Style Bubble

I'll Make a Man Out of You

The third season of London Collections: Men, which has just concluded, was really my first proper foray of going to the menswear shows in London.  There's been the buzzy build-up and flag-waving in the media in the run up of the event.  Bigger and glossier shows were introduced to the schedule with the likes of Burberry, Alexander McQueen and Tom Ford headlining the jam-packed three days.  Underneath all the gloss and celeb-papping dos (seriously there could have been a separate schedule just for cocktails during LC:M) we saw some seriously brilliant collections.  Clothes that made this menswear-stealer sweat, as I considered how many personal orders I could get away with and whether these menswear designers minded that a mere woman wanted to wear their togs.  It's a long rollcall of names but basically for the selfish purpose of wearing stuff, I'd like to get my mitts on pieces from Shaun Samson, James Long, Christopher Shannon, Sibling, Kit Neale, Joseph Turvey, Marques Almeida and on and on it goes.  For critical plaudits, Agi & Sam, Alan Taylor and Craig Green deserve praise for their deft handling of the various stages of debuting, developing and graduating from the Fashion East MAN showcase.  For those that straddle both womenswear and menswear, Richard Nicoll, Christopher Raeburn, Jonathan Saunders and J.W. Anderson all really elevated proceedings and in the case of the latter, continued to stir up the usual fodder for tabloids to run headlines such as "What man would wear this?"  

There lies the beginning of the hidden sour side to LC:M.  Delve deeper and there were unspoken tensions amongst the ranks - a latent tussle between the new generation of menswear designers that for me keep LC:M's bloodline pumping with jolts of excitement and then growing fixation on the bigger brands or celeb-focused glossiness, which doesn't necessarily correlate with what London fashion is about.  There was a rebellious mood hanging in the air with the desire to restake creative claim of LC:M, especially in the wake of the thoughtless, crass and irresponsible comments made by David "lifeless manbot" Gandy on the TV chat show Alan Carr: Chatty Man a month ago.  Supposedly Gandy is an ambassaford for LC:M but he still thought nothing of slagging off collections Craig Green and Sibling, goaded by Carr, who was just doing his job.  As yet, there's been no public apology from Gandy and he retains his role as "ambassador" probably because he is a primary representative of men's generally conservative attitude towards fashion, as pointed out by Alex Fury in this blog for the Independent.  Suffice to say, he wasn't invited to the MAN show or Sibling's show.  

The underlying repercussions of making light jokes at the expense of hardworking designers is that it further stokes the ire of the gen pub alpha male who agree with Gandy and express thoughts such as, "Who would ACTUALLY wear that?" or "OMG...that's so gay/faggy...".  See the peeps commenting on this Guardian menswear round-up.  It's all apparently harmless and anyone is entitled to their personal opinions of course but they're not congenial or helpful when you're a young designer, trying to do something new and contribute to what is a vibrant and fresh energy in London's menswear scene.  You step into dodgy territory when you start saying things like "REAL men wouldn't wear that...", a comment almost as annoying as this intangible notion of the "real woman" and furthermore, imposes stereotypes of masculinity and sexuality.  By "harmlessly" antagonising and challenging designers' creativity, it can be construed as bullying or sorts with a loud and clear message - real men wear serious and sensible suits, fairies and weirdos wear all of this young designer stuff.  Charlie Porter expresses similar sentiment on this brilliant blog post on his site.  

With all these thoughts swirling around, I sat down for Meadham Kirchhoff's menswear presentation yesterday, held in what was seemingly a deliberately claustrophic attic.  Footage sourced from YouTube depicting displaced Soviet Union/Eastern Block scenes from the past played to a dramatic swell of a booming orchestral soundtrack.  Then five boys walked in, layered in a mix of protective latex, nostalgic broderie anglaise and Breton stripes, carrying latex gym bags embroidered with childish motifs and wearing shoes painted with bumble bees or matryoshka doll faces.  One by one, they would strip down their beautifully constructed layers, shedding them in a vulnerable state and then handing them over to their more "masculine" counterpart trussed up in checked suit jackets, sombre Mao-esque wool coats and even an ensemble that vaugely conjured up Hitler Youth uniforms.  It was a highly charged presentation, accentuating that sour taste that I already had in my mouth, not because the collection wasn't brilliant, as it was, but because the meaning behind it all was overwhelmingly nihilistic.  

After the presentation, Ben Kirchhoff (who is primarily responsible fo the menswear collection as he originally started out in menswear) said "We love making beautiful clothes but we hate the system that surrounds that."  Love the clothes, hate the system.  I couldn't agree more.  I may not have expressed explicitly here the ins and outs of what gets me down about the industry.  That would be indulgent moaning with no reformative action to back it up.  Therefore I'm grateful to Meadham Kirchhoff for expressing so eloquently through their clothes what I couldn't really say in words without sounding like an ungrateful cow.  As the boys were shedding each layer, they were laying themselves bare to the world, for both praise and ridicule.  Their more masculine gatekeepers tell them what to do and control the strings.  Read what you will into that and its parallels with what is going on in London's menswear scene and in fashion in general.  I saw a wider comment on the fact that the fashion is increasingly more about product than anything else, that if you don't conform to a certain mould, you might lose out despite having something original and brilliant to contribute, and that values of human decency, respect and patience are generally going amiss.  It left me angry and in turmoil as to whether what I do as a living and the "digital" age that I'm supposed a part of is damaging the very designers that fuel my passion.  

Ultimately to reduce everything in fashion to what the market sells and what it demands is just depressing.  I'd sooner pack it all in and go back to advertising.  At least there's no confusion there about the fact that you're shilling a product.      

Shine Bright!

"The sun is giving you energy and you are growing!  Stretch your arms up, as far as they will go!    Higher, taller, stronger... you're a proud sunflower!"  You'd think I wouldn't be in a hurry to revisit the "You're a sunflower!" exercise that practically every year 7 student had to do in drama class in this country.  I sucked at it.  I was too embarrassed and too overly self conscious to be convincing.  I used to look at the confident drama buffs who got really into it and wonder whether I would ever "grow" and get rid of my awkward pigeon-footed stance and well... BE a sunflower.  

A few days ago, my friend Tweeted me to say that there was a giant billboard outside East Finchley tube station, where a) I used to live and b) got mugged by the badass girls from another comprehensive school when I was 13, and here I am - a giant sunflower and looking somewhat confident, if not a little insane.  The explanation for all of this?  I'm very excited to be part of Vitamin Water's latest #SHINEBRIGHT campaign depicting their Sunshine yellow drink, alongside other creative luminaries including Mikey Trapstar of streetwear brand Trapstar London, Paris-based stylist and artist Lisa Gachet of the very cool lifestyle blog Make My Lemonade and Danish blogger Trine Kjaer of Trine's Wardrobe.  

It was a pretty wild shoot experience, japing around with Matt Irwin the photographer and the lovely Anna Trevelyan, who was the stylist for the campaign and was responsible for commissioning this amazing Piers Atkinson petal headpiece, which surrounds my face.  All of my drama class inhibitions were finally released in the ultimate sunflower excercise of all - balancing myself in a flower pot, posing by a giant plastic Vitamin Water bottle, covered in plastic flowers and bugs and looking like I'm having the best time of my life.  Hah!  Move over drama buffs.  I, too can well... err... SHINE BRIGHT!      

Flower pots, petal headdresses and japes aside, the campaign has an initiative behind it which is that every campaign participant will have their own competitions to find people to collaborate with them and work with them on a special task or project.  My #SHINEBRIGHT opportunity will be to offer one person the chance to attend two days of London Fashion Week with me, this coming September, going to shows, seeing how I run around like a headless chicken, assist in writing up/blogging, and generally experiencing how a show is put together, meeting designers backstage and seeing what I do to get content during the shows.    

Essentially it will be like a fast-paced intense internship slash shadowing experience.  It's significant only because I have NEVER had anybody work with me on Style Bubble.  I've never taken on interns or assistants.  I've ALWAYS worked by myself.  People find it a bit dumb that I still work by myself considering I do get internship applications on a daily basis.  It's a combination of the fear of handing over responsibility, clashing with their personalities or even disappointing said intern.  This is therefore kind of a big deal for me.  I'm doing my utmost to ensure that it will be a pleasant if a little chaotic two days for whoever wins!  

The challenge then to enter this competition to be my London Fashion Week companion/collaborator/observer - whatever you want to call it is to...

• Follow one of these Twitter handles - @vitaminwater_uk, @vitaminwater_dk, @vitaminwater_se (whichever is relevant...
• Tweet me @susiebubble with a photo depicting your summer must-have of 2013 of your creative choice.  Emphasis on creative.  Oh and "must-have" doesn't necessarily have to mean trendy clothing or accessories.  To use an odious marketing phrase, I am looking for some "out-of-the-box" thinking.
• Include the hashtag #shinebright in your tweet.
• Winners will be contacted via direct message from Vitamin Water (so make sure you follow them as you can't receive the DM's otherwise...) within two weeks of the competition close date.  

Here are the T's and C's as there alway are in comps like this (full outline here).    

• You must be over 18 to ever.
• All people who enter must reside in Denmark, France, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden or the United Kingdom of course.  Those who enter from outside of these countries won't be considered unfortunately. 
• The entry cut-off date is 16th August 2013.  
• The price includes flights or trains from wherever you're from, one night in a hotel and food and all non-alcoholic beverages (although it's likely there will be free alchoholic beverages at some point - it IS fashion week afterall...).  

I'm ready to lose my Style Bubble internship/sidekick virginity if you're game... 

Who knew you could look pensive whilst dressed up as a sunflower? 

**Disclosure** Just in case it wasn't blindingly obvious, this is of course a commercial campaign and project that I'm participating in.  

Up the Nails!

It's been fifty years since The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan was published and hundred years since suffragette Emily Wilding Davison was fatally injured during her protest for the cause of Votes for Women.  Feminism rages on - in different guises and often clouded with irrelevant arguments about semantics by my shallow reckoning (dipping in and out of Guardian think pieces by Julie Burchill, Tanya Gold etc is enough to make your head spin) but not enough concrete or life-changing action seems to be happening.  

The London-based artist Phoebe Davies makes comment on this through her thoughtful ongoing project Nailwraps: Influences, which seeks to answer in some part, what feminism is today and what it actually means to women at large.  The premise is simple and yet highly effective.  Davies worked in collaboration with groups of women exploring current attitudes to feminism and female expectations and aspirations, which resulted in a set of printed nail wraps depicting women of influence or significance, adding a meaningful dimension to the culture of nail art.  Initially, it started off as a two month dialogue with 'Life for Girls', a pupil referral unit in Lewisham London, where they collectively researched attitudes towards female imagery, experiences of growing up as young women in London.  The first set of wraps featured women such as Emmeline Pankhurst, Rosa Parks, Aung San Suu Kyi and Tavi Gevinson but then expanded to include more suggestions, which Davies took through Twitter and email as well as working with other social enterprise charities and groups.  That expanded list includes more populist figures such as Coco Chanel, Jessica Ennis, Adele and Lena Dunham as well as leftfield pioneers like the artist Miranda July, choreographer Pina Bausch and astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell.

At the Women of the World Festival at the South Bank Centre back in March, Davies set up a Nailwraps: Influences nail bar so that these designs could be applied and distributed.  People were encouraged to learn about these icons and their achievements.  You might say there's a dichotomy between the act of getting your nails done, something that gratifies your own personal vanity and that at best is a mere expression of aesthetic leanings, and the feminist struggle.  Davies is unlikely to be in the hardline school of thought that dictates women who care about their appearances can't be feminists.  In fact it's precisely something as simple as applying a set of themes nail wraps that at the very least, spurs people to think about their own aspirations and goals as women, when they look down at their hands and see what those famed women have achieved.  There's a small chance that they might go on to further question why there's still a 9.6% pay gap in this country for full-time workers.  Why only 22% of MPs are women.  Why misogynistic attitudes still exist period.   

British farmer, botanist and Phoebe's own grandmother Mary McKeand

Davies also created a nail set depicting African women of influence for an event for the site Styled by Africa, bringing in racial inequality issues that have yet to be fully resolved.  

Most recently, Davies set up another nail bar, with a whole new set of designs as part of the Late at Tate event.  She worked with the Tate Collective and university of the Arts London's student ambassadors to determine the women who have promoted innovative creative talent or campaigned for social change.  The list of ten that could grace your pinkies and thumbs include my beloved fashion designer Louise Graph, the author Andrea Levy and the aforementioned Davison.  I've applied them rather poorly (can't quite do the whole filing thing... female fail?) but you get the idea.  Davies is still taking suggestions on Twitter for nail wrap subjects if you're interested in nominating your own heroines under the #femiheroes.

Tulle Shells

It's a week of following up, catching up and hunting down as I dip in and out of some of the fantastic menswear collections on show at LC:M, head down to the colleges to see more graduates as well as sniffing out leads for Paris before I head over there the haute couture shows.  Like I said last week when I posted about Shao-Yen Chen, it's nice to see some continuity when talking up young designers.  It's not an ideal situation to bound about a name and then not hear a peep about them forevermore.  When I was rounding up the upward motions of the high street back in January, I mentioned that ASOS would be collaborating with Central Saint Martins BA class of 2012 graduate Molly Goddard, who I singled out last year.  Now the fruits of that union are nearly upon us and it's a pretty and concise lovefest of all the things that I can't resist - sheer, delicate, layer-friendly and best of all, a unique collaboration that goes against the norm.  

I believe this is the first time ASOS have collaborated with an undergraduate designer and one that isn't schilling her own mainline anywhere else.  "It's strange that nobody knows who I am and I'm not in a position to sell clothes any other way, and so to have things that people can buy, is really exciting," said Goddard.  That first part may not be true as Goddard's collection from the last CSM BA show was such a memorable stunner - a wonderful homage to dreamy ideals of childhood attire and to the physical act of handcraft.  It's no wonder that it impressed ASOS.  "Molly's BA collection was not only accomplished but incredibly beautiful," said Emma Fox, womenswear fashion director of ASOS.  "The carefully constructed pieces are the work of an exceptional talent and we are honoured to be working with her on this special collaboration."  Looking at the three dresses Goddard has designed for ASOS, they contain some essence of her BA collection - namely the tulle outer dress and volume-creating gatherings at the waist.  The underlayer of hand crochet has now become three easy-to-wear slip dresses made up of a machine embroidery into a traditional lace pattern.  Combined together they're the sort of dresses that are begging to be taken out of their pretty-pretty fem-fem context.  You definitely get an urge to go to the supermarket, ride the 43 bus or walk into an old man's pub wearing one of these ballooning fluoro pink tulle dress just for the sheer hell of it.  Goddard seems to have a similar idea.  "They could be worn during the daytime and then you might end up at a weird party accidentally."  

Essentially though you have two dresses in one that come together in harmony but can also be taken apart for other layering adventures.  Combined together they're beautiful just as they are but I like bang for my buck and I personally think the tulle outerdresses are magnificent as they are, acting like shells to layer away as you please.  They're daring you to up the contrast levels to counteract the femininity and childish whimsicality of the material and shape.  Jeans, trainers, sportswear and rubbish t-shirts would be my chosen weapons of down-dressing all that tulle.  Or you could just go all out and run with the heightened frou-frou fantasy of all that tulle and pair up with other similar garments which collectively conjure up a mixture of My Little Pony, rave fairy costumes and Bubble's wardrobe from Ab Fab.  

Molly Goddard for ASOS Salon dresses worn with Miista holographic brogues

Molly Goddard for ASOS tulle dress worn with Lucky Chouette sailor top, Dries van Noten embroidered denim skirt, Karen Walker sunglasses, Joe Duke x Beach in the East denim jacket, Nike trainers

Molly Goddard for ASOS tulle dress worn with Simone Rocha lace skirt, Sorcha O'Raghallaigh embroidered top, vintage slip dress, Comme des Garcons Tricot collar, John Rocha black tinsel headband, Him & Her neon headband, Meadham Kirchhoff x Pollini shoes 

There's an one more sleeveless tulle dress style in a lighter shade of pink, which I didn't photograph so here are the official lookbook images.  The collab will hit ASOS.com on 24th June (next Monday) and prices will range from £120 to £150.  I'm looking forward to some resemblance of a summer where I get to gather up these giant skirts of tulle to ride the bus, do my supermarket shop and maybe wind up in a park somewhere drinking cider.  Anyone else along for the ride?