25
Oct
Handbags, every girl has too many yet still finds the need to buy another… and another. High street, vintage or designer, I fall into the bag-crazed category with a tote sized thump. New handbag designer Amy George first asked Reemé & Nina back in the summer to begin helping create the campaign launch of her first range, designed with influences taken from the street style of London’s East End.
My job, to help source the best vintage for our models Sherri and Laura to wear wasn’t too hard, given my old chum and model Sherri Lombardelli also happens to be a purveyor of the ol’ vintage as one half of The Vintage Girls.
Reeme and I chose eight of Amy’s leather beauts to photograph from her broad range of bags; whether you are a satchel kind of girl, shoulder bag, or prefer the clutch, Amy George’s S/S 2011 collection accommodates almost anything and everything you might get up to during a day & night of wandering around Shoreditch. So, we shot it whilst wandering around Shoreditch. Obviously.
Catching some fab shots in the studio, along the high street as well as over hot chocolate and specially made Amy George cupcakes in an organic grocery shop, shouldn’t really be described as work… more like a challenge to cram as many not-so-guilty pleasures into one 7-hr shoot day as possible… We heart days like this.
Of course, like all good fairytales should have, the ‘Happily Ever After’ after party was one we all could only dream of… you know, like swigging champagne and chewing canapés with UK rap artist Ironic, gleefully applauding songs sung by Nate James and oh and handing a Collective business card to [OMG] Jimmy Choo. A fantastic ending to a fantastic day... just dear lord Nina, please tell me you didn’t add the wink and the gun?
Wednesday 22nd September
The spring/summer 2011 collection of suits, shirts, jackets, shorts and jeans emit a contemporary feel as well as functionality and that essential traditional touch. If it wasn’t for the fact that most of us at The Collective are girls, we’d be sporting his engineered trousers and articulated mac in a heartbeat, but for now we’ll cross our fingers to find some womenswear in the Posthuman Wardrobe soon.
Feeling as if I'd stumbled upon a film set as I made my way down the pop-up high street,I was reunited with the lovely Reemé and Nina backstage in The Vintage Catwalk Theatre, sponsored by Grazia. The narrow area was soon to be packed with an eager team of make up artists, hairdressers, stylists, models and the Molly Parkin- legendary fashion editor for Nova magazine, Harpers & Queen and The Sunday Times in the swinging 60s. But before we could be graced with her eccentric enigma, there were models to be fitted for Pattie Boyd's show and organizing Molly's 60+ piece collection (all in a space not quite large enough to swing the proverbial cat) plus solving how to get coat hangers out of a locked room. There's a lot more to styling when you're assisting a stylist, you know.
Now, let's say you wanted to excite a team of fashion design student dressers. Present them with Molly's chosen muse Bronwen Pugh (Lady Astor), eight male models, clothing rails jam packed with Molly's flamboyant attire consisting of capes, wigs and dresses bright enough to make up for the distinct lack of sun outside and the woman herself looking like an empress in an emerald green cape and purple hat with what looked like fabric irises embellishing the top. As she complimented a model's nipples and referred to the length of dresses as ‘cock-skimming length’, her catwalk was set to be an androgynous masterpiece. Thanks to the help of Reemé's styling and Nina's choreography, the essence of Molly’s vision of the morning-after-one-heated-60s-night-before was undeniably hot.
Pattie Boyd's show, featuring the designs of Ossie Clarke, Thea Porter, Biba and Bus Stop to name a few, also went down a treat. With the likes of cute, quirky 'Noddy' printed dungarees and the combination of an Electric Fittings cherry print yellow satin blouse underneath Mr. Freedom red velvet dungarees, it's not surprising we all wanted the collection in replacement of our own wardrobes.
Next stop, a week later was to the infamous Butterfields to select the items that would help form Molly Parkin’s vision for her catwalk show. 8am and outside my door is Lord March’s brand new Rolls Royce Phantom and ace driver Stu, sent to drive us all down to the Butterfield’s in Devon.
Molly Parkin is an extraordinary woman, with enough life experience to fill three careers. I had been told she was enchanting and to expect the unexpected. En route to Devon, her sparkly eyes shone when she asked what I thought about using boy models – to not only be dressed in the women’s vintage we were about to select from, but with inspiration taken from Thai lady-boys...
Whilst we kept our hotel’s business centre open past hours and they handed us the keys to lock up, the collapsing we did was in the direction of our three-woman bed, not the bar. The natural Collective team spirit kept pens to paper and heads well, to tables, until the fashionably early hours.
There were indeed plenty of fun and frolics by Brighton’s sunny shoreline, held at the Corn Exchange, where everything from Jez Eaton’s recycled couture to the mannequin parade hosted by Flik Hall, this year’s Brighton Fashion Week truly was a visual treat. Let’s rewind.
The ready-to-wear show soon became our pet project and by the eve of the show, with 50 models, 8 collections and a pre-show hosted by Spindle magazine to incorporate; we got armed with running orders and checklists for our 30 member backstage team and a 6am start. We did manage to squeeze in fish ‘n’ chips on the pier before running back to our hotel room to put the finishing touches on the planning, how the three of us managed to collapse exhausted into a queen sized Hilton Metropole bed without someone getting squished, squashed or kicked I don’t quite know. Personally, I think it had something to do with the fact that I’m a great three-woman-in-a-bed-sleeper (nothing fishy but the take-away guys and girls).
The UKYCE club has already offered us a wealth of support, it’s been reassuring not to mention informative to hear stories from others experiencing similar journeys in not only being young upstarts, but also forging new patterns in creative and business practice. I can’t thank the British Council enough for allowing me to be part of this exciting group of young dynamic people and for bringing us some of the most respected leaders in the UK to share their valuable insights.
I had met the girls on a shoot a few weeks previously; I loved their ideas and the free environment that was created on set for everyone to experiment. We got to talking about future projects and I happened to know of an interesting location in Hampstead we could shoot in, so we thought we’d go for it and try out some of our ideas there.
