Fashion Isn’t Funny? Rubbish!

February 28th, 2008 at 2:12pm |

Submitted by The Fashion Informer Blog

For those who think the fashion industry takes itself just a mite too seriously, may we present Rubbish.

Launched as an annual in February 2006 by Teen Vogue European editor, Jenny Dyson, and her journalist sibling, Jack, Rubbish pokes gentle fun at fashion and the folks who make it happen, from the “Delicious Designers” spread featuring the likes of Karl Lagerfeld and Vivienne Westwood rendered in gingerbread and butternut squash to the “Doggie Style” accessories layout featuring Mulberry-toting pups to the “Vanity Hair” exposé of Vanity Fair honcho Graydon Carter’s swoopy ‘do.

“The idea was to create an antidote to all the gloss and glamour out there, which would celebrate the funnier side of fashion, still look beautiful and uplifting and, above all, make people smile,” Dyson told The Fashion Informer of the original inspiration behind Rubbish (a hard cover annual, a la Beano and Bunty, aptly subtitled “It’s What Everyone’s Talking”). “Fashion has a tendency to take itself very seriously. There’s nothing wrong with that, but Rubbish is a way to redress the balance.”

And redress the balance it does. From the aforementioned sartorial silliness of the first issue to the laugh-out-loud fashion spreads in issue two, which launched in November at the British Fashion Awards (think: “Jacket Potatoes” with its Diesel- and Luella-clad spuds, the Hermes feedbag sporting horse and Baahlenciaga covered sheep of “Agri couture,” and the Anna Wintour-meets-Anna Piaggi DIY mask in “Don’t You Know I Am?”) Rubbish is chock full of feel-good fashion fun.

And thanks to Dyson’s status as a well-respected fashion insider, there’s no shortage of A-list talent sprinkled throughout both issues. To wit: Diane Pernet, Tom Dixon and Eley Kishimoto have contributed articles and art, respectively. Thandie Newton appears alongside, errr, herself in the clever “Me, Myself & I” spread. Daisy Lowe brings a series of unsuitable suitors home to meet the folks in “A Suitable Boy.” Erin O’Connor writes for Rubbish and appears as a world-weary laundrette owner in “Dot Cotton” (the name of the feature a winking nod to a beloved character in the BBC series, EastEnders), while Lily Cole dons a fanciful egg carton headdress for the cover of issue two.

No wonder “Bossy Boots/Team Leader” Dyson (as she’s referred to in the masthead) was tapped to create a daily newspaper version of Rubbish to be handed out during London Fashion Week, giving attendees something to read - and giggle over - while waiting for the shows to start.

“Daily Rubbish was in the masterplan from just after publishing issue one of the annual,” says Dyson. “I liked the idea of creating a bi-annual response to the hardback, in a different format. I presented Daily Rubbish to the BFC [British Fashion Council] with Piers Atkinson as my co-producer, and the BFC decided to take a leap of faith and go with the idea as their daily.”

Having just completed their second season of Daily Rubbish with a totally compostable soft cover “Green” issue slated for fall and a third annual hard cover due out next February (not to mention a Rubbish comic strip, coloring book and possible TV series in the works), Dyson - and Rubbish - are clearly on a roll.