RE:ISSUE.
RE:DEFINED:
LEAVE YOUR HOUSE THIS EVENING AND TRY FOR HIGH TREASON WITH RE:ISSUE. WE’RE YOUR NEW FRIEND ON THOSE COLD, LONELY NIGHTS. OUR ONLY BLANKET REGULATION: OPEN YOUR THOUGHTS, IDEAS AND EXPERIENCES TO REINVNETION. BREAKING YOU IN GENTLY WITH OUR FIRST THREE OVERARCHING THEMES - REVIVING, RECOGNISING AND REINVENTING - WE NARRATE THE ZEALOUS LOVE-AFFAIR BETWEEN CRISIS AND CREATIVITY, MEET THE NEW KNITWEAR DYNASTY: SIBLING, AND LOOK AT KETAMINE’S RETURN. WE’VE ALSO REVIEWED THE MOST INNOVATIVE SHOWCASES THIS AUTUMN/WINTER FASHION WEEK, HAD A CHAT WITH FRENCH BLOGSTERS FLUOKIDS ABOUT THEIR NEW RECORD LABEL, FOOL HOUSE. OFF THE RECORD, WE’VE ALSO LAUNCHED OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.REISSUEMAGAZINE.COM.
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ARTICLES RE:COGNISING
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new power studio louise gray hannah marshall dimitri stavrou sibling
RE:INVENTING
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fool house crisis and creativity
RE:VIVING
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your reputation proceeds you ketamine bringin’ back the brands origami fun
PHOTOSHOOTS 28 RE:INTERPRETING 36 RE:MAKE
FOR THOSE WHO HAVE MADE A TACTICAL RETREAT FROM THE CATWALK
RE:COGNISING AUTUMN/ WINTER 09
NEW POWER STUDIO
ON A POWER TRIP: To understand the future of New Power Studio you need to understand their past. Collaboration between stylist Thom Murphy and womenswear designer Ebru Ercon, you would think that a foray into men’s sportswear would be out of character. Contrastingly, the duo still managed to attribute their personal design principles in their debut installation during London Fashion Week. Entitled ‘White Mice’, the debut collection revealed their fascination with the luxury goods market and its connotations, namely store design and advertising. Ebru Ercon, who made waves with her MA graduate collection, which stemmed from an examination of the t-shirt, has shown her fondness for the reinvention of the catwalk as early as 2000 when she took part in Russell Sage’s ‘The Grey Area’. From there, Ercon showed at London Fashion Week until 2003. Murphy, founding director of cult
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London boutique b Store, works closely with designer Siv Stodal and regularly contributes for i-D, Dazed & Confused and Arena Homme+. A quick glimpse at his work and it is obvious that this stylist’s past is still part of his present, with his nostalgic references to adolescence. New Power Studio’s debut was cloaked in mystery. Their installation, in a small room in the East End of London, was an uncomplicated gathering that left many unsure what was happening. Aiming to prove that clothing is ‘just as exciting when it can be worn every day’, New Power Studio’s move away from the catwalk is very important to the duos’ informal ethos. ‘We both bring different skills and things to the table but also have very similar tastes so it feels very easy’, they say. A film by Terry Hall, in lieu of the showing, depicts early-nineties indicative adolescents jumping around in a warehouse that smacked of early rave-culture. In another nod to their individualistic approach, New Power Studio-clad models walked among the crowd getting their feedback. Conceptual grey sportswear was clearly aimed to be wardrobe-staples for an unpretentious British youth who appreciate the simplicity of grey polo necks, sweatshirts and tracksuit bottoms with elasticised ankles. Laced with gold Nike hightops and some statement shattered plasterboard shoulder pieces, New Power Studio’s all-grey collection was the perfect finale to London Fashion Week.
A GRAY AREA BETWEEN PAST AND PRESENT: Hung haphazardly on bespoke Tony Hornecker mannequins with sprawling black tubing, thin metal spirals, exposed industrial light bulbs and silverware of nails, chains, nuts and bolts, you could be fooled into thinking this was the remnants of a modern day Area 51 test minus the debris. Instead, this was Louise Gray’s maiden voyage in stormy seas somewhere between fledgling and established designer. Anxious to take advantage of Gray’s move away from the catwalk to a more intimate surrounding, the room was teeming with journalists and buyers vying for space. Brightly hued and
beautifully textured garments hung unpretentiously awaiting the criticism they knew they could withstand. In her signature style of rebuilt classic shapes and styles, t-shirts with innovative details like large holes in the middle revealing fitted brashaped tops showcased Gray’s playful abilities to mix layering and complex pattern-cutting techniques with simplicity. The candy-pink kneelength duffle jacket, paired with the masculine terracotta mohair cardigan was a particularly strong look that foresaw winter trends for dark denim and mohair. Items also hinted to the renewal of the past, in particular the black polo-neck with overlaid denim shirt, rolled up sleeves, tucked into high-waisted candy-pink sheepskin skirt. And to top it all off, Nicholas Kirkwood applied Gray’s silk devore fabric to the shoes. Everything considered, a stellar framework for the perfect exhibiting fashion show.
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IMAGE COURTESY OF LOUISE GRAY
LOUISE GRAY
HANNAH MARSHALL
THE NEW BLACK: It’s a fact that the Little Black Dress is awash with sentimentality. The chameleon-like wardrobe-essential has reigned over nearly eighty decades since Coco Chanel re-appropriated the sign of the poor and uniform of servants into a symbol of avant-guard chic. Conceived as a sleeveless, pintucked and draped crepe-de-chine dress, the LBD has metamorphosed from Audrey Hepburn’s Givenchy number in Breakfast at Tiffany’s to Elizabeth Hurley’s giant safety pin Versace dress for the Four Weddings and a Funeral premier, to name but a few. Once associated with women’s emancipation it’s now, as a manifestation of women’s power. This season, one pioneer is continuing her gothic-glamour, LBD overhaul.
Welcome to the reinvention of the Little Black Dress courtesy of Hannah Marshall. On her third consecutive season under the wings of New Generation sponsorship, and her fifth collection to date, Hannah Marshall makes Braille encoded all-black silhouettes look better than anyone in fashion. We’re talking sexy in a constructed-nineties-power-dressing kind of way. You know a designer has a strong sense-of-self and a damn-good collection when she opts for an exhibition showing the duration of London Fashion Week at the British Fashion Council, as well as her own presentation evening with ON|OFF. She was even blessed with a full page in British Vogue’s September issue aligning her collections with Prada, YSL and Balenciaga. “A lot of what I do is quite classic,” she says to Bethan Cole at The Independent in June last year, “It’s all based on the little black dress, but with an edge. I wear dresses every day, its effortless, its a really easy way to dress. I like to layer them too. Nothing I design is unwearable.”
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IMAGE COURTESY OF CATWALKING.COM
Awkward- yet- elegant black silhouettes gave you a teasing glimpse into the Marshall psyche where women are powerful, svelte, tailored, draped, hard and soft simultaneously. A backdrop of black (surprisingly), androgynous mannequins-come-models, a slight Man-Ray influence and the erotic eruption of Rorschach’s psychological tests could describe the film adequately: but you got the impression it was more than just a substitute for the catwalk. It was about creating hype for a brand Marshall is clearly passionate about, and one that is destined for fashion’s frontline.
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RE: COGNISING FRINGE BENEFITS
Dimitri Starvou is destined for great things. A recent MA graduate at London College of Fashion who has already been snapped up by Iroquois PR, Stavrou’s collection was a metamorphosis of demonic proportions. Metaphysical, demi-god warriors clad in armour-like fringing were the soldiers of the future, stomping into the new generation of menswear. ‘It explores my dark side,’ he explains, ‘I am a very aggressive person – not physically – but emotionally. This collection was about the love of a Greek God with a mortal, and at the end they created ten abominations of nature: ‘Daemon’ warriors – half man, half beast.’ Stavrou’s “Daemon warriors’ culminated from an examination of his British-Cypriot heritage, and an amalgamation of Greek myth and literature with a ‘British twist’: ultimately denoting self-exploration. In a futuristic palette of metallic gold, silver and blue, flanking black and white wardrobe staples and the designer’s own collaboration with Dr. Martens boots, Stavrou strived to create the ‘WOW’ factor whilst satisfying the urge to juxtapose innovative fabrics. ‘To me, what’s done in the past must stay in the past’, he says, ‘I reference historical pattern-cutting and construction but I do not duplicate or copy,’ something clear from his juxtaposition of performance fabrics, fringing and tailoring whilst satisfying his personal affinity with black. ‘When designing,’ he continues, ‘I like to think that I am creating something new – people are looking for new things, new ideas and that’s what is so good about being in London. All London designers hate to go by the book. We break the rules, we rebel. I think it’s a British thing. I like taking traditional methods and craftsmanship and turning it on its head.’ Iridescent fabrics hinted to underlying religious battles and self-exploration, as well as masterfully sculpting the models though the pleats, folds, and incredibly complex pattern construction. Suiting was fitted, sometimes a little small, but somehow managed to bolster models’ bravado whilst channelling Stavrou’s, as he tells me, ‘uber masculine with a gay twist’ aesthetic. Fringing-galore contrasted the rigid suiting with transcendental movement, rendering you weak momentarily with each poetic sway. ‘I enjoy deconstructing things and giving them a new life,’ Stavrou says, ‘I like things to be a bit polished and perfect but I think my signature is, as I call it, ‘controlled deconstruction.’’ It is clear that this young designer is headed for great things; his technical ability combined with his natural flair for designing saw a very utilitarian process with fabrics. Fringing and iridescent leather were joined by wet-look and textured leather all exemplifying Stavrou’s refined eye for matching unusual fabric combinations. ‘It’s a mixture of traditional tailoring fabrics with industrial ones - it gives a hard edge’, he continues, ‘I mean, I have used fabrics that are used for car manufacturing and industrial design, so its quite an unusual mixture but I like it – it works.’ When talking of the bespoke Dr. Martens collaboration, Stavrou explains, ‘Dr Martens was my first choice when it came to footwear…as a stylish boot was necessary. I always wear DM’s as well so its something that comes from my personal style.’ So what can we expect from Dimitri Stavrou? ‘I’m hoping to kick start my own label,’ he says, ‘Hopefully one day everything will fall into place. I know its hard times at the moment but I have faith ….must not let the flame die out.’
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9 ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF DIMITRI STAVROU
RE: COGNISING
THREE IS THE MAGIC NUMBER Brainchild of East London threesome Sid Bryan, Joe Bates and Cozette McCreery, SIBLING succeeded their debut collection of ‘bright and playful subversions of classic knitwear styles’ with a nod and a wink to knitwear’s heritage. This couture-like knitwear label’s sophomore outing is a self-proclaimed ‘harder, better, faster and stronger’ foray into establishing their fledging label. Bringing to the table collective experience with Alexander McQueen, Johnathon Saunders, Lanvin and Giles Deacon, alongside the design-kin’s collaboration with Norton & Sons on Saville Row you can see how SIBLING is a powerhouse in the making. SIBLING, whose mission statement is to give ‘knitwear for men a kick up the arse’ fit together perfectly as two brothers and a sister. ‘Sid is a genius with stitch and process,’ they explain, ‘Coz has, through years of experience and natural talent, a gift for organisation, lateral thinking and has impeccable people skills. Joe is pure design and is very skilful with fast insightful design decisions.’ Friendship for the faux-family was fused when Sid and Cozette met professionally when working with Bella Freud, after lots of tea and giggles they quickly became friends. Conversely, Joe and Sid met at a fashion party under the influence of disco balls and alcohol. A knitwear designer and consultant, a freelance menswear and womenswear designer and a PR and events planner respectively, the threesome explain their soft spot for knitwear, ‘Everybody of our generation has some emotional connection to knitwear. Be it a favourite sweater as a child or watching your mum or granny knitting. To wrap up in your winter woolies, your school uniform sweater, cricket jumper it’s these feelings and memories that we are playing with.’ Showing under the MAN label curated by Fashion East, SIBLING were granted one room in the Old Embassy Building alongside other designers Katie Eary, Jaiden RVA James and Martine Rose. Their exhibition for London Fashion Week was proficient and non-fussy, in which four white walls were filled with film projections of their collection directed by Axel Hoedt. For this collection, SIBLING were dominated by two silhouettes; ‘the Classic and new-for-this-season, the Deviant, an all-over flat shape that when worn gives dramatic volume.’ This season, SIBLING showcased knee-length cream cable-knit cardigans, upturned bows on pink and navy cashmere turtle-necks and a cream trench-coat – the latter two being a tribute to Yves Saint Laurent. Another nod went out to Francis Bacon in a black foil-laminated, biker jacket. Also gaining recognition for their prints, the collection featured leopard-print twin-sets, mouse and army prints adorned with sequins and the brand’s Ratus Ratus motif - in which beaded rodents infiltrate a killer cashmere. ‘Playful subversion of classic styles is a concept at the core of SIBLING,’ they explain: perhaps explaining the male/female crossover apparent in the clientele. When asked of their no-holds-barred mission statement to give knitwear for men a ‘kick up the arse’, they reply: ‘It is true that men can be very careful when buying and are easily put off, but that does not mean that all menswear should be formulaic and dull. There is a definite lack of humour in most menswear presented in today’s market. There was also an apparent lack of modern luxury. We definitely wanted to redress this imbalance.’ Channelling their ‘surplus creative energy’ the threesome felt the need to have ‘...an outlet that was unfettered by others interpretations or philosophies…Our starting point is very personal.’ SIBLING continue, ‘We want to create men’s knitwear that is fun while utilising all the techniques we love. We enjoy playing with very traditional methods as well as inventing new ones; at best it is the mix of the two that is most satisfying. Above all our ethos is to create pieces that don’t already exist.’ With that in mind, I can’t wait to see what’s next!
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11 ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF SIBLING
RE: INVENTING THOSE CLEVER-BLOGGERS AT FLUOKIDS HAVE ANOTHER TREAT FOR US - BUT THIS TIME IT’S ON VINYL...
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13 IMAGES COURTESY OF FOOL HOUSE
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We just want to make records carefully, our way, like if we
they point out, ‘it is a way to be more certain that the people that will own our products will have true commitment and attention to them.’ It also ensures they remain as precious and unique to others as they are to them.
‘We think more of the record label like a fashion brand, with collections, collaborations, seasons, features. The focus is on the songs, on the brand, on the object as a whole.’ Always pragmatic. Always innovative. And always creative: The French blogsters behind Fluokids have launched Fool House. It’s a record label with a difference, one that shows Pharrell and Redhotcar have learnt a lot since their Fluokids debut in 2005.
To showcase their work appropriately, the label employs an ensemble exhibition technique. So what exactly is a Fool House exhibition? ‘In our minds, [it is] a private party with friends and family that we propose the audience to join in. We like to use the party as a way to meet artists which have things to bring to each other or common points.’
You would expect the faces behind the musical revolution that thrust Klaxons, The Teenagers and Midnight Juggernauts into new frontiers and music itself to new limits would move progressively from their online-blog to another digital phenomenon. But no. Deliberately stepping away from the Fluokids name and onto vinyl, Fool House astutely aims to avoid the negative side-effects of becoming attached to an enclosed marketing concept. The savvy label comes from the perspective of a consumer in the luxury goods market, and remains truly optimistic about the power of music: in this case recognising the importance of the astute combination of sound, aesthetics and clients.‘We just want to make records carefully, our way, like if we would be preparing a gift... to ourselves and the ones that are close to us. It feels right to imagine running things this way, the people that wil l be down with our label are people we would feel cool with,’ they insist.
Currently representing four artists: 33Hz, Mondkopf, Delorean and most recently Gentleman Drivers, these are the young artists that exemplify the Fool House foray into brand management and a progression towards steady body of work. ‘For now we have been breaking new artists, but we are totally cool with an artist signed to another label doing just a one-shot with us, or an artist whose music is usually not our cup of tea doing a special thing we’d love, and most of all we want to focus on few songs that will mean something special to us.’ Clearly on a roll, they continue, ‘Surely the artists we are working with will be doing great careers; one of the label’s concerns is to attract attention on the artists, so they can have a great life somewhere else. But not to sign artists is something of a philosophy, a way to allow us to stay in movement and excited, to establish the brand Fool House in itself, and to propose this specific, song-focused approach of music,’ they say, referring to their decision not to nurture the talent they discover, or benefit mutually from their growth. Perhaps independence is always the best policy.
Sponsoring the venture with advertising from the Fluokids blog, some personal investments and parties, the label aims to get recognition as an entity onto itself – not just as a representative of the artist, as many other labels function. For this reason, Fool House ‘collaborates’ with clients who approach them: ‘We don’t want to push things to much,’ they say. From this, different individuals work to produce a limited edition release of 500 vinyl’s with no reprints or press. ‘To us,’
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would be preparing a gift... to ourselves and the ones that are close to us.
It feels right to imagine running things this way, the people that will be down with our label are people we would feel cool with.
’
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16 LOUGH MCCUL CIARA HS BY P A R G OTO ALL PH
RE: INVENTING CRISIS REINVENTS CREATIVITY If you looked through the pages of history, they’d lead you to believe we’re on the cusp of change. Riding the subsequent wave of prosperity since just after World War II, this recession was long overdue. So even though the short-term effects are those grim, dark clouds ominously looming over us, the change that comes hand-in-hand with a recession could easily be perceived as a silver lining. RE:Issue looks at the correlation between crisis and creativity in history and the interesting artistic reactions that were spawned during each period of economic decline. Fashion has never been one to crumble under the pressure of an economic crisis. Sixteen years ago, when Britain had found itself in yet another economic downturn, the British Fashion Council found itself without a venue for London Fashion Week until Harvey Nichols offered its fifth floor to a dozen or so designers for the weekend. The following season was to see fresh talent Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan emerge, followed by design duo Clements Ribeino, then Antonio Berardi, Stella McCartney and design aide Pheobe Philo, culminating in Matthew Williamson. If we look a little further back into the history of fashion, examples of its ingenuity and resourcefulness are blindingly obvious – particularly in London. Perhaps one certainty in life is economic uncertainty. Plagued by recessions since well before Madonna first shocked the world (I know, its been a while) a recession is a very simple equation where either currency, energy or financial crisies, war, underconsumption or overproduction equals bankruptcies, credit crunches, deflation, foreclosures and/or unemployment. Unfortunately, all of the above have been splashed over the headlines recently.
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As the oil crisis-induced two-year recession put unemployment figures in mid-70s Britain at their highest since World War II, a discontented youth launched social backlash against the hypocrisies in the Establishment. In the most eclectic of decades, new trends emerged more regularly than the Prime Minister changed his undies. What resulted was an antifashion attitude visible in lifestyle, music and most interestingly – fashion. This was the decade of Ozzie Clark, Zandra Rhodes and Laura Ashley who were to be accompanied by Vivienne Westwood’s infamous Punk aesthetic. Representing negativity in the form of anarchy, destruction of order and the instigation of chaos, punk was the selfconsciously working-class movement against politics through the medium of fashion. Initiated in the mid-1970s at 430 Kings Road, in a boutique run by Westwood and her then cohort Malcolm McLaren, this new wave of fashion was characterized by everything that shocked, from bondage to safety pins. In a deliberately confrontational and threatening aesthetic, SEX sold it all. Punk taught a generation how to take action themselves, drawing from Civil Rights movements that swept the world in the late sixties and a more passive hippie mantra, the punks took their own direction and did it themselves. Influenced by a frustrating inability to be taken seriously, what was originally thought to be a fad, soon became a way of life that forced its way kicking and screaming into mainstream society. Ben Scholten, Head
of Design for Zandra Rhodes comments, ‘I feel that the recession, and all self imposed or general restrictions it brings, can add to the way we think and/or use our creativity.’ Recognising the publicity available through music, McLaren became the Manager of punk band, The Sex Pistols, and inadvertently turned punk into the first and most infamous of subcultures. Giving Westwood’s designs notoriety at their first gig, the Sex Pistols gave the movement a soundtrack that would effervesce history, permeating nearly all subcultures thereafter. Infamously swearing on UK television in 1976, the captivating hype surrounding punk was insurmountable. Out of punk came an ability to think outside the box that inspired New Romanticism, Goths, Cyberpunks, Pervs, New Agers and Grunge. Westwood broke the rules, and was inspired by taboo. The eighties was the era of excess sandwiched between two economic crises. Struggling to emerge from the late-70s recession, class-wars were intensified by the strains of mass unemployment. The mining community found itself crippled as manufacturing capacity fell by one fifth, and urban riots and strikes became increasingly punished by government. As Margaret Thatcher snubbed calls to about-turn on her counter-inflation policies, society became filled with desperation. Refusing the blatant anti-fashion statements of their predecessors and ignoring the
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lifestyle brand marketing taking over America, the New Romantics replaced punk on London’s streets. Originating as a club night in recognition of their idol, David Bowie, 1979 was the year Steve Strange and Rusty Egan opened Billy’s on a Tuesday night. Unable to be pigeonholed at first, the culture was referred to as Peacock Punks, Blitz Kids and the Cult With No Name before settling, somewhat unenthusiastically at New Romantics. Somewhere between Glam Rock and Disco, New Romantics were primarily London writers, designers, musicians and club-goers who spent their days in the dole queue, and nights as anything from ecclesial nuns to Marilyn Monroe. Princess Julia remembers the melting-pot of creativity that emerged, ‘The 80’s threw up a ‘fringe’ generation of extremists. From it’s beginning to its end society changed completely.’ She continues, ‘All this creativity had emerged from a global club life. I think it’s safe to say that a generation of club land people were integral in defining the 80’s in every aspect of fashion, music and art.’ Inadvertently spawning a new era of dandyism, fuelled by feelings of failure linked to dole-culture, they revived fancy dress as a new index of social worth. In a bricolage of what they could beg, steal or borrow, the New Romantics vied for attention through exhibitionism: it was all about the attention. In a self-consciously sell-out nature, the New Romantics would do anything to get famous. From starring as extras in David Bowie music videos to
launching their own bands and style bibles like i-D magazine, The Face and Arena in order to get magazine coverage, the inspiration behind New Romanticism was leap-frogging up the career-ladder. With the majority of Central Saint Martins graduates going on to be household names, and even a cloakroom boy called Boy George releasing music with his band, Culture Club, the New Romantics inadvertently tackled the 1980-81 recession head-on. Boy George even told the Rolling Stone magazine in 2000, “It’s ironic that if you go back to Thatcherism and Reaganism, a lot of cool things happened during that decade. A lot of sexual attitudes were loosened up a bit, and we had some interesting music. So sometimes, within these right-wing climates, you have an artistic reaction.” Ironically, it was a small band from Birmingham called Duran Duran that took the New Romantic sound and look into mainstream society
and forced the UK to take note of the provincial towns. It was from these innovative fanzines that a new era of creativity spawned. Fiona Cutledge, owner of clothing shop, Sign of the Times, during the nineties recession in the looks back, ‘I think people felt that they had to do things for themselves. There wasn’t a clearcut career path – that had gone. So they had to make their own way. They had to think for themselves much more than they would have maybe had to do normally. They had to create their own career.’ Within The Face, a young stylist called Ray Petri and a group of young designers in their own right decided to break from the traditional format of fashion shoots and introduce what we now know of as the ‘stylist’. Previous to this, even powerhouse establishments like Vogue were operating without stylistic direction in their photoshoots,
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but come the eighties the Buffalo stylists, as they became known, were pioneering a new aesthetic that is still extremely relevant today. At the helm of a new direction of fashion, Ray Petri pioneered the use of black models, namely a young Naomi Campbell and initiated street style’s movement into mainstream fashion by his refusal of power dressing. Introducing various cultural signifiers usually juxtaposed against anything from boxing gloves to Armani suits accessorized with pink bauble hats they created a new genre of street fashion that led the way for developments like i-D’s creation of the ‘straight-up’. Anticipating the current recession, people were already coming up with more efficient ways of showcasing work. Fiona Cutledge, summarises the recession well, ‘A positive thing about the recession is that it can clear out a lot
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of dead wood. And I think young people have a much more flexible and incentive about new ways of doing things. And I’m sure out of this recession there will be a lot of new thinking about ways to go about business, and indeed fashion – possibly mixed in a lot with sustainability and green issues.’ With venues like Chinawhite, Paper and Café Royal fading into a distant memory, it seems strange to think they are being temporarily replaced by pop-up clubs, bars, shops and nightclubs. The epitome of our hyper real society, the pop-up, initiated by Comme des Garcons in 2004 with their London guerilla stores, is becoming the ideal business practice. The pop-up allows businesses to constantly reinvent themselves without having to worry about falling out of favour, being badly received or loosing money. In fact, in most cases the pop-up is cheaper to produce than the television advert, and generates more media attention. The latest venue is the Double Club. Created by the same artist that put the slides in the Tate Modern, Carsten Holler, this abandoned Victorian warehouse behind Angel tube station juxtaposes the West and the Congo in a bar meets nightclub meets restaurant meets art exhibition. And it’s around for six months only. Funded by Miuccia Prada’s art foundation, Fondazione Prada, and Guaranty Trust Bank of Nigeria, the space itself has become a piece of art. Another pop-up, Bistrotheque, which launched in 2006, has already repositioned itself as Flash at the Royal Academy of Arts, where it was home for 80 days – and gone. Other notable pop-ups include Proud Gallery which started as a mere marquee in a car park, and Mary Porta’s hyper-pop-up that lasted only one hour to sell vintage clothes. With ruthless seating cut-backs going hand-in-hand with the abrupt disbanding of luxury, London Fashion Week found itself defined by travel cards, economizing and the eventual embrace of the internet as a cheap medium of showcasing work. Creeping in at the sidelines, nervous designers and uneasy backers opted to play it safe. As emaciated models graced unadorned, simplistic catwalks clad in fail-safe collections, the underlying consensus was that the catwalk is dead. Exhibitions, installations, film and online showcasing marks a new breed of fashion show rising from the ashes of the catwalk to revive the fashion industry: bringing it soaring into the twenty-first century. So what can we expect from the years to come?
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cause i want more more, give me more, give me more this will never end cause i want more more, give me more, give me more if i had a heart i could love you if i had a voice i would sing after the night when i wake up i’ll see what tomorrow brings
dangling feet from window frame will i ever ever reach the floor? more, give me more, give me more crushed and filled with all i found underneath and inside just to come around more, give me more, give me more if i had a voice i would sing LYRICS FROM FEVER RAY ‘IF I HAD A HEART’
PHOTOGRAPHER: Agnieszka Maksimik MODEL: STEPHANIE C @ STORM
if i had a voice i would sing STYLIST: CIARA MCCULLOUGH MAKE-UP ARTIST: ANGELA deviatova
inspiration comes in all shapes and forms. this time, its from fever ray’s debut single ‘if i had a heart’ directed by andreas nillsson.
RE: INTERPRETATION
this will never end
if i had a heart i could love you
if i had a voice i would sing...
after the night when i wake up...
i’ll see what tomorrow
all clothing: begged, found or borrowed.
gsnrib.
PHOTOGRAPHER: Agnieszka Maksimik MODEL: antonia llyod
STYLIST: CIARA MCCULLOUGH MAKE-UP ARTIST: Gabriella Maubec
RE: MAKE.
THE BIRDS.
With news of a contemporary remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, ahem, flying haphazardly from one rumour mill to the next lately, the idea compelled this short tribute. looking at themes of weakness and vulnerability through motifs of captivity, domestication and the violence of nature, The Birds was ultimately a homage to woman’s sexual glamour. Made after Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963) was inspired by contemporary news reports of bird attacks in California and a novel by Daphne du Maurier. This narrative shoot, set in an abandoned turn-of-the-century asylum in the suburbs of Surrey, addresses the ending of the film. Imagining Melanie, Mitch and his family driving off to another secure location we contemplate the effect of the bird scratches. Boarded-up, afraid and alone, we depict Melanie’s metamorphosis into a bird herself… Her inquisitive, playful nature led socialite Melanie Daniels to Bodega Bay after meeting the handsome, mysterious stranger Mitch Brenner. With the gift of lovebirds in tow, never did Melanie dream of being helplessly ensnared in a terrifying pursuit by the birds. Unsafe in the Brenner family home, the foursome narrowly escape death in Bodega Bay, but peril is never far away as they hopelessly venture away from the birds in a desperate search for safety. In a deserted house, Melanie is the only one who remains. What follows is her dark descent into madness, and eventual transformation into the deadly creature that took everyone else. The birds…
all clothing: begged, found or borrowed.
RE:VIVING
YOUR REPUTATION PRECEDS YOU. These days, new brands are coming as thick and fast as the burgers at McDonalds, so you can imagine RE:Issue’s delight at stumbling upon the news of defunct fashion brand revivals from the decade defined by the scandalous mini-skirt, the philanderouspill and uncountable Twiggy-replicas. The ‘Swinging Sixties’, of course. Cue Ossie Clarke, Biba and Temperly London with revolutionary designs to challenge the typical, run of the mill, stuck-in-a-rut fashion house and cause a credible stir with their revived aesthetic. But hold the champagne. Is this irregular heart palpitation excitement or worry? With the onset of the dreaded recession,
and the tightening of belt buckles being heard around the world – is this return being given the due respect, budget and replacement designer it deserves? Our advice to the bigwigs at LVMH, The Gucci Group and others – have a party, of course… Whist this was the season where we nostalgically welcomed back 1960s brands from their hiatus, last year interestingly catered to the return of 1980s brands Halston, Bill Blass, Ungaro and Loris Azzaro. So is their return the result of a sophisticated marketing ability to recognise pocket trends, or just a coincidence? Notably it was the 1980s which would bear
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witness to the initiation of brand revivals in the shape of Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Prada which were to be followed more recently by Christian Dior, Gucci, Burberry, Chloe and Balenciaga. With the majority of newly-launched brands closing down after a few years, the question on everyone’s lips is what makes a good revival? The revivalparty has been a long-running fixture in the face of fashion. Due to its ability to cost-effectively re-launch a brand without the attributable risk, and comfort in the knowledge that the brand has previously tasted success, the revival is a good option when combined with a familiarity in the marketplace built over-
The first guest to arrive is cautious, and prepared. They arrive early to familiarise themselves with the setting, get settled and start drinking. Think Pheobe Philo at Chloe: this is the innovator. Once settled they’ll sit comfortably sipping
their wine, and let the creative juices flow: unaffected by the ebb and flow of trends. She’s joined by previously unknown Tom Ford, of Gucci-revival fame, who boldly took control of a brand others were afraid to touch, making it a forerunner in the luxury goods market. In this instance it was the use of a previously unknown face that enabled the brand to return with such unexpected force – shedding its previous image as an undesirable brand. It was also the duo’s ability to effectively channel what the brand would be doing today, and to whom they would be catering, that thrust them to bigger and better things. They’re followed swiftly after by Lars Nilsson at Gianfranco Ferre who
IMAGE FROM i-D MAGAZINE
time. With the options of rejuvenating or repositioning the brand similar flanking options in any tactical return, the brand revival is favoured for it’s cost effective head-start compared to building a brand from scratch. For this reason, the revival began to gather pace as clever business practice in the current economic climate. Applying social-etiquette blueprints to the designer-revival-market, witnessed at a party, however, may be the way forward.
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ambushes the room with a foray of air kisses and leaves as soon as possible – in this case before even having a drink. Unlike Philo and Ford, he did not understand his market but was wellrespected in his field. Mixed signals ensued and walkouts followed. The lesson: appreciate the intrinsic balance between a Creative Directors’ need to have a formidable reputation and understanding of your customer. Then there’s the networker - Johnathon Saunders at Pollini, we’re talking about you here - in the corner talking to Hussein Chalayan, now Creative Director at Puma. This is the hub of the stimulating, intellectual conversation fuelled by red wine and cheese boards. The conversation has turned to heritage brands’ unique ability to stage an eloquent revival versus the ghost brand. Forgotten and unloved by their owner, a ghost brand revival like that of Pollini, needs to capture attention, and understand the steps that led to the brand’s downfall in the first place. Lacoste, the great tennis heritage brand famous for their knitted-jersey tops in every imaginable hue has come up as the topic of conversation. Considered as one of the main players in their market when they launched in the 1930s, they haunted the mind of the consumer as a once great brand that branched out into branded sports equipment, fragrances, leather goods, accessories, and even cars and luxury yachts only to forget their clothing line. Unlike their competitor,
Fred Perry, Lacoste’s crocodile logo was forgotten by generations of youth subcultures who chose to wear the Fred Perry laurel logo on their slim-fit tennis shirt instead, subconsciously referencing Fred Perry’s coincidental launch alongside the Mod subculture. Taking advantage of the heritage brand revival among younger consumers in 2000, Lacoste re-launched their brand at the hands of Creative Director Christophe Lemaire, who previously worked for Thierry Mugler, Michel Klein, Jean Patou and Christian Lacroix, and pinpointed the catwalk as their chosen area to generate publicity. They’ve got a hijacker, though, the one with the sticky fingers who is eating and drinking everything in sight. He’s there to get away from the Valentino owners telling the bad jokes by the alcohol, about their farce with Alessandra Facchinetti and how the previous accessory designing duo who are failing to live up to the brands visionary quota as Creative Directors. What everyone wants to tell them? Maybe it just isn’t possible when you’re afraid to step away from the familiar that was so heavily attached to the creator, and are unwilling to invest in the necessary marketing. Perhaps they should take business tips from the masters of riding the fashion popularity wave, Adidas. Recognising the opportunity for publicity in celebrities, sports teams and athletics, Adidas constantly revive their brand image and dominate their sector. This year
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they celebrated their 60th anniversary, dubbed the ‘Anniversary of Soles and Stripes’ with a party of a different nature: in this case an advertisement-party bursting with celebrity endorsement. Adidas is the eternal eighteen yearold: out-drinking, out-dancing and, shamelessly, out-partying everyone else. Complacency is an undisputed void for creativity and cause of downfall for any successful businesses. But if this isn’t how you want to move forward maybe inspiration can be taken from Nicolas Ghesquiere. When Balenciaga closed the doors of his couture house in 1968, much like Valentino’s decision to retire, it lay dormant until 1987. It was ten years later in 1997, however, when relatively unknown freelancer Ghesquiere, stepped in as Creative Director. Hailed for his forward thinking designs, the avant-garde young Frenchman is the adored party-planner. Literally translating the Cristobal Balenciaga aesthetic of dramatic, sculptural silhouettes for modern-consumption, he has influenced trends at all levels of the market. No wonder Gucci was anxious to take it under their wing in 2001, enabling Ghesquiere to oversee the introduction of diffusion lines – namely the Edition collection of reissued couture classics and the Capsule collection of lessexpensive catwalk pieces. Hedi Slimane, the eternal-partier now at Prada menswear, has fluttered effortlessly from designer to designer since his appointment to Yves Saint
The pink elephant in the room, dancing alone like co-ordination was so last season, is Biba. When Bella Freud stepped into Barbara Hulanicki’s shoes at Biba in 2006, after being empty for 32 years, sometimes what looks good on paper doesn’t translate how we’d hoped onto the catwalk. With designers struggling for inspiration from archives, each replacement comes and goes in quick succession. The anticlimactic return of the eternal-partiers’ hiatus reveals a woman determined to put the swing back in the party – but no one can tell her she should just withdraw to her husband and kids. But what do you do with a brand that was so directional during its inception – and whose demise was initiated by its inability to move with the times? In this instance it was the anticlimactic failure to live up to the high standards many of the still-living consumers wanted it so desperately to be. Anyway, wasn’t the Biba label notorious for it’s affordable take on fashion? Finally, hunched in a corner and swapping stories are the ex-designer-revival compadres: Olivier Theyskens, Carlo Brandelli and Avsh Alom Gur previously of Nina Ricci, Kilgour and Ossie Clarke respectively. Conversation has become heated at the news of a fashion return by Jil Sander after she split from majority owner Prada at her eponymous label in 2004, citing strategic and financial differences. Raf Simmons has been keeping things ticking along nicely since then, but it’s not his job she’s after. The lucky brand? Uniqlo. Not strictly a revival, this collaboration could be the perfect synergy between each designers’ similar aesthetic and our faith in Jil Sander as a Creative Director. Reviving it before it wavers is definitely a prime example of defence as the best offence. Revive, milk, sell or kill. Each brand must carefully choose what is the right path for their brand. In some instances the untimely and unexpected failure of a brand cannot be rectified, in others the perfectly executed return, like that of Alber Ebaz for Yves Saint Laurent, is still making losses. So what can we expect from the rumoured return of Paco Rabanne who focused sales on fragrance after laying down their ready-to-wear-hat two and a half years ago? Vincent Thilloy, previous fragrance director, has now beenappointed Vice President of the company by owners Puig Fashion and Beauty group. But will this be another fashion-failure in the timeline of revivals? After all, Halston is now reviving the revival with uber-glamorous film advertisements featuring equally glamorous celebrities reminiscent of the brands heritage, and Bill Blass’s return at the hands of Peter Som has already fallen at the first hurdle. Flogging a dead horse or clever thinking? Only time will tell.
IMAGE FROM i-D MAGAZINE
Laurent Rive Gauche men’s line in 1997. Known for his razor-sharp tailoring and innovative approach to menswear, Slimane is a rare breed of designer who is continually recognised for his perfect Creative Director combinations. At the party, he may be throwing up in the toilet, but he’s definitely not one to be ruled by his hangover the next day. While at Dior Homme, Slimane simultaneously revolutionised menswear and the brand through his new silhouette and marketing campaigns. His use of the ultra-skinny male model not only single-handedly resulted in the downsizing of the majority of male models from that point on, but also introduced a new era of fashion-conscious male consumers. Sometimes, you’ve either got it or you haven’t – and when it comes to menswear, Hedi Slimane has it: just don’t judge him by his party-antics!
GUESS WHO’S BACK. BACK AGAIN...
RE: VIVING
Ketamine. The general consensus seems to be you either love it or hate it. It’s the Rave Drug of the new zombie raver. Sit back, hit up, zone out and float around: the horse tranquilliser is back. Hiding in the wings, you’d think Ketamine had been waiting for the world to go black with the recession so it could swoop in and dangle its low classification, low price and even lower side effects in front of a drab society. From office party to house party via Britain’s clubs, Ketamine’s appealing K-Hole is the dirty drug that gets a reaction like marmite. After a sabbatical, its taking over your nights out like a domino effect from one dribbling moron to the next, to a new version of dub-step that almost enduces a coma itself. A partnership made in heaven? Inject, smoke, snort or drink and feel the anaesthetic side effects sweep over you like a K -Hole. rash from cheap cotton. would like you to believe it’s a horse tranquilliser. Correction: it’s a prescribed drug E veryone given to kids and animals who are supposedly less effected by the psychedelic side effects. What’s on the street is generally the human version.
is supposed to be a link with Ketamine’s return and the credit crisis. Believe what you T here will… to the British Crime Survey, popularity has almost doubled in the last decade, growing A ccording by 10% this year alone. GHB, Rohypnol, methamphetamine, and LSD are Ketamines ‘Club Drug’ friends. Find M DMA, them at a club near you. I n terms of favouritism, Ketamine comes a close fourth after cannabis, cocaine and ecstacy. N inety: the percentage of Ketamine purchased for use on animals. E xcess usage causes amnesia and comas. Short term is just babbling idiots. Tricky choice.
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‘Sponge floors!’ - Jenna Beech “Psychedelic Heroin” - Tim Hipkin “Medic! for gods sake someone call a medic!” - Robin Baron “Gravity weighing me down.... hard” - Elise Ciappara “You don’t know where you are with the floor collapsing, floating and bouncing back” - Annie Pye “Its horrible to watch someone you love who doesn’t know when its not fun anymore, seeing them disappear.” Abby Casey ‘Ketamine . . . Just say Nehhhh!!’ Neil Gorman ‘You can fuck off if you take Ketamine.’ Mark Beasley ‘People on Ketamine are scary.’ Laura Beech ‘Floating down the stairs’ - Heidi Ellin ‘Doesn’t it make you dribble?’ Letitia Cocks ‘Drugs used to tranquillise horses should not be used by people for pleasure.’ Jill McMurtry “Cheap in every way!” Abby Casey “Some of the worst yet best times of my life. An instant love affair, and a lot of early morning sunrises and empty wallets” Jordan Newport “Hold my hand and walk me home whilst my backwards - telescope eyes weep tears of regretamine” - David Carlyon “Get me out this wonkbox” - Josh Edwards
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HOLLY’S EXPERIENCE
I first tried K when I was around 20. It wasn’t due to peer pressure, it was just curiosity. It was quite popular with some of the people I hung out with. I remember I did lots of small “bumps”, but it is a really fine line between enjoying yourself and taking too much and ending up in a K hole. This happened the first time I did it, K holes are scary. I was also drinking a fair amount that evening too, which is never good with ketamine. It has an anaesthetic, numb feeling about it, which I have never really enjoyed. I found it disappointing. I noticed the type of people who do ketamine is getting broader; originally it wasn’t a very popular drug. It seemed big in gay circles, and big on the rave scene, but now it’s almost normal for anyone to do it. The last time I did ketamine was probably the worst drugs experience of my life. I only did a really small amount, but i think that drinking alcohol really makes you unaware of your limits. I ended up in a right state on Camden High Street and was very lucky I wasn’t on my own. Needless to say, I don’t touch ketamine anymore. I really do worry about the long term effects of ketamine, and have heard things like ketamine can make you infertile, which of course is utterly worrying. I think more needs to be done to make people aware of the dangers of a drug with such an anaesthetic effect.
RE: VIVING
BRINGIN’ BACK THE BRANDS
With designer collaborations quickly becoming the new currency of the fashion industry, RE: Issue looks at the key to the perfect collaborations with these unlikely duos: mixed and matched for your visual pleasure. From the avant-guard Comme des Garcons slumming it with H&M, to the well-heeled partnership between Sergio Rossi and Puma, or the embarrassing mess that resulted from Phillip Treacy for Umbro, there’s a fine line between feat and flop. Stemming from this, RE: Issue decided to make a few suggestions that are so ridiculous, they just might work…
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ever has the mantra, ‘Age doesn’t matter’ had more relevance than with the omnipotent Italian-Don of innovation and experimentation, Roberto Cavalli. This season the man responsible for many a flattering animal-print red-carpet fantasy has laid his orange-tinged Midas-touch to the 1980’s brand Bodymap for its tastefully gold-plated revival. Opting to highlight the perfect synergy between ‘80’s club clothes and a man’s need to see breasts, we know they’ll fuse elegantly. Yes, Bodymap’s old, but Cavalli is older – so we trust his Satsuma-esque skin and pearly whites when he smiles and tells us to trust him because he’s a designer who’s been around the block. Uniting his talents with a bit of denim and a good old pattern, his first collection as Bodymap’s Creative Director, ‘Cherry Vanilla’ takes the street style synonymous with Bodymap and makes it the must-have tacky-option for Autumn/Winter 2009. Welcome back, Bodymap… or, as the rumours would lead us to believe, the soon to be renamed, RobbyMap.
P
OW! POW! POW! It’s the fighting return of Mary McFadden courtesy of young blood-sucking Alexander Wang. Taking the brands signature flair with pattern and feminine shapes and completely ignoring it, Alexander Wang flopped completely as the creative head of the brand revival. Unable to capture the zeitgeist, he settled for what he already knows. Layering took control as Wang diversified the uniform of the street with feminine geometric alternatives in colours that popped – in all sorts of variations we’ve seen before. It was safe and boring and opening the brand up to an entirely new customer base: John Lewis. It was hard, soft, hot and cold and it begged us to ask for more. Or so that’s what we’ll tell Mr. Wang. Maybe it would be perfect for a home catalogue signature collection – we can almost hear the phones ringing off the hook. Almost.
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inus the innate mastery associated with innovative, timeless pieces that you could wear covertly to the corner shop for some milk and bread, or only pull out on wash-days, what do Laura Ashley and Gareth Pugh have in common? Absolutely nothing… Except ‘Punch Drunk Love’. Standing garishly proud for Autumn/ Winter 2009 Gareth Pugh pulled Laura Ashley kicking and screaming into new frontiers. Away from the brands lonely high street home, where floral patterned dresses sit undeservedly in the ‘Sale’ section, they’re now comforted by the warm, soft lines of structural-design Gareth Pugh style in a Creative Director position he’ll be shouting from the rooftops. It was a call-toarms against stale run-of-the-mill revivals and apprehensive unveilings: because we know this partnership was made in heaven. Geometric prints submitted to Laura Ashley’s traditional force with feminine pattern, combining baby-pink, sky-blue and mustard yellow floral-prints with pyramid constructions that protruded aggressively from the backs of smock dresses, making us wonder why they hadn’t been there all along. Simultaneously, the underlying references to the Pugh aesthetic we’ve all come to love were reassuringly visible: all we wanted to see were the granny-bag monochrome accessories to complete the fabulous ensemble. It’s the beginning of a love-affair that’s destined to last, at least until pension day.
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W
ho better to finally update the Zandra Rhodes look we’ve all got bored of than her antithesis Francisco Costa? ‘Fruit Salad’ remixes the Zandra Rhodes magic that’s the hype of every fashion week, through the understanding eyes of this slick New Yorker. He’s going to make Zandra Rhodes about everything its ever been about: price points and simplicity. Staying true to the printed textiles at the heart of the Rhodes dynasty, and waving goodbye to the useless London inspiration, Costa envisioned a collection that incorporated the wonderful work he’s been doing for Calvin Klein. Whilst still maintaining his mastery of drape and cut, Costa juxtaposed suiting and prints for an innovative creative statement that we’ve come to associate with Zandra Rhodes. Keeping the wonderful prints only because he had to, Costa hopes to revive all the great brands that are close to extinction and make them all look the same. It was a nod to female empowerment and we loved it. But, in case you’re wondering, we wont be buying anything from the collection, but maybe the hookers on Hollywood Boulevard will, as they charge by the hour.
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RE: VIVING Everyone loves a bit of branding. Like Starbucks, Cadbury or Marlborough, RE: Issue wants to become one of your staple brand addictions. After dismissing numerous gimmicks and suggestions of Remus the RE: Issue reindeer mascot, we settled on some good old-fashioned tshirts. Reviving the heavy branding of the eighties, RE: Issue thought it would be fun to see what our release t-shirts would be like, and it would be nice to appreciate the lost art of origami too. Watch this space for (never) to be released fragrances, shoes, accessories and, you guessed it,
ILLUSTRATION BY JEAN LE ROUX
home furnishings.
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ILLUSTRATION BY JEAN LE ROUX
(Never) coming to a store near you.
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IILLUSTRATION BY JEAN LE ROUX