Lynne Franks
Absolutely Fabulous is a hit British comedy series set in the London
fashion world. Its main character is this fashion victim from hell,
largely based on real-life character Lynne Franks (a former
fashion show producer and PR wizz). Franks was in London recently and
she talked about the the show conceived by and starring her one-time
actress friend Jennifer Saunders.
Lynne heard about Absolutely Fabulous from Jennifer about a year before. Jennifer had said, "I ought to tell you that I'm making a program about a PR in the fashion business who's a Buddhist, has 2 children and lives in a house like yours. But it's nothing to do with you."
Lynne Franks: "I thought and thought about
it and I realised I'd had my life completely plagiarised and I got more
and more pissed off, but I find the program very funny and I'm pleased
for her that it's succesful. I feel like it's my baby walking around
somewhere."
It was a particulary wild time in my life, it has to be said. I asked for
a lot of it, but I can't help it. I try and quieten down."
After three years absence from the fashion scene, Franks agreed to return one more time to give VH1 a tour of the London collections. Read on...
Following the show, Lynne had these observations to share:
LF: "These girls look very unhappy. I mean, I know we're talking young, but they do look unhappy. What's that look like to you? That looks like dried grass knitted together, as if you could smoke it or eat it. That is, I have to say this, I love Joseph so much, but that is..."
(She shrugs her shoulders)
LF: "I looked at that show and apart from certain things that I can see appearing on certain babes on Wayne's World, I did't get it."
"I thought it was fantastic. That's what a fashion show should be all about. When my adrenalin starts and I start having fun I know it's good. That's what we should be doing - showing clothes, looking gorgeous, but having fun. The minute you look around and see everbody falling asleep you know it's a dead one. This is a good one. I love it."
Jeannie Bekker asked Franks whether she thought things change in the fashion world.
LF: "Do I think things change? Yeah, sure I think things change, but I think for me the highlights were like the mid-eighties when we had Boy George walking around in his clothes and Princess Diana just on her way in as opposed to her way out. And people were really having fun with fashion shows. All the stuff we saw today transvestites in fashion shows, funky music, Naomi Campbell starting her career, you know that was all starting in the mid-eighties. It was all wonderful and thrilling at the time, but, today I'd quite happily go to Marks and Spencers, because you know that's what I think life is like these days."
David Roycroft, a drag model, says it can be very therapeutic. He
believes an arbitrary decision was made sometime in the past that only
women could wear make-up, and that maybe now has come a time where we can
challenge that and change it.
Drag is nothing new but its profile has never been higher. Several new movies bring drag to the silver screen, (seen "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert"?). For the past few seasons, drag performers have been featured by major designers in their shows.
Tom Hedley, Writer : Fashion is the ultimate drag and it's perfect that drag should now be an admitted part of it, 'cos it's simply dressing-up and acting out; that's what fashion is. That's what drag is. There's very little difference between drag and fashion.
Tom Hedley wrote the foreword to "Ladies Please" which includes his theory behind drag's resurgence. Tom says "It's because of aids, people can actually get into trouble, so they want to act that part of themselves out. It's a fascinating subject - I've always been interested in the theme of disguise, masquerade and narcissism, and drag embraces all those things."
Norma Kamali: "It's very easy for me to do, because it's everything I'm feeling now. Gym for evening instead of beaded gowns, that you can wear all night, that are $150, but they look really great. And it's fun, it's a fun line, but stuff I would wear, not fun stuff you have to be eighteen to wear."
Linda Wells Allure Magazine : "When I saw the collection, I thought I've got to get to the gym straight away! There's not enough time to do those sit-ups. But I think you take elements from it. That thermal t-shirt with the hood, you could take that and put it with a velvet skirt and it doesn't have to be quite as tight as she showed it. So there are ways to adapt it."
NK: "I think that - especially for the baby-boomers - we have to change because we're more modern thinking and we're a new group of people. I think we especially need to re-evaluate what's modern for us and not hang onto what we were doing, what we were thinking about, and what we were looking like ten or fifteen years ago."
Marco Gobbetti Commercial Director Moroschino : "Franco was special in a way thanks to his intelligence, sense of humour and wit. He was able to participate in the fashion system, but not play by the same rules."
Moroschino as a man has gone but the fashion house that he began building 12 years ago will carry on under the leadership of its creative director Rosella Giardini. "Now that Franco is no longer with us I will serve as a point of reference for all the younger people that work with me. It's not all that hard to overcome the physical absence of Franco."
MG: "I don't think we're going to try to transform very much. I think we're going to try to continue exactly what we were doing before. Obviously there a lot of people that have been near to Franco for many years, so they are well-equipped to continue his teachings."
Before he died, Moroschino, who for several years avoided putting on conventional catwalk shows, made a video of his latest and last collection.
MG: "That is what I think you remember about him. Being able to be different, being able to make very well-made clothes also fun, have some irony, and make a little fun of all this that is sometimes taken too seriously."
Yasmeen: "We've worn furs since we started, and then this year some people decided to be politically correct, and I think everyone has a right to choose. I think that if you do something you do it because you believe it and not because it's the right year to do it. We've all done Fendi, we've all worn furs. So unless something's drastically changed that I don't know about, I don't get it. So I decided that if you wear leather, if you eat fish, if you eat chicken, then you can wear fur. I'm not saying I wear fur, but I don't see anything wrong with it. Canada is in the forefront of working with humane societies to make sure that animals are farmed and not trapped in horrible ways. So, hey sue me!"