NEWS:
London fashion is known for its pioneering creativity and this season's fashion week provided plenty of evidence to support its reputation from both established and new designers. A trend that stood out for spring/summer 2011 was a kind of beautiful bad taste with energetic colours and dominant prints. Here are some personal favourites:
Giles
The show referenced the nineties and in particular the fashionable Milk Bar in London's Soho where Bjork famously recorded the live track 'There's More To Life Than This' in the toilets. Colour was playful and confident with bold cartoon prints that nodded to nineties rave culture. In contrast to the bold prints the dress shapes celebrated curves with an effortlessly cool air of seduction.
Christopher Kane
Fluoro lace, perforated leather and vinyl coating remarkably came together to create a brilliance of bad taste, described acutely by Kane's sister Tammy as "Princess Margaret on acid". Neon palettes applied to sensible silhouettes with Japanese tattoo inspired prints created a harmonious paradox of moods that seemed to hint at a combination of British aristocracy and futuristic fantasy.
Simone Rocha
Showing as part of Fashion East (a non-profit organisation that nutures emerging designers) Simone Rocha (daughter of designer John Rocha) has recently graduated from Fashion MA at Central Saint Martin's College of Art & Design. Her collection for Spring/Summer 2011 used an all-white palette that played with sheer fabrics, cut-out details, metal collars and masculine tailoring reminiscent of early Helmut Lang. Definitely one-to-watch.
*all images from style.com
EllieHay - 10.05.2010 File under - Clothes, London Correspondent, Trends
Lewis Chaplin of Fourteen Nineteen
Fourteen-Nineteen is an innovative website founded by London-based teenagers Lewis Chaplin and Alex F. Webb. The site functions as an online gallery space that showcases and celebrates photography that has been submitted by teenagers from all over the world. Lewis and Alex receive roughly 500 submissions via email and flickr a week as well as spending a lot of time finding people themselves, that they then edit and curate onto their site.
Jess Gough on Fourteen Nineteen
I met 18 year old Lewis Chaplin for coffee one afternoon in Golden Square in Soho, London where we chatted for some time about Fourteen-Nineteen, creativity, music, art, exams, books, America and cats. Lewis's energy and enthusiasm certainly translates through to the fundamental ethos of Fourteen-Nineteen which aims to show the huge amount of talent, potential and artistic competence coming from teenagers, something Lewis and Alex feel needs to be, "curated and placed together so other people can enjoy it."
Tyler Smith on Fourteen Nineteen
The site now has online shop whereby teenagers can submit books, zines or anything else photography based for Fourteen-Nineteen to sell. You can currently see prints from the site at their first stop of their touring exhibition at the Camden Roundhouse, London.
Will Harbey on Fourteen Nineteen
EllieHay - 09.21.2010 File under - Etc, London Correspondent, Photo
We have always found a strong connection between Los Angeles and London, that west-meets-east kinship. In the Space 15 Twenty spirit of showcasing new, interesting, and inspiring talent, here is the first post from our new blogger, Ellie Hay. Contributing her East London perspective, Ellie starts off with three gifted new London bands we can definitely tap into from Los Angeles.
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Male Bonding
This modern indie-rock band released their first album earlier this year entitled "Nothing Hurts" under Sub-Pop. Their music is reminiscent of 90s American Indie rock and has a youthful, confident and effortlessly cool feel. Male Bonding are a three-piece from Dalston, East London and are due to start an American tour next month kicking off in Portland at MusicFestNW.
Still Corners
Hazy dream-pop mixed with 60's production, creates the heavenly and weightless sound of promising new London band Still Corners. 'Endless Summer' is their latest material released on 7" single this month by Great Pop Supplement.
Summer Camp
The video for Summer Camp's first single from their forthcoming EP Young is unbelievably cool. "Round the Moon" video borrows clips from the cult 70s film "A Swedish Love Story" and fittingly, the music maintains a teenage, synth-driven and gracefully stylish nostalgia. Summer Camp have an EP out on the 6th September through Moshi Moshi.
EllieHay - 08.24.2010 File under - London Correspondent, Music
