Multimedia artist, entrepreneur and founder of Baroness Magazine Sarah Baker recently teamed up with iconic Italian designer Donatella Versace as guest editor for the second instalment of the magazine. In a photographic storybook shot and curated by Sarah Baker, art directed by Stephen Male and styled with Versace’s collection, the artist tells a tale of glamorous yet tumultuous affairs among five characters as the dominantly females cast is tasked to work together in order to successively overcome blackmail & deceit. The scenery is set by Decor from the Versace Home collection and even served as the brand’s holiday campaign.
Twin sat down with the artist Sarah Baker to discuss inspiration and her process of realizing the issue.
What was the experience like working Donatella Versace as guest editor for BARONESS issue NO.2 ?
Working with Donatella was amazing. I have admired her for a long time as a business woman and creative director and she has inspired my artwork for many years. Her team is superb and they have been carefully chosen by Donatella to filter the first round of decisions. When Donatella reviewed our progress, she had a fresh perspective on all the options, and I really admired her bold decisions. As an artist, it is a dream to work with an editor who is open to a lot of very outrageous ideas and willing to experiment and take risks.
You opted to go in the untraditional direction by creating a saga around female collaboration as opposed to female rivalry, what inspired this?
I think it’s about time female collaboration is not seen as groundbreaking. We were interested in reinterpreting the character of The Bitch (the title of a Jackie Collins novel that inspired Alexis Carrington). Interestingly, Collins also wrote Lucky, perhaps her most famous character, who is sexy, sassy, brilliant, and in-control. This really personifies the Versace woman, and the strong traits of our lead characters Angelina and the Baroness resonated with Donatella. My work has been about looking at how women are represented in popular media and how a woman might represent herself. As an artist, I am interested in shifting the narrative away from woman as seen from a man’s perspective, to a woman who is very much in control of her own image, and temper, and therefore abandoning Dynasty-style cat fights. Regarding my personal inspiration for female collaboration, I was also thinking about my own very close group of girlfriends—we have supported one another since early childhood.
What was your favourite aspect of the process while fabricating this issue?
I really enjoyed solving problems with the structure of the narrative. The plot shifted so much from the very beginning, and every time a character was removed or dialogue altered, it had a ripple effect over the whole story. We started with twelve characters and twelve chapters, and due to the reality of shooting schedules and time constraints, we needed to alter the story quite a lot. It was extremely challenging to keep the story alive while maintaining logical conclusions. This problem kept me extremely excited and maybe in the end it was never fully solved, but that contributed to the ridiculousness of the narrative, which made it a little bit more funny. It was reminiscent of the TV show Soap, which is often a point of reference for my work, where the farcical narrative explodes into embellished dialogue. It is true to many fictitious dramas—most Noel Coward plays have the absurd built in—but sometimes life can actually be like that too. Or maybe it’s just my life!
Is there anything you want your viewers to take away or feel from this series?
Humor is really important. That is another thing that was really great about working with Donatella: she has a great sense of humor. Especially at this current time when it seems like the world might blow up—politically, ecologically. It can feel very overwhelming. I personally find laughter more important than ever right now.
Do you have ideas or clues you can give on what may be in store for the next BARONESS issue?
Something fabulously sexy and witty, like everything published by Baron and Baroness.
Mixed Feelings – an exploration of the impact of our digital habits , a chat with author Naomi Shimada
Social media is the most powerful, disruptive and exciting tool to have come into the world in the last decade. It’s role in our lives has drastically changed too, as we lean into its complex system of absorbing information, embracing likes, tracking follows and sharing bits of ourselves.
Two people extremely well placed to grapple with the complexities of this landscape are Naomi Shimada and Sarah Raphael. Having both grown with the internet, and felt the power and possibilities that the digital landscape presented, they’ve distilled their thoughts and experiences into a new book, Mixed Feelings. Bringing together diverse voices and ideas, the result is an insightful take on the most pressing issue of our time. How do we live together, openly, imperfectly and harmoniously in this digital age?
We caught up with Naomi Shimada to discuss their work.
Why did it feel like now was the time to write Mixed Feelings?
We were feeling this overwhelming sense that this conversation needed to happen on a larger scale. For millennials, the internet and social media are the things that affected our lives in the biggest way. It’s changed the way we work, love, travel, exercise, eat! It’s drastically changed how we live and there’s bound to be some fallout because of that. The fallout is mostly an emotional one. To have a smartphone and be using social media almost undoubtedly means you have mixed feelings about it. There is this overwhelming feeling I can feel in the air and see in peoples’ eyes that things can’t go on like this as they are. Everyone we spoke to, so many conversations I overheard, wherever I went in the world, someone was talking about something that happened via social media, where it’s something they saw or did themselves that made them feel some type of way!
How have your relationships with social media changed since you started using it?
More than anything I’m more conscious of how I try to manage my time on it. I know when I want to be quiet and when I feel like being more active. I’m more aware of the feelings it triggers and try to give myself what I need. Also I feel less affected by the pedestal culture it can often create. There are so many things we can’t see in a photo, I really understand now that just because something looks good, doesn’t mean it is good. And it’s been a good reminder that we shouldn’t all be yearning after the same things in life, success shouldn’t look formulaic to all of us. We are all on different paths and it’s important to remember that amid everything we see on social media.
Do you feel like it’s possible to have a naive / carefree relationship with social media today, or does it have to be conscious and curated?
I think that question is more a lot to do with who you are as person and what you’re using social media for! I think if you use it mainly for work or as a portfolio etc than probably using it in a more curated way makes sense for you. I’m all about doing what you feel is best for you!
How do you think social media impacts our friendships and relationships in real life, for the better, and for the worse?
I don’t think it’s black and white like that. It’s been a super powerful tool for connecting with people for me. Some of those digital connections have turned into some of my deepest IRL friendships so I definitely don’t discount the power of a relationship that starts online, but it can be confusing sometimes when social media is so made to be so much about social capital. We can also use our profiles to curate and create a version of ourselves that doesn’t necessarily mirror who are in real life and that’s tricky terrain to navigate. We are also a generation that has so many aquaintances and less deep friendships. I think just being aware of what kind of friendships you want and what kind of friend you are or want to be to others online as well as in real life is a grounding place to start.
What has been the most exciting thing about creating this book for you both?
It’s been really powerful to just create a space to have and try to encourage really honest and vulnerable conversations. Social media is so often a place of pretence and projection, so we wanted to make something that was the antithesis of that. We wanted to make something that you had to put your phone down to absorb and think and sit with.
What was the biggest learning / take away from the process of creating the book?
That even though our book was focused on our emotional habits around social media, what we were really writing about, was the human condition. That all of these complexities that we’re talking about, all these feelings, are innately human but are just amplified by social media!
Although it’s entitled mixed feelings, is there a clear takeaway that you want to leave readers with?
That you aren’t alone in these feelings. This technology in the grand scheme of things is so new we don’t really understand what it’s doing to our brains yet, as we don’t have the research. We don’t pretend to have the answers but we’re hoping by sharing our experiences it makes other people feel more free and less ashamed about these feelings we so often feel in isolation, alone on our phones. Let’s just be honest and agree that so much of how social media makes us feel and make us do – is weird man!
Based on what people have contributed to the book and your own thinking, do you think our relationship with social media is going to change any time soon?
I don’t think this technology is going anywhere, our lives are only becoming more and more intertwined. These apps are designed to make us addicted, and the more time we spend on them the more tech companies can gain from us financially. So if we want the internet and social media to change, we have to change. We have to be more aware about how things make us feel and from then decide what kind of role you want it to keep playing in your life. If we want it to grow up we have to grow up ourselves.
Mixed Feelings: Exploring the Emotional Impact of our Digital Habits by Naomi Shimada & Sarah Raphael (Quadrille, £16.99) is out now
TO READ: “It’s Not About The Burqa” – As told by an Ingenious Collective of Muslim Women
During a time where Islamophobia and Xenophobia are still currently on the rise, “It’s Not About The Burqa” conceived and edited by writer and activist Mariam Khan is an essential hardcover offering insightful unique perspectives from inside the Muslim community. Published by Pan Macmillan earlier this year, the book features an anthology of 17 informative essays from 17 of Britain’s Muslim female youth brought together by Khan as they reflect on their stories of oppression, the lazy stereotyping, misogyny and islamophobia.
Mariam’s concept for the book was triggered when she first came across a report about a leaked conversation had by British Prime Minister David Cameron and one of his officials where he expressed his views of the “traditional submissiveness” of Muslim women being a key problem in the fight against Islamic extremism. Mariam soon grew tired of conversations like this being had about the definitions and needs of Muslim women by parties that were neither female or muslim.
From this, the idea was conceived to unite the voices of these women with different stories ranging from funny , to warm, to sad and angry, as they discuss freely the hijab, the wavering faith, love and divorce, feminism, queer identity, sex etc. “I wanted a book that let Muslim women speak on their own terms, without being spoken over, about whatever they wanted and for that not to have to go through a white filter. We had to have a platform of all sorts of voices, and represent the vast experiences. I couldn’t edit the book thinking, ‘I don’t agree with that,”said Khan.
The book counteracts the media’s distorted definition of a Muslim woman being “all about the burqa” and gives insight to what it’s truly like. Mariam’s chapter titled “Feminism Needs To Die” discusses her experience as a feminist as she came to the realization that mainstream “white” feminism did not have room or wasn’t interested in accommodating the choices she makes in regards to her faith. Each essay, with titles like The First Feminist (Sufiya Ahmed) , Immodesty is the Best Policy (Coco Khan) , Hijabi [R]evolution (Afshan D’Souza-Lodhi) and Not Just A Black Muslim (Raifa Rafiq), presents a unique testimony from a few of the only voices we should be listening to about the journey of what it’s like to be a Muslim woman in 2019. To get your copy visit INATB.
Recently released was a hardcover published by Here Press Publishing entitled The Town of Tomorrow – 50 Years of Thamesmead, in tribute to one of London’s iconic towns.
“Rising from London’s Erith marshes in the 1960’s, Thamesmeand was LondonCounty Council’s bold attempt to build a new town to address the city’s housing shortage after World War ll. It’s ben noted for it’s daring, experimental design, concrete modern terraces, blocks of flats and elevated walkways built around a system of lakes and canals. Today Thamsmead is home to more the 40,000 people but throughout the years, economic, political and social pressure have left their mark. In the 198’s, as opinion turned against the modernist converts architecture, the focus shifted to more conventional red brick homes. Since the 1990s, as some of the original buildings began to fall into disrepair, Thamesmead has relied increasingly on private investment for new developments in what had previously been a mainly council run town.
In ‘The Town of Tomorrow,’ history has already been assembled and preserved. The architecture and it’s inhabitants have been captured by archive material. Combined with newly commissioned photography by Tara Darby. Original plans, models , postcards, leaflets and newspaper clippings are presented alongside interviews with local residents. Together with an introductory essay by John Grindrod, the images covey the story of an influential and often misunderstood town, from the dreams and excitement of its ambitious original vision to the complex realities of living there today.”
American author Chris Kraus, culture critic Carlo McCormick and visual artist Fab 5 Freddy have all recently joined forces on the embarkment of a new hardcover creation titled Jane Dickson in Times Square. The book tells a tale of the artistic, seedy and criminalistic night-time world of Manhattan in the 70’s and early 80’s through the eyes of renowned painter Jane Dickson. As a distinct creative voice of this period, Dickson has made her marks within the legacies of downtown art, punk rock and hip hop through her involvement with the Colab art collective which included her work in iconic exhibitions such as The Real Estate Show (1980) and Times Square Show (1980). Throughout this all, the artist has lived her success from her apartment of 43rd street while raising two children in a time where the neighbourhood experienced it’s most crime-infested period. Through her journey, the artist has photographed, drawn and painted scenes of life in Times Square. In this book, many of these art works are reproduced for the first time along with candid shots, sketches and paintings. The book tells the visual tale of a wild, manic, beautiful New York City with a foreword by Chris Kraus, afterword by Fab 5 Freddy and an interview by Carlo McCormick. This is the first first time Dickson has chosen to place her personal speech alongside her finished work as unfiltered personal memories. “I was a flâneur, documenting this crazy scene: A painter, using the camera to take notes, trying to get some grip on what the hell was going on.. One of my main goals is to leave a record of how the world looked and felt, in this place, at this time, to this woman. The female gaze is not disembodied — it is very much embodied and grounded within the fame form and experience, here in my experience.” The book, published by Anthology Editions, is now on shelves in select stores in the US, UK and Australia, for more information on where and how to purchase, check out the official site.
Imagery courtesy Jane Dickson In Times SquareImagery courtesy of Jane Dickson In Times Square
Photo books to fall in love with, from the founder of Yoffy Press
“Selecting 10 favourite photo books is a nearly impossible task, so I limited the scope to photo books I own. Each of these books represent aspects of the type of book Yoffy Press strives to publish in terms of design, innovation, and quality.” Says Jennifer Yoffy Schwartz, who founded her Atlanta-based publisher Yoffy Press. The publisher specialises in transforming photographs into bodies of art, creating a visceral and lasting celebration of creativity. We asked Jennifer to curate a selection of her favourite photo books – see her list below.
Black is the Day, Black is the Night, Amy Elkins, self-published
I tell everyone who will listen about this book. Elkins takes a subject that seems impossible to photograph – the thoughts and memories of death row inmates and the overarching capital punishment system – and brilliantly does just that. The book weaves together these images with ephemera, text, and representative objects. The design also happens to be gorgeous.
Beyond Maps and Atlases, Bertien van Manen, MACK
This book is beautiful, and fairly straight-forward from a design perspective. But looking through is immersive. It feels like a world I want to know. I am also in awe of the edit. There are several images that are imperfect, flawed. I don’t know that I would have been brave enough to include them, but they make the book sing.
Silent Histories, Kazuma Obara, RM Verlag
I randomly came across this book in New York last spring. It appears handmade, with dozens of little treasures tucked between pages, creating an incredibly engaging viewing experience. I bought it, because at the time, Louie Palu and I were deep into concepting mode for his book, Front Towards Enemy (to be released in October). The interactive aspect of this book was something we were striving for. Coincidentally, when I met up with Louie in New York that weekend, he pulled the same book out of his bag, and said, “this is our inspiration”.
Ametsuchi, Rinko Kawauchi, Aperture
I recently bought this book off a recommendation from a friend, so I haven’t had a lot of time to spend with it yet. I bought it, because of the strong recommendation, and because I love images of fire. But the jackpot surprise is the French folds! You can peek inside to see the negative image of the photograph on the outside page. Brilliant.
Swamp, Chloe Sells, GOST
Sells photographs in Botswana and then completes the images in the darkroom by experimenting with layers, texture, and forms to create unique works. The book captures the feeling of wildness through full-bleed images and oddly trimmed pages filled with intense color and overlapping patterns. This is a great example of what Yoffy Press strives to do – create a book that marries design to content to create a new work of art that is so much more than just a series of bound photos.
Tori, Masao Yamamoto, Radius
I adore Yamamoto, and I have a bit of a bird obsession, so it’s not surprising I love this photobook. But beyond the obvious interest, the design makes a large book feel precious, like Yamamoto’s images. Flipping through the pages feels like carefully sorting through a Box of Ku. You want to touch everything. You want to know what will come next. You want to look closely and examine every detail.
Vanilla Partner, Tørbjørn Rødland, MACK
I have a difficult time articulating why I love this book. It just feels smart and sexy and fun and a little unsettling. Looking through it feels like watching a really great movie you don’t entirely understand.
Tones of Dirt and Bone (Special Edition), Mike Brodie, Twin Palms/TBW (Special Edition)
The color palate of Brodie’s images is distinct and striking, and the book does a great job of keeping the viewer in the mood the project evokes. But the closer for me is the slipcase in the special edition. The train window cut-out? So smart.
My Last Day at Seventeen, Doug Dubois, Aperture
The integration of a comic into this book blows my mind. It tells a story that is based on true events – a story within a story. It’s like insight comes in sideways. It’s a hint of something beyond our grasp, but it’s enough information to let the viewer feel it. Then there’s that last page…
The History of Photography in Pen & Ink, Drawings by Charles Woodard, A-Jump Books
While not technically a photobook, it is a book about photographs, and it is a delight.
Orlando issue 2: ‘Discourse’ launch party
Founded by Philomena Epps in 2014, Orlando is an online platform and print magazine that fuels and ignites conversation around feminism, gender and identity. With a view to championing women creatives and intellectuals across a range of disciplines, Orlando is both radical and inclusive; it’s about uniting individuals through conversation and community.
The forthcoming issue draws together a range of work around the theme of discourse. Contributors include Katherine Jackson, who in her essay ‘The Sculpture: Language, Industry and Art in the Work of The Artist Placement Group’ considers an ephemeral 1971 work by The Artist Placement Group, long-form poetry from artist filmmaker Keira Greene and an image-led essay from Althea Greenan, curator of the Women’s Art Library.
“The name itself is inspired by the transgressive protagonist of Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel.” says Philomena. “In the text, Woolf drew on the androgynous body as a signifier for multiplicity, and to advance a narrative of mutual understanding and inclusion. Inspired by how androgyny functions in the story, Orlando operates in a similar way by eschewing binaries in favour of the united body.”
To mark the latest issue, Orlando will be hosting a launch party next week which will see various elements of the magazine brought to life. Expect readings and performances from many of the magazine’s contributors, as well as a complimentary copy of the latest issue.
Orlando issue 2 launch party takes place on May 3rd, buy tickets here.
In the name of (literary) love: immortality auction
Calling all literature lovers: the charity, Freedom from Torture is offering the chance for your name (or that of a loved one) to be immortalised by being named as a character in an upcoming book by a best-selling author.
This year sees literary leaders joining together to raise funds for this worthy cause that is dedicated in helping the treatment and support of torture survivors who seek refuge in the UK. Authors involved include: Michael Morpurgo, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Tracy Chevalier, Esther Freud, Louis de Bernieres, Rose Tremain, William Boyd, Linda Grant, Chris Cleave, Eleanor Catton, Jonathan Coe, Maggie O’Farrell, Philip Pullman and Booker Prize winner Ian McEwan.
“This auction offers the genuine opportunity of an afterlife. More importantly, bidding in the Freedom from Torture auction will help support a crucial and noble cause. The rehabilitation of torture survivors cannot be accomplished without expertise, compassion, time – and your money.” said author Ian McEwan.
The online auction is running till the 16th November on www.immortalityauction.org. For all of those in London, there is also a live auction taking place on the 17th November at Sixty One Whitehall, hosted by comedian and author Alexei Sayle.
iO Tillett Wright has many strings to his bow; the activist, speaker, writer, photographer, host and now author has proven himself to be a creative that not only pushes the boundaries, but well and truly breaks them – rejecting gender norms, and speaking out about it.
Brought up in the vibrancy of eighties downtown New York, Wright was at the intersection of punk, poverty, heroin, and art. His life also featured his creative showgirl, and all round “erratic glamazon” of a mother, Rhonna. It is no surprise then, that Wright’s debut book, Darling Days, A Memoir, is a culmination of the rebellion and love that he was exposed to and felt from an early age. At the heart of the book, it reveals the relationship between this formidable mother and a tearaway kid, sharing the bond they have which was defined by freedom and control, excess and sacrifice.
Recently released with Harper Collins, this debut book has predictably received critical acclaim. Buy your copy harpercollins.com
Having started humbly in 2011 as an A5 DIY zine, in the last five years Mushpit has really come of age, and is in the process of compiling its 9th issue: ‘The Crisis Issue’. Born out of frustration with the rule-bound world of fashion, Mushpit is a playful reaction to glossy magazines, featuring lots of satire, as well as all your favourite tropes of teen magazines, with flow charts and problem pages aplenty.
If you haven’t picked up a copy of Mushpit yet, look no further – we spoke to creators Bertie Brandes and Char Roberts about being vodka lime socialists, unemployment, and what’s in their latest issue, which will be available for you to get your hands on pretty soon.
How would you describe Mushpit to anyone who doesn’t know it? As useful, useless and stupid hot.
What were your aims when you started Mushpit? What gap do you think you’re filling in the market? When we started we were very critical of “women’s media” which clearly didn’t cater to us at all. If you liked magazines then you apparently either read Vogue, Dazed, Grazia or W, which felt extremely dated. We also wanted a place to give room to all the amazing writers, photographers, stylists and time-wasters we were hanging around with.
Is there a political agenda you stick to in terms of content or political leaning? We’re Vodka Lime Socialists and proud.
Where do you draw inspiration from? Shop signs, fizzy drinks, rival mags and the Ham & High.
Who is your audience? People with a sense of humour, who are willing to spend money on something they have no idea about – so a lot of media dads. Oh and young women obvvsss!
How has Mushpit evolved since it began in 2011? It has grown in every sense. It was A5 when we were students and it’s A4 now we’re unemployed.
How do you fund the magazine? Do you have other jobs outside of Mushpit? Charlotte (hi!) is a stylist and Bertie (hello!) is a writer. We try to do as many morally dubious and anonymous jobs as we can to fund the magazine and it sort of works. We manage to remain proudly ad-free, somehow.
What have been your favourite collaborative moments? Shooting with Tyrone LeBon was great, and working in Suffolk with Raphy Bliss and Victoria Higgs on the new issue was a real dream shoot. Eloise Parry is an amazing photographer who we love working with, as well as Dexter Lander, who has become a regular contributor. Everything Paul Gorman does for us is phenomenal as well, not excluding him and Caz’s next feature.
Can you give us any teasers for the next issue? There’s some great editorial in issue 9; our good friend Martin has interviewed one of the founding editors of Spare Rib and, perhaps a little less high-brow, there’s a dandruff diet page for flaky scalp sufferers.
What kind of impact do you think Mushpit has? We hope that once you’ve finished the magazine you feel vindicated and victorious… And ready to take on the world! The horrible, horrible world.
‘The Crisis Issue’ is coming in early October to Themushpit.co.uk
To welcome 2016, Taschen books are launching a sale that will run from the 28th to the 31st of January. Taschen’s South London store – situated in Duke of York Square – will offer discounts of between 50-75% on displayed and slightly damaged titles, which will also be extended to their website www.taschen.com.
Originally known as Taschen Comics, the publishing house was established in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen to publish his extensive comic book collection. It has since become a force in making lesser-known art available to mainstream bookstores and in bringing subversive art into broader public view. Taschen has always embraced potentially controversial material alongside books that focus on subjects like art photography, comics, painting, fashion, film and architecture. Their reputation of producing more daring titles on fetishistic imagery, queer art, historical erotica and pornography has set them apart from traditional competitors, making Taschen the first stop for lovers of print, art, anthropology… and aphrodisia.
In its 35-year history, Taschen has garnered a global following and made headlines several times. It has produced the world’s most popular art book series, the introductory Basic Art Series, and has broken records with Helmut Newton’s SUMO – the most expensive book published in the 20th Century. Last year, Taschen introduced Art and Collectors Editions with models Gisele Bündchen and Naomi Campbell, photographer Bettina Rheims and music icon David Bowie. Join Taschen on the 28th of January as they celebrate many new, bold ventures for 2016, and indulge your artistic, or erotic, needs.
The Anonymous Sex Journal – that pleasurable, pocket-sized zine – is back and the new issue is all about solo sexual adventures, or the “ménage à mois”. For those not familiar, the cheeky zine consists of anonymously submitted stories that range from awkward and sordid, to hilarious and endearing – adjectives which often describe the broad range of human sexual experiences. Created by London-based editor, Alex Tieghi-Walker, its success lies in the name: anonymity, where contributors are freed of having their names attached to revealing and compelling sexual exposés.
In a similar way that iconic gay zine, Butt, did over a decade ago, The Anonymous Sex Journal represents a new wave of sex-themed magazines with strong artistic sensibilities that are changing the way we look at sex. Other examples are Irene in Paris, Treats from Los Angeles, and Adult in New York, all of which are shifting the atmosphere of sexual discourse towards a more honest and diverse one.
With a vested focus on art direction, they sell at a premium with the aim of, as described by the New York Times, “moving sex periodicals from under the mattress up onto the coffee table.” One of the best aspects of The Anonymous Sex Journal is its focus on celebrating the creativity of one illustrator per issue – for this fourth issue, Laura Callaghan (her work is featured above) – making them as beautiful as they are fun, and increasing the publication’s good humour.
The new issue of The Anonymous Sex Journal: The Solo Issue has been restocked at Ditto Press and submissions for the next issue, “The Hotel Issue of Dirty Weekenders,”are already being taken.
When it comes to column inches and tabloid notoriety the Kardashians have got nothing on the Mitford sisters. These charismatic socialites dominated the headlines of the ’20s and ’30s with their exploits, and perhaps the most controversial and complex of the siblings was Diana, hailed, incredibly, as both the most beautiful and the most hated woman of her day. After a spectacular launch into society as the teenage debutante who bagged the dashing and fabulously wealthy Bryan Guinness, she scandalised her set by becoming the mistress of Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists. It’s a story that has been told countless times from every possible angle, including in Diana’s own memoir, The Pursuit of Laughter, but the story can stand another retelling because the woman at the heart of it remains an enigma, her actions impossible to fathom.
In Mrs Guinness: The Rise and Fall of Diana Mitford, the Thirties Socialite(The History Press, £17.99), Lyndsy Spence paints a compelling portrait of a woman with the capacity for passionate love and loyalty, but who was equally capable of closing her mind to the nastier implications of such deep devotion. Through unpublished letters and diaries she goes back through Diana’s childhood, teenage years and first marriage in an effort to understand how she became the woman she did. The composite portrait that she has pieced together may be as close as we will ever get to understanding the mystery that is Diana Mitford.
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes – And Other Lessons from the Crematorium (Canongate, £12.99) is a highly unusual memoir by mortician Caitlin Doughty who’s passionate about demystifying death. She is a twentysomething woman with an impeccable fringe who has got funeral ash under her nails and doesn’t mind explaining how it got there. Smoke is her manifesto for how to live – and die – better, a memoir of her own coming-to-terms-with mortality and a deconstruction of the mostly quite appalling death industry. Caitlin, with her no-nonsense style and absolute single-mindedness plus a healthy dose of goth sensibility, bravely shows that death is nothing to be afraid of.
The Green Road (Jonathan Cape, £16.99) is a return to form for 2007 Booker winner Anne Enright who was named Ireland’s first fiction laureate in January. Set in pre-recession Ireland where there’s abundant optimism and bundles of euros, Enright is free to explore the idea of family without having to negotiate the country’s current economic doldrums.
Rosaleen Madigan wants to sell up her homestead and split the money between her grown-up children: two sons, two daughters. The road of the title leads the characters back home for Christmas to hear about their mother’s plans. It’s also a reference to how they have each escaped, whether to Toronto, or Timbuktu, or just up the road to Dublin. This is a familiar Irish narrative where siblings have fled the homeland for better lives and opportunities, but each of their homecomings will chime with readers. Familial disappointments, anxieties, failures, rivalries and questions around belonging are all delicately handled and Enright’s writing has an easy poetry, ‘Beauty, in glimpses and flashes, that is what the soul required. That was the drop of water on the tongue.’
Glossy book of the month: In Icons of Women’s Style(Laurence King, £19.95),Josh Sims introduces the essential pieces that make up the clothing canon. An essay accompanied by some fine fashion photography explains why each those perennial classics – including capri pants, A-line dresses, Breton tops – are always in style.
Anna-Marie Fitzgerald and Phoebe Frangoul are the co-editors and co-founders of the London grrrl-zine and literary salon Pamflet. Follow them on Twitter and Instagram @Pamflet.
Feminism Friday: Spare Rib magazine’s digital archives available from The British Library
Iconic feminist magazine Spare Rib’s digitised archives were launched online by the British Library yesterday, providing selected highlights from the magazine, examining how it was run, why it was started and the issues it dealt with. Running from 1972-93, it challenged the stereotyping and exploitation of women, while supporting solutions to the problems they faced.
The archives are a testament to how much has changed in terms of individual rights – a quick read of the news pages provides examples such a woman being fired for wearing a lesbian movement badge – and a reminder of all we have won. Yet it is also a reminder of how much further there is to go.
Spare Rib is enjoyably full of self-parody, lightheartedness and warmth, a surprising product of that era – and your perfect weekend read.
Twin contributors and Pamflet founders, Phoebe Frangoul and Anna-Marie Fitzgerald, are about to launch the thirteenth issue of their post-everything, satirical girl culture zine. It’s been four years since a printed edition has been released, but their back with 40+ pages of pure London grrrl culture.
To celebrate Phoebe and Anna-Marie will be at The Trouble Club on Monday 27th April, where there will be free-flowing wine, music and zines for all.
Get tickets to the launch of Pamflet 13: Absent in the Spring here.
Everyone has an opinion when it comes to print. Some think it’s a dying industry, while others will prompt you to take a look at the magazines on the stands, and more closely at those independent titles that keep coming back for more. Ruth Jamieson’s latest book, Print is Dead. Long live Print, does just that; it is a look at the creatively led magazines that are currently shaping the future of print journalism.
We are very honoured to be featured in the tome alongside some of our favourite publications such as Hole and Corner, Manzine and Kinfolk.
Print is Dead, Long Live Print is available now here.
China is a rising economic force in the world, but little is known about the social and emotional lives of its young people. In Little Emperors and Material Girls (I.B. Tauris, £14.99) Jemimah Steinfeld gives a fascinating insight into a generation that has grown up in a post-Communist society and is the product of the one child policy. Attitudes towards love, sex, careers, family, money and politics are revealed through a series of amazingly candid conversations with Steinfeld – a journalist who lived and worked in China – and backed up by powerful statistics. This is a country with a population of 1.4 billion, with 300 million under the age of 30. In clubs, coffee houses and restaurants she meets ‘leftovers’ (unmarried women over 26), ‘bare branches’ (men without children) and China’s cash-flashing rich kids, known as fu’erdai. They talk about internet dating, parental pressure (especially on gay kids whose parents expect them to marry and continue the family line), financial struggles (turns out it’s as hard to pay the rent in Beijing as in London), sexism and punk rock. They describe feelings of loneliness and alienation, frustration and anger, but also hope and ambition. If you want to know what the future of China looks like, read this book.
Fashion + women + social history: Julie Summers’ Fashion on the Ration (Profile Books, £16.99) ticks ALL our boxes. A detailed account of the crucial role fashion played during WW2, this book brings rationing, clothing coupons and that familiar phrase, ‘make do and mend’ to life through personal testimonies, photographs and Summers’ evocative prose. The tenacity of the men and women on the home front is revealed through anecdotes; Vogue’s staff finishing an issue in the basement after their offices were bombed in the Blitz, Barbara Cartland buying wedding dresses for women in the services to borrow from a ‘wedding dress pool’. Fashion mags acted as tools for disseminating important information from the government, but also as morale-boosters – urging women to make the best of their restricted wardrobes and promoting the idea of ‘beauty as duty’, for their own sakes and for the pride of the nation. Summers analyses the roles of the top designers including Hardy Amies and Norman Hartnell in designing utility clothing (essentially the first designer/high street collaborations). Perhaps inevitably alongside this, the female silhouette changed and fussy frills were out, clean lines and simplicity were in. In a fascinating fact from social history, Summers reveals that for many poor people, the quality of their wardrobes improved thanks to the introduction of coupons and utility clothing which raised the standards of production and distribution. The influence of these seismic changes to the fashion industry, both in terms of aesthetics and manufacturing, can still be felt today.
Our glossy book of the month is Improbable Libraries by Alex Johnson (Thames and Hudson, £14.95 hardback). As public libraries all over the world are shutting down or shrinking, Improbable Libraries is a timely celebration of book-shrines in all their guises. Library-lover (and proud son of two librarians) Alex Johnson is not remotely nostalgic in this collection and instead shows what book recommending, lending and displaying can mean today. He mixes up images and essays on everything library, surveying mobile units, tiny bibliothèques and grand academic institutions. He uncovers some surprising book depositories in repurposed spaces (old phone boxes for example) and somewhat less surprising literature exchanges tucked away in corners of pubs and cafes. Whether personal or public, what a library is or can be is changing and it’s all optimistically documented here. These valuable community spaces, private sanctuaries, luxurious garden book dens and educational lifelines (like the incredible travelling camel library in the Gobi Desert) aren’t going anywhere. Browsing through these dreamy book-nooks made me think that the rather conventional alcove shelving project I’m currently working on could probably benefit from a little bit of these Improbable Librarians’ imaginations.
Anna-Marie Fitzgerald and Phoebe Frangoul are the co-editors and co-founders of the London grrrl-zine and literary salon Pamflet. Follow them on Twitter and Instagram @Pamflet.
It sometimes feels as if London lags a little behind other great cities like New York and Paris when it comes to the way it’s depicted in pop culture – somehow the gritty glamour of our beloved capital doesn’t necessarily translate well to page or screen. But Jason Brooks’ beautiful London Sketchbook(Laurence King, £19.95) is a fitting tribute, something to treasure and leaf through on bleak January afternoons. You will recognise Brooks’ distinctive fashion illustrations from posters and the pages of Vogue and Elle, but with London as his muse he has really let his imagination and talent run riot, creating thoughtful, elegant drawings that truly capture the spirit of the city.
The book is divided into themed chapters such as ‘the street’, ‘London by night’ and ‘fashion’ so you can flip straight to your subject of choice. Brooks mixes collage, speedy, sparse pen and ink sketches, crisp, precise architectural drawings, quotations from the likes of Virginia Woolf and Disraeli and facts and anecdotes to evoke a very personal vision of his city which is by turns moving, witty and educational. If you’re tired of London, this ravishing visual feast will inspire you to put up your brolly and hit the rainy pavements to fall in love with the city all over again.
Josa Young’s second novel, Sail Upon the Land (Keyes Ink, £8.99) is a moving, richly told story about motherhood in all its forms and how this role can encompass earth-shattering love and terrifying ambivalence. Spanning several generations and jumping between the English countryside, London and India, the narrative is complex but satisfying, weaving together different strands from a cast of well-observed characters.
The life of a deb in swinging ‘60s London is vividly brought to life with humour and a sharp eye for detail, but it’s the descriptions of mothers – both biological and otherwise – that are almost painful in their realism. The complicated relationship between daughter and mother is depicted with brutal honesty and from multiple perspectives, as each woman moves from one role to the next. The heroine, Damson, is a sympathetic, complex character who you will find yourself thinking about long after finishing this thoughtful, thought-provoking novel.
Elsa Schiaparelli: A Biography by Meryle Secrest (Fig Tree, £25) this new biography tells the story of one of fashion’s true originals whose costumes now hang in galleries rather than wardrobes. In her 1920s and 1930s haute couture heyday, Italian-born French designer Schiap (1890-1973) dressed film stars and socialites and enjoyed a personal life that was almost as dramatic as her impact on the fashions of the time.
Secrest’s biography is wonderfully gossipy and the best sections are where she explains how and why Schiap’s style was so unique and the genius behind her approach to fashion business as well as design. She excelled at creating and perpetuating her own myths, living in gloriously eccentric apartments, appearing at all the most-talked-about parties and surrounding herself with a talented team. She conjured up a kind of magic around her creations and her persona and built up this mystique with the help of a series of dazzling collaborators, including (most famously) Dalí. But although she took her work very seriously, she didn’t mind that her clothes were enthusiastically copied by dressmakers at home – she liked being popular.
And who could resist her madcap style (she even sold a hat called the Mad Cap)? This personal myth-making means that many facts that a biographer might need to tell the full story have been obscured by Schiap’s own efforts over the years, but what is clear is her timeless style legacy. The ‘nonchalant chic’ of her early years – technically impressive sporty garments, wrap dresses, bloomers – inspired by the leisure habits of her fabulous and wealthy milieu continues to influence designers today.
Anna-Marie Fitzgerald and Phoebe Frangoul are the co-editors and co-founders of the London grrrl-zine and literary salon Pamflet. Follow them on Twitter and Instagram @Pamflet.
Alexander McQueen’s autumn/winter 1996 show, titled Dante, took place at the run-down Christ Church in London’s East End. It was this presentation, and it’s collection, that would cement his place amongst fashion’s most innovative and exciting designers.
Now, nearly twenty years later, exclusive raw, unseen photographs from the runway and backstage, including the garments, the models and Lee himself, are released for the very first time in this sumptuous and revealing new book. Inferno: Alexander McQueen by Kent Baker and Melanie Rickey, takes a look at the shows use of digital print, crudely bleached denim, lace and chiffon embellishment, and the couture meets club-culture ideals, a mix of high-brow and low-end – all themes we are now accustomed to seeing in everyday fashion, proving just how important McQueen’s collection really was.
With contributions from Suzy Menkes, Katy England and Andrew Groves; as well as words from the models, stylists, designers and creatives that all participated in the making of the legendary event.
Inferno: Alexander McQueen is to be released in March 2015.
These are the books we’ve loved, recommended, given and definitely won’t forget this year.
The reliably magnificent Siri Hustvedt’s sixth novel The Blazing World (Sceptre) is a dazzling book of ideas about gender, the contemporary art world and New York. The novel’s heroine is Harriet ‘Harry’ Burden, a frustrated, eccentric and talented woman who revives her abandoned artistic career after the death of her husband. Rather than making a traditional comeback, she instead engineers an ambitious experiment and hides her identity behind a revolving cast of male fronts to see whether they affect how her work is received. The story is told through Harry’s journals and is supplemented by accounts from her collaborators, family, lover and friends, an effective device which adds authenticity to what’s a high-concept novel about a high-concept world and made me ask ‘What if someone actually tried to do this?’ While I was reading it I got completely obsessed and all I wanted to do was finish it – but for it not to end at the same time: a good thing.
‘Have you heard of Elena Ferrante?’ Well, I hadn’t until earlier this year when a friend recommended her series of fictionalised memoirs, The Neapolitan Novels, to me, describing the mysterious Italian author as ‘the female Knausgaard’ which made me want to get the first book right away. The perfect summer (or winter) read, this is an incredibly vivid, sensuous portrait of childhood in grim poverty in 1950s Naples. At its centre is the obsessive, devoted friendship between Elena and Lila who we follow through adolescence, their academic successes and failures, jobs and boyfriends. Their two intertwined stories ask how much an individual can do to change the course of the life that her opportunities and circumstances have offered her. Three books have been published in the series so far, with the most recent released in September and the fourth and final installment expected in Italy next year. I had about 2 weeks in September when I felt like I had Elena all to myself, but I don’t mind that the secret’s already out because she’s too good to miss.
by Viv Albertine (Faber) that lengthy and chanty title is just the beginning of the uncompromising life story that Viv Albertine shares in her memoir. Guitarist in The Slits, Laura Ashley model, musician, director, actor, artist, mother – she has had a fascinating fifty-nine years and there’s a lot more to talk about than being a girl in the punk world (but that’s a good place to start).
InCCCMMMBBBshe scrapbooks her vividly recalled memories together and adds a helpful appendix at the end detailing the most crucial bits of her biography – what she was wearing, listening to and who she was seeing during each of her eras. Her unconventional life story makes for compelling reading and her story illuminates some of life’s joyous feminist contradictions. It’s also worth mentioning that I haven’t read a book which so unashamedly and refreshingly reveals the secrets of the female bedroom since Caitlin Moran’s How to Be a Woman, bedsheets, wardrobe, dressing table and all.
Albertine laments the fact that she had no female role models as a would-be guitarist in the late seventies, but luckily for us with this book she’s shown why she should be a heroine to every music-loving, clothes-obsessed, odd-one-out-girl out there.
I knew nothing about the original kickass comic book heroine Wonder Woman’s back story so Professor Jill Lepore’s astonishingly thorough and readable book, The Secret History of Wonder Woman(Scribe) was a total revelation. It tells the story of the pop culture icon who was brought to life by Lynda Carter in the TV series, while also giving the reader a fascinating account of the evolution of the women’s movement throughout the twentieth century, from the Suffragettes and birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger to the issues facing feminists today.
The Amazonian superheroine’s creator, William Moulton Marston, was a charismatic, complicated man who invented the lie detector test and was a passionate believer in free love and feminism. The intelligent, emancipated women in his life were immortalised in the pen and ink adventures of Wonder Woman – a character who has commanded devotion from millions of fans over seven decades. Comic books are more popular than ever today and with new characters like Ms Marvel (the first female Muslim superhero) bringing the genre kicking and screaming into the 21st century, now’s the perfect time to learn about where it all began. The Secret History of Wonder Woman is the perfect Christmas gift for: sullen teenagers of both sexes, comic book geeks and kickass feminists.
If you loved Stef Penney’s The Tenderness of Wolves and Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites, you will adore The Miniaturist(Picador). Jessie Burton’s impressive debut follows the fortunes of 18 year old Nella Oortman as she enters the home of her enigmatic merchant husband in 17th century Amsterdam. As Nella tries to navigate a new world of commerce, secrets and a society as opaque as the city’s murky canals, she starts to receive disconcerting, perfectly beautiful miniatures that tell her more about her own precarious situation than she understands herself. This is an eerie, absorbing novel populated with characters who are totally vivid and compelling, despite the five hundred years between us and them.
We’ve been eagerly anticipating Vivienne Westwood (Picador) as much as Morrissey’s autobiography and it doesn’t disappoint. Told both in the High Priestess of Punk’s own words and through uber-biographer Ian Kelly’s evocative prose, it brings together the multicoloured threads of Dame Viv’s life, from her early days safety-pinning binbags in her shop on the King’s Road, to the glamour and high-octane drama of her 2014 Gold Label show in Paris. The narrative zooms in and out, part told by Kelly – a detached but fascinated visitor to planet fashion – and part intimate memoir as Vivienne recalls her childhood and intense relationship with Malcolm Mclaren, as well as the passion for climate revolution which drives her today. Whether you’ve worn one of Vivienne Westwood’s designs or not, her influence is undeniable. From her punk origins to her massive fame in the Far East, this sharp-as-a-tack, soft-voiced Derbyshire woman has played a part in creating the world we live in today.
Anna-Marie Fitzgerald and Phoebe Frangoul are the co-editors and co-founders of the London grrrl-zine and literary salon Pamflet. Follow them on Twitter and Instagram @Pamflet.
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