EXPLORE | Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore! @ Somerset House

She was one of fashion’s most influential eccentrics and sculpted the careers of some of the industry’s greatest names. Over the last few months, Somerset House has tastefully paid tribute to the late Isabella Blow in an exquisite exhibit.

Wandering through the heart of this iconic location, the journey begins with Isabella Delves Broughton, as she was christened, and her family heritage. Continuing onwards, you were surrounded by the masterpieces of Alexander McQueen’s CSM graduate collection, which Isabella famously purchased in its entirety and paid for in weekly £100 instalments. Further forward we encounter the mysterious millinery sculptures of Phillip Treacy, amongst the hundreds of pieces from her private collection as well as a selection of Blow’s personals including a selection of her mismatched shoes and her favourite shade of lipstick. Beautifully curated installations depicted each outfit in Blow’s own eclectic style.

CREDIT: vogue.co.uk

Having worked under Anna Wintour at US Vogue, Tatler, British Vogue and Sunday Time Style, Isabella Blow had a magical career spanning over 30 years until her tragic death in 2007 by, as the exhibit put it, her own hand. A showcase of her eclectic apparel collection, now owned by Daphne Guinness, is delicately infused with insightful snippets and anecdotes of her history and personality, from growing up through to her prestigious positions.

Guinness said: “This exhibition is a bittersweet event. Isabella Blow made our world more vivid, trailing colour with every pace she took. It is a sorrier place for her absence. When I visited her beloved clothes in a storage room in South Kensington, it seemed quite clear the collection would be of immense value to a great many people.”

PHILIP TREACY & ALEXANDER MCQUEEN ‘La Dame Bleue’ TRIBUTE COLLECTION

The sombre highlight of this retrospective was the projection of the SS08 runway show, entitled La Dame Bleue, from Isabella Blow’s protégés Alexander McQueen and Philip Treacy in honour of her passing.

I’ve watched shows which excite the senses and conjure an explosion of inspiration yet never one which has triggered such overwhelming sadness. Knowing that the feather adorned creatures which made their way down the runway, to a powerful disco beat infused with sound bites of Blow’s dulcet tones, were all wearing beautiful creations tinged with a consuming grief. Every piece was entirely Isabella.

As the finale piece made its way to the end of the catwalk the lighting changed, the music stopped and the deep beat of flapping bird wings pummelled through the room.  The striking headdress of white birds took flight back down the catwalk and through the darkened doorway at the end, as if to symbolise the spirit and soul of this incredibly influential woman taking its final flight.

A muse, visionary and creative to the very core, Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore! was a tactile and apt tribute to the legacy of one of fashion’s greatest influencers. It was an honour to receive that insight in to a mere microcosm of her existence.

http://www.isabellablowfoundation.com/

"Fashion is a vampiric thing, it's the hoover on your brain. That's why I wear the hats, to keep everyone away from me” – Isabella Blow

PEOPLE | Deborah Turbeville

CREDIT: NY TIMES

Growing up surrounded by fairytales and folklore has tailored my tastes to design, fashion and photography with a certain magical darkness. Such is that of the photography of Deborah Turbeville who sadly passed away on Thursday.

Having been a heavy influence in fashion photography since the early 1970s, her work was famous for depicting haunting, yet romantic and nostalgic scenes. Frequently noted as having changed the direction of fashion photography, her work was produced for many notable names from exquisite Valentino campaigns to all the great glossies.

 

Each image is bursting with a story, a scenario, a range of characters and emotion all composed to ignite the reader’s imagination upon encounter.  As if freezing time or recalling a memory, fashion and famous faces become a mere embellishment to the scenes created. An often melancholy and dramatic theme runs through her work with artistic undertones of strangeness and an overwhelming depth.

Find out more about the late photographer with this entry from the Vogue Encyclopedia and Marek and Associates. Here’s my selection of a few of my favourite images (credited appropriately).

CREDIT: ITALIAN VOGUE

CREDIT: CASA VOGUE

CREDIT: ACNE PAPER

CREDIT: ITALIAN VOGUE

CREDIT: ITALIAN VOGUE

CREDIT: ITALIAN VOGUE

FASHION | Junky Styling

AS PREVIOUSLY POSTED ON THE OXFAM FASHION BLOG...

It's exciting when you discover innovative fashion concepts which not only challenge the ethics of the industry but create visually pleasing aesthetics to boot.

Junky Styling, Hackney

Founded by designer duo Annika Sanders and Kerry Seager, Junky Styling has been an established sustainable fashion brand since 1997. Operating on a number of different creative levels, they offer a unique Wardrobe Surgery for people to bring their own clothing in to be transformed into some Junky couture as well as producing a Ready-to-Wear collection, off the peg garments and a bespoke service. The creastions have been affectionately dubbed 'an eccentrically chic line of mutant couture' by The New Yorker and 'high fashion street couture' by Vogue.

Junky Styling champions the sustainable message of upcycling and said: "All items are created from either post or pre consumer stock which is cut up and reworked. The recycling of textiles into upcycled garments is what makes us sustainable. We create style that outlasts seasons while still managing to retain the original ethos of individuality off the peg."

Inside the Junky Styling shop in Hackney

The unique garments which fill the Hackney shop are made up of material from numerous sources. As well as renovated, high quality second-hand clothing they utilise excess stock from labels, decommissioned army surplus and surplus from textile merchants and pickers across the country.

An example of their celebrated Wardrobe Surgery saw them turn 85 silk bow ties, previously owned by a client's father, into the interior of a cape. "It is a truly amazing piece that fitted the remit of having her dad close to her but without everyone knowing, until the cape came off that was!" said Kerry. She also adds that her dream Wardrobe Surgery would have been reworking the late Princess Diana's wedding dress into something Kate could have worn.

As founder members of the Ethical Fashion Forum, the brand aligns with Oxfam's reuse, recycle and resell philosophy aiming to combat the 1.4 million tonnes of textile waste sent to landfill each year. They said: "I think sustainable fashion is the only future and, with the help of tomorrow's generation of designers being exposed to so much information on sustainability, knowledge is key to change."

A selection of the Junky Styling clothing range

Having forged upcycling into a career, when it comes to getting crafty with clothing, Junky Styling are experts. Their advice is: "identify your own style, what cuts you like and what suits you and then get confident with the scissors! Initially, it's all about how your pieces look on the outside, so don't feel pressurised to reach perfection in the first attempt. Begin with tweaking pieces first and save the transforming for a little further down the line."

After 15 years in business, and many more to come, Junky Styling are in the midst of a rebrand. With promises of exciting offers, keep an eye on this exciting ethical brand in the future.

Blog post written by Helen Archard

Online Fashion Content Intern

More by Helen Archard

Posted with Blogsy

MAKE | Carrie Ann Schumacher's Book Dresses

AS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE OXFAM FASHION BLOG...

Oxfam is a treasure trove of pre-loved literature seeking a new bookshelf and, continuing the celebration of World Book Day, it can be exciting to see how artists, designers and creatives reuse the tattered pages of discarded books in their work. The idea of ripping precious books to pieces feels almost sinful but they can be artfully revived into a whole new story.
American artist/dressmaker Carrie Ann Schumacher has crafted a wardrobe of novel dresses creating a beautiful fusion of fiction and fashion. Working her way through a box of abandoned romance paperbacks, and armed with simple scrapbooking tools and techniques, Schumacher is not trained in fashion design or sculpture but instead let creativity, inspiration and imagination take charge with these glorious gowns.
As an avid reader herself, she takes inspiration from personal experiences, colour, cuts of paper and different textures which she then recreates in unique paper form. She said: "having that one piece of inspiration, whatever it is and wherever it came from, jump starts the entire dress and I react intuitively to what I have placed down and work off of that."
Although the dresses are not wearable, with exception of Desiree and the Boy that Broke Her Heart which can be physically worn but with little movement, they are an exquisite ornamental fashion statement. "I get emails from women all over the world who want to wear these dresses and it is one of my dreams to have they pieces made into wearable fabric garments. So, whoever you are out there who wants to make this happen, contact me.  I'm ready!"
In her own words, here are some of the fantastic fables behind the frocks...

HARLEQUIN
"Harlequin was the first dress I created and was specifically made for a show themed around the dichotomy of invisibility and visibility.  I had sworn off gender specific work after my undergraduate career, but the theme of the show made me think of the visible and invisible parts of womanhood.  For me, romance novels and fashion represent the visible parts, the ideas of love and beauty we sell to girls as they grow into women.  These concepts are seductive, and they hide the not so pleasant aspect of inequality." 

^Harlequin

DESIREE AND THE BOY THAT BROKE HER HEART
"I made Desiree and the Boy that Broke Her Heart next with the intent of seeing if I could make one of these pieces wearable and it is although very uncomfortable.  One day, one of my classmates told me a story about how our friend Desiree had her heart broken years before and was never able to move on.  When I related this story to Desiree, she burst out laughing because none of it was true but I found the fabricated story to be enthralling. I tried to imagine what kind of dress would be a visualization of this heartbreak and made a dress for an innocent and shattered girl."

^{Desiree and the boy who broke her heart}

NEVER THE PROM QUEEN
"For Never the Prom Queen, I really wanted to work with colour.  I used back issues of magazines, bought a large hole-puncher and knocked this out in a weekend.  I keep changing the title of this piece and I'll probably change Never the Prom Queen when a better phrase hits me.  I feel this one is for that girl who keeps trying to be "it".  She reads the magazines, follows the trends, puts in the work and effort, but never quite makes it.  On paper she should be the prom queen, but she never is because it is just not her."

ALICE AND THE BOY SHE LEFT BEHIND
"Alice and the Boy She Left Behind was made the week after my grandmother's death and somewhat covered all the emotions I have regarding that time period. I felt that my grandmother was having trouble leaving this world and moving on to the next; I felt her presence very strongly in the weeks after her death.  There was a very ritualistic aspect to this dress and it was extremely laborious to make but the mindlessness and repetitiveness became meditative. Secondly, the grief of my grandfather upon losing his wife was quite overwhelming. Their relationship was all-consuming to him and losing her was devastating beyond words.  The enormity of this dress demonstrates the engulfing quality of his grief and desperation; It's poetic and tragic, all in the same breath."

^{Why you don't kiss and tell}

WHY YOU DON'T KISS AND TELL // OH, YOU'RE GONNA LOSE YOUR SOUL
"Why You Don't Kiss and Tell and Oh, You're Gonna Lose Your Soul are sorority sisters, with Kiss and Tell being the young naive sister and Lose Your Soul being worldly and a bit jaded.  Kiss and Tell arrives at college fresh-faced, friendly and eager but then she will kiss and tell and get her heart broken in the process. It's the dress that she'll wear on her first real night out, when her hopes and dreams are still untouched. Lose Your Soul is the aftermath."

^{Emil and le vie en rose}

EMIL AND LA VIE EN ROSE
"My newest dress, Emil and La Vie en Rose turned out to be about my grandfather which was not a preconceived concept but what happened as the piece was coming together.  This one is a delicate little slip of a thing that seemed fit for someone who lives in their own little world, a daydreamer who only sees the world through rose-colored glasses."


If you prefer your books in a more readable form, visit the Oxfam Online Shop for a literary feast.

PEOPLE | Coco Chanel

In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.

 - Coco Chanel

Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.

 - Coco Chanel 

Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman. 

 - Coco Chanel

 

PEOPLE | Malia James

As if looking back through the misty haze of memory, Malia James seizes the precious moments of life, love and music.

Los Angeles based photographer, director and musician; Malia James is a capturer of moments, nature and the natural. Her photos and films are of those snippets in time, those emotions, those smiles you could never fully recreate. The stolen kisses and out of frame looks.

As well as a photographer Malia crafts in the medium of film, creating short sequences, music videos and documenting bands and events on the road. A third string to her bow, which is also a clear passion and influence in all her work, is her music where she is a member of the Dum Dum Girls. “Each of my loves- music, photography, and directing- speak to my needs as an artist in different ways. Music is such an incredible release and nothing compares to the exchange of energy with an audience,” she said.

Her relationship with the camera blossomed at age nine on a trip to Los Angeles and Disneyland with her grandfather. “I shot something like 15 rolls of film and I remember the photos being very advanced for my age. You could see I was observing the world around me- even at that age,” she said. 

Although not defined as fashion photographer, Malia’s style of creating warm, nostalgic images is one to be admired. Her skill of creating an intimacy with fragments of time is much to be desired in fashion editorial. Malia said: “For me it is, in any way, capturing a moment or a mood. Some photos take you to a time and a place- something very specific. Other times, it's more of a feeling.

“Paul Jasmin once said to me ‘Just shoot your life. Document it all.’” She continued. “I think that was the best advice anyone ever gave me. Shoot and keep shooting. Capture your life because it's always passing you by and it'll never be the same as it is now. Worry about whether people like it later on.”

The 31-year-old, Texas born snapper takes further inspiration from photographers such as Joel Sternfeld, Gregory Crewdson, Larry Clark, Phillip Lorca D-Corcia. The themes are enhanced by the comfort of nostalgic familiarity. “Photography has also been my way of collecting the memories of my life, which are my most treasured possession,” she said.

Malia is regarded highly in the market and, having worked with the photographer, Stylist Saffron Hunt said: “She is a great photographer who sees almost everything in the same way as me, creating evocative images with stunning simplicity.”

Malia’s 2012 is packed full of photo, film and band commitments with Dum Dum Girls playing the festivals this summer and her current work in progress which are a series of short films for the new Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Further in the future, her plans are to: “Direct films, publish photo books, create album covers, tour the world, write music, fall in love, make a few babies, buy a house near water, travel as much as possible.” Blissful.

To keep up to date with Malia James’s work visit: http://maliajames.com/

 

 

 

 

ALL COPYRIGHT MALIA JAMES

PEOPLE | Alice Dellal

It’s refreshing to see a model who challenges the conventional guidelines of being a monotonous, childlike blank canvas. Now and again there’s someone who is as interesting as the clothes they’re wearing.

Adopted as Karl Lagerfeld’s muse for the new ‘Boy’ Chanel bag, Alice Dellal is a fitting face. Lagerfeld’s reported ‘crush’ on the 24-year-old Brazilian has brought her to the attention of many, including Marc by Marc Jacobs who has also made her the face of its SS12 campaign.

That’s not to say she’s new to the world of fashion. She has an impressive background dominating the covers of worldwide glossies and catwalks of iconic designers since she began to model in 2003.

Sure, being the heiress to the fortune of a property tycoon will have helped to propel her name but there’s something about Alice Dellal which screams now.

Her androgynous image is in sync with the continuous trend, which has been present for several seasons. Dellal, with her half-shaven head and petite yet masculine frame, is a punk embodiment not seen since the likes of Agyness Deyn.

Rock and Roll go skull-ringed hand in skull-ringed hand with fashion and Dellal, as drummer of the band Thrush Metal, pours her metal core into her look. Her musical soul and presence certainly has an air of Moss about it and she even followed in her footsteps as her replacement as the face of Agent Provocateur in 2008.

Although being ironically feminised in the first glimpses of Lagerfeld’s latest production, Dellal oozes feminine power and uniqueness, a face which won’t fade away for a while.