16 posts tagged "Lulu Kennedy"
Gwendoline Christie: Glamazon Warrior
Most know Gwendoline Christie for her role as the armor-clad Brienne of Tarth on HBO’s fantasy smash Game of Thrones (get ready, the new season kicks off March 31). But when Ms. Christie’s not running through a Westeros battlefield, she’s a full-fledged member of London’s tight-knit fashion pack. You might find her cheering (and we mean cheering) at a good LFW show, squeezed into the front row between Princess Julia and Lulu Kennedy (Christie never misses the runways of close friends like Roksanda Ilincic, Louise Gray, Giles Deacon, and Henry Holland, just to name a few), and the bulk of her GOT press wardrobe was courtesy of pal Richard Nicoll. The six-foot, three-inch actress actually got her start modeling in student shows at the London College of Fashion and Central Saint Martins. “I feel quite passionately about London Fashion,” Christie told Style.com. “I think some of the most creative and interesting and brilliant people I know are involved in fashion, and I’m lucky enough that they’re my friends.”
Naturally, however, playing a die-hard warrior will have an effect on one’s look. “I had to cut my hair for Game of Thrones, which I found really hard. I find it quite embarrassing to admit that, but I think a lot of a woman’s femininity is tied up with her hair. Afterward, I had quite a big style overhaul,” says the actress, noting she used to study film-noir stars and covet a “sex bomb” Marilyn Monroe aesthetic. “Now, I look to people like Jean Shrimpton, Katharine Hepburn, Twiggy, and Greta Garbo in her more masculine stage.” Christie’s since embraced her ultra-androgynous makeover (pretty on trend, if we do say). “I think that’s more interesting—like a modern reimagining of femininity.” Continue Reading “Gwendoline Christie: Glamazon Warrior” »
Off to the Moon with Lulu & Co.
When Lulu & Co. launched in 2010, it was meant to be a onetime capsule collection of reissued hits from the archive of Fashion East, Lulu Kennedy’s young-designer incubator program. As it happened, the line was a smash hit, so much so that it continued, evolving along the way into updated Fashion East favorites, looks from current Fashion East designers, and now, for the first time, into a full-blown contemporary range of Kennedy’s own imagining.
Kennedy may have the reins herself now, but the “& Co.” hasn’t been forgotten; the line is still a collaborative affair. For starters, Kennedy often enlists her creative friends (like photographers Mary McCartney, Alasdair McLellan, and Jamie Morgan) to collaborate on prints. “It’s all about finding new things, having an element of surprise,” says Kennedy. “What fun would there be otherwise?” Artist McAlpine Miller and menswear designer Bobby Abley worked on a few pieces for Fall ’13. But the rest is all Lulu. Kennedy’s inner child comes out in the new collection, which was inspired by time travel, fantasy, the fifties, and cartoons. “When Katie Grand was working with Marc Jacobs last year, she was watching a lot of ‘Charlie the Unicorn’ on YouTube. I became hooked, too.” Consequently, the line is filled with playful takes on spaceships and stars, as well as photo-realist images of Elvis and Kate Moss superimposed with Popeye (Miller’s contribution). Kennedy’s fondness for nineties grunge, as well as her stints as a tomboy and a rave planner, inspired a digitized plaid silk georgette dress, while prom-appropriate frocks and argyle Lurex sweaters were influenced by Mad Men. Especially quirky were the sweatshirts—some screamed out “EARTHLING!” (a reference to Marvin the Martian), while others had the number sixty-nine emblazoned on the front. Kennedy protests, “Sixty-nine doesn’t represent what you think. It’s the year of my birth and the year that man first landed on the moon. Cosmic!” OK, Lulu, if you say so.
Fashion East’s New Pick
There’s a new member of the Fashion East family. Today, it was announced that Lulu Kennedy—the founder of the London-based young designer initiative and one of the movers and shakers featured in latest issue of Style.com/Print—along with the Fashion East selection panel, has chosen to add Ashley Williams to the program’s Fall 2013 lineup. Having recently graduated from London’s University of Westminster, Williams enlisted close pals Pixie Geldof and Alice Dellal to walk in her collegiate show. Naturally, her famous models caught a few eyes. But the up-and-comer’s kitschy prints and retro rockabilly looks were attention-worthy all on their own. Williams joins Claire Barrow and Ryan Lo, both of whom made their Fashion East debut last season.
Musings with Miu Miu
Leave it to Miuccia Prada to bring a bonafide “salon” back to London. For three nights only, Mrs. Prada has opened a private members’ club at London’s Café Royal, a nineteenth-century institution where speakers, artists, filmmakers, chefs, and general influencers unite to share ideas. Considering Winston Churchill, Oscar Wilde, and George Bernard Shaw were early patrons, Café Royal was an enlightened choice for Mrs. Prada, who’s an intellectual heavyweight in her own right.Film, food, art, and, of course, shopping are all on offer at the gilded baroque venue, which, last night, featured talks by Shala Monroque and Gentlewoman’s Penny Martin. The likes of Daphne Guinness, Katie Grand, and Lulu Kennedy sat on velvet couches while discussing the topic of the evening, “female role models,” which, after inspiring a few eye rolls from the gents in the crowd, left everyone riveted in their seats.
Kate Moss, Jamie Hince, Giles Deacon, and more popped by to take it all in, with many lingering in the rooms filled with Miu Miu’s yet-to-be-released 2013 Resort collection. Plus, guests were treated to a special surprise: a collaboration with two of London’s most beloved designers: Vivienne Westwood and Stephen Jones, the latter who, for the first time in his career, ventured away from hats to design a garment. His first sartorial venture? A denim apron.
“Mrs. Prada asked me to collaborate with her, and of course, I was honored to do so,” Jones tells Style.com. “I love aprons, I wear them all the time in the studio when I’m working because I am very hands-on and just make a mess. Aprons really are a symbol of hardwork put in by people throughout history.”
So, is a Stephen Jones clothing line in the works? “Hmm. I think it’s a wait and see—I’ll have to give it some thought, but it must be said that it was fun and challenging to do a piece of clothing for a change.”
Letter From London:
The Men’s Collections, Day 3
London’s final day of shows featured outings from J.W. Anderson, Margaret Howell, Pringle of Scotland, and Christopher Raeburn. It also offered a moment to check out the installations from Fashion East, Lulu Kennedy’s young-gun incubator of emerging talent. Tim Blanks took a tour.
Ben Kirchhoff went back to his London roots with Meadham Kirchhoff’s first collection for men (pictured), not only because he started out with menswear in his pre-Meadham days at Saint Martins but also because, when he first arrived in London, he lived in a squat in the general neighborhood of the imposing Georgian mansion where the duo showed their new work. So that glorious vista of green trees and blue sky (yes, the sun shone for a moment) had once been his. And so had the pell-mell, headily fragranced tumble of clothes, boys, flowers, and skip-surfed remnants with which MK filled the eighteenth-century salons. They’re now a fully fledged cult. The cultists were scarcely disappointed, but anyone else who’s been wondering what might be in the pipeline after the suited, booted sartorial conservatism that many of the fashion boys have been working over the past three days might also catch a glimpse of a possible future in MK’s extravagant wrack of the West.
They were sharing the house with the latest crop of designers that Lulu Kennedy was introducing to the world under the Fashion East banner. Downstairs, Duffy showed his silver jewelry with its occult undertones in a room that could have been built for that purpose alone. And Craig Green, fresh out of Saint Martins, showed eerie, homespun clothes—in calico, cheesecloth, cotton knit, and suede screen-printed to a crunchy finish—which suggested ancient rituals in pagan communities cut off from the world. The Wicker Man was an inspiration. No surprises there.
Ritual also infused Tom Lipop’s tailoring with a colorful Mexican twist, or at least the Day of the Dead did, because his models were made up as leering skulls. The boys were packed away on shelves and in drawers, a memorable way to guarantee maximal impact on a minimal budget. Kit Neale managed the same effect by filling his space with a huge fairground snake, which complemented his extravagant prints (particularly liked the lobster ensemble). Idiosyncrasy, playfulness, and obsession rule in the universe of Fashion East. Marten van der Horst’s heavy-metal mutant T-shirts had all that.