Armand Basi brings Sheer Bliss

While viewing Armand Basi's Spring / Summer 09 collection, a previous buy sprung to mind, a sheer top I got a little while ago mainly because it had a dragon print on it, however seeing this collection led to a few improvisations with the sheer top which has become one of my favourite pieces in my wardrobe at the moment...

Music meets Fashion

Music and Fashion often intersects and I love artists that often do this, over the last few years, there has been a rise in Female musicians who take pride in their personal style, for example the likes of Roisin Murphy, Dandi Wind, Ebony Bones, and so many more.

There have been some more female musicians I have recently become very fond of, not just their music but more with their personal style which I thought I might share with you all, here are a few of my favourites

The Broken Hearts - Includes Nisha Thirkell and Amber Jane Butchart, influenced by the likes of Josephine Baker and Marlene Dietrich, their style is very retro, vintage, 20's flapper girls.

Bishi - Multi Instrumentalist, music sounds like folk with a mix of electronic and style is very glamorous with minimal haute couture details.

and Finally Paloma Faith - sounds very soulful and jazz inspired, style includes very pretty dresses and vintage pieces.

Some of this pictures were taken by photographer Pavla Kopecna, who takes a whole lot of great pictures, you can see some more of her work here and here.

I particularly love Paloma's stage costume's, some of which have been designed by Petra storss which offer services such as designing stage costumes, art direction and Props. Some clients include the likes of NME Magazine.

This is the mirror dress...

She was also featured in an animated short film which was a project by Petra Stross. The dress here is known as the Paper Dress, each part of the dress is torn off to reveal a red dress beneath, the video below shows the process.

Paper and pistol mixes Graphics with Fashion

You like Candy coloured tights, huge prints, polka dots, everything glittery... well looks like Pepper and Pistols Aw 08 Collection called underworld might just be your cup of tea.

Pepper and Pistol is a women's wear label whose trademark includes custom prints. The designers often include a great deal of details to their pieces with the use of airy voile's and shiny silks.

The label is by German designer duo Katrin Weins and Silvia Hillman. Silvia has worked with the likes of Boudicca while Katrin is a graphic designer, she has worked to design textiles for labels like Calvin Klein and JustCarvalli

The name Pepper and Pistol was used because in a German tale Pepper and Pistol is both amusing and scary, therefore it shows that combining Fashion and Graphics together creates something both unique and wonderful.

I absolutely love the prints in this collection, especially the glittery/beaded jersey in the first picture, the leg wear in this collection is absolutely adorable (I want them all... nothing greedy about that, besides I can never have enough tights) particularly the polka dot tights and pink knee-highs.

What lies Beaneth Rodarte's SS09 collection

I have just got the new issue of Another magazine, which is a great read, with a whole lot of interesting articles, interviews and of course some eye catching editorials.

However a particular (out of many) article's I enjoyed reading from the magazine was the one about Rodarte's SS09 collection and the Label itself.
Personally Rodarte's SS09 collection as well as that of Alexandre Herchovitch and Jonathan Saunders completely stood out and amazed me during the Spring 09 New-York Fashion week.

In this article, the sister's discuss their inspiration for their SS 09 collection , this completely shed a new light on the way I see the collection and a better understanding of how the whole collection came about. It apparently took two months with an art dyer to get the right shade of print and colour for the pieces in their collection.

The sister's obsession with Japanese horror movies and the colour red were inspirations, particularly the red from the DVD cover of Korean movie - A tale of two sister's, which I have heard a lot about as well as some great reviews... another must buy on DVD then. Another inspiration was the film Pretty in Pink which I remember watching and led to my obsession with Molly Ringwald and her style, she was also in the film The Breakfast Club... Uber cool, guilty pleasure movies, a little cheesy (a necessity for 80's teen movie) however I would recommend them for a fun weekend watch.

The article described a silk dress which was smudged with a vicious black from the collection as if "Channel's little sister fell down a well, emerged with a dead stare of the possessed and hair over her face"... this is what I'll call a perfect description for some of the pieces in Rodarte's SS09 collection (in a good way and also a compliment).

I just find it absolutely creative and Amazing that inspirations from film's such as pretty in Pink, Edward Scissors hands and Japanese Horror movies can lead to the creation of such a beautiful, dreamy, striking with Haute Couture details and yet, a wearable collection.

Images from Style.com and Dazed Digital

Faux Furry Goodness

I have been longing for a Faux fur jacket or coat for a little while now and it seems like I have became more obsessed with the idea having seen Katie from Sugarplum Ragdoll in her superb "Yetti" faux fur coat.

Luckily enough, I came across this one over the weekend at a Charity Shop, I grabbed it pretty fast, I did not even bother checking to see the size, however the size turned out to be just fine. When shopping at Vintage or Charity shops this days, its better to go with your first instincts or else it'll be gone before you get back, gone are the days when Vintage or Charity shops were a 'no go area' or were 'not cool'.

PS: I have recently started updating my link lists as I have been coming across a lot of great blogs. However if I have left any out and you'd like to either be added or exchange links, do let me know and I'll be glad to add your link... wink wink :)

Holvik's work is complex, transparent and colourful

Sometimes you when you come across something so great and wonder how on earth did this pass me by and why haven't I seen this before, well this was the reaction that kept running over and over again in my head when I came across and went through Anna Holvik's work, Holvik recently graduated from Central Saint Martins, 2008 to be precise.

Anna Holvik's has previously assisted Richard Nicoll for some work experience, after which she was taken on by Lanvin in Paris where she worked under in Alber Elbaz.

This variety of work experience must have come in very useful and probably influenced her graduation collection which is extremely impressive.

The concept behind her graduate collection was initially inspired by science fiction cinema and Eco politics which then led to making use of engineered materials, illusions of transparency and ideas of protection.

Their are many pieces from the collection that are very complexly structured, for example the structure of the coat is maintained with the use of parachute inspired harnesses. The layers and structure of the pieces in this collection are quite complicated, however this complexity is toned down with the use of absolutely beautiful colours which include floral colours as well as Tye dye.

The pieces in the collection also include materials like weaves, transparent or sheer fabrics, hand-knitted cords and metal silver snakes.

With work like this, I am very sure and hoping Anna Holvik is going to be a name we'll all be hailing as the, (as much as this term makes me cringe) "the next big thing" in the near future.

Yves Saint Laurent presents via Film

Having watched the likes of Emma cook present her Aw 07/08 show via film rather than the conventional catwalk shows, I have become convinced that Collections presented via film can be a very enjoyable watch hence why I was very excited to hear about Yves Saint Lauren creative director Stefano Pilati would be presenting the Autumn 08/ 09 collection as well as the Spring Summer 2009 Menswear collection on film.

The Autumn 08/ 09 film features the very dashing Simon Woods appearing in three frames on the screen, the film is directed by filmmakers from Colonel Blimp, a London company who have made music videos for the likes of Massive Attack and many more.The film is visually stunning and looks quite complicated in terms of the technology used.

The music used is a mix created by Michel Gaubert who does Colette’s mix Cd's and runway soundtracks for a variety of designers. His mix for this film includes music from the likes of LCD Sound System,Lou Reed, Portishead and many more which adds an element of fun to the film.

Stefano Pilati made use of women's fabrics to make all the pieces for the YSL Menswear Spring 09 collection, he portrays this feminine and soft element for the Spring 09 film which is more airy, dream like and romantic. The film is very visually beautiful, it features another dashing actor, Jack Huston, however I think my favourite of the two has to be the Autumn 08/09 film.
The two films are shown below...

Distill Magazine puts them all in one

I love Fashion Magazine's, in fact I think I might be addicted to them. I have missed out on quite a few of my monthly read magazine's and I just started catching up on them, while going through and having a look at the new September 08/ October 08 Magazine issues, I came across Distill Magazine which I can remember reading about a while ago.

Distill is a bi-monthly magazine that collates and features fashion and style images from magazine's around the world, including both established ones and less well known magazines, a little bit like a scrap book. The Distill team also involve a variety of people from the fashion, art, film and creative industry by getting them to contribute to the Magazine. In this particular launch issue, the likes of Giles Deacon, Deyan Sudjic ( the director of the Design Museum in London), Natalie Massenet (the genius behind Net-a-Porter) and so many other creative people contributed to the launch issue.

Distill Magazine also features, book reviews, events, film festivals from around the world which makes the magazine not just suitable for people who love fashion but for anyone really. What I personally like about this Magazine is the way it sort of feels like an all rounder, I feel like it covers everything I am interested in like Art, Illustrations, Films, books and the list goes on.

The fact that it features other magazines from around the world means it introduces the reader to new magazines as well as one's you've probably heard about but haven't been able to buy, in my case that will be The Room Magazine which I first came across via foto decadent.

Seeing the images on screen is fun however been able to see it in print, touch it and keep a copy of it (even if it just a few images) makes all the different.

Other images featured in the Launch Issue are from the likes of V magazine, Numero, Hercules, Man about town, Please Magazine, Rubbish magazine, S magazine and so many more. It looks like Distilled Magazine is going to be joining my long list of must read magazines, however I dont think it'll stop me from buying these other magazines as I believe there's more to fashion magazines than just glossy pictures.