Dis
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COVER
350gsm Colorplan Gravure
PAPER Splendorgel
BINDING SIZE
210mm x 265mm
FONTS Circular Std Futura PT Volkhov Minion Pro
Screw Post Binding Two holes drilled in covers and text and bound with binding screws
PAGE COUNT PRINTING
34
HP Indigo Digital
FINISHING Trim, Score, Fold
discover y
MEETING
interview
illustration
EMILY REID
EYRUN MULLER
KIT & ACE Kit and Ace is making its mark on the industry with the engineering of technical cashmere, that yes, you can wash in the machine at 30 degrees without ruining your top, or your day. Started by Shannon Wilson and her stepson JJ, Canadian brand Kit and Ace create designs that look good and feel amazing. The brand strongly believes that time is precious and comfort is paramount.
Kit and Ace is in pursuit of the newest fabrics, tools, construction and care to constantly advance their development of Technical Luxury, and are committed to shaking up the luxury apparel game through technology and innovation. We caught up with Kit and Ace brand co-ordinator Christina Albe, to talk about the brand and other stuff.
KIT & ACE
KIT & ACE
INN There are many conversations going on in the fashion industry about there needing to be a shift in the way we consume. What is your opinion on this issue and how do you think fashion and clothing should be consumed? CHRISTINA This is a complicated issue that goes beyond what we consume on the surface. Layered underneath are the way clothes determine how we are viewed by our peers, what job we get, what partner we find, what activities we partake in. Underneath this layer is how we feel about ourselves. So where do you start? Where does the industry start? I think we’re at what is the beginning of this – acceptance of all body types, skin colours, genders, etc. as models of clothing. Hopefully this then creates a domino effect into self-satisfaction, self-expression, and therefore a move away from fast fashion into a world of slow fashion. INN What’s your advice on how brands can create a more balanced online and offline experience? CHRISTINA This is truly dependant on the goals of a brand – some brands don’t want to be all over the online world (think: Celine). For Kit and Ace, omnichannel is a crucial element to our brand as our guests live full contact lives. Full contact means they’re on the go from the moment they wake up until they put their heads on their pillow at night. To accommodate their needs, Kit and Ace is available for them via bricks and mortar and online.
INN In a culture of instant gratification, tell me why the brand’s mantra ‘Time is Precious’ is so important? CHRISTINA Exactly because of that culture. Your time is precious, you’re on the go, you have to make the most of every moment. That’s why we design our clothes the way we do – every detail has a purpose and an intention so it serves its function, the design of the fabric so it doesn’t drape, torque, pill or sag. Ever. We also believe that our generation needs to slow down sometimes which is why at our in shop supper clubs there’s one discussion, no phones, and real conversation – something that is a true luxury these days. INN Each Kit and Ace shop is distinctively local in its design and each space experience is tailored to its unique environment. Why? CHRISTINA Think global, act local. It’s crucial for any company these days to follow this mantra. There’s no way a brand can see success in a market if they don’t localise and speak the same language (figuratively) as their guests. This is why our hyper local elements (supper club table, lighting, wall art and iconic photo) are key – they’re our link to the community, we find ourselves and the start of a conversation.
We believe that our generation needs to slow down sometimes
IN CONVERSATION WITH...
In Conversation... With Martin Skelton, owner of Magazine Brighton. interview EMILY REID
MARTIN SKELTON
INN What inspired you to start Magazine Brighton? MARTIN I’ve always loved magazines. When I was nine, my two best mates and I used to publish a magazine together. I’ve always bought them and I’ve been hunting down special indie mags even before there were ‘indie’ mags. When I stopped my old job, I thought what could I give as a present to myself. I’m not interested in cars, and after Borders closed, there was nowhere to buy independent magazines in Brighton. So I just thought, let’s try and make this work, and if we could make a profit then we could help people who wanted to start their own magazines with a bit of funding.
INN That’s a really nice idea. So I read that you only stock independent magazines, why is this important to you and the shop? MARTIN So, about 90% of them are independent magazines, and our judgement of that is if they’re on the shelves at WHSmith then they’re not independent magazines. However, this is starting to change a bit with magazines like The Gentlewoman expanding and being sold in larger stores, so it’s a bit of blurred edge. Just before we opened the store my son-in-law said to me that indie mags were ‘Like vinyl, but print’. I’ve always liked people who begin things and keep them going. I love the fact that all of these are run by individual people who have a passion, and I just felt that they should be displayed properly, and that the passion people had should be represented in the shop.
INN Definitely! So I wanted to ask, how does a magazine make you feel? MARTIN I love the whole thing about it. So even if I don’t like the magazine, I love the magazine. I like the choice of paper, the fact that it’s real paper and that it hasn’t been accountancy driven, (not that there is anything wrong with that). Magazines make me feel inspired, I just kind of feed off their passion. It’s the content too: they’re packed full of ideas! If I had to say one thing about how they make me I feel, I think I would say they inspire me to do other things. I’m currently writing a book about learning and it’s hard going, but when a new magazine comes in I think, ‘Right, get home, get up there and do it’, which you don’t get from reading a Hello magazine. So yes, I would say they inspire me. In my old life I travelled a lot, and I would seek out shops like this, and although I would always buy something before I left, I would just go in most nights to feel better. These kind of shops feel like a submersion bed for my brain.
MARTIN SKELTON
INN Do you have a favourite magazine, or is that too hard to answer? MARTIN I have one or two favourites because I’ve been collecting them for a long time. I bought the first ever copy of Dumbo Feather, when it was started by a young, 26 year old woman in Australia, so I followed that all the way through, and I like Dumbo Feather because it tells stories of people who aren’t famous. I like the design, the women who started it and the storyline. I’ve got my favourites, and I don’t know if I should say this, because it’s not technically an indie magazine, but Monocle! You do feel slightly like a bit of a tosser when reading it, but because it’s got so much content, before we opened the shop we had lots of nice ideas from Monocle. My favourite magazines today would be Elephant, A New Type of Imprint and Supplement! I think it’s easier to say what don’t I like!
INN So why do you think, in a digitally-dominated society, there has been a resurgence of print? MARTIN I think there is more noise about magazines, but I wouldn’t say they were more popular. I would always search out the best independent bookstores and go and spend money there because I like those kinds of people. So what I think has happened is they’ve become more popular again among a small group of people, who really love them, because they are the balance to digital. I’m not knocking digital because when I travel, I might take one magazine with me and take my iPad that has 5 magazines on it, because on a plane you wouldn’t want to lug these magazines around. However, when I’m at home I want to smell them and touch them and lend them to friends, and give them as presents. You can’t give a magazine on an iPad as a present as they lose that sense of the real thing that they are.
INN Do you think this rise in magazine culture is making people more considerate of the content they consume? MARTIN I think the people who are more considerate are the people who opt for these kind of magazines. Now slowly, with a bit of luck, if you keep pumping these magazines out there, hopefully it will grow in time, but I don’t think it’s changing people I think it’s feeding people.
“I’ve always liked people who begin things and keep them going”.
IN CONVERSATION WITH...
INN
I like your perspective on that. So what experience do you want your customers to get out of the magazines you sell? MARTIN
I think the most important thing is that I want people to come in and feel it’s a nice space, without pressure. So I don’t mind people browsing, it’s the whole shop experience. Over the next year or two, I just want it to become one of those nice communities. I hope the people who come in who don’t know the magazines get a little bit broader and I hope we try and demonstrate the same values of the people who run the magazines. So it’s the whole experience. As for what people get from each magazine, whatever for them pleasure means. Whether it be staring at a beautiful photograph, or reading an article that makes them think differently about something, or even help them with their lifestyle. I think I want people to feel that life isn’t totally corporate and it doesn’t have to be. I’m not knocking corporate life, but showing that you can do something that you really want to do.
INN
I can imagine you are on the go a lot, what is your favourite way to slow down? MARTIN
I think you can slow down wherever you are. So even though I’m going away for work for a week, I try and slow the whole thing down. I’ll arrive two hours early at the airport, and I’ll walk to the plane, and technically I could arrive a day later, but then I wouldn’t be rested for the conference I’m doing. Sometimes I’ll go and have a massage and I meditate quite regularly, but I’m trying to get to this place of moving fast and feeling slow, and not letting it get to you.
INN
So the last thing I wanted to ask you is: what do you see for the future of print and Magazine Brighton? MARTIN
In the next 20 – 25 years I think print will be fine, in some form. I think there is evidence that independent bookstores are getting more sales and ebooks are reducing their sales. I think ebooks are useful for people who live my old lifestyle, on planes. However if you’re at home you can’t put ebooks on your shelf, you can’t decorate your house. I feel that people don’t think enough these days, we respond and make judgements way too quickly, but don’t properly think. We say technology is taking over and print is dying, and yes it probably is, but it will swing back a bit. As for the shop, we want to start sponsoring some indie mags in Brighton, I’d like a bit more space, and to share a space with people with a similar mind-set, maybe with a haircutter and a coffee shop and I’d like do more events and meetings about ideas, lots of these magazines have wonderful ideas.
CREATIVE IN RESIDENCE
DOWNHILL
REETA EK
FLOWIG
CREATIVE IN RESIDENCE
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Reeta EK specialises in textile and surface design and recently graduated her MA from Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. With a background in fine art, EK has worked in Helsinki as a freelance print designer for five years, with clients including fashion and textile brands Marimekko Lapuan Kankurit and Nanso. As her part of her final thesis, she presented a project called ‘The Sketchbook’. It contained “the fruits” of her work, her sketches. ‘The Sketchbook’ demonstrates a process and a journey that is defining to her development as a designer. Through these series of images she allows herself to relax, and let her hand guide her. It is it through this natural rhythm that she expresses herself in patterns, colours and prints, taking inspiration from everyday life. “The whole idea of the sketching process was to follow my visual expressions, and use the materials and techniques that felt good to me. I repeated the same kinds of forms again and again if I felt I needed to, and usually after a while some other idea came to my mind and I would try other things. Most of all I tried not to think too much or take it too seriously. My purpose wasn’t to make beautiful pictures, impress an audience or possible future clients, but to study the creative process and enjoy this valuable period of time. Creative people are more or less familiar with the creative process, but studying it and comparing mine to the processes of others, gave me more confidence and strengthened my identity as a designer.” words EMILY REID
FUDGE
REETA EK
PIPE REPAIR
HURRY
DOWNHILL
REETA EK
TIBBURILA
HAY BALE
IL CAMPO
REETA EK
AUGUST
THINK PIECE
FEAR OF
FA S H I O N words AISHA ARDEN
Fashion is one of the most pervasive industries in the world, with its allure heightened by an air of exclusivity. Both it’s liberating and constricting impact affects everyone. By studying and engaging in the history of fashion we gain a unique, alternative perspective into human history. We believe clothes are often reflective and representative of the society in which they are created whether or not the designers know it. So why is it dismissed as a field for the superficial and unserious? Fashion and style are hugely defining, from grime inspired street style, to the luxury fashion crowd, and those who make a deliberate statement to reject fashion altogether. The misconception we’re often confronted with is that when you care about fashion your scope of the world ends there. It is possible to care about immigration policy, the inept prison system, and structural inequality while finding time to express yourself in clothing. For many people it’s a sphere best left to (I cringe as I write this word) “The Fashonistas”, or (I’m literally quoting people I know here) “the cool/trendy people”. People shy away from the unconventional with the everyday comment “I can’t pull that off”.
FEAR OF FASHION
I have come to realise on a personal level the defining nature of style. A friend of mine commented that I “dress too edgy for an aspiring lawyer”. Tired of having this conversation I retorted with “so what does a lawyer look like, someone with no style? Or someone who wears a lot of beige or dresses like Rachel and Jessica from Suits?”. Why, when it’s your opportunity to express yourself on a daily basis, would you not take advantage of the opportunity? You can’t change your face, but you can change your clothes. Downplaying fashion is dangerous, it’s one of the most potent forms of projecting ideas; ideas on sexuality, femininity, hierarchy, and minority status. We associate it with beauty, and fashion dictates what is beautiful in ways that would be detrimental to ignore. Like most art forms it is reflective of the society we live in. Shying away from it as a field for the “superficial, and shallow” leads to a minority having an input and say in what fashion is, and therefore the way our culture is reproduced. People are characterised by what they wear, so lawyers must fit into a certain archetype, anthropologists into another, art students etc. I’m sure you can think of a few. It’s laughable that we don’t see the significance in fashion when it reproduces ideas on who we are, who we ought to be, and how we should manipulate it to fit into the career ideal we are trying to achieve. While the “more serious” reject fashion, there is a simultaneous desperation to be a part of it. The fear of being rejected and being seen as ignorant of the latest trends is telling (Watch Jimmy Kimmel Lie Witness News Fashion week edition). We have both experienced the extent people will FRONT when it comes to fashion. As soon as you concede to being a fashion enthusiast you are subjected to being asked about current seasons, seasons from 2001, and your feelings about the latest creative director at Balenciaga. It can be overwhelming; it’s a sphere which many want you to be 100% in or 100% out. Well I say too bad, I have multiple interests. It’s gonna have to be 50/50.
Discover the CULPAVINUM blog at www.culpavinum.com
MEETING
NATALIE JONES
Caro has become a destination for people seeking repose from the rapid speed of daily life. Caro encourages you to take your time, and indulge in the atmosphere of the space. Caro offers a micro B&B that boasts no ‘TV’, and an intimate store including a curated selection of objects and moments we covet in life. Whether it’s drinking coffee and sharing a slice of cake with a friend, spraying a sent that takes you somewhere nostalgic, writing lists in beautifully bound notebook or wrapping yourself in a cosy blanket. With a background working for Winkcreative and The Future Laboratory, she has taken her expertise in communications, branding and trends to create an experience that is truly innovative.
Natalie Jones Natalie Jones has created a serene space that focuses on injecting real authentic experiences back into life, and providing a service rooted with knowledge, care and attention.
illustration EYRUN MULLER
photo CARO
interview EMILY REID
NATALIE JONES
MEETING
INN There are many conversations going on about there needing to be a shift in the way we consume. What is your opinion on this issue and how do you believe fashion and lifestyle products should be consumed? NATALIE I am a believer that good design should be available to all. However, the manufacturing of ideas through cheap materials has had an impact on quality and the value of craft. INN What is your opinion on fast fashion and the future of fashion? NATALIE So much of what designers or brands do is immediately available to everyone. As a result, consumers are not willing to wait anymore and the behaviour of anticipation has been lost. Creativity is also lost in its wake and laziness is enforced. I think we need to bring back the element of surprise and make design a talent again. INN How do you create a balanced online and offline experience for your brand? NATALIE I’m still working this one out. I have been concentrating my efforts on the offline experience because I feel we need an injection of real, intimate life. My online presence is quite limited for now whilst I establish the personality behind my brand. I like being in the shop every day and meeting my customers in person and get an idea of who they are.
NATALIE JONES
INN You state that your “ethos is to provide a service rooted with knowledge, care and attention.” How do you do this? NATALIE It is important that I know about the details behind the brands that CARO supports. I hope for my customers to feel welcomed when they visit but also that they are being tended to in an individual and unobtrusive way. Combining a retail space with a place to relax over a hot drink enables this to happen more effortlessly. Customer service can too often be forced and uncomfortable. INN How do you select products for Caro when curating your shop space? NATALIE I try to consider the concept of everyday luxury, combining pleasing design and function with ‘occasion’ buying. I also have a scaled pricing ladder so that guests can purchase something from £3 to £250. INN Do you believe in a ‘slower’ way of life being a more fulfilling lifestyle? If so, how do you offer this through Caro? NATALIE A slower life has been a more fulfilling life for me, and a slower life does not mean an idle life. Giving yourself time to have space-of-mind often leads to ideas which are less contrived and rewarding.
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