Original article and photographs can be found at twinfactory

When James Long finally branched out into womenswear, with his critically acclaimed debut show at Fashion East A/W11, the fashion world was ready. We spend a lot of our time coveting the wardrobes of our male relatives and friends. We envy the clean, sharp tailoring, the perfect shirt, the imitable jackets. We steal their clothes on a near regular basis – I’m still wearing my younger brother’s barmitzvah suit, eight years on.

So when a menswear designer makes the move into womenswear, we find ourselves unrestrainedly happy. Smiles replace pouts all round. Under the watchful, expert eye of the Lulu Kennedy, Long’s womenswear collections have gone from strength to strength. This season, he flew the nest, with his first ever non-sponsored, independent, magnificent collection.

Twin spoke to James about monochrome, minimalism and female icons past and present…

What was your inspiration for S/S13?
The monochrome colour palate really came from something that was happening in the menswear show ten weeks earlier – where we’d be looking at Joseph Albez, the Kung Fu Cowboy and David Shrigley. Another inspiration, or element, was that this was our first non-sponsored BFC show.

In terms of design, it is a more simple collection…
Yes, this season we consciously stripped the collection back to something very basic, yet very beautiful. If you’ve seen a lot of one style you, obviously, get a bit sick of it and need a change. So that’s how I work – alternating seasons between elaborate and basic. However there are a lot of design elements I’ve always loved and relied on: polka dots, lines etc.

Do you have a favourite shape?
I guess I’m a hypocrite as I think I’m linear but then I do love a dot as well! To be honest what I really love is to mix everything up so that I have a bit of everything, and more. This collection was always going to be monochrome, but it also had to have my maximalist-type knitwear, which was worked in with the contradictory minimalist colour palate. I think that’s why I love it so much. It simply made sense. It was definitely my most personal womenswear collection.

So who is the woman behind this very personal collection?
PJ Harvey meets Beattlejuice!

Who are some of your favourite women, past and present?
There are inspirational, historical women who come up at the embryonic stages of design – Leer, Stevie Nicks & Nancy Spungen – but the physical collection itself is far more based on women who are around me – Virginia Bates, Lulu [Kennedy], Louise Grey, my sister Charlotte, Sam in the studio to name a few [some of whom featured on Princess Julia’s watercolour shirt]. Once the collection is ready we often think about people it would be for. We’ll say ‘that is a Lulu shirt’ or, and this sounds funny (because this is for twin) but ‘Celestine might wear that’. These are women who we envisage wearing our clothes – not muses but the icons to come!

Are your men’s and women’s collections conceived in tandem?
For me, the two are very much the same thing – they are conceived and created here [at studio] by the same team, using the same principles and the same elements. Only the mood, colours or cut differ. There is 50% cross over and then we also share techniques – the belted box pleat for our skirts we took from the menswear, with great success!

What are you currently listening to in the studio?
We’ve turned into a radio only station; absolute 90s; radio 6; Jarvis’ Sunday service. At show time we have Hanna Hanra sending through a barrage of music. Or we’ll play one album over and over again; this season it was PJ Harvey, obviously. I also really like Rose Blake’s work.

And what are you currently reading?
The Empress of Ireland – it’s a really nice bedtime read.

What will you be dressing as for Halloween?
I’ll actually be in Ibiza staying with Virginia Bates, no plans yet but we’re always dressing up!

What’s next for you?
Teaching menswear at the Royal Collage of Art which I love. I’m continuously amazed and impressed by the quality of work. We have our menswear show on the 7th january, and then it’s womenswear again! We also have a collection for Topman coming out in two weeks. We’re making, showing, delivering: just keeping it going really!

Original article and photographs can be found at twinfactory

Old school Jeremy Scott

Flaunt magazine Sept 2001

Sea Foam In Your Eyes AW12 from Fanny and Jessy on Vimeo.

Triple denim innit.

Ashish ss13

Read my interview with Wolf & Badger here.

p.s. sketch sketch sketch

Since his eponymous graduate collection, Craig Lawrence has emerged as one of Britain’s most exciting contemporary knitwear designers. His work is experimental, complex and playful, making use of unlikely and varied materials such as sweet wrappers, gold foil, bin bags and Kyototex – a Japanese metallic covered yarn. Devotees of his innovative, show stopping designs include Tilda Swinton, Lady Gaga and Björk; women who very much fit the designer’s ideal CL woman, self described as “a bit bolshie and a bit brave with a bit of an attitude. “A good attitude”.

Last Friday, Craig showed a retrospective of his work at the V&A’s Fashion in Motion event (a wonderful initiative for showcasing design; essentially a catwalk show, for the masses), to great critical acclaim. I negotiated the maze that is the path to his studio in Somerset House, to have a quick chat as he prepared for the show.

How does it feel to be chosen for Fashion in Motion?
It’s quite an honour to be honest. Everyone before has been quite established. It’s definitely a moment! I’m a bit nervous, but excited as well. I just hope all the models can walk and no-one trips up or anything.

Which past Fashion in Motion show sticks in your mind?
Gareth Pugh’s. I think I was still working there at the time, and it was so exciting because he had all the big drama of each show in one show – the big blow up balloon as the finale and also the light up jacket. It was amazing to see it all at once.

If you could create your ideal, money no issue, catwalk show, what would it be?
I used to want the catwalk to be a trampoline with wooden machines around it or a spinning catwalk, so as each model steps onto it, she gets spun round really really fast. Probably against health and safety though…

How do you feel when you’re knitting?
Sometimes, when it’s close to the show, I feel panicked, but most of the time it’s quite a relaxing thing to do. It’s fun to sit around and play around with different techniques and yarns; it’s like being in a science lab – inventing your own knits and textures.

Do you have a favourite current technique or material?
I think re-doing some barrier tape pieces has been really exciting. Doing all this [preparing for Fashion in Motion] is making me realise that I really like experimenting with different materials and yarns. Seeing all the collections together is a good motivation for me to get back to my roots a little bit next season; start playing with more techniques again and making more elaborate pieces.

You use a lot of recycled materials in your work, is this conscientious?
With the gold foil and barrier tape I managed to get that from a scrap store selling old factory stock, but in general I just like to grab materials and knit with them, and take things out of context. Often so that something that is seen as cheap then looks expensive.

Is this habit of picking up and playing with something you’ve always done?
Yeah I think so. My approach is quite practical – I need to feel it and play with it and see for myself. It’s a really kind of primary school kid thing to do, just like, grab everything!

Is that how you create a collection then?
The first motivations for me are a mixture of coming up with the concept, and it can either be drawn from the material or the other way round. There’s always a strong element of play, and at the start of the season, I don’t really have anything in mind, I’m just picking things up and playing around.

What are your inspirations for next season?
I’m looking towards more technology. I’m still inspired by the Felixstowe seaside (near Ipswich, where Lawrence grew up) but in a more futuristic way.

It appears as if your work has progressed immensely in relation to, and in regard of, the female form. Is this intentional? Do you sense the same spirit?
Definitely! At the start, it was all about techniques, and the silhouette being sculptural and experimenting with knitwear but that‘s now refined itself into considering the figure and the knits and techniques that suit and compliment the figure.

Which part of the figure do you tend to design for?

Waist. I always do waisty things. Waist and hips.

So you’re on the side of Prada then?
With all the big skirts I’ve been doing recently? Yeah, lower half.

Are they are all hand made?

Yep. The majority are made here, in house, and some extra, simpler pieces are given to grannies in Cornwall, to finish off for us.

Grannies are a bit of a trend right now, as well as keeping things in the UK…

I think I’m a bit of a control freak; if it gets sent away I get worried it wont be as good quality as it should be. I think it’s important to keep these pieces individual in the production of them as well. It’s all made in the UK in fact.

Along the lines of supporting the UK, are there any young artists who you think we should be watching?
There are a couple of people doing the MA at Central St Martin, like Helen Price [read our 2010 interview with her here]; she’s definitely a one-to-watch in terms of knitwear. Stephen Doherty used to do illustrations for me and he’s just starting to launch himself as an artist, so that’s another fun thing to look out for. There’s also a band called Teeth, who were based in London but are now in New York, who are really exciting (me and Stephen were actually trannies for their last video!).

All linked then! Another UK related question… What are your feelings with regards to the upcoming Olympics?
All I can think is that I’m going to get run over, because I’m going to try and cycle in [from Dalston] on a Boris bike.

Please don’t! If you could get away from it all, where would you go?
I’m desperate to go to Faliraki for a holiday. I’ll go wherever the sun is! Also I’ve recently realised that I’ve never been to the Natural History Museum. I want to go there and to the Science Museum, as I haven’t been since I was a kid.

I’d maybe wait until the Olympics are over?
Oh god yeah. Do nothing, just cry, until the Olympics is over.

Do you think the rain in Britain makes us more creative? I’m convinced it breeds amazing people. 
Yes probably. You simply don’t want to be outside. I think you have to try and amuse yourself in other ways when the sun is not shining.

Future plans you’ll be amusing yourself with?
I think I’d like to expand more of an accessories collection, cause there aren’t great knitted accessories out there. It’s all quite bobbly and woolly. And perhaps think about menswear as well.

Original article and photographs can be found at thepop.com

The name Ron Arad may not necessarily be a household one, but his illustrious designs are certainly known across the globe. Arad designed that Bookworm bookshelf; you know, the bookshelf that’s all circular? Yep, that one. And the ubiquitous Tom Vac chair; looks like half an oyster shell with a hole in the middle and four spidery legs? Yep. Arad is an artist of phenomenal capabilities. His work is innovative and exciting, owing much to his commitment to advanced technologies and some to his apparent love of LEDs. Arad’s sheer breadth of work is awe-inspiring. And as former Head of Design at the RCA for over twelve years, he has shaped and molded some of our most exciting contemporary design talent, not to mention the future.

Recently, Arad teamed up with long standing eyewear expert and fellow Israeli Assaf Raviv, who, in his own words, “loved everything Ron created and pestered him for three years, calling him every two weeks until he relented and said yes”. Eventually, Arad conceded and pq eyewear was born. The glasses are evidence that design doesn’t come cheap – prices range from £500 to over a thousand per pair – but these truly are the best money can buy. Assaf approached Ron because he “wanted a product designer, rather than a fashion designer. In order to really change the [optical design] game, not just sign a name to them”. Using some of today’s most advanced production processes such as Selective Laser Sintering and the latest in 3D printing techniques, as well as adding an adjustability element to some lines, pq is most certainly game changing.

I went down to Arad’s studio, the very same one he has worked from for over 20 years, to find out more about this new and exciting project by one of the most influential designers of our time.

How did you create the pq name?

When you write pq, you draw a pair of glasses whether you like it no or not. Also it is palindromic, which is very useful.

Which is your personal preferred pair from the pq designs?
Different ones different have different reasons to be favourite. I like the Angel because it’s the way that things are going to be – because currently to make a pair of glasses there are so many components and so much fiddly work on small things in the production. The Angel and their family suggest a way of making frames out of one, monolithic piece and yet it gives it all the flexibility it needs. It frees us from parts.

Pq designs have strong curvatures, a form of design with which you are strongly associated.
I am not scared of curves, but actually I don’t mind straight lines either. Look round you, in nature there are lots of curves and straight lines. My work reflects this – I use more straight lines than people think.

How has your work been influenced by Israel vs. England?
I was born in Tel Aviv, and when I came to England, I was an outsider – this influenced my work hugely, the feeling of being an outsider. Now I have been here almost all my life. Look, the world is getting smaller, it is shrinking; information travels from one place to the other without any real difficulty.

Globalisation and development… You are also very forward thinking in terms of design processes and techniques, how has this digital, globalised age shaped and changed your work?
This age means that you don’t have to spend all your life focusing on one thing; you can jump from one thing to another with relative ease, which really suits my restless nature. I always look forward – the Kenzo bottle I designed was for kids who grew up with the game boy: it is a perfume bottle for the digital age and generation.

Is there any one piece of work you wish you’d designed?
I can’t really answer that but I can say that my favourite thing is to be jealous. I like to go to an exhibition and see something and wish I’d designed it. It’s a good feeling. And when I create, I ask myself, if I saw that done by someone else would I be jealous? And if the answer is yes I know its good. I’ve always said boredom is the mother of creativity. Jealousy is the sister.

The pq pieces are named after London Underground stations. Why?
We have all these different lines of glasses, and we chose to give them London Underground names instead of simple names. People make a connection between things and places – Liverpool Street is connected with John Lennon even though they are essentially unrelated [the pair named after Liverpool Street take some of their design aesthetic from Lennon’s signature glasses]. Every person grows into their name, and our glasses have done the same.

Do you take the tube? Do you have any loved or hated stations?
Yes I do take the tube, sometimes. I quite like revamped jubilee stations, they show clearly what can be achieved architecturally and in terms of design. Something really has to be done Old Street, it is the coolest area of London, and the worst gateway to it.

So in terms of word association, London Underground is currently partnered with ‘Olympics’ and ‘avoid’. What are your sentiments regarding the Olympics?

It won’t last; we only have a short time to suffer. We actually put in a great bid for Olympics, but they thought it was too adventurous structurally. It wasn’t.

Will you be attending any events?
I have a very good TV.

Architecture formed part of the Olympic games until it was abandoned (along with the other arts) as a category in 1945…
Really? Who won gold?

Hmm, Jan Wils won in 1928 for his design of the Olympic Stadium [thanks Wikipedia].
I see a problem with architecture etc. as an Olympic sport. With, for example, the 100m sprint, you have a very clear winner. But with the arts, it is someone’s opinion, how they think and feel about it.

It is subjective.

Exactly. You can’t measure this.

I think this is why they were abandoned, there can be no fair winner. Do you sometimes feel this way about the arts schools, having worked at the RCA for so long?
No, I think you are not there to judge, but to bring the best out of someone.

So are there any contemporary artists who you think are making truly revolutionary and/or brilliant, work?
Brilliant artists make brilliant work. It is very difficult for me to name names, or actually it is difficult because I will always leave names unnamed. I see a lot of people that make me jealous, which is a good thing. You know that I use the word jealous in a very positive context yes?

Yes, I do.
Good. Maybe envy is a better word though.

Ok, envy – the brother of creativity? Any future projects we would be envious of?
We’ve just finished working on an installation in Paris, at a gallery called Downtown. It is coincide with FIAC (French equivalent of Frieze). On the 15th of August, Curtain Call is opening in Jerusalem. It’ll be outdoors, closed (and subject) to the elements, to the wind – which is very exciting.

Finally, if you had to choose, what is your favourite respective piece of work?
Haven’t made it yet.

Original article and photographs can be found at thepop.com

Tuesday mornings normally leave little to be desired, being as they are, so very, very far from Friday afternoons. I personally tend to spend them investigating flights out of England, a half written article peeking out from behind Opodo, making me feel worse than I already do. However, yesterday morning, I was lucky enough to be invited to the opening of Browns’ brand new Sloane Street outpost. Win. Take that Tuesday. Browns happens to be my favourite fashion retailer, with an ethos I truly support, so it was with great excitement (as opposed to the usual trepidation I reserve for trips south of Hyde Park) that I set off to check out their latest venture.

The new store was designed by Caroline Burstein, Creative Director of Browns, (and daughter of Browns’ originator, Mrs B) in close collaboration with Joel Bernstein, co-owner of the very fashionable tea room/chocolate shop, Cocomaya. Together, Caroline and Joel have created a beautiful, intimate space; one which swiftly reminded me why shopping in-store is an experience online retail simply can’t beat. The fitting rooms are some of the nicest I’ve ever been in – light and airy with pseudo windows filled with foliage in place of a back wall. The staff are attentive and knowledgable without being intrusive. The store itself, simple but warm and inviting, white walls softened by an intricate mural from artist Paul Antonio of the Robert Emerson quote, “The love of beauty is taste, the creation of beauty is art”. Too true.

Upstairs, well known brands such as Missoni, Proenza and Lanvin hang alongside more esoteric names such as Pier d’anarchive and Boucher Jarrar. Down the softly carpeted staircase (so good for heels, take note Colette) is a treasure trove of evening wear from Lanvin and Alaia as well as a vast array of beautiful shoes for every occasion. There are some wonderful accessories dotted throughout the store; Balenciaga bags, Natasha Collis jewellery, Linda Farrow sunglasses and Fraueunschuh (try and pronounce that!) hats, to name but a few.

Browns has always kinda been in a class of its own, and this latest store serves as evidence that as the reigns are passed down through generations of the Burstein family, nothing ever really changes. Just gets better really.

Original article and photographs can be found at thepop.com