SWAROVSKI LFW PREVIEW: FFS, its HENRY HOLLAND!!

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

Henry

Henry is a busy man. Fresh from a trip to New York last weekend where he hosted a Fashion's Night Out party with ASOS.com (for whom he designed a special maxi dress) and Teen Vogue, he bounded into his studio to meet with us having just been at the gym. "I saw Erdem and I often see Richard Nicoll, now all we need is Chris and Tammy Kane to make it a fashion happening," he quipped before skipping off to spruce his famous quiff back into place with some Elnett. 

He seems weirdly calm, I tell him, for a man with a catwalk show in four days. "I am weirdly calm. We're organised. There's ten people working here, at this stage we're taking delivery of something new every day from our various suppliers. It's like Christmas every day," he says and as if to prove his point his gorgeous production manager Anna signs for a large box and flourishes it in our direction. It turns out to be T-shirts in various cuts (cropped tops, Y back vests, trad T-shirts) featuring the banana print shown below in various colours. The cerulean blue is my favourite.

Then he tells me and the fashion junior about his latest two discount cards; we all love a discount card in the fashion biz. Henry Holland has a Woolworths.co.uk pick n mix card, (oh lawdy how I would love one of those) "the sweets come within three hours!!" he marvelled while chugging down a cola bottle. He is also the proud recipient of a Nandos card. Nandos feed him and five interns once a week or so. Here's a thing: Nandos is every fashionistas secret favourite fast food restaurant.

                                                 Banana leaf print Henry has developed for his SS11 HOH collection

SS11 INSPIRATION

"It started with the 70s, Studio 54, and the (1980) film Xanadu, and progressively got more and more Joan Collins and Joan Rivers. It's glitzy...but I hate the word glitzy...sophisticated is better The collection is bright, fun and young with it, but not as young as before. We're getting a bit more grown up; there's a bit of Jackie O in there. The main print is the banana leaf, which we have Swarovski'd. The banana leaf print is part inspired by the wallpaper of the restaurant Indochine in New York and part inspired by the episode of Friends when Monica is in the Bahamas and has to get her hair braided because of humidity."

He then shows me some great bustier dresses hung with fringing - take it from me, London designers are TOTALLY OBSESSED with fringing this season - and says "I'm getting my hairdresser to do some looks with the fringing." We approve.

The House of Holland studio on Charlotte Road

As you can see from the board below, Henry's shapes are cute and girlie and verging on terribly chic, but the fun in them makes them young and cool. There is copious use of gold chainmail - another Xanadu connection - and a lot of Swarovski encrusted stars, as well as darling dresses and jackets.  "I have definitely used up my Swarovski allowance this season," he says. 

The look-boards for the SS11 collection. Love how their "girl" is a mini Anna Wintour

FASHION SHOW GOSSIP?

"I'm working with BlackBerry again. Look," he says whipping out his new BlackBerry Torch, "I've got a BlackBerry Torch." Henry is such a show off.  While I seethe with jealousy (sort of) he reveals the fruits of his latest collaboration with them. "I've created a BlackBerry Torch cover that has an ear on the back of it, so when the phone is to your ear, you've got an ear on show!! We've made a hole in the ear for an earring, and we have made small versions of the House of Holland earrings for SS11 which are a Swarovski stud leading to a chain hung with a giant fluffy hoop. Next year we are hoping to create a rubber ear that is 3D." He has also collaborated for the first time with Charlotte Olympia, and the shoes look divine. To see his novelty ear thing for BlackBerry go to his sponsored blog, or rather look at this hilar photo of Sienna Miller from the blog....  

...and this one - with a better view of the ear/earring - modelled by accessories designer Katie Hillier

Now on with the show, which takes place tomorrow at 4.15pm.

SWAROVSKI LFW PREVIEW: J.W. ANDERSON

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

Fashion week previews are a privilege afforded to very few fashion journalists. However, it is something I have been doing unofficially for years. It helps me understand the season if I understand where the designer is coming from, and the designers themselves like a sounding board who offers both constructive criticism and positive encouragement as well as downright admiration.
This season for the SS11 shows in London Swarovski wanted to know if I would like to blog about the young designers they work with, and since I was doing some of them anyway, I agreed.
Tonight I start the previews by sharing my visit to see J.W Anderson at his studio/apartment. J.W shows his womenswear on Saturday at 5pm, and his mens next Wednesday.

Jonathan with his hunk of Swarovski off-cut that he used to make his LFW film look psychedelic

"I'm not here to change fashion - I just want to give it a narrative."

I first met Jonathan W Anderson (above) a few years ago when he was still doing jewellery and was fresh out of a relationship from Rufus Wainwright, for whom he designed stage costumes. Back them he was finding his path as a menswear designer. Now he has a growing menswear business, a new womens label,  and has recently signed two successful straight from the runway sales deals with Liberty for his womens clothes and Oki-Ni for his mens.

He is unlike any designer I have met in many ways - number one among them is that he completely embraces digital culture and social media. His blog gets 1500 hits a day from people around the world, (when I was there he was answering an email from a fan in Chile). I've just been watching on his blog the nattily edited film from yesterday showing how to bleach Liberty Print, set to Miles Davis.  

In addition Jonathan is trained in drama, and this, combined with having an English teacher for a mother means he name-drops Joyce and Dostoevsky more readily that Prada and Comme.

This is Jonathan's mood board of William Gedney images from the photographers Nantucket series

S/S 11 INSPIRATIONS:
"My new collection is about a girl and a boy running away from a privileged upbringing to take a road-trip across America, experimenting with LSD (which I have never tried, but would have liked to!). Unsung photographer William Gedney's images of a Nantucket family have also been a huge inspiration. Gedney was photographing during the 50's and 70's, and was taught by Diane Arbus but his work is not widely known. Both collections have been based on a smorgasbord of youth culture, as seen in Karlheinz Weinberger's book of photographs of German teenagers recreating American teen stereotypes, and Patrick Frey's collection of Swiss punk and new wave images in the book Hot Love (both below). The colours of the collection were inspired by 70's sugar crystal trees and the way light refracts and diffuses through crystals. I asked them for off-cuts and asked for the giant lumps of crystal from which they carve crystals...they thought it was an eccentric request, but we used this lump (the one he is holding above)to make our video look trippy. We also asked them for crystal leftovers, and so got a lot of random bits and bobs which we upcycled."

   Page view of Karlheinz Weinberger: Photos 1954-1995

JWA PHILOSOPHY:
"There is always a storytelling element to my collections. As well as that, the fact that we design for a London audience means we have to consider two extremes: the work has to be avant garde and exciting, but also a viable prospect for buyers. We like to keep our buyers informed during every step of the design process.

I don't want to keep my work private, I want to let people in - and it seems that people want to know more about us. Canon have sponsored us and the amazing cameras they have given us mean we can make videos of the creative process (how to bleach out Liberty print fabrics, how to add the Swarovski crystals to our shoe designs and the casting videos). We have also created a fashion film as our womenswear presentation, which was shot by shining light through giant crystal off cuts into a dark room filled with powder, which achieved the magical LSD effect."

"The film we've dome for LFW was shot by Sherif Hamzar, Steven Klein's old assistant. Robbie Spencer styled it."

"I wanted to revive the lost art of doilie making, so I've sent my team out to find old ones. They take days to make. I'm using them to create T-shirts." (below)

"This dress is inspired by my friend Yasmin Sewell."

"A bra top from the womens range covered with the leftover Swarovski crystals"

  "I found this kid on the street in Copenhagen, his name is Ben and he will be opening my menswear show on Wednesday."

"My team"

From Karlheinz Weinberger book

All photos: Fashion Editor at Large