30 January 2011

I BUILT A GARDEN IN MY MIND, BOYS IN BANDS THERE YOU SHALL FIND

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I couldn't help repost these shots my great friend Kate took of British band Will & The People recently, not simply because they are stunning photographs, but because I feel there is something sartorially perfect about their inherently British eccentricity to their style. This was all 'them', Kate tells me,  from the feathers to the fur collars, and every theatricality is pulled off with such panache. Since the 80s  flamboyant band styling has been lost, killed first by grunge and then by the rise of manufactured G-star clad boybands, which is a real shame, because music and the visual arts (including that of dressing) should walk hand in hand. This look is all their own : at once expressive, inspiring, curious and completely home-grown, much like their music. 
But theatricality or no, it is the nonchalance that is the most important. Hardy Amies once said "A man should look as if he had bought his clothes with intelligence, put them on and then forgotten all bout them."
There is definitely a charismatic nonchalance about Will & The People. Click here to listen to their music.


It's got me thinking about British music, about styling, about boys and clothes and I'm looking back to the 60s and 70s...thinking about the Stones, about the many faces of David Bowie, about the new romantics, about the luxe hippie of Stevie Nicks. 
It's interesting to look back and realise where our influences have come from, but it's more exciting to look forward and imagine where we are going. 


I watched the film Almost Famous at 11 (in secret from parents who religiously adhered to film certificates) and was sold to the dream. For the past few years I've been heading towards fashion journalism but there will always be a part of my soul that rebels against the fixed realm of offices and fashion closets and wants to be out on the road, styling a band. Staying up all night hunched at the back of a tour bus stitching zig zag patterns onto a pair of purple suede jeans, or trawling the most far-out godforsaken shops where clothes come to die, because that's where I know I'll find the perfect worn-through blazer for X and the weirdest looking belt buckle you ever saw for Y. 


If you've never seen Almost Famous, go watch it, tonight. And be sold to whatever part of the music dream calls to you, because it is there for everyone.



8 comments:

geenafashion said...

ohh i love this,
makes me want to get really into photography!
that and more to Europe

www.geenafashion.blogspot.com

theczarisalive said...

I love this! I see a bit of 80's Japanese Visual Kei accents here and there as well! Another great spread from Kate! xx

Claudia Paola said...

This really is superb, and I enjoyed your commentary as well. I completely agree with what you said- this sort of artistic eccentricity is entertaining, inspiring, organic, and expressive, and I think one started to see it emerge in the '60s and the '70s, but as you said, it was trumped by the grunge trend and then the "Spice Girls"/"Backstreet Boys" thing (no offense to either of those two, but you get my point). It's really exciting to see artists and trends like this because it looks like a return to something that was lost/hidden for a while- something that made the British Invasion so iconic, for example.

Haha- good advice you had- to see if the people that watch me take my pictures want to get involved somehow!! It would be fun, and I bet they wouldn't expect it! :P

*Claudia* x
Molto ❤ Fashion

Hannah said...

Loving this photography! So reminiscent of the 60s/70s and they have such a vintage feel to them. Great commentary too hun xx

HARLEY WOOD said...

The 60s and 70s are my main inspiration...and as you know, I loveeee Stevie!
Good post, these boys look like a lot of fun. Are they Leeds based?

Peace and love,

HARLEY WOOD X

Little Fashion Prayer said...

SUCH a good post, you sound so inspired - do it!
Seriously loved this, Almost Famous is one of my absolute favourite films.

Emily xx

TRIGG said...

i like this post a looot

Miss Daisy Chain said...

is it really weird that i was almost crying when you were talking about your almost famous styling dream? (i just watched black swan so perhaps im understandably fragile) cant think of anything worse/better than a fashion journalism job. i cant wait to stamp in and out of fashion closets and running around getting clothes for shoots etc... but a little part of me can see myself wilting in the coffee room at the end of the day when i see my ideas stripped and flounced into a materialistic, commercially digestable peice of entertainment...oh my!

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