Gaga and Mugler Collaboration

Thierry Mugler is one of the world’s most influential designers, known for pushing the boundaries between fashion and art to create truly unique pieces. This year, Nicola Formichetti took over the brand and re-named it Mugler, releasing the fashion house’s first ever menswear collection. The house has launched a short film to commemorate the release of the collection, with none-other than Lady Gaga heading the soundtrack.

Gaga wrote the soundtrack especially for the Mugler collection, and it was debuted at Mugler’s first menswear show in Paris last week. Gaga switches between English and German during the song which adds to the eccentricity of the clothes. The film features Canadian Model Rick Genest whose nickname “Zombie Boy” comes from his skeleton tattoo which covers his entire body. This has to be seen to be believed!

Genest gradually revels the body art during the film and dances to Gaga’s music wearing a string of pearls. The film was shot by fashion photographer Mariano Vivanco and the song is taken from Gaga’s new album "Born This Way," which is released this spring. With Gaga at the helm, here’s hoping this will be the start of more collaborations between the two!

Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion

If you still haven't had a chance to see it yet the Barbican Art Gallery is hosting Europe’s first avant-garde Japanese fashion exhibiton, from the early 80’s through ‘till the present day. Akkiko Fukai, the renowned Japanese fashion historian and director of the Kyoto Costume Institute, is curator to the bold and beautiful display. The showcase embodies the huge impact Japan has had on the worlds fashion scene and explores the work of innovative designers such as Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto.

The Japanese designers clearly represent a sensibility to fashion with a futuristic edge. The clothes are timeless and an entity of their own. All the clothes featured seem to form an independent silhouette without relying on a model’s petit figure.

The exhibition is running until the 6th February 2011, so if you haven’t seen it yet, book a date in the diary!


Idol At Bread & Butter / Berlin

Mark Herman and Hannah Man, Idol’s Marketing Director and Manager had a grand old time at BREAD & BUTTER Berlin last week. The trade-show is an innovative fair for progressive, contemporary clothing culture and is a magnet for the world’s hottest Street and Urban-wear brands. B&B attracts some serious fashion heavyweights (albeit of the slim, stylish variety) from editors to buyers; the buying team from Selfridges made an appearance, as well of that of Harrods, De Bijenkorf and Colette!

Mark and Hannah had a super time, the event was rammed and the pair even had time to catch an alternative fashion show. A highlight was running into fashion icon Agyness Deyn and best mate publisher Chris Bletzer who both looked very laid-back cool. The pair told us about their interesting, new website NAAG, the brainchild of Aggy and Fiona Byrne that covers fashion, food and culture, with an eye for up-and-coming young talent. We particularly like the innovative fashion shoots, a few referencing cult films like Blow Up and The Fear & Loathing. The site is fantastic for keeping-to-date with edgy places to hang-out and quirky goings-on...it's been bookmarked!

Hannah & Mark both report that BREAD & BUTTER = very sore feet!

Sleigh Bells

Dubbed as “Noise-Pop” Sleigh Bells are fast becoming the most talked-about band on the music scene. Front woman and style-icon Alexis Krauss and guitarist Derek Miller are a super-cool team, and we’re already drawing comparisons to the famous White Stripes duo!

The pair met back in 2008 when Alexis and her mother came for lunch in the restaurant where Derek worked, and he happened to mention he was looking for a singer for some of his demo tracks. Fast foreword a year or so and they were being signed to M.I.A’s own record label, after she spotted the band playing small gigs around New York.

The duo released their album ‘Treats’ in May 2010 and have since been touring all over the world. Their music is infectious and upbeat, with Krauss’s powerful vocals set against the energetic riffs of Miller’s guitar.

Sleigh Bells are playing London’s Heaven this Valentine’s Day, so don’t miss out. Coupled up? Take your other half to see them live, we guarantee it will be the best date ever!

Quick-Fire Questions | Fran Webberley

We caught up with Idol's design assistant Fran, to ask her a few snappy questions. Over to you love...

Who is your Idol? Kate Moss, she goes out and gets what she wants.

If you could meet anyone in the world dead or alive who would it be and what would say to them? I would like to meet Pete Doherty, I think he’d have a lot of interesting stories to tell.

What is the best place you have visited in the world? Bali, it made me realize a lot of things.

Which famous females style do you most admire? Fashion blogger Rumi Neely.

What are you wearing? Studded denim hotpants, lace panelled tights, an oversized jumper and my Jeffrey Campbell wedge boots.

What is your favourite colour socks to wear? You can never have too many pairs of black socks, yeah boring I know.

If you were stranded on a desert island, what three items would you take with you? My iphone/macbook/friends.

Who is your secret crush? Now that would be telling.

Most hated chore on the chore list? Doing the laundry.

I’m good at…. Shopping.

I’m bad at…. Making decisions.

I relax by…. Listening to music with a glass of wine and friends.

The best things in life are… unexpected.

My ambition is to be… the best that I can be.

Katie B Looking Dynamite In Idol

After the success of her first single Katy On A Mission, this London lass has been back with a banger in the form of Lights On featuring Ms. Dynamite. We love it’s slightly old school sound, it’s making us reminisce about summer festivals and 90’s raves! The styling is also spot-on, check out Katy adorning our Idol velvet jacket with intricate shoulder embellishment from our Boho inspired Gypsy collection.

It’s also great to see Ms. Dynamite pop back up from the underground music scene, from where she came from originally, before the Mercury Prize and Brit awards acclaim. Nice one ladies!!!

Drawing Fashion

Ever wondered how fashion designers create those amazing illustrations to showcase their clothes? Well now you can see drawings of collections by fashion houses such as Chanel, McQueen and Viktor and Rolf at new exhibition Drawing Fashion at the Design Museum in London town.

The collection is an assortment of drawings, film, couture samples and magazine covers spanning across the last century having taking over 30 years to compile. The exhibition shows some of the most influential works of art in the fashion industry to date, many of which have inspired contemporary designers and clothes we wear today.

Classic artists such as Georges Lepape, Gruau and modern geniuses Francois Berthoud and Aurore de la Morinerie will be on display at the exhibition, so if you need to be inspired this is the place to go!

We’re off to practice our doodles…

Expressive Sounds

Silence in music is dominating the sound waves at the minute. New artist, 2011 Brit Critic’s Choice nominee James Blake is creating haunting music, which is obscure, yet pleasurable. The silent breaks in between his lyrics leave you filled with anticipation and the crackly white noise in the background is spine tingling.

Some would say Blake’s songs are melodramatic, but what’s so bad about a bit of emotion? Take Ghostpoet, he is experimental and self-critical and his tracks have a sense of dread about them. He uses repetitive, but hypnotising loops. His song “Cash and carry me home” is about how many feel the morning after drinking the bar dry. Like Blake his sound is minimal but stylish.

The Naked and Famous

Born and bred in New Zealand, The Naked and Famous are relatively unknown on the UK music scene, but we reckon that’s all about to change. Dubbed by The NME as 2011’s ‘One to Watch’, the indie-electro musicians are hoping to re-locate to the UK ASAP, which can only be good news for us!

Starting off as a two-piece, with founding members Thom Powers and Alisa Xayalith, the duo decided that to play live shows they would need a couple more members, hence where Aaron Short, Jessie Wood and David Beadle come in. The Naked and Famous first stormed the New Zealand music scene in 2008, with two EPs ‘This Machine’ and ‘No Light’ and went on to score the first number one in New Zealand by a New Zealand band with ‘Young Blood.’

Their debut album, ‘Passive Me, Aggressive You’ was released in September 2010 and officially confirmed The Naked and Famous as the coolest band around. Their new single, ‘Punching in a Dream’ is out now, and features one of the most unique videos we have ever seen. Definitely worth a watch.

Musically, The Naked and Famous are fronted by lead vocalist Alisa, whose Kate-Bush-esque sound accompanied by an electro-pop beat is nothing short of infectious. Sure to put you in a great mood when those January blues hit!

The Naked and Famous are currently touring in Australia but are back in the UK on February 1st. Check them out.

Chapel Club

One for the Indie fans, Chapel Club are a throwback to the Manchester scene, specifically resonant of the sound of The Smiths. This band formed in the summer of 2008 in London. If you don’t know the history guitarist Michael Hibbert founded the group along with drummer Rich Mitchell, vocalist Lewis Bowman, and childhood friends, bassist Liam Arklie and guitarist Alex Parry.

The band have already made waves in the UK with their live performances and vocalist Bowman has been cited saying: “I’ve been writing poems and short stories since I was eleven years old,” the singer explains, “and yes this band is totally my focus right now but ultimately my dream is to be up there with Ted Hughes and Alice Oswald - a published author of poetry - but I doubt it will ever happen.” We hope that he sticks to singing, as we love their sweet, melancholic sound and are looking forward to the bands 11 headline dates in February.

Crystal Castles

Made up of Ethan Kath and Alice Glass, the electronica/dance duo from Toronto, Canada just might be the best way to start 2011 off with a bang.

The Castles have been around since 2006, but their recent collaboration with Robert Smith of The Cure put them high on every music lover’s radar this year. Think ‘The xx’ with a twist and you get an idea of what Crystal Castles are about.

After meeting in Canada when Alice was only 15, the pair became friends when Ethan asked her to sing over one of his tracks, and after putting some songs up on Myspace, they soon gained attention from the music industry.

And as they say, the rest is history!

Crystal Castles not only have a fab name and a ridiculously cool rock-star attitude, they also produce some pretty great music. Their new single, ‘Not in Love’ features some stunning vocals and haunting lyrics, showing the band’s dark side which make them so unique.

Female vocalist Alice is also a style icon in her own right. With her jet-black razor-sharp bob and cat-like kohl-lined eyes, Glass oozes rock chick glamour, perfecting that ‘just got out of bed’ look we all strive for. With her trademark vintage jumpers and scruffy converse, Alice’s classic style is one we’ll all be channelling this year.

The Crystal Castles are currently on a world-wide tour and will be hitting up the UK at the end of January. Make it your new year’s resolution to catch them live; you won’t regret it!