IDOL FRIDAY: Alexander McQueen

It's been 20 years since the late Alexander McQueen first grabbed our attention. His contribution to the fashion world is one that will never be forgotten! Not only was he Chief Director for Givenchy for 5 years but McQueen also successfully founded his own label and had four British Designer  of the Year awards under his belt. It's been 4 years since his untimely death, so it seems only right we come out of mourning and celebrate the designers life. And to help us celebrate we have  two wonderful exhibitions launching this month completely dedicated to his beautiful work!

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Savage Beauty @ The V&A Museum

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You may have already heard the buzz about this exhibition, but the V&A have put together the largest ever retrospective of the his work and it's starting this Saturday!  You will be able to view extensive work from his 1992 MA graduate collection to his unfinished 2010 collection. One of the exhibits will be called the Cabinet of Curiosities, focusing on atavistic and fetishistic paraphernalia produced by McQueen, showcasing show pieces and one-off creations made purely for the catwalk and not intended for mass production.

Be sure to buy tickets in advance, as this show is booking up quickly. Tickets are £17.50 per adult and you can buy them here

Nick Waplington/Alexander McQueen: Working Process @Tate Britain

This extremely special exhibition at Tate Britain shows a rare collaboration between Alexander McQueen and photographer, Nick Waplington. In 2009, Waplington recorded unique behind the scenes footage of Alexander McQueen's last A/W collection, Horn of Plenty, which concentrated on reusing fabrics and silhouettes from previous collections. Even the catwalk set was made from discarded segments from sets of his past shows. Waplington used old analogue cameras which allowed up-to 8 shots per roll. The usage of film adds a rawness to his images showing a side to the fashion world that people don't normally see.

This show is also ticketed at £16 per adult and you can buy them here

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So which exhibition will you be going to see? The V&A is definitely at the top of my list! Savage Beauty was extremely popular in New York when it was shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2011, so definitely one not to be missed! Just remember to buy your tickets in advance so you don't miss out!

Big love,

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IDOL FRIDAY: Björk

On Sunday, a new exhibition will be launching at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. The exhibition will be presenting 20 years worth of work from Icelandic musician, Björk Guðmundsdóttir. Fans and visitors will be greeted by sound and video installations of new and old work, custom-made instruments used on Biophilia and music videos from albums 'Debut' to 'Biophilia' will be  screened in a specially designed cinema room, so this is definitely not something to miss!

The museum has had to make some big adjustments in preparation for the exhibition. A whole new floor has been built to make sure that the building can take the dirty, bassy notes in the commissioned video for 'Black Lake'. It will also be the first time the museum has showcased an app. Björk released an app back in 2011 to co-inside with her album, Biophilia. It took users onto a journey of her songs by being able to rework the material.  A visual album with interactive graphics. We currently have it on our iPad and it's very cleverly done. It even has David Attenbourgh narrating. We introduced Molly to Björk using this app and not only did she really enjoy playing with sound but she's now an ardent Björk fan too. 

Björk has worn some pretty amazing outfits over the past years for Award ceremonies, tours and music videos. Each incorporating the avant garde art that she was creating. Some of these, including the famous swan dress designed by Marjon Perjoski, will also be showcased at the MOMA exhibition and it would be just amazing to look at the skill and work that has been put into these garments in such close detail.

I remember the first time I heard Björk. I was listening to 'Venus as a Boy' on the radio and fell in love with her ever-changing, quirky and surprising voice. She sounded bonkers but had a wild, childlike demeanor that you'd instantly warm to. Her music was nothing that you'd heard before but was a great mixture of electronic, trip hop and classical influences which was perfect for what was happening in the music scene at the time in London. I love how Björk's home country has always been a huge influence on her and affects the way she sings. She seems to be ever evolving, changing just like the natural world around us.  I simply can't wait to see what else she has up her sleeve. I only wish that I could hop across the ocean to see and experience this very special exhibition. 


If like me your not able to make it to The Big Apple, here are my top 5 Bjork songs for you to enjoy!

1. I Miss You (1995)

2. Triumph of a Heart (2004)

3. Joga (1997)

4. All Is Full Of Love (1997)

5. Crystalline (2011)

 

The exhibition will be running from the 8th March - 7th June at MOMA, New York

Hope you've enjoyed this weeks Idol Friday? Please come back next week for a look at Alexander McQueen and his new exhibition at the V&A. EXCITMENT! 

Big Love,

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IDOL FRIDAY: Mary Quant

It's been 60 years since Mary Quant opened her first boutique, Bazaar, on Kings Road so I thought she would be the perfect choice for this weeks Idol Friday.  She brought fun to fashion by bringing us the mini skirt and hot pants in the 1960s and her use of bold and colourful fabrics has been a big inspiration to me personally.

Quant, 81 last week, started making clothes as a little girl, cutting up bedspreads or any other bits of fabric she could find at home. Eventually she managed to persuade her parents, probably bored of late night raids on the linen cupboard, to send her to Goldsmith's College of Art in London. This is where she met and fell in love with her husband, Alexander Plunket Greene.

When Greene inherited £5000 on his 21st birthday, they teamed up with fellow student and photographer, Archie McNair, and went into business together. In 1955 they rented Markham House  - a three storey building with a restaurant, Alexanders, in the basement and a boutique on the first floor. And so the first Bazaar was born.

Quant started out by purchasing stock for the shop but soon had the frustrating realization that she couldn't find the youthful styles that she was craving for. Never one to be defeated, she started making her own designs and hired a dressmaker to work through the day whilst Quant worked through the night, making sure she had made enough stock to sell in the shop the next day. From the late 1950's she had been experimenting with shorter hemlines, leading to the creation of the miniskirt in 1964. Quant herself would go on to admit that she didn't think it was solely her creation, more a reaction to the demand of the Kings Rd. girls that would visit the shop.

Quant was one of the first designers to bring affordable fashion to the high-street. Before, to keep up with fashion trends, you would either have to visit a couture house or rip a page out of a magazine and take it to a dressmaker. It's easy to see why her simple and clean cut dresses were popular with the London girls of the 60's! The shorter hemlines allowed it's wearer to have more freedom to move and were designed with running for a bus in mind.  Just two years after opening her first shop, she had a team of machinists working for her and was busy opening a second branch in swanky Knightsbridge, with a layout designed by Terence Conran. 

Raincoats from the 'Wet Collection'

In 1962, she entered the American market with J.C Penny and soon enough she was selling her clothes worldwide in over 150 shops. Quant's popular designs gave girls a chance to embrace a fun, affordable and youth defining look. Her bold colours and usage of fun materials was a breath of fresh air from the drab and boring fabrics left by years of war rationing.

When discovering PVC, Quant put together a whole range called the 'Wet Collection', first shown in Paris, 1963. Working with this new fabric was a steep learning curve, taking her 2 years to work out how to effectively use the material and perfecting issues like bonding the sleeves successfully. It was fabulous for making raincoats and she would sew white PVC peter pan collars onto mini dresses giving them a futurist look.

By the Seventies and Eighties, Quant was using her design skills to make other creations. She was the first designer to commercialise tights, as well as an early pioneer for designer cosmetics. Her line of make-up boomed in Japan and was eventually bought by a Japanese company in 2000. She had wonderful opportunities to put her unique style into a number of things such as the chic air hostess uniforms for Court Line Aviation in 1972. I wish uniforms looked like this today. I used to work as cabin crew years ago for Excel Airlines and my uniform was SO boring compared to this!

She also collaborated with Mini Cooper, designing the interior of the Mini Quant in 1988. The car featured black and white striped seats with red trimming, along with red seat belts. The steering wheel also had her signature daisy logo in the center. Just 2000 of this very limited edition were released in total in the UK. 

Quant's determination and creativeness has been an enormous influence on me. I've always admired her ability to put her hand to new things and always make something singular, unique. She went to art college to study illustration, but became one of the biggest names in the fashion industry. Her eye for trends, persistence and dedication over the last 60 years has had a massive role in shaping the fashion world as it is today. From short hemlines to tiny cars, the girls done it all. 

Thank you Mary Quant :)

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IDOL FRIDAY: Guy Bourdin

Welcome to the first of a new weekly series; Idol Friday! This week we are looking at French fashion photographer, Guy Bourdin. Since his death in 1991, Bourdin has been hailed as one of the greatest fashion photographers of all time. He was never a natural self-promoter or preserver of his work and wanted it destroyed after his death. Fortunately for us, his art had many admirers and much  was saved by private collectors.  You can currently go and see the largest UK exhibition of his works at Somerset House. The exhibition features over 100 pieces, including unseen material found at his estate.

Bourdin was born in Paris in 1928 and received his first photography training as a cadet in the French Air Force taking aerial shots. He was an aspiring artist and his main medium at the time was to draw and paint. It wasn't until he saw Edward Weston's 'Pepper' image that something stirred in him, pushing him towards photography. Influenced by Surrealism,  Bourdin became a great admirer of Man Ray who was a huge inspiration. After several attempts to visit Ray at his home and each time being turned away by his wife, Bourdin finally managed to introduce himself to his idol and they soon became firm friends, helping each other with various exhibitions and projects.

At the age of 27, Bourdin landed himself a job with Vogue Paris. Whilst there, he worked alongside Helmut Newton and they'd often get competitive with how much sexuality they could push into their work and to the limits of what could be published in the magazine. Although there was rivalry, their work complimented each other beautifully. So much so, in fact, that if they hadn't been working on the same magazine it's likely their audience probably wouldn't have received them as well. One of Bourdin's major clients whilst at Vogue was shoe designer, Charles Jourdan. He worked on Jourdan's ad campaigns between 1967-1981. He had full creative control, which frightened the company a little but his narrative power exceeded the bounds of conventional photography advertising. Because of this his work was greatly anticipated by the media.

As you can see from his images, Boudin liked to use hard acid colours and play on reflections. This was a contrast to Newton's work who was the complete opposite and loved working in black & white with S&M influences. Inspired by the memory of his Parisian mother, Bourdin would pick models with a deathly palour & their make-up had to have a doll-like quality. He was definitely a perfectionist and would often work for days on one piece until he felt he had created his vision. But once a piece was created to his liking it would very often get disposed of once published in a magazine. It was as if he preferred the process of perfecting a shot rather than the end result.

Even today, at first glance, it's hard to tell that some of his photos are 40 - 50 years old.

On the other side of the lens, Bourdin was often described as troubled and impish. It was observed that his wife, Sybil, who sadly committed suicide, was not allowed to leave their home and the many glamorous models who would work with him were often dismayed at the remoteness and squalid conditions that Bourdin lived and worked in. Many blame this on the abandonment he faced from his parents as a child. As with many revered artists, it seems that his talent stemmed from trauma.

It would be intriguing to know what Bourdin thought of his work now, being exhibited in such a large exhibition and hailed as one of the top fashion photographers of all time. He was definitely a pioneer and was the first to show the product as a secondary subject in an image and also the first to truly connect with the lower and middle classes. His images brought them a brighter future, parallel to a darker side, images with a cinematic quality, containing suspense and anxiety.

What do you think of Guy Bourdin's work? Have you been to see the exhibition yet?

Big love,

Guy Bourdin: Image Maker exhibition is running until 15th March 2015 at Somerset House. Tickets are only £9 and you can buy them in advance here

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