoods and bleached floral prints on menswear from David Soderland, all accessorised with giant resin scorpion jewellery. An open shirt over bleached print jean shorts held up with red braces was a particularly strong look.

Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
David Soderland.

Finally Helena Quist showed a kimono and kaftan inspired collection in which the colouring was particularly strong. Stripes, overgrown pompoms, metallics, tassels and block prints jostled together in a stunning combination that closed the show.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
LFW Swedish Textiles Helena Quist KAYLEIGH BLUCK
Helena Quist by Kayleigh Bluck.

I hope the Swedish School of Textiles will be back next year. Somehow I don’t think they will have any trouble packing out their second show…

sara anderson by laura callaghan
Sara Anderson by Laura Callaghan.

Every now and again fashion week throws up something truly astonishing that I didn’t know about before… and on this occasion that honour must surely go to the unexpectedly fabulous graduate show from the Swedish School of Textiles, unhealthy showing for the first time at LFW. I sat with my old intern Sarah Barnes of Uplift Magazine, information pills so we had a good chance to catch up on the gossip before the show started to a very under capacity audience.

Swedish Textiles SS2011 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles SS2011 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Stina Randstad. All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Of course, it is to be expected that the crowd might be a little sparse for the first year that someone shows at LFW, but it is nevertheless somewhat bemusing to be provided with so little information about the contributing graduates; nothing beyond the flimsiest of explanations on our seats. Not even a list of designers! It baffles me that an institution would go to all the cost of sending their graduates over to the UK and then neglect the most basic of PR opportunities. To keep up I had to take photos of the projection of the back wall between collections, and then squint through them to label each designer correctly. About the individual students I know nothing more: I can’t even find their blooming website.

Swedish Textiles SS2011 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles SS2011 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Emelie Johansson.

I had absolutely no expectations bar a pretty good gut feeling that as a former textile designer myself I was going to like what I saw. I could not have been more on the mark.

Swedish-Textiles-2-by-Lisa-Stannard
Sara Anderson and Emelie Johansson by Lisa Stannard.

Swedish Textiles 2010 students photo by Amelia Gregory
Students rollcall.

The opening collection, Prepositions by Sara Anderson, was a pretty good indicator of things to come. Models strode down the catwalk in what looked like the lime and carrot angular offcuts of some 60s furniture factory mishap – great angular bulks attached to head, waist and shoulder. Glistening metallic fabrics and foiled polka dots completed the look. And instantly my interior art director gremlin was hopping up and down with excitement just thinking about what our illustrators could do once they sunk their teeth into this.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Sara Anderson.

Next up was a fabulous menswear collection from Johanna Milvert. Just the right side of barking, it featured massively oversized sleeves and bulbous mismatched proportions that cocooned the models in deep orange deck chair stripes and ribbed knits. A lopsided leather man bag was a particularly individual touch.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
johanna milvert by laura callaghan
Johanna Milvert by Laura Callaghan.

This was followed by a relatively calm collection, Efterklang by Elin Klevmar, in which the lopsided theme continued apace as the models strode down the catwalk in softly draped pebble and cream coloured loungewear.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
elin klevmar by laura callaghan
Elin Klevmar by Laura Callaghan.

Stina Randstad’s Breed hit the catwalk in an outrageous large shouldered ruffled denim affair that Leigh Bowery would have been proud to wear. Mixing African fabrics, Scottish tartan and 80s pop art club kid inspired prints shouldn’t work but it somehow did – we need more of this kind of inspired madness at the shows. Tartan rara skirts, veil like head necklaces, knitted cockerel crests, crazy facepaint and huge superhero shaped tailoring: this collection really did have it all… and I say that in a good way.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Stina Randstad.

Structure is Everything by Emelie Johansson appeared to have been influenced by coloured pencil shavings. Taking oversized accessories to the next level some of the headdresses resembled alienesque head tumours that would surely not look out of place on the deck of the Starship Enterprise. Peeking out from beneath the styling madness were some really wonderfully constructed primary coloured garments.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
LFW Swedish Textiles Emelie Johansson KAYLEIGH BLUCK
Emelie Johansson by Kayleigh Bluck.

Another menswear collection from Jennie Siljedahl – Control Me As I Control You – showcased autumnal themed pieces in quilted golds, reds and burnt orange, all accessorised with big recycled necklaces and arm jewellery. I particularly liked the overgrown eyebrow glasses.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Jennie Siljedahl photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Jennie Siljedahl photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Jennie Siljedahl photo by Amelia Gregory
LFW Swedish Textiles Jennie Siljedahl  KAYLEIGH BLUCK
Jennie Siljedahl by Kayleigh Bluck.

Swedish-Textiles-Jennie Siljedahl-by-Lisa-Stannard
Jennie Siljedahl by Lisa Stannard.

Elin Sundling‘s monochrome collection I Paint Myself Into A Corner featured models who looked as if they had been dragged through the cobwebs of an attic – gauzy face netting gave a sinister feel to (another) lovingly cut lopsided collection that featured some fabulous dusty and oily prints.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Elin Sundling.

For sheer styling nuttiness though the prize had to go to Ellinor Nilsen with Nobodies – who sent models down the catwalk in strange eyeless masks, fake hair protruding from all the wrong places in all the wrong colours. One can only presume the models practiced beforehand by counting their steps, for it all went off seamlessly. Beneath the amazing masks knitwear and tailoring took inspiration from the hairy fuzzy scratchy parts of bodies. Particularly odd was a hair print dress. Unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Ellinor Nilsen.

Charlotta Mattson’s dark collection was perhaps most instantly notable for her angular neck adornments that echoed the theme on many other catwalks this season, but I also particularly liked the use of swirling linear black on white prints that encased legs, head and fabulous shoes. Oh and did I mention the fabulous shoes? Fabulous they were.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Charlotta Mattson.

Hommage featured bulky pants, cowled hoods and bleached floral prints on menswear from David Soderlund, all accessorised with giant resin scorpion jewellery. An open shirt over bleached print jean shorts held up with red braces was a particularly strong look.

Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
David Soderlund.

Finally Helena Quist showed a kimono and kaftan inspired collection in which the colouring was particularly strong. Stripes, overgrown pompoms, metallics, tassels and block prints jostled together in a stunning combination that closed the show.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
LFW Swedish Textiles Helena Quist KAYLEIGH BLUCK
Helena Quist by Kayleigh Bluck.

I hope the Swedish School of Textiles will be back next year. Somehow I don’t think they will have any trouble packing out their second show… but please please sort out your promotion. NONE of these students has a proper internet presence. Not one functioning website that I could find. Shocking in this day and age.

Illustration by Katie Harnett

This post is being written nine days after Kinder Aggugini’s ‘Africa’ inspired show – it appears designers and their copy writers, more about forget Africa is not simply ‘Africa’ but a complex continent subdivided via colonial rule. consisting of multiple languages and cultures. But for the purposes of fashion, ask Africa has been relegated to Tiger skins and “super fantastic” Safari outfits. For a supposedly fashion forward industry; fashion is (un)surprisingly chained to peculiarly conservative ideas of wealth and escapism.

Illustration by Gemma Randall

It was not ‘Africa’ which inspired Kinder but a European idea of Africa, an idea which often fills the pages of Vogue’s distasteful summer fashion shoots of caucasian models in ‘Colonial Explorer’ inspired outfits striding the Safari. In a twist for a Spring Summer collection inspired by Africa, the catwalk featured Linen Jackets with trousers to match alongside simple shift dresses. The most exciting thing that appeared on the catwalk were the cardboard hats made by the fantastic Stephen Jones.

Fashion survives and feeds on escapist desires, Dior encapsulated a sense of jubilance with his “New Look” after years of rationing. Whether you want to or not we buy into the idea that what we wear is a projection of our opinions. As a result an entire industry (the High Street,the Ateliers and the Fashion Press) has developed to transform ideas created on the catwalk into the trends currently seen dominating shop window displays. Suddenly have an urge to feel like a pre-Second World War pilot? Then why not buy the Burberry inspired aviator jacket?

Illustration by Gemma Randall

Since Kinder’s show, London has finished, Milan began and ended and Paris is in the process of starting. The month of Spring Summer is drawing to a close. Trend spotters who have been waiting eagle eyed for clues to what we will be wearing next season, will have produced trend forecasts. The main problem, lies not with the designers such as (Sorry to keep using you as an example!) Kinder Aggugini who are transcribing their inspiration into garments, but with the increasing dislocation between clothes and the wearer. Fast Fashion means you can be one look tomorrow and another tomorrow, resulting in the constant plundering of the 70′s,60′s,50′s etc aesthetic. Catwalk shows can be absolutely beautiful and there were moments in Aggugini’s show of breathtaking draping alongside playfully deconstructed jacket hems and the aforementioned collaboration with Stephen Jones was exquisite.

Illustration by Katie Harnett

Illustration by Katie Harnett

Ten days is a long time to reflect on a catwalk show, adiposity by this point in time, London has finished, Milan has finished and Paris started last night, which means this post is a bit late, coming a long time after the BFC tent has been removed from the courtyard of Somerset House. In the interim I have been struggling for the words to describe Kinder Aggugini’s ‘Africa’ inspired show as at the moment, it appears designers and their copy writers, forget Africa is not simply a place somewhere called ‘Africa,’ but a complex continent subdivided via colonial rule. consisting of multiple languages and cultures. But for the purposes of fashion, Africa has been relegated to Tiger skins and “super fantastic” Safari outfits. For a supposedly fashion forward industry; fashion is (un)surprisingly chained to peculiarly conservative ideas of wealth and escapism.

Illustration by Gemma Randall

It was not ‘Africa’ which inspired Kinder but a European idea of Africa, an idea which often fills the pages of Vogue’s distasteful summer fashion shoots of caucasian models in ‘Colonial Explorer’ inspired outfits striding the Safari. In a twist for a Spring Summer collection inspired by Africa, the catwalk featured Linen Jackets with trousers to match alongside simple shift dresses. The most exciting thing that appeared on the catwalk were the cardboard hats made by the fantastic Stephen Jones.

Fashion survives and feeds on escapist desires, Dior encapsulated a sense of jubilance with his “New Look” after years of rationing. Whether you want to or not we buy into the idea that what we wear is a projection of our opinions. As a result an entire industry (the High Street,the Ateliers and the Fashion Press) has developed to transform ideas created on the catwalk into the trends currently seen dominating shop window displays. Suddenly have an urge to feel like a pre-Second World War pilot? Then why not buy the Burberry inspired aviator jacket?

Illustration by Gemma Randall

Since Kinder’s show, London has finished, Milan began and ended and Paris is in the process of starting. The month of Spring Summer is drawing to a close. Trend spotters who have been waiting eagle eyed for clues to what we will be wearing next season, will have produced trend forecasts. The main problem, lies not with the designers such as (Sorry to keep using you as an example!) Kinder Aggugini who are transcribing their inspiration into garments, but with the increasing dislocation between clothes and the wearer. Fast Fashion means you can be one look tomorrow and another tomorrow, resulting in the constant plundering of the 70′s,60′s,50′s etc aesthetic. Catwalk shows can be absolutely beautiful and there were moments in Aggugini’s show of breathtaking draping alongside playfully deconstructed jacket hems and the aforementioned collaboration with Stephen Jones was exquisite.

Illustration by Katie Harnett

sara anderson by laura callaghan
Sara Anderson by Laura Callaghan.

Every now and again fashion week throws up something truly astonishing that I didn’t know about before… and on this occasion that honour must surely go to the unexpectedly fabulous graduate show from the Swedish School of Textiles, troche showing for the first time at LFW. I sat with my old intern Sarah Barnes of Uplift Magazine, pharm so we had a good chance to catch up on the gossip before the show started to a very under capacity audience.

Swedish Textiles SS2011 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles SS2011 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Stina Randstad. All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Of course, it is to be expected that the crowd might be a little sparse for the first year that someone shows at LFW, but it is nevertheless somewhat bemusing to be provided with so little information about the contributing graduates; nothing beyond the flimsiest of explanations on our seats. Not even a list of designers! It baffles me that an institution would go to all the cost of sending their graduates over to the UK and then neglect the most basic of PR opportunities. To keep up I had to take photos of the projection of the back wall between collections, and then squint through them to label each designer correctly. About the individual students I know nothing more: I can’t even find their blooming website.

Swedish Textiles SS2011 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles SS2011 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Emelie Johansson.

I had absolutely no expectations bar a pretty good gut feeling that as a former textile designer myself I was going to like what I saw. I could not have been more on the mark.

Swedish-Textiles-2-by-Lisa-Stannard
Sara Anderson and Emelie Johansson by Lisa Stannard.

Swedish Textiles 2010 students photo by Amelia Gregory
Students rollcall.

The opening collection, Prepositions by Sara Anderson, was a pretty good indicator of things to come. Models strode down the catwalk in what looked like the lime and carrot angular offcuts of some 60s furniture factory mishap – great angular bulks attached to head, waist and shoulder. Glistening metallic fabrics and foiled polka dots completed the look. And instantly my interior art director gremlin was hopping up and down with excitement just thinking about what our illustrators could do once they sunk their teeth into this.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Sara Anderson.

Next up was a fabulous menswear collection from Johanna Milvert. Just the right side of barking, it featured massively oversized sleeves and bulbous mismatched proportions that cocooned the models in deep orange deck chair stripes and ribbed knits. A lopsided leather man bag was a particularly individual touch.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
johanna milvert by laura callaghan
Johanna Milvert by Laura Callaghan.

This was followed by a relatively calm collection, Efterklang by Elin Klevmar, in which the lopsided theme continued apace as the models strode down the catwalk in softly draped pebble and cream coloured loungewear.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
elin klevmar by laura callaghan
Elin Klevmar by Laura Callaghan.

Stina Randstad’s Breed hit the catwalk in an outrageous large shouldered ruffled denim affair that Leigh Bowery would have been proud to wear. Mixing African fabrics, Scottish tartan and 80s pop art club kid inspired prints shouldn’t work but it somehow did – we need more of this kind of inspired madness at the shows. Tartan rara skirts, veil like head necklaces, knitted cockerel crests, crazy facepaint and huge superhero shaped tailoring: this collection really did have it all… and I say that in a good way.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Stina Randstad.

Structure is Everything by Emelie Johansson appeared to have been influenced by coloured pencil shavings. Taking oversized accessories to the next level some of the headdresses resembled alienesque head tumours that would surely not look out of place on the deck of the Starship Enterprise. Peeking out from beneath the styling madness were some really wonderfully constructed primary coloured garments.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
LFW Swedish Textiles Emelie Johansson KAYLEIGH BLUCK
Emelie Johansson by Kayleigh Bluck.

Another menswear collection from Jennie Siljedahl – Control Me As I Control You – showcased autumnal themed pieces in quilted golds, reds and burnt orange, all accessorised with big recycled necklaces and arm jewellery. I particularly liked the overgrown eyebrow glasses.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Jennie Siljedahl photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Jennie Siljedahl photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Jennie Siljedahl photo by Amelia Gregory
LFW Swedish Textiles Jennie Siljedahl  KAYLEIGH BLUCK
Jennie Siljedahl by Kayleigh Bluck.

Swedish-Textiles-Jennie Siljedahl-by-Lisa-Stannard
Jennie Siljedahl by Lisa Stannard.

Elin Sundling‘s monochrome collection I Paint Myself Into A Corner featured models who looked as if they had been dragged through the cobwebs of an attic – gauzy face netting gave a sinister feel to (another) lovingly cut lopsided collection that featured some fabulous dusty and oily prints.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Elin Sundling.

For sheer styling nuttiness though the prize had to go to Ellinor Nilsen with Nobodies – who sent models down the catwalk in strange eyeless masks, fake hair protruding from all the wrong places in all the wrong colours. One can only presume the models practiced beforehand by counting their steps, for it all went off seamlessly. Beneath the amazing masks knitwear and tailoring took inspiration from the hairy fuzzy scratchy parts of bodies. Particularly odd was a hair print dress. Unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Ellinor Nilsen.

Charlotta Mattson’s dark collection was perhaps most instantly notable for her angular neck adornments that echoed the theme on many other catwalks this season, but I also particularly liked the use of swirling linear black on white prints that encased legs, head and fabulous shoes. Oh and did I mention the fabulous shoes? Fabulous they were.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Charlotta Mattson.

Hommage featured bulky pants, cowled hoods and bleached floral prints on menswear from David Soderlund, all accessorised with giant resin scorpion jewellery. An open shirt over bleached print jean shorts held up with red braces was a particularly strong look.

Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
David Soderlund.

Finally Helena Quist showed a kimono and kaftan inspired collection in which the colouring was particularly strong. Stripes, overgrown pompoms, metallics, tassels and block prints jostled together in a stunning combination that closed the show.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
LFW Swedish Textiles Helena Quist KAYLEIGH BLUCK
Helena Quist by Kayleigh Bluck.

I hope the Swedish School of Textiles will be back next year. Somehow I don’t think they will have any trouble packing out their second show… but please please sort out your promotion. NONE of these students has a proper internet presence; not one functioning website that I could find. Shocking in this day and age.

sara anderson by laura callaghan
Sara Anderson by Laura Callaghan.

Every now and again fashion week throws up something truly astonishing that I didn’t know about before… and on this occasion that honour must surely go to the unexpectedly fabulous graduate show from the Swedish School of Textiles, approved showing for the first time at LFW. I sat with my old intern Sarah Barnes of Uplift Magazine, click so we had a good chance to catch up on the gossip before the show started to a very under capacity audience.

Swedish Textiles SS2011 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles SS2011 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Stina Randstad. All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Of course, recipe it is to be expected that the crowd might be a little sparse for the first year that someone shows at LFW, but it is nevertheless somewhat bemusing to be provided with so little information about the contributing graduates; nothing beyond the flimsiest of explanations on our seats. Not even a list of designers! It baffles me that an institution would go to all the cost of sending their graduates over to the UK and then neglect the most basic of PR opportunities. To keep up I had to take photos of the projection of the back wall between collections, and then squint through them to label each designer correctly. About the individual students I know nothing more: I can’t even find a website for the college.

Swedish Textiles SS2011 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles SS2011 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Emelie Johansson.

I had absolutely no expectations bar a pretty good gut feeling that as a former textile designer myself I was going to like what I saw. I could not have been more on the mark.

Swedish-Textiles-2-by-Lisa-Stannard
Sara Anderson and Emelie Johansson by Lisa Stannard.

Swedish Textiles 2010 students photo by Amelia Gregory
Students rollcall.

The opening collection, Prepositions by Sara Anderson, was a pretty good indicator of things to come. Models strode down the catwalk in what looked like the lime and carrot angular offcuts of some 60s furniture factory mishap – great angular bulks attached to head, waist and shoulder. Glistening metallic fabrics and foiled polka dots completed the look. And instantly my interior art director gremlin was hopping up and down with excitement just thinking about what our illustrators could do once they sunk their teeth into this.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Sara Anderson photo by Amelia Gregory
Sara Anderson.

Next up was a fabulous menswear collection from Johanna Milvert. Just the right side of barking, it featured massively oversized sleeves and bulbous mismatched proportions that cocooned the models in deep orange deck chair stripes and ribbed knits. A lopsided leather man bag was a particularly individual touch.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Johanna Milvert photo by Amelia Gregory
johanna milvert by laura callaghan
Johanna Milvert by Laura Callaghan.

This was followed by a relatively calm collection, Efterklang by Elin Klevmar, in which the lopsided theme continued apace as the models strode down the catwalk in softly draped pebble and cream coloured loungewear.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Klevmar photo by Amelia Gregory
elin klevmar by laura callaghan
Elin Klevmar by Laura Callaghan.

Stina Randstad’s Breed hit the catwalk in an outrageous large shouldered ruffled denim affair that Leigh Bowery would have been proud to wear. Mixing African fabrics, Scottish tartan and 80s pop art club kid inspired prints shouldn’t work but it somehow did – we need more of this kind of inspired madness at the shows. Tartan rara skirts, veil like head necklaces, knitted cockerel crests, crazy facepaint and huge superhero shaped tailoring: this collection really did have it all… and I say that in a good way.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Stina Randstad photo by Amelia Gregory
Stina Randstad.

Structure is Everything by Emelie Johansson appeared to have been influenced by coloured pencil shavings. Taking oversized accessories to the next level some of the headdresses resembled alienesque head tumours that would surely not look out of place on the deck of the Starship Enterprise. Peeking out from beneath the styling madness were some really wonderfully constructed primary coloured garments.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Emelie Johansson photo by Amelia Gregory
LFW Swedish Textiles Emelie Johansson KAYLEIGH BLUCK
Emelie Johansson by Kayleigh Bluck.

Another menswear collection from Jennie Siljedahl – Control Me As I Control You – showcased autumnal themed pieces in quilted golds, reds and burnt orange, all accessorised with big recycled necklaces and arm jewellery. I particularly liked the overgrown eyebrow glasses.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Jennie Siljedahl photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Jennie Siljedahl photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Jennie Siljedahl photo by Amelia Gregory
LFW Swedish Textiles Jennie Siljedahl  KAYLEIGH BLUCK
Jennie Siljedahl by Kayleigh Bluck.

Swedish-Textiles-Jennie Siljedahl-by-Lisa-Stannard
Jennie Siljedahl by Lisa Stannard.

Elin Sundling‘s monochrome collection I Paint Myself Into A Corner featured models who looked as if they had been dragged through the cobwebs of an attic – gauzy face netting gave a sinister feel to (another) lovingly cut lopsided collection that featured some fabulous dusty and oily prints.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Elin Sundling photo by Amelia Gregory
Elin Sundling.

For sheer styling nuttiness though the prize had to go to Ellinor Nilsen with Nobodies – she sent models down the catwalk in strange eyeless masks, fake hair protruding from all the wrong places in all the wrong colours. One can only presume the models practiced beforehand by counting their steps, for it all went off seamlessly. Beneath the amazing masks knitwear and tailoring took inspiration from the hairy fuzzy scratchy parts of bodies. Particularly odd was a hair print dress. Unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Ellinor Nilsen photo by Amelia Gregory
Ellinor Nilsen.

Charlotta Mattson’s dark collection was perhaps most instantly notable for her angular neck adornments that echoed the theme on many other catwalks this season, but I also particularly liked the use of swirling linear black on white prints that encased legs, head and fabulous shoes. Oh and did I mention the fabulous shoes? Fabulous they were.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Charlotta Mattson photo by Amelia Gregory
Charlotta Mattson.

Hommage featured bulky pants, cowled hoods and bleached floral prints on menswear from David Soderlund, all accessorised with giant resin scorpion jewellery. An open shirt over bleached print jean shorts held up with red braces was a particularly strong look.

Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 David Soderland photo by Amelia Gregory
David Soderlund.

Finally Helena Quist showed a kimono and kaftan inspired collection in which the colouring was particularly strong. Stripes, overgrown pompoms, metallics, tassels and block prints jostled together in a stunning combination that closed the show.

Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
Swedish Textiles 2010 Helena Quist photo by Amelia Gregory
LFW Swedish Textiles Helena Quist KAYLEIGH BLUCK
Helena Quist by Kayleigh Bluck.

I hope the Swedish School of Textiles will be back next year. Somehow I don’t think they will have any trouble packing out their second show… but please please sort out your promotion. NONE of these students has a proper internet presence; not one functioning website that I could find. Shocking in this day and age.

Illustration by Katie Harnett

Ten days is a long time to reflect on a catwalk show, price by this point in time, more about London has finished, health Milan has finished and Paris started last night, which means this post is a bit late, coming a long time after the BFC tent has been removed from the courtyard of Somerset House. In the interim I have been struggling for the words to describe Kinder Aggugini’s ‘Africa’ inspired show as at the moment, it appears designers and their copy writers, forget Africa is not simply a place somewhere called ‘Africa,’ but a complex continent subdivided via colonial rule. consisting of multiple languages and cultures. But for the purposes of fashion, Africa has been relegated to Tiger skins and “super fantastic” Safari outfits. For a supposedly fashion forward industry; fashion is (un)surprisingly chained to peculiarly conservative ideas of wealth and escapism.

Illustration by Gemma Randall

It was not ‘Africa’ which inspired Kinder but a European idea of Africa, an idea which often fills the pages of Vogue’s distasteful summer fashion shoots of caucasian models in ‘Colonial Explorer’ inspired outfits striding the Safari. In a twist for a Spring Summer collection inspired by Africa, the catwalk featured Linen Jackets with trousers to match alongside simple shift dresses. The most exciting thing that appeared on the catwalk were the cardboard hats made by the fantastic Stephen Jones.

Fashion survives and feeds on escapist desires, Dior encapsulated a sense of jubilance with his “New Look” after years of rationing. Whether you want to or not we buy into the idea that what we wear is a projection of our opinions. As a result an entire industry (the High Street,the Ateliers and the Fashion Press) has developed to transform ideas created on the catwalk into the trends currently seen dominating shop window displays. Suddenly have an urge to feel like a pre-Second World War pilot? Then why not buy the Burberry inspired aviator jacket?

Illustration by Gemma Randall

Since Kinder’s show, London has finished, Milan began and ended and Paris is in the process of starting. The month of Spring Summer is drawing to a close. Trend spotters who have been waiting eagle eyed for clues to what we will be wearing next season, will have produced trend forecasts. The main problem, lies not with the designers such as (Sorry to keep using you as an example!) Kinder Aggugini who are transcribing their inspiration into garments, but with the increasing dislocation between clothes and the wearer. Fast Fashion means you can be one look tomorrow and another tomorrow, resulting in the constant plundering of the 70′s,60′s,50′s etc aesthetic. Catwalk shows can be absolutely beautiful and there were moments in Aggugini’s show of breathtaking draping alongside playfully deconstructed jacket hems and the aforementioned collaboration with Stephen Jones was exquisite.

Illustration by Katie Harnett

Illustration by Rob Wallace

JW Anderson’s Autumn Winter 2010 collection was a celebration of the understated. Opening the rather quiet menswear day at the BFC on September 23rd, erectile the designer’s Spring/Summer 2011 collection unleashed models dressed as Liberty sponsored waif and strays.

All Photography by Matt Bramford

The collection was luxe hippie, a perennially popular look that rarely translate into the everyday, unless you happen to be a rock star from years’ past. Nevertheless, it is wonderfully pretty, especially when the boys came highly reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix’s flowery rock attire crossed with the early portraiture of Walker Evans.

Following his video presentation earlier during the week. JW Anderson choose to unleash his recent expansion into faery-esque womenswear onto the menswear catwalk, drawing a few raised eyebrows from a front row settling in for a day of uninterrupted menswear.


Inspired by the photography of William Gedney the collection captured a sense of youthful naive freedom last seen in the work of Sally Mann at The Photographers Gallery.

Illustration by Rob Wallace

A nod to American Youth subcultures, (everything is a nod these day, a rehash, a reminiscence) the clothes arrived as bleached out dreamy tie dyes combined with floral print trousers for the boys and long sheer skirts fitted underneath fisherman knits for the girls.

The collection, a homage to youthful runaways on the Great American Road trip was heavy in the literary romanticism in which JW Anderson excels.

For the finale, the models (beautifully styled by Robbie Spencer) sauntered to the youthful dissatisfaction of Jarvis Cocker’s Pulp, underneath the eery green light provided by lasers more commonly seen at Fabric.

Categories ,JW Anderson, ,London Fashion Week, ,Matt Bramford, ,menswear, ,Rob Wallace, ,Sally Mann, ,The Photographers Gallery, ,Walker Evans

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Amelia’s Magazine | Fashion Listings in the run up to London Fashion Week 8th – 18th September 2009

Graham Carter’s joyful prints reference many of the most loved images in modern culture: the characters from Star Wars or the eerie but manageable magic of Spirited Away. The artistic sensibilities stop these nostalgic influences from turning into twee: the gorgeously rendered digital art glows with vibrant colours and many of the works are made 3-dimensional with painstakingly applied wood veneers, find sale or cut-out perspex shapes that lend shadows to a noir city scene.

This is the kind of art you’d love to have in your own house (I made enquiries! Prices average at around £150). The small details show wit and add a lovely personal feeling to the prints: a towerblock soars above a city landscape but is made friendly by a pair of eyes and a winning smile. When you spot a tiny figure peeping out of the digital grass you fall in love with the world in the picture. Each picture tells a story that you can imagine going on far beyond the edges of the frame, like that of the little girl and her huge Samurai friend, pictured below.

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Amelia’s Magazine interviewed the artist to find out more.

AM: Tell me a bit more about the title of the exhibition, “East Meets West”.

GC: It was an intentionally open title really, to try and represent my current fascination with Eastern culture whilst also allowing me to continue experimenting with elements of early American design, which have been creeping into my work of late. I should point out that my work is never extensively researched (as you can probably tell) as I prefer to make things up – or put my own spin on things. The world as I would like it to be and not really how it is…
Towards the end of its development I wanted the show to almost be a kind of travel diary/scrapbook; a couple of recurring characters making their way from one city to the next (New York to Tokyo, via New Yokyo, a hybrid of the two). And in some pictures in the distance you can spot elements of previous images (something I always tend to do).

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AM: You are obviously inspired by screen culture (especially Sci Fi!) Could you tell me about why these influences appeal to you? The original influences are quite tech-y and macho but your works are really whimsical and beautiful, they remind me more of Hayao Miyazaki than Michael Bay.

GC: I’ve always loved sci-fi films so I guess it was only a matter of time before elements crept into my work. It’s largely the machines that fascinate me rather than the action. My favourite parts of the film are usually when the protagonists are just sitting around/hiding/waiting inside their pods/spaceships without the stress of battle!
I have been watching a lot of Miyazaki of late. He and Wes Anderson are my favourite film makers as they have created their own little worlds that seem to make perfect sense despite all the unusual happenings on screen.
I’m also a sucker for a robot.

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AM: Some of your works are printed on wood or made of inlaid wood. What is it about wood as a material that appeals to you? Is it very hard work getting the solid wood pieces manufactured? How are they made?

GC: A phase I am going through largely, but one I am constantly fascinated with. From getting one thing laser cut, it has opened me up into a whole new way of seeing my work and the possibilities are pretty huge.
The texture of wood appeals to me and also the ‘natural’ connotations. I love the idea that someone may have constructed a working robot from found wood for example. Wood also has that old-fashioned appeal. I’m more enamoured with the look of bygone toys and their clock-work components than anything sleek and soulless.
I worked with a company called Heritage Inlay on the laser cut images and the inlaid pieces. Usually I design them and they construct them. But in some cases I like to order the separate components and put them together myself as in the case of the 3 images composed of laser-cut perspex, silkscreen backing and screen-printed glass [see image below].

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AM: I loved the perspex “landscape” pieces. Is it very different creating something 3D to making a print?

GC: I treat the process the same way as a 2D piece really. They all start out life as a digital layered file on my computer so I can see roughly how they will work. I’m never entirely sure how the 3D piece will work until I have a finished one, due to unforeseen elements such as shadows running over parts of the background print etc. That’s why I find it an exciting way to work.

Graham Carter@The Coningsby Gallery
www.coningsbygallery.com
August 31 – September 12
30 Tottenham Street , London, W1T 4RJ

If you’d like to see an online array of Carter’s works, investigate e-gallery Boxbird.

When scouring the latest releases for something worthy of talking about, unhealthy an album opener of the primary school rhyme to remember Henry VIII’s wives, is going to catch your attention. Recently signed to Andy Turner‘s ATIC Records, The Witch and the Robot are a treasure trove of oddities waiting to assault and bemuse your senses with their first release ‘On Safari.’

TheWitchAndTheRobotPressShot.jpg

Aforementioned opener, ‘Giant’s Graves’, introduces a theme that runs throughout the album of pagan chanting, psychotic percussion and bizarre lyrics. With a name check to philosopher, St. Thomas Aquinas, in the following track, lead singer Andrew Tomlinson screams: “God is mackerel” against an array of fowl (as in bird) noises.

Standout track, and title for that matter, ‘No Flies On Me (Jam Head)’ is an example of the alluring world that the band create, rich in competing layers of sonic beauty. If you were wondering, it’s about wealthy golfers who employ a man to take the bait of flies by covering his bonce in the sticky stuff.

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Live performances are known to emulate some kind of terrifying children’s party with helium balloons, cream pies, fighting and bunting all playing a part. In addition to putting out the most unique blend of folk, psychedelia and prose heard this year, the band run a night where each punter is entered into a compulsory meat raffle. They explain: “We sometimes play surrounded by raw meat on stage. It’s referencing our own mortality, the fragility of life, it’s visceral, sexual even, but also it is nicely weird.”

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At this stage, you’re probably wondering where a band of such peculiar entities are from… That picturesque, romantic stretch of idyll, the Lake District of course… That same region of the UK that has inspired the poems of Keats, Collingwood and Wordsworth to name but a few. This could perhaps explain the spoken word entry on ‘Sex Music(Beef on Music)’, which does narrate a meeting of the sexes but in a less romantic context than our nineteenth century forefathers. Their eccentric yet catchy sounds have caught the attentions of fellow Cumbrians and Amelia’s Magazine faves, British Sea Power and they were asked to open their festival in north Yorkshire.

onsafari.jpg

If you can’t make your mind up whether they are performance art with access to a recording studio or actually have the intention of being a band at all, De-Nihilism should answer this for you; a sprawling rock track that transports you to the Arizona Desert, but there you’d most probably be wearing a silly outfit and singing a shanty.

This album is humorously fun yet dark and mysterious all delivered with a conviction and musicianship that compels another listen… “Divorced, beheaded, died/Divorced, beheaded, survived.” Just in case you’d forgotten.

Less of a protest than a gentle nudge, physician the aim of the 10:10 campaign is to sign members of the public up to a pledge to reduce their carbon emissions by 10% by the end of 2010. A star-spangled event at Tate Modern encouraged thousands to sign up to make this change. It was a very different approach from the grassroots events at the Climate Camp last weekend and had an entirely different goal: to get ordinary people to make small changes to save the world.

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But hasn’t this message been preached for years with little result? I always refuse carrier bags at the supermarket but this does not appear to have yet halted global warming. Support in reducing my consumption of resources in all parts of my life is very welcome and, patient having signed up, cheap I’m going to take up some of the tips on offer such as going vegan three days a week. I’m a lazy environmentalist: I care and I know what needs to be done, but I find it hard not to fly, as many people do with relatives who live abroad. I get confused as to whether this cancels out all of my efforts on the recycling and public transport front. There are many of us out there, and still more who find it hard to get motivated when the problem seems so big.

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Campaigns like 10:10 often draw mixed responses from the green movement. Many of those who have informed themselves about climate change and have made meaningful changes to their lifestyle will be puzzled by the half-measure of asking people to take one less flight a year. It’s frustrating to see 10% held up as a magic figure when in reality we need to be drastically reducing our use of resources to avoid being the most reviled generation in the history of mankind. We don’t need to switch off a light every now and then; we need to stop using freezers and eating meat. These aren’t sacrifices that the majority of people are willing to have prized from their cold, dead hands, so instead they do nothing. That’s why it is necessary to have well-promoted and unintimidating ventures like 10:10, because otherwise instead of 10% it will be 0%.

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However, with all the best intentions, it’s not realistic to rely on individual decision-making and a small change in some lives won’t make enough of a difference. International politics and the Western economic model, which views increased consumption and growth as the only positive outcome, make it very hard for governments to lead the way. And if they did try to radically change the way the average Briton lives it would be hard for us to stomach. But we can’t have our cake and eat it. There are very difficult decisions to be made and at the moment they are being taken by a vanishingly small minority. It can’t be one lightbulb: it must be everyone’s lightbulb, every night, forever.

Both Climate Camp and 10:10 show that green campaigning can be given a high profile in the media through well-designed websites and using new modes of communication such as Facebook and Twitter. The mainstreaming of climate change awareness can only be a good thing, and it’s important to normalise making big changes in lifestyle. Living a “green” life needs to be seen as less expensive and we need to cultivate a better array of things to do in Britain that don’t require a car or a credit card. What is required is a paradigm shift in the way the majority of the population lives and going green needs to be seen as “just something you do”. Soon enough, owning more than one car will become embarrassing rather than a status symbol, but by the time the sea is lapping at everyone’s front door, it will be a little late to argue about who was the best environmentalist in 2009.

It can be done. It just needs to be done at a slightly quicker rate. Going green needs to be cheap and cheerful and to be made easier psychologically. Efforts like 10:10 help with this, but at the end of 2010, the bar needs to be set a little higher. We need to knock off another 10% in 2011, and then another. Asking for more all in one go won’t work but perhaps turning up the heat a little at a time will.
It’s all about looking forwards, website loads of opportunities to learn about the current climate chaos and our government-led impending doom and chances to get involved in taking action and planning what on earth we can do.

Green Jobs and the Green Energy Revolution: is the government doing enough?
Date: Monday 07 Sep 2009 ?

An opportunity for people to get together to discuss the UK’s future direction in the ‘green sector.’ There are talks from Green party and Labour candidates as well as Union directors and workers from the Vestas factory who lost their jobs when the government closed down a wind turbine factory.
This meeting also comes as part of the build up to the next “Save Vestas” National Day of Action on Thursday 17th September.
morningsounds%20copy.jpg Illustration by Katy Gromball
Time: 19:00
Venue: Conway Hall, site Red Lion Square, Holborn
E-mail: info@campaigncc.org?
Website: www.campaigncc.org

No New Coal Stopping Kingsnorth
Date: Wednesday 09 Sep 2009

A post Climate Camp meeting to keep the ball rolling on the planned actions and campaigns throughout the Autumn. Greenpeace will be outlining their forthcoming campaign ‘The Big If’ which asks supporters to make pledges as to what they will do if Ed Miliband gives the go-ahead for a new dirty coal power station at the Kingsnorth site in Kent. Climate activist Jonathan Stevenson will be looking back at last week’s Climate Camp and other actions that have raised awareness of the government’s lack of initiatives in reducing the UK’s carbon footprint.
There will also be film screening and a chance to discuss future strategies in combating the expansion of other coal power stations as well as Kingsnorth.
?Time: 7pm till 8.30pm
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Venue: Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX
Contacts: Nik Gorecki, 020 7837 4473
E-mail: nik@housmans.com?
Website: www.housmans.com

Making rustic furniture
Date: Friday 11 Sep 2009 to Sunday 13 Sep 2009

A workshop held over next weekend in Sussex where people can learn how to make their own furniture and craft their own objects from wood. It is run by people from the Low-Impact Living Initiative (LILI) which is a non-profit organisation whose mission is to help people reduce their impact on the environment, improve their quality of life, gain new skills, live in a healthier and more satisfying way, have fun and save money.
The course will also teach people to understand the different characteristics and uses of wood and hopefully come back with an elegant and unique piece of furniture for the house.

Venue: Wholewoods, Sussex
Contacts: 01296 714184
E-mail: taryn@lowimpact.org?
Website: www.lowimpact.org
?
Spitalfields Show & Green Fair
Date: Sunday 13 Sep 2009

This weekend sees the start of the Green Fair which includes home-made produce and handicrafts plus a whole range of stalls run by groups and organisations with Fairtrade goods, healthy food, healing therapies and projects raising environmental awareness. Make sure to check out the Mobile Allotment designed by artist Lisa Cheung. The fair is run by Alternative Arts, which is an innovatory arts organisation based in Spitalfields, East London. They invest in new artists and new ideas and aim to make the arts highly accessible to the public.
suzyGillustration.jpg Illustration by Suzy Phillips
Venue: Allen Gardens & Spitalfields City Farm, Buxton St. E1
Time: 12 noon – 5pm
Contacts: 020 7375 0441
E-mail: info@alternativearts.co.uk?
Website: www.alternativearts.co.uk

Disarm DSEi 2009
Date: 8 September

The worlds largest Arms fair is due to take place in the next couple of days, at DSEi 2007, there were 1352 exhibitors from 40 different countries with a total of 26,5000 visitors. The trade fuels conflict, undermines development and creates poverty around the world.
DISARM DSEi are calling for people to join together to unstick these institutions, expose the devastation they cause, and hold them to account for their actions.
Disarm DSEi call on people to come with love and rage; music and militancy; desire and determination and hope to show the government that we should no longer tolerate the death and destruction the arms trade causes.
Disarm DSEi will be meeting at 12 noon on Tuesday 8th September outside the Royal Bank of Scotland on Whitechapel High Street, near Aldgate East Tube, before going on to visit several companies in the City of London that invest in the arms trade and care little about the consequences for the victims of war.
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A flash mob at the Fourth plinth today got things going with people people handing out leaflets and raising awareness by lying ‘dead’ on the ground along side a banned unfurled on the plinth, part of Antony Gormley’s One and Other project.

Meet 12 Noon Near Aldgate East Tube
Website: www.caat.org.uk

Bristol Anarchist Bookfair
Date: 12 September

Much more than a bookfair, the event hosts a range of debates, discussion meetings, film showings and gives a chance for people to meet and learn from each other. There is even a cheap vegan cafe to get stuck into. 35 stalls will be set up with an extensive range of radical and alternative books, pamphlets, zines, music, badges, dvd’s, t-shirts, merchandise and free information on a range of different topics.

The Island, Bridewell Street, BS1 2PZ
10.30-6.00 Free entry
Website: www.bristolanarchistbookfair.org
From next Monday Amelia’s Magazine will be running between various fashion related events before the opening of London Fashion Week 2009 on Friday 18th September at Somerset House. Below are some of the events occurring as the capital turns its attention towards the Strand.

Tuesday 8th September

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Earlier this month Amelia’s Magazine visited the When You’re a Boy exhibition at the Photographer’s Gallery and recommends you take the chance to visit before the 4th October. The show refreshingly celebrates men in fashion and focuses on menswear stylist Simon Foxton, order who will be talking at The Photographers Gallery on Tuesday 8th September at 7pm. See the previous article here.

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Prick your Finger appear at Howies shop in Carnaby Street tomorrow night to discuss the increase in hand knitting through the story ‘Cast Off Knitting Club For Boys and Girls’ and the rise of knitting in public back. Prick your Finger will move onto discuss how they established their shop and the promotion of craft as a constructive past-time alongside promoting an awareness of the textile industry.

Doors open at 7.15 and it is a free event.

Thursday 10th September

Pop up shops are spreading like a rash across the London landscape in the run up to Fashion Week. Most are money-spinners disguised as concepts taking their cue from Dover St Market and the idea that investing in a limited edition is a more acceptable version of consumerism. It is not, order please think before you buy how many times you will wear garment and how you will dispose of it, hospital once you are bored and fashion has ‘moved’ on.

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Garance Dore Photography

Carnaby Street appears to be the hotspot destination for the pop up shop, starting with Beyond the Valley’s pop up store, continuing with Gap’s 40th Denim anniversary shop opening this Thursday to the music of VV Brown and a collaboration with fashion blogger extraordinaire Garance Dore, to the forth coming ‘Wish you were here’ London and New York Boutique swap
in October.

Sunday 13th September

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Dazed and Confused Magazine pre-empts the opening of SHOWstudio’s Fashion Revolution with their Fashion In Film showcase as part of the onedotzero season at the BFI. Hand picked by the editorial team this showing promises to be an interesting example of documenting fashion in film.

Thursday 17th September

However, the one pop up store to watch out for is On|Off’s boutique which opens on the 16th September and runs until the 22nd. Apart from featuring the wide range of designers who have shown at On|Off during the past twelve season, the boutique will provide visitors to the shop the opportunity to watch live catwalk feed and backstage interviews with designers.

8 Newburgh Street, W1

Friday 18th September

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To coincide with London Fashion Week’s move to Somerset House, SHOWstudio (the online fashion site established by Nick Knight) have organised the Fashion Revolution exhibition which will open to the public on the 17th September. The exhibition will showcase the methods used by the website in collaboration with stylists, photographers, fashion designers and cultural figures to develop the methods through which fashion is communicated. Mainly concentrating on capturing fashion on film, these explorations of interaction between clothing, body and audience will be documented in the show under the titles: ‘Process’, ‘Performance’ and ‘Participation’.

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If Fashion on Film is a particular interest do not forget Rich Mix’s Fashion on Film Season starting on Sunday 20th September. To find out more about the Rich Mix Season you can visit previous posts here and here.

Categories ,London Fashion Week, ,onoff, ,Somerset House, ,The Photographer’s Gallery

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Amelia’s Magazine | Art Listings

Here at Amelia’s Magazine HQ this week we are all feeling rather revitalised, this salve 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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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(all images courtesy of The Otesha Project UK)

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, physician Felix Kubin, online Gay 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.

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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.

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“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”.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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!)

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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.

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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. ?

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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!

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What’s next for Xuan-Thu Nguyen?

We’re working on launching the brand in Asia for 2010..

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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!

There is an iceberg. An iceberg of edgy London Jazz. Below the surface, prescription you will find a few dozen bands that are generally brilliant, boldly avant-garde, and built out of the same jazzy-family of a dozen people or so. There’s too much going on under there for me to say much more about it. Maybe another day. For, you see, the iceberg also has two peaks, and one of these peaks is the subject of this here bit of text. Not the wonderful Polar Bear, who were the token Jazz-nomination at the Mercury thingy a little while back, but Acoustic Ladyland, who shocked arty Hoxtonians into Jazz a few years ago with their stunning 2nd album, Last Chance Disco.

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The ‘Land are soon to release their fourth album, and decided to try it out at The Lexington in Angel last week. It seems to be that each of this iceberg’s pointy bits has a different helmsperson, and on this one, it is saxophonist Pete Wareham. Whether through choice or Musical Differences Syndrome, Pete has replaced 50% of the band. Tom Herbert has been downsized to Ruth Goller, who is far more punchy and energetic. Where Tom used to slickly stand around like a cool pimp, fingering effortlessly, and pretending not to sweat profusely in his dapper suit, Ruth’s dressed for Reebok Step and premeditatedly lunges at her fretboard, like a wolverine. More dramatic still, is the replacement of Tom Cawley with Chris Sharkey, who doesn’t even play the same instrument. Tom and his hi-lo-fi Nord Electro synth were one of the defining features of Last Chance Disco. Sharkey is a guitarist. Is this the same band?

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Yep. Overall, the show came across as ploughing the same furrow as LCD, but with more heavy-heavy intensity and less melodic reliance and repetition. Drum-legend Seb Rochford plays it like Dave Lombardo of Slayer would play it. Anger is fun. Wareham gets caught up in that vibe, honk-honk, then bollocks to tonality, hurtles through the Ornette Coleman barrier, and parpsqueaks about in the Zornosphere. Ruth’s knotted brow keeps it all together until, until, STOP! The song’s over, we made it, it was good. It’s all tense, 94% of the time. I’m going to call it Agit-Bop.
And the guitar is a real surprise. Sharkey has noodly fingers. He can scribble across the strings with precision and flair, but he’s a texture guitarist. A line-up of pedals laid out before him makes it possible for you to think that Tom Cawley’s ghost has been zapped into a boutique stompbox. It’s bizarre how similar he can sound. It’s that same distorted, imbalanced end-of-level-baddy sound, but with a completely different note-sense: Cawley was Duke Ellington riffing as petulant teenager. Sharkey is kind of Jeff Beck or maybe LA Rocker lead-soloing as electro-sophisticate. In fact, Sharkey probably has a wider range of sounds in his repertoire. I wasn’t expecting it to work, but it does.

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Yet this is a deja-vu moment for me. I caught AL gigging a preview to their last album, Skinny Grin, in 2007.So I know that the live sneak peek is not necessarily what you’ll get on the CD with Pete’s gang. That show gave me the impression that they’d turned metal and more relentlessly intensely consistently so (with a couple of single-aimed guest vocalist tunes). But when the album came, it was awash with depths far beyond LCD, depths that simply hadn’t been in the teaser-gig, that couldn’t have been there. While some of the CD’s high points came across well, like Road Of Bones or Red Sky, others weren’t represented (check out Hitting Home [swoon] or The Rise [swoon again]) So, it is with much confidence that I can say I haven’t really got a clue what the new album’s going to sound like. But this band is tight. Ruth and Seb have a lot of fun, and Pete and Chris are pretty cleverly interacty, too (deep within the iceberg, you will find these two in The Final Terror, in which they perform Olivier Messiaen’s complex, modernist, classical masterpiece, Turangalila – pretty highbrow for apparently chaotic punk-jazzwits). So I’m expecting gritty, pounding, intense bombast. But I’m also expecting a surprise.

Album #4 is expected in July. Meanwhile, Kinder Eggs are available at your local shop.
I have to concede that I was unduly dismissive when I made the presumption that online shopping was a lost cause. Since jumping up and down excitably last week about innovative online shop Your Eyes Lie, look I have unearthed another, order yes another! Tremendous online shop to grace you with! Supersweet is an online lifestyle magazine come shop that fuses alternative fashion, art and underground music while showcasing fabulous designers, unique accessories and alternative Womenswear.

The first to catch my eye on the site was kitsch Jewellery brand Alex and Chloe, heralding from the sunny shores of LA this duo have been producing their zany cut out acrylic designs since 2004. Evoking an almost juvenile yet undeniably cool approach to jewellery, pieces range from nautical anchors to vibrant pink octopuses! To top it all off there is 50% off for most of the collection so pendants average at about £15 pounds each! So get your skates if you want to bag a bargain!

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Another favourite has to be shoe designer Lise Lindvig. I don’t know if I am alone in this but I have been witnessing my wardrobe ebbing into obscurity as I try in vain to find anything that can pass as spring attire. It’s that kind of tran- seasonal stage where you’re contemplating the repercussions if you wear that skirt without tights. It’s a complicated season spring, we are finally banishing away our winter woes and embracing the sun like our long lost relative! So when I saw lindvig’s vibrant designs nothing seemed to encompass the whole ethos of spring more accurately. The Danish designer’s vibrant yellow wedge heels exude warmth. I can just see myself hop footing to work on a spring’s morning in this delightful pair!

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The team at Supersweet have such a diverse array of talented designers under their belt it’s hard to squeeze them all in. The most vivacious addition to their collection has to be Womenswear designer Teerabul Songvich. Heralding from Thailand, Songvichs Middle Eastern roots resonates in his work; each piece is an explosion of colour and form. You feel as if you have unearthed a unique treasure trove brimming with sequins and vivid fabrics. Each piece is highly intricate and comprehensive, beautifully crafted from diverse materials such as leather and sequins to create a gradient of beautiful tones. With iconoclastic fans such as Bjork and the late Isabella Blow to boot I would definitely be boasting my socks off I was him!

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Another designer to stand out from the herd in is Brazilian designer Alexandre Herchcovitch. His designs are a floral tour de force, teaming classic paisleys against traditional floral motifs with voluminous ruffles and bat wings. It’s sheer Bohemian indulgence. You just want to clad yourself out in a Herchcovitch piece grab your straw hat and tent and hop foot down to the nearest green field!

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It’s safe to say Supersweet is a definite hazard to my bank balance, with such a myriad of talented designers it’s hard not to just want it all. If only money did grow on trees………………………..
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You know, drugs some nights you just know it’s going to turn into a big one… and so it was yesterday. An early evening outing to view my friend’s exhibition in Stepney turned into a marathon drinking, scrabble-playing and snogging-cute-boy-in-the-kitchen session that carried on into the wee hours. It’s been a long time since I last did that. And it was a lot of fun.

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But this blog isn’t about my debauched Thursday night – it’s about Ciaran Begley‘s model railway overpass. Ciaran is like most boys – he gets excited about things that other people (namely girls) find it hard to countenance. Like inventing new origami shapes and playing warlock board games. And he particularly loves his Hornby Dublo model railway overpass. So much so that he found funding to build it scaled up to fit snugly inside a railway arch. For the past two weeks Ciaran has been holed up with his plywood and his saws in the Hold & Freight art space, assisted by aforementioned cute boy. He’s been living, breathing railway overpass and archway.

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Last night was the unveiling of this project, Overpass/Underpass, and the look of glee on Ciaran’s face said it all. He was a man insanely happy to have achieved what on the face of it seemed fairly perverse, but in the world of art is perfectly possible if you’ve enough of a mind to do it.

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I had to wind down the back roads through the housing estates so typical of this area to find the Hold & Freight gallery, where a welcoming fire had been lit on a raised bit of scrubland. There was wine and beer. Forget the hi falutin’ galleries of the west end, this is why East London is justifiably famous for its art.

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In a nice little turn of events Ciaran helped to clear rubble from the space – rented for a brilliant £50 a month fact fans – when curators Amal Khalaf and Tom Trevatt set up the gallery just under a year ago. And he helped to construct the cunning toilet in a crate – much cosier than it sounds. Hold & Freight will be wrapping up in just over a month – the landlords quite like the newly refurbed archway and they’re putting the rent up, as is wont in these matters. Like Ciaran’s art piece the space is transitory.

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We were encouraged to walk up the overpass, which was built to a 1:4 scale. This meant that the steps were too small for our big clumpy human feet, and so we took pigeon steps up to the top, hunching to shuffle along under the exposed brickwork of the archway – an oddly discombobulating experience! I like my installation art to be interactive, and this certainly was. The scaled up overpass is imbued with a subtle pathos in its simplicity – looking the mirror plywood image of the Hornby Dublo model lovingly placed on a table, surrounded by tealights and, erm, beer.

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The model is heavy and slightly worn – I wonder who played with that overpass back in the 60s – what small boy or larger man had so much fun with model trains? Now we were having fun with a larger version. For me the wonder of this piece is that we never really grow up – we always want to play, in whatever form that might take.

Ciaran had asked our choir – the ramshackle Hackney Secular Singers – to sing and so as the gallery filled out we took advantage of the fabulous acoustics to belt out Denis by Blondie. We progressed from railway arch to local pub, and from there returned to Ciaran’s flat for more. Needless to say my head hurts today, but the impromptu nights out are always the best ones.

Overpass/Underpass will be showing until May 3rd, so get in touch with Hold & Freight if you want to view it. And keep an eye out for their last few shows and closing party – due to take place just as summer arrives. That arch hasn’t seen the last of me!

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Eleven Howland Presents Robert Dowling

Robert Dowling
The artist visually explores the boundaries between painting and sculpture using two and three dimensional arrangements.

Eleven Howland LTD, more about 11 Howland Street, information pills Fitzrovia, find W1T 4BU
20th March – 25th April 2009

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The Dog Show, The Cat Show

A collection of Dog and Cat paintings and drawings from the 19th century to the present day.

Hepsibah Gallery, 112 Brackenbury Road, London W6 0BD
2nd Apr – 22nd Apr 09

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Dress 2

Following 2008′s Skirt 1 exhibition comes Dress 2, a collaboration between the Wapping Project and the Fashion Department of the Fine Art Academy at Antwerp.

The Wapping Project
, Wapping Wall, Wapping, E1W 3SG
Monday 20th April – 3rd May 2009 from 12:00 – 22:30, Free

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Alternative Fashion Week

Alternative Fashion Week in Spitalfields Market is a free event that showcases works by innovative emerging young UK designers.

Spitalfields Market, 109 Commercial Street, Whitechapel E1 6EP
Wednesday 20th April- 24th April 2009, from 12:00 – 15:00, Catwalk shows start daily at 1.15pm

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Student Illustration Exhibition

A selection of graphic and illustration works by the London college students.

Well Gallery
, London College of Communication, Elephant & Castle, London SE1 6SB
20th Apr – 24th Apr 2009, 10.00am – 6.00pm, free.

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The Photographic Object

The exhibition takes a look at various approaches to the photograph as ‘object’, and combines it with different methods such as overlaying, stitching, cutting, piercing, punching or moulding the works.

The photographers’ gallery
, 16 – 18 Ramillies Street, W1F 7LW
Apr 24th – 14th June 2009

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New to DACS

New to DACS brings together sculpture, ceramic, drawings, paintings, prints and photography by members of the Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS).

The Kowalsky Gallery at DACS, 33 Great Sutton St, London EC1V 0DX
4TH February – 24th April 2009, Mondays to Fridays 10am- 5pm

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Categories ,Alternative Fashion Week, ,Antwerp, ,ceramic, ,Commercial Street, ,DACS, ,drawings, ,Dress 2, ,Elephant & Castle, ,Eleven Howland, ,Fine Art Academy, ,Hepsibah Gallery, ,Howland Street, ,London College of Communication, ,paintings, ,photography, ,prints, ,Robert Dowling, ,sculpture, ,Spitalfields Market, ,The Cat Show, ,The Dog Show, ,The Kowalsky Gallery, ,The photographers’ gallery, ,The Wapping Project, ,Wapping, ,Wapping Wall, ,Well Gallery, ,Whitechapel

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