I've known about this guy for some years now, but it was only recently I met him. His name is Lee Mattocks, and he is the best friend of my housemates sister! Currently studying an MA in Fashion Artifacts run by Dai Rees at CSM, for which he was awarded a 15,000 Harold Tillman scholarship (from The British Fashion Council and Jaegar) and a 1,000 scholarship from the Embroiderers Guild if he incorporates embroidery into his final collection. Intrigued? You will be... Fashion Artifacts is a course which is designed to push accessories to the limit, blurring the boundaries between fine-art and fashion, helping the students to create bespoke, luxury accessories. Lee's work however, originates from embroidery. After studying a textiles degree at Goldsmiths, he became a scholar of the Embroiderers Guild and regularly shows with them around the country (although, having never strictly trained in embroidery...only in fine-art). He developed an amazing technique using a Bernina sewing machine, one which I still can't get the hang of, varying the tension and stitch lengths to eventually draw pictures images with.
These images really do not do Lee's work justice, you need to see the pieces up close and personal to feel the texture and brilliant colours used. The detail is immense.
If the embroidery wasn't enough the MA has opened up many doors for Lee, allowing him to experiment and perfect the use of many different mediums within the field of accessories, enabling him to carve bespoke fittings - brass cast fittings based on birds and hands and acrylic mirror moulded into the leather. With a lack of innovative and exciting fittings in the accessory world, Lee has chosen to focus on them to push his creations further, giving them a unique edge and playing with the art/fashion boundaries.
This bag is called the 'Dali for Gala', which was chosen to feature in the 20th Anniversary of Lulu Guiness at the V&A last year. It is part of an eight piece collection derived from the perspectives employed by Salvador Dali and his obsession with his "wife" - although he was gay she was his manager was involved in a large number of his greatest works. His research is heavily rooted in Surrealism (which I am told was actually a spiritual movement, not an art movement) and religion, with the hand fittings of the 'Dali for Gala' bag taken from religious practises - when a saintly figure died in history, they cut off their hands and sent pieces to churches all over the world, as they believed they would still perform miracles. This is just a snippet of the research that Lee has done, and his knowledge of critical theory and art history means his work, like any good artist, is entwined with references to the past.
I don't know if I have done Lee's work justice or not, but I shall let the images speak for themselves. He tells me that he's currently working on his final collection, which incorporates one of my loves, taxidermy, and is aptly named 'The Surrealist Museum'. It's based on the way historical objects are displayed in museums creating a narrative which is completely divorced from its origins. 'The collection has a very basic narrative running through it of an owl catching a rabbit. In "Palace" bag it appears in the background of the embroidery and gets closer and closer, bag by bag with the fittings gradually developing depending on the narrative - the last bag is all rabbit with brass talons as fittings.' I shall post images as soon as I can, but in the mean time we can look forward to this collection of bags being shown on the catwalk at the V&A sometime next year...fingers crossed they can find a designer to match!
