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Category Archives: People

IN CONVERSATION WITH TIM WALKER

Posted on Friday 11 January 2013

Watch the exclusive first instalment of Penny Martin, editor-in-chief of The Gentlewoman, in conversation with renowned British photographer Tim Walker. Through four instalments, watch Tim and Penny discuss his early work, inspiration, fashion and his latest exhibition Story Teller, supported by Mulberry, at London’s Somerset House.

Part One sees Tim recall his early work as a photographer, building giant sets for a Vogue shoot and challenging himself in his latest work.

Watch the rest of the series on our YouTube channel >

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CATWALK ILLUSTRATIONS

Posted on Thursday 10 January 2013

We previously featured illustrations from artist Jennifer Roberts, who captured our Autumn Winter 2012 campaign in her distinctive style for Glass magazine. To celebrate the launch of the new Spring Summer 2013 collection Jennifer has taken three looks from the catwalk and translated the spring colour palette and prints into illustration.

WOMEN OF SILICON VALLEY

Posted on Tuesday 8 January 2013

There’s no inspiration like sunny skies and semiconductor chips. At least not for the brilliant women who live and work in the heart of Silicon Valley. We sat down with some women who are helping shape the world’s most beloved tech products and services, while maintaining their sense of personal style in a male-dominated industry. They share their inspirations, and how their taste is shaped by the unique culture of their industry.

We start by meeting Jenna Boule, Marketing Manager at Apple.

By Mariana Lin

Where did you live before coming to California?
I grew up in Washington state, so the Pacific Northwest. My home style is still very influenced by that area – Pendleton blankets, Native American inspired designs.

How would you describe your style?
I wear classic, almost androgynous styles, like boxy sweaters and boy jeans. But I also like vintage jewellery and vintage dresses. My style has always been about finding a balance between the feminine and masculine.

How do you adapt your style for the workplace?
I work in the education group at Apple. Both my parents were teachers, and I have a passion for education and technology. My style has always been more modest, like boxy or tunic shapes. So it’s a comfortable transition to the workplace.

What music do you listen to?
My favorite albums, that make for amazing soundtracks for our California adventures, would be Joni Mitchell’s Blue, or Chet Baker’s My Funny Valentine. We always have those two playing in the background when we have friends over for dinner or drive to the next weekend getaway.

How has California influenced your style?
I’ve been forced more to think about style here. I’m not dressing for the elements as much as I was living in the Pacific Northwest. I’ve enjoyed exploring all the incredible boutiques and vintage stores in the San Francisco area, like The Other Shop, Painted Bird and Wasteland.

What inspires you about California?
I love how incredibly beautiful Northern California is. You have the wine country, breathtaking beauty of the coast, incredible forests and mountains, and all that San Francisco has to offer as a city. I’m inspired by how easy it is to have wonderful adventures, just by driving an hour in any direction.

Read part two, with Facebook’s Morin Oluwole >

Find Mulberry on 166 Grant Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94108 Tel: 415.399.9105.

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MINISTRY OF STORIES

Posted on Monday 17 December 2012

Editor Henrietta Thompson meets Lucy Macnab, co-founder and director of Brilliant Britain nominee Ministry of Stories in London’s Hoxton.

Brilliant Britain >

Ministry of Stories >

Some people say that London life doesn’t have a very strong sense of community anymore. Well I would like to take those people by the hand, and make a little visit to Hoxton, specifically to the Monster Supplies Store, one of the greatest examples of a truly effective community initiative I’ve ever come across.

The Monster Supplies Store is where monsters, little ones especially, can go to stock up their cupboards with such delights as Organ Marmalade and Congealed Earwax. But far more than being a useful local shop, if visitors should pass through its doors into the space behind, they will find an even more compelling world: The Ministry Of Stories. Set up in 2010 by authors Nick Hornby, Lucy Macnab and Ben Payne, the Ministry is a centre for creative writing for local children. Engaging local writers, artists and musicians to teach and support imaginative writing there is also a publishing arm that prints the results, and film screenings in local cinemas to show the results of any screen plays.

Ministry of Stories and Monster Supplies

The Ministry, and of course the Monster Supplies Store, have been so popular that the trio are now looking at the possibilities of expanding the concept across the country. I was very happy to have the chance to sit down recently with Lucy Macnab to ask her some more about this Brilliant Britain nominee.

Henrietta Thompson: What are the best selling items in the Monster Supplies store?

Lucy Macnab: One of our most popular is Cubed Earwax – delicious as an after dinner treat. And our range of Tinned Fear is always delighting people – each tin contains a specially commissioned limited edition short story by an amazing British author – for example Zadie Smith wrote Mortal Terror, Joe Dunthorne wrote Escalating Panic, and Charlie Higson wrote Creeping Dread. They’re a great gift, and very useful for any monster that’s lost its mojo and needs help scaring humans.

HT: What inspired you to set up the Ministry of Stories?

LM: The Ministry of Stories has been inspired by 826 Valencia, the young people’s creative writing centre and pirate supplies store founded by Dave Eggers and Ninive Calegari. When I met [Ministry co-director] Ben Payne, we started talking pretty quickly about how we could go about starting something similar here in London.

Eggers’ teacher friends told him that the one thing they lacked with their English students, particularly those with literacy issues and those for whom English was a second language, was one-on-one time. Eggers’ guess was that there would be enough people among his writer friends who will be willing to volunteer some of their time to help out, and so he found an empty space opposite the offices on Valencia Street of his literary journal McSweeney’s. However, the city authorities told him that this space was zoned for retail; he couldn’t just open it as a “school” – it had to sell something. So he opened it as “a pirate supply store” too: somewhere where you could buy everything that a self-respecting pirate would need – from replacement peg legs to bird seed for your parrot.

The idea has been so successful that 826 Valencia now has sister centres in New York, Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Seattle, Boston, and Washington, DC, all working under the umbrella of the 826 National network.

We applied for some seed funding from Arts Council and the JJ Charitable Trust, and about that time Dave Eggers came to town to do a book reading – the surge of people wanting to help us make it happen, as well as the confirmation of our funding, helped make it a reality.

HT: Can you describe some of the projects you do?

LM: Last year we worked with local groups of young people in school and after school, to write about our neighbourhood in east London. The project culminated in July with the declaration of the independent Children’s Republic of Shoreditch. Local children wrote all the rules and regulations, acted as ambassadors, and worked together to design and run their own Embassy building in a disused shop near the Ministry on Hoxton Street.

The Embassy was open to members of the public to find out about the laws and customs of the country, receive expert advice on how to qualify as a fully-fledged citizen, and take specially created tours of the Republic. We really enjoyed writing about our local area. Another highlight was creating a map of Hoxton Street’s shops and cafes, with a group of young people from Hackney Community College’s New Horizon project. The course is for students aged 16-21 with learning disabilities, and they use the street as a classroom to learn about independent living. We visited shops and cafes, and the students wrote poems about them, which are now displayed in shop windows up and down the streets, as blue plaques beautifully designed by one of our volunteers, Andy German.

HT: Who is The Chief?

LM: The Chief is in charge of the Ministry of Stories. I’ve never seen him (or her, we don’t know), but sometimes we’ll have communication from the Chief to visiting children, setting them writing challenges, and encouraging their respect, courage and imagination. Who the Chief really is remains a bit of a mystery, but fans of CBeebies may be interested to hear that we have some podcasts coming up online, from 17 December, where they can hear what the Chief sounds like.

HT: What’s next for the Ministry?

LM: We have big plans for this year, including a scriptwriting project, inspired by our project this year to create a soap opera written by young people. You can see all 4 episodes of their soap online and we hope to do more scriptwriting workshops. We are also working on a series of comic book workshops for secondary schools, and we’ve recently opened an application process for people who may want to set up a Ministry of Stories in their own neighbourhood.

HT: You have published a Monsters Guide to Etiquette – what are your top tips for aspiring Mulberry monsters?

LM: These tips are taken direct from the children’s writing in The Awfully Bad Guide to Monster Housekeeping:

#731, When at the Cinema
If you’re in the cinema and the film is about to start – remember to drink your lard.

#534 When meeting
When meeting another monster, you should always force them to live in a bin.

#2017 When visiting
When you go to a human’s house, always steal the fridge.

#1374 When at a restaurant
If you’re a monster, do eat the paper. If you’re a monster, don’t tip the waiter.

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STUART DALY

Posted on Friday 23 November 2012

Throughout the Brilliant Britain guide are graphical cartoon-like illustrations representing everything from small talk to Gansey sweaters. They were illustrated by Stuart Daly, whose creations have also appeared in Wallpaper Magazine, The Observer newspaper, the New York Times and Esquire among others.

We particularly like these, illustrating ‘Kaspar the cat at The Savoy’ (Hospitality), ‘Ordinance Survey’ (Geography) and ‘Cockney Rhyming Slang’ (Language)

Discover Brilliant Britain >

Stuart Daly >

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POLLY MORGAN

Posted on Tuesday 13 November 2012

Culture Editor Henrietta Thompson interviews British taxidermist Polly Morgan about the curiosities of her job and the increasing popularity of taxidermy as an art form.

Polly Morgan >

I first met Polly Morgan several years ago at an arty party somewhere in East London. We’d vaguely recognised each other as we’d gone to the same school, although being a year apart we hadn’t ever spoken. Moving through the obligatory conventions, Polly told me what she now did for a living: taxidermy.

Taxidermy was not, at that point, widely considered to be the glamorous offshoot of the art world that it is today. This was the alternative profession of strange characters who more likely populated Victorian times, or olde fantasie worldes. It called to mind an entirely different stereotype to Polly, a glamourous blonde in her twenties.

Polly’s career in the past few years has skyrocketed. From working with many of the best known creatives in the business she now operates as a highly successful artist in her own right. Taxidermy has meanwhile seen an extraordinary surge in popularity, both for collectors and as a career option.

Morgan did not plan an art career, but after graduating, she met the professional taxidermist George Jamieson and was inspired to create work of her own. She took a course and discovered her own talent. Her first four pieces caught the attention of Banksy and in 2005, he commissioned her to produce more work. Her next piece, a white rat curled up in a shallow champagne glass, was exhibited at the Zoo Art Fair in 2005.

With the excuse of Brilliant Britain, we’ve had the pleasure of catching up with her again, and taking a look behind the scenes of her studio.

Taxidermy has had a huge resurgence in the last few years – why do you think this is?

I always say that fashions are cyclical and that taxidermy’s resurgence is a reaction against the minimalism prevalent in the 90s… but I’ve been saying that for ages now so it must be time for it to swing back the other way. Uh-oh…

Is it here to stay? How does it affect you and your work now that it’s become so fashionable?

I think it will always be here in one form or another. After all, it’s of interest scientifically as well as artistically and as long as people have an interest in the natural world, they’ll have an interest in taxidermy. Its ubiquitousness has definitely made me swerve off in a new direction. In 2004 I wanted to do something new with taxidermy, in 2012 it already feels a little dated to me and I am moving on. It doesn’t mean I will no longer use it, just not in every work and in very different ways.

Why is taxidermy considered to be such a British idea?

There is a strong hunting tradition in Britain which has kept a lot of taxidermists in business over the years. However, this is also what has put some people off – as it has been too much associated with the privileged classes and with the unnecessary death of animals. There has also been the odd lone oddball like Walter Potter, who’s famous tableaux brought taxidermy (however badly executed!) to a new audience.

Do you need to be an artist to be a taxidermist?

You need to be observant, patient and a good technician to make great taxidermy. However, the imagination and innovation required of an artist are often lacking in traditional mounts, despite awe-inspiring execution.

What advice would you give anyone wanting to follow a similar career path?

It’s a difficult thing to advise on as I came to be where I am as a consequence of so many seemingly insignificant events. It’s impossible to recreate someone else’s career path so I would first off advise against paying too much attention to the choices other artists have made and try to be instinctive in your own. Don’t waste too much time thinking to start with – there’s plenty of time for that later – and learn some skills. It is only when you have the ability to realise your ideas that you can let your imagination get going.

Sound advice! What are you working on at the moment?

My next body of work is going to be about my struggle to move on from working with taxidermy into other materials. It will be a face-off between stuffed animals and inert matter.

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DAN SMYTH

Posted on Friday 9 November 2012

Dan Smyth is the British writer/director of Every Good Boy Does Fine, one of the short films screened at the Aesthetica Film Festival this weekend. Dan received funding from the UK Film Council to make Every Good Boy Does Fine, his second critically-acclaimed short film. As part of our Brilliant Britain celebrations, we speak to Dan about the film and how the British film industry has helped his career.

About Dan Smyth >

What is the film Every Good Boy Does Fine about?

It’s about a troubled youth whose talent goes unnoticed as he shuts off the world and secretly studies the art of violin-making in his council flat.

The storyline deals with the traditional craft of violin making, but uses an unlikely character and context for the craft. Why did you choose this particular craft or talent for Gary?

It’s a personal story that is loosely based on my own family. Despite my family’s quarrels and differences, our Irish music heritage has always remained a part of our identity. The craft of violin-making is associated with my family, but from a broader viewpoint, the craft and the context become a metaphor, and the story represents the way certain people’s talents and skills can still be ignored in today’s society.
Despite all their conflict, there are plenty of similarities between the father and son in the film. The art of violin-making embodies Gary’s character traits; his inherited talent and pride, also his desire to explore and create.

There is a stark contrast between the beauty of craftsmanship and music and the nondescript council estate where Gary lives, can you expand more on your thinking behind this:

It was the particular contrast of beauty and dystopia that made the story bittersweet and cinematic. Hundreds of hours of blood, sweat and tears can go into hand crafting a violin, and I wanted to tell this story in such a way that the audience would feel torn and empathise with the young violin-maker despite his problems.

You received funding from the UK Film Council to write and direct this film. Do you think being in Britain has helped you become a filmmaker?

It’s relatively early days for me as a filmmaker but I’m positive that living in Britain has helped me develop. I’ve been lucky enough to have short films funded by The UK Film Council and more recently received feature script development funding from iFeatures2. The UK Film Council used to take an active role in developing emerging talent in the regions and I believe Creative England and the BFI are starting to do the same.

Why do you think Britain is so good at supporting craft and innovation through the creative industries?

I think government and lottery funding have been important to nurturing filmmaking talent within the UK industry. As long as this remains, and the BFI, Creative England and BBC films develop new and exciting opportunities for emerging talent, then we will continue to produce great films and filmmakers.

What would be your nomination for Brilliant Britain?

It’s a toss-up between Mike Leigh’s films and North Staffordshire oatcakes.

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FIVE MINUTES WITH TIM WALKER

Posted on Wednesday 24 October 2012

We spoke to Tim Walker about his take on fairytales, set design and beauty, in celebration of Story Teller.

Tim on tangible set and prop design versus computer-generation…

I work with reality, with props, because the gesture the person gives against that prop will be real, and you’ll be able to see that. For example you can see with this girl on this horse (below), you couldn’t possibly have the model on green screen – she’s reacting to what’s around her, she’s pushing against the doors. You get a sense that not only is she giving you that gesture but she’s made an entrance – that picture to me is all about an entrance – she’s come back from battle. She couldn’t be giving you that sense of emotion if the set wasn’t really there.

Tim on fairytales…

Traditional English folk has always interested me, I love the breadth of things they deal with and the sense of story-telling. My favourite fairytale would have to be the Gingerbread Boy, the one who was made and then ran out of the oven! Or perhaps the Elves and the Shoemaker, I love the idea of the little elves making all those chic little shoes.

Tim on finding beauty in darkness…

I think there is as much beauty in darkness as there is in light. That’s life: that’s the yin and the yang, the life and death. I think as a photographer, I had to explore that. It’s part of story telling. A story can’t be that compelling unless it’s a bit dangerous. It can’t be a never-ending parade of pastel colours.

Tim on his pictures coming to life…

I think honestly, all of the Story Teller pictures were alive to me as soon as I took them. The success of each picture is that it came alive at the point I started to take it. The ‘sleeping tinfoil dragon’ image for example (below), the light in the room, the colour, the way Shona Heath had made the tinfoil, everything, to me it became an actual sleeping dragon, the scene was alive and I genuinely felt that emotion and that energy. With all the images, from the point I was looking through the viewfinder the fantasy became real. These people here, they were genuinely having a party at twilight with swans (below). Olga Shearer had just come back from battle on a blue horse.

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CELEBRATING TIM WALKER

Posted on Wednesday 17 October 2012

We had a wonderful evening at Somerset House in London to celebrate Tim Walker’s Story Teller exhibition. Kate Moss and Helena Bonham Carter previewed new bags first seen on the Spring Summer 2013 catwalk, the Willow Clutch and Small Del Rey, both available early next year.

Everyone had a chance to see the beautiful images and amazing props as part of the exhibition, and enjoyed food including fresh seafood from the J Sheekey Oyster Bar and cocktails made by Chase Vodka, both nominations in our Brilliant Britain guide!

Take a night-time tour of the exhibition >

Mulberry and Tim Walker >

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Kate Moss with the Willow Clutch

Kate Moss, Tim Walker and Emma Hill

Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter

Emma Hill

Jamie Hince, Kate Moss and Tim Walker

Laura Carmichael, Katie Grand and Kristin McMenamy

Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton

Jamie Hince and Kate Moss

Katie Grand

Cara Delevingne

Emma Hill

Birgit Kroencke Lee

Kristin McMenamy

Laura Carmichael

Tallulah Harlech

Suki Waterhouse

Portia Freeman

Kate Moss

Emma Hill and Erdem

Atlanta de Cadenet

Discover Brilliant Britain >

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SIMON HASAN

Posted on Wednesday 10 October 2012

Brilliant Britain editor Henrietta Thompson meets British designer and craftsman Simon Hasan to talk about craftsmanship and his bespoke designed pieces.

Brilliant Britain >

Simon Hasan >

Britain is a nation with a rich history of craftsmanship, and London based Simon Hasan is one of a new generation of designers intent on rediscovering this heritage. Combining industrial techniques and materials with those such as medieval armour and rope making Simon describes his approach as a type of Design Archaeology; his process includes diving into history books for research as well as much hands-on experimentation in his Shoreditch (soon to be Bermondsey) based studio.

I have long been a big fan of his leather pieces, having first come across them in his graduation show. Using a technique called “Cuir Bouilli” (Boiled Leather was always going to sound better in French) to make vases, stools and chairs – they were all made in limited editions and sold to collectors all over the world. Never having got my hands on one to own myself I was very happy to find out that Simon has just launched a new collection of leather accessories, including carafs, vases and lampshades, and furthermore that – as this time the leather is baked, not boiled, they will of course be available much more widely. Of course. Actually, no, I’m puzzled. Tell me more!

The new pieces are beautiful. But what’s the difference between boiled and baked leather?

Although they’re both rooted in the same principle (the use of heat to deform and set the leather), it’s about how far you push the material. Boiling the leather is a much brutal processes, and truer to how a lot of medieval objects were probably made. It’s aesthetically challenging and not so suitable for volume production since the process degrades the material somewhat. Baking the leather is a gentler application of heat so the material stays intact and it’s easier to control.

How did you originally start working with these processes?

Whilst at the RCA in 2006 I read about a 15th century technique of boiling leather to make armour and drinking vessels with wonderful names like ‘blackjacks’ and ‘bombards’. As a designer I’m fascinated by old crafts techniques and when I first read about this, I was intrigued by the possibility of using heat alone to harden leather. It was really enticing, especially as leather is something we usually associate with refined luxury, not brutal medieval processes. So, the interest is not solely the material, but the extreme method of processing it which is a sort of material alchemy. It was too irresistible to not try to revive the technique.

Richard Sennett, author of “The Craftsman” famously claimed that it takes 10,000 hours to learn a craft – is that true?

So that’s about three and a half years of eight hour days…? Sounds a bit short to me… I’m still learning, but perhaps because I’m not interested in repeating myself, but trying new things with the material and process that I haven’t tried before. Perhaps you should ask a craftsperson…!

Do you believe craft is the future of design?

I think craft is the future of design and design is the future of craft. They both need each other. The industrial revolution meant that the crafts were made largely redundant by industrial design and mass production. Designing for manufacture meant that crafts techniques were no longer necessary, nor aesthetically desirable. But I think we’ve come so far, to the extent that increasingly the physical object is now replaced by software, data, and slick surfaces that are so shiny or refined you can’t see the thing itself. The crafts are wonderfully positioned to bring back physicality and texture to things, and add an additional layer of context and rootedness which is so often missing. That can only be an enriching thing. But, I think it’s up to the designer to take this forward, since designers have a foot in both worlds – craft and industry.

What does “Made In Britain” mean these days (as in other than the obvious)?

It’s something that we shall increasingly see at home and issues of provenance can only be a good thing. Other than the obvious associations with MIB, is it desirable to have something made in Britain and sold on the other side of the world? That’s a big carbon footprint. Perhaps there’s a new model where things are designed in Britain and made much more locally to their point of use, or where some parts are made in Britain and combined with other parts that are made overseas for logistics or economic reasons. It’s a complicated issue and there are no absolute answers but at least these things are being talked about.

What is the most exciting thing to you about being British?

This will sound like a cliché but I do love the multitude of languages, colours, foods, styles, architectures, etc. that are crammed into this small island. But London is very different to the rest of Britain. Perhaps it should be its own country…?!

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