Classic 'Hurts'

As the Hurts are on their European tour, and I am graduating I found it fitting to have a Hurts blog post as my readers may remember back last summer, I listened to Hurts on repeat for 3 months- It got me through my last year of my degree! Not forgetting that I love their music and I absolutely love their look.

A while back now, I remember reading a magazine article where the guys spoke of their fashion choices and how they came about dressing and having the certain style that they do. It's really interesting to know that the guys used to buy their clothes from older high street stores such as BHS and good old trusty Marks and Spencers. They also however, bought from charity shops- buying cheap suits and putting their personality into each outfit with small styling choices. This is just fab! It really proves that no matter how much money you have or not, if you have an eye for style you can look, in the Hurt's case, as dapper as you want and although my primary occupation is styling, it's nice to know that Theo and Adam choose this look and style before any stylist could get a hold of the guys.

Interestingly, yesterday I was reading an article about Keith Lemon (a character created, based on a northern guy) and in that interview Leigh Francis, that plays Keith, mentioned that when he is out for the evening he dress's up well and he thought that this was a very Northern thing, which brought me back to the Hurts- both the guys are from Manchester and I think this idea can be seen in their band. They are both very dapper, their style is timeless and very classic. I know some people may think that wearing a suit is safe, but I don't see this as the case with the Hurts, and I know it may sound funny to say, but you can see when looking at how they wear there clothes, you are able to see a northern influence.

Fashion Photography and the North

After looking at Fashion and Art and its crossovers, we then looked at Fashion photography and the north: predominantly at Agyness Deyn.

It seemed that when Deyn became famous, so did the north. When she began gaining more fame, she moved to London to ‘follow her dream’ but Adam, our lecturer mentioned that she had moved to London, previously, then came back up north, and then moved back to London. We very rarely hear of this part of her life, it seems the media really wanted to build up the hype and the aspirational aspect of this ‘northern lass’ fulfilling her dream.

We also looked at fashion shoots that Deyn had been in and analysed the imagery. I really like Agyness Deyn as a model I love her look, my liking of her became stronger as her fame did, she was seen in every magazine and newspaper. There was a shoot she did for I.D. in fact the whole issue was dedicated to her, a couple of years ago which I loved. But, as we analysed the imagery in the class, you can really see that the photographers and the creative directors that showcased this new model, didn’t really choose creative ideas that successfully, the imagery kinda patronised Northern culture by using heavily stereotypical Northern settings and stereotypes.

We looked at the shoot for Vogue, in 2008 named ’Angel of the North’, shot by Tim Walker.

The shoot portrayed this northern girl in heavily stereotypical northern settings. For instance, the shoot was shot in a country-like setting, quite nostalgic like, it looks like it was shot in a northern place, near to where Deyn was born (very near to Preston) but they chose a location that is probably the most northern (geographically) in the UK. The shoot had quite a romanticised view of the north, compared to ‘Mass Observation’ a photo shoot shot in the mid 30’s in Bolton. The idea of the ‘kitchen sink’ cinema is really highlighted in the shoot, the imagery looked similar to that of the film ’A taste of Honey’ in comparison to the shoot shot for I.D. magazine in may 2008 named ‘Origins’.

Deyn had been placed in Manchester, there’s an actual shot of Deyn’s college where she used to study when she was younger and again it seems the photographer and art director chose creative elements that weren’t very creative and were too obvious. The images seemed to just celebrate the working class of the north, almost like saying that the whole of the north were like this there were no other types. I mean, yes it’s a positive thing that fashion moved out of the capital, showing that fashion isn’t only embraced in the capital but around the UK, but still it seems too typical and literal.