Virginal Bombing

It was love at first sight for Christopher Kane’s debut “pre-collection” show.

It is just the right dose of death and pretty that demands we pay attention. The images of nuclear explosions were sourced by Kane from “free public-access photos on the U.K. Ministry of Defense Web site”.

Isn’t this mix of raging experimentation, cheeky subversive humour and craft exactly why we continue to look to London for inspiration?

However, there is another nasty edge to the entire proceedings – those amazing shoes are not for sale. The designer and his creative crew “cobbled” them together with gaffer tape and bits and bobs, as they simply could not find the right match.

Cruel.

Prince of Shingles

I opened my latest copy of Wallpaper* Magazine (which has returned to form thank god) and was beyond taken by the article on the home American architect Bart Prince has designed for Joe and Etsuko Price in Southern California.

With its cathedral-like use of wood and penchant for shingles and shag covered walls, at first glance, it reads like a den for playboys and porn kings, but it is its hefty dose of intellect that truly saves its soul.

He works out of Albuquerque, New Mexico and he has a concise way of discussing his work:

“When I say that the design ‘responds’ to the site, client, climate, materials etc. and that the design ‘grows’ from this situation, it doesn’t mean these things ‘happen’ by themselves. It’s the mind of the architect that brings these ideas together and synthesizes everything into a final scheme. It’s a very complex process and far from ‘winging it’! In fact it is a much more difficult process that the standard so-called design process used by many. You are dealing with materials, structure, ideas, space while solving complex design programs presented by the client. It takes years of experience to make this process look easy!”

He has also described his houses as “butterflies alighting in the landscape — as much a part of nature as trees and rocks, but soaring free of conventional restraints and familiar forms”. In his hands wood, glass and stone are no longer inanimate building materials, but take on a life of their own.

What I love about his work is it completely nails that nexus between good and bad taste that we all crave. Anyone who is constantly searching to be jolted by a new style, will absolutely ‘get’ these homes. In some ways it is no major surprise Prince is hot right now, because as the earth’s environmental safety slips conceptually out of our grip, we are turning to all things “natural” as some kind of comforting symbol of the need to redeem or hopefully, save, ourselves.

I want to live in an Armadillo.

"The passion burns deep"

Continuing my journey back through time to some of the defining films of my teenage years, I watched St Elmo’s Fire recently.

Made in 1985 and directed by Joel Schumacher ("Lost Boys", "Flatliners"), it involved virtually every hot brat packer of the time: Demi Moore, Andrew McCarthy, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson.

The film tells the story of a group of friends that have just graduated from Georgetown University and their adjustment to their post-university lives and the responsibilities of encroaching adulthood. Some of them do not handle their new life well: Lowe is a drunk constantly in trouble and milking his wealthy best friend (Mare Winningham) for all she is worth and Moore is a credit card/drug abuser living an ‘apparently’ glamorous life. It’s all typical of the American yuppie generation of the mid-80’s with their cheesy politics, outfits, belief in advertising as art and cocaine addictions.

The soundtrack is too tacky for words, featuring such 80’s masters as Airplay, Fee Waybill, Elefante (who?) and the irritatingly unforgettable theme song "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)" performed by David Foster.

It is incredible to watch again for a few reasons: Demi Moore, pre plastic surgery and still with her puppy fat, Rob Lowe destroying his life (not sure any man should be born that beautiful, but that is beside the point) and the apartments these kids live in - particularly the one Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy own with its giant Nike add covering an entire wall of their loft – yes, this was what was covetable in 1985. Didn’t we also want to look like Demi in her homage to Madonna (all corsets and fur and teased hair) and the pearls … god these girls wore them and they wore them well, usually teamed with a Holly Hobbie lace collared long dress – remember those? It seems frump fashion really rocked hard in 1985.

See it now if you consider yourself a true 80’s fan, but be a purist and only rent out an old boxy ‘video’ if you can get your hot little hands on one.

The Artist

Time for another style icon alert and what has taken me so long to discuss Tilda? It's craziness.

Not only is Tilda Swinton an amazing actor, she is transformed into a living artwork when she dons various designer pieces and she has a husband and a younger live-in lover. If that's not a winning combination, then what is?

In terms of her art, there is really nothing she cannot achieve in film – it really seems to be her moment. She is one actor who authentically manages to straddle both the alto and more pedestrian worlds of film with mesmerizing turns in earlier offbeat films such as "Love is the Devil" and "Caravaggio" to more popularist fare such as "Michael Clayton", "Burn After Reading" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". She has come a long way since working with Derek Jarman and Sally Potter (think "Orlando" where she plays the title character in both male and female guises).

Right now in film she's back to the risky arena where she stars as “Blonde” in the new film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, "Limits of Control", the story of a mysterious loner, a stranger, whose activities remain meticulously outside the law. His journey, paradoxically both intently focused and dreamlike, takes him not only across Spain but also through his own consciousness.

Right now in fashion, she's taking risks too, appearing swathed in liquid cranberry Haider Ackerman at Cannes, immediately after every fashion editor worth his/her salt raved about his recent collection. Personally, I think it an absolute crime that she is often placed on worst dressed lists as since when has Prada or Lanvin been deemed distasteful?

All fashion brutality aside, this amazing creature is 100% deserved of our complete admiration as she embodies a kind of utopian ideal of true life, fashion and craft 'original'.

Yearning for more? Grab yourself a copy of the latest "AnOther" magazine, where she graces the cover ... and speaks.

Hirdy Girdy

Muccia Prada continues to stun with her inclusive philosophy of art, fashion, design and architecture – exactly what The Crystal Plumage gets turned on by.

Her latest incredible project sees her again working with Rem Koolhaas to create the Prada Transformer in South Korea.

In a recent interview in Interview magazine, they both take great pains to inform us this is not merely a “pavilion” … it is a space that is mutable: its 3 sides are shiftable by cranes to suit the intended purpose e.g. cinema, art or fashion. It is essentially a metal structure consisting of 3 shaped "walls": hexagon, circle, cross and rectangle and covered with material used to wrap abandoned planes. Genuis!

As Prada herself says:

"What makes this project so radical is this kind of ever-changing shape and form according to requests ... But this flexibility and changeability was crucial. The conent could be done any place, but the real invention is the architecture. The architecture is the only work that really defines a new way of doing things. I think this point is fundamental."

I think this is what impresses me the most about Prada as a designer. She isn't primarily focused on having her dresses worn at the latest Hollywood premiere … she really falls into the category of “visionary” and works with others at the top of their fields, such as Koolhaas to conceive her fantasies. Prada sets the pace, she doesn’t just attempt to keep up.

With evenings in the Transformer where famed directors discuss their favourite films and the infamous touring “Waist Down” skirts installation feature, who wouldn’t want to enter this bizarre futuristic tardis.

Next stop for this "amorphous" structure is Milan – could you include Sydney or Melbourne please, please, pretty please?

For more information or timetables for events see: http://prada-transformer.com/.

“It only looks like the good life”

I recently had a mad yearning to revisit one of my favourite films of the late 80’s, “Less than Zero”.

Featuring the hot young brat packish actors of the time: Robert Downey Junior, Jamie Gertz, Andrew McCarthy and James Spader and with its title taken from the 1985 best seller from Brett Easton Ellis (he of "American Psycho" fame), it extinguishes any fantasy we ever had of the young and rich of LA.

It is somewhat disappointing that Ellis’ books are never translated to screen with quite the same level of darkness that leaves you completely hollowed out – which is exactly the point Ellis is trying to make – societal greed and lack of humanity is pointless. So, we miss out on the snuff movies, abortion, kiddy sex and odd dead body featured in the novel, but then American Psycho hardly reached the heights of its promised translation from page to screen either.

However, all is not lost … not only do we witness the destruction of these smug rich kids’ lives, but we get to see it done stylishly. The interiors are all fashionably lit and in colour tones you could die for: all peaches and greys. Robert Downey Jr descends into the depths of despair yes, but he does it in style – wearing Commes des Garcons sandals and socks and an array of their shirts and jackets and to a soundtrack that will stir the emotions of any kid who lived through the 80's.

A literary sequel is in the works to be titled "Imperial Bedrooms", which, like "Less than Zero" is a title taken from an Elvis Costello song. It will be in our hot little hands in 2010.

Hopefully this time we will get our style with a little more hard core nihilism.

"Be wonderful and be strange"

... says Susie Bick in the latest I-D Magazine to hit our shores.

It is not often you stand at Borders and are moved by a magazine. But yes, I-D managed to conjure up such feelings yesterday.

All fashionistas … be kind to yourself and buy a copy, which has soul stirringly devoted its entire edition to Britain’s top models, both current and historical: from Jourdan Dunn to Twiggy … you get the drift.

I purchased the Susie Bick cover, as I absolutely adore her gothic aesthetic and current come-back status – someone please bring back women like this in fashion on a permanent basis – out with those emotionless Russian skeletors please!

You will be enthralled by all the inside gossip style interviews with Kate Moss, Agyness Deyn and Stella Tennant, not to mention the styling – all molten black and white imagery and spectacularly sculptural clothing selected by uber-stylist Edward Enniful.

Very pervy, delicious stuff indeed.