Changing Minds at Southbank: Mental Health Arts Festival

RCA Design Interaction student Jinhee Park rearranging her 'Solitude' installation

Uncovering Clerkenwell Design Week 2014's Secrets

Clerkenwell Design Week Map. Source: clerkenwelldesignweek.com

7 Things You Never Knew about Canada till You Read 'Fashion'

 Canadian Fashion gets Serious

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Daria Werbowy on Fashion's October 2013 issue

According to my long-suffering cousins, the Canadians are a misunderstood bunch. Popular myths beyond the border involve igloo housing, lesser technology and the assumption that everyone speaks French (when the French-speaking population is mostly found in Quebec).  

Let's just say the last thing I expected from my recent visit was intelligent, intriguing fashion and beauty journalism from a Canadian perspective. 

Here's a few eye-brow raising facts I learned about Canada from its best-selling women's' magazine Fashion (October 2013), starring none other than Ukrainian-Canadian super Daria Werbowy.


7 Curiously Canadian Fashion Facts 

1. The shopping pages are divided by province (that's how big the country is) 

At nearly 10 square kilometres (the second largest country in the world), the existence of only 5 Louis Vuitton boutiques feels a bit mean. Besides high-end department stores like Holt Renfrew, Gravity Pope (the go-to for footwear), the rest are independent boutiques scattered across trendy districts in Montreal, Toronoto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, stocked with top international and local designers.


2. They're obsessed with all things British

"Maybe it's the class system, the stiff upper lip or the Queen, but something about the Brits makes them born to rebel."

While I don't completely agree with all of the above, there's little doubt of 'The British Invasion' in Canada. It was surprising to see the extent of it - from short hair ("British girls are more adventurous"), mod (Agyness Deyn's Dr Martens collab), punk, handbags (the Mulberry Bayswater finally arrives!), British models (Stella Tennant to Edie Campbell) and promising talents like Jean-Pierre Braganza.

3. But they put a Canadian twist on it obviously 

 

For example, London-based designers Jean-Pierre Braganza and Erdem were both born in Canada (in Toronto and Montreal respectively). 

 

Jean-Pierre Braganza A/W13

4. Canada's Got Talent 

Discovering Melissa Araujo (see dress below) was a weak-in-the-knees moment for me. Minimalist, interchangeable and affordable, her pieces offer serious wardrobe ROI. A selection of her designs are available to purchase on her website, which also showcases her brilliant fashion illustrations

Look#37 from Melissa Araju's 'Linear' collection

The magazine's 'Top Coats' Canadian outerwear special is also noteworthy, not least since freezing winters can drop below -40°. Serbian born, Toronto-based designer Bojana Sentaler Nikolic (of Sentaler) and her luxuriously tailored 40s wartime-inspired coats win my vote. 


5. Kick-ass Ads (starring fashion bloggers)

Christina Caradona's ad for Tampax Radiant

How refreshing to see New York model/Trop Rouge blogger Christina Caradona front a Tampax ad campaign with pride. It's a step in reducing the awkwardness of traditional faceless western ads. In southeast Asia (countries which are supposedly more 'conservative') celebrities as feminine hygiene product spokespeople are nothing new. Seriously, it's time to grow up. 

This also exemplifies the growing trend of bloggers becoming public print and TV faces of major brands.


6. Vichy is Canada's no. 1 skincare brand

Who knew? Known for its French thermal spring water formulations (sourced from the town Vichy) and diverse targeted skincare lines, mid-priced Vichy comes up on top. Available in the UK from Boots.


7. Danier Leather

Danier Bucket Tote

A vertically-integrated retailer whose leather collections are sold exclusively in Canada, Danier is probably the country's best kept-fashion secret. Classic styles, functional, high-quality leather clothing and accessories (for men and women) at purse-friendly prices that look every bit the designer. Visiting Canada soon? I highly recommend Danier's outlets for tempting bargains.

Image credits from top:  art8amby.wordpress.com, catwalking.com, melissaaraujo.com, stocklandmartelblog.com, danier.com

The Cream of New Designers' Ceramic Crop

It is a truth universally acknowledged that New Designers showcases great ceramics. An exaggeration perhaps, but the past five consecutive years of surprise-filled visits have suggested otherwise. Here's 5 exciting emerging designers that prove why the infinite possibilities mean clay is still one of the the most seductive materials they can't keep their hands off.

David Marques (Central Saint Martins)

David Marques
Central Saint Martins is one of the best ceramics BA courses in the country right now, judging from the calibre of its students' work. Marques is a Portuguese designer who has worked previously in the Geneva watch business. Remarkable attention to detail is evident in this stunning, functional clock with hand-painted gold transfers. It was custom made as part of an installation of seven cuckoo clocks for prestigious Portuguese porcelain company Vista Alegre's flagship stores in Lisbon and Porto.
 

Annie Jones (University of Sunderland),

Annie Jones
Is it a miniature garden? A new form of cigarettes-in-plaster contemporary art? Just some of the wild (and obviously wrong) possibilities that crossed my mind when I first saw Jones' intriguing vitrines. Jones' living laboratories are an ongoing body of research exploring the contained reactions of raw chemicals in clay bodies, over time and exposed to varying conditions.  The effects fluctuate massively and result in striking patterns and vivid colours, like the container above showing purple crystallised chalks drawing up green copper oxide (a potent glaze colourant) from the white porcelain, a process known as chromatography.

Ant Pipe (De Montfort University)

Ant Pipe

Repurposing moulds and debris collected from the derelict Spode factory site in Stoke-on-Trent, Pipe pays homage to the 18th century innovators who made English fine bone china world famous. The make-up-like hues and textures of the miniature pots range from the smoothest white to the blackest, rock-like of clays – a delight to the senses.

Charlotte Mary Pack (Central Saint Martins)

Charlotte Mary Pack

Having raised in a farm, Pack's love for animals is unquestionable, exemplified by an astonishing installation of tiny hand-modelled and sculpted porcelain mammals on the endangered species list (I lost count, but over 200 would be my guess). All creatures big and small are included – from a tree rat that measures approximately 10mm by 5mm (slightly bigger than a tic-tac), scaling up to the lifelike, fist-sized mountain gorilla. The designer has plans to make a similar work raising awareness on reptiles facing extinction due to man-made destruction. Surely a commission from Stella McCartney is on the horizon?

Carys Joan Evans (Falmouth University)

Carys Joan Evans
Perfectly proportioned at around a foot, Evans' elf-like human and flora hybrids encapsulate the imagination of the young Welsh maker who counts landscapes as a huge source of inspiration. The mellow brown, green and yellow glazes as well as the unusual organic materials she incorporates (boar hair for instance) brings her charming 'walking forests' to life.

New Designers Part 2 (focusing on visual communication, industrial and spatial design), opens July 3 - 6. 

Image credits from top: (David Marques) studiodavidmarques.com, (Annie Jones) Photography by Jo Howell on annie-jones.com, (Carys Joan Evans) carysjoanevans.wix.com. All other images taken by me with permission of artist

Formafantasma Craftica Review, Gallery Libby Sellers, 1 - 28 February 2013

For the love of leather, I had to visit Craftica, a curious craft x design project commissioned by none other than Fendi

Reminiscing...V&A Postmodernism: Style and Subversion

Any self-respecting writer will have a library of rejected manuscripts (I remember how I cried on my first), buried inside cobweb gathering tombs of laptop hard drives, never to see the light of day and usually for a good reason.

I am not one of those self-respecting writers.

So here's an attempt at Art Review-worthy critcism from the 2011 archives. Frank feedback in the the comments box below the post would be most welcomed. The sharing icons are in grey above each post, which I still haven't figured out how to change...

I've written my fair share of embrassing, self-indulgent, juvenile rubbish, but reflection's the only way to learn right?

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Postmodernism: Style and Subversion, 1970-1990 at the V&A

(24^th September 2011- 8^th January 2012)

i-D, no 28. The Art Issue, August 1985, photograph by Nick Knight, featuring Lizzy Tear.V&A

Postmodernism: Style and Subversion is one of the VA’s most exciting projects to date. Divided into 3 sections- Architecture, Style and Money, it examines radical ideas that defined the movement between 1970- 1990. Its proliferation is chronicled through stimulating exhibits- from Architecture, Art and Design to Film, Music and Fashion. It’s ambitious to showcase a hotly contested movement, one which we are arguably still living in. I fell slept through Postmodernism lectures at university, so I was curious to understand what the fuss was about.

To some, it might be synonymous with Andy Warhol soup cans and Madonna’s fashion choices- but few are aware of its anti-modernist roots in architecture. Postmodernism is portrayed as a phoenix rising from the ashes of modernism in the 1970s, a liberation from its restrictive orthodoxies of function, clarity and purity. A full-scale replica of Hans Hollein’s façade (1980) from the Venice Biennale is one of the most theatrical exhibits. Each pillar samples a period in the history of architecture, from the Garden of Eden, classical Greek ruins to industrialist Art Deco. The pastiche is deliberate and unabashedly artificial (think Las Vegas novelty hotels); playfully cutting-up-and-pasting memorable fragments from the past.

The bricologe, cut-and-paste ethos was not limited to styles and ideas. It brought unconventional materials and different processes together to create a new synergy. This is evident in Paul Astbury’s ceramic sculpture, Box(1980). At first glance it’s an unremarkable, tatty white box hastily assembled with discarded scraps. The broken fragments are actually fired ceramic tiles, individually fixed with screws to the cardboard box, an unconventional mosaic tessellation. These are accented with strokes of custom blue and brown tinted araldite, sellotape, paint and felt tip markers. The complex layers and strategic placement of colours makes one wonder how much of its appearance is coincidental or deliberate. Personally, excavated remnants of demolished Modernist architecture come to mind, eschewing progress; suggesting the present is merely an amalgam of antiquity. It’s an intriguing, tactile synthesis of everyday materials; refreshingly contemporary even for today. 

Box, 'Untitled', Paul Astbury, 1980. V&A

The music and performance (style) section is not to be missed. The set (known as ‘The Club’) recreates the electric atmosphere of an underground fetish night club from 1980s, complete with coloured spotlights, elevated stages and wire fences. The kind your parents would not approve of. David Bowie, Grace Jones and other 80s pop videos repeat (annoyingly) on huge screens- charting MTV’s pivotal role of channelling postmodernism to the mainstream audience of style conscious youths.  David Byrne of Talking Heads’ Big Suit(1983) and Grace Jones’ cubist sculptural maternity dress (made of cardboard and felt in 1979) are just some of the zany outfits on display. Colourful, exaggerated appearances conveyed dissident, self-referential personas critical to these artists’ successes.

The most extreme style statements are perhaps the male and female ballet costumes designed by Leigh Bowery for the Michael Clark Company’s production, Because We Must(1987).  Beige balaclava-attached corset bodices are covered in exquisite crewelwork, depicting pink, orange, gold and green sequined flowers- reinterpreting an embroidery technique historically used for curtains. Complete with pink lycra sequinned leggings, I imagine it would make Lady Gaga blush. The mysteriously covered faces (with just 3 holes for sight and respiration) and sexually provocative corset-bodies fetishize domination and submission. Epitomising fluid postmodern gender identities, they bring a body-conscious, androgynous ‘otherness’ Bowery’s work was famous for. 

Dance costumes for performance 'Because We Must', designed by Leigh Bowery, 1987. V&A

The last section explores the impact of money on postmodernism during the economic and consumer excesses of the 1980s to its demise in 1990. The luxury products of ‘design editing’ are enticing, a precursor to the current trend for artist/designer/high street collaborations. It marks the change when designers happily merchandised their services to mass market brands like Disney and Alessi. An iconic example is architect Michael Graves’ Mickey Mouse Gourmet Collection(1991). A tea-set with mouse-shaped handles and whistling Mickey spout cover reflect a humorous, ironic self regard that defined pop culture. One can’t help but lament a ‘selling out’ for fame and profit, relinquishing the creative freedom postmodernists fought for in the first place. Money was power, but it also tainted postmodernism with a ‘vulgar decadence’ that still niggles, whether we admit or not.

For visitors unfamiliar with postmodernism, this is a dynamic introduction to its many ‘broken facets’. The ideas radical at the time shaped and continue to influence the world we live in today – from parody, pluralism, bricolage to a return to kitsch and nostalgia. There are too many objects for one to thoroughly evaluate; leaving many questions not fully answered (Is Postmodernism dead? Does it even matter?). However, like a time-travelling rollercoaster of unsettling, sensory thrills, it’s more fun to do a David Byrne and ‘Stop talking sense’.

On a Wing and a Prayer- Boxing Day Sales

When she said Boxing Day sales, this wasn't what I had in mind

It's that funny time of year again. Queues of bargain hunters forming outside Oxford St shops. At 6am.