LANVIN DEMONSTRATES SAINT-EXUPERY

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

This may have been three years ago, but it goes to show the enduring genius of Alber Elbaz.  In a window: a mannequin, a box, a fan and a dress create dynamic movement, turning a window into a cinema screen - interpreting the slightly hackneyed idea of diaphanous fabric caught in a breeze into a modern poem.

ALICE

"There is no use trying," said Alice; "one can't believe impossible things."

"I dare say you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age I did it for half an hour every day.  Why, sometimes,  I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." -Lewis Carroll

Designs for LFW Feb/12 interiors started with an impossibly garish buddhist shrine I found in Choeng Thalay, wound with swags of nylon tulle and garlands of plastic flowers in ultra-synthetic colours; topped with offerings that included glass bottles of red Fanta and small animal figures.

A bit of whimsy and nostalgia, paired with musings about '70s fairgrounds, Shanghai markets and K-wave are coupled with images of Marina Diamandis swimming, Charlotte Free's amazing pink hair, Meadham Kirchoff's S/S'12 make-up and Airan Kang's LED library.

England feels grey after my recent return for SE Asia.  I needed some colour.

SPRING | SUMMER 2012

Another beautiful fashion season under our belts. In keeping with this blog's principal of "things we find", I thought rather than sharing images of our work off the runway (all of which can be found on Style and Vogue), it would be more interesting to upload some found-images... behind the scenes moments that our brilliant photographer "found" and captured for us.  They freeze-frame the essence of those magical times backstage before a show - the characters, the looks, the frenetic hard work (and the amazing tattoos). Featured here are backstage moments from the Holly Fulton, Mark Fast and Emilio de la Morena shows.

DISASSEMBLED

Todd McLellan. Beautiful and studious.

KØBENHAVN '12

Copenhagen August '11 was a metric scale of diametric opposition.  There for Copenhagen Fashion Week, the experience was chock-full of design highs. The fashion carte offered up some seriously beautiful collections by the likes of newcomer Anne Sophie Madsen and Charlotte Eskildsen's label Designers Remix (check out the silver-smeared hairlines and tennis-ball-pony-tails of the latter); genuinely brilliant and moving production design for Henrik Vibskov's show in the gardens of Joseph Thompsens Plads; and finally the delicious doll's-house-universe of an exhibition for designer Peter Jensen at the Danish Design Museum.

Off the fashion-front-row (which saw the rose-coloured-safari-suit-chic of Hamish Bowles and a blond-affro-clad Bryan Boy), the city served up the expected aesthetic trinket-box of amazing architecture, envy-making lighting (Copenhagen has THE best street lights in the world), amazing vintage shops, a 24 carat gold plated bicycle and the beautiful architecture of City Hall, the official venue of CFW. But the best was doubtlessly the scores of elegant, silver-haired couples dancing a tango on the boardwalk overlooking the sea. Totally unselfconscious and just for the pure joy of it.

HONOUR | AMOUAGE

Shots from our recent short-film shoot "Honour" for Amouage (directed by your truly) - shot on location in Oxfordshire and recently released online: http://www.amouage.com/honour/. A derelict mansion, a huge winnebago, bacon sandwiches, an English sheep dog, ladders, marbles, copious dust that invaded our camera equipment, and the odd dead-dove.... Love and thanks go to the following: 

Christopher Chong from Amouage (Exec. Producer) | Nina Angeleri (Producer) | Caroline Duong (Female Lead) | Lyden (Male Lead) | Clive Booth (DoP) | Vincent Vierron (Editor) | Daize Washbourn (Music) | Lucy Hunt (Art Director) | Miss Molly (Stylist) | Nadine Wilkie (Hair & Make Up) | Billy Waters (Gaffer) | Steve Smith (Grip) | Roger Richards (Gaffer's Asst.) | Tristram Edwards (Offline Editor/Capture) | Richard Fearon (Colourist/Telecine) | Bob Peters (Special Effects) | Hannah Hopkins(Stylist's Asst.) | Alisha Robinson (Art Director's Asst.) | JB Thomas + Jack Williams (Runners).

YOHJI YAMAMOTO | STREET-CAST

Hot off the back of producing Beyoncé's secret gig in London last week (and pretty exhausted at that), my amazing @Bacchus_Studio team trawled the street's of London to find amazing looking couples to model in Yohji Yamamoto's retrospective show  we produced at the V&A.  Coupled with a crazy set build and amazing HMI lighting from the ultra-talented Nick Gray at Renegade, the show was a sensation. An even greater honour was having the venerable fashion illustrator Gladys Perint Palmer in the audience who posted this ravishing illustration of the show http://goo.gl/opWah

PREVIEW

A preview of a little project I'm working on, inspired in equal parts by Tatiana Parfionova, Tarsem and Vittorio Storaro. A scrapbook of photography, iconography and found objects. More to follow, and maybe a space to house it all.

BRETON

As a "petite française", Breton stripes have been a part of my life forever. My first Breton-striped knit sweater adorned my being before I could walk (along with side-buttoned culottes and navy kid-leather flat Mary-Janes).  But S/S11 has seen them everywhere... on sunhats, summer-furs, shoes, bags and every piece of RTW imaginable.  But trust two of my fall-back-favourites to nail the stripe.  Jil Sander for a deck-chair take on eveningwear and Maison Martin Margiela for penitentiary-chic.  Merçi à l'histoire maritime Bretonne.

2012 INSPIRED

Inspiration for 2012.  Folkloric, the hand-mark, humour, games of scale, mystical, typographic... plus a sublime contrast of military drab and Schiaparelli pink backstage at Erdem.

JEUX D'OMBRES | STEPHANE ROLLAND

Snapped at the Stéphane Rolland Haute Couture show during our lighting test. One of the models photographing herself in shadow play on her mobile - thrown onto the back of the set.  The inimitable Old-Hollywood allure of the followspot and a shot we couldn't resist.

MANHATTAN | SOVIET

Sidewalk | Soho | the hammer and sickle of Soviet Russia artfully stencilled onto the paving outside the Barney's Co-op - fine purveyors of Alexander Wang, Helmut Lang, Edun et al. Amused.

CISEAUX

2010 was all about chairs (albeit the lack of posts thereof)... from high design to scrap. Efforts were made: sanding and painting a decrepit old footstool and unholstering it in vintage japanese kimono cotton; sourcing a 1940s Italian loveseat now bedecked with felted wool cushions from Donna Wilson; designing stools and chairs for London Fashion Week; scouring eBay for the perfect Ercol pebbles to sit alongside these designs. Form and function - and a rather obvious choice of subject matter. 2011 is the year of he scissors. Unheralded, unsung, uncelebrated.  And deeply beautiful.  So much so that a number of vintage pairs are now hung on my walls. Herewith Victoria needle-nose embroidery scissors and early C20 pruning shears. Currently in search of vintage pinking shears, ornate Chatelaine scissors and 1920s hairdressers scissors.