One hundred beards

"I have major beard envy. I can't grow a good beard myself so this project allowed me to live vicariously through others," Jonathan Daniel Pryce explains as his popular blogging project, 100 Beards in 100 Days, is turned in to a hard back book and launched at Front Room, St Martin’s Lane, later today.

If you're unfamiliar with the project, Pryce took up a daily pursuit to capture and document the finest facial fuzz amongst the capital’s male population. Beginning on July 1st and culminating with a snapshot of his own cultivation, the talented photographer shot one hundred beards in one hundred days. From young tattooed hipsters to suited city gents, wonderfully bushy to artfully trimmed, the streets of London are awash with beards and Pryce shot some of the finest specimens. As the body of beards shifts from blog to book, we caught up with Pryce to relive the one hundred days of work...

You've been photographing street style for yourself and a range of fashion clients for about five years now but what was the catalyst for the 100 Beards in 100 Days Project? 

There were many reasons when I started the blog on July 1st. I won Photographer of the Year at the SFAs in June and a lot of my client work had become quite similar so I began thinking of concepts to try something new and personal. I'm best known for my street style photography and wanted to continue in this vein, but develop it further to focus on portraiture. I've been noticing beards so much since moving to London and the trend of beards as an accessory has been rising, so I wanted to document that before it becomes over-saturated. 

With the volume and deadlines involved, how difficult was the process of selection? 

That's a great question. In short, very difficult! With each guy I spend anywhere between 5 and 15 minutes, so I can end up with 40 frames meaning editing is tricky. I spent a lot of time deciding and sometimes called in my friend's creative eyes to get a second opinion. With nearly every subject there was more than one photograph I loved, and that's part of the reason for having the book. I wanted to show the outtakes and also the guys who, for whatever reason, didn't make it onto the blog. 

The project involved you cultivating your own beard, who are you beard icons/inspirations? 

I've got such a wealth of inspiration due to all the guys I photographed. When I decided to grow my own, due to the huge amount of digital peer pressure, I spoke with the team at Pall Mall Barbers who are experts in all things hirsute. We spoke about a few icons and how to shape my beard to suit me once it grew in. I love Nick Wooster's style and his facial hair is always superb. It was such an honour when he blogged about the 100 Beards project. My real envy kicks in when I see models like Patrick Petitjean or Tony Ward - strong growth, thick and full! 

Looking back at this body of beards, do you have any particular favourites? 

I've selected twelve images to be shown at 45 St Martins Lane (open between 1st - 6th of November) which are some of my favourites. I loved Roy as I think the photograph captured the moment perfectly. Also Ricki, Kial and Ali all had very impressive growth. 

Were you surprised by the variety of beard shot? Were there any beards that got away? 

I tried hard to represent many people - this blog wasn't about hipster beards or tradition beards, I wanted it to show the diversity that London has to offer. I did a lot of walking around the city and discovered some great neighbourhoods I'd of never have travelled to otherwise. There were certain areas with higher concentrations of beards - Soho and Shoreditch especially - but I think another subject in the photography is the location, so keeping that diverse was important to me. The project was quite pure to the 'street photography' concept so yes I lost quite a few bearded guys in the London crowds. What will you focus your lens on next? The book promotion is going to take me up until the end of 2012, with launches at Jigsaw Menswear and the new Pall Mall Barbershop. After, I'm working on some exciting projects for the London Collections: Men in January - some film and photography documenting the men behind the industry. Watch this space.

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To whet our appetite for the book launch and the exhibition at 45 St Martins Lane, Jonathan Daniel Pryce shares a few of his favourites beards...

Roy, Ricki, Ali and Kial from 100 Beards.
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Reading... Vintage Menswear

Formed in 2007, the destination showroom and one of a kind resource that is The Vintage Showroom, was the realised dream of two fanatical enthusiasts of vintage clothing. Founders, Douglas Gunn and Roy Luckett, spend countless months of every year trawling through dilapidated barns, warehouses and outhouses all around the world in order to add to their vast collection of rarities. They enjoy the hunt, the romance, and the deliberate utility found in each garment. Their shared unquenchable thirst for sartorial artifacts has led to The Vintage Showroom becoming one of the leading resources for vintage menswear in the UK, with the ever growing archive covering the early mid 20th century and specialising in international work, military and sports clothing, classic English tailoring and country wear.

Whilst their own inviting Earlham Street store continues to receive accolades and awards, their definitive collection has become a must see destination for fashion designers and stylists from around the world. It is is available to purchase or hire from as preferred, however no photography or sketching is permitted. Appointments are necessary and limited. However, last month a selection of the archive was published in the title ‘Vintage Menswear – A Collection From The Vintage Showroom.’ Joined by freelance style writer Josh Sims, Gunn and Lockett offer unprecedented access to a rare collection in a beautifully presented hard back. No appointment necessary.

Featuring one hundred and thirty of the most influential examples of twentieth century European, American and Asian utilitarian tailoring and design, the book is divided in to the three subsections of sportswear, workwear and militaria and covers everything from 1940s flying jackets to polar exploration suits, Phantom Racing jackets to Native American Varsity jackets and Japanese peasants Boro jackets to vintage French denims. These are items that reflect real lives of real people. With holes and patches they each tell a story. They are precious and genuine artifacts of what men wore in the early 20th century to work, to war, and to play. Thanks to the stunning photography each selection showcases the designs in concept, shape and cut. Below are just a few of the pages that caught my eye...

In addition to being a valuable resource and inspiration, 'Vintage Menswear' is a book to get utterly lost in.

Midweek Reading... We Can Be Heroes

"I’ve had the negatives stashed away in the attic for all these years, the majority never printed, let alone published" admits the photographer and graphic designer Graham Smith who found himself at the vortex of creativity and youth cultures that spun out of the capital in the 1980s with camera in hand. Thankfully, these almost forgotten photographs were published by Unbound and the result is We Can Be Heroes. "As a teenager seeing The Clash and The Sex Pistols changed his life" he continues. Punks empowering message of 'Get up off your arse and do something creative' struck home. Whereas most picked up guitars, Smith's weapon of choice was his faithful Olympus OM 2 camera. "Then I shot the emerging London clubbing scene that rose from Punk’s ashes." From gigs to Soho nights and warehouse parties, Smith's images captured the potent youthful energy of London clubland from 1976 to 1984.

We Can Be Heroes offers much more than just a snapshot of a different time of partying. As well as around five hundred of Smith's photos (most unseen) and a supporting narrative from his good friend Chris Sullivan, there's an introduction from Robert Elms, memoirs by Boy George, Gary Kemp and Steve Strange and countless pithy quotes from more than fifty of the main faces on the scene, plus play lists for each of the clubs. It's a beautifully designed piece of social history told by those that created the scene. Whether you'd like to be reminded by these moments or simply inspired by a different time, this is a book to get lost in.

"So much has changed since Graham was fist a kid with a camera that it seems many worlds away. Looking again at these pictures after all these years, it's not just another lifetime but a different universe. Yet so many of the seeds of those changes, of the life we now lead, and the land we now live in, were planted in that couple of years, by that small group of overdressed, overheated youth hungry for fun and dressed for destiny."

Robert Elms on the impact of London Clubland in the early 80s

Just a small selection of Smith's images that caught my eye.

Thanks to the support of its readers the book was fully funded and released at the tail end of last year. If inspired (and you should be), you can still buy the book exclusively from Unbound.

Weekend Reading... Serious Pleasures

With their scandalous outfits and behaviour, a group of young and privileged bohemians captivated, angered and fascinated inter war period Britain. These 'Bright Young Things' as they were coined by the press, threw elaborate fancy dress parties, chased through nighttime London on treasure hunts, drank heavily and experimented with drugs. All tales of sights seen and even a few fabricated were all enthusiastically divulged on the pages of the tabloids. During the 20s and 30s, Stephen Tennant was an important member of this group. Indeed he was oft described as the 'brightest' of these 'Bright Young Things'. He is widely considered to be the model for Cedric Hampton in Nancy Mitford's novel Love in a Cold Climate along with being one of the inspirations for Lord Sebastian Flyte in Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. This weekend, as real Autumn settles in, I've turned to Phillip Hoare's 'Serious Pleasures: The life of Stephan Tennant' for company and to learn a little more about the man behind the decadence. 

Phillip Hoare, intrigued by this era of explored excess and Jazz age glamour spotted the frequent reference of Tennant but it was a Cecil Beaton profile shot that turned his interest in to an obsession. "The reason why I wrote about Stephen Tennant was that he was the embodiment of a fantastical world that I had inhabited throughout my mid-adolescence – a world that, for me, stretched from the Ballet Russes on the one hand to David Bowie's Jean Genie on the other" purred Hoare. Stephen Tennant had looked like David Bowie back in 1927. Gold dust shimmering in his hair and with an extraordinary leather coat with chinchilla fur collar nonchalantly worn over an Anderson and Shepherd suit. He was an alien in Mayfair. The resonance of Tennant's image - its alien androgyny somehow surreal in the environs of Smith Square - reached far beyond its years. Many were enthralled at the time but three generations later and Hoare was still mesmerised when he dedicated four years of his life to this wonderful biography of the Edwardian aesthete. Like Hoare, I've marvelled at Beaton's imagery of this intriguing world and read reference of its poster boy and I'm looking forward to finding a little more about the man. However, before I bury my head in its pages, I want to share a few of the images that accompany Hoare's words.... 

Photographs that catch the eye and capture the imagination litter this well researched biography.

Looking at these shots it is clear that Tennant’s outfits teasingly danced and boyishly bounced from the indulgently luxe extravagance to the theatrical, gender-blurring fancy dress. I'll no doubt be reading about this bright young thing throughout the weekend and beyond but before I do, I just want to leave you with an example of the fascinated gossip that was penned in the press during Tennant's peak...

"The Honourable Stephen Tennant arrived in an electric brougham wearing a football jersey and earrings."

William Hickey, Daily Express, 1927.

The Savile Row Cutter

The last few weeks have whizzed right by me leaving little but a confused, exhausting blur in its wake. However, one recent bit of post sent from blog friend Hormazd Narielwalla has helped provide a much needed change of pace. Whenever I've been able to grab a few moments rest, I've reached for The Savile Row Cutter to help transport me to a different world, the enchanting world of bespoke tailoring.

Now, regular readers should be familiar with the captivating work of Hormazd Narielwalla. After successfully completing a Masters in Fashion Enterprise & Design at Westminster, he assumed a position at the prestigious Savile Row civil, military and sporting tailor, Dege & Skinner, where he soon developed an appreciation for bespoke tailoring. I first encountered the work of Narielwalla gracing the walls of "A Fairytale About Fashion", an exhibition which ran during the festive season of 2008. His Dead Man’s Patterns project was a design story that took its inspiration from a set of bespoke patterns belonging to a deceased customer. In his quest for artistic creativity, he forages for forms in historic tailoring archives and through his visuals narrates previously untold stories. His second publication entitled The Savile Row Cutter takes his bespoke love affair one step further.

Released next month, The Savile Row Cutter documents the tailoring memoirs of Michael Skinner, Master Cutter and Chairman of Dege & Skinner. It charts Skinner's progress from apprentice tailor through to Managing Director and Chairman. Michael Skinner’s enthralling career started in 1952 when he joined the family firm as an eighteen year old and he has since trained a great number of the bespoke tailors currently plying their trade on the Row. Told through his craft and written ‘in conversation’ with Michael, Narielwalla's text provides a fascinating insight into the life and work of a Master Tailor who has been at the forefront of bespoke tailoring for more than fifty years.

London’s Savile Row is renowned for bespoke tailoring. It continues to be the focal point of gentlemen’s tailoring and the reason is dedicated craftsmen like Michael Skinner who help keep its tradition alive and standards high. For anyone as equally enchanted by the world of the Row and its talented inhabitants, The Savile Row Cutter is a must read.

Weekend Inspiration: A Passionate Collaboration

Bank Holiday weekends should be long and lazy. Mine has been filled with various pursuits of everyday procrastination but none have been more fruitful than a flick through a recent second hand book store find. Margrethe Mather & Edward Weston: A Passionate Collaboration explores the relationship between two of my favourite photographers and provides inspiration at every turn of page. Whilst offering a glimpse of California Bohemia, A Passionate Collaboration features work by both artists, chronicles their twelve-year association and sheds much needed light on Mather, whose artistry, sexual identity, and mysterious past were overshadowed by the massive reputation of Edward Weston.

Mather was, without doubt, an extraordinary photographer on her own merit. She was a pacesetter and innovator. With her unerring eye for spare, elegant design, her unflinching capacity for editing an image to its very essence and her obsession with technical perfection, Margrethe Mather was an artist of real substance and significance. As much as I enjoyed reading about their complex relationship it was the selection of plates that really left me inspired. I just had to scan a few of them to share with you.

Margrethe Mather - "Wild Joe" O'Carrol (1919)

Margrethe Mather - Frayne Williams (1920)

Margrethe Mather and Edward Weston - Max Eastman at Water's Edge (1921)

Margrethe Mather -Johan Hagemeyer (1921)

Edward Weston - Roi Patridge (1922)

Margrethe Mather - The Abandoned Car (1925)

Margrethe Mather - Japanese Combs (1931)

Waking up to Yamamoto's My Dear Bomb

Waking up to Yohji's My Dear Bomb (yes that is my pillowcase)

Due to the lack of blinds or curtains, sunshine poured in to our room this morning preventing any vague hope of a long, lazy lie in. I'm not complaining though, what a treat it is. As I wiped the sleep from my eye and made a cup of tea, Susie called out quotes from Yohji Yamamoto's My Dear Bomb. The following one will be bouncing around my sleepy brain for the rest of the day and beyond so I just had to share it with you...

"It is always best to add something playful to any polished, coordinated look in man's clothing. Attractive, classy, and chic alone result in something dull. The man with a real sense of style will always combine a highly polished look with something less refined, thereby combining the sensibilities of the man about town with those of the country buffoon, mixing the sensitive with the clownish. It simply will not do to have it all be of the highest refinement."