According to Vice, “Fashion Week Internationale documents fashion weeks so intriguing and original, you’ll think we made them up. Presented by VICE correspondent Charlet Duboc, each episode investigates the behind the scenes of fashion weeks held in the most unlikely places around the world. From Islamabad Fashion Week, Full Figured Fashion Week in New York, and Columbia Fashion Week, each episode follows fashion shows that evade the mainstream fashion radar, revealing a whole new world of fashion, and capturing a truly unique take on the bitchiest industry around.”

Although the series trailer on the site throws in the usual Vice penchant for tits, ass and guns (sigh), the trailer below promises something with a bit more critical and investigative substance, I hope.

Fashion Week Internationale premieres Thursday 6th October on www.vice.com

No longer a London Fashion Week novice, but still as giddy as hell, this time I made my way to Somerset House where they had plonked a huge tent in the middle of it for the menswear shows. There’s something extremely enjoyable about getting up normal time as if going to work (in a JUMPSUIT – YES A JUMPSUIT), getting on the bus with lots of weary-faced people but in the full and delicious knowledge that:

A) I’m not going to my place of employment and
B) I’m going to a catwalk show at 9 o’clock in the morning.

I‘d been told it would be more relaxed than womenswear but it still seemed buzzy to me if the queueing was anything to go by, with it’s hierarchical system of sorting the wheat from the chaff (row A goes in first etc) and people spinning a yarn to security to get in. Of course Chris’s mum got a good seat but I had to wait before going in which gave rise to a vague feeling of inferiority. At Michael’s show I wouldn’t have minded being told to watch the catwalk from the toilets but now I had one show under my belt I was developing an ego.

Holly Johnson (left) waits in line to talk to Christopher Shannon (right)

Suddenly the lights were dimmed and it began. Anyone who knew Chris in that audience felt a little sick with nerves. The lack of natural light did not obscure the small trembling gestures of the models as well (some of them streetcast) that you don’t get to see in the press footage. Months of hard work, no time off and unbelievable stress… 10 minutes and it was all over in a flash.

More queueing again, this time to speak to the designer himself – even Holly Johnson (Frankie goes to Hollywood) patiently waited in line.

What to do after your friend has done a stormer of a show and it’s only 10 o’clock in the morning? Why, drink prosecco and eat muffins in the Waldorf Hotel lobby of course. Another complete mismatch moment with the world around us: people working at their laptops and drinking tea and then there’s us giggling hysterically and stuffing our faces with sugary treats, already on a squiffy high from a LFW moment where maybe, fingers crossed, it was some kind of tipping point for Chris.

Alas my fairy-tale fashion moment was coming to an end and I had to go back to work and join my fellow office employees. To further heighten the resounding thud back to earth, the sugar and alcohol crash unfortunately coincided at this point too.

It’s hard to experience a touch of glamour and go back to normal – it took a few days to get shake it off. But now I wear jumpsuits.

Photo credit Boyd Alexander

Back in June, we introduced you to performance artist Tom Marshman and encouraged you all to vote for his wonderful legs in the Pretty Polly Legs Eleven facebook competition. Tom made it through to the finalists and was whisked up to London for a snazzy hoisery photoshoot where he met the other finalists and also the judges (including designer Henry Holland) who announced the winner that day. Watch the video below to find out who won, but before you do, read what Tom has to say about it:

“I am a performance artist I am based in Bristol.  You can see a little bit more about my work at my website, www.tommarshman.com which is still being developed but it gives you a little flavour of my work. My work in essence is low camp; often theatre based shows, (often involving a lot of dressing up and down) but always has an element of autobiography within it. The pieces are playful and heartfelt.

This year, I had both my legs operated on, to remove my varicose veins, it’s a condition that is hereditary and whilst recovering I decided to make a performance about Legs. I see legs as metaphors for journey’s pathways and life choices, and there was something about the medical language used that fascinated me. I saw metaphor in blood flow and surgical knifes breaking skin. I decided to call my show Legs 11, quite catchy and familiar I thought. Then my house mate showed me a competition on facebook, which was a quest to find Pretty Polly’s Legs ambassador. Pretty Polly is a brand that has a childhood nostalgia for me; it’s associated with whizzing around the supermarket as a little boy in the back of the supermarket trolley while mum shopped! It’s a brand that I felt was quintessentially English, which I appealed to me.

The competition was also called Legs 11; it was a hard decision, to enter this one! Basically I entered it partly as research for my new show of the same name, but also because I was genuinely curious to see what might happen if I, a man who’s getting near 40, intervened in a system that wasn’t intended for me. The users of facebook voted for the best pair of legs, I was voted in because I had a lot of votes for me. I was very encouraged to see all my friends vote for me.

I think there have been lots of raised eyebrows, about what I have been up to. I think a lot of people have found it a lot of fun. There are a few serious points I am making, not just with entering the competition but with the show itself, about beauty and embarrassment for your body (I am also due to appear on channel 4’s Embarrassing Bodies, 26^th September).  The act of entering the competition and the fallout from it works on a few levels, but my intention was to be a playful agent provocateur (and I am not talking about the lingerie manufacturer!)

I believe that we all have the right to express ourselves in the way that feels right to us (as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else). I like wearing tights, I also like wearing sailor’s uniforms, swimming trucks, roller blades, outrageous sunglasses, wigs, and cowboy hats… the list is endless.

There has been some interesting discussion on the thread that follows the YouTube film, which in part reinforces that there are some small minded people in the world, but I try not to let that stop me doing exactly what I want to.”

Tom Marshman will be performing Legs Eleven (work-in-progress) at Riverside Studios on 22nd October 2011. More info here.

Credit: catwalking.com

“Running through Waterloo looking for ‘the fashion show’ (as the kind man at the train information desk called it) I thought I’d be able to spot the real fashiony-types swanning through in impossibly high heels, in black designer. But all I could see right now was just harassed people like me – wearing clothes from a wardrobe of hand me downs, high street shops and charity jumbles. And when I finally found the old Eurostar terminus (right where Harriet said it would be!) I saw where all the fashiony-types had got to. Queuing in various shades of black and oozing varying degrees of excitement, though I think we were all excited – some just hid it better.

As a high-street civilian I was too shy to ask, ‘Was this the queue for Michael Van der Ham?’ But I didn’t need to as everyone was clutching the white invitation with huge blobs of colour and glitter (I didn’t take mine out of the envelope, wanted to keep it nice to be framed you see).

But despite being a little over-awed, I did feel slightly pleased with myself as I actually KNEW the designer we were all waiting to see, had in fact sat in his studio the day before surrounded by 6 foot tall pubescent girls trying his dresses on in preparation for today.

Though I wasn’t so shy that my eyes weren’t on stalks… There I was staring at all the incredibly interesting-looking people around me, dressed so trendy that they were verging on odd but I suppose that’s fashion innit? And I, well, I looked positively high street.

London Fashion Week is certainly good at building a buzz even when making people queue for a show. Once you’ve walked through the faintly surreal and abandoned old Eurostar terminus, been greeted with a glass of fizz and a sliver of quiche, then sat yourself down with none other than Michael’s mum, you feel very smug indeed.”

Camilla Robinson: I think storytelling brings them all together, but I am inspired mostly by art history and literature.  And I suppose I tend to get involved in projects I think are interesting or amusing, which turns out to be quite an eclectic mix.

Beyond and including the fashion films that you have directed, how do you see fashion playing a part in the films that you make? Maybe tell us about “Little Festival”.

That film came about because I was shooting a band at a festival and had also been asked by a fashion magazine to make a short piece about individuality and self-expression so I was just documenting my own experience and the people around me who were definitely expressing themselves.  If you are interested in fashion you see it everywhere, but I’m definitely more interested in ideas and creativity than trends and seasons and that sort of thing.

Where do you see your work heading?

I think some of the disparate strands are coming together.  Documentary work is very important to me for research and exploring ideas, but I am getting more involved in narrative and drama. I am just completing a gothic short film in collaboration with the shoe designer Tracey Neuls and accessories designer Dean Sidaway.  It is a darkly humorous alphabet, basically a series of death scenes. The first instalment is A-D and I hope to collaborate with other designers to complete the alphabet.

What do you think the future of fashion film is?

There are already a lot of reportage or behind-the-scenes photo-shoot videos being made so I think sophisticated editorial, narrative based fashion films are the big challenge at the moment.

www.camillarobinson.com

No stranger to fashion, Sherman collaborated with Balenciaga last year, producing a similarly bold and provocative collection of photos that appear to both mock and court the fashion world. A brave and comforting decision from both Balenciaga and MAC, afterall everyone loves to laugh at themselves, don’t we?

And MAC has a habit of picking out diverse muses from across the creative industries to help promote their collection – recently Nicky Minaj, Wonder Woman, Gareth Pugh, Barbie, Dame Edna Everage, Marcel Wanders, Lady Gaga, Disney, to name a few, and now of course Cindy Sherman.

From reading press release extracts and if we were to crassly categorise this campaign as a big advert for MAC, the art/commerce exploitation condundrum that Fashion Popcorn seems unable to avoid in its salon discussions, rears its little head once more – “In the campaign we’ve longed forever to conceive, Cindy Sherman for MAC created three characters using three different colour stories. We’re living in a time when people of all persuasions have become bolder than ever about the ways they choose to express themselves: with a colourful palette of possibilities, You are the Artist, You are your own Subject, and no matter how fearfully you begin, you become fearless in the process.”

So then who is the artist? - the creator, the promoter or the consumer? Where does the “artist” sit in the value chain for brands? Who is gaining what from who? Just where does art and commerce begin? Is the collaboration between brand and artist equal? If not, does that devalue the creativity of the artist?

Despite these questions playing on me, I love the fact that MAC are engaging non-fashion industry fashion-orientated people and allowing those people to keep some artistic integrity (whatever that is…). Although this approach is not necessarily an innovative brand building tactic, their clever trust of Sherman shows they are willing to innovate their brand representation within an self-image savvy world AND playfully pay appropriate homage to their creative heritage as the makeup choice for professional makeup artists. Its not all about fashion y’know.

How much do we love this woman? ALOT. The Fashion Popcorn team  like to gush about Julie, spurred on by inspiring encounters with her at London Fashion Week and at Birds Eye View’s Fashion Loves Film event earlier this year. Her new video, in collaboration with Neil Emery,  is full of beautiful, fun images that pop out and make you want to eat it all. Or buy it. Its a very clever advert for all the products featured and the rough-at-the-edges aesthetic disguises any commercial intentions with a soulful, playful, artistic feel. With hardly any moving image at all, its rather like looking through a very cool tumblr blog, but without having to click any buttons. Read more about her ideas for the video on AnOther.

Still from If You Are Happy And You Know It

Oh and looking through those credits at the end, I spotted someone I know. A talented lady who designs fruity jewellery concoctions and goes by the name of Rosita Bonita.

The 15th July deadline is fast approaching to submit your fashion film to Diane Pernet’s A Shaded View of Fashion Film 2011.

The festival “shakes up the old rules of fashion by putting the focus on the moving image, in an industry long dominated by the “still” photographic medium. The common thread that binds this diverse program is the use of fashion, beauty and/or style as the principal subject, theme or cinematic aesthetic. The festival is a study in the drama, power and personification that fashion evokes and commands on screen.”

ASVOFF 4 will be held at the Centre Pompidou in Paris from October 7 – 9, 2011. The three-day festival will screen a kaleidoscope of short films (30 seconds to five minutes long), exploring the themes of fashion, style and beauty through the medium of the moving image.

Submit your work here.

If you didn’t manage to catch their programme last year, you can treat your way through their archive and last year’s programme (warning – there are a lot of images to load so your browser may go a little doolally whilst they load…), which is a feast for inspiration.

Image from Martins Graud's LUST LUST. Awarded Best Film at ASVFF 2010.

And for a more in depth understanding of the festival, listen to the legendary Diane Pernet, founder and creator of A Shaded View on Fashion talking about her vision for the film festival.

Here is just a small part of the sprawling hoard of the old glasses I have accumulated over the years thanks to rummaging around in Brussels, Cologne, Berlin, London, eBay… not forgetting the surviving spectacles that my siblings and I wore as children courtesy of the stylish NHS.

I don’t wear the above, far too fancy for the everyday face. I stick to 2 pairs right now – one 80s vintage plain clear wayfarer style pair and one modern Specsavers £25 special two tone brown wayfarer style pair. Oddly enough, I think this collecting is some kind of legacy from my mother, who kept hold of our childhood glasses and used them in her Fine Art degree show. It must have made an impression on my 9 year old self. Well, that and years and years of enduring the darn things (I was 2 when I became 4 eyed).

I was delighted to have recently acquired some beautiful glasses at an outdoor vintage market during a recent trip to New York. Particularly pleased that I could actually get them “made up” and wear them, to like, actually see and stuff. Amazingly, the prescription is uncannily similar to my own (what are the odds eh!), but I mustn’t be tempted to dodge forking out £100 or so for the correct Harriet Fleuriot sized lenses…

So it was with great joy that I was invited to the launch of London Retro‘s first range of vintage inspired eyewear, tempted by the promise of a complimentary pair of glasses. Sounded right up my street.

Apparently the team behind London Retro were “inspired by the eclectic trends of the capital and the range reflects the quirky style that can be seen in London’s coolest hangouts, from Hoxton Square to Portobello Road.” Each individual design is named after the “style hubs” of London, and you can almost travel through the ages as you mark their heyday – Shoreditch, Camden, Hoxton, Fitzrovia, Carnaby, Soho, Portobello…. it’s a sweet and evocative way of conjuring up a romantic vision of all sorts of vintage fashionistas, before placing them on your face and imagining yourself away into that era. This spirit of retro roleplay was helped along by some old school sweets, cheese and pineapple on cocktail sticks, and a dressup photobooth at the launch. Shooting People‘s Helen Jack helped me pout and pose through what we now call our “Assassin Parrot Sluts” series.

I must admit I was a little bit sceptical before seeing the London Retro collection, as so many of these retrospective modern frames have these ‘orrible ugly twists to them that ruin the classic shapes and colours. If you’re going to go doolally, then go all out, don’t unclassic a classic please. But I think London Retro has avoided this wonderfully and pulled it off with a beautiful and wholesome set of frames that could (almost) pass for vintage.

My favourite were by far the tortoiseshell Fitzrovia and a dark tortoise Soho and I have ordered myself a pair of each from Glasses Direct. Though the part of me that is purist is still not entirely convinced about the pinky bits on the Fitzrovia, they just looked too good everywhere else to resist. I really can’t wait to stick ‘em on me mug. Maybe I should get my haircut in preparation…

At the event, I found out that the film was shot by video artist Alexandros Pissourios alongside Hanna Putz’s Under/Current fashion shoot in Cyprus. A regular occurance I suppose, lots of fashion shoots have someone with a moviecamera lurking in the background or the photographer will take on the role of moving-photo-maker. 

I bought a copy of the magazine – a beautifully put together, thoughtful publication with a bit of an edge – and looked at the photoshoot. Somehow Blomqvist does a little more than plain documentation or mimicry of Putz’s work. It builds on the atmosphere, creates something quite intrigueing and graceful to watch, an abstract narrative even, and so documents the photoshoot but delves deeper into portraying its world. Does this sit on the edge of both documentary and fiction? It was particularly interesting to me at the time as it was just before Fashion Popcorn was preparing to go to Sheffield Doc/Fest and so we were on the scout for fashion films that played with the documentary theme.  

What I found even more thought-provoking was the way I had experienced watching the film. I first discovered it online, watching it with headphones in, screen expanded, it was a full visual and audio pleasure. Then there was the launch event, which had a screening of the film to a room full of people, but when I got there it was a deserted, cold basement (everyone was busy flaunting their best fashion wear with booze in hand on the cobbled street outside). I watched the film on a big screen made of two halves of paper. You couldn’t really hear the audio because the DJ upstairs felt the need to be very loud to hit the sprawling exterior crowd. It was just such a contrast.  

I mused about the way in which this video had been used to promote their launch event – like a carrot on a stick to drive the crowd into the physical world from the online world, to brief them on the aesthetic of event, to represent the magazine’s stylistic stance. And then, it felt like the real reason people were there – to network and to be part of something, to be part of an event, part of a gang – sort of took over and left the film a little redundant and neglected. In some way, this gave the video installation some poetic credit, the lonesome audience member in the concrete basement reflecting the lonesome figure in the concrete landscape of the video. I quite liked it. Had they planned it that way? I imagine not. And I don’t think that devalues their intentions for the event or what was happening outside.

By nature, film has always been a medium that you can watch in other venues, in different sizes, with different audiences, but technology is really expanding the variations on these factors, and this experience is a very simplistic example. With the click of a button, it is also easier to watch something over and over and over again, and we have become accustomised to multiple viewing and sharing of content in multiple places to multiple people. As the audience, should we actively seek out these different viewing experiences, across both “online” and “offline” worlds? Does it bring more meaning to the film to watch it or experience it in different ways? And are these opportunities being used to the best advantage for both viewer and maker?