Yang Du.

 

Du Yang is an emerging designer from Dalian, North China but currently based in London. She graduated from both the BA and the MA at Central Saint Martins and has gained work experience at Vivienne Westwood, Giles Deacon and John Galliano.

 

 

The designer started her own label ‘Yang Du’ in 2009 and has presented her collections at London Fashion Week ever since. Despite showing her S/S 2010 collection on the runway with On|Off she mainly presents her work to the world’s media and buyers through a look book or exhibition. Her style is fun, quirky and humorous and she is also said to blur the lines between fashion and art.

 

 

Boudicca.

Boudicca is a fashion design duo consisting of Zowie Broach and Brian Kirkby. They both graduated from the BA Fashion Design course at Middlesex University in 1997. They are considered to create pieces of art through their fashion design. They’re goal is, “to forge the identity of a future of design that is not just about making clothes, but the craftsmanship” (Broach, 2006). 

  
They have previously shown their work at the V and A and were the first British design house to be invited to create an haute couture collection in Paris. Their individual perfume, Wode by Boudicca, shows their creativity and ability to think outside the box as it was available in both a scent and a paint. The paint appears as a deep blue colour when sprayed onto the skin.

 "Mind-boggling—in a good way" Anon, style.com

Fashion East.

What are they?

 

Fashion East is a non-profit initiative established by the Old Truman Brewery in 2000 to nurture emerging young designers through the early stages of their career. The organisation receives sponsorship funding from Topshop, TOPMAN and The London Development Agency.

 

At what stage do they help you?

Within 3 years of starting your own business.

 

 Key figures…

Brix Smith-Start 
Owner of Start Boutique, London

Charlie Harrington
Fashion Director Stella / Sunday Telegraph

Charlie Porter 
Freelance Journalist

Francesca Burns 
Fashion Editor, Vogue UK

Harriet Quick 
Fashion features Director, Vogue UK

Kay Barron 
Fashion Features Editor, Harper’s Bazaar

Lauren Cochrane 
Freelance Fashion Writer

Richard Sloan 
Creative Consultant / Stylist

Sarah Mower 
Contributing Editor, Vogue USA and Style.com

Hugo Scott 
Head of European Operations, Marc Jacobs

Lulu Kennedy is the director of Fashion East and editor-at-large at Love magazine. She has been awarded an MBE for fashion services and is known as the Fashion Fairy Godmother.

Kennedy launched an eponymous clothing label Lulu & Co, which brings together some of the enterprise's alumni and creates their designs in a more accessible, affordable way. Not quite as mass market as a high-street collaboration, Lulu & Co provides a middle ground of commercialisation that appears to benefit all parties.

What do they give you?

The organisation provides the opportunity to present a catwalk collection to the international press and buyers attending London Fashion Week. Designers receive a bursary, free venue and complete catwalk show production, professional catwalk photographs and video. Designers are also given mentoring, guidance and in-house PR throughout the season from Lulu Kennedy and her team.

They also take designers to a sales show room in Paris each season, giving them the opportunity to showcase their collections to top international buyers.

 

Who they helped?

Previous Fashion East designers include, Richard Nicoll, Holly Fulton, Jonathan Saunders, House of Holland, Gareth Pugh, Marios Schwab, Louise Goldin, Roksanda Ilincic and Meadham Kirchhoff.

The designers for this season are, Ashley Williams, University of Westminster graduate who had Pixie Geldof and Alice Dellal walk in her graduate show, Claire Barrow and Ryan Lo.

Taste.

 

Phoenix’s taste:

Phoenix loves extravagant objects and surroundings. She admires ‘the high life’ and takes an interest in smart but casual clothing. Her taste is for quite masculine things and her favourite colour is black.

 

 

 

My taste:

I love soft and feminine imagery. Texture interests me and I admire controlled chaos. The splashes of vibrant colour I like add a vivid layer to my mostly organic interests.  

Why I like what I like…

I like natural and organic things because I spent a lot of time in the countryside when I was younger. I also think that I like splashes of vivid colour because colour is one of my mum’s greatest interests.

The Teddy Boy: My View

The Teddy Boy: A Witness' Account

Jan Land was born in 1951 and she can remember first hand what the Teddy boys were like.

 

Can you describe a specific scenario in which you remember the Teddy Boys?

Jan: The teddy boys I saw in the 50's used to meet together and walk along the seafront in Scarborough. To a young girl they seemed frightening. There were a great number of them and they used to take over the pavements and mess about as young men do! Their clothes made them stand out among the general throng of holidaymakers. Dad used to moan about them being rowdy too!

Do you remember ever seeing the Teddy Boys in the media?

Jan: I didn’t take much notice of them in the media, but if there was any trouble on the foreshore I imagine I would have seen it on the TV. We had a TV from the early 50's.

Did you live in a largely White British community?

Jan: Yes the community was totally white. I remember that the first coloured family Moved into Seamer in 1964.

Were all the Teddy Boys you remember seeing White British?

Jan: Nope, the whole community was white.

Did you hear about the Notting Hill race riots?

Jan: There was coverage on TV and that may have contributed to my fear of teddy boys. I was a nervous child and I thought the people who attacked black (and white) people in London in 1958 were walking round the streets of Scarborough in the summer of 1959. Who knows what they may do? I didn't really understand the racial bit, thought they just attacked any one they pleased. My family had no problems with immigrants to my knowledge and I never heard any racial criticism from them, just criticism of the teddy boys.

 

What can you remember seeing the Teddy Boys wearing?

Jan: There seemed to be a lot of them in blue or beige jackets with black collars and the distinctive hairstyle. Lots of ordinary lads wore the thick soled shoes and did their hair like that like my cousin who was 16, but I think you needed quite a bit of money to buy the jackets.

Do you remember seeing any Teddy Girls?

Jan: I don't remember teddy girls, though I suppose they were there, just remember the gangs of lads.

Did you ever wear any clothes that were adopted by the Teddy Boys/Girls? Why or why not?

Jan: The fear coloured my judgement about the fashion and it never appealed to me even in the seventies and eighties when there was a revival. Think it only appealed to a certain type of person.

Did the look eventually become quite mainstream?

Jan: It never really became mainstream after the fifties when it was at its height among young men in their teens and twenties.

Do you remember the 1970's revival of the Teddy Boys?

Jan: Yes I sort of remember it, though it was not as widespread as in the fifties. Think it appealed to a smaller group of people in the seventies.

 

What sort of person took part in the revivals?

 

Jan: In the 50's it was the main way to challenge the accepted dress code of the mainstream man in the street. Young people wanted to be different from their parents, more edgy and distinctive and had more money than ever before. By the 70's we had had a variety of youth revolts (the swinging 60's) and there were a number of options for young people to pursue to make their mark. It probably appealed to the young working class type person who had some money though I don't know for certain.

Did they dress the same?

Jan: Think the clothes had a softer look to them perhaps slightly more romanticised and were taken up by some pop stars, but there were a lot of different styles of music by then and a lot of different ways to dress.

 

The Teddy Boy: Public Reaction



In the beginning the media treated the Teddy boys as a joke and questioned their sexuality due to the absence of their father’s during the war. It wasn’t long before the term ‘Teddy boy’ was synonymous with juvenile delinquent, so much so that they are the basis for the costumes of the thugs in The Clockwork Orange. This reputation was mainly due to the Notting Hill Race Riots that took place in late August and early September 1958. These were racially motivated attacks on members of the black community by white Teddy Boys. The riots were influenced by groups like the White Defense League attempting to ‘Keep Britain White’ after an increased number of Caribbean migrants arriving in Britain after World War II.

Also some Teddy Boys formed gangs initiating public fights with their rivals. This could be seen as the start of the media’s sometimes negative attitude towards youth culture. Having said this, most people in today’s society do not read the term ‘Teddy boy’ as a negative. We mainly view it as a style of dress with references to rock ‘n’ roll. This amnesia of the negatives is due to the 1970’s revival of the subculture. The Teds came back to life as a sort of nostalgia for the time before drug-taking hippies and aggressive skinheads. This was made more attractive in the media when the Punks came along with their desire to shock, the Teds were from a much more harmless, comfortable era.