Nu Flow Guide 2011

  PICS FROM FASHION STORY DAZED 09 STREET STYLE

PICS FROM VICE ARTICLE REEBOKS ARE CLASSIC

http://vicestyle.com/en/features/articles/item/reebok-secret-history11/1

INTERVIEW WITH AWARD WINNING DANCER AND CHOREOGRAPHER BEN DAVIES:

ITS NOT A HOBBY IT'S A LIFESTYLE!

What does street dance mean to you?

Just living. I can live through dance it’s a way of tapping into another life and becoming your alter ego, I’ve always felt that I feel more alive when I dance than anything else. That is my life, that is my way of living. It means life.

The most memorable performance you have ever seen live?

It has to be nassassia that is theee most memorable performance I have ever seen it was soo fucking sick its just too good.

Who is your hero?

Who is my hero? Fucking hell? I dunno id have to say Britney spears cos she inspired me to dance .. who is my hero? Britney spears! that is hysterical!

You’re best night out in London?

Café de Paris. It is sick cos everyone is dancers from credited dance schools or companies otherwise you cant get in (Dancer night) its cool cos then you know everyone in there, and they go aaallll out with what they wear It’s a bit of a fashion show.

What is your favourite thing about living in London?

Being able to go and do as many dance classes as I want; pineapple, studio 68, Huskeys.  The night life; you can go out any night of the week and it is packed its never dull. The fact that I can walk round London wearing whatever I want and I wouldn’t get looked at, the freedom of being who you wanna be.

Who and what inspires you?

It has to be the people around me, the talent around me inspires me. Their personalities; if you have a group of people with fire in the personalities I can make something insane, if I’m working with boring there’s only so much you can do. Its like a painting you can only use the materials you’ve got and work with it.

Does the way you dress affect the way you feel when you’re dancing?

YES 100 PERCENT it does cos you’re constantly looking in the mirror n if you’re looking like shit you’re not as confident. In a studio you’re performing to yourself you need to think you’re looking good and believe you’re dancing like the shit to get the people who are looking to hire you believing you are too. If you think u look like bollox you wont believe in yourself and if you don’t believe in yourself no one else will.

What is your favourite item of clothing?

Erm… trainers

Where do you most often see other people within your subculture?

Every day im in full time professional training. Outside of that Pineapple is where everyone is and studio 68.. you see  loads of them walking round places, but I think you may have to be a dancer to know a dancer. I instinctively know if someone is , something in their personality like a hidden x factor shown through what they wear  and the way they walk.

What is you’re favourite music video from this year and why?

I would say Jessie J, nobody’s perfect – I love the costumes, there’s bits when she’s walking in slow motion and things fall around her.. use of scenery, music and movement combining to create an effect; she throws her hands down on a certain beat and the ground practically explodes, its little moments like that which make things… But I haven’t seen Beyonces yet so I know it will change to that when that comes out.

What makes a person a trendsetter in the street dance culture?

Originality and Diversity

What makes you angry?

Being Hungry.. oh shit I’m an angry person.. when I get most angry is when I see people in a position where they cant defend themselves, I got in a fight with a man on a train for shoving an old lady once, I cant help it , just boil up.

When are you most happy?

When I’m at home, just the feeling of security, family and what you know and what knows me. I think its good to surround yourself with the people that have known you the longest they know you best and share in you’re successes in a completely different way, I think its important for people to know where you’ve come from only then can they see how far you’ve come.

You’re favourite event of the year?

Street Dance Weekend

What does it feel like to be a competitor and winning choreographer at street dance weekend?

It’s the pressure and the competition between all the other groups the not knowing what people are gunna bring one performance can change the direction of street dance for years. The build up of getting something ready. It about really entertaining the audience,, the best bits are the technical rehearsals cos then you can kind of get a clue what people are bringing and how people are going to react to it. Choreographing the winning piece last year was an amazing feeling.

Is fashion an important part of a dancers identity? Is there a uniform look or is it an individual expression?

I think its both individual expression becomes the uniform. People all try different things like pulling their pockets out or rolling one leg up, striped socks. Things catch on that shouldn’t someone starts a weird trend. I remember there was a time when everyone wore there clothes inside ou,t god knows why!  It starts off you looking at the person doing it like wtf??  n nxt month I’m cruising round central with my pockets hanging out one leg pulled up n an inside out t-shirt. It’s a funny world. I reckon with most of these things someone just got really hot in a class and pulled up their trouser leg or thought their huge pockets being inside where too hot n suddenly its like the fashion statement of the millennium and everyone’s allll over it!

Area guide to street dance in London:

Street dance is an umbrella term, used to describe dance styles that evolved outside of dance studios in everyday spaces such as streets, school yards and nightclubs. They are often improvisational and social in nature, encouraging interaction and contact with the spectators and the other dancers.

PIneapple dance studios is situated in Covent Garden, It is alive with dancers all day everyday: things that separate Pineapple from some of the other studios are Dance 2XS the Uks largest and most successful NUflow Company Run by Sisco Gomez teach on a day to day basis. 

On Sunday's at Elephant and Castle you can pay £8:00 for an full day of training at Huskeys. Londons Leading dance crews choreographers take it in turns to produce competitive classes. This is the best place to learn as many styles as possible because each class/crew has there own specialist way of moving.

Ricoche Dance Company also run an open class at Clapham on a  Sunday; three hours of high energy training for one of Britains harshest choreographers. This class literally beats up your body, but if you're into dance you will love the feeling. Kelly and her dancers are really friendly.

Urdang Londons Largest Commercial Dance Center as well as being a listed dance school holds open classes some lead by the students, so if you want to be taught by the uk's freshest up and coming talent angel is the where you need to go.

Camden Town is the favourtie place for shopping, not as crowded as oxford street, loads of shops with branded trainers and caps at lower prices , a huge footlocker with every colour of tracksuit under the sun. Printing shops for branding, and when it comes to comp season its the only place to kit your crew out with costume.

Cafe de Paris host club night purely for dancers. Dressing and dancing becomes competitive between dance schools and groups. Held only once a month the night is heaving and is looked forward to. Playing only hip hop and commercial tracks.. other days Cafe de Paris provides a variety of entertainment from bow wow to burlesque.

To get through to competing in the main event you must first audition in the qualifiers round by performing a two minute version of the set you wish to compete with. The audition is done in private and is confidential o that no body’s themes or ideas can be leaked to any other groups.

The venue for the actual event street dance weekend is different every year each year getting bigger and better, last year it was staged at the 02 arena.

Street dance weekend is not only exciting for dancers from all over the country because of the opportunity to compete in the world championships in america it is also a busy time for head hunters, the whole of the cast of street dance 3d was found through gforce and street dance weekend, because people know that it is where the best of the bets will be.

Gforce have nurtured: diversity, flawless, plague, boy blue, peridot, ricoche, myztical and twist and pulse. They where all here first before hey made it to the big.

Ricochet's nissassia rewriting the history of dance in 2006 ( to this day my all time favourite piece of theatrical street dance)

G Force has been at the forefront of producing innovate entertainment formats for commercial events and shows for over 15 years.

These formats have been provided creative vision that delivers an enhanced entertaining experience that appeals to a wide audience, whilst at the same time enriching the skill sets, experiences, abilities artistes - launching them into the public arena, such as Katie Melua and Diversity, to name a few.

diversity's first big performance winning the uk champs of 2007

The creative vision that G Force provides has had a positive impact on quality entertainment and has inspired films, tv shows, events and lives across the world and will continue to do so.

One of G Force's flagship events is Street Dance Weekend UK Championships - which has changed the face of dance.

Street Dance in its present form was pioneered by G Force in 1990. G Force organised the first ever street dance competition in the world in 1996 in a school auditorium in south London attended by modest audience of 75 spectators and 8 participating groups. The competition was called Street Dance Weekend. Participating groups were very new to street dance, nevertheless, displayed great enthusiasm with the new dance dance style. Unity winning the world champs in 2008 after winning street dance weekend 2008 (sadly overlooked by diversitys return to street dance weekend as special guest for the 2008 comp with the premiere of their new set transformers which was to win them britains got talent) SDW saw it first) (words could never express the feeling of watching this performance live the video just cant pick up how loud everyone is screaming) As each participating group returned to their own towns and areas they took back with them the street dance concept and style attracting more and more members into their groups. In 1997 G Force opened its the first street dance class for children 6 - 13yrs, this was also pioneering and was another concept that inspired groups attending the street dance competition whom again returned to their relative home towns and in turn started to open classes too. This accelerated the growth of street dance in the UK. In 2002 the annual street dance weekend competition was attracting over 2000 spectators, this encourage G Force to present street dance as a ‘commercial’ event. G Force repackage Street Dance Weekend and re-presented/marketed the event as “Street Dance Weekend UK Championships” and held the championships in its first mainstream venue, Fairfield Halls in south London . The new concept worked and in 2002 had its first outside London group participate, which came from Manchester and like all participants took back the street dance style outside London. Presently, street dance has migrated into every city, has become a house hold name, and has stretched out globally, with world championships being held in Germany and Los Angels and even Africa. Street Dance has become the most popular dance form amongst teenagers and is practiced in the majority of schools and youth clubs. Street Dance Weekend UK Championships is now a huge success attracting commercial partners like Sony Pictures and Universal Pictures using the event to promote their blockbuster movies and other major media companies such as Kiss FM. Street dance Weekend is the biggest event for the uk's nu flow subculture of the year! they will spend the whole year preparing for it hoping for the chance of being crowned the UKs number one and being the next big face of the street dance culture globally and in the uk.

JEAN PAUL GAULTIER...

STANDS OUT

In this post i have included a few images of my favourite collections from this legendary designer.

In my opinion Gaultier always strikes the perfect balance and contrast in everything; structure and drape, colour and neutralisation, print and plain, shiny and matt, fitted and baggy, glamorous to casual.

Everything he produces has the unique and distinctive style of a Jean Paul Gaultier.

Jean Paul Gaultier is never pretty - Always sexy. There's an edge.

Colour plays a key part in his most memorable collections, the colours he uses together are never normally ones that "typically" go together, in fact more often than not they clash making attention grabbing pieces. He highlights these with heavy embellishments and uses various textures of fabric within one item.

His catwalk shows are styled to perfection each outfit showing sometimes as many as ten garments within one outfit.key to his image are his collections of hats, making for an everyday almost boyish look.

In this image are truly some of the most beautiful designs i have ever seen. He uses structural elements to emphasise and enhance the female form, he exaggerates and creates an illusion of curves. He uses a modernistic colour palette complimented by a 50's glamour silhouette. I love that his corsetry  can make a woman look like so much of a  sex object with out looking slutty. He gives them a Marilyn Monroe / Elizabeth Taylor factor.

When researching Gaulier this image stood out the most, maybe because it is the most relevant to contemporary subcultures, which is interesting as it is by no means a new collection. Is this because it is undeniably timeless or maybe because the fashion cycle has been round it's full life cycle and we are now back to where we started when this collection was originally shown.
Sport plays a key part in both outfits featured in this picture. It is admirable how graceful and elegant he has made something that is perceived to be the opposite.
He uses bright colours, reflective fabrics and loose cuts to create this super cool ensemble. It reflects greatly the urban style of the NU-Flow culture.

WEARABLE, EFFORTLESS, FASHION

Alexander Wang S/S 2010

Layers of layers of layers

Varsity style

Mark Fast S/S 10

loose fit = sexier (more to be imagined)

One of the many appeals of Alexander Wangs loose fit, varsity casual collection is that as well as looking good they probably feel good to wear. Normally seeing models strutting around in tiny, tight dresses and mile high heels, although they look amazing you know it’s probably not that easy to do the necessary’s – walking and breathing.

A detail that stays in my head from this particular collection is the double trousers which look pretty much the same as you’re average Joe Scrub strolling down the street with his arse hanging out … it looks so “laddish” that it accentuates everything woman in the person wearing it. This is a styling technique used in Nu-Flow constantly, wearing the baggy and scruffy to make yourself look tiny and essentially ultra feminine.

For his Varsity sports collection he took, the fantasy, romanticised American high school dream and gave it a uniform; he ripped it, widened it, made it shorter. The general look of the collection is customisation, the models look as if they stretched and took some sheers to their everyday uniforms and just rocked up in it one day.

 Influences of Wang S/S 2010 was starting to appear in the high street almost straight away after hitting the press. It’s a style that fits into everyday life, you look at it and think , “I could actually maybe pull that off” loose knit, slouchy trousers, cropped tops, big pockets and the element that MADE IT…….. The loose plat!

If I could some up the overall style of KTZ clothes in one word it would be FUN!

KTZ = BIG, BOLD and COLOURFUL!

It’s all about ATTENTION SEEKING pieces.

How does it relate to the Nu – Flow dance culture?????? Obvious similarities and influences are: use of bright colours and larger than life patterns, a powerful overall image, an urban feel within the sporty cut. The name KTZ is printed on allot of the clothes, mainly on menswear, in particular on jackets, reminding me of crew branding, tagging and representation.

The menswear in sep 09 is obviously inspired by American sportswear, with strong references to basketball and baseball.

What particularly interested me about this collection were the accessories; futuristic sunglasses and a mix of slouchy and structural bags.  The three main themes splashed throughout the collection appear to be SPORT, SPACE and THE 90’S. Metallic fabrics and padded bomber jackets sadly reminded me of the spice girls jackets we all loved in infant school… but then again is that what we love about this LOUD collection, cos really it’s kind of to do with “girl power.”

KTZ @ ON|OFF - London Fashion Week

I watched this runway live when I was working for on|off in 09, from that whole week of shows it was the one that stayed with me. This was maybe because I both LOVED and HATED it! It’s sort of beautiful in its tacky eccentricity!!!!!! The hairstyle links to the idea of space and the future, the tiny wiry plats look almost like TV aerials or antenna, this makes the collection humorous. I always think it’s nice when a designer doesn’t take themselves too seriously.

The models were given a personality with the displays theatrical content, it wasn’t entirely obvious, it was merely suggested in the tone underlaying the way in which the models walked down the runway; confident and attention grabbing; a caricature of the usual struttings of a couture model, youthful, vibrant and brimming with attitude. I LOVE that the male models stop to eye each other up, as if they’re going to start a fight, a long with the music this, highlights/points at/draws a ring around, the fact that this collection is based on street culture.

For me KTZ clothing is about showing off just like the Nu Flow culture. It’s about standing out without looking like you care about it, you just kind of have a natural swagger about you that you didn’t have to try to achieve; it just happened, it’s just there.