On the meditating seat #2: What would Karl do?

This is what happens when one day a mood chart is drawn and some find themselves unrepresented:


Lets take a closer look since the lines are too thin:

And finally, the last words:


... We all know the famous story of Karl slimming to fit into Dior Homme Hedi Slimane-era jeans. So of course he would approve of this one. We are after all a fashion school with doors only just wide enough for model-sizes to get through; it is the first round for qualification into the college. You're not allowed - physically, socially and mentally - if you cannot even get pass the doors. Dear oh dear.

"It will give us more profile and will make us more visible. Central St Martins will be a really major art college development and one for the 21st century," says Sir John Tusa, chairman of the University of the Arts London, of the new compound.

I suppose wider doors in King's Cross won't be an issue for debate then, unless some disagreeing individuals with power prefer to keep the college less fashionable.

Sue-Wen

Disclaimer: Exaggeration of door size may be a result of being tired from hearing a certain fashion stereotype. Most of us consume ginormous amounts (sometimes to our own frustration as good food = calming break = money =/= a journalist's wage), and the irony is that Lindsey, the slimmest of us could down a horse in one sitting. Which makes me wonder where one will find delicious things around our new home - currently all I see within King's Cross are Chinese take outs and chip shops. Dining at the Gilbert Scott will be fanciful.

Dressed Undressed

On a quest to find innovative design, i spend my days and nights trolling the open seas (aka the internet) to find fresh, new talent. In a stale industry filled with monopolising luxury Goliaths, it is my belief, my calling if you will, to give the Davids a fair chance to be recognised for their skill, talent and perseverance. This week, I will tackle the boundaries that keep the little guys down and bring to light some of my favourite youngsters. My first choice is Dressed Undressed. Hailing from Tokyo, this label has defined the difference between femininity and masculinity. By combining elements of both themes, Dressed Undressed exaggerates the space between the sexes. In a way that would seem almost awkward, Designer, Takeshi mixes contrasting features of men's and women's garments. The outcome is a simple yet sturdy collection that oozes power and confidence. For more info, check out the website.

Mariel

On the meditating seat #1

Before machines demolish our dear old Charing Cross branch - it's so easy to come to love this grubby building - Room 406 shall pay respect to the whispering walls of toilet stalls.

Home to 70-odd years of historic art and design, retreating to the loos can seem a tad disappointing at first. Few work worth preserving to be found in there. These musing walls - mostly comical, sometimes depressive and cynical, are at other times insightful or just plain mundane (worrying for an art school, if walls could indeed speak) - are where the stars past, present and future come to get rest, in one way or another.

Goodness knows who 'Niady/Nialy M.G.' is though. Sad times for her and thousands alike whose restroom-declarations may be the only mark they are to make publically - and who would've known, will crumble into dust come the summer. Sorry folks. I suppose the likes of Christopher Kane to Phoebe Philo were too engrossed scribbling in their sketchpads than on restroom walls but you never know…

More seatings to come.

Sue-Wen

COLLABO ALERT!!!

One of the peculiar things about fashion and art is often the juxtaposition of two opposing elements. The kooky mixed with the tailored, wearing your boyfriends clothes or being individualist to fit in. But the new tee shirt collaboration "Binky & Sheba PLAY" by Comme des Garçons’ Rei Kawakubo and “The Simpsons” creator Matt Groening is bang on. Her other-worldly Japaneses aesthetic mixed with his wacky and amusing cartoons meld to form a range of classic tees that are perfect for the rising temperatures. And if its just a bit of dash that you want see the matching tote bags. The collection is available starting this month at Comme des Garcons Paris, New York, Seoul, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore and Dover Street Market London. For us Londoners there is a special added bonus in making a store visit in the gallery like wall instillations inspired from Groenings' illustrations. Prices varying depending on city.

http://www.doverstreetmarket.com/dsmpaper/

By Lindsey Botts

Leader of the Band!

Like scarves for winter and sunglasses for summer collecting bands, bracelets and bangles is somewhat of a spring time ritual. If you're like me you're adding one each time you visit a new place. By the seasons end they can be seen stacked mid fore-arm adding a bit of light-heated wit to a look. The best is when you can have a varied collection of high-end metal mixed in with some flea-market wovens. Even better is when you can combine the two. Forgo the cheap stall buys that tarnish and wear. In their place try Aurelie Bidermann's "Do Brasil". The fun style is a simple 18 karat gold, bronze or silver chain link intertwined with colorful threads of yarn. The french designer is known for her festive flair and as such has long been the go to designer for stylish tongue-in-cheek jewelry. Shall her €158-€228 price point be too much for the wallet check out Un Jour Mon Prince's Liberty print collection at Liberty London. Equally festive for half the price they are the answer to how to get the muti-layered look instantly. With their kaleidoscope prints and heart shaped pendents they go back to a time of pig tales and saddle shoes but ooze free-spirited summer fun. At $55 they can be bought in multiples making a day of shopping appear to be a summers worth of travel.

http://unjourmonprince.net/
http://www.aureliebidermann.com/

By Lindsey Botts

Snapshots from Indian Fashion Weeks

Fashion is tough business. Peel the glamour off, take away the heady rush of showcasing to an audience of fashion editors and buyers, exclude the frivolous air kissing and unhook the pain-inducing stilettos, and what you are left with is a handful of designers holding solemn promise. They delight the senses, venture into the recesses of dressmaking and tell stories of destruction, abstraction, celebration, and seduction - that's their job, and they do it well. Presenting assortment of backstage and runway shots from Indian fashion weeks held in Mumbai and Delhi in April this year. 
Shweta Shiware

Model Surelee Joseph with designer Kallol Datta

Fitting session in progress for Kallol Datta's show

Armour-inspired bracelet from Eina Ahluwalia's 

Love, Respect, Protect collection

Kallol Datta asked a few tough questions about 

Indian fashion's obsession with glamour, and all that's 

safe and convenient in a collection titled, Hazing

 Twenty five-year-old Rimzim Dadu used meshed 

metallic wires interwoven to form the hypnotic 

illusion of the traditional Ikat weave

Pics/Jagvir Matharoo

 Pankaj & Nidhi presented a 

collection inspired by 3D geometric motifs

Arjun Saluja doesn't bother with gender classification; 

he'd rather have raging volume interact with 

disproportionate lapels, disjointed shoulders, 

piping and pleats, or leave it breathless in drapes

Anand Kabra's personal sense of dressing is as eclectic 

as his chic/comfortable take on cumbersome Indian wear

Varun Bahl's designs from his all-black collection

NID graduate, Anand Bhushan juxtaposed complex 

decorations on easy silhouettes, as linear shapes 

were seduced by painstaking textures resembling worms, 

realised by scrunching fabrics and zipper placement 

Dev r Nil's menswear options combined western silhouettes 

spoiled by local, Indian textiles and techniques

Rohit Gandhi & Rahul Khanna's A-maze-ment collection 

offered modern clothing choices for women - 

open waistcoats teamed with wide-legged trousers, 

an assembly of tough dresses separated by graphic prints, 

sequins, colour blocking and laser-cut felts

Veteran designer Neeru Kumar has been championing 
the cause of Indian textiles and traditional techniques
for decades. She works with craftsmen tucked away 
in hamlets of West Bengal, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh

Aneeth Arora's married Indian textiles, 
prominently cotton, with flattering western shapes

Ashu & Jason explored quirks of cuts and prints

Gaurav Gupta rediscovered silicon. He spent time in the mundaneness of ink dripping on paper, milk foaming in a cup of tea, pirouetting cigarette clouds, and found himself "feeling emotionally inspired" to create a collection that quietly confirmed his authority on drapes

Sabyasachi Mukherjee is one of India's formidable designers.  Art, music, films and women of India inspire him. "Personalised imperfection of the human hand to make clothes that are an extension of one’s intellect,” is how the Kolkata-based designer described his collection. Pics courtesy/Sunday Mid Day

CSM Memoirs - Part 2

The enfant terrible of Indian fashion Kallol Datta recalls his favourite moments as part of class of 2006, BA (Hons) Womenswear at Central Saint Martins.

After completing my design studies in Kolkata, I felt the need of studying a bit more. I stood out like a bloodied thumb at the design school in Kolkata, and my education in design seemed extremely restrictive in nature. On applying to Central Saint Martins and being accepted to their BA Womenswear degree course, the feather in the cap (or so it seemed) was the direct entry into second year. 

The initial months were full of despair and wanting to head to a more generic educational setting. Nothing could ever prepare me for what studying at St. Martins would entail. I used to think, “Is it always supposed to be this difficult”? The class already had their cliques formed, and with my interpersonal skills being retarded, I obviously did not make friends at the beginning. I was defensive about my work, skipping tutorials, barely managing to submit coursework on time and more importantly, barely spending time at the campus.

Oddly enough what got me spending hours at school was the library. I was looking to kill an hour while waiting for a friend, and it got me hooked. The library (for lack of a better word) at my design school in Kolkata was barely a room with magazines and trend forecasting books (which I never took a shining to). Here at St. Martins it was that and then so much more. I’ve spent days cooped up inside, stepping out only for a loo break/ cig break/ hot cocoa break. This in turn got me conversing with students from other courses, which made me realise that I wasn’t the only one feeling the way I was. I started taking notice of my surroundings and the multiple imperfections in the building in which the school was contained, fascinated me. It wasn’t sterile or supremely chic unlike other schools. Walking through narrow, musty passageways to reach my 2nd floor studio, sitting on the stairs next to a caged elevator shaft which hadn’t been used for at least a decade (give or take), graffiti ridden toilets – surprising as it may sound; visually all of this had a calming effect on me.

This translated across my work at school. Nothing had to be perfect. All you needed was strong intent and this helped dealing with people around me who were extremely enthusiastic and inspired. It was an uphill climb from hereon (I’d like to think so), and creating my graduating collection in 2006, was something I hold close to my heart even today.

One would be very fortunate to have studied and graduated from the 107 Charing Cross outpost. The move to King’s Cross will see a whole new wave of technological advancements, containment of all courses under one roof and studio spaces reduced by 20% in size. However, I do hope that the inexplicable auras which one imbibed in (however late) at the Charing Cross building, moves onto the new school site.

Kallol Datta with classmate Yuna Yang 

Kallol Datta's design at BA Graduation show

A model walks in Kallol Datta creation from his 
fall/winter 2011 collection showcased at Wills 
Lifestyle India Fashion Week held in April this year

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In summer 2011, Central Saint Martins relocates to a new home at King's Cross. The move to this extraordinary state-of the-art space will mark a new era in arts education.

Collage of Ideas

Fashion designer and blogger Jagvir Matharoo

A personal space, collage of restless spirit, postcards from various travels, interpretation of myriad moods, absence of words, pursuit of design – Jagvir Matharoo’s one-year-old blog seeks to find a co-relation between human emotions and the changing norms of fashion. He draws contradictions between old and new, chaos and calm, structure and fluidity, traditional and modern, art and fashion. “I love history, anything that has been in the sun for a while. Of course, it’s self-introspective, but my friends and their lives, and the mundaness of the ordinary also inspire me. I believe age adds magic,” he says.

Mumbai-based Matharoo works as a fashion designer for an export house that manufactures for leading European brands. 

You can follow Jagvir Matharoo's work on: modejag.blogspot.com
Shweta Shiware

Explode 

Nuptial

Bleu

Peccadillo

Inside

CSM Memoirs

BA Fashion Print ex-student recalls her favourite memories at CSM:

• Empty print room. Second floor of Charing Cross Road, walking through the blue swing doors and finding only Imogen Evans in her office. Silence and space was a rarity, and with rumours of the new print room at King's Cross being smaller, with more students per class, I imagine these will be more like gold dust.
• Soho. Leaving college in the afternoon and taking a thirty-second walk to Old Compton street for an impromptu evening of debauchery. 
• Less health and safety, and more room for experimentation in the print room. Health and safety is important, yes, but I believe it can also hinder a print student's learning and understanding of everything she/he can accomplish in print design. Some students learnt they could flood the dye room twice in one day if they ignored the rules, and left the taps running unsupervised.  I got acetic acid in my eyes on more than one occasion, but I did learn to wear goggles in my own time, when mixing chemical substances. Adding copious amounts of cobalt blue dye to your mix spells recipe for disaster — models with blue armpits don't look appealing. However, good surprises were always worth the hours spent waiting for things to dry, steam and dry again.

Leaving Charing Cross: I’m not entirely sure how I feel about CSM moving to King's Cross.  Sad when I first heard but I no longer study there and after many expensive hours with my therapist, I have managed to get over the initial shock.

Some say it’s the students that make the college. Some say it’s the tutors. I haven’t heard anyone say it’s the building itself, but certainly the area in which it is situated helps inspire its frequenters. As an ex-student, you know it’s an amalgamation of all three — students, tutors, location. Assuming they’re not getting rid of the staff and CSM intends on accepting new students for the following 50 years, 2 out of 3 aren’t changing.

King's Cross isn’t Soho, but it is in central London and a hell of a lot closer to Paris.

Good Times: Print tutor David Kappo with the legendary Nathalie Gibson at the BA Fashion after-show party

Colour-drenched memories:
BA print room located on second floor, CSM

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In summer 2011, Central Saint Martins relocates to a new home at King's Cross. The move to this extraordinary state-of the-art space will mark a new era in arts education.