Clowns at the mini market

Basic tailored pieces like shirts, blouses, skirts with a lot of details are pieces I'm often very partial towards, I just cant help myself which is probably why I was drawn to Stockholm based label Minimarket a while back. Having won the the best new designer label in 2006 from Swedish Elle, Minimarket continues to create pieces that are very eye catching, creative and wearable.

Their Spring/Summer '09 collection includes a whole lot of colour, which is obviously very appropriate for Spring, with a mix of quirky details. This collection is so playful so much so I cant help but feel it has various references to clowns for example the models make up, the huge polka dots on the jumper and so many others.

After the Topshop Unique collection (especially the pink playsuit), this looks like another collection I'm going to have to save up for seen as I cant get over the image of wearing the huge polka dot jumper / dress and the pink ruffle skirt.

Sorronda's dramatic Accessories

Gail Sorronda is fast becoming a very familiar label which was created by Australian designer Gail Reid. I'm sure a number of you are familiar with some of her work especially the label's Spring 08/09 collection titled 'Seventeen crushes crushed into one.'

I have just recently realised that she also designs an accessory line for her label, I previously assumed the accessories featured on the models for the labels clothing campaign were just props or possibly the stylists own as it often seems to be in a whole lot of campaigns.
Having looked through some of the jewelries on her Myspace page, I had to do a little bit of more research.

Sorronda's Jewelry line was launched in 2007 and titled 'Visual Slur'.

The line is very dramatic, it features her recurring trademark colour palette of black and white both in the designs as well as the pictures for the accessory line. The accessories includes a number of Avant garde designs with very distinct shapes and structures which Sorronda is certainly not new to, the accessories also include a variety of playful pieces with a bold sense of fun.

Cubic Leather Dress

Talking means trouble is a label I have just recently become aware of, the Berlin based label is owned by two sisters, pieces that are often produced tend to have a lot of great details, a mixture of strong and soft, beautiful, creative and wearable looks.

Having looked through their Autumn Winter '08 collection titled 'Polaris' there seems to be a whole range of looks from floaty dresses, print and plain tailored shirts and lovely trousers (have a look at the sky blue trousers). However, a piece that completely stood out and caught my attention is this stunning and astonishing leather dress.

According to Talking means trouble, what is unique about their label is being able to "develop tough but elegant shapes out of high quality materials and still remaining very wearable." The leather dress certainly demonstrates this.

PS: I'd just like to say a huge THANK YOU! to Suzanne and Rich of Weardrobe for featuring my closet as Weardrobe closet of week, you can view the mini interview on The fashion spot here.

Kniting Mania

It is official, Fashion has gone bonkers for knitwear, its everywear especially from the magazines I have been picking up. Long gone are the days of thinking knitting are for grannys (the shreddies advert comes to mind here).

My knitting skills go no further than long, oversized messy multicoloured or plain scarfs, therefore seeing knitwear designers come up with such beautiful, creative and structured pieces is some kind of an amazement and fascination for me, just have a look at Mark Fast's work, Barbara I Gongini, Clare Tough , Craig Lawrence, Annalisa Dunn and Dorothee Hagemann of Cooperative design, Sandra Buckland and the list goes on...

A few up and coming designers I recently came across are Hanaki Narahira and Julia Knüpfer , they both have different techniques but both design Knitwear pieces.

German designer Julia Knüpfer recently graduated from ESMOD a fashion design school in Berlin. Her graduate collection was tittled Living Room, the aim was to create new silhouettes with inspirations from animal habitats like caves, nests, combs and nets, snail-shells. This collection is an ecological one, with chosen fabrics including wool from biologically controlled husbandry, ecologically grown bamboo and organic cotton. The wool were hand-dyed and the buttons were made of wood.

The first outfit with the cave shaped knitted shoulders, the woven nest like blue jumper and so many other pieces in this collection are evident of Julie's animal habitat inspiration, this is certainly an unusual and possibly one of the unlikeliest source of inspiration, however she has managed to transform this inspiration into very beautifully and well constructed designs that are not only eyecatching but also wearble.

On the otherhand is Hanako Narahira who attended Central Saint Martins, the collection is inspired by graffiti on the Berlin wall. Above all Hanako's work is inspired by Knitwear "it is the one design medium where I feel I can express myself the most".

Her collection is very playful and the colour pallete inlcudes bright colours, Hanako is currently working on a new collection which will be unveiled very soon.

The outfit I wore when he left me

The way most designers presents their collection is very important, through both advertising campaigns and look books, one or two looks at it and you can somehow come to the conclusion as to whether or not you are going to like the collection.

I personally love looking through advertising campaigns and look books, the glossy looks and great photography are often very enticing. However something I enjoy seeing the most in looks books and would love to see more of is some playfulness and possibly some sort of a story.

A designer that has mixed all these elements together to present his collection in his look book is Tom Scott, most of you are probably familiar with the New York based designer's work, if not, I'll just go over a little about him.

Tom's grandmother was a lace maker while his father was a carpet weaver, having previously worked as the accessories designer for Ralph Lauren, Tom later launched his women's knit accessories and clothing line.

Tom manipulates wool fabrics to create subtle experimental and playful pieces which is apparent in his Spring /Summer 09 collection. The look book for this collection tells a story through outfits from the collection, each outfit recollects a time in life of the character wearing the pieces.

'this is the outfit i wore when he smiled at me at the mall'

'this is the outfit i wore on my trip to tokyo'

'this is the outfit I wore to the Patti Smith Concert'

'this is outfit I wore when he tried to makeup'

'this is the outfit I wore when we had tea at the Carlyle'

'this is the outfit I wore when I met his parents'

'this is the outfit i wore when i made the teams'

'this is the outfit i wore my first time to south street'

'this is the outfit i wore when i went through my grandma's closet'

'this is the outfit i wore when i taught myself how to swim'

Pretty Head

I have been dipping in and out of Gossip girl, in fact I am very behind and still haven't seen most of the episodes, dont gasp, wait till I tell you I have only seen an episode of Sex and the City and all I know about the show are the dresses I see Carrie wearing on some blogs and magazines.

However, out of a few episodes I have watched of Gossip girl, I came across this head gears which one of the characters were wearing then I thought I had to investigate and voilà...

They are from a label called I love Factory , by designers designers Laurel and Chris, Laurel who studied fashion design and business was an intern for designer Betsy Jackson, she now works with Kid robot where she's in charge of lauching the children's collection. Chris on the other hand is a Wardrobe stylist.

These headgears are handsewn, the Winter collection is very classy and with a modern look to it, the attention to detail in these pieces are impeccable.

Plaid Craze

The last few days has pretty much been a Plaid craze in terms of what I have been wearing, it has been very unintentional which makes me think maybe I just subconsciously like plaid pieces.

Looking at my wardrobe there seems to be quite a few of them, all I need to become officially Plaid obsessed is just a yellow and black plaid dress, a blue and black plaid jacket, then I might consider having to stop getting anything with plaid prints for a little while.

Dear Catastrophe Waitress

It never ceases to amaze me how designers often get inspiration from the most unusual places. For Winter 09 collection, Ulrika Sandström got her inspiration from waitresses and household staff uniforms. The collection titled Dear Catastrophe includes some very beautiful and huge ruffle details, you might notice that I am a huge fan of ruffle details on this blog already.

The red and white check print, the apron details on the black velvet coat and the bow pieces emphasises details often associated with Waitstaff. This collection has a mix of very feminine and playful pieces with the use of heart shape prints, slim lines to create a figure hugging silhouette's like the high waist skirts.

This mix of feminine and playful theme often recur in Ulrika Sandström work as seen in most o her previous collections.

Her upcoming Spring Summer 09 which I have seen just a snippet of also includes this theme along with some gorgeous colour palettes especially the blue Jumpsuit.

Hannah Edman thinks enough tears to cry

Jewelries in general are just one of those accessories than can transform a very simple and basic outfit to something very attractive and even flawless.

A jewelry designer whose work I have no doubt can create this sort of transformation is Swedish designer Hannah Edman.
Hannah studied at Ädellab which the Department of Metal Design at Konstfack, a University of Art Crafts and Design in Sweden.

This collection is called 'Enough tears to cry' the concept and inspiration behind this collection according to Hannah is her interest in contrasting beauty with the unpleasant, "I use beauty to get the viewers attention, but there is so much more that I would like to convey other than beauty".

I feel the envelop design necklace is absolutely gorgeous, having said that, I do question the weight of these designs as it looks like it might be a little heavy, however seen as materials such as Copper, Paint and Silver were used to make the necklaces, then maybe it wouldn't be as heavy as it looks. You can view some more of her work here.

Scissors slasher pleat perfection

I have been messing about with the scissors a lot lately, possibly in the hope of creating some super slasher amazing pleats, however I have given up on the idea and left it to an expert label like Hartmann Nordenholz.

Pleats and cut out slash designs run through most of Nordenholz work ,with a combination of a bright coulour palettes which ticks a huge yes box in my brain.

Hartmann Nordenholz is by two very talented designers Filip Fiska and Agnes Schorer. These two designers are also associated with some very established and creative designers in the sense that Filip studied with the likes of Viktor&Rolf and Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, you might think thats amazing right... well, Agnes also studied fashion design in Master Class of Marc Bohan and Helmut Lang.

The combination of these two designers were obviously deemed to create beautiful and creative pieces right from the beginning.

What is so striking about their Autumn Winter collection and through most of their work is the way their use of pleats and cut out designs are so experimental but comes across in a very subtle and wearable way.

I particularly think the bright blue dress with the nicely crafted details on the shoulder is absolutely beautiful.