Award-winning: Stepney City Farm. Photograph: Stepney City Farm
Stepney City Farm today received a prestigious Green Flag award from environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy.
The scheme, now in its twentieth year, recognises the best parks and green spaces across the country.
The farm was one of the highest-scoring among a record 1,686 recipients.
Commenting on the farm, the judges said: “This community award is well-deserved in all aspects – an amazing example of an operational city farm in the heart of a very mixed urban community. Those who manage and maintain this site should be highly praised and commended.”
Kevin Moore, CEO of Stepney City Farm, said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive a Green Flag Award from Keep Britain Tidy.
“This award recognises and highlights that people in Tower Hamlets are benefitting from a green space of the very highest quality.”
Along with the animals, the farm hosts events for the local community.
On Sunday 31 July from 10-4pm, the farm is running a special event in conjunction with The Spark, a free festival focused on bringing positive change to the UK. “Where Does Our Food Come From?” features a full day of workshops about local food and the politics surrounding it.
A new series of FoodTALKS also kicks off on the day with a discussion on the controversial topic of ‘fast fashion’.
The talk will be led by anti-poverty campaign group MADE, which has teamed up with organisations across the UK to expose poor working conditions and hold big corporations to account.
It was previously scheduled for 28 July but is now included as part of Sunday’s festival.
Eye-popping palette… Roberta Einer’s SS16 collection
East London designers brought a dash of daring and surprise to London Fashion Week Spring/Summer 16, with eighties nostalgia and experimental knitwear referenced on catwalks and in presentations.
Peter Jensen, based on Shacklewell Lane, referenced sixties and eighties Americana in his SS16 presentation, with pinafores and shirt collars, stitched name badges, polo shirts and jean jackets in primary colours. Monochrome prints on Jensen’s signature twin sets and sweaters were paired with visor-helmets for a futuristic twist.
Also playing with black and white was Phoebe English with her deconstructed collection in silks and taffeta. Shirts looked like they’d been unstitched and put back together; Japanese ties, ruched fabric straps and sashes of fabric were used as simple tech-free fastenings.
Leather stirrups, silk ruched Bardot tops and opaque white tights were brought to life at Claire Barrow’s presentation through her surreal illustrations and dystopian messages. Models wielded musical instruments against a dark backdrop of draped fabric and wore vintage drawn-on jeans, jumpsuits and oversized power suits, reminiscent of a moody eighties band practice. For her twisted vision of Dallas, Barrow used a lot of silk fabrics as her canvas, challenging the feminine ideal and playing with sensuality, heightened by the mixed-sex casting.
Roberta Einer SS16
Faustine Steinmetz was acknowledging her tools and craft for SS16, with garments looking like they’d been pulled off the huge handlooms, which she works on in her East London studio. Denim jackets disintegrated into loose threads at the bottom, curtains of thread made for casualwear motifs on sweaters. For her presentation the French designer had models coming out of the walls, missing limbs, which only enhanced the distorted proportions of the clothes and the surreal element of her collection.
Crash and repair were themes for Christopher Kane’s SS16 collection, and his use of deconstructed fabric and pulled threads reinforced these ideas, turning them into motifs on sweaters and fringing on skirts, this time in primary colours. The collection was unpredictable and varied in its offer, from abstracted wavy cloud silhouettes and rainbow fades, to geometric panelled dresses and block colour shifts interjected with sheer rubberised panels. The designer, whose headquarters are still based in Dalston despite his global success and flagship West London store, brought something new and something old to the collection with unfinished knitwear and his signature fluoro lace. Christopher Kane plastic tags around necks and in hair brought a DIY edge to the collection.
Newcomer Roberta Einer’s eye-popping palette and use of textiles garnered attention at her off-schedule presentation. The recent graduate produced feminine slips and flared skirts in aquamarine and candy pink, incorporating eighties Americana motifs and soviet artwork into her illustrations, which were made out of hand-dyed beads and sequins.
Feminine shapes, whether reimagined or challenged, were evident across the board at fashion week. A vein of eighties nostalgia – bold colours and geometric shapes – was also a reoccurring theme and many designers acknowledged the craftsmanship of their work and that of the industry, by playing with finishings, fastenings and thread.
With an aesthetic combining minimalism and grunge, Louise Alsop draws on a love of hardcore music and zines, while reimagining graphics and logos for each season. A 2013 graduate of the prestigious University of Westminster design course, Alsop launched her own label for AW14, on-schedule, as part of Fashion East. Here, the London-based womenswear designer talks about the design process, education and branding.
What made you want to be a fashion designer?
I’ve always had a huge fascination with fashion, clothes, looking at catwalk shows on the internet and studying my favourite designers. But it hadn’t occurred to me that this was something I could pursue as a career. After studying art, design and textiles and completing school I started to look into fashion courses. Prior to that, I spent a lot of time drawing and making garments and taught myself to pattern cut at home. So I can’t pinpoint a time when I made the decision that fashion was the direction for me, it just seemed kind of gradual and very clear.
You graduated in 2013, from University of Westminster, which has also produced the likes of Liam Hodges, Claire Barrow and Ashley Williams. How did this experience shape your work?
Westminster has an amazing reputation for producing really strong graduates for sure, with the likes of Liam, Claire and Ashley all graduating before me. Westminster was great for allowing you to figure out where you sit within fashion. There was never one pathway for all. It has a strong list of alumni and the classes are small so you easily built relationships with really interesting and creative people, which made for such a good working environment. Westminster always pushed me to produce work that was to the best of my ability, while never pressuring me to decide what I wanted to do once I’d finished. It was about self-development.
For your final collection, you referenced hard rock and nuns. Tell us about that.
I’d been playing around with so many ideas for my graduate collection and when it actually came down to it and the final result, I just simplified everything. I didn’t want to make a final collection that was huge and brash, uncommercial and unwearable. I always loved making clothes and wearing them, so I felt really strongly about that. Because I kept the colour palette just black and white, the prints and fabrication needed to be special. Many of the references were from zines and posters and books I’d collected, and growing up listening to punk rock and hardcore I felt like it was important to reflect that within my work, which I still do to date.
How do you go about designing a collection now? What is the process?
There is always a lot of research to start with, which gets heavily edited to make sure each collection is strong. I love developing my own prints, so sometimes I start there and then work on shape and silhouette and how I can make them work together to create something new. I also love mixing unconventional fabrics together, so there’s also a lot of fabric development and hand work.
You have developed a unique aesthetic with a young rebellious edge to it. What inspires you?
None of my collections have a specific theme. They’re all just a culmination of lots of things I really love which come together.
You use a lot of layering techniques. What got you interested in this?
I really like being able to mix sheer and light fabrics with heavy and matte ones, so I think the layering came from this — seeing fabrics sitting together and complementing each other. I also like things to be really tactile and want people to want to touch my clothes.
Tell us about your use of branding and logos.
I’m obsessed with logos and fonts and graphics and I’m constantly playing around with them. I want this to always be strong and when people see my work, for it to be instantly identifiable. I spend a lot of time getting this right and working out new and interesting ways to do so. I’ll often create seasonal logos, which makes each collection special. It also makes them of a time.
What are you working on now and what is next for Louise Alsop the brand?
I’m currently working on my SS16 collection. I’m constantly working on new ideas and how I can make each new collection the best one yet. I’m hoping the brand continues to grow and in seasons to come I’m enjoying it as much as I do now.
Cottweiler’s AW 15 collection at London Collections: Men
Dalston menswear duo Cottweiler has been awarded NEWGEN MEN support, to showcase its SS16 collections on schedule at London Collections: Men in June.
The NEWGEN initiative supports young designers and brands at a crucial stage in their careers, nurturing their creativity while promoting their commercial potential.
Matthew Dainty and Ben Cottrell have attracted attention for their understated approach to sportswear, exploring innovative textures and logo-less fabrics in their reimagining of the tracksuit, sports jacket and sweatshirt. They have also created bespoke costumes for FKA twigs’ first tour, which included sheer mesh tracksuits studded with jewels.
Dainty said: “We are really looking forward to showing on schedule as part of the NEWGEN MEN scheme for London Collections: Men, in June. The support and guidance from the British Fashion Council will allow us to further our business and bring Cottweiler to a wider audience.”
Alongside Cottweiler this year are two other newcomers – PIETER and Bobby Abley (formerly of Fashion East support). Existing NEWGEN designers include the likes of East Londoner Nasir Mazhar and Central Saint Martins’ alumnus Craig Green.
For Spring Summer ’15, Cottweiler’s collection was awash with swimming pool blues and terracotta browns, with toweling and flannel put to good use in a reinterpretation of summer holidays.
For AW15, the pair returned to stark monochrome tones, injected with details in concrete grey and powder blue. Comfort, through breathable fabrics and high stretch materials, is an ongoing consideration, while the likes of Teflon-coated cotton and innovative techniques continue to push the label in new directions.
Installation view of Voss from Savage Beauty. Photograph: Victoria and Albert Museum, London
It was the place to be in New York in 2011 and in case you haven’t heard, it’s the place to be now.
Round two of Savage Beauty, transplanted and expanded from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s legendary retrospective, arrived at the V&A this weekend in honour one of the East End’s greatest treasures, and its biggest fan, Alexander McQueen.
McQueen’s global reach can hardly be measured, going from his early-90s ‘bumster’ trousers to the late-noughties’ duck feather gowns and bejewelled head pieces — and back again, as McQueen-inspired bird prints appear on Zara dresses worn by Pippa Middleton, and polyester versions of his iconic skull scarf are worn by ‘edgy’ mums everywhere.
Installation view of Cabinet of Curiosities gallery. Photograph: Victoria and Albert Museum, London
One of the V&A’s most ambitious exhibitions ever, adjoining themed galleries compartmentalise McQueen’s wild imagination, charting the master tailor’s rise from exquisite early suiting that laid the structural foundations, literally, for his wildly ambitious later designs, using more and more material but still managing to flatter.
Scenes from Hieronymous Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights appears on a dress paired with ankle boots and a feather mohawk, and collections inspired by Darwin, primitivism and his fury over England’s relationship with Scotland show a man of many minds. But, as he made clear, the streets of East London inspired McQueen – a Stratford native – early and often.
“You take inspiration from the street, with the trousers so low. You don’t need to go to India. You can find it in places like Bethnal Green, or down Brick Lane. It’s everywhere,” he once said.
Butterfly headdress of hand-painted turkey feathers by Philip Treacy for Alexander McQueen. Copyright: Anthea Sims
McQueen, who committed suicide in 2010, left a large chunk of his fortune to his dogs, and £100,000 of it to the London Buddhist Centre in Bethnal Green.
The retrospective received a warm welcome of 70,000 pre-sold tickets, a number which appeared to bring tears to the eyes of V&A director Martin Roth as he addressed the press preview last Thursday.
Tahitian pearl and silver neckpiece by Shaun Leane for Alexander McQueen Copyright: Anthea Sims
Several of McQueen’s financial enablers, American Express and Swarovski, took to the podium in the spectacular double-height Cabinet of Curiosities room, to claim
their due credit.
Nadja Swarovski of the Austrian crystal house told of introducing McQueen to crystal mesh; American Express’ rep strained so far in her speech as to say that McQueen (somehow) had inspired the Amex Gold Card — an unpleasant reminder that despite being surrounded by hats made of butterflies, gilets made of mussel shells and looping video of models who drag each other down runways topless, walk through water or teeter, never falling, on 30 centimetre ‘Armadillo’ shoes — we are not in a
dream after all.
Jacket by Alexander McQueen from It’s A Jungle Out There, A/W 1997–8. Photograph: firstVIEW
McQueen’s relationship with women has been subject to much curiosity, with examiners of his legacy digging deep to understand his apparently complex bonds with women both real (his mother, his dear friend Isabella Blow, Sarah Burton) and imaginary (the mythical creatures he made of models in runway shows).
Did he hate women? Fetishise them? McQueen certainly sits on the edge of any question you may ask about him, making him endlessly fascinating to talk about. But Savage Beauty offers something better than talking — a rare opportunity to shut up and just look.
Savage Beauty is at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, SW7 2RL until 2 August
If you want to prove you’re no commitment phobe, or demonstrate how much you love your mum, then getting a tattoo is a surefire method. But for American artist and vegan Shannon Idzikowska, regular tattoos are problematic, not because of the pain or social stigma, but because the tattooing inks, razors and aftercare products are usually manufactured using animal products. In 2012, she and her partner set up Fifth Dimension Tattoo & Piercing, London’s only vegan tattooing and piercing studio, in Shoreditch.
Shannon, what exactly is a vegan tattoo?
It means the entire process of our tattooing is vegan. So you can have vegan inks, and many tattooists supply those on request but we do the whole process, so the stencil creams, the petroleum jelly, green soap, cleaning products and aftercare.
A quick Google image search for ‘vegan tattoo’ reveals lots of images of vegetables and animal rights. Is veganism often reflected in the designs?
It can be. I’d say about 50 per cent of our clients are vegan, but they choose to have whatever they want really. Actually we haven’t had a massive influx of these animal rights tattoos.
Astronaut by Sooz
What designs are trending in the vegan tattoo world?
Right now? Watercolour tattoos definitely. It’s a style that looks like watercolour painted on the skin. Some people have abstract splashes and some have animals or buildings. Whatever they want can be turned into a watercolour tattoo.
Butterfly by Sooz
What’s the most bizarre design someone’s had done?
One guy the other day got a cartoon cat from a comic he read when he was a child, but he got it on his ass. I have no idea why. He was just a normal guy but it was pretty funny. And he was kind of serious about it too, which was strange.
Who are your customers generally?
I would say from the low 20s to the late 30s. But the other day we had a huge guy from South Africa who was 65 years old, and he wanted a watercolour tattoo and said ‘I’ve got to have this experience before life passes me by’. You know you’re never too old to do something like that.
Can people just arrive at the studio and then just get a tattoo – what’s the process?
You’ll need a consultation first, which is a face-to-face chat. If you have any medical problems then we won’t tattoo you without consent forms.
Mother Teresa by Alex
Do you find that there’s still a social stigma surrounding tattooing?
Yes, I do think there’s a stigma. Many employers believe tattoos will somehow scare clients away and have policies in place to make employees cover up. Katie Piper’s show on Channel 4 [Bodyshockers: Nips, Tucks and Tattoos] perpetuates the belief that body modifications are somehow irresponsible and will be regretted once finished – which is mostly untrue, since tattooists take their careers very seriously. For example, they spend countless hours of unpaid time designing and consulting with people about their designs, and will not tattoo while their clients are under the influence as studio policy in the UK.
Parisian born, East London-based designer Faustine Steinmetz is turning heads with her deconstructed garments made from hand-woven denim and ethereal threads. Working with her team on hand looms in her studio, she puts the exquisite craft and skills gained from training in Parisian couture houses to new, less conventional uses. Named a One to Watch at AW14 by NEWGEN – the Topshop initiative supporting young designers – Steinmetz has quickly established herself as one of East London’s most exciting emerging talents.
Your last two collections have seen you re-imagine denim in some way. What draws you to this fabric?
Since a young age I’ve been drawn to denim. When I was younger I would drive my parents crazy by cutting up all my denim to make new pieces. It is amazing to work with because it is so recognisable and very meaningful. It is pretty much everybody’s staple.
All your garments are hand-woven on looms by your team here in London. Tell us a little bit about the process.
Each individual piece is made by one person so that they can put their name on it at the end and you know exactly who made that piece for you. We have a few different types of looms of various sizes so the process changes a bit from loom to loom.
After the yarn has been prepared you first have to set the loom, which on our smaller looms can take a few hours and on our bigger looms can take over a day depending on how difficult the yarn is to work with. Once the setup is finished the weaving process can begin, which isn’t terribly difficult, it’s just very time consuming and you need a lot of patience. A pair of jeans can take up to a week to complete depending on the type.
Where do you source your fabrics and yarns?
We try to source everything in the UK, but of course that isn’t always possible. Some things you just have to go abroad to get. We’ve been lucky enough to develop close relations with some small UK suppliers of yarn and we like to try and do business with them. To be honest, the most important to me is to make sure that the animals are not mistreated.
For AW14 you created a collection of hand-woven jeans and trench coats with hints of copper so they can be bended and melded to fit. Where did the idea for this collection come from?
I’ve always been a big fan of Issey Miyake Pleats Please and I wanted to work around pleating, but I wanted people to be able to create their own piece by pleating it themselves.
Your SS15 collection references the mega couture houses. Do you think the role of the couturier has changed and what is its future?
Yes, it has completely changed. I think it is not about beauty anymore it is about creating something which is very unique to you. The garments in the SS15 collection are beautiful and intricate but are also rough and imperfect – using knotted threads and frayed hems.
Is this a reaction to the finished and polished garments of couture?
Not really, it was more about the yarn in itself. I was very inspired this season by the process of making fabrics and the threads are exposing that.
What is next for Faustine Steinmetz?
We’re hoping to launch our e-store very soon. Other than that we’re just working really hard on our new collection and getting very excited about it!
East London designers playfully drew on the simple pleasures of a summer holiday at London Collections: Men, the capital’s menswear fashion week. Reinterpreting the luggage and holiday attire of Brits abroad and shaped by their own brand identity, a handful of designers tapped into our nostalgia for the summer experience.
Master of print Kit Neale incorporated symbolic holiday motifs from family holidays on the Med and a Neapolitan ice-cream colour palette into this season’s spring/summer ‘15 collection. The Ravensbourne alumnus printed a medley of potted cactus plants onto heavy white cotton board shorts and jackets, while the in-flight emergency manual became the basis of another print, the designer accentuating the cartoon-like nature of the instructions. Neale gained access to the Coca Cola archives for this collection, and reworked the classic logo on candy-coloured diamond print shirts. Trousers were rolled up (prepared for a paddle), hair was 1950s quaffed, and sweaters were worn over the shoulders, completing the carefree hyper-holiday aesthetic.
Playing with the same themes to different ends was sportswear inspired duo Cottweiler. Matthew Dainty and Ben Cottrell took us on the entire journey, from airport departure lounge through to sunburnt noses and a feeling of ‘I don’t want to go home’. The collection opened with Cottweiler’s signature tracksuits, this time employing a palette of dusty grey and white, and was worn by a set of pale models with wheelie suitcases. The collection evolved, as did the models’ tans, into shorts, sleeveless vests and t-shirts nearly all in crisp white, with accents of colour in swimming pool blue piping, and Mediterranean terracotta jackets. Short shorts, funnel necks and the deployment of burnt reds and greys brought a touch of 1970s nostalgia to the aesthetic, while the overall collection made for a wholly contemporary and unique reinterpretation of travelling to foreign climes.
For SS15, J.W. Anderson featured knitted tops of pastoral British landscape scenes – rivers and lakes, complete with threatening skies, evoking memories of camping holidays or hours spent in the car, watching the rolling countryside pass by. Astrid Anderson transported us to Japan for her collection, exploring her own fascination with the art of sumo, by creating kimonos in soft sunset shades of orange and pink.
It was back to basics this season, with designers drawing on precious personal memories and evoking ours through a focus on travel, holidays and kicking back.
Phoebe English is a young womenswear designer who has gained recognition for her contemporary yet organic aesthetic, which grew in part out of a keen interest in experimental construction techniques and surface textiles. She graduated from Central Saint Martins with an MA in Fashion in 2011, and the same year formed a partnership with one of her earliest customers, Rose Easton, who now acts as Creative Director. Easton English incorporates the Phoebe English brand, now stocked in DSM, Bluebird and internationally.
Soon after graduating you joined forces with Rose Easton to form English Easton. This must have been an important business decision for a new graduate. What sparked it and what has it meant for you?
I made a dress for Rose, for a birthday. I think she could see I was a bit swamped. We made friends and decided to do a small collection for Vauxhall Fashion Scout, to see how it went. After that we received an order from Dover Street Market and the very next day we registered our company.
You are involved with the Centre for Fashion Enterprise in Hackney and gained a place on their New Fashion Pioneer Programme, then progressed on to the New Fashion Venture Programme in June 2013, which helps designers identify areas of growth and provides financial subsidy. What has the latter meant for the development of your brand? What do you think the centre offers young designers?
The Centre for Fashion Enterprise (CFE) has been invaluable in the development and growth of my business. I cannot express enough how much the support, advice and mentoring has helped us; it takes you from being a singular designer to a fully-fledged business. The CFE offers information to designers that it’s just not possible to find elsewhere, from how to source and build relationships with your manufacturers to cash flows. Every single aspect of your business is nurtured. We are currently working with an e-commerce developer mentor.
Do you find the changing landscape of East London inspires or informs your work?
East London and Hackney is such an important aspect of how I work, it’s where I have had all of my studios and it is also where I have lived for the last five years. It is forever changing and filled with an abundance of incredible people. Nothing inspires me more than simply walking between my home and the studio – there is always an amazing variety of characters to see along the way.
Your AW14 collection saw you reinterpret modern tailoring, with elegant yet organic jackets and dresses. What inspired this collection?
AW14 comes from lots of places, from images of early Cornelia Parker to traditional upholstery and mattress making fabrics, and also from wanting to express certain feelings of both extreme strength (wide heavy ruched straps of thick cotton) and hopeless vulnerability (fine, almost invisible nets.)
CORE is a season-less collection that you produce, turning the transience of fashion on its head. How did this project come about about?
It is a small collection of pieces, which are made in our typical materials of rubber and muslin, and also incorporates some simple matte latex pieces. They are all very simple but aim to fit into outfits you already love to wear. It really came about because of friends and clients enjoying particular pieces we had done in the past; and also from pieces that Rose and I enjoyed wearing more on a daily basis than for special occasions.
CORE seems to explore the life span of clothes and sustainability of fashion. Is this something that interests you?
Yes, I am very interested in timeless beauty, it is very important for me that the clothes can work both in London and across the world. The aesthetic must be transferable, not just London-centric.
Any new collaborative projects in the pipeline?
I will be working with my dear friend Helen Bullock for SS15. We have worked and studied together but this will be the first time we have collaborated on a project. Helen has such an opposite structure to how she works, which is so exciting for me. I want the work we do together to be like a breath of new air in the collection.
What can we expect for Phoebe English SS15?
Films, surprise projects, e-commerce and a brand spanking new collection!
