The Fold by Alice Horner

Alice Horner Andrew Stott Evelyn Armstrong Lucie Farndon Jake Lewis Sarah Cleary twitter,com/TheFoldMagazine thefoldmagazine.tumblr.com instagram.com/TheFoldMagazine

22. A Conversation with Aaro Murphy 30. A Conversation with Matthew Zorpas 36. Against the Skin by Jake Lewis and Andrew Stott 54. The Thin Line by Evelyn Armstrong and Alice Horner 62. Rough Draft by Alice Horner and Andrew Stott 72. Spring Summer 15 by Jake Lewis and Andrew Stott 82. Made to Measure by Lucie Farndon, Evelyn Armstrong and Jake Lewis 92. Inside Out by Evelyn Armstrong, Alice Horner and Sarah Cleary 102w. Photosynthesis by Jake Lewis

Welcome to the first edition of The Fold; a magazine that celebrates the brilliant, insightful and often over-looked processes behind the fashion industry. We want to show our readers that more goes on behind the scenes than they know. How are these garments made? Who buys them? What does this say about the industry? These are the questions we want to pose. For our premiere issue, we have a variety of diverse content from areas all over the industry. We have a conversation with top male fashion blogger Matthew Zorpas, and discuss his life, career and what the impact of the digital sphere means for the future of fashion. We also speak to Aaro Murphy, a set designer and art director, about his work, aesthetic and plans for the future. Our fashion features also carry the theme of different processes, from Against the Skin, which looks at the fibres that we wear, to Rough Draft, which celebrates the technique and production of pre-garment toile mock-ups. As well as this, we speak to Savile Row tailors about the journey of an apprentice and then an insightful article about where the line is drawn between artistic and pornographic when it comes to nudity. We hope you enjoy the inaugural issue of The Fold.

In his second year of university, Aaro Murphy curated and installed his own exhibition in a gallery in Hong Kong. What was a pretty gutsy move, helped launch Murphy into the eyes of the fashion industry. We met at his studio to talk about his work, his process and where he finds his inspiration. Words ANDREW STOTT

Photographs JAKE LEWIS 22

Conversations

and the logistics of getting the materials. What’s your preferred way of researching? Going online, books, magazines…? A: Well generally, I just look to the world. I know its cliché and what everyone says but, especially when I was at university, I had the luxury of just wandering around and not having to pay my bills. Now obviously it’s a lot harder because I don’t have all that time to think. A lot of the time it’ll be that one thing I’m interested in, like scaffolding. So I’ll look at loads of scaffolding, its just looking at everything around you. I’m not really into fashion anymore; I’m just far more into what’s happening in the world around me. But I am interested in what’s doing on on the Internet. It’s a multitude of different things. So how did you get into set design?

So going back to university, you said you had lots of time to wander around. Now that you’re in the industry, has it forced you to change the way that you work?

It was like almost an accident actually. I’d always been interested in spatial things and communicating through 3D forms, but at university I was more focused on building like a big installation and working with different materials. One of my friends who is a photographer, was doing a couple of shoots and asked me to build a couple of sets for him, so I did and then I graduated and people saw them online and got into contact with me and it all went from there. I had always been interested in spatial design though.

Oh definitely. It’s a whole juggle between ‘I want to do something and I want to create things’ and having to make money. So you cant do as much which kind of compromises the creativity. At university you’ve got a whole week or more to do anything without a definite aim, whereas once you graduate, everything needs an aim because you have to make money, which can be disappointing. I’d love to just have time to look at loads of different materials and see what works and what doesn’t. At Uni, you can have those ideas like ‘Oh I want to film this’ or just scan it and print it really big. That’s the luxury you have. Now it’s about time. Your creativity does suffer a little, and it’s those random things that usually are the ones that become most beautiful or intriguing. I just haven’t had the time to explore things.

When you’re working with brands, do they approach you with a concept or is it the other way around? Yes, for any editorials or look-books, people always get in contact with me because they’ve seen something I’ve done which they like, so they come to me with references and ask me to design something. A lot of the time, they come with an idea, but it’s always quite vague. For instance, the last set I did was actually for Oki Ni, and they sent me a few images of editorials they liked and said how could we do this but differently, so it’s up to me to design it. Sometimes they come with quite specific ideas, which is the only thing that I can get frustrated about, because it doesn’t end up the exact way I want.

But then you have to come back to reality and get to work. Exactly, and someone will come up to me and say there’s a shoot happening, and you really want to do it and you forget that you need to work on your own stuff. It’s a completely different thing. It’s simply vital that you get to experiment as well as trying to get into the industry as well. Doing work while at Uni really can give you the best of both worlds.

So how would you define your style of set design? I would say it’s very experimental. I often use found materials or things that don’t really look luxurious, but end up looking quite interesting. I’m also quite geometric as well. If it was up to me, I’d only make really minimal, intriguing compositions. I don’t really see my sets being very realistic; I just want them to be interesting spaces. So when you’re approached with a concept, what’s your routine thought process? I get given an idea and a few images or the concept, and then I find out what I like about it, and then respond with my own references such as artists, designers, colours, just things that evoke what they want, as well as things that I think would be cool, we talk again and from there I design something. It’s all about visual references. It’s challenging because even if you have an idea, you may have a limited budget, so it’s hard to figure out what you can create. It’s about finding the balance,

Conversations

not stressed out, you’re not worried about creating something great. You are also a former trend predictor for WGSN. How did that come about? In my final year, I focused on trends and I created an installation for five different trends. Because of that, I got a job at WGSN and had been there for a year. Initially I was doing Accessories which I found really boring, but then I moved on to do two seasons on Macro trends, which was to examine the world to see what was happening and how that can end up defining design two years ahead. It was really interesting.

So did you intern while at university? Do you think it had a big impact on you? Well, I didn’t do an internship, I actually made an exhibition. I got in contact with a youth foundation in Hong Kong, and they sponsored me, so I created a big installation and it almost set the tone for what I would go on to make. I’ve been working for myself since then. I just depends on what you are; if you’re a stylist you should be working with another stylist or doing your own work, so internships can be quite good, but you need to be specific in what you want to do. For me, it was better to do my own thing.

What was the process behind that? It’s very multi-layered in that company; it’s a very different kind of strand. It’s started with what I was working on which was the Macro trends. We would start off by having these seminars with loads of research where people would present colours, art design, music and youth culture; everything that’s going on, the most underground, interesting things that are happening right now, and big topics that aren’t big yet. Then we would sift through all of that information and figure out what would end up becoming themes in the next two summers, what would be in the shops, what materials were going to be in. It starts with a lot of research and would end up becoming about specific things. I was working on a lot of Macro stuff and then moved onto materials, and then randomly began doing textiles. It’s seeing how lots of things end up influencing each other.

Gosh. It was quite a bold move as well. It could’ve really worked or it could of failed. Obviously it did work but… Yeah, in a way. I mean I was basically there for 3 months stressing out cause I wasn’t sure what I was doing, and I hadn’t really done it before, but I came across like I had, but it was difficult. If anyone asked me anything I would just crumble because I didn’t know what I was doing. But at the same time, no-one really knows what they’re doing if its exciting and new, not necessarily for everyone but for them at least.

You had a lot of research to do. Do you think that has helped your research process in what you do now?

So do you get like that now when you’re given a brief?

Massively. Just the image research alone would be thousands of images that I would have to find in a week. All of those images for them as a company end up being loads of money. They were free images of the Internet, but they would end up putting them into mood boards and defining things. So all of those images, I have them as well, and they help me design my stuff. I’ve got

Absolutely. It depends on the job as well. If I know it’s a job similar to something else, I know it’ll be easier as I’ll know what’ll be happening. If it’s the same photographer, I know how they work. On editorial stuff, I’m not so worried about it anymore; it’s new things that stress me out. I did a shoot a couple of weeks ago which was stressful as there was a lot of logistics involved and I was freaking out about if something didn’t arrive as meant the whole set won’t be finished, things like that. The design never stresses me out, it’s more about the logistics and time scales. Like there’s job in the next few weeks and I don’t know what I’m doing yet. It’s almost forced upon you. It goes back to Uni where things can grow organically rather than forced time scales. Yeah, no-ones really pushing you except yourself which can be stressful. Most of the time I find I’m the only one stressing, but that’s also a way you can get through stuff because if you’re

Conversations

so many images that I can use a reference to artists so I know what’s going to be good.

and sound as well. I could see myself designing sets for fashion shows or even theatre sets. I guess the dream is to not have a brief and just create beautiful places.

So what’s next for you? What do you see yourself moving on to? I’d like to continue studying and do an MA. I’ve been looking at one about interior architecture, which is building and examining experimental spaces. What I really want to do is to create spaces that people can actually be in and experience.

Yeah that’s how it works I guess. As you get bigger and bigger, people will trust you and let you do your thing. You just need to be disciplined. If you have a really defined brief, its almost tells you what you need. Like especially with fashion there’s so much copying and it’s all about trends, but with art, it would be a lot of pressure. Just trying to figure it out.

Like exhibitions? Yeah. If it was up to me, in the long run I’d like to be an artist who creates amazing spaces and people just love it. Obviously that’s up to loads of other people, but there are artists who create amazing spaces and I’d love to do the same thing, and use light

w . a a r o m u r p h y . c o m

Mathew Zorpas has been voted by GQ as one of the best dressed men in the world and thousands a week visit his blog The Gentleman Blogger for style and travel inspiration. We met him at the Ace Hotel to talk about the process of turning a lifestyle blog into a global digital brand.

A conversation with ALICE HORNER

Photographs by JAKE LEWIS

Conversations

Hi! I’m Matthew Zorpas, originally from Cyprus, I moved to

The blogging world is such a flooded market now – how do

London almost eight years ago. My background is in PR and

you maintain that unique style and keep it interesting whilst

communication with my undergrad MSc in Global Media and

still being a clean sheet for brands to work with?

Communication. I think moving here allowed me to develop a sense of style that

I think it’s all about keeping that balance and finding your

at that time was authentic and that happened organically

own voice, your thing; if you start a blog now and base it

through the process of me experiencing London. Two and

on your selfies taken in front of the mirror no one will be

a half years ago I started The Gentleman Blogger. It was an

interested, but if you tell me that, for instance, you’re going

idea that came from knowing the market and knowing it was

to wear stripes every day of your life that could be a great

becoming more digital, bloggers were becoming important

blog.

and why not use that online platform to create a brand for

Do you think the whole blogging process is a lasting one?

myself and my style? It wasn’t just creative, it was a business idea; usually bloggers begin organically by writing about their

Are bloggers here to stay or do you think it will morph into

lives but for me I just thought ‘Ok, I have this sense of style

something else?

and this business and marketing background, let’s put this together and make it something successful’

Everyday I wake up and say to myself ‘Oh my god, I’m not

And I think it was that combination that made it work;

relevant anymore! –my blog has died – it’s finished.’ But then

when a brand approached me I knew exactly how to pitch

everyday I’m surprised by how many new brands have woken

them back, I knew that process. So, I worked on the blog for

up to the importance of this sort of marketing and then

about two months by myself with basically no budget and

I reassure myself that this is here to stay. I would be more

thankfully as soon as I set it up and launched it and in the

worried for the printed publications and brands that operate

first week I already had great feedback from lots of brands

only in the physical world than the ones based online. There’s

and there were agencies wanting to represent me. I think I

been a monumental shift in recent years when it comes to

was a safe option for brands because the content of the blog

budgets; marketing budgets and PR budgets, they’re all

was so clean and sharp and original, it was easy for them

shifting in this direction, and even if blogs are just a platform

to become affiliated with thegentlemanblogger and they

and that platform evolves into something different, the idea

trusted me to create unique content. And two and a half

of having a digital brand will, I’m sure, remain important.

years later we’re still doing that!

Conversations

And lecturing too? On the crew’s day off – I was lecturing yes! Jesus. But yes, it was kind of all about connecting the online and offline.

It’s interesting that we spoke about the importance of physical branding becoming digital, and yet you’re moving in the opposite direction, too. Yes, in the same sort of way that Net-a-Porter and The Business of Fashion recently launched their own print publications, it can work the other way around too.

We’ve heard that you also do a bit of lecturing, tell us about that.

I guess there will always be that need that we have, that sentimentality within us that makes us want to hold onto and keep a bit of something before it disappears, into the ether of the internet for example.

Yes! A lot of lecturing. Well, it’s all connected. I think the education system here has recently realised the importance of having this digital expertise on hand; if you are turning students out into the job market, most of the small amount of jobs available are in the digital and social media categories, and so I can use my own first hand knowledge and!

Exactly. But it’s easier if you start with a strong presence online and then you can just negotiate that traffic and transfer it elsewhere.

experience; my blog as my own personal case study to teach students how to get these jobs. At instituto marangoni I teach on the MA Luxury Brand Management course and it’s really interesting.

It’s best to be the master of both then I suppose. Yes. Well, I don’t think [the book] will be something I go repeating any time soon –far too much work! – but I think it was a great success.

It almost sounds therapeutic! Passing your knowledge on in that way.

Are you a fan of blogs yourself? Are there any that you visit regularly?

Yes! Or the other way around. It’s a lot of work

I’m actually not a huge fan of any particular blogs, I think in my line of work it’s important to stay relevant and engaged but I don’t have time to scroll through a lot of sites. I tend to visit The Business of Fashion for quick updates and headlines; that’s really my trusted guide for finding out everything that’s going on in the industry. In terms of inspiration it’s all the travelling I do that helps keep me motivated creatively. I would rather be going out there and seeing things rather than being wrapped up in the digital copy and paste environment, it’s too easy.

Of course! And stressful. Is there lots of lesson planning to do or can you be quite spontaneous? No, it all has to be structured. I wish it could be spontaneous but there are regulations and everything has to be approved. It’s frustrating because the subject is one that is changing so quickly and moving so fast, and trying to translate that onto paper and then teaching it eight months later, that subject often isn’t relevant anymore. So that delay within the process makes it difficult.

Well, talking of difficult processes didn’t you recently publish a book? Yes! The book came about when I realised the viewers of my blog really wanted something printed, something to hold and keep. So I selected 100 of my favourite locations around London; restaurants, bars, hotels etc, and did 100 different shoots wearing 100 different outfits.

Wow 100. That is a lot of outfits Well, it took 1 month of prep, 1 month of shooting and then 1 month putting it all together. The idea was to keep it consistent with the blog, so clean, simple and stylish suits and photography. Some days we did 7 or 8 locations with corresponding outfits. It was a long day.

Conversations

So, what’s next?

What advice do you give to your students about making it in this competitive industry, in such an unsupportive city?

I’m travelling non-stop now until February and collaborating with Hugo Boss shortly after that, and Gucci at some point. I’m working with some Brazilian brands too when I go out there. Next year I’ll try to expand the business, probably launching an offline brand, I think it’s time.

I tell them you are better off locking yourself in a room and don’t come out until you have a great idea. Invent an app, start a blog, collaborate with your friends on a project, go freelance, you just need that one golden idea, that thing that makes you unique and then just do it. That’s a lot more likely to get you success than slaving away at internships for years and getting nowhere. If you apply for a job with a boring paper CV attached you won’t get noticed; go out there and do things and start creating and have an online presence and that is far more powerful.

A fashion line? Probably accessories. I’ll try and maintain the aesthetic of the blog but I want the accessories to stand alone, I’ll need to transfer the traffic but keep them separate. It’s a balance.

w w w . t h e g e n t l e m a n b l o g g e r. c o m

Well, that traffic on the blog must have the same sense of style and taste as you so I’m sure it’ll be easy to do. And lot’s of free advertising on thegentlemanblogger! Exactly! Product placement too! But yeah, and I think it’s a path that a lot of successful bloggers eventually go down, because you’ve built this brand with a strong following and you can transfer that audience and invest in something you’re passionate about.

Blogs are like a springboard, a jumping off point. Yes, look at Christina Bazan, she’s recording an album now, and Chiara Ferragni is designing shoes in a deal worth millions, all because they had successful blogs.

Photographs JAKE LEWIS Styling ANDREW STOTT

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Words EVELYN ARMSTRONG Images ALICE HORNER

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Morris Ernst and William Seagle (To the Pure. A study of obscenity and the censor, 1929) describe porn as being “any matter or thing exhibiting or visually representing persons or animals performing sexual acts whether normal or abnormal”, which I suppose is a fair description but is not without flaws. This explanation of pornography can be attributed to famous pieces of art also, however. I mean, for gods’ sakes, François Boucher’s Leda and the Swan depicts Leda lying on a bed; well-shaved vagina on show ready to be (according to Greek Mythology) fucked by Zeus in swan form. That’s rather an abnormal sexual act, so much so that the painting was shown in the background of an episode of NBC’s Hannibal but had to be censored out due to the nature of the image, despite the fact that not even with a Blu-ray disc and a high definition screen would you be able to see the outline of Leda’s vagina, so when classical artwork is also being censored the lines between art and pornography becomes that much more blurred and it really is starting to baffle me how one pair of tits are frowned upon in society and the other is applauded. Well, okay, so most other pieces of classical artwork don’t feature Bestiality, and although you often see nipples in museums, it’s rare to see genitalia. Perhaps the distinction between art and pornography is the vagina lips overtly being on show? You can’t escape the labia when

Art is sanctioned pornography”, or so is said by Stewart Hall, author of The Neoist Manifestos. What does that mean, and what the hell even is the difference between ‘art’ and pornography? When does nudity become artistic or pornographic? Does there even need to be a difference? It’s a debate that often isn’t thought about in the average person, but a subject that constantly goes through the mind subconsciously when, say, attending a museum. The statue of David is art, so it’s not perverted in any way to be staring at this naked man. Recently Kim Kardasian posed nude in a magazine (you know the one I’m on about) and just think about the uproar on the Internet, the horrific comments on articles. How degrading, how terrible and objectifying, and this was a woman who shot to fame following a sex tape so… She’s basically a really rich and successful pornstar, right? I don’t see people saying the same about The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, admittedly Venus is a fictional (or mythological) being, but is the goddess of sex and fertility, she was the biggest nymphomaniac in the Roman mythology world! Nonetheless the amount of flesh shown in Kardasians full frontal shoot and The Birth of Venus is idem. The big differences between the two are simply medium and age; it almost makes the subject irrelevant.

Michelangelo’s ‘David’, 1504

Rembrandt paints a coy ‘Susanna and the Elders’, 1654

Sandro Botticelli paints ‘The Birth of Venus’ circa 1486

A much less coy Leda in ‘Leda and the Swan’ by Francois Boucher, 1749 55

WITH THE INVENTION OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE 1800’S CAME THE INVENTION OF PORNOGRAPHY

JOHN LENnON appears naked on the front of rolling stone in 1980

browsing online porn, but it’s very much missing from the likes of the Louvre, the Uffizi gallery and the V&A. Perhaps that’s because these art institutions specialise in the older, classical artwork. Perhaps also, it’s the shaved vagina that plunges the image into pornographic and moral ambiguity; nowadays the natural bush commandeers a small portion of online porn, seen as its own odd fetish. Public hair has become such a thing of a sexual anomaly that it has almost become a way of turning what could have been classified as porn into art. Renowned fashion photographer Terry Richardson, who is admittedly known for controversy in his work, shot a spread for The Journal in 2010 featuring a model with fully unkempt pubic hair, you can see her labia clearly yet it is clearly presented and described as artistic nudity. If it weren’t for her pubic hair the image could have seen as pornographic, the hair aged her, otherwise Richardson could have easily been accused of replicating child pornography by shooting a model so youthful. But here’s the confusing thing, fragility and youth is constantly depicted as the ultimate goal for beauty, renaissance paintings depict pale girllike women with rosy cheeks and smooth groins, when shown, such as with the Birth of Venus. So now there’s a thin line between art, pornography and what can be seen as indecent images of children where, once again, photographic images are depicted as explicit, paintings and sculptures are classical art.

Instead of reading what I have to say, I am of course no expert; perhaps it’s time to go to the courts, debates over pornography and art have been going on in situations where the artist in question has to argue what their work may be classed as. In 1971, Marvin Miller (an owner of a pornographic speciality mail-order business) sent out brochures depicting sexual acts, when the owners of a restaurant received aforementioned brochures, they called the police and, though Miller lost the case, a court ruling had to redefine the classification of obscenity to something that lacks ‘serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.’ The problem with this new definition is, like all definitions before it, completely and ridiculously subjective. I see no literary, artistic, political or scientific value to Kasimir Malevich’s Black Square, in fact it irritates me, but that does not mean I wish for it to be only viewed for 18+ with a ‘NSFW’ warning button online. Value is in the eye of the beholder, surely? Of course pornography could be viewed simply as a piece of work, whether photographic, painting or literary that’s intention is to cause sexual arousal or release, that seems to be the most commonly thought definition. Yet we go full circle, back into context controlling whether it’s art of pornography and debating whether Ellen Von Unwerth

and Terry Richardson’s work is just pushing boundaries or… soft-core imagery. Whether the image is printed in a magazine or on a website with ‘XXX’ in the description, anyone can have sexual release to anything. I do not doubt for a single second that someone has jacked off to the Venus of Urbino or even the portrait of Nell Gwyn, despite the original intention of the artist, if someone masturbates to the image does it suddenly change everything about the image itself? Of course not! Otherwise even the most innocent of things could be turned into lewd indecent objects, have you seen what’s happened to My Little Pony on the Internet? Yet, just because people create and find sexual gratification from My Little Pony does not turn it from an innocent children’s franchise into a thing of obscenity, the person masturbating to cartoon horses does. Just as the artist who draws My Little Pony

in a sexual manner is creating porn or… Equine erotica, I guess, the artist and creator of the television programme and toys create the ponies in a very different manner. Even dictionary definitions can be argued, the Merriam Webster defines pornography as “movies, pictures, magazines, etc., that show or describe naked people or sex in a very open and direct way in order to cause sexual excitement” and art as “something that is created with imagination and skill and that is beautiful or that expresses important ideas or feelings” Here we are, back again, to that pesky subjective intentions bit again. As I’ve already pointed out, Leda and the Swan is pretty open sexually, anyone can find anything sexually exciting (have you seen the kinds of weird things teenage boys find sexy? It’s worrying) and as for the art definition, expressing important ideas or feelings is, again, extremely individual. I don’t see the Black Square as being important for either of those things, yet it still is classed in society as art. By now, it all starts to seem age orientated, Victorian erotica is hardly seen as offensive as it once was during its conception, and depictions of Greek vases of massive orgies don’t require a minimum age to view in a museum all because it’s a view into the past and is therefore looked upon with nostalgia. Recently in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville, a photograph by Angela Strassheim was removed amidst public outcry; the image in question was of a nude pregnant woman reclining on a sofa. It was deemed pornography despite not fulfilling any of the definitions I have already explored, and now we come across an entirely new description of porn as given by councilman Don Redman who claims that “I think that a nude body to a young child is pornography”, which, again, now should deem artwork from the past 3000 years as pornographic. However, if this image were a painting from over a hundred years ago I feel that the artistic legitimacy would not be called into question.

I feel that the more look into the whole art vs. pornography debate, the less clear it all becomes, with a slew of explanations that rely only on opinion and often becoming intertwined and easily debated I honestly feel that the only thing that really separates porn from art is the general thoughts by society on what it is. I’m not saying that the Tate Modern should show screenshots of women fisting each other with the artist credited as Brazzers or anything like that, but I am wondering when people might stop being so pretentious about ‘art’ and judgemental of ‘porn’. Perhaps I should just go masturbate to the Mona Lisa and study Pornhub in great depth and detail, because I’m just very confused about it all now.

Styling ANDREW STOTT

Photographs ALICE HORNER

Previous page Crop-top Roksanda Ilincic Skirt Marni

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Photography by JAKE LEWIS Direction by ANDREW STOTT and JAKE LEWIS

Four looks from four collections interpretted by a photographer and stylist considering aesthetics, inspiration and personal opinion.

Comme des Garcons Look 12

Margaret Howell Look 5

Jeremy Scott Look 15

Erdem Look 6

Meet Davide and his apprentice Rikki who reside below the luxurious front of No. 1 Savile Row, we spoke to the men behind one of the worlds most exclusive bespoke tailors, Gieves and Hawkes. Words by LUCIE FARNDON Photography by JAKE LEWIS Revised by EVELYN ARMSTRONG

Conversations

Hello, Davide and Rikki! Rikki, here you are, an apprentice for one of the worlds oldest bespoke tailoring companies. Did you always see yourself ending up down this path, or did you have other careers in mind growing up?

course I did, where I was at, focused mainly on textile design and art as opposed to fashion, so I kind of fell out of love for that reason. I wasn’t allowed to be creative the way I wanted to be. Making a cushion cover but screen print it rather than exploring patterns, shapes and style

I actually originally wanted to be an actor; I even went to university and studied Drama and Film studies

Ah, so it wasn’t enough for you at the time then?

Oh wow, which university? What happened with that?

Yeah, I pursued Drama, but because of my background, I always kept the textiles going on back at home. I always used to make my own garments, fancy dress outfits and such. It was really an itch that I wanted to scratch, so I went to see a life coach once I left university. I really didn’t know what I wanted to do. She made me write down things that could be an option for me. It was acting or tailoring, and tailoring won.

I attended the University of the West of England, in Bristol, undertook my degree and completed it. Once I graduated, I don’t know, I just didn’t follow it up. Sometimes you have to make a decision, about what it is you really want and if you’re passionate enough to do something about it. i would say I wasn’t passionate enough about it to pursue a career in acting.

They are very different though!

I do suppose it is one of the more difficult careers to make a living from, with the acting do you feel that it’s still somewhat of a passion?

I think its all about having self confidence, you’ve got to be able to talk to people from all walks of life. People we deal with in here the majority are well off, they live a completely different life to the average person, so be able to have the confidence in myself to talk to them is quite important so I would definitely say drama helps.

I like being centre of attention, but I can live with that Fair enough! So how did you come interesting in tailoring? It’s a funny one I studied textiles at secondary school. I’ve been interested in making things since then. The reason I did it, actually, is there was a girl I really liked in the class, so I went in there and actually found it was pretty cool- and better than food tech! So I did that at GCSE, then at A level. The A level

So when did you really studying bespoke tailoring then? Two years ago I started a course at Newham College to do a bespoke tailoring course, so at the time I was working on a building site and was speaking to the coach trying to figure out

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exactly what it was that I wanted to achieve. I’m from a small fishing village in Cornwall where tailoring doesn’t exist. I just went online found the only course, applied, and then left a month after. The rest is history!

or business women and men who need to build up a wardrobe. Its huge variety of people. A lot of designers too, their clothes will go out of fashion but with Saville Row they know that what we offer is timeless and something that will last forever. It takes hundreds of hours to make a suit. So there’s a huge respect into the process that went into making it, the culture, his lifestyle, body shape; all the things that go into making a hand made suit for somebody. Not just picking the cloth, that’s just the very surface of it. And so my professional level comes from cutting 300/400 suits per year, 200 odd people, and I’ve been doing that for 15 years. As the customer you’re going through the fitting process, their style, personality, and lifestyle. You know they have taken the time to come here, so we have to do everything we can to offer them the highest standards and service.

Oh wow, that’s bold! Yes, it was frightening! So where was your first tailoring job, then? This was it! Actually before that I left the course and was doing a placement with a guy who has a studio on Brick Lane, I actually learnt a lot from him. I think its important for the people who come in here looking for jobs, because quite a lot do, and although Saville Row is seen as the hub of world tailoring it doesn’t take much to get your foot in the door. So I worked with him, which really helped me progress. Though, likewise for me, Davide started working for a military tailors.

Of course, I suppose it’s something you really have to be passionate about It is a strange lifestyle that we lead; ultimately Saville row has had a lot of publicity in the last few years. Almost the bubble that people want us to be. People expect it to be like everyone who comes to us in a moustache and a tweed suit. You know all those clichés. It is not like that at all. Being a tailor... being interested in clothes has got to be one of the least important things, because wanting to be a good tailor is about wanting to be very good at a skill. You can’t get bored of making a great suit because that great suit is the ultimate in someone’s wardrobe. For any man or woman of any culture or background. There are people who are in the industry making lots of money and living up to the quick and fast world of the industry. Then you have got the very thin line of people with the passion and

Davide, how was that then? The military that wasn’t my intention, my intention was just to get a job in tailoring. There’s so many different ways of making clothes. I picked tailoring because I wanted to make something by hand. Saville Row has a real diversity of people who shop here. It isn’t just the wealthiest people, nor just people who are obsessed with clothes or all those stereotypes you might think. You get people who are 90 years old, young kids who are in love with the idea of having something handmade for them

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talent that are almost being used. You know this is almost what the industry has become, what is destroying it. I’m sure you get loyal customers coming back repeatedly, not because need another suit but because they acknowledge the time and passion that went into making their suit.

So, Rikki, what does your job mean to you? What does it entail? I suppose being a tailor; it’s not a nine to five. We give tours to fashion students and you have to tell them we arrive eight in the morning, sometimes don’t leave until eight at night, coming in Saturdays. You have got to be so committed whilst enjoying it. David stays here until nine or ten at night; he doesn’t get paid for it. He just bloody loves tailoring. Mates have asked why I don’t ask for more money. To be honest with you everyone who works here has been an apprentice. I’m not special in any way I’m a notch in a very long line of tailors and I’m very thankful to be here. So it’s not about money it is about love.

The whole business is based on key customers. We wouldn’t be a successful business if we didn’t have that loyalty. For our business to work you have to build a relationship because if I was designing a suit for you for the first time you might feel uncomfortable, but the more we get to know each other, the more you’re going to relax. I get to know your personality and we can reflect that in the suit. It’s really all about building those relationships with people. I suppose when people go shopping, it’s to feel good and to have that human interaction with someone is what’s so important to people. Nowadays that might seem rare.

It’s more about what you feel passionate about rather than just a 9-5. I suppose that is what’s important at the end of the day isn’t it?

Yeah, I mean we have people who come on the tours, who ask “do the computers cut the cloth for you, what do the computers do?” We send emails to the customer. That’s it. Everything else is by hand.

My uncle is a carpenter, they are the same trades, you get out what you put in. At the end of the day you are learning a skill and it takes a lot of time but to be able to say you arepart of a small percentage of people that know how to do that skill very well. That’s a reward in itself.

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With such little use of modern technology, would you agree that Gieves and Hawkes is, in a way, timeless? What is Gieves and Hawkes’s ethos? Gieves and Hawkes is a global business now, but I would say our ethos has always been that style comes from comfort. If you feel good in something, you’re going to look good. Nothing too tight, just because that’s what they’re doing on the catwalk. You’re going to ooze elegance if you feel good, people can always tell if you don’t feel comfortable in what your wearing. Exactly. So what are your goals for the future? You know, I would like to go on stage again. I think, as well, regards to goals here; I’ll finish my apprenticeship, train myself to the highest standards where I feel confident as a tailor. To get to that level could take me another 6 years or so but one thing I realize is a career like this has so much longevity. There are tailors who are 70 years old and I’m still a baby. I suppose with most industries there are no shortcuts; you have to keep chipping away. That is all part of it. Definitely, I feel so fortunate to be where I am, I’m only 27 and I know that to be a successful tailor it takes years of true dedication. Exactly, thank you Davide and Rikki, I wish you all the best.

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Photography EVELYN ARMSTRONG & ALICE HORNER Styling SARAH CLEARY

Inside out

Brown mohair jacket Ann Demeulemeester £1,019

Next page Double-breasted trench coat Zara £89

Chequered cashmere long scarf Aquascutum ÂŁ95

Inside out

Reversible harrington jacket Aquascutum ÂŁ325

Trench coat Burberry ÂŁ1,195

Words and Photographs by Jake Lewis

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he last time I visited somewhere of horticultural significance, or somewhere significantly horticultural, was the local church plant fayre when I was eight years old. My tastes, views and opinions have changed a lot

since then thankfully, and so my trip to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew excited me for a number of reasons. It’s nice to have a break from the routine; my commitments (and finances) don’t let me do things, or explore the places I want to; so when something does enable me to escape I welcome it with open arms, and my camera. It’s 0800 and the coffee is filtering. A look out the window at the real-time weather forecast and it shows nothing but blue skies. Bag packed, travelling light, 5D Mark III with 35mm, 85mm and

It’s not hard to see why people in the fashion industry come to

135mm lenses, ready for any eventuality.

places like this for inspiration. As a photographer I gained so

I took the morning to think about how I was going to approach

much from this trip, mostly because of the change of scenery,

my visit to the gardens, what I would shoot, how I would

but I can see how other people are directly influenced by areas

shoot it. The latter was a hard question to answer considering

like this. Erdem, for example, used images from Kew Gardens in

I’d never actually gone out with the sole purpose of shooting

mood boards for their Spring/Summer 15 collection, which can

plants. This being said, I would approach it in the same way I

be clearly seen when visiting the Palm House.

would a portrait; essentially, I will be getting portraits; just not

The Palm House is a large greenhouse filled with tropical plants

of the human kind.

and high humidity (when I say high, I had to wait thirty minutes

I arrive, Lion Gate my point of entry, which is located on the

for my camera to acclimatise because it was just a soaking,

most south-westerly point of the park. This invited me to make

useless, condensed doorstop). Whilst waiting I used this time

my way across the park without missing a thing. Clear skies

to walk around the space and I quickly drew references to the

meant there was a bitter chill in the air that visually manifested

collection. The large tapered leaves from cocoa to banana

as a thick covering of frost. The winter sun trajectory meant

plants, the fantastic colours created by the sun beaming

that it was low in the sky, shining through the trees creating

through the hundreds of panes of glass and the fact that some

beautiful dynamic shadows. One thing I found is that you don’t

of the leaves were actually translucent; creating even more

realise you’re so close to London when in a place like this; less so

colour. I always find it intriguing as to where artists/designers

that you are actually in London; until the jumbo jets heading for

get their inspiration from for their projects and the process that

Heathrow rumble above your head. I could tune this out though;

goes on to generate those initial and final ideas, sometimes it

the deeper into the park I wandered the more peaceful I felt. I

can be completely random and conceptual but other times it is

could distance myself from the industrial noises and focus on

very specific.

those of a more organic nature.

Another thing struck me as I wandered around the park, seeing the last of the autumn fall. It’s not just fashion that revolves around seasons but horticulture as well. Winter, spring, summer, autumn, each brings with it different colours, arrangements and emotions (and so does horticulture). You get a strong vibrant palette from spring and summer as flowers bloom and trees blossom then, as autumn comes around, that palette changes to deep reds and burnt oranges eventually met, occasionally, with a crisp white layer of snow. Could you call this trending? I’m sure the Chelsea Flower Show is heavily trend led. You then have to look at the evergreens - the shrubs and the bamboo. These are forever sporting their rich colours, almost like black never really ‘goes out’. I’m becoming more and more aware that plants and fashion are not as distant as we may think.

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I saw a plaque outside the Palm House stating who designed and created this magnificent building (Decimus Burton and Richard Turner) and it led me to think about the art of process - it starts way before anyone realises. The architects who designed this building had their own process which was then passed to the contractors. They then passed it onto Kew, who then handed it to their Botanists. I spoke briefly to one of the groundskeepers who was giving the plants their bi-daily drink. He told me that everything is calculated and systematic; from when and how much the plants are fed to the temperature of the room, it needs to replicate their natural habitats as well as possible as a quarter of the plants that are grown here are actually endangered. Like with many fields of work, I imagine you have to be very passionate about the subject and as I walked past the Kew School of Horticulture I understood how this passion starts very early. Photography is a passion of mine but I am becoming more and more in need of days like this where I can refresh and hit the reset button. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think it is because I am getting bored with what I do, I am just at a stage now where the passion is becoming a job, and sometimes, I just need to go back to basics.

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