//Opening spread of my interview with Peter York, Arena Homme + Winter/Spring 2020. Portrait: David Sims//

//From the Them fashion story. Photography: Julien Martinez Leclerc; fashion: Tom Guinness//

The jury is out on this autumn’s relaunch of the print edition of venerated British style magazine The Face; as I suggested here it’s going to take more than one splashy issue to assess whether the proposition has legs as we enter the 2020s (next May will mark the 40th anniversary of the founding of The Face by Nick Logan).

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Arena Homme +, Ashley Heath, Berluti, Bottega Veneta, Brockhampton, David Sims, Fantastic Man, George MacKay, Gert Jonkers, Harpers & Queen, Joe Cole, Jop van Bennekom, Julien Martinez Leclerc, Kris Van Assche, Lawrence, Mark Leckey, neville Brody, New Order, Nick Logan, Peter York, Prada, Rex Orange County, Stephen Morris, The Face, Tom Guinness

//PRINT! is staged in Somerset House’s Terrace Rooms; the exhibition’s graphic identity was created by Scott King. His distinctive fluoro pink logo is on the lightbox at the far end of room 1. Photo: Doug Peters//

//With my wife and PRINT! contributor Caz Facey, rock legend Jimmy Page and poet Scarlett Sabet at the private view this week//

//Each room has wall grids divided into subjects – this, the main wall in room 1, presents magazines expressing dissent and protest. Photo: Doug Peters//

//In the courtyard at Somerset House; socks courtesy Pavement Licker//

//Private view attendees Duggie Fields and Jarvis Cocker. Photo: Martin Green//

PRINT! Tearing It Up – the exhibition at central London’s Somerset House I have organised with the SH Trust’s senior curator Claire Catterall – is now open.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Arena, BLast, Claire Catterall, David Harrison, Elisabeth Krohn, Eoin Donnelly, John May, Martin Green, Mushpit, Nick Logan, Paul Kindersley, Pavement Licker, Private Eye, Rhys Atkinson, Sabat, Scott King, Somerset House Trust, Suspira, The Face, The Generalist, Vorticists, William Sieghart

Out today, the November 2017 issue of British GQ includes a 10-page feature on my forthcoming book The Story Of The Face: The Magazine That Changed Culture.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: British GQ, Nick Logan, The Face

//Warnett in his element. Photo: Hypebeast, to which he was a regular contributor//

This is a terrible week for those of us interested in the accumulation of knowledge and expertise surrounding design, music and popular culture.

I was settling in to write an obituary for New York design hero Jim Walrod when news came through last night that British sneaker guru Gary Warnett – a similarly irreplaceable figure – had also unexpectedly died.

Warnett was 39; the cause was attributed to complications arising from pneumonia.

The former content editor for label Crooked Tongues, Warnett was a streetwear obsessive who worked with the world’s biggest brands. Still he found the time to pursue a wide array of interests as evinced by his excellent Gwarizm/Still Lameaphobic site.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 032c Workshop, Chipie, Crooked Tongues, Derick Procope, Gary Warnett, Gwarizm, Hypebeast, Idea Books, Jim Walrod, John Godfrey, Karl Templer, Nigel Shafran, Richard Croft, Still Lameaphobic, Stüssy, The Face

//Phil Lynott, styling Sheila Rock, photography Mick Rock, Club International, October 1973//

//The Gentlemen At Number Ten, styling Sheila Rock, photography David Parkinson, Club International, December 1973//

To celebrate the opening next week of a new exhibition of work by photographer Sheila Rock, here is a selection of her early fashion styling.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bush Hollyhead, Chelsea Space, Club International, Hipgnosis, Humphrey Lyttleton, Jordan Mooney, Mick Farren, Mick Rock, Nick Logan, Phil Lynott, Quentin Crisp, Sheila Rock, Steve Ridgeway, Terry Pastor, The Face, Thin Lizzy, Tony Power

It’s flattering to receive praise from a tastemaker of the standing of Gary Warnett, who has posted on his Gwarizm blog about my recent cult magazine chat with SHOWStudio editor Lou Stoppard for her Print project.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 19, Blitz, Club International, Gary Warnett, Gwarizm, i-D, Interview, Lou Stoppard, NME, Print, Rags, Ritz, Showstudio, Street Life, The Face, West One

//Feature includes this Nick Logan self portrait//

The new issue of Arena Homme + features my interview with publishing legend Nick Logan, who founded the men’s fashion magazine 20 years ago.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Alasdair McLellan, Arena, Arena Homme +, Ashley Heath, Brian Griffin, Juergen teller, Morrissey, NME, Smash Hits, Steven Klein, The Face

Plus ca change…

Tucked away in the June 1983 edition of The Face was this news story about a brave broadcasting venture, the scabrous and short-lived Breakfast Pirate Radio.

//Proof of front cover of Programme 1 by Station BPR, Utility, 1983. Design: Barney Bubbles.//

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 1983, 2011, Billy Bragg, Boots Sex Dread, Breakfast Pirate Radio, Bully, Channel 4, Daily Mail, Dodi Fayed, Dread Broadcasting Company, Free Kitten, Glen Colson, Jeremy Thorpe, Jerry Arkwright, John Eden, Joly MacFie, Julia Cafritz, Keith Allen, Kevin Rowland, Larry Clark, Lepke, Malcolm McLaren, Mohammed Al-Fayed, Peter jenner, Princess Diana, Rinka, The Face, Utility, Virgin

Grace Jones maternity dress 1979 © Jean-Paul Goude.

Here is a selection of images from the V&A’s forthcoming exhibition Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990. In pursuit of this slippery-to-define movement, curators Glenn Adamson and Jane Pavitt have settled on the defining principles of quotation and bricolage (assemblage from diverse elements).

As a result they have mixed and matched disciplines, categories and scale in their line-up of 250 exhibits, ranging from a reconstruction of Hans Hollein’s 1980 Venice Biennale facade The Presence Of The Past to graphics for record sleeves by Barney Bubbles, Neville Brody and Peter Saville.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Andy Warhol, Charles Jencks, Cindy Sherman, Derek Jarman, Glenn Adamson, Grace Jones, Hans Hollein, Helmut Newton, Jane Pavitt, Jeff Koons, Jenny Holzer, Laurie Anderson, neville Brody, New Order, Peter Saville, Philip Johnson, Ray Petri, Richard Prince, Robert Rauschenberg, Ron Arad, s David Byrne, Talking Heads, The Face, V&A

As explored in In Their Own Write, the most important creative in the development of British print media in the latter half of the 20th Century was Nick Logan. Arguably his greatest contribution was via the launch of The Face in 1980.

This year-end review – “123 things to remember 1980 by” – was featured in issue 9, published 30 years ago.

Adopting the technique applied at Harpers & Queen by the magazine’s poster boy Peter York – who appears in this issue in three separate articles due to the recent publication of his tone-setting Style Wars – The 1980 Face Show inaugurated the lifestyle list-culture which dominates global media to this day.

It’s as fascinating for who it promulgated – who can remember the name of Bad Manners’ lead singer now? – as for that which it found hard to define.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 1980, Harpers & Queen, Keith Joseph, New Romantics, Nick Logan, Peter York, Robert Elms, The Face