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Christopher Nemeth the House of Beauty and Culture

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Christopher Nemeth the House of Beauty and Culture CULTURE Christopher Nemeth The House of Beauty and Culture. John Moore. Buffalo. Post Sacks. Japan. Deconstruction. Recycling Words Andy Thomas Photographs Mattias Pettersson Christopher Nemeth was a true hugely infl uential. Mixing the DIY Suzanne Bartsch and Martin Margiela English original whose work resonates innovation of punk with classic English scouring the store for inspiration. as loudly today as in the mid-1980s, tailoring, Nemeth created a body of In June 1986, Nemeth met his when his deconstructive aesthetic fi rst work that was both raw and beautiful. future wife Keiko at a John Galliano made waves. Talking to i-D magazine It was through the House of Beauty show and later that year moved to in 2009, a year before his passing, he and Culture that Nemeth built his Tokyo, where they set up their fi rst explained the roots of his craft. “I had reputation for pioneering design and shop, Sector. With the help of Keiko, this pair of trousers that I’d picked up craftsmanship. Set up by cult shoe Nemeth continued to develop his craft, in a jumble sale, which I really liked designer John Moore in an old building creating a huge archive of designs and the shape of, but after wearing them off Kingsland Road in east London, the a cult following across Japan. His vision endlessly they had completely worn out. store was home to a collective of like- continues to be realised today thanks to So I took them to bits, laid them fl at, minded free thinkers. The collaborative the tireless work of Keiko, and a Tokyo and made my own new version of them. environment and creative freedom store that has become a mecca for That was how I made my fi rst pair of resulted in brilliantly crafted and highly Nemeth fans worldwide. We hope we trousers – as a way of getting back those original clothes that worked perfectly go some way to capturing his infl uence trousers that I loved but had worn out.” together – a pair of dropped crotch and inspiration through these Graduating from Camberwell trousers from Nemeth above Moore’s recollections from those touched College of Arts in 1982, the toe-strap boot; a Nemeth post sack by his humble genius. > Birmingham-born designer began jacket set off by Judy Blame’s salvage experimenting with textiles, creating jewellery. The collective reached beyond art from old clothing. His innovative the cultish pages of i-D and Blitz Christopher Nemeth, 4-13-5, Jingumae, use of salvage materials and artful magazines, with international buyers Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 150-0001, Japan deconstructions of fabrics would prove and designers such as New York’s christophernemeth.co 90 91 CULTURE | Christopher Nemeth Harris Elliott “My dad hated the image of fashion. “I used to do some work for John Moore “When I wear his pieces He just put his art on wearable things. at the House of Beauty and Culture. That today, people are always “I first met Chris around 1985-86 when like ‘Where is that from?’ So fashion was a way for him to present I was staying in Camden, through people was my connection to Nemeth. There That’s across the board his art.” I was hanging out with like Judy Blame were a lot of waves that came out of that whether it’s fashion or non- Lui Nemeth, Christopher’s daughter and Neneh Cherry. His clothing was just place. What Nemeth did was to extend fashion people, they will and co-founder of Primitive London absolutely unique and I felt it was like he the DIY ethic that had come from punk always comment on the into a whole new area of fashion.” pieces because the cut is so primitivelondon.co.uk had designed it just for me.” Howie B, musician and producer John Marchant, director of Isis Gallery different. He crafted his own “I learned loads from my dad as an artist, silhouette, whereas a lot of howieb.com isisgallery.org other designs are rehashes but maybe the most important thing was of styles from yesteryear.” that he didn’t like to have something that “He had this collection made from “I was the Saturday girl at House of he hadn’t made. He just wanted to have discarded post sacks. It was fantastic, just Beauty and Culture when it first started. Jacket, 2007; jeans, 1998. everything that was his. He made clothes, genius. Mark Lebon did a shoot for i-D The shop wasn’t open every day. Back furniture, even notebooks; that is magazine using Buffalo models and Judy then Dalston was like a no man’s land something I really respect as an artist – Blame styled it. Then Chris, Judy and but the one day the shop was open was to be surrounded by your creative objects. Mark became good mates and got Saturday. It was totally a cult shop. You’d I think that creates your self, your space involved in the House of Beauty and have people who were on the edge who and world.” Culture. And I just remember the arrival had made this brave trip to come and Riyo Nemeth, Christopher’s daughter of this genius new designer. I guess it was visit the shop.” and artist riyonemeth.com around the time when we were beginning Scarlett Cannon to become aware of recycling and the “When he left art school he had no importance of waste. So I particularly “What was going on with Chris and the money and he couldn’t afford canvas. He loved the fact that he was making pieces House of Beauty and Culture was just was a practical sort of guy, so the old style out of postbags and that they really looked different. It was very edgy – we used to post sacks, they are basically like a duck great too. His designs were just amazing.” call it recycling, so he was very much canvas. He’d stretch them and paint Mitzi Lorenz into this reclaiming kind of thing.” on them. But he made his own clothes Jazzie B, DJ, producer and founder too. He’d get a suit from Oxfam and of Soul II Soul soul2soul.co.uk take it apart and lay it flat to see how it was made. That’s how he learned to “I was buying Chris’s stuff along with pattern cut.” ‘HE WAS THE shoes from John Moore. Both of Adam Howe, stylist SWEETEST them had a really good hand and the webberrepresents.com stuff worked really well together. Handmade shoes and handmade clothing “He was just a fucking genius. When GUY YOU’D that were totally unique; it was not I saw his clothes I was blown away. I gimmicky but just full of style. They was impressed and gutted that it wasn’t EVER WANT had the same attitude, taking something me that found him. That was the most that was essentially British: really exciting thing in those days, you know, TO MEET’ good craftsmanship.” finding the latest clothes and the latest Howie B designer. And he was the man.” “He was stretching any kind of fabric you Mitzi Lorenz, member of the Buffalo could paint on, the thicker the better, like “I had started doing stuff at Blitz collective a canvas. And when his clothing took magazine around 1982-83, and basically off he started cutting his paintings up. I started to use my friends in the “I became aware of Chris through Judy At his graduation show he’d actually cut magazine. About 60 per cent of the stuff Blame, who I had known for years. It his paintings up to make clothes. It was in the magazine came from charity shops must have been about 1985. And I amazing. He’d gone from cutting clothes and then people like John Moore, Judy remember Chris had started working up to make canvases to cutting canvas up Blame or Chris were making things with him and was all excited, and he and to make clothing. I was just mesmerised.” especially for a shoot.” Mark Lebon were doing stuff together. Adam Howe Iain R Webb, fashion journalist and Judy loaned me a jacket to wear to Japan fashion director of Blitz magazine on a modelling trip I was doing at the “I first met Chris in the mid-1980s hopeandglitter.wordpress.com end of ’85. It was one of his post sack and he was just this incredibly humble, jackets but it had a gold leather collar – sweet, quiet, funny man. He was an “At the time, we were all just doing it was fabulous.” absolute gentleman; the sweetest guy what we wanted to do. His work was Scarlett Cannon, healer, model and you’d ever want to meet. And he just very much in that feeling and spirit.” writer heavenlyhealer.blogspot.co.uk had his own complete style. It was, like, Scarlett Cannon > ‘Wow, look at him.’” Barry Kamen, member of the Buffalo collective, artist and stylist barrykamen.com 93 Adam Howe Jacket, 1986; “As with Westwood’s stuff, people would CULTURE | Christopher Nemeth belt, 2000; do anything to acquire Nemeth clothes. handkerchief, 2003; badges. A pair of Nemeth jeans was the ultimate “All of us were creating an alternative to thing you could possibly have. So people “He was the person at the forefront of the mainstream. I didn’t want to be a would starve to get them, because they “It was incredibly raw with that patchwork deconstruction as a movement in the stylist on a big magazine, we wanted to were never cheap.” of fabrics, the undyed hessian and the 1980s and that obviously is a significant create our own thing.
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