Shorts are the perfect way to announce your summertime feeling. Denim may be the ultimate classic, but this season its time to make a change. Whilst leather and latex might not be obvious choices, they certainly keep you up to date. Gym inspired short-shorts may be the style of the season, but they look much better walking around town than in the bottom of your gym bag. Take a look at Twin’s picks…
When Charlie May sent her AW13 collection down the catwalk this year, each look had its own piece from her recent collaboration with accessories designer Danielle Foster. Their capsule collection heavily features vinyl plastic on leather bags and jewellery, keeping in line with both Charlie May’s minimalist and Danielle Foster’s timeless aesthetic.
Twin spoke to May about the joint design venture…
When did you discover Danielle Foster’s accessories?
I discovered Danielle through Bengt, who was my first stockist and started seeing her bags popping up everywhere. I loved the classic design and heavy focus on hardware on leather.
What is it about Danielle’s designs that captured your attention and made you realise that your collections could compliment each other?
I love that Danielle’s bags are so raw. They’re finished in a classic and traditional way, but add in chunky gold hardware and even some human hair so you’re on your way to something unique and unusual, which I relate to a lot with my work. Classic tailoring in unexpected fabrications and cuts is something I love to do.
What was the collaboration process like? How did it differ from your usual creative process?
I loved working together, it was very easy and we both knew to keep it simple. Danielle had already been thinking up shapes when I brought in the leathers and designs for my AW13 collection. I’ve always wanted to work with clear plastic too, which matched perfectly to my icy inspiration.
What materials did you utilise in the collaboration?
The bags are mostly made from traditional thick saddle leather. The only unusual material was the clear vinyl plastic, which I absolutely love in the satchel. I feel there are lots of clear bags around at the moment but none as cool as our satchel! I think the clear against the heavy black is really strong. I really liked Danielle’s braided handles on the tote bags, to give a cool little detail on a classic.
How do the accessories accentuate your collection?
I always think bags finish off a collection perfectly, it’s like having the whole package. A lot of my AW13 collection was quite matchy. The classic satchels were great to pair with a few trouser suits to step it up a notch and also to toughen up some of the floatier silk looks.
Who in the future would you like to collaborate with?
I have a couple of super exciting collaborations for next season that I’m not quite ready to blab about, but I can reveal that it will include shoes!
Why do you think collaborations between designers are such a big commodity nowadays?
I think collaborations are amazing for young designers to get their names heard. Working with other designers, you’re effectively sharing each others fan bases and reaching a wider audience.
The Charlie May x Danielle Foster collection will be released in August on BengtFashion, The Unconventional and the designers’ respective own e-commerce sites.
Last night saw the launch of Uniqlo’s latest venture which brings together the worlds of fashion, music and art. The initiative has made its way to cities such as Tokyo, New York, Paris and Singapore, and now it’s London’s turn. The UT POP-UP is an unique concept gallery space which opens to the public today, located at The Hoxton Gallery at the Arch on Kingsland Road.
The gallery will have different art installations each weekend from renowned London-based artists Damian Weighill and Dan Freeman which look at music and art as themes, as well as a pop-up UT (UNIQLO T-shirt) store and events. There will be a private screening of the documentary on the life of Keith Haring at the UNIQLO Secret UT Cinema tonight. Other events at the concept gallery space include UNIQLO UT Sessions, a live recording session with Charlie Boyer and the Voyeurs on Friday 26th April and the UNIQLO Record Fair on Saturday 27th April.
The weather may be teasing us but spring is officially here. At least most of the time so transitional clothing is your best plan of action and there”s no better key staple than a throw-on T-shirt style dress. Worn with ankle boots and jackets, these dresses will brighten up a cloudy day, but come summer, when worn with pumps and bare legs they will keep you effortlessly cool. Twin can’t wait.
Emma Cook Printed sateen dress, £299, Net-a-porter.com & Draw In Light Pink & Red Noise Dress, £275, Coggles.com
Contrast Floral Silk Dress By Boutique, £70, & Carven Blue Stripe Jersey Print Dress, £180.00, Liberty.co.uk
Ladylike handbags may be one trend the fashion pack are utilising this spring, but we still have a thing for bags of the hands-free variety. These grunge era accessories have been re-vamped for SS13 even lending themselves to the chicest of outfits. Its not just their care-free attitude that we love, its that you can wear them with essentially anything, making them our investment bag of choice this season.
Designers are creating backpacks in all shapes and sizes, but these are the four that made the Twin cut.
Deux Lux Empire State Backpack, £106.33, shopbop.com & Peter Jensen Rabbit Ear Backpack, £102, asos.com
Zadig & Voltaire have collaborated with New York jewellery designer Pamela Love to create a six-piece collection, titled Wild Heart, that fuses the mysticism and spirit of the brand with Love’s own inspirations. Love started her own brand in her Brooklyn apartment, originally only wearing the designs herself, but her work as a stylist and art director led to her setting up the label in 2006.
Love consistenly channels the American Southwest and Native American symbols in her designs. For this collaboration she created pieces that explore the balance between good and evil. “I really like the imagery of the brand,” Love says, “these black contrasts, this rock-and-roll feeling mixed with feminine attributes. These elements add up to a strong identity which has a beautiful sensitivity that is completely in line with my perspective.” The collection itself utilises materials such as gold, copper and oxidized silver in snake rings, fang necklaces, earrings and bangles.
Pamela Love for Zadig & Voltaire launches and in store on April 3.
& Other Stories is the latest venture from the Swedish company that gave us COS and H&M. “Today, a woman with a love for fashion creates her own style,” states the new brand, which is why they are providing us with the ingredients to make up our own.
What first attracted us to the site was the fact that after a few moments browsing, you might as well be lusting after someone else’s streetstyle snaps. Using a blog-like layout makes the site and inevitably the brand more accessible. Just like bloggers, who have strong opinions but don’t necessarily force those on to you like a biannual glossy might, & Other Stories is doing the same. Trends are not there to be followed; they are simply guidelines according to the Stockholm and Paris design teams.
The Regent Street store is welcoming, modern and chic. With more products that are not on the site, we urge you to pop down and have a browse. What you are bound to notice is the quality of each piece. The garments are designed to last the story of your lifetime, not just the current season.
These are Twin‘s favourite pieces from their current spring/summer 2013 collection.
Simeon Farrar is the creative mind behind contemporary T-shirt brand Black Score. After studying fine art, Farrar moved from canvas to material and went on to win the New Generation Award at London Fashion Week three times. He produces a self-titled Ready To Wear collection for both men and women, but his latest venture into slogan T-shirts was especially eye-catching. The humourous brand is known for its fashionable one-liners. Twin caught up with the man who invented the slogan “give us a cuddle, Susie Bubble.”
You have a fine art background, so how did you end up designing T-shirts?
I started painting and screenprinting on T-shirts mainly as another surface and out of boredom with canvas. The images seemed to have a different kind of life when they were on a garment than restricted on a canvas. It soon became a business and I’ve never looked back.
How is Black Score different to your self-titled line?
I always used to squeeze strange and quirky comical drawings into the Simeon Farrar line so I wanted to start something that just focused on that bizarre part of my brain. I also wanted a very simple T-shirt brand that had the freedom to reference whatever it wanted. We have such diverse cultural reference points in Black Score, from skateboarders to top models to dogs with socks on their rude bits. How many other brands can boast that mix? It’s totally free to comment on anything, nobody is safe.
What is it about fashion, and those famous faces within it, that inspires your subject matter?
I really wanted to make glib slogan tees that referenced the fashion industry, mainly because Black Score assumes a position slightly outside of that industry and more as an onlooker. From that we got some great support from people like Jourdan Dunn and Cara Delevingne. Both these girls are so current and it would be wrong for Black Score not to acknowledge that with a T-shirt for each.
You previously mentioned that you are influenced by the city and that it is a metaphor for this reality. What is it about the metropolitan life that inspires you?
It’s the diversity and anonymity of a city that has always inspired my art. Within this environment you can experience a type of freedom that is rarely experienced anywhere else. It’s all about limitlessness and being able to be whoever and do whatever you want.
As an artist first, do you find the process of printing slogan t-shirts limiting?
No, not at all. I think it’s incredibly creative. There’s not much space on a T-shirt so a good slogan has to act like a haiku poem. It has to say exactly the right thing in such a brief window of opportunity. I can’t believe I’ve just made the slogan T-shirt sound so high brow. Sorry.
You have collaborated with Grazia and also made a T-shirt for Glamour‘s anniversary. If you were to make a Twin T-shirt, what would it be?
Who knows, I don’t know what these things are going to look like until the last minute. It would rule though. I know that much.
Models Cara Delevingne and Jordan Dunn have both worn your designs. Who else would you like to see in your tees?
Mick Jagger in the Georgia May tee would be nice, and Karl in the Choupette tee is inevitable.
Who can we expect to see featured in the next collection?
I’ve got a hip hop dog crew drawing on the go plus a nice series called Mutts With Butts planned. But don’t tell anyone.
This month sees the launch of the Karl Lagerfeld’s first brand store. Carrying ready-to-wear and accessories for both men and women from the house of Karl, the concept store also has limited items curated by the man himself such as photography and design books, but the main attraction is centred around an elaborate digital experience, a virtual opportunity to connect with Karl Lagerfeld.
A digital guestbook displays his collections from the past and present and lists the latest Karl news. A digital photo-booth allows you to capture your look in the fitting room, apply many Karl related filters (the Valencia just won’t cut it here) and then with the built in touch screen share the image to your social media channel of choice. And Karl saw no need for an outdated checkout, all purchases will be made on a mobile device. Indeed, queues would be very tacky in this store, situated in the heart of St Germain des Près, Paris. “For me, the 7th arrondissement is the centre of the world, I couldn’t imagine starting with a shop anywhere else,” says Lagerfeld. We wouldn’t want it any other way.
This spring is all about geometry, an unlikely subject for fashion maybe, but when designers take their influence from mathematics, beautiful things can happen. Louis Vuitton cemented the trend on the catwalk, or should we say escalators, back in September with their block squares of neon yellow, white and black. Shops are full of geometric shapes this season, but our favorite is the stripe. ‘A simple pattern’ it may be, but effective too. Look for stripes in monochrome for extra style points.
Claire Boucher, better known as her alter ego Grimes, has taken her artistry into an unexpected, but not undesirable direction. The Canadian creative has collaborated with the recently appointed Creative Director of YSL, Hedi Slimane. Or should we say Saint Laurent, although we do feel a little sad about dropping Yves.
The two met on a magazine cover shoot, getting on so well they decided to create a capsule collection of t-shirts for Saint Laurent’s Spring/Summer 2013 menswear collection. Designed to give us a look into the dark mind of an enigmatic songstress, we discover her take on Slimane’s own ‘love poster’ of the 70s. Although disappointed these graphic printed tees are meant for men, we still can’t help but want one.
Fashion film has become the creative brand’s latest method of communication. This new medium is heralded by established and underground design houses alike. London Fashion Week has become a film festival of sorts, and this week one brand in search of alternative ways to showcase their Autumn/Winter 13 collections introduced an integrated fashion film and image project. McQ’s creative team collaborated with photographer Roger Deckker to devise a mood image series and a film to capture the brand’s youthful aesthetic, rebellious nature and street-inspired heritage.
The film takes inspiration from twentieth-century avant-garde Czechoslovakian and post-war Italian cinema but is set in modern London. Comprised of a series of unlinked vignettes, featuring models Maria Bradley and Botond Cseke, the short is both climactic and ethereal.
J.W. Anderson started his eponymous label in 2008, but it wasn’t until Autumn Winter 2011 that he created his first capsule collection for women. Fast forward a year, last fashion week to be exact, and his collaboration with Topshop was released to the world. After the great success of his high street debut, this fashion week sees J.W. x Topshop return for Spring Summer 2013. His signature styles and pieces are still evident, but have been given new life in more futuristic fabrics and muted hues.
“This collection was more about youth cultural groups. The girl has evolved. It’s about carrying over the idea of iconic pieces that can be worn over and over and re-working staple looks from the J.W. Anderson wardrobe,” says the designer.
Evolving from the previous collection, key pieces such as the kilt and motif jumpers are not only reworked in different fabrics but given a more laid back, modern twist. Expect neoprene and vinyl in a pale lilac and beige pleated midi skirts as well as Harrington jackets. A simple gingham or striped shirt, polo tee and duffle bag are all branded with the J.W. logo and will be seen on many at Somerset House this week.
J.W. Anderson x Topshop Spring Summer 2013 launches today in selected Topshop stores and online.
Sport lux is going to be one of the big themes this spring, although filtering through in seasons past it’s been building to a crescendo of sorts. But be warned, with this trend it’s easy to get sloppy, and it can cause many a wardrobe malfunction. Opt to wear your high tops with regular staples, those go-to pieces we all love such as leather trousers and over-sized blazers, and keeping to muted colours allows you to be a little more playful with the rest of your outfit. Here are Twin’s favourite trainers to run around and play in.
Saint Laurent Malibu high top china blue trainers, £320, Cricket-fashion.com
Marc By Marc Jacobs 70mm Cut Out Calfskin High Top Sneakers, £330, Luisaviaroma.com
Maison Martin Margiela High Top Trainer, £401.21, Farfetch.com
Nike Dunk Sky High Olive Wedge Trainers, £85, Asos.com
The weather may be freezing, literally, but we’re already dreaming of spring, which makes it difficult to pick your outfit du jour. One piece that works well for trans-seasonal dressing : the bomber. Picking the right one makes all the difference to your street-style cred, so here are Twin“s four carefully chosen jackets that will keep you warm now and all the way through to summer.
House of Hackney Empire Silk Blouson Jacket in Midnight Stripe, £335, Houseofhackney.com & TOPSHOP Quilted Bomber Jacket By Boutique, £65,
This month marks the release of PATTERN, Phaidon’s latest feat into the world of fashion. This ‘catwalk show in a book’ is curated by 10 of the most influential names in fashion today and is set to be on every stylish coffee table come spring.
Not only does this new hardback focus on the more established fashion capitals such as London, Paris, Milan and New York, but it also highlights emerging ones such as Shanghai, Amsterdam and Sydney, featuring 100 of the most exciting designers working today. The 10 individuals prized with choosing said designers are Tavi Gevinson (Style Rookie), SHOWStudio, Imran Amed (Business of Fashion) and Yasmin Sewell (Chief Creative Consultant for Liberty of London) to name a few.
Featuring over 1,000 colour illustrations, never-seen-before photographs, sketches, drawings and computer renderings, it gives us a deeper look into the careers of the selected designers. Established figures like Christopher Kane, Alexander Wang and Louise Gray; emerging names like Phoebe English and Thomas Tait, as well as contemporary print pioneers Mary Katrantzou, Peter Pilotto and Holly Fulton. PATTERN highlights the dominance of British fashion education, due to the fact that a quarter of the designers cited trained at St Martin’s or at the Royal College of Art. But at the same time, it also celebrates designers such as Max Osterweis of Suno and Scott Sternberg of Band of Outsiders, who never had any formal training.
PATTERN is available on the Phaidon website and at selected book stores. The book is sold with its own accompanying tote bag.
The nineties revival brought back dungarees, and most recently the scrunchie, yet one love affair that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere is our obsession with the beanie. This simple accessory transcends styles and is worn by hip Dalston creatives as well as the fashion-forward West London commuters. You can find them at a large variety of retailers in rainbows of colours and a plethora of materials, with bold slogans or embellished with crystals, but these are the archetypal hats that caught Twin‘s attention.
SMITH/GREY is a young jewellery brand based in London and founded by designer Birgit Marie Schmidt and creative strategist Sofus Graae. Together they have won many awards and crafted collections inspired by creativity, that are not only made to the highest standard, but are intriguing, wearable, little pieces of art. It was their first collection for women, I Can’t Seem To Get Rid Of The Horses, that caught my attention and the latest, entitled Peculiar Things, that cemented that interest.
What initiated your love of jewellery? The idea of creating stories in small scale using precious materials for individuals who long for wearable artifacts to express their personality.
Tell me a little about both of your backgrounds… Birgit grew up in Vienna, Austria so she used to read Freud’s dream analysis and lots of Kafka which definitely influences her way of visualising her thoughts. She studied architecture before studying goldsmithing at the Royal College of Art.
Sofus is from Copenhagen, Denmark with a background in graphic design and came to London to work on visual effects for feature films which he was educated in at Vancouver Film School.
Together we have a wide-ranged background in the creative fields, which means it never gets one-sided.
How did SMITH/GREY come about? We met years ago and from very early on there was an interesting creative chemistry between us. Back then, it was very natural for us to discuss or dream up ideas or thoughts that we had come up with or discovered. This collective curiosity for more was a big factor in us wanting to work together, which led to establishing SMITH/GREY.
What was the initial inspiration behind the brand?The shared excitement to create something personal as well as a need to express our ideas. We were envisioning a brand that takes its customers on an inspired journey through our jewellery, stories and imagery.
Would you say that SMITH/GREY is a combined reflection of your personal styles? Yes, very much so. We have a similar taste and style when it comes to the aspect of the brand and products. We combine our ideas and abstract what we believe works best. Having your own brand gives you the freedom to create from your very own point of view, which is one of the greatest things for a designer.
Birgit, how did it feel to win the Theo Fennell ‘best in jewellery’ prize? It made me extremely happy! Theo Fennell is one of the great jewellery designers and to have him compliment my work, which I have been working on quietly on my bench for months, made me feel quite humble. It was the first praise the designs received during the opening of the RCA Final Show and therefore it meant a lot to me.
Why did you choose London as your brand’s home?Sofus: London really lives up to its reputation as a creative and inspirational hub. It is very natural for us to feel at home here with our different cultural backgrounds, and our creative network keeps fueling our passion to create new designs and experiences for our customers.
How would you describe your creative process? Does it vary when designing for men or women? We begin by designing for ourselves and then test the creative energy and potential in the ideas against what we think our audience would find interesting.
Birgit, who is mainly focusing on the collections for women, tends to be quite playful in both theme and shapes which is great as these collections are usually broader in range, encompassing both statement and everyday designs.
The men we design for often favour style icons with strong personalities when looking for inspiration. This means we have a different set of challenges when designing for them but something we enjoy equally.
Are there any jewellery designers you look up to or take inspiration from? There are many talented and inspirational jewellery designers out there but largely the inspiration comes from adjacent creative realms such as filmmakers, architects, writers and painters. We gain more inspiration from someone’s energy and storytelling than from the actual work itself.
What does 2013 have in store for SMITH/GREY? We have two new A/W13 collections in development. Both collections are due to be presented in spring 2013 so stay tuned for the new styles.
Sweatshirts are not just for lazing around – pairing them on top of shirts with heels is just one chic alternative. Whichever way you like to wear yours, there is a great array of designer jumpers to choose from and with the sales still in motion, now is the perfect time to buy. Especially if temperatures are set to hit just a lousy 2 degrees in London this weekend. Brrr.
Gucci’s Creative Director, Frida Giannini, has collaborated with renowned Japanese Manga artist Hirohiko Araki, to create an exclusive Manga story that will be displayed in more than 70 Gucci boutiques around the world.
Araki took inspiration from Giannini’s 2013 Cruise Collection and referenced the house’s iconic Flora Pattern in his latest creation entitled Jolyne, Fly High with Gucci, which tells the story of Jolyne Cujoh, a student who inherits a keepsake from her mother’s Gucci collection. He stated “Frida’s beautiful Cruise collection with its strong colours and graphic designs set my mind racing the moment she showed it to me. From there the characters and storyline came into being so naturally. It was very stimulating to work together on this project.”
Giannini added that “I am quite sure his window installations will stop people in their tracks in cities around the world as they immerse themselves in the fabulous fantasy world he has created.”
Twitter
Tumblr
YouTube
Facebook
Instagram
