JACOB KIMMIE

Archive: jacob Kimmie did Colour, 2003 - 2005

2010-11-22T07:33:00.000-08:00

Editors and stylists love to think that I only do black... This is the ready-to-wear lines that I used to sell at the uber-trendy The Space concept stores and India Jane. Look everybody...colour! Most of the fabrics were "found" vintage gems like the printed crepe faille and the retro 50's camo print cotton. The embroidery is the old fashioned chorded type done on an ancient embroidery machine!

Archive: yellow crochet dress, square vintage sequins, 2003

2010-11-22T07:24:00.000-08:00

I created a collection of dresses that I showed to Browns, who pulled up their noses and said it wasn't for them. Fast forward to 2011 and Mark Fast is selling like hot-cake. The dress is hand crochet and hand beaded with tiny square sequins and glass beads that i found in an old dance store.

Archive: Johannesburg Photoshoot, 2005

2010-11-22T06:57:00.000-08:00

This is one of the last shoots that I done of one of my collections back in South Africa. The photographs were taken in a glorious Art Deco building that now houses squatters and an HIV/AIDS clinic, and is also where the little clothing manufacturers (comprised of 4 women in their 40s whom decided to club together and form their own business. Two of them have subsequently passed away from cancer and HIV-related illnesses) is based. Nonthlntha, the model speaks hardly any English and has never modelled before. If you look carefully, catch a glimpse of James in the mirrors taking the pics on an antique digital camera! These were the fun days.

Samantha Barker Interview with Jacob Kimmie In Pictures

2010-11-21T04:48:00.000-08:00

A conversation with fashion designer Jacob Kimmie by Samantha Barker

2010-10-21T05:28:00.000-07:00

I discovered your work through a good friend of my sisters who modeled for your 2011 Spring/Summer ‘Eternal Delight’ presentation at this year’s autumn London Fashion Week. The striking image of the cobalt blue wool suit that had such beautiful and compelling tailoring captured in the static image of a model, captured my imagination and I wanted to know more…

I wanted to hack away at the jacket, create a type of blueprint for a new, unfussy, un-over-worked form of tailoring. The colour is quite modern, evocative. The blue version "feels" very different from the black, which feels a little more severe...sexy even.

You were born in Johannesburg, South Africa, on your website it is detailed that ‘anger and injustice’ drives you in your work as a designer. How does this drive you? – Anger and injustice against you and close loved ones or an issue that affects you and wider public as a whole? Please explain.

I grew up in the township streets of Apartheid South Africa. My background, I guess, plays a big part in the way I think about creativity. Perhaps, what I was exposed to - the unrest, poverty, the sensless violence... it strips away your inclination for self expression, and replaces it with something else. When I was growing up, there used to be military vehicles, an armed military, patroling our township roads. That fucks with your head. I dont' think that it surpressed my need to create. If anything, it made me want to, even more. Something happens to you when you have to fight for freedom. I think it power-charges your emotions and radicalises your vision. I'm wired to a different kind of baggage, a different kind of bullshit. Note that I'm driven by anger...my works not about anger...

What age did you come to the UK? Did you design whilst in Africa and does this still have influences on your design work?

I came to the UK for the first time when I was 26 on a working holiday visa. They were the two best years of my life in London.Till then, I had freelanced as an illiustrator, then as a stylist and writer for The Star newspaper (when I was 21), supplied rave boutiques with plastic dresses and had my first label called Chromosome fitting dresses to women by the age of 26. That time especially will always have an influence on my work. Determination is a bit like respect- you don't just get it...you earn it. Aesthetically, now, I'm a little more grown-up and a little bit more bald.

When and why did you start fashion?

I don't know. I can't recall the first time I picked up a needle. I've always been "stitching" (you should see my blind stitch). My aunts all worked in dress factories, but could never afford the dresses they used to work on. So, they would on a Friday evening buy fabric remnants in downtown Joburg and recreate the dresses to go out dancing in. They could make those dresses in a day. All this would happen with me sitting under the table making dresses for my cousin's dolls with the off-cuts, much to my dad's horror. I think it's where my affair with fashion really began, and where the escapist-like exagerated romantic effect took form that I think my work is about.

How does the UK compare to Johannesburg for creative opportunity?

It doesn't. You can't compare the two. Johannesburg is brown, dirty, edgy, hostile, exciting and grim. Life is plentiful, but cheap. London is grey, nostalgic, lose, perverse, tribal, contradictory, dynamic, prim and vile. People care better for their animals than their old. They are about different romances...different visions. That's what makes it exciting for someone like me to show in London. My look is dangerously at odds with that prim London establishment. They can't stick a label on me, a bit like my race. South Africa struggles with the possibility of the future, while the UK is obsessed with nostalgia. My colonialist background pitched againsts the UK's struggle with globalisation is the honey-pot of my thinking.

At your ‘Pilgrim’ show for Autumn/Winter 2010, you featured a baby, why did you decide to do this? You again showed your open - minded and innovative approach to models, by incorporating a male model with the lower part of his arm missing in your Spring/Summer 2011 presentation. Is this becoming a purposeful statement by you as a designer; to go against the idea of what is ‘normal’ to see in high fashion catwalks/presentations - is it part of the story you are telling, an added social narrative and statement running through the collections?

I dont go against the idea of what is normal. That's a tacky cop-out for being original. I wasn't the first to use a baby or a model born with a congenital birth defect. They're simply accentuate the otherliness of my muse, and sometimes they are lingered with esoteric pepperiness.

‘Eternal Delight’ which is taken from the William Blake plate "Energy is eternal delight. He who desires but acts not breeds pestilence’, is the title of your Spring/ Summer 2011 collection. I thought it was intuitive and clever to capture this ‘energy’ by having the models stand statically, with fans showing movement of the garments against the model’s bodies. It allowed the clothes almost to be viewed mid motion, as if you’d stopped them midway down a catwalk – capturing a special moment and allowing fashion’s blessed to view it close up. Do you agree with this statement?

To be honest, I never thought of it like that, but yes, now that you brought it up in that way! I'm a huge William Blake fan. The quote felt right for this collection. There's something gnawingly sinister and secretly satisfying about what it really means.

You have collaborated with jeweller Ginta Siceva, on the ‘Pilgrim’ (A/W 2010) collection and Kate Mead in 2008, for two dresses entitled the ‘Bullet’ and the ‘Marble’ dress. How do you find collaboration contributes to your own thought processes as a designer? Is it a valuable experience?

High fashion is about possibilities. What use is an idea if I can't create it? And sometimes others might be better at it than me. Collaborations are about over-lapping egos. To make that work, you have to completely trust your motives and be genuine about sharing the spot-light with another. I have no problem with that. Ginta and Kate are incredible to work with. Above everything else, they are fantastic confident resourceful women...and Ginta always looks amazing at the show.

After running a ‘Live’ competition with Birmingham City University, you chose two students to design the jewellery pieces for the ‘Eternal Delight’ collection. It must be fantastic for the students involved - offering them a glimpse of what they could achieve when professional, and especially for Alice Welsh and Fiona Maria Ross who worked with you on the final pieces. Did you enjoy and benefit from this?

The live project was great. I was really keen to see "design training" up close. The future doesn't look too grim.

Do you feel you are at an advantage from not going to university? Would you recommend others who wanted to start a career in fashion to be confident in taking a route of their choice and that, that route doesn’t have to be university?

I'm passionate about education, but i dont get the point about degrees or masters degrees in fashion. Nearlly all the graduates I've met can't make a finished dress. If they could, the proof would be in the pudding- they'd all be slightly better off than unemployed because they would have figured out that if you can make a basic shift dress, you can eat. I secretly wish that I went to university. I'm one of those types who would have worn something to piss-off the dean...like Vivienne Westwood without knickers when she met the queen. Students don't have the pluck for that kind of thing anymore. They dont see the end result of learning as a form of fun. They paralysed by dissillusionment and tacky pop music. Also, this year, I met 9 students who are dyslexic.

To intern at Jacob Kimmie, its compulsory to have a part time job and to agree to everything I say. Those who succeed at the interview get to draw porn. The results have been mind blowing.

Have you had any favourite, defining, even life- changing pieces that you have designed?

I've had many, since many of the pieces in the shows, I make the patterns myself. The stand out piece would be a tulle and wool crepe camisole from my SS10 La Fille Sauvage collection. It was intended to be a showpiece only, but ended up being ordered all over the middle east including D'na, the concept store in Riyadh. There isn't a single bone or closure in the piece, yet it fits like a dream, cut on the bias.

Do you admire/ are inspired by any other creatives and why? (Across fashion, interiors, photography, craft ….)

My collections always start with music. Music sets the mood...the tone for my collections. For AW1011 for instance I heard a remix of John Cutler's It's Yours and it instantly evoked temples and ritual...in a house music club! It puntuated the urban-tribal glances in my work. I'm drawn to the work of photographers like Pieter Hugo and musicians like Amon Tobin. And I absolutely love Die Antwoord. I would...they make everything else in art and music seem completely banal.

SPRING SUMMER 2011 SHOW PRESS

2010-10-21T05:12:00.000-07:00

SS//11 invites for LFW and PARIS, created by Lucy Brookes, studio intern

2010-09-04T10:31:00.000-07:00

Spring Summer 2010: behind the scenes of Spring Summer 2011

2010-08-27T01:54:00.000-07:00

The preparation of this season has so far been the easiest and the most exciting! Not only have we (my team and I) created the most exciting and new collection, but we've also had the most exciting press thanks to Felicities, and have met some super interns. This season I've also collaborated with three really artisitic first year jewellery designers from Birmingham's now famous jewellery school, for whom I was asked to set a live project.

Spring Summer 2011 "Eternal Delight", the collection:

This season is a HUGE move away from the sentimentalist themes that I've been toying with in past collections. Since moving to the UK, my reading choices changed as I "settled into a new landscape". The "Debutant", "Eccentric Girl" and "Nocturns" culminated in the anti-nostalgic "Pilgrim" theme last season- the baby at the end signifying change and perhaps even rebirth. This coming season, my muse enters a new and exciting phase, a new experience. "Eternal Delight is named after the famous William Blake quote:

"Energy is an eternal delight, and he who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence."

I think it is one of the most provocative of Blake's plates, incredibly powerful and esoteric.I'm a huge Blake devotee. I think he is is the ultimate artist.

For the coming season, I'll be showing my collection in a presentation. I really want people to have a good look at the intricate working of the pieces and especially the jewellery pieces.

Summer 2010 Interns:

What a fun, brave bunch of gals! This season, I implemented a proper mentoring situation. Not only have the interns made copious amounts of cups of tea, but they have also completed full portfolios of work, spent many a night drawing their feet or other body parts (!) (five life drawings were to be submitted every day, two of them proper finished pieces) and had a reading list of 15 important books to get through. They bitched and moaned and not only did they get through books like 100 Years of Solitude, the Garcia epic, or London Fields, or Last Exit To Brooklyn, but based certain projects on books like Skin Lane by Neil Bartlett which is amazing!

They looked at work beyond the pre-requisite Helmut Newton and Mappelthorpe and explored avenues beyond their imagination. I am incredibly proud of them and they are ALL (5 of them) going to Paris with us in September for sales! May I add that all five of them look incredible in Jacob Kimmie! look out for them if you're over...

Press:

Shingai from the Noisettes, front covers, the feather jacket on a waitinglist with stylists, and other press we cant mention...just not yet...watch this space!!

Tom and Dom:

About two months ago, I met a young married couple, Tom and Dominika Sochacki, from Poland who inspire me no end with their drive and passion for what they do. Tom, who studied photography in the UK, is shooting my SS11 campaign and has the most incredible eye. My favourite work of his are portraits of Dominika which portrays the most incredible intimacy void of being crass or sugary. Dominika has completed a degree in communications and manages Tom's PR. I love their story about their tough background and their incredibly grown-up approach to life in Britain. For the last three years of their study in the UK, they've both worked at Oceana over weekends to support themselves- Tom in the coat check area, and Dominika wiping up vomit till three in the morning. They are only 22 and 23 years old.

Jewellery School live preoject:

This was really excting! After setting the project based on my SS11 theme, the students had to present their pieces on "a type of futuristic hyper-femininity". The pieces were completely bonkers! Some submissions looked like space-age contraptions while others lost the plot (in a good way!) altogetether. Stand out pieces were by a girl called Ellie, who designed a look that I can only describe as "metal fabric caught in wind!". Unfortunately, one collaborator of the final three, will not be taking part. The seriousness of the project was meant to eventually prove how incredibly pressurised and dyanmic the fashion industry is.

Watch out for Alice Welsh and Fiona Maria Ross. They are going to forces to be reckoned with. They're designing my jewellery.

2010-08-25T05:06:00.000-07:00

This is a Facebook conversation I found between two of my interns...

2010-08-16T06:59:00.000-07:00

Intern One Intern Two licks up dog shit from the floor!
12 August at 15:09 · Comment · LikeUnlike · Remove tag
Strange Person likes this.

Intern Two You find it sexually attractive
12 August at 15:11 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One your life you do what you want dear!
12 August at 15:12 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two I will, but only if you stop pleasuring yourself while watching me do the licking please. It puts me off.
12 August at 15:13 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One sorry i cant help it, i just enjoy watching you!!
12 August at 15:13 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two Well, to be fair, I would too. It is glorious.
12 August at 15:15 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One It is better than ben and jerrys!! and i really like ben and jerrys!
12 August at 15:17 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two I know all the filthy things you do with ice cream and that doll and whip you bought in Soho.
12 August at 15:18 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One Well was better than a banana! I think its time for you to stop getting off on watching lesbo porn while your brother is asleep next door its getting abit wrong now!!
12 August at 15:20 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two Can I watch it at your place instead then? I won't make a mess, unless I decide on bringing friends along for an orgy. I'd invite you to join in, but we don't do necrophilia.
12 August at 15:21 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One I know a very good lane you could use, might be abit cold but the orgy would soon warm you up
12 August at 15:22 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two Oh great. In return, I do know a few "speciality" brothels for people into "alternative" stuff where you could earn some extra cash. They'd love you.
12 August at 15:24 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One win win then!! awesome! maybe you could come too
12 August at 15:26 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two No, I work at a regular brothel.
12 August at 15:27 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One one where fat bald guys go?
12 August at 15:28 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two Oooh, I meant a regular brothel for lesbians.
12 August at 15:29 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One nice big butch ones?
12 August at 15:30 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two Love a bit of butch fanny. YUM.
12 August at 15:30 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One Your such a lovely girl! take one for the team and all!
12 August at 15:31 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two I'll take one for anything. Haha.
12 August at 15:31 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One Any hole a goal?
12 August at 15:33 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two Pretty much, yes. I like the way you think.
12 August at 15:33 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One You go girl!! Any fanny better than no fanny
12 August at 15:36 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two Cock, fanny, in between, who cares!
12 August at 15:36 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One Not picky then?
12 August at 15:39 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two Not at all! The only problem is the itching from all the STD's.
12 August at 15:40 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One Ohh that can't be nice!! Don't get your self up the duff!!
12 August at 15:42 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two Pregnancy is the Ultimate STD. My next goal in life.
12 August at 15:43 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One Well lived I say
12 August at 15:46 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two What is life without pleasure, sex toys and weird fetishes...?

Ok, even I cringed writing that.
12 August at 15:46 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One Do you give up now fishy fanny?
12 August at 15:50 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two NEVERRR, ball tickler.
12 August at 15:53 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One Virgin poo eating weirdo
12 August at 16:03 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two bumhole licker with a back hair fetish
12 August at 16:04 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One Fly eater with a gay bum fetish
12 August at 16:44 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two Period blood muncher.
12 August at 16:49 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One Loser face anal shagger
12 August at 16:54 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two dildo sucking lube-aholic.
12 August at 16:56 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One Anal sucker blood sucking ground licking shit head
12 August at 17:12 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two Stick a biscuit in it, Intern One.
12 August at 17:12 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One Go eat your own poo Intern Two!
12 August at 17:15 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two Been there, done that.
12 August at 17:16 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One Your so gross!!
12 August at 17:17 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two No I'm not! :p
12 August at 17:37 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One Yep grosser than horse shit
12 August at 17:39 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two Pfffft, that's hardly gross. You're missing an amazing conversation in the studio about farting right now.
12 August at 17:40 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One Haha why the fuck you talking bout farting for? The collection been came yet?
12 August at 17:45 · LikeUnlike

Intern Two Jacob was asking if we ever fart...
Collection is coming sometime between 8-6 tomorrow. Yeah...!
12 August at 17:46 · LikeUnlike ·

Intern One Haha ok!! Of course girls fart!!
Its getting later and later!! Wanna see it!!!

The Ribbon Coat appears again in Freestyle Magazine...

2010-07-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

...and then the lace dress...

2010-07-01T09:42:00.000-07:00

The Ribbon Coat makes a re-appearance

2010-07-01T09:40:00.001-07:00

costume designs, 2005

2010-06-18T04:42:00.000-07:00

Rose Top, 1997

2010-06-18T04:33:00.000-07:00

menswear illustration c.1999

2010-06-18T04:11:00.000-07:00

portfolio pictures 1991 - 2003

2010-06-18T04:04:00.000-07:00

Knitted Cape Dress Makes First Appearance

2010-05-21T02:32:00.000-07:00

The AW1011 collection is permanantly out on loan to stylists. This is one of the first shots of the oversized knitted wool dress on on-line Design Scene. Poor model...it weighs a ton!

Recognise Magazine

2010-05-21T02:30:00.000-07:00

Mirrin Magazine shoot styled by Sarah Butler

2010-04-16T08:45:00.000-07:00

Sarah Butler modelled in my first show. She's absolutely gorgeous and the most fantastic person to work with. I love the way she wears my clothes, and now she's doing it justice in another way! Cheers Sarah! xx

Autumn Winter 2011 published already in MC Magazine!

2010-04-16T08:40:00.000-07:00

When we got back from sales in Paris, the collection went straight onto the rails at Felicities and within days, 90% of it was out on shoot with a waiting list two stylists deep!

Jacob Kimmie, Vogue Turkey

2010-03-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

Danny Bennett for Jacob Kimmie SS10

2010-03-18T08:36:00.000-07:00

La Fille Sauvage is a modern take on Rouseau's Noble Savage theory and my musings on Jean-Leon Gerome's paintings. I wanted to create the idea of the modern savage; the eroticism of two prim girls ogling the live exhibit. And ogle everyone did when Danny dropped his kecks!

My hope was for an audience to enjoy the sexy moment, rather than ask way too deep and meaningful questions about race/sex politics.

Ribbon cape is from SS08 La Nuit Erotique

JACOB KIMMIE SPRING SUMMER 2010 LA FILLE SAUVAGE EXHIBITION

2010-03-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

JACOB KIMMIE SPRING SUMMER 2010 LA FILLE SAUVAGE EXHIBITION

2010-03-18T08:26:00.000-07:00

Post-Collection...first bit

2010-03-18T00:21:00.000-07:00

I'm often asked what my collections are about. Its the question I dread the most, especially after a collection as press starts to filter in and the curiosity of the bloggers get the better of me. Its not that I dont want to tell them, or that I dont know, its just that I feel completely deflated, and for those who are in the know, know that I'm that type that falls in between hyper-excited-cum-mouth-full-of-teeth. You know what I mean: big silent type who can't shut up when he gets going!

I'm at that spot when I'm almost permanently daydreaming about the next collection. Somehow, I know already what the feel is, what I want it to look like. My method of working always starts with the music, and even though it might not be the music I use in a show, it sets the mood and I will constantly cross-reference the collection with it.

I grew up in the 80's when British fashion was starting to get really amazing again. EVERYTHING that designers like Westwood, Galliano, Chalayan and later designers like Mcqueen, Chalayan again, Copperwheat Blundel (does anyone remember Arkadius?!), et al. reeked of that great anti-establishment musk that tittilated the radicals (even of the, and particularly of the armchair variety, middle-class art students and/or other type) and horrified the right. What those chaps did with piercings, tampon strings, semen-filled vial jewellery, S/M diamond covered mouth plugs, iron filings, bumsters and corsets, echoed and inspired no end how important it was to be radical and clever in order to move fashion forward. You had to get off your arse and make something amazing, something incredible, driven by a crazy desire to change the world and shout about it. Even Stella did radical whilst at Chloe with her gold chain collection! Ya, whilst at Chloe. That is British fashion.

(ps. I dont want to get too nostalgic because you- know-who might be listening in. And you know how critical you-know-who is about nostalgia and fashion. Also, you know how we all want and crave you-know-whos blessing, so I dont want to risk the delete button on her laptop, even though you-know-who loves 90s daywear. That is British fashion now.)

Lenora Crichlow "Material Girl" in the now iconic Jacob Kimmie Ribbon Coat

2010-01-29T02:39:00.000-08:00

Shoot photographed by Dave Wise

2010-01-22T10:58:00.000-08:00

Urban Life front cover

2010-01-22T10:55:00.000-08:00

I saw her (Wanessa) first...

2009-12-01T01:23:00.001-08:00

I used Wanessa first, before any others in London did, for my SS09 collection (September 2008). Now, you're seeing her everywhere! She is absolutely gorgeous.

Bow Coat AW0910 SOKOzine

2009-11-20T09:45:00.000-08:00

Kaya in Jacob Kimmie, Random Mag

2009-11-20T09:42:00.000-08:00

erm err...all three pics of Kaya has my pieces in it...the "Bow Coat" (AW0910), the "Bullet Dress" (SS09) and...again that ribbon cape!)

Great Press Shots

2009-11-20T09:02:00.000-08:00

The ribbon cape is much loved by stylists!

Ellie Goulding in my SS10 pre-collection frock in Just Jack

I was really excited when the Ellie Goulding piece appeared in the Just Jack mag followed by Kaya in Random. It's taken six seasons to define my label's audience! I'm constantly asked by editors "where I fit in...whom do I hang next to...etc". Does this make it any clearer?!

Kaya Scodelario Random Magazine

2009-11-20T08:57:00.000-08:00

2009-11-05T08:44:00.000-08:00