The problem with success is that once you have it it’s almost impossible to avoid being typecast by it. One of the biggest misconceptions about Tracey Emin is that her work is all about sex.  In fact, as Emin’s first major London exhibition shows, it’s about far more than her sex life. It’s about intimacy. It’s about love.  This is a love that takes no account of gender, race, or even – as we discovered via a video starring a bullmastiff – species. It appears many things go on in a bed besides sex.

Tracey Emin seems to take a lot of flak in this country.
Maybe the kind of poignant statements her work is littered with are a bit too close to the bone:

“You stop me from feeling anything”
“I do not expect to be a mother but I do expect to die alone”
“Every time I feel love I think Christ I’m going to be crucified”
“I whisper to my past, do I have another choice”

But for all the vapidity she’s accused of, this is strong stuff.

Tracey Emin: Love is what you Want spans the artist’s entire career to date, and includes many specially commissioned and previously unseen works.  This show opens the eyes to the vast expanse of Emin’s oeuvre.  She’s prolific – working successfully in many media.  Add to that she’s feisty, controversial and fun. We don’t care if some love to hate you Tracey. We love to love you.

Tracey Emin : Love is what you Want is at the Hayward Gallery until August 29.

Images by David Levene. Words  by Beverley Knowles

Tags: Beverley Knowles, Hayward Gallery, Love is what you want, tracey emin

It takes 98 seconds for artist Richard Phillips to transform troubled actress Lindsay Lohan into a modern Hollywood venus. In his intensely poetic film portrait, Lohan emerges from a sparkling blue Malibu mansion pool dripping sex, vulnerability and glamour. A modern Bardot in a white bikini, whose image is bigger than ever. The film is a love-letter that transcends the tabloid drama and turns her into an untouchable star.

Richard Phillip’s Lindsay Lohan premieres June 1 in Commercial Break until June 5, as part of the 54th Venice Biennale.
gagosian.com

Tags: Bardot, Gagosian, lindsay lohan, Richard Phillips, Venice Biennale

Artist Taryn Simon’s work is a fascinating blend of photojournalism and art photography. Often taking the form of a visual inventory, she’s famed for her meticulous research and crisp photographic execution.

Among her projects, the 2007 book, An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar delved into America’s secret places such as a nuclear waste storage facility in Washington State to a cave where a sleeping black bear and its cubs are monitored by biologists studying hibernation,

Her new show at the Tate Modern is no less obscure, or engrossing. A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters is a complex genealogy of family histories. Four years of research that took just two to photograph, the installation traces a series of 18 family bloodlines, each with its own individual story.

The opening chapter centres on a living Indian man who gives the project its title, having been declared dead in official records. Other real life characters include an Iraqi man who was apparently employed as Saddam Hussein’s son’s body double and a member of the Druze religious sect in Lebanon who believes in reincarnation and re-enacts remembered scenes from previous lives. It’s a magnum opus that’s not to be missed.

A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters is at Tate Modern, London, 25 May to 6 September.
tarynsimon.com

Caption: Excerpt from Chapter IV, A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters
a. Gold-plated Iraqi Al-Kadissiya sniper rifle seized by members of the American Defense Intelligence Agency during a search of Uday Huessein’s palace in Baghdad. The inscription on the gun transalted from Arabic reads: “A gift from the president of the republic, Mr. Saddam Hussein.” Saddam Hussein produced gold-plated weapons for use on ceremonial occasions and as gifts. Defense Intelligence analysis Center, Bolling Air Force Base, Washington, D.C.
b. Latif Yahia impersonating Uday Hussein. Undisclosed location, Ireland.

Caption: Excerpt from Chapter VI, A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters
51. No. 326, 27 May 2009. Inglewood, Queensland, Australia.
52. No. 327, 27 May 2009. Inglewood, Queensland, Australia.

Images Courtesy Gagosian Gallery.

Tags: A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters, An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar, Gagosian, Taryn Simon, Tate Modern, twin, Twin magazine, Twinfactory

Soap is one of my grand obsessions. I generally shower once a day with a great block of it and have been known to take up to two baths in addition to my shower. I am a cleansaholic. And if I had a to choose just one item to take to a desert island (cliched though that thought may be), the one item would be soap (although mascara would come close!). My favourite destinations to shop for soap are Liberty‘s beauty hall and Fresh (I love their milk soaps). But a rather magical soap brand has recently come to my attention and it is called Dr Bronner. Dr Bronner is probably one of the only beauty gurus to have been locked up in a mental asylum and go on to found a beauty brand. This was just one of the things that endeared me to it! He’s long gone now but his soaps – liquid and solid-  remain and they are rather fabulous too. Not only are they vegan and organic and free from the harsh detergent ingredient Sodium Laureth Sulphate but they smell delicious – almond and rose are my favourites. They are incredibly gentle with a sparse and soft lather that is not in the slightest synthetic and foamy. What’s more, the company gives between 30% and 70% of post-tax profits to various charities and donates 20p from the sale of every soap bottle in the UK to the charity War Child. It’s a truly ethical and caring enterprise, but equally importantly a really pleasurable product to use in the shower or bath. From Waitrose, Whole Foods, Planet Organic and Fresh and Wild.

warchild.org.uk

Words by Bethan Cole

Tags: Bethan Cole, Dr Bronner, Liberty's, soap

This spring isn’t for cleaning. Granta have launched their new issue and it’s all about women wielding pens, not dusters. For The F Word, the magazine has enlisted a posse of female writers to share their thoughts and imaginations on the nature of feminism now and way back when.

From Rachel Cusk on divorce to A.S Byatt on academia in the Sixties and Seventies, it’s clear that while there have been some almighty leaps, there remain some distinct bounds. Jeanette Winterson holds a mirror up to contemporary romance, while Clarisse d’Arcimoles’s photo essay Un-Possible Retour is a lemon-sweet study of girlhood from adult-memory. With stories emerging from Ghana to Great Britain The F Word is alive with love, sex and house-hold chores, but in a post-feminist world the role of women is far from clean-cut.

granta.com

Tags: A.S. Byatt, Clarisse d'Arcimoles, Ghana, Granta, Jeanette Winterson, Rachel Cusk, The F Word

In his film for Yves Saint Laurent’s summer 2011 Eyewear Collection, French photographer Karim Sadli uses light and shade to monumental effect. Shot in black and white, models Othilia Simon and Clément Chabernaud are cast as alabaster sculptures, as mercurial light segues over them. Simple, strong and sleek – the glasses, like the film, evoke a beauty that’s as classic as it comes.

Watch it here: ysl.com

Tags: Clément Chabernaud, Karim Sadli, Othilia Simon, YSL, YSL Eyewear Collection

See photographer Ben Weller get back to nature as he shoots the covetable Denim & Supply Ralph Lauren collection.

Tags: Ben Weller, Denim & Supply, Ralph Lauren, Video

It’s easy to misjudge quite how fertile Britain’s current crop of women sculptors is. Rather than headlining shows, female sculptors are more often side-lined by the art establishment in favour of big name male ‘blockbusters’. In the world of sculpture, figures like the late and great Louise Bourgeois are rare.

Clearly things need to change. And so, the Pangolin gallery have stepped forward and organised an all-female show, Women Make Sculpture, that celebrates the UK’s raw and polished sculpting talent. With pieces from established names like Sarah Lucas to emerging ones like Polly Morgan, known for her fragile taxidermy. The aim of the show isn’t to lump women into one easy gender category, but to give them the room to showcase their diversity.

As the Director of Pangolin London, Polly Bielecka says, “The exhibition is not intended to tackle gender superiority; rather it hopes to question whether female artists bring something different to contemporary British sculpture.”

From Almuth Tebbenhoff’s intricate steel wall pieces to Deborah Van der Beek’s horse head – sculpted from the detritus of war – there’s a wide enough mix of ideas and materials to prove that when women make sculpture it has everything and nothing to do with their sex.

Women Make Sculpture is at Pangolin from May 19 to June 18 2011.
pangolinlondon.com

Tags: Almuth Tebbenhoff, Deborah Van der Beek, Louise Bourgeois, Pangolin, Pangolin London, Polly Bielecka, Polly Morgan, Sarah Lucas, Women Make Sculpture

See sultry on-set footage of model, actress and musician Josephine de la Baume.

Tags: josephine de la baume, Love, Video

Photographer Tom Allen visits The Repton Boxing Club, Bethnal Green to direct this feisty short film.

Tags: Bethnal Green, Boxing, The Repton Boxing Club, Tom Allen, Video

Last night’s Twin party to celebrate the launch of Twin IV was road blocked.
The lucky few were recipients of a rather generous bag of goodies. Here’s the breakdown:

Bumble and Bumble Hair (un)Dressing creme, bumbleandbumble.com
Elemis bath oils, elemis.com
Freedom at Topshop apple pendant necklace, topshop.co.uk
Kat and Bee rings, katandbee.com
Opening Ceremony tie-dye tote and T-shirt, openingceremony.us
Purity organic skincare moisturiser and cleansing lotion, purityorganicskincare.co.uk
Sanctuary Youth Boosting Facial, thesanctuary.co.uk
Shu Uemura Deepsea Repair Foundation Essential Hair Prep, shuuemura.com
St. Tropez Skin Illuminator, sttropeztan.com

Tags: Bumble and Bumble, Freedom of Topshop, opening ceremony, Purity, Sanctuary, Shu Uemera, St Tropez, Twin IV

With Twin‘s imminent fourth edition all about rebellion, the time couldn’t be riper for Flash Projects’ latest pop-up photography show, Street Fighting Man: Fifty Years of Youth Protest. Recent months have seen an electric surge in youthful uprising, as the young and angry have taken to the streets in a way not seen for over a decade. From the top up fees protests in London to last week’s riot against Tesco’s in Bristol, a new generation is asserting itself in ways reminiscent of the Sixties’ student protests.

Taking its name from The Rolling Stones‘ track, Street Fighting Man, which was inspired by Mick Jagger’s experience of an anti-war demonstration in 1968, the celebrates how youth culture and media have conspired to create historic moments over the past fifty years. Bands like The Rolling Stones, whose concerts were often accompanied by riots, and The Clash were mouthpieces for fans. While photographer Caroline Coon’s pictures of punk bands The Sex Pistols and The Slits not only record a seminal scene but asserted the right to individual identity. Today, these images of the Brixton and Poll Tax riots are a reminder of how difficult times breed discontent and dissidence. Often change doesn’t come quietly, it resounds on the streets.

Street Fighting Man. 50 years of youth protest is on at Flash Projects, 5 Savile Row, W1S 3PD until the 4th June 2011.
flash-projects.co.uk

Tags: Brixton Riots, Caroline Coons, Flash Projects, Mick Jagger, Poll tax, Sex Pistols, Street Fighting Man, Tesco, The Clash, the rolling stones, The Slits

What fragrance to wear with vintage clothing? This is a question I often ponder. Should one team a delicious piece of vintage with an equally arcane perfume – a Shalimar or a Miss Dior or an Arpege – and thus create a sort of double whammy of historically resonant cloaking.  Or do you update a vintage outfit with a  resolutely contemporary perfume and allow it to provide an olfactive update/contrast to your outfit?  Well perhaps Dior have dreamed up the answer.  Collection Privee is a wonderful edit of eight wonderfully uncommercial new fragrances. These are perfumes with integrity: rich with history and imagination yet completely contemporary.  New Look 1947 is not only a  fantastic name and idea for a perfume – a scent inspired by that timeless nipped-in silhouette – it is, in my humble opinion a  great choice to team with that prized vintage dress.  The constituent notes are tuberose, rose, jasmine and vanilla.  It is a modern floral, not cloying and concentrated like the florals of yore.  Nor has it been corrupted into one of those horrible ubiquitous cynically commercial fruity florals. Or rendered cologne like by the addition of too much citrus. No, it is ladylike and powdery and ideal if you want to feel feminine and precise without feeling blousy or saccharine.

Words by Bethan Cole

Tags: Arpege, Bethan Cole, Collection Privee, Dior, Miss Dior, New Look 1947, vintage

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

For her debut feature film, Irish director Alexandra McGuinness has created a bacchanal of fashion and fast-living reminiscent of Antonioni’s Blow-Up and Fellini’s La Dolce Vita. Inspired by the story of Odysseus’ sailors losing all desire tfor home after tasting the fruit of the Lotus

plant, Lotus Eaters, follows a clique of privileged sybarites living an increasingly decadent and vacuous London existence.

Among them is Alice, an ex-model and struggling actress who is jaded by her friends hedonistic lifestyle, tired of the unbridled excess and the white-noise of the morning after. Her path negotiates the fracturing relationships of her friends as she struggles to find a life that will make her happy.

Shot in black and white and featuring a host of hot young fashion designers such as Simone Rocha, alongside nascent acting talent like Antonia Campbell-Hughes and singer/songwriter Johnny Flynn, Lotus Eaters is more than just a beautiful film, it’s a paean to contemporary London.

But while the backdrop of local cafés and boutiques immortalises the capital’s vibrance, the overall effect is more fantastic than real. Like Evelyn Waugh’s Bright Young People before them, McGuinness’ lotus eaters belong to a perennial epoch of youth, where despite beauty and riches, all that glitters is not gold.

Lotus Eaters premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
lotuseatersmovie.com

Tags: Alexandra McGuinness, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Blow-up, Evelyn Waugh, Johnny Flynn, La Dolce Vita, Lotus Eaters, simone rocha

Icelandic photographer Saga Sig’s fashion stories are as breathtaking and cool as the lakes and mountains she grew up with. Currently combining studying photography at the London School of Fashion with professional shoots for the likes of  Topshop, the 24-year-old is a torrent of talent and creativity.

Twin caught up with her to discuss shooting fashion with friends, dirty London streets and dressing like a five-year-old.

Saga, How did you get into fashion photography?
I didn’t know much about fashion until I was about 18 or 19. I was quite a late bloomer when it comes to style to be honest. I used to play soccer, and in my teenagers years I wore Adidas and a Manchester United cap.

Then when I was 19 I started working in a vintage store in Reykjavik. I met some of my best friends there and we started doing little photo-shoots for the store. I would read magazines like i-D and Dazed and Confused, and a whole new world opened for me. I realised I could make stories and have adventures with fashion photography.

As my interest in fashion grew, I began to collect beautiful vintage items. You should see my closets now, they are full of sequins, feathers, crazy prints, cocktail dresses, vintage Versace and kimonos. I don’t really wear them that much but I like to look at them.

Why did you decide to move to London?
I moved to London in September 2009 to study fashion photography. I chose to study in London because I liked the creativity. London might seem like a grey city, but it isn’t at all. There are so many amazing talented and creative people that make it colourful and interesting. People are creating everywhere.

I like how the dirtiness meets the prettiness. The dirty streets meet the beautiful park, I like the contrast. I like how different it is to Reykjavik. I am so happy that I chose London; I have met so many wonderful people there and my photography has developed. I love every single day there.

What makes a fashion story come alive for you?
A fashion shoot that actually tells a story, where the styling, the model, the make-up and hair and the photography all come together to make a unique world. A fashion story is an image you get excited about, an image where you want to become the person in the picture. It’s an image that the viewer can relate to and believe that he or she can be a part of, yet still get lost in a fantasy world. The best fashion images are ones that never get outdated, images you can always look at, love and be inspired by.

What does fashion mean to you and your identity?
I love fashion and dressing up. I remember when I was five I used to pile on every piece of jewellery I could find. It was always prints, pink and quite acid colours. I dress quite similarly to that now. I feel like I’m never going to grow up, in style or personality.

Has being from Iceland influenced your work in anyway?
Yes, I think it definitely has shaped the person I am today. Because I lived in such isolated places in Iceland and wasn’t really aware of anything outside my little world. I didn’t really understand what fashion was. I read books, wrote little short stories, drew or played with my sister and brother and made little adventures in the amazing scenery I grew up in.

We lived in the national park Thingvellir, which is one of the most magical places on earth. It’s special for many reasons, it’s between the North American and the Euro-Asian plate, resulting in big cracks and earthquakes. There’s a special energy there I can’t explain. It really inspired me to start taking pictures. I wanted to document the beauty. I’m collector at heart, so I wanted to keep all my beautiful childhood moments forever. I learnt in my childhood to create my own stories and I’m still doing it now.

We love the work on your website– can you tell us a bit more about the shoots Beta and Slippurinn in particular?
The images Beta and Slippurinn are both shot in Iceland and styled by my friend Elisabet Alma. All my favourite shoots are done with her. We have been shooting together for years now. It’s friends having fun, almost like grown-up Barbie dolls playing. All the girls in the images are a friend of ours, wearing our clothes mixed with their own clothes. Slippurinn is actually shot outside my friend’s house in Iceland.

sagasig.com

Tags: Elisabet Alma, Iceland, London School of Fashion, Saga Sig, Topshop, Versace

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

It’s that time of year again when the majority of people think about tanning. However, I am not in that majority. I can count the number of times I have tanned in my life on one hand and I am fast approaching forty. Therefore, for a great number of years I have remained proudly milky pale. I think it’s an alternative/indie thing, in my teens, the eighties, red lipstick and pale skin were the apogee of underground style, as epitomised by Vivienne Westwood muse Sara Stockbridge and the androgyne model Jenny Howarth. Nowadays its indie queens like Gwen Stefani, Beth Ditto and Dita Von Teese who embody the pale look. And it’s these gals I’d want to be in a gang with, not orange hued WAGs or Katie Price. However this year I have to admit, for the first time in a lifetime I’m strangely drawn to the idea of tanning. Obviously it would be a very subtle golden tan, not the creosote hue once favoured by Victoria Beckham. But some kind of gentle olive tint, a Mediterranean sun kissed teint, might just be nice come summer sun. I have yet to explore the range of products on offer, but I’m thinking the St Tropez No Tan Tan might be the one for me. Or at least a touch of Johnsons Holiday Skin on my rather chalky legs. I’m not sure if this is a flirtation or a genuine commitment to the idea of a tan. After all my whole identity is bound up with being pale. Whatever, I will keep you posted.

Words by Bethan Cole

Tags: beauty, beth ditto, Bethan Cole, Dita Von Teese, Gwen Stefani, Jenny Howarth, Katie Price, Kristen Stewart, Sara Stockbridge, St Tropez, twin, Twinfactory, Victoria Beckham

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

The sun may be shining but we can’t help but lust after so the Autumn/Winter collections. One of the stand-outs was Sophia Kokosalaki’s collection for Diesel Black Gold. Since taking helm of the brand’s high-end line in 2009, Kokosalaki has brought her knack for mixing hard tailoring and soft feminine draping to the street-wear label, designing clothes that are cool, sexy and eminently wearable.

This time around, there wasn’t a blue denim jean in sight. Instead, raw shearling, glossy chestnut leathers and dark denim in Byronic tailoring were matched with oil-slick side-partings to create a look that was pure alt-opulence. It’s dress-up for the effortlessly self-assured.
dieselblackgold.com

Tags: diesel, Fashion, Gold, sophia kokosalaki