Claire Barrow‘s archive of radical fashion and diverse cast of alt-beauty muses have been captured in an evocative new film by Eloise Parry, titled “Move On,” which premieres today on i-D.
Filmmaker Eloise Parry — who also shoots Barrow’s seasonal print campaigns — describes how she developed the concept with Barrow and stylist Haley Wollens: “We wanted it to feel ceremonial and chaotic, almost our collective idea of post-apocalypse — which has been a running thread throughout a lot of mine and Claire’s collective work in the past,” she says, adding that “Haley then showed us a sequence from Don Juan, which was the integral influence to the film.”
Shot in June at the minimal Swiss Church in central London — which is “all white except one black grand piano and an altar,” Parry explains — the film pans across a diverse congregation of Claire Barrow muses, including model Jess Maybury, performance artists Imma and Liv Fontaine, print designer Hali Ma, and many more. The 30-strong cast variously eat flowers, whisper secrets, kiss, lick lips, and stroke thighs, all dressed up in Victorian-style gowns, painted leather, elegant underwear, and flowing silk pieces illustrated with Barrow’s iconic animals and demons, both from her fall/winter 16 collection and her design archive.
“‘Move On’ represents a change or milestone into the future of our careers and lives, putting the past to bed,” Barrow comments. “This theme of leaving the past behind was something that I looked at in my fall/winter 16 collection, and also in my life with my decision to remove myself from the fashion week schedule,” she says, explaining that “hopefully by doing this I can work more freely and creatively which I think will make the work better and I can explore other mediums.” “Also, the title and themes in the film felt socially and politically relevant seen as we are entering into a new period in history, for better or worse,” she adds.
Having titled her most recent collection, fall/winter 16, “The Retro-Spective,” Barrow explains that it is “a study of historical dress without looking consciously at reference images, but taking on board how Instagram fashion images are embedded into my subconscious, and designing a collection mixing every time period at once, rather than just focusing on one, trying to create something chaotic and modern.”
Credits
Text Charlotte Gush