PIERS ATKINSON FOR ALAN JOURNO

Living with Piers Atkinson is great, I come home and the house is always full of exciting new hats. Here are the latest headband / veil combo's, made for a store run by Alan Journo in Milan, modelled by Piers, me, Reuben (my assistant), Franky and Ivy (part of Piers' sweatshop team). Some of Piers' most exciting 'made-to-order' orders have been for Alan Journo, which made me want to know more about this man and his eponymous store - so I interviewed him - enjoy!!

Tell me about yourself.

I was born in Tripoli, Libia in 1950. In 1967 I moved to Rome. It all started when as a teenager; I took a trip to London in 1968 when the city was really swinging and the music and fashion seen was really strong: the revolution. I freaked out and ended up distributing british labels in shops in Rome and Milano.

I opened my first store in Rome in Piazza di Spagna on 3 floors naming it “Camomilla” in 1972, at the age of 22, selling the most hip labels from all over the world and it was an immediate success. I then opened in Milano the first “Thierry Mugler” store in Italy in 1982 in Via della Spiga, far from being the street that is today. Then is 1986 I opened a shop called “Michelle Mabelle Milano Monamour” in Milano, also in Via della Spiga next door to the Mugler one. At the same time I also opened a “Michelle Mabelle Milano Monamour” showroom above the shop, distributing British, French and American hip designers that I was selling in my shop to lots of Italian and European boutiques.

Finally in 1996 I opened the “Alan Journo” shop.

How would you describe your store? A factory of ideas!

Who do you stock? Many young talented designers from all over the world and few established too, of course.

How do you select these designers? By immediate instinct.

Who would you say is your customer? Anybody that has humour, who is not afraid of showing off, who has style and a touch of R&R attitude.

Piers Atkinson designs a specific collection exclusively for your store, is this something you do with every designer? Not with every designer, but with few.

Who's been your most memorable customer? Sorry but I am not a name dropper!

Are there any other designers you would love to work with? I am constantly looking for new designers.

What is the future for the Alan Journo store? R&R for ever!

The ALAN JOURNO store can be found at -

VIA DELLA SPIGA 36

20121 MILANO

ITALY

TEL +39 02 76001309

EMAIL: alanjourno@alanjourno.com

Rachel Wilkinson is a young fashion illustrator just about to go into her final year at LCF. I immediately fell in love with her illustrations and commissioned her to make a short animated film to launch DR NOKI at the new sustainable store 123. Mixing some of DR NOKI's couture collection and new 123 stock Rachel and her talented film making boyfriend Tom Gallon made this short film, which can also be seen on Dazed Digital - enjoy!!

SKIN MIXES IT UP

I am lucky enough to be able to pull in some of my favourite designers to make stage costumes for Skin for the SKUNK ANANSIE tour and this is what happens when they collide! The theme of the tour is 'Hip Hop Transformers' and as Skin is so active on stage it is impossible for her to do full costume changes therefore it was really important when designing to make pieces that can slot into eachother and come apart separately so we can create many looks without changes. Gold knitted sleeves by Craig Lawrence, black and silver body piece by Charles Youssef and hood by DR NOKI.

MY BDAY

It was my bday on saturday and I joined up with Piers Atkinson to host a non physical sports day in London Fields. Thank you everyone for coming and thanks mum for my bday card!!!!

NEW SUSTAINABLE STORE 123

Me and JJ (DR NOKI)

The amazing Judy Blame

The 123 floor

DR NOKI floor

Craig Lawrence, Charles Youssef and Kathleen Burbridge

Me and the lovely Susie Bubble

The fabulous Princess Julia

Nurse James - knitter for DR NOKI

Last tuesday saw the hugely successful launch of a brand new sustainable store 123, located at 123 Bethnal Green Road. The grade 2 listed building hosts a basement cafe, a floor launching the new label 123 and a whole floor dedicated to DR NOKI. You can see my interview with the creators of 123 on Dazed Digital with more amazing images, from the event, by photographer Morgan O'Donovan. I love these photo's Morgan!!!!!

DR NOKI FILM FOR LOVEBOX

Mark Knight and Liz Medeley are a talented film making duo who have been following JJ Hudson (DR NOKI) around for the last few years capturing his artistry and recording some of the most exciting DR NOKI moments. On the announcement of DR NOKI at LOVEBOX Mark dug through the footage, which included 2 Fashion East shows, a Mark Le Bon DR NOKI A/W09 fashion film and stills by Morgan White and edited these into a short 3 min film. This film was played onto the huge screens either side of the main stage introducing DR NOKI's new collection via the catwalk at LOVEBOX. It is a great short film, really skilfully edited - so I felt it deserved it's very own post - enjoy!! To see the film properly please click on this link to YOUTUBE

You can contact Mark Knight at - markjknight@yahoo.co.uk

DR NOKI AT LOVEBOX

All photo's by Morgan White

It has been DR NOKI 24/7 for me lately and I have loved every second!!! This weekend DR NOKI got to show a brand new catwalk collection on the main stage at LOVEBOX on the sunday evening before Grace Jones!!!!! You don't get better than that!!! A Fashion show like this has never been done at a festival before and with 25,000 tickets sold on Sunday alone the whole experience was incredible.

It was a busy week for me and my team leading up to LOVEBOX. Days were spent at JJ's new hangout, LMB, where he obtains all his sustainable rag, building looks, working on the concept and lineup to eventually focusing on castings and fittings, etc......New Era kindly supported DR NOKI by supplying old caps which went under Milliner Piers Atkinson's knife in a collaboration between him and DR NOKI. These caps tranformed into creatures of their own with sliced and twisted peaks, multi layers and slashed panels which quickly became a framework for hair by the talented Kenna. The colour palette was bright and upbeat in the heat of summer and the girls skin kept clean and beautiful with crisp highlights thanks to Kirstin Piggott.

DR NOKI's printer Taz provided the perfect catwalk sound and after seasons of following DR NOKI, Mark Knight created a short film which was shown on huge screens either end of the main stage to launch the show.

With an open arena backstage the day was filled with the most colourful and glamorous characters and when the shown was done it was all about Grace Jones who was just beyond live. A Perfect day. Thank you to LOVEBOX, James Baillie, my team and everyone who helped backstage.

Please visit DAZED DIGITAL to see an interview with DR NOKI and more images by Morgan White.

DAVID KOMA A/W10 on DAZED DIGITAL

Photo by Thomas Lohr

I love working with David Koma, he is one of the most talented people I have ever met. He has just won NEW GEN and will be showing his S/S11 collection on the catwalk with Holly Fulton which is set to be one of the hottest seats this season. I met up with David to chat about his A/W10 collection and his feelings toward the future. This interview has just gone live on DAZED DIGITAL - please check it out.

DR NOKI - NHS - LOVEBOX 2010

On my way to LOVEBOX with cars full of exciting new NOKI ready for a SICK catwalk show on the main stage before GRACE JONES!!!!!! Yipeeeeeeeeeeee. Don't want to give away too much before the show but here are a couple of sneaky pics of DR NOKI's new textiles......................

I BLAME COCO - ' SELF MACHINE' OUT NOW !!!

Coco's new single ' SELF MACHINE' is out now so go and buy : )

THEY MAKE EM ALL SHAPES........................

This has got to be the best mannequin I have ever seen!! What a confident pose and such a great booty!!!

KEL at SELECT

red love heart by CSM Alex Mullins

I have just shot the amazing new face Kel at Select for the 100th anniversary issue of VISION, with photographer Victor de Mello, and I think I have fallen in love................ The story will be out in Sept but here are some pics taken at the casting and a few words from Kel below.

Name - Kel Markey

Age- 19

How long you been modelling?- 4 months

Where r u from?- Gainesville, Florida

Dream Shows- Alexander McQueen and Miu Miu

Favorite Part of modelling so far - Obviously traveling is pretty much the best thing about this job. It's also amazing to get to meet new people everyday because I feel like that's pretty much the best way of broadening your mind- meeting other people with other thoughts and backgrounds.

Where has modelling taken you?- I just arrived in London a few days ago and I've felt more at home here than in any of the other European cities I've visited this summer. The energy here is only rivaled by NYC's :) Paris was absolutely gorgeous though! I'd just be walking to a casting or something and look up and be like HOLY SHIT that is the most beautiful church I've ever seen!

Meetings............................

Wednesday was a day full of meetings and I thought this image (sorry the quality is not great) summed up my 1 meeting with the lovely Hannah Marshall and her PR Richard Storer, at Exposure, perfectly. Now, my old crackberry and mr pink iphone have comfortably sandwiched Richard's clean white machine.......... lovely. While the modern, sleek, sharp, black Hannah Marshall holds position at the top and is in control. How Uncanny....................

BEHIND THE SCENES - CE

I just found these pics taken while we were shooting ' COLOR THEORY' for Contributing Editor and thought they deserved an air. My fav has got to be Alun Davies getting to know his set, bottom pic.