Laura Callaghan captures evolving street style for Riposte

Last week the third issue of Danielle Pender’s Riposte magazine was launched and after she and designer Shaz Madani set such a high bar with the first two issues, we were interested to see how they’d followed up their previous success. The early indications are very good. Although we haven’t seen a copy in the flesh we have had a sneak peek at some of the content and once again the title’s smart curatorial approach is very much in evidence.

We were particularly interested to see one of our favourite illustrators Laura Callaghan provide the images for Nina Manandhar’s excellent piece on the evolution of street style down the decades. It’s an impressive mix of the academic and analytical on the one hand but also nicely personal on the other and charts how the customs and rituals of dressing to impress have changed with the arrival of social media and the like.

“In youth, the body becomes a walking shrine to newfound obsessions, cultures and collective rituals that bond friends and define enemies,” Nina writes. “Today’s young people can be seen 24/7; the hashtag and the selfie fuse with the flesh to make a maximal connection. Despite the emergence and expansion of our virtual selves, in youth the physical body still endures as a site of expression and communication for connecting the individual to his or her wider world.

“Young people will always express themselves through style and fashion. Although the flow and pace of trends has been transformed, almost beyond recognition by the internet, there will always be the next gang making their mark in their own way through the clothes they wear.”

Danielle explains that they have long wanted to work with Laura. “We’ve admired Laura’s work for a while now. The essay on What We Wore focusses on exactly the kind of characters that inhabit Laura’s world. We could imagine her bringing to life the bedroom scenarios where teenagers test out different styles and personalities through the various decades referenced in the essay. Her attention to detail was really key in bringing out the nuances of each era – the pop icon references of the 80s, the label obsessions of 90s UK Garage etc. We also wanted the piece to have a real colour and vibrancy to it which Laura’s work has definitely brought.”

From the 1970s right up to generation YouTube, Laura’s work manages to capture each decade’s look and feel in evocative and atmospheric ways.