NUMBER FIFTEEN

Tilda Swinton for Another Magazine. Such extreme garments would normally over power the model - but not Tilda. 

NUMBER FOURTEEN

An impromptu photoshoot we staged with Jessie Bush of  We The People street-style fashion blog in the old parliment library building.

Photographer: Jessie Bush

Model: Melissa Spratt

Assistant: Sarah Burton

All garments by Hermione Flynn

NUMBER THIRTEEN

An article written by Carolyn Enting for the Dominion Post FASHION supplement...

"I'd like to create a culture around my brand that places clothing design in the same realm as art, film and performance, shedding the superficial and frivolous stigma currently associated with fashion design. When people buy my product, they are buying an idea."

NUMBER TWELVE

John Galliano.

A gentleman who perfected the art of showmanship and embraced the power of the spectacle. Galliano has made an extremely significant contribution to the fashion industry, challenging conventions with a rebellious, yet essentially positive perspective. Galliano was inspired by dreams, fairy tales, ideal lands... Anything not of this world. Perhaps it is therefor not a surprise that his perspective on reality is such a negative one... However, ignoring the circumstances under which he was exiled from Dior, at the heart of Galliano's work was colour, playfulness and a grotesque emphasis on excess.

The first thing I instantly respond to, is the loss of two of the greatest showmen in the fashion industry within the space of two years. Both Galliano and Alexander McQueen were graduates of the renowned London arts institution Central Saint Martins in the 80's. It was these men, alongside Hussein Chalayan (and perhaps Stella McCartney) who placed CSM on the map. It was certainly their presence at the institution which inspired me to attend a short course there in 2007.

To pay significant tribute to the loss of these two men, I can think of no other to reference than author of fashion-theory bible "Fashion at the Edge" written by Caroline Evans. Also a lecturer at CSM, Evans provides a thorough analysis of the dark-side of fashion, focusing specifically on the rebellious designers which emerged in 90's London... Starring Galliano.

"Throughout the 1990's, conjuring something out of nothing, Galliano could be seen as a master of ephemeral ceremonies, whose essence shares the nature of a ghost - transient, restless, evanescent - whose work is haunted by the excessive displays of conspicuous consumption of consumer capitalism." Caroline Evans

Galliano's first couture show for Dior

 

To end with a somewhat ironic quote from Galliano...

"I am a fashion designer, not a politician. I am here to make people dream, to seduce them into buying beautiful clothes and to strive to make clothing to the best of my ability. That is my duty."

NUMBER ELEVEN

The Professor's Cape photographed by good friend Daniel Betham