Invited by La Beauté en Avignon (Avignon Festival of Beauty) in 2000 to create an installation, Alexander McQueen and Nick Knight took a quintessentially perverse approach to the subject of beauty. Comprising 80 gallons of alive, dyed maggots forming the image of an angel taken by Knight, the Angel installation darkens over time and eventually disintegrates into a swarm of flies. The resulting project is a meditation on beauty, time, metamorphosis, and finally death.
Translated from German, Die Verwandlung means, 'The Metamorphosis', a title that aligns with King Kong Magazine's 'Metamorphosis Issue' (September 2017), in which Jacobsen's imagery also appears. This notion encompasses a variety of the elements that were studied during Jacobsen’s residency at SHOWstudio in London. Jacobsen cites human shapes found in everyday objects, the intervention of the body through digital techniques, his experiences living abroad, and a focus on raw-looking materials and the unfinished in this work. Working with materials including plastic, dough, and inflated latex condoms, Jacobsen collaborated with mistress of make-up Alex Box to create a shape-shifting character played by dancer Jonathan Luke Baker. The final film and imagery reflect states of discord and harmony in the natural world, manipulated by Jacobsen's digital skill.
A groom becomes a bride in a gender bending fashion performance by Alexander McQueen.
Light and shadow allow Alexander McQueen to assume avian form in a short film exploring transformation.
'This film is my way of speaking about a very unique and important person who changed my life. My desire was to speak in some way about the dark and the light contained within Lee, and within us all.' - Nick Knight Celebrating the breathtaking imagination and groundbreaking designs of Lee Alexander McQueen, the latest fashion film by Nick Knight pays tribute to McQueen's sensational creations, stellar career, and most importantly to the man himself. Directed by Knight and set to an exclusive soundtrack by Björk.
Inspired by the controversial and shocking death of the all-American actress Jean Seberg in 1979, Daphne Guinness collaborates with filmmaker and photographer Joe Lally to create The Murder of Jean Seberg, an atmospheric art film exploring Seberg's cinematic legacy, haunting beauty and the tragedy of her story.
Nick Knight and Lee McQueen collaborated on their Angel installation, featuring 80 gallons of live-dyed maggots arranged in the shape of an angelic face, at La Beauté en Avignon. Preparations for the installation and the build were recorded on film. Showcasing the process behind Angel, this documentary film features interviews with both Nick Knight and Alexander McQueen, exploring the ideas behind their first contemporary art collaboration in a behind-the-scenes look at the making of this project.
Bobby Gillespie and Katy England swap clothes and identities in a playful fashion film.
Actress and director Asia Argento created this mesmerising series of film shorts exclusively for SHOWstudio over the course of October 2006. The vignettes, drawing on an ad-hoc 'video diary' aesthetic but in fact painstakingly directed, intertwine reality with fantasy thanks to a script devised by Emma Forrest that confuses fiction with reality.
Erin O'Connor explores the meaning of fashion consumption in a short performance film.
John Galliano, Nick Knight and SHOWstudio continue their creative partnership, revealing the Maison Margiela S/S 21 co-ed collection. S.W.A.L.K first began with the opening up of the Margiela Atelier, following the creation of the A/W 20 artisanal collection. This second chapter revives a distant memory of tango dancers in Buenos Aires, whilst realising a bewitching proposal for the marriage of the Maison's artisanal and ready-to-wear lines via a fashion film cum documentary and a series of stills.
Experimental artist Joseph Lally continues his exploration into the dark side of beauty. Lally’s latest film mediates on the allure of violence in the cinema and questions society’s need for horror in the arts.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Fantastic Toiles. A fashion fun-house breaking all the sartorial rules. Where self-expression is a kaleidoscope of creativity and individuality reigns supreme. As part of their two-day residency at SHOWstudio, the otherworldly designs by the Nasir Mazhar-founded collective take centre stage in this fashion film directed by Nick Knight. From the alien to the ethereal, see work by the likes of Leo Carlton, Jawara Alleyne, and more unfold in a mesmerising dance as visionary as the collective itself.
“This project is a celebration of femininity, even though it’s not what we understand to be female.” —Bea Sweet
Proper doesn't have to mean prim: Alice Hawkins gives the bourgeoisie mood of the Autumn/Winter 2010 collections a terribly British spin in a tongue-in-chic ode to Margot Leadbetter, Beverly Moss and quintessentially English class consciousness.
Maison Margiela presents the Artisanal Co-Ed Collection for Autumn-Winter 2020. Creative director John Galliano detects a desire for transparency: a new consciousness clarified by the illumination of the creative process and the human values it represents. Through the format of film, the Artisanal practice is captured by image-maker Nick Knight.
