In the latest issue of AnOther Magazine, Lou Stoppard explored Kim Jones’ vintage fashion collection – his exquisitely preserved array of eccentric and outlandish club wear by designers including Vivienne Westwood, Stephen Linard, Rachel Auburn and Modern Classics, worn and immortalised by club kids like Leigh Bowery and Sue Tilley. Jones is passionate about the clothes, not simply for their aesthetic, but for their social relevance: “I love the idea of [the club kids] coming out of a council flat in the East End of London and walking along looking like that. It was just so, so brave.”
"Nemeth’s innovative and incendiary spirit was revived in a collection that combined nostalgia with uniquely modern esprit"
His collection has an incredible scope, taking in vintage Issey Miyake and Jean Paul Gaultier, but there is one man who has, for Jones, always stood head and shoulders above the rest – the late Christopher Nemeth. Nemeth is Jones’s favourite designer. Famous for creating delicate and deranged hand-sewn garments made from salvaged materials, he founded design collective and shop the House of Beauty & Culture with photographer Mark Lebon, stylist Judy Blame and shoemaker John Moore. A household name in his adopted country of Japan, Nemeth has now been largely forgotten in his native UK and the wider European fashion world, an oversight which Jones is determined to rectify – as demonstrated by yesterday’s Louis Vuitton A/W15 collection which was an overt homage to his hero.
Yesterday, Nemeth’s innovative and incendiary spirit was revived in a collection that combined nostalgia with uniquely modern esprit. Prints were lifted verbatim from his archives and the cacophony of materials utilized had a Nemeth-esque oddity recalling yet not aping his sackcloth jackets. Blame was enlisted to create the accessories, Lebon made a film and Nemeth’s widow and daughters consulted on the finer points. The music of the club kid era – Neneh Cherry, Massive Attack, Soul II Soul – accompanied the models down the catwalk. The passion and energy of Nemeth walked again in Paris yesterday, reinvigorated through the elegance of Louis Vuitton and the enduring admiration of Kim Jones. Here we celebrate the collection in exclusive imagery by Brett Lloyd.
Read the full interview with Kim Jones in the latest issue of AnOther Magazine, out now.