Out for a stroll............Broadway Market, Hackney, London
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
This blog is dedicated to the documentation of street style and culture.
All illustrations are of real people and are drawn from memory.
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New Romantics..........................In the garden of St Leonard's Church, Shoreditch, London
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Cycling to London Fields............................Westgate Street, Hackney, London
Friday, February 14, 2014
Faded winter colours......................Calvert Street, Shoreditch, London
Thursday, February 13, 2014
This is a flash-back........... Marie Antoinette wearing Christian Dior, on show in Le XXVIII au gout du jour, Château de Versailles, France.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette has made trecking out to the Château de Versailles a pop-culture pilgrimage. Therefore when I first marched towards this infamous city of luxury a few years back, I blasted the sound track curated for the film. Siouxsie and the Banshees's Hong Kong Garden rang in my head phones as I set out to see this historical site through the eye's of the director. But on this track and just as the palace gates came into view, the song cut out as my phone batteries died.
"You needed to have your own experience there", a dear Parisian friend told me later. And he was more than right. Although the film does justice to this marvellous place, it wasn't a period drama I was stepping into, rather I was coming face to face with a living legend.
Once passed the epic queues, I took the long way around to the Grand Trianon. This route takes you past gigantic man-made lakes and through gardens that break down into natural forests. While walking here you could imagine time turning back; the crowds disappeared, there were no souvenirs, no signage and no cake shops. Nothing modern was in sight and everything seemed in the style of the 18th Century. And it is this sense of time over lapping that brings me to what was inside the Grand Trianon; Olivier Saillard's wonder-lust exhibition Le XXVIII au gout du jour.
Among the opulent rooms and corridors of the Grand Trianon, the curator mixed chronology by displaying works of contemporary Haute Couture with the period garbs of the courtiers. Surviving garments of the 18th Century shared space with the works of Christian Dior, Vivienne Westwood, Olivier Theyskens, Mugler, Comme des Garçons and Alexander McQueen.
Saillard's curatorial eye illuminated the Grand Trianon as well as expressing the direct link between the legends of the past and the magnificent work of contemporary Haute Couture. The exhibition like Versailles made time almost irrelevant, and you could feel the world of Marie Antoinette creep around you. A place where every room was like a jewellery box, every ceiling iced like a birthday cake, and perhaps to this ill fated Queen; all gilded like a bird cage.
Headless mannequins gave some life by filling the garments with form. But as they missed a body part so important, I couldn't help thinking about the guillotine. In reporting from this exhibition I imagined Marie Antoinette back in one piece, and showing off in Christian Dior. This idea inspired a full suite of drawings that capture my vision of the Château de Versailles and this exhibition which ran in 2012, to see the full set please visit the site The Frockwriter where they where published by Patty Huntington.
LG
A page from my London Diary......................................Exploring the British Museum, London
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Lights! Cameras! Ogees!.....................Paul Smith's launch of The British Collection for London Collections: Men AW 2014, Essie, Piccadilly, London
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Since arriving in London one word keeps coming to mind when searching to describe taste in this legendary city; and that is texture. The architecture of London, the weather and what its inhabitants wear, all hold in common an elegant grit. Tweet suits, quilted jackets, knitted cardigans, corduroy pants, rubber boots, wax cottons and of course checks, fill the traditional British fashion landscape. A language of layered patterns; texture on textures.
Visually this is akin to the experience of entering an exotic carpet store, where decorative rugs line the walls and gather on the floors. In London's Piccadilly the iconic store Essie trades in the finest of such objects, and it was in this environment that Paul Smith chose to preview The British Collection during the current London Collections: Men AW 2014.
Intermingled with the hypnotic carpets and rugs Paul Smith displayed on wooden mannequins a collection that embellishes and enhances traditional British ideals through the luxury of layering textures. Glen Checks, often referred to as The Prince of Wales Check, morphed over jackets, vests and pants, while business shirts we re-made in a soft chambray. Overcoats seemed even more protective in dark quilted denims, while scarfs and handkerchiefs reflected the gold and burgundy ogees in the surrounding lavish rugs.
Paul Smith's innovations on this British uniform are thanks to the brand’s keen relationship with the Clissold Mill of Yorkshire. Through this partnership contemporary design has joined forces with age old craftsmanship to rejuvenate tradition, producing new ways to weave cloth and imagination into dressing.
LG
Drawing at home................A young Parisian Family, Rue Oberkampf, Paris
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Anne-Sophie.................Keeping warm in Isabel Marant at Martin Grant's Atelier, rue Charlot, Paris
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Winter coat..............On the Metro somewhere between République and Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Sport en dentelle.......................................Boulevard des Filles du Calvaire, Paris
Friday, November 29, 2013
Boy London in Paris..................Rose Bonheur, Parc des Buttes Chaumont, Paris
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Tilda Swinton...................Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts - Amphitheatre d'honneur, 14 Rue Bonaparte, Paris
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Nicole Richie.......................Bar 228, Hôtel de Luxe Le Meurice, Rue de Rivoli, Paris
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
The Young American -- Cafe Society..............Bar 228, Hôtel de Luxe Le Meurice, Rue de Rivoli, Paris
Monday, November 18, 2013
