Japanese fashion visionary Yohji Yamamoto deserves an exhibition that’s as conceptual as his designs.  It’s apt then that Wapping Project has served up such an esoteric installation for the exhibition, Making Waves. Part of the Victoria & Albert museum’s major retrospective, the show comprises an oversized white silk wedding dress made with bamboo crinoline from Yamamoto’s A/W 1998 collection that hangs, solitary, in the Boiler House. The piece makes an understated statement that’s typically Yamamoto.

Meanwhile, over at the Wapping Project Bankside the works of the seven photographers who produced imagery for Yamamoto’s celebrated catalogues go on display.  The stellar line-up features Nick Knight, Peter Lindbergh, Craig McDean, Sarah Moon, Paolo Roversi, Max Vadukul and Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin.  Though the photographers are familiar, the images themselves star the kind of women Yamamoto is drawn to – strong types rarely seen on the pages of the glossies.  A man after our own sartorial heart.

Yohji Making Waves 
is at
 Wapping Project, 
E1
 until 14 July 2011 and Yohji’s Women is at 
Wapping Project Bankside, SE1
 until 14 May 2011.

www.thewappingproject.com
www.thewappingprojectbankside.com

Images courtesy of the Wapping Project, Imogen Eveso and Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin.

Tags: Craig McDean, Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, Katie Rose, Max Vadukul, Nick Knight, Paolo Roversi, Peter Lindbergh, Sarah Moon, Victoria and Albert Museum, Wapping Project, Wapping Project Bankside, Yohji Yamamoto

Nowhere else does fashion collide with art more vividly right now, than at the M.O.P Shop, the temporary residence of  Maia Norman’s clothing line, Mother of Pearl. The designer’s Spring/Summer 2011 collection has hijacked her husband, Damien Hirst’s publishing outlet-cum-gallery, Other Criteria.

The art link doesn’t stop there – each season Maia works with an artist to create prints from existing artworks, forming the basis of her collections.  This season it’s the turn of Jim Lambie, whose vibrant installations work hard in leathers and silks.

Californian surfer, Maia also infuses Mother of Pearl with a heavy shot of sports.  Utilitarian pieces like the Havana and Toro jumpsuits and the Ortis anorak encourage effortless dressing.

The Mother of Pearl M.O.P shop is at Other Criteria, 36 New Bond Street, London W1S 2RP until 11th May 2011.
motherofpearl.com

Tags: Damien Hirst, Jim Lambie, Katie Rose, M.O.P Shop, Maia Norman, Other Criteria, twin, Twinfactory

Danielle Scutt’s comeback collection at London Fashion Week A/W11 reminded us just why we love her. Bold and brash, her designs embrace the tongue-in-cheek side of femininity and tow the line between quirky kitsch and luxe investment pieces. Lashings of velvet, Schiaparelli pink lattice (to match Charlotte Free’s pink hair) and midi-length skirts were worn topless with blazers.   It’s sexed-up, Eighties-style power dressing for now.

What really caught our eye though, was the surreal bling the models were sporting on the runway.   The jewellery, a collaboration with Freedom at Topshop, comprised Art Deco inspired chandelier earrings (wear them on chain belts or broaches on shoes), gold chain cuffs, chokers and belts interwoven (some interwoven with platinum blonde hair) and teapot and lipstick charm earrings and bracelets.

topshop.com

Images courtesy of Impulse PR and I PR.

Tags: Charlotte Free, Danielle Scutt, Freedom at Topshop, Katie Rose, twin, Twinfactory

NOWNESS, ‘luxury lifestyle online’, today unveiled an exclusive fashion film entitled ‘Chronology’. In collaboration with Net-A-Porter, the film, by I Am Love director Luca Guadagnino, features highlights from the Autumn Winter 2010 collections of such Net-A-Porter bestsellers as Christopher Kane, Sigerson Morrison, Miu Miu and Yves Saint Laurent. Styled by Cathy Edwards and modeled by MariaCarla Boscono, the film combines commercial sense, a sharp edit and a dreamlike surrealism which is evocative of 2005 feature film Mirrormask.

www.nowness.com

Tags: Fashion, film, Katie Rose, Luca Guadagnino, Net-A-Porter, Nowness, twin, Twinfactory