A brand born out of Central Saint Martins in 2006, with Edward Meadham and Benjamin Kirchhoff at the helm, Meadham Kirchhoff had a short-but-oh-so-sweet 9 year run full of awards, Fashion Week shows, and their Topshop collaborations.
Distinctly kitsch, cutesy and a little bit edgy, it is no surprise that Meadham Kirchhoff rose to fame during the ‘twee’ era of the 2010s, and as the trend’s revival is now upon us, it makes sense to take a closer look at one of my favourite Meadham Kirchhoff shows, SS14.
Conceptualisation
Edward Meadham described his mood boards as containing ‘a random mix of Jacobean and Elizabethan portraiture and lots and lots of Bowie’. This eclectic mix hints that the very fabric of the show is made from opulence, excess, ruffles and lace, the subversion of gender, and an interesting mix of bold black and white, dotted with pastel shades.
Edward Meadham’s mood board featuring lace and ruffles. Photograph by Eleanor Hardwick.Edward Meadham’s mood board featuring David Bowie, drapery, and portraiture. Photograph by Eleanor Hardwick.Edward Meadham’s mood board featuring hints of red. Photograph by Eleanor Hardwick.Edward Meadham’s mood board featuring pastels, vintage beauty images, and ceramics. Photograph by Eleanor Hardwick.Edward Meadham’s mood board featuring an elvish illustration, ruffles, and sunglasses. Photograph by Eleanor Hardwick.
The collection was called ‘Ante Dominai [sic]’ meaning ‘anti-society, anti-mainstream culture. Do what you want, create your own alternative, your own narrative, and your own set of codes and morals.’
The Show
The show itself ran smoothly, despite a few technical issues such as the wrong music being played. It is immediately clear how Meadham Kirchhoff took their inspiration pictures and reworked, reinvented and re-inspired them into this eccentric show which somehow marries images of Seventeenth-century witches, Eighteenth-century royals, and kitsch pastel kittens.
Here are a few of my favourite images from the show, taken by Eleanor Hardwick, which might inspire your spring wardrobe now that the Northern Hemisphere is warming up a teeny, tiny, little bit.
The model line-up for the show. Photograph by Eleanor Hardwick.A model getting her make-up done backstage. Photograph by Eleanor Hardwick.A backstage shot of a model from behind, showing the criss-cross detail of the dress, the long bright curls, and the snakeskin ribbon adorning the hat. Photograph by Eleanor Hardwick.Another image showing the long orange curls, very similar to the elvish illustration on Meadham’s mood board. Photograph by Eleanor Hardwick.A model backstage, dressed in white, long pale curls, complete with minimal eye make-up and a bold red lip. Photograph by Eleanor Hardwick.The models walk onto the catwalk. Photograph by Eleanor Hardwick.One of the darker looks from the collection featuring snakeskin, sunglasses, red hair bows and a red lip. Photograph by Eleanor Hardwick.A model looking like the picture of an Edwardian woman in the city. Photograph by Eleanor Hardwick.Three models stood waiting to walk. Photograph by Eleanor Hardwick.Three models backstage, adorned in orange curls. Photograph by Eleanor Hardwick.
I hope you’ve loved this show as much as I do. It feels opulent, rebellious, and youthful. I also think it’s quite clear where my love for Simone Rocha’s ruffles and pearls was born from…
** This blog post contains spoilers for Mad About Men (1954), La Piscine (1969) and Mahogany (1975) **
Sometimes I want to watch a film, not really for the plot, but for either the fashion, the cinematography, the set design or even just the general aesthetic. So, just in case anyone else has the same penchant for beautiful films, I’ve comprised a short list of three recommendations from the 50s, 60s and 70s respectively.
Mad About Men (1954):
Mad About Men Movie Poster, IMDB.
Mad About Men is the charming sequel to the 1948 comedy film Miranda in which a lonely mermaid captures a young man and only offers to release him on the basis that he will take her to London. In Mad About Men, set in Cornwall, Miranda Trewella (Glynis Johns) returns and convinces her distant relative and doppelgänger Caroline Trewella (Glynis Johns) to let her take her place whilst Caroline goes on a biking excursion with a friend. In order to do this, Caroline fakes an accident which leaves her wheelchair bound, explaining Miranda’s inability to walk and need to keep her ‘legs’ covered with warm blankets. The pair also hire Nurse Carey (Margaret Rutherford), who knows Miranda is a mermaid and helped her in the first film too. However, even though Caroline is engaged back in London to the dull but stable Ronald Baker (Peter Martyn), Miranda playing as Caroline cannot help herself when she meets some of the town’s most handsome men, and she flirts, dates and kisses both Jeff Saunders (Donald Sinden) and Colonel Barclay Sutton (Nicholas Phipps). When Ronald comes to visit ‘Caroline’ in Cornwall, Miranda takes an immediate dislike to him and ends up pouring cold fish soup over his head. The Colonel’s wife is suspicious of ‘Caroline’ and ends up discovering her secret, so, in a plot to expose her, she agrees to let ‘Caroline’ sing at a charity concert and plans to reveal her mermaid tail on stage. However, Caroline gets back from her trip and takes Miranda’s place on stage whilst the Nurse feeds the microphone down to the cove where Miranda lives so her siren-esque singing voice can still be heard. The film ends with the real Caroline and Jeff Saunders sharing a kiss whilst Miranda is safely back in the Cornish Sea.
Despite mentioning earlier that plot isn’t important when watching for purely aesthetic reasons, this film is so fun and light-hearted it is difficult not to enjoy the story and fall in love with Miranda whilst you watch it. However, where this film really shines is in highlighting the wistful and whimsical beauty of Miranda and the more prim and proper styling of Caroline. Joan Ellacott’s costuming and Glynis Johns’ acting allows for viewers to differentiate easily between the Trewella girls. Here are some of the best style/aesthetic moments…
Caroline Trewella on the train from London to Cornwall. Still from Mad About Men (1954).Caroline and Miranda’s first meeting. Still from Mad About Men (1954).Caroline’s charity concert dress. Still from Mad About Men (1954).A full length view of Caroline’s concert dress. Still from Mad About Men (1954).
La Piscine(1969):
La Piscine Movie Poster, IMDB.
If you’re craving some warmth, you must watch 1969’s La Piscine, a film where the Southern French sunshine seems to seep through the screen. This film is the epitome of ‘embodied viewing’ where you can feel the sun and water on your skin, and you can smell the heat in the air. La Piscine is set in a villa on the French Riviera where a couple, Marianne (Romy Schneider) and Jean-Paul (Alain Delon) are enjoying the summer. After finding out Marianne and Jean-Paul are nearby, the couple’s old friend Harry (Maurice Ronet) and his daughter Penelope (Jane Birkin) come and stay. Whilst this initially consists of old friends catching up and new memories being made through extravagant parties, tensions soon begin to rise when Jean-Paul realises that Marianne and Harry were once lovers. The situation further complicates itself when Jean-Paul decides to seduce Harry’s 18-year-old daughter Penelope. The two men, whilst drunk, end up getting into a fight which culminates with Harry falling into the swimming pool. From here, instead of helping him out, Jean-Paul proceeds to drown him and then stages the scene to look like an accident. Marianne eventually finds out what Jean-Paul did but both continue to lie to the police and eventually the case is closed with Harry’s death being marked as an accident. The film ends with Penelope returning to her mother and Jean-Paul seemingly forcing Marianne to stay with him at the villa.
This film is beautiful all-round. The French Riviera location, the impressive villa, the cast and, perhaps most importantly the dressing and undressing of bodies. The theme of the body is central throughout this film, with long, toned and sun-kissed limbs filling the poolside shots. Here are some of the most beautiful outfits, shots and scenes…
Jane Birkin’s Penelope wearing the dreamiest gingham poolside cover-up. Still from La Piscine (1969).Penelope’s fabulously oversized sunglasses. Still from La Piscine (1969).Jean-Paul’s combo of an open shirt tucked into blue jeans is giving me lots of Spring/Summer inspo. Still from La Piscine (1969).Penelope wearing maybe the shortest dress ever worn to a funeral ever? Stylish though! Still from La Piscine (1969).The calm before the storm… Marianne and Jean-Paul enjoying the swimming pool. Still from La Piscine (1969).
Mahogany(1975):
Mahogany Movie Poster, IMDB.
First things first, the men in this movie are awful. Truly, every single one of them is just unbearable. But with that aside, Mahogany is firm favourite in every fashion lovers’ movie list. The film stars a post-Supremes Diana Ross as fashion student and department store secretary Tracy Chambers. Set in Chicago, the film shows Tracy living in the ‘slums’ of Chicago’s South whilst working at a high-end department store and harbouring dreams of becoming a high fashion designer. Tracy meets and begins dating Brian Walker, an activist fighting against the demolition of housing in primarily black neighbourhoods. Brian, whilst seemingly having a good heart and high ambitions for himself routinely brushes off Tracy’s goals as trivial and devoid of real meaning, insisting fashion is unimportant compared to his work within the neighbourhood. This means that when Tracy meets and befriends the renowned photographer Sean McAvoy who sees her as having real potential as a model, Tracy jumps at the chance to find an in to the industry which means so much to her. After a fight with Brian, Tracy moves to Rome to pursue modelling with Sean, who gives her the stage name Mahogany. A classic movie montage shows Mahogany’s modelling career take off and her charm and charisma capturing both the wider fashion world’s attention as well as Sean’s, who is interested in pursuing her romantically. Sean becomes increasingly possessive and struggles with Tracy’s free-spirited nature and inability to be controlled. Brian visits Tracy in Rome and gets into a fight with Sean involving a gun; Brian leaves Rome alone. At their next fashion shoot in which Tracy is posed inside a sports car, Sean is trying to ‘capture death’ and ends up getting into the car and begins driving erratically. Eventually, with Sean at the wheel, the car crashes leaving Tracy badly injured and Sean dead. In the aftermath of the accident, a wealthy count lets Tracy recover at his villa and sets up a design studio for her there. Instead of feeling fulfilled by finally reaching her dream career, she is left feeling frustrated, lonely, and unhappy despite the huge success of her first official collection. Tracy realises that success means nothing without Brian by her side and she returns to Chicago to be with him.
Despite Tracy’s life being littered with frustrating men who seem desperate to keep her potential hidden away, she does look incredible throughout the film. As a little sidenote, Diana Ross actually designed a lot of Tracy’s outfits as she trained in dressmaking before her career took off! Here are some of her best looks…
The outfit Tracy designed and wears for the first time she is photographed by Sean McAvoy.Tracy looking incredibly chic in Rome whilst her Harper’s Bazaar cover hangs behind her.Perhaps one of the most iconic looks from this film. Tracy’s purple ensemble which becomes a billboard advertising Revlon ‘Touch & Glow’.
Cover of Inside Vogue: A Diary of My 100th Year by Alexandra Shulman (London: Fig Tree Penguin, 2016). Photograph courtesy of publisher.
The centenary year of BritishVogue saw numerous celebratory events, from a bumper June issue covered by the Duchess of Cambridge to a retrospective exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, a BBC2 documentary punnily titled AbsolutelyFashion and a Vogue Festival featuring Grace Coddington, Gucci’s Alessandro Michele, Kim Kardashian and Charlotte Tilbury as speakers. InsideVogue – the final treat of this momentous year for the magazine established in 1916 – is a personal account of the hard work that went into these events, the pressure, frustrations, and challenges faced in doing justice to Vogue’s legacy.
A rich picture is painted by InsideVogue’s author, editor-in-chief Alexandra Shulman. What could have easily have hit shelves as a puffed-up piece of marketing is in fact peppered by nuanced criticisms. Absolutely Fashion’s narrator is rightly a cause for concern, as is rogue photographer David Bailey, though real indignation is reserved for the hypocritical jabs at Vogue’s portrayal of women made by The Daily Mail’s Liz Jones and Sarah Vine. Beauty confessions (‘I can only stick so far to “Ilfautsouffrirpourêtrebelle”. The less souffrir going on the better, I feel.’) and reminiscences about growing up as the daughter of features writer Drusilla Beyfus and theatre critic Milton Shulman are interrupted – as even the most fabulous working lives are – by domestic chaos, spontaneously combusting bins and failing boilers.
Cover of Vogue Centenary Issue, June 2016Interior of Vogue Centenary Issue, June 2016Page preview of Inside Vogue: A Diary of My 100th Year
Structured as a diary, Inside Vogue also provides a valuable first-hand account of what is takes to produce a contemporary record such as Vogue magazine. How best to showcase Vogue’s contribution to readers’ awareness of contemporary conversations, culture and styles, and determine which faces from the worlds of fashion, art and music most deserve places in Tim Walker’s ‘hall of fame’ shoot? How to do this in the face of a digital revolution, with new challenges for print publishing; how to fight for a gold foil-embossed logo on instinct alone? Shulman’s accounts of her meetings with the Duchess of Cambridge will likely prove an essential source for our understanding of (and indeed future studies on) the representation and role of the royal family in these times. That the palace is easier to deal with than Naomi Campbell and David Beckham is just one takeaway.
Although Shulman makes clear the account is somewhat polished, not unlike Instagram – ‘everything we put out about ourselves is edited’ – there is plenty here to delight, intrigue, and learn about what life is like at the helm of Vogue, that powerful force in documenting fashion.
From Inside Vogue: A Diary of My 100th Year. Photograph courtesy of publisher.From Inside Vogue: A Diary of My 100th Year. Photograph courtesy of publisher.
