Having shown at Pitti Uomo in Florence the past two seasons, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli took on Paris this season. Their strategy? Put a Valentino spin on Carnaby Street circa the sixties. At the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild, we were treated to an array of suits and coats there were cut to perfection, oozing a very British form of sophistication – all houndstooth prints, Prince of Wales checks and Black Watch tartan.

But while the spectre of young Mick Jagger may have loomed large in the pair’s influences, the collection never felt like a forced nostalgia trip to the swinging sixties. Chiuri and Piccioli have both said that they deliberately tried to pair modernity with couture craftsmanship, so think luxe piled onto luxe materials: fur with mackintosh, for example, or cashmere lined with leather. And the finishing touch? Fold-over leather clutches. Not something you’d likely see in the sixies, but perfect for the 21st century.

MORE PARIS MENSWEAR FASHION WEEK COVERAGE:
Backstage at Maison Martin Margiela AW13

Words: Zing Tsjeng
Images: Amina Nolan

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(1) BALMAIN

(2) LUTZ HUELLE

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Day one

Liberal Arts

Sundance kicked off with Josh Radnor’s Liberal Arts (check out our interview with the film’s director and star here), a sweetly touching campus romance about a 35-year-old who falls for a student when he returns to his old college. Fans of Garden State, listen up: the new Zach Braff has arrived. This time it’s the guy from How I Met Your Mother.

Indie darling Elizabeth Olsen stands out for transforming a cookie-cutter role as naïve college student Zibby into something altogether more compelling. But from the buzz at the festival – in the ladies’, at least – it seems like Josh has a few admirers of his own. Good to know that sometimes the nice guys do win.

Day two

The festival’s second day felt a little like watching The Wire boxset on the big screen. First, creator David Simon popped up in hard-hitting documentary The House I Live In, and then Baltimore’s mean streets made an appearance in coming-of-age drama LUV.

The House I Live In

If you condensed the HBO epic into a two-hour documentary, you might come up with something like The House I Live In. A sprawling, take-no-prisoners documentary that traces America’s failed war on drugs, it took director Eugene Jarecki years to make.

“I slammed my head into the wall for years, “ the veteran filmmaker told Wonderland. “Morning, noon and night, like I’d never made a movie before.” The sheer amount of effort shows – by the end of the film, you’re ready to take to the streets. No wonder Jarecki was later swarmed by people demanding to know what they could do to help.

LUV

LUV is a no less gritty proposition, though first-time director Sheldon Candis puts a romantic spin on it. “It’s a tragically optimistic love fable between a boy and his uncle,” he says. The director drew on his own childhood in Baltimore for the drama, following shy 11-year-old Woody as he gets schooled in the art of hustling from his ex-con uncle (played by Common).

The film occasionally stretches the limits of credulity by indoctrinating Woody into a life of crime in under 24 hours, but a coming-of-age story ultimately lives and dies by the strength of its child actor. Luckily, Rainey, all wide-eyed vulnerability, is a revelation here.

Shut Up And Play The Hits

After all that inner-city angst, thank the indie gods for Shut Up And Play The Hits, the LCD Soundsystem doc that got people clapping along in the cinema. Fans piled into the sold-out screening for its British premiere to watch the concert film of the beloved rock band’s final gig at Madison Square Garden.

“The day we did the location scout at Madison Square, Bon Jovi were in there and they had everything – cranes, dollies – the exact way we didn’t want to shoot our show,” says director Will Lovelace.

Instead, Lovelace and co-director Dylan Southern gave their crew handheld cameras and instructed them to film the concert as if they were experiencing it as fans.

The gambit pays off handsomely. Shut Up And Play The Hits is as close to being at an LCD gig as you’re ever going to get, with the added bonus of backstage footage and close-ups of Petunia, frontman James Murphy’s French bulldog. (Cutest rock pet ever? We think so.) No wonder the crowd kept cheering long after the lights went on.

Words: Zing Tsjeng

The post REVIEW – Sundance London 2012 appeared first on Wonderland.

All of your collections seem to have a bold theme, what was the particular theme behind your AW12 collection?

Yeah, there’s always such a strong theme. Like this one was everything dark to do with fairy tales. With every kid’s fairy tale, like Sleeping Beauty or Lord of The Rings, there’s always this dark army growing, so I just wanted to create one. This whole collection was truly self-indulgent, my first completely independent line away from The British Fashion Council and NEWGEN. I felt free to do whatever I wanted and it was very exciting. From the elf ears to the crazy war hammer trainers, we pulled out the stops for everything.

So, what was the inspiration behind your theme this time round?

You’ve got to start somewhere. Mine was coming up with the theme and an idea. I don’t know all these things just come to me and I just thought well, I love creating all this sort of mad stuff and how can I tie in War Hammer and Zelder and Dungeons and Dragons.

Did you like all that sort of thing when you were younger?

Yeah, I loved War Hammer. I never played it but I was always looking in windows and all the guys who play it are super nerdy. They literally get a ruler out and they battle and they take it really serious. Obviously, I wasn’t into it that sort of way. Their names are hilarious; there’s one called something shaggeth. It’s just jokes really.

Did you have any challenges with the collection?

Yeah, well this one was extremely couture and made by hand. My whole teams hands are usually covered in cuts and edge-dye and leather, all of the black it goes into little cuts and your fingers so by the time it comes to a show they all look like little goblins and the same with me. This one was even harder considering the materials that we used. I could use whatever I wanted; leather, pony skin, fur. So many textures. You would never usually have a completely pony skin bag because of the sheer weight of it but we just didn’t want to spare anything. The idea was how can we make everything look evil. Probably the hardest we’ve ever dealt with.

What’s going to be happening for you in the future?

I want to work in a big fashion house and I have been approached by one but can’t say just yet who it is. That is like the dream. I feel like it’s happening. I’ve worked for some incredible people already like Kanye [West]. It’s amazing because it means that I can see my dreams form. Money has always been a problem, even when you have good jobs. Things get more expensive season by season so it always feel like you are just coasting and can’t make any more. Where as if you have something like that going on, you can realise your dreams.

W you not feel like you were quite controlled working In House?

This is an adventure. I have no idea how it’s going to work. All I know is that I have a vision and they approached me because they love what I do so hopefully, there shouldn’t be too much of a problem. They’ve pulled me in for a reason. They need rejuvenation and that’s defiantly something that I can give.

Words: Millie Cotton
Images: Amina Nolan

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