Dazed and Confused – AmeliasMagazine

Amelia’s Magazine | Jasper Garvida: London Fashion Week S/S 2012 Preview Interview, part one

Jasper Garvida S/S 2012 illustration by Aliyah Hussain

There is nothing I love more than a designer that approaches their creations like an artist about to create a masterpiece that’s also flattering and wearable. One designer that does all of this as well as constantly surprise is Jasper Garvida.

A favourite of Amelia’s Magazine with a flurry of adoring reviews such as this last one on his current Autumn/Winter 2011 collection. A graduate of Central Saint Martins and winner of Sky One’s Project Catwalk show, generic Jasper caught the attention of stylists and editors alike. I visited his studio ahead of unveiling his Spring/Summer 2012 collection at London Fashion Week, which is inspired by Fashion Editor legend Diana Vreeland and a painting by artist Frantisek Kupka. We chatted about style, what women want in an outfit and Kate Middleton with a peek at the new collection illustrated by some very talented people.

Jasper in his studio, photograph by Alia Gargum Jasper at the sewing machine by Alia Gargum

You’ve been a real rising star of fashion (with a glowing graduate show review from Hillary Alexander, Fashion Editor of the Telegraph while the complete collection was bought out by Nicola Formachetti, previous editor of Dazed and Confused, and a firm Amelia’s Magazine favourite with your feminine, embellished, yet strong creations. Looking over your career so far and your upcoming Spring/Summer 2012 collection how can you describe the journey of the Jasper Garvida brand?
I was so surprised when Nicola Formachetti, Lady Gaga’s stylist of all people, bought my entire graduate collection. My friend Gareth Pugh introduced me to Nicola, who fell in love with the collection and sold it in Japan as well as using it for different publications at the time, giving my work great exposure that led to bigger things. I was incredibly privileged to have met him and the Dazed team, which made me realise that I wanted to do more. I then started creating collections for Alternative Fashion Week, and as every collection I created sold, I realised ‘there’s something going on here’. So I just kept rolling with the collections, although I originally never had the intention of having my own label.

Past collections hanging in the studio

Studying at Central Saint Martins was an incredible experience, where you are pushed into being more creative, but in terms of commercial design this can’t always be realistic. So I next worked for the high street, designing for different labels such as Evans, Wallis, and Miss Selfridge, creating clothes for different body shapes and age ranges. I took me a while to understand what the average woman looks like and what would flatter them. I learnt about cut, what skirt length that average woman would prefer and things like how a maximum neckline drop of 18cm is sexy, and beyond that is a no-no. I also found out how to flatter a fuller figure, because bigger women need to feel sexy too. This got me into the habit of looking at women on the tube, in the street, asking myself, ‘how can I make it better for them?’ thinking about what they need and what they want. However, working for high street brands made me miss the whole creative process of having your own label, and for a while I felt a little lost as a designer. As you know, the high street relies heavily on trends and I really wanted to do something of my own. I then figured out that the only way to do this was to open my own company and combine all my experiences so far. So I started the brand in November 2008, and it has taken a while to build up the label. In the beginning we thought about figuring out a gap in the market and where we would have liked the label to go, experimenting as we went along. I now feel very positive about S/S 2012 and that this season is our strongest. The collection is the direction in which I want to head and I feel that this is delivering what our customers wanted to see more of.

More previous collections

How does a collection begin in the mind of Jasper Garvida?
I always start a collection based on how I feel at the time, absorbing what’s going on and thinking about what’s going to happen in the future. For some reason I have this intuitive ability to tell what’s going to happen in fashion or what colour will be next. I think you learn that from working in the industry and especially from working for high-street brands where you’ve got to know what the next big thing is. I always ask myself, ‘what do women need now?’ and this is something that always changes, which is good. Fashion is like a cycle, from day to night, always moving. If it doesn’t change it becomes dated, but style is something that always remains.

Jasper Garvida S/S '12 illustrations Illustrations of the S/S ’12 collection by Jasper Garvida.

When I started the S/S 2012 collection I looked at what was happening in fashion at the time, and I noticed a lot of colour. It was also a time in my life where I felt that the absence of colour for summer wasn’t a bad thing, and I felt so strongly about black and white, which isn’t something I’ve done before. For me black and white symbolises purity, and opposites, which has always been a theme in what I do. I never like to be in-between, I always feel like ‘if you’re going to do more, do more, if you’re going to do less, do less’, but never in-between as I feel that it’s average and I like exploring different extremes. Black and white together also create balance, and at this time in my life I’ve found balance. When I came back from Paris, feeling like this, I immediately painted the entire flat black and all my furniture white, so I kind of lived it. I wanted to share that experience with everyone through the S/S 2012 collection. I also find that when I am bombarded with colours it’s hard to think, and sometimes I just want to breathe and have a moment where I can be calm. Afterwards, I can start again and return to colours. So I feel that this collection is not only a reflection of me as a person but me as a designer, and hopefully it is another step forward.

More gorgeously detailed S/S ’12 illustrations by Jasper
There has been an intelligence and depth to every collection you’ve created; inspired by artistic movements, literature, and always a celebration of the female form and femininity. As you have grown as a designer what have you found most inspiring about women?
I grew up with three sisters (six siblings in total) whom I was very close to, as well as my mum, which gave me a great amount of respect for women. And being gay as well, I feel that I have a huge admiration for women, sometimes I want to be one! I feel that the most important thing I discovered about women is that there is strength there. Women have been undervalued for years, and it’s been said that they’re not strong individuals, so I always try to promote the strength of women. For years women have fought for equality with movements like the Women’s Liberation Front and other campaigns towards women’s rights. My mother is such a strong person and is a huge inspiration to me. I didn’t grow up in a rich background; I am from a working class family and I saw my mother bring up my brothers and sisters and me with this incredible inner strength. She’s a real working class woman who managed to look after her family while making the effort to dress up for parties at the same time. I am still in awe of how women find the time to do this; I’m baffled by it. I know as a guy, I wake up, don’t even comb my hair and just throw something on. Women still have a lot of pressure imposed on them to look like they’ve made an effort with their appearance, so my admiration for them continually grows.

Find out more about how the collection came together in the second part of the Jasper Garvida S/S ’12 London Fashion Week preview interview.

Written by Alia Gargum on Thursday September 15th, 2011 6:49 pm

Categories ,Alia Gargum, ,Aliyah Hussain, ,Alternative Fashion Week, ,Amelia Gregory, ,Central Saint Martins, ,Dazed and Confused, ,Diana Vreeland, ,Evans, ,Frantisek Kupka, ,Gareth A Hopkins, ,Gareth Pugh, ,jasper garvida, ,Kate Middleton, ,Lady Gaga, ,lfw, ,London Fashion Week, ,Miss Selfridge, ,Nicola Formachetti, ,preview, ,S/S 2012, ,Sam Parr, ,Spring/Summer 2012, ,Wallis, ,Womenswear, ,Women’s Liberation Front

Amelia’s Magazine | Alex Box: Ugly Beautiful

Make-up is all too often considered to be merely a technique used to enhance natural attributes: from the day to day beauty-conscious girl on the street, or for flawless skin under stage spot lights. It is all about the pretty.

Not, however, for Alex Box, make-up and artist extraordinaire currently exhibiting a collaboration of images created with the photographer Rankin at the Annroy Gallery in Kentish Town. Testing and subverting the traditional conception of beauty and make-up, Box’s work is known for leading the pack in experimental beauty. Having played with performance and sculpture at Chelsea, and worked at i.D, Dazed & Confused, Another Magazine and V, her CV reads like a fashion leader to watch (with self-pronounced comparisons to Gareth Pugh). Launching a book (The Make-Up Artist) to coincide with the collection, Box’s star is most certainly on the rise.

The photography displayed in the show capture strange, haunted but eerily beautiful images of women. Through featuring alien-esque, exotic creatures, the collection interrogates our ideas of “normal” and “pretty”.

Make-up focuses heavily on full-painted faces, big bad sky scraping lashes and outlined lips. With black and white geishas sitting alongside faces spray-painted kaleidoscopic colours and golden sprayed hues, Box’s work questions what is beautiful.

The works ask what is traditionally accepted as pretty, whilst showing harrowing images of those mortals who are over-sunned, under-fed and suffering from a range of general diseases. These photographs question man’s mortality through the skeleton theme and joker lips evocative of Heath Ledger’s eponymous role.

This is a serious show; you can see the influence of her young Goth days in the mask-like quality of the make-up; that idea of putting on a face that represents an entire frame of mind or mood.

To counteract the seriousness, the show includes positive images of weird and wonderfully strange beauty; celebrating the foreign, the unique and the variety of types of beautiful. Aside from the obvious geisha references and plays on colour, there were alien creatures straight out of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory or a Tim Burton film.

With paisley printed blue and pink cheeks extending around the eyes, and delicate golden dotted freckles painted underneath batting lashes, these girls were pretty like something out of Japanese anime. One face was disco-punk-neon-rave, with a crazy combo of bright and vivid shades splashed like a spirograph across the face.

Box stated in an interview with Katie Shillingford that the accompanying exhibition book is a diary of beauty, reflecting different moods and day to day inspirations; the contrasting images of bright young things bordering on the cute with darker, sombre creatures perfectly captures the idea of a personal storyboard.

Box’s take on make-up and beauty is thoroughly refreshing and ultimately extremely important at the moment. Refusing to fit into the mould of a typical make-up artist, she combines her own art background with her current field of work, painting faces instead of improving them through ‘tricks’ of make-up. In a world dominated by debates surrounding beauty, the fashion industry, model sizes, skin bleaching, photo editing and advertising ploys, Box’s work refuses to pinpoint what beauty is, but instead highlights the many forms it may take.

The Exhibition finishes on the 22 November and is located at the following address:

Annroy Gallery
110-114 Grafton Street
Kentish Town,
London, NW5 4BA
United Kingdom

The book is available from Turnaround and at all good book stores

Written by Becky Cope on Monday November 2nd, 2009 3:55 pm

Categories ,Alex Box, ,Annroy Gallery, ,Another Magazine, ,Dazed and Confused, ,Gareth Pugh, ,goth, ,ID, ,Katie Shillingford, ,Make-up, ,Pat McGrath, ,Rankin

Amelia’s Magazine | Leon Diaper: Photographer Spotlight

With a passion for the natural world and the understanding that things
are going the wrong way, capsule Wietse started getting involved with activism
in his Dutch homeland at the age of 15. Putting himself in harms way to
defend the defenceless didn’t get him the school grades his parents had
hoped for, ed but it set the tone for the years ahead. After moving to the
UK and studying at the Newark Violin Making School in Nottinghamshire,
his activism focused on direct action, creative activism and community
media. He is a founding member of the community media outlet Notts
Indymedia, the Riseup! Radio project and the art activist collective the
Mischief Makers. In the last two years his focus has moved towards ocean
conservation and he currently lives and works as ship’s carpenter on the
Steve Irwin, the ship operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Wietse’s hobbies include sewing, embroidery and drawing.

www.mischiefmakers.org.uk
www.seashepherd.org
With a passion for the natural world and the understanding that things
are going the wrong way, erectile Wietse started getting involved with activism
in his Dutch homeland at the age of 15. Putting himself in harms way to
defend the defenceless didn’t get him the school grades his parents had
hoped for, but it set the tone for the years ahead. After moving to the
UK and studying at the Newark Violin Making School in Nottinghamshire,
his activism focused on direct action, creative activism and community
media. He is a founding member of the community media outlet Notts
Indymedia, the Riseup! Radio project and the art activist collective the
Mischief Makers. In the last two years his focus has moved towards ocean
conservation and he currently lives and works as ship’s carpenter on the
Steve Irwin, the ship operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Wietse’s hobbies include sewing, embroidery and drawing.

www.mischiefmakers.org.uk
www.seashepherd.org
With a passion for the natural world and the understanding that things
are going the wrong way, information pills Wietse started getting involved with activism
in his Dutch homeland at the age of 15. Putting himself in harms way to
defend the defenceless didn’t get him the school grades his parents had
hoped for, but it set the tone for the years ahead. After moving to the
UK and studying at the Newark Violin Making School in Nottinghamshire,
his activism focused on direct action, creative activism and community
media. He is a founding member of the community media outlet Notts
Indymedia, the Riseup! Radio project and the art activist collective the
Mischief Makers. In the last two years his focus has moved towards ocean
conservation and he currently lives and works as ship’s carpenter on the
Steve Irwin, the ship operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Wietse’s hobbies include sewing, embroidery and drawing.

www.mischiefmakers.org.uk
www.seashepherd.org
With a passion for the natural world and the understanding that things
are going the wrong way, approved Wietse started getting involved with activism
in his Dutch homeland at the age of 15. Putting himself in harms way to
defend the defenceless didn’t get him the school grades his parents had
hoped for, sildenafil but it set the tone for the years ahead. After moving to the
UK and studying at the Newark Violin Making School in Nottinghamshire,
his activism focused on direct action, creative activism and community
media. He is a founding member of the community media outlet Notts
Indymedia, the Riseup! Radio project and the art activist collective the
Mischief Makers. In the last two years his focus has moved towards ocean
conservation and he currently lives and works as ship’s carpenter on the
Steve Irwin, the ship operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Wietse’s hobbies include sewing, embroidery and drawing.

www.mischiefmakers.org.uk
www.seashepherd.org
All photographs courtesy of Leon Diaper

Leon Diaper is a 23-year-old very talented photographer hailing from New Forest. Leon graduated last summer from the art institute of Bournemouth where he had studied a BA in Commercial Photography. He is now trying his luck in the big city of London.

Valerie Pezeron: Hello Leon, malady how are you getting on living in London?

Leon Diaper: I am trying to make my way with everyone else, health doing my own work. I have a day job to earn money in American Apparel at the moment. This is all right. I have a few friends who work there. I needed a job when I came to London and this is better than the bar job I used to have back home, with crazy hours. It does not make you particularly productive.

VP: Why commercial photography?

LD: If you want to make a living, the course I did was more grounded than the other photography BA a few of my friends did. Theirs was a really open-ended and really fine art based course. It wasn’t anything I liked, looked at or ventured towards. With my course, I could do fashion, documentary and you get 6 weeks to do a project in anything you want. I was shown how you could sell your work and get it published.

VP: So you did work for Dazed and Confused? How did that come about?

LD: Just band stuff and portraits, which is always nice to do. Normally I would email them, just annoy people and then call. Most of the time, clients you approach are quite nice; I’m going to meet someone from Tank magazine today. They just said, “Come over and show me your work”. It’s often quite informal, and then you just have to prop them again to go “hey, what do you think!’ and things like that. It was a paid gig, which is always really nice.

VP: So far you have been photographing bands but the rest of your portfolio is quite different.

LD: Yes, because music photography is the easiest way to get your work into magazines. I have so far photographed bands like Siren and Siren. My personal work tends to be more documentary stuff. I enjoy doing narratives, meeting groups and individuals.

VP: What king of magazines would you see your work fit in best?

LD: In Dazed, they have the editorial piece. I would love to do stories for such magazines. I love spending a lot of time building a body of work in order to narrow it down into a piece. Bands are always really hard to make that exciting, to be honest. It’s a really good thing to do but… but here are two guys I have never met and I’ve got 50 minutes to get a picture that is good!

VP: I love the work of Anton Corbijn. Who do you like and who influenced you?

LD: I’m quite traditional. William Eggleston and Steven Shaw…all the photographers from back in the 60s and 70s, these are the people I go back to, that I am excited about. That’s why I do a lot of work in America when I go away.

VP: Did you always know you wanted to be a photographer?

LD: I remember doing photography way back at A’ levels and being a little bit unsure where to go. I was doing communications then and did not know what to do with it so I thought maybe I’d give photography a go. I’ve carried on with it since. I don’t come from a family of artists. My step dad played the guitar, that’s about it! My mum is science based and no one took photos around me. I’d say music was always the thing I was into and I am in a band. Film, music and photography all excite me.

VP: What do you play in the band?

LD: I play the guitar and sing. I try to sing! It’s quite 90’s grungy pop songs sort of thing. Louder bands like Sonic Youth and singer-songwriters like Elliott Smith are on my play list, Joanna Newsom also. Things like that are good to listen to when you are reading. I love the nostalgic sound of albums one used to listen to a while ago and you listen to now to remember things by.

VP: What kind of camera do you use?

LD: I use a Bronica medium format camera for some stuff. My favourite camera for my documentary work is the Kiev; it’s got a really nice quality to it for things like portraits..

VP: Tell us about your printing methods? Do you use just colour?

LD: I normally take it somewhere because colour is really hard, black and white you can just do at home. Lately I have popped in a few black and white images in there.

VP: You seem to enjoy manipulating light, light effects such as smoke.

LD: I bring in little props such as powder to make an image such as photographs of people dynamic, less stiff. Things become fun; it brings surrealism and freedom to the images. I pay special attention to colours also.

VP: What is your most precious possession?

LD: Probably my guitar! I’ve been in bands for years and I have had it through the whole time. It’s quite a good electric guitar; I remember saving a lot of money for it. My Kiev and Bronica come next. These two are my main cameras. I have other pinhole cameras that I have used for series with the sort of dreamy sequence.

VP: What do you think of Pentax and Leicas…?

LD: I’d love a Leica camera but they’re so beyond being able to afford them! I’d love to buy lots and lots of cameras, but now that I’ve found ones that I can use I’m sticking with them.

VP: Yes, and these are gorgeous pictures! What would be your dream job?

LD: I’d love to be paid to do the sort of documentaries like this one I did when I went to America for two months, establishing myself as part of those great photographers. It’s that kind of that grand ambition of great adventure, of disappearing and coming back.

VP: Have you read “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac?

LD: I have! My pictures of Slab City are a great example; it’s an old military place in the middle of the Colorado Desert. Back in the war, it had been used for bombing then they closed it. The army stayed and lived there for a bit, people started coming there for a bit and in the 60’s, there was a huge commune…

VP: It’s one of the last frontiers, isn’t it?

LD: Yes, and it looks like something out of Mad Max. Have you seen the film “Into the Wild”? They filmed at Slab City this guy; my friends and me helped him paint the mountain at 6 am. Everyone has a dog in Slab City. It’s probably one of the coolest places I have ever been, being there with these people. It’s people on drugs, down and outs and I see the beauty, the freedom. These people are living their own way with their own means, getting by without harming anybody. Some people there have super posh motor homes and on the other end of the spectrum, others live in makeshifts. They live day by day almost for free, gas and food are almost all they worry about. I’d be lying to myself if I claimed I could live like that.

VP: It’s really quite different from Bournemouth, isn’t it?

LD: It’s definitely worlds and worlds away from Bournemouth! I love the contrast of American Pop culture because it’s loud and all quite new, the strange, weird and wonderful.

VP: Literature seems to have played a big part in your development.

LD: Ah yeah, definitely! 50’s and 60’s culture, Beatniks…Faulkner. I’m currently reading Hunter S. Thompson. The backbone of my work is freedom based American culture. Another photo series of mine is in San Francisco, outside of this bookstore where Kerouac and friends used to meet. The first year we drove from New York to LA for two months. We rented a half decent car and did a five a half thousand miles!

VP: There is an overwhelming sense of nostalgia in your work. It’s as if you wish we were still in that place.

LD: Massively! Definitely! I’ve always wanted to go back and we did; we went from Vancouver to San Francisco- the pacific Coast. Why can’t we do this all the time!

VP: Have you watched Planet of the Apes and Soylent Green?

LD: I have but never looked at it artistically.

VP: There is something there about civilisation having been there a long time ago, but then you look back on it. Things have really moved on but there are places, like in the movie where Charlton Heston discovers the Statue of Liberty in the sand…

LD: Forgotten times, yes. I like kind of weird stuff like Harmony Korine and Gummo. The mix of playfulness and the serious: I did some work on wrestling, obviously it’s bigger in the US. I always see images in films and that informs my work. I try to find weird and wonderful people.

VP: What are your plans for this year?

LD: I’d like to go away again somewhere. I’d like to go to Alaska.

VP: Oh, wow! Maybe you could put Palin back in her habitat, which might be good.

LD: (Laughter) Exactly! There is a British Journalism Photography competition I entered last year and got short-listed for. I got some work in their magazine, which was nice- I am not quite sure when I hear from them if I win. You get 5 000 pounds if you win to do a project you propose to them, that’s why I want to go to Alaska o follow the Transatlantic oil line that goes from north to south. It would be reportage on the freedom of meeting different kind of people along the way. I like taking detail shots and landscapes.

VP: Any other plans?

LD: A Masters Degree one day but not any time soon. I’m doing a group photography exhibition called “Clinique Presents” from the 11^th of February at the Amersham Arms. There will be some prints for sale and the theme is loosely based on magic.

Written by Leon Diaper on Wednesday February 17th, 2010 5:04 pm

Categories ,Abisham Arms, ,alaska in winter, ,American Apparel, ,American photography, ,Anton Corbijn, ,art, ,bournemouth, ,British Journalism Photography competition, ,Charlton Heston, ,Clinique Presents, ,Dazed and Confused, ,elliott smith, ,Harmony Korine and Gummo, ,Hunter S. Thompson, ,interview, ,Into the Wild, ,Jack Kerouac, ,Kiev, ,Leica, ,Leica camera, ,Leon Diaper, ,music, ,musician, ,Pacific Coast, ,photography, ,Planet of the Apes, ,San Francisco, ,Sonic Youth, ,Soylent Green, ,Steve Shaw, ,William Eggleston

Amelia’s Magazine | An Interview with illustrator Hattie Stewart

Hattie Stewart

London-based Hattie Stewart, a ‘professional doodler’, originally from Essex, is taking the fashion world by storm with her ‘doodle-bombed’ magazine covers. Not just limited to putting her mark on mags, she’s also done a whole range of stuff from shop-fronts to call-girl cards. Youthful, quirky and comic book-esque, Hattie pens a place where all things happy, cartooney, dark and urban make an appearance. This exuberance with a tint of dark humour reminds me a little of Bart‘s beloved Itchy & Scratchy. Bold colours, unique characters, a wink and some swag all form part of her signature style. She’s a busy girl and Amelia recently mentioned Hattie in a review of Pick Me Up Graphic Arts Festival 2013.

Hattie Stewart

Having graduated from Kingston University, Hattie Stewart has worked on projects with House Of Holland, Marc Jacobs and Adidas to name a few. Her work is proving popular across the globe and has been exhibited in Miami, New York, Berlin and London. I spoke to this young illustration idol about graduation, her personal pen preference and how doodling her mark on the world is getting her eye-marked for great things to come.

Hattie Stewart

How do you get the ideas for your doodles?
I have no idea! Sometimes I like to pore over copies of Craphound to get ideas for motifs, but mostly I just start drawing. The best ideas always come from practice and the simple act of just drawing.

Do you feel like London is tied to your identity as an illustrator?
I guess so, I think the fun-loving attitude of my work with certain levels of underlying sarcasm is definitely an identity I would characterise with London.

Hattie Stewart

Your style has a comic book feel, what comics did you read as a kid?
I was obsessed with Dandy and Beano comics but especially Beryl the Peril. She ruled. My interest in strong comic book styles and larger than life characters definitely began at a young age. My uncle’s always drawn comic book characters and taught me a lot about developing a style.

How did the reality of life after graduation compare to your expectations?
It kind of went more or less as I’d imagined. I knew work wasn’t necessarily going to happen straight after uni and I’d have to work really hard and have many part-time jobs before things started kicking off. Because I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve always wanted to draw, I had a feeling that if I worked as hard as I could and tried to maintain a good attitude things would eventually happen for me. It’s wasn’t easy and I definitely kept looking for many different opportunities and work.

Hattie Stewart

Do you think your degree was an important part of your development as an illustrator?
Yes, definitely. It taught me what I wanted as an artist and who I wanted to be and the people I met helped form my character and became so valuable to me. I do think it’s an experience everyone should have – sometimes defining your character helps develop your work, and then you have an amazing wealth of facilities and experienced tutors to help your work grow. You definitely have to have faith in yourself though and listen to yourself and follow your instincts as much as you listen to and accept the advice offered, there always needs to be a balance.

Hattie Stewart

How did you get the idea to start doodling on mag covers?
I was watching telly and a copy of Dazed and Confused was sat in front of me. Like so many people I just started aimlessly doodling on the cover and when I’d finished thought it looked pretty cool – it all developed from there!

You’ve had some big clients, like Urban Outfitters, Luella, Diesel and Adidas, are there any big names you really want to work with in the future?
I’m not sure really. I know I’d love to do some set design and big 3D set pieces/ props! There are so many things I want to do with my work it really depends on who will let me do it rather than who it is I do it for.

Hattie Stewart

I saw that you did an awesome project for Soda Pop illustrating call girl cards, how did this come about?
There is a magazine called Gypse Eyes and they were excepting contributions for their ‘Food + Sex’ issue, then the idea of the call girl cards popped into my head! My friend Jessica Abou Nassar who runs Soda Pop and the amazing Ghetto Nailz wanted to collab with me and I suggested using these – she agreed and the t-shirts were created! It was a great project.

Hattie Stewart

You describe your style as ‘cheeky’, do you think that you like to take risks as an illustrator?
Absolutely. It’s important taking risks in all sides of life – How else does anything change? All the best ideas and opportunities come from moving outside of your comfort zone and as an artist that is extremely important.

Colour is an important feature of your work, what are your favourite shades?
Pink, especially fluro pink. In fact anything fluro. Right now though I’m loving primary colours! Especially red, always red.

Hattie Stewart

What type of pen do you use?
Posca! The only pens I use and they go on every surface. I would never recommend any other but then again that’s just my preference.

Do you think the internet has made visual culture a vital part of everyday life?
Oh absolutely. It’s also made things move and grow very quickly, which can be thrilling but also exhausting. Trying to make and keep yourself relevant and motivated when there is so much talent and ideas constantly on show in front of you, it can be inspiring and demoralising at the same time. Ultimately though knowledge and learning and the immediacy of connecting to people you wouldn’t otherwise be able to contact is amazing.

Hattie Stewart

All the images in this post were provided by Hattie Stewart. You can see more of Hattie’s work on her portfolio and you can find her on Tumblr and Twitter too.

Written by Jessica Cook on Tuesday April 23rd, 2013 8:34 pm

Categories ,Adidas, ,Beano, ,Beryl the Peril, ,cartoons, ,cheeky, ,comic books, ,Craphound, ,Dandy, ,Dazed and Confused, ,Diesel, ,doodle, ,doodle-bomb, ,draw, ,drawing, ,Gypse Eyes, ,Hattie Stewart, ,House of Holland, ,Jessica Abou Nassar, ,jessicasrcook, ,Kingston University, ,london, ,Luella, ,Marc Jacobs, ,Neon, ,pens, ,pink, ,Posca, ,Soda Pop, ,Urban Outfitters

Amelia’s Magazine | Jasper Garvida: London Fashion Week S/S 2012 Preview Interview, part one

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