Julian Roberts Productions (Nothing Nothing etc)

[softgrey]

kathleen..
i know you say it is new...
but it screams yohji and rei and a number of japanese designers to me...
who have all been doing that sort of 'sculptural' thing for decades now...

in what way is it different?...
and even marni is doing this sort of thing, no?...
actually...
i think they do a combination of traditional and 'instinctual' technique...
which i find very impressive...
it shows an understanding and command of 'the rules' and an intentional variation of them...

perhaps i am missing something though?...
maybe it's the approach that is different?....
i am just trying to see what you see kathleen...
thank you for expanding...it's great to read someone so passionate!...

 

[Zazie]

Hi Julian,

Glad you're hanging out on the TFS with us.Ok, I understand the eBay sale is a carthartic experience. I guess I'm the Proustian type who hangs on to memories, even painful ones. I'd bury mementos in a box and dig them up years later, and try to imagine how it was like to have traveled in time from that point to where I am... .. it's not just the body that travels, time is a travel/voyage, and we call it history.

To explain my fascination with Julian's method, to softgrey and others, I deal with the 3-D reality of our world all the time - spatial and form design. The two are the ying/yang of one thing - eg., inside a sphere, you feel the space as a huge dome, from outside, the form is a sphere. Of course other elements add to the experience, especially light, textures, colours, etc., when space is experienced.

Anyway, traditional pattern cutting is a 2-D way of dealing with a 3-D problem, to piece together flat cut-out pieces with seams to create a 3-D shell for a 3-D body. Even if the designer were to work on a mannequin, it still limits the imagination because you still deal with flat pieces of fabric draping on a 3-D form. The results are seldom unexpected, because when you drape, you make a conscious decision as to how it would look in the end, no surprises and very little experimentation. This is the WAY it has always been, and there is a lot of resistance to change this method.

Julian brings us all on a 3-D journey, to make it easy for us to explore and experiment with new shapes and forms by working with space...hope it doesn't sound too confusing.

While Yohji, CdG, etc. have done that, they showed extraordinary shapes that fascinated us immensely, but they keep a very aloof, pedestal distance, as larger-than-life cutting geniuses, never revealing their methods.

I'm struck at how Julian explains it all in plain language that is easy to understand, and make the unfanthomable clear. It doesn't make him any less a genius. To quote an extreme example, Einstein simplified a very complicated concept for us, E=mc2, it doesn't make him any less genius to make something simple for comprehension and to share it, instead of hiding and using his understanding like some magician to show us "miracles".

I guess I really love what Julian is doing because of these 2 factors - first, I adore his designs, but more importantly, he makes it so simple to understand and accessible, and that adds to it, rather than diminishes it, as I have explained.

I have to add that as one who fears the sewing-machine like Sauron, I can't experiment on anything myself, but it would be fascinating to see what others make of it, so please post a picture of that little bag. Still, Julian's own talent for sensing shapes, colours, proportions and his ability to experiment would mean he will be ahead of everyone else in using this 3-D method, and I look forward to his future collections.

Woooo...enough gushing for the day!

 

[fab_fifties_fille]

This thread is great...I agree with kathleen in regards to the teaching..that's what I find very admirable. There are so many people who make it in the industry now...but don't give anything back to those in education...making their way into the industry. One of the most fundamental part of design students education is knowledge of the industry and different outlooks...and I think it's great that you're giving something back Julian.

I'd also like to hear more from kathleen...

 

[kezangel]

reply re nothing nothing

hi ya i am a designer starting out from home, i think you need to remember the stream, the items in a fashion show are always the artistic flare then to go from show to shops they are toned down for consumers. You have some great styles nd shapes going on but i think if you are trying to sell you would need to produce the line to go into shops. You ave done well to get int shows and get pepole to see your work, keep plugging and make your garments the way you want to, dont lose heart. I think it was hilfiger who started out of the back of a van selling t-shirts there is hope forall of us who dont have the dollar

 

[finalfashion]

2. Julian is intellectually generous. I was mistaken when I called him a designer. He is a teacher first (I hold teachers in the highest esteem of any profession). I don't want to sound "me too" ish but I have done little more than try to mentor others over the past 10 years. I have stayed away from methods, books, experts (I detest them). Anyone CAN do it. It is abundantly clear that Julian has similarly worked to remove the artifice, the barriers, the walls to gaining entrance. Education belongs to everyone should they choose to claim it from those with sufficient intellectual generosity to make learning and the passing of ideas possible.

3. Julian has gestalt, is gestalt. Everything melds seamlessly, integrating the simplicity of his instruction and the beauty of his method. It's holistic. Anyone can do it. You don't need a four year degree, money or know the right people. It's simplicity. Truly beautiful things are usually quite simple. This is why I know his method is "true" (could it be proven).

I think you've hit the nail on the head here, Kathleen. As someone who's making the last leg of a four year degree I can tell you that for all education has done for me, it has definite limits. I have a lot to learn yet and a fair amount of it seems to be unlearning...

I agree with Softgrey that we've seen this kind of thing before... though perhaps never so exaggerated and free. I think Zazie has it right about the role of education. Julian here gives more to his students by sharing the methods than he does to his customers by selling the final product. The idea that "anyone can do it" is not one that is accepted by the fashion industry. Intellectual generosity is not a common enough character trait in my experience, and is a wonderful thing. This is what is new about Nothing Nothing... the way that intellectual "property" is shared, free throughout the world.

I am someone who has pored over Vionnet patterns in books and loved the volumes created by simple shapes. Julian has introduced me to the possibilities of freehand cutting. While I won't take it as far as Julian did with Nothing Nothing already this stuff is simmering in my brain... and I will use it, practice it, and develop my own ideas from it. This is a treasury of ideas... no mere garment! Thank you Julian.

Well, my mind has been blown open... I'm off to the country for a few days. I just want to thank Cerfas, Zazie, Kathleen, and everyone who posted, for a really lively discussion and sharing many different ideas. Have a good time with tasty food and family everyone

 

[kathleen fasanel]

kathleen..
i know you say it is new...
but it screams yohji and rei and a number of japanese designers to me...
who have all been doing that sort of 'sculptural' thing for decades now...

in what way is it different?...
and even marni is doing this sort of thing, no?...
actually...
i think they do a combination of traditional and 'instinctual' technique...
which i find very impressive...
it shows an understanding and command of 'the rules' and an intentional variation of them...

perhaps i am missing something though?...
maybe it's the approach that is different?....
i am just trying to see what you see kathleen...
thank you for expanding...it's great to read someone so passionate!...

I wasn't familiar with all the designers you mentioned (marni) but I went and reviewed *all* of them. While I agree they're a talented lot who most definitely intersperse architectural features, their cutting is totally different. It's not the same "approach" (as you describe it).

I'm having difficulty explaining the nuance of the differences but it's at the "block" level of cutting. The others aren't using pure shape forms. The other thing is the topology...Julian is topological...I wish I knew enough about math to explain that. I'm going to ask my husband about this (he's a mathematician/engineer) and have him examine the shapes comparatively. I think he'll be able to quantify and label the concepts I can only intuit. There's a lot of calculus to Julian's stuff. I don't know that he specifically knows that but he sure does dance with it a lot.

Plus, Julian invites you to the party.
His process is open, inviting. Anyone can do it.
There's no mystique with him -really- I get that now. He's just himself and probably resents/dislikes being built up. Most designers cultivate an image, a distancing.

In writing, I am keenly aware of how authorities and experts write (I am a writer btw). I've noticed that if they really know their material -genius level- (feynman, einstein, edison et al), their explanations are very simple, approachable, using everyday language. Have you ever read Einstein or Feynman? I think you'd be very surprised. I'm a science/math idiot but I get it! They're comfortable with the material so they don't have to dress it up and hide behind ambiguity.

I've also noted the reverse. The more complex the writing, the more belabored, the more the author is hiding from you, attempting to create distance with language that's so remote you don't dare to question. They create distance because they fear you. If you get too close, you may find they really don't know so much after all. If one is diffident with their material, they're not going to invite you to the party/process.

If one can write conversationally, approachably, open to the average person, that is the sign of someone who really understands their material. If they're going to the bother of teaching you something, it is because they are motivated through joy. They love what they do so much that they want you to love and enjoy it too. They want you to participate in meaningful ways. Anybody can acquire a famous designer's dress one way or another (rob a bank or something) -but will one of them tell you how to make it yourself? I think not. How many designers will tell you, "hey, if you like my stuff, here's how to make it yourself". That's joy. That's a designer who is not threatened by relative position, finances etc. They want you to love the process as much as they do so you can do it yourself. And the beauty of it is, you can. It is utterly simple. Universal topological concepts that are endlessly immutable. None of those other designers have broached a single cutting concept and morphed it into an endless myriad of ways.

Maybe my admiration can be summed up with accessibility, congruence with natural laws/shapes and conceptual simplicity. The other designers play with it from time to time, piece to piece but Julian's is a singular laser-like focus. I regret I explain this so inadequately. I have difficulty describing motion (process) in words I have a communication disorder. I can only do it by photographing work step by step. I won't be able to write about Julian's process until I do that. I'm probably going to be starting a pattern cutting blog and I think that'd be a place I could do that. My usual blog covers a wider ground and I think many of my readers would get bored if I treated this topic in depth.

 

[softgrey]

well..i have to disagree about rei kawakubo of comme des garcons...
not giving back to the industry...
she has essentially given junya watanabe a career and various other designers who started working for her have been successful due to the support given by the company ...
tao is the latest one...

and there have recently been several exhibits in paris of yohji's work...
one of which even had a model of yohji's studio with bolts of fabric, etc...in order to give people a view of what it is like to BE yohji...

we have some wonderful threads right here on tFS which can show you their genius!...

i think it's great that julian is teaching....

but i don't think the others are aloof....
they are just busy...
they are running global companies after all...
also..they are not native english speakers, so perhaps it makes them seem more mysterious because we cannot naturally understand them...
(though i have to say it wasn't so easy to follow jullian either...LOL)

i think anyone can simply look at any garment and with some knowledge of sewing and pattern-making...disect it and see how it's made, no?....
even i can do that...and i have no formal training...

where's the big mystery exactly?...
...


*perhaps the difference is that julian is not a designer...?
and is really a professor for a living...?

*kathleen-if you aren't familiar with issey miyake...
i strongly suggest you take a look at his work..especially a-poc...
a truly revolutionary process he has developed...
i think you would really enjoy it...

 

[kathleen fasanel]

well..i have to disagree about rei kawakubo of comme des garcons...not giving back to the industry...

and there have recently been several exhibits in paris of yohji's work...
one of which even had a model of yohji's studio with bolts of fabric, etc...in order to give people a view of what it is like to BE yohji...

but i don't think the others are aloof....

also..they are not native english speakers, so perhaps it makes them seem more mysterious because we cannot naturally understand them...

i think anyone can simply look at any garment and with some knowledge of sewing and pattern-making...disect it and see how it's made, no?....
even i can do that...and i have no formal training...

where's the big mystery exactly?...

Softgrey, if I left the impression that other designers were aloof, uncaring and unwilling to share, I profoundly regret that. Regarding language, you made some excellent points as well. However, in stating that Julian demonstrated intellectual generosity, I did not intend to demean others with the comparison. I am not as well versed with other designers; I am not a designer. Indeed, if my socks match, it's a happy coincidence.

Based on my experience, I'd profoundly disagree with your statement:

"I think anyone can simply look at any garment and with some knowledge of sewing and pattern-making...disect it and see how it's made, no?....
even i can do that...and i have no formal training..."

It's simply not a given. Similarly -please don't hate me- I feel you diminish the value of your own abilities with your comparative. Your ability to distinguish shape through visual inspection -regardless of lack of training- is not as common as you suppose -and I'd know. Because this ability comes naturally and easily to you, you assume it is likewise inherent in others. Based on what little I've read of you here, my presumption is that you have a high degree of innate ability. Perhaps one day you'll consider developing it. Were you to consider training, maybe you'd experience "the big mystery" provided of course, you were first indoctrinated to the way we've always done things. I apologize that I fail to explain the differences.

I was reading a summary of a study this morning. Perhaps this will explain how I feel when asked to describe the mystery (from creating passionate users http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/12/the_quantum_mec.html)

Light can behave as a wave, until you ask it to explain how it got from point A to point B, in which case it can behave as a particle. In other words, asking light to explain itself can change the very nature of how we perceive it. And this notion that sometimes "observing an event changes the event" comes up in many areas of quantum physics.
But it's not just the subatomic world that gets weird when you look too closely--in some cases, asking a user to explain his choices changes his choices!


In his book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Tipping Point) gives an example where students were asked to rank order 44 different kinds of strawberry jams. When compared with the rankings of experts, the students did fairly well -- "even those of us who aren't jam experts known good jam when we taste it." But--and here's where it gets weird--when the students were asked in advance to provide not just the rankings but a written explanation of their choices, the student rankings lost virtually all correlation with that of the experts. As Gladwell puts it, "By making people think about jam, [the researchers] turned them into jam idiots."

I've become a jam idiot

 

[Meg]

I really love this thread and reading people's responses and thinking. It's quite a 'heavy' thread which I enjoy. I think Kathleen I am more on point which you regarding this. For me, at the heart of a lot of things that I do regarding fashion, accessibility is key. I hate the idea that only certain people can 'understand' fashion or that if something appears weird or odd it should be immediately discredited (Ideas I believe to be quite mainstream). What I enjoy about nothing nothing or what julian is trying to do (successful? That is for others to debate and I don't know if I have an opinion of it) is to bring to people of all different backgrounds and levels of knowledge, bringing something 'avante garde' to the mainstream to bring knowledge. Whereas Rei has given many people chances, they are already people within the organization. It is not outsiders and I still find Comme des Garcons quite inaccessible. I love the belgian avante garde designers and there is something within their work that I identify with but if someone who loves fashion has difficulties with cdg, junya, yohji, I imagine a lot of people who aren't into fashion have even more difficulties. For me, this is where the importance of at least trying to get people to understand, or do things that allow them to see it, is important.

I agree as well kathleen that it's quite difficult for a lot of people to determine cut. Granted softie you've been around longer than I have but I've taken sewing lessons and done sewing myself and absolutely suck at patterns and determining the cut of a garment. It's not my strong point at all. So I think a lot of people who are not indoctrinated so to speak into the fashion world would also have the difficulty.

Sorry this post is a bit meandering but that is my two cents on the subject

 

[softgrey]

sorry kathleen...
the earlier part of my post wasn't directed specifically at you...
it was a general reaction to your post and this statement by zazie...

While Yohji, CdG, etc. have done that, they showed extraordinary shapes that fascinated us immensely, but they keep a very aloof, pedestal distance, as larger-than-life cutting geniuses, never revealing their methods.

you never gave me that impression....
and i do take your point...
i often take for granted what i am able to see or do and assume that everyone else is the same...
i have been proven wrong enough times that by now i should know better...
but it seems i don't want to accept that i am 'different'......
i always assume that everyone else is just like me....
my mistake......

i love your wave example...
i remember learning about that...
i always thought that was cool...

and i guess that jam experiment is something i have seen in life as well...
we have discussed this here in a different context...
but clearly...
many people cannot tell you WHY they like something, they just do...

*i am big on disecting the 'why'......
which i guess some people might find a bit boring...
but, if i am different...then i guess i'd like to know how and why...
and understanding other people's perspectives seems like a likely path of discovery...


i agree meg...
i really like this thread...

**btw-showstudio.com also has designer patterns you can download ...
so there are designers who will tell you how to make their clothes...
some designers who have participated..
mcqueen, galliano, yohji, junya...

at least one of our members has actually made the yohji jacket from showstudio...and i am planning to try myself...eventually......

 

[softgrey]

anyway...
i think this is actually a trend with a young generation of designers who were originally influenced by the japanese avant garde of the 80's (perhaps without even realizing it)....

it seems we see more and more young designers experimenting with non-traditional shapes and silhouettes...
some more successfully than others...
...

i am a big fan of that sort of thing...
and it does seem that little by little the 'public' is coming around...

 

[julianroberts_00]

Sounds very interesting Final... My hand's in your head.
You make some great points.
Time & experience doesn't always lead to good design/ innovation.
Sometimes the fastest, loosest, most spontaneous ideas are the best ones.
Fashion is just about the HERE & NOW... and over thinking things can leave you dizzy.
They're just clothes/ products at the end of the day...
that's the mistake i often make.. i can bore myself sometimes with the complexity of it all, trying to be clever, experimental, subversive...
sometimes the answers are right in front of you looking you in the face, but you have to go through this huge conveluted journey to discover them.
It's the ideas & images of everything you love& hate that rubs off on you from everything you see & do day to day, that holds the key to what you do next. It's within you.. not my ideas, techniques or the million other things that catch your interest.. but the way these collective things spark your imagination.

The stuff on my site to do with cutting... the pattern school & videos... are not meant to be complete and clear. They are little more than postcards. If you or anyone gets something from them then i think you are exercising a great deal of your own imagination, filling in the gaps etc... Misinterpretation though is important. I'm not putting forward a new set of rules, and i'm not saying that these ideas are "MINE". I launched them for other people to use, and they may well make a much better job of it than i have. I hope someone can make a million with them! The techniques are simply the start of a converstaion. I am slightly reluctant to clarify them too much, but a live cutting demo would show more of the possibilities, as would each of you trying them out for yourselves & posting the outcomes back here. If we pooled our skills and stopped talking we could collectively start a label of our own...

Thanks for elaborating!

I'm currently educating myself about the complexities of pattern drafting for the human shape... and after 4 years of learning the basics I feel like I am just beginning to understand how much farther I have to go. It seems like the more I learn, the more I realize what I might have learned may be myth and hearsay... I'm beginning to exhaust available books and school instruction... it seems to me more and more that it's not a "mathamatical" science but an acquired art that requires spatial thinking, an artistic eye for drawing lines across the body and sewing ability. I'm beginning to seek out patternmakers to learn from and am distressed by how few good ones there are out there... most of them seem to be self-taught with the same background, the same trial-and-error sort of cutting I have. It seems like a lot of rules until you realize that everyone approaches it differently. It seems like there's no rule for good drafting except experience... and that our collective experience in this area seems to be disappearing.

It all gets a little anal after a while so I can see how you were motivated to tackle the idea of cutting from the opposite angle. You said it helps to be untaught to absorb this stuff and maybe that's telling reason why I have a hard time getting into it... maybe in 10 years I'll really get it. I hope that this technique gets your students interested in the many possibilities, and hopefully fostering a deeper interest in drafting, cutting and sewing.

 

[julianroberts_00]

The video is obscure! it wasn't really made as an educational guide, but rather was commissioned alongside a much faster version for a recent art exhibition called 'Fashion: Film & Fiction' at the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station in London:
http://www.blowpr.co.uk/JULIANandSOPHIEsite/movieWAP1.htm

These mini version's, like the other 22 films on the 'videoworks' section of my website (http://www.julianand.com) all off course suffer a bit from compression to a mini size.

i suppose the best place to read about the actual techniques is at:
http://www.blowpr.co.uk/JULIANandSOPHIEsite/school/index.htm

and the best place to see how my head works is thru:
http://www.blowpr.co.uk/JULIANandSOPHIEsite/universe.htm

The video just adds a vocal dimention and perhaps fills in some of the blanks.

The stuff i've put out there introduces you to a few of my techniques, but is best considered as being a single facet of my output.
I'm a designer not only a cutter:
http://www.blowpr.co.uk/juliansophieFILE/index.htm

I will put it all in a book soon for those who want to an A-Z.

The best way to learn cutting tho is to see it happen infront of you.
When a cutters hands are moving and their mouth is shut you discover real poetry.

A cutter who inspires me is a guy called Tom Mahon.
He has a great blog at: http://www.englishcut.com

Best wishes,

Julian

i am actually extremely interested in kathleen's reaction to all of this and wish that she would expand on what she finds so exciting about this...

i am not a pattern-maker...
and anything i actually make for myself is by draping and pinning...
i find all patterns rather tedious and rather a pain...
so it is interesting for me to hear from a traditional patternmaker about such techniques...

julian...welcome to tFS...
it's a pleasure to have you here...
i watched your demo video...
i have to admit it was rather difficult to follow due to the way it was edited...it was rather like listening to a lecture in which you cannot see the teacher's drawings on the blackboard because they are erased too quickly...
seemed rather counterproductive to your goal of teaching and de-mystifiying...i found that confusing......

anyway...that's just my personal experience which i thought might help you in considering future projects and how they are received...
...

glad to have you here...
and i would also like to thank cerfas and all our other members for making this a lively discussion...
...

 

[softgrey]

thanks julian...

i assumed that was the intent of the film...
and it has certainly sparked some interesting discussion...

...

 

[julianroberts_00]

Making things is fun.
Designers often lose the enjoyment that first drew them into the industry the more successful they become...
No sooner is one collection shown are you having to come up with a new one whilst having to oversee production/ selling of the previous one.
Designers are too often distracted by the praise & attention of the media, and of course try to replicate their successes, and the things that buyers most want to stock in their shops.
After a while it becomes a job like any other rather than a creative activity.
This is the main reason my labels have a set lifespan. I have to kill them off to hold onto the enjoyment of making things.

it's intriguing reading all the people opinions...
what i see and love in your work Julian, it's the idea what make people dream, explore or taking some action - the opposite of giving or serving 'consumer' expectations, done in very human/harmonical way

 

[softgrey]

interesting you mentioned the sartorialist blog...
did you know he is also a member of the fashion spot?...



edit...oh...sorry...
i guess it was tom mahon who mentioned it on his blog...oops....
never mind...

 

[julianroberts_00]

Thank you Kathleen... you put me in an interesting historical context.
Vionnet is a great example. The clothes/outcomes interest me less, but the patterns/ spacial thinking do. The thing is that few of Vionnet's patterns are out there, and not enough people know about them. If you patent a cutting idea then you close it down, and limits its dissemination and use. I first learned to cut from a book: Winifried Aldridch's "Metric Pattern Cutting".
By putting my methods out there for free, by demonstrating techniques at universities & art shows, it simply adds to the different methodologies available. More techniques should be out there, but unfortunately designers are very territorial people and limit their techniques for use only within their own products. I believe in the future, and so must acknowledge that other people may have the ability to take my methods much further than i have, and be more successful with them.
New techniques inspire new machines & technology to automate them, extending beyond just clothes making.
I recently gave a lecture and cutting demo in Sweden with Sophie called 'To Future Generations of Ourselves'. People think that there is generosity in giving away techniques for free, but surely that's what creativity is there for, and i also surely have a vested interest in seeing the future become more like me in character - i have always felt an outsider in Fashion, but perhaps i will feel more at home in the future surrounded by design & technologies i have had some slight influence in inspiring.
Please do not think of this as generosity... think of how much i get out of seeing things happen without me having to pay for them!
You are completely right Kathleen in saying that education belongs to everyone... too many design students worry about going to the right universities, receiving the right tuition & getting the same qualification/ bit of paper as everyone else. Anyone can be a designer, and anyone can learn.

 

[julianroberts_00]

Ok folks… finding responding to what’s being said here a bit of a struggle ‘cos I keep reading backwards to the beginning of this thread to see where we came from & I type pretty slow!… This is all very involving and could easily become a full time job (cue to Fashion Spot = employ me?! ha haJ) Need a secretary.
I’ll say some things to Kathleen Fasanel & softgrey shortly because you’ve both said interesting stuff, but for a brief moment I have to step outside of this fascinating conversation and speak to everyone who has contributed to this thread:

When I first came on here there were some things being said that engaged my interest, and since I’ve been here some truly fascinating opinions have accumulated… but we should keep a balance. At the beginning the talk was more about ‘Design’, now it’s more about ‘Garment Construction Theory’. The only problem with that is when the experts step in: because the technical language used inevitably becomes dense & terminological, threatening to exclude anyone who doesn’t have an interest in the highs & lows of pattern makings history.

My approach to design is that I immerse myself in theory & then flip out of it to get some air: to connect with REAL life again.
I think it’s important for this thread too so it doesn’t become too dry and keeps us all wanting to come back for more.... me especially

It would be good if it were somehow possible to divide this thread so that conversations on ways of making can continue to be beaten out at expert level… as there is much to be said of interest, and so many interesting opinions being given… whilst also having the odd air-head moment where we have conversations about life in a general fashion.
We have the theory thread nailed & it will continue, but if this thread is going to capture the imagination of Hollywood and be turned into a movie with spin off chat shows, promotional merchandise, a T-shirts range and a collaborative TFS show at New York Fashion Week… then I need to see more plot lines, storyboards & characterization!!! You have to remember that this is all food for thought to me, and could become ANYTHING YOU WANT IT TO BE if we put our collective creative/technical minds together

 

[julianroberts_00]

I’d like to know something about who you all are… woven in between the theoretical threads on garment construction… choose any of the following subjects & occasionally drop them in: 1) What designer garments really make you FEEL good? 2) Who in fashion do you really hate with a vengeance? 3) What one aspect of the Fashion Industry would you most like advise on or help with understanding? 4) What one question might you ask me about who I am/ my life… if you had the courage, were drunk, or if all these other people weren’t listening in? 5) Which designer outside London/ New York/ Paris/ Milan/ Tokyo, and who isn’t stocked by Selfridges/ Harrods/ Browns/ Collette/ Saks/ Barneys etc etc etc would you most like to bring to my attention? Feel free to try to influence me. 6) Which artist/designer would you champion as showing the way forward for new fashion design? 7) Post a picture of something you want me to add to/ cut. I’ll post artwork back to you, like the game of ‘Consequences’. 8) Seed EACH of the following three lists into the right orders from BEST to WORST: i) London, Paris, Tokyo, New York, Milan ii) Cut, stitching, fabric, label, style iii) fashion, sex, music, food, art.
9) Tell me where I might take (or stick!) my way of thinking/ techniques/ label? 10) Tell me how we might actually work together to make something AMAZING from this information exchange?

 

[softgrey]

you are welcome to start a new thread julian about anything you like...
maybe you could start us off?...



let me know if i can be of any help...