Rebel Rebel Anti-Style with Keanan Duffty

Slinky Vagabond featured on "We Are Cult"

2021-04-27T13:45:00.006-07:00

Slinky Vagabond - New Single "The Beauty in You" Out Now!

2021-04-15T14:59:00.003-07:00

"The Beauty in You" released on April 16, 2021.

KEANAN DUFFTY ON THE NEW ROMANTICS

2020-11-13T17:20:00.010-08:00

The New Romantic movement grew out of a time of social and economic challenge, but also a time of great joy. Joy to be young and to dream of an escape to a creative life. From 1979 to 1980, London’s Blitz nightclub was the breeding ground for soon-to-be-famous names like Sade, John Galliano, Steve Strange, Tracey Emin, and Boy George.

British GQ Editor-in-Chief Dylan Jones documents that halcyon moment in fashion, music and ‘designer’ culture in his new book “Sweet Dreams – The Story of the New Romantics.” In a series of interviews with the movers and shakers of the era, Jones chronicles the decade between the birth of punk and the global spectacle of Live Aid.

In 1980, I was a teen punk rocker (and David Bowie fanatic) and lived in the Northern English town of Doncaster. I performed with my band Sordid Details and sewed clothes on my mother’s Singer machine. I also nursed ambitions of studying fashion at Central Saint Martins in London. In the wake of Glam rock, the British punk movement began in 1975 and channeled the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Bob Fosse’s Cabaret, and Warhol’s Factory. 1977 was the most explosive year in British popular culture. Overnight, punks appeared on every UK street. Androgynous girls in striped mohair sweaters carried kettles as handbags, boys wore tight plastic trousers, ripped T-shirts, plastic sandals and dyed cropped hair. The cultural clicker changed the channel from Black & White to Technicolor. Anything seemed possible.

However, by 1980, Punk had become a caricature and we were ready for the Next Big Thing. In London’s Bowie/Roxy Music-fixated Blitz club, gender fluid fashion students and nightlife reprobates who were soon to be christened New Romantics. Where Punk had aspired to chaos, New Romantics dreamed of couture, albeit on a Salvation Army budget. I formed an electronic synth-twiddling group called Wonder Stories. We were a dandy band in frilly shirts and suede pixie boots. One member had actually visited the Blitz club, passed the style test enforced by the promoter Steve Strange and faced down the catty remarks and aerodynamic hairstyle of coat check (Boy) George O’Dowd. We were in our pomp and on a mission to avoid drab conformity, living like it was Studio 54 with thrift store chic and a cut-price Kraftwerk soundtrack.

The New Romantic crowd contained a strange bunch of stylish misfits: Cossacks, Che Guevara look-alikes, fellas in nun’s habits and future characters from ‘Game of Thrones’ all fleeing suburban mundanity. The movement has been maligned as a shallow and meaningless and in some ways, it was, but that was the point. Rather than wallow in punk pessimism, Blitz Kids chose to focus on positivity, fashion, dance music and the joy of self-expression. Like many of these cultural moments, it was only a matter of time before it imploded. By Charles and Diana’s Royal wedding in May 1981, it was over. “Sweet Dreams – The Story of the New Romantics” tells the whole story.

Pictured (top): The Wonder Stories.

Keanan Duffty is an award-winning British fashion designer, musician, educator, and CFDA member. Duffty is the author of “Rebel Rebel Anti-Style” (Rizzoli/Universe, 2009).

Sweet Dreams - The Story of the New Romantics. by Dylan Jones

2020-11-02T05:58:00.001-08:00

New book charts groundbreaking rise of New Romantics

Jackie Mallon Thursday, 29 October 2020. Fashion United

Sweet Dreams, The Story of the New Romantics, a new book by Dylan Jones, Editor-in-Chief of British GQ, documents a phenomenal moment in fashion history. It charts the British culture explosion that happened in the ten years from 1975-1985 and, in particular, the rise––and fall––of the New Romantics. As a music and fashion movement, loosely known in the US as the Second British Invasion, it spawned globally renowned names including Sade, Spandau Ballet, Boy George, Eurythmics and Duran Duran, all of whom are interviewed within the book. Keanan Duffty who was also a central figure of that scene, and now teaches Fashion Management at Parsons, is pictured below next to singer Marc Almond (who was about to shoot to stardom with the global hit “Tainted Love.”) Interviewed for Jones’ book, Duffty, also pictured below wearing red, reflects on the experience of being a New Romantic, or Blitz Kid as the Londoners were named, with FashionUnited.

What in your opinion made the New Romantic period so special?

As Dylan Jones' wonderful new book highlights, the New Romantic movement has been savagely maligned as a shallow, self-obsessed, and meaningless youth cult. And in many ways, it was, and that was the point. Rather than wallow in the pessimism of post punk, Blitz Kids chose to focus on positivity, fun, fashion, dance music, and self-expression, though it was only a matter of time before it imploded. The whole New Romantic story is so entrepreneurial and aspirational, even though 1979-1981 in the UK, and in New York for that matter, were pretty challenging times for college graduates and those who were looking to create a better, artistic life. A bit like right now.

What brought about its demise?

Within a year, it was all over. The point was to fail magnificently, thereby creating the ultimate success. Here was a training ground for fashion designers, film makers, musicians, DJs promoters and also drug dealers. New Romantic clubs were a nightlife laboratory where like-minded souls could meet and make plans for their future. Club culture evolved from a series of small independent ‘one-nighters’ beginning 1979/1980 that created a model which exploded by the end of the 80s with Acid House, rave culture and the super clubs like Ministry of Sound.

How long did it take to get dressed in the morning and where did you find your clothes?

Putting a “look” together for a big night out took all week. Scouring vintage clothing shops, military surplus stores or making clothes from exotic but cheap fabrics was the only way to go. London stores like Vivienne Westwood’s World’s End, or PX in London’s Covent Garden, were expensive and even though there were shops in provincial towns like X Clothes in Leeds, it was beyond most people’s budget. In any case, making a look was much more creative. It would have been abhorrent to wear a “label.” The likes of Gucci, YSL or Chanel were for the blue-haired posh ladies of Knightsbridge. The New Romantic badge of honor was being creative and unique, a do-it-yourself aesthetic.

Viewed through a contemporary lens, the eccentricity of the looks can border on costume. Was society just more accepting back then or was the youth more adventurous?

I had to put up with howls of laughter and disapproving barbs from the neighbors every time I waited at the bus stop looking like Little Lord Fauntleroy in crushed velvet, make-up, and Cuban heeled winkle pickers. I didn’t care. Where Punk had aspired to chaos, New Romantics dreamed of couture. In my mind I was prowling a catwalk, not the village street. For the New Romantic movement every day seemed like a voyage in a parallel universe, an escape from the suburban gender stereotypes with a strange bunch of style misfits all fleeing the mundane: male nuns, Cossacks, Che Guevara lookalikes, blokes wearing wedding dresses.… It was all about creating a fantasy and dreaming our way out of suburbia.

Could a movement like the New Romantics happen today?

Subcultures were tribal in the 1970s and 80s and the gang you belonged to denoted the music you listened to, the clothes you wore, the places you went. That really died with the internet and social media. Today you have access to everything, all the time. During the 70s and 80s you had to searchfor everything; clubs, music, style and your “crowd." It was joyfully naïve. Anything seemed possible. We have come to an impasse and the vacuous nature of the contemporary celebrity era makes the New Romantics seem like giants. It is appalling to see the sheer lack of subversion and provocation, the hideous outfits on near naked celebrities at New York’s Met Ball. But I believe that every generation’s creative force is able to conjure the Sex, Subversion and Style that Malcom McLaren preached. My hope is that future underground cultures can happen globally today in, for example, Thailand, India, Shanghai, away from the media microscope, if that is possible. Then something can grow undisturbed, like a subculture petri dish.

The New Romantics championed gender nonconformity decades before the fashion industry finally embraced it. Why do you think its influence was so fleeting in that area?

We are taught to conform to established gender stereotypes by society, from a very young age. It can be hard to break away from that depending on where one grows up. The British writer Jon Savage coined the term “Gender Bender” in an article for The Face magazine about David Bowie who had blazed a trail for gender nonconformity in the 1970s during the Glam Rock period. New Romantics certainly embraced that stance and in the wake of Punk they were able to wear their androgyny in public, which had been more difficult earlier in the 70s. Simply put, there was safety in numbers. By 1982 global beauty and haircare companies were advertising make-up and hair dye for men. But corporations had missed the target and their campaigns looked dated and silly. Youth culture had moved on.

The movement centered around music, in particular London club the Blitz, leading some to make comparisons with the phenomenon of Studio 54 happening around the same time in NYC. The former was patronized by milliner Stephen Jones and a young John Galliano, the latter by Halston and Calvin Klein. Do you find the comparison accurate?

Studio 54 was so glamorous and unreachable and a celebrity’s status gained them access beyond the velvet rope, but the New Romantic clubs like the Blitz were cheap. The only currency for entry was style. New Romantics in their pomp were on a mission to avoid the drab conformity of their English towns and live like it was Studio 54, but with thrift store chic and cut-price sartorial style. When Stephen Jones, John Galliano, Sade and many others went to the Blitz they were poor and unknown. Calvin and Halston, by contrast, were hanging out at Studio 54 in the height of their fame. New Romantics acted like they were living the lifestyles of the rich and famous. They were willing themselves into their future destiny.

Fashion editor Jackie Mallon is also an educator and author of Silk for the Feed Dogs, a novel set in the international fashion industry.

"Sweet Dreams-The Story of the New Romantics"

2020-10-22T08:02:00.003-07:00

Sweet Dreams charts the British cultural explosion that happened in the ten years from 1975-1985 — the rise of the New Romantics. Growing out of the remnants of the post-punk period, the New Romantics introduced club culture, ska, electronica, and goth to the world. A music and fashion movement that spawned globally renowned names including Sade, Spandau Ballet, Boy George and Duran Duran, all of whom are interviewed.

A Robin Williams Signed Photo and Pair of Keanan Duffty x Reebok Shoes (2003).

2020-08-12T16:28:00.002-07:00

A Robin Williams Signed Photo and Pair of Keanan Duffty x Reebok Shoes (2003).
Previously offered at a celebrity shoe auction, this lot perfectly captures the zany, yet tender personality of the late Robin Williams; it includes a black-and-white production still from "Mrs. Doubtfire" autographed "Walk on all my love/ Robin Williams" in black Sharpie, as well as a pair of colorful red-and-green camoflauge Reebok/Keanan Duffty sneakers, each signed "Robin Williams" in black felt pen on the outer midsole. (Please note the shoes show very light wear, with two light scuffs to the inner midsole of the left shoe.)

Suits Out, Stretchy Pants In: More Retailers Go Bankrupt

2020-08-06T08:01:00.008-07:00

By ALINA SELYUKH

https://www.wmra.org/post/suits-out-stretchy-pants-more-retailers-go-bankrupt#stream/0

Junya Watanabe Man Spring 2021

2020-08-01T11:47:00.001-07:00

Photographer: Keizo Kitajima

Bankrupt Muji U.S.A. Closing California Stores

2020-08-01T08:46:00.001-07:00

Muji will close its California stores but hopes one day to bring brick-and-mortar back to the state.

By David Moin on July 31, 2020 Women's Wear Daily.

The Muji storefront on East 59th Street in Manhattan. George Chinsee/WWD

Muji U.S.A., one of the many retail victims of COVID-19, will permanently close all seven of its stores in California as part of the company’s Chapter 11 restructuring.

The locations are in Los Angeles on the Third Street Promenade, Hollywood, Santa Anita, Stanford, San Jose, Santa Monica and San Francisco.

The Chapter 11 filing in Delaware by Muji U.S.A on July 20 does not impact the Japanese retailer’s operations in Canada, Japan, and elsewhere around the globe, the company said.

Muji plans to use the court-supervised Chapter 11 process “to navigate the impacts of COVID-19 on brick-and-mortar retail and to reposition the brand’s e-commerce business as customer behavior has shifted to online shopping as a result of the pandemic.”

Satoshi Okazaki, chief executive officer of Muji U.S.A. commented, “At Muji we are so thankful for our customers and the community who have supported our stores throughout the years. We are especially grateful to our California community. As we work through the restructuring process, we hope to someday bring brick-and-mortar Muji stores back to California, and look forward to serving our California customers online in the meantime.”

Muji is known for its clean Asian aesthetic, multifarious merchandising and moderate prices. The stores average around 8,000 square feet and sell everything from plants, stationery, refillable gel pens, mattresses and sheets, to skin care, cleaning systems, marshmallows, containers, cookies and curry, as well as men’s, women’s and kids wear, and sandals.

When the company filed for Chapter 11 restructuring, it said it would close “a small number of its brick-and-mortar stores” as it focuses more on its online offerings.

Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, Muji had ambitious expansion plans for the U.S., considering opening 100 locations in five years, as well as a hotel on the West Coast. The California closings leave about 12 Muji stores continuing to operate.

COVID-19 aside, Japanese retailers have a poor track record in America. Takashimaya, Mitsukoshi, Itokin and Isetan all came and went, and business at Uniqlo, Muji’s biggest competitor globally, has been tough in the U.S., outside of major urban areas.

However, Muji stores did seem to be gaining acceptance, with good traffic seen at its Fifth Avenue and Hudson Yards stores in Manhattan prior to the pandemic, possibly due to its relatively small reliance on the fickle fashion category and its inexpensive, home and gift-oriented assortment.

John Varvatos Seen Exiting His Namesake Brand

2020-07-29T06:44:00.003-07:00

A Lion Capital subsidiary is expected to acquire the bankrupt brand and merge it into AllSaints in the U.K.

By Jean E. Palmieri on July 23, 2020. Women's Wear Daily

John VarvatosAurora Rose/WWD

The John Varvatos era at his namesake brand could be nearing an end.

Multiple sources said Thursday that if Lion/Hendrix Cayman Ltd. is successful in acquiring the men’s wear brand in bankruptcy court, the designer will exit and the U.S. operation will be shuttered.

Varvatos did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday. Lion also declined to respond.

Lion’s plan, according to the sources, is to merge the Varvatos business into AllSaints, another business it owns based in the U.K. AllSaints also is in the process of restructuring its operations through the Company Voluntary Agreement process, the U.K. equivalent of Chapter 11.

Sources said Lion would operate the Varvatos business separately under the AllSaints umbrella, keep several of the stores open and continue to buy a portion of their materials from current suppliers — but Varvatos would no longer design the collection.

WHP Global, an aggressive brand management firm that owns Anne Klein and Joseph Abboud, was the only other qualified bidder for Varvatos, but earlier this week the bankruptcy court ruled Lion’s stalking-horse bid to be superior.

A final decision has yet to be made — WHP is still in the hunt and ready to pounce if Lion doesn’t complete the deal — and there is a hearing on Friday. WHP’s bid is all cash while Lion’s is a credit bid. Sources said that in the unlikely event WHP did prevail, it would keep Varvatos on board.

Varvatos created the rock-‘n’-roll-inspired brand in 1999 and for the first few years, it was associated with Nautica Enterpises. When VF Corp. bought Nautica in 2003, Varvatos became part of that corporation. But the brand struggled for attention under VF’s ownership and in March 2012, VF sold a majority stake in the business to Lion Capital for an undisclosed sum.

The brand has been on the block for several years, but Varvatos owned a 10 percent stake in the business and reportedly had veto power over any sale. That stake was “wiped out” during the bankruptcy, one source said, leaving him with no bargaining power.

As part of the filing in May, the company cited falling sales and declining online revenues since 2015 that were exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis, which forced it to shutter its stores around the world and furlough its workers.

The company’s secured debt includes $94.8 million in pre-petition notes and $19.5 million under pre-petition credit agreements. It said it also owes more than $26 million in unsecured debt, mainly to vendors and under lease agreements.

Lion/Hendrix Cayman is owned by Lion Capital Fund III Partnerships, a private equity fund formed by Lion Capital that also invests in brand licensing company Authentic Brands Group.

Kansai Yamamoto, fashion designer, dies age 76

2020-07-27T05:00:00.003-07:00

Kansai Yamamoto attending a David Bowie exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum on March 20, 2013 in London, England. Scroll through the gallery for photos of the Japanese fashion designer. Dave M. Benett/Getty Images

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/kansai-yamamoto-fashion-designer/index.htmlWritten by

Oscar Holland, CNN

Acclaimed Japanese fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto, known for his avant-garde collections and career-defining collaboration with David Bowie, has died aged 76.

Confirming his death via Instagram on Monday, Yamamoto's daughter Mirai said her father "left this world peacefully, surrounded by loved ones."

'"In my eyes, my father was not only the eclectic and energetic soul that the world knew him as, but someone who was also thoughtful, kind-hearted and affectionate," she wrote.
According to a statement published by the designer's eponymous company, Yamamoto died last Tuesday following a battle with acute myeloid leukemia. His funeral has already taken place, though a "public farewell" may be held at a later date.
Japanese fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto (right) and model Sayoko Yamaguchi (left) in Tokyo in November 1982.

Credit: Kyodo News via Getty Images
Supermodel Iman walks a New York runway for Yamamoto in 1981. Credit: Rose Hartman/WireImage

"As he fought his illness, he remained always positive, never lost his passion towards creation," the company's statement read.

Born in 1944, Yamamoto studied civil engineering before turning his attention to fashion. By the early 1970s he had become the first Japanese designer to hold a show in London, an opportunity that earned him international acclaim for his theatrical creations.
Remember when David Bowie made this lightning-bolt look about way more than makeup?
It was during this time that he established friendships with some of the decade's most important musicians, including Elton John and Stevie Wonder. His growing profile in London also brought him to the attention of late singer David Bowie, with whom he formed a longstanding creative partnership.

Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter in 2016, Yamamoto said that Bowie's interest in his work began when the singer found some of his womenswear designs on sale in London.
"Luckily David had a very slim body and they fit him very well -- no fittings," the designer recalled.

Bowie collaboration

Yamamoto went on to produce various stage outfits for Bowie, from androgynous jumpsuits and bodysuits, to cloaks and wide-bottomed pants. He designed costumes for the singer's 1973 "Aladdin Sane" tour, which accompanied the iconic album of the same name, helping to bring Bowie's various stage personas, including Ziggy Stardust, to life.
"Some sort of chemical reaction took place: My clothes became part of David, his songs and his music," Yamamoto was quoted as saying in the 2016 interview. "They became part of the message he delivered to the world."

David Bowie performing as Ziggy Stardust, in his "woodland creatures" costume designed by Kansai Yamamoto, at the Hammersmith Odeon, 1973. Credit: Debi Doss/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
A costume created by Yamamoto for David Bowie is displayed during the press preview of the "David Bowie is" exhibition at Warehouse Terrada on January 5, 2017 in Tokyo, Japan.

While known for his dramatic designs, he also explored traditional Japanese clothing and craftsmanship. After his 1970s and 1980s heyday, he continued to offer contemporary new takes on the kimono, and throughout his career, embraced the Japanese concept of "basara," creating incredibly bold, daring designs that upended any suggestion of minimalism. He was enlisted by Louis Vuitton to create a number of looks for the brand's 2018 resort collection, which featured kabuki-inspired motifs against glitter and sequins.

Yamamoto produced high-profile events in locations around the world, from Moscow's Red Square to London's Victoria & Albert Museum, where he held a series of live fashion shows in 2013. The online streaming event he was working on at the time for his death, "Nippon Genki Project 2020 Super Energy," will go ahead as scheduled on July 31, his company said.
"We deeply regret that Kansai cannot join us on the day," its statement read, "but we would like to deliver his passion and dream in the best way possible."

CNN's Yoko Wakatsuki and Junko Ogura contributed to this report.

Lion Capital to Keep Control of John Varvatos Fashion Business

2020-07-25T04:30:00.000-07:00

The private-equity owner will buy back the fashion retailer out of bankruptcy after facing down a challenge from class-action plaintiffs

July 24, 2020 5:18 pm ET Wall Street Journal

Private-equity firm Lion Capital LLP won the right to rescue the John Varvatos menswear retail operation out of bankruptcy, after a challenge from women who won a $3.5 million Equal Pay Act judgment against the retailer.

Earlier, Judge Mary Walrath held that the women failed to show Lion controlled the Varvatos policy that gave men, but not women, a clothing allowance at the rock ’n’ roll menswear seller.

American Fashion Nominates the Designers of the Year. They Really Make You Think

2020-07-25T04:22:00.001-07:00

But not in a good way. The Oscars of fashion reflect exactly what the industry needs to change.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/style/cfda-nominations.html

Tom Ford, now chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, with Carine Roitfeld at the 2019 CFDA Fashion Awards.Credit...Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images

By Vanessa Friedman NYT July 20, 2020

When the coronavirus prompted the Council of Fashion Designers of America to postpone the 2020 CFDA Fashion Awards, the annual “Oscars of the Fashion World” (industry prom) originally scheduled for June 8, it seemed like another glittering evening of voyeurism and celebration had fallen to the pandemic.

On Monday, however, the organization revealed that while the party may be over, at least for this year, the concept would go on.

“In this time of unprecedented challenge and change for our industry, we feel very strongly that it is important to recognize the nominees representing the best of fashion creativity,” said Tom Ford, chairman of the CFDA, in a news release. It announced the names, and said winners would be named on Sept. 14, the start of New York Fashion Week.

And the nominees are….?

Almost exactly the same designers who have been nominated (and won) in years past. Which means that rather than demonstrate the strength and resilience and depth of imagination of American fashion, the award nomination list mostly revealed exactly what is wrong with it. Or some of it.

In a time when the system itself is under scrutiny in a multitude of ways — from the way its constant churn of collections and shows devalues creations to its racism — nominating a handful of very familiar names as the very best fashion has to offer simply serves to perpetrate that system.

For anyone taken aback by the recent news that it was only this month that a Black photographer was chosen to shoot Vanity Fair’s cover, or that since Tyler Mitchell became the first Black photographer to shoot a Vogue cover in 2018, there hasn’t been another; for anyone thinking that the fashion industry is rife with cronyism, entrenched gatekeepers reluctant to give up power and a deep investment in maintaining the velvet-roped-off status quo, this list of nominees gives substance to the allegations.

Simply consider the fact that the nominees for the three big awards are:

American Womenswear Designer of the Year: Ashley Olsen and Mary-Kate Olsen for the Row, Brandon Maxwell, Gabriela Hearst, Marc Jacobs and Tom Ford.

HARRY STYLES AND THE ‘FINE LINE’ BETWEEN FASHION AND STYLE

2020-07-20T19:17:00.005-07:00

DECEMBER 20, 2019 | NAHAL AMOUZADEH

https://allarts.org/2019/12/harry-styles-and-the-fine-line-between-fashion-and-style/

Harry Styles wore a hot pink Gucci shirt with white Gucci trousers, first seen on the cover of his second album, on Dec. 13 at the Forum for his album release party. “Fine Line” had dropped at midnight earlier that day, but the Los Angeles crowd sang along to every song, the lyrics already memorized.

The outfit is quintessential Styles as he’s been for the last few years: flowing, wide-leg trousers, 1970s-vintage details and patterns and colors regularly described as “feminine.” Alongside breaking records with his solo music and launching an acting career with Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk” (2017), the former One Direction singer has attempted to position himself as a rising fashion icon since the boy band’s indefinite hiatus announcement in 2015.

“[His clothes are] definitely always eye-catching,” said Alex, a 29-year-old consultant in Washington, D.C., and co-owner of the fan-run site Harry Styles Fashion Archive (HSFA). “It’s always interesting and a little performative.”

HSFA started in 2015, around One Direction’s hiatus announcement. Alex and co-owner Lu, a 25-year-old working in public relations in London, met online through the fandom. Though neither currently work in fashion, they bonded over a shared interest. To dive deeper into the online community they loved, they joined forces on fashion blogs focused on each One Direction member’s wardrobe. (The Louis Tomlinson Fashion Archive is their second-biggest platform.)

HSFA had its humble beginnings on Tumblr, but Alex and Lu’s posting system — now extended to Instagram and Twitter accounts boasting a collective 80,000 followers — mostly stayed the same over the years. A new photo of Styles appears online, and the blog’s co-owners begin searching for the brands he’s wearing. When they find the piece, they post an image of Styles cropped beside the outfit details they aim to highlight, with a caption explaining what and who he’s wearing, and if possible, where to buy and how much it costs.

“[The members of One Direction] have all taken off on their own and developed their own identities outside of what was perhaps pre-assigned to them by being in a unit like that,” Alex said.

For his part, Styles has been lauded for bending gender stereotypes with his colored nails, his elegant jewelry and the playful silhouettes of his many suits. His 2019 Met Gala look — a sheer Gucci top and a dangly pearl earring — brought in over 700k impressions and 200k engagements on HSFA’s Twitter; on Instagram, their top posts remain all Gala-related even months later.

Fashion writers have since been praising the musician, comparing him to the likes of Mick Jagger, David Bowie and other effeminate rockstars of past eras.

There is, arguably, a timelessness to Harry Styles. But to compare him to certain musical giants of the 1960s and 1970s, who used fashion as part of their art, is not an accurate assessment, according to Keanan Duffty, founding director of the Masters of Professional Studies Fashion Management program at Parsons School of Fashion and the author of the music-fashion book “Rebel, Rebel: Anti-Style.”

“I think there are many similarities between the Clash and One Direction in that they were both kind of boy bands that were put together by impresarios in the music industry,” Duffty said.

To drive this singular comparison home, Duffty referenced a 2017 Rolling Stones interview with Styles, in which the singer quoted the Clash’s bassist Paul Simonon: “Pink is the only true Rock ’n’ Roll color.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8UqbQJJkLl/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

One Direction fans who have followed the group since its days on “The X Factor” likely remember the baggy jeans and endless Hollister sweats worn by the singers. But in 2011, after being signed to Simon Cowell’s record label Syco, the boys began working with stylist Caroline Watson, who created looks based on each member’s personality.

If Zayn Malik was the “sexy, mysterious one,” Styles was “the kind of guy who wore the funny bow ties, and he was cute, and you’d take him home to your mom,” Duffty said.

“[Watson] leaned on certain designers who she felt were appropriate for the band, because she wanted them to be like a male Spice Girls,” Duffty said. For Styles, that meant a lot of Yves Saint Laurent — a brand he still wears frequently.

A mix of YSL coats, boldly patterned button-downs, tight black skinny jeans and Chelsea boots became a signature outfit for Styles. In 2013, when asked about a British Style Award he had received, he said it came as a shock considering he only owned two pairs of jeans.

The journey to the Harry Styles fans now see dancing on stages across the world has been a gradual transformation, according to Alex, but one that seemed inevitable. Styles began working with stylist Harry Lambert in 2014, and in 2015, he was seen at the American Music Awards in a floral print suit with bell-bottom pants.

“Everyone [in the fandom] was like, ‘What is that? What is going on?’” Alex said. “That was probably the first big departure.”

The outfit stood out because it was no longer aligned with the traditionally masculine looks he’d worn on red carpets — so divergent from the tight pants he was known for during his “off-duty” hours. For fans, it became a definitive moment in his style progression, a point in time that represented a distinct change. But, in actuality, the suit was Gucci and the black button-down was another Saint Laurent piece. The outfit was not entirely different from what Styles had worn in the past and what he’d wear going forward.

“James Brown’s cape is a moment,” Duffty said, describing fashion choices that deeply affected the worlds of art and entertainment. “There are many things from Michael Jackson, but let’s say the red ‘Thriller’ jacket — that’s a moment. The Sex Pistols, bondage pants, they’re a moment. They moved pop culture.”

“Is Harry Styles doing that?” He posed. “Or is he just wearing Gucci? Because there’s a big difference.”

What about the Met Gala outfit that took the internet by storm? And surely, with or without the Gucci or Saint Laurent labels, the custom suits he wears on stage give the singer a cohesive and memorable image, different from the likes of other pop stars like Justin Bieber or Shawn Mendes. Separately, Alex marks the 2017 performance of Styles’ song “Kiwi” on “The Late Late Show” as “a moment,” with the singer wearing a Charles Jeffrey jumpsuit.

These “moments” must culminate into something. And yes, Harry Styles is certainly fashionable, Duffty said, as mainstream artists and Hollywood starlets must be nowadays. But is Styles stylish?

“If you look at James Brown, for example, you could argue that his wild hair and his jumpsuits and his capes were not fashion, necessarily,” Duffty said. “He was way beyond fashion. He didn’t care about trends. He was actually wearing something that would look amazing on stage … and that sent a really big message to the public.”

“I think that’s a big difference between where we are in pop music today and pop music’s assimilation of fashion,” he continued. “[Fashion and pop music] have become a bit of a bedfellow.”

To move the pop culture needle forward through fashion, originality is needed. Styles’s wardrobe is a lovely homage to an era of gender fluidity and rebellion, but Duffty believes it stops there.

“It’s not like [Styles] is trying to crash through stereotypes,” Duffty said. “You know, it’s a great Gucci suit, but I saw it on the runway … He could have done something different with it.” (Similar thoughts have been shared about Styles’s music as well: “We remain no closer to understanding him as a songwriter or solo artist … mostly, I hear a guy who’s still afraid he’ll never make a David Bowie record,” Jeremy D. Larson wrote in the “Fine Line” reviewfor Pitchfork.)

To become iconic in the avenue where fashion and music meet, it’s important to “be more transgressive,” said Duffty. He cites FKA twigs as an artist pushing boundaries forward with her music and image.

Noting the differences between artists working to dismantle gender stereotypes like Jagger and Bowie, who he said were up against “macho, bare-chested rock stars,” and the manufactured multihyphenates of today like Styles is important. Nevertheless, to dismiss Styles and his platform would be a disservice to his fans, who still look to the singer for fashion inspiration.

“I don’t want to attack Harry Styles. He’s a cute boy,” Duffty said. “And maybe [addressing stereotypes is] not his motivation.”

To this point, with or without the “icon” label, Styles makes fashion accessible for people like Alex, Lu and the thousands of fans who follow their accounts, looking for a way to engage with this often closed-off world.

His wardrobe is the perfect array of eclectic for the burgeoning casual student: Lambert ensures that Styles doesn’t tie himself to one large label and often highlights designers just starting their careers. During his first solo tour, Styles wore many outfits created by gender-nonconforming designer Harris Reed. Recently, at iHeartRadio’s 2019 Jingle Ball, he was seen on stage in a glittery denim shirt-and-jeans combo by emerging designer Archie Alled-Martínez.

It’s Styles’s platform that holds the true power. The marketing of a label is important and since the advent of the celebrity supermodel in the 1980s and 1990s, labels like Gucci have used celebrities “to speak to a younger audience, in a voice that the younger audience understands,” said Duffty.

For Gucci, that meant bringing on Alessandro Michele in 2015, who, in turn, took on Styles to reach that younger audience.

Alex echoed the sentiment, noting the Michele Effect: “If you look back at the Gucci collections that have come out and how those have grown, you can really see that [Gucci and Styles have] kind of grown together.” (Michele even designed a t-shirt for Styles’s new merchandise, available on his website.)

In the end, if not iconic, Styles’s curated looks and his partnerships with small designers and big labels alike are stepping stones to an informal education in a high-brow, distant industry.

“I was the type of person who really looked forward to red carpet events to see what everyone wore,” Alex said. “But I’ve never been interested in it being a job, especially [because] I didn’t grow up in an area where that would be a job available, like in New York.”

Alex and Lu have gained knowledge and access into the fashion industry through their enthusiasm for it, coupled with their love for Styles. They know it’s not the singer behind all the pizzazz; in fact, through HSFA, they have talked to the main person curating Styles and his fashion-forward platform. When the blog owners have a particularly hard time trying to find a piece that Styles was seen wearing, they sometimes reach out to Lambert.

“He follows us on Instagram,” Alex said. “Harry Lambert does such a good job. I want him to get the praise and credit for all these outfits … because he’s definitely well-loved by the fandom with what he’s done with Harry Styles.”

Ultimately, Styles may not be a fashion icon the way Bowie and Jagger were in their heyday. But rather than inspiring an isolated world, he’s pushed the door open and waved through his millions of fans. And maybe that’s all that matters.

The Value of Creativity and Fashion Management with Keanan Duffty, Owner and Creative Director of Keanan Duffty Studio

2020-07-19T19:25:00.000-07:00

https://wishidknownthat.libsyn.com/the-value-of-creativity-and-fashion-management-with-keanan-duffty-owner-and-creative-director-of-keanan-duffty-studio

In this week's episode of Wish I’d Known That, Betsy Pearce sits down with the iconic British fashion designer Keanan Duffty about how the fashion industry has changed over the years and the things that budding designers need to know before venturing into the industry. Keanan shares his insights on how commercialization and convenience has affected the creative process, the importance of balancing passion with making a living, finding ways to build a rapport with the market, and more. Stay tuned.

Keanan Duffty is the Founder and Creative Director of Keanan Duffty Studio Keanan has worked with countless brands to create inspiring designs such as Gola, Reebok, Gwen Stefani's LAMB, Ben Sherman, Doc Martens, and many more. Currently, he is a contributing Fashion Editor for SOMA Magazine. Keanan is also the Founding Program Director for the Masters in Professional Study of Fashion Management at NYU, Parsons.

Apart from being an award-winning British fashion designer, Keanan is also an author, and a musician based in New York.

Bowie’s fashion sense empowered individuality

2020-07-19T12:20:00.004-07:00

By Tony Bravo January 11, 2016 San Francisco Chronice

When the news of David Bowie’s death was confirmed Sunday night, it wasn’t just one picture that flashed through my mind: It was a series of images of the artist in the many personae that spanned his years in the public eye.

There he was, lounging in a dress, transgressing against gender norms on the cover of “The Man Who Sold the World,” then as flame-haired alien Ziggy Stardust in his glittery spaceman jumpsuits, only to morph into Aladdin Sane with the signature lightning bolt painted across his face.

Even the more traditional sartorial looks of his Thin White Duke character during his Berlin years and for his role in the film “The Man Who Fell to Earth” were startling: The mix of classic suiting with his delicate androgyny continues to inspire designers from Jean Paul Gaultier to Hedi Slimane.

These are only a few of the ways in which Bowie endures as an icon of style and fashion. There are so many other fashion stops Bowie took in between, including side trips to boy-next-door sportswear circa “Young Americans” in the mid-1970s, the New Wave-influenced designs of the 1980s, and even an elegant Pierrot in his “Ashes to Ashes” music video.

When it came to fashion, there was nothing he wouldn’t borrow to create his melange, from high-concept contemporary art to low street style. That rich rock ’n’ roll voice remained immediately recognizable over the decades of his career, but the look was ever-changing, a reflection of what he expressed in his experiments with sounds on his albums and for characters on stage and screen.

“It was a persona, a series of personae, but done in a very authentic way,” said fashion designer Keanan Duffty, who collaborated with Bowie in 2007 on a collection for Target. “He was almost a mirror for the culture.”

His fashion evolution set the stage for those who followed him in pop culture, from Grace Jones and Madonna to Lady Gaga, but his dedication to pushing boundaries in his stage and personal style also influenced everyday fans. Since the 1970s, Bowie’s music has been the soundtrack for the creatively minded outsider, and his different looks allowed those same people to embrace their own “other” aesthetics.

“My whole relationship with Bowie started when I was 13, and I bought a copy of ‘Aladdin Sane’ when I didn’t have a record player,” Academy Award-winning actress Tilda Swinton (whose resemblance to Bowie has been frequently commented on) told Marlow Stern for the Daily Beast in 2014.

“He just looked like me, and looked like someone (who came) from the same planet as I did, and that was a great comfort to me at the time when I was 13 and 14 looking like that, that someone not only looked like that, but felt proud enough to stick themselves on the front of an album with a zigzag across their face and a dewy collarbone.”

My childhood in San Francisco in the 1990s was colored by my discoveries of the various Bowie eras. Like many in my generation, my first memories of Bowie are from his role as Jareth the Goblin King in Jim Henson’s 1986 fantasy film “Labyrinth.” How I wished that he’d spirit me away to the masquerade ball in his castle beyond the title maze, where he’d dress me in skintight spandex and swooping cloaks and line my eyes pearly white like his character.

There were tinglings of other yearnings in those early viewings too, and as I later delved deeper into his music, I understood that the bisexual Bowie wasn’t just family by nature of his fashion experimentation, he was quite simply “family” (as the LGBT community calls members and allies). Duffty points out that Bowie’s understanding of sub- and counterculture styles fueled his ability to freely borrow and adapt elements for his own looks. Bowie’s many personae became subcultures unto themselves that fans re-created and borrowed from for Bowie Balls, held annually in New York and Los Angeles.

The first time I applied glitter across my eyelids as a teen, it was while listening to Bowie’s “Velvet Goldmine.” When I dyed my hair a shocking orange and flipped the collar up on my leather jacket, I was emulating the cover of his album “Low.” When “Heathen” debuted in 2002, I began to notice the subtle distortions of his suiting that he wore in the liner-note photos that introduced me to the same types of fashion created by the Antwerp Six. Bowie was a gateway for me into high fashion by proving it could be a vehicle for not only great chic, but nonconformity.

There are some looks that will possibly always belong to Bowie. The silver striped jumpsuit with ballooned legs will always be Ziggy’s, no matter how many designers reinterpret it, and his spiked longer-in-the-back-shorter-on-top-hairdo remains the only acceptable version of the mullet.

The 2013 Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition “David Bowie Is” displayed many of these looks, and his influence can especially be seen today in the fashion industry with the move toward nonbinary design (clothes that don’t conform to traditional gender stereotypes) at labels like Hood by Air and Louis Vuitton, and returns to glam dandyism at Gucci and Saint Laurent.

For many, Bowie’s most significant contribution to fashion will remain the permission he gave through his own style expression to push the boundaries toward greater avant-garde authenticity.

“I wouldn’t have become a designer if I hadn’t had David Bowie’s music and performances as a guiding light as a kid,” Duffty says. “I think that will be true of a lot of people. You can try and emulate him but he always moved on. No one will ever be Bowie.”

Tony Bravo is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: tbravo@sfchronicle.com

David Bowie’s stylish shape-shifting sizzle caught our eye while camouflaging the man behind the art

2020-07-19T08:42:00.002-07:00

David Bowie in 1995.

(Alan Singer / CBS)

By ADAM TSCHORNSENIOR FEATURES WRITER

JAN. 12, 2016

5 AM

LOS ANGELES TIMES

David Bowie’s half-century career will be defined, as it well should be, by his music output. But it can’t be altogether untangled from his signature look — or rather looks, each one telegraphing the arrival of a totally different Bowie: Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane (with the lighting bolt across his face), the Thin White Duke, the minimalist black-and-white version from his Berlin period.

From the vantage point of a cynical 21st century, it’s easy to look at the over-the-top costumes, the face paint, the magenta teased-high mullet and the enthusiastic bending of gender as a premeditated, well-executed exercise in branding: shape-shifting sizzle to sell music. Especially when this aspect of Bowie is what influenced fashion runways, Hollywood red carpets and Berlin nightclubs for decades, provided a template for the chameleon-like careers of Madonna, Lady Gaga, Janelle Monae and Adam Lambert — and made Bowie the subject of a 2013 Victoria & Albert Museum exhibition in London that’s touring the globe.

Keanan Duffty, a New York fashion designer who worked with Bowie on a 2007 clothing line for Target, thinks this view — that Bowie style was merely premeditated packaging — is off the mark.

“I don’t think it was as much a calculation as it was the guy just got bored and wanted to create the next new thing,” Duffty said. “He’s like a true artist in that way.”

The various permutations of self that Bowie brought to bear weren’t calculated stagecraft but rather full-on performance art, an outward expression of the musician’s inner self.

Despite Bowie’s considerable influence on fashion, Duffty said, Bowie didn’t seem to care for it all that much.

“When we first met, he was wearing a pair of suede shoes, ill-fitting jeans and a Tommy Hilfiger T-shirt and said something to the effect of: ‘I’m not particularly interested in fashion,’ and I was actually quite enlightened by that,” Duffty said. “I think he took the bits that worked for something he was creating and used them as part of the palette. ... I think he saw [the clothes] as this great vehicle for what he was doing, so he jumped into it — but he wasn’t afraid to jump out of [one kind of garb] into another ... and not really worry about whether he was in or out of fashion.”

Victoria Broackes, co-curator of “David Bowie Is,” which debuted at the V&A Museum three years ago (and is at the Netherlands’ Groninger Museum), was unavailable for comment Monday but echoed Duffty’s sentiments in a 2013 Los Angeles Times interview.

“He says himself he’s not that interested in fashion,” Broackes said, “yet the exhibition is going to have 60 costumes including pieces from [Alexander] McQueen and Kansai Yamamoto. It’s a performance exhibition but it could just as easily have been a fashion exhibition.”

She said Bowie’s shape-shifting persona imbued him with a “shamanistic” quality.

“There’s all this mythology. But do we know him? No,” she said. “We know these things about him — I think I know a lot about him — but do I know him? No.”

Whether the looks were the outer expression of the inner artist or merely stylistic smoke-screen — or perhaps some combination of the two — the result was that Bowie, born David Jones, controlled the world’s perception of who he was.

And that’s really what the clothes and the costumes were really about: defining and redefining the artist, keeping the pop culture tractor beam from locking in on one iteration that might force him to be someone or to do something that he didn’t want. Duffty alludes to that aspect of Bowie’s personality in describing the launch of the Bowie by Keanan Duffty apparel line.

“Target wanted me to ask him to perform two songs to support the launch,” he recalled. “When I did, he looked at me and said: ‘I’m not … Posh Spice!’ That’s the way he was. He didn’t play by anybody else’s rules, he didn’t do anything he didn’t want to do, and he did what he did with 100% participation, and when he was done, he dropped it.”

Whatever the genesis, and whether he was a fashionista at heart or not, the cycle of looks turned out to be beneficial to the Bowie brand.

“People got this message that they could be whatever they wanted to be and that Bowie was a sort of conduit to that freedom — that’s what he represented,” Broackes said.

The fearless experimentation meant a lot of different looks that Bowie could latch on to. That in turn made him a staple on fashion mood boards around the world. In the Internet era of his career, Bowie matched fashion fearlessness with the element of surprise. His 2013 album, “A New Day,” the first new album in a decade, seemed to come out of nowhere and take everyone off guard. His most recent, “Blackstar,” recorded during the 18 months he was battling cancer, includes “Lazarus,” a tune that serves as a final bow, on his terms.

At the end of the video for “Lazarus,” posted online just three days before the musician’s death, Bowie appears in a black outfit with wide diagonal stripes of white, a visual callback to his bold ‘70s-era looks.

The video ends with Bowie backing slowly into a freestanding wooden wardrobe and pulling the doors shut after him.

It should come as no surprise that David Bowie, in full control, exits through the clothes closet, the way he was introduced to so many of us so many decades ago.

Keanan Duffty on David Bowie’s Fashion Legacy

2020-07-19T08:39:00.001-07:00

https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-features/keanan-duffty-david-bowies-fashion-ziggy-stardust-10399559/

NEW YORK — David Bowie was more than just a rock legend — he was also a gentleman.

“They always say, don’t meet your heroes,” said designer Keanan Duffty. “But Bowie was a gentleman and very funny, and working with him definitely changed me.”

Duffty, a British-born designer and musician, collaborated with Bowie in 2007 on a line for Target that was inspired by the entertainer’s music and distinct fashion sense. Bowie’s gender-bending, glam-rock style was a major inspiration and reference to scores of fashion designers over the years, including Alexander McQueen, Hedi Slimane and Tommy Hilfiger. He died in January at the age of 69.

In a presentation to students and industry figures at the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Faces & Places in Fashion series, Duffty said Bowie died in “a creative burst of energy,” releasing a new album, working on an off-Broadway musical and an InstaMiniSeries on Instagram right before his death.

“Bowie is a tremendous creative figure,” he said, “and, for me, a mystical figure.”

Duffty ran through the various stages of Bowie’s fashion life, starting with the Mod years, when he channeled the youth culture in London as he was starting out in his career. He then moved into the Hippie years, where he first stood out with his androgynous outfits, one of the most famous being the famous floral “man dress” made by Mr. Fish in London in 1971.

From there, Bowie headed into his “science fiction outer space rock star” era when he released the Ziggy Stardust album, dyed his spiky hair red and painted a lightning bolt across his face, Duffty said.

“This was the dawn of glam rock and a seminal fashion moment,” Duffty said. “This is where he went from following others to taking the lead — not just in fashion, but in hair and makeup, too.”

It’s also the time when he worked with Japanese designer Kansai Yamamoto, who created avant-garde kimono-style outfits for the singer.

As his fame grew, Bowie moved to Berlin “and started dressing like a normal person,” Duffty said. This was the era of “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” the science fiction drama film, when Bowie opted for “stark and more sophisticated clothes. He embraced modernism and looked to the future…as an elder statesman of rock.”

By the time Duffty approached Bowie’s team about the Target collaboration, the rock star was leading a more private life. At the first meeting, the designer said he was expecting to see “a space alien,” but instead, met a man in Tommy Hilfiger chinos, suede boots by Roots and an ill-fitting sweatshirt who admitted he “wasn’t interested in fashion. But I told him I wanted to create a collection based on his fashion legacy.” Bowie agreed to cooperate although by this time he was a “wealthy global superstar” who didn’t need the publicity.

After Duffty had sketched out his ideas for the line, he brought Bowie’s albums to Target headquarters — the singer declined to make the trip — to show the executives the “rich tapestry” of his looks that illustrated the “evolution of what happened in fashion” over the years. And the Target team was all in.

Duffty related one anecdote about Bowie’s famous Moonage Daydream print that looked like a “circuit board” and was a favorite of the singer, who used it on a jumpsuit during his Ziggy Stardust years. Target didn’t buy that print, which Duffty had put on a T-shirt, but Bowie was insistent, saying, “They can’t take that out,” Duffty recalled. The retailer agreed to reconsider and add the shirt. “And the entire line sold out, except for the Moonage Daydream T-shirt,” Duffy said with a laugh. “You can find it on eBay for $5 now.

“The moral of the story is that a creative artist is not always the best judge of commercialism.”

While Duffty is obviously a fan, he said he’s found most people either love or hate Bowie — there’s no middle ground. “If you love him, you’ll be a fan for life. If you hate him, you can’t get over the mullet, the red hair and the one-legged jumpsuit,” he said.

‘The Kemps: All True’ is a spoof Spandau Ballet doc to rival ‘Bros: After The Screaming Stops’

2020-07-19T08:29:00.003-07:00

Director Rhys Thomas has made a hilarious mockumentary for fans of Bros' 2018 cult hit

ByToby Earle

5th July 2020

Martin Kemp, Gary Kemp and fictional brother Ross Kemp. Credit: BBC

https://www.nme.com/tv-interviews/the-kemps-spandau-ballet-bros-doc-2701715

Spandau Ballet have sold over 25 million albums, played live to hundreds of

thousands and their 1983 single ‘True’ is still one of the most played records on

US radio ever. At the height of their success in the ’80s, the New Wave icons

were one of the biggest bands in the world.

Fast-forward to 2020 and the group recently celebrated their 40th anniversary.

What better way to remember the good times than with a feature-length film?

The Kemps: All True is a hilarious, meta spoof-documentary that reveals how

the careers of Spandau Ballet brothers Martin (bass) and Gary (lead guitar) Kemp

have lately taken strange turns. This is due to the film’s director & writer

Rhys Thomas OBE, who was also behind the successful run of mockumentaries

centered on fictional prog rocker Brian Pern.

A massive music aficionado – his 2012 documentary Freddie Mercury:

The Great Pretender won an International Emmy – Thomas told the

NME about his favourite scenes and their inspiration in this new self-aware

comedy. A behind-the-scenes film about 1980s chart-topping pop star

brothers sounds familiar, but The Kemps: All True was written and due to

be filmed in 2018, way before Bros: After the Screaming Stops reignited

the nation’s passion for conkers.

“You can’t spoof that. When it was on a lot of people were saying it’s like a

Brian Pern film,” says Thomas of pop’s answer to Spinal Tap. “The picture

of the bulldog with a pint. You can’t spoof that. That is unspoofable.” So,

why should you watch? We got Thomas to tease the best bits from 2020’s

funniest band-based movie.

Mock provisos for Gary participating in the film include a profile of his art

but no discussion of Spandau Ballet, rock star demands Thomas is

familiar with. “After the Queen documentary and Brian Pern I was asked

to do a documentary about Ronnie Wood,” says Thomas. “I was told it

would be interesting to see my take on him, but was told he wouldn’t

talk about the Rolling Stones and he wanted to talk about his art.

And it was going to be a 90 minute documentary. I thought,

‘Really?’ I tried very hard to think how I could fill 90 minutes without

talking about the Rolling Stones and just talk about Ronnie Wood’s art.

I said no in the end.”

Martin Kemp writes a gangster Marvel film

The brothers started out as child actors and later returned to the screen,

playing London gangsters the Krays in the eponymous 1990 thriller.

Martin leans into their tough guy past and tries to find investors for a

movie script he’s written, a Marvel/DC expanded universe of hoodlums

called The Hardest British Bastards Of The Galaxy, which stars

Christopher Eccleston, Danny Mays, and, hopefully, Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

“There are endless gangster films. You see them all the time on iTunes,

like Rise of the Footsoldier Part 10. Sometimes Martin has been in a

few of the higher end ones because of The Krays connection,” says

Thomas. “I thought, ‘What’s the most ludicrous film we could possibly

make?’ and that was it. I hadn’t really seen anyone take the mickey

out of that kind of film before. Now I want to make it.’

Meat-free alternative ‘Wonge’ is unveiled

Aside from turning his creativity to canvas, Gary also becomes the

face of a new meat-free product called “Wonge”, sure to set mouths

watering if nothing else is available. Thomas explains he had a certain

product range in mind: “I was just thinking of something very pretentious.

It’s based on [Gwyneth Paltrow lifestyle brand] Goop and that type of thing.”

He also found it a funny way to expand Gary’s character. “The idea is that

Martin’s not as highbrow as Gary, who makes art, has written a book about

car parking spaces, and has his own food grains. It’s all about how grand

this person can become.”

The brothers launch their own cryptocurrency

During The Kemps: All True it’s revealed there is a third Kemp brother –

Ross (played by Perry Benson). Less artistically endowed than Martin or

Gary, Ross wants to launch Bitbob, his version of Bitcoin, and Thomas

drew on an incident for this running gag.

“I lived in America for two years and I basically hated it,” he says. “I met

someone who had put a lot of money into crypto-coins and was bragging

about it, saying ‘I’ve made $90,000 in two days’. He told me I should invest

some money. Two days later he’d lost everything.”

Martin and Shirlie Kemp row about Pepsi

Shirlie Kemp is half of pop duo Pepsi & Shirlie, who first performed

as Wham!’s backing singers before forging their own chart career.

Shirlie and Martin have been married since 1988, but in one scene

he expresses a preference for Pepsi.

“In order to get people to do the film in the first place, I never wanted

to go too personal about their private lives,” says Thomas. “It’s fine with

Pepsi & Shirlie because it’s silly. Shirlie and Martin’s row is one of my f

avourite moments.”

‘The Kemps: All True’ airs on BBC Two at 10pm (July 5)

New Romantics history to Faber

2020-07-19T08:17:00.001-07:00

Published July 3, 2020 by Ruth Comerford

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/sweet-dreams-faber-1209272

Faber is to publish a "definitive history" of British pop music from 1975 to 1985 by journalist Dylan Jones.

World all language rights for Sweet Dreams: The Story of the New Romantics were acquired by Dan Papps from Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown.

The book charts the rise of the New Romantics, a music and cultural scene that grew out of post-punk and developed alongside electronica, goth and clubbing culture.

Poet laureate Simon Armitage said of the book: "Jones’ style, part testimony, part documentary, sheds light on one of the most unanticipated and misunderstood shifts in popular music and street fashion, that sudden lurch towards the swank and ostentation of new romanticism, a style that seemed arrogant and contrary in its origins but would define the nature and direction of music for at least a decade. Compelling reading for those who lived and breathed the indulgence of the era without realising its significance or contemplating its legacy."

Jones is editor-in-chief at GQ. His books have sold 61,000 copies for just over £652,000 through Nielsen BookScan's UK TCM, with David Bowie: A Life (Windmill) his bestseller at just under 17,000 copies for £204,000.

Sweet Dreams will be published in hardback and e-book on 1st October.

Rocks

2020-07-05T19:14:00.003-07:00

Keanan Duffty - Music · Rocks (Primal Scream Cover 2014 Feat. Earl Slick)

Video Games

2020-07-05T19:14:00.001-07:00

Keanan Duffty - Music · Video Games (Lana Del Rey Cover 2014 Feat. Earl Slick)

Boys Keep Swinging (Featuring Pete Shelley, Clem Burke, Glen Matlock, Earl Slick)

2020-07-05T19:12:00.001-07:00

Keanan Duffty - Music · Boys Keep Swinging (David Bowie cover 2007)

Bela Lugosi's Dead

2020-07-05T19:10:00.003-07:00

Keanan Duffty - Music · BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD (1998-Bauhaus cover)

Sun Kissed Killers

2020-07-05T19:10:00.001-07:00

Keanan Duffty - Music · SUN KISSED KILLERS