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!

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

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!