Daido Moriyama

Saturday saw a walk along Kings Road to see Daido Moriyama's exhibition at the Michael Hoppen Gallery. Don't expect lots of images at the gallery as it is relatively small, yet worth popping in if your in the area to experience the prestigious artist's sensual exploration of legs in tights and glossy lips. 

BLACK NEON TALKS - Lenique Louis

The second in the BLACK NEON TALKS series with jewellery designer maker set to shine, Lenique Louis.

Q. When and how did you start making jewellery?
A. I’ve always had an interest in fashion and being creative. I did a tailoring course at Chelsea & Kensington College and jewellery courses such as stone setting. I first started making jewellery from my grandma’s garage. I got a grant from the Princes Trust and did an apprenticeship placement with Stephen Webster. I’m now an ambassador for the Princes Trust.

Q. Where do you live and does that influence your style, taste and jewellery?
A. I live in Brixton and that definitely has an affect on my style, it’s such a vibrant place.

Q. Are there any people in your life that have been a significant influence to you or supported you to set up Lenique Louis?
A. My grandma and mum have been incredibly supportive, I’d gone a bit off track with my life, you know going out too much and partying and needed to get focused again. My grandma helped believed in me and what I’m doing, my mum even helps with the finishing process for the jewellery when I’ve got lot of orders.

Q. Your pieces are hand carved and hand finished (a technique you taught yourself?) have you considered how you would scale up to mass production?
A. Yes I am self taught in terms of hand carving, often its trial and error. My main focus is on bespoke pieces but I have looked into mould casting etc to upscale.

Q. Your designs have a beautiful organic natural quality about them (reef, lava, wave). Can you expand on this, is this important to you natural elements or is it merely the way the journey the wax process takes you on?
A. I don’t design in the normal way; I don’t draw or use mood boards. I pick up the wax and just start carving it, I know when its right and if I cant get it right at one time I’ll leave it, work on something else and go back to it a couple of weeks later. So I guess you could call it quite an organic process which in tern creates the organic chunky jewellery.

Q. Do you work with ethically sourced materials or ‘recycled metals’?
A. I have had requests for this however I’ve looked into it and prices are often higher plus I’ve heard stories about suppliers saying that they are recycled, charging more and then finding out that they are not. I would be certainly interested in finding a trust worthy and competitive supplier.

Q. For future development have you looked at new techniques, expanding the range, using different materials?
A. I currently only make rings so I’m looking expand the range to include earrings, pendants which I will showcase at Cockpit Arts Christmas Open Studio's.

Q. As an emerging brand do you have to supplement your income by other work?
A. I now work fulltime on my jewellery but have previously worked part time such as helping with my friend’s web business. Also I present on a channel 4 TV show called 'Superscrimpers' which is a programme about how to be thrifty, making jewellery out of things like hairclips.

Q. What’s the hardest part of running a creative business?
A. Not being creative, i.e. doing the business stuff.

Q. How has Cockpit Arts benefitted your brand and personal development?
A. I would say one of the main things Cockpit has helped me with is market awareness and assistance with pricing. I’ve also be awarded a scholarship from 'Radcliffe Craft Awards' which supports my studio and defining my craft.

Q. There are over 40 other jewellery designer makers at Cockpit Arts; do you network closely with any other makers?
A. I have a mentor at Cockpit Arts, Helen Johannessen from Yoyo Ceramics who has been great. I have dyslexia and writing emails and business documents can be hard work Helens been really helpful.

Q. Jewellery is increasingly fashion forward; often designs are recreated in a cheaper version and sold by other companies. Companies such as Lara Bohinc have openly discussed the difficulties of plagiarism (or blatantly copying). Does this issue concern you and if so what measures do you take to prevent it happening.
A. I try not to think about it too much, it is something that really does scare me but I just stay true to myself and make items that are personal and even if you copied them they would never be quite the same anyway.

Q. How can you compete with directional jewellery at a fraction of the price?
A. As above I don’t think you can compete, I’m in niche market and different market to lower price jewellery.

Q. London Fashion Week SS13 is due to start next week, is this something that you work towards, do anything specific for?
A. I’ll go to a few shows with friends but in the future I’d like to work on a collaboration with a designer and produce something for LFW.

Q. What direction would you like to see your business take?
A. My main focus now is getting my new range 'Coral Reef' consisting of pendants, earrings and bangles.

Q. Where can we buy Lenique Louis, do you sell online?
A. You can visit my website leniquelouis.com or arrange a studio visit. I also sell from culturelabel.com 

Q. What advice would you give to yourself 5 years ago?
A. Keep persevering and never give up!!!

Many thanks to Lenique for sharing her inspirational story and beautiful jewellery. 

Tori Murphy / Top Drawer / Tamasyn Gambell

Tori strikes again, her new pouff's (or tuffets as Tori calls them as in miss muffet sat on a) looked great at trade show Top Drawer. Also Tori is currently working on a great collaboration with Mr & Mrs Smith in partnership with online interiors boutique mydeco.com who have created bespoke bedrooms for the Best of Britannia show 5,6,7 October.

Also exhibiting at Top Drawer's 'Spotted' (by Charlotte Abrahams, journalist) was Cockpit Arts resident Tamasyn Gambell. By now you will know I'm a sucker for bold geometric prints especially ones made up of triangles, so Tamasyn is definitely one designer I'm keeping my eye on.

David Koma LFW 170912

Once again was delighted that I was able to see one of my favourite London designers at London Fashion Week SS13. David Koma is someone who I identify with creatively both in terms of research, inspiration, interpretation and end result. Koma's love of graphic, geometric, linear and multi layering was heightened by his bold use of contrasting colour palette (white, black, spearmint & emerald green, sapphire blue and orange). To add extra dimension Koma injected sexiness into the sportswear (30's tennis dress and racer front neckline details) inspired outfits with sections of high shine patent leather in highlight colours or sleek black. The pattern emerging through the collection seems to be similar to that of the metal wire mesh fencing seen on sports courts, in keeping with Koma's tennis inspiration. It's great to see designers who are not scared to reference their past collections showing a natural progression and sense of being true their long term vision. Here's hoping Koma one day seeks someone to collaborate with him on swimwear!
My iphone pics weren't great as I was at the back of a packed show, images of models from style.com.

BLACK NEON last day of sale 150912

Saturday 15th September is the last day of the BLACK NEON swimwear sale at Catch & Release, 63 Redchurch Street, London, E2 7DJ.

This coincides with Redchurch Street Summer Party. The street has great shops, bars and restaurants (APC, Labour and Wait, The Boundary, Aubin & Wills, Hostem, Owl and Pussycat to name a few) so the party will definitely worth a visit.

BLACK NEON TALKS - Amber Upton

The lady with a lot to say and a Solid Gold Soul

Q. You have a distinctive style, which appears to combine elements of 1950’s Rockabilly and early Hip Hop style. Can you tell me a bit more about your taste and how this translates in your life?

A. Yes your right, my style has developed from two extremes, Hip Hop and Rockabilly, closer to Psychobilly as I identified with the UK punk elements to that. I would say now my style is a combination of the two with a bit of Chola, naturally this influences my taste and lifestyle. I would say for me it’s always style over fashion. I guess you could say my style is a Latino punk pin up meets hip hop.

Q. So what’s your background, are you a Londoner born and bred, do you come from a creative education?

A. I’m from North Devon by the sea, and always wanted to be in a big city. I left school and home at 16 and was all about working and getting money and did a fair bit of partying. At 23/24 I went and did an Art & Design access course and then went to Uni to study Fashion Media & Promotion at Brighton.

Q. How did Missfit come about? Great name combining Miss – Fit and Misfit….

Missfit offers something different to what’s already out there, how would you describe MissFit?

A. MissFit was my grad project in 2010 for which I was nominated for a creative journalism award. Issue 3 is due to be released as online mag and blog. MissFit fills the gap between fashion and music fro women. Most mainstream magazines are aimed at one or the other, I don’t want to hear about how I can loose 5 pounds in a week on some stupid diet, that’s not empowering and how fashion ‘icons’ such as pop girl bands dress doesn’t interest me. MissFit offers substance and style for creative women, covering a variety of areas for those who don’t fit into the mainstream.

Q. Imagery, styling and visual aesthetics seems to be an important part of your world (as it is to other creative’s) and your strong visual voice appears to be reaching out to empower young (15 – 25 yr olds), how important to you is creating a balance between empowerment and over sexualisation?

A. There is lots of things out there that you wouldn’t want kids to see, but it’s up to the parents to protect them from anything harmful. I believe the key how the shoot is executed. It should have a point; have references to what’s important to that artist/stylist/photographer. The details need to be on point and most of all the model should feel comfortable with what they are doing. The shoot that caused the biggest reaction was the one that I modelled in. I felt comfortable with what I was doing; to the un-trained eye they would not see all the cultural references behind the shoot which gives it integrity.

Q. In relation to the last question how do you feel about the image likes of Azealia Banks portrays?

A. Azealia is a pure rule breaker; she has attitude and something to say. It would be great to style her. The likes of Lil Kim, Foxy Brown and her predecessors lead the way for an overtly sexy appearance and attitude, it is what it is.

Q. Tattoos are a big commitment; does it concern you that you may regret them later in life? Do you worry that it may be an issue for employment?

A. Yeah I have a few tattoos and one of them I getting covered but I wouldn’t say I regret them, I can tell you when and where I was for them, Its unlikely I’d do a job where I wouldn’t be able to have tattoos. I would like to have my knuckles done but there is still some stigma for men and especially girls who have them done. (We talk about if we got married how that would play out with tattoos) Amber simply states, trust me if I’m coming up the aisle in a dress the last thing you going to be looking at is my tattoos and whoever I’ll marry will like them as part of me anyway.

Q. ‘Teddy Girl’ I’m guessing is a nickname, how did that come about?

A. The name was given to me by someone I know, a pro-skater and it just kind of stuck, I think mainly because of my hair.

Q. Your currently working with Dope Chef, can you tell me more about that how did it come about?

A. Dope Chef was via an open interview process and I was offered the job. My role isn’t totally defined as yet I work on a lot of the imaging and blog content and model in the shoots. What appeals to me about the brand is that it’s a culturally based British streetwear brand that is authentic to what I identify with.

Q. What makes you happy?

A. Good; friends, company, music, food and sex.

Q. What are your long term goals, creatively or personally?

A. Getting MissFit issue 3 out and there may well be be my own clothing range Solid Gold Soul in the pipe line.

Q. What’s on the horizon that we don’t know about, or is it a secret?

A. Well there’s the work I’m doing with Dope Chef, and I’ve styled the cover for Shystie’s Gold Dust 2, also for the next issue of MissFit I have some great interviews from some Hip Hop heavy weights which are really exciting. 

Gold Dust: Vol2 cover styled by Amber Upton assisted by Lucy Ansa-Addo

Q. How do you balance your creative side with the day to day financial ties of life?

A. Yes of course it’s hard, I’ll do what needs to be done but mainly you’ve just go to hustle hard.

Q. Any advice you’d give someone starting out in a creative industry?

A. Maybe think twice it’s difficult. Be prepared to work f**king hard, you be true to who you are and remember what is unique about you which you will also use a selling point. Do everything with your heart and soul and enjoy yourself. 

Amber Upton the sanest girl you’ll ever meet but the craziest girl you’ll ever know. Thank you for your time and a great interview, look forward to catching you soon x

BLACK NEON TALKS

It's good to talk, share, inspire and pass on knowledge. Through a series of BLACK NEON TALKS, I hope to shine some light on inspiring people from a variety of creative backgrounds. 

June Havoc talking to her pet toucan....