b Magazine - Spring/Summer 2010 - Issue No 2

M AG A Z I N E

ISSUE 2 UK £5 BSTOREMAGAZINE.COM

Spring/summer 2010

YO U N G , F R E S H AND NEW

DOVER STREET MARKET

BROWNS

OKI-NI

hbyharris.com

HARVEY NICHOLS

DARKROOM

CONTENTS — 6 O F F R U N W AY A behind-the-scenes look at London Fashion Week’s men’s shows

Words BEN PERDUE Photography RETTS WOOD

28 BABY B Four designers dress up Casio’s Baby G Words DAL CHODHA

32 CHRISTOPHE LEMAIRE An interview with the designer

Words DAL CHODHA Photography NICHOLAI FISCHER Fashion editor SAM RANGER

50 WA R D R O B E S T O R I E S Four creatives discuss their most cherished sartorial possessions Words DAL CHODHA Photography NIK HARTLEY

60 (SHE’S IN A) BAD MOOD Photography STEFAN SZCHERNITZ Fashion editor SAM RANGER

75 W H I T E L I G H T W H I T E H E AT Photography WILLEM JASPERT Fashion editor JASON HUGHES

88 W E ’ R E H AV I N G M U C H M O R E F U N Photography LAURENCE ELLIS Fashion editor JASON HUGHES

102 GETTING DOWN TO BUSINE SS Gordon Richardson, TOPMAN’s design director and b Store’s Matthew Murphy in conversation Words DAL CHODHA Portraits NEIL GAVIN

112 T H E B E S S AY Yes New York: Music and visual culture from no wave to the Velvet Underground

Words SIMON POMERY Illustrations CLAIRE CLIFTON

116 IN THE STUDIO Workspaces revealed

Words MICHAEL NOTTINGHAM Photography KASIA BOBULA

132 SHOP What we’re wearing this season [Cover] Nicole wears dress CHRISTOPHE LEMAIRE; Necklace KATIE HILLIER Photography NICHOLAI FISCHER Fashion editor SAM RANGER Hair ADRIAN CLARK @ CLM using KIEHL’S Make-up YIN LEE @ PREMIER using DIOR SUMMER LOOK 2010 Model NICOLE HOFMAN @ PREMIER

The Shop at Bluebird 350 Kings Road London SW3 5UU +44 (0)20 7351 3873

Isetan 14-1 Shijuku 3-chome Shinjuku-ku Tokyo 160-0022 +81 03 3352 1111

Harvey nichols The Landmark 15 Queen’s Road Central Hong Kong Island Hong Kong +852 3695 3388

opening Ceremony Shibuya Seibu Movida 21-1 Udagawa-cho Shibuya-ku Tokyo 150-0042 +81 3 6415 6700

opening Ceremony 35 Howard Street new York nY 10013

dover Street Market 17-18 dover Street London W1S 4LT +44 (0)20 7518 0680

B-store 24A Savile Row London W1S 3PR +44 (0)20 7734 6846

Hong Kong

Tokyo

neW YoRK

London

www.peterjensen.co.uk

M AG A Z I N E Spring/summer 2010

Editorial & creative director Jason Hughes jason@ bstoremagazine.com Editor Dal Chodha dal@ bstoremagazine.com Art director Christopher Colville-Walker christopher@ bstoremagazine.com Designer Ben Smith Advertising manager Sarah Nice advertising@ bstoremagazine.com Subeditor Stephan Takkides

Contributors Ben Perdue Claire Clifton Kasia Bobula Laurence Ellis Lydia Gorges Michael Nottingham Neil Gavin Nicholai Fischer Nik Hartley Retts Wood Sam Ranger Simon Pomery Stefan Zschernitz Willem Jaspert Fashion assistant Isabella Goumal Creative consultants Matthew Murphy Kirk Beattie

b Magazine 24a Savile Row London W1S 3PR +44 (0)20 7734 6846 info@bstoremagazine.com bstoremagazine.com b Magazine is distributed

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Special thanks

GED QUINN SOMEBODY’S COMING THAT HATES US 20 May to 27 June 2010

50 - 58 Vyner Street, London E2 9DQ | T +44 20 8980 2662 | www.wilkinsongallery.com

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OFF R U N W AY — The spring/summer 2010 catwalks set a new precedent for London menswear with an entire day of the Fashion Week schedule dedicated to showcasing the finest sartorial talent the city has to offer. b was there from start to finish as the history-making runway action unfolded.

Words BEN PERDUE Photography RETTS WOOD

Carolyn Massey 10.00 BFC NEWGEN MEN, Somerset House Sharing the debut NEWGEN MEN billing with James Long, first thing this morning, means a split camp backstage. In the Massey corner, ruddy-looking, yawning models with fake sunburnt extremities are being buckled into survival kit that Ray Mears would be proud of.

Cheesy war movie The Heroes of Telemark was my inspiration for the mix of vintage and technical this season, but I also wanted to introduce a more nostalgic feel with flashbacks to typical English seaside holidays. The colourful tailoring is also a nod to the UK summer.

CAROLYN MASSEY A classically British-feeling outdoor-sports aesthetic from the 1940s is rethought with sharp suiting silhouettes, military influences and lightweight fabric technology.

Cagoules and multi-pocket webbing give vintage tailoring and chambray shirts a functional edge.

b Magazine  Off runway 9

James Long 10.00 BFC NEWGEN MEN, Somerset House Metallic gold and green-foil finishes on motocross pants and biker jackets give lastminute preparations before the James Long show an other-worldly quality, as his iridescent leathers reflect the glare from bulb-rimmed make-up mirrors and the lights of roving cameramen.

Andy Warhol’s oxidation paintings were a direct reference for the acid camouflage effects and bleaching techniques.

But there are a lot of contrasts running through the collection too. Mainly I wanted to explore every avenue of camouflage pattern. And I’ve tried to distil my usual direction to create more wearable pieces than ever this season. JAMES LONG Deconstructed layers of spidery knits, rusty camouflage-print pullovers, bleached denim and skinny metallic trousers are tempered by a more commercial focus on sharp tailoring, subtle sheen and tough outerwear.

Luxury leathers and slim black blazers: unfussy and accessible.

Lou Dalton 11.00 The Portico Rooms, Somerset House The period neoclassical features backstage at the Portico Rooms complement the romantic atmosphere, as costume-like nautical touches are being primped and pinned into place: from sequinned buccaneer hats and silk corsages to ribbon sashes and fancy feminine bustles.

The piece that always springs to mind, not so much as a love affair more to do with pulling teeth, is the cheesecloth ruffle shirt.

A simple piece to look at but, in terms of cost, it took the longest to make due to pattern-cutting errors and lack of understanding. I remember wanting to throw the bloody thing in the bin!

However, we got there in the end. LOU DALTON A brassy take on nautical feels as preppy as it does pirate, balancing theatrical showpieces and flamboyant formalwear with considered menswear classics, such as the tailored knee-length shorts, embellished Breton-style knits, soft-structured blazers and sharp archive waistcoats.

Satyenkumar 11.30 Vauxhall Fashion Scout, Freemason’s Hall Before the Satyenkumar show and backstage is just a blur of colour. The unassuming cult designer, calmly overlooking the assembly of kaleidoscopic high-summer shades, gradually turns up the volume with layer upon layer of bright solids and soft psychedelic patterns.

The collection was inspired by the mid-1990s Balearic club scene. The colours are supposed to be dense but not overpowering. The kaleidoscope and tiedye prints are never too in your face. Traditional womenswear materials were thrown in for delicacy and lightness.

SATYENKUMAR PATEL Transparent layers of softstructured tailoring, diaphanous shirting and lightweight technical parkas in subtle neutrals and washed-out pastels are shot through with bursts of filtered pattern. The incredible silk-sheen colourblocking and sheer nude suiting is pure summer.

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Christopher Shannon 14.00 MAN, Somerset House Locating all four designers on the MAN schedule pre-show is a tough call, but Christopher Shannon is easy to find: just follow the smell of St Tropez to where his townie models are having spray-on dodgy builders’ tans, leaving the white bits under T-shirt sleeves and shorts.

After the autumn/winter show being kind of hot in colour, I really wanted to take the colour down a bit. Also, as it’s the last time showing at MAN, I thought it a good time to summarise what the label is about. I want the show to feel really upbeat and accessible. Each season I try to be braver and go with the pieces that sometimes I’d shy away from doing. CHRISTOPHER SHANNON Trademark athletic influences continue to inspire technical plasticised finishes, colour and fabric mixes for sportswear classics such as track pants and windcheaters. Luxury label-style prints look tough with his perfectly executed casual denim, shirting and knitwear pieces.

JW Anderson 14.00 MAN, Somerset House Glimpsing at the boys being dressed backstage, it’s clear that this collection is a move on from last season in terms of colour and fabrics, with paredback sleek outfits in simple monochrome shades emerging from the rails as hair stylists fuss with glossy extensions.

I wanted to make a modernist take on tribal meets NYC basketball players. Looking at elongated shapes, Louis le Brocquy for prints and African tribal aesthetics for inspiration. The trickiest thing was to strike a balance of ethnicity throughout the collection. The bag trousers represented this; it was very hard to get the right balance between the two ideas.

JONATHAN ANDERSON Beautiful unlined silk jackets and trousers are cut with such precision that they are devoid of traditional suiting references and feel like an entirely new athletic tailoring genre altogether. A luxury sportswear aesthetic is carried over into tracksuits, bombers and basketball shorts.

b Magazine Off runway 19

Katie Eary 14.00 MAN, Somerset House Tantalising flashes of gold and fur in among the melee of dressers, struggling with fiddly metallic accessories and fidgeting models, make you wonder how the militaryuniform edge that has become her trademark will show itself in the debut MAN offering from Katie Eary.

Inspiration was from Naked Lunch and Junkie

by William Burroughs.

My take on the general feel of both the books created the collection.

For the prints I used an amazing medical anatomy book that I borrowed from my friend Benny. We raided images that were about 7 by 3cm and built them up on Photoshop.

It was ridiculously time consuming, but will be worthwhile in the end! KATIE EARY Saga fur shrugs and trompel’oeil flayed leggings set the space-opera tone, a raw mix of synthetic and organic textures, old bones and gold hardware adding to her list of tough yet decorative themes. The visceral militaria are there too, draped over accessible new denim.

b Store 19.30 BFC, Somerset House Finishing touches backstage, before the final slot of the day, come in the form of accessories from a new collaboration with Awai, as modular tanleather or denim belts, document cases and wallets are slipped on to emphasise the crisp collegiate sportswear feel of the collection.

We thought about young Americana and the Hamptons for inspiration, before moving on to the Benjamin Braddock character in The Graduate.

This season we’ve used sports fabrics like piquÊ right through our tailoring.

It has a fluid fall but also makes blazers feel more like cardigans. KIRK BEATTIE A youthful balance of new menswear classics, with a fresh approach to tailoring that uses traditional sportswear fabrics, update Ivy League style with a clean British edge. Sheer knits introduce a level of delicate sex appeal with slim shirts and relaxed, rolled-leg pants.

TOPMAN Design 14.00 MAN, Somerset House Sunglasses, bomber jackets and sombre tailoring, with turquoise as the sole concession to colour, make for a moody atmosphere in the run up to what is rumoured to be the last outing for TOPMAN Design on the MAN bill, before breaking out with a solo show next season.

The aesthetic mixes a minimalist, almost strippeddown feel with a harder punk and grunge look. The collection has a distinctly dark and minimal feel fusing sharp tailoring with technical sportswear that always maintains a smart and super-slim silhouette.

Colours are predominantly dark but there are flashes of cobalt blue and acid reds. The prints were inspired by Radiohead light shows. GORDON RICHARDSON, design director at TOPMAN. Sharp tailoring-led looks interspersed with shrunken military pieces and tough knits create a dark approach to summer styling. Knee-length tailored shorts and graphic overlaid prints inject some youthful subversion among the sombre mismatched suiting and sportswear.

b Magazine  Off runway 25

Tim Soar 19.30 BFC, Somerset House Over the shoulder of the musician and model George Barnett, sporting freshly gelledback hair, a sophisticated mix of hard tailoring and tough leather is coming together, and the sense of excitement in the air pays testament to the day finishing on a menswear high with Tim Soar.

This is a special collection.

I’m not a designer who throws the baby out with the bath water each season.

I wanted to concentrate on pleating and folding while maintaining a strong connection to strong elements from the previous collection. That evolved into garment folding, which created the 3D structure that you can see in the pieces. TIM SOAR The signature suiting block and tough fabric mixes of leather and high-sheen fabrics are offset with a new focus on delicate lining-inspired pieces and folded structure. The mix of metallics and reptile prints with functional black, white and beige is simple but inspired.

28 BABY b

Casio’s G-Shock watch was the first in line for a b makeover last season and now it’s the pretty-tough best friend’s turn. Say hello to the new look Baby G. Take four b Store-sanctioned designers and one iconic watch – a collaborative effort between Casio and b Store – ‘PRINT’ is a hub (exclusively at Selfridges Oxford Street) of limited edition Baby G watches designed by Peter Jensen, Natascha Stolle, Sophie Hulme and Complex Geometries, partnered with a capsule line of graphic T-shirts.

Jensen who made b Store’s changing-room curtains when the store moved to Savile Row, offers his signature rabbit motif in homage to the print on those same curtains. b Store’s Matthew Murphy says: “We asked each designer for a print that would be used on the watch and also as part of the decor of the installation in Selfridges; with our history of working with both Casio and Selfridges, we were confident it would be exciting project!”» b Magazine Baby b 29

The designer Sophie Hulme revisits Eadweard J Muybridge’s photographic prints from the 1800s for inspiration – her design is an abstracted running and jumping man, rendered in strict monochrome. Fresh from Fashion East boot camp is the designer Natascha Stolle who also debuts her first womenswear collection for b Store’s own clothing line next season. Stolle uses a witty googly-eye print which initially tricks the eye to look like stingray. “I’m always trying new ways to make

visual puns on luxury materials. The eyes crack me up: they’re just so darned cheerful!” she laughs. Lastly Clayton Evan’s directional label Complex Geometries recreates digital waves, lapping on an imaginary lunar shore in a future where work is superseded by leisure. In Evans’s own words, his print is like “a souvenir from an impossible vacation at an implausible resort”. Maybe it’s time to take a holiday. baby-g.com b Magazine Baby b 31

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DESIGNER INTERVIEW — CHRISTOPHE LEMAIRE

Words DAL CHODHA Photography NICHOLAI FISCHER Fashion editor SAM RANGER Portrait LYDIA GORGES

Two copies of the 1970s fashion manual Cheap Chic Update, with their bright pink and yellow covers and playfully gamine, go-getter cover stars seem a little at odds in their present surroundings of Christophe Lemaire’s serene Paris showroom. The store – located in the Marais district – is replete with whitewashed wooden floorboards, cane furniture and bamboo plants, nestled in-between brands more concerned with flashy logos and fast fashion. It is clear that the designer Christophe Lemaire is often solitary in his approach to fashion.

Almost 20 years since starting his own label, Lemaire is still relatively unknown; embracing a level of anonymity, he says is key to his brand.

Building his experience alongside Christian Lacroix and Jean Patou as well as Yves Saint Laurent and Thierry Mugler, Lemaire launched his own brand in 1991, the success of which brought the designer to melting point – Lemaire admits he was close to a breakdown.

“I was always a bit on the side of the fashion circus,” he says. “When I used to have my own fashion shows at the end of the 90s, now that I look at it, I realise they weren’t really mature enough.” Taking a break from his label in 2003, Lemaire focused on his role as artistic director at Lacoste. Returning in 2007, today he is selfassured, more confident and more defiant than he used to be. “It was a positive crisis because it was like stepping back and asking myself real questions about my motivations. I have come back much clearer in what I want to say.”

“I was never really attracted to the star system and the whole media-obsessed fashion of the 80s. I really think it was something that preserved fashion more than it served it,”

he reflects. Fingering his “bible” – his copy of Cheap Chic Update: the 1970s fashion guidebook he discovered after meeting its editor, Carol Troy, at a dinner in late-1980s New York – he confesses his design philosophy is in stark contrast to his beginnings. “Fashion for me is less of this runway culture, when I am designing, the goal is the person who will wear it. I was always more interested in creating refined and creative, wearable fashion than just images.” Modern, workingwomen from the actor Lauren Hutton to the photographer Ewa Rudling are immortalised on the pages of Cheap Chic Update, dissecting personal style and discussing the importance of a good white T-shirt over fad clothing – central to Lemaire’s sartorial philosophy.

A key selection of Lemaire’s work for Lacoste sits in his own store alongside his own mens- and womenswear collections – the link between the two can be validated by the fact that both are about casual-wear: as Lemaire interprets it, “easy-wear but with style, which I find extremely now.” The vocabulary for his brand, however, is far more complex. “I have to invent it. I am interested in style more than fashion, timelessness more than trends, quality in simplicity. My ultimate goal is to bring sophistication across using simplicity.”

With fanfare, a new luxury is returning to fashion: a new simplicity, a new modernity.

Such obsession with purity is not new to Lemaire, always remaining faithful to his muted colour palette. He says: “I have a feeling that it is not just a trend, but we will have to find an evolution within that exercise because the problem with timeless fashion is it can become boring. As much as I believe » b Magazine Christophe Lemarie 35

b Magazine Christophe Lemarie 37

“When you have beautiful fabric and you reduce it to the maximum essential design – you can mix it and play with it and then you can tell your own story. I don’t believe the designer can tell you which story you can tell.”

in timeless fashion, I also believe in newness and evolution. There is a way to make this vision of fashion evolve with new volumes and proportions, but the philosophy behind it, I still believe, will remain pertinent.” As he speaks, a theatrical storm hurls heavy beads of rain against the showroom window: “There will always be people attracted to timelessness.”

Growing up, the young Lemaire was interested in the quality of life objects could bring and was first attracted by industrial design. “For me, style, fashion and clothes were part of a more global interest in the stuff that surrounds us.

Now I have rediscovered why I wanted to make fashion and I’m extremely clear about what I want to do.” Lemaire talks of his clothes in a way that relates them to a kind of costume or uniform – costume to be worn for the theatre of life – it is paramount that his collections work in the everyday. “I can only do 50% of the job,” he smiles. “It’s commonsense that style is very much linked to the person who wears the clothes. I never believed that fashion could be some style that you could buy. I can only try being as precise as possible in the way that I make clothes that will underline a personality.”

Although fluent in the romanticism of simplicity, the softly spoken designer is sentient to the risk that it could be seen as dull. “The problem with simplicity is that it can be very boring or poorly done,” he agrees. “To get to a stage where simplicity is rich is the goal. Simplicity is more difficult to achieve than something spectacular.”

“When you have beautiful fabric and you reduce it to the maximum essential design – you can mix it and play with it and then you can tell your own story. I don’t believe the designer can tell you which story you can tell.”

Fascinated with the timeless nature of clothing, Lemaire’s points of reference are diverse and notably not from popular culture, which he finds “actually quite ugly and uninspiring”. He references classic Mongolian clothing with its flat patterns and deconstructed softness and a heavy focus on 1970s French glamour as inspiration.

The work of Sonia Rykiel, early Calvin Klein and the designer Guy Paulin’s collections from the late 70s also provide colossal stimulation.

“My mother and my grandmother were very stylish, they used to wear Ted Lapidus and Saint Laurent and what was interesting with my mother is that she married a rich man for a while so we had quite a glamorous life. But after she divorced, we lived a normal middle-class life but even when she went though difficult times, she had a very strong sense of style.”

Growing up in Paris and Senegal impacted on Lemaire’s imagination and passion for colour.

The 1970s provides not merely childhood nostalgia for him; the characters of that era resonate too. “My uncle was CEO of French Vogue, so I remember when I was taking my vacations in the south of France in the summertime, he would arrive in a Jaguar with Gucci shoes and no socks and he was a party guy … it was very much of this time.” Lemaire’s vision of this French glamour can be seen in the tranquil silhouette of a wool coat inspired by French military uniforms of the late 19th century, mixed with details from a Chinese jacket. “If I love Cheap Chic, I have to love the 70s!”

Antonioni’s 1972 documentary about China, Chung Kuo – Cina, is also admired by the designer, relating back to Lemaire’s awareness of uniform, his own experience being a traditional British school uniform of a navy blazer, white shirt, blue and green striped tie »

“I am interested in style more than fashion, timelessness more than trends, quality in simplicity. My ultimate goal is to bring sophistication across using simplicity.”

and grey flannels he wore at boarding school.

“Socially, uniforms are very interesting. Of course I am not talking about dictatorship, but I very much think that if they were more forced in schools in France, it would change the attitude a lot. I find uniforms fascinating. I love the Mao uniforms you can see in Antonioni’s movie – it’s so beautiful and interesting.”

Insight also comes from the Situationist culture of the late 1960s and the philosopher Guy Debord’s book Society of the Spectacle from 1967: a critique of contemporary consumer culture and commodity fetishism. Images, Debord said, supplanted genuine human interaction, something Lemaire felt firsthand. “We are conditioned in our lives to be alienated from ourselves and be stimulated by stupid things for business reasons. We are alienated from what we should focus on – real culture is everyday culture. What we eat, what we decide to do, what we decide to read, what we decide to wear – we have to free ourselves from the culture of stupidity.

I think it creates a lot of unhappiness.”

“I hate museums and galleries, as for me, that is artificial culture; it’s a little like going to church. You go to a museum and you feel you have had your culture for the day and then you go home and watch a stupid programme on television and eat junk food.” He smiles: “I’m not against junk food … of course, I like that sometimes, but disposable culture irritates me.”

“Bringing culture to every day – that is what I am interested in doing with my fashion.” christophelemaire.com

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All clothes CHRISTOPHE LEMAIRE Necklace KATIE HILLIER Hair ADRIAN CLARK @ CLM using KIEHL’S Make-up YIN LEE @ PREMIER using DIOR SUMMER LOOK 2010 Models NICOLE HOFMAN @ PREMIER and JACOB COUPE @ MODELS 1 Fashion assistant VANESSA ARMSTRONG With thanks to ROXY @ SUNBEAM STUDIOS, PIETRO @ R&D LTD LONDON, SELIM @ PRESSING, ANNIE @ PREMIER and SHERRILL @ MODELS 1

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Wardrobe stories – b invited a designer, a journalist, an artist and a buyer to deliberate their most cherished sartorial possessions.

Words DAL CHODHA Photography NIK HARTLEY

HARRIS ELLIOTT Designer

A CHRISTOPHER NEMETH JAC K E T

This jacket is by one of my favourite designers, Christopher Nemeth. I guess the jacket defines my first proper trip to Tokyo; I’ve had it for nearly 10 years and it’ll always remind me of the things I like about the city. Someone had given me a pair of Christopher’s cut-off jeans years ago and they never fitted me, so I was on a mission to find his shop when I went there.

I like finding things that look interesting – no matter how simple – the name or brand has nothing to do with it. In Japan, particularly Tokyo, they think about everything and there is that forward-thinking approach and the appreciation into detail and quality is second to none. In terms of how I create things, that is my benchmark – the quality has to be impeccable.

Back in the 90s, people were wearing Christopher Nemeth cut-off jeans all of the time and I didn’t know who the designer was, people like Bayode from Pokit I remember wearing these hats and jeans and now I realise, 15 years later, and I like the fact he is somewhat “underground”!

The current generation are consumers of visuals, but I remember on that trip to Japan, I had to really go and find the Nemeth store as there was no blog or website that could have helped me. It was a real mission.

Today there isn’t that kind of passion or desire to go and seek new things; if it can’t be found on the web instantly, it doesn’t resonate or hold any place of importance. For me, there is a tactile quality to making those journeys and that’s a part of the creative process, just wandering around … finding things.

Fashion is about change and new ideas. In that sense, fashion is an art form – it has a voice and a really powerful voice but I think today it is very often used for visual ephemera. A lot of the things you do should make people stop and think; it’s better to have an opinion on something rather than not. I’d rather someone didn’t like something and we can have a discussion about it, rather than just passively ignoring it.

Charlotte Mann ARTIST

T H AT A . P. C .

DRESS

I’d always loved the idea of fancy French seaside towns and in 1996, when I was in my second year of art A-level, I wanted to do something about Duffy and Bonnard’s paintings of Deauville and Trouville. I wanted to take photographs of where I thought the paintings had originated from and go and see how much of the town was still the same.

I somehow managed to book myself into a hotel in Deauville, having this really romantic idea about being independent and doing it all on my own. I didn’t really speak any French. I’d bought myself this whole outfit to wear on the trip: this black A.P.C. shirtdress, black leather gloves and this black fur hat … the perfect fur hat!

I’ve always thought about clothes in a cinematic way and there’s something about going away on holiday – it’s like you have your chance to produce yourself or play a character in a film.

It’s that separate bit of time where no matter how long you are away for, you may decide to wear earrings all of the time or be the sort of person who brushes their hair every day.

I was just this 18-year-old girl wandering around an empty seaside town on her own wearing a really short dress. I was quite naive about it really – I had creepy men following me all of the time.

I remember sitting on my own at this table in a really grand restaurant and I ordered what seemed like a really sort of serious thing – soup with lots of sea urchins and seafood stuff in it – but I sat there at this table with an array of instruments for getting into each of the different shells, having no idea what to do. No one else was in the restaurant and there was a row of waiters just watching me as I sat there with this sketchbook on my knee, trying to work everything out and I was so miserable because it was so weird.

I guess all of the energy I put into my clothes when I was 18, I now put into my artwork. But when I was 18, it was important that I would know that I would be reading Anna Karenina, wearing a specific dress with a particular pair of shoes. b Magazine Wardrobe stories 55

TIM BLANKS Journalist

J U N YA WATA N A B E ’ S H AWA I I A N S H I R T

Growing up in New Zealand and particularly when I was at university, Hawaiian shirts were very hard to find. I remember, all of my friends who were into collecting art deco things such as Clarice Cliff ceramics wore Hawaiian shirts and it was very much in the mood everyone was living through. It dovetailed with glam rock – a south Pacific interpretation of glam rock – the shirts blended in quite well with leopard-print Lurex jackets, I recall. Later I was always waiting for the time when I would find the Hawaiian shirt to satisfy the youthful yearning I never satisfied at the time. The shirt is like nostalgia for me, a sort of settling accounts with the past.

I have never met a loud shirt that didn’t speak to me on some sort of level!

If I had a signature, it would be a loudcoloured shirt – very printed, very graphic, the kind you can see coming from a mile away. I do love the inappropriate.

At the shows, people are either subdued or they are smart and they see you coming in this loud thing. I guess it’s a kind of drag in a way … you know, like a Magnum PI drag. I wear what I like, it just so happens I like lots of colourful printed clothes.

I love Junya Watanabe as a designer; conceptually there is this cultural archaeology he does with iconic American workwear and American army-surplus uniforms.

The shirt satisfied what I was looking for on a number of levels. His detail – the print matched on the pocket of the shirt – it’s so incredibly precise. For me it was the consummate Hawaiian shirt and it was the shirt that if I’d had it when I was at university in the 70s, I would have kept it and it would have gone around with me for all of my life. The fact that I got it six years ago, instead of 36 years ago, is immaterial. I got the shirt I wanted.

Lulu Roper-Caldbeck C O - OW N E R O F DA R K R O O M

MY C A M I L L A S TÆ R K CLUTCH

Accessories are timeless, you know, they don’t have that fashion-led thing. I was always into fashion but my first experience of it was when I initially started working for Camilla Stærk. I couldn’t knit when I went to work for her and she was always working with knitted leather in various guises.

That’s why this clutch bag is so important to me as it represents that real change in my career path – Camilla taught me to knit.

It’s a basic knit but it marked the change to doing something more creative than what I had done previously. I was always working on these bags … knitting them. We used to spend days and days knitting leather.

Camilla married my brother a couple of years after I started working for her, and this clutch was a gift to all of the bridesmaids. So I guess it represents my family as well as my career.

Now, speaking as a buyer, the bags we sell have to have something that is timeless … it’s never been about fashion and it’s not about being seasonal. The shop is about being bold with what you’re buying and it is all about accessories: things that quite easily are at home in an interior environment or a fashion environment. Rhonda, my business partner, has exactly the same bag, which is quite funny and now we sell them in the shop.

Quality is important with accessories – you’re buying something you hope is going to be with you for some time. Darkroom is about products you hope are going to last. I wear a lot of black so accessories are important to me … I live on them, I use stuff a lot over time and fashion tends to be something to dip in and out of for me. I’ve carried this bag for five years now. You can be wearing something a bit shitty but you put on a clutch and immediately feel more glamorous.

b Magazine Wardrobe stories 59

(SHE’S IN A) BAD MOOD — 60 Photography STEFAN ZSCHERNITZ Fashion editor SAM RANGER

From autumn/winter 2010–11 collections All-in-one and boots LOUISE GRAY [Following left] Dress ACNE; Boots CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN; Earring TRIBU [Following right] Jacket, trousers and jumper dress B STORE

Dress NATASCHA STOLLE; Earrings vintage YVES SAINT LAURENT from RELLIK [Opposite] Blouse TIM SOAR; Hat PETER JENSEN

Dress PETER JENSEN; Necklace vintage

Jacket SOPHIE HULME; Earrings DOMINIC JONES [Opposite] Top JOSEFINA LARSSON [Previous left] Dress HEIKKI SALONEN; Earring TRIBU [Previous right] Sweater and skirt MICHAEL VAN DER HAM; Hat BERNSTOCK SPIERS

Top and trousers SATYENKUMAR; Earrings MESH; Top vintage JEAN PAUL GAULTIER from RELLIK [Opposite] Top and trousers DANIELLE SCUTT; Hat TIM SOAR; Boots vintage Hair TRACIE CANT @ PREMIER Make-up YIN LEE @ PREMIER Model STEPHANIE RAD @ STORM Photography assistant LOTTIE ANDERSON Fashion assistants MISCHA NOTCUTT, VANESSA ARMSTRONG and CHRISTINA HOLMES Special thanks JOE CATT @ STORM

WHITE LIGHT W H I T E H E AT — 75

Photography WILLEM JASPERT Fashion editor JASON HUGHES

Coat IAN BATTEN

Trousers and belt TRINE GULDAGER; T-shirt STEPHAN SCHNEIDER; Underwear stylist’s own; Shoes TIM SOAR [Opposite] Sweater CASELY-HAYFORD

Coat CASELY-HAYFORD; Sweater TOP MAN DESIGN; Shoes TIM SOAR [Previous] Vest and sweater SATYENKUMAR; Shorts LOU DALTON

b Magazine White light white heat 81

Trousers, underwear and shoes TIM SOAR; T-shirt AMERICAN APPAREL; Sunglasses stylist’s own [Opposite] Waistcoat TRINE GULDAGER; Vest SATYENKUMAR; Shorts TIM SOAR [Previous] Sweater CAROLYN MASSEY

Top TRINE GULDAGER; Shorts and underwear TIM SOAR; Sunglasses stylist’s own [Opposite] Top and trousers MALTE FLAGSTAD; Blazer CASLEY-HAYFORD; Shoes TIM SOAR

b Magazine White light white heat 85

T-shirt AMERICAN APPAREL Grooming ADRIAN CLARK @ CLM Model KIRILL @ FM Fashion assistant ISABELLA GOUMAL

WE’RE HAVING MUCH MORE FUN — 88

Photography LAURENCE ELLIS Fashion editor JASON HUGHES

Benjamin wears jacket IAN BATTEN; Trousers CASELY-HAYFORD; Bag AWAI FOR B STORE

Oskar wears jacket and pocket square CASELY-HAYFORD; T-shirt LOU DALTON; Trousers STEPHAN SCHNEIDER

Svetlana wears dress and belt PETER JENSEN [Opposite] Oskar wears jacket, T-shirt, shorts and shoes B STORE; Socks FALKE; Charlie wears shirt STEPHAN SCHNEIDER; Trousers NEW POWER STUDIO; Shoes B STORE

Svetlana wear jacket PETER JENSEN; Bra and skirt NATASCHA STOLLE [Opposite] Charlie wears blazer COSMIC WONDER LIGHT SOURCE; Shirt COS; Trousers CASELY-HAYFORD; Shoes B STORE

Victoria wears shirt, necktie and chinos COSMIC WONDER LIGHT SOURCE; Loafers B STORE [Opposite] Victoria wears blazer COSMIC WONDER LIGHT SOURCE; Polo shirt B STORE [Previous] Benjamin wears shirt LOU DALTON; Shorts B STORE Oskar wears jumper OUR LEGACY; Shirt and belt B STORE; Jeans SATYENKUMAR Charlie wears jacket PETER JENSEN; Jumper and shorts LOU DALTON

Svetlana wears twinset PETER JENSEN; Bag AWAI FOR B STORE Hair CHI WONG @ JED ROOT Make-up ANITA KEELING @ JED ROOT Models BENJAMIN Y AND OSKAR @ PREMIER; CHARLIE WESTERBERG @ MANDP MODELS; SVETLANA MUKHINA @ FM; VICTORIA TUAZ @ ELITE Photography assistant DUANE NASIS and NICK Fashion assistant ISABELLA GOUMAL Digital capture FILM PLUS Production DAVID COFFIN MANAGEMENT Retouch IMAG’IN LONDON Special thanks NEIL SONI at FILM PLUS STUDIOS

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SHOES, MUSIC AND GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS — The charming Gordon Richardson, TOPMAN’s design director, talks to b Store’s very own Matthew Murphy after seven successful LENS collaborations and nine years of sharing music tips.

Words DAL CHODHA Photography NEIL GAVIN Fashion editor JASON HUGHES

Matthew Murphy: So Gordon, what’s happening at the moment, you just got back from LA, right?

Gordon Richardson: Yes … we’re looking ahead to the next season. It’s an exciting time where we get to look out of just what we are doing to other things to get inspiration. For research, I imagine you get inspiration from quite different places to us.

MM: A lot of our inspiration for b Store comes from culture and I’m actually really inspired by personal blogs at the moment.

GR: Really?! I’m surprised you can even say the word “blog”, Matt.

MM: I know! I was completely against the idea of them at first and then I was asked to record a day in the store for a blog and my opinion really changed. Blogs are personal, more like diaries, and more about taste than anything else. What I really like is that they have lots of links to other things you might like.

GR: You do find out a lot of things, but then I have to write them down in the old-fashioned way and I never remember to look things up afterwards.

MM: I do that too but at least you might have learned something new from the blog in the first place.

GR: You know in a way, when you first opened, you were kind of like a mini blog.

I remember when I first came into the store, I bought some shoes, but I probably went away with some music tips too.

MM: We spoke for a long time before I even knew what you did. But we’d always have conversations and stuff in the shop.

Well, you’re a prime example of why b Store survives and is still relevant. We weren’t only selling the brands; we were selling the store.

GR: It’s always a good sign of things for me, when you can go into a store and talk about other things. The beauty of the shop was that I remember you didn’t pressure me to buy – I can’t bare that.

MM: Yep, it has always been old-fashioned retail. When people come into the store, we discuss all of the other things they are interested in and the end point is you may end up leaving – as you did – with a pair of shoes!

GR: You know, I discovered shoes again through b Store. You really pioneered that whole movement of making shoes as interesting as any other item of clothing for men … you guys took a lot of risks on that.

One pair of your patent loafers I’ve taken around the world – I’ve sold so many pairs off the back of them for sure … and you’ve got them back in again, haven’t you?

MM: We’ll work on that, Gordon. But truthfully, I think we were probably one of the first to realise that men wanted more than what was being offered and when TOPMAN started the whole MAN initiative, it really helped. Men wanted more than jeans and T-shirts and now with MAN and the menswear day during London Fashion Week and the seven seasons of LENS, it’s trickled through to your average guy.

GR: For us, it’s just the demand because TOPMAN is still affordable. It’s important that we can – through what we do together on LENS – sell something that is fashionable, but that you can still afford to go out and have a good time wearing. There’s no point in having great clothes if you can’t afford to go out and wear them anywhere.

MM: b Store has a small audience but we have a foundation where our guys feel secure but you have to keep them inspired.

GR: I think they probably shop in parallel – we’re both doing fashion and we take risks in TOPMAN but we have the conduits for risks, such as TOPMAN Design and LENS, but you can’t take those risks until everything else is right.

MM: But what are you guys looking for when you research?

GR: Seeing how people wear things is more interesting to us than just trawling shops. It’s a lot about styling and seeing how a trend emerges and the team loves Tokyo the most because it’s really like a permanent street casting.

MM: I guess that is central to what you guys do; it’s about the styling.

GR: Well, culture has as much of an influence as pure fashion, especially with a brand like TOPMAN. When you go into TOPMAN, it’s like opening a magazine – the store really has to reflect what’s going on as it’s a democratic brand. You guys can be more singular in your approach.

MM: I remember when we started going wider with our distribution; I was really worried about what people wanted from us. Was it time to not have our trousers rolled up and stuff …

GR: Rolling your trousers up is like a bloody disease.

MM: I don’t know if I’ll ever stop! It’s hard. I’ve tried but it just looks wrong!

The thing is with b, that even if it’s not a trend to do it, we’ll probably still carry on because it’s what we do.

MM: Yes we have!

GR: We’ve done it here too but a lot of the chinos come into the store rolled already – that’s how our customer wants it, they want to see the look right away

GR: I mean I should have a bloody b Store knighthood from all of the shoes I have sold!

MM: In a way, the stuff I’ve been able to do with you on LENS, means we

can take more risks and the further you push it, the more it works. How long have you been with TOPMAN now?

GR: I’ve been here for years … about 11.

But I think I was one of your first shoppers when you opened nine years ago. I agree with you, though, what’s great is that with LENS we invite more people into the store.

MM: b Store is really personal – I mean we get a lot of people trying stuff on and looking in the mirror saying, “oh my God, I look like you,” and they’ll be wearing Kirk’s favourite jacket with my trousers.

GR: Like clones! A little bunch of buzzy “b”s!

We also have a uniform but you have to allow the customer to explore the boundaries of that singular style and encourage them to try other things and that can be done with things like LENS right? It’s about trust.

MM: Trust?

GR: Well, b Store can have more of a brand signature, ours changes … LENS came about after coming into your store for three or four years and I always had it in the back of my mind that it would be good to do something with you. I just wanted to bring in interesting people we had never worked with before and collaborate with new designers on key pieces.

MM: The first year was crazy, remember?

We had five designers we worked with and two of them we still work with now. A lot of the people who came through LENS are kind of seen as part of the new menswear moment right now. I remember you’d already done some collaborations before but I wanted to do it properly, almost create a shop in a shop.

GR: Did you shop at TOPMAN before?

MM: Well, I can remember reading about some of your designer collaborations and not being able to find them when I went into the store. The great thing about TOPMAN is that you understood that a LENS area in the store would be an introduction to that customer who was coming into TOPMAN, even if they felt most of it was alien to them.

GR: Totally. When we started it really was just the two of us and some ad-hoc players I could haul in from various departments, but now there is more of a structure behind it, as we have a design team.

MM: … and now we seem to make the decisions more as a team I guess, that helps.

GR: Yes, though it can’t be a singular approach, as it’s about different designers interpreting their aesthetic with a TOPMAN hat on and in each case the TOPMAN hat is different. But the recent trench project sold out so quickly, it seems to be working … for now!

MM: Ha ha! The dynamic between us hasn’t changed you know and it’s probably because we have a similar outlook on things. »

CARL O’DONNELL, 29, Hedge fund analyst Carl wears jacket TOPMAN; Chinos TOPMAN LTD COLLECTION; Shirt, waistcoat and bowtie Carl’s own

b Magazine Shoes, music and … 105

MARC GOLDFINGER, 23, Model models1.com Marc wears blazer TOPMAN; Shirt CAROLYN MASSEY FOR TOPMAN LENS DESIGNER COLLECTIONS

IAN BRUCE, 25, Portrait painter and performer ianbruceportraits.com myspace.com/thecorrespondentsmusic Ian wears jacket and trousers TOPMAN LTD COLLECTION; Shirt, tie and handkerchief Ian’s own

b Magazine Shoes, music and … 107

KHARY BENNETT, 26, Dilettante electricbluegallery.com Khary wears shirt MJÖLK FOR TOPMAN LENS DESIGNER COLLECTIONS; Denim jacket Khary’s own

KEVIN FRANCIS GRAY, 37, Artist kevinfrancisgray.com Kevin wears jacket TOPMAN; Shirt, scarf and jeans Kevin’s own

b Magazine Shoes, music and … 109

NICO RENSON, 36, Musician and producer myspace.com/nicorenson Nico wears sweatshirt TOPMAN; Neckerchief TOPMAN LTD COLLECTION; Blazer Nico’s own Grooming ADRIAN CLARK @ CLM Photography assistant LARRY GORMAN

MU S IC I S S O I MPOR TA NT TO M E B U T A L S O TO WHAT WE DO H ERE AT TO PMA N . I T’S ALWAYS I NSPIRED ME A N D MUS I C HAS ALWAYS GONE HA N D I N HAN D WI TH FASH ION Gordon Richardson

GR: Way back, our first conversation would have been about music and I DJ a little as do you. Thinking about the two of us matched together on the decks is hilarious … what would the mix be?

the music in the store. The Controller will programme a gig and give you complete access to their musical world through a dedicated blog.

It eventually culminates in the band DJing or hosting a gig in a key city … it’s really exciting!

MM: Well, similar styles of music, I think.

MM: I guess that was one of the points of getting the new floor in Oxford Circus with Rough Trade isn’t it, almost like a lifestyle in that respect.

GR: Actually, it would be hard to define … maybe we should try it. It would be old and new – it’s not disco or hip-hop, indie or 70s music: it’d be eclectic for sure. Just good tunes.

MM: Remember, we used to end up at the same gigs all the time? I’d be at Patti Smith thinking, I bet Gordon’s here and you’d be down the front and then the same thing at Sonic Youth, you’d be there!

GR: Yeah – music is so important to me but also to what we do here at TOPMAN. It’s always inspired me and music has always gone hand in hand with fashion.

Did I tell you about TOPMAN CTRL? MM: No GR: It’s just launched and it really is a brand new concept in UK music. Basically we invite a different act each month to take charge of

GR: I bet your first experience of TOPMAN was when you were 12 and your mum dragged you in there to buy a T-shirt or something …

MM: No, actually it was when I was 15! One of my best mates was manager of the store in Maidstone and I really wanted a pair of sky-blue Farahs and he said he had them in TOPMAN. I had to wait outside when he bought them for me and I was so chuffed. My impression of TOPMAN really changed after that, I just thought it was a regular high street shop.

GR: Well, today that same customer exists – but it’s the older guys who are less likely to come into the store because, I mean, it is still a young environment. So for someone who isn’t used to it, I think they would be surprised at how much there is in there for them.

MM: Guys who are 30 upwards find it difficult to shop on the high street I think, even if they have been shopping on the high street up to the age of 30, there’s still this gap in what’s available. For the younger ones, it’s so inspiring to see these kids in TOPMAN dressed head to toe in fashion – they’re living the music and the lifestyle and it’s so exciting to see that. I mean you never really think that the next generation will be anything like yours.

GR: TOPMAN has been around for 31 years and we’ve got 14 and 15 year olds shopping at TOPMAN but we have some older guys too.

Speaking personally, I shop in two ways – one is that very stereotypical season-led thing of repeat buying what I always like and then the next level is something different, something that breaks off from the straightforwardness of other things. Accessories are key – remember, I love my shoes, Matt.

MM: Knighthood on the way, Gordon! I rarely shop. I think it’s because when you work with something every day it can overload you, but it doesn’t mean that that want of fashion has disappeared – I still have a hunger for newness. topman.com bstorelondon.com b Magazine Shoes, music and … 111

113 b E S S AY —

YES NEW YORK

Words SIMON POMERY Illustration CLAIRE CLIFTON

Music and visual culture from no wave to The Velvet Underground An inspiring visual treat is No Wave. Post-Punk. Underground. New York. 1976-1980, edited by Thurston Moore, the Sonic Youth guitarist, co-authored by the music critic Byron Coley. I have been waiting for this book since I was 10 years old, and now here it is: literary and photographic evidence of the loose scene known as “no wave”, an improvised mess of artists, musicians and nefarious individuals in late-1970s New York.

I say loose because most of the bands involved wouldn’t have called it a scene. There hasn’t been such interest in it since 1978, when Brian Eno produced Mars, DNA, Lydia Lunch and James Chance and the Contortions (who played the Victoria in February) for his No New York compilation, causing a rift between the bands he chose, and those he didn’t: Branca was out, Lunch was in, and each band had a different take on what constituted the scene. We take it for granted that music from many of these acts is now available. I was frequently embarrassed in record shops in the early 90s, when those older than me had no idea who I was talking about. Just incanting the names of the bands is enough to excite: Theoretical Girls, Dead Boys, Static, The Gynecologists.

This horizontally printed, hardboard-covered book features documentary images of the bands, scenesters, movers and shakers involved in the early years of no wave, capturing the grittiness of CBGBs and Max’s Kansas City, and recalling the glamorous trash of Andy Warhol’s films of The Velvet Underground.

However, No Wave. Post-Punk is more of a visual A chronic Branca fan, I have taken perverse pleasure delight than a literary one. in beginning DJ sets with Branca’s Lesson No 1; perverse in the sense that from this “disco sucks” In Alec Foege’s Confusion is Next: The Sonic Youth environment comes perfect dance music: bass Story, Thurston Moore recounted his mother’s wish through a chorus pedal; guitars that chime and rise for him to become a writer: we’re lucky he kept and fall; pounding minimal drums that get louder his Jazzmaster plugged in. While Moore is best at and louder and more earthy and urgent. The song informing us on the factual details of no wave, he contains, in a pure form, many of the best elements is more of an archivist here than a rigorous writer. of rock’n’roll (to think, I once narrowly missed out Though Moore never claimed to be an artist, his on purchasing one of Branca’s battered guitars). lyrics can be of interest; compare, for instance, his undergraduate prose with the terseness, sardonic No Wave also features some less traditional style humour and colloquial verve of the late Sterling (perhaps anti-style) icons. Lydia Lunch still inMorrison’s writing. (But then Sterling did go on spires interest and irritation. As I helped her off from the Velvet Underground to be an English the stage at the Union Car Park gig, in Southwark professor.) Nonetheless, this book shows how in 2008, it struck me that – in spite of her love for inspiration, art and ideas are earth-rooted things all things trash – she can be quite regal. There is a that begin with real people in real circumstances, photo here of her 1978 Lunch calendar, where she who, by luck and financial impoverishment would models trashy clothes with equally trashy names: live in “a tenement railroad apartment or a deserted Zebra Bra, P.I.G.A.L.L.E. Teddy, Net Hose Made storefront window or a raw loft”. in Japan, Lady Marlene Bra, Full Slip Fatal Charm.

James Chance perhaps took fashion the most seriOne such inspiration was Glenn Branca, the com- ously, with his velvet-collared London coat, black poser and guitarist who enrolled Thurston Moore tie, high-waisters and his Billy Fury hair. There is and Lee Renaldo as apprentices in his ensemble. a photograph of Lizzy Mercier Descloux banging As the musician Christine Hahn says: “His style a drum, looking and dancing like Audrey Horne influenced many others at the time … big bold text, from Twin Peaks. cut-off words, no images, text as image. Very cool and very different from the lurid slasher/baroque And then there is Alan Vega. Alongside Branca, style of early punk design. I think his design con- Suicide were the one act everyone agrees is cenveyed the idea of music very well. Kind of what tral to the scene in No Wave, and everyone who happens at the point where minimalism meets saw them were changed and changed utterly. No neo-expressionism.” one was prepared for music driven by a 1950s » b Magazine b essay 113

“rhythm machine”, a broken Farfisa and half-spoken, half-sung vocals that could reverb into shouts and snarls at any moment. The influences were Elvis, Roy Orbison, free jazz, minimalism and drone music. Bruce Springsteen is the most celebrated fan of Suicide, and his version of Dream Baby Dream often makes listeners cry: it’s beautiful.

whole span of the Velvets’ career. Kugelberg proved his Velveteen credentials in an online interview: not a week of his life has passed by without him listening to a song by the Velvet Underground. I know how he feels.

For fans, this is essential reading – not least because of the humour present in many of the interviews. Talking about the project’s pre-publication, Reed was characteristically laconic, saying to the drummer Maureen Tucker: “This is going to be a very expensive book. We’re going to be a coffeetable book, Mo.” I do not usually buy coffee-table books, but I will always make exception for this band: the subheading of the book, New York Art, places emphasis on the importance of the Velvet Underground not only to music, but to American culture and counterculture, to visual art, and to a way of living.

But punks, and post-punks, didn’t know what to do with Suicide. A friend’s father told me of his student days and how he attended the infamous Glasgow gig, where an axe was thrown on stage – narrowly missing Vega’s head. He spoke of how the audience was divided between those who thought Suicide was punk, and those who did not (and who happened to bring sharp tools to rock’n’roll concerts).

There are two photos of Vega here, in black cords and a tuxedo jacket slung off his shoulder (with Marty Rev looking on, from behind a Farfisa, in his giant bug sunglasses). Vega is also seen in cowboy boots, sprawled on the floor of a loft I heard them on the radio even before I heard the (perhaps where the First Rehearsal Tapes were Beatles, and so the Velvets are, in a sense, my recorded – or just a loft).

Beatles. When a kid at school punched me and then kicked me to the ground for suggesting that For the ultimate experience, I would recommend the Velvets are more important to musical history reading No Wave. Post-Punk. while listening to than the Beatles, it made me express myself even Suicide: Live 1977-1978 (Blast First Petite). My more defiantly to him when I was back on my feet. favourite cut, and the one which seems to radiate My Sunday mornings used to feature a church the energy spoken of by the contributors to No service at 11am; now, I listen to Sunday Morning.

Wave, is the recording of a Max’s Kansas City gig, 13 January 1977. “Has anyone got a knife?” Vega asks Among the images here, posters of Warhol’s Exin the silence after Ghostrider (the song Lou Reed ploding Plastic Inevitable stand beside the slides wishes he wrote). Thurston Moore might well have he used for his projections. There are notes, letters been among the other New York no-wavers in the and Reed’s musical notation for Heroin. There are audience, but to fulfil the wish of the evangelical, photographs of the Velvets performing as a band in screaming, ex-performance artist on stage would an underground film (Lou, Sterling and John naked have indeed been suicide. to the waist and smeared in paint, Maureen dressed as a mourning bride and banging her tambourine).

13 years earlier, self-sacrifice was on the mind of There are rare photographs that offer a narrative Cher after seeing the Velvet Underground live, when to recordings of the infamous gigs: a basketball Warhol took his Exploding Plastic Inevitable art show net over the heads of the band when they played out west to the Sunset Strip. Cher’s opinion was: the Gymnasium, from where the excellent bootleg “It will replace nothing – except maybe suicide.” appeared a year or so ago; a candle-lit table at the How fortunate, then, that Cher believed in life after annual dinner for the New York Society for Clinical seeing a Velvets gig, and gave her opinion of it to Psychiatry, and the band playing live, wearing the an LA reporter. Among other walkouts, we can obligatory black sunglasses, an eerie Eyes Wide add Frank Sinatra.

Shut-feeling to the scene. There is a fortune-cookie prize Nico once had stuck to her fridge door; tellingly Cher’s reaction is framed in a newspaper clipping, for our beloved androgynous chanteuse, it reads: one gem among the treasure trove in The Velvet “You are the centre of every group’s attention.”

Underground: New York Art, published by Rizzoli, a coffee-table book and archive (some things col- Is anyone else as interested as I am to know what lected, some things new) for fans, musicologists Nico stuck to her fridge in the late 60s? Snapshots and anyone with an interest in photography, design of Nico show that she was more beautiful than we or the 1960s. The editor, Johan Kugelberg, has can imagine – despite one newspaper heckle that brought together rare archival documents from the likens her, bitchily, to Mick Jagger with blonde hair.

P L AY L I S T — 1. Lesson No 1 Glenn Branca 2. Max’s Kansas City, 13th January, 1977 Suicide 3. Sunday Morning The Velvet Underground 4. Burning Spear Sonic Youth 5. Blonde Redhead DNA

She was a fallen icon who spent the 1970s and 80s, taking heroin with her son and living, at one time, with John Cooper Clark in Manchester. Lest we forget, this is the singer who took acting lessons in the same class as Marilyn Monroe, and at the age of 17 had a cameo in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita.

One image spread shows the evolution of the banana cover, and then we have the sarcastic press release from Verve records: “BANANAS ARE IN SEASON.” After the hype around Warhol, Edie Sedgwick (the real muse behind Femme Fatale) and Nico, the Velvets could have been huge, were it not for the fact that there were packaging problems with the banana. As you can see in this book, Warhol wanted the cover of each LP to come with a peelable yellow banana sticker: under that, if the reader/listener followed the instructions to “PEEL SLOWLY AND SEE”, they would uncover a bright pink banana. This never happened and all the momentum for the debut album was lost. This is when everyone pipes in and says that, while not many people bought records by the Velvets, everyone who did started a band. No Good Vibrations, no Sergeant Pepper, yes VU. I love the academic presentation of the timeline, the added comments and quotes interspersed with dates. The book is fairly divided between image and text. The glaring omission is John Cale, who did not contribute to the book. The timeline shows that when Reed was reading James Joyce at Syracuse College, and before he began jamming with Morrison, Cale was performing an all-day version of Erik Satie’s late piece Vexations and playing with La Monte Young and Tony Conrad at night. Such is the insight offered into the Velvets’ influences, a band that in turn inspired so many great New York bands, including Suicide and Sonic Youth.

Kugelberg faithfully situates all moments in historical time, so we get what we’ve always wanted: help to reimagine what it was like back then, not for nostalgia, not to pastiche great art, but to improve the quality of our lives. Anyone who saw last year’s Warhol retrospective at the Hayward will be interested in this book. It became clear to me that when Warhol acted as producer to The Velvet Underground and Nico, he was really adjusting the focus on to real musicians, making the greatest album in rock’n’roll: just the right sounds, just as they are, captured perfectly in time.

Simon Pomery’s pamphlet of poems, The Stream, is published by tall-lighthouse.

READING LIST — 6. Larousse Baron Bic Rosa Yemen 7. Tough Guy Suicide 8. Computer Dating Theoretical Girls 9. Guitar Trio (1977) Rhys Chatham 10. Almost Black James Chance and the Blacks

11. 3E Mars 12. I’m Not a Young Man Anymore (live at the Gymnasium) The Velvet Underground 13. Run Run Run (live at the Gymnasium) The Velvet Underground 14. Sister Ray The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground: New York Art Johan Kugelberg (editor) (Rizzoli, 2009) No Wave.

Post-Punk.

Underground. New York.

1976-1980 Thurston Moore and Byron Coley (Abrams Image, 2008)

A C H R O N IC B RANC A FAN, I HAVE TA K EN P E R VE R SE P LEASURE I N B EGINNING D J SE TS WITH B R ANC A’ S LE S SO N NO 1; P E R V ER SE IN THE SE NSE THAT F R O M THIS “D ISC O S UCKS” E N V I R O N ME NT C OME S P ERFECT DA N C E M USIC : BAS S TH ROUGH A C H O R U S P E DAL; GUITARS THAT C H I ME AND RISE AND FAL L ; POU N D I N G MINIM AL D R UMS THAT G ET LO U D E R AND LOUD ER A ND M O R E E AR TH Y AND URGENT.

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Words MICHAEL NOTTINGHAM Photography KASIA BOBULA

ANNE HARDY Walk down a quiet alleyway lined with railway arches, duck through a low door cut in a temporary wall of plywood, then pass through a muddy courtyard lined with planks of wood and pits dug by workmen. It seems a somehow fitting approach to the studio where Anne Hardy creates the theatrically elaborate and often haunting installations, which she then photographs – life-sized dioramas laden with the conspicuous evidence of unknown, missing protagonists.

All the more surprising then to enter the plain, quietly empty expanse of a ground-floor studio lit by rows of quietly humming fluorescent tubes. The last work – Incidence – has been finished, she explains, and the new work for her June exhibition at Federica Schiava Gallery in Rome is yet to be constructed.

Incidence depicts a half-familiar space – part billiards hall, perhaps part classroom.

The central device here is a trio of fulllength mirrors that reflect a fictive reality

littered with cryptic yet familiar objects. The illusion is maintained only by the strict lines of the camera’s perspective – the angle of incidence suggested in the work’s title.

“Titles are really important,” she explains.

“Each image builds up systems or indexes, which then collapse. You can have a sense of the system or index but it doesn’t resolve literally for the viewer. I want titles to have a similar role, so I often try to use words that can lead you to certain places. In this case I suggest a formal link with the angle of incidence of light, but also the incidence of things occurring.”

Hardy pays particular attention to the viewer’s relationship to the imaged space.

“The protagonist or protagonists of the space are very evident through their discarded things, through things they’ve intentionally or accidentally placed. With the scale of the work, you can imagine yourself occupying that space.”

Many of the objects she finds in the street. And she professes a fascination with the shifting status of abandoned objects like mattresses – emblems of luxury and comfort that become ones of disgust as soon as they’re in the street.

It’s about how roles can slip off objects – or even places. You know how every time you move into a rented house there are 15 layers of lino and carpet? In this building there were four or five layers on the floors. There’s this sense that you solve all the problems by putting another layer of something over the top. That almost functions as a metaphor for other ways that we try to just cover things up.

As fascinating as they are resistant to interpretation, Hardy’s photographs might be seen as attempts to excavate beneath that surface level of appearances. In which case, those pits dug outside the studio entrance seem somehow strangely apt. maureenpaley.com b Magazine In the studio 119

DAVID PEARSON The book designer David Pearson is renowned in the publishing world for bringing Penguin’s reference series into the 21st century with his strikingly original cover designs. His ingenious reinterpretation of classic titles for the Great Ideas series took modern typography places it hadn’t gone before and established him as one its leading innovators.

Visitors to the brightly lit, cosy studio Pearson shares with two colleagues in London’s Clerkenwell will see surprising evidence of this – and not just in the copies of the many titles he’s designed.

“You know those penny rubber-stamp makers you get at the high street?” he asks, smiling.

“You can send them any artwork and two days later you get one of these.” He points to an array of coloured blocks carved with every typeface imaginable, each corresponding exactly to the cover of one of his awardwinning Penguin reference paperbacks.

Lined up they make a fascinating display.

“These give that authentic ink squash,” he continues. “Where the edges of the letters

bleed out a bit, which tells the brain that it’s been hand-printed. It’s an illusion of letter-press printing – a weird pastiche, a kitsch version of letterpress – but it sort of makes sense in a way.”

researching typefaces and seldom-seen vintage covers, and even permitted him to abandon strict use of their logo when he wanted to faithfully reference the format of a historical period.

Pearson began his work at Penguin after graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2002, moving to his present studio two or three years ago. He was originally given the reference titles because nobody else wanted them. “They were dead offers – they all wanted the bigselling living authors.” This and the fact that the reference line wasn’t considered strong enough to be in direct competition with volumes from Cambridge and Oxford University Press gave him an unparalleled level of creative freedom.

He took full advantage of the opportunity, winning a prestigious D&AD Yellow Pencil award for the Great Ideas series in 2005.

Penguin’s own history was also a goldmine of inspiration for the young designer, who name checks the design luminary Jan Tschichold, who worked at the publisher from 1949 to 1951, as well as Alan Fletcher, Derek Bridsall and Romek Marber – all of whom worked there in the 60s. “They produced designs that had a massive impact on modernist design,” he explains. “We almost didn’t have a modernist period in Britain, but in a sense, the advertisers and designers of the early 60s created it.”

Much of Pearson’s inspiration is firmly rooted in history. “I’m inspired by the ingenious ways that past designers dealt with printing restrictions.

Limiting your palette in similar ways can feel incredibly liberating – especially in these days of mind-numbingly broad choices.” Penguin allowed him to indulge his interest in history,

Pearson clearly relishes his job. “It’s a lovely experiment and if I can keep doing it I’ll be happy – although I won’t get rich exactly.” Asked about other design projects, he smiles and nods. “I’m doing my first wine label at the moment. They sent some over for me to try – ‘inspiration’.

I’d love to be able to do whisky next. I’m a big whisky fan – so that would be a dream job.” davidpearsondesign.com b Magazine In the studio 121

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OLU MICHAEL ODUKOYA Walking into the Dalston studio of Olu Michael Odukoya, the editor of Kilimanjaro magazine, the first thing you notice is its size. It has just enough room for a desk, filing cabinet, bookcase and narrow table. Odukoya relocated in January, moving from a similarly cosy office in the home he shares with his wife, who’s expecting their first child. “Working here gives me the freedom to make a creative mess,” he explains. “A small office leaves more budget for things like mounting an exhibition and doing something big with the magazine in terms of packaging.”

His priorities have paid off. The gallery 20 Hoxton Square hosted the exhibition Kilimanjaro Edits: Art, Love and Everyday Life in February, featuring works by five photographers and three sculptors whose art he champions. And while it’s always had a large format, the current issue of the magazine – called I Love We – is the first to come in a sturdy cardboard box.

The cover is a drawing by the late William Burroughs, who also appears on the reverse cradling a pistol. Odukoya prefers to avoid featuring artists as personalities. “But I really like these images,” he says. “Especially his stern ‘keep off my land’ look. He’s old but strong.”

Opening the packaging is a gratifying experience. The sheer size and weight hints at the substantial contents: four different sections are nested inside.

Folding out to a massive 68 by 98cm, the largest is We Decide What Is Beautiful, a 10page photo book covered in a beautiful, stylised print that Odukoya created, merging traditional African patterns with euro notes to celebrate the collective notion of “we”. Subjects inside range from the sleek contours of a sports car to a close-up detail of Odukoya’s desk at Pop magazine, where he was recently made creative and art director for the publication’s relaunch.

The box also includes fashion photography, a booklet of critical essays and a conceptual photo essay. With the swaths of white space and very few advertisements, it is clear you’re handling something unique and collectible rather than a mass-market magazine.

Odukoya’s influences are on display throughout his office: “I like to have things around that inspire me.” These include a photograph by artist Claudia Stockli, featured in the recent exhibition, and a Warhol-era copy of

Interview magazine, also known for its large format. “Andy is my all-time favourite artist,” he says. “He created art in such accessible mediums, like screen-printing and polaroids.

That’s one of the things I wanted to do with Kilimanjaro – just to make everything like ‘we can do it’, even if it’s difficult.”

While Odukoya is the creative constant behind the magazine, he also collaborates.

Two young designers who saw him lecture in Zurich helped on one issue, a pair from Spain on another – all strangers invited to stay with him as they worked. “You see, Kilimanjaro is everybody,” he laughs. “I think if I stopped doing it, somebody else could still – with that name, with the vibe of it – pick it up and carry it forward. It doesn’t have the usual boundaries.

There’s a magic in there, you know?”

The next issue of Kilimanjaro, About Now, is out this spring. kilimag.com b Magazine In the studio 125

VAUGHAN OLIVER If you’re fortunate enough to be familiar with the record label 4AD then you’re almost certainly no stranger to the work of the graphic designer Vaughan Oliver – even if you don’t recognise his name. Who could forget the iconic monkey perched on the cover of the Pixies’ ground-breaking album Doolittle, or the diaphanous, dreamlike textures and colours on the covers of those classic Cocteau Twins releases? It’s arguable that no other record label’s identity has been so inextricably bound up with one designer’s talents.”

Oliver today divides work between the front study of his home in Epsom, Surrey – from where he runs his design consultancy v23 – and the nearby University College for the Creative Arts and at Kingston University.

Commissions from 4AD are seldom in the mix these days, but he’s recently emerged from a year-long project of revisiting and reinventing the artwork and packaging for the entire Pixies’ back catalogue as part of Minotaur, an ambitious limited collector’s release put out by the American label ArtistsInResidence.

Spreading the extensive contents of this large, lavish package across his kitchen

table, the man betrays more than a hint of pride at having fashioned such a beautiful beast. From the massive box that houses the five full-length releases, covered in a weird faux fur that hints at both human flesh and cowhide, to the hardbound, lavishly illustrated book and fold-out posters (one strangely evocative of an Issey Miyake garment) – everything speaks of a labour of love.

Oliver brought in his collaborator on the Pixies originals, the photographer Simon Larbalestier, to produce new images – throwing out all the icons and creating something completely new.

He selected students at the college to generate vivid and imaginative typography throughout – something of which he’s particularly proud.

“It was also another chance to do a big book,” he points out, “and not one of those little things that comes in a plastic case.”

Minotaur’s imagery partly evolved from iconic reference points in the original artwork: the man with the hairy back on the cover of the Come On Pilgrim EP, and the bull’s eye on the album Trompe le Monde. “It was harder getting hold of bulls’ eyes back in the time of mad cow disease,” he notes.

The box has a precedent in the limited

edition Lonely Is an Eyesore compilation – a luxurious wooden boxed set 4AD produced in 1987. (A rare copy graces a side table in his study.) Despite the expense, 4AD’s founder, Ivo Watts-Russell, agreed to go ahead – Oliver’s enthusiasm was contagious and the pair shared a passion for the music.

“I think A+R reminds me of that kind of courage. I don’t think once in 12 months did they use the words ‘economic climate’.”

Oliver is quick to credit his associates: “Collaboration is key to what I do – whether it’s with a photographer or with a band, with other artists, or other designers.”

Or, in this case, with his students.

“It may in the end all just be ephemera – but it’s a wonderful business,” he muses.

“My idea of success is meeting people who are doing graphic design because at one stage they picked up Pixies or Cocteau Twins sleeves. To know that I’ve inspired people – that’s what’s most rewarding.”

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RACHEL THOMAS “There was a big fire here once,” says the art director and creative polymath Rachel Thomas of her bright and spacious studio in north Hoxton. “Apparently someone did an insurance job on the place. They blew the boiler, took the money and ran – something like that. Only the boiler’s never been replaced. One of the drawbacks is the cold.”

The sprawling Victorian complex – its courtyard hemmed by wrought-iron railings and hung with potted plants – drips with period character. While they might be slightly chilly on a February afternoon, her offices are clearly a hotbed for creativity.

Thomas has steered an impressively wide array of projects from here – from collaborating with Alison Goldfrapp and Big Active creative consultancy on the music packaging and promotional strategy for Goldfrapp’s acclaimed Supernature album to a fourmetre tall polystyrene artist’s mannequin that was shipped to Acne’s Stockholm headquarters for a party. She has recently worked on a Christmas campaign for the venerable Spanish fashion house Loewe, created brilliant visual interpretations of synthetic perfumes to illustrate an article in

Ponystep magazine, contributed to Shelter’s House of Cards fundraising exhibition (alongside the likes of Damien Hirst and the late Alexander McQueen) and co-designed a poster as part of an upcoming Amnesty International campaign that pairs European artists with their African counterparts.

It comes as no surprise that someone with such a prodigious and varied output was selected to design the cover of Creative Review’s 30thanniversary issue. Nor that the image featured on the cover is no less than Thomas’s studio.

Thomas had a hunger for experience and a broad creative palette from an early age.

Leaving school at 16 for employment with Vivienne Westwood, she next moved to New York to work for the influential gallerist Holly Solomon. She then returned to London to finish her A-levels and complete a fine art degree at Goldsmiths. After graduation she designed prints for the label Seraph. “Then I left there to try photography, film, a bit of everything – which led me to where I am now,” she explains. “In the last five years, I’ve focused more on working with photographers to create imagery, rather than taking pictures myself.”

Thomas’s work often has a humorous sensibility, but one that’s seldom straightforward. “There is a stylistic aspect to my work: bright colours, poppy, shiny – but at the same time something a bit wrong or disturbed. Perhaps something more to do with surrealism.” She names Man Ray and the fashion icon Elsa Schiaparelli as notable inspirations. A dress design that the latter collaborated on with Dalí in 1938 is a particular favourite. “It has this fantastic print of a rip, so the dress appears to be ripping and exposing blood and flesh underneath in a really graphic way. It’s an amazing design.”

“I’m totally in love with that period – especially the early silent films,” she continues. “I really love Jean Cocteau. But then I also really love graphic design: Milton Glaser is a massive influence, as is Alan Fletcher – and so many others. All brilliant men and women who worked to briefs but did so in such an intelligent way, and who really played around with meaning and humour.”

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HAMISH FULTON

From Floor to Sky: British Sculpture and the Studio Experience, (group show), Ambika P3, University of Westminster, London, UK. March – April

MAUREEN GALLACE

2010, Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA. February – May

LIAM GILLICK

One long walk… Two short piers...

Kunst - und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, Germany. April – August

LARS LAUMANN

Screening at MoMA, New York, USA. 10th May Kunsthalle Winterthur, Switzerland. October – November Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow, Poland. April – May

DARIA MARTIN

Three M Project: Minotaur, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA. April – July

SASKIA OLDE WOLBERS

Goetz Collection, Munich, Germany. May – September

WOLFGANG TILLMANS

Serpentine Gallery, London, UK. June – August

GERT & UWE TOBIAS

Nottingham Contemporary, UK. July – October

REBECCA WARREN

The Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago, USA. October – December the sculpture terrace, The Art Institute of Chicago, USA. October – April

GILLIAN WEARING

The Original Copy: Photography of Sculpture, 1839 to Today, (group show), MoMA, New York, USA. August – November The Talent Show, (group show), Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA. April – August Haunted: Contemporary Photography / Video / Performance, (group show), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA. March – September

JAMES WELLING

After Architects, (group show), Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland. March – May How Many Billboards? Art In Stead, (commission), MAK Center for Art + Architecture at the Schindler House, Los Angeles, USA. February – May

maureen paley. 21 Herald Street, London E2 6JT telephone: + 44 (0)20 7729 4112 fax: + 44 (0)20 7729 4113 www.maureenpaley.com