Ok, I was going to call this post Lazy Hazy Days of Summer… or something…it being about Lazy Oafs Spring and Summer 11 collection and all things summery!. And, with it now being well on the way into early June, and also being very aware that winter, nay, spring is totally done and dusted in my current (shhhhh…for this post anyway!) location, which is somewhere deep in Southern Spain….this seemed far more appropriate.
So it was, a few weeks back, with spring in the offing and ….yes….stranger things have happened here… (but not much!)….that I literally bumped into one of London’s new stellar? dinky? can you be stellar and dinky at the same time?.. HELL! YES!… and very approachable fashion phenomena’s on their fashion shoot….
And all this while waiting at the village bus stop. It really was a case of get with it, right here right now, not just because of the absurd timing (half an hour earlier/later I would have missed them). But not least because, of all the days and weeks to arrange a one off shoot here…the usually continuous ever-so-glorious-light of the micro climate had most definitely gone AWOL…..Put it this way all that was really needed to have transplanted the whole thing back to one of blighty’s more gloomier streets was a smattering of fog.
So it was, while perusing my time at said bus stop, that I noticed a girl wearing (it has to be said) a STUNNING print dress in what seemed like a special location-shoot.
Poppy in Lazy Oaf’s Big Pattern Tee Dress
First up I thought, poor girl, stood there on what should be a glorious spring day shivering her (metaphorical) socks off (ok, it was Spain and wasn’t exactly freezing!). Then it occurred to me WOAH ! how totally mega-rubbish for the photographer. Especially with proof… having tried very unsuccessfully to snap a couple of shots of That Dress myself. Finding them even more scuzzy, hazy or whatever than usual (see various mentions in previous posts for more graphic horror stories as to trials and tribs with my camera-phone)
It was then I noticed THE CAMERA…god knows what the name, number, or technical term for it was ( this is someone who describes cars by their colour… ) but I ‘clicked’ with the shape. The photographer had a neat and lens prominent, does-the-job-perfectly, like back when cameras had just evolved from Bolex and Box to David Bailey lens/light astute models that relied more on their user intuitive shape and film, than todays super chip n’ graphic card tech (there, I do know more than just colour codes!) …..And I WON’T be posting any of my attempts here…. suffice to say going by the shots in the look book I was in the presence of nothing short of a Photographic-Wizard-God.
Risking another hour at the bus stop I hopped over the road to one of the team ( it turned out he was one of the models, Marlee…..). And with split second timing and an exchange of my name/card. I discovered Lazy Oaf.
And what a cool Design team they are…with a core influence of illustration transposed into bright pop graphic T shirts, reversible sweats and numerous accessories (and in their words) fuelled by tea, hamburgers and Brian Blessed’s gnarley foot!.
Always being up for projects, exhibitions and events proving they are one of those new breed of totally accessible and thoroughly nice, switched-on-creatives who get involved, making stuff happen.
Earlier at the SS 11 Party
Having come about in 2001, started by Gemma Shiel with hand printed tees from a market stall in East London… 3 years later saw them ensconced in their Soho store while adding to their range by sourcing additional oddities from Japan and the US. All their designs are created in house by the Lazy Oaf Team from their HQ in Shoreditch ….. and now…without *Going Global* they occupy cool spaces in boutiques and shops all over the world.
Party time earlier this year at the store
And That Dress (as it has now become known to me). With its right here right now in-your-face graphic print, that is soooo wearable, the kind of wearable I’d addictively KEEP wearing till its threadbare!.
…more in store!
…and That Dress!
….If I wasn’t out in non-residencia-sticks in Spain so to speak I too would P&P one right now!, and troll around on the local bus or down to the comida-shops, chiringuitos and the like…. forever and a day!.
Which also, in hindsight after receiving a copy of the look book & various photos, did I put two and two together with the nook and cranny vignettes and post card use of spaces by the photographer….. With cries of I’ve been there!
That and the fact the penny finally dropped when I realised the photographer was indeed non other than Viktor Vauthier……who’s style/use of camera and possibly, persona I had absorbed, by internet fashion osmosis of late. Not least with the fact he has also literally just done Urban Outfitters SS11 fashion shoot with his very own distinctive style!.
Lazy Oaf’s SS11 shoot
Nope, Lazy Oaf, most definitely are up there with that new breed of interesting, creative peeps totally motivated and involved with design and fashion and art.
So, with The Oaf’s… (can I call them that?).. refreshing attitudes to consumer experience, design and direction (I DARE you to be iffy or sad around their creations!). It didn’t surprise me at all to find them recently taking a light hearted stab at unstuffing the stuffiness of art institutions. Collaborating not only with Tate Modern and Tate Britain, but taking their wares waaay up to The Baltic, Gateshead and Nottingham Contemporary (forgive me, but I do get a wee bit exited when art institutions get noticed further north in the UK!)…. With them producing a special fun bag to take all your precious art books and the like around in…. : ) ……
In the mean time I will never be able to look at That Rock again, while waiting for bus-urbano and its trusty driver…. without a smidgen of pinching myself at soooo being in the right place at the right time AND seeing the Right Here, Right Now that is Lazy Oaf!….
And thanks! Jerry of PR fame! for the all the help…+++xxxx! not least after all my internet dodgy emails! ….who made sure that I knew exactly where Lazy Oafs HQ is…..
Lazy Oaf ltd Studio
Unit 6 New North House
Canonbury Business Centre
190A New North road
London
N1 7BJ
….And… guess where? ! which beach ! which club ! which bar ! (cant resist!)….cue…very un-subtle links!
…And …… close by That Rock! where I’m sure the Lazy Oaf crew passed a pleasant respite or two ! the ever village-hub-and-omnipresent Bar Pavana !
I promise I WILL get back with BTV’s new designs! (very very long overdue post I know!) , along with Man Bartlett’s recent 140h Berlin installation including a big nod to Franklin the Turkey’s contribution to this 140 hour media streamed New-York-Beuys–Art-Trip-in-Reverse…… errrm complete with very loud turkey hiccups! (btw..no turkeys were harmed in the making of this piece : )…….
back in a couple!…..
