Today in my coin holder...

....there was some fabric samples. USB stick, spool case and bobbin, a eye with no hook and a grand total of 5p.





needs to be more money in there!

Boomerang 1992

The perfect era, well for me the early 90's, Jordan and the Bulls, Leeds United winning the Championship, the Fashion, Hip-Hop, everything seemed so much more iconic back then. Growing up, where sneakers and how to lace them were your only worry. The movies:

I recently watched Boomerang, for the god-know how many time, but always intigues me. In particular the suits Eddie Murphy wore that made him the suave Marcus Graham in the movie.

Clean cut, structured attire, that had him dazzling all the ladies. A very Parisian feel to the movie, probably due to the fact the Director was influenced by François Truffaut's Jules and Jim.

Ladies get them toes did!

"Check it. Like Jet magazine. This is my mack daddie vibe I am giving you. In all its splendor."

My Illustration Style

My style is very much hand rendered, getting down marks quicky and working over the top with various mediums. Such as Inks, Pencils, watercolours and sometimes intergrated with CAD.

Influenced by the likes of Sara Singh, I feel I have a distinct style.

Here are a few older Illustrations:













"Every line means something."
Jean Michel-Basquiat

Read any good books?

Books are the key to knowledge, the more you read the more you know and the range expands the areas of your knowledge.

I recently printed out all the books I had loaned from the library in the last 3 years, its started with Galliano in September 2006.

92 books later and still trying to teach "the old dog new tricks". The dog being me.

Books im currently looking at:

Knowledge is Power.

Vans Vault 2009 Fall/Winter Wingtip Era

I do enjoy a wingtip shoe and also love vans so this is near to perfection. Carries the sophistication of the dress shoe and has the the comfort of a skate shoe. Wtaps did one not so long ago but the finish wasn't great and nor was the shape.

This looks a nice Era shape and comes in various colours.








Off the wall and into the Ballroom.

Fabric Trip!

These ventures excite me almost as much as I can imagine walking down sneaker street in Hong Kong. We went on a little trip to Fabworks in Dewsbury.

My colour pallete is decided its just gettin the right print and fabric at most importnatly: THE RIGHT PRICE!! I managed to get a few nice wools, blacks, greys and tweed mix. prints wise there was not much cracking off!

Search continues.

Im currently addicted to....

CRAZY SOUR SKITTLES!!

so many vivacious tangy flavours!!

Coco Avant CHANEL

The Movie!! Brought to my attention by Ticklemouse of Shoreditch!

Sub-Titles please!







There's somethin about that double C aswell as the double S.

I love a pair of shoes.

These aint half bad. Raf Simons embroidered shoe. The heavily ebroidered shoe which gradually fades as it reaches the heel. Nice.




"Momma always says there's an awful lot you could tell about a person by their shoes. Where they're going. Where they've been. I've worn lots of shoes. I bet if I think about it real hard I could remember my first pair of shoes." Forrest Gump

Ken Lagerfeld

Put away your G.I Joe!

Get on this! Karl Lagerfeld has his own doll!The doll was presented to him at Colette’s recent celebrations for Mattel Barbie’s 50th Anniversary. Look at how the pictures have been airbrushed maybe to give the appearance of smooth plastic texture that of the dolls.

Collette blog

A garment a day...

.... keeps the stress away!

From sketched idea to pattern manipulation, to making with a strict 1cm seam. All is going well and touch wood the experimentation is almost workin first time. Taking a 2D idea and applying to cloth to create the desired 3D silhouette aint as easy at seems. Shirt finished and trousers done in a day. Surgical proceedings.

Shirt

Trousers

Jordan vi

Standard procedure




"Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy." Robert Half

Grafting!

Need...

Tickets to Jacko... the greatest performer of all time. I must go. I cant miss this!




King of Pop.

Day at the Surgery

Put on some tunes:

Draw some patterns:

Surgical Tools:

Do some sewing:


Karl has left the Building. Leaving his collar behind:

I put it on a shirt:



Something I stitched earlier:

Selvage:

A regular day at the Surgery.

Balmain Fall 2009

The cult peaked-shoulder Balmain jacket was reiterated in force, and has a strong relation to areas I considered for my collection, but also for men, using this structured shoulder design, maybe take it forward into jumpers, sweats, knits and even the hood piece. Also looking at the interesting use of embelishment, in the form of swarovski crystals I intend on pushing this with my own personal Surreal touch.

Balmain

Bargain!

I regularly shop on eBay to find hidden gems and collectable goods. In the past I have sourced all kinds of bargains. Today I recieved a lovely pair of Salvatore Ferragamo tassle loafers, for a beautiful price of $24!

"Like a Glove I tell theee!"

Hugo the Boss

Our studio technician and Couture magician, Hugo made his first dress when he was the tender age of 4...yep while some of us were just about grasping the concept of speech, he was putting in princess seams at 0.5cm allowance.

Been in the game for some time now he has worked for many different companies such as Jitrois, and offers an answer to every sewing problem! A wonderful guy who always on hand to help... especially on making one of my first professional looking garments, a leather bomber jacket. Even tho he laughed continuously at the quality of my leather!! Making that jacket basically taught me how to put things together.

Teaching how to Knit

The Upholstery Jacket!

Alexander the Great had Aristotle, we have Hugo!

End Of The Beginning- Second Garment

Garment that has next been produced with surgical care and skill is the BlazerHood. A collaboration with bespoke hoodie makers House of Billiam.

A personal take on their philosophy of making hooded garments with traditional suit fabrics of your choice. I emphasised the suit aspects and also added detachable accecories, seen here made in calico, experiment material. The final piece will be made from Black Nappa leather, Grey lightweight Tweed as it is reversible the lining will be a printed fabric will remain a mystery until the final one is made!!

Bet the suspense is killing you!

"All Good in the Hood"

Nike Air Yeezy

These are due to release early April, and im still in two minds whether to purchase a pair. Well the upside is, the design, elements of the shoe taken from the Air Assault and Jordan 3. Kanye worked closely with Mark Smith from Nike to create a modern classic. All the re-relesing of old shoes, the retro fad is great, but often Nike change certain original details which for me spoils the retro, and the shoe completely.

The Yeezy is a Hybrid concept, harmonising the old with new, with great attentive detailing and quality of fabric. So im pretty sure the price will be touching £130 which for a shoe of this kind is acceptable, but not when you hardly wear the bulky models anymore.

“I’ve been designing Nike’s in my sketch pad since the fourth grade. So to say I’ve been prepared for this would be an understatement. The really fun and challenging part for me was learning about Nike’s design process, learning more about fabrics and functions and colorways, and all of the details that go into designing a shoe of this quality.” says Kanye

Haven't all us creative minded shoe enthusiasts. I remeber sketching up a pair, annotated telling you where various parts of the shoe were. They had everything on them!! Pump, Hexalite, ERS, Torsion and dont forget the AIR BUBBLE!!! Obviously they ended having the swoosh on them!

For UK buyers these will be Quickstrike. SIZE? will be stocking these.

End Of The Beginning- First Garment

Seen here in calico experimenting material, the garment is the first from what is hoping to be an 8-9 outfit collection.
The unorthodox tailored jacket, influenced by Surrealism movement and the works of Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvadore Dali. Elaborate structured emphasis on the shoulder area which distorts the conventional silhouette, detachable Fur collar and fitted shape, aimed at a luxury market the garment will be finally made from Leather, Rabbit Fur and Wool, colour being all black.




End Is Nigh...