Tear into summer.
The relationship between art and fashion is by no means a new one. In 1937, Elsa Schiaparelli worked with Salvador Dali to produce the infamous and much referenced silk organza and horsehair ‘Lobster’ dress. Thirty years later, Yves Saint Laurent paid homage to modernist art with his iconic Mondrian shift dress. Designers across the board will continue to collaborate with and be inspired by painters, sculptors, visual artists, illustrators, photographers, musicians, street artists and more. As Marc Moore and Luke Harwood of Stolen Girlfriends Club reveal on page 141, 10 years on from the raucous launch of their label (which I witnessed first-hand), they’re still committed to producing unique prints and garments in collaboration with local and international art masters.
In this issue, we explore the power of the art world across a range of features and are proud to present our own collaboration with two of our favourite contemporary artists, Andrew J. Steel and Damin Radford-Scott (formally the duo BMD). They produced our take on bondage-inspired swimwear against a backdrop of custom-painted sets in Wet Paint (page 88). For Lye of the Land (page 72), we worked with the newly built Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth, where the artist’s remarkable work served as striking props for our shoot. As a Taranaki native, this was a pinch-myself moment – childhood visits to the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and the work of Len Lye were gateways to the creative world for me, in a region known more for black and white gold (oil and milk) than art and fashion.
With the party season now in full swing, we have all you need to know about beach-body prep (page 170), party-ready hair (page 187) and why highlighting is the new contouring (page 178). To kick off your holiday reading, turn to our entertaining insight into finding Mr (Swipe) Right (page 149). And be inspired by two dynamic New Zealand businesswomen – Lucy Vincent-Marr, founder and creator of Sans [ceuticals] (page 62) and hospitality maven Mimi Gilmour (page 46). The team has loved putting this issue together and I hope you enjoy reading it cover-to-cover, wherever you may be this summer.
– Sally-Ann Mullin, Fashion Quarterly editor
Fashion Quarterly Summer 2015 is on sale now.
