London knit wear designer,
Bella Freud, regularly combines film and fashion to showcase her work and this year Freud worked with BAFTA award winning director, Martina Amati, to launch her autumn/winter 2011 collection with the short film, ‘Submission’. Martina is a Roger Gracie white belt and she set out to create an innovative piece using a jiu jitsu theme, in particular a women in BJJ theme. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to be a part of this project along
with three ladies from Roger Gracie Academy Katherine Hill, Joanna Ziovronowicz and Lauren Toleikis. We provided background sparring work and helped prepare the professional talent to execute their choreography. Big respect to the actors who made a huge effort to do their BJJ moves correctly; we all know jits is not an easy thing to do and even with years of experience filmed action will show up flaws, much less after a only few days’ intensive learning. Bella included some way cute wrestling-inspired knitted knee and elbow pads along with fabulous knitted jumpers and body suits in her collection and while fun and fruity I’d caution that training partners in sequin trousers will leave your skin looking like a cat’s been at it (especially if you’re not wearing much yourself!). So, in an unexpected twist, I’ve joined Britney Spears and Marge Simpson as women showcasing BJJ in mainstream media; well, at least artsy niche media. Check it out!
18 Sep 2011 @ 4:29 pm
Awesome, love it Meg!
18 Sep 2011 @ 4:39 pm
Thanks, Becky! Was an interesting experience with some people right outside my normal little subculture. Glad to have partaken.
18 Sep 2011 @ 6:56 pm
Ah, I was wondering what was behind it, as I had no idea who Bella Freud was until reading your post. I saw the vid linked on Joanna’s Facebook, expecting some kind of documentary type thing on RGA, and instead got…well, not that! ๐
Looks like a fun project to be involved with: Bella Freud knitted gis in the future, perhaps? :p
18 Sep 2011 @ 7:29 pm
It was definitely an intriguing experience. I really liked the cat jumper Katherine wore but I wouldn’t recommend rolling in knit wear as it is pretty gross-feeling when sweaty ๐
Link it Up, 9.20.2011 | A Skirt on the Mat
20 Sep 2011 @ 5:59 pm
[…] Meg showcases her rockstar status ย and talks about how she was in a video of models in knit leotards and doing wrestling…while a narrator talked about being a pirate….To launch a designers […]
25 Sep 2011 @ 8:04 am
Looks like fun!
25 Sep 2011 @ 11:24 am
It was a lit of work and my part of the project was very small! Interesting getting a glimpse of the film world.
26 Sep 2011 @ 3:11 pm
Love it…watching again…
26 Sep 2011 @ 3:38 pm
Thanks, Megan, that’s very kind. It is pretty interesting and entertaining. As one person put it, ‘the strangest bit of BJJ cinematography he’d ever seen’ – HAHA! Glad I was able to mix it up and participate in the project.
24 Oct 2011 @ 9:01 pm
Loved that clip Meg, it was well thought out and yet the ju-jitsu moves were sensual yet effortlessly effective…I liked the shoulder throw that was partially obscured by the flowing drapery as she looked like she was taking her into an armbar finish…all beautifully executed…Would have liked to have seen a beautiful tomoenage in there, I thought I saw what might have been the end of one earlier on in the clip but it was very fleeting, any more in the pipeline ?
Graham
25 Oct 2011 @ 8:41 am
Hi Graham, glad you liked it! The throw was done by Susie Bick (http://models.com/models/susie-bick) and I was very impressed by her effort to get things right in the prep before the shoot and on the day. She did a great job with that!
This was a one-off, jits-inspired shoot for Bella’s collection that I happened to be invited to participate in and I am not currently pursuing similar projects. You never know!