Style Bubble

Atmospherics in the Head

I'm not one to base a post on celebrity endorsements.  I actually don't think I've ever really posted a picture on the blog that does the whole "Isn't this brand great because xxx wore it..." thing.  Björk however is one particular exception.  Especially when she picks out a Royal College of Art graduate, two weeks after the college show and wear her pieces on the Biophilia tour (something she's familiar with as she chose to wear Soren Bach's headpieces when he presented his final year collection at the RCA).  Let's put aside cynical attitudes about the relationship between a performer, his/her stylist and the hordes of young designers wanting to dress said performer - it IS an achievement to emerge from college and have such an instant surge of publicity and therefore I thought I'd single out Maiko Takeda's collection as one of the key graduates this year.  Takeda's ethereal collection of headpieces, visors and body armour entitled "Atmospheric Reentry" was one of the visual wows of this year's Royal College of Art fashion show, making broadsheet picture round-ups for its sheer aesthetic power.  Not to take away anything from the other graduates, who I'll be rounding up later in a separate post, but Takeda's position as the one womenswear graduate who specialised in millinery meant that she was able to leave a memorable calling card in everyone's minds.  

Bjork performing at Hollywood Bowl wearing Maiko Takeda

Bjork performing at Bonnaroo Festival

I remember Takeda's work from her BA jewellery collection at Central Saint Martins, based on the idea of shadows as jewellery.  Takeda took that idea of turning the intangible into a physical of adorning oneself again when she embarked on her MA at the Royal College of Art.  From the very beginning, she was fixated with creating a swirl of cloud or smoke around the head, inspired by Phillip Glass' opera Einstein on the Beach, but found it difficult to find the right materials to do so.  After trials of using different plastics and mounting them on to knitted bases and fabrics, she settled on turning humble acetate sheets into light reflecting shards.  She'd load up her inkjet printer at home with acetate sheets overnight to print out gradiated ombre coloured sheets and then cut them up in to the required shapes, playing with proportions and colours.  The result is a precisely fine-tuned collection of visible auras, which waft around the head in spherical form, as a visor, or around the upper body in in a mind-bending cloud or a balaclava/shrug hybrid where a knitwear base collaboration with Nicola Jones, allows Takeda's work to crossover into garments.  Metal supports, plastic hair grips, and the actual ring construction of holding all the shards together are almost cleverly invisible because Takeda invades your senses with a sort of magical Northern Lights-esque colour movement and light reflecting shape shifting as the delicate acetate pieces bounce up and down on the head or on the body.  It's no wonder Takeda got Björk's patronage.  Takeda whilst keen on setting up her own thing, isn't necessarily setttled on millinery as her discipline as she seems to have an affinity with unusual materials in general, which could see her go in several different directions.  For now though, her head-bound atmospherics should be marvelled at.  If you're lucky enough to be going to a Björk gig over the next few months, it's likely you'll be able to do so in person there.

Nestling Into House of Hackney

Whilst there's still ongoing speculation as to which luxury brand (Prada?  Louis Vuitton?  Ralph Lauren?  Who spins these rumours anyway...?) is moving into Shoreditch next, completing the area's thorough de-edgification process, why don't we turn our attention to the people that can stake a characterful claim to the area?  Fashion-led-interiors slash interiors-led-fashion brand House of Hackney, recently opened its first proper flagship store on Shoreditch House High Street, right on the border of the borough of Hackney so that it just about stays true to its namesake.  Frieda Gormley and Javvy M Royle's "House" apparently just grew quicker than they had imagined when they first started two years ago, when I first wrote about it.  They've really come full circle with the brand, producing a fully fledged clothing range, to match up beautifully with their eyecatching "Colefax & Fowler on Acid" interiors collections.  After a year of securing this prime Shoreditch High Street spot, gutting it out and working with the brilliant MRA Architects on the design of the space, the fruits of their labour is finally open and it's really quite stunning.  It might be down to the amount of space they have (2000sq feet in ground floor and basement), the carved-in-stone signage and of course MRA's interior design but everything about this store feels elevated and, dare I say a cut above the sometimes rough and hipster tumble of the area.  Just like their irreverent and unabashedly pop-edged grandiose prints, House of Hackney's store rebels against the general preference for whitewashed woody-hued minimalism.  Set designer Andy Hillman, a collaborator of Tim Walker, has created a window, which immediately immerses us in House of Hackney's Palmeral print.    

If that's not a heady enough introduction, then we're immediately drawn to the glorious flowers of Wild at Heart's florist residency in the Garden Room.  When I'm feeling particularly flash, Wild at Heart at Liberty has never really let me know bouquet wise.  Their collaboration with  House of Hackney was quite natural.  Literally.  The flora and foliage of Wild at Heart has inspired a new House of Hackney Dutch still life-esque print and likewise, Wild at Heart have created bouquets to match up with signature HoH prints.  

When we venture further inside, the full range of House of Hackney's wares mingle with each other.  Crockery, cushions, fabrics, wallpapers are up for touching and looking at wistfully whilst you daydream about Imaginary Beautiful House.  I've had Imaginary Beautiful House in my head for the last excruciating six months as I'm nearing the end of the mind-numbingly boring process of buying our first home.  House of Hackney's wares will come in handy then.  Their range of prints now has something for everyone - Dalston Rose for the updated chintz-lovers, Hackney Empire and Flights of Fancy for those that don't shirk from decadence and Palmeral and the Inferno prints who can handle plant-based designs.  Dare to mix them if you're up for the interior challenge.

The clothing range of House of Hackney made sense in so much that Frieda and Javvy both came from fashion backgrounds and when in situ with the matching interiors, the story feels utterly complete.  They've kept shapes simple - shirt and shift dresses, silk tees and bombers, tees and blouses - pretty and interesting all by themselves but espcially exposive when married up with the furniture and soft furnishings as their lookbook attests.  It's a part of House of Hackney's business that is now equal to the interiors and growing healthily, especially in Japan.  They've got menswear sweatshirts and t-shirts on their way to answer demand and they're bringing out a creeper collaboration with Undeground shoes.  There's no question that I'm OBVS gonna get them.  Which ones though...?  Edging towards the striped Hackney Empire design I think...

Downstairs is where House of Hackney really means business.  Their full furniture showroom is laid out by print so that you can sink into their sofas, armchairs, eiderdown and pillowed bed and truly be submerged in all things House of Hackney.  I had a real good sit down on the Martello arm chair which is on my dream-la-la wishlist of interiors for the new casa in Clapton.  I should have tried on some of the Inferno printed clothing to match up.  In the furniture showroom, they also introduce a deeply rich new print called Mey Mey, inspired by a carpet in Liberty's Oriental department, which will also feature in their new A/W 13-4 clothing collection.

If Shoreditch isn't a bus/tube ride away, everything is still available through their website although they're getting a new redesign within the next few weeks.  The clothing is now widely stocked, with ASOS, Urban Outfitters, Opening Ceremony and Liberty being prime supporters.  I'm kind of amazed that from their at-home showroom two years ago, they've grown so rapidly to become this thoroughly well-thought out and beautifully conceived soon-to-be retail destination in Shoreditch, where fashion and furnishings come together so seamlessly.  Blending into the background never looked so enticing.    

Neo-biquitous

Continuing on from my "All hail the mighty words and works of Ghesquière!" trail of thought, there was another excerpt from that 032c concerning the fabrics developed at Balenciaga, which made me think about the ubiquity of what was once an unlikely material, maligned to outdoor pursuits gear and now can be found everywhere on from the high end to the high street .  Why it's my good friend neoprene!  I have a real enduring love for the stuff and whilst Balenciaga may not have done it first (seriously where did that Tumblr disappear to?), you can definitely track the roots of neoprene's popularity to Ghesquière's experimentations with bonded fabrics with foam...

"We made certain luxury materials like silk "technical" by applying foam, or doubling the face, or through laminations.  A few seasons later of course, others were showing foam-backed materials while it took us entire seasons to get it right, using foams that blistered or didn't combine well with certain textiles  It was research that started early.  By the time of the 'Scuba' collection S/S 06 - diving suits as dresses - we were already gluing fabric to jersey - using off-the-shelf neoprene would have beentoo basic.  This approach has become totally accessible and reproducible now." 

Neoprene doesn't seem to want to go away just yet and with the summer around the corner, its splashing around in the sea, sun n' surf friendly and general squishy/volume-creating properties still feel right on the money to me.  Weirdly a trio of neoprene-related labels/designers have popped up all at once, which handily adheres to the "Three's a Trend" theory.  

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The primary use of neoprene for garments is for water sports wetsuits and so it is that I'm tempted once again (remember my momentary love affair the Roxy x Cynthia Rowley wetsuit which played out on the sad beach of Westgate?) by a uniform that is clearly not meant for the likes of me.  Neon Wetsuits does exactly what it says on the tin, creating fun gear for serious surfers.  They've just launched their jaunty website which allows you to go wild with your own colour combinations on various styles of swimsuits, tops, shorts and all-in-one wetsuits.  From her studio in Newquayin Cornwall, founder of Neon Wetsuits, Elsie Pinninger makes to order all the wetsuits, something which is important to her.  I'm not going to saunter on to the site pretending that I'm likely to take up surfing when that is not going to be the case.  It is tempting however to play around the with the colours on a longsleeved cropped top and imagine it in a context beyond the choppy Cornish waves.  I'll leave it up to you to decide whether Neon Wetsuits should be left as a surfer purist's playground or not.     

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Here's something most people can get onboard with.  Witu is a fun Melbourne-based accessories label which focuses primarily on neoprene.  Again there's a sense of functionality which is ingrained in everything Witu does and so it is that their totes, clutches, belts, camera straps and pared-down necklaces find themselves in all manners of situs without looking remotely out of place.  I particularly love their drawstring rucksacks which remind me of an upgraded version of the FCUK, Miss Selfridge, Karen Millen logo-ed up drawstring rucksacks of teenage yesteryear.  All the cool girls carried their PE kit around in them.  These Witu neoprene ones certainly look a whole lot sturdier than the flimsy cheap-o nylon rucksacks of my secondary school heyday.  Witu's e-shop is at your disposal with fair prices to boot.  

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I've yet to do my Graduate Fashion Week round-up of fashion design collections but it's likely that many will slip through the coverage net either because they weren't selected for the individual college shows or the final gala show.  Thank god people are proactive enough to drop me an email.  Rebecca Robertson, who graduated from Bath Spa University (Louise Pickles, the course leader of Bath Spa's fashion course is doing a marvellous job with her students there)  in Textile Design for Fashion and Interiors, created a final year collection of fantastic embroidered neoprene sweatshirts.  Rebecca's speciality is embroidery design and with these sweatshirts, she was inspired by the distortion of light and used a wide range of digital, hand and machine embroidery to achieve the mesmerisingly tactile detailing.  I love the way that neoprene isn't the central feature here as it often is in garments which rely on its textural properties to create volume and shape.  Instead, they're merely ballooning sweatshirt vehicles to carry the intricate and highly skilled embroidery.  Hopefully Rebecca gets to take her dazzling skills to an embroidery house such as Jenny King (where she interned) or in-house at a label.