AGENT2 Magazine

OMER ASIM

AFTER STUDYING ARCHITECTURE AND PSYCHOLOGY AT LONDON UNIVERSITIES, SUDANESE-BORN DESIGNER OMER ASIM THANKFULLY DECIDED TO SWITCH TO FASHION. HIS ACADEMIC BACKGROUND AND EXPERIENCE WITH THE UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM AND ITS PROPAGANDA FEED HIS INNOVATIVE FORAYS INTO THE FASHION WORLD. BEFORE LAUNCHING HIS OWN LABEL JUST OVER A YEAR AGO AND BEING A STAR EXHIBITOR AT LONDON FASHION WEEK’S ON|OFF, ASIM LEARNT THE TRADE AT VIVIENNE WESTWOOD AND AS PART OF THE COSTUME TEAM FOR THE HARRY POTTER SAGA. After studying architecture as an undergrad, you were going to do a post-graduate degree in psychology before switching to fashion design. ...

MEET FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER MICHAEL DAVID ADAMS

NEW YORK-BASED FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER MICHAEL DAVID ADAMS, 35, ORIGINALLY FROM PENNSYLVANIA, SPILLS HIS SNAP HAPPY BEANS ON LIFE AS A PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER, A QUICK CAREER CHANGE FROM AN ORCHESTRA CONDUCTOR AND HOW IT FEELS TO CALL THE BIG APPLE HOME. HIS WORK HAS BEEN FEATURED IN PUBLICATIONS INCLUDING VANITY FAIR ITALY, MARIE CLAIRE CHINA, VOGUE NIPPON AND QVEST. Your work has a very strong feel. Do you plan for it or does it just happen? I do plan certain things with shoots: the flow of the days shot list, how the makeup and hair and styling work together when working with creative ...

TATEOSSIAN: JEWELLERY WITH A HEART

THIS WINTER, HIGH-END JEWELER TATEOSSIAN WILL COLLABORATE WITH THE TERRENCE HIGGINS TRUST AND CENTRAL SAINT MARTINS FOR TWO VERY DIFFERENT EXCLUSIVE AND LIMITED EDITION LINES. They’re usually relegated to the junk drawer, never to be worn again once the designated awareness day of the (insert charity name here) is over. But now luxury jewellery house Tateossian, are collaborating with HIV charity Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) to produce an exclusive limited edition bracelet to mark World AIDS Day that they hope will be worn beyond December 1. The Italian leather and sterling silver unisex bracelet with a THT red enamel link is the brainchild ...

LUCY ROYLE’S CLINICAL FASHION

LUCY ROYLE, A MANCHESTER-BASED, LEEDS-EDUCATED BRITISH DESIGNER SHOWED HER GRADUATE COLLECTION DURING GRADUATE FASHION WEEK LAST JUNE. INSPIRED BY THE MEDICAL TEXTBOOK GRAY'S ANATOMY, ANATOMICAL DRAWINGS AND SKELETAL AND MUSCULAR STRUCTURES, HER FIRST SHOW WAS REPRESENTATIVE OF HER BACKGROUND. LYDIA MILLIGAN MET WITH THE DESIGNER TO DISCUSS SPINE AND STYLE. Your final collection, inspired by the medical world, was beautiful. Where did the idea spanned from? My dad is a doctor and my mum is a nurse so growing up, I was surrounded by a lot of medical books. For my final collection, I though it would be really nice to ...

THE FACE

THERE WAS ONLY ONE PLACE TO SEE AND BE SEEN ON 20TH AUGUST THIS YEAR- THE FACE. MODELS, MAKE-UP ARTISTS, STYLISTS, FASHIONISTAS, DESIGNERS, PHOTOGRAPHERS, PUNKS, GOTHS, YOU NAME IT- ALL DESCENDED ON THE LEGENDARY CLUB NIGHT, INCLUDING AGENT2’s VERONICA CARPIO… [caption id="attachment_4414" align="alignright" width="212" caption="AGENT2's Veronica Carpio"][/caption] Despite a brief hiatus, The Face club night returned with a bang, promising to ‘turn London back to its best with a night celebrating eccentricity, art, eclectic music, fashion and excess’. And it certainly delivered. The Green Carnation in Soho saw a night dedicated to freedom, beauty, art, eccentricity and extravaganza with renowned DJs Steve ...

BRYCE AIME INTERVIEW

YOU MAY NOT HAVE HEARD OF BRYCE AIME, BUT YOU SOON WILL. THE DESIGNER BEHIND RIHANNA’S SPIKY-SHOULDERED ‘HARD’ GET-UP CHATS TO AGENT2’S AMY FALLON ABOUT THE LADY HERSELF, AND WHY GREEN TEA AND FASHION ARE ‘THE SAME’… Bryce Aime tells me to throw out the Starbucks hot chocolate I’ve been drinking on the tube before we walk into Le Pain Quotidien at Notting Hill Gate.“I’ll get you another one,” he insists. It’s not just grey today in London, it’s bucketing down. I’m also ten minutes late. Aime only lives around the corner so there are no dramas. But I get the ...

ZED EYE IS REINVENTING AFRICAN FASHION

THE WORLD CUP MAY BE OVER, BUT AFRICA IS HAVING A LONG-LASTING IMPACT ON FASHION. Tribal Romance, the spring/summer 2010 offering from label Zed Eye is a new take on the ethnic trend, a courtship between tribal prints and chiffons, satin, cotton and floral patterns. “The combinations, although unusual and unexpected, manage to work together as they woo each other and indeed the audience into believing they should be together,” says the creator of the line, Nigerian-born designer Ngozi Pere-Okorotie, 27. “I always play around with differences in fabrics, colours, textures and patterns. “I have always wanted to integrate African prints to my collection ...

JOSEFIN STRID INTERVIEW

SWEDEN HAS PRODUCED SOME GREAT THINGS; IKEA, ABBA, MEATBALLS AND DALA HORSES. WHAT IT HASN’T BEEN SO RENOWNED FOR, HOWEVER, IS IT’S FASHION DESIGNERS. BUT WITH JOSEFIN STRID, THAT’S ABOUT TO CHANGE. Strid caused something of a stir when she decided include skirts in one of her collections- for men, that is. And there’s more to come. “The real skirts won’t be revealed until in February. The collection that I showed during (the most recent) Stockholm Fashion Week is a feminine, flowery collection of menswear. The reactions vary a lot, but I think it’s exciting. I have this one at my ...

GRACE AND STYLE

MILLIONS OF WOMEN MAY GIVE ALL THE LUXURY LIPSTICKS IN THE WORLD TO LOOK LIKE HER TODAY, SO IT’S PERHAPS PARADOXICAL THAT THE ELEGANT LOOK THAT GRACE KELLY PULLED OFF WAS ALL APPARENTLY DOWN TO A VERY EFFORTLESS APPROACH. The late actress and princess applied a similar simple attitude to her wardrobe as the set of values that she lived her life by. Her style is currently the subject of a Victoria & Albert museum exhibition that was nearly two years in the making. It will probably turn out to be the most popular one ever held in the museum’s Fashion Gallery ...

THE TRAVELLING BAND – THE HORIZON, ME AND YOU

SINCE THEIR FORMATION OVER THREE YEARS AGO, THE TRAVELLING BAND HAVE TAKEN INFLUENCES FROM ACROSS THE BOARD TO CREATE THEIR OWN BLEND OF PSYCHADELIA, FOLK, BLUES, COUNTRY AND POP. INDEED A DIFFICULT BAND TO PIGEONHOLE, BUT WHAT’S THE FASCINATION WITH LABELLING EVERYTHING WE HEAR? THEIR MUSIC CAN BE INTERPRETED IN ANY NUMBER OF WAYS; A QUALITY WHICH MAKES THIS BAND SO INTERESTING AND PROBABLY THE REASON WHY THEY’VE CREATED SUCH A LOYAL FAN BASE NATIONWIDE. A CERTAIN HONESTY IS PRESENT IN THEIR WORK. 2010 is proving to be an exciting year for TTB. Having completed a string of U.K dates including ...

RAIDING GRANDMA’S JEWELLERY BOX

INSPIRED BY THEIR LATE GRANDMOTHER LILY BLANCHE’S ASSORTMENT OF EXOTIC JEWELS BROUGHT BACK FROM HER DAYS LIVING IN RAJ-ERA INDIA, SCOTTISH SISTERS GILLIAN CRAWFORD AND LYNDSEY BOWDITCH, HAVE LAUNCHED A NEW JEWELLERY COLLECTION NAMED AFTER HER. For many people, working with a family member would be the making of a nightmare but for Edinburgh-based sisters Gillian Crawford and Lyndsey Bowditch, it is proving a winning partnership. “We used to fight as kids, but have a very symbiotic relationship now”, explains Gillian. In their relatively short career as jewellery designers — Gillian used to work in media, but launched her first ...

STYLE

PLAYING BARBIE IN TEHRAN

TALA RAASSI, THE WOMAN BEHIND THE MISS UNIVERSE BIKINIS, STARTED OFF HER FASHION CAREER DRESSING UP HER BARBIES IN IRAN. When she was little, Tala Raassi used to make clothes for her Barbies. But there was always one problem. “I always felt like they needed more fabric,” recalls Tala of growing up in Iran, where strict Islamic laws mean ‘indecent... [more]