self service

Dear Sheena, We have handed our magazine over to the most extraordinary people in the past, but no one quite like you. I’ve always been very particular to who I handed my mag-azine over to and seen people create wonders with the magazine but you took on a chal-lenge that I admit I was quite worried about at first but you outdid yourself. Thank you for taking on the challenge of this shared and intimate creative experience. Having you in our offices here in Paris as an invited guest editors-in-chief and creative director proved to be a unique and enriching dialog. Never have I seen such addiction to the creation of a magazine. You lived and breathed the creation process only have I seen such dedication in my-self . From shooting to editing, debating, writ-ing and reviewing copy with the magazine editors, working on layouts with our design-ers, creating and producing a rich and dense magazine. It was a fascinating feeling for me to sit back silently and for the first time ever, observe such a remarkable process instead of being an integral part of this. I must convey to you my sincere admiration for that very ex-ceptional instinct you have that enables you to just stop just in time, to express no less and no more than is necessary so as to recognize the essential. This issue of self service is not about our journey but yours. With affection and re-spect. Ezra

editor’s note

self service

Editor-in-Chief & Creative Director Fashion Editor Advertising DirectorManaging Editor Art Director Senior Editor

FashionAssociate Editor (Fashion and Beauty) Senior Fashion Editor At Large Contributing Fashion Editors

Design Director Designer Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief Copy Editor Contributors Contributing Photographers. Subscriptions Photographic Retouching & Printing

Engraving Printing

Distribution

Self Service Office

Publisher

Sheena DarbySuzanne KollerStephianie MorelClaire ThomsonPierre Consorti

Edward Brachfeld

Sabrina MarshallMarie ChaixOndine, Bethan Fenton, Rhiannon Hardie, Phoebe Day, Becky Grainger, Olivia reeves, Camilla Nickerson, Olivia Rizzo, Panox Yipanis

Zachary OhlmanAude Delerue, Joan BraunCamille de VaumasFaterma AhmedDerek Blasberg, Jen Brill, Michel Gaubert, Humberto Leon, Benhamin Liu, Stephanie Moison, Sarah Mower, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Harriet Quick, Peter Petronio, Pedro Riberio, Aaron Rose, Jean, Touitou.Cedric, Richard Burbridge, Todd Cole, Roger Deckker, Mac Faragoo, Hans Feuer, Daniel Jackson, Maciek Kobielski, Thomas Lagrange, Alasdair Mclellan, Guido Mocafico, Ranee Oakibe Flyn, David Sims, Mario Sor-renti, Juergen Teller, Sheena Darby, Willy Vanderperre.info@selfservicemagazine.comBox LtdStella DigitaD Touch

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Olivia Reeves is our cover girl this month. Not just a beauti-ful face does Reeves have she also graduated from London college of fashion with the fashion public relations degree. At the tender age of 21 things are still looking up for Reeves as she hopes that her modeling career will give her the secret passage into the public relations world of fashion.

born and bred in the south Grainger spend her youth run-ning through farms wearing tweet dreaming of the day when she would be brushing the hair of kate moss instead of sheep. Now she hasn’t quite got to kate moss standards yet but our cover girl Olivia Reeves comes as a close second. Grduating from the presisous Northumbria Univirt studying fashion communication Grainger is now make up and hair artist to them all working from backstage of dior to the likes of Vogue Japan to the best magazine in the work of course us SelfService.

This harsh northerner tells it how is it, there is no messing about this one.From the preposterous Doncaster we have received this gem. At a young age she ejected herself from the beauty that is Doncaster and moved to London where she studied journal-ism at the prestigious Central Saint Martins which she later decided that she was too good for and dropped out which at the time to anyone would have looked like a bad mistake but our Phoebe went on to work for the likes of Dazed and Con-fused, Nylon and the Sunday times and now a contributing editor to Self Service. Lucky girl!

Now judging from Rhiannon Bliss’s own attire you wouldn’t really expect great things from her styling, its not that she dresses bad atall, lets just say she has her own ‘unique style’ its like a mix between a librarian and Anna Wintour. She’s been working the office sleek trend since 1985. But this is why we love her, also her styling is nothing like her own so its bloody fantastic! Grduating from the presisous Northumbria Univirt studying fashion communication Grainger is now make up and hair artist to them all working from backstage of dior to the likes of Vogue Japan to the best magazine in the work of course us SelfService.

contributors

Balmain vintage leather jacket

Vintage leather balmain jacketBowler hat Olivias own

Olivias own

Rosamosario’s feathers on my mine chemise

Kiki de montparnasse braBalmain leather trousers

Chloe crepe de chine shirtAlexander wang chord trousersBow tie by Lavin

Olivia Reeves family heirlooms

For all the subjects that divide the sexes, female to male, the female love of the ac-cessories is one. For a man a handbag is merely a device used to transport useless goods too big to fit in their jean pocket. But for women its something entirely different. You could be wearing a bin bag and no shoes strolling down Regent Street but if you had a Chanel bag you’d just be seen as a crazy trendsetter.Handbags are a symbol of status, the per-fect accessory to any outfit.Through out the years the perfect hand-bag accessory has blossomed, its evolved from the classic luxury of Chanel, to the colorful yet chavy essence of the Louis Vuitton speedy bag, the monogram Gucci holdall that every female wannabe gang-ster lusted after during the 90’s to the English IT bag’s ranging from the bayswa-ter to the Alexa named after the British style icon Alexa Chung from the English heritage brand Mulberry and then prob-ably the most expensive and elaborate of all bags Hermes Birkin. If you thought $3,000 for the classic 2.55 quilted Chanel flap bag was expensive then paying up to $15,000 for the Hermes Birkin in a range of exotic animal skins may seem a bit excessive and you may find yourself wondering why anyone would spend a

years salary on a bag? Even if you were the richest of them all, does that give you any more of a justification to spending $15, 000 on a bag?? Well why don’t you try 2 nearly 3 years salary?? Move over Hermes….39,000 dollars for a bag, not even a bag a backpack that you wear on your back so you cant even see the bag; seems a bit ex-cessive doesn’t it? For a bag you cant even see? Now surely your thinking how could anyone justify spending that much money on a bag, especially during this recession and maybe you’d even think that the pric-es would have decreased due to the re-cession. Well then you’d be wrong as the 39,000 dollar bag has contradicted this and everything that’s right in this world.Now who’s created this bag that is the definition of everything that’s wrong in the world. Well when you look at the price tag you obviously conjure up the idea that it must be a prestigious hand-bag designer. Hermes, Chanel or even Louis Vuttion?? Well its none of the above ,which anyone would deem a little bit outrageous in this situation but then again it has to be expected because this situation is beyond absurd. I mean if I had more money than sense I’d at least buy a bag that had prestige. This bag has no

heritage no prestige no tradition it’s ‘The Row’.You might have never heard of the row for the reason that it’s only been around since 2010. And the designers? None other than the one and only twin power duo Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen. They opened the couture fashion label The Row and before their line had even gone on sale in stores their $39,000 alligator backpack had orders which made the bag sell out. Through out all the people I’ve inter-viewed the answer I’ve always received from the public whether they could af-ford the bag or not was that they would want the bag to be from a prestigious company. Now the Olsen twins have only just started this line so what gives them the authority to sell a bag for that price? The likes of Hermes have taken decades to get to the point in the market where they can price point there handbags at such a high value. Another reason they can jus-tify this is because they have the market brand following, the experience and the heritage that allows them to justify sell-ing the bag at that price. But the Olsen’s have only just started they have no jus-tification. If we look at the Olsen twins fashion history its not good to say the least.

Yes impressive they had a multimillion-pound fashion empire in Wal-Mart at such a young age but nothing that can justify a couture line selling a bag for $39,000 even if it is alligator skin. Up until they went to university in New York they had a positive public persona in the public eye they were Americas sweethearts. But then they went to New York and fashion took them. Being described as America’s sweethearts to Boho Chic Tramps, their long greasy hair, dirty vintage clothes and not having the ability to shower on a daily basis is not a marketable personal-ity. From childhood when they had their multimillion clothing range sold in Wal-Marts around the world then suddenly becoming unmarketable. From a multi-million pound clothing line to a Billion pound empire they went to being the tramps of New York city In the eyes of the public. Along with Scandals of ano-rexia, drugs and alcohol this made them look even worse in the view of the public eye. Now why has this happened? Why are people paying more money for a virtu-ally unknown brand instead well estab-lish brands like Hermes? Why are grown women buying backpacks as if they’ll still in school? Why is anyone spending $39,000 on a bag when there are people in this world in poverty??

And the most important question is who is even buying this bag???

Many speculate that the reason as to why their alligator backpack may be priced so high is as a publicity stunt. Think about it. From childhood sweethearts with a multimillion pound clothing line to teen-age rebels who are deemed as tramps and have petitions against them left right and center from PETA to just about every anti fur organisation in the world. They need-ed some publicity to get there couture clothing line going because anyone with the money would not want to buy into a company with Designers so controversial I mean who would want to spend nearly 40,000 dollars on a bag from trampy pre-tentious child star twins??Were in a recession now usually this means that people buy less as the public don’t have enough disposable cash. Well the opposite has happened and this is what is shocking people as Ashley Olsen told WWD: ‘It was the first thing that sold off the shelf.’She added that it was often only the most high-end brands that were able to thrive during an economic crisis. ’During our last economic crisis in the U.S., the only thing that went up was Hermes,’ she said.

Now we don’t understand how Hermes went up in the recession our idea of a re-cession was that people has less money to spend never mind a 39,000 dollar back-pack. But according to the rows account-ants the opposite has been occurring.

Many stores such as online luxury retailer net-a-porter carry the bag, stores such as Browns in London and Bendles in New York. The reason why these stores are stocking such a ridiculously priced bag? Amanda Brookes the fashion director for Barneys New York said “The line fills a void within Barneys highly competi-tive bags and accessories department–a younger more streamlined Celine-esque sub-in for the Birkins they don’t stock. Obviously we don’t carry Hermes bags in the store so we were trying to find some-thing that appeals to that customer who is willing to spend a lot of money on a bag that’s going to last a long time and has a classic design.” Amanda has always been quoted saying “If you were ever going to spend $39,000 on a bag, that’s the bag you should buy” Now with constant fashion shows happening its easy to get swept up off your feet and get infused into a fash-ion fuelled high this is the only way I can get my head around anyone buying this

backpack. Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen are smart, who ever is buying these backpacks has more money than sense and the Olsen’s have definitely taken advantage of the se-lect few in the world.$39,000 is the average starting teacher salary, spent on one bag… At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day. Now remember that the next time you de-cide to splurge on a backpack.