Into the wild part II

At Brecon Beacon National Park, Wales; By Anthony Lycett 

This dress is made from scraps of multicolours leather reclaimed from the fashion designer Martina Spetlova  on the theme of "studio's discarded" (I already made a dress about unwanted paintings from an painter studio,  in the frame of a "no waste" project, see article here) because in nature, nothing get lost, and everything is created by transformation.  Original shapes from the scars haven't been redrawn or cut again. They contains in hollow, in negative the shape of the patterns and designs they contributed.  Reclaimed, this pieces of leathers evaluated unusable by their size or shape, despite their rare and noble material, become part of parcel of a new and original piece of work. It is in their reject and uselessness that dwells their fragile beauty.  

 For the shape (obviously not for the colours as it is a bit too beige for me and as Sue Kreitzman say "don't wear beige, it may kill you" I've been inspired by Alexander McQueen leather dress, Ensemble, Eshu, a/w 2000-2001 

Having studied the "death of the author" theory by Roland Barthes and the free circulation of interpretation by the audience, if always find it funny that people see inspiration that I didn't had in mind.  For example for this dress, lots of people compared it to a Buddhist prayer flag tree! 

We took advantage of a week end in the beginning of march, when both of us weren't working, to do a road trip across South Wales. Molly Parkin, the most Welsh of the Londoners warned us "why would you go this week end  the weather i going to be terrible, why won't you wait for spring?  Actually we have been pretty lucky with the weather, taking advantage of sunny spells  in between rain showers which conveys this very special light.  

Behind the scene of the shoot, After about an hour of climbing with all our equipments (No I haven't been helicoptered in!)  I've never felt such a strong feeling of hypothermia, all your muscles contract to fight the cold and create instant cramps, we found montage refuge  near the location, near the lake where according to the legend Excalibur was given to King Arthur by the lady of the lake.  

By Anthony Lycett 

This magical landscape is the Three Cliff Bay at Gower Peninsula. This is the  Lady escaped from the circus.

The best thing about it is that it open on the front making it a very performative garment!

By Anthony Lycett 

 I found this children circus tent in a car boot sales in september back in France. The woman was very happy to get rid of it and let me it for 3 euros (and my grand mother got it for me as a present) 

I made this dress more than two years ago (I wrote on my blog about it at the time). My aim as a cyclist was to create something elegant to wear on my bike at the same time as being seen by the car, as HV jackets's shape is not flattering and make you look like a builder.

By Anthony Lycett 

 Unfortunately, London is a bit to cold to wear a strapless  dress on the bike so I have just been wearing it more as a statement piece. I just thought would be great to style it with the new road necklace and headpiece I made.  To create the road, I used corset boning that I covered with black leathers, then I stitched littles cars and all the traffics signs.  

By Anthony Lycett 

For this experimental road kills make up I used a tyre from a toys car  that I soaked into paint.  Anthony, the photographer was asking "is Anne Sophie Ready?"And the girl hosting the shoot at her place replying  "well she is busy rolling a tyre full of paint over her face"...

I made this Lobster dress for the amazing performer Rachel May Snider for her show "Dressing for Breakfast". see the article there 

By Anthony Lycett  for Self Styled 
Tea time?
drinking tea in her lobster dress, this surrealist and  dadaist image reflects Rachel's whimsical and dandyism way of life as a London artist.  

By Anthony Lycett 

This has been one of the most elaborated and complex garment I made for someone and I am very happy Anthony Lycett in the frame of his Self Styledproject has been able to capture all the details of this creations.  

By Anthony Lycett 

By Anthony Lycett  

"Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" with pearls, golden coral and diver elements 

By Anthony Lycett 

By Anthony Lycett 

The shells squirt have been entirely hand-embroderied, each side took more than a week to cover! 

By Anthony Lycett  

By Anthony Lycett 

By Anthony Lycett 

By Anthony Lycett 

I like to create festive costume for special occasion like Christmas of Valentine Day but I never had the chance to make a Easter themed one. 

By Anthony Lycett 

In Poundland (my favourite shop in the world) these colourful eggs and fury little chicks & nests were definitely calling me so I decide to create a headpiece and neckpiece with them, celebrating eggs hunting and coming of spring.

By Anthony Lycett 

It is a shame I will have to wait next year to wear it again!

I had some of my accessories featured in Wildabout Magazine fashion editorial.  A Grimes inspired shoot 'You Only Like Me When You Think I'm Looking Sad' 

Creative Director/ Stylist: Cat van Maanen 

HMUA's: Kitty Noofah  & Bjorn Daniel 

Models: Sophie Aine  , Yazzmin Newell, Anne Alessandra Kamaile 

Photographer: Angela Mazur Photography 

With My Moshi monster necklace 

With my baroque rococo religious necklace 

with eyes and arms earring -little cars necklace 

with vampire dolls necklace 

vampre dolls boots featured in Vogue Italia!!! 

vampires dolls boots in Vogue Italia! vampire dolls are now officially trendy! 

Point presse: Kingz magazine sharing my piece "Indians vs Cowboys" announcing my coming exhibition at Isabelle Gounod Gallery in Paris, opening 30th of April.  

This month will follow you even on your trip on Eurostar in the frame in Self Styled London project featured in the Eurostar magazine! get me a copy if you travel from Paris to London!

From cultural appropriation to multiculturalism celebration

By Anthony Lycett 

This neckpiece is made from cow boys and indian plastic figurines, denouncing the genocide of native American by Western colonists played down by mass culture through children toys, movies or cartoons like lucky Luke.

By Anthony Lycett 

 Now days, gathered is reserves, Indians tribes are often victims of discrimination, unemployment, that entails alcoholism and gambling.  My use of "made in china" dream catchers with synthetic feathers  and fake animal teethes pinpoints the reduction of a traditional ancestral craft to a trivialised  mass produced "folk art" for tourists by a caricatural cultural appropriation. 

By Anthony Lycett 

I love to integrate toys into my designs as miniature representation of our world as they are a reflection of change in society, in his this case, benefit to build  "cow boy myth" in order to rewrite History.  

By Anthony Lycett 

Cultural borrowing and cross-fertilisation, there is a fine line between appreciation and appropriation,  

I am from this post modern generation where we  consumes culture, youtube, online magazine,  tumblr, blog, vlog… we mix,shake and match  inspirations and create our patchwork life as a giant mood board.  

By Anthony Lycett 

By borrowing some element from African or Indian culture I acknowledge the cultural superiority for usage of colours, beading, element that I can't find in Western mainstream  fashion but are part of the culture I built by myself through my studies, my readings, my mood boards, and my internet surfing.  I am a citizen of the world and I don't feel my style shouldn't be determined by the place I live.  

By Anthony Lycett 

All the elements in my garment are sourced locally, coming from charity shop or reclaimed material, so I never directly "steal" objects, from other cultures but element that remind me the wealth and variety of theses aesthetic and I reinterpret them in my creations. For example,  I will use pheasants feathers hunted in the North of France to build my headpieces with reference to the Native american culture. 

By Chris Taylor 

With my feathers headpiece, and barbie clock at London Fashion week day 2 (see my first look in the previous article) steeling the show from "comme des garçon minimalist fashionistas".

By Chris Taylor 

By Chris Taylor 

With the amazing, Estelle Monsterlune Who would say this is the two Frenchies of London Fashion week?  Burn your Chanel Bag and your ballerina, and join the colour tribe! By Victorgraphy.co 

details of the barbie cloak, this garment took me age to make as I had to find around 50 similar brooch and stitch individually each barbie face but I love the uncanny baroque result! 

Colour bombing the London fashion week with Estelle Monsterlune, and Kala Kala! 

joined by a dancer, it is not all about fashion but art in all its form! 

Thanks to my hand made accessories, featured  for the second time  second time on Adorn blog! 

By Felix Friedmann

Another magical day in London, just a normal thursday lunch at Meihui Lui Dumpling Heart place, eating amazing chinese food and doing photoshoot!

With Sue Kreitzman, shoes by Natacha Marro

With My new furry  japanese toys neckpiece By Felix Friedmann 

By Felix Friedmann

FRONT...

...and BACK! 

Amazing team of creative with Sue Kreitzman, Meihui Lui, Jamie Freestone and make up artisit Neusa Neves 

On the same day,  I met the amazing artist Holly-Anne Buck know as Collagism who belong to the "Adornism" movement.,  We talked  about a potential Adornist show in London which would be my dream! as all the artists I know are individuals I truly admire as creative and persons! ...   I love my London life 

Press has been rolling this past month, first an interview in Interview by the Norwegian based magazine @dt500mag: 

Then, I have been very honoured to have been "hogled" by Human of Greater London at Spitafields market, read the full story on their facebook page 

"It's hard to be an artist and it's an elusive label too. Even though I've got my MA in art from Central Saint Martins, I still get the fear of being an imposter. What is an artist? Do you even need to be talented to be one? Can you be an artist by dressing crazy and cutting Barbie hair? I guess if you dedicate yourself to your art and you live for that, even if your art is bad you're still an artist. But it's not enough just to call yourself an artist - you need to be recognised as one by other people to be given that authority."

picture by Richard Kaby 

Ultimate accolade!
Also so proud to be featured in Liberation in "celles et ceux dont on parlera bientôt" annoncing my exhibition in Paris at Galerie Isabelle Gounod, opening 30th of april!

Finally, In the print edition of "Mondern Weekly" despite my recent trip to China, no clue what is written next to my pictures, hope it will appeal to my Chinese readers..feeling very international, thanks to the legendary Diane Pernet for the interview!