Sometimes geometry can be fun. Particularly when you get rid of the 'find x' part and fuse it with knitwear. In the words of graphic designer (and wise fellow) Paul Rand: 'You can't criticise geometry. It's never wrong.'



Wow. Puns make math even more fun. Who knew?

 

Here's Cal and his geometric jumper. The bag says, 'I'm ready to go learn some more math.'

 

{T-Shirt, Next. Jumper, Vintage C.1990s. Jeans, River Island.
Shoes, Asics. Bag, Element.}

 

 

Some music to throw some shapes to: a-ha's Take on Me.

 

Bags Cal Knitwear Pattern

Dressing in the Light: Geometric Knit

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Last week I decided to venture forth from my natural habitat and go gallery hopping in Mayfair. There were two exhibitions I was desperate to see - Rob and Nick Carter's Chinese Whispers at The Fine Art Society and Joseph Kosuth's Amnesia: Various, Luminous, Fixed at Sprüth Magers.

 

I loved the concept behind Chinese Whispers. It's like a visual version of that childhood game, where a message is whispered around a group, passed through each person, until by the end it's just nonsense, like 'purple monkey dishwasher' or 'Ben likes Katie' or something. The Carters commissioned a Chinese artist to reproduce various Warhol images. The reproductions were then passed onto another studio and who then copied them and sent their versions to another studio. This was repeated twenty-eight more times. The Carters then arranged the images from first to the thirtieth picture. Each artist made little mistakes or alterations that eventually eroded the original image until the final reproduction looks nothing like the first or very much like anything really, just a lot of lines and dark patches.

 

This was done for all sorts of Andy Warhol greats - the soup can, the Coca-Cola logo, even Da Vinci's Last Supper.

 

According to the blurb, the exhibition is all about truth and authenticity. This is a big sticking point in fashion. The majority of people don't have access to a wardrobe of one-of-a-kind pieces. We buy off the rack. Granted, an item can look completely different depending on who's wearing it and how but there's always a risk of bumping into someone wearing the same thing. (Oh, the horror!) The High-Street takes a lot from high-fashion designers, who in turn find inspiration from all sorts of sources, from muses to trends past to cinema. By the time it's got to you, it can be hard to disentangle your individual style thumbprint (what I see as authenticity) from the web of fashion.

 

So after this, I went to look at some lights. 

Looking in at Sprüth Magers from the rainy street outside.

 

People are going to start saying I have an obsession with neon lights. Well, maybe I do. But these are a million miles away from The God's Own Junkyard exhibition I went to a few weeks ago. There's no sex, no rock'n'roll, no Soho.

 

The first thing I noticed was the noise. It sounded like a beehive. A beautiful, glowing beehive.

Well, if you don't even know, Kosuth...

 

Language is central to Kosuth's work. Statements like 'Language must speak for itself.' and '"I see (hear, feel, etc.) X"' were translated into neon. The room downstairs featured a sort of timetable version of Joyce's 'Ulysses' - the lights said 'Sirens 4p.m.' and 'Cyclops 5 p.m.'. Fab

 

While going around looking around galleries, I wore some clothes:

 

{Headband, H&M. Jumper, Topshop. Trousers, Topshop.
Shoes, Topshop.)

 

A marvellous song if ever there was one and the sort of music video that makes you question everything: R.E.M's Imitation of Life.

Art Laure London Stripes

Wear: The Gallery {The Fine Art Society & Sprüth Magers}

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So here's the situation: I'm a really bad vegetarian. Actually, that's a lie. I just masquerade as one - I'm a pescetarian (or 'hipstertarian' as Cal spells it). The thing is, I discovered smoked salmon so late in my career as an omnivore and there's still so much I want to explore: on blinis, at 1am from that legendary bagel shop on Brick Lane that never closes, smeared with avocado on potato farls. I'm not ready to give it up, yet.

Let me make it even worse: I love leather. I may squirm about the very notion of a cheeseburger but a pair of soft, leather boots will give me the good kind of shivers. Hypocrisy thy name is Laure.

A few weeks back, I went to coffee with my good ol' vegan friend, M. She leaned over and stroked my grandmother's sheepskin coat with a vague look of disgust.

"That's a pretty weird thing for a vegetarian to wear," M pronounced.

I had to agree she was right.

The majority of my leather is vintage, often stolen from my parents' wardrobes. The rest of it, however, isn't. In my experience, a good leather bag tends to last longer than a pleather one and a pair of shiney brogues fight off the rain so well. I must admit these do sound like the pro-meat arguments I encountered when I first renounced my bacon-eating ways - 'where will you get your protein/iron/vitamin B12/vital life force from?' There are ways around these percieved problems, you just need a bit of a life-style shift, is all.

The list of sins continue. I wear wool. I stole one of my Dad's cashmere jumpers. It's a sticking point that I'm still figuring out.

But where I do draw the line, carefully with a ruler, is fur.

Nope. No way, son. It's just not going to happen.

A few years ago, my sister and I inherited a fur coat from my grandmother's friend. At eighty-years-old, it's more antique than vintage. Apart from it being a few sizes too big and its undeniable musty smell, it's just too furry, too real, for me to love it. Even as I convinced Cal to put on the infamous fur, or the pimp coat as he calls it, my hands were going clammy.

The notorious cruelty of the fur trade is well documented. (Click here for PETA's assessment of it.)
Yet somewhere between foxes being skinned alive (and the fact that it sheds), Fur seeps its way back into fashion.

And it's something I just can't wear. I prefer my Cruella de Vil homage faux. And none of that 'good' faux malarky, thank you.Give me super-soft hyper-reality or leopard print or colours that resemble muppet skin. Give me something just as warm, with less guilt. 

{Cal: Coat, Vintage C.1940s. Shirt, Vintage C.1990s.

Jeans, River Island. Socks, Next. Shoes, Vintage C.1990s.

Laure: Coat, New Look. Jumper, Topshop. Skirt, Topshop.

Shoes, H&M.}

Embrace the inner animal: District 78's Circle of Life Remix.

Cal Fur Laure Sequins

The Controversial Edit: Fur or Faux

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