HAPPY thoughts with Basso & Brooke

"Sexy"

The fashion career of the British duo Bruno Basso & Chris Brooke began at the top. The Gardens of Earthly Delight collection, which consisted of glamorous and intentionally vulgar dresses with extravagant designs, won them the 2004 Fashion Fringe, a British fashion prize of no less than £100,000 plus all the support imaginable and the production facilities for the launch of a label. "I immediately knew we would win," says Brooke.
Basso & Brooke hope to cause confusion with their sexy and hysterically designed outfits. They play with aesthetic concepts and people’s bad taste. It is often impossible to decipher the original idea in their eventual designs.
Chris Brooke (b. 1974 ) is a graduate of the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. As a stylist he has dressed pop stars such as Kylie Minogue for music videos. He started the label Basso & Brooke with the Brazilian graphic designer Bruno Basso (b. 1978).
In 2006 they won the Elle Style Award for Best New Designers. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired one of their vibrant dresses. For Swarovski’s ‘Crystal Palace’ exhibition in Milan, Basso & Brooke designed an enormous chandelier with crystals that were laser-etched with their own designs.

Arnhem Mode Biennale checked in with Chris Brooke and Bruno Basso and their thoughts on HAPPY.

What makes you happy?
Chris: Louis, our French bulldog.
Bruno: My B&O headphones and some very wet, syrupy Greek cakes.

1. Which piece of clothing makes you the happiest?
   Chris: Nice, new, clean underpants.
   Bruno: My usual old T-shirts.

2. Things you can’t live without:
   Chris: Wine and pencils.
   Bruno: Internet.

3. Why are you crazy about fashion?
   Chris: I’m not.
   Bruno: I’m not.

4. What was the message of your most recent show?
   Chris: World peace.
   Bruno: Things turn, move, tremble…

5. Can fashion make the world a better place?
   Chris: If you take what you want from it, of course.
   Bruno: If colour brings you happiness I would say yes.

6. What’s the status of fashion today?
   Chris: Anything goes.
   Bruno: Multimedia, or going towards it.

7. What’s your happiest moment so far?
   Chris: The day Bruno was born.
   Bruno: The day I was born, I suppose.

8. What’s the colour of happiness?
   Chris: English countryside green.
   Bruno: A mix of them, but bright and vivid green usually makes me happy.

9. What’s your wish for the future?
   Chris: Constant change.
   Bruno: Constancy and to keep myself driven.

http://www.bassoandbrooke.com