Quick flick – Pigeons & Peacocks

p. 80 “As we know, fashion is never just about clothing.”

Pigeons & Peacocks is a sumptuous fashion and culture magazine printed annually and created in collaboration with London College of Fashion. It positions itself as uniquely free of advertising and as a mixing of industry and graduate talent. It’s dense and delicious and the photography is seriously cool.

For those less inclined towards the clothes and more inclined towards the culture, the first half of the magazine is your smorgasbord of irreverent and bitingly witty editorial.

In this fourth issue, P&P sets forth on an exploration of nostalgia beginning with an ode to the North of England containing subheadings such as tea, net curtains, grandmas, lumpy knits, sunbed abusers, and woodchip, as well as a section on Northern Style Heroes, which is superbly illustrated by Marcus Oakley. As editor in chief and creative director John William writes, ‘Northern working class identity is so tightly bound with notions of British nostalgia; and those golden days of yesteryear when community spirit (if we believe what we see on Coronation Street) was as thick as Lily Savage’s accent.’

For those of you with an ability to dress well and an interest in it, the remainder of the issue looks at fashions including menswear by some of the most promising next-generation designers, the fabrics and jewellery of West African country Benin shot by Saga Sig and styled by John William, and an essay unpicking the Theory of The Hipster and Hipster Style. The perspectives are sharp and the musings on fashion’s collision course with culture run thoughtfully throughout.

If you haven’t turned the pages of P&P before, you must. It’s a delight.