Malcolm McLaren, Seminal Punk Figure, Dies at 64

***From the NYTimes***

Malcolm McLaren, Seminal Punk Figure, Dies at 64
By WILLIAM GRIMES
Published: April 8, 2010

Malcolm McLaren, an impresario, recording artist and fashion designer who as manager of the Sex Pistols played a decisive role in creating the British punk movement, died on Thursday in Switzerland. He was 64.

The cause was mesothelioma, a cancer of the linings around organs, said Young Kim, his companion of many years. She said he had been under treatment at a Swiss hospital. He lived in Paris and New York.

Mr. McLaren, a former art student, found an outlet for his ideas about fashion, music and social provocation in the inchoate rock ’n’ roll scene of London in the early 1970s. Operating from the clothing boutique Sex, which he and the fashion designer Vivienne Westwood ran, he brought together four obscure musicians, called them the Sex Pistols and provided them with an attitude suited to Britain in decline: nihilistic rage, expressed at high volume in songs like “Anarchy in the U.K.” and the vitriolic anti-anthem “God Save the Queen.”

Mr. McLaren was a keen student of the French Situationists, who believed in staging absurdist or provocative incidents as a spur to social change. He arranged for the Sex Pistols to sign their contract with A&M Records outside Buckingham Palace and organized a performance of “God Save the Queen” on the Thames, outside the Houses of Parliament, on a boat named the Queen Elizabeth. The police quickly intervened, ratifying the group’s incendiary reputation.

Until their breakup in January 1978, the Sex Pistols epitomized the look, the sound and the attitude of British punk. All three came, in large measure, from Mr. McLaren’s restless brain.

Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren was born on Jan. 22, 1946, in London and was raised mostly by a wealthy grandmother. He attended more than half a dozen art schools. At none of them did things go smoothly. He was expelled from Chiswick Polytechnic, and the Croydon College of Art tried to have him transferred to a mental institution.

He terminated his education, such as it was, in 1971 at Goldsmiths’ College in London, but not before completing a series of paintings titled “I Will Be So Bad.”

In 1972 Mr. McLaren and Ms. Westwood took over a store on King’s Road in Chelsea called Let It Rock and began selling hipster Teddy boy fashions. The business was run along unconventional lines.

In a 1997 article for The New Yorker, Mr. McLaren recalled, “We set out to make an environment where we could truthfully run wild.” On most days the shop did not open until the evening and closed within a few hours. The goal, Mr. McLaren wrote, “was to sell nothing at all.”

After the New York Dolls visited the store, renamed Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die, Mr. McLaren followed the group to the United States and became its manager. He dressed the band members in red clothing based on the Soviet flag, placed politically provocative slogans onstage and presided over their swift demise.

Back in London, Mr. McLaren, now at Sex, took an interest in a group called the Strand (later the Swankers), three of whose members formed the nucleus of the original Sex Pistols. The group gave its first performance at St. Martin’s College on Nov. 6, 1975 — hostile audience reaction caused the players to leave the stage after two songs — and soon emerged as the leader of the punk scene. Reliably or not, Mr. McLaren explained his strategy for packaging and selling the band in the 1980 film “The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle.”

“Anarchy in the U.K.” and “God Save the Queen” (whose release was timed to coincide with Queen Elizabeth II’s silver jubilee) rose to the upper rungs of the pop charts in Britain, and the group’s only album, “Never Mind the Bollocks: Here’s the Sex Pistols,” reached No. 1 in 1977. On the band’s first American tour, in January 1978, John Lydon, the lead singer known as Johnny Rotten, walked offstage at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, and the Sex Pistols dissolved.

Mr. McLaren briefly managed Adam and the Ants and then, with several ex-Ants, created Bow Wow Wow around a teenage Burmese singer, Annabella Lwin. The group recorded the hits “Go Wild in the Country” and “I Want Candy.” Through his clothing store, now called World’s End, he sold Ant and Bow Wow Wow fashions.

He went on to record his own music. His album “Duck Rock” (1983), a blend of world music and hip-hop, generated the hit singles “Buffalo Gals” and “Double Dutch.”

“I’m much more of a magician than a musician,” he told The Globe and Mail of Toronto in 1985. “I steal other people’s songs and try to make them better.”

In 1984 Mr. McLaren released the album “Fans,” a mixture of opera and urban music, which included the hit single “Madame Butterfly.” “Waltz Darling” (1989), “Paris” (1994) and other albums followed.

In recent years his name was linked with film, television and radio projects, most of them never realized, although he did help produce the film “Fast Food Nation” and presented two series for BBC2 radio, “Malcolm McLaren’s Musical Map of London” and “Malcolm McLaren’s Life and Times in L.A.”

He is survived by his son with Ms. Westwood, Joseph Corré, a founder of the lingerie company Agent Provocateur; a brother, Stuart Edwards; and a grandchild.

Mr. McLaren spent much of the last 30 years trying to explain punk. “I never thought the Sex Pistols would be any good,” he told The Times of London last year. “But it didn’t matter if they were bad.”

ATNYC @ Sakura Matsui May 1st!

So, that fashion show I mentioned in my previous entry fell through. Not my fault that people on their end can't work but at least get back to me about it and tell me I'm not needed after all *shrugs* Oh well.

On the brighter side, ATNYC will be making an appearance at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden for the Sakura Matsui Festival! The event is May 1st-2nd but we will only be there on May 1st so if you want to have your photo taken with your fave ATNYC personality, better show up then. We'll be doing a photoshoot and meet&greet that day and be at the garden all day. We do plan to be there early so if you see a cluster of young attractive people walking about, that's probably us *lol*

Also, we're still working with the Hoshi no Hikari Host Club to get an event together for the end of July. We got many promising things for this event, including the posibility of some bands and new designers outside of ATNYC. I'll have more on this as soon as possible.

As far as I know regarding conventions, Anime Next is very interested in having us there and NYAF is, of course, our hometown convention. Once I've got the confirmation on those, I'll post up when we'll appear. if you have any other convention suggestions, let us know~

And on a personal note, I just love how it's all sunny and warm outside where I'm wearing a tank top and capris to work :D

Shows in the works!

Well ain't life just quirky? I'm sitting at my desk at work and I receive a call from someone who I worked with last year. TJ organizes the fashion shows that are held at John Jay College every year and has asked me to work it. it's a bit last minute for me but I'll see once I get all the information. Who knows? I might just work it.

Also, the Hoshi no Hikari Host Club has asked ATNYC to help in working a fashion show that they've been planning for a while. I can't say that we are or we're not working it but things are looking promising.

NYAF is a far ways away but the next thing you know, it's all up in your face. ATNYC is working to see if we'll be able to participate this year and bring our fans yet another fashion show. I'll keep you posted on that when I find out new information.

And on the commission front, one of ATNYC's models, Kathy, has asked me to make one (of possibly several, I'm sure) dresses. Will it be used in the show? Maybe. You'll just have to wait and see.

But right now, it's official that ATNYC is having a get together at Sakura Matsui May 1st-2nd. ATNYC will be meeting on the 1st and it'll most likely be an all day event. Another event coming up is Japan Day. We're thinking of having a huge picnic and everyone's open to bring food to share.

That's all I got for now. Short and sweet ^_^ More later!

WWD Fashion Scoops:Remembering Alexander McQueen...

Now I have something to look forward to in 2012 :D
WWD Fashion Scoop: Remembering Alexander McQueen

GUINNESS SHOW: One of Alexander McQueen’s closest friends, Daphne Guinness, will exhibit part of her wardrobe at the Fashion Institute of Technology in September 2011. About 80 to 100 pieces including outfits by the likes of McQueen, Balenciaga, Comme des Garçons, Dolce & Gabbana and Azzedine Alaïa will be in a show on her personal style, which will run at the school’s museum through January 2012. The socialite and Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of The Museum at FIT, will co-curate the show. Yale University Press will publish a book to accompany the exhibit. “She is so creative and inspirational in the way that someone like Tina Chow was,” said Steele. For the show, Steele plans to identify the components of that style, which range from Guinness’ interest in sleeves and ruffles around the neck to accessories like hats, veils and ribbons.

Misako Aoki event photos!

Misako Aoki event photos plus Dekoden!
I have 6 blisters (3 on each foot) but they're worth it! I got to meet Misako Aoki and made a few new friends ^^



Photos were taken by Tokyo Rebel. For all the photos, check out their official blog:Misako Aoki event photos!

Earlier that morning, I just felt the need to start my Dekoden ^^:



Pretty cool huh? Now my phone looks so girly Japanese XD it kinda feels like an addiction now. I'm eye balling my camera and tempted to Deko it out! <3

Save the date! February 20, meet Misako Aoki!

Save the date! February 20, meet Misako Aoki!


Some of you may be aware that Misako Aoki is coming to New York for the Tokyo Fashion Festa on February 19. Well, the next day, she will be at our store! And she wants to meet you guys!

This came up rather suddenly so we still need to work out the details, but we wanted to let you know now since it's already short notice.

When: Saturday, February 20 (exact time TBD)
Where: Tokyo Rebel, 170 Avenue B, New York NY 10009 (between 10th and 11th Sts.)
What: Misako Aoki meet & greet

This will most likely be an informal event since there's not a lot of time to plan. She just wants to meet Lolitas from the area, take some pictures and write a report from our store.

Because we're a small store with limited space, we will have to control the number of people inside at any given time. We're now figuring out the best way to do that. Don't worry, everybody will get to meet Misako.

We'll announce more details very soon.

Alexander McQueen Is Dead

Original Article

Alexander McQueen, the British fashion designer known for some of the most controversial collections of the last two decades, was found dead Thursday morning at his apartment in London, said Ed Filipowski, a partner in the public relations firm KCD.

The cause was apparently suicide, though Mr. Filipowski said Mr. McQueen’s family had not yet made a statement.

Though he apprenticed on Savile Row, Mr. McQueen, who was 40, thumbed his nose at the conventions of English style by staging often lavish runway productions that included clothes made with animal bones, and models made to look as if they were patients in a mental ward or participants in a life-size chess match. Yet he was a tailor of the highest order, making impeccably shaped suits that were also surprisingly commercial.

But Mr. McQueen’s troubled personal life was often the subject of concern among his colleagues and close friends. He was deeply affected when Isabella Blow, the eccentric stylist who discovered and championed the designer, committed suicide in 2007, and he was said to be devastated by the death of his mother on Feb. 2.

Mr. McQueen was the youngest of six children and the son of a London taxi driver, who survives him. He left school at 16 to apprentice at Anderson & Sheppard and then Gieves & Hawkes, two of the most revered English tailors. He worked briefly in Italy before returning to London to pursue a master’s degree from the Central St. Martins design college, where Ms. Blow discovered his work and bought his entire thesis collection. His first shows in London, in dark underground places, were received as a break from the traditional luxury collections being shown elsewhere in Europe.

For five years, until 2001, he also was the designer of the couture label Givenchy, where he turned the classic French house on its head, often drawing the ire of longtime fans of the label known for its elegant black dresses. He offended several French journalists for calling Hubert de Givenchy’s past work as “irrelevant.” That year, he sold his own label to the Gucci Group, a rival of the parent company of Givenchy, LVMH, following several conflicts with its management.

During his early days in London, Mr. McQueen’s collections often made audiences uncomfortable, as when he referenced the ravaging of Scotland by England by showing brutalized women in a collection called “Highland Rape.” But since he began showing his collections in Paris in 2001, he became more widely respected for designs that were seen as commentary on the often surreal, and self-referential, world of fashion.
Tags: alexander mcqueen, fashion