Columns on fashion, culture and ideas

All posts in Insiders

The Insiders is a column written by Kin Woo, presenting integral, but often hidden figures within the fashion industry

  • AnOther Magazine A/W10

    Insiders | Dick Page: Makeup Artist

    The path from butcher’s boy in Bristol to one of the world’s most in-demand makeup artists (and star of his own Marc Jacobs campaign) may be the stuff of fashion fairytale but Shiseido’s artistic director Dick Page remains...

  • Sasha Pivovarova, Vogue Italia April 2008, Photography by Mario Sorrenti

    Insiders | Bob Recine, Hairstylist

    To get an understanding of the topsy turvy, endlessly inventive work of provocative American hair stylist, Bob Recine, consider Gaga’s Boudoir, his free standing collaboration with Lady Gaga for the 2011 Barneys Christmas windows...

  • Kate Phelan

    Insiders | Kate Phelan

    The day Kate Phelan handed in her resignation at British Vogue to join Topshop was met with a crisis of confidence for the usually unflappable stylist...

  • Sir Hardy Amies oversees fittings at 14 Savile Row

    Insiders | Austin Mutti-Mewse at Hardy Amies

    In a year in which Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Diamond Jubilee, there’s been renewed interest in the 67-year old house of the late Sir Hardy Amies...

  • Prada S/S13

    Insiders | Ippolito Pestellini, AMO Architect

    “In an ideal home, nothing you do can go wrong” once cooed the British doom-mongerers of pop, Black Box Recorder. Watching the A/W13 Prada men’s show, you could almost hear the delicious irony of those lyrics....

  • Alejandro Cardenas

    Insiders | Alejandro Cardenas, textile designer for Proenza Schouler

    Tumblr as couture: that was the reaction upon seeing the astonishing finale dresses from Proenza Schouler’s S/S13 collection. In a show predicated on the themes of “collage” and “randomness”...

  • Acne Studios Tokyo

    Insiders | Andreas Fornell, Architect for Acne Studios

    Few contemporary fashion brands have taken Andy Warhol’s multidisciplinary approach to the arts and applied it as successfully as the Swedish design collective, Acne. Co-founded by Jonny Johansson as a design, film and advertising agency...

  • Patricia Cadolle

    Insiders | Patricia Cadolle of Alice Cadolle, Corsetière

    In Paris’ 1st arrondissement, just across the road from the Chanel flagship store lies the storied atelier of Alice Cadolle, the last of the custom corsetières. Custom made lingerie may be the ultimate hidden luxury and for the finest,...

  • Yves Saint Laurent 40 years

    Insiders | Thierry Dreyfus, Lighting Designer

    Insiders columnist Kin Woo speaks to acclaimed lighting designer Thierry Dreyfus about his work for Jil Sander, Comme des Garçons, Yves Saint Laurent and the Strasbourg Opera...

  • At Kathryn Sargent's studio

    Insiders | Kathryn Sargent

    On Savile Row, that fabled London street where change is often measured out in milimetres of fabric; 38-year old bespoke tailor Kathryn Sargent may be its clearest sign of the changing times...

  • Mr Pearl's Atelier

    Insiders | Insiders No. 50: Mr Pearl

    It’s been a relic of Victorianism, an expression of female sexuality, an "instrument of oppression and ill health" and a fetishist kink: has there ever been a garment of female clothing quite as divisive as the corset?

  • Kris Ruhs: Landing On Earth at the Wapping Project

    Insiders | Kris Ruhs

    The romantic notion of the tortured, obsessive artist is one of the oldest clichés in the book, but would that explain why Kris Ruhs, the German-born ‘magpie maker’ rises at 7am every day to work at his cat-infested studio in Milan until...