Spybaby Vintage

BASEMENT BOUTIQUE

It is an undeniable fact that London is the UK’s home for all things vintage. With markets, charity shops and vintage alike it is a haven for those treasured collectable pieces in any fashion lover’s wardrobe. So, what happened when you don’t live in London? Luckily for some, there are boutiques around the UK that take pride in being the ‘spokes-shop’ for vintage. SpyBaby Vintage situated just out of Southampton is just what I’m talking about.

If ever there was a perfect location for a vintage shop, SpyBaby has taken it. As soon as you walk into Peter Rhodes Bookshop in Portswood there is an immediate feel of warmth and character as various individuals sip on their coffees whilst indulging in a spot of light reading. Travelling downstairs it feels gloriously mysterious as trinkets such as handbags, beautifully printed scarves and belts hang from the walls. Entering Spybaby can only be described as what one’s imagination would conjure up if Princess Diana, Marlene Dietrich and Audrey Hepburn shared a wardrobe.

As I turn to my right there is an old chest smothered with antique gold brooches, necklaces, bracelets and earrings. There is about 6 rails packed with clothing from 1970s prom dresses to 1950s skirts and a wide diversity of jackets. Shoes sit on the tops of the walls and there are two rather large colourful piles of an assortment of clothing. Catherine Wright, the pioneer and owner of Spybaby apologises for the mess, ‘We’ve got so much stuff, we’re trying to organise it all but as you can see there isn’t a lot of space’.

I tell her not to be silly, as if I’m being perfectly honest; I like it this way. The point of owning a vintage shop is so your customers don’t browse, they search. We sit down for our interview and I can immediately tell that Catherine is the type of woman who was born to buy vintage.

The shop is lovely. How did the business start?
Well it started off with a personal collection of vintage which of course led to me having too many clothes. It was a sort of ‘one day I’ll wear this’ wardrobe. My inital though was to ebay it, so I did and it sold well, with a lot of things going to Milan, and I made a bit of money. I had some gorgeous Rger Vivier 1960s shoes which I sold.
In the beginning of 2008 I got this space in Portswood, there were a few disasters to start with but by June I was up and running.

So how long has the business been running?
About 3 years now.

What made you decide you wanted to go into this business?
I think I have a good eye for fashion, and I don’t like to buy brand new clothes, I think vintage understands more about fashion and in some ways its ahead of the fashion trends. Spybaby is a part of the British Boutique Movement and I’m proud of it.

Who are your style icons?
I don’t have or believe in style icons. I would rather style normal customers to fit in with what their personalities are, not anyone else’s. The customers have a real passion for vintage.

What is it you love about vintage?
The quality of the clothes, or the stories behind them. A lot of the things I buy are from the original owners so I know the story, which makes the item even more special. It’s like giving a new life to the clothes. There is too much mass production and I enjoy the details and fabrics in vintage. I’m not interested in the high street.

What is your favourite part of the job?
Buying and selling, definitely. Seeing the clothes come to life on a customer. They are like my babies. I keep a routine, and I enjoy looking for new items, it keeps a good flow to Spybaby.
What is the most treasured piece you’ve found?
An Aussie Clark dress. I’m the second owner. It’s like having a piece of fashion history.

Where do you source your vintage?
Everywhere. I’ve developed a good client base and made good contacts with vintage owners so partly through private individuals, charity shops, markets and auctions. I buy and sell so it’s a good flow. Clothes are very intimate items so its good to make sure you know what you’re buying.

What other businesses do you think are your competition?
Probably Beatnik Emporium (In Southampton). Other than that it’s London. We are a very niche shop in Portswood and around the area so it’s nice to see people really appreciate the shop. Some girls come down and not know about Spybaby and they actually let out a gasp or a cry. It’s wonderful to know I’m fulfilling vintage lover’s passions.

Where do you want to see the business in five years time?
Bigger! Although we have a nice feel to it, a ‘Basement Boutique’. I don’t want any industrial feel to the shop, although I need more room. There are plans to do up the shop, I still need to organise clothes and price them but it’s special and it fits into the aesthetic perfectly. We have a blog (http://spybabyvintage.blogspot.com/) and I also sell through eBay. I’m supporting fashion shows and music events. We have ‘SpyBaby Spies’ to make sure that word gets out about us!

I thank Catherine for her time and I suspect it won’t be long before those piles on the floor will be gone and replaced with yet more wonderful and unique items of exquisite clothing. I wish her the best of luck!

London Fashion Week

Less than one week to go until London shows the world it's brilliant fashion genius ways..hurrah! Yes, Paris is the fashion capital, oozing glamour and sophistication from every silhouette possible, and New York packs a satisfying punch of uber cool savvy fashion to it's front rowers, and of course Milan sits pretty with it's beautiful mouth-dropping creations.

BUT, London is key into this mixed bag of creativity because it is known for its complete nurturing of new, raw, innovative talent. As the other three cities will play host to well known, well established and well loved designers, it can be said that the new, hottest (and I try to use that word lightly) and most creative characters in fashion WILL be at Somerset House this coming thursday.

I am brimming with excitment for most of the shows, especially to see how the newcomers of February will up the scale. Special attention to Peter Pilotto, Mark Fast and Meadham Kirchoff. If you aren't lucky enough to be part of the Press/Buyers crew then make sure you get yourself down for the London Fashion Weekend hosted by ELLE; with over 100 stalls full of unbelivable

garments/jewellery, you'd be mad to miss it. Keep up to date with all of the Fashion Weeks...including Brazil online at http://www.vogue.co.uk/.

Mama San

There are many joys of living in Brighton; note the cultural diversity for one, the vibrant nights out and the oddball thrown in here and there and for me it's home. Positively overshadowing all of those wonderful aspects however is, of course, the shops!

The North Laines are home to many original indepentantly owned boutiques and I very much relish my walk to work in the morning, often wandering through them. This is why I have decided to start reviewing a shop a week, to give people a taste of what to expect from these varied and unique shops.

I purposely divert my walk always past Mama San - you can't miss it with its purple outside and bright pink logo outside the shop. Although inside, it is small, it is filled with wonderfully vibrant clothing and jewellery.

My favourite things from Mama San have to be their tongue in cheek jumpers and stand-out jewellery. Posted below are my top picks from this boutique shop, and with price points very reasonably, I suggest you get yourself down there. http://www.mamasan.co.uk/ / http://mamasanworld.blogspot.com/

Masquerade Necklace £14

Giraffe Necklace £12

Dress £30

Canvas Bag £8

Jumper £28

What Women Want

A couple of weeks back I posted some test shots of my male model for my 'Masculine Tailoring' shoot I did. Here are the original shots using my female model. Although the focus is a tad off, (which meant a rather hectic reshoot) the styling remained the same in the final images.

I chose my model because she embodied a rather strong womanly look. I didn't want a feminine 'girly-girl', I wanted a powerful woman who was comfortable pulling off very masculine looks.

Nick Knight

NICK KNIGHT is an enigma. So are his photographs. They have a tendency to draw you in automatically, filling your head with romanticised narcissism and are genuinely powerful images- quite a cry from the man who majored in Human Biology. This isn’t an article just to backlog Knight’s career, as interesting and successful as is it; it is to celebrate the innovative mind and creativeness Knight brings to each shoot he produces. Yes, Knight has worked for publications such as Vogue UK and US, Arena Homme, i-D, Dazed & Confused and ‘W’ Magazine and has landed advertising work with Dior, McQueen, Yves Saint Laurent and Calvin Klein – to name a few. Along with countless exhibitions at the Victoria & Albert Museum, The Tate Modern and The Saatchi Gallery, Knight boasts a colourful and impressive biography, and rightly so, since studying a 3 year photography course at Bournemouth & Poole University back in 1979, Knight’s early work provided an insight for photography lover’s overt, avant-garde, street cultured world.

His first book ‘Skinheads’ earned him his first award for Best Book Cover, and opened the door for 25 more awards over the past 24 years, including a 1986 ‘Magazine Publishing’ award for his ‘Back to School’ fashion story in i-D. Knight started his career shooting for The Face and i-D magazine where he tackled taboo subjects including questioning sexuality and equality in race. It was only after the success of “100 Portraits” commissioned by Terry Jones for i-D’s 5th Anniversary issue, that Art Director Marc Ascoli took a chance on Knight.

Although Ascoli had only been in charge of artistic matters at Yohji Yamamoto for two years, when he discovered Knight’s talent, he enrolled him into the fashion photography for Yamamoto’s advertising campaign and catalogue which in turn led to Knight’s contribution for Jil Sander in 1991 which lasted for a successful five seasons. However innovative Knight’s work for Yamamoto and Sander, when he began producing his work for editorial shoots, it became crystal clear that his talent lay in opening up his imagination to produce a wonderland of images that challenged and questioned fashion. Knight is a true innovator of photography, his work does not only lay in that of fashion, but in art, in the street, in nature; anywhere.

He even set up SHOWstudio.com 9 years ago as a platform for others to get involved in all creative projects attracting models, writers, filmmakers and a further mass of creative individuals to share their work. His ability to create images allows us to give him the title of an extraordinary, well, enigma.

David LaChapelle

DAVID LACHAPELLE is a surrealist. He is also not an ordinary photographer. In fact, he is involved heavily in so many creative projects it’s hard to keep up with the fireball. From his editorial, advertising and book portrait work the same concept of his is grasped; he simply likes to use colour and take photographs of celebrities, yet he does this is a way that is not humiliating and pathetic, he uses wit, boldness and the shock factor to make these images extremely beautiful, intense and humorous.

Many A-List celebrities who wanted to pose for LaChapelle include portraits of a rather satisfied Angelina Jolie, a sickly sweet Mariah Carey, a not surprisingly jaw-dropping David Beckham to a very refined Hilary Clinton and a chilled out Missy Eliot. His has an incredibly diverse portfolio of work and his clientele is very diverse; fashion brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, H&M and Diesel, music videos including No Doubt’s ‘It's my life and three with Elton John, TV Channel MTV, Siemens Mobile and magazines including Vogue, GQ, Rolling Stone and i-D Yet the wonderful thing about LaChapelle is that his work is easily recognizable, using the same sharp focus and striking colours throughout.

In the portrait work he creates, they have the aura of a shock factor and create a sense of a daring ability to show a contrasted side to the celebrity. His work for this has been celebrated many times and since his arrival into photography in 1984 he has had exhibitions of his work almost every year, with six in 1999. But what is surprising is the time it took for his work to be celebrated – it was 9 years before he won his first award which prompted his first book to be released a year afterwards.

So it seems LaChapelle wasted no time in wanting to spread his message through different types of media – and it paid off. The larger-than-life images he creates are poignant in his interest with hyper-glamorous situations and wild prop use. He is dependent on his location, instruments used to develop a beautifully surreal landscape. There is a sense of mild eroticism in most of the photographs; some are stronger than others. A sense of tacky trash culture is present in an array of his work, but it is used with a brilliant tongue-in-cheek mentality it flatters the picture rather than destroying it. LaChapelle certainly knows how to cause a photographic stir.

Fashion Photography

Throughout the years, photography has been a completely original way to portray everything from fashion to music, art, war, poverty and life.

A good photographer can take an image and portray their take and their emotions behind it. These photographs go on to audiences who truly connect and understand the photographers’ sometimes crazy, obscene, beautiful or sad world.

Two of these photographers, Nick Knight and David LaChapelle have strong creative control in fashion and their messages; they go beyond the need to sell and create editorial shots to place in glossy magazines – they have embodied an aesthetic of outrageously beautiful photographs in which a single picture they produce can sum up a ‘moment’. Fashion is one of those brilliantly versatile subjects that provoke photographers to play around with it.

Whether it’s the clothes, the model, the subject, the location or even beyond the typical assortment of themes, these fashion photographs are groundbreaking – not in a way that every other fashion photo’s job is to make you ‘desire’ the commodity, or makes you believe that the object in the photo is the one you need, these pictures have become more than that. Forget about fashion photographs making you buy into an item, these have the power to make you want to be completely immersed in the, in their, fashion world.

Here are some of their fantastic pictures, with reviews to follow...
Nick Knight for Yohji Yamamoto

Nick Knight photographing Naomi Campbell
Nick Knight

David LaChapelle