Amelia’s Magazine | London Fashion Week S/S 2012 Catwalk Review: Blow Presents Jane Bowler

Jane Bowler S/S 2012 by Ellie Sutton
Jane Bowler S/S 2012 by Ellie Sutton.

Jane Bowler is a graduate of the Royal College of Art who works in innovative ways with inexpensive and mundane materials, store and she was the first designer to show at the Blow Presents showcase at London Fashion Week. For her S/S 2012 collection she worked in collaboration with knitwear designers Heather Orr, what is ed Victoria Campbell and Victoria Bulmer to create a stunning group of garments inspired by the story of Icarus. Using plastic and latex with soft block-coloured knitted tops and laddered leggings beneath, sale the collection was fearless and fun.

Jane Bowler SS 2012 review-photo by Amelia Gregory
Jane Bowler SS 2012 review-photo by Amelia Gregory
Jane Bowler SS 2012 review-photo by Amelia Gregory
Jane Bowler SS 2012 review-photo by Amelia Gregory
Jane Bowler SS 2012 review-photo by Amelia Gregory
Jane Bowler SS 2012 review-photo by Amelia Gregory
Jane Bowler S/S 2012 by Scarlett Tierney
Jane Bowler S/S 2012 by Scarlett Tierney.

Clothing featured fabulous swishing tassels, curled feather like patterns and tufts of feathers in translucent rainbow hues. Sunglasses came with cute coloured eyebrows attached like question marks, a collaboration with Studio Swine. Tight swimming cap hats and high t-bar platforms were also accessorised with rampant plastic additions, and as the show reached a crescendo we were treated to the most fully feathered piece of all: a huge cape worn by a delightfully curvaceous model.

Jane Bowler SS 2012 review-photo by Amelia Gregory
Jane Bowler SS 2012 review-photo by Amelia Gregory
Jane Bowler SS 2012 review-photo by Amelia Gregory
Jane Bowler SS 2012 review-photo by Amelia Gregory
Jane Bowler SS 2012 review-photo by Amelia Gregory
Jane Bowler SS 2012 review-photo by Amelia Gregory
Jane Bowler SS 2012 review-photo by Amelia Gregory
Jane-bowler-SS12-by-Lisa-Stannard
Jane Bowler S/S 2012 by Lisa Stannard.

I loved the unabashed boldness of this thoroughly unique collection, which amongst the more fantastical elements featured some highly wearable pieces. I look forward to seeing what Jane Bowler does next.

Jane Bowler SS 2012 review-photo by Amelia Gregory
Jane Bowler SS 2012 review-photo by Amelia Gregory
Jane Bowler SS 2012 review-photo by Amelia Gregory
Jane Bowler SS 2012 review-photo by Amelia Gregory
Jane Bowler SS 2012 review-photo by Amelia Gregory
Jane Bowler SS 2012 review-photo by Amelia Gregory
Jane Bowler SS 2012 review-photo by Amelia Gregory
Jane Bowler SS 2012 review-photo by Amelia Gregory
Jane Bowler SS 2012 review-photo by Amelia Gregory
Jane Bowler S/S 2012 review. All photography by Amelia Gregory.

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Categories ,Blow PR, ,Blow Presents, ,Ellie Sutton, ,Feathers, ,Heather Orr, ,Icarus, ,Jane Bowler, ,knitwear, ,Latex, ,Lisa Stannard, ,LSO St Luke’s, ,Plastic, ,platforms, ,rainbow, ,Royal College of Art, ,Scarlett Tierney, ,Studio Swine, ,Sunglasses, ,Tassels, ,Translucent, ,Victoria Bulmer, ,Victoria Campbell

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Amelia’s Magazine | Bloody Gray: London Fashion Week A/W 2013 Presentation Review

Bloody Gray AW2013 by Gareth A Hopkins - Tom Van Der Borght
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.

bloody gray - lfw aw13 - Martina Spetlova 2

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.

bloody gray - lfw aw13 - JAYNE PIERSON 3

bloody gray - lfw aw13 - JAYNE PIERSON
Jayne Pierson‘s slow moving models.

jane bowler - lfw aw 2013 - amelias magazine

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

Sylwia-Szyszka- lfw aw 2013 - amelias magazine - Jane Bowler 1Sylwia-Szyszka- lfw aw 2013 - amelias magazine - Jane Bowler 2

Jane Bowler by Sylwia Szyszka

bloody gray - lfw aw13 - Tom Van Der Borght

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.

Sylwia-Szyszka - lfw aw 2013 - Tom Van der Borght
Tom Van Der Borght by Sylwia Szyszka

bloody gray - lfw aw13 - bas koster 2
bloody gray - lfw aw13 - bas koster
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.

Sylwia-Szyszka - lfw aw 2013 - bas kosters
Bas Kosters by Sylwia Szyszka

bloody gray - lfw aw13 - barbara alan
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.

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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Amelia’s Magazine | Blow Presents… An Indian Fashion Show

Amelia GregoryWhen 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

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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Amelia’s Magazine | Bobby Abley, MAN: London Collections: Men A/W 2014 Catwalk Review


Bobby Abley A/W 2014 by Krister Selin

Ethereal Mickey Mouse lyrics played as it was time to welcome latest L’Enfant Terrible to the MAN stage: Bobby Abley. The crashing and banging of M.I.A.‘s equally terrifying Meds and Feds from album // / Y / (that’s harder to type than it looks) soon interrupted Mickey as his first model appeared…


All photography by Matt Bramford

First up: an oversized white jacket, synched at the waist, with the designer’s name printed down the sleeves. I could tell there was something going on with this guy’s mouth, but it wasn’t until the model walked to our side of the room that I clocked the metal mouthpieces, forcing open the mouth in a sinister, dominant fashion as he gripped a trademark Bobby Abley bear.

This was quickly followed by a whole load of visual treats, as much a delight as they were disturbing. Pink baseball caps featured Mickey Mouse ears, XXL tops carried slogans such as ‘Abley Ever After’ ‘R.I.P.’ and ‘Dream On’ in the Disney font and would probably have Walt spinning in his grave. A pink brain motif was used to great effect on trousers and rucksacks and had the tabloids asking ‘Is this what your boyfriend will be wearing’ in the way they know best. Grotesque cartoon crows and a barbed wire motif adorned t-shirts; knuckle dusters completed the looks.

Take away the Piers Atkinson Disney villain millinery and the gothic grills and what you’re left with is a pretty amazing collection of wearable pieces that it would be foolish to mock. His comic and cartoon influences might not be to every man’s taste, but his sportswear aesthetic and innovative and varied approach to materials (jersey, faux fur, translucent sheers) will satisfy a wide range of fashion dressers.

Categories ,AW14, ,Bobby Abley, ,Disney, ,fashion, ,Fashion East, ,Krister Selin, ,LCMAW2014, ,M.I.A, ,Man, ,Matt Bramford, ,menswear, ,Mickey Mouse, ,piers atkinson

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