Julian Roberts Productions (Nothing Nothing etc)

[Hye Park Lover]

Can I ask a question? Is "Parc Des Expositions" the same label as "Nothing nothing", but with a different name?

[finalfashion]

This seems too much like an elaborate manifesto justifying imagination without craft. There are some really great ideas. The p.r. is terrific and I loved the ideas in the notes. They shouldn't have bothered with the clothes.

As a generation, I feel we are losing skills and craft. Pretty words don't make a great garment. This is fashion porn, but no substance.

Still, I love fashion porn, but I sure wouldn't pay money for nothing nothing. Irony is cheap. Quality is forever.

[finalfashion]

Ok, a day later I've thought about it and I understand what they're getting at. The inherent quality of their work probably isn't that important. The ideas need clothes to finish the point. The ideas are very cool. But the clothes still seem anticlimactic. All that fuss for a twisted circle on a top or pants that look like a square when laid out flat? The patterns are cooler than the clothes... which does not justify the patterns as good ideas. On the plus side it has inspired me to think outside the box a little with my own patternmaking... but also to beware conceptual theories. Just because the pattern is cool-looking doesn't mean that the garment will be good. The merit of the pattern is judged by the final garment in my opinion. Which in this case leaves the concept lacking a little.

Yeohlee Teng is a designer who created clothes with patterns and markers that are just as stunning as the final garments... but in her case the final garments are beautiful enough to amplify, rather than discredit, her conceptual pattern drafting experiments.

I'm also mixed about the effect this has on students... on one hand the conceptual creativity offered allows new ways of thinking... but lately I'm becoming aware of the loss of traditional techniques. I'm afraid that the attitude of reinvention and rejection of tradition is quickly adopted because it is easier to acquire than actual skill, throwing centuries of hard-won techniques out the window.

[Yasmin]

I really like the person/people behind it, I love their sort of unfaze-able idealism. I am not sure "fashion" is the best art-form for them though. Fashion is probably THE most commercialized/popularity-based art form possible so if you are really, really, really idealistic and refuse to sell out at all -- you are probably making a misery for yourself staying in the industry instead of something less commercial. Perhaps an alternative would be to hire some nicely jaded PR people to advertise the product with strategies that would horrify the artist(s), but the artist(s) simply avoid thinking about this and go on creating. It seems hard to do though, really.

[mirrra]

Originally Posted by Hye Park Lover

Can I ask a question? Is "Parc Des Expositions" the same label as "Nothing nothing", but with a different name?

there is the same person behind the names
his [their] site http://www.julianand.com/
thanks for bumping the thread, guys

[Zazie]

Oh my! I SERIOUSLY LOVE THIS! Thanks so much for bumping this up. I don't know if it's my architecture background, but the whole approach resonates powerfully with me, the synthesis of form and space, of the positive and the negative, of movement and gravity. I don't know how many designers actually thought deep and hard about these opposites, thesis, antithesis and finally, synthesis in the creation and occupation of 3 dimensions. It moves beyond the traditional pattern-cutting box, really liberating as fashion should be. I feel as if I could sit down and talk to these designers for hours on end about experimentation. And Julian's thouhts are pure Tao. There is something humble and punk in their attitude, unlike most pretentious fashion twits. I'm gushing in a most embarassing fashion, but for once, these designers deserve it. KARMA!

[kathleen fasanel]

what I was going to say.

Whether you like the clothes or not, this guy is brilliant. I am very RARELY impressed by designers, they're a dime a dozen (altho I love them to death, I work with designers in case you wonder). Julian is worth watching. I'm sure Sophie is very talented but the avant garde fabric design just kind of washes over me, if anything, detracting from the cutting -and I'm not wild on the colors either (mostly, but then, I have no taste). Pattern cutting is my thing. In real life, few designers these days know how to cut; this guy's got a whole new thing going. I wish he'd write a book.

call me cynical, call me jaded but this guy's a genius.
and, I'm glad he's young since he's sure to outlive me providing me with the interest to see what he puts out next. Not that I'd wear any of his clothes.

[Zazie]

I would wear his clothes, if they are affordable. And yes, he (or they?) is/are putting out a book on day dreaming and pattern cutting. Too bad I can't for the life of me, coax sanity out of a rampaging sewing machine, otherwise, I'd be experimenting on his instructions.

[sea of stitches]

Originally Posted by Zazie

I would wear his clothes, if they are affordable. And yes, he (or they?) is/are putting out a book on day dreaming and pattern cutting.

OO really? that is very exciting! thanks for this tidbit zazie!!

[julianroberts_00]

Hi all..

Have found all your replies & interest (both good & bad) really interesting.
am happy to have sparked some interest & glad to see that there is an interest out there for the ideas that lie behind the clothes...
so often the focus only falls on images of finished garments on models & celebrities, and the life&exploits of those who wear them.

i'm sure you are all scattered accross the globe but i'd love to find a way of demonstrating my cutting techniques to you somehow... cos the thoery & writing (no matter how poetic/ imaginative) is still pretty 2D compared with the actions & movements that accompany them.
If enough of you can get together in London i'd love to arrange a cutting demo /happening to show you how some of the techniques work in practice.
I'd travel anywhere in the world to show them if London isn't the best place.
Failing all that... if enough of you get in touch i could set up a site with a video message/ demo for you.
Lobby TheFashionSpot and they could maybe help make it happen.
Real life events would be so much more vivid tho...
b interesting to see the faces/ lifestories behind the usernames.

Best of luck to all of you & keep your eyes on my sites:
http://www.julianand.com
http://www.blow.co.uk
http://www.parcdesexpositions.co.uk
http://www.aluma.co.uk

...not just to see what im doing/writing/showing, but also to see the 28 designers i stand behind.
I will be showing a new collection at London Fashion Week September 2006.
Is about time!

Yours in pursuit of truth,

Julian Roberts

Creative Director
nothing nothing/ JULIAN AND SOPHIE/ parc deS EXpositions/ BLOW

[mirrra]

ah
hi Julian, that's just incredibly nice reading your message here!

If enough of you can get together in London i'd love to arrange a cutting demo /happening to show you how some of the techniques work in practice.
I'd travel anywhere in the world to show them if London isn't the best place.
Failing all that... if enough of you get in touch i could set up a site with a video message/ demo for you.
Lobby TheFashionSpot and they could maybe help make it happen.

it would be terrific! both ways...
hope it could happen!
your work is one af most moving/inspirational/exploring/multilayered..et etc... i've seen...to me as a graphic designer too

my enormous respect and THANKS

[brian]

shame it didn't work out.

[Hye Park Lover]

Wow, I live quite near london

[cerfas]

Julian,

I am going to PM you later , but that would be WONDERFUL. I live in New York City, and so do a lot TFS'ers, and so do a lot of my friends...perhaps you could do something in NYC? I think you could generate a lot of interest.

[Zazie]

Hi Julian,
Welcome to your thread! So glad you found it. Now cerfas doesn't have to do ALL the work posting.... Please post your new ideas and creations here, even though you'd get mowed over and torn apart by a brutally honest, decimating, unwashed barbarian mob that would make the ancient Roman blood-sport fans look like the planted cheerleaders of a George Bush photo-op.

Ok, back to the clothes, I actually prefer the collaged collection with its mix of prints, stripes, and textures spliced into the white which was exuberant, although the red A/W One-Day experiment was beautiful in a philosophical way.

We would love to see more, and the video feed sounds great. Hope to hear more from you, and keep this thread going, it just got rated 5 stars!!