The post Brockhampton Drop GINGER appeared first on Wonderland.

The post Harry Styles = Prince Eric? appeared first on Wonderland.

The post Harry Styles: “Sign of the Times” appeared first on Wonderland.

Taken from the Autumn Issue of Wonderland.

Mischa Nottcutt “Brexit proves that we’re not as forward thinking a country as we think we are.” Shirt CELINE.

Emma Dabiri “Under capitalism black bodies are merely labour or commodity, how can we ever be free in such a system? I think of Black Panthers like Fred Hampton. ‘We say we’re not going to fight capitalism with black capitalism, but we’re going to fight it with socialism’.” Dress DSQUARED2

Ronan McKenzie “it’s not really diversity, if you only like your black girls light skinned.” Jacket CALVIN KLEIN COLLECTION

Emma Dabiri, Fellow, SOAS: What are all of your experiences with Black Lives Matter and the differences between the UK and the US? Capres, you organised the recent London protest [which was meant to be for 30 people, and closer to 3,000 turned up].

Capres Willow, protester, Black Lives Matter: The reason I organised the protest was because I was online and I came across one of the killings. I was like: “This isn’t the first one, this isn’t the last one. It seems like all people are doing is typing about it online.” Okay, that’s great, show your opinion, but we need some real action. So I just organised a protest, not expecting much from it and then 3,000 people turned up. After that I thought: “Okay, now I’ve got responsibilities.” I’m not an activist and I’ve never been to a protest before, but from that I was like: “Alright, what’s next?” Do you go about it in a political way? Do you approach the government and say: “This needs to change”? Then you look at the fact that it’s an institutional problem within the police. I’m not saying a policeman is racist, but the police as an institution is a racist institution…

E: Do you think that police brutality is one of the main issues affecting black British people? We know it’s not to the same extent that it is in the US…

Mischa Notcutt, a stylist who runs the clubnight PDA: That’s because they have guns! That’s the only reason we’re different from America. Brexit proves that we’re not as forward as a country as people think.

E: I’m not in any way trying to suggest that the UK is better than the US, that’s not what I think. But what do you think some of the differences might be between how racism manifests itself here and there? I actually think British people are a lot more sophisticated in the way racism operates. I think there are issues that are specific to the UK, that are maybe harder to unpick.

Ronan McKenzie, fashion photographer: Exactly, it’s more undercover.

M: It’s a lot more insidious here. People are more scared about being called racist.

E: Precisely. In Brazil they had a policy called “The Whitening”. Unlike in England where there was generally a fear of so-called “race mixing”, in Brazil they had this huge African descent population in the late 1800s/early 1900s. It was this actual policy where they thought if they could just dilute the black population enough, through mixing with the white, they could eventually rid Brazil of the “Negro problem”… Obviously the whole forbidding mixing thing didn’t work here, but we’ve said racism is more insidious here. Have you read those articles that say that the African Caribbean group will be the first group to disappear in the UK? It’s regularly reported and the articles always finish in, I think, a quite gleeful tone. I just feel like: “Oh, is that what you want to happen?” I wonder if the more softly integrative, assimilate approach in the UK is maybe a low-key whitening thing.

R: You can see that in fashion, for example, where people will be talking about diversity but they won’t cast any dark-skinned girls. That’s not really diversity, if really you only like your black girls light-skinned.

Mischa: That’s interesting, because when I was younger, me and my sister would aways be like: “But we’re the future! Everyone’s going to be like us eventually!’ The Jamaican side [of my family] always see us as the white cousins, and the white side always sees us as the black cousins. So we always felt in the middle. We always thought: “The more mixed-race people, the better”, because that would give us more things to identify with being mixed race and dual heritage.

R: I think it depends on where you are, as well. I’m from north east London and if you’re mixed race you’re like, the gods. Everybody wanted to be mixed race, everybody wanted to have lighter skin, curly hair and look mixed race, and all the mixed race boys in my area were so sought after.

Munroe Bergdorf, model: It’s almost fetishised.

R: But it wasn’t a celebratory thing… It was more like: “I don’t want to be dark-skinned. I want to be more beautiful. I want to have lightskinned babies, so they look better and be respected more.” It’s not because you thought it would be great mixing… I remember, when I was younger — maybe even up until a few years ago — when I didn’t want to tan, I’d put factor 50 sunscreen on because I didn’t want darker skin. I never looked at my dad thinking: “I don’t like his colour.” I just didn’t want to be darker skinned myself.

E: I think that’s a difference I’ve experience between white environments and black environments. In addition to the racism that often occurs in white environments, there’s the more liberal, celebratory, “Oh, one day everybody will be brown like you! This is the future!” If you put that in black context, and you see the way colourism operates, and the way there’s all this pressure, and desire to be lighter, and to have more mixed, European features, then that kind of celebratory narrative seems quite perverse! In that context, it gets really gross… What do you see as the role of non-black people?

C: Taking it back to Black Lives Matter, there was this group chat for everyone that wanted to get involved in our projects. I actually left it within a week because of the comments. People were coming out with stuff like: “If you’re not black, you’re a guest here!” Or: “All the white people need to leave, because us black people need to keep the ball rolling!” I just felt we have people who want to give support and free resources, but not just that, they actually care about the matter and you’re just going to turn them away?!

Munroe: It’s so important to have an environment to speak freely. To not have to worry about silencing yourself to the feelings and fragility of people who won’t necessarily understand, and who will get in the way of progression. You have to explain a lot of things that really you don’t need to explain, if everybody is of the same oppression.

C: But I don’t think we should turn people away…

E: It’s a tricky one, the labour required to explain things to people who seem committed to derailing conversations — who are determined to centralise themselves, because for the first time in their lives they are experiencing what it feels like not to be central — can be almost debilitating. At the same time, I think about a hero of mine, Fred Hampton, who said: “We don’t think you fight fire with fire best; we think you fight fire with water best. We’re going to fight racism not with racism, but we’re going to fight with solidarity. We say we’re not going to fight capitalism with black capitalism, but we’re going to fight it with socialism. We’re going to fight [the reactions of racist white institutions] with all of us people getting together and having an international proletarian revolution.

Munroe: I think allies, definitely. But I think when it comes down to understanding what black people need, you can’t then have white people orchestrating that.

E: We have to think about what it is that we actually want. What is the objective of this different type of organisation? Is it to connect and experience solidarity?

Munroe: To eradicate racism and to get onto a path that identifies racism, and for everybody to get on the same page to know what racism is… It doesn’t seem like everyone knows what it is.

C: But is it about your colour, or your culture? You’ll hear people say: “Fucking Polish people,” for example.

Munroe: I think they don’t even know what it’s about, I think it’s just xenophobia.

C: But they still have the same experiences — well, maybe not the same. But they still experience racism.

Munroe: But that’s not racism, that’s just discrimination isn’t it? It’s not any better, but it’s just discrimination.

C: But that’s why I think white people should be allowed in, because they experience discrimination.

Munroe: But discrimination is different to racism… What I’m talking about, systemic and institutionalised racism, that can never be experienced by white people and that’s what Black Lives Matter is fighting against. So why are we including the kind of thing that has the potential to corrupt it?

E: If the end goal is the eradication of racism, can that be achieved without engagement of white people?

Munroe: Oh no, I’m not saying don’t engage! I’m just saying about the organisation from the top, and the movement needs to be black people. I do think the support network needs to be everybody, because you can’t have equality if it’s not everybody.

E: How can we bring about the end of racism; a non-racist society?

C: This isn’t realistic, but there’s this idea in sociology: to make real change, everything needs to be destroyed and start again. Things need to be rebuilt, start from scratch almost. Like nature does: when winter comes, it’s destroyed and in the spring it’s reborn again. Even though it’s a horrible idea, it’s also a really nice idea, it’s refreshing for everyone to have that fresh start. In my opinion, I don’t mean to sound super-negative, but I do feel like that it could potentially be that we all do need to be destroyed.

E: Yeah, that’s what I often think. Even the idea of egalitarianism and equality is not enough, because exploitation, anti-blackness and patriarchy are coded into the DNA of the neoliberal system. I don’t even know if reform is even a step in the right direction. How can you reform something completely corrupt? These are ideas I’m struggling with myself. Nonetheless, let’s take radical revolution out of the equation for a second and let’s just think about some of those other topics that we’ve generated, and how we can go about influencing and creating change…

Mischa: It’s doing your bit! Helping other people who are in the same situation as you… Even saying on Facebook what you think, instead of not saying anything. Just saying: “No, that’s actually not cool!” I do casting, so I take a stance of always putting black people in packages and I make it uncomfortable for people to say that they just want white people. I ask ask them: “What’s your reasoning?” It’s cool if it’s artistically, like if you’re going for a Russian theme. But what is it you’re actually saying? What are you wanting to say? How do you think it is going to be read? I feel like me just asking those questions to someone, that’s my responsibility for the job that I do. That’s my way of being a protester — what can do in my day-to-day?

Munroe Bergdorf “We need to eradicate racism and to get onto a path that identifies racism and for everybody to get on the same page to know what racism is. It doesn’t seem like everyone knows what it is.” Dress GIVENCHY BY RICCARDO TISCI.

Capres Willow “Things need to be rebuilt, start from scratch almost. Like nature does, when winter comes it’s destroyed and in the spring it’s reborn again. Even though it’s a horrible idea, it’s also a really nice idea, it’s refreshing for everyone to have that fresh start.” Jacket and pearls CHANEL

Edited by SOVREIGN

Fashion: Matthew Josephs

Hair: Hiroshi Matsushita

Make Up: Thom Walker using YSL Beauty

Nails: Ama Quashie at CLM Hair & Make Up using M.A.C Cosmetics

Styling assistance: Toni Blaze Ibekwe.

Special Thanks to Matthew Stone.

The post Black Lives Matter appeared first on Wonderland.

You’re a feral Athenian teen. Your days are hazy and monotonous. You spend them running wild in the only home you’ve ever known, the rotting 2004 Olympic stadium. Time passes through violence. You fist fight with your gang and operate a Pit Bull mating business for cash.

You’re experiencing life inside Park, Sofia Exarchou’s much anticipated debut feature, part coming of age love story, part gritty social commentary. Exarchou, an Athens native, belongs to a new generation of filmmakers behind the avant-garde cinematic movement branded as Greek New Wave. Many critics have linked the birth of the genre with the economic turmoil the country has faced over the last 10 years. While Park is lighter on the weird and heavier on the realism than the genre’s forerunners – Dogtooth (2008), Alps (2011), Attenberg (2010) – it maintains focus on themes of alienated youth and works to destabilise national identity.

The setting of the abandoned 2004 Greek Olympic stadium is laden with metaphorical significance. The arena is often referred to as Greece’s ‘white elephant’; the space now resembles one of the country’s ancient ruins rather than a £6 billion state-of-the-art government built sports venue. What was once a source of hope and pride for the country now serves as a relentless reminder of its collapse.

With Park Exarchou seems to be digging through the rust and rubble from this collapse and looking at what’s been left underneath. What she finds is youth, 21^st century youth that has been saddled with the country’s collective nostalgia for a ‘glorious past.’ Despite their lives of rusted, dirty pools and grimy showers, the kids in Park try to forge their identities, to experience love and tenderness but, like the arena itself, sink lower and lower into the earth, pulled down into a decaying rubbish pit. Unable to even dream of what might be above the pit’s walls, they are swallowed up, along with all hope for the future.

Let’s begin by talking about the film’s distinct and highly symbolic setting. What gave you the idea for using the abandoned Olympic village in Athens?

I wanted to portray a group of kids living in an abandoned place in a social environment that gives them no escape and no hope for the future. I wanted the place to remain somewhat abstract so that it could take place anywhere in the world. Of course the Olympic Village has a lot of symbolic meaning for Greece. The Olympic games in 2004 provided a great deal of hope for the whole country but ultimately marked its collapse. Now it exists as this no man’s land not because of a war or something like that but as a no man’s land created by the Olympic games and I find that fascinating to talk about.

The film features a brilliant set of amateur actors. I’m curious about how you cast the film and what traits you were looking for in your actors?

When we were in the second and third rounds of casting we started doing group auditions so that we could see how the actors would relate to each other. We tried to create a dynamic group that would be full of different characters. At the beginning of shooting I did a lot of improvisation with the kids so that I could determine which elements of the characters pre-existed within the actors. I wanted to know who was more aggressive, who was funnier, who was stronger and who would become the leader. The script created the characters but I wanted to see the real kids inside the characters, I tried to let them be themselves within this environment.

All of the characters, particularly Anna, seem to perform their feelings with their bodies. I was wondering what methods you used in directing the actors to convey so much brilliant emotion but with so little dialogue?

This was a big part of improvisation. The script called for a lot of aggression so we used a lot of warm up games to help the actors reach that place. In fact the arm wrestling scene was a warm up game, it started as a small scene in the script but because we did it so many times it became something important to the film. I think the emotion in the film stems from the fact that these kids are teenagers and the energy that the film calls for is all there inside of them. It’s in their bodies and the way they act so I really tried to let them express that and then I just put the camera close enough to capture it. The actor who played Anna was also a dancer and an ex athlete in her real life so she shared a lot of similarities with the girl in the script. She had trained to be a gymnast but she had to stop around age 16 which was very difficult for her but it meant that she really understood how important the character’s injuries were. We worked a lot with that.

In terms of physical space, to what extent is the idea of environmental determinism at play in the film? I got the feeling that the park itself is in some way responsible for the actions and fates of the kids. How did you work with the set to communicate this during the process of filming?

The film is all about the connection between the space and the kids, it revolves around the idea of depicting the outcome of putting such young people with all this energy and the dreams they have for their lives inside a place that gives nothing and that has no life. The place has a lot to do with the kid’s actions because they are trapped there so all of their animalistic behavior stems from this tension in their everyday lives. When we work with the kids and the set it was all about ‘ok now you’re trapped in the lockers and you are hot and you want to have a shower let’s try to express this feeling and create a reaction when the water comes out.’ The space isn’t totally responsible for their actions but it is their only way of life. The kids are twelve, fourteen years old so they’ve spent almost all their lives in this aggressive place and that aggression becomes a part of who they are.

The viewer is made to feel as if they too rove wildly about the park with the kids. Can you talk about the camera technique that you used in conveying this sensation and why this was important to the narrative?

That was a big part of what I intended to do. I wanted the viewer to experience what it’s like to live like that; that was the most important element of the film to me. When I started the writing the script there was no high narration or big drive for the kids. I did this because I wanted to be honest about their reality, the fact that when you live in a place like this it’s very rare to have any big dreams. I didn’t want to build a mainstream narrative where the protagonist dreams of doing something with their life; the protagonist’s biggest dream is just to escape this place. I wanted the audience to try and inhabit this psychological place during each moment of the film, either by keeping the camera trained closely on the kids or by the way the kids move within the frame. This was all done in the hope that the viewer would leave the cinema with a small sense of what it’s like to live in a place like this, and when I say a place like this I mean any kind of place with the same problems. I tried to be really conscious of this.

The film seems to portray sex as something hostile and violent but also as something starkly intimate. How did you strike this critical balance?

Sex is a huge aspect of the film. It’s a subject that says a lot about the relationship between Anna and Dimitris but it can also be found in the tourist resort, with the character of the mother and with the dog mating. The kids are trying to express themselves through sex but it’s very difficult for them because their environment is so aggressive. This is where the struggle originates. The kids have feelings and you understand there’s a sensitivity to them that they’re trying to communicate this but that they don’t know how. This struggle comes through in different ways throughout the film but sex was the most important vehicle for exploration.

The narrative feels very much propelled by a search for national identity. Could you talk a little bit about the significance behind Anna and Dimitris’s interaction with the British teens on holiday?

I think the film talks about the concept of home, finding a place, finding a father or finding somebody that will take care of you, so it’s a search for something that involves all of that. Of course national identity plays a big role in this search. The film is about Greece, and all the identity issues bound up in the Olympic games, how we feel about our national identity and what makes us proud or shouldn’t make us proud. This idea is communicated through the kids, the feeling that they’re searching for something real. They are ready to go after it and they hope that there will be something out there for them. The sequence with Anna, Dimitris and the British teens was important to the film because it’s the one moment when they’re given the chance to relate to kids their own age and they hope they will find and feel something through this. They’re ready to sing the English songs and be part of the same games. Ultimately they don’t find what they’re searching for and the sequence becomes a sad moment in the film.

Park is rich in symbolism. It feels as if the wild dogs represent certain character’s identity, what was your intent in likening the humans to animals?

It started with the image of two kids who supervise dog mating; it was one of the first ideas I wrote down about this film. At first I didn’t realize how important it was to the story but gradually everything around this subplot began to hold meaning for me. I wanted to depict these kids almost as orphans. They’re alone; moving around this place that makes them so aggressive, and this image of them seemed very close to one of stray, wild dogs. I wanted to show what happens when you trap an animal or a person by drawing a parallel between the two. I also wanted to emphasize the way the kids try to care for the dogs and treat them well even though they haven’t had parents that look after them. I thought this would develop the viewer’s understanding of the kid’s emotions and the depth of their feelings. The parallel between the dogs and the kids makes us afraid that they will share a fate and this cycle shows the viewer a lot about what it’s like to live in this place.

The film clearly articulates a specific anxiety about the decay of human beings, specifically Greek society in this case. The end feels very bleak and hopeless and we sense the continuation of a destructive cycle. What are your thoughts on the wider political climate in Greece and the country’s future?

I believe that as a director you show the reality, you depict a world, and then you leave it for the viewer to experience and decide how they feel about it. After screenings there are always people coming to me and asking if these children are alright now and better off because they were in the film. The answer is no, they are not better because they just played a role in a film, they’re still immigrants trying to survive in a crisis-stricken Athens. I would really like to make a film with a lot of hope and have people coming out of the screening happy but the reality of the situation is so much sadder than the film. I’m not just talking about the Greek reality. I’m talking about Europe in general. For instance, most of the abandoned facilities that I used in the film are now used as a home for Syrian refugees. The story I tell might look bleak or sad but the reality of it already far surpasses what I depict in the film. I would like to find something positive to say as a response to this question but the truth is that my feeling about Europe right now is that we’re in huge crisis and that we have to find a new way to think about things and we must act as soon as possible.

For a closing question Sofia, what are your thoughts on representation and diversity in the film industry from the perspective of a female filmmaker?

I like that this is something that we’re talking about more. I think that whenever there’s more conversation about a subject it means that something is going to get a little bit better at least. I hope we reach a point where neither I nor any other female filmmaker will have to answer this question because it treats female direction like a genre film. I hope one day there will be no concept of a female director or a male director and that we can see a film without needing to discuss gender of the director. I still think there is a lot to be done before everyone can be treated the same. I believe that the core of cinema as an art form is diversity; there are so many different people working in the industry, so many different ideas being put together and so many different minds. We have to embrace that and we have to work toward that direction in every possible way.

Park is screening at the BFI London Film Festival. You can get your tickets here: PARK

Screenings:

Thursday 13 October 2016 20:45, Vue West End Cinema

Saturday 15 October 2016 15:30, Prince Charles Cinema

Words: Elly Arden-Joly

The post Sofia Exarchou: Park appeared first on Wonderland.

Taken from the Autumn Issue of Wonderland.

LIBERTINE CLOTHING SHOULD be required to come with a warning: not for the faint-hearted. Attendees at the brand’s AW16 show at New York Fashion Week were greeted with stickers, to make up for the previous season’s apology notes — United Parcel Service had lost half of Libertine’s collection in transit that year. The show itself was a party, as always: a stampede of models travelling down the catwalk brandishing neon banners and placards in clothes that were even more fantastical. Johnson Hartig, founder of Libertine, does love his fluoro. The seasons may change but the collections remain, in their most basic form, the same — always dripping with embellishments and slapped with slogans. It’s pop art you can wear.

The brand’s runway debut in AW04 (back when Libertine was a duo comprised of Hartig and co-founder Cindy Greene) set a precedent for the next 12 years of shows, with a celeb-studded audience (Jimmy Fallon, Helena Christensen, Patti Hansen and Monet Mazur were all in attendance) and a vintage-inspired collection offset with unexpected motifs: swallow silhouettes stuck onto tartan and bulging eyes sketched onto tweed.

After being invited into the Libertine archives and to preview next season’s collection, we got acquainted with Hartig to hear his success story first-hand, and find out why stars flock to him like A-list moths to a bedazzled flame. If it’s good enough for Elton, it’s good enough for us.

Wonderland: Hey Johnson! Let’s start at the beginning. Do you remember the day you decided to start at Libertine?

Johnson Hartig: It wasn’t quite that easy. I had messed around with vintage clothes since I was a teenager. I’d take things apart and put them back together. I did that into adulthood and happened to be wearing a pair of pants that I’d made for myself one day, when the buyer from Maxfield ran into me and asked who did my pants… He said: “Will you make some for the store?” At that point, I just didn’t have the confidence to go through with it… Finally after six months, I made the pants. I remember calling a couple of weeks later to see how it was going and he said nothing had really happened yet. But he called back the next day and said Michael Stipe had bought a pair, Elton John had bought a pair and that he needed 10 more! That’s when I decided that I’d get involved, it was kind of by default.

W: I feel like all the best things in life happen accidentally…

JH: I think so too. We knew we were onto something magical really from the beginning, with Libertine.

W: Once Libertine had become established, did you set out with a mantra of what you wanted to achieve with the brand?

JH: I haven’t really, even within 15 years… Thankfully, I’ve always had a much better business acumen than I ever gave myself credit for. We’ve been profitable for 15 years consistently without any outside backing, but it has continued to be a labour of love from the onset.

W: Would you say your intentions for Libertine have remained the same since you began?

JH: You know, things are changing now. It’s been a particularly frustrating last couple of years when I’m seeing much bigger, mostly Italian brands, being very influenced by our aesthetic. Frustration has grown, how they’re making millions and billions off this aesthetic that I’m really responsible for. A plan has kicked in recently, because of being forced to deal with that.

W: Do you think that’s the most important lesson you’ve learnt over the last 15 years?

JH: I think that the fundamental, universal principles are so true… I’ve had so few problems with the business. It’s just by merely treating people well and treating employees well and trying to do the right thing.

W: Is that why your customers are so loyal, too? I’ve heard about the lady in Ohio in her eighties who has a 75-piece archive of Libertine. And so many celebrities wear your designs, too. Do you think you’re drawn to these iconic people, or do they come to you?

JH: I’m usually drawn to more creative people — writers and artists. We made a really strict point early on, Cindy [Greene, former partner in the business] and I, when the band U2 asked us to make some clothes customised for them. They weren’t as happy with them as we’d hoped they would be when we got them back. So we thought, let’s not engage in that aspect of [fashion]. So many celebrities, rock stars and actors were buying it from Maxfield and we were a struggling business trying to support ourselves through this art, why would we give the clothes away? I love to see that [celebrities] buy it… In all honesty, I’m much more thrilled to see the 85-year-old woman in Ohio wearing it.

W: I was amazed when I read about her, she reminded me of my Nan. She’d love your clothes — she’s 77, but acts 20.

JH: I would love your Grandmother! It’s so easy to get wrapped up, a very conscientious lesson I learned early on: go where the love is. And it’s not from Vogue magazine, it’s from the people who admire the work and are willing to spend their money on it.

W: If you’re not interested in the press, which kind of milestones have been significant to you?

JH: To be asked by Keith Richards to come to Madison Square Garden to see [the Rolling Stones] perform, and have them wearing Libertine, and be invited to their after-party. It’s a thrill.

W: How about the pieces themselves… Do you have a collection you’re most proud of?

JH: When Cindy and I separated in 2008, I was unsure if I could do it myself… I think the last six years, we’ve created these extraordinary, one-of-a-kind pieces of art… We’ve just started doing our own prints in the last three years, I think that they’re beguiling and bewitching and as fantastical as anything I’ve ever seen.

Photography: Christian Oita

Fashion: Nicco Torelli

Creative Direction: Johnson Hartig

Words: Lily Walker

All clothing: LIBERTINE

Hair: Amber Duarte using Oribe at www.therexagency.com

Make up: Steven Autro at The Only Agency using Smashbox cosmetics & Dermalogica skincare

Models: Avery at Next, Taylor Bagley at Photgenics, Anna Sophia at Wilhelmina, Laine at Hollywood Model Management, Jimmy at Next, Turner Barbur at Photogenics, Ryan Valentine at Next, Cameron at David Todd

Casting: Camilla at Star

The post Libertine appeared first on Wonderland.

What do both UGG and Alexa Chung have in common? Iconic style status. Now that the leaves are turning brown and the Autumn chill is setting in, we’re thankful that UGG has teamed up with Chung who art directed a brand new shoot. Featuring her creative and talented friends, the shoot gives us some major style inspiration and honours the iconic Classic UGG boot as well as celebrating the launch of the eagerly-anticipated Classic II.

Alexa Chung, who we know has talents that range from presenting to modelling and designing, both art directed the shoot, as well as being an ambassador for the brand. Known for her honesty and integral approach, it’s not surprising she’s created a shoot for the brand that encapsulates everything she loves – and we love – about UGG. Focusing on the famous UGG core collection that’s always been our go-to for comfy but cute boots, the shoot focuses on the iconic styles, such as the Mini boots and slippers have been a permanent fixture in our Autumn and Winter wardrobes. The shoot, completely art directed by Chung, is a series of beautiful portraits capturing Alexa’s close friends: women who are recognised for their effortless personal style and many creative talents, whose UGG boots make up an integral element of their wardrobe.  

The shoot stars editor and model Anna Z Gray; designer and stylist Brianna Lance; poet, artist and inspirational speaker Cleo Wade and model Coco Baudelle, all of whom are style icons just like Chung, the campaign is a testament to both Chung’s artistic eye and UGG’s timeless Classic designs. All of the shoot stars – and Chung herself of course – found UGG boots during high school and their teenage years, with the Classic Mini, Classic Short and slipper styles still an Autumn essential for them. For the models, UGG boots are synonymous with warmth and comfort; they think of them as a classic and iconic style staple. Showing us how they styled their favourite Classic boots and slippers, the shoot proves that UGG boots go with every look, and every individual style.

Launching 7^th October, Alexa Chung’s art direction and artful styling of the shoot has helped us get our Autumn looks all figured out. Chung’s style icon status is firmly based in her love of mixing heritage and vintage pieces with up-to-date and on trend items, in a similar way to what UGG have done with the launch of their new Classic II boot. It’s about taking something iconic and reworking it into something that keeps its timeless elements, but is effortlessly modern and sophisticated. With her style, and her model’s, flowing through the project, the shoot showcases new and modern ways we can update our UGG boot style this Autumn.

UGG boots are what we always turn to when the blustery winds come in and we need warmth and comfort to get us through the day. UGG boots are a classic, and when styled and art directed by Alexa Chung, their icon statuses collide to create a shoot that’s artistically shot, beautifully styled and reflects the spirit of UGG that we love. We’re totally obsessed.

https://youtu.be/JryXceL2khA

#ad #ThisIsUGG

The post UGG and Alexa Chung appeared first on Wonderland.

Taken from the Autumn Issue of Wonderland

Rosa (left) wears top (worn underneath) AMERICAN APPAREL, top BLK DENIM, tights TOPSHOP. Jenny (right) wears top THEORY, vest NASIR MAZHAR, jeans MODEL’S OWN, tights (worn underneath) MY TIGHTS

After school activities in your late teens normally include chasing after boys and not doing your homework, but for 17-year-olds Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth — AKA Let’s Eat Grandma — their free time has, for the most part, revolved around writing debut album, I Gemini. Let’s Eat Grandma, a name the self-proclaimed witches took from the common grammatical error, and not from a macabre, cadaver-related hobby, are the eeriest, most magical girls in psych-pop.

Norwich’s Hollingworth and Walton have been inseparable since the age of four, and despite parting ways for most of their education, their natural sister-like bond is hefty. Joking that they are both actually witches, Hollingworth recalls how “[Rosa] put a spell on me — I had to join the band. I thought: ‘Dammit, I wanted to be a lawyer’.” Indeed, the duo is so in sync (both in attitude and looks) it’s easy to imagine that to the unknowing eye, they would be mistaken for twins. Bonding over Enid Blyton’s fantasy saga The Faraway Tree as children, Walton and Hollingworth tapped into their witchy roots and built magical treehouses to escape the real world — citing Bart Simpson’s very own oaky sanctuary as inspiration. Perhaps it was this time spent together — immersing themselves in a make-believe world full of the weird and wonderful — that galvanised their tripped out psych sound. “I don’t think we ever really intended anything when we started out. I think we were doing it all as a big experiment, and I think it continues to grow like that,” explains Hollingworth.

Despite their Rapunzel-like hair, Let’s Eat Grandma are anything but your average Disney princesses. “We both play keyboards, guitars, drums and sing. Jenny plays the saxophone…” says Walton. “Rosa plays the harmonica, and we both do some mandolin and glockenspiel,” Hollingworth adds. It’s like they were never told that it’s hard to play more than one instrument at once.

Many of the tracks on I Gemini evoke darkly cartoonish imagery, mixing fairy-tale-like piano melodies with bone-chilling guitar riffs and haunting lyrics. But it’s their ability to breezily contemplate the trials and tribulations of modern-day life through song that, for a pair of late adolescents, really sets Let’s Eat Grandma apart. “What is reality?” Hollingworth quizzes when I press her on this. “[The album] talks a lot about escapism. It’s got a lot of vivid imagery, but it also takes the piss out of a lot of things… It’s about how we experience the world, about senses,” whilst Walton continues, “It’s about observations of people; it’s about dreams.” The sound is raw, gritty, hallucinogenic, and taps into your subconscious; it’s a sound deemed psychedelic, sludgy pop for a reason.

Recorded in Norfolk’s Old School Studios — an ex-nuclear bunker, which came fully equipped with lava lamps, ghosts and old analogue equipment. “The first set of songs we wrote weren’t actually planned to go on an album together,” says Hollingworth. “We were like: ‘Well, we’ve written these now. And they were like: ‘Why don’t you release an album?’” Never ones to let the bosses tell them what to do, the pair contemplated their next move, hard. “I’d say we’re quite head-strong about what we want, poor them… [Our creative process is] like a very long jam session, for ever, and ever, and ever.” “We just keep playing shit and seeing what happens. Then we do some spells,” adds Walton. Any more information about their potion-brewing, ghost-summoning and magical chanting is not to be divulged to us mere mortals. “All our other secrets are up our long, witchy sleeves,” she jests. It’s almost like Let’s Eat Grandma aren’t aware that rules exist; let’s hope they never realise.

Photography: Johanna Nyholm

Fashion: Abigail Hazard

Words: Annabel Lunnon

Hair: Sarah Jo Palmer

Makeup: Verity Cumming using TOM FORD

Fashion Assistant: Eva Klein

Art Direction: Kat Jenkins

Thanks to Apiary Studios

The post Let’s Eat Grandma appeared first on Wonderland.

Taken from the Summer Issue of Wonderland

Top by TRIPLE FIVE SOUL ARCHIVE, trousers WHISTLES ARCHIVE, earrings and rings STYLIST’S OWN and shoes GUCCI ARCHIVE

“I feel like my music is a representation of the person that I am.” Straighttalking Catford girl Ray BLK knows who she is and she doesn’t shy away from it, but then why would she? A cross between Lauryn Hill and her teenage idol, P!nk, Ray BLK’s debut EP “Havisham” dropped last year, earning her coverage across the far corners of the internet. Now, with a second EP well under way, I catch five minutes with BLK on the set of her shoot for Wonderland.

Despite the hype, Ray BLK is still coming to terms with strangers calling her name on the street. “It’s the weirdest feeling,” she tells me. “How did you find me? How did you find the music? Even though it’s on a small scale, it’s amazing to see people connecting with it.” Amazing perhaps, but unsurprising, to anyone other than BLK anyway. Flicking a well-manicured middle finger up against the rules and providing a platform encouraging self-confidence, her lyrics resonate deeply with issues that we can all relate to. In “5050”, she asks her non-committal drug-dealer boyfriend: “Now are you really ready?/Or are you wasting my time?/‘Cause if you ain’t try’na wife me/You need to get off my line”. “I’ve been outspoken my whole life,” she tells me. “Which I don’t think is something that is celebrated in woman. For listeners, the thing I always try to project is being true to yourself. If you are an outspoken woman, then be that, be proud of that, be yourself.”

Before we discuss what she’s been up in the studio, we take a minute to talk about the brilliantly-named “Havisham”, written in the mists of her final year of studying. The album was inspired by Charles Dickens’ Miss Havisham from the iconic novel Great Expectations. After being jilted at the alter, Miss Havisham vows to never fall in love again and to mistreat men as revenge. On Ray BLK’s record, a girl falls in love before being heartbroken and turning against love altogether.

“The music I write is either my experience or the experience of the people around me. I don’t think my Nigerian background contributes to my sound, but it might do to my content. My house is very much like Nigeria. England might be outside, but being raised at home, on Nigerian morals and beliefs, it has definitely contributed to my perception and interpretation of things.” She tells me that she’s hardly been out of the studio this year, and reminisces about the days where she wrote tracks in her bedroom. “When I started, I was just writing it in my bedroom in the same spot, which is on my bed in the corner next to my computer.” Can we expect a slicker sound from the second, studio-written EP? “I would say it takes a different direction, but in my opinion it’s a better, more polished version of me, or of the first EP. It’s stronger, it’s got a stronger sound. With my first EP, I literally just did it by myself, I wrote beats, a few tunes, and then found somewhere to record and I just did it like that, whereas now I’m working with producers. So it’s a lot easier and it’s sounding better as well.”

Photography:Rosie Matheson

Fashion: Savannah Baker

Words: Jade Mordente

Hair: Naomi Richardson

Makeup: Michaela Selway using SLEEK COSMETICS

Special thanks to WEST CENTRAL STUDIOS

The post Ray BLK appeared first on Wonderland.

At Wonderland we are always on the look out for the best and brightest young menswear designers. Next Monday (6^th June 2016), the London College of Fashion team return for their annual show, presenting their leading menswear designers in this graduating year. The menswear catwalk collections have been directed and styled by Rob Phillips (the LCF Creative Director of Fashion and Design) to form a masterpiece of a show. Featuring the different courses that have the option to explore menswear design, the show will form a cross-disciplinary examination of contemporary menswear and demonstrate the talent that the future of menswear has to look forward to.

Here we chat to three of the most exciting graduates, Joseph Standish, Tsun Cheung Lai and Sam Thompson, about their collections.

Joseph Standish

Course: BA (Hons) Fashion Design and Development

Joseph Standish, BA (Hons) Fashion Design and Development

Tell us a little about yourself?

I am originally from Wolverhampton and I have never told a lie

What was the starting point for this collection?

I think that higher end fashion can be very esoteric and difficult for people to relate to, I tried to react to my personal frustration with the widespread use of industry standard models and represent a wider image of beauty. Creating characters that had bad tattoos, were drinking beer and eating takeaways felt more real, more humanized to me. More so than a couture dress. I draw a lot of inspiration from people, the bloke in the pub or the builder working on your windows. It’s my dad and his mates I’m trying to design for.

What beats are playing in the studio while you’re designing?

I listen to a lot of crappy punk rock, I am a bit of a sucker for some teenage angst. Recently I have had God Damns’ (two piece band from the Black Country) album on a lot and JME’s album Integrity so I guess it’s a bit all over the place.

Your favourite piece from the collection and why?

For each look I have developed a unique character with his own story and persona. My favourite to work on was tony (the guy made from jersey) I had a lot of fun making him and got to do a bit of drawing in the process. I think at this point in my development I really just wanted to see what I could still get considered for catwalk and really challenge people’s ideals of a fashion show.

The trickiest part of the design process?

Discovering what it was I wanted from my designs, I think for a while I was creating garments that felt very safe and commercial in their direction. It didn’t really reflect how I felt about fashion. LCF’s creative direction team were amazing in helping me overcome these restrictions and I’m excited about future possibilities and to see growth in the ideals I feel so passionate about. 

Your least and most favourite thing about LC:M?

I wish it could be more encompassing, I really want the opportunity to let everyone see a show or wear the clothes. I think it’s a shame that some of the events are shut off to the “average” public. My favourite thing is that LC:M gives a lot of new designers a chance who are less commercially safe. I personally think that’s really important for the fashion industry and at the end of the day I think a show should be an experience not just a walking clothes rail.

Sum up this season in three words!

Long Live Honest Man

Tsun Cheung Lai

Course: BA (Hons) Bespoke Tailoring

Tsun Cheung Lai, BA (Hons) Bespoke Tailoring; Caroline Klemp, BA (Hons) Cordwainers Footwear: Product Design and Innovation; Joseph Mangan, BA (Hons) Cordwainers Fashion Bags and Accessories: Product Design and Innovation

What was the starting point for this collection?

My work is a mixture of traditional tailoring and contemporary menswear. I wanted to challenge the traditional concept of bespoke tailoring by exploring new and surprising techniques and by using untraditional fabric. I also used sail making techniques in my work.

What beats are playing in the studio while you’re designing?

Techno and Jazz.

Your favourite piece from the collection and why?

My first tailored jacket made from ripstop, which is used to make kites for kitesurfing and it is not the easiest material to make a traditional jacket out of so I had to create new techniques to make it easier. 

The trickiest part of the design process?

I tend to have new ideas every single day so whilst I am making the garment, it is very hard to stick with one final design and I always want to make it better. But because of time, I eventually make a decision!

Your least and most favourite thing about LC:M?

I love the energy and the atmosphere! I wish I could go to every show.

Sum up this season in three words!

New bold and exciting

Sam Thompson

Course: BA (Hons) Fashion Design Technology: Menswear

Sam Thompson, BA (Hons) Fashion Design Technology: Menswear; Emma Han, BA (Hons) Fashion Textiles: Embroidery; George Oxby, BA (Hons) Fashion Sportswear

Tell us a little about yourself?

I didn’t really decide I wanted to be in fashion until super late. I was actually studying maths, history and philosophy for A-level, but I realised I was having more fun styling what I was wearing to my classes then actually studying in them. It was only when I started studying fashion that I realised how much scope there was to be explored, especially in menswear.

What was the starting point for this collection?

It was really more of a visual, than a conceptual starting point. I kept noticing how people's attitudes were reflected in how they wore their clothes. The way that they were standing and the position of their bodies affected the shape of the garment. As a designer you often think like this – of conforming and fitting the garment to the body, but I decided that it would be interesting to imbue the clothes with a pre-defined attitude that the bodies wearing them would then have to conform to.

What beats are playing in the studio while you’re designing?

I’m really into the new Lukas Graham album mixed in with DJ Vlads hardvapour mix when I need to get things done. I also love listening to the dulcet tones of Lou Stoppard interviewing people on SHOWstudio.

Your favourite piece from the collection and why

I love the Oversized MA-1 bomber jacket. It was by far the hardest to pattern cut and make but it just came out perfect and really coveys the concept of the collection as a whole.

The trickiest part of the design process?

Starting. Everything can look amazing in your head, but when you actually start putting stuff down on paper you realise how much of what you thought looked good really doesn’t!!

Your least and most favourite thing about LC:M?

I always love the MAN show, it’s so cool when you see designers really pushing themselves to create something new. I love it when I see something where I'm like 'how the hell did you do that??; And then try to figure out how they did it. What's sad is when you see those same designers having to conform to the commercial realities of the industry three seasons later.

Sum up this season in three words!

Look at me!!!!

Photographer: James Rees

Creative Direction: Rob Phillips

Hair: Ezana Ové

Beauty: Kirsty Gaston

Words: Annabel Lunnon

The post London College of Fashion, BA Show 2016 appeared first on Wonderland.