FASHION Magazine

In fashion, we tend to revere the star designer, the star model or the star photographer. But in her new book, Fashion Together: Fashion’s Most Extraordinary Duos on the Art of Collaboration, 27-year-old British journalist Lou Stoppard does a deep dive into something we’ve forgotten to uphold: collaboration. “Fashion doesn’t work like that,” says Stoppard […]

The post <em>Fashion Together:</em> How Fashion Forms Families appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Fashion Television (RIP) was ahead of its time in several ways, and here is one of them: In 1985, when executive producer Jay Levine launched the program, he imagined it might become a channel for short narrative videos about clothing. Fashion films, now so inescapable a phenomenon, were then just a thought without a name: if music videos could revolutionize the way we consume pop, couldn’t a little cinematography do the same for clothing? The ’70s had seen then-living legends Guy Bourdin and Richard Avedon experiment with the moving image, and as film-recording cameras became less expensive, it seemed likely they’d land in the hands of younger, emerging lensmen. As MTV was to music videos, so might Fashion Television be to this new mode of image-making.

Everyone loves a Canadian designer in London. From Erdem to Mark Fast to Thomas Tait, it’s a whole new boys’ club over there. But they better make room for one serious creative force of a girl: Kat Marks.

The Calgary native graduated from the Ryerson School of Fashion in 2008. I’ve never forgotten her work at the grad show. While most of her peers were fussily reinventing the cocktail dress, Marks was making balloon-shouldered bodysuits and plastic torsos with jutting hips. Think Margiela, but at a sex shop. Soon after leaving Ryerson, off Marks went to the London College of Fashion, where she got her Masters in Fashion Artefact and all the right kinds of attention.

Today, Marks’ fashion film, The Karass, premieres at SHOWStudio.com. No big deal: it’s just the major-est, most respected avant-garde fashion force in the whole UK. And yes, the short is shot by the site’s mastermind and genius image-maker, Nick Knight himself!

Experience the video for yourself, but be sure to keep in mind that every interchangeable piece of these hyper real tuxedo-like breastplates was made by Marks’ own hands: the vegetable-dyed, heat-moulded leathers, the manipulated bits of brass and the Perspex, which was hand-etched (“tattooed,” she says) with ink.

How did Marks and this bizarre, wearable-but-just-barely work get such a spectacular break? She didn’t. She sent an email. Alexander Fury, fashion director of SHOWStudio, “got it” right away. “It is rare to see pieces as distinctive and strong as Kat Marks’ work,” he says in a press release for the film. “Rare on the catwalks, and certainly rare in a designer so young.”

And so here’s the mega-talented Ms. Marks in her own words, typed over Skype and delivered straight to you.

By Laura Schober

ShowStudio’s Nick Knight, presented a short film tribute to the late Alexander McQueen at the British Fashion Awards last night. McQueen was honored with a posthumous award for Outstanding Achievement in Fashion Design. [The Cut]

Gossip Girl star and Lagerfeld muse Blake Lively is reportedly the newest face for Chanel’s handbag collection. The campaign is set to launch early next year. [NBC]

A 50th anniversary is reason to celebrate, and that is just what Nicholas Kirkwood is doing. In honour of the UK-based store Liberty of London‘s Carnaby Street location, the brand is using two of their best-known floral prints-the Bounty and the Santa Maria-and covering a pair of their signature heels with the prints. Fingers crossed these styles make their way across the pond. [Fashionista]

Recent attempts made by the trendy label Modern Amusement, including the departure of it’s CEO and company-wide layoffs, weren’t enough to save the brand. The company known best for it’s crow logo has has shut down operations, leaving boutiques and department stores without their spring shipments. [WWD]