ANOK: The final face of Willy Vanderperre’s ‘/ 12 series’
The last of Willy Vanderperre’s /12 series with IDEA books spotlights on 19 year-old Anok Yai. As the first black model to have opened a Prada show since Naomi Campbell in 1997, the profile of Yai is a powerful way to end the series. The model embodies the energy and determination of a young generation working to ensure a more equal future for those that follow.
Throughout his series Vanderperre’s emotional and sensual photography has juxtaposed the personality and prowess of the models photographed. The images offer readers timeless portraits of young talent, sure to become iconic faces in the next few years. Explore the whole series here.
Dr. Martens collaborates with Lazy Oaf for SS18
For their second ever female-only collaboration, Dr. Martens have partnered with Lazy Oaf to offer dreamy suede buckle boots. Coming in two colour ways, the pink and black boots have a chunky double sole and cute heart buckle details. A contrast heart detail at the back provides a final finishing flair. These boots are perfect for energising and empowering your spring wardrobe.
Available from 29th March at drmartens.com, www.lazyoaf.com, and in Dr. Martens stores from April 14th.
Raise The Barre
The new season demands poise, precision and passion in order to do it justice. Watch the new fashion film from Agnes Llyod-Platt made especially for Twin magazine. Read the full story in the latest issue, out now.
Embrace spring with this new scent from Louis Vuitton. Offering top notes of mandarin with hints of blackcurrent, jasmine and peony, this is a fresh, energising scent to kick start the day. Surround yourself with a sense of the new season: buy it now.
Artistic collaborations from London’s next generation of creatives
Fashion and Fine Art are as intertwined as any two mediums can be, and so on the surface a project that brings together five artist and five designers doesn’t seem so radical. But not every designer is Raf Simons, able to access and afford the works of Sterling Ruby for his Dior collections, or Gianni Versace, making Warhol’s iconic work part of Versace’s iconic image without fear of being sued. A titan of one industry working with a powerhouse of another often produces incredible results, but it rarely exposes anyone to anything new.
The reality is that producing a collection or a piece of work takes time and money, and most emerging designers and artists are short on both. Encountering the work of someone new and having the infrastructure to collaborate is a privilege, and it is a privilege that the BFC Fashion Arts Foundations aim to extend to more makers. Now in its second year, the FAF’s Fashion arts Commissions scheme sees the British Fashion Council and the Royal Academy Schools pair NEWGEN designers with recent graduates of the RA Schools. Each pair is given a budget and mentoring, and a year to produce work to be exhibited and sold at Christie’s.
As you might imagine some pairs clicked immediately, finding a symbiosis between their practice that made them easy and natural collaborators – Liam Hodges and Nicky Carvell got on so well that they used part of their funding to take a research trip to LA together. For others the clash of influence, interest and expectation might have made the creative process a little more torturous, but this kind of friction is sometimes needed to provoke new ideas and ways of working. Eliza Bonham Carter, Head of the Royal Academy Schools, puts it best: ‘The value of this process lies not only in these bold, surprising and intriguing works of art, but also in the process by which they are achieved, which will inform the practice of each participant long into the future’.
In an era where arts funding is on its knees, and the government continues to cull art from school curriculums, it’s heartening to see organisations like the Fashion Arts Foundation are still around. All proceeds from the sale at Christie’s will go back in to the Foundation, to continue funding future cycles of collaboration. Unsurprisingly the final works are as strong and diverse as the participants. Encountering each other’s different mediums, approaches and frames of reference has produced a show that is a testament to the aims of the project – there is something new here. Across the hall from the more stiff traditional pieces that are the bread and butter of a house like Christie’s, the viewer suddenly encounters is a looming metal parasol, ominously askew and slick with fabric; distorted metal sculptures that feel like collages in motion; a carpet swatch rolodex of endlessly pleasing textures printed over with sinister undertones; a room of balance and tension shadowed by projection, and a series of playful, Zeuss-like structures that are as elegant as they are unusual.
Hear about each pair’s pleasingly divergent inspiration below:
LIAM HODGES & NICKY CARVELL
The ideas behind our work – industrialism, decay and rejuvenation sparked instantly on our first meeting. A shared search / destroy / rebuild attitude meant the work had to be uncompromisingly tough yet hopeful. A road trip to Los Angeles and to salvaged sites ‘Slab City’ and ‘Salvation Mountain’ were essential to instigate our shared visions. Process wise, Liam immediately wanted to set everything on fire. The nearest we came to this was welding scrap metal with sheet steel. The end results are robust sculptures made with the American ‘can do’ attitude brought to life in an East End warehouse.
PAULA KNORR & APPAU JNR BOAKYE-YIADOM
We wanted to create a work that could exist in different iterations. Using materials that illustrated this, from the fabric that takes on different characteristics when hung, looking through, gathered on the floor or folded over. The parasol frame both electric and manually operated changing its size and orientation depending on the space in which its shown. The video illustrating a ball falling from the top of the frame to the bottom, looped in transit, accompanied with dubbed audio of a drum in an echo chamber of sound. Focusing on different forms of sculptural movement from both culture, fashion, video and sound.
RICHARD MALONE & MARCO PALMIERI
A garment, as a term, is ambiguous; it can serve a limited but clear purpose, or on other occasions can shed its functional vestiges and slip into the realms of surrealism, play and sensuality. Our bodies share an intimate relationship with these fabrics and textiles, from the clothes we wear, to the furnishings that decorate our houses. At the same time this relationship is fragile and fleeting; fashion dictates a constant change in taste. Our hope with this collaboration was to create something tactile and ephemeral, like the clothes we inhabit for the recital of our daily routines – delicate skins we shed with seasonal regularity. From gentle poses of the hand that are sketched out on sheets of paper and lines of laser-cut aluminium, to oversized figures/mannequins robed in intricately patterned fabric, the pieces present themselves in a theatrical, surrealist spirit.
SADIE WILLIAMS & CARLA BUSUTTIL
In highlighting the politics of algorithmic era information commodification, we use Google Adwords as material for exploring consumer hierarchies. Our “Google Adword Library” contains some of the most expensive words on auction: Mesothelioma. Lawyer. Blackjack. Cord Blood. Spread Betting. We re-channelled these words through the search engine, collaging image results on textiles through painting, bonding and printing. The installation includes a ‘tombola’ showroom display. The metallic structure stands as a confident, analogue representation of an abstract digital marketplace for words. The tombola also references ‘old school’ methods of enticing consumers – contrasted here with modern visual and digital methods of production.
SAMUEL ROSS OF A-COLD-WALL* & JULIE BORN SCHWARTZ
The starting point of the project was an exploration into the different layers that appear in Samuel’s designs. Working with the film media we wanted to play with the possibilities of light and transparency, like a collage of the different layers and structures of the clothes itself. The process was an ongoing back and forth inspiration: the musical score was made after some of the editing of the film, and the last film edit was made from the music’s compositions.
For sales enquiries contact the British Fashion Council.
Walter Van Beirendonck limited edition at Dover Street Market
This weekend sees the arrival of a bright, quirky new Walter Van Beirendonck installation at Dover Street Market, mirroring his electric and imaginative SS18 collection.
Designed by Alex Wolfe, the ‘Owl’s Whisper’ display reflects the geometric shapes, loud colours and sense of play at the heart of the collection. The new installation also coincides of the launch of new Walter Van Beirendonck items in store at Dover Street Market, with 40 limited edition, handmade t-shirts that combine parts of clothes from old collections. Get them while you can.
Walter Van Beirendonck
Walter Van Beirendonck
Walter Van Beirendonck
Walter Van Beirendonck
Walter Van Beirendonck at Dover Street Market
Walter Van Beirendonck
Twin loves: Rouge Coco
Write your own rules, make your own story: Chanel’s Rouge Coco blush is the Twin women all over. Be bold with lines, experiment with style and go beyond all the norms. This is a blush that will leave you feeling empowered, and ready to wow ’em.
The new rouge Chanel lip blush campaign offers an ode to the COCO fragrance advert created in 1992. Back then it was the emerging starlet Jean-Paul Goude on a swing. Now it’s the young starlet Lily-Rose Depp in the frame, proving that Chanel’s sense of play and style is timeless.
Watch campaign star Lily-Rose Depp showing how it’s done in the video below.
Chanel Rouge Coco is available in stores and online now.
Louis Vuitton AW18 brings a new vision for strong women
Military yet undone, matching but out of synch, the Louis Vuitton AW18 show brought to life a new vision of powerful women. The show was all about turning the expected on its head, and there was a palpable sense of strangeness and mystery throughout. Bags were carried on their sides, rather than upright; eye make-up streaked across one eye but left the other bare; traditional silhouettes such as pencil skirts and cashmere polo necks were mixed with peplum leather jackets and suede-shouldered pale yellow, shearling jackets. It was Nicolas Ghesquiere at his savviest, blending femininity and power to offer an original vision. Here’s to the new era.
Betty Catroux, Saint Laurent muse, stars in Fall 2018 campaign
The new Saint Laurent Fall 2018 campaign is fronted by the iconic Betty Catroux. Captured by David Sims, the black and white film celebrates the lasting appeal, confidence and power of the original modern woman. Watch it in full below.
London-based collective Aphid brings sharp, sculptural tailoring and avant-garde design to the contemporary scene. With a moody, darker feel, it’s all about embracing the strange and unfamiliar. Here the brand gives Twin an exclusive insight into their designs and thought process behind the AW18 collection.
Our AW18 collection is based around the idea of ‘RITUALS: Ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order.’ We love the notion of dressing for an occasion and the heavily debated topic of what ‘dressing-up’ looks like for a contemporary woman. This led us to a fascination with ceremonial dressing and Japanese men’s Hakama trousers, worn during ancient tea ceremonies. Dressing for ceremony; what it means and how it’s achieved for both men and women was an initial focal point for us. These tailored, oversized and heavily pleated ceremonial trousers really excited us, and we began deconstructing and re-invisioning these and other forms of traditional dress, how layering is used and the nature of formal dressing has evolved. The notion of suiting and ceremony was also at play in our thought process with the choice of grid print and surface texture. The linear formations playing with the hybrid/ intertwined idea of a pinstripe and the ritually raked ridges of a zen garden.
Colour-wise we wanted to combine the reflective and contemplative sensation that a dark, monochrome palette evokes with vivid, energising shades associated with celebratory clothing – a duality that we frequently return to. Colour isn’t something that we naturally lean towards and as such we won’t ever be a brand that takes colour lightly – for us these infusions of saturated brights punctuate the collection bring an interesting tension, allowing our constant canvas of monochrome tones to be refreshed and invigorated with a new perspective each season.
See more of the sketches for Aphid’s AW18 collection below.
Amber Pinkerton goes backstage to delve into the theatrical, dystopian, violent and beautiful space that is Gareth Pugh’s ever enthralling imagination.
It was a kind of mock-gothic, Hollywood bridal party that only Mimi Wade, with her proven aptitude for taking the fantastically kitsch and making it fantastically sexy, could have pulled off. For AW18, Wade ostensibly stripped back her signature aesthetic but managed to retain a raw, vamp-like glamour even while working across a monochrome base.
Part of a new generation of designers in London adept at creating clans – the likes of Molly Goddard and Sadie Williams have delivered a powerful, unifying aesthetic language too – Mimi Wade has established a strong identity for her women, mixing a sense of nonchalance (this season through bias cuts and frayed hems) with feline sultriness (velvet bows, ruched, deep collars and puffed sleeves). It’s Wade’s World, and we want in.
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