The Influence of Music and Movies on Designer Alexis Barrell

SS14.

Fashion month can be exasperating. And not—as Noisey correspondent The Kid Mero pointed out—because everyone’s walking around town looking like “gothic asymmetrical future poets.” Such sartorial extremes turn New York, London, Milan, and Paris into a playing field and silly-spotting into a sport. This is a good thing. No, fashion week is annoying because, for commerce to function, designers have to show their work six months in advance of any of us actually being able to get our hands on it. So when we saw Alexis Barrell's Spring/Summer 2013 show at London Fashion week recently, it was with immense sadness that we gazed upon her silky, leaf printed, short-shorts, her tanks with just the right amount and side-boob, and her pale pink, metallic-accented crop tops and matching pants: summer seems like a long way off right about now. In any case, her current Autumn/Winter13 collection is pretty gorgeous too, with its surprising mix of textures and retro-futurist shapes. So we decided to have a chat with the South African-born, London-based designer and discovered her influences for each collection are heavily rooted in music—The Beach Boys, The Del Tones, T-Rex—and movies—Point Break, True Romance and Metropolis—which made us like her even more.

Noisey: Tell me about you. Where are you from?
Alexis: I'm from Johannesburg, South Africa, but I'm a bit of a gypsy. I live in London, which I got to via some time spent in Paris and New York. But I also have a studio in Athens. So I'm always in and out of a suitcase. I'm a little bit from everywhere, but I would call myself a London designer.

How did you get into design? Was this always part of some subconscious plan?
I think it was very subconscious. I remember wanting to be an artist, a mathematician, a lighthouse keeper. I can't remember ever wanting to be a fashion designer, but it just kind of happened, in Paris, by accident actually.

How the heck did it happen by accident?
I went there after I finished studying architecture and I remember wanting to go and study something that combined architecture with textiles. I ended up applying for this design course—God knows why—and then I realized it was actually something I wanted to do. Maybe design combines being a lighthouse keeper, a mathematician, and a famous artist all in one.

SS14. It totally all goes into that one thing for sure. Ha! Tell me about your new line, what is it called?
Summer 14.

Summer 14?
Well the name of the line is The PCH.

Huh?
Pacific Coast Highway.

Cool. What's the idea behind it?
Hanging up your wetsuit to go to a Hawaiian shirt party on a beach in Malibu as the sun sets on your pink Corvette.

Awesome. What inspired this?
My sister and I went road tripping down the West Coast in a convertible Mustang. Just kind of searching for surfers and surf bands and eating nachos for dinner and listening to T-Rex. When I got home I became obsessed and started watching all these movies and listening to all this music that reminded me of that trip.

What kinds of movies and music?
I watched Point Break about 100 times, True Romance, a lot of 60s surf documentaries. I was listening to Dick Dale & The Del-Tones, the Ventures, The Riveras, some obscure 60s psychedelic rock bands. Also the Beach Boys—who I never thought I would like!

I have never, ever, ever listened to a full album from the Beach Boys, so ashamed.
Well you need to get past that annoying point with them. It's so annoying, but you have to get past it.

How? I've only listened to one song at a time from them, otherwise is all sounds the same to me.
I know, but if you get into the songs they're actually really amazing. Especially this one song “The Lonely Sea.”

So was it just that the sound that reminded you of that place, or was it the musicians style, or both?
A combination. That 60s and West Coast surf culture had such a strong identity. It was everything: their clothes, their vibe, what they're singing about, the scenes they're describing, but mostly it's the actual music. Usually when I work on a collection it's about the mood that the music gets me in. You're going into a three month period and you want to stay in that same head space where you started. Music is the best way to keep you in that certain zone. It definitely has the power to do that.
I actually don't listen to anything else during a collection besides what has inspired me at that time. With these references it was their clothes too. Like T-Rex is not really a surf band, but he spent so much time in that area. I was inspired by that scene. Mark Bolan’s style is just so awesome; I named a leather, sleeveless vest after him. And then there are the psychedelic surf bands with their little shorts. I'm amazed at how they managed to balance everything. They managed to look preppy and really cool and the same time. It's quite difficult.

Point Break, True Romance, what in each of those was the biggest influence?
With True Romance I was more influence by him: his Hawaiian shirts, his hoodies, and the idea of layering a bright hoodie with a blazer jacket and t-shirt and a Hawaiian shirt. It was an extreme fashion moment. I also just generally loved the mood of LA in the 90s. For Point Break it was literal. I remember sketching like crazy watching that movie the first time. There is this one t-shirt in the collection that was inspired by this big, oversized luminous pink t-shirt that I think one of the guys in the movie was wearing. And the jewelry was quite inspired by the charms that the surfer guys wear.

With your past lines, and designing in general, is there always a musical inspiration for you?
For all my previous lines, definitely. For Autumn/Winter 2013 I was listening to the Metropolis soundtrack by Gottfried Huppertz, also the 1984 remake, super 80s and futuristic, with that track by Giorgio Moroder “Machines.” That line was all Berlin surrealist Fritz Lang stuff. I looked at how they saw the future then and watched a lot of films from late 70s, early 80s, especially Cinéma du look stuff like Diva. The collection started about the city of Berlin re-imagining itself in the future, and then morphed into all that. I was listening to so much German techno too.

Jeez man, I'd do that on a regular day.
[Laughs.] It's so not my normal vibe, but I really liked it. I found this label, Kompakt, based in Cologne. They're a bit more happy than Berlin type techno.

AW13: inspired by 'Metropolis,' Giorgio Moroder, 'Diva,' and German techno.

Why do you think musicians have such individual styles? Is it the nature of being a performer?
I think if you compare them to designers or actors or whatever, musicians are the ones who get to fully express themselves on a personal level and really speak to people. They don't have that filter of working with somebody else's material, or within someone else's constraints, or wardrobe. Look at the way they work with fashion: it's always on their own terms. It's not like they obey the designers vision. Instead they adapt what the designer has created. They craft the sound, the visuals, everything.

Powerful.
I know! And with the musicians that I listen to, they speak to me on an emotional level that immediately changes my mood. You don't forget that. If a musician can speak to you like that it's really powerful. It's more than an aesthetic or intellectual thing.

Ellie Goulding wearing Alexis Barrell AW13.

Which contemporary musicians do you have crushes on that you would style?
I'm a little old school.

Come on, who is it?
The biggest crush of my life is Stevie Nicks. I'm so in love with her.

That's okay! Lots of people are in love with Stevie.
I wish I could dress her. In terms of contemporary artists, I like Ellie Goulding, I think she's really cute.

What about your personal style? Any musical influences?
It's constantly changing because my mind is always expanded by the collections. I open myself up to a new thing every time. If I had to I would say my personal style is very rock. I’ve listened to the same albums since I was 13, the ones I always pull back to when I'm down or whatever.

A musical identity that was established in your formative teen years?
Ya, music that makes me feel at home on the road. Like Rumors by Fleetwood Mac, Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dylan. I started listening to jazz when I was 15 and I always go back there. Johnny Lee Hooker, The White Stripes, The Cure, JJ Cale.

What else do you want to say? Your clothes are sick because the references are so interesting.
I think it's important to tell a story in your work and in your clothes. I think that fashion has gone a little bit away from that magic side. It's so important to play and get involved in a narrative of who you can be with style, dressing up, what it means and where it comes from, referencing the things you love and living that vibe for the day. I love that.

You can get Alexis Barrell’s designs on avenue32.com and my-wardrobe.com They have the biggest range of stuff.

Style Stage is an ongoing partnership between Noisey & Garnier Fructis celebrating music, hair, and style.