Yesterday saw a new addition to the already bustling enclave of Bruton Street/Place, finally open up it’s doors to the public.

SHOWstudio, the [up until now online only] platform for the legendary and visionary photographer, Nick Knight and his host of globally recognized collaborators, had recently moved premises to a converted barn nestled in the heart of London posho’s home, Mayfair, a historic building itself, as one of the oldest barns in the center of London, formerly a barn, a brothel, the studios and galleries of Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud — and most recently Maison Martin Margiela.

1-9 Bruton Place now houses the new purpose-designed live studio as well as the retail space. The SHOWstudio SHOP enables the public to experience the outstanding creativity and originality expected from SHOWstudio.com, first hand.

Starworks London welcomed press to meet Nick and the guys, including Alex Fury (Fashion Director of the site), and the awesome Lindsay Thompson (of Art + Commerce) who is firmly ensconced within the SHOWstudio fraternity.

Some early birds were lucky enough to meet some of the collaborators and imaginators whose work already resides within the light, bright, gleaming gallery/store/work space/studio, including set designers Michael Howells and Shona Heath, and even milliner Stephen Jones popped in, to peruse the wares and congratulate Nick.

Without a doubt, the favorite piece in the store is the £75,000 taxidermy tiger, a recent acquisition from a german zoo! Nick used this in a SS10 shoot for an Alexander McQueen / Puma advertisement. Reactions were mixed. “I want to hug it”, “It looks like it’s going to eat you”, and the clever quip “That thing needs glow sticks”.

SHOWstudio.com, the groundbreaking website which has pushed the boundaries of online fashion communication since its launch in 2000 was founded on the idea of showing the process behind the creation of fashion imagery – now the SHOWstudio SHOP offers the public the unique chance to purchase part of this process, and indeed part of fashion’s history. The new retail space, situated in the heart of Mayfair, is based on two completely new retail concepts – part live studio, part gallery.

For the first time, the SHOWstudio SHOP offers for sale some of the spectacular props that have graced iconic photographic shoots and catwalk shows, selected from historical and contemporary fashion imagery and created by set designers and fashion stylists including Simon Costin, Katy England, Simon Foxton, Shona Heath, Jane How, Michael Howells and Gideon Ponte.

Simultaneously, SHOWstudio will continue its commitment to live online creation, inviting some of the world’s greatest designers to create unique pieces in front of webcams in a new purpose-designed live studio space. After seeing the articles being created real-time, SHOWstudio’s audience will be able to purchase the final items from the SHOWstudio retail space and through the website itself.

This innovative venture will continue SHOWstudio’s commitment to collaborate with a wealth of high-profile creatives, which to date has included such luminaries as Alexander McQueen, Björk, Comme des Garçons, John Galliano and Gareth Pugh. Carefully chosen and curated by Nick Knight and the SHOWstudio team, the pieces within the SHOWstudio SHOP will available online as well as from the Bruton Place shop.

The SHOWstudio SHOP is now open to the public and online (of course) at http://shop.showstudio.com/

NB the site works wonderfully and is a must for fashion geeks, offering detailed blogs on collaborators, a link to SHOWstudio itself, and a brilliant function which gives the provenance and related image of each piece sold with in the store.

– George MacPherson (SW London)

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One of our favorite new clients here at Starworks London is the talented Mr Jordan Askill, hailing from Sydney, Australia, via the hallowed ground of Dior Homme. Jordan has been creating beautiful jewelry on his own for the last year.

Along the way he has been picking up stockists such as Dover Street Market, Liberty and Rick Owens, RA in Antwerp, as well as developing a neat little fan club in his native Sydney.

For a year old brand Askill is able to count three tiers of product offering:
(1) The statement, fine jewelry pieces of his main line collection at DSM
(2) The diffusion-like ‘Jordy’ sell out heart rings and bracelets range
(3) The super conceptual sculpture pieces which inform his entire work.

We were lucky enough to see all of these elements at play during LFW, as Askill worked on three projects throughout the week, each uniquely showcasing his work.

The first was with the Anna Wintour attended Meadham Kirchhoff show, the lady herself got a close up of Askill’s incredibly detailed work of metallic resin birds which graced the heels and hair of the models in a simply beautiful show.

Secondly the ‘Jordy’ range was showcased at a new sales concept created by the British Fashion Council to promote Australian and Scandinavian Design, the heart rings, cast in various different golds and often set with precious stones, have become best sellers in Liberty and can be found on the fingers of literally 1 in 10 Sydney fashion editors.

Askill’s last stop was a spectacular display of a brand new sculptural work at Lulu Kennedy’s Fashion East Menswear Installations on the last day of LFW, deep in the basement coal sheds of Somerset House.

Neatly off-setting said ancient coal dust, the designer stood a gleaming white resin sculpture created using the latest rapid prototyping technology upon a black plinth inlaid with a monitor which ran a looped video of sunlight glimmering off rippled water. Truly inspirational. The sculpture itself was created using the outline of his all time favourite childhood cartoon figure – HeMan’s battlecat – or more correctly his remove-able helmet.

Something made all the more interesting within the news, is that a certain cartoonish megastar is now asking to commission a similar piece for an upcoming appearance.

Jordan Askill is available from all of the list stores, and Land’s End in Sydney, Australia, as well as a neat little e-commerce platform

For more information check out his website, shared with his equally genius brothers Daniel and Lorin.

–George (SW London)

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Better late than never… just wanted to share with you the all around amazingness of our latest project with our friends at Dazed & Confused, and Swarovski.

Building on Marios’ H.O.T. AW collection which featured a gazzillion Swarovski gems and an ever so clever analglyphic (that means 3d) print, Starworks London pulled together a cover story with a difference.

Dazed Creative Director Nicola Formichetti brought his unique vision to the story, shot by Terry Tsiolis in NY and Swarovski backed the project, which meant the 8 page feature could literally jump off the page.

60,000 3D glasses were inserted into the August issue and the creative team at Dazed art directed the story so that the whole piece complimented the 3d print of Swarovski crystals.

Big thanks to everyone at Dazed and Swarovski for their help in masterminding this truly special creative project.

– George (SW London)

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Our lovely friends at SHOWstudio have once more joined forces with long term collaborator Gareth Pugh – he of the shiny black leggings and other scary/beautiful clothes, and come up with the fiercest birthday present imaginable, the ‘Double Mohican’ from his latest digital offering.

Following Gareth Pugh’s latest video installation as part of New York’s new alternative showspace M·A·C & Milk – exclusively premiered on SHOWstudio.com simultaneous to the fashion press’ first screening – the SHOWstudio Shop offers for sale an exquisite one-off piece featured in Gareth Pugh and Ruth Hogben’s films.

This ‘Double-Mohican’ headpiece, hand-crafted by Gareth Pugh himself, is a central feature of the film installation shown earlier this month as part of M·A·C & Milk at New York Fashion Week. This installation was designed to express the inspirations behind the S/S 2010 collection; which Pugh will present on 30th October in Paris. The item therefore is not only a unique collector’s piece but a vital document of the inspiration behind the work of this cutting-edge and much-fêted British design talent.

This one-of-a-kind article is the latest addition to the roster of unique and covetable pieces offered for sale in the SHOWstudio Shop.

Gareth Pugh MAC & MILK

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Hermès and Liberty popped open a luxe collaboration last night in London, with a new Hermès scarf and tie shop open till Sunday 18th this year.

We got in there just as Slumdog’s Dev Patel and Freida Pinto got swallowed by a giant zebra head. Scary.

The Hermès store, built with Hermès orange boxes takes over Liberty’s scarf room with a new collection of their scarves and ties from autumn / winter 09, from the time-honoured ‘carré’ to its new cravate-foulard an ingenious tie-come-cravate for men.

To celebrate this union, Hermès created an exclusive limited edition range of scarves and ties, using Liberty’s renowned Tana Lawn cottons. We got a badge covered in the stuff.

– George MacPherson

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