Michael O'Connell:The Lost Modernist

Today I visited The Lost Modernist, an exhibition of the work by British textile artist Michael O'Connell. The retrospective is being shown at the Gibberd Gallery in Essex and charts O'Connells work throughout his life. It showcases his abstract prints, vibrant colours and sharp lines that saw him become one of the met influential textile artist of his time. The show also includes large wall hangings,clothing and hand written notes and sketches from the artist. Something I liked was the way you could clearly see the inspiration behind the prints, which included aboriginal art, African culture, and the London underground. Michael O'Connells work is eclectic, innovative and the narratives within them moved with the times, this earned him the nickname, 'The Lost Modernist'.

The exhibition is showing at The Gibberd Gallery until 20th December.

Restoration Ralph

In October, Ralph Lauren will be holding a star studded cat walk to showcase his Autumn/Winter 13 collection, and dinner in the famous cobbled courtyard of the Ecole nationale superieure des Beaux Arts in Paris. This will mark the beginning of a two year multi-million pound pledge to restore and modernise the 365 year old school of art.

The school once tutored fashion designers Valentino Garavani and  Hubert de Givenchy as well as impressionist painters Henri Matisse and Claude Monet.

The building is in the  Saint-Germain-des-Près district of the capital and is formed of a collection of building dating back to the 17th century. The  several millions donated by the label will go to restoring the lecture theatre in the heart of the school as well as modernising the website of the institution. Stadium-like seating will be added to the theatre along with state of the art audio and visual equipment.

It seems he has followed Italian brand Fendi, who have pledged to restore many of Rome's historical buildings and Diego Della Valle, founder of shoe company Tod's who is due to restore Rome's architectural icon, the colosseum!

Lauren is obviously a lover of Paris ( he previously used the city for his vintage racing car exhibition and it houses his largest European store.)so this may be a big reason why he is planning the restoration, obviously it will cause a huge amount of publicity for himself and the brand  and will create a good response from the public as he is restoring French history, I feel it may also be because Ralph Lauren wants to link his brand to the fashion capital and for it to be remembered forever as an iconic brand for what they have done for fashion.

Vauxhall art car boot fair

Vauxhall Art car boot fair will be celebrating its tenth anniversary this year . It is held in Brick Lane and isn't your regular sunday morning hum drum bootsale affair.Head down and bag some out of the ordinary bargains on Sunday June 9th, and get yourself involved in the fun by playing pass the art parcel, just like the children's game, but you could win your very own masterpiece by the likes of Peter Blake or Tracey Emin! Plus all the proceeds will go to the Just For Kids charity. 

Head down to Brick Lane Yard to experience British eccentricity at it's finest!

Just £5 to enter the bootsale but it sounds like a good day out to me!

Hermes at the Saatchi!

Today I headed over to the Saatchi Gallery for the first day of the 'festival des métiers' , the exhibition dedicated to the craftsmanship of Hermes products.

The exhibition features work stalls with craftspeople from the French workshop going about their daily handy work right in front of you!  The exhibition room has shelves and units with strips of leather,fabric and tools on,which makes you feel as if you've stepped right into the Hermes workshop! The exhibits around the room include a leather worker,watch maker,porcelain painter and an engraver.I found it so intriguing to be able to watch them working by hand, and see how much effort,time and patience goes into making the products. Each stall also has somebody translating the process step by step, which I found really engaging, some stalls even invited the audience to interact, by touching the fabrics and holding items. There was a woman placing individual diamonds into a bracelet, who stepped back and let us look down the microscope at the bracelet being made, which was really exciting!

I particularly liked the stall which showed one craftsman handcrafting a leather Hermes bag, I caught him using a hot tool to weld the leather handle together. The translator explained that he had been working for Hermes for 23 years and that it takes him 25 hours to create a bag from start to finish (it used to take him 50 hours). I also found it really interesting that one individual would create a product from start to finish, it shows how much care and time goes into creating it. I also was amazed by the woman who was pulling tiny threads from a silk scarf to add texture to the piece, so much time going into one piece, it's great to see especially when so many garments these days are made so carelessly in sweatshops and factories and by machines purely for the profit. I enjoyed the exhibition as you witnessed how much love and care goes into Hermes.

The exhibition was really eye opening, as I didn't realise that products would be hand made with so much time,patience and precision put into them. I think it definitely adds to the brand and I think it would make your purchase feel so much more personal,knowing how much skill is put into it. You really are paying for quality when you buy into Hermes. 

I previously visited the gallery to see Karl Lagerfeld's Little Black Jacket exhibition, people may ask can fashion can be compared to art? I think it definitely can and you only have to witness the craftsmanship,quality and passion that goes into the brand whilst walking around to understand it really is a form of art!!

The insightful exhibition is free and only open from 21-27 May, so it's definitely worth getting down there ASAP!

Leather worker creating a handbags handle.

Individual strands being pulled through.

The amazing floor

Pieces of leather for the bags

Individual diamonds being placed in bracelet

Beautiful  Hermes dresses 

Ruben Toledo illustration

I've always took an interest in illustration, particularly fashion illustration and have recently been inspired by Cuban-American illustrator Ruben Toledo. He has illustrated for Vivienne Westwood, Penguin books and magazines, Vogue and Harpers Bazaar among others.I particularly like his black scratchy lines, thick paint and touches of colour dotted around.

Here are some illustrations I have done inspired by Ruben Toledo..