A Classic.

I love these images from the new SS/11 Dr Marten's collection.

The two models in the film are Phoenix Richmond and Louis Simonon (the son of the bassist from The Clash). Their look really catches the iconic feel and sense of the Dr Marten boot- this workwear, gritty punk look, but with a modern feel, with the clean lines of the styling.

Jamie Morgan, the photographer for this collection, has really captured the look of the brand within these images, you can understand he has real knowledge and style sense of the brand. I love the use of the stacked lacquered black chairs and the concrete blocks, the colours work really well with the shoes and the simple styling. Phoenix looks fab in her khaki green parka and those bottle green Dr Martens.

I love good old traditional brands that stick, and Dr Marten's will always be a classic.

The classic It bag

Is it me or is the IT bag of the season, from the gorgeous Phoebe Philo for Celine, the new Hermes Constance bag? They look very similar non?

Vintage Hermes Burgandy Constance bag.


RTW Fall/10 Celine handbag

I am in love with Love

The fragrance by Chloé

Y.S.L Right place...right time.

I wish I lived in NYC....on the 14th of September, the streets of NYC will be filled with the yummy Y.S.L Fall 10 manifesto- the chic, gorgeous fashion pamphlet will be handed out in the streets.

The seventh edition of the Manifesto features Daria Werbowy in this season's YSL, shot by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin under the creative direction of Stefano Pilati. Not only do you get the yummy manifesto but a stunning zippered cotton bag that comes with it.

I mean it is fab that I can see it immediately on the net but it's nothing like the real thing. If anyone manages to grab one (Following New York, copies will be handed out September 18 on the streets of Paris, London, Milan, Tokyo, Hong Kong and, for the first time, Beirut) please give me a glimpse of the real thing.

A Style Icon

I bought a magazine the other day and read a fab interview featuring the very stylish, former model and fashion muse of the late Yves Saint Laurent. In fact Yves has been known to have called her his twin sister.

The model? Betty Catroux.

Y.S.L is a brand that I class as one of my favourite brands, ever since I can remember I have loved the androgynous look and Y.S.L is a brand that definatly embraces this confident, sexy look. So when I read said article I quickly logged on to check out the history of Yves' muse and seriously, this girl has lived!

Catroux has been an inspiration to many in the fashion industry; Hedi Slimane, Tom Ford, Stefano Pilati and as mentioned Yves Saint Laurent. Over what sounds like an amazing 40 decades, this lucky lady has sat at the right-hand of one of the most creative, stylish and chic designers that the fashion world has ever had the priveledge of knowing. In the interview she discussed her relationship with Yves, saying,

'Eventually everyone else fell away and it was just the two of us. We lived in a golden cage...a closed world of our own making'.

Catroux is famed for her unique look, and after looking through many images of her I can truely understand Yves liking of her: in some images I can see characteristics of the late and incredible Y.S.L. Her look is very much the new season too- she has a 60's vibe about her and her long, blonde locks remind me of the 1970's feel we have seen on the catwalk for fall.


'I think that Yves sensed that we were alike inside; we had the same anguish and the same ups and downs - wanting to die every five minutes then wanting to dance'.


'A sense of humour in life is an enormous bonus'.


'Yves and I never talked about fashion; I hate fashion. We just talked about what we felt and what we thought'.


'We didn't want to grow up, and our dream was to live a never-ending childhood'.

AW10 Wardrobe lusts

I'm really excited about the new season pieces. The trends this season I love too, especially the camel colour palette-it's absolutely gorgeous. Some pieces i'm gonna buy into for AW10 will hint towards the ladylike trend-mainly the box ladylike handbags and some kitten heels but then on a complete opposite I wanna buy a heavy, chunky knit sweater in a nude tone and belt it with a skinny tan belt. I'm gonna buy some key simple knits too and style them with pearls or gold trinket necklaces too. In regards to keeping my feet all snuggly I'm gonna invest in some super soft loafers and some shearling trimmed booties.

What you guys gonna buy into for the new season?

Boxy Lady Leather bag, Topshop, £50


Brown Loafers, River Island, £39.99


Ribbed Tunic, Next, £30


Fine Knit grey sweater, Next, £16

Scarlett Johansson for MANGO- the adverts.

Have you guys seen the new Mango AW10 ad campaign, featuring, again, the natural beauty that is Scarlett Johansson?

I don't really buy Mango clothing, mainly because we don't have a store near by, but when I visit a city and I see a store I go in to check out all the lovely accessories and timeless fashion pieces. I like the companies advertisig campaigns too- specifically when Penelope Cruz became the face of the brand, and I do like Scarlett in the new campaign but I just feel the picture editors have taken away some of Scarlett's universal look. She is known to be quite curvacious and in my opinion she opposes 'the celebrity' look.

The ad campaign was shot by photographer Mario Sorrenti in Los Angeles: the stylist, Camilla Nickerson, make-up artist Stéphane Marais and hair stylist Oribe, completed the team for the shoot. Each artist here is amazing at what they do, the picture editors really don't need to photoshop the image to the extent they seem to have done for this campaign.

What do you guys think about the campaign?

GAP: Premium Pant Collection

Has everyone seen the new 'hot-pants' at GAP?? No I'm not talking teeny tiny shorts, I'm talking the amazingly stylish Premium Pant collection GAP has brought to our fashion beady eyes.

There's 8 key fits so there's something for everyone. From the press images I have seen, they all look really yummy. I think I'm going to invest in the relaxed cropped trousers. With this pair I would dress them down with a camel coloured tank top, tucked in at the waist with brogues or I would put it with a coloured leopard print T and some amazing heeled boots and you have your saturday night outfit sorted. Mind you, the other fits would do the same thing....the slim cropped, really skinny and the modern bootcut (which is THE trouser shape for AW10).

If you want to read more about these yummy new fits, read this.

The Untold Stories

Anyone else absolutely loving the new Fred Perry campaign colour scheme in their advertising?! Beautiful..

Mod 1959




I love the graphic design layout of this footwear image

Footwear 1957

Clothing: what does it say about us?

Today we had the design history lecture where we watched a documentry on 3 designers and their design houses.

Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, Ralph Lauren for Ralph Lauren and Shawn Stussy for Stussy.

Watching the documentry really highlighted to me how much has changed when considering a catwalk show, especially as London fashion week has just passed, with most of their shows live streamed over the net. The abundance of the usual celebrity clad front row wasn't apparent at many of the shows in the late 80's early 90's (the year of the documentry): the front rows consisted heavily of the photographers who brought to the world all the new trends and showed a glimpse of the glamourous fashion lifestyle. A lovely quote, one which is very distinctive of the times now I loved;

'Fashion became a mingle of the road and runway':

what with all the street style websites and now, famous photographers for street style, Tommy Ton, Scott Schmann and Facehunter to name a few, this idea of the way a design happens has flipped, it now seems to come from the streets upwards rather than the other way around, this idea seemed to be noticeable even at this time.

We were introduced to Karl Lagerfeld, who could not stop working! He constantly drew design after design after design during the interview, which was quite charming to see how he thinks, visually, upfront. The narrator of the documentry spoke of how a certain design piece, here being the Chanel handbag, communicates a certain status and shared values between specific people, which I highly agree with, and after finalising my essay yesterday, the idea of the role of clothing and what it says about someone is still present in my mind. I find the idea of how people want to become a part of the brand, simply by buying a product from the brand no matter how small, one thats interesting to notice.

Then in a totally different design theme if you like, we were introduced to Shawn Stussy the founder of the 1980's company Stussy. His pieces played aeround with Chanel's design identity with their double, interlinked C's. Stussy had, wether obviously chosen (which I belive it was) taken the idea of the interlinking C's and had as a logo on his pieces, interlinking S's. Stussy states that he wants to be a brand that is exclusive, the company hardly did any advertising, as as the narrator says, the customer freely advertisies the clothing literally on their back. Stussy concludes that if your clothing is made well, and doesn't drop off the customer then really, no advertising is needed. The key product for Stussy being the hat, as the narrator says

'The hat is the Chanel bag of street culture'

Faux-male

My love of androgony hails from Helmut Newtons iconic, sultry photograph of a woman dressed in YSL's Le smoking. I love the image and how it changed the idea of women's fashions and also what it stated at the time of the shot. So when I read an article about YSL's new label, Unisex YSL, I became very enthusiaistic to read on.

YSL's Creative director Stefano Pilati, has created a collection that takes pieces from the menswear collection and has adapted the garments for the female form. The clothes have simple elegance and are in a lovely colour palette of greys, beiges and black.


Yummy.

The 3 B'S.

I came across this really cool poster for the first edition of the Barcelona Streetwear Show, The Brandery in Berlin. Confirmed exhibitors include Armand Basi, Reebok and Lacoste.

That is all. :)

Portobello!

For uni we had to decide on a place to visit in ldn with a tutor. We could choose between Central, Camden market, Brick Lane or Portobello market.....well, i thought, i have been to camden and central so it was a hard decision between brick lane and portobello. We needed to keep in mind our tribe for our project too whilst on this visit so this then swayed me to go to brick lane, as i heard that there is a lot of graffiti art around and this would be great for my tribe but then when jo (my lecturer) mentioned that portobello, on a friday had a huge market, more orientated to fashion, i immediatley had my mind made up for me!

And what a decision! Portobello was amazing, on our walk to the exhibition we were going to (at the Brands and Packaging museum) we passed several houses all candy colours-pinks, blues, lilacs and soft greens, some of the homes renovated into small ldn memorabilia stalls. The houses reminded me of some of the homes i saw whilst on a holiday i had about 3/4 years ago, when i went to cornwall where by the beach there were a lot of houses all rainbow coloured, so my first impression of portobello was one with excitement.

The exhibition was really useful also, i concentrated on looking at the slogans and the way in which brands had different 'points of display' boards and i looked at the types of people brands used, mainly animated/illustrated women, to sell the products. The exhibition space was quite small and sometimes a little colostrofobic at times but the small old teddies and toys and sweeties gave you that little bit of comfort!

After the museum visit, me and Faith, my friend, needed a coffee, but not until we had tried (highly recommended i will add) the cup cakes from an amazingly beautiful bakery The Hummingbird. The cakes were unbelievable and the smell that pulled you inside was so gorgeous and yummy, i wanted to literally eat the air! I orded a black bottom cupcake which had a chocolate sponge base with cheesecake cream and buttercream icing on top-mmmm!..

After, we grabbed a coffee in a small cafe, (where they had these really cute mugs without any handles) but the coffee was so good and desperatley needed to give us the energy for the afternoon.....

If you guys have never been to Portobello market before, you should definately go! The place is huge so maybe plan for the whole day there! On the walk up to the market i passed lots of stalls mostly selling gorgeous dresses fit for any occasion-weddings, nights out, uni wear....all priced at £15 each-bargain! They were stunning too, i literally could have spent all my money on dresses the choice was so vast. Anywhooo so we got to the market and literally i felt as though i was in a huge charity shop, a fabulous one at that. In the 4/5 hours we spent at the market alone, i came across Prada navy jumpers at £30! a Christian Dior blue velvet suit at £150! So many racks of Hermes lookaliky scarfs some at £5 each and some in a huge bucket that me and faith were looking in for a good 20 mins that cost you a £1! Also the amount of leather satchels i saw too! So many!! They were stunning- some in tan, black quilted, soft brown, patched worked....the place was a gold mine- you just need to prepare yourself with a coffee to shop.

After our fantastic hunt through the market walking back to the station this again took us about 3 hours as we just saw so many gorgeous things and shops on the way we had to stop off. This one shop named One of a kind, was unbelievable. We had to press a doorbell for the shop assistant to let us through and when we got through the doors you could understand why, it was like walking into narnia, just not as cold! Clothes were everywhere....falling from the ceiling, coming out of the walls, racks and racks of colour coordinated clothing all of which looked like they belonged in a jumble sale but the price didnt give me this feeling! The music had a huge base too which you could feel in your throat the whole experience was so amazing..all the colours, patterns and noises literally took our breath away, also the fact that the shop has many celebrity fans in which any of them could walk in at any given time, the adrenaline was surreal.

Before we got the best slice of pizza i had had in a long time, we visited a shop called Maribou where we met this lovely woman who owns the shop. The shop sells all hand made clothing specialising in using old fabrics including brocades velvet lace and silk. We had a great chat together, i learnt a lot from the chat alone and i may use Roberto (the owner) for my creative person profile essay i have to do soon. The shop had a very quirky sense, with its bright pink walls and hand made dreamlike face desk, the shop was really inspiring as was Roberto. She told us her life story and i learnt we have a lot in common not just that we both are from yorkshire but obviously our creative brain and our love for fashion. She made it prominent that she doesn't get inspired by the trends of today she just makes the garments she has in her creative mind, she believes;

"You are born with a creative brain, a uni degree cannot give you that".

I agree with her but its shops like hers that do inspire along with her attitude.

Overall the day was great, i loved it- the company, the exhibition, Roberto but most of all the place, Portobello market i will be seeing you very soon!