55Factory
A collaboration of industry insiders making the closed off world of London Fashion Week more accessible
One of the main criticisms surrounding the world of fashion and its ‘special weeks’ is that it’s too insular for the everyman to access, too preoccupied with itself and veiled in a snobbery rivaled only by that of a Royal Family peerage system.
Having experienced it from the inside for many years, London-based photographer Christopher Sims decided to play the antagoniser and look to provide an alternative view on fashion and its grand menagerie with a collaborative agency and film unit under the name 55Factory.
As with many such enterprises, 55Factory operates as a collaborative hotbed – housing photographers, stylists, editors and creatives. However, this week 55Factory showed up at London Fashion Week to interview celebrities, fashion icons and style savvy individuals. The avoidance of the snobbery of fashion is central to the appeal of the short films from London’s Fashion Week. With no prior preparation Sims speaks frankly to his subjects about clothes, parties and explores the uniqueness of London’s premier clothes horse. Sims is happy to point out that the quality of the production is what one might expect from a camera and mic operation but stresses that it’s the subject matter which is important and the way it is approached.
The initial response from its short films have been promising with 55Factory looking to spread itself out to some more of the world’s fashion weeks in a continuing effort to break down some of the barriers between those on the inside and those looking from the outside of an industry which is still mystifyingly cloaked to the general public.
