INTERVIEW WITH RUTH HOGBEN

Ruth Hogben makes fashion films. Once, only designers who couldn’t afford catwalk shows bothered making them. Now, what with every dickhead on earth owning a video camera, the fashion world has had to man up (video-wise, that is).

Hogben started her career assisting Nick Knight before making films for his pioneering fashion website SHOWstudio. Since then, she’s worked with Maison Martin Margiela, Gareth Pugh, and Alexander McQueen. She’s also just finished the visuals for Lady Gaga’s US tour, which, these days, in terms of popularist iconography, is like being commissioned to make Diana’s wedding dress, or Hitler’s mustache.

Vice: You assisted Nick Knight for a couple of years. How did that come about?
Ruth Hogben: Well, Nick always featured in every single book I ever referenced. So, after I’d finished studying photography, I started writing to him. I wrote to him once a month for six months. I was about to give up when I found an Evening Standard interview with him, which mentioned that he went to the same secondary school as me. That finally gave me my winning letter.

What’s he like as a boss?
Challenging. He’d say, “What are you doing this weekend? Are you working? Or are you partying? Should you be partying or should you be working? Do you want to be the best? Well then, less partying!” It’s a hard job but I got so much out of it. It must be absolute hell if you don’t know what you’re getting out of it.

At what point did you start making films?
Nick was always filming everything for his archives. At some point I got a bit bored, took up the camera and started making pretty shots and nice frames. Later, I asked if I could use the footage and try to edit it.

So it was a kind of an accident?
It was, yeah. I was the only girl on a team full of boys and I kind of just sat back with the camera and let them change the lenses. It doesn’t really take four people to do. I spent my whole time practicing editing, making huge mistakes, and phoning editor friends, going, “Oh my god, the computer says I can’t do it and I need to do it now! Help!”

And now you make award-winning films for world-famous designers. Do you do everything yourself, from the conception right down to the editing?
Yes, all of it. I start by meeting with the designer, seeing the materials, seeing what the mood is. Then I get the right camera, the right team and lighting, reference it with books, transfer it, edit it, color it. Sometimes I use a colorist in a proper editing house, but most of the time, because I have loads and loads of layers, I have to color it as I go. Otherwise I end up having to unpick it all and sew it all back together.

Is it technically difficult?
Some things are. For example, you’re only allowed one hundred layers, but you need layers when laying different images on top of each other. I needed to do a lot more than a hundred with the last Gareth Pugh film, so I had to export film and bring it back in. Then, before you can watch it, you have to render it and those rendering times are humongous! For the Pugh film, when I clicked “render,” it said: “Time left: about two weeks”!

How did you get around that?
I had to figure out another way to do it. I like all those mistakes. I think because I’m so new, if I didn’t do the editing myself, I’d get lost in somebody else’s knowledge. I wouldn’t be able to find all those mistakes. Ah, and I also don’t know shortcuts.

Fashion designers are notoriously picky when it comes to creative output. When you come up with the idea for a film, do you ever have any conflict with the designer?
It’s the actual editing process that scares me more, because when we’re shooting I’m there with the designer and that’s all agreed and signed off. Afterward I can do something completely different. That’s the bit when I think that they’re going to see it and hate it and want me to change it with only two days left.

How come you’re always working on such short time frames?
Because the clothes only get made right before the show. They’re always pushing their deadline to the last minute. If there are no clothes in the video, like with the Alexander McQueen film, it’s different. I’ll always work to my absolute critical deadline though, to the point where I’m still rendering half-an-hour before the show starts. I had about two-and-a-half months of getting three hours sleep a night.

That McQueen film with Raquel Zimmermann, as you say, didn’t have any clothes in it. So what was the point?
I think at the moment people in fashion are just really interested in film and electronic communication in general. McQueen’s film was also part of a live broadcast of the show.

Were the big movable cameras specially built for the show?
I think they use them for sports events, like football or athletics. The movements were all choreographed by Nick. He said, “At this moment I want them turning and flipping around backwards and they should end in this position.” The sound was great, really monstrous.

With film, designers seem to be moving away from just looking at the clothes and how beautiful they are. It’s more about creating a whole new world, a real experience.
Yes, you’re right. I think it’s an amazing way to communicate someone’s brand, or someone’s label, or someone’s vision. It’s so precise. And it’s of this generation as well. Someone like Gareth Pugh, he’s in his twenties, he knows the internet and the power of communication. He really understands that, more so than some of the older designers who can’t quite get their head around it.

Are there any designers you think could really benefit from film who perhaps haven’t considered it yet?
There’s a film out there for every designer. Think how amazing a film for Lanvin would be - so elegant and beautiful. And then Alexander Wang, how absolutely disgusting it would be. John Galliano would be amazing. The more outrageous, the more of a hook there is for a film.

PUNK

The punk subculture emerged in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia in the mid-1970s. Exactly which region originated punk has long been a major controversy within the movement

Early punk had an abundance of antecedents and influences, and Jon Savage has described the subculture as a "bricolage"of almost every previous youth culture that existed in the West since the Second World War "stuck together with safety pins".Various philosophical, political and artistic movements influenced the subculture. In particular, punk drew inspiration from several strains of modern art. Various writers, books, and literary movements 
were important to the formation of the punk aesthetic. Punk rock has a variety of musical origins both within the rock and roll genre and beyond.

The earliest form of punk rock, was protopunk in retrospect, started as a garage rock revival in the northeastern United States in the late 1960s. The first ongoing music scene that was assigned the punk label appeared in New York City between 1974 and 1976.At about the same time or shortly afterward, a punk scene developed in London. Soon after, Los Angeles became home to the third major punk scene.These three cities formed the backbone of the burgeoning movement, but there were also other scenes in a number of cities such as Brisbane and Boston.

Around 1977, the subculture began to diversify with the proliferation of factions such as 2 Tone, Oil, Pop Punk, New Wave and No wave. In the United States during the early 1980s, punk underwent a renaissance in the form of hardcore punk, which sought to do away with the frivolities introduced in the later years of the original movement, while at the same time Britain saw a parallel movement called streetpunk. Hardcore and streetpunk then spread to other regions just as the original subculture had. In the mid-1980s to the early 1990s in America, various underground scenes either directly evolved from punk or at least applied its attitudes to new styles, in the process producing the alternative rock and indie music scenes.A new movement in the United States became visible in the early and mid-1990s that sought to revive the punk movement, doing away with some of the trappings of hardcore.

GOTH

The goth subculture is a contemporary subculture found in many countries. It began in England during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the Post-punk genre. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify. Its imagery and cultural proclivities indicate influences from the 19th century Gothic literature along with horror films and to a lesser extent theBDSM culture. The goth subculture has associated tastes in music, aesthetics, and fashion. Gothic music encompasses a number of different styles including Gothic rock, Darkwave, Deathrock, Ethereal, Neo-Medieval and Neoclassical. Styles of dress within the subculture range from deathrock, punk and Victorian style attire, or combinations of the above, most often with dark attire, 

makeup and hair.

Goth fashion is stereotyped as a dark, sometimes morbid, eroticized fashion and style of dress. Typical gothic fashion includes dyed black hair, dark eyeliner, black fingernails, black period-styled clothing; goths may or may not have piercings. Styles are often borrowed from the Elizabethan, Victorian or medieval period and often express pagan, occult or other religious imagery such as pentacles or ankhs. The extent to which goths hold to this style varies amongst individuals as well as geographical locality, though virtually all Goths wear some of these elements. Fashion designers, such as Alexander McQueen and John Galliano, have also been described as practicing "Haute Goth". Goth fashion is often confused with Heavy Metal fashion and Emo fashion: outsiders often mistake fans of heavy metal for goth, particularly those who wear black trench coats or wear "corpse paint" (a term associated with the black metal music scene).

CHAVS

Picture this a young lad about 12 years of age and 4 ½ feet high baseball cap at ninety degrees in a imitation addidas tracksuit, with trouser legs tucked into his socks (of course, is definitely the height of fashion). This lad is strutting around, fag in one hand jewellery al over the over, outside McDonalds acting as if he is 8 foot tall and built like a rugby player, when some poor unsuspecting adult (about 17/18) walks round the corner wanting to go to mcdonalds for his dinner glances at the young lad, the young lad jumps up in complete disgust and says “Whats your problem? Wanna make sommin of it? Bling Bling” when the adult starts to walk towards the young lad, the young lad pisses himself and runs off to either his pregnant 14-year-old girlfriend or his brother in the army crying his eyes out.

ROCKABILLY

Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.

The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock (from rock 'n' roll) and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music (often called hillbilly music in the 1940s and 1950s) that contributed strongly to the style's development. Other important influences on rockabilly include western swing, boogie woogie, and rhythm and blues. While there are notable exceptions, its origins lie primarily in the Southern United States.The influence and popularity of the style waned in the 1960s, but during the late 1970s and early 1980s, rockabilly enjoyed a major revival of popularity that has endured to the present, often within a rockabilly subculture.

RAVE AND NEW RAVE

A "raver" is one who goes to raves. Contrary to popular belief, there are many different types of ravers.

First there are Candy Ravers; these are the ones you see running around shouting things like "PLUR!" or "Want a hug/sucker/glowstick/massage?" They are identifiable by their brightly colored clothing (phat pants being a must...if they're made of fun fur, all the better), enough Candy (brightly colored bead bracelets)to sink the Titanic, oodles of children's toys, as well as a few glowsticks and pacifiers. Candy kids are known as the cutest/most annoying people you will ever meet. A lot of them are pretty fake - it's impossible to be that happy all the time. Candy Kids are also notorious for being users of the drug Ecstasy - this is not entirely accurate, but with the way they dress and act, its not hard to see why this is assumed.

Next we have the "Goth" ravers. They're quite easy to spot - they will be dressed in all black, preferably incorperating some fishnet, spikes, and buckles into their outfits. The more there are the better. They will not socialize outside of the group they came with, and they will NEVER under any circumstances dance. They're too goth for that - dancing equates to happiness and celebration, and that's just not cool.

Ginos and Ginas (also known as "hoochies"). These are those well-dressed, snooty people that really shouldn't even be at a rave. The only reason they're at the party is to pick up on some 15 year old e-tard. Well, maybe no...

Vogue or Voguing.

Vogue or voguing is a highly stylized, modern

 house dance that evolved out of the Harlem ballroom scene in the 1960s. It gained mainstream exposure when it was featured in Madonna's song and video Vogue, and when showcased in the 1990 documentary Paris is Burning (which went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival). After the new millennium, 

Vogue returned to mainstream attention

 when the dance group Vogue Evolution 

competed on the fourth season of America's 

Best Dance Crew.Inspired by Vogue magazine, voguing is characterized by model-like poses integrated with angular, linear, and rigid arm, leg, and body movements. This style of dance arose from Harlem ballrooms by African Americans and Latino Americans in the early 1960s. It was originally called "presentation" and later "performance." Over the years, the dance evolved into the more intricate and illusory form that is now called "vogue." Voguing is continually developed further as an established dance form that is practiced in the gay ballroom sceneand clubs in major cities throughout the United States—mainly New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Miami, Detroit, and Chicago.

There are currently four distinct styles of vogue: Old Way (pre-1990); New Way (post-1990); Vogue Femme (circa 1995); and Dramatics, which includes stunts and tricks. Although vogue "femme" has been used in the ballroom scene as a catch-all phrase for overtly effeminate voguing as far back as the 1970s, as a recognizable style of voguing, it only came into its own around the mid-1990s.There are currently four distinct styles of vogue: Old Way (pre-1990); New Way (post-1990); Vogue Femme (circa 1995); and Dramatics, which includes stunts and tricks. Although vogue "femme" has been used in the ballroom scene as a catch-all phrase for overtly effeminate voguing as far back as the 1970s, as a recognizable style of voguing, it only came into its own around the mid-1990s.Formal competitions occur in the form of balls held by "houses"—family like collectives of LGBT dancers and performers. Some legendary houses include the House of Garcon, the House of Icon, the House of Khan, the House of Evisu, the House of Karan, the House of Mizrahi, the House of Xtravaganza, the House of Ebony, the House of Revlon, the House of Prodigy, the House of Escada,

 the House of Omni, the House of Aviance, the House of

 Legacy, the House of Milan, the House of Infiniti, the House of Pend'avis, the House of LaBeija, the House of McQueen, and the House of Ninja among others. ("Legendary" in ballroom terms refers to a house that has been "serving," that is, walking or competing on the runway, for twenty years or more.) The House of Ninja was founded by Willi Ninja, who is considered the godfather of voguing. Members of a house are called "children." Sometimes children legally change their last name to show their affiliation with the house to which they belong.It should be noted that the terms "Old Way" and "New Way" are generational. Earlier generations called the style of voguing the generation before them practiced "Old Way." Voguers, therefore, reuse these terms to refer to the evolution.onary changes of the dance that are observable almost every ten years. Ten years from now, today's "New Way" will likely be deemed the "Old Way."