Collaboration magazine

COLLABORAT ION

Editor In Chief and Art DirectorMadeleine Young

Creative Assistant and Picture EditorGina Harrison

Sub EditorDanielle Nortje

With special thanks toGina Harrison, Chen Man, David Hancock, Mark Colle, Ali Johnson, Kim Parslow, Ellie Jenkins,

Jennifer Hope, Patt Nazemi, Sophia Probett, Nathan J. Haynes, Caroline Kisko, April Jones,

Stephen Whitworth, Jennifer Wheeler, Josie Marie Denton, Charlotte Moran and Thomas Edward

Kingston.

COLLABORAT ION

Complimentary colourschen man love and water

mark collesynthesis coalition

lift me upthe future of fashion

CONTENT

9-1315-1821-2529-3031-3741-4547-4953-6063-6667-7073

Photography and Styling: Madeleine YoungModel and Make Up Artist: Gina Harrison

Bourjois noir et blanc eyeliner, £3.99, Sephora Illamasqua lipstick in Pristine, £15.50, Selfridges

C O M P L I M E N TA RY C O L O U R S

Collaboration’s vision of an exceptional relationship between colour on a lovely pair

of lips...

B L AC K A N D W H I T E

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L OV E A N D WAT E R

I t’s not often that we hear of young, talented creatives skyrock-eting into success so ear ly on into their careers, and that’s what sets Chen Man apar t from the rest in her div is ion. Whi le studying Photography as Central Academy of Fine Ar ts in Beijing, Chen Man had already contr ibuted cover images to Shanghai-based fashion magazine Vision two years ahead of her graduation; from that point, she was destined for great things. It all seems to have star ted ver y quickly for the young, Chinese fashion photographer. She broke boundaries with her sequences of cover images for Chinese avant-garde magazine, ‘Vision’; China had never seen anything similar to this before . Her covers were heavily ar tistic , and she played upon the use of 3D image render ing to create glossy, innovative and ex-per imental photography, an idea that had not been widely used at this time, especially in her native China. She set tongues wagging and t r ans formed the Ch inese way of perceiving life , beauty and culture through photography, and before long her work was of great popular demand. She had soon racked up a resume to be more than proud of, shooting editorials for the l ikes of Chinese Vogue , Harper’s Bazaar and ELLE as well as campaigns for Nike and Adidas. This is how Chen Man has become one of China’s most celebrated

names in the industr y. It ’s late Februar y when we speak, and it’s safe to say that Chen has recently hit a career peak. She has recently shot a quar tet of cover s for i -D magazine to celebrate the diversity of Chinese beauty, and of course the Chinese New Year, The Year of the Dragon. But she doesn’t stop there, it has

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“I love the feeling of collabo-

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recently been announced that Chen is launching a collaborative beauty col lect ion with M.A.C Cosmetics , titled ‘Love and Water’ to be released in spr ing. The collection consists of just about ever ything a woman may need in her make up bag, from eye shadows , p i gments , l i p s t i cks and glosses to mascara and nail lacquers, the col lect ion is centered around hues of cotton candy pinks and bold cobalt blues. “My favour ite product from the collection has to be the mineralized eye shadow. The color and shape of the eye shadow looks like a yin-yang imprint, similar to that seen in Taoism, I feel this is something which has life to it.” Chen speaks of the M.A.C make up collection, “It’s inspired by and named after love and water ; it comes from ancient Chinese’ ideology - harmony between man and nature . Love is conscious but invisible; water is mater ial and

tangible ; and these are two main elements of the or igin of l ife . Pink represents love and the West; blue represents water and the East.” Chen has an unparalleled take on life and the ear th; it ’s amazingly refreshing to hear someone speak so highly of the Wor ld that we all l ive on. As so many in the creative industr ies are rushing to make decisions on not so impor tant issues, Chen Man is highly spir itual, and all about taking care of the environment and striving to make the world a better place. Speaking to Chen is much comparable to a breath of fresh air, self less and intell igent in her answers, she br ings you r ight back down to ear th again. Noting “life itself“ as her main inspiration for all of her work, she also speaks of other influences close to her hear t, “I love traditional Chinese philosophy and culture; my works are based on Chinese culture, adapted by Western

Photography by Chen Man

Image by MAC

techniques. They offer a visual combi-nation of contemporar y international aesthetics and local cultural sensibil i-ties, achieved with “software” from the ancient Chinese culture , “hardware” from modern Western culture .” This is a subject that has no doubt heavily influenced her M.A.C project. When asked about her thoughts on collabo-rations as a whole , specifically those that she felt may not have worked so well, Chen coyly answered, “I love the feeling of collaborations and I’m not a difficult person, Chinese women are l ike water. Usual ly there is no ‘bad’ collaboration. We have already been spoiled by modern technology, so I don’t real ly l ike anything that’s not eco-fr iendly.” So what’s next for Chen? As her past career highlights are already incredibly astonishing, we can only hope that there will be much more ahead. Ecstatic from her current career highs, Chen takes a br ief moment to compose herself and sighs, “I want to work with more elder ly, listen to their stor ies, and work with more Chinese medicine masters, Taoist and Buddhist masters.” She carries on to say, “I want to work on traditional Chinese cul-ture , the par t that’s useful to wor ld’s environmental protection, for balance between our hear t and the outside wor ld, using vision from the spoiled mater ial civil ization, to achieve visual exposition of the modern languages.” With her footpr int firmly marked on the industr y, it seems the only way is up for Chen Man. With some admirable fashion moments already under her belt, Chen’s spir its are high for future collaborations. As she’s conquered the beauty scene by working alongside her most admired make up brand, Chen explains that she would enjoy a turn in collaborating with a fashion designer next, but who with? “I don’t have a real preference. Ever yone in fashion is a respected master, from the tailor shop masters around the street cor-ner to the masters at fashion weeks. But masters can fail , just as ordinar y people can make success.”

o f inbr e ed ing in t oday ’s g r ow ing p ed i g r e e dog s o c i e t y, f r om

compet i t i ve dog showing to e ver y day br eeding for money. . . i s the

dog r eal ly man’s bes t f r i end?

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There are currently ten thousand pugs living in Br itain. These 10,000 pugs descend from just 50 dogs mak-ing them currently more genetically compromised than the Chinese giant panda. With the r ise of the designer dog, there’s become a huge demand for pedigree pooches, from Chihuahuas to French Bulldogs; celebr it ies are flaunting their canine pets at ever y given oppor tunity, and we all seem to have followed suit. In recent years we’ve seen French Bulldog’s strutting their stuff down the Mulberr y cat-walk, Shih tzu’s taking centre stage in Louis Vuitton ad campaigns, and this season we saw designer boutique owner and television presenter Br ix Smith-Star t ’s beloved pug Gladys whip up the tit le of official canine correspondent for the Autumn Winter 2012 London Fashion Week shows. And who could forget the Queen of designer dogs,Par is Hilton, with her collection of 17 pint sized pooches, she is rarely seen in public without her beloved Tinkerbell, a shor t haired

Chihuahua. Valentino owns six pugs, one of which, Maude, travels with him ever ywhere without fail (even on his pr ivate jet), and another, Oliver, had a clothing line named after him by the Italian fashion designer. We’ve gone absolutely barking mad bonkers for these little creatures. With numbers of pedigree pets in Br ita in ’s households booming, we are also seeing r ising numbers in the amount of puppies with potentially life threatening health defects which are down to carelessness of breed-ers, mating closely related dogs with one another. What’s really to blame for the amount of inbreeding going on in today’s UK society? Simple . Compet i t ive dog showing . Breed regu la t ions a t dog shows are so strict that it has become the norm to own a pedigree pooch with ser ious health conditions. With dog show champions being used as studs for hundreds of litters across the UK, not only does it mean that ‘Best in show’ winners are unhealthy specimens, it

also means that many of our pets in Br itain’s homes have un healthy and potentially l ife threatening genes.

Did you think that the British Bulldog always had super squished, wrinkled little face? Think again. Back in the day, those adorable little mutts had lots of room to breathe with no excess skin and sizeable snouts. It’s the same for a lot of pedigree breeds these days, whether it be bad eyesight, uncomfor table breathing or epilepsy, not only are we fail ing to real ise the defects that cer tain breeding techniques can cause, we’re also not doing much to help as we’re tota l ly unaware that these aren’t character ist ics true to the breeds of our most loved pets. D a v i d H a n c o c k , c a n i n e histor ian notes the vast changes in pedigree dogs over the year s “ In just one hundred years the Bulldog’s structure has changed dramatically. We can see in images from 1790, the Bulldog’s legs appear much lon-ger, it’s body more lean, the head is in propor tion with the rest of the body, although heavy headed they had ample jaw length. There are no fac ia l wr inkles , f lat face or under bite . If we then compare this to the general conception of the modern Br itish Bulldog, we can see that the skull has become larger but more cramped, meaning that the breed is now categorised as a ‘Brachycephalic’ animal.” Brachycephalic animals have a broad, shor t skull , and a flat facial area, traits mainly associated with breeds such as the Pug, Boston Ter-r ier, Pekingese and the Boxer. When classified as Brachycephalic breed, this puts the breed into a categor y of its own containing a great number of health defects. Brachycephalic breeds are widely known to have a str ing of unhealthy attr ibutes, mostly to do with their breathing due to their soft

people.”

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palette mouths. It has become such an issue that international air l ines such Br itish Airways have stopped a l lowing passenger s tak ing the i r Bulldogs, Pugs and Pekingese dogs overseas via aeroplane. However, most breeders on the dog show circuit are creating dogs by following str ict guidelines in order to create the ‘perfect’ speci-mens fit for shows. While this may

create ‘ f lawless ’ looking creatures on the outside , we cannot neces-sar ily see what’s gone wrong on the inside straightaway. This is where the trouble lies, and frankly, it’s getting pretty serious. Some of Britain’s most popular breeds are on the br ink of being named endangered species due to money grabbing breeder s. These breeders are mating fathers with daughters, mothers with sons, to invent aesthetics that shouldn’t and don’t exist naturally, because a dog cannot physically l ive with the side effects that these produce, all for a trophy. For example, judges at Crufts – the Wor ld ’s lar gest annual dog

championship event - state that for an owner to enter their pug into the contest, the dog’s aesthetic must cohere with cer tain distinguishing features, such as a cur ly tail . It is in ‘The Ken-nel Club’s Breeding Standards’ book that the judges and par ticipants gain the ‘correct’ specifications, much like a bible to those who are hardcore attendees. The Breeding Standards lays down a specific set of rules that a dog should display in order to be entered into a contest. Using the Pug as an example , it suggests that the tail should “cur l over its back”, and it is also “highly desirable if the tail cur ls into a double ‘corkscrew’ like position”. While breeders are putting their upmost effor ts into producing this double cur l tai l aesthetic , and inbreeding along the way, not only are there dangerous health consequences to most of the pups they produce, the pugs with the cur liest tails are likely to also have a cur vature of the spine in the process. This is just one example of the health defects caus-ing inbred pedigree dogs unbearable pain and discomfor t in their everyday lives. In recent years, when tackled by Jemima Harrison and her team of producers of ‘Pedigree Dogs Exposed’ a 2008 BBC production created to highlight the concerns that unhealthy pedigree dogs were being entered into contest, breeders simply referred

to their scientific research as “com-plete rubbish” and refused to believe anything that they put forward. “At first we gave them the benefit of the doubt, as we knew that this (showing dogs) was a big par t of their l ives. But they soon star ted becoming rude and obnoxious towards us, and point blank refusing to believe anything we told them about the health of cer tain breeds, even though we had all the scient i fic evidence to back it up.” Jemima Harr ison, producer of PDE explained. After the documentar y was broadcast , the BBC dropped Cr uf ts f rom the i r schedu le a f ter showing the event on the channel for over 40 year s , and Channel 4 have since taken over r ights to the show. Respected charities and brands such as the RSPCA, the Dogs Trust and Pedigree pet food all withdrew sponsorship to the Crufts event after the BBC production was shown. Rhodesian Ridgebacks are another pedigree breed of many that are slowly becoming more and more deformed due to the negligence of breeders creating and spreading mutations across the breed. Accord-ing to the Breeding Standards, ever y Rhodesian Ridgeback must have the defining feature of the r idge across their back, stating that “The ridge must be regarded as the escutcheon of the breed.” Although 1 in 20 Rhodesian Ridgeback’s are born without a ridge.

This feature is not essential to the breed, and it has been discovered that dogs with this feature are in the ear ly stages of spinal disorder, Spina Bifida to be exact. But The Kennel Club are unable see it this way. Another alarming discovery raised by the BBC production ‘Pedigree Dogs Exposed’ uncovered that Rhodesian Ridgeback breeder Ann Woodrow culled pup-pies that were born without r idges, claiming, “We have trouble with younger vets who tend to see things in black and white , and won’t put them down because they usually say ‘It’s a healthy, beautiful puppy, there’s nothing wrong with it except it hasn’t a r idge .’ But they’re supposed to have r idges. So usually we have to end up going to an older vet that we’ve known for years and have them quietly put to sleep. I would rather they were put down under my care than they land in the hands of the fighting people .” And this is the chill ing realisation of the dog exhibitor breeders of today. The obv ious approach to tackle this di lemma would be for the Kennel Club to accept defeat and change the specifications for all breeds in the Breeding Standards, and to fol low suit of the Swedish Kennel Club and ban all mother to son, father to daughter, grandfather to granddaughter inbreeding in the

countr y. But officials from The Ken-nel Club say that they cannot tel l breeders what to do, as it will “drive them away”. Although recently, there was slight progress, with The Kennel Club making minor changes to the Breeding Standards of British Bulldogs. Instead of insisting the breed had a “massive” head, this was dismissed and instead changed to “large”. This is hardly the immense breakthrough that we were all hoping for, but at least i t ’s a smal l step in the r ight direction for changes in the current Breeding Standards. Although we are still waiting on changes in the Breeding Standards, Crufts 2012 saw a mag-nificent development. Vet checks held by the British Veterinar y Association (BVA) became an essential practice on 15 ‘high profi le’ breeds before they could be entered into the Best of Breed category. The Basset Hound, German Shepherd Dog, Pekingese , Pug and Bulldog were just some of the 15 breeds that were under fire at the event. Caroline Kisko, The Ken-nel Club Secretar y spoke of the new developments “We are determined to ensure that the show r ing is a positive force for change and that we help to move breeds forward by only rewarding the healthiest examples of a breed. The veterinar y checks were introduced to ensure that dogs with exaggerated features do not win

pr izes.” Out of the 15 breeds that were checked over, the Bulldog and Pekingese contestants were deemed unfit for show. “The independent veter inar y surgeon decided that the Pekingese and Bul ldog should not pass their checks and therefore they did not receive their Best of Breed awards and will not be representing their breeds in the remainder of the competition.” Kisko explained. While these practices are a positive step in the r ight direction for the show r ing, this doesn’t stop breeders following cer tain guidelines and spec i f icat ions to create cos-metically sound canines. Although for some dog exhibitors, the veter inar y checks may make them think twice about enter ing unhealthy dogs into contest, inbreeding will stil l be hap-pening in Br itain. Now we need to concentrate on pushing the Kennel Club to adjust the Breeding Stan-dards so that breeding can become a healthier and safer practice for the future of pedigree breeds.

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ERDEM x START stuffed toy pug, £120, Available exclusively at start-london.com

M A R K C O L L Ethoughts on friend Raf Simons shifting over to Christian Dior.

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When asked about the most memorable fashion highlight of this sea-son, you can bet that many reply with a similar answer. In February it was an-nounced that Raf Simons’ seven-year reign at Jil Sander would be coming to an end after his Autumn/Winter 2012 collection. Fashion editors across the

but nobody could have prepared for the emotional goodbye to this illustri-ous designer. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house, and when the show closed with an encore wave from Raf, onlook-ers spread into a wild round of applause for the man who has truly transformed the Jil Sander brand.

-less and ethereal, cloaks fastened by the hands of the models as they walked. But what made the show so simple yet so elegant was the setting, Raf decided on accompanying his looks with six origi-

Colle to complement his work, a col-laboration that will go down in history

“It was hard for me to keep my eyes dry during the show” Colle explains his memories of the occasion, “Although I was enjoying that my work was on dis-

play and involved in such a beautiful way,

his early teens, this collaboration was an enormous breakthrough in his creative

in Antwerp, this task was something that he had never imagined of pursuing. “I have never done something like this before, but I didn’t feel out of my depth.

it is my life, I was excited by the chal-lenge.” So how did this unusual challenge come about for the relatively unknown

comes to my store regularly. He phoned me a couple of weeks before his show and asked if I could collaborate with

-ments. I hadn’t seen any of the clothes; I was only shown swatches of the fabrics and colour palettes. That’s all I had to go by.” He went on to explain what Simons had asked of him, “Raf asked for the ar-rangements to be abstract so that’s why we used the plexiglass cubes. All of the arrangements had to be different and

to highlight the romance, femininity and fragility of his designs, so that’s what I

tried to encapsulate into all of the ar-rangements.” The show was, of course, a phenomenal success, with editors such as Anna Dello Russo sighting the occa-sion as “A real fashion moment.” Mark was not alone in his thoughts, “Every-thing worked perfectly together, the

fact that it was Raf ’s last collection made it so much better. It was a great collabo-ration.” The fashion industry waited in anticipation to see what Raf woulwd do

no body knew for sure. On April 9th, the

was set to take over from John Galliano as Artistic Director at Christian Dior. His

will be unveiled in Paris in July. “Although many talk about him being missed at Jil Sander, I am so happy for him, he will do great things.” Mark beamed, “I am over the moon that I had the opportunity to

such a great time in his career.”

Welcome to the bi-annual platform for up and coming creatives to express

what and who in the industry animates their work. We asked the same questions to seven young professionals

in order to learn what makes their brain tick. A fusion of the arts often produces wonderful magic.

SYNTHESIS

Al i Johnson

FA S H I O N P H OTO G R A P H E R

Ali Johnson is a 21 year old fashion

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Magazine to name a few) she is destined for

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WHO’S MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN TO THE MOST? I can only descr ibe my music taste as bi-polar. I love ever ything from 90’s House , Death metal to char t music . A song that can physically af-fect me in any way, whether that be banging my head or dutty wining is my favour ite!

ARE THERE ANY ACTRESS’ OR AC-TORS THAT YOU ADMIRE?Nicole Kidman, physically she’s ver y delicate yet the roles she tends to play are ver y destructive and seductive .

WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE FASHION DESIGNER? It has to be Alexander McQueen. As it is commonly known he was influenced by his dreams/nightmares, many of which involved birds and mor tality. To physically address your fears and desires by making them into clothing is one thing, but to then transgress this notion by empowering the female form was just outstanding. I also have three ver y talented females in my l ife who are within design: Felicity Perkins, Alyyson Arscott and Camila Stanford who a l l have the i r own creative flare and style .

A R E T H E R E A N Y W R I T E R S T H AT YOU ADMIRE?Roland Bar thes, Char lotte Cotton and Susan Sontag. All three have em-bodied the essence of photography, I find it ver y hard to turn a picture into words and those three writers achieve it perfectly.

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WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ALL TIME FAVOURITE BOOK?Probably Nick Kn ight ’s book , I t ’s ver y unl ikely i ’ l l be buying one of his or iginal pr ints anytime soon so owning the book is like having a ver y small slice of his genius! Ever y page is painfully beautiful, as I am beyond jealous of his talent yet in awe of it at the same time. I’m also purchasing Marilyn Manson’s autobiography for holiday reading, he really intrigues me.

ARE THERE ANY STAND OUT BUILD-INGS WITH INFRASTRUCTURE THAT YOU PARTICULARLY ADMIRE? Any Churches, I am not religious in any way but the sheer time and design behind them is amazing. My uncle specialises in stained glass windows for churches, the time taken for just one small section a window to be painted is insane and naturally if you make any mistakes there’s no eraser. So I have a lot of time and respect for churches.

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I N T E R I O R D E S I G N E R

posts on sweetmondayblog.blogspot.com.

fashion, actors, art and magazines to reveal

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ing her all time blogging goal.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR FAVOURITE FASHION BRAND... Right now I am loving Motel Rocks. I have followed the brand from their beginning, star t ing off in Br istol many years ago, they are now one of the biggest womenswear brands in the wor ld. They stil l have their or iginal boutique in Br istol but it’s so fun to see them now being sold in stores in the US and being worn by celebs such as Kendall Jenner.

Amazing ! Love i t when a home grown UK brand makes it.

ARE THERE ANY ACTORS OR AC-TRESSES WHO INSPIRE YOUR WORK?My f avour i te ac tor o f a l l t ime would have to be the legendar y late Heath Ledger. I probably own ever y fi lm he’s ever been in, my favour ite being 10 Things I Hate About You. Classic American high school fi lm that was a huge par t of my childhood.

WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE ARTIST?My favour ite ar tist is more of an illustrator/craftsman, Rob Ryan. He produces the most intricate, beauti-fully designed cut out cards. A few fr iends of mine did a project on him at University and said he was one of the coolest people they’d met. Ever since I have always tr ied

to buy his cards for fr iends and family when any event crops up.

WHICH MAGAZINES DO YOU READ THE MOST?Company hands down is my favourite magazine right now. They’ve recently changed the paper they use (may sound sad) but I love l itt le details l ike that. The over al l style , design and feel to the magazine is ver y ar ty with that ‘green’ feeling. And as for content I love the fact that Company magazine includes lots of bloggers! They regularly feature blogger friends of mine and heavily include street style snippets. It’s a great outlet for young g i r l s to f ind insp i r at ion in others similar to them rather than celebr ities. Being a blogger myself I think getting a feature in Company magazine is my all time blogging goal.

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E l l i e Jenk ins

I L LUSTRATOR

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provoking confessions...

YOU ILLUSTRATE FOR MANY CHIL-D R E N’ S B O O K S , W H AT I S YO U R FAVOURITE BOOK OR AUTHOR?My favour i te book i s Dogger by Shir ley Hughes. Yes, it’s a kids book, but I think it inspired me to become an illustrator (along with many more picture books) and I sti l l love it at the age of 24! It is a timeless classic .

W H AT FA S H I O N L I N E S D O YO U

MOST ADMIRE?I ’m ver y fashion minded, I prefer to shop in smaller boutiques, char ity shops etc but I do love Pull and Bear. I their clothes are a little different to the rest of the high street and they are not horrendously expensive , I ’d love to work with them!

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE BAND, HOW DOES THIS HELP WITH YOUR ILLUSTRATION WORK?It changes depending on my mood or the time of the year, but at the moment The Shins because they remind me of the summer and the beach in Falmouth.

WHAT IS YOUR ALL TIME FAVOURITE FILM?Probably Howl’s Moving Castle made by Studio Ghibli . All of their fi lms have great moral ’s behind them

and the animation is beauti ful . I am always amazed by the concept of the amazing moving Castle and think it has been great inspiration to me as an il lustrator.

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W H AT A R C H I T E C T U R E D O YO U ADMIRE? DO YOU HAVE A FAVOU-RITE CITY?internship, I was running around all day and I used to see some amazing hidden places of London. Sometimes real ly pretty bui ldings pass us by, that’s why I love sitting on the top deck of the bus. However, Las Vegas and New York are two places I really want to back and visit again, I love all the lights and the tackiness of Las Vegas, it’s amazing.

WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE ARTIST?Although she gets a lot of s t ick , Tracey Emin. I think she’s a real ly interesting character and athough her work is sometimes quest ion-able , she really grabs her audience and makes a statement in a really femine and brash way. I also love Maggie Hambling’s figure paintings.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO READ?Im not a massive reader, I ’ve got a really shor t attention span so I tend to read newspapers or magazines more. My favour i te magaz ine i s LOVE , the editor ials in that magazine are beautiful ever y issue . I love it’s size and glossy-ness too!

W H AT M U S I C D O YO U L I K E TO LISTEN TO?I don’t really have a favour ite band as I have such eccleptic taste , I was a r ight indie kid when I was younger so play that for nostalgic reasons along with the ocassionl spice gir l

tune. But in the past two years I’ve got really into my 80’s and 90’s hip hop. Public enemy and Biggie are my favour ites r ight now.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE FILM?Yes! Clueless. I was obsessed with it when I was younger and never

my style icon – I love the styling in

reasons along with the amazing one liners. I used to spend hours creating

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and editing, as well as holding a keen intrest

in photography. COLLABORATION

WHAT MAGAZINES DO YOU READ?I genera l ly read lots of d i f ferent magazines, National Geographic is the most read magazine on the shelf in my room but I generally l ike to pick up anything and have a flick through.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE ACTOR OR ACTRESS?There are so many amazing actors and actresses out there at the mo-ment and to name my favour i te would be an impossible task, but the most influential actor for me would be Heath Ledger, as a method actor

he produced some outstanding work and as a person his life was intriguing and endear ing.

WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE DESIGNER?As for fashion I can appreciate it and I cer tainly love to look at hand crafted leathers and denims, but to be honest I’m a cord shir t and a Levis denim jacket type of guy just rummaging through vintage shops on weekends.

A R E T H E R E A N Y W R I T E R S T H AT YOU ADMIRE?I only tend to read biographies as I find people so interesting especially when it is l ike a crafted por trait of someone’s life , that said I would say that the most enjoyable read for me was ‘Heath, a Family’s Tale’ by Janet Fife-Yeomans.

WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE ARTIST?For me Danny Clinch would be the most inspir ing His work focuses on

capturing people, live music and having obscure takes on a por trait image, straying away from por traits . I do have a passion for Wildlife and Csaba Tököly is by far the most talented Wildlife Photographer in my opinion.

WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE MUSICIAN OR BAND AND WHY?Ever y minute of the day I am in-tr igued and captured by Music , I f ind that now I have come to a point when I am listening to music , I ’m th ink ing that i t would wor k great with these different visuals. My most recent fi lm that wil l be released this coming July, ‘A Way of Life’ took on the role of creating its own soundtrack; working with two outstanding musicians has been a real fun and organic process. It is an amazing feeling writing music to a fi lm and I am looking forward to producing more soundtracks.

COALITION It was a troubled time for our count r y. 2010 , the Labour par ty had ruled our UK society for 13 year s and had final ly run the financial economy r ight into the ground. We were in need of drastic help and ounces of change to take our countr y to the top, where it belonged. Over the course of the election, we heard many positive speeches from government par ties, each claiming to be able to un-do what the Labour par ty had achieved, and bring a better standard of living to the UK along the way. Dur ing these times of election, the public are thrust into a boxing r ing of bur ly government par ties, punch-ing the lights out of each others proposed schemes, a l l of which sound absolutely fabulous but we are unsure whether to believe . The 2010 elect ion votes echoed a soc ie ty in a s ta te o f confusion, and we all know what happened next. The coalition gov-ernment was born and the outcome was a Conservative/Liberal Demo-crat government. It didn’t look too prosperous from the get go. Two governments forced to gel together with hugely conflicting ideas, came under much media scrutiny. People of the United Kingdom were ask-ing countless questions, how were these two par ties going to work

together, and more impor tant ly, how were they going to work in sync and be able to improve Britain? Were they going to stick to their original proposed policies, or were these now completely thrown out of the window? If so, why did we vote for these par ties in the fir st place? The Liberal Democrat ics proposed a union free of university fees for youngsters when tr ying to bag a place as the main government par ty. Since collaborating with the Conservatives into a coalition par ty this has been far from the case . Hav ing to p ick up many of the Conservative proposals, most of the Lib Dems morals and views have been disregarded and undermined by the new coalition government relationship, especially concerning the creative industr ies in our soci-ety. This has caused many people to lose respect for the par ty, and not only their voters but people all over the countr y, especially the majority of students that voted for them, believing that they may be able to scrap or at least lower the university tuition fees.

Before the decision to raise university tuition fees was officially passed, I ’m sure you’ll remember the thousands of protestors that

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took to the streets of London to tr y and barr icade the policy from p roceed i n g . V io l ence , ou t r a ge and anger amongst fur ious teens swarmed Westminster, hundreds of arrests were made and trouble-maker s including David Gilmour of Pink Floyd’s son were suitably cautioned. Despite all of this may-hem, Cameron and Clegg refused to back down, and the policy was signed. The protests managed to carr y wide spread publicity to the cause , and although some activists let the side down and went a little too crazy, the peaceful protestors generally did a great job in raising awareness. Along with dental, medical and millions of students, huge num-bers of soon-to-be young profes-sionals – some going into product design degrees, some into fine ar t, or fashion related qualifications are all being forced to pay the absolute top maximum fee pr ice to study their creative subjects. Not only are these people ambitious, they are the future for our society and our economical climate. If we suppress their chances of a normal, uninter-rupted, affordable option to go to univer s i ty, who knows what the future holds for our economy? The Depar tment for Culture, Media and Spor t released statistics at the end

of 2011 showing that the creative industr ies in the UK br ing in 2.89% of the UK’s gross value added, which acclaims to around £37 billion a year to our economy. There are currently 1.50 million people employed in the creative industr ies in the UK, this is including career s in adver tis ing, architecture, ar t and antiques, crafts, des ign, des igner fashion, f i lm and video, interactive leisure software , music, the performing ar ts, publishing, software and computer ser vices and television and radio. In 2009, the UK fashion industr y alone was estimated to have directly contributed a massive £20.9 billion to the UK economy. This, along with the 12 different areas of the creative industr ies booming, the total amount contributing towards our government is generating enormous profits. And what do the government do? Implement 100% cuts on the creative education system, that’s what. Forfeiting oppor tunities for young creatives to flour ish, our economy to str ive , just what is our coalition government tr ying to achieve? We can only wait for the outcome, which may take several years to really take an impact . By cutt ing gr ants and benefits to a cur rent system may save money right now, the long-term effect could be a devastating knock to our countr y.

“Britain has 29% of the global

the second largest market in the

world”.

But it’s not just about the university fees being raised, or cuts to grants for specific subjects at schools across the countr y ; many other sector s are facing long-term damage too. UK film makers are also feeling the crunch, although largely backed by National Lotter y funding, the British Film Council has also been subject to extreme cuts, even though statistics show that the UK film industr y cre-ates near ly 70,000 jobs in the UK, generating 0.24% of the UK’s gross value added. Br itain has 29% of the global ar t and antiques market and

it is the second largest market in the wor ld. The Br itish ar t and antiques market generated £7.7 billion in sales last year and directly suppor ts over 60,000 jobs. In the UK, cultural work-ers tend to be more highly educated than the wider labour force. The 48% of workers in the creative sector have had a university education, which in comparison with 31% of the general UK labour force , is much higher. In the top-tier ar t auction houses, it is estimated that 88% of employees have had some kind of university educa-tion. The growth of the ar t market for our society doesn’t stop there , The International Passenger Sur vey revealed that in 2010 7.4 mi l l ion visitors from overseas visit museums or ar t galler ies. With London’s ar t market booming, i t has becoming an internat iona l hub for tour i s ts interested in the market.

national interest.”

Over half of tour ists in London visit ar t venues during their stay. Without these industr ies str iving in today’s markets, our countr y would be at a huge financial loss. If it wasn’t for all of the talented, accomplished citizens working in these industr ies, profits may not have been as high as they have been If those people working did not have an equal chance to go to univer sity and study for some-thing that they felt hugely passionate about, potentially we may have lost numbers of great talent, and in turn lost a stagger ing amount of money for the UK’s economy. This is some-thing we must star t thinking about, as we all know, the university fees have tr ipled in pr ice , star ting from this September 2012. “Suppor ting creativity should be an integral par t of str iving for the highest educational standards. It is also central to the future suc-cess of our economy and society.” Labour MP Ivan Lewis explained of the coal it ion government cuts on education, “Education reform rooted

in high standards must ensure young people are suppor ted to develop their creative talent and prepared for the oppor tunities of the digital age. David Cameron should not allow il l-conceived ideology to trump the national interest.” A group of well-known ar t-ists in the industr y from Sir Patr ick Stewar t to Lord David Puttnam have come together and created a group to petition against the education cuts.

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They’ve been keeping a close eye on the updates, and also fear that the creativity of UK children is at a great r isk, “We are concerned that recent developments, including the phasing out of teaching grants for ar ts de-grees, send out the wrong message.” The group added this message for the Tor y-Lib Dem government, “We urge ministers to adopt policies which will ensure that creativity is at the hear t of what our education offers. For many young people, their passion for learning is ignited when they’re provided with the oppor tunity to express themselves.” Although the policies have now been determined, many are stil l fighting for these to be reversed in order to protect our futures and to give the children of today a fair choice in their chosen career paths . Seventeen year old April Jones has been undergoing the university application process with UCAS in recent months. Although she and many others are being hit fir st by the tuition fee r ise , she is sti l l determined to go to university to study English and in turn, wants to make a career for her self as a journalist, “Initial ly I thought twice about apply ing for univer s i ty be-cause of the fee r ise , I want to be a journalist and you don’t necessar ily need a degree to become one . I thought about different routes, l ike going abroad to study as i t ’s not

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run. I don’t think it’s fair on us as the younger generation, especial ly as people before us have had the chance to do the same course at a lower price. It’s definitely put a lot of my fr iends off of going to university and they’re just going to tr y and get jobs straight away instead of follow-ing their dreams, but now they’re up against graduates who have degrees for those jobs. It’s tough.” Nick Clegg spoke publically of the tuition fee reform, “We have stuck to our ambition to make sure that going to university is done in a progressive way so that those people who are presently discouraged from going to university – br ight people from poor backgrounds, discouraged by the system we inherited from her government – are able to do so.” Cameron also spoke out about the reform, claiming that he thinks, “It’s c lear that long-term, respons ible reform of higher education means making it more sustainable, by asking successful graduates who go on to earn a good salar y to make a bigger contr ibution.” But although many graduates may be on a higher salary than non-university goers, the real factor in the whole reform is that university educations will not only cost more, students will end up paying more money back in total in the long run. This is sti l l the case even if the government have reinvented the pay back scheme to become more ‘fair’ – for example , graduates don’t star t paying back their student debt unti l they earn over £21,000 instead of the cur-rent £15,000. Of course , this factor does help poorer students go to university and pay off their debts in a more sustainable way, but by sim-ply putting the tuition fee pr ice up to maximum for the major ity of UK universities is putting many students off from applying, meaning thousands of students are missing out on one of the greatest oppor tunities in life .

Image from vogue.com

Become a fashion designers muse and you automatically become the envy of every gir l. Not only are you eventually dressed head to toe in their label, the face of their brand and the inspira-tion behind their newest collection, you are their fr iend. And what brand is most yearned by fashion lovers? Chanel, of course. In this issue we are going to explore Kar l Lagerfeld and his numerous muses over the span of his hugely successful career at the Par isian house . From Alexa Chung to Baptiste Gaibiconi, actresses to s inger s, Kar l has befr iended them all . Fair enough, we all loved Blake Lively and Lily Allen way before their face-of-Chanel career peaks, but as soon as they were swanning around on Kar l’s wing, they seemed to have gained a bulky amount of extra je ne sais quois. Whether it’s the smug l i t t le gr ins on their faces or that Chanel haute couture sequin dress that Blake was seen wear ing at the Soho boutique opening in New York, we’re eternally jealous of them yet

FA S H I O N S B F F

Lagerfeld

we’re all completely in awe of them now that they’re under the Lagerfeld spell . It ’s as if Kar l can completely re invent these people , and at the same time manages to re invent his Chanel brand. Blake brought a breath of fresh air to Chanel, comparing her gir l next-door image to the classic , timeless looks of Audrey Tatou and Keira Knightley, he took a wild r isk but pulled it off as he always seems to. The same goes for Lily Allen, a wild, potty-mouthed young gir l from ‘Landan’; Kar l established her face in charge of promoting the world’s most coveted handbags, and again, along with his playful ad campaign with Miss Allen, it surprisingly worked. Women dress to impress other women, and that’s why Kar l’s handpicked, insanely attractive entourage of muses works for Chanel’s sales. His eye for poten-tial is key to the brand, he picked up Alexa Chung fresh out of the T4 studios, dressed her up in a Chanel tweed suit and now she’s a wor ld-wide fashion icon. Kar l loves to get stuck r ight into things, he doesn’t employ people to find these muses, he seeks them out himself, and cre-ates a relationship of his own. “I love Alexa!” Kar l told Vogue in 2010. “If someone asks me who is a modern gir l for me today, Alexa should be the one! The way she looks, the way she talks and acts. She does a lot of

things at the same time; she is ver y talented and does it in a perfect way. She is beautiful and clever!” For his underwater themed Spr ing/Summer 12 col lect ion Kar l employed none other than musical maestro Florence Welch to perform ‘What The Water Gave Me’ from her underwater themed a lbum whi lst emerged in a giant clam, a la Bot-ticell i ’s Venus. Speaking to AnOther magazine , Florence descr ibed how she became Kar l’s inspiration, vision and muse for his Spring/Summer 2012 collection, “It was funny because Kar l and I were doing a shoot for Japanese Vogue, where I was talking about the underwater themes in my record, and he was saying how he wanted to do an underwater theme for his show. Then he said: ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if you came down on a big wire like you were f loating?’ and I was l ike: ‘What?’ And he said: ‘We can get all these harps together.. .’ and all these ideas were coming to him just really off the cuff… so I thought he was joking and then he put his hand on mine and said: ‘Ok, so we’ll do it, I ’m glad we talked.’ ” And i f you were wondering how to become one of Kar l’s muses, it really can be as easy as that.

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Photography & Styling: Madeleine YoungModels: Gina Harrison & Stephen Whitworth

Pink blouse, £39.99, ZaraPink blazer, £79.99, Zara

L I F T M E U P

Floral blouse, £29.99 Zara Floral shorts, £29.99, Zara

CHANEL earrings, models own Ray Ban glasses, £180, David Clulow Grey cardigan, Vince, £350, Harrods

Pink blazer, £79.99, Zara Pink blouse, £39.99, Zara

Tweed shorts, £19.99, ZaraNavy suit blazer, £249, T M Lewin

Navy suit trousers, £100, T M Lewin Lilac shirt, £30, Uniqlo.

LEFTGrey cardigan, Floral shirt, Floral shorts, Accessories same as before. Cream shirt, £40, Geoffery Bean -Blue jeans, £215, 7 For All Mankind - Brown boots, £124.99, Sebago

THIS PAGEFloral shirt, Glasses, Earrings, Grey cardigan, Cream shirt - same as before.

T H E F U T U R E O F FA S H I O N

between cr eat i ves and c lo thing at shows, and toys with

and love trans f er r ing onto the inter net .

Prada, Louis Vuitton, Chanel are some of the biggest names amongst hundreds at fashion week. Their shows are not only each season’s ‘ones to watch’ they exudes the meaning of ‘show’. Theatr ical, extraordinar y, somewhat of a fantasy performance, models are not only expected to simply walk down the catwa lk , they are now asked to act scenes and perform, like something from a Broadway theatre show. The sets are not simply a room paved with audience benches, now they hold giant cr ystal statues and fairground carousels. The future of fashion shows as we knew them is something way more than just an exhibition of clothing. They are here

to enter tain, to captivate the audience and to grab interest from every corner of the public eye . Nobody wants to see clothes simply slung on to models walking down a catwalk; people’s thirst for amusement and a distraction from every day life has become so strong that designer labels are str iving to achieve bigger and better results, competing against one another each season to create the show with the most media frenzy. However, wanting to create the most talked about show of the season is nothing new, but some designer s have gone to such great lengths that it has raised the bar for future fashion week productions. Take Louis Vuitton’s Autumn Winter 2012 show, Creative

Director Faye McLeod took us back to the ear ly 1900’s where we saw a real steam train car bellowing into the show space in Paris. If anybody doubted her being able to top the fairground merr y-go-round, this cer tainly showed us that she can undoubtedly pull off anything. In an interview with On|Off TV, Faye Mcleod recently explained how her visions become reality in producing the show sets and windows for one of the biggest globally recognised brands in the World, and how she collaborates with creat ives across the brand to create something extremely special for the audience and the consumers, “We’ve got six maisons in the Wor ld

that are on all of the major streets; New Bond S t reet , F i f th Avenue , Omotesande, Canton Road, Plaza 66 and Champs D’elysee . So we’ve got these stores, for me they’re like six temples, l ittle Vuitton temples that are major. Their architecture is all dif-ferent, they’ve got these eight meter high windows, 12 windows running, you look at New Bond Street and it’s got this gold façade, they’re all spectacles. Peter Mar ino’s architec-ture is beautiful; ever ything’s a real statement.” Faye carr ied on to talk about bringing the show aesthetic to the windows of the world-renowned stores for the ever y day public , “If you ’re t r ave l l i ng be tween these cit ies l ike a lot of people do, you want to be wowed. So you’ve got six maisons with a bespoke creative . We work on the show; we then take that creative into the windows. We

(Faye and Ansel Thompson, Senior Designer at Louis Vuitton) created the carouse l for the show, Anse l then decided he wants to blow the carousel up and explode it through the windows. We actually bought the horses from the carousel and they’re actually in all of our windows r ight now. It’s really nice because ever y-body says ‘Oh those horses, did you get them made again?’ and we’re like, ‘No they’re the real ones from the carousel, we bought them and we used them again.’ For me that makes common sense , and that’s the way we’re working.” Faye’s per sistence and passion for the creative side of the shows obviously shines through in the inter view. Her explanation of the creative direction tells us that the show isn’t just to be watched, and the ideas and exhibition behind it is recycled and re used for store

display purposes also. The creative boundaries are not just to enter tain the fashion editors at the exclusive shows but also to the general public who are walking down the street too, which Faye has given thought about. A collaborative vision shared between people in the industr y and ever y day shoppers, some could say. Not on ly do br ands hold their own creative teams, architects have long been working on catwalk shows with designers to collaborate and brainstorm ideas, and with the fusion of two brains bring extremely unique show concepts. Dutch archi-tect, Rem Koolhaas and his team at Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) have collaborated with Prada for over 13 years; from creating in-novatively designed f lagship Prada stores across the globe to a 24-hour Prada museum exhibit, OMA have

just about covered everything for the brand. Since creating a par tnership in 1999, they went on to star t a dual relationship on a much more regular basis in 2004, when Koolhaas and his team were appointed to work with Prada and Miu Miu on their men’s and women’s catwalk shows twice year ly. The ear ly designs were simple and minimal ist ic , but over recent year s we have seen OMA create ground breaking architectural intel-ligence, often turning the traditional catwalk appearance on it’s head to create mind blowing, avant-garde show surroundings. The Prada men’s spr ing summer 2012 show, OMA created fashion histor y when their design blew the minds of fashion edi-tors and challenged the traditional catwalk. A spokesperson from OMA talks through the design and idea, “600 visitors sit on individual blue

foam blocks distr ibuted over a 1.5 x 1.5 meter gr id spread through the entire hall . Models flow through the highly organised audience, following multiple choreographed routes that allow maximum visibil ity. The set up refers to the imager y of a geometric outdoors; the audience par ticipates in a perfectly organised picnic .” But with all of the emphasis on the show set-ups becoming more than just an area in which the col-lections are displayed, are we getting lost in the enter tainment instead of concentrating purely on the clothing exhibit factor? “I feel that the whole catwalk production is mainly based around the exhibition of the clothes. Therefore it’s enhancing the idea and theme they are tr ying to reflect and I don’t think it’s losing the meaning of the clothes.” Explains up and coming fashion designer Jennifer Wheeler, “I

can see how people may think that the audience will focus more on the garments if you aren’t distracted by other things around you, however the shows aim is to put the audience in the vision or wor ld that the design-ers were in, which I think gives you a greater, more memorable experience and connection to their work.” Another area in which brands have collaborated with is the Internet. With the popularity of the Internet ever growing, could we see these lavish and exuberant productions being shown purely online? Of course , it would save busy fashion editors numerous gruelling hours of travell ing across the wor ld to catch the fir st glimpse of a designer ’s newest col lect ion, but without the excitement around the aura and social aspect of fashion weeks for ever y one in the business. Could the merge of fashion week and

the Internet be a success? And are we star ting to head in that direction already? Big brands such as Burberr y are already taking advantage of the Internet, social media in par ticular, to gage the audience’s attention and stand out from the crowd. Fashion designer Jennifer Wheeler gave her thoughts on losing the fashion week event, stating, “I think it would be a great shame for designer s to lose seats at a fashion week show. Their catwalks are an exhibition and cel-ebration of their work as much as creating publicity for the brand. I f I was a designer and I ’d spent six months slaving away to celebrate a live stream online I wouldn’t be too over the moon. Also in a more simple outlook there’s no way a computer screen can beat real l ife , it’s always best to view things with your own eyes.” Although with companies such as Burberr y already swaying in the direction of online streaming with a massive social media following, Jen-

nifer explained how this worked in their favour, “When Burberry showed backstage photographs of models in the collection online before the show it did ruin the element of surpr ise , however it gave them more attention from press and public .” She went on to speak of how she thinks this will affect other luxur y fashion brands, “Of course other designers are going to star t doing it, nobody wants to get left behind. New technology is discovered all the time and designers have to keep up with the changes as much as anyone else . Brands wont necessar ily interact with people on social media platforms which these sites were built for, but they will use it to get attention.” Where as Editor of Manne-quin magazine , Josie Marie Denton, disagrees with Wheeler about brands latching on to the social media plat-forms, saying ”I think the only people that should see anything before the show is the backstage team. I hope

designers don’t make this a regular thing. I have a love/hate relationship with social media. It’s fantastic how eas i ly in format ion can be shared and how involved people feel with an industr y that has so many times been criticised for being too exclusive, however I do think that sneak peeks on Twitter do spoil the surpr ise .” What does the fu ture o f fashion look like? We’re not entirely sure . But what we do know is the collaborations in these areas are all aiming to create one thing; the most amazing, talked about runway show of the season. Whether it’s between architects, the creative directors or social media platforms, the future of fashion is rapidly changing in front of us. Whether we approve of change or not, technology is forever improving and is adjusting fashion as we know it today.