Danny Tang Injects Some Old Hollywood Glamour - With A Twist

A hot new designer on my radar is Mr. Danny Tang. As you’ll know the Golden Age of cinema is a big interest of mine, so when I heard that Tang had themed his AW11 collection on this era, my interest well and truly peaked.

Images courtesy of Felicities PR

Finding inspiration in himself, Tang juxtaposes the hard and soft sides of his character alongside inspirations from old Hollywood movie stars and singers. Effortlessly translating this to fabric, each garment reflects both textures; hard being evident in dark tuxedo colours, that are inherently masculine by nature, and soft being found in flirtatious lines and overtly feminine silhouettes.

Breathing a new lease of life into menswear suiting fabrics, each piece perfectly combines the masculine and feminine creating a capsule collection that instead of being predictably androgynous, instead offers sensual and edgy fashion that offers the wearer something that truly is one of a kind.

Hailing from Malaysia, Tang initial training in Kuala Lumpur excelling as the youngest student in the SML fashion academy, before completing his fashion education at the London College of Fashion and Instituto Marangoni. Launching his eponymous label in 2009, since then Tang has achieved many great things, most notably in my book having pieces sought out by none other than Grace Jones!

Masters Of Style At Somerset House

D+G; SS11 Steven Klein

D+G; AW89/90 Steven Meisel

Last Thursday I was flattered to be invited to the preview and press party for the new Somerset House exhibition, Masters of Style. Curated and (on the night), hosted by fashion historian, commentator and journalist for The Sunday Times, Colin McDowell; this groundbreaking exhibition marks the 150th anniversary of Italy’s unification.

Missoni; SS96 Mario Testino, AW03/04 Mert + Marcus, misc. illustration

Oozing with the panache and sophistication Italians are renowned for, Masters of Style brings together six of the nation’s most influential fashion houses to celebrate the stories behind Italian fashion’s emergence on the international stage. Synonymous with the variety, style, originality, workmanship and high quality of the Made in Italy label, the six iconic design houses under the spotlight are Armani, Dolce + Gabbana, Salvatore Ferragamo, Gucci, Missoni and Prada.

Gucci; 2000

With each designer personally choosing his or her favourite images from their illustrious back catalogue of advertising campaigns, the resulting hand-picked selection from their archives, brings to life pivotal style moments, which epitomise Italian culture and design, whilst offering an insight into the passion and influences of the revered designers themselves.

Prada; Steven Meisel, AW 04/05 Steven Meisel

Prada; SS03 Steven Meisel

A heady cocktail of sex, glamour and sophistication many of the images (mainly black and white), are steeped in history depicting the many highlights the brands have had to date. With a separate white muslin labyrinth for each of the six designers, the mini galleries or series of tiny exhibition spaces helped to add to the exclusive atmosphere, with groups of guests huddled in corners where we’d have to rotate in circles to stand in front of each photograph.

Armani; AW90/91 Aldo Fallai, SS08 Mert + Marcus, AW09/10 Mert + Marcus

Depicting defining moments shot by the world’s greatest fashion photographers (Mario Testino, Steven Meisel, Craig McDean, Peter Lindbergh and Mert + Marcus), and featuring the top Supermodels and celebrities (Giselle, Kate Moss, Amber Valetta, Gemma Ward, Isabella Rosellini and even Madonna), of the last four decades, this is a stunning exhibition which perfectly sums up the Italian design legacy.

  D+G; AW08/09 Steven Klein

With champagne, an endless supply of (exhibition sponsor) Peroni and raspberry/ orange juice cocktails on offer, guests were shall we say, well lubricated. Canapés were provided by Zafferano and were beautiful; crab and cucumber rolls, mini bruschetta with tomato and mozzarella, beetroot and melted cheese on rustica and many other delectable delights.

D+G; SS00 Steven Miesel, SS88 Ferdinando Scianna

As always with an event like this, the guest list read like a who’s who of fashion with all of the top journalists, stylists, buyers and clinger-on dressed in their finest of outfits to pay homage to this brilliant group of innovators.

Prada; AW88/89 Albert Watson

Masters of Style is showing until 14 August.

Brand Of The Week: Yumiko Isa

Having just graduated from a Fashion Design Technology, Surface Textiles BA this summer, Yumiko Isa is yet another of the extremely talented designers at the LCF Class of 2011 show, who caught my eye.

Images throughout courtesy of Yumiko Isa/ LCF and Catwalking. The above are photographed by Christopher Moore

Debuting the AW11 collection at The Studio at the beginning of last month, Isa’s offering is inspired by traditional Japanese kimono with Balenciaga's dramatic design from the 1950s, moulded into an altogether unique aesthetic. Entitled ‘the beauty of blank’ which is inspired by the phrase “less is more”, the capsule collection displays an artful combination of simplicity and femininity, illustrated perfectly for me in the beautiful woollen two tone gloves (my favourite of which are the cream and navy blue colourway) that reached above the elbow.

The above are photographed by Sean Michael

Deftly using a combination of high quality yarns and a wide range of knitting techniques such as felting and brushing, models were bound like mummies in a plethora of delicate and light-weight knits, taking tiny steps in their restrictive garments. Adopting a shuffle, reminiscent of high security prisoners, secured in invisible wrist and ankle cuffs, the models walked slowly allowing the audience ample time to inspect their clothing.

The above and first block below are photographed by Sean Michael

Whilst restrictive, Isa’s wearable collection uses twisted, knotted and folded details to create garments that look both unique and sophisticated. The gradated colours taken from kimono patterns are mixed with special yarns such as elastic mohair and angora mix fine lambs wool, bringing a tactile and richly soft elegance to the pieces.

With finishing details such as shiny bin liner looking lurex used as underskirts and hand-made accessories such as head pieces Isa’s debut was the perfect combination of understated, experimental and successful design that I’ve come to expect from LCF graduates.

Fairer Fashion Footprint (written for SIX Magazine)

At the end of May the SIX team descended on the West-End store of Swedish vintage hipsters Beyond Retro for a sophisticated evening of wine, debate and perhaps more importantly, sustainable shopping. Out in full force for the London School of Economics Student Union Fairer Fashion Footprint event were many an eco-pioneer including several SIX friends such as the Ethical Fashion Forum’s SOURCE magazine and one of SIX’s favourite S+E designer the delightful Ada Zanditon.

Lured to Beyond Retro for such a worthy cause, our motivation was ever-so-slightly boosted by keynote speakers Lucy Siegle and Livia Firth. Offering what could be described as a thrilling and informative overview of the state of the S+E fashion market, the social justice issues associated with fast-fashion and consumer awareness of S+E fashion in the UK.

Having formed a close bond through working on the Green Carpet Challenge for Vogue.com back in 2009, Firth and Siegle often join forces to highlight the social benefits of  S+E fashion, something which was evident in their interaction. Both ladies were firmly on point, with Siegle in particular reeling off the statistics, proving the breadth of her knowledge and in-depth research into the trends, product ion and side-effects of fashion leaving us all in no doubt that she knows the world of S+E fashion inside out.
Read the full article here.

Art-iculate: BP Portrait Award 2011

A few weeks ago I popped down to the National Portrait Gallery to view the annual Portrait Prize sponsored by BP. I cannot believe it’s now over a year since I last viewed the nominees work and meet a lovely Elizabeth McDonald (who won the award for BP Young Artist), whom I subsequently interviewed for the Hub Magazine.

Distracted by Wim Heldens © Wim Heldens [1^st prize]

For 2011, as always there could only be three main winners, and of course the most exciting winner of them all; the BP Young Artist. In a record-breaking year for entries, the prestigious first prize was won by 57-year-old artist Wim Heldens, who has been exhibited twice before in the competition (2008 and 2010). Shortlisted for the first time this year, Heldens is proof that determination pays off. His winning portrait, Distracted, is a picture of a 25-year-old philosophy student, Jeroen whom the artist has painted 20 times at different stages of his life. Winning a grand prize of £25,000, Heldens will also be awarded a private commission at the National Portrait Gallery Trustees’ discretion, worth a further £4,000.

Heldens says: “I paint from intuition, always trying to paint that what touches me deepest, but being a painter who is more of a doer than a thinker, it is very hard for me to explain what I try to capture. As Edward Hopper says: ‘If you could say it in words, there would be no more reason to paint’... I paint what I ‘feel’ with my eyes and maybe it is for other people then to tell what I have captured”.

Holly by Louis Smith © Louis Smith [2^nd prize]

The second prize of a cool £8,000 went to Mancunian Louis Smith for Holly. Since studying scene painting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Smith has exhibited in Britain and Italy and at the 2009 BP Portrait Award. His eight-foot portrait shows a naked model called Holly hand-cuffed to a rock in a wild cave-like landscape. The Allegory of Prometheus is re-imagined in female form. Prometheus stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals. As punishment he was bound to a rock while an eagle ate his liver daily only for it to grow back to be eaten the next day. Holly looks into the eagle’s face with calm resilience, accepting her fate.

“It’s a message of composure in the face of adversity, something we can all draw strength from in our struggle to make a daily living!”, says the artist. The portrait has a huge gilt frame with a marble plaque at the base, inscribed with the name ‘Holly’. “It’s an extravagant attempt to illuminate the Baroque style”, says Smith.

Just to Feel Normal by Ian Cumberland © Ian Cumberland [3^rd prize]

Coming in third is Ian Cumberland for Just to Feel Normal, who took away a respectable £6,000 for his efforts. Living and working in County Down, Northern Ireland, since graduating in Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Ulster in 2006 Cumberland has had a solo exhibition at the Albermarle Gallery in London and has won several awards – also exhibiting in the BP Portrait Award in 2009.

His shortlisted portrait for 2011 is an enigmatic half-smiling head-and-shoulders study of a friend. ‘This is a painting of a friend whose story is like many others from my generation that have fallen victim to themselves and their preferred habits”, says Cumberland. “The title Just to feel Normal refers to his answer when asked why he continues along his chosen path.”

Mrs. Cerna by Sertan Saltan © Sertan Saltan [BP Young Artist Award]

For the fifth year of its existence, the BP Young Artist Award of £5,000 for the work of an entrant aged between 18 and 30 was awarded to Sertan Saltan for Mrs Cerna. Born in 1982 in Eskisehir, Turkey, Saltan now lives and works in Avon, Connecticut, where he is developing a studio. His sitter Mrs Cerna is the younger sister of a friend in New York City, who is caught glancing at the artist, almost menacingly, in her hair rollers and latex gloves sharpening a large knife.

“The contrast of knife, gloves and rollers brought both humour and horror to mind”, says Saltan. “The animated sharpening of the knives and thoughtful facial expressions were burned into my mind’s eye. I wanted to capture on canvas that moment which allows the viewer to meet this extraordinary woman and experience the richness and complexity of her preparation for Thanksgiving dinner.”

The BP Portrait Award 2011 and BP Travel Award 2010 will be displayed, free of charge at the National Portrait Gallery until 18 September.

Brand Of The Week: Kana Tojo

Images throughout courtesy of Kana Tojo/ LCF and Catwalking. The above and first block below are photographed by Sean Michael. All further imagery is photographed by Christopher Moore.

Hailing from Japan, womenswear designer Kana Tojo was one of the stand-out designers from the recent LCF Class of 2011 showcase. Having completed a design placement with S+E designer Christopher Raeburn in her final year, sustainability has become a focal point for this burgeoning young designer.

Themed around Reincarnation, Tojo’s striking AW11 collection interpreted her starting point through recycling, breathing a new lease of life into discarded and outworn materials. Clearly inspired by Raeburn’s re-appropriating of decommissioned military fabrics and parachute silk, Tojo innovatively styled her collection to reflect the ‘rugged’ mood often seen in an ‘orphan’s way of wearing clothes’ – reminding me of a chicer Oliver Twist.

Generally inspired by artists and photographers, Tojo’s AW11 offering is inspired by the drawings of an ‘Unreal World’, by Dutch graphic designer M.C Escher. Reflected through the intricate twisting and layering of her pieces, Tojo’s colour palette is a combination of rich blues, reds and burnt oranges neutralised by luxurious camel tones and pastel greys.

Aesthetically epitomising this summer’s popular nomadic trend, lots of headdresses and wraps were present, with beautiful swathes of luxurious silks, velvets and thick cottons cocooning the body. Tied together and cinched with rivets and leather laces, longer laces featured heavily, cleverly used in many guises, most noticeably as fringing when tied through a concession of metal eyelets.

Footwear consisted of primitive flat leather Roman type sandals, tied together with the same leather laces that feature so heavily throughout the collection. The twist came where the models feet had been bound in flourescent carrier bags first, further enhancing the ‘living in the elements’ vision that accompanied this bold collection.

Utilising recycled and reworked materials to their fullest potential, Tojo triumphs using the most random discarded fragments for a new purpose, such as mens canvas sneakers reborn as epaulettes. Setting us the challenge of working out which redundant garments and accessories have been employed for what, Tojo plays to her strengths and displays her superior skill at breathing a new lease of life into the most unwearable of garments.

Read my write-up of the catwalk show to refresh your memory.

Website Now Live!

Log onto www.creative-idle.co.uk/ to see the best of the blog and more!

Last Night I Got Lucky With Aldo

Last night I attended a spectacular launch event for Aldo’s new AW11 collection Get Lucky, held in one of my favourite venues, the resplendent One Marylebone. Bursting with celebrities such as a radiant looking Aldo spokesmodel Lily Donaldson, Henry Holland, Jade Parfitt, Jasmine Guniness and Sunday Girl spinning the decks, this soiree proved to be the evening’s hottest ticket.

Jade Parfitt and Jasmine Guniness / Lily Donaldson and Aldo's Douglas Bensadoun - courtesy of Surgery PR

Celebrity spotting aside, guests were treated to an endless flow of vodka sours cocktails, champagne and delicious canapés while we looked around a glitzy array of new designs from the Aldo holiday collection. Several presentations by the brand’s creative director Douglas Bensadoun, kept us up to date on all the progress in Aldo land (they love it so much in London they’re opening up a design studio here). Quirky campaign videos were also unveiled for Get Lucky (seeing the brand once again work with Lily Donaldson and Terry Richardson), themed around a Las Vegas vibe; think poker chips, cards and magicians hats (complete with white rabbits, of course).

Dotted around the vast space were several capsule collections, among which was a rather chic premium menswear collection called Mr B’s, alongside a brand new capsule collection by New York designer Christian Cota. The Christian Cota collection is part of Aldo’s most exciting project to date – Aldo Rise. This initiative sees the footwear giant collaborate with rising talent in the UK and US with their British partners announced as Mark Fast, JW Anderson and Preen. With collaborations seemingly being the key to Aldo’s ever-increasing success, there was something on display for every fashion fanatic, including the opportunity to meet the UK stalwarts.

If any of the shoes take your fancy, do not fear for they will be on sale across the UK a little later in the year!

A Point Of Design: Sanserif Creatius' Habla

Another new and innovative product from Valencia-based design studio Sanserif Creatius, is a shelving system that facilitates communication with roommates or fellow workers. Imitating the form of a speech bubble, Habla interacts with objects in the home and creates a visual communication system. Formally speaking, Habla is a wall shelf with two possible arrangements, in which the strength of the concept based on adapting the speech bubble borrowed from comic books, opens up interaction with the space and its other users.

Habla has been conceived to hang from or be fixed to the wall, being completely integrated with the vertical surface thanks to the use of an invisible fixing system. In this way, it reinforces the sensation of a 2D vignette of the composition you wish to make. Just as the speech bubble in a comic strip or graphic novel provides us with essential information that allows us to understand what is going on, or which reveals key details about the main character in the story, as designer Ana Yago explains, “Habla provides us with information on the space where it is located, on who lives there, underscoring an element or a series of them”.

Pop-Up For The Dirty Pretty Things

Last week I was invited along to the Dirty Pretty Things lingerie pop-up store, situated in the heart of Soho. Exclusively open for two days only, the pop-up was a novel way to celebrate the launch of the British brand’s new e-commerce store.

Images courtesy of Surgery PR

Greeted by a bevy a beautifully dressed ladies, who literally stopped traffic, guests were served Mahiki cocktails from a bright purple van, which proved to be a big talking point of the evening.

Setting themselves apart from the run-of-the-mill high-street lingerie brands, Dirty Pretty Things offer a selection of sensual and luxurious underwear at affordable prices. Designing for a liberated woman who wears sexy lingerie for herself, the focus is on the texture and comfort, making DPT the go to brand when you want to feel empowered.

With Leroy Thornhill of The Prodigy and Pam Hogg on decks, this party is certainly one to remember.