Regular readers know that twice a year, I blog about all the fascinating, beautiful, mesmerizing, strange, puzzling, outrageous, outstanding, unusual, artistic, inspiring sartorial creations coming out of the exquisite imaginations of designers, and down the runway. Regular readers may have also gleaned that I follow fashion the way some people delve into the art world. I think of "fashion" as "costume" or "performance"--as a way to convey an idea or a concept. I appreciate what some designers do the same way one appreciates what an avant garde sculptor or painter or performance artist does. And in a way, these designers are performance artists. For me, it is not about what is hanging on racks in stores, but what these artists are creating and the ideas and concepts they are working with as an influence on their marvelous creativity. It is moving sculpture. It is theater. Fashion and clothing at this level serve as a kind of visual shorthand. A piece of clothing in the hands of a designer can evoke a place, a region, a country, a specific time or an entire era, a work of art such as a novel or film or painting, a class of people, even a social, financial, or spiritual element... and the combination of such pieces of clothing, as well as their harmony or contrast, can tell a fascinating story.
Here is the season schedule (London is quite late this year)...
JUNE 2026 FASHION SCHEDULE -- FOR SPRING/SUMMER 2027
Pitti Uomo -- Simone Rocha is this year's guest designer
June 16 - 19, 2026
https://uomo.pittimmagine.com/
Milano Moda Uomo
June 19 - 23, 2026
https://www.cameramoda.it/it/milano-moda-uomo/
Paris Fashion Week Homme
June 23 - 28, 2026
https://www.fhcm.paris/
London Fashion Week
September 17 - 21, 2026
https://londonfashionweek.co.uk/
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Monday, June 15, 2026
Monday, February 23, 2026
BEAUTY: Clothing--Simone Rocha
Simone Rocha's FW '26-'27 co-ed collection at London Fashion Week featured her regular vocabulary of details: lace, ruffles, bows, pleats, cockades, and the rhinestones of costume jewelry. But it was tempered with a trio of of inspiration sources.
To start, there is a story from Irish mythology where a boy falls in love with a woman and they go to live in Tír na nÓg, the land of eternal youth. Second is the Yeats family. For her color palette, Rocha looked to the painting In Tír na nÓg by Jack B. Yeats. She also took inspiration from his sisters Elizabeth and Lily, who ran the Cuala Press, a women-only arts enterprise producing handcrafted books, cards and prints from 1908 to 1940. And finally, she liked the rough-and-tumble secondhand clothing worn by Irish kids in Pony Kids, a renowned photography book by Perry Ogden documenting the vibrant, marginalized horse culture among Dublin's working-class youth in the 1990s.
I personally love the mix of high and low...bomber jackets with oversized suiting, skirts with workwear, and a trade jumpsuit but in black lace. Shearling lined jackets and stoles are a great touch. And please take a moment to zoom in on those amazing tooled leather shoes.
https://simonerocha.com/
To start, there is a story from Irish mythology where a boy falls in love with a woman and they go to live in Tír na nÓg, the land of eternal youth. Second is the Yeats family. For her color palette, Rocha looked to the painting In Tír na nÓg by Jack B. Yeats. She also took inspiration from his sisters Elizabeth and Lily, who ran the Cuala Press, a women-only arts enterprise producing handcrafted books, cards and prints from 1908 to 1940. And finally, she liked the rough-and-tumble secondhand clothing worn by Irish kids in Pony Kids, a renowned photography book by Perry Ogden documenting the vibrant, marginalized horse culture among Dublin's working-class youth in the 1990s.
I personally love the mix of high and low...bomber jackets with oversized suiting, skirts with workwear, and a trade jumpsuit but in black lace. Shearling lined jackets and stoles are a great touch. And please take a moment to zoom in on those amazing tooled leather shoes.
 |
| In Tír na nÓg by Jack B. Yeats | sold through Sotheby's 9/25 |
https://simonerocha.com/
Saturday, February 21, 2026
BEAUTY: Clothing--London College of Fashion
As part of London Fashion Week which started Thursday, the LCF Fashion Design Technology MA students’ final collections were a delight to see. As I just noted in a post about the Central Saint Martins MA fashion program, there is an exuberance to what fashion and design students from any institution create while still in a safe space. There is a willingness to go out on a limb with a concept or idea, no matter how unfeasible or unsellable it seems. I recall when I was in an interior design program many, many years ago that the most fun I had was creating interiors for completely made-up clients... I was able to do whatever my imagination could dream up. Of course this is not so in the real world: I now have clients with their own needs and preferences. And designers too, must please investors or shareholders and produce things that will sell, not just fantastical works of art. So while still in school, these students get to create fantastical works of art and I am thankful for that.
Just take a look at Jiyuan Fan's amazing carved wood skeleton torsos worn on the outside of suiting or poking through overcoats. But there are others who created garments which do seem sellable to my eye... lovely diaphanous pieces like those from Qian Tan, sharp suiting (literally) from Zeting Xu, or futuristic silhouettes from Kechen Yu. These FW '26-'27 pieces are interesting and sellable.
https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/london-college-of-fashion
https://www.instagram.com/qian.tann/
Just take a look at Jiyuan Fan's amazing carved wood skeleton torsos worn on the outside of suiting or poking through overcoats. But there are others who created garments which do seem sellable to my eye... lovely diaphanous pieces like those from Qian Tan, sharp suiting (literally) from Zeting Xu, or futuristic silhouettes from Kechen Yu. These FW '26-'27 pieces are interesting and sellable.
 |
| Qian Tan |
 |
| Qian Tan |
 |
| Jiyuan Fan |
 |
| Zeting Xu |
 |
| Kechen Yu |
 |
| Kechen Yu |
https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/london-college-of-fashion
https://www.instagram.com/qian.tann/
BEAUTY: Clothing--Central Saint Martins MA
The MA fashion program at Central Saint Martins has produced a truly staggering amount of talent, and as Sarah Mower at Vogue says, the college's "MA graduates are the backbone of London fashion, and have been for years": Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, Stella McCartney, Riccardo Tisci, Sarah Burton, Kim Jones, Grace Wales Bonner, Simone Rocha, Hussein Chalayan, Craig Green, Mark Fast, Paolo Carzana, and Harris Reed. That is quite a (partial) list and it's growing as we speak.
So for London Fashion Week currently underway, the MA program's graduate collections were a delight to see. There is an exuberance to what fashion and design students create while still in a safe space. There is a willingness to go out on a limb with a concept or idea, no matter how unfeasible or unsellable it seems. I recall when I was in an interior design program many, many years ago that the most fun I had was creating interiors for completely made-up clients... I was able to do whatever my imagination could dream up. Of course this is not so in the real world: I now have clients with their own needs and preferences. And designers too, must please investors or shareholders and produce things that will sell, not just fantastical works of art. So while still in school, these students get to create fantastical works of art and I am thankful for that.
There were many students and many collections, but what caught my eye was the mix of pattern and age in the work of Benaissa Majeri...her pieces looked like a post-apocalyptic Dries Van Noten. And Kai Ghattaura's fascinating collection entitled "Seminomadic" was filled with reworked and upcycled pieces featuring South Asian prints and colors. And Finnerty Mackay (who took home the L’Oréal Professionnel Creative Award at the annual Central Saint Martins MA Fashion press show) unexpectedly combined an historical sense in wool tailoring (I love the cut away jackets, especially the one with the pleated skirt) with rubber and latex shirts, socks, and shorts! Mackay said his collection was inspired by addiction: "I was interested in looking at it as a queer man," he said. "Substances are everywhere, especially in London. It’s such a part of the community and so many people’s lives. I wanted to look at it as a social problem, instead of a political problem."
https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/central-saint-martins
https://www.instagram.com/flirty.lollypop33
https://www.instagram.com/kaighattaura
https://www.instagram.com/finnertymackay
So for London Fashion Week currently underway, the MA program's graduate collections were a delight to see. There is an exuberance to what fashion and design students create while still in a safe space. There is a willingness to go out on a limb with a concept or idea, no matter how unfeasible or unsellable it seems. I recall when I was in an interior design program many, many years ago that the most fun I had was creating interiors for completely made-up clients... I was able to do whatever my imagination could dream up. Of course this is not so in the real world: I now have clients with their own needs and preferences. And designers too, must please investors or shareholders and produce things that will sell, not just fantastical works of art. So while still in school, these students get to create fantastical works of art and I am thankful for that.
There were many students and many collections, but what caught my eye was the mix of pattern and age in the work of Benaissa Majeri...her pieces looked like a post-apocalyptic Dries Van Noten. And Kai Ghattaura's fascinating collection entitled "Seminomadic" was filled with reworked and upcycled pieces featuring South Asian prints and colors. And Finnerty Mackay (who took home the L’Oréal Professionnel Creative Award at the annual Central Saint Martins MA Fashion press show) unexpectedly combined an historical sense in wool tailoring (I love the cut away jackets, especially the one with the pleated skirt) with rubber and latex shirts, socks, and shorts! Mackay said his collection was inspired by addiction: "I was interested in looking at it as a queer man," he said. "Substances are everywhere, especially in London. It’s such a part of the community and so many people’s lives. I wanted to look at it as a social problem, instead of a political problem."
 |
| Benaissa Majeri |
 |
| Benaissa Majeri |
 |
| Kai Ghattaura |
 |
| Kai Ghattaura |
 |
| Finnerty Mackay |
 |
| Finnerty Mackay |
https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/central-saint-martins
https://www.instagram.com/flirty.lollypop33
https://www.instagram.com/kaighattaura
https://www.instagram.com/finnertymackay
Sunday, January 25, 2026
BEAUTY: John Alexander Skelton
While not part of Paris Fashion Week, British designer John Alexander Skelton showed his Fall Winter '26-'27 collection through a lookbook (which was shot on effigies inspired by scarecrows by the moors around a bonfire) but also at an event in London that sounds amazing. Fashion journalist Liam Hess for Vogue was there and described the scene:
On a cold, dark, drizzly night in London (what other kind of night is there in January?), a steady stream of nattily dressed fashion and art types could be followed heading down the industrial Old Kent Road in the southeast of the city. Turning off down a lamplit cobbled pavement and past an imposing wrought-iron fence, we soon found ourselves inside the Asylum Chapel, the heart of a complex of 19th-century almshouses. It couldn’t have been a better setting for a John Alexander Skelton show, given his distinctive vision of disheveled, lightly Dickensian glamour, working with the most accomplished makers from across the British Isles.
That feeling of having stepped through a portal to a past world was enhanced by the dilapidated interior, complete with peeling plasterwork and cobwebs, and hot cider being served from a tureen, underneath a ceiling patched up with corrugated iron where the chapel was bombed during World War II. Antique chairs had been arranged in concentric circles around a central rostrum, where a spotlight was fixed on one of a dozen or so mannequins that had been placed at the outer ring. Well, not mannequins exactly, as, after peering through the gloom, they turned out to be scarecrows (or crucified figures?) their heads crafted from papier-mâché-like effigies or totems left over from some ancient pagan ritual, some with little peaked black caps sat atop their heads. “I've always been fascinated by scarecrows,” Skelton said after the show, citing his obsession with a ’90s photography book by Colin Garratt. “Some of them are really beautiful and elegant with great coats, and some have this sinister feel. There’s a weird duality where they can feel kitsch and then also quite evil, as if they could spring to life all of a sudden.”
To wit, a masked figure soon wandered out and climbed up to helm the swiveling spotlight, before a second figure—whose voice was recognizable as Ryan Skelton, the designer’s younger brother and regular collaborator on his short films and runway shows—skipped his way to the center banging a drum to begin the show. “Decimate my humanity, hither and thither,” Skelton Jr. chanted with glee, prancing around the space and leering in guests’ faces as he recited a poem he’d written in response to the collection that invited us to travel into another realm. After each burst of activity, he strutted up to a mannequin and ripped off the cloth that covered it, as the spotlight swung to illuminate each one in turn.
Revealed underneath were a series of Skelton’s exquisitely earthy designs: heavy, textural tweed waistcoats in tonal checks; crumpled linen night-shirts and tunics decorated with talismanic jewelry; jackets with their edges frayed into loose tangles of thread; and shirts decorated with higgledy-piggledy block prints and eerie motifs inspired by Celtic deities. (Skelton noted that the Celts have long fascinated him for their tangled history across the entire European continent, and their skills as craftspeople and traders.)
Folding theater into a fashion show runs the risk of going a little am-dram, but in Skelton’s hands, it always feels like the right way to flesh out his world. That charge of something spiritual, or at least something outside of time and place, could also be felt in the film directed by Skelton’s regular collaborator William Waterworth that was projected on the walls throughout. It featured the masked figures cavorting around a crackling bonfire on the top of a moor, as the winds whipped around them: a kind of orgiastic, The Wicker Man–esque ritual set against a backdrop that could be straight out of a Brontë novel. (Come to think of it, someone needs to get Jacob Elordi in a John Alexander Skelton look for the Wuthering Heights press tour.)
As always with Skelton, what grounded everything was the rugged beauty of the clothes, whether the highly desirable printed shirts with those freaky mask-like faces printed on shirts, or the playful proportions of the layered coats and jackets, or the richer color scheme of lilacs and indigos inspired by the Celtic practice of dying clothes with berries. “I didn’t want to recreate this kind of archaic Celtic costume—it was more based on my emotional reaction to it, how I felt about it,” Skelton added. The theatrics of the evening weren’t just about putting on a show, but allowing everyone else to feel the intensity of that emotional response. Even if that did mean we found ourselves a little spooked walking back to the bus stop afterwards.
https://www.johnalexanderskelton.com/
On a cold, dark, drizzly night in London (what other kind of night is there in January?), a steady stream of nattily dressed fashion and art types could be followed heading down the industrial Old Kent Road in the southeast of the city. Turning off down a lamplit cobbled pavement and past an imposing wrought-iron fence, we soon found ourselves inside the Asylum Chapel, the heart of a complex of 19th-century almshouses. It couldn’t have been a better setting for a John Alexander Skelton show, given his distinctive vision of disheveled, lightly Dickensian glamour, working with the most accomplished makers from across the British Isles.
That feeling of having stepped through a portal to a past world was enhanced by the dilapidated interior, complete with peeling plasterwork and cobwebs, and hot cider being served from a tureen, underneath a ceiling patched up with corrugated iron where the chapel was bombed during World War II. Antique chairs had been arranged in concentric circles around a central rostrum, where a spotlight was fixed on one of a dozen or so mannequins that had been placed at the outer ring. Well, not mannequins exactly, as, after peering through the gloom, they turned out to be scarecrows (or crucified figures?) their heads crafted from papier-mâché-like effigies or totems left over from some ancient pagan ritual, some with little peaked black caps sat atop their heads. “I've always been fascinated by scarecrows,” Skelton said after the show, citing his obsession with a ’90s photography book by Colin Garratt. “Some of them are really beautiful and elegant with great coats, and some have this sinister feel. There’s a weird duality where they can feel kitsch and then also quite evil, as if they could spring to life all of a sudden.”
To wit, a masked figure soon wandered out and climbed up to helm the swiveling spotlight, before a second figure—whose voice was recognizable as Ryan Skelton, the designer’s younger brother and regular collaborator on his short films and runway shows—skipped his way to the center banging a drum to begin the show. “Decimate my humanity, hither and thither,” Skelton Jr. chanted with glee, prancing around the space and leering in guests’ faces as he recited a poem he’d written in response to the collection that invited us to travel into another realm. After each burst of activity, he strutted up to a mannequin and ripped off the cloth that covered it, as the spotlight swung to illuminate each one in turn.
Revealed underneath were a series of Skelton’s exquisitely earthy designs: heavy, textural tweed waistcoats in tonal checks; crumpled linen night-shirts and tunics decorated with talismanic jewelry; jackets with their edges frayed into loose tangles of thread; and shirts decorated with higgledy-piggledy block prints and eerie motifs inspired by Celtic deities. (Skelton noted that the Celts have long fascinated him for their tangled history across the entire European continent, and their skills as craftspeople and traders.)
Folding theater into a fashion show runs the risk of going a little am-dram, but in Skelton’s hands, it always feels like the right way to flesh out his world. That charge of something spiritual, or at least something outside of time and place, could also be felt in the film directed by Skelton’s regular collaborator William Waterworth that was projected on the walls throughout. It featured the masked figures cavorting around a crackling bonfire on the top of a moor, as the winds whipped around them: a kind of orgiastic, The Wicker Man–esque ritual set against a backdrop that could be straight out of a Brontë novel. (Come to think of it, someone needs to get Jacob Elordi in a John Alexander Skelton look for the Wuthering Heights press tour.)
As always with Skelton, what grounded everything was the rugged beauty of the clothes, whether the highly desirable printed shirts with those freaky mask-like faces printed on shirts, or the playful proportions of the layered coats and jackets, or the richer color scheme of lilacs and indigos inspired by the Celtic practice of dying clothes with berries. “I didn’t want to recreate this kind of archaic Celtic costume—it was more based on my emotional reaction to it, how I felt about it,” Skelton added. The theatrics of the evening weren’t just about putting on a show, but allowing everyone else to feel the intensity of that emotional response. Even if that did mean we found ourselves a little spooked walking back to the bus stop afterwards.
https://www.johnalexanderskelton.com/
Monday, January 12, 2026
It's That Time Again...January/February 2026
Regular readers know that twice a year, I blog about all the fascinating, beautiful, mesmerizing, strange, puzzling, outrageous, outstanding, unusual, artistic, inspiring sartorial creations coming out of the exquisite imaginations of designers, and down the runway. Regular readers may have also gleaned that I follow fashion the way some people delve into the art world. I think of "fashion" as "costume" or "performance"--as a way to convey an idea or a concept. I appreciate what some designers do the same way one appreciates what an avant garde sculptor or painter or performance artist does. And in a way, these designers are performance artists. For me, it is not about what is hanging on racks in stores, but what these artists are creating and the ideas and concepts they are working with as an influence on their marvelous creativity. It is moving sculpture. It is theater. Fashion and clothing at this level serve as a kind of visual shorthand. A piece of clothing in the hands of a designer can evoke a place, a region, a country, a specific time or an entire era, a work of art such as a novel or film or painting, a class of people, even a social, financial, or spiritual element... and the combination of such pieces of clothing, as well as their harmony or contrast, can tell a fascinating story.
Here is the season schedule...
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2026 FASHION SCHEDULE -- FOR FALL/WINTER 2026-2027
Pitti Uomo -- Hed Mayner is this year's guest designer
January 13 - 16, 2026
https://uomo.pittimmagine.com/
Milano Moda Uomo
January 16 - 20, 2028
https://www.cameramoda.it/it/milano-moda-uomo/
Paris Fashion Week Homme
January 20 - 25, 2026
https://www.fhcm.paris/
London Fashion Week
February 19 - 23, 2026
https://londonfashionweek.co.uk/
Here is the season schedule...
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2026 FASHION SCHEDULE -- FOR FALL/WINTER 2026-2027
Pitti Uomo -- Hed Mayner is this year's guest designer
January 13 - 16, 2026
https://uomo.pittimmagine.com/
Milano Moda Uomo
January 16 - 20, 2028
https://www.cameramoda.it/it/milano-moda-uomo/
Paris Fashion Week Homme
January 20 - 25, 2026
https://www.fhcm.paris/
London Fashion Week
February 19 - 23, 2026
https://londonfashionweek.co.uk/
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
The Annual Christmas Installation at Dennis Severs' House 2025
Once again, the magical Annual Christmas Installation at Dennis Severs' House in
London will be open for tours this holiday season!
In 1979, creative dreamer Dennis Severs, after moving from America to England a few years prior, bought a ruined house in the Spitalfields area of London and set about returning it to its former state. After several years, he ended up creating something very special that he called a "still-life drama," with vignettes spread across the ten rooms and four storeys of No. 18 Folgate Street. Each room is dressed like a stage or film set in a different historic style, mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries. He invented a back story for this house: the fictional Jervis family (a name anglicised from Gervais), originally Huguenot (French Protestant immigrants) silk weavers who lived at the house from 1725 to 1919 are still present but just out of sight. Dennis opened this "time-machine" to the public and invited people to take a tour, not of an historic house, but to step into the Jervis' lives in a very immediate and visceral way. In what is more like an immersive theatrical experiences or performance art, he left half-eaten meals, half-full chamber pots, lit candles and blazing fireplaces scattered about while sound effects of the period softly emanated from hidden speakers as though the family just stepped out for a moment. Each room evokes incidental moments in the lives of these imaginary inhabitants. Writer Peter Ackroyd, author of LONDON: THE BIOGRAPHY, wrote, "The journey through the house becomes a journey through time; with its small rooms and hidden corridors, its whispered asides and sudden revelations, it resembles a pilgrimage through life itself." Artist David Hockney called the experience of touring the house one of the world's greatest works of opera.
After Severs died in 1999, the Spitalfields Historic Buildings Trust, an architectural preservation charity, took over the property and has kept it open to the public. But the best time to go is during the holiday season. The Annual Christmas Installation at Dennis Severs' House sees the property decked out in its period holiday finery. Photos are normally not allowed (guests embark on a 45 minute tour of the house but are encouraged to do so silently, without taking any photos) but a few years ago, London-based photographer Skye O'Neill was permitted to tour and photograph the house for this year's Christmas Installation. She shared some of these lovely images.
And here is a great interview with Dennis Severs about his home and why and how he created it.
In 1979, creative dreamer Dennis Severs, after moving from America to England a few years prior, bought a ruined house in the Spitalfields area of London and set about returning it to its former state. After several years, he ended up creating something very special that he called a "still-life drama," with vignettes spread across the ten rooms and four storeys of No. 18 Folgate Street. Each room is dressed like a stage or film set in a different historic style, mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries. He invented a back story for this house: the fictional Jervis family (a name anglicised from Gervais), originally Huguenot (French Protestant immigrants) silk weavers who lived at the house from 1725 to 1919 are still present but just out of sight. Dennis opened this "time-machine" to the public and invited people to take a tour, not of an historic house, but to step into the Jervis' lives in a very immediate and visceral way. In what is more like an immersive theatrical experiences or performance art, he left half-eaten meals, half-full chamber pots, lit candles and blazing fireplaces scattered about while sound effects of the period softly emanated from hidden speakers as though the family just stepped out for a moment. Each room evokes incidental moments in the lives of these imaginary inhabitants. Writer Peter Ackroyd, author of LONDON: THE BIOGRAPHY, wrote, "The journey through the house becomes a journey through time; with its small rooms and hidden corridors, its whispered asides and sudden revelations, it resembles a pilgrimage through life itself." Artist David Hockney called the experience of touring the house one of the world's greatest works of opera.
After Severs died in 1999, the Spitalfields Historic Buildings Trust, an architectural preservation charity, took over the property and has kept it open to the public. But the best time to go is during the holiday season. The Annual Christmas Installation at Dennis Severs' House sees the property decked out in its period holiday finery. Photos are normally not allowed (guests embark on a 45 minute tour of the house but are encouraged to do so silently, without taking any photos) but a few years ago, London-based photographer Skye O'Neill was permitted to tour and photograph the house for this year's Christmas Installation. She shared some of these lovely images.
And here is a great interview with Dennis Severs about his home and why and how he created it.
If you live in London or will be there during the holidays, you have a chance
to see the Christmas Installation in person through the 11th of January 2026.
Admission times sell out quickly. Check the website for more
details.
Thursday, October 23, 2025
R.I.P. Dave Ball
The co-founding member of pioneering 80s synthpop band Soft Cell (previously here), Dave Ball, has died at the young age of 66. Thanks for all the amazing tunes and wonderful synth sounds, Dave!
This announcement was posted to Soft Cell's official site:
Electronic music pioneer Dave Ball, one half of groundbreaking electronic music duo Soft Cell and successful acid house act The Grid, passed away peacefully in his sleep at his London home on Wednesday 22nd October. He was 66. Singer Marc Almond, Dave’s musical collaborator of 46 years and Soft Cell bandmate, leads the tributes, describing Dave as a “wonderfully brilliant musical genius”. What turns out to be Dave’s final appearance with the band came only weeks ago at the Rewind Festival in Henley-on-Thames, where Soft Cell headlined in front of over 20,000 fans.
Formed when electronic musician Dave and singer Marc were both art students at Leeds Polytechnic in 1979, Soft Cell helped to define the sound of British music in the 1980s and beyond. Their 1981 debut album, ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’, changed the course of pop and paved the way for an avalanche of synth-based duos, including Yazoo, Eurythmics, Pet Shop Boys and Erasure, while bringing something deliciously dark to the table. Their second single, ‘Tainted Love’, b/w ‘Where Did Our Love Go’, topped the charts in the UK and 17 countries around the world and was certified as Britain’s best-selling single of 1981.
A fan of northern soul and Kraftwerk, Dave had moved from Blackpool to Leeds to study fine art and first worked with Marc when he supplied an electronic backdrop to a piece of Marc’s improvised performance art, accidentally establishing a winning template that would cast Almond as the outgoing showman and lyricist and Ball as his quiet, poker-faced foil – a foil who went on to become a fearless sonic innovator.
Between 1982 and 2021, Soft Cell released four more studio albums – ‘The Art Of Falling Apart’, ‘This Last Night In Sodom’, ‘Cruelty Without Beauty’ and ‘*Happiness not included’ – plus what is considered as one of the first remix albums ‘Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing’. Dave and Marc also secured four more UK Top Ten singles in ‘Bedsitter’, ‘Torch’, ‘What!’, and ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’, with Dave also helping to create extended, 12-inch mixes of the singles, often splicing segments of tape together with razorblades, to give the band a decisive, club-friendly edge.
Their 2018 reunion concert in front of 20,000 fans at The O2 in London was intended as a grand farewell. Instead, in true Soft Cell style, it unwittingly provided the launching pad for a glittering resurgence that saw the band re-establish their live credentials. The duo celebrated the 40th anniversary of ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’ by taking their acclaimed 1981 debut on tour in the UK and America. Since those memorable anniversary shows, they have also headlined Hampton Court Palace, Audley End’s Heritage Live and Blenheim Palace and played live in Australia, Brazil, Germany, Spain and at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Most recently the band had been back in the studio working on what will be their sixth – and now, sadly, final – studio album. Named after the legendary 1980s New York nightclub ‘Danceteria’ – a venue which once hosted a Soft Cell album launch – the album is due to be released in spring 2026 via a new global deal with Republic Of Music. The final mixes were completed only days before Dave’s passing.
Away from Soft Cell, Dave was also one half of The Grid alongside esteemed musician and producer Richard Norris, with whom he enjoyed a string of chart successes in the 1990s, including the Top Three single and international hit ‘Swamp Thing’. An in-demand songwriter, producer and remixer, he worked with music superstars such as David Bowie, Kylie Minogue, Pet Shop Boys and Erasure as well as alternative artists such as Psychic TV and Gavin Friday.
In full tribute to Dave and his recent purple patch of songwriting and production, Soft Cell’s upcoming releases will remain as scheduled. This includes a super deluxe reissue of Soft Cell’s classic 1983 album ‘The Art Of Falling Apart’, a 6CD boxset complete with new remixes and dubs by Dave, and a ‘Martin’ EP, which are both released next Friday 31st October on Universal Music and Republic of Music respectively. The release date of the brand-new Soft Cell album ‘Danceteria’, which has been initially discussed by Marc and Dave in MOJO and Classic Pop interviews, is to be announced.
Dave’s passing is announced with great sadness and affection for this gregarious, warm-hearted man of many musical talents. Dave is survived by his close family including his four children. We would like to respect Dave Ball’s family’s privacy at this very sad time.
https://www.softcell.co.uk/
This announcement was posted to Soft Cell's official site:
Electronic music pioneer Dave Ball, one half of groundbreaking electronic music duo Soft Cell and successful acid house act The Grid, passed away peacefully in his sleep at his London home on Wednesday 22nd October. He was 66. Singer Marc Almond, Dave’s musical collaborator of 46 years and Soft Cell bandmate, leads the tributes, describing Dave as a “wonderfully brilliant musical genius”. What turns out to be Dave’s final appearance with the band came only weeks ago at the Rewind Festival in Henley-on-Thames, where Soft Cell headlined in front of over 20,000 fans.
Formed when electronic musician Dave and singer Marc were both art students at Leeds Polytechnic in 1979, Soft Cell helped to define the sound of British music in the 1980s and beyond. Their 1981 debut album, ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’, changed the course of pop and paved the way for an avalanche of synth-based duos, including Yazoo, Eurythmics, Pet Shop Boys and Erasure, while bringing something deliciously dark to the table. Their second single, ‘Tainted Love’, b/w ‘Where Did Our Love Go’, topped the charts in the UK and 17 countries around the world and was certified as Britain’s best-selling single of 1981.
A fan of northern soul and Kraftwerk, Dave had moved from Blackpool to Leeds to study fine art and first worked with Marc when he supplied an electronic backdrop to a piece of Marc’s improvised performance art, accidentally establishing a winning template that would cast Almond as the outgoing showman and lyricist and Ball as his quiet, poker-faced foil – a foil who went on to become a fearless sonic innovator.
Between 1982 and 2021, Soft Cell released four more studio albums – ‘The Art Of Falling Apart’, ‘This Last Night In Sodom’, ‘Cruelty Without Beauty’ and ‘*Happiness not included’ – plus what is considered as one of the first remix albums ‘Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing’. Dave and Marc also secured four more UK Top Ten singles in ‘Bedsitter’, ‘Torch’, ‘What!’, and ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’, with Dave also helping to create extended, 12-inch mixes of the singles, often splicing segments of tape together with razorblades, to give the band a decisive, club-friendly edge.
Their 2018 reunion concert in front of 20,000 fans at The O2 in London was intended as a grand farewell. Instead, in true Soft Cell style, it unwittingly provided the launching pad for a glittering resurgence that saw the band re-establish their live credentials. The duo celebrated the 40th anniversary of ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’ by taking their acclaimed 1981 debut on tour in the UK and America. Since those memorable anniversary shows, they have also headlined Hampton Court Palace, Audley End’s Heritage Live and Blenheim Palace and played live in Australia, Brazil, Germany, Spain and at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Most recently the band had been back in the studio working on what will be their sixth – and now, sadly, final – studio album. Named after the legendary 1980s New York nightclub ‘Danceteria’ – a venue which once hosted a Soft Cell album launch – the album is due to be released in spring 2026 via a new global deal with Republic Of Music. The final mixes were completed only days before Dave’s passing.
Away from Soft Cell, Dave was also one half of The Grid alongside esteemed musician and producer Richard Norris, with whom he enjoyed a string of chart successes in the 1990s, including the Top Three single and international hit ‘Swamp Thing’. An in-demand songwriter, producer and remixer, he worked with music superstars such as David Bowie, Kylie Minogue, Pet Shop Boys and Erasure as well as alternative artists such as Psychic TV and Gavin Friday.
In full tribute to Dave and his recent purple patch of songwriting and production, Soft Cell’s upcoming releases will remain as scheduled. This includes a super deluxe reissue of Soft Cell’s classic 1983 album ‘The Art Of Falling Apart’, a 6CD boxset complete with new remixes and dubs by Dave, and a ‘Martin’ EP, which are both released next Friday 31st October on Universal Music and Republic of Music respectively. The release date of the brand-new Soft Cell album ‘Danceteria’, which has been initially discussed by Marc and Dave in MOJO and Classic Pop interviews, is to be announced.
Dave’s passing is announced with great sadness and affection for this gregarious, warm-hearted man of many musical talents. Dave is survived by his close family including his four children. We would like to respect Dave Ball’s family’s privacy at this very sad time.
https://www.softcell.co.uk/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
