Carole Gould a pleasant phucker.
August 27th, 2009 | M | Fashion | 7 Comments »
Shed Snakeskin and crystal bangles
I don’t quite understand why but for some reason this blog is going down a morbid blood soaked dead things route which I’m more then comfortable with. I think the store will be following this route and getting a lot darker for AW.
When we moved into our warehouse just after Christmas we had one big extravagant meal and ate a pheasant that my housemate had found on the road in the Cotswolds. We named him Jimmy Jhonny Ignatious Loyola, the pheasant. He tasted nice. After the meal I was handed a little blue bag with Jimmy’s head and wings in it. He had the most beautiful feathers and I fully planned to make good use of his head and skull. Alas I went to China on a design trip and Jimmy rotted and never became the wonderful headpiece I had envisaged.
Carole Gould, however acted on the Road Kill design impulses to create some wonderfully feathered accessories. Half of her final collection is made from roadkill. Growing up in Wiltshire she always felt sad seeing pheasants lying in the road so she decided to use them in creating her collection. She asked her family to collect the dead birds for her – only the ones that looked fresh – I can imagine that was a charming conversation with her parents. She plucked the pheasants herself, painstakingly maintaining the order in which the feathers appear on the bird whilst piercing them into the rubber sheath which holds the form.
Feather Cowl
Feather Shoulder-piece
She likes to take something that is regarded as worthless and breathe life back into it, turning it into something desireable. I had the wonderful experience of trying these on when a friend borrowed them for a recent shoot. There is something quite regal bout them. They are so delicate, the feathers so tiny that you need to be helped into them and it feels almost ceremonial.
She feels that they transform the wearer into a bird for a while and I agree – there is something about the feathered shroud that changes the way you move. I literally gasped with joy when they were unwrapped from their tissue paper and taken from their brown carboard boxes. This is not something I do very often but these pieces are truly magical, sharp inhalation of breath required – I think I might have swallowed a feather.
Feather Neckpiece
I’ve asked Carole if she’s planning to do a capsule collection for retail and I’m hoping she does as I would stock this girl for sure.
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Stunning creations!
I do like the recycling concept; of course it’s sad that these beautiful birds had to go in such a horrific way in the first place but by recycling the feathers their essence kind of lives on, the creation becomes a beautiful tribute to that lost life.
I also love the shed snakeskin bangles, incidentally I purchased a bag full of shed corn snake skin from a seller on eBay ages ago…random I know but I thought it would make some rather interesting art & those beautiful bangles verify my assumption.
Have a cracking bank hol weekend!
I also find the challenge invovled in working with these materials very interesting. When you see Road-kill your natural inclination is to look away and grimace with horror. She had to force herself to get get up close and salvage the feathers, transforming something we would turn from horror from into a most desirable accessory. I’lll be out with http://manaboutworld.blogspot.com/ papping street style this weekend.
These have left me speechless. Such incredibly beautiful work, and a fitting testament to what is in fact a beautiful creature.
I love the concept of making use of an animal for art after it no longer needs it’s skin/feathers/fur, either by natural causes, natural death or human error as in the case of these pheasants. So inspirational, just wonderful.
Some time ago I was checking on the corpse of a fox each day for a few months as it slowly rotted in a bush by the side of the road. It was fascinating and beautiful and sad all at once. I had the intention of taking the bones once the skin had totally rotted away. Two days before I planned to pick them up, the fox was gone, either by dustmen or someone else who had similar thoughts to me. The lesson here, as with Jimmy’s head and wings, is to grab them and use them as soon as you can!
Ok so now for the disgusting part but I’ve actually looked into Taxidermy quite a lot because you find some many dead creatures that could be transformed into something beautiful. Taxidermists put carcasses in a sealed box with lots of little maggots and let them do the hard work. Apparently they clean everything off the bones.
I love the idea of using road kill and making it beautiful, especialy as my local pheasants seem particulary suicidel. I’v become very intriuged with the idea of working with bird feathers. Theres somthing facinating and pagen about them. They make me feel like Bodica.
PS, that feather neckpiece is truely beautiful!
Don’t send these pictures to Brigitte Bardot !
I love the fact that feathers are being brought back into fashion. The feather cowl is definitely my favourite, not only because Winter is just around the corner and it looks so warm, but also because Charlotte has pink blusher on her cheeks. Hehe
But seriously, great work. When will you be incorporating other materials into your work, such as shells and maybe even odd junk?