MY CULTURAL LIFE
Natalie B Coleman, fashion designer
Fashion designer Natalie B Coleman established a design studio and launched her eponymous label in 2011. She has partnered with the United Nations Population Fund on a collaborative AW19 Sisters collection. The title ‘Sisters’ is influenced by the powerful bonds that exist between women and girls in our contemporary global society, and the need for these bonds in times of rapid and turbulent social change. Natalie will present her AW19 collection today at London Fashion Week at the Discover Lab before bringing it to Tranoi Showroom for Paris Fashion Week. She lectures on fashion and design at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin and is married to Paul Dowling, who is head of the communication and design department at NCAD. They have a 10-month- old son, Odin and an almost three-year-old daughter, Eden. Natalie is a native of Co Monaghan. nataliebcoleman.com
Film: Betty Blue
I am super indecisive so I had to pick two films. My first one is Betty Blue. I watched this first as a teenager and fell in love with Beatrice Dalle as Betty, I loved the passion, the music, the dungarees, the madness... It made me want to be French and drink coffee from a bowl. Second is Grey Gardens ,an American documentary made by the Maysles brothers. I came across this as a video tape in a bargain bin and based my degree collection around the mother and daughter’s relationship. Again, it is a poignant beautiful unravelling love story.
Song: You Don’t Own Me
Music-wise, I still have a soft spot for old Eminem. Run Rabbit Run used to be my drunk karaoke. Currently in the studio I am listening to The Blaze, Coco Rosie, Antony and the Johnsons, (Bird Gerhl, my always love) Tierra Whack, she is incredible. I change from country to punk to metal, but if I had to pick just one sonng that I have always loved from a kid it would be Lesley Gore’s You Don’t Own Me .I have fond memories of riding around Thailand on the back of motorbikes when I was in my early twenties screaming this at the top of my lungs waiting for my life to implode.
Artwork: Red Kings
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Red Kings. I am just as fascinated by his life as his work, and he made this piece when he was only 21. I also love that his work is so message-based, the combination of images and texts, but ultimately I think it is the bluntness and sarcasm in his work that I connect with and really it is incredible that his art is still redefining culture now.
Design: Anglepoise Lamp
The Anglepoise Lamp is probably quite a boring one but I was obsessed with having one when I was a teenager and I still remember getting my first one for a tenner in a local second-hand store. I spent a long afternoon trying to find it again in my dad’s house recently but no luck.
Book: My Brilliant Friend
Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend. I am just on the last book in the four-book series. It is set in 1950s Naples. I love that the smallness of life is made large and beautiful and important. The writing also captures that particular complicated intensity in young female friendships. I read it in one weekend and then got the other three — perfect maternity books.