Monday 31 May 2010

Behind the Scenes - PIERS ATKINSON A/W10 Lookbook





I just found these images taken while we were shooting Piers Atkinson's A/W10 Lookbook and thought they should be shared ........................ Thanks everyone for making this such a wicked shoot. It was a real honour to shoot Pier's gorgeous sister Lucy and seeing Morgan's afro come to life in one of your hats Piers !!

Thursday 27 May 2010

ASVOF Milano


Last night our 'SUNSHOWERS' film featured in the premiere of ASVOF and vogue.it - Light 1- Minuite series alongside Mattias Montero, Justin Anderson, Malcolm Pate, Filep Motwary to name a few. I was gutted i could not join Elisha Smith-Leverock and Fred Butler and stayed in London.


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Wednesday 26 May 2010

Thanks Miss Butler

Big LOVE to the lovely Fred Butler who interviewed me and kindly featured me on the fashion 156 blog where her and Craig Lawrence have just appeared as Guest Blog Editors. Here are some of the pics Fred took at my house and the interview. To see all other posts please visit Fashion 156.



Kim Howells Interview

Kim Howells is a force to be reckoned with, a vision in blue mohair – she lightens and brightens up any room with her colour, boundless energy and cheeky banter. I rely on Kim for her expert styling consultancy but secretly also rely on her for sanity and laughter tonic. Any excuse to have a meeting to spend a few moments with this invigorating character is a pleasure and rarefied treat. I managed to prize her away from her technicolour nerve centre, put down her “coolbeans” ringtone buzzing blackberry and interview her about her meteoric career to be an inspiring story for young readers to 156.

I came across Kim when she was dressed as a carrot at a fundraising party when we were at Brighton University. The theme was “V” and Kim’s gaggle of fashion girls had organised a troop of vegetables complete with walking cauliflower and peas. From this moment on I knew we would get on! We came in contact at a later date when I was working for Shona Heath and Kim was next door interning for Emma Cook. Kim would stay behind after hours taken under the wing of Cathy Edwards to assist on sessions styling Allison Goldfrapp. In the same year spent in industry placements, Kim moved onto a print season at Eley Kishmoto and 3 months at a design studio in NYC. Fully equipped with knowledge and raring to go, Kim moved to London after graduating and joined my team making giant cardboard props. Not before long, a call came from “Dazed and Confused” magazine and Kim was poached to intern and latterly appointed assistant to Nicola Formichetti. She had a riot as the right hand (wo)man to one of the industries most in demand art directors and travelled the world helping him shape iconic shoots.

Fast forward only a couple of years and Kim was flying solo with a jet fired rocket back pack (actually it was a rucksack with speakers linked to her MP3 player, lols!) and zooming through London discovering designers to collaborate with. She now consults with a varied and fresh crop of clients including Piers Atkinson, NOKI, Atalanta Weller, Hannah Marshall, David Koma and myself. Not content with sleepless nights trying to keep us lot in order, Kim also takes care of the wardrobe for musicians such as Coco Sumner, Esser, Skunk Anansie and in particular Skin who she shares her studio with. As with all her serendipitous alignments, their friendship was forged on a chance encounter in Ibiza which lead to Skin walking for NOKI’s “Fashion East” show. Now the two crazy cats have fun creating chaotic stage costumes for Skin’s performances. When her nose isn’t pressed up against her MAC screen scanning statistics of new faces, she is cooking up leak and potato soup at home with Piers Atkinson. You can see pictures here of their fun filled, fun house, decked out in a plethora of sentimental acquisitions including Andrew Logan ornaments and Zandra Rhodes illustrations. I have photographed the baseball cap which Kim commissioned Piers to make for NOKI that marked the beginning of their interlinked relationship. These two met when Piers hand delivered his neon Mickey Mouse ears to Kim on location and gave her a tutorial in how to work the piece.......... and the rest is history……….

From her own house to another………….”The House of Organza” which was an exhibition and event Kim organised with Lyall Hakaria of Vogue Fabrics. Kim undertook a venture of orchestrating fabrication, curation, photoshoots, videoshoots, installation and event production……..as you do! The project which brought together a group of dextrous designers resulted in not only a success story in its own right but the pieces had an afterlife appearing in a Tim Walker shoot for British Vogue. Judy Blame was one of the artists involved and is a constant inspiration to Kim. During our discussion Kim divulged that she is eternally grateful and gracious that she was able to meet and become close to one of her childhood heros. She stresses her implicit admiration for a designer who has maintained his genuine nature and remain totally unaffected against all the odds of the business. It has been an honour for her to see first hand that her pure perceived dream of the industry can be a reality and this has helped provide her with a solid grounding to stay true to inner voice.

Kim is driven by the excitement of formulating shoot ideas and the process of seeing it through to the end and the final images materialising. Spotting new talent and getting them involved in making special pieces for her concept is a real buzz and the ultimate high is being part of cultivating an image that will be around forever. Kim’s signature aesthetic to bring about these timeless looks is a bold, brave silhouette mixed with playful colour and abstract art references. Having hands-on involvement gives Kim great job satisfaction, as she loves getting stuck into each separate situation. In this way the designers she mentors appreciate her intuitive instruction and she plays an important role in executing their collection each season. For this, I owe everything to Kim! She resolves my cross wiring confusion by jump-starting my creative juices and quite simply making me laugh!

Posted by Fred Butler


Sunday 9 May 2010

My new shoot - CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

My new shoot for Contributing Editor with photographer Thomas Cooksey has just gone up - check it out. Thanks to everyone involved : )







COLOR THEORY
Photographed by Thomas Cooksey
Fashion Editor: Kim Howells
Hair: Naoki Komiya using Tigi
Make-up: Martina Luisetti using Liz Earle Skin Care
Set Design: Alun Davies
Photo assistants: Danny Mazz,
David Norbet Gilbey and Sabrina Biermann
Fashion assistant: Reuben Esser
Hair assistant: Shin Sone
Set Design assistants: Gemma Smith
and Lloyd Rosborough
Model: Jeremy Young at Models 1
Retouching: Upper Studio
Special thanks to Provision Studio
and Provision Lighting


Tuesday 4 May 2010

NOKI at LOVEBOX

This year LOVEBOX is set to be its best yet with the SICKEST lineup including my favs Dizzee Rascal, Paloma Faith, I blame Coco, These New Puritans, Man Like Me, Hot Chip just to name a few and to top it off the amazing Grace Jones headlining !!!!!!

Amongst the array of musical pleasures the flamboyant Artist DR NOKI has been asked to throw a catwalk show on the main stage on the sunday and i get to style it!!! What an honour to be involved in such an awesome project.

check out DR NOKI'S interview live on the LOVEBOX BLOG and my blog for constant sneaky updates.

Thanks to Morgan White for taking our Pic.