Molly Goddard AW15

Girly tulle and diaphanous fantasy is embodied in the designs by East London British designer Molly Goddard who once again melted out hearts as she shined through the BFC courtyard show space at Somerset House during London Fashion Week. Her work thematically describes coming of age and nostalgia taking inspiration from party dresses and Sunday best through clothes that are conflicted with the beauty of her delicate technique and a charming awkwardness of her fabric combinations and poofy silhouettes.

She is a young bright thing, only just graduating from an MA at Central Saint Martins in 2012 and loves to show off her arts heritage. For her AW15 presentation, we were treated to models clad in beautiful ball gowns in the middle of a life drawing session. The street-cast gang of girls actively being creative and generally just having fun is a truly refreshing mode of positive fashion display. We can’t wait to see what she does next.

Mag + Art

Tumblr project magplusart by Eisen Bernardo appropriates paintings from the past by perfectly inserting fashion and celebrity magazine covers from the now into the aged compositions. 

Each magazine photo and painting are chosen with delicate precision so that colours, angles and patterns match the illusion.  Often images reinsert celebrity faces into the paintings of an artist's muse indicating a long evolving history of celebrity culture. Sometimes the images forge bridges between icons throughout the ages including a clever linkage between the iconic portrait of power, Hyacinthe Riguard's 'Louis XIV' painted in 1701 and a contemporary Vogue cover of an androgynous female model wearing designs from legendary fashion house, Coco Chanel who both paved the way for female fashion designers and helped bring trousers into the world of womenswear: "I gave women a sense of freedom," she once said. "I gave them back their bodies: bodies that were drenched in sweat, due to fashion's finery, lace, corsets, underclothes, padding.".

These reinterpretations remind us of the unbreakable bonds between popular culture, fine art and history. Here our fascinations and obsessions throughout time are literally translated into an overlap of generations, eras and movements.

Glass Animals

Undeniably cool Oxford band, Glass Animals released their debut album ZABA this summer along with beautifully imagined and shot music videos such as ‘Gooey’ and ‘Hazey’. Cannibalistic vibes and surrealist overtones put danger back on the pop scene with a sophisticated-palate of delicate electronica and come-hither vocals. Touring Europe this autumn. Get your tickets on their Facebook page here.

Maria Aparicio Puentes

Using black and white photography as a backdrop for geometrical shapes with colourful threads, Maria Aparicio Puentes makes embroidery edgy and cool. Taking inspiration from the architecture that she studied and was surrounded by, she brings to her compositions a true awareness and sensitivity of space, hence the theme running throughout her work: people and their relationships to their environments.  Threads superimposed onto photographs are like our own memories we superimpose onto reality itself. The strangest thing to inspire a piece of work for Puentes: “The strangest thing... ruining a big job, after weeks of work, by knocking a bottle of water on it. It was a strange feeling, of loss and of infinite sadness.”

Magical Contamination

Microbiologist Antoine Bridier-Nahmias brings us a hidden beauty found in his collection of experiments on his Tumblr account. A working collaboration with nature, these biological hap-hazards create stunning patterns and shapes that would envy any graphic designer. A textural palette of dusky pinks, blues and greens clouds over the clinical canvas of a plastic petri dish on a lab table. He describes his works as magical contaminations noting that there is no secret ingredient, just random reactions of mould, bacteria and yeasts and their varied characteristics. Under Antoine’s watchful eye, the process takes at least fifteen days to mature and develop. They are in fact, life forms documented at a precise moment in their existence through photography. This fusion of art and science celebrates human curiosity and wonder but also reveals a human desire to contain, refine and control the natural world and its processes.

Nadia Wicker

When someone has a clear vision and is in control of the whole production of the image, everything just seems more complete, with an apparent style. Nadia Wicker is a French artist who combines her photography abilities and makeup talent, to create great stories through the extension of a portrait. Those who willingly participate in her creative practice, become the lucky few that have the chance to experience the meticulous process of producing something higher. Her works are no longer viewed as fashion, as each piece speaks more than merely a product.

Images are from Wicker's 'Ursides' series.