Bumbags are back, but Miu Mui has made so much better than the average offer. Introducing the Miu Rider: ostensibly your everyday, hip swinging, but rendered with such decadence and craft that it is elevated to something else entirely.
With bold racy colours, gold zip and thick leather strap, this is the bumbag of the future, and we’re ready for it.
Curation has somehow has become a dirty word these days. We think of a curator in the digital age as a bloodless algorithm editing the things we don’t want to see or interact with out of our feeds and experiences. The great shame of all of this is that curation in its truer sense is far less about editing out the things we don’t want to see and far more about shedding light on the things we didn’t.
A great curator – be that of an exhibit in a gallery or an assortment of bric-a-brac at the local car-boot – knows how to make things elevate each other within a fresh context. Discovering something in a single painting, say, is in and of itself an incredible thing, but being able to connect that indefinable something to a whole exhibition is where a curator shows their skill.
Shonagh Marshall is a Fashion Curator who embodies the contemporary make-up of the profession, and reminds us why curation is a job of such unique expertise. After completing her Fashion Curation MA at LCF in 2010 Shonagh went on to archive the Alexander McQueen collection ahead of the Met’s Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty retrospective (!), and then to work on the Louboutin and Isabella Blow archives.
The rest of her CV is as impressive as those early projects would suggest, and since leaving her post as Curator at Somerset House in 2016 she has been flexing her muscles as an independent curator, as well as founding The Ground Floor Project with friend and AnOther Magazine Photo Editor Holly Hay.
With the fashion industry in recovery from a month of new collections, and ahead of the co-curated exhibition Posturing: Photographing the Body in Fashion (also with Holly Hay) now seemed like the right time to pick her brain about curating a disparate industry, and contemporary photography’s fascination with documenting the body within it.
Lurve Magazine, Issue 10, Spring/Summer 2016 | Posturing : Photographing the Body in Fashion
How did you initially get in to curation – did you always know it was a job that somebody did?
Not at all. I studied Fashion History & Theory as my BA at Central Saint Martins and when I finished I wasn’t sure exactly what job I wanted to do. As a freelancer I was employed as a researcher for Somerset House’s first exhibition in 2007, in its current cultural iteration. It was a traveling show called Skin and Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture and it was then that I realised that I was really interested in curation. I applied to do the MA in Fashion Curation at London College of Fashion as a result, and studied under Judith Clark and Amy de la Haye, which was the most amazing training.
What was it that drew you to fashion in particular?
I started my BA in Fashion History and Theory when I was eighteen. It gave a historical overview of dress from renaissance to present day and teaching into the application of theory. Being a curator you need such an overarching knowledge of a subject I don’t think I would have been able to focus on another subject. The tools I have picked up over the years in how to consider fashion, applying historical knowledge to assess the contemporary for example I think is so important. Art History is something I am fascinated by personally but I am absolutely no expert! I love so much about the telling stories about clothing within an exhibition, with projects like Isabella Blow it was about the tale of a life lived through the garments but then Posturing: Photographing the Body in Fashion, which is about to launch, looks at the practice and process of fashion photography by making the link between the body and the garment.
Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore! | Photos Chris Brooks/CLM
Archival work is very solitary and organised, it is all about the process you are putting in place. Through doing this work into catalogue, photographing and boxing and storing the objects you have such an affinity with them. You learn about every mark or pulled stitch and note it down. When you are working on an exhibition the process is all about building a team around you: the graphic designer, the exhibition designer, lighting designer, the install team, the conservators. As a curator you are telling a story through the objects, bringing to life what you have noticed in the archive, and the team all works together to realise this for the visitor. It was such a lovely experience to be able to work on so many exhibitions about Isabella Blow after archiving her collection, there are so many hidden stories within the garments and accessories it is such a treat each time to tease them out.
From Marfa Journal, Issue 6, November 2016 | Courtesy of Pascal Gambarte
Do you have a favourite forgotten gem that you’ve come across in your work?
I spent a lot of time throughout August at the Isabella Blow Collection reordering it and making sure everything was in the right place, after finishing archiving it nearly six years ago. When going through Isabella’s bags I found a nail polish that I had previously not noted down. There was something so evocative about this silver liquid, the brush once used to apply varnish to Isabella’s nails. I wondered if in the next exhibition, we are hoping to stage, if contextualised in the right way it might be able to conjure in the visitor the same reaction it had had in me.
You have worked on some very culturally important exhibits, such as Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore! How do you approach the legacy of documenting the life’s work of such significant figures?
Isabella Blow’s legacy through her clothing is a project I have worked on since 2011. Firstly by archiving the collection and then by co-curating the 2013 exhibition Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore! At Somerset House. I still work with the Isabella Blow foundation and have done a subsequent exhibition in Sydney and we hope to stage more to raise money for the charities we support and student bursaries the foundations runs.
Working with the clothing to tell Isabella’s story is really amazing, I always think that like other figures in history she was building her own myth through the objects she amassed. Every object in the collection has a story attached, through either her personal relationships or where she wore it. Daphne Guinness bought the collection so that she would be able to keep Isabella’s legacy alive through the garments and accessories so it is a real honour to be a part of that.
Do you think fashion is inherently fine art?
No I think art and fashion are two completely different things, which sometimes speak to one another but are incomparable.
What do you see as the difference of approach between choosing how to display a piece of clothing and a priceless painting?
I think that curating fashion and curating art are two different disciplines and the approach is so wildly different. The interventions used within an exhibition of dress are selected and considered to give further context to the story, however within a fine art exhibition the art is centre-front in laying the narrative.
It seems that everyone is a ‘curator’ today. Do you think the term has lost some meaning, and does its meaning matter?
A curator is a keeper of a collection and as I don’t actually manage a museum collection, and I never have, I think the meaning of the word has changed somewhat. The application of the word curator to define making lists, or selecting something, is another mutation of this. I don’t know for me it is great as I think so many doors have opened over the last ten years for curators in light of it.
You are also working on a new cultural programme for Chess Club London – would you say programming and curation are two sides of the same coin, or fundamentally different?
They are so different. I really love working with Holly Hay to programme the events at Chess Club, it is such a lovely project. We think there is something so brilliant about learning nuggets of information and Holly and I set out that everything we did at Chess Club would result in absorbing tidbits that you could then relay at dinner to your friends. We do such different things there and meet so many amazing people. Last month we had an expert tea taster who travels the world to find the best tealeaves, and this month we have Clym Evernden coming to talk about his inspirations amongst so many other things.
Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore! | Photos Chris Brooks/CLM
Exhibits are most often worlds built for the public – what do you think is valuable about working on an experience for a more private sphere?
It is to nice to build a rapport with people who come frequently to the events at Chess Club. Also we have figured out what people like coming to, and can incorporate their feedback. It is much more organic than mounting a temporary exhibition which is on and then dismantled with no opportunity to change anything. It would be really interesting to do an exhibition that morphed with the times and opinions, I wonder how you could make that work?
Can you tell us a little about your new project ‘Posturing’ – what made you decide to focus on the body?
I had been thinking about it for a while. About two years ago I proposed a promenade contemporary dance commission around the body in fashion when I worked as curator at Somerset House, which didn’t happen. However it got me thinking. I noticed a shift, away from the sexualized body within fashion photography and I thought a group of contemporary photographers were exploring a new approach to gesture and pose in their work. I wondered how we could present this within a group exhibition. This exhibition is now launching on the 1st November and is entitled Posturing: Photographing the Body in Fashion, the first of a three part project the second looks at filming the body in fashion and the third, a book, writing the body in fashion.
What do you think that the repeated distortion of the body in fashion imagery, the ‘new aesthetic’ the exhibit focuses on, tells us about fashion today?
It is less about fashion today and more about the presentation of fashion. Shifting trends each season is the very foundation the fashion system is built upon but with this project we evoke thinking (hopefully) around how this then impacts on the way in which it is captured across different mediums. The approach employed by all the photographers within the exhibition is one of wit and subversion could this be a reaction to the world we live in now? Should we take fashion very, very seriously? I don’t know – but these are the kind of questions we would absolutely love the work to inspire in the visitor.
Photos above Kristin Lee Moolman and Ibrahim Kamara. All other photos courtesy of the artist.
For Holly and I the whole project is about mediums and imprints. The body is the common thread but applying this theme to look at the way in which it, and in turn the clothing, can be captured in a photograph, a film or within the written word felt a really exciting way to capture different thoughts, insights and opinions. The Ground Floor Project, the company Holly Hay and I have founded, is all about creating conversations instead of offering conclusions and full stops. All the work is so contemporary that we wanted our exhibition, film and book to become part of the conversation as opposed to offering reflection and analysis to something that has already happened.
Do you have a favourite fashion image? A favourite collection?
I couldn’t possibly pick! I love researching imagery and slotting them together, I don’t think I could single one out.
And finally, apart from your own, can you recommend any new or upcoming fashion exhibits we should look out for?
I am really excited about Amy de la Haye’s next exhibition at Brighton Museum on the artist Gluck. It isn’t fashion but I can’t recommend Andy Holden and Peter Holden’s Artangel exhibition ‘Natural Selection’ enough, it is amazing. I also loved Rachel Whiteread at the Tate Britain is fantastic. I am super looking forward to going to see the Basquiat exhibition at the Barbican.
Posturing: Photographing in the Body in Fashion co-curated by Shonagh Marshall and Holly Hay runs 2nd – 12th November 2017: 10 Thurloe Place, London SW7 2RZ. The exhibition is free of charge.
We’re a little bit obsessed with Acne Studio’s Musubi bag collection, and couldn’t be more excited about the latest designs which launch today.
Offered in ‘Maxi’ and ‘Mini’ styles, the new additions for FW17 come in soft hues of aqua and macadamia, as well as jet black and ‘storm’ blue. Featuring a twisted knot motif inspired by the traditional design of the Japanese Musubi bags, Acne has ensured a dreamy marriage of two great minimalist aesthetics.
The fashion curator is a role that has risen in recent years to that of a modern bard: a storyteller that can enrapture audiences and obsessives with their informed and accessible spins on the past. Much like the ancient bard travelled from town to town, the fashion curator moves their visual tales through varying cities, through exhibitions, talks, conferences or publications. The responsibility the bard held was to leave their audience with some enlightenment, be it through words of omens and warning, history re-told, or deliberation on the times: future, past and present. The fashion curator is no different, leading their audience through discussions on the past, comparisons to the present, and reflections on the future. The bard was heralded as a spiritual guide – the fashion curator has become a reputable pond of cultural relevance. No one is in better company to deliberate on the realities and the responsibilities of the fashion curator than Dr. Valerie Steele – Director of the Museum at Fashion Institute of Technology and a published author of multiple titles. Her books have explored the influence of fetish in fashion, to her exhibitions ranging from Shoe Obsession to Gothic: Dark Glamour. Reviewing and retelling from a fresh perspective: the art of fashion curation can both delight and discover.
What do you feel is the role of the fashion curator?
I think that fashion curation is much more than what most people think it is. I feel that most people think it is just choosing a selection of pretty dresses and putting them on display. In fact the whole word ‘curation’ is used so casually – this beautiful curation of cheeses at the supermarket etc. Being a curator is like working on a film or a book. You do research and tell a story, only you are using objects to tell a story. Hopefully you are going to do it in a way that is both educational and entertaining; that you are going to bring something new to the whole subject of fashion.
Does the fashion curator hold any responsibilities to the audience or to the subject they are exploring?
Of course – they have responsibility to both the audience and the subject matter. I wrote the mission statement for the museum here, which is to educate and inspire diverse audiences through innovative exhibitions that advance the knowledge of fashion. So yes, I think that you are responsible to educate and inspire your audience while also making a genuine contribution to the knowledge about fashion.
Stella Tennant @ Eclect Dissect, Givenchy F/W 1997 Haute Couture by Alexander McQueen
What are the considerations you take into account when deciding upon a new exhibition or a book?
I am fortunate in having a really great team of curators here – when I first came to FIT I had to curate 5 exhibitions a year myself, which is insane, and now I do one every year or so. Nowadays the other curators will present proposals – I will look at the proposals and see if they are plausible, and try to figure out whether it can be done with what we have here, or would it require us to buy or borrow a lot of things. For example, if someone said to me they would like to do an exhibition on the influence of 18th Century fashion on contemporary haute couture, I would have to say that is going to be a hard one to do, as we only have a small selection of 18th Century pieces. They are very fragile, so we can only show them once in a while, and we don’t have a lot of couture that was inspired by the 18th century, so it is going to be an expensive show to put on. Then two, we would want to be looking at having a range of exhibitions over the course of a year, so we wouldn’t want to have four shows about 1960’s fashion, as that wouldn’t be fair to our audience who might want to look at contemporary fashion. We sometimes have shows about a particular designer, but biographical shows tend to tilt towards the hagiographic – you have to beware of claiming the designer as the greatest to ever walk the face of the earth, so if we do a show on a particular designer, we try to contextualise the designer, to show how he or she fit into the context of other designers. On the whole we prefer to do thematic shows, such as the theme of the corset, or the theme of gothic in fashion – how did it influence high fashion designers like McQueen or Rick Owens.
The in-house archive of FIT is approximately 50,000 pieces: what influences the decision of a new acquisition into a fashion archive?
We try to get pieces which are artistically and/or historically significant, so when we are looking at things, we are looking at which designers have been most influential, which of their collections, which of their individual looks. For example, I am working on a show at the moment about the colour pink in fashion, so many of our acquisitions are made with a view to a show we are working on. That said, sometimes it’s a question that if an auction comes up and they have a piece that we feel is very important in the history of fashion we will try and acquire it. Hence, some of our purchases are opportunistic and others are planned ahead. I am working on another show for 2019 – Paris: the capital of fashion. When a Jeanne Lanvin evening coat that was made during the Nazi occupation came up, it was such a rare find that we wanted to have it and we got it for a very good price. We are always thinking ahead about how we will show an object, and will we show it more than once. Most fashion history collections in museums like the V&A traditionally had more 18th & 19th Century pieces while we have more 20th & 21st Century pieces. Because we want to continue to show people the history of fashion we do look and buy 18t &19th Century pieces too. Once we were shopping at auction in New York and Hamish Bowles saw me bidding on a particular Madame Grès piece and let me have it: he then sent over all his research on it; while you have lots of competition you also have people trying to help the museum collection advance.
John Galliano for Christian Dior, SS’98
Do you ever take on extremely new designers?
We do! We absolutely do! It’s very much like buying contemporary art – it’s not a known entity. You don’t know if that designer will disappear in three months or become extremely important. We do feel that it is important to buy from new designers, so if we see somebody who is really doing something interesting and new, we will try and buy from them. Who are your heroes of the fashion industry, past and present? Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons is an incredible talent. The late Alexander McQueen also.
What kind of mixture do you have? Do you choose exhibitions that reflect current societal interests and subject matter that hasn’t been deservedly explored enough?
Yes you have a mixture of that. Our young fashion curators tend to work in our fashion history gallery because thats easier to do, then the more senior curators tend to work in the special exhibitions gallery, where we hold bigger exhibitions and you can borrow things. In the fashion history gallery, exhibitions have to have some chronological framework, and draw from objects that are entirely our own collection – which doesn’t mean we cant buy things for it – but the curators have come up with very creative ideas, like how nature has inspired fashion, which is the current show, or politics in fashion, or eco-fashion, or seduction as it traces through the history of fashion. So those are very clever ideas. Patricia Mears is doing an exhibition on expedition – fashion and the extreme, which will look at how explorers to the arctic, the deep sea, outer space, wear protective clothing that has influenced fashion. She will show a real explorers parka that he would wear to go to the north pole, then she will show that next to Balenciaga parkas, Chanel outfits etc.
How do you feel the new breed of designers from the fashion capitals and beyond are exploring new territory in fashion?
Some designers from alternative fashion cities are taking new approaches. Maki Oh from Nigeria and Masha Ma from China, for example, are exciting talents. Education is becoming more and more important to young creatives to try ensure a future in the industry.
New designers find themselves in a position of having vast pressures on output and financial strains from expensive education, but also work in an ever-expanding landscape – how do you see the situation for young talent?
The landscape of fashion is becoming ever-more competitive, and young, independent designers are kind of squished between the big companies, with LVMH at one end, and H&M and fast fashion at the other. I do worry that what with the cost of training for BA’s and MA’s in fashion a lot of talented, young people aren’t getting as much as a chance to study fashion. I think it would be a dilettante thing if only the super wealthy could study it, but those that aren’t wealthy were locked out of it.
What was the last thing that made you excited?
I was thrilled by the recent Rick Owens show.
Explore fashion books by Dr Valerie Steele here.
(Featured image: Stella Tennant @ Eclect Dissect, Givenchy F/W 1997 Haute Couture by Alexander McQueen)
Having contributed to Twin issue IV with a series that captured young women who are fighting for their educational rights, Clare Shilland is back for issue XVII. Over the course of a sunny Saturday afternoon in Notting Hill, Clare shot sisters Lotte and Nancy Andersen, beautifully depicting the love and affection the pair feel for each other, as well as their distinct personalities. As Twin XVII hits the stands, we caught up with Clare to talk fashion, inspiration and capturing something you can’t use words to describe.
Do you consciously try to better the female gaze in fashion photography through your work?
I feel like I have always photographed women and girls in a very natural and strong way, showing them as truthfully as possible. So, I suppose I have.
In creating lookbooks for fashion houses, such as Marni and Aries, do you think of the clothes first?
Yes, it is about the clothes, but also about a particular girl (or boy) who reflects the brand. The casting is super important. Sofia at Aries and I have a similar taste in girls – usually ones who look like boys :). The casting is always the most important thing!
© Clare Shilland
Your series have a filmic quality, and seem to build narrative around a character. Have you been working with film recently?
I was always very influenced by movies- so that’s probably why. I’ve been doing a few films recently – I love the one we did for Aries x Vans.
I love the picture of your sister outside McDonalds in Bromley. Do you think of those photographs differently to your commercial work?
Shooting my sister outside McDonalds in Bromley is my favourite photo ever. I hope to bring that beauty to my commercial work, but sometimes it’s hard when you have to please clients.
© Clare Shilland
Who has been your most memorable subject? Why?
I met my husband on a shoot so that’s pretty memorable.
The beauty and rawness and awkwardness and the fact that you never realise quite how beautiful you are when you’re young. Those years make you what you are and I find it fascinating.
Your work appears in several magazines and books. Do you still find it exciting to see your work in print? What do you think the digital shift in publishing means for photography?
Yes, it’s always nice to see in print, especially when it’s something that is really considered and well designed. But the only thing anyone looks at these days is social media… so it’s going to become more and more specialist. Hopefully it will mean less waste and a few really interesting magazines out there.
© Clare Shilland
What are your trying to capture when you take a photograph?
Something I can’t put into words. A strange moment.
Fashion month and Frieze fall within days of each other, highlighting the deeply interconnected nature of these two creative mediums – a relationship that has always been investigated by both artists and designers, spurning glorious collaborations throughout contemporary history. For SS18 designers drew strongly on artists to render new, unexpected collections. Twin looks at some of the best designers working with artists for womenswear this season.
Christopher Kane / John Kacere
Kane’s collection this season took inspiration from Cynthia Payne, the eighties party girl and brothel keeper who was a tabloid favourite in the seventies and eighties. A reference that balanced the clean with the dirty, the pretty with the ugly underbelly of society, Kane’s use of John Kacere imagery continued this harmonious interplay. Kacere’s photo-realistic paintings of women in underwear have littered Tumblr for years but Kane’s repositioning of the silk and satin clad derrieres onto chiffon-bordered t-shirts have finally brought the idea of wearing a woman’s butt on my flank into reality.
Christopher Kane SS18 | © Christopher Kane
Hannah Weiland of Shrimps / Faye Wei Wei
A partnership exploring the possibilities of presentation, West London artist of the moment, Faye Wei Wei created a series of three broad, bold boards to stand behind the Shrimps S/S 18 presentation. Working directly with designer Hannah Weiland, Wei Wei’s mythology-inspired canvases clashed against the Shrek-greens and fun furs on show. An illustrator herself, Weiland first saw Wei Wei’s work at a show at the Cob Gallery and loved it. This collection featured fewer of Weiland’s signature doodles, allowing Wei Wei’s canvases to provide a large dose of the whimsy and wonder we associate with Shrimps.
Shrimps SS18 | © India Doyle
Gareth Pugh / Nick Knight / Olivier de Sagazan
In a move that has swiftly become synonymous with the Gareth Pugh brand, for S/S 18, Pugh rejected the catwalk in favour of a fashion film created by SHOWstudio and Nick Knight. Collaborating with artist Olivier de Sagazan, the film sees de Sagazan and Pugh mould their faces together with clay, tear each other, viscerally, physically apart, and explore the allegories present in Pugh’s clothing; creation, destruction and reproduction.
Undercover / Cindy Sherman
This year, artist Cindy Sherman released her private Instagram to the public and renewed her global capital. As one who consistently taps into smart, zeitgeisty movements, Joon Takahashi of Undercover took this opportunity to whack Sherman’s face on a series of dresses. Drawing inspiration from twins, ‘Shining’-style, these dresses played on the concept of duality, dual natures – reality and Instagram, as explored in Sherman’s oeuvre.
Ambush design / Twitter
Comme des Garçons / Giuseppe Arcimboldo
Giuseppe Arcimboldo was an Italian painter best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made entirely of objects such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish, and books. Rei Kawakubo’s S/S18 collection presented imaginative portrait dresses with items including hairbrushes, dollies, trinkets and Hello Kitty ephemera. Dresses plastered with Arcimboldo’s paintings contradicted the scatter of Harajuku and pink and looked as modern on the catwalk as the animé designs that preceded them.
Giuseppe Arcimboldo
Featured image by Faye Wei Wei
Shot by Steven Miesel, we’re obsessed with the Loewe SS18 campaign…
Consisting of five portraits, the Loewe campaign features Italian model Vittoria Ceretti with various fruits in her mouth. Provocative and sexual, the composition offers a playful take on the tradition of fruit in art, as well as evoking a more visceral, modern and feminist motif.
With make-up by Pat McGrath and styling by Benjamin Bruno, this is another striking series from Jonathan Anderson, and we can’t get enough.
Loewe SS18
Loewe SS18
Loewe SS18
Loewe SS18
There are so many reasons why a sane person might avoid working with our other halves at all costs; mixing the ego of creativity with the power dynamics of a relationship seems like a recipe for disaster. And yet some of the most celebrated creative pairings in fashion and beyond have been couples. From Andreas and Vivienne to Inez and Vinoodh, there’s no shortage of partnerships emotionally evolved enough to sustain making beautiful things with the person they share a bed with. Shame on all of us for not making a go of it, perhaps?
Twin contributors Stevie Verroca and Mada Refujio are another enlightened example. Crediting themselves as Stevie Mada, the couple have been working together since meeting in California in 2010. They take photographs that are full of colour and buckets of the sun-drenched outdoors, tempered by the cooler airs of their current home in NYC. Their subjects are lovingly rendered and playfully directed, with winding poses that remind us that it’s actual human beings who wear the clothes in editorials. The body’s physicality is often at the forefront of their work, and the combined adoration of an evenly balanced female and male lens unlocks something pleasingly sensual for their viewer.
There is lots of beautiful work by Stevie Mada to be found out there – for the likes of V Magazine, Interview and Teen Vogue to name a few – but very little about them as people. Before their feature in the new issue of Twin hits shelves, we caught up with the pair to get to know them better.
What kind of work were you each making before you met?
Mada: Some light book keeping .. haha. I was playing around with some paints and mixed media before photography found me.
Stevie: He’s modest, he’s a painter. I’ve always taken photos.
You used to be based on the west coast. What prompted the move from LA to New York?
M: A more creative energy was drawing us to NYC.
S: We craved a change in culture and style. Very much miss the weather and ease of CA, but it’ll always be there. It felt like the right time for a change.
Did that move have an impact on your work?
M: Extremely.
S: Night and day.
We tend to think if the photographer as a single eye, how do you align your perspectives to create cohesive work?
S+M: Thanks for saying our work is cohesive 🙂
M: I think it’s like splitting a milk shake. You decide on the flavour before you decide to share.
S: We’re becoming firmer in our individual likes through experience and we happen to be fortunate that our shared likes outweigh the dislikes. Plus, whatever I say, goes. ha!
You seem to work a lot in exterior locations – do you prefer them to the studio?
M: I love to work outdoors – partially the reason I don’t paint anymore. Following the sun and the earth’s textures really makes me feel connected. Although a studio shoot does have its appeal from time to time.
S: Yes! Light, colour, space. I never get tired of it.
© Stevie Mada
That said, the environment of your images never overwhelms the subject – what draws you to that?
S: We like open spaces – probably because we grew up near deserts in the LA valleys.
Do you have any interest in making work without a human subject?
M: Yes, but working with cool peeps outweighs that. 🙂
S: I love looking at photographs of empty spaces. I can look at Stephen Shore for hours. But to take them myself, I crave people.
The ‘naughty & nice’ story you shot for the newest issue is very playful but also very sexual, how did you approach the shoot?
S: I’m naughty, Mada’s nice 🙂 It really is a female/male perspective on sexuality and femininity. Can you tell which is which?
There is a very rich, almost painterly quality to your images – how do you think about colour?
M: Colour is the 5th element.
S: It’s my obsession.
Do you ever hope to work on any individual projects, separate from each other?
M: I’m open to it, but no.
S: I have fun doing what I love the most with my best friend.
© Stevie Mada
How do you see your partnership developing in to the future?
M: Kids? (we’re a couple). I LOVE short films!
And to close on something lighter – do you have a favourite anecdote about working with the other?
S: Mada loves to wear a t-shirt with Rihanna’s baby photo printed on it. It’s become a uniform.
M: Stevie blushes when you compliment her.. haha, BiG time! Try it!
When crocs made their comeback on the London stage they rightly induced scepticism – Crocs! – but it seems they are the shoe that won’t go away.
Christopher Kane got there first, with quite innocuous looking pairs during his AW17 show; they came in marble and camo print and were lightly adorned with gems and glittering rocks. Then for SS18 Kane did it again, this time going further with large Swarovski diamonds and bright yellow hues.
Now in Paris, Balenciaga has taken up the mantle, offering platform pairs in bright, bubblegum pink and strong yellow. So perhaps it’s time to embrace the unthinkable: after all this time in the dark, are Crocs the shoe of the season?
Something about this month’s launch of Rihanna’s new beauty line – Fenty Beauty – has touched a nerve with consumers and it’s not entirely owing to her A-list cred. In a sea of celebrity-endorsed fashion and beauty collections, Fenty stands out thanks to its notably diverse range of foundation shades (all 40 of them, near revolutionary in its inclusivity), from lightest of alabasters to the deepest of coffees, with a range of authentic skin-loving undertones as well. Word on the street is that customers are liking – and buying – what they see: there are reports of the darkest shades selling out instantly, which flies in the face of the argument of bigger brands that producing darker shades is a risk for their profit margin. But it’s not only dark-skinned girls loving the range, a number of people with albinism have sung the praises of Fenty for making shades light enough for pigment-free skin, using the hashtag #AlbinoMatch to broadcast the discovery on various social platforms.
Of course this isn’t Rihanna’s first foray into the world of beauty, with products from her RiRi for MAC collection reportedly selling out in hours. However, with a whole makeup line created by the original bad girl herself – and with names like Trophy Wife, Moscow Mule, Sinnamon, Killawatt and Pro Filt’R – this one’s got RiRi written all over it, in a very good way.
Catch it quick! The new collaboration between Aries x Vans launches at midnight. There’s also fresh patches, sweats and a whole new AW17 collection to get stuck into.
Founded by Central Saint Martins graduateSofia Prantera and graphic designer Fergus Purcell, Aries has quickly become a cult brand since it launched some five years ago. Marrying the 90s streetwear aesthetic with modern style, the label offers easy, transitional pieces all with that Aries edge. Think logo t-shirts, frayed denim and hoodies, as well as patches, tie dye and silk tracksuits to boot.
Aries ‘No Problemo’ sweatshirt, £120
This latest collaboration sees the brand delving further into subcultures, offering a new customised trainer that will debut alongside a film by Jeremy Pollard. Expect these shoes to sell out as fast as their printed t-shirts, and be ready to click ‘buy’ when the clock strikes 12.
Whether it’s phone cases, patches, berets or bags, customisation is the trans-seasonal trend that we can’t get enough off. Hot off the Topshop SS18 catwalk, customised tees from the runway show are available to make your own at Topshop’s customisation pop-up in their Oxford Street store.
Head over over any time this week to tap into that fierce, independent attitude: because while wearing your heart on your sleeve is good, your name on your chest is better.
The room was succulent with energy before the show had even started, but Molly Goddard SS18 trumped all feverish expectations as it began. Opening with Edie Campbell, an e-cigarette dangling from her lips, the show offered a strong, louche party girl spirit, wrapped up in signature smocks and empire lines.
Taffetas, sequins and dense cotton was finely rendered here, with Goddard honing in on fine details as much as the big, stand-out aesthetics which have made her show one of the must see of the season – hell, even Sadiq Khan was on the front row.
Finely tuned ruche detail lent organic curves to backs and sleeves, while juxtapositions of form gave fresh vibes to familiar silhouettes. Cropped cardigans and blazers in rich tangerines, lemon-curd yellows and midnight blues translated the Molly Goddard girl into a more contemporary setting, while sequin smocks and sheer dresses were the wearable, fun escapism we’ve all been looking for.
“The doctor told me to watch my drinking. Now I drink in front of the mirror.” the show notes quipped: the show itself an exuberant realisation of the confident, funny, playful and seductive Molly Goddard girl that we have come to love so well.
Molly Goddard SS18| © kamil kustosz
Molly Goddard SS18| © kamil kustosz
Molly Goddard SS18| © kamil kustosz
Molly Goddard SS18| © kamil kustosz
Molly Goddard SS18| © kamil kustosz
Molly Goddard SS18| © kamil kustosz
Molly Goddard SS18| © kamil kustosz
Beds have always offered a world within a world, a place where sex, loss, pensiveness and commonality can all exist in the same place, and sometimes all at once. It is these dichotomies and juxtapositions that photographer Cass Bird plays with in a new exhibition at Red Hook Labs in New York.
This new series of portraits tells the story of her family, with pictures of wife Ali, and their two children weaving a story of laughter, intimacy and feeling connected.
Alongside familial images are examples of Bird’s fashion photography, which has featured in publications such as French Vogue and Wall Street Journal, as well as Twin magazine.
‘Self Portrait with Mae’ (2014), Photography Cass Bird
Here the same off-kilter, fluid and sensitive compositions relay an eye that is totally attuned to its subjects; whether it’s professional or personal, Cass Bird communes with these moments rather than directs them.
‘In Bed’ is on at Red Hook Labs, Brooklyn until September 24th.
Famed for being light, bright and breezy, Henry Holland’s designs have always embodied a playful and punchy nature. So it kind of makes perfect sense that the designer has launched a capsule collection with cartoon character Woody Woodpecker, launching just ahead of London Fashion Week.
Available exclusively at Fenwick of Bond Street, the collection comprises of 15 pieces – hoodies, jackets, dresses and skirts, all featuring or making reference to one of Disney’s most eccentric characters. If you want a fun-filled energy boost for your style, look no further.
House of Holland x Woody Woodpecker collection is available from September 11th, at Fenwick of Bond Street.
For AW17, Whistles has partnered with by FAR to launch a new collection of shoes, all named after iconic streets in London.
Founded by twin sisters Valentina and Sabina, along with their friend Denitsa , by Far is an under-the-radar Bulgarian shoe brand that makes dreamy, timeless staples from their headquarters in Sofia.
This new collaboration with Whistles focusses on celebrating the brand’s British heritage, offering Victorian-inspired boots, as well as unisex loafer styles.
If you’re looking for a shoe that does the hard work for you, this collection is for you.
The Whistles x by FAR collection will be available in selected stores and online at whistles.com from 15th September 2017.
Whether it’s designers, photographers, stylists or artists, fashion is full of dynamic creatives who come together, in pairs and in teams, to produce emotional, meaningful images. But occasionally there are partnerships that stand out and endure beyond the whirring cycle of the industry, and it is these notable and lasting collaborations that Lou Stoppard has chosen to spotlight on in her latest book, Fashion Together.
The book consists of 18 interviews between creative duos across fashion, design, photography and film. Highlights include Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin’s portrait of Clint Eastwood for the New York Times Magazine (2005) and Shaun Leane for Alexander McQueen’s ‘Star’ headpiece from the Salem Collection (Autumn/Winter 2007), as well as conversations with Marc Jacobs, Rick Owens, Vivienne Westwood, Nick Knight and their creative partners. Conversations range from childhood memories to thoughts on the fashion industry, and a foreword from The Met’s Andrew Bolton provides the perfect means of entering these worlds.
Ahead of the launch of the book, Fashion Space Gallery will celebrate the collaborative spirit with a new exhibition opening this week. As an insight into the industry, and the minds behind the makers, this new book provides a warm, engaging presentation of some of fashion’s most enduring and memorable partnerships.
Fashion Together opens at London’s Fashion Space Gallery, 8th September 2017 and ‘Fashion Together: Fashion’s Most Extraordinary Duos on the Art of Collaboration’ is released on Rizzoli Press, October 17th.
Photo credit: Backstage at the Alexander McQueen ‘Black’ show, June 2004. Aluminium Coiled Corset by Shaun Leane for Alexander McQueen, The Overlook, Autumn/Winter 1999 | Courtesy of the Shaun Leane archive
For fall / winter 2017 – 2018, Marni has debuted a beautiful line of eclectic takes on knitwear. Featuring bright colours, geometric prints and patterns and rendered in ultra fine cotton, wool and cashmere.
The capsule collection also features Marni’s iconic Trunk bag, which comes adorned in horizontally striped knit versions, as well as a plain-coloured model decorated with a central maxi band.
Autumn, you can’t come soon enough.
Artist, writer and musician Kim Gordon (who also happens to have co-founded Sonic Youth) has teamed up with & Other Stories to offer a fresh new collection, modelled by her daughter Coco Gordon Moore.
Comprising of t-shirts, silk scarfs, hoodies and skirts, the collection encapsulates an empowered and celebratory approach to family and femininity within a range of staple silhouettes.
“Dealing with the structured shapes of t-shirts and hoodies in this collection was almost like working with empty canvases. I decided to do pronouns because I like the idea of a word, and the sense of drama surrounding it. Thinking of a word can create an atmosphere, and there’s a certain mystery about it. The screen printing makes the pieces feel more crafted and one-of-a kind. Especially the abstract prints, they almost look tie-dyed, but more like art in a way. I like contrasts and when something unexpectedly is looking glam. Today, I think women can curate their environment by what they wear,” says Kim Gordon of the collaboration.
Throughout the collection, graphic prints which include slogans such as “Her” “They” and “The Other” feature, juxtaposing with Kim Gordon’s artwork which explores and reflects on these ideas more widely.
Catch a behind the scenes preview below, and explore the whole collection here from August 31st 2017.
Earlier in the summer, Gurls Talk swept the women of London up in an empowered frenzy during the organisation’s one day workshop; now you can wear those good vibes on your (kind of) sleeve, thanks to a new collaboration between Gurls Talk and Astley Clarke.
Creative director of the brand, Dominic Jones and founder of Gurls Talk Adwoa Aboah go way back, and with Aboah as the current the face of the brand’s ‘Astronomy’ AW17 campaign, it’s a collaboration which offers the chance to celebrate friendship of all kinds, while championing diversity and encouraging ambitious, young creatives. All of the profits will also go straight Gurls Talk.
Featuring a red enamel Gurls Talk lips logo and decorated with a cultured white sapphire tooth stud, it’s the perfect way to bring a positive, empowered attitude with you wherever you go.
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