I have been writing for a couple of years for an Italian magazine called Sound & Vision. At the end of last year the magazine launched a competition to find the coolest person on MySpace. For 12 months we interviewed artists, magazine editors, fashion and graphic designers, models, bands and music festival organisers. Our readers voted for the best profile and a few days ago the competition finally closed, votes were duly counted and the winner of a three-day holiday and an exclusive party in Italy has been finally revealed. So you want to hear who won?
Stylist, singer and fashion director of London cult magazine The SuperSuper, Namalee! I guess Namalee’s style, that crossover between those wonderful Technicolor extravaganza films starring Carmen Miranda, the vibrant costumes of Slava Tsukerman’s 1982 cult Liquid Sky, the DIY ethos from the late ‘80s Acid House movement, a mythical and fearless Amazon and surrealist cartoons à la SpongeBob SquarePants, proved really irresistible for our readers. To celebrate Namalee winning our competition I’m republishing on this blog part of the questionnaire Namalee filled in for our competition. Well-done, Namalee!
Can you tell us more about your background?
I was born in Guildford, Surrey which is just outside London, in the south east of England. It was quite ‘normal’ where I grew up and my family were anything but ‘normal’ – they were very eccentric compared to other families in our area. My mum is Sri Lankan and my dad is Dutch. There was a lot of cultural ‘clashing’ between them and a few other ‘problems’. It was a difficult environment for me and my sister. I was a peculiar and very awkward kid – very quiet and shy but supremely confident of myself. I guess I was a bit of a geek when I was really young – I was very artistic and my ambition was to be a cartoonist when I grew up. I used to talk to an inflatable dolphin as well – I was a complete daydreamer who believed in magic- nothing has changed really!
Singer, writer, editor and stylist: which of these jobs do you like best?
All of them!! I can’t do one without the other. I started writing to express my radical thoughts and beliefs about individuality and freedom, and I started styling to express them further through clothing. I am certainly very far from a conventional stylist as I have pretty much turned the idea of ‘tasteful’ style on its head with my maxi-maximal aesthetic and love of trash culture. When I started styling 6 years ago I got so much negativity about my brash use of colour and no one ‘got’ me using too much stuff like an over-decorated Christmas tree – but that was the WHOLE point!!!! I started SUPERSUPER because I didn’t want to compromise my style, or myself. I didn’t want to beg some other magazine to run my work when I knew it probably made them puke, so I started my own. Everything I created around the Nu Rave style is about radicalism and ideas – everything thing has a meaning behind it from the use of toys to the chaos to the lack of the use of an iron in many of my shoots!!! But then that wasn’t enough either, and when people didn’t ‘get’ the statements I was trying to make through fashion I decided I had to sing because then people would have to listen to me! And then I could combine writing with fashion and music to make one big in-your-face-and-eardrums mega spectacle!!
Can you tell us more about working for Basso & Brooke? What do you like about it? What’s your fave B&B item of clothing?
I met Basso and Brooke when they asked me to come on board as their stylist, and then we entered the Fashion Fringe new designers award – and luckily we won it and soon negotiated a production contract with Aeffe, who also produce Alberta Ferretti, Moschino and Gaultier. We have worked on 12 collections together now and have travelled all over the world to do shows from Sao Paulo, Moscow to Korea. Basso and Brooke have a very luxury look – its all about rich colour and power prints on a high super luxe fashion look. The part I love about working with them most is that they make sure I get fed properly because they are amazing cooks – and being their muse means that I get to go over to their house all the time and have my photo taken in their clothes and also all the clothes I get that are specially made for me!!! My favourite Basso and Brooke collection was S/S 06 ‘Vanity Affair’ – it was very Nu Rave and they made a print of my face that went on some leggings and dresses – that was pretty amazing!!
What’s the most challenging/difficult aspect of doing SuperSuper?
The amount of work I have to do is ridiculous. I don’t think people understand that I actually work on the magazine and am always there on the long haul overnight deadlines, as well as going out to perform and style shoots. It is a LOT of hard work that got me to where I am today!!
What’s the best thing that has ever been said about it?
Creative Review (a very highly respected design magazine) ran a huge article on us called ‘The New Ugly’ and said that we are the leading the way and we have changed the game aesthetically. There are so many classic design rules broken in SUPERSUPER – i.e. there is no graphic design ‘grid’, the fonts are all ‘common’ ones found on every desktop computer, we use as much colour as we can etc. but it all very purposeful and thought out. We broke all the old rules – but we made new ones for a new time, which we absolutely follow. Its great to get a nod from the establishment every now and then ; )
Do you think MySpace helped you promoting your music?
Of course !! MySpace is so amazing!! MySpace has connected communities of radical thinkers the world over. Its truly a phenomenon that I could not have started doing music to the extent that I have without. Because of MySpace I have played gigs all over Europe.
Can you describe your music in 5 words?
NU RAVE POWERPOP DANCEFLOOR CELEBRATION
Is there an artist/band/producer you’d like to collaborate with?
50 Cent! I would love to do a song where I show him that there is more to life than getting rich and dying trying!!!! I reckon me and Fiddy would be amaaaaaazzzzing together. Has he got a girlfriend??
Is there a video director you’d like to collaborate with?
David LaChapelle – that is soo obvious of me seeing as he does J-Lo‘s and Christina Aguilera and all the big popstars, but I cant believe I haven’t met him yet seeing as he is the king of colour and I am the queen!! His videos haven’t been very colourful now that he is mega high profile though. If I worked with him it would have to be full on fluo technicolour, like in his old skool photography days.
What’s the Nu Rave movement?
Conceptually its literally about looking forward to the future and wanting to create new things and explore new territory through hybrid culture – the mixing of styles, brands, stuff, genres, cultures and colours to create nu stuff. I cant really speak for anyone but myself and my outlook on the scene but for me it really started out in about 2002 at a club in London called Kashpoint. The club was compered by a club promoter called Matthew Glamorre, who used to be in the band Minty with Leigh Bowery. This is such a simplification but our scene was originally a group of artists and thinkers who started dressing in obscure and random stuff like mattresses and blow up castles, and dancing to really uncool random music like drum and bass mixed with folk that no one really liked. Loads of musicians, artists and fashionistas started on this scene – Cassette Playa, Patrick Wolf, Bishi, No Bra, Niyi, Gareth Pugh, ecc. and then it started to spread and all the people on the scene started breaking away and doing their own clubs – Niyi was already doing Gauche Chic and then Yr Mum and Yr Dad started Anti Social, K-Tron and Warboy started All You Can eat and the rest is history. SUPERSUPER was the magazine that grew out of this. It’s a cultural shift that’s been going on for about 5 years now. And its going to have a massive cultural impact…this is just the beginning!!!
Do you find the Nu Rave movement goes beyond music compared to the original rave movement (Nu Rave seems to involve designers, writers and musicians…)?
New rave is different to old rave – its merely the stylistic ‘obvious’ references like day glo and bumbags, and some of the sounds that are used. And also because of the enthusiasm that is reminiscent of original ravers. I love what the old ravers represented but new rave is completely stand alone. It joins many different genres – and it s all about mash up and positivity. The music that me and Niyi makes owes just as much to r’n’b, punk and swing as to rave!!! And I can say that I ever never taken ecstasy in my entire life!!!! The problem with the media picking up and exposing Nu Rave is that its been classified before its even properly developed. We don’t care though because good stuff will always come out in the end !!
What’s the first thing you do when you have to arrange a fashion shoot and what’s the secret for the perfect fashion shoot?
Get a model with a personality – not just a pretty empty vessel, which is quite hard to find these days because everyone is so obsessed with surface perfection and no one really cares about what’s inside. The model is the answer though, – because a good one will make your clothes come alive. I was a big fan of the supermodels in the ’90s because they wore the clothes and not vice versa. I shoot a lot of models that I see going out to clubs – because when I see them on the dance floor I see how they move and the kind of life they will bring to my shoot. I hate casting people where you just look at them and tell them to go – it so cold!
If you could have any model for a particular fashion shoot, who would you choose?
I’d have to bring back Gia, the supermodel who became a heroin addict and died in the 90s. Angelina Jolie played her in the film ‘Gia’. She was so feisty and full of character – Amazonian, fearless, beautiful and totally free.
What inspires you in your life?
My imagination, my family and my friends. I think its the same for any artist – its the things around you that inspire you. The truth inspires me!
What’s your favourite style at the moment? What have you been wearing in the last few weeks?
I went out recently in my pyjamas and a pink panther dressing gown. I am so bored of people trying to look ‘cool’ that I have just taken to wearing anything at all. The more random and ridiculous the better really – we also wear saucepans as hats sometimes. They are very protective and good for bike riding!!
How would you define your style?
Effortless. So effortless in fact that sometimes I just pick random things up off the floor and put them on as I find them. That’s how I created my maxi-maximalist Nu Rave style – just piling on stuff as free as a bird. Of course it has to be done with a certain je ne sais quoi, but that’s the magic bit that makes it all work
What’s the latest item of clothing you bought?
A turquoise ski suit from the charity shop
And the latest accessory?
A stripy pink and blue bobble hat by KTZ at Kokon To Zai – best shop in the world
Can you give us any tips about where to shop in London?
KoKon ToZai is amazing – seriously!! Go there NOW!!
Do you have a personal hero/heroine? Who’s he/she?
My mum!!! Patti Smith, Madonna, Iggy Pop, SpongeBob SquarePants, my sister Shirani, Supersteve, John Lydon, Lisa Left Eye Lopes, Neneh Cherry, Josh Homme, Carmen Miranda.
What are your plans for 2008? Any new albums?
OMG!! So much – I’m going to be releasing singles – I’m just working on finishing some tracks with Niyi and Rat Scabies. And The SuperSuper show is going to get bigger…I cant say much more than that right now but WATCH THIS SPACE!!!!
If you could move to another town (any place in the world), which town would you choose?
New York.
Is there a designer you would like to collaborate with?
Ha-ha Basso and Brooke !!
Is there an Italian designer you’d like to collaborate with?
Miuccia Prada.
All images taken from www.myspace.com/namalee
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