Bas Kosters

Tom Van Der Borght by Gareth A Hopkins

There was an epic queue for the Bloody Gray presentation in the Portico Rooms, presumably due to overenthusiastic distribution of the very attractive invites by Yasmina Hamaidia, I did the old go away and come back trick. Like they told me to. And walked in with no queue at all 20 minutes later. As can become the case when things claim to be ground breaking, there was a thin line between interesting and juvenile that, to my mind, some of the designers on show at Bloody Gray landed the wrong side of. Some of that ground has been broken many times before. But then far be it from me to discourage people from trying to be interesting of course, and interesting it definitely was.

First to catch my eye in the main space were the creepy powder-wigged moving statues of Jayne Pierson‘s live art and digital display. They had white tights on over their shoes. And they looked as if they were going to crawl out of a Regency dolls house in the night and strangle me. Excellent.

Jayne Pierson‘s slow moving models.

Jane Bowler, a fan of sustainable fashion and user of innovative inexpensive plastics, combined tessellating coloured squares in both her exciting dresses and shoes.

Jane Bowler by Sylwia Szyszka

I liked Tom Van Der Borght‘s theatrical setup with strip lights (obviously to make his models difficult to photograph); his garishly painted figures strike an entertaining line between tribal intimidation and colourful clownish clubland cuteness. The outfits themselves artfully combined obfuscating shapes, colour splatters and horses. It was an unusual, colourful and highly bizarre.

Tom Van Der Borght by Sylwia Szyszka

Bas Kosters

Dutch designer (among other things) Bas Kosters had filled his The Rebellious Shadow room with zombified fashion warriors, a horse headed man and such insightful slogans as YES NO and WHY. Why indeed Bas, definitely in the interesting/juvenile territory… but then what should we expect from the man who’s known for his leggings and dresses printed with photographs of penises.

Bas Kosters by Sylwia Szyszka

I’m pretty sure this is Barbara Alan, presumably explaining to someone why she has chosen to display her collection on pink posti-it notes. Her literature that came in the goody bag has one of my favourite phrases of ridiculous fashion waffle I’ve ever read: ‘Breaking from tradition by using innovation to give everything a uniqueness and an individuality.’ My GCSE art students couldn’t do better.

Written by Jenny Robins on Monday February 25th, 2013 6:07 pm

Categories ,A/W 2013, ,Barbara Alan, ,Bas Kosters, ,Bloody Gray, ,Gareth A Hopkins, ,Jane Bowler, ,Jayne Pierson, ,London Fashion Week, ,Portico Rooms, ,review, ,Sylwia Szyszka, ,The Rebellious Shadow, ,Tom Van Der Borght, ,yasmina hamaidia

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When Amelia is not managing Amelia’s Magazine she takes huge quantities of photos. You can see more of her photography on the Amelia Gregory website (which is seriously out of date, purchase you’ve been warned!) and her photos often appear in the articles she writes. She used to make a living shooting portraits and fashion stories for the likes of The Guardian, ES Magazine, Sleaze Nation, Time Out and 125 Magazine and is only too happy to accept commissions! Get in touch with Amelia and let her know what you’d like her to shoot.

Amelia is available and loves to teach. Why not ask her to lecture at your college? She has taught extensively in many top universities and has several popular lectures ready to go, including:

• How to Set Up a Magazine
• How to Put Together and Pitch Fashion Shoots
• How to Break Into the World of Editorial Illustration
• How to Work with Effectively With Art Direction
• How to Get Your Ideas Into the World With Effective Social Networking
• How Illustration Can Imagine a Better World

She is also available for seminars, conferences and as a consultant on all things creative. Email Amelia Gregory for more information.

Amelia spends a lot of time organising, networking, designing, managing print production, calling celidhs and taking photos for Climate Camp because she believes what they are doing is one of the most important things in the world.

Amelia also calls celidhs (barndances if you prefer) with her band Green Kite Midnight which was formed through friendships made at Climate Camp. Green Kite Midnight are available to play sweet celidh music wherever the cause is good enough. Amelia has been calling non-traditional celidhs (featuring a mash-up of Scottish, Irish, English and Appalachian music and dances) for several years now but her biggest celidh to date was held in the main marquee at Climate Camp 2009 on Blackheath, where she got at least 500 people dancing up a storm in perfect harmony.

Little Shilpa illustration by Aniela Murphy

The first glorious day of sunshine in about a million years unavoidably lent itself to the presupposed exotic atmosphere conjured by Blow’s presentation of five young Indian fashion designers, order but the fashion on show moved far and away beyond simply for the Indian consumer into an exhibition of creativity that was fresh, ambulance vibrant and visually nourishing.

Having taken our seats in the Royal Festival Hall, the show began with Little Shilpa and her surfeit of psychedelic accessories that due to their vastness were often threatening to topple off heads and shatter on the catwalk in a pile of plexiglass and glue, but thank goodness those vigilant models kept steady hands. As with like-minded Holly Fulton (where comparisons are inevitable) inspiration clearly came from Art Deco, with a rainbow- coloured New York City skyline perched like a merry hat, carried on like a runway train through the insect and animal kingdoms, plant life, sportswear and even some downright hazardous-looking propeller blade shoulder pads. Whilst enjoyably inventive they were set against a backdrop of miserable old white shirts, although when the only other option was a yellow lycra catsuit maybe it’s a safe bet. We look forward to seeing these in magazines rather than sitting behind somebody who’s wearing them in the cinema.

Following on was something entirely different in Saviojon, whose designs lacked the same reach of imagination but clearly was not aiming that way, with an altogether more wearable collection of ruched and pleated cotton sun dresses in warm colours. The common denominator, however, was strength in accessories with some beautifully embellished shoes and hand crafted jewellery.

Ankur Gupta illustration by Aniela Murphy

Ankur Gupta ramped it back up again, successfully creating a cultural dialogue which surely is a fertile ground as far as the arts are concerned – here we had racy hemlines and futuristic silhouettes combined with traditional Indian embroidery and beading in a stunning display of workmanship. The heavy, carpet-like textiles were stitched and worked meticulously until they resembled beautiful quilts telling stories of trips through the jungle on a magical mystery tour – literally evoked through the appearance of everybody’s favourite educational automobile, the Magic Schoolbus! With added opiates. The dresses were perfectly paired with sequined gladiator sandals in harlequin colours that were the best shoes of the evening – better, certainly, than Anuj Sharma, where poorly made footwear made for awkward times on the catwalk with models eventually ending up barefoot.

Varun Sardana illustration by Aniela Murphy

We returned to drama for the evening’s final (and already acclaimed) designer, Varun Sardana, a real favourite amongst the crowd and reminiscent of showstoppers from Viktor & Rolf and Yohji Yamamoto. With a palette of black the emphasis here was on the convolution of texture, combined with headpieces to create armour-like with an extraordinarily mythical quality, in a collection that included capes, unicorn horns and a final look that’s going to be killer for somebody on the red carpet. Darkness always wins, apparently – even in the sunshine.

Another treat from our friends at Blow, then. We then headed up onto the roof for a few drinks which was pretty bloody brilliant too.

Photographs by Yemisi Blake

Written by Jonno Ovans on Monday April 26th, 2010 4:12 pm

Categories ,Ankur Gupta, ,Anuj Sharma, ,Art Deco, ,Blow PR, ,Capes, ,Holly Fulton, ,Indian Designers, ,Little Shilpa, ,london, ,New York City, ,Royal Festival Hall, ,Saviojon, ,Sunshine, ,Texture, ,The Magic Schoolbus, ,Varun Sardana, ,Viktor & Rolf, ,Yohji Yamamoto

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