Jill Golden Goes to Seventies London (in her Mind)
Somehow, the journey began with a YouTube video of a lion.
You know the Christian the lion viral video? Well, that whole saga was the totally unexpected jumping-off point of what soon became Jill Golden’s obsession with London in the seventies—the fashion, homes, music, all of it. Turns out, her parents had visited the city during that period and dug up old travel slides from their time there, sealing the deal: She had to dedicate pieces of her glossy, easy-to-wear jewelry line Flutter to the era. Here’s what fueled the Jubilee collection—which includes her Of a Kind edition! —and how it came together.
Get a load of the Of a Kind edition Jill’s fascination inspired—a leather and gold bracelet. WHOA.
“1977 was the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, which was a huge celebration. But it was also a time of economic distress, which coincided with—or maybe sparked—the punk-rock movement. Perhaps the pinnacle of punk was the Sex Pistols’s controversial song ‘God Save the Queen’ and their performance on the Thames just days before the Jubilee.”
“The rise of the punk-rock movement also extended into fashion, with Vivienne Westwood and her partner Malcolm McLaren, who was the manager of the Sex Pistols.“
“There was also a large presence by Biba in London at that time, with Barbara Hulanicki opening of her large department store—which had an Art Deco style—on Kensington High Street. I think all of these forces together made my collection a real mix of industrial and jeweled aesthetics, with colorful accents and a variety of materials and shapes.”
“The first piece I did was the Rendall necklace—it has a bit of an industrial-slash-vintage vibe. The lions on the ends are a nod to that original documentary that started the whole adventure.” (And those are her parents’ images in the background!)
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Weather Vain: London, England - 75 With a 50% Chance of Rain
Shocker of all shockers: You could be looking at a wet day if you’re in London. Here, what to wear if you’re hangin’ with either Kate M. —erica
Clockwise from top left:
+ One of the many nice things about this ultra-rich Hare + Hart bag: You can tuck it under your arm to shield it from any showers.
+ Melissa is the queen of PVC (yup, that’s a good thing), and you’ll get a boatload of wear of of these slick little slip-ons.
+ To hell with the basic khaki ones. This leopard trench from Jane Post is a cool as the exhibitions at White Cube.
+ The illusion of stacking jewelry is always easier to pull of that having to layer the stuff yourself, and Fortune Favors the Brave kills it on that front.
+ The easiest-to-wear slip dress ever? Why, this silky, nineties-revival one from Acne.
+ Wear just the studs of these Bande des Quatres earrings for a day in Shoreditch, and add the pendants for dinner at St. John Hotel.
More weather-based outfit prescriptions right here! Go get ‘em.
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Jacqueline Rousseau
For Jacqueline Rousseau, Barbies were a sartorial gateway drug. Raised in a small town in Indiana with limited fashion resources, Jacqueline recalls eagerly devouring her mom’s back issues of Cosmo and styling her esteemed dolls, mixing and matching from their abundant wardrobes. “I was obsessed with them,” she confirms matter-of-factly. “I played with them all the time.” By age nine—bolstered by her years of experience doing miniature makeovers—Jacqueline resolved to be a designer and proceeded to paper the walls of her bedroom with sketches.
Her enthusiasm didn’t diminish when she hit college, where she majored in fine art, always thinking about how to apply those color theory and composition courses back to the garment world. A Cambridge study-abroad program revealed another passion—England!—and, after wrapping up her degree and working a string of rent-procuring odd jobs, Jacqueline decided to combine her two infatuations, enrolling at London College of Fashion.
After seven years in the U.K., Jacqueline moved back to this side of the pond in 2010 and began working on her own label in earnest. And while her art background may be the easiest influence to spot in the line’s pattern-driven accessories, that whole anything-goes vibe of the London scene is at its core, too. “There, people aren’t afraid to push limits. They just go for it. In London, I figured out that style is part of your character,” she explains. “It’s part of who you are.” —mattie kahn
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Althea Harper
Though Althea Harper (who you might know for her second-place finish on Project Runway’s sixth season) spent her college years hopping around Europe to study under titans like Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood, the Dayton, Ohio, native’s non-technical design approach is her real hallmark. Not long after she launched her namesake line for fall 2009, she realized she needed to backtrack. “It’s one thing when you’re designing in this fantasy world for yourself, but it’s another when you’re designing in the real world,” she explains. “As I started wearing my collection, I remembered that not everyone wants something that’s super fitted or severely cut.” And at 5’10”, Althea knew she had another problem to eradicate.
Enter Sittella, a breezy, ultra-comfy offshoot of her main line. In addition to hand-dyeing each organic bamboo jersey piece, Althea purposely leaves ample material at the (unfinished!) hems so shorter ladies can cut a skirt, dress, or jumpsuit to whatever length they prefer without visiting a tailor. “To accommodate, everything in the line is designed so people can make those changes themselves,” Althea adds. The result: something for everyone. —lauren caruso
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Althea Harper and Alexander McQueen
Get inside the internship that really shaped her approach to design.
Cincinnati isn’t quite a sartorial epicenter, so as soon as she could, Althea Harper (an Ohio native and University of Cincinnati graduate), flew across the pond to intern with some of Britain’s most venerable designers. “European fashion is very different from American fashion,” she explains. “People are willing to take more risks and, as both a student and an artist, there’s so much inspiration.” Once in London, Althea spent six months studying under Alexander McQueen, where she helped prep for his spring 2009 show and learned so much. “I left with a lot of respect for that company— I think that’s very rare,” she adds. Here, Althea talks us through what’s stuck with her. —lauren caruso
Althea (right) and a fellow intern in front of a mood board at McQueen HQ.
“In the studio at McQueen, hours were crazy! We’d be there until like two in the morning and were expected to be back there at 9 A.M. It gets really intense for sure.”
Backstage at the McQueen spring 2009 runway show.
“Backstage at McQueen was also really crazy! We were hot-gluing feathers on the model just moments before she got on the runway, so I picked up a few bad habits as far as working so last-minute.”
Interns on the runway!
“I was out and about all the time with fellow interns. It was really important for me to spend some time outside the studio while in Europe. We went to the Boom Boom Room, which is a place where all the designers would go. And we went to these roller discos. It’s like a club on roller skates. It’s so hilarious and fun.”
A look from the McQueen collection Althea experienced firsthand.
“One of the things I learned at McQueen is that you just don’t want to adorn something for the sake of adornment. There has to be a reason. I think I took that really literally. I like to take some of the elements that I learned from McQueen and incorporate them into pieces that are wearable. That’s where my American fashion background comes in. At the end of the day, I want to be able to wear my designs.”
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Of a Kind
In black leather, this bracelet by London-based Madeleine Moxham would be too much. But in camel? Oh, hellz yes. —erica
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Meet Andy Lifschutz
His life in heavy metal.
The story starts with a rose, but it isn’t half as cheesy as that makes it sound. “I was living in London, and my girlfriend at the time was importing jewelry from Rome,” the now-Brooklyn-dwelling designer Andy Lifschutz recounts. “The stuff was all hand-crafted, and I was blown away by it. I was like, ‘Dude, I need to know how to do this.’ There was this silver rose with all of these petals, and I wanted to be able to recreate that. When I started apprenticing with Kristin Hanson, that was actually the first piece I wanted to work on. She was like, ‘You’re crazy, man! How about we make a basic ring first?’”
But the man was full-speed-ahead, doing 14-hour days in the studio to hone his casting and metalsmithing skills. “When I started, my intention was to make one-of-a-kind art pieces that were gallery-worthy,” Andy explains. It’s hard to draw in a lot of people—to really get your aesthetic and voice out there—doing one-offs, though, and in 2009 Andy had what he calls an “aha moment,” talking his way into Content, a design show at the Ace Hotel in Portland with broader reach. “I created a collection just for the show. It combined machine parts, hand-carved ebony, and sterling silver. That was an immediate springboard for having a brand,” he says. And while the overall vibe of that brand has shifted over time, Andy is never afraid of going loud. As he says, “Most of my pieces make really big statements, and so the people who I envision wearing them are doing some really major stuff.” —erica
Andy’s edition is here! And these rose silver earrings are too rad to miss.
Photograph courtesy of Tyler Kohlhoff.
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Meet SFK
Sarah Frances Kuhn’s line of utilitarian-but-stylin’ camera straps is picture-perfect.
Before landing a gig as the accessories editor at Teen Vogue, Sarah Frances Kuhn worked as a stylist, a manager at the beloved New York vintage institution Amarcord, and a London correspondent for W. To log pieces that might find their way into upcoming issues, she had a camera on her at all times, and when its strap broke, she crafted her own, crocheting some spare bits of fabric onto a chain for a charmingly loud replacement that had more in common with a statement necklace than the standard-issue nylon camera strap that’s about as nice to look at as a seat belt. Less than two years later, what started as a DIY quick-fix has turned into a living: Now Sarah is at it full-time, and some of the components of SFK, her line of made-by-hand leather, fabric, and chain camera straps, are named for the sorts of people who use them, like Tommy Ton, Susie Bubble, Garance Doré, and Taylor Tomasi Hill.
Given that Sarah lived in Nashville, Boston, Jerusalem, and London before settling down in Brooklyn, it’s only fitting that she weaves together a serendipitously sourced kaleidoscope of found fabrics and trim—some camo here, say, and some metallic rainbow leather there. And it’s even more appropriate that the girl who says she lives a little like a gypsy and feels more than a little comfortable bopping from place to place has seen her handmade creations pop up everywhere from South America to Kuwait on photographers with wanderlust of their own. —tamar anitai
You’re going to want to get a load of Sarah’s edition: These paisley camera straps are chic as all hell.
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Of a Kind
All of a sudden, thanks to CC Kuo—who worked for the likes of Alexander McQueen, Preen, and Margret Howell before launching her own line in 2010—I’m all about the color yellow. —erica
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A Year In…City Guides
Where to go when you’re in SF, LA, TX, NYC…
All of the designers we’ve worked with so far live in the U.S. of A. We’re talking all over America—San Fran, Philly, Chicago, Austin, L.A., Portland, Minneapolis, and, duh, NYC. Here, these crazy-talented, hyper-tuned-in people share their favorite local haunts and spots they’ve unearthed on their travels:
+ Erica Weiner’s Maine Favorites
+ Louisa Parris Plays Favorites in London and San Francisco
+ Susan Domelsmith’s Ultimate Guide to Austin
+ Where to Find Mandy Coon in the East Village
+ Gigi Burris’s Five Can’t-Miss Spots in Paris
+ The Nikolai Rose Guys Do the Upper West Side
+ Sophie Monet Okulick’s Guide to Big Sur
+ Elizabeth Yarborough Takes Us on a Color Tour of SF (see pic up top!)
+ Jaclyn Mayer and Orly Genger Borough Hop
+ Meredith and Wendell German Do Florence
+ Caroline Ventura’s (Gut-Busting) Guide to Montreal
+ Elena Coleman Howell’s L.A. Mid-Century Tour
+ Sara Dudzinsky’s Six Portland Restaurant Picks
+ Matt Singer’s NYC Neighborhood Walking Tour
+ Clare Vivier’s Very Favorite Places in Silverlake
Get yourself 25% off any order over $40 with the code NEWYEARNEWGEAR until the clock strikes 2012!
