LFW SS13: TEATUM JONES' FROM DEMOCRACY, WITH LOVE

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Every day as my train pulls in Waterloo station, I pass a series of brightly painted cabins smattered in graffitti. I've always wondered quite what goes on in there- impromptu jamming sessions for teenagers, perhaps? Well, last week I learnt that it is something rather more refined as I found myself approaching Makeshift studios from the other side, clambering up the steps to meet Catherine Teatum and Rob Jones who occupy one of those cabins. Inside it is actually a sleek designer studio, all clean lines, giant Mac screens and walls covered in tears making up moodboards for their SS13 collection, 'From Democracy, with love' which I have come to preview. I first encountered Rob and Catherine at LFW last season and they talked me through a dark journey into the sinister side of fairytales. They had created vibrant prints inspired by Grimm's Fairy Tales alongside great tailoring and were showing at Liberty.

This season's partner is The Dorchester. When they wrote to the hotel asking for more information about The Dorchester prize- an award for emerging fashion design talent- they got talking about a more bespoke collaboration.  Teatum Jones has taken the quite unusual route of breaking into the fashion scene not through sponsorship but through collaborations with the likes of Liberty and now The Dorchester. It makes sense given their background; Catherine previously worked at Luella Bartley and Rob at Warren Noronha before they set up together after meeting working on menswear at John Richmond, and launched their first collection for SS11 after a whole year of meticulous planning.

Refinery 29 quickly tipped them as ones to watch. Now they're two years into their venture, stocked everywhere from Vancouver to Riyadh to New York, and have really got into the groove of working together. Catherine describes how they "really trust each other. Rob sketches and I drape on mannequins then we come together and develop each other's ideas". Even before that stage, they have it all worked out- Catherine decides on a book she wants to read (for SS13, it was 1984) while Rob immerses himself in films.

The collection they will present today is all about the sixties and how the future was imagined at that time. In the context of the moon race and the cold war, the world was an uncertain place. " We were interested in the tension that existed in the world then" Rob says, summing it up as "glamour laced with fear". The ultimate incarnation of that situation was Jacqueline Kennedy who "went through so much but always looked so pristine, always performing even when her suit was splattered with her husband's blood".Aside from 1984, the pair reference sources as wide-ranging as the exhibitions various countires put on to show their might, plus films like Battle Royale and 2001: Space Odyssey. So, what does that actually look like as a collection?

There are the prints and tailoring they've been honing from the start but Teatum Jones has also ventured into jersey and jacquard for the first time. "We listened to feedback from our customers around the world and knew they loved easy pieces so we have done jersey and every sleeve in the collection is raglan which is so flattering" Catherine describes. One of the prints comprises soft lines inspired by Lucian Freud painting, juxtaposed with the crushed metal aesthetic of John Chamberlain. Meanwhile, the tailoring is sublime, especially a cool spearmint two piece; they have a secret lady advising them who also works with Savile Row stalwarts Ede and Ravenscroft and Hardy Amies. The silhouette is very much that 60s couture shape worn by Jackie Kennedy. My standout piece has to be metallic jacket which changes in the light from aquamarine to copper with a silver centre panel. I'm also looking forward to seeing the Atalanta Weller shoe collaboration. 

Odd buttons, a Teatum Jones signature, on a selection of AW12 and SS3 pieces

Rob and Catherine have worked with The Dorchester on a few projects in the run up to the presentation.  They've designed a scarf with a print created from the hotel's archives of photographs. They have gone through what must have been an arduous process of mixing a bespoke cocktail with the help of The Dorchester's mixologist. It's called "The Odyssey" and is a combination of English gin and (French, obviously) champagne. Catherine's architect brothers, Teatum and Teatum, are doing the set design for the presentation and from the sketches it looks like it will more than hint at that retro- futuristic vibe which underpins the collection. Above all, the whole shebang promises to be completely "chic", how could it not be when Rob and Catherine use this word so often that it must permeate their every thought? Not that I'm complaining, that's what we want from our designers isn't it? 

Rob Jones and Catherine Teatum (portrait by Alice Whitby)

'From Democracy, with Love' is at The Dorchester today (Monday) at LFW. Teatum Jones is avaialble to buy at Liberty.

THE WARREN STREET SQUAT: 80S CLUB LIFE WITH BOY GEORGE, STEPHEN JONES AND MANY MORE

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Prepare to feel like your life is very boring. Sorry, but that's how I felt when I went to a talk at the National Portrait Gallery last Thursday evening entitled "Word of Mouth from the Warren Street Squat". Given the setting in a rather proper sort of place, I sort of thought I'd be going along to a rather genteel retelling of the activities of a particularly creative, carefree community which sprung up in Central London nearly a decade before I was born. Indeed, the whole event came about as a result of the Lucian Freud retrospective- attended  by the very prim Duchess Kate when it opened- in which there are several portraits of Leigh Bowery, a key player in the clubbing scene which was a huge part of life for the Warren Street squatters.

The most polite one I could find....Leigh Bowery by Lucian Freud (image from www.tate.org.uk)

What actually ensued was an hour and a half long chat amongst many members of that community, including Boy George and milliner Stephen Jones, enlightening the comparatively few of us there who hadn't been around to experience it first hand. The Warren Street Squat was one of many which sprung up in the area around Tottenham Court Road and Euston Road in the late 70s. The squats were inhabited by art students, DJs, musicians and any other 'outcasts' who felt at home in what sounds like the complete, non-stop chaos of the place. Jeffrey Hinton, who did a lot of the talking, recalled a time of 'no rent, no internet and no mobile phones' which gave them the 'freedom of not dealing with real life'. In turn, this led to a 'falling apart culture' which was only exacerbated by the unstable minority Labour government and the highest unemployment figures since the war.

Boy George with Leigh Bowery (image from graziadaily.co.uk)

The lovely Princess Julia, who was on stage talking with Jeffrey Hinton

When they broke into the disused townhouse on Warren St and wired up the electricity in 1978, there began the coming together of creative minds who would eventually become some of the biggest cultural influencers of the 80s- Leigh Bowery, Michael Clark,  Bodymap designers Stevie Stewart and David Holah, Princess Julia... I could go on. I loved that so many of these people and their friends were at the event on Thursday night so rather than being a bland history lesson, the room frequently roared with debate about what really happened in the stories being told. Boy George discovered for the first time that the house actually had a working phone that he could have used. Some were disgruntled to discover that others had been to Mark Le Bon's squat a few streets away for baths (it was the only place with hot water). What made me feel boring is that wherever I was living, the bath and phone would be my first priority. It's hard to imagine being so consumed with other preoccupations that I could possibly not hunt out these facilities as a matter of urgency. It seemed that visits to drink out of date beer at  Pink Panther or nipping to the roof to delve into the bucket of poppers they kept there were more pressing.

Kim Bowen, Jeremy Healy and Stephen Jones outside the Warren St squat (image from www.fashionsmostwanted.blogspot.com)

Trojan and Leigh Bowery. An image from the insightful article which Princess Julia wrote about the NPG talk for iD

This scene is still inspiring creatives today.... During the talk a photo popped up of a clubber in full blue face paint. It looks to me like Meadham Kirchhoff almost certainly saw this picture and used it as make-up inspiration for their AW12 show.

Bodymap (image from www.dazeddigital.com)

Meadham Kirchhoff make-up AW12 (image from lloyd-evans.com)

Jeffrey Hinton's scratch videos were big highlights of the night. A lot of the footage came from the time after the squat had been closed down and all its inhabitants rehoused in smaller flats on council estates. Nevertheless, I think they gave a pretty good taster of the hedonism, sexual freedom and creativity which pervaded the scene. Hinton had become obsessed by tapes at a young age, when he would record himself then edit the tape by cutting it up and sellotaping back together different segments. Princess Julia, who seems totally brilliant, remembered how he would do a new one each week to show at Taboo, Bowery's club night. The videos were grim and vile and hilarious and beautiful in equal measure- some segments show Hinton filming his friends as they dance and snog and masturbate and banter. Spliced in with these equivalents of family footage are Hinton's genius mixes of mainstream media, clips from TV shows, adverts and even a Tupperware (the plastic tubs which every good housewife/Mother/ practical person has stowed in a kitchen cupboard) party, with scenes from horror films and underground sources which lampoon the original material. It's a whole different way of looking at the world and sells the club scene as a complete, alternative lifestyle rather than something we do on a Friday or Saturday night. 

One of Hinton's videos.... Be warned, it's pretty gruesome!



The talk ended on kind of odd note when Hinton mentioned he would be reading out the names of some of those who had been big parts of the scene but who are no longer around, many of them succumbing to AIDS related illnesses or drug and alcohol problems. There was a shouting match between two audience members who had clearly both been some part of the culture- where one questioned whether their lifestyles had been overly childish and irresponsible, the other was fuming that that subject had to be brought up at all. While the deaths of people like Bowery do cast a shadow, the fact that Hinton, Princess Julia and many more are still alive, successful and just as creative today does show that it was an experience you could live through.

I just need one question answering, does anyone know who this fab furry animal bedecked audience member is? All anyone could tell me was his name was Thierry...