Kotur » damien hirst

Spring 2016: Fiona’s Inspiration and Key Pieces

admin — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 09:08:32 +0000

Where did you start when it came to designing Spring 2016?

We took a tour around the Mediterranean, stopping off at fabulous island destinations such as Capri, Mykonos and Ibiza on our way. We were inspired by the laid back yet extremely polished glamour of the party side of island life. It’s a collection that goes back to nature in various ways, yet always retains a particular sort of elegance.

What sort of feeling are you trying to evoke?

Imagine you’re dancing in your fabulous kaftan, barefoot, under the stars at some taverna turned disco in an impossibly chic beachside destination and you’ll begin to get the gist! We wanted to capture the headiness of summer nights as well as that lovely, slightly earthy, ethereal feeling that comes with them. It’s all about dancing and music and wine under the stars and a very effortless kind of glamor.

Have you got any personal favorites?

I have a real soft spot for our small raffia minaudiéres. They come embroidered with words such as Ciao and Hola, they’re pretty as a vintage picture postcard and there is something quite flirty yet natural about them, too. I also adore our butterfly Morleys. I saw a wonderful Damien Hirst exhibition that showed his incredible insect and butterfly pictures and was so struck by the vibrancy of their colors and the beauty of their geometry. We’ve tried to capture some of that, along with that magical feeling of moonlit nights dancing out in the open air.

How can you imagine wearing them?

Hopefully with a wonderful vintage kaftan, some sandals I’ve picked up earlier that day from a tiny Italian cobbler, a pair of wonderful jeweled earrings found in Rajasthan, and shower fresh hair – fresh mojito in hand, as I look out over the Amalfi coastline. Surely it’s not too much to ask!

The World of KOTUR: The World of White Cube

kotur — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 08:03:29 +0000

When the White Cube gallery has an opening, you tend to trot along. When that opening is for a show by Damien Hirst, of specially created works enjoying their world premiere having been sent to Hong Kong straight from the studio, you do it pretty quick – as was the case last week, when Jay Jopling hosted the opening night and party for Hirst’s new show: Entomology, Cabinets and Paitings, Scalpel Blade Paintings, Cabinets and Colour Charts. The show was extremely impressive, and the party afterwards at our local Soho steakhouse the Blue Butcher oozed just the sort of casual cool that’s possible when you know you’re at the very top of your game.

White Cube is one of the most impressive phenomenons to come across our radar in the last 15 years – art related, or not. Started by Jopling in a small room in London back in 1993, the gallery has worked consistently with a series of artists whose names now exist as institutions in our contemporary art lexicon (Tracey Emin, Gary Hume, Marc Quinn, Anselm Keifer, Chuck Close and Hirst himself, for starters.) The gallery is responsible for bringing to public view some of the world’s most attention grabbing art of recent times – and these days, they do that all over the world. Alongside their relatively new Hong Kong outpost, White Cube opened in Sao Paolo last year, their new Bermondsey home in London is the largest private gallery space in Europe (all 60,000 square feet of it,) and should you have been admiring the Tracey Emin’s neon lit odes to Valentines Day adorning Times Square recently, well those would be thanks to White Cube, too. As a standard bearer for the contemporary art scene, as supporters of artists and their works and as a global business to be reckoned with, White Cube is quite simply where it’s at.

Click through our gallery to see some of Hirst’s latest works.

All Photos: Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd
Courtesy White Cube

The World of KOTUR: Baby Love

admin — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 20:31:05 +0000

I love the concept behind, Art for Baby, a unique art book conceived by my friend, Yana Peel. She noticed her baby staring at a Julian Opie painting on her wall at home and was inspired to create a book that would encourage children to appreciate art and culture from as young an age as possible. The result is this fantastic book, featuring black and white images from leading international contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst, Gary Hume, Keith Haring and Takashi Murakami. Most of the artists donated their work for free, which goes to show how much love has gone into this project. For every book sold, a donation also goes to the NSPCC.