Dossier in Conversation with Tamara Cincik

A Matter of Life and Death

Jack Cardiff cinematographer: the camera genius inspired by Rembrandt.  His work with Powell and Pressburger: a marriage of form, art and magic.

If you do anything this weekend, please try to see ‘A Matter of Life and Death’, or ‘The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp’, or ‘Black Narcissus’ (my first Archers viewing film aged 7, I was totally entranced), or ‘The Red Shoes’ .  I guarantee technicolor transportation…

Tim Burton's vision of Alice

Arthur Rackham's colour palette as sported by Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter

Helena Bonham Carter channelling Elizabeth 1st as the Red Queen

Helena Bonham Carter is a local resident and someone who though I love styling, I am glad doesn’t use one: her off-kilter reworkings of the Dior 1947 silhouette are gloriously garish in a world of good taste, I would mourn their passing, were she to change.  I love too, the idea of her, Tim and their children living in close proximity, sharing our air and views, with their lives of make-believe and creative dreams.  Were we to one day to become friends, I would naturally invite her to our allotment for a lunch of salad leaves and tomatoes, perhaps there we might catch a view of the running rabbit…

Alice is a girl for all times: the pre-pubescent questing naughty know-it-all at the dawn of her womanhood, the light side of the Poltergeist looking glass: searching for answers to the changes in her physicality and surroundings from riddles;  beset by ever-shifting realities and confronting the maturising truth. These trials are at the root of all rite of passage quests, from the Odyssey to Oz: that people and life is not as they seem, we cannot trust everyone.  Sometimes we have to step off the path ( the consistent Fairy Tale motif) to find the answers to our questings and questions.

I have grabbed together some of my favourite Alice images, I hope you shall enjoy them too.  Have a lovely weekend/Mother’s Day!

Tim Walker's Lily Alice

Arthur Rackham's Alice

Arthur Rackham is a huge influence on me: I love his sombre palette, weaving magic from dismal tones of Autumn malaise, he somehow manifests the eeriness of half-recollected dreams.  A shoot I styled for Purple once, was completely referenced in his work, and though that reference might not be obvious in the result, it laid a foundation baseline of colours and shapes for me to work with.

John Tenniel's original Alice

The first Alice illustrations were by John Tenniel: she looks a very moody girl!

Jan Svankmajer’s ‘Alice’ was a gold dust filmic find one night at the Scala when I was an undergraduate at UCL.

Alice as seen through the eyes of Jan Svankmajer

Jan’s take on Alice, echoes the work of that other famous Czech also called Jan, who I was lucky enough to work with once in Prague, Jan Saudek.  Czech was once called Bohemia: the essence of eccentricity is at the heart of their very DNA.

That awkward unsettling time between our new teenage self and the overpadded child body

I shot a story once with Serge Leblon, where he built an Alice set in his sitting room in Brussels: a mousehole gap between two worlds, sprinkled with muddy earth, mushrooms from the local gourmet shop, as Alice tore through, her red shoes and half her torso left on our side of the page.  I wish I could find it now, perhaps she is having too much fun on the other side of the Looking Glass…

Disney Alice aka the first time ever I saw her face...

Psychedelic cat - quite a thing to set before a crazed Red Queen

Return to the source: the real deal Alice - OF course she was a brunette! Alice Liddell, the girl who inspired Lewis Carroll

A boat beneath a sunny sky,
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July–

Children three that nestle near,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Pleased a simple tale to hear–

Long has paled that sunny sky:
Echoes fade and memories die.
Autumn frosts have slain July.

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.

Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:

Ever drifting down the stream–
Lingering in the golden gleam–
Life, what is it but a dream?

The Liddellettes

Pre-raphaelite, I am sure she wished like I she had torn down the rabbit hole and was as glad of all her adventures, trials though they are, as I am of mine.

Zeki Muren

The clothes are pure Liberace, while the voice is pure overstated drama, holding legends in it’s poetry.  My Istanbul manicurist cannot understand much I say each time I visit her salon in Taxsim, but we share a deep love of Zeki Muren; she like me understands the passion and the pleasure of ‘huzun’ - it’s a Turkish nostalgic active melancholia, which doesn’t really translate into Anglo Saxon script or mindsets.

Charles Asnavour

‘La Boheme’, the song of the immigrant: young, filled with dreams and memories, total 100% genius.  An Armenian in Paris, he shares the oriental sense for melancholic memory and melody.

Charles is not clearly in favour of the new cigarette laws

Zulfi Livaneli: his voice haunts the melody.

Ferdi Tayfur

Ferdi Tayfur is like my father, from Adana in the south of Turkey.  His cousin Ege used to say, give Suleyman (my Dad) a backgammon set and Ferdi Tayfur songs and he will always be happy.  These are songs borne from folklore and mountain fireside tales.  My Turkish Grandfather was a revered pehlivan (wrestling champion!) and yayla folk singer, who, enchanted by my Mother, would sing her songs neither of us could understand, but which held the story of the land and their lives in it’s tunes.  In Adana real men sport moustaches; Ferdi is let’s be under no doubt here, a real man…

The Welsh Link

Coming to England, the quest of new dreams: a tailor on Carnaby Street, the verve of Swinging Sixties London, Dad worked for Vogue and met my mother.  However, the music didn’t beat rhythm to the same huzun tune, except that is for Tom Jones…  He might be Welsh, he might think he is singing soul, but then soul is the blues, and the blues is huzun.  Here then, the East meets the West and we can all rock to the groove: albeit sporting new clothes and dancing to a new song.  The open shirt, the gold, the hairy chest, if we gazed south you know he’d be wearing Italian slip on shoes; Turkish or Welsh - all very familiar indeed!..

Sonia Rykiel Show

I sincerely love a Sonia Rykiel show: the shoes are always wondrous, the colours, the left bank sense of fun with glamour: girls swaying in feathers in furry clogs, high five-ing down the runway, Love…

John Galliano show

Galliano was a visual feast, totally Tamara: he took us on a journey of trials, travels and traversed the Himalayas, the Hindu Kush: from the spice roads we went to the east of the sun, west of the moon…  He also showed us how great he is as a stylist, let alone as a designer, total inspiration.

John is the finale of his own show and sporting a fabulously chic sheepskin backpack is the most gloriously camp nomad I ever saw, ever - and ever shall I think!

The girls walked through sprays of silver glitter; John as the finale, came through seering white light, designer as devil or hero, he walked towards orange fire, posed, captured our imaginations and vanished.  Given his warm layers of sheepkin, wool and backpack at least one of us was dressed for the freezing weather which hit Paris this week!..

The chicest dessert I ever saw or tasted.

Imagine existing inside a Watteau painting with 7* service and culinary delights where sandalwood ice-cream coexists with thinly grated apple and ginger in the thinnest layer of pastry.  That was the dinner I enjoyed with my friend Konca at the Grand Vefour: http://www.grand-vefour.com/fr/restaurant.htm The considered absolutist chic quintessence of Parisian society was at it’s zenith.  There was more service, more grandeur and more is more decoration than anyone could ever indulge without slightly falling in love with it, however totally refined it is, there is such grace in it’s fabulosity, that even when I ordered off-menu a salad, the result was so utterly beautiful, artful and delicious, it was a moment of baroque heaven.  Built in 1760, the Grand Vefour is one of the world’s  first restaurants: Napoleon took Josephine, Colette ate there (which as I am reading ‘The Vagabond’, in  honour of Ellie) seemed wholly appropriate.  Visual artful 3D gourmand-luxe heaven.

The audience of lenses at Chanel

Glass gorgeousness

The work above the magic - yes that is an iceberg - welcome to the world of Chanel

Vanessa Paradis wears Coco red lipstick

Crystals and ice white bergs

Reflections in pools of icy water.

If and when the ice age cometh, we shall clearly be ok in our refuge of Chanel furs and fabulosity!..

Amanda Harlech dancing in the dj booth - like the London girl she clearly still is at heart.

To the tune of: 'I said captain, I said what?!'

The white album.

Sarah after Chanel, shows me her gorgeous new engagement ring from Richard, I am so so so happy for them both.

Photos I don’t have from this week, include the sheer clever joy that was the Victor and Rolf show, they really showed us how it’s done.  The Hussein show with his moving speech for Alexander, followed by Puritan caps and camel coloured capes with grey lining, worn with matching fedoras - a style I have been wearing this week myself.  The party at Maxims where my New Yorker friends lost themselves in the 80’s disco groove.  The Vogue Turkey party at the Crillon, where I caught up with dear friends from the Fatherland: albeit feeling rather underdressed, as I had put on all my warm clothes at once to go to Givenchy, as Paris is brrr-freezing.   I hope my shalwa joggers, Westwood boots, Marni jacket and Bora Aksu snood still managed to represent - I did love Catherine’s gold lame turban, Karen’s killer heels, Seda’s sassy red dress and Konca’s peach jacket.  The basement baseline Ricardo Tisci party: it was brilliant to see Charlotte Tilbury again, looking uber-hot beyond yummy-mummydom, showing us photos of her handsome baby son; where shoulder to shoulder glamour bumped with Olivier’s camera flash, low-key hiphop heroes.  Meeting Polina was lovely: we drank Japanese tea and paid homage to CC.

This is an inspiring season: the stark shapes with pared down strength: I am totally looking forward to my shoots this season.

AUTUMN WINTER 2010

London Fashion Week – Ashley Isham A/W 2010

BY RETRO CHICK ? FEBRUARY 21, 2010 ? ? EMAIL THIS POST ? PRINT THIS POST ? POST A COMMENT

Bat for Lashes at the Brits 2010

Bat for Lashes wore:-

Dress, velvet and sequin capelet, Sequin and Satin cap designed my Natasha and I

Bag: Mishka

Base piece body: Opening Ceremony

Jewellery:  Pamela Love

Click here to see her red carpet interview (i am very sweetly name-checked - aah!) :-

http://www.brits.co.uk/videos/bat-for-lashes-red-carpet-interview

Please click on this link to see Bat for Lashes’ live on tour with Coldplay, hope you like her sassy outfit too!  ;-) We worked on several, more to follow soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN_p2F2RKw4

My friend Ellie is a writer for magazines as glorious as Lula and Elle.  She recently gave birth to Doris Donne and true Cockney, and like me (and Natasha) a Scorpio.  See below for her recent interview with me for her gorgeous blog, which allows her free-rein for any uncommissioned musings and is a glorious read.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 2010

she’s tamtalizing

‘I find the fashion farce hard to take seriously.’

My mind is full of starter notes on things to look up when I have time. A brain full of boxes to come back to. A reading-list to last a lifetime. There are thousands of things in there from my boyfriend that I shall shuffle through in months to come, but another mind that constantly gets my own ticking is that of my friend, the fashion stylist Tamara Cincik.

This was going to be a short visual post; a few questions to Tamara on dressing Bat for Lashes lady-lark Natasha Khan for the Brit Awards, but I took a u-turn when Tamara, an eternal piece of passion cake, sent over a feast festooned with references. I love references, the short summaries of what gets people going. As I’ve said before, anyone with a passionality is interesting to uncover. So instead of cutting out anything ‘non-Natasha,’ I wanted more of Tamara’s take on anything. Her gypsies, 1960’s acid trips and Anne Boleyn. Some more boxes to tick soon. I’ll leave you to do the same.

Tamara’s take on …

… dressing Natasha for the Brits

I wanted it to feel and look like tarnished Hollywood. Natasha [left] had a book about the Hollywood designer Valentina [above] who would go to premieres in the 1940’s looking amazing; so utterly glamorous! I wanted Natasha to look like her own version of this: beyond any trends, dancing to her own rhythm and not at all looking like a generic pop star.

Natasha is very strong on accessories and knows what she likes: she wanted to have the gold sequin bow hat made, which I thought looked adorable and slightly off - which is always cool! And she loves Pamela Love’s jewellery, so we called that in and to be honest that was her choice, but I thought it was totally gorgeous and through pawing over Pamela’s jewellery it is clear she was right!

Jackie Tyson created the rainbow eyelash Natasha wore for the Brits and does her make-up for lots of red carpet events. However Natasha is amazing at make-up and lots of photos you see of her on TV or at festivals, she has created the looks herself.

… enhancing an existing stylish ‘flair’ rather than controlling it

It’s vital to work with Natasha in a collaborative dialogue. Image and style are intrinsic to her, as is how she feels - you can hear in her music that she works from an emotional, uncompromising place and she constantly works at this on all level. We send references back-and-forth and discuss ideas and images and then hone these into a total look design. I’ve recently worked on her tour outfits (she is currently in South America with Coldplay) and for this, I sent her a whole ream of designs and ideas and then we edited them and added her ideas in to create a bunch of looks for her to wear on stage.

… why even stylish stars needs stylists

Natasha has great ideas about how to dress and what to wear, she is very clear about how she likes to look and feel. For me, her style is more individual and quirkily iconic, rather than following fashion trends religiously and I celebrate that. Working with me as her stylist allows me to oversee that side of things for her more easily; she can trust my judgement and I always make sure she is involved and updated. I can access the labels, tailors or pr’s as of course I already know so many people through my other styling work, so in a way I can feed ideas and information through and then we can collaborate without her being bogged down with the admin-side.

…the importance of style in determining the success of a musician today

It’s vital: the world is so media-savvy that unless someone is the new Neil Diamond or Seasick Steve, I think it is kind of key.

… her life ambitions

I always thought I would grow up and become a gypsy, and travel about with my hair catching warmth in it’s curls and wearing broderie anglaise on tanned olive skin, barefoot. Then I did that. Or I thought I would live in Paris with a talented artist. Then I did that too. Then I decided it was time to grow up and become a serious careerist, so now I spend my day playing with clothes, and my summers growing vegetables at our allotment and my evenings reading Tudor history in the bath for hours, trying to work out why Henry V111 seems to have murdered everyone he loved. I find the fashion farce hard to take seriously and the regime of work and self-discipline hard to commit to after years of wriggling out of any form of control. [Tamara, above, on her 'festival of love'-themed wedding day. No wriggling out of that one.]

… her life guru

Ram Dass is a spiritual teacher from the States who harks back to the time of Ken Keseyand Timothy Leary. He was an academic who took acid in those early Ivy League tests in the 1960’s and the trip totally changed his life: he dropped out of his professorship and began working with the counter-culture leaders of the era. From this he went to India and renounced his material life and lived with his guru for many years, before coming back to the west to teach.

He became one of the first westerners to go to India and try to reason with his life in a non-materialistic way, so his message is totally approachable and yet intelligent, marrying these worlds, yet there is something very Californian-meets-Woody Allen about his delivery, which I enjoy. Totally mesmerised by The Merry Pranksters as a teenager, I did all I could to recreate that life: going to India at 19, falling in love with a San Franciscan biker who taught Tibetan monks English while his mother read tarot back in Berkeley, and later being a huge part of the squat rave scene here and in Goa. Although there is the potential for his work to sound like the naffest kind of psychobabble, he is so intelligent that somehow brilliantly in the ease, there is genius.

… her inspiration

Stylist Karen Binns has this way of engaging with the world and her work which I find utterly captivating: she was a part of 1980’s New York and there is this, combined with 1920’s black cultural glamour-meet- classic Hollywood fantasia and I love it. Through her work you see how fashion is an escape and a message.

… her style icon

I was obsessed with time travel as a child and for some reason Anne Boleyn was my consistent starting point for dreamtime travels: I would oscillate between her, Elizabeth 1 and Mary Queen of Scots as a child at the French court - all very Tudor-specific! Anne was clearly highly intelligent; she grew up in the Burgundian court where women were expected to be well-educated and witty. She brought this finesse back with her from France and through her, England changed religion, changing it’s course forever from medieval to early modern. Anne was stylish in that I love her French hood and ‘b’ chain ensemble. I’ve recently read two books on her and it’s fascinating how each author has their own perspective about what is true and thereby we can see what is true is always subjective.

Princess Tamara [above] with her own prince in their own ‘Pink Tower.’

POSTED BY VAGABONDIANA AT 8:55 AM 2 COMMENTS

LABELS: BAT FOR LASHES, NATASHA KHAN, TAMARA CINCIK

Karen in a taxi with Hector Castro en route to a Giles show one LFW

Karen Binns has been a close friend for nearly a decade: I wore sequins and deco to her wedding, she was the only person crying at mine (and i thought i was the hopeless romantic!)…

Whenever I might need feedback on an idea I am working on, Karen’s advice always pushes me further: she seems to talk in big, inspiring visual metaphors, they are colorful, filled with hope and potential.  I have never had a bad night out with Karen, she is so much more fun than me: from Paris parties, to London clubs, via tea on Brick Lane, or hot chocolate at Angelina’s (our Paris Fashion Week office), we can talk for hours about Jack Cardiff or Edith Head, I always come away from meeting Karen feeling great - and that is a real and rare talent.

Her work in the music industry is well-known: over a decade working with Tori Amos, she put Estelle in silver and makes her shine, while Mr Hudson is hot now thanks to her and various pairs of slim fit slinky trousers.  Meanwhile she is creative consultant for Bernard Chandran, who’s international view of glamour i always enjoy at LFW and has launched her own magazine What? which gives a forum for the new and a place to see Karen’s world on paper.