Global luxury retailer Matches Fashion, has recently partnered with London-based emerging design talent Chopova Lowena for the launch of an exclusive capsule collection for AW19. Post-graduation from Central Saint Martins, the design duo Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena initially launched their brand in 2018, which eventually took off and gained a cult like following for their interesting and distinctive designs. From traditional Bulgarian fabrics, to wide leather belts, to rock climbing carabiners added as statement pieces. The designers have united with the luxury retailer to offer all that and much more including a few additives such as kilt skirts, wool coats etc.
“MatchesFashion.com have been a dream partner and support system to us. Spotting our potential so early on and so carefully guiding us to fine tune our product with such care and a mentoring eye has been vital to our knowledge and our growth. Working with them has changed the way which we think about a woman’s wardrobe and her life,” explained the duo. In celebration of the partnership, Twin went ahead in joining the design duo for a brief Q & A.
What was the inspiration behind this capsule collection?
This collection was inspired by Albanian Traditional dress and Equestrian Vaulting.
What are the most important things you consider when designing?
We consider first and foremost the combination of our two references and really merging them seamlessly. Also thinking about our customer and her comfort.
Who would you say is the ideal Chopova Lowena woman?
There is no ideal, we would love if all kinds of women connected with our garments. That’s our ideal.
How would you describe the direction for the capsule’s campaign?
We worked closely with Charlotte Wales, Jamie Reid and Agata Belcen who are all so connected with our vision and we collaboratively decided on the campaign and shooting it on Equestrian Vaulting Team GB2019 in their barn in Warwickshire.
What’s next for you guys?
We are working on our new collection and campaign.
The collection has been launched at 5 Carlos Place and also includes a book in celebration of the brand’s latest campaign.
Today Italian fashion house Fendi launches a special capsule collection in collaboration with Chinese celebrity rapper, singer and songwriter Jackson Wang.
The capsule collection is one that continues Wang’s partnership with the brand as an ambassador by mixing fusing his signature style with distinctive aspects of the FENDI DNA, creating a kind of pathway between the worlds of fashion and music. The collection mainly featured in black velvet and chenille includes a formal suit along with more casual pieces like jumpers, t-shirts and trousers. The list of accessories also include a black leather Baguette with a velvet FF logo, a clutch, slide sandals, a baseball hat rendered in chenille, running sneakers and a variety of other ready-to-wear pieces. The Fendi x Jackson Wang Capsule collection will be launching in 33 selected FENDI boutiques and online from July 20th .
Idil Tabanca isn’t someone you would necessarily assume to be a Chairperson of a museum. Her alternate title, Creative Director, absolutely clicks with the persona of the woman that founded and ran New York’s loved fashion and culture title Bullett Magazine, but a chairperson? If the role of a chairperson is to allow fair and open discussion of matters, Idil is set to be a total coup – the expectation of others, matched with the vision of herself seems like a task she is more than equipped to handle. Bringing a fresh standpoint she is sure to provide: now that is vital to the success of any Institute.
We are here to talk about OMM, the Odunpazari Modern Museum, that Idil is holding these integral positions within. Opening in September in the Turkish city Eskişehir, OMM will be a foundry of both global and local vision.
“OMM will have education programmes, residencies, and pairings with global and local artists – opening up the doors to create an institution that will be a stepping stone for a lot of young artists. We want this place to be like an exchange for artists – creating spaces for people to come together and have these intercultural dialogues. There will be a hotel attached for artists to stay, and a quadrangle, with a vegetarian café which is almost unheard of in Turkey! Giving people options and breathable space to come together and create. The building itself will be a feat of architectural beauty, designed by the respected Japanese Kengo Kuma and Associates. I don’t see OMM as a museum – it’s a platform, a bridge, for young people to have their voices heard”.
Photo by Batuhan Keskiner
Photo by Batuhan Keskiner
Photo by Batuhan Keskiner
With an education in film and digital media, you see this influence impact Idil’s approach to presenting the Museum on a global, innovative and connected scale. Her editorial background gives Idil a lateral and relevant viewpoint: the threat facing museums is that they face cultural extinction unless they adapt to new audiences – if anyone can speak about creative agility as a necessity you need not go further than anyone in the magazine trade.
“It is very similar work – you are still creating content but instead of a magazine page you are working with a gallery wall. You are giving someone a platform for display.”
Idil has grown up since her DIY New York days. From pulling together character love letters with celebrities, Idil is now invested in the importance of educational awareness of her beloved museum within the surrounding art schools of the heavy university town she finds herself in.
Her eyes still sparkle when she speaks of the projects and the collaborative partners ahead; a natural thinker and doer, mover and shaker.
Did Bullett set her up effectively for this role she is undertaking?
“I think it set me up to manage people more than anything else to be honest! Juggling different people and personalities is always tough, especially when you are working in fashion and art, and managing all these moving parts. Creatively Bullett helped me shape my vision – I can’t imagine if I didn’t do Bullett how I would see things.”
Marc Quinn, Mekong Delta İce Floes, 2008, Photo by Ozan Çakmak
So why has Eskişehir been chosen as the favoured site for an interactive, cutting edge cultural institute?
“There are 3 universities here, and they are all art universities – for all the cities in Turkey it is a very secular city and a very intellectual city. It is also geographically quite central, so easy to get to from the other surrounding cities. It was in 2004 that the first contemporary art gallery happened in Turkey, so we only have a very short history of museum culture here. Now it is somewhat challenging as we are creating something that hasn’t been there before. Sure, in Istanbul, but not in other places. We did a study and found out 80% of people hadn’t done a cultural activity in their lives – rates that were astonishing. What is exciting about this situation is for me to change that.”
Will the OMM be more about creative expression rather than strictly art?
“Absolutely – we want to carry collaboration into every aspect of what we are doing.”
Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, İsimsiz, tuval üzeri yağlıboya karışık teknik 1956
And Fashion?
There will be a store selling a small line, and a big name designer will be creating the uniforms for the staff. Hey, you can take the chick out of New York fashion…
And a global outlook?
“We want to have a global outlook, but want to ensure we are starting by getting local communities involved. The city has the potential for this. Our mission is to ensure that we are also educating global audiences that we are a destination: have this connection with the rest of the world.”
Tanabe Chikuunsai IV Installation photo by Kemal Seçkin
There will be work showcased by the local and the international, starting with a permanent collection made up of Marc Quinn, Julian Opie and Sarah Morriss, to Turkish artists such as Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, Ramazan Bayrakoğlu and Canan Tolon. A site-specific commission by bamboo artist Tanabe Chikuunsai IV will be installed for opening in September.
While we can’t say we knew Idil before, and we can only imagine this role has led her into a new direction – museums and galleries must ensure the voices of the next generation are accounted for, and Idil seems set on bringing her native country into the realm she finds most familiar: of the innovative, the creative, the outsiders, the brave.
Paris has long been known as one of the world’s most romantic city in Europe. With historic ‘love’ bridges, the Eiffel Tower and other amenities, over the years, it has become the city on the moodboards of couples all across the world.
For their AW19 campaign, Parisian luxury street brand Balenciaga opted to pay homage to the city’s romance with a photo-series of real life couples decked out in Balenciaga gears — oversized coats, big hoodies, stonewashed jeans, anoraks jackets. Gushing in romance, each couple is intimately captured through the lens of photographer Greg Finch — a creative more known for romantic, wedding shots rather than editorials — around the metros, on benches, outside grocery stores, in front of cafés etc. The photo campaign is also accompanied by a video shot by videographer Ed Fornieless on CCTV in various locations as they each discuss their bond. It has always been said that sex sells, but try love, this campaign makes us all want to grab our partners and head all down to play dress up in some Balenciaga gear. To view the full campaign, visit Balenciaga.com
This summer, Italian fashion house Fendi has joined forces with luxury department store Harrods in London, on the embarkment of an exclusive dining experience.
From July 1st to August 31st, the fashion house has taken over the fifth floor of Harrods and transformed it into a conceptual cafe with the help of LA based visual artist Joshua Vides who re-designs the space according his signature “Reality to Idea” style. As he covers the building’s inside in his unique black and white graphic, while reimagining the iconic double FF logo in monochrome, artist creates an expression of Fendi’s instinct sense of humour and ingenuity. The double FF logo takes centre-stage in the cafe from on walls, to tables, menus , cups, saucers, down to the menu with Fendi logged cappuccinos. The menu is also very important as it gives diners a special taste of genuine Italian cuisine within the hearts of London.
In the past few seasons, Italian fashion house Gucci has become renown for the creative direction behind their elaborately artistic fashion campaigns. For Fall Winter 2019, the campaign released earlier this week, creative director Alessandro Michele pays homage to the evolution of prêt-à-porter from the 1950’s to the 1980’s, a period in which ready to wear was at it’s peak. Shot by Glen Luchford, the campaign features the concept of fashion as a genre of science or art form, where each subject is shot surrounded by spectators and analysers inspecting each and every elaborate look from the FW19 collection.
“The fabula of fashion, however, begins at the drawing table, then moves to the workshops, during fittings, trials and fault finding… It is a tale of manual and material skills, the result of a specific know-how that today we tend to discount, to take for granted,” the team stated.
For the first time during the FW19 menswear season earlier this year Italian luxury fashion house Fendi debuted their iconic Baguette in several men’s versions on the catwalk. The brand’s iconic bag, originally launched in 1997 by Silvia Venturini Fendi, was reimagined in different styles, materials and sizes to fit. The baguette has been featured in three different sizes including mini, regular and maxi and is crafted in different materials such a croco, mink and Selleria leather. An additional feature is although it may be a baguette, thanks to the flexibility of it’s straps it can be worn in several ways, from cross body to hand-carried or even as a belt bag. Today launches the digital campaign featuring a group of influencers friends including Marc Forné, Leo Mandella and Nasir Dean as they are shot sporting different versions of the baguette while decked out in their FENDI wardrobe. The baguette will be available in FENDI boutiques worldwide and online starting from mid-July.
This month Belgian fashion brand Filled A Papa, broke new ground with the launch of their very first footwear collection for the AW19 season entitled POWERSHIFT.
Carol and Sarah Piron, the creative duo behind the line created a collection of 4 styles including ankle and thigh high boots, inspired by the theme of the previous collection , being the iconography of American Motorcross and Mud Wrestling with a touch of 90’s aesthetic. Laced high boots are reworked in both black and white suede with an added sparkle of Swarovski crystals, the brand’s signature numbers the Bliss and Cocomodels are offered in the same fabrics as well as a metallic “American Flag” version, leather and black tailoring with white dots. Each shoe is matched with its own personality that gives it’s wearer a unique extra oomph while sporting it. To view and purchase the full collection on pre-sale, visit Filles A Papa.
Within the past few seasons designer Thom Browne has managed to establish himself as one of the more creative menswear voices in fashion. Each season he manages to reflect the scenery that is the objet d’art of his complex mind. Creating fusions of menswear with forms of femininity and couture tailoring. For spring summer 2020, he created a story around a secret garden where he unleashed his fantasies of typically masculine sports reinterpreted and blown up with masculine qualities while still caressing the idea of vulnerability. This was shown through XVII century clothing that were reinvented and reinterpreted. From hips that blew up inches wider than usual to oversized shoulders all shown in the classic Thom Brown seersucker fabrics. Football balls pads and codpieces paid tributes to the sports in red, green, yellow among other colours.
The needle and thread, the binding hallmark of the fashion industry is devoid in the work and craftsmanship of the fashion designer Andrew Bell.
Using cutting-edge sonic welding technology, in a disruptive approach that undermines the one constant that has traditionally kept fashion together, Andrew is a creative looking at alternative means to design. For Andrew contemporary fashion is stuck: designers are consistently creating the same shapes and silhouettes, very much defined by tools and techniques which have not changed for decades. Having graduated from Zowie Broach’s MA degree at the Royal College of Art, Andrew was one of the front running thinkers of her encouragement towards radical thinking: the graduate show entitled All At Once summarising the spectral chest of ideas on show.
Unpicking the traditional and moving forwards with new technology is central to what makes Bell’s aesthetic fresh and striking. Collapsible coats, razor sharp pants and fluid-cut tops combine to project a signature look that crisp, sharp, compact and concise. Side-stepping the familiar, traditional and pre-determined is at the heart of what makes Bell’s work engaging. Animatedly explaining how he used Sonic welding technology to seal not only to edges and outlines of his pieces, but to bind the very aesthetic direction of his work, Andrew has ensured that in the absence of stitch lines his pieces are super-lightweight, which in turn allowed him to develop a series of collapsible coats and jackets that fold completely flat to just 1.5cm in profile.
Andrew’s work hinges on an axis of high-low paradoxes. On one hand his cutting references the collapsible hover bag, on the other the very cornerstone of modern womenswear tailoring – the Dior Bar Jacket. For Andrew this paradox reflects the collapse in the traditional frameworks that bind our notions of ‘luxury’ and ‘non-luxury’ in an era of material excess. In this saturated context Andrew’s work presents in part a portrait of the collapsible, but equally projects an alternative vision for the future, with ‘Future Tailoring’ the term the designer uses to condense and communicate his approach.
Across his MA collection Andrew has explored the hallmarks of a new era of garment construction across a spectrum of materiality; from sharp and structured to soft and fluid. The edges of this new aesthetic are instantly identifiable through his iconic zig-zag emblem; More subtle is the completely clean-cut, non-fray edge that defines every other sleeve and side seam in the collection. Up close, the zig-zag edging harks of easy-open, single-use supermarket stock.
Collaborating with a print designer, Ciaran Moore, on the fabric, the pair capture the beauty of industrial textures, such as the rusty non-slip grills that go unnoticed under our feet. The ephemeral geo-prints that line envelopes and parcels sit side by side with heritage herringbones; luxury and the lo-fi abound. This approach is extended to the footwear in the collection too. In collaboration with fellow RCA alumnus Tabitha Ringwood, the pair present a capsule of footwear completely crafted from scratch. For the heels the designer borrowed the humble door wedge, re-moulding it both physically and conceptually as an object of beauty that extends beyond its primary status as a mass-produced, valueless and solely functional article.
Perfume is an off-shoot, but nonetheless connected project to Andrew’s vision: exploring the potential of a fragrance focused magazine that features different contributors each issue. Just as the designer’s outerwear collapses the material hierarchies of ‘luxury’ and ‘non-luxury’, so too does his fragrance concept. In the place of traditional cut-glass bottle, Bell’s concept sees bio-degradable PVC sachets as a sustainable alternative. As such Andrew dissolves the most expensive aspect to any fragrance – the bottle – allowing fragrance to become more accessible to young designers and their audience.
Andrew’s work reminds us that aesthetics and technology can harmoniously inhabit a creative space together – technology cannot abandon visual beauty, nor can form ignore the potential and the responsibilities of production and design. Andrew has allowed technology to shape his process, re-articulating items of the banal everyday into structures of body-skimming beauty. As Bell surmises, in order to break the deadlock, the repetition and the dead-stock, fashion must look to new ways of making, and new ways of thinking.
It’s an approach that Bell attributes to the inimitable teachings of Zowie Broach, a modus operandi that demands a fearlessness in approach. Under Broach’s leadership Andrew was chosen by Value Retail to be the 2nd recipient of the highly coveted support scheme for rising Irish talent; The Kildare Village Fashion Scholarship which allowed Andrew to take his place at the RCA, an opportunity that the designer explains would otherwise have been closed to him.
The designer is often a perfectionist: in the way they touch, feel, look. Every facet is examined, explained and evaluated in detail. Andrew Bell is no exception – it is this exhaustive dedication to the metaphorical folding of fashion that has allowed a designer to emerge that is refreshingly new.
Last week in Milan, Marni’s creative director Francesco Risso, who has in some ways become the enfant terrible of Milanese fashion invited guests to a show space that featured a net ceiling filled with plastic bottles for the presentation of his SS20 collection. The show’s set, although containing a strong message to environmental matters we face today was simply just a backdrop, or as the designer himself put it, “a reminder of the issues we’re facing with plastic hanging over our heads.”
The collection itself was a celebration as much as it was a rebellion. Risso imagined an unlikely marriage between Argentine revolutionist Ernesto Che Guevara and American novelist Truman Capote with himself as the wedding planner. This resulted in the harmony of two opposing worlds, carnival meets military. From hats made from staples, to old furs, plastics and debris by artist Shalva Nikvashvili, to slippers crafted from cardboard cut outs and plimsolls dipped in oil.
“A study in clashes, and the uneven harmony that ensues by mixing opposite worlds, jumbling it all together. The extreme graphic properness and formality of suits. The radical rebelliousness of field jackets and militaria, with a tropical slant.”
For the first time in a very long time, Italian fashion house Fendi stepped off site their routined Milanese show space and headed for the gardens of an 18th century villa in central Milan for their SS2020 show. A switch that had been prompted by creative director Silvia Venturini Fendi’s need for a break from the virtually infested world we live in as she takes a minute to appreciate the fruits of Mother Nature . This collection was a version of the Fendi man that goes fishing on weekends and gardens in his spare time. Sartorial workwear pieces were presented with a casual elegance that allow their wearers a sort of relaxed eased approach towards life.
From khaki cotton overalls, to striped beach slips, to fishmerman style vests and cargo pants. Throughout the collection, the house also revealed their collaboration with renown “Call Me By Your Name” director Luca Guadagnino who drafted a few botanical prints for the collection. These were brought out through digital prints and cut out knit wear. The colour palette was one that blended with the habitat ranging from beiges, to greens , browns and whites. In regards to accessories, the house debuted a Pequin printed Fendi watering can, garden baskets, big totes, pouch bags as well as versions of the Fendi baguette and peekaboo bags. This collection was a breath of fresh air for the house, one that in some ways allows for a sort of reset, and more than anything conjures the desire for a vacation.
Last week three young designers under the Fashion East Initiative presented their SS2020 collections. A small tribe of Londoners and British fashion school alumni who each spoke with very different voices.
Saul Nash SS2020Saul Nash SS2020Saul Nash SS2020
The newest designer to the bunch was British dancer and choreographer Saul Nash who opened the showcase and his section of the evening with a group of models standing on the runway. Followed by a dance performance upon the guests being seated. This performance helped to show off Nash’s construction abilities in creating functional pieces with technical fabrics, curved zippers and mesh. From steel grey nylon pants, to light blue tracksuits. Each piece was made with an awareness of comfort and sensitivity towards movement.
Irish designer Robyn Lynch presented a solid coloured men’s collection inspired by the sport uniforms worn throughout Irish communities in earlier decades. This was brought out through a selection of cable knit sweaters, terry cloth shorts, t-shirts and cropped sweatpants all rendered in a palette of mint greens, lilac and cornflower blues.
Mowalola SS2020Mowalola SS2020Mowalola SS2020
Nigerian designer Mowalola Ogunlesi showcased her second collection with Fashion East that was inspired by her experiencing the woes of romantic love for the first time, “I’ve just fallen in love for the first time and I feel as if no one talks about the horrific side, the dangers of love, losing control of your emotions and feeling like your crazy. It’s like a horror movie. So this is as if I’m in a black Woodstock Festival and someone has been murdered,” she explained. And henceforth this included looks with gunshot wounds placed against large lip prints, religious symbols in colourful halter necked suits, skin tight pants, revealing bodices, jumpsuits, and coats made from leather, cotton and cowhide fabrics.
Last weekend British designer Charles Jeffrey revealed his SS2020 men’s collection during London Fashion Week. Within the past few seasons Jeffrey has established himself to be not just a designer but a showman, a thespian, a poet who doesn’t just put needle to thread without there being deep intention manifested behind it. Each season the designer has delivered full on productions that leaves his audience in wonder of the world around them about matters that are often so blatantly obvious, repackaged and re-presented by the designer in a way that manifests itself within the viewer. Last season Jeffrey presented an exhilarating and immersive Weimar Republic club performance with nods to Peter Pan and sexuality. However this season the designer opted for a rather more sober tone as he drew inspiration from the concept of punk culture and the idea of how it was created as a default to the times in which we lived.
This collection as he said, was “an eruption beneath violent pressure, as a diamond under the heat,” in reference to the political, social and natural climates in which we currently live. His show began with the designer himself walking down the runway of The British Library reading a passage from “In the Beginning,” by Dylan Thomas. Followed by a collection of seersucker suiting, featherweight jacquards referencing armour and civil service uniforms in reference to the need for both freedom and protection; opal blue silk column dresses styled with contradictory military jackets and some pieces containing intricately layered rips and tears representative as sorts of fault lines.
Some models sported full face paintings done and extravagant head pieces and fishnet stockings which reinforced the collection’s punk influence. The collection was acted almost like a map, like a polaroid of this generation’s pain and demise, a prediction maybe, of what such a movement like the punk subculture would have looked like in the year 2019.
In celebration for this year’s Pride festivities Nike launches it’s BeTrue collection in support of the LGBTQ+ community with a smashing campaign. Earlier this week, in partnership with Out Magazine, Nike released the images for the collection that were done in collaboration with the estate of Gilbert Baker — the political activist who claimed the rainbow for LGBTQ+ people by creating the pride flag.
The campaign shot by photographer Marcus Smith features the likes of some of sports’ most important LGBTQ+ names including Caster Semenya, Sue Bird, Chris Mosier, Brittney Griner, Kerron Clement among many others. All decked out in this year’s updated merch which includes collection of shoes, accessories and clothes highly influenced by the pride flag. Such as the Air Max 720 in a rainbow palette with Baker’s signature on the back, The Air Tailwind 79 with a rainbow heel, the Zoom Pegasus Turbo in a full rainbow stripe with glitter and sparkles among other products. In tune with the initiative, the brand will also grant financial support to 20 LGBTQ+ organisations including the GLBT historical Society, the Hetrick-Martin Institute, The National Gay Basketball Association and You Can Play. The Nike BeTrue 2019 collection is now available online and in selected stores worldwide.
Yesterday French fashion house Paco Rabanne in partnership with London based luxury retailer Matches Fashion launched an exclusive silvery of the house’s 1969 anniversary bag and AW19 pre collection with an installation at Matches’ space at 5 Carlos Place.
The Paco Robanne 1969 anniversary bag bridges past and present through iconic design and artisanal technique. Assembled by hand, the bag is the quintessential expression of Paco Rabanne – avant garde when created 50 years ago and timelessly modern today.
Image by Cat Garcia
The installation is an immersive experience which welcomes customers into Paco Rabanne’s world through two channels. One as a chainmail cube that focuses on luminosity and curiosity, pulling stimuli for inspiration from the 1969 bag collection and it’s unique aspects. The other is a twist to the AW19 collection that curates an environment with films representing the landscapes of David de Beyter and digital tutorials on LED screens that explain how to wear pieces from the collection. Both installation act as booths for photos where costumers are free to interact with the products and the curated environment that accompanies them.
The 1969 anniversary collection will be available exclusively at MATCHESFASHION.COM for the month of June and the installation at 5 Carlos Place will run until the 26th of June.
Danish designer Cecilie Bahnsen recently teamed up with luxury retailer Matches Fashion on the release of a fifteen-piece collection released this week . The collection, a continuation of her SS19 collection, includes a selection of the designer’s signature feminine designed accentuated with embroidery, beading and other details.
“The designs for the exclusive capsule collection are a beautiful continuation of our last collection. Combining sculptural silhouettes with couture techniques reinterpreted for Matches Fashion woman,” explained the designer.
For the collection, Bahnsen collaborated with a few female creatives including teenager Margrethe Hjort Hay who inspired the floral beadings as well as photographer Josefine Seifert who shot the editorial. In celebration of the collaboration, Cecile has also put on an installation open to the public until June 1st, at the Matches Fashion Mayfair townhouse, featuring furniture from Swedish Design Group Magniberg and the work of glass artist Nina Norgaard to stylishly accompany the designer’s collection. The Cecilie Bahnsen x Matches Fashion collection will soon be available online Matches Fashion.
Fendi has recently partnered up with American professional BMX athlete on their latest installation of the F IS FOR.. FENDI campaign. The feature sees the athlete sporting an outfit from the house’s SS19 collection, doing 360s and rear wheel jumps with his one of a kind FENDI bike at the Fendi Headquarters in Rome.
The F IS FOR.. FENDI initiative began as a platform for Millennials made to share stories and experiences relevant to the generation that are in line with the Maison’s DNA. This is brought out through fashion editorials and interviews with musicians, artists, athletes and all types of creatives.
Earlier this year adidas original joined forces with Italian brand Fiorucci for the release of a collaborative capsule collection.
A pairing that worked so well that they had to do it twice. This month the brands announced the release of a second collection perfectly tailored for the waves of the summer. The campaign features a bevy of girls decked out bright coloured swimwear, jackets, shorts, sandals and sneakers. Each of the collection’s pieces combines the sporty aesthetic of Adidas original with the bold graphics and identity of Fiorucci. The collection is now available on Fiorucci.
During the past few days make up artist Thomas De Kluyver has partnered with photographers Harley Weir, Fumiko Imano, Shama Osborne, Lea Colombo among others for the release of an IDEA book entitled All I Want To Be. The book, launched at Dover Street Market last week features exclusive work created by de Kluyver and his team of creatives as they explore themes of gender identity, politics, representation and individual expression in beauty and fashion. ”I want people to have fun with make-up and experiment with their identity,” he explains.
Throughout the book, the 150 pages are brought to life by the colourful images of these talented creatives which are introduced with a beautiful poem by Wilson Oryema on the fluidity of identity.
“It talks about how our identities are never fixed, or set, and how important it is to be able to express ourselves the way we want to. Our starting point for All I Want To Be was making sure we captured the people that feature in it somewhere they felt safe. So many of the images are shot in bedrooms, bathrooms… The kind of places we’re able to shut the door and experiment with who we are freely and without any judgement,” explains the photographer. The book concludes with photographer Harley Weir’s chapter which features a cast of full body painted subjects. Given the themes of the book, the photographer will also be donating a share of the proceeds to gender non conformity charity Mermaids UK.
“The world of fashion and beauty has a long history of challenging gender norms but more needs to be done to represent the beauty within all of us, regardless of our gender. We hope Thomas will continue to be a powerful force in gender acceptance in an industry that shapes the way our society understands power and beauty” said Susie Green Mermaids UK CEO. Thomas De Kluyver’s All I Want To Be is currently on shelves at Dover Street Market London.
inner/ outer / self by Oliver Hadlee PearchAwake by Lea Colombo
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