Exuberant fashion blogger Susanna Lau, AKA Susie Bubble, paid a visit to fashion designer Giles Deacon’s east London atelier for an exclusive look at his new creations before they hit the runway. Set against the studio buzz of last minute fittings, cutting and sewing, fellow blogger Phil Oh of Street Peeper fame snapped the Style Bubble creator as Deacon discussed key pieces from his collection––and encouraged Lau to model an elaborate swan headdress. Known for her own outré outfits and eye for detailing, Lau spoke with Deacon about the upcoming show. 

Susanna: Stephen Jones made these feather headdresses. Can you perch one on my head? [Tries on headpiece.] It’s quite light! I was expecting it to be really heavy. It’s not the first time you’ve worked with him, right?

Giles: No, we did the Pac-Man-style headgear for the spring 2009 show together, as well at these [sleek, black wide-brimmed] hats for fall 2009 that looked like stealth bombers.

Susanna: The Pac-Man look was cool. What is it about the hat for you? There are very few designers that add them to their collections.

Giles: I like it from an historical perspective, within the couture tradition. I love the dimension a hat adds. It’s not easy, either, in the millinery business. I am aware of that and think that it is an important art to keep alive.

Susanna: The collection is very swan-centric. What was the inspiration? Don’t tell me, Swan Lake!

Giles: It came about from a combination of things. We did some costumes for the English National Ballet’s Black Swan at the beginning of the year. Where I’m from in England [County Durham] there is the brilliant Bowes Museum, which I visited a few months back. Some of the works on display really influenced me, in particular a life-size, clockwork silver swan by an Italian sculptor. That gave me some ideas for the huge flamboyant headdresses and the particular silver color that I used in the show. I then started looking at a whole variety of different swans in both art and life.

Susanna: I love how the swan print you used is so saturated.

Giles: We looked at all different cygnets. Swans are strange and fascinating creatures. They can be quite vicious. I was also looking at a lot of photographs by Cecil Beaton. The clothes and poses in the pictures said a lot to the way I was thinking about the designs. There’s one of his sister, Baba Beaton, it’s called the “Symphony of Silver”… It all started from that, and from looking at his scrapbooks.

Susanna: There’s an amazing publication [The Art of the Scrapbook by Assouline] that came out with all Beaton’s private scrapbooks.

Giles: I really got into the characters from those books, like Baba Beaton, and honed in on the theatrical-ness of them all. The silver backdrop for the show is a bit Beaton-esque too…