Rarified birds- double vision- Marchesa Casati played by Tilda Swinton

Stunning Paolo Roversi shoot of the 'Marchesa Casati' characterised by Tilda Swinton and incisively portraited by Judith Watt.
A beautiful response to the muse that the Marchesa has left as her legacy styled by Mattias Karlsson inspires and provokes- twenty two years after her death.
Truly a rarified bird of her time, who would mirror her attitude now?
There's a glimpse of her unique persona in Tilda Swinton, Amanda Harlech, Anna Piaggi, the late Isabella Blow, spotted in Sonia Rykiel, or in the eyes of Mapplethorpes portraits of Patti Smith with a haunted look prevailing throughout all his shots of her. There's a whiff of her in Florence, in Helena Bonham-Carter of Bjork too I feel.
An enigmatic woman, self styled and innately so, she continues to inspire ( Galliano famously mused her in s/s 98 )
Take a peek at the autumn/winter Acne paper, its a feast!
Edna Wode

Antony Price- a man out of time

Anyone around my age who is into fashion and music will instantly remember the impact Antony Price had on both scores.
Styling Lou Reed's legendary 'transformer' album cover, and sewn literally into the seams of the look of Roxy music- Bryan Ferry, the band, the covers- and of course Jerry Hall;  Antony Price has stamped his vision firmly on fashion history.
Fusing Fashion and Music decades before this one- his skills of design, tailoring, and corsetry alongside his styling vision distill into one word GLAMOUR.
The BFC awarded him this title in 1990, and this years fashion awards have filmed his 'Ballet dress' as one of the show-stopping pieces of the last 25 years.
He quite literally 'builds' dresses. The hour-glass shape of one of his dresses is exactly what the wearer will have.
For those who get up close and personal to one of these masterpieces will find that the dress is almost as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside, with its hidden corstery often zipped up first before the outer lace overlay.
Galliano, McQueen and Mouret are among designers who have referenced him in their collections.
His inexhaustible eye for detail has made his limited edition ready to wear line that Weardowney are thrilled to be stocking- as currently on-trend as ever.
The Valkyrie has little rounded shoulder pads that hint at vampish cartoon, but beautifully, exquisitely cut, and not a millimetre out of place.
The Tigress ( black silk net over gold lame, only five made to date ) Sabrina, and the Ballet dress, are pure investment pieces.
As spoken by one of our customers this week in her early thirties-
"I will still be wearing this dress in my fifties", and she will look just as good in it!
Antony Price is a British Fashion National Treasure, his recent Topman ranges selling out as they hit the rails.

We're going to be photographing some of the original Antony Price Women, and some new wearers in a then and now theme for this blog, but in the mean-time check out a sneaky peek of our Amy scrubbed up in these frocks!

village life

Fascinating private house previously home to Russian scholar and collector Alexander Kardo Sessoeff who bought speculatively and relentlessly researched and authenticated.
His descendant Francesca Findlater, picked up on his unresolved life's work, and it inspired her to do more.
At a private view ( you can contact the link above and arrange your own ) we were priviledged to feel this amazing space, its unique character and personality.
The artist Peter Harris has responded to questions of authenticity in the Portsea place collection, including a 'Collaboration with Four Dead Artists' which is a film with Harris and a clairvoyant and the resultant works they 'asked' him to paint.
We hear that recently Jemma Redgrave and Diana Quick took part in a reading of Checkov's 'Three Sisters', I understand perfectly as I wander through the
house, with its dramatic Russian portraits, proper historic bohemian blend of love and irreverence and deep thoughtful colour.
For myself, as I was directed by a German mentor who taught me that Checkov was to be played as a comedy.
Which makes perfect sense.
The deeply seeming melancholia of the Russian states is aestheticly tortuous and knows it.
This house, shows it, in a richly bohemian, appreciative and roguely collectors eye.
Unique.
Go see it.

Rarified birds- Namallee Bolle- in black and white

"We can all do this together."

Namallee's facebook mantra epitomises the soul of this impressive young style icon. Innately progressive and diverse in her work medium- she declares " I do what I do, because I have to ".

This rarified bird of the 'style icon' series is a rainbow warrior of colour, here we picture her in black and white.

Chanteuse, Magasine co-founder, official muse to the wonderful Basso and Brooke, and along with Henry Conway, Miss Bolle is firmly stitched into the Weardowney aeshetic also.

Co-founder of SuperSuper magasine with a fashion heart, she styles, she writes, does her fair share of performance art and as we are about to become more publicly aware with the release of her upcoming music recorded with Rat Scabies ( The Damned )- she sings...

I was priviledged to have been involved with Nam at the very beginning of her love affair with singing.
It was february 2005, and Weardowney's third collection.
Nam was styling as usual, and told me how she wanted to sing.
She'd hooked up with Clifford Slapper for a few lessons and declared her passion to perform. We suggested she sing at our show.

Which she did, and 5 years later I caught her recent performance as the face of Reebok 'freestyle' trainers, where a polished yet refreshingly still raw Nam, performed 4 tight tracks, dressed in Pam Hogg catsuit, Reebok 'freestyle' trainers, and an attitude of perfect progression.

Namallee is brave. She's brave enough to be 'work in progress' which as creatives we all should aspire to.

This lady is an original.

She beats to her own progressive drum, an original style icon for her generation.

Check her out with the link below as she fronts weseven-

http://www.we7.com/album/Relentless-Optimism?albumId=395004&m=0

THE SARTORIALIST

Scott Schuman

(Penguin)\
£19.99

out today!

Hot off the press- Weardowney's getUp boutique are delighted to be amongst the first London stockists of the celebrated blogger Scott Shulman's first book- 'The Sartorilalist'.

The title taken from his blog, Scott's rise to sartorial acclaim originates from a decision to shut his high end fashion showroom shortly after 9/11, and combine his love of fashion and photography- culminating in an esteemed blog- which began at the outset of the genre's popularity, and now cited as one of Time magasine's top 100 design influencers.

The Sartorilalist blog- of which I have been a fan since being introduced to it by Imran Ahmed ( of 'business of fashion' fame* ) in 2007- depicts Shulman's unique quality of appreciation and definition in both of his loves of fashion and photography.

An attractively humble approach with both a designer and a merchandiser's eye gives a duality to Scotts work that I admire and respect.

He quite simply seems to have gone walkabout, (in a true fashion indulgenistic way) and photographed what caught his sartorial eye. The result is what Kanye West attributes as " a historian marking the feelings of this generation one photo at a time ".

In our book 'Weardowney Knit Couture' we play with the notion of 'designer or stylist?' citing Galliano as the former and Calvin Klein the latter. Shulman displays an eye for both...

In his introduction, Scott says

" We tend to think that to achieve great personal style someone must have perfect clarity about who they are and what they stand for. I politely disagree. I think conflict about who you are often leads you even greater expression."

His book, which is visually led, allows us to see style in a different light, make it ours and in a way which inspires the reader to open their eyes and look around...

http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com

www.weardowney.com
knit couture on Amazon.co.uk

www.thebusinessoffashion.com

Festival Fashion- Isle of Wight 2009

The dedicated follower of festival fashion can expect to see Hats and Wellies as the order of the day. Adorn a hat, some sunglasses and the deed is done!

Recession proof- music, style and fashion always find a way.

The Prodigy arrived with a flourescent entourage, Meg Matthews drove her friends sporting a red trilby and shades.

Though Sunny, wellies were worn for travel and with a changeable weather forecast, sense and sensibilities had it covered from all angles.

Weardowney's getUp boutique is sporting 'Wedge Wellies' fo those looking  for a little height 

 from the ground!

£36.00. email house@weardowney.com

Patti Smith

" I've realised whilst looking for the perfect set, that I already had it- it was a long time ago, and I missed it..."

Watching this legendary lady perform to a small audience in Tennyson's former residence on the Isle of Wight, as vibrantly relevant and in the moment as is characteristic of her whole career;
I was struck anew by her absolute artistic integrity.
Patti Smith embodies complete channelling of her art through the inimitable persona that she is.
Humbled by the setting she was performing in, she charmed and entranced the audience.
Using only three or four chords, ( "I can't tune a guitar- I usually have a fella to do that" ) she
sang and read poetry- her's and fittingly Tennysons.
At one point, she picked up a volume that she hadn't planned on reading from- and it fell open on a page- she said-
"I'm superstitious, the book opened at this page which is 'In memorium' so I'm gonna read it"
It provided a fitting eulogy for the news earlier on that day that her agents father had died, and he had to return to London, commenting that he could not think of a more beautiful place in which to have heard such sad news.
Dressed in a poetic bard-like style- of a delicate white shirt with the cuffs protruding from her black oversized jacket over jeans, hair tumbling over her face- her first-glance androgyny is actually very strongly feminine.
The finale of a set that felt timeless was an invitation to sing along with Patti- acapella to
"Because the Night"
Everyone was in tune...

As much an inspiration as the day she started out, this ageless, honest performer is truly progressive.
Her combination of strength, vulnerability and perfect grace is characterised by her lyrics-
" I was so disposed..... to a path yet undisclosed".
An inspiration to so many, I'm with KT Tunstall who looked at her face staring out of the Iconic "Horse" album cover shot by Robert Mapplethorpe- "Suddenly I see " and she knew what she needed to do with her life.

Gail Downey

An exhibition of Patti Smiths photographs is currently showing at Dimbola Lodge www.dimbola.co.uk

look out for our up-coming hommage to Patti Smith's inspirational style by Weardowney in Supersuper magasine!