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Vice Blog

LONDON - CONNECTING THE DOTS BETWEEN FASHION AND MUSIC

We're going to start asking some bigshot designers what their favorite music videos are. No, not because we think that if someone can construct a really good shoulder they must be a genius master of all arts, but because there's that visual connection. It makes sense. A little. But since when do we have to give you good reasons for anything we do?

Designer

Christopher Shannon

loves Neneh Cherry so much he even reckons the stuff she's making

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now

is great. For her part, Neneh used to work at

i-D

and her biggest hit,

"Buffallo Stance,"

 was inspired by the

Buffalo

look heavily promoted in

The Face

in the eighties. Christopher also designs some very fashionable tracksuits, clothes that men actually want to wear – which you'd think would be an obvious thing to do, but he's considered pretty avant-garde by runway standards, since the track suit is involved. Christopher's way with elasticated waists and artificial fabrics has already caught the eye of Reebok, who he now collaborates with, and helped Christopher score a space at Topman's

MAN

show for the third season at this coming London fashion week. He spoke to us about his Neneh obsession:

"I probably first saw this video when I lived in Liverpool, watching and recording The Chart Show on a Saturday morning. I'd have been lying on the floor in the lounge, maybe eating some Rich Tea biscuits, probably wearing my half mustard, half black hooded tracksuit top that I bought on this really awful market by the Liverpool docks, with a BUM bag, some Reebok ERS, and some African pendants! Quite full-on for a ten-year-old, really. Or maybe my fake maroon and black Fila baseball jacket – which I wore till it fell apart.

I was obsessed with Neneh Cherry. Her track "I've Got You Under My Skin" is about AIDS, something we only heard about when the kids at school were making jokes about it. In fashion-photographer-turned-director Jean-Baptiste Mondino's video, Neneh's rap is written across the screen, hammering the point home. She looks amazing in a tight, minimal Azzedine Alaia number. Being very fashion- and performance-led, Mondino always shot really simple videos. The big speakers and the dancer with her mad hat look pretty underground, but it still feels like fashion editorial. Judy Blame did the styling and Afrika Bambaataa produced the track. Basically, videos don't get better."

Jean-Baptiste Mondino also shot Neneh's "Buddy X", which Christina Aguilera and David LaChapplle shamelessly copied for that video Christina did with Lil Kim. Mondino's most most famous video, though, is Madonna's "Justify My Love", with the painful, pretending-to-be-a-lesbian bits.

JAMES ANDERSON