VERMIN
RP/VERMIN LAUNCH PARTY, 17TH SEPTEMBER, BETHNAL GREEN ROAD
Reid Peppard's new taxidermy accessories/art adventure . . .
The collection seems to tread a tightrope between the prim and the primal. Flesh torn from flesh juxtaposed with whiskers, minutely and painstakingly arranged. Rubies studding a rats tail, a pigeon’s beak gulping down a pearl.
The most striking (and we hazard most wearable) piece is a pigeon wing head dress that designer Reid Peppard wears after the show has worn down. After the stress of the press party, after the plinths are demolished, she looks like a ravaged Hellenic beauty, war torn, defiant.
The head piece is redolent of the winged sandals worn by Hermes, god of boundaries and the travellers who cross them. With her ‘VERMIN’ collection Reid could be seen to be one of his followers, a psychopomp who flits between this world and another, one foot in the river Styx, one foot in the underground station.
The elegance of the collection is countered of course by the grotty greyness of London, pavements, chewing gum, pigeons, granite skies and tube dwelling mice. Instead of taking the ubiqutous route master as the symbol of London or the archaic and hamburger faced Beef Eaters (weren't they the mascot for floundering food chain Wimpy's?), Peppard has taken the pavements and the gutters themselves as emblems of the city. And the effect is beguiling, she has transformed the way I look at 'leftovers', detritus and "vermin". With her fantastic goodie bags (complete with mock up mouse-trap and surgical gloves) she encourages us all to look closer, to lower our gaze and to get a little grimy.
CNN clearly think she's ace,
check out their London fashion week picks
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2009/09/18/ctw.connector.reid.peppard.cnn?iref=videosearch
posted by E. ATTLEE at
10:49
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