Sarah Mower – författare

Helmut Newton’s unforgettable images, at once sophisticated and provocative, constitute a rich and ever-relevant artistic legacy. This book presents a compact but wide-ranging and impactful portfolio of his work, supported by an insightful introduction and a detailed biographical chronology.Newton’s images straddle the knife-edge of ambiguity, teasing out allusions and social observations that both entice and challenge their viewers. In this portfolio, Newton’s unique perspective is effectively showcased, reflecting the complex undercurrents that give his images their distinct character across the breadth of his editorial work in the fields of fashion and portraiture.  This book reveals Newton’s evolution into a contrarian, a savvy and mischievous cynic, at once voyeur and satirist, whose lens framed contentious yet pivotal aspects of high fashion and high society in the latter decades of the twentieth century. He worked as a “gun for hire” while imposing his own perspectives and obsessions, defining most notably his idea of a powerful, self-assured woman. This figure became his most insistent theme, developed in erotically charged scenarios, most typically set in the seductive environment of opulent apartments or grand hotels, most notably in Paris, Monte Carlo, and Los Angeles.From the mid-sixties, Newton’s dynamic images established his reputation in the world of fashion, through work published in leading magazines, among them Vogue Paris, Elle, Marie Claire, Nova, Queen, and British Vogue. From the mid-seventies his notoriety was extended through his first books and exhibitions. His images immortalize such luminaries of society, film, and fashion as Princess Caroline of Monaco, Charlotte Rampling, Paloma Picasso, and Karl Lagerfeld.Helmut Newton’s glamorous, ground-breaking, and boundary-pushing photographs have an indisputable signature authority that maintains their hold on our imaginations.

An unprecedented and intimate behind-the-scenes look at London designer fashion over the last fifteen years, edited by Tania Fares and Sarah Mower and profiling 50 leading London fashion designers, from Paul Smith and Stella McCartney to Erdem and Simone Rocha.London has long been a fashion-world capital, and the past fifteen years have been an especially fertile period in its centuries-long history of setting trends. This stunning book is an all-access pass into the world of designer fashion - an exclusive behind-the-scenes studio tour that calls in on fifty of the city's leading design talents - London-based global superstars - all of whom open up about their practice and philosophy, and share a wealth of images from their private collections.

FASHION GENERATION is an exhibition that showcases many of the best young designers to have emerged in London over the last thirty years, like Christopher Kane, Charles Jeffrey and Gareth Pugh. Since the founding of the British Fashion Council’s NEWGEN Programme in 1993, successive generations of creative minds have exploded onto the fashion scene, establishing new brands, challenging existing systems and introducing innovative approaches that have influenced fashion globally. NEWGEN offers designers mentoring and business training, financial support, and opportunities to show their work, and recipients are encouraged to take risks, to experiment and above all, to find their voice. Co-curated by Sarah Mower, who has reported on developments in fashion for this period, the exhibition also focuses on the education, inspiration and business opportunities that can be found in London, as a city that exemplifies the economic, social and political shifts of the past three decades. The FASHION GENERATION publication presents the key themes and messages of the exhibition, not as discrete chapters, but as an echo of the exhibition, which provides layers of information and interpretation around themes and objects. The flamboyant DIY, constant experimentation and unique innovations on show in the exhibition will also inform the design of the book. In the publication, the voices of the curators and the designers that appear in the exhibition will be extended, with a longer introductory essay by co-curator Sarah Mower and extended quotes from designers. In addition, writers, academics, educators and activists will be commissioned to produce new texts. As the first exhibition in the UK to provide a survey of British fashion from this period, the FASHION GENERATION publication offers readers the opportunity to access a full record of all 300+ designers to have received NEWGEN support since 1993, insights into the processes and locations where designers have researched, fabricated and shown their early collections in London, and extended essays.