Inside the new exhibition unpicking Amy Winehouse’s bombastic style

When Amy Winehouse was 16 she made an inventory of her ambitions for fame. “To be photographed by David LaChapelle,” reads one. “To have a shoe assortment (and over 300 pairs of footwear)”, “To have Marilyn hair”, “To keep away from surgical procedure”, numbers eight, 9, and 11 ask. Handwritten on lined paper, the record is certainly one of a number of private notes that introduce Amy: Past The Stage – a brand new exhibition at London’s Design Museum, which opens immediately.

From her first TV look to a sequence of press cuttings that spotlight the damaging narrative offered by the media; her early track lyrics to her 5 Grammys, the exhibition is a celebration of a cultural icon, and like in her lifetime, the late singer-songwriters’s distinctive aesthetic makes a daring impression. As she asserted in an interview with Elle journal in 2004, “In terms of style, I’m a bitch.”

Curated by Priya Khanchandani with Amy’s shut pal, stylist, and creator of Amy Winehouse: Past Black, Naomi Parry, as a particular advisor, different exhibition highlights embody a pair of Miss Sixty denims embroidered with ‘Sinatra is God’ (from 2001, two years earlier than Kate Moss would don Bella Freud’s ‘Ginsberg is God’ jumper), a wig from her hair stylist Tracey Cahoon depicting the famed beehive hairdo, and an array of great frocks that outlined her Again to Black period and established Amy as a bona fide fashion icon.

Writing in Past Black Parry notes, “Amy cherished footwear in a Carrie Bradshaw form of means.” In Past The Stage, {a photograph} by Mark Okoh sees Amy enjoying with motion figures, 18 Polaroid-fronted shoe bins seen behind her (Amy would additionally find yourself working with LaChappelle, who directed the video for 2007’s “Tears Dry on Their Personal”). Elsewhere, photos by Charles Moriarty, Diane Patrice, and Karen Robinson current one other facet of Amy – one but to be caught up in a world highlight.

Right here, Khanchandani discusses navigating Amy Winehouse and the influences that formed her look.

“In terms of style, I’m a bitch” – Amy Winehouse

Hey Priya! What was your introduction to Amy Winehouse?

Priya Khanchandani: I used to be all the time into her music, as in all probability anybody of our technology was. I used to be born in the identical 12 months as Amy, so she was in some ways a recent, and having the ability to look again on her is like wanting again by yourself youth – an exquisite factor to have the ability to do.

By way of her look, she clearly underwent fairly a mode journey between her first album Frank and the later Again to Black.

Priya Khanchandani: Yeah, so within the Frank period she was styling herself, procuring in classic shops in Camden and fusing these seems to be – influenced by rockabilly and indie – with excessive avenue style like Karen Millen. After which she had a form of hiatus from music between the 2 albums, and when she reemerged with Again to Black she had a way more distinctive type. She had created the Amy silhouette that’s so unmistakably her, even now, so she had this towering beehive after Ronnie Spector, this hourglass Nineteen Fifties Americana form that she’d been sketching in her notebooks since she was a young person, the form of ‘waffle waitress’ form, and clearly the enduring winged eyeliner that got here to outline her fashion.

I noticed the liquid liner on show…

Priya Khanchandani: We’ve acquired the Rimmel yeah, it’s so simple as that. However it’s value mentioning her physique picture altering. It’s fairly evident from the attire that she grew to become thinner, she had struggles with severe points, her psychological well being and substance abuse, and we didn’t wish to ignore these within the exhibition, so they’re acknowledged the place we cope with delicate objects, like Amy’s final efficiency gown. Now we have clips from the media too, which present how her points had been framed with an absence of empathy.

The dialog round psychological well being has undoubtedly modified within the decade since her loss of life. Equally, points like appropriation are much more mainstream in 2021, and Amy actually borrowed from and celebrated Black tradition in her music and the way in which she dressed. How did this issue into your work on the exhibition? 

Priya Khanchandani: I imply, as a lady of color curating an exhibition like this, I used to be very acutely aware of the legacy of the music she drew on. However I feel that Amy would have preferred us to have a good time people who she drew on – she all the time acknowledged them when she was interviewed. There are arguments each methods (by way of appreciation vs appropriation), I’m not going to lie about that, however the strategy I made a decision to take was to have a good time these figures and ensure they weren’t erased from that historical past and lineage, that they’d a distinguished position as protagonists in their very own proper within the exhibition.

Again to Black went past the vital acclaim of Frank, and Amy’s look grew to become a giant a part of this new persona. How do you reconcile her aesthetic with the style of the time?

Priya Khanchandani: Amy didn’t pander to modern developments. She did put on some designer manufacturers, however she typically appropriated them into her personal fashion, so she would add a bra that was seen in a contrasting color, or accessorise in a means that was very Amy, just like the gold jewelry. However I feel what has made Amy’s fashion transcend time is that she drew on fairly an uncommon collage of references. She was influenced by jazz tradition, by Nineteen Sixties American pop, by Americana – her style in music fed into her style in style and was very eclectic, and that’s what has made her totally different. I describe her as post-modern pastiche, she was like a mélange of various influences and she or he concocted them into one thing that was fairly uniquely Amy.

And that beehive.

Priya Khanchandani: We’ve acquired a short historical past of the beehive (within the exhibition). It was apparently invented in a Nineteen Sixties Chicago salon, after which it grew to become synonymous with Nineteen Sixties American Black pop, with figures like Ronnie Spector, after which Dusty Springfield and different folks like Aretha Franklin, who Amy was influenced by. So there’s a transparent nod to that lineage of music by her fashion.

“She had this towering beehive after Ronnie Spector, this hourglass Nineteen Fifties Americana form that she’d been sketching in her notebooks since she was a young person, the form of ‘waffle waitress’ form, and clearly the enduring winged eyeliner that got here to outline her fashion” – Priya Khanchandani

Whereas placing the exhibition collectively, what stunned you most about her fashion?

Priya Khanchandani: That she defied the notion of being designed – she didn’t ever actually say how she got here up together with her distinctive look, however while you look by the exhibition sections you see the way it emerged. It’s clear that she was very a lot the inventive drive behind her imaginative and prescient, it wasn’t one stylist, she had a staff that labored together with her nevertheless it wasn’t one different inventive thoughts, like within the case of the early noughties manufactured pop artists. Amy’s fashion wasn’t like that in any respect, it was natural and fed into her music; it was based mostly on her personal imaginative and prescient. 

Amy’s pal and stylist Naomi Parry was a particular advisor on the exhibition. What did that proximity deliver?

Priya Khanchandani: It was actually nice to have entry to any person who knew Amy and had labored together with her, to know from Naomi the seems to be that Amy was pleased with, the ways in which she requested to be styled. For instance, Naomi instructed me she was actually into belts – fairly apparent from her look – however that very a lot got here from Amy, sporting them tight. Issues like that had been very nice, to deliver the objects to life.

The ‘Sinatra is God’ denims are actually nice. 

Priya Khanchandani: Yeah, so Amy wore these denims when she recorded her early demos, and a few of the tracks on Frank. The truth that they pay homage to Sinatra, I feel speaks volumes as a result of her first album was devoted to Frank, and it reveals the autobiographical nature of her fashion. Clearly her lyrics are very autobiographical, however that utilized to the way in which she styled herself as properly – the denims and her tattoos had been very a lot a illustration of her personal journey, just like the pin-up lady tattoo (modelled on her grandmother Cynthia). There’s a fluidity between her as a musician and her private fashion.

This isn’t the primary exhibition about Amy. Fascinated about fashion particularly, why do you suppose curiosity in her look has endured? 

Priya Khanchandani: There’s quite a few causes, one is Amy’s silhouette. I keep in mind after her loss of life, there have been ladies everywhere in the world from New York to Berlin sporting these totally different variations of beehive, and I feel that silhouette has enabled it to face the take a look at of time. Additionally this concept that Amy didn’t pander to modern developments – she was very a lot grounded in her personal pursuits and her pursuits ran very deep. Ronnie Spector wasn’t apparent as a mode icon for somebody like Amy, an early noughties pop star who was signed by Simon Fuller, and but Amy managed to tug that off as a result of her references had that form of timelessness about them.

Head here to ebook a ticket.