peut ĂŞtre SpecialIssue issue42
The London Issue
peut-ĂŞtre
Spijkers en Spijkers
Inbar Spector
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CONTENTS
Special Issue 2 - The London Issue
Backstage at Elisa Palomino
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A WORD FROM THE EDITOR INTERVIEW Inbar Spector BEHIND THE SCENES Inbar Spector BEHIND THE SCENES Fam Irvoll INTERVIEW Leutton Postle EXCLUSIVE ARTWORK Leutton Postle for Peut-être BEHIND THE SCENES Dans La Vie INTERVIEW Elisa Palomino BEHIND THE SCENES Elisa Palomino AT HOME WITH Elisa Palomino CONTRIBUTORS
On our cover : Inbar Spector laser cut bodysuit. Jewellery mask Lara Jensen.
Spijkers en Spijkers
A WORD FROM THE EDITOR
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About one and a half years ago I was in the Saint James and Albany Hotel in Paris, looking for a designer’s presentation for which I had an invitation for, and got lost in the labyrinth of the corridors. I accidently came across another showroom and discovered Elisa Palomino’s work; her Fairy Dance Spring/Summer 2012 collection was beautiful. I spoke to her and told her how much I loved her work. We kept in touch, and a few months later I found out she had moved from New York to London, and kicked myself for having missed her London show at Freemason’s Hall. I couldn’t wait for the next show and booked my Eurostar ticket as soon as the show’s date was confirmed. I had always dreamed of going to London. Even though it is so close to Paris, and so easy to get to, I had never been there until then, in February 2012. I was so excited to go to Portobello market, visit the Victoria & Albert Museum - especially the fashion section, sit at the front of the red buses I randomly took for days and nights to visit the city. Even buying iced buns at Marks & Spencer and bringing back boxes of tea for my friends made me happy! Elisa Palomino welcomed me in her house and I felt like a privileged guest who witnessed so much beauty and soul concentrated in the one place.The night before her show, Elisa stopped the fittings to put an apron on her Chinese brocade satin jacket and cooked a delicious meal. She served it in delicate odd vintage plates for all her friends that came over to support her and were so excited to preview her collection. I shared with them a very precious moment and I’ll never forget that. Vauxhall Fashion Scout opened their doors to me and I’m so grateful. I was expecting the shows to be very different from Paris: crazy, eccentric, colourful, full of energy, and it was all that. Maybe it was the pleasure of a stereotyped vision, but London was exactly how I expected it to be, and I loved it.
Nathalie Malric, creative director.
All images copyright © Nathalie Malric unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part without permission from the publisher. Copyright Peut-Être magazine 2011-2012
INTERVIEW
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Inbar Spector Fashion designer
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With four excellence of achievement awards under her fashion belt, Israel’s Shenkar College graduate Inbar Spector has won international acclaim with her incredible fashion designs. In France, models walked on ice for the collection she presented for the Les Chiffons de Diamant Award, and she was a finalist in Japan’s New Designer Fashion Grand Prix. Not all fashion designers can boast a military background, but Inbar Spector can; now based in London, she chats to Peut-Etre about the inspirations and influences behind her edgy designs. Interview Nathalie Malric - Translation Clarice Chian
Peut-Être: How did your desire to be a fashion designer come about? Inbar Spector: It was something that was always in me, I always had a love/hate relationship with fashion and decided to develop it after my army service. What inspires you in general, and what was the inspiration for your recent collection? I’m inspired by body modifications and the definition of beauty. In all my collections you can find references to these subjects. For the Autumn/Winter 2012 collection I used visions of fairytale, manga, dreams and circus clowns. The collection incorporates lace, silks and perforated faux leather in a palette that includes: smoked pink, light green, nude colour and gold. I also used ruffles for detailing to represent the utopian nature of my collection. Does your Israeli heritage have a big influence on your work? I’m sure there is a great deal of influences from my Israeli culture. In Israel the weather is always warm and I feel very comfortable designing summer coloured clothes. I also served in the Israeli army, which brings a dark combat twist to my style. But I think the most significant influence of my Israeli roots is the fact that I am a Jewish person who lives and work in Europe, only 60 years after the Second World War. I read an interview with Lara Jensen, who was the accessory designer of your latest collection, and said that her jewellery pieces were being styled with your clothes in different shoots. Many people thought you worked well together. When did you decide to contact her and did you have a defined idea of your collaboration? I had this idea of designing masks a long time ago; I have sketches in my sketchbook of masks since my Spring/Summer 2009 collection. This season I decided that this was the right collection to actually use these designs and I asked Lara to make them for me.
Which fashion icon would you love to dress? I have been dressing many fashion icons until today, and I feel very privileged to dress them. It was a huge honour to dress Florence Welch from Florence + Machine in her latest video clip - Spectrum - that was shot by David LaChapelle. In the future, I would love to dress Björk and PJ Harvey, and recently I fell in love with Yolandi Visser, I think she relates with body modification too and I feel very related to her style.
“For the Autumn / Winter 2012 collection I used visions of fairytale, manga, dreams and circus clowns�
BEHIND THE SCENES Jewellery masks by Lara Jensen
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Inbar Spector Ready - To - Wear Fall Winter 2012/2013
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Israeli designer Inbar Spector’s signature look combines complex constructions and intellectual elegance with avant-garde silhouettes, crinolines, and corsets in rich fabrics such as lace and silks. For her Autumn/Winter 2012 collection, her trademark cascading shapes and romantic tulle skirts were teamed with intricate and ruffled tops, voluminous charcoal pinstripe or black gingham jackets and coats, layered over metallic laser-cut faux-leather bodysuits. Drawing inspiration from many sources, Inbar keeps many of the same themes from season to season, but the main inspiration for her Autumn/Winter 2012 collection was escapism, escapism from winter, from its darkness and heaviness, using images of the whimsical world of fairytales and dreams. In place of last season’s dark collection, this season Inbar showed a playful collection, using a lot of colour in a soft palette with rich metallics such as gold, to lift us from winter, saying: “I want to have fun because fashion is not serious”. Inbar also took inspiration from the body and body modification, such as plastic surgery, “The dissatisfaction from our body drives us to change it, and I see this as a way of escapism. I was always fascinated by plastic surgeries, so I wanted to make a collection that will mix the body and the garment, and to deal with this way of escapism”, said Inbar Spector. To this end, Inbar featured laser cut fabrics, exploring where the body ends and the garment begins, so that the material is almost woven into the skin: “By not accepting nature, we are trying to force it to look idealistic.” Looking to “mix the body and the garment”, Inbar also created delicate spider-web lace for sheer sleeves, ethereal voluminous and cascading skirts in copious tulle and concertina ruffles, all in a palette of smoked pinks, pastel greens and rich gold. Bejewelled facemasks designed by milliner and costume designer Lara Jensen covered the models’ faces to show contrast: “On the one hand we have playfulness and escapism but in contrast to this we mask and we hide. They create a border between us and others and the world.” Inspired by vibrant colours, tattoos, Arabian culture, fragility and Fabergé, these breathtaking headpieces were the perfect esoteric accessories to complement Inbar’s fantastical fairytale collection, reaffirming the flight of her imagination.
Clarice Chian
BEHIND THE SCENES
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Fam Irvoll Ready - To - Wear Fall Winter 2012/2013
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Born and raised in Oslo, Norwegian designer Fam Irvoll graduated from Esmod International in 2005, and later from Central St Martins in London in 2008, and has worked as an assistant for designers such as Vivienne Westwood, Gareth Pugh and Norwegian designer Peter Løchstøer. Currently based in London, Fam Irvoll finds inspiration in Alice in Wonderland, cartoons, toys, food, cakes and candy. Her unique designs are playful, brightly coloured and exciting in terms of fabric use, sequins, beadwork and her well-known 3D knitwear and cartoon elements. Fam’s aptly named ‘Monstermash’ collection was inspired by the 80’s movie Ghostbuster, and featured strange monster or octopus cartoons printed onto trousers, blazers and dresses in pastel colours, and were also present as small 3D objects used as clasps at the top of collars or even as larger forms engulfing the models in googly eyes and floating tentacles. Printed floaty dresses were paired with varsity jackets and oversized textured shirts layered over an assortment of pastel coloured leggings or stockings, with creeper platform shoes that matched the patterns and colours on the clothes. The fun and playful collection extended to its textures, such as skirts embellished with pearls or layered felt monsters. With bold pastel makeup and googly eyed nails, models walked down the runway with paper cut-outs of oversized mouths covering their own lips, and quirky hairstyles with coloured hair extensions. To close the show, Fam sent out three young girls down the catwalk to model the last few looks with neon eye shadow and bright lips, perhaps representing the child within us all.
Clarice Chian
INTERVIEW
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Leutton Postle Sam Leutton & Jenny Postle - Fashion designers
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Sam Leutton and Jenny Postle both studied at Central Saint Martins before making their debut together at London Fashion Week in September 2011 with their luxury knitwear label Leutton Postle, which is currently stocked exclusively at Browns Focus, London. Drawing on a range of influences to design craft-led collections that are unconstrained by trends, Leutton Postle incorporates colour, unusual surface texture and rich pattern to create delightfully innovative knits for women, with extraordinary attention to detail in each garment. It is with this incredible attention to detail and creativity that the duo behind Leutton Postle created an exclusive appliqué artwork for Peut-être, inspired by their latest collection and using Peut-être’s logo. The incredible finished product is so special and beautiful not only at the front, but also on the back. The designing duo share with Peut-être how it all began. Interview Nathalie Malric - Translation Clarice Chian
Peut-Être: How long have you known each other, and how did you meet? Leutton Postle: We have known each other for 7 years now; we did our BA together at Central Saint Martins. Did you get along pretty quickly? We actually also did our foundation together at CSM, but we weren’t friends until the BA, when we kept getting put in the same groups. After that then yes, we started living together in 2nd year and have lived together since! When did you decide to have your own label? Last year, in April 2011. Jenny had graduated from her MA and had an order from Browns Focus. At the same time, I (Sam) had been freelancing and wanted to dedicate more time to designing, it was a natural transition for us both really. Does each one of you have a very precise role in the creating process? It’s quite blurred - each of us sketches, samples and tests separately, all the while bringing our ideas together, re-hashing and mixing them up, until we have something which has a part of each of us in it. We play to our own strengths. What is inspiring you at the moment? Traditional patterning, we always like to mess things up. It’s good to look through old textile books and jazz up techniques, make them more modern. That’s all we’ll give away for now watch this space! Eurovision is your favourite moment of the year. What do you like about it? It’s super camp, over the top and fabulous. It’s pure comedy and, for us, the ultimate entertainment. This year we held a party in a dingy basement club, everyone dressed as their chosen country and screamed, a lot.
What do you think about the contestants costumes? They are varied. Some are hilarious, some are tragic, some people don’t try hard enough and the rest get it completely wrong, but there’s definitely a lot of creativity involved. The absolute best Eurovision costume EVER is Verka Serduchka, a Ukranian drag queen who came second in 2007. How would do define your label? For someone with a sense of humour. Our clothes are really about just having a good time. It’s for someone like us who just loves colour, loves pattern, and has a real appreciation for textile techniques. How far would you like to go in knitwear? We love knitwear, we are both knitwear designers at the heart of everything and I’m sure there will always be a knitwear element to anything we do. At the moment we are obsessing over pushing and pushing to break new ground in terms of the technical side, but that doesn’t mean to say it will always be that way… I suppose we’re just going to have to wait and see! If you had “carte blanche” to dress the Queen for the Jubilee, what would you imagine her to wear? Now that is a difficult question! My instant reaction would be to just go crazy with it! BUT, as someone who loves the Queen, I would want to respect her wishes! It would have to be an artistic compromise… Where would you like to see your brand in the future? Just growing and getting stronger… We’d love to do some collaborations both in fashion and also interiors and just see where the wind takes us.
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Exclusive artwork by Leutton Postle for Peut-ĂŞtre
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“Our clothes are really about just having a good time. It’s for someone like us who just loves colour, loves pattern, and has a real appreciation for textile techniques”
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Back of exclusive artwork by Leutton Postle for Peut-ĂŞtre
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BEHIND THE SCENES
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Dans La Vie Ready - To - Wear Fall Winter 2012/2013
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Japanese designer Rira Sugarawa cited Andy Warhol as the main inspiration for her ‘Exciting Encounter’ collection, combining 60’s American Pop Art with the spiritual character of Kukai, a Japanese high priest, glossy fabrics and striking silhouettes. The daughter of an artist, Sugawara was predestined to study art from an early age. During her education in Art and Art History at Waseda University, she developed a passion for creating print designs, wearing pop art, and a fascination with Andy Warhol, all of which was evident in this collection. Known for her unusual prints, Sugawara presented dresses sporting everything from flamingos to classic checkerboard, masterfully combining an array of 60’s pop art and art historical references, including Renaissance paintings in her complex, busy and bold collage prints. These included Jasper Jones’ Target’ painting from the late 1960’s (not only on the clothes, but also as a striking fascinator), Roy Lichtenstein’s Brush Stroke’ and ‘Explosion’ prints, Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Virgin of the Rocks’, and off cuts from Japanese prints and cherubs. Sugawara chose cotton, leather and stretch materials, python and kooky prints to depict what strong women would wear, with a thin vinyl coating material to add an element of kitsch. These were fashioned into head to toe printed suits, hooded jackets with their zips going all the way up and around the hood, and trench coats with nipped waists and full skirts. A sense of femininity and luxury was injected to the rock and roll outlook with black tulle underskirts, chiffon, leopard fur collars, and knitted linings. The bold colour palette of orange and purple, bright yellows and turquoise was toned down with black, grey or nude jackets paired with bright trousers and dresses. With their hair in windswept neon-highlighted curled and coiffed up do’s, bold makeup and mirrored circular neon sunglasses, models strutted down the runway like a futuristic Marilyn Monroe in a comic book.
Clarice Chian
INTERVIEW
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Elisa Palomino Fashion designer
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After graduating from Central Saint Martin’s College, Elisa Palomino worked for Moschino, John Galliano (for 8 years as Head of the Studio), Christian Dior Haute Couture, Roberto Cavalli and Diane Von Furstenberg before launching her own eponymous line. Elisa Palomino’s signature style embraces rich textures, vivid colours and statement prints. Stunningly feminine and decadently detailed, the collections layer luxurious fabrics with heavily embellished surfaces. Born in Spain, Elisa grew up in a family of artists where her mother restored renaissance paintings in the attic, so historicism is part of her background as well as Asia, geishas in particular, always a source of inspiration for each collection, evident in all her shapes, prints, hand embroideries and her large collection of kimonos. Now based in London, Elisa opened the doors of her character-filled four-storied house to Peut-être, where we found it reflects not only her personality, upbringing and signature style, but also housed the inspiration behind her latest collection. Interview Nathalie Malric - Translation Clarice Chian
Peut-Être: After working for fashion houses like John Galliano, what convinced you to have your own label? Elisa Palomino: When I stopped working with John it made me realize how much I missed working for such a creative individual, and such a fantastic human being. Every day I longed for those beautiful clothes and fantastic ideas that we used to put together at the studio. I thought it was time to make my own collection and start making beautiful things again. I guess it’s harder because you have to deal with so many different things, but how fulfilling is it to have control over your own vision? It is wonderful to be able to have your vision in every single aspect of the collection, from prints, to hair and make up or the music of the show, other aspects like the sales or finances are not always quite as rewarding, but are part of the process too. How would do define your label? It is a collection of romantic feminine pieces where I try to soften the present with poetic dreams of the past. What inspired you for the Fall Winter 2012/2013 collection? The collection was inspired by Florine Stettheimer, a poet, painter and designer of the avant-garde New York of the 1930’s; she was a fashionable, furiously chic woman ahead of her time. Can you tell me more about the headpieces? Laura and Angel Fernandez designed them, I have been working with them since the beginning, they are a magic pair of milliners and they translate perfectly all my dreams in the most delicate headpieces.
“It is wonderful to be able to have your vision in every single aspect of the collection, from prints, to hair and make up or the music of the show”
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You offered tiny bottles of perfume you have created for your last show. What is the fragrance? There were two fragrances, ‘Rendezvous’, which is a floral base with strong tuberose notes, and ‘Forbidden’, oriental with lots of amber. I created them jointly with David Harrison, a fabulous British painter with an amazing sensibility for scents. Would you like to release your own perfume? It would be a dream to be able to make them come true. Your house is incredibly inspiring, full of chinoiseries, lovely small objects from vintage shops and presents from friends. How long have you been living here and can you tell me more about all those beautiful things surrounding you? I have only been living here for a year, but since I am such a gypsy, every time I arrive in a new destination, I unfold all my textiles, hang kimonos and Chinese pottery so I can feel at home for as long as I would stay… which is always totally unpredictable. Anja Van Kragh made the embroidered chair; we both worked at Galliano for years and shared a fantastic job and aesthetics. It was a birthday present that she specially made for me. All my china collection comes from my grandmother and great-grandmother, and I have been adding extra pieces from all my Asian travels. The bathroom is bright fuchsia, the most flattering colour to the skin according to Barbara Cartland… I love looking myself in the mirror first thing in the morning… you always look great! The chandeliers are all my mother’s presents, they are renaissance and I love the decadent wax falling from them… I use them in all my rituals.
How many floors are there? It seems you travel into very different worlds when you go from a floor to another. There are four floors and yes, I tried to recreate different stories in each floor, the studio is flame red, the staircases are covered with a geisha landscape and all my Japanese wall hangings, the bedroom is all white and is full of all the portraits that my friends and students have made of me over the years, like Howard Tanguy, a tutor from St Martins, and Adrien Beau, a dear friend and film director. How does it feel to live and work in the same place? I love going up and down and I work twenty-four hours a day, so it is quite handy to have the studio at home. Where would you like to see your brand in the future? I would love to start making costumes for the opera; I am fascinated by the baroque period and would love to mix my passion for ancient music with fashion.
BEHIND THE SCENES Headpieces by Laura and Angel Fernandez
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Elisa Palomino Ready - To - Wear Fall Winter 2012/2013
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Inspired by the book of poems “Crystal Flowers” by early-modernist poet, designer, painter and eccentric socialite Florine Stettheimer, designer Elisa Palomino takes us to the avant-garde New York salons of the 1920s and 30s frequented by Florine and her two sisters, with an exotic combination of evening gowns in luxurious devoré velvets, silks and chiffons, alongside 1920’s inspired flowing coats extravagantly embroidered with butterfly and floral embellishments and rose brocades. Elisa’s earliest fashion memory is of herself dressing up in her grandmother’s attic, where she would perform in her grandmother’s kimono. Elisa’s love for kimonos has grown since then, and the geisha and her style is always the first image Elisa refers to when creating her collections. As such, stunning Chinese and Japanese embroidered motifs appeared on kimono-inspired Alcantara overcoats, soft fur coats, and floor skimming gowns; while bold and oversized floral marquetry in bright fuchsia and orange embellished transparent blacks. Opulent velvets were fashioned into rosettes on 20’s style tunic dresses, or on a black velvet coat, whilst 1930’s silhouettes were embellished with ostrich feathers and intricate sequin designs. Believing that colours are sacred and should be venerated, Elisa’s colour palette was vibrant and exotic, with fuchsia, deep orange and purple, vivid yellow and cerise shades combined with elegant black, and leopard prints. These vivid colours extended to the models’ fluorescent pink and purple wigs, styled with finger waves; while striking make-up was applied in similar colours, with fierce eyebrows and vibrant pops of colour on the lips. To top off the looks models walked down the runway in bold-coloured marabou boas by Zoe Sherwood and avant-garde headpieces with oversized flowers and netting, as well as fantastical birds and flowerpots, unquestionably encapsulating the avant-garde temperament and style of the Stettheimer sisters with eccentric elegance.
Clarice Chian
AT HOME WITH
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Elisa Palomino
Collage by Anja Van Kragh
Birthday present by Anja Van Kragh
MENTIONS LÉGALES Peut-Être Magazine Nathalie Malric 181-183 boulevard Voltaire 75011 Paris IMPRESSION Studio Pixart Srl Unipersonale Via Aquilonia, 4 interno 7 00177 ROMA RM ITALIA Paru septembre 2012 Dépôt légal septembre 2012 28,00 euros France Métropolitaine ISSN 2259-1427
Inbar Spector
CONTRIBUTORS
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FOUNDER EDITOR IN CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER Nathalie Malric FASHION AND LIFESTYLE WRITER EDITOR Clarice Chian ART DIRECTOR Olivier Bousquet www.peutetremagazine.com contact@peutetremagazine.com WISH LIST Dans La Vie : www.danslavie.co.jp Elisa Palomino : www.elisapalomino.com Fam Irvoll : www.famirvoll.com Inbar Spector : www.inbarspector.com Leutton Postle : leuttonpostle.com Spijkers En Spijkers : spijkersenspijkers.nl Vauxhall Fashion Scout : www.vauxhallfashionscout.com
First edition
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Elisa Palomino