What’s in the colour black? Black is the lack of all colours of light. Black is the colour that does not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum. Black is usually indicative of a lack of substance or style. Capital BORING. Right? Wrong.

With The xx, what you see is not necessarily what you get. We live in a time where we are inundated by loud colours and in-your-face patterns to garner attention so that the world can see a screaming identity. The xx seem to prefer to blend in with the shadows, so that you have to search and look beyond the black façade. Dare to come a little closer and see what is intangible to the eyes, and only truly visible on a visceral and aural level. Black is a spectrum that is made up of textures, moods, layers, and mystery. Black can be more honest than white, and is certainly more intimate because you have to be within close proximity for its secrets to be revealed.

The xx album is like a luxe black velour jacket or dress. From a distance, it’s just a plain outfit. Upon closer inspection, by way of touch, you now “see” or feel the luxurious soulful texture. Have a listen, and be enveloped by a vibrant noir tonality. The personality behind the garment gives depth and character to a black outfit. Colour, in and of itself, is not substance, but substance can be very colourful if you look carefully.

Perhaps, once again, black is the new black. Applied in the right fashion, black yields shades and hues that are sleek, sexy, brooding, and timeless. The band’s clothing may be achromatic; their music is anything but. And not unlike the colour black, their debut album is an instant classic. Get close enough to hear their music and you will be rewarded with an intimacy that is imperceptible from afar. The xx. The unknowns. Like kisses in the dark.

:: Interview with Romy Madley Croft of The xx

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

………..

Electric vibes pulse through the crowd as the five members of Terry Poison plug away on stage at The Studio at Webster Hall. It’s midnight, a Wednesday in mid-December, and the crowd is an eclectic mix of underground music scenesters, top agency producers and New York trendsetters. Terry Poison’s lead vocalist, Madame Louise, hits the stage; belting out song after song, the band’s energy takes the crowd on an unforgettable ride.

photo by Gabrielle Swan

Seeing Terry Poison, an Israeli-based electro band, play live is an extraordinary experience; they do not just play their music, they create it. “We loved the club music in Tel Aviv,” Louise explains. “We wanted to combine making club music and performing live, give them [clubbers] something to look at.”

Anna: black silk dress, In God We Trust :: black knit leggings, Helmut Lang :: white waistcoat, mini beret, Dagworthy bows :: brass hand cast necklace, Aesa :: black patent leather shoes, stylist’s own Louise: black stockings, Uniqlo :: black crochet necktie, grey tank, Top Shop :: black sequin hot pants, burgundy patent leather pumps :: black large silk bow, Dagworthy Bows :: black waistcoat, vitnage :: black leather gloves, stylists own :: silver Casio watch, singers own

photo by Gabrielle Swan

After a night of partying with New York’s finest (Nur Kahn of the Rose Bar had shown them some New York VIP hospitality) the band shows up on set for our shoot.

Petite: white button up twill weave shirt, Uniqlo :: camel pony hair belt :: large silk creme bow, Dagworthy Bows :: specticles and bodysuit, singers own :: nude satin shoes with lucite heel, Maison Martin Margeila

photo by Gabrielle Swan

“Our goal was to make it more live, to expand our live show,” Louise says of the evolution of Terry Poison, as she has her hair pulled and sprayed in every which direction. “Until Gili and Anna joined, we were relying on computers for our shows. If the computer had a problem we would be screwed. We don’t like to be screwed.” Pause. “Well, we like to be screwed, just not like that!”

photo by Gabrielle Swan

Gili: indigo zipper vest, Helmut Lang :: grey cotton slim trousers, Top Shop :: black silk ruffled bra, black lace up boot :: silk green bow, Dagworthy Bows :: double owl knuckle duster, In God We Trust Bruno: white button up twill weave shirt, Uniqlo :: Camel cashmere scarf :: jeans, synthbass player’s own.

The band members, each unique in style, display an apparent love (and flair) for fashion. Petite, the other lead vocalist, is head over heels in love with one particular dress from IN GOD WE TRUST. It satisfies her wardrobe criteria: for Petite, it’s crème all the time. And yes, she is even more beautiful in person than she is in the photos. Bruno, too, the producer and synthbass player, has particular tastes. I temporarily convince him to let me put his hair in a ponytail; he thinks the look isn’t him but I beg to differ. Anything that looks that hot simply should be.

The energy on set rivals the vibe on stage the previous evening. Their chemistry is undeniably contagious. Anna humps Louise’s leg — “It’s an asexual thing,” she tells me — while Gili works to tangle Bruno up in Christmas lights. Through all the games and pranks, the highlight of the shoot has to be the moment when Louise lights Isaar on fire… yes, fire. In my coat!

Anna: black silk dress, In God We Trust :: black knit leggings, Helmut Lang :: white waistcoat, mini beret, Dagworthy bows :: brass hand cast necklace, Aesa :: black patent leather shoes, stylist’s own

Burning it up off stage as they do on, it’s clear Terry Poison has all the pieces in place to make them the next big thing. They are more than just musicians or a band; they are a lifestyle and a brand. Every aspect of their look and feel is custom to Terry Poison, and with this they have stepped onto the scene as a self-made sensation.

While at the Webster Hall show, a producer from EMI leaned over to me and said, “They just killed it.” I later found out that this is the man who discovered Joss Stone. And Terry Poison is just getting started.

My only hope is that some arrogant asshole music critic in North America doesn’t label them an overnight success. Remember, kiddies, just because you didn’t hear about them until now does not mean that they have not been creating fan-crazed beats and hits for the past few years across Europe and the Middle East.

Now, add Terry Poison to your play list and enjoy the high induced by the sound of musical individuality.

……………………………………………………….

Credits:

Photographer: Glynis Selina Arban

Prop Stylist: Erin O’Brien, Exclusive Artists Management

Stylist: Gabrielle Swan

Stylist Assistant: Devon Dagworthy

Hair: Jamal Hodges

Makeup: Aki Maekubo, Artistic Cube

Makeup Assistant: Jessie Butterfield, Artistic Cube

]]> http://fillermagazine.com/curated/music/terry-poison/feed 1 http://fillermagazine.com/the-loom/terry-poison-slide-show http://fillermagazine.com/the-loom/terry-poison-slide-show#comments Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:25:24 +0000 bedlumm http://fillermagazine.com/?p=1611 ]]> http://fillermagazine.com/the-loom/terry-poison-slide-show/feed 0 http://fillermagazine.com/the-loom/light-warrior http://fillermagazine.com/the-loom/light-warrior#comments Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:38:02 +0000 bedlumm http://fillermagazine.com/?p=1557 ]]> http://fillermagazine.com/the-loom/light-warrior/feed 2 http://fillermagazine.com/my-so-called-model-life/from-numero-to-bridal http://fillermagazine.com/my-so-called-model-life/from-numero-to-bridal#comments Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:01:54 +0000 admin http://fillermagazine.com/?p=1536 So I arrive on set after losing the directions to get to the studio, one EXTREMELY expensive cab ride later. I had already spent a considerable portion of last night repeating “WTF … BRIDAL!?” over and over again to myself in my tiny Manhattan-sized studio apt in Tokyo. I was momentarily a tad flattered; was it possible that Japan could look past the fact that I am a rather unconventional model with sizable tattoos, and book me for a bridal catalogue based on actual talent? (I mean, besides, I have heard legends of us “tattooed women” getting married. Sword-swallowers, circus ringleaders, gang members, escaped convicts, mafia, and pirates being the typical husband of choice of “our kind” … ha.)

I realize now that bridal would have been a fucking godsend. When I glide in to the studio, a mere 5 fashionable minutes late, I DO recognize the gorgeous white wedding dress that I had tried on at the casting. A tastefully shot bridal catalogue, featuring fellow-Canadian Elyse Saunders, is being flipped through by the client. For a moment I think [that] if the pictures end up looking this good, it won’t be the worst day ever.??Then I catch a glimpse of the set: pink fun fur and silver-sequined backdrop, a throne, a deer head with neon orange antlers. This is the opposite of a good thing. My eyes lock onto a rack full of dresses that can only be described as an episode of “Dynasty,” directed by Hunter S. Thompson under the influence of a suitcase full of psychotropic drugs. Neon pink, yellow & black, seafoam green with sequins, rhinestones, and tulle, tulle, TULLE! I’ve been DUPED! This isn’t a bridal shoot (which is bad enough), this is some kind of Shibuya-girl, prom-dress-outta-hell shoot.

I immediately feel like shit. The money is definitely crap. These pictures will be unusable. Hopefully the rolls of film will spontaneously combust as my plane takes off from Tokyo. I keep flashing back to last week when I was shooting Japanese Numero … just when you think you’re makin’ it, they stick you with a catalogue full of Barbie doll dresses. Take that, spirit & will to live! You suck at modelling, you will never do any better than shilling bogus catalogues in the Asian market. Goodbye, dreams of Paris, champagne, and YSL Tribute pumps clacking down cobblestone streets. ??I head to the makeup room to hide my disappointment and see a darling Asian model in a chair surrounded by stylists. Her hair is teased beyond Phil Spector and she’s sporting a forehead full of not-quite-matching faux fringe. Giant “kawaii” fake lashes and layers of black eyeliner make her eyes pop outta her head like a little baby doll. A tremendous fluffy peach gown poofs out all around her chair and she resembles a human cupcake. I make eye contact with her and she introduces herself, which is when I realize she isn’t Japanese at all: she’s Russian. Wow. It’s a wonder what 4 hours of makeup can do to a woman … I mean, 16-year-old child. I can’t help but wonder what they have in store for me …??Three hours deep into the makeup chair now and I’m practically comatose. Every time I have to close my lids to have eyeshadow applied, I nod off, only to be immediately jolted awake by a Shu Umuara brush to the eyeball. I’d estimate that I’ve had about 30 consecutive 3-second naps over the last 25-minute span. Brutal. I try to remain professional (not to mention optimistic) at this point, but they’ve styled my hair into something resembling Jessie Spano at a Saved by the Bell high school dance. I hope that the fake hair and trashy makeup is enough to obscure my looks so no one can possibly recognize me.

I get laced into one giant confectionery of a dress after another, each gown more outrageous than the next. I spend the following 8 hours awkwardly holding candelabras, twirling in circles, waving my arms around in the air like an escaped mental patient, and cuddling up to a decorative life-sized horse’s head, which is covered by shards of mirrored glass. All in a day’s work in Tokyo!??Just don’t even ask. I cannot explain it. I don’t understand modelling in Japan. This is like an Alice in Wonderland experience that I cannot wake up from. I just go along with it. Let them dress me up like an insane doll. Smile. Pose. Blow kisses. Be a real life Barbie. Hustle in seafoam. Make that cash. Bow. Try and stay positive. Save up for my New York apartment. Promise myself that THIS is the LAST time I will come here (again), and pray to the modelling gods that no one ever, ever, EVER sees the photo proof that I was here at all … shhhh!

READ PREVIOUS ENTRY: A TINY ESSAY ON SOBRIETY

The spa is nestled snugly among authentic natural rocks and tree fences in the garden, with hot spring water brought in from Japan’s famous Izu peninsula for the baths. Befitting the scenery, the spa offers numerous treatments, most of them inspired by Japanese rituals employing traditional ingredients. The vast list of courses is at first daunting; they run the gamut from facials and pedicures, 13 courses for men (including a jet-lag-busting treatment with a sesame scrub), and several for mothers-to-be.

I decided upon the “Ginger Rhizome,” which entailed a smoothing ginger body scrub with papaya extracts, followed by a warm ginger compress, topped off by an aroma massage made with the essential oils of bay leaf, ginger, and ylang ylang. While YU Spa uses Elemis and Aromatherapy Associates products, the potions created for the treatments are original. My masseuse took special care to work on my end-of-year deadlines and stress knots with a thorough pressure massage.

Aside from ginger, there are black sesame, green tea and wasabi treatments available, with the latter being quite popular for its firming and detoxifying effects — the pinch of wasabi on sushi is there for its antibacterial quality as much as its zing.

I had heard rumours about a certain “special” ritual course available at the spa, one that entailed fire-walking and water rebirthing. When I asked my masseuse about it she chuckled and led me into an enormous room where the “Yusui Fire and Water Purification” course is given.

The “ritual” consists of a candlelight massage and five-grain body-wrap (“fire”), and a sake and salt polish that is washed off with Vichy showers, reminiscent of the Buddhist monk tradition during which one meditates under waterfalls (“water”).

My own 120-minute spiritual course left me feeling uncommonly revitalized. I am already making plans to partake in a quick 60-minute seaweed facial sometime in the future, or perhaps a sake clay cocoon, or, should my spirit demand it, the purification course.

Any treatment, topped off with a sip of green tea in the hotel’s magnificent gardens, is enough to unwind the tightest of bodies, and calm the most restless of minds.

With a plethora of treatments for gentlemen to choose from, FILLER has narrowed the selection down to YU Spa’s top three not-to-be-missed signature offerings:

Detoxifying Journey

A warming ritual that starts with a ginger polish and papaya extract to smooth the skin, then glides into a warm compress and relaxing aromatherapy massage.

YU Alpha Male Bliss Massage

Two therapists work in perfect harmony with warmed signature essential oils, easing tension using traditional rhythmic Asian and Balinese techniques.

Ultimate Jet Lag

Relax the mind and body after a long flight with a black sesame and honey exfoliation, followed by a fusion massage with essential oils.

It’s like I’m waiting for the thought; when I’ve got it, I know it. Then it’s easy. I wait for that flash of something, then the whole thing opens up. It’s actually the most frustrating bit in the whole process, that initial idea. I just churn through so much material, hundreds of magazines, videos, movies, ads. I walk the streets listening to my Ipod. Then an image or lyric or something will stick. Then I get excited. I need that excitement about it or I can’t motivate myself to move.

You work in a variety of different mediums, which do you consider to have the strongest communicative powers?

I think when I do something with a big brand or fashion house, or a big public work like the clouds, it has the biggest reach because of the media around it, but I find you can only transmit quite a basic packaged message in that way. It’s still very powerful.

What’s the most powerful?

I think painting is the key, because the experience you can have one-on-one with a work is totally unique. Some of the biggest moments of my life have happened in front of certain pictures. My fear is that with moving image, which is expanding so fast (even onto our mobiles), we are forgetting how to read a static image. It’s easy to expect a painting to give us everything in a split second.

C.R.E.A.M. mixed media on canvas 120 x 120 x 7 cm © Stuart Semple 2008

When not using your brush, what is the strangest tool you have ever incorporated into your mix-medium palette?

I’ve used so many things. I’ll use whatever gets the job done. The helium and soap in the clouds was quite different. I’ve used lentils. I think events are quite a strange one. In New York, Ju$t Another Rich Kid and I recreated a teenage girl’s bedroom, and that had some pretty strange stuff in there: posters of Zac Efron and used condoms.

You mentioned your collaboration with Ju$t Another Rich Kid. You’ve also done campaigns such as The Cult of Denim. What attracts you to the world of fashion?

There’s a lot of creativity there and I love to collaborate anyway, I enjoy working with others. I think fashion is part of what my work talks about, a huge part of what my work is about. I think it’s important that I actually know how that works, that I have hands-on experience with it. Like a method actor, I need to know it before I can talk about it truthfully. I’m just very drawn to it.

Even when working in fashion, your art challenges the culture of consumerism the industry breeds, and its image-making power, such as with Lipstick Vogue. Do you ever feel conflicted working in the mainstream with major labels?

No not at all. I’m just trying to tell the truth, there’s no compromise in that when I work with a mainstream label. I think an important thing is that I don’t change, I don’t become a fashion designer when I work in fashion. I’m always an artist, so when I work with the label I make a piece of art. I try to keep as much content as I can within that work. I’m lucky that the labels give me a lot of freedom. When I worked with Moncler, they actually re-stocked their whole Milan flagship around the content of my paintings, and those paintings were pretty bleak.

Another industry giant you’ve worked with is Selfridges, during your Cult of Denim project. Was it important for you to push the limits and present provocative commentary with this one, considering its reach?

Absolutely, there’s no point otherwise. The work is critical work, and when you get a platform like three floors of a department store like that, it’s not time to get scared and sit on your hands. It’s time to speak up. That’s what I want from art, I want something with an opinion. Art is one of the last places that is completely free of censorship. I mean, there’s only so much you can do with a mainstream movie. Luckily we can say anything with a picture.

Let Forever Be mixed media on canvas on aluminium 180 x 160 x 20 cm © Stuart Semple 2008

Do you think artists are unvalued?

I don’t think we have a huge respect for our artists, creatively. When we talk about the economy, when the government talks about cultural industries, they are talking about advertising, fashion, design, etc., and they are worth about 9% of the economy, with financial services about 13%, I think. So they are talking about those two things flipping over. [And then] you have your celebrity artists who are wealthy and famous. People resent them because it looks like they’ve got it easy. Then you have your scruffy, unwashed artist who sponges off the state, collecting benefits to sit in a bedsit and make obscure work that benefits no one. Either way, the public isn’t too amused.

Given this, is it even possible for the artists as a group to make a difference in the market place?

I think that the artist specifically doesn’t need the responsibility of having to bail out a failing economy. If we are relying on the artist to take us out of recession then we’re really stuffed! They need the freedom to just make what they have to make. They should describe that sensation, the situation, maybe vocalize an opinion on it. The problem is: when art becomes about the market, it enters a circle. At best you end up with $1200 Hirst spin paintings that nobody wants anymore. With the clouds from the Tate Modern, the idea was really to highlight the fact that the Tate had only been there for 10 years, that in fact this great golden age of contemporary arts in the U.K. has only been fleeting.

Not that art could help revive the economy then?

I was thinking more that it’s likely the government will change, and I’ m generally scared that the dark ages will come back, like the 80s. The Tate is a place anybody can go to for free and see work that can change their life. Art is much more powerful than money.

It honestly started just as an idea that I had after shooting a bunch of videos and writing a lot of treatments. It was really organic, and I started putting together a book of what the ideas and brand would look like, sound like, feel like, etc. I also watched films that inspired me, and edited together a video treatment with films from Kurosawa’s Dreams [to] 24 Hour Party People that were looks and feelings I was after with KZO. Looking back now, the brand has really evolved after seven seasons, but the creative spirit has stayed the same. I look back at my first season and cringe, but it was a great starting point to build on.

“We shot the KZO Spring/Summer 2010 photo shoot at an old venue in Silverlake on Sunset Blvd called El Cid. My sister used to dance cabaret there AND we got the location for next to nothing. I wanted the feeling to be light and warm so the different colored lights seemed only fitting. We painted gesso onto a black pair of Converse high tops and had a KZO stamp made in Japan with the seasonal story Into the Blue stamped onto the side of the shoes. Into the Blue was the name of a fictional tour I made up loosely based on Neil Youngs 1978 Rust Never Sleeps tour.”

Why did you choose Tokyo as your production base?

To me, making clothes in Tokyo is being able to make the best possible garments possible. The Japanese (I’m also half-Japanese) are so detail oriented, and it’s great being able to produce garments in Japan with such precision, which is next to impossible to get in the United States.

Has it been difficult flying back and forth?

The second I think to myself that flying to Japan every month during design season is “difficult,” I think back 100 years how impossible it would have been to do this … I feel extremely fortunate to be able to experience Japan so frequently.

Which city do you feel most at home in, and which are you most inspired in as a designer?

More and more, I’m feeling like both cities are becoming a home base for me. Each city brings something unique and inspiring as a designer. In Japan, fashion trends move so much more quickly than in the States, so I constantly have to scale back the designs of the collection for the American market. This is also really inspiring from an art standpoint, because in all different types of creative mediums the Japanese are pushing the boundaries, and it’s nice to see where that “edge” is.

Your Spring/Summer 2010 collection is inspired by Neil Young. Was there a specific track or album that inspired you, or more just the artist himself that inspired your designs?

Neil Young’s music to me is so timeless. I listen to it now and it’s hard to think that the song I’m hearing was made in the early 70s, it seems like it could have been made today. For the Spring/Summer 2010 collection, I was listening to a lot of his late 70s “grungy” period work. He has an album called Rust Never Sleeps, and he plays his 1953 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop, called “Old Black,” which sounds really gritty and dirty. It’s great. Neil also lived in Los Angeles after moving down from Canada, and I see his casual, California fashion sense as being iconic, with his screen-printed “Big Yank” open flannel over a t-shirt and ripped up jeans; the “godfather of grunge.”

How would you describe the aesthetic of this collection?

The Spring collection is a lot of fabrics with great textures, colours, and comfort, all made in Japan. The season was called “Into the Blue, Out of the Black,” a play on words from a Neil Young song. The “blue” to me symbolized chambray shirts, lightweight denim shirts with washes, grungy cut-up denim pants. The season also included check pattern shirts, comfortable fleece cardigans, and Navajo-print French Terry blazers with matching sweat shorts.

Your line has really expanded since you first founded it. Is there any new design territory KZO will be exploring in the near future?

I think that we’ve only just scratched the surface as far as “fashion territory” is concerned. Moving into different categories seems so far away … I’m mainly focusing on putting together a small, tight collection that tells a concise story every season, and then introducing a small number of pieces that fit into the seasonal story. Fall 09, “Hallowed Ground” (based on California explorer and conservationist John Muir), we did a collaboration with Master-Piece, Japan. It was a hiking backpack with metal hardware, waterproof zippers, and a rain cover that zipped out. The bag got a lot of great press, and looked smart and sophisticated.

You’ve also collaborated with other designers, including Brett Westfall of Unholy Matrimony, in the past. Are you planning any up-and-coming collaborations with him or other designers?

Brett Westfall/Unholy Matrimony is really talented, and I feel fortunate to work with him on collaborations. For Fall 2010, we are collaborating with Master-Piece again on a new backpack, as well as an Unholy Matrimony/KZO colouration denim jacket. I like the ideas of collaborating because in a good environment, 1+1 doesn’t equal 2, it can also = 3, 4, 5, and so on.

Like you, Unholy Matrimony is based in L.A. Would you say that it’s a close-knit group of designers working in the city?

Los Angeles is a close-knit fashion environment, as is Tokyo or New York, but with less people. Scott Sternberg of Band of Outsiders has done a really great job of being based in Los Angeles and juggling the fashion world abroad. Brett Westfall as well, with his multiple COMME des GARCON collaborations. It’s a visceral fine line.

Besides the ones you’re partnering with, what designers are you currently watching?

I admire artists that work extremely hard and execute their vision to the best of their ability. I admire Jun Takahashi at Undercover for his ability to design a men’s and women’s collection season after season, curate photo exhibitions, publish books, take pictures, write, etc. He’s very creative and versatile. I also love Stanley Kubrick’s talent to make films in different genres yet capture his own personal style in every frame. In any Kubrick movie, you can watch a scene and know right away it’s his. In fashion, we are creating new seasonal collections two, three, and four times a year, with new themes and reinventing the story, while keeping the DNA of the brand consistent. It’s a lot like a film or an album.

When you’re not working, what do you like to do?

“Not working,” when is that? Isn’t the creative industry a 24/7 job? Well, it pretty much is, but when I’m not “working,” I’m catching up on sleep.