Theo Adams Company members Theo Adams and Isamaya Ffrench have collaborated to create "Life Is Ridiculously Awesome' an NYC character study for King Kong Magazine's Transformation Issue. Isamaya transformed into 12 characters in NYC in 24 hours.
Photography Sayaka Maruyama | Hair & Bespoke Wigs Tomihiro Kono | Model & Makeup Isamaya Ffrench | Styling Nick Royal | Artistic Direction Theo Adams
Photo by Darrell Berry
On September 15th Theo Adams Company presented a site-specific immersive work titled The Resurrection for the relaunch of the iconic Italian Brand Fiorucci. More images and full credits on our Project page HERE
Selected Press from the Project:
"It really takes a lot to get me to willingly go out on an evening after shows in London Fashion Week—or any Fashion Week, come to that—but I couldn’t jam my finger on the RSVP yes button fast enough when I opened an emailed invitation for Friday night. It read “Fiorucci: Resurrection Presented by Theo Adams Company.” It’s happening at L’Escargot, an old established restaurant over many floors in Soho and the main attraction? Well, Fiorucci is a fond memory so I’m curious, but it’s Theo Adams who’s the main magnet." Sarah Mower for American Vogue
The kind of party that many brands would kill for: achingly cool, outrageously oversubscribed and lots of fun. Having Theo Adams as the event’s creative director certainly helped. Adams, a performance artist and director of the contemporary theatrical performance group Theo Adams Company, was tasked with creating a multisensory performance party inspired by the “Giallo” Italian film genre of Fiorucci’s heyday of the Seventies and Eighties. For this, he emptied L’Escargot, London’s oldest French restaurant, and turned it into a madcapworld of disco and hedonism, complete with framed soccer jerseys and pizza-by-the-slice, and using music, performance, dance, set design, video, lighting and fashion to bring his vision to life. In one room, a bedroom, the door was shut every hour, trapping whoever was inside into a mad performance involving feathers, explosions and loud music; at the Fiorucci Risorante, waiters emerged every 20 minutes to sing “Happy Birthday” to someone random; on the top floor, Ruth Brown, a soul singer with an incredible voice, gave two intimate performances; drag queens dressed in Fiorucci 2.0 throughout, and London fashion favorite DJs James Hillard and Jim Stanton of Horse Meat Disco kept guests shaking on the dance floor." WWD
"For all the spectacles that took place on the runways of London Fashion Week, it was at the after-parties where the real fun began. The heaving Fiorucci party last Friday, was a case in point. Amid the heavy smoke and foggy mirrors of the labyrinthine townhouse that is home to L’Escargot restaurant in Soho, scantily clad actors and performers from the Theo Adams Company created a wild series of immersive rooms inspired by the “giallo” Italian film genre of the 1970s (a.k.a. the Fiorucci glory days). A fearsome troupe of drag queens guarded the door, as dozens of ambitious crashers crowded outside. Inside, the staircases were jammed with the city’s brightest young things. Think British models including Edie Campbell and Georgia May Jagger, or the designer Charles Jeffrey in a painted face and cobalt blue suit. Lethal martini vermouth cocktails flowed with abandon. A specially shipped Italian pizzeria oven on the third floor pumped out slices to ravenous partygoers until the early morning hours." New York Times
"Halston, Gucci, Fiorucci,” sang the godmothers of disco music, Sister Sledge, once upon a dance floor. And at the relaunch of cult Italian brand Fiorucci, the legacy of “He’s The Greatest Dancer” was still very much alive. Last night’s greatest dancer, or dancers, came in the form of the Theo Adams Company, the explosive and enigmatic performance collective. Akin to the Michael Clark Company, who were famous throughout the ’80s and beyond for their equally wild performances, Adam’s crew were certainly no wallflowers among the mixed media happenings in every room of the labyrinth-like venue of London’s oldest French restaurant, L’Escargot—which ranged from rolling around in a makeshift bed to singers belting out ballads. While Horse Meat Disco provided the tunes, an almighty array of old and new Fiorucci fans came forward for what one reveler was heard dubbing, “the best London Fashion Week party I’ve ever been to." American Vogue
"Fiorucci is back in the world and marking its eagerly awaited London store launch with a party featuring the Theo Adams Company. At the men’s shows in June, the choreographer’s spirited performance at Hoi Polloi was widely praised as the event of the week, celebrating the youthful guts embodied by the London shows. This is the show international guests should see." British Vogue
"Tonight we’re going to party like its 1981. In London’s oldest French restaurant, L’Escargot, Fiorucci relaunched with the inimitable help of the Theo Adams Company. Theo’s amazing work was entitled The Resurrection, in keeping with the brand’s quasi-religious second fashion coming. Fiorucci might be Italian, but it is so synonymous with the New York of Danceteria, subway graffiti, block parties, the Bronx and John Jellybean Benitez it might just as well come with its own boombox and extended remix. On an autumnal night in 2017 in Soho (London variant), Theo Adams took us there for a party that rampaged into the wee small hours. Adams response to the brand’s brief was inspired, he said by ‘Italian Giallo theatre and the death of the disco. Everything from the food and drink served to the trash on the floor has been meticulously considered.’ Considered Trash could well be a concept for next season’s LFW. For a night, it was all kicking off at a discreet and tasteful French bistro named after the snail. ‘It’s full of performance, soul, hedonism and horror,’ he explained. Adams cut his teeth in London nightlife, as a North London schoolkid, sneaking his way underage way into the best soirees. His sophisticated performance instinct is tied to the night. He has always defied gender constrictions and brought trailing in his wake a thorough understanding of what it means to perform as if your life depends on it. ‘This is not a fashion party,’ he said. ‘It is a space where your worst nightmares and most euphoric dreams become a reality.’ Literally, everyone came out to play." LOVE Magazine
'The Creators Issue' of ES Magazine, ‘introducing Theo Adams, London’s hottest party starter,’ profiles key Theo Adams Company figures within a 7-page cover feature, entitled ‘In Good Company,’ starring founder and creative director Theo Adams, movement director Nando Messias, beauty director Isamaya Ffrench, musical director Jordan Hunt, wardrobe designer Ed Marler, choreographer Masumi Saito, set designer Alice Kirkpatrick, and performers Sophia Brown, Helen Noir, Yen-Ching Lin, and Mariya Mizuno.
Shot by Dima Hohlov and styled by Nick Royal, with make up by beauty director Isamaya Ffrench and hair by Shiori Takahashi, ES Magazine’s Frankie McCoy meets ‘London’s coolest collective to find out how the magic happens.’
Commenting on Theo Adams, Gwendoline Christie tells ES Magazine: ‘We worked together and I screamed with laughter like nothing else and was so deeply moved at how he empowered us as a company, facilitated our expression, recognised us as individuals and encouraged us to throw our hands up to heaven and celebrate ourselves coming together in an ecstatic rhythm of joy.’
Theo Adams Company's choreographer Masumi Saito has been away in Japan over the summer. Watch here to see what she has been getting up to!
Film Guy Wigmore & Masumi Saito | Music Ryuichi Sakamoto
Following three solo works dedicated to the exploration of the Sissy, Theo Adams Company’s movement director Nando Messias returns this October with a grand finale one-off performance at Toynbee Studios, London on Thursday, 12th October.
Co-starring Theo Adams Company’s Jordan Hunt and co-directed by Theo Adams
Costumes by Ed Marler & Make-Up by Anna Lewenhaupt
12th of October 2017 - 7:30 pm
Toynbee Studios, 28 Commercial Street, E1 6AB, London
Photo by Darrell Berry
As part of their ongoing ‘Hoi Polloi Commissions’ series, Pablo Flack and David Waddington invited the Theo Adams Company to create a site specific work to celebrate the close of London Fashion Week Men’s, which culminated in a theatrical performance entitled Choreomania - Dinner Dance , which took place on June 12th 2017 within Ace Hotel London Shoreditch. Full gallery of documentation and credits HERE
"The most fun I’ve had at a party almost ever happened this summer, when Adams, who stages immersive theater happenings, was commissioned by restaurateurs David Waddington and Pablo Flack to lay on a dinner experience and a half at Hoi Polloi at the Ace Hotel in East London. " American Vogue
'To celebrate the end of LFWM earlier this week, the Theo Adams Company - a collective of brilliant performers whose avant garde theatrics have been tapped by everyone from Louis Vuitton and Liberty of London to, more recently, Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY's SS18 show - transformed the Ace London Hotel's Hoi Polloi into a Dry Cleaners-cum-speakeasy inspired by illegal 80s Cha Chaan Tengs. "We wanted to transform people to another time and place and take them on a truly emotional rollercoaster," said the group's founder Theo Adams of the event. "Parodying the world of fashion events while celebrating all its ridiculousness in the most spectacular and cathartic way possible." Reba Maybury DJed, after the collective spent a night singing showtunes in a setting that included pink loo roll and carnation-adorned tables.' LOVE Magazine
"On a quiet Monday night in east London, the city's emerging fashion scene came together in a celebration of the spring/summer 18 men's shows they'd just completed. David Waddington and Pablo Flack served grilled cheese sandwiches at Hoi Polloi, Mandi Lennard played sprechteilmeister, and Theo Adams directed his troupe of flamboyant performers in a magnificent stage show with fabulous costumes by Ed Marler. Around the tables, you could see London's famous fashion faces lighting up: Charles Jeffrey, Craig Green, Edie Campbell, Stephen Jones, Edward Meadham, Molly Goddard, Tim Walker, Sarah Mower. Everyone was there, not for the air-kissing and networking but for London's unparalleled fashion community. To the outside industry, it could seem like a circus, but in this city there's no such thing as mindless fun. Choreomania, as the evening was called, was a manifesto to fashion, to London and to its outside world. A familiar one, perhaps, but as important as ever: in this city, in this pocket of the industry, great fashion happens because creatives stand together, support each other, and retain an undying sense of optimism--even if they embrace the gloom, too.." i-D
Theo Adams Company directed Charles Jeffrey's SS18 show as part of London Fashion Week Mens. -
"A dance performance choreographed by The Theo Adams Company sent a throng of pink, cardboard clad figures around the catwalk in what felt like an alternative nativity scripted by Quentin Crisp and Boy George." Wallpaper*
"The ‘we’ and the ‘our’ is the collective point about the Loverboy phenomenon. Jeffrey is less a singular design genius—though his particular talent is painterly, spontaneous illustration—than a ringmaster and pied piper of many who have formed a movement sprung straight out of the British art school tradition. Working from a subsidized studio in Somerset House, Jeffrey orchestrates the performance director Theo Adams and 3-D costume designers Gary Card and Jack "Appleyard, calls on former Central Saint Martins classmate Richard Quinn for prints and the expert seamstress Sybil Rouge for tailoring... What was most remarkable here was the sense of transformative joy rather than anger that Charles Jeffrey and company communicate together. Choosing to be cheerful is in itself an act of defiance against the forces of darkness, and that feeling ran right through the audience." Vogue
Director - Theo Adams | Soundtrack - Jordan Hunt | Choreography - Masumi Saito
Theo Adams Company's Isamaya Ffrench and Theo Adams have teamed up for a new photo series for Tom Ford & Paper Magazine. CLICK HERE to view the series.
Artistic Direction - Theo Adams | Creative Direction, Makeup and Model - Isamaya Ffrench | Photographer - Josh Wilks | Styling - Nick Royal | Hair - Shiori Takahashi
Theo Adams Company created the show for ArtSchool's debut presentation for Fashion East during London Fashion Week Mens at the Topman Space at the Old Selfridges Hotel
Director – Theo Adams | Soundtrack – Jordan Hunt | Choreography – Masumi Saito | Set Design - Alice Kirkpatrick
Featuring Theo Adams Company members Sophia Brown, Anna Lewenhaupt & Mariya Mizuno and TAC collaborator Pippa Brooks
“It was a tender, sweet, dramatic thing to see, this birth of the new Art School label, clearly done on a shoestring, but with facilitating help from so many quarters—Lulu Kennedy’s Fashion East for one, and the amazing young director Theo Adams, for another.” Sarah Mower -Vogue
“The models included dancers from the Theo Adams Company. The energetic presentation was set to a half-hour soundtrack that blended music and spoken word. The sounds of Judi Dench reciting “Macbeth,” the score of “Bugsy Malone” and orchestral piano were heard over the dancers and models acting out their drama rehearsal.” The New York Times
“Non-models free-formed to Adams’s direction with a freedom matched only by the interpretative tolerance of their clothes. This was bespoke otherness—so, hardly buyable in mass units for department stores—but it was unfettered, liberated from libido, and pure. It was fashion. You won’t see this in Milan.” Vogue
