South Korean Street Style

I'm a huge fan of South Korean fashion. Walking through the downtown streets of Seoul, it's like a catwalk show. Young hipsters provide a source of endless inspiration with their forward thinking style. Koreans are fashion crazy and even have clothes stores in their subway stations!



You can find Korean designers selling clothes in Camden market and Portobello Market. It would be great to see more Korean clothing in the UK or at least more coverage about Korean fashion. To see more street style, visit Street Peeper. It's a great site for looking at street fashion from all over the world.

Fashion Cupcakes

So, I'm back! I've emerged from the depths and am back to blogging. Since my last post, I've become the domestic queen and have discovered two new hobbies- baking and knitting. I've been going baking crazy and I discovered these fashion cupcakes when looking for inspiration. Fashion and food don't normally go hand in hand, but here the two combine beautifully.


These gorgeous cupcakes were styled by Lisa Edsalv and shot by Theres Aldgard. My favourites have to be the Agent Provocateur cakes as they're just perfectly suited to the brand- saucy, fun and oh so glam.

Photography Takes On Art

I came across this extraordinary fashion shoot by the photographer Michael Thompson for Italian Vogue. He's incorporated photography with 2D painting, using the style of Matisse as his inspiration. I was looking through Matisse's work and came across his piece, Odalisque's, 1928. The image below, must have been inspired by this piece as the resemblance is striking.

Odalisque's, 1928

I'm not quite sure whether these were created using Photoshop or if they were cut out and hand painted. Whatever the method, the bold colours and brush strokes of the paint combined with the detail in the photography creates a surreal and striking effect.

Odalisque In Red Trousers, 1924-1925

You can see more of Michael Thompson's work at: http://http://www.jedroot.com/

The House of Victor and Rolf

The exhibition at The Barbican is a fascinating showcase of the fashion designer's work. It's based around a giant dolls house where the dolls model miniature versions of their key pieces. Surrounding this, the exhibition is divided into sections representing each season of their work. Life size dolls display the clothes and in the background their catwalk shows are projected on the walls. At first it seems a little creepy- the dolls and their blank expressions can look a bit disturbing. But as you wonder round, learning about the inspiration behind each collection, you start to appreciate the theatrical nature and master craftsmanship of their work.

One of the most impressive collections is from A/W 2002-2003 entitled "Long Live The Immaterial (Bluescreen)". The designers adapted bluescreen technology into their work to "go beyond the product, to design something that is immaterial". The clothes contain elements of chromakey blue which when combined with a live video feed, seem to come to life. The models become walking screens, displaying moving footage from the urban and natural world, making them look almost 2D. You can see it below (it's 18 minutes long and gets better towards the end so it might be worth winding forward if you don't fancy watching the whole thing).

Viktor & Rolf Fall 02 Fashion Show (Full)
Uploaded by FBK1976

Among their other talents, I discovered that the duo are masters of self publicity. In 1996, early on in their career, Victor & Rolf were feeling frustrated with their status as novice artists. So, to gain some publicity the pair launched a fake fragrance entitled "Le Parfum". In the fashion world, a perfume is the symbol of a fashion houses success. They produced 250 limited edition bottles, that were sealed shut, with a publicity still to accompany it. Later that year, they rebelled against the dictatorship of the fashion industry by refusing to stage an A/W collection. During fashion week they plastered the streets of Paris with posters announcing "Victor and Rolf On Strike" which were also sent to magazine editors. There's nothing like kicking up a bit of a fuss to get you noticed...

Wallace and Gromit: The New Stars of Fashion

Wallace and Gromit have been chosen as the face of the launch campaign for Harvey Nichols in Bristol.  Looking slick in Dolce & Gabbana and Paul Smith, they've been joined by Lady Tottington who models an Alexander McQueen dress. It looks like Wallace is enjoying his new role as a fashion icon, while it's nice to see that Gromit's familiar quizzical expression suggests he's taking the fashion industry with a pinch of salt.  It's always nice to see some humour injected into fashion advertising and it's something that Harvey Nichols does well.  The campaign was created by DDB London.

Bela Borsodi

One of my favourite artists of the moment is the still life photographer Bela Borsodi.  He looks at objects in a whole new light, challenging our perception of them by giving them personality.

His work is always imaginative and often humorous.  Being in the world of fashion, it's a refreshing change to see some fun injected into a fickle industry that takes itself so seriously.  

In his series "Foot Fetish", featured in V Magazine (above), he visually explores the way high heels change the shape of the female body and sexualize it.  He looks at how the body fits the shoe in an exaggerated way by playing with shape and proportions.  Rather than doing it on Photoshop, he shot the nude models, cut out the prints then placed them within the shoes.  I love the way he's transformed shoes into these surreal, striking images and brought attention to the connotations associated with shoes.

You may recognize the image above which was shot as part of a series of ads for Selfridges.  If you want to check out his work go to: 

http://www.art-dept.com/artists/borsodi