PSFK Author:
Simon King

Laura Weir from Drapers Record tells us that Ironic (sorry, Iconic) brand Biba’s main licencee Biba International has gone into administration. Is PSFK surprised? Here’s a snapshot of what we wrote two years ago when they relaunched:

“[A] cynical attempt to jump start a major fashion brand off the back of a past ICON? See Norman Hartnell, Hardy Amis or Asprey if you want proof that this idea should be a dead lemming.”

Zietgeist is a hard thing to re-capture, some things should just be let be.

[via Drapers]

The BBC pulled a blinder last week. After their show “How To Get On In The Art World” they invited viewers to download a free couple of pieces by the notorious Chapman brothers. The downloads were available for the following 48 hours and only required printing and hanging on your wall. No parting with your hard earned wedge. PSFK went straight to the bbc site and did our art buying for the day but we’re betting this digital art is not worth the $18m paid for Warhols Liz in NY last week.

BBC - Imagine

It was Friday night and there were about 30 of us crowded into a mid terrace house in north London. The band had already set up in the upstairs living room and our host called us away from our conversations to enter the most intimate of concert experiences.

A living room gig gives a whole new meaning to the words ‘My-Space gig’. Ben Parker the Artist was contacted through his MySpace site and asked to do a private gig and its gone on from there. He’s now done a whole load of Living Room Gigs over the past couple of months and in the process is perhaps starting somthing new. Ben says “Doing an online gig is sterile and the only way to really interact with your audience is to do it live.” That night Ben took us to his world. No one talked while he played, he held us captive and touched us in an intimate and moving way. (Especially the performance of ‘Survive the Rain’)

PSFK asked Ben Parker what gave him the idea of doing these free concerts in other peoples houses: “It was a couple of things, I’m a musician and a performer and these gigs give me the opportunity to interact with an audience and get my music out there and listened too.” It helped that Ben’s music was perfect for situation. The end result of the evening was everyone buying a CD and going home feeling special, feeling that we’ve all somehow been taken to the moon and back. PSFK does not know if it’s a reaction to overcrowded pubs, the new smoking ban, the need of a load of 30 somthings to reconnect with gigging music or just the desire of a performer to engage with his audience. PSFK believes that this type of performance will grow as social networking grows and we all want to reach out from behind our computer screens and touch and experience something real.

Bens Myspace Site. (He’s playing San Fran and Hollywood towards the end of Oct).

Follow up: In the last week I’ve now had my second Living Room Gig invite!

Whoa there Muiccia!  Either PSFK does not understand your direction or you’ve taken up costume design for the new Chronicles of Narnia film?  With a collection which was more London than Milan and a presentation tied more around the texture than the aesthetic this mortal is finding hard to decipher this enegma:

Dip dye effect clashing colour blocks!
Auntie Ethel’s fury fabrics!
Spray on mould! 
The walking tree look.

We can only guess that Prada finally opened that wardrobe which had been locked since the 50’s. 

With so many designers following Prada it will be hard to escape some part of this look on the high street this AW.  PSFK prays it’s the colours that will influence as the shapes and textures leave us ‘always winter, never Christmas’.

Perhaps we’ll appreciate this collection better when been translated for us by Topshop?

Read the brilliant Sarah Mowers review at Style.com

PS.  Always Winter, Never Christmas,  narnia quote for those not familiar with the brilliant CS Lewis

It looks like Dolly Jones over at Vogue.com has pulled off a blinder in getting behind the scenes access to Lagerfeld and his team at the recent Chanel show in Monte Carlo.  Presenting a fashion show on film has always been a toughy.  Other Fashion TV companies seem forever missing the point that while a show in reality is a runway and atmosphere on film you have to work much harder to convey the designers message. 

With fantastic editing,  brilliant mood setting sound,  good mini-interviews with hair and make-up and thought on the story arc.    fashion.PSFK has been left breathless.

Vogues Fantastic Video

There is a T-Shirt revolution underway online.  This is Alex Singh’s third interview in the series. This time Alex catches up with Peter Lundgren,  CEO and Editor in Chief of T-Post whose unique T-Business revolves arround creating graphic t-shirts commenting on news stories sold via subscription.  Every month a new T pops through your door just like a newspaper!  We hope these interviews will give our readers a complete picture of the first Web 2.0 fashion companies out there.  Alex will also set up his own Web 2.0 T-Shirt project the progress of which he’ll track on his blog ‘Flavour Comes First‘.

For the complete set of interviews click the T Shirt Revolution link.

Interview 3 - T-Post

1) We’ve noticed you’re trying to communicate news - are you a fashion brand or are you a media company?

I would say that we are a little bit of both. We use fashion to communicate news.

2) Can you explain the inspiration behind the direction of your business?

A lot of really important stories (big or small) get forgotten amongst all other media buzz and T-posts task, as we se it, is to pic up those stories so people get another chans to discuss them through our T-shirts.

3) What are the ideals behind your product(s)?

We´re trying to fighting for the little guy… and through our eyes reflect on the world as a whole and try to keep a happy face.

4) What keeps you coming back each day rather than calling it quits and doing something else?

I get to make T-shirts about what I believe is important to tell people about (big or small).

5) What was that one inspirational and motivating spark that invigorated you and pushed you over the edge - to go ahead and just "do it"?

It´s always been pretty easy for me to throw myself into projects that I believe in, some crash an burn, others succeed, but if I must name one thing I would say it was the challenge to combine interesting news and fashion that pushed me over the edge.

6) Are there any plans to shake up what you’re doing right now? Any plans down the road? Where are you striving to have the business at in the future?

We´ve just gone throue a face lift of T-post product, web page and changed the T-shirt to American Apparel. But down the line I can see that we will have the opportunity for our subscribers to chose a specific genre like for example news specifically about Politics, Sports, Music et.c.

7) From a fashion perspective where does this go?

We always try to come up with new fresh designers that is groundbreaking and is suitable for our story. But in the end it´s all about what we like for the time being. We´re not a slave under the latest trends, but as everybody we cant help from being inspired by them from time to time. If you like what we have done in the past you wont be disappointed. It´s just like listening to a specific movie critic that you know got the same taste of moves as you. And sometimes that critic takes you to movies that you wouldn’t have gone to, but afterwards you were glad you did.

8) How about from a media perspective?

We´re just focusing on picking up interesting stories and making nice looking T-shirts. Hopefully people will like them and will tell more people.

9) You’ve done tees - what is the next thing you’re going to develop?

That it´s possible for our subscribers to choose different models for each delivery. It could be that you can get a Tank-top one time and a huddie the next.

10) What current trends have you noticed affecting T-Post?

The growing scale of the intelligent consumer have helped us a lot. They no longer can be fooled by a print campaigning into believing something is cool, that intact have no meaning. They are looking for things that are genuine. People tend to want to have another layer on the things they wear. It could be that "my grandfather wore this jacket in the war" or to wear my favourite band on my T-shirt which will say a bit of who I am.

11) We haven’t seen a lesbian or gay couple in your gallery - is this something you’ll do the future?*

We have actually that on our schedule. In the beginning we wanted to show that we got both men and women T-shirts, but I think every have realised that now…;)

12) What’s the most passionate and invigorating part of the business for you?*

It´s to read our subscribers reactions when they get them in the mail or how they have had a discussions over a specific issue. Or things like I read on a blog yesterday, that subscribers seem to connect with other subscribers they se on the street, almost as the are part of the same secret club or something.

13) We can’t find anyone whom you compete against - who are your
competitors?*

I guess that it´s other T-shirt sites that sell T-shirts over the internet with a thoughtful idea behind the print.

14) Do you plan on giving your customers any control over your business at all?

Yep, our next step is to give all visitors and subscribers a chance to pitch interesting news ideas on the web page.

15) You are very open about your number of subscribers - 822. Whats the philosophy behind this?*

Our idea is to present exactly how many subscribers we have in each country, state and city. We want it to be open to everybody how many els is subscribing in the same city. If we get to many subscribers in one city we are going to apply the bar entrance rule "one out one in". Just to make sure that our subscribers don´t get to meet 20 people on the way to the supermarket wearing the same T-shirt.

-Ends-

fashion.psfk T Shirt Revolution Articles
T-Post

By now you already know that the hottest ticket for London Fashion Week was not Gareth Pugh, Giles Decon,  Jonathan Sunders,  the Fashion East Shows,  McDowells fashion fringe or even Armani showing in London (Piss off back to Milan you showman says Simon King of PSFK!) it was the relaunch of BIBA a defunct 60’s label playing on the malleable nostalgia of fashion editors who were far to young to remember your first brilliant reincarnation which rather synically has been reborn aka the phoenix from the cow-pat. 

The major problem the PSFK team has though is not with BIBA (Fingers down throat every time you say that name) but with Hugh Grant (We adore you and how could you disapoint us so?) who took a front row seat in their show.  We loved you once,  your portrayal as a singleton in Four Weddings was fantastic,  as Julia’s bit of stuff in Notting Hill Sublime…..  We even forgive Micky Blue Eye’s but a front row ticket at Biba’s emergence from the Cowpat,  We just hope you won the ticket in a lottery.  Why not support a real British innovative designer and not a shallow, cynical attempt to jump start a major fashion brand off the back of a past ICON?  See Norman Hartnell, Hardy Amis or Asprey if you want proof that this idea should be a dead lemming.

Dolly as always has the best coverage of LFW at VOGUE.com:

Giles
Fashion East  (Thanks Lulu without you the UK would be pointless)
Pugh - (You remind us of Pingu we love you!)
McDowell - Master of Fashion we Kneel at your alter!
BIBA - Remembered but Not Forgiven
Flights to Milan

PSFK Loves the British newspapers ‘The Independent" A to Zee (or A to Zed if you’re a Brit) guide to fashion.  Especially as proceeds are donated to the global fight against AID’s.

Fave extracts include:

Y is for Yves (Saint Laurent), presided over today by Stefano Pilati and restored to its former glory, and for London Fashion Week’s young(-ish) designers. Ann-Sofie Back, Emma Cook, Giles Deacon, Roksanda Ilincic, Peter Jensen, Christopher Kane, Todd Lynn, Richard Nicoll, Jonathan Saunders… the list goes on. They work every hour God gave them to come up with twice-yearly collections that - without the power of a heavyweight advertising budget - fight to be seen. For an industry that thrives on the shock of the new, they are also the future. Respect is most definitely due

W is for, well, for W, probably the loveliest fashion magazine of them all, today owned by Condé Nast, and for Women’s Wear Daily the trade paper that breaks every story worth its fashion credentials, reviews every show the following morning and has a website to match. W is also for water. We must drink gallons of it, very publicly, to ensure blemish-free skin at all times.

The only surprise is that W was not for Wintour and that P was not for PSFK!!!

Susannah Frankel’s Very Polished Article

News that Kate Moss attended the TopShop start of London Fashion Week show yesterday have sent fashwan hacks into a spin of speculation on the launch of her own line.  The best viewpoint coming from Imogen Fox of the Guardian. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/retail/story/0,,1874829,00.html

PSFK Notes - Many of the high street brands in Europe and the US are now staging catwalk shows and launching fashion forward collections during fashion week.  Where they used to be the followers they now throw their hat into the ring as potential leaders.  Perhaps this is the only direction left to them?  Designers have been collaborating and producing capsule collections for high street stores for many years now,  could Lagerfeld, Stella et al capsule collections for H&M, Topshop et al lead to Tom Ford becoming the creative director of Wal-Mart?