Fashion's Tainted Beauty. Soul Receive. Miranda July: The Future. All Abode: Sea of Shoes. Daphne Guinness: Undressed. Polly Morgan: Psychopomps. Polly Morgan makes her living stuffing animals into bell-jars.
Before you call PETA—she’s a trained taxidermist, who creates fantastical, surreal and darkly humorous sculptures out of creatures she finds dead from accidental or natural causes. Though there’s an archly decorative bent to her work, her sculptures make a definitive departure from the staged, pseudo-naturalistic form typical of the art form. Birds sleep beneath tiny chandeliers, rats curl up in champagne flutes and Dalí’s lobster phone is updated via an upside-down pigeon. Any ick factor is balanced by the sheer thrill of Morgan’s ingenuity—who else, after all, could make a pretty vase arrangement of preserved birds on sticks? First spotted by street art prankster Banksy in 2005, Morgan has famous fans in Kate Moss and Courtney Love, but it’s taken until now for her to mount her first solo show at Haunch of Venison, London, entitled Psychopomps and opening July 21. “I just chanced upon the word 'psychopomps.' Country Strong: Vestal Vodka. El Bulli: The Golden Ticket.
Mir Fabergé: Rare Find. Il Pellicano: Tuscan Paradise. In the Studio With M/M (Paris) Norwegian Wood: Young Love. Lacroix: Prince Charming. To inaugurate her Fashion Fairytale Memoir series, author and style expert Camilla Morton asked legendary couturier Christian Lacroix to illustrate her take on Sleeping Beauty.
For Morton, who has covered shows for Vogue among others, he was her dream candidate: the designer's nearly 30 years of fantastical collections have referenced everything from religious iconography to the Belle Époque. “He told me his favorite fairytale was Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” says Morton, “but I persuaded him otherwise.” The couturier’s illustrations, previewed above, combine collage with a contemporary baroque aesthetic; they befit Morton's neo-fable, which entwines the princess’s fate with Lacroix’s own life story.
“You can read it as a fairytale or as a light breeze through a designer's biography,” Morton explains. NOWNESS spoke to the fashion journalist about Disney, escapism and her “Cinderella” moment. How did your love for fairy tales influence your career path? Melvin Sokolsky: Magical Realism. Daily Darcelism: September 23. Shini Park’s DIY Guide. Flea markets are a great resource for style seekers like London-based fashion blogger and do-it-yourself guru Shini Park, whose site Park & Cube has gained a huge following (not to mention plaudits in Vanity Fair, Company and Glamour) since it was launched in 2008.
Though a typical post on Park & Cube can feature anything from backstage runway photographs to pristinely shot street style snaps, one of Park’s main hobbies is DIY fashion. Born in South Korea, Park grew up in Poland, where she developed a taste for vintage early on in rebellion against what she perceived as the country’s predilection for classic, conservative looks. Who better to recommend some top-class markets in which to rummage for inspiration? Dong Dae Mun (Great East Gate) Market, Seoul, South Korea When I was younger, my grandmother used to take me to this market and buy me food from the stands while she shopped for fresh vegetables and kitchen gadgets.
St Ouen: Paris’s Grand Bazaar.
Patrick Roger: Sugar Daddy. “I eat between 40 and 60 chocolates a day,” confesses Patrick Roger, the Vendôme-born chocolate artist.
“Am I sick of it? Of course not. It’s like being in love—do you ever get sick of it?” Passion equals success for Roger. In addition to his Saint-Germain-des-Prés outpost, where NOWNESS photographed the artist, he has seven boutiques throughout France, and one opening in London in 2012. What's your earliest chocolate memory? Every year, you prepare elaborate chocolates and window displays for Valentine’s Day. Why chocolate rather than, say, baking? What advice would you give someone looking to buy a box of chocolates?
Your work frequently alludes to sex. Pampered Pets. Antwerp Fashion Takes Flight. Known for launching the careers of Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Martin Margiela and Haider Ackermann, the fashion department at the Antwerp Academy is the most closely viewed platform in the world for burgeoning designers. Artist Tara Dougans interpreted the breakout final collections from this year's seven graduating students, an international mix hailing from Germany, Poland, The Netherlands, Belgium and Japan. “I thought about all the talented people I have met who burn brightly, and the concept of ‘a moth to a flame,’” Dougans explains of her finely wrought graphite illustrations with an entomological twist. Avant-garde designer Walter Van Bierendonck, himself an illustrious alumnus and part of the Belgian super group known as the Antwerp Six, heads up the department and knows the weight of expectation that comes with the fiercely contested placement.
"They graduate under the spotlight—watched by the world,” he says. “They have to be perfect from day one. "