Evening Standard

Amelia’s Magazine | Introducing new designer on the block Holly Russell

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pharmacy diagnosis Helvetica, buy information pills sans-serif;">Recently Holly Russell graduated from Manchester University with a First class degree, and in the few months since has caught the eye of Nicola Formichetti (Stylist to Lady GaGa and Dazed and Confused regular) and has been shot on Alice Dellal in the Evening Standard, and featured on Vogue online. I conducted a brief interview to find out more about her: 

Alice6

What first attracted you to fashion design? I can’t identify one moment where I made a decision to follow this path. I am a very ambitious person and have always had a strong interest in design and all things artistic.

What is your defining memory of fashion? I don’t think I can pin-point one particular moment in fashion and I don’t think I would want to. Everything I have seen over the years has helped inform my opinion of fashion and subconsciously influenced my design style. 

Who or what inspires you? There’s not one thing in particular that inspires me. My ideas and inspiration usually develop from something completely unrelated to fashion. I don’t think I have ever once looked at a person for inspiration or a said period in fashion. I don’t find that exciting. I like to look at objects, unusual materials, art, sculpture, science…I love the initial stages of design, the research, concepts and finding fabrics and materials to work with. I find a lot of my best ideas come to me at strange times and places. 

powermesh top

Who would you love to see wearing your designs? I would love to see Bjork in one of my pieces or perhaps Roisin Murphy. I have been approached by Florence and the Machine’s stylist and would love this to develop into something in the future. I think Florence Welsh would look incredible Machine’s in some of the pieces from my collection. She would bring out the more eerie and darker side to the clothes.

Do you wear your designs? No, I’ve never even tried anything on that I have made. I think it would ruin it for me. I suppose the clothes I create are something I aspire to. 

The hair  used on your garments, where did these ideas come from? These materials were used to mimic textures, colours and surfaces found within the natural world. I like to use materials that perhaps you wouldn’t expect to see on clothes, things that will create intrigue. The human hair was used to bring out the animalistic nature of the garments.

black and white cape

As a recent graduate, what are your plans for the forthcoming future? An MA? Perhaps your own label? Next year I am hoping to carry out an MA either at the Royal College of Art or Central St Martin’s. I am under no illusion that just because I have received press attention from this collection that I am now ready to start my own label. So many young designers do this and fail because they don’t understand how a business functions and I don’t want to do the same. In the future I would like to set up my own label but for now, I need industry experience to help me understand how these fashion houses work so that when the time comes, I know what I’m getting myself into. 

Written by Elizabeth Johnson on Monday November 9th, 2009 4:11 pm

Categories ,Alice Dellal, ,bjork, ,Central St Martins, ,Dazed & Confused, ,Evening Standard, ,fashion, ,Florence and The Machine, ,Holly Russell, ,Lady Gaga, ,Manchester University, ,Nicola Formichetti, ,Roisin Murphy, ,Royal College of Art, ,Vogue online

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Amelia’s Magazine | The spectacular eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland: and why I love thee.

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Eyjafjallajökull volcano
This is quite obviously not the Eyjafjallajökull volcano. But I liked the picture anyway. A little bit apocalyptic no?

As news reaches me this Friday evening that there will be no flights in and out of UK and most of Europe until at least Monday I can’t help but titter to myself a little bit. Why? Because this act of nature has done what no amount of climate activism has managed to successfully do: prevent a huge amount of CO2 from being emitted. In one single stroke. It has also thrown the aviation industry, diagnosis business and holiday makers into utter disarray. And there is absolutely NOTHING we can do about it.

In the past few days the explosion of the wonderfully named Eyjafjallajökull volcano has caught us totally unaware and unable to cope. The news headlines trumpet stories of the worst crisis to face aviation since World War Two and “the worst travel chaos since 9/11“, viagra 100mg but the fact is that we in the west – with all our fancy infrastructure and semblance of control over just about everything in this world – have no idea what to do about this spontaneous outpouring of ash. We’ve got used to the idea that it is our inalienable right to dash frantically across the globe at the swipe of a credit card, but this event has proved that it isn’t. Not if something completely outside of our control happens. It is forcing people to reconsider how they must travel: the ferries, trains and buses have never been so busy. See! It is possible (especially for short distances) to travel across land. My feeling is that if we were meant to fly then we would have evolved with wings. It’s just not quite right, and we need to reconsider the ease with which we board an aircraft. Maybe we should move at a slower pace after all.

Yes, of course lots of people are suffering and distressed, stuck somewhere, missing important occasions. But the truth is that life goes on and many of those people will band together in the spirit of the Blitz. They will help each other out and make new friends. It is not the end of the world, but instead time for a reminder of how we might re-imagine it. And that is something we desperately need to do, for we cannot keep putting planes in the sky and just hope for the best. The blithely exploding Icelandic volcano is a salient reminder of the fragility of our carefully crafted control. At the end of the day we are at the mercy of the elements, and we can’t always beat them, but instead we must adapt and live with them – humbly. The day after the Great Leader’s Debate Eyjafjallajökull offers a salutary sign of our place in the universe. Our politicians can talk about electoral policies all they want but there are some things over which they have no power.

This morning I watched Sky News scrolling news of the eruption and interviews with top volcano experts, who were grilled about whether they were being over cautious in their recommendations for planes to stay grounded. The Evening Standard tonight explained how the volcano “emits glass and rock particles that can cause planes to crash”. Only by putting the information in the most simple and understandable language can people grasp the enormity of the situation: Yes, it really would be a bad idea to put planes up there, even if you can’t actually see the ash yourself from your kitchen window. It seems so hard to believe that flying a plane could be beaten by something as simple and as old as the earth itself, but of course volcanos are what created the earth. And they aren’t going to stop exploding just to appease us.

There are other upsides. No one has a clue how to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull but twitter is alive with the sound of the puntastic #ashtag. And what is my twitter feed full of? The sound of people admiring the clear blue skies up above – not an aeroplane contrail in sight. Before this happened I don’t think anyone had actually stopped to consider just how much our love affair with aviation has come to dominate our surroundings, especially in a big busy airspace like that above London. But now that the telltale pollution trails have vanished we all notice, blissfully. I’ve just cycled into town, and the whole way I had my head tilted upwards, admiring the lack of contrails. It felt so… special.

Eyjafjallajökull volcano no contrails
Look! No contrails this morning above the estate where I live. Just pure blue sky over the spring blossom.

Eyjafjallajökull volcano no contrails
Travelling into town this evening. Still the clearest of skies.

Eyjafjallajökull volcano no contrail
Looking along Oxford Street towards the Post Office Tower. Nothing but clear clear contrail-free skies. Just believe me okay.

Then there is the added excitement of the unknown to deal with. We don’t know how long this eruption will go on for, and we can’t prevent or stop it. This is what the world is. This is the way that Planet Earth, our planet, our ONLY planet behaves. Deal with it everyone. And enjoy moving at a slower pace, admiring the clear skies above.

You can read my follow-up article about clear blue skies here.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Saturday April 17th, 2010 12:48 am

Categories ,aviation, ,Blitz, ,Climate Activism, ,Contrails, ,Election, ,Evening Standard, ,Eyjafjallajökull, ,Great Leader’s Debate, ,iceland, ,Planes, ,politics, ,Sky News, ,twitter, ,Volcano

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Amelia’s Magazine | A tribute to the talented illustrator and designer Jayne Helliwell.

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Jayne Helliwell, <a target=page Amelia’s Magazine 2007″ title=”Jayne Helliwell, help Amelia’s Magazine 2007″ width=”480″ height=”360″ class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-16288″ />
Jayne in my kitchen eating iced fairy cakes with fellow interns Jessica and Christel.

Last night I heard the horrific news that my ex intern, pill the illustrator and designer Jayne Helliwell, was crushed to death by a bus whilst cycling down Oxford Street. She was just short of 26 years old. I was asked to comment by the Evening Standard for an article that has just gone live this morning.

Jayne was an incredibly talented and extremely likeable girl who worked on issue 08 of Amelia’s Magazine in 2007. At that stage my interns were squashed together in the kitchen, and Jayne bonded well with the others, some of whom she went on to work with later (read about her collaboration with Christel Escosa on I M / / U R here). She was one of those interns who drifted in and out because she was so busy with other projects, but I didn’t mind because the quality of her work was so good. She was quick, and she could turn her hand to pretty much any creative task with ease, be it designing, illustrating, writing or picking out the best new music.

Jayne Helliwell
Jayne Helliwell
Some of Jayne’s design work in issue 08 of Amelia’s Magazine.

She was really into the idea of living sustainably and I was impressed with her devotion to veganism – Jayne often eschewed what I had cooked in favour of some tasty morsel she had concocted herself, and she, like me, insisted on cycling absolutely everywhere. I really liked working with someone who had similar ideas about ways in which we can live more lightly on the earth.

Jayne has gone on to do lots of amazing work in the creative industries. I hadn’t spoken to her in quite awhile but I was aware that she was doing well because as well as being so talented she was so prolific: it came as no surprise to find that she worked extensively with musicians, amongst many others. Jayne had a great career ahead of her and she will surely be much missed by many people. You can read another tribute here.

Jayne Helliwell

Of course, it all seems so senseless because this tragic accident could so easily have been avoided. Why are our streets so unsafe? We are (rightly) encouraged to cycle more, and we are. There are now many more people on bikes than when I first hit the roads with two wheels nearly ten years ago. Cycling a bike has immeasurably improved my life, and yet many people I know refuse to cycle because it has become so dangerous. I’ve known three people to have been killed in bike accidents, including a Greenpeace climber that I met when we were both arrested at the Kingsnorth Climate Camp in 2008. We got on really well, swapped numbers and arranged to meet up – a month later she was dead. When are the roads going to be made safer? What does it take? How many people have to die?

I’ve cycled down Oxford Street several times in recent weeks, and every time I’ve thought “this is a death trap” – it’s a nightmare obstacle course for every kind of moving object, a collision waiting to happen. Add to this the nonchalant attitude of bus drivers – who frequently ignore cyclists and push us right into the curb – and you’ve got an extremely dangerous situation. Much has been done to educate heavy goods vehicles for the need to stay away from cyclists, but the same cannot be said for buses, with whom we share the same lane on the road. It’s utter madness.

Jayne Helliwell eating lunch with the other interns
Jayne eating lunch with the other interns.

I really really hope that Jayne’s death will not have been in vain: we need dedicated lanes for cyclists on all the major roads in London, and we need them now. Not at some spurious point in the future. Who is going to make it happen?

On my website Jayne’s contributor’s blurb lives on, but it’s worth transcribing it here. It was written by Jessica Watkins, who was an intern at the same time. I think it just about sums her up: Jayne was a laugh and so much more.

“Jayne Helliwell is a little gem to work with. The first time I saw her, she came pacing across the paving stones towards me, wearing a checked shirt to her knees and pushing a Raleigh Cameo speed bike. Jayne later informed me that it was the same bicycle her mum carried her around on when she was just a miniature girl. My initial, judgemental impression of her was that she was ever-so-cool, and ever-so-small. I wasn’t sure she would want to be my friend, but now we spend our days making each other chamomile teas in Amelia’s kitchen and laughing about elephants in the room. I suppose you have to be there. When she grows up, Jayne fancies being a draw-er, or perhaps an Olympic athlete? For now though, she works at Amelia’s Magazine, looking important on her Apple Mac Power Book. Her likes include cake, and eating cake, but only if it is vegan. Today she sampled Amelia’s mushy pea dahl, and decided that should be on her list of likes also. Jayne has great taste in music, which comes in handy when reviewing albums for the magazine, and when I feel like hearing a new band. She has so far introduced me to everything from Serge Gainsbourg to Tilly and the Wall. We’re ever so trendy here at Amelia’s. One more thing you might need to know about Jayne is that she has the most infectious laugh in the world.”

Written by Amelia Gregory on Thursday April 22nd, 2010 11:51 am

Categories ,Amelia’s Magazine, ,bike, ,cupcakes, ,Evening Standard, ,I M / / U R, ,illustration, ,Jayne Helliwell, ,Oxford Street, ,sustainability, ,vegan

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Amelia’s Magazine | A tribute to the talented illustrator and designer Jayne Helliwell.

by

Jayne Helliwell, <a target=page Amelia’s Magazine 2007″ title=”Jayne Helliwell, help Amelia’s Magazine 2007″ width=”480″ height=”360″ class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-16288″ />
Jayne in my kitchen eating iced fairy cakes with fellow interns Jessica and Christel.

Last night I heard the horrific news that my ex intern, pill the illustrator and designer Jayne Helliwell, was crushed to death by a bus whilst cycling down Oxford Street. She was just short of 26 years old. I was asked to comment by the Evening Standard for an article that has just gone live this morning.

Jayne was an incredibly talented and extremely likeable girl who worked on issue 08 of Amelia’s Magazine in 2007. At that stage my interns were squashed together in the kitchen, and Jayne bonded well with the others, some of whom she went on to work with later (read about her collaboration with Christel Escosa on I M / / U R here). She was one of those interns who drifted in and out because she was so busy with other projects, but I didn’t mind because the quality of her work was so good. She was quick, and she could turn her hand to pretty much any creative task with ease, be it designing, illustrating, writing or picking out the best new music.

Jayne Helliwell
Jayne Helliwell
Some of Jayne’s design work in issue 08 of Amelia’s Magazine.

She was really into the idea of living sustainably and I was impressed with her devotion to veganism – Jayne often eschewed what I had cooked in favour of some tasty morsel she had concocted herself, and she, like me, insisted on cycling absolutely everywhere. I really liked working with someone who had similar ideas about ways in which we can live more lightly on the earth.

Jayne has gone on to do lots of amazing work in the creative industries. I hadn’t spoken to her in quite awhile but I was aware that she was doing well because as well as being so talented she was so prolific: it came as no surprise to find that she worked extensively with musicians, amongst many others. Jayne had a great career ahead of her and she will surely be much missed by many people. You can read another tribute here.

Jayne Helliwell

Of course, it all seems so senseless because this tragic accident could so easily have been avoided. Why are our streets so unsafe? We are (rightly) encouraged to cycle more, and we are. There are now many more people on bikes than when I first hit the roads with two wheels nearly ten years ago. Cycling a bike has immeasurably improved my life, and yet many people I know refuse to cycle because it has become so dangerous. I’ve known three people to have been killed in bike accidents, including a Greenpeace climber that I met when we were both arrested at the Kingsnorth Climate Camp in 2008. We got on really well, swapped numbers and arranged to meet up – a month later she was dead. When are the roads going to be made safer? What does it take? How many people have to die?

I’ve cycled down Oxford Street several times in recent weeks, and every time I’ve thought “this is a death trap” – it’s a nightmare obstacle course for every kind of moving object, a collision waiting to happen. Add to this the nonchalant attitude of bus drivers – who frequently ignore cyclists and push us right into the curb – and you’ve got an extremely dangerous situation. Much has been done to educate heavy goods vehicles for the need to stay away from cyclists, but the same cannot be said for buses, with whom we share the same lane on the road. It’s utter madness.

Jayne Helliwell eating lunch with the other interns
Jayne eating lunch with the other interns.

I really really hope that Jayne’s death will not have been in vain: we need dedicated lanes for cyclists on all the major roads in London, and we need them now. Not at some spurious point in the future. Who is going to make it happen?

On my website Jayne’s contributor’s blurb lives on, but it’s worth transcribing it here. It was written by Jessica Watkins, who was an intern at the same time. I think it just about sums her up: Jayne was a laugh and so much more.

“Jayne Helliwell is a little gem to work with. The first time I saw her, she came pacing across the paving stones towards me, wearing a checked shirt to her knees and pushing a Raleigh Cameo speed bike. Jayne later informed me that it was the same bicycle her mum carried her around on when she was just a miniature girl. My initial, judgemental impression of her was that she was ever-so-cool, and ever-so-small. I wasn’t sure she would want to be my friend, but now we spend our days making each other chamomile teas in Amelia’s kitchen and laughing about elephants in the room. I suppose you have to be there. When she grows up, Jayne fancies being a draw-er, or perhaps an Olympic athlete? For now though, she works at Amelia’s Magazine, looking important on her Apple Mac Power Book. Her likes include cake, and eating cake, but only if it is vegan. Today she sampled Amelia’s mushy pea dahl, and decided that should be on her list of likes also. Jayne has great taste in music, which comes in handy when reviewing albums for the magazine, and when I feel like hearing a new band. She has so far introduced me to everything from Serge Gainsbourg to Tilly and the Wall. We’re ever so trendy here at Amelia’s. One more thing you might need to know about Jayne is that she has the most infectious laugh in the world.”

Written by Amelia Gregory on Thursday April 22nd, 2010 11:51 am

Categories ,Amelia’s Magazine, ,bike, ,cupcakes, ,Evening Standard, ,I M / / U R, ,illustration, ,Jayne Helliwell, ,Oxford Street, ,sustainability, ,vegan

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