This is the wall by my pattern table, with images of Leigh Bowery (with the blue face and masks), Hibiscus (with the gold glitter face and beard), Divine, Tasty Tim (with the yellow face), Trojan (red face), and ’70s girls, and some pictures that Tavi sent me (L.A. Knockers). My research this season bounced around constantly. At some point I had a wall entirely covered with images of the amazing Leigh Bowery and Trojan, who were absolutely the most important influences on this collection—but it wasn’t helping my brain to think about them, as what they did and how they looked was so genius that there isn’t really much further one can take it.
My drawings for the bags with teddy-bear faces and monster faces. I wanted them to be really beautifully made classic lady handbags with little lipstick compartments inside and stuff, but on the outside to look a little silly and ridiculous.
Last season I surrounded my work table with balloons; this season it was tinsel and bats.
We made the monster artwork into appliqué patches for the denim pieces in the collection.
I redecorated my office just after Christmas—well, Ben did it for me! It used to be all black, but I couldn’t stand it anymore, so now it is a super-bright orange-red with blue trim. Above my window I stuck the lamb decals that we used last season on all our invitations and T-shirts.
This is leftover tinsel from the tiered-tinsel jackets and trousers in the collection. We applied the tinsel full-length, then I cut it like hair into tiers.
This season I needed a little mental holiday from Courtney [Love] and all my usual grrrl-culture obsessions. I really wanted to go out and party and have fun; however, I am practically agoraphobic, and certainly antisocial, so that didn’t really work out. Even my friends recoil at the merest suggestion that I may go out with them—if I am around more than like four people I tend to get a severe case of bitchface and my personality disappears. I stand in the corner looking really moody and making everyone uncomfortable. So instead of going out in reality, I stayed in and read about all these amazing characters and club freaks who live to create themselves. They dress up to incredible, ridiculous degrees and become their own creations, like glamour terrorists. I wanted GLAMOUR in excess. I watched any and every bit of footage of Leigh Bowery that I could find; and I watched clips from the early-’90s London club Kinky Gerlinky, which looked like the most fun place ever, especially in this day and age when everything is so conservative.
I literally didn’t put pen to paper for this collection until like four weeks before the show. These are the only drawings that I did. Until I drew them I had no idea what we were going to do. But what I drew was almost exactly what we ended up showing.
In my office: lots of images from the ’60s/’70s feminist fashion magazine Nova, and pages of an amazing book of ’70s appliqué psychedelia called Funk and Flare.
A pile of our invitation envelopes on my desk.
When Tavi and I made our little zine, Vomit Pink, for Garage magazine, I asked my friend Louise Gray to contribute some pieces for it. She gave me this—it’s an antique bra that she used as a cloth to remove her makeup. Unfortunately it didn’t make the final edit, but she gave it to me for my birthday, and now it hangs happily in my office.
One of my kitties, Wendy. She always loves to have her picture taken—if ever there is a camera around, she is sure to come!
Teddy bear/monster gloves. What you can’t see in this picture is that they have squishy leather paw pads. I love these!
This is what we intended the shoes to look like, with appliqué motifs of fried eggs (a Trojan reference) and mushroom stars and eyeballs. The shoes were a disaster—they arrived very late the night before the show, and they were so bad that we just covered them all up with glitter. Thankfully, a little glitter goes a long way, so you couldn’t tell how bad they actually were.
This is the hem of a dress that we remade, which is not something I usually do. It was my favorite dress in our fall/winter 2010 collection. Right after that show Courtney came to our studio and left with a load of pieces including that dress, so nobody ever really saw it. I wanted to revive it and give it another life.
My collages for T-shirt artwork.
Lurex knits.
Chiffon dresses.
I drew these pictures to show our hair and makeup team what to do with each model, as each girl’s look was individualized. We had an idea to use prosthetic bald caps with partial wigs sewn on, so that it would look like the models had shaved parts of their heads, but that didn’t work out and we had to scrap the idea backstage at the last minute. It was very stressful for all involved!
We had these fabrics woven for us. It doesn’t show in this picture, but they are all sparkly and holographic, and they have “Meadham Kirchhoff” woven into them, hidden amongst the patterns. I am really pleased with these—it’s our first experience having fabrics woven to our own design.
I love this Steiff teddy-bear-fabric jacket, with glass teddy-bear-eye buttons.
Our assistant Daisy made these earrings from huge sequins.
We call this our mess room. It’s where Daisy glitters, sprays, paints, and generally decorates things.
Here in the mess room we can see some of the stencils that we made to paint biker jackets. We were testing them with different glitters.
Leigh Bowery was a fashion designer/costume designer/performance artist/genius. His best friend Sue Tilley wrote a biography of his life entitled Leigh Bowery: The Life and Times of an Icon, which I implore everyone to read, as it is an incredible, inspirational story. Trojan was Bowery’s best friend, a painter and prostitute. Tasty Tim is a club freak and DJ; and Hibiscus was a member of the late ’60s/early ’70s San Fransisco drag troupe called the Cockettes, who wore tinsel and glitter in their beards.
Denim patch/appliqué monsterrrrrr.
The look board, with pictures of all the styling looks that I tried on Daisy the night before the show.
Some really cheap sunglasses that Daisy glittered and applied false eyelashes to.
The monster appliqué bag. This is so good to see a picture of, as in the images from the catwalk you can’t see his face.
This is an amazing model called Flaviana Matata. I love her; she has been in our last three shows. She runs a charity in Africa to send little girls to school.
Oh god, I fuming love this. It’s a curly-ostrich-feather jacket. It feels sooooo nice and I want it NOW.
I almost had a heart attack because this rehearsal went sooooo sooooo wrong. It was as though nothing we had said to anybody before the show had been heard, and the girls were being instructed to do the most HORRENDOUS moves on the catwalk. I panicked so much I tried to run away; I couldn’t even gather enough perspective to actually correct the nightmare. But Benjamin managed to sort it out so that the show wasn’t the disaster it looked like it was going to be!
Anti-Social—says it all.
Sequin earrings; Nail Rock nail wraps.
I did all of the zig-zag eyebrows myself, which was so scary because the models had this wax over their eyebrows to make it look like they had none, so if I made a mistake it couldn’t be washed off. But I really enjoyed getting involved with the makeup. That’s a Nasir Mazhar headband.
Flaviana Matata and Ajak Deng with red teeth.
Awww, Ajak’s sad face.
Fake fur, sequins, Nasir Mazhar feather tiaras, zig-zag eyebrows.
Appliqué denim with the monster-munch badge. She looks beautiful.
Flashing rings. This model was amazing.
Oh god, I am so happy that there is an image of this! Stickers on hair—it looks so good.
Stickers on hands (I stole that from you, Tavi!).
OK, so the girls at the end of the show with the entirely colored painted faces were a bit regrettable, to say the least. But this looks so amazing.
One of my favorite looks: a brown sequined bustier with a floral-embroidered neon-red shirt.
Fake-fur jacket with cherries. She looks gorgeous.
Freaky girl party.
Curly-ostrich-feather fun with painted-freak faces!
All of our models this season were amazing; they all got into the spirit of the show so well and enjoyed themselves. I was terrified that they would absolutely hate us because of the hair and makeup and the fact that we painted their teeth black, but they were all so kind, reassuring me after the rehearsal that it would all be fine. If you want to see these looks in action, here’s a really good video by Harley Weir on i-D’s website.
51 Comments
Picture 32’s pants look very practical. I want me some.
Such amazingly inspiring and quirky photos!
Their last show was AMAZING!!!
aghhh i used to have that exact bat ring on page 55, wish I knew where it was
Me too! I have a couple in black and purple. The variety store I work at was selling them during Halloween so I was going about my business working with one on each finger.
I love these pictures- they’re so quirky and colorful! Meadham Kirchhoff is such an inspiration!
The next button doesn’t work for me :(
What browser are you using, Hayley?
Chrome
Huh. What version of Chrome? And what happens when you try to hit the Next button?
Never mind, I got rid of an Extension and it seems to be working. :)
Yay!
This makes me so happy. I’ve been waiting for this since the show … droolinnnnggg
ahh so inspiring!
i lots of the things they do could make good diy’s , (like the fake eyelash sunglasses) that’s something i love about their collections.
the patches are so nice!! can I buy them separately?
gahhh, my face lit up, like the models colourful glittery faces, when i saw another Meadham Kirchhoff post about their new collection! The whole thing seems like it has electric currents flowing through it. I love that they pay attention to every little detail, like having ‘Meadham Kirchhoff woven into the sparkly holographic fabric, and the little pictures on the models nails and the stickers stuck on their hands, and the plastic rings (I could go on but I should stop myself!) and it reminds me of when I used to paint my barbies and die their hair. And the models look like their having fun. Meadham Kirchhoff always have this consistent quality…It just reminds me why I love fashion so much
i like the monster gloves. what did they paint the teeth with? who is writing the comments (I assume a designer for the show)
Yes, Edward Meadham, one half of Meadham Kirchhoff.
This is so so so so so fantastic! INSPIRATION E’ERYWHUR.
But, I have a suggestion for the Rookie interface?… keypad navigation like they have on FB or DeviantArt would be really awesome, so you could just hit the right key to go through pics instead of scrolling. :D
I get so excited whenever Meadham Kirchoff is mentioned. I can’t wait to see their latest collection.
Also, Wendy the cat has PERFECTED her bitchface.
I want a “mess room” as pretty as that! (My bedroom is a mess, but I don’t think it qualifies as a mess room… because it’s never supposed to be messy!)
Dear Edward Meadham,
Let’s be BFFs! I’ll wear your amazing clothes!
I just want to live in a world designed by Meadham Kirchoff.
Ahhh I so wish that I could own something of Meadham Kirchoff! Too bad I am a poor student =( Maybe I’ll save up for someday…
But if they ever did a designer collab with a a store like target or h&m I’d be all over it.
I believe they’ve previously done a couple of collections for Topshop?
I’ll have to keep an eye out for those ones. Still a little expensive but much more in my price range. Or maybe I’ll be lucky and find something from the older collab collections secondhand. Thanks!
Those doll masks are sooo freaky, but I love them..
This is so great, and i was really excited to see my rookie “where the sidewalk ends” shoot in the 9th photo!!!
Omg. The monster bags are to die for! And the patches are so ingenious. The envelopesin #12 are so cute as well. These pics make me happy. :)
YES omg yes yes yes please keep doing Meadham Kirchhoff features yesss
the AW 12 show was TO DIE for
I appreciate the fun but I’m not too into the aesthetic…
Eleanor, do you know if they will ever do a collection inspired by Dr. Seuss? Because the hats in some pictures really look like it..
I love everything about this collection! It’s all so perfect *0*
MEADHAM KIRCHHOFF I CAN’T EVEN HANDLE YOU JUST AHHHH so many of these photos are going to be stuck up on my bedroom wall it’s not even funny
Woooooooooow this is so amazing its sooooo pretty …i wonder what materials were used to make the prints for the tee-shirts….
~ I’m certainly antisocial ~
the extent i will go to in order to be there at his studio. ELEANOR YOU LUCKY LITTLE GURL WHO EVEN TALKD TO JOHN WATERS. ugh my life.
Omg! this is the most beautiful collection I’ve ever seen. I wish I could clone one of these fabulous shoes and teleport to me ♡
If I could describe this collection, it’s STUNNING! From the ladylike handbags w/monster and teddy bear faces, ostrich jacket, out of this world accessories, makeup and CLOTHING, I feel like I’m in heaven! Meadham Kirchhoff seriously makes the BEST, BEST, BEST fashion shows EVER!
Those envelopes! Definately taking inspiration from them for the next houseparty invitations.. Also I’m glad this understands my love for the tiny light reflecting particles (glitter). I love you, Rookie.
I love the kind of playful horror inspirations, oh and especially the door with the doll heads, goodness me I NEED my door to look like that
yayyy, so amazing. I love all the monsters!!!!
If I had so much tinsel in my house, my cat would eat it and then have bad tinsel poo.
i guess the Meadham Kirchhoff cats know better, they know fashion or something.
This is all SO gorgeous! The color, the sparkle, the attitude…it is seriously perfect. I’m in love with that vintage bra/makeup remover for some reason!
I feel totally justified in having a neon yellow baby doll head on display in my bedroom now!
Looking through these pictures makes me understand and enjoy the collection even more! love love love the whole idea of the purses being traditional lady-like purses in the inside and the little detail of having a lipstick holder in it and then on the outside, it’s completely different!
Genius.Resembles my moodboard and walls! LOVE LOVE LOVE
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Meadham Kirchhoff and actually had the oppurtunity to go to their actual A/W 12 show a couple of weeks ago- it was awmamamaazing! I love their room- with all the stuff on the walss. They are one of my many inspirations! <3
I am DYING over all these references to drag culture and club kids! I’m obsessed. Like Mr. Meadham himself, I’m too antisocial and lame to actually go to clubs myself so I just go on the internet and marvel over all the interesting people who went to them.
My heart just skipped a beat when I saw that you had visited the studio again for AW12!! This collection is just INSANE, totally crazy and eclectic beyond words. I love the ghost patches and the envelopes for the invitations. It’s interesting what Edward says about designing this collection – I would be in a clinic right now if there were four weeks left until the show and I still didn’t know what I was doing! Their studio is right by my house… maybe I can ACIDENTALLY TRIP AND FALL THROUGH THE FRONT DOOR ONE DAY! No, but seriously, it is going to happen one day…
Oh and the teddy bear Chanel-style jacket, and the faux fur jacket with eyes/cherries… YEP. NOW. OK.