Rena Niamh Smith

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Socialist Review •

Rag trade is fraying at the edges

While the effects of the global pandemic become apparent, restrictions on daily living have caused an existential crisis for the fashion industry. “This is the largest crisis that the modern industry has ever faced,” declared Imran Amed, founding editor of BusinessofFashion.com. “We’re going to see a wave of insolvencies and bankruptcies as the year continues.” With shops and factories shuttered, the BBC reported that from generating an annual £2.02 trillion in global revenues, the industry sa
Future Heist •

Dr Tony Sullivan: Fashion Lecturer

Tony Sullivan is Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Historical Studies at London College of Fashion, UAL. He is contributing author in a new book "Fashion & Politics", which looks at fashion from the mid 19th century to today and how it has been used to express nationalism, terrorism, surveillance and individualism. His chapter, 'Dressing the Opposition: Sartorial Resistance on Europe’s Political Left', looks at the way in which politicians including Jeremy Corbyn, have used dress to transmit their
Socialist Review •

Karl Lagerfeld, 1933–2019

“Those social networks, there’s something sad about them. It’s like a talkative mirror where people talk to themselves.” So Karl Lagerfeld told Women’s Wear Daily in 2014. When the designer died in February, there was an outpouring of grief on social media from across the fashion industry for the self-styled pope of fashion. Lagerfeld was known to hold contemptuous views of the same world he profited from. And social media was key...
Future Heist •

Bonnie Fechter: Fashion Designers

Bonnie Fechter is a fashion label by Sarah Buchanan and Rosie Wolfendon produced entirely in the UK which challenges the seasonal structure of fashion collections. They say: "As designers, we've always been really passionate about clothing and design, however, quickly became disillusioned by the fast fashion industry and how it encourages a throw-away culture. We wanted to create a conceptual clothing label to make people more consumer conscious, to really appreciate the quality and design process involved and to fall back in love with clothes!" Co-hosted with Chloe Vasseghi, in this episode, we discuss influences from their Scottish heritage, the growing crisis of waste in fashion and the need for a new understanding of clothes beyond the fashion prism that sees material in terms of what's hot and what's not.
Socialist Review •

Eco-fashioning a toxic trade

Fashion is a product industry, and as such, requires enormous amounts of resources to produce, distribute and dispose of what is sold. Typically, textiles and garments are mass-produced in the Global South, shipped to Western countries for consumption, and vast quantities of those which are not dumped in landfill are shipped to Africa and beyond to the vast second-hand market. The world’s second most polluting industry after oil, fashion’s specific crimes against the planet are too numerous...
Future Heist •

Bethany Williams: Fashion Designer

Mens fashion designer Bethany Williams believes that social and environmental issues go hand in hand and through exploring the connection between these issues we may find innovative design solutions to sustainability. She wants not just to comment on a community, but work in their social spaces to try to create a change through furthering economic gain for charity. By using social capital, intellectual and labour intensive skills we aim to create a profit, which will be given to connected charities, continuing the cycle of exchange.Through collaboration with communities and charities we hope to create a collection embedded with real people and hope to cause a real effect in the social space we engage with. We discuss how Bethany has engaged with community projects, and pioneered new ways of working in fashion to reduce waste. She explains how she got into fashion design, and new projects for the future.
i-D •

​alexander wang opens first european flagship in london | watch

Days after the announcement that he and the grand dame of Paris, Balenciaga, will not be renewing their vows for another season, Alexander Wang has opened his first European flagship store in London, a testament to the incredible success of his own label. "I think that London has the best shopping in the world," Wang told Vogue, adding that, "I always knew that London would be the first city that I would want to open a flagship in in Europe".
Wonderland Magazine •

LCM: Matthew Miller SS16

Matthew Miller’s crumpled take on frayed at the edges workwear will have you eager to do overtime. For SS16, Matthew Miller riffed on that self-imposed modern uniform that millions wear every day – namely, workwear – and made us all wish we worked in an office. Slender models with the blank stare of the desktop drone moved monotonously to Savages’ words: “don’t let the fuckers get you down, don’t let them wonder why you frown”. Wide and double-breasted jackets were worn with cropped pants.
Telegraph.co.uk •

Everything you need to know about London Collections: Men

Now in its seventh season and newly expanded from three to four days, London Collections: Men returns to the capital tomorrow for a long weekend of catwalk shows, film screenings, presentations, talks and glitzy after-parties.The British Fashion Council ’s menswear answer to London Fashion Week, some would describe it as the nattier, edgier younger sibling. Launched at St James’s Palace in 2012, the week has enjoyed endorsement by everyone from Tinie Tempah to Samuel L Jackson to Boris Johnson
Dazed •

Tavi selects the most overlooked Wes Anderson costumes

The cultish look of each of Wes Anderson’s films creates a self-contained visual world where quirky sartorial touches are the main vocabulary. Yet, some characters’ ensembles get more of a spotlight than others. “There’s so many good ones that don’t get as much of a spotlight,” says Wes Anderson die-hard and founder of Rookie Tavi Gevinson. From Dudley Heinsbergen to Mrs. Fox, the quiet statements of the lesser-spotted Wes characters make for inspiring moments for a style aficionado like Gevinso