When The Sartorialist featured André Benjamin (AKA Benjamin 3000) on the blog a few weeks ago the response was phenomenal. Everyone loves this guy. And now news is in that André has unveiled his own clothing line at Barneys, New York with other upscale outlets to follow. The line, Benjamin Bixby is inspired by ‘vintage documentary clips of American football players’ according to WGSN and consists of varsity sweaters, newsboy caps, denim and a long fake fur coat for good measure. As someone who’s madly into menswear on girls at the moment, this definitely appeals to me. Even if I don’t wear it, I want to see it. And rest assured, this is no lame celebrity fashion line. Ten years in the planning, Benjamin has self-financed the brand and knows his fashion inside out. He plans to change the look entirely for SS09 although the common thread will be classic dressing. Go André!
The papers are up in arms about a recent Indian Vogue fashion shoot. Said shoot depicts ultra luxury accessories including a Birkin bag, a Burberry umbrella and a Fendi bib on everyday (read: poor) people. I get the point of the people complaining but really, what’s new? From Vogue and umpteen other magazines jetting to ‘exotic’ developing countries to shoot their fashion stories, to John Galliano famously being inspired by the Parisian homeless for his boho-meets-hobo couture collection, to those now-cliched trailer park fashion shoots, magazines have been doing these ‘let’s shoot high fashion on poor people to create an edgy contrast!’ editorials for aeons. I doubt the subjects of the Vogue shoot feel the same affront as the critics – unless they were forced in front of the camera – although of course I could be wrong. I think we’d all agree however, that the Fendi bib is tacky – whether on a poor child or a rich one.
The September issue of US Elle has a mini-interview with Anne Slowey and Joe Zee to introduce the Elle fash-mag reality show, Stylista to the world. One of the questions is ‘what’s the craziest thing you ever had to do as an assistant?’ Which got me thinking about my own experiences. In the early days of computers (the early ’90s to be precise), my fashion director was still welded to her typewriter, so would type out her copy then edit it by physically cutting, rearranging and Sellotaping the paragraphs – liberally peppered with crossings-out, Tipp-Ex splodges and corrections – before handing it to me to decipher and retype on the computer. I also had to answer readers’ queries like ‘where can I buy one-legged tights?’ and ‘I’m 5’0″ and size twenty, who makes fashionable clothes for my size at an affordable price?’ (Answer: no-one.) In those days, all readers’ letters were answered individually and I actually really enjoyed researching (this was pre-internet) and writing them. From doing that I learnt everything I know about dressing for non-standard bodyshapes, holiday packing to any destination and my specialities, Mother of The Bride Dressing and How Not To Look Like Mutton Dressed As Lamb.
The craziest thing I nearly had to do was dress up a ‘chicken crossing the road’ for a shoot snapped on location around London. My bonkers genius fashion director wanted it to be a quirky shoot all about one girl going about her business and the funny things happening to her during the course of her day. So a chicken costume was hired and I had a lucky escape as our wacky hairstylist volunteered at the eleventh hour to dress up as the comedy chicken. Oh the fun we had.
If I asked my old assistant what the craziest thing she had to do was while working for me, I can guess what she’d say: ‘everything, from remembering your hospital appointments to splitting up fights between you and our editor. Not to mention the time we shared a hotel room in Miami and I had to sleep on the fold-out camp bed in the living room, complete with peeping Tom at the window.’ Ah yes, well let’s not get into that, it’s all part of the learning experience isn’t it?
So…what’s the craziest thing you’ve had to do in your journey up the career ladder?
One of my regular bus routes has been on diversion for a few weeks causing great inconvenience at times, yet a welcome distraction at others. The diversion is due to a huge building site at ‘Scotch House Corner’, the corner of Knightsbridge where Burberry now stands, but which used to be a charming store called The Scotch House where you could buy all manner of Shetland, cashmere and tartanwear – how very this season! The irksome building work is down to the Candy Brothers, two infamous property developers who have razed that particular junction of Knightsbridge to the ground in order to erect their extravagant brand of luxe appartments, all at the inconvenience of we mere civilians (and no small number of tourists) trying to access Harvey Nichols, Sloane Street and the Royal Albert Hall.
Yet on the other hand – with a bit of forward planning – it’s quite nice going about business via a different route. My journey from Sloane Square to home takes me on a detour via Brompton Road where I can ogle the Skandium window displays and remind myself for the nth time that I really must pay the V&A shop museum a visit soon. I am also treated to the day-by-day development of the London Fashion Week tents in the grounds of the breathtaking Natural History Museum – is it me or do they seem to build the tents earlier every year?
Taking a different route to my appointments reminds me how easy it is to get stuck in old routines and it really is true that doing things differently makes you see life from another perspective. So much of our daily grind is governed for us, maybe we should pay more attention to what we do and why and take an active role in occassionally going against the grain. Who knows what you might discover?
