Irenebrination: Notes on Architecture, Art, Fashion, Fashion Law, Science & Technology

End of the year exhibition review: Sous l’Empire des Crinoline 1852-1870

Mention the word “crinoline” and feminists will simply laugh at you, happily proclaiming the age of ridiculous and unnecessary constrictions and of waists strangled by voluminous skirts billowing out of fitted bodices, has long gone. But an interesting exhibition at Paris’ Musée Galliera is at present exploring the power of crinoline by focusing on its importance in the history of fashion.

Curated by Catherine Join-Dieterle, “Sous l’Empire des Crinolines 1852-1870” (open until 26th April), is an interesting exploration of crinoline in the Second Empire. The visitors are able to discover the history of crinoline through 300 items, such as luxurious evening gowns and ball dresses, accessories, jewels by Cartier, Boucheron and Mellerio dits Meller and perfumes. Some of the displayed items are very rare and belonged to Empress Eugénie, the spouse of Napoleon III.

The word “crinoline” comes from crinolino, a fabric woven with horsehair, used at first as a lining for hats and later on to stiffen petticoats and support voluminous taffeta, lace, tulle and mousseline skirts. In the early 1860s the term was instead used to describe a cage-like structure with graduated steel or whalebone hoops that, held up at the waist, supported the dress. This device gave a round shape to women, but the silhouette of the cage evolved and transformed throughout the years. By the end of the 60s, the focus of the skirts shifted towards the back of the body, accentuating the bottom.

Ample skirts, opulent fabrics and excessive decorations became the trend for decades and the wearers adopted them to reveal their wealth and social status. Opening with a sumptuous ball scene, the exhibition explores the history of crinoline through the decades and in different contexts, from domestic environments to more mundane events. The influence of the House of Charles Worth on crinoline and the arrival of such fashion and of luxury products in the magasins de nouveautés, early versions of the department stores, are also analysed.

Textile lovers will be able to admire sophisticate fabrics in eye-catching vivid colours such as bright purple and intense blue created by using new synthetic dyes, patterned, printed and striped skirts decorated with fringes, ribbons, trimmings and lace. The historical period celebrated by this exhibition is identified by many as the time that gave birth to haute couture and this is testified also by the modern interpretations of crinolines on display, designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier and John Galliano for Dior.

The exhibition is accompanied by a rich calendar of events that features concerts, talks and films such as Max Ophüls’s Lola Montès. 

I always found crinolines rather excessive and a bit over the top for my tastes, but I think this exhibition offers an impeccably curated historical and social journey through fashion. If you are in Paris now or if you will be visiting the French capital in the next few days or months, try not to miss it.   

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Obituary: Ted Lapidus

During the 60s and throughout the 70s due to rising labour and fabric costs, haute couture kept on losing money in France. The political events of May and June 1968 accentuated the problems the high fashion industry was living and soon instant fashion became the norm. Brigitte Bardot proclaimed the dead of couture stating it was “for the mémées (grannies)” and ready-to-wear began a long struggle to dominate the catwalks and the life of consumers.

American buyers started to look at Paris as the Mecca of a new young school of designing that produced simple and clear-cut collections for everybody. “The tide has changed in French ready-to-wear,” the European edition of the New York Herald Tribune wrote in 1963, “…obscure, cheaply priced and formerly neglected houses are stealing the show from Paris big names. The reason is that they turned over the styling of their collections to a group of new, young and original designers.” A new figure was soon born, the styliste, a ready-to-wear designer, who created clothes not for the elites, but for ordinary people. Many new designers and fashion labels contributed to make fashion accessible to men and women, among them there was also Edmund “Ted” Lapidus, who died yesterday at 79 of respiratory failure in a Cannes hospital, after suffering for years of leukaemia. 

The son of a Russian tailor who emigrated in France, Lapidus was born in 1929 in Paris. The young designer launched his label in 1951 after returning from Japan where he had researched an advanced technological system to industrially produce high quality garments. Though he first became known for his haute couture creations, it’s his prêt-à-porter unisex line that turned him into an instant success. His military and safari jackets sold millions, he launched padded shoulder jackets and turned denim into a haute couture fabric.

A member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture since 1963, Lapidus also dressed a few movie stars, among them Brigitte Bardot and Alain Delon. Throughout  the 80s and 90s the ownership of the brand changed frequently and Ted's son Olivier, after working in Japan under the pseudonym Olivier Montagut, took over the leadership of his father’s haute couture house, though in the last few years Ted Lapidus’ label was mainly known for producing small accessories and perfumes.

Ted Lapidus will be buried on Friday at Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris. He is survived by his sister, Rose Torrente-Mett, owner of her own fashion house, Torrente, and son Olivier.

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Fashionable costume design, clever product placement or the arrival of an "Australian" trend?

In the last few weeks there has been a bit of a debate on a few websites about Academy Award winner costume designer Catherine Martin collaborating with bush outfitter R.M. Williams to create a line of clothing inspired by Baz Luhrmann’s new blockbuster Australia.

The film, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, went on general release yesterday, but there have been quite a few features about Martin collaborating with R.M. Williams during the last few weeks. The wife of Baz Luhrmann, Martin was the recipient of two Oscars for Costume Design and Art Direction for the 2001 film Moulin Rouge! While working on Australia she collaborated with R.M.Williams - a famous Australian outerwear brand that first started making boots and saddles in the early 30s - to create her costumes.

To coincide with the film release, the Australian brand launched three different ranges that went on sale at the beginning of December in New York and on Boxing Day in London. The Australia range includes six licensed products featured in the film, such as The Drover boots and jacket; the "Look of Australian Style" collection includes instead a wide range of outerwear and accessories inspired by the R.M. Williams heritage while the third and final collection was designed in collaboration with Catherine Martin and is entirely based on the character of Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman). This collection features both clothes - most of them in a 30s-40s style - and  kangaroo leather/salt-water crocodile accessories. 

Among the best garments there are the Stapleton trench inspired by R.M. Williams' traditional oilskin coats, the Berrimah jodhpurs in stretch moleskin fabric and the equestrian jackets and blouses that call to mind for their cut Victorian style blouses.

The Martin-R.M. Williams connection though is not the only link the blockbuster has with the world of fashion: following the tradition of its founder, Italian house Salvatore Ferragamo, created a wardrobe of shoes for Kidman’s character, such as riding boots and ruched red-velvet sandals. The cases that appear in the film are instead by Prada while jeweller Stefano Canturi created precious gems for the film that will be available only on order at the Canturi boutiques.   

I read a few things on the Internet about Australia and the products connected with the film and some of the articles were rather negative. While it’s obvious that money dictates such strategies and collections, it’s also clear that this is not a simple money-making exercise. First of all the R.M. Williams-Martin range and the limited Ferragamo collection, being designed and manufactured by professionals, feature high quality clothes and accessories. 

I saw extremely sarcastic comments hinting at product placement on the Italian edition of Marie Claire and I must admit that, though I'm usually rather skeptical about products being placed in films or collections linked to blockbusters as it happened with Sex and The City, I found such comments absolutely unnecessary. You might like or not like these lines, you might think that the idea of “bush couture” is rather far-fetched, but at least the collections were designed and made by professionals and not by some kind of celebrity who suddenly turned fashion designer. 

I cringe at the thought of what might have happened if Nicole Kidman would have been left to design her own line of clothes for this film (don't laugh, anything is possible in our times...). Besides, I genuinely think that there are costume designers out there who are perfectly capable of spotting and launching a trend better than many fashion designers. Think about Italian Milena Canonero: I must admit that if she launched a line of clothes I would probably be queuing up to buy it and, if I could not afford it, I would still be queuing up even if it were just to see or touch it.  

So, yes, I'm against product placement, but I do approve of Ferragamo releasing a line inspired by the film footwear, after all when Ferragamo himself made shoes for famous Hollywood films or stars such as Greta Garbo, Audrey Hepburn or Ingrid Bergman, thousands of women coveted them, but in the early days of cinema collaborating with fashion houses, it wasn’t certainly possible to buy what you saw a style icon wearing in a movie.

Will the "bush aesthetics" win the heart of consumers? Naturally not all the pieces of the collections will be successful also because of their prices - there are only 10 Merinda wattle-print silk-chiffon dress and they will set you back $8,000 - but there are quite a few items with enough potential to sell well and even influence future fashion collections. In a way Australia already had an enormous impact on fashion and style even before it came out: a few months ago Nicole Kidman appeared on the cover of Vogue wearing a dress by Catherine Martin and the magazine also featured a photo shoot inspired by the film. So, who knows, maybe by 2009 we will all be sporting an Australia-inspired look, but, if you do opt for such look, remember to avoid wearing the classic Faraway Downs hat at your most formal appointments. After all, the chances of being asked to herd some cows during a formal appointment are very remote.            

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End of the year tribute: eulogy for “Shop” at Maison Bertaux

Pastry shops are not usually on the most obsessed and diet-conscious fashionistas’ list. But things were very different in London’s Soho where legendary French patisserie Maison Bertaux hid in its basement a delightful surprise, Max Karie and Pippa Brooks’ ‘SHOP’ at Maison Bertaux. Sadly the shop ceased to exist this December, so the following post is a tribute to it and features the feedback Pippa gave me a while back.  

Everything started in the ‘90s when Karie and Brooks met and began selling clothes out of a launderette on Frith Street. The two friends then spent over 10 years working in their basement shop in Brewer Street, before moving two years ago to the new location. “We’ve always ended up downstairs wherever we were and I’ve been working in a basement for 13 years, but I preferred this shop as you could see a bit of light from here and hear the buzz of the café upstairs,” Pippa Brooks explained me. Apparently, there weren’t too many people - apart from the occasional café customer looking for the toilet - who went down the narrow stairs that led to the shop by mistake. Most of the people who went to visit the little shrine were on a mission to find it and buy some very special clothes. “We had a lot of loyal customers, but, because we were near Central Saint Martins, we also had a slightly artier crowd, actors, actresses and fashion people,” Brooks said. 

The shop wasn’t definitely huge, but it stocked some of the most original and interesting brands around. The main budget was spent on French modern and minimalist brand A.P.C. (Atelier de Production et de Creation), which also provided a nice cultural connection with the café upstairs. “We really love the whole aesthetics of this label as it doesn’t try to be particularly fashion-y, but there’s something about it that is great, we love for example the fact that A.P.C. also have a recording studio in their design offices, it’s great to see things like music, fashion and art combined together,” Brooks stated. The two other main brands that were sold in the shop were Sonia Rykiel and Eley Kishimoto, both known for their use of vivid colours. The shop was among the few ones allowed to do Vivienne Westwood costume jewellery without doing the main line and also sold T-shirts and accessories by Obey, the label launched by graffiti artist, graphic designer and illustrator Frank Shepard Fairey. Maison Bertaux also stocked Repetto pumps: the shoes available from the shop, such as the “Bardot” pump were picked by the customers through a mailing list survey. “People might think that all pumps are the same, but when you wear them you realise it’s not like that,” Brooks claimed, “The ‘Bardot’ is very special, it’s exactly what you would imagine Brigitte wearing while walking along the beach in a pair of Capri pants and a polo neck jumper.”

All the designers and labels stocked in the shop had one main quality, they could stand the test of time since Karie and Brooks were never interested in ephemeral stuff and since most of their customers were after things they were going to love for years. 

There was also something else that you were able to find at the shop: “Misery Loves Company”, the latest CD by All About Eve Babitz. Brooks is the band’s voice and also has a DJ residency at the George & Dragon in London’s Shoreditch. The CD features seven catchy tracks, from the poppy ‘Strange Idea of Love’ to the melancholic ‘Stardusk’ while the carefree ‘Fantastic’ was recently featured on Alek Keshishian’s movie Love and Other Disasters featuring Brittany Murphy. “I do my residency every two weeks, I DJ and sometimes get behind the bar and sing some songs, it’s a sort of multi-tasking job - ever since I had kids I’ve been obsessively multi-tasking all the time,” Brooks joked, “I think if I didn’t do music, I’d go crazy, music is my creative outlet.”

SHOP at Maison Bertaux might be gone, but try to keep up to date with Max Karie and Pippa Brooks’ projects through their sites, you can bet they’re already onto something new and exciting. 

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A Barbie Christmas

I like giving at Christmas, and, despite the fact that I like receiving, I usually end up asking my family and friends not to buy me anything, especially when I'm not in desperate need of anything. Despite my requests, though, I got a present from my brother, sister-in-law and two little nephews this year, a new Barbie doll.

I have already revealed my addiction to Barbie dolls in a previous post but this is not just the umpteenth Barbie doll for my collection, it’s a very special one that taps into three different obsessions of mine: Barbie dolls, the fashion/cinema dichotomy and horror films. The present indirectly ties in with a special 2009 celebration, Barbie's 50th anniversary, and with the Barbie fashion show that will take place in February next year at New York Fashion Week. 

Indeed the Barbie doll I got for Christmas celebrates the 45th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 film The Birds and represents the film heroine, Melanie Daniels, played in the movie by actress and model Tippi Hedren, being attacked by three vicious (plastic) ravens.

The doll is a perfect recreation of the actress: she wears a green dress and jacket, brown handbag and court shoes, a golden plastic necklace, bracelet and earrings and sports a perfectly coiffed ‘60s hairstyle. Being the doll a Barbie she obviously looks rather glamorous, but also slightly kitsch and not very scary, despite the fact she’s not wearing her perennial smile on her lips.

Hedren’s costumes in The Birds were designed by Edith Head one of my favourite American costume designers, who won throughout her career nine Academy Awards, and this is an extra reason why I like this doll so much. 

In the last few years there have been so many Barbie dolls inspired by the main characters of famous films such as The Wizard of Oz or My Fair Lady, or by movie icons like Marilyn Monroe or Elizabeth Taylor, but I find this one much nicer, maybe for her unusual connection with a horror classic. As I said, I don't like asking for presents, but, though I wouldn't mind the $500 volume entitled Barbie and published by Assouline, would there be any chance of getting a "Psycho" Barbie or a Mario Bava “Blood & Black Lace” Barbie for next Christmas?

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Notes on tombolo lace and on my accidental tombolo earrings

In yesterday’s post I mentioned Scanno, a town in Abruzzo, the region where I was born. Today I would like to continue the "personal blog" thread I launched yesterday rediscovering the tombolo. The Italian word “tombolo” is usually translated as “pillow lacemaking” and this term describes a type of lace, which is usually very delicate and elaborate, but it is also used to refer to the main tool on which the lace is made, a cylindrical pillow. The tombolo is an ancient form of art that was already well-known in the 14th century.

The main tools to make this type of lace are the pillow, a series of bobbins (their number varies, though the final number is usually even) with a groove at the top, a silk, cotton or linen thread and a print with a pattern to copy. The print with the pattern is pinned to the small cylindrical pillow which is usually lined with dark fabric and then work begins anchoring the threads around the bobbins on the pins and reproducing in this way with the lace the pattern on the print. In the most elaborate types of tombolo even 100 bobbins are used. Once completed the lace is freed from the pins and removed from the pillow and, according to its size, it can be incorporated into bed sheets, towels, curtains, tablecloths, dresses or bridal wear or used for other decorative purposes or to make small accessories. The lace is more or less precious according to the thickness of the thread employed.

The tombolo is widely made in Italy, but also in some parts of Europe, but the stitches used can be quite different. In my region and in particular in the city of L’Aquila and around it for example, the tombolo is extremely elaborate, and usually rather difficult to make. Though the main patterns usually represent floral motifs, these are usually rather intricate, laid on a background of the thinnest tulle-like lace. Different types of patterns lead to two main kinds of work: Renaissance lace and loose lace. The former is made with a few bobbins, it’s rather linear and it's used to create a compact and full lace; the latter requires a larger number of bobbins which continually intertwine amongst themselves and allow to create many empty spaces. Open a book about the Abruzzo region and you’ll easily find images of women sitting in the streets of small villages working on tombolo lace together with their neighbours or sitting in front of the fireplace, working away while the clashing of the bobbins fills the house.
  
To make sure that this ancient art wasn’t forgotten, eighteen years ago the Scuola per il Tombolo (School of Pillow Lacemaking) was founded in Pescocostanzo, in the province of L’Aquila. The school trains lacemakers teaching them all the steps of the tombolo, from the pattern making to the printing, the choice of textiles and the technical execution. There are also a craft museum and a market attached to the school in Pescocostanzo, where visitors can admire ancient laces from private collections and buy lace as well. If you happen to be in Italy and see a local antiquarian market (usually held throughout the year and not only during the Christmas holidays), try to spot stalls selling lace and you might be lucky enough to see some tombolo pieces on sale. Remember though that tombolo can be very expensive: being very difficult to make, tombolo can be as precious and expensive as gold. Remember also that the thinnest tombolo is actually the most expensive.  

A while back my mum rediscovered in an old trunk at home some strips of tombolo lace. I think my aunt bought them many years ago from an embroiderer as she wanted to incorporate the tombolo in some bed sheets or tablecloths. The pieces of lace were rather long and they were still pinned to a special thin paper to prevent them from getting all ruined. Together with the longer strips, mum found also some smaller fan-like pieces of tombolo that were usually employed to decorate napkins. The embroiderer who made the tombolo lace mum discovered in our trunk seems to have used a combined technique of Renaissance and loose lace, as the lace features both compact and open parts. Mum explained me these tombolo pieces were very precious as they were bought from travelling embroiderers, women who made the tombolo lace and then travelled to other towns to sell it door to door. Being the lace very expensive, they would be paid in instalments and would go back to the family who had bought the lace every month to collect the next instalment of money.

As soon as I saw the smaller bits of tombolo I couldn’t resist finding a way to wear them though, so I got a couple of gold earring hooks, slipped them in the tiny holes of the tombolo net and transformed the bits of lace into earrings. The texture is very light and fragile and the earrings look absolutely stunning, especially if you wear them with a dark coat. I must admit I also feel like I'm wearing a bit of art, history and the traditions of my region on my ears. Indeed these very special earrings tell something about my roots, but they also tell the story of the anonymous embroiderer who made these little works of art that were purchased forty years ago by my aunt. I never thought I could have worn such an exciting and wonderful bit of history on my ears.        

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Fashion and Christmas according to Irene Brin

1952, L’Italia che esplode was the title of an unpublished work by Irene Brin. In this work the author conjured up a vision of her 1952 self working for a fashion magazine in 1968, the year in which she was actually writing. In a section of the typescript Brin left, the journalist imagined a meeting between a group of art directors of an international magazine who considered Christmas as an enormous personal advertising campaign. Brin wrote: 

It is not unusual for cruel discourses to be heard at high level editorial meetings: ‘I’ve a great idea for December 1968. The lepers of the island of Kanai. Cheap and lucrative. The Hawaiian tourist industry will put us up and pay us a considerable sum. Timing. We can go there in March, that is before going to Bolivia to collect the material for the Easter 1969 issue: the butchered Che lives on in people’s hearts…Well the lepers of Kanai are not contagious and love to put on a performance. The only problem is that they are quickly cured and the Americans even do plastic surgery on them…Better to bring it forward a month. Shall we cover the carpet with a sheet of paper? My pointer, please. Look out… So. Here, o the right, a group of ugly leper women, old and tragic. Very torn drapery: lava gray, red-violet, at least one yellow. Sticks, crutches, all the necessary in short. On the left the pretty lepers. Scanty clothing, if one of them has a breast missing, photograph her from the other side. All in white, opaque. There could be a few little garlands, a dove clutched to the heart…Make sure that the heart is under the healthy breast. In the background, at the centre, the men of the tribe with spears. Who said that the Hawaiians are peaceful and don’t use spears? Nonsense Miss Furness. We’ll borrow the spears from the Honolulu Museum or bring them with us from California. In the foreground the Madonna. Beautiful. At he most a little spot on the forehead…A halo of white flowers. Blue dress, and since she’s squatting on the ground, be careful with the folds of the blue dress. Fifteenth-century Florentine. Next to her, St. Joseph. In a very bad state, very. Maimed? No, then he couldn’t be a carpenter. One-eyed. A bandage over the eye. Everything clear so far? Signorina Myrtles, be careful with that bandage over St. Joseph’s eye, it must not look like an advert for Hathaway shirts. In the middle, the Child. He should be a bit leprous too. And remember that we are collaborating indirectly with the charities, Corfam or whatever you prefer, sending half a dollar a month you will be supporting half a leper…Essential detail: the child is lying with some leaves and grass in a wooden crate on which is written clearly, ‘Eat Tropical Fruits’. Like the spears, you may have to bring the box with you from Los Angeles, I’m counting on you Miss Graves. This sheer should be reduced to a minimal scale, copied and subjected to the approval of the photographer, Mr H.C. Brown. (In such cases the art director should arrange for a photographer of little importance, who’ll follow orders and doesn’t throw fits.) Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for you energetic and stimulating participation.

Brin portrayed a cynical group of art directors in the passage I quoted above, revealing in this way how the fashion world had lost the cultural commitment it had when she first started writing about it as a young journalist. Things had indeed been a bit different in December 1951 when Harper’s Bazaar gave her a very special task, helping Henri Cartier-Bresson to find the right setting for a photographic shoot to be published in the magazine the Christmas of the following year. At the time magazines considered as very important to find a genuine setting and not to recreate one artificially as it happens nowadays. Brin tried to please the Paris editor of Harper’s Bazaar, Marie-Louise Bousquet, who had invited her to find “un petit amour de petit Noël italien”, but things looked rather difficult. Brin’s friend Paolo Barbieri warned her that Naples was better as a setting for Easter celebrations than for Christmas photo shoots; though Brin had obtained permission to shoot the seven half-ruined churches of Donna Margherita Caetani’s estate, Cartier-Bresson found them too decadent, while he considered a photo shoot of the Mass in an enclosed monastery too baroque. The quest for the perfect setting seemed to go nowhere until Cartier-Bresson and his wife spent December between Scanno and Matera and found the perfect scene in the living crèche of Scanno. The photo shoot accompanied by a reportage was published in December of the following year under the title “Christmas in Scanno”.

This photo shoot means a lot to me: first, Scanno is a town in Abruzzo, the Italian region where I was born; second, the photo shoot went against fashion, as it represented an idyllic world, almost archaic and frozen in time, a world that featured shepherd boys, women dressed in traditional costumes and elderly men wrapped up in their long and thick woollen capes. The reportage and photographs were published a year after they were shot, yet it didn’t matter as those images had assumed an eternal, deep, intense and magical meaning.

Nowadays things are very different and it wouldn’t be possible to do a photo shoot a year in advance. Yet it is a shame that those unique genuine images of Christmas are "banned" from our magazines in favour of artificial visions of a more fashionable, but also more bland Christmas. Open the December issue of most fashion magazines and you will find long lists of what has been fashionable during the year or of what you should be wearing at a trendy Christmas party. Everything is fake, disposable and ephemeral. There’s nothing memorable, moving or beautiful like that “Christmas in Scanno” photo shoot that seemed to combine fashion, culture, traditions and art together. Nowadays it’s all about spending and buying and those “cruel discourses at high level editorial meetings” Irene Brin fantasised about probably happen for real. I’m sure the stylish Brin wouldn’t like the way we treat fashion and Christmas nowadays and I think I'll be pondering about her work and words today. In the meantime, Merry Christmas to you all.

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Three unexpected Christmas cards

Most of the Christmas cards I send and receive nowadays are electronic. Apart from the generic and rather impersonal emails and electronic cards I got from various offices and staff of people I worked with throughout the last year, a few days ago I received a few unexpected but nice Christmas cards with a fashion connection. The first arrived in the post and it’s from Zaha Hadid Architects.

A while back I wrote a piece on Zaha Hadid for an Edinburgh-based free monthly publication I used to do stuff years ago and I was pleased to see they still had me on their contact list and they were so kind to send me a card. The card portrays a day (front) and night (back) photograph of the Chanel travelling exhibition pavilion and it features inside a translucent sheet of paper with a detail of the roof of the building and a minimalist message “Seasons Greetings – Zaha Hadid Architects”.

The blue-violet envelope that contains the card goes well with the colour of the skyscrapers in the background of the day view and with the bluey lights of the Chanel building at night. I quite like the Chanel Pavilion as it’s a celebration of the work of this fashion house, but it’s also a celebration of modern, elegant and functional architecture. I love the night view of the pavilion as the building looks like an alien ship with the lights that surround it or that come from inside it reflecting on its continuous dynamic and fluid curvilinear elements.

The second unexpected card I received - this time via email - was from Fred Butler and it’s to be filed in the “New Year” cards folder.  It portrays model Sara el Dabi wearing fantastic eyelashes by Fred and make-up by Megumi Matsuno. The picture was taken by Mishkin’s Amy Gwatkin and Anna Leader (who deserve a special post all for themselves, and they will get one soon, that’s one of my new year’s resolutions…). I love the colourful 2009 eyelashes (I guess they’re made of paper, aren’t they?) as they have the power of putting me in an instant good mood. I wish Fred would do a whole calendar together with Mishkin. It would have been amazingly uplifting to have a picture featuring Fred’s props and accessories shot by Mishkin for each month of the year. Let’s hope it happens in the future.

Just a few hours ago I found in my email box the third unexpected card, it’s from Mārīte Mastiņa and Rolands Pēterkops AKA Mareunrol’s. It features a male model wearing a checked shirt, a pair of denim trousers and a huge headpiece (all creations designed by the Latvian duo) representing a laid table complete of celebratory cake. Snow has been digitally added and, though the image is rather simple, I love its festive atmosphere.

Despite my aversion to capitalistic Christmas shenanigans I can't deny I do like receiving Christmas cards, especially unexpected ones.

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Cibelle's kaleidoscopic aesthetic

The traditional Christmas aesthetic is based on just a few colours - red, dark green, silver and gold - but with today’s post I’d like to inspire you an alternative palette for this Christmas, dictated by what could be dubbed as "the Cibelle aesthetic".

I love the way this London-based but São Paulo raised artist mixes colours, clothes and objects in her photographs. I guess a great inspiration in her life must have been the fact that she was enrolled in a music academy that was also part of an art school since she was 6 years old. “I love gadgets, computers, fiddling with Photoshop and making collages and animated gifs, I can be quite fiddly with stuff and the result is all a big scramble,” she recently told me. Cibelle’s aesthetic often results in big collages in which all the colours of the rainbow are casually mixed. Her tracks are the perfect soundtrack to these amazingly kaleidoscopic collages. This versatile artist recently took part in the 28° Bienal de São Paulo with New York’s art collective assume vivid astro focus (AVAF). The pics that accompany this post and my interview with Cibelle on Dazed Digital are all courtesy of Cibelle. Before reading the longer interview on Dazed Digital, here's a brief Q&A with Cibelle.  

Question: Do you think MySpace helped getting your music out there?
Cibelle: For sure it did. It makes it easy for people to find artists with their own eyes and ears instead of relying solely on the media. Above all, it’s an excellent site because I feel that when people visit my page, they truly know it is me right there with my images, sounds and thoughts.
 
Q: Is there a famous producer you’d like to work with one day?
Cibelle: I’d love to give myself to a big producer sometime and see what he or she would do with me. I would just tell them: ‘Have me, I’m yours, now turn me into what you think I am’. Maybe I could work with a few big names from different musical backgrounds or do one album that’s like a compilation of producers that could feature Pharrell, Quincy Jones, Timbaland, Joe from Hot Chip, Brian Eno, Dan Carey and Diplo. That would be a crazy “pick 'n' mix” thing, it would be insane, but I’d love to do it.

Q: What have you been listening to lately?
Cibelle: Chicha Libre’s ”Sonido Amazonico”, Los Saicos’s “Wild Teen Punk from Peru” and the compilation “Roots of Chicha: Psychedelic Cumbias from Peru”.

Q: What’s the biggest influence in your music?
Cibelle: My anthropophagic self.

 

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Visual senses on overload: Timothy James Andrews

In a previous post I focused on how knitwear has changed and evolved in the last few years. Today I'd like to focus on a young designer who has contributed to the development of this art, Timothy James Andrews.  

While Andrews' first collection was a wild explosion of colours, sexy, playful and humorous, his most recent capsule collection is more refined and sophisticated. The designer played with huge volumes and exaggerated silhouettes characterised by his signature stripes, geometric patterns and blocks of colour. You can read my interview with Timothy James Andrews on the zero issue of Portuguese monthly magazine 1210, which is just out. In the meantime, here is a brief Q&A with him.

Question: When you were younger, were you already aware of the fashion industry and was becoming a fashion designer what you always wanted to do in your life? 
Timothy James Andrews: Surprisingly, growing up I never really gave fashion any thought at all, I remember wanting to be an archaeologist digging up dinosaur bones or a mounted policeman so I could ride horses all day. I went to an all boys secondary school in Beverley, East Yorkshire and really enjoyed school life. I always regarded art and design as a hobby and it wasn't until I did my Art A-level that I realised what the art world had on offer for me. I think I was quite sheltered up until that point. I actually did a BA Hons Degree in Textiles at Chelsea College of Art & Design and didn’t actually study fashion till I attended the Royal College of Art in 2007. It felt like a natural progression and the correct path for me to take.

Q: How does your creative process work, where do you usually start from the design, the fabric or the colours?
TJA: I always start with the fabric. I might have an idea for a technique or colour combination so I play with it and make a few small samples to test and see how they work. When I’m happy with the technique I knit larger pieces and almost dive straight into making the garments. Sometimes the fabrics don't lend themselves to certain shapes but I love the evolution of clothing. I like the idea that clothes naturally want to behave in a certain way and with this in mind I let them speak to me and dictate their final silhouette.

Q: What inspired you to start your capsule collections?
TJA: The idea for the Capsule Collections came originally because it is hard for a new young designer to produce a full collection every season. I wanted to create a small body of work when I’m ready and able to do the collection justice.

Q: How difficult is it to use wool to create the incredible shapes and silhouettes of your designs? 
TJA: I have a great sponsor in Todd & Duncan, an amazing wool and cashmere yarn company based in Scotland. I’ve been using their yarns for years now. I like to keep it quite simple with the way I create the shapes, I don’t like things to be unnecessarily complicated or too clever. If you were to inspect my clothes they are actually very simply constructed. Colour is the one thing I never particularly give too much thought about actually. I am a firm believer in letting my mind naturally organise stripes and patterns. I think when I do something subconsciously it tends to be more successful than if I were to plan it all out meticulously.

Q: Do you think the art of knitwear has changed in the last few years? In which ways?
TJA: I think knitwear’s popularity has increased over the last few years. There are some great designers doing wonderful things at the moment. I think it is mainly due to the advancement in knitting technology and the development of amazing yarns and techniques. There are many exciting knitwear designers that are beginning to push boundaries, doing unexpected things and getting noticed and that’s super exciting.

Q: How would you describe your work?
TJA: Colourful, fun and energetic.

Q: Which are your signature designs?
TJA: I’m not sure I really have a signature design yet, maybe in a few years' time. I suppose you could say bright colour, stripes, geometric patterns, texture and patchwork would be my signature at the moment but this will probably change.

Q: What influences your creations?
TJA: My influences can come from anywhere, depending on what I’m into at the time. It can be a movie, a book, a shop, an exhibition, anything. My last collection was all about simple traditional techniques, tie-dye, hand knitting, tufting, crochet and so on. I was also looking at Native American Totem Poles and so I wanted to make the collection very powerful and dominating, hence the bold shapes and massive platform shoes.

Q: What’s your favourite piece from your most recent capsule collection?
TJA: I think I like the square shaped cape top with black and purple fringing best. My friend Stacey helped me fringe the beast and I remember stuffing it into a big square and wearing it in my house howling with laughter. I also love the amazing pom-poms necklaces and accessories that my good friend and collaborator Laura Slater created.

Q: Who are your favourite designers?
TJA: At the moment I love what Nicolas Ghesquière is doing at Balenciaga. Closer to home I love the unusual knit creations by Louise Goldin as she is using fabrics in such a fresh modern way. I also love the colours, energy and vibrant imagination of Fred Butler, her accessories are inspirational and fun.

Q: Who has been the greatest influence on your career?
TJA: Too many to mention but I suppose my friends mainly. I have been super lucky with who I have had the great fortune to meet and become friends with and it is these people that I discuss and bounce ideas off. 

Q: What are you working on at present?
TJA: I am working on my new Capsule Collection for 2009, a combination of prints and knits, again quite sculptural and colourful, but with a more retro colour palette. Let's just say it combines influences from the Aztecs, the 70s, budgies and Art Deco.

Q: What are your future plans and ambitions?
TJA: I am quite happy to let my future find its own way, let nature run its course. I love making my small collections, I suppose my future plans would be to be able to continue and enjoy my work. My ambition at the moment is to take some time off and have a nice holiday, I never seem to let myself have the time, I’m a nightmare!

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