LFW AW13: BRAVO LUCAS NASCIMENTO

Posted by Bethan Holt. Junior Fashion Editor at Large

A few weeks ago, I visited NEWGEN designer Lucas Nascimento to preview his AW13 collection, which was shown at Tate Modern this morning. It was a beautiful, chic and clever collection which had  several editors and buyers I was sitting near to actually cooing out loud. Quite a feat on the last day of the week. Obviously not the actual week, the fashion week you understand. Today is London Fashion Friday. Here's the preview, which also appeared in today's The Daily interspersed with some pictures from today's show....

As with most East London designer’s studios, it’s easy to get lost en route to Lucas Nascimento’s Hackney Wick abode. Indeed, at first glance it’s a lighting and furniture factory. But venture further round and you come to the right place. It’s not rails of samples and acres of fabric which greet visitors, as one might expect. It’s an enormous, industrial sized Stoll knitting machine.

Brazil-born Nascimento has confounded those of us who thought we knew what knitting looked like by producing light as air, fine as feathers modern wardrobe staples. In his debut season of NEWGEN sponsorship, A/W ’12, there were bafflingly novel carpet-like knits, for S/S 13 the look was light, fine and sheer. Knitwear like you’ve never seen it before.

The wild-haired 32 year-old has been engrossed in the M1 Plus software which he calls ‘the Photoshop of knitwear’. It allows him to experiment with new techniques which he then tailors into the simple yet voluminous shapes, like shell tops and sculpted shift dresses, which are fast becoming his signature. The night before we met he produced a fabulous double-sided, flock effect pattern which he likens to ‘oil on water’. It is constructed with a combination of shimmering gauze thread and luxurious chenille. It could be jacquard but it has sheen and stretch. Then there’s bouclé yarn knitted with cellophane thread in a way which Nascimento compares to quilting. This squishy, waffled creation will be crafted into a pencil skirt. Prepare to be astounded too by fur tightly knitted into yarn. It’s all about balancing wintry richness with a lightness of touch. 

Nascimento studied knitwear at London College of Fashion, having learnt from his Mother when he was growing up. ‘I love hand knitting and I’m really good at it’ he emphasises, remembering the ‘brilliant’ internship he did with Sid Bryan and the gang from Sibling during his second year. It was post- graduation factory visits while working for the likes of Neon and Basso and Brooke that piqued a curiosity about what technology could do for knitting. 

‘We go through the yarns for the season, but it’s always a surprise because they will do something you didn’t think they would’ says Nascimento of the starting point for every collection. He has a beautiful mood board, which includes a 60s photograph of Jean Shrimpton, Nefertiti-like in James Galanos, and a tufty haired rabbit. But those images play out in specific details, like the way he wants his knitted fur to look. It is the pocket of The Shrimp’s dress which informs the pouches you will see on dresses in today’s collection. 

He has his fashion aesthetic down to a tee. Those sleek, modern pieces such as a column skirt or neat bomber jacket. For A/W ’13, dresses take on a cocoon shape while jackets are cropped, or cut out at the shoulder. Old ladies are a constant obsession, ‘you must put them in!’ he exclaims in his lyrical Brazilian accent. He goes on, ‘their proportions and how they put together their outfits fascinates me’. While we don’t think geriatric when we see a Lucas look, those demure lengths and inspired colour combinations make sense in this context. Navy is Nascimento’s favourite colour and is guaranteed to appear in every collection. This time it is teamed with ochre, grey and blush pink.

 

At a time when Céline is selling mink sandals, and Margiela offers leather joggers, it is savvy of Nascimento to experiment with imbuing his simple shapes with high-end luxury. One look comprises a fur sleeved sweatshirt and matching rabbit panelled pencil skirt. Perhaps it’s something to do with hailing from a BRIC country? ”I really want women to look at something of mine and say ‘Oh my god, I need that. I want to rock that’” Nascimento enthuses. Cue, a whole new wish list for Autumn.

FIRST LOOK: LOUIS VUITTON X YAYOI KUSAMA... THE DOTS ARE HERE

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

It's here! We brought you news back in January that Louis Vuitton would be collaborating with Japan's greatest living artist and queen of polka dots, Yayoi Kusama. Now, we've seen Tate Modern's brilliant exhibition (which finished yesterday but is now going to New York) and we were getting tad impatient to see what Marc Jacobs and Kusama had come up with for the collection which is a continuation of Vuitton's work with artists, we all remember Murakami and Sprouse, right?

Well, I was poking about online earlier and came across these images on Trendland which finally show us what the Infinitely Dots collection is going to look like. Dots are what we expected and dots are what we get, whether they're in muted colours on a structured tee or bold, bright and classically Kusama on bow ballet pumps and perspex bangles.

I love that there is a dot interpretation for every taste- there's in-your-face pieces which play to Kusama's almost childlike obsession with the bright colours and bold graphics of the spot. But then there are more pared back, luxe interpretations like the monochrome sunglasses (in the top picture) with their round, sixties shape and gold detailing. Whatever guise they come in, if you know Kusama's work then you'll recognise her input in each piece.

It's a bit puzzling that the collection's official website doesn't show the product yet, despite the fact that it's on a couple of websites. Nevertheless, the site does give those new to Kusama an insight into her life and there's also an interview with Vuitton main man Marc Jacobs whose idea it was for the label to collaborate with artists. He says '"It continues something I began when I came here which is the idea of art and collaboration, or collaboration with artists. For many people who don't look at art or go to galleries, or maybe they're not aware of Kusama's work, there will be a new venue, a new place to see this work and to come to appreciate it through the eyes of Louis Vuitton."

If you remember the previous collaborations, then you'll know that part of the deal is that the distinct LV monogram gets a makeover from the artist- in these images we can see that Vuitton's luggage bag styles have been covered in dots and made in shiny, tactile fabrics.

Self Obliteration (1967) by Yayoi Kusama (image from www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern)

Also, is it weird or fabulous that the images feature a model who looks like a younger version of Yayoi? She has frequently used herself in her work and that fringe is pretty iconic- I think the photos are really fun but it also feels a bit like they're trying to recreate a Yayoi original.

The first drop from the Infinitely Dots collaboration is out on July 11th- it'll be mostly pyjamas, trench coats and jewellery with the second drop in October. Prepare for dot mania!

All images from www.trendland.com

YAY FOR YAYOI KUSAMA AND LOUIS VUITTON AT TATE MODERN!

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Yayoi Kusama has taken over Tate Modern. Even before you enter her brilliant exhibition (which opens today!) proper you will walk across the fourth floor landing, usually a stark, minimal area. During Kusama's exhibit however, there are huge red and white spotty balls which take the space into acid trip territory. It's an ideal amuse-bouche for the exhibition itself, which I saw at Tuesday's press view. The museum has done a brilliant job of translating Kusama's key themes of proliferation, obsession and maximalism into an immersive experience for visitors. The exhibition's curator, Frances Morris, describes Kusama as 'ceaselessly productive'. It was apt then, that just as the press tour was about to begin, Kusama arrived in her polka dot wheelchair, resplendent in a red and white spotted dress, the brightest red jacket, orange Louis Vuitton bag (they're sponsoring the show) and the most scarlett hair I've ever seen. Although she's a tiny figure with a faint voice, her arrival heralded chaos, the tour was postponed while Morris walked through the show with the artist. And so everyone in attendance bustled around, resembling the kind of clustered formation which Kusama is famed for creating in her work.

Yayoi Kusama arrives at the Tate Modern

Kusama is described by Tate Modern's director Chris Dercon as 'Japan's greatest living artist'. Her career spans six decades and her influences come from East and West. She was born in rural Japan to a well-to-do family whose trade was in seeds. It was expected that a girl like her would make a good marriage and become a dutiful wife and mother. However, Kusama was an unfailingly enthusiastic and talented creative from a young age; Morris speaks of the beauty of drawings Kusama did as young as ten years old.  Her very early art references the traditional Japanese Nihonga painting, which is where the Tate exhibition begins. However, when she moved to the US at the end of the 1950s, there is a huge leap in Kusama's aesthetic. The room of white 'Infinity Net' paintings demonstrates how she immediately immersed herself in the techniques being employed by the people she connected with in Seattle and, later, in New York. Morris comments that, for many artists, that jump have been done over an entire career, but for Kusama it was 'almost overnight'.

The Infinity Net room- the most minimal of
the show but beautiful studied up close. 

As Kusama settled in the US, she was both an 'insider' and an 'outsider'. She was at the heart of the art world, with Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg among her contemporaries. But she also used her status as a woman from the East in her art; the slide show Walking Piece shows her looking distinctly Japanese in bright pink kimono and parasol, walking through the streets of New York.

Walking Piece, 1966

She continued living in New York and constantly evolving her work, experimenting with techniques including painting, sculpture and performance. In 1973, Kusama returned to Tokyo where she later admitted herself to a psychiatric facility. The hallucinations and obsessions which engulf her come out in her work to haunting and moving effect, especially in her sculptures where the scale and sense of uncontrollable multiplication are quite amazing. Yayoi Kusama still works from a studio across from the hospital.

Heaven and Earth, 1991

This exhibition is a must-see, no question. But there's a whole other aspect of Yayoi Kusama which makes it doubly worth a visit and that is, of course, fashion! As I mentioned, the exhibition is being sponsored by Louis Vuitton, ostensibly as part of their Young Arts Programme. But one of Kusama's other big projects this year just happens to be her collaboration with Louis Vuitton which the FashEd reported on back in January. My visit to the exhibition yesterday put Kusama's relationship with Vuitton into context though; fashion has punctuated her life. When she arrived in the US, Kusama sold kimonos which she'd brought with her from Japan to make money. Her art features shoes, bags and dresses, particularly in sculpture and collage form. She also had a fashion concession in a corner of Bloomingdales in the New York days.

One of Kusama's Accumulation collages

The Fash Ed and I have been trying to guess if there any clues about the collaboration which the exhibit might lend us...

The boxy shape of the pink and grey phallic dress is not so different to the silhouette we often see from Marc Jacobs. The phallic theme is possibly not super commercial, however we're sensing that Yayoi likes her metallics (see silver dress and bronze shoes below) and the big flowers on the silver dress are completely fabulous.

Silver Dress, from 1966

A Phallic shoe, from 1965

In her more recent work, Kusama has produced huge experiments in colour and pattern. Room 12 of the show is full of canvases which all show evidence of Kusama's 'codes', which Morris told us are evident from the very beginning of her career; eyes, ears, seeds, worms... So we reckon it's highly likely that we might see some bright and beautiful colour combos and all these little symbols on scarves. But then again, maybe not, because Kusama has teamed up with the Tate to do cards, hankies and tea towels in this style for their own shop.

Recent paintings by Yayoi Kusama

Of course, pumpkins and dots are Kusama's other main signatures. Given the outfit she chose for her London appearance, dots are still high on her love list. Or she might surprise us all with something completely different, which would hardly be surprising given the massive variation in all her work. We can't wait to see!

P.S This is a fab little film about Kusama's life as an artist...



Yayoi Kusama is on at Tate Modern from today until 5th June. Book here to avoid disappointment

All images by Fashion Junior at Large.

SS12: NEW YEAR, NEW COLOURS FROM GERHARD RICHTER

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Here at FEAL, we have been enjoying a rather extended Christmas break however I can assure you that normal service will resume on Monday.

I finally got around to visiting Tate Modern's Gerhard Richter: Panorama exhibition this week. I could go on about how Richter uses art to protest, to explore Germany's attitudes the World War Two or his quite beautiful ability to paint pictures as realistic as photographs, but that's not very fashion is it?

 Instead, I want to tell you about his use of colour. After a period of using mostly grey in his work- to express the misery of concentration camps- Richter turned to colour in the 1980s; 'some writers suggested the paintings reflected a period of personal joy and renewed confidence in painting' the exhibition guide tells us. Funnily enough, the prevailing mood of the SS12 collections was happy and pretty and joyful. A hugely positive  message at a time when the world is apparently facing the biggest crisis since WWII as economies across the world struggle to cope. We could be downcast but fashion says No.

We'll be bringing you more in-depth looks at the SS12 trends in the coming weeks but for now, here is Richter and SS12 colour....

FRESH:

Carven SS12

 GIRLISH PASTELS:

Marni SS12

JUNGLE:

Peter Pilotto SS12

And one of my favourite images from the Richter exhibition (only on until Sunday), a portrait of his wife Ema, a response to Marcel Duchamp's 'Nude Descending a Staircase'.

All Gerhard Richter images from www.Gerhard-Richter.com

All Catwalking images from www.Catwalking.com